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IPhone Game iShoot earns the Developer $600K in a month - kanny96
http://www.iphonedev.in/iPhone/iShoot-Developer-Makes-$600K-in-One-Month.html
======
hbien
I wonder if he gets a lot of support email.
Anyone on HN have an iPhone app out there with a low price point? It already
takes a lot of time working on a desktop app and answering support emails. I'm
wondering if it takes even more time with a low price product and tons of
customers.
~~~
there
do iphone developers care about support? it's not like anyone can try the
program without buying it or ask for a refund. worst case someone leaves a
one-star rating saying "this program sux!" which no one reads anyway.
~~~
silencio
nobody reads those reviews, but those reviews drag down your overall rating,
possibly making you lose sales to a better rated competitor.
colloquy's reviews are pretty much like that..except for the insane people
leaving feature requests (and rating accordingly?! on what world do these
people think that'll make a difference?), the rest of our reviews are 4-5
stars with a handful at 1 from the people that, for whatever reason, decided
to buy an irc client without knowing what the hell irc was in the first place,
and another one that made my day wondering why the fuck we don't have ICB
support in the mobile client while we do in the desktop client...but we didn't
mention anything BUT irc in the app description in the app store.
(Bonus: check out our latest reviews. the distribution is hilarious:
[http://img.skitch.com/20090214-df5e6ptrhqpmii4dy4yw8gbrhc.jp...](http://img.skitch.com/20090214-df5e6ptrhqpmii4dy4yw8gbrhc.jpg)
)
And speaking of those people, we regularly get people on our support channel
asking for where to find more chat rooms and what IRC was to the tune of at
least a couple people a day, if we're lucky, and people who act like complete
assholes for no reason and several more people asking what IRC is if we're
not. You would be surprised.
edit: someone else on the colloquy team wanted me to mention we have an actual
button in the app to connect directly to the support channel and that most
apps don't have something like that.
------
breck
One thing I don't understand:
> After getting off his shift as an engineer at Sun Microsystems, he worked on
> iShoot eight hours a day, cradling his 1-year-old son in one hand and coding
> with the other. He didn't have the money to buy books to learn how to write
> an iPhone app, so he taught himself by reading websites.
I think there's one or 2 main books on writing iPhone apps(both by OReilly)
and they're like $35 at Borders(so probably cheaper online). If you're an
engineer at Sun, and spending 8 hours a day on this app, how could $35 be
stopping you from buying a book?
~~~
bd
There is more info in the original Wired article. The author responded in
comments:
_"As for how I was broke while making a great salary working at Sun, it was
primarily due to medical bills after a my family had series of emergency room
visits, a couple of emergency surgeries, and we spent a year taking care of
and financially supporting a mentally ill relative. Sun had also discontinued
all bonuses due to the financial climate, which didn't help."_
[http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2009/02/shoot-is-
iphone.html#c...](http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2009/02/shoot-is-
iphone.html#c148364123)
~~~
breck
Cool. I figured it was just the Wired author spicing up the story.
------
nazgulnarsil
so...does anyone else see the smart phone as a reboot for consoles? all these
games doing well are the kind of games that could have been run on an NES. As
we get more and more powerful smart phones will we see the same things?
~~~
breck
Like this game--iShoot, is basically ScorchedEarth which came out for DOS in
like 1994 (or that's when I first played it anyway).
It is fun though--I bought one.
~~~
dmix
I played this game back on my first DOS computer with Gorillas throwing
bananas. Found it: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorillas_(computer_game)>
It looks like it originated on Apple II in 1980,
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artillery_game>
------
jmtame
i'm going to say that the app looks harder to build than it appears. i haven't
messed much with open gl or any low-level stuff, but based on what i've
heard/seen, it's pretty complex to build graphics/animation-driven apps.
------
cellis
Good for him. It sounds like he really had a rough go of it before he released
iShoot. Stories like this always inspire me.
------
mattmaroon
What's interesting is this is one of the top iPhone games, if not the top.
Compare it to one of the top Facebook games. Mob Wars makes 2x that much money
every single month, and unlike iShoot, it won't fall off of the store and into
oblivion very soon. It probably took far less work to launch too.
------
Klonoar
You've gotta be kidding me.
I'd totally build one of these things if Apple would ever actually _respond_
to me. It's been almost a month - anyone else experience this kind of delay?
~~~
hboon
This kind of delay? 3 months. The wait was excruciating.
~~~
Klonoar
Was that for reviewing an App, or just accepting you into the actual program?
~~~
hboon
3 months for both paid and free contracts. The 2 apps submitted during that
time was approved pretty quickly.
The first was submitted and approved in the first month (December). But
without the contract, both (paid) apps couldn't be sold. Hell, I can't even
provide free apps even if I wanted to. The contract paperwork was only
completed earlier this week, meaning the apps can now be sold. I blogged about
it here - [http://motionobj.com/blog/stopping-development-of-iphone-
app...](http://motionobj.com/blog/stopping-development-of-iphone-applications)
\- actually stating that I will state any further development of my apps until
it was done. Being without without income due to seemingly simple paperwork
delays and with 2 more apps ready to be submitted anytime was very
frustrating.
Since the App store is very skewed towards apps which are mire recent (by
submission/approved date, whichever), it means that the 2 apps which were
previously submitted now hang at the back of the app listings which, again due
to the way it works, makes it stay there pretty much.
While there are quite a number of glamorous stories about developers striking
rich in the greenfield opportunity of iPhone apps development, there are still
a few fundamental pitfalls that can break things if you are not careful.
Looking back, I'm not sure what I could have done to speed this up actually,
since emails sent seems to go to /dev/null. Not all the emails, but those I
really needed responding to never received any.
------
critic
But now, everyone will start making "Lite" versions of their apps, and the
same trick will not work as well as it did for this guy.
~~~
skawaii
Making a "lite" version is the same thing as making a demo, which has been
around for decades. I don't think this is a cat that just got out of the bag,
or anything.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How to Use Real Estate Trends to Predict the Next Housing Bubble - sytelus
http://www.dce.harvard.edu/professional/blog/how-use-real-estate-trends-predict-next-housing-bubble
======
sytelus
This is perhaps the most enlightening article that I have read so far. It does
explain current dynamics in real estate market where prices are getting red
hot because inventory is at historic low levels (because new constructions
have slowed dramatically since 2008). Meanwhile population in the urban areas
had been continue to grow putting pressure on rents and house prices. It's
simple delayed feedback loop system that explains lot of things and data from
past boom and current state fits pretty well with this theory.
The big question is how long this cycle will last. The 18 years mentioned in
article seems too high. Currently construction activities are 1/3 of the size
than boom period and I would estimate it catches up in 2-3 years. Then hyper
supply period should start which should last again 2-3 years. So 4-6 seems
like target for recession phase and 2-3 years before house prices starts
becoming declining.
------
sytelus
2015Q1 cycle report is here:
[http://info.dividendcapital.com/rs/dividendcapital/images/Cy...](http://info.dividendcapital.com/rs/dividendcapital/images/Cycle_Monitor_15Q1_FINAL.pdf).
They however seem to do only apartments instead of single family houses.
According to the report apartments market should experience deacceleration on
rent growth but higher than average rents nonetheless.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
37signals has some lessons for European startups - nreece
http://eu.techcrunch.com/2009/10/29/startup-school-2009-37-signals-has-some-lessons-for-european-startups/
======
stakent
_Europe can be a less risky place than the US to start a company because of
the social security system here._
True.
_You are never going to starve or have to do without medical care even if it
all goes pear-shaped._
False. There are people who are not covered by security system. Check in you
country what to do to avoid this.
And there is a lot more papers to be filled _before_ you start a company. Not
filling of some of them is asking for trouble. As above, check for details in
your country.
~~~
laut
Europe is still a continent with a lot of different countries. There is not a
social security system everywhere. But I don't look at social security systems
as a good thing for starting a new business.
In Denmark you can start a company (at least for certain kinds of companies)
and send in paperwork later. That part is pretty easy. But again, that's just
one small country on a diverse continent.
~~~
davidw
> I don't look at social security systems as a good thing for starting a new
> business.
It isn't. It is a good thing when the business fails! At least according to
the author. Personal opinions may differ about whether or not it is, and how
to best go about providing said safety network, but that is
economics/politics, and there be flamewars.
~~~
anamax
>>I don't look at social security systems as a good thing for starting a new
business.
>It isn't. It is a good thing when the business fails!
If you're worrying about what will happen if your business fails when you
start it, you're not fully committed.
AKA "burn your boat".
------
davidw
I only see two things particularly relevant to Europe in that list.
------
fjabre
_Failure is not a pre-requisite for success or a rite of passage ...(stuff)...
Jason advises replicating what succeeded as opposed to learning from your
mistakes – the results are much more predictable_
What the hell does that mean? The other quips were great but this one really
struck me. I've learned plenty from my mistakes.. Either someone is
paraphrasing incorrectly or that's horrible advice.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: If your biz plan tops out at $10m/yr revenue is it too small for VCs? - sharemywin
How about incubators or accelerators?
======
patio11
A company which can't grow to $100 million a year is generally uninteresting
to VCs, because that's approximately what they need to achieve to make their
economics work out. They can tolerate base hits but that doesn't mean they
endorse bunting as a strategy.
PG and Naval Ravikant have written extensively about what drives the math
here, but it's essentially 1) limited number of board seats available per LP
at a fund, 2) target ownership percentage that has to imply, and 3) rarity of
Google and Facebook relative to all the companies which did not drive the
returns of the entire VC industry.
You can hand-simulate the math: if you invest $5 million at a $20 million pre
and expect 3 investments to fail, 3 to 2X, 3 to 5X, and 1 to 10X your
investment, then you're hoping to sell for $100 million to $200 million
(factoring in dilution). It's generally difficult to sell for $100 million
with single-digit million revenue unless something _very_ interesting happened
in R&D.
Angels have very, very different incentives and, relatedly, prices they get to
invest at. They can have very, very happy results with companies which are
doing, say, $1 million to $5 million in revenue.
Accelerators/incubators are a mixed bag. In general, if they invest in you at
low-enough valuations, then smaller exits work out pretty decently for them,
particularly if you can get them at scale. 500Startups is pretty explicit
about small exits being a planned-for driver of their strategy. YC has not, to
my knowledge, been explicit about that, and to the extent they talk about
desired company sizes tend to talk about Dropbox/Airbnb/etc.
An elephant in the room: it is highly unlikely that people can adequately
predict the size of a market at the business plan stage. PG has a good example
here: it doesn't sound like a company founded to write Altair Basic obviously
has an eventual enterprise value of $400 billion.
------
tptacek
The question isn't whether your "business plan" tops out at 10MM/yr, but
whether _you want it to_.
Scaling a profitable business to 10MM is a shitload of work. There are people
who invest that kind of work because they want control over their life and
don't want the ( _innumerable_ ) headaches that come from scaling a business
to 100MM.
If that's you, you don't want outside investors of really any kind.
However, because so few people are actually able to scale a business to 10MM,
being able to do that will add significant credibility to a claim of being
able to scale to 100MM.
There's a pretty famous YC strategy of backing companies that can own up a
small niche in the market, on the premise that what they learn in the process
of doing that will teach them how to take over a larger market.
So if you're looking to raise money and your plan takes you to 10MM, consider
changing your pitch so that the 10MM market is a stepping stone towards a
larger one.
~~~
sharemywin
I guess I spent too long doing agile development. What's the point in making a
plan to 100m when it's all going change anyway.
~~~
tptacek
There isn't one. That's the point. If you want to raise money:
* Don't _plan_ on stopping at 10MM, because there aren't that many investors that can make money on a company that is has a steady-state top line of 10MM.
* Pitch your current market as an obtainable beachhead, not the long term endpoint.
------
sharemywin
The market is much bigger but are VCs only interested in large portions of
large markets or if you have some idea of how to get to $5-10m with investment
is there options? how much traction would you need?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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C is Truth - niznikpawel
http://bunsch.pl/2015/05/03/c-is-truth/
======
Arcsech
Except that C isn't really the truth - Assembly is the truth. You can easily
write code that is a huge abstraction from what the CPU is actually doing -
for example, writing `float y = 1.5 * x` on a processor without a hardware FPU
will generate a ton of instructions that one wouldn't normally think of.
Now, the abstraction layer that C provides is valuable, and C is indeed much
more practical than assembly for most purposes, if only due to portability -
but if the only reason for using C is to gain an understanding of the inner
workings of the computer, without regard to portability or reuse of code,
assembly serves that purpose even better.
~~~
greenyoda
_" Assembly is the truth"_
Not even assembly is truth. In modern CPU architectures, your machine
instructions are getting scheduled and parallelized in all sorts of weird ways
that makes it hard to reason about the performance of your code. The
instruction set architecture that assembler language maps to is an abstraction
running on top of the microcode architecture. Perhaps microcode is truth, but
nobody really wants to program at that level.
C is close enough to the truth that you can use it write an operating system
that controls the CPU and its attached devices.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: my open source "reddit"-like community - atko
http://whoaverse.com
======
leepowers
An open-source Reddit clone written in .NET
For the developer, it seems like a good way to learn more about web
development.
Aside from learning or novelty value, I would probably just fork the Reddit
repo on Github if I was looking for a clone, as the reddit.com site code is
already open-source:
[https://github.com/reddit/reddit](https://github.com/reddit/reddit)
~~~
dkuntz2
Or use the [https://lobste.rs/](https://lobste.rs/) code:
[https://github.com/jcs/lobsters](https://github.com/jcs/lobsters)
~~~
atko
I checked out lobste.rs and I liked it. Thanks! I also noticed that Lobster
github repo currently has 22 contributors. Comparing Lobster to a 1 man
project is not fair :p I'll keep working on Whoaverse though, who know what
may come out of it :)
~~~
dkuntz2
I wasn't comparing, leepowers said if he needed a community site he'd probably
just spin up a reddit (which has even more contributors, six of which look to
be really active).
While lobste.rs has 22 contributors listed, it's mostly just jcs, see the
contributor graph:
[https://github.com/jcs/lobsters/graphs/contributors](https://github.com/jcs/lobsters/graphs/contributors)
------
atko
I am a 2nd year CS student and this is my side project. The point of the
project is to help me better understand asp.net mvc, jquery, sql and all the
other bells and whistles that are required to develop something like this. So
far, about 90 man hours have gone into this project (only 1 developer). I am
constantly improving it and I would love to hear your comments. Go easy on me
:)
ps. the site is running on a rather limited VPS instance which costs me about
$15/month.
~~~
joshmlewis
I applaud you doing this from scratch (besides stealing Reddits styles), it
sounds like you've learned a lot. How'd you decide on this project?
------
thebiglebrewski
Woah, this isn't just reddit-like, this is like, a direct clone. Did you copy
their HTML/CSS file?
~~~
atko
Yes, I used reddit css file with attribution. Attibution is on the about page:
[http://whoaverse.com/about](http://whoaverse.com/about)
~~~
joshmlewis
Ha, I don't know if it's ok to rip people's CSS file and then "attribute" it
unless they specifically say that's ok it's still copyrighted.
~~~
andymcsherry
Reddit publishes it on github, the license is here:
[https://github.com/reddit/reddit/blob/master/LICENSE](https://github.com/reddit/reddit/blob/master/LICENSE)
------
atko
65 people browsing the site right now... please don't kill my VPS :p
~~~
dkuntz2
Genuinely curious: were you not expecting a traffic boost from HN?
~~~
atko
As far as I knew, HN was not hugely popular. I was wrong. For a brief moment
my post reached HN frontpage and the visits peaked at 70. I tried browsing the
site during this peak period and I noticed no difference under this "load".
~~~
dkuntz2
That's always a great feeling when you get a relatively large amount of
traffic and nothing breaks.
------
Mandatum
Your name-generation for those automated accounts are hilarious.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Twitter does not speak good UX - teaneedz
http://teaz.me/twitter-not-speak-ux/
======
teaneedz
Alt link:
[https://ello.co/teanee/post/J1PcWgFPOII7kayeFBcISw](https://ello.co/teanee/post/J1PcWgFPOII7kayeFBcISw)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
GCC 4.7.3 released - shared4you
http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2013-04/msg00122.html
======
shared4you
List of bug fixes, 118 in all:
[http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&...](http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/buglist.cgi?bug_status=RESOLVED&resolution=FIXED&target_milestone=4.7.3)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Ask HN: How to avoid high redirecting costs from phone provider? - freshfey
Hello everybody,<p>this is my first post, I hope it fits the subject.<p>I am working on a web project / startup where I'm taking care of almost everything (accounting, ads, partners, users, blog, etc) at the same time I'm studying full-time, so I am not able to be in the office all the time. I have a fixed line network phone (is this the right word for it? Not mobile, but home phone.) there, but because of the university I'm not able to be there often. Is there a technical possibility to connect the phone with a server / computer (which is connected to the internet) so that I get an email or SMS with the number of the person who called on my mobile phone? There is of course the provider possibility but that costs me 0.20$/call + the minutes talked on the voice mail, so that's not a solution in the long run. I've been looking a little around but I wasn't able to find a solution that could exactly fit my needs.<p>Paying someone additional to stay in the office in office hours isn't a solution either.<p>Thanks for your help!
======
mahmud
Twilio does that and inbound calls can be as cheap as 3 cents/minute.
If you choose to use them, try to fit your voice message into under a minute.
Whenever people call your number, twilio will play your "thanks for calling,
we have your number, we will call you back" message. The Twilio API can send
missed calls to you in email. You can also have the option to request the
person dial a different contact number + extension. Also try to do the
debugging and implementation using their free trial account and make sure you
don't have any script that initiates and outside call based on some
computational event (this screwed me, big time.)
~~~
freshfey
Thanks a lot for your help, this is exactly what I was looking for. The
problem is that it supports customers from the US only. If I were in the
states I'd probably use Google Voice, which would be also a great service!
~~~
brk
Perhaps it would be helpful to save people from making useless suggestions to
tell us what country you are in?
~~~
freshfey
oh excuse me, Switzerland.
~~~
brk
A google search for "Switzerland Voip" yields a few results, one being:
[http://www.voip-
list.com/voip_countries/voip_providers_switz...](http://www.voip-
list.com/voip_countries/voip_providers_switzerland_1.html)
My suggestion, find the cheapest Voip option you can, if you start to build up
a client list, and all they have is the phone in your dorm (which I assume you
have no control/ownership over) you will regret later not having established
your own phone # in the beginning.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
What language do you use to write apps for Android? - kmasters
If you answered "Java", congratulations, you alongside thousands of Google employees have just participated in committing trademark and licensing infringement on the owners of "Java".<p>But I can't blame you, Google after all doesn't call it say "Visual Basic", they would probably lose that case pretty quickly, but why?<p>When MS tried to fork Java years ago they settled in court. This case is no different, nay its worse because MS didn't step on SUNs mobile licensing agreements.<p>So now EFF is coming out saying this is a copyright spat (which its not) Be careful of that. Saying that "APIs" are not copyrightable will render tons of open source projects licenses invalid, since all open source licenses "rest on top" eg append copyright laws.<p>Yup that crap at the top of the file wont mean a damn thing once we start parsing what can and cant be copyrighted.<p>The only possible defense Google has is denying that its Java. But thats what they called it before they stole it. And thats what they still call it.<p>If you work at google I suggest you come up with a new name because even referring to "whatever" that is that runs on Android as "Java", is licensing and trademark infringement. White gloves and all.
======
runjake
Flagged. The title is a bit baity. I came here hoping to read up on the
beginnings of a good discussion of Android development options and instead I
run into a random, incoherent rant of no value.
These kinds of rants are probably more appropriately posted at your personal
blog, not in an Ask HN post. Your account is 10 days old and your comment
history is filled with similar incoherency. Perhaps you should post less and
read more until you get a good handle on HN culture?
------
tjgq
> Saying that "APIs" are not copyrightable will render tons > of open source
> projects licenses invalid, since all open > source licenses "rest on top" eg
> append copyright laws.
I don't think this is true. Open source licenses dictate what you can or
cannot do with the _code_ , not with the API it implements. You're perfectly
free to go ahead and, say, implement a closed source version of a GPL library
- as long as it's not based on the original code.
Abolishing copyright /in general/ would render most (all?) open source
licenses void, but that's an entirely different matter.
------
ChrisClark
Florian? Is that you?
------
Zigurd
The "use" of Java ends inside the SDK. Java bytecodes are translated to Dalvik
bytecodes. There is no Java(tm) runtime in Android.
Since there is no Java runtime in Android, what are Google's obligations to
Oracle? What are an Android developer's obligations? I see none in the
licensing.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Aho-Corasick Algorithm - rfreytag
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aho%E2%80%93Corasick_algorithm
======
java-man
[One possible] java implementation:
[https://github.com/andy-
goryachev/FindFiles/blob/master/src/...](https://github.com/andy-
goryachev/FindFiles/blob/master/src/goryachev/findfiles/search/AhoCorasickMatcher.java)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Lorem Ipsum: Of Good and Evil, Google and China - panarky
http://krebsonsecurity.com/2014/08/lorem-ipsum-of-good-evil-google-china/
======
lnanek2
Garbage in, garbage out. The system probably didn't have the lorem ipsum
placeholder text in its dictionary for all languages, so just mapped to
whatever its algorithms could guess. Since there is no right guess, it's
pretty random.
The rest of the conspiracy nonsense in the article is pretty silly and stupid,
honestly. There are a huge number of government documents translated into
other languages that were probably used as the training set. I have programs
of my own that rummage through SEC filings, for example. So NATO and countries
being common mappings if you pick a random one isn't odd at all.
~~~
broolstoryco
> The rest of the conspiracy nonsense in the article is pretty silly and
> stupid, honestly.
Was also surprised to read something like this on Krebs
~~~
j_s
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8152663](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8152663)
Evaluate for yourself whether or not he may have fallen a few notches lately.
------
lultimouomo
Maybe it's a simplistic explanation, but I would think that this was caused by
the vast amount of multi-language sites in which pages in languages other than
english have not been written yet, so selecting one of them displays the lorem
ipsum (probably google translate identifies this untranslated pages as latin
even though they were supposed to be language X).
~~~
mjburgess
The problem is the consistent politicization of each word in ways related to
intelligence and the extremely good properties of lorem ipsum text (its
nonesense that doesn't stand out as nonesense - a holy grail of ciphers).
Its possible that this is statistical noise... but it seems particularly
plausible that it started out that way then some one gamed it into being far
less noisey and more consistently intelligence-based.
~~~
johnlbevan2
I suspect words such as Company and China are pretty commonplace on the
internet, so the data used for Google to learn is likely to include a number
of these mapped to Lorem Ipsums. Sentences making sense could be down to
another part of the algorithm - Google doesn't just do word for word
translation, but tries to map meanings based on the context of the sentence,
and to ensure the output sentence is grammatically correct in the new language
- as such the algorithms distort the results into sentences which would be
unlikely to appear by chance, making them more appealing to us when suggesting
conspiracy.
------
userbinator
Very interesting... and somewhat creepy, the phrases that are coming up. I can
confirm that "lorem" and "ipsum" don't work now, but playing around with other
pieces of lipsum still gives odd phrases like "suspendisse bibendum duis" ->
"suspend regional banking", "nostrud exercitation turpis fermentum" -> "Iraqis
saying through Arizona", and "Curabitur duis bibendum" -> "Nike's
restructuring".
An explanation I have is that the Chinese could be somehow using Google
Translate to "latinise" news stories in order to bypass censorship.
~~~
DominikR
To use a Google Service in China you have to bypass censorship, so there's
really no point in using Google Translate in the way you suggested.
------
haberman
Reminds me of this hilarious bug, where Translate would randomly add the
phrase "he now praises the iPad" to totally unrelated sentences:
[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/05/google-bug-
praise-t...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/05/google-bug-praise-the-
ipad_n_2416474.html)
------
lvturner
A lot of the translations read like spam to me, with the mentions of
"commerce", "home business", "the company" etc, and in Chinese marketing copy,
it's quite common to say use "China" as part of the marketing "China's
first...", "China's biggest.." etc etc
So perhaps a less sinister explanation, is Chinese spam?
------
ww520
Bad training data. Lorem Ipsum is the de facto placeholder text for so many
webpages.
~~~
yen223
That is correct. The interesting question is, why did it translate to 'China',
rather than something more banal?
~~~
blowski
It could just be a selection bias, in that we think it's interesting so it
makes the news. If it had translated to something more banal, we probably
wouldn't be discussing it on Hacker News.
------
xwintermutex
This was also mentioned in an article about the Defcon 22 contest, posted on
HN too:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8189549](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8189549).
Apparently, the translation ceased to work now?
~~~
erbbysam
A short story on that as a Defcon 22 badge competitor - When we reached the
stage where we got the "Lorem ipsum" page. We first noticed that a bunch of
the lines did not directly follow the "Lorem ipsum" format exactly and had
strange capitalization. So we thought that the difference between the expected
"Lorem ipsum" text and this text was the clue... We eventually figured out if
you pasted the entire block into Google translate something strange would pop
out (that was relevant to another hint -
[https://www.defcon.org/1057/SarangHae/](https://www.defcon.org/1057/SarangHae/)
and then was useful again with what that email address returned ).
Looks like Google updated their latin translator to completely break the
puzzle :)
page in question:
[https://www.defcon.org/1057/FissilingualElucidation/](https://www.defcon.org/1057/FissilingualElucidation/)
------
katewishing
It still works by translating from English to Latin. I found a bunch by
running a list of NSA keywords through it:
[https://i.imgur.com/UGMIPpE.png](https://i.imgur.com/UGMIPpE.png)
All of the resulting translations seem to be from a text generated by
lipsum.com.
~~~
katewishing
I tested with a conventional English word list for comparison. Here are the
Lorem hits: [http://pastebin.com/yh26U7iz](http://pastebin.com/yh26U7iz)
------
hygap
It would have been interesting to see if you tried this while logged in on a
Google account not belonging to a security researcher.
It's a remote change but maybe it brings up totally random results that are
then passed though your accounts search bubble filter. Hence sec related
topics.
------
kps
At the time of a previous HN thread,
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5200728](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5200728)
there were some amusing results from prefixes of the stock boilerplate, often
changing letter-by-letter:
Lorem ipsu → Dummy Item
Lorem ipsum dolor → Welcome
Lorem ipsum dolor s → The Pussycat Dolls
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, c → This page is available
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit → This page is half the battle WIN!
------
fishnchips
I guess it's just a Rorschach test for the Internet.
------
sekasi
What I've heard on the grapevine on this is that it's used as a method to
defeat internet censorship in countries that are subjected to said censorship.
Not sure if that's true, but just passing that on.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Don't use css or table layout, use Sass and Compass instead - gommm
http://gom-jabbar.org/articles/2009/02/04/don-t-use-css-or-table-layout-use-sass-ad-compass
======
anatoli
I'll jump in, because I spent six months developing a web app using Sass. It's
a nightmare to maintain on any sort of complicated, big project. For various
reasons... I previously blogged about it here:
<http://fecklessmind.com/2009/01/28/fuck-sass/>
Ultimately, yes, you can use whatever the hell you want. But if you're a
front-end developer, if you care about your webiste scaling to millions of
users, if you care about providing best experience even to dial-up users or
users of old PCs / Macs, then you're going to spend the time optimizing
everything you can. Sass goes against that and creates bloat. Fine for back-
end developers who just want the pain of working with CSS to be over, maybe,
but not for front-end developers.
Haml on the other hand is great.
~~~
chriseppstein
I doubt you'll ever return to Sass, but I wanted you to know that we did take
away that there's not really a good reason to force 1 style per line. We're
going to add support for semi-colon delimited styles on the same line. No one
has ever complained about it on the mailing list before...
~~~
gommm
Just wanted to thank you chriseppstein for the all the work you've put into
Compass and now into Sass
~~~
chriseppstein
Thanks! It's open source, so, you know, you can put hard work into them too!
:-P
------
plesn
It's seems great for developpers. The minus part of generated code and all
those frameworks is of course that it doesn't go in the direction of "view
source" readability. Is css becoming an "assembly" for style inside browsers?
~~~
nex3
Sass actually takes pains to make the source code it outputs readable. This
isn't always entirely possible, since by its nature expressing something in
Sass can take significantly less code than the CSS counterpart and properly
organizing the expanded code automatically is hard. But there are several
output styles designed to be readable, and it's possible to add comments that
are rendered as CSS comments.
~~~
gommm
I love the compact output style (Sass::Plugin.options[:style] = :compact) to
tell Sass to outpus one-line CSS files.
------
jhancock
I am in process of redoing my webapp (merb based) with compass. I think the
approach is right on. I hope it gains enough momentum to be a great
"programmer oriented" CSS framework.
------
sant0sk1
I've been using Sass for awhile now and absolutely love it. I had never heard
of Compass, and as a recent BluePrint adopter, I really appreciate this
article.
Its times like these I wish I could redistribute earlier 'upmod mistakes' to
this posting.
------
Watts
I have been using Sass (and its companion Haml) for quite a while now and I
highly recommend it. Working with normal HTML and CSS seems like such a chore
now.
------
zitterbewegung
I'm going to work on a SASS /Compass like framework for a scheme webframework
called leftparen for google summer of code. <http://blog.leftparen.com/>
~~~
diN0bot
how do you know you're going to work on it for google summer of code? the
application for 2009 isn't open yet....right?
~~~
zitterbewegung
I know my mentor. The chance is high that I will work on it possibly.
------
gruseom
It looks similar to the CSS we generate from s-expressions in Lisp (even has :
before keywords). We're in the process of dumping it altogether, though, and
doing everything in Javascript.
Misleading title, by the way. Even if you generate CSS from (slightly) higher-
level source, you're still using CSS for layout.
~~~
gommm
I know the title was tongue in cheek to attract the yc crowd.
One thing though is that once you use compass with the blueprint framework
implemented in sass it allows you to easily generate css in situations where
you would have used a table instead for layout.
------
jay_kyburz
Is there anything that dumps css all together and just manipulates the dom
directly using Javascript.
In other words, build your site by instantiating components as you would if
you were building a windows or flash application. I think that would be my
preferred way of working.
For example: if I wanted a heading I could write a new class derived from a
standard library, set a few properties to define its colour and font, perhaps
some properties that define how it moves in relation to other entities.
You could even build a proper style hierarchy.
I've always felt the html / css / javascript stack was kind of clumsy and
would love to just work in one environment.
I've never likes css and the very fact that things like Sass and Compass exist
suggest to me its not really a very good way of defining an applications
style.
~~~
gommm
Actually as much as I hate CSS, from trying to implement the same subsystem of
an application using flash and then reimplementing it in javascript + CSS I
came to appreciate the flexibility of CSS when you want to adapt your widget
to both mobile phones and computers....
You might want to look at <http://cappuccino.org/> for a javascript library
doing what you describe (disclaimer: also I've planned for some time to take a
look at it, I haven't got around to it yet)
------
EvilTrout
I have a huge amount of Sass files on my site (~140) and I can't recommend it
more. It makes my life a lot easier.
------
KevinMS
I wrote something like this a while ago and just got reamed by all the CSS
koolaid drinkers.
But unlike Sass it doesn't abandon the cascade, and things look a lot
simplier, at least to me. I guess because its in LUA it wasn't cool enough.
It did get the "one of the best of the month" at smashing magazine, whatever
that means.
Writing massive stylesheets made me write moonfall, and after I did that, I
found that its easier just to keep your css simple. And then I never needed
it.
Find it at <http://moonfall.org/>
------
beza1e1
My workflow in most projects:
1\. create .css file
2\. tweak pixel-positions via Firebug and instant preview
3\. write final positions into .css file
Firebug nicely display the line number of the css rule to tweak. This isn't
possible with something like Sass, so i assume it would slow me down.
This instant preview tweaking with Firebug is even more important with legacy
CSS to find the position where a certain value is set. I can't think of a way
to do that with Sass.
------
ars
This is really cool, I may start using Sass (but probably not Compass), but it
doesn't really solve the argument.
There are many things that tables can do that CSS just can't (or that take
much longer).
~~~
gommm
Why wouldn't you use Compass?
I think that the point of using Compass is that it makes most of the
situations where you would use tables easy to do.
~~~
ars
No it doesn't. Compass can not magically change the rules of CSS. If CSS can't
do it, Compass can't either.
~~~
gommm
CSS can do most of those n columns liquid layout or other complex design that
people decide to use tables for. It's not a question of being able to do it or
not in CSS, it's a question of how easy or hard it is to do it. And Compass
makes it a great deal easier.
~~~
ars
OK, I understand using it when it easier. But there are many things that
tables can do that CSS can not do - at all (especially in a cross browser
compatible way, but also just regular).
------
juliend2
It reminds me Red(<http://github.com/jessesielaff/red/tree/master>) but for
CSS.
------
liuliu
After read the code of fluid, I think use hand-coded css is not good. However,
the css framework for layout is neat and efficient.
------
dreur
Thanks for sharing. Will have to give it a try
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Companies are once again storing data on tape, just in case - scop
https://www.wsj.com/articles/companies-look-to-an-old-technology-to-protect-against-new-threats-1505700180
======
scop
Two quotes:
“Tape isn’t inefficient or ineffective, but it can be inconvenient. Good
security is almost always inconvenient.”
"Some security experts and tape users argue that the medium has big advantages
over other forms of storage—including a higher reliability rate than hard
drives and a lifespan in excess of 30 years. The total cost of ownership per
terabyte is also the lowest of any storage medium. Top-of-the-line tapes can
hold up to 15 terabytes and can be archived in third-party locations at a
fraction of the cost of cheapest cloud-storage solutions." “Tape isn’t
inefficient or ineffective, but it can be inconvenient. Good security is
almost always inconvenient.”
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Theoretical physicist Julian Schwinger 1918-1994 Biographical Memoir (2008) [pdf] - snake117
======
dang
Looks like you might have submitted this with an invalid URL? Sounds like a
good post, if you want to try again.
~~~
snake117
Here is the new link:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10197486](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10197486)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google Calender lab for hiding morning and night hours - frankydp
http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/hide-morning-and-night-hours-in.html
======
frankydp
I missed it back in Nov and wasn't posted on HN, was helpful for me.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A fast, simple list filter with jQuery - kilian
http://kilianvalkhof.com/2010/javascript/how-to-build-a-fast-simple-list-filter-with-jquery/
======
RyanMcGreal
If you're going to do this, why not just make it an input with autocomplete
rather than an input + click on list item?
------
nirmal
I've seen this done with a Quicksilver style filter as well. Where you don't
have to type a strict substring of any of the items. For example typing "US"
and still seeing "United States of America".
Demo:
[http://static.railstips.org/orderedlist/demos/quicksilverjs/...](http://static.railstips.org/orderedlist/demos/quicksilverjs/jquery.html)
Article : [http://orderedlist.com/our-writing/blog/articles/live-
search...](http://orderedlist.com/our-writing/blog/articles/live-search-with-
quicksilver-style-for-jquery/)
------
Sukotto
If anyone tests this with a long list (like, thousand+ names, every US county,
every weather station, etc) please post some stats on how well it scales.
~~~
kilian
There are a couple of optimizations. You can cache the list, by instead of
doing this:
$(list).find("a:not(:Contains(" + filter + "))").parent().slideUp();
$(list).find("a:Contains(" + filter + ")").parent().slideDown();
you can do this:
$matches = $(list).find('a:Contains(' + filter + ')').parent();
$('li', list).not($matches).slideUp();
$matches.slideDown();
you can get rid of most of the $(), since input, list, etc are jQuery objects
already (I left them in because it makes it easier to read and doesn't have
too big an impact)
Lastly, you could save all countries in an array, give all list items unique
id's corresponding to the array, match on the array and hide/show the id's
that way. You forgo all the DOM interaction until the last moment.
It'll be a while before you get there, though :)
~~~
mathias
You’re welcome :p
------
mcantor
Nice post! The demo really sold me on the technique. Quick nitpicks: On step 4
of the instructions, you wrote "Hide the non-matching ones, while showing the
non-matching ones"; you probably meant to say "matching" in the second clause.
Also, capitalizing the first letter of every word in the first paragraph of
Step 2 makes it very difficult to read.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Blendle: Pay-per-article journalism platform that refunds you for clickbait - alexandernl
http://launch.blendle.com/hackernews.html
======
cJ0th
It is an interesting idea and I look forward to see how this will turn out. I
just explored it a bit and so far the implementation seems solid. However, I
reckon that I will probably loose interest very soon because the more I ask
myself: "Is this really worht xx cent?" the more I will conclude that reading
most articles is just a waste of time.
I think it will take some time to figure out what kind of articles and which
audience this platform is actually for.
My hope is that it will find a way to make labor/ cost intense journalism more
economically viable and thus promote it but as of now magazines publish too
many low effort pieces. An extreme example: the WSJ's "Habbits of highly
productive people" costs 39 cents. I read it and if anything somebody should
pay ME 39 cents for wasting my time. ;)
~~~
pbreit
The article price points are always so bizarre. The whole paper is $1.50 or $2
and they want 40c for 1 article?
This is an extremely difficult nut to crack but Blendle's is the best approach
I have seen so far.
I think success will rely upon brand name content, a good preview so buyers
know what they're getting, the auto-refund thing and 10-50c pricing per
article.
~~~
ska
You would need cost per article to be about (cost of paper)/(typical number of
articles someone needs to buy the paper) to maintain revenue.
So this should be a lot higher than (cost of paper)/(number of articles)
Not sure that 40c is right, mind you, just that you can't really compare it to
the total number of articles, if most people don't read most of them.
~~~
alexandernl
Blendle's founder here. Pricing is something that we're going to experiment
with. Nobody knows what the willingness to pay for journalism, yet. So we're
going to figure that out.
I think it'll always be a mix between micropayments and subscriptions:
micropayments if you only read a little, subscriptions if you read a lot from
a specific title.
~~~
JacobJans
I don't think people should pay for journalism. They should pay for
journalists.
What do I mean?
The benefits that we get from journalism are maximized if we have expert
journalists – people who dedicate their lives to being good journalists.
Good journalists need stability. If they depend on the readership rates for
individual articles, they are disencentivized to take the kinds of risks that
a stable institution can afford to give them.
I don't know Blendle's long term plans in terms of supporting quality
journalism – but the micropayment model is at odds with giving stability to
individual journalists.
Hopefully this is something your are thinking about. How can we best support
journalists – and not just individual peices of journalism?
~~~
maxwelljoslyn
(not the person you replied to)
I think you're right. I can't believe I never thought of like that before.
~~~
ska
This is the sort of thing someone like Blendle could choose to do. After all,
just because content is payed by the piece doesn't mean content creators must
be.
------
jonstokes
From the Medium piece:
"Our editors and algorithms help you find the best stuff."
I already have three sets of editors and two algorithms for finding more stuff
than I could ever care to read: they're called "Facebook", "Twitter", and
"Hacker News".
So their curation piece isn't interesting to me at all; only the payments.
Put another way, the web has thoroughly solved the problem of "show me some
stuff that I want to read right now" \-- it's like trying to drink from a
firehose. There is no need for another player in that already crowded game.
Where the web is failing is at funding all this stuff.
I imagine that the answer for this is easy, though: a "read it on blendle"
button for whatever article you clicked through to from FB, Twitter, or HN.
~~~
JeanMertz
You mean a button like on this page? (It's in Dutch, scroll a bit down)
[https://www.vn.nl/het-debat-21/](https://www.vn.nl/het-debat-21/)
We hear you. And we're working on it. This is only the first step of which
many more will follow in the coming months.
~~~
jonstokes
Yep, rockin'. Now please just let me sign up as my own publisher and write
directly on the platform :)
~~~
JeanMertz
Good point. Our current "onboarding process" for publishers is a bit too
heavy-weight to allow "just anyone" – even you ;-) to join Blendle right now.
This is definitely something we're investigating though. And in The
Netherlands, there's already a collective of journalists who created a non-
profit umbrella organisation to represent freelance writers, who have been
onboarded into our system.
Also, the Blendle Button that I linked to above is it's own product, with a
much less heavy-weight onboarding setup. We've already seen great success
using the button on a German site like
[http://uebermedien.de/abo/](http://uebermedien.de/abo/) (in this case, a
flat-fee subscription button). So that's definitely something we'd like to
roll out to as much freelance publishers as possible.
------
ChuckMcM
Excellent concept, and one I've been a proponent of for a while.
I'd like it to have an option (which it may have but I haven't found) to
either not show me stuff I already subscribe to (WSJ, Economist, NYT) or allow
me to enter subscription information so that I would not double pay.
From a consumption point of view there should be a "blendie link" which is
like a URL shortner for articles which connects you through the paywall to the
Blendie version of an article. Then if you share that link it lets other
Blendie subscribers read it in a fairly frictionless way.
~~~
alexandernl
Blendle founder here. It's exactly what we're working on (making articles for
free on Blendle if you already have a subscription), and are already doing
("blendle links") :)
~~~
ChuckMcM
Awesome, I look forward to you becoming the "Google Reader" of pay-walled
content. :-) It has always been a challenge for me that I would be happy to
pay for _an_ article but rarely want to commit to a monthly fee without
knowing if I'll use it enough to make it worthwhile. I really love that you
guys have taken this sort of thing and shipped product.
------
return0
I have privacy concerns with this type of service, especially if it catches
up. I don't want a third party to know what i m reading. Besides i think this
kind of service would be best implemented at the browser level. An insert-
bitcoin-to-read button would be a great experiment worth giving a try in
firefox.
~~~
mrweasel
It can't really be Bitcoin, because the value isn't sufficiently stable, there
has to be some credit card option. Given that a $0.20 credit card transaction
doesn't make financial sense, you need someone to handle micro-payments, and
who's that going to be? PayPal?
We've been needing a micro payment standard since 2000, and one has yet to
materialize.
~~~
ultramancool
> It can't really be Bitcoin, because the value isn't sufficiently stable
Why does that prevent it? Just exchange it immediately via an automated
service (look at BitPay for an example), they take the minute to minute risk
for 1% profit and you don't have to worry about it.
~~~
mrweasel
>Why does that prevent it? Because I would need to buy my Bitcoin in "bulk"
and the publishers would need to set their price in USD, EUR, GBP or whatever,
in order to be able to do proper financial planning.
Given that Bitcoin is as stable as say the USD, someone is going to win or
lose money on the conversion between "real" currencies and Bitcoin. I won't be
risking money becoming worth less, and neither are the publisher.
I don't know BitPay, but I don't assume that they the risk of devaluation of
my Bitcoin for weeks or months. We're not talking about buying just the amount
of Bitcoins I need for one article, say 20 cent, because fees attached to the
credit card transaction your will want to buy at least a little more.
Agreeable there is a point to be made in the fact that the price of each
article is so low that you would only need to buy something like $5 worth of
Bitcoin, and at that point it doesn't really matter if you lose %20.
Still I don't feel like Bitcoin is the right option, but maybe it could be the
backend to a micro payment system. I just don't want to deal with the Bitcoins
or conversion to my local currency.
~~~
ska
Given that Bitcoin is as stable as say the USD
That's a pretty, ah, strong "given".
------
jonstokes
I guess my biggest question as a journalist is not, "what is the point of
blendle?", but rather, "what is the point of the NYT, Times, etc.?"
I'd be happy to just publish directly onto their platform and let readers pay
me directly for the stuff of mine that they want to read via blendle (vs.
paying a publication via blendle, then the publication pays me).
~~~
stuckFounder
NYT is income insurance, aka an employer. They will pay you a reasonable wage
even if you aren't writing stuff people read.
~~~
jonstokes
The number of people in the NY media establishment getting paid a reasonable
wage to write stuff that people aren't reading is a few orders of magnitude
smaller than it was even five years ago, and in another five years it will be
zero.
~~~
danso
Uh no. While revenues and thus hiring have certainly dropped, it is by no
means on a few orders of magnitude. I'd be surprised if it were even on a
single order of magnitude. Even the newspaper I worked at that is in much more
dire straights compared to 10 years ago is about a third its size.
Besides new online outlets, legacy companies are still chugging along.
Starting wage for a reporter at the New York Times is around $70K last I heard
(too lazy to look up the union site)
~~~
jonstokes
I think you misread my comment. I wasn't saying that the entire NY media
establishment is approaching zero employees. I was strictly speaking of the
classic "guy who gets paid to write stuff that nobody reads because it's good
for the community/country/brand/whatever, while people on some other beat
bring in the eyeballs and pay the bills." That's the population that's
shrinking really fast.
~~~
danso
Ah, OK. Sorry, I overestimated your cynicism...I read it as, "the New York
media establishment writes stuff that nobody reads" :)
------
2758252047
I can get to the password creation stage fine, then it says.
> _An error occurred. We 're as baffled as you are. Would you try again
> later?_
EDIT: Apparently you need scripts enabled from _connect.facebook.net_ enabled
to get past the password creation screen. Is this intentional for some reason?
Or just a bug? (I would assume the second, seeing the next screen is the
optional _connect your facebook or twitter account_ page.)
~~~
JeanMertz
Whoops, that shouldn't happen. The team is unable to reproduce this though.
Could you share the link where you tried to sign up?
If you want, you can send me an email (see other comment) and we'll get this
sorted.
------
owenwil
I've been testing this for the last few days and am curating the technology
section. Not paid, just volunteering, and I really like it so far. Great
design, easy to jump into articles and frictionless paying is refreshing. Not
a fan of the left-to-right scrolling, but otherwise it's likely going to be a
boon for news companies who need the money.
~~~
glaslong
My initial impression is similar. The site is well designed and easy to use,
full screen and mobile, and the initial selection of reading material is
encouraging.
Only major pain point is the side scrolling, newspaper column format in the
article view. I strongly prefer the vertical layout the rest of the internet
currently uses.
This applies somewhat to the news feed as well. It feels like it's trying to
replicate a physical news stand, throwing away the lessons learned from Google
Reader and Facebook style feeds.
------
owenversteeg
I think the most important thing with this company is not the UI or the
onboarding or the way they distribute the money -- it's the fact that they got
the approval of the content creators first and then went and started the beta.
Having the NYT, Newsweek, WaPo, WSJ, Businessweek, etc. on board shows that
people can comfortable give them their money and know that it will actually be
going to content creators. In far too many of these type of sites, the vast
majority of the money doesn't actually go to content creators.
------
richmarr
I'm really excited to see Blendle opening their doors to the English speaking
market.
Journalism funded by advertising contains several seemingly-unpatchable
incentive structures... (a) the need to promote the advertising to you,
breaking the concentration you need to read the article... (b) the fact that
getting you far enough to see the adverts is enough to earn revenue so the
content quality can be a secondary priority... (c) the fact that some sites go
as far as mixing journalist-written content with PR-written content so you
can't always tell the difference immediately.
Yes, there are bound to be some UX hurdles, some promises and hand-holding
around privacy, some exploration of subscription or micropayments... but
fundamentally this is a better model as it fixes all of the broken incentives
without (as far as I can see) creating any new ones.
Good luck Blendle & alexandernl.
~~~
alexandernl
Thanks so much.
------
LamaOfRuin
I signed up for the US launch a while ago because I believe in this model, but
I have heard nothing from them since, so my email is already in their
database, so they won't give me "Instant access only today for Hacker News
readers."
Ingenious.
~~~
glaslong
If you're using gmail, the + alias seems to work for signup.
[https://support.google.com/mail/answer/12096?hl=en](https://support.google.com/mail/answer/12096?hl=en)
~~~
LamaOfRuin
That's really not the issue. Yes, I immediately used an email alias to bypass
it, but that doesn't stop it from being a common and annoying issue with these
types of access programs. I think of it the same way as people who kickstarted
a product being told they're not getting access until a bunch of other people
that signed up after it was fully funded.
------
danso
Is there any way to read the articles _not_ in a horizontal layout? Everything
about the site implementation is slick except for that part. It's incredibly
difficult and awkward to read, to be honest.
------
kuisch
Really curious as to where this may go. On the one hand, I'm skeptical. It
feels like there's simply too much friction for a commodity. And doing
relatively well in the Dutch market is one thing. Being able to translate this
to the English market is, of course, a different story entirely. On the other
hand, being able to read individual articles from most of the major
publications in one centralized environment is super compelling to me.
Additionally, I feel like the iTunes comparison that's often made isn't
entirely fair. Before iTunes, I believe there simply wasn't any viable (non-
illegal) alternative to get an individual song. Whereas Blendle competes with,
as mentioned before, loads of other free alternatives online. I'm sure this is
appealing to a core group of fairly voracious readers, but wonder if it
extrapolates to the wider population to such an extent as to sustain an actual
business. Thus far, I believe I've only come across the number of registered
users. This is obviously not very interesting and perhaps they're not allowed
to disclose any other metrics. Especially with the free initial credit though,
I guess you'll find plenty who would be willing to give it a spin. Would love
to see DAUs and/or the percentage of people that tops up repeatedly after
using initial credit.
To be sure, I definitely hope they succeed. It seems like they've executed
very well up to this point.
~~~
jonasty
" Before iTunes, I believe there simply wasn't any viable (non-illegal)
alternative to get an individual song. Whereas Blendle competes with, as
mentioned before, loads of other free alternatives online."
True, but these publishers can, at some point, start making their content
accessible only through Blendle.
Curious loophole though - on platforms such as Pocket, one can go on Pocket's
'recommended' feed, save an NYT article straight to their own Pocket, and read
the article on the Pocket platform, without every going to NYT.com
(circumventing the paywall).
How is that legal? And if it remains legal, will this loophole be a major
concern to Blendle and publishers?
------
impostervt
I like the idea, but the interface is a bit weird. The on-boarding process
uses a Wizard-type flow (one screen for email address, one for password, etc).
Also, reading articles flows left to right instead of top down, which I find
distracting.
Also, I'd prefer if the "Popular" view showed me popular articles, not popular
magazines/newspapers. I don't want to drill down into each to find out what
they have.
------
anamexis
One very small bit of feedback:
During registration, the page says "We have emailed you at <email>. Click the
confirmation link to continue."
But it wasn't obvious what the confirmation link was (it turned out to be the
button labelled "Browse the Blendle newsstand").
~~~
alexandernl
Thanks fixing that.
------
alpeb
Nowadays I try to stay away from magazine articles and get my info instead
from blogs. Traditional journalism calls for too much wording ceremony and
useless anecdata with a very low signal-to-noise ratio.
~~~
petra
That's true, the media is filled with bullshit.But that's what Google, HN and
everybody else usually feeds you.
So what's your method to search or discover good blog content regarding a
specific subject ?
~~~
alpeb
PG's essay "The Submarine"[1] is a nice account to what degree the media is
filled with bullshit.
I actually get pretty much all my tech reads from HN (sometimes browsing the
comments before even reading the article) and from links in Twitter.
[1]
[http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html)
------
reinierladan
Amazing service. I've used it many times to read articles from newspapers I'm
not subscribed to. Also got my money back a couple of times. It just works.
------
karmacondon
I would really really like to pay per article for content from the New York
Times, the Wall St Journal and a few other news sites with annoying paywalls.
Whenever I go to subscribe I think, "This isn't worth it because I don't read
publication X frequently enough to justify a bill of any size on my credit
card". But if this lets me just pay $20/mo to this service and get access to N
articles from a number of subscription based publications, then this is a good
deal. Sign me up.
But I'm just not clear on how this works from looking at the home page. Is
this all paywalled content? Or will I be paying $0.25 for something I could
have read for free, like a sucker?
And also, is the NYT coming out ahead here? Does it make sense to split ~$0.30
per article with blendle instead of getting a $1/week or whatever from a
regular subscription? Because I would hate to get used to using this and then
have it disappear in six months because the basic economics of the business
don't make sense.
If it works out I think it does, this is great. If not, hopefully it can get
there soon.
