text
stringlengths 44
776k
| meta
dict |
|---|---|
How Greg Lindsay Beat IBM's Watson at Jeopardy - fakelvis
http://www.fastcompany.com/1726969/how-i-beat-ibms-watson-at-jeopardy-3-times
======
ugh
This is also mentioned in the article but I think it is worth mentioning
again: Those games were played a year ago. That’s a long, long time ago. IBM
started building Watson (obviously not completely from scratch but as a
Jeopardy contestant) only four years ago.
All those games Watson played during the last year were played with the
express purpose of improving Watson.
------
grandpa
Even if Watson doesn't win, the fact that strong players think of him as a
worthy opponent is a huge step forward for the popular perception of AI.
------
zck
>So I had to steer him into categories full of what I called "semantic
difficulty"--where the clues’ wordplay would trip him up.
This doesn't seem as useful as it's written here -- it's only useful under two
cases: 1. Not all the clues are chosen before time runs out. 2. The money you
gain here is wagered on a Daily Double, or the money Watson loses here is not
able to be wagered on the Daily Double.
Contestants aren't able to make up categories, to create ones that would cause
Watson trouble; they have to pick from the six on the board.
------
jazzyb
After having watched the first half of game one: Another interesting category
that Watson seemed to have a lot of trouble with was a category where all the
answers were decades (1910s, 1920s, etc.). The top answers that Watson came up
with were always years, but he was never that confident, and he never caught
on that the answers were supposed to be a _span_ of years.
~~~
cryptoz
I've read that Watson may ignore the category titles as they are often puns or
confusing text that doesn't help him find an answer. Rather, I think, they may
been seen as more of a source of confusion than help.
------
adestefan
The first thing I noticed last night was Watson's strategy of sweeping the
questions across instead of down like is normally played. My instinct tells me
that humans get more context out of the category name and feel comfortable
sticking to one category at a time.
------
roel_v
If this machine is already so good, why doesn't IBM offer a system based on
it? (honest question, not suggesting it's not good) It could decimate library
research work, or legal research, by providing high-quality suggestions for
simple phrases.
~~~
cryptoz
They are planning on doing just that. They'll be selling Watson-type QA
machines to business for a few million dollars, starting this summer I think.
I'm not 100% sure about the price and timeline, but they're definitely
planning on making a product out of this.
------
zipdog
I wouldn't be surprised if Watson leaves the contestants in tears this time -
not because of some sadness at losing to a machine, but the sheer intellectual
drain of a large number of very quick decisions based on intuition - which is
what I guess it will take to beat the machine.
~~~
adestefan
This was always a winning strategy. Be quick on the buzzer and use the time
you have to come up with an answer. It's the way Ken Jennings kept winning.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Thresholds - timf
http://alumnit.ca/~apenwarr/log/?m=200901#01
======
timf
Summary: " _some kinds of transitions are easier to predict: the ones that
follow something like Moore's law. Here are a few of those upcoming
transitions. I won't try to tell you when they'll come, but perhaps they'll
give you some ideas. For context, I'll include a few that have already
happened._ "
------
timf
Threshold: _"Latency of an Internet-accessible server is as low as a LAN-
connected one. (This will never happen, dooming various efforts that still
depend on the assumption that it will.)_ "
But it could become close enough to not matter.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN/PG: Video stream weekly YC speakers? - abbasmehdi
I have noticed that YC is very generous with its advice, which includes advice to all (even non-YC) founders through HN and PG's essays, and with it's open application process/criterion that allows other accelerator programs to copy it openly. I was wondering if this generocity could be extended to the weekly talks that speakers give during YC sessions for all to watch and learn from?
======
wesleyzhao
So I can't speak for PG but according to the "What Happens at YC" page he
mentions that video streams and recordings used to be available but are not
anymore because it has increased the value of what the speaker has to say.
According to the page, speakers feel less filtered when off camera and off
record and can thus be more helpful. Here is quoted text:
I didn't consciously realize how much speakers at more public events censored
themselves till I was able to compare the same people speaking off the record
at YC dinners and on the record at Startup School. YC dinner talks are much
more useful, because the details people omit in more public talks tend to be
the most interesting parts of their stories.
And link to page: <http://ycombinator.com/atyc.html>
~~~
abbasmehdi
How about selective releases or even edited versions?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Building a MVP at $0. Possible? - iprithvitharun
We are a few weeks away from launching our MVP (themellow.work) and so far we've spent only $10<p>Hosting server backend (AWS) - $0
Email Server (AWS) - $0
Hosting website frontend (S3 Bucket) - $0
Website analytics (GTM, GA, and Hotjar) - $0
Customer support tools (Zoho) - $0
Design and collaboration (Figma) - $0
Documentation (Slite ) - $0
Communication (Hangouts and Meet) - $0
Domain - $10<p>Are there any other expenses that we'll comes across before launch or after launching immediately?
======
verdverm
Legal docs and data privacy compliance?
I don't see anything about that on your site, so until it's there, can't
consider.
Something better than slack would be a nice change!
~~~
iprithvitharun
Thanks for the feedback. I'd be skeptical too.
We are in the process of getting these docs ready and it will be up in a
couple of weeks.
------
athriren
As an American English speaker, the description of the product and explanation
about why a whole new paradigm was necessary was not very idiomatic and
therefore pretty difficult to read.
~~~
iprithvitharun
Thanks for the feedback :)
That's on me. I'll get it fixed.
------
mytailorisrich
I find it's always useful to put a monetary value on time.
~~~
iprithvitharun
Yes. Nobody can deny that. Everyone's time is valuable.
But when talking about money, we haven't crossed $10 mark yet.
------
mister_hn
For sure: newsletter management, logo + design, marketing, ads
~~~
iprithvitharun
So far, all the traffic is done through LinkedIn organically. We've got 200+
registrations.
We've got Designer in our team so pretty logo and UX are set.
We'll have to start paid Ads but that will take atleast another 3 months.
We've planned to have closed beta launch test it for a month then push it out
to public.
------
yassinerajallah
If you can bootstrap this, then you are fine, but it's hard to tell from just
the "services pov" It's much more complex: How many active daily users are
there?, can the free tier for AWS handle that?, until when your AWS credits
will expire? etc... Generally, you wanna keep monitoring AWS expenses the
first 3 months to be sure you aren't up-sold on some service you aren't using.
Also you can make use of the SUS $5k AWS credits if you aren't already. For
more info you can check this paragraph "Your servers will make you pay for
what you don’t know (Literally)" of my blog article:
[https://yassine.substack.com/p/the-gap-between-learning-
code...](https://yassine.substack.com/p/the-gap-between-learning-code-and)
Good luck!
~~~
iprithvitharun
"since they can make life easier." \- Ain't that the truth.
We are using AWS now. Any other services that you've used worth recommending?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Travel opportunities for software developers? - deanmoriarty
Just out of curiosity, are you aware of employment opportunities for software developers that require a lot of traveling?<p>For the sake of it, let's say the time spent "far" from home should be between 30% and 70%, preferably another country, with the possibility of changing destination every once in a while.<p>AFAIK these positions are usually offered to technology evangelists or people revolving around conferences and such. I would be more interested in something that still allows actively coding (or at least being very very close to a coding environment) as a main task.<p>I'm also not counting the "get a remote gig, then travel to Thailand" thing, I'm just focusing on opportunities where traveling is a real requirement of the job itself.<p>I know I might be asking the impossible, but sometimes I read comments on HN that literally open me an entire new world, so why not trying.<p>Thanks!
======
hcho
Be careful what you wish for. That kind of roles generally exist in
multinationals. You will be sent out to help troubled projects and invariably
work with people under a lot of stress. There will be long hours in offices
with no natural light and stays soulless hotel chains. The management will try
to make most of their travel budgets so forget about staying the weekends and
sightseeing.
------
veesahni
Enterprise software companies where software is installed on premise usually
have some sort of Client Services or Integration team separate from the
development team. The job of the team is to take the software and get it
installed on site and integrated with all of the customer's other systems.
Given the number of unknowns encountered at a customer's site and with
customer's other systems, this is a good role for a strong generalist.
Ofcourse, you also have to enjoy constant interaction with the customer.
These kind of engagements usually take months, though I've seen them easily go
over a year in the banking industry due to sheer complexity of the
integrations.
------
murtza
Check out implementation engineer and sales engineer positions at enterprise
companies.
~~~
ja27
This. I've held essentially both of those jobs at 100-500 person startups and
it was hard not to travel. My problems were that it was usually to
destinations I didn't care about and that I'd end up working 10-12+ hours a
day on-site. But it's easy to just not fly home for the weekend and stay where
you are instead. Or fly somewhere else for the weekend rather than flying
home.
I have one friend that sold her house and only lives on the road or with
friends or family.
~~~
deanmoriarty
Firm names?
Thanks a lot!
------
ngoel36
A lot of people have suggested consulting which is a great option, but you
likely won't do any "product coding".
Another option might be as a sales engineer or "forward-deployed engineer" as
Palantir calls the role. These positions usually perform an Accenture-like
function but for their own company's products, such as developing a one-off
solution for a large clients. B2B SaaS companies such as Palantir and
Salesforce are good candidates.
------
copter
I am a Software Engineer living in Europe and this is my 5th job in the 5th
distinct country. I generally work for a maximum of 2 years period and then
change my job to another country. Currently I am in Poland and my next stop
will be Budapest or Berlin.
There are literally thousands of open positions for a Dev. in Europe and the
only thing you need to do is to be good at what you are doing and speak
English.
~~~
juliangoldsmith
Where are you from originally? I'm from the U.S., and I'd be interested in
working in Europe for a while. Also, where would you go about finding
programming jobs in Europe? Do you guys have anything like Monster, or would I
have to search around manually?
EDIT: Monster isn't just U.S./Canada. Thought it was.
~~~
copter
I am originally from Istanbul, Turkey. But got my master degree on Software
Engineering -again in my way- in Tartu, Estonia.
Usually every country here has their own online job searching tools. But then
again a good looking Linkedin account, combined with an active github account
where you contribute to open-source projects, always works.
If you will be more explicit about the country you are willing to go, I might
tell you where you should look.
~~~
theGREENsuit
Can you mention the job boards you used for your existing gig in Poland and
the one you use for the potential German gig you mentioned? I'm in Canada, and
have dual citizenship (Polish, Canadian) but find it tough to find local
boards. Also, do you find that English is enough for opportunities without
being able to speak the language native to wherever you look? I was always
under the impression that along with English being able to speak the native
language was a huge factor or even a requirement. Apparently I was wrong.
~~~
copter
For Poland go for pracuj.pl and have an account on goldenline.pl (Linkedin-
like platform - I usually receive a job opportunity per week even though I am
currently employed)
Note that both of these platforms are only available in Polish language.
Google translate usually helps and most of the jobs you might have a chance
are already posted in English. You may consider applying to those jobs posted
in Polish as well. They will consider you as a candidate if you are good. I am
the only non-Polish employee of my current company for example.
For Germany, there are many platforms that I am sure you will be able to find
with a little effort on Google. There are many start-ups in Berlin as well as
enterprise tech companies. Regardless of the size of the company, most of them
are already international environments where all the internal communication
goes in English.
I want to underline that in most countries in Europe, the language of
programming and tech environments is mostly English (documentation, internal
communication, white-board meetings). So just English is enough in most cases.
(I can confidently tell this, because the city that I currently live is
neither a touristic nor a big one where multi-national companies usually have
offices - it's a damn small city with a population of 300k)
Of course being able to speak the native language is beneficial, but not
mandatory. As long as you get the job done, there are literally no problems.
~~~
lgieron
> I want to underline that in most countries in Europe, the language of
> programming and tech environments is mostly English (documentation, internal
> communication, white-board meetings). So just English is enough in most
> cases.
That is not my experience of working in Poland. As a native, I've worked in
multiple projects and Polish was the communication language in all of them. I
am sure there are jobs available where everyday communication is in English,
but my guess would be that they are in minority.
~~~
copter
I was not directly referring to Poland here but more like to the tech driven
countries of Europe (Germany, Estonia, Scandinavian countries etc.)
As for Poland, indeed the white-board meetings will held in Polish if
everybody else is Polish.
Being a non-Polish developer employed in Poland - during the relationships I
engage with other partners or the projects that I work with my team, everybody
are totally Okey switching to English for discussion. In-fact they think that
they are improving their communication skills.
Talking about documentation or any other material that is necessary for a
software project, I have never seen a language other than English in such
places.
Of course these are the companies/projects has a revenue, impact or importance
higher than an average one. If you are developing websites for locals with
ASP.NET 1.1, just ignore what I have been talking about.
~~~
lgieron
I think that you might have just been insulated from the large parts of Polish
software industry which straight up wouldn't hire someone who doesn't speak
Polish. And it's not just some small shops doing websites for locals, some of
the projects I've been on had hundreds of developer-years worth of work in
them, tens of thousands of pages of documentation - and were being performed
in Polish exclusively.
For a foreigner, IMO the best bet would be to get work at places like R&D
centers for Google, ABB, Motorola, IBM (all in Cracow), Intel (Gdansk),
Samsung (Warsaw), Nokia (Wroclaw). Since they're multinationals, English
shouldn't be a problem.
------
robbiea
As some others have said. Focus on technology consulting if that's the life
you want. You probably won't be a software dev, but you will lead software
development teams who are often remote or offshore.
Accenture, Deloitte, IBM, Capgemini, KPMG. Look at those firms, because travel
is usually 100% required.
------
savv
System integration work in domain specific areas can mandate significant
travel - such as working for a telecommunications vendor on specialised
software. Look at vendors such as Huawei, NSN, Cisco and Ericsson.
------
TheCoelacanth
Working for a consulting company like Accenture would involve a lot of travel.
------
massappeal
Developer Evangelist can sometimes require travel
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Geolocation: An App For “Proud Masturbators And Public Sex Act Aficionados” - AndrewWarner
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/12/15/fapmapper-masturbation-app/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
======
anigbrowl
This begs for a mashup with the sex-offender locator.
------
cmars232
This sounds funny, and well, let's face it, the idea of it is pretty funny,
but then I think of the stories female friends used to tell me back in college
of creepy old guys that would drive by real slow, fapping away, while they
were walking to class, work, home, etc.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Lawrence of Arabia and the crash helmet - jgrahamc
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32622465
======
cafard
Lawrence's description of a motorcycle ride in his memoir of RAF training and
service, _The Mint_ , suggests that recklessly was his favorite way to ride.
(Or so I recall--it has been years since I read it, and perhaps I was
influenced by the opening scene of the movie "Lawrence of Arabia".
"Boanerges" indeed means sons of thunder in Aramaic, but I find it odd that
the BBC would leave it at that:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_of_Jesus#Boanerges_.28...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_of_Jesus#Boanerges_.28.CE.92.CE.BF.CE.B1.CE.BD.CE.B5.CF.81.CE.B3.CE.AD.CF.82.29)
An interesting article.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Darpa Wants to Perform Learning with Less Labels - juddydotg
https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2018-07-11
======
juddydotg
Have there been Kaggle competitions to do this kind of thing before?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Rsync.net – Cloud Storage for Offsite Backups - fgeorgy
http://www.rsync.net/index.html
======
St-Clock
A few quick notes about our experience with Rsync.net
1\. It is more expensive than S3/Glacier, but they offer "free" read-only
snapshots, which can be very useful if your backup software or script does not
perform its own snapshots.
2\. It can be difficult to determine how much space is taken by the
peculiarities of ZFS vs. your own data.
3\. Although they offer subaccounts, it is not possible to know the disk usage
of a particular subaccount.
4\. If you have transfer speed issues, you can contact them and they may
whitelist your IP (good if you are doing server backup, not useful for home
backup on dynamic IP), which significantly increased speed for us.
5\. They have a 10% "free" soft quota, mainly because it is difficult for mere
mortals to know in advance how much space your backup will take on ZFS. They
send an email when you reach the soft and hard quota.
6\. You can communicate with a knowledgeable human by email. This has been
helpful to diagnose small but weird issues we were facing.
7\. Although we like S3 and Cloudfront, it's nice to have a backup location
that relies on standard tool (rsync) and that is outside our usual
providers/datacenters.
~~~
lighttower
The real human support via email is fantastic. You don't need to log into the
portal to get the response from their staff. I migrated from bup to Borg and
they sorted out the issue via email relatively painlessly. Definitely a
feature that I would not have valued before needing it.
~~~
mattl
When I was at Creative Commons we used rsync.net extensively for various
things, and the support from rsync.net was amazing. John would frequently call
me, go the extra mile to get any issues fixed quickly and our setup was a
little nonstandard.
Highly recommended.
------
AdamGibbins
There's much cheaper pricing here:
[http://rsync.net/products/attic.html](http://rsync.net/products/attic.html)
0.03 USD instead of 0.08 USD. Beating even their top tier -- so long as you
follow the constraints mentioned within the link.
~~~
rendaw
At 0.03 (1tb = $30/mo) it's still much more expensive than pretty much every
other service mentioned in this thread.
~~~
StavrosK
Yes but it's the only service that supports running the attic/borg server :(
~~~
rsync
We're also the only service that allows you to 'zfs send' to a remote zpool.
------
lewiscollard
I thank the rsync.net folks for getting rid of that horrific scrolljacking on
the homepage which was there the last time I looked. Actually, it seemed to
have been fixed since I complained about it to them on here.[0] Not sure if
those events are connected :)
While their pricing is substantially more than many others (the primary
complaint that I see here), in return their support is the best I have ever
received from any company ever. Getting responses, in less than ten minutes in
some cases, from fully-clued and super-competent engineers - I'll take it.
(no connection to rsync.net other than that I've used them at work in the past
and I'm renting space on someone else's account for my personal backups)
[0]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12960218](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12960218)
~~~
rsync
We got a lot of complaints about that weird scrolling behavior - thank you for
your own complaint which surely pushed us closer to ripping it out.
I can confirm that nobody that works at rsync.net _is not_ an actual UNIX
engineer. You will never talk to anyone here that isn't an expert.
Rare these days, but sometimes you'll even talk to me.
~~~
lewiscollard
> I can confirm that nobody that works at rsync.net is not an actual UNIX
> engineer. You will never talk to anyone here that isn't an expert.
Ah, greetings rsync.net person, and thank you for the reply :) That makes
sense. Your staff are a true credit to your company. And the only times I (or
people I am working with) have had to talk to you is because we were trying to
do something weird like getting a MegaFuck3000 NAS with Debian version -1.5
working with your systems, not because your infrastructure has ever failed.
Much love for your company and all that make it as great as it is.
<small>(but seriously I preferred your old webpage)</small>
------
rys
Anecdata, but I've had nothing but performance problems with rsync.net and
while their engineers were helpful to try and diagnose why, ultimately I've
been left with ~10Mbps to/from their network/storage. That's "fine" for
storing with them, since I don't really mind how long the transfers take, but
I dread restoring my data at that rate if I ever need to.
I might try a brand new (attic) account and see if that lands me on a storage
array with good performance.
~~~
rsync
Please be in touch with us again (today, even) - performance issues at
rsync.net are _always_ network issues. We should be able to do _something_ for
you, perhaps moving you to one of our other global locations ...
------
sdotsen
Why not S3? I use Arq with my Mac to back up my important doc, which gets
encrypted in my S3 bucket. However, I'm still looking for a viable method to
backup all my photos and videos. Right now they reside on multiple external
hard drives.
~~~
StavrosK
You need this:
[https://www.stavros.io/posts/holy-grail-
backups/](https://www.stavros.io/posts/holy-grail-backups/)
About your S3 question, having something like rsync.net (where you can run a
server process) is much faster/easier/better because your backup software can
know exactly what's stored on the remote side and only send diffs.
I'm sure this can be overcome with some clever client-side engineering, but
having a server process is always going to be more flexible overall.
A more pragmatic reason is "because Borg doesn't run as well on S3".
~~~
cvwright
This is very helpful. Thank you!
~~~
StavrosK
No problem, glad I could help!
------
rendaw
Dropbox doesn't have completing, fixed interval backups and has fairly buggy,
heavy, intrusive software (on linux). Google/Microsoft's services don't have
differential backups and their software is generally lacking.
Rsync.net promises exactly what I want, but at 6/gb ($60/mo for 1 tb) it's 5x
more expensive than Dropbox so I'm manually hacking around Dropbox's offering
for the moment.
~~~
vitalysh
I've been using rclone ([http://rclone.org/](http://rclone.org/)) + AWS
CloudDrive form my home backups. Currently storing around 4TB for just
60eur/year. Perfect setup for me personally.
~~~
bckygldstn
Me too, and I've tried a lot of setups before settling on this. I can download
faster from Amazon drive than reading from a USB 2.0 hard drive, and rclone
makes it easy to keep important documents in sync on both services as well as
locally.
------
hyperion2010
I've been looking into rsync.net for personal offsite backups (turns out using
zfs locally doesn't make offsite easier), and was just doing the math
comparing the monthly cost to buying drives, filling them, and leaving them at
lab. Rsync.net offers a ton of awesome features, sadly the pricing is about an
order of magnitude too high for a personal use case :(.
~~~
diakritikal
Can't you just schedule an rclone cron job?
[http://rclone.org/](http://rclone.org/) \- it supports a decent number of
cloud services, maybe one suits your budget/requirtements? That's what I do
from my FreeNAS box.
~~~
leesalminen
I just configured rclone to sync roughly 1MM files (and growing) to GCloud
Coldline. Excellent tool.
------
pyvpx
why would I use this over tarsnap?
~~~
brians
This is 4-8 cents per GB-month, with no transfer fees. Tarsnap is 25 cents per
GB-month, plus transfer fees.
That's for Tarsnap's encoded data---but that seems roughly comparable to
rsync.net's free snapshots. So Tarsnap is something like 5x the cost.
For that 5x cost, you get secrecy of your data (but not your connectivity,
metadata, backup schedule) from your backup provider.
------
esseti
anyone that can suggest me a personal backup system? I've < 100GB of photos
(RAW) to store as a second backup (I already have them in an external HD).
Amazon Glaciar could work for me, just i don't get much how it works and if I
can use as a sort of Dropbox with very low access rate.
~~~
throwawayish
You _probably_ don't want to use Glacier for personal backups if there is a
decent chance you need a significant restore, or want it quicker than hours.
~~~
esseti
Any other possibile solution? I was thinking of Glacier just beacuse of the
RAW camera files I want to backup. I've them in two external HD, I don't
access them a lot, so I was thinking of keeping just 1 HD and put the rest in
glacier. If it takes 24h to get them back is not a big deal for me.
~~~
throwawayish
Glacier is meant as an archive - put stuff in, read just very little bits
back. Reading everything/significant parts back costs extra.
But if you're using it as an archive, and not so much as a backup (which for
me implies restore), then it might make sense for you. There is a simplified
calculator here: [http://liangzan.net/aws-glacier-
calculator/](http://liangzan.net/aws-glacier-calculator/)
------
zzzeek
Duplicity to Google Drive has been working great for me , nightly I run a
synthetic backup on a local box that syncs the drive to compress each day's
incremental backups into a new full backup. Wrote a Google app to auto empty
the trash every night.
------
devn0ll
I've got 4 TB's worth of photo's (All raw) and want them backed up.
With Crashplan Family: 160 per year. With the cheapest rsync.net: 1500
dollar's per year.
Yeah, not in 1500 years.
~~~
viraptor
Different use cases. You can't archive stuff from crashplan. If you retire the
your machine, you either migrate the whole thing to a new one, or your backups
will expire after some days.
So if you want single machine backup - crashplan is great. If you want long
term service data backup - rsync is great.
~~~
devn0ll
Partly true, you see: as long as you do not delete the top level "share"
everything underneath can be deleted on your machine and it will stay
available at crashplan.
------
unstatusthequo
SpiderOak Unlimited for me personally. Cross platform, dropbox-like sync,
share rooms, encryption, etc
~~~
Veratyr
SpiderOak's client and support are utterly horrible though. It's an okay
alternative to something like DropBox where you have a few, small, frequently
changed files but it's useless when you have terabytes of data to backup. It
completely refused to use even a fraction of my gigabit upload.
------
bryanrasmussen
so I'm pretty tired today, but I'm reading their pricing as 60 dollars a month
for 1 terabyte which seems too expensive? maybe I need to drink this coffee
here.
~~~
txutxu
No, you're right... even more in the case of 999GB
$ echo $(( (8 * 999) / 100 ))
79
79 dollars/month
I have a home made solution for personal disaster recovery, which is 30€/month
in Hetzner (2TB storage, no bandwidth limit) + 6€/month in OVH (same capacity,
less CPU and ram, but same storage/bandwidth conditions)...
For me the difference, is not only in the price, but in who has "root access"
over the data. Remote backups in third party storage, by definition, should be
encrypted. Using rsync almost implies that the remote will be unencrypted (or
efficiency will be lost). But we're in the age of "Virtual PRIVATE network
THIRD PARTY services" nonsense... so it's hard that nowadays operators
understand those principles.
~~~
viraptor
> Using rsync almost implies that the remote will be unencrypted
Not sure if you meant the protocol or the service rsync, but neither one
implies you store unencrypted data.
~~~
txutxu
Nor the protocol neither the service, but the data.
If you're going to encrypt all the backup locally before send it to rsync.net,
tomorrow you will need to transfer all the GB again, even if just one bit did
change...
~~~
viraptor
That depends completely on the encryption mode. This could get a full
technical explanation of different modes and architectures, but in short: you
probably know that if you use full disk exception, you don't rewrite the whole
disk just because one bit changed. There are many ways to keep the data
encrypted without relying on other blocks content.
------
gbh
How am I not already aware of these guys? Pricing looks good.
~~~
dan1234
Seems to be around 6 times more expensive than S3 for my usage (<1TB, EU
Standard - Infrequent Access is $0.0125/GB vs $0.08/GB).
Of course, you can’t rsync to S3 so I’m handling backups with duplicity and
using S3 as the storage target.
~~~
throwawayish
An important point to note is that esp. with S3 infrequent access or Glacier
there are additional costs associated with restoring, which can be quite high.
With S3/Glacier one needs to spend a bit of time to even figure out how much a
restore would cost.
~~~
dan1234
Yes, the data retrieval fee for infrequent access is $0.01/GB so a 1TB restore
would cost me $10.
Thankfully I’ve not had to perform a complete restore, though I do regular
test restores of a part of the backup just to make sure it’s all still
working.
Edit: It’s actually $100 (as transfer from S3->Internet adds $0.09/GB)
~~~
Scaevolus
No, it's $100, since the egress traffic will cost ~$0.09/GB.
~~~
dan1234
You’re right, I hadn’t taken that into account.
------
general_ai
Not the same thing, obviously, but 1/10th the price:
[https://www.backblaze.com/b2/cloud-storage-
pricing.html](https://www.backblaze.com/b2/cloud-storage-pricing.html).
~~~
bachmeier
Does it work with Linux? All docs that I read talk only about Windows and Mac.
~~~
geephroh
Absolutely! We've been using it as a special remote backend for our multi-TB
git-annex repos, and it has been both painless and cheap. They have supported
integrations for HashBackup and Rclone, and you can roll your own with their
S3-ish (though not straight compatible) API. They have recently added native
snapshots as well.
That said, as others have mentioned, b2's value differentiator is in cold
storage. For us, it's largely insurance against failure of our other backup
modalities. If you are pulling a lot of data back on a regular basis, the
pricepoint is much more in line with the top tier providers.
------
kiwee
That is suspicious to me. No address, no contact, no support.
~~~
pteehan
I've been a happy customer for years. The contact is [email protected] - it's on
the pricing page. I've emailed support a few times and they answer very
promptly.
Rsync.net has been around forever - like 15 years. They predate the concept of
'cloud'. They were the first to use a 'warrant canary', in 2006.
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warrant_canary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warrant_canary))
~~~
rtpg
RE the warrant canary: all legal analysis I've seen points to the canary being
functionally useless. A court would throw out the defense immediately,
removing a canary pointing out that a warrant has been served is the same as
tweeting that you got a warrant.
It's the minimal legal hack: completely useless in a court but massive
generator of internet comments
Though it generating discussion around the warrants themselves is a good
feature
~~~
StavrosK
You don't "remove" a canary, you just stop updating it. The intent being that
they can't force you to _keep_ updating it.
~~~
rtpg
They can't force you. Just like they can't force you to not tweet.
They can sure sue the hell out of you after you stop updating though.
~~~
SahAssar
The idea is that forced speech is different than free speech. That means that
someone can force you to not say something, but not force you to say
something.
~~~
rtpg
so there are two things:
\- The government cannot force you to update the canary. A court cannot get
you to update it, because it's forced speech to demand an update.
\- You created the canary of your own accord, and are responsible for its
effects. Not updating the canary is, effectively, speech.
Though, from [0]:
"Realistically, though, courts compel speech all the time. Court-ordered
apologies, disclosures, and notices are not unusual. And if ever a court would
be inclined to compel speech, it would be in a situation like this one, where
a company intentionally set out to get around a gag order with this kind of
convoluted sea-lawyering."
[0]:[http://law.stackexchange.com/questions/268/is-there-any-
lega...](http://law.stackexchange.com/questions/268/is-there-any-legal-theory-
behind-warrant-canaries)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Bulgaria Passes a Law Requiring Open Source - bozho
https://medium.com/@bozhobg/bulgaria-got-a-law-requiring-open-source-98bf626cf70a#.np5mz0heu
======
bluetomcat
You wouldn't know the background motivating this decision unless you have been
a frustrated user of the nearly non-functional software of Bulgarian state
institutions.
Ludicrous amounts of money are paid by the government to a selected niche of
companies for developing all kinds of useless websites which barely work under
load and have abysmal implementations with blatant security holes. This law
can act as a safeguard against such "epic failures", so that the taxpayers can
be aware of what they are actually paying for. 300k euros for a static
website? Let's hope it's over.
~~~
netcan
I hope it helps, but it doesn't seem like a sure thing on the face of it. To
the extent these big, expensive government projects are similar to smaller
“dumb-customer” projects, I don’t think this will help.
Anything that requires working with a hard to work with organization is
“expensive” in one way or another. You need to sell them the project, which
could take months or years. You need to figure out what they need, which will
be difficult and you’ll be wrong because no one knows, nevermind articulating
it . You’ll be forced to take numerous long cuts to meet unnecessary
requirements. There will be iterations, slow progress, long waits for client
input, training…
The companies who succeed at this are the ones who are experts in this
process. They sell well. They’re good at “managing the process” and winning
when a project is 3 years overdue, over budget, the spec is on iteration 46,
and no one can remember the original goal.
OTOH, if the government is developing software, why shouldn’t it be open
source. At the least, its good transparency.
~~~
bluetomcat
Yes, this is mostly about preventing taxpayer rip-off for trivial software.
Similar fraud schemes are exploited in almost every infrastructure development
project. The government would repave a road with 1/3 of the official budget
and the rest would be shared among the officials and shady business owners.
The Bulgarian government is unable to undertake a surveillance project of any
substantial scale simply because it lacks the technological expertise.
------
onestone
I remember the CEO of Information Services JSC (the de-facto Bulgarian
monopolist in governement software procurement), prof. Mihail Konstantinov,
making the ridiculous claim on TV that "We can't release the source code of
the elections counting software. Anyone who has the source can hack into the
system, even children know that. If you don't understand that, you should tear
your diploma". Glad to see that morons such as him will no longer have the
final say.
~~~
SyneRyder
If it makes you feel better, the Australian government said the same thing:
"Ronaldson refused to table any documents relating to the case, stating that
publishing the source code could lead to the EasyCount software being hacked.
"In relation to the source code for the Senate counting system, I am advised
that publication of the software could leave the voting system open to hacking
or manipulation," he said. "In addition, I am advised that the AEC classifies
the relevant software as commercial-in-confidence as it also underpins the
industrial and fee-for-service election counting systems."" [1]
Australia's federal senate vote count software is a Visual Basic application.
It was developed when an upgrade to Windows 2000 broke the previous COBOL
application. [2]
[1] [http://www.zdnet.com/article/government-blocks-aec-source-
co...](http://www.zdnet.com/article/government-blocks-aec-source-code-release-
on-hacking-fears/)
[2] [http://www.itnews.com.au/news/the-tech-behind-was-senate-
rec...](http://www.itnews.com.au/news/the-tech-behind-was-senate-
recount-360504)
~~~
onion2k
These politicians are right - simply opening the existing source, with all
it's flaws, bugs, and security holes, _would_ be dangerous. It would be a huge
help to any malicious party. I don't think they're suggesting open source is
worse from a security point of view; they're saying that you can't open up an
existing product without doing a lot of work first.
Where they are wrong is in the assumption that keeping the source closed makes
them safe from an attack.
~~~
kavalg
To some extent yes, but this is only good if you can make sure that not a
single malicious adversary has access to the source code. My assumption would
be that in the voting case, the ones in power do have access to the code,
which is actually worse than open sourcing it. Offtopic: IMHO, the only way to
fix the voting software issue is to deanonymize the voting process to some
extent, which is a hard problem by itself too.
------
emilecantin
> It means that whatever custom software the government procures will be
> visible and accessible to everyone. After all, it’s paid by tax-payers money
> and they should both be able to see it and benefit from it.
I've been thinking that way for a long time, nice to see I'm not alone. Let's
hope other jurisdictions follow suit.
------
chme
Would be nice if bigger nations like USA, UK/GB, Germany would adopt this
policy and have to open source the exploits and root kits that where develop
with tax payers money.
Open source XKeyscore, yay!
~~~
mlnox
The UK government's digital services implement Open Standards for most of the
code they develop. While this isn't something that third party vendors have to
do, GDS/PDS/MOJDS/HMRCDigital are all rapidly reducing the amount of work
external vendors do for government anyway.
[https://github.com/alphagov](https://github.com/alphagov)
~~~
bozho
Yes, in the linked presentation I mention GDS as a good example. The US also
has a lot of opensource projects.
------
stanislavb
"The fact that something is in the law doesn’t mean it’s a fact,
though."..."companies will surely try to circumvent it."
Yeah, this is very well said. Most laws in Bulgaria are either not enforced or
"avoidable" :)
------
breakingcups
This is very interesting, I wish more countries followed suit.
In my ideal fantasy world, at some point other countries might have a look at
one of the open source projects of Bulgaria and collaborate when the goals
align closely.
~~~
aorth
It would be cool to have a Bulgarian version of the US Government's 18F:
[https://18f.gsa.gov/](https://18f.gsa.gov/)
They have public standards for government websites, server HTTPS configs,
website user interfaces, etc. On GitHub!
[https://github.com/18F](https://github.com/18F)
------
lamarkia
It mentions "OpenOffice", which is now defunct.
In any case it is good. Future procurements will show how well the law is
applied.
~~~
garaetjjte
OpenOffice isn't defunct, it is still in development:
[https://www.openoffice.org](https://www.openoffice.org).
~~~
xvilka
It's nothing, compared with LibreOffice development pace.
~~~
garaetjjte
Yes, but it is still alive. And even LibreOffice copied feature introduced in
Apache OpenOffice by IBM(sidebar). But OpenOffice cannot copy code from LO due
to license incompatiblity.
------
donkeyd
I've personally seen the Dutch government spend millions implementing open
source software. This was something that could've been fixed for a fraction
using a closed source solution. After a couple of years, the project was
canceled and the closed source solution was implemented anyway.
I'm not saying that using OSS is a bad thing. I don't, however, think that
'OSS only' is the solution to the problem at hand.
~~~
lucb1e
More background please? Because unless they were cutting corners in a _huge_
way (probably security-wise), I don't see how open source would be so much
more expensive than closed source. The statement that "[it] could've been
fixed for a fraction using closed source" seems very weird since there are no
fundamental differences in how one writes open or closed source code.
~~~
donkeyd
They were implementing an ESB. There wasn't any internal knowledge on it, so
they had started a joint venture with a business that provided consultants.
For some reason (not exactly sure why), the project went past its deadline by
about 2 years. My own employer at the time also provided an ESB, though it was
closed source. We had a lot of experience with the product, and therefore
could've implemented it quickly and for a fraction of the price (like we'd
done before). Unfortunately, no information on this is available online, for
reasons I understand.
When they canceled the project, apparently they ended up hiring my employer
anyway.
------
leandot
That is great news, hope it works out well.
------
anaolykarpov
If facebook, google, twitter and others are able to run their world scale
software on OSS solutions without being hacked, I am sure that OSS can power
some national scale software as well.
~~~
kowdermeister
They ARE being hacked from time to time :) But they also know that and they
run bug-bounty programs.
------
blahi
Every law passed by Bulgarian parliament serves only one purpose - to put
pressure on somebody, so people in the shadows can get a slice.
edit: A new government agency is tasked with enforcing the law
Ah, I see now.
~~~
vminkov
I know the people who stand behind this and believe me, they have 0 (zero)
dependence on the oligarchy and moreover they are a team of experts who have
been in the private sector until recently. This law is one against the status
quo.
~~~
blahi
There have been plenty of experts with 0 dependency from the oligarchy. They
all either failed or started dancing to the tune. Even if they have pure
intentions, they will get manipulated, used and eventually thrown out while
the agency will serve as a means to block companies who don't know the right
people.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why I Jumped Off the Ivory Tower - cantankerous
http://zacharyernst.blogspot.com/2013/10/why-i-jumped-out-of-ivory-tower.html?m=1
======
Anon84
Just a small datapoint when it comes interdisciplinarity, at least when it
comes to Physics.
I'm faculty in a Physics department working in an interdisciplinary field
(Social Networks/Human Dynamics with applications to Sociology and
Epidemiology). Over the years I've seen reactions spanning the entire range
from "how is that physics" to "that's awesome". Reactions tend to be
correlated with "age". Younger faculty and students tend to love it and find
it extremely interesting why Older (and more entrenched) faculty tend to
dismiss it completely.
Institutionally, life is not always easy. Physics departments don't really
know what to do with publications in WWW, KDD, BMC Medicine or EPJ Data
Science and CS departments don't know what to do with a PRL or a BMC
Infectious Diseases. Not all of these publications (CS ones in particular) are
indexed by ISI so you keep having to direct people to your Google Scholar page
if you don't want them to miss a large fraction of your publications.
On the bright side, being interdisciplinary means that it's easier for you to
reach out the outside world and working on applications to "real life
problems" means that you're more likely to actually make an impact in the
world. It also means that you get a bit more of media coverage than your
collegues which both helps and hurts you (hell hath no fury like a scientists
ego scorned).
I have my list of complaints as many others do, but at least when it comes to
research I can't really imagine myself doing anything else. Less teaching or
more research funding would be awesome but (at least so far) they haven't been
deal breakers.
------
pfortuny
He is so right on the 'interdisciplinary' thing: as long as you try to learn
something new, you are wasting your time (not only from the financial
standpoint but also from the 'status' one). Even more: those interdisciplinary
studies will most likely be seen as 'not interesting' by each of the
'departments' they link. So... less ranking for your possible publications.
And on and on and on. It takes guts not to grind the same mill as everybody.
And of course, it requires a permanent position to begin with! Otherwise, you
will not get it.
~~~
mathattack
There are reasons that departments exist, and that they are primary. For
better or worse, you trade off interdisciplinary studies (and organizational
flexibility) when you have a tenure driven department system. My impression is
that some schools (MIT & Stanford?) seem to get it right, but most don't. Of
course getting interdisciplinary right could just be the job of the real
world.
~~~
pfortuny
Oh, certainly, I am not the one to disagree on then necessity of departments.
The problem is that Rectors seem to push for "interdisciplinarity" but without
any reward for it in any way. So, it is just grandiloquent speech as far as it
goes on like this.
------
auctiontheory
My impression of (tenured) academics is a lot like my impression of Microsoft:
they're making out like bandits in the short-term, while seriously head-in-
sand about fundamental changes necessary to tackle the long-term.
~~~
grovulent
This comment sounds flippant - but it has some truth... I've had a lot of
experience with many academics from many different disciplines, from science
to media studies, to philosophy.
The sense in which they are 'making out like bandits' in the short term is
simply the kind of isolated freedom that tenured academics have been able to
enjoy for so long. They only have to talk to one another and get the esteem of
their most immediate peers - but beyond that the world leaves them alone.
The sense in which they have their head in the sand is that the world is
increasingly asking them to justify their existence more and more - which is
forcing academics to engage in various ways more with the external world. And
naturally, they don't enjoy doing this. But rather than bite the bullet and
tackle full on the problem of demonstrating their value - they just become
somewhat histrionic at the suggestion that they have to justify themselves...
and in the end - and this is the important bit - FAIL to deliver a coherent
defense.
And before you say it: "Academics need to be left alone to their own devices
otherwise you won't get innovations borne of long terms motivation and
incomprehensible (to the common folk) abstract thinking."
This doesn't help - even if true. Because what is needed is a cost-benefit
analysis of all the wasted resources going into the research community as a
result of tenured academic life vs the the innovations that this system alone
could produce. I for one have no idea how to a) identify the innovations the
definitively WOULDN'T have been generated by an alternative system, nor do I -
b) know how to measure the costs.
However, the one group of people that probably are smart enough to figure out
an answer to this are the people who don't want to even consider the question.
(If anyone knows of actual research on this question - I'd be very
interested).
~~~
aridiculous
"I for one have no idea how to a) identify the innovations the definitively
WOULDN'T have been generated by an alternative system, nor do I - b) know how
to measure the costs."
Exactly. It can't be measured.
The situation is political, and the academics are right not to engage in a
dialog that uses the language of market economics and 'value'. The private
sector market experts are going to want to use their models and supply-demand
curves to justify resource allocation to obvious industry-relevant subjects.
The academics are going to use history, ethics, etc to defend breadth,
freedom, and security of non-obvious inquiry.
The faculties need to take back control of the university. They're being bent
over a barrel by their administrations.
~~~
yummyfajitas
If the benefits can't be measured, why are we wasting money on them? I can
also give you oodles of unmeasureable and unquantifiable benefits. Just send
me a big check and then don't try to box me in with oversight or
accountability.
(There are of course some measurable benefits from the current system. For
example:
[http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=W04](http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=W04)
)
~~~
rmk2
Excellent, alongside the Humanities, then, we can also close down physics,
because, clearly, if benefits can't be measured, why waste money?
Many of the "impact" arguments assume that the only victims will be the
humanities, a sacrifice lots of people are very willing to make. (The original
article talks, albeit not quite as strongly, of a hemorrhaging that is slowly
happening in terms of funding, jobs and perspective.) However, there is some
other, less obvious, collateral damage: physics, mathematics (except for
applied maths), economics all share similar problems.
And here are some choice quotes about the UK's REF and its "Impact" pilot
study, with "Impact" being an integral part of the future score (20%, which is
going to go up to 25% for the next one) that decides about research spending
from Research Councils over the next couple years, due in 2014:
> "Physicists had some particular concerns about the challenge of assessing
> impact in the manner foreseen by HEFCE. 1\. The difficulty in attributing
> UoA-specific ‘ownership’ of impact that arises from the work of a large
> collaboration, either experimental (in our case, a ten-institute
> international collaboration working on experiments at CERN) or theoretical
> (an eight-institute collaboration using High Performance Computing
> facilities).
2\. The blurry distinction between the ‘use of’ new high performance computers
and the ‘stimulation of’ the development of these machines. At what point does
close collaboration with a company such as IBM in the development of teraflop
or petaflop computers become ‘impact’?
4\. Commercial confidentiality became an issue. Even in this pilot exercise,
and making use of the ‘Confidential’ tag on the submissions, we still had to
remove some of the strongest material concerning cooperation with industrial
companies because of confidentiality agreements. In REF itself, this would be
a huge problem. It should be noted that this also contributed to the Institute
of Physics giving up on a recent exercise to try to quantify the impact of
Physics. It is impossible to quantify the impact of public understanding of
science initiatives such as TV and radio appearances, popular lectures, books,
etc at the scale of individuals or groups. Across the community, such work
clearly has an important impact, but this cannot be sensibly quantified." (p.
29)
> "Several respondents noted that research impact was most readily observed
> and measured where the distance between the two realms, research and impact,
> was relatively short and the pathways rather direct: for example, applied
> scientists working in collaboration with a private business seeking
> expressly to translate the generic insights into commercial advantage.
The socio-economic impact of more fundamental research might go unnoticed and
unremarked most of the time, reflecting the diffuse, cumulative and rather
unpredictable nature of intellectual advances. Indeed, one might imagine that
the occasion where a fundamental breakthrough produces a relatively immediate
and direct social improvement is rare, even anomalous. In practical terms,
this means the impact case studies track back to particular types of people
and types of work. It might also mean that some of the most consequential
socio-economic contributions will be excluded by virtue of their rather
indirect link with cutting-edge research.
There was a suggestion that institutions had taken the low hanging fruit, and
that in some sense the portfolio of case studies was not a good representation
of the breadth of research undertaken. This sentiment appears to be rooted in
a general sense that impact is most obvious in some narrow areas, within
subjects rather than between them, and largely unknowable, at least in
practical terms, in most instances. There were also suggestions made that a
proportion of the more significant, evident impacts was linked to people and
activities outside the very best academic research, albeit dependent upon that
work, and which would be overlooked as a result. There is always going to be
an over-reliance on a small number of sub-groups, even individuals, whose
research happens to lend itself to non-academic impact. The impact submission
is not necessarily representative of the UoA as a whole." (p. 30)
> "The biggest challenge was the need to acquire evidence to reveal the reach
> and significance of a given impact. There were many practical issues that
> stood in the way, and the response of the majority, for the pilot exercise
> at least, was to firstly focus on the more obvious cases and, secondly, to
> use whatever narratives, references and statistics that came to hand
> readily." (p. 31)
Source: REF Research Impact Pilot Exercise Lessons-Learned Project Feedback on
Pilot Submissions, November 2010
([http://www.ref.ac.uk/pubs/refimpactpilotlessons-
learnedfeedb...](http://www.ref.ac.uk/pubs/refimpactpilotlessons-
learnedfeedbackonpilotsubmissions/))
~~~
yummyfajitas
I'm quite happy to cut unproductive parts of physics, math and economics.
Cutting the entirety of these fields seems counterproductive, since the
benefits of the fields as a whole are quite clear. Semiconductor physics alone
has certainly paid for all of physics and operations research alone has
certainly paid for all of math.
But if we can identify useless segments of these fields, I favor cutting them.
I see no good reason any particular endeavor should be exempt from a
cost/benefit analysis.
~~~
waqf
Right, the whole problem is that most of the subfields look probably-useless
until someone goes all the way down the path and discovers a use. So the
benefit side of the cost-benefit looks like huge benefit times small
probability, and that's a calculation that's very sensitive to error.
To continue your example: one of my ancestors worked on investigating the
semiconducting properties of germanium in the '30s, but he couldn't think of
anything it might be useful for. Oddly enough, he's not mentioned in the
history books.
~~~
yummyfajitas
As I said, "if we can identify useless segments of these fields". I didn't say
we could actually do that. I'm not a strong proponent of cutting scientific
funding. Science contains a lot of stories about random seemingly useless
research coming in handy in 10-30 years.
Medieval literature has far fewer stories, however.
