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The 10 acquisitions Yahoo should make right now - jasonmcalacanis
http://www.launch.is/blog/the-10-acquisitions-yahoos-new-ceo-should-make-on-day-one.html
======
jaymon
The problem I have with analysis like this is it doesn't take into account
what Yahoo actually needs to do to grow. For the most part, the companies on
the list are innovative companies, led by talented CEOs/entrepreneurs and are
leaders in there sphere.
But Yahoo's revenue is about $1.2 billion a quarter, and I would say that they
would need to grow that by 5-10% to even approach any sort of potential
turnaround territory. That means they need roughly $50 to $150 million in new
revenue a quarter, I bet you all those companies together don't make that
amount of money in a year.
I think it would be awesome for Yahoo to buy innovative companies and give
creative people free reign, but the reality is Yahoo buying these companies is
like putting a band aid on a bullet wound. Yahoo's just too big and those
companies are just too small to turn Yahoo around.
------
belthesar
Leo needs more than creative control with TWiT, which is ultimately why I
don't see him selling until he's ready to finally release the reigns to
tightly. That said, the options posed in this content dream team would make
any company successful, if managed and handled correctly. If it's not managed
correctly, it's just another AOL story.
~~~
boyter
He already handed over CEO control to someone else I believe, so I imagine
given total editorial control he would sell for $50 million or so.
Off topic, I would like to see he and Calacanis make up (as mentioned in the
article). TWiT is a far better show with him.
~~~
rlander
Agree.
I'm not a big fan of Calacanis but he did provide the most interesting
arguments (and color) when he was a regular (even when he was far off the
mark). Especially when Dvorak was around too.
Much better than the current ensemble of "me toos".
PS. I also thought it was cool of him to write:
"I’d throw in my little ThisWeekIn.com copy-cat network to make up with Leo to
get the job done. I’ve been looking to repair that burned bridge for a while."
------
rsobers
Interesting suggestions. I don't think Leo would sell to Yahoo. After what
happened to TechTV, Yahoo is the last place he'd turn. Yahoo already has omg!
which dwarfs Sugar Inc. I don't think Jim Lanzone would be afraid of Yahoo
"Zucking" anything at this point.
I do think Gawker, Curbed, The Atlantic, Business Insider, Scoble, and
Flipboard make sense, though.
------
bradleyjoyce
Sounds like a better plan than they've had for a while!
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Robust Spammer Detection by Nash Reinforcement Learning - jdnier
https://github.com/YingtongDou/Nash-Detect
======
MichaelZuo
It would be interesting to see the false positive and false negative rates.
| {
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Why is Kim Jong-un always surrounded by people taking notes? - weavie
http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-27116092
======
Haul4ss
Kim's an easy target for humor, and certainly The Respected and Beloved
Marshall's propaganda machine seems corny to us. But it's important to
remember that DPRK is a brutal regime that is home to countless human rights
tragedies over several decades. It is a very sad story. Read "Nothing to Envy:
Ordinary Lives in North Korea" by Barbara Demick if you want to feel really
lucky about where you happened to be born.
~~~
goldfeld
Reading about the peasants' life during the Cultural Revolution plays out a
very similar narrative, down to Mao's very corny propaganda.
~~~
happyscrappy
And it still goes on. China just celebrated Mao and Russians in Crimea were
holding up signs praising Stalin a few weeks ago, madness.
~~~
seanmcdirmid
Wait, did I miss a Mao day recently? The trade union handed out huge Deng Xiao
ping books a couple of months ago...not exactly celebrating Mao.
~~~
happyscrappy
It was his 120th birthday celebration a few months ago, with officials
praising him. Whether they actually believe what they say is another question,
but you can hardly blame them for not going against the party.
~~~
seanmcdirmid
Whenever someone emphasizes Deng at the same time people are discussing Mao,
you can tell that their are elements in the party that are trying to emphasize
that China's way forward is more inspired by Deng than Mao. But this is
because there are two factions in the party: the moderates (Deng-like) and the
leftists (Mao-like); the moderates have dominated for a long time.
------
threeseed
When I did the tour in Pyongyang they often mentioned that Kim Jong Il wasn't
just the leader but also was a domain expert at everything. And it was
constantly reinforced that his "on-the-spot guidance" was the reason the
country was doing so well at the time.
So I am sure his expertise is why they are taking notes. Either that or fear
of having your entire family tree killed or put into detention.
~~~
derefr
It almost feels like North Korea is a big-deal TV/movie adaptation of a book
series, and the Kims are the authors of the books. If you've ever seen how
e.g. Stan Lee is treated on the set of a Marvel movie, it's quite similar.
Everyone wants to make sure that, however good an idea they might think they
have, it doesn't go against the author's vision for the "spirit of the story",
especially where it concerns books-not-yet-written.
------
kator
Interesting read but I suppose it's fairly obvious when you think about it.
That said I've seen corporate cultures where everyone is peer pressured into
taking notes and often more so when highly ranked executives are in the
meetings..
------
arethuza
I imagine there are some serious high availability requirements there - if the
wise words of the great leader are not copied down then presumably Bad Things
happen so it's RAINT (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Note Takers).
~~~
derefr
You'd think that could be replaced with a Redundant Array of Inexpensive Tape
Recorders, plus one good stenographer to listen to them later.
~~~
evan_
As noted at the end of the article- accuracy isn't a priority.
------
netcan
The regime is certainly a sibling of Mao's and a cousin of all the "communist"
regimes established during that period. There are a lot of stylistic
similarities in their art, propaganda, speeches and such.
A surprising number of traits seem to be features picked all totalitarian
regimes, including ancient ones. Deification and mythologizing of rulers and
accompanying art is something found in many accounts of kings from some of the
oldest pieces of port writing we have.
What _is_ striking and unique about this regime is how long it has managed to
maintain this totalitarianism. There are young adults who are now 3rd
generation natives to this craziness. It's also amazingly isolated. Isolation
is not rare in history, but in the context of the modern era it makes it very
very strange.
~~~
avn2109
I think that's because the playbook for a successful totalitarian regime is a
function of human nature, and regime stability is probably maximized by a
fairly specific set of parameters. Eg. optimize by turning the propaganda
visual style knob to realist-severe-deco, the secret police knob to incredibly
brutal, the national culture knob to leader-deification, etc. And this will
work until the nature of the human animal's tribal/lizard brain changes (hint:
~never).
------
outside1234
Its a submission test. Its just like people taking random notes they will
never look at when someone 2-3 levels on the hierarchy talks to them in a
corporation.
~~~
hessenwolf
I take notes I will never read because it staves off the boredom and helps me
concentrate and process the information. It's slightly more socially
acceptable than rephrasing aloud.
------
jebus989
I'm relieved we've gone back to light-heartedly reporting DPRK's
eccentricities rather than worrying about the potential consequences of this
powerful and deluded leader's take on international relations.
~~~
prestadige
Agreed. It's a shame, though, that so many of us are expressing admiration for
Putin.
~~~
aaronem
Thus far, he's led his nation effectively, and for the most part done a good
job of looking out for the interests of his people. One may respect the skill
he has thus demonstrated, without approving of every policy he's enacted in so
doing.
The alternative, I suppose, would be to declare Putin the Enemy, complete with
majuscule -- whether of one's nation, or of some nebulous progressive concept
of social justice, or whatever you like -- and thenceforth reflexively despise
the man and his policies at the very least, if not also the nation he so
effectively governs, until such time as he should conform his behavior more
closely to whatever constraints one might define.
I suppose that's all right for some, but I prefer to keep an open mind. Isn't
that something people regard as a virtue around here?
------
Raphmedia
Well, it's quite clear why. If the supreme leader says "this should be this
instead" and nobody remembers, things are going to be bad for those that were
supposed to make the changes.
------
esquivalience
I like that in the final photo, the note-taker has even got a shadow of
another note-taker projected onto him.
~~~
jbuzbee
When I first saw that picture, I thought that the guy had peed his pants in
fear that he had offended the "Dear Great Leader"
------
scrumper
I have an alternative theory: those people are taking notes in order to
impress upon Kim Jong-un the weight of responsibility that his position
carries. This is isomorphic to the way the shouted "Sir, Yes Sir!" of a marine
reminds the officer that he holds his subordinate's life in his hands.
My theory is bullshit though: they're obviously doing it out of deference.
Sometimes I do wonder whether Kim feels the pressure. Maybe that constant
scrutiny and expectation of perfection makes him even crazier?
------
logfromblammo
My guess is that what they write in their notebooks is not as important as the
physical demonstration of social and intellectual inferiority they present to
their boss. Kim Jong Un has already demonstrated a willingness to execute
people who could even be perceived as potential rivals. If you reinforce the
illusion projected by the leadership, you don't die. Or at least you have
fewer generations of your family punished with you in political prison.
------
agscala
Is it possible that taking notes in North Korea are the equivalent of taking
pictures of everything in the modern world?
------
mgkimsal
tldr - it's so that images of him show him in a position of assumed
intellectual power at all times.
------
HenryMc
Is that a MiG-21 in the last photo?
~~~
spingsprong
Could be a J-7
------
mariusz79
The important question is - why is he surrounded by people. This guy should be
in isolation :)
------
sirdogealot
>it's ridiculous, he can't possibly know about all of these different things
That just seemed petty.
Does Lebron James balk if President Obama gives him a tip on his jumper?
~~~
jbuzbee
"Does Lebron James balk if President Obama gives him a tip on his jumper?" \-
No he just rolls his eyes... But Dennis Rodman better not try that in North
Korea if he wants to come home in one piece.
------
sigzero
He has to know who to hit with a flamethrower later or maybe if he is feeling
humanitarian, a .50 cal.
------
ssw1n
It is just to give the "leader" a sense of importance ....
------
ma2xd
Because if they do one thing wrong, it's bye bye...
------
RighteousFervor
I see the potential of an internet mime here.
| {
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Günter Grass: From Enfant Terrible to Grand Old Man - lermontov
http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/12/gunter-grass-from-enfant-terrible-to-grand-old-man/
======
Gruselbauer
As a German, I cannot begin to explain how much I despised the guy's work and
public persona. A life's work dripping with perpetual delusions of moral high
ground contrasted by the very late revelation of having been one of those he
so colorfully looked down upon. Apologetic rambling on behalf of the general
populace who didn't know anything about what was going on and couldn't have
done anything, either.
Grass was a supreme example of everything wrong with this nation and that's
not even mentioning his repulsive, monotonous style of writing.
If you're planning to read a modern German novel, avoid this guy at all cost.
Read Handke or Jelinek, Glavinic or Kracht, Gernhard or Böll. Or any of a
million others. Don't let anyone sell you the Tin Drum, please.
~~~
lispm
Jelinek may write an Austrian novel, but not a German. Handke is Austrian,
Glavinic is Austrian, Kracht is Swiss. I would also not list somebody like
Jelinek under German literature, but under German language literature. Jelinek
writes mostly about Austria and not Germany.
If you want to read modern German literature there are a lot of other authors:
Goetz, Tellkamp, Kehlmann, Müller, ...
Actually 'Die Blechtrommel' is great German literature. Highly recommended.
> Grass was a supreme example of everything wrong with this nation
Definitely not. Grass had his problems, but he a lot of good sides, too. It's
not black or white.
> As a German, I cannot begin to explain how much I despised the guy's work
> and public persona.
Really? How sad.
------
squozzer
I won't pretend to offer literary or historical criticism - all I can tell you
is that when The Tin Drum movie arrived stateside, it traumatized a lot of
people, myself included.
Movies generally do little justice to the books upon which they are based, and
probably in the case of The Tin Drum, that might have been a plus.
Nevertheless, when I have a chance to watch a German language movie - and to
be fair, it's stuff you find on Netflix - The Tin Drum sets the standard.
| {
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Ask HN: How do you really influence people in a competitive setting? - diminium
Ok, I read enough HN to know the standard and most popular response here about being "genuinely caring and honest to the other party" but really, how do you influence people into doing what you want when others are also trying to influence them? How do you get the guy in the other table to give you the contract/sponsorship/time/money etc?<p>If you want to make this general question into a case study:
Your competition who is also vying for their attention is three companies runned by psychopaths willing to say anything to get what they want, one company with an incompetent manager but has a whole lots of cash, and a company or two in China willing to copy what you did to get your future customers.<p>For the sake of this discussion, let's say (in your opinion) your off the shelf product is better than average but unproven compared to your competitors. To counter this, your genuinely more than willing to invest in the client in making sure it works best for their system - even if means creating fully customized solutions for that client and spending major R&D funds to satisfy the client which also improves the base product.<p>The other companies ran by the psychopaths are willing to lie to the client saying they too will spend just as much time as you but when they really aren't. The rich incompetent company is willing too but their product is less advance and they are well, dysfunctional.
======
dirkdeman
I graduated cum laude on a thesis about mass influence so your question kind
of intrigues me... Robert Cialdini has written a great book on this:
'Influence: the psychology of persuasion'. Cialdini discovered 6 principles
that can persuade others: \- Reciprocity \- Commitment \- Social proof \-
Authority \- Liking \- Scarcity
You can find the principles at
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Cialdini#Six_.22Weapons_...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Cialdini#Six_.22Weapons_of_Influence.22)
but you really should read the book, it's a good read. I realize some of his
tactics lean towards black flag so use with caution. Dress up the truth, but
remain caring and honest would be my advice.
~~~
diminium
Thanks for that link. That was actually really useful. Does the book go into
more detail about competitive influences?
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Don’t use JPEG-XR on the Web - robin_reala
https://calendar.perfplanet.com/2018/dont-use-jpeg-xr-on-the-web/
======
PaulHoule
From time to time I've run an analysis on the use of alternative image formats
on the web and it never comes out to be worth it.
New formats are not supported on all browsers so you wind up having to support
the mainstream formats as well as one or more new formats. Rather than
benefiting from reduced storage costs, your storage costs get multiplied.
Performance is also a problem, particularly when people add "yet another
polyfill" to get an image to work without native support.
Once I get into eyeballing images closely I also end up questioning if the
compression gains are real. For instance, one I read a comment on the article
here
[https://calendar.perfplanet.com/2018/is-avif-the-future-
of-i...](https://calendar.perfplanet.com/2018/is-avif-the-future-of-images-on-
the-web/)
and looked closely I couldn't unsee that the AV1 had very different artifacts
than the other compressed images. Not necessarily worse, but definitely
different. Unlike the poster I liked the way the suit rendered but definitely
there was a lot of blocking around edges that the poster interprets as
"pixelation on the flag".
Like many things, the costs of switching image formats are definite, but the
benefits are questionable.
~~~
cosmie
> From time to time I've run an analysis on the use of alternative image
> formats on the web and it never comes out to be worth it.
I just checked the Google homepage, and even the New Year's Eve Google Doodle
currently being shown is a good ol' GIF, rather than a modern format such as
WebP. And this is with me using a desktop Chrome browser that definitively
supports WebP.
> Like many things, the costs of switching image formats are definite, but the
> benefits are questionable.
One easy way to get some of the benefits without incurring the switching costs
is to leverage Cloudflare Polish[1]. I've used it at a few places, and have
had good experiences. Although the majority of gains came from optimizing
images that were poorly optimized to begin with, rather than the incremental
improvements that occurred from enabling WebP support.
[1] [https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en-
us/articles/36000060737...](https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en-
us/articles/360000607372-Using-Polish-to-compress-images-on-Cloudflare)
~~~
maxst
> I just checked the Google homepage, and even the New Year's Eve Google
> Doodle currently being shown is a good ol' GIF, rather than a modern format
> such as WebP. And this is with me using a desktop Chrome browser that
> definitively supports WebP.
new-years-eve-2018-4995722058399744.2-law.gif
299 972 bytes
new-years-eve-2018-4995722058399744.2-law.webp
293 636 bytes
new-years-eve-2018-4995722058399744.2-law.apng
251 516 bytes
Interesting...
~~~
masklinn
Meanwhile using ffmpeg's default settings it's 63k as h.264 and 45k as h.265.
~~~
londons_explore
Starting a video in most browsers is pretty expensive (it usually loads up
various GPU features for hardware video decoding).
On some old and buggy machines, that might cause the browser to crash too.
Not something Google wants to risk for a doodle - that's why all non-trivial
doodles require a click to load.
~~~
masklinn
> Starting a video in most browsers is pretty expensive (it usually loads up
> various GPU features for hardware video decoding).
OTOH it might be cheaper (relatively) on phones as they can offload the work
to hardware components and ramp CPU down (or avoid ramping it up).
------
SimeVidas
It’s great to see a summary at the top of the article.
However, the summary (and the article) leaves out a relevant question that
immediately comes to mind: Are other image formats decoded _off_ the main
thread or is it just that decoding JPEG-XR is just more taxing compared to
other formats, thus negating its advantages?
~~~
JohnBooty
Yeah, this was my thought as well.
I'm fairly certain the article may be poorly worded. Certainly standard JPGs
are decoded on the CPU side as well, are they not?
To the best of my knowledge, I don't think any browsers are doing JPG decoding
in hardware; I think they use the GPU for primitives and compositing, etc.
I would look forward to being corrected if I'm wrong!
~~~
pornel
The CPU portion of JPEG decoding is relatively cheap (just Huffman + RLE) and
easy to parallelize (DCT blocks are independent). Conversion and upsampling of
YCbCr can be done on the fly on the GPU, and this even saves memory compared
to using raw RGB/RGBA bitmaps.
Other formats use more expensive entropy coding, more block sizes, smoothing
filters, and inter-block prediction which forces them to be decoded mostly
serially.
~~~
dylan604
Isn't the JPEG instruction set built into the CPUs now anyways? I would be
shocked to find out they are not seeing as MPEG2 has been part of the CPU
since the Pentium days.
~~~
userbinator
There is no "JPEG instruction set" as such --- and what you may be referring
to by MPEG2 is MMX, which is just a SIMD extension that certainly helps with
JPEG and MPEG decoding, among other things.
~~~
dylan604
Interesting. I just remember the days of the add-on hardware boards for real-
time MPEG2 encoding for DVDs that were pretty much obsoleted when some sort of
upgrade to the CPU was made. I officially went 100% software/CPU encoding in
2005. However, it looks like something more specific from Intel called Quick
Sync came out in 2011.[0] This is a dedicated core on the die. Do browsers get
access to that level of hardware?
[0][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Quick_Sync_Video](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Quick_Sync_Video)
------
Solar19
I have several somewhat orthogonal thoughts on this:
1\. This is exactly what I've feared and suspected about JPEG-XR, webp, and
JPEG-2000 (which Safari ever so quietly supports). I especially wondered about
JPEG-XR after reading how Microsoft had done some great things with GPU-based
hardware acceleration for JPEG decoding in IE11:
[https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/ie/2013/09/12/using-
hardwar...](https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/ie/2013/09/12/using-hardware-to-
decode-and-load-jpg-images-up-to-45-faster-in-internet-explorer-11/)
I was puzzled by the fact that they never mention JPEG-XR and have never
published a similar post about hardware acceleration for the more modern
format. They've been incredibly lazy and unfocused on XR for years. It's
effectively dead now.
2\. The author of the don't use it post keeps saying it gets "software
decoded". This implies that this is unusual. But it isn't. Does he think JPEGs
are not software decoded? They are in Firefox, and probably every other
browser but IE11 and Edge. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. Browser makers
have been surprisingly inert on using GPUs for image decoding. libjpeg-turbo
is used by Chrome and Firefox, and possibly Safari. It's pure CPU, albeit with
some SIMD. That's "software decoding". Hardware acceleration normally means
GPU, or a fixed function unit/ASIC like you see for some video codecs.
3\. One percent? This was all about a -1% drop in some metric? What's the
error margin?
4\. He implies that there's a lot of JS in this SPA. This seems like a
possible confound that won't necessarily apply to rigorous web developers who
don't overload on JS (who are admittedly extremely rare in 2019). Sure, they
showed that XR was using more CPU, but so do all post-JPEG formats.
5\. Which leads to my last point. What about webp? He strangely never mentions
it. It's like only JPEG and XR exist. webp performs very poorly in CPU
efficiency compared to JPEG. What are trivago and Cloudinary seeing on that
front? Is webp less taxing than XR?
~~~
cflat
A few clarifying points: * the author specifically said -1% Conversion. If
this were AWS, that would mean a daily reduction of $6million in revenue! *
the author specifically says this is for IE users. This implies two things: a)
webp is not an option and b) likely we are also talking about lower class of
hardware (mom & dad). I would expect WebP had older hardware probably has the
same kind of performance tax, but it's harder to identify because at least
with IE/Edge there is an implied age-of-hardware
------
dahart
> -1% negative impact on core business metrics including conversions in our
> test of JPEG-XRs [...] Let’s not use JPEG-XR on the Web.
Is this an overreaction, or a subversive call to improve the decode perf of
JPEG-XR? I'm certainly on the performance-is-a-feature bandwagon myself, but
1% ux impact is pretty small. And shouldn't we assume that decode perf will
improve in the near future? Is there any reason to assume that this problem is
permanent and unfixable?
~~~
mediumdeviation
> but 1% impact is pretty small
The best you can say here is that it’s within the margin of error, in which
case the effect is so small it’s literally unmeasurable. In that case the null
hypothesis still wins, and you should not switch.
> Is there any reason to assume that this problem is permanent and unfixable?
IE11 as tested in the article is not getting anything other than security
patches. The users who use IE11 are probably also the users most affected by
poor performance since they most likely have the oldest hardware.
~~~
dahart
Interesting response, thanks. Your comment gives me even more questions,
though!
> The best you can say here is that it’s within the margin of error
What is preventing JPEG-XR from becoming faster and a net ux positive,
tomorrow or in the future? Isn't the best I can say that today's results might
be a bug or fluke or a quick and dirty implementation, and not a permanent
problem?
> IE11 as tested in the article is not getting anything other than security
> patches.
The title and conclusion both said we should avoid JPEG-XR on the web, not
that we should avoid it on IE11.
You're right, the article focused on the problem with IE11. Is it already a
net positive on Edge? (The article didn't say.) Should the shim to make it
work in the old browser that fewer people use _really_ override the potential
benefits on the newer browser that more people are already using?
Does it seem reasonable or unreasonable to make future web decisions depend on
an old browser that's on life support today and has small and declining market
share?
------
throwanem
Apparently only IE and Edge support JPEG XR, so the format not being used on
the web will happen on its own anyway.
~~~
andreapaiola
Well... With Edge phasing to Blink noone will support JPEG XR
~~~
wereHamster
The Edge team could still decide to integrate their JPEG XR implementation
into Blink. That would mean Chrome would gain support for JPEG XR.
~~~
05
What makes you think the changes would be accepted into mainline?
~~~
CydeWeys
They don't have to be; Microsoft could maintain that as a separate fork/add-in
to Blink. In theory it sounds like it should be highly modular, so that
shouldn't be a huge ongoing maintenance burden.
I don't know why they wouldn't just switch over to WebP in preference to that,
though. It's better to have fewer of these formats around and the simplest
thing to do is use the one that already has support.
~~~
stordoff
> They don't have to be; Microsoft could maintain that as a separate fork/add-
> in to Blink
Note that parent said "Chrome would gain support for JPEG XR", which I believe
is what 05 is replying to.
------
subfay
This piece gives a hint where Trivago as a company went with Holacracy. The
lack of focus is so obvious and seems to let individual developers create some
work which is not just poorly worded but also nonsense:
Why should anyone test a format which is used by just two browsers with a very
small market share and which will be never adopted by the company with the
biggest market share (because Google has WebP). JPEG-XR is DOA and nobody
should care and waste time on this (except the OP gone astray).
I like that there is a tl;dr right at the beginning though.
~~~
jbreckmckye
I'm not sure I'd be quite so blunt, but I do agree with your argument in the
main: this is so low on the list of priorities that I can't help but wonder if
someone at Trivago thinks they've run out of any actual revenue-generating
development work.
It indicates to me that either the inmates are running the asylum - that devs
are being given too much leeway to pursue personal interests - or (and?) that
Trivago's day to day work is proving so dull that developers in some teams are
inventing R&D work just to stay sane.
~~~
subfay
Yeah my tone was a bit to harsh and I didn't want to insult anyone but I am
still wondering that nobody at Tribago gave him this feedback. However and
hopwfully this useless piece of work leads him to some other more relevant
stuff.
------
mgamache
Hardly surprising. JPEG is a very mature technology with deep support and
optimizations going all the way to hardware support built into many (most?)
cpus. If the real world savings are ~ 20%, it probably won't be worth it.
------
jbreckmckye
Exotic file formats, like exotic JavaScript language constructs, tend to
perform poorly because they are not optimisation targets. And they are not
optimisation targets because - obviously - no-one uses them. To my knowledge
there is no particular intrinsic reason that JPEG-XR decoding cannot be moved
off-thread.
The solution to this problem is to start using these new technologies, so the
browser vendors can prioritise work to make them performant. It is not to
write articles that entrench that neglect and tie us to flawed, ancient
technologies from the 1990s.
It gets worse. If there's one kind of meme that survives a long time in the
development world, it's performance memes. Rumours about poor perf invariably
end up haunting technologies with FUD long after any issues have ceased to be
relevant.
~~~
inferiorhuman
Yep, it's kinda like Github and SSL/TLS. When they went SSL only it was a bit
painful, but things have largely caught up and improved overall.
------
rhacker
Going a little further than just JPEG-XR - definitely do performance tests for
new releases. We had a bug that affected one page in our app. It made people
cringe using the feature set that invoked it, but essentially something in
angular was firing, and the thing it did caused a re-fire. It just kept
looping when on these very specific pages in the app. I finally found it and
killed it. But definitely don't go to production with a client CPU murdering
bug. It can't be measured the same as network latency, etc... so you really
need to use your apps.
I was surprised to see a post from Trivago - I might have to book my next
hotel through them.
------
k__
If the compression is really much better than with JPEG, there is probably a
point where the connection is so slow, that JPEG-XR would be faster than JPEG,
because the file-size would out-weight the decoding performance.
------
microcolonel
This is a little bit wrong in that the other CPU-bound tasks during loading
are generally in the main thread, whereas image decoding is usually on a
different thread (so, depending on how many images you have, and how many
CPUs, it may not increase overall page load time in reality).
Now, overall time to decode still matters. If it's a gigantic hero image above
the fold, then it could take a noticeable amount of time to decode, but it's
probably still a win.
With the only good JPEG 2000 encoder, its quality at small file sizes is
easily better than webp, but in practice it seems virtually nobody uses JPEG
2000, because the open source encoders are not really that great (probably
because the patents are a guessing game, although technically the known
holders are willing to grant royalty-free licenses).
------
Yizahi
At this point in time I suspect we do need to use anything not invented by
Google, if only to slow down arrival of googlenet.
------
t0mbstone
Regardless of the findings, I think it's funny that they think they were able
to "statistically verify" a -1% impact on conversions...
That's a hilarious thought to me. How can a 1% change in a sales funnel be
considered statistically relevant?
------
dfc
The author says that JPEG-XRs are decoded on "the software-side on the CPU" a
couple of times that it seems like it might be a term of art but it sounds
very awkward to me.
Is the TLDR actually "jpeg xr implementation is poorly optimized and
negatively affects browser performance which decreased conversions."
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How do you conduct technical interviews if you don't have experience? - bsquared
Two months ago I started working at a pre-seed stage startup. We've been growing exponentially and this week we actually had to cut back our operations because our 5 person team couldn't handle the workload. So I've been tasked with hiring 1-2 new employees ASAP.<p>I have never conducted any interviews before. Nor do I have any experience with iOS development, which is one of the two positions I will be hiring for. Are there any techniques you could suggest for being able to judge a candidates level of expertise without actually having any personal experience?
======
staunch
Find someone you can reasonably expect to be an expert. The author of a well
reviewed iOS book, app, library, toolkit, framework, whatever. Have them
review code samples or even interview candidates over Skype. It shouldn't cost
more than an expensive recruiter. And still cheaper than hiring the wrong
person.
------
asadlionpk
I am assuming you are technical yourself but have no iOS skills. In my
experience, you should interview candidate based on the basic CS principles
and algorithms. Start with some classical textbook problem and based on
candidates response, build around it. While the interview, focus on the
thought process more than the end results. I have been doing this for a few
years now and even have built tools for interviewing.
Check [https://codepad.remoteinterview.io](https://codepad.remoteinterview.io)
Good luck!
------
otoolep
Ask them:
How do they ensure that the code they deliver to their teammates is of high
quality?
Regardless of domain, the principles are the same -- answers that can be
understood even by a non-technical person include "peer review of my work" and
"assume good faith when a person provides feedback on your design and
results". If you do have a technical background, then the technical answers
provided should apply to all types of software development and technical
operations. You don't need to specifically have iOS experience.
~~~
jamesli
Regarding this specific case, if no other engineers in the team are good at
iOS programming and the candidate is aware of that, most probably the
candidate would not give answers like that. If the candidate does say things
like that in this situation, I would feel negative about it. It doesn't sound
an engineer speaking.
As for OP's question, I haven't figured out a good way, either.
------
MalcolmDiggs
In my experience, there's little reason to do it alone.
Handle whatever you can (the non tech stuff), you'll be able to narrow down a
lot based on non-technical factors (like years of experience, projects in
their portfolio, etc). When you're ready for the tech screen, call in a favor
from someone you trust. Ask them to spend an afternoon grilling your
candidates.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Propaganda Campaign: Officials Warn That The KGB Could Infiltrate Lulzsec - nextparadigms
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110725/17345215248/propaganda-campaign-against-vigilante-hacking-groups-govt-officials-warn-that-kgb-could-infiltrate-lulzsec.shtml
======
GHFigs
I can understand disagreeing with the premise. I don't understand citing lack
of evidence and then making the claim that it is is "extremely unlikely" based
also on no evidence. That's a very whimsical notion of probability. It seems
far simpler to me to tolerate the uncertainty of the circumstances than make
baseless assumptions either way. The original author managed this just fine. I
don't see why TechDirt feels the need to, or why they felt it appropriate to
mis-attribute the statement to "officials" in their headline.
By comparison: a month ago people here[1] and elsewhere were claiming Lulzsec
might be a false flag operation by the CIA. Why would one consider that a
reasonable possibility, and expect others to do so, but then consider an
analogous statement a "propaganda campaign"?
[1] For example, nextparadigms, you expressed that possibility yourself:"
_Could LulzSec actually be working for the Government to help create that
"civilized" Internet Sarkozy was talking about._ " --
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2659640>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How the 'Plandemic' conspiracy theory took hold - rbanffy
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/23/how-the-plandemic-conspiracy-theory-took-hold
======
everydayprgmr
I'm personally not into conspiracy theories, but from time to time some
conspiracies turn out to be true. I saw video on YouTube the other day, which
showed how CBS news gathered random people around hospital to make the
hospital look more busy than it actually was and the hospital head even had to
admit it later on. Then I read news, where the COVID test results were double
counted per person. Then you see videos of doctors talking about the virus and
showing the inside of the hospital and they say it's nothing unusual. I don't
know what you call conspiracy, but this thing seems to be greatly over
exaggerated. The virus is definitely very real and killing people, but it's
absolutely disgusting for news companies to waste resources on mask and other
gear to just create scene for themselves on TV.
~~~
Fjolsvith
[https://twitter.com/PWarrior1776/status/1261492235843129346](https://twitter.com/PWarrior1776/status/1261492235843129346)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Quick Hiring Tip for Founders/HR -- Reverse Captchas ;) - ttol
Usually when we put up a posting, we get sent a ton of resumes. One trick we used to help weed out the people who shotgun apply is to put in instructions in the posting to put two words in the subject, like "Read it!" -- like a reverse captcha.<p>If we're going to put in the time to read resumes, schedule interviews, etc, it should be with people who are genuinely interested in the position.<p>Anyone have other HR tips to share?
======
cperciva
_Anyone have other HR tips to share?_
Emails from China, India, Pakistan, and Iran which start "Dear Professor
Percival" get immediately sent to the bit-bucket. (Those four countries are
notorious for students spamming research assistant applications.)
Emails from other countries get a polite reply explaining that I'm not a
professor. :-)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: How Do I Look-Random response generator to the question women always ask - architv07
http://architv.me/howdoilook/
======
architv07
Hi all! I've always been a fan of random generators and I wanted to try making
something like
[http://greatfuckingstartupadvice.com/](http://greatfuckingstartupadvice.com/).
So here we are! Post your best response below and I'll add the good ones into
the app.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Eager Comprehensions (2003) - pmoriarty
https://srfi.schemers.org/srfi-42/srfi-42.html
======
bjoli
It is well worth a mention that srfi-42 inspired racket's loops. It is
actually a pretty neat looping protocol, and I ended up looking at it quite a
lot for inspiration when implementing my own loop facilities.
The reference implementation is pretty cool since it is implemented only using
syntax-rules (the standardised high level, strictly hygienic macro facility of
scheme). That is a special level of masochism right there, but it is probably
also why the reference implementation has to use set! instead of generating
pure tail-recursive (and thus continuation safe) code.
I ended up implementing something not unlike racket's for guile scheme [0]
using syntax-case. I find that syntax easier to work with and understand, and
the code generated is better than srfi-42. In fact it is almost always zero
overhead, just like racket's loops.
[0]:[https://bitbucket.org/bjoli/guile-for-
loops](https://bitbucket.org/bjoli/guile-for-loops) the readme is not really
correct. I now support both pre-checks and lazy loops, but I am cleaning some
things up for a first release. The docs are here:
[https://koketteriet.se/software/guile-for-
loops/docs.html](https://koketteriet.se/software/guile-for-loops/docs.html)
~~~
soegaard
Note that it is possible to implement SRFI-42 using `syntax-rules` - the only
available macro system in R5RS.
~~~
bjoli
That's what I said :)
Come to think of it, a large subset of racket's for loops is possible to
implement using syntax rules, but I wouldn't recommend it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Facial Recognition Is the Perfect Tool for Oppression - janemanos
https://medium.com/s/story/facial-recognition-is-the-perfect-tool-for-oppression-bc2a08f0fe66
======
PeterisP
The argument to ban or regulate "facial recognition technology" seems futile.
It's not (necessarily) some highly complicated secret software available to a
limited number of organizations that could keep it under wraps - currently,
any decent CS undergraduate student could make a passable facial recognition
system as a study project if they really wanted to, using only generic, freely
available image processing / machine learning resources (i.e. nothing specific
to facial recognition that could be regulated or restricted). Sure, it won't
be as good as state-of-art systems, and it will take enough time so they
likely won't bother unless someone wants it bad enough to pay for a bunch of
weeks of work, but it'll be sufficient for all the bad outcomes described in
the article.
The barrier of entry is just too low. If a few pictures of your face are
floating online, many people can make a system that will somewhat accurately
try to detect your face; the best the regulation can do is to specify that
organizations will not _use_ facial recognition even if they trivially could.
~~~
zimablue
There's a difference between being able to recognize your ten friends and
having a database of millions of people's faces.
~~~
PeterisP
Regulating the storage and processing of private biometric data might be a
more realistic approach than regulating technology - that database of millions
of people's faces is pretty much the only boundary between recognizing your
ten friends and mass surveillance; the tech is quite similar but the data
matters a lot.
~~~
zimablue
Yeah but this seems like a kind of pointless side-channel. Let's just assume
that by the time this hits legislation the restriction will be on applying
facial recognition and storing data on people's faces. Yeah we know you can
implement it, we all did the coursera course on convnets.
------
crocal
There is another problem with such technology that is missing from this long
article. Facial recognition et al. also excludes those with physical
disabilities. For example, some people have facial injuries that make it
impossible and/or painful for them to look “straight” in a mirror. A reason
why, for instance, I abhorre the 3D movies is that I can’t take my wife in
movies because she lost binocular vision. We are creating a society where
technology is used to filter out people that can’t conform to a given physical
standard. I find it revolting and we hackers should fight to our last breath
against it. Edit: typo
~~~
emiliobumachar
Please excuse my ignorance. Is 3D a worse experience for people with monocular
vision, beyond having to wear the glasses for no benefit? I would imagine it
just automatically degrades to 2D.
~~~
crocal
I will try to convey what only disabled people can convey to the best of my
abilities. First, with one image you lose a lot of luminosity with the glasses
on. Without the glasses, off course, it is unwatchable. Furthermore, and more
subtle, many people like my partner have /partial/ paralysis, so they have
trained their brain in a certain way to compensate for the fact that they have
partial binocular vision. The 3D effect don’t tolerate that since they rely on
two images precisely engineered to trick your binocular vision « brain
algorithm ». All this put together make 3D movies a «no-go » for people with
monocular or partial binocular vision.
Edit: Typo and better explanation of the « trick »
~~~
Majestic121
I don't really get your point, a lot of existing things are "no-go" for people
with disabilities. Skiing is impossible if you can't use your legs. Going to
the movie is pretty much a no-go if you're blind (I know audiodescription
exists for some movies)
There should be options for people with disabilities of course, and AFAIK 2D
movies still exists and are not going to die anytime soon. But what are you
debating for ? Do you want a global ban on 3D because it can not be enjoyed by
everyone ?
~~~
crocal
I believe this technology should be put under control because it is not only a
tool of mass control, but also a discriminatory tool. I gave example of this
trend taking a personal example. Having to choose to go to a different theater
because there is no 2D at the chosen time is discriminatory.
I must also kindly reject your example. You can ski without legs. Ski slopes
are actually a very good counter example: everybody who can pay a lift can go.
It’s a different question that I do not addressed, but I do not believe a ban
will work. It’s better to regulate and put checks and balances in place. At
least IMHO.
------
self_awareness
I don't get this "we must ban something" approach. In the group of 100 people,
even if 99 people will ban something, 1 person will still use it.
Isn't it better to find how you can defend against something (face recognition
in this example) instead of convincing the people to "ban it"?
I mean, let's ban all wars, ban low income and ban evil. What sort of thinking
is this?
~~~
inanutshellus
Well. We're governed by laws. At least... theoretically. So if we make it
illegal to scan peoples' faces then, theoretically, an oppressive government
can't use it against its populace.
On the flip side, you have the "good guy problem" that we normal "good" people
will happily give up our rights in order to help catch bad guys.
But really... it's not a MAC address or an IP address. It's your face. What
"defense" is there to facial recognition software? Even if you stay off of
facebook, your friends and family will still post photos of you there and
reference you and talk about you. "No man is an island" has never been more
apparent.
~~~
self_awareness
Theory is good for books, but for life we need practical solutions.
An automated system that scans friends galleries to find my face in their
galleries maybe would be helpful. Then I would see who uses my face in what
context, so I can react; maybe send a polite request to remove me from the
picture, set it as private, or simply remove the picture from the gallery?
Or maybe an approach based on spreading disinformation would be enough, so I
could produce fake photos of my face with other randomly chosen faces from all
over the internet, so that face-gathering systems will store fake relations
between me and some random people?
There are lots of methods we can use to defend ourselves.
The "ban something" approach works only for parties that are willing to
cooperate. But it's not the cooperative parties that we should be afraid of,
it's the uncooperative ones.
~~~
fixermark
It ultimately boils down to who owns the signal.
You would love to have a system that scanned the world's photos and notified
you automatically about people commenting on you. You don't necessarily want
the government to have that same system.
~~~
tonysdg
I'd also add that this begs a serious question: who _do_ you trust to own the
signal? A multinational corporation? A government? No one? Everyone?
Furthermore, how do you rectify disagreements over that trust? I may trust a
multinational corporation (especially if I own stock in it and can vote on its
directors), but you may trust your government, and our neighbor may not trust
anyone.
Both of those questions need to be "solved" (if such a thing is even
possible), but that's (obviously) a lot easier said than done.
------
dostres
I built a face recognition algorithm to sell to police, immigration and pretty
much who ever wants it. It took 6 months and is state of the art. Which is to
say, not as good as a human, but getting close.
If you’re worried about privacy then maybe you should take the tracking device
out of your pocket.
The concept of using the power of the state to limit the power of the state
seems flawed to me. Especially an oppressive state.
------
jankotek
90% of people already walk around with phone that broadcasts their unique ID
(wifi MAC).
------
pitt1980
text recognition is a better tool,
in this age, physical location isn't that important
text recognition, lets the oppressor know who is thinking what, and who
they're trying to communicate it with
or makes nearly all communication impossible
~~~
swirepe
> in this age, physical location isn't that important
Everyone else seems to think that information is important. What's your
address?
~~~
falcolas
Don't forget to figure out where they go to eat, where they work, where their
lover(s) lives, where their children go school, where they go shopping, where
they get a haircut, and whether they jaywalk. All for the last 12 months. I'm
sure we can find something in there to persecute them for.
"If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I
will find something in them which will hang him."
------
amelius
See also China's social credit system.
------
vinceguidry
Oppression always fails in the long run because the conditions that spawn the
oppression always eventually pass, and oppressive regime has to keep
justifying itself.
For instance, slavery was long on the way out of the US by the time of the
Civil War. As we kept expanding west-ward, the new states had exactly zero
economic incentive to turn people into livestock. The South could get away
with political shenanigans only as long as it could maintain its voting bloc.
Expansion made that impossible, and the only solution became a war.
If the war hadn't happened though, we would have seen a managed transition.
Legislation tailored at reining in slavery would have slowly made the practice
increasingly untenable and the economic aspect would have gotten managed out
over time. In fact, it was already happening.
To generalize, oppression seeks out a local maximum, eventually society finds
a higher peak, and the oppression only lasts as long as it takes for the rest
of society to build a wide enough bridge so that people on the lower hill can
just walk over to the bigger hill. Or, you know, a war.
~~~
maxxxxx
It's true that oppression fails in the long run but it's also true that we all
die in the long run. There are plenty of examples where oppression lasted long
enough to make the lives of generations of people miserable. So we shouldn't
just say "This too shall pass"
~~~
vinceguidry
If the alternative is fighting a war, there's a good case to be made for
managed transition.
~~~
maxxxxx
I may not sure how this comment helps with the current situation where people
think that tools like facial recognition will lead into oppression.
Are you saying we shouldn't worry because that oppression will fail in another
50-100 years? Let's just make sure the end of that oppression is well managed
?
~~~
vinceguidry
I'm saying that if you want to actually solve a problem, a more sober outlook
on the reasons why that problem is even a thing is going to be far more useful
than impassioned, but undirected action.
The author of the piece is calling for a ban on facial recognition tech. At
what level should this ban be placed? Just the US? The Anglo world? Anglo-
Europe? Worldwide? China seems to be leading the push here, and they don't
seem to be all that interested in human rights arguments originating from the
West.
I know that nobody here really wants to deal with China's focus on
collectivism over individualism, but it really does deserve a discussion.
China has been grappling with the task of governing its immense population for
thousands of years. How do you draw the line between governance and
oppression?
Even if we restrict our ban to the Anglo world or just the US, A ban on facial
recognition tech can have the same kind of effect that banning psychedelics
did back in the 70s. A ban means that we can't run social experiments. When we
can't run social experiments, we can't actually know the effects.
To implement a ban, a war must be fought. Even if it doesn't result in
physical violence, you're still telling a lot of people they can't have what
they want. If facial recognition tech results in oppression, we need to
understand how.