~~~
gpvos
_> Or will I be paying $0.25 for something I could have read for free, like a
sucker?_
This has happened to me with articles from Trouw (Dutch newspaper) that were
available on their site for free, but were paid-for on Blendle. I really hope
they have fixed this by now.
~~~
gpvos
Nope, still happens.
------
iamnothere
Based on the article on Medium, it appears that often-refunded articles
disappear from the site. Isn't this a potential vector for censorship? Well-
funded adversaries (or well-coordinated activist groups) could use multiple
accounts to "game the system" and eliminate undesirable content.
Hopefully this is addressed somehow. Otherwise it's a fantastic idea.
~~~
JeanMertz
They "disappear", as in, they won't show up at the front of your timeline.
They can still be accessed and/or searched for.
We also have selected curators who can promote articles worthy of your time,
and a daily mail that highlights the articles we believe are interesting to
you.
Gaming the system is something we're always watching out for. This is indeed
something that we'll continue addressing as we learn.
~~~
iamnothere
Thanks, glad to hear that you're thinking about it. Hopefully you won't
encounter that sort of manipulation.
------
brudgers
A bit more: [https://medium.com/on-blendle/with-the-biggest-publishers-
in...](https://medium.com/on-blendle/with-the-biggest-publishers-in-the-
country-on-board-we-re-launching-our-journalistic-startup-
in-e8cb800c28b8#.tto1tuwos)
------
devit
Why not use a flat rate Spotify-like model?
Paying per article seems to have the big issue that you actually have to think
whether you to want to pay or not and might feel cheated if the article is not
as good (they offer refunds, but there must be a limit or catch or everyone
would just refund everything).
~~~
Freak_NL
Blendle has no flat-rate, but if you buy several articles from a single issue
of a publication, Blendle will simply give you access to the complete issue
(e.g., today's New York Times) when the amount you paid for the separate
articles exceeds the cost of the complete issue.
------
daturkel
I'm confused about the payment model. Isn't all Bloomberg Businessweek
content, for example, available for free on their website? Or, even if some
fraction of their content is behind a paywall or not available, shouldn't only
that content be paid in Blendle?
~~~
alexandernl
On Blendle, the participating publishers have all kind of models: metered
paywalls, hard paywalls, no paywalls. Publishers that also put content on the
web without a paywall most often charge very little for their content (less
than 10ct) in return for a human curated, ad free experience. It's like the
business class for journalism :).
------
tsunamifury
Granulizing payments and exposing the pay-logic will just encourage more
complex gamesmanship to gather the pay... and thats already putting aside the
fact that micro payments add stress which has been supplanted by the
subscription model.
------
rossng
blendle.com/signup/account rejects email GMail addresses of the form
[email protected] - even though the launch.blendle.com/hackernews.html
page accepts them.
It's one of my pet peeves, please fix it!
------
zo1
Getting only two language options when attempting to login: English and Dutch.
URL: [https://blendle.com/login](https://blendle.com/login)
Signup email sends me to a page where I get an error: "Hey, the link you used
refers to a non-existing page. We're sorry!"
URL:
[https://blendle.com/kiosk?campaign=activation&content=button...](https://blendle.com/kiosk?campaign=activation&content=button&medium=email&source=blendle)
~~~
zo1
Edit, Getting "German and Dutch", not English. Sorry, only noticed I typed the
wrong thing now.
------
eveningcoffee
Do they offer anonymous payment options? I do not want that my content is
blocked, filtered by my actual (world wide unique - only one me really)
identity.
~~~
alexandernl
We don't do bitcoin topups right now, you think we should add that?
~~~
eveningcoffee
I am not a bitcoin user (because I have not find a use case for myself), but
this might be an idea.
The problem for me is that if I provide my payment details, I make myself
vulnerable to the person level censoring (as do other users of course). I do
not think that this is where the WWW should be going.
So in principle anything that decouples my identity from the access to the
content but lets me to pay for it might be fine.
If I provide you my payment details I could not be sure that you will not
share my identity (even in a form of an unique id) (or start sharing in the
future).
------
have_faith
I don't want to pay per article and I don't think that it will catch on like
that despite it being an idea that theoretically makes sense. I just don't
think people conceptualise the value of articles like that and will find it a
difficult proposition beyond the generic tech crowd.
------
Cthulhu_
What's up with the HN submission title? Doesn't seem to be related to the
article at hand. See also the HN submission guidelines:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)
~~~
dang
When it's clear that a story about a project or startup is being submitted by
the creator, we sometimes cut them slack about how they phrase it. We still
take out linkbait, remove superlatives and gushy language and so on. In this
case I think we just left the title as is.
Another thing we often do in such cases is add "Show HN" if the creator
neglected to. But signup-collection pages are explicitly out of scope for Show
HNs.
------
whazor
I have used Blendle, and currently for me the problem is that most Dutch
people have totally different interests than me. Especially don't like the
articles coming from the emails. There are articles on Blendle I like, for
example the Dutch business news.
~~~
alexandernl
Founder here. Yeah, we used to send everybody the same recommendations, which
makes it all pretty general interest. But we recently started personalizing
the recommendations. It should get much better in the next couple of weeks :)
------
SagelyGuru
I look forward to the day when this will include magazines and papers from
most countries, rather than just Holland or the US. The one-stop access has
attractions. However, at the moment, it does not seem possible to even switch
between these two. (New User)
------
qz_
Are you planning on providing a platform for independent journalists to
publish their content?
~~~
alexandernl
Yes.
------
2758252047
Would there be any method for detecting if an article is available through
Blendle when you hit a pay wall article through normal web browsing (eg from a
Hacker News link) or I guess this would need to be something the websites
implement themselves.
~~~
detaro
Could be build as a browser extension. Match URL against a list of
publications, if the user clicks a button redirect to blendle to check if the
specific page is available. (2 stages/manual step to avoid sending every URL
you visit to blendle)
------
bsharitt
Interesting. I've been toying with a similar, but slightly different pay per
article microtransaction idea. I guess I might as well see what the
competition is doing.
~~~
simonebrunozzi
Would you like to connect? I've been, too, and we might have something in
common to discuss. $myHNusername @ gmail.
~~~
alexandernl
Blendle founder here. Really interested to hear you guys' thoughts:
[email protected]
------
NietTim
Congratulations on the launch and I'm very curious to see how adoption will be
in the US!
------
yourithielen
Amazing! Where can I find TIME and Newsweek when using an existing dutch
account?
~~~
yourithielen
Newsweek has appeared under 'Engels', still no sign of TIME.
~~~
JeanMertz
It's pretty hectic at the office, but TIME will be available shortly!
update: here it is: [https://blendle.com/issue/time/bnl-
time-20160321](https://blendle.com/issue/time/bnl-time-20160321)
~~~
ryan-c
Threadjacking here, but I cannot make an account with a snkmail.com or
sneakemail.com account. There's some sort of TemporaryEmailServiceDetected
error coming from the backend, which is not what sneakemail is.
Edit: They responded to my email about this:
> Unfortunately it is impossible to sign up with a disposable email service.
> You should be able to access it by using another email service - I would
> recommend you to try that.
------
BrandiATMuhkuh
how did you connections and contracts with all the publisher? It doesn't seem
strait forward to me. I guess personal contacts or so are needed.
------
jccc
"Please upvote and get instant access today" (across the top, with an HN logo)
kind of sounds like "Upvote us on HN, and then we'll give you instant access
today."
Maybe they shouldn't be saying that.
~~~
minimaxir
The copy is now "Get instant access today'" with the same logo and still has
the same implication.
Which is funny because there is no HN API that can actually prove that you
upvoted something.
~~~
JeanMertz
We would certainly _like_ it if you upvoted, but you'll get access either way
:-)
~~~
camikazeg
I first saw Blendle from one of the HN "Who's hiring" threads while looking
for jobs in Utrecht. It was right around the time that there were a ton of
stories about intrusive/tracking ad networks, AdBlockers and Google's
Contributor option came out.
It looked like you were one of the few out there actually building something
that solves the "paying content creators for their work" problem that is the
root of all the ad problems. Kudos to you. It would be cool if you combined
your service with an ad blocker so that users could block ads and feel good
about still giving the creators a way to get paid: join the network!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
SEED: Software Engineering Evidence Database - cipher0
http://evidencebasedse.com/
======
mathattack
I'm curious from anyone who has read through these... How solid scientific
footing are these on? Is it closer to mathematics, or closer to psychology?
(Proofs tend to stick more in the former than the latter)
~~~
chas
If you want an overview of the ideas behind this sort of research and a quick
summary of some results, Greg Wilson gave a great talk on it[0].
I haven't read through the site to see what is there, but software engineering
methodology and technique research* uses techniques from research of
management techniques in business, making it closer to psychology or
sociology. For more information, the blog "It Will Never Work in Theory"[1]
does a good job of highlighting these sorts of results that are directly
useful and has some explanation of the tools they are using to study software
engineering practices. The book _Making Software_ [2] goes into much more
detail on software engineering research methodologies if you are interested.
*As opposed to CS theory research that could be used in software engineering, which is usually math.
[0] [http://vimeo.com/9270320](http://vimeo.com/9270320) [1]
[http://neverworkintheory.org/index.html](http://neverworkintheory.org/index.html)
[2]
[http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596808303.do](http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596808303.do)
~~~
mathattack
Thanks! I had Making Software on my bookshelf, and someone "borrowed" it. I'll
need to "borrow" it back. :-) The challenge from it's intro was that anyone in
the field will overstate the truth in the research. I used to be a business
book junkie until I realized what weak foundation most of it was built on.
I've gradually come back to the genre but more for context and story than
predictive power.
The Halo Effect [0] amped up my skepticism. Of course it was a business book
[1] that introduced me to the Halo Effect... :-)
[0]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_effect](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_effect)
[1] [http://www.amazon.com/The-Halo-Effect-Business-
Delusions/dp/...](http://www.amazon.com/The-Halo-Effect-Business-
Delusions/dp/0743291263)
------
klibertp
Nothing about readability... I guess there really are _no_ studies on what
readability is and how to measure it and how to write readable code :)
------
commentei29
quick review. my opinion can change. THUMBS DOWN. 1 out of 5 stars. why?
remember I am not as smart other disclaimers. THIS IS THE METHOD I AM USING
after 38 or so years and yes I have dropped the box with Fortran punch cards.
OOPS. 1.)it a human process - worthless. 2.)only human process worth while in
REAL time is this site and reddit dot com / haskell, etc. 3.)where is the
ontology? 4.)i also provide real perspective by a.)rosetta code - go ahead and
laugh but code translation is helpful especially between OOP python, C and FP
Haskell b.)encylopedia of int sequences. Help me find more mistakes in the int
sequences for I so far CANNOT FIND ANY.
8.)What a shame. the evidence of the Heartbleed Bug that broke the internet is
on git. One way to find the BLAME is git blame. What are the other THREE
WAYS???
9.)IMHO, it is NOT an EVIDENCE database. Provide evidence and a few toolsets.
10.)Even simple metrics like WHAT IS THE TREND LINE MOVING CHART like yahoo
finance stocks for 'changes', BUGS, vulnerabilities and HEAT MAP - changes.
11.)Heat map changes? a.) Coder stated design b.)goals and constraints c.)code
diff d.)code metrics - EVIDENCE e.)code analytics - EVIDENCE f.)redditc snarky
comments - sometimes evidence g.)....
No, the evidence does NOT have to be extreme detail, however the test
framework: S M A R T S for specific - related to ontology or BoK or ??? or ??
scrum? is needed. Haskell wording is VAGUE, context specific, scoping?,
strange logic - Template Haskell and Liquid, etc., etc.
haskell is an example. Engineering is the middle layer between the hacker -
anything goes technically to the Science and then to the Math.
~~~
CaveTech
I honestly have no idea what you're going on about.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
UI / UX Design Interviews, Zane David - frankiefreesbie
https://medium.com/@frankiefreesbie/zane-david-354daaaa2eec
======
frankiefreesbie
Frank : When your friends or parents ask to you what job do you do, how do you
answer?
Zane : I always start by telling them that I’m an interaction designer, but I
always received a bewildered look, so I go on to explain that I design apps
and websites. That usually goes down well, people seem to appreciate that I
work in a creative industry.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Non-Recursive Make Considered Harmful [pdf] - luu
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/simonpj/papers/ghc-shake/ghc-shake.pdf
======
CJefferson
Paper title is about yet another build system (this one written in Haskell),
to replace Make. While make is awful, Most other build systems I've ever used
have ended up being awful in their own way, and have the massive disadvantage
that my users probably don't have the CMake 2.8.9.2 that I wrote my build
script for.
Also, I find it amusing that they claim Make's language is horrible, when they
admit their replacement isn't shorter, I have to learn Haskell to use their
system, and it looks like this (random snippet). No better than Make (in my
opinion), and further I have to write unicode arrows?
"∗.o" %> \out → do
let src = out -<.> "c"
~~~
cm3
I suggest to read more about Shake before dismissing it. The paper is short
and easy to follow. Shake solves real world problems that go ignored in other
systems. If needed, one could add a simple mode via an EDSL, but so far nobody
using Shake has requested such a things from what I can tell, but Neil would
be better equipped to answer that. I haven't written a single Shakefile with
unicode, and no you don't have to, but apparently you can, if you prefer to.
As a start I'd suggest to read "Shake before building".
~~~
CJefferson
I did read all of that. To me, the system seems inferior to tup, which they
discuss (tup doesn't require me to specify dependencies, which I consider a
killer feature). Also, tup works on windows, while that paper suggests Shake
doesn't.
~~~
cm3
I didn't try tup, but I found the way it's said to detect dependencies by
monitoring stuff to be a bad idea, though this is probably my personal
preference. Can't tell how many developers don't like that design aspect.
Shake should work on Windows, given that Neil wrote a Windows progress bar
tool for Shake.
~~~
CJefferson
If you don't like auto-tracking dependencies, then tup certainly isn't for
you.
For me, it is a killer feature -- any system where dependencies are maintained
manually inevitably gets out of sync with the code. Some systems have special
compiler hacks (like gcc's -MM flag), but you still have to find the magic
option for each program you use, and link them into your compiler. That's also
very hard to do in dynamic languages, where you don't know what libraries you
have loaded until you've run the program.
~~~
cm3
> If you don't like auto-tracking dependencies, then tup certainly isn't for
> you.
I do use auto-generated/-detected deps for build time dependency graphs, but I
didn't like how tup implements it.
------
wrong_variable
I knew Make was terrible when I was first introduced to it.
This is why I think everyone should learn programming first and linux second -
since many linux tools are terrible.
As expressed in the SICP book - the programming language should allow you to
build abstractions. Make doesn't at all allow that.
~~~
dietrichepp
I think you were misinformed about the purpose of Make. It should not be used
as a programming language. You can write a short makefile by hand, reasonably,
which compiles a few source files, but anything larger should probably be
automatically generated by CMake or your own scripts or whatever.
Abstractions are perfectly possible, you just do it in your own script (Python
or whatever) and this way you don't have to learn a new language. Ninja is a
better alternative to Make, and it is even less expressive (which is one of
the reasons why it is better, IMO).
Or in other words, we build abstractions in Make by composing it with other
tools, rather than creating a huge monolithic Makefile syntax which can do
anything you want.
~~~
tome
In which case why even use Make at all? CMake could generate _anything_.
~~~
dietrichepp
CMake can't generate anything, it only generates a few different types of
files. Make is the most well-tested output, and there is only one alternative
generator for CMake for the Linux command line anyway (Ninja, which is even
less expressive than Make).
It's like saying that "Why use assembly at all? GCC could generate anything."
Well, yes. But you're on an x86 machine and there's an assembler _right there_
for GCC to use, and GCC has been using that assembler for decades.
~~~
wrong_variable
All of these things sound complicated. What is CMake now ?
Manipulating files is trivial in any programming language expect maybe in
something like C,C++,Java,etc.
Python/js/go make it really easy to deal with complex build systems or even
just 1 liners.
So I have no idea why make has any advantage over those - only use-case is if
you are writing C where its non-trival to do file-handling.
I moved to npm scripts once I asked the question "how do i make a multi-
process build script in make ?"
and all the neck-beards in uni had no answer - so I just write small scripts
which grow and shrink based on my needs.
~~~
dietrichepp
Make is really fast, and it's good at doing parallel builds (you just have to
specify -j). You could try making something better in Python, but it would
take a long time to write and Make is already here. You apparently had the
opposite experience from me. I hate NPM build systems like Grunt and Gulp
because they're hard to debug. Make is easy—keep the files around and tweak
the command line until it works.
No idea how you missed the -j option.
------
amelius
> To validate our claims, we have completely re-implemented GHC’s build
> system, for the fifth and final time.
Until they re-implement it again :)
> Unfortunately no cross-platform APIs are available to detect used
> dependencies, so such tools are all limited in which platforms they support.
How about using libfuse? One could run the build inside a "virtual" folder
served by libfuse, and thus detect all dependencies (they will show up as
"read" operations in the libfuse API).
~~~
ndmitchell
> Until they re-implement it again :)
As the paper says, every previous implementation started nicely and got
horrible towards the end. This time, that hasn't happened, so _hopefully_ it's
the final one. But, of course, never say never.
> How about using libfuse?
What about Windows? Certainly you could use something like libfuse, and we're
trying other solutions - if we manage to build a cross-platform API Shake will
be able to use it easily.
------
makecheck
If your build reaches the point where you feel you need a wide variety of
strange "make" constructs, you don’t necessarily need a new build system; you
need to be smarter about the setup. For example: _do everything in two phases_
, where the more “magical” version _generates_ a less magical, verbose, static
makefile with more rules that are relatively easy to understand and debug.
And, besides: a huge impediment to improving the state of build systems is
that new build mechanisms won’t be installed on most platforms by default. If
you _must_ explore new ways to build, be sure to implement that in terms of
what is already there (Perl/Python/whatever) and make sure to _ship your new
build system WITH your code_.
When I download some "neat-project-1.0.tar.gz", the last thing I want is to
have to futz with setting up your special build system that Probably Nothing
Else uses or will ever use. If it’s not in the tarball, I will already lose a
lot of interest; I know most things can "configure, make, make install" in
minutes but I _don’t_ know how much time will be wasted installing whizbang-
build-0.1 first and I probably won’t even try.
~~~
technion
I was working on a CentOS 6 box not long back and it's shocking just how many
big projects you pretty much can't build. Not because they didn't write
portable C, but because they have requirements on a minimum version of
autoconf, which is later than shipping under CentOS 6.
~~~
gnufx
autoconf _shouldn't_ be relevant to building, rather than maintaining the
project. (I know you can't always get a proper release in this day and age.)
In some cases you do need to re-autoconfiscate, which is why EPEL6 has
autoconf268 (from RHEL7). Otherwise there's a software collection with up-to-
date autotools, though you might expect them in the devtoolsets.
------
dietrichepp
Reading the article, I wonder if Shake could be used to generate Ninja files.
It looks like it might be possible. The main "backend" improvements in Shake
are things like concurrency reduction (pools in Ninja), hash-based rebuilding
(available but undocumented in Ninja), and generated dependency rules. In such
a setup, you'd use Shake for all your abstractions, and Ninja to execute the
rules.
~~~
cm3
Shake can interpret Ninja files, actually.
But I can see the appeal of Ninja files of something that allows one to avoid
the GHC requirement in a build environment.
Though I've found Ninja to be more like something that needs to be generated
from something else and less something you'd write. So maybe Ninja can be
exactly that, kinda like build script assembly.
------
MichaelBurge
Make is convenient for tiny programs, and annoying for larger ones. The system
in GHC seems like a nightmare to maintain - I remember having trouble building
GHC, mainly because it was hard to debug their system.
I use Docker for a similar purpose nowadays. It's inconvenient for
development, since rebuilding the containers is slow. But it usually works
without much trouble. I think there's a GHC Dockerfile somewhere that hvr
maintains.
I haven't used Shake specifically much. The only thing that bugs me is that
Haskell isn't nearly as portable as plain Make. If Shake didn't build the
program but rather emitted a build-file that a small reference C program could
interpret, I would feel much more comfortable about using it for just about
everything. Because I'd know that if I was on some ancient CentOS 4 system, I
could still build my software.
------
breul99
Titles containing considered harmful considered harmful
~~~
audidude
I assume they are playing off the 1997 article "recursive make considered
harmful"
~~~
NDT
It's from the 1968 letter "Go To Statement Considered Harmful" by Dijkstra
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Command and Control [video] - smacktoward
http://www.commandandcontrolfilm.com/
======
sandworm101
"...chronicle nine hours of terror that prevented an explosion 600 times more
powerful than Hiroshima."
I'm calling out the film's makers on that statement. I challenge anyone to
describe a situation whereby an ICBM with a leaky first stage could ever
detonate the warhead in a manner resulting in such an explosion. These things
don't go off when you drop them. They don't go off when you set them on fire.
They don't go off when you surround them with explosives. Getting a
thermonuclear weapon to detonate requires hundreds of things to happen in a
precise manner. That cannot happen by accident.
~~~
dogma1138
I don't understand the downvotes, the OP is correct, the explosion could have
resulted in a environmental disaster but in effect it would've been a "dirty
bomb".
In the book they went over the trigger mechanism and overall there was no way
for the 1st stage fission warhead to detonate not to mention for the 2nd stage
fusion reaction to kick off.
A nuclear warhead is pretty darn hard to detonate, the detonation sequence is
extremely precise and the smallest deviation would result in a dud and in rare
cases an extremely low yield fizzle.
You can do whatever you want to a nuke, blow it up, set it ablaze, put it in a
microwave, hit it, drop it even from orbit, it will not go off, not even
because there are failsafes but because there is virtually no way for the nuke
to "fail" in a way that would be even remotely close to a detonation sequence,
an accidental detonation especially through brute force that would physically
damage the warhead is about as likely as a tornado passing through a junkyard
leaving assembled 747's in it's wake.
~~~
Kadin
I am in complete agreement, with the exception of this statement:
> there is virtually no way for the nuke to "fail" in a way that would be even
> remotely close to a detonation sequence
That is not true, at least not universally. Nuclear bombs are, by definition,
designed to go off, and as a result there is a category of failure modes that
could lead to inadvertent detonation. Basically, a failure that produces the
same command that would cause the normal detonation sequence to begin, could
cause an unintended detonation. The Mk. 39 bomb involved in the 1961 North
Carolina B-52 crash [0] reportedly came close to detonating in this manner.
Additionally, there are weapons designs that are not "one point safe", such
that a failure which causes ignition of the high explosive could lead to a
nuclear detonation. Weapons considered "one point safe" require multiple,
carefully timed or simultaneous ignitions of the high explosive. The last non-
one-point-safe weapons in the US arsenal were built in the 50s but not
disassembled until recently; the W56 was reportedly _not_ one point safe [1],
or at least not provably so to the safety margins now recognized as
reasonable. I don't know of any information in the unclassified literature
about whether Soviet weapons are universally one-point-safe or not.
It would not surprise me if there are a variety of weapon designs still
floating around in the world that aren't one-point-safe. Single compression
"gun type" bombs, like the Fat Man design, would require additional
engineering to make one-point-safe beyond what is minimally required to get
them to detonate, which makes me suspect that some marginal nuclear powers
probably don't bother.
[0]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_Goldsboro_B-52_crash](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_Goldsboro_B-52_crash)
[1]:
[https://web.archive.org/web/20070110205223/http://www.pogo.o...](https://web.archive.org/web/20070110205223/http://www.pogo.org/p/homeland/hl-061201-bodman.html)
~~~
mikeash
Can a gun type weapon ever be made one point safe? You'd have to somehow make
sure that the explosives could _never_ accidentally drive the two pieces
together, which seems impossible. Doing it for an implosion weapon is,
relatively speaking, much more straightforward: implosion is inherently
finicky anyway, so you design it to fail unless multiple detonations happen at
precise times.
~~~
sandworm101
Yes, mechanically. You put something in the barrel that would shatter the
'bullet' should the explosives go off. Detonation then occurs only if the
safety is moved prior to explosion. Then, as another measure, you can rig that
mechanical safety mechanism to snap back in place in cases of external fire
(ie some part is designed to melt and swing it back in place).
~~~
mikeash
Sounds like a good system! Does it really eliminate the possibility of any
detonation, though? Seems like you could still potentially get enough stuff
together to exceed critical mass. The explosion would probably be smaller than
nominal, but more than the 4lbs TNT equivalent that the US military specifies
as its criteria for one-point safety. But perhaps I overestimate the chances
of this happening. I'm _far_ from an expert here.
------
Tech1
Ex US Army bomb technician here (eod). This entire story is somewhat of a
legend among our community (those that actually went through nukes at least).
Added to our (me and the SO) calendar for the weekend. Looking forward to
seeing it.
------
gerry_shaw
Trailer looks true to the book. Looking forward to this.
------
smoyer
The Wikipedia article on this "incident":
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Damascus_Titan_missile_...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Damascus_Titan_missile_explosion)
------
jdiez17
The movie looks interesting, but seems I'll never get to see it, as there are
no screenings in London, and I bet they won't offer a digital download option
on their website...
------
dmourati
Curiously I just picked up the book last weekend. Enjoying it so far.
------
Cacti
The book is fantastic. I'd also recommend "One Point Safe," which is similar.
------
wingerlang
Is the name a reference to Command and Conquer? Got some flashbacks from the
logo [http://i.imgur.com/riegcsv.png](http://i.imgur.com/riegcsv.png)
------
JoeDaDude
It is described as an American Experience film, with the Corporation for
Public Broadcasting listed as an underwriter. Surely we'll see this on a PBS
TV broadcast soon.
------
ekianjo
Loved the book but the trailer looks a little.. meh. I hope the movies does
not disapppoint, this ia a very important topic folks should care and know
about.
~~~
BoringCode
As someone who hasn't read the book or heard about the incident for that
matter, I thought it was an interesting trailer. I certainly want to see the
film now.
------
ablation
The book was very good.
------
ChicagoHero
TLDR: documentary about _nine hours of terror that prevented an explosion 600
times more powerful than Hiroshima at Titan II missile complex in Arkansas;
September, 1980._
~~~
throwanem
Is that your characterization or theirs? It's been a while since I read the
book, but I don't recall either that or any other source suggesting that there
was at any point a serious risk of the warhead going off.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Providers Are Sexually Assaulting Patients – and It’s Legal - dmitrygr
https://www.healthline.com/health/nonconsensual-internal-exams-sexual-assault
======
cco
I don't think its legal, try suing them and request a jury, I don't think the
hospital would win.
------
rolph
i think one of these little buggers, would put a stop to that malarchy in a
hurry!
[http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/06/20/south.africa.fema...](http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/06/20/south.africa.female.condom/index.html)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Feasible to access google maps DB - cgherb911
This is what I want to do. Google has a database with businesses information tied to a gps location. Is there a way to access this data (while not being employed by google)??<p>Thanks HN.
======
jacquesm
Essentially you're asking if it is possible to scrape google maps.
I'd start with analyzing the javascript code that creates the map view, it has
to have some way of retrieving the info layer given a map coordinate.
After that you can try to see if you can access that information without going
through the browser.
There are commercial vendors of such information too.
------
vannevar
Google gets much of their data from Tele Atlas (now TomTom):
www.teleatlas.com. The other big player in geo data is NavTeq: www.navteq.com.
I think there are some crowd-sourced public geo databases as well.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
[WordPress THEME] Semantic UI for WordPress - njordon
This project incorporates Semantic UI into a starter (aka developer) theme for WordPress. This project also includes some useful techniques for creating fast, responsive, and easy-to-maintain themes for WordPress. Please keep in mind this theme is meant to be developed for your specific application; and is not meant to be used "as-is."
======
njordon
Demo: [http://semantic-wordpress.gopagoda.io/](http://semantic-
wordpress.gopagoda.io/)
Download: [https://github.com/ProjectCleverWeb/Semantic-UI-
WordPress](https://github.com/ProjectCleverWeb/Semantic-UI-WordPress)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Testing the Windows Subsystem for Linux - jackhammons
http://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/wsl/2017/04/11/testing-the-windows-subsystem-for-linux/
======
ape4
I still have a hard time with bash-backwards name: "Windows Subsystem for
Linux". Its a Linux subsystem for Windows.
~~~
dragonwriter
It's a subsystem of Windows (hence Windows Subsystem). And, among all Windows
Subsystems, it's the one for Linux, hence Windows Subsystem for Linux.
~~~
EpicEng
Yeah it's the 'for' in there that makes it wrong. It's not 'for' Linux, it's
for Windows. I know what it is and I _still_ think of it backwards every time
I read it.
~~~
WorldMaker
'for' is heavily overloaded as an English preposition. You are expecting a
connotation of "for [the benefit of] Linux" versus the connotation of "for
[the purpose of] Linux". Another example in English might be the relative
meanings of 'for' in "this gift is for you" versus "this gift is for good
behavior".
Other languages use multiple words or different cases for some of these
situations. English leaves it ambiguous.
~~~
EpicEng
The fact that there are so many of us discussing it implies that it is a
failure of a name. After all, what are words for if not communicating? We can
debate semantics all day, but in the end, it's obvious that many people find
the phrasing to be confusing.
------
pixelbeat__
The GNU coreutils test suite would be interesting to run as it tests most
syscalls in various edge cases.
Some details at [http://www.pixelbeat.org/docs/coreutils-
testing.html](http://www.pixelbeat.org/docs/coreutils-testing.html)
------
Analemma_
Using the unit tests of _other_ Linux software to be your own compatibility
test is delightful. It almost feels a little subversive.
~~~
rl3
> _In these cases, the WSL team covers test gaps by writing our own unit
> tests. At time of writing the team has written over 150,000 lines of unit
> test code for systems calls and virtual files ( /proc, /sys)._
I wonder why they went that route instead of contributing to LTP directly?
While there's probably some edge cases specific to WSL, surely much of their
increased unit test coverage would be applicable beyond WSL.
~~~
jackhammons
We maintain a fork of LTP internally. Eventually we hope to contribute our
changes back but unfortunately open sourcing isn't free and we have bigger
fish to fry[1].
[1] [https://wpdev.uservoice.com/forums/266908-command-prompt-
con...](https://wpdev.uservoice.com/forums/266908-command-prompt-console-bash-
on-ubuntu-on-windo)
~~~
rl3
That's understandable. Thanks for the reply.
Out of curiosity, is progress on WSL bound by any blocking issues in
particular, or could your team benefit from more resources being assigned to
the project?
Maybe I'm naïve, but I tend to view WSL as a perfect way to win over a ton of
developers who are becoming disillusioned with macOS, but are hesitant to run
bare metal Linux due to the headaches involved (insofar that macOS and Windows
"just work").
------
codebook
I gave up WSL after experiencing significant performance drop on GHC,
Stackage. It was less than 1/10th of native for compiling Haskell code.
~~~
ulber
Here's the issue on GitHub if you'd like to track it:
[https://github.com/Microsoft/BashOnWindows/issues/1671](https://github.com/Microsoft/BashOnWindows/issues/1671)
benhills describes the cause:
_For some context, I 've looked at what causes this slowdown. For some reason
stack has mapped an mind-bogglingly huge region of memory (I'm talking dozens
of terabytes). When we fork we walk the entire address range to set up the new
process's state. We have a design that should vastly speed this up, but we're
approaching "pencils down" date for Creators Update._
~~~
codebook
Thanks for the info!. I will try again.
------
nrki
Recently tried to use WSL to do some pair-coding tests in an interview, with
screen & tmux.
The damned terminal kept making characters disappear! I actually thought my
interviewer was inadvertently deleting characters, or maybe trolling me.
I had to switch to using an actual Linux system.
MS have a ways to go before getting this right. I daresay I'll be on OSX by
the time that happens though.
~~~
adolfojp
Did you try using WSL with the creator's update? The fixes were extensive.
~~~
deadbunny
You mean the update that hasn't even finished rolling out globally?
~~~
Omnius
[https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-
download/windows10](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-
download/windows10) Click update now. This tool will let you install it
without waiting inline (assuming you don't have the option from the built in
windows 10 update tool)
[https://www.cnet.com/how-to/windows-10-creators-update-
downl...](https://www.cnet.com/how-to/windows-10-creators-update-download-
install/) (Warning annoying video plays with sound)
------
Clownshoesms
Is there telemetry built into this too? I'd worry about ssh logins being
logged for diagnostic and privacy journey purposes.
~~~
LinuxFreedom
You will see ads on your command prompt from time to time and the bash
completion will contain "sensible recommendations" based on your general
behavior, psychological state and political orientation.
Now that everything was published they also plan to pre-install the diverse
arsenal of hacking tools on every machine, as there is no reason now anymore
to hide that stuff - what will make the fight for freedom much easier for
everyone involved!
To support your patriotism there will now be a personal statement of all past
MS CEOs showing up on startup and the national anthem playing to support your
emotions.
Also from time to time a screensaver will show the sentence "Everybody adores
you, because you belong to a global hacker elite using the Windows operating
system in 2017! Ignore that laughter around you!"
~~~
UweSchmidt
Last part of your post is a bit wild, but you got me at the start.
------
youdontknowtho
I think that the "pico process" \+ kernel driver model that they are using
could be leveraged to build a new operating system on the windows kernel. That
would give you a base for a new OS that can reuse the Windows Device Driver
infrastructure.
------
synle
Although I love their work, unfortunately the terminal (window cmd bash) is
horrible. Copy and Paste is a pain, doing panel splits are impossible unless
you use tools like tmux.
I would love to see terminator or a more advanced terminal.
~~~
gillette
I've been using ConEmu set up to auto launch Bash. Working pretty well apart
from MS's ass-backwards resolv.conf population which overrides every Ubuntu
mechanism for creating the file... so I have to run a script to get my VPN's
DNS to work :)
------
Zyst
Is anyone here using this for *Nix traditional tools?
Mostly curious about Vim/Tmux, and having serve operations spit out the server
into the actual Windows browser?
I did read something about the creator update adding 24 color support.
~~~
repsilat
I use vim in it when I code on my home computer, haven't had any problems. I
haven't tried tmux, but I think that'd be fine too.
I'm less sure about things that require a GUI, and last time I tried postgres
it didn't work. That was a while ago, though, and they might have made
progress since. TFA says the postgres tests are passing.
~~~
quanticle
Things that require a GUI require you to have a separate X server running.
WSL, as far as I know, does not support running X11. However, if you do have a
Windows native X11 server running (like xming, for example) things like emacs
and gvim seem to work. I haven't tried anything more intensive than those,
though.
~~~
daenney
> Things that require a GUI require you to have a separate X server running.
> WSL, as far as I know, does not support running X11.
They mention X/GUI support in the "What's new in Bash/WSL" article[1].
> Note: Some of you may also have been following along with some intrepid
> explorations into running X/GUI apps and desktops on WSL. While we don’t
> explicitly support X/GUI apps/desktops on WSL, we don’t do anything to
> block/prevent them from running. So if you manage to get your favorite
> editor, desktop, browser, etc. running, GREAT but know that we are still
> focusing all our efforts on delivering a really solid command-line
> experience, running all the command-line developer tools you need.
[1]:
[https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/commandline/2017/04/11/wind...](https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/commandline/2017/04/11/windows-10-creators-
update-whats-new-in-bashwsl-windows-console/)
------
skynode
Can we get the new, improved subsystem without having to go through the Win10
Creator's Update?
~~~
miguelrochefort
Why not go through Windows 10 Creator's Update?
~~~
skynode
Apart from the new .NET Framework 4.7 and a few minor others, a bunch of
features (e.g. Paint 3D) are not necessarily targeted towards advanced users.
It would make sense to fragment some key modules we use as devs and make those
available piecemeal without bundling features we'll probably never use with
great features like WSL and the new Windows console. Essentially MS could give
options just like it gives options about what to install on VS 2017 (for
advanced users of course, regular users can have the default CU install mode).
------
2muchcoffeeman
Does anyone use this for work? Could I replace Ubuntu with Windows now?
~~~
ac29
That's a bit loaded, but I'll attempt to answer seriously:
Can you replace Ubuntu? Maybe, if you are OK with 14.04 LTS level support.
Certain simple things straight up don't work -- you can't send a ping without
an admin level windows shell (sudo wont do it either). You also won't
magically get driver support for hardware that works in Linux, but not Windows
(if you think this isn't a thing, try plugging in a random USB-to-something
adapter without finding obscure, broken, or nonexistant drivers on Windows).
If you just need access to some tools that only run on Linux, I've found WSL
invaluable, so long as those tools are available on Ubuntu 14.04.
Can you replace Linux in general? Nope - I'm a 90+% Linux user for work and
home, and neither Debian, Ubuntu, or its derivatives work for me, with the
notable exception of some server and embedded applications. If you want a wide
variety of up-to-date software, there is no replacement for something like
Arch.
~~~
danieldk
_Can you replace Ubuntu? Maybe, if you are OK with 14.04 LTS level support._
The latest Creators update uses 16.04 LTS.
_you can 't send a ping without an admin level windows shell_
The latest Creators update supports ping as a non-admin.
\---
I would say that for most usages it is a good replacement for vanilla Ubuntu.
Microsoft is quickly closing the gaps in support. Most stuff simply works
(albeit disk filesystem I/O is still a bit slow). For instance, I used it to
compile packages for Ubuntu 16.04 and upload it to a PPA without much trouble.
At the time the only change I had to make was using fakeroot-tcp rather than
regular fakeroot. But maybe that is fixed now.
It is especially useful if you like to work in a Unix, but also need Microsoft
Office, Adobe Creative Suite, or other applications that are not available on
Linux.
~~~
ac29
> The latest Creators update uses 16.04 LTS.
I did know that, but the update only came out today AFAIK, and is being slow-
rolled out (I checked all my Windows machines today, none updated). People
with enterprise/business versions of Windows with "Defer feature upgrades" aka
"Current branch for Business" enabled also wont get it for a while. I know how
to force the update, but forcing Windows updates is something I've learned
better than to do.
As an aside, I would highly reccomend WSL users check out wsltty[0]. Gives a
better terminal than Windows' built-in 'cmd', with options to open other
shells like fish/zsh/etc in arbitrary directories.
[0][https://github.com/mintty/wsltty](https://github.com/mintty/wsltty)
------
radarsat1
I like the idea of the Linux Test Project. Neat.
I'm curious, does the WSL actually use any parts of Linux under the hood, or
is it just an emulation of the user space, like Cygwin?
~~~
abrowne
It uses a Linux-compatible kernel interface with no Linux kernel code plus
Ubuntu's userland. I guess that's why they sometimes call it Bash on Windows.
I'm surprised no one's proposed "Windows Subsystem for GNU".
~~~
azinman2
Because the main bit is translating Linux syscalls to windows. Which isn't
gnu.
~~~
cryptarch
Isn't the main use of WSL "first-class GNU tools for Windows"?
I can't really imagine people running anything other than development tools on
WSL, and most of those come from the GNU project.
------
cryptarch
I'd just like to interject for moment. What you're refering to as WSL, is in
fact, GNU/NT, or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU plus NT. NT is not
an operating system unto itself, but rather a non-free component of a fully
functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and
vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX.
Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day,
without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, a version of GNU
which is widely used today is often called WSL, and many of its users are not
aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project.
There really is an NT, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of
the system they use. NT is the kernel: the program in the system that
allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run. The
kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it
can only function in the context of a complete operating system. WSL is
normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system
is basically GNU with NT added, or GNU/NT. Windows 10, the so-called NT
distribution, is really a distribution of GNU/NT!
(Sorry for the copypasta, I couldn't resist.)
~~~
kelnos
The interesting bit of WSL (what the article talks about) is a Linux syscall
translation/emulation layer, as well as ELF64 binary support (not specific to
Linux, but not specific to GNU either). You can certainly install the Linux
versions/ports of GNU tools and run them under WSL, and that's what the stock
setup looks like, but an important component of WSL is about emulating a Linux
(the kernel) environment.
If MS had actually ported the GNU base system to NT, then you could reasonably
call it GNU/NT. They have not done that.
~~~
cryptarch
I think it is more significant from a user's perspective that they get the GNU
tools to run on their NT machine with MS support.
What's the use of Linux syscall -> NT syscall translation if not compatibility
with developer tools, most of which are GNU software?
~~~
skrause
So you were actually serious? I thought your first post was great satire.
Poe's law strikes again...
~~~
cryptarch
I think the syscall translation part is an irrelevant hack, seems silly to act
like that is what makes the project more useful because it does not guarantee
performance, compatibility or stability.
~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
The syscall translation makes it more useful than the previous UNIX subsystem,
because it means it can near-perfectly emulate a popular POSIX-like system
(Linux), and thus be compatible with most of its software, rather than being
its own eccentric platform that existing POSIX software must first be ported
to.
~~~
cryptarch
So is it near-perfect yet?
I don't see the value if it's not more stable than "excentric" platforms like
Cygwin and MSYS, but I guess I wouldn't use it either way because there's no
way I'm installing Windows 10 on my hardware.
------
partycoder
As a Linux user, MS Windows Subsystem for Linux is as interesting as Microsoft
Bob.
Microsoft cannot say it loves Linux until they launch their flagship products
such as MS Office and MS Visual Studio on Linux. Until then, it's all fugazzi.
MS SQL Server on Linux was good progress.
------
seiferteric
Wake me when MS offers Linux subsystem for Windows (basically commercial
WINE). From what I have read, MS is not actually that interested in improving
the Windows kernel anymore unless needed or profitable. Why don't they give up
and run windows user space on Linux (or BSD) :)
~~~
meddlepal
Why would they do that? NT is a very good kernel design.
~~~
JdeBP
And, moreover, the ability to run multiple operating system "personalities" on
top of it like this was part of that design pretty much from the start.
~~~
Vogtinator
Linux had that as well until it was castrated a while ago. It was called
"exec_domains".
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Vim Keybindings for MS Word - clircle
https://github.com/rcmdnk/vim_ahk
======
quyleanh
Cool... i just wander that does AHK supports detect when clicking to a textbox
of any Windows apps? My wish is I want to use terminal bindkey when typing in
textbox. For example, Ctrl + E = End, Ctrl + A A = Home...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Where is the who is hiring thread for March 2020? - xmpir
Cannot find it...
======
mtmail
First business day of the month, 9am US west coast timezone. In about 5 hours
from now.
~~~
xmpir
Thank you - did not know that. Will adjust my Slack reminder then.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
What's faster - a supercomputer or EC2? - timf
http://ianfoster.typepad.com/blog/2009/08/whats-fastera-supercomputer-or-ec2.html
======
jacquesm
What's faster, a sportscar or a truck ? It depends on what you are trying to
move.
A load of bricks will be moved faster by truck, even though in an absolute
sense the sportscar is faster...
If you are doing vector processing and have a hard-to-parallelize problem then
a supercomputer is probably the only way to go.
Otherwise EC2 will possibly be faster (it still depends on lots of subtle
factors, such as how compute intensive vs communications intensive your
application is).
The only way to know for sure is to do a limited benchmark on the core of your
problem in order to figure out which architecture works best.
~~~
kschults
Reminds me of the joke about the highest bandwidth available being a truckload
of drives barreling down the highway. While true, not necessarily useful.
~~~
kirubakaran
Certainly useful when you don't care about latency.
<http://aws.amazon.com/importexport/>
------
ajross
It's a reasonably informative article. But...
Does a 25 second process on a 32 node cluster _really_ count as a
"supercomputer" task? By definition, you can run that on your desktop in 15
minutes. If that's really your task, and these are your numbers, and latency-
to-answer is your only metric (as opposed to other stuff, like "cost" that
people in the real world worry about) then sure: EC2 makes sense. But these
look like some terribly cooked numbers to me. I mean, how much time are you
really going to spend optimizing something you can run while you trot to
Starbucks for coffee?
I'd be curious what the answers (including cost) are when you scale the
problem to days of runtime on hundreds of nodes. I rather suspect the answers
would be strongly tilted in favor of the institutional supercomputer
facilities, who after all have made a "business" out of optimizing this
process. EC2 has other goals.
~~~
scott_s
The NAS parallel benchmark suite are used to represent tasks that appear often
in scientific computing. They were designed so that running them on a
computing platform would tell us how amenable that platform is for scientific
computing.
~~~
ajross
Yes, but it's a benchmark of the hardware environment. This is more than
anything else a test of resource allocation latency. The poster posits that
EC2 can get the boxes working faster and get you your answers sooner.
But the result here is that the benchmark will complete with "high
probability" within about 6.5 minutes on EC2 for a task that _only takes 15
minutes to run on your desktop CPU_. That model is _wildly_ overestimating the
impact of latency on the computation cost.
------
asciilifeform
_"If you were plowing a field, which would you rather use?... Two strong oxen
or 1024 chickens?"_
\- Seymour Cray (<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Seymour_Cray>)
~~~
wmf
<rant>These Seymour Cray quotes have been obsoleted by changes in technology,
and trotting them out yet again just displays ignorance of those
changes.</rant>
There are no "strong oxen" in today's world; both supercomputers and EC2 are
clusters using more or less the same processors.
~~~
asciilifeform
> There are no "strong oxen" in today's world
Some problems _demand_ shared-memory architectures. The fact that those who
work on such problems lack the funding to support a large market in shared-
memory machines does not negate the problems' existence.
~~~
wmf
I assume that Cray was talking about a uniprocessor, not SMP. Besides, it's
irrelevant to this article which was comparing NCSA's shared-nothing cluster
against EC2's shared-nothing cluster.
~~~
asciilifeform
> it's irrelevant to this article which was comparing NCSA's shared-nothing
> cluster...
I merely object to the modern redefinition of the word "supercomputer" to mean
a warehouse full of cheap PCs.
There once were _actual_ supercomputers.
------
keefe
I question the premise of this question and analysis! There is an enormous
breadth of work done on clusters vs supercomputers already. It turns out that
sufficiently parallelizable (
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embarrassingly_parallel> ) tasks can be
accomplished much more efficiently on clusters. They've been en vogue in
academia for years, I remember playing with the cluster at ND in 2002. Just
wow.
------
sophacles
And... if you don't need lots of communication between nodes, I'd guess EC2
probably is the best way to go in terms of $/computation too.
~~~
tyvkiuiyi
Depends on utilisation. If you own a cluster and are able to keep it busy 24x7
then it pays off pretty quickly. Amazon have to have enough spare idle
capacity to handle unexpected customer loads and make a profit - you are
paying for this.
~~~
sophacles
Good point. I wonder at what % utilization a cluster beats EC2 in terms of
$/computation. Actually I'm sure there are all sorts of variables, and it
becomes an optimization problem, but I think it would be cool to see an
analysis of this in terms of $, computation power (time/jobsize or something),
etc.
~~~
tyvkiuiyi
Custer scheduling is a huge area. I used to work on MPI clusters and it is an
art to balance CPU, Bandwidth, propagation time to pick the optimum number of
processors for a particular algorithm.
Especially on commodity ethernet based MPI, it doesn't do broadcast so
shipping a Gb common dataset to 64nodes can take a lot longer than actualy
doing the calculation.
~~~
sophacles
Strange -- I always just sort of assumed that since they are making big
clusters, they could spend the extra $$ for a good multicast switch, and that
MPI did ip multicast. (a quick googling shows me to be wrong...).
~~~
jacquesm
I'm pretty sure a lot of people would donate for a statue in your likeness if
you solved that.
------
maurycy
What's better? Rock, paper or scissors? (I can't resist)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Internet Explorer 10 Release Preview - dherken
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/internet-explorer/downloads/ie-10/worldwide-languages
======
Animus7
I just realized this:
Companies totally unaffiliated with Windows manage to produce browsers that
have bleeding-edge feature parity all the way from XP through 8 (not to
mention two other major OSes).
But when the company that fucking makes Windows manages to make their (less
functional) browser work with a single version of a single OS they themselves
produce and support, it's a news item.
~~~
melling
The situation is much better than it used to be. However, consider that for
many web developers, a quick transition from IE9 to IE10 will be a big
improvement. Microsoft's sheer size and impact makes it news.
------
tzaman
If there was a time for Microsoft to make amends for all the bullshit we, web
developers had to put up with in the past 10 years or so, it is now. Hopefully
they'll catch up with Firefox and Chrome.
~~~
meaty
Versus the bullshit we have to put up from the other vendors who throw out new
features which everyone else has to pick up via peer pressure even though they
are poorly designed?
~~~
tomelders
If you're using advanced features because of peer-pressure, then more fool
you.
If you're using advanced features because you've found a use for them, but
you're not using SASS and mixins (or similar), then again, more fool you
The other vendors are actually churning out progress and the burden or
integrating that progress into your work is entirely optional. Microsoft can't
even implement years old specs, and the burden associated with their inability
to create even a bog basic browser is not optional.
~~~
meaty
Which says the whole thing is a broken mess...
~~~
tomelders
The specs or the new features?
------
melling
What makes this potentially very interesting is that Microsoft is suppose to
push out IE10 to most Win7 users after it's released. Within 12 months IE10
could be the most used IE browser. Hopefully, approaching 20% market share.
------
shrikant
Does anyone have any thoughts on the browser itself?
I'm using it right now and first impressions are that it's (subjective..)
ridiculously fast, compared to IE9.
Gmail, Google Calendar and Reader are really snappy, and more importantly,
(imho) the biggest UX annoyance has been dealt with: a new tab opens up and is
ready for use instantly.
~~~
tomelders
It's yesterdays browser, tomorrow.
That may sound trite, because it is. It's also true.
It's IE9 with IE10's substandard HTML, JS and CSS stuff shoehorned in. That
doesn't even make for a better IE9, it makes for a completely different beast
of a browser.
Realistically, I'm only ever going to use it to browser test, so for me and
possibly everyone else here on HN, the most important feature is going to be
the developer tools. And in this version of IE What's not to like?
Everything. That's what. All it's good for is checking the console, but even
then it's like having your debugging info spoken to you by a special needs kid
with a lisp. Objects are still just the ever useless [object Object]. Minor
javascript errors are enough to send it into a tailspin, followed up by an
inevitable crash. I still don't understand why the console displays line
numbers as links when clicking them does nothing. Profiler and Network, yeah,
they do their job ok-ish, but they do the bare minimum.
Also, I wonder: when they had the meeting at Microsoft to decide what to call
the "disable cache" option, which bight spark suggested "Always refresh from
server" would be the best label to properly convey the feature. Probably the
same bright spark who decided to make it do absolutely nothing so you still
have to empty the cache every fucking time anyway.
My rating: 0/10. As far as I can tell, there's not one single aspect of it
that's in any way better than anything the competition offers. Zero "things"
that could earn it even a solitary point.
I'm sick to the back teeth of IE and it's bullshit. Three sarcastic cheers for
yet another turd we all have to work late to support.
~~~
ZoFreX
Has the HTML/CSS inspector been updated at all?
~~~
preavy
In Chrome I'm used to being able to right-click on part of the page and go
straight into Inspect Element. IE 10 still doesn't have that. As far as I can
see, there's no autocomplete in the console.
I would also really miss one or two extensions, and bookmark sync across
machines. So I don't think IE 10 is a contender for my main browser. Very
taken with the text rendering though.
------
JuDue
Hearing mixed messages about this.
Does IE10 allow itself to software update?
If we could just have a proper implementation of that, it might mean avoiding
a rerun of IE6 lingering for several years?
------
Toshio
Fascinating. This is another way for them to send a clear message to the
hundreds of millions of xp users out there who looked at 7 and rejected it:
"We don't care about you, use the latest Chrome if you must".
And then they keep wondering why ie's market share is dropping like a rock.
~~~
meaty
Considering the amount of people who whinge incessantly about the latest and
greatest browser not being used, why would they then whinge that the latest
operating system isn't?
So much double-think.
~~~
mmcnickle
At the risk of engaging someone who clearly has an axe to grind, the barrier
to upgrading a browser is hardly comparable to upgrading an operating system.
~~~
gmac
For a decent-sized constituency, the barrier is exactly the same: they haven't
got admin rights, and the IT department installed/mandates the version they
have.