(Incidentally, in case you think we don't currently attempt to predict the
future uses of assorted subfields, you've clearly never looked at the NSF
budget.)
------
shaggyfrog
In case anyone else sees an almost-empty page, it looks like Ghostery ends up
blocking all the content. Or should I say, the owner of the website has
inextricably and inexplicably tied the basic functionality of their blog to an
advertising script (Disqus). Very lame.
~~~
vdaniuk
In what way Disqus is an advertising script?
~~~
spindritf
It's not but if you configure Ghostery's filters strictly, it blocks a lot of
third party elements that are widespread on the web and as such can be used to
track you. Ghostery in general doesn't target ads in particular. That's what
AdBlock is for.
------
mathattack
It's hard to imagine questioning a tenure decision on your wife can ever end
well. Not that you shouldn't stand by your spouse, but anything you say will
appear biased. I suspect that Mizzou knew they would lose both of them.
Here is a slightly sympathetic commentary.
[http://philosophysmoker.blogspot.com/2011/12/zachary-
ernsts-...](http://philosophysmoker.blogspot.com/2011/12/zachary-ernsts-
accusation-of-sexism.html?m=1)
EDIT: Fixed a typo.
------
blakesterz
As a recovering Academic myself I really enjoyed this post. And as good as it
is, that first comment really moved it from good to legendary: "Like many
career academics your pompous prose distracts from the content of your
argument."
------
sfbsfbsfb
What I took from this story was a first hand account of resistance to change.
This does not bode well for the ability of specific academic departments to
maintain relevance in the years ahead.
Experimentation in the best ways to educate has been embraced by the private
sector. It will be interesting to watch the level of competition that
universities can provide.
------
doctorpangloss
>I should begin by acknowledging that I've had some major and sometimes quite
public conflicts with my home department and administration, especially about
their treatment of my spouse, which I strongly believe to be the result of
highly sexist attitudes.
What does that concretely mean?
~~~
dead_phish
If you go back through his archives (which took more time than I thought it
would) you find a FAQ post about an essay concerning alleged sexual
discrimination in his wife's tenure hearing [1] (it's referenced here [2]).
Both claim to have links to the original article, but they're dead.
EDIT: Concretely? It seems like his wife was up for tenure and was denied it
on account of what the author claims was sexism, based on past actions of the
administrators in his department.
[1] [http://zacharyernst.blogspot.com/2012/03/sex-
discrimination-...](http://zacharyernst.blogspot.com/2012/03/sex-
discrimination-essay-ifaq.html?m=1)
[2][http://philosophysmoker.blogspot.com/2011/12/zachary-
ernsts-...](http://philosophysmoker.blogspot.com/2011/12/zachary-ernsts-
accusation-of-sexism.html)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
December 29th is Dump GoDaddy Day - mgrouchy
http://betanews.com/2011/12/26/december-29-is-dump-go-daddy-day/
======
joejohnson
Can anyone point me to a relatively easy walkthrough on transferring my
domains away from GoDaddy (to namecheap, I guess)?
~~~
raphael_lee
I used this: [http://blog.jeffepstein.me/post/14629857835/a-step-by-
step-g...](http://blog.jeffepstein.me/post/14629857835/a-step-by-step-guide-
to-transfer-domains-out-of-godaddy)
from one of previous HN post: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3383097>
~~~
oozcitak
Don't skip (as I did) steps 15-19. Otherwise, you'll wait a week before
GoDaddy releases the domain to your new registrar. When you manually accept
the transfer as described in the blog post, the process should complete in a
few hours.
------
x3c
Joe Wilcox started his post by saying: "My idiots of the year award almost
certainly will go to Netflix and Go Daddy, which tarnished their brands
through nothing more than sheer stupidity (there are still five days in the
month for your organization to royally screw up and claim the honor)." It
seems Ocean Marketing rose to the occasion.
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3395411>
------
veyron
Is there a comprehensive solution like godaddy? I've seen people talk about
solutions involving stringing together registrar, DNS, SSL certs, hosting,
email, etc but I (and I imagine a lot of godaddy customers) would like a
single point.
In fact, I'd venture to guess that there would be strong demand for such a
solution, even if it used AWS or google apps in the backend and even if it
costs more than the sum of the individual pieces
~~~
theatrus2
Gandi.net is a good all in one value. Otherwise just distribute to any number
of services.
------
rhizome
It's been a few years since there's been a good Internet Death Penalty. Create
some plugins or firewall rules or what have you, which people can use and
which render all GoDaddy-registered properties unavailable.
------
wccrawford
I dumped before I heard about this, but I'm glad I didn't wait. It would have
been a chance to just not bother.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
This Google result can't possibly be right: - NSX2
Had fallout with partner over perceived workloads. To destress I thought I'd amuse myself by googling "lazy cofounder". 0 results. Tried "lazy co-founder" ... 4 results, all irrelevant. Tried "lazy business partner", only 5 results with the standard "search again with ommited results blah blah". Did Google change their search equation, or are Chinese hackers retaliating for middle eastern cable line splices, or what - I REFUSE TO BELIEVE that in this whole wide big world, I am the only person ever to think I'm doing an unequal share of the work. Someone somewhere in this world must have thought about it and posted a blog or something on the internet. Why isn't google picking it up? I can google something stupid like "pink zebras with attention defecit disorder" and probably get more results. WTF?
======
airhadoken
Congratulations. This page is now the top Google result for "lazy co-founder."
I have a theory: everyone who has lazy cofounders (considering how small the
number of _founders_ is overall) is too busy to blog about it.
------
xirium
I tried the phrase "lazy business partner" on Ask.Com and AltaVista. Ask.Com
returned 20 results, of which 19 were junk. AltaVista returned 79 results,
most of which are useful. As previously noted (
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=106235> ), these search engines will also
return more results for "Google is evil".
------
nreece
Did you try "lazy founder" (a cofounder is actually just another founder,
isn't it ;)
~~~
NSX2
Well, lazy founder would be me ... I mean the "other founder guy" ... and
actually I just tried that and got back just ... 5 pages x 20 results per
page, half of them (later pages) mostly irrelevant. So I guess it's just me.
Everyone else has super hard working partners who haul rear end, only I make
bad partnering choices. Either that or I've found a flaw in Google. If it's
just me, why are there so many lawsuits with founders suing each other? I
can't imagine they go to court saying, "Darn it, your honor, my partner
promosid to work hard - and he wound up working too hard!"
------
trevelyan
Why did you pick them as a partner and what would you do differently if you
could pick again? Or did they pick you?
~~~
NSX2
Well, it was a combination of supposedly shared values and reputation by
people who I've come to learn are easily manipulated by what other people
think about a person and the internet blog-sphere more than any actual first-
hand knowledge. Everybody I asked about thought the world about him but when I
ask now about firsthand actual experience, nobody in particular actually
worked with him on anything. Everybody just "respects" his "rep" although for
the life of me I can't figure out what that respect is based on other than a
prima donna attitude and not much else.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What criteria helps focus your interests? - halfcat
A few questions:<p>1) Should interests be limited in the name of doing something meaningful?<p>2) If interests should be limited, how do you determine what is worth spending time on so that you do not regret it after investing a significant amount of time?<p>3) Put another way, how do you avoid wasting your life consuming mind candy?<p>I spend a lot of time on the web, and in retrospect, I consider a lot of that time to have been wasted. I latch onto topics for brief periods (a few days or weeks), make big plans, then move on to a different interesting topic. I will spend large amounts of time on pretty meaningless tasks. I will spend a week messing with a music mashup that I know will make my brother laugh. He laughs. Now what? I feel like I wasted a week.<p>I over-analyze everything. I think part of what I enjoy is just analyzing things. I like to analyze chess games. I might spend a week or more analyzing one interesting game. Then what? I feel like I've wasted a week, even though the process was intellectually stimulating. There are hundreds of other topics that I will do this with. I will hear a comedian interviewed, and realize there is some science to comedy and what makes someone laugh, so I spend a week semi-obsessing over how to deconstruct and analyze comedy routines. Or I realize that I can compile a database of chord progressions for millions of songs and make a mashup generator. After a week or two, something else interesting comes along.<p>Is the answer to discover your meta-hobby, deconstructing and analyzing things in my case, and then apply that in some area that benefits others?
======
adam419
I completely relate. I find myself drawn between so many things I never end up
truly immersing myself into one thing for long enough to get the big benefits
I've identified at the onset. Something else always comes along that I end up
jumping to.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Errant cron task yields yearlong time lapse of nytimes.com - ChrisArchitect
http://blog.joshuanguyen.com/post/7766138893/due-to-an-errant-cron-task-that-ran-twice-an-hour
======
zenpaul
I created a web application and set of scripts late last year to snapshot
sites like that on a daily/hourly/minutely interval. Also set up the web app
to manage the captured images and turn them into videos.
Some of the interesting things I found:
\- interesting to compare news sites coverage of the same news stories - see
who publishes stories first and where on the page...
\- quickly analyse site ad and content refresh rates
\- instant time lapse videos from web cam sites
\- some interesting artistic effects as content changes and moves on sites
\- "photographic record" of web sites was interesting to see some sites not
update or be broken at times
\- very easy to generate gigabytes of content in small amounts of time!
I have't have time to extend the project further right now, but I still have
jobs running capturing some of the top sites daily to get some year-long web-
time-lapse videos and do something with the content. If anyone has ideas to
commercialize the content or technology, let me know.
Note: Technologies used - Ubuntu, bash, CutyCapt, JSP, ImageMagick
------
ChrisArchitect
Sorry, just realized more original source is
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2777508>
~~~
peteforde
The original post suffers from poor titling. Phill MV would have been better
off taking a page from TechCrunch's confrontational naming style.
~~~
phillmv
Ah, but the Dylan reference was TOO GOOD TO PASS UP.
------
nostromo
Mid-terms at 1:19 --
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCKGOiauJCE&feature=playe...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCKGOiauJCE&feature=player_embedded#at=1m19s)
Fun to see the results pile in -- then the usual reaction shots from pols
(frowns and smiles depending on party).
------
codeslush
I must confess, I actually watched the entire video! Much better than looking
through hundreds of screen-captures in a list and interestingly entertaining!
It's striking to me the number of watch makers that advertised through the
course of the year. The ads primarily caught my attention - which is strange,
because I rarely look at ads when browsing sites. The one constant, from all
the ads, was a watch manufacturer.
Curious if the person who captured these images had a browsing history for
watches, or if that's what everyone witnessed? Next experiment: Two completely
different users capture these on the same time interval -- side by side
comparison! ;-)
~~~
phillmv
>Curious if the person who captured these images had a browsing history for
watches, or if that's what everyone witnessed?
Alas, no. I used a webkit to jpeg generator that should, in theory, be pretty
void of any browsing history. I'd be surprised if they've started tracking
those by ip!
~~~
mrkurt
You shouldn't be too surprised, it's quite possible they were tracking some
combination of IP, user agent, and a number of other things to identify the
browser. I don't know that you would have ended up having a "watch"
preference, though, especially without clicking on watch ads or visiting a
watch site.
------
robryan
I would love to see the times adopt a layout for their front page which is
more web based and less like imitating the front page of a paper, at 5 columns
across in places it is too squished together at only 970px across.
It would actually be a great candidate for responsive design, could make the
current columns setup look far nicer with more width when it is available then
remove columns where there is less screen width available, similar to
<http://theconversation.edu.au/> which has a similar amount of columns across.
------
roadnottaken
how do you use cron to take screenshots like this? does a browser window have
to be open somewhere the whole time?
~~~
icebraining
"Open," yes, but not visible. You can use Xvfb[1] which does everything in
memory but doesn't actually show any image.
[1]: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xvfb>
------
adamhowell
I've often found myself needing -- and thinking a/b building -- a webapp/site
for taking/collecting screenshots of other sites. But I'm not sure it'd
actually be useful and I certainly don't know if anyone'd pay for it.
~~~
pyre
There were quite a few of these that popped up ~5 years ago. I think most of
them are gone.
~~~
adamhowell
Yeah, most of those were for thumbnailing.
What I'm talking about is most like a screenshot version of archive.org.
~~~
mnutt
That would be useful. Archive.org is better at not breaking than I imagined it
would be, but still often leaves broken assets. The combination of the two
would be really cool: see the page, and how the page was viewed at the time.
------
ChrisArchitect
one odd thing about the video is it should be 7+ mins long, but shows up in
YouTube as 5:36 or something. Trick: Watch in 480 mode, and it keeps playing
to the full length :-S
You gotta keep watching so you don't miss some more big news events like
Osama's death !
------
morgandev
This just in.... users of NYT.com like yogurt (see banner ads).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
13-Year-Old Password Security Bug Fixed [crypt_blowfish, ergo PHP et al.] - pasbesoin
http://it.slashdot.org/story/11/06/20/2257229/13-Year-Old-Password-Security-Bug-Fixed
======
pasbesoin
I'm not claiming expertise -- just a heads up. I gather this resource may
already be avoided by some/many.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google "niche design sites" - kirillzubovsky
http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&source=hp&q=niche+design+sites&pbx=1&oq=niche+design+sites&aq=f&aqi=g-v1&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=947l4257l0l4445l18l11l0l4l4l0l580l1715l2.4.1.5-1l8l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=ae1bafe2df197d5b&biw=1224&bih=706
Just as a mental note, this search led me to a page on google where the first hit was a link to a Turkish porn site (https://twitter.com/#!/kirillzubovsky/status/105751771233783810). I thought it was a little strange/funny.
======
kirillzubovsky
Just as a mental note, this search led me to a page on google where the first
hit was a link to a Turkish porn site
([https://twitter.com/#!/kirillzubovsky/status/105751771233783...](https://twitter.com/#!/kirillzubovsky/status/105751771233783810)).
I thought it was a little strange/funny.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A Guide for Webmasters: How to Disable Ad Blockers from Your Site - Magicstatic
http://www.wiyre.com/guide-how-to-disable-ad-blockers-for-webmasters/
======
emocin
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ublock-
origin/cjpa...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ublock-
origin/cjpalhdlnbpafiamejdnhcphjbkeiagm/related?hl=en)
Your site is much more usable with this installed.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Free business advice by volunteers - zinosoufi
http://www.score.org/explore_score.html
======
vlad
I went to a SCORE workshop; it was lead by an egomaniac. You can get an
advisor, but they won't take you seriously when you're 20; and, I wouldn't
bother going now. My impression of SCORE is that they build businesses
locally, so you will get an advisor who has worked in a type of region-
specific business that just happens to not be software, for 40 years, and does
not know very much about computers at all. But the most apparent thing is that
I was 20 years old, and everybody else was 35+. I also felt a little bit of
disdain towards me because I was 20 years old and wanted to start a software
business. They had this great advice to find a high school student to do your
web site and not pay him or her any money. That's their brilliant advice to
all new companies.
But, that's my personal experience, that's all.
------
juwo
forget about SCORE. I went to SCORE, where they fixed me up with a patent
lawyer who obviously, was trying to get business for himself.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The universal USB connector we’ve been waiting for is almost here - nkurz
http://www.androidauthority.com/usb-3-1-type-c-specification-416890/
======
pedalpete
I would hope they would have work into their 'universal' design a 'reversible'
USB. USB is regularly mocked for the amount of time we spend flipping the
connector over because there is no signal to which side is up. Even with
type-c, you have to look fairly closely at the two ends to get them to match
up.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Do you think this is a useful software tool? - Filestage
http://www.filestage.io/
======
toonies555
yes. especially for marketing people. 1) client calls you in. 2) you write
brief. 3) you play it back. 4) you fix brief 5) repeat 3 & 4 6) deliver.
most of this is necessary but filestage will make 5 go quick
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The story between VLC and Sourceforge - mafuyu
https://blog.l0cal.com/2015/06/02/what-happened-to-sourceforge/
======
frik
Interesting is that Sourceforge doesn't even host the downloads themself, but
just links to mirrors like HEANET. The mirrors should refuse to add any new
binaries from Sourceforge and we need a community driven website that
coordinates open source download binary mirrors (based on what SF uses at the
moment), and Archive.org/ArchiveTeam/etc should backup all SVN/CVS/etc
repositories on Sorceforge, and Google then should remove them from their
index or flag them as adware/scam. But there is a risk that lot's of valuable
source code of abandoned projects get lost that is still very valuable. So a
source code repo backup is important.
It's sad what has turned out of the former great Slashdot and Sourceforge
websites.
[Edit: fixed typo]
~~~
jbk
Which is why, for VLC, we contacted ourselves all the mirrors (+ quite a few
new ones), and built our own new mirroring system, that is faster (and more
reliable) than the SF one.
The mirrors had no problem with that, since we were already the biggest
bandwidth consumer, through SF.
Why do the mirrors offer this bandwidth? Well, it depends. Some are
universities, some need bandwidth up/down balance (because of interconnections
contracts), some are just nice, and some get paid to do it.
~~~
tokenizerrr
Paid by who?
------
jakobdabo
To me P2P is the obvious answer to the (especially free) software distribution
problem. Sign the binaries, and let the users help you. You can even run
Opentracker [1] on a cheap server for more independence. Ubuntu is doing this.
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opentracker](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opentracker)
~~~
sdalfakj
P2P is a very difficult option for any non-geek who wants to install ("just do
it") the software.
~~~
userbinator
"very difficult"? Has the definition of "non-geek" changed in the last decade?
I know many people who had absolutely no trouble downloading various things -
including software - from all the P2P networks that flourished around 10 years
ago. Not only torrents, but eMule, Kazaa, Limewire, etc.
They also happened to easily infect themselves with various malware by doing
that, but I'd consider it more evidence of how "non-geek" they were.
(But all in all, despite the risks, I definitely prefer and miss that era of
open filesharing compared to the closed proprietary walled gardens that have
replaced it.)
------
shiggerino
Reminds me of when VersionTracker was bought by Cnet, shut down and redirected
to their scam site.
------
cactusface
I guess one of the problems with software that doesn't cost any money is that
it's hard to build a business around giving it away. It sounds obvious in
retrospect...
~~~
rdc12
From the linked [0] article, SourceForge was a perfectly viable bussiness
before this, if it will continue to be is another matter
"First of all, problems with SourceForge are older than some people might
expect. At some point in mid-2000s, SourceForge stopped evolving as fast as it
used to and focused on advertising-based revenue. This allowed them to go from
$6mln in 2006 to $23mln revenue in 2009. But it also alienated free software
developers due to poorer service quality. Various projects started moving
away."
[0][http://libregraphicsworld.org/blog/entry/anatomy-of-
sourcefo...](http://libregraphicsworld.org/blog/entry/anatomy-of-sourceforge-
gimp-controversy)
~~~
cactusface
If you need projects to attract downloaders, your source of income is
advertising to downloaders, and advertising to downloaders drives away
projects, then your business isn't perfectly viable, even if you make more
money for a time.
------
diceruinedsf
Sourceforge was great until Dice.com bought them. Things seem to have gone
downhill faster once
[https://www.linkedin.com/in/gkuchhal](https://www.linkedin.com/in/gkuchhal)
took over.
------
maaaats
Can't wait for Windows 10 and it's manager to make all these crapsites
obsolete.
~~~
frik
Chocolatey downloads Sourceforge binaries too:
[https://chocolatey.org/packages?q=sourceforge](https://chocolatey.org/packages?q=sourceforge)
And Microsoft won't curate nor provide a mirror for popular open source binary
downloads, right?
Sourceforge basically acts as a web interface for a dozens of open source
gratis mirrors. The mirrors allow Sourceforge to upload files, something that
should be revoked and transferred to a free software open source community
driven website.
~~~
arthurfm
> And Microsoft won't curate nor provide a mirror for popular open source
> binary downloads, right?
Developers will be able to upload regular desktop applications to the Windows
10 app store once they have converted them into the AppX format. I don't see
why open source Windows apps couldn't be hosted there.
------
sibbl
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9648616](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9648616)
~~~
maaaats
Please include the content of a link and why you think it's relevant.
In this case, I guess you want to point out a repost. But the other one got 6
points and 0 comments, so no other discussion with interesting comments to
link to.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Volvo admits its self-driving cars are confused by kangaroos - cromulent
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jul/01/volvo-admits-its-self-driving-cars-are-confused-by-kangaroos
======
jazoom
The important part:
>“When it’s in the air, it actually looks like it’s further away, then it
lands and it looks closer,” he said.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Net Neutrality Complaints to FCC Not Submitting - yosemite_pete
Is anyone else having difficulty submitting complaints to the FCC with 503s being returned?<p>URL: https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/search/proceedings?q=name:((17-108))
======
Finnucane
I'm sending Pai a postcard. He doesn't control the USPS.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Creator of xkcd Reveals Secret Backstory of His Epic 3,990-Panel Comic - ghosh
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2013/08/xkcd-time-comic/
======
eykanal
This is what makes Munroe so awesome. It's one thing to be able to make nerd
comics. It's another thing to put in the effort to make accurate time/location
maps of various movies [1], or attempt to explain money with all sorts of
relative comparisons [2], or think up weird google searches and show the
results [3]. It's a completely different league to execute on huge projects
like this in such a novel fashion (as well as the "umwelt" one [4] which
showed one of fifty different comics to the reader, depending on their
location) that make Munroe so unique.
[1]: [http://xkcd.com/657/](http://xkcd.com/657/)
[2]: [http://xkcd.com/980/](http://xkcd.com/980/)
[3]: [http://xkcd.com/887/](http://xkcd.com/887/)
[4]: [http://xkcd.com/1037/](http://xkcd.com/1037/)
~~~
conroy
Also see his fantastic "What if?" series[0] where he answers fantastical
questions using similar research. Examples of recent questions include "If you
call a random phone number and say “God bless you”, what are the chances that
the person who answers just sneezed?" and "What place on Earth would allow you
to freefall the longest by jumping off it?"
[0] [http://what-if.xkcd.com/](http://what-if.xkcd.com/)
~~~
BrandonMarc
Speaking of What-if, it now makes sense that he did the questions about what
it would be like if the oceans of Earth were drained [0], and what it would
look like on Mars if suddenly water were added and oceans (an ocean) formed
[1].
\--------------------
[0] [http://what-if.xkcd.com/53/](http://what-if.xkcd.com/53/)
[1] [http://what-if.xkcd.com/54/](http://what-if.xkcd.com/54/)
------
M4v3R
It's really worth to read, at least partially, the One True Thread [1] - a
thread on XKCD forums when people were discussing the comic as it unfolded. It
is really interesting to see how they reacted to first frame (at which point
it wasn't known that it will last 4 months), and then how they began to
dissect every frame after that.
[1]
[http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=101043](http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=101043)
~~~
mherdeg
I like the idea of hundreds (?) of people obsessively consuming obscure media
and discussing it in a Web forum, mostly because I thought it was a nice plot
device in William Gibson's 2003 "Pattern Recognition" with "the Footage".
~~~
viraptor
Does it get more obscure than _why's printer spool documents a couple of
months ago?
~~~
LanceH
Obviously it gets more obscure. Just think of all the things you don't know
about.
~~~
foobarbazqux
Not to mention the things that are only ever vague ideas that may or may not
occur to isolated individuals in your lifetime depending on your response to
this thread.
------
xinn
[0]
[http://blog.xkcd.com/2013/07/29/1190-time/](http://blog.xkcd.com/2013/07/29/1190-time/)
------
Aardwolf
Does there exist a watchable version of this comic where it skips through
frames without text FAST, but pauses for long enough time to read it at each
frame with TEXT?
Most attempts at making the comic viewable either went too fast to read the
texts, or were manual click through and thus waaaay too slow.
Thanks!
~~~
sampo
> manual click through and thus waaaay too slow
I used the mouse wheel.
~~~
Aardwolf
So you see no problem with watching a movie and having to use the mousewheel
to go to each next frame?
------
sage_joch
_" In my comic, our civilization is long gone. Every civilization with written
records has existed for less than 5,000 years; it seems optimistic to hope
that the current one will last for 10,000 more," Munroe told WIRED._
It's an unfortunate reality that a thoughtful person could come to this
conclusion. But I feel compelled to disagree. We're on the verge of becoming a
spacefaring species. And people like Elon Musk give me hope that we could very
well still make it, despite everything.
~~~
alxhill
It always amazes me to see how much people don't realise that we are unlike
any other society that has existed on this planet before us. Globally
connected and scientifically advanced in the most important ways makes the
past a terrible prediction of the future. Exciting times.
~~~
jnevelson
And yet arrogant enough to think that we're so much smarter and more advanced
than those that came before or all other life forms we share this planet with.
BTW, not saying I disagree with you - just a counterpoint that can be made.
~~~
gizmo686
We might not be much smarter than those that came before us, but the shoulders
we are standing on are much larger.
~~~
npsimons
I think the key is to have the humility to realize that we haven't had another
Euclid or Archimedes in modern times. Possibly Decartes or Tesla compare, but
it's arguable. We've come _so_ far and have _such_ promise, and yet we have
_so_ much to lose. I would argue that far from being being doomed to repeating
history because we forget, we have the possibility of being the first to wipe
out our own race, either through inaction or brazenness.
~~~
awolden
I think we live in an age of such people. It was easy to stand out as a
brilliant polymath when we didn't know ANYTHING. I think we have more geniuses
than ever today, but there are so many of them that it no longer feels
special. We are advancing our knowledge and technology with dizzying speeds,
but we are so accustomed to it that we sit around and go, "Meh, there are no
geniuses anymore".
------
tehwalrus
Just sat and watched the whole thing in the video on this post (nightmare
pausing for text - well done timdorr for posting a link to a better way to
watch).
This is such a cool story! and the explanation makes me want to start working
decoding Linear A! :)
~~~
TDL
"and the explanation makes me want to start working decoding Linear A! :)"
Exactly what went through my mind as well.
~~~
tehwalrus
If you start gathering a corpus to work from on Github, I'll happily
contribute :)
------
rsfinn
I'm prepared to nominate this for a Hugo award.
I just double-checked the categories to make sure it goes in "Best Graphic
Story" and not "Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form)".
------
Jeremy1026
It's pretty amazing how close the people who were deciphering the comic were
in the time frame and that they nailed the location so early.
~~~
xradionut
Consider the readership that xkcd appeals to...
~~~
Jeremy1026
Even still. Quite amazing what they were able to do with just a handful of
clues.
~~~
xradionut
Not really.
Inferring epoch from constellations is an old sci-fi theme and a topic that's
discussed in basic astronomy classes. Considering the knowledge base and
nature of this web comic's readership, I'd expect that this would intrigue and
capture a certain percentage. (Smart people are smart and usually
inquisitive...)
~~~
gknoy
I think it's partly amazing (though it shouldn't be, given past work of his)
that Munroe took the time to render time-accurate futuristic stars, and other
details. His attention to detail is what makes this kind of sleuthing
possible.
------
Oculus
There's not a lot of people in the world that are this dedicated to making
other peoples' days just a little bit better.
Thanks Randall.
~~~
doktrin
Out of curiosity, why do you feel that Randall did this out of pure altruism?
Would his work have less meaning for you if he did it purely because he had an
itch to scratch, or thought it might be fun?
~~~
Oculus
I don't think Randall does xkcd out of pure altruism. I also don't think he
does it just for fun (although I believe that's how he started). I think it's
a mixture between the two.
If the comics were exactly the same, I'd probably still enjoy them just as
much, no matter the reason Randall does them. I feel that we'd be able to tell
by the quality of the work and the dedication that he puts into them if his
reasons for doing it were different.
------
omegant
So its a dam!, i didn't understand how the gibraltar strait managed to close
and open in only 11000 years. It's too wide yet. On the other hand, I don't
think it makes sense to close the strait, there is too much commerce flowing
through there, also all the mediterranean economy would colapse, and the
weather change quite a bit.
~~~
jerf
11,000 years is a long time, especially when we're hypothesizing a future in
which apparently once the fossil fuels disappeared, nothing else was a viable
energy source. (It's possible. They aren't the only energy source, nor even
the only dense energy source, but it's possible that long-term, the other ones
can not be economically maintained. Fission reactors aren't trivial, and we
still don't know how to build fusion reactors.) One could imagine a long-term,
slow-burn conflict between a culture located in what is now Spain and one in
what is now Turkey, and Spain deciding that building the dam would be worth it
to cut them off at a point in which they are on the ascendent and Turkey is on
the decline, so as to make the decline permanent, or who knows what crazy
thing like that. 11,000 years is a _long_ time for human history.
------
Aardwolf
I'm actually also interested in how he made it (drawing so much frames).
~~~
ygra
As far as I know he draws by hand, scans the images and cleans up in Photoshop
(or similar). Since Time is mostly a static background with actors I guess he
uses the same technique as stop-motion animators by drawing the background and
foreground on different cels (or maybe just compositing afterwards). Or lots
of copies of the background to draw the foreground into.
------
pearjuice
So any estimate on how long Randall was busy with this and what it earned him
in then end?
~~~
ygra
About the timeframe of the comic's updates and a good bit longer. He wrote in
his blog post [0.6983]:
> Time was a bigger project than I planned. All told, I drew 3,099 panels. I
> animated a starfield, pored over maps and research papers, talked with
> biologists and botanists, and created a plausible future language for
> readers to try to decode.
> I wrote the whole story before I drew the first frame, and had almost a
> thousand panels already drawn before I posted the first one. But as the
> story progressed, the later panels took longer to draw than I expected, and
> Time began—ironically—eating more and more of my time. Frames that went up
> every hour were sometimes taking more than an hour to make, and I spent the
> final months doing practically nothing but drawing.
[0.6983]
[http://blog.xkcd.com/2013/07/29/1190-time/](http://blog.xkcd.com/2013/07/29/1190-time/)
~~~
kgermino
Ok, I think I'm missing something: Why [0.6983]?
~~~
ygra
Some people start with 0, some with 1. I got bored and just resorted to random
numbers. As long as they are unique there shouldn't be a problem looking them
up.
------
darasen
xkcd truly elevates the web comic genre to an art form. Mr. Munroe really
should be considered for a Hugo or a Reuben.
------
joshaidan
I was sad when they lost the water bottle.
~~~
hadem
Or when she loves his flag so much that she colors it red.
------
laserDinosaur
As someone who is just hearing about this now, isn't this just an animation?
~~~
wikiburner
Released one frame a day. That's pretty unique.
~~~
Steuard
One per hour (or per half-hour, at first), not one per day. But yeah.
------
jvanderbot
Why do they know what castles are without knowing if there are rivers?
~~~
siddboots
Oral tradition?
------
pbreit
xkcd is incredible by why oh why is the title above the buttons?
------
AsymetricCom
I'm not seeing at all how this is related to money.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why is programming an art - johngorse
https://blooki.st/BlookElement/ShowTextPhoto?blookElementId=1962
======
MetaCosm
(On John Carmack) "It was written that his code is so ugly according to the
best practices standards, that only he completely understands what he has
written. And we all know that he is a genius."
No, his code isn't ugly. No, not only he understands it. It is actually
considered exceptionally beautiful ([http://kotaku.com/5975610/the-
exceptional-beauty-of-doom-3s-...](http://kotaku.com/5975610/the-exceptional-
beauty-of-doom-3s-source-code)).
Beyond that, even if it was (which it isn't), you are not John Carmack. I
don't know if dropping him into the article was supposed to bolster your
point, but I can assure you it did the opposite. It reads like an oddly
malformed appeal to authority. Bonus point: you can look at his code:
[https://github.com/id-Software](https://github.com/id-Software)
\----
Please, please stop reading books about style and creating your own styles!
Follow the language / platform standards and idioms so your code will
instantly be readable by other developers. Almost all languages & platforms
have dominant coding conventions, follow them. 15 years ago, you had to bake
your own standard, you don't need to do it anymore.
Use your creativity on solving your problem, not formatting your code.
~~~
johngorse
Thanks for the links. I didn't say that John's code is ugly, I just remember
reading about it in some magazine. They (magazine) obviously didn't have a
clue back then ...
------
brazzy
While the difficulty of and controversities over defining what "art" means are
proverbial:
No, in full generality it's not - that's pretentious bullshit fancied by
amateurs who want to cram as much meaning as possible into what they do.
Like painting, pottery, or photography, programming _can_ be used to do art,
but most of the time (99.9%+) it's just a mix of craft and industrial design,
done to achieve a practical goal.
~~~
tomphoolery
In my opinion, art is when you create things that have no actual use or value,
but are there simply because they express you as a person.
Since we almost never do this with programming, I don't believe it can be
considered an art as practiced by _most_ programmers. That's not to say you
can't use it as art, though! Any medium can be used to express art, because
art is flowing out of you constantly. Art and humanities should not be
separate classifications. Art is humanity.
------
rob05c
I believe programming is an art because "Programs must be written for people
to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute." (Abelson, SICP)
This heart of the matter, and it means programming is an art, a social one.
Like marketing or graphic design, it's an art for other people. Programs must
be written to be as readable as possible, to as many people as possible, while
still being functional and elegant. This requires an intuition of psychology
and sociology, in addition to a firm engineering grasp. A great programmer
must be both mathematically brilliant and socially empathic. If she lacks the
former, she won't be able to solve Hard Problems; if she lacks the latter,
she'll be a Cowboy Coder
([http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?CowboyCoder](http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?CowboyCoder)) and
her code will be worthless to society.
That's why it's an art.
~~~
brazzy
> This heart of the matter, and it means programming is an art, a social one.
No, it doesn't. It just means that programming is inherently about
communication (among other things). That does not, by a long shot, make it
art.
~~~
williamcotton
It raises an interesting point, however.
Things that are made for practical purposes are not art, right? The thing with
software is that the code is hidden from view.
There is an opportunity to make something practical by writing very
impractical code, that for example, has variables named after fantasy
characters, functions having some sort of narrative arc to their naming, maps
"drawn" in ASCII...
TheGoblinKing.smites(our_hero) could be a method to reverse an array.
Again, highly impractical, but with a practical result.
Architecture has a similar duality, but in a different kind of way...
buildings are indeed functional, but is there no art to the practice of
designing them? No room for ornament, expression, or "impractical" intent? For
example, ideologies can be encouraged through buildings by manipulating
people's response to their sublime grandeur or nostalgia... this seems like a
much more artistic and philosophical pursuit that goes well beyond just the
pure function of the building as a place to keep things separate from the
outside world.
------
dagw
By these vague definitions is there any professional endeavor that isn't an
art? And if not haven't we just removed all unique meaning from the word
'art'?
~~~
burntsushi
Donald Knuth makes a much more compelling argument. [1]
[1] -
[http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/1290000/1283929/a1974-knuth....](http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/1290000/1283929/a1974-knuth.pdf)
~~~
BellsOnSunday
I'm quite happy as a craftsman myself. The problem is the many and diverse
meanings of the word "art". At the start of Knuth's speech he quotes some ACM
worthy as saying that programming needs to transition from an art to a
disciplined science. Here, "art" is used to mean something that involves
guesswork and holding one's finger in the air. In the title of TAOCP, on the
other hand, Knuth seems to be using the word to mean "craft", as in the Art of
Fly Fishing. Neither meaning refers to the practice of fine art. AFAIK no one
compares engineering to musical composition or poetry, and engineers don't
seem to lose much sleep over it.
The functions of art include philosophical enquiry and invoking a sense of
immanence in the receiver, and so on; creating a program _might_ cause some of
these things to happen in the programmer, but only as a coincidence. In his
poem called The Scent of the Real, Alvin Pang writes "to bear clear witness/to
your longing alone/[is] the only art/there is." Software doesn't do it either,
other than as a potential medium for visual art or other forms. It seems
likely that new, distinctively digital art forms will evolve, but even then it
won't be "the programming" that corresponds to "the art".
~~~
burntsushi
I'm not sure where fine art comes into this. I am honestly confused as to why
you brought it up. See "The Arts of Old" section in Knuth's lecture.
------
tathagata
I wrote on these very same points recently, but argued differently -
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5804423](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5804423)
~~~
contingencies
Sorry nobody upvoted you. I much prefer your argument! I particularly liked
the phrase _The execution might as well be left to an automaton_. This is the
part of the profession - tedious trivial logical translation from
specification to program - that I refer to as 'floor sweeping', rather than
programming proper (analysis/design/interesting problem solving stuff).
Perhaps the percentage of our industry remaining to be liberated from that
drugery is high, unfortunately the liberators must be themselves.
------
sethammons
Not sure how to frame this nicely. The page needs to play better with mobile
devices. There is an ever-present back-arrow covering text that gets more
obstructive as the page is zoomed. When I decided to follow it to see what was
so important that it get in the way, the page it took me to was completely
unusable. That aside, I was happy to see that I could actually pinch zoom as
some sites block this behavior. Chrome on Galaxy S3.
~~~
jimmaswell
Firefox Mobile has an addon to force pinch zooming to be allowed everywhere.
I've used it on my S3 and it's pretty nice. Has lots of other addons that work
with it too, like adblock which is nice for when the mobile connection is
dodgy. Syncs bookmarks and such with my desktop too. Overall I've had a pretty
good time using ff mobile on my s3. I'd recommend the nightly build. Also has
a nice option to request the desktop versions of pages.
------
runawaybottle
Achieving simplicity in code is an art.
As a society, we can build buildings like regular old boxes, so long as it
meets our needs for sheltering capacity. We don't do it this way because we've
come to appreciate the ability of architects to create a more elegant building
(elegant in cost, design, environmental effect).
Most of the programming we do is just building big blocky buildings that most
will never see. If we were to spend the time and make it more elegant, we'd
only be doing it for ourselves and other programmers, as we are the only ones
that can appreciate it for the time being. Trying to simplify code is an art
simply because it's unnecessary, but when it's actually achieved, yields some
form of value to those that can appreciate it.
~~~
BellsOnSunday
> Achieving simplicity in code is an art.
By that do you mean that it's difficult to do and you need to practise it?
That sounds like a craft. I find it impossible to imagine the Mozart's Requiem
or Sistine Chapel of software, much less of programming.
------
garysweaver
Programming is an art, but as you get older and more experienced, you become
less able to express yourself in a way that doesn't seem both rote and
belabored.
It is closer to making furniture than painting or sculpture, as it tends to
need to be practical in some way. But if it were furniture making, you'd
continually be presented with new designs, new types of wood and other
materials, and new tools to make your furniture with, so you'd never know
exactly how long it would take to make a couch or a bedroom set.
~~~
brazzy
i.e. it's _not_ an art - it's a craft.
~~~
garysweaver
It is both. Code and the effect it produces can be a thing of beauty,
ugliness, or both, and at times the emotion and creative energy put into it
would make it rival any art. But, I agree that more often it is like a craft
because it tends to evolve into larger projects that need more skill and
technique.
Creatives/artistic types enjoy modular, greenfield development or pushing the
limits of confinement to produce something of beauty and use.
Practical/craftsman/engineer types enjoy using technique to build, design, and
maintain large systems because they enjoy process, skill, and established ways
of doing things. There is room for both.
------
FatalBaboon
>> I wonder if sometimes all those books actually help you develop an
efficient coding practice or are they just some sort of distraction towards
your creativity.
That. I'd even go a bit further and say they actually hinder your creativity:
can you even think of heroic fantasy without falling back into Tolkien's
imagination?
~~~
brazzy
If you think creativity is hindered by rules and best practices, you're a
beginner and likely will produce chaotic _and_ derivative crap.
You have to know and understand the rules before you can break them in a
meaningful way.
~~~
FatalBaboon
There's a balance to maintain, if you don't think outside the rules and best
practices every once in a while then you limit your creativity to content.
------
kenster07
Re: John Carmack -- the author conflating an aptitude for producing a great
end result, with the ability to communicate how the programmer got there.
They are different skills, varying in levels of importance depending on the
context.
------
bambax
I totally agree that programming is an art, but the art lies in the result,
not in the "coding style".
Who cares how Michelangelo held his brush or his chisel; what matters is what
he made.
~~~
madscientistcc
I have to disagree when it comes to coding style.
Readability and being to able to maintain the code is just as important as the
finished product.
Programming isn't just about one-shot projects, it's also about being able to
pickup and work with existing source code. Whether it is for someone else or
even yourself in the future.
------
frou_dh
I don't see the point in trying to persuade other people which fields
constitute art. You're free to appreciate things without needing them
certified.
------
hexasquid
We've got to stop assuming a programmer is a 'he'.
~~~
gamegoblin
English, and many other gendered languages, have a long history of using the
masculine in place of an unknown. Using "he or she" instead is, in my opinion,
both annoying to write and read.
~~~
bliker
I think _they_ is nice alternative
~~~
gruseom
Not only is _they_ the obvious alternative, it's always been perfectly good
English and has been traced back to long before generic _he_ was introduced—by
Latinists who wanted to make English more proper in I forget which century.
Now that generic _he_ is rightly getting dumped, the natural solution that
existed all along—singular _they_ —is making a comeback. It's a lot better
than stilted fabrications like "he or she", "s/he", and the hideous
"ostentatious she" that some people (seemingly always liberal males) insist on
using to denote programmers, venture capitalists, and other demographically
lopsided populations—as if changing the ratio of pronouns would change the
ratio of people.
The fascinating thing is that generic _he_ was an ideological construct in the
first place, a top-down imposition that never fully caught on in English
despite literally centuries of being proclaimed as proper. Singular _they_
continued to be used the whole time, and is found in most (all?) great English
writers. (Jane Austen was particularly fond of it.) I don't have citations
handy, but people with similar bees in their bonnets have made sure that web
searches won't lack for them.
~~~
tptacek
As a card carrying wielder of the ostentatious "she", let me just note that I
use it as much for my own benefit as for the benefit of people who read me;
specifically: I catch myself writing "he", and correct to "she". Over time, I
train myself not to default to "he" so much.
I agree that the singular "they" is superior.
~~~
gruseom
Well that's a new one (to me)—I wonder if anyone else does it for that reason.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Valve Moves to Choke Off $7.4B Gambling Market - danso
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-13/game-maker-valve-moves-to-choke-off-7-4-billion-gambling-market
======
heifetz
I think Valve has a bit of responsibility in this, because they created
microtransactions for "skins" in the game in the first place...
------
wink
Fascinating read. Long-time MMO and online player (and also years-long Steam
user) - and I've never even heard of skin gambling.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask YC: Learning to read code? - noahlt
I'm a high schooler who has worked on a few small projects of my own. Recently I've started to work with a friend[1] and I've discovered that reading code really is an order of magnitude harder than writing it. What's the best way to learn to read code? If the solution is just "read a lot of code", do you have any suggestions for reading material?<p>--<p>[1] pg is right about cofounders. At least for some people, including me.
======
lbrandy
There's actually two separate skills here. One is learning to just read code,
as in, understanding what the code is saying. The second is understanding the
code, which would be what the code is doing.
Learning to just read the code requires writing alot in that particular
language (I find writing teaches you alot more than reading). When some piece
of code uses some aspect of a language in a way you don't understand, go
figure out what they are doing, internalize that concept, and go write some
code yourself that uses that same concept in that language.
In my experience, writing alot of code is the best way to learn to read it.
You'll discover and truly understand why certain things are done certain ways
once you've had to go through the pain of doing it any other way. One of the
'first' examples you might run into is how every single header file in a c/c++
library seems to start with an #ifdef/#define combo, and end with an #endif.
It might seem a bit bewildering at first. But when you run into your first
case of multiple includes of the same file, you'll quickly see why they do it.
As for actually 'understanding' a big pile of code, that's more difficult.
This is where you understand the language just fine but you need to try to
wrap your mind a giant pile of someone else's code. You have to immerse
yourself in their codebase, figure out where all the important files are, and
so on. Take it small chunks. Pick a feature, trace the code, put in print
statements, etc. And you -really- need a way of quickly navigating the code
(jumping to decelerations, switching between header/source, etc). Many IDEs
provide some level of functionality to do this. Personally, I use emacs and
etags.
~~~
swombat
I'd add a third level - debugging the code.
The reason I'd count it as separate is because there have been many times when
I've fixed a broken piece of code without fully understanding it, going by gut
feeling rather than analytical understanding.
I would suggest this is like a higher skill built on top of 10+ years of
experience of both of the skills you mention.
------
blogimus
Do you have a favorite open source project? Download the source and try to
build the runtime files yourself. Then you have an environment to poke through
the code and play with. for example, do you like Python? download the source
and create a debug build of it.
Another thing to do is to go to code samples online at the example sites. Type
them in and/or download them and play with them.
Yet another thing to try is to do a port of a program to another platform.
Even if you are not successful, you should learn a lot.
The key is to take more than one approach, as there is no one right way, there
is not one true path. Immerse yourself in different programming activities.
The important part is practice, practice, practice, like the story on going to
Carnegie Hall.
Me? One of my earliest bigger projects was porting an old star trek game
written in Altair basic to Apple Basic. I had only mimeographed printouts
published in a book of computer games back in the 1970's. Arrays were not
handled the same between the two versions of basic, so I had to come up with a
different array scheme than was in the book.
------
gcv
Try stepping through the code in an interactive debugger. I typically run a
gdb-style debugger under Emacs, but anything which lets you step through code
and inspect data works well.
Some people really loathe these tools, but I think they're invaluable when
someone drops a pile of spaghetti code in your lap and tells you to support
it. Figure out the entry point to the code, set a breakpoint in main() or
something like that, and start stepping. After ploughing through a few of the
code's basic transactions, you should have a sense for the data structures and
abstractions it relies on, if any. Then, you should be able to read individual
functions and such to get the gritty details. The use of threads substantially
complicates the picture, of course.
------
andrewcooke
i'm not sure there's a good answer to this, apart from "keep trying and become
a better programmer", but maybe if i explain why it is hard to read code it
will help you see how to improve.
the trouble with most programming languages is that they are pretty much stuck
at one level of detail. so at the level of detail of "add these numbers" or
"print this text" they are ok.
but when you get to higher levels, like "while reading the file, get the input
from the user" they don't do as well. as a programmer you are "trapped" using
the same language that was designed to make working with the low level details
possible.
this is what makes programming hard/interesting, really. and of course there
are lots of ways to try solve the problem. one approach you might have met if
you've been reading what pg writes is to use a language like lisp which is
extensible (i'm thinking of his book "on lisp", which i think is online now).
then you can build the language up in parallel with your ideas so that you
continue to use a language at the right level for what you are describing.
in theory at least. in practice it is not so easy, and we have to read code
written by poor or average programmers, as well as good ones.
another way to deal with the problem is to keep _thinking_ about things at a
higher level, even if you are stuck with a language that forces you're writing
to spell things out in detail.
if a program is written by someone working in this way (thinking big thoughts)
then what you need to do is guess what they were thinking. once you
(correctly) guess the ideas behind the code then you can see the structure
that is otherwise obscured by all the details (like not being able to see the
wood for the trees).
obviously that's an impossible task in general - you cannot guess what someone
else is thinking. but in practice it turns out that some ideas are a lot more
popular than others. often because they are good ideas; sometimes because they
are common mistakes.
so one way of getting better at reading code is to learn what the possible
ideas are. then, when you read the code, you can pick that up. it might take
some effort at first, but eventually you get good at picking up "the scent".
for example, yesterday i was trying to understand why some code wasn't working
(part of the excellent sqlalchemy library for making python work well with sql
databases). stepping through the code in the debugger i was completely lost -
i couldn't have told you in any detail what was happening. but at the same
time, i was pretty sure that i knew what was happening in broad terms. the
library was written in a way that made it very customizable, with lots of work
being delegated to function calls that could be replaced in various ways. this
is a common idea for complex libraries, so i wasn't too worried that i didn't
know the detail of function calling function calling function because i was
pretty sure that the end result was just to delegate the process to the right
part of the library. understanding what the idea was made it a lot easier to
read (or skip parts of) the code.
sorry, i am writing too much. almost done.
anyway, for oo languages (particularly those with fairly rigid type systems -
java, c++, etc) some of these ideas are documented as "patterns". even in
other languages, som e of these ideas are so general they appear there too
(but with different names :0). so one way to improve your code reading skills
is to first understand the patterns, so that you have a catalogue of ideas
that you can check against the code (or against what you think was in the
programmer's mind when they wrote the code). the most famous book that talks
about patterns was also the first (afaik) and is called "design patterns"
-<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_Patterns>
------
zemariamm
If your problem is finding your way through big source code repositories you
may want to look at <http://www.spinellis.gr/codereading/>
------
vikram
When reading code don't treat the task like that of reading a book, the best
way I find is to interact with the code that you are reading. So it's crucial
to get it to run, then get it to do something useful, then refactor it
slightly by making functions shorter and giving the new functions specific
name. E.g. instead of saying (first lst) maybe say (node-name lst), ideally
the library functions should have names to do with the languages/library data
structures and your fns should have names which correspond to the problem you
are looking at. This is the approach I take when I want to rewrite something.