~~~
maxxxxx
I get your point.
------
bsenftner
This article is a masterpiece of misdirection. It says it's top highlight is
"We believe facial recognition technology is the most uniquely dangerous
surveillance mechanism ever invented." And then they wave their fear hands
around non-facial recognition technologies and discuss their real fear:
feature creep of surveillance technologies.
The article is a masterpiece of misdirection because we are very aware that
the written word in the form of explainer articles for the uninformed IS
ACTUALLY THE PERFECT TOOL FOR OPPRESSION. Unless you're one of the emotionally
manipulated, you realize we live in a new age where the ignorant and
intellectually lazy are "farmed and harvested" for their ignorant votes, to
control the laws and economies of entire nation states. This article is one
such ignorance embedding article putting fear into people's heads so they can
be controlled.
------
auslander
New trends in fashion: Hoodies, sunglasses, camouflage face paint.
Second option, can a camera sensor be damaged by laser pointer?
I have no hope for legal restrictions, it will always be defeated by
'security' arguments.
------
fixermark
It's what humans have used throughout human history.
"Oh, _that_ guy? Don't trade with _that_ guy; he's an asshole." ;)
Now we're just scaling it up with fast-communicating hardware.
~~~
mc32
The issue is scale and inability to escape. So, while your group would know
about “thief”, another group would not, allowing this “thief” to decide to
reform with this group, or just as likely to yet burn another bridge. But at
least this “thief” had an opportunity to reform.
You will see this in history when say a lawyer or whoever else from that time
got recorded in history, moves to a new town to escape a bad rep., often
unfairly cast due to personal dispute.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Email clients hacks that almost worked - pythondashboard
https://www.pythondashboard.com/articles/2020-02-08-email-hacks.html
======
leshokunin
I’m working on an inbox that does exactly those things. Exactly. It’s pretty
funny to see the overlap with your list. Would you be interested in chatting?
Would love to hear your thoughts on what could make it work if it was done in
a less hacky way.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Where has Cosmos DB fallen short? Is it gaining traction? - ralusek
CosmosDB has a few really interesting features. It has 5 different consistency models, ranging from strong to eventual. It has an SQL, Graph, Mongo, KV, and Cassandra interface out of the box. It has scalable throughput, scalable storage, HA, cloud function triggers, cloud function stored procedures (within which are atomic transactions), and automatic indexing of any field.<p>Has anybody here committed to it? What have your experiences been? From what little fiddling I've done, it has been reasonably straightforward to use.
======
cjbprime
I haven't used it. Wikipedia explains that it doesn't have (equivalents to)
ORDER BY, EXPLAIN, transactions, Skip/Take.
It looks like it's proprietary -- but worse, you can't even run it locally. So
you're locked in to a closed source DB service provided by one vendor that is
entirely irreproducible outside of that vendor's environment.
That sounds like somewhere it's fallen short to me. What are you supposed to
do if you have to leave Azure for some reason? Apparently you can't even
access backups without raising a support ticket.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Low – totally silent video chat - saddino
http://getonlow.com
======
saddino
well we got blindsided by Yahoo! when they released Livetext while we were
still in stealth with a buggy MVP (in fact, TechCrunch broke the story the
same day we submitted to the App Store)
pro: we don't have the validate the concept anymore
con: now we're playing catch-up with an Internet giant
anyway, guess there's some solace in having the only alternative on iOS for
video texting without sound, and we still think our minimalist design is
pretty cool
help us keep morale up by checking it out, thanks!
~~~
johnsho
I like the minimalism but I think I would want to see more about the app
before having to go through the process of downloading it.
~~~
saddino
thanks for the comment! yeah our website is still our pre-launch placeholder
for testers so we'll start to work on something more product focussed
------
drvortex
Android, or it didn't happen for me.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Amid Reports Of IPO Plans, Chegg Acquires Lecture Note Marketplace Notehall - adelevie
http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/23/amid-reports-of-ipo-plans-chegg-acquires-lecture-note-marketplace-notehall/
======
adelevie
I sat in the table across from these guys in DreamIt. A great team that
definitely deserves this awesome exit!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The History and Future of Moore's Law - roguefort
https://medium.com/@csoham358/beginners-guide-to-moore-s-law-3e00dd8b5057
======
sushila
Intel has pushed back its new process again. I think we can safely say that
the future of moore's law is pretty bleak. The real question is however,
should we actually be focussing on it?
------
symplee
The number of articles about the demise Moore's law doubles every two years.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How to Raise a Successful VC Round or Series A - eladgil
http://blog.eladgil.com/2011/03/tactics-for-how-to-raise-vc-round-or.html
======
CoffeeDregs
Lots of nice tactics in this, but a key assumption of the article: you have
the knowledge of your market and the product that demonstrates your knowledge
of the market so that you have a sense of confidence in your pitch and in your
company's future.
The above probably sounds silly... until you've been in or seen pitches in
which the folks pitching it don't have that confidence. The classic trap is
building the pitch on good ideas and being smart about them. You can just
about smell that pitch and it doesn't smell nice. Great pitches are ones where
the audience starts thinking about how to _accelerate_ a great product/market
(introductions, additional markets, tactics, etc), not about how to _validate_
it (search for comps, call around to colleagues, etc).
But YouTube wasn't making any $$$ when they got acquired! Those kids
definitely had it: obviously growing and _inevitable_ market in which they had
huge adoption, huge growth, dominance. Questions after the pitch: How much do
you need to crank this thing up? What kinds of introductions can we make? When
would you like to start discussing acquirers? And, most importantly, where do
we sign?
------
callmeed
Cool post, but I have a question:
How do you actually get a meeting in the first place? (and how hard is it?)
I'm applying to YC this week. If I don't get in, maybe I'll try hitting up
some VCs or angels. Do I need to _know someone who knows someone_?
~~~
eladgil
That is usually best. Some people you can also just reach out to directly,
e.g. on Quora. Or you can go to an event and talk to e.g. a panelist, and then
follow up afterwards.
------
avichal
Great overview post. A really useful, related post might be what goes into a
VC pitch and examples of great ones and some not so great ones (just as a
reference).
~~~
eladgil
Thanks - that is actually my next post which is queued to go :)
------
swampplanet
How does this play with VC's coming into the Super Angel space?
~~~
eladgil
That is a pretty different dynamic and more similar to an angel round, given
all the competition from angels for the same investment. The key is, once you
get to Series A, the universe of potential financiers collapses down to the
venture community.
~~~
jayliew
Hey Elad, thanks for all the advice. Can you write the same post, but geared
for someone at the stage just before that? i.e. going from $0 to seed round.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Apple patent filing looks a lot like Microsoft Surface - ghshephard
http://www.geekwire.com/2012/apple-patent-filing-lot-microsoft-surface/
======
ghshephard
Apple applied for the patent on Aug. 11, 2011, which suggests that they've
been working on this for a while. At the very least, it means that there
shouldn't be any Patent obstacles to them rolling out a keyboard-cover on the
iPad if they choose to do so. Still smells like "Patenting ideas" to me -
though there are some good ideas (Using the flip side as a solar cell array is
an obvious one)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Amazon Launches Textbook Rental - gagan2020
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1722921&highlight=
======
ekianjo
This only applies to college students... too bad. Renting books would be great
for the general public, too.
~~~
s_henry_paulson
I was going to make a library joke, but seriously, your local library has
access to an amazing amount of books.
Even if your particular library doesn't have a particular book, there is
likely a library somewhere in their network that has it, and will ship it for
free.
All you have to do is ask.
------
koala_advert
This doesn't seem very profitable when so many textbooks come out with a new
edition every year.
~~~
DenisM
Look at the prices - e.g. $170 new, $100 to rent.
[http://www.amazon.com/Discrete-Mathematics-Applications-
Kenn...](http://www.amazon.com/Discrete-Mathematics-Applications-Kenneth-
Rosen/dp/0073383090/)
------
saraid216
Tangential, but does anyone know why Amazon's PR has a completely
unrecognizable domain name?
~~~
taylan
There is something fishy here. Neither www.corporate-ir.net nor corporate-
ir.net resolve. And the site asks you to login.
Relevant link is:
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/465600/>
~~~
gagan2020
A whois query ([http://who.godaddy.com/whois.aspx?domain=corporate-
ir.net...](http://who.godaddy.com/whois.aspx?domain=corporate-
ir.net&prog_id=GoDaddy)) reveal corporate-ir.net domain belongs to Thomson
Reuters Holdings Inc.
I got this link from <https://twitter.com/amazoncareers>. Now, that account is
authentic or not that's another question.
~~~
saraid216
FWIW, if you go to <http://www.amazon.com/pr> (which I think you can safely
expect to be owned and operated by Amazon), you DO get redirected to
corporate-ir.net. That's what ultimately convinced me that the press release
was legit.
It still bothers me, though.
~~~
greenyoda
You can also find the same information about textbook rentals by going
directly to Amazon's site and going to their textbooks department.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The map of the Pennsylvania tech startup community - acoyfellow
http://representpa.com/index.php
======
scribblemacher
I see my hometown of Harrisburg isn't getting startup love. Kind of
surprising; I've heard from friends and family still there that their economy
is prettty strong. The cost of doing business there is probably a lot cheaper
than the Philly area too.
~~~
acoyfellow
This just went live less than 24 hours ago. Feel free to reach out to them and
see if they would like to add a pin!
------
alexknowshtml
If you have any interest in populating this with data from the
<http://weworkinphilly.com> API, drop me a line. Email in profile.
------
ry0ohki
Can we add other people's companies/accelerators etc...? I could probably
populate a lot of the Pittsburgh area quickly, but it looks like you have an
approval process.
~~~
acoyfellow
I don't feel comfortable personally adding other peoples companies without
their permission, so I don't advocate it; but the "approval process" is just
me clicking "Approve".
So, that being said, if you'd like to add companies of friends/contacts, and
feel ok signing up "for" them, feel free!
~~~
ry0ohki
Awesome thanks, also you might want to start not zoomed in on the Philly area
so you don't offend us westerners ;) Just noticed there actually are some
other locations outside of Philly on the map already. Cool idea!
~~~
acoyfellow
Something I knew would eventually happen! What do you think of it now? It
shows the whole state.
------
johnnyo
There are numerous startups that have been spun off from PSU in the State
College area.
~~~
acoyfellow
I hope to capture every single one of them, eventually, on this map!
I am debating seeding it with startups without their knowledge. Fortunately,
of the 19 who are signed up, every single one has done it themselves (with
exception of Gabe from DuckDuckGo, he tweeted me "permission"!)
~~~
njx
There were lot of startups who attended the latest phg tech meetup. I added
mine(from pittsburgh) to the map but if you want a full picture I would
recommend adding them yourself or let others add them. What harm does it do to
the startup by listing here. I guess you can have a disclaimer at the bottom
saying if you want to remove your startup from the list..do it here.. or email
..
~~~
acoyfellow
I'm not saying I won't do that. I've got lots of ideas on the table right now,
but I don't want to change much right in the middle of this HN spurt- I need
to collect what I can with this rush.
~~~
adandy
You could add some data for Pittsburgh from this link:
<http://alphalab.org/companies/browse-by-cycle>
------
pinchyfingers
What's up Appsters? I'm reppin Bristol Borough.
Not gonna disclose what I'm working on, I'll just say it's marketing related.
------
rwhitman
Looks like Philly is missing a lot still, DreamIt Ventures and Independents
Hall come to mind
------
singer
Your "Add Something" form does not allow apostrophes in the Company Name.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: JavaScript broughlike tutorial - jere
https://nluqo.github.io/broughlike-tutorial/
======
llagerlof
Beautiful. +1 for canvas approach.
------
codefreq
Sadly cant get across the splash screen for the demo on mobile. But tutorial
is amazing!
~~~
jere
I did not think to make the demo mobile friendly. Perhaps it won't be that
hard.
Thanks!
------
breck
Looks really fun and clear. Nice job!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Drinking Less Solved a Lot of Problems - nodailyalcohol
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/24/well/eat/drinking-alcohol-women-psychology-health.html
======
nodailyalcohol
This article is just one person's experience, but I feel it echos something a
growing number of people are feeling these days. Some have already taken
concrete steps (like the author did), while some are still contemplating next
steps (like I am), with the knowledge that frequent drinking -- even in small
quantities -- is not working out for them.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Gay marriage: the database engineering perspective - melle
https://qntm.org/gay
======
lsiebert
Some deep thoughts on what I suspect will be a fairly big issue for medical
and insurance databases, especially if polygamy is ever legally recognised.
Though if it's medical insurance, you probably can't drop the gender and sex
markers, you need some indication that a transwoman who was assigned male at
birth doesn't need a pap smear.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google Commerce Search 3.0: You won’t believe it’s online shopping - shawndumas
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/google-commerce-search-30-you-wont.html
======
unwind
I love how they, for the three example sites, quote three _different_ metrics
of how much integrating support for Commerce Searched helped:
_[...] Woodcraft increased search revenues 34 percent, BabyAge increased site
searches 64 percent and HealthWarehouse saw online conversions increase 19
percent [...]_
Makes it ... kind of hard to compare, and also hard to draw conclusions, I
guess.
------
klous
Hmm...not really aimed at mom and pop ecommerce: "Pricing starts at $25,000
per year."
~~~
marcusestes
I fail to understand why this isn't a free product designed to feed data into
Google Base and Product Search.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Larry Page hates e-mail, but still has 'geek street cred' - CNET News - rjb
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-57322236-17/larry-page-hates-e-mail-but-still-has-geek-street-cred/
======
r00fus
"But meetings now are only 50 minutes long, because Page decreed that there
must be time for bathroom breaks between them."
Kudos to Larry.
Why is this not best practice everywhere? I've had to pad my schedule in some
organizations to prevent back-to-back meetings because the campus spanned
several buildings and transit time itself between meetings added 5-10min,
leave alone bathroom breaks or even updating documentation/deliverables.
------
wccrawford
That all makes sense to me. I think he's taking Google where it needs to go,
even if not all the employees want to go there.
But then, no matter what decision was made, there would be people who disliked
it... There are just far too many employees for that not to happen.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Future of Go - cjdrake
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpHggcP-L5M
======
kristianp
Mentions reporting problems with Go on the Experience Reports, probably at
this page:
[https://github.com/golang/go/wiki/ExperienceReports](https://github.com/golang/go/wiki/ExperienceReports)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Fibers in Guile Scheme - srean
https://github.com/wingo/fibers/wiki/Manual
======
dmix
Anyone using Guile for their projects? Any feedback on their experience with
it?
I only know Scheme from reading SICP and enjoyed Clojure but hated the
java/JVM part of it. I currently use Erlang for when I need
concurrency/performant backends. But I'm not totally satisfied with it (for
ex: the weak type system and records).
Edit: oh looks two programs I use all the time are written in Guile: GNU Make
and WeeChat
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Guile#Programs_using_Guile](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Guile#Programs_using_Guile)
~~~
mkeeter
I'm using Guile for Ao, a Scheme-based tool for solid modeling:
[https://mattkeeter.com/projects/ao](https://mattkeeter.com/projects/ao)
(previous on HN at
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12319406](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12319406))
It's been a generally good experience. Scheme is fun, and Guile is a fine
implementation. I'm not experienced enough to be pushing its limits – the only
unusual corner I've explored is the C FFI, which is quite nice.
My only complaint is the consistency of Guile's documentation. It's generally
of high quality, but there are corners that are completely undocumented – I've
had a few cases where I had to dig into the implementation to figure out how
to do something.
------
mpweiher
Yes!
"But if your typey spidey senses are tingling, it’s for good reason: with
promises, your whole program has to be transformed to return promises-for-
values instead of values anywhere it would block."
(Or lifted into a monad).
To me, that's the big issue with a lot of the concurrency/react abstractions
en-vogue now: you are programming indirectly, or more precisely you are
programming in a specific (async) architectural style, but trying to express
this in a call/return architectural style (that includes methods and FP
functions).
Depending on where you are, that often means your actual domain code is hidden
inside a lot of maps() or flatMaps(). The first problem is that your domain
code really should be primary, and your architectural support code as hidden
as possible. The second (but probably not last) problem is that you can easily
have multiple of these "lifts", for example another for error handling with
Maybe. At some point, it just piles up and the actual domain code is
completely swamped.
async/await is sort of the high (or low depending on your POV) point of this
approach of mapping other architectural styles to call/return: you just write
your code as normal call/return, with normal control flow, and just two little
annotations lift everything to a completely different architectural style.
On the one hand, it is truly brilliant, hiding almost all the mechanics of the
more asynchronous architectural style so that you can just keep writing
procedural code as is. On the other hand, maybe it would be better to make it
easier to express those alternate architectural styles directly in code.
This seems like another great move in the direction of the latter.
------
JohnStrange
It's not hard to come up with a working green thread system, I've done that in
a VM I'm developing for fun, but the crucial question is: _Does it distribute
the fibers over native worker threads?_
That's my problem with most scheme implementations, they are great for single-
threaded concurrency but require nasty hacks like Racket's 'places' for using
all available CPU cores. The only fast multicore scheme I'm aware of is Chez,
which has other problems, though.
Does Guile do better than Racket with that respect?
------
flukus
What's the state of other language interpreters for guile? It's one of this
things I always wanted to have a play with until I remember how much I hate
lisp.
~~~
chrisseaton
What do you mean? Other languages running on top of the Guile interpreter? Or
implementations of Guile in other languages. Why would you want to run Guile
if you don't like Lisp?
~~~
mwfunk
To the degree that open source projects have marketing, one of the things that
has historically always come up in Guile marketing is that any language can be
expressed in Guile, therefore if only every application adopted Guile as their
extension language, those apps could have any extension language they wanted.
Do you like C? Then write C and have some hypothetical Guile C front-end run
it for you. Do you like Python? Then write Python and have some hypothetical
Guile Python front-end run it for yet. Etc.
I'm not sure where that came from. Lisp advocates are (perhaps stereotypically
more than in reality) known for citing that since any language can supposedly
be easily expressed in Lisp, why isn't everyone running everything in Lisp and
simply using hypothetical Lisp front ends to their language of choice? This
line of reasoning featured heavily in Internet discussions about Guile in the
'90s. "Guile should be the universal extension language because Guile can be
any language" was a very common perception, at least among many vocal Guile
advocates.
In the last decade or so, I have not heard much along these lines WRT Guile.
But in the '90s the idea that "every language can be a Guile front-end" was
very much front and center in many stupid, pointless flamewars about why
everyone should drop what they're doing and use Guile for everything.
Just to be clear, I like Lisp very very much (and Scheme, and Guile), I'm just
super allergic to hyperbole, tribalism, and wishful thinking.
Ironically, thanks to Web Assembly, etc., Javascript may turn into the
universal backend language that Guile always claimed to be. This is ironic
because I don't think even the staunchest Javascript advocates would argue
that Javascript is a better language than Scheme in any sort of idealistic,
ivory tower sort of totally objective sense.
Javascript isn't everywhere because everyone wants to use it, rather
Javascript is everywhere because Javascript is everywhere, so that's what
everyone uses. Javascript is the programming language equivalent of people who
are famous for being famous. It has many admirable and interesting qualities,
but it was very much a language born out of necessity than design, that lives
on because it was in the right place at the right time. I say that not as a
Javascript hater (I'm not) but rather as an aspiring language historian.
~~~
chriswarbo
> Ironically, thanks to Web Assembly, etc., Javascript may turn into the
> universal backend language that Guile always claimed to be.
Would WebAssembly boost JavaScript's value as a "backend language" (I assume
you mean a compiler target, rather than a server-side language?)?
I thought the point of WebAssembly was to _stop_ people compiling to JS, by
offering an alternative standard language/bytecode which is specifically
designed to be a compiler target, rather than a human readable/writable
language.
------
dkarapetyan
What is the point of exposing a scheduler? Seems like that's another
implementation detail that should not be exposed. The user should just
instantiate some fibers and go.
~~~
srean
Scheduling algorithms are dime a dozen and the default one provided by a
runtime might not be suitable for a particular application. A user space
scheduler would let you have finer control when you need it. You may have
codepaths that are latency sensitive and those that are throughput sensitive.
~~~
dkarapetyan
That's not what this scheduler does. It simply bundles up some fibers. You
don't have control over the actual scheduling. Relevant section of
documentation
_When a fiber would block, it suspends to the scheduler from the current
thread. The scheduler will arrange to re-start the fiber when the port or
channel becomes readable or writable, as appropriate. For ports, the scheduler
adds the file descriptor associated with the port to an epoll set. In either
case, the scheduler remembers which fibers are waiting and for what, so that
the user can inspect the state of their system.
If no scheduler has been installed in the current thread, the fiber will...
well, we don’t know yet! Either it blocks its thread, or it aborts. We don’t
know._
In fact it is pretty clear there is zero control user has over any scheduling
activity other than suspending and resuming. It is all driven by polling
events internal to the implementation.
~~~
srean
I was responding to your larger question. User space schedulers would be quite
cool, don't know of a language that offers anything over and above a priority
queue or timers.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Starboard kubectl plugin for security scans of clusters and workloads - kronin
https://github.com/aquasecurity/starboard/blob/master/README.md
======
ramimac
Aqua has been releasing some really great k8s security tools recently.
kube-bench [1] and kube-hunter [2] are worth a look as well.
[1] [https://github.com/aquasecurity/kube-
bench](https://github.com/aquasecurity/kube-bench) [2]
[https://github.com/aquasecurity/kube-
hunter](https://github.com/aquasecurity/kube-hunter)
~~~
kronin
2 of starboard's capabilities are to run kube-bench and kube-hunter, and yeah,
aqua has been doing some great work for the community in this space.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
DeepMind's machine-reading question/answer dataset - andrewtbham
https://github.com/deepmind/rc-data/
======
meeper16
It would be nice to combine this with the Cyc project
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyc](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyc) and
biomimetic cognition: [http://52.10.12.34/biomimetic-cognition/biomimetic-
api.html](http://52.10.12.34/biomimetic-cognition/biomimetic-api.html)
"The project was started in 1984 as part of Microelectronics and Computer
Technology Corporation. The objective was to codify, in machine-usable form,
millions of pieces of knowledge that compose human common sense. CycL
presented a proprietary knowledge representation schema that utilized first-
order relationships.[1] In 1986, Doug Lenat estimated the effort to complete
Cyc would be 250,000 rules and 350 man-years of effort.[2] The Cyc Project was
spun off into Cycorp, Inc. in Austin, Texas in 1994. The name "Cyc" (from
"encyclopedia", pronounced [saɪk] like syke) is a registered trademark owned
by Cycorp. The original knowledge base is proprietary, but a smaller version
of the knowledge base, intended to establish a common vocabulary for automatic
reasoning, was released as OpenCyc under an open source (Apache) license. More
recently, Cyc has been made available to AI researchers under a research-
purposes license as ResearchCyc. Typical pieces of knowledge represented in
the database are "Every tree is a plant" and "Plants die eventually". When
asked whether trees die, the inference engine can draw the obvious conclusion
and answer the question correctly. The Knowledge Base (KB) contains over one
million human-defined assertions, rules or common sense ideas. These are
formulated in the language CycL, which is based on predicate calculus and has
a syntax similar to that of the Lisp programming language. Much of the current
work on the Cyc project continues to be knowledge engineering, representing
facts about the world by hand, and implementing efficient inference mechanisms
on that knowledge. Increasingly, however, work at Cycorp involves giving the
Cyc system the ability to communicate with end users in natural language, and
to assist with the knowledge formation process via machine learning. Like many
companies, Cycorp has ambitions to use Cyc's natural language processing [3]
to parse the entire internet to extract structured data.[4] In 2008, Cyc
resources were mapped to many Wikipedia articles,[5] potentially easing
connecting with other open datasets like DBpedia and Freebase."
------
andrewtbham
Link to the original paper.
[http://arxiv.org/abs/1506.03340](http://arxiv.org/abs/1506.03340)
------
llSourcell
Could someone ELI5 what this is?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Secret Backdoor in Some U.S. Phones Sent Data to China, Analysts Say - lladnar
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/16/us/politics/china-phones-software-security.html
======
dirkdk
Sorry to say I'm not surprised. Having multiple companies that suppply
hardware, os versions and applications doesn't help.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why Is Infant Mortality Higher in the United States Than in Europe? - modanq
http://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/pol.20140224
======
maxerickson
Preprint:
[https://www.brown.edu/research/projects/oster/sites/brown.ed...](https://www.brown.edu/research/projects/oster/sites/brown.edu.research.projects.oster/files/uploads/Why_is_Infant_Mortality_Higher_In_US.pdf)
------
danielvf
When I was a typically paranoid new parent, I researched the odds of both at
birth and after birth deaths. I was very surprised by the huge racial
differences - a black infant is more than twice as likely to die during the
first year than a white or Hispanic infant.
US statistics:
[http://kff.org/other/state-indicator/infant-mortality-
rate-b...](http://kff.org/other/state-indicator/infant-mortality-rate-by-race-
ethnicity/)
However, the parent paper's abstract says that the primary difference is
economic - yet US hispanics have identical infant death rates to white
Americans. Could anyone with access to the paper see if the authors actually
for this a stronger correlation than race?
------
modanq
In the conclusion the allude to two areas for improvement: access and
prevention.
1) "Our results on neonatal mortality strongly suggest that differential
access to technology-intensive medical care provided shortly after birth is
unlikely to explain the US IMR disadvantage"
2) "... in general, policy attention should focus on either preventing preterm
births or on reducing postneonatal mortality."
------
jacalata
That's interesting, I hear people say it's just because of the definitional
differences so I'm glad to have learned this.
------
a3n
Because we have failed to decide that that is not acceptable.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A Debian bug caused by Playboy - melenaboija
https://lintian.debian.org/tags/license-problem-non-free-img-lenna.html
======
anonymousiam
That image (cropped to be SFW) has been ubiquitous in the electronic imaging
industry for at least three decades. It was selected for its color and
contrast diversity, not because it is a picture of a playboy model. Most
people who have seen it have not seen the full un-cropped original image, so
they may not even be aware of the nudity/history/source.
------
glofish
the classic instance of "men know better what women could possibly want"
so let us men remove the image of a woman without even consulting her of
whether she minds being on this picture
> "At the conference, she was busy signing autographs, posing for pictures,
> and giving a presentation about herself. Lenna commented to the Wired
> reporter: "They must be so tired of me ... looking at the same picture for
> all these years!"
~~~
GuB-42
The argument about sexism is, I think silly. That's unless there is a peer
reviewed paper showing otherwise, this is science after all.
But the copyright argument makes sense. Debian is very strict in that regard.
Going as far as to rename Firefox to Iceweasel to avoid issues with the brand
and logo. I wonder why it is back to Firefox btw, did the license change?
------
robocat
Wikipedia has information about it:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenna](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenna)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Using Have I Been Pwned to Prevent Your Users from Using Breached Passwords - caseysoftware
https://developer.okta.com/blog/2018/06/11/how-to-prevent-your-users-from-using-breached-passwords
======
craftyguy
OT: why does this website "need" javascript just to display _any_ article
text?
------
joombaga
> Secure: no passwords are ever stored or shared over the network. PassProtect
> uses k-Anonymity which means that the only thing that is sent over the
> network are the first 5 characters of the password hash
I haven't heard of k-Anonymity, so maybe I'm misunderstanding, but wouldn't
there be a high rate of collision if you're only testing 5 characters? Seems
like you'd match a lot of uncompromised hashes.
~~~
craftyguy
Yea it would seem like it, and worse you may drive users to adopt a 'less
secure' passphrase because the first 5 characters of the hash of their super
complex/long passphrase might collide with the first 5 characters of the hash
of 'password1', so they may pick a weaker passphrase just to get the system to
accept it?
~~~
jazoom
It's intended that you compare the returned full hashes. Otherwise why would
the API even return them?
This URL is the entire API. Just change the last parameter to whatever 5
characters you want:
[https://api.pwnedpasswords.com/range/aaaaa](https://api.pwnedpasswords.com/range/aaaaa)
Note that the returned hashes omit the first 5 characters, since that would be
a waste of resources.
You should also note that ALL possible combinations of 5 characters return at
least 300 results. So it doesn't make sense to use this API any other way.
------
ry_ry
A few years ago I added a featuregg to the site I worked on at the time, where
it would reject correcthorsebatterystaple as a password with an error message
acknowledging their impeccable taste and a link to a relevant xkcd.
At some point they made a number and a special character a requirement in the
password and the code was either stripped (or still sat there and never
triggered). The irony isn't entirely lost on me.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why Comments Are Stupid: A Real Example - jsonmez
http://simpleprogrammer.com/2015/04/13/why-comments-are-stupid-a-real-example/
======
gumby
What a dreadful example. The old code was relatively short and could be read
sequentially and without scrolling. The new code requires hopping up and down
to see the helper methods (which are called only once) and exist only to
replace a comment with a function whose name is basically the comment!
Only the very first change (changing the name of the parameter) was an
improvement.
~~~
zimpenfish
Agreed. "FindPivotIndexBetweenEndOfStringAndRoot" as a method means nothing to
me (although the original comment was also useless.) What the hell is a "Pivot
Index"? And is "Root" after the "End Of String" or before it? WHAT IS
HAPPENING?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: When should you make a business plan? - throw-away
A lot is changing around in the start up world. Whats the deal with business plans? Are those things still made? Just before boot strapping or before your first angel approach or before vc? What do you put in a business plan? Do we still go by those decades old templates vc firms used to love?<p>I am in India. I was talking with my first potential angel and he was quite surprised I didn't have a business plan already in place. The whole idea of sitting down and putting all kinds of arbitrary anchors in my mind around pricing, growth rate, future revenue and all that feels a bit... premature. I feel like my first beta would be a much more appropriate place to do this. In fact, it feels wrong. It feels like I am being asked to be dishonest.<p>I will make up something. Seeing this idea come alive is so much more important. But I was wondering how is it over there at the valley. When did you all put down your business plans? What has your experience with them been?
======
andrewce
Business plans can be extremely useful, or not useful at all, depending on how
you use them.
The biggest questions they should answer are: "What are we doing, how will we
make money from it, and how much money will we make?"
(It should also answer the question of "What do we do if everything fails?").
I found Guy Kawasaki's ten-part outline (
[http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/01/the_zen_of_busi.html#axz...](http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/01/the_zen_of_busi.html#axzz0ykt2Y2c3)
) to be pretty reasonable. I followed it for both of the business plans I
wrote (freelancing), which both achieved their purpose, and will follow it
again for future business plans I write.
Depending on who your potential angel(s) is/are, you may have to be more
"optimistic" than you would for others, as far as your financial projections
go.
That said, the real purpose of the business plan is to give potential
investors some solid numbers such that they can decide the odds of them
getting their investment back, and also to force you to sit down and clarify
your plans so that you don't get sidetracked with nonsense.
------
10ren
I'm not in the valley, but Steve Blank is, and he suggests "business models"
instead of business plans. They are a set of questions that your business
needs to find answers to as it goes along:
[http://steveblank.com/2010/05/17/no-one-wins-in-business-
pla...](http://steveblank.com/2010/05/17/no-one-wins-in-business-plan-
competitions/)
also, _plans are useless but planning is invaluable_ ; that helps with actual
success, not so sure about getting funded.
------
vincentvanw
Having studied entrepreneurship as a master-degree, I learned that business-
plans are important for the entrepreneur to verbalise what he is doing. If he
can't do that in a plan, can he do it to outsiders, specifically his
customers? However, running a startup for a year now, I find the act of
writing a business-plan always comes second after doing what needs to be done
to keep the business alive. Still, writing offers some reprieve from the day-
to-day stress and I'm much better versed than my co-workers on the grander
vision and how to get there.
Will a business-plan get you funded? It did in our case, from a governmental
institution, but all the _real_ investors I met preferred two things: a
working product ready to launch and a clear financial overview of the
potential return on their investment.
~~~
skatey
A new startup should write a business plan. If nothing else you familiarize
with writing about your ideas and products on paper. With that you make a
clearer vision of where you are headed and what you want to do. I believe you
are thinking about everything everyday and all the time, but if you have to
explain it to someone, it can be easily done with a business plan. It also
shows you have read through most of the 10 points that potential investors are
looking for, so you did your homework.
No one is saying that you should make an ultimate one, its a practice to
refine it on a monthly, or semi monthly basis, depending on the pace of your
development.
And also a product by itself is great to show around, but the numbers in
business plan can also convince a lot of maybe not potential users, but
business partners and investors.
I vote for writing it just so you put all your thoughts and plans on paper and
doing iterations forward from there, I believe it's useful.
------
trizk
A business plan is an exercise to both familiarize yourself with your market
and explore your vision. It helps ensure that what you are doing is grounded
in reality and provides you with a well thought out initial trajectory. It is
not set in stone and is something you use as a loose guide to direct your
company. You can and will carefully pivot based on ongoing analysis of the
dynamics of the situation in the trenches. Although it is of more benefit to
you and your company than to anyone else, it certainly helps show that you are
on top of your game.
~~~
throw-away
To be honest, I am not at the top of my game in that sense and no one should
expect me to be at this stage. Enough data doesn't exist to make good guesses
now. Generating it is exactly why I am approaching an angel and trying to get
to demo and beta.
~~~
andrewce
Then figure out, in terms of expenses and whatnot, what you'll need to get to
demo and beta and beyond (should this prove feasible).
From there, it gets trickier, but if you've built a good product that relieves
some need without causing too much additional pain, you'll (possibly/probably)
be fine.
Shouldn't data exist in the form of direct competitors? If there aren't any,
then does this market exist? (It's entirely possible that it does, and no one
but you sees it yet).
Data should also exist in the form of knowing roughly how many people could
benefit from your product (and who might consider it a step up). If you're
basing this on a market need, then that population should be at least a
somewhat knowable quantity.
~~~
throw-away
Oh, I was expecting a more general discussion about business plans so I didn't
put in too many details. I have talked to quite a few customers during our
customer dev and some of them really like the idea. They think this innovation
will increase their revenue but no one is sure by how much (and there is of
course the risk that we are all wrong about it or the idea needs pivoting
before it does that). It also involves a little bit of hardware so I need
about the amount of money an average yc company gets from yc to get to the
demo from here. I can do some other somewhat related projects to slowly raise
that money but that is just wasting time. Ideally I should just get on it and
get the demo out and deployed. Once we see what effect if at all it has on our
customer's sales and how much it cost us to get that, we can iterate, price,
figure out the revenue and generally write a business plan we could honour.
So, basically my angel's roi is not clear and a convertible note with a
reasonable discount sounds ideal but the system here is the system and I don't
want to waste time fighting it. I will put in a business plan to get talking
to the right guys and then try and convince the right angel to ignore it and
do a convertible note and hopefully all will be well in the world again. This
will have the unfortunate side effect of polluting my mind with fake figures
and expectations which I wish I could avoid but that's just part of the game
at the moment.
------
stevejalim
At the risk of sounding incredibly patronising... re: "I will make up
something." If this means you'll hack together some kind of bullsh_t business
plan just to keep people happy, I'd be _very_ careful who I actually showed it
to. They'll be taking that plan as what your genuine intentions, expectations
and forecasts are, which may well not match the reality of what you are
actually doing. If money's at all linked to a BS business plan, you're in for
a world of hurt.
------
biznessapps
I think a business plan is required almost immediately. It's just the size
that differentiates. If it's for yourself, a single page or paragraph can do.
It just helps founders focus on what they're trying to do. For me personally,
it helps. If your looking for funding, then of coarse a larger business plan
will be needed. I really think it just depends on the person or the situation.
But like I said for me personally, I like to map my ideas on paper and have it
easily read by others.
------
amorphid
A startup founder in San Francisco told me that if an early stage investor
needs a business plan, it's a really lame investor.
------
Asa-Nisse
When you're in business class.
------
shareme
It should be re-named Customer Plan!
Imagine yourself in a room full of potential customers. Describe the product
to them and why they may need it making sure to anticipate their questions
before they are asked , etc.
That is the first part. The second part is imagine the same room full of
investors. Now expand the first part by describing how the business model to
bring it into the world works.
Do not think of it was along plan made by some 500 fortune company. Think of
it as a conversation about how your business works and will work.
The hardest part will be the model if there are very few competitors or no
competitors. Its not a daunting challenge but a chance for you to take control
and write the story.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
BangleJS open source smartwatches – experience of usage - Bystroushaak
https://blog.rfox.eu/en/Improvements/The_Most_Personal_Device_experiment/BangleJS_opensource_smartwatches.html
======
undecisive
As someone who kickstarted this, I unfortunately agree with the
disappointments. I spent a reasonable amount of time wrestling with the
device, but there were just too many holes in the experience to justify using
it daily.
I think that 98% of the let-down is the fault of the hardware. It is cheap,
bulky, and was missing the speaker when it was delivered to the creator, which
shows just how much care and attention went into the manufacturer's quality
control.
That said, I have absolutely no regrets in funding this. Gordon Williams does
a bunch of things that I would never be able to replicate, and while this one
fell a little short of expectations, everything is absolutely above board, and
can only hope that the meagre profits from this fund future successes.
And as watch software goes, is a little clunky, but not irredeemably so. It
would make for an excellent starting point. If I can ever find decent
programmable hardware to pair with it, I would be seriously tempted to hack at
it again.
------
craftoman
I was about to buy one of those but I was skeptical about the whole concept
behind. I didn't find any solid docs and source code and dropped it. It looks
shady...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Astronauts will get dumber on their way to Mars - fortepianissimo
http://qz.com/396231/astronauts-will-get-dumber-on-their-way-to-mars
======
fortepianissimo
Radiation effect on flight crews and frequent flyers:
[http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20131113-the-supernova-
insid...](http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20131113-the-supernova-inside-your-
plane)
------
beamatronic
Has Jim Carrey heard about this?
------
JoeAltmaier
Tinfoil hat time?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
UICloud – User interface design database - davidbarker
http://ui-cloud.com
======
giulianob
Anyone have something similar for game UIs?
~~~
aikah
+1 ,THIS would be great idea.
Also allow short videos.Today UI interfactions are often "dynamic".A UI can
look poor when seen as a still,but be quite awesome when seen in action.
------
pestaa
The only comment on the top rated UI kit:
can you drop me a mail with your contact details
[...]. Would like to discuss about designing a website
Astonishing how much people don't read.
~~~
vyrotek
What exactly did that user "not read"? I found the comment you mentioned but I
didn't come across anything that would suggest against this behavior.
~~~
Igglyboo
I think he's getting at the fact that this is more of a resource repository
and not a place to sell your designs. Still kind of a stretch to say he mis-
read however.
------
Silhouette
Honest question: What are these sites actually _for_?
I mean, they look all swishy as a static image, but real user interfaces are
written with code and mark-up and standard controls. None of the themes I
looked at seemed to come as anything more flexible than PSD files. So apart
from visual designers showing off their Photoshop skills, who actually uses
these for anything?
------
trekforever
Reminds me of Unheap [http://www.unheap.com/](http://www.unheap.com/) But I
like it how a majority of the plugins here do not use javascript where as
Unheap are all jQuery plugins
------
fit2rule
Would be nice to see it evolve into working implementations.js that could be
actively used, instead of just gawked at ..
------
vvh
This is impressive list of components/bits&pieces
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
O'Reilly launches venture fund: O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures - argon
http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/02/oreilly_alphate.html
======
precipice
As someone who has been funded by O'Reilly AlphaTech (I'm one of the founders
of Wesabe), I would recommend them highly. I've known them for many years, and
Mark and Tim both worked with me on my last startup (Popular Power).
I can say a lot about why they like them, but when I was talking with a CEO
recently I mentioned this Richard Nixon quote: "When you win, you hear from
everyone - when you lose, you hear from your friends." I've heard messages of
support from these guys in both instances. If you're looking for someone who
will understand your idea and back it or not for the right reasons, and then
support you all the way if they invest, I think OATV is a fantastic option.
\--Marc Hedlund
------
pg
We know these guys pretty well and we like them. They understand hackers
better than most VCs.
~~~
mattculbreth
I assume they are closer to the traditional VCs in their model and not as much
seed funders like Y Combinator. Is that your understanding as well Paul?
~~~
notabel
Based on the fund size they are discussing, I'd say that's a pretty good bet.
For the startup community, I think that's a good thing. While competition in
the seed/angel space is fine and dandy, having a VC firm headed by someone has
hacker-aware as Tim O'Reilly seems like a definite win.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
What's the max speed on Ethernet? - jessaustin
http://blog.erratasec.com/2013/10/whats-max-speed-on-ethernet.html
======
mcpherrinm
Linux isn't the only limitation on line rate traffic. Many gigabit Ethernet
switches can't handle line rate min sized gigabit traffic. Mine is an
otherwise good Asus switch that only does 1,000,000pps instead of 1,488,095
pps. I would bet similar restrictions could exist in Ethernet cards too.
~~~
wmf
Yep, I read that the Intel 82599 can/can't (I forget which) hit line rate for
packets that are a multiple of 64 bytes. (Care to guess the DMA burst size?)
These kind of quirks have been documented in almost every NIC.
------
jws
He calculates 476mbps at the IP level on 1gbps ethernet, but continues…
_Note that this disparity only happens because we are using very small
packets, where per-packet overhead dominates. In normal Internet usage,
packets are 500-bytes in size, and the per-packet overhead is usually
ignored._
So, to one digit of precision, gigabit ethernet is still gigabit ethernet.
~~~
honeypoopoo
Packets are not 500 bytes in size, not even as an average (mean) or median.
Many studies of frame length distribution show 64 bytes (for the Ethernet
frame) as the most common length, probably because of TCP ACKs. Next most
popular is 1518 bytes, the Ethernet maximum, probably because of bulk
transfers over TCP.
Also, jumbo frames are technically not Ethernet. The IEEE revised the 802.3
spec to increase the maximum envelope from 1518 bytes up to around 2000 bytes
to accommodate VLAN stacking and other encapsulating schemes. But jumbos --
usually 9000 or 9216 bytes -- aren't legally Ethernet.
~~~
mino
Correct: the packet size distribution over any aggregated Internet link is
typically bi-modal: a peak at around 64 bytes (acks) and one at around 1500
bytes (transfers that fill the MTU).
The article seems to me very approximate.
------
ddoolin
Anyone familiar with why Linux in particular can't hit the limit?
~~~
recuter
I believe it has to do with the penalty going between kernel and userspace
because I remember repeatedly seeing novel projects that blow past these
limits suggest pushing the whole networking stack to userspace. But I could be
wrong.
Interesting question, hope somebody chimes in.
~~~
ajross
Could very well be hardware- or driver-dependent, and obviously the switch or
device on the other side of the cable has a say in it too. There's an awful
lot of pluggable stuff in there to support everything in the market. Really
this thing needs to say "I only measured 1.3Mpps between two 3.11 kernels on
IVB boxes with RTL8168 devices connected via a Netlink blah blah blah switch"
to have any diagnostic meaning.
------
xtacy
The limitation you see on the number of pps is mostly due to software and
hardware artifacts. With careful tuning (interrupt affinities, etc.), or
bypassing a bunch of software layering (e.g. Netmap), or special stacks (e.g.