And for another too: the large proportion of people who have no idea what
either an OS or a browser is.
It's a mistake to imagine that everyone (and perhaps even a majority) either
understands or has control of their computing.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Way I Work: Matt Mullenweg - stevenjames
http://www.inc.com/magazine/20090601/the-way-i-work-matt-mullenweg.html
======
johnnybgoode
Some aspects of the bubble lifestyle irritate me, but this was an interesting
read.
_In my home office, I have two large, 30-inch computer monitors -- a Mac and
a PC. They share the same mouse and keyboard, so I can type or copy and paste
between them. I'll typically do Web stuff on the Mac and e-mail and chat stuff
on the PC._
What does this actually mean? A Mac with a virtualized Windows instance on one
of the monitors?
_I do my best stuff midmorning and superlate at night, from 1 to 5 in the
morning. Some people don't need sleep. I actually do need sleep. I just sleep
all the time. I'll catch naps in the afternoon, or I'll take a 20-minute
snooze in the office -- just all the time. Our business is 24 hours. Our guys
in Europe come online at midnight. Sometimes, I will go out at night, come
home from the bar at 2 or 3 a.m., and then go to work._
This has to take a toll, right?
~~~
simonw
It probably means he's using <http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/> \- I've used
it for similar things (typing on a Mac laptop, with a second monitor hooked up
to a Linux desktop) and it's a brilliant solution.
~~~
johnnybgoode
Ah, thank you.
~~~
wizard_2
I find it chokes up on some types of clipboard objects between the pc and mac
and then I have to restart the service to get it to behave again. Plain text
it usually does alright, but text from the web (unicode maybe?) causes the
copy/paste to break
~~~
dugmartin
I've found it chokes on unicode - converting it down to Latin 1 (ISO 8859-1).
I still love it though - been using it for several years.
------
chanux
Nice tool. Nice reason.
"I decided to do it because I was worried about my mom. She hadn't started a
blog yet, but I had this crazy fear that when she did, she'd be bombarded by
spam for Viagra and think that had something to do with what I did all day."
Matt's reason for creating Akismet.
And I like the way he ends up.
"My mom started a blog a couple of weeks ago. Six years into this, and we
finally made it easy enough for my mom to use."
Increase usability. A goal any product should try to gain.
------
bonsaitree
I'd recognize those Shindo Latour loudspeakers anywhere. That's a serious
audiophile system costing more than a typical U.S. automobile.
~~~
chaosmachine
And yet, he's wearing headphones.
~~~
photomatt
They asked me to wear headphones for the shoot because it was in an original
version of the story, I very rarely use those headphones anymore -- they're
more from my in-office days.
------
Hexstream
This resonates strongly with me:
"People write a lot of comments on my blog, and I actually read and manually
approve every comment before it gets posted. I think the broken-windows theory
-- that a broken window or graffiti in a neighborhood begets more of the same
-- applies online. One bad comment engenders 10 more. I'll happily approve a
comment from someone who completely disagrees with everything I believe in,
but if I get a positive comment with a curse word in it, I'll edit it out. My
blog is like my living room. If someone was acting out in my house, I'd ask
that person to leave."
------
bemmu
I was wowed by "we track 500 to 600 statistics".
~~~
ovi256
Stat geek ? Becoming one too ! I'll track yours if you'll track mine.
------
c00p3r
Yeah. It is time to save on all those offices, leased lines, and owning a
hardware. Laptop, 3G, code.google.com and aws.amazon.com or some self-managed
dedicated server. That is already established way to work in US. Now it is
time to expand to so-called third world.
~~~
piranha
You're late. It's expanded already. :P
~~~
c00p3r
It is only true for 3G. ^_^
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Making quick cash (10-20 hours tops) as a developer - akras14
Long shot, but can someone think of place, ways to make some cash on a side as a developer? I'd be happy to work for bellow market rate in exchange for small scope and quick payout.
======
auslegung
ITPro.TV is starting a software branch of their company and are in need of
subject matter experts to do 10-30 minute videos on a variety of subjects.
[https://itpro.tv/course-library/](https://itpro.tv/course-library/)
~~~
akras14
Cool thanks, I'll check it out!
------
olegkikin
Upwork?
TopTal if you're good enough to jump through their hoops.
~~~
akras14
Toptal has short gigs? I thought it was all full time stuff
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
In-House Languages - jowdones
Godwin's law: "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 100%".<p>Godwin's law for programmers: "As software development grows longer, the probability of emergence of an improvised in-house scripted language (as bad as Nazis or Hitler) approaches 100%".
======
scarface74
I worked for a company around 2009 where the founder wrote his own bespoke VB
like programming environment - IDE, PC emulator, bytecode VM, compiler for
ruggedized Windows CE devices used for field services.
The company was founded around 1996. I assume he wrote it because there was no
easy way to develop for Win CE back then except for C++/MFC. It did allow the
company to hire a lot of cheap developers from well known but not well
respected private colleges.
The same code could also be used for the back end supporting services, but he
did at least add support for COM interop on the server so we could use any
language to actually do the heavy lifting.
They pushed him out around 2011 and I was the only old guy that knew anything
about C++/MFC and assembly to maintain it until the company folded.
------
norswap
If you're interesting on why homegrown languages can be interesting, I'd
recommend "The Rise & Fall of Software Recipes" (1). The book is more of a
softeng memoir than an argument piece, but it has some very interesting
examples of home-grown languages (& dev environments).
(1) [https://www.dariusblasband.com/](https://www.dariusblasband.com/)
------
mtmail
I present you an in-house language Yahoo used around year 2000:
[https://gist.github.com/simonwistow/3919291](https://gist.github.com/simonwistow/3919291)
Working with it got hard after the developer who maintained it quit.
~~~
nieve
That is the single worst looking syntax I have ever seen. How did they manage
to do any significant amount of development instead of just bug hunting? IDE
support?
~~~
mtmail
Nothing like that. Also no functions or blocks. Brackets worked different than
listed in the documentation sometimes. Lots of whitespace and escaping issues.
Unhelpful error messages. We had to invent a mini-template system to stitch
together the final big file (and be able to add comments for us without then
appearing in the final document). Forgetting to close an if statement meant
going through thousands of lines of non-intended code.
It was developed around 1996 I think. Replaced with PHP when Yahoo hired
Rasmus Lerdorf.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
EPA Rule to Ban Car Modification - ptaipale
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/48/4894.asp
======
Vexs
This seems kinda pointless. Engine-modified cars represent a tiny, tiny
portion of the total population, and probably contribute a rounding error to
the pollution. Sure, go after pickups that "roll coal", but going after people
that want to install a cold-air intake or larger exhaust is just odd.
~~~
blacksmith_tb
I agree, but the article claims aftermarket parts are "$36 billion dollar a
year industry" which seems like more than a rounding error... It does strike
me a tricky issue to address, ensuring air quality is very important, but
having some ability to fix and modify your own vehicle seems worth protecting.
~~~
jandrese
That number almost certainly includes off-brand replacement parts that don't
substantially change the performance of the vehicle. Stuff like third party
mufflers to replace the OEM muffler when it rusts out.
On older cars your options for repair parts are often either the junkyard or
aftermarket companies like Dorman.
~~~
shaftway
> "Anyone modifying a certified motor vehicle or motor vehicle engine for any
> reason is subject to the tampering and defeat device prohibitions of this
> section and 42 USC 7522(a)(3)."
IANAL, but it reads to me like you wouldn't be able to do that on one of these
cars. The manufacturer could stop offering the muffler and you wouldn't be
able to use a third party replacement whether it substantially changes the
performance of the vehicle or not.
------
cmdrfred
"Certified motor vehicles and motor vehicle engines and their emission control
devices must remain in their certified configuration even if they are used
solely for competition or if they become nonroad vehicles or engines,"
Am I reading this right? Have a part go bad? You have to buy the OEM, not the
aftermarket that is half the cost. If I'm correct, this is nothing but a money
grab for the automakers.
~~~
ptaipale
It's a money grab for suppliers of original parts, but it is also a control
point and power grab for many authorities.
A specific point that interests me is modification of engine control software.
This can actually both improve performance _and_ decrease pollution _at the
same time_ , and it would be prohibited in the USA.
(I'm not in the USA, but I am still concerned by this because the same things
tend to float across the Atlantic.)
------
gumby
Relax: this doesn't try to ban aftermarket _repairs_ with non-OEM parts
(presumably they would qualify as certified configuration if the replacement
had similar performance).
Fail to relax: this does prohibit _changes_ which, as Vexs has pointed out,
have to be a source of _de minimus_ amounts of pollution at worst. I'm
especially intrigued by the "off road" provisions since you have until now
been able to make off road mods that render the car not street worthy (e.g.
remove the safety belts or brake lights or whatever).
And what will mfrs put under the certification umbrella? Surely you can
disconnect the antenna that reports performance and use information to the
manufacturer...?
------
avelis
I am all for being green and taking steps to better the environment. However,
if the goal is to deter a behavior, wouldn't this be better accomplished by
passing a carbon tax?
Also, does this only apply to ICE aftermarket parts? Would supposedly EV parts
not apply?
~~~
7952
I would guess this is to do with health impacts of toxic emissions rather than
co2 in particular.
~~~
ptaipale
But if I read it right, it also applies to all modifications, even if they
have no impact on any emissions, toxic or not, or even if the modifications
reduces those emissions.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
At this time you should not upgrade a production desktop from 14.04 to 16.04 - iheredia
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/XenialXerus/ReleaseNotes#Upgrade
======
sciurus
Why is this on Hacker news? Ubuntu 16.04 won't be released for another 16
days. Of course you shouldn't upgrade _anything_ production to it!
[https://wiki.ubuntu.com/XenialXerus/ReleaseSchedule](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/XenialXerus/ReleaseSchedule)
~~~
dajohnson89
I find the language "production desktop" a little interesting, as opposed to
"production server". Is a production desktop the same thing as my dev box,
which I use to develop and maintain production software?
~~~
toomuchtodo
Yes, and is just as critical as a server. When the server is down, you're
losing money. When a dev is down, your company (or you) are losing $X/hr,
based on your billable rate or fully loaded costs.
------
tacoman
The LTS to LTS upgrade path usually isn't enabled until a point release
anyway. For example, the the 12.04 to 14.04 upgrade wasn't enabled in the
software update application until 14.04.1 was released a month or two after
the initial 14.04 release.
------
voltagex_
Whole lot of noise in that bug report - they finally managed to narrow it down
and fix the issue:
[https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/dbus/+bug/1555237/...](https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/dbus/+bug/1555237/comments/28)
~~~
makomk
Yay, more systemd-related breakage in a core system component. (udev is
developed as part of systemd now and the developers don't particularly care
what happens when you run it on anything else. It's also the standard way of
creating device nodes on Linux and the only one the kernel developers are
willing to support.)
~~~
digi_owl
Largely thanks to the people involved developed both udev and the kernel
interfaces in lock step.
And who are those people? GregKH and Sievers. I really do wonder why Torvalds
still trust GregKH with anything kernel related.
[http://www.landley.net/notes-2015.html#05-07-2015](http://www.landley.net/notes-2015.html#05-07-2015)
------
ams6110
What is a "production desktop" ? I've never heard that term in over 20 years
of IT work.
~~~
chatmasta
I agree it seems a little silly, but to me any system can qualify as
"production" if you are responsible for maintaining it within some expectation
of reliability. So for example a "production server" is a server that your
customers expect to be reliable and stable. A "production desktop" could exist
within an IT environment, for example at a company that provides Ubuntu
workstations to its employees. If the sysadmin upgrades machines to 16.04,
then they break, employees will be pissed.
------
JdeBP
Interestingly, there's a still open upgrade bug from Debian 7 (with systemd)
to Debian 8 which hangs the upgrade process, that similarly involves udev
update.
* [https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=774153](https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=774153)
* [https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=737825](https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=737825)
------
stormbrew
More worrying than this to me is that they're removing the fglrx driver. I'd
love to use the open source drivers, but the radeon and amdgpu drivers do not
seem to be getting equal amounts of love and amdgpu only applies to _really_
new video cards.
~~~
talideon
My understanding is that it's not that they want to as such, but that their
hand has been forced on the issue, especially given that this is an LTS
release, and they've been supporting fglrx a lot longer than many other
distros. The fglrx driver is so horribly ancient that there's really no
sensible way of supporting it.
Apparently, there'll be a more suitable driver coming out of AMD some time
this summer.
~~~
chippy
Would it be correct in saying that flgrx is still available, but it's not in
the base distribution, and that it's been replaced in the distro by another
package?
In other words is it up to the user to install the desired graphics driver
that they want? For example, the ones from AMD/ATIs site?
~~~
talideon
Xorg 1.18, which is what 16.04 is shipping with, doesn't support fglrx, which
is why Canonical can't continue to support it.
~~~
merb
And that is just too bad since the radeon driver couldn't detect the Ratio of
my monitor with a VGA -> DVI adapter (yes the monitor is ancient 720p only)
------
thesorrow
I tried the 16.04 cloud image today on kvm. I'm stuck at btrfs loading...
Release date is in less than a month I expected the os to boot at least !
Definetely not production ready...
------
jlappi
Ran into this myself. Lack of ability to access the tty's greatly reduced my
ability to even debug the situation further. I just moved to CentOS.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Protochess.com – Online multiplayer chess with custom pieces/boards - raytran
https://github.com/raytran/protochess
======
dmje
Bug: I'm unable to castle...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Schleuder: A GPG-enabled mailinglist with remailing-capabilities - cvwright
https://schleuder.nadir.org/
======
dijit
Kinda cool but it depends on you trusting the central mailer since it does
decryption and reencryption.
I suppose if you know about that then it is ok.
The benefit of this approach over the alternative (making people encrypt and
sign with a lot of keys) is that once received, the content does not give away
the key names of the other mailing list members.
~~~
dsacco
_> once received, the content does not give away the key names of the other
mailing list members_
This doesn't present a problem, because you can construct anonymous group
signature schemes.
~~~
cvwright
> because you can construct anonymous group signature schemes
Heh. In practice this is true, but only for sufficiently advanced values of
"you". I certainly wouldn't feel comfortable attempting such a thing without
consulting a real cryptographer.
~~~
dsacco
Absolutely agreed, I was speaking as a matter of theory :)
------
lgierth
I've been using schleuder through various mailing lists over the past years,
it's always been doing what it says on the tin :)
~~~
noloblo
is there a list I can subscribe to how to find a schleuder or gpg enabled list
?
------
kazinator
I'm interested in how non-subscribers are handled.
(And, by the way, applaud the Schleuder project's recognition and support for
that, since I believe that mailing lists should be easily usable by non-
subscribers. This modern widespread phenomenon of lists insisting on
subscription before you can post is deplorable, and raises the bar for people
to report issues to FOSS projects and such.)
The traditional plain text mailing list handles non-subscribers simply via two
mechanisms: the _Cc:_ header, and the use of "Reply-All" by participants when
they reply to the mailing list. So messages are going not just through the
mailing list robot but directly between people, and that keeps non-subscribers
in the loop for conversations that they started.
This direct reply mechanism can't work for the encrypted case, clearly. A
direct reply requires that we have the key for that party. So it must be that
the encrypted list manager goes out of its way to handle the non-subscribers.
The message must be relayed with a "Reply-to" header set to the list, and the
list must then remember that the conversation includes an outside party that
must stay in the loop somehow. The robot must also have the public key of the
non-subscriber.
So effectively, the non-subscriber must become an "effective subscriber" for
the conversation that they started. The robot remembers that person in a
membership-like list.
Or, perhaps a special header can be used as a cookie, storing the non-
subscriber's pubkey. If all the conversation participants relay this header
back to the robot reliably, it doesn't have to keep it anywhere. (And the
robot can also sign that pubkey so it doesn't have to blindly trust that the
members are relaying it correctly.)
------
kazinator
Should just be a patch for GNU Mailman.
~~~
mirabubu
schleuder is not a replacement for GNU Mailman, it does not contain all the
features of GNU Mailman, while adding certain other features (e.g. remailing)
that are not part of GNU Mailman.
~~~
kazinator
GNU Mailman most certainly does remailing; something that doesn't do remailing
can't be called a mailing list manager!
It not only re-sends a message to list subscribers, but manipulates the
headers and bodies. It can optionally add footers to bodies and alter Subject:
lines.
It just won't decrypt messages with its own GPG key and then re-encrypt them
for the recipients; it doesn't do "crypto remailing".
~~~
mirabubu
Please have a look at [https://schleuder.nadir.org/docs/#an-email-hub-for-
groups](https://schleuder.nadir.org/docs/#an-email-hub-for-groups) about the
context here of remailing.
So correctly it should have been called resending.
------
clishem
Alternative software that does the same: [https://fbb-git.github.io/gpg-
remailer/](https://fbb-git.github.io/gpg-remailer/)
~~~
fupd
Schleuder can do more than gpg-remailer, e.g. resending messages to non-
subscribers [https://schleuder.nadir.org/docs/#an-email-hub-for-
groups](https://schleuder.nadir.org/docs/#an-email-hub-for-groups) or actions
triggered by keywords [https://schleuder.nadir.org/docs/#special-
keywords](https://schleuder.nadir.org/docs/#special-keywords). It also has a
web-interface to manage lists: [https://0xacab.org/schleuder/schleuder-
web/](https://0xacab.org/schleuder/schleuder-web/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How many of you have sold your startup? - xSwag
Why? What was it like afterwards?<p>I've always been interested in wanting to know what it is like selling off a company you built, what do people do after they sell a startup? Work? Retire? New startup? Share experiences of what it was like and how it changed your life (for better or worse)
======
OafTobark
The following responses are base solely on my experience so please don't take
it as the norm as I have no other comparisons to go off of...
1\. Most people in the tech/startup scene will congratulate you. Most people
outside of the above will ask why you sold your company. The reason for asking
probably varies. I didn't expect that. It was weird at first to have many of
my non-tech/non-business friends ask that question, whether it was people I
was close to or random folks I haven't talked to in awhile. I suspect many are
just genuinely curious why anyone would ever sell their company (maybe its not
considered a norm).
2\. Right after the sale, there was a transition period with the parent
company and the team would go on to work for the new owners. That didn't quite
pan out for our founding team, myself included. I left after a few months.
From there, I went traveling for 6-7 months just to travel and enjoy life a
little bit. The grind during the startup consumed a large portion (read: all
of it) my life and I wanted to just relax for a little bit.
I thought traveling was the thing I wanted to do. And then it wasn't. Like a
kid excited about a new video game, the excitement wears off and eventually
you don't care. After 6-7 months, I didn't care for traveling anymore either.
Doing the startup had changed me (for better or for worse) and I wanted to
work on something else.
3\. I didn't know if I wanted to do another startup, a project, or whatevers.
I just knew I wanted to work on something else. This proved insanely
difficult. While we were grinding on our startup, coming up with new roadmaps
and new ideas were a cinch, there was always ways to expand on things. Going
back to scratch, with a world of knowledge I didn't have prior to the first
startup made things incredibly difficult. You start to dissect everything and
half the ideas I wouldn't have thought twice about in the past, I now wouldn't
want to do simply because I know a lot more and have a strong disinterest in
certain ideas, didn't want to deal with certain aspects of an idea, or just
simply didn't see a viable growth for such an idea.
It took quite awhile to even just come up with any idea (business or not) that
I wanted to solve for myself, if nothing else. There was a moment where
everything just came to a complete halt because I was in this weird limbo
stage where I was extremely picky about ideas or just had no interest in
anything. Following up on HN or any tech news was more entertaining than
helpful if anything. Ultimately it just took a lot of time away from all this
stuff before ideas started to flow again (ideas that mattered). In time, I had
more ideas than I could keep up with, but it took awhile to get there (about a
year).
4\. How it changed my life. The learning experience from start to finish is
impossible to measure. And I don't just mean the hard knowledge you walk away
with from doing a startup. There are an incredible amount of subtle things you
learn as well, that may or may not be correlated with the startup and what the
startup does itself. The financial change also helped me realize what I really
wanted and what I didn't want. I came into the startup thinking I wanted a lot
of things. After the sale, I got an incredibly nice place, a new car, etc...
but then realized one day out of the blue, I sat there quietly on my couch and
realize I barely sat in it more than a handful of times. I had a nice TV I
never watched (ever since I got into doing my startup, TV became non-existant
and the habit stayed), etc... All these things I gotten that I thought I
wanted were things I no longer cared about.
I did a full 180 and got rid of almost everything, instead choosing to adopt a
minimalistic life. Especially after I read a blog post from a friend who did
something similar. He sold off all his possession, cars, house, etc... and
everything he owned fit into a single backpack. Nothing more. It was an
incredibly sense of freedom. He then went traveling around the world. I had no
interest in traveling anymore but the idea of an extreme minimalistic life
really appealed to me at that point. And that's what I did.
Of course other things that vastly was life changing was getting rid of all my
debt, my family's debt, giving my parents a chunk of money to enjoy their
lives, etc...
5\. For the most part though, outside of the above, things doesn't change as
much as people think they do. My day to day is a slight variation of what it
was before. I still hang out with all my friends like nothing changed. I still
work day in and day out on the computer on new projects, etc.. I still eat out
at the same places, and for the most part, even when I wasn't financial
secure, I never thought twice about my spending habits so that part didn't
change aside from not owning any debt. Overall, I would say the biggest change
is probably my perspective on life (the kind I actually wanted) and I am
fortunate enough to be picky about what I want to do with my time now.
Hope that helps.
~~~
rolandal
I think that your #2 - traveling - is something that is highly valued as an
activity that people want to do/do more of by insiders in the tech industry.
It's interesting that even though you now have infinite ability to travel, it
even wore off after only 6 months.
Was it because you visited all the places you wanted (bucket list), were you
traveling alone or with a partner/companion and it became boring, or the fact
that you don't really have a "homebase" when you're traveling.
The reason I'm curious because I see myself working as hard as I can to be
able to achieve the freedom to travel whenever/wherever I wish - and hope that
it lasts a lifetime and not just for a short 6 month period.
~~~
OafTobark
Everyone is different so I can't comment on how it'll turn out for you. I
traveled with friends and my girlfriend so company was definitely not an
issue. I didn't have a bucket list, more of just places I wanted to travel to
after it became possible that I could.
I think for me, it was one of those things that sounded great on paper but in
practice it wasn't as awesome as I thought it would be. It was definitely fun
and exciting at first but then it just got redundant. I dreaded getting on
long flights. And although there were lots of places to go and things to see,
at the end of the day, it's still relatively the same thing. You can only do
something so much before it gets boring. Sure you go site seeing and
parasailing, jet skiing, etc... Eat all the local foods... But eventually it's
the same thing masked under a different place/time. Maybe for others that is
exciting but for me the honeymoon mode wore off.
Plus half the time I couldn't stop my mind from thinking about doing stuff.
It's like a disease you acquire, being active on doing something was just
constantly a part of my mind (something as in another project, startup,
business, etc)
------
Robby2012
I don't really understand why everyone gets so excited when being acquired by
some big company, my startup is my baby, if I sold it I would felt like if I
had screwed up everything
~~~
mapster
True. Though being acquired is essentially someone investing in your company
by purchasing a majority stake. This investment could soar your company or
product to greater heights than you could ever accomplish behind the helm.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Pinterest Has Reportedly Filed for an IPO - longdefeat
https://www.businessinsider.com/pinterest-ipo-2019-2
======
genericone
Related/Unrelated: Does anyone know a way to block pinterest results from
appearing in the google search results? I hate searching for furniture or
other hobby things but end up clicking on a pinterest dead-end page.
Especially searching on mobile or by voice-search, I can't specify
'-pinterest' ... google doesn't appear to offer account wide search block
lists, or does it?
~~~
ink
Seems like "term -site:pinterest.com" works.
------
pstrazzulla
This is a hefty revenue multiple, but I still think this platform is very
under monetized. Of course I'm a shareholder and so am very biased :)
~~~
elliekelly
Pinterest is so frustrating to me because I feel like they have so much
potential but get in their own way at every turn.
Can you name another site that people actively _block_ from appearing in their
search results? How is that not a major clue to management that they're doing
something very wrong and alienating a ton of potential users?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
100-year-old Double Transposition Cipher Cracked - sep
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.565074
======
mooism2
In case, like me, you didn't understand the algorithm description n the text:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_transposition_cipher](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_transposition_cipher)
~~~
sep
Also an example of single transposition: [http://crypto.interactive-
maths.com/columnar-transposition-c...](http://crypto.interactive-
maths.com/columnar-transposition-cipher.html)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Server Side Rendering React App with Deno - kazade
https://dev.p.ota.to/post/server-side-rendering-react-app-with-deno-4qf28vm8axb/
======
iamflimflam1
One of the things I do like about deno is the out of the box support for
typescript. Has anyone actually used it in production yet?
------
dphnx
It didn’t occur to me that Deno’s Typescript engine also brings with it JSX
(as .tsx). That’s pretty neat.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Innovation videos: making sure they’re not ignored - littlemissdebbi
http://www.iijiij.com/2011/02/13/innovation-videos-making-sure-theyre-not-ignored-07525
======
jdp23
plenty of good advice here for tech-related videos in general
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Does memory leak? (1995) - rot25
https://groups.google.com/forum/message/raw?msg=comp.lang.ada/E9bNCvDQ12k/1tezW24ZxdAJ
======
derefr
Erlang has a parameter called initial_heap_size. Each new actor-process in
Erlang gets its own isolated heap, for which it does its own garbage-
collection on its own execution thread. This initial_heap_size parameter
determines how large each newly-spawned actor’s heap will be.
Why would you tune it? Because, if you set it high enough, then for all your
_short-lived_ actors, memory allocation will become a no-op (= bump
allocation), and the actor will never experience enough memory-pressure to
trigger a garbage-collection pass, before the actor exits and the entire
process heap can be deallocated as a block. The actor will just “leak” memory
onto its heap, and then exit, never having had to spend time accounting for
it.
This is also done in many video games, where there is a per-frame temporaries
heap that has its free pointer reset at the start of each frame. Rather than
individually garbage-collecting these values, they can all just be invalidated
at once at the end of the frame.
The usual name for such “heaps you pre-allocate to a capacity you’ve tuned to
ensure you will never run out of, and then deallocate as a whole later on” is
a _memory arena_. See [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Region-
based_memory_management](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Region-
based_memory_management) for more examples of memory arenas.
~~~
dahart
The games and GPU apps I’ve worked on use memory pools for small allocations,
where there will be individual pools for all, say, 1-16 byte allocations,
16-64 byte allocations, 64-256 byte allocations, etc. (Sizes just for
illustration, not necessarily realistic). The pool sizes always get tuned over
time to match the approximate high water mark of the application.
I think pools and arenas mean pretty much the same thing.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_pool](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_pool)
I’ve mostly heard this discussed in terms of pools, but I wonder if there’s a
subtle difference, or if there’s a historical reason arena is popular in some
circles and pool in others...?
I haven’t personally see a per-frame heap while working in console games, even
though games I’ve worked on probably had one, or something like it. Techniques
that I did see and are super-common are fixed maximum-size allocations: just
pre-allocate all the memory you’ll ever need for some feature and never let it
go; stack allocations sometimes with alloca(); and helper functions/classes
that put something on the stack for the lifetime of a particular scope.
~~~
monocasa
I've seen Jason Gregory talk about per frame arenas in Game Engine
Architecture as a fundamental piece of how the Naughty Dog engines tend to
work.
Totally agreed that they aren't required for shipping great console games (and
they're really hard to use effectively in C++ since you're pretty much
guaranteed to have hanging references if you don't have ascetic levels of
discipline). This is mainly just meant as a "here's an example of how they can
be used and are by at least one shop".
~~~
foota
Seems like this could be handled with a wrapper type with runtime checks
during debug?
Like make any pointer to the per frame allocation be a TempPointer or
something and then assert they're all gone with a static count variable of
them? Then you just have to be cautious whenever you pass a reference to one
or convert to a raw pointer.
I don't think this would be too awful for performance in debug builds.
~~~
monocasa
Yeah, or a generation system where the pointer holds a frame count too that's
asserted on deref.
The point though is that it's a step back still from shared_ptr/unique_ptr by
becoming a runtime check instead of compile time.
------
jakeinspace
As somebody working on embedded software for aerospace, I'm surprised this
missile system even had dynamic memory allocation. My entire organization
keeps flight-critical code fully statically allocated.
~~~
giu
I'm always fascinated about software running on hardware-restricted systems
like planes, space shuttles, and so on.
Where can someone (i.e., in my case a software engineer who's working with
Kotlin but has used C++ in his past) read more about modern approaches to
writing embedded software for such systems?
I'm asking for one because I'm curious by nature and additionally because I
simply take the garbage collector for granted nowadays.
Thanks in advance for any pointers (no pun intended)!
~~~
0xffff2
The embedded world is _very_ slow to change, so you can read about "modern
approaches" (i.e. approaches used today) in any book about embedded
programming written in the last 30 years.
I currently work on spacecraft flight software and the only real advance on
this project over something like the space shuttle that I can point to is that
we're trying out some continuous integration on this project. We would like to
use a lot of modern C++ features, but the compiler for our flight hardware
platform is GCC 4.1 (upgrading to GCC 4.3 soon if we're lucky).
~~~
rowanG077
I find it interesting that such critical code is written in C. Why not use
something with a lot more (easily)statically provable properties. Like Rust or
Agda?
~~~
amw-zero
You’ll find that for very serious, industrial applications, a conservative
mindset prevails. C may not be trendy at the moment, but it powers the
computing world. Its shortcomings are also extremely well known and also
statically analyzable.
Also, think about when flight software started being written. Was Rust an
option? And once it came out, do you expect that programmers who are
responsible for millions of people’s lives to drop their decades of tested
code and development practices to make what is a bet on what is still a new
language?
What I find interesting is this mindset. My conservativeness on a project is
directly proportional to its importance / criticality, and I can’t think of
anything more important or critical than software that runs on a commercial
airplane. C is a small, very well understood language. Of course it gives you
nothing in terms of automatic memory safety, but that is one tradeoff in the
list of hundreds of other dimensions.
When building “important” things it’s important to think about tradeoffs,
identify your biases, and make a choice that’s best for the project and the
people that the choice will affect. If you told me that the moment anyone dies
as a result of my software I would have to be killed, I would make sure to use
the most tried-and-true tools available to me.
~~~
AtlasBarfed
You're advocating throwing baby out with bathwater.
Rust interops with C seamlessly, doesn't it? You don't have to throw out good
code to use a better language or framework.
C may be statically analyzable to some degree, but if Rust's multithreading is
truly provable, then new code can be Rust and of course still use the tried
and true C libraries.
Disclaimer: I still haven't actually learned any Rust, so my logic is CIO-
level of potential ignorance.
~~~
wallacoloo
> Rust interops with C seamlessly, doesn't it?
From someone who works in a mixed C + Rust codebase daily (Something like 2-3M
lines of C and 100k lines of Rust), yes and no. They're pretty much ABI
compatible, so it's trivial to make calls across the FFI boundary. But each
language has its own set of different guarantees it provides _and assumes_ ,
so it's easy to violate one of those guarantees when crossing a FFI boundary
and triggering UB which can stay hidden for months.
One of them is mutability: in C we have some objects which are internally
synchronized. If you call an operation on them, either it operates atomically,
or it takes a lock, does the operation, and then releases the lock. In Rust,
this is termed "interior mutability" and as such these operations would take
non-mutable references. But when you actually try that, and make a non-mutable
variable in Rust which holds onto this C type, and start calling C methods on
it, you run into UB even though it seems like you're using the "right"
mutability concepts in each language. On the rust side, you need to encase the
C struct inside of a UnsafeCell before calling any methods on it, which
becomes not really possible if that synchronized C struct is a member of
another C struct. [1]
Another one, although it depends on how exactly you've chosen to implement
slices in C since they aren't native: in our C code we pass around buffer
slices as (pointer, len) pairs. That looks just like a &[T] slice to Rust. So
we convert those types when we cross the FFI boundary. Only, they offer
different guarantees: on the C side, the guarantee is generally that it's safe
to dereference anything within bounds of the slice. On the rust side, it's
that, _plus_ the pointer must point to a valid region of memory (non-null)
even if the slice is empty. It's just similar enough that it's easy to
overlook and trigger UB by creating an invalid Rust slice from a (NULL, 0)
slice in C (which might be more common than you think because so many things
are default-initialized. a vector type which isn't populated with data might
naturally have cap=0, size=0, buf=NULL).
So yeah, in theory C + Rust get along well and in practice you're good 99+% of
the time. But there are enough subtleties that if you're working on something
mission critical you gotta be real careful when mixing the languages.
[1]
[https://www.reddit.com/r/rust/comments/f3ekb8/some_nuances_o...](https://www.reddit.com/r/rust/comments/f3ekb8/some_nuances_of_undefined_behavior_in_rust/)
~~~
a1369209993
> On the rust side, it's that, _plus_ the pointer must point to a valid region
> of memory (non-null) even if the slice is empty.
Do you have a citation for that, because it _seems_ obviously wrong[0] (since
the slice points to zero bytes of memory) and I'm having trouble coming up
with any situation that would justify it (except possibly using a NULL pointer
to indicate the Nothing case of a Maybe<Slice> datum)?
0: by which I mean that Rust is wrong to require that, not that you're wrong
about what Rust requires.
~~~
wallacoloo
Well the docs have this to say [1]:
`data` must be non-null and aligned even for zero-length slices. One reason
for this is that enum layout optimizations may rely on references (including
slices of any length) being aligned and non-null to distinguish them from
other data. You can obtain a pointer that is usable as data for zero-length
slices using NonNull::dangling().
So yes, this requirement allows optimizations like having Option<&[T]> be the
same size as &[T] (I just tested and this is the case today: both are the same
size).
I'm not convinced that it's "wrong", though. If you want to be able to support
slices of zero elements (without using an option/maybe type) you have to put
_something_ in the pointer field. C generally chooses NULL, Rust happens to
choose a different value. But they're both somewhat arbitrary values. It's not
immediately obvious to me that one is a better choice than the other.
[1] [https://doc.rust-
lang.org/std/slice/fn.from_raw_parts.html](https://doc.rust-
lang.org/std/slice/fn.from_raw_parts.html)
~~~
a1369209993
> [1] [https://doc.rust-
> lang.org/std/slice/fn.from_raw_parts.html](https://doc.rust-
> lang.org/std/slice/fn.from_raw_parts.html)
Thanks.
> having Option<&[T]> be the same size as &[T]
That is literally what I mentioned as a possible reason ("except possibly
..."), but what I overlooked was that you could take a mutable reference to
the &[T] inside a Option<&[T]>, then store a valid &[T] into it - if NULL is
allowed, you effectively mutated the discriminant of a enum when you have
active references to its fields, violating _some_ aspect of type/memory
safety, even I'm not sure _which_.
> C generally chooses NULL, Rust happens to choose a different value.
It's not about what pointer value the langauge chooses when it's asked to
create a zero-length slice, it's about whether the language _accepts_ a NULL
pointer in a zero-length slice it finds lying around somewhere.
------
zdw
Another "works because it's in a missile and only has to run for as short
time" story:
Electronics components for trajectory tracking and guidance for a particular
missile weren't running fast enough, namely the older CPU that the software
was targeting. The solution to this was to overclock the CPU by double, and
redirect a tiny amount of the liquid oxygen that happened also to be used in
the propellent system to cool down the electronics.
This apparently worked fine - by the time the missile ran out of LOX and the
electronics burned themselves out, it was going so fast on a ballistic
trajectory that it couldn't be reasonably steered anyway.
The telemetry for the self destruct was on a different system that wasn't
overclocked, in case of problems with the missile.
------
Out_of_Characte
What an interesting concept. Good programmers always consider certain
behaviours to be wrong. Memory 'leaks' being one of them. But this real
application of purposefully not managing memory is also an interesting thought
exercise. However counter intuitive, a memory leak in this case might be the
most optimal solution in this problem space. I just never thought I would have
to think of an object's lifetime in such a literal sense.
Edit; ofcouse HN reacts pedantic when I claim good programmers always consider
memory leaks wrong. Do I really need to specify the obvious every time?
~~~
blattimwind
Cleaning up memory is an antipattern for many _tools_ , especially of the
EVA/IPO model (input-process-output). For example, cp(1) in preserve hard
links mode has to keep track of things in a table; cleaning it up at the end
of the operation is a waste of time. Someone "fixed" the leak to make valgrind
happy and by doing so introduced a performance regression. Another example
might be a compiler; it's pointless to deallocate all your structures manually
before calling exit(). The kernel throwing away your address space is
infinitely faster than you chasing every pointer you ever created down and
then having the kernel throw away your address space. The situation is quite
different of course if you are libcompiler.
~~~
atq2119
> Another example might be a compiler; it's pointless to deallocate all your
> structures manually before calling exit().
And now the compiler can no longer be embedded into another application, e.g.
an IDE.
It's a reasonably pragmatic way of thinking, but beware the consequences. One
benefit of working with custom allocators is that you can have the best of
both worlds. Unfortunately, custom allocators are clumsy to work with.
~~~
badsectoracula
Solve the problem you have now, not the problem you may not have later. You
can worry about that when the time comes, if it ever comes.
In the case of compiler, one solution would be to replace all calls to
`malloc` with something like `ccalloc` that simply returns pieces of a
`realloc`'d buffer which is freed after the in-IDE compiler has finished
compiling.
------
simias
I think it's a bad mindset to leak resources even when it doesn't effectively
matter. In non-garbage collected languages especially, because it's important
to keep in mind who owns what and for how long. It also makes refactoring
easier because leaked resources effectively become some sort of implicit
global state you need to keep track of. If a function that was originally
called only once at startup is not called repeatedly and it turns out that it
leaks some memory every time you know have a problem.
In this case I assume that a massive amount of testing mitigates these issues
however.
~~~
mannykannot
I think you are conflating two issues: while one should understand who owns
what and for how long, it does not follow that one should always free
resources even when it is not necessary, if doing so adds complexity and
therefore more things to go wrong, or if it makes things slower than optimal.
In this particular case, correctness was not primarily assured by a massive
amount of testing (though that may have been done), but by a rigorous static
analysis.
~~~
jldugger
I feel like I've read about some rocket launch failures that were caused in
part by launch delays leading to overflow and sign flipping, but can't find it
now =/
It may be unwise to overide static analysis (a leak is found) with hueristics
(the program won't run long enough to matter)
~~~
mannykannot
It is not just a heuristic if you have hard upper bounds on the things that
matter - in that case, it is static analysis. A missile has a limited, and
well-defined, fuel supply.
In the case of memory management, it is not enough to just free it after use;
you need to ensure that you have sufficient contiguous memory for each
allocation. If you decide to go with a memory-compaction scheme, you have to
be sure it never introduces excessive latency. It seems quite possible that to
guarantee a reallocation scheme always works, you have to do more analysis
than you would for a no-reallocation scheme with more memory available.
~~~
jldugger
This depends entirely on the mode of operation which I suspect neither of us
know in great detail; if in any circumstance the runtime of the program is not
tied to expenditure of fuel you have literal ticking time bomb.
Ideally we'd be able to tie such assertions into a unified static analysis
tool, rather than having humans evaluate conflicting analyses. And god forbid
the hardware parameters ever change, because now you need to re-evaluate every
such decision, even the ones nobody documented. Case in point: Arianne 5 (not
exactly my original scenario, but exactly this one -- 64bit -> 16 bit overflow
caused a variety of downstream effects ending in mission failure).
~~~
mannykannot
Well, yes, I already explained that it depended on circumstances, and just let
me add that I would bet the engineer quoted in the article (explaining that
the memory leaks were a non-issue) knew much more about the specifics than
either of us.
The Ariane 5 issue is not, of course, a memory leak or other rescource-
release-and-reuse issue. It is a cautionary tale about assumptions (such as
the article's authors assumption that memory leaks are always bad.)
------
lmilcin
I once worked on an application which if failed even once meant considerable
loss for the company including possible closure.
By design, there was no memory management. The memory was only ever allocated
at the start and never de-allocated. All algorithms were implemented around
the concept of everything being a static buffer of infinite lifetime.
It was not possible to spring a memory leak.
~~~
conro1108
This sounds fascinating, could you elaborate any on why a single failure of
this application would be so catastrophic?
~~~
lmilcin
I can't discuss this particular application.
But there are whole classes of applications that are also mission critical --
an example might be software driving your car or operating dangerous chemical
processes.
For automotive industry there are MISRA standards which we used to guide our
development process amongst other ideas from NASA and Boeing (yeah, I know...
it was some time ago)
------
crawshaw
This is an example of garbage collection being more CPU efficient than manual
memory management.
It has limited application, but there is a more common variant: let process
exit clean up the heap. You can use an efficient bump allocator for `malloc`
and make `free` a no-op.
~~~
acqq
There was also a variant of it with the hard drives: building Windows produced
a huge amount of object files, so the trick used was to use a whole hard disk
(or a partition) for that. Before the next rebuild, deleting all the files
would took far more time than a "quick" reformatting of the whole hard disk,
so the later was used.
(I am unable to find a link that talks about that, however).
In general, throwing away at once the set of the things together with the
structures that maintain it is always faster than throwing away every item one
by one while maintaining the consistency of the structures, in spite of the
knowledge that all that is not needed at the end.
An example of arenas in C: "Fast Allocation and Deallocation of Memory Based
on Object Lifetimes", Hanson, 1988:
ftp://ftp.cs.princeton.edu/techreports/1988/191.pdf
~~~
GordonS
That's quite a clever solution, I doubt I would have thought of that!
Windows has always been my daily drivers, and I really do like it. But I wish
deleting lots of files would be much, much faster. You've got time to make a
cup of coffee if you need to delete a node_modules folder...
~~~
acqq
> I wish deleting lots of files would be much, much faster. You've got time to
> make a cup of coffee if you need to delete a node_modules folder
The example I gave was for the old times when people had much less RAM and the
disks had to move physical heads to access different areas. Now with the SSDs
you shouldn't be able to experience it _that_ bad (at least when using lower
level approaches). How do you start that action? Do you use GUI? Are the files
"deleted" to the recycle bin? The fastest way is to do it is "low level" i.e.
without moving the files to the recycle bin, and without some GUI that is in
any way suboptimal (I have almost never used Windows Explorer so I don't know
if it has some additional inefficiencies).
[https://superuser.com/questions/19762/mass-deleting-files-
in...](https://superuser.com/questions/19762/mass-deleting-files-in-
windows/289399#289399)
~~~
GordonS
Even with an SSD, it's still bad. Much better than the several minutes it used
to take with an HDD, but still annoying.
I just tried deleting a node_modules folder with 18,500 files in it, hosted on
an NVMe drive. Deleting from Windows Explorer, it took 20s.
But then I tried `rmdir /s /q` from your SU link - 4s! I remember trying
tricks like this back with an HDD, but don't remember it having such a
dramatic impact.
~~~
acqq
>>> You've got time to make a cup of coffee if you need to delete a
node_modules folder...
> Deleting from Windows Explorer, it took 20s.
> `rmdir /s /q` from your SU link - 4s
OK, so you saw that your scenarios could run much better, especially if
Windows Explorer is avoided. But in Explorer, is that time you measured with
deleting to the Recycle Bin or with the Shift Delete (which deletes
irreversibly but can be faster)?
Additionally, I'd guess you don't have to wait at all (i.e. you can reduce it
to 0 seconds) if you first rename the folder and than start deleting that
renamed one and let it doing that in the background while continuing with your
work -- e.g. if you want to create the new content in the original location
it's immediately free after the rename, and the rename is practically
immediate.
~~~
GordonS
I pretty much exclusively use SHIFT-DEL (which has once or twice resulted in
bad times!).
I didn't think about renaming then deleting - that's quite a nice workaround!
------
LucaSas
This pops up again from time to time, I think what people should take away
from this is that garbage collection is not just what you see in Java and
other high level languages.
There are a lot of strategies to apply garbage collection and they are often
used in low level systems too like per-frame temporary arenas in games or in
short lived programs that just allocate and never free.
~~~
asveikau
Once you set a limit like this, though, it's brittle, and your code becomes
less maintainable or flexible in the face of change. That is why a general
purpose strategy is good to use.
------
andreareina
"Git is a really great set of commands and it does things like malloc();
malloc(); malloc(); exit();"
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBSHLb1B8sw&t=113](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBSHLb1B8sw&t=113)
~~~
jldugger
And that really bit hard when you wanted to start running git webservers. All
the lib code was designed to exit upon completion with no GC, and now you're
running multiple read queries per second with no free(). oops.
------
GordonS
A bit OT, but I wonder how I'd feel if I was offered a job working on software
for missiles.
I'm sure the technical challenge would be immensely interesting, and I could
tell myself that I cared more about accuracy and correctness than other
potential hires... but from a moral standpoint, I don't think I could bring
myself to do it.
I realise of course that the military uses all sorts of software, including
line of business apps, and indeed several military organisations use the B2B
security software that my microISV sells, but I think it's very different to
directly working on software for killing machines.
~~~
jmpman
Straight out of college, I was offered a job writing software for missiles.
Extremely interesting area, working for my adjunct professor’s team, who I
highly admired and whose class was the best of my college career. The pay was
on par with all my other offers. I didn’t accept for two reasons.
First, I logically agreed that the missiles were supporting our armed services
and I believed that our government was generally on the right side of history
and needed the best technology to continue defending our freedoms. However, a
job, when executed with passion, becomes a very defining core of your
identity. I didn’t want death and destruction as my core. I support and admire
my college friends who did accept such jobs, but it just wasn’t for me.
Second, I had interned at a government contractor, (not the missile
manufacturer), and what I saw deeply disturbed me. I came on to a project
which was 5 years into a 3 year schedule, and not expected to ship for another
2 years. Shocked, I asked my team lead “Why didn’t the government just cancel
the contract and assign the work to another company?”, her reply, “If they did
that, the product likely wouldn’t be delivered in under two years, so they
stick with us”. I understood that this mentality was pervasive, and would
ultimately become part of me, if I continued to work for that company. That
mentality was completely unacceptable in the competitive commercial world, and
I feared the complacency which would infect me and not prepare me for the
eventual time when I’d need to look for a job outside that company. As a
graduating senior, I attended our college job fair, and when speaking with
another (non missile) government contractor, I told the recruiter that I was
hesitant working for a his company because I thought it wouldn’t keep me as
competitive throughout my career. I repeated the story from my internship, and
asked if I’d find the same mentality at his company. His face dropped the
cheerful recruiter facade, when he pulled me aside and sternly instructed “You
should never repeat that story”. I took that as an overwhelming “yes”. So, my
concern was that working for this missile manufacturer, this government
contractor mentality would work its way into their company (if it hadn’t
already), and it would be bad for my long term career. I wanted to remain
competitive on a global commercial scale, without relying upon government
support.
~~~
newscracker
_> I came on to a project which was 5 years into a 3 year schedule, and not
expected to ship for another 2 years. Shocked, I asked my team lead “Why
didn’t the government just cancel the contract and assign the work to another
company?”, her reply, “If they did that, the product likely wouldn’t be
delivered in under two years, so they stick with us”. I understood that this
mentality was pervasive, and would ultimately become part of me, if I
continued to work for that company. That mentality was completely unacceptable
in the competitive commercial world, and I feared the complacency which would
infect me and not prepare me for the eventual time when I’d need to look for a
job outside that company._
Software for any system is complex. And it’s quite common for almost every
software project to be late on schedule. The Triple Constraint — “schedule,
quality, cost: pick any two” doesn’t even fit software engineering in any kind
of serious endeavor because it’s mostly a “pick one” scenario.
If you’ve worked on projects where all these three were met with the initial
projections, then whoever is estimating those has really made sure that
they’ve added massive buffers on cost and time or the project is too trivial
for a one person team to do in a month or two.
The entire reason Agile came up as a methodology was in recognizing that
requirements change all the time, and that the “change is the only constant”
refrain should be taken in stride to adapt how teams work.
~~~
AtlasBarfed
I vehemently and violently disagree!
The average project achieves 1.5 of the triples.
Here are the true constraints though:
\- Schedule \- Meets Requirements \- Cost \- Process \- Usefulness/Polish
Yes, usefulness and meets requirements aren't the same thing, and anyone who
has done the madness of large scale enterprise software will be nodding their
heads.
What really bogs down most software projects is that "quality" means different
things to different actors in projects. Project Managers want to follow
process and meet political goals. Users want usefulness, polish, and
efficiency. Directors/management want requirements fulfilled they dictate
(often reporting and other junk that don't add to ROI).
And that I like to say "pick two"
------
tyingq
Until the cruise missile shop down the hall decides to reuse your controller.
~~~
gameswithgo
If all software is built to protect against all possible future anticipated
use cases, your software will take longer to make, perform worse, and be more
likely to have bugs.
If all software is built only to solve the problem at hand, it will take less
time to develop, be less likely to have bugs, and perform better.
It isn't clear that coding for reuse is going to get you a net win, especially
since computing platforms, the actual hardware, is always evolving, such that
reusing code some years later can become sub-optimal for that reason alone.
~~~
eru
There's a middle ground. Eg the classic Unix 'cat' (ignoring all the command
line switches) does something really simple and re-usable, so it makes sense
to make sure it does the Right Thing in all situations.
~~~
thaumasiotes
I mean, 'cat' does something so simple (apply the identity function to the
input) that it has no need to be reusable because there's no point using it in
the first place. If you have input, processing it with cat just means you
wasted your time to produce something you already had.
~~~
derefr
The point of cat(1), short for _concatenate_ , is to feed a pipeline multiple
_concatenated_ files as input, whereas shell stdin redirection only allows you
to feed a shell a single file as input.
This is actually highly flexible, since cat(1) recognizes the “-“ argument to
mean stdin, and so you can `cat a - b` in the middle of a pipeline to “wrap”
the output of the previous stage in the contents of files a and b (which could
contain e.g. a header and footer to assemble a valid SQL COPY statement from a
CSV stream.)
~~~
thaumasiotes
But that is a case where you have several _filenames_ and you want to
concatenate the _files_. The work you're using cat to do is to locate and read
the files based on the filename. If you already have the data stream(s), cat
does nothing for you; you have to choose the order you want to read them in,
but that's also true when you invoke cat.
This is the conceptual difference between
pipeline | cat # does nothing
and
pipeline | xargs cat # leverages cat's ability to open files
Opening files isn't really something I think of cat as doing in its capacity
as cat. It's something all the command line utilities do equally.
~~~
derefr
pipeline | cat # does nothing
This is actually re-batching stdin into line-oriented write chunks, IIRC. If
you write a program to manually select(2) + fread(2) from stdin, then you’ll
observe slightly different behaviour between e.g.
dd if=./file | myprogram
and
dd if=./file | cat | myprogram
On the former, select(2) will wake your program up with dd(1)’s default obs
(output block size) worth of bytes in the stdin kernel buffer; whereas, on the
latter, select(2) will wake your program up with one line’s worth of input in
the buffer.
Also, if you have _multiple data streams_ , by using e.g. explicit file
descriptor redirection in your shell, ala
(baz | quux) >4
...then cat(1) won’t even help you there. No tooling from POSIX or GNU really
supports consuming those streams, AFAIK.
But it’s pretty simple to instead target the streams into explicit fifo files,
and then concatenate _those_ with cat(1).
~~~
thaumasiotes
> Also, if you have _multiple data streams_ , ...then cat(1) won’t even help
> you there.
I've been thinking about this more from the perspective of reusing code from
cat than of using the cat binary in multiple contexts. Looking over the
thread, it seems like I'm the odd one out here.
------
mojuba
One other class of applications that don't really require garbage collection
is HTTP request handlers if run as isolated processes. They are usually very
short-lived - they can't even live longer than some maximum enforced by the
server. For example, PHP takes advantage of this and allows you not to worry
about circular references much.