If you want to use the code as in a library, then try not to read the details
of it until you really have to. Use the interface or write an appropriate
interface for you to use. Work through some examples in the debugger to see
what it does.
If you need to fix the code then you need to read the code. I try to focus on
just the problem, rather than understand the whole thing. This approach makes
it much simpler, I get in and out really quick, just focus on the problem and
fix it. If I find something else that's a problem then I look at that too,
otherwise I avoid figuring out how the code works.
------
mark-t
I don't find reading well-written code any more difficult than reading a math
book. But of course it is an order of magnitude harder than reading prose. You
have to force yourself to slow down and understand what each part is saying.
As opposed to ordinary text, every word is important, and you need to know
what it's doing there.
Some of this is just proficiency in the specific language, but it's more about
the concepts and idioms of programming in general. I've fixed a bug in an open
source python project, and I couldn't write a "Hello World" program in python
without a reference.
But do note that "well-written" is mandatory. If the code isn't well-written,
it will take you a lot longer to figure out. The code I wrote in high school
was pretty bad.
Variables should be named to describe what they represent. You should have a
reasonable number of comments, not too many or too few (ironically, this
amount changes as you get better). Divide your code into manageable chunks and
split them into subroutines. Within subroutines, separate the chunks with at
least one blank line.
------
kjldskjh
Thanks to the people who wrote really long comments, i was stuck "trying to
hack a project" and though i could never really get a 200 file, 2K lines per
file project in my head. The thing about choosing your level of abstraction
and the try no to go deep into a library unless needed were spot on. Thanks A
grateful newbie "hacker".
------
whycombo
This might be a good place to start: Python Source Walkthrough Series
<http://showmedo.com/videos/series?name=qVIxaDJxY>
------
henryw
read a book on the language your code is written in. write some codes,
starting with really simple stuff and keep pushing yourself to hard stuff.
------
xlnt
write tests for the code to learn about how to use it. just write what you
guess should work, then see if it passes.
if there are already tests, try reading those.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: KafkaLite – A simple message broker inspired by Kafka - flashgordon
https://github.com/panyam/KafkaLite
======
sethammons
I feel the readme is lacking; I would hope to see something about its use
case, what makes it lite, etc. How is it like/unlike Kafka? It seems like it
is only available as a c library and does not expose a protocol. Is this just
a single instance of a producer/consumer and a transaction log with topics
available to the one running program? It would also be nice to see results
under the benchmarks.
~~~
pweissbrod
+1. FWIW It seems to be a kafka-style cursor based messaging system without
the dependency on zookeeper (just what i gleaned from the readme)
------
wruza
Can you please explain what this library is for, how is it lite or competing,
and how Franz Kafka is related? I just spent few minutes on Readme to
understand nothing.
~~~
rdeboo
I imagine it it related to Apache Kafka
([http://kafka.apache.org/](http://kafka.apache.org/))
~~~
dinedal
I wish how it was related to Apache Kafka was explained as well, since it
looks like a totally different beast, and appears to only share the name.
------
tveita
So it's a small in-process library for writing and reading append-only logs on
disk, that supports multiple threads concurrently reading and writing as a
pub/sub system.
It seems inspired by the Apache Kafka project in that it organizes logs into
named topics, but it is not networked, does not split topics into partitions
and segments, and does not do housekeeping like deletion of old logs.
It looks pretty new and immature, for instance
[https://github.com/panyam/KafkaLite/blob/master/src/kltopics...](https://github.com/panyam/KafkaLite/blob/master/src/kltopics.c#L39)
reads from a potentially uninitialized field and could randomly fail (but will
not propagate the error!). Have the tests been run with Valgrind?
Not bad, but it could definitely do with an introduction in the Readme
describing its purpose.
~~~
flashgordon
Very nice pick. Valgrind has been used extensively to test this (valgrind is
applied to all tests in the tests package). It looks like when i create my
topic array, I zeroed out the memory (with calloc). So the topic is
initialised to zero. But this would have resulted in uninitialised read
accesses for any new topics that were created beyond the original topic buffer
(with initial capacity 32). This has now been fixed (thanks again).
I chose to keep networking out of it for now as I felt it was something that
could be added by the client (eg by having a websocket listener publish events
as it saw fit). Also partitioning was not a high priority now as creation of
new topics actually had fairly low overhead. Also deletion and compation of
logs is something that was not a high priority right now but definitely
something I would like to look at (would love some help :) )
------
ddispaltro
Definitely seems like something to replace leveldb with vs kafka. Or maybe
more akin to [http://chronicle.software/products/chronicle-
queue/](http://chronicle.software/products/chronicle-queue/) minus the TCP
replication
------
flashgordon
Guys firstly thank you very much for the exceptional feedback. And I apologise
for the missing details. I found that as I was adding more to this the more I
felt I had to add (fear of publishing really). So I wanted to push one out so
I don't end up waiting for the perfect thing for ever.
In short the purpose of this library was to allow any application to embed an
event broker with persistence so that it could consume events at its own pace.
The purpose of this library is NOT to replace or compete with GCD or
java.util.conc (which provide excellent primitives to do in memory queuing and
processing of events).
The main use case that we wanted this for was message synchronisation.
Consider a mobile messaging application that allows users (on mobile clients)
to send and receive messages as well as do other CRUD ops on messages . To
synchronise these events across all clients (say users in a channel) we would
have to keep a connection (eg websockets) open to the server that would
receive publish events to the client or poll for change events periodically by
the client (of course the server would have to maintain its own event log -
but a Kafka event sprayer that publishes to websockets is easily done).
In either case, when these events are received by the client they need to be
processed as soon as they are received or the client would have to refetch
them (harder to do on a non-polling situation as the state of what events have
been consumed is expensive to record and maintain). Problem with having to
process these events as soon as they are received is that there is no way to
prioritise the events and there is no way to defer processing to a time
convenient to the client. So with this library we have an append only log of
events onto which we persist the events as we receive them (and because we can
have multiple topics for each KafkaLite - KL - context) it allows us to impose
prioritisation on which events are to be processed when.
I have not built in replication replication as it can be built on top as and
when required. Also sharing of messages on a particular topic across processes
while doable was not an immediate priority (would love to hear other use cases
for this) so was eschewed. One other thing I would definitely like to do is
provide a few sample producers that are platform specific (eg websockets based
publishers, polling based publishers) but these seemed not generic enough (at
least as of now) so I have not had a chance to investigate these further.
I would also like to apologise for any confusion with the name (especially to
the gods of Apache Kafka!). As I had mentioned, this was only inspired by
Kafka's original design (ie a stateless, fast and append only log). This
library is written in C so as to be portable across any platform and not
having to incur the cost bundling and invoking a JVM (clearly there is a lot
to be done for this to be useable on the server side) - Hence the "Lite".
Again I really appreciate the feedback. Even though you see it when you read
others content, with your own content you start with the bias of clarity as I
did. Even more so if any of you would like help in using it in your own
applications I would love to have a chat as to what features we could add to
improve the robustness and usefulness.
~~~
rakoo
> So with this library we have an append only log of events onto which we
> persist the events as we receive them
You could also use any member of the CouchDB family, such as PouchDB for the
browser (even as a lightweight desktop solution), or any member for the mobile
[0] [1] [2]
[0] [https://github.com/couchbase/couchbase-lite-
net](https://github.com/couchbase/couchbase-lite-net)
[1] [https://github.com/couchbase/couchbase-lite-
android](https://github.com/couchbase/couchbase-lite-android)
[2] [https://github.com/couchbase/couchbase-lite-
ios](https://github.com/couchbase/couchbase-lite-ios)
What could be really interesting is another member as a library; I don't think
there exists any, but kafkalite could be the beginning of something...
~~~
flashgordon
Hey rakoo thanks for sharing that. I actually came across this earlier. (Also
RocksDB /LevelDB are amazing as embedded key-value stores). My starting point
was to see what a pure log would give you and let the application worry about
what it did with the events (eg in the messaging case - update the messages in
the respective channels with the new content - the channel is just a table in
sqlite!) - essentially a way to decouple the processing of events from their
transport and persistence.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How to Improve My Team's Security Awareness? - ahmedk92
I'm your average developer in your average IT firm that makes your conventional products. But these days, we have a customer who has security as his TOP requirement.<p>I heard the summary of the first meeting with our project manager. He seems OBSESSED with security. He even wants us to use specific technologies that he believes is secure.<p>I'm worried a bit about that, because an earlier technical discussion with my team rendered us not so security-aware (in my opinion of course). Worse, except for me, the team seems content with their background and knowledge.<p>I thought of asking for a security consultation service. Another thing is me self-studying, and by Socratic questioning, we get to acknowledge our lag.<p>Any additions is welcome.
======
g0tham
I'd highly recommend:
[https://www.hacksplaining.com/](https://www.hacksplaining.com/)
They call their collection of lessons: "Comprehensive Security Training for
Developers".
~~~
ahmedk92
Excellent. Thank you.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Pandora Spends $450M Remixing Its Business - paulsutter
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/10/13/pandora-media-inc-spends-450-million-remixing-its.aspx
======
rch
Is there room for Pandora to sign artists directly, which would be similar to
Netflix producing original content? Is it even permissible given how the rest
of their business is structured?
~~~
cerrelio
I don't think that option is off the table. They could set up a bunch of
labels, and use the Pandora platform for distribution. I don't know
Ticketfly's share of the venue market, but if it's not significant then I
don't think regulators would have an issue with a producer/distributor/event-
organizer combo. Overall, they're still small potatoes.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
An employee whose job was to be sacked (2010) - hodder
https://henrytapper.com/2010/01/09/an-employee-whose-job-was-to-be-sacked/
======
wolfspider
Yes, while working a telemarketing job for quick cash secretly I encountered
just this sort of thing. I had spent all of my graduation gift money meant for
my first apartment right after high school and had to take a night shift
somewhere. I found this telemarketing place and they had a dead simple test
they used for prospective hires. My friends told me they would hire anyone no
matter what. Surprisingly, someone failed the test and left angrily. Later I
found out that they hired someone specifically to stage this event night after
night. The reason was because if a group of people witnesses somebody fail it
makes them feel they need to hold onto the opportunity. I saw this work time
and time again- every single person who showed up for the job took that job
and didn't question it. They also did this because they cashed every last
check of every employee that left and there were a lot of those. It was
grueling and I would even leave on a bike and ride through the woods to get
there just so my family wouldn't notice. Made my money back and then some then
quit all in time for college. You see, I learned that fake employees are just
a part of growing up and growing wiser.
~~~
jstanley
Sorry if this should be obvious, I've read it 3 times and still don't
understand this bit:
> They also did this because they cashed every last check of every employee
> that left and there were a lot of those.
"They also did this" \- Who also did what? The candidates accepted the job?
The company hired the fake guy to get sacked?
And who cashed whose checks? Did they cash them before or after they left? And
why does that mean the first set of people did the first thing?
~~~
hdctambien
The company kept the "last check" of the employees who quit (probably by no-
showing which is why they didn't pick up their last check) so the company got
a few hours of free labor from each employee.
"They did this" means they had the actor convince the applicants to take the
job. The more employees they hire, the more free hours they get (since the
quitters don't pick up their last check)
~~~
ensignavenger
Is that legal? Don't they have to mail the check to the employees if they
don't come in to pick it up? And why wouldn't some one pick up their check? If
they are working a job like that, I imagine they need the money?
~~~
ender341341
A lot of people don't know their rights, or know their rights but think
they'll need a lawyer to deal with it and don't have that sort of money.
In reality a call to the Department of Labor or whatever the local equivalent
is will get the money, though usually with a pretty big lag time (a threat to
call the DoL can be faster).
------
SteveGerencser
Many years ago I delivered pizza while in college. When it was time to move on
my manager and I decided to have some fun. For the last three days I was there
I delivered to every terrible customer we had, then had a little fun at their
expense. Like the guy that routinely refused to tip a single penny and said 10
pennies make a dime. I handed him a dime and told him now he didn't have to
wait for 9 more pizzas.
It was terrible, but fun at the same time. Every call back to the store was
greeted with an "Oh that's terrible", "we've had a few other complaints about
him" and "I promise he won't be here tomorrow".
~~~
jstanley
I understand that it's a bit impolite not to tip, but surely it's much more
impolite to hold a grudge against someone for not tipping.
If you want more money, put your prices up.
~~~
rkangel
I'm guessing you're not american? Their attitudes towards tips are different
than, for example, those in continental Europe.
The way I understand it, service staff are criminally underpaid (by our
standards). This is workable because they make up for the income using tips,
which works because tips are larger (I'm not sure which way around cause and
effect is here).
This means that when someone in the UK might withhold a tip due to bad service
we're just removing a bonus, whereas in the US we're effectively removing
their pay for serving us. Not tipping is a _much_ stronger action.
To respond to your 'prices' comment directly - the person delivering the pizza
doesn't get to set the prices. They have to take the job that they can in a
service industry that pays peanuts on the basis that people will earn tips.
And the business doesn't have any incentive to do anything about it - they get
to pay people less and therefore keep margins high and/or charge lower prices
to compete.
~~~
bkor
> I'm guessing you're not american? Their attitudes towards tips are different
> than, for example, those in continental Europe.
It's not attitude, they do underpay certain people. But at the same time
various US pizza places do include a service or delivery fee which still
doesn't go to the driver. As a result you might pay a delivery fee which is
isn't a delivery fee.
In a restaurant if they don't get tipped enough the restaurant has to make up
the difference / pay them minimum wage (though this rule to differ per state).
So not paying still should result in minimum wage.
From what I understood in US it's rather arbitrary whom you pay extra and
which persons you do not (e.g. even pay extra to get a haircut). Once you
travel more you'll notice these rules are rather arbitrary (custom in one
country, totally unexpected in another). For restaurants I often don't go back
to the same place twice so I don't see the point of randomly paying more. As
result I'm trying to stop doing that (it feels impolite, this despite me
sometimes being unique in adding giving a tip). Paying by bankcard helps to
avoid tipping.
Going back to pizza delivery, in my country (not US) the delivery fee is often
included in the pizza. This is done by offering a pretty huge discount for
picking up a pizza.
~~~
emodendroket
> In a restaurant if they don't get tipped enough the restaurant has to make
> up the difference / pay them minimum wage (though this rule to differ per
> state). So not paying still should result in minimum wage.
In principle this is true; in practice it is rarely honored.
> From what I understood in US it's rather arbitrary whom you pay extra and
> which persons you do not (e.g. even pay extra to get a haircut). Once you
> travel more you'll notice these rules are rather arbitrary (custom in one
> country, totally unexpected in another). For restaurants I often don't go
> back to the same place twice so I don't see the point of randomly paying
> more. As result I'm trying to stop doing that (it feels impolite, this
> despite me sometimes being unique in adding giving a tip). Paying by
> bankcard helps to avoid tipping.
All customs are arbitrary to some extent, but the rule of thumb is that if
you're getting a personal service from someone who's not a professional you
should tip.
~~~
JBlue42
My barber has been cutting hair for two decades and a masseuse I go to has
various certificates. I assume they're all professional yet still have to tip
on top of the regular prices. I don't tip at the dry cleaner or after having
clothes altered. Working as a barista in various cafes, tips were few and far
between, vs pouring beers. Not much difference in the actual experience.
Good rule of thumb but I think it can still trip up non-Americans to some
degree.
Best tipping I ever had was working at a fancy hotel - paid a decent service
industry wage and would regular get tips of $10-20.
~~~
emodendroket
Well, the idea of "professional" is a bit slippery, I guess, but let's say the
exempted categories are mostly tradesmen and white-collar professionals.
~~~
JBlue42
Yeah, I think that works. Honestly, one of the 'surprises' of American
adulthood was finding out how many different categories of folks are expecting
a tip. I would much rather have prices up front - whether it's someone doing a
job or taxes (like a VAT) be included with prices so you actually know what to
expect to pay.
~~~
emodendroket
A handful of restaurants have gone no-tip but I think there's a pretty clear
disadvantage to being a first-mover here.
------
sametmax
That's the beginning of the excellent book "au bonheur des ogres", where you
learn that the hero's karma is to be a scapegoat. It's his job. It's his
relationships.
Also when a bomb explodes, of course, all evidences point toward him even
though is the very definition of innocence.
Wonderful work from the great Daniel Pennac, which can stand on it's own, but
has follow up tomes that are just as nice.
And I just looked it up, it's been translated to english.
The title, is, well, "The scapegoat".
~~~
chepaslaaa
Daniel Pennac certainly stands among the many great french writers.
------
Consultant32452
This reminds me of the jobs in China where you can get paid literally walk
around being white. For example, being a white guy who cuts the ribbon of a
factory opening and walks around shaking hands can make $1k/wk.
[http://www.chinawhisper.com/the-5-weirdest-but-best-jobs-
for...](http://www.chinawhisper.com/the-5-weirdest-but-best-jobs-for-
foreigners-in-china/)
~~~
monocasa
Apparently that's going to be a lot harder as the Party starts looking a lot
closer at foreign work visas over the next few years.
~~~
Consultant32452
Maybe we should revisit our immigration policy that punishes China for having
"too many" immigrants to the US and also our University policies which
racially discriminate against the Chinese for being over-represented. If this
trade/economic war is going to keep heating up, we might as well try to steal
as many of their best and brightest as possible.
~~~
Retric
I do think we get their best and brightest. Gaming credentials is an art form
in China and can't be taken at face value.
~~~
Consultant32452
East Asians have some of the best outcomes of any demographic: higher income,
more educated, lower criminality, lower divorce rate, etc. In a country that
is arguably designed to maximally benefit whites, they are beating white
people at basically everything. This goes far beyond gaming credentials, it's
real world outcomes. We could stand to lower our bar with them a little and
still get ahead.
~~~
bruceb
or you could say we are for the most part only taking in a certain segment of
the population from these countries. Educated and already middle class or
higher. You are not comparing apples to apples.
~~~
Consultant32452
Do you suppose we're selecting East Asian immigrants in a special way compared
to other regions?
~~~
bruceb
One need not suppose anything. Look who has a majority of the H1-B visas or
who comes here for higher education.
Those who are not educated from East Asia can't easily come to the US
illegally as those who can cross overland (Mexico and central America) can.
Poor Chinese villagers are not boating to America.
~~~
Consultant32452
How is that significantly different from Western Europe? Or the Middle East?
Or Sub-Saharan Africa? Are the poorest of the poor there making it here? Why
are East Asians over-represented in higher education or H1-Bs compared to
other places?
~~~
Bartweiss
Two thoughts, to begin.
First, much of East Asia has extremely demanding placement tests for elite
high schools (and sometimes lower schools). You might reasonably say that
we're only taking students from good high schools around the world, but that's
a comment about school quality, not students. As people often point out,
Harvard dropouts are almost as successful as Harvard grads - merely getting in
represents a powerful filter. So it's plausible that we're taking
rich/educated elites worldwide, but in East Asia we've got a talent/skill
filter comparable to college admissions being applied in advance.
Second, your point: there's a non-trivial penalty for being a Chinese
applicant to a US college, and it's not particularly obvious what impact that
has. I suppose it could be that the harsher requirements for acceptance are
driving the difference, and we don't have any real evidence on how responsive
outcomes are to changing that restriction. (Is there a good breakdown of
outcomes for a given group by visa type? That might show whether nation-
specific admission rules on some visa types are changing outcomes.)
(The third thought, of course, is "it's a huge multifactorial mess and there's
probably not enough data to trust any conclusion we come to".)
~~~
Consultant32452
First: Great, so their culture is what is causing them to outperform us in
virtually every positive metric. That certainly doesn't make me want to be
_less_ welcoming to them.
Second: The non-trivial penalty came AFTER Chinese people became over-
represented.
It's not as complicated as you're trying to make it out to be. Something is
causing East Asians to outperform us in basically every positive trait. They
have higher IQs, higher incomes, lower criminality rates, lower poverty rates,
etc. And these stats hold true even generations after immigration. Maybe it
feels complicated because you're concerned about the root cause analysis. I'm
not. They're doing great, we should want great people here.
~~~
Bartweiss
I wasn't the same person you were replying to upthread, and I'm certainly not
arguing against offering more visas. I just thought your "given that we're
taking elites, what's different?" question was interesting, and wanted to
raise a possible answer.
(I agree that if the penalty came after better outcomes, it's not a relevant
factor. I wasn't familiar enough with which restrictions were in place when to
say.)
But yes: the complicated part is root causes, and that's not relevant to
whether we should expand our visa/citizenship program; we certainly should. If
someone in the thread disagrees with you there, it's not me.
~~~
Consultant32452
It's almost certainly IQ. IQ also correlates to all those other positive
traits. East Asians have higher average IQs than most other people,
particularly spacial reasoning and math which explains their over-
representation in engineering. Conversely Ashkenazi Jews have higher than
average verbal IQs which explains why they appear over represented in media.
But that doesn't get us very far because it just gets us back to East Asians
outperforming us on IQ tests created by mostly white people and is supposedly
culturally biased to have white people outperform. There's something
definitely going on here. Maybe it's genetics, maybe it's diet, maybe it's
culture. Possibly a combination. It's not really helpful to try to have a
discussion on IQ, so I just focus on the positive traits that are derived from
IQ. It tends to trigger people less and raw IQ isn't actually important to me
compared to things like criminality and economic output.
------
cyberferret
Not surprising that large companies would have 'stooge' employees in place for
just this sort of thing. I have heard of it happening in at least one major
store chain here many years ago.
Kind of reminiscent of one of the first episodes in the series 'Suits' where
Louis Litt is interviewing a new junior employee for the firm, and he pulls in
another junior mid-interview to dress him down and dismiss him in front of the
new employee, just to put the fear of his authority and power into the newbie.
The 'fired' employee then just goes back to the bull pen to await being called
in for the next new recruit interview so he can walk past and be 'randomly'
called in.
~~~
whoisjuan
I also heard the story of a digital agency that rented a huge space, painted
the walls with bright colors and hired a bunch of actors to pose as employees.
The idea was to deceive and close a deal with a potential big client that
insisted in visiting their offices.
~~~
cyberferret
Uh, a good friend of mine did that a couple of years ago when he started a new
design agency. He was going for a large government contract and they insisted
on an in-house meeting as part of the pre-tender process.
He had a large office space already, in preparation for growth, but only 1
employee at that stage, so he got his high school aged daughter in, as well as
some of her friends to sit in the empty desks and pretend to work. A couple of
the PC's at the back facing away from the meeting room weren't even plugged
in, and were just screens on the desk and keyboards attached to nothing.
It worked - he got the contract, and as a result, now has REAL employees at
those stations, and in fact has to look at a bigger space to expand into.
~~~
pimlottc
> pre-tender process
If that wasn't intentional, it should have been.
------
godelski
Ticketmaster the employee
There's actually a good Freakanomics episode on this[1]. How tickets are
undervalued and part of Ticketmaster's value is that they take blame for the
high prices.
[1] [http://freakonomics.com/podcast/live-event-ticket-market-
scr...](http://freakonomics.com/podcast/live-event-ticket-market-screwed/)
~~~
KozmoNau7
There are a lot of assumptions in that piece, especially regarding the motives
of artists and the fan/idol relationship.
It is absolutely not a normal type market, and it shouldn't be treated like
one. The way forward is not to inflate ticket prices, ensuring only the
richest fans can afford to go to concerts, and screwing over the ordinary
people.
The way forward is to make it illegal to resell tickets at higher than face
value. That was implemented some years ago here, and scalping is a minor issue
now. Fans are generally very good at self-policing and reporting price-gouging
scalpers. Ticket prices did increase slightly over time, but certainly not on
the level of $50 becoming $500, as posited in the article.
They do touch on that, but I don't think the solution is to completely stop
resale. Just limit it to face value or less.
If artists were only interested in short-term profit, they would jack up the
prices and only sell to their richest fans. But most of them look at the long
perspective, the fact that there's a lot more to be gained in the long run by
having a loyal fanbase that doesn't feel exploited.
For the fans who were complaining that they couldn't get tickets for low-
seating high-interest events, well that's just too bad. You had the same
chance as everyone else. I've sat in ticket queues (offline and online), I've
furiously refreshed ticket pages for events with room for less than 100 people
just to be sure to get a ticket, 5+ months in advance. I really like the
system we have here, where a big wallet is not some kind of guarantee that
you'll get a ticket.
If events get sold out, the onus is on the organizers and artists to either
book additional shows, or come back again in 6 months or a year, possibly at a
bigger venue.
If someone is a true fan, they'll be bummed about missing out, but also
adamant to not miss out next time. And they certainly don't fly across the
Atlantic for a Broadway show without having somehow secured a ticket
beforehand. That's just silly.
~~~
jdmichal
> For the fans who were complaining that they couldn't get tickets for low-
> seating high-interest events, well that's just too bad. You had the same
> chance as everyone else. I've sat in ticket queues (offline and online),
> I've furiously refreshed ticket pages for events with room for less than 100
> people just to be sure to get a ticket, 5+ months in advance. I really like
> the system we have here, where a big wallet is not some kind of guarantee
> that you'll get a ticket.
These same arguments are / were used in favor of unpaid internships. Except,
of course, that it takes a certain level of financial freedom or support to do
things like wait in lines for concert tickets. Just because your paying time
instead of money in these queues, does not mean that it doesn't carry a cost.
~~~
KozmoNau7
I don't it's the same as unpaid internships. You can never completely
eliminate the cost, as there is a limited supply and you can't give away the
tickets for free. But you can certainly minimize the costs.
The tickets have to be put up for sale at some specific time that is usually
advertised well in advance, which allows (most) people to plan for it. For
some artists, a number of tickets are sold earlier to members of the official
fan clubs and so on.
What is the alternative? Putting the tickets up for sale as a slow drop? I'm
pretty sure that would significantly harm sales.
~~~
jdmichal
Use a lottery system with prepaid authorizations? Pretty much any system where
people can put up some money and walk away. Fixed price, no queues.
~~~
KozmoNau7
Then it's just random chance. People usually don't like that sort of thing,
outside of literal lotteries.
~~~
jdmichal
That's the entire point. Anything other than random chance means that someone
has "priority". Priority which is typically decided by spending resources.
Either time by waiting in queue. Or money by buying at higher than face value
from a scalper -- who probably waited in queue, thereby exchanging their time
for money.
If the principle being striven for is _fair_ , then most fair to me would be
to allow all potential attendees to participate in the sale. If there are more
participants than tickets, then the most fair mechanism which does not reward
time-rich participants is random lottery, not a queue. A queue rewards those
who happen to be available for registration the moment it opens.
~~~
KozmoNau7
Fans don't want a lottery, though. They want to be 100% sure they have a
ticket to the show. It's a gratification thing.
Not everything can be 100% optimal and profit maximized. The current ticket
sales method works great, if you eliminate the rent-seeking scalpers, through
simple regulation.
However, ideally we should also consider it shameful to buy from scalpers. You
run a high risk being scammed, they can resell the same ticket multiple times,
and you have no recourse.
~~~
jdmichal
Your original response was that there wasn't a similarity between unpaid
internships and concert ticket sales. And now your response is that more
optimal systems are less desirable, which is a fine answer. But it's certainly
a _choice_ to choose the less-optimal system, with the understanding that that
choice is going to lock out some people due to resource constraints. And the
current method rewards time-rich people in a very similar way as unpaid
internships. They receive access to experiences that others can't "afford".
~~~
KozmoNau7
That only goes for very high-profile shows. The vast majority of shows do not
sell out in minutes, or even at all.
~~~
jdmichal
The bit quoted in my original comment called that out already. Of course it's
not an issue when it's not an issue...
------
epx
I had a boss that used to scold me in front of others to show that he was
tough and impartial. It took two or three times to see the pattern (he
expected me to see by myself). Too good I didn't overreact...
~~~
tyingq
Urgh. That's such a basic leadership thing (scold in private) that it just
infruiates me that someone wouldn't get that.
Hopefully your boss figured that out or was moved out of a leadership
position.
It's roughly the equivalent of a developer that writes shit code with
concurrency issues, basic code smells, etc...that would be drummed out in
short order. For some reason, we don't hold leaders to the same standard.
~~~
jacob019
It's shocking how many people with poor leadership skills end up in positions
of power.
~~~
AnIdiotOnTheNet
It's because positions of power attract people who desire power, not people
who have leadership skills, and there aren't good metrics for what makes
someone a good leader that you can use to filter out the bad ones.
See: Politics throughout the entirety of human history.
------
bradknowles
Isn't that kind of what a Chief Compliance Officer is there for?
So that if something goes so badly wrong that the CEO would otherwise be the
one put in jail, in this case the CCO goes instead?
------
dictum
A pipe-smoking ficticious entry.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictitious_entry](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictitious_entry)
~~~
gberger
I don't see the connection?
------
seekler
This job exists today and it is called CISO (Chief Information Security
Officer) or other variants :D
~~~
gaius
You need to be highly qualified for that job
~~~
royroyroys
OP is jokingly referring to the FB/Cambridge Analytica scandal
~~~
gaius
Or Equifax
------
notahacker
I imagine that in companies imposing the requirement that managers
periodically purge the "bottom" x% of their workforce, "to be sacked"
accurately describes the real purpose of many of the new roles hired for.
------
banned1
I worked at a startup where we had a floor of empty offices. We sometimes
would paid people to walk around the office floor and sit in offices when
major customers wanted to come and visit. When the customer was in the boss'
office discussing the deal, one of the "employees" would always stick his head
in the office and say "Hey, I needed to ask you a question. Should I come
back?" and the boss would be like "yeah, why don't you come back in an hour
after I am done with John here."
------
potta_coffee
Sometimes it feels like I also have this job. Except for some reason, my
employers only sack me once, and for real.
------
discoursism
No less an authority than Danny Baker . . . the comedy writer, born in '57? Or
else who? How would he know about this?
~~~
exelius
I think that’s the authors way of saying the story is unverifiable in any way.
------
jtwaleson
From the title I expected a procedure to test if management & HR will act on
unacceptable behavior. The story makes more sense, but could still be a good
idea, seeing as how many underperformers and bad apples there are in some
companies.
------
DoreenMichele
This works as long as he doesn't get fired twice in front of the same
customer.
~~~
squiggleblaz
The point is to discourage the customer from complaining because of the harsh
treatment the customer will receive. Therefore yes, if it comes to that, it
has failed.
~~~
Moru
Some people complain just so they can watch the boss chew out some employee.
That's satisfaction for being badly treated/buying something that was faulty.
~~~
DoreenMichele
It's also satisfaction because you failed to get laid, you are going through a
divorce, your own job is a shit experience or your life otherwise sucks in
some fashion and you are the kind of asshole who enjoys taking your crap out
on other people.
------
golergka
I'm pretty sure I saw Friends episode with almost exactly the same premise.
~~~
jaclaz
Yep:
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0583611/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0583611/)
"In order for her kitchen staff to acknowledge her authority, Monica hires
Joey so she can fire him in front of them."
------
ars
Is there some reason this worker can't actually also work? Presumably in the
backroom, where customers will never see him.
------
m1sta_
I thought this might be about a company testing whether it was any good at
getting rid of bad employees.
------
dmckeon
Sounds a bit like: "Send this jerk the bedbug letter!"
[https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-bedbug-
letter/](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-bedbug-letter/)
------
clueless123
If I made a penny for every time I accepted blame for a managers dumb mess-
up..... (As an over paid IT contractor)
Oh! now that I think about it.. guess who always gets called back by those
managers for new projects! :)
------
vortico
Why don't they have a normal employee play the "be fired" role? Unless he gets
fired 8 times a day, I don't see why he's idle...
~~~
megablast
It is a bit embarrassing when they keep shopping and see the guy that was
fired working in the store, or see them the next day or the next week. They
might just catch on.
~~~
vortico
Ah, I was imagining a sales warehouse, where the customers typically only talk
to the sales employees by phone.
------
oaiey
Does anyone remember P.L.E.A.S.E.
~~~
mcphage
I do!
_P_ rovide
_L_ egal
_E_ xculpation
_A_ nd
_S_ ign
_E_ verything
------
bryanrasmussen
what happens the next time lady ponsonby waffles has a complaint?
~~~
VLM
That's why in the real world you fake fire the next guy going to lunch, so his
reward for being yelled at a bit and fired was an extra long lunch hour.
Also when I worked retail back when high school kids held the minimum wage
jobs, annual retail turnover often exceeded 100%, so if lady waffles is having
multiple problems in a couple months, your store has a problem far beyond
angry waffles.
The American version at the store I worked at both as a labor drone and
eventually as a night shift manager while in school, was to send coworkers to
the office to be yelled at. The store was urban and near the bar district so
at night, customers were generally drunk and guilty until proven innocent.
Drunk people usually don't want to draw attention to themselves, mostly, so we
had few complaints.
Its a mid to high skilled workplace thing to assume employees are yelled at.
For manual labor work, the cost of replacement, either of the job or the
employee, is very low, and most firing offenses had legal involvement
(stealing cash or product from the store, for example) so discipline never
went much beyond asking someone "WTF?".
------
racl101
Now that's funny.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Yasuke: The African Samurai - danso
http://thedailybeagle.net/2013/03/07/yasuke-the-african-samurai/
======
hardwaresofton
Great story, definitely interesting -- as a black guy that has been to japan,
I'm surprised I've never heard this story, and it seems super probable (the
reactions/circumstances)
------
kjs3
Great story and thanks for posting something I probably wouldn't have
otherwise seen. As an American, the footnote is tangentially interesting, as
the idea of having 17 generations of history isn't something we commonly
consider:
_A small side note: Nobunaga’s line survived into the modern era. His 17th
direct descendant, Oda Nobunari is a world champion figure skater (a strange
twist given Nobunaga’s bloody reputation)._
------
benguild
Someone reads reddit...
~~~
lotsofmangos
I don't, and I found this interesting.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Salty diet makes you hungry, not thirsty - upen
http://exactlyscience.com/archives/12047.html
======
DrScump
Blogspam of
[https://insights.mdc-berlin.de/en/2017/04/mission-control-
bo...](https://insights.mdc-berlin.de/en/2017/04/mission-control-bodys-salt-
water-supplies/)
------
fpoling
This may explain why some diets to reduce weight strictly prohibit any salt
intake. When I read about that, their explanation was always vague and
essentially was hand waving about an experimentally discovered fact.
This study hints the real effect - to combat excessive salt the body needs
more energy that makes people hungry and eat much more than necessary to
offset the salt consumption.
~~~
Neliquat
Oddly, that would imply a high salt, low calorie diet would lose you the most
weight... if self control wasn't your limiting factor.
------
Neliquat
A friendly reminder that your body does indeed need salt. If your consumption
is not excessive, there is nothing to worry about. This effect is more about
eating a 3rd french fry,or potato chip imho. Read about electrolites (brawndo
joke here) and learn what balance makes you feel best.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
There Are No Famous Programmers - suraj
http://sheddingbikes.com/posts/1275989245.html
======
edw519
If you want to be famous, go be an entertainer, athlete, or politician.
If you want to be a programmer, check your ego at the door. The two biggest
roadblocks to success in programming are incompetence and attitude. BigEgo =
BadAttitude.
I measure my success not in fame, but in the value gained by those who use my
software, and the value gained by those they serve, and so on, and so on. I
don't know them and they don't know me, but I'd like to think the world's a
better place because of all the ones and zeroes I've arranged. They are the
stars and that's good enough for me.
~~~
awt
Doesn't everyone have an ego? Isn't it really hard to check it at the door? I
think students of Buddhism have been trying to figure out how to do this for
centuries. I don't think it's as simple as checking it at the door.
~~~
timr
_"Doesn't everyone have an ego? Isn't it really hard to check it at the
door?"_
My thoughts exactly. The parent comment is the sort of "advice" that is easy
to dispense and makes everyone feel good, but is fundamentally useless. These
platitudes are the honeypot comments of online forums -- everyone votes for
them because they "agree", but they might as well be voting up a picture of a
kitten hanging from a tree branch. It's comforting to think that we're somehow
above the base human need for recognition, but not very close to the truth.
For example, why is it okay for entertainers, actors and politicians to pursue
fame, while programmers must toil in selfless obscurity? Are we supposed to be
martyrs?
Also, not for nothing, but when the guy with the top comment score on HN --
_the guy who wore a t-shirt bearing his HN login name at Startup School_ \--
tells you to abandon your ego, well...I'm no english major, but there's a
certain situational irony there.
~~~
icey
I wish _more_ people would have identified themselves with their HN usernames
somehow at last year's startup school.
It sucks to find out that there were a bunch of people from HN there and I
missed out on the chance to talk to them in person because I couldn't make the
connection based on their name.
Although to be fair, I put my twitter address on my name tag which happens to
be my username here... So I suppose I'm guilty of doing whatever it is you're
accusing edw519 of.
~~~
timr
_"Although to be fair, I put my twitter address on my name tag which happens
to be my username here... So I suppose I'm guilty of doing whatever it is
you're accusing edw519 of."_
Not really. Fortunately, the world is not binary, and there's a fairly large,
practical gap between "writing your ID on a nametag" and having a t-shirt
custom made.
That said, I'm not accusing him of anything bad -- it was a clever self-
promotional ploy. I'm just pointing out the irony.
------
plinkplonk
"Let's try an experiment. Think of a project you use all day. Maybe it's Rails
or Python or something. Now, name 4 people on the core team without looking
them up. I can't do that for anything I use. Alright, let's say you can do
that. You know a myriad of things about the people who make your tools, but
can you honestly say you know as much about them as you do about the tools
they made you? Be honest with yourself and really look at how much you know
about the people behind your gear as you do about the gear itself."
This is very bizarre. Isn't this true for all tools/man made artifacts we use?
I have no idea who exactly designed my car, my guitar , my cellphone, or even
the apartment I live in. And when I do know their names I certainly don't know
them better than I do my tools. Why should I want to?
"I still have to do programmer interviews like everyone else. No matter how
much code I put out, I still have to solve stupid puzzles about coconuts and
manholes. No matter how many web servers or email frameworks or database
servers or chat servers or assemblers I write I still have to prove I can
code. No matter how many copies of my software get deployed I still have to
prove I can make reliable software."
I wouldn't want to comment on what Zed's personal experience is , but I know
many programmers who wouldn't have to "prove that they can code". "Fame" sees
to correlate inversely with having to jump through hoops. I doubt if anyone
really wants to test Linus (or Carmack or DHH or any other "famous"
programmer) for "ability to code". Outside the MegaCorp, and especially in
startups, a reputation for Open Source contributions helps you avoid stupid
questions/tests etc, at least in my limited experience. It is often the
undistinguished guy with the undistinguished cv that has to go through the
technical nitpick interview.
I think this experience may be somewhat unique to Zed. No harm in that of
course. Just pointing out that is far from universal.
Just my perception, but Zed seems to get weirder with every post he writes. I
don't mean that he is crazy or anything, just that the logic in his posts
seems increasingly frayed.
~~~
troygoode
"This is very bizarre. Isn't this true for all tools/man made artifacts we
use? I have no idea who exactly designed my car, my guitar , my cellphone, or
even the apartment I live in."
I think you're making part of Zed's point - better than he did, in fact. There
are no famous car/guitar designers, cell phone engineers, or construction
workers either. People like Linus, Carmack, and DHH aren't famous because of
their code - they're famous because of their products.
Of course then he dives off into this strange diatribe about being forced to
interview the same way we peons have to despite his previous works - nevermind
the fact that most of the time there is about a 0% chance the hiring manager
has read the code to mongrel (most of the devs using it haven't either, for
that matter).
I also think he is wrong on this latter point as - even though I'm completely
non-famous - my meager contributions to the open source world have opened a
lot of doors and given me more credibility than I otherwise would have had.
"Just my perception, but Zed seems to get weirder with every post he writes."
I'll agree with you on that one.
~~~
stcredzero
_the fact that most of the time there is about a 0% chance the hiring manager
has read the code to mongrel_
Just wait a minute here! Isn't this _weird?_ It's like hiring designers and
refusing to look at their portfolios.
The interview process puts people through all these weird contortions so we
can (among other things) get some indirect indications of how they code. Why
not just read their code? We want to know if they can collaborate on a
project, why not look at the result of projects they collaborated on?
I think in the corporate world at least, programming _has_ become a commodity.
~~~
vijaydev
I highly doubt that hiring managers are going to have the time to read code.
Very few people go through a candidate's code before an interview.
~~~
stcredzero
Then I would ask: why is it that designers almost always have their portfolios
looked at when they are getting hired? I think we're being slaves to an
illogical social pattern.
~~~
Psyonic
For one thing, a visual portfolio can be looked through in the time it would
take to dig into one complex method.
~~~
stcredzero
In the context of is thread, I read this as, "We're trapped in an illogical
social pattern, because we are _lazy_."
~~~
Psyonic
I'd agree with that, but I'd prefer the term "energy conserving."
------
dasil003
Zed's thesis is flawed. He set out to be famous--ostensibly because he didn't
get enough respect in Ruby-land. It's not clear what his goal was, but now
he's jumping to the conclusion that fame doesn't bypass bureaucratic red tape.
However Zed wasn't satisfied with his small notoriety, and instead chose to
accelerate it by deliberately becoming a flaming asshole writing vitriolic
rants full of personal attacks.
I enjoyed Zed's rants, and I thought they were fairly insightful. I certainly
never interpreted them as being completely out of line, or that Zed was a
total asshole. He explicitly stated that he was testing the theory of being an
internet blowhard to get attention. Fine.
But the problem is now he's famous for being a blowhard. He went from being
moderately famous (and misunderstood) among the Ruby elite, to being widely
famous for writing snarky articles. Well, that's obviously not going to get
you past any technical interviews. Also, he decided to burn his bridges in the
Ruby community, where I guarantee you he could have gotten plenty of jobs
without an interview before. Nowadays, as someone who does a lot of hiring, I
can tell you that I would think twice before hiring Zed for fear of what kind
of drama he would bring to the team. That fear may be totally unfounded--I
don't know him personally--but where before I knew Zed as "the guy who made
Rails deployment viable", now I know him as "the guy who thinks he's god's
gift to programming and hates a lot of shit."
Zed hasn't discovered anything about programmer fame, he just learned that
internet-famous is worthless.
~~~
earl
Sadly, no. " Also, he decided to burn his bridges in the Ruby community, where
I guarantee you he could have gotten plenty of jobs without an interview
before." I think Zed made it pretty clear in the discussion around the "Rails
is a ghetto" article that he did not, in fact, get any jobs period. My
understanding is that the article was the outcome of his frustration at not
reaping any rewards, particularly financial ones, for contributing a pretty
important piece of technology to the rails stack.
------
alttab
Fame is a distraction. 'Nuff said.
As far as coders becoming factory workers - I think this is true, depending on
the route you take. Do you just write code? Or do you also manage people, make
great presentations, or define business models?
Just because you can write code, its hard to think about something invisible,
and no one else in your business can do it doesn't mean you're a rock star.
_This requires a programmer to walk around thinking they can do everyone
else's job but not vice versa._
If there was only one thing about (us) programmers I hate the most it is our
collective attitude. Our holier-than-thou more-technical-and-logical-than you
bull shit. Then we complain about accolades, accomplishment, social standing.
We are what we make ourselves. What we do does not define who we are or what
we think we are entitled to. I agree it takes a lot of distinguishing to get
noticed as a programmer but I would say that's true whatever you do in life.
~~~
jonsmock
Wow, I really needed to hear this right now. Thanks.
------
vessenes
I was stunned to read that this guy wishes he were more famous, and that the
purpose of said fame would be to get him out of coding interviews, especially
after his first paragraph made it sound like he really was happy being nerdy.
Hacking a x0xb0x (did I spell that right?) sounds pretty cool. Only after
googling around for a bit did I learn what Zed is 'famous' for, as he refers
to it later in his essay. Only after reading the whole essay did I learn he
thinks programmers are second class citizens.
This just seems silly to me; if you want to be famous, go do something that
captures hearts and minds, (and have a good press team.) Or, get really rich,
(and have a good press team.) Or, get a job in the media, (and have a good
press team.)
To me, his essay reads like he wants respect, and thinks it will come with
fame. I feel sad for him; this probably won't work for him, just like it
doesn't work for anyone else.
~~~
thetrumanshow
Proving yourself at a new company is a huge pain point. No matter how good you
are, you always go through the slow process of earning rights in order to get
some freedom to work autonomously within the framework and procedures of the
company.
That the OP wants to avoid this pain is understandable. It's probably just not
realistic.
~~~
vessenes
But this is true for senior executives on down to office admin staff. Even a
hotshot CEO should be closely watched by the board until he/she has earned
trust and proven an ability to execute, lead and inspire.
Wanting out of that cycle seems juvenile to me.
------
jasonkester
Wow, I've never come away from a HN article embarrassed for the author before.
I had expected from the title to see an article explaining why there don't
tend to be a lot of famous computer programmers. I was completely unprepared
to read a complaint from a guy who thinks he should be famous, yet isn't
treated with the deference he thinks he deserves.
Yikes! I had to stop after 3 paragraphs.
~~~
kiba
You must be reading a different essay.
I interpret that the author's fame doesn't help the author at all and that
fame is a pointless asset.
~~~
jasonkester
Indeed, that would be the case if the author were indeed famous. But he's not.
Fame is defined by people knowing who you are, yet this guy's issue is that
nobody knows who he is. QED, he's not famous.
~~~
stcredzero
In that case, most celebrities arguably aren't famous. All people know is a
fiction and nobody knows who they are.
------
bugschivers
I personally actually find myself agreeing with pretty much all of this
article.