Intel DPDK) you should be able to hit "line rate" packet processing.
------
2bluesc
No mention of MTU?
This is why there are jumbo frames for bandwidth (not latency) intense
operations.
~~~
sliverstorm
I'm told modern gigabit ethernet devices derive practically no benefit from
jumbo frames, and the pitfalls of using them are legion.
~~~
liotier
Each frame is a CPU-hogging interrupt so if your bottleneck is the CPU, then
jumbo frames will help by moving more data for the same number of frames. This
happens easily on routers with low-power CPU.
~~~
fulafel
This is only true for very basic Ethernet hardware. Various interrupt
mitigation schemes came along in the late 90s along with gigabit ethernet.
Even low-end Realtek gigabit chips have various segmentation offload and
interrupt coalescing features these days.
~~~
acdha
Those schemes have varying levels of effectiveness. I personally experienced
this wasn't a given even as late as the 2005-2010 era, when our purchases were
shifted towards certain models specifically due to the issues with drivers or
buffer limits.
I learned never to underestimate how much functionality a major vendor will be
willing to cut if it saves $.10 per unit shipped…
------
cstrat
Nice write up, so you're saying that even though you can push the limits of
Ethernet locally, it won't help you once you hit a router.
I would love to have access to a Gbps connection to the internet... stuck with
my 15Mbps ADSL.
~~~
NamTaf
15Mbps? LUXURY.
Nice write-up. I wonder if there's any market in spec-breaking routers that
can accommodate smaller inter-frame gaps, etc.? What use is there for this
that is not covered by jumbo frames?
~~~
hobs
Do you mean for internal use only? Wouldn't that be a moot point once it hits
the next hop?
~~~
toast0
There's not necessarily one next hop. If you can stuff more packets than
standard out to your upstream, and the upstream delivers the packets over
multiple interfaces, it can pad the packets out to the standard length, and
you get > 100% utilization.
I understand the original purpose of the minimum packet length (needed for
reliable collision detection), but I don't think it's really necessary for
gigE, where I believe full duplex, point to point connections are mandated. I
also don't think the minimum size would be sufficient to guarantee collision
detection in a hypothetical shared medium at the allowed bitrate and
distances. Frame to frame delay on the other hand, seems like it would still
be useful , although maybe it could be tuned.
~~~
hobs
Good answer +1, I was sort of thinking about this but I didnt have the
knowledge.
------
EB5
The speed of light. (299,792,458 metres per second)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
SSH login without password (authorized_keys) - nocivus
http://diffract.me/2009/07/ssh-login-without-password-authorized_keys/
======
nailer
This article is somewhat out of date. Modern OpenSSH distro's include 'ssh-
copy-id', a single command to transfer, and append one's key to the remote
list ofauthenores keys.
So:
Step 1:
ssh-genkey
Step 2:
ssh-copy-id user@host
Done.
~~~
sant0sk1
Actually, step 1 is:
ssh-keygen
~~~
nailer
You're right. I'm used to verb-noun commands, which are more popular in Unix,
and the only option in Powershell.
------
surki
Some more SSH tips
1\. Use SSH connection multiplexing
If you are connecting to same computer multiple times, this saves up quite a
bit of time [http://www.revsys.com/writings/quicktips/ssh-faster-
connecti...](http://www.revsys.com/writings/quicktips/ssh-faster-
connections.html)
2\. Use autossh
For a persistent ssh connection (ex. for reverse tunnels)
[http://www.debianadmin.com/autossh-automatically-restart-
ssh...](http://www.debianadmin.com/autossh-automatically-restart-ssh-sessions-
and-tunnels.html)
------
Erwin
1) You should definitely create a passphrase for your private key (you should
only be asked to unlock it once due to ssh-agent). Otherwise if someone gets
hold of your private key they can login to any machine you have set up an
authorized_keys entry on.
2) use ssh-copy-id to install your public key on a remote (and fix up the
permissions on ~/.ssh etc. which for me is the #1 case of key based login not
working).
~~~
stuff4ben
_and fix up the permissions on ~/.ssh etc. which for me is the #1 case of key
based login not working_
DOH! I just spent the past 15 minutes trying to figure out why it wasn't
working until I stumbled upon my .ssh directory having worldly permissions.
Was just about to come here and post the same thing. chmod 700 is your friend!
~~~
jerf
ssh -vv (with more or fewer vs) is also your friend. IIRC it tells you about
the permission error either there or in the sshd log, and you can also find a
lot more errors in the -vv output.
You should run ssh -vvv on a normal, working connection at least once to get a
sense of what normal output is.
------
bcl
He also flubbed using ssh-agent. Usually it is run from the login script once.
You then do a ssh-add to add your identity to it. Once that is done you don't
need to enter your password for that session anymore. You can even allow ssh
on other systems to access your agent so you can ssh to another machine, ssh
from that machine to a 3rd which will use your agent for the key info.
Never leave your key without a passphrase!
A good series of articles on ssh bt Brian Hatch can be found here -
<http://www.hackinglinuxexposed.com/articles/20021211.html>
------
ovi256
I connect to remote machines several times in a typical workday, and this
helps to save a bit of time. Furthermore, it allows some non-obvious
behaviour, like closing the connection as soon as I did what I wanted. This
avoids leaving a ssh session open in which you may erroneusly type a command
intended for your local machine. An "svn up" on the wrong machine car ruin
your day.
------
Tichy
Isn't that a bit of a security issue? One machine in the network hacked, they
are all gone? Then again, hacker's could just install keyloggers if they get
hold of one machine. But it would be a bit more effort.
~~~
dtf
Speaking of which:
_According to the MAN documentation for ssh-keygen, host keys must have an
empty passphrase, so just leave it blank._
We're not making a host key here, are we? Shouldn't a passphrase be employed?
------
antipax
Obscuring his public key tells me this guy doesn't quite understand what the
point of public-private key encryption is.
~~~
nocivus
I know the public key is supposed to be public, hence no point in obscuring. I
just got carried away ;)
~~~
antipax
My apologies if I offended you; I just wanted to point it out.
~~~
nocivus
No worries. I don't take anything personally ;)
------
nocivus
Thanks for all the tips, everyone :D
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: ChallengeBot – Automate sending out coding challenges - Zanfa
https://challengebot.io
======
Zanfa
ChallengeBot is a tool that combines a bunch of my adhoc scripts and tools
from the last few years I've used for managing and sending out coding
challenges. It handles invites, scheduling, time limits, Git repository
hosting and progress tracking.
It's made my life a whole lot easier, so I figured others may be interested as
well. And you can try it without having to sign up for an account!
------
lkschubert8
How does the time limit system work?
~~~
Zanfa
When a candidate starts the challenge, a unique Git repository is
automatically created. Once the timer runs out (configurable per-challenge),
the repository goes into read-only mode and new pushes will be rejected. It'll
also upload the contents of the repository and email the admin with a download
link to the zip file.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Fitbit Study Suggests Wearables Can Detect Covid-19 Before Symptoms Appear - chrisBob
https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewwilliams/2020/08/20/fitbit-study-suggests-wearables-can-detect-covid-19-before-symptoms-appear/#ddf4055893f9
======
chrisBob
I work with a group that does research using data collected with wearables,
including Fitbit, so this is very interesting to me. The HRV value dropping at
the same time that the pulse rate increases is an interesting signal that
seems easy to pick out.
It is a little surprising that they show both Respiration and HRV which are
not available over the Fitbit API. I wonder how much other data they collect
that isn't made publicly available.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Second Generation of Xbox Live - knd775
http://www.polygon.com/a/the-second-generation-of-xbox-live
======
MollyR
I didn't like this article. It seems more like a pr fluff piece rather than
actually talking about the real technical challenges ex. the dev team faced
when the first version xbox live wasn't good enough to handle the excess load.
I really wish the xbox live team would put out a more technically focused
version of this article, with their thoughts on the trials and tribulations of
growth in a similar view to the netflix microarchitecture article.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Clariphy targets 400Gbps with new 16nm DSP silicon - bifrost
http://www.lightwaveonline.com/articles/2016/03/clariphy-targets-400g-with-new-16-nm-dsp-silicon.html
======
virtuallynathan
Nifty... 70Tbps per fiber is about 2x - 2.5x the current capacity.
~~~
mmmBacon
A better metric is bits/Hz/km.
64-QAM does not go very far and requires very low linewidth lasers. The OSNR
requirements for 64-QAM at 32GBaud means that you basically have no reach
(distance). So makes a nice announcement but it's not a very practical
modulation format. Any nonlinearity and 64-QAM starts cycle slipping like
crazy.
~~~
aortega
At long distance, inter-symbol interference caused by dispersion are the main
causes of bit-errors. I saw a Clariphy whitepaper about a very good digital
dispersion compensation engine, based on a custom implementation of the
Viterbi algorithm.
No a lot of experience in the subject but I believe that, unlike RF, if you
need more OSNR you can always inject a lot of power in the fiber (I've heard
about 5-10 watts lasers for long-haul data links).
Also, if you need to go farther away, you can always increase the FEC
overhead.
~~~
mmmBacon
Unfortunately you can't just increase the power into the fiber. It's
complicated but I'll try to clarify (pun not intended) why you are OSNR
challenged here.
First, fiber and just about any optical material have a nonlinear index. So as
you increase the power into the fiber, the light modifies the local index.
This creates a kind of noise. A wavelength channel can do this to itself even.
When you have lots of channels on the fiber, there is a lot of modulation of
the refractive index by all those channels. This is call cross-phase
modulation (XPM). You can think of XPM as a phase noise. As you increase the
power in the fiber, there's a point where the XPM "noise" increases faster
than the improvement in OSNR. So you have to keep the launch power low to keep
the nonlinear penalty low. This limits our launch power and ultimately the
OSNR we can achieve. Generally we try to operate near the peak of this curve.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
ShowHN: Brainbrowser, WebGL visualization tool for brain imaging data - nkassis
https://brainbrowser.cbrain.mcgill.ca/
======
nkassis
I've been working on this project for the past year and a half. I'd like to
get some feedback on it from HN. We use it mainly to to view surface images
extracted from MRI volumes and data applied as color textures but it's generic
enough to visualize other types of data. Some of the examples take a long time
to load (Particularly the DTI example in surface viewer).
MACACC is a dataset that we created which shows correlations maps of cortical
thickness across a 150 subjects. (Non scientist explanation follows, I'll do
my best to explain but I'm a developer not a researcher) When you click on a
point on the surface (hold down the shift key) it will load that map and
display the correlation between that point and the 80000 other points where
the measurment or thickness was taken.
What is interesting is that these maps are similar to those obtain by other
methods and show region that are potentially connected.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Hack – Hacker News iOS client with swipe to upvote, favorite, reply - busymom0
http://itunes.apple.com/app/id1464477788
======
busymom0
OP developer here. I had shared it before but it lacked many features which HN
community requested. So I have been working on adding them in for the last
month.
Features which make my app stand out to other clients and hacker news on
browser -
\- Swipe on a post or comment to upvote or favorite.
\- Reply/Edit to comments and posts from the app.
\- Submit new posts
\- Dark theme - both pure black as well as light gray. It is free on a per
session basis. If the app is relaunched, it will default to light theme. You
can purchase a small one time in app purchase to unlock it permanently.
\- 10 font choices and many color themes, full customization of font sizes and
padding
\- iPad support with Split View
\- Landscape and Portrait support
\- Chronological view similar to [https://hckrnews.com](https://hckrnews.com)
\- All known hacker news endpoints - News, front page, Ask HN, Show HN, Show
HN Newest, classic, active, best stories, best comments, new stories, new
comments, noob stories, noob comments, jobs, over 100-500 points
\- Ability to block posts with keywords, domains, username
\- Powerful Search powered by Algolia API. You can sort search by adding
"@date". Search for stories only by adding "#story", comments by adding
"#comments". Search for a story by a particular user by adding
"#story,author_username" etc
\- Beautiful UI (I understand my opinion is biased though).
\- No ads, No subscriptions.
Many other features which I would let the app speak for itself.
I am available here for any questions and feedback to make the app better!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The American midwest is quickly becoming a blue-collar version of Silicon Valley - watchdogtimer
https://qz.com/1212875/the-american-midwest-is-quickly-becoming-a-blue-collar-version-of-silicon-valley/
======
rotten
As a tech worker in a startup in the midwest I find this article vaguely
insulting. On the one hand I am happy to see more acknowledgement that tech
does happen in places other than Silicon Valley, but on the other hand
apparently it is only "mid-tech" and only good enough for "blue collar"
workers.
~~~
kevin_thibedeau
I found it extremely difficult to find any employer in Indiana that wouldn't
scoff at paying a senior engineer more than $75K in 2015. That is less than my
inflation adjusted junior engineer starting salary 15 years prior. The entire
industry has a problem with fair pay and rushing to the middle is just a way
to squeeze more profit from the labor of tech workers.
~~~
firebones
It's hard making this point if you don't have access to capital, but if the
talent is comparable, doesn't this represent an opportunity to go after an
idea with above-average talent through simply paying globally-optimal market
rates and pricing out the competition for talent?
It seems that there's an opportunity here to incubate ideas at a discount
globally by "overpaying" locally.
Are there VC funds that are exploiting this? And I don't mean simply by making
margin on the back of exploiting the CoL adjustments, but by drawing on
regional talent pools with lower CoLs? I'm shocked there isn't more innovation
coming from the upper midwest hub that lies along the belt connecting UICU,
Purdue, CMU, etc.
~~~
throwawayjava
_> the belt connecting UICU, Purdue, CMU, etc._
Look at the first destinations reports for those CS programs and you'll see
what happens. People leave the region after getting the degree. In droves.
------
shas3
Bizarre article full of unsubstantiated claims (e.g. Midwest cities generally
“spending years in the doldrums” huh? Twin Cities, Chicago, Kansas City,
Indianapolis, etc. have consistently been doing well) and sketchy assumptions
(mid-tech blue collar?). This whole tendency to bunch all mid-west cities
together is ignorant and condescending. Also, “decline of mid west cities” is
mostly a story of _cities_ not necessarily the entire region or even the
cities’ suburbs (Detroit’s wealthy suburbs are as rich as ever). Generally
muddled piece.
~~~
iamdave
_Indianapolis, etc. have consistently been doing well_
I can't speak for the other examples, but...ask me how I know you don't live
in Indianapolis. This city definitely has a lot of potential to really be
something even greater (than I think it is now), and I'm proud to call it my
home-but don't romanticize it _too_ much.
We are having a series of existential crises here; just jumped out of one
political fire and into another with state and municipal leaders (oh dear god
are we about to see the end of Unigov? Probably not but a man can dream),
schools are laughably bad, roads are hilariously worse (I challenge you to
drive a few miles north on Meridian street and try to not have your car
swallowed by one of the hundreds of near-car sized potholes), but
hey....rent's cheap, so we've got that going for us. Which is nice.
Don't sleep on Naptown, if that was your overall sentiment, for sure. Don't
sleep on us because there's some rumblings of a real explosion of change
underneath it all, and I think we've got nowhere to go but up...same time
though yeah we've got a LOT of problems that are going require some very
painful decision making in the next 10 years and we gotta look that horse
square in the mouth.
~~~
nightski
Let's not pretend things are any different in California.
~~~
dsfyu404ed
And CA doesn't even have nature to blame it's infrastructure problems on
(earthquakes aside).
~~~
stevenwoo
The landslides taking out various mountain roads every few years says
otherwise. A single two hundred foot section of road recently got an expedited
replacement so it cost 10 million dollars to fix and that was just a two lane
low traffic road.
[http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2017/12/19/highway-35-repai...](http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2017/12/19/highway-35-repairs/)
------
brandonmenc
> “The modern factory job is a mid-tech job”
No it is not.
Anyone could work a factory job. The least intelligent, least motivated people
could punch a clock and earn a decent living tightening the same bolt a
thousand times a day, all day long.
At best, mid-tech jobs are like modern clerking jobs, but even that's pushing
it. The modern factory job is fast-food, and the lack of associated pay and
benefits is a major problem.
Too many people are simply not smart enough to be programmers.
~~~
lsc
>Anyone could work a factory job. The least intelligent, least motivated
people could punch a clock and earn a decent living tightening the same bolt a
thousand times a day, all day long.
I don't have personal experience as a '50s factory worker, but I do have some
experience assembling things and working on cars.
I doubt this description of factory work being completely brainless. If you've
ever tried to watch someone who isn't mechanically inclined assemble anything,
you can see that there is a skill in fitting things together. Even if your job
is to tighten that same bolt every day, you've still gotta figure out how to
properly torque it; too loose and the bolt comes out, too tight and you shear
the goddamn thing off. Use one of those old style torque wrenches and you're
gonna be way slower than the next guy.
~~~
brandonmenc
Low-level factory jobs really aren't that complicated.
You can take a person off the street and have them pressing the "go" button on
an injection molder within minutes.
~~~
iaw
There seems to be a level of arrogance coming across in your descriptions of
"Low-level factory jobs."
Having spent time in both worlds I have to say that your assessment of the
skill and devotion required to work in those positions in inaccurate at best.
Insulting at worst.
~~~
brandonmenc
I have actually worked these jobs.
When I was a teenager I had temp jobs where I was literally bussed into a
plastics factory, given a few minutes of instruction, and put on the shop
floor to press a button on an injection molder.
No "skill" or "devotion" required. Just a warm body.
~~~
iaw
There is a distinction between working a temp position and people that worked
in factories for a career. I'd argue that temp positions will bias away from
skill and devotion by the nature of position undermining your anecdote.
It's like saying you worked as a fry cook at McDonald's for a day so you
understand the in's and out's of all restaurant workers.
~~~
brandonmenc
> It's like saying you worked as a fry cook at McDonald's for a day so you
> understand the in's and out's of all restaurant workers.
Based on a quick search, in the U.S. there's something like 5-6 million
restaurant workers, and nearly 4 million of them are fast food workers, so a
fry cook at McDonald's _can_ say they understand the ins and outs of the
majority of restaurant workers.
Which, is my point.
Most factory jobs are not skilled in the sense that programming is, and the
least-skilled tech job is still more complicated and difficult than the least-
skilled factory job - meaning, tech jobs are _not_ the new factory jobs,
because by definition fewer people are able to work them.
~~~
lsc
>Most factory jobs are not skilled in the sense that programming is, and the
least-skilled tech job is still more complicated and difficult than the least-
skilled factory job - meaning, tech jobs are not the new factory jobs, because
by definition fewer people are able to work them.
Ah. well, my main point was just that I think most of the 'high paying factory
jobs' were jobs that took some skill and experience. You didn't just walk in
and say "I've got hands!" and get a good wage for easy work. I'd guess it'd be
more like working at one of those tech support script farms today, I mean, if
you show up without obvious skills or credentials. "Here, read this script, we
will judge you on how fast you get the customer off the phone, rather than,
you know, actually solving problems."
My own career came up through the really low paying jobs in tech, and I spent
some time in such a tech support farm; the difference in both the number of
people who could do it and what we get paid is vast between level one scripted
tech support and the sort of systems administration/production engineer work
that I do now. Much like how one could work one's way up from a very basic
factory job to something that was comfortable and remunerative.
------
wavefunction
"mid tech" is an interesting descriptor because I'm doing the much the same
work as Silicon Valleyites despite not having a degree. Not having a degree
has cut me off from some opportunities but I can just pursue those in my own
time.
I guess I find as I get older less value in the opinions of folks out in SV as
I read more and more crazy things about the place and the environment out
there. I do appreciate the opportunity for folks who love that environment to
partake of it though.
I also appreciate the functional advances coming out of SV like libraries and
frameworks that I get to use and improve my own work but at the end of the
work day I love getting home to my .25 acre lot with my two dogs glad to see
me and go for a nice walk in a green-belt.
I'm going to be dead some day so why not enjoy what I have.
------
anonytrary
52% of _network architects_ don't have a degree but 95% of app developers do?
This is the exact opposite as I would expect.
~~~
closeparen
A network architect is an experienced technician (the "blue-collar" form of
IT) who graduated from help desk and break/fix to helping out with project
work to getting to design and lead projects. In that world, you may have a
trade-school degree in IT/MIS and/or vendor certifications, but a CS degree
isn't going to help you operate the Windows Server admin panel, configure
Cisco routers, know which model number of HP switch is appropriate for a
situation, or make sure that your underlings get the low-voltage cabling and
patch panels right. It's going to help you write Windows Server and the router
firmware that technicians operate.
Planning, installing, configuring, and integrating off-the-shelf components to
create an IT environment for a business is a totally different world from
software engineering, particularly in the Silicon Valley style.
~~~
anonytrary
Thanks, this is very clear now. I must have been confusing "network architect"
with "software architect".
------
germinalphrase
I have family in the trades (electric & plumbing) - but I would love to hear
from anyone who works in advanced manufacturing, automation, or other
specializations about their career path and field growth/career longevity.
I am considering a career change. I went into k12 education due to the
mission, but I'm burning out on the time/emotional investment in relation to
the compensation.
------
fictionfuture
Silicon Valley is mostly a place for group thinkers with a "get rich quick"
mentality and rich parents. That was my impression after living in Sf working
as a CEO for 5 years.
------
booleandilemma
What is the difference between a computer programmer and a software
application developer?
Aren’t these titles used interchangeably?
~~~
TheCoelacanth
As titles they are often used interchangeably, but the BLS categorizes them
separately based on kind of an old-fashioned idea of how software is
developed. The distinction is that software developers[1] plan out how
software will work and the computer programmers[2] write the code to make it
work.
The idea that these are separate roles is rapidly going out of fashion in the
industry and is already pretty outdated. Only 300k workers are categorized as
computer programmers while 1.3 million are categorized as software developers
and on top of that the number of software developers is projected to grow by
24% over the next decade while the number of computer programmers is projected
to decline by 7%.
[1] [https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-
technology/...](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-
technology/software-developers.htm)
[2] [https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-
technology/...](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-
technology/computer-programmers.htm)
~~~
ams6110
I have always listed my occupation as "Computer Programmer" on my tax return,
though I have a CS degree and do everything from database administration to
network administration to software design and development (including writing
code).
~~~
pmorici
I think you might be missing the point. Think of it this way. Ask yourself, is
there a difference between a software consultant and a software freelancer?
Everything else equal which person do you think gets paid more a consultant or
a freelancer.
------
cylinder
Quartz is quickly becoming a glossy version of a clickbait farm
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Belief in Fake News Is Associated with Delusionality - threatofrain
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211368118301050
======
threatofrain
> Participants were recruited via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) in two
> waves (Study 1: n = 502, Study 2: n = 446; Demographics: SI Section S1).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
In Silicon Valley, many want sharing salary info to be less taboo - negrit
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-leadership/wp/2015/07/21/breaking-the-taboo-of-sharing-salary-info-in-silicon-valley/
======
lemevi
As an engineer in the bay area, I don't really want to share my salary
information. It's very personal. I don't want people to know that I'm making
far less or far more, I just don't even want to think about it. I already have
enough things that cause me social anxiety, I don't really need another. If
I'm happy with my salary, why can't that be good enough? I'm fine with people
being allowed to talk about how much they make, but if I don't want to share
my information, that should be OK too.
I would probably consider not working for a company if they said they made
salaries public. Some people value their privacy to a greater extent I guess.
~~~
diogenescynic
So don't disclose it then. No one is trying to make salary disclosure
mandatory--just more socially acceptable.
~~~
acavailhez
He may have been referencing the choice of Buffer to disclose the salaries of
all employees: [https://open.bufferapp.com/introducing-open-salaries-at-
buff...](https://open.bufferapp.com/introducing-open-salaries-at-buffer-
including-our-transparent-formula-and-all-individual-salaries/)
In that situation, he does not get to choose wether or not his salary is
disclosed
------
icehawk219
The book Predictably Irrational[0] has a good section on how making the
salaries of CEO's of publicly traded companies public information is one of
the things that has helped lead to their salaries spiking so incredibly in
recent years. It's been some time since I read the book but if I remember
correctly the argument is that making them public basically removes any social
embarrassment or taboo around having extravagant salaries. If sharing salary
info becomes more commonplace in other areas I wonder if you'd see the same
thing or the exact opposite.
[0]
[https://www.amazon.com/dp/0061353248](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0061353248)
~~~
skolor
I haven't read that book, but isn't increased negotiating power for CEOs a
more likely explanation than social embarrassment? If I've been chosen as the
lead candidate for a CEO, it's a lot easier to justify a large salary if I can
point at our competitors and say that I should be paid competitively to their
CEOs.
~~~
danieltillett
It is more of a creeping process. Since no boards think their CEO is below
average (if they did they would fire him/her). If their CEO is above average
then the compensation they feel their CEO is due should also be above average.
If everyone starts doing this then the average CEO salary will keep rising and
rising. We end up in a world where all the CEO’s are above average and their
salaries are in the stratosphere.
~~~
dragonwriter
The fact that board members are also themselves either executives in the same
or other firms, or likely to be employed as such in the future, means that
board members also have a self-interest in the trend of rising executive
salaries.
~~~
danieltillett
Well there is this effect as well, but the "above average CEO, above average
pay” is much easier to defend at the annual stockholders meeting.
------
talk_about_pay
I've been open about my salary for years with friends and family and the taboo
is starting to change it seems. When I first started talking about salary in
the early-2000's I met a lot of resistance, but now I've notice friends
dropping how much they make in casual conversation.
For me at least, there is no embarrassment and instead is used to make
decisions about the future. If someone makes more, I ask myself why and how
can I get there? If someone makes significantly less, and they care to know, I
tell them how I got to where I am in hopes of helping them.
Unfortunately, employers trying to squash this has not changed. I remember 15
years ago when I got sat down the first time, by a fortune 100 company, and
told we do not talk about salary. I also remember when the same conversation
happened in a start up just a few months ago. The motivation still hasn't
changed -- keep the worker 'happy' and underpaid whenever possible through
information disparity, intimidation and "right to work" laws.
------
morgante
I really hope this "open salary" trend doesn't continue. It has the effect of
systematically decreasing the standard deviation in developer salaries. Poor
negotiators (and some poor performers), of course, love having access to this
salary information as pointing to a public average is any easy way to ask for
more money without having to put much effort into actually negotiating. Great
negotiators, on the other hand, are getting salaries far above the median for
their positions and the additional information wouldn't help them at all. I
strongly suspect that if salaries were public companies would be far less
willing to give in to great negotiators as a single isolated case could easily
cause cascading demands from other employees.
(Note that salary ranges/averages are irrelevant if you're a great negotiator
except as a story-telling tool. All you should be playing with is your BATNA
and the company's BATNA.)
If you don't think open salaries have a negative effect on top engineer
salaries, look at how little Buffer is paying.[0]
In the status quo, open salaries are a tax on poor negotiators which companies
and good negotiators split. As a pretty good negotiator, I hope we don't go
public.
[0] [https://open.bufferapp.com/introducing-open-salaries-at-
buff...](https://open.bufferapp.com/introducing-open-salaries-at-buffer-
including-our-transparent-formula-and-all-individual-salaries/)
~~~
Chinjut
What is the social value of having negotiation skills be a large determinant
of one's salary? Why not diminish this cause of variance (perhaps relatively
disadvantaging those who currently have anomalously good negotiation skills,
but perhaps benefiting those who have not bothered specifically developing
negotiation skills (or who have erroneously convinced themselves that they
have))?
~~~
morgante
> What is the social value of having negotiation skills be a large determinant
> of one's salary?
Nothing in my comment said there was actually social value in having
negotiation skills.
I'm talking about my personal experience and the drawbacks I see.
Do you think Buffer pays its employees fairly?
~~~
Lazare
Your argument is circular.
You're saying that we shouldn't talk about pay, because when we talk about pay
we get paid like Buffer devs do, which you think is obviously low compared to
other salaries, which we can't actually prove because _we don 't talk about
pay_.
It's a bit like telling someone that you're giving them $100 in a box, but not
to open the box, because if you open it, it'll turn into $20. "You can only
have a high salary if you have no way to verify that it's high." Even if true,
where does that leave us?
~~~
morgante
> which we can't actually prove because we don't talk about pay.
Just because salaries aren't public doesn't mean you can't get any salary
information. Just go on a few interviews, set up an auction, and see what you
can get.
> It's a bit like telling someone that you're giving them $100 in a box, but
> not to open the box, because if you open it, it'll turn into $20.
It's a cute analogy, but the more complete version would include a box market,
where other people with insight into the box market are interested in buying
the box I've been given. In such a scenario, I could shop around my box to see
what it's actually worth without having to open it up.
~~~
Lazare
I dunno, let's try the more complete version:
"There's $100 in this box. You can't open it, or look inside it, but trust me,
it's there. Now you need to go over to my mate George, and give him the box,
and he'll give you $100 for it. But only if you haven't opened it!"
Now it just sounds like you're being recruited as a drug mule. :)
Okay, granted, in your scenario their are multiple box dealers who are willing
to bid on your unopened-but-totally-contains-$100 box. If you work at it, it's
quite possible that you might even get some semblance of a fair offer. But
should you need to work at it? And this still feels like a system which lends
itself to collusion, uncertainty, and unfairness. Nor is that even
hypothetical; we __KNOW __that our industry suffered from a serious wage-
fixing cartel which was only recently busted open.
I feel like any argument against transparency has a high bar to clear.
------
seanconaty
For most companies, the amount of money represented by the difference in
salary of 2 employees is negligible. (Definitely not negligible for the
employees!) It's not even a blip on the cash flow statement. This is
especially true of venture-backed startups whose operating model is going-for-
broke.
What this means is that a person has a price that he or she can command and
it's based less on their work experience/abilities and more on their
experience of getting paid: they get used to a certain standard of living. If
a company wants to hire a person, it will need to meet or beat that standard.
So yeah, the longer a person has been in the workforce, the more they are
probably getting paid. But even this can vary from person to person, depending
on how the person has been managing his or her salary and what companies he or
she has worked at.
"Experience" is a proxy for technical ability and expected standard of living.
Usually a company will decide if it wants to hire a person, first. If yes,
they start to negotiate pay based on a bunch of factors. Really, it's two
parties trying to find each others' comfort zone; there isn't a formula.
Sometimes there is no middle ground and no hire happens. Sometimes, to save
time, recruiters will probe you to find your comfort zone before they even
interview. Most of the time, if a company decides it wants to hire you, it
will do what it can to make that happen. It's the desire to win.
If the candidate is a no-hire, there is no negotiation, he can't say "what if
I work for less!"
Other factors that bear on salary:
* What are the current market conditions? When you were hired? * What is the rate of job churn? * Salary versus equity * Location * Employee demand: well known companies and probably pay less because more people want to work there. * What does your boss make? Can't make more than her * Name recognition on your resume. Did you go to Stanford? Did you work at Google? * Signing bonus?
When I was younger this used to upset me. I guess I got over it as started to
get paid more. But I realize that getting paid a personal and psychological
endeavor, not a simple mathematical formula.
I caveat all this by saying I'm an engineer in SF in 2015: shit's crazy.
------
Mandatum
It's always seemed strange how salary/pay is a "private" thing in American
culture. In NZ, AU and UK it's something that could be brought up at a party
(if talking about work), and no one would think it was rude.
Is this because people feel judged about how much they make in the US? (At
least, more so than other countries?)
------
clamprecht
I just had a realization (seems obvious in hindsight), here's my hypothesis:
The desire to share salary is inversely proportional to the gap between the
top and bottom.
On one extreme, if every engineer were paid exactly the same, there's clearly
no reason to hide salary, since everyone knows it. At the other extreme, where
one engineer is paid $500k/year and another is paid $100k/year where both were
hired on the same date and do the same work, the higher paid one doesn't have
much to gain from publishing salaries. Nor does the company, since they're
getting the same value from both engineers, but saving $400k on the cheaper
engineer.
Reality is somewhere in between these two extremes.
~~~
balls187
> one engineer is paid $500k/year and another is paid $100k/year where both
> were hired on the same date and do the same work, the higher paid one
> doesn't have much to gain from publishing salaries. Nor does the company,
> since they're getting the same value from both engineers, but saving $400k
> on the cheaper engineer.
This makes no sense. The company could fire the enigneer making $500k and hire
2more at $100k, and still save $300k.
I get that you're fitting numbers to the example, but when everything else is
held equally, pay discrepancy is typically 5-10%, based on ones ability to
negotiate.
~~~
plonh
Your huge mistake is in assuming employers have access to a deep pool of
available talent they believe is qualified. Rightly or wrong, employers are
very picky about who they find attractive , and they perceive a shortage.
Hence they pay extra to good negotiatiors.
~~~
balls187
> Hence they pay extra to good negotiatiors.
Yeah, of course companies pay more.
Not 5x to someone who outputs the quality of work and has the same skillset.
------
chollida1
The company I work for makes all salaries and bonuses visible to anyone in the
firm.
Salaries are simple, there are only 3 bands of salaries.
Bonuses are based on the firm's and employee's performance as well as a
multiplier based on how much salary they took. Smaller salary, larger bonus
multiplier and visa versa.
The system works pretty well and I haven't noticed any negative consequences
from having this information internally visible.
Maybe if we get above 100 people at some point this will break down?
Serious question to others... What's the downside of having your fellow team
member's know your salary?
------
pdimitar
Who cares about a "movement"? This reminds me of the hashtags #Together4Her
when somebody shares a tweet about a young woman with cancer, or a woman
attacked by thugs, etc. What _exactly_ will 50k tweets with this hashtag do to
make this woman feel better?
Similarly, what would a "movement" achieve? Would 50k people make a public
announcement of their salaries, risking immediate lay off due to breaking
their promise for silence on the matter when they have signed their labor
contract?
No? Then what is this post even about? Click-bait for more page hits?
Actions > words. If you can't put your wallet where your mouth is, keep the
hell quiet, there's enough noise as it is.
I admire the guy from SumAll, though. Wish more people would do the same as
him -- or join him.
~~~
sakagami0
The "movement" is not the same as one for cancer or attacks, etc. Its a
movement about information where publicity (transparency) is the goal. It
achieves what people want, salary information to be transparent. From there,
people can make their own judgements on how to act given that information. But
without it, they have nothing.
Honestly, I don't see how this is clickbaity at all.
------
the_economist
I haven't put that much thought into people knowing my salary, since it's
private. I went to great lengths to hide the value of the transaction of my
home though. At the time, I was a bit embarrassed about how much I spent and I
didn't want it being public.
~~~
pd1
How did you do that? I though it was (more or less) public information.
~~~
plonh
In most of USA, you can't hide the sale, but you can attach a fictitious name
to it, so people who don't know your address can't just Google your house by
name.
------
reach_kapil
Sharing salary information would give rise to more social inequality, taboo
and bias about type of role, company and growth prospects. It allows HR to
negotiate with you on their terms rather than based on competence. If they
want to make salary sharing info public for all employees, they should also
make it voluntary and pay employees each month for this release of private
info.
------
GauntletWizard
I'm surprised this article didn't mention sites like Glassdoor, which uses
yelp-like reviews and metrics on salary as the lead for it's job search site.
I'm not horribly impressed with Glassdoor - I feel it has some flaws in how it
collects and presents information - but it's a conversation opener, and should
be lauded.
------
BillinghamJ
Is there a non-company-specific place to post salary info? Maybe many of us on
HN could provide data on it. Particularly interested to see salaries outside
the valley, in the UK as well.
~~~
ffumarola
Glassdoor
------
montz1
I created salarytalk.org/h1bdata . Hope that helps some people gain insight as
to where they lie on the salary distribution.
------
andyl
Sharing salaries has become a theme here on HN. I'm curious: Why Now? Who is
pushing these stories, and who benefits from Open Salaries?
~~~
tolmasky
I don't know about recently, but this has _always_ been an obvious way to keep
salaries low. If you restrict the information people have, then of course you
can screw some of them over. Its in corporation's best interest to create
taboos around salary so you feel more ashamed of being ripped off than angry
for being ripped off.
This has already played itself out with price tags. Back when buying things
was a personal negotiation process, it was possible to rip some people off
while you had to work to get a good deal. This of course continues today with
cars. However, its incredibly hard to charge people different prices at a
grocery store when all prices are public. So too it would be very difficult to
underpay someone if salaries were public.
~~~
morgante
The flip side of that is that it's possible for some employees to get very
high salaries which companies wouldn't be willing to offer if all salaries are
public.
~~~
tolmasky
When I worked for a big company, there were people I was absolutely OK with
making a big salary. Some people were just absolute superstars and everyone
knew they were awesome for the team. Of course, I have no idea what they made.
What would actually be harder however is to give underserving people larger
salaries.
This already happens in a fuzzy way now right: most everyone understands that
their boss makes more money. We don't know exactly how much of course, but its
"understood". If we transitioned to a place where people who are doing amazing
work also make more money, I think there'd be no problem at all.
~~~
morgante
The problem is that performance is _much_ fuzzier than salary data. If you're
not working directly with someone and if you don't have a great handle on what
business metrics are, it can be very hard to understand why they're producing
so much more value than you.
This effect can be even more distorted when people start irrationally
factoring in years of experience. If salaries were public, you'd definitely
start to see people who have put in their 10 years gripe about newcomers
earning way more than them (often justifiably).
It also penalizes good negotiators, which might be a socially positive thing
but I certainly wouldn't like it.
~~~
dragonwriter
> It also penalizes good negotiators, which might be a socially positive thing
> but I certainly wouldn't like it.
No, it doesn't penalize good negotiators. It fails to reward them when being a
"good negotiator" isn't relevant to the business metrics for the position they
work in, but the absence of an unearned reward isn't punishment.
And this isn't merely socially positive, but its a positive for the business,
because it increases the incentive for good negotiators to seek positions
where that is relevant to job duties, since it avoids rewarding that skill
where it is not relevant. As such, it increases the alignment between the
incentives provided by compensation with the business interests of the
employing firm.
------
dudul
Using h1b salaries to establish a baseline sounds like the worst possible
idea.
"Let's see how much immigrants with a gun on their head make so I can ask the
same."
~~~
stickydink
Not all H-1B's are treated like that, but regardless, the public data is
inaccurate.
It tells us the amount on the original application, not the amount you're
necessarily getting paid after working there for a while.
I've had my H-1B for several years, and the amount I'm being paid now (I have
never transferred to another company) is more than double the amount listed on
the internet. Same story for the other 2 people in my company (~50-person
startup) currently on a H-1B.
~~~
dudul
Great, let's take 3 cases from the same company and use that to extrapolate
how H1Bs are treated in the US.
I was an H1B too, and I was very well paid, it doesn't change the fact that
the majority of H1Bs are used to underpay foreigners who won't complain by
fear of being let go and sent back home in 24 hours.
~~~
negrit
Sources?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Sergey Brin: Native Apps And Web Apps Will Converge Soon - stanleydrew
http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/19/chrome-os-versus-android/
======
greyman
I understand the Google's vision of OS-agnostic computer experience, but
anyway, I fail to see how will Sergey solve the inherent problem that the
native app programming will usually give the developer more possibilities. I
still prefer the model like one being used by Evernote - the client is native,
and only data is synced on the cloud.
~~~
arethuza
I find using native apps with files in Dropbox works better for me (docs,
Freemind mindmaps) than using web-based equivalents.
Of course, things like Google Docs win if you want to eventually share the
document, but for personal stuff I'll be sticking to Dropbox.
~~~
buddycasino
Maybe thats why Google develops native client:
<http://code.google.com/p/nativeclient/>
Still looks pretty alpha.
------
Angostura
I've just had a flashback to the original JavaOne conference.
~~~
arethuza
It took me quite a long time to remember that I spent that conference doing
booth duty. I seem to remember some rather large gentlemen getting rather
upset with us when we tried to carry our own boxes from our rental car to our
stand....
~~~
dugmartin
Never get between a Teamster and his drayage pay. It's fun paying $1000 to
move stuff 200 feet isn't it?
~~~
arethuza
They really were quite menacing in a professional kind of way - even more so
than corporate lawyers.
------
smiler
I just _don't_ get why everyone is sold on web apps. They are an absolute pain
to develop compared to writing native apps.
I know people talk about deployment and so on, but really, that is easily
solved with auto-updating clients.
I for one wish web apps would go away and we could go back to native clients.
(For LOB anyway which is what I spend a lot of my time on)
~~~
stoney
I agree - I'm not sold on web apps in general, but they do work very well for
certain things (email is the classic example).
Despite the hype, I'm not sure how many people are really sold on them. In
practice I use native apps 99% of the time. When I'm number crunching Excel,
Matlab, Python are all native. When I'm programming (even developing webapps!)
Emacs, Mercurial, etc are all native apps.
Web apps still have a long, long way to go before I will be ready to do my day
to day work in them.
------
Aegean
I dont think they will converge that fast. I definitely don't see myself
writing html and javascript code for a computer program. The web languages
unfortunately are ad-hoc pieces of different technologies shuffled together.
Ad-hoc is generally good, but its done in a disorganized way which is what I
don't like about it. Why bring the same chaos to native?
~~~
jimbokun
"Ad-hoc is generally good, but its done in a disorganized way which is what I
don't like about it."
I think each piece does it's job well, and better than if someone tried to
somehow consolidate multiple web languages into one.
HTTP has proven itself robust and versatile, especially with the wide spread
adoption of REST development strategies. It also allows you free choice of
language to implement on the server. Before the popularity of web development
took off, language choice was largely circumscribed by the environment to
which you wanted to deploy (the current controversy over iPhone OS hearkens
back to those days).
That's true of JavaScript in the browser today, but Javascript has proven
flexible enough to allow for many different ways of programming in the browser
(Cappuccino, jQuery, etc.). And simply by the size of its installed base, it
is inspiring innovations in dynamic language performance that remind me of
what happened with Java and byte-code virtual machines.
HTML and CSS split the job of content form and appearance nicely, and the
speed of HTML5 adoption by competing browsers has been impressive, in my
opinion. I think that the CSS approach of separating styling from the content
is superior in many ways to traditional desktop development.
~~~
andywood
I think the situation with web languages and technologies is vaguely like the
situation with C++ in one particular way: It isn't that they're really good,
it's more that they've been around so long, evolving at glacial pace, and
there is such a huge community compelled to use them, that we've collectively
figured out how to make them passably effective.
If I were designing a web application platform on purpose, major design
criteria might be: 1) data and apps hosted remotely, 2) discoverable
apps/services, 3) hypertext-style linking of resources, 4) ability to fully
exploit client CPU and GPU power for UI, and for compute where appropriate, 5)
consistency with common desktop UI concepts (like drag/drop), 6) flexibility
in languages and developer tools, allowing for compiled, statically checked
languages for those who like them. With the current web, I think we have 1-3,
but not 4-6. (I think I would trade the enforced niceties of HTML/CSS for more
flexibility in the UI.)
------
jcromartie
What I want to see is a platform where native software is accessed in terms of
resources, aliased locally and cached. Why should software need to be
downloaded and installed? Something like apt or ports but on-the-fly and more
fine-grained, for things like controls and graphics.