~~~
chapium
This is clearly not my subject area. Why would we be spawning processes for
HTTP requests? This sounds awful for performance.
My best guess is a security guarantee.
~~~
derefr
Not spawning, forking. Web servers were simple “accept(2) then fork(2)” loops
for a long time. This is, for example, how inetd(8) works. Later, servers like
Apache were optimized to “prefork” (i.e. to maintain a set of idle processes
waiting for work, that would exit after a single request.)
Long-running worker threads came a long time later, and were indeed intensely
criticized from a security perspective at the time, given that they’d be one
use-after-free away from exposing a previous user’s password to a new user.
(FCGI/WSGI was criticized for the same reason, as compared to the “clean”
fork+exec subprocess model of CGI.)
Note that in the context of longer-running connection-oriented protocols,
servers are still built in the “accept(2) then fork(2)” model. Postgres forks
a process for each connection, for example.
One lesser-thought-about benefit of the forking model, is that it allows the
OS to “see” requests; and so to apply CPU/memory/IO quotas to them, that don’t
leak over onto undue impacts on successive requests against the same worker.
Also, the OOM killer will just kill a request, not the whole server.
~~~
mehrdadn
Thanks for that last paragraph, I'd never thought about that aspect of
processes. Learned something new today.
------
matsemann
I made a project a few years back where I had really no idea what I was doing.
[0] I had to read two live analog video feeds fed into two TV-cards, display
them properly on an Oculus Rift and then take the head tilting and send back
to the cameras mounted on a flying drone. I spent weeks just getting it to
work, so my C++ etc was a mess. The first demo I leaked like 100 MB a second
or so, but that meant that it would work for about a minute before everything
crashed. We could live with that. Just had to restart the software for each
person trying, hehe.
[0]:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7654141](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7654141)
------
FpUser
_" Since the missile will explode when it hits it's target or at the end of
it's flight, the ultimate in garbage collection is performed without
programmer intervention."_
I just can't stop laughing over this _" ultimate in garbage collection"_. What
a guy.
Btw we dealt a lot with Rational in the 90's. I might have even met him.
------
ggambetta
Of course it's also expected to crash, especially the hardware :)
~~~
Igelau
Remote execution? It was the top requested feature!
------
geophile
The problem, of course, is that the chief software engineer doesn't appear to
be have any understanding of what is causing the leaks, and whether the safety
margin is adequate. Maybe there is some obscure and untested code path in
which leaking would be much faster than anticipated.
To be sure, it is a unique environment, in which you know for a fact that your
software does not need to run beyond a certain point in time. And in a
situation like that, I think it is OK to say that we have enough of some
resource to reach that point in time. (It's sort of like admitting that
climate change is real, and will end life on earth, but then counting on The
Rapture to excuse not caring.) But that's not what's going on here. It sounds
like they weren't really sure that there would definitely be enough memory.
~~~
willvarfar
You are reading a lot into a short story. You don’t know that the engineer
hasn’t had someone exactly calculate the memory allocations.
Static or never-reclaimed allocations are common enough in embedded code.
------
b34r
I like the pragmatism. One thing that comes to mind though is stuff gets
repurposed for unintended use cases often... as long as these caveats are well
documented it’s ok but imagine if they were hidden and the missiles were used
in space or perhaps as static warheads on a long timer.
------
MaxBarraclough
On such systems the same approach can be taken for a cooling solution. If the
chip will fatally overheat in 60 seconds but the device's lifetime is only 45,
there's no need for a more elaborate cooling solution.
The always-leak approach to memory management can also be used in short-lived
application code. The D compiler once used this approach [0] (I'm not sure
whether it still does).
[0] [https://www.drdobbs.com/cpp/increasing-compiler-speed-by-
ove...](https://www.drdobbs.com/cpp/increasing-compiler-speed-by-
over-75/240158941)
------
kebman
The garbage is collected in one huge explosion. And then even more garbage is
made, so that's why we don't mind leaks...... xD
------
tjalfi
This has come up a couple times ([0][1]) before.
[0]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14233542](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14233542)
[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16483731](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16483731)
------
raverbashing
And that's a common mentality in hardware manufacturers as opposed to software
developers (you just need to see how many survived)
(Not saying that the manufacturer was necessarily wrong in this case and
doubling the memory might have added a tiny manufacturing cost to something
that was much more expensive)
------
wbhart
Missiles don't always hit their intended target. They can go off course,
potentially be hacked, fall into the wrong hands, be sold to mass murderers,
fail to explode, accidentally fall out of planes (even nuclear bombs have
historically done this), miss their targets, encounter countermeasures, etc.
Nobody is claiming that this was done for reasons of good software design.
It's perfectly reasonable to suspect it was done for reasons of cost or plain
negligence.
There's a reason tech workers protest involvement of their firms with the
military. It's because all too often arms are not used as a deterrent or as a
means of absolute last resort, but because they are used due to faulty
intelligence, public or political pressure, as a means of aggression, without
regard to collateral damage or otherwise in a careless way.
The whole point here is the blase way the technician responded, "of course it
leaks". The justification given is not that it was necessary for the design,
but that it doesn't matter because it's going to explode at the end of its
journey!
~~~
willvarfar
A simple bump allocator with no reclaim is fairly common in embedded code.
Garbage collection makes the performance of the code much less deterministic.
A lot of embedded loops running on embedded in-order cpus without an operating
system use cycle count as a timing mechanism etc.
~~~
wbhart
Right, but that isn't the argument that was being used here, which is my
point. The way I read it, the contractor cared only enough to get the design
over the line so the customer would sign off on it. Their argument was that
you shouldn't care about leaks due to scheduled deconstruction, not because of
a technical consideration.
There exist options between no reclaim and using a garbage collector which
could be considered, depending on the exact technical specifications of the
hardware it was running on and the era in which it happened.
But retrofitting technical reasoning about why this may have been done is
superfluous. The contractor already said why they did it, and the subtext of
the original post is that it was flippant and hilarious.
~~~
ncmncm
Fetishism is not compatible with sound engineering.
"Cared only enough" is just your projection. The contractor knew the
requirements, and satified the requirements with no waste of engineering time,
and no risk of memory reclamation interfering with correct operation. The
person complaining about leaks wasted both his time and the contractor's.
~~~
Dylan16807
You had a good comment going until the last sentence.
When your job is performing an analysis of the code, five minutes asking for a
dangerous feature to be justified is ridiculously far from a "waste of time".
------
djsumdog
My undergraduate mentor took a co-op position one year in Huntsville, Alabama.
He told me about 6 processor missile guidance systems that cost tens of
thousands of dollars ... all to guide a missile to where it gets blown up.
------
kleiba
Seems a bit unlikely to me. Intuitively, calculating how much memory a program
will leak in the worst case should be at least as much effort as fixing the
memory leaks. And if you actually _calculated_ (as in, proved) the amount of
leaked memory rather than just by empirically measuring it, there's no need to
install double the amount of physical memory.
This whole procedure appears to be a bit unbelievable. And we're not even
talking about code/system maintainability.
~~~
FreeFull
A memory allocator without the ability to free memory is a lot simpler and
faster. Usually though, I'd expect to see static allocation for this sort of
code, I'm not sure why a missile would have to allocate more memory on the
fly.
~~~
StupidOne
Because he needed more memory mid-air? :)
Not sure was it pun or no pun intended, but you gave me a good laugh.
------
32gbsd
It is all good until people start to depend on these memory leaks and then you
are stuck with a platform that is unsupported.
------
lallysingh
Are these Patriots? Didn't they need a power cycle every 24 hours? Is this
why?
------
simonebrunozzi
> the ultimate in garbage collection is performed without programmer
> intervention.
Brilliant.
------
MrBuddyCasino
Why go through the trouble of
a) calculating maximum leakage
b) doubling physical memory
instead of just fixing the leaks? Was it to save cycles? Prevent memory
fragmentation? I feel this story misses the details that would make it more
than just a cute anecdote.
~~~
kelvin0
I feel the same way too, dunno why the down votes? In the absence of all other
details it just seems like shoddy work, but of course reality is probably more
nuanced ... which is what's missing from the story.
~~~
ratboy666
I think the story isn't nuanced. The program runs once, the missile explodes,
garbage collection is done!
No need for garbage collection, no need for "memory management". Not shoddy
work. An expression of "YAGNI". The interesting thing (in my opinion), is the
realization. The teller of the story went to the trouble of discovering that
memory is leaking. She could have simply asked before engaging the work.
FredW
------
DagAgren
What a cute story about writing software to kill people by shredding them with
shrapnel.
~~~
daenz
Missiles are also used for defense to intercept threats.
~~~
ptx
Those threats are sometimes an attempt at retaliation by whoever was attacked
earlier by those now defending against the counter-attack, who are now free to
attack without fear of the consequences thanks to the missile defense system.
------
zozbot234
(1995) based on the Date: and (plausibly) References: headers in the OP.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why cyberslacking makes you the company’s most valuable employee - joelhaus
http://www.torontolife.com/daily/informer/from-print-edition-informer/2011/03/03/not-safe-for-work-why-cyberslacking-makes-you-the-company%E2%80%99s-most-valuable-employee/
======
kylelibra
The entire article can be summed up with this line "And if that worker feels
spied on and censored, surveilled and suspected, he will resent it, and his
boss, and the company, and life at work will be that much harder for all."
The title doesn't really have much to do with the article itself. Misleading
linkbait probably designed for just the type of people the article describes.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Getting Started with React Native in 20 Minutes - scottdomes
https://medium.com/code-life/getting-started-with-react-native-in-20-minutes-15ea90062094#.4kkk71iww
======
coldoggy
Awesome intro! Hard to find a good practical intro to React Native that
explains the routing clearly.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Lessons from the Long Depression - jajag
http://www.coppolacomment.com/2019/04/lessons-from-long-depression.html
======
kangnkodos
The author refers to creating economic opportunities as making watering holes.
In the Florida everglades, each alligator makes a watering hole in the flat,
hard limestone ground. I don't know how big the holes are. About 20 feet
across and 6 feet deep? The alligator mostly lives in it for several years.
The hole fills with water when it rains, and tends to stay full of water
during the dry season. This is a huge benefit to all animals around it. And of
course, the alligator benefits by occasionally eating one of the visitors, but
fewer than you might think. But even with the alligator eating, making the
watering hole is a huge net benefit to the ecosystem as a whole.
I think the question boils down to, "How can the government encourage the
creation of new job-creating watering holes, instead of pushing policies which
increase the rent of existing watering holes?"
~~~
dsfyu404ed
Why is it the government's job to encourage the creation of job creating
watering holes? Why can't it just curtail rent seeking? It's much easier to
identify bad behavior as you see it than encourage good behavior of a yet
unknown form.
~~~
kangnkodos
I agree that if the government only discouraged rent seeking, that would be an
improvement. The article shows how the government is encouraging rent seeking.
~~~
snidane
'Rent seeking' is a straw man. Of course everybody searches for opportunities
yielding rent. Nobody wants to set up a business to see its profits competed
away in 2 years. They'd prefer long term stable profits.
The real problem instead is unearned rent extraction. Lot of rent which is
unethically taken away from workers and business is given to the extractors at
the expense of those workers and businesses who provide it. Largely through
taxes on labor, but also through increased prices.
There is no such thing as passive income without work. It's just that the
profit is collected by someone else than who provided the labor.
Example 1. open source community building free stuff resulting in near
trillion dollar valuations of cloud providers.
Example 2. taxes collected from labor (income and sales taxes) used for public
works and new infrastructure resulting in increase of land and real estate
value in vicinity of the new construction. Common with a new subway or highway
systems.
Example 3. Communication, Pharma industry and other network systems. Any
innovation funded by public money or other individuals can only benefit those
who already operate the network infrastructure, because of the impossibility
to compete with these established monopolies. Especially when regulations are
set up to protect the incumbents from new entrants to their markets.
These cases illustrate not only redistribution of value from those who provide
it to those who sit on it. It also shows that the goods these people helped to
create then become even more expensive for them. The more of it they produce,
the more expensive it gets - higher living rents, more expensive drugs, more
expensive railroad services, etc.
This phenomenon is called the paradox of progress and poverty. You get it
every time you set up the society in a way where the profits are extracted
from the laborers and redistributed to the rentiers.
Blame the system I guess. Don't tax the workers, tax the rentiers collecting
their results.
~~~
skybrian
It seems like natural resources are a counterexample to your "no passive
income" rule? In Alaska and Norway, the profits go into government funds that
benefit everyone. Even if it were possible, would you want all the money to go
to oil workers? They didn't create the oil.
~~~
snidane
I don't see how natural resources alone would make a passive income. Energy
has to be exerted to extract the resource. By human labor or by machine. Then
the extraction operation needs protection. If they left an oil well
unprotected in Alaska forest somewhere then soon bandits would take over it
and collect the profits. Nowadays this is resolved by private ownership of
land which is maintained and provided by the government. Then of course the
payment for this protection for exclusive rights of use needs to be paid to
said government. Simply by collecting a land tax priced at a percentage of
market value of that land. Workers and business collect profits due to their
labor and government collects the natural resource rents. Any excess the
government collects in the tax can be then reinvested into public works or
paid as a dividend to citizens. Like in Alaska and Norway.
~~~
skybrian
There is certainly work involved, but it's passive income to the citizens, who
didn't work for it and aren't the ones guarding it. I agree that it's fine. (I
am in favor of basic income.)
But I'm wondering, how do you think we distinguish between good and bad income
streams? You seemed to be making a moral distinction.
~~~
snidane
Well people actually guard it indirectly. They could at any time randomly
decide to go on a rampage and start taking over other people's property. Which
actually happens when things boil over, eg. during revolutions. So they should
be paid for remaining calm and keeping order.
I don't think we need to make the distinction between good and bad incomes.
However we as a society should be concerned about giving somebody certain
privileges without getting any compensation for it. That makes the society
inherently unequal, because one group of people is forced to provide the
privileges or services for another group of people.
Eg. people born in generation 2 are forced to accept and maintain private
property privileges on land for those born in generation 1 even though they
were never invited to discussions of land distribution in gen 1.
Simply stated, the infinite-length land rights are unethical to people in
later generations. Continuous payment system would be ethical.
This alone could then help resolve other issues in other monopoly related
problems as people would have more options to decide how to allocate their
life, as you well know it is the case of basic income and when people are not
stifled by excess taxes and excess rent payments.
------
andrepd
Reading this sort of things is getting gradually more grating for me to read.
We organise ourselves in a system where: "a world in which goods and services
are so cheap to produce that less and less capital is required for investment,
and so easy to produce that less and less labour is required to produce them"
is not a _life-transforming utopia_ , but a catastrophe. The author constantly
points this, points how growth in the "long stagnation" never materialised
into better conditions and a better standard of living, and how that didn't
change until war came.
Yet he never ceases to operate in the same system and to try to find the
answers _within_ the system. It never even crosses his thought that... perhaps
the fundamental tenets of the system should be changed, or at the very least
questionable. All he does is find convoluted ways of patching the a broken
system _from within the system_.
~~~
rsync
"We organise ourselves in a system where: "a world in which goods and services
are so cheap to produce that less and less capital is required for investment,
and so easy to produce that less and less labour is required to produce them"
is not a life-transforming utopia, but a catastrophe."
I understand - and sympathize with - your reaction.
However I have a suspicion that the authors stance is correct and, indeed,
there is something catastrophic involved. If not due to the circumstances,
then to our response to the circumstances (which, as you say, would _seem_ to
be heavenly).
If, however, you place stock in the notion that (most) humans find happiness
and meaning and fulfillment in completing meaningful and valuable work, I
think it starts to make sense.
_You and I_ might have the personal makeup - or find ourselves in a stage of
generational or familial development - to find meaning and joy in a post-
scarcity, post "work", nuanced and refined existence. I like to think I do.
But I can imagine not having that makeup and while I might not be able to
point to "the absence of scarcity" or "not having meaningful work" as my
affliction, I think without a doubt _something_ would be afflicting me.
~~~
jdietrich
We can find meaningful work for everyone; we cannot necessarily find
remunerative work for everyone. We have the economic capacity to provide
remunerative work for everyone, but make-work is (almost by definition) not
meaningful, especially when it is overtly designated as such. We probably
don't have the economic capacity to provide everyone with the opportunity to
find their own meaningful work and we certainly don't have the political will.
Solving that conundrum is equal parts opportunity and crisis.
------
nostrademons
The other part of the Long Depression that's frequently glossed over is the
substitution effect. While prices _in aggregate_ declined, some prices
declined extremely rapidly while others (thanks to Baumol's Cost Disease)
declined slowly or not at all. The resulting cost differential led to a
fundamental change in the _structure_ of society and its values.
What represents wealth in an agrarian society? Land, livestock, horses,
slaves, servants, leisure time, and social connections. Many of these goods
_increased_ in price during the Gilded Age, or became impossible to obtain. No
more homesteading the West, no more slave plantations, independent ranchers &
farmers were driven out of business by the meatpacking & agribusiness
industries, the domestic servant class largely disappeared.
But what happened, eventually, is that these definitions of wealth became
marginalized in favor of ownership of new luxury goods. What represented
wealth in the 1950s? Having an expensive car. Owning a house in the suburbs
with electricity & running water, and a washing machine, dishwasher, and
vacuum cleaner. Flying on jets. None of these even existed during the Gilded
Age.
It's possible we'll see a similar resolution to the current crisis, where the
expensive and un-automatable pillars of a middle-class existence - health
care, education, housing - simply get marginalized as a backward remnant of a
previous era, and new status symbols - perhaps control of virtual currencies,
prowess in computer games, neural net uplinks, bionic implants - take their
place.
~~~
existencebox
So while I concur with your thesis, that events like this can motivate
fundamental changes in the structure of a society and its values, I'm going to
nitpick the "why", as I think the context of how these changes are forced is
at the heart of understanding their nature.
As such, I think your enumeration isn't quite accurate. Prior definitions of
wealth only became impossible to obtain if you didn't have enough money. You
cite land, certain notables in our own government owe much of their empire to
land (real estate.) While there certainly is a transferrance of many
technological goods via progress, key pillars such as social connections and
leisure time continue to be significant carriers of value, and as you say,
potentially become more difficult to obtain.
If health care, education, housing, become marginalized, I don't believe it's
as an anachronism, but out of unavailability, and new social signifiers will
inevitably emerge out of our very animal nature, but within our new price
range, and not out of lack of want for "more traditional luxuries". (to cite
anecdata, the number of peers who are at peace with their housing/commute/work
life situations, increasing inversely corresponding to pay)
------
imtringued
Honestly the problem doesn't appear to be very complicated.
Basically people primarily buy stocks (maybe housing too?) not for the income
they produce but for the price gains of the stock itself.
The goal of the central bank is to meet it's inflation target by injecting
money into the economy via policies like QE. The stocks rise in price as
intended and therefore the yield decreased. What was not expected is that the
stock owners do not care about the low yield because the capital gains caused
by QE outweigh the comparatively low dividend payments (in some cases none at
all).
So why not tax capital gains more and dividend payments less?
Capital gains happen whenever anyone (central bank or other investors) buys
stocks for more than you bought, the profits are not bounded by the success of
the company.
Dividend payments however always have to be paid out by the company based on
how much profit it made and therefore they are independent of the share price.
A stock with low yields is unattractive and therefore gets sold to buy a stock
with higher yields.
~~~
tabtab
RE: _The goal of the central bank is to meet it 's inflation target by
injecting money into the economy via policies like QE._
Not really. QE was a semi-emergency move. The hope was that managing interest
rates _alone_ would be sufficient, but it turned out not to be for deep
slumps. QE creates a lot of nasty side-effects and draws criticism to the
Central Bank they'd rather not have. I think the chairman once said the job of
stimuluses outside of interest rates was or should be Congress's job, not
them. But Congress bungles it with debt and reverse Keynesian timing due to
political and tax squabbles.
------
simonh
That's a log way from being the whole story, then or now. In the 1870s ok
unemployment was high at 25%, but the rate of growth of the population had
only just dipped below 30% per decade. Job growth was actually also booming,
just not as much.
Similarly if we take a global view over the last few decades, China added
hundreds of millions of people to the labour force. It's been the period of
the greatest reduction in poverty ever. That's got to count for something.
EDIT In fact enormous wealth has been created, and it's not all been
concentrated in the top 1%. The bottom 30% or so globally has also benefited
massively. It just hasn't really benefited mid range workers in the West, but
let's not pretend the last few decades have been a disaster, or even
particularly bad in the grand scheme of things.
~~~
dsfyu404ed
Agreed. And the post-civil war south adds a bunch of confounding factors that
make comparison hard.
In the 1870s there were a lot of newly free blacks who were saying "fuck
sharecropping, fuck being scared of the klan, I'm gonna work in a factory up
north" and they weren't moving north with jobs already lined up.
~~~
padobson
Wow. So do you see an analagous relationship between the freed blacks entering
the American labor market in the late nineteenth century and the Chinese
peasants entering the global labor market in the last 4 decades?
~~~
bwanab
It's not that far off. In both cases, it involved agricultural laborers in a
mass migration to jobs in newly opened factories that were building stuff for
mostly far off other people.
------
11thEarlOfMar
"..for production costs to fall, either there must be fewer people earning
wages, or wages must be lower."
Prices can go down without production or labor costs falling. Equipment is
frequently capitalized. The approach that CFOs take to applying both the
payments (interest) and depreciation are valves they can turn to modulate the
P&L. This is totally disconnected from supply, demand and pricing.
Moreover, the margins earned can be very high at the beginning of a product
cycle and therefore, still robust enough to justify the investment and labor
costs even when prices have dropped.
Finally, in many cases, the lower prices induce more demand. Average selling
price drops, demand grows, offsetting the price decrease.
This is all modus operandi for the display, semiconductor and computing
industries, among others.
~~~
1PlayerOne
I think you will agree that high tech industries fall into the higher end of
the bifurcated labor market.
------
roenxi
The paragraph starting "Some people regard this sort of deflation as benign."
is a lead in to some interesting observations and raises classic questions
about what 'success' means in an economy.
Consider a case of demand deflation where farmers decide they don't need
anything any more, stop growing crops in excess of what is needed to feed
themselves and sit on productive land like stone toads. I think there would be
near-absolute consensus that the situation was very bad.
The same situation but with coal and oil swapped for farmland would be
different. I happen to think that would still be a bad outcome, but there is a
pretty sizeable environmental lobby that wants exactly that and would call it
good. Assuming it happened over a bit of time so that alternatives could be
bought on line.
There is a key question here - who exactly should have the power to deny an
economy access to primary resources (particularly those linked to land
ownership)? Under what circumstances is that acceptable and unacceptable? That
is the mechanical underlying issue for why bad employment numbers correlate to
bad outcomes.
At the end of the day, reflecting on these issues makes me think we just need
a land tax based on an assessed value of land + mineral wealth underneath the
land. Something large enough that families have to repurchase their land once
a generation. That is the only idea I have that is even a little consistent
with property rights. The issue with dropping demand isn't that people are
unemployed - I _like_ being unemployed in the classic not-looking-for-work
sense. The problem is that people are willing to work and don't have enough to
live comfortably but are unable to get raw resources to do so.
The correct solution is to acknowledge that land is maybe the only resource
that a human can't fabricate through hard work and then construct a gentle
system of rewards and incentives to make sure that resources are deployed.
~~~
pixl97
>stop growing crops in excess of what is needed to feed themselves and sit on
productive land like stone toads.
I see some of the same problems in housing. It seems every homeowner wants the
value of their house to increase, and many times will lobby in such a manner
that causes their home prices to increase significantly by limiting
development. I've had people argue with me on Reddit that home values _must_
continually increase or people will stop making homes?! The insanity required
to believe that has become endemic in our society.
~~~
padobson
I had the exact same thoughts watching this:
[https://youtu.be/A5xKz5AcuXE](https://youtu.be/A5xKz5AcuXE)
Right around 4:20 he actually argues that real estate investment is a bad
thing.
What really blows my mind is that the production value of this video far
surpasses that of the average Reddit comment, though the argument is
essentially the same.
------
paulpauper
_However, the well-off don’t like paying taxes to support the unemployed and
the low-paid, so they use their electoral muscle to pressure governments to
cut welfare bills. As welfare bills are cut, poverty rises among the
unemployed and poorly paid. Governments may adopt draconian measures to force
the unemployed into work, even at starvation wages, and to quash civil
unrest._
The opposite has happened. In spite of low taxes, entitlement spending keeps
rising, such as dissablty, healthcare, education, and housing. Who is paying
for it? Bondholders. Other countries are unable to sell so much debt so
cheaply and thus have to resort to austerity.
~~~
kasey_junk
At the US federal level that’s largely only true for entitlement spending for
the elderly which is spread across large swaths of the economic spectrum.
The trend of the last 40 years or so has been relative cuts to entitlements to
the poor specifically.
------
PeterStuer
If only we could price in negative externalities, we would see a very
different supply/demand point. Since this is completely antithetical to the
current socio-economic powers and mores, I'm confident that true costs of
consumption and thus production will never be charged to the culpable.
------
microcolonel
(2013)
A lot of this essay is about "right now", which at the time was November 2013.
~~~
foobarbecue
Yes - and conditions are not the same. You might say we still have high
underemployment, but we certainly don't have high unemployment in the USA
today.
~~~
shusson
> we certainly don't have high unemployment in the USA today
When you take into account labor participation it's not such a clear cut
picture. [1]
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_force_in_the_United_Stat...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_force_in_the_United_States)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Rare Snowfall in Silicon Valley - gscott
http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/slideshow/photo//080121/480/b838d07683ef4a24a2a8d32ad6434e6e/
======
garbowza
I'm in Palo Alto but didn't see any snow... I guess I should stop hacking and
leave the apartment a bit more often!
------
mattmaroon
Global warming my ass.
~~~
davidw
Perhaps you should cut down on the beans then?
Here in Innsbruck, there's no snow at all, which is pretty odd for January,
apparently.
------
PStamatiou
if it snowed in Hotlanta 2 times last week, anything is possible..
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Karmalytics test - grimtrigger
hello world
======
grimtrigger
karmalytics test
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Continuation Passing Style in JS - jxub
http://matt.might.net/articles/by-example-continuation-passing-style/
======
jlarsen
Good article! I find CPS rather refreshing to work with in JS; so much so,
that I prefer using it for asynchronous code over promises or async/await. It
turns out 'callback hell' isn't so hellish with a few simple conventions, and
I feel that functional-style asynchronous code is much easier to get right
than imperative-style asynchronous code.
Shameless plug:
([https://github.com/somesocks/uchain](https://github.com/somesocks/uchain))
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Just how fast is too fast when it comes to web requests? - weinzierl
https://rachelbythebay.com/w/2019/11/12/post/
======
FooBarWidget
There _is_ such a thing as too fast. Flight ticket comparison websites like
skyscanner.com insert fake progress delays ("scanning airline website") to
make it seem like they're spending a lot of effort to do important work for
you. Research has shown that, without that delay, users trust such websites
less, or value them less, because the instantaneous response time is equated
to less valuable work.
~~~
Kaveren
I hear this every time TurboTax gets brought up. I think it's a lot healthier
to foster good relationships between users and tech so that they don't have to
distrust instantaneous actions.
As an aside, I'm also suspicious of research that shows ~100ms as the
threshold for "instantaneous" action, because in video games like FPS shooters
most players seem to dislike playing on ping that high.
~~~
TeMPOraL
I have the same view. 100ms is fine for actions that _require_ round trip to
the server, in particular when you hide the latency the way multiplayer games
do. But for things that are just local UI operations, if you're taking longer
than 16.7 ms, you're doing something wrong. A typical videogame can update the
whole screen _and_ all game logic in less than that.
~~~
londons_explore
Please pass this memo on to people who feel the need to animate UI elements to
hide laggyness, and then animate into and out of a loading screen (eg. Loading
an app on Android).
------
Deimorz
Hacker News itself is a good example of a related topic: voting here _feels_
fast because the vote button disappears as soon as you click it, but it's
actually very slow.
If you open your browser's Network panel in dev tools and vote on something,
you'll see that it sends a request, gets back a 302 redirect, and then does
another request to load a whole new copy of the page you were voting from in
the background (and then just discards it). At least from my location, it
consistently takes about 1.2 seconds for each vote to finish, even though it
feels instant while using the site.
One consequence of this is that if you vote on multiple comments quickly, some
of your votes are probably being lost with no indication. If you try to vote
on something else before the first vote has fully finished, the second one
gets a 503 error, but there's no indication of this at all.
It happens to me often - I read a good reply comment, vote it up, and then
immediately vote up its parent (which I've already read) as well, since it
resulted in that good comment. If I come back to the page later I'll notice
that my vote on the parent didn't go through, and if you open the Network
panel and try this, you'll see it - the second vote 503s if your second click
was before the first one finished, but the site acts the same whether it
failed or not.
~~~
TeMPOraL
That's a good observation. I've noticed it happening too, since I have a
similar upvoting pattern: I tend to read a whole subtree, and then go back up,
rapidly upvoting comments in it I considered insightful. I've noticed that the
votes sometimes don't register, which is why I periodically reload the comment
thread and reupvote comments.
'dang, is there any chance this gets improved?
~~~
Deimorz
I tried emailing him about it a couple months ago, after I made this comment
about a different downside of it (bandwidth usage / response size):
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20854662](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20854662)
He didn't consider it an issue worth fixing, and didn't reply to my long
follow-up email trying to explain how wasteful and inefficient the current
voting process is and how simple it would be to improve. It seems unlikely to
change.
------
narsil
This is how I felt about Algolia's search when I first enabled it for our
Vuepress site at
[https://developers.kloudless.com/guides/enterprise/](https://developers.kloudless.com/guides/enterprise/)
(the search bar at the very top). I assumed it had loaded some kind of index
in memory via JavaScript since the XHR requests take < 30 ms (!) from my
location in San Francisco, which is pretty much instant. That's faster than
the delay between my keystrokes.
~~~
benbristow
Returns in the same speed from Scotland (Glasgow) too. One request was as low
as 16ms. Impressive.
------
neiman
I wrote a comment system for articles once that was super-duper fast.
The result was that it turned into a chat, so we had to add a "fake delay" for
people to treat is as a serious comment system.
~~~
j88439h84
That's hilarious.
------
ricardobeat
Here's a classic from NNG on 'UX time scales':
[https://www.nngroup.com/articles/powers-of-10-time-scales-
in...](https://www.nngroup.com/articles/powers-of-10-time-scales-in-ux/)
You can infer from there that anything around/under 100ms will feel like
direct manipulatio, interpreted by the person in the post as 'no request was
sent to the server'. The same interpretation might not result from a non-
technical person, it will just feel 'different' or they won't notice what
happened and submit it multiple times, if there is no success message.
You can also trace it back to one of their 10 heuristics: visibility of system
status. If users cannot perceive a change because it happened too fast, the UI
has failed and users don't know what happened. One of the reasons some
websites add artificial delays, as mentioned in other comments, is not only to
signify 'work' being done, but that flashing a spinner for a split second is
also a bad experience. You're better off normalizing every action to take at-
least-one-second, and ensuring the state of the system is always clear.
------
arkadiyt
The server hosting this website doesn't support TLS 1.3 - if it did then you'd
have 0 round trip time (0-RTT) session resumption and it would be nearly
identical to the http latency.
~~~
Thorrez
Do servers automatically support 0-RTT? I thought generally you have to
explicitly enable 0-RTT because it's vulnerable to replay attacks. Generally
you would only enable it for idempotent requests, and feedback is not
idempotent (unless the database explicitly rejects duplicate feedback).
~~~
Nextgrid
0-RTT is dangerous for POST requests (or any requests that modify data) unless
an idempotency token is present.
------
disposedtrolley
I've been on the implementation side of this kind of thing more times than I'm
proud of.
Hardcoded delays are especially prevalent in systems which attempt to emulate
a human operator, such as virtual assistants which are starting to replace
human live chat agents. The excuse is always UX related. Progressive
disclosure is cited a /lot/. Apparently users get a better experience when
systems pretend to be human and respond slowly, so we would hardcode delays
which were a function of the length of the response message.
------
mcqueenjordan
No such thing as too fast. If a user is confused about the interaction because
of how fast it is, then that's a UX problem to fix.
Speed is one of the most important properties of exceptional user experiences.
I'm building a developer tool and I'm ruthlessly optimizing for speed. Waiting
20ms for a CLI command versus 100-300 is a huge difference.
~~~
afiori
> If a user is confused about the interaction because of how fast it is, then
> that's a UX problem to fix
In some cases the confusion comes from a "did this do any work at all"
question. like git branching compared to svn for big projects. As other have
brought up, instantaneous reply in airline comparison sites can cause concern
of how deep the search was.
A similar paradox is with psychiatrist hourly rates or the placebo effect. The
high price (delay) is part of the therapy (interface).
~~~
TeMPOraL
Having your program sit in the chair and twiddle its thumbs to make it seem
like it's working is just one possible solution. It's tragedy-of-the-commons-
esque, because it perpetuates the myth that a given category of work has to be
slow.
Alternatives would include: results speaking for themselves, or saying
something like "Searched all 124,568,902 connections", or otherwise
reaffirming users the work has been done without making _them_ pay for it with
time.
------
z3t4
You need to tell the user that the message has been sent. If nothing happens
when you press the button (just an ajax call, no refresh) the user will think
there is something wrong.
The reverse can be used in an UI to tell the user that something went wrong,
for example in a window pull-down menu, don't hide the menu right away, do
what the user request, then hide the menu, so if it the request didn't
complete, the menu will still be visible.
~~~
rachelbythebay
Hi, the web page in question has always had something to say what's going on.
It's not beautiful but it does tell you that things are happening.
Right before it kicks off the call to the server, it lights up something to
say "Submitting feedback", and as soon as it finishes, it flips that to
"Feedback saved" (which now has a time attached).
Odds are, most people have never actually noticed the first message, since it
is quickly replaced with the second.
The messages appear just to the left of the button which was just clicked (and
right under the text field). So, in theory, it's right by where your eyes are
looking anyway.
But, here we are.
~~~
z3t4
Aha. You are on to something then. Your setup is old school. Maybe the advance
in network and computer speed has made it too fast :P
------
jobigoud
In a hobby desktop app, I show a splash screen before the UI is fully loaded.
After optimizing startup time, it's now at a point where a hot start is very
fast, less than 300 ms, to the point that you can't really read anything on
the splash screen. Cold start still takes a second or so.
Is there a best practice here? At which point do you stop showing a splash
screen? I've seen applications where the splash screen lingers even after the
UI is loaded, which seems weird to me and gets in the way of getting things
done.
~~~
KarlTheCool
Probably a skeleton screen would be better. Show an empty version of the usual
ui but with blocky placeholders as stuff loads in.
[https://uxdesign.cc/what-you-should-know-about-skeleton-
scre...](https://uxdesign.cc/what-you-should-know-about-skeleton-
screens-a820c45a571a)
~~~
jobigoud
Thank you very much for introducing me to this concept! This gives me some
ideas on how to organize the loading. There is definitely stuff I do in the
background of the splash screen that could be done later, after a simplified
version of the main window is loaded.
------
spondyl
I remember attending a talk about speeding up web UIs once and it got to Q&A
time.
I’d read some article about how if you respond too quickly, users can begin to
doubt that any work is really being performed, and I’ve experienced that
feeling a handful of times over the years myself.
Anyway, I asked the speaker that and everyone just kind of laughed, which it
does seem a little absurd on the face of it.
I guess it’s also pretty far from most peoples minds given the web is caked in
unnecessary bloat a lot of the time :)
------
jchw
It’s not that people are used to slow stuff, even if they are. It’s that there
is a psychological “magic number” whereby something is short enough to seem
instant.
There’s different values and tons of articles about this so I’ll just link a
random one. I don’t know if there are formal studies on it but I fully believe
in the idea that there is a magic “instantaneous” feeling threshold, just from
personal experience, especially with tweaking animation delays.
[https://www.nngroup.com/articles/response-
times-3-important-...](https://www.nngroup.com/articles/response-
times-3-important-limits/)
------
jasonlfunk
I've run into this before too. Sometimes I've actually added a delay timer to
buttons that show loading spinners so that the spinner appears long enough for
the user to see more than a flash. Is there a better option?
~~~
hayksaakian
Another common option is a "toast notification" (see android) or other
separate confirmation message to acknowledge your action.
"Sent X" or "Finished Y!" is sufficient to distinguish a failed ajax call from
a successful button press
~~~
raverbashing
Yes but be very careful with those. You don't want to spam the user.
I remember some years ago when Ubuntu file sync would pop a notification every
time a file was synced. That's a good example of what not to do.
------
baud147258
I feel like it's an issue we will never have on the project I'm currently
working on, all requests have a noticeable delay. I guess there's too many
layers on the back-end. And maybe some requests are totally not optimised
(like doing 20 select 1 elt instead of select 20 elts). And maybe there's no
enough caching. Or maybe the thing we're caching are not those that matter…
But first we still have to migrate off Internet Explorer (or at least support
another browser).
------
_squared_
> It's a link in the SF Bay Area, and the server is in Texas, so it has to get
> out there and back. That's at least 50 milliseconds right there when
> measured by a boring old ping.
Am I the only one surprised by this 50ms ping? I can reach cloud servers in
the SF Bay Area from Paris in 50ms - and I'm on wifi. Surely SFO-TX should
take much less time..?
~~~
Thorrez
According to this it takes 42ms to get from Paris to SF at the speed of light
in a fiber in the great circle path across Earth's surface. Ping is rtt, so
that would be 84ms.
[https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=paris+to+san+francisco...](https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=paris+to+san+francisco+speed+of+light)
On the topic of websites taking a long time to compute something, Wolfram
Alpha is slow. I wonder if any of that slowness is artificial like flight
price websites.
------
scarejunba
It's like if I go to the restaurant and order a steak and you bring it out
right away. I'm going to be suspicious.
~~~
ken
Good point.
“Are we to believe that boiling water soaks into a grit faster in your kitchen
than on any place on the face of the earth?”
It’s simply Occam’s Razor. Which is more likely in 2019: a webpage is fast, or
a webpage has a JavaScript bug?
------
zeristor
Nice pointer about NTP steps and time-smearing, can anyone recommend a good
website for dealing with these issues?
I may not be working on real-time systems at the moment, but I’ve had enough
exposure to them in the past that I’d like to scratch that itch.
~~~
ricardobeat
While it's a good idea to use performance.now() for it's better precision* and
monotonic guarantee, it's not really a huge concern for this kind of
application (measuring time between A and B on the client). You're extremely
unlikely to experience clock skew during those brief windows, and the entire
web relied on Date.now for performance monitoring for decades.
For dealing with timestamps reliably on the client, we'll just instantiate all
dates based on server time instead.
* at least in FF it has been rolled back to 1ms resolution due to privacy/fingerprinting concerns
------
quantified
To the last comment within the article: yes, we’re accustomed to laggy
websites. Most sites have tons of chatter/bloat/trackers. Refreshing to
encounter those that don’t. Thankfully HN is fairly low-bloat itself.
------
calpaterson
Apache, CGI and a C++ handler is refreshingly old fashioned.
------
uwydr
Whoever wrote that feedback is probably an engineer at reddit.
"I didn't get any 503 codes forcing me to click send a few times, this comment
obviously didn't get through"
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Microsoft's ARM blunder: Why Windows RT was DOA - bane
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/01/18/7_reasons_windows_rt_was_doa/print.html
======
brudgers
If Microsoft was a B2C company, the article would be spot on. They are not,
however, Apple. They are primarily B2B. Windows didn't come to dominate the
desktop because consumers loved it. It dominates because it provides a value
proposition to businesses. Success with consumers is part of that value
proposition, and one of the things which gives it an advantage over Linux.
RT is a long term strategy. It's not a tablet OS. It's the phone too, just not
yet, fully.It's not targeted at consumers. It's targeted at enterprise.
As a B2C company, Apple will not offer a roadmap or backward compatibility.
Google being an advertising agency, will always seek to read one's data.
Microsoft knows what it is.
~~~
kabdib
Xbox is "B2C", in a very big way.
The impression I got was that it was intended for consumers. Why else would
you only sell it in a Microsoft store? (I did see one in a Best Buy. It was
buried in with the other tablets, while there was a shining white table with
iPads a few feet away, with actual people around it fondling the merchandise).
It's true that MS did give most of their full-time employees free Surfaces. I
assumed this was to promote internal use, and hey, who doesn't like free
stuff?
The hardware is great, but the Windows group really, honestly didn't know how
to ship a tablet OS -- they're a B2B group trying to do B2C, but not really
understanding what it takes. The result is emabarassingly bad in spots. My
wife was having to deal with The Scourge That Is the Windows Registry, using
the event viewer and task manager to diagnose some bug in WinRT. They really
do not get it . . . or if they do, it's not at the level of design and
management where it matters.
You don't have to do this kind of mucking around on a Xbox. There are good
reasons for this. Yet the Xbox is based on Windows. Interesting.
Windows has been institutionalized inside MS to the extent that you can't ship
a platform that doesn't use it. You need to use a /lot/ of it, and it's a
procrustean bed, at best. Windows is getting really old and creaky; things
that you _might_ be able to justify on a desktop (e.g., a corrupt registry, or
a service horking and needing some TLC) are just death on a tablet, and having
consumers drop into desktop-level tools to fix stuff is just sad.
(Don't get me started on WinRT).
~~~
brudgers
Microsoft have always eaten their own dogfood. That's where Server and Office
and Project came from...and obviously, Visual Studio.
Giving RT devices to employees continues this tradition. It's also evidence
that this is an enterprise strategy, not B2C.
I used Windows 2.0. I was using WordPerfect when the first versions of Word
were being developed. Surface is an MVP.
[edit]
A Note about Xbox. The way Microsoft handled the RRoD issue was pure B2B. They
made it right for people out of warranty. Their choice of three years was the
same as the period over which businesses depreciate assets. A B2C response
would have been, "You should have purchased XboxCare."
[/edit]
~~~
SoftwareMaven
If its an enterprise play, how come its software doesn't tie into the
enterprise? No outlook, no power in Office, no AD integration: these are all
things critical in the enterprise.
MS is certainly going to take the intel-based Surface into the enterprise.
This one seems like a weird chimaera, sitting between the enterprise world and
the consumer world. And that won't capture the average tablet buyer's
imagination.
~~~
brudgers
That's a good question. The answer I think is that Microsoft's ARM strategy is
long term.
Instead of kludging around in the OS, you refactor Outlook, Office, Active
Directory, etc. to better address the new reality of less powerful devices
becoming prevalent. Clearly that's already happening as Microsoft pursues
improvements in the cloud. It is also the same direction the companies the
techpress love to compare them against - Apple and Google - are pursuing.
Microsoft's bet is that they will be better at delivering cloud services to
enterprise (and thereby to consumers). I think the evidence makes this a
pretty safe bet.
------
trotsky
I am going to ignore most of this because it's just more of the same (even if
a fair amount is true) - it's fashionable to dog on ms right now.
But declaring that using Windows RT (and by extension the full NT kernel) as a
basis for their tablet line was a fatal flaw ignores a whole raft of
significant potential benefits to across their whole product line.
I was surprised when I found out that they were doing a port for their tablet
instead of basing it on their mobile code base, but once they announced they
were going to be using mainline nt on the phone too it all clicked.
Let's get real: The core NT kernel team is the unheralded jewel of microsoft.
They put together a good base when their legacy16/32 base of 95/98 was clearly
close to technical self destruction. In 10 years Windows stability on the
desktop went from borderline worst to best in class by a notable margin. And
while few people realize it, they have been consistently the first major
player with modern security features and systems like nx, boot chain
validation, driver signing requirements, default auto software upgrades,
heavily improved os/browser sandboxing, document version based backups, 1st
party FDE, and on and on.
Note I'm taking the NT kernel team. Not microsoft as a business, app
developer, marketer, pariah. I have code in the linux kernel, am typing on os
x and goog/aapl make my gadgets.
All I know is if I saw tablets/phones as an existential threat to my business
and my earlier efforts had clear technical problems, I'd want to put my best
team thats proven they can evolve on it. It's a perfect time - phones are
shipping 4 cores and 2 gigs, meanwhile my server 2012 domain controller has
been running great with 2 vcpus and uses on average 700mb.
At the same time laptops and servers are making a huge push into super low
power operation. This requires more than just hardware changes - the mobile
os's work hard on freezing workloads that aren't actively being used and it
makes a big difference. Traditional desktop OS's are super bad at this because
of history and existing applications, but future laptops and datacenters are
destined for similar techniques. Even if WinRT dies horribly, the laptops
people buy in a few years will be benefiting from microsoft's shared learning
there. And of course, maybe that full windows laptop they buy won't be running
on an x86 cpu.
I'm not rushing out to buy a surface or lumia it's true, but they certainly
have piqued my interest and in my opinion they are currently doing the best
technical/product/design work that they've done since... pretty much ever.
~~~
seanmcdirmid
What is sort of weird is that Microsoft is the only company that is doing this
with their own kernel. Everyone else (Google, Apple) have appropriated some
other open source technolog for that (NetBSD for OS/X, Linux for Android) as
if the kernel somehow wasn't a competitive advantage anymore.
I have no idea which approach is "better," this is just an interesting
observation and might hint at the values of the companies involved.
~~~
trotsky
I think building a tier 1 (or even tier 2) from scratch has gotten a well
deserved reputation for being borderline impossible.
Just consider how many great efforts have crashed in the last 20 years:
AmigaOS, GemOS (Atari), OS/2, BeOS, MacOS9, Palm, Symbian, WinCE and others.
The ones that are still hanging on don't paint a much brighter picture.
I'm sure there are a few teams out there that would have a good shot, but the
daunting task+access to good/free that your staff already has experience
with... well.
That said, it's great MS is still at it - heterogenous infrastructure is
probably a lot more resistant at a macro scale.
------
timbre
Has Microsoft _ever_ produced a good version 1? Maybe XBox? I don't know much
about games. But for the most part I think what MS is good at is slowly
improving a turd until it's really quite nice. DOS, Windows, IE, Office, and
Visual Studio were all much worse than their competition initially, but
successful by their fourth versions or so.
But I don't know if MS has the heart anymore to go through a few rounds of
failure to reach success.
~~~
rednukleus
Most big tech products are like that. The first Android and iOS devices were
pretty crap (but showed promise).
------
mittermayr
to be honest, what fascinates me is that microsoft seems to have invested a
lot of work the past few years to bring forward a pretty decent line up of
integrated products. if you want windows and office like you had, that's fine.
and much of the windows 8 UI disaster was actually made up by the press to
have a great story, even that one video with the guy's dad. i was shocked when
i saw that. then i installed windows and while setting up my account, it
actually taught me about the new things pretty well. there's room for
improvement for sure, but compared to apple, they do not only need to come up
with a reasonable set of visible features (yes, this is how the masses work,
not us here), but also make these mostly visual features feasible for business
and consumers. people tend to forget that talking about 'business' does not
mean a brooklyn hipster photography shop, or a startup (although there are
just as many employees there) - it means a small shop in india, a global giant
like boeing or a government system in germany (munich switched back).
and, in all that chaos, they need to present a clear thread from the mobile
sales guy to enterprise software, from consumer home to consumer mobile.
apple is basically focusing on getting the story at home right. now they have
the luxury of adding to that, which they become less and less effective at.
the iphone was fantastic, and my home is now equipped fully with apple. but it
sucks that this is where the story ends, at least for now (i'm sure they've
figured this out already).
i'd love to see microsoft getting a bit more love, honestly. all these guys
working hard, being the 'bad guy' since the 80's and everyone forgetting that
there's a reason they're still in business, were never close to being shut
down and very rarely every fire more than a few people. when they do, it's
even in the news (last firing spree iirc was 2000 employees, 3 years ago or
so, with +100k staff).
very sad that the 'press' still finds it lovely to tell us all how much
microsoft really sucks. i love visual studio, i love c#, i love my iphone but
man the windows phone 8 is so smooth and great to use, i love the macbook it
beats any other notebook, but I also love windows 8 and the freshness of it.
what a drama world.
~~~
btipling
I imagine, since you say you love C# are you a .Net programmer? Others have
pointed out that .Net programmers are Microsoft's biggest cheerleaders these
days and have a conflict of interest in speaking about Microsoft's future
since maybe they have staked their career on .NET.
~~~
zanny
Personally, if I wanted an interpreted language with bytecode, I much prefer
C#. Much nicer language than Java. But the windows tools suck in my book (VS
is slow as hell, their compilers are arcane, etc) and I much prefer Mono. The
nice thing about Mono is that you can target every platform ever with it,
including mobile.
So if I were contracted to write something business class in something
interpreted, I'd definitely put C# with Mono at the top of the list. It is
much nicer than Java to develop in, and has platform parity.
------
kayoone
I still think MS are up to something with Win 8. Look at the new Thinkpad
Helix for example. Its a full fledged i5/i7 11.6" Laptop running Win8, and if
you remove the Display you have a i7 powered tablet running Win8. Basically
all your computing needs in one device. Sure they need to sort out a few
things here and there, but this is the 1st generation of devices which looks
really good. WinRT is DOA though, it needs alot of work and i dont see that
worth it.
------
Amanda_Panda
Yeah, even as a .Net developer who generally has high praise for C# and VS, I
agree that the WinRT Surface was DOA. Its exactly like those Android tablets
that came out in 2011 with Android 3.x-really nice devices, definitely not
garbage, but aren't worth the price they are being sold at. The difference is
that was two years ago and Android tablets are finally moving ahead, after
dropping in price (Fire, Nook, N7) and improving massively in terms of the OS
on parity with iOS (JB and up). MSFT can't afford to enter the market like
this two years late.
I'd say that the tablet should'e been priced at 299, with the keyboard cover
thrown in. Maybe that'd have increased its popularity. On the plus side it
also has file system access, command line, and powershell (for the 1% of the
market who are geeky Windows sysadmin types). It also should've been sold at a
lot of different stores right out of the gate.
------
relaxatorium
What's up with the repeated use of the term "fondleslab" here? Is that actual
UK slang, or is the author just a weirdo?
I could not concentrate on any points made in this article because the
repeated use of that term was wildly offputting.
~~~
mixmastamyk
Use of a funny word is wildly offputting?
Reminds me of an ancient bit on HBO's "Not Necessarily the News"... guy in the
dark complaining bitterly at the TV, they rush him out the door into the front
yard, limping in bathrobe, his eyes squinting in the sunlight, narrator loudly
proclaims "GO OUTSIDE!". ;)
~~~
relaxatorium
"wildly" might be overstating it, but I find it gross. Same way some people
just don't like the word "moist", I guess. I was curious where the word came
from.
Anyhow, back to our regular discussions of what Fondleslabs are going to
conquer the market in 2013.
------
mikecane
What problem does Windows RT solve? Aside from niche use cases for IT types,
nothing I can see. Potential customers seem to agree -- they're not buying it.
~~~
zanny
It solves the problem of Microsoft not having a tablet. There was a big pie in
ipads, they wanted some pie, make a tablet. While they were at it, they could
make it one of the most closed platforms ever conceived to try to make that
app store money. Because that is where the new revenue is at, after all. That
was Microsoft's arguments, at least, I'd imagine.
~~~
mikecane
>>>It solves the problem of Microsoft not having a tablet.
For _customers_.
------
rbanffy
I'm old enough to remember Apple II's (and personal computers in general) were
the BYOD of the late 70's and early 80's.
~~~
SoftwareMaven
That's an interesting point, as it shows that today's BYOD could crystallize
into another homogenous world. I kind of thing it won't, though, just because,
in the late 70s and early 80s, personal computers were rare and relatively
expensive things. In today's BYOD, we are talking much greater proliferation
at much lower cost.
~~~
rbanffy
I'm not thinking less about consolidation and more about disruption. BYOD is
the personal computer to Microsoft's mainframe.