The point is, is that it is not about fame, that is tangential to point, which
is that programmers don't celebrate other programmers, that they don't value
other programmer's work.
This is the only industry I know of, where people give away so much for so
little, and they don't ask anything in return, because none of you seem able
to appreciate the effort involved in your own or anyone else's work.
I don't think that it is absurd to know the name of the person who created the
tool you use EVERY day, when they are from your OWN industry, only other
programmers have the capacity to appreciate the craftsmanship and work
involved.
That is the saddest thing about the programming industry, that you all can’t
see how much difference you can make, you give a project attention, hey, maybe
you even donate some money and express some gratitude that someone went out of
their way to work in their spare time, to give you something that you don’t
even have to pay for and you all reap dividends.
Maybe it’s because this industry is so young, but something has to give, or
you WILL be relegated to the positions of machinery, actual real people have
to sit there and code this stuff, they give up evenings and weekends, they
sacrifice time with family and friends, non-programmers don’t get this, YOU
do.
This industry needs to learn how to appreciate and stop attacking those who
put their creations out there, the one man band who spends every weekend
keeping a ruby gem up to date matters, the handful of guys coding frameworks
and platforms and libraries and everything else matter, because you guys use
their work, regularly.
They should get your attention, not Jobs who has his billions to play with, or
Linus, who has his enormous Linux universe to maintain, or any of the guys
famous by association with big companies, products or projects. The little
guys, who keep the whole shebang ticking over, who work endlessly, in the
shadows of your attention, creating awesome, cool things for you play with,
tools for you to work with and games for you to relax with.
~~~
bugschivers
Reading more recent comments, I see a common theme, the "I don't code for
glory", this isn't a rant about fame, it is a rant about recognition, from
within the industry.
I worked as a dog groomer years ago and we had competitions and awards and yes
there were even famous dog groomers.
Nobody codes for glory, lol, but recognition is a different thing, I read once
"people will crawl over broken glass for recognition", which is funny because
it seems that programmers run away from recognition.
The things you write do not need to be ground-breaking, game-changing or
revolutionary to garner recognition, you deserve recognition for putting the
time in, for creating something that people rely on, that works.
Somewhere there is a disconnect, everybody DESERVES recognition, it is not
about ego, or fame, or fortunes, or groupies, it is about connecting with
someone within your own field and saying "hey, you did a good job, I
appreciate it".
------
mtoledo
"I still have to do programmer interviews like everyone else. No matter how
much code I put out, I still have to solve stupid puzzles about coconuts and
manholes. No matter how many web servers or email frameworks or database
servers or chat servers or assemblers I write I still have to prove I can
code. No matter how many copies of my software get deployed I still have to
prove I can make reliable software."
I still think that's an isolated fact though, and most software shops would
offer Zed a job without asking him 'What is a pointer?' questions if he was,
for instance, being interviewed by some rubyist (given the notoriety of
mongrel). Maybe as he says, I'm wrong. But it could also be just like the guy
that offered Ninh Bui a job where 'the candidate must have some experience
with Phusion Passenger' (Ninh is one of the creators of Passenger). Some
employers just mess up, and having offered Zed a sysadmin job might just have
been that, an isolated fact.
Now, I would risk on saying that famous programmers could be made more of 'web
presence' and 'open source code' than commercial code. Like, Zed's famous for
mongrel and his other open source works (lamson, etc), but I'd say that, in my
opinion, he's also _famous_ because of his blog and being a prolific writer
and, at the same time, quite controversial. Curiously, he's working on a very
cool project commercially, Dropbox (very cool in my opinion anyway), but I
don't think that has anything to do with how _famous_ he is, even though, in
my opinion, that might be the skill that's most relevant for me, as an
employer, to know if I wanted to hire him (as most software shops are making
apps, and not email frameworks or web servers).
So maybe, just like the first step on being famous is having lots of blog
readers and open source projects (rather than having made a great contribution
to a commercial product), the second step is getting funding, being to
parties, etc. (and I just don't notice that because I'm not famous, or because
I'm not on SF)
------
neilk
I think Zed should know by now that the tech interview is also a personality
screen. It's helpful to know if you're hiring someone who rolls his eyes when
asked to do something he thinks trivial. Or who wants to be treated like a
rockstar.
Also, it's a way of getting team buy-in, even when hiring a lead. Whatever the
team rituals are to establish respect, the new guy has to pass them. If it's
dumb questions about missionaries and cannibals, that's lame, but so be it.
~~~
stcredzero
In short, ritual justifies lameness?
~~~
ekanes
No, he's saying lame rituals help you avoid hiring prima donnas.
~~~
stcredzero
It may also scare away those who do not like lameness.
I once had an interview for a Smalltalk position, where, after the 3rd
question, I asked, "are _all_ of these questions from the well known list of
Smalltalk interview questions? I already know those."
I suspect that this lost me the position, which I think is strange, but
fortunate. The lameness of an interview is often a good indicator of how
bureaucratized or politicized the corporate environment is.
~~~
rbanffy
> It may also scare away those who do not like lameness.
This is precisely the point ekanes was trying to make. It's not lameness, but
perceived lameness. If you perceive the company as lame, you would not be a
good fit anyway.
But rest assured that, if I were the interviewer, your recognition of a known
list of interview questions would not cost you the position.
And my interviews are neither lame, nor only about coding skills.
------
ErrantX
Interesting post from Zed there.
_It's even gone so far that people demand that we use the BSD license (or any
license) that doesn't require credit for using your work. Other programmers
don't want to have to put your name in a credits section of their
applications._
Counter opinion (I realise this is only a subset of Zeds point, which I do
agree has some useful points)?
The reason many of us like to see libraries, frameworks and support structure
(as opposed to _software_ which has an end use) licensed under BSD or similar
is less because we actively desire to remove attribution.. but because we like
to have control over our own code licensing choices. Generally programmers are
pretty good about credit. More importantly the GPL does not force you to
mention anything in the credits... at all... you can just leave all the
references in the code - and in many cases people just won't read that. So I
don't buy this argument much at all.
(side point: I maintain a couple of FOSS/Open Source projects and love the
idea of stuff I find interesting being used in all sorts of ways. I couldn't
really care less about whether someone makes $100 Million using it in their
app. In fact I do care about that; firstly I care _positively_ about the fact
that I helped them with their success. Secondly I kick myself that it wasn't
something I thought of doing. Doh! I prefer to trust that someone will use my
code ethically; by which I mean a) tell other people about the cool piece of
code X that they are using and b) contribute back to us. But I personally
don't like the idea of forcing that behavior :P
Although; it's understandable why people do use the GPL for non-software
code).
You know; on a related note I think the section before the above quote was
interesting. And he has something of a point - that we don't think enough
about the people making useful code for us. I don't think we are _stealing
their soul_ :) but there is definitely a lack of communication (even when the
GPL is in use).
tl;dr - I don't buy the idea that certain licenses address the problem of
programmer fame.
~~~
icefox
Everyone knows that BSD requires you give them credit. Right? Right? I hope
people are fulfilling the full requirement of the copyright and not just #1
"2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice,
this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation
and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
3\. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software must
display the following acknowledgement: This product includes software
developed by the <organization>."
For example in safari click Help/Acknowledgments
~~~
gxti
The third clause was removed in 1999, although apparently some software is
still using the 4-clause form.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSD_licenses>
------
albertsun
For some reason, this very strongly reminded me of this scene from Entourage
where Johnny Drama has to audition.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIHC57rdYMM>
"Still I have to sing for my supper."
It's like Zed Shaw is really angry and yelling at the hiring manager "Do you
know who I am?!"
~~~
drats
I read a story on HN a while ago about a guy who was connected to a powerful
politician who was getting hassled at airport security, who didn't care about
this name-dropping, and his ego got the better of him and he just flipped and
started screaming "Do you know who I am?!" at them over and over. The response
of the security guys was to casually call over the radio to the drag-you-away-
for-a-free-prostate-exam TSA hardmen "I think you better come down here, there
is a guy who doesn't know who he is".
------
agentultra
I'm not convinced that Zed was suggesting that programmers should be famous
for what they do (or that anyone should). The idea of programmers being like
rock-stars is wholly preposterous. It's much harder for us to convince anyone
that we're cool. I highly doubt I will ever get a coterie of groupies and
sycophants to feed me drugs and sleep with me because I have a high wpm and
can write a 2000-line report script without a single bug or syntax error.
What I do think he is suggesting is that industry should give us recognition
for what we do. I honestly don't know who designed the car my taxi driver
drove me to work in this morning. However, I'm pretty sure that if the design
of the car was a significant feat in engineering then the engineer who
designed it probably has a shiny little trophy above their desk. And if that
person ever went looking for a job I doubt their interviewer would waste time
asking them questions to ascertain whether they're an engineer. This person
would have the industry recognition to open certain doors implicitly.
There is _some_ industry recognition, sure. Amongst us programmers. I just
finished reading "Coders at Work" not too long ago. There are names in there
that I'd expect most geeks would know and be familiar with. It was a very
inspiring read.
Now as an experiment, ask your boss if they know what any of those people are
recognized for.
I know I'm probably begging the question. The point I'm trying to make is that
the people we work for that make so much money off of what we build... they
don't know who these people are. They don't take time to familiarize
themselves with these sorts of things.
I think industry awards, trade publications, and the like would go a long way
to bridge that gap. It has worked for pretty much every other industry. Why is
programming such an exception?
------
jarin
It's a good point that programmers only become famous among non-programmers
because of non-code reasons, but the same applies to specialists in almost any
technical field (except for maybe physics and math).
~~~
bad_user
> It's a good point that programmers only become _famous among programmers_
> because of non-code reasons
There, fixed that for you.
~~~
btmorex
Actually, a lot of programmers are famous for what they've created (code
reasons). Think Linus Torvalds, Guido van Rossum, Larry Wall, etc.
To be honest, Zed Shaw seems to be the exception since he's almost certainly
more well known for blogging than any code that he's written.
~~~
lelele
> Actually, a lot of programmers are famous for what they've created (code
> reasons). Think Linus Torvalds, Guido van Rossum, Larry Wall, etc.
Not at all: "Let's try an experiment. Think of a project you use all day.
[...] Now, name 4 people on the core team without looking them up." Can you
name 4 people on Linux, Perl, etc. core teams? I'd bet you can't. Or do we
think that Torvalds, Wall, etc. wrote the software they are famous for on
their own? That's what Zed is talking about.
~~~
btmorex
I was responding to the poster I responded to, not Zed's post. Specifically, I
think most famous programmers (at least among other programmers) are famous
for what they coded.
That said, I can actually name 4 core contributers to Linux although I'm not
sure what the significance of that might be (Linus, Ted T'so, David Miller,
Andrew Morton).
------
d4nt
I can't name the architect for the office building I'm sitting in. Or the
designer of my (distinctly average) car.
Having said that, I know that Tim Berners Lee created the Web, Jon Resig built
jQuery and James Dyson designed my vacuum cleaner.
I don't think creating something "you use all day" should qualify you for
being famous. Doing something new and very innovative sometimes does though.
~~~
rythie
Are those the people that really created the products you use today though?
Tim Berners Lee may have created the web, but he created it without fonts
tags, images, layout and so on. The web exists because of the millions of
people who put a lot of work into it including Amazon, Altavista, Google,
Yahoo, Netscape and so on.
jQuery lists 21 people in it's team and 8 past members:
<http://jquery.org/team>
Did you buy the very first Dyson vacuum cleaner? (the DC01 in 1993) or one
designed by one of it's 1500+ staff
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyson_%28company%29>
Most products are built by a lot of people but just have a famous leader (who
may or may not have made the very first version that you probably never saw).
~~~
vessenes
In the interest of securing our oral history about the web, Tim Berners Lee
had layout and images. And built-in click-to-edit.
<http://info.cern.ch/NextBrowser1.html>
~~~
rythie
In 1991 it looked like this:
[http://www.w3.org/History/19921103-hypertext/hypertext/WWW/T...](http://www.w3.org/History/19921103-hypertext/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html)
In 1992 Erwise, ViollawWW and Lynx were created and Mosaic in 1993, Netscape
in 1994. (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_World_Wide_Web>)
That picture was from 1993, though I'd concede I got a few inaccuracies in my
comment, however Tim Berners Lee, didn't create the whole web by himself, even
in the very early days there were others creating it too, that have now been
forgotten.
~~~
vessenes
Re: TBL, I totally agree with you.
Re the links: Interesting --
[http://www.w3.org/History/19921103-hypertext/hypertext/WWW/M...](http://www.w3.org/History/19921103-hypertext/hypertext/WWW/MarkUp/MarkUp.html)
has an SGML DTD for HTML, which mentions images, but that DTD is dated 1995,
many years after TBL was speccing the web originally.
An interesting bit of history lost, the first DTDs for HTML, as well as some
canonical first pages.
------
lelele
I think this post nails down what I think is a recurring issue with us
techies. We concentrate too much on _what we do_ , and too little in _being
known for what we do_ , which, according to Chris Lytle, is the third reason
of success:
"The third secret of success is that you have to be known for what you know.
Other people have to know you know what you're doing. When other people know
you know what you're doing, they come to you for help and advice, not just for
your low price."
What about the former two reasons of success? Here they are:
"The first secret of success is that you have to know what you're doing. There
are a lot of people who fail simply because they don't study their industry.
They don't go to seminars. They don't read. And they fail. [...] The second
secret of success is that you have to know you know what you're doing. Success
is a process, and repeating successful behaviors over and over again is key.
But you have to know what is working so you can repeat what's working."
(from The Accidental Salesperson, a book about selling I highly recommend)
------
abrahamsen
Jeffrey Law, Richard Kenner, Mark Michell, Ian Taylor.
That wasn't hard. I apologize for any misspelling, as I went by memory. On the
other hand, I don't know the names of any startup founders more recent (or
less successful) than facebook.
I believe Hacker News attract a certain non-typical brand of programmers, if
they are more likely to know about "VCs and term sheets" than about who made
their tools.
Of course programmers are rarely famous (for programming) outside their
profession. That is a fate programming share with just all but a select few
professions.
~~~
ploer
Yeah, that definitely struck me as the odd bit in the article -- being jealous
of the "fame" that startup founders get sure seems like a pretty specialized
breed of envy!
------
mike-cardwell
I'd prefer to write an application which made me wealthy, than an application
which made me famous. Wealth is a useful thing to have, fame is more of an
annoyance surely...?
~~~
jgrahamc
I dunno, fame can be useful. Just imagine all the groupies that came after the
publication of The Geek Atlas.
~~~
dugmartin
I really don't want to image what those groupies would be like.
------
jgrahamc
But there is Google. And plenty of people have Googled me and I've been told
in job interviews that the interviewer had downloaded code I'd written and
read it.
------
neilk
The very _definition_ of a product is an artifact that doesn't require a human
relationship.
If you need to be in touch with the people that made it or maintain it, that's
called consulting. (You may _want_ to be in closer contact, for instance, to
shape the direction of the Linux kernel or something. But you don't _need_ to
have such a relationship to use Linux.)
Excellence in product design means anonymity for the people who made it.
------
js2
_Yep, just a system administrator_
Well then. Nice to know Zed looks down his nose at operations.
~~~
fragmede
I hate it when people call me a programmer, I'm a *developer*; I don't *do* IT. I have better things to do than re-install Windows all day.
...is the title of the next rant I expect to read from Zed.
~~~
nailer
What's wrong with wanting to make stuff rather than work around other people's
buggy software?
~~~
fragmede
IT and programmers do more than "work around other people's buggy software"
all day long.
------
tetha
It is interesting to see that someone arrived at a similar conclusion as me.
However, I went a totally different way of arriving there. By now, programmers
kind of feel like pioneers and/or drainers.
Think about this for a second. Did Ruby On Rails enable you to venture into
new lands, because you are able to program your web application more
efficiently? I think so. Does RoR make your daily programmer life easier
overall? I think so, too. Thus, _someone_ ventured into a place and built
roads and paths for people to come there and to live comfortably.
However, did anyone really remember the pioneers in germans marshes, in
america? Does anyone see the drainers maintaining the life support systems in
the cities? No. Does anyone remember the first person to write a web
framework, to write a next generation language, or maintaining libraries which
easen your daily life? No.
I think this is a striking similarity.
------
weavejester
Wait a moment.
Aside from a few exceptions, most product design is unattributed. Can you name
four people who worked on the mobile phone you use? Or indeed any appliance
you use?
Of the programmers and engineers I do know about, I don't know about them
because I use the product, but because there's something interesting or
unusual about the person.
~~~
varjag
Noone designs mobile phones or appliances in their free time.
~~~
weavejester
Uh... so what? Are you saying people can only be famous for work they do in
their free time?
~~~
varjag
I'm not saying that and you know it.
If someone uses fruits of your passion for free, it would be nice to get an
acknowledgement for that, wouldn't you agree?
~~~
weavejester
_"I'm not saying that and you know it."_
I had no idea what you were saying. Your point wasn't very clear.
_"If someone uses fruits of your passion for free, it would be nice to get an
acknowledgement for that, wouldn't you agree?"_
Certainly, but acknowledgements don't make you famous.
------
wdewind
"The famous programmers aren't really famous for programming anymore, but
instead because they created some business or non-profit. Their code can't
stand on its own as awesome, it has to be paired with some non-code fame
formation and then people can grok their concept."
Anyone read Neal Stephenson's Diamond Age? There is a scene where they are
discussing tech innovation and someone says there are always three parts, the
money, the tech and the artist.
Money finances the tech, and the artist humanizes the tech. You're the tech
(drummer/bassist? linebacker?) and you're envious of the artist (lead singer?
quarter back?).
Edit: and the reason he's not really famous is because none of his consumer
facing products are GREAT. (I wont debate if they are good or very good or
whatever, but outside of his technical work he really isn't GREAT).
------
enntwo
If you use something enough, and truly want to understand it, then I assume
you know all about some programmers, and that enough others are like you that
these people can be considered famous.
It also seems laughable to think that those programmers who are considered
famous do not benefit from it in the industry.
Off the top of my head: John Resig Matz Steve Yegges Shawn Hargreaves _why
And assuming you have been to one conference, or dug a little bit deeper, I am
sure you know much of the core team and library teams around a technology too.
I am not sure what qualifies someone as famous, but I would be surprised if
these people did not qualify given the right fields.
Just because you don't know about them doesnt mean thousands of other people
don't.
------
anamax
Haiping Zhao, the lead on Facebook's PHP compile-to-C++ project, is in Fast
Company's "100 Most Creative 2010" list.
<http://www.fastcompany.com/100/2010/16/haiping-zhao>
------
10ren
There are famous programmers, but Zed's right that they don't become famous
because of their coding ability. I'd say they become famous because of impact.
And I'm thinking of the _really_ famous (to us) coders here: Thompson, Richie,
Fred Brooks, Dijkstra, Knuth, Larry Wall and so on.
These people had an impact for _market_ reasons, not for their code in itself:
a need; an idea for a tool or product; and a benefit of it that met that need
(not saying the need is first chronologically). In some cases, that "product"
was something they wrote _about_ programming, not their code at all.
Programming: unimportant. Meeting needs: important.
------
microcentury
Wikipedia seems to think his fame is not quite as clear-cut as the man himself
sees it:
This article may not meet the notability guideline for biographies. Please
help to establish notability by adding reliable, secondary sources about the
topic.
~~~
abstractbill
If he's a famous anything, he's a famous _blogger_ , not a famous programmer.
~~~
steveklabnik
At least Mongrel should be enough to make the man known for his code, come on.
Give credit where credit is due.
------
pixelbath
"Famous" is also relative. I'm a programmer, and I'd never heard of him or any
of the projects he mentioned.
If you go down any particular niche, I guess everyone's famous to somebody.
------
nerme
Wow, so weird...
I'm constantly having my friends and family give me astonished looks when they
see what I can do with a computer!
I get tons of recognition! I do a good amount of web work for free... for
friend's bands, small businesses... for people that I know and love who don't
have a lot of money...
... and they love it! They get this look in their eyes like I'm some sort of
magician!
It's awesome. :)
------
pcestrada
In my experience, programmers can attain a certain amount of fame at the local
level.You can become well-known for being the author of a key piece of
software that your company uses. Unfortunately, it just means people know who
to talk to when their is a bug or a feature request.
------
CapitalistCartr
" Following his life is pointless because he's poured his life into the
software and now they get to keep it.
You've stolen his soul like an old sepia tone photo of a Cherokee warrior."
He's conflating life with soul, and ego with both. I think his logic error
occurs right there.
~~~
nailer
For me, my soul, if it exists, is in what I create.
------
shin_lao
You should care about people using and enjoying what you build.
I don't really care whether my users know my birthday or what my favourite
dessert is.
Actually, I'm pretty happy they don't know anything about me.
The author of this article needs an attitude adjustment.
------
joshu
I got recognized in an airport on a city I've never been to just this week.
There are degrees.
------
etherael
Why would you _want_ to be famous?
I could think of little more inconvenient than complete strangers thinking
that they know / understand me in some way or identify with my life or work.
This could be emblematic of my general misanthropy but I'm perfectly happy to
be the guy behind the curtain.
I'll take the money and maybe the power, chasing fame is the milieu of the
inherently insecure. Coding is one of the most empowering things a modern
human can do; not waiting around for other people to make something for you,
but to get the making done yourself.
------
mechanical_fish
Well, this is the entire point of art, right? You are building an artifact for
people to interact with. Sometimes the artifact reveals aspects of the
creator's personality, but generally that is done subtly. You're trying to
suggest and seduce, not overwhelm and assault.
(Even the arts which aggressively push the author's persona - think: a lot of
hip-hop, and a lot of standup comedy - are about selling _persona_ , not
person. Performers play characters. Even when they are playing themselves.)
~~~
Psyonic
Reminds of Hunter Thompson. He eventually got to the point where when he gave
a speech or public appearance, he didn't know if the people wanted Hunter
Thompson or "Hunter Thompson," and I think he began to have some difficulty
distinguishing the two.
------
siculars
There should be an Academy Awards or Tony's or Grammys for programming.
Perhaps Github and Bitbucket and Google Code can get together, select the core
contributors to the most 'watched'/downloaded programs, allow those people to
vote for/select other coders/programmers/contributors who should be allowed
ballots and allow them to vote for people in different categories for awards.
If entertainers can merit an awards ceremony, surely code slingers and
algorithm designers can as well.
------
z92
"[Being famous]... makes it harder because now for some bizarre reason people
think my fame means I can't code."
So true. When I hear of any famous programmer, I think the same.
------
jallmann
There is no question Zed is a talented hacker, but it is obvious he's still
bitter after his confrontational departure from the Ruby world. Which, IIRC,
was partly precipitated by the fact he felt he didn't get enough recognition
for his work on Mongrel.
See the license terms at the end of this post:
<http://sheddingbikes.com/posts/1273859940.html>
------
l0nwlf
"Maybe it's Rails or Python or something. Now, name 4 people on the core team
without looking them up."
Wrong. I use python and I do know the name of at least 20 core devs. May be
because I hang at #python-dev or follow them at twitter, but I do know. As a
matter of fact if I love any project I'll know the core devs. Sorry Zed, you
lost me there on that part or else I was loving your article.
~~~
apgwoz
You're certainly an exception, not the rule. In my immediate circle of python
programmers, most of them would name Guido, Beazley and _maybe_ on a good day
Alex Martelli.
I have to agree with Zed on that point.
~~~
bockris
I don't read python-dev and I could name 7 core Python devs without even
thinking. (Guido van Rossum, Alex Martelli, Raymond Hettinger, Martin van
Loweis, Jeremy Hilton, Georg Brandl, Fredrik Lundh) (I'm really bummed that
David Beazley didn't come to mind right away. Sorry David)
------
castis
I don't think this is necessarily true. Who, involved in RoR, doesn't know
about _why. It may not be his real name but many a person still knows about
his existence. I honestly don't think he was going for fame though.
~~~
Psyonic
Eccentricity often leads to fame, even if it wasn't intentional. People like a
freak show (No negative connotation intended, but he was certainly strange).
For example, the only thing I really know about Howie Mandell is his OCD about
germs, but that's more than I know about most celebrities.
------
dminor
> Yep, just a system administrator. Still.
There Are No Famous Sysadmins ;)
~~~
copper
Well, there /is/ the BOFH :)
<http://www.theregister.co.uk/odds/bofh/>
------
dawgr
What? I have a poster of Mark Pilgrim on my wall.
------
dsc
I'll do my best to spread this message in my mind and in others. What we do is
art, it always has been.
Say it: I'm with the awesome!!!
------
AaronM
Who's Zed Shaw?
~~~
abyssknight
Creator of the Mongrel web server that is used for Ruby web apps. Also, the
creator of Lamson, the email framework for Python and several other projects.
He has a reputation for speaking his mind, regardless of how you may feel
about it. Personally, that gives him some serious marks in my book; saying
what you mean, _and_ executing on it is an admirable trait.
I'm not trying to be an apologist here, but he's accomplished far more than I
have on a good week.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zed_Shaw>
~~~
petercooper
_I'm not trying to be an apologist here, but he's accomplished far more than I
have on a good week._
I don't know if you were going for a backhanded compliment there, but it sure
seems like one ;-)
~~~
abyssknight
I wasn't. I really do respect Zed and his contributions.
------
silkodyssey
If Microsoft Word were written by a single programmer that programmer would
have been famous!
~~~
giardini
Most of Microsoft Word was written by one programmer, the late Willoughby
Whigginton, formerly of Microsoft.
"Will", as his friends knew him, despaired and committed suicide after the
8,234th time an unwitting stranger greeted him yet again with the expression
"Word®, Dude!".
~~~
silkodyssey
Well the point I was trying to make was that people become famous when they
can be linked to something that a lot of people care about. We see this in the
entertainment industry where it's easy to associate a blockbuster film with
the stars or directors of the film.
This is not typically the case in the software industry where the Blockbuster
software so to speak are produced by Companies and not lone programmers. That
is to say the company is the face of the software.
I used Microsoft Word (maybe I should have used Office) because it's an
example of a software application where the company that makes it is well
known and I thought if it were possible for one person to create an
application with as large an impact as Microsoft Office has had in the world
then surely that person would be remembered.
One notable exception to the rule I think is Linus Torvalds. He still remains
the face of linux although what linux is today is due to contributions from a
large number of people.
~~~
basugasubaku
Raymond Chen tells a story that Notepad won some industry award in the late
90s, but no one at Microsoft could remember who the original author was:
[http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2009/11/02/99159...](http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2009/11/02/9915989.aspx)
And follow-up post:
[http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2009/11/17/99233...](http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2009/11/17/9923309.aspx)
------
mahmud
Useless rant that doesn't add anything to my life, or probably yours.
------
whatwhatwhat
Zuck isn't a celebrity? Gates? Jobs? This article is finnicky
------
popschedule
Bill Gates, Steve Jobs
~~~
rodion_89
im not sure why this got downvoted. jobs, gates, zuck, brin, page, all of
those guys are (are at least were) productive programmers and now have
celebrity status.
~~~
daniel-cussen
Jobs never coded, to my knowledge.
~~~
rodion_89
did a little research and you are right, my bad!
------
kwamenum86
"name 4 people on the core team"
Name four people on the core team at Facebook.
This is ironic seeing as the author is in part famous for being a terrific
programmer.
------
chopsueyar
Ada Lovelace?
------
eranki
i puked a little after reading this
------
earl
I read the article differently than most of you. I think Zed is still grumpy
that contributing a big piece (if not irreplaceable, but unarguably useful) of
the rails stack didn't lead to more recognition and, more importantly, the
type of recognition that's useful when it's time to pay the rent. Hence his
rails is a ghetto post -- I read it as something like, "This rails shit has
worked out well for DHH but a bunch of other people have contributed and we
haven't gotten shit. This sucks."
This post is an elaboration -- having written a bunch of big projects that are
freely available for anyone who wants to to review the code, Zed still has to
answer the usual weeder questions. It's kind of insulting, frankly. And from
his perspective, his contributions to open source and the community at large
haven't done that much for him.
I think this is part of a general problem in programming that a blog author I
follow pointed out and another poster in this thread mentioned: open source
has worked out well for eg Larry Wall or Linus or DHH, etc. But there are a
lot of people that contribute -- maybe not as main authors, but who eg make
sure all your rails db gems work with new revs of the databases and contribute
lots of little pieces -- but who don't get enough out of it to financially
justify the contribution. See the creator of Clojure essentially begging for
donations on his website in order to continue development. Sometimes, it comes
down to the simple fact that open source contributions might be fun or useful
or intellectually gratifying, but they don't pay the bills. The industry as a
whole, IMO, needs more ways to channel money to the masses of OS contributors
who aren't famous and aren't paid to do it, but who make lots of
contributions.
links I mentioned: [http://enfranchisedmind.com/blog/posts/commercial-grails-
plu...](http://enfranchisedmind.com/blog/posts/commercial-grails-plugins/)
and
[http://www.anyware.co.uk/2005/2009/12/11/do-we-need-a-
commer...](http://www.anyware.co.uk/2005/2009/12/11/do-we-need-a-commercial-
market-for-grails-plugins/)
------
hackermom
John Carmack is famous, kinda.
~~~
gnoupi
Probably because he worked on things which were entertaining, and not "tools"
to people, simply. You can find plenty of famous people in the video game
industry, recognized for their work. But you can be a wonderful tool
programmer, make wonderful databases, webservers, and else... Ultimately,
those are only tools. And people don't have especially respect or excitement
for tools, they just use them.
~~~
NickPollard
That's definitely a factor, but he's still remembered. It would have been easy
for the programming to have been ignored and Carmack to have been overshadowed
by Romero, but that didn't happen.
Amongst game programmers, we certainly pay more attention to who writes the
code, not just who designs the game or draws the art. Most gamers are more
likely to know of Cliff Bleszinski than Tim Sweeney, but programmers are more
likely to know of Sweeney.
~~~
gnoupi
Actually, nowadays, you know game designers, more than actual programmers, at
least for the big industry. You know the programmers for most indie games,
though (but there they are often designers themselves).
Besides, true that you don't really know the "big shot programmer" in games
anymore, mostly because there is not anymore one programmer, you see a full
team creating an engine. so they blend in the product.
About Carmack and Romero, I guess it also helped that Romero made a fool of
himself after the "breakup".
------
ahoyhere
On the other hand, I've written Rails tutorials for newbies and people
constantly think I'm a Ruby badass and ask absolutely no further questions.
Perceived character, reputation, and the way you make a person feel has more
to do with whether they innately assume you are good, than sheer fame.
It's so easy to choose the wrong variable when you're trying to figure out a
(social) system.
------
jlcgull
..just as there are no famous scientists anymore. Seriously, how many of you
can remember the names of Nobel prize winners after the 1960s? Fame is almost
as fickle as Luck and in many ways more so. In our day and time, being
recognized by our peers is fame enough. Aspiring to be famous well beyond your
chosen discipline requires more than genius. The right moment in time. A
moment right not just for you but for your entire field. A moment that
captures the imagination of people who have nothing to do with your work, but
can still feel its impact. And sometimes, even that is not enough. Case in
point: How many of you know the name of the person who
discovered/invented/designed Viagra? :-)
~~~
Psyonic
Also: outside of chess fans, who the hell would recognize Anand? He's the
world's best at something, and he'd probably be able to walk down any street
in America unnoticed. What does Zed expect?
------
mkramlich
Zed is to now as Eric S. Raymond was to the 90's
~~~
nailer
ESR got people to understand that GPL/BSD/etc apps were real software with
real licenses they needed to respect, rather than Public Domain Shit From The
Internet. Also: Zed's made a bunch of innovative stuff (I use his mailing list
app) that shits all over Fetchmail (which is a single hack for a limited
problem).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Suggestion: HN should have a reddit-style AMA (ask me anything) - MatthewB
It would be great to have a reddit-style AMA (Ask Me Anything), where interesting people come and answer questions asked by HN users.<p>I can only speak for myself but if there were a way to ask industry experts questions about...well anything...it would be extremely beneficial for us young hustlers and hackers.<p>Thoughts?
======
nostrademons
I dunno. I loved the original concept behind AMA, which was that if you look
hard enough at _anyone's_ life, you can find interesting parts that are worth
listening to. The first half of IAmA's title is "Where the mundane becomes
fascinating..."
I dislike what IAmA is quickly becoming, which is a place where people request
only celebrities, pile on where they show up, and try to milk them dry of
information. A bunch of recent threads have actively complained about IAmAs
from "normal" people, which I thought was the point of the subreddit.
It sounds, from the way you've worded your request, that you're looking for
the second kind of post. I wouldn't want to see this, because I think it
teaches precisely the wrong skillset for entrepreneurs. Sucking up to experts
and milking them for information is how you succeed in the corporate world,
where advancement is predicated on what the people above you think. To succeed
as an entrepreneur, however, you need to intimately understand the problems
faced by _normal people_. That's your market: the millions of normal people
out there. And if you ignore what's interesting about their lives in favor of
what's interesting about the leaders of your field, you'll suck at capturing
that market.
~~~
MatthewB
I don't think it would be like that. HN would ask questions and get insightful
information and stories from people who are as passionate about this industry
as we are. I do understand what you're saying about what reddit's AMA was
originally intended to be.
------
ig1
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2476123>
I think people on HN wouldn't really feel comfortable putting themselves
forward for an AMA.
Maybe it would work if people nominated people they'd like to see do an AMA
(or even type of person "someone who's done xyz")
------
ra
I don't agree. There's already Reddit for that
~~~
MatthewB
Right but we aren't going to get people from our industry on reddit. At least
not easily.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Easter Island heads have bodies - timf
http://seeker401.wordpress.com/2011/10/29/easter-island-heads-have-bodies/
======
tripzilch
Of course they have bodies! How is this news to anyone? A good part of these
statues are well above ground _including_ their bodies, and we've known the
sunken ones have bodies below the ground for several decades already.
They've been excavating these statues for quite a while already.
Here, go read the Wikipedia article on Moai, it's way more interesting than
this article (which is just a copy of the first few paragraphs of
<http://www.eisp.org/3879/> with the commentary "wild stuff" added):
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moai>
Now excuse me while I go submit an article about the Great Pyramids having
five sides. Yes mind=blown, I know.
~~~
copper
I think the fact that they're referred to as Easter Island _heads_ , rather
than statues might have had something to do with it :)
More seriously, the iconic pictures of the heads are from Rano Raraku (IIRC),
and that is just heads and a bit of neck sticking out of the ground, isn't it?
~~~
gus_massa
According to Google Image Seach :) more than a half has body, and some have a
hat
[http://www.google.com.ar/search?hl=en&q=moai&gs_sm=e...](http://www.google.com.ar/search?hl=en&q=moai&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=9765l10312l0l10656l4l4l0l0l0l0l391l719l3-2l2l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&biw=1024&bih=625&wrapid=tlif131998176684310&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi)
(IIRC, all most of them had had a hut, but in most of them the hat had fallen
an been lost.)
~~~
electromagnetic
Well IIRC most moai were placed at the shore or on the cliffs, and the hats
were generally rounded. So giant wheel + hill + ocean is definitely going to
end with the majority of the hats being lost.
------
GeneTraylor
Whenever I see an easter island head, I can't help but draw parallels between
our global civilization and theirs.
The eastern islanders consisted of around a dozen tribes, each competing for
resources with others. It's thought that all of these statues were put up in a
race by chieftains, competing with one another to put up the biggest, most
refined and the best statue.
I wouldn't be surprised if they competed in their standards of life too. ("I
eat X for breakfast, lunch and dinner!") I certainly wouldn't be surprised by
the fact that they might have had political factions, special interests and a
life rife with complicated political maneuvering. (it was certainly in the
short term interests of statue makers to be against conservation and egg
chieftains on)
After all we're the same species and they were just like us.
However what they failed to realize was the inescapable fact that they were
living on a small piece of land in the middle of a vast ocean. Their seemingly
inexhaustible resources were pitiful by any standards.
As time wore on and their population boomed, a point came when all of these
factors came together. Their squandering of resources combined with their
unsustainable way of life for a large population faced off with their limited
resources, and the result was ugly. Their entire civilization collapsed.
Most of the population was lost to famine. Their civilization descended to
cannibalism to survive. This degraded civilization became the perfect breeding
ground for disease and even more people died. This cycle went on and on until
their entire civilization was wiped out and the entire population nearly
eradicated.
I shudder to think what it must have been like to live in this world. It must
have been a nightmare.
Today like the eastern islanders with their statues, we keep on building
taller and taller structures, better and more lethal weapons, and crazier
systems. We compete with one another for status symbols at personal, regional
and national levels.
Today we are just as isolated on this tiny blue ball, with a finite amount of
resources, a booming population, combined with special interests and huge
egos.
Like the eastern islanders we have nowhere to go...
~~~
gbog
Ok, nice prose of your, but the tiny blue ball thing is bullshit. Any plane on
window seat will show you that the Earth is enormous and empty for most it's
parts, even in China.
Don't think I advocate more cars and buildings. It's just that the tiny
crowded ball argument is wrong, and dangerous, as it can be used to build a
nasty antihumanism.
~~~
GeneTraylor
>>> nice prose of your <<<
Thank you, but my prose is far from being nice. You should see my boss with a
red pen around my prose. :-)
>>>but the tiny blue ball thing is bullshit<<<
Carl Sagan has another take on the matter. :-)
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p86BPM1GV8M>
>>>Any plane on window seat will show you that the Earth is enormous and empty
for most it's parts, even in China.
Don't think I advocate more cars and buildings. It's just that the tiny
crowded ball argument is wrong, and dangerous, as it can be used to build a
nasty antihumanism.<<<
I would argue that treating our resources as essentially endless because of
the sheer size as compared to the individual fails to take into account that
there are now 7 Billion people on this earth. Each and every one of them
deserves a better life, they deserve to be able to have a luxurious bath,
flush toilets with water, wash hands with water, eat processed foods which
take a lot of water to make, wash their cars with water, drink pure water and
at the end of the day consume around 315 litres of it. Of course, today not
everyone lives like that except for wealthy countries (the statistic is based
upon the US) but I think everyone wants a standard of life like that. If
somehow, tomorrow 7 billion people started consuming water like that then we
would drink up 2 205 000 000 000 litres of fresh water in a day, but the total
possible water supply we can access (and this includes the glaciers) is only
3.5 × 10^19 litres...
That's quite an easy way to run out of water.
Now if you do the same with energy, with waste, with consumption and so on
what you have is a ticking time bomb waiting to explode. The way we live today
just can't last. I think that you can solve this problem using technology, but
its roots lie deep in our societies.
What's frightening over here is that there is no way out for us. Unlike our
ancestors we simply can't burn and move on. The earth is where we have to make
our stand. I really think that it's important for people to start taking the
gravity of the situation seriously. We need solutions, and we need them fast.
Our time is running out.
I think that there is no greater form of humanism than realizing that all of
these people need to be saved from such an horrible end and devoting your
entire life to creating a better future.
~~~
gbog
I see a demographic problem if and only if Americans continue spreading their
unhealthy way of life.
~~~
mooism2
It's not about Americans spreading their unhealthy way of life. It's about
non-Americans claiming that life (more or less) as their own.
~~~
gbog
Well, you know, I live in Chine since 8 years and, in some ways, there is a
profound influence of the "American way of life", mostly through the channel
of Holywood movies. The matter could be worse: Chinese have the weight on
their side, they can't change so fast as to lose their identity, but still,
they have an idea of what should be an happy life that is formatted by these f
__* movies (really hate then, sorry). For instance, they think everyone should
ought to live in an appartement in a tower, own a car, drink canned soda, eat
industrial food cooked in microwave, have only one overprotected child, work
in suits, go shopping each Saturday, watch baseball on a gigantic TV on
Sundays, etc.
They can't believe it when I tell them I am living in a cheap courtyard house,
rides a bike to work, never drinks soda, eat home cooked food, never watches
TV, know nothing about baseball, climbs mountains on the week-end. In fact, it
is the way their parent and grand-parents lives (eg. my neighbors) and the
younger generation don't want that, they want the "American way", the supposed
"comfort". Maybe a personal taste, but I think Chinese way is better, for me,
my family and even for the little big blue ball floating in the universe.
Don't get me wrong: I know US citizen do not live like described, and I tell
my friends and colleagues as much as I can. But the problematic part is,
again, those f __* Hollywood movies that have too much worldwide influence. (I
therefore welcome any other influence, Mangas, Bollywood, Hong-Kong kungfu,
anything _else_ is better.)
------
ComputerGuru
This blew my mind. I don't know why, I find it incredibly eye-opening that the
first thought that one might think of on seeing a head in the dirt (that
there's the rest of it underneath) has just simply never occurred to
generations of people because we were "told" by someone that they're just
heads.
How powerful words can be in casting an illusion, in defeating creativity, and
hiding the truth!
~~~
lisper
A Google Images search for "Easter Island" reveals many heads with above-
ground bodies, and a few heads buried up to their noses. That some of the
bodies are buried up to the neck should come as no surprise to anyone.
~~~
electromagnetic
What I wonder is, were these buried statues left like that by the islanders. I
mean to get the hat on the statue, the statue has to both be stable and you
have to access the head.
So was the easy method of doing this burying the statue? If so how fast did
the islanders die off that they couldn't dig out the statues back to their
intended state.
What's scary is what these peoples last days must have been like if they
abandoned so many of these before completion.
~~~
phpnode
I seriously doubt the easiest way to get the hat on is by digging a massive
hole, burying the statue, using the ground around it as a ramp, maneuvering
the head into position and then somehow either raising the statue in position
or digging out the ground around the hole so that it no longer looks like a
hole. I think it's more likely the statues were laid flat, their hats attached
and then raised with ropes and blocks of wood and a lot of man power.
Who knows why they were buried, perhaps their religions and customs changed
over time and they buried certain heads as a mark of denigration or respect.
~~~
lisper
My bet would be natural silting and settlement. Easter Island was deforested
at some point in its history. New groundwater patterns and a few hundred years
could easily sink a few stone statues up to their eyebrows.
------
alexwolfe
This is one of the most amazing discoveries I have seen recently. The sheer
weight of that stone is absolutely insane. I'm still a little stunned this was
just discovered.
I would love to know what the people who made this were thinking. To create a
work of art that detailed and massive just to bury 75% of it seems very odd.
I'm sure there was a good reason to do it (in their minds at least), I'd love
to know what that was.
~~~
Anti-Ratfish
Making stuff and burying it is very common in archeology according to my
(limited) knowledge. Chucking stuff as offerings into springs, holes etc as
offerings. Burin it with dead people (anyone under that stone is now 2
dimensional). But I do agree that this seems odd - half burying...
~~~
gedejong
Guess it could be a case of bad foundation, causing it to slowly sink into the
ground over many years. Judging the type of ground of the excavation site at
the photo, it seems to contain a rather high amount of clay, which is a
terrible foundation.
------
gregschlom
Like everybody, I've heard of the heads at Easter Island since childhood and
yet I never had a clue of where on Earth Easter Island migh be.
So here's a Google Maps link for geography-impaired folks like me:
[http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Easter+Island,+Isla+de+Pascua,...](http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Easter+Island,+Isla+de+Pascua,+Chile&hl=en&ll=-12.897489,-65.742187&spn=114.078688,227.988281&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=55.543096,113.994141&vpsrc=6&hnear=Easter+Island&t=m&z=3)
Answer: between Chile and Australia, closer to Chile.
------
josscrowcroft
That is phenomenal. Raises the question: did whoever built them bury them, or
were they buried by natural forces?
~~~
Osiris
I was thinking the same thing. Perhaps originally they weren't buried. Are
they designed in such as way as they could have stood upright by themselves?
I would guess that the people doing this work would be able to determine the
dirt they were digging into was newer or older than the rock itself.
~~~
redwood
Perhaps they couldn't turn these massive pieces of rock upright without the
aid of gravity
------
jamesladd
Anyone else wondering why it took so long to look below the surface?
~~~
AdamTReineke
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moai>
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ahu_Tongariki.jpg>
The article has an image of excavated ones that have short bodies. Seems like
this one was unusually tall.
~~~
dalke
Relevant quote from that WP link:
"Though moai are whole-body statues, they are commonly referred to as "Easter
Island heads". This is partly because of the disproportionate size of most
moai heads and partly because, from the invention of photography until the
1950s, the only moai standing on the island were the statues on the slopes of
Rano Raraku, many of which are buried to their shoulders. Some of the "heads"
at Rano Raraku have been excavated and their bodies seen, and observed to have
markings that had been protected from erosion by their burial."
------
rafedb
ancient aliens!
~~~
ibisum
Read the book "Behold!! The Protong!" and you'll get an even more intriguing
explanation. These statues are a WARNING TO THE FUTURE that the great
CATACLYSM, which comes in cycles, will HAPPEN AGAIN.
Below the ground-line (which represents the flood survivors emerging from the
murk) these statues are holding the "Bi" - an iconic feature representative of
the grand CATACLYSM where the balance of water is tipped, and which you can
find in almost all ancient artwork, regardless of the culture that creates it
- an ocean-covering flood which occurs when the land masses move in reaction
to Solar activity.
Easter Island is a WARNING set up by an ancient civilization to protect us
from ignorance.
Let us never learn the extent to which SZUKALSKI was RIGHT!
~~~
lukifer
Setting aside the outlandish CONJECTURE which is the CONTENT of your post, the
arbitrary SHOUTING does not aid your CREDIBILITY.
~~~
ibisum
I would have thought quoting SZUKALSKI alone would have set that off, but okay
.. not that I'm a huge fan of Zermatism (a subject I would have thought at
least a few hackernews visitors might be familiar with) but the ideas of
SZUKALSKI are intriguing from the perspective of being able to look outside
the box. There is scientific analytical thought, and then there is artistic
motive desire, and if you apply both to the same subject you often get
surprising results.
In my opinion, the idea of Protong-as-a-warning has quite a bit of validity,
if only intelligent minds weren't so easily dissuaded from looking outside
their own little boxes now and then ...
~~~
dalke
"if you apply both to the same subject"
Where's the scientific thought?
If the world was covered with an ocean any time soon (call it the last million
years so we can include every human culture) then there would be obvious
physical traces, and salt-intolerant species, including plants, would have
died.
~~~
ibisum
The oceans move, was his point. I would investigate the science, but the
science-fiction of a language called Protong is far more intriguing and
worthwhile a pursuit. While I will always respect the mainstream desire to
discern the truth, a fiction about Easter Island may be just as valid.
~~~
dalke
Whenever I see "may" I have to remember that it's essentially meaningless, and
your text is equally valid changing it to "may not", as in "a fiction about
Easter Island may not be just as valid."
First you say "apply both to the same subject" and now you say that's fiction
may be "just as valid."
Szukalski's fiction is 30 volumes of text. You pick out that "the oceans
move"? (By which you mean "cover the Earth", not continental drift or tides.)
What about that human culture comes from a people on Easter Island, after
Noah's flood? How is that fiction at all valid? Races derive from
crossbreeding of species, again, after the flood? How is that at all valid?
If it's hard to pick the valid fiction from the invalid, then what's the
point? Isn't it like looking up the date by randomly picking a day from this
year's calendar?