~~~
arethuza
The only thing that I've seen that tried to split executing application code
between the display server (i.e. the bit you have locally) and the application
process was NeWS:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeWS>
I had great fun programming with this (especially with the Hypercard-like
HyperNeWS environment).
Once you the hang of interactive programming in PostScript it was a lot of
fun.
Of course, you could argue that web browsers are doing this with Javascript -
but that's at a different level of abstraction.
~~~
retube
isn't this what X does?
~~~
arethuza
Not really (at least not unless X has changed a lot since the last time I had
much low level dealings with it) - NeWS allowed the client application to sent
chunks of code to the display server, not just commands to display things. And
not just chunks of any old code, but a full PostScript environment with all
that it implies.
There was also a shell (psh) that allowed you to log in directly to a display
server and interact with display objects. I remember logging into a colleagues
NeWS server process (we had security turned off for some reason) and rotating
one of his windows by 20 degrees just by running a single PostScript command.
------
Mark_Book
Please excuse my ignorance but can someone explain to me what message is being
given to developers? Is it to develop in Java (for Android) or to develop in
HTML/css/Javascript combo?
~~~
jimbokun
Google is not giving a message, they are listening for the message that the
developers are sending to them. That is the reason they gave for having
separate but overlapping development stacks.
------
njharman
Um, Air, Silverlight, Java? A prediction of equal insight, "The sun will rise
tomorrow."
------
Kilimanjaro
Let's use the app:// protocol to deploy native C++ apps over the web with full
access (in a non linkable way, so grannies don't get their computers pwned).
Just drag and drop app://myfunnycat to your toolbar and run it from there.
Just a thought
PS. hmm, let's drop the double slash and the TLD, just the app name will
suffice, and make the DNS understand it.
------
oconnor0
Interesting. Isn't this kind of exactly what Paul Graham's been talking about
for years?
------
wslh
Please don't joke, in some way they will converge, but my quad core is not a
dumb terminal executing javascript.
~~~
vdm
This discussion is more about how the code that runs on your machine gets to
be there, and when it runs, and less about where it runs (client vs server).
The way things are, this requires way too much admin on the part of people who
would rather not have to think about it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
G Suite: intelligent tools designed for teams - akrolsmir
https://googleforwork.blogspot.com/2016/09/intelligent-tools-built-for-teams.html
======
oridecon
Can't I pay to just use a custom domain in a regular Google account? All I
want is to use it for my Gmail. I don't have any use for the "G Suite"
features and I know that some features are not available there, especially
newer ones.
I'm probably leaving for another provider because of this. I'm more and more
concerned about the @gmail.com lock-in. I don't even send any media
attachments (audio, video) or store anything in my Drive since I know of
several people getting banned and not even receiving a justification
(anecdotal, but it's enough to make me nervous about it). I'm not saying that
was the cause, but I can't know for sure, so...
~~~
jakebasile
Whatever you do, do not buy a Google Apps (sorry, G Suite) account for
personal use. I made this mistake years ago and it bites me constantly. You
get locked in to paying per month just so you get access to the things you
bought through it (movies, apps, etc) and for that privilege you get locked
out of many new features like Spaces, Google Now email cards, Fi, the new
Trips app, Google Play Family Sharing.
~~~
Adaptive
I agree fully on the lame way Google rolls out (or fails to roll out) key
features for Google Apps. Even when features do roll out, they are sometimes
incomplete, for example, you can't set up Google Music family accounts with
Google Apps accounts. Dumb. I like Google Music but Spotify is easier for me
to use with my family's various google apps accounts.
However, there is one VERY important difference: data ownership and privacy.
Google Apps for Work (and edu) accounts, which I use for various organizations
as well as even for my own personal, single-user domain, have much better data
ownership and privacy terms:
See:
[https://support.google.com/work/answer/6056650?hl=en](https://support.google.com/work/answer/6056650?hl=en)
Does Google use my organization’s data in Google Apps
services or Cloud Platform for advertising purposes?
No. There are no ads in Google Apps Services or Google Cloud
Platform, and we have no plans to change this in the future.
We do not scan for advertising purposes in Gmail or other
Google Apps services. Google does not collect or use data in
Google Apps services for advertising purposes.
The process is different for our free offerings and the
consumer space. For information on our free consumer
products, be sure to check Google's Privacy and Terms page
for more consumer tools and information relating to consumer
privacy.
~~~
jakebasile
Yeah, Apps accounts have much different privacy terms and this is likely the
reason for some of their exclusions such as Google Now email cards but it
cannot logically explain why other things don't work like Play Music family
plans.
Still, if I had the choice I'd opt in to the standard privacy policy in an
instant. I understand some people's concerns about Google information
gathering but it's not a concern of mine. I just want things to work.
~~~
dragonwriter
Google play family plans don't work because Apps is expressly designed for
non-family organizations. Ideally, they would have organizational plans, but
the parameters for that are different.
Features that aren't relevant to the intended target market may be useful to
people making atypical uses, but it's quite likely not commercially sensible
to bother with them, and building a robust separate G Suite for Personal
Domains offering that takes the right mix of features of the existing consumer
and organizational offerings may itself not serve enough of a market to be
worth the effort.
------
0xCMP
This change doesn't make "sense." They literally didn't explain at all how
this would improve or change anything, but they spent the time to rename it,
draw some cute gifs, and make a completely marketing fluff video about the
future of work.
You know what company sounds like mostly marketing fluff? Hint: It's the one
"no one ever got fired for buying [from]."
------
currywurst
G Suite .. really odd name. Then again, naming things is a hard computer
science problem ;)
~~~
inopinatus
In my household, we are flabbergasted that Google's marketing team missed the
unfortunate associations of this new name.
~~~
kristianp
Can I have a clue? I don't see it.
~~~
inopinatus
Sweet spot.
------
tnorthcutt
This appears to be a rebrand of Google Apps;
[https://apps.google.com](https://apps.google.com) now redirects to
[https://gsuite.google.com](https://gsuite.google.com)
------
nightski
A new name! That is exactly what google apps was missing. Now I'll be so much
more productive yay. It's too bad I switched to Fastmail though.
------
planetjones
I have to take issue with the opening paragraph. It says that research shows
we spend 3 out of 5 days working on stuff we weren't hired to do. But then it
says attending meetings falls under that definition as does gathering
information. A lot of people need to meet to gather information. Of course
that's part of their jobs. While machine learning can, I am sure, help a lot
the fallacy the opening paragraph starts with makes me lose faith in the whole
article. They also don't cross reference this 'research'.
~~~
douche
Improved communication and information sharing does sharply reduce the
necessity of synchronous everybody-in-a-room or on-a-conference-call meetings.
There are more effective ways to do this stuff if we would just embrace them.
------
riffic
"G Sweet" ? I'm going to feel like such a dick saying that with a serious look
on my face.
~~~
toxik
Then there's the fact that suite is very commonly mistaken for suit by non-
native English speakers like myself. Maybe that's a better name, though. G
Suit.
------
freewizard
So Hangout is pivoting to a business tool in G Suite? While Allo/Duo are
created for consumer market?
Interesting if so, it's exactly the opposite to most other companies: create a
consumer product, reuse brand and/or code for biz product.
~~~
s3r3nity
Well my hypothesis would be that Microsoft and Box tends to work the other way
around as well (biz product -> consumer)...though then again a generality like
that for companies of massive size is tough statement to make.
------
aikah
"G Suite: intelligent tools designed for teams" : corporate gibberish.
~~~
reagan83
The new use of the word "intelligent" to describe their tools makes me wonder
if the previous tools lacked that very ingredient.
Or, as you aptly mentioned, these are wasteful words.
------
awad
In theory, the new functionality is cool and will help people be more
productive. As a reasonably happy work customer, I'm quite excited to try
these out. But I am not sure why they decided to rename it...again. Does no
one at Google understand branding?
------
cornchips
Formerly: Google Apps for Your Domain, Google Apps, Google Apps for Business,
and Google Apps for Work...
A turd by any other name is still a turd.
This name is definitely poor; people will have trouble with "suite", short of
english/french speaking countries, and even in english speaking countries,
considering suite and sweet are homophones and the fairly low usage of suite.
Can anyone at google explain why the brand changes every couple years? New
leadership?
~~~
godzillabrennus
Must be new leadership or maybe too many marketing people getting a voice in
product.
I owned a company that was a Google reseller for a couple of years and when
pitching it I would just call it gmail for your company. Brainstorm all the
fancy names you want but people understand what you are talking about when you
call it gmail.
Microsoft even with all its flaws has never bothered to claim that a calendar
is a standalone app. Actually, considering how badly they merged Sunrise into
Outlook maybe they should...
~~~
bigtones
You're right - it's new leadership. Diane Greene.
------
puzzle
There's, uh, prior art for the name:
[https://www.instagram.com/p/5dDY0YtgEP/](https://www.instagram.com/p/5dDY0YtgEP/)
~~~
eitally
That's, uh, also a Google thing. But yes, that did cause significant googler
confusion this morning.
------
tominous
I can see why they might want to rebrand, given that (a) the word "app" has
taken on a specific meaning in the mobile space and (b) Google as a whole is
now branded with a stylised "G".
EDIT: It's hard for this product to have its own stable brand identity. All it
does is add a feature to the existing Google products: the ability to use a
custom domain, with some useful tools to manage that namespace.
Maybe the word Domain should be emphasised: "G Domain Suite" (or Domain
Pack/Extensions/Link). Sounds better than just G Suite anyway.
------
fooey
I really miss getting custom domains on Google Apps for free.
I've never found a good way to do email for cheapskates since then.
~~~
hackernews2000
This "announcement" is full of buzzwords and useless marketing mumbo jumbo,
but doesn't say if free accounts created years ago will remain free. Can
anybody please confirm?
~~~
hackernews2000
Thankfully: "Google Apps Free Edition (legacy) remains the same"
[https://support.google.com/a/answer/7126147](https://support.google.com/a/answer/7126147)
------
akurilin
Official google drive client for Linux? :*(
~~~
jakebasile
Probably never going to happen.
[https://abevoelker.github.io/how-long-since-google-said-a-
go...](https://abevoelker.github.io/how-long-since-google-said-a-google-drive-
linux-client-is-coming/)
~~~
akurilin
Bummer. We'd consider moving off of Dropbox and have everything in one place
if we could support all of our Linux machines. Right now we have to have our
files in Dropbox and our documents in Google Drive.
~~~
OliPicard
Have you considered using Insync instead? I use it on an Ubuntu instance and
it works like a charm with Google Drive.
------
rwc
Interesting use of pronouns here... "adding her to the team" but "removing him
from the team". Why not be consistent?
"Drives help streamline teamwork from end-to-end, from onboarding a new team
member (add her to the team and she instantly has access to all of the work in
one place) to offboarding a departing team member (remove him from the team
and all of his work stays right in place), and everything in-between."
~~~
douche
I don't get the aversion to non-gendered pronouns. Them's and they's are A-OK.
~~~
s3r3nity
I think it's not grammatically accurate to use "them" and "they" for a
singular subject; if it's one person or thing, the pronoun should be he/she/it
or some combination. For press releases, the safe option is to be
grammatically correct than colloquially acceptable.
Nevertheless it could be one of those things that is in flux as part of the
evolution of the English language.
~~~
optimuspaul
I don't think it's a grammar thing at all it's a definition of the words
thing, which guess what, it's covered already!
they
pronoun 1\. used to refer to two or more people or things previously mentioned
or easily identified. "the two men could get life sentences if they are
convicted" informal a group of people in authority regarded collectively.
"they cut my water off"
2\. used to refer to a person of unspecified sex. "ask someone if they could
help"
------
HugoDaniel
Why not G Spot ? :)
~~~
anotherevan
That's what they're renaming Google Maps to.
[https://twitter.com/HackerNewsOnion/status/78161631937652736...](https://twitter.com/HackerNewsOnion/status/781616319376527364)
------
dennisgorelik
That G-naming reminded me "G-spot".
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
E-Books and Pricing -- is $99.99 Okay? - swombat
http://www.whattofix.com/blog/archives/2011/04/e-book-question.php
======
Derbasti
Honestly, I would not ever pay $100 on an ebook.
If a hardcover book costs $100, it is most likely some high-quality scientific
book that was never printed in great volume. I would pay that price because
there was no alternative and MANY people recommended it to me.
For ebooks however, there is no such thing as low-volume hardcover prints.
Unless you write the very best book on this whole planet, I would not be able
to justify shelling out $100 for an ebook.
$100 is the price you pay for Microsoft Office or Microsoft Windows, because
there is no alternative and it took hundreds of people several years to build
it. $100 is the price you pay for two brand-new blockbuster video games that
both took hundreds of people dozens of months to make. $100 is not the price
to pay for what one writer has done in a year or so. At least not to me, I'm
sorry.
~~~
mfieldhouse
How about if it was an ebook that had information on how a business can save
$3000 a year in a certain area. Is that ebook okay to be priced at $2000?
Books shouldn't just be valued based on how much they cost to produce, but of
the value of information inside and how much that information is worth to the
target audience.
~~~
koichi
I'm glad books aren't priced like that - I would not be able to afford half
the books I read :(
I think there's also a lot to be said in regards to how much value a reader
has, too. As in, if there are more readers, will it make me, the author, more
"rich" in other ways too (popularity, Twitter followers, etc.) so that when
the next ebook comes along I already have thousands of people interested in
buying my book that didn't exist before. A low price tag increases readers,
which I think have huge individual values in themselves.
Now, if the book is extremely niche ... almost ridiculously so ... then a
$3000 book probably would be okay, but in general I think this isn't going to
happen too often.
------
relix
Ebook marketing:
1) claim an outrageous selling price
2) receive a ton of exposure because of the outrageous price
3) on publish date, take back price to 1/3 of the original price "special
deal"
4) the mindshare was set at $99 so when potential leads now compare it to the
special $29 price, the new price feels like great value
Basically, he was able to turn an outrageous price into marketing, and is now
able to sell his book for a normal price in higher quantities because people
will compare the normal price to the higher original price (and this effect is
multiplied since he blogged about it like this, unlike regular "BUT WAIT,
order now and get 30% off!" promotions). That, and the extra exposure can't
hurt either.
~~~
dablya
He should have also had 2 confused looking developers sharing a keyboard with
a stack of "those other" agile books. Then, magically, they find this book,
and all of a sudden, they're just pair programming away :)
------
ChuckMcM
A interesting conundrum. His book is 'worth' nearly $0 if he's an unpublished
author. His strategy is weak because he's trying to hit a home run at his
first at bat while learning the game. His understanding of the economics
involved is very weak because not only does he not know how to price his book
he states "You have to have a good editor and some good, knowledgeable friends
who are willing to severely criticize your work." So he doesn't recognize (or
perhaps he does but hasn't internalized it) the value that is brought to the
book by the editor (who quite reasonably might want a cut, just like the back
up band gets paid if they help you do an album :-)
I suspect he may end up bitter and disillusioned if he is not careful.
A 'healthy' way to work this would be to write the equivalent of articles on
the areas that he is a subject matter expert in, that are short 1500 - 2500
words. Something that can help him develop his writing voice and let him seek
out and evaluate the effectiveness of various authors. Self publish these for
free or a modest sum (like $0.99). The goal of this stage is to build up an
understanding of what it will take to actually write your books.
Next once he has some experience and a good set of tools take take the top 10
articles he self published and organize them with a greater structure and
updated to the current standards as a 'composition' book. This, if he has any
audience at all, he can sell for $3 - $5. Surprisingly to some, but people
will buy his articles again when they are put into this format. (magazines do
this all the time they sell 'best of' books from magazine articles). He will
also pick up new readers by word of mouth with other folks.
Not guaranteed of course, he may find that his writing is not well received.
But the whole "I'm writing my first {e-}book, I wonder what I should charge
for it?" question is backwards, the real question is "What is a book I write
worth to the public?"
------
ghshephard
The key to pricing: "Know your Market"
The cost of producing the object (Fixed, or marginal) being sold isn't
particularly relevant to what you should price it at.
For example, check out this dandy PDF Report: "The Networked EV: The
Convergence of Smart Grids and Electric Vehicles" [1]
Single License: $2995
Price to maximize long term profit. In some cases, you may want to build your
readership by reducing the profit on the current sale - but, for a solid agile
development book, presuming it is solid, $99 is a "friction free" price for
most agile managers - they won't hesitate to buy it if it's a best of breed.
Those that would hesitate at $99 would probably think twice at $50 as well, so
there isn't a heck of a lot of incentive to drop your price down that far. If
anything, would have probably suggested something like $129, but $99 probably
gets the job done.
Anything below $50 is silly, because at a certain point, your audience starts
to think you're offering a lower quality product, and you start to _lose_
readership.
[1] [http://www.gtmresearch.com/report/the-networked-ev-smart-
gri...](http://www.gtmresearch.com/report/the-networked-ev-smart-grid)
~~~
mfieldhouse
Exactly. There becomes a point with pricing where it's just as hard, if not
harder to sell a cheaper product that it is a more expensive one.
Plus, a higher value product already has a perception of high end quality just
because of the price.
------
koichi
$100 is way too high, I think. Two sides of the coin:
-
Sell it for $100:
1) X number of people will buy it, but it probably won't be that many.
-
Sell it for $0.99:
1) Many people will buy it
2) Many people will know your name & become interested in your work and future
work
3) You'll gather a much bigger following, transfer this to Twitter, Facebook,
etc.
4) When your next ebook comes out, all the people who liked this one will buy
the next one in addition to new people, meaning second e-book sales will be
much higher (if this one is successful)
5) Lots of sales = possibility of speaking engagements, further validating you
in your field.
6) You might make less money (I'm guessing you'd make more this way), but you
make so much more in other benefits.
The benefits for not selling at $99 just seem too high to me. I'd rather have
10,000 people read my book at $0.99 than 100 people read my book at $99. I'd
even rather 5,000 people read it at $0.99 (making half the money), because
that means you have 5,000 more people interested in what you do for your next
ebook.
Good luck!
------
davidw
Maybe it's worth that, but it's also likely that there are N other books
promising agile goodness for much less.
That said, you can always drop the price later, at the risk of pissing off a
few people who already bought it.
I'm interested to see how it goes, I think the ebook space is fascinating (and
at this point have something of a vested interest myself:
<http://www.liberwriter.com> ).
------
dablya
"2) If you pay that much you're more likely to pay attention to what I say"
I have a treadmill and a gym membership that beg to differ.
"3) Each sale is more of a significant event for both the author and the
reader, ie, if you don't like it you're more likely to complain, which is a
good thing"
I don't get it... I should pay more to ensure that I complain if it's bad?
------
mtinkerhess
If you overprice your product, you can always lower it later and it will seem
like a bargain. It's much harder to go the other direction.
~~~
w1ntermute
I don't know why more people don't consider this option. It's an excellent
method of price discrimination (and quite widely used by traditional
retailers).
------
Dove
Asking "what's an ebook cost" is too wide a scope. It's like asking "what's a
physical item cost?" It's unsurprising to find a large range. When you narrow
the search, you find established values. Digitized classics go for $0.99.
Novels are about $9. Textbooks are similar to their dead-tree counterparts, at
$60+. Serious reference works can be thousands.
Run of the mill technical books clock in in the $20 to $40 range. I'd aim for
that, and go high or low within there. And as a new author covering a widely-
known process like agile, (opposed to the landmark work on a popular
language), low would probably be best.
How much the book saves a business is immaterial. If it's a truly academic,
novel work, you might justify a premium. As it is, you're hardly the only
person writing about agile.
------
naqabas
You're asking this question to a bunch of developers - whom many I'm guessing
are all about open source... I'm expecting standard response to be NO.
Sometimes it is more about the recognition of your name which may lead to
better and bigger things.
------
nvictor
no it is not.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Time travel for only $5k - cmos
http://octopart.com/info/Octopart/OCPT-10003
======
sachinag
I'm glad that there's a quantity discount.
Just wish I didn't have to fill out an RFQ form when there's a listed price. I
should be able to just check out with my credit card.
------
pavel_lishin
Well, you'll still need a Delorean.
(Or a train, but I'm betting the Delorean would be cheaper.)
------
edw519
I already bought it next year.
~~~
mickt
Can you sell me a copy last year?
------
skawaii
Psh. They do this for a lot less in Napoleon Dynamite....
------
jimfl
1.21 gigawatts? 1.21 gigawatts? Great Scott!
------
sho
I guess that's the same model this guy used?
[http://s2.buzzfeed.com/static/imagebuzz/web02/2009/7/8/16/tw...](http://s2.buzzfeed.com/static/imagebuzz/web02/2009/7/8/16/twitter-
time-travel-1390-1247083589-11.jpg)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Songza for Video Launches Publicly - greg387
http://5by.com
======
davecap1
I'm the lead developer on this project. We're looking backend & frontend
developers!
We use AngularJS on the frontend and Django in the backend. There's some Flask
and Node.js mixed in too.
email me at dcaplan at 5by.com
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Tech giants unite against Google - Derrek
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8200624.stm
======
pkjones3399
Openness is goodness
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
36,000 Missing Deaths: Tracking the True Toll of the Coronavirus Crisis - phreeza
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/21/world/coronavirus-missing-deaths.html
======
DLA
Excellent data charts in this article. Really well done.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Analyse Asia 79: Hadoop, Cloudera and Big Data with Doug Cutting - bleongcw
http://analyse.asia/2015/12/05/episode-79-hadoop-cloudera-open-source-with-doug-cutting/
======
bleongcw
Episode Synopsis: With Doug Cutting, the chief architect of Cloudera and the
co-founder of Apache Hadoop, we discussed his journey from a software engineer
to a contributor and creator of several open source software which are widely
used today. We also deep dived into Cloudera and Hadoop, and discussed various
topics from talent shortage to how Hadoop has been adopted across various
industries, most notably, in the finance and banking industry. Along the
conversation, Doug shared his perspectives on open source software and advice
to aspiring coders in building and maintaining their own software. Finally, we
discussed the trend of big data and its implications to security and privacy
and how Hadoop will evolve in the near future.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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1912 Eighth Grade Examination for Bullitt County Schools - xvirk
http://www.bullittcountyhistory.com/bchistory/schoolexam1912.html
======
ghshephard
[http://www.snopes.com/language/document/1895exam.asp](http://www.snopes.com/language/document/1895exam.asp)
is relevant. Anything that is memorization based (which a lot of that test
is), that you haven't studied recently will be difficult.
I can recall, in the 7th grade, struggling for a couple nights to be able to
identify all of the european and Mediterranean countries for an exam. It took
a couple hard nights of cramming, but by the time the exam came along, it was
a walk in the park.
But ask me today to place Slovenia, Bulgaria, and Albania on a map - and I'd
be at a loss.
~~~
talmand
Same here. In the fourth grade I had a test to identify all 50 states and
their capitols on the US map. Studied hard for it and I was one of two
students that got all 100 correct. Today I could probably identify almost all
the states but no way on the capitols.
~~~
function_seven
> Today I could probably identify almost all the states ...
I just tried this myself and (barely) got them all right. Had to guess between
NH and VT, and was somewhat shaky around AK, MS, and AL.
~~~
jameshart
You should probably redo the abbreviations test, though. Arkansas is AR -
unless you're really getting confused between Alaska, Mississippi and
Alabama....
~~~
function_seven
Ha, I noticed that on my map after I posted. My other mess ups:
CN -> CT, PE -> PA, IW -> IA, MO -> MT (and I even had "MO" on Missouri)
------
IgorPartola
I don't know if I have a disadvantage or an advantage when it comes to
learning. I can never memorize a mass of stuff. Instead, I have to find a
pattern in it and use the pattern to reconstruct it. For example, I could
never remember random formulas for e.g. solving the quadratic equation or
taking a derivative, but once I figured out how they worked, I could use them
right away. This is why I decided to study physics in college: physics has
very few pieces of info you have to just memorize.
The downside, besides having a horrible time remembering some chemical
formula, or the year of the French revolution, is that I also cannot use a
formula correctly unless I know how it is derived. I must walk every step of
the proof before I can use any part of the formula, otherwise my brain simply
refuses to see it correctly.
Interestingly enough, I am blessed with very good memory for situations and
associations. I can tell you exactly how many olives were in the martini I
ordered in July 2008 (3), or quote lines from my favorite shows at every
occasion. I just can't remember what my brain seems classify as "generally
useless facts".
------
engi_nerd
For reference -- this is Bullitt County, Kentucky. It is just south of
Louisville, and is now a part of the greater Louisville metropolitan area. At
this point in the county's history, it had a population of approximately
10,000 people. The Louisville & Nashville railroad passed through the county
and had several stops, plus some fairly good quality roads linked the county
with Louisville and other towns in the region, so the area was rural, but not
particularly isolated. Its school district was well established but generally
stopped at the 8th grade. The school system was a collection of various small
schoolhouses located around the county. In short, it was probably
representative of most of rural America in the early 20th century.
As a graduate of the public schools in that county, I can't say that I
received the same rigorous education that the test here indicates was once the
standard. It's very strange to me to see this pop up now and then on the
internet as an example of "look at the standards we once held our children
to".
~~~
talmand
I would say it's possible that they did not receive a more rigorous education
since we may not know what they were educated on beyond these questions. What
if the students of the era were specifically prepared to answer these
questions for this test much like how US children are educated today? A good
portion of my children's education is tied solely to passing standardized
tests. Sometimes to the detriment of a more balanced education.
~~~
engi_nerd
It's clear from this test that the curriculum was defined and a body of
knowledge was expected to be mastered. That's what I mean by rigor. My
experiences in that same school system starting some 77 years later did not
reflect a similar rigor (and was not complete in your sense, either).
------
bcg1
This has been a problem for a long time... for many decades education has
focused only on rote memorization, to the detriment of all.
"We believe that in the passage of time the neglect of these books in the
twentieth century will be regarded as an aberration, and not, as it is
sometimes called today, a sign of progress. We think that progress, and
progress in education in particular, depends on the incorporation of the ideas
and images included in this set in the daily lives of all of us, from
childhood through old age. In this view the disappearance of great books from
education and from the reading of adults constitutes a calamity. In this view
education in the West has been steadily deteriorating; the rising generation
has been deprived of its birthright; the mess of pottage it has received in
exchange has not been nutritious; adults have come to lead lives comparatively
rich in material comforts and very poor in moral, intellectual, and spiritual
tone."
\-- Preface to "Great Books of the Western World", "The Great Conversation
Vol. 1" (1951)
[http://archive.org/stream/greatconversatio030336mbp/greatcon...](http://archive.org/stream/greatconversatio030336mbp/greatconversatio030336mbp_djvu.txt)
~~~
pzxc
On the other hand, the argument can be made that if we all rely on the
supercomputers in our pockets to give us the historical facts we never
bothered to memorize, then all the critical thinking in the world might not
save us from being doomed to repeat the history we never bothered to learn.
\-- Me
(I take this stance because just the other day I watched an old Simpsons
episode where Martin was made fun of by the substitute teacher for "bothering"
to learn the historical significance of the Monroe Doctrine, and I was ashamed
that any teacher, fictional or not, would behave in such a way)
Say all you want about the overuse of memorization in public education: I bet
those 8th graders that could pass this test without looking half the answers
up on Wikipedia had a more well-rounded education than most of us today.
And the attitude that, "Well why bother to learn history when I have
wikipedia?" is the same attitude that causes people to become totally useless
when their computer goes down and is no longer telling them what to do. I've
had cashiers that literally _could not make change_ when they didn't have a
computer in front of them to do the subtraction.
~~~
ovulator
Bothering to learn the historical significance of the monroe doctrine is a lot
different than having to memorize what year the doctrine was issued.
It is similar to learning the why of multiplication rather than memorizing
multiplication tables. If who know the why, you have a foundation laid for
higher math. If you just memorize the results you lack the foundation. You
sure can spit out results fast, but a computer can spit them out faster.
Same with dates and names for historical events. If you know what year the
doctrine was issued, and who wrote it, there isn’t much knowledge that can be
built on that. But if you understand the significance, but have no idea what
year it was written or who wrote it, you can apply that knowledge to other
situations.
~~~
SiVal
Really? Then in what ways might the Mexican slaughter of Texans at the Alamo
and US plans for retribution have helped shape the Monroe Doctrine's policy
that the European countries should not interfere in the affairs of countries
in the Americas?
Answer without knowing any dates.
And as far as "knowing the why" of multiplication being sufficient to lay the
foundation of higher math, just try to solve a system of three simultaneous
equations or find a volume with double integration on a classroom test, each
problem requiring that a couple of dozen little algebraic operations be done
correctly or the problem gets all messed up, when you really never learned
what 7x5 or 8x(-3) are, but you fully understand what these operations _mean_.
You'll pick a humanities major when you get to college and heave a great sigh
of relief when you take your last "higher math" class.
~~~
RogerL
Google will give me the dates in 5 seconds, and then I can reason about it.
I doubt you know (remember) the date of everything that happened in history. I
do not doubt that you can reason about, understand, and learn from history.
No one is arguing for no memorization, ever. We are arguing against rote
memorization and for learning how to think and reason. It is not a dichotomy,
it's a continuum. Of course _any_ example that someone comes up with by way of
illustrating their position is going to have a quibble or counter. But that is
kind of missing the forest for the trees, IMO.
To expand that line of thought. We have new tools now, like google, and an
ever increasing body of facts. It was perhaps reasonable to 'memorize the
world' in 1912; there is no chance of it today. A few dozen European, white
dead authors to read, handfuls of major population centers, tons of jobs
related to shipping corn and such (thank you ships and trains!), and so
memorizing the almanac and learning percentages made a lot of sense (perhaps,
I'll stipulate it). Now, to have an effective mind you have to be able to find
and assimilate data from several sources quickly, and find the meaning behind
the facts. I don't know the answer to your Monroe Doctrine question, but I
have no doubt that I could get you the answer quickly, and write an "A",
graduate level paper in a few days should I choose. That's what I need to
succeed in this world, not know the stupid date of some treaty.
~~~
SiVal
If you don't already "know the stupid date of some treaty" without looking it
up with Google, you can't know its context with any depth, so you don't
understand the issue well enough for your opinions about it to be of any value
"5 seconds" later.
------
madengr
For 7th grade British History we had to know all the rulers, in order, from
Charlemagne (or was it Charles Martel aka Charles the Hammer) to present day
(1980s). Obviously I didn't learn it.
Funny now, I learned more after watching The Tudors, Wolf Hall, and The White
Queen, than I did it that awful class. Wasn't all bad though. We got to make
our own Medieval weapons (I made a Morning Star) and had a tour book of the
London Dungeon (pretty gruesome) hanging on the classroom wall; won't find
that these days.
~~~
jameshart
Weird. Charlemagne was ruler of a lot of places, but Britain wasn't one of
them...
~~~
madengr
Yeah, he was Normandy IIRC, but I assume many descended from him, but as I
said, I hated that class.
------
Avshalom
Um, other than the grammar portion this seems pretty much what 8th graders
were expected to know in 1999 when I was in Washington?
------
smackfu
Funny that the Truant Officer's name is on the bottom along with the board of
education.
------
talmand
So, do I get extra points for pointing out typos?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
ASK HN: Why json strings only accepts double quotation mark(")? - gagan2020
Today, I am parsing a document, which I coincidentally wrote as {'status':'ok'}. I spent lot of time checking browser requests and setting proper header and content-type to application/json.<p>Then, I remembered that somewhere I read that it accepts only double quotation mark. so I changed that to {"status":"ok"} and it worked like charm. Later I confirmed that from json.org also.<p>So, my question why only one quotation mark (i.e. " ) was supported by json? what were historical reasons for that.
======
kaolinite
Traditionally single quotes are used to represent a single character and
double quotes represent strings, so that's presumably where it came from. As
for why, I'm unsure. One of the great things about JSON is that its syntax is
very close to the syntax that many languages use for representing arrays and
the like, so perhaps it was to stay in keeping with languages like C where
strings cannot use single quotes. That's just a guess though and I personally
don't think it's a good enough reason - I'm always caught out by single quotes
in JSON.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Godoc.org will be closed owing to legal reason - acomagu
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/golang-dev/mfiPCtJ1BGU/qtCrqlrEEwAJ
======
acomagu
Quote:
_# Why does pkg.go.dev require a detected license to show docs? Why doesn 't
godoc.org?_
_The teams working on the proxy and on pkg.go.dev have spent a lot of time
talking to Google 's lawyers about what we can and can't do with Go source
code downloaded from the internet. The rule we've been given to follow is that
serving a pretty HTML version of the docs is displaying a modified version of
the original, and we can only do that if there's a recognized known-good
license that gives us that permission._
_When we adopted godoc.org from Gary Burd back in 2014, it did not occur to
any of us to put it through that kind of review. If we had, maybe the
community would have gone through this licensing pain earlier. For now we are
focusing on making changes to pkg.go.dev rather than correcting past mistakes
on godoc.org._
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Uber loses ground in US as rival Lyft accelerates - gleglegle
https://www.ft.com/content/b4fb76a6-52dd-11e7-bfb8-997009366969
======
sergers
The company I work for, only has Lyft as approved service for travel and
expenses.
Everyone used Uber mostly, and then they announced Lyft is the only approved
one. Not sure why that decision was specifically made when majority were
expensing Uber trips
~~~
hammock
Finance (or maybe HR if it's an after-hours perk or something) gets
incentives/kickbacks? Can anyone that works in this area confirm?
~~~
lstyls
That's called commercial bribery and it's against the law in most states,
including California. Enforcement is pretty slack in the US (surprise
surprise) but given that it involves employees making personal profit at the
expense of employers companies generally would not tolerate this sort of
behavior.
~~~
lotsofpulp
Do airline miles, hotel points, and car rental loyalty rewards count, and
credit card rewards count?
Whoever is earning the rewards can earn quite a bit by choosing a higher
priced options since it earns them more.
------
myth_buster
If you could see only one chart then I would say this is the one [0]. I was
under the impression that Lyft & Uber were on quite even footing.
> The reports of Uber's impending death are greatly exaggerated. - Mark Twain
[0]
[https://archive.fo/Q0gkJ/595ad70474d05aa1f7b15600fe5ccec2f25...](https://archive.fo/Q0gkJ/595ad70474d05aa1f7b15600fe5ccec2f257e9b6.png)
~~~
SilasX
But that's just the aggregate US figure, right? Individual cities, especially
"bellwether" ones, might show Lyft past the tipping point.
~~~
twelve40
No, it's not past the tipping point, the article shows graphs with 60-80% for
NY, SF and Boston.
~~~
BoiledCabbage
It's interesting, while I don't live in one of those cities, I've been meaning
to drop Uber over all of their apparent complete lack of ethics. I hadn't done
so yet, but this article has reminded me of it and I'm installing Lyft now.
As much as we hate to think it, both awareness and social proof in decision
making matter. And while I wouldn't have admitted it, part of it was thinking
in the back of my head that quitting wouldn't make a difference. Seeing the
graph showing the real impact of the #quituber campaign was both surprising
and to be perfectly honest a bit motivating to me to keep to my word to use
Lyft. Maybe not a full quit, but at least a 50/50.
------
bspn
I don't know if it's because I've been under a rock, but I noticed Uber
advertising on TV for the first time this weekend with a "everyone needs a
side-hustle" tagline. I noticed it because it's always a little jarring when
SV technology companies turn to traditional media advertising (I still
remember the Google SB ad), but I took it as a sign that Uber's organic driver
growth has taken a real hit recently and they're now having to actively work
to attract drivers.
~~~
ribosometronome
Uber has been doing a bunch of product placement before this. They've had some
relatively forced mentions on shows like SNL.
------
ars
I know plenty of people who say "I'm getting an Uber", while using the Lyft
app.
So Uber has definitely won in that department - all they have to do is not
screw it up (any worse than they already did).
People will forget, and over time that name recognition will give them back
the market share.
~~~
crisdux
There are plenty of examples of trademarks that became generic terms for
product or services where the initial trademark owner did not dominate in that
market very long. Heck I could argue a genericized trademark may be a bad
thing and signify the lack of uniqueness in the service Uber provides if all
other competitors are described using the same term.
~~~
largehotcoffee
>There are plenty of examples
Name five?
~~~
lpolovets
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_generic_and_genericize...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_generic_and_genericized_trademarks)
Aspirin, cellophane, kleenex, thermos, band-aid, crock pot, jacuzzi,
photoshop, etc.
~~~
georgyo
Shocking to me is that Tylenol is missing from that page. You hardly ever hear
it called acetaminophen, even in hospitals.
Edit: Even the main Tylenol page links is ambiguous:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tylenol](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tylenol)
It's a wiki, so I'll guess I'll add it.
~~~
keithnz
I think it's just a US thing, we (NZ) refer to it as paracetamol or the
equivalent brand name "Panadol", the others are more globally used.
~~~
SOLAR_FIELDS
I wish it was more clear. There are three main widely available OTC
medications that broadly cover main categories such as pain reliever, fever
reducer, etc:
Ibuprofen (known colloquially more commonly as Motrin or Advil in the US)
Acetaminophen (also known by chemical name paracetemol outside of the US and
brand name Tylenol in US)
Acetylsalicylic acid (also known as Aspirin, was previously a trademark but
now a generic name)
I always try to avoid using the brand names in favor of the actual chemical
names to dodge ambiguity and confusion (there are other brand names for
acetaminophen, acetylsalicylic acid, and ibuprofen over the ones I have listed
even in the US), but even then in the case of acetaminophen it cannot be
avoided. Further compounding (pun intended?) difficulty is trying to pronounce
acetylsalicylic acid to the layman instead of just saying "Aspirin". In the US
at least, you can get away with saying ibuprofen vs "Motrin" and acetaminophen
vs "Tylenol", but the Aspirin problem is a bit more of a difficult hurdle to
overcome in terms of layman's communication.
Slightly tangentially, when referring to airports I even have the same
problem. I always try to go by IATA airport code, but those apparently have
ambiguities as well: AUS is the IATA airport code for Austin-Bergstrom, but in
ICAO terms it's actually known as KAUS, presumably to avoid conflict with
other airports outside the US who might also answer to the callsign "AUS"
------
laretluval
I'm looking forward to the tell-all about Lyft's PR black ops against Uber.
~~~
RSZC
I've got a buddy who works for (possibly one of multiple?) Lyft's PR firm, and
has worked on that account.
You don't need any sort of 'black ops' when your competitor is busy generating
their own bad headlines. Instead you just call up your journalist connections
every time Uber does something stupid to make sure they saw it.
~~~
sillysaurus3
I don't know. It's very convenient that Lyft is seen as the do-no-wrong Uber
alternative.
Once the dust settles, it will be interesting to see whether Lyft is as
innocent as everyone presumes.
~~~
woodandsteel
Given how Uber operates, if Lyft is doing anything wrong, I would expect Uber
would already be publicizing it, and indeed be trying to make it look a good
deal worse than it really is.
------
dannylandau
Based on the chart below, Uber still owns 80% of the market. So, still in a
very dominant position.
I wonder why Gett is not figured in there.
[https://www.ft.com/__origami/service/image/v2/images/raw/htt...](https://www.ft.com/__origami/service/image/v2/images/raw/http%3A%2F%2Fcom.ft.imagepublish.prod-
us.s3.amazonaws.com%2F50d74d98-52d9-11e7-bfb8-997009366969?source=next&fit=scale-
down&width=600)
~~~
joatmon-snoo
Gett doesn't exist out of NY. Lyft does.
------
werber
Anecdotal, but Uber has a social stigma with a lot of my left-er friends.
------
chairmanwow
This article really fails to make a compelling case for Lyft other than the
switches coming from the #DeleteUber campaign. While I agree these market
share grabs from the underdog are huge, I feel like the author is overstepping
the wait of the data. Relying really heavily on narrative.
------
kennydude
Would love Lyft over in the UK. Uber is the only taxi company (they are a taxi
company if they like it or not) with an app which doesn't crash on launch
------
ravenstine
HN link is still paywalled for me, so here's the archived version of it that's
not paywalled: [https://archive.fo/Q0gkJ](https://archive.fo/Q0gkJ)
------
pdeva1
paywalled...
~~~
tyingq
The web link at the top of HN works, but the chart in the article tells most
of the story:
[https://www.ft.com/__origami/service/image/v2/images/raw/htt...](https://www.ft.com/__origami/service/image/v2/images/raw/http%3A%2F%2Fcom.ft.imagepublish.prod-
us.s3.amazonaws.com%2F50d74d98-52d9-11e7-bfb8-997009366969?source=next&fit=scale-
down&width=600)
~~~
swampthinker
I'm actually shocked that #deleteuber had that large of an impact. Maybe this
is the cynic inside me, but I feel like social media campaigns like those
didn't have much impact. Guess I was wrong.
~~~
erdle
at the end of the day it's just an app... there is no Uber infrastructure such
as a bus stop... very few real assets... and not a ton of IP if every car
company, Google, and others are competing.
they had a great brand and the only thing they had to do was not fuck it up
before they reached the next level. and instead they spent most of their cash
on fighting rivals, built a culture that is eroding the brand and behind on
the next thing in transportation.
~~~
valuearb
Getting your app on someones phone is a substantial, lasting competitive
advantage. Getting them to use it regularly is even more of one.
------
cavisne
"Lyft, which completed a $600m fundraising in April, has expanded into 150 new
cities this year " seems like this would skew the numbers a bit. Uber is
already everywhere it needs to be in the US. Lyft is irrelevant until they
prove they can compete internationally imo, they are way behind uber here
~~~
bsder
> Lyft is irrelevant until they prove they can compete internationally imo,
> they are way behind uber here
Why should they compete internationally?
From what I can see, international competition is wildly unprofitable, subject
to the whims and vicissitudes of local politicians, and subject to local
competition who understand their market far better than any foreign firm.
~~~
aianus
International travel is a major use case for these apps. When I'm traveling I
don't have my car with me and my usage of Uber skyrockets.
------
throwaway-1209
100% fake news. There's no way they actually have any ride data from either
company to back up this claim. In fact there's another bit of equally fake
news posted to HN right now that says that recent events have failed to put a
dent into Uber marketshare. "Journalists" should stop making shit up, and
instead stick to reporting facts.
~~~
ojbyrne
"...according to data from Second Measure, a research firm that uses
anonymised credit card data"
Perhaps not 100% accurate, but not 100% fake either.
~~~
throwaway-1209
Second Measure relies on undisclosed data sources of unknown accuracy. So this
is very much like those reports from "anonymous sources familiar with Comey's
thinking" (an actual quote).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Red Programming Language - evangineer
http://www.red-lang.org/
======
evangineer
The README on github is probably the best way to find out what this language
is about: <https://github.com/dockimbel/Red>
------
evangineer
Red isn't self-hosting yet, so you'll need a copy of REBOL/View to run it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why does mobile have to "win"? - andyfleming
http://andyfleming.com/why-does-mobile-have-to-win/
======
badman_ting
I think this focuses a little too much on phraseology and not enough on why
people are saying it. The way people use computers is changing fast, and it's
going to look a lot different than it does now. It's not comfortable but it's
happening. I was going to say more but I think this is just an ad for
something the author is working on. Good luck!