------
dschiptsov
Excellent slogan: _Microsoft: The software stinks_
or it is better suited for Java?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Placing name and specialty on scrub caps improves patient safety in hospitals - bookofjoe
https://www.boredpanda.com/doctors-write-names-profession-scrub-cap-rob-hackett/
======
netsharc
Heh, a long winded article (also with pictures! And Twitter embeds!) for
something that fits in a Powerpoint slide or 2.
Benefits of having names on scrub caps:
\- Improves communication
\- etc...
~~~
bradknowles
Long winded?
Is that why the panda is bored?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
$100 million startup accelerator: The Blasting Station - scottannan
http://blastingstation.com/
======
officialchicken
I can't wait until they announce the winners... with startup claims like
"We're the viagra for pets," and half-trillion dollars in backing, what's not
to like?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Skinny fat founder strips for launch of startup - Julianhearn
http://www.bodyhack.com/blog/skinny-fat-founder-strips-new-company-1557
======
edw519
Impressive, but who wants to look at some half naked dude when you could look
at this:
+-------------------------+ +-------------------------+
| BEFORE | | AFTER |
| | | |
| Lines of Code: 33,467 | | Lines of Code: 11,261 |
| Bug Rate: .037% | | Bug Rate: .013% |
| Daily visitors: 13,239 | | Daily visitors: 59,283 |
| Conversion rate: 3.2% | | Conversion rate: 6.9% |
| Daily revenue: $3,932 | | Daily revenue: $9,321 |
| HN Front Page: 0 | | HN Front Page: 22 |
| | | |
+-------------------------+ +-------------------------+
~~~
ericflo
I don't understand the relevance, can you please provide some context?
~~~
tptacek
"We're all entrepreneurs here and we all know what actually matters, so if you
had just told us about your business and what you did to grow it, you could
have skipped the half naked picture."
Which, agreed.
~~~
ericflo
Fair enough. The thing is though, he posted it on the BodyHack blog. We may
all be entrepreneurs here, but are all of their readers? I'd be cautious in
judging him too much.
~~~
tptacek
That is a very good point. Thank you.
------
friggybum
Julian, there are quite a bit of typos on your site. Copy with typos doesn't
lend credibility. Would you like some assistance with proofreading?
Congratulations on your work, and I think the site is a good idea.
I wonder: perhaps since you're offering your site as an alternative to
broscience [as linked] you could use phrases like "we believe" or "it is
theorized" or support your nutritional claims with the science behind them.
For instance you say that it is a good idea to supplement omega fats, despite
getting plenty of them in the diet. There are those who would disagree and say
that as long as you're maintaining ~1:1-1:3 ratios of o3:o6 you're a-ok.
~~~
Stratoscope
I wouldn't normally comment on this, but since you're offering proofreading
services... :-)
"Julian, there are quite a bit of typos on your site."
Maybe you meant:
"Julian, there are quite a few typos on your site."
The phrase "quite a bit of" refers to something you measure, not something you
count. And it would never be worded "there _are_ quite a bit of..."
So you might say:
"There are quite a few eggs in that basket."
"There is quite a bit of snow on that mountain."
(edit with one more thought...)
One good way to help keep this straight is to remove the word "quite":
"There are a few eggs in that basket."
"There is a bit of snow on that mountain."
~~~
ericmsimons
I think this comment is unnecessary in its current form - do you have anything
to add regarding typos on the website?
------
AznHisoka
Funny.. InternetBrands was inquiring about my health affiliate site around
2011 as well. But I made the opposite decision: not to sell for high 6
figures. A month later, Panda happened and traffic dropped 90%. Ouch =(
BodyHacks looks cool, reminds me of what Tim Ferriss was doing for 4 Hour
Body.
~~~
StavrosK
For those of us who don't know, what's Panda?
~~~
MichaelJW
A change to Google's ranking algorithm that was rolled out last year:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Panda>
~~~
StavrosK
I see, thank you.
------
ajays
For those of us too .. ahem .. cheap to cough up the dough for a meal plan and
an exercise plan, are there any free options? I'd like to get back into shape
again, the winter months were brutal to the waistline.
~~~
awj
A lot of people will have a lot of advice, but the simple truth is that the
only thing that works is diet and exercise.
Being in shape is a lifestyle issue. It's not something that happens overnight
or that you can do in one go, it requires a fundamental change in how you
approach living. I'm not trying to discourage you, but to steer you away from
the "you can fix it quick with no effort" snake oil that abounds.
My advice:
1\. Become your own expert. Learn how your body works, how nutrition works,
how exercise works, how ... I've found that reddit's fitness community [1] has
some great places to start. There's a ridiculous amount of good information
out there. (Protip: most of the good info can cite studies, less than half of
the bad even bothers)
2\. Make it fun. Learn new recipes, try activities you've always wanted to do,
do _anything_ but force yourself to change. After a while the causation
between "not fun" exercises or diet changes and their benefits will sink into
your brain and make things easier, but to start if it sucks you'll probably
quit.
3\. Don't agonize over the scale. Your body weight fluctuates throughout the
day and various activities. It's not uncommon to see a single day +/- 6lb
change _just in the water your body is holding_. Aim for _feeling_ better (or
_looking_ better, if that's your goal) not a number on a scale. Weigh yourself
when you start, then come back after three months.
4\. Be persistent. You're talking about a lifestyle change here. These don't
happen overnight. You'll probably spend a long time being disappointed at
apparent non-progress then wake up one day wondering when things changed. Do
your homework and learn what you need to do, then start doing it and trust
that the results will come. In a world where we can use our phones to identify
and buy the song that's playing right now, results in this come agonizingly
slow.
[1] <http://www.reddit.com/help/faqs/Fitness>
~~~
neutronicus
> Weigh yourself when you start, then come back after three months.
Dissenting voice here:
As somewhat of a numbers junkie, weighing myself every day is absolutely
crucial. I know the numbers fluctuate (if you weigh yourself every day, you
can't help but learn that), but they can give you a much-needed reality check.
More importantly, I got myself addicted to taking data, and the most precise
scale I had available was at the gym ... so I went to the gym.
You'll definitely be able to see yourself trending downwards.
~~~
aaronblohowiak
Isn't the circumference of the waistline a better measure?
~~~
neutronicus
I started out pretty fat; I think my weight was changing faster. Probably as
the cube of my waistline. :p Also, my girlfriend at the time (a nurse)
informed me that a lot of weight loss in the beginning is visceral fat, and
won't necessarily manifest as shrinking dimensions, but will make you
healthier.
------
zavulon
I found that for me personally, getting fit is not a problem, it's keeping the
weight off is the issue. Sure, the 12 week program looks impressive, and I
have no doubt that if closely monitor everything, providing details of every
single meal and exact exercise you have to do, anyone with enough willpower
can achieve the goal. But what's next?
~~~
bitsoda
This is why I eschew any type of program that isn't sustainable. I'd rather be
in fairly decent shape all the time by making sound decisions in terms of diet
and exercise than be a glistening mound of underwear-worthy male model. Eating
clean with a few bodyweight exercises and about 5,000 steps/day sprinkled into
the week usually does the trick.
------
desigooner
As far as nutrition & supplements, examine.com is a great resource that
dissects various studies and presents information in an easy to digest fashion
E.g. Fish Oil: <http://examine.com/supplements/Fish+Oil/>
~~~
aaxe
Also a useful FAQ section: <http://examine.com/faq/>
------
chrisacky
I really really struggle with proper eating when it comes to my workouts. I'm
a vegetarian and have been all my life. But I eat so much crap.
I would say that 70%~ of my diet is made up of carbs. It's really ridiculous.
I also find that I usually don't have my first meal of the day until about
4-5pm. Which is usually a plain cheese sandwhich, a pizza or home cooked
noodles with vegetables.
Being a vegetarian and disliking cooking is a pretty tough deal! Ha.
Also julian, I tried to email you from your website, but your contact form is
broken, after Googling for 5 minutes to find your contact information I
couldn't find anything for bodyhack. Do you have an actual email? (Finding
this on your site was impossible).
~~~
Tichy
I don't think carbs are necessarily bad. Vegetarianism was long deemed healthy
(maybe still), and I don't see how low carb should be possible for
vegertarians (if you have ideas, please tell me).
I have a non-proven theory: perhaps humans can adapt do different diets, not
only different environments. Or actually in former times the environment
pretty much dictated the diets. So if humans were good at settling in diverse
environments, it practically follows that they are good at adapting to
different diets. So maybe not the modern 90% junk diet (sugars and white
flour), but the difference between low and high carb might not be so
important.
Also not sure why pizza tends to be condemned so much. Sure, if you buy a
pizza at a restaurant, it is probably soaked in fat and covered with cheap
cheese. But if I make one at home, it tends to have a lot of vegetables on it,
and the amount of cheese doesn't have to be excessive. It seems at least
healthier than the average cheese sandwich.
------
beswift
Very cool idea! I've been wanting to create something similar since reading 4
hour body (but am no where near proficient at building stuff yet!). One thing
think iwould be really useful and would help help the site stay relevant into
the future would be to add some type of genetic relevance component. Users
could upload their profile from 23andme (or other site) and compare
effectiveness of various methods across varying alleles. There is a really
cool android app (diygenomics) that would give you a base for health and
fitness related markers)
------
inovica
I've just done a 12-week body transformation course here with personal
trainers (5 days a week) and its amazing what results you can get. Through
diet coaching, weights and cardio tailored for me I have loads more energy and
look great. The key now is not to slip back into old ways so they are doing
another programme about maintaining everything and are moving more into yoga.
One thing - on your video the guy says $10/month but you are charging
£10/month.
~~~
Julianhearn
Sorry about that we had a change of heart at the last minute, and decided to
target the UK, as it's the smaller market, and get some initial data before
"launching" to the US.
------
prsutherland
I'm a little disappointed to find out that it is £10 a month per plan. The
messaging is not clear that I am buying one plan and not just access to the
website as a whole.
Why would I want to keep paying £10 a month for the same plan? I'd just pay
once, download it and print it out and be gone. Only reason I'd stick around
is to see new plans.
------
dwharden
Received a coupon code for a free month, but was immediately charged anyway.
Tried to email the address that sent the coupon code, and it failed.
Tried to use the contact form on the site, and it failed (it says I need to
fill out the word in the image, but there's no CAPTCHA on the page).
Not a great first impression.
------
vijayr
bought a plan, out of curiosity. while I don't doubt the results, the website
is quite un-friendly for beginners.
1\. There is just one line, saying "if you don't know what this means, just go
to bodybuilding.com and search for it". It'd take a couple of minutes to
directly link the exercises to their video pages, and save a lot of time and
frustration for the users.
2\. As someone pointed out, quite a few minor spelling/grammatical mistakes,
even on the FAQ page
3\. "We will provide fitness plan that can completed at home with zero
equipment." - doesn't seem like it
I'm not trying to be negative or anything, just trying to make it a bit more
user friendly. The website itself is very straightforward, so it would be nice
if the founders can do these minor tweaks.
------
codesuela
my first thought was: how is this different from all those ebook merchants
that promise you become the terminator in 7 days but then by skimming through
[http://www.bodyhack.com/men/six-pack-and-11-5-body-fat-
in-12...](http://www.bodyhack.com/men/six-pack-and-11-5-body-fat-in-12-weeks)
I actually found it to be pretty reasonable.
To be perfectly honest though I suppose this only appealing to men with the
advertised body shape (naturally skinny) and Julian with 68.5 kg doesn't look
very healthy or good to me but I'm not a woman and to each his own so please
don't take this as a personal insult. I figure some critical feedback is
better then none.
~~~
dgallagher
Julian looks athletic in the final pictures, like a distance runner or
triathlete. As a distance runner I have a similar body type too.
At the gym you'll see a wide array of body types. Lean and mean, all the way
up to muscular and bulky, and all things in-between. Body builders are HUGE
compared to me and can lift far more than I can, but I can absolutely
"destroy" them on a treadmill. You tend to discover the thing you like doing,
specialize in it, and dominate it. What you choose to do partially dictates
what you'll end up looking like.
~~~
codesuela
yes I completely agree and understand what you mean because I know people who
look athletic and don't only have incredible stamina but also unbelievable
strength. What I meant to say is that I don't want (and probably can't) look
that athletic because I'm more of the bulky type (hate running, enjoy lifting
weights). But I am sure many others do and many women and men find that
attractive. I'm the last one to tell you how you should look and if you feel
comfortable with how you look and feel that's awesome and you should stick to
it. I just wanted to say that personally I did not find the end result
appealing.
------
dbalatero
I'm also interested in how to maintain body shape once you hit your 12-week
goal. It seems like the exercise plan might get modified at that point. Do you
have any plans to address that?
~~~
Julianhearn
Hi dbalatero,
Yes we will provide a maintenance plan. We will make that clearer on the site.
Thanks for the feedback.
Julian.
------
antidaily
Do you always blog and submit posts in the third person? Just kidding -
congrats on what looks like a good idea. Look out, Tony Horton.
------
vaksel
how do we know he did it just by following the program...and not by hiring a
personal trainer and a personal chef...or by simply doing 4 hours of exercise
every day?
since the other co-founder is a personal trainer...I'd imagine it was a bit
more hands on, than just using a website.
there is a lot of financial incentive here to improve the shown results
------
ericmsimons
I'm getting an error when I sign up saying that my email address isn't
valid...?
------
cdrxndr
First thing I noticed is that they ripped off the Apple-Command key design for
their logo.
Couldn't find anything about copyright/trademark on the symbol ... anyone know
if it was used prior to Apple (or is in the public domain)?
------
noja
There is no way those body fat percentages are correct.
~~~
Julianhearn
Hi Noja,
What make you say that? We were extremely careful when measuring body fat. We
used the 4 point test, using body fat calipers. It is seen as a reliable test.
Regards,
Julian.
~~~
noja
My bathroom scales measure body fat, and they read 10% for me. A friend of
mine's scales put him at 20%.
I don't look like him on the right, and my friend doesn't look like him on the
left...
~~~
boundlessdreamz
Bathroom scales cannot reliably measure body fat % from what I know. They try
to measure impedence and it is affected by many factors -
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioelectrical_impedance_analysi...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioelectrical_impedance_analysis)
10% is an extremely low body fat %.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_fat_percentage#Typical_bod...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_fat_percentage#Typical_body_fat_amounts)
------
carguy1983
Question for founder: do you get a better user response from highlighting your
own progress pics, or Michael's?
I would imagine most people look more like Michael than you (I wouldn't even
call you skinnyfat, just skinny) - do you get a better response from people
who want to go from decent condition to ultra fit like your 'after' pics, or
from overweight people who are looking to get un-fat?
~~~
Julianhearn
Hi Carguy,
It is fair question. The simple answer is... I don't know. The site only
launched today. We have a range of body types going through challenges but I
was the first to finish the 12 weeks. Michael has also finished but we haven't
got all his data into the site yet.
But I think you are right, there will be more people bigger than me who what
to get in shape, than people my size. But we will just have to wait and see.
Thanks,
Julian.
~~~
neutronicus
I've always found it a little depressing how many strength / fitness programs
want to take the skinny, flexible guy and turn him into the Hulk, instead of
taking the fat, inflexible guy and turning him into ... something other than
fat and inflexible.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Who Did What in Every Agatha Christie Murder Novel - simplertms
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-07-02/who-did-what-in-every-agatha-christie-murder-mystery-novel
======
e40
I would love to get the data for this. Would make a nice demo for a graph
database.
------
themodelplumber
Hopefully just a meaningless correlation, but it's a bit sad to see "other
family" taking more and more of a prominent antagonist role toward the end of
the author's working life.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why data preparation frameworks rely on human-in-the-loop systems - datascientist
http://radar.oreilly.com/2015/07/why-data-preparation-frameworks-rely-on-human-in-the-loop-systems.html
======
techbio
Much machine learning, essentially mapping in-the-wild data to training sets,
uses de facto human goals.
Active and integrated human-in-the-loop training deserves tool development
towards an orientation for domain experts over ML/datascience experts.
While further algorithmic development creates opportunities for scale, this is
more correctly a UX problem.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Create a Writing Habit with Blurt - awaxman11
http://blurt.app
======
awaxman11
Just hit my 60th weekday in a row of writing at least 350 words thanks to
Blurt
Here's some more details on creating this habit. On blurt of course :)
[https://blurt.app/@awaxman11/creating-a-writing-
habit/5c60ed...](https://blurt.app/@awaxman11/creating-a-writing-
habit/5c60ed9ee7eacb010f5bc607)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Messages for Mac: From Beta to Primetime - sea119
http://teknadesigns.com/messages-for-mac/
======
DHowett
I'm reasonably certain that Messages in 10.8 is just as bad as it was during
the Beta period.
I still get notifications on every device for every single message I receive.
I still cannot send messages at all from one computer - they act sent, and
when I haven't gotten a reply I see that they have awesome red exclamation
badges.
I still receive messages out-of-order or not at all; these issues occur on
freshly installed systems as often as those inundated with outdated bits, at
least for me.
Messages.app has only marginally improved since its debut as a beta
application, and it is far from ready for prime time.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google’s Duplex Uses A.I. To Mimic Humans (Sometimes) - thibautg
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/22/technology/personaltech/ai-google-duplex.html
======
leahcim
Looks like they could use Upcall.com
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
DuckDuckGo Watrcoolr, how does it work? - jjman
https://watrcoolr.duckduckgo.com/watrcoolr.js?o=json
======
jjman
I am just wondering if you someone could shed light on how this js/json
application works?
I am trying to make something similar but can''t find how it was done and
whether it is server side rendered or client side. etc.
Thanks in advance. JJ
------
dvh
I just see json blob
~~~
jjman
Yes, my question is how can you achieve the .js url to output different json
blob depending on the url argument passed. E.g. The same url when passed the
following argument returns the output of an article.
[https://watrcoolr.duckduckgo.com/watrcoolr.js?o=json&l=12023...](https://watrcoolr.duckduckgo.com/watrcoolr.js?o=json&l=120234)
~~~
thecolorblue
This is a question for stackoverflow.com. Send me an email with what language
you are working in, and I can point you in the right direction.
~~~
jjman
Thanks mate.
I am trying to find out how I can send you an email but I am a bit lost here.
Could you please help me how. Should I provide my email address through the
comments area?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
AI startup claims to automate app making but actually just uses humans - smohnot
https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/14/20805676/engineer-ai-artificial-intelligence-startup-app-development-outsourcing-humans
======
codesushi42
Good grief.
When will people wake up and realize that AI today is just capable of "curve
fitting"?
Yes, that is a bit of a simplification. But not far off.
Neural networks depend on back propagation. They are really just another type
of optimizer for maximum likelihood, using gradient descent. They work better
on high dimensional, non linear data than other methods before.
But if the function you are attempting to model is non differentiable, neural
networks won't help you.
They certainly aren't capable of performing magic tricks like writing an app
for you.
~~~
rohan404
Disclaimer - I'm a VP E at Engineer.ai
AI is certainly not magic, and as an industry we're super far away from what
would be considered real AI in the technical sense. That being said, AI has
become a catch all term for everything as simple as linear regressions, all
the way through to neural networks.
We don't claim to be able to write apps using AI, we're a platform that is
trying to use AI and general automation in order to optimize the traditional
SDLC. Actual code generation/synthesis is years away in my opinion and there
is far more impact that can be had by going after other manual aspects of
software development.
~~~
ammar2
> we're a platform that is trying to use AI and general automation in order to
> optimize the traditional SDLC
I don't think you can get away with corp-speak/buzzwords here this easily.
Could you elaborate on how exactly you're using AI to "optimize" software
development?
~~~
rohan404
Disclaimer - I'm a VP E at Engineer.ai
Happy to elaborate - in a nutshell what we're trying to do is automate as many
parts of the traditional software development lifecycle as we can, and for
whatever cannot be automated, put in place the right tooling to allow for
repeatable results.
Our thesis is that most applications today have a huge amount of duplication
at a code level, and process level. We're trying to use reusable building
blocks (well structured libraries, templated user stories, wireframes, common
errors, etc.), in order to immediately solve that duplication. That being
said, we're not talking about automatic code generation, it's more about being
able to assemble these reusable building blocks together at the beginning of a
project so you have a better starting point. There will always be
customization required for any project however, and that is a human led
process.
Apart from actual development, we're also trying to automate processes around
project management, infrastructure management, and QA. For example, what we've
already been able to do is automatically price and create timeline estimates
for a project without any human involvement, determine which creators on our
network are best suited for a given project, evaluate and onboard developers
on to the network, setup developer environments, and a lot more!
~~~
ammar2
Sorry if I'm missing something obvious but it's not very clear to me how the
first part significantly benefits from AI. Code re-use is just good software
engineer practice, are you somehow able to figure out what libraries to use
automatically? Isn't this trivial to perform by a human anyway?
The latter part, as far as figuring out what work to assign and estimating
time-frames does seem like a legitimate AI use case though.
~~~
rohan404
Disclaimer - I'm a VP E at Engineer.ai
We're attempting to tackle the problem holistically. That means that we're
tackling every single step of the traditional product development process. All
the way from how you ideate, price, and spec, to sourcing and managing
developers through to QA and infrastructure management.
For example, today, our ideation/pricing/spec tools leverage applied ML,
creator management leverages facial recognition for fraud prevention, and
infrastructure management uses statistical modelling.
We're trying to make code re-use a repeatable and predictable process rather
than just a best practice. Today in the industry it's a purely led by
developers, and very often is done solely at their discretion in a manual
fashion. We're attempting to platform enforce code reuse, across autonomous
distributed teams and products. Apart from just deciding what the optimal
building blocks for a project are, the actual assembly or intelligent merging
of these building blocks in an automated way is non trivial and mirrors modern
automative assembly lines.
------
omarhaneef
For all those people asking why the VCs did not catch this: what sort of
diligence would you do?
I don't know the company or the details. Assume two scenarios:
1\. The target company is willing to lie, fabricate code, mix in tensorflow
etc.
2\. The company will not outright lie, and will answer honestly. However, they
are very optimistic about their chances, and about their ability to deliver
some sort of AI-enabled solution.
Right now they have -- let's hypothesize -- some sort of funnel and they route
bits of code to different developers. They think they will replace some of it.
They are using various AI libraries.
Suppose you believe that even if the AI won't eventually code the whole app
from scratch, it will make huge strides in certain areas that we don't even
know about. These strides will dramatically reduce the cost of making an app
(eventually, you believe). Suppose you think that this company is basically an
exploration of those areas.
In other words, be generous to the diligence undertaker.
Now, how would you know? What steps would you take to that you suspect these
people did not?
(Because this is the internet and no one knows for sure: this is a real
question, and not a rhetorical attack on people asking why VCs were "tricked")
~~~
gowld
It's not an unsolvable problem. Software is much easier to read than to write.
It's much easier to see if something works than to make it yourself.
~~~
mLuby
>Software is much easier to read than to write
If you mean software is easier to use than create, sure. But if you mean it's
easier to understand existing code than write new code, countless rewrites
suggest it's not so simple.
------
mkagenius
> Duggal “was telling investors that Engineer.ai was 80% done with developing
> a product that, in truth, he had barely even begun to develop.”
Due diligence? I mean, I understand VCs are not the smartest bunch but if you
are investing $30M, please do the due.
~~~
manigandham
VCs use portfolio theory. Quantity over quality. Due diligence takes too much
time, effort and money that can be better spent just getting into another
deal.
~~~
TuringNYC
>> VCs use portfolio theory.
I dont buy this argument. I used to help manage a large portfolio. Portfolio
theory does not mean that you can put in garbage and magically get more than
garbage (actually, it did with CDOs, since they were tranched, but even that
ended up tragic if you recall 2008.)
Portfolio theory, esp with A-round and beyond VC where your portfolios are
smaller (~15 to 30 entities) requires due diligence.
~~~
manigandham
You don't know it's garbage. Disqualification is easier than qualification.
Funds say "no" to the obviously bad or incompatible. Whether something is a
"yes" takes research and is never certain.
The entire game is picking the winners so how much are you going to dedicate
to predicting that (which is massively unpredictable) vs just investing in
another shot that may be a winner.
------
Maro
Couple of comments:
1\. Fake it 'til you make it is pretty accepted in startup world. It's only a
problem if you don't actually make it. If you do, then you're a hero---even if
you made wildly unrealistic projections initially [and got lucky]. It's kindof
unfair, but nobody said life is fair :)
2\. Most software people (like me) assume that due diligence goes deep into
software. I've been through DDs at several companies, including my own
startup: it's not that deep. I would say growth metrics, financials, legal
structure, executive team is more important.
3\. If you haven't read the Theranos story, read it. It's a good example what
can happen in the extreme, edge case.
~~~
smt88
"Fake it til you make it" should not extend as far as lying to your investors.
If "fake" for this company meant that they told customers there was AI and
there wasn't, no big deal. Customers agree to a service at a certain price.
Why do they care how the company accomplishes it?
Investors, however, do care about whether cost-saving "AI" works today vs. in
2045.
------
onlyrealcuzzo
Ha! This company tried to recruit me a little bit ago. The CTO walked me
through the business model, and it was pretty obvious they were just a typical
agency. I pointed that out, and he got defensive and tried changing subjects.
In their defense, there is a slight twist in that they subcontract to hundreds
of other agencies when those agencies have additional capacity. Essentially,
they arbitrage on that.
But, yeah, the pitch that they use AI to build apps -- it's pretty ridiculous.
They don't. Even with a very open mind to that phrasing, it's still a huge
stretch.
~~~
rohan404
Disclaimer - I'm a VP E at Engineer.ai
To clarify, while we intend to use AI to solve a variety of different
problems, we're not using it for actual code synthesis (ie. building apps).
Instead we are leveraging code reusability and programmatic stitching/merging
for our software assembly line.
In addition to that, we are leveraging various AI/ML techniques throughout the
rest of the product development lifecycle, for areas such as
pricing/specing/ideation, infrastructure management/scalability, code
reusability itself and matching, creator (developer/QA/design) resource
matching, sequencing and dependency prioritization, and more.
~~~
smt88
Yeah, none of that sounds like AI. It sounds like standard features of IDEs
and PaaS. I can't imagine you have a programmatic way to save much time on
pricing/specinf/ideation because machines can't do that yet.
Also, the clear message of the company was "AI writing code that would
otherwise be written by humans".
Again, would strongly suggest you stop posting anything about this situation
without consulting a lawyer. Based on your HN posts, you can't claim ignorance
anymore.
------
areyouroot
I could imagine how their conversations with investors are going.
“When we said we use AI we meant An Indian”
~~~
RosanaAnaDana
You just made me spit protein shake onto my keyboard. You gonna buy me a new
keyboard?
------
madamelic
As someone who used to work at one of these places: shocking.
It pretty much always is this way. They pretend it is AI, then when it comes
out that it is pretty much all humans, they pivot to admitting it is "human-
assisted".
The humans were truly creating data that was being fed back in, that wasn't a
lie. Engineers would have to poke at the bot a bit to get it out of corners it
would get itself into occasionally.
The big issue is the VC nature of the business. You are fighting a shot clock
on an extremely hard problem. So you have to rush things out to get to the
next step, then realize at the next step all of the data you collected, oops,
can't be used because there was a small issue.
Or maybe they realize a model was inaccurate and has to be rebuilt.
I truly don't think a VC-funded true AI company is possible, especially for
hard and fairly unbounded problems (speech is one thing, engineering is
just... that's insane).
If someone made a sustainable AI company that could run infinitely, that
company would have a huge shot due to that financial position.
~~~
goatinaboat
You could call it “artificial artificial intelligence”.
~~~
crazygringo
Yup, for many years that was Amazon Mechanical Turk's actual marketing slogan.
I haven't seen them use it lately, but I might have missed it somewhere.
------
DoreenMichele
I recently wrote two blog posts that touch on this. I honestly think many
people cannot tell real automation from "a box full of little elves with a
tech interface." (I often compare it to the MIB2 scene where Will Smith opens
the _automatic mail sorting machine_ and reveals a multi-armed alien rapidly
flinging mail, not robotic parts.)
It's made me less aggravated with certain things to realize that. It also
makes me wonder if founders are genuinely being intentionally deceptive or
just unclear where to draw that line themselves.
How much AI inside the box do you need to qualify as an AI company when
advertising what you do and wooing VC money? I bet some people honestly don't
know and some of those people may be in decision-making positions at such
companies.
Serious tech people may be clear on that, but most companies involve more than
just tech people. If your PR people don't really get it and your tech people
don't have adequate power to insist "You cannot market the company this way,"
then it will get sorted out in ugly headlines and court cases and the like.
~~~
rland
I think people come up with the idea of marketing things as having AI behind
them, before the implementation is fully realized. Once they have funding and
employees, they can't exactly back down. So they have to put humans behind the
solution as a stopgap. In their minds, it's temporary: they're just gathering
more data, they have real paying customers that they want to keep until their
solution is ready, etc. The little lie becomes a big lie and sooner or later
it will blow up for a lot of companies.
Uber's house of cards is a very transparent example, but there are many others
who don't even disclose that humans are at the wheel.
~~~
DoreenMichele
On the upside, it means that dystopian dreams of automation taking all our
jobs and creating an 80% permanent unemployment rate are laughable.
There will be plenty of paid tasks for people. They will just be online,
remote and we will need to sort out how to make this make financial sense for
all involved parties so it doesn't turn into a permanent underclass.
------
pdonis
"The company claims its AI tools are “human-assisted,” and that it provides a
service that will help a customer make more than 80 percent of a mobile app
from scratch in about an hour"
By the 80/20 rule, that would no doubt be the 80 percent that takes only 20
percent of the time to write; the remaining 20 percent that the tools can't do
is what takes 80 percent of the time to write.
------
jakozaur
Majority of AI startups are starting with manual approach to generate training
data set for future algorithms...
Plus it is a faster way to validate demand for given business model.
~~~
withusx5
Are there any proven examples of a company doing this (starting with a manual
approach), receiving investment, and eventually developing a working AI
product?
~~~
freehunter
Depends on how you define AI. If you're talking hands-off, learned-from-
scratch ML and deep learning. I'm not sure. If you're talking "used a human to
learn the steps and then slowly automated those steps", then you're describing
basically every company that's ever existed.
~~~
EpicEng
>If you're talking "used a human to learn the steps and then slowly automated
those steps", then you're describing basically every company that's ever
existed.
So, obviously not that definition then....
~~~
RosanaAnaDana
That's a pretty weak definition then. Might be your issue right there.
------
TrackerFF
One thing I've noticed in fundraising is that many potential investors almost
expect you to have some AI-driven solution.
Many don't even know what AI is, and would't be able to sniff out bullshit no
mater how much due diligence there's involved. Dumb money is flowing in, as
long as you have a great pitch and sleek presentation.
~~~
ng12
Any sufficiently advanced statistical model is indistinguishable from AI, at
least for the purpose of VC dollars.
------
kahlonel
Smells like Theranos. It's surprising how easy it is to fool VCs these days.
~~~
saagarjha
At least it can't literally kill people…
~~~
jbverschoor
Stress kills people
~~~
saagarjha
That's true of any job, though.
------
modi15
Contrarian view. Read the article top to bottom - there is no fraud here. This
is exactly how it should be done.
VC's dont know shit about AI and you cant expect them to.
Anyone building a cutting edge AI product, SHOULD NOT build it before selling
it product.
First use humans to build/sell the product and then in parallel train the AI
to take over. Often the training phase is best done using the human taskers.
The CEO - 'Sachin Dev Duggal' is doing it exactly right. Anyone claiming
otherwise, including the journalist who wrote this post, don't know what they
are talking about.
~~~
dragonwriter
> Anyone building a cutting edge AI product, SHOULD NOT build it before
> selling it product.
If they are selling a service and AI is part of the blsckt-box implementation,
sure.
If “its being done automatically by a machine” is your selling point, and you
haven't built a product that does that when you sell the product, it's fraud,
pure and simple.
~~~
modi15
If we are talking pure and simple, ALL business takes what you would call
'fraud' to get there.
------
flixic
I wouldn’t see it as a problem if human actions were systematically recorded
into a structured dataset to be used as training data.
But it seems from the article that the labor is not used for this purpose at
all.
~~~
xenocyon
Speaking more generally, I do think it is a _systemic_ problem in the world of
AI that we have to rely so much on human-labeled data, often done by low-paid
workers in other countries (like Amazon's Mechanical Turk) or harvested off
friction deliberately inserted into the human experience (like CAPTCHA).
The AI promise was that eventually the need for human labeling would end, but
the curve currently is going in the opposite direction and it's reasonable to
question whether it will _ever_ reverse.
------
hhas01
LOL, obvious #MagicalPixieDust peddler is obvious. Real AI is currently three-
to-eight years away, just as it has been for the last 40 years. They shoulda
just said it uses “computers”.
In the meantime, you know what _does_ work here and now? Building up a domain-
specific language to the level of that domain’s expert users, empowering those
users to tell their machines what they want without requiring a CS degree to
do it.
Small steps make Progress.
------
braythwayt
So, question:
Why is this fraud, but Uber isn't?
This company claims they're using humans to build apps while they develop an
AI platform out of hand-wavium.
Uber claims they're using humans to drive cars while they develop self-driving
cars out of hand-wavium.
Seems like the same model to me.
~~~
RosanaAnaDana
Yeah. This gives me about 0 pause.
Imo personal opinion, 'AI' at this point is about augmentation of human action
to reduce costs (time, materials, human attention, compute, etc), and
actually, if you know what you're doing, it works and can make you money.
My group works extremely heavily in this space. We use a combination of human
annotation and ML to speed up human annotation and improve the products of the
ML component. Rinse, wash hands, recur until 95% of predictions are 95%
accurate or better. Use ML to find the 5% of predictions that aren't up to
snuff and lay hands on them (this is the part where you have to pay people).
There is nothing shameful about including humans in the process.
~~~
braythwayt
Well, it just goes to show you, it's always something — if it ain't one thing,
it's another.
------
rgrieselhuber
Don’t they all?
~~~
btrautsc
this is the right response.
if you see an early stage company using "AI", then assume they are manually
doing most of the work right now.
They may have a clever way of making it smart in the future
------
rohan404
Disclaimer - I'm a VP E at Engineer.ai
We actually wrote a blog post a little while ago that might answer a lot of
the questions I'm seeing here: [https://blog.engineer.ai/a-little-bit-about-
ai-and-more-stra...](https://blog.engineer.ai/a-little-bit-about-ai-and-more-
straight-from-the-builders-mouth/)
~~~
smt88
This post doesn't clear much up. The things you describe that are done by AI
sound like project bootstrappers, libraries, or code-gen (in an IDE). None of
those require "AI".
I just ran a tool that bootstrapped most of a CRUD app for me. Was it AI? No,
because the program I ran didn't do any app-specific coding.
My honest advice is to talk to a lawyer and get this company off your resume
ASAP.
------
uasm
I like where this is going. Almost daily now, we're seeing reports of "AI
startups/companies/products/features" getting unmasked. Technical people knew
it all along, but corporate-speak, prefabricated demos, half-baked products
and puff pieces were slowly inflating that bubble. Glad it's bursting.
------
PopeDotNinja
If I were using that company & found out after the fact that they were mostly
people, I might feel a little misled, but I also kind of wouldn't care. AI is
a hot buzzword, but what I really care about is can I input resources (time,
money, unpolished diamonds, whatever) in one end of your black box and get
predictable results out the other end. If the answer is yes, do whatever you
want (in an ethical manner). Whatever you're building, whether it's powered by
people, software, IBM Watson, or free range chickens pecking buttons for
treats, I'm happy if it works at a price I care to pay.
Until we've truly built self-replicating machines, I just assume whatever
you're selling me requires a lot of people to stay competitive anyway. There's
no farm-to-table AI raised by AI farmers yet.
------
xenadu02
Any language or system sufficiently detailed to accurately describe the steps
necessary to solve the problem turns into a programming language.
A very large number of companies have tried to automate software development
with little success.
What is supposed to make these folks special?
------
tiborsaas
Probably the AI part is in the configurator, at most spec generation.
Development is still done by humans.
[https://imgur.com/a/hlsALdj](https://imgur.com/a/hlsALdj)
So a fancy new SAP but with cheap consultants.
~~~
lawlessone
probably automated the selection of templates in Android Studio and xcode
,lol.
------
lazyjeff
I'm pretty sure we already all knew they were using humans 9 months ago. Take
a look at the comments here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18391280](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18391280)
It seems like they were fairly explicit about it, so I'm not sure if the
outrage is justified. komali2 even noted explicitly, "There doesn't appear to
be AI involved. A very good business model, but no AI."
------
jshowa3
VC funding needs to stop. It's a complete cancer on the software industry. All
this money going towards half-baked promises that are completely overvalued,
only to fund companies for decades that never turn a profit.
Maybe I'll hire an animator or something and go to VC firms and ask them for
money by showing them an animation of a new flashy product I've never
designed. Better than working an honest living it seems.
------
mandeepj
Similar approach used by a lot of self-proclaimed self-driving car companies.
They have a driver and an engineer in the front seats but can't stop from
saying we have self-drivings cars on the streets :-) .
Also, the same pattern with Cloud hosted companies. It might be true these
days but back in the day - a lot of them were claiming to be hosted in the
Cloud to look cool but actually, they were using colo data centers.
------
gumby
I was a going to register "soylent.ai" and put up a roll of shame but the ai
registrars charge an arm and a leg. Perhaps someone else will.
------
orf
> The company was sued earlier this year by its chief business officer, Robert
> Holdheim, who claims the company is exaggerating its AI abilities to get the
> funding it needed to actually work on the technology. According to Holdheim,
> Duggal “was telling investors that Engineer.ai was 80% done with developing
> a product that, in truth, he had barely even begun to develop.”
Ouch.
------
vagsmith
so if humans do it, is it called 'Organic Intelligence' which could then be
called 'Artisanal Intelligence' aka AI.
------
lordnacho
This reminds me of a couple of KYC companies, the ones that help you check a
user's passport and other docs.
They talk a lot about algos, then when they demoed it to me it comes out that
they actually send my picture to India for a human to look at. There's
literally 24h service with real people there doing the "image recognition".
------
KaoruAoiShiho
This is yet another black mark on softbank. Seriously? This should be day 1 of
DD for anyone looking into any AI companies.
------
sajan45
They contacted me for a Software Engineer position, 2 months back by them. I
checked Glassdoor review, majority of those are stating that CEO is not a
person you will like to work with and several of them saying it is just manual
labor, no AI, everything they market is fake. I am glad I trusted those
reviews.
------
caymanjim
The HN title is "AI startup that raised $30m claims to automate app making
just uses humans". That's a painful and confusing sentence. The real title is
"This AI startup claims to automate app making but actually just uses humans".
Can someone set a more grammatical and accurate title?
------
jacobsenscott
I'm happy we are starting to move on from all the AI hype and BS. Hopefully
some of that VC money will start shifting to something useful. Mitigating
climate change, or educating children, or feeding children ... Nah. Just
kidding. VCs just want to pretend they are Tony Stark.
------
sebringj
I was attempting something like this but the company paying me to do it lost
patience around 30 days where I was only able to identify widgets visually
from mockups from past training data. This was a nice step but going to know
what to do with those widgets contextually got pretty rough.
~~~
rightbyte
You had 30 days to do an automated website builder with visual input? How can
the stakeholders be that dellusional.
------
codeisawesome
Hmm, I met these folks in Lisbon late last year, at Web conference. They did
tell me it’s humans building, and their play was to build MVPs quickly with AI
APIs - which I thought was honest and useful. Of course, I’m not a VC :D
------
NieDzejkob
> The number of companies which include the .ai top-level domain from the
> British territory Anguilla has doubled in the last few years, the WSJ
> reports.
This sounds like some statistics manipulation. Why limit yourself to
Anguilla?!
~~~
jrahmy
Maybe you're joking, but .ai is the ccTLD for Anguilla. I don't think they
meant to imply the companies in question reside there.
------
iMage
I'm always amazed by the funds that companies manage to acquire from VCs
without a (developed) product. Having recently read _Bad Blood_ it's
horrifying to see how often similar situations arise.
------
mikeash
Did they update their web site? Because as it stands now, it’s clear that
they‘re a standard agency connecting developers to people who want work done,
with some vague stuff about AI helping to match them.
------
Inu
They already tried this kind of thing in the late 18th century:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turk](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turk)
------
hzia
At GitStart we use a global pool of devs and mentioned that upfront.
We have still deployed a ton of models to improve quality and SLAs, but
embrace our human nature upfront.
This is bad faith to the extreme.
------
qaq
People are very creative at spinning consulting shops as AI software something
or other to get a higher PE. The most prominent example being Palantir.
------
bit_4l
So they feed their AI with food instead of data
------
mic47
The automation they described sounds like automation of part of project
management. why they are not selling that? :-D
------
welder
Reminds me of Kite - AI Autocomplete and Docs for Programmers. Just always
s/ai/marketing/
------
RocketSyntax
So it's an "I" startup? Almost like you get more than you paid for, haha.
------
ljm
It’s not a lie if you think ‘artificial intelligence’ means ‘pretending to be
clever’
------
Wowfunhappy
Relevant xkcd: [https://xkcd.com/2173/](https://xkcd.com/2173/)
> "Yeah, I trained a neural net to sort the unlabeled photos into categories."
> [...] Engineering tip: when you do a task by hand, you can technically say
> you trained a neural net to do it.
------
m-p-3
They took "fake it till you make it" to another level.
------
paultopia
I mean, "do things that don't scale," amirite?
------
NicoJuicy
37 k. for an app and it uses AI.
Didn't got through the bullshit test :)
------
plexiglass
Wizard of Oz prototypes aren't meant to scale...
------
zomg
their investors should have clarified what the "A" in AI stood for -- actual
intelligence! :)
------
sbuccini
Is this securities fraud?
------
cartercole
i mean they need to generate a training set first right?
------
linker3000
[https://xkcd.com/2173/](https://xkcd.com/2173/)
------
sgt101
Anyone remember Spinvox :
[https://kernelmag.dailydot.com/features/report/2573/spinvox-...](https://kernelmag.dailydot.com/features/report/2573/spinvox-
the-shocking-allegations-in-full/)
My eyes popped open when I read who the author of this was ! Utterly Loathsome
- but apparently doing some journalism in 2012.
------
nordiccoder2
AI is the biggest fraud of the 21st century. Especially Deep Learning. Deep
Learning is a bubble that has no application in reality. And I mean NONE. Even
in cutting edge FAANG companies that claim to use modern AI techniques, Deep
Learning is barely used. Because it's simply not reliable enough for real
datasets. Classical statistical techniques, along with human domain expertise
are what runs the world. Not new-fangled hyped up stuff.
~~~
toxik
This is absurdly wrong, DL is used in industry all the time.
~~~
nordiccoder2
Show me one example where Deep Learning is used in production?
~~~
scotradamus
See my comment above. Image processing alone has saved millions of dollars in
engineering hours alone.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Pinterest Wins $7.2M and Injunction Against Cybersquatter - khadim
http://allthingsd.com/20130930/pinterest-wins-7-2m-and-injunction-against-cybersquatter/
======
huhtenberg
> _A San Francisco judge awarded Pinterest $7.2 million in damages and legal
> fees_ ... _against Qian Jin, a Chinese cybersquatter_
Uhm... so that's a US judge awarding damages against a Chinese person. What
does this translates to practically speaking? This guy won't be able to enter
the US. What else? Will it be up to the domain registrar to comply with the US
court decision? What if the registrar is not US-based?
~~~
icebraining
They're .com addresses, supposedly the court can get Verisign to pull them.
[http://blog.easydns.org/2012/02/29/verisign-seizes-com-
domai...](http://blog.easydns.org/2012/02/29/verisign-seizes-com-domain-
registered-via-foreign-registrar-on-behalf-of-us-authorities/)
------
mahranch
It says "Order granting default judgement", does that mean that the guy didn't
show up or have an attorney present to represent him? That sounds like he
didn't try fighting the suit and Pinterest won by default (same thing happens
civil suits when the defendant pulls a no-show).
~~~
tikhonj
Exactly. From the article: "since the defendant didn’t even respond to the
complaint, it’s not exactly clear whether he will pay up."
So not only is this a default judgement, but the $7.2 million will probably
never materialize because the defendant is in China. However, I'm guessing
that Pinterest will get control over the domains (which, to them, is probably
more important) because the registrars are US-based.
------
Honigdachs
Seems like the defendant is just a "shell company". Qian Jin in Chinese is 金钱,
or gold.
------
mil4n
there you go... Who owns The Switch?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Can you relate to what this investor says? - hacker_jumper
This was interesting - In the video Julie Meyer talks about what her investment company looks for in startups and entrepreneurs. What's especially interesting is the 90 hour week.<p>Personally, I find myself working 90+ hour weeks more often than not with http://www.corsvi.com although recently I've decided to place importance on sleep(!) to keep balanced and healthy (it also helps with thinking clearer).<p>What do you guys think, can you relate to what Julie talks about? Interested in hearing your views/experiences.<p>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiJtAOBceM8
======
chris_dcosta
She's also reasonably popular with the BBC - featuring on their Dragons Den
reality TV series, and now in the online version.
I think it's very easy for VCs who court the media to rely on statements like
this. They don't have to do the work. But I also think it's pretty
irresponsible: it seems to suggest that success requires this level of effort
and that if you don't commit yourself to a 90 hour working week, you'll fail.
I'd hate to see someone take on a 90hour working week for any extended period
without suffering mental and physical issues.
I've no doubt passionate people can live and breath their projects, but that's
a different thing altogether. We all know that you can feel like that when you
believe in your project and it's going well.
My advice, for what it's worth is give it your best shot, learn when things
don't work out, and be prepared to evolve your idea to overcome hurdles.
------
hugo31370
Every time a person talk of hours of work as a requirement or measurement a
puppy dies. I think she's trying to convey that passion and dedication are
key, but the 90 hours reference is unfortunate. Why 90 and not 100 or 80?
Efficiency is they real metric. I know people who can do in 2 hours what for
others would take 4 or 5 hours.
Now, I do think if you're passionate about your idea, you're constantly
thinking about it, and you're going to spend a lot of sleepless nights in
order to build it. I think passion and dedication is a requirement but I don't
like the hour mark.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why I'm Done With Social Media Buttons - jenniferDewalt
http://solomon.io/why-im-done-with-social-media-buttons/
======
luigi
The last time there was a rant like this, I did an analysis using real-world
data:
[http://luigimontanez.com/2012/actually-social-media-
buttons-...](http://luigimontanez.com/2012/actually-social-media-buttons-work-
really-well/)
The Nieman Journalism Lab followed up a few months ago:
[http://www.niemanlab.org/2013/11/tweet-buttons-are-less-
of-a...](http://www.niemanlab.org/2013/11/tweet-buttons-are-less-of-a-big-
deal-than-they-used-to-be-for-your-twitter-strategy/)
~~~
sixQuarks
That's the problem with an audience like HN. We are not average internet
users.
Oftentimes an ugly site with ads and popups everywhere will perform better
than a beautiful, minimalist site. Sorry, but that's just reality.
~~~
knieveltech
[citation needed]
~~~
apunic
I can confirm this. All web projects I worked on which were minimalistic,
clean and well designed had less stickiness (page impression count to visits)
compared to sites stuffed with content, pics, links, extra widgets here and
there.
~~~
justincormack
That could just mean people found what they wanted.
------
minimaxir
It's also possible to make your own social media buttons if you're concerned
about the privacy/performance impact. I've done that for my own site and it's
worked well so far. (although theoretically the tradeoff is that it leads to
less sharing conversions)
~~~
udfalkso
This. I made my own for FB & Twitter. No external loading dependencies. Pages
load so much faster. Feel free to view-source/copy: iknow.io/labs/
------
Houshalter
Social media buttons are annoying and useless as well as a major privacy
concern. Block them with adblock and the filter "Fanboy's Annoyance List"
which can be found on this page:
[https://easylist.adblockplus.org/en/](https://easylist.adblockplus.org/en/)
~~~
devindotcom
Ghostery does it well too.
~~~
quadrangle
Still use it _as well_ myself but
[http://disconnect.me/](http://disconnect.me/) is similar and fully FLOSS
whereas Ghostery is sorta weird and proprietary and actually helps the ad
tracking biz
~~~
fixanoid
Ughh, Ghostery isn't FLOSS, but that does not make the code invisible, many
places where you can see it like: [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/ghostery/vers...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/ghostery/versions/) or ghostery.com/ghosteries/chrome/
And there is this:
[http://www.areweprivateyet.com](http://www.areweprivateyet.com)
~~~
mp3geek
Would be interesting if
[http://www.areweprivateyet.com](http://www.areweprivateyet.com) would test
against more Adblock lists.. rather than a select few.
------
lazyjones
Sharing on social media is functionality that should be built into browsers or
implemented with browser plugins (it should be a single click on some browser
toolbar). There's no point in replicating it on every web site in a
performance-hampering and intrusive way.
~~~
dredmorbius
Interesting point. The default Android browser (at least the one on my
increasingly dated Droid device) has a "share" menu item. The only things I
use it for are to email myself articles or to post links to Readability.
The whole "Social" thing is .... largely annoying.
~~~
SyneRyder
Yup, Chrome on my Nexus 5 also has the Share menu, and with the Facebook &
Twitter apps installed (and also some App.Net clients), they all appear in the
Share menu. It works well. On the desktop I use the Pocket & Buffer extensions
instead.
Of course, out of sight, out of mind - if your audience isn't tech savvy,
perhaps they need that visible reminder to share something.
------
Theodores
I have always hated social media buttons. What surprised me about them was how
everyone thought you needed them. There is also poor metrics for them, on your
own site (or a client's site) there is really poor visibility on who has
clicked those links. You would think that if they were that valuable people
would at least know who clicked them but they don't.
Also the craft of redesigning the buttons annoys me. How many designer-years
have been spent redesigning the Twitter bird? This activity completely goes
against basic UX principles but you cannot tell designers the truth about
that.
Remember page counters? I think a 'Predator vs Aliens' style sequel to social
network buttons is needed where you can see x million people have viewed this
page but 0 people have shared it on StumbleUpon...
------
adwf
I think an often overlooked issue is the _type_ of social media button used on
a site. All too frequently, you'll see every single media button at the end of
a blog post or article, with no consideration as to whether it's appropriate
or not.
For example, take a technical blog post about something to do with computers.
Facebook-wise, why on earth would most people share this? It's technical, and
only a few of my friends out of about 150 (the average is ~130 I'm told) are
actually techies. The kind of post that goes on FB is mostly personal or
funny, never work.
Whereas Twitter, I might have followers who have 10,000+ followers of their
own, ready for retweeting. This is more like a public broadcast, therefore I
will be reaching the demographic I want, regardless of whether I know these
people or not. It's an entirely different marketing strategy and yet you'll
almost always see the whole cluster of buttons, without any consideration to
their appropriateness.
~~~
mathattack
I agree with your point. Buttons facilitate sharing at the expense of poorer
design. You can mitigate this somewhat by nudging people towards sharing it
where you want them to put it.
------
Nursie
I'm done with them because I don't see a reason that facebook should get to
track my non-facebook browser activity.
I wish more web designers would think of the privacy violations they subject
their users to, rather than just their own page impressions.
~~~
debt
"...privacy violations they subject their users to..."
You lost me. Which privacy policies are they violating?
~~~
dwaltrip
Here, the word privacy is referring to a general concept, not the formal
policy of an organization.
~~~
benched
Rule zero of Hacker News: never make an utterance without some appeal to an
established authority.
------
eknkc
Last month, we had 50,943 facebook likes, 23,935 twitter tweets and 820 G+
shares via that plugins on our website.
For Facebook, it is around 5% of all likes our articles collected. Not bad
actually.
~~~
windsurfer
How much of it were bots?