------
dfc
Does anyone else have flashbacks of super mario brothers on gameboy when they
see the statues?
------
lurch00
This still a tech news aggregator? This is something that should be on reddit,
not hacker news...?
~~~
dfc
Read the FAQ and tell me how a story about art/discovery/paradigm-shifting is
OT...
tl;dr hn is not a technews aggregator.
~~~
tripzilch
> Read the FAQ and tell me how a story about art/discovery/paradigm-shifting
> is OT...
Art, okay. But how is this paradigm shifting?
We already knew they have bodies below surface for at least a couple of
decades. And a good deal of the statues are well above ground with their
bodies. They're just called "Easter Island Heads" because their heads are
often disproportionally large to their bodies. PARADIGM SHIFT!
If that's a paradigm shift to you, here, have some more!
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_misconceptions>
Though, I do notice that "Easter Island Heads are in fact not merely heads" is
not among them. Maybe I should edit that, given the popularity of this story
among what are supposed to be a community of knowledgeable and intelligent
people :)
Finally, you say it's a story about "discovery". The posted article doesn't
really mention anything about a discovery. The _original_ article kind of
does: <http://www.eisp.org/3879/> Has the same pictures, nearly the same text,
maybe it's a bit TL;DR for this crowd given that you even had to summarize
your one-sentence post:
> tl;dr hn is not a technews aggregator.
In which case, congratulations to anybody who read this far.
~~~
dfc
Wow! I just finished reading though the list of common misconceptions. If you
were aware of all of those misconceptions am extremely impressed. That list
covers an enormous body of knowledge. To be honest I would not have imagined
that anyone would know all of those details, congratulations.
Did you really know all of those?
~~~
tripzilch
I don't know, it's a while back that I read the article.
I should check again, I suppose (or hope) the ones I don't know about, at
least I know I don't know about? :)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How to Get a Raise - lionhearted
http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/how-to-get-a-raise
======
jnovek
At SI, we follow the Joel Spolsky tiered structure that Sebastian mentions --
you're hired at a salary based on your experience and talent and you can be
promoted into a higher salary, but we only give cost-of-living raises; no
performance raises.
The reason why we decided this: as an introverted geek, I found the social
I-want-a-raise dance to be awkward and embarrassing. I really just wanted to
focus on working on interesting stuff and be paid fairly. I always wondered
how my pay could possibly be fair if there was room to negotiate up? It seemed
wrong that others could be compensated better simply for being more outgoing
that I was.
So I'm curious -- what method do HNers like better? Would you prefer your
employer to have a negotiated or Joel Spolsky-style tiered pay scale?
~~~
adestefan
I never understood this argument. You still need to sell yourself for movement
into the higher salary range. It ends up being the same system as performance
raises.
~~~
usedtolurk
If everybody's level is visible then your pay tier is more likely to reflect
your value.
------
martincmartin
Overall this is a great article, one of the best I've seen on HN for a while.
One part struck me though:
_It’s nice to work for a good company with a good environment and a fun team,
but at the end of the day it’s not worth leaving tens of thousands of dollars
on the table just to stay there._
I dunno, spending 8+ hours a day in a bad environment with a soul sucking team
is pretty bad. How will tens of thousands of dollars make up for that? By
letting you buy a really big screen TV and sound system?
~~~
jasonkester
I guess since I wrote the quote you're referencing, it's my duty to defend
it...
In the case I had in mind when I wrote that, I used a small portion of those
extra tens of thousands of dollars to take 5 months off and work on my surfing
in Australia. The rest I kept in reserve to ensure that I could take a few
unpaid months off every year since.
As you say, money can't buy happiness. But it can be exchanged directly for
free time, which I tend to value quite highly.
~~~
rdtsc
There is a problem though -- most places don't let you take sabbaticals. You
get a couple of weeks off for vacation and the rest of the time you are
expected to be there.
So the original question still stands. Please answer that:
> I dunno, spending 8+ hours a day in a bad environment with a soul sucking
> team is pretty bad. How will tens of thousands of dollars make up for that?
I guess you have to always write a footnote when you discuss this and mention
how you'd really need to have a place that also gives you enough time to enjoy
all that extra money you'd be making.
The older I get the more I realize that time is becoming more and more
expensive. At some point it qualitatively crosses beyond being arbitrarily
translated into money.
Is another $30k/year worth working crazy hours in a noxious high pressure
environment? When I was 20 I would have said "hell yeah", now, not so much.
Driving 2 hours every day to get to a job that pays another $10k, nope,
thanks, I'll pass. I'd rather have the extra time for family or do whatever
else I want to do.
~~~
jasonkester
Personally, I find any job requiring me to sit in a cube for 40 hours a week
to be pretty taxing, regardless of how fun the tech or the people are. It's
the sort of activity that I try to minimize my time doing.
With that in mind, I'd much prefer to make my year's salary in, say, eight
months, and spend the rest of the year doing things I actually enjoy.
Sabbaticals don't actually require approval if you're genuinely not interested
in job security. The only real thing in question is whether the place would
like to have you back when you return.
One interesting side effect of working lots of 6-18 month stints at various
companies is that you get exposed to lots of technologies and get lots of
things out in the wild that you can point to and say "I did that". That
actually makes you more valuable, and therefore more likely to land the sort
of higher money, short term contract that you're looking for.
~~~
rdtsc
I definitely envy your position. Unfortunately in US insurance is tied to
employment. The moment I go on sabbatical my whole family loses health
insurance. It is something that ties my hands behind my back.
I do get a month and half of vacation and a 5 minute commute to work, so I try
to make the best of it.
~~~
jasonkester
Sounds like a pretty sweet gig, actually. Long vacations and no commute.
You're right. Health care is the tough one. Catastrophic Coverage will run an
individual about $100/month, which is fine when you're young and healthy. But
I don't want to think about what Blue Cross Blue Shield would want for full
coverage on a family of 4.
Given how much extra money you bring home consulting vs. salary (roughly 2x),
you're fine while you're working. But keeping it all going when you're not
might be a bit of an issue.
------
timcederman
I know you say your advice has worked for other people, but it is odd to tell
people how to do something when you haven't done it yourself.
What you're missing from all of this is the uncertainty of fair market rate,
which also discourages folks from asking for more.
~~~
lionhearted
> I know you say your advice has worked for other people, but it is odd to
> tell people how to do something when you haven't done it yourself.
If I'm ever salaried, I'll try it out and report back :)
> What you're missing from all of this is the uncertainty of fair market rate,
> which also discourages folks from asking for more.
I don't think there is or can be a "fair market rate" in an unestablished,
fast-changing field. By changing your responsibilities and deliverables a tiny
bit, you might triple the value you're producing and be compensated much more
for it.
------
keyist
Great advice. The most important part of #3, "stress how much more you’d like
to do going forwards" isn't highlighted enough, however. That is, you have to
establish clearly what you're looking for. The template is:
In X months I want to be making Y. What needs to happen for me to get there?
Part of any employee's job is to manage expectations. This way, you're both
communicating your expectations to your manager and clarifying theirs. It also
adheres to the "no surprises" rule by giving prior notice.
Then, you need to occasionally ping your manager to see how you're tracking
towards your goal. This gives you an indication of progress, and uses human
bias towards consistency (as described in Cialdini's "Influence") to your
advantage. If your manager has been telling you that you're on course for the
150k you asked for over the course of 6 months, it'll be difficult to suddenly
reverse when decision time comes.
------
ilikepi
A really great article to have in my head a week away from my first annual
review at my current company. Selling myself has never been a strong suit
(that whole social awkwardness thing, seemingly common in geeks). Stressing
future plans in the context of making the company money, as opposed to just
improving my own competencies, seems somewhat obvious upon reading it, but I
doubt I would have thought of it.
~~~
martincmartin
This is a great idea and I wish you success. It might be better to try a small
change: don't do this during your annual review, but meet with your boss a
month later and do it then.
The annual review isn't a discussion, it's where your boss has decided what to
write in your review and tells you about it. At that point, you need to change
someone's mind, rather than form their opinion. The performance review is too
late.
Instead, consider it an information gathering exercise. Certainly discuss the
details with your boss, and if any of his impressions or weightings seem off
discuss why you think differently. But don't ask for any conclusions, and a
raise is a conclusion.
Then, a month later, ask to see him. Now you're driving the conversation, and
are much more likely to prevail. Don't worry if this isn't when annual raises
are decided, those are for the "company driven" adjustment to your income. The
"employee driven" ones come at any other time.
Good luck, and let us know how it works out!
~~~
mcantor
_The annual review isn't a discussion, it's where your boss has decided what
to write in your review and tells you about it. At that point, you need to
change someone's mind, rather than form their opinion. The performance review
is too late._
Wow, this is _incredible_ advice. I think many of us (myself certainly
included) make the mistake of conflating "time to hear about performance" with
"time to hype my own performance". Thank you; my annual review is coming up at
well, and this instantly transformed and matured my understanding of all the
moving pieces.
~~~
martincmartin
Glad it helped. One tweak: you should definitely discuss anything that seems
out of place. If you did something great that seems to not be mentioned, or
your boss considers it minor, look genuinely puzzled (because you are) and say
"huh, I thought I did a really great job on X, and it was really important.
Did I not do a good job? Was it not important?" Something like that. Again,
you're information gathering, and trying to shift your boss's opinion by
discussing the difference between your impression and your boss's. At this
point, you're not trying to affect the overall summary.
~~~
ilikepi
Thank you both for the additional insightful comments.
In my case, we were told the topic of salary adjustments will be discussed (so
I suppose it will be more of a combination performance/salary review). So I
should probably be prepared for a bit of negotiating.
_Then, a month later, ask to see him. Now you're driving the conversation,
and are much more likely to prevail. Don't worry if this isn't when annual
raises are decided, those are for the "company driven" adjustment to your
income. The "employee driven" ones come at any other time._
The distinction between "company driven" and "employee driven" adjustments is
certainly important. However, given the company's reality, and my
understanding of that reality, I'm not sure it's reasonable to have an
"employee driven" discussion only a month after the "company driven" one. I'll
have to give this more thought in the coming week as I attempt to formulate a
strategy...
------
btilly
This is not just a good idea for how to present yourself to your boss a raise.
This is also a good idea for how to present yourself to another job in a
resume. For example it is what I tried to do with
<http://elem.com/~btilly/BenTilly.pdf>.
~~~
psykotic
Here is my honest first impression. I'm not trying to be complete or imply
that these are my only issues. It's just a sampling of thoughts I had.
The typeface with its wispy horizontal strokes is murder to my eyes. It's an
extremely poor choice for on-screen legibility with such a text-heavy resume.
Wall-of-text syndrome, compounded by poor typeface legibility and total
document length.
Who is your audience? As an engineer, my overall sense is that I wouldn't hire
you for a very technical role. If that is a correct assessment of your skills
or if your intended audience isn't engineers then that's okay.
One thing I noticed was your bullet point on fixing a cron job. You stumbled
upon a bug with, as it turns out, important ramifications. The way it's
written makes it seem like you're trying to bullshit non-technical people into
thinking this was a technically impressive feat rather than a stroke of luck.
I get you're trying to make a case for your value to the business, but I
frankly find it odd.
You might want to proof-read it better. As a random example, "document how
everything service worked" clearly has something missing.
~~~
btilly
Thank you for your feedback. I'll clearly have to do yet another proof-reading
pass.
My intended audience is the manager, and people higher up in the company. If I
get to an interview with an engineer, I'll have plenty of chances to prove my
technical chops. But to get there I need to impress people higher up. And the
way that I aim to do it is to convince them that I both have technical skills,
and understand what provides value to the business.
Note that since switching to that resume format, I've been offered
substantially better jobs. (And I've landed another good one.)
~~~
psykotic
> Note that since switching to that resume format, I've been offered
> substantially better jobs. (And I've landed another good one.)
Congratulations!
The format's appeal to business-minded folks with no technical background is
clear. Everywhere I have worked and would want to work, hiring decisions have
been made by technical people, so this is never something I have had to worry
about. I can see how the dynamics would differ elsewhere in the industry.
The general lesson is to think about your audience. Another reply to your post
suggested you should have a scannable list of technology buzzwords to pass HR
screening. That might be good advice most of the time but bad advice if you're
submitting your resume by an inside track that goes directly to the hiring
manager. If you were submitting your resume to a company whose culture is
engineering oriented from top to bottom, you'd want to put a different
emphasis on things, and so on.
Best of all, of course, is to have your reputation precede you so that the
resume is nothing more than a reminder and a set of talking points for the
interview. I've been getting used to that with my last few jobs.
Unfortunately, right now I'm in the midst of applying for an O-1 visa, so I've
had to minutely enumerate my technical accomplishments, explicate their
business relevance, and just hoot my own horn endlessly for the benefit of
visa examiners who are industry outsiders and understandably cannot read
between the lines. The level of documentation and the burden of evidence is
immense: 180 pages and counting.
~~~
btilly
My expectation is that the final decision will be made by technical people.
However to get there I have to get through non-technical people first, and
then the salary and position negotiation again is likely to involve non-
technical people.
As for companies that are engineering oriented from top to bottom, I _did_ get
hired by Google. You don't get much more engineering oriented than that!
~~~
psykotic
> As for companies that are engineering oriented from top to bottom, I did get
> hired by Google. You don't get much more engineering oriented than that!
Do you think your more business-oriented format helped or hurt? What business
people would your resume have to pass through at Google before getting into
the hands of technical decision-makers?
I've worked at another large company with an engineering culture (NVIDIA).
There I was referred by a personal acquaintance who was already on the team.
But if I had applied for the same position through their website, the only
other handling of my resume would have been by HR staff. All they do is play
buzzword bingo; an unfamiliar resume format would probably subtract points
with them, if anything.
------
bajsejohannes
Seems like very good advice to get a raise. Please don't take it too far,
though: Always going for the high-visibility stuff can be quite annoying to
your co-workers.
At my former job, I asked for a salary based on a statistic on programmer
salaries. I was certain not to be underpaid, as well as never getting an
astronomical salary. It was totally worth it to me. It meant spending time on
the things I though were right, and not worrying about how it would look to
management. YMMV
------
nphase
lionhearted, which books would you suggest to get better at negotiation?
~~~
lionhearted
My favorite is "Crucial Conversations" -
[http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-Conversations-Tools-Talking-
St...](http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-Conversations-Tools-Talking-
Stakes/dp/0071401946)
Then I've read like 10 more and they all kind of blend together... I'd
recommend getting at least 4-5 that are rated highly on Amazon, just to give
you some different perspectives.
For instance, there's a long running debate on whether it's better to make the
first offer or not when negotiating. The "offer first" crowd says you get to
set the general scope of negotiation. The "let them offer first" crowd says
that their first offer becomes the absolute worst you could get, and you might
do better... and they might well offer more than you were going to ask for.
You want to read at least a few different books, because one might take a
dogmatic hardline stance "never offer first!" - which is clearly wrong some of
the time. Good to hear different perspectives.
If I remember correctly, Roger Dawson's "Power Negotiation" was also good.
[http://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Power-Negotiating-Roger-
Dawson...](http://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Power-Negotiating-Roger-
Dawson/dp/1564144984)
After that, they all kind of blur together in my memory... but really, it's a
topic with massive ROI for anyone that touches money ever. You're not going to
go wrong dropping 15 bucks and 5 hours fast-reading a book on negotiation. One
good insight once pays for that many times over.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
PipelineDB Releases Enterprise Version of Its Streaming SQL Database - Fergi
http://techcrunch.com/2016/01/14/pipelinedb-releases-first-enterprise-version-of-its-streaming-sql-database/
======
Fergi
The main difference between PipelineDB and old CEP frameworks is that
PipelineDB is based on the PostgreSQL 9.4 core, so is a fully functional
relational database in addition to a streaming processing engine, which gives
us integrated storage in addition to a SQL-based approach to stream processing
and realtime/streaming analytics. We have also added functionality like
probabilistic data structures, stream-table joins for adding historical
context to streams, and now offer a distributed architecture, realtime
alerting, and HA. So there is definitely some overlap with the types of things
CEP frameworks did, but having an open-source core based on PostgreSQL that
operates with 100% SQL enables a wider range of users to deal with an
increasing need to tackle realtime data challenges.
------
terravion
I love that it says the team stayed lean and is actually focused on earning
money through revenue!
------
thelarry
How is this different from those old complex event processing frameworks?
------
pranade
Awesome!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Apple iPen patent - maayank
http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2012/05/apple-sheds-more-light-on-their-ipen-graphics-program.html
======
david_shaw
Interesting concept, though I'm not sure it's novel (no sources for that at
this time).
It seems to be very similar to the Android way of doing things: small
vibration when menu button presses register, etc. That's something I've liked
about Android that I miss on my iOS devices, so I imagine the pen would buzz a
little when clicking an app, navigating a page, etc.
I'm hoping that this device would see primary usage with iPads, not going the
way of the Samsung Note in terms of phone-slash-tablet marketing.
Interesting find.
~~~
maayank
If it's the audio usage you refer to, it's definitely not novel:
<http://www.livescribe.com/en-us/smartpen/echo/>
(there is also audio feedback there as far as I saw on youtube, not only
recording)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Containing UAVs – Technology and Regulatory Pathways - yoelf22
https://www.icconsulting.xyz/single-post/2019/01/01/
======
yoelf22
[https://www.icconsulting.xyz/single-
post/2019/01/01/Containi...](https://www.icconsulting.xyz/single-
post/2019/01/01/Containing-UAVs---Regulatory-and-Technology-Pathways)
#FAA #ICC
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Start-Up Slowdown – How the U.S.
Can Regain Its Entrepreneurial Edge - hdivider
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/142498/robert-litan/start-up-slowdown
======
santoriv
This article confuses the term "startup" and "new business".
By their definition a new hot dog stand, a new independent pharmacy, or a new
plumbing business is a startup.
They are not.
A startup is a business that can potentially have very rapid growth.
I actually agree with some of the recommendations of the article but I can't
take the authors seriously when their analysis throws everything into the same
bucket.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Any downsides of programming in Haskell? - raphinou
To anyone who developed a real world application in Haskell, what are the downsides of it?<p>What is in your opinion more laborious than needed? Are library sufficiently available and documented? Is doing I/O fine? Is working with a DB easy? Please share with people interested in learning Haskell and put it to work in a real world application!<p>PS: asking for negatives only because I'm very interested and positive about Haskell, but I wonder if I miss some gotchas...
======
sseveran
Most of the issues mentioned so far are trivial or just warts. The real issue
is understanding the design patterns that work well enough to build high
performance applications. Also in order to really exploit the power and
productivity of Haskell there is quite a learning curve.
We built an algorithmic trading system, and almost everything else in Haskell.
Our code base is over 100K of human written code.
The major library gaps were a time library (you can find a version of what we
have been thinking about releasing at [https://github.com/time-cube/time-
cube](https://github.com/time-cube/time-cube)). We use our own build system
that drives cabal and ghc. Otherwise having many libraries is just painful.
We found that composing applications as conduits to be a very effective design
pattern that minimizes many laziness issues. Monad transformers are very
powerful but the machinery for them (like forking) is not fully cooked.
Maintaining the codebase is far easier with haskell than with anything else I
have worked with (C/C++,C#,Java,etc...). Refactoring in Haskell is great.
You can't fight the language. Fighting with Haskell will cause great pain.
When you go with the flow, using lots of strong types, higher order functions
and can apply things like a monoid instance to a problem the language is a joy
to work with.
Debugging is more painful than it has to be. There are still times when you
need some real GDB wizardry.
Lastly if you have more questions feel free to contact me through our website
[http://www.alphaheavy.com](http://www.alphaheavy.com)
~~~
carterschonwald
I strongly recommend folks take Steve up on his offer, they (alphaheavy) do
really neat engineering and they're incredibly knowledgable.
------
mooism2
Haskell's record system (analogue of C's structs) has two major deficiencies.
1\. Modifying a record value (that is, making a copy of a record value but
with different values in one or two of its fields) is unnecessarily
complicated and uncomposable. This makes modifying a subfield painful.
2\. Field names are in the global namespace. Thus you cannot have e.g. a field
named `map` (conflicts with the standard `map` function); nor a local variable
named `owner` in the same scope that you use a field named `owner`; nor may
two different record types both have a `name` field. C had this problem in the
70s (which is why e.g. struct tm has tm_sec and tm_min fields instead of sec
and min fields), but they solved it a long time ago.
The solution to deficiency 1 is to use lenses. Use the lens package from
Hackage, but don't read its documentation at first: it generalises the problem
exceedingly well, but this makes it harder to understand at first glance.
Instead seek out a basic tutorial. At the cost of a short line of boilerplate
for each record type, this works well.
There is no satisfactory solution to deficiency 2. Some people define each
record type in its own module, and import each module qualified. I don't think
this scales well. I prefer to put a record-type prefix on each of my field
names (i.e. the same thing C programmers were forced to do in the 70s).
~~~
pestaa
Both are true, but I consider the second problem to be more like a trade off.
In PHP I miss field extraction from an array so often; in Haskell it is just
`map fieldName` and voila. Works just as well with namespaces -- I understand
it does not scale when creating data types, but you normally don't import all
of them at the same time into another module anyways.
~~~
dllthomas
That doesn't require them to be in the global namespace.
------
LukeHoersten
In my opinion the module system
([http://www.haskell.org/onlinereport/modules.html](http://www.haskell.org/onlinereport/modules.html))
is a bit weak. For example: "It is not possible, however, to hide instance
declarations in the Prelude. For example, one cannot define a new instance for
Show Char."
Instances can't be explicitly imported either.
Another thing I don't like is if you have two different functions with the
same signature but different implementations meant to give swappable
functionality, there's no way of specifying that explicitly. As a user of a
library, you just have to realize the functions can be swapped out with
modules. For example:
[http://hackage.haskell.org/packages/archive/bytestring/0.10....](http://hackage.haskell.org/packages/archive/bytestring/0.10.2.0/doc/html/Data-
ByteString-Char8.html)
[http://hackage.haskell.org/packages/archive/bytestring/0.10....](http://hackage.haskell.org/packages/archive/bytestring/0.10.2.0/doc/html/Data-
ByteString-Lazy-Char8.html)
It's really not that bad but I do like how other languages allow the
programmer to make this explicit.
~~~
ac
> Instances can't be explicitly imported either.
You can import only instances by saying "import A.B.C.Instances ()" where
A.B.C.Instances is the name of the module where the instances are defined.
~~~
tome
But not individual instances.
------
stepcut
For me, the biggest downside is lack of solid embedded device support --
arduino (Atmel AVR), android(ARM), iOS (ARM).
After using Haskell pretty much full-time for 10 years, writing C and Java
code makes me sad. The support for the above mentioned platforms is in-
progress, but is not yet mature.
There are some neat things like Atom which use a Haskell DSL to target
arduino.
My other issue is that the garbage collector in GHC is not really sufficient
for real-time audio applications because it can pause for too long. GHC HQ has
tried to tackle this in the past -- but there is a reason why it is a research
topic :)
If your application _requires_ interfacing to a C++ world -- your are not
going to have fun. Though there might be a GSoC project for that this summer?
Also, GUI stuff is somewhat lackluster. There are bindings to gtk, etc. And
they can get the job done. But they don't really capture the essence of what
makes Haskell awesome. We are still searching for the GUI abstraction that
really clicks.
~~~
gruseom
_After using Haskell pretty much full-time for 10 years_
Wow! Doing what?
------
ac
Depends on what you are doing. The library eco-system used to be a weak link
in Haskell, but I see it improving. To clarify, there were (and still are) a
lot of broken and/or poorly documented and/or unmaintained libraries on
Hackage. Or several libraries for doing the same thing where there is no
indication of which library is the best choice. I suspect that is, to some
degree, the case in any open-source eco-system, thought. Recently, though,
thanks to the effort of the giants like Edward Kmett there have been an influx
of great well-documented libraries on Hackage. And of course, you are welcome
to contribute new packages/improvements to existing packages.
Working with DBs is easy, especially if you use HaskellDB. There are bindings
for non-relational DBs, as well as a DB written in Haskell (acid-state).
As for the language itself, you might find it tricky to develop computation
intensive applications with large run-time data-sets due to garbage collection
(but that is true for any garbage collected language). Other than that, it's
one of the best performing languages in the Debian PL shootout. And the fact
that concurrency is (comparatively) easy means you can make use of those extra
cores.
Monad transformers and monads are fine, you just need to learn how to use
them.
To sum up: it depends on what you do and what you consider a "real world
application". Might be a good idea to elaborate. For example, are compilers,
games, web apps, automated trading systems, android apps considered "real
world"? Because any of these has been done in Haskell.
~~~
raphinou
I mentioned real world app to mean "not a toy project". That is, i meant a
reasonably large, structured, maintainable code base. I am thinking of haskell
as the language to use for a new project, and am interested to know more about
the potential problems and downsides i should be aware of. Also are there
situations where one should absolutely avoid haskell?
~~~
ac
Yes, I think you should avoid Haskell (and any language with managed memory)
on embedded systems or in very performance critical applications. Beyond that,
it's going to be a choice of whether there are enough well-supported libraries
that help your cause versus some other language. It would help to know in what
domain is your new project is going to be.
You've mentioned web apps, so, to be specific, I think the Haskell web app
frameworks (Happstack, Yesod and Snap) are mature. There aren't nearly as many
utility libraries, as there are, say, for Rails. But that, in my opinion, is
compensated by greater correctness guarantees and performance.
I'd encourage you to join the haskell-cafe [1] mailing list: it's a great
place to get help if you get stuck.
[1] [http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-
cafe](http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe)
~~~
DanWaterworth
> Yes, I think you should avoid Haskell (and any language with managed memory)
> on embedded systems or in very performance critical applications.
You're forgetting about atom,
[http://hackage.haskell.org/package/atom](http://hackage.haskell.org/package/atom).
------
jamwt
The runtime is somewhat immature. It locks up oddly sometimes under heavy
load. Dealing with latency and queuing issues around gc pauses is _much_ less
understood/documented than in the JVM world. The set of best practices in
general for doing intense things with the ghc runtime is just still young and
sparse.
STM can exhibit something that looks a hell of a lot like livelock.
Error handling is brutal. Catching all classes of exceptions (at the place you
want to catch them!) for recovery is surprisingly tricky. This isn't necessary
in theory with things like MaybeT, but in practice, lots of odd libraries use
things like partial functions and the error function.
Not having tracebacks in production code is painful
The library community is thriving but it has a lot of volatility. Things break
each other quite frequently. Semantic versioning either isn't enough to save
it or hasn't been adhered to strictly enough.
Thunk leaks and other consequences of unexpected laziness aren't as common as
people worry about, but they're kind of a pain to track down when they occur
Strict vs. Lazy bytestrings, String, Text, utf8-string, etc. You may find
yourself doing a lot of string/bytestring type conversion
There's still wars raging about the right way to do efficient, safe I/O
streams. Conduit vs. Enumerator vs. Pipes etc. They're all turning into pretty
compelling projects, but the fact that there are N instead of 1 is sometimes a
drag when you're dealing with libraries and dependencies.
There are not a lot of good open source "application server" type frameworks
that really handle thread pooling, resource exhaustion, locking, logging, etc,
in robust nice ways. We have one internally, and I'm sure a bunch of other
haskell-using shops do too, but the ones on hackage are not nearly
sophisticated enough (IMO) and I suspect not very battle tested against the
kinds of ugly queuing problems you run into in highly loaded environments.
If I think of more, I'll add em... these are off the top of my head.
~~~
tome
> lots of odd libraries use things like partial functions and the error
> function.
This is very naughty and I _hate_ it.
------
Peaker
Runtime debugging in Haskell is more rare, but when you need it, it's more of
a headache.
Achieving performance is harder than in c or c++.
The ecosystem is strong on some counts and weak in others.
There's lots of API duplication (lazy/strict byte strings, map, set, seq,
etc).
Good performance may depend on brittle ghc optimizations that might break in
very difficult to comprehend ways if ghc is upgraded.
------
jhickner
We wrote our RF radio mesh coordinator software in Haskell, and it's been a
great success. Working with binary data formats (various building control
protocols) in Haskell is the kind of thing that spoils you forever.
The one issue I've run into is that ghc can't cross compile. If you want to
run your code on ARM, you have to compile an ARM version of ghc (QEMU comes in
handy here).
~~~
carterschonwald
much better cross compilation support will be landing in ghc 7.8
------
bjourne
Let's begin by stating that Haskell is great, but there are a lot of stuff I
don't like about it:
1\. Way to many user defined operators. Haskell lets you define almost
anything as an infix operator which library authors love to (ab)use. So you
get operators like ".&&&." (without the quotes) because they are functions
reminiscent of the boolean and operation.
2\. But weirdly enough, many operators aren't generic. String concatenation is
performed with "++" but addition with "+".
3\. Incomplete and inconsistent prelude. It has unwords and words for
splitting and joining a string on whitespace. But you dont get to specify what
string to use as the delimiter like the join and split functions in other
languages lets you do.
4\. So instead you have X number of implementations of splitStringWith on
Hackage, some of which are unmaintained, deprecated or just not working,
meaning that just answering the question "how should I split a string?"
becomes a big endeavour ([http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4978578/how-to-
split-a-st...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4978578/how-to-split-a-
string-in-haskell)).
5\. There are four different "stringish" types in Haskell: List, LazyList,
ByteString, LazyByteString. A function like splitStringWith works on one of
the types, but not the three others for which you need other functions. Some
libraries expect Lists, other ByteStrings or LazyByteStrings so you have to
keep converting your string to the different types.
6\. Most Haskellers seem to content with just having type declarations as the
api documentation. That's not a fault of Haskell per se, but imho a weakness
in the Haskell community. For example, here is the documentation for the
Data.Foldable module:
[http://hackage.haskell.org/p](http://hackage.haskell.org/p)
ackages/archive/base/latest/doc/html/Data-Foldable.html
7\. This is very subjective and anecdotal but I've found the Haskell people to
be less helpful to newbies than other programming groups.
~~~
papsosouid
1\. What library are you complaining about? Haskell has a pretty small, well
established set of operators. If a library is defining more operators than you
like, then don't use it. That is no different than a library defining
functions with names you don't like, it happens in every language.
2\. Why on earth would string concatenation be the same operator as addition?
That isn't the same operation. I want to know if I used + that I have to have
gotten a number, or else it won't compile. Getting a string would be very
unhelpful. If you just want any monoid, then there is a generic operator for
that, it is <> or mappend.
5\. The different types are for different purposes. String is a list of chars.
You use normal list functions on it. Bytestring is not a string, it is an
efficient container for storing bytes. It is used for things like networking.
Text is an encoding aware, efficient representation of strings. Use this for
text data. There is an IsString typeclass for generic functions that operate
on any type that can behave like a string.
7\. I've always heard the exact opposite from everyone, and my experience has
also been the opposite of yours. The only other computer related community I
have seen that is as helpful as haskell is postgresql.
~~~
bjourne
1\. HXT, Lens, Arrows.. etc. _I think_ (as in, this is my opinion, someone
else may think that the amount of operators they contain are reasonable) they
introduce way to many infix operators. They are also pretty important to the
Haskell eco-system, so you can't just choose alternatives with less "line-
noise."
2\. I think the question should be why on earth should they not use the same
operator symbol? In most other mainstream languages they are. I know the
answer is "because [Char] isn't part of the Number typeclass" but that misses
the point.
5\. Both Text.Regex and the split library someone else mentioned operators on
strings ([Char]). Data.Aeson uses ByteStrings. So not everything in Haskell-
land uses Text when they should which leads to lots of annoying string packing
and unpacking. Contrast this with Python (3) where you have (unicode) strings
and (byte) buffers. Only. If you want more efficiency there are 3rd party lazy
implementations of them, but they aren't forced upon you like in Haskell.
~~~
Ixiaus
1\. I don't think they define too many specialized operators personally;
Haskell's heritage is more "mathematical" than many other languages so it
makes sense that many variables are single letters and operators are defined
with symbols instead of _reallyLongAndDescriptiveName_. It's part of learning
the idioms of the language.
2\. They should _never_ use the same symbol. As the parent said, if you want
the generalized notion of a monoid then use that (<> or mappend), otherwise
each library should not be conflating its instance of a TypeClass with other
libraries' instances of a TypeClass - it is confusing and you end up with
stuff like:
import Some.Lib as L
import Some.Other.Lib as OL
(L.+) 2 3
(OL.+) "2" "3"
vs.
import Data.Monoid
(Sum 2) <> (Sum 3)
"2" <> "3"
Which is inevitable for some libraries (Fay for example re-defines a lot of
Prelude functions) and sometimes accidental; but it is confusing and bad
design unless you define a way to generalize it (Monoids!).
5\. Data.Aeson uses ByteStrings for the JSON serialization, when
encoding/decoding you provide your own instance defining the Types (can be
Text/String/ByteString) so I don't understand your gripe here; Text.Regex
shouldn't be used for Data.Text, that's what this package is for:
[http://hackage.haskell.org/packages/archive/text-
icu/0.6.3.5...](http://hackage.haskell.org/packages/archive/text-
icu/0.6.3.5/doc/html/Data-Text-ICU-Regex.html)
~~~
bjourne
When you want to encode and decode JSON data of unknown format then you need
to use the encode and decode functions directly which operates on ByteStrings.
You really don't want to create a new record for each possible kind of JSON
data container you have.
text-icu is an experimental 3rd party binding and doesn't work like pcre
anyway. It's not something you would use over Haskell's standard library
regexp support, so you still have to deal with X number of different string
types.
~~~
Ixiaus
True re: encoding or decoding; but it does make sense to me to keep it in
ByteStrings as that is an efficient representation - from ByteStrings you can
do what you want with it (convert it to Text).
I personally haven't used the Text.ICU package but I know many, big, packages
that retain the "experimental" flag. So that shouldn't necessarily deter
usage; just because it's 3rd party doesn't mean it's bad either - many
fundamental components of the Haskell ecosystem are 3rd party! There are also
many libraries that implement bindings - I don't necessarily see why that is a
bad thing either; obviously a pure Haskell approach would be nice but in some
cases it does defeat the purpose to reinvent something.
What I do agree with you on, though, is the lack of clarity in _what_ should
be used. I think the Haskell Platform is a good start in that direction but
there are few docs written on "this is how you deal with strings and unicode
in Haskell and all the libraries we recommend for it".
The good news is, this language has the capability to serve both the research
needs of academics and the practical needs of implementers; so uncovering this
stuff is very good.
------
Silhouette
This discussion has also been linked from Reddit:
[http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/1gknfs/ask_hn_any_d...](http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/1gknfs/ask_hn_any_downsides_of_programming_in_haskell/)
------
ciderpunx
I found it a lot slower than more imperitive style languages. I've been
writing in c-like languages for something like 30 years, so I suppose that's
not unexpected. I found that the type system sometimes got in my way. And
combining monads (even with monad transformers) was also a faff. In the end I
suppose it depends what you're trying to make. I think Haskell is great for
DSL applications and less so for things like web dev. Though that being said
Yesod is a pretty nice framework.
~~~
belovedeagle
The thing is, if you feel like the type system is "getting in your way" you
have to step back and ask, "do I really understand what I'm achieving here?"
Of course, it's very easy to feel like you know what you want and you can't
figure out the types for it, but you have to realize, if the type check fails
then what you asked for just doesn't make sense, like adding an Int to an (IO
Int).
The whole point of the type system is that it substitutes compile-time errors
(that are admittedly esoteric) for obscure run-time bugs that might not even
ever show up except on that one person's machine and use-case.
But yeah, it's never fun to see a screenful of type errors.
------
carterschonwald
Honestly I think the biggest down side is that there's not enough commercial
endeavors using Haskell, and thus theres horrifyingly few people working full
time on many core pieces of the ecosystem. Yes, my biggest critique is that
all the great stuff in the Haskell ecosystem is the result of a small
collection of smart folks helping out in their spare time.
It makes me wondering what magic would happen when those folks can work on
helping the ecosystem full time!
I have to say that one of my favorite things currently about haskell is how
nice and easy the c ffi is to use. So darn simple! (I'm also GSOC mentoring
some work to provide a nice C++ ffi tool too).
Theres so many great tools in the Haskell ecosystem, for every problem domain.
Its not perfect, and theres always room for more improvement, but those
improvements are happening, and the more people invest in supporting the
community, the more those improvements happen!
For example, one thing i'll be exploring in the neat future is how to do good
Numa locality aware scheduling of parallel computation. It looks like i might
be able to safely hack support in via a user land scheduler (though i'll find
out once i get there).
My principal work right now is building numerical computing / data analysis
tools, and some of the things I'm doing now would be simply intractable in
another language.
------
mynameisme
Cabal and friends are awful compared to Bundler/Maven/etc.,even with the
various wrappers available. Also, the tooling isn't that great compared to
Scala or F#.
------
ppereira
Monad transformer hell.
~~~
raphinou
Can you share a bit more? I'm not familiar with Monad transformers.
~~~
LukeHoersten
Monad transformers are just monads wrapping other monads. I actually like it
and think it's a really clean way to organize your state, IO, etc. For
example, you could have a Reader wrapping a Writer wrapping a State wrapping
IO. The reader is your configs, the writer is for error logging, the state is
for some application map, and the IO is for doing networking or something.
That's an extreme case but it's nice to lay it out in that way.
~~~
mynameisme
lurker14, you're shadow banned. He/she said:
That's a special case, because RWS already exists (Reader, Writer, and State
all commute), and wraps IO easily.
Light overview of the issue: [http://ro-
che.info/articles/2012-01-02-composing-monads.html](http://ro-
che.info/articles/2012-01-02-composing-monads.html)
It's the other cases that get head-desk-banging. This paper is great, but
shows what a high mental tax you pay to get highly-principled programs:
[http://www.grabmueller.de/martin/www/pub/Transformers.en.htm...](http://www.grabmueller.de/martin/www/pub/Transformers.en.htm..).
At the end of the day, most people on most projects seem to prefer sacrificing
some formal specification (and some actual correctness) for getting code
running for the common case.
Related reddit conversation:
[http://reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/rd2t5/i_love_rwst_r_w_s...](http://reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/rd2t5/i_love_rwst_r_w_s..).
------
papsosouid
Records are annoying, but can be worked around. The compiler is incredibly
slow and uses tons of RAM (I need 2GB to compile my simple little web app for
example). The slow compile times can start to really kill productivity on
large projects. The web frameworks are all pretty focused on trying to
reproduce industry worst practices rather than doing things right, so if you
are doing web development and you don't want your app to be a mess, you are
kinda on your own. That's pretty much it.
edit: to clarify on the web thing, when I say "on your own" I mean you won't
be able to get much from existing tutorials and examples since you will want
to do everything differently. Not that you will have to write your own
framework.
~~~
mightybyte
I'm interested in hearing your thoughts on web development. Would love to chat
on IRC...or maybe drop me an email if you're inclined.
~~~
dllthomas
I'd be interested in hearing, too, so please make it public if you're
comfortable with that (and link it here, if the conversation isn't held here).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Tesla and Solar City Combine - chasingtheflow
https://www.tesla.com/blog/tesla-and-solarcity-combine
======
icc97
Brand wise I can certainly see how this is beneficial to Solar City. Tesla as
a brand has taken off hugely, so I can see it being easier to sell 'Tesla
Solar' which is an easy benefit to Solar City as a company.
Certainly for any global expansion, I don't think many people outside the US
know about Solar City. Where I am in Belgium, Tesla cars are about as
prevelant on the roads as Range Rovers and everyone from my nephew to my
mother in law knows about it.
As they also say it's a way to get people to the Tesla Stores which should
benefit Tesla in a similar way to Apple stores.
~~~
bdcravens
Tesla's end game isn't automobiles.
~~~
Teever
It is my personal hunch that Musk is attempting to do something very
unorthodox.
He is attempting to create a Von Neumann probe. But it's no easy endeavor. So
he has to monetize and publicize the whole affair.
But if you tell people that you're making a Von Neumann probe people will
either have no idea what you're talking about or think you're crazy.
So he's sell the public on the idea of rockets. hes selling them on the idea
of electric cars. He's even somehow made batteries that mount on the wall of
their garages exciting. And the even crazier thing is that he's selling them
himself and somehow making that interesting.
But what he's really building with all of this is a Von Neumann probe. The
interesting thing with SpaceX, Tesla and Solarcity aren't the products -- it's
the factories that make them.
How long until he can use these factories to make more factories and they can
fit into a rocket I wonder?
~~~
yolesaber
Musk right now is playing Civ 5 and once he gets the Space victory he's gonna
move right on to Alpha Centauri
~~~
toomuchtodo
Not only is he playing Civ 5, people are willingly handing him billions of
dollars to do so.
~~~
SmellyGeekBoy
People are handing him billions of dollars for high end electric cars and to
launch their payloads into space. Any game he subsequently decides to play
with the money isn't really relevant to the man on the street.
------
bronz
to all the people who are saying that this is shady or that this resembles
fraud: what the hell are you thinking? here is a man who twice bet his
personal fortune on these companies with no other apparent motive besides
making the world a better place. in the case of tesla, elon musk could have
lost not only his fortune but _everything_.
if elon musk wanted to make more money he could have done it in other ways
with much less risk. founding spacex and tesla only make sense if there was
some genuine desire to make the world a better place. a man who put everything
on the line for these visions and nearly lost everything would, upon
surpassing everyones expecations or even their wildest dreams, suddenly become
a shady fraudster and initiate a shady scheme to make a little money? that
makes no sense.
i get so mad at people who are constantly detracting from tesla or evs in
general. it is so ironic that the one company that isnt trying to fuck people
over, perhaps the only large company that has nothing but the betterment of
the world on the agenda, is constantly berated and dismissed by everyone.
~~~
dilemma
>founding spacex and tesla only make sense if there was some genuine desire to
make the world a better place.
You're forgetting ego. Really, your last paragraph shows you're a true
believer and it's not helping the discussion.
~~~
boznz
I think most of HN are true believers.
Seriously in a world run by bean counters and MBA's where the only excitement
is Donald Trumps next dick move or how thin the next iPhone is going to be how
can you not like what this guys trying to achieve.
~~~
sangnoir
> Seriously in a world run by bean counters and MBA's where the only
> excitement is Donald Trumps next dick move or how thin the next iPhone is
> going to be how can you not like what this guys trying to achieve.
I have noticed some interesting parallels between some Donald Trump supporters
on a certain subreddit[0] and some HNer regarding Musk (example comments up
top): they both assume their hero/idol is working on an inscrutable genius
masterplan which us mere mortals will retroactively understand one glorious
day in the future. According to the true believers, Trump is allegedly playing
4D political chess and Musk intends to upgrade humanity to a Type II
civilization... Both groups could very well be correct, but I'm cynical given
the supporting evidence I currently have access to.
1\. /r/the_donald - I am a non-American lefty trying to understand wtf is
going on. I also like having my assumptions challenged
------
chollida1
link to the investor presentation if you want to read it:
[http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/ABEA-4CW8X0/254764622...](http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/ABEA-4CW8X0/2547646221x0x902286/19938ABD-D64F-4DEA-A3DB-9116D79CCA5E/Investor_Presentation_Final.pdf)
After the deal closes, expected to be Q4 2016, the ownership split will be:
93.5% Tesla / 6.5% SolarCity
Interestingly, this is an all shares deal. With most people assuming Telsa
will need to raise another large round soon to fund full scale production of
the Model 3 it will be interesting to see what sort of terms, if any, Tesla
will need to give investors to raise.
Current shareholders don't seem too put off the by constant dilution of this
acquisition or the constant equities raises. Tesla's short interest is high as
always, so they continue to be one of the most polarizing companies around:)
Fun note in the presentation, Solar City has a shop window in the deal where
they can take this deal and shop it to other companies to try and get a better
deal. Anyone want to take a bet as to whether or not they actually try and
shop this deal at all?
~~~
jaynos
As a Solar City shareholder, I think I'm getting screwed. Solar City, at
$26.70/share last Friday has a lot more upside than TSLA at ~$235. Hell, I
lost almost 5% over the weekend due to where they priced this deal.
~~~
tomp
Why would the price of the share be relevant (as opposed to e.g. the market
capitalization of the company)?
~~~
sp332
jaynos is saying that TSLA is unlikely to go much above $235, but Solar City
had a lot of potential to move above $26.70. By converting them now, they've
basically thrown away all the potential future movement.
~~~
mikeyouse
The point is, that share prices are absolutely meaningless without the number
of shares which just gives you market capitalization. Tesla could just do a
8:1 split and their per-share price would be $30/share -- Would that change
their upside? Of course not.
~~~
pavlov
Presumably jaynos meant those prices are relevant in relation to historical
prices: Tesla is near all-time highs, while SolarCity's share price has been
around $75 at one point.
I do agree with another poster that SolarCity was more likely to be heading
towards $0, rather than back to $75.
------
swalsh
Electric cars are filled with potential to have a decently large positive
ecological impact, but as long as they're running on electricity generated by
coal, they're just shifting the source of emissions.
However, even if we did move ALL cars off gas, the emissions problem is still
very large, and solving it could reduce emissions by 65% [1]. This seems to be
a 2 pronged approach, reduce car emissions, and reduce generic energy
emissions. This alone won't solve the crisis, but it's a significant
contribution.
[https://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/global.html](https://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/global.html)
~~~
mjevans
Even assuming coal, at least it is easier to install proper scrubbing in large
fixed installations like generation plants.
I'm not sure about the tradeoff in efficiency between electricity transmission
and generation in larger capacity: I'm just going to assume the cost and
benefit in this set cancel out since we have more larger installations than
local power generation.
~~~
ianai
Yep, bigger facilities usually have bigger economies of scale.
------
impostervt
This is the first move by Musk that I feel is a bit shady. It seems like it's
in his best interest, from what I've read, but maybe not in every one
else's...
Though the hyperloop is a bit shady too. I guess he's not really involved in
it anymore though.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDwe2M-LDZQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDwe2M-LDZQ)
~~~
karmicthreat
Thunderf00t has some good videos. But these are not his best work. The
hyperloop issues are more engineering issues than solar roadway's physics
issues.
This series kind of feels like thunderf00t pandering for views with
controversy.
~~~
AYBABTME
I've read praise of Thunderf00t on HN this weekend and today. Skimming his
content, he comes across like a rather unpleasant person who produces
polemical material. Am I missing something, why do people refer to him and his
content in a positive manner?
~~~
karmicthreat
He has good series and bad ones. If its about science, like his series on the
coulomb explosion of sodium in water. Then it can be pretty good. Or military
history, UK politics.
If its about social issues. Usually not very good, or insightful with a few
exceptions.
Like most people making their primary income off youtube, he needs to grind
out content a couple times a week. Not all of it is gold.
------
drwdal
I don't particularly see this as a bad thing, since they'll be able to add
more Supercharger stations for the future.
~~~
mdorazio
I don't think you appreciate how much power is required for a supercharger
station. Put it this way - if you had a SolarCity panel array the size of a
Model S, it would produce enough power in a good day to add about 35 miles of
range to a single car. Multiply that by the amount most people are actually
charging when they pull in, and the number of cars utilizing a charger. It's
just not even close to practical unless you cover the entire roof of a nearby
building, and then you would need a huge battery somewhere to store the
collected power for charging at night. Supercharger stations connect to the
grid for a good reason.