~~~
andyfleming
Honestly, it's a rant I felt compelled to share. The note at the end isn't
overbearing IMO, and helps show practically how this affects what I'm working
on.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Rapportive being removed from Gmail - cr4zy
http://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/15004/kw/rapportive
======
snapclass
The Rapportive app for Gmail is extremely useful for me, shame to see it go.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
I-Swarm Micro Robots are Up and Running - kkleiner
http://singularityhub.com/2009/09/09/i-swarm-micro-robots-are-up-and-running/
======
NathanKP
The article talks about how they plan to use the optical sensor for
programming and so that bursts of light could control or reprogram an entire
swarm. Here is the key:
"Unless the swarm goes all killer-bee and turns on its creators. Just in case,
I’m learning how to use a flashlight to say, “ctrl-alt-del.”"
Might be a good thing to keep in mind!
------
Tichy
How does it move?
~~~
beambot
It uses piezo actuators as the "legs", operating them at different phases to
move in different directions. This was explained on the YC submission a few
days ago:
[http://www.hizook.com/blog/2009/08/29/i-swarm-micro-
robots-r...](http://www.hizook.com/blog/2009/08/29/i-swarm-micro-robots-
realized-impressive-full-system-integration)
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=795396>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Real Secret to Asian American Success Wasn't Education - DarkContinent
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/11/19/the-real-secret-to-asian-american-success-was-not-education/
======
edblarney
This is some really dubious logic and it's terrible that this should be
considered valid research.
To exclude the fact that some groups work harder, have completely different
attitudes towards self preservation, who might have skills passed down from
generation to generation, who might actually be more intelligent (contentious,
I know, but it could be true).
It's ridiculous.
I grew up with a lot of Asian kids, and enough Black kids, and they were
definitely different ethnic groups, in so many ways. It's crazy to think that
'only societies attitudes towards them' made the difference.
~~~
a_w
I really hate these comments which imply that black (african) people are
intellectually inferior. If so, how do you explain the fact that African
immigrants and their children have consistently been the most successful group
in terms of educational and income achievement?
Just do a little research before insinuating that africans/blacks are less
intelligent. Data says otherwise.
[0]
[http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=2014101...](http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=2014101521150498)
[1] [http://atlantablackstar.com/2012/10/06/obama-education-
initi...](http://atlantablackstar.com/2012/10/06/obama-education-initiative-
sparks-debate-on-black-immigrants-and-achievement/) [2]
[http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2007-03-18/news/070318034...](http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2007-03-18/news/0703180344_1_black-
immigrants-high-achieving-immigrants-biracial-couples)
~~~
a_w
Here is an even more extensive study on the academic achievements of African
immigrants and their descendants in the U.S. and U.K. [0]
If anything, the research demonstrates that the Igbo from Nigeria are
exceptionally successful - more high achieving than Chinese and Indians:
"Africans speaking Luganda and Krio did better than the Chinese students in
2011. The igbo were even more impressive given their much bigger numbers (and
their consistently high performance over the years, gaining a 100 percent pass
rate in 2009!). The superior Igbo achievement on GCSEs is not new and has been
noted in studies that came before the recent media discovery of African
performance. A 2007 report on “case study” model schools in Lambeth also
included a rare disclosure of specified Igbo performance (recorded as Ibo in
the table below) and it confirms that Igbos have been performing exceptionally
well for a long time (5 + A*-C GCSEs); in fact, it is difficult to find a time
when they ever performed below British whites."
[0] [http://www.unz.com/article/the-iq-gap-is-no-longer-a-
black-a...](http://www.unz.com/article/the-iq-gap-is-no-longer-a-black-and-
white-issue/)
~~~
edblarney
What you are doing is proving that there is a strong difference in behaviour
among ethnic groups and that racism doesn't really account for (assuming
'Black people' face the same degree of racism wherever they are from).
Your articles say nothing about the possibility of variance in intelligence
among different groups.
~~~
a_w
I don't know. I have personally been told by good meaning friends that 'but
you are different from African Americans' by other ethnic groups when I was in
Engineering grad school.
Also on your point regarding variance in intelligence among ethnic groups,
African Americans mainly came from west Africa, and according to the article I
linked above, west African immigrants in the US and UK are the highest
achievers, so genes don't seem to be the issue.
So, what is left, culture? If so, the culture of the African American people
is molded by racism, both personal and institutional racism.
All I am asking of you really is to not lightly dismiss racism as a
contributing, if not the main factor in the achievement gap. It would be easy
for me to say that if I can go to school and do well, why can't they do it
too? But even though I grew up in a poor, war torn African country,
fortunately I was never told on a daily basis that I was inferior because I
happened to be black. And I am enormously thankful for that.
------
guns
> But the greatest thing that ever happened to them wasn't that they studied
> hard, or that they benefited from tiger moms or Confucian values. It's that
> other Americans started treating them with a little more respect.
It seems strange to ignore the possibility that one led to the other.
~~~
gbersac
Had the same idea while reading this post. It tries to prove that "all myths
are rooted in truth", is wrong because asian american succeded, not because
they worked better, but because they benefitted from better popularity.
My interpretation is : asian worked harder (as a group) it was noticed and it
improved their reputation. Thanks to this, they got better wages.
------
userbinator
_Instead, his research suggests that society simply became less racist toward
Asians._
I think some more interesting questions are why that happened, and why the
same didn't happen with blacks.
~~~
backtoyoujim
US law.
~~~
plaidturtle
Law itself has very little power without change in social norm. Look into
Foucault's modern philosophy of power.
------
pcbro141
There certainly does appear to be a white supremacist fixation on black
people. I was thinking the other day how odd it is that "white supremacists"
(in America ) seem to spend a majority of their time talking about blacks when
Asians are on average performing better in every metric. Life expectancy,
earnings, education. I thought white supremacists would see Asian American
success as a threat to their ideology (that whites are genetically superior
and should be performing better than all races).
I only asked this question once on a YouTube race thread to self proclaimed
white supremacists, and the response I got was that Asians don't commit crime
or cause trouble so it's alright if they're performing better.
Which makes me believe a more accurate term for most white supremacists (in
America at least) would be "anti-black".
~~~
CarpetBench
Interesting response.
Really interesting given that white supremacists also tend to be anti-semitic,
and most of the same tropes about Asians also apply to the Jewish community:
Focus on education, low rates of crime, etc.
Maybe that's just a factor of how modern white supremacy came to be, though
(i.e. Nazis).
------
belovedeagle
So was it that
> Journalists were praising Asians for being hard workers who kept their heads
> down, cherished education and didn’t complain
? Or maybe it was just that
> Asians [were] being hard workers who kept their heads down, cherished
> education and didn’t complain.
I'll go further than another top-level comment and say that embracing the
first sentence unironically is being _intentionally_ obtuse, given that one
literally has to write the second sentence to get there.
But it's the unsurprising consequence of a worldview that "hard work never
gets anyone anywhere". Note that you don't have to reject the idea of
privilege entirely in order to acknowledge that hard work is also a path to
success; and this article goes to show that hard work and success is also a
path to privilege, not [just] the other way around.
------
dpc59
The Irish and Italians used to be considered non-white. I wonder if one day
society will consider Asians as "white".
~~~
Moshe_Silnorin
Disproportionately successful minorities such as East Asian and Indian
immigrants are considered functionally white for propaganda purposes, as their
success in modern institutions is significant evidence that these institutions
are not discriminating based on anything other than ability.
------
tzs
I'd like to see a similar look at how and why attitudes changed towards
Italian-americans, Irish-americans, and Jews. These groups were all
discriminated against and considered undesirable by the majority for a long
time, and now are mostly accepted.
I have suggested in jest before that what determines whether or not a minority
will gain acceptance in the US is their food. Americans like Asian, Italian,
and Jewish food, and Irish drinking culture, so ethnic restaurants from those
groups became popular, and acceptance of the people behind the food followed.
We like Mexican food, and Hispanics seem on track for mainstream acceptance.
Black food is too similar to general Southern food for the mainstream to see
it as a separate cuisine, so acceptance has been harder for blacks.
------
lifeisstillgood
I suspect that the "them and us" mentality of our inner chimp is binary not
n-ary so if society is really anti-black our minds cannot easily handle also
being anti-"something else". So Asians simply became "honouray white" in order
to make room for racism elsewhere.
It's something similar to the waves of immigrants hitting Londons docklands
for generations - each wave suffers then moves outwards to the suburbs and the
newest wave becomes the focus of ire.
Just a thought - depressingly maybe we always need a "them"
------
rokosbasilisk
It was their family unit.
------
vvilliam
what a load of racist bullshit. So a $8,000 difference in wages in young men
is proof that Asians got to where they are today because white people allowed
them to?
so other people's respect will put money in my pocket? Damn why did I bother
going to college?
------
GFK_of_xmaspast
Whole lot of 'race realism' in this thread even for hacker news.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What goes into a great startup blog? What do you like to read? - mi3law
Recently we started a blog for our company, to share our experiences as we go through Techstars NYC.<p>It got me wondering-- what is worth writing about in a startup blog, considering every startup seems to have one? What would you like to read? What is missing from other startup blogs?<p>Would love to hear any thoughts.<p>(Specifcally for us, our audience is node.js developers who would be interested in a dev platform and next gen PaaS. Here is our first post: https://bitly.com/lsq-b1)
======
junecpy
I think a startup blog should communicate a personality, the thoughts, value
and experience of the particular startup. Obviously for the content side,
you're going to write about your product. But while your product evolves, can
I read the growth? For instance, would be great to write about new features as
solving more problems for developers or making their lives a bit easier. Good
luck. Hope the blog becomes a venue where audience witness your growth. :)
~~~
mi3law
Thanks for the response! I really appreciate it.
Very interesting thoughts. Makes perfect sense-- if a startup's blog doesn't
show the startup's growth, it would be like a baby who doesn't age-- boring.
Thank you!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Initiative called an 'anti-science witch hunt' by scientists - J3L2404
http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/politics/stories/scientists-call-for-citizen-review-of-funding-is-misleading
======
davidj
Our country is broke, we can't afford the research. There are plenty of
research projects out there that could be done on a zero budget basis, why not
concentrate efforts towards these and use the profits as private donations to
fund your pet projects -- instead of taxing individuals who produce a profit
and forcing them at gun point to pay for your project? The reason is, because
if you had to fund it yourself with your own money, you wouldn't be doing it
because its not worth your own investment. Why should we have to pay for it
then?
~~~
J3L2404
Remove tax exemptions for churches and then we can have money for basic
scientific research and tax cuts for billionaires.
------
ENOTTY
Contrast that to this article posted previously on Hacker News, "Most
Scientists are Democrats and that's a problem"
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1989073>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Open Rights Group demands government act to secure ‘track and trace’ data - RobPomeroy
https://www.openrightsgroup.org/press-releases/org-demands-government-act-to-secure-track-and-trace-data/
======
RobPomeroy
The health benefits of track and trace vs. privacy infringement...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Moving towards a faster web - joeyespo
https://blog.chromium.org/2019/11/moving-towards-faster-web.html
======
reaperducer
Google Capone: "Hey, nytimes.com, your site loads awful slow. We're gonna have
to put this badge of shame on it for everyone to see.
Now, if you just dumped your other ad networks and ran everything through us,
I bet it would be load much faster and that badge might magically
disappear..."
~~~
flukus
> Now, if you just dumped your other ad networks and ran everything through
> us, I bet it would be load much faster and that badge might magically
> disappear...
My experience with everything google has touched lately suggest that this
wouldn't improve speed any. Gmail and youtube make continental drift look
speedy and even the search page takes 1.4MB and takes over a second to load
for me (maybe corporate network issue), that's approaching the size of doom to
display a dozen links.
Google doesn't have any moral authority when it comes to bloat.
Edit - for reference HN takes about the same time to load, but that has to
cross the pacific ocean whereas google supposedly has local data centers.
~~~
Avamander
The only PC where I saw Gmail being fast was a Ryzen 9 3900x build, I suspect
that if Google devs were given shittier PCs they'd build faster products that
would appeal more to the average user.
~~~
cameronh90
I run a Core i5-2500K from 2011 and Gmail runs just fine. Far better than
Thunderbird or Outlook ever did, but it does take a lot of memory.
~~~
zbrozek
I have a Google-issued corporate workstation with 64 GB of RAM and 12 cores.
Gmail is really really slow. Like so slow that I if I have to refresh it I'll
go get coffee. But I'm on Firefox, and so "I Am Not The User" and all that.
~~~
cameronbrown
IMO the best way to use Gmail is to open and pin it, only load once a day. It
seems optimised for this use case.
------
neiman
I'm trying to fully understand it.
So if I'm in a site that is loading slow, Chrome will tell me "this site is
loading slow". which is almost like putting a sign in the middle of the ocean,
"you in the ocean". Like, a person should notice it on its own, right?
Ok, I understand they mean to tell me that it's slow loading due to the fault
of the site, and not due to (let's say) my bad internet or device. But I think
that most people don't understand those kind of technicalities, and don't
really care to know them. I see it, as someone else put here, a "badge of
shame".
Moreover, it's kind of regulating the internet. No one gave Google the mandate
to regulate the internet.
There are two other problems with this "speed above everything else" approach.
First, what is fast depends on how the browser parses websites, so one website
can be faster in Firefox but slower in Chrome, and still get a "badge of
shame". There's no standard here afaik (perhaps I'm wrong).
Second, the internet is supposed to be a place of equality, where kids,
experimental artists and businesses all get the same respect and treatment.
But businesses websites are obviously going to be faster, they got the
professional technical stuff to ensure that, making the other second-rate
internet citizens.
~~~
7777fps
If Google didn't own AMP then I might be less critical of this change. But
they do, and I bet they don't rate any AMP pages served from the Google cache
as slow.
They're determined to make AMP the de-facto way of publishing content and this
feels like just another way of making AMP more appealing.
~~~
tinus_hn
I haven’t seen an AMP page for quite some time, it seems that strategy is
pretty much a failure.
~~~
lasagnaphil
I still see them quite a lot on my iPhone 8... and it's very annoying
------
ipython
This reads to me as an attempt from Google to further balkanize the web. This
looks a lot like the "blue bubbles" effect from Apple iMessage.
Did Google run out of actual features to implement? How about reacting to real
user concerns such as controlling the privacy of their personal data on the
web? Rhetorical question, I know...
~~~
lkbm
Speaking as a real user, let me assure you that website speed definitely falls
under real user concerns. I don't know how much I'd use this indicator, but
loading speed matters to me. Loading speed matters _a lot_.
This won't win me back from Firefox, but I don't consider it a bad move.
~~~
segmondy
Then demand for smaller sites, nothing will make for a faster web if web pages
are larger than operating systems from just a few years ago. do you know how
ridiculous it is to have web pages that are tens and hundreds of megs?
The issue is not with the browsers, it's with the damn stupid sites out there.
3G is pretty much useless out there, let alone 2G.
~~~
koz_
This is an attempt by Google to influence the bloated websites out there,
rather than a browser feature intended to attract users. It's probably mildly
helpful as a user to know if a site is slow (as opposed to it just being slow
for you), but it's a big incentive for a website owner to speed up their site
if this badge of shame appears it for a majority of users.
~~~
weare138
Except of course unless it's one of Google's sites...
[https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/?url=...](https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/?url=gmail.com)
Gmail scores a 50% on Google's own PageSpeed. And that's just the login
screen. If Google can't even meet their own metrics and standards then they
have no place telling other people what they should be doing with their
websites.
~~~
Avamander
> If Google can't even meet their own metrics and standards then they have no
> place telling other people what they should be doing with their websites.
The fact that they are failing their own if anything, shows that the tests
don't discriminate. It's defeatist to say that we shouldn't strive for faster
websites if some webpage fails. I really like how dumb f __*s making 40MiB
pages are now finally punished.
~~~
jvzr
Yes, but Gmail doesn't really have to compete in Google Search, does it? So,
in their eyes, it's OK for Gmail to score low because it has its own link in
basically every navigation toolbar/header Google owns. This won't improve the
speed at which Gmail loads, whereas all non-Google websites _will_ have to
improve their speed.
~~~
koz_
It's not that Gmail has a dominant position and so doesn't need to care about
its rating - Gmail is an app not a page and it's less important for apps to
load quickly than pages. Apps tend to be long lived and so a slow startup time
is tolerable, whereas one is constantly opening new pages.
That is to say, I don't think e.g. Trello would really care if their site was
"slow to load" either.
------
throwGuardian
The multitude of comments here scream the same thing:
1\. No one trusts Google to be an impartial judge of speed.
2\. Increasingly, Google is inserting itself as a non-neutral third party
between the end user and creator/developer. Power lies asymmetrically with
Google, and threatens both creators & users.
If anyone from Google is reading, this incremental but definite appearance of
a power grab by Google will only draw more regulation
~~~
cs02rm0
I mostly agree, but more regulation means higher barriers to entry which would
suit them. It's win-win.
We should really just stop using Google so much. You go first, I can't be
bothered to switch!
~~~
fauigerzigerk
_> but more regulation means higher barriers to entry which would suit them_
That's a recently very popular idea, but in this general form it is simply
untrue. It depends on the specifics of any regulation.
We can regulate oligopolists in a way that doesn't affect anyone else.
------
sakisv
While I appreciate fast loading sites as much as anyone, there's something I
appreciate even more: getting to the content as fast as possible.
It's becoming increasingly common to have all sorts of pop-ups blocking a big
part of the screen at best or adding an overlay across the entire body.
If only I knew that my click would result in that kind of monstrosity I
wouldn't have clicked in the first place. So maybe it would be more useful to
show an of how many things we need to close before we get to the content. I
think that something like this would also help get us to "a faster web".
~~~
musicale
So many sites load 8MB of garbage, often from dozens of domains, just to
display 8KB of text. Then as soon as you try to start reading, an obnoxious
pop-up window appears, demanding that you sign up for their spam list. These
are anti-patterns that need to go away.
~~~
yellowapple
If Google actually gave a damn about making the Web a better place, it'd start
downranking sites with mailing list popups.
~~~
Cthulhu_
I thought they did? Some years ago they (and/or Mozilla) offered an addon
which you could use to report popups like that -
[https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/in-page-
pop-u...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/in-page-pop-up-
reporter/) comes up.
But so far, nothing's been done yet. This is kinda weird to me because one of
the reasons why Firefox came to power (and took over a bit chunk of IE's
market) was that it had a pop-up blocker. I don't understand why they aren't
doing more to block inline pop-ups now.
------
kiwicopple
It’s crazy how misaligned the incentives are for chrome development.
If performance was the criteria by which they made decisions then they would
probably bake ad-blocking directly into chrome, since ads/tracking is one of
the leading reasons for poor performance.
Instead we are left with PR pieces and false features. It feels like they are
creating a lot of noise to drown out the signal.
~~~
mirimir
> ... ads/tracking is one of the leading reasons for poor performance.
That's especially obvious when using nested VPN chains and Tor. Because
latency can exceed 500 msec. Sites like HN typically load in a second or two.
But sites with ads and tracking take 10 seconds or more.
------
crazygringo
I appreciate the intent, but why are they putting badges/indicators like this
into Chrome instead of Search?
Sites usually load slowly because because of ads and trackers, and Chrome's
only telling me what I'm already seeing with my own eyes. Plus, I already
decided to visit the site, and it's probably quicker to finish letting it load
than find an alternative source, if one exists at all.
Whereas Search would seem _much_ more useful, since it's where I'm already
presented with _alternative_ links, and can actually affect which one I click.
I know Search already says they de-rank slower sites... but obviously they're
still appearing, especially for the "long tail" of searches. So badges still
seem like win there.
(But the whole concept is sound, I think, because developers often want to
build fast sites but management won't dedicate the resources. But if
management sees Google is giving them a big red mark, that's suddenly
something very easy for them to understand and allow to be fixed.)
~~~
notatoad
from the article: "We are building out speed badging in close collaboration
with other teams exploring labelling the quality of experiences at Google."
We're hearing about this first from Chrome, but that doesn't mean it will
happen in chrome first. I suspect that badges of shame will come to the search
result pages long before they actually show up in chrome. Say what you will
about google's policies, but the chrome team is really pretty good about
announcing this sort of thing well in advance. Look at their multi-year
rollout schedule for the "not secure" badging in the URL bar.
Search results, on the other hand, will just update one day with no warning.
~~~
jfoster
Right, I think they're using Chrome as a testing ground for this.
------
saagarjha
This kind of effort sounds great, but the issue is that Google has already
spent their goodwill on improving the web in this area. Who can trust the
company to implement this fairly? Will Gmail get a “badge of shame” (it surely
deserves one)? Will websites that are fast but don’t use AMP or the new Google
hotness be ranked as they should? There are a lot of questions that I’m sure
many have already answered in their head based on Google’s past efforts.
------
reaperducer
_Our long-term goal is to define badging for high-quality experiences, which
may include signals beyond just speed. We are building out speed badging in
close collaboration with other teams exploring labelling the quality of
experiences at Google._
Exactly what does "high-quality experiences" mean? Penalize sites with bad
colors? Sites that are artsy and an algorithm can't understand? Sites that
have been repositories of information for longer than Google has been around?
Sites that don't meet Google's worldview? That disagree with Google's
politics?
~~~
rlv-dan
"Quality" should be reserved for the content and its usefulness. Speed is not
a quality factor. It's a convenience.
------
jjcm
To me this is better than amp - give me clear messaging around a site's
performance rather than mandating a platform that gives the site less control.
I certainly worry that there's the potential to abuse this, and I also wonder
if Google's own sites (i.e. amp pages) will be biased. To their credit they're
showing one of Google's own pages as being slow in the example, but I'd be
interested in seeing a 3rd party analysis of what pages are considered slow
and which aren't.
Another part of me worries that this will lead to a cobra effect[1], where
people optimize a page's first load so Chrome says the page is fast, while
withholding the main content of the page for a delayed load, leading to even
more site bloat. Identifying when a page has actually loaded will be tricky.
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobra_effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobra_effect)
~~~
kaycebasques
See my other comment about how our metrics are designed to capture various
milestones in the loading experience. I think it’s already harder to game a
good Performance score than you might imagine, and it’s only going to get
harder over time as the web platform collectively gets better at metrics:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21511477](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21511477)
------
butz
I prefer Firefox's way of "moving towards a faster web" \- blocking trackers.
~~~
kome
Indeed, it's so much more effective and it has immediate real results.
Also: it's not a "police state" approach. Google loves a good police state.
------
zadokshi
This will give developers leverage to ask for time to optimise, upgrade, and
improve things they are not normally allowed to work on, as it will raise the
discussion to the level of managers and the general public.
However, do you think more could be done to make the default MySQL/PHP type
configurations faster out of the box? If it is possible to speed up the
default config of most websites on the internet, perhaps there is an easy win
to be had.
~~~
moreira
> However, do you think more could be done to make the default MySQL/PHP type
> configurations faster out of the box?
I'm pretty sure that most slow websites aren't slow because their server-side
rendering takes a long time. This seems to be mostly a front-end oriented
thing (especially directed at pages that load MBs of JS); basically if the
page doesn't adhere to all the front-end optimisation guidelines.
~~~
_bxg1
The slowness described in the article isn't jank, but time-to-initial-load.
Conceivably the initial client-side render could take a nontrivial amount of
time, but in the vast majority of cases - just like for server-side rendering
- it isn't a deciding factor.
The real deciding factor is the amount of dependencies that have to be loaded.
This includes JS, but usually the JS for ads/tracking is far larger than the
JS for the actual UI, even on fully client-side-rendered sites.
------
danShumway
One of the regular complaints I've pushed against AMP is that it's a hamfisted
way to address page speed. Search placement should be determined by generic
speed tests, not by forcing developers to use Google's technology.
This looks to me like a positive effort. I'm not thrilled with overlays like
this, and I'm not thrilled with baking this kind of stuff into the browser. It
feels over-engineered and weird.
But, I think it's a better direction than AMP.
There are a lot of ways this could go bad, but very cautious thumbs up from
me.
------
TeMPOraL
I hope they won't whitelist their own pages from this. Maybe then they'll
notice Google's own products have a performance problem.
~~~
neogodless
Gmail
Loading...
Usually loads _slow_.
~~~
cpeterso
I think the "Usually loads slow" warning shown in the article is grammatically
incorrect. Shouldn't it say "Usually loads _slowly_ "?
~~~
big_chungus
Came to say this. It seems as though a browser of chrome's scale ought to
spell-check before cutting a release?
~~~
nvrspyx
I'm going to be a little nitpicky here: This would be grammar checking, not
spell checking. "Slow" is spelled correctly, it's just not the right word
(adjective vs adverb).
This also seems to still be in the experimentation phase and is not released
as far as I can tell and may never actually make it into Chromium based on:
> In the future, Chrome may identify sites that typically load fast or slow
> for users with clear badging. This may take a number of forms and we plan to
> experiment with different options, to determine which provides the most
> value to our users.
Regardless, I agree. This probably should've been caught early.
~~~
wruza
Maybe they used adjectives instead of adverbs because it’s both ad-words and
they can no longer feel the difference.
~~~
cpeterso
Your comment about "ad-words" made me think: could Google sell ad space on
these "slow site" pages? Site X might jump at the chance to pay Google to
advertise its service on site Y's slow site page. I'm only half-joking.
------
Wowfunhappy
Generally, I can tell when a website is loading slowly because it, well, takes
a long time to load.
Am I misunderstanding what Google is trying to do? I'm not seeing the use
case.
~~~
andybak
Erm. How do you tell that before you click?
~~~
reaperducer
The screenshot in TFA shows a Google slow site warning _after_ a link to the
site has been clicked.
~~~
andybak
Ah. I hadn't actually looked at TFA.
------
Endy
The best way to have a faster web is to get rid of Google Analytics,
DoubleClick, AMP, "web assembly", WebDRM, ECMAScript (and all derivatives),
and go back to only loading text and images from a blind server to a user-
agent entirely defined by the wishes of the specific user.
But all the stuff that makes the Web slow and pointless to use is how Alphabet
makes money.
So as long as you drink the Google-Aid, you're doomed to a slow web of
garbage.
~~~
jamesgeck0
Webmail was terrible back when every single click required a fetching a new
page load. Even on a reasonably fast DSL connection, JavaScript Gmail is
noticeably more snappy than HTML Gmail.
Pre-ajax online maps? Almost unusable. I certainly wouldn't want to return to
those days.
~~~
Endy
Yes, because you're asking a client for text and images downloaded from a
server to do things it was never intended to. When you start employing
torturous misuse, you're going to find the tool unsuited to the job. You can
use a pipe wrench as a makeshift hammer, but a sledgehammer can't tighten a
nut (more than once).
Use an email and newsreader for email. Use a full mapping suite to download
specialized map data. Don't force a web browser to shim into those niche jobs.
Old adage I learned with computers: Do One Thing, Well. That's what each
program should be. One thing.
------
sgt101
Pages are made of 30 sites, more. This is what makes the experience shit, and
Google are bang up responsible. The architecture of the web did not, and does
not, include this - the business model that is sustained by it exploits the
web, it does not support it.
------
reustle
> Your website seems slow, try speeding it up with AMP today!
~~~
pcora
I used to hate AMP with my guts. But to be honest, usually when I tried to
avoid or loaded the site instead of AMP, I get presented with a worse
experience in a bloated web-site, whereas when I click on the AMP version, it
loads immediately. So now I don't care anymore. But google is not my main
search engine, so I less very little of it.
------
markosaric
Third-party calls are one of the main reasons for slow loading sites. These
calls include loading Google Fonts, loading Google Analytics and loading
Google's DoubleClick advertising scripts. Remove these calls and scripts, and
websites get so much faster.
Edit to add some stats:
94% of sites include at least one third-party resource.
76% issue a request to an analytics domain.
Median page requests content from 9 unique third-party domains.
Google owns 7 of the top 10 most popular third-party calls.
[https://almanac.httparchive.org/en/2019/third-
parties](https://almanac.httparchive.org/en/2019/third-parties)
------
monkpit
I feel like this will get a lot of flak from HN users, but I think this will
overall be a benefit to the user experience on all browsers, not just chrome.
------
esotericn
I'm on a slow connection. This page took a good while to load.
100kB of JS, 100kB of fonts. The images get a pass.
There's jQuery in there. It's a blog post. wat?
Just send me the text.
------
Lammy
This page doesn't contain any body text unless I run their Javascript. Is that
supposed to be faster?
------
syphilis2
Maybe Mozilla can add something like this to Firefox, but for websites that
break when using adblockers.
------
forgotmypw3
The web is already pretty fast if you don't put too much stuff into your
webpages.
~~~
tpmx
️:)
Yeah, pretty much. If web sites would stop stuffing these giant js frameworks
pages + 3 trackers + 3 ad networks into all page we could be using like iPhone
4 now.
------
tarjei
I hope they roll out good monitoring tools for website owner for these
features - i.e not a tool to test your site but a tool to tell you what google
reports to it's users about the site. Otherwise you can be fooled by running
lighthouse against your local server and never see the "this site loads
slowly" message...
------
joaobeno
This is just another attack on the open & free internet. Why so? Since Google
defines per their own metrics fast vs slow, they will imprint that impression
upon the user, making an otherwise good willed user a starting bad impression
on your site.
As people pointed out, this will make AMP even more attractive, driving more
traffic away to Google...
Also, it may impact sites hosted on cheap far datacenters, like my user being
in Brazil, and my server being in Virginia. Suddenly, my site is considered
slow by Chrome, while my _rich_ competitor who hosts in São Paulo gets the
"fast" badge...
I think this kind of classification creates extra confusion and impact at no
tangible benefit to everyone that isn't Google.
------
fenwick67
Can someone explain the point of this for the user?
As a user, I already know if the page is loading slowly.
~~~
SquareWheel
You might not know why. Is it just a slow site, or is your connection failing
you?
------
ouid
You know, I've noticed that most things load just about instantly with ad
blockers.
------
basilisks
Blue checkmarks but for websites. A merit badge for playing by the biggest
boys’ rules.
------
RenRav
If it's just a simple display to the user saying "this website generally loads
slow, dont worry", I'm ok with that, I often wonder whether some sites are
just bloated or it's my internet connection.
------
graphememes
Who watches the watchmen?
~~~
SmellyGeekBoy
Mozilla?
------
rhacker
Isn't this just going to reward the facebooks, amazons, etsys, pinterests and
all the other websites that stole the users attentions away from homegrown
sites... even more?
------
davidgerard
Ad blockers speed up the web quite a bit!
Pity about that for Chrome, hey.
------
X6S1x6Okd1st
There's a concern over pushing AMP & their ads. I totally get that, but so far
the recommendations that they link to aren't directly related to either:
% curl https://web.dev/fast/ 2> /dev/null | grep -I amp
Terms & Privacy
</a>, and code samples are licensed under the
------
millstone
How does Google know which sites “typically load slow for users?” Is this
collected via Chrome telemetry or is there another mechanism?
~~~
kaycebasques
[https://developers.google.com/web/tools/chrome-user-
experien...](https://developers.google.com/web/tools/chrome-user-experience-
report)
------
m712
So how does this work? Where does Chromium get the data for the websites which
load slow? Does this mean that websites which one visits get sent to Google
now? Or do they use the existing SafeBrowsing queries to also send page load
times? What are the implications of this for tracking?
------
geekybiz
I'm a Web Performance guy so moves such as these benefit my business. Despite
that - I dislike this heavy handedness by Google.
\- What speed metrics? \- How would they be gathered?
If Web Performance was so single dimensional to classify it in this way, it
would have been solved a lot better by now.
------
majortennis
I understand why using an anchor tag is not always technically correct, but I
don't see how wrapping something like an image in a button is the right thing
to do, for an onclick event.
------
Uninen
I’d appreciate if DuckDuckGo would implement this kind of speed badge to their
search results. Never going to assume Google would even consider it as they
sell the things that make sites slow in the first place.
~~~
dredmorbius
Rather than play offence, play defence.
Come up with a "privacy" or "non-tracking" badge.
Identify free-standing / independent / non-AMP sites.
Note simple and JS-free designs, or graceful degredation.
Well-formed page structures (microformats, HTML5), lack of obfuscated elements
(JS, CSS), accessibility.
An open and distributed Web index standard.
Pretty much all of these are generally useful, and disadvantageous to Google.
------
dpau
> We... hope to land on something that is practically achievable by all
> developers.
There are a LOT of people who have websites that depend upon software that
they don't directly control, best example might be Wordpress users with
plugins. I myself have built a number of hobby websites that I just don't have
time to figure out how to update based on Google's recommendations. For
example, according to PageSpeed I need to "Serve images in next-gen formats"
and I just don't have the ability to do that now (underlying image processing
libraries don't support it) without a serious time commitment.
So I'm worried that a lot of smaller sites that don't have the resources to
keep up with Google's requirements are going to get a "badge of shame"..
~~~
orf
> I just don't have time to figure out
[https://developers.cloudflare.com/images/about/](https://developers.cloudflare.com/images/about/)
Also Chrome doesn't collect or aggregate performance data for sites without a
decent amount of traffic. They are not going to label your hobby sites as slow
as there is not enough data to do so.
[https://developers.google.com/speed/docs/insights/v5/about#f...](https://developers.google.com/speed/docs/insights/v5/about#faq)
~~~
dpau
Yes, exactly, I don't have time to move tens of thousands of images to
Cloudflare, update the image upload code, change all of the links, etc.
I think you are also underestimating the number of hobby sites that are the
primary source of information for their niche and have decent traffic, many of
them running Wordpress with tons of horrible plugins. Yes, I know, not ideal.
But these people don't have many alternatives.
------
fouc
We need some proper anti-trust action here. Split chrome from google.
~~~
adamredwoods
We have to prove some sort of monopoly, but looking back at Microsoft Windows
and Internet Explorer should give some legal framework.
------
andai
Disable JavaScript in your browser. There, the web is much faster :)
------
swiley
I just had to reboot my work computer today because chrome practically wedged
it by pushing everything into swap (or whatever Microsoft calls it.)
The web gets a _lot_ faster when you dump JavaScript.
~~~
couchand
Or just dump Chrome...
------
social_quotient
It’s like we need some sort of indicator or progress visualization. Something
that will show the user were the page is in terms of loading and rendering.
------
auiya
How will this work in corporate environments with intentionally slow web
proxies (decrypting TLS traffic, etc)?
------
jayd16
Whats the point of colorizing the load bar? If I see the bar, don't I already
know its slow?
------
buboard
what i m seeing with these "safety badges", "lightning icons", "green thumbs
up" are attempts by google and apple to control the web the same way they
control their app gardens. i m hopeful that they can't though.
------
alimbada
Ironically, the linked web.dev/fast page took way too long to load for me.
~~~
SmellyGeekBoy
web.dev also seems pretty broken with Firefox's built-in tracking protection
enabled. Ho hum.
------
vijaybritto
Google does this while at the same time making a heavy framework like this
[https://bundlephobia.com/result?p=@angular/[email protected]](https://bundlephobia.com/result?p=@angular/[email protected])
. This is not fair. This is abuse of power.
------
mfer
Now would be a good time for alternative news aggregators.
------
jaimex2
This is great news for the anti-trust case.
------
dlcmh
Just use Safari or Firefox
------
vkizl
Reddit is going to earn this so fast lol
------
ycombonator
“ Our long-term goal is to define badging for high-quality experiences, which
may include signals beyond just speed.“ My speculation is that they are
gearing towards web moderation. Tag sites that don’t agree with their world
view as “potentially harmful”. This could make an average chrome user
immediately balk at opening the site and reading the content.
Before you downvote my comment explain why the above scenario is not
plausible.
~~~
Conlectus
Google search has defined itself by being the way people access the web, and
already has heavy antitrust pressure put on it but the EU for related reasons.
Extending that would go against their stated world view, and more importantly
raise even more regulatory concerns.
This situation differs from eg. YouTube because they do not themselves host
the content, and are not subject to copyright laws related to it.
Also: Google is made of human beings who have already protested against, for
example, censoring Google within China.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
First Look at the Rift, Shipping Q1 2016 - z3phyr
https://www.oculus.com/blog/first-look-at-the-rift-shipping-q1-2016/
======
dangerlibrary
I was able to get a demo of the Crescent Bay prototype (hand-built tech demo
of the consumer version) at PAX East this year. I've also tried the DK1 and
DK2.
If you've been playing with the DK1 or DK2, the consumer version is
fundamentally better. Do not assume you know what the state of the art is
until you've gotten your hands on a preview. I don't know exactly what the
resolution differences are, and I don't care - it's not the relevant spec to
compare. It's gotten to the point where resolution is "good enough" to trick
the mind and anyone who says otherwise is bikeshedding. They've gotten the
screen door effect under control. With head tracking implemented and drift
solved as a side effect, two huge problems are gone. Their low-latency head
tracking stops people from feeling nauseated like they did with DK1. I could
barely stand without wanting to vomit after playing the Doom demo. The only
game I could play for any length of time was a simple platform jumping game
called Rift Rush.
I don't know what they consider their largest hurdles, but from my perspective
the hardware/software problems are solved for now and they need excellent
made-for-VR content. When done well, the effect is stunning - in one of that
calmer, more exploration-oriented demos I just stared at the light glinting
off a metal bowl as I moved around it for at least 30 seconds.
But the difference between "good" and "mind blowing" was often the result of
things that nobody has thought about before. In the movie-like demos,
sometimes I missed things because I had my back to the action. In VR movies,
the user controls the camera and needs to be told where to look; that's a
problem nobody making movies has ever faced before. Even Pixar's demo suffered
from this - the action was too spread out for the screen's field of view.
~~~
doorhammer
I never got to use Crescent Bay, but I've got a DK2 at home. Resolution for me
will be a non-issue once I can read smallish text on virtual signs/displays.
I'm thinking mostly for games like Elite Dangerous and other simulators like
that, where a cockpit display is part of the game. Do you think the crescent
bay prototype is at that point? (this might be a naive question as it's been
awhile since I've looked up anything on the newest prototypes)
Otherwise I'm with you. Positional tracking was the thing that really made it
awesome for me. There are so many tiny head movements that you make when
you're looking around; if positional tracking isn't pretty much 100%, then it
just feels wrong.
~~~
soylentcola
I agree about the smaller text but at the same time, it's been more of an
issue for me when the content wasn't created primarily with DK2-class hardware
as the target. Elite is great and I feel like Frontier owes Oculus money
because myself and just about everyone I know who got a DK2 also ended up
buying Elite but it's still primarily designed for a monitor.
If you're targeting a game or other application for VR (and assuming generally
similar hardware to DK2 or whatever), there are a lot of design decisions you
can make to improve the experience. Something as simple as using larger text
goes a long way. Color choices help, as does less focus on lists and menus in
favor of gaze-based control.
Then there's the general stuff like "not trying to shoehorn that awesome
first-person-shooter style that was so great on 2D screens into VR". Yeah,
it's neat to look around in a FPS-style game but whereas seated or less
frenetic experiences are gorgeous and immersive, asking someone to run around
in first person while actually sitting in a chair is nauseating. I've seen all
the omni-treadmills and other workarounds and I appreciate the way people are
trying to engineer solutions but I feel like it misses the point. Some things
just work well in VR while other things require a lot of tradeoffs or addons.
~~~
doorhammer
I think Minecraft is a good accidental example of what you're talking about,
especially on the DK2.
It's natural pixel style makes you not notice the resolution at all, and all
of the text is large, and easy to read. The cube nature also really makes me
aware of the 3D, which is nice.
It doesn't do anything to deal with the FPS/nausea problem, though I don't
react very poorly to playing an FPS in the rift as long as it uses a keyhole
style control with the mouse (half-life 2 is a prime example of that).
One other thing I like about minecraft on the rift is that it really shows off
the true blacks you can get with the OLED display. It smears a bit, but it's
still really rad to look into a mine shaft and have it fade to actual darkness
(not sure if the consumer version is planning for OLED off hand).
I definitely agree that it'll be cool when game shops start really thinking
about building their games for VR, and that they can work around VR
weaknesses.
Weird scaling is another issue, when something was scaled to look right from
2D on a screen, but drops the ball in VR. I played Skyrim using Vireo and the
mountains ended up looking like glorified hills, heh.
Another funny issue I had was playing Alien Isolation. VR made it super
obvious that looking out through a spaceship window into "space" was actually
looking at a black wall about twenty ft away.
Looking forward to wherever VR goes, either way.
------
TheCraiggers
Argh, the title of the post has the exact same amount of info as the article
does. I was hoping for details on the changes to the hardware different from
the current dev kit.
Or more importantly, I was hoping to read why I should still care when Valve's
offering is planned to come out _this_ year and is supposedly the bee's knees.
~~~
drzaiusapelord
I would like to know what kind of computer and graphics card I need to make
this thing work. Yeah, a cheaper VR headset pricepoint is nice, but not if
you're just unloading all the expensive components onto the buyer via a $1200+
PC purchase. Not to mention, as someone who suffers with motion sickness with
traditional games, how will the Oculus work for me? Have they solved this
riddle? Will they ever?
This is also why I see Sony having great success with its Morpheus headset.
The PS4 is cheap as-is ($399) and if you already own one, its a no-brainer to
go with their product. I'd be really surprised if Oculus ever goes mainstream.
It still looks like an uber-nerds hobbyist toy like a, say, 3D printer, which
technophiles have been telling us for years would be mainstream by now and in
"every kitchen."
Carmack isn't stupid. He didn't sell to Zuck because he thought he'd be moving
10's of millions of product every year. He sold to Zuck because he knew that
the shipping date doesn't really change things for Oculus. Its still a very
rough road to mainstream acceptance and economic competitiveness. I can afford
$299 for the headset, but I'm not interested in buying a super gaming box to
make it work. Nor am I interested in being a beta tester for a technology
known to be a bit wonky, cause motion sickness, have questionable 3rd party
support, and Facebook ownership/integration/driver and API's TOS.
This is what on top of what Valve is doing, which may just steal Carmack's
thunder as they have everything they need to make this work: the store, no
relationship with unrelated businesses like social networking, large customer
base, community goodwill, game publisher relationships, a decade plus in the
game selling world, etc. If both the Valve set and the Oculus set go for $299,
I can't think of any reason to even consider the Oculus.
~~~
higherpurpose
You'll need a "gaming rig". That's the simplest way I can put it. Don't buy an
"ultrabook" or an "all in one" or some $500 laptop to use Oculus. Whether it's
a PC (cheaper) or a notebook, it needs to be gaming-focused one.
In terms of specs I'd buy a GPU with at least a 3TF performance, and even that
it's probably going to be "mediocre" for the next 2 years. 2TF should work,
too, but might not last you too long, especially for new games. Obviously, the
higher the performance the better, so if you can afford to pay thousands of
dollars for a gaming rig knock yourself out. It will last longer.
You might also want to keep some accessories in mind, such as the Virtualix
Omni or those full body controllers, which could cost you an extra thousand
dollars.
~~~
drzaiusapelord
Everyone I know has a gaming rig of some type, but not anything that can do
1080p per eye at 60fps per eye, which is where this stuff actually starts to
work correctly and what Oculus is designed to use (less motion sickness,
better 3D illusion, etc).