~~~
mbesto
Categorically speaking, does it matter?
~~~
windsurfer
Yes. Likes can be almost meaningless. Some may say categorically meaningless,
but I am referring to bots farms liking at semi-random.
------
bluthru
A share button in the browser is my favorite solution. Twitter and Facebook
aren't tracking you, there aren't embeds to slow down sites, and the user
knows where the button is every time.
~~~
k-mcgrady
In case you didn't know Safari has this built in.
~~~
dredmorbius
Also the default Android browser (somewhat buried however).
------
zrail
On my site I made my own buttons. They're just a row of icon links that open
in a new tab. No javascript, no loading from a 3rd party site, just a plain
link.
Example: [https://www.petekeen.net/life-of-a-stripe-
charge](https://www.petekeen.net/life-of-a-stripe-charge)
~~~
rom16384
I like it, and I think I'm going to use this in some of my sites. Just a minor
correction though: You should add the tag rel="nofollow" to the links so that
the search engines won't accidentally follow them.
------
bencollier49
I disagree with this strongly. In instances when I've had content from my site
go viral, Twitter and Facebook shares via buttons on the content have
definitely had an impact.
~~~
Theodores
...he says without sharing a single link to one of these anecdotal mega viral
posts...
------
GrinningFool
This is a bit disappointing to read.
I came in hoping to see "because I realize I am making an assumption as to my
readers' willingness to be tracked across multiple web sites". Instead, I got
"it doesn't work because nobody really uses them".
------
dangayle
More articles like this please, because I have to convince other people that
I'm working with that my design isn't broken because it doesn't have social
media buttons slathered all over it.
I have _always_ hated it. From a UX standpoint, it's just one more piece of
distraction. I don't want your eyes looking at buttons, I want your eyes
looking at my content.
(Or clicking on my ad, which I also hate but can't get rid of.)
------
quadrangle
Nobody should even be seeing them anyway.
[http://disconnect.me/](http://disconnect.me/) C'mon folks!
------
donniezazen
Internet is broken in a lot of ways including the Social Media Buttons.
Reading this post made me think how seriously we need, for an example, Android
style social sharing button in Chrome. Also text be kept as text and not
something that is dynamic.
------
dudus
I wish I could +1 this post.
------
adventured
Are there any stats on the number of users that click buttons vs manually
sharing the same link? Are we at a point in the maturity of social networks
and user adoption, where it's no longer worth the annoyance trade-off (ie
users will _mostly_ share what they want to anyway, regardless of buttons)?
I'd be pretty happy if I never used another social media button in a project.
------
apunic
The main reason why they are done:
\- Facebook is not viral anymore and share or likes hardly bring extra traffic
\- Twitter is mixed: in general you do not get decent traffic from them; but
from time to time a +100K follower user either shares or retweets your thing
and you get extra traffic or he/she initiate kind of virality (again this
happens even for high traffic sites not very often)
\- and of course they are just ugly
------
BorisMelnik
For some reason lately I've been thinking what you were able to prove with
analytics. I just know people are sharing my stuff, but they aren't using the
social sharing buttons. Especially in "our" industry (dev, design, marketing,
etc) people would rather craft and curate a post then have it shared in some
type of weird way on one of those buttons.
------
alexchantastic
Here's a pretty lightweight way to include the functionality (and customize
the look): [http://cferdinandi.github.io/social-
sharing/](http://cferdinandi.github.io/social-sharing/)
I created a small JS snippet (still need to put that up on Github) to grab the
counts too which is quite easy.
~~~
riquito
Nice work, your page is really fast. I'll keep an eye on it.
------
ohwp
HN doesn't have a share button. But somehow a lot of stuff is shared on this
site...
------
collyw
I kind of don't trust the ones with a facebook logon. Sometimes I have signed
in and used some stupid app such as "do you make him horny in bed?", then it
gets published to my timeline....
Makes me wary of such things these days.
~~~
skelsey
Doesn't Facebook timeline review prevent this?
~~~
collyw
probably, but I really can't see the effort in learning extra features of
facebook. It maybe did ask me after a host of other yes /no type buttons to
the point I wasn't paying attention. Easier not to touch the button when I see
one.
------
bobbygoodlatte
If you're offended by the buttons, why not try a simple line of text w/ a
hyperlink after the article?
"If you found this interesting, I'd love it if you would spread the word [on
Twitter]"
------
justhw
As he said it depends on who the readers are. But regardless including a
static version with just a link is a good idea for users on mobile and tablet.
And also load time won't be affected.
------
snowwrestler
The secret to social media "buttons" is to design your own and implement them
with non-tracking intent URLs. Then they actually will become a tool of
convenience for your visitors.
------
ctrl
If your looking for a great resource for adding custom links with your own
images for social media buttons
[http://atlchris.com/1665/how-to-create-custom-share-
buttons-...](http://atlchris.com/1665/how-to-create-custom-share-buttons-for-
all-the-popular-social-services/)
This solves: load issues, ugliness of buttons (you can style or use images
however you like), social media button visitor tracking
------
Paul_S
I knew about social media buttons because I have been blocking them ever since
they began but I was not aware of how widespread or rather ubiquitous they
have become. What is the point of them? Doesn't facebook already have this
functionality on their own page? Those share buttons seem to me like something
that should be a browser plugin not part of a website.
~~~
cma
The business model is to spy on your browsing/reading habits to build a better
ad profile. Being able to deliver your browsing history upon subpoena is just
a "business" side effect.
------
dredmorbius
For my own personal case, anything tagged "social" or "share" in CSS is among
the first stuff I strip (after anything that moves, slides, pops out, and/or
is statically positioned) when restyling sites' stylesheets. Which I've done
... 980 times now.
If I want to share, the URL's fine and dandy.
------
bhartzer
There's social media buttons, and then there are social media buttons. The
buttons that include actual numbers, like how many have Tweeted, +1d or Liked
the page may prove to be more useful. It shows a user that they're not the
only person that has viewed that page. It's not a 'ghost town'.
------
daphneokeefe
I often wonder how often this happens: Someone becomes frustrated with the
website or its content, and the presence of the social media buttons
encourages them to click and vent about their dissatisfaction. If the button
wasn't just right there, the moment might pass.
------
meerita
I've noticed that my blog didn't have too much changes in terms of use when we
talk social buttons. It didn't matter if they were at the top, bottom. People
consume my blog on several devices and apps and they seem to share stuff with
the apps itselfs.
------
frade33
I was done with them at least 2 years ago. There 're two kind of visitors on a
website, one who would share it, and other who won't. Former would still share
it if there are no buttons. Hence there is no point.
------
dangoldin
Timely post for me. I removed the "ShareThis" plugin from my blog last week
due to the sleaziness and have been thinking of putting together a
replacement. I guess in this case I just won't bother.
------
vespaceballs6
I hate the design of those buttons, but as a content producer, they are great
validators of content. As in, "Wow, this post has 230K Facebook Likes, I guess
I should read it!"
------
mattberg
"WHAT MAJOR WEBSITES DON’T USE SHARING BUTTONS?
The one that immediately comes to mind is Information Architects."
Welp.
~~~
atestu
Haha yeah… since when is this a major website? Not even in the top 100K…
(alexa)
Sharing buttons make it easy for non tech users to interact with your content
on desktop. The alternative for them is to open a new tab with the social
network they use, and paste your link. You lose the people who are too lazy to
do this (a large chunk of your audience, don't fool yourself into thinking
your content is so amazing that people can't wait to share it).
------
piyush_soni
I use DoNotTrackMe for Firefox. It does not sell details to ad agencies like
Ghostery does.
~~~
fixanoid
Heh, it may not sell it to ad agencies, but it sure sends data back to them.
DNTMe is probably the worst choice to use for tracking protection, heres a
study we have on the topic
[http://www.areweprivateyet.com](http://www.areweprivateyet.com)
~~~
piyush_soni
Aah. I see this website is by Ghostery itself. Anyway, what makes you say
DNTMe is probably the worst choice? I use it along with ABP, and in the cases
I have observed so far (few hours), both Disconnect and DNTMe block almost the
same things. Of course, Disconnect.me mentions a very big number but it is
just the number of requests and not the actual number of 'trackers' blocked.
I'm still doing more experiments, but so far both are almost the same. And the
numbers Disconnect shows are buggy - they are sometimes different when you
expand their sections.
And yes, still not going to use Ghostery. :)
------
tomrod
Take them off. Browsing on mobile is broken with these obnoxious buttons.
------
benched
I have never in my life fucked with these things except page-load passively.
Never placed one, never turned one on, never had a reason to click one. But I
don't drink Coca-Cola either. Do these things really make the world go round?
I mean, _really?_ I mean do corporate bottom lines really depend on this shit?
Or is it just that they absolutely have to wring every possible percentage
point?
~~~
bunderbunder
Remember web counters? It's like that.
~~~
benched
In the sense that they're on everything, but serve a real purpose to almost no
one?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Mathematics and Computation - altro
https://www.math.ias.edu/avi/book
======
garganzol
I would also mention that LISP is a highly enlightening instrument that
connects math (lambda calculus) with programming (Turing).
Once you get LISP you will never separate math and programming again. Two
slightly different facets of the very same computational thing.
~~~
TheRealPomax
If you never separate those two again, you will have lost the ability to
reason about programming at the various levels of abstraction... which would
be a net loss, not a net win.
~~~
chongli
Could you expand on this? I’m not quite sure what you mean. Are you suggesting
that there are levels of abstraction in programming that can’t be modelled
mathematically?
~~~
AnimalMuppet
Let's say I'm working on a user interface. Thinking of it in terms of lambda
calculus instead of user interaction is... let's call it sub-optimal, _even
though the code can be thought of in terms of lambda calculus._
Now, you can come up with some metrics to mathematically analyze certain
aspects of the user interaction. I don't think that's what garganzol was
talking about, though.
~~~
chongli
_you can come up with some metrics to mathematically analyze certain aspects
of the user interaction_
And we have done that! Fitts’ law [1] gives us a very good way of quantifying
certain aspects of user interface design. I can’t tell you how many UIs I’ve
used (lost count) that have ignored this very basic principle and as a result
they’re extremely frustrating to use.
In any case, it may not be what garganzol was talking about, but it did
resemble a comment I’ve seen made many times. In the vast majority of cases
I’ve seen, people who claim that math is inapplicable to some problem are
completely unaware of a rich and storied field of mathematics dedicated to
that topic.
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitts%27s_law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitts%27s_law)
~~~
AnimalMuppet
Sure. But like TheRealPomax said, that's a different level of abstraction. If
you need to be thinking in terms of Fitts' Law, and you're thinking of your
code in terms of lambda calculus-level math, you're going to have a rough
time.
------
rory_isAdonk
Loving reading this, thanks altro.
Motivation gained to do a MSc in Statistics.
~~~
altro
There are so many beautiful books, notes, blogs on theoretical computer
science...Keep reading ;)
~~~
petulla
Share some!
~~~
dpflan
Check out altro’s other submissions, quite a few PDFs.
>
> [https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=altro](https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=altro)
------
zozbot234
Tl;dr: an excellent book on computational complexity theory.
------
deyouz
Thanks a lot!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Where the STEM Jobs Are (and Where They Aren’t) - stablemap
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/01/education/edlife/stem-jobs-industry-careers.html
======
thisisit
Another in the long line of clickbaits. While it starts out by making a case
for lack of non-CS jobs, it slowly devolves into an ad for "Insight Data
Science Fellows Program".
Then to avoid being marked as native advertising, it adds info about data
sciences division at University of California, Berkeley. The article then ends
abruptly without having a satisfying conclusion.
Is it just me or we can't seem to get lot of infomration from the media
without some kind of covert advertisement in between?
~~~
seibelj
[http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html)
Almost all news is paid for outside of current events and politics (although
those sections are biased by the editorial room). Pay enough money and you’ll
get into the NYT, it just takes the right PR agency to pitch the story
correctly.
------
GCA10
Much better data on what people actually do with their majors has been
gathered by the Brookings Institution's Hamilton Project. This initiative,
published earlier in 2017, looks at career paths for about three million
people, major by major. A link is here:
[http://www.hamiltonproject.org/charts/median_earnings_for_la...](http://www.hamiltonproject.org/charts/median_earnings_for_largest_occupations)
What Brookings/Hamilton observes ... and the NYT overlooks ... is that lots of
people with STEM majors find work in relevant fields that happen to be
classified in irrelevant ways. For example, math majors tend to show up as
financial analysts, actuaries, high school math teachers, etc.
There's a lot of quant work on Wall Street these days, all of which is
classified as financial sector work, even though it's STEM-intensive and miles
away from gabbing about mutual funds with retirees.
------
pitaa
Is this implying that 2/3 of those who graduate with an engineering degree
don't get a job in engineering? Because that sounds absurd. Sure, people can
and do get jobs in industries not exactly related to their degree, but over
half? No way.
~~~
dogma1138
2/3ds not getting an actual engineering position or a job in their immediate
field sounds about right.
------
ukulele
As an engineer, this data doesn't jibe at all with my experience. Is it some
catch with the data treatment, or am I just missing something that others
experience?
~~~
dogma1138
Likely not having an engineer in the title and not having an engineering
discipline as a requirement.
Your experience also might be skewed if you are a “software engineer” which in
many places today is abused as a title both in education and in the job
market, same goes for computer science degrees.
In too many places SE and CS share nearly an identical program which
traditionally wasn’t the case and with a very lackluster focus on the
engineering part as too many people equate programming with software
engineering.
------
stevenwoo
OK, this is not a geographical thing that I gleaned from the title but more a
simple summing of the graduates in the four STEM areas and the number of job
openings in those areas.
It appears that in spite of the much touted shortage given as the reason the
H1-B program must be expanded that the number of graduates for every field far
exceeds the number of job openings except for computer science - where it is
roughly the same. Where are these underemployed STEM graduates going - the
article points to STEM graduates who gave up on academic careers/paths to go
into computer programming/data analysis.
~~~
peterburkimsher
I was also expecting a discussion about the geographical "where" jobs are
found.
Political problems mean that I can't go to California for work, so now I'm
working for a tech company in Taiwan.
My boss asked me to do data science courses that seem similar to those
advertised in the article, but despite learning the concepts, I haven't had
any new interesting projects because of it. I'm personally more interested in
hardware design and backend programming, which isn't as "trendy" as machine
learning. Even if I could get a job more easily doing statistics and making
pretty graphs for board meetings, I don't think I'd enjoy it as much as
soldering together a little gadget.
------
ianai
I feel like the math sciences could be pasted into the comp sci field. They're
good to separate, but there's definite filling of CS jobs with math
backgrounds.
------
A30JB0LFI1MCQS
Sure, people can and do get jobs in industries not exactly related to their
degree, but over half? No way.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How I gained commit access to Homebrew in 30 minutes - bgentry
https://medium.com/@vesirin/how-i-gained-commit-access-to-homebrew-in-30-minutes-2ae314df03ab
======
thecodemonkey
From the Homebrew post about the incident: “The security researcher also
recommended we consider using GPG signing for Homebrew/homebrew-core. The
Homebrew project leadership committee took a vote on this and it was rejected
non-unanimously due to workflow concerns.”
How is PGP signing _not_ a no-brainer. What kind of workflow concerns would
prevent them from signing commits?!
~~~
geofft
If you make PGP signing easy enough, at some point you end up with a Jenkins
with a trusted PGP signing key, and you haven't actually solved anything.
The problem isn't making it easy to sign things, the problem is making it
sufficiently _hard_ for unauthorized parties to sign things without affecting
any workflows you'd like to preserve - that is, the real problem is a workflow
problem. The real problem is figuring out how to secure automation so it has
the privileges to do what it needs but isn't leaking access. The Jenkins
instance was designed to do authenticated pushes - it needs automated write
access to the Homebrew repos.
Also, signing _commits_ doesn't help you if the risk is unauthorized pushes to
master. You can pick up someone's test commit and push that to master, or push
a rollback of OpenSSL to a vulnerable version, or something, and still ruin
many people's days.
~~~
josephh
Are there any OSS maintainers who use air-gapped computers to sign packages
(at least for major versions)? I would expect this level of precautions be
taken for projects that may have large-scale repercussions in the event of a
security breach.
~~~
TimWolla
While not OSS the Debian packages of Tarsnap are built and signed on an air-
gapped machine: [http://mail.tarsnap.com/tarsnap-
alphatest/msg00033.html](http://mail.tarsnap.com/tarsnap-
alphatest/msg00033.html)
~~~
geofft
How much review does 'cperciva do of the source code and build-dependencies
that are copied to the air-gapped machine, which presumably originate from
internet-connected machines?
Also, how secure is the kernel on the air-gapped machine against malicious
filesystems on the USB stick? (If it's running Linux, the answer is almost
certainly "not;" I could imagine FreeBSD is better but I don't know how much
people have explored that.)
To be clear I'm not opposed to air-gapping if the maintainer is excited about
it, I just suspect there are many much weaker links on the way to/from the
air-gapped system, and fixing those is a much harder project that almost
nobody is excited about.
~~~
cperciva
_How much review does 'cperciva do of the source code and build-dependencies
that are copied to the air-gapped machine, which presumably originate from
internet-connected machines?_
I verify that the source code being compiled is the source code which is
published in a signed tarball. Yes, someone could have tampered with the
internet-connected system where I do Tarsnap development, but their tampering
would be visible in the source code.
Build dependencies are verified to be the packages shipped by Debian. If
someone has tampered with the Debian gcc package, we've lost even without
Tarsnap binary packages.
_Also, how secure is the kernel on the air-gapped machine against malicious
filesystems on the USB stick? (If it 's running Linux, the answer is almost
certainly "not;" I could imagine FreeBSD is better but I don't know how much
people have explored that.)_
I don't use a filesystem on the USB stick I use for sneakernet, for exactly
this reason -- I write and read files to it using tar. (Yes, you can write to
a USB stick as a raw device just like you would write to a tape drive.)
~~~
ddalex
The 'malicious file system' on a USB stick is not something to worry about -
the firmware of your USB stick is. People (ie for-fun hackers) modified
firmwares on USB sticks to make them look like HID keyboards and send commands
to target computers - it is well enough in the capabilities of a determined
adversary to own your internet machine and implant something on your USB
stick.
For secure airgapped computers I'd use one way low tech comm channels with no
side bands, maybe IR or sound? (if you trust the device drivers)
~~~
MauranKilom
What happened to CD/DVD (or floppy)? Too small?
------
raesene9
This is an interesting example of a long-standing problem which is that in
general we make use of huge amounts of software and trust our security with
it, whilst knowing very little about the security practices of the people
developing it.
The article makes a good point that it's very hard for small projects, like
the team running Homebrew, to fund their security, yet they are likely to be a
target for quite high end attackers, given the access that can be gained by
getting unauthorised access to package repositories.
As a side note it also shows that Jenkins tends to be a tempting target for
attackers as it often has access to a wide range of systems to carry out it's
functions.
~~~
mikemcquaid
> As a side note it also shows that Jenkins tends to be a tempting target for
> attackers as it often has access to a wide range of systems to carry out
> it's functions.
This. I'd really love to stop us using Jenkins but none of the hosted macOS CI
services scale to meet our needs (i.e. having jobs that run for multiple hours
on better hardware). The ideal solution for me would be for us to have some
sort of modified Travis or Circle CI setup. We can even pay for it now we've
got Patreon money coming in.
~~~
alien_
Jenkins is not the problem, we have quite a few secured instances which
wouldn't leak secrets like this, or at least not to non-admin or
unauthenticated users.
It's just often misconfigured because there are a plethora of plugins and ways
to store and use secrets, and nobody audits it enough to look at the console
output or build artifacts for leaked secrets.
The project is simply missing someone familiar enough to configure Jenkins
properly.
~~~
mmt
> The project is simply missing someone familiar enough to configure Jenkins
> properly.
I would say that this is a specific case of the far more general one.
Substitute "any small organization" for "the project" and substitute any
configuration familiarity (i.e. Ops skill) for Jenkins configuration
familiarity.
Even in "Devops" job postings for startups, when mentioning CI/CD tools like
Jenkins, the main desire seems to be to hire someone who's more Dev than Ops,
to create the code to run the CI/CD pipeline, with something like
configuration or security a mere afterthough, if that.
------
hartator
> I want to give special thanks to Mike McQuaid for his quick and professional
> handling of my report while on his paternity leave.
Kudos on that. Specially when the all team make only around $700-800 per
month. [1]
[1] [https://www.patreon.com/homebrew](https://www.patreon.com/homebrew)
~~~
mikemcquaid
Thanks! To be explicit though: that money all goes to the project and not to
individuals. I've never made a cent from working on Homebrew.
------
decasia
One would think that Apple would be a prime candidate for contributing to
Homebrew security funding, since in practice it is a project with security
implications for so very many OSX developer workstations.
~~~
sanderjd
Unfortunately, it has become increasingly clear that developer workstations
are not on their radar as a primary target market.
~~~
tambourine_man
I wouldn’t say that. Apple's hardware neglect is not a privilege only
developers experience.
~~~
dep_b
I don't think the 2018 MacBook Pro leaves much to be desired unless you want
features that would turn it into a ThinkBook-like brick. For $50 you get a
charging USB-C hub that allows you even to leave your power brick home. The
iMac Pro is pretty great.
Power Mac is a different story.....don't know how and when they're going to
fix this. That's a real shame.
~~~
kbd
> unless you want features that would turn it into a ThinkBook-like brick.
Yeah literally all many of us want is a standard keyboard with function keys
instead of the touchbar. A couple regular USB ports would be nice as well so
we can plug in a mouse and keyboard without needing dongles. Neither of those
things would turn their "pro" laptop into a brick.
~~~
dep_b
MacBook 2015: power brick (with broken irreplaceable cord) + Ethernet dongle
MacBook 2018: USB-C dock with replaceable cord
So in my use case I actually got rid of one dongle at a price lower than a
replacement MagSafe 2 adapter. I really liked MagSafe though.
Never used the F-keys really. ESC is not that hard for me to live without but
that's all personal. But the difference in performance is quite noticeable.
~~~
JBiserkov
>I really liked MagSafe though.
The Surface line by Microsoft has a very similar magnetic power+docking
connector. The only issue I have with it is that the LED doesn't change color
when the device is fully charged.
The line includes:
\- Laptop,
\- Pro (tablet + typecover)
\- Book (tablet + keyboard + GPU + battery)
------
kovrik
I think that publicly exposing your build/deployment system is a very bad
idea. It contains too much sensitive and valuable information (credentials,
commits, commit author names, paths, hostnames, scripts etc.) and it is too
hard to make it secure the right way.
Unfortunately, many people do that. For example, here in New Zealand there is
a new startup Onzo (bike sharing). When they launched, I tried to google about
them (just out of curiosity). And in 1 minute I found their Jenkins server
exposed to everyone as well. I could see how their build process works, who
commits what etc. I decided to try to login using simple credentials
(something like admin:password) and it didn't work. But there was a Register
button. "Why not?" I thought and clicked it and created my own account. And
voila, it gave admin permissions by default - I could delete their projects,
change variables etc. Emailed them about that.
Moral: never expose your build/deployment systems. If you really want to
expose some parts (for whatever reason), then use/write client/UI that has no
permissions. 'Build Status' badge is a good example -- it exposes build status
info, but doesn't show too much and doesn't give any permissions whatsoever.
~~~
falsedan
Jenkins sucks for a lot of reasons but it does have a perfectly serviceable
credentials store exactly for hiding these kinds of secrets from the
parameters page and the build output. Any release engineer with the slightest
inclination to avoid incidents would have set it up, this just looks like a
lack of experience at breaking everything for everyone.
~~~
kovrik
But that's the thing: many people don't bother configuring it properly (or
they don't know how?). So why risk it?
~~~
falsedan
sometimes the risk analysis comes out in favour of providing a service for
your users ahead of studiously avoiding making mistakes
------
sytelus
This is an excellent piece. I often wonder about adversarial security issues
in large scale OSS projects like Linux kernels. You don't even need to hack
commit access to repo. One can _intentionally_ wrap malicious code out in
plain sight in an otherwise what would appear as benign change (thanks to
undefined behaviour in C/C++). What if a black hat hacker climbs up in Linux
contributors hierarchy? What if a person who is already higher up in OSS
hierarchy decide to defect and plant a logic bomb? Given that Linux kernel now
runs majority of our world from servers in data center to mobile phones in our
pockets and hospitals to war machines, security issues like this is a huge
deal.
~~~
ejholmes
It's a pretty scary prospect, to the point that I have to imagine it's already
happening to some degree. If a nation state wants a backdoor, what better way
than to bribe the cash-strapped OSS maintainer of that little project that
every company depends on.
~~~
ddalex
The problem is that the type of engineers that work on OSS takes own integrity
very seriously, and they build their network of trust on that integrity.
------
binbag
I bet it's just what the guy wanted to find out he had to deal with while on
paternity leave!
~~~
mikemcquaid
Thank god for naps.
------
closeparen
This is a fundamental problem of doing CI for open source. Running tests for
random people’s changes means giving them RCE in your test environment.
Sandboxing rarely gets approached with the seriousness it requires.
------
jlv2
> "On Jun 31st,"
As said in _Raiders Of The Lost Ark_ , bad dates.
------
sleepybrett
Lol, always jenkins (CI).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Fake news search engine tracks spread of lies - rharrison0809
https://www.cnet.com/news/fake-news-search-engine-tracks-spread-of-lies/
======
ncr100
Warning: Mute before visiting this cnet.com site.
I was treated to an autoplay video "This is CNET ... bla dee blaaaa!"
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google blink tag easter egg - pacemkr
https://www.google.com/search?q=blink%20tag
======
nostrademons
Heh, I wrote this. Glad you enjoy. :-)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Backdoor accounts discovered in 29 FTTH devices from Chinese vendor C-Data - LinuxBender
https://www.zdnet.com/article/backdoor-accounts-discovered-in-29-ftth-devices-from-chinese-vendor-c-data/
======
scrps
Hanlon's razor of course, but it is hard to believe that this isn't malice
masquerading as stupidity. Hard-coded credentials, zero encrypted protocols
used for transport, and weak crypto for the credentials.
Guest/[empty] really makes it art.
I am more inclined to believe Hanlon's razor applies to whatever network
engineer put one of these dumpster fires on a network without noticing these
massive flaws.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Co-founder performance issues. How to not loose everything? - toBeDeleted
Hi HN,<p>I need some much needed guidance in dealing with cofounder relationship problem.<p>Context: Both me and my co-founder (CEO)(equal owners of the company) come from very good educational and professional backgrounds and have worked in the valley before we started the company together. I manage the tech side. The team was a marriage of complimentary skillsets but we had not worked together or knew each other much before we started the company. Given our backgrounds, we were able to raise a decent angel round, enough to quit jobs and work on our idea.<p>Problem at hand: In the last couple of months, the team has been extremely demotivated and our earliest couple of employees left us citing issues with management. Almost all the issues are related to my cofounder's attitude. If I had to summarize them<p>1. Extremely authoritative and a lack of inclination to learn/understand - This is very demotivating for the tech team<p>2. Non performance, Lying and erosion of credibility - We hardly get any customer interactions and employees often wonder what my cofounder is doing and some have directly asked me. However, whenever questioned either we get false confirmation of work that never happens or get asked to just wait and be patient as things take time.<p>3. Stingy - My cofounder is penny wise pound foolish. This has led to massive compromises in the hiring as well as internal team frustration due to unnecessary cost optimization<p>Independent of all this, I very much believe in what we are building and hence want to take this to a good logical end at least. We also have some very good investors who have been extremely supportive (to the extent that they hardly question us of our progress, and it kinda becomes tough for me to reach out to them with these problems). I thus want to do justice to them and the employees who have worked with me while also, getting basic reward for all the efforts and sacrifices I and my cofounder have put in the last 18 months.
======
wmf
Trigger the shotgun clause.
------
CuteBrowser
I have no experience but start documenting everything to begin with. Then talk
to the investors. And then to him too- hard for him to try and refute
everything.
~~~
toBeDeleted
Fair enough. But since, there has been no priced round, dont think investors
have any voting rights in the company either. Can they still effect any change
in the company then?
~~~
CuteBrowser
Go and talk anyway but without voting rights they can't affect change. They
can however tell you the best course of action to save their investment if you
can assure that it will happen. Show them that their effort will not go waste
and they can try.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
IPhone 3.0 Software Update Available Now - cwilson
Downloading as we speak. The notification popped up at 12:12pm Central Time.
======
cwilson
Upgraded:
[http://img.skitch.com/20090617-fej7bk9pt71s4mmy7qw9akxg3e.jp...](http://img.skitch.com/20090617-fej7bk9pt71s4mmy7qw9akxg3e.jpg)
Took about 20 minutes total. Not bad at all.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Clikan – a simple personal kanban board that runs in a CLI - kitplummer
https://github.com/kitplummer/clikan
======
oso2k
Thanks for this. I've used kanban.bash [0] but I'm not married to it. I'll
have to try clikan soon. I did make a slight modification to kanban.bash so
that I could have a kanban board per directory/project [1].
[0]
[https://github.com/coderofsalvation/kanban.bash](https://github.com/coderofsalvation/kanban.bash)
[1]
[https://github.com/lpsantil/kanban.bash/commit/598505dfd91f2...](https://github.com/lpsantil/kanban.bash/commit/598505dfd91f262d2e23740ba914cc94027c0f13)
------
luckman212
Very nice looking! Didn't even know terminal-based kanban was a thing. A quick
search turned up a couple of other [0] [1] similar looking projects (in
addition to kanban.bash which was already mentioned)
[0]
[https://github.com/klauscfhq/taskbook](https://github.com/klauscfhq/taskbook)
[1]
[https://github.com/smallhadroncollider/taskell](https://github.com/smallhadroncollider/taskell)
------
zokier
is there particular reason why the commands take seemingly superfluous option
thing; i.e. why `clikan promote --id [task id]` instead of just `clikan
promote [task id]` etc?
~~~
kitplummer
probably me being dumb. IIRC the CLI library in play is Click, and it wasn't
the most flexible things to work with - though infinitely better than parsing
args manually. tis a good note though. will look into it.
------
Jtsummers
It seems the columns are hardcoded (todo, in-progress, done). Is it possible
to create different columns from the configuration or would that require a
code change?
~~~
kitplummer
They are hard-coded. I think they _could_ be made configurable, just managed
as "strings" with in the code. If you're really interested please create an
issue at the Github project.
------
app4soft
Just an idea: create also addon for Blender's _" Python Console"_.[0]
[0]
[https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/editors/python_con...](https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/editors/python_console.html)
~~~
kitplummer
That's an interesting thought. I suppose if it works from the Python REPL it'd
work there. Will dig into that a bit when I can. Thanks for the feedback!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Who are your favourite people to follow on Mastodon? - rocky1138
I'm looking to follow a few more people from my GNU Social instance. Who do you follow, and why?
======
rayalez
I have made HackerNewsBot [1] (it publishes stories with 100+ points), comedy
bot [2] that reposts jokes and showerthoughts from reddit, writing prompts bot
[3], and webcomics bot [4].
My favorite people to follow are:
@[email protected] (webcomics artist)
@[email protected] (writes jokes)
@[email protected] (creator of mastodon)
@[email protected] (author of ActivityPub)
And a few cool engineers:
@[email protected]
@[email protected]
@[email protected]
@[email protected]
@[email protected]
@[email protected]
Also come follow my account [5], I don't post often, but I tend to share
updates on my projects, cool startup/webdev related stuff, and some digital
art. I should get back on mastodon and post more stuff...
[1]
[https://mastodon.social/@hackernewsbot](https://mastodon.social/@hackernewsbot)
[2] [https://mastodon.social/@comedy](https://mastodon.social/@comedy)
[3] [https://mastodon.social/@webcomics](https://mastodon.social/@webcomics)
[4]
[https://mastodon.social/@WritingPrompts](https://mastodon.social/@WritingPrompts)
[5] [https://mastodon.social/@rayalez](https://mastodon.social/@rayalez)
~~~
NoGravitas
I follow several of your bots!
One feature request: webcomics bot should provide links to the original when
posting, so that people can find webcomics they want to follow regularly.
~~~
Mithaldu
Yeah, straight-up reposting images in bulk like that is one of those crimes
that people do thoughtlessly, but all over the place without even realizing
it's a copyright violation, or not even caring that it is one.
The bot should be posting links to the comic pages and let mastodon's
multimedia stuff extract preview images.
Anything other than that may be "convenient", but is ultimately entirely self-
serving at the detriment of the people whose work the bot is using.
How do you feel about fixing that, rayalez?
Also, for anyone wondering why this matters, further reading from an incident
last year:
[https://twitter.com/aurahack/status/902363519672360962](https://twitter.com/aurahack/status/902363519672360962)
\-
[https://twitter.com/i/moments/901869159931187200](https://twitter.com/i/moments/901869159931187200)
------
ddevault
People
[https://mastodon.social/@eevee](https://mastodon.social/@eevee) \- good tech
blogger
[https://mastodon.art/@Curator](https://mastodon.art/@Curator) \- admin of an
art-based instance who boosts lots of cool art
[https://framapiaf.org/@davidrevoy](https://framapiaf.org/@davidrevoy) \-
artist behind [https://peppercarrot.com](https://peppercarrot.com)
[https://octodon.social/@emersion](https://octodon.social/@emersion) \- friend
of mine who works on cool projects with me
Orgs
[https://mastodon.xyz/@Liberapay](https://mastodon.xyz/@Liberapay)
[https://mastodon.art/@Krita](https://mastodon.art/@Krita)
[https://mastodon.technology/@kde](https://mastodon.technology/@kde)
Bots
[https://apoil.org/@NextLaunch](https://apoil.org/@NextLaunch)
[https://apoil.org/@nasa](https://apoil.org/@nasa)
[https://apoil.org/@ESA](https://apoil.org/@ESA)
Me
[https://cmpwn.com/@sir](https://cmpwn.com/@sir)
How to follow -> click "remote follow" on any profile and fill in your account
details.
~~~
dhruvkar
If I were to setup my own instance, like you, how do I interact (read & write)
with other, curated instances (e.g. octodon.social, mastodon.social etc.)?
~~~
WorldMaker
Remote follow enough specific people you are interested in and some of the
rest of the instance's traffic will show up in your instance's Federated Feed
as it interests them.
Sometimes if the remote instance's entire feed is interesting I might set up a
"read only" account on that instance to get an idea of people to remote follow
from my main account. I've heard good multi-instance clients can help a lot
with that, but I've not yet found a multi-instance supporting client I like.
~~~
dhruvkar
Okay, yeah, doesn't seem to be too many out there. So no real way to do this
now, except what you described. You can follow specific people, but no local
timelines of instances.
~~~
WorldMaker
Yeah, there are also interesting experiments out there, like some instances
run bots to try to "collect them all" and follow almost everyone they can in
the fediverse. The one that found my instance first was
@[email protected].
It's not something I've considered on my instance, to keep costs down and
because I like the opportunity to curate it manually a bit.
Oh, and [https://smeap.com/@max](https://smeap.com/@max) if anyone was curious
to follow.
------
akkartik
I've been mostly hanging out in this subculture of Forth/Gopher folks:
[https://mastodon.social/@crc](https://mastodon.social/@crc)
[https://mastodon.social/@vertigo](https://mastodon.social/@vertigo)
[https://social.coop/@h](https://social.coop/@h)
[https://mastodon.social/@natecull](https://mastodon.social/@natecull)
Ok, that's not much of a list. I tend to have favorite threads rather than
favorite people:
[https://mastodon.social/@natecull/99158138073364070](https://mastodon.social/@natecull/99158138073364070)
[https://mastodon.social/@natecull/99765851805118639](https://mastodon.social/@natecull/99765851805118639)
[https://social.coop/@h/99191538225584742](https://social.coop/@h/99191538225584742)
[https://social.coop/@h/99097437322507669](https://social.coop/@h/99097437322507669)
[https://mastodon.social/@natecull/99135181901636906](https://mastodon.social/@natecull/99135181901636906)
[https://mastodon.social/@natecull/99118398192730050](https://mastodon.social/@natecull/99118398192730050)
[https://a.weirder.earth/@enkiv2/99667688333089676](https://a.weirder.earth/@enkiv2/99667688333089676)
[https://niu.moe/@enkiv2/99270035409991776](https://niu.moe/@enkiv2/99270035409991776)
~~~
enkiv2
I love that there's a really rich gopher-centric community on the fediverse.
It should be noted that the gopher people overlap heavily not just with forth
but also with experimental hypertext.
~~~
akkartik
Indeed! Hence your Xanadu toot train in that list :)
------
howenterprisey
Those famous outside of Mastodon:
[https://mastodon.technology/@brion](https://mastodon.technology/@brion)
(major MediaWiki contributor),
[https://mastodon.xyz/@johnonolan](https://mastodon.xyz/@johnonolan)
(Ghost.org founder), [https://mstdn.io/@xahlee](https://mstdn.io/@xahlee) (of
xahlee.info, which gets posted here a lot), and
[https://octodon.social/@pzmyers](https://octodon.social/@pzmyers) (PZ Myers,
the blogger).
Organizations:
[https://mastodon.technology/@kde](https://mastodon.technology/@kde),
[https://mastodon.social/@Purism](https://mastodon.social/@Purism),
[https://status.fsf.org/fsf](https://status.fsf.org/fsf), and
[https://mastodon.technology/@conservancy](https://mastodon.technology/@conservancy)
Those who make interesting posts:
[https://cybre.space/@theZacAttacks](https://cybre.space/@theZacAttacks),
[https://mastodon.social/@natecull](https://mastodon.social/@natecull), and
[https://dev.glitch.social/@MightyPork](https://dev.glitch.social/@MightyPork).
I'm
[https://mastodon.technology/@danielhglus](https://mastodon.technology/@danielhglus),
by the way.
And browsing the local timeline of
[https://mastodon.technology](https://mastodon.technology) with the unmung
tool (direct link:
[http://www.unmung.com/mastoview?url=mastodon.technology&view...](http://www.unmung.com/mastoview?url=mastodon.technology&view=local))
might turn up some interesting people to follow as well.
~~~
gemma
To tack on some more folks well-known in the outside world (some of these
signed up last year and aren't active now):
\- Michael W. Lucas, author:
[https://bsd.network/@mwlucas](https://bsd.network/@mwlucas)
\- Amanda Rousseau, malware researcher:
[https://mastodon.social/@malwareunicorn](https://mastodon.social/@malwareunicorn)
\- Brendan Eich, creator of Javascript:
[https://mastodon.social/@BrendanEich](https://mastodon.social/@BrendanEich)
\- John Scalzi, author:
[https://mastodon.social/@scalzi](https://mastodon.social/@scalzi)
\- Jenn Schiffer, artist and dev at Glitch:
[https://toot.cafe/@jenn](https://toot.cafe/@jenn)
------
mycoborea
Anxiously awaiting biologists, bioinformaticists, and other scientists to
arrive to Mastodon en masse. So far scientists seem to be firmly entrenched in
the blue bird site. Any recommendations along these lines would be sincerely
appreciated!
I am squatting at
[https://mastodon.social/@brendes](https://mastodon.social/@brendes), lurking
silently until more scientists show up.
~~~
jordigh
I see more scientists over at scholar.social, have you joined and checked out
their local timeline?
~~~
mycoborea
Never heard of it—thanks so much.
------
singingwolfboy
Janelle Shane:
[https://wandering.shop/@janellecshane](https://wandering.shop/@janellecshane)
She runs the [http://aiweirdness.com](http://aiweirdness.com) blog, which is
delightful
------
kral
If someone is interested, I'm the amin of an instance focused on functional
programming: [https://functional.cafe](https://functional.cafe)
~~~
sridca
Looking at the local timeline of functional.cafe there is hardly any tech
related toots, much less functional programming. Is this expected of Mastodon
networks? I noticed the same thing with bsd.network.
~~~
kral
That's why I called it “café”
Jokes apart, I'm trying my best to make it a more technical instance, but I
can't control what the users toot. I just hope that someone joins a tech
instance to talk about tech...
------
mcjiggerlog
I don't quite understand the relationship between the various instances on
Mastodon.
Once you join an instance are you stuck on that instance for life? What
happens if you want to participate on another instance? Can I reply to
comments on other instances?
~~~
ColinWright
I wrote a thing[0] about Mastodon a while ago. Currently there is no way to
migrate an account, but that's being worked on actively, and progress is being
made. You can already export your data, and who you follow, block, or mute.
Ideas are being discussed as to how your followers can follow you when you
move, but that's tricky given the entire concept of federation.
This is explained on the page I wrote[0], but if anyone on your instance
follows person X on another instance, toots from person X turn up on the
federated timeline on your instance, you can have a chance to see those toots.
Similarly, if someone on your instance boosts a toot, it turns up on your
instance, so you can see it and decide whether or not you want to remote
follow that person. This the network of connections grows, albeit slowly.
And yes, you can comment on threads on other instances.
Hope that helps. You can always join an instance with a throwaway account, try
it out, and if migration does come to life, migrate. If not, start afresh on
the instance of choice with a new account. Come find me here:
[https://mathstodon.xyz/@ColinTheMathmo](https://mathstodon.xyz/@ColinTheMathmo)
[0]
[http://www.solipsys.co.uk/new/ThinkingAboutMastodon.html?HN_...](http://www.solipsys.co.uk/new/ThinkingAboutMastodon.html?HN_20180403)
~~~
gvurrdon
Useful information, thanks. I've followed your account, though I'm finding it
hard to get into using Mastodon. A means to show the oldest unread Toots
first, and to sync this across devices/web, might be helpful.
~~~
rainbowmverse
Mastodon generates an RSS feed for every user. Check out their web profile
pages and look in the HTML header. Most popular RSS readers will just pick it
up if you paste the profile URL in.
~~~
gvurrdon
That could be rather useful - many thanks. As an aside, I used to follow
various organisations' RSS feeds from Facebook, before that was shut down. It
was a great way to keep up with their activities.
~~~
ColinWright
I think technically it's an "atom" feed, and I'm not hip enough to know the
exact difference, but there is certainly come kind of feed there.
[https://<MastodonInstance>/users/<UserName>.atom](https://<MastodonInstance>/users/<UserName>.atom)
~~~
rainbowmverse
Atom was Google's answer to RSS back when they cared about an open web. As far
as I can tell, everything that handles RSS also handles Atom, and they're
exposed in the header in the same way.
Firefox users can right click on the browser chrome, go to Customize, and add
a subscribe button that lights up when a page has a feed. It's not as snug a
fit as what used to go in the address bar, but it still works.
~~~
ColinWright
I'm not sure what this means:
> _Firefox users can right click on the browser chrome, ..._
... but I've made a note of your comment, and when I get time I'll go hunting
to find out how it works. It seems to me that RSS/Atom/Subscription is going
to make a comeback. Technical people are moving off other platforms and
putting their output on their own sites, so some sort of subscription
management is the way to go.
Maybe.
We'll see. Thank for the reply.
~~~
rainbowmverse
I should have linked to the help page: [https://support.mozilla.org/en-
US/kb/customize-firefox-contr...](https://support.mozilla.org/en-
US/kb/customize-firefox-controls-buttons-and-toolbars)
~~~
ColinWright
Cool - thanks - much appreciated.
------
rocky1138
That rocky1138 guy is a great person to follow
[https://kwat.chat/rocky1138](https://kwat.chat/rocky1138) _cough_
~~~
ColinWright
Maybe you can help me here. I'm on a Mastodon instance:
[https://mathstodon.xyz/@ColinTheMathmo](https://mathstodon.xyz/@ColinTheMathmo)
I've clicked on your link, but from the page I get I can find no way to follow
you.
What should I be doing? Do I click the "Subscribe" link at the top left? Given
that your page doesn't look at all like the Mastodon I'm used to, it's not at
all clear.
Advice welcome.
~~~
vigliag
You can copy-paste the profile url in mastodon's searchbar, it'll open that
profile in the UI of your mastodon instance, so you can follow it as you
normally would.
~~~
ColinWright
Your words "the profile url" don't mean anything to me. The URL I have - as
quoted above - when pasted into the search bar gives no results.
~~~
vigliag
That was exactly what I meant, sorry if it was unclear. Copy-pasting the http
URL in the search bar works for me. I am however on a different instance,
mastodon.social, no idea what may be causing the different behavior.
~~~
ColinWright
OK, so interpreted you correctly, but it didn't work on my instance. Fair
enough - not really worth pursuing, but worth being aware of.
Thanks.
------
BadassFractal
I really want to get into Mastodon, but I cannot decide which one I would want
to join. Is there one that's say best for.. gaming? Or one best for the arts?
I tried to use their search but it's hard to tell which one I'd actually want
to be part of.
~~~
retzkek
I too couldn't decide, so I started my own private instance recently (it was
dead simple with the docker stack), and sometimes I feel a bit isolated and
wonder if I should have joined an established instance instead. I suppose
that's the burden one takes upon with a private instance: you have to actively
go out and find people to follow and interact with. The advantage of course
being that you're not bound by any sort of community rules or norms, and all
the other advantages of hosting your own services. In any case my main goal
was to get myself to write more, regardless of who's reading it, so to that
end it's been successful.
~~~
thomnottom
You could always set up a second account to dig more into another instance.
I'm currently on octodon.social (largely because mastodon.social was full when
I first joined), but I've been thinking of creating a personal instance to
play around with things that I don't necessarily want to clutter another local
timeline with.
------
cjslep
I typically follow people I've had a number of meaningful conversations with.
If looking for techies, they're scattered across several instances. The
i.write.codethat.sucks instance I am on I think is on the smaller side.
------
jordigh
I'm nobody important, but I really am loving the atmosphere in Mastodon. I'm
@[email protected]
Come say hi! :-)
------
iuguy
Some of my faves:
* [email protected]
* [email protected]
* [email protected]
* [email protected]
* [email protected]
* [email protected]
In case anyone's vaguely interested I can be reached at
[email protected]. I mostly post about hardware hacking and
conferences.
------
enkiv2
I wrote a bot that provides randomized follow suggestions (from its follower
list) --
[https://botsin.space/@FollowFriday](https://botsin.space/@FollowFriday)
As for interesting _people_ to follow (biased in favor of people who post
interesting technical content) I recommend
[https://mastodon.social/@natecull](https://mastodon.social/@natecull),
[https://cybre.space/@a_breakin_glass](https://cybre.space/@a_breakin_glass),
[https://mastodon.social/@hisham_hm](https://mastodon.social/@hisham_hm),
[https://mastodon.social/@tomharris](https://mastodon.social/@tomharris), and
[https://hackers.town/@thegibson](https://hackers.town/@thegibson)
I'm at [https://a.weirder.earth/@enkiv2](https://a.weirder.earth/@enkiv2) at
the moment.
------
hakabahitoyo
[http://mastodonusermatching.tk](http://mastodonusermatching.tk) recommends
infinite users for you.
------
dielan
I typically just shout into the void and follow most people who engage with my
posts. Its a big network out there
------
ColinWright
I'll be following up on several of these recommendations. In the meantime, I
can be found here:
[https://mathstodon.xyz/@ColinTheMathmo](https://mathstodon.xyz/@ColinTheMathmo)
------
Uhhrrr
Just Mastodon, or anything in the fediverse?
~~~
Uhhrrr
BTW, [https://sealion.club/craig](https://sealion.club/craig). Mostly I post
music that I have recently found and like.
------
ohtwenty
[https://retro.social/@ajroach42](https://retro.social/@ajroach42)
For cool retro computing stuff, and general archival-of-tech stuff
------
sedachv
[https://bsd.network/@ed1conf](https://bsd.network/@ed1conf) for useful tips
about the standard Unix editor
Pretty much every other account on
[https://bsd.network/](https://bsd.network/)
[https://mastodon.social/@qrs](https://mastodon.social/@qrs) for
retrocomputing and CG pictures
------
myst
What is Mastodon?
~~~
dielan
Its a recent new server software and client for the StatusNet "fediverse".
StatusNet and the protocols it uses are very old, and a small community of
users have been there for like a decade.
Its a federated social network. It is like a cross between Twitter and email.
Anyone can start a server and set their own community rules and guide lines.
If you or someone on your server remotely follows someone they like on another
server then your servers will federate and posts from both will be in the
public timeline. Eventually you will have a full timeline of many servers.
Though your admin can silence or outright block other instances. Most GS
veteran admins prefer their users just block people, as full instance banning
is an extreme measure and against the spirit of federation. This is also a
future-proof approach to social networking because if your server and its
admin are malicious you can either start your own or just move and you still
can contribute to the same network of people as before.
Recently a guy named Eugen who goes by @[email protected] made Mastodon
and a patreon account to support its development.
It has a troubled history, as the early adopters of Mastodon were Twitter and
Tumblr users from the far-left pro-censorship crowd. They didnt understand how
federation worked but they were paying Eugen's bills so he focused on
redundant administration tools instead of more critical fixes (its ok now
tho). Many popular Mastodon servers for example cybre.space, witches.town(now
dead), and others they maintained big instance block lists and they live
mostly in a bubble as they did not agree with the hands off, self moderation
(blocking individuals) approach of older GNU Social sites. This bubble is
really small though and is not sustainable.
Now, even though Eugen and his audience might prefer Mastodon servers not
federate with GNU social servers not every masto server uses a huge instance
block list. Anyone can host a masto server same as GS.
~~~
fenwick67
If you want a freezepeach instance there are lots of them, and I wish you
luck.
Frankly, social media is a place where I want a bit of a "bubble", and by
"bubble" I mean "blocking people and communities that annoy me".
~~~
acct1771
Send an email or text.
Social media is what is replacing our town square, and the potential for
someone to walk by and say "Nah, mate, that's fuckin stupid, and here's why"
will be _sorely_ missed in the environment that bubble-ists desire.
------
FourthEstate
For the news, journalism and freedom of the press inclined I've posted an
invitation link below that will allow you into FourthEstate.social. Expires in
12 hours.
[https://fourthestate.social/invite/SQtFxnjp](https://fourthestate.social/invite/SQtFxnjp)
------
ekanes
Mastodon looks great, but one newbie Q holds me back - what if you join,
participate, and after some years your the instance/community upon which you
built goes under? Are you starting again from scratch somewhere else? Thanks
for any help!
~~~
sleazy_b
Looks like
~~~
enkiv2
You can (and should) export & backup your following list.
Migrating posts is complicated -- it's straightforward to export all your
posts with third party tools, but you shouldn't expect to be able to move them
to a new instance unless you're running it yourself, in order to avoid the
possibility of faked histories. (I personally keep a backup of all my posts,
and it's fairly straightforward to re-format them as a static html document if
you feel like you need to re-host them for archival purposes.)
Personally, I recommend keeping accounts on several instances, and posting to
different accounts corresponding to your various interests. This makes it less
irritating for members of your social group that don't want to hear about
particular topics, makes migration in case of instance apocalypse easier, and
encourages you to stretch out your identity a bit (rather than feeling like
you need to stay 'on-brand' like people do on twitter).
------
franzpeterstein
[https://instance.business/@SuricrasiaOnline](https://instance.business/@SuricrasiaOnline)
[...] Suricrasia Online is a Toronto-based ISP staffed entirely by
anthropomorphic sharks in maid outfits. [...]
------
alex_duf
My favourite is this one: @[email protected]
I'm here: @[email protected]
------
jaequery
I think people will assume their data is safer with Mastadon. But in a way,
your data might even be more insecure, as you have no idea what and who the
Instance owner is, and what they will do with the data.
Also, now the responsibility of securing the platform is in the hands of the
instance owner, whom you have no idea how they have their platform setup.
FYI, an open source project called Drupal, was recently affected with a a bug
where millions of sites could be hacked.
Now I'd like to know how Mastadon will combat these issues.