------
overcast
Wasn't this basically expected/intended/inevitable? Considering Musk was one
of the founders, along with his cousins that currently run it.
~~~
adwn
> _Considering Musk was one of the founders, along with his cousins that
> currently run it._
Are you implying nepotism? Would you have said that it was "basically
expected" if neither Musk nor his cousins would have been involved in
SolarCity?
~~~
jonknee
This deal certainly would not have happened if Musk wasn't a giant shareholder
and the Chairman of SolarCity. It makes very little sense on paper (SCTY loses
a ton of money and TSLA needs every dollar it has plus a lot more to invest
for the Model 3).
~~~
kbenson
> It makes very little sense on paper
I'm never sure how I'm supposed to interpret "on paper". Purely on current
financials? That seems a poor way to plan IMO. There seem to be quite a few
ways to market to each others customers and provide a more comprehensive
"package" with this deal. I imagine we'll see car + powerwall + solar packages
marketed directly soon.
~~~
overcast
You couldn't get those combo packages without a merger?
~~~
kbenson
Not with all the same possibilities. If it's the same company, they can sell
one product close to margin (or below), and make it up in other products that
are sold in the same package. Installing solar panels at zero profit isn't all
that useful for Solar City as a singular entity, but if it's part of a package
that includes an Automobile and Powerwall setup, there's a lot more places to
make that profit.
------
sebringj
Lock-in on old tech has been the main worry for me in terms of installing
panels on my home. An upgrade option would be a done deal for me, especially
since its Tesla.
------
yladiz
I wonder if this will be approved by the shareholders, considering that Solar
City is losing $300 million in value and it is an all shares merger. I'm
hesitant to say it'll go through since I don't think investors like the news,
as both stocks are down today and both took a huge hit around when this was
announced (Telsa was -2%, but bounced back to -0.5% and Solar City is
currently -6%, and falling).
~~~
zwily
SCTY was trading around $22 when the merger was first announced back in June.
------
ww520
I just want to know what the cost is now for a combined solar panel
installation and battery storage for couple days of home use. I assume the
Tesla/Solar City deal make more sense with the combine of solar installation
plus the Gigafactory, rather than with Tesla the car.
~~~
wubwubwomp
And I want to know how much users are willing to pay for it. Or if it'll be a
energy escrow kind of deal.
------
jharohit
I wonder if they combine these two with SpaceX - Elon Musk might well become
the first trillionaire.
~~~
visakanv
I've always imagined that the first trillionaire will be the person
responsible for asteroid mining – and SpaceX does seem to have a good shot at
doing that.
~~~
boznz
Once SpaceX have a big enough rocket the whole solar system will be Elon's
bitch... Bring on the real space age!
------
jeffmanu
What I like about this is that it's an integration of Elon's ethos. If you
owned Starbucks and the biggest coffee plantation wouldn't you find a way to
merge them?
------
ilaksh
Maybe you could just use your car as the battery charged by your solar panels,
instead of buying a Powerwall? And then run your house off of it. At least on
the weekends. Or maybe more often if you don't have to drive every day.
Because the Tesla battery is 60 kW, so its basically like 10 Powerwalls that
you can drive around. Instead of storing it on the wall in your garage, it is
lying horizontal in the car.
Sort of amazing that people are not making this connection.
~~~
mulcahey
Elon and JB said in the 2016 Shareholders meeting that they considered this
but are not planning to pursue it.
The PowerWall is designed to be cycled daily while the car is expected to be
cycled weekly.
There is also a danger of electrocution and regulatory hurdles.
[https://youtu.be/vhqe4gMN6Lk?t=2h46m32s](https://youtu.be/vhqe4gMN6Lk?t=2h46m32s)
------
manmal
Can anyone explain to me why SolarCity's stock is going down right now? (-5,2%
in the last 24h).
~~~
tcoppi
The offer values solarcity at $25.37, so that's effectively a new ceiling on
the price, unless new info surfaces.
Edit: Since this is an all-stock deal, the valuation and hence price is going
to float based on TSLA's price, at a ratio of .11 * TSLA = SCTY price.
------
perseusprime11
They had to...remember the recently unveiled master plan?
------
CptJamesCook
Does Solar City have plans to go beyond the leasing model?
~~~
Nelson69
I believe they will sell you a system outright and they had a long term
financing option called "MyPower" but I think that's been stopped. They sold
bonds to cover those loans.
The lease is probably the most popular. Until there is some sort of expandable
DIY option that you can gradually grow out, I think the only really popular
way to sell these systems will be either baked in to the mortgage or with
leases and creative financing. The lease and financing does seem to frighten a
lot of people though, SolarCity modeled loan payments off energy use and in
the contract there is even a clause that says if there is a prolonged non-
sunny period, you might owe a large chunk on the loan when it comes due...
------
afsina
They lost me on ".. achieve cost synergies .."
~~~
dvcc
Short for saying combine HR, accounting, etc. but it's still always annoying
to read.
~~~
Diederich
Right, that's my take as well.
------
mhurron
... to form Voltron.
Look, I could not help but make that stupid joke when it fits so well.
------
nstj
Elon taking delivery of a McLaren F1 in 1999 [0]. Quite prescient really.
[0]:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSHUha9ABNY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSHUha9ABNY)
~~~
visakanv
What's prescient?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Book of dark arts: selective disclosure with CSS - ggeorgovassilis
https://blog.georgovassilis.com/2018/12/06/book-of-dark-arts-selective-disclosure-with-css/
======
ggeorgovassilis
Author here: I started a series of posts about rehabilitating unusual
techniques for web development. This chapter is about showing and hiding page
elements by using CSS switches rather than JS code. Let me know what you
think!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Go, robots and refactoring - mattetti
http://matt.aimonetti.net/posts/2014/04/28/refactoring-go-code/
======
enneff
I would suggest naming the method "Device" instead of "GetDevice". The word
"Get" is almost always redundant.
~~~
mattetti
I totally agree, I found myself refactoring my own code and renaming "Get<>()"
functions. I wish I had heard someone say that earlier :)
m.FindRobot("bot name").GetDevice("laser") would read better as m.Robot("bot
name").Device("laser")
~~~
zura
Agree, but due to my mild OCD, I still keep using Get to pair with Set :)
~~~
davvid
Another reason I've heard for avoiding getFoo() is that on certain typefaces
the lower-case "g" and "s" look similar enough that folks with bad vision can
confuse them[1]. Thus foo() and setFoo() are clearer than getFoo() and
setFoo().
[1] Given enough time in front of a monitor, we all get bad vision eventually
;-)
~~~
plorkyeran
That's easily solved by just not using typefaces that you can't read in your
editor.
------
wyager
>Go aka golang is an amazing language
By what standard? I've been very underwhelmed.
The type system is very mediocre. Support for generic programming is awful.
What kind of language idiomatically involves casting to the top type? That
would be like if Java idiomatically involved casting to Object, or C++
idiomatically involved casting to void*, just to get any sort of genericism.
Look at almost any big Go project; the abundance of {}interface typed
variables is alarming
And then how about language extensibility? Go relies heavily on built-in
keywords, like range and make(). You want to range over a tree or a linked
list? Too bad. You can only use built-in types. Or maybe you can wrap your
data structure in a chan and range over that. Goodbye performance and
simplicity.
Go is not a bad language. I use it on a number of web projects, and it works
very well. But Go is not, by any metric I can think of, an "amazing" language.
At best, it is a decent language with lots of corporate support, a good
standard library, and some good tools like golint, go get, and go fmt.
~~~
PopsiclePete
I don't know what your definition of "amazing" language is, then, but a decent
language with corporate support, a good standard library and good
tools....is...well...pretty darn "amazing" in my book.
It maybe doesn't tickle me on an intellectual level, the way Haskell or
Clojure do, sure, but for getting real work done, I'd choose it any day over
those two.
Other "exciting" languages that play in the same field as Go are perhaps Rust
and D, but neither of those have the same corporate/community support, tools,
eco-system, etc.
~~~
wyager
>but a decent language with corporate support, a good standard library and
good tools....is...well...pretty darn "amazing" in my book.
This also describes Java in 1997. I wouldn't call that an amazing language
either.
>Other "exciting" languages that play in the same field as Go are perhaps Rust
and D, but neither of those have the same corporate/community support, tools,
eco-system, etc.
I don't know enough about D to speak about it, but at least Rust has a good
type system (based on hindley-milner), support for generic programming,
pattern matching, extensibility, etc. I'd personally call Rust "well-
designed".
~~~
renox
>This also describes Java in 1997. I wouldn't call that an amazing language
either.
You're joking right? I've used Java around 1998 and its standard library
wasn't good, "java can't print" was quite true back then..
------
codegangsta
Nice post Matt! I would love to see more of these eyewitness accounts of
refactoring in the go community. Maybe a refactoring video should be in the
works ;)
~~~
mattetti
Thanks Jeremy, let's book a few hours and do that together.
------
2mur
This is really helpful. I'm getting started with Go now and common idioms and
refactoring are useful when moving past the tour and introduction stage.
------
joefitzgerald
This is a really helpful article - nice work Matt.
~~~
mattetti
Thanks joe, I realized that the best way to learn is to refactor with one or
more people. Hopefully, this summary of a quick refactoring will help others
too.
------
djb_hackernews
Go looks interesting. Anyone else not a fan of the single character variable
names?
Also, Is there a better way, in terms of clarity, to do this:
<\- c
Even with the comment I would think the developer forgot to fill in the first
half of that and assume it was a bug.
~~~
mattetti
In the first version of the post I had
_ = <\- c
To show that we don't use the value read from the channel, but someone in my
team pointed that, that this isn't very idiomatic and mainly a way to explain
what the code does to someone who doesn't know Go.
------
solojavier
Thanks for sharing this Matt.. really good insight.
------
wolfeidau
Great post really enjoyed it.
Also a big fan of golang, loving the posts by people using it in anger.
Thanks
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
T1 is a language for constrained environments, embedded systems with little RAM - begoon
https://t1lang.github.io/
======
fromtheslides
From the slides:
T0 is a Forth-like language used to implement the handshake parser and the
X.509 validation engine.
• Compiled to threaded code
• Uses two custom stacks (data & system stack) of
limited size (128 bytes each)
• Runs in a flat, small interpreter loop that can be
stopped and restarted at will
• Instructions are a single byte each (token threading)
• Compiler is written in C# and performs some
static analysis (maximum stack usage)
T1: Evolution of T0 with extra features:
• Memory-safe
• Optional dynamic memory allocation (controlled) with GC
• Rich type system (including generics)
• OOP support
• Namespaces and modules
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Pay the obese to lose weight, says study - ksvs
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16233-pay-the-obese-to-lose-weight-says-study.html
======
makecheck
So you can tell an obese person "hey, you'll probably die from this" and they
do nothing, but offer them a few bucks and suddenly they shed pounds?
Apparently so. And I guess it's not much different than the people who can't
do retirement planning. For some reason, many people are intensely focused on
the short-term, and can't look ahead - even to save their own lives.
------
flashgordon
arent higher insurance cost (eg due to higher chances of heart diseases)
better incentives?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A Microcluster-Based Anomaly Detector in Edge Streams - siddharthbhatia
https://github.com/bhatiasiddharth/MIDAS
======
siddharthbhatia
Given a stream of graph edges from a dynamic graph, how can we assign anomaly
scores to edges in an online manner, for the purpose of detecting unusual
behavior, using constant time and memory? Existing approaches aim to detect
individually surprising edges. We present MIDAS, which focuses on detecting
microcluster anomalies, or suddenly arriving groups of suspiciously similar
edges, such as lockstep behavior, including denial of service attacks in
network traffic data.
MIDAS has the following properties:
(a) it detects microcluster anomalies while providing theoretical guarantees
about its false positive probability;
(b) it is online, thus processing each edge in constant time and constant
memory, and also processes the data 108 − 505 times faster than state-of-the-
art approaches;
(c) it provides 46%-52% higher accuracy (in terms of AUC) than state-of-the-
art approaches.
Paper:
[https://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~sbhatia/assets/pdf/midas.pdf](https://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~sbhatia/assets/pdf/midas.pdf)
Feedback is welcome!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
New York's Uptown Rats Are Genetically Distinct from Downtown Rats - tooba
https://www.citylab.com/environment/2017/11/new-york-city-has-genetically-distinct-uptown-and-downtown-rats/547088/
======
astrodust
> Rats, although abundant, are not easily fooled into traps. They’re wary of
> new objects. To entice them, the bait was a potent combination of peanut
> butter, bacon, and oats.
They pulled out the big guns. Bacon!
~~~
dsfyu404ed
Unless they plant to study them alive or release them when done (ha!) they
could have just shot them. It would have been a far better use of everyone's
time (and the money of whoever paid for the research) and allowed a more
accurate sample of the rat populations as opposed to a sample of the rats that
like bacon and don't hate new objects quite so much (the difference in samples
is probably negligible but it's still something that must be accounted for).
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat-shot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat-
shot)
~~~
astrodust
I don't think the police would appreciate it if you started firing off guns in
the middle of the city. It would be a far better use of everyone's time and
money to just set traps. Are you thinking people would pitch tents and wait
for rats to show up so they could shoot them? That seems harder than setting
traps and checking in a day later.
~~~
dsfyu404ed
>I don't think the police would appreciate it if you started firing off guns
in the middle of the city.
We're talking on the order of a hammer on steel here.
I was under the impression. trapping was happening indoors. Go somewhere you
know there will be rats, pop a few, toss them in a bucket, wash rinse repeat.
Depending on who the research is being done under it would only take a call to
whatever department (probably something having to do with trash) you want the
undergrads to tag along with for a shift to collect rats.
>That seems harder than setting traps and checking in a day later.
Going to where you know rats will be once to shoot them is easier than going
twice to set and retrieve traps.
~~~
astrodust
Rats aren't just sitting around waiting to be shot. They're very cautious and
often hard to spot.
Where you can see them scurrying about there's often lots of people and other
distractions, equipment or other obstacles that would make shooting them
impractical.
I don't think the NYC subway crew would take too kindly to people shooting up
their equipment to get rats.
------
alexozer
A few weeks ago there was a post about Crowded Cities, a startup trying to
train crows to pick up and throw away cigarette butts in the city for a food
reward. I'm sure it'd be harder, but could crows also be incentivized to
somehow pick up rats?
[http://www.crowdedcities.com/](http://www.crowdedcities.com/)
~~~
exolymph
It would be amazing if they could get the crows to collaborate, e.g. two crows
carrying away a rat. Probably impractical but I love the idea.
~~~
yeldarb
They'd have to have it on a line.
------
meggar
Isn’t there a Billy Joel song about this?
~~~
joshuaheard
That song popped into my head when I read the headline!
~~~
Danihan
_Uptown mammal..._
~~~
CodeCube
If only this article were about squirrels :P
------
nasredin
No mention of the infamous Pizza Rat, the unofficial mascot of NYC?
Or the Avocado Rat - Pizza Rat's hip cousin living in Williamsburg?
~~~
starshadowx2
Pizza Rat is mentioned in the first paragraph, with a link to a Buzzfeed
article on it.
"New York City is a place where rats climb out of toilets, bite babies in
their cribs, crawl on sleeping commuters, take over a Taco Bell restaurant,
and ___drag an entire slice of pizza down the subway stairs._ __"
------
pavel_lishin
I wonder if this is true for other city species. Are there distinct raccoon
populations? What about birds and cockroaches?
~~~
greeneggs
Before considering rats, this research group started by looking at white-
footed mice. [1]
> The mice have become so genetically distinct from one another that if you
> show Munshi-South a DNA sequence randomly selected from a white-footed mouse
> in NYC, he can tell you where it lives. At the same time, city mice as a
> whole also seem to be evolving new traits that mice from rural areas outside
> the city lack…
[1] [http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/01/uptown-mice-
are...](http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/01/uptown-mice-are-
different-from-downtown-mice.html)
This is an older article, from when their first studies were coming out.
[2]
[http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/26/science/26evolve.html](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/26/science/26evolve.html)
Both articles also discuss other species, but it seems like the focus is
usually on genetic differences between urban and rural populations, or
polluted versus not polluted, and not on intra-urban genetic variations.
~~~
pavel_lishin
Your quote stopped right where I started to get interested, so for the benefit
of others:
> _At the same time, city mice as a whole also seem to be evolving new traits
> that mice from rural areas outside the city lack: genetic mutations that may
> help them neutralize toxic metals in polluted soil, for example, or speed up
> their sperm in response to the intense sexual competition in their
> overcrowded metropolitan homes._
I wonder why they seem to be a little hedgy around the toxic-metal-mutation
bit. I'm guessing they suspect that that's what the mutation does, but don't
particularly want to feed the poor mice toxic-metal laden soil just to
confirm.
~~~
astrodust
Some populations of city mice are ridiculously hardy. They can eat warfarin-
laced poison food like it's candy.
It's like the roaches in some Washington D.C. buildings that are immune to
virtually every chemical used for pest control. It's so bad that chemical
companies test new compounds on those populations first. That's what decades
of selective breeding has brought about.
~~~
serf
> They can eat warfarin-laced poison food like it's candy.
question : where does such food come from, and why?
~~~
astrodust
It's a common rat/mouse poison. Cheap to manufacture.
------
gadders
I guess a similar thing will happen with the various Orca ecotypes, given that
they don't inter-breed: [http://uk.whales.org/wdc-in-action/meet-different-
types-of-o...](http://uk.whales.org/wdc-in-action/meet-different-types-of-
orca)
------
pc2g4d
Maybe they should compare the city mouse and the country mouse next.
~~~
ep103
That's actually linked in some of these comments. Yup, there are some
differences there too : )
------
fblp
Can mods update this to link to the original article?
[https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/11/rats-
of-...](https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/11/rats-of-new-
york/546959/)
I doubt The Atlantic would have given citylab permission to republish it like
this.
~~~
vwcx
The Atlantic and citylab are the same company. Of course they are cross-
posting.
------
lalp1
Not rats but humans, very interesting : [https://www.amazon.com/Troublesome-
Inheritance-Genes-Human-H...](https://www.amazon.com/Troublesome-Inheritance-
Genes-Human-
History/dp/0143127160/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1512152139&sr=8-1&keywords=troublesome+inheritance)
------
pvaldes
Is a matter of time that we'll start seeing rat hair as proof in the trials.
------
sigmaprimus
This article made me laugh, I can't help but wonder if this is some kind of
fake news story to promote a class based agenda. I guess it could be true but
it seems very odd that these rats traveled all the way from Europe, made their
way into the city from the docks, yet somehow decided to stay put for half a
millennia once choosing a Manhattan burrough.
~~~
gumby
The article doesn't say anything like that at all. The rat "neighborhoods" do
overlap, but not densely (think of the islands of wooded areas in a ski
resort). In such a case it's not unreasonable to see speciation. (which is not
described in this article, thus implying continued interbreeding.)
You don't need a lot of territory for this to happen. The lice that specialize
in humans have split into two distinct species: one for head hair and one for
pubic hair. (and allegedly the latter is under threat).
~~~
stan_rogers
Human lice haven't split into two distinct species; the "human" lice - the
ones that have been with us for as long as we've been around - are now head
lice, and we picked up pubic lice from gorillas after we "lost" most of our
body hair. (It's still there, of course, but not in a way that's useful to
lice.)
~~~
saalweachter
> we picked up pubic lice from gorillas after we "lost" most of our body hair
Can we, uhh, not mention this to any alien species we may encounter in the
future?
~~~
bdamm
We should present it early in hopes that they never go out of quarantine.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Trump “would never get in a self-driving car” - Tomte
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2019/03/report-trump-would-never-get-in-a-self-driving-car/
======
LinuxBender
I agree with Mr. Trump _in this specific case._
I work with developers that have the greatest of intentions, but they are
human and bugs happen. Bugs provide a means for malicious people to do bad
things that "should not be possible". Bugs can also be intentional given the
right price and with software, they can target specific people or categories
of people.
I appreciate the theory that computers will make less mistakes than humans
overall. I also appreciate the reality that things will happen that should be
impossible and the safety numbers could get destroyed in 30 seconds by an
angst filled kid that found a script on github to take over cars. Shortly
after the Sony hack, I was discussing this with a member of the Obama
administration and the conclusion we came to was that self driving cars
probably need regulation that is somewhere between current regulation and
medical devices.
I am not in any way saying anyone here should not use self driving cars. I am
just going to distance myself from them until things get a bit battle
hardened.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Milton Glaser, designer of ‘I ♥ NY’ logo, has died - wallflower
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/26/obituaries/milton-glaser-dead.html
======
simtel20
About 7 years ago, the brooklyn brewsers, a beer brewing club, got the tour of
the brooklyn brewery. On that tour, the brewmaster, Garrett Oliver, told the
story of how Glaser designed the logo for the brewery. He said he drew the
bold B [1] and the founders were not that impressed. The story went that
Milton said with some confidence, essentially "sleep on it, let it grow on
you" and so it did. And more HN related, I recall that he took a small share
of the company as payment so he really had some confidence in the logo which
has become among the most iconic logos in the beer industry.
It was a wonderful story, and something I will always remember about the man.
[1]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20111004163949/http://miltonglas...](https://web.archive.org/web/20111004163949/http://miltonglaser.com/pages/casestudy/brooklyn/bb_index.html)
~~~
intpx
The Brooklyn Brewery logo looks like genuine new old stock graphic design. It
looks like it was done in the 50s and sat on a shelf, rather than emulating
the style of the old regional breweries. It’s a true work of art. Glaser was a
master of the fundamentals of graphic design. He understood weight and form in
ways that have largely been forgotten and I fear that we have now lost the
last of the breed.
------
the_other
Whilst contracting with a London digital agency in the mid '00s, I overheard a
design conversation which stuck with me (in a bad way). One designer commented
something like "Good design stays in place; bad design goes everywhere",
citing Glaser's logo as an example of "bad design". I felt they were wrong, at
the time, and the experience has actually helped me understand design and art
better since (I'm a programmer, not a designer). It's very rare to create
something so meaningful and recognisable, replicable, with "seams" you can
easily unstitch to recycle the image whilst keeping a visual and semantic link
to its source. Amazing.
EDIT: gave up trying to use the right heart character. EDIT: better grammar.
------
smurda
He spoke at my university and said something that stuck with me, “never ask a
question to show that you know something, but always ask in earnest and be
vulnerable to the fact that you don’t know something.”
~~~
xtiansimon
A little aside--I have a colleague who will ask a question, and then they ask
another one, at which point you realize they already have an answer. HA! Just
tell me the idea. Don't manipulate like a child. Magic spell to make their
conclusions inevitable, because you answered two leading questions.
Bravo Milton.
------
telekid
Sad to hear of his passing - Glaser was prolific. I used to work fairly
regularly with a company (Masque Sound) that provided audio equipment for
Broadway shows. Milton arranged a beautiful illustration for their 75th
anniversary. I still have a shirt with that drawing on it - it's a cherished
possession.
------
creaghpatr
Pretty sure he did the Mad Men season 7 graphic, which was fucking awesome.
Edit: [https://images.amcnetworks.com/blogs.amctv.com/wp-
content/up...](https://images.amcnetworks.com/blogs.amctv.com/wp-
content/uploads/2014/03/mm7-key-art-796.jpg)
~~~
rst
That was him -- there was an interview at the time about, in part, being part
of the period for which the show was a period piece...
[https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/07/arts/design/mad-men-
enlis...](https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/07/arts/design/mad-men-enlists-the-
graphics-guru-milton-glaser.html?searchResultPosition=3)
------
zerealshadowban
I always "read" it in my mind as I <heart> NY, not I <love> NY.
~~~
dang
Part of its charm is that ambiguity. I think we can break the rules and put a
♥ up there for Milton.
~~~
runnr_az
The heart really jumps off the page, doesn’t it?
~~~
wodenokoto
Unicode also have hearts that aren’t colored pictures (which gets filtered out
if you try to write them on HN apparently) But then again, some people get a
black line. I guess we can let others get a colored emoji.
~~~
robin_reala
It’s actually down to what Unicode you use. We ran into this on Standard
Ebooks tooling for return-to-text arrows in the endnotes, and the solution is
to add a U+FE0E character after the emoji to indicate a textual rendering is
preferred. More info at [https://mts.io/2015/04/21/unicode-symbol-render-text-
emoji/](https://mts.io/2015/04/21/unicode-symbol-render-text-emoji/)
~~~
wodenokoto
I had no idea about that being a thing.
I was thinking of the symbols that predates emoji, like the white heart suit
from the early 90s
[https://emojipedia.org/white-heart-suit/](https://emojipedia.org/white-heart-
suit/)
------
whoisjuan
Milton Glaser is probably the most well known graphic designer in history
because of his I (Heart) NY work, but he has so many outstanding pieces of
graphic design work.
It always amazes me how incredibly timeless are his logos. You could launch
any brand with that logo tomorrow and it wouldn’t look out of place.
He also did some great satirical pieces.
~~~
Lol_80005
[https://www.miltonglaser.com/the-work/](https://www.miltonglaser.com/the-
work/) I like the gallery posted on his website. His work was _really_ high
profile.
~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
Ha.
Whenever I think of New York I see the New York Magazine logo in my minds eye.
~~~
app4soft
As for me New York mostly associated with "NY" ( _New York Yankees_ ) cap
logo.
------
xtian
I highly recommend the documentary “To Inform and Delight” which tells the
story of Glaser’s life and work. A really marvelous individual.
------
weinzierl
Glancing the frontpage and seeing a bright red heart in the corner of my eye
my first thought was: How did click-bait like this make the frontpage.
After reading the full title I have to say, this is the most appropriate use
of a non-baseplane unicode character - or whatever characters like this are
called - I can imagine.
------
Someone
_“Mr. Glaser designed a modified version — “I NY More Than Ever,” with a dark
bruise on the heart”_
[https://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/12/nyregion/12loveny.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/12/nyregion/12loveny.html):
_”In fact, the only thing Mr. Glaser regrets is that, after the terrorist
attack of Sept. 11, 2001, he designed a “I NY More Than Ever” logo as a
patriotic symbol.
The Pataki administration threatened to (but did not) sue him for trademark
infringement. “The stupidity!” Mr. Glaser sputtered. “It saddened me.””_
------
hypertexthero
> Why do I teach.
> Fundamentally I teach because it makes me feel good.
> Its helped me certainly clarify my own objectives. There is nothing more
> exciting than seeing someone whose life has been affected by, in a positive
> way, by something you’ve said. There is nothing more exciting to see
> somebody change from a, a sort of condition of inertness or inattentiveness
> into a mind that beings to inquire about meaning. I think if you don’t do
> something to project into the future that way, the possibility for total
> self-absorption and narcissism becomes very much greater.
…
> My idea about graphic designers and social commentary is that that is part
> of the practice. I’ve always believed that because you have access to
> people’s minds and you communicate to people, that there is a corresponding
> responsibility, the responsibility of being a good citizen, and also
> recognizing that if you have the ability to transfer ideas from one point to
> another, that those should be ideas that cause no harm.
— Milton Glaser
[https://vimeo.com/19005726](https://vimeo.com/19005726)
[https://vimeo.com/6986303](https://vimeo.com/6986303)
[https://www.simongriffee.com/notebook/milton-
glaser/](https://www.simongriffee.com/notebook/milton-glaser/)
Goodbye, Milton :(
------
ddrt
The man was a legend. I’ll miss his wit and charm. I remember him most for his
bold Tommy Hilfiger billboard that made the company practically overnight.
~~~
ganstyles
Hey, I did a search for this and didn't see anything. Would you mind posting
this billboard?
~~~
infecto
I suspect its a mixup with George Lois [http://www.georgelois.com/tommy-
hilfiger.html](http://www.georgelois.com/tommy-hilfiger.html)
~~~
Daub
Saved me the search. Thanks. But George Lois also good
~~~
olivermarks
George Lois played a very major part in the creation of modern advertising
creativity evolution and vitality in the 60's, and is an art director rather
than a graphic designer.
Glaser came out of the same explosion of NY commercial creativity in the 60's
and has a certain style that has endured and is successfully timeless, which
is quite uncommon in the design world where styles go in and out of fashion.
------
supernova87a
I don't know whether Glaser's work could fall into the tail end of mid-century
modern, but I love both that and his prime years of work. This page is a great
example of the graphic design for The Incredibles which draws on the heyday of
Los Angeles and New York (in my mind):
[http://joshholtsclaw.com/blog/2018/3/5/the-graphic-art-of-
in...](http://joshholtsclaw.com/blog/2018/3/5/the-graphic-art-of-
incredibles-2)
If anyone else has similar pages they like and would share, I'd love to see
more!
------
kostadin
One of my favorite work of his was a poster[1] he did for a Darfur antiwar
campaign, I still remember seeing this on streets in NYC. Super powerful and
timeless image.
[1] [https://www.miltonglaser.com/the-work/418/school-of-
visual-a...](https://www.miltonglaser.com/the-work/418/school-of-visual-arts-
we-are-all-african/)
------
newscracker
I love “I love NY” (can’t seem to type the heart character and not have it
removed by HN). When I see a similar line with some other city’s name, I feel
like it’s just a copy where someone couldn’t add something on their own.
The number of souvenirs and clothing sold with this should probably be in
hundreds of millions, at the very least.
------
runnr_az
Oh man... that’s a shame. Iconic bit of design, up there with the smiley face,
just above the LOVE statues.
------
Daub
I went to art school in the 80s. My lecturer would rote teach:
Q: who is the best artist?
A: Picasso!
Q: Who is the best graphic designer?
A: Milton Glazier!
Many young art teachers have never heard of MG, yet worship designers who have
clearly been influenced by him.
~~~
ryanSrich
> Many young art teachers have never heard of MG
I find this almost impossible to believe. MG is like the VERY first graphic
designer you're introduced to in Art School. Any art school.
~~~
Daub
Well... maybe not here in Asia. The only time they will be introduced to
western historical figures is in their design history class, of which there
are likely to be no more that two. They would certainly never hear it at high
school.
Also, wherever they come from, young people nowadays tend to jump straight
into Pinterest, Deviant Art etc. These collections are not curated, and are,
to them, little more that images without context. They may have seen MG's work
in this manner, but would be unlikely to know his name.
This is very different to when I was at school. Browsing a library is a very
different experience to browsing the web.
------
xtiansimon
I'm amazed and delighted about the outpouring of praise for Glaser here at HN.
All fans of Graphic Design? Or New Yorkers?
------
RunawayGalaxy
I love the logo he did for Brooklyn Brewery.
------
x87678r
Best version I saw was
NY does NOT (heart) you
------
proc0
Quite the symbol, not just his work, but the timing of his death. NYC burning
and crashing down economically, a dying logo for a dying city.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Statistical Rethinking and Nix - HaoZeke
https://rgoswami.me/posts/rethinking-r-nix/
======
xitrium
> Unfortunately, the rethinking package which is a major component of the book
> itself depends on the V8 engine for some reason.
This is my fault, in a sense. In order to get the new Stan compiler (written
in OCaml) distributed via CRAN (which requires everything to be built from
source on its antiquated build servers), we decided to use js_of_ocaml to
translate the OCaml compiler into javascript. See this thread for more
details: [https://discourse.mc-stan.org/t/a-javascript-
stanc3/11044](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/t/a-javascript-stanc3/11044)
When I posted that, I didn't really think we would end up using it.
~~~
HaoZeke
Thanks for this. It's great to get some more perspective on changes ^_^
------
SkyMarshal
FYI, this is Part 2 of a series. Author mentions several times you need to
read Part 1 to understand his objectives and rationales in Part 2. Having
skimmed Part 2 before Part 1, I concur.
Part 1: [https://rgoswami.me/posts/nix-r-
devtools/](https://rgoswami.me/posts/nix-r-devtools/)
------
random3
This looks like a lot of work for something that could probably easily get
done with a simple docker container. It's probably a great exercise and
example for Nix, but otherwise, looks like a "nix hammer" thing. Statistical
Rethinking is a great book though :)
~~~
jkachmar
I always find this comparison a little... silly? I dunno, there’s probably a
better word, but I can’t think of one right now.
Nix focuses on reproducible build declarations and development environments,
while Docker focuses on self-contained, distributable sandboxes for code
execution.
You can certainly try to use Docker to manage development environments or
reproducibly build software, but that’s a secondary concern of the system.
You’re probably right that these sorts of posts tend to have a “Nix hammer in
search of a nail” feel, but the inevitable comparison to Docker always feels
cheap to me I guess.
~~~
emj
I think the problem is that it all feels so "one off", so Docker feels like
the better option. Taken as a whole I guess all those one-offs in Nix will
hopefully lead to something better in the end, there seems to be a lot of work
behind the scenes here.
For us Docker is how we manage reproducibility, and it's pretty damn fine in
so many ways, most certainly a lot better than Nix for the most part.
~~~
HaoZeke
A lot better than Nix? With all the security vulnerabilities and lack of
efficient storage? Though honestly this setup for a one-off system is a bit
much. For the most part I use the system level nix-R configuration instead
(explained in the previous post).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Lovelace – The Origin (2009) - bootload
http://sydneypadua.com/2dgoggles/lovelace-the-origin-2/
======
jordigh
The printed book is truly delightful. It contains a mostly complete
explanation of how the difference engine worked and how the analytical engine
was supposed to work. It's also full of scholarly footnotes to primary sources
of everything she put into it. And it's fun! Steampunk fantasy of what could
have been. I hope it gets adapted to a movie or TV series some day.
~~~
toyg
I have the book too and it's great, but it's not complete - I'm pretty sure it
lacks the bits with Babbage fighting street musicians.
~~~
gknoy
That sounds vaguely familiar, so I think that it does have it. If not, it has
to be at least mentioned in the footnotes. In fact, I think it might be one of
the first pages of the alternate-universe section?
The footnotes in Ms. Padua's book are _AMAZING_. More entertaining than the
book itself at times. I have never enjoyed reading footnotes so much. That
sounds like faint praise, but I mean it as real praise. ;) She has multi-page
footnotes, breaks the fourth wall in HILARIOUS ways, and introduces you to
characters like I. K. Brunel.
This is a book that I treasure, and I wish I could explain why I love it. It
is a comic book about Nerd Things, with footnotes, and footnotes for
footnotes, and so on. It's a labor of love, masterfully executed, and I feel
like I want to read parts of it again for the fun of it.
------
acqq
The comics explaining the background of this comics and the book:
[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/oct/11/ada-
lovelace-d...](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/oct/11/ada-lovelace-day-
sydney-padua-babbage)
I like them so much.
(And I really don't like the Nicholas Lezard's comment on the Guardian site).
------
tehwalrus
Her book (graphic novel) is worth it for the footnotes alone (some of which
take up more than half a page), even if you _don 't_ like steampunk fantasy
with Lovelace, Babbage, Boole, Brunel, and more... And who wouldn't?
~~~
jordigh
I love the depiction of Brunel as some kind of 19th century steampunk
Wolverine. And those badass boasts! Some of them based on real historical
boasts! "I smell... steam!" "Looks like you need an engineer." "With all the
steam I can command, your ladyship." I hope the mythology around these
characters keeps on growing.
------
kqr2
Link to the completed book:
[https://smile.amazon.com/Thrilling-Adventures-Lovelace-
Babba...](https://smile.amazon.com/Thrilling-Adventures-Lovelace-Babbage-
Computer/dp/0307908275)
~~~
Jaruzel
I have the book, was a present last xmas - it's a great read! Not all of it is
in Comic book form - there's a lot of well written content as well.
------
randomstring
I desperately wanted to love this book as it has all the right elements:
Lovelace, graphic novel, Babbage, the difference engine, steam punk...
However, I felt the number of footnotes were excessive. The footnote material
was excellent, but it felt like when movies resort to using a voice over to
explain the plot.
I bought and read the book hoping it would be suitable for my kids (10 & 13),
but having half its content in footnotes killed it as a kid friendly book.
If you are looking for a good book for kids with smart female leads (a
fictionalized Ada Lovelace and Marry Shelley) I highly recommend The Case of
the Missing Moonstone (The Wollstonecraft Detective Agency #1) by Jordan
Stratford. Probably best for ages 6-10.
~~~
acqq
> hoping it would be suitable for my kids (10 & 13), but having half its
> content in footnotes killed it as a kid friendly book.
I remember being exactly that old as your kids, absolutely _hating_ the books
that were specially made to be "kids friendly."
Because I was aware that the books existed that weren't dumbed-down. That the
grown ups were reading. And of course I wanted as soon as possible to be one
of those. And I liked to see and learn the details when the topic interested
me. That included pictures, diagrams and footnotes.
So from the point of view of me, age 10-13: I hate your approach to your kids
(that were the words of me then, maybe I'd more polite now).
I can imagine that your kids actually _need_ some "kids friendly" books as
seen as such by the parents, but you should honestly ask yourself if there's
your responsibility for that too. I know my nieces also prefer the material
for grownups, if it interests them.
I know what I didn't like at that time: the long fiction books about some
people who lived hundred years ago, at the times when everything was
different. I didn't care to read about what some lieutenant of some non
existing army said to some young aristocrat woman in some country I never saw,
at the ball that actually never happened, but that the author invented to pass
the point and obscure the relation to the now long-dead people he knew, and
how the author thought the woman thought about it etc. But reading details
about something, if I was interested at the topic, more of that please.
So if something is not kids friendly, it's more that the kids don't care too
much about history, and they even more can detect if something is "modern" or
not. You know, the parents are already the generation that "doesn't get it."
My position: if the kids don't like something, fine. But don't decide for
them.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Reading List for Leaders in Uncertain Times - ozres1
https://a16z.com/2020/03/20/reading-list-founders-leaders-company-builder-uncertain-times/
======
nav3en
Really interesting article. Here's a related article on simple leadership
lessons from Extreme Ownership that I had written -
[https://medium.com/@brainstrained/4-nine-simple-
leadership-l...](https://medium.com/@brainstrained/4-nine-simple-leadership-
lessons-you-can-learn-from-navy-seals-fe2da86c80b7)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Where GREP Came from (ft. Brian Kernighan) - pdkl95
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTfOnGZUZDk
======
AdmiralAsshat
So grep exists because someone wanted to do textual analysis on the Federalist
papers.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Brazil’s Digital Backlash - tysone
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/12/opinion/brazils-digital-backlash.html
======
matt_wulfeck
My first impression when I read articles like this (and I'm sure many of you
are thinking the same thing) is to come up with a distributed xmpp OTR/pgp
blah blah. But the reality is that the law simply must work.
What kept the government from tapping your phone lines before? It's quite easy
to do, after all. It's respect for the law and consequences for breaking it*
We can spitball distributed messages systems all day but we MUST demand laws
that respect the constitution and accountability of public officials.
*theres also the cost factor, and I believe these distributed encryption systems add considerable cost.
~~~
profeta
you have no clue what you are talking about.
> What kept the government from tapping your phone lines before?
The law. Separation of powers. etc.
Police would need a court order to tap on your phone line. There was a
loophole about phone records (time and numbers called) but that was it.
~~~
matt_wulfeck
That's the same point I'm making! The protection and respect for law and due
process is the only long term solution.
~~~
profeta
the discussion was about a law that gives more power to LEO in one case
(online) than the already stabilished (phones)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Seeking beta testers for iOS app to meet internet celebs, free during beta - verigeoff
http://veriapp.co
======
verigeoff
We have some lofty goals as well as vision and such about disrupting
traditional fame models and re-visting the monetization of fame on the
internet.
First things first, we need to make sure our app doesn't fall over at Tech
Crunch Disrupt and over the next couple weeks. All feedback welcome, generally
once you've signed up at our website you should get added for access in 24
hours.
Best feedback between now and the end of October will get a $1000 cash prize
(sorry it's in CAD)
Top 10 pieces of feedback, bugs and pointing out things that suck will receive
$150 in credit to be used on our platform when it's paid.
We'll track all this publically in the coming weeks after TCD, including
leaderboards and such for transparency.
If you have more than 10,000 followers and you are interested in testing the
app out, we really want to talk! Tweet or Facebook us and we will call you
with some very compelling offers.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
MIT Closet Allegedly Used by Aaron Swartz - mrb
http://cryptome.org/2013/01/swartz/mit-closet-swartz.htm
======
gregholmberg
When I clicked on the link, I expected to see an unlocked closet primarily
used to store mops, floor wax and boxes of copier paper.
Instead, I saw a small carpeted room containing a half-full rack of telecom
gear, featuring several Ethernet switches providing 100 or so switchports for
end users, punchdown blocks for terminating phone service to a similar number
of incoming lines, and a small number of switchports on what looks like an
administratively privileged network via a second smaller switch.
The list price of the larger Cisco with all three power supplies and several
24-port GigE cards was at least $15,000 the last time I had to buy one.
The fiber uplinks to other rooms (provisioned like this one, or better,
typically one per wing on each floor of a large building) are likely to carry
some very interesting traffic -- not just between end users and their
preferred servers, but between the large switches themselves, possibly even
routing outbound traffic for the "administrative" switch, as well.
I sometimes use separate "control plane" switched media to access "remote
power strips". These allow an admin to remain seated at a desk while rebooting
machines all over the campus.
Allowing unrestricted access to a storage closet containing that much gear
(uninstalled) is irresponsible. Theft is likely.
Allowing unrestricted access to a wiring closet containing that much gear
(provisioned, configured, and running in production mode) is a hilarious wtf.
The imagination soars ...
Allowing unrestricted physical access to any administrative switch that
carries traffic for power-cycling campus equipment on and off remotely is a
fairly serious oversight, and not in the least bit hilarious.
edit: It looks like the photos show two different rooms. The wiring closet
itself has a bare concrete floor.
~~~
jasonzemos
I'm not surprised. That seems to be the MIT ethos since Stallman proclaimed
the best account password for all users was the enter key.
~~~
carlob
Several times while visiting Boston, I have entered the medialab on weekends
and no one prevented me from getting a good tour of the building. I always
thought this was part of the MIT culture, not a blunder of security.
~~~
Timmmmbob
That's how all universities work. It's quite impractical to secure them
properly, and nobody can hope to recognise all the students (and visitors!) so
you can basically walk around any university and as long as you look like you
belong there nobody will challenge you.
~~~
carlob
No, I'll have to disagree here. I've spent around 10 years in several
universities both in Europe and the US and most of them are closed during
weekends and you can't walk around and touch experiments when no one is
around.
MIT is special in its openness, or at least the Medialab is (you can't really
walk in any lab of the Physics department).
------
alaskamiller
Aaron's impact has been rippling through the internets lately and that's awe
inspiring but we're slowly marching into morbid reality porn. Nancy Grace does
this exact "thing" for a living. Tread lightly.
~~~
Zimahl
I agree, it's getting creepy. I'm starting to get the feeling of 'man worship'
where perfectly sane men put giant Fathead pictures of professional athletes
on their walls, wear their jerseys, and get a little too involved.
------
jrockway
Makes me wonder how many years in prison the prosecutors would give you if you
just walked into JSTOR and stole one of their hard drives. It's not even a
federal crime anymore.
~~~
jlgreco
Well, assuming that would be treated the equivalent of armed bank robbery
(robbery of a... data bank? ;)... a maximum of 25 years. Knock off 5 years if
you don't bring a gun.
~~~
corin_
How is it the equivalent to _armed_ bank robbery?
~~~
jlgreco
It's not, but I figure I may as well highlight that even if you rob a bank
with a gun your maximum sentence is less than 35 years.
~~~
slapshot
That's simply not true. "Possession of a firearm in furtherance of a bank
robbery carries a minimum statutory sentence of five years in prison and a
maximum of life imprisonment consecutive to any other sentence, plus a
$250,000 fine."
[1]
[http://www.justice.gov/usao/ncw/pressreleases/Charlotte-2012...](http://www.justice.gov/usao/ncw/pressreleases/Charlotte-2012-07-23-humphrey.html)
, among many other sources.
~~~
jlgreco
That is the page I found before I commented, I am seeing on that page:
_"Bank robbery carries a statutory maximum sentence 20 years in prison and a
$250,000 fine. Bank robbery while armed with a firearm carries a maximum
sentence of 25 years."_
It also seems, in addition to armed bank robbery being a crime, having the
firearm during a bank robbery is itself is a crime, and the maximum punishment
for having the firearm, but not the bank robbery itself, is life.
It seems you are practically correct.
~~~
slapshot
If you want to get really technical, those are the federal penalties for armed
bank robbery. Under state law, plenty of states have maximum sentences of life
for armed robbery in general. Here's Virginia's law allowing a life sentence
for armed robbery of anything (not just banks):
[http://law.justia.com/codes/virginia/2006/toc1802000/18.2-58...](http://law.justia.com/codes/virginia/2006/toc1802000/18.2-58.html)
~~~
jlgreco
Of course states vary, so a comparison to federal penalties make the most
sense. For example, it seems California caps robbery sentences to 9 years.
[http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-
bin/displaycode?section=pen...](http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-
bin/displaycode?section=pen&group=00001-01000&file=211-215) I don't know what
they give for armed robbery though.
One thing seems fairly clear though: at least in many states stealing
harddrives (without using a gun) is probably better than copying the contents
of harddrives with a computer. The punishments we have decided that 'hackers'
should get are out of proportion when compared to crimes committed 'in
meatspace'.
For example, just since I'm already looking at the Californian penal code:
> _(c) (1) Any person who commits rape in violation of paragraph (2) of
> subdivision (a) of Section 261 upon a child who is under 14 years of age
> shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for 9, 11, or 13
> years._
~~~
slapshot
Again, there are other statutes that make life in prison the maximum penalty
for child sexual assault in California. The rape statute you quote expressly
says that the 9-13 years you quote is stacked on top of the general crime of
sexual assault of a minor:
>> This subdivision does not preclude prosecution under Section 269, Section
288.7, or any other provision of law.
>> 269: Any person who commits any of the following acts upon a child who is
under 14 years of age and seven or more years younger than the person is
guilty of aggravated sexual assault of a child [statute lists all conceivable
forms of sexual gratification] ... Any person who violates this section is
guilty of a felony and shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison
for 15 years to life.
Section 288 adds yet more penalties for using force, being in a position of
trust, etc.
You keep using examples of "hackers get stronger penalties than these other
crimes" (bank robbery, child rape), but the other crimes consistently have
life in prison as a maximum sentence if you stop to read the full context of
the law.
~~~
jrockway
I think it's more realistic to do a "where are they now" style survey to see
how long sentences end up being in practice. With overcrowded state prisons,
not many people end up serving the max.
------
rdl
Heh. I used to leave my bag in one of those closets when I went to the
bathroom if I was in a computer lab.
~~~
gt565k
I bet no one locks those closets. I know for a fact there are a few comm
closets with actual servers controlling the PLC of the building at my
university that are often left unlocked, door wide open. No one gives a crap
at these institutes. If a real malicious hacker got into one of those, he
could easily wreak havoc.
~~~
sneak
And yet somehow, havoc isn't wreaked. Most bills aren't counterfeit. Most
contracts don't get litigated.