I don't think a lot of people interested in this technology realize how much
hardware they will need to buy to make this work. You're looking, at minimum,
a $400-500 graphic card. Assuming you have the CPU heft to handle everything
else. If not then there's another $400-500 for the chasis, mb, high-end cpu,
high-watt ps, fast 8-16gb of RAM, etc. And that's for a fairly mid to low-end
VR box. That could be $1000 out of pocket right there on top of whatever the
Oculus costs.
~~~
TheCraiggers
Well, it depends entirely on your fidelity of course.
For example, just last night I played a game of Supreme Commander. That was
one of the first games I know of that supported dual monitors, and it does it
well. But I digress- the point is that I had it maxed out on two 1080p
monitors and it was running at 60fps the whole time.
So yes, you will need a big beefy expensive graphics card to play the newest
AAA games maxed out at 60fps. But you could always just turn the settings
down, or play older games. I'm also willing to bet that when the VR market
takes off later this year/early next year, that the indie scene will heartily
embrace it. And typically most of those games run fine on "normal" hardware.
~~~
drzaiusapelord
>For example, just last night I played a game of Supreme Commander.
I'm not buying a VR headset in 2016 to play a game from 2007.
~~~
melling
If you're not happy with first generation then don't buy it. I guarantee that
the second and third generation will be even better. Some guy whining on HN
about a first generation product adds zero value. That first generation iPhone
had lots of critics too, and rightly so.
Bottom line is that a real VR product ships in less than 12 months.
~~~
drzaiusapelord
The Vive ships earlier, so Oculus will actually be second fiddle.
------
nbaksalyar
It's mind blowing how fast we've got to realistic virtual reality with Oculus
Rift and graphic techinques like global illumination (e.g., see "Unreal Paris"
demo: [https://youtu.be/Y6PQ19BEE24](https://youtu.be/Y6PQ19BEE24)) and
inevitably forthcoming real-time raytracing.
We live in a truly incredible time.
------
superplussed
I'm so impressed by their restraint on waiting until the product was right
before going to market.
~~~
Symmetry
Too many people getting motion sickness could kill the VR market for years.
~~~
nolok
It already did, two decades ago
~~~
StevenXC
See
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Boy#Reception](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Boy#Reception)
------
justifier
from my experience with the dk2 i felt their biggest issues were:
hard plastic frame,
eye tracking,
blood circulation
the hard plastic frame limits the variability of the distance between two
pupils. Pupillary distance is ~62mm for women and ~64mm for men(i). With
obvious variance even within the sexes. Just hardcoding a distance is a
limitation that requires the brain to work harder to massage the
inconsistencies causing added strain. ( the images appear to show lenses that
are now even unable to be removed, one potential solution i saw was the
possibility of buying lens kits for offsetting the lens to your specific
pupillary distance )
the lack of eye tracking really disrupts the experience. Look around the place
you are in right now, but keep your eyes straight only moving your neck as you
move from object to object. The movements are awkward and feel like a
retrofuture automaton. Now look around casually and notice how often you
utilise the movement of the eyeball. ( unable to tell at this moment if there
is any extra hardware in the mask )
as for the blood circulation if i wore the dk2 for more than 20m and took it
off to look in the mirror the area around my eyes was white for want of blood
and highlighted by the red marks where the mask was pressed against my face. (
the images show the same face pressing frame )
i had many more issues with the dk2, but these three seemed to me to be
confirmation proofs that the direction digital stereoscopy is going in is
innately flawed
a constructive alternative would be digital stereoscopy that uses eye tracking
to measure pupillary distance and the pupils' direction vector in order to
create a scene ad hoc, or virtual reality through direct sensory manipulation
(i)
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pupillary_distance](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pupillary_distance)
------
Symmetry
Everybody talks about VR in terms of games but I wonder if it might be
possible to create a productive desktop using a VR helmet. Surely it would be
easy to emulate having N monitors but I bet you could do better.
~~~
philmcc
Yes, it will be. Here's a fairly fun demonstration of exactly that.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db-7J5OaSag](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db-7J5OaSag)
~~~
corysama
There's a small subreddit devoted to the idea of programming inside VR.
Several examples there.
[http://www.reddit.com/r/hmdprogramming](http://www.reddit.com/r/hmdprogramming)
~~~
dzhiurgis
These ideas does not provide any novelty.
There is potential to re-imagine programming, but I have no clue how.
Also, keyboard input is not very compatible with HMD. I guess brain interfaces
are the most promising, but why can't we just tap into my pinky's nerve and
train my brain to use that as output?
------
swalsh
Honestly, I'm really excited about all these headsets. But I can only afford
to buy 1 (day care) To me Vive seems more immersive from a gaming point of
view, and hololens seems more practical. I bought a DK1 a few years ago, and
developed a few things for it, but it wasn't super compelling for me (yet).
I spend more time in my basement woodworking these days then gaming. So i'll
probably buy a hololens, I want to design furniture in 3D while seeing how it
will look in the spot that it will eventually "live". I know AR != VR, but if
I can only have one, i'll choose AR.
------
Pfhreak
Here's hoping they fix the issue for those of us with wide heads. I've spent a
fair amount of time tinkering with my DK2 to get a good experience with my
wide IPD of 73mm. I bought some 3D printed lens holders that widen the lenses,
and they helped quite a bit. Without them, my view was blurry in one eye which
caused a fair amount of discomfort.
I'm wholly onboard for the headset, the DK2 is a fantastic experience (barring
the experience of setting it up and launching applications, which is totally
fixable.) Can't wait to see the consumer edition.
------
steve-benjamins
Recently I finally got to try VR— the Samsung Gear VR.
I was a bit disappointed (my expectations were ridiculously high going into it
though). I was surprised to find (1) the resolution to be quite pixelated and
(2) visible black strips of the hardware bordering my viewport.
After usage, both the resolution and the visible hardware were not issues.
They "melted" away and I was "immersed".
But I'm curious: is the Rift expected to be higher quality than Gear in this
regard?
~~~
amckenna
Yeah the Samsung Gear VR was like a mobile consumer version of the DK2. The
Rift (CV1) will be a definite improvement over the Samsung Gear VR in terms of
tracking, audio, and resolution (resolution hasn't been released yet but it is
assumed).
~~~
steve-benjamins
Awesome— thanks!
------
mangeletti
I'm very excited about this release.
In my opinion, they've taken a bit too long, and now they have a high
likelihood of being dethroned between now and their release date (e.g., Magic
Leap, Holo Lens, Gear VR, etc.).
~~~
krolley
Have any of those companies announced a release date for any of their products
though? As far as I am aware, the rift is still (or will be) the first
consumer accessible VR product.
~~~
dcre
Technically, the Gear VR has been available to consumers for months and months
already, though since it lacks head-tracking and desktop-quality graphics it's
not quite the same thing. In addition, being what Samsung calls an "innovator
edition", it has not been fully marketed to consumers at large (e.g., on buses
and billboards).
However, John Carmack hinted in a recent keynote on mobile VR[1] that the next
version of Gear VR would be promoted widely for all consumers and that it
would come out along with the next major Samsung phone release, presumably the
Note 5. The Note phones get updated every September.
[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB_u3FvUTQc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB_u3FvUTQc)
------
appsonify
how far away will tactile simulation gloves come into market?
imagine gripping in-game items, being able to control them as you would with
real objects. squeeze to fill the glove pressing back, feel cold/warmth, feel
textiles.
Combined with increasingly photorealistic games + VR...we are at the mouth of
uncanny valley...it's going to be a very interesting decade.
Maybe we live in a future where people completely abandon their real world
life in favor of a virtual one while the appratus in the real world just keeps
you alive, very much like Matrix...
------
monk_e_boy
Time to upgrade my PC. What is minimum spec graphics card needed?
~~~
verytrivial
I would quite honestly pay for N64-grade graphics if delivered with head
tracking and ultra-low latency. I strongly believe that as in literature, most
of the immersion experience is in the mind. Oculus technology (+3D sound)
really helps to get the _computer out of the way_ of the story.
~~~
monk_e_boy
> ultra-low latency
Agreed. Wonder what they'll suggest? Prob one with tons of fast memory. I read
that most devs are using the new Nvidia 980s because the latency is less.
~~~
adam12
A $550 video card on top of the price of the device itself? If that is the
case, I'm going to have to wait for a device to come out like Hololens that
can stand on its own.
~~~
Raphmedia
If you are a gamer, you should already have that to play current gen games at
max settings. I'm on $1000 worth of GPU right now for 4k, and the 4k screen
itself was about $500.
Don't make it sound like Oculus is more expensive than what gamer already have
to pay to get the best experience.
~~~
sadface
You're not wrong re: best experience, but your $1000 of GPU + $500 screen puts
you in like the top 1% of gamers. Most ppl are gaming on cheap rigs, laptops,
etc. It's possible that FB/Oculus are trying to make something that will only
appeal to the big spending "prestige-rig" gamer set, but I'd think that they
would be trying to make a product that will be compelling to a bigger
audience.
~~~
Raphmedia
You can't really expect to run two 4k screen along with head tracking and all
the other VR magic on a laptop or on a $100 graphic card.
That being said, I'm sure you could play games on the lowest setting without
the need for $1000 worth of GPU.
------
axx
Can't wait to preorder! I'm holding out for the consumer edition since the DK1
and i'm very happy to hear it's coming soon! :)
~~~
Tepix
Soon? Q1/2016 is still up to 10 months away. It's going to be a painful wait.
~~~
Raphmedia
That's not even a year. It's barely more than the time for a pregnancy. Pretty
soon for our first consumer contact with virtual reality if you ask me!
------
Revell
Very much looking forward to the end-product being released, let's hope it
lives up to the hype!
------
sekasi
I'm genuinely surprised we didn't see a DK3 in crescent bay before commercial
release.
Great news!
------
chrionsr
Can't wait for this experience! Good luck towards E3.
------
longlivegnu
Linux support when
~~~
jimrandomh
They currently have a Linux SDK on developer.oculus.com, so looks like Linux
support now, for the hardware they've already shipped. Third-party games are a
different matter, but that's less inside their control.
~~~
longlivegnu
I think utilizing the SDK is a bit different than a run time (Which both OSX
and Windows have)
~~~
jimrandomh
For the OSX and Windows versions, the SDK package actually includes both
development tools (headers, etc) and the runtime; the only reason to offer a
package which leaves out the development stuff, is to make the download
smaller, which seems unimportant.
You can get a sense of where the Linux support currently stands by looking at
share.oculus.com, where third-party developers can submit their games and
demos, and you can filter the list by which operating systems they support.
~~~
longlivegnu
Oh okay, thank you :)
------
imaginenore
4K fingers crossed.
~~~
thefreeman
They can't even render 1080p with low enough latency and high enough frame
rate currently. Are you going hooking your Occulus up to a super computer?
~~~
jamespacileo
It would obviously be an upscaled resolution in games. 4k is for the screen
door effect.
4k is necessary for readable text, ability to watch HD movies and using
virtual monitors. Currently the resolution is too low for any of these, as in
it works but not good enough for being practical.
~~~
Tepix
There is no correlation between the screen door effect and resolution.
Source: Palmer Luckey
[https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/2rayri/hint_that_cr...](https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/2rayri/hint_that_crescent_bay_is_2560x1440/cnedqfk)
~~~
kristofferR
Yeah, I'm pretty sure I read that the screen door effect were even less
visible in the Sony Morpheus prototype, even though it had less resolution
than the Crescent Bay prototype.
------
theklub
Would be really excited but then I remembered facebook owns this and I got
sad.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
To Dine at Kew: The Meals of George III and His Household - pepys
http://recipes.hypotheses.org/10063
======
gumby
> to think about how food was used to encode social relations within homes
> where master and servant ate food produced in the same kitchens, and from
> the same supply chains
The triumph of capitalism and democracy has been the erosion of many of these
distinctions. Consider that even now in this new Gilded age:
\- Billionaires and housekeepers have the same phones, and the deliberately
ostentatious Vertu failed because all it could offer was an inferior phone
with a few gems glued on.
\- Drive around Palo Alto and yes, you see a couple of A8s and escalades, and
quite a few Mercedes. But the bulk of the cars in my neighborhood are the same
Prius, Tahoe, Camaro than you see in the Central Valley, if, it's true,
typically newer.
\- migrant workers can pick up the phone and talk with their family; less than
a couple of decades ago to be a migrant worker was to vanish for a time, or
forever.
\- It's the same facebook site for everyone (or it's a unique FB page to
everyone, depending on how you look at it).
\- Everybody can watch the same TV shows and movies; in their "private
theatre"
\- Anybody in the middle class, even the lower rungs, has flown on a plane.
Not to mention the usual list of reasons always trotted out that all but an
infinitesimal slice of the OECD population has a better material life than
George could dream about.
Of course there remain enormous disparities in health care, nutrition, and
other factors. But the trend, in particular with new technologies, is running
against it.
~~~
huac
While the substance of the tools that everybody use has mostly converged,
there are still many signals of wealth that I think you overlook.
\- The iPhone X and Apple Watch with Hermes bands are a far cry from an
average Android phone.
\- I see plenty of Teslas in PA/MTV. But that aside, I see even more Google/FB
buses - isn't that a higher level of differentiation, where you Uber/Lyft or
take the corporate shuttle to get driven around?
\- Ok, I mean there are still arbitrary borders and restrictions on
immigration that make being a migrant worker a living hell in many places of
the world. I'd guess they aren't experiencing a triumph of capitalism (or
democracy, they can't vote in the places they work).
\- Other social networks thrive on differentiation - Tinder Gold and The
League position themselves as the dating apps where you can avoid the ugly and
the plebian
\- Mass media content has always been intended to be consumed by the masses.
But that doesn't mean that it's the same content that the rich consume.
Broadway shows and other in person performances are not replicated by TV or
other mediums. I had a very interesting conversation about how the
movie/theater divide plays out in Cuba but perhaps that's for another time. \-
It's odd to talk about the egalitarianism of travel by saying 'everyone has
flown on a plane.' The transformation of air travel into a necessity is an
artifact of the accelerating pace of global commerce which has created these
very distinctions. The latest trends in air travel are in fact the additional
polarization of the experience for the rich and poor - the near-universal
embrace of 'basic economy' at the same time as 'ultra-luxury' flights a la
United Polaris, Boom, or anything from Emirates.
~~~
golergka
Tinder gold only lets you see who liked you – and it's really not that
expensive
~~~
huac
Sorry, Tinder Select [https://www.engadget.com/2017/03/08/there-s-a-secret-
celebri...](https://www.engadget.com/2017/03/08/there-s-a-secret-celebrity-
only-version-of-tinder/)
------
tryingagainbro
_Soupe Sante, 4 chickens, tendrons of lamb; mutton cotellets; Emince of
Pullets; 71 /2 Veal Collops; a haunch of venison; 2 large soles; a leg of
Portland mutton; 83/4 muttons; Richmond duck; Capon; 3 pigs trotters;
asparagus; potted meat; Genoise; ¾ prawns; celery and pomme de terre._
If this is him
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_III_of_the_United_Kingd...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_III_of_the_United_Kingdom),
he still lived to 81 years of age.
edit: I know he didn't eat it all
------
barrkel
It would be nice to link to the source, if it's available online. In fact, the
raw data would be far more interesting to me than digested nuggets.
------
steven777400
I found very interesting that the sample meal shown was very, very heavily
pure meat. Today's meals tend to include substantial "bread"/starch component
for each meat: whether a bun, breaded chicken, potatoes. That appears absent
or much reduced on this menu.
~~~
barrkel
Well, I think you can assume there was bread, alongside the pomme de terre
which are on the menu; and we don't have relative quantities for everything,
or know how many people were eating. Variety, though, is a large part of what
makes a meal opulent - e.g. tasting menus usually have 10 to 20 courses when
you include the various little nibbles in between courses. And indeed, tasting
menus typically have a different meat for every dish; if you listed them in
this format, they'd look very meat heavy too.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
U.S. Considers Combating Somali Militants’ Twitter Use - brown9-2
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/20/world/africa/us-considers-combating-shabab-militants-twitter-use.html?_r=1&hp
======
danking00
It's a fine line between blocking the twitter usage of a Somali militant and
blocking the twitter usage of a peaceful American dissident.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Facts & Figures on Women, Poverty & Economics - VuongN
http://www.unifem.org/gender_issues/women_poverty_economics/facts_figures.php
As an Asian male who grew up in a culture with deep-rooted sexism elements, I found this article very sad. Every time when someone hint that women is in any way inferior, I think about my mother, with her 5th grade level education and a determination to raise us kids well. Both mom and dad work a day job, but when both of them come home, mothers are the ones who take care of dinner, children etc. I grew up with a promise to myself that I will break that cycle of sexism with my own family.<p>Just thinking about it, what do you think Hackers community can do to make it more warm and welcoming for female hackers? I remember reading an LA Times article recently about how startup culture is inherently male--what can we do to make it more equal in our own community?
======
VuongN
As an Asian male who grew up in a culture with deep-rooted sexism elements, I
found this article very sad. Every time when someone hint that women is in any
way inferior, I think about my mother, with her 5th grade level education and
a determination to raise us kids well.
Both mom and dad work a day job, but when both of them come home, mothers are
the ones who take care of dinner, children etc. I grew up with a promise to
myself that I will break that cycle of sexism with my own family (I'll be a 1
year old husband in August :P)
Just thinking about it, what do you think Hackers community can do to make it
more warm and welcoming for female hackers? I remember reading an LA Times
article recently about how startup culture is inherently male--what can we do
to make it more equal in our own community?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Create Maps Online: A comparison of 6 webmap providers - diggeo
http://www.digital-geography.com/create-maps-online-a-comparison-webmap-providers
======
nadavw
Awesome stuff... If you're looking into the more social desktop area there's
Mapme out of Israel... What are people's take on Google's My Maps? (esp on
mobile)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
CVE-2019-8912: Use After Free Vuln in All Linux Kernels Up to 4.20.10 - LinuxBender
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-8912
======
cmurf
Dup.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19210727](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19210727)
~~~
surge
Yeah but this link is better.
------
thefounder
Can Rust prevent such bugs?
~~~
topspin
Yes.
The bug itself is a classic case of faulty management of ownership. The Rust
compiler won't compile such code.
------
caf
This appears to have been discovered by the syzkaller fuzzer.
------
A2017U1
> In the Linux kernel through 4.20.11
Perhaps mods should update the title for the benefit of those who only browse
headlines?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How should we rename “Technical Debt”? - kakwa_
First, an interesting video on the subject:<p>https://www.usenix.org/conference/lisa15/conference-program/presentation/dickson<p>This presentation raises an interesting issue which is that the term "Debt" is not necessarily
viewed as a negative thing.<p>Debt can be seen as an opportunity as it's a mean to get capital to invest and grow, specially from a manager standpoint.<p>Even without these considerations, "Debt" remains something quite deterministic, you've to repay a fix amount every month plus interests, and at the end you're done with it (even if it's not 100% true).<p>What's behind "Technical Debt" is generally not like that. It's generally more something which might blow-up catastrophically one day, and there is generally no plan to reimburse it.<p>The term "Technical Risk" might be more accurate, but I personally find it to vague.<p>How should we rename "Technical Debt"?<p>Keep in mind that it should also speak to the none technical side.
======
spotman
It's called technical debt because it's supposed to be paid down.
Real debt is too.
Both have their positives of course. Just because there is cases of technical
debt gone bad and not being repaid, there is horror stories the same with real
debt.
Software often needs this phase to get started, or maybe tech debt is incurred
to put a fire out / solve an emergency.
If you are on a high functioning team or maintain software that has been
around for a long time, technical debt does reduce. It's not fair to name it
any different in my opinion.
------
samstave
Development atrophy
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Searching with Marionette.js + Rails + PostgreSQL - jclem
http://jclem.net/2012/searching-with-marionettejs-rails-postgresql.html
======
jclem
This was my first attempt at quickly banging out a little tutorial-ish post
yesterday. Backbone.Marionette has made building client-side applications
unbelievably easy.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The GoF patterns implemented in Ruby - luccastera
http://clipboarded.blogspot.com/2007/10/gof-patterns-implemented-in-ruby.html
======
simianstyle
These are great!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: My HTML5 Etch A Sketch - gkoberger
http://gkoberger.net/etch
======
jpadvo
That is really cool, gkoberger. Thanks for sharing. :)
------
libraryatnight
Well, I haven't gotten any better at Etch-a-Sketch in the last 15-20 years,
but this is very cool. Thanks for sharing, and nice work :)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Good news: Venture investment is back - adw
http://thebln.com/2009/10/good-news-venture-investment-is-back/
======
pclark
If the bar gets raised and startups have to do more to get investment is that
a bad thing?
Or is that returning to where investment _should_ be? Where the good stuff
(and we know its good because the team rocks and/or because they're
accelerating) and everything else has to work even harder to get _there_.
~~~
adw
The thing I found really interesting was the disparity in size of investment
between Europe and the US (with the UK in the middle).
Anything like this is going to miss a lot of small angel activity, but the
mean European investment is barely half the size of the typical American one.
There'll be some significant skew from the outsize Facebook/Twitter $100m+
rounds – it'd be interesting to work out what the median round size is too.
------
marklittlewood
I think size of invsestment reflects the amount of capital available in each
geography which drives competition for deals and ultimately the bargaining
power of companies ('good' companies can secure more cash in US), and
different attitudes to risk and return.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Building a Docs Site with Jekyll + GitHub Pages - yesimahuman
http://blog.jetstrap.com/2013/03/building-a-docs-site-with-jekyll-github-pages/
======
michokest
After going through the pain of keeping separate repos, branches or even apps
for content pages, my team migrated to simply using a CMS.
Wordpress is a bit of a pain, but we found Harmony (<http://harmonyapp.com>)
to be great at serving pages with programmable themes (think haml, sass, etc)
that marketing people can still edit without bothering a developer.
~~~
eloisant
Well, the CMS is the classical way to do it. Using Jekyll and Github is a more
recent and innovative way to do stuff, much simpler to use for developers and
cheaper because it's free hosting that can scale pretty well.
Of course if you want marketing people to edit stuff asking them is use Git is
going to be painful.
~~~
wereHamster
Install the GitHub app, then tell them to follow these steps: 1) Make your
changes. 2) Write a word or two about the changes here (commit subject). 3)
Press this button (commit) to record the changes. (repeat 1-3 if desired) 4)
Press this button (sync) to sync your changes with your colleagues.
------
m3ntat
Nice writeup. The whole "your docs site is just on a different branch" has
always been weird to me though. I'm not sure what a better way to do it would
be but I don't like these two options: switch branches inline or have a
separate clone of the repo.
~~~
yesimahuman
Yea, but theoretically you could set up a new remote repo just for the site,
and use a specific branch for it. I think the convenience is well worth the
change in process you have to deal with.
------
alexdevkar
What alternatives to people recommend?
~~~
m3ntat
Not the same thing (since this isn't an API), but I like what balanced does:
<https://github.com/balanced/balanced-api>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Trump on foreigners attending US colleges and wanting to stay - tosh
https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/633695559900073984
======
api
People cite these old tweets trying to say he's a hypocrite, but I honestly
don't think it's even that deep. A hypocrite presupposes a belief system for
one to fail to consistently follow. I think Trump just shoots from the hip and
says whatever he thinks will get him the most attention, power, or status at
the moment. There is no belief system or set of values for him to be a
hypocrite about.
~~~
smt88
> _There is no belief system or set of values for him to be a hypocrite
> about._
He has been consistently antagonistic toward non-white poor people, even when
it made him less powerful or less popular (right now, for example, and also
when he kept insulting Puerto Rico).
------
gabrielsroka
It's from 2015.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Myth of Efficiency - tdedecko
http://baselinescenario.com/2010/02/11/the-myth-of-efficiency/
======
rimantas
A quote from my favorite book:
"Good morning," said the little prince.
"Good morning," said the merchant.
This was a merchant who sold pills that had been invented
to quench thirst. You need only swallow one pill a week,
and you would feel no need of anything to drink.
"Why are you selling those?" asked the little prince.
"Because they save a tremendous amount of time," said the
merchant. "Computations have been made by experts. With
these pills, you save fifty-three minutes in every week."
"And what do I do with those fifty-three minutes?"
"Anything you like..."
"As for me," said the little prince to himself, "if I had
fifty-three minutes to spend as I liked, I should walk at
my leisure toward a spring of fresh water."
"The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Chapter XIII
~~~
RyanMcGreal
Possibly related:
> Homer's Uncle Ulysses and Aunt Agnes have a very up and coming lunch room
> over in Centerburg, just across from the court house on the town square.
> Uncle Ulysses is a man with advanced ideas and a weakness for labor saving
> devices. He equipped the lunch room with automatic toasters, automatic
> coffee maker,' automatic dish washer, and an automatic doughnut maker. All
> just the latest thing in labor saving devices. Aunt Agnes would throw up her
> hands and sigh every time Uncle Ulysses bought a new labor saving device.
> Sometimes she became unkindly disposed toward him for days and days. She was
> of the opinion that Uncle Ulysses just frittered away his spare time over at
> the barber shop with the sheriff and thee boys, so, what was the good of a
> labor saving device that gave you more time to fritter?
Robert McClosky, _The Donuts of Homer Price_
~~~
JacobAldridge
_This is a little longer than I'd normally post, but it's relevant and I use
it to make the point often._
An American tourist was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a
small boat with just one fisherman docked.
Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The tourist
complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took
to catch them.
The Mexican replied, "Only a little while."
The tourist then asked, "Why didn't you stay out longer and catch more fish?"
The Mexican said, "With this I have more than enough to support my family's
needs."
The tourist then asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"
The Mexican fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my
children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each
evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and
busy life."
The tourist scoffed, " I can help you. You should spend more time fishing; and
with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat: With the proceeds from the bigger boat
you could buy several boats. Eventually you would have a fleet of fishing
boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to
the processor; eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the
product, processing and distribution. You could leave this small coastal
fishing village and move to Mexico City, then Los Angeles and eventually New
York where you could run your ever-expanding enterprise."
The Mexican fisherman asked, "But, how long will this all take?"
The tourist replied, "15 to 20 years."
"But what then?" asked the Mexican.
The tourist laughed and said, "That's the best part. When the time is right
you would sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you
would make millions."
"Millions?...Then what?"
The American said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing
village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take
siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could
sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos."
------
RyanMcGreal
I find that for me, the biggest efficiency gains are not necessarily changes
that _save time_ but rather changes that _reduce cognitive overhead_.
~~~
lmkg
Operational efficiency analysis originally came from optimizing military
operations in WWII, and it cut its teeth in industrial production in the
following decades. The history shows. As a discipline, it's still focused on
lowering the amount of time, labor, and money to achieve well-defined
objectives (and to be fair, it's very good at it).
The field is still somewhat lost in optimizing creative work, like coding. I
definitely agree that cognitive load is the operative bottleneck in a large
swathe of non-industrial work. I think that operational efficiency research
probably could be used to good effect there if it were applied correctly, but
the problems are still poorly understood by the experts, so it's a while off.
~~~
zb
Well, the time and motion stuff he's talking about actually go back further,
to Frederick W. Taylor in the late 19th Century. Robert Kanigel's biography of
Taylor _The One Best Way_ gives a very good history and a much more in-depth
analysis than can be compressed into a blog post.
------
DenisM
I used to work in a place where exact same reason was given for not upgrading
developer PCs - "devs will goof around anyway, they might as well do it while
build is in progress". No joke.
------
rauljara
I love the example of moving the printers. For me, every time I get up from my
desk for a couple of minutes, I get a little refreshed, and I come back more
productive than before. Having to walk a little ways to get a print out is a
great recharge to my mental batteries. A shorter walk would translate into
less of a recharge.
Of course, I could also easily see how if you were focused on something,
walking a long ways to the printer might be just enough of a distraction to
make you lose your focus. I imagine short "breaks" like walking to the printer
would effect everyone a little differently.
~~~
WingForward
Sure, but should you be recharging your mental batteries (reducing cognitive
overload) based on what documents your printing?
Short breaks and walks are wonderful and productive, but not necessarily at
the times your printing.
------
iBercovich
I completely agree that increasing time at a desk doesn't mean much in terms
of productivity, specially when the activity in question involves a lot of
mental effort. I like how this article talks about time spent working:
<http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000339.html>
------
chipsy
Echoing the mentions of cognitive load, I get the impression that only about
an hour or two of "forceful mental effort" - the period when you're hovering
outside of a flow state and have to reassemble the problem you're working on -
actually takes place during work hours.
This would account for why it becomes incredibly difficult to polish up
creative work after a certain point(fit+finish of software, detailing artwork,
tone and timbre in music); once you've solved all the big problems. You're
spending all your time on figurative hands-and-knees, straining to find the
little things - even though you may know how to attack a problem once you're
aware of it, collecting the necessary data to turn the process into a fast
feedback loop is hard. Hence why polish work is absolutely exhausting, because
you're constantly knocked out of flow.
------
CapitalistCartr
The article seems more to illustrate the pitfalls of incorrectly identifying
the bottleneck in a process, thereby fixing the something that isn't broken.
He points out, rightly, that time isn't always the bottleneck. But any
efficiency analysis that blindly made that assumption without any checking
should be thrown out.
------
Confusion
An important jump in general happiness in my life occurred when I stopped
worrying about efficiency when standing in line in the supermarket, when stuck
in the slow lane or when doing some maintenance around the house.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
“Peak Civilization”: The Fall of the Roman Empire (2009) - simonsarris
http://europe.theoildrum.com/node/5528
======
lambdasquirrel
Only tangentially related, but I can’t possibly be the only one who read this
and thought about a particular codebase...
> _The answer to these crisis and challenges is to build up structures - say,
> bureaucratic or military - in response. Each time a crisis is faced and
> solved, society finds itself with an extra layer of complexity. Now, Tainter
> says, as complexity increases, the benefit of this extra complexity starts
> going down - he calls it "the marginal benefit of complexity". That is
> because complexity has a cost - it costs energy to maintain complex
> systems._
~~~
OrganicMSG
One way to reduce this is to try and enforce that structure is to be dependent
on whatever is currently being done, so that any bureaucracies that are
created are explicitly shut down at the end of a given task, with a meta-
bureaucracy that just has the job of spinning off structures and winding them
up, like job management in an OS.
~~~
wallace_f
Perhaps this is a good reason for a stronger social safety net.
In other words, while on the one hand it is important to eliminate jobs that
produce zero or negative value, or even ones that offer value lower than their
total economic costs (which includes opportunity costs--ie children who learn
more effectively by another teacher, or on their own), on the other hand it is
very difficult to tell people they should be losing their job. One way to fix
that is perhaps to entitle everyone to basic needs.
------
ptrincr
Last time Rome popped up as a topic on hackernews, someone mentioned "The
history of Rome" podcast. It's absolutely fantastic. I mention it so that
perhaps someone else can enjoy this masterpiece as much as I have.
~~~
smartbit
Rome popped up in the GDPR discussion some 30min after your wrote your text
:-)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16606629#16609355](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16606629#16609355)
~~~
ptrincr
Yes, and it also mentions the gini coefficient. This popped up in the History
of Rome podcast I was listening to last night. Never heard it before, need to
read up on it :-)
------
ornel
James C. Scott (in "Against the Grain: a deep history of the earliest states
[2017]) has a bit of perspective on "collapse":
_" Why deplore “collapse,” when the situation it depicts is most often the
disaggregation of a complex, fragile, and typically oppressive state into
smaller, decentralized fragments? One simple and not entirely superficial
reason why collapse is deplored is that it deprives all those scholars and
professionals whose mission it has been to document ancient civilizations of
the raw materials they require. There are fewer important digs for
archaeologists, fewer records and texts for historians, and fewer
trinkets—large and small—to fill museum exhibits... Yet there is a strong case
to be made that such “vacant” periods represented a bolt for freedom by many
state subjects and an improvement in human welfare.
What I wish to challenge here is a rarely examined prejudice that sees
population aggregation at the apex of state centers as triumphs of
civilization on the one hand, and decentralization into smaller political
units on the other, as a breakdown or failure of political order. We should, I
believe, aim to “normalize” collapse and see it rather as often inaugurating a
periodic and possibly even salutary reformulation of political order."_
~~~
astebbin
>an improvement in human welfare
Was this generally the outcome of the Roman Empire's collapse? Intuitively, I
would expect breakdowns in law and order and the collapse of complex supply
chain systems (particularly food delivery) to result in mass human suffering,
at least in the short term.
~~~
nostrademons
For whom, and according to what value system?
The histories I've read of the early middle ages corroborate much of your
intuition. Trade collapsed; many luxury goods became impossible to obtain at
any price; illiteracy rose; population declined and many citizens died from
famine and plague.
But there's often a trade-off between freedom and convenience, then and now.
The Roman empire was built upon large-scale slavery and wealth inequality. If
you were a member of the elite, then yes, the collapse was terrible; you lost
access to all the privileges of the empire. If you were a slave, you probably
ended up somewhat better off, becoming either a peasant or a bandit. Not being
able to obtain pottery or steel doesn't matter much if you couldn't afford it
to begin with, and dying at 40 from starvation is an improvement on dying at
25 in the arena.
~~~
1gor
> If you were a slave, you probably ended up somewhat better off
Slavery continued to exist in Western Europe after the fall of Roman empire
until at least year 1000 AD.
In other former parts of Roman Empire such as Northern Africa slavery
continued to flourish almost until the 19th century.
~~~
hcho
The number of people in slavery would have still decreased. The fact that it
continued to exist is immaterial to the point being made.
~~~
1gor
> The number of people in slavery would have still decreased
On what basis are you making this assumption? "The fall of Rome" was not an
anti-slavery uprising. It was gradual disappearance of the central authority
(and all its benefits such as roads, law and order etc).
About 10% of England's population entered in the Domesday Book (1086) were
slaves. Compare that with the Roman Empire where slave population (including
Rome and all provinces) are estimated at 10-15% of the total.
~~~
hcho
The biggest buyer of slaves going down would decimate the market, no? I would
imagine it would have played exactly like abolition of slavery in Britain or
US. There was still slavery across the world, but the number of people that
suffered from it went down.
------
Nomentatus
Size and complexity shouldn't be confused. Often large size necessitates
simpler policies and procedures.
I happen to be rereading Gibbon right now. He doesn't focus in on complexity,
he contradicts it - pinpointing Constantine's crude-but-effective solution to
constant rebellions and civil wars as the cause of the slow collapse: namely
stationing perhaps two-thirds of Rome's military permanently in the cities
with independent commands (the "palantines".) This prevented the regular
barbarian-fighting armies (the "Borderers") and their commanders from
rebelling successfully because they were now a relatively small military
minority that would have to fight city after city - even in their own area -
just to usurp power locally. But, with one hand tied behind its back, Rome's
fall was inevitable from that point on. This "prepared the ruin of the Empire"
in Gibbon's words. (But it was, arguably necessary, rebellion and civil war
were incredibly frequent before that decision was taken.)
Size (and inequality) had undermined solidarity across the empire, not
complexity. Diversity isn't exactly complexity. Keeping large groups together
is hard, and the traditional pagan religion had lost most of its force well
before Christianity came along; soldiers were no longer too afraid of the Gods
to break a solemn oath in order to join a local rebellion under their
particular commander. Most people's religion, particularly in the upper
classes, had become much simpler - they really didn't have any.
It's possible to see this inexorable tendency toward rebellion as a result of
Augustus' previous simplification long before; when drafting soldiers became
too complex and unpopular, he ended conscription. This set up the situation in
which soldiers became more loyal to their commanders, and themselves, than to
the official emperor in Rome.
Looking at other societies, from other books, local chiefs and individuals
slowly learned how to undercut central authority, in particular, slowly
starving the center of revenues. Deviousness and a growing culture of tax-
cheating and avoidance. It ain't that hard to keep things together if you have
the money.
~~~
smallnamespace
The complexity that is being referred to is social and administrative
complexity, the huge military upkeep being a side effect of that.
A simple _policy_ can still reflect a highly complex, expensive form of social
organization. It's rather hard to argue that stationing massive garrisons
throughout an empire is not a massive exercise in social complexity and
organization.
> Diversity isn't exactly complexity. Keeping large groups together is hard,
It's difficult to argue that late Imperial Rome, with its multiple levels of
bureaucracies, military _and_ civilian, a nascent Church, along with large
standing garrisons wasn't far more socially and economically complex than the
societies of the invading barbarians.
And all that complexity went exactly towards 'keeping large groups together'
without the benefit of a unified ethnicity or other identity.
But note that in earlier times, Rome's technological and social complexity was
able to pay for itself and then some: it was able to field and man large
military organizations, and the complexity brought in a profit by conquest and
war booty.
In other words, _size_ was a logical end result to earlier complexity: in
order to keep the system running, Rome had to continue to grow.
Unfortunately, Rome ran out of rich easily-conquered lands and its inefficient
(and complex) economy could not make the economic transition (unlike the
Eastern Empire, which had richer and more densely populated lands).
Your example of stationing two-thirds of a massive standing army just to keep
order is an example of just how inefficient the late Western Imperial economy
must have been, and why it fell against barbarian groups that had much
simpler, flatter social hierarchies based on ethnic kinship and trust.
~~~
Nomentatus
Much conflation of size and complexity, here, once again. And you seem to
merely elide my points. The size of the Roman army allowed a remarkable degree
of standardization in the tools of war, and training. That's not complexity.
Roman society hadn't gotten poorer; but it had gotten less cohesive, fewer
were ready to sacrifice for the whole.
~~~
smallnamespace
Size automatically required large amounts of social complexity in the days of
Rome, especially if you measure complexity in the actual cost it took to hold
Rome together.
I'll remind you that the contemporaneous Chinese Han dynasty also evolved into
a large militarized, centralized bureaucratic state despite the wide
differences in geography and developmental path, and faced very similar
problems of replacing conscripts with professional soldiers and then keeping
them loyal. What forced them to have similar organization was their sheer size
and the organizational pressures this caused.
~~~
Nomentatus
But I started with a profound example of the reverse. Cost is size, not
complexity. There were considerable savings due to scale in Rome, including
assembly lines for manufacturing amphora, etc.
Re China you give another example of size creating simplicity and
standardization. In contrast to your first paragraph.
~~~
smallnamespace
> Cost is size, not complexity.
You're narrowly defining 'complexity' as only 'complexity of procedure' and
completely ignoring social complexity and specialization.
How about you justify why only the single measure of 'complexity' is
sufficient for our discussion?
A few direct responses to your example:
1\. Standardization _may_ save costs overall, but they represent a form of
social complexity (you now have specialized bureaucrats and administrators to
determine standards and communicate with troops, weapons must move a long way
to supply every legion, training is now done in a centralized fashion)
2\. This social complexity adds fragility to the system—if your army depends
on having standardized gear to function properly, and barbarians capture your
centralized workshops, then all of a sudden you lose the ability to equip the
troops effectively; barbarians don't have that problem
3\. It's not even clear that standardization saves overall costs here; it may
save _administrative_ cost at the Imperial level (it's easier to manage and
train troops if they are interchangeable) but incur large hidden costs at the
local level; in other words standardization may be an externalization of
administrative problems onto the provinces. A direct example would be: if you
force all the troops to use standard gear, they might fight worse than if they
used weapons that were specialized for dealing with local enemies; also now
your troops have a huge delay in being equipped from a central armory, and may
end up pay out of their own pockets for local wares just to survive.
Anyone who has sat through multiple re-orgs at a large corporation will
understand that what is 'simple' for the administrator (let's make the org
chart simple and clear!) may actually cause tons of hidden additional
complexity at the bottom layers, so that total complexity has risen even
though things look 'simpler' at one particular level.
~~~
Nomentatus
Lots of strenuous agreeing with me (vs the article) here, if you actually read
what I've said, along with hypothetical tangents that may be worth thinking
about but don't belong in a reply to me. Much of this I've addressed, see
complex for the pilot, simpler plane. Many distinctions can be made, but less-
organized societies have no shortage of complexity and variety (the armies the
Romans met in Gaul had enormous variety in equipage, and thanks to little
training, all too much variety in the responses of soldiers in battle.) The
(Western) Romans didn't go down due to complexity, and Gibbon can't be cited
for that claim, as was done. The standardization of Roman shields allowed them
to pack together and shield soldiers better, their uniformity was not a
"liability".
~~~
smallnamespace
It's a liability if the costs of the costs of the standardization exceed the
real returns, a point which you have 'strenuously' ignored while pretending to
push the burden proof back to me.
Sure, in a vacuum anything can be seen as 'complexity', but if you actual
_measure_ the costs of doing complicated things in late Roman times then it's
clear why their system fell apart while the Germans' largely didn't, despite
the Romans having more territory and population to start with, and the key is
to see that the late Roman system was horribly inefficient, _even after taking
standardization into account_.
I've made a detailed case for my views. Where's yours?
Otherwise you will never come to any real conclusions, since every society
will look more complex from a particular perspective, so none can be
fruitfully compared to another. Or you would end up with ridiculous
conclusions like modern society is simpler than hunter gatherer societies,
because we have uniform driving laws and a global data routing protocol while
they don't.
~~~
Nomentatus
I'm not ignoring perverse standardization as a possibility, but c'mon there's
no shortage of additional details that can be added, tangents, exceptions to
exceptions, etc. But I'd be more interested if your points were specific
historical instances and sourced, not hypotheticals (which we all acknowledge
as logically possible.)
I've cited a source, and a specific historical instance, have you?
PS - the German "system" fell apart many times, populations swapped, etc. The
area was always a problem, no one empire or monarchy there was a constant
problem.
~~~
smallnamespace
I think the crux of our disagreement here seems to be that you believe size is
the main driver of Rome's failure and complexity should play no (causative)
role.
I have a more nuanced position: size was certainly a strong causative factor,
but it had an intricate relationship to social, military, other complexities
in a strong feedback loop that took place over centuries.
In large, complex systems, it's never one factor that fully causes another,
but a complex feedback occurs; sometimes the system tends towards homeostasis,
while other times a feedback occurs that utterly transforms the system as a
whole.
Let's just talk about Rome in particular. Rome's Empire has often been called
the 'accidental' empire in the sense that the Roman Republic and the people
did not seek out to create an empire from the get-go, but it sort of fell into
their lap. How did this happen?
1\. Rome was embroiled with constant conflicts with their neighbors starting
with the Etruscans and Samnites and developed the military and social
institutions (a certain form of complexity here) that let them eventually
triumph
2\. To defeat their enemies, Rome eventually built a massive war machine
(complexity) and found out that conquest was very profitable (selling slaves
back in Rome, pillaging and taxing the conquered territories—tons of social,
economic, and military complexity, but here have the beginnings of _size_ as
well).