~~~
lordCarbonFiber
I think that fundamentally misses the point. No one is using a social network
for "data security", the whole value add of twitter (and by extension
mastodon) is the public nature.
The value add of something like mastodon is you get to choose your instance
owner (and it could be yourself) which means choosing your moderation scheme.
As well as offering a more transparent social experience (ie no
algorithmically generated timelines to push adds or "engagement").
Comparing Mastodon to a php CMS seems like an apples to oranges comparison in
every sense.
~~~
jaequery
I get that. I haven't fully read the in and outs of Mastadon but from a
glance, it reminds me of Wordpress with Pingbacks. Or quite simply RSS feeds,
where user you follow is essentially subscribing to their feeds.
But all that aside, at the end of the day, if you "are" a user in one of the
instances, you are still at the mercy of the owner's technical skills to make
sure your data is safe.
If the owner one day decides he can't afford to pay his bills, or gets hacked
and wipes out data, what would happen to all your posts? I believe it'd just
disappear, but please do correct me if I'm wrong.
~~~
WorldMaker
There is a lot of overlap with RSS and Pingbacks, indeed.
Mastodon today provides a tool to get data backups of your account's own data,
at least, so in the case of a lost instance there may be some options.
Plus, as with blogs there is the option to be your own instance owner on a
custom domain you control. So the assumed risk level can vary to what you are
comfortable with.
------
FourthEstate
[https://fourthestate.social/@jeff](https://fourthestate.social/@jeff)
------
igorkraw
Me, if you want to hear about books I read, papers I find while working on
neuromorphic systems and in general my opinions...
@[email protected]
------
kovek
How to find people to follow? Is there a hashtag on mastodon to ask about
finding certain people based on certain interests?
~~~
ohtwenty
There's #ff or #followfriday for suggesting, but i've seen it used to ask for
suggestions as well.
~~~
zigg
There's also Freya, the Follow Friday bot, who will randomly throw you
suggestions and let yourself be added to the pool.
[https://botsin.space/@FollowFriday](https://botsin.space/@FollowFriday)
------
slipstream-
here's some interesting people I follow:
@[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected]
@[email protected]
I'm @[email protected] and @[email protected] :)
~~~
thomnottom
I second @[email protected]. Followed on twitter and was glad when they
showed up on Mastodon.
------
robobro
[email protected] is really neat. He worked on Alpine Linux,
audacious, pkgconf and other stuff
[https://pleroma.dereferenced.org/users/kaniini](https://pleroma.dereferenced.org/users/kaniini)
Lain, developer of Pleroma, is also rad:
@[email protected]
[https://pleroma.soykaf.com/users/lain](https://pleroma.soykaf.com/users/lain)
------
stellarator25
mastodon.cloud/@occrp - because stories on organized crime and corruption are
fun.
------
ColinWright
And now to partially answer the original question, culled from the 200 or so
people I follow, so I will have missed some I should have left in, and some of
these might be of less interest to the HN crowd:
[https://octodon.social/@craigmaloney](https://octodon.social/@craigmaloney)
\- Linux, programmer, stuff
[https://mastodon.social/@natecull](https://mastodon.social/@natecull) \-
computery and other stuff
[https://mastodon.social/@rysiek](https://mastodon.social/@rysiek) \- security
[https://mastodon.social/@Ronkjeffries](https://mastodon.social/@Ronkjeffries)
\- Well, it's Ron Jeffries
[https://mastodon.technology/@Ronkjeffries](https://mastodon.technology/@Ronkjeffries)
\- and again
[https://mastodon.social/@andrewt](https://mastodon.social/@andrewt) \- Maths
stuff and odd observations
[https://mathstodon.xyz/@virtuosew](https://mathstodon.xyz/@virtuosew) \-
Linguistics, odd observations
And then there are the maths people:
[https://mathstodon.xyz/@peterrowlett](https://mathstodon.xyz/@peterrowlett)
[https://mathstodon.xyz/@Pecnut](https://mathstodon.xyz/@Pecnut)
[https://mathstodon.xyz/@christianp](https://mathstodon.xyz/@christianp)
[https://mathstodon.xyz/@icecolbeveridge](https://mathstodon.xyz/@icecolbeveridge)
[https://mathstodon.xyz/@mscroggs](https://mathstodon.xyz/@mscroggs)
[https://mathstodon.xyz/@aperiodical](https://mathstodon.xyz/@aperiodical)
[https://mathstodon.xyz/@j2kun](https://mathstodon.xyz/@j2kun)
[https://mathstodon.xyz/@csk](https://mathstodon.xyz/@csk)
[https://mathstodon.xyz/@neilbickford](https://mathstodon.xyz/@neilbickford)
[https://mathstodon.xyz/@JordiGH](https://mathstodon.xyz/@JordiGH)
------
jordigh
Was Sage Sharp previously known as Sarah? Did they transition?
I just want to know if it's the same person. It would be a big coincidence if
they were not.
~~~
dang
Since that person is no longer in that list, we detached this subthread from
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16743065](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16743065)
and marked it off-topic.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google’s blanket ban of cryptocurrency ads ends next month - kaboro
https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/25/googles-blanket-ban-of-cryptocurrency-ads-ends-next-month/
======
mtgx
Google's new mantra: "Whatever it takes to make an extra buck."
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Deeplinking: The Past, Present and Future of Mobile Marketing - jmilinovich
http://www.hasoffers.com/blog/deeplinking-past-present-future-mobile-marketing/
======
physcab
Deeplinking is pretty forward thinking. I routinely work with 20-30 different
mobile advertisers and you'd be surprised how difficult it is to get traffic
bought on just a device and country level, let alone product level.
------
the_watcher
>> Before long, deeplinking will become ubiquitous.
Every time I click a mobile link that sends me to the mobile web when I have
the app installed on my phone, I think about this. As a marketer, the benefits
are painfully obvious. As I've learned more about deep linking and started
recognizing it, I've realized that it's a huge upgrade for the user as well.
------
rsync
If only there was some way for links ... and the targets of those links ... to
exist on the same layer of abstraction.
Imagine, if you will, a "linking" app - you view content in this app, and then
link to other content in this app ... I'm still working this out in my head,
but I think there could really be something here ... with the "linking app"
that is ...
------
slaven
We're testing a deep linking service that works both before and after the app
is installed and integrates with URX/DeepLink.me and others. If you'd like to
join the beta just email slaven at gmail.
------
pbreit
Was/is it really not possible to "deep-link" into an app? That seems very
surprising because it pretty obvious and completely trivial to support.
~~~
hollandaise
Deeplinking via the use of custom url schemes has been possible in iOS and
Android for a long time, but has been a relatively underused feature. Now that
advertisers and ad-tech companies have helped popularize it, hopefully other
app developers begin to realize the value of having every app out there deep-
link enabled.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Sane DotFiles manager - shreyansh_k
https://github.com/shreyanshk/sdf
======
shreyansh_k
Took a look at a lot of dotfile managers in the wild.
But:
* Ideally don't want to learn another language/tool to just manage dotfiles
* Setup a tool via a complex process to... setup my tools? Really?
* Why can't we use nice tools provided by git directly? They're all text files. Git manages text files very well.
So, SDF was born.
* No programming languages were invented.
* No extra dependencies, none! compile with go, throw binary in $PATH and you're all set.
* Straight up wraps git so you get all the git goodness.
SDF allows restoring your dotfiles as simple as:
$ sdf clone <URL to your repository>
$ sdf checkout .
Thank you.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Some important points to watch out before you commit your code - icalistus
https://dev.to/calistus/some-important-points-to-watch-out-before-you-commit-your-code-26bk-temp-slug-7752263
======
PikachuEXE
The URL should be
[https://dev.to/calistus/some-important-points-to-watch-
out-b...](https://dev.to/calistus/some-important-points-to-watch-out-before-
you-commit-your-code-504l)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: My Weekend Project, Socialgrain - anmolver
https://socialgrain.launchaco.com/
======
anmolver
I've always been intrigued by how we humans are evolving and leaning towards
technology, devices and what not.
And as we hold our hard skills super high in the hierarchy, we are at the same
time drifting away from our essence, i.e. human interaction; we feel super
uncomfortable while talking to people, articulating ourselves, dried up
communication skills, high spirited teamwork, humbling towards others, Public
speaking and a lot more.
To which, shouldn't there be a medium or platform that helps you with all this
as this knowledge can't be taught via books or reading blogs, but via peers or
professionals.
So, I had the idea to build a sort of 1-1 marketplace specifically for soft-
skills, believe it or not, these are super underappreciated, yet they carry a
huge role in our professional growth and personal well being.
There have been many times in the past where I wanted to improve and learn a
specific soft skill. But to all that I ever come across was prerecorded videos
or some professional carrying a colossal fee - but did not want to go through
that. Instead, I got mentored by people in my peer group who have innate
talent in this.
Here are some of those soft skills:- \- Communication (Public Speaking, Clear
Articulation of idea within a group/peer group, Interview, Conversation) \-
Persuasive Writing / Written Communication(Clarity of thoughts) \- Time
management \- Independent Thinking(Critical Thinking)
~~~
dougk16
I visited the site and wasn't really sure what it was offering, or what/if I
have to pay anything. After reading your comment I have a better idea though.
Perhaps add some of this copy in your comment to the website itself?
Also your tagline "Build yourself. Build your soft skills." may be better if
it's reversed. So "Build your soft skills. Build yourself." It seems like a
better causality flow.
Good luck!
~~~
anmolver
Appreciate your insights. Yes, I agree, need to make multiple changes to it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Early Struggles of Soldier Charged in WikiLeaks Case - donohoe
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/09/us/09manning.html?src=twr
======
bugsy
Interesting article about his background but it avoids the big issue.
Secretly selling state secrets to enemies of one's country is treason. So is
giving the secrets away to those enemies, to advance their cause.
However, this is 100% totally different from revealing war crimes to
journalists who then publicly reveal the information. Revealing war crimes and
refusing unlawful orders is a sworn duty of all soldiers, and a moral duty. It
is lawful, however that does not stop criminal states who commit war crimes
from punishing, imprisoning, torturing and killing the heroes who risk their
own lives to reveal the truth of crimes against humanity that are illegally
and immorally being committed by the state. This soldier is a hero and a
martyr. The state is proving itself the enemy in this case, and it is an enemy
of the people. In this case, it was not treason but patriotism. It is the
state who has committed treason because war crimes are treason against the
people.
~~~
Locke1689
Uh, I actually have yet to see anyone mention treason charges. Right now I
think he's being charged with unauthorized access to classified information
and unauthorized release of classified information. I think both of those are,
at the least, legally justified.
~~~
MindTwister
"Uh, I actually have yet to see anyone mention treason charges. Right now I
think he's being charged with unauthorized access to classified information
and unauthorized release of classified information. I think both of those are,
at the least, legally justified."
Potato potato
------
aaronbrethorst
Interesting speculation that DADT led him to disclose military secrets. That
is, of course, not to defend the leaking of information that has undoubtedly
killed Afghan informants, but fascinating nonetheless.
~~~
paradoja
> information that has undoubtedly killed Afghan informants [Citation needed]
~~~
aaronbrethorst
It's been two weeks since this was published:
[http://online.wsj.com/article/NA_WSJ_PUB:BT-
CO-20100729-7038...](http://online.wsj.com/article/NA_WSJ_PUB:BT-
CO-20100729-703851.html)
I think it's realistic to imagine Afghans have died in the past two weeks as a
result of the leak.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What are some sources to learn about microservices architecture? - lostPoncho
I am a noob, learning things on my own. So lately I have been trying to understand how one should go about designing the architecture a non-trivial and fairly large web app and I came across the word micro-services. I tried googling, but that just made me more confused on what the term is. So some examples and explanation would be really helpful.
======
nOObieMonster
Mobile so just blurting this out...
typically you build apps as single 'monolithic' apps where all your code is in
one place.
or
You split your code by criteria... say 'function'. So maybe seperating UI
(front-end) from server/API (backend).
Reason is if you wanted to change part of your app its easier if there are
clear boundaries between each part rather than mangled solo entities as with
monolithic.
Microservices is an extreme version or seperation of concerns/function whereby
you create 'black boxes' that handle one thing (auth, orders, stats, images) -
each of those 'services' provides a mechanism for intra-communication...
typically via an API (REST). sounds great in theory and makes large apps
easier to distribute across tech stacks, geo and developer teams without
worrying about other services... but... ensuring all services are secure,
share information, self heal (recreate themselves when crashes occur), auto
find each other across the interweb (discover) etc etc is a massive P.I.T.A.
Search 'Netflix microservices' on YouTube... reality is never as nice and
clean as theory.
Also Orielly and other have books on M.S...
I would say build the monolith first (or simply seperate client from
server/API), then split if need... rinse and repeat. Its gonna be real hard
going if you're building a multi tenant app for most things and trying to
start with M.S
When you need to scale... iterate. if M.S makes sense, split out a function
and carry on.
Also check out Docker... sorta encourages M.S approach. Quickly create/destroy
and deploy new 'service containers' etc...
Github has some examples too
[https://github.com/cer/microservices-
examples](https://github.com/cer/microservices-examples) etc etc
Good luck
~~~
lostPoncho
That was a clear explanation. Thanks. :D
------
bincyber
I would recommend becoming familiar with the 12 factor app methodology
([https://12factor.net](https://12factor.net)) and reading the following
books:
[https://www.amazon.com/Building-Microservices-Designing-
Fine...](https://www.amazon.com/Building-Microservices-Designing-Fine-Grained-
Systems/dp/1491950358)
[https://www.amazon.com/Production-Ready-Microservices-
Standa...](https://www.amazon.com/Production-Ready-Microservices-Standardized-
Engineering-Organization/dp/1491965975)
[https://www.amazon.com/Microservice-Architecture-Aligning-
Pr...](https://www.amazon.com/Microservice-Architecture-Aligning-Principles-
Practices/dp/1491956259)
------
chuhnk
Start here
[https://martinfowler.com/articles/microservices.html](https://martinfowler.com/articles/microservices.html)
Then look here for patterns
[http://microservices.io/patterns/microservices.html](http://microservices.io/patterns/microservices.html)
This guide is great [https://www.nginx.com/blog/introduction-to-
microservices/](https://www.nginx.com/blog/introduction-to-microservices/)
Finally plugging my own tooling [https://micro.mu/](https://micro.mu/)
Join [http://slack.micro.mu](http://slack.micro.mu) if you want to discuss
microservices
~~~
lostPoncho
micro.mu really looks interesting.
~~~
chuhnk
Thanks, its built based on personal experience and seems to resonate with
companies who are undergoing scaling pains.
------
guohuang
I would recommend this book, [http://toptalkedbooks.com/books/xyiEMg/RESTful-
Web-Services-...](http://toptalkedbooks.com/books/xyiEMg/RESTful-Web-Services-
Cookbook-Solutions-for-Improving-Scalability-and-Simplicity)
------
hawkweed
I would suggest starting with the short introductory articles written by Chris
Richardson:
[http://microservices.io/articles/index.html](http://microservices.io/articles/index.html)
A lot of useful articles can be found inside archives section of the
Microservices Weekly newsletter:
[http://microservicesweekly.com/archives](http://microservicesweekly.com/archives)
------
kelseyevans
Check out [https://www.datawire.io/guide](https://www.datawire.io/guide) it
breaks down how to think about microservices architectures in terms of
development, infrastructure, deployment, and traffic.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Adventure in Prolog Tutorial (2016) - AlexeyBrin
http://www.amzi.com/AdventureInProlog/advtop.php
======
xvilka
Two more very good Prolog books: The Power of Prolog[1] and Simply Logical:
Intelligent Reasoning by Example[2]. I also recommend visiting the Awesome
Prolog list[3]. There is also a very interesting extension of the Prolog -
Probabilistic Prolog, aka ProbLog[4]. And modern ISO-compatible implementation
in Rust language - Scryer Prolog[5].
[1] [https://github.com/triska/the-power-of-
prolog/](https://github.com/triska/the-power-of-prolog/)
[2] [https://book.simply-logical.space/](https://book.simply-logical.space/)
[3] [https://github.com/klaussinani/awesome-
prolog](https://github.com/klaussinani/awesome-prolog)
[4] [https://github.com/ML-KULeuven/problog](https://github.com/ML-
KULeuven/problog)
[5] [https://github.com/mthom/scryer-prolog](https://github.com/mthom/scryer-
prolog)
~~~
rscho
Scryer unfortunately seems to not be progressing very much. I really hope it
takes off, though!
~~~
mthom
I took a break from working on it over the summer, and am about to start
again. If anyone would like to pay me to work on it full time, do let me know.
~~~
rscho
Do you have a donation page somewhere?
~~~
mthom
No, and I have no idea what sort of legal can of worms that might open.
------
carapace
You know how when someone quits smoking and then, sometimes, they start to go
around telling everyone else how great it is and how OMG! they should quit
smoking too, and generally being a kind of smug and annoying about it?
I had a kind of Prolog "conversion" experience last summer...
You guys! Prolog is _so great!_ OMG! You should really try it! I'm seriously
you guys.
In all seriousness, Prolog is a simple, powerful, elegant language, with a
rich history replete with amazing research and tools. "An elegant weapon...
for a more civilized age."
~~~
tunesmith
I love the idea of prolog, but I'm stumped when I try to imagine integrating
it into other web-based projects. Is there a way? Like for instance having a
regular javascript frontend, and a JVM based backend like with spring or play,
integrating logic programming and prolog somehow?
Or more generally, now that you know prolog, what kind of real-life things do
you find it useful for? I mean I've seen all the tutorials of it solving
sudoku and logic puzzles, but...
~~~
rscho
[http://www.pathwayslms.com/swipltuts/html/index.html](http://www.pathwayslms.com/swipltuts/html/index.html)
[https://www.swi-
prolog.org/pldoc/doc_for?object=section(%27p...](https://www.swi-
prolog.org/pldoc/doc_for?object=section\(%27packages/jpl.html%27\))
[https://pengines.swi-prolog.org/docs/index.html](https://pengines.swi-
prolog.org/docs/index.html)
SWI prolog has all you need, and more!
Shameless plug for smalltalkers (hobbyist work in progress):
[https://github.com/Rscho314/pengines_smalltalk](https://github.com/Rscho314/pengines_smalltalk)
------
segmondy
This is a very good book for a first timer. This is one of the first books I
read when learning Prolog. It's fun since you're building a game. Just work
through it from front to cover and you will begin to get a good grasp on the
language.
------
6thaccount2
This is an awesome book. I had no idea it was free when I bought it lol. It is
also the only book that made Prolog seem pretty simple and not super
confusing.
I just wish I had the kinds of problems where Prolog would be performant
enough.
------
pacaro
I love this book.
I also think that everyone should build a theorem prover at some point, it's
definitely an exercise in humilty
------
aargh_aargh
What are some real-world, non-trivial programs written in Prolog? (with a
short description, please)
~~~
LukeEF
We are about to launch an prolog based DBMS. Incredibly powerful engine. Some
prolog background here:
[https://medium.com/terminusdb](https://medium.com/terminusdb)
Watch this space!
~~~
carapace
I just read your "TerminusDB — what’s in a name?" blog post, love it! The tie-
in to Asimov's Foundation, you folks seem pretty serious about that, yes?
\- - - -
You're releasing TerminusDB under the GPL! Bless your hearts! I can't wait to
see it!
\- - - -
Did you know that the Applied Category Theory folks
([https://www.appliedcategorytheory.org/](https://www.appliedcategorytheory.org/))
have something they call CQL, Categorical Query Language,
[https://www.categoricaldata.net/](https://www.categoricaldata.net/) ? They
have a book out that talks about it, "Seven Sketches in Compositionality:An
Invitation to Applied Category Theory", specifically Chapter 3 "Databases:
Categories, functors, and universal constructions"
[https://math.mit.edu/~dspivak/teaching/sp18/7Sketches.pdf](https://math.mit.edu/~dspivak/teaching/sp18/7Sketches.pdf)
~~~
LukeEF
Thanks! We're very serious about the link to Asimov's foundation. We're huge
fans and our work on the global history databank was, in part, inspired by
psychohistory
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliodynamics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliodynamics)).
\-------
Haven't seen CQL - must take a look and share with Terminus team member
('terminator' naturally!) who wrote our query language, WOQL (web object query
language). Prolog as the basis for a query language is v powerful. We get:
queries returning graphs, recursion as a core feature, composable sub-queries
and irregular expressions & cycles.
There is a standardization push in graph query at the moment so I have all
this stuff in the front of my mind! Trying to write a 'graph query manifesto'
at the moment.
\----------
On earlier comment - we are absolutely hiring, especially folks interested in
prolog!
~~~
carapace
> We're very serious about the link to Asimov's foundation.
Excellent! I've heard that Behavioral Economics is also inspired by
psychohistory.
If you're also looking to the future you might want to get in touch with the
Long Now Foundation.
In re: CQL the underlying CT treatment of DBs is the "secret sauce". I haven't
investigated WOQL in depth yet (I looked at the source in
[https://github.com/terminusdb/terminusdb](https://github.com/terminusdb/terminusdb))
but I agree with you that Prolog is superlative for a query language.
I was joking about hiring, but if you put some issues in github it's not
inconceivable you might get a PR someday. I don't want to make any promises.
As I mentioned above, I'm working on Joy-in-Prolog, and I'm right at the point
where I'm thinking about how to represent data (as in DBs) using Category
Theory along with the standard meta-data in "Data Model Patterns: A Metadata
Map" by David C. Hay.
------
norswap
For a complete different approach: [https://github.com/norswap/prolog-
dry](https://github.com/norswap/prolog-dry)
~~~
segmondy
Not even comparable. The OP posted a book, but you posted is a guide of no
more than 30 pages.
Novice: Adventure in Prolog Learn Prolog Now Logic Programming with Prolog
Med - Advanced: Clause and Effect The Art of Prolog The Craft of Prolog Wam
Book The Practice of Prolog Prolog Programming for AI - Brakto
Deep Dive: Expert Systems in Prolog Natural Language Processing for Prolog
Programmers Intelligent Image Processing in Prolog Representing Knowledge In
Prolog
There are hundreds of books! The real gems are to be found in papers, look
into published papers, you will find amazing topics on Meta Programming,
Machine Learning, Compiler Construction, DCG, etc. Don't discount books by
age, even if they were published in the 80s! The best books are from the
80's-90's.
A few sites [https://www.metalevel.at/](https://www.metalevel.at/)
[https://www.cpp.edu/~jrfisher/www/prolog_tutorial/contents.h...](https://www.cpp.edu/~jrfisher/www/prolog_tutorial/contents.html)
Use SWI-Prolog - [https://www.swi-prolog.org/](https://www.swi-prolog.org/)
~~~
jlarocco
A PDF version of "The Art of Prolog" is available from MIT:
[https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/art-prolog-second-
edition](https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/art-prolog-second-edition)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Carbon nanotube computer - dutchbrit
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v501/n7468/full/nature12502.html
======
ColinWright
The main discussion seems to be over here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6447783](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6447783)
There's also a list (yes, by me) of other submissions:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6447900](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6447900)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How to create contact from email/gmail signature? - jsarch
I've finally found the source of my frustration with the virtual rolodex: creating the contact.<p>A fantastic feature of the physical rolodex is that one needs to simply place the business card in the rolodex to "create" a contact.<p>Since email is a dominant form of communication and source of new contacts, does anyone know of a simple way to parse the email signature to create a contact?<p>(Personally, I don't care if the virtual rolodex is 37Signals Highrise, Apple AddressBook, or Gmail Contacts because I'd be willing to switch if I could create/sync contacts with a "click".)
======
geekfactor
When I was on Windows I used Copy2Contact (nee Anagram)[1], and loved it. It
looks like they now have an iPhone version and a Google Apps version on the
way.
[1] <http://www.copy2contact.com/>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
HN Crunch: Greasemonkey script for Hacker News - olalonde
http://syskall.com/hn-crunch-greasemonkey-script-for-hacker-news
======
photon_off
I've found this bookmarklet, which threads comments, to be extremely useful:
[http://alexander.kirk.at/2010/02/16/collapsible-threads-
for-...](http://alexander.kirk.at/2010/02/16/collapsible-threads-for-hacker-
news/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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The McMansion Hell Yearbook: 1970 - smacktoward
https://mcmansionhell.com/post/190405899096/the-mcmansion-hell-yearbook-1970
======
nabla9
McMansions have arbitrariness in them that can be slightly distracting. But
generally houses should be comfortable to live for those in them, nothing else
matters.
There are exceptions like Betsy DeVos’s summer home.
[https://www.vox.com/first-person/2018/8/6/17654434/betsy-
dev...](https://www.vox.com/first-person/2018/8/6/17654434/betsy-devos-yacht-
mcmansion-hell) It so tasteless it's genuinely horrific. It's like a tumor.
Full of arbitrary details and nothing fits together. You get uneasy feeling
just looking without analyzing.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Americans Are Putting Billions More Than Usual in Their 401(k)s - uptown
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-04/americans-are-putting-billions-more-than-usual-in-their-401-k-s
======
callinyouin
I'm not planning on Social Security being around by the time I'm old enough to
tap into it, and I'm also not planning on having any kids to bail me out when
I go senile, so yeah I'm putting a lot into my 401k. I think a lot of people
my age (turning 30 next week) are feeling the same way, so I wonder if it's
younger workers driving this trend.
~~~
DoodleBuggy
> "I'm not planning on Social Security being around by the time I'm old enough
> to tap into it"
You need to change that attitude or your complacency will allow politicians to
take it from you. The fact is you pay ~16% of your paycheck into social
security and medicare, it is designed to be like a pension. It is not an
entitlement, it's your money.
~~~
jandrewrogers
It is not your money, it is a tax on income like any other. The Supreme Court
established in 1960 (Flemming v Nestor) that contributions to Social Security
are not your property and the government has no obligation to ever pay you
benefits regardless of contribution. People have had this entitlement revoked
in practice, though the targeting tends to be selective for out-groups and not
a substantial fraction of the population.
The government strongly encourages belief in the myth that Social Security is
something other than a welfare tax with no implied obligation to the taxpayer
because that notion makes the tax much more palatable than the reality.
~~~
rebootthesystem
Yes. I wish more people understood this.
The other one nobody seems to want to talk about or understand is Medicaid.
People think they are getting health insurance (or whatever they want to call
it) when, in reality, they are accumulating debt with the government and a
debt most states are required, by law, to collect.
This is one of the huge problems (outside of costs and lies) I have with
Obamacare. The claim is that millions of people now have insurance when, in
reality, millions of people were shoved into Medicaid and are accumulating a
non-trivial financial obligation with the government. To say this is dishonest
is probably cutting it short.
[https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/eligibility/estate-
recover...](https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/eligibility/estate-
recovery/index.html)
~~~
mywittyname
I'm not sure why you're saying that using Medicaid is equivalent to
accumulating debt with the Federal government. Medicaid is health insurance.
It's true that Medicaid will seek reimbursement for procedures that should not
have been covered, but that's not different much different than what happens
when a private insurance company refuses to pay a benefit. The hospital is
free to pursue the person directly for the balance they owe.
~~~
greedo
If you use Medicaid, you're expected to first deplete almost all of your
financial resources to pay. It's not unusual to even have your home become an
asset that will be eventually taken by the government.
~~~
zaroth
After ACA this is no longer true in Medicaid expansion states.
There is no asset test, and there is no paying back benefits if you are under
65 when you took them.
Medicaid expansion is quite literally the best insurance that money can't buy.
In CA, for example, a family of 4 earning less than $33,500 gets MediCal [1].
If you just want free coverage for the kids, you can earn $64,600. [2]
[1] - [http://www.dhcs.ca.gov/services/medi-
cal/Pages/DoYouQualifyF...](http://www.dhcs.ca.gov/services/medi-
cal/Pages/DoYouQualifyForMedi-Cal.aspx)
[2] - [http://hbex.coveredca.com/toolkit/renewal-
toolkit/downloads/...](http://hbex.coveredca.com/toolkit/renewal-
toolkit/downloads/2016-Income-Guidelines.pdf)
~~~
krapp
ACA is likely about to be repealed.
~~~
zaroth
And maybe that's a good reason why it should be.
A progressive tax system should not be paired with a regressive subsidy as
massive as ACA. It adds up to nearly a 100% tax on the first $60,000 of income
for unhealthy / chronically ill families, and a 60% effective tax rate for
healthy ones.
------
codegeek
For self employed, it is even better. You can put up to 54,000 for 2017 [0].
If you are self employed and can afford to do this, do it. It usually splits
in 2 parts:
\- Employee portion: $18,000 that you can put as an employee.
\- Employer portion: Up to 25% of W-2 wages.
The total of the 2 above cannot exceed 54K for 2017. One more thing, you can
make contributions for employer portion until the calendar year end which is
March. So even for 2016, you can still make the employer portion if you were
enrolled in a self employed 401K. Another thing is that the employer portion
can be shown as an expense of your business as well.
If you use Fidelity or Vanguard, stick most of it in an index fund and you
have the S&P 500 returns by doing nothing.
I highly recommend any self employed to read this IRS publication.
[0] [https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/one-
participant-401k-pl...](https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/one-
participant-401k-plans)
------
temp246810
Even though I'm doing all the right things like maxing out 401k etc., I can't
help but feel that I will regret it later.
It feels like everyone grew up hearing the same thing (people are poor
planners, people go broke in retirement) and now as adults have vowed that
will never be them.
The problem is that now everyone thinks this way - index funds are on the
rise, people are saving into their 401k, I can't help but think that I should
be zagging here when everyone is zigging. Unfortunately, however, I can't
figure out what that other thing should be.
~~~
pillowkusis
I've been feeling the same way. Having millions of people and billions of
dollars blindly dumped into index funds leaves me uneasy. Many view index
funds as a "7% return machine". The conventional wisdom is "buy and hold",
blindly, regardless of what the market does, what companies fail, or who
you're investing in. Most 401k users probably couldn't name more than 10
stocks that their fund is comprised of. Stock markets assume people buy stocks
because they believe in some fundemental value of the stock, and have thus
done analysis to believe so. When markets are composed of people who don't
adhere to this philosophy... I'm not sure what happens next. Having such a
large mass of investors who are not thinking rationally about their investment
seems like a recipe for disaster, but I'm no economist.
REITs, small-cap funds, international stocks, and perhaps commodities seem
like the best choices if you're looking to diversify. The reality is if
everyone's investment behavior precipitates a large collapse, pretty much no
sane investment strategy is going to do well. Diversify, hedge your bets, and
just stop worrying about it. That's the conclusion I've come to, anyway.
~~~
dlp211
The whole point of index funds is to insulate yourself from a single company
failing. What happens when 1 of the 500 S&P 500 companies even declines is
that it is substituted for with another, stronger company. Index funds are not
static, they just sometimes appear that way.
------
timrosenblatt
FWIW "Billions of dollars" should be considered in the context that 1 million
people * $1,000 = $1 billion. The US is ~300m people. So, this headline is
something like "1/3 of 1% of the US is putting an extra $1,000 in their 401k
recently" (really more like 1-2% of the _workforce_ but the point remains)
------
chrisabrams
Am I the only one that is scared of 401ks? It sounds nice: put your money into
an account tax-free, let it grow tax free over 30-40 years. When you retire,
you have this nice large fund to pull money from.
My biggest fear is that in 30-40 years the US government and/or 401k funds are
so poorly run that they tax 50/60/70% of the income (withdrawals) out of the
401k to sustain theirselves. Lots of people tell me "that won't happen" but
when I study history, I realize that the only people who think that are ones
who have never lived through a major war. Wars = higher taxes. To me, putting
money in a 401k is trusting that everything will be ok for a long time to
come, and it's just hard to justify that the way history books show the cycles
of war.
It scares me so much that I'd rather pay the taxes now, and invest as I
please.
Edit: as omouse mentioned, that is my other fear. That through technology and
healthcare innovations, as well as the government recognizing the need to
"adjusting" the retirement age, how do I know I will get my 401k at 65? What
if it is 85? That's too risky for me :/
~~~
djrogers
You don't quite understand 401ks. You can choose either contribute tax free
(traditional) or have tax-free growth (Roth). You can't do both in the same
account.
This doesn't change the fact that the rules may be changed at some point, but
given the ridiculously low limits on 401k contributions anyway you might as
well put some money in one. Worst case scenario is you wind up paying taxes on
t anyway, but then again you might not.
No matter how you slice it you won't wind up paying _more_ taxes than you will
if you pay them now and invest without any tax sheltering.
~~~
dlp211
Nitpick, but both a traditional and Roth provide tax-free growth. A Roth
allows tax-free distribution is what I believe you intended to say.
------
bogomipz
It's interesting when the 401k was introduced it was meant to be one leg in a
"three-legged stool" for retirement planning.
Those three legs consisting of pension, social security and savings when it
was introduced.
For people in the private sector that is now a two-legged stool as pensions
went the way of the evening news paper and indemnity health care plans.
Its interesting to note that law makers in Washington DC all have pensions and
indemnity health care plans. Only the best for them. I've often wondered at
how different things would be if they were subject to the same health care and
retirement options as the rest of the population.
[http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/09/three-legged-
stoo...](http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/09/three-legged-stool-
retirement.asp)
[http://financialanswers.com/page.php?b=24549975-0&c=1027](http://financialanswers.com/page.php?b=24549975-0&c=1027)
------
sikim
I wonder what percentage of 401k contributors has an IRA. General rule of
thumb is to contribute enough to 401k to get maximum company matching and max
out your Roth IRA contribution first. IRA is generally preferred because you
can choose your own fund (e.g. Vanguard) and has more flexibility in certain
situations. By having both pre-tax (401k) and post-tax (Roth IRA), you would
be also diversifying your tax liability in your retirement.
~~~
briHass
One problem with the Roth IRA is the income phase out limits. If you're
single, if you AGI is >117K, you can only contribute some percentage of the
$5000 allowed for the Roth. If you're >132K, you can't contribute anything.
For a married couple, those limits are 184K/194K. Granted, you can reduce your
AGI by contributing to a 401K first, which allows you to take $18K off the
top.
I know this doesn't affect many, but for the high-paid tech crowd, these
limits right around the point in your career where you want to be pumping in
money.
~~~
ryandrake
Those are still pretty high limits, well above the median tech salary even in
the Bay Area. If you're in "income phase out" territory you're probably not
worried about your retirement.
The thing I don't like about Roth is that you're contributing with post-tax
money during your prime working years--the time when your taxes are probably
as high as they will ever be. Especially true as a tech worker where your
salary plateaus in your 20s. I'd rather save pre-tax now, and then pay taxes
later when I'm 60 and back in the lowest tax bracket.
~~~
brewdad
My issue with the Roth is that I don't trust the rules to remain the same in
the future. I pay taxes now, before the money goes in, with the promise of
tax-free withdrawals. I fully expect that money to become taxable on the back-
end at some future time. It might be a lower rate (like capital gains today)
or be income-based, but that pot of $ will be too tempting to ignore, I fear.
~~~
djrogers
So worst case scenario is that you wind up paying the taxes you'd have paid if
you didn't use the Roth? Not really a reason to not use one when it's only a
possibility and not a certainty.
------
sgustard
More money enters when the market is hot. I expect the contribution percentage
closely mirrors the price of the S&P. The graph doesn't show the 2007-8 crash
but I'd also expect contributions dropped at that time, also providing a
depressed baseline for the current gain. Of course, people would have been
better served by contributing after the drop, and one could also be nervous
about record dollars chasing the market now at its highest point.
~~~
lintiness
along these lines, note how many news stories etc are currently touting the
power of stock indices and index investing. given a shiller pe of ~28, i'd say
most are in for a very rude awakening (again and forever).
[http://www.multpl.com/shiller-pe/](http://www.multpl.com/shiller-pe/)
~~~
jcdavis
Solely discussing stock valuations without also considering bond yields is a
little misleading. With interest rates so low on a historical basis (albeit
now possibly picking up), higher stock pricing is expected and isn't
necessarily "overpriced"
A good recent discussion of this:
[http://brooklyninvestor.blogspot.com/2016/11/bonds-down-
stoc...](http://brooklyninvestor.blogspot.com/2016/11/bonds-down-stocks-
up.html)
~~~
Jeema101
I'm not sure where that guy is getting his data, but I think the average stock
market P/E when 10 year treasury rates are in the 4-6% range is more like 19.
But maybe he's looking at 'forward P/E' or something.
[http://qvmgroup.com/invest/2013/06/22/sp-500-pes-
versus-10-y...](http://qvmgroup.com/invest/2013/06/22/sp-500-pes-versus-10-yr-
treasury-rates-from-1957/)
------
lucidguppy
If they take away my social security... I want my payments back.
~~~
umanwizard
If they cancel some welfare program (like free lunch for poor school kids), do
you want your money back that you paid into the program while it existed?
What sense does this make?
~~~
kdamken
Not the best comparison. Besides being a requirement, you pay into social
security based on the assumption that you'll get benefits when you're older.
If you paid for 20 years and then the program went bust and you didn't receive
anything, I think you'd rightly feel ripped off.
~~~
umanwizard
> you pay into social security based on the assumption that you'll get
> benefits when you're older.
No. If you think this is how social security works then you have been tricked.
Social Security is a welfare program for old people.
A better analogy is if you paid for free lunches for kids, then you have a kid
and also become poor, but they cancel the program, you'd feel ripped off.
The reason it doesn't intuitively feel the same way (even though it is) is
because middle class people have a much higher chance of ever becoming old
than ever becoming poor.
------
vinhboy
Say what you will about government incompetence, but the idea of tying things
like my retirement and healthcare to my employer just sounds terrible.
Also, auto-enrolling people into 401K sounds kinda like... ya know... social
security.
~~~
koolba
> Also, auto-enrolling people into 401K sounds kinda like... ya know... social
> security.
Companies auto enroll people into 401(k) programs because of participation
requirements. For "highly paid employees" (i.e. executives) to be allowed to
contribute to a 401(k), there requires a minimum level of participation from
the rest of the workforce at the company. The easiest way to do so is to auto
enroll people on day one.
~~~
chimeracoder
> For "highly paid employees" (i.e. executives)
Highly Compensated Employees are not just executives. Anybody who makes more
than $115,000/year qualifies, which applies to a lot of engineers. Also,
anybody who controls more than 5% of the business qualifies, whether or not
they are an executive, and regardless of their salary.
~~~
koolba
They'd qualify but I'm pretty sure when the law was first written it didn't
have them in mind. It was specifically to prevent top level executives or
business owners (>=5% of company) from creating 401k plans for only
themselves.
~~~
chimeracoder
> They'd qualify but I'm pretty sure when the law was first written it didn't
> have them in mind. It was specifically to prevent top level executives or
> business owners (>=5% of company) from creating 401k plans for only
> themselves.
Even if that was the rhetoric used when creating the rule, I'd be very
skeptical of assuming that was the case, rather than it being motivated by a
desire to increase tax revenue, as a lot of these tax rules are designed to
do. $115,000 is a really low threshold to use to define "executive" \- many
blue-collar workers make far more than that.
(And furthermore, the rule still does not prohibit highly-compensated
employees from contributing; it just requires them to pay taxes on the excess
of the permitted amount.)
~~~
koolba
> 115,000 is a really low threshold to use to define "executive" \- many blue-
> collar workers make far more than that.
Quantify "many".
$115K/year comes out to an hourly rate of $57.5 (assuming 2K hours). Even
factoring in overtime (1.5x) or double time (2x), I doubt a significant
percentage of people make that much at a blue collar job.
------
payne92
If the employer does any matching at all, a 401(k) is a no brainer in most
cases.
------
kasperni
Anyone else around here that does not have a pension account?
On the basis that technology will have changed the economic system (for good
or worse) in such fundamental ways so we either have greatly expanded life
span, "free" handouts such as basic income, or major financial busts that have
wiped out most pension savers.
~~~
rpwilcox
I would ask the inverse: anyone around here _have_ a pension account?
When I joined my current company I was given an option to join the pension
(maybe the last year it was offered to new people??). I didn't take it for a
couple reasons:
1. figured I probably wouldn't be here for 30 years (!!!!)
2. Stories of rampant pension mismanagement scare me off. (Reasonably sure it wouldn't happen with my employer, but...)
~~~
awinder
Just to clarify on #2, it doesn't even have to really be in your employer's
control. One of the biggest sales targets of mortgage-backed securities prior
to 2008 were pension plans, they were AAA-rated securities.
------
dawhizkid
I'm counting on basic income being a thing when I retire.
~~~
etjossem
Basic income will come with a corresponding increase in prices for consumer
goods across the board. As demand for everything beyond the most essential
staples goes up, prices will be adjusted upward until supply is able to
satisfy new demand.
Even if you're right, you will still want to have saved some money.
~~~
ones_and_zeros
Yes a price increase is a first order effect of demand increasing. In
capitalist economies demand is great because of the second and third order
effects.
------
astockwell
Headline is shameless click-bait. Percentage change is much more valuable than
absolute dollars. From the article: "An increase in retirement savings of 0.6
percentage points [from 2010 to 2015]".
~~~
AngrySkillzz
Reading is fundamental. 0.6 on a rate of 6.2. That's roughly 10%. What would
you do if your savings was 10% larger?
------
squozzer
Having a somewhat paranoid personality, I find myself wondering if auto-enroll
and (especially) auto-escalation - which my job has - are designed with the
employee's well-being in mind, or just a ploy to prop up the stock market?
~~~
hellogoodbyeeee
Honestly, which do you think is most likely? 1) Your HR department is part of
a nation-wide conspiracy to prop up stock market prices. 2) Your HR department
is trying to help their employees be properly prepared for retirement.
~~~
forgottenpass
3) HR don't give a fuck, and are just told to do the thing the business wants
to do because it is incenivized to do so.
The benefit to the employees and ability for HR to feel positive about their
position in the role are arbitrary. The employees could also suffer when
business wants to do something that negatively impacts them, and HR can be
used to carry that out too. e.g: Switching to a shittier health plan to save
money.
------
guelo
401k is such a scam, you get a handful of high fee funds to invest in. Wall
Street thieves billions of dollars, all sanctioned by the government and
encouraged by the financial advise industry.
Employees should only contribute to a 401k up to any employer match. Beyond
that put your money in an IRA.
~~~
saryant
My 401k has _better_ funds than I could ever get in my IRA. Yes, many 401k's
have terrible fund choices but by no means do _all_ of them fall prey to that.
Also, if you're maxing out both your IRA and 401k limits, even if you have a
lousy 401k, you now have tax-advantaged dollars that you can roll over to
Vanguard or Fidelity when you change jobs.
~~~
curiousbiped
It sucks that we have to use our employer's 401k vendor. We should be able to
have our 401k contributions sent to any valid 401k provider like
Vanguard/Fidelity/etc instead of only being able to move it when we switch
jobs.
------
chiph
With more money chasing after the same quantity of equities, I would have
thought the market prices would have been going up. But they've been
essentially flat over the past year. Even though firms have been buying back
their stock. There must be another reason why they've been stagnant.
~~~
dmoy
S&P 500 is up 20% in 2016... not sure what you're talking about.
~~~
bk_geek
S&P 500 gained approx 9.5% in 2016
~~~
dmoy
Ah you're right, I went in a bit later than the start of the year, looks like
it took a dive a bit and then went back up. So I'm up ~20% following the
S&P500, just not for the full calendar year.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Losing Faith in the State, Some Mexican Towns Quietly Break Away - camtarn
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/07/world/americas/mexico-state-corruption.html
======
dfabulich
Nils Gilman has a great article on this phenomenon [https://www.the-american-
interest.com/2014/06/15/the-twin-in...](https://www.the-american-
interest.com/2014/06/15/the-twin-insurgency/)
_States within the global political economy today face a twin insurgency, one
from below, another from above. From below comes a series of interconnected
criminal insurgencies in which the global disenfranchised resist, coopt, and
route around states as they seek ways to empower and enrich themselves in the
shadows of the global economy. Drug cartels, human traffickers, computer
hackers, counterfeiters, arms dealers, and others exploit the loopholes,
exceptions, and failures of governance institutions to build global commercial
empires. These empires then deploy their resources to corrupt, coopt, or
challenge incumbent political actors._
_From above comes the plutocratic insurgency, in which globalized elites seek
to disengage from traditional national obligations and responsibilities. From
libertarian activists to tax-haven lawyers to currency speculators to mineral-
extraction magnates, the new global super-rich and their hired help are waging
a broad-based campaign to limit the reach and capacity of government tax-
collectors and regulators, or to manipulate these functions as a tool in their
own cut-throat business competition._
_Unlike classic 20th-century insurgents, who sought control over the state
apparatus in order to implement social reforms, criminal and plutocratic
insurgents do not seek to take over the state. Nor do they wish to destroy the
state, since they rely parasitically on it to provide the legacy goods of
social welfare: health, education, infrastructure, and so on. Rather, their
aim is simpler: to carve out_ de facto _zones of autonomy for themselves by
crippling the state’s ability to constrain their freedom of (economic)
action._
~~~
eli_gottlieb
I'm always a little skeptical of arguments made in the _American Interest_ ,
since they bill themselves as a magazine devoted to the idea of the nation-
state. Whatever I read as the reasoning, I know their bottom-line commitment
was pre-written. If there was a powerful but _positive_ movement against the
nation-state (say... some form of Bookchinist libertarian municipalism), would
the _American Interest_ admit its virtues? Well no, and so it makes sense that
a search for "Rojava" turns up nothing, despite it being an extent, present-
day experiment in politics without the state.
Also, claiming that communists tried to nurture a middle class is just plain
_wrong_. Communists were, at least according to Communists, trying to
_abolish_ class entirely, and initially to uplift the proletariat, the
_working_ class.
~~~
Wohlf
When you try to abolish class, you're really trying to make everyone middle
class. No one wants to make everyone working class, and upper class can only
exist if there's at least one lower class to subjugate.
~~~
ericd
The upper class wants the fruits of being wealthy, they're generally not in it
for the "subjugation" aspect. With sufficient automation and
efficiency/recycling, everyone could be what we call "upper class".
~~~
ACow_Adonis
You need to expand your social circle :P Obviously, a generalisation about an
entire class is one generalisation on top of another, but i've had discussions
with people who have explicitly told me they don't really care how good/bad
things are, as long as they are better than others.
Ditto with skills, tests. Don't care, just as long as i'm above others.
A lot of people don't REALLY want to abolish slavery or heirachies. What
really want is to ensure they're considered the masters.
~~~
adventured
> but i've had discussions with people who have explicitly told me they don't
> really care how good/bad things are, as long as they are better than others.
No question that mentality exists, I'll argue that it's a very small minority
of eg millionaires in any society that hold such a view.
There are around 11 to 13 million (not including primary residence)
millionaires in the US; or around 4.5% to 5% of the adult population. The
typical millionaire in the US is worth about $3 to $4 million. While it's a
very large group of people spread across the country, they do have a few
things in common.
The majority acquired that status from working extremely hard for a very long
time, usually either operating and or selling relatively small businesses with
no more than between a few dozen up to a hundred employees, or slogging away
for decades piling up invested wealth slowly over their lifetime.
The millionaire class in the US is numerically overwhelmingly dominated by
those types of outcomes and has been since the industrial revolution.
Extreme wealth on the other hand obviously is concentrated in a few thousand
persons with unusual outlier situations, usually around very large business
concerns. My suspicion is that group is dramatically more likely to have a
master of the universe mentality.
~~~
richardwhiuk
Most millionaires acquired it, largely, via inheritance, not hard work.
~~~
obscurantist
That's true for most European countries, but not America.
~~~
hutzlibu
Not challenging, just asking, do you have sources to back up your claim?
------
tomr_stargazer
This article is insightful, but it's unfortunate that it does not even mention
the EZLN [0] (colloquially, Zapatistas), the majority indigenous and rural
breakaway communities in the southern state of Chiapas which have been
autonomous since 1994.
[0]
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zapatista_Army_of_National_L...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zapatista_Army_of_National_Liberation)
~~~
grangerize
The New York Times would never mention the EZLN. =)
~~~
schoen
They've reported on them dozens of times
[https://www.nytimes.com/topic/organization/zapatista-
nationa...](https://www.nytimes.com/topic/organization/zapatista-national-
liberation-army)
though strangely apparently not between 2005 and 2017.
~~~
hateduser2
That’s a pretty big gap
~~~
schoen
I thought so too, but another commenter here found that they were repeatedly
reported on during that time, just not tagged as the main subject of the
articles. (But maybe this change still does reflect a different level of
editorial interest in them during that time.)
------
simplicio
Sort of similar to how the Mafia is thought to have arose from protection
schemes for Sicily's valuable, but vulnerable lemon crop.
[https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/mafia-lemons-citrus-
si...](https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/mafia-lemons-citrus-sicily-
economics)
~~~
hashkb
Or, like, every paramilitary ruling a South American state.
------
marcoperaza
Mexico is a country at civil war and in denial about it. The cartels and
affiliated corrupt public officials effectively control large swaths of the
country.
Yet when the central government tries to take action against them, naive
people in Mexico City take to the streets to protest over civil liberties. The
cartel problem is treated as one of _crime_ , when it is really one of
_insurrection_.
When the US had its civil war, Lincoln did what needed to be done: civil
liberties were abridged, habeas corpus was suspended, secessionist state
legislators were arrested, seceding states were blockaded, and Lincoln openly
violated court orders demanding otherwise. Sherman’s March to the Sea had such
a devastating effect on the South’s economy that it caused mass starvation
among Southern civilians. The time for magnanimity and kindness came _after_
the war, where a blanket pardon was issued on the condition of future loyalty.
But until the final victory was achieved, nothing was off the table.
Mexico needs to eradicate the cancer within. Their survival as a nation-state
depends on it.
~~~
dragonwriter
> Mexico is a country at civil war and in denial about it.
No, it's a country split into trafficking fiefdoms with some violent disputes
about the divisions that's in denial about _that_. But there's no general
civil war.
> Yet when the central government tries to take action against them
The central government sometimes rearranges which traffickers are allowed
which territories, which results in an upswing in violence. It rarely moves
against them generally, though it uses that as the cover for shifting
arrangements.
It's funny that you recognize that public officials involved with the cartels
are a major factor, but somehow seem to exempt the central government.
~~~
marcoperaza
My understanding is that while many federal politicians are also compromised,
the army is mostly clean.
~~~
dragonwriter
> the army is mostly clean.
That’s very much at odds with most of what I've seen, which is that both
regional commands and the highest levels of authority in the army have shown
corruption by and, especially at the regional level, direct intervention on
behalf of cartels.
------
SamPutnam
_Government statistics show avocado exports now bring more money into the
country than petroleum._
[https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/aug/06/mexico-...](https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/aug/06/mexico-
considers-importing-avocados-as-global-demand-drives-up-prices)
~~~
dekhn
mexico nationalized its oil industry and mainly uses it for internal supply
(their choice), so I don't think this is a really useful comparison.
~~~
mullen
Mexico just mismanages it. They use it for Internal Supply because they have
screwed up PEMEX so much they can't product enough oil for export.
~~~
kilroy123
Yes it's pretty crazy. They ship it to the US to be refined. Then they buy it
back. Sounds like a huge bloated organization with little regards to
efficiency.
Source: dated a woman who worked there.
------
dpflan
Of the civic experiments listed, this quotation from a citizen in Neza seems
to hit on a core issue - human trust and particularly in those who enforce
laws:
"""
Yazmin Quroz, a longtime resident, said working with police officers, whom she
now knows by name, had brought a sense of community. “We are united, which
hadn’t happened before,” she said. “We’re finally all talking to each other."
"""
~~~
digi_owl
I seem to have encountered similar notions when politicians have to face the
people their decisions affect on a person to person level.
~~~
apatters
Can you elaborate?