I think about security, so I know what you're talking about... but there is a
real line between security and fearmongering.
It's just network access, or denial of service. Nothing more.
~~~
BCM43
Or a MITM attack stealing personal information?
------
bstar77
Seems like this could had been done much more discretely, makes me think Aaron
may have wanted to get caught. Why not just buy a cheap 1u server and add it
to the rack, I bet that goes unnoticed much longer.
------
Riesling
Interesting. Keeping my fingers crossed that the download script will be
released next. I would love to read through the code and see for myself how
much actual "hacking" was involved.
------
clicks
The SAMSUNG EcoGreen F2 HD154UI hard drive pictured is 1.5 TB.
The alleged JSTOR archive torrent making the rounds is 35 GB. If Aaron went
through the trouble of getting a HDD 1+ TB, it means the JSTOR files probably
amassed to a size indeed to the tune of ~1 TB, (at least, if he in fact did
have accurate foreknowledge of their true size).
~~~
S201
Or maybe he just had a spare 1.5TB drive around.
------
jlgreco
I like the graffiti on the right wall in the first picture. Gives off some
serious vibes of "secured room".
~~~
borski
That's not graffiti. MIT hackers commonly 'sign in' to places that they've
found and gained entrance to. A wiring closet, frankly, is kind of a lame
place to sign in at, but the steps under Lobby 7 or the steam tunnels or the
little dome are far more interesting, for example.
It's actually looked down upon fairly heavily if a sign in is larger than a
regular signature by very much - typically sign ins are lauded, graffiti
isn't.
Just thought I'd clarify. :)
~~~
jwr
I suspect there won't be as many MIT hackers now that this sort of culture is
no longer tolerated. Getting in trouble with your principal/dean/chairman is
quite different from facing the secret service, federal prosecution, 30 years
in jail and multi-million dollar fines.
~~~
borski
MIT over the last few years, sadly, under the Hockfield administration, has
screwed hackers over - no doubt about that. Numbers decreased because of that.
But they increased at the same time due to the MIT blogs and better (sometimes
unintentional) publicity of MIT hacks.
I honestly suspect that things will be better for hackers under Reif's
administration. He does, in my humble opinion, "not suck."
EDIT: Also important of note is that Aaron wasn't a student at MIT -
historically, MIT students were forgiven for things like hacking, but non-MIT
students were typically handed over to Cambridge Police. Typically, when
hacking with a non-MIT student, you would pretend they were a 'pre-frosh' if
you could.
~~~
rdl
I've never heard anything but criticism of Hockfield on any front.
------
jpdoctor
> _Download Equipment Allegedly Stored in Building 20_
I assume this is a typo? or is there a recent renumbered bldg?
~~~
systemizer
No, that is correct. He left his hard drive and laptop in the SIPB office in
W20. See the Tech's article from August 2011.
<http://tech.mit.edu/V131/N30/swartz.html>
~~~
rdl
Ah, you're right (W20 != 20). The basement wiring closet was Building 16, but
the SIPB stuff was W20. (you can tell by the ghetto furniture with duct tape).
SIPB at least used to be pretty friendly about letting visiting "reasonable"
people plug into the network, based on whoever was at the office at the time.
------
gadders
Whereabouts was the tramp (hobo) sleeping?
~~~
mindslight
Presumably the police weren't quite as eager to photograph that.
------
beedogs
how the fuck could they _not find_ a laptop connected _directly_ to an
Ethernet switch? What a crock of shit. that laptop should've been discovered
within 15 minutes.
~~~
ef4
You're forgetting the context. The network is open and freely available to
anyone. They're _not trying_ to keep anyone out.
That's precisely what Swartz's defense team has pointed out -- there was
precious little "hacking" involved because there was no defense to hack.
~~~
mpyne
> That's precisely what Swartz's defense team has pointed out
Perhaps Swartz should have chose smarter lawyers then, because he wasn't
charged with "hacking" but with "intentional unauthorized access" and other
similar things.
It's not as if he accidentally logged onto an open Wifi and accidentally
downloaded terabytes of information from JSTOR, they specifically blocked
Swartz's machine multiple times. They may not be trying to keep everyone out
but they were definitely trying to keep Swartz out (and they didn't even know
it was Swartz until he was arrested).
~~~
ef4
> They may not be trying to keep everyone out
Which was exactly my point. That's why your original comment about "that
laptop should've been discovered within 15 minutes" doesn't make sense.
Their network model deliberately doesn't care about an extra random laptop,
until somebody complains.
~~~
mpyne
To be clear, I wasn't the one who made the comment regarding whether the
laptop should have been discovered within 15 minutes.
But in general, it does an individual who was trespassing (in this case, on a
network) no good to complain that _other people_ were allowed in. There are
exceptions to that for MIT since it's a university, but given that Aaron was
both white and male, I don't think he'd have been able to play the minority
discrimination card.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Introducing GIFV - crabasa
http://imgur.com/blog/2014/10/09/introducing-gifv/?forcedesktop=1
======
jawns
"With all these improvements, Imgur will now denote converted MP4s with a
.gifv extension. The intention is to signal to users throughout the Internet
that these links will feature a GIF experience that incorporates all the
current and future enhancements made through Project GIFV. Imgur plans to
submit an accompanying specification to relevant standards organizations
before the end of the year."
This is bizarre. GIFV isn't a new file format. It is just an alias for an
existing format. The only reason the letters "GIF" are in this new file
extension is to signal that the file was converted from a GIF, but who cares,
apart from the so-called cultural connotations?
I mean, does anybody care to have a BMPJ (a JPEG file that was converted from
a BMP) or a WAV3 (an MP3 that was converted from a WAV)? Or a
.GIFMP4GIFMP4GIFMP4 file, which was converted back and forth a few times?
~~~
xpaulbettsx
Browsers should display GIFVs without transport controls (unlike <video>), and
ignore any audio tracks that are included - basically construct a limited MP4
profile and handle it appropriately. It's a useful construct imho.
~~~
bhouston
Why not just have an attribute or two in <video> tag that sets it to be no
volume and whether there should be transport controls? That sounds more useful
to me and applicable across all video formats.
~~~
revscat
If you take a look at the source of the .gifv link from their blog posting it
looks like this is exactly what they are doing:
<video height="370" width="660" autoplay="" loop="" muted=""><source type="video/mp4" src="http://i.imgur.com/zvATqgs.mp4"></video>
If you open up zvATqgs.mp4 you are redirected to a .gifv file, which is an
HTML document. It has a video tag that mutes the audio.
edit: This is interesting, though:
~/temp curl -I http://i.imgur.com/zvATqgs.mp4
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Last-Modified: Fri, 26 Sep 2014 20:44:27 GMT
ETag: "2342c1e692a327e61be8395bf4d9109c"
Content-Type: video/mp4
Browsers, however, are redirected to the .gifv link, while curl gets the raw
mp4 file. Interesting. I was expecting a 30x response code.
Further edit: Passing a user agent to curl also causes the raw mp4 file to be
returned, with no redirection. Anyone know how they are doing this redirection
for browsers but not for curl?
~~~
bhouston
They need to get the raw MP4 file eventually so the browser can display it, it
can not always redirect.
~~~
revscat
I understand that, I'm just curious as to the mechanism that they are using.
~~~
SCHiM
I'm not sure, and the server response from your sample certainly does not fit
with this idea, but maybe it's because curl uses http/1.0?
Or is that wget that uses 1.0... Fire up wireshark ;)
Edit:
So it was the useragent and accept header that did it. Nevermind my stupid
idea.
------
wbond
Am I misunderstanding something here? I don't see anything other than an .mp4
video served via a <video> tag from a URL that ends in .gifv. I was interested
in seeing how it worked to look into supporting it for a mime type detection
library I've written.
The blog post mentions submitting a specification to the relevant standards
organization. Are they planning on creating a new mp4 ftyp and registering a
mimetype with IANA?
~~~
chillingeffect
Yes, why are they calling mp4 files gifv files? Is it somehow cooler?
Can I start serving .html files as .awesome files? And .js as .kicka$$ files?
and .mp3 as .boomin'?
GET "index.awesome"
<script src='jquery.kicka$$'>
<audio src="foil.boomin'">
at this rate, why not re-write all of html so it's cooler? <body> => <b0d>
<title> => <1nduk+10n>
<link rel="openid.server" href=""> => <cyb3r-jack
rel=!!openid.matrix_data_cent3r" ultra_max_hyper_ref="">
~~~
personZ
_Can I start serving .html files as .awesome files?_
Sure, go ahead. Extensions in a URL have little to do with the actual type of
content, and .html has long been abandoned by dynamic systems, who originally
went to extensions being an implementation detail, and on many current systems
being a lie (e.g. the .aspx extension that actually runs a PHP page that
returns an HTML5 file).
They're using a URL extension to signal to their system what to do with the
file, which in the case of GIFV is to wrap an MP4 video in a simple HTML5
container. Eh.
~~~
Supermighty
I can't upvote you enough. Too few people realize that the server returned
mimetype actually tells the browser how to handle the content.
~~~
Terretta
Oh how I wish that were true.
It's what's intended, but it's not what's true. Usually this bites on video,
but it even bites on, say, SVG:
[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10261460/internet-
explore...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10261460/internet-explorer-
ignoring-mime-type)
Ostensibly, this is to protect users. Quoting TechNet:
When files are served to the client, Internet Explorer uses the following
pieces of information to decide how to handle the file:
1\. File name extension, the corresponding ProgID and CLSID for the registered
handler of that file name extension.
2\. Content-Type from the HTTP header (MIME type), the corresponding ProgID,
and CLSID for the registered handler of that Content or MIME type.
3\. Content-Disposition from the HTTP header.
4\. Results of the MIME sniff.
\-- [http://technet.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/cc787872(v=ws.10)...](http://technet.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/cc787872\(v=ws.10\).aspx)
~~~
simoncion
If IE chooses to use file extension over MIME type, then it is broken and
should be ignored.
Yes, I'm aware that this is probably a workaround for broken web servers, or
brain-dead server admins. This workaround should never have been deployed, as
it breaks interactions with non-broken web servers.
~~~
Arnavion
It's not just IE that plays loose like this. Chrome will ignore even the
Content-Type header if it can see the content is an audio or video file. For
example, upload a .wav to puush and open it in FF and Chrome. FF will show a
dump of the bytes interpreted as text because the server sent it with Content-
Type: text/plain. Chrome will show an <audio> element.
You can't call either browser broken here. One is doing what the spec says is
correct. The other is doing what the user says is correct.
------
minimaxir
The "convert-GIF-to-MP4" technique is the same technique that Twitter [1] and
Imgur-competitior Giphy [2] uses.
[1] [http://blog.embed.ly/post/89265229166/what-twitter-isnt-
tell...](http://blog.embed.ly/post/89265229166/what-twitter-isnt-telling-you-
about-gifs)
[2]
[http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2g0791/hey_reddit_were...](http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2g0791/hey_reddit_were_giphy_lets_talk_about_gifs/)
~~~
dublinben
I would say that Gfycat and Mediacru.sh are actually the leading competitors
in this area.
~~~
DontBeADick
Is Mediacru.sh banned from Reddit? I just saw a thread the other day where
someone said the domain was blocked by admins to prevent it from competing
with their preferred service (probably Gfycat).
~~~
Sir_Cmpwn
mediacru.sh admin here. We used to be banned, many months ago. I was talking
about our past troubles in that thread.
------
arrakeen
an animated gif is not necessarily a video clip, but it seems that i'm in the
minority these days.
here's a gif by nicolas sassoon, which format would you prefer?
[http://i.imgur.com/fv0qgkc.gif](http://i.imgur.com/fv0qgkc.gif) (1.3 MB)
or
[http://i.imgur.com/fv0qgkc.gifv](http://i.imgur.com/fv0qgkc.gifv) (3.9 MB)
~~~
nemo1618
another user brought up a good point in the comments section of the imgur
post:
>GIFs being lossless, editable and universally supported are a pretty big part
of what spawned this “culture of the GIF”.
Sure, video editing tools exist, but I think most people would agree that GIFs
are more "remix-able" than MP4s. It's important that we preserve both formats.
(Or perhaps it's time for a modern lossless animation format?)
~~~
tw04
I think the point is having a proper display option. Most photographers shoot
and edit in RAW, but the final product is almost always displayed as a jpg. I
don't think this is meant to eliminate gif entirely, just limit it to the
areas it belongs, like editing as you pointed out. The only issue I see is
that there needs to be an easy option to download the original pre-converted
file.
~~~
infogulch
But GIF is a terrible intermediate format. It's only 'lossless' in the sense
that there's no advanced compression going on. But since it can only produce
256 colors gifs tend to be _extremely_ lossy for video-like formats, often
producing awful color banding.
Sure, if you're doing things with a very small color palette like pixel art or
software tutorials then the current gif is fine for your needs, but gifs are
increasingly used for video which typically has a huge color range in each
frame, and we need something different for these cases.
------
Mizza
I think this actually in response to Gyfcat, who have been doing this exact
same thing for a while, and eating up quite a lot of imgur's redditshare:
[https://gfycat.com/](https://gfycat.com/)
~~~
hnha
gfycat does "the right thing", they use the free and open webm format.
------
sauere
Can't we just all settle for .webm?
The cancerous patented MP4/H264 combination must die.
~~~
astrodust
WebM is a format nobody asked for and nobody wants.
It's _claimed_ that WebM is patent free, but this is impossible. There's just
too many patents in the video space, any one of which could surface and tank
this format.
Remember GIF itself was, for a while, subject to patent problems.
At least with H264 companies like Cisco are releasing implementations with
indemnity from that ([http://www.openh264.org/](http://www.openh264.org/))
which I think is better than coming up with some wonky new format.
~~~
thristian
As far as I understand it, although there are many patents in the video space,
they are not evenly distributed across all possible approaches and algorithms.
Instead, when the next MPEG/ITC standard begins to crystalize, a bazillion
companies rush to file patents on some specific, small part of the format so
they can join MPEG-LA and get a passive revenue stream.
In particular, if you design a video compression format that deliberately
avoids doing what MPEG4 or H.264 does, your odds of patent infringement go
down drastically.
------
sehugg
No. Just no. These are muted videos, not GIFs.
GIFs have an 8-bit palette. They're lossless. They are meant to be short and
sweet, because they take up a lot of bits.
They're also easy to manipulate, easy to encode/decode (I have a single .java
file which generates animated GIFs) and _unequivocally_ patent-free.
Let us stand up against this subversion of the pure GIF format.
[success_kid.gif]
------
IgorPartola
Anyone try to browse images on Imgur on iOS lately? I have. It's a huge pain
because M4V videos take over the entire screen when they open. This looks
great on a desktop browser where the videos play right on the page, but on iOS
the experience is markedly worse than before. The videos load faster, but
having to tap play, watching it loop, then tapping on the video again to bring
up the header/footer, then tapping Done to stop the video... How is that
better than just tapping Play?
Now, I understand that this is an issue with iOS and not with Imgur, but
honestly, GIFV is not a great improvement, technologically or otherwise.
Also, note that most GIF's on Imgur end up there as screen caps of various web
videos. In other words the process is now M4V -> GIF -> M4V. Instead, Imgur
could just build tools for better short video creation that they could then
host.
------
ssalenik
I don't know if its just me, but the GIFVs embedded on the page dont load for
me, unless I click on them to open them in a page on their own, and the second
one doesn't play even in this case.
Firefox 32.0.3 on Linux
~~~
saidajigumi
That's probably because Firefox on OS X (32.0.3) doesn't yet handle H.264,
which is what these GIFV files really are.
FF on Windows (32.0.2) does support H.264, and the GIFV files play as
expected. IIRC, FF on Android was the first version to get H.264 support,
which it's had for some time now.
EDIT: You can check codec support for your current browser+platform at
YouTube's HTML5 page, below. I briefly dug around in Bugzilla for this issue,
but haven't found it yet.
[https://www.youtube.com/html5](https://www.youtube.com/html5)
~~~
ssalenik
You're right, the page you linked shows that my browser doesn't have support
for H.264... though then I'm confused as to why the first GIFV loads for me
when I open it on a separate page...
------
dublinben
I'm a little disappointed that they've not only created an absurd new file
extension, but that they're settling on patent-encumbered H.264 video
compression.
------
valarauca1
I think bhuston said it best.
>This is a marketing endeavor that is pretending to be a technical innovation.
Most of us are asking, why isn't it format X, or format Y. When they are
clearly superior in quality and compression. The answer is they don't have
marketing power.
GIFV is directed at increasing attention to imgur. By trying to make more
sites adopt it as their image/video hosting platform. Since imgur already has
the size/market dominance to spread the GIFV platform. Increasing its chance
of adoption.
Rise above, support webm. Better compression, better quality, more wide
spread.
~~~
ubercow13
>Better compression, better quality
this isn't true
------
mwfunk
The reason Imgur is doing what they're doing makes sense (downloading animated
GIFs is an absurd waste of bandwidth when people just want to see really short
low-quality videos in their browsers).
The way they're going about it and the way they're marketing the decision is
arguably kinda silly. But the monocle-popping that is occurring in this thread
is an order of magnitude sillier than anything Imgur is doing.
This is really not worthy of the volume or intensity of the hand-wringing that
is occurring in this thread. This is the type of news that you either ignore
completely, or skim, nod, and move on. At worst it deserves some exaggerated
eye rolling or a sarcastic joke to a cow-orker during lunch.
------
com2kid
I cannot right click and save an MP4 video in my browser.
I cannot drag and drop it into an email.
As a regular end user, I can use approved sharing features only. As a
developer, yeah, I can download it myself and rehost it somewhere that
hopefully supports MP4 video.
The historical pissing match over how to best do animated PNG files is sad. An
animated image format that is treated differently from videos is a nice thing
to have.
People have entire folders full of appropriate reaction GIFs. With how MP4
video is treated online today, such a thing is not possble.
~~~
polarix
right click -> save works in chrome canary, 39.0.2163.3 at least.
drag and drop does not, yet, but perhaps with this initiative it will be
prioritized.
~~~
epidemian
Dragging&dropping the video from that page into an email (Gmail) on another
tab worked as expected. Don't know if Gmail is doing something special though.
I tried this on a desktop Firefox/Ubuntu. I'm actually quite surprised that it
worked without any problems, considering the rough history of MP4 on Linux/OSS
in general :D
------
jbk
Why a new extension?
Doesn't mp4 have enough extensions? .aac, .mp4, .m4a, .m4b, .mp4v, .m4p, .m4v,
.mpeg4 so far.
And now .gifv? I don't get it.
~~~
u124556
A new extension everyone can use...
[https://xkcd.com/927/](https://xkcd.com/927/)
------
hmage
To all of you here asking 'why not webm?' consider this -- gfycat serves both
webm and h264, I'm pretty sure imgur will add that in future, so no big deal.
As for support, most of you are sitting on Chrome already, so you won't have
any troubles playing h264.
Cheers.
~~~
gcb0
the good ol SF engineer bubble.
it must be nice to live such a sheltered life.
hint: if you only care about chrome users on every feature, and keep looking
at you site access log to justify, you may find that there is a reason why
your access log mostly have chrome user in the first place...
~~~
aeturnum
I'm not sure what you're getting at. What video codec would you pick, and what
does it have to do with the SF bubble?
P.s. It is nice to live a sheltered life.
------
brokentone
Beyond the webp/m debate that I'm sure will take place here adequately without
my input:
I think one of the bigger concerns these days with "short video clips on the
web" \- which is what we're all trying to solve with whatever technology - is
workflow. People finally understand how to make gifs even if they're super low
quality, or super large, then these poorly compressed "images" are being
converted into various other things. If the tools were there to create audio-
less MP4 / webp/m, that would help a lot.
------
mherdeg
Is this what gfycat does?
~~~
dublinben
That site actually uses the superior VP8 compression format in a WebM
container.
~~~
dallen33
Superior in what sense? Not quality or file size.
~~~
tormeh
Well, it's patents are free to licence and with open source code, so it's
superior in a way that for many (me included) believe trump the others.
------
chtoric
the link is down for me (it says page not found), here is the cached version
from google
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Aimgur...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Aimgur.com%2Fblog%2F2014%2F10%2F09%2Fintroducing-
gifv%2F)
------
markbao
The marketing here is a little disingenuous ("Imgur is reimagining the looping
GIF video"), and a good number of Imgur users (those that have also used
Gfycat, the intersection of which I presume are relatively dedicated users)
will know it. Not a great move.
------
MBCook
Oh thank god. Finally.
I've been hoping they'd do this for a while. I hate browsing Reddit and
finding a link to a little 'video' that then takes minutes to download fully
and still looks terrible because it's a 15MB gif.
------
jcromartie
Why can't we just deal with video without hiding it behind "GIF"?
~~~
pjc50
GIF seems to have a better UX than video for its particular use case: inline,
control-free, looping, audio-free.
~~~
jcromartie
Video can do that. In fact, video _is_ doing this here.
------
Sir_Cmpwn
As someone who runs a website with something similar, I'm hoping that Imgur is
big enough to push for some open standards around this. I want embedding video
to become as commonplace as embedding GIFs.
------
AmericanOP
Surprised ctrl+f 'mobile' returns only one result..
gifv is broken for mobile. I have to click play, and it runs as a video. That
is not gif UX.
------
3rd3
Why not WebM?
~~~
masklinn
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone)
------
aikah
I dont get the trick.Is it gif or a h264 video inside a "gif" container?
looking at the source code,I see a video tag.
~~~
sbierwagen
It's a video served with the video/mp4 content-type, using the .gifv file
extension.
(Well, actually, the .gifv is just a web page that holds the <video> tags for
the mp4, but...)
------
shittyanalogy
Part of the reason GIFs are so popular is because of the limited colorspace.
The new colorspace and compression sort of turn this into an entirely new
medium not a better GIF. Other than the sometimes better filesize I don't
really understand the appeal of any of this. Especially since support is far
from that of GIF.
------
karl_gluck
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned this yet: why is imgur allowed to use
copyrighted material to promote this new feature? I'm pretty certain they
didn't get permission to use those clips from Tron or Star Wars. Does the fact
that they were created by a user somehow give them immunity?
~~~
bbayer
I think existing copyright law allows this kind of usage. Please refer to
Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. § 107.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use)
~~~
karl_gluck
That's exactly my point -- (editing clarification) that the Copyright Act does
not consider this fair use.
From the article you referenced, "A key consideration is the extent to which
the use is interpreted as <transformative>, as opposed to merely
<derivative>."
These are not parodies, being used for education or being used for critical
analysis of the subject.
~~~
Dylan16807
It doesn't have to be. Parody and education are the situations where you can
pretty much use the entire thing... but they're not using the entire thing.
------
ihaveajob
I clicked on this story hoping to find a clever alternative to the raster path
for traversing images in GIF images, when used to compress video (highly
correlated images). Something that preserves the spirit of GIF, but sucks less
for what kids are using it online these days. Bummer.
------
leafo
I wrote a service in Go to transparently transcode gif to video that you might
be interested in:
[https://github.com/leafo/gifserver](https://github.com/leafo/gifserver)
------
tibiapejagala
What is the innovation here? Four mistakes in spelling 'webm'?
~~~
sb057
Not hardly. This actually uses H.264, which in all regards is inferior to
WebM's VP8.
------
reedlaw
All I get is:
Specified "type" attribute of "video/mp4" is not supported. Load of media resource http://i.imgur.com/zvATqgs.mp4 failed.
------
anonfunction
Right after I finish my mp4 to gif shell script!
[https://github.com/montanaflynn/vidtogif](https://github.com/montanaflynn/vidtogif)
------
doodpants
Great, a format for small embedded animations similar to GIFs, except that
they cannot be stopped using the "Toggle animated GIFs" Firefox extension.
------
zxcvgm
I heard of a HTML5-based alternative some time ago called the "ugoira HTML5
zip player". It uses a ZIP file of PNG/JPG files and renders the animation
using JavaScript onto a <canvas>. There's a detailed slide deck talking about
it [1] and the source code is available too [2].
[1]
[https://marcan.st/talks/2014_pixiv_ugoku_player/](https://marcan.st/talks/2014_pixiv_ugoku_player/)
[2] [https://github.com/pixiv/zip_player](https://github.com/pixiv/zip_player)
------
gcb0
imgur manages to be behind even 4chan on featureset and performance... and now
its behind on standards compliance also.
~~~
johnhenry
Hasn't 4chan been doing this with webm for a while?
~~~
gcb0
6months or a year. the owner even did a HN AMA of sorts.
------
opendais
Well, someone is clearly feeling challenged by gfycat, mediacrush, etc. that
did this for year(s).
------
sergiotapia
So this is why Imgur randomly started to output gifs with a .jpg extension.
It broke my autogfy extension. :/
------
GhotiFish
...
I can't see their new format. I can't see mp4's. I'm using firefox.
This is the future? great.
~~~
whoopdedo
It pushes a flash viewer to FF, even though I have a plugin that handles MP4.
------
lucian1900
They also won't look like shit because of the limited colour range.
------
rohan1024
I think animated webp would have been a better choice.
------
higherpurpose
Why didn't they just use webm?
------
skellystudios
Can we all agree to pronounce it 'Jiffy' (gif 'V') and end the gif/gif thing
forever.
------
passwordis
now deal with responsive images/videos
------
chuckreynolds
whoa nice
------
davexunit
Ugh, MP4. Terrible choice.
------
dzhiurgis
I propose a new format - GIFVGIF
------
collypops
I can tell this thread is gonna be a gold mine for Shit HN Says
------
jarnix
Nothing new, it's been shown before by another website.
Plus what the f __* with renaming a .mp4 to a .gifv ? Two extensions for the
same format ?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
When your turn comes, will you “Name Names?” - charliesome
http://braythwayt.com/2017/02/12/will-you-name-names.html
======
basicplus2
Now thinking of... backing up my entire phone to my own server, enter the US
with No phone, buy a new phone, download backbackup and reinstall, use while
there, wipe it, throw it away, leave US with no phone.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Study Looks at Why Neolithic Humans Buried Their Dogs with Them - pseudolus
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/people-buried-their-dogs-them-4000-years-ago-180971502/
======
revskill
There's no answer to the "Why" question to be found here.
~~~
chrisseaton
> some Paleolithic humans regarded some of their dogs not merely
> materialistically, in terms of their utilitarian value, but already had a
> strong emotional bond with these animals
> ancient humans found the animals to be important enough to stay close to
> even in death
They buried their dogs with them because their dogs were important to them,
for the many reasons listed in the article.
I'm not sure what more explanation you're looking for - you're not going to
get a more definitive explanation of the thought processes someone who's long
dead are you?
Also the headline says that a study is looking at it. They didn't claim to
have a clear answer.
~~~
pbhjpbhj
You quote them giving precise and definitive answers, then say they can't give
them. They can, and seemingly have given such answers, just entirely
unscientifically.
>They buried their dogs with them because their dogs were important to them,
for the many reasons listed in the article.
Or, they kept excess puppies as food, and buried food with bodies; or they
considered the animals to be tools and thought they'd be useful in the next
life.
Nothing they mention seems to imply, nor require emotional attachment.
The food angle seems weird, if you don't make any effort to procure different
food then doesn't that show less attachment; only feeding the animal any
excess (for example) seems less attached than preparing a specific diet.
~~~
simonh
>Or, they kept excess puppies as food,
We’d find knife marks on dog bones at their refuse sites, from the butchering
process, and dog proteins in their faeces. That’s how we know a lot of ancient
populations practiced cannibalism.
~~~
pbhjpbhj
>We’d find knife marks on dog bones at their refuse sites //
Are you saying we don't; that's kinda fascinating because I'd expect all
creatures with pelts to be skinned if found recently dead, or killed (eg for
mercy, food, ritual).
>"Samuel Belknap III, a graduate research assistant working under the
direction of Kristin Sobolik in UMaine’s Department of Anthropology and
Climate Change Institute, found a 9,400-year-old skull fragment of a domestic
dog during analysis of an intact human paleofecal sample.
>"The fact that the bone was found in human waste provides the earliest proof
that humans in the New World used domesticated dogs as food sources.
>"“This is an important scientific discovery that can tell us not only a lot
about the genetic history of dogs but of the interactions between humans and
dogs in the past,” said Belknap. “Not only were they most likely companions as
they are today, they served as protection, hunting assistants, and also as a
food source.”" ([https://phys.org/news/2011-01-oldest-domesticated-dog-
americ...](https://phys.org/news/2011-01-oldest-domesticated-dog-
americas.html)) //
~~~
simonh
For specific cultures I'm not familiar with I have no idea, but people can and
do eat dog meat. I'm just saying such questions are not purely in the realm of
unverifiable speculation as there is specific physical evidence we can look
for. My wife is Chinese from Hohhot and used to have a taste for it, though
not so much these days.
------
ggm
Anyone who watched UK Channel-4 "time team" will know the answer, whatever it
is, will be "ritual"
------
rossdavidh
So, is it just me, or are they dancing around the obvious suggestion from the
evidence, that when someone died they would kill their dog and bury it with
them? Perhaps because a strong bond with a dog sounds good, and "kill the dog
when the owner dies" does not sound as great.
------
lurquer
Maybe they buried the humans with the dogs. That would be creepy.
------
NeedMoreTea
I'd suggest most dog owners would think it's bleeding obvious why.
We might do so today except there's bound to be a regulation against that, and
modern society has a very odd relationship with death.
------
infradig
I haven't read the article. As a dog owner my assumption is there was a
special trained bond between human and his dogs. They would have been
impossible to handle after his death anyway so they would have been killed and
buried along with him.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
GitHub’s Top Coding Languages Show Open Source Has Won - snehesht
http://www.wired.com/2015/08/github-data-shows-changing-software-landscape/?mbid=social_fb
======
morey
In my opinion "When Apple opens up, you’ll know the world has changed indeed"
is a good last statement from the article and there is truth to it.
------
blueflow
I think an open source coding platform is not the most unbiased place for
checking whether open or closed source 'has won'
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Hello Cloud: Windows Azure brings Microsoft into the cloud - martinsz
http://venturebeat.com/2008/10/27/windows-azure-brings-microsoft-into-the-cloud/
======
tdoggette
I'm less interested in MS press fluff than in what exactly Azure is. Is it
just modified Windows Server (and if so, what version)? Does it entail using
space on MS servers? Is it closer to hosting, or .NET, or Google Apps?
------
ram1024
lol "windows azure"
does that remind anyone of the blue epic fail screen or is it just me?
strata was a better name. more symbolic too
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Will Artificial Intelligence Take Your Job? - lukebrn_
https://medium.com/truncated/will-artificial-intelligence-take-your-job-2a5624488df
======
ClassyComedy
Maybe automated processes yes, but not maintenance and quality assurance of
certain jobs. Not to mention that quality assurance, customer care can be auto
but I think these are the spheres where a human eye and contact is important
and needed
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Apple to become most profitable company ever - zacharye
http://www.bgr.com/2012/06/18/apple-most-profitable-company-iphone-5-ipad-mini-itv/
======
benologist
wow bgr.com finally got some spam to the front page!
<http://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=kemper>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=zacharye>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=CitiiDB>
------
mtgx
I think this video by Simon Sinek explains very well why Apple is successful.
It's the motivation behind doing the things they do that matters, not just
what they make. This tends to attract a lot of customers to think the same
way, and believe in Apple's goals and philosophy.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp0HIF3SfI4>
------
funkiee
I continue to hope that more companies will take the lesson from Apple and
start doing more in-house engineering with a focus on quality and not the race
to the bottom.
~~~
planetguy
Cargo-cultism. Apple was doing both those things back in 1998 when they were
going broke, and they could have just as easily gone broke doing 'em.
There are many ways to run a successful company. Some of 'em involve in-house
engineering and a focus on quality, while others involve outsourcing all your
engineering and focusing on cheap crap (see also: Wal-Mart, nearly as
profitable as Apple).
~~~
smackfu
Yeah, like Steve Jobs making sure the NeXT factory looked pretty by painting
the robots is an example of silliness because NeXT failed. Yet if Apple showed
that off in a product video today, it would be held up as attention to detail.
~~~
mikeash
NeXT didn't really fail. They had a reasonably profitable exit by being bought
by a large tech company, and subsequently basically took over the acquiring
company and drove it to become incredibly successful.
But of course the popular image of NeXT is that it failed, so your point still
stands entirely.
~~~
wtallis
And perhaps most importantly, while it was an independent company, NeXT was
operating under a very restrictive non-compete agreement that forced them to
go after only low-volume segments.
~~~
mikeash
I hadn't heard about that, do you have any links to more info? It sounds
interesting.
------
m_for_monkey
AAPL Stock Chart 1984-2012:
[http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=AAPL+Interactive#symbol=a...](http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=AAPL+Interactive#symbol=aapl;range=my;compare=;indicator=volume;charttype=area;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=off;source=undefined);
~~~
3pt14159
Wow is that highly deceiving.
You need to put stock charts on a log scale otherwise normal growing stocks
(5% per year, say) always look like they are just about to peak.
Here is how it should look for the same time period:
[http://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&...](http://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&chvs=Logarithmic&chdeh=0&chfdeh=0&chdet=1339617600000&chddm=2779843&chls=IntervalBasedLine&q=NASDAQ:AAPL&ntsp=0)
------
grlthgn
Is it the most profitable company ever after accounting for inflation?
Probably not, but would love to see some data on that.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How and when to pitch an angel? - aditya
There's a lot of info out there on pitching VCs and what the deck should include but not so much on pitching angels for smaller seed stage investments, so:<p>* What is the right time to pitch an angel? Is it after the alpha but before traction or after a good amount of traction?<p>* What should a pitch deck for angels include?
======
paulsingh
I recently closed some money with angels and your results will surely vary (so
take all of this this with a grain of salt):
* It's never too early to pitch an angel. IMHO, angels are generally comfortable investing before you have real traction - smart angels have told me that they invest in people, not ideas. So, the takeaway is that you want to start talking to angels early - let them know what you're up to and, if there's mutual interest, you'll get to the next level.
* Your deck should include the Kawasaki 10: <http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2005/12/the_102030_rule.html> Though, don't whip your deck out on the first date -- I've had more success by having informal coffee/lunch meetings first. If they want to know more, that's when you send them the deck.
* When in doubt, remember this: "Ask for advice and you may eventually get money. Ask for money and you'll often get advice."
Finally, if you want to continue the conversation offline, I'd be happy to
help -- feel free to email me.
~~~
joshu
This is great advice, and covers a great deal of what I look for when I am
acting as angel.
Personally, I am looking for:
\- A solid idea and initial implementation; you can't tell how good an idea
will be until it is embodied. I don't want to even talk to two MBAs with a
powerpoint deck. I'd much rather see a hacker and a codebase.
\- A team I would consider actually working with or for. If they are hard to
get along with now, it will be worse later (this is true in the opposite
direction as well.)
\- Business plans and TAM and all that crap? Forget it. I want product vision
and an ability to roll with the punches. Business plans end up on the floor
and TAM is just wishful thinking.
There's also a bunch of things I look for in the products, but I guess that's
more investing philosophy.
~~~
aditya
Are you looking to invest in more east coast based startups, Josh? :-)
~~~
joshu
Joshua.
Mostly west coast...
------
pg
When (a) you're ready for the distraction of fund-raising, and (b) you think
an intelligent person would be convinced by what you have so far.
You don't usually need a formal deck. Ask the investor.
~~~
aditya
_(b) you think an intelligent person would be convinced by what you have so
far._
Convinced of what? That they're making a worthwhile investment? How do you
know when you've hit that point where you're ready to ask someone for money?
Is this further down the road from making something people want?
------
htsh
When I did it back in 1999, we raised angel money right after we had a team &
a short business plan with a powerpoint but not even an alpha product yet. Our
idea required enough development work that we couldn't really manage while
keeping our full time jobs.
([http://web.archive.org/web/20001019030551/http://emfocus.com...](http://web.archive.org/web/20001019030551/http://emfocus.com/))
And from what I've seen of the relatively new seed investment firms, you can
approach some just as early - an idea, a team, and a plan (sometimes as short
as a few pages). Some would prefer that you not even incorporate yet.
It was 1999, though, and likely less formal relative to the more mature market
now. Back then it seemed most angels were friends or family of the founders.
The boom was so strong that getting early investors was no more difficult than
talking to friends who liked to invest. You could also work with an incubator
but we didn't call those guys "angels."
------
Arun2009
I recently left my full time job to concentrate on developing a prototype
application for my idea. What I intend to do is to complete a kick ass
prototype and website, run it by a few potential customers, and THEN scout for
angels if there's a need for it. My principle is that if you're a half-decent
programmer, then your prototype should be your pitch. More than a way to get
rich, I am treating it as an acid test of how good a developer I am.
------
AlexTheFounder
The difference in pitching a VC vs. an angel is in presenting your far goals.
I guess no VC will like your promise to quickly become a profitable company
with few employees only and making hundreds of thousands per year, and not
going to grow beyond that. Angels might like that more than having to wait
several years to get a smaller slice from a bigger pie.
------
demosthenes
There aren't any hard and fast rules here.
It's rarely too early to get in touch with angels and get on the radar if you
expect that you'll need funding.
Meanwhile, keep in mind that the longer you wait, the more traction you get,
the better your bargaining position and the higher the valuation.
~~~
aditya
So there's no real difference between pitching an angel vs a VC then?
------
minalecs
how do you get in touch with angel investors
------
edw519
[http://www.amazon.com/One-Page-Proposal-Business-Pitch-
Persu...](http://www.amazon.com/One-Page-Proposal-Business-Pitch-
Persuasive/dp/0060988606/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244746566&sr=8-1)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Python on iOS Native Apps - jventura
https://github.com/joaoventura/pybridge-ios
======
jventura
This project is a base for which to add a python interpreter to a swift iOS
project. It allows us to call python functions and get the resulting string,
and then use the result in swift code (to update native widgets, etc.)
As I'm a beginner in swift and iOS, I've documented all the process at
[https://github.com/joaoventura/pybridge-
ios/blob/master/docs...](https://github.com/joaoventura/pybridge-
ios/blob/master/docs/references.md).
I hope this allows me to share all the Python code in my Android app
([https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.flatangle....](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.flatangle.charts)),
which uses the same technique but for android
([https://github.com/joaoventura/pybridge](https://github.com/joaoventura/pybridge))
~~~
vaxman
Are you okay with having your app's binaries string dumped by unknown parties
where upon they find the underlying Python source code? Some basic encryption
(or tokenization) would be better, since few would expect to go looking for
it.
~~~
jventura
A simple strategy is to include only the pyc or pyo files inside a zip file,
and it will continue to work as well..
------
Osmium
Does anyone know the latest on the Swift-Python bridge from the TensorFlow
team[0]? Is this still in development or usable for iOS apps?
[0]
[https://www.tensorflow.org/swift/tutorials/python_interopera...](https://www.tensorflow.org/swift/tutorials/python_interoperability)
~~~
wool_gather
I believe that you need the S4TF _fork_ of the Swift compiler. It might be
doable to swap it into Xcode as part of an alternate toolchain, but it's not
likely to be easy.
~~~
saagarjha
Note that Apple will not let you put an application built with an alternative
toolchain on the App Store.
------
serial_dev
Similar (?) project where you can write Python code and create apps for iOS,
and Android (and others) [https://beeware.org/](https://beeware.org/)
The talks from the author, Russell Keith-Magee, are very interesting, I
learned a lot about how apps work.
~~~
jventura
As the sibling commenter said, that project and kivy are geared to write
android and ios apps entirely in Python.
My approach is different. I have most of the business logic in Python (I share
lots of code between a web app and an Android app I have) and write the UI
logic in the platform’s native language. This means the apps are always using
native UIs and use the platform toolchains, and I can use all tools available
natively on the platform.
------
thealistra
Is this even allowed by Apple guidelines? Isn’t it the same rule that banned
Flash?
------
appybois
Do you know how much using python and the framework adds to the binary size?
~~~
miohtama
I am not that worried about the binary size, but please see this discussion
regarding loading times earlier today:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23338227](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23338227)
~~~
jventura
The answer to that post is mine, and i confirm that there’s some delay on
start but on a moto g 2014 that i have it is ~3 seconds which is not much. By
comparison, Outlook takes more than 10 seconds to start on my iphone 5s..
~~~
jakear
That’s pretty crazy re outlook. Takes about half a second on my 11. Clearly
mine is newer, but over an order of magnitude is a lot.
~~~
jventura
Tested right now: 8 seconds of a white screen, then the blue logo appears for
2 seconds, and finally, at second 10, mails start to appear..
That is why I always test my apps on older hardware.. That, and because i only
have old devices.. :)
~~~
jakear
I noticed that if I quit the app via the usual mechanism, it takes less than a
second to load. However if I fully power cycle the device it’s closer to 5
seconds.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: My MongoDB resources site Mongofu.com, good/bad? - sonnymai
Hey HN'ers,<p>I'm a long time reader, first time contributor. Anyway, this is a little project of mine, a place where people can post MongoDB related tutorials and questions. http://mongofu.com/<p>I've been working on this to develop some of my skills in webdev, something I want to move into later on I guess (currently a graduate telecoms engineer). So don't be gentle, be mean =).<p>Let me know what you think.<p>Cheers,
Sonny Mai<p>http://mongofu.com/
======
benologist
Needs more resources!
I'd love to see tutorials that really spoon feed sharding and scaling it in
various scenarios. The docs have a simple tutorial but it's brief and relies
too heavily on "you'll understand it if you just do it". I want to use MongoDB
but I don't want to wake up 3 months later and discover what I did was screw
it up.
I'd also love to see articles that talk about what can go wrong and how to
recover from it, and maintenance.
Generally just stuff that would prepare me and others to use MongoDB coming
from no experience with nosql stuff.
~~~
sonnymai
hey benologist, hehe yes I agree it needs more resources. Thats why i'm hoping
people will post up resources. I only made the site live 12 hours ago ;)
The mongodb commmunity is quite small right now I think, i'm sure it'll grow,
and the amount of resources out there will grow with it. =)
~~~
_pius
I don't mean to sound like a jerk, but if you want your site to be successful,
you'll do the legwork of seeding it with the many existing blog posts about
MongoDB. There are plenty of resources out there and blaming the "quite small"
MongoDB community for the lack of links on your site is not really accurate.
~~~
sonnymai
Hi Pius, no you're not a jerk at all and that is a very valid point that you
make. I havn't had the time to do that in the last 12 hours since I launched
it.
Feedback is what I want right now. =)
Thanks for the comment
~~~
_pius
Great, good concept and nice job on the site!
------
riprock
As a NoSQL newbie I would love to see this take off. Most tutorials only have
simple schema examples like articles with tagging; I would prefer to see
schema designs for large-scale applications. I've also always wondered...how
big should you let a document grow before you decide it's better to make
certain subdocuments a collection of their own? Nevertheless I'm looking
forward to seeing this website grow to answer some questions :)
------
bl4k
It would be better to set up this resource as a wiki or on some sort of
knowledge base platform rather than the digg/reddit style of news site. Good
tutorials are always relevant, you don't want them scrolling down past the
bottom of the page.
If you do setup a wiki, I would be more than happy to contribute tutorials on
various topics. I have been using Mongo for a while now, and agree that the
documentation needs work and more resources are needed for new users - so if
there is a place where we could put that, count me in
~~~
sonnymai
Hi bl4k,
I understand your point about a wiki. For now, I don't want to host tutorials
on Mongofu. I'd prefer people to host their own tutorials on their own
blogs/websites and let others know of this through Mongofu.
Your second point, "good tutorials are always relevant"; I completely agree
with you there and I'll sort out a vote/rank algorithm eventually. Perhaps a
moderated static page to post these "great" resources.
Thanks for the feedback mate.
------
garyrichardson
Site looks fine. I hate sites that use a username instead of just an email
address. Did you think about using OpenID or FB Connect?
I'd say that unless you can find a way to get a lot of content/traffic to the
site, I'd stick with <http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/mongodb> or
the Mongo Wiki.
~~~
sonnymai
Sorry, missed your last point. I agree that stack overflow and mongo wiki are
great resources and I'm not trying to replace these at all.
My aim is to have people post their tutorials and articles in a more
centralised place. As for the occasional MongoDB question, perhaps it is
better to post at stack overflow, we'll see how things play out and what
people prefer.
Anyway, this is more of a instrument for me to learn to develop and manage a
website anyway. Thanks again
~~~
buro9
Personally... thank you so much for not using Stack Overflow. I find it ugly
and confusing with strong established characters drowning out others.
What I really like about what you've done is the aggregation from many
sources. Potentially the one true place to look for everything Mongo and to
follow progress of it. The reddit/HN model applied to a specific area of
knowledge and specialised... can't wait for it to get traction.
It's nice. Well done. Now just to get a load of content in there.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
When Music Is Violence - pmcpinto
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/07/04/when-music-is-violence
======
kkoomi
On a tangential note, my neighbor plays the same music daily outside for 1.5
hours and it actually infuriates me (musical torture). I end up needing to
turn on my AC and some ambient noise videos to block it out.
Have tried the civil route, but it's not working and it's not illegal to be a
rude neighbor. Anyone have any insights on how best to handle this, other than
moving out?
~~~
chris_7
This is my experience in startup offices as well - a small clique of people
(or one person) controlling "office music", which everyone is forced to listen
to. It's so hard for me to get work done. I really don't get why companies do
this, it's basically throwing away productivity ($$$) for an image of "team-
ness".
~~~
erickhill
I would recommend noise-cancelling headphones - a nice pair that are
comfortable and won't hurt your ears for extended use.
My office uses internet radio at minimal noise levels just so the environment
doesn't feel eerily quiet or like a crypt. But half the folks wear headphones
(I am one of them - I can barely hear the radio). Books on "tape", music,
podcasts, silence or white noise - whatever floats your boat. They are easy
enough to remove if you need to chat with someone.
~~~
chris_7
Noise cancelling only really works on ambient noise, so unless your coworkers
are queuing up "Music for Airports", it won't really help. It also can't
create _silence_ , and will still damage your hearing over time. The best
solution is for the people that want noise to just use headphones!
~~~
jdietrich
Headphones with good passive attenuation will block any kind of noise. They
are essentially industrial ear defenders that also happen to be excellent
headphones. Headphones with Bose-style active noise cancellation are an
ineffective gimmick.
Headphones of this type typically provide around 30dB of attenuation, enough
to reduce loud music to a gentle murmur. I highly recommend them to anyone who
works in an open-plan office.
[http://europe.beyerdynamic.com/shop/dt-770-m.html](http://europe.beyerdynamic.com/shop/dt-770-m.html)
[http://en-uk.sennheiser.com/hd-280-pro](http://en-
uk.sennheiser.com/hd-280-pro)
[http://www.extremeheadphones.com/passive-noise-isolation-
hea...](http://www.extremeheadphones.com/passive-noise-isolation-hearing-
protection-headphones/studio-products/ex-29-headphones/)
~~~
coldtea
> _Headphones with Bose-style active noise cancellation are an ineffective
> gimmick._
They are actually very effective, both for airplane style noise, but also for
street noise, people talking in an office, and music playing.