3\. However, this 'pillaging economy' only worked as long as Rome was able to
keep conquering weaker neighbors and taking its population as slaves. At any
point in the process, Rome theoretically could have disbanded (or drastically
reduced) the size of its legions and decided 'here is enough', but internal
conflicts, the quest for glory, etc. kept the military adventurism, because it
was _profitable for the generals and troops that lead the conquest_ (a complex
arrangement, leading to 'size')
4\. Administering a vast empire was difficult, so simplifying reforms (which,
as you say and I completely admit, may reduce complexity) like standardization
of coinage, law, military equipment, etc. occurred in the late Empire. However
this was _still_ in the context of an overly bloated (size) and overly
inefficient (complexity) Empire that was only held together by military force
So I think _you 're absolutely right_ if your thesis is that size ->
complexity. However, in certain cases (like Rome's), complexity -> size as
well, and the combination is key.
And the rise and fall of Rome over the centuries can be seen as a certain path
one can take:
initial complexity (the highly profitable, 'accidental' Roman war machine) ->
overly fast, unsustainable growth -> forced additional complexity due to size
-> failure to reform (and simplify) quickly enough -> collapse
------
jcranmer
The Classical Roman Empire had a surprisingly ineffective and inefficient
administrative system, even at its height. It was strongly centralized, and
the Empire, even by the second century, was simply too large to manage by one
person. After the Crisis of the Third Century, Diocletian essentially solved
the issue by installing multiple co-emperors to divvy up the work, although
this did have massive issues (turns out that having two theoretically co-equal
rulers in an absolute monarchy doesn't bode well for stability).
What essentially happened from the third century through the seventh century
is that the internal instability caused more and more power to be
(intentionally or not) devolved to more local elites. After Christianity
became the state religion, the administrative backbone of Roman Europe became
the Church and not the Empire itself, which also helped to hasten the
devolution. At some point, the local rulers and population would realize that
they're not getting anything from Rome and they owe nothing to Rome, so why
call themselves Roman? The Western Roman Empire effectively dissolved itself
into nothingness, and its passing went more or less unnoticed by
contemporaneous observers.
Portraying this gradual process as a concrete "fall" is somewhat problematic.
There is a striking continuity on many levels. Even the polities end up being
fairly stable: the Frankish kingdom eventually ended up inheriting the Western
Roman Empire de facto and arguably de jure following the crowning of
Charlemagne as Holy Roman Empire, while the Eastern Roman Empire became the
Byzantine Empire. In both cases, the administrative systems had been
transformed dramatically from the traditional Roman model. That's not to say
that there wasn't a severe shock, but the biggest shock would have been the
loss of North Africa (the key granary supplying Rome) that created a vicious
cycle of economic decline. The actual date commonly given for the fall (476)
was more or less contemporaneously ignored by everybody as yet another change
in the local ruler.
~~~
Naritai
While my only source is the Fall of Rome podcast that others on this thread
are raving about, one key point he makes is that whether or not it was a
'Fall' depends a lot on where you lived. Yes, there was lots of continuity in
Aquitane and Gaul, but if you lived in much of Northern Africa, (what is now)
northern France, or Britain, you saw a significant decline in your standard of
living. Britain even stopped using currency altogether.
------
rock57
Great quote made back in 2009 "I can see the politicians of the time running
on a platform that said, "Keep the barbarians out! More walls to defend the
empire"."
Also "As things stands, we seem to be blithely following the same path that
the Roman Empire followed. Our leaders are unable to understand complex
systems and continue to implement solutions that worsen the problem. As the
wise druid was trying to tell to Marcus Aurelius, building walls to keep the
barbarians out was a loss of resources that was worse than useless. "
~~~
meri_dian
Well, the reality is that letting the barbarians in actually did in
significant part lead to Rome's downfall. They rampaged through the
countryside and sacked Rome multiple times.
Rome was in a state of near perpetual warfare with the Germans for centuries.
Eventually Rome became too weak to defend its northeastern borders and the
Germans hollowed out what had become a rotten western empire.
~~~
mjfl
I don't know why you're being downvoted - the analogy to modern politics they
are trying to push is hilariously bad. Are we really blaming the Romans for
not supplicating the Goths and then getting massacred by them, leading to a
1000 year technological stagnation? Are we really trying to project Donald
Trump onto Marcus Aurelius? You've got to be kidding me.
~~~
rdiddly
No, we're projecting Donald Trump onto a hypothetical Roman politician
imagined in 2009 by Ugo Bardi the Oil Drum writer, due to the coincidental and
quite obvious similarity of their "wall" platforms, including both the expense
and the futility, as well as the fact that both are set in empires collapsing
under their own weight. Is it so hard to see?
~~~
meri_dian
America isn't an empire, and is hardly collapsing under its own weight. It's
actually doing incredibly well, aside from some annoying partisan bickering.
~~~
rdiddly
That is, as they say, the naive view.
------
mltony
This article focuses too much on economics. Surely these economic effects have
happened and greatly contributed to Rome's demise. But were they a root cause
or just a consequence of something else? I think that politics played some
role in Rome's demise and that should've at least been mentioned to give a
complete picture.
Some political systems are quite effective, some are not as much. Monarchys
are typically less effective since the power transition is not merid-based.
Roman empire wasn't quite a monarchy in the medieval sense, but judging by the
amount of crises per century, it was pretty close. Wasn't that a factor to be
taken into account? Wasn't that the bad emperors who screwed up Roman economy
to the extent that even Marcus Aurelius couldn't fix it?
Early Roman republic was on the other hand an outlier in terms of its
efficiency. Obviously that was military efficiency, but wasn't it tightly
connected with political efficiency? It seems to me that early Roman republic
managed to build a system that promoted people based on their merit and that
somehow made the entire system an order of magnitude more efficient then their
neighbours.
It seems to me that just the fact that we are looking at ancient Roman history
is an example of availability bias. Hundreds or thousands of other city-states
of that era weren't as militarily or politically effective and therefore lost
to Rome and ceased to exist. This is another indicator of high efficiency of
early Roman politics, and it kind of implies that as time went by the
efficiency slowly or rapidly decreased.
Of course it's hard to argue about how effective is one political system
compared to another. It's hard to even define precisely what is efficiency in
this case. But I think we shouldn't only focus on economics just because it's
easier to talk about. I am waiting for someone smarter than me to write a book
about political reasons of why do societies collapse. Or is there such a book
already out there?
~~~
avn2109
Fate of empires by John baggot glubb is the canonical treatment of this topic.
It’s also really short and pithy and you can read it in an hour.
------
CurtMonash
Since the article starts by citing the battle of the Teutoberger Forest (in
the photo caption), I'll say this:
If you can read or understand German, and you don't know the 19th Century
satirical song "Als die Roemer Frech Geworden", you're in for a treat.
Every recorded version seems to have a different choice of stanzas, but a
comment to
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-z2Nmu4okI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-z2Nmu4okI)
seems pretty comprehensive.
------
maxerickson
I wonder if in the long view we still live in the Roman empire.
~~~
mkempe
The USA is an Enlightenment creation, designed to learn from and avoid the
failures of previous government systems; as such they owe more to the spirit
of Ancient Athens than to that of Ancient Rome.
~~~
baddox
From what I have read, the thinkers of the American and French revolutions
seemed to be influenced by Rome rather than Athens.
~~~
mkempe
The US revolution is driven by the spirit of the agora and the polis, an
alliance of such polities, and the idea that the people are the source of all
state power; rather than the Roman Republic or Empire as a centralized entity
with absolute dominion over the people.
I don't think it is accidental that John Adams and Thomas Jefferson read
classics in the original Greek _for pleasure_. Also, while Cicero was a giant
of the Roman Republic, he was a great admirer of Aristotle.
------
creep
Can someone help me translate the quoted Latin? I'm a beginner.
>“In primis sciendum est quod imperium romanum circumlatrantium ubique
nationum perstringat insania et omne latus limitum tecta naturalibus locis
appetat dolosa barbaries."
I think generally if you look at the above sentence and know some Latin
vocabulary you can see what is going on, but I'm having a hard time sorting
out the structure given the subjunctives, passives, and participles.
~~~
mkempe
"The Barbarians are at the gate."
Source: I took Latin for 8 years; had to read-and-translate live for three
years from Virgil every other week at 8am in front of the class. Latin is
usually more concise than English, except when it's medieval or kitchen Latin.
~~~
creep
There are only two verbs in this sentence that I can see: "appetat" which
means "he/she/it attacks/grasps/strives for/approaches, and "perstringat"
which is a subjunctive and means "he/she/it may graze/seize/reprove". I think
_perstringat_ refers to _sciendum_ , but I am not what _appetat_ refers to.
There is no verb that implies a plural third person, nor is there a word for
"gate" here.
What I'm having trouble with is the second part. So the first part is
something like, "in the beginning, the knowing may draw together what is the
roman authority of the barking around, wherein the nation..." But still I'm
not sure. Then in the second part we have what could be multiple nominatives
and only one verb.
~~~
mkempe
First it must be known that the empire is surrounded etc. etc. and each edge
(of the empire) covered with natural features appeals to cunning barbarism.
I.e. they're at the gate.
------
walterbell
R.A. Lafferty brought this event to life in his fiction.
[https://www.fantasticfiction.com/l/r-a-lafferty/fall-of-
rome...](https://www.fantasticfiction.com/l/r-a-lafferty/fall-of-rome.htm)
_”Rome 's demise was not a simple case of fierce barbarians sacking and
subduing a decadent, crumbling city. The author has skillfully balanced the
turmoil and illusions of a mighty, dying Empire against the vitality of the
aggressive Huns, Vandals, and above all, the Goths. The result is one of the
most perceptive and stimulating historical accounts ever written.
This is history told and read for sheer pleasure: exciting, splendid and
complex. The Fall of Rome is a story of the men and women who made things
happen, who were as awesome, poignant, and in some cases, as savage as the era
itself.”_
------
mynameishere
The fall of Rome is complicated because people like to match it up with their
pet theory as to why our current empire will collapse real soon now.
But the Romans just ran out of things to steal. Taking foreign lands meant not
just immediate booty but ongoing tribute and advantageous trade and promises
of farmland for soldiers. That strategy could only go so far. Then when they
lost their great early prize, Carthage, which supplied grain to Rome itself,
the empire was finished. Local gangsters took over from the distant gangsters
and so they had feudalism.
~~~
icebraining
The eastern Roman empire kept going for centuries despite losing Egypt and
generally getting their ass kicked by the caliphates, though.
------
drpgq
I miss the oil drum. It had good content and good commenters. Too bad they
couldn't survive the rise of oil from shale.
------
qwerty456127
I am not even sure it has actually fallen. It seems a lot we are still living
in what it has morphed into.
------
soufron
Has it fallen ? Il thought its capital had moved to Washington...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Spring Dependency Injection Styles – Why I love Java based configuration - javinpaul
http://blog.codecentric.de/en/2012/07/spring-dependency-injection-styles-why-i-love-java-based-configuration/
======
cletus
I've used Spring on and off for 7+ years now. It was a seachange for Java and
I like it a lot but the Java-based configuration has a serious defect.
Spring supports two methods of dependency injection: constructor injection and
setter injection. Guice (in comparison) favours constructor injection. I
prefer constructor injection too. It means objects can't be instatiated in an
invalid state (assuming you enforce preconditions) whereas with setter
injection you have to rely on lifecycle methods (eg @PostConstruct) to enforce
that.
With Java-based Spring configuration you create _instances_ rather than define
dependencies in terms of _classes_ (as Guice does it). This is a problem for
constructor injection but not for setter injection.
This means when you create an instance to satisfy a dependency you need to
explicitly supply all the constructor arguments. Spring would otherwise figure
out setter injection.
With Guice you associate classes instead so you don't need to explicitly call
a constructor with all the arguments. For Java-based configuration IMHO Guice
is much better in this regard.
Also, Java-based Spring configuration relies on the cglib library, which may
or may not be a problem in certain environments (eg its not officially
supported on AppEngine but in my experience works fine for this).
So if you like constructor injection you have two options: component scanning
or XML.
Component scanning is slow. Too slow. For even a small number of objects
(<100) I've reduced startup times from ~30 seconds to ~10 seconds just by
switching to explicit construction.
XML is really the best choice here. One thing you may not realize is you don't
need to specify all the dependencies in XML (setter or constructor). You
simply do a definition like:
<bean class="com.example.Foo" />
and
public class Foo {
@Inject
public class Foo(Bar bar, AnotherBar anotherBar) { ... }
}
and Spring will figure it out.
IMHO this is far better than Spring's Java-based configuration.
EDIT: to clarify, @Inject here is JSR330 DI annotations [1] so
java.named.Inject not com.google.inject.Inject. As that page notes Guice now
supports either form.
[1]: <http://code.google.com/p/google-guice/wiki/JSR330>
~~~
stitchy
"So if you like constructor injection you have two options: component scanning
or XML."
I only half agree that this is a limitation. I use as little component
scanning as possible. I think it's better to scan for the configuration
classes (hopefully there aren't many) and explicitly define the rest. I like
this for two reasons, first for speed and second because everything is defined
in a fairly central place. I can't tell you how many times I've been surprised
by annotation based configuration.
Personally I like Spring's Java Configuration over Guice's. It's more flexible
for my needs. Although I suppose that an argument could be made that that's
the problem: configuration over convention.
I'm glad you mentioned the Guice style @inject is available with Spring now. I
wasn't aware of that.
~~~
jsolson
I'm on the polar opposite end of this. We component scan everything we can,
and I couldn't be happier. I have never once been surprised by what annotation
based config assembled for me.
So, approaches may vary.
------
FlyingSnake
How's does it compare to Google Guice? Are there any benifits of using a
lightweight DI Engine over Spring?
~~~
sgolestane
On top of dependency injection out of the box Spring offers a lot more, like:
Transaction Management, an MVC framework, JDCB templates, ...
~~~
peeters
The key phrase there being "out of the box". Guice does great transaction
management, just pull in guice-persist. It integrates with servlets cleanly,
just pull in guice-servlet.
The difference is mainly that Guice tries to be a library and Spring tries to
be a framework. I, for one, like knowing that I'm not pulling in "the world"
just to get dependency injection.
Guice at its core does one thing, and one thing well: dependency injection
(and by extension, AOP). It does dependency injection far better than any
Spring version I've used (see: constructor injection).
~~~
Radu
Yes, but sooner or later guice won't be enough and you'll use a framework
anyway; then the integration mess begins. With the configuration in
code/profiles in Spring 3.1 I don't see any real-world advantage to using
guice.
~~~
peeters
Absolutely not. When core Guice "isn't enough", I just grab one of the many
great tools that integrate with Guice (Jersey is one example). My DI tool
remains my DI tool, and I use a library that provides bindings for it.
------
zupatol
Wasn't the java configuration what spring wanted to replace in the first
place? The idea was to follow the inversion of control principle. Here's how
wikipedia defines it:
>In software engineering, Inversion of Control (IoC) is an object-oriented
programming practice where the object coupling is bound at run time by an
assembler object and is typically not known at compile time using static
analysis.
~~~
jsolson
Spring's Java Configuration can mean a few different things.
One is using @Autowired, @Component, and friends to build up your context. One
could argue this violates IoC, although I disagree, but that's actually not
the interesting meaning.
The interesting meaning is the use of @Configuration and @Bean to replace XML-
driven config with Java-driven config. Basically you can replace a Spring XML
file with a Java class that creates the same beans and assembles them in the
same way, but in cases where you need to do something awkward to create a Bean
instance that would be trivial in Java, you just do the trivial thing in Java.
So you haven't lost any of the abstractness provided by IoC. Bean classes
don't change at all. It's simply how they're assembled that changes. Instead
of writing a giant set of XML files to create a giant set of POJOs and wire
them together, you write a similar set of Java classes and have one less
language to deal with.
~~~
zupatol
> Instead of writing a giant set of XML files to create a giant set of POJOs
> and wire them together, you write a similar set of Java classes
This is how you would do it without spring. I suppose there must be an
advantage of using @Configuration and @Bean instead of plain java, but what is
it?
~~~
dimasg
They give you automatic proxied/intercepted objects for things like
Transaction management, asynchronous execution, general AOP, etc. If you're
not using any of that, there's probably little to no advantage to using pure
Java DI. But those things are really nice to have.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A used voting machine from the 2016 election - jpindar
https://twitter.com/AltUSPressSec/status/1019955719964160006
======
js2
My county uses a bubble form which I then place into a scanner and I can see
the counter on the scanner increment. I can print out a sample ballot from the
county website ahead of time.
This seems like the best system to me. Most Americans are very familiar with
bubble forms and there is a clear paper trail while still allowing electronic
counting. The only downside is the cost of the paper ballots, and I suppose,
not allowing for last minute changes. I don’t know how accessibility issues
are handled, but I believe there are attendants to help with that.
There’s just no way I will ever trust an touch screen voting system,
especially from a single manufacturer. Maybe a system where a touch screen
system from company A prints out a receipt which is then scanned by a scanner
from company B and both systems have to match. Maybe.
Meanwhile the parties are fighting over voter ID though so I don’t see this
getting any real attention.
~~~
pmoriarty
_" This seems like the best system to me. Most Americans are very familiar
with bubble forms and there is a clear paper trail while still allowing
electronic counting."_
The problem is that the paper ballots may never be hand counted if the margin
between the candidates given by the electronic vote counting machine is far
enough apart.
Of course, whoever hacks a vote counting machine can give any vote count they
want, so they can set the margin however wide they want.
The only way to really be sure of the totals is to do hand counts of paper
ballots, with representatives of each party participating or at least
observing the entire count.
Machines should never be trusted.
~~~
c22
It seems like any electronic-based voting system should be subject to
randomized audit via manual recount of its paper trail, regardless of reported
margin. This way we can reap the efficiency rewards of electronic systems
while also becoming aware if wide-scale tampering has taken place.
~~~
ball_of_lint
That would be excellent if you had to modify hundreds of machines to influence
an election but the case now is that even a few strategically chosen machines
could drastically swing an election.
~~~
marcosdumay
So audit those machines. It's still a small number.
~~~
hackandtrip
It's not about the technical problem, it's about the perception from people of
an electronic vote. People that didn't grew up in the tech revolution are
going to be skeptical anyway, and I'm not sure about the ones that are full of
social induces doubts about everything. It seems to me we are trying to solve
a non existant problem
------
pmoriarty
There was a lot of hoopla in the media over easily hackable voting machines
before and shortly after the Bush vs Kerry Presidential election. Afterwards,
the Democrats screamed fraud and vowed to get rid of those easily hackable
voting machines. Then they apparently forgot all about it and moved on. The
machines are still there. The vulnerabilities are still there. The results of
any election that they play a role in is suspect.
Then Trump vs Clinton came around, and it seems no one remembered that the
easily hackable voting machines were even there. But they were. What role did
they play in the election? Without a paper trail, we may never know.
Apart from the travesty that is the easily hackable electronic voting machine,
there are also electronic vote counting machines. In my own district, we voted
on paper ballots which where then directly placed in to electronic vote
counting machines. If those are hacked they can give out any vote total the
hacker wants, perhaps just outside the margin required for a manual recount.
Any election where either electronic voting machines or electronic vote
counting machines were used should not be trusted. When there's no paper
trail, it's even worse, but even where there is the laws might not allow a
hand recount.
The use of either of these types of machines might explain why exit poll
numbers and predictions have been so wildly off the mark in recent years.
~~~
noobermin
Exit poll numbers weren't off. Predictions were only off because people
ignored the actual polls and inserted their own biases into the interpretation
of said polls, and thought popular vote == winning.
~~~
monocasa
That's my understanding too, that despite being heavily data driven, the
Clinton campaign (and most of the polling agencies as well since they were
using the same techniques) didn't have anywhere near a correct model for a
"likely voter". That biased the results of their total model heavily towards
Clinton.
~~~
pmyteh
It's _very_ hard to come up with reliable likely voter models, not least
because there are significant changes in people who vote every time. The
opinion polls in the 2017 British general election were out, for example,
because in the event unusual numbers of unlikely voters came out to vote
Labour. Things were obviously going to be different that time (Labour had
elected a deeply unlikey leader and repositioned itself) but no-one had any
solid evidence _how_ turnout patterns would change, or to what degree.
So yes, inaccurate likely voter modeling is a serious problem. But it's
_really_ hard if things are changing, politically.
~~~
monocasa
Oh absolutely, it's a nearly impossible task. You can't even trust current
polls asking people if they're likely to vote.
------
joekrill
This seems like it would be very interesting but a series of Tweets seems to
be just about the worst possible medium for this.
~~~
bdcravens
Here's the entire thread (tweets combined):
[https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1019955719964160006.html](https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1019955719964160006.html)
~~~
alexandercrohde
Thanks, that's a million times better
------
walrus01
Canadian federal elections are still done on pencil and paper with cardboard
ballot boxes. Manually counted, double checked and recounted at each polling
station.
However, a Canadian election is much simpler because you're voting for _just_
your MP, there's not dozens of choices of things to vote for like sheriffs,
state reps, etc.
a ballot looks like this:
[https://www.google.com/search?q=canadian+federal+ballot&num=...](https://www.google.com/search?q=canadian+federal+ballot&num=100&client=ubuntu&hs=6vj&channel=fs&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjtuIS_iq_cAhWjCTQIHbpRAZEQ_AUICygC&biw=1508&bih=1388)
Provincial and municipal elections happen similarly but occur at different
times and on different schedules.
------
phren0logy
I'm surprised this hasn't gotten more traction here, but that's likely due to
the issue joekrill already pointed out - a tweet stream is annoying and
painful. It's too bad, there's a lot of interesting detail here.
------
foobarbecue
In case anyone was actually interested in the outcome of the research, it's
here
[https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1019955719964160006.html](https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1019955719964160006.html)
, and so far there's nothing substantial. They say they're going to replace
the boot screen.
------
lolc
While I welcome a teardown of a voting machine I wonder why it's mixed with
the conspiracy theory that the Russian state falsified votes. You'd think
there are enough interested parties to make the Russian state an unlikely
culprit even if evidence of tampering should be discovered.
~~~
jonhendry18
"While I welcome a teardown of a voting machine I wonder why it's mixed with
the conspiracy theory that the Russian state falsified votes. "
I don't think we can say with certainty that they didn't. We know they were
hacking into other voting-related systems. We know they hacked a voting
systems vendor and spear-phished hundreds of election officials. And a Russian
oligarch-connected investment firm bought a company that hosts Maryland's
statewide voter registration, candidacy, and election management system; the
online voter registration system; online ballot delivery system; and
unofficial election night results website.
None of this directly confirms that votes were changed, but it's indicative of
a heck of a lot of activity around our elections, and it would be very odd if
they weren't making efforts toward changing votes. Possibly to the extent of
having operatives in the US to do so or bribing election workers, though I
have no evidence of either.
~~~
lolc
> I don't think we can say with certainty that they didn't.
And so we can't with many other actors. Why single out Russia?
> We know they hacked a voting systems vendor and spear-phished hundreds of
> election officials
From where I am those claims have not been sufficiently proved. But yes,
depending on the credibility you afford leaked NSA documents, it's a reason to
focus on Russia. Still I want to caution against the conclusion that evidence
of tampering means the Russian state must have done it.
> Possibly to the extent of having operatives in the US to do so or bribing
> election workers, though I have no evidence of either.
A classic conspiracy theory. It's nice in that it works even when the scheme
is exposed as even rumors of it destabilize U.S. politics.
------
korethr
I would _hope_ that such a device would be wiped and/or factory reset before
being auctioned off. However I've worked in IT long enough to know how all too
often, that doesn't happen.
That said, I believe any claim that there was evidence of this machine having
been tampered with or compromised should be viewed with some skepticism unless
we can see said evidence side by side with a known-good machine. How is one to
evaluate it otherwise if there's nothing to compare it to? Any thing dredged
out of that machine's guts could genuinely seem suspicious, but how are we to
know such wasn't simply the vendor's incompetence -- especially with as much
incompetence in the design of these machines as has been brought to light so
far?
~~~
eat_veggies
Is it even possible to have a known-good machine? If we're potentially dealing
with state actors here, the entire supply chain could be compromised, so even
machines fresh out the factory might have backdoors.
------
harry8
This is one of the few forums where more than a tiny minority would even
understand the vocabulary of the analysis as to whether the machines are
fraudulent. This is a huge problem and should prevent such machines ever being
used.
Even if they are 100% fine and better than paper ballots people are relying on
third party expertise to say it's ok. Everyone understands or can very
quickly, ballot box stuffing, systematic fraudulent counting of paper ballots
etc. It's not just being honest in voting and counting it's being obviously so
and readily understandable that is critical for democracy. These machines,v
even if otherwise perfect, are neither. Don't let them near your election.
Surely. It's insane.
------
blackflame7000
We should still use paper records with identifcation. If there is a problem
with some people not having access to proper ID lets solve that problem
instead of leaving our firewall down on election security to support the
people still using ssl so to speak.
------
adreamingsoul
Someone should give one of these voting machines to mikeselectricstuff.
~~~
dokem
Yea, listening to EEVblog for too long makes my ears hurt. Mike is much more
chill.
------
jonny_eh
So was evidence found of tampering or not?
~~~
foobarbecue
No evidence was presented, but lots of attention was gotten. I guess we are
waiting in breathless anticipation for the "results". I doubt anyone doing
this seriously would post a tweet thread like this before actually doing the
work.
Does anyone know this guy? Is he competent or something?
------
satellitec4t
Twitter is horrible
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Robert Morris: All About Programming - avsaro
http://paulgraham.com/aap.html
======
allendoerfer
> My father tried to interest me in programming somewhat before high school;
> it didn't work, and I didn't continue then.
I suspect, that it almost never works that way. Learning programming or
hacking as a child is all about figuring it out on your own, doing something,
what your parents or your teachers can not understand, defining your own
identity.
That is why I doubt that all the programs in the US, which try to teach
children programming, will work. They might teach some concepts, but in the
end i fear, that they will hinder the children to aspire a career in the
field. I see a bad parallel to beauty contests, were parents try to live their
dreams through their children.
Of course it is never black and white, but I think you have to be ultra
careful with stuff like this. I think naturally interesting, open platforms
are a better way to get children to dig deeper. Minecraft is a perfect
example.
~~~
3pt14159
My mom taught me programming as a 6 year old almost 25 years ago. I went on to
study it at college night school from 10 to 14 and held a job before
graduating high school programming ASP, JS, and MS SQL.
Sometimes parents can teach their children things _and_ have it stick.
~~~
fit2rule
Yeah, not everything involving generations is so myopic. My kids, 7 and 4, are
absolutely entranced by computers and love to sit down at our old-school 8-bit
battlestation and bash things out. The elder has figured out how to do his
maths homework on it, and the younger has become an expert at loading files
and running them. None of this would be possible if I hadn't encouraged them
to investigate computers by setting up the battlestation in the first place ..
I think the key to getting kids interested in programming is to understanding
cyclomatic complexity in the first place, and not introducing them to things
that will overwhelm their interest. In the case of our 8-bit machines, which
are still fully functional programming devices, we seem to have met the sweet
spot .. lets see if in a couple of years we upgrade them to a Linux box and
compilers and so on. I'm fairly confident this will happen .. at least in the
case of the 4 year old, whose affinity for the subject seems to be being
amplified by observing daily his elder brothers' competence and confidence as
they discover - together - new things.
~~~
nazka
I will be very interested if one day you write about it. How you "designed"
the right battlestation (not too hard, but still challenging enough for their
age), and how you get them interested while avoiding not to over push them.
Really cool!
~~~
fit2rule
Actually I didn't have to do much beyond setting up the machines (in our case
an Oric-1/Atmos) and getting the means together to load the old software
archives on it.. once that was ready and booted, the kids just took over. It
turns out that 8-bit computing is really accessible to little kids, just like
it was for me in the 80's, and while that may have changed with the current
generation: the old machines still live!
;)
------
bcd21
"Not wanting to look like a loser to the people I most admired, I was pretty
late in admitting the obvious about math."
Don't understand this part, what's the obvious thing about math he was late in
admitting? Were the Bell labs people right in his opinion or not?
~~~
Gyonka
I think he means the Bell Labs people were wrong, i.e Robert Morris did not
enjoy math, for him it was about the programming. He later mentions that it
was tough keeping in touch with the people at bell labs after ignoring their
advice about math.
I THINK. You're right, it's a bit unclear.
~~~
jeffreyrogers
This was my interpretation as well.
------
tim333
Took me a couple of minutes to figure who Robert Morris was so to save others
the effort:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Tappan_Morris](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Tappan_Morris)
~~~
esonderegger
I just finished reading The Cuckoo's Egg by Cliff Stoll this morning (And I
highly recommend it!). In the Epilogue, Stoll writes about the Morris worm and
briefly mentions:
(Harvard student Paul Graham sent him mail asking for "Any news on the
brilliant project")
When I read that, I wondered if that was THE Paul Graham.
~~~
endgame
Seconding this recommendation. I found a copy, used, at random for 50c. FIFTY
CENTS. Easily the greatest enjoyment/price ratio of anything I own.
Have you read his later book, /Silicon Snake Oil/? It's interesting how wrong
he ended up being about a lot of things.
~~~
wwweston
Dead wrong about e-commerce and eBooks and good number of other things to
boot.
On the other hand: "The truth is no online database will replace your daily
newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher and no computer
network will change the way government works.""
He's _partially_ wrong -- we have online newspapers, online education
resources that are better than nothing, and some political action via web-
shared activity.
But in spirit, anybody who's been paying attention to journalism is worried
about whether we even care to subsidize a healthy fifth estate anymore (or
just want more listicles and cable news), even Khan Academy isn't a substitute
for a competent teacher, and politics is still driven by the overriding
incentives and foibles of human nature.
Some of our new tools/resources are making a bigger difference than others;
some are just cosmetic changes.
~~~
michael_nielsen
Stoll has written a lovely 2010 mea culpa:
[http://boingboing.net/2010/02/26/curmudgeony-essay-
on.html#c...](http://boingboing.net/2010/02/26/curmudgeony-essay-
on.html#comment-723356)
Quoting:
"Of my many mistakes, flubs, and howlers, few have been as public as my 1995
howler.
Wrong? Yep.
At the time, I was trying to speak against the tide of futuristic commentary
on how The Internet Will Solve Our Problems.
Gives me pause. Most of my screwups have had limited publicity: Forgetting my
lines in my 4th grade play. Misidentifying a Gilbert and Sullivan song while
suddenly drafted to fill in as announcer on a classical radio station. Wasting
a week hunting for planets interior to Mercury’s orbit using an infrared
system with a noise level so high that it couldn’t possibly detect ‘em. Heck –
trying to dry my sneakers in a microwave oven (a quarter century later,
there’s still a smudge on the kitchen ceiling)
And, as I’ve laughed at others’ foibles, I think back to some of my own
cringeworthy contributions.
Now, whenever I think I know what’s happening, I temper my thoughts: Might be
wrong, Cliff…
Warm cheers to all,
-Cliff Stoll on a rainy Friday afternoon in Oakland"
------
galori
Can someone translate?
Might be some good wisdom in there but that is the most convoluted, badly
written several paragraphs I've seen in a while. Maybe they're taken out of
context or something or assume some knowledge that is missing?
~~~
sushirain
In sum, he never saw programming as work. Graham wrote that if you feel that
what you do is not "work", then it indicates that what you do is a good career
choice. But Morris says that even if someone explained it to him, he wouldn't
have been able to grasp it back then. It took him a long time to realize that
programming was more important to him than math, because of social pressure.
------
jarcane
I stayed away from pursuing programming as a vocation for almost 15 years.
I intuitively knew as a child that there were parts of programming and using
computers which "weren't work" for me, but also very much ones that were, and
I foresaw the probability that I might cease to enjoy the "not work" parts
after being ground down by too much work.
As I come back to it now, I still think that. Increasingly I think it really,
genuinely, depends on the style and language of programming you take up, and
what you do with it. When I code in something like Lisp or Haskell, it doesn't
feel like "work," it feels like problem solving. I tend to focus on CS topics
as well; I built a VM, and a couple of programming languages, because they too
were fun to think about, not work.
For me, I have progressively gravitated to more and more expressive languages,
while moving away from more imperative ones which descend into repetitive
"design patterns". I burned out quickly on the world of web programming, which
inherently seems to require a whole lot of tedious yak shaving if you're
flying solo.
Of course, the flipside which anyone bothering to read this may already be
hastening to chastise me with is that none of this is likely to necessarily
lead to actual employment.
Someone has to do the "work." And the amount of "work" to be done is a lot
greater than there are people who don't find it work, which is why there will
always be a lot more demand for that. In part I suspect this is because some
kinds of "work" are self-replicating (Java programming begets the need for
more Java programmers ...), but I nonetheless find myself fearing that my
chosen "not work" is merely a fool's fantasy; and I occasionally have guilt
complexes about "why am I not just learning JavaScript so I can at least get a
gruntwork job at Rovio or somewhere" ...
~~~
pakled_engineer
I took a major pay cut so I wouldn't have to work with certain popular
commercial languages ever again, and now enjoy working in a small studio where
we create DSLs in Scheme. Every week I discover something new about Lisp and
then use it on independent hobby projects, whereas before I didn't even want
to look at a computer after work.
~~~
bojo
If you don't mind offering up the information, where do you work? Or at the
very least, what field do you work in? That sounds extremely fun.
~~~
pakled_engineer
Small stealth mode startup in Vancouver, Canada that does custom DSLs for the
oil & gas industry. I found the job on my local CL, they were advertising
looking for anybody who had read SICP, or had experience doing functional
programming. It doesn't pay a lot but enough to live comfortably while single
plus I get to hack around in Scheme all day, though now they want me to learn
Haskell too.
I work 6hrs a day usually and spend the rest of time experimenting with my own
DSLs for future side projects or enjoying life whereas before I'd go to work
before the sun came up, work in a windowless office under constant
unachievable deadlines then leave at night. I had money but no life.
~~~
gwern
A job for the oil & gas industry which requires SICP level coders which
doesn't pay well? I'm not sure what to think - that that industry really
doesn't pay well, or that you need to read patio11's guide to salary
negotiations.
~~~
Gracana
He explains that he's happy and says he lives comfortably. Why is that not
enough?
~~~
gwern
Because if he's making a below-market salary as it sounds like, he could be
doing better. With a higher salary, he could have more savings, more security,
more easily afford a family or the things he wants, donate more to charity,
spend more on personal hobbies, etc. Money has many uses.
And I could ask you the same question: the startup founders and oil industry
would live comfortably enough if they made a little less and paid him better;
why is that not enough? Why should they be making more?
------
GuiA
_> The idea that one should ask questions about one's own life (e.g. your
"What seems like work...?") and act on the answers was completely alien to me
in those days, and I doubt I could have absorbed any wisdom in this
department._
That resonates deeply with me. Until my early 20s, I was terrible at absorbing
any form of wisdom from anyone. I just went ahead forward into whatever
interested me, with no regard for what anyone would have to say about it. I
was fortunate enough to be born with a brain that worked fairly well and
allowed me to get away with this behavior for the longest time.
It is for this reason that I consider my time in grad school as mostly a
failure - I joined at 19 as a PhD student and left 2 years later with a
Master's degree, leaving the PhD for startups, and in those 2 years I didn't
achieve anything that I'd consider interesting work (completely by my own
fault). Even worse, my immaturity resulted in me making very little of the
absolutely brilliant advisor I had (the perfect combo: a researcher whose
early work pioneered a new field and gave him enormous peer recognition, but
who was still early enough in his career that he had plenty of time to devote
to his students), who had high hopes for me that ended up completely
unfulfilled.
It was only after a few years of working in the real world with some very
smart (and some very dumb) people, getting yelled at, seeing friends get fired
(I never got fired myself although I came close a few times), and a few other
similar experiences that I realized that indeed my life would be much improved
if I stopped and recognized that some people do have words of wisdom that hold
value for me. Psychedelics and traveling the world+meeting people who had it
way worse than me yet achieved way more with what they had also contributed
significantly to my maturing - the rewards of it being that I now am starting
to enjoy an amount of success, clarity, and reward in my work that would have
been unconceivable 6 years ago (although it still feels like most of the road
is ahead, as it should).
For those reasons, it feels like advice such as the one given by PG is lost:
the people who need it most won't really get the importance of what he means,
and the people who will get it can do so because they've already internalized
it.
All that being said, I look forward to 5 years from now, when I will say
things about my mid-20s similar to what I just said about my early 20s :)
~~~
auggierose
I advice you to stay away from the psychedelics. Trust me, this is an advice
you can't afford not to believe until it is too late.
~~~
lumpypua
You've clearly been burned. That's fine, but tell us your story rather than
giving some vague advice devoid of context.
~~~
lgieron
My friend's mental health was seriously and irreversibly damaged by a one time
adventure with psychedelics... Apparenty, non-negligible (over 1%?) portion of
the population reacts this way.
~~~
shutupalready
I know a kid whose throat swelled up, couldn't breathe for several minutes,
and suffered brain damage after a one time incident of eating peanuts...
Apparently, non-negligible (over 1% [1]) portion of the population reacts this
way.
Lesson for everybody: Don't eat nuts!
[1] [http://www.mountsinai.org/about-us/newsroom/press-
releases/r...](http://www.mountsinai.org/about-us/newsroom/press-
releases/rate-of-childhood-peanut-allergies-more-than-tripled-
between-1997-and-2008)
Your argument against psychedelics is not persuasive in the manner presented.
~~~
lgieron
It depends on how much risk averse you are - I know that, for me, trying out
psychedelics is not worth the 1% risk of going into psychotic breakdown, being
admitted to psychiatric ward or even messing myself up permanently. For others
it might be worth it.
------
quaunaut
This is one of those places where I've been really conflicted for as long as
I've been back with programming.
Right now, I'm going with the path that not only makes more money(and thusly
induces less stress), but also has a higher probability of making people's
lives better, through the kinds of things I want to put my time and effort
into being focused around enabling people to create their own jobs.
Yet I know __extremely __well what I want to do, what makes me happy. It will
make some others happy, but a significantly smaller number. It certainly won
't change lives for the better. But doing it would make it so the things I
think about in the margins of my mind, all day and night, for as long as I can
remember, are what I spend my life working on.
In essence: I can't tell if it's a better idea to do what makes me happy, or
what makes others' lives better.
~~~
nileshtrivedi
Given that money has a time value, it makes sense to do the latter in your
early years and gradually tilt the balance towards the former.
------
aditya
typo: absorbtion should be absorption
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How to Choose Between Additive and Subtractive Manufacturing Methods - fictivmade
https://www.fictiv.com/resources/starter/additive-vs-subtractive-methods
======
MichaelCrawford
How to carve an elephant out of a large block of stone:
(Additive) Obtain a large block of stone.
(Subtractive) Remove all the parts of the stone that do not look like an
elephant.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Netherlands went offline for a bit - janvdberg
http://piks.nl/upload/upload/20150513%20amsix.png
======
janvdberg
Ams-IX (one of the larger IX-s) had a large outage, causing an effect on
almost all internet traffic in the country. More: [https://ams-
ix.net/](https://ams-ix.net/)
------
ITWarrior
I actually noticed it, I was at the erasmus university and the wifi there just
ground to a halt. Then I switched to 4G but that wasn't much better. I thought
it was very strange but this explains it.
------
gnu8
Just long enough to unplug fibers, install passive taps, and reconnect.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Dreamup: A codeless alternative to the Web - escot
https://blog.antipa.io/the-dreamup/
======
nexuist
I don't really see this as a Web competitor; all you need is for someone to
throw together a dreamup.js and then it should work in every modern browser.
No need for a proprietary application.
Secondly, the Achilles' heel of instructions.txt is that a lot of things in
web dev are just impossible for describe. Bootstrap and friends go a long way
towards given us some sort of standardized terminology to describe common
components, but not every site uses them. A lot of sites build their own. At
that point the usefulness drops, because instead of saying things like "give
them a little space" you have to say things like "give it a margin of 2px on
the top, -5px on the left, a solid #f5f5f5 border on the left, a border radius
of 20%...."
That being said, this is a good idea. The vast, vast majority of websites do
not need to wade outside of what is "normal." Everyone would benefit from
having a more accessible alternative to HTML & CSS, given that the current
alternatives look like Twitter and Facebook.
------
Splizard
This is not codeless, the instructions.txt file that you include in the app is
where you write instructions in for what the app is, this is code.
~~~
kaishiro
My initial reaction to your comment was that you were being pedantic, but
after thinking about it more I'm actually in agreement.
As a developer I would find the lack of syntax and structure to be
frighteningly inefficient, not freeing.
That being said, I can dig the dream.
~~~
nielsbot
It's the AppleScript problem...
------
savolai
It’s a call for discussion, friends. You may want to go into technical /
semantic discussion like nexuist and Splizard here are doing, and that’s fine.
A lot of the details are still missing to work through, indees. But if we jump
to solve that cognitive dissonance too soon, I feel we may miss meatier parts
of the discussion.
The whole point of the article to me seems to be to avoid that temptation to
be too pragmatic for a while, and allow space for seeing alternate paths to
the future. I admit that this can feel handwavey even to myself, but it can
still be valuable to start from a high level view. What if the world proposed
by the author were possible and true as is? What kinds of applications would
you naively want to build? That's what inspires me here. A worrydream.com sort
of approach, perhaps? :)
~~~
nexuist
This is a good comment. I think democratizing application building will have
all sorts of wild effects on the near future.
------
ericathegreat
A familiar dream, that kind of misses the actual challenge of programming is
not the syntax. HTML _really_ doesn't take long to learn - at least, not the
kind that's being produced here. The hard part is unambiguously describing
what you actually want. That's what code _is_ , at a fundamental level - a way
of describing exactly what you want in a way that cannot be misinterpreted.
Consider the instructions.txt given; 'This is an application called "My
Bikes".'.
Okay, so what does "called" imply here? Is this what you want displayed in a
title bar? Or is this the name that should be used for links to this
application? Or is this text that should be displayed in large type at the top
of the page? Or is this the name you're going to refer to it as in other
"instruction.txt" files, when you want to link or reference this app? Or is
this the label that should be used when someone adds their app to their phone
home screen? Or something else entirely? I would argue that any of these would
be valid interpretations of the phrase, but I'd bet that at least some of them
would not be what the author originally intended (or even considered) when
they wrote the phrase.
Consequently, you might find that you need to say something more like 'This is
an application. The browser title bar should be "My Bikes". The displayed
heading should be "My Bikes" in large, sans-serif font. When other pages link
to this page, they should use the link text 'EricaTheGreat's Bikes'..." etc,
etc.
And you can bet that pretty soon, users of this language will start
complaining that "I have to type so much to get even the most basic things
going. Could I just simplify it down to something like 'title bar: "My Bikes",
heading text: "My Bikes", heading size: large, heading font: sans-serif"... "
Well look at that! In making this statement unambiguous, we've just created a
very verbose programming language!
It remains as ever a delightful dream, but unfortunately one that doesn't
actually solve the real problem - that natural language uses a lot of words to
say things that are ambiguous and ill suited to producing the desired outcome.
~~~
nexuist
This misses one particular market though, which is the users that don't _care_
how "My Bikes" is displayed. This is the Shopify / Squarespace market; people
that just want to sell/conduct their business, not design a website.