~~~
dpflan
I think this is on-topic and exemplary with regard to trust in law
makers/upholders/enactor: What comes to mind is video footage from the US of
local meetings of reps with constituents in the US where the meetings are
filled with the frustration of the constituents at the poor and short-sighted
decision making by their representatives that would significantly affect the
disaffected already - e.g. any anti "Obamacare" sentiment held by and voting
against such things that would benefit their communities in the long run over
short-sighted possibly political corruption based / greasing the wheels of the
seemingly continuous seeking re-election that officials focus on over perhaps
their duties to their constituents.
So those would be examples of lack of trust or dissolving of trust emerging as
the reps return home from the voting grounds of the capitol(s) to meet their
constituents who are questioning the motives and decisions of their
representatives who should be acting in their constituents best interested (or
whatever campaign promises they used to build themselves up as
electable/elected).
(Let me know if this became too abstract, I just did not research and pull
examples.)
------
V2hLe0ThslzRaV2
Anyone able to provide any context as to why the cartels would care about a
town like this?
As far as I am able to tell, the town is not: a tourist area, on a main route
to anywhere, bordering the US, etc.
~~~
jordigh
The price of avocados has soared worldwide thanks to memes like avocado toast.
Avocados themselves are now valuable enough for cartels. They're calling it
green gold.
[http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-
america-41635008](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-41635008)
[http://www.businessinsider.com/mexican-farmers-in-
michoacan-...](http://www.businessinsider.com/mexican-farmers-in-michoacan-
rely-on-vigilantes-to-protect-avocados-2017-12)
[http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2008-01-30/news/080130007...](http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2008-01-30/news/0801300071_1_avocado-
consumption-mexican-avocados-avocado-production)
It has now become a joke to say "échale aguacate", (throw in some avocado) to
express something like "go all out" or "be a big spender".
[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CmUQfURW8AAYQpY.jpg](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CmUQfURW8AAYQpY.jpg)
~~~
lotsofpulp
I think it's more likely that many people like the taste of avocados and
avocado products.
~~~
erikpukinskis
A delicious food is worthless without culutural knowledge about how to prepare
it. Thus the attribution of cause to the meme, not the fruit itself, which has
existed a very long time.
~~~
geofft
Doesn't one generally prepare avocado toast by ... spreading avocado on toast?
And maybe adding salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes, but that doesn't seem
like particularly recent cultural knowledge - you do that to all sorts of
foods. It's about as complicated as putting butter on toast.
~~~
QAPereo
The version I’ve been eating for a couple of decades goes like this:
Good bread is key, I like olive sourdough or something chewy with grain. Layer
of avocado, layer of hummus, sprinkle feta cheese, sliced tomatoes, lettuce on
the side as a “chaser” and... yum.
I guess that’s “cultural” in that it’s just adding avocado to a Greek thing.
I’d guess that’s the story of how a lot of people got into various new
produce... add it to the familiar.
------
Iv
Quietly?
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EZLN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EZLN)
It is fairly famous, in anarchist circles, that half of a state of Mexico
consists of anarchist communes, independent from the state. It has been that
way since at least 1994.
------
mythrwy
I wonder if this has to do with article I read the other day.
(From memory) there was a shooting in Acupulco a day or so ago which left like
8 dead. A local town security force arrested a guy and it turned into a gun
battle. Then the feds showed up and attempted to arrest members of the local
security force who fought back and some of them were killed also. It's nuts.
Hope things stabilize down there. Feel awful for the people who have to put up
with it all and used to really enjoy traveling in Mexico.
~~~
big_youth
Acapulco is a warzone. It used to be a world renown tourist area but fell into
chaos.
Search youtube for the video where cartels attack the police headquarters and
hotel where they were staying.
~~~
mythrwy
You can't blame the people for trying to do something about corrupt government
and cartel violence. Problem is the whole "meet the new boss, same as the old
boss" thing.
------
DubiousPusher
There's an excellent documentary about one of the first break away parapolice
forces called Cartel Land.
------
jxramos
"Tancítaro represents a quiet but telling trend in Mexico, where a handful of
towns and cities are effectively seceding, partly or in whole. These are acts
of desperation, revealing the degree to which Mexico’s police and politicians
are seen as part of the threat."
Not to say this is far along the road of chaos, but chaos is always the
correcting factor to things. At the end of the day people are going to look
out for their best interests no matter the official state line/laws.
------
vadimberman
Did they really "break away"?
I skimmed through the article so I may have missed something, but what I read
was about how the municipal authorities took over many of the state / federal
responsibilities. The last one is engaged in a turf war with the state police.
What about the federal taxes? Infrastructure projects? Salaries of the state
employees?
~~~
Tenobrus
One relevant detail was a town driving out the police force along with
cartels, and replacing them with a militia.
------
baybal2
O Americans, I would like you to keep it in mind that the only country than
shares a land border with USA and is not a NATO member is Mexico.
It is generally a bad idea to have a failed state on your border, but moreover
to have one that will be eager to host few Russian tank regiments.
Soviet agents were all around Mexico during cold war years, there is nothing
to suggest that they were recalled after the fall of USSR.
------
scotty79
Thanks to weakening of the state, Mexico became in my eyes largest real world
implementation of libertarian paradise where in the absence of state people
are left to decide what's ok and what's not. Apparently plenty of weapons used
on daily basis to resolve disputes about who has the right to what is two
thumbs up ok.
~~~
kilroy123
Depends what part of the country you're talking about. Big cities are still
strict about laws, especially Mexico City.
But yes, I tell people back home all the time, in a lot of ways it feels more
free here than in the US. (I'm a gringo living in Mexico)
------
djsumdog
I feel like a lot of Americans don't realize or chose not to acknowledge that
most of the violence in the South and Central Americas is directly caused by
the United States. The Bay of Pigs, the School of the Americas, the Iranian-
Contras, the CIA supported coupe in Chile on September 11th, 1973, United
Fruit Company, .. the list is as long as you want to make it.
It's intentional. The lower Americas are pushed into this state by various
corporate interests in the US which are large enough to dictate policy. I've
written about this before:
[http://fightthefuture.org/article/america-and-the-mexican-
dr...](http://fightthefuture.org/article/america-and-the-mexican-drug-trade/)
~~~
nitwit005
The US has its faults, but it didn't invent crime, corruption or stupidity.
And there is no corporate interest that wants mass killings and kidnappings.
~~~
ohyes
Well, except the defense industry.
The guys who sell you x-ray machines and bomb sniffing dogs and private
security services.
And the companies who build military tanks, planes, and ships.
And the companies that build guns, body-armor and night vision goggles.
And the ones that want you to be scared because scared people are easy to
manipulate.
Oh, that stuff represents a shit-ton of the federal budget? Weird. I guess
it's just a really dangerous world, nothing to be done about it...
~~~
dsfyu404ed
The parts of the defense industry you listed are the parts that benefit most
from arms races between well funded nation states and proxy wars.
Basic hardware is cheap. Anyone can make it and that drives down price. The
Mexican police can buy cheap guns and bullets from whoever they want. Stuff
like radar systems and guided missiles are what makes it into the highlights
list of the quarterly all hands.
~~~
ohyes
9/11 (an incident of mass murder) caused the US to invade Iraq and
Afghanistan, surely that sold enough guided missiles, attack helicopters and
radar systems to make the quarterlies for a few years.
It also sold a ton of those bomb search machines and led to a couple of huge
wings of the government (NSA and TSA).
Cheney's Haliburton stock being a singular example of this type of violence
being beneficial to certain corporate interests.
People with power and money are much more cynical that we'd like to believe.
~~~
dsfyu404ed
>People with power and money are much more cynical that we'd like to believe.
Than you'd like to believe. I have no illusions.
~~~
ohyes
Indeed, I would personally prefer to live in the world where our leaders are
idealists trying to make the world a better place rather than war-profiteers.
~~~
jessaustin
I'd prefer to live in the world with fewer leaders, each of whose leadership
is inflicted on fewer of his fellow human beings.
------
known
Reminds me
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_state_petitions_for_seces...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_state_petitions_for_secession)
------
balthasar
Its crazy that one of the most dysfunctional third world countries borders the
most powerful and prosperous. Weird huh?
~~~
sol_remmy
Mexico is really not that dysfunctional. Mexico is not even third world.
We just hear a disproportionate of news from Mexico because of how close it
is.
~~~
always_good
On one side, I [selfishly, unfairly] like that Americans are conditioned by
the media to be so scared of Mexico. I almost never see other Americans here.
I meet a lot of people day to day who just haven't spoken to an American that
wasn't a Mexican-American. Those experiences are some of the most interesting
you can have when traveling.
But on the other side, that's not healthy for the people of either country.
For example, I regularly meet Mexicans that think Americans hate them. And
comments from the people who post in /r/the_donald regularly have me shaking
my head muttering "poor sheltered bastard."
Even HN commenters will talk about how they want to pull the trigger on
leaving their boring office job and move to Chiang Mai, but that's a pretty
incredible move. It's far away and with a much different culture and language,
which is a cool thing but increases the chances that you just won't do it.
Meanwhile I'd say I have a pretty exotic lifestyle living on nothing and I'm
just a 2 hour flight from my family in Austin.
------
javajosh
Sad to read. The US has a big problems, but nothing like the total breakdown
of order that seems to have occurred in Mexico. It's an enormous humanitarian
crisis, and our response is to build a wall. No, we should legalize drugs, and
undermine the economic power of the cartels. I'd love it if someone more
familiar with Mexican culture could explain the nature of almost universal
institutional corruption.
~~~
supreme_sublime
Why not both? Why can't we have strong border security and legalize drugs? I'm
hoping with the recent Sessions announcement that he will be enforcing federal
law in states where marijuana is "legal" that will put pressure on congress to
legalize it. Or at least repeal all federal laws on it and truly leave it up
to the states.
This is a pretty good short video about how building a wall can help Mexicans.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLv8Z6bsI24](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLv8Z6bsI24)
~~~
dang
It looks like you've been using HN primarily for ideological and political
arguments. That's actually an abuse of the site, and we eventually ban
accounts that do it. See
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html).
HN's core value is intellectual curiosity. That's the first casualty in
ideological battle—actually it evaporates before the battle even begins—so we
have to be proactive about this. If you'd please read the site guidelines and
also
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html)
and take the spirit of this site to heart, we'd appreciate it.
~~~
wooter
reading through your history there is an obvious bias in who you choose to say
this to based on your personal ideology. not to mention your various strictly
ideological and political submissions. disappointing as that seems like an
abuse of the guidelines and your power.
~~~
dang
People's image of HN mods' political bias is entirely predictable from their
own ideological affiliation. Strong rightists think we (and HN itself) lean
left, strong leftists think we (and HN) lean right. Since the conclusions you
all draw are so contradictory, I don't think these charges have much
informational value—at least not about us. There's clearly a cognitive bias at
work here.
If you don't believe me, here are some quite typical posts that run the
contrary direction to yours:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16019694](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16019694)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15307091](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15307091)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15034119](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15034119)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14529468](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14529468)
These people are having the same reaction as you are, they just start from the
opposite end of the football field.
That doesn't mean we're magic centrists in a centrist fairyland. It means the
situation is affected by other factors, some of which aren't obvious. If you
want to look at this objectively you have to work to suspend your own
political feelings, which is not easy to do and not something many people want
to.
~~~
wooter
this isn't a mathematical proof. a few counter-examples are easy to create. i
looked pretty comprehensively at your history and i think the bias is beyond
obvious.
> If you want to look at this objectively you have to work to suspend your own
> political feelings, which is not easy to do and not something many people
> want to.
And something I think you have failed at doing. (As you believe of me, so I
guess agree to disagree.) However, you are the one bringing it up in a
moralistic and pedantic way from a position of power as a moderator.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Shipit – Pragmatic Product Planning - tjomk
https://www.getshipit.com
======
troydavis
3 suggestions from tinkering for a few minutes:
1\. On the home page, the button label "Get Early Access" and form "Ping me
when it launched" make it like a landing page and waiting list. Make the sign
up button more clearly a sign up button and either remove or clarify the "Ping
me" part.
2\. Once I sign up, give me read-only access to 1 or 2 fake projects that are
fully populated, or at least show skeleton placeholder data on my first new
project. Basically, let me see what I'm missing interactively so I want to add
my own data.
3\. I think I'd have been more likely to watch the intro video if I could do
so after I'd seen the actual app -- that is, linked to on the app dashboard,
either instead of or in addition to asking before I'd seen the app. I could
see just embedding the intro video below the empty dashboard as long as the
user only has empty projects.
Hope this helps!
~~~
tjomk
Great feedback!
1\. Will be updating it. It used to be a landing page, and after we launched
the MVP few days ago, just managed to update the link.
2\. That's a great idea! We've got a public roadmap for ourselves:
[https://app.getshipit.com/r/PaZrwULQxD](https://app.getshipit.com/r/PaZrwULQxD),
that might be one of the few projects to show during the signup.
3\. Interesting, as very brief user-testing showed the opposite, so I made a
mistake by extrapolating that to a much wider audience.
------
sersap
swap the picture and the info block on the home page so that rocket goes from
left to right (past to future).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Web Development or Mobile App Development? - canremember
I have limited experience with both Android development and web development. In a previous Ask HN I mentioned my plan to rapidly improve my web dev skills.<p>But I wonder, is web dev being superseded by mobile app development? As someone in college who wants to work for a startup or start a startup in the near future (2-5 years), would I be better advised to focus on mobile apps or the web? There's a lot of talk about AngularJS or Ember or Rails or Django on HN, but I'm not sure if my effort would be better spent becoming really good at Androod/iOS apps.
======
npalli
Both are important and both will be around. However if you are starting out
today I would pick mobile app development. Two main things
1\. Web development is primarily about presenting document oriented
information to users. The future is sensors in and around mobile phones -
cameras, video, voice, fingerprints, retina scans, gyro, barometer etc etc.
These are not document based and the web model doesn't lend itself well. It
will be another 20 years before any standardization of sensors based internet
will come to pass. All of the sensors will be native based and a mobile
development mindset will be asset.
2\. Webdev is 20 years old now. Even though there is a lot of work, there are
a lot of people and barrier to entry is low. If AngularJS takes off, you will
have a long list of people who have been working in this field competing with
you. You will start at the bottom and need to put in the time. Mobile is only
4-5 years old. Even then, the pace is so fast that knowing iOS3/Android 1.x (3
years back) doesn't help you. So you have a shorter ground to cover to
becoming an expert.
------
shawnreilly
In my opinion, Tools like Cordova (Phonegap) and Titanium exemplify a
continuously evolving Grey Area between Web App and Native Mobile App
Development. But even with this said; I think it's important to understand the
differences between the two and the pros and cons of each approach. I don't
think you should wait 2-5 years to do a startup (do it now!) but if this is
the case, then you should have more than enough time to research the
differences and decide which route you want to go (or maybe you do both, who
knows). The aspects that I would focus on are Product/UX and
Distribution/Fatigue:
Product/UX would relate to the Products you want to build and the User
Experience you want to deliver; Understanding how each environment impacts
performance (or not), how the app is launched (or used), and how the app
behaves in each environment. It really depends on what you want to build and
how you want it to work. Is the App Lightweight or Heavy? Is the performance
acceptable considering the UX you want to deliver? Should it be launched from
the Home Screen, or is a Browser OK?
Distribution/Fatigue would relate to how you intend to distribute and maintain
the App; Understanding your customer (or potential customer) base, how to
reach them (distribution path / user acquisition), and being realistic about
the time/resources necessary to support your distribution plan from a
development perspective. It really depends on how you plan to distribute, and
how much time/resources you have at your disposal. Do you want to reach
everyone or a specific group? Can you maintain multiple instances of your
client across multiple platforms?
The last thing I would note is the Platform Effect and how it might impact the
Grey Area. I think it's important to note that each Mobile Platform maintains
control over their platform, and thus (just like API based platforms) it is
always possible that the rules get changed. I think this is important to note
because it is possible that future changes may impact the acceptance/rejection
of WebKit Wrapped Apps (aka the Grey Area).
------
ronreiter
They are both very important, and for now they are separate skills. One day,
hopefully, web development will become mobile app development.
~~~
canremember
Do you think learning web development in its current form is a good idea? The
scenario I'm concerned about is spending a few years learning web dev only to
discover my skills are obsolete since the world has gone mobile.
~~~
ronreiter
On the contrary, HTML/CSS/JS is the future of multi-screen web and app
development.
I would actually bet on learning ONLY those skills and giving up on Android
and iOS.
There are a few efforts today to package HTML5 apps or even compile them to
Android and iOS.
Check out Cordova/Phonegap for example. There's also Chrome packaged apps, and
many more to come.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How does onlyfans.com work around the “no porn” Stripe rule? - capableweb
For reasons beyond this ask, I'm needing to use a payment processor that is fine with high-risk transactions (which the porn industry certainly fits in) so started looking around what adult websites are using.<p>Many are using probiller, vendo and similar, since Stripe and others have rules against porn/adult industry, citing high risk transactions for this.<p>But then I came across onlyfans.com, which is using Stripe for its payments, although Stripe has a strict "no porn" rule in their terms of service.<p>How does this work? Onlyfans is by now a huge website, with lots of transactions, so it's surely not flying under the radar. It's the only adult website I could find that is using Stripe.<p>Is it as simple as they have an agreement with Stripe to bypass the rule? Or am I missing something else obvious here?
======
disillusioned
Cascading payments might be the real answer, and shuffling higher risk charges
to non-Stripe providers, but in my experience, Stripe can get pretty
moralizing pretty quickly.
We built an adult ecommerce site (purely toys for purchase, no porn) and
because other adult toy sites had been successful on Stripe, Stripe assured us
this wouldn't be a problem.
Six months and several million dollars processed later, Stripe informs us
we're going to be deplatformed because Wells Fargo (their banking partner) had
reviewed our account (apparently because of its volume) and determined we
violated their standards because of the nature of the toys.
We did a bit of back and forth where Stripe suggested we alter the colors
available (seriously) to assuage Wells Fargo's puritanical concerns, and
Stripe insisted it wasn't _their_ moralizing, but rather Wells Fargo (paragons
of fucking virtue as they are), but we weren't willing to compromise on the
nature of our product or have our product's options or colors dictated to us
by one of the most corrupt banks on the planet.
We ended up deplatforming and moving to a high-risk processor who was willing
to match our competitive Stripe rate. That processor sucks and their fraud
protections are weak and their interface is garbage, but they're not telling
us how to run our business.
Was mostly disappointed that we went through an arduous review process with
Stripe beforehand and received assurances we'd be fine since our chargeback
rate is insanely low and we ship actual physical product and have no nudity on
our site, but alas.
~~~
haltingproblem
This is an incredibly frustrating read. I know, I know there are far worse
things in the world but _fucking_ Wells Fargo dictating to people when they
evict homeowners who have no relationship with Wells Fargo, commit wholesale
wire fraud, destroy people's credit and then turn around and lecture a
_honest_ business.
This is why banking is a rent-seeking and though we need the financial
industry they are ghoulish vampires sucking the lifeblood out of everything
they touch.
/rant
~~~
lukifer
> we need the financial industry
Do we, though? I don't know whether the answer is distributed blockchains, or
the Department of the Treasury creating an API for USD, or both; but the
current banking system seems to me like the legacy code of feudal landed
aristocrats. (I will never stop being disappointed that we didn't let the
financial system crash in 2009.)
~~~
rumanator
> Do we, though?
Why, yes? Isn't it blatantly obvious? What exactly leads you to believe we
don't?
> I don't know whether the answer is distributed blockchains, or the
> Department of the Treasury creating an API for USD, or both;
I'm dumbfounded how someone even comes close to believe that any one of these
ideas comes even close to provide the service that financial institutions
provide. Either you have a very specific and very niche usecase in mind, or
maybe you have absolutely no idea about the services that financial
institutions provide to society.
> but the current banking system seems to me like the legacy code of feudal
> landed aristocrats.
This comment leads me to believe that you are confusing stuff that has no
relation whatsoever. Your dislike of caricatures and ideological strawmen you
associated with financial services has absolutely no relation with the
services provided to society by the whole banking industry. Just because you
don't like Scrooge McDuck that doesn't mean most of us don't depend on loans
to, say, buy a house or a car or store our savings or pay for everyday stuff.
~~~
errantspark
We don't need usury. I'm confident we could figure out how to make things work
without it.
~~~
Nasrudith
We know how it works without it - stagnation and the those currently at the
top staying there due to lack of capital. Usury is a religious fundamentalist
term divorced from the systemics and the reality of what works and what
doesn't.
~~~
krageon
> those currently at the top staying there
And you're sure you're not describing the current day, but instead some
hypothetical bad scenario if we had no financial sector? It seems to me that
if we have this problem now _and_ without a financial sector, that's not
really related to them at all.
------
mrdumas
Since, I know a friend in this industry, let me explain what's going on here.
Yes, OnlyFans uses Stripe, but that's not the entire story.
In the adult/porn world, there's a high amount of chargebacks and fraud
relative to low-risk industries like SaaS software. If you pass a certain
chargeback threshold in the adult industry, your account is terminated, and no
payment processor will do business with you.
To reduce the likelihood of passing that chargeback threshold and being
banned, OnlyFans uses "cascading payments", which essentially load balances
the payments across multiple payment processors in order to reduce their
chargeback ratios across their merchant accounts.
The payment is either processed by Stripe, Securion, CCBill(the leading
payment processor for adult), or another company.
Last time I checked the network requests, I noticed it was storing the card on
Stripe, CCBill, and Securion, but using CCBill or Securion to process the
payment.
I think Stripe is there for models on the site who don't sell adult content.
OnlyFans probably does a check to see if the page is adult-related and if it
is, then routes it to the correct payment processor.
~~~
techsin101
loading across multiple providers won't alter the chargeback ratio so what is
the point?
~~~
fooey
Chargeback ratio's are per account, but also have a minimum absolute
threshold. So it's say, 2% chargeback AND at least 200 chargebacks before
penalties kick in.
In a past life I worked for a place who had a few hundred processing accounts
to load balance it all out because their chargeback rates were way too high.
If an account gets close, you just don't use it for a month, or you throw a
bunch of "safe" recurring charges at it to dilute it, or you hold a batch and
send them through right before the rollover. Lots of ways to play number
games.
Most of the execs did go to prison though, so don't take this as advice, but
to be fair, the processors are the ones who told them to use those tactics.
~~~
folli
They went to prison for load balancing, or how does this relate?
~~~
thinkingkong
Gambling.
~~~
fooey
The business was just run of the mill "get rich on google" and "free
government grant" garbage that was common in the 2000's.
Ironically, they made so much money doing their regular business the owner
bought a small US based bank and was running online poker processing through
it.
When "black friday" in the poker world happened, the bank failed and
everything fell apart, but so far as I know, no one involved was ever charged
with anything related.
------
adwi
My understanding is the rules are dictated by Visa/MC/Amex, and are largely
based on chargeback risk for categories of merchants. There are likely further
legal and pearl-clutchy reasons that combine to just out and out ban.
Anecdote: we talked with every payment processor around for a product we were
making that involved storing and spending value from a digital wallet. It was
close enough to various Visa/MC rules and money transmitting statutes that the
usual response was arguing for a few weeks about why we comply until higher
management decided something akin to: well if you had a lot of volume we’d
take the risk dealing with it, but you don’t so it’s not worth our time.
Last ditch effort was Stripe, who said: sure! And we asked again with more
detail, making sure they saw the same issues and wouldn’t make us tear it down
in a month. They said: sure! Did it a third time higher up for diligence, and
finally just came to the conclusion they have different priorities and are
getting big enough to use their scale to throw some weight around for all the
small merchants.
~~~
preinheimer
+1 to the rules coming down from Visa & MC. Amex doesn't allow adult.
There's a bit more nuance there, as the rules actually come from the bank
issuing your merchant account, rather than some master "Visa" entity. So if
you're a big player in the adult game you're going to work to find the right
banks willing to issue you merchant accounts.
Those banks will also have a compliance department which will look at your
content and make sure it's inline with what they're willing to allow. If you
want to make adult content where consensual adults do things together there's
one group of banks you can go to. If you want to make niche content with acted
out violence and such you're going to find a much smaller group of banks
willing to issue you merchant accounts. Or possibly no banks at all. It's
interesting that the thing deciding what adult content will be easily
monetizable on the internet is small merchant account issuing banks.
On the charging side I believe Stripe uses Wells Fargo, which has pretty
strict rules.
Source: worked for one of the large players in the adult market a while back.
Some info may be dated.
Note: one of the fun things about credit cards is that Visa and MC are issued
by banks, and Amex is issued by Amex. There was a new fraud style a few years
ago that amex was able to lock down pretty quick due to its centralized
nature, while Visa and MC had a harder time.
Note2: I may define fun differently than you.
~~~
us0r
Visa is absolutely a master entity that dictates nearly everything including
consumer credit reporting requirements and minimum credit lines. They publish
an 886 page "public" version which is actually kind of an interesting read:
[https://usa.visa.com/dam/VCOM/download/about-visa/visa-
rules...](https://usa.visa.com/dam/VCOM/download/about-visa/visa-rules-
public.pdf)
~~~
gruez
> They publish an 886 page "public" version which is actually kind of an
> interesting read:
yet a search for "adult" only yield one result, and it's in the context of a
card for minors.
~~~
preinheimer
and as with all things, interpretation is key.
~~~
marcus_holmes
As pointed out, the banks also have a say. And banks are notoriously risk-
averse and prudish. It's much easier for them to say "no" than "yes".
~~~
unnouinceput
+1. For anyone, watch the movie "Yes man", with Jim Carrey. It's a run of the
mile chick flick, but the bit about banks, which is fairly at beginning, it
portraits the "we prefer to say NO" policy of banks very accurate.
------
gojomo
Often, when the market doesn't provide an essential gateway service to a law-
abiding subpopulation, some sort of 'public option' is proposed.
Not enough market housing, offer public/subsidized options. Not enough low- or
no-cost private education, offer public schools. Too little affordable
healthcare/insurance, offer Medicaid, a 'public option', single-payer. Public
transport.
Should the government offer a 'public option' payment-processor of last
resort, with guaranteed service for all legal but unpopular businesses? A
service that couldn't reject camgirls, weed-sellers, Alex Jones, gun shops,
etc?
~~~
Noos
You have this already. It's called "using checks and money orders."
The problem is that people want the convenience credit cards use, and don't
want to wait for the check to clear to get their stuff.
~~~
jimmydorry
Banks can and will close your account for any reason under the Sun. How do you
write a check or receive one without a bank account? I'm not familiar enough
with money orders, but I assume the same applies.
Then, on top of all of that, you can't run a business through a personal
account. So you still require a business type bank account, and the above
options are terrible for any eCommerce site, which is pretty much the only
kind of business that will be discussed here on HN.
~~~
totalZero
You can get a money order without a bank account. There's often a limit on the
amount, so in some cases you may need to buy several in order to amass the
full balance. You may also need to show ID.
You can also cash a money order without a bank account.
------
tzs
How do you find out what payment processor(s) a given site uses?
I know that some provide methods whereby a site can have the actual payment
entry form served and processed by the payment processor instead of by the
site's own server, so you'd be able to see from the user's end where they
payment is actually being processed.
I've never done a survey, but just anecdotally most sites I've encountered
seem to not be using that option. Their payment entry form comes from their
own site and posts back to it, where their own back-end handles dealing with
their payment processor's API.
Using the method where the user interacts directly with the payment processor
does have the advantage that it simplifies PCI compliance. If your systems
never even see the credit card, just receiving a token from the payment
processor at the end of the transaction that you can use to initiate
subsequent on-file or recurring transactions, most of PCI goes away for you.
On the other hand, that also means that you are stuck with that payment
processor for on-file or recurring transactions for that customer. Your token
from payment processor X is completely worthless for doing charges at payment
processor Y.
If I was in a business that has a significantly above average risk of running
into payment processor trouble so I might need to change processors, I'd want
to store the credit cards myself. That makes it possible to change payment
processors without having to get all of your subscription customers to come
back and re-enter credit card information [1].
[1] Well...at least for now. I'm not sure if that will still be possible if
the Visa stored credential framework ever actually becomes required. Briefly,
under the SCF requirements when you store a credit card, you have to send a
flag to Visa with the transaction saying you are storing it. On subsequent on-
file or recurring transactions, you have to send a reference to the
transaction that stored the card.
The problem is that you reference that transaction by sending Visa's
transaction number. But Visa's number for transactions is generally _not_ the
transaction number you get from your payment processor. The payment processor
has its own transaction numbers and those are what you see.
I believe MC is also doing SCF. Not sure about Discover and Amex. It was
supposed to become mandatory something like two or three years ago, but
payment processors kept asking for extensions.
~~~
capableweb
> How do you find out what payment processor(s) a given site uses?
I'm a developer so looking at what kind of request the application is doing
when interacting with anything involving payments. In the case of OnlyFans it
was easy as they make direct requests to Stripe. In other cases, I've looked
at the data structures stored in the current page by using the JS console and
compare it to the API docs of various payment processors.
~~~
pottertheotter
I'm not a web developer but I always assumed that happened on the backend, so
it wouldn't be visible. I guess not?
~~~
justinholmes
Most websites can't/shouldn't store the card number, they embed Stripe
JavaScript that sends card number to Stripe and get a token id to use on the
backend later on. Can't store CCV or number without passing PCI compliance.
~~~
tzs
For the CVV you can't store it even if you have passed PCI compliance. You are
only allowed to collect it for a specific transaction, and are required to
forget it when that transaction is complete.
~~~
8192kjshad09-
That can't be right. I entered my credit card information once into uber eats
and I can buy food whenever without entering a CCV and my credit card is
immediately charged.
If this were true 1000s of large companies would not be PCI compliant.
~~~
JoeMalt
It’s possible to process transactions without a CVV, but it often costs
slightly more due to the increased fraud risk. In the case of Uber Eats,
they’ve presumably decided the increase in purchases from removing that
friction makes up for the higher fee.
------
tejasmanohar
Many of the rules aren't rules. We ran a travel company and used Stripe in the
past, which is also one of the disallowed industries. We got approval from
Stripe after proving that we have a negligible fraud & chargeback rate due to
being focused on business users
~~~
dotBen
This, one of the biggest blinkers technically-inclined founders have is that
they forget or ignore that so much is relationship driven.
Rules like Stripes (+ Wells Fargos) are not interpreted like code, everything
is open to negotiation and degrees of freedom depending on the relationship
established.
~~~
Nasrudith
Those blinkers are called "not being utterly insane". The whole model of
disruption is seeing a stupid practice saying. "No we aren't doing that stupid
shit." watch practicioners of the existing stupid froth at the mouth and then
either succeed or fail.
Seriously that is why honor based lending died to banks centuries ago.
Relationship driven is a fucking stupid way to do finance.
~~~
dotBen
Finance is totally relationship driven (and 'honor systems' isn't really a
good example of it). My bank waives fees on everything because of my personal
friendly relationship with my banker. They gave me preferred terms of my
mortgage rate because of my formal relationship - it wasn't just the product
of a formula at the end of the banker's computer screen.
I know they'll do all sorts of shit for me because of the hard (account age,
$$) and soft (personal) relationship.
But my point is more broad - API agreements come to mind as an example, just
because that is a space I've played in prior jobs. "But the API Ts&Cs say you
can't do _xx_ but they are doing _xx_ ". Yeah, they have a relationship and
got a dispensation.
------
__ryan__
Onlyfans is a platform for content subscriptions. It just happens to be a
popular platform for adult content.
Also, it surely makes them a ton of money.
~~~
lovegoblin
You can say this about literally anything: Pornhub is just a platform for VOD.
It just happens to be a popular platform for adult content.
~~~
__ryan__
I think that’s a stretch. There _is_ a line and OnlyFans is at the very least
_on_ it.
While I am aware of the adult content on the site, the only people that I know
of that use OnlyFans are subscribing to physical training, musical talent, or
other creative content. Unironically.
------
bokohut
As a payment processing fintech builder for several decades the many comments
about diversifying across processors is correct. The misunderstanding here for
many may be that knowledgeable business owners (merchants) always have more
than one processing account each with a different entity holding the risk,
think multiple banks. Having multiple processors, aside from the point of this
question, directly relates to up time and availability of which nearly all
rely on the "middleman" \- Have a backup! However problem businesses and their
business owners that get caught being nefarious earn a permanent place on the
card brands "list" that forbids them from taking card payments in the future.
An individual business can have multiple merchant accounts and as with
anything else once one understands how a system works it can then be
manipulated to fit ones need.
------
raxxorrax
Probably because the content is not public. I heard users just share cat
pictures, so there is plausible deniability.
------
larrik
That's a good question, since Stripe backed out at the VERY last minute for a
customer of mine who sells alcohol over the internet, despite repeated
assurances it would be fine.
~~~
edwinwee
Stripe can typically support alcohol businesses (assuming they hold the
appropriate licenses). Could you get in touch at [email protected] and we can
take another look?
~~~
ocdtrekkie
I love the subtle indication here that someone who almost certainly knows
"the" authoritative answer to this thread is reading it. Though obviously I
understand why you probably aren't at liberty to answer the question.
------
0xy
My guess is Onlyfans has a very low rate of chargebacks/fraud and negotiated a
special deal with Stripe.
The reason that rule is there is because most adult sites are dodgy.
~~~
fl0wenol
I suspect Onlyfans (like Patreon) has social pressure going for it such that
fewer people issue chargebacks because it'd be like yanking back money
directly from a person and not a faceless company; like the social pressure
against leaving a shitty tip at a restaurant.
------
hobofan
Doesn't Patreon (which also has a lot of porn content) also use Stripe as a
payment processor?
~~~
breakingcups
Patreon did crack down on some extreme content, stating they were forced to do
so by their payment provider(s).
~~~
dzhiurgis
Weird they wouldn't switch providers for specific use cases. Does Stripe
require to be exclusive provider for site?
~~~
lovegoblin
There are very few payment processors that will accept adult content, and
those that do exist (e.g., CCBill) are both expensive - on the order of 10x
the fees - and also a damn nightmare to work with.
I can _very_ easily imagine a scenario where Patreon looked at their options
and decided it wasn't worth it.
------
euix
How much of the internet traffic is actually pornography in general? I have
heard a lot of anecdotal hearsay that it constitutes a majority.
~~~
elorant
The thing about the online porn industry is that it's highly diversified which
leads a lot of people into making wild assumptions about its size. I doubt
porn traffic is that high. Stats show that one in three Internet users are
viewing porn, but the thing is that porn isn't something you can spend more
than 10-20 minutes consuming[1]. So if we say that the average user spends
some three hours online on average every day[2], then porn is about 5% of that
time. So one in three users online spend 5% of their time watching porn. In
total I'd guess that doesn't account for more than 10% of global traffic,
taking under consideration that video consumes much more bandwidth than other
forms of content.
That's all back of the envelope calculations off course.
[1] [https://www.pornhub.com/insights/2019-year-in-
review#traffic](https://www.pornhub.com/insights/2019-year-in-review#traffic)
[2] [https://www.statista.com/statistics/319732/daily-time-
spent-...](https://www.statista.com/statistics/319732/daily-time-spent-online-
device/)
------
Hackbraten
Why do you think the porn industry is prone to more fraud/risk?
~~~
tinus_hn
A man orders porn and pays using his credit card.
His wife looks at the statements and asks him what he’s up to.
He denies having made the payment so the wife initiates a chargeback.
~~~
im3w1l
I kinda wonder if it isn't the kids doing it with a parents card.
~~~
wil421
My friend and I were 13 and called 1-900 numbers back when it was popular. We
took his moms credit card and changed some numbers around. Eventually a number
we made up worked.
It was a hilarious moment but I was scared to death we would be found out.
Nothing ever happened but somebody got a charge.
~~~
saagarjha
Do they not ask for a CVV or any other verification?
~~~
soylentcola
We did something surprisingly similar once as stupid kids/teens and it was in
the days before CVV. Just touch tone to enter a card number (although we did
this little experiment from a payphone using a 1-800 (toll free) sex line).
Typically, you entered a card number after some initial "pitch".
AFAIK, 1-900 numbers only worked by billing you on your phone bill.
~~~
saagarjha
Guess I'm showing my youth, because I've never seen a credit card be used
without a CVV. And I think _that 's_ a poor security model…
~~~
wil421
It was at the end of the 90s maybe 2000. Messing with pay phones or prank
calling on one was another fun thing to do. The good numbers (1-900) didn’t
work on pay phones. ;-)
Call collect!
------
utf_8x
My guess would be that Onlyfans do a lot of fraud prevention on their end and
negotiated an exception with Stripe...
------
rglullis
Would it be possible to sidestep the issue completely?
Is your industry one that you could start pushing for cryptocurrency for
payments? You'd be basically reducing your risk to zero and by using a stable
token you would also have no volatility.
------
tyingq
Somewhat related, a story that digs into who's running onlyfans.com:
[https://forensicnews.net/2020/08/13/onlyfans-faces-
allegatio...](https://forensicnews.net/2020/08/13/onlyfans-faces-allegations-
of-fraud-theft/)
~~~
everybodyknows
> Weeks before Radvinsky purchased the OnlyFans holding company in the United
> Kingdom, he received a $250,000 tax credit from the state of Illinois. “The
> purpose of the Angel Investment Tax Credit Program is to attract and
> encourage the placement of investment dollars into early-stage, innovative
> companies throughout Illinois.”
Your tax dollars at work.
~~~
KaoruAoiShiho
You know what a credit is?
~~~
djellybeans
It only takes the word "tax" to make many people internally scream. Crude
heuristics, but hey it's human programming.
------
bravura
If anyone is interested in talking about fraud prediction or high risk adult
payment transactions, I have been looking at this space and think there are
some interesting opportunities. Email in profile.
------
mudlus
This thread is a aompelling argument for Bitcoin/LN as an intermediary--just
saying. It's getting easier every day.
Bisq for exchange will get easier over the next 5 years or so, too.
~~~
orthecreedence
It would be nice to see Bisq start to get more liquidity. It seems like a
really interesting way to sidestep traditional banking on/off ramps for
crypto. It's almost like local bitcoins with ACH.
I have to admit I don't fully understand how it handles disputes. I probably
need to look a bit closer.
------
ecommerceguy
We would use a multi-gateway round robin setup for volume over 50k per month.
I'm more than willing to point you in the right direction.
------
Sindrome
There are other payment processors other than Stripe....
Ever heard of CCBill?
~~~
rmoriz
Who is behind CCBill and what does it need to launch a competitor?
------
maps7
Probably cause Stripe likes money?
~~~
voxic11
A company I worked for tried to use Stripe but couldn't because they don't
allow "fantasy sports leagues with cash prizes". They definitely aren't
willing to make exceptions for everyone.
~~~
gowld
In practice, unregulated online gambling is much closer to fraud than porn.
------
frankdenbow
OnlyFans isnt a porn site in the same way that Twitter isnt a porn site. Many
of the high profile users are in the adult industry but people use onlyfans
for other types of content as well.
~~~
mfkp
I'd venture to say that 99% of onlyfans content (that people are paying for
anyway) is porn. Just because there's a small subset of non-porn doesn't
change the fact that they're selling access to porn. Twitter is a completely
different story as they're selling advertising, not access to nudes.
------
therealmarv
They are NOT using Stripe. Stripe has a no porn rule because they want to go
public at some time and everything needs to look clean, also on their customer
side. Also their (Stripe) backend banks don't tolerate porn.
Also there is not only Stripe out there!
Btw. you are in the wrong forum. Look on gfy.com forum for example
~~~
capableweb
> They are NOT using Stripe
Take a look at the requests their frontend is making and you'll see they are
indeed using Stripe. At least they were last time I checked.
> Also there is not only Stripe out there!
Indeed, I listed some of the alternatives in my opening question, but is
besides the point anyways, here we're discussing Stripe + OnlyFans.
> Btw. you are in the wrong forum.
Judging by the number of upvotes and comments, no, I'm not.
> Look on gfy.com forum for example
Thanks for the pointer, I'll take a look there.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Clinical Trials Watch – Automated Clinical Trial and Sponsor Monitoring - batub
https://clinicaltrialswatch.com/
======
batub
Hello,
This service was created for anyone who wants to keep track of specific
clinical trials or sponsors without having to manually look them up everyday
or every couple days.
Individuals can use this service to get email notifications when a clinical
trial, they are interested in, is updated. For example, if I'm interested in
the progress of NCT04328961 (Hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 PEP), I can add
it to my watch list so whenever any update is posted for the trial on
ClinicalTrials.gov, I will receive an email within fifteen minutes with a link
to the changes.
Investors can use Clinical Trials Watch to monitor progress in companies they
have financial stakes in. Numerous examples exist, but perhaps the most recent
was when Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: IONS) dropped 5% in intraday trading
after an update on ClinicalTrials.gov said recruitment was suspended in one of
their studies
([https://thefly.com/landingPageNews.php?id=3045791](https://thefly.com/landingPageNews.php?id=3045791))
Finally, businesses and pharmaceutical companies can use this service to
monitor or keep track of a competitor's public progress.
Hopefully Clinical Trials Watch will be useful for some of you!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The one essential skill that will set you apart from other developers - jmmarco
https://hackernoon.com/the-one-essential-skill-that-will-set-you-apart-from-other-developers-c7eaab3511fa
======
jmmarco
TL;DR The article focuses on the ability to “Think and act like a CEO” as a
developer.
In one of the recommendations it says: “As a developer, when you are
developing features or working on any project, think about how this relates to
the success metrics of the company and communicate this clearly.”
I wanted to hear from experienced developers, how much of this is true. I get
the feeling that in some environments, thinking about how a metric relates to
the success of the company may not be something some developers think or can
actually focus on.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Important milestones for a startup - orky56
For a founder of a startup, it's a bit difficult to celebrate the important milestones since things are always going on and happening. (Who needs distractions?) I thought it would be a good idea to ask the HN community what are the important milestones that a startup/founder goes through along the way. Significance could be defined as relevant to the founder, important to the business, etc.<p>Here's something to get it started:
MVP,
First user,
First customer,
First hire,
Funding<p>Edit: Comma-delineated the tentative list at the bottom
======
VicT11
I'm definitely stealing some of this from Steve Blanks' Customer Development
Model, but thought it would be worth citing.
Concept/Idea, Customer Discovery (First User/Customer), x number of pivots of
MVP until Traction, Traction, Growth (Funding?)
[http://www.slideshare.net/venturehacks/customer-
development-...](http://www.slideshare.net/venturehacks/customer-development-
methodology-presentation)
------
jsstartup
Thus far mine have been MVP/launch, first trial user, first paying user,
profitable.
The next milestone I'm hoping to achieve by the end of the year is "paying for
my living expenses"
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
FCC will also order states to scrap plans for their own net neutrality laws - catacombs
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/11/fcc-will-also-order-states-to-scrap-plans-for-their-own-net-neutrality-laws/
======
beezle
Does this also mean the FCC will attempt to invalidate those state laws bought
by ISPs to block municipal network competition?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Cruiser - Javascript Parser Generator - nreece
http://code.google.com/p/cruiser/wiki/Parse
======
brianr
Interesting. For anyone interested in a more powerful, yacc-style javascript
parser generator, check out JS/CC: <http://jscc.jmksf.com/> . I've used it to
generate a parser for spreadsheet formulas; the interface to use it is pretty
clunky (since it's written in javascript and runs in the browser) but it got
the job done.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Coding the Matrix: Linear Algebra Through Computer Science Applications - _6cj7
http://codingthematrix.com/
======
cr0sh
If you want to cover the basics of LA (vector and matrix manipulation,
mainly), and want to have some practical application of that knowledge - there
are two main areas which can be easily explored at home:
1\. 3D graphics programming
2\. Machine learning (particularly neural networks)
For the first, don't just start playing with OpenGL or Direct3D - while you
need to know the math on those, you won't get your feet as wet. What you want
to do is start from the bottom and build up (essentially building a software
3D engine). While you won't be generally dealing with large matrices or
vectors (4x4 mainly), it will be more than plenty to teach the bare ropes.
Machine learning - and neural networks - are where you start to deal with much
larger matrices, as they hold the mathematical representation of the nodes
which make up the graph that is the network. Now you have shift gears and
think about how to parallelize things, on a much (potentially) larger scale
(even here, though, you can start out small - a simple NN to learn the XOR
function is very small, but contains everything needed to move on to larger
networks once you understand the basics).
Again - these two practical applications one touch the surface of LA, but are
both fun applications of these basics to perhaps motivate you to learn more.
Even if you don't take it to the next level though, what you gain from these
experiments might prove invaluable in the future.
Personally, I think they should emphasize these two applications in lower
grades when they start to teach this stuff; I know when I was in high school
(too many years ago to contemplate), the only thing that kept me interested in
both my geometry and linear algebra sections was the fact that I was playing
around with 3D wireframe graphics on my 8-bit microcomputer at home, and
needed to understand the stuff!
/ok, maybe I outed my age somewhat...lol
~~~
DarkTree
> What you want to do is start from the bottom and build up (essentially
> building a software 3D engine)
How do you suggest starting this?
------
krat0sprakhar
It's more or less a rite of passage to share these Youtube videos whenever the
topic of Linear Algebra comes up:
[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZHQObOWTQDPD3MizzM2x...](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZHQObOWTQDPD3MizzM2xVFitgF8hE_ab)
~~~
pixelperfect
That series motivated me to learn Linear Algebra when I watched it 8 months
ago. After watching those, I started this course:
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr22xikWUK2yUW4YxOKXclQ/pla...](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr22xikWUK2yUW4YxOKXclQ/playlists)
In my opinion, the latter is one of the best math courses available on
YouTube, and definitely deserves more views.
------
randcraw
I've watched about 1/3 of Strang's lecture videos and several of Klein's (as
well as bought both books).
Klein emphasizes practical computer science applications of LA (like principal
components and hands-on coding tasks), whereas Strang emphasizes LA in terms
of calculus and vector calculus.
I think both courses are outstanding. I suspect CS students will appreciate
Klein's content and examples more, though Strang lectures are so good you
won't find much to complain about. I have heard that some math purists object
to Strang's emphasis as being as lacking fundamental rigor and overemphasizing
intuition. But this criticism probably applies to both courses. I think both
approach LA in terms of its utility toward CS (Klein) or engineering (Strang)
problems.
~~~
onuralp
Disclaimer: I have an engineering background.
I think this is a fair characterization of the two approaches.
I am currently taking a class by Strang co-taught with Alan Edelman
(MIT/Julia) and Raj Rao (Michigan) that has a strong emphasis on applications
and hands-on coding tasks (using Julia).[0] I am also making my way through
CtM (thoroughly enjoying) and hope that they will release the video lectures
soon as I think the lectures and CtM complement each other quiet nicely.
[0] Matrix Methods In Data Analysis, Signal Processing, And Machine Learning -
[https://stellar.mit.edu/S/course/18/sp17/18.065/](https://stellar.mit.edu/S/course/18/sp17/18.065/)
------
DarkTree
I just bought Gilbert Strang's Linear Algebra so that I can read it along with
watching his MIT lectures. I'm wondering how that will compare to this
book/course.
Has anyone here already taken a similar path and what did you think?
My main interests are in graphics programming, so I'm hoping to apply what I
learn from the course to that.
If anyone else has any recommendations on other areas of math, courses, or
books in general for learning CG, that would be much appreciated!
~~~
plmno
Suggestions
1\. Introduction to the Mathematics of Computer Graphics by Nathan Carter:
[http://www.maa.org/press/ebooks/introduction-to-the-
mathemat...](http://www.maa.org/press/ebooks/introduction-to-the-mathematics-
of-computer-graphics)
2\. When Life is Linear: From Computer Graphics to Bracketology by Tim
Chartier:
[http://www.maa.org/press/books/when-life-is-linear-from-
comp...](http://www.maa.org/press/books/when-life-is-linear-from-computer-
graphics-to-bracketology)
~~~
DarkTree
I'll check them out, thanks!
------
carlosgg
Videos for his course at Brown (they start at the bottom):
[https://cs.brown.edu/video/channels/coding-matrix-
fall-2014/...](https://cs.brown.edu/video/channels/coding-matrix-
fall-2014/?page=1)
------
nafizh
The author's coursera course is no longer available sadly.
~~~
rectang
True, although the lectures from the Brown University version of the course
from 2014 are available here:
[https://cs.brown.edu/video/channels/coding-matrix-
fall-2014/](https://cs.brown.edu/video/channels/coding-matrix-fall-2014/)
They're listed in reverse order; start with "Course Introduction--Sept. 3,
2014".
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Ask HN: Is Intel with its C++ or a user violating the GNU license? - acqq
Intel C++ for Linux, as far as I understand, uses libstdc++ for which the license https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/libstdc++/manual/license.html specifically names which "compilation process" is "eligible" for a non-GPL exception to be allowed. My understanding is that Intel's compiler is <i>not</i> eligible (and not GPL). Who is then violating the license, Intel, the user using it, or both? What's your understanding?
======
lucozade
The relevant part of that license is
> A Compilation Process is "Eligible" if it is done using GCC, alone or with
> other GPL-compatible software, or if it is done without using any work based
> on GCC.
I'm going to hazard a guess that the Intel C++ compiler suite falls in the
latter category.
~~~
acqq
On Windows, maybe, on Linux, I can't see that it's "done without using any
work based on GCC."
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Electrolytic Process Converts Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide into Carbon Nanofibers - igravious
http://www.azom.com/news.aspx?newsID=44352
======
dogma1138
Hmm.. How is it different than the "Plastic" from air / "Oil" from air
projects? [http://newlight.com/](http://newlight.com/)
None of this is practically new, and all of these methods require quite a huge
input of energy so none of them are not really either cost or "carbon"
effective...
~~~
igravious
If you're taking in CO2 and producing C (carbon nanofibers) then O2 is your
by-product.
With plastics or oil you're going to need a decent source of hydrogen as well
as air. A decent source of H2 is going to bump up your energy requirements.
Extracting hydrocarbons from the air seems like a puzzling move considering
they are readily available in the ground.
There would be no real point in generating carbon nanofibers from the air if
the over-concentration of CO2 in the air wasn't a worry in the first place.
For instance, let's say CO2 goes up some more and then plateaus. Global
temperatures keep increase but lag behind. Assuming environmental
repercussions then projects which use up the CO2 in the atmosphere will be
welcomed.
~~~
dogma1138
That's a given but and that's an important but it's still a crazy idea... CO2
has a bond strength of 800 kJ/mol it's a very expensive molecule to break up
using electrolysis (double the required energy of to break water).
Most of the other carbon siphoning methods such as making plastic polymers use
a chemical method to combine the CO2 into complex carbohydrates and even they
aren't any where close to being environmentally viable.
On top of this you need to scale this process up and start filtering air to
gather CO2 which is insanely expensive on it's own, for this process to have a
neutral carbon footprint on it's own all of the energy has to come from non-
carbon sources.
Besides that this process needs to stand up to being competitive against other
processes and most importantly it self while being fed carbon or CO2 from
none-natural sources, which i have high doubts it can achieve that.
And lastly say you have managed to scale this process up made it commercially
viable and environmentally sound (gl on both of those) how much carbon you
going to suck in? 1000 tonnes a year? 10,000 tonnes? that's nothing a car
emits on average 6-7 tonnes per year this means that a small city(10-15K
residents) say 5000 cars would emit 30000 tonnes of CO2 per year do you really
think this process or anything like it will have an impact on the environment
on any plausible scale?
------
a3n
Sequester atmospheric carbon in hockey sticks.
------
marak830
Is this legitimate ? If so, wow. Would be a good turn of events for our
environment, for a change.
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Ask HN: What features would make up the ultimate person finance tool for you? - alexkehr
-
======
alexkehr
We've been building Everwealth
([https://www.everwealth.io/](https://www.everwealth.io/)) and, since a lot of
developers seem to be using our product, we want to learn what features dev's
a technical audience want most. We'd love your ideas.
~~~
SQL2219
Txt msg query tool
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