To those people a natural language such as this could be a huge boon to
business, because they could just spend an afternoon writing an
instructions.txt and publish the website that night rather than spending hours
figuring out how to use the built-in editor and customization options.
------
jrmann100
The trouble I’ve found with English-based languages (Inform 7) is that if you
go beyond the intended range of examples, you very quickly start having to
learn specific syntax—syntax which could be expressed much more cleanly as
traditional code. Always consider how a new language model can integrate or
fall back on existing languages.
------
thatwireshift
what about doing your web on word and save as html? doesn't seem like any code
at all.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Jessica Roy: Dear San Francisco Employers: Please Hire Me - od
http://jessicakroy.com/2010/03/09/dear-san-francisco-employers-please-hire-me/
======
Estragon
Can you actually live in the area on $12/hour?
Also, someone should teach her about salary negotiation. Stupid to box
yourself in like that. She'll probably end up working for $10/hour.
~~~
gizmo
Actually, I'm willing to bet the opposite. She's going to get significantly
more than $12 an hour. Why? Because by saying she's willing to accept $12/hr
and fetch lattes to get where she wants to be... she (deliberately) puts
herself in a position with no negotiating power. You can't play hardball
against somebody like that without feeling like a dick about it.
It's like saying to somebody who's about to punch you.. "Ok, you can punch me
if that's what you want, if that makes you feel better", and if you say it
right you make it almost impossible for that person to punch you.
You don't want to get into a fist fight with somebody who's unwilling to raise
his arms, and you don't _want_ to negotiate with somebody who surrenders all
leverage.
I'm confident she'll get an offer that the employer genuinely believes is
fair.
~~~
JabavuAdams
> You can't play hardball against somebody like that without feeling like a
> dick about it.
Don't assume that other people are like you, especially when negotiating.
This is awful advice.
~~~
gizmo
I'm not advocating the tactic at all. I'm simply predicting that she'll get a
significantly better deal than $12/hr because only one employer has to step up
and make a reasonable offer. You don't have to get the best offer on average,
you simply have to get one good offer from one employer.
Some people assume that because she states she's willing to work for $12/hr
that's automatically the best rate she's going to get offered. I think it will
affect her average salary offer, but I don't think it will affect her best and
worst offers much if at all.
------
starkfist
She could get a writing job at a place like RWW easily. Unfortunately it's one
of the only places she could get a job. It's also a boiler room. I don't know
what the right phrase for a blogging boiler room is.
I hope she truly loves SF because career wise there are more and better
opportunities for people like her in NYC.
------
prosa
>> continuously trolling the depressing opportunities on Monster/NYU
Careernet/Craigslist.
Is this system broken? Is there an opportunity for improvement in the way
people find jobs, or is the best way to find good work going to increasingly
be by performing memorable stunts to get eyeballs from prospective employers?
I'm curious, especially in light of the relative lack of successful startups
in the area.
~~~
chime
The system is indeed broken. Finding a job is a horrible experience for most
people. If you know enough people in your selected field, it is usually not
that bad. However, if you want to change careers, move to a new area, or are
generally not interested in networking for networking's sake, finding a job is
a soul-sucking misadventure.
Monster/CareerBuilder sites are absolute crap, especially for IT-related jobs.
Indeed, Dice, and Jobing aren't that great either. The Web 2.0 job-hunt
startups are just mashups of existing job sites so while the interface is
cool, the content is no better. Most of the jobs have no mention of salary,
benefits, or the social/managerial environment. Recruiters / headhunters are
only interested in you if you are a potential fit for a specific job. The
moment that job gets filled, you're back to square one.
I've actually been more on the other side of the job hunt i.e. finding people
to hire. The problem there is that the good/quality coders are just impossible
to find. Most of the resumes I come across are people who taught themselves
Active Directory and are applying for ERP-coding jobs. I've looked at
"superstar" job hunt sites like jobs.joel and jobs.37signals but there's
barely any traction in my area (Tampa, Florida).
Surprisingly, Craigslist has been the best choice for me as a former applicant
and as someone looking to hire. Craigslist is very blunt, direct, and
accessible. The last part is the key here. You don't have to sign up for 10
services to place a job ad on Craigslist. As a result, I've found many more
job offers on Craigslist that end up in an interview than other sites. I know
with near certainty that someone is actually reading my email when I reply to
a Craigslist post. I feel my email ends up in a large junk folder when I apply
on other sites. Similarly, whenever I've posted an ad on Craigslist for a job,
I've received direct emails from candidates and some of them have been pretty
good.
I don't know how this system could be fixed. All I know is that there are a
lot of good candidates and good jobs and it's not easy for them to find each
other.
~~~
mattm
"I've actually been more on the other side of the job hunt i.e. finding people
to hire. The problem there is that the good/quality coders are just impossible
to find."
What can I do to stand out as a quality coder when I'm applying? I'm probably
not the best on selling myself properly but I think I'm a good coder (and have
had very satisfied clients/employers).
~~~
chime
Problem isn't what makes you stand out. Problem is where are you? How do I
even find you? How do you find me? There are over 10k jobs on Monster for
people with experience in LAMP in my area. Are you really going to apply to
all of them?
------
cmelbye
How does one raise their "Google Index"?
_I can help raise your Google Index through SEO._
~~~
nopassrecover
through SEO?
Let's not pick on the terminology, clearly she is talking about your ranking
for common keywords and PageRank.
~~~
cmelbye
I just think it's odd that she's using the completely incorrect term in a
professional setting where she's trying to convince a future employer that she
can do the job.
~~~
jonny_noog
Bearing in mind that there's a good chance that her prospective future
employer probably couldn't describe the task even that well, I'd be willing to
give her a pass on that one.
If I was the prospective employer, it would actually serve a great purpose for
me, it tells me that she has some amount of experience with the technicalities
of the Internet, but not a great depth in this kind of area. She seems to be
going for writing jobs ideally, not a dev or server admin position or
something, so this would not necessarily be a detractor to her overall pitch.
And you can tell she's pitching to non-technical people:
"I can even make that div float so that the text doesn’t get all messy. Don’t
know what that means? See, _you really should hire me_."
I quite liked that passage.
She also refers to "software packages like Microsoft Office and Adobe Suite"
where I would in any similar situation at least refer to it as "the Adobe
Suite" and most likely I'd be a little more specific than that, going into
further detail about which apps in the suite I actually have experience with.
But again, I give her a pass because the way she's written things up I suspect
works for the audience she's targeting.
------
faramarz
If I was a startup in the Valley, I'd hire her as copywriter.
~~~
xelipe
I could use a copywriter for $8/hour.
------
paraschopra
Not particularly related to this but I am amazed how people here and on the
blog are surprised that she is willing to work for $12/hr while at the same
time web app startups are afraid to charge even $10/month from their users.
What an irony!
PS: I know scale v/s no-scale argument, but still one should charge for your
web app (no matter how trivial is it)?
------
byrneseyeview
I'm a little disturbed that this is how the most talented people in my
generation behave. It seems like most people her age are simply lazy, but a
small minority are talented, hardworking, and _desperate to undersell
themselves_.
If you've gone to a good school, gotten a good GPA, and been published, don't
you dare compete on price! Figure out what the average entry-level college
grad would make in a given position, and ask for 25% more. Tell them why it's
a good deal.
If she says $12, she sounds like damaged goods. If she says "I'm a better deal
at $60K than the last applicant was at $40K," she has another sentence or two
to make her case-- _which she can do_.
------
jasonlbaptiste
There should be a site that highlights truly fucking awesome people looking
for jobs and has an actual insight into them (plus what they've built). I'd
hire those people.
~~~
9oliYQjP
Here's the problem. Truly awesome people can jump from job to job with ease.
They're always in demand. They're always having offers thrown at them, even
when they aren't looking.
Where there's a need for a website is for inexperienced, but otherwise awesome
folks. Those people that haven't been discovered yet because they are fresh
out of school, perhaps like this person. The big problem with this idea is
that there's no guarantee that somebody who is an awesome student will make an
awesome employee.
------
xal
Well i'd hire her if I was in SF :-)
This is how you get a job.
~~~
jaxn
I agree. I forwarded it on to someone I know in SF who blogs for a TV station
there.
------
cj
Perfect: Presents some degree of intelligence mixed in with an emotional
appeal.
------
dtap
How do you pay off NYU on $12/hour?
------
clistctrl
"I was reared during the internet age, most consciously during the dot com
bust. I am also only 22, meaning that I am the definition of cheap labor. No,
seriously, I think that getting paid anything more than $12/hour is “living
large,” and getting paid $12/hour is “extremely manageable.”"
I'm also 22, Currently making 70k... i would find $12/hour anything but living
large.
~~~
encoderer
And this woman graduated from NYU, Junior year in Paris, she's been published,
and she's absolutely charming. She's optimized for distance, not speed. No
reason to be a douche.
~~~
jrockway
This is the kind of person you pay $100k starting to though, to keep them
around for a while.
I was like this, and I kept changing jobs every 6 months because someone would
come along and offer me twice what I was making before. Sure, I'll come work
for you! (Oh, and I'm 24.)
My bet is that two years from now, she will easily be making $50 an hour, even
if she starts on $12 today. But if you're that person paying her $12 today, I
estimate that will last maybe 3 or 4 months. Then someone else will have her
talent, and you'll be saying to yourself, "yeah, paying someone like that $12
an hour was fucking dumb of us".
~~~
starkfist
_This is the kind of person you pay $100k starting to though, to keep them
around for a while._
Why??? She's exactly like every other 20-something woman in Manhattan, only
they all have better looking tumblr sites!
~~~
jrockway
Published author?
I am not really in this industry, so I have no idea. I was a published author
at 22 and make about that much.
------
forgotAgain
Hey Shane,
Why use profanity? Your friend is putting herself out there looking for a job
and you lessen her efforts by using profanity in your comments. Way to be a
friend.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
GitLeaks – Search engine for exposed secrets on GitHub - mkagenius
https://gitleaks.com
======
flipp3r
I guess that's one way to get attention to your business.
Instead of informing the owners of repositories by creating an issue, you
create a search engine to expose them, and then ask to be paid for usage of
this index? The only reason someone would want those secrets is to abuse them.
This is basically the only use case for the data. Why do this?
This is coming from "fallible.co" whose homepage says "Prevented 40 million+
users personal data leaks". So you are in the business of making sure people's
information does not get leaked, and at the same time expose people's secrets?
~~~
kiallmacinnes
There are non-abusive uses of this kind of data, e.g. security researchers, or
IT departments outsourcing credential leak scanning, etc..
Also, notifying via a GitHub issue is, in my opinion, a terrible idea. GitHub
has no concept of a security issue viewable only to the repo maintainers, so
filing a public issue might make things worse (by calling public attention to
it). A paid search engine without any notification is probably worse, but
maybe they are emailing the repo's committers? They may even be embargoing the
search results for a period of time.
~~~
johncolanduoni
If posting individual issues in each project, likely to be seen first by
contributors is a bad idea, how is creating a paid search engine likely to be
used by people who specifically want to find secrets and not likely to be
used/seen by contributors a good thing?
~~~
kiallmacinnes
I didn't say it was a good thing (or a bad thing), only that there are
legitimate use cases and that the suggested notification method would be, in
my opinion, terrible security practice...
------
sublimino
Open source alternatives for Git repos (ideally run in the pipeline):
[https://github.com/dxa4481/truffleHog](https://github.com/dxa4481/truffleHog)
\- "Searches through git repositories for high entropy strings, digging deep
into commit history"
[https://github.com/ezekg/git-hound](https://github.com/ezekg/git-hound) \-
"Hound is a Git plugin that helps prevent sensitive data from being committed
into a repository by sniffing potential commits against PCRE regular
expressions"
[https://github.com/michenriksen/gitrob](https://github.com/michenriksen/gitrob)
\- "The tool will iterate over all public organization and member repositories
and match filenames against a range of patterns for files that typically
contain sensitive or dangerous information"
[https://github.com/awslabs/git-secrets](https://github.com/awslabs/git-
secrets) \- "Prevents you from committing passwords and other sensitive
information to a git repository"
~~~
empath75
A lot of those require lists of regexes-- is there a canonical list of secret
regexes somewhere?
------
mkagenius
Woah, too many negative comments here. We wanted to model it like Shodan where
we would provide a searchable interface for secrets on the web, starting with
GitHub.
We are removing the search functionality and account upgrades right now until
we can come up with a better solution to inform people about secret leaks. For
now, you can simply use the existing Check my GitHub button to scan your
public repos.
~~~
sschueller
The data is public, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this and you should
put it back online.
~~~
innerspirit
Most of the data on there is not meant to be public. It's just a tool to abuse
people's ignorance, disguised as a "research tool".
~~~
Fifer82
Yet public it is.
------
ascendantlogic
This is one of those times where you ask yourself "I know I can do this, but
should I?". Most of us know we can search GitHub for stuff like
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID but putting the work into creating a productized interface
for it seems a bit beyond the pale to me.
------
nitza
Why not use your knowledge of these exposed secrets for good? You know which
repo they're coming from, it'd be super simple to let the owner know rather
than potentially costing them time and money.
It also seems as though the only use of this site is to capitalise on other
people's mistakes? It looks like you're just handing over leaked data to
people who will definitely abuse it, which seems to go against your core
business of preventing data leaks?
~~~
koolba
Would it be considered spamming to pull the email address of the commits and
send them an automated email?
~~~
nitza
Well, you don't need to send an email necessarily, a GitHub issue with a guide
on how to include sensitive data in a public repo would probably suffice.
------
mostafaberg
I don't think it's illegal or wrong to have that search, those mistakes are
made by developers who aren't paying attention to security, and from
experience those leaks will never be resolved UNTIL they get widely exposed,
until then, lots of those people will just shrug it off.. you're actually
doing a favour to the users who depend on those developers, you never know
when the next leak will be and it might be stopped by forcing the developers
to fix it. it's not about you, your service, nor the companies, developers who
are leaking secrets like that, it's about the end users and people who are
affected, my two cents, put the search back, expose it, it's already exposed
and probably black hats already have the secrets and don't want to notify the
devs of their mistakes. anyone else who disagrees with you doesn't really
understand how big this is, your service is amazing and I totally appreciate
the work you did, if someone thinks you're "getting attention" or "evil" they
really are not looking at the big picture, the "evil" ones are the people who
already have that leaked data and keep it for their personal use.
~~~
LyndsySimon
'tis better to be pwned and found out than to never realize that you've been
pwned at all.
\- Shakespeare or something
------
sarreph
What a shame that you had to expose everyone's mistakes like this in such a
blanket fashion.
You could've taken the moral high ground and created a reverse-search such as
HaveIBeenPwned[0], whereby you check repos you own.
I hope this gets taken down because the potential for abuse is ripe.
[0] - [https://haveibeenpwned.com](https://haveibeenpwned.com)
~~~
lrusnac
that's such a great idea, although I think people that would sign up for this
service would know not commit credentials
~~~
Xylakant
We all make mistakes despite better knowledge. I'd probably sign up.
~~~
lrusnac
sure, but it's more likely for somebody that doesn't know about this service
to publish a secret than someone that is aware of it
------
ivanhoe
Bad guys already have scrapers like this, for years, so this is really not
putting anyone at any additional risk. They're already in danger, just not
aware of it. Even script-kiddies have cheap tools available to scan repos
easily. As I see it the only new angle here is that this service lets ordinary
users and other interested parties search for the f __* ups and (if they care
enough) let the project maintainers know about it.
------
ta_dhee
I think this is great work, the secrets are already scraped and compromised
anyway. Good way to make it more clear. It reminds me of
[https://twitter.com/dumpmon](https://twitter.com/dumpmon) on Twitter.
------
bjarneh
Didn't take long from the proggit/HN 'removed password' post to gitleaks:
$ whois gitleaks.com | grep Creation
Creation Date: 06-feb-2017
~~~
julianwachholz
GitHub searches that expose secrets have been posted numerous times already in
the past.
------
macca321
Ethics of a business model that notifies owners of the breach, but they have
to pay $10 for specific details or wait a week?
------
nydrewreynolds
I accidentally pushed keys to github last year and got an email from
HelpfulOwl letting me know they found them and to remove them.
That's an example of using this tech for good.
------
hahamrfunnyguy
Sorry OP, but this is pretty terrible idea. I know the secrets are already out
there, but the least that could be done is let the user know about it.
I am glad to see the search was taken down. There's nothing wrong with the
search, but a better use of it would be to educate and inform. I'd be curious
to see which kinds of developers are the most likely to leak sensitive data.
------
ulucs
I think a more ethical way to go forward with this would be the haveibeenpwned
way, where you can search your email and see where your stuff has been leaked
instead of a searchable index of leaks.
~~~
ivanhoe
Problem is that often project owners will not know/care about joining such
services. Unlike the passwords, project's security is a matter of interest for
a much wider public (all current and the potential future users), but if you
let anyone subscribe to any leak than you are back at square one, cause bad
guys can do it too.
------
koolba
Are there any legal ramifications for operating something like this?
I know it's publicly available info but since the original creator of the
information didn't directly give it to you, do you still have the usual
immunity given to service providers?
Also, just because something is on $PUBLIC_URL doesn't mean the copyright
would allow you redistribute it. I'm sure a lot of these projects have either
a private license, or more likely, no license at all.
~~~
runholm
Is this different from any other search engine? They just index web pages and
let users search the data?
~~~
koolba
I'm not sure but I think intent matters. That's how they go after torrent
sites right because they're " _just search engines_ "?
------
popey456963
An interesting aside whilst the search is down, your styling seems a tiny bit
messed up for me on the homepage [0]
I'm running Chrome, Win 7 on a mildly large display, nothing particularly out
of the ordinary.
[0] [https://puu.sh/u7htR/3fe6b4725d.png](https://puu.sh/u7htR/3fe6b4725d.png)
------
wybiral
Weird. Just yesterday this made it to the HN front page (related):
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13650818](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13650818)
------
hackingNerd
I support disclosure on time :)
------
romanovcode
Huh, that was quick!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A fast, offline reverse geocoder in Python - jp_sc
https://github.com/thampiman/reverse-geocoder
======
yellowbkpk
If you're interested in making both forward and reverse geocoding better,
please consider paying attention to a project I started and help maintain
called OpenAddresses:
[http://openaddresses.io](http://openaddresses.io)
The goal is to collect address datasets so that forward and reverse geocoding
is an easier problem to solve. A contributor wrote an excellent overview of
the project the other day:
[https://medium.com/colemanm/creating-an-open-database-of-
add...](https://medium.com/colemanm/creating-an-open-database-of-
addresses-73a7d0dc24c5)
~~~
mvexel
It's a nice overview but it glosses over the fact that while the OA database
is governed by a CC0 license, the individual address collections in the
database are still governed by their own licenses which can be (much) more
restrictive. The fact that you can download the data doesn't mean you can use
it the way you want. The OA web site hints at this but doesn't address (ah-
hah) that underlying problem. That doesn't mean that OA is not valuable -
quite the contrary - but I think the fact that it's presented as one big free
and open dataset can be misleading.
~~~
gabemart
As the (dead) sibling comment points out, my (non-lawyer) understanding of US
copyright law is that simple collections of facts, when compiled in a way that
requires no creativity, do not enjoy any copyright protection at all.
I would be surprised if a simple list of addresses, even a very large one, is
something that could be subject to copyright.
------
bzz01
You can't really use KD trees with lat/lon coordinates, at least you can't use
euclidean distance there for nearest neighbor search.
First, longitude wraps from -180 to +180 at antimeridian, meaning distance
calculations will fail there; second, and I'd say more importantly, one degree
longitude length in meters differs a lot depending on latitude; meaning this
library will be heavily biased towards longitudal neighbors when using it for
locations far from equator.
~~~
shawn-butler
I can recommend the excellent Geographic lib::Geodesic for this having used it
in the past.
[http://geographiclib.sourceforge.net](http://geographiclib.sourceforge.net)
There is a python implementation available as well.
[http://pypi.python.org/pypi/geographiclib](http://pypi.python.org/pypi/geographiclib)
~~~
thampiman
Thanks!
------
natch
Kudos for a very well done README (and it's not just cribbed from the original
project, it explains the new stuff very well and tells what the project is,
and gives credit back). So many projects neglect the README.
One question - is it OK to put an MIT license on something that is based on
LGPL code? I don't know enough about how the LGPL works (I do know it is less
"infective" than plain GPL).
Well two questions: python2, or python3?
~~~
thampiman
Thanks for that comment!
Good question regarding the license. I'm not too sure about that. I'd
appreciate it if someone could shed some light on it.
Regarding the version, I've only tested it on python2. I should add that in
the README. Thanks!
~~~
stared
As of now, for Python 3 it does not work, but it seams that fixes are not
hard: [https://github.com/thampiman/reverse-
geocoder/issues/2](https://github.com/thampiman/reverse-geocoder/issues/2)
~~~
thampiman
UPDATE: I've just released v1.2 which supports Python 3. For details:
[https://github.com/thampiman/reverse-
geocoder](https://github.com/thampiman/reverse-geocoder)
~~~
natch
Sweet!
------
Animats
While we're on this subject, is there a good, free street address parser that
will work for at least the US, Canada, UK, and the major EU countries? I've
tried most of the available ones, and they can parse about 90-95% of business
addresses.
(Regular expressions don't work well for this. Neither does starting from the
beginning of the address. Proper address parsing starts at the end of the
address and works backwards, with the information found near the end, such as
country name and postal code, used to disambiguate the information found
earlier.)
~~~
unclesaamm
The most principled approach I've seen on this is at
[https://github.com/datamade/usaddress](https://github.com/datamade/usaddress).
They use tagged training data and conditional random fields. I haven't seen
comparisons with other systems, but it's worked well enough for my projects.
Though as the name suggests, it's only trained for US addresses.
------
mcbetz
Very good companion for Geocoder -
[https://github.com/DenisCarriere/geocoder](https://github.com/DenisCarriere/geocoder).
Glad to see Python getting more geo libraries for Non-GIS users.
~~~
dheera
Are there any offline Geocoders that work for the whole world, even if not
free? Nominatim doesn't work for a lot of Asian addresses.
------
bronson
Very impressive, I'll be looking closer at K-D trees.
I wrote a quick (500k lookups/sec) offline geocoder for Ruby:
[https://github.com/bronson/geolocal](https://github.com/bronson/geolocal) to
comply with the silly EU cookie rules. It precompiles the statements you're
interested in:
Geolocal.in_eu?(request.ip)
Geolocal.in_us?('8.8.8.8')
Glad to see that my lib has a role model if it ever grows up. :)
------
zetahunter
Awesome, one more thing that can be made standalone instead of using google
maps service.
~~~
thampiman
Thanks! I'm the developer of this library and I hope you find it useful.
------
sandstrom
Looks really interesting!
Would it be possible to use OpenStreetMap data?
[http://planet.openstreetmap.org/](http://planet.openstreetmap.org/)
~~~
mtmail
OSM data doesn't contain an easy way to find the top 1000 cities. You'd end up
with 100.000s. Looking for wikipedia tags, population (which often comes from
Wikipedia) and 'admin' tags might be a good guide.
(I work on a OSM geocoder, not offline but has a Python library
[http://geocoder.opencagedata.com/](http://geocoder.opencagedata.com/))
------
nickstefan12
Nice! Shameless plug for a SQLite no network geocoder that uses (I believe)
the same text files to seed everything. [https://github.com/NickStefan/no-
network-geocoder](https://github.com/NickStefan/no-network-geocoder)
------
pjkundert
On a related note: An efficient geolocation encoder/decoder with error
correction using Reed-Solomon. 3m accuracy with error correction in 10
symbols. 20mm accuracy with 5-nines certainty in 15 symbols:
[https://github.com/pjkundert/ezpwd-reed-
solomon](https://github.com/pjkundert/ezpwd-reed-solomon)
------
dexterbt1
Starred. We're currently using nominatim + osm data + postgis on our own
hosted servers. Can this be a good alternative?
~~~
thampiman
I should think so. I've tried nominatim/osm data but it took forever to query
a large set of coordinates. I was only interested in knowing the nearest city
and admin regions 1/2\. And this library is really fast... ~20s to lookup 10M
coordinates on my MBP. If you'd however like to know the full address, then
this is maybe not a good idea.
~~~
dexterbt1
That's fast. Though yes, our use case involves reverse geo of full street
level addresses. Currently we do several 10s to 100s of req/s on nominatim.
The sibling thread asked about using OSM data; it'd be awesome if street level
OSM data is workable.
------
alexcroox
This is great, does anyone know of a js version? I'm currently using
[http://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/reverse](http://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/reverse)
in my Node app but I'd rather not rely on a 3rd party, especially under heavy
load.
~~~
thampiman
Check out this library for Node [https://github.com/tomayac/local-reverse-
geocoder](https://github.com/tomayac/local-reverse-geocoder)
~~~
tomayac
Thanks for posting this. Would appreciate pull requests and feature requests
or simply general feedback if you use this in practice.
------
thecodemonkey
This is super cool! Shameless plug. If you're looking for street-level reverse
(or forward) geocoding, we offer[1] a super affordable API and CSV upload
tool.
[1] [http://geocod.io](http://geocod.io)
------
kelukelugames
Hello, I read a little bit about geocoding on wikipedia but was hoping to
learn more. Is a good beginner guide on geocdoer/geocoding?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Can a PEO rightfully expose your income to other employers? - amevo
In 2019 I worked for two companies that made use of the same professional employer organization (PEO). This PEO generated a single W-2 for 2019, combining my income from the two companies. Both companies can view this combined income W-2. Simple W-2 less payroll math would reveal to each company what the other paid.<p>This doesn't sit well with me for myriad reasons, and I can't imagine this is entirely legal. While the PEO reps are empathetic in correspondence on this issue, no resolution/progress on the matter has been made whatsoever over the last few weeks. Any advice/counsel is appreciated.
======
lotsofpulp
Many companies provide employee pay data to equifax, and equifax sells it to
many people:
[https://www.fastcompany.com/40508924/equifax-could-be-
sellin...](https://www.fastcompany.com/40508924/equifax-could-be-selling-your-
salary-history-heres-how-to-protect-it)
~~~
lonelappde
Note: the Work Number is effectively a collusion of employers against labor,
an employer's "union" of sorts . Much lie the one where "competing" employers
agreed not to recruit from each other to avoid bidding eats. Remember that
next time your employer tells you you don't need a union.
------
chrisgoman
No, this is not right. The PEO is paying you "on behalf of" a specific
employer (even if your check is coming out of the PEO's account). So you
should get 2 W2s with separate amounts from each employer.
TriNet (a large PEO) stores employees as SSN so if you have ever worked for a
company that used TriNet as their PEO, you are in their system. As an
employee, you should see a dropdown at the top and you can only see _ONE_
employer at a time and you have to use the dropdown to switch around.
The only reason you _can_ get ONE W-2 is if you work at a temp agency. The
employer technically pays the temp agency and the temp agency pays you. So
even if you got billed out to 10 different "employers", you are still an
employee of the temp agency and you get ONE W-2 but technically, this is NOT a
PEO situation
~~~
godzillabrennus
My understanding is exactly the opposite.
If you do work for a client of a PEO it is as an employee of the PEO.
Therefore you would only get one W2 from the work you did.
~~~
compsciphd
that's what he said, if you are an employee of a contractor who contracts you
out to different companies, you are an emplyee of only one company.
------
toomuchtodo
Check with an attorney (a consult is usually no cost) if "26 U.S. Code §
7213.Unauthorized disclosure of information" [1] or "26 U.S. Code §
6103.Confidentiality and disclosure of returns and return information" [2]
applies to this situation. If applicable, your attorney may consider
contacting the PEO's legal department to inform them of their violation of
federal statute.
[1]
[https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/7213](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/7213)
[2]
[https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/6103](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/6103)
~~~
amevo
Thank you. Which kind of attorney would handle this: data privacy, tax,
consumer protection, something else?
~~~
snapetom
If I was in your position, I would start with a labor attorney. First off,
there are plenty of them. Second, they specialize in the employee/employer
relationship. Privacy is one very common aspect of this relationship.
If they are not able to help, they should at least point you in the right
direction.
------
JohnFen
Your PEO is making the W-2 available to the companies you did work for? That's
weird. I can't think of a reason why that would be necessary at all... the W-2
is between you, company who is paying you (your PEO), and the IRS.
I would clarify their policy around this, and perhaps ask the IRS what the
rules around W-2 disclosures are.
~~~
amevo
Correct, both companies can see the same combined income W-2 within the PEO's
site.
~~~
edcastano
Who is the PEO? Some PEOs have very stringet legal teams that would make a big
fuss about this. Depending who your PEO is, you might just reach out directly
to their legal department.
Source: I worked for a large PEO.
~~~
JohnFen
And if you can't get this fixed, you might consider changing to a different
one.
------
icedchai
Your pay comes from the PEO, on "behalf" of the employer, right? Technically
you "work for" the PEO, so this sounds fine to combine them. I bet they can't
even do anything about it.
~~~
kelnos
In that case, it's concerning that the PEO is sharing the W-2 with the
companies the OP did work for. If the OP doesn't have an employment
relationship with these companies, it seems like a huge privacy breach for the
PEO to be sharing W-2s with these companies at all.
~~~
amevo
I was hired and employed by both companies. They both make use of the same
PEO. I’m not sure it’s legally correct to say I only have an “employment
relationship” with the PEO.
~~~
icedchai
So does your check / payroll deposit come from the PEO? W2's are about who
paid you.
------
TechBro8615
On the bright side, if both companies are large, it's unlikely your manager at
either will ever notice.
------
edcastano
Who is the PEO?
~~~
skinnymuch
Post says in the first sentence
~~~
bzax
The post answers "what is a PEO", but not "what is your PEO". The second is
what's meant by "who is the PEO?"
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
24 Hours later, Edward Snowden/NSA story hardly covered on NYT homepage - karpodiem
And yet the BBC has it as their cover story. Is this really happening?
======
dangrossman
Links about this story on the NY Times homepage, 1 hour from the posting of
your comment:
1: U.S. Preparing Charges Against Leaker of Data
2: A Real Debate on Surveillance
3: Brooks: The Solitary Leaker
4: Bits: Big Data Intelligence Sleuthing, 1960s Style (Leads with the current
news)
5: Reaction to the N.S.A. Leak
6: Is the N.S.A. Threat Real?
7: Debate on Secret Data Looks Unlikely, Partly Due to Secrecy
8: Editorial: A Real Debate on Surveillance
9: Hong Kong Seen as Likely to Extradite Leaker if U.S. Asks
10: DEALBOOK: Tech Companies Tread Lightly in Statements on U.S. Spying
11: BITS: Big Data Intelligence Sleuthing, 1960s Style
12: Op-Ed Columnist: Your Smartphone Is Watching You
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
JavaScript Patterns Collection - sjclemmy
http://shichuan.github.com/javascript-patterns/
======
charlieirish
Some have commented that the linked article may not always contain best
practices. The following links always seem to get fantastic praise - they're
permanently in my JS bookmarks. Having an understanding of the core language
rather than using frameworks is a great start; these articles will certainly
help.
Eloquent JavaScript: <http://eloquentjavascript.net/contents.html>
Learning JavaScript Design Patterns:
[http://addyosmani.com/resources/essentialjsdesignpatterns/bo...](http://addyosmani.com/resources/essentialjsdesignpatterns/book/)
JS The Right Way: <http://jstherightway.com/>
Learning Advanced JavaScript: <http://ejohn.org/apps/learn/>
Ask HN: JavaScript Dev Tools: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3550998>
MVC Architecture for JS: [http://michaux.ca/articles/mvc-architecture-for-
javascript-a...](http://michaux.ca/articles/mvc-architecture-for-javascript-
applications)
Large-Scale JS Application Architecture:
<http://addyosmani.com/largescalejavascript/>
Mozilla Developer Network - Intro to OO JS: [https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/JavaScript/Introduc...](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/JavaScript/Introduction_to_Object-Oriented_JavaScript)
~~~
acjohnson55
I'm a big fan of JavaScript Garden: <http://bonsaiden.github.com/JavaScript-
Garden/#intro>
------
Cthulhu_
I'm going to be critical and say that I don't like the format of this
reference; each entry in the table of contents links to a source file in
github (opening in a new window/tab) instead of being, for example, a
collapsed code box in the same tab.
Second, they're not .js files, but .html files with (in my opinion) obsolete /
unnecessary html boilerplate surrounding it. If it's simply a page to
demonstrate / display JS patterns, they should be plain .js files, I think;
from what I've seen, those should run equally well in a browser and node.js.
I'm also not a fan of tab-based indentation, the examples could be a lot more
compact (and readable) horizontally if using two-space indentation instead of
tabs.
~~~
showsover
>I'm also not a fan of tab-based indentation, the examples could be a lot more
compact (and readable) horizontally if using two-space indentation instead of
tabs.
That's the forte of using tabs. Change your display width of tabs to 2 spaces
instead of 4.
Tabs for indentation, spaces for alignment.
~~~
klibertp
> Tabs for indentation, spaces for alignment.
And complete mess when someone other than you opens your file :)
------
bulatb
I'm not sure about this. The very first link I clicked had some iffy advice.
The "Function declaration" section makes an unsubstantiated claim that
function declarations are an antipattern, neglecting to mention the
significant difference in effect between a declaration and a function
expression assigned to a variable. Declarations are subject to function
hoisting; IIFEs and expressions assigned to variables aren't. (But the
variables themselves are, which is further confusing.) In other words:
fnDeclaration(); // This function is ready for use.
function fnDeclaration() {
console.log('This function is ready for use.');
}
// - but -
fnExpression(); // TypeError: undefined is not a function.
typeof fnExpression; // 'undefined'
var fnExpression = function() {
console.log('This function is ready for use.');
};
fnExpression(); // This function is ready for use.
typeof fnExpression; // 'function'
Named function expressions are neat, I guess, but the trailing F looks more
like an odd, Hungarian stylistic choice than a fix for a serious issue in
IE<8\. Given that the author(s) either didn't know or just forgot to mention
(at first) the IE problems you could meet with if you followed this advice,
I'm a little bit concerned about this reference.
~~~
drostie
Also, aside from hoisting, there is a much better solution for named+assigned
function declarations, because the reason for naming such a function is to use
it recursively. Hence, just use the verb form of the word "recurse" and it
immediately self-documents that the function is recursive:
var fibs = function recurse(n, curr, last) {
curr = curr || 1;
last = last || 0;
return n <= 0 ? last : recurse(n - 1, curr + last, curr);
};
~~~
kaoD
Good luck with your stack traces.
------
Stratoscope
I opened this page:
[https://github.com/shichuan/javascript-
patterns/blob/master/...](https://github.com/shichuan/javascript-
patterns/blob/master/general-patterns/conditionals.html)
and saw this pattern used several times:
if (value == 0) {
return result0;
} else if (value == 1) {
return result1;
} else if (value == 2) {
return result2;
}
I can't think of a coding standard or best practice in any language that would
suggest combining return and else like that. Instead it would be:
if (value == 0) {
return result0;
}
if (value == 1) {
return result1;
}
if (value == 2) {
return result2;
}
or:
if (value == 0) return result0;
if (value == 1) return result1;
if (value == 2) return result2;
Then on this page:
[https://github.com/shichuan/javascript-
patterns/blob/master/...](https://github.com/shichuan/javascript-
patterns/blob/master/general-patterns/for-loops.html)
there is this code:
// optimization 1 - cache the length of the array with the use of `max`
for (var i = 0, max = myarray.length; i < max; i++) {
// do something with myarray[i]
}
The code is OK, but 'max' is a very poor name. It sounds too much like
Math.max, and it isn't the _maximum_ value for the loop. It's one greater than
that.
If you want to cache the array length like this, then any of these names would
be far better than max: either 'length' to match the 'array.length', or 'len'
for something shorter, or 'n' if you want it really short. These names all
better reflect the meaning of this variable: the length of the array. ('n'
stands for 'number', as in the number of elements in the array.)
Later on the page it recommends:
// preferred 1
var i, myarray = [];
for (i = myarray.length; i--;) {
// do something with myarray[i]
}
I'm not a fan of running loops backwards for optimization except where it's
really necessary. When I'm reading the code I rarely know whether the
backwards loop is simply an optimization, or essential to the algorithm. It
adds mystery to the code, and I don't like that.
Of course a comment could be added saying "Backwards loop is for optimization
only" or "Backwards loop is needed for the algorithm", but I've never seen a
backwards loop aficionado do this.
A few years ago I worked with someone who hated jQuery and libraries in
general and preferred to write his own bare metal DOM loops for everything.
And he wrote them all backwards. Later on he warmed up a bit to the idea of
using jQuery, after seeing a 20-line bare metal function be reduced to a
simple and straightforward selector, but when we started going through the
code it was never clear if we needed to add a ":last" to the selector to make
it match the backwards loop or not.
It's pretty rare that this kind of loop optimization will make much
difference, unless the work done in the loop body is truly minimal.
Then on this page:
[https://github.com/shichuan/javascript-
patterns/blob/master/...](https://github.com/shichuan/javascript-
patterns/blob/master/general-patterns/for-in-loops.html)
it has this code:
// somewhere else in the code
// a method was added to all objects
if (typeof Object.prototype.clone === 'undefined') {
Object.prototype.clone = function () {
};
}
Now this is part of a discussion about why you should use 'hasOwnProperty()'
in a for-in loop to avoid enumerating Object.prototype additions, but there
should also be a mention that you should not extend Object.prototype at all,
ever, unless you are 100% certain that all the code in your page or project is
under your own control and carefully uses hasOwnProperty().
For example, the Google Maps API has for-in loops that do not use
hasOwnProperty(). If you extend Object.prototype, then no matter how careful
you are in the rest of your own code, you'll have some confusing problems if
you later want to add a Google map to your page.
(At least the Maps API used to work this way - it's possible that they have
started using hasOwnProperty() now - I haven't checked it in a while. But the
same problem could occur with any third-party code you may want to use.)
OK, well, on this page:
[https://github.com/shichuan/javascript-
patterns/blob/master/...](https://github.com/shichuan/javascript-
patterns/blob/master/general-patterns/built-in-prototypes.html)
it does mention that you shouldn't extend Object.prototype, but there's no
hint as to why you shouldn't.
On this page:
[https://github.com/shichuan/javascript-
patterns/blob/master/...](https://github.com/shichuan/javascript-
patterns/blob/master/general-patterns/switch-pattern.html)
switch (inspect_me) {
case 0:
result = "zero";
break;
case 1:
result = "one";
break;
default:
result = "unknown";
}
Omitting the break; on the last case in a switch statement is a bad idea. It's
too easy to add another case below that and forget the break statement. Better
to use break on every case even if it is redundant at the end.
~~~
jonahx
In addition, per Crockford, shouldn't we be using "===" instead of "==" in a
best practice demo?
------
eric_the_read
I can't for the life of me figure out what the right-hand side of this is
doing (from [https://github.com/shichuan/javascript-
patterns/blob/master/...](https://github.com/shichuan/javascript-
patterns/blob/master/general-patterns/access-to-global-object.html)):
var global = (function () {
return this || (1, eval)('this');
}());
Why not just use 'this'?
~~~
bulatb
The comma operator takes two expressions, evaluates them both, and returns the
second. In this case, (1, eval) becomes a reference to the eval function and
then gets fed 'this'. Since the call is now indirect, the eval happens in the
global scope where 'this' is guaranteed to be the global object.
It's kind of crazy. Details here: <http://tinyurl.com/3mzf89r>
The right side is needed for ES5 strict mode, where `this` does not become the
global object in a function that wasn't called with `new`, call(), or apply().
In that case the left side will be something falsy and the right side will
take over. Details here: <http://tinyurl.com/cwbxvxh>
~~~
eric_the_read
Thanks! I knew what the comma operator was doing, but had no idea why.
------
afandian
I'm not sure if there's some broken javascript on my browser, but the big blue
navigation box sits right on top of the content, making about half the text
unreadable!
~~~
eru
Looks like it breaks on small window sizes.
~~~
afandian
Aha, you're right. Although I wouldn't call almost-full-screen on a modern
MacBook Pro small.
------
ivan_ah
Recommended usage:
git clone https://github.com/shichuan/javascript-patterns.git
cd javascript-patterns/
cd design-patterns/
ls
------
anon1385
Design patterns are signs of deficiencies in the language.
[http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?AreDesignPatternsMissingLanguageFeatu...](http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?AreDesignPatternsMissingLanguageFeatures)
------
narsil
Bookmarked! I always forget to remove an element from the DOM right before
performing several transformations on it [0]. This is a handy list to have.
(A nav bar that didn't obscure text on narrower windows would also be nice)
[0] [https://github.com/shichuan/javascript-
patterns/blob/master/...](https://github.com/shichuan/javascript-
patterns/blob/master/jquery-patterns/detach.html)
------
bung
Thanks for the list, looks like I have some reading to do...
One thing I was hoping to see was some good AJAX patterns, not just saying oh
well that's pattern X, but actual examples. I found this link, but sadly they
never finished the following parts of the article:
enterprisejquery.com/2010/07/enterprise-ajax-patterns-part-1-from-enterprise-
beginnings/
------
bertomartin
What's the best pattern to use for a rails app? I've been name-spacing my js
so that objects get instantiated based on controller/action using the Garber-
Irish Technique. I've found this a great technique, however, I still need a
way to organize my js objects into modules/submodules for example. have anyone
looked into this?
------
chetan3
<http://shichuan.github.com/javascript-patterns/>
------
jayflux
That menu on the left really gets in the way. Maybe add a button to remove it?
~~~
bulatb
Bookmarklet to toggle it:
javascript:(function(){var style = document.getElementById('toc').style; style.display === 'none' ? style.display = '' : style.display = 'none';})()
------
camus
I clicked on the Builder Pattern , it linked to a file but it would be more
interesting to have a bit of an explanation. That why UML diagrams are
usefull. right now [https://github.com/shichuan/javascript-
patterns/blob/master/...](https://github.com/shichuan/javascript-
patterns/blob/master/design-patterns/builder.html) is hard to understand. I
would propose a simple exemple for the builder pattern .
let's say we have an array of datas : [0,10,200,50] and we want a
representation of the data.
So the director would use different builders to represent these datas ( a bar
chart , a line chart , etc ...).
What i find important with design patterns and often lacking in books is real
use cases.You often get strange exemples that , may be interesting but you
actually can use them in a real application. Usually the builder ,the fly-
weight and the chain of reponsability are often explained badly or with
horrible exemples.
I dream of a book that does 2 things :
\- explain each pattern with real exemples and propose a list of real uses
cases where the pattern would be usefull
\- has an extended tutorial at the end of the book the makes the user actually
build a full application with all the patterns studied. For instance , a
drawing application with different shapes, pens , filters , commands , menus ,
undo , redo , data serialization , that would use all the main design patterns
and make them work together.
If such a book exists ( in java , as3 , C# , javascript ,... (just not in C++
or smalltalk ;) ) ) , i would be interested to know about it.
Now javascript has some patterns of its own ( module pattern , etc ... )
that's interesting to know them too.
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