Haven't tried Bose themselves, but active noise cancellation on Parrot Zik's
works well, and all reviews say Bose's is even better.
Plus, if you also play your own music on top, you can't really hear anything
-- to the point of it being dangerous if you're walking in the street,
crossing roads, etc.
------
kefka
Well, if you're in for a DIY solution, This seems to work well:
[http://hackaday.com/2012/07/03/noise-pollution-tit-for-
tat-u...](http://hackaday.com/2012/07/03/noise-pollution-tit-for-tat-uses-the-
baha-boys-as-a-weapon/)
Who let the Dogs out? The noisy neighbour tripping the acoustical switch did!
~~~
WalterSear
I'm constantly amused by family-friendly pop culture references to that song,
considering how incredibly offensive it is :)
~~~
jungletek
How so? It's a song about douchey guys in the club, being shitty to women.
------
Mz
_The songs conveyed threatening, sometimes mocking messages: Alice Cooper’s
“No More Mr. Nice Guy,” AC /DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long.”_
The second song listed is an ode to a woman and her sexual prowess. How is
this threatening or mocking?
------
jvoorhis
See also [https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/sonic-
warfare](https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/sonic-warfare).
------
johnchristopher
I recently got hired (2 months ago) and a co-worker is listening to
metal/death-metal/folk-metal/the-elfic-choir-of-the-army-of-darkness all day
long. Except when it's gossip time. There are four of us in 25m² room.
It's slowly starting to bother me.
------
dbcurtis
Scots bagpipers claim prior art.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why India wiped out over 80% of its cash overnight - Brajeshwar
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-37974423
======
gus_massa
From the bbc.com URL:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12952835](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12952835)
(23 points, 18 hours ago, 11 comments)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: IMDB and RT ratings on Netflix - josh_blum
http://netflix.burtonthird.com
======
mdxn
There are dozens of Greasemonkey scripts on userscripts.org dating back to
2005 that do exactly this and more (On Chrome, you can use the Tampermonkey
extension; On Firefox, it's just called Greasemonkey). No to belittle your
work or anything, but why is this interesting or newsworthy?
Also, I suspect that some of the comments here are either fake or staged.
However, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. If my skepticism and
critique here are based on misunderstandings, I apologize.
~~~
zaidf
_There are dozens of Greasemonkey scripts on userscripts.org dating back to
2005 that do exactly this and more_
You answered your own question: this is kind of different because it is not a
greasemonkey script and thus targeted at a different audience.
------
joenathan
Any reason the add-on for Firefox is 4.2 MB? It would by and far be the
largest extension I've encountered.
edit: looks like there is a v0.1.2 coming which is much smaller 404.3 KB
[https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/netflix-
rate/...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/netflix-
rate/versions/)
~~~
josh_blum
I had some screenshots within the repo for convenience but removed them in
v0.1.2 I'm still waiting for the Add-On store to review this version which is
why it's not the one displayed currently.
------
kuldeep_kap
Perfect timing! I was thinking of spending a weekend myself for an extension
like this. You saved me a much pain, Thanks!
It would be great if you can add the IMDb rating at bottom right corner of the
title image, instead of me having to hover on title to see. It kind of gets
annoying to check each and every title for ratings.
~~~
josh_blum
Good idea, I can put that in the next update. I usually hover to see more info
first that's why I put in the ratings there. Thanks!
~~~
kuldeep_kap
Thanks! Looking forward to the update!
------
k-mcgrady
Great idea but the reviews in the chrome store indicate that it sometimes
shows the incorrect ratings. If it works well I'd use it but I'd rather have
no extra ratings if I can't trust them.
~~~
josh_blum
A lot of the reviews are with older versions of the extension, I have tried to
iron out any of these bugs. If you find anything you can send feedback to
[email protected]
~~~
fision-e
Wow, I guess I'm somewhat surprised that MIT is willing to let users create
e-mail addresses for non-academic purposes.
~~~
selter01
MIT allows us to create email lists.
------
sw93
Great that you included firefox too. I can't watch netflix on linux, so it
helps to have the firefox option for wine.
------
rickyc091
Awesome extension. Anyone know if there's an extension that links you to the
Netflix page for DVD only shows/movies?
------
mansigandhi
That's a cool plug in - I generally don't trust the Netflix ratings as much as
the other two.
------
baddox
I'm curious how sophisticated the cross-site movie-matching is and how well it
works.
~~~
josh_blum
Its far from perfect. For the hover overlays I search first by title and then
once the hover appears I search again with the year and title (Netflix doesn't
give the year until the hover appears). This increases the accuracy but there
are still problems, for example Netflix uses "The Office (U.S.)" which does
not match IMDB's title.
------
lubujackson
Awesome idea, insta-installed.
------
Goranek
Nice idea
------
edwardunknown
Hells yeah, Metacritic would be nice too
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How to Fold a Julia Fractal - rosstex
http://acko.net/blog/how-to-fold-a-julia-fractal/
======
jfarmer
More than being an intro to Julia fractals, I think this post is a great
introduction to complex numbers and functions of the complex plane[1].
The way this is presented is very similar to how most math-folk I know picture
these concepts in their head. This is probably one of the toughest things for
beginners, who don't understand that (most) math-folk think in pictures like
this and not in symbols.
For example, starting at around Slide 29 in the first visualization, the
author actually paints a picture of a branch cut[2] without using that term.
Likewise, starting at around Slide 12 of the last visualization, the author
hints at the special relationship between complex numbers and differentiation
in the complex plane. The jargon-y stuff involved here are holomorphic
functions[3], the Cauchy-Riemann equations[4], and the very surprising-but-
central theorem of complex analysis: Cauchy's integral theorem[5].
[1]: Functions from ℂ to ℂ are "hard" to reason about because there
are 4 dimensions involved, at least if you're picturing ℂ as a
2-dimensional plane.
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branch_point#Branch_cuts
[3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holomorphic_function
[4]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cauchy-Riemann_equations
[5]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cauchy%27s_integral_theorem
------
jimmyspencerjr
What a wonderful post this is! I first encountered Julia fractals while taking
a masters class in chaos theory, technically a physics class. It was a masters
of liberal arts program so you got a little bit of everything... I hadn't
taken math since high school, really, and the class utterly annihilated my
conception of the world.
I remember the Julia fractal in particular because it was so beautiful, and it
was around this part of the course -- maybe 75% of the way through -- that the
fractals and like topics started to blow my mind. Our professor showed us this
video that zoomed in on a Julia fractal, something like this,
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gruJ0S3TTtI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gruJ0S3TTtI),
and I remember watching it all day at work the next day. I also searched for
images of the most beautiful Julias to make as my desktop background, of
course.
Not only were they beautiful but so symbolic, as this article captures: Julia
fractals are part of chaos theory, which holds that even determinate, logical
systems can nevertheless manifest completely unpredictable and nonrecurrent
behavior. It's a straightforward equation that gets you these beautiful -- and
utterly terrifying, ceaseless, dreamlike -- images, when mapped in a certain
way. For me, that's a really beautiful concept because with "Enlightenment"
mathematics, Newton and Leibniz and co, you got this concept of a determinate
universe, which could therefore also be known and predicated in advance. Yet
chaos theory shows that even determinate systems can be impossible to know,
refusing to allow the complexity and variety of that which exists to boil down
into a boring pattern of predictable and even controllable outcomes.
------
skybrian
Nice to read this again.
Not nearly as pretty, but if you'd like to read more about complex numbers,
here's a slide show I put together a while back:
How to explain Euler's identity using triangles and spirals
[https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1oMNjkDp-
LieSGnZEwNpc...](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1oMNjkDp-
LieSGnZEwNpceG8KTIvbnus9olu3KqnM5bg/edit#slide=id.i0)
~~~
rosstex
That's awesome, thank you! It really did "connect the dots" in my head :)
------
kzrdude
Previous discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7898883](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7898883)
~~~
tricolon
Older discussions:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5017078](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5017078)
(4 comments)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5036235](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5036235)
(50 comments)
------
SCAQTony
WOW! The masthead alone is worth a scroll, you even get an achievement badge.
LOL
~~~
corysama
You would like the article on how they made it
[http://acko.net/blog/zero-to-sixty-in-one-second/](http://acko.net/blog/zero-
to-sixty-in-one-second/)
All of their MathBox-powered articles are wonderfull really.
~~~
skeuomorf
nitpick: _He_ not _they_. [0] Steven is also the person who developed MathBox.
[1]
[0] [http://acko.net/about/](http://acko.net/about/)
[1] [http://acko.net/blog/making-mathbox/](http://acko.net/blog/making-
mathbox/)
~~~
tomn
Thanks for adding more information, but that's a perfectly cromulent use of
the word they.
~~~
skeuomorf
Actually I think the correctness of using a singular they is disputed but I am
not a grammaticist, however the word _cromulent_ which you used is not even a
real word but I didn't mention the correction to do all that nitpicking, I
just thought since the person's information is accessible, it'd be nice to
refer to him correctly that's all.
~~~
pdkl95
> the word cromulent ... is not even a real word
Only to a prescriptivist[1] trying to keep the language static. "Cromulent" is
slowly making its way into descriptivist[1] dictionaries and is recognized
about as often as any other new word, so it just as much a "real" word as
other new words ("email", "google" (transitive verb), "truthiness").
> the correctness of using a singular they
The alternative is gendered pronouns which have several problems[2].
/* I'm not trying to nitpick your post; I just thought these two Tom Scott
clips were fun and relevant to these grammar issues. */
[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qT8ZYewYEY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qT8ZYewYEY)
[2] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46ehrFk-
gLk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46ehrFk-gLk)
~~~
skeuomorf
That was kinda my point, I was not nitpicking -relative OP's- grammatical
usage, I just thought it was convenient to refer to the author in a more
specific manner since his details were obvious. I had no idea whether _their_
-relative OP- :) intention was to use "their" in a singular or plural manner.
Heck, one of my favorite Stephen Fry videos [0] talks exactly about this!
Also, the videos you referenced are great :)
[0]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7E-aoXLZGY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7E-aoXLZGY)
------
tripzilch
This page was very useful when I was teaching a (particularly clever) 12 year
old kid about complex numbers. He really wanted to render Mandelbrot/Julia
fractals (using Processing), had done some googling on the subject of complex
numbers, but most of the articles he found were ever-so-slightly above the
level of math he had learned in school (turned out he hadn't yet learned about
the distributive rule for multiplication, that (a+b)*(c+d) = ac + ad + bc +
bd, which is kinda important if you want to work out (x + iy)^2 given that i^2
= -1).
I was lucky that someone explained me complex numbers when I was 15 (I also
had wanted to plot Mandelbrot fractals for a long time, but back then I didn't
even have the Internet to help me), using a very visual approach similar to
the featured article. That is, multiplication by -1 is the same as a 180
degree rotation around the zero ... so what would happen if we decided we
could rotate by 90 degrees?
So I took a similar approach. Then I remembered this article about "folding
Julia fractals", the visualizations in this article were a great supplement to
the graphs and scribbles we made on paper, exploring the weird world of
complex numbers.
I did a little video interview with him to show off his work (cause, you know,
I was kinda proud):
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR6klRdtjsg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR6klRdtjsg)
\-- It's in Dutch and I'm not a very good interviewer, also no editing (and
yes I should've held my phone horizontally, sorry).
But the best part was two weeks later, I kinda feared I had dumped too much
information onto him at once (especially given I also had to explain the
distributive rule), I asked him if he had made any improvements or additions;
"Yeah, I had to wait at the dentist's this week, and I had Processing for
Android (APDE) on my phone, so I wrote the Julia version of the Mandelbrot
zoomer" ... Oh, if only I had have a powerful pocket computer when I was 12!!!
(so jealous!)
------
bittercynic
Reading this gave me a moderate ASMR response. Anyone else have that
occasionally from reading about math?
------
divs1210
What brilliant article and website design!
I feel stupid for not being able to visualize complex numbers before.
------
echoneptune
This would have helped me tremendously when I was studying complex numbers for
signal processing. I guess I'm a visual learner. I find that to be helpful in
some field in math, but held me back when I was studying statistics.
------
mrcactu5
There's not a whole lot of material about the Julia set itself.
When he talks about "folding" the Julia set, I immediately thought of this
picture of some fractions
[http://i.imgur.com/wxz2a3t.png](http://i.imgur.com/wxz2a3t.png) from this
paper: [http://arxiv.org/abs/1201.4225v1](http://arxiv.org/abs/1201.4225v1)
------
lasryaric
OWAW OWAW! I am starting to understand complex number, which I had to "flirt
with" a few times working on signal processing.
Thanks, amazing blogpost / webapp :)
------
codeshaman
Thank you ! I've been so looking for this article, I was totally amazed when I
first read it (back in 2013, I guess). I think it's one of the best math
explanations (or rather, visualisations) that I've ever seen.
------
dbalan
[Slightly OT] Crashes my firefox everytime (FF 40 on OSX).
~~~
tripzilch
I know. My low-powered laptop can barely handle it either. But this particular
page, is worth trying on a slightly more powerful computer :-)
------
gus_massa
The article is interesting, but it's very difficult to read with that
background. Also, my slow netbook becomes very slow rendering it.
~~~
kzrdude
The Julia set slideshow/animation (36 steps) is really the best part, the
animation of the set "folding" (square every point) is great.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Should I care to support IE6? - satyajit
According to the latest browser statistics (link below), the IE6 has a 17.1 market share. How many of those folks may care about the Web2.0 platform we are writing? May be about a fifth? So overall for those 2-3% of the entire market, is it worth spending your valuable cycle, which you would rather spend on features of your site. (also save on Tylenol expenses)
======
pclark
You have _no idea_ if a fifth of IE6 users will use your products: for all you
know they could _all_ use it.
My advice: support IE6 entirely, launch, iterate, then once you have users (=
market) then make the choice to scale back IE6 development.
As a young startup you'll have plenty of reasons why users won't stick - don't
make browser support (eg, something you can fix and are aware of) another
reason.
~~~
morpheism
Good advice. I would suggest that the OP also encourage users running IE6 to
upgrade.
You might want to take a look at the IE6 Update code (<http://ie6update.com/>)
for ideas.
------
mcav
If it's easy, dedicate a little code to give them a reasonable experience. But
any substantial effort in that arena would be a waste of time: Focus instead
on creating a great product that will bring forth a few more people who use
updated browsers.
------
twohey
As a data point, we see 53% of our traffic from some flavor of IE with a
breakdown (for IE) of:
IE-6 / IE-7 / IE-8
39% / 55% / 6%
For us, this sadly means that supporting IE-6 is mandatory.
------
satyajit
Browser statistics link:
<http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp>
~~~
juliend2
From w3schools : "our data, collected from W3Schools' log-files"
And as they say : "W3Schools is a website for people with an interest for web
technologies. These people are more interested in using alternative browsers
than the average user."
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: FreeSpace Previews w/ Ace Online Code Editor - akumpf
https://github.com/ajaxorg/ace/issues/2478
======
akumpf
Also, out of curiosity, does anyone know of any other code editors that show
URL previews inline?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
React JS Best Practices - lopatin
http://blog.siftscience.com/blog/2015/react-applications-that-scale
======
girvo
_> Flux is also quite verbose, which makes it inconvenient for data state,
state that is persisted to the server._
We felt the same way, until we moved away from Facebook's Flux implementation
and adopted Flummox[0]. It's singleton-free, so we gained isomorphism for our
application with only a tiny bit of extra work, and it hides away the
dispatcher (unless you need it, which we haven't despite having over a dozen
stores, tonnes of actions and a large number of components).
With Flummox making it so easy, we put all state into a store. This allows us
to save application UI state to localStorage, bootstrapping the app into the
same position the user was previous, with again no extra effort on our behalf.
It's well worth checking out!
[0] [http://acdlite.github.io/flummox/](http://acdlite.github.io/flummox/)
~~~
cnp
Oh holy shit I just moved my app off of reflux and on to flummox and wow! Much
better
~~~
arms
I'm also curious to hear why you like Flummox better than Reflux. I'm using
Reflux now, and haven't hit any pain points, which I can't say the same about
some of the other Flux implementations.
~~~
cnp
When I started investigating isomporphic strategies with Reflux I stumbled
upon this thread
([https://github.com/spoike/refluxjs/issues/144](https://github.com/spoike/refluxjs/issues/144))
which made me realize that if I didn't switch quick I would have some terrible
technical debt on my hands in the coming months. I started looking for
alternatives and found Flummox, which is lightweight, isomorphic, and written
for the future via ES6-7 features like async await and classes. (Once you
start using ES6 classes with ES7 classProperties turned on via Babel -> stage
0 you'll never want to go back to the old way of writing things.)
------
supercoder
Having just started using React for a new project, I absolutely love it.
This new project uses a Rails backend, with React allowing the web to act the
same way as any other client (iOS app, Android app etc), and it's so
productive to work in.
Pretty much decided I won't be writing a web app any other way for any future
work.
These best practices look pretty good, though my advice to any beginners would
be to not get too bogged down in worrying whether you're doing things 100%
right as React can be pretty forgiving in refactoring later on.
~~~
Hytosys
>Pretty much decided I won't be writing a web app any other way for any future
work.
Careful what you wish for!
------
iyn
One of my initial problems with React & CSS was styling :hover etc. For now,
Radium [0][1] solves this problem, but IMO as a community we're still trying
to figure out all the best practices and patterns, when it comes to building
isomorphic webapps (or webapps is general, since React introduces new way of
building apps and I'm sure that's just the beginning).
[0]
[http://projects.formidablelabs.com/radium/](http://projects.formidablelabs.com/radium/)
[1]
[https://github.com/FormidableLabs/radium](https://github.com/FormidableLabs/radium)
~~~
pbowyer
Why did you want to do it this way, rather than using CSS classes and a
stylesheet? I've read the Radium intro and I still don't get their use-case.
To me it feels like a misunderstanding of CSS, so inlining it in the component
makes sense to the programmer.
~~~
iyn
This is a great question, I used to think exactly the same until I became
enlighten ;). Well OK, to be honest I'm still not entirely happy with how
things are modularized, but I see advantages. This is a very good presentation
which explains key ideas: [https://speakerdeck.com/vjeux/react-css-in-
js](https://speakerdeck.com/vjeux/react-css-in-js)
Understanding the problems mentioned in the slides was literally eye opening.
I was already trying to solve the problems with CSS, without fully realizing
that I'm solving them. For example, my "solution" to namespaces was creating a
naming conventions for all classes/IDs, like ".header-search-box-button" and
this approach becomes PITA quickly. Also, after a while I had more and more
dead code, which wasn't easy to identify and I couldn't be sure that if I
remove some class, I don't have any elements that depend on it. Non-
deterministic resolution was also an issue for me - say user was on a page A
(therefore had loaded A.css with class .main-button) where particular boxes
are blue. If the user goes to page B (we load B.css which also has .main-
button) he should have red boxes. But if the user gets back to page A, the
boxes that are supposed to be blue are red (browser cached the style and when
browser have 2 classes definitions, the one that was loaded the last "wins").
Sure, we could use IDs for everything, bundle all styles into 1 file etc., but
bigger sites would have like 5MB CSS file and at the end of the day it's still
hard to maintain the codebase.
I'm sure that "normal" way works for regular/medium sites (it worked for a few
good years, right?), but I see ton of advantages for using the inline styles
in the JS. It's not easy to "convert" to new approach, but I honestly don't
look back. As I've said - it's not ideal solution, but a very important step
forward.
This is a good 3-part tutorial on react, flux and some other things:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd6Ub7Ju2RM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd6Ub7Ju2RM)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR22EWW-
CVc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR22EWW-CVc)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fhTawDEE9k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fhTawDEE9k)
~~~
Geee
What do you think of [http://www.basscss.com/](http://www.basscss.com/) and
would this kind of CSS be helpful in the situation you described?
~~~
iyn
This is the first time I saw Basscss, so take all this with a grain of salt.
It seems well written, but I would put it in the same/similar category as for
example Bootstrap. Basscss seems to be more modular - you can build your own
"version" of Bootstrap - but Basscss gives you npm modules, so you could do
something like/equivalent of require(basscss-grid). So, there are some
differences that can be interpreted as a advantage of Bootstrap/Basscss, but
react tries to solve the bigger problem IMO. Did you see that we're adding
more and more "logic" into CSS (like animations calculations, :first, :even
etc)? Where is the line? Does CSS is still "only" description of the
presentation or something more? To be honest, I don't know where we are now,
all those things start to merge/mix. I'd say that we're still on a quest to
find the best paradigms for the web. "Regular" HTML, CSS and JS were working
fine, but we're moving forward and new problems arise (how to handle different
screen sizes, how can 1000 people work on the same code base, ...), so we're
trying new solutions (like react and flux).
So, to answer your question: Basscss could help with some of the problems with
CSS but I think that react solves problem on a higher level and does it better
than any other solution we have now.
~~~
Geee
BassCSS is very different from Bootstrap or any other CSS framework. It's more
like "classed inline styles", so you build your element styling like 'border
border-blue blue bg-white p1 m1' (blue border, blue text on white background,
1 unit padding, 1 unit margin) e.g. you mix-and-match different CSS classes to
style your elements.
So, I was thinking using React + BassCSS, and build the class string in my
React components. Not sure if it makes sense, but at least it would probably
be a bit more manageable and faster to develop than inline styles. Inline
styles could be added on top of that of course.
~~~
iyn
If that's the case, I stand corrected. But the thing is, I still consider
Basscss a solution from the "CSS world". React, IMO, takes it to the next
level and combines inline styles with JS features (simple example:
[https://youtu.be/7YwmS0ny-58?t=58m38s](https://youtu.be/7YwmS0ny-58?t=58m38s)
\- the scalable font can be done in pure CSS but I could imagine more complex
use cases). Still, everybody picks the tools that are best suited for the
problem and his/her preferences.
Have you checked Radium
([http://projects.formidablelabs.com/radium/](http://projects.formidablelabs.com/radium/))?
What don't you like in this approach, if I may ask?
~~~
Geee
Yep, Radium looks pretty cool for dynamic styling.
------
rattray
I would love to see their HoverCard and similar components open-sourced, or at
least shared in a gist. Many of their abstractions sound great &
generalizable.
~~~
pbowyer
Open sourcing a library of components would be fantastic.
------
lopatin
Author here, happy to answer any questions or discuss further!
~~~
nthitz
Hi, how does React work with other libraries that modify DOM state
arbitrarily? How might d3 dom changes or canvas context calls work with React
~~~
lopatin
Nice, we're actually posting a tutorial in a week or two about how we use d3 +
react. I'll try to summarize though.
In the case that a library modifies the DOM, we try to keep React out of it's
way. React works best when it has full control of the DOM. In these cases,
React components are more of "wrappers" for the 3rd party libraries. Mostly by
using the componentDidMount/componentWillUnmount to initialize/destroy the
third party library, respectively. And props as a way of giving the parent a
way of customizing the behavior of the third party library that the child
wraps.
~~~
lobster_johnson
We use Google ads in our React apps, and it turns out to be a problem. I
wonder if anyone has solved it in a satisfactory way.
Basically, with GPT you have named slots identified by their DOM element IDs.
You can "refresh" a slot any time, which will populate the element if it's
empty, or load a different ad.
So we do that when we're mounted. Unfortunately, if the page structure
changes, React will re-render the component and blow away the contents --
anything GPT has put in the element is considered alien.
That's fine, we just refresh. The problem is knowing _when_ a render has
finished and the ad element is empty. In my testing, React elements would
often have a delay after which their changes have been applied to the DOM; so
I use setInterval to check repeatedly for an empty element. It seems like a
stupid solution, but I couldn't figure out a more solid way; there's no React
callback for completed renders.
~~~
dandelany
Seems to me you could wrap ad elements in container components that have:
shouldComponentUpdate() { return false; }
Which would prevent React from re-rendering them after initial mount... any
reason why this doesn't work? I do this often when using d3 selections to keep
React out of the way and catch incoming props in componentWillReceiveProps
instead.
~~~
STRML
This is the right answer. This will effectively keep React from touching the
element ever again after the initial render.
~~~
talldan
I'm intrigued as to why you think this approach is better than using a key?
The 'shouldComponentUpdate' way of doing things means any changes to props or
state on the component have to be handled manually, which can introduce a lot
of non-trivial and overly complex code.
------
nulltype
I've been looking at reactive UI design, and it seems weird to me that
React.js has this React.createClass and .setState stuff. It seems like it
would be better to let the user manage the state and just re-render whenever
the state changes. Am I missing something about how this works that makes
those necessary?
~~~
Swizec
By making it explicit and a bit clunky, you discourage users from using state.
Without explicit functions to be called, you can't detect state changes and
would need polling. This is terrible.
At the end of the day, it's a limitation of JavaScript because unlike with
Python, for example, you can't have automagic getter/setter functions. They
_have to_ be called as functions.
~~~
nulltype
Seems like .observe() would fix that polling thing, right?
[http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/es7/observe/](http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/es7/observe/)
Also you could just re-render whenever any event happens, which is probably
when your state changes anyway.
~~~
lopatin
One reason for the explicit method may be that React does an internal
optimization where it batches state updates together. Two calls to setState
can result in just one render.
[https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/reactjs/R61kPjs-
yXE/ys...](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/reactjs/R61kPjs-
yXE/ysmpC0IvA4YJ)
~~~
masklinn
No reason why this wouldn't be possible with Observe, the first call schedules
a re-render and the next one doesn't do anything since there's already a re-
render scheduled.
------
revskill
I've wrtitten a book to show how to integrate Rails with React.js. It uses
Backbone to act as Router. You can try it at
[https://www.gitbook.com/book/checkraiser/rails-and-react-
js/...](https://www.gitbook.com/book/checkraiser/rails-and-react-js/details)
------
perrywky
Suggestion: do not change any ui in any event handlers, otherwise you are
doing it wrong
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
I quit my 100k a year job to learn programming from scratch. Ask me anything. - fttechfounder
http://anyasq.com/47-i-quit-my-100k-a-year-job-to-learn-programming-from-scratch
======
theblueadept111
Hi, I'm a novice in your field. I've read about your field in the popular
media, and have romantic notions about becoming extremely successful in your
field, even though I have 8 years less experience than even a recent graduate.
Let me tell you some cliche ideas I've summarized from reading blogs, even
though you probably have decades or more experience than I do. Ok, now go
ahead and ask me ANYTHING. Anything at all!
~~~
fttechfounder
Haha, you never know what kind of response you'll get by putting something on
the internet!
Asking me about computer programming is going to be pretty silly. But if
you're thinking about learning to code and want to understand what it's like
to learn a new skill, I can probably share some insights.
------
aristus
What if I don't have a Twitter account?
~~~
fttechfounder
No idea although I imagine it's somewhere on the AnyAsq road map. I've added
the question here: <http://anyasq.com/7-im-building-anyasq-right-now>
If there's something specific you would like to ask me, feel free to ask it
here.
------
ttran08
How long have you been learning to code and how far along are you? I'm
seriously considering learning to code myself.
~~~
fttechfounder
I'm working through David Malan's "CS50: Intro to Computer Science" course at
Harvard (<http://cs50.tv/2010/fall/>) and also Chris Pine's 'Learn to Program
(<http://pine.fm/LearnToProgram/>).
As a complete beginner, I've found both to be very accessible, although the
CS50 course is much more rigorous and much more of a pain since it's mostly
taught in C99. While I can zip through chapters in Chris Pine's book, which
teaches Ruby, I spend days working through each of the CS50 problem sets.
At the beginning, the biggest surprise was how hard it was. It sounds obvious,
but programming is about thinking like a machine. If you're like most normal
people, this is going to be hard because you just don't naturally think like a
machine!
After a while, the framework of approaching a problem becomes more second
nature, but it's still hard, especially if you're learning by yourself. I
remember showing off what I thought was a completed program to my girlfriend.
She played with it for about 5 seconds before breaking it by putting some
input I hadn't planned for.
If I started again, I would have enrolled in a community college for physical
course just so I could have peers check my work and people to talk to when I
hit a wall. I quit my job to learn to code so I'm fairly motivated, but even
then, working by yourself has a way of a eating that away. I'm moving to New
York City next month and the first thing I'm going to do is get plugged in.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Intel Real Sense Camera on Linux: 3D Camera Controls - teknotus
http://solsticlipse.com/2015/02/10/intel-real-sense-on-linux-part-2-3d-camera-controls.html
======
barrystaes
An article about a LIDAR, without calling it a LIDAR. How quaint!
~~~
teknotus
I haven't found any definition for Lidar that isn't a speed of light based
measurement. Under this definition the Kinect 2 camera is Lidar but the real
sense camera isn't because uses parallax.
------
auvi
Intel should hire this guy to do the Linux port of RealSense SDK.
------
kefka
This guy's doing an awesome job! Although, I know how it is when you cant
afford to continue a project due to paying the bills. It stinks...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Does CSS Grid Replace Flexbox? - mirceasoaica
https://css-tricks.com/css-grid-replace-flexbox/
======
ajross
As a systems guy who only occasionally pokes his head into this web stuff:
have we now completed the circle? For well over a decade I've seen generations
of web hackers rail on about the evils of tables for layout. And now I look at
this thing, and... it's a table. For layout.
Oh sure, it's a table defined externally to the components. So your screen-
reader enumeration of the document structure is unpolluted by the physical
layout which is stored in a separate data structure in a separate language.
And that's... good, I guess?
Meanwhile I see that native app development continues, as it has for like 30
years now, to shamelessly put UI components directly into hierarchies based on
physical layout. And they still haven't tripped over the paradigm.
I know it sounds glib, but it's a serious question: tell me again what was
wrong with <table>?
~~~
oliwarner
That separation between markup and presentation language (CSS here) is
_exactly_ the point. Kicking all this stuff out into CSS means your markup can
_mean_ what you're trying to say.
Using <table> elements should mean you're defining a table with tabular data
in it. These new bells and whistles don't change that. You'll still use
<table> for tabular data.
And I'm not sure what you mean about native app development. We bitch and moan
about the inadequacies of CSS (more its implementation) but layout engines in
real programming languages are a total ballache to get along with, especially
if you're from a CSS background. You can't just commandeer a table and twist
it for your own evil deeds, you have to use one of a finite layouts. Gtk3 is
the closest I've found to something I didn't want to stab on sight.
~~~
ue_
Why must a table be used in such a way, only for tabular data? Sorry if I seem
obtuse, but I don't really see the purpose behind semantic elements. Tables
were fine for layout with much fewer things that you needed to get right.
Wikipedia still uses tables for the layout on the Main Page, for example.
I don't think there is any 'meaning' in the tags that we use, and any meaning
implied there is invented as a way to try and match concepts on the screen to
things we recognise in real life. I can _mean_ the same thing to a user using
tables, because they don't know that it's a table. Can I put a comment like
"This table is for layout"? That would also convey meaning, and be a lot
easier than messing around with CSS layout.
After a while of trying to get CSS to work with table-like layout, I think I'm
going to move back to just using tables in future. At least, until something
better than CSS+HTML comes along.
~~~
oliwarner
As a developer who somehow survived the times of frame, imagemap, and table-
based layouts, I can promise you, they all had their own issues. Well before
semantics, developers and designers needed CSS just to make things possible.
But you're focussing on people and healthy ones at that. Semantics matter a
lot less there because _you can_ style anything to look like anything else.
But somebody with a screen reader literally needs semantics for accessibility.
You set your page up as a table and their screen reader is going to iterate
through it like a table.
And things like microformats are soft-semantics that allow your devices to
explicitly know that "this thing here is an address", "that's a phone number
you can click", and there's a whole bunch of formats for declaring embed data
rather than making a service infer it from your actual content.
But if you just can't be bothered, do yourself and your users a favour. Use a
framework (eg Bootstrap). It won't be perfect but it'll stop you using tables
for layout and that's already a lot better. I can't believe it won't also look
better.
------
tracker1
Honestly, I almost just want simple tables back... It really feels like we've
been working very hard to create more complex layouts with flex/grid systems,
and while I can see the need in some cases... I can't help but feel a lot of
the more trivial things would be better with simple table.
~~~
jordanlev
You can still use tables and CSS display:table (you should use the latter if
the content is not actually tabular data so as not to make life annoying for
people using screen readers).
But for those of us building sites with complex layouts (and situations where
we can't be entirely sure of the contents, e.g. using a CMS or static site
generator), it's really amazing to finally have tools in CSS to actually do
page layout.
~~~
tracker1
Oh, I very much agree... but I recently took the time to come up with a nice
layout using flexbox (really my first time delving in without relying on a
framework for most of it), and it wasn't too bad, some of the naming
conventions are weird. But then I pull it up in IE11 in a VM and Safari...
man, those were painful to fix. Yeah, I was maybe missing things, or the
defaults aren't as sane as they could have been.. but Chrome and FF
looked/worked great, but Safari in particular I had to redo things... then
back and forth until it finally worked across the board.
------
jimmcslim
In addition to the one-dimension vs two-dimension distinction, perhaps it
useful to think of CSS Grid as for page/application-level layout, whereas
Flexbox is for component-level layout.
------
ry_ry
Ignoring that they're for quite different tasks - Flexbox's (albeit crappy)
support in IE11 makes it more appealing if I was going to pick one of the two.
IE11 still has more users[0] hitting our main site than Edge, so I can see
legacy support dragging on for a while yet.
But as pretty much everybody has noted, they do different things so this is
more of a hypothetical comparison.
[0] Just checked - Edge 2.9%, IE11 4.2% of ~1.6m visits so far this month.
------
nkristoffersen
I still use:
.mytable{display:table}
.myrow{display:table-row}
.mycell{display:table-cell;vertical-align:middle;}
Simply because it's been the fastest and easiest way for me to vertically
align stuff. Plus very backwards compatible. But I think I'm in the minority
by not using the flexbox, etc.
~~~
jordanlev
If that works for you and your designs, then great! But there are a lot of
places where display:table falls apart, especially with responsive designs.
Flexbox and Grid also bring a new level of ability to separate source order
from display order, which isn't possible using display:table.
------
pitaj
tl;dr: no
CSS Grid is a two-dimensional layout mechanism. CSS Flexbox only handles a
single dimension.
~~~
SippinLean
That doesn't summarize the article:
>it's not impossible to make multi-dimensional layouts in just Flexbox
Both are 2D layout mechanisms. You can make Grid act like Flexbox and vice-
versa but they have different strengths, and are best used in tandem.
~~~
Lio
Rachel Andrew has added a very illuminating comments to the article which, I
think, highlights why Flexbox can't do what Grid does:-
_“Potentially Confusing: a “2D” Layout with Flexbox” – that isn’t a 2d
layout. It’s a wrapped flex layout. As soon as you want to make that final box
line up with the boxes in the first column you realise what you have isn’t
two-dimensional._
_Flex wrapping doesn’t make it two dimensional. Each row (in your example) is
a flex container itself, space distribution happens across each row
individually. Which is why it isn’t two-dimensional._
_More here[https://rachelandrew.co.uk/archives/2017/03/31/grid-is-
all-a...](https://rachelandrew.co.uk/archives/2017/03/31/grid-is-all-about-
the-container/) _
_You can also space grid tracks out evenly and so on, box alignment is shared
by both the flexbox and grid specifications. For examples of that
see[http://gridbyexample.com/video/align-
grid/](http://gridbyexample.com/video/align-grid/) _
------
frik
Looking at the CSS Grid examples, I am not sure why? Tables and Divs with
reflow can do the same, but with more predictable outcome and less
boilerplate.
How about optimising the existing render-paths even more in Blink/Webkit/Gecko
instead requiring us to wrap the head around new-but-old things to make it
easier for you (the engine devs). Or who else thought it's a good idea to
invent yet another syntax. There was a lot of unfounded hate against Tables
for the last 15 years, but as we all learned out, Tables have there place.
~~~
ry_ry
Tables absolutely have their place... for rendering tabular data!
The idea that tables are "bad" was always semantic FUD, but i like to think
we're pretty much over that these days and the fact remains that they're far
from ideal for responsive page-level layout and we now have a far more
powerful (and meaningful!) toolbox to pick from. The CSS display-table
techniques were at best a hack, disguising the presence tables in the markup,
but they were still there at an abstract level in all their tabley glory.
The stuff you can do with a handful of lines of flexbox/grid blow a
conventional table layout away at the expense of a steeper learning curve.
They're honestly worth the effort.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: gist.io, blogless writing for hackers - idan
http://gist.io
======
idan
Author here.
Generally, if you have features you want, file 'em here:
<https://github.com/idan/gistio/issues>
Stuff I'd like to do given the time:
* Add RestructuredText support
* Add a sign-in-with-github option, and turn this into a minimalist blogging platform. Comments (gist comments), index page (showing any gists of yours that have been gist.io'd), authoring (I like writing in IA writer, maybe an experience similar to that, but with auto-saving.)
* Maybe some kind of means for controlling cache (right now gists are cached for one minute).
~~~
quadhome
I love the minimalism!
If you add sign-in-with-github support, be sure you start hosting the HTML and
JS off a different domain.
------
msutherl
This looks really great, but I have to take issue with your choice of
typeface. While the description in the Google font database makes it out to be
an award winning face for literature optimized for reading, its exaggerated
serifs and uneven rhythm give it a kind of medieval / enlightened manuscript
feel that just seems anachronistic and weird. For a general service that
integrates with Github and shouldn't really be 'saying' anything with its
design, I would recommend a more classic, rhythmic serif face along the lines
of Minion, Caslon, Palatino, Baskerville, Hoefler Text, or even Georgia, which
reads quite well at 14-16px.
Granted I'm a designer, I personally wouldn't use this service based on the
typeface choice alone. It just clashes too much with the neutrality of
everything else on my system and on websites I use commonly.
~~~
idan
Sorry to hear that. I don't find the typeface to be as good as my current
favorite workhorse serif (Elena, from process type, which I licensed for
<http://gazit.me> )—but I don't find it to be objectionable or harmful to
legibility either. Quite the opposite, I found it to be a serif with
personality—less so than the commonly-used Skolar—and it reminded me of Elena
(the shape of the adnate serifs, the slightly negative stress, the relatively-
tall x-height, and the lowercase 'e' in particular).
I'll revisit type choices at some point, but right now the goal was to get
something up, and as much as I love the faces you've specified, half I'm sick
of and the other half aren't sufficiently ubiquitous.
~~~
moe
I have to agree with msutherl (all subjective).
For me your font-size is a notch too large, which amplifies the weaknesses of
the typeface. Personally I'd stick with Palatino[1] or Georgia for
readability.
Mind you, this is perfectionist quibbles. Your font isn't _bad_. Just myself
I'd probably hit the readability bookmarklet if I wanted to read a longer text
on your site.
[1] <http://ksjoberg.com/vim-esckeys.html>
------
idan
It's kind of like readability for gists.
~~~
hollerith
If that is all it is, why can't the reader just use Readability (or Readable)?
------
melvinmt
Great stuff. I see a great use case for this: when people want to write a
reply to a post they can just fork the original gist and write their reply
above it, like this: <http://gist.io/3140173>
In this way you can regard the list of forks at the right of the gist page as
the list of comments (screenshot: <http://cl.ly/image/1803161N432H>).
~~~
mgualt
There seem to be comments on gists already -- I am trying to figure out how
they are dealt with in github.
------
mykolasmith
> "Sometimes, we just want to share a bit of writing that is neither. Maybe we
> want to write for a specific audience, but don’t want to address the people
> who usually read our blogs."
You had me here. But I want to know where the top, featured, and new sections
are. Where can I be recommended gists that are similar to those of users I
subscribe to? Or are you trying to make this into the sort of imgur.com of
stories on HN kind of thing?
------
Xcelerate
This is a little bit off the subject, but it relates to the topic title at
hand, so I thought I would ask it.
I noticed that the web address is gist.io. After searching 4 letter .io domain
names, I realized most of them are taken. However, I did stumble upon one
common word that has _not_ been taken, and in fact, it matches the same word
used in a little start-up project I've been working on (workout and fitness
tracking).
Now the question is this: I'm a grad student with relatively little money, and
$90 is a lot for a domain name. But if I actually finish my little project, is
the value of a 4-letter domain name that is a common word worth the $90?
.io names seem to be getting very popular lately, so I need to make my
decision quickly. Thanks for the help!
EDIT: And by the way, I also discovered that nap.io is available. I think HN
would have better use for the domain than a name-squatter, so if someone wants
to create a sleep app or something, there ya' go.
~~~
rane
Creating apps based on the availability of domain names, interesting approach,
hmm.
~~~
koblas
What would be a good service on nap.io? Nap Timer Nap Reminder Nap Prompter
Napsack...
~~~
Xcelerate
I see you purchased it :) There's a lot of things you could do with it. I
think a sleep logger of some sort would be good. People are always worrying
about how much sleep they get, and something to track and analyze one's sleep
would be great. Just an idea.
------
alecperkins
I'm really liking this use of gists as a backend to more specialized services
(eg <http://dabblet.com> & <http://codepen.io> ). It's a nice, easy way to get
a versioned document store without having to build out the infrastructure.
Direct access to the "raw" form is a plus.
------
ams6110
Add a noscript tag reminding visitors they need to have javascript enabled.
Otherwise they just see a slowly pulsating "Loading..."
------
realize
I love this idea. Not sure if this is a direction you'd be interested in, but
it would be really cool if this could act as a widget that I could insert into
an existing blog site with a single line of code and your service would
populate the rest. This would let me use gists for all my blogging, and still
have the rest of my site around the outside.
~~~
realize
It would also let my own css style it.
------
seanconaty
Love this. I love writing markdown and I love the ease of creating gists. I've
actually used gists for writing too. (<http://gist.io/2483505>)
I've noticed that some authors will create a public repo like "thoughts" and
add markdown files to it (rather than writing gists).
~~~
roryokane
Yes, the recent HN submission <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4240407>
linked to an article [https://github.com/harryf/thoughts/blob/master/mobile-
killed...](https://github.com/harryf/thoughts/blob/master/mobile-killed-the-
login.md) that was in a “thoughts” GitHub repository.
~~~
seanconaty
Yup. That's what I was referring to!
------
mgualt
What is a gist, really? Is it a versioned, modifiable and referencable
publication? Can I store it in my github repo? Should we be using gist as a
model for info packet? is there an "API"? If someone could explain their
understanding of a gist, I would appreciate it.
~~~
swanson
A gist is basically a mini-git repo. There is a revision history and they are
attached to your github page. You can also folk or edit them and there is a
permalink to each revision.
There is programmatic access to gists via the github API.
This might help clarify: An example of using gist.io: <http://gist.io/3135754>
The underlying gist: <https://gist.github.com/3135754>
~~~
mmahemoff
I was thinking it would be nice if there was also
<https://gist.github.com/3135754.json>
Then I checked. And there is.
Not to mention JSONP suppport.
<https://gist.github.com/3135754.json?callback=foo>
------
philh
I like this, but I find the default <code> style to be jarring when mixed with
the normal text style. Possibly making it smaller would be sufficient.
It also doesn't handle ```lang ... ``` blocks properly: compare
<https://gist.github.com/3050085> with <http://gist.io/3050085> .
------
sdqali
This is pretty cool. Mike Bostock, the creator of the d3.js visualization
framework runs a service <http://bl.ocks.org/> that lets you write HTML and JS
code for visualizations and use the website to display them. It is pretty
neat. An example can be found here: <http://bl.ocks.org/1134768>
------
minikomi
Had a very similar idea which would use a single gist as a repository for all
posts and do it clientside. Never fleshed it out though.
My thinking was to have a different gist per month which could be added too..
Unfortunately, not too friendly for non-js browsers which is kind of the weak
point.
<http://poyo.co/blog/>
------
amatsukawa
This looks awesome. It would be cool if you could build a community around
this. I wish I could not only post with this tool, but also read what others
are writing. While someone may not want to keep a full blog, they may be
willing to write a one-off post. This would be a great place to collect that
kind of posts.
------
x4ab
Instapaper compatibility: Considering the fact that this is for reading
writings rather than codes, I think it makes sense to make it compatible with
Instapaper and other services similar to it.
Also the <title> element should be the description rather than gist.io#.
------
hollerith
>"Maybe we want to write for a specific audience, but don’t want to address
the people who usually read our blogs."
I use Jottit Dot Com for that purpose.
In the 5 or so years I have been using it, I've never encountered a bug or a
service outage.
------
zende
feature request: syntax highlighting in code snippets
~~~
idan
Yeah, on my list
<https://github.com/idan/gistio/issues/1>
------
jamesflorentino
I think maruku would be a better alternative than markdown. Currently you
cannot make a table of contents inside your gist. But overall, I find this
extremely handy. Thanks for contributing this to the open source community.
------
jmduke
Related: is it possible to edit gists (anonymous or otherwise?) If not, that
seems like a functionality that could be implemented here, with a bit of
trickery.
~~~
idan
Not yet, see my comment above (or below, whatever)
~~~
seanconaty
I was referring to capabilities of github.
~~~
alecperkins
You can edit your own, and fork the gists of others. They're full git repos.
------
arrowgunz
I once made something similar, except that it's not dependent on GitHub.
<http://cpypst.me>
Great job by the way.
------
alx
Could you manage post backups using git in a local folder? I'm adding it to
your issues :)
edit: finally I wouldn't like to break your minimalistic idea down
~~~
idan
This isn't going to turn into something that interfaces with a repo. I wish
ifttt had a github channel, that would be perfect for this sort of thing.
------
PufferBuffer
This is great. A lot of people already blog by ftp-ing text file or committing
to git, this greatly simplifies the process. Thank you!
------
danieldk
Cool! It would be nice if there is some information about the writer
available. For instance, their name as registered on Github.
------
exolab
Please tell me that the end of your scale of permanence with regard to writing
isn't blogs :)
------
nickbalestra
imho - No comparison to feathers, that looks like has been of inspiration as
well to gistio (even from our manifesto) :). Check it out and signup for the
private beta!
<http://feathe.rs/>
------
fredsters_s
awesome. mad props
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Lanyrd: From idea to exit – the story of our startup - simonw
http://blog.natbat.net/post/61658401806/lanyrd-from-idea-to-exit-the-story-of-our-startup
======
simonw
Natalie put a lot of work in to this (and we're suposed to be on holiday!).
There's lots of great stuff in here - not just about the overall startup
experience, but also advice on talking to press, raising money and building
out the company.
~~~
Macsenour
I'd love to hear your thoughts on single founder startups.
I don't think I can do it all, I just I can start it by myself and then
attract the right partner. Crazy?
~~~
yumraj
I'm currently working on a single-founder startup. And, as with everything
there are pros and cons. So, in one word, Crazy, NO!!.. difficult, yes, but
startups are hard anyway..
I'm a software engineer, as well as an MBA (finishing up) so I can do most of
the stuff myself which I believe to be a plus.
When I was starting I found finding a co-founder to be a lot more work with
nothing to show for, but since I believed in my idea I just decided to get
started and do as much as I could.
I'm about to incorporate, am currently in a soft launch mode to get direct
customer input and make fixes. I just divide my time between meeting people
(customers etc.) and developing, and yes I have a day job (and a new born).
So, my hands are more than full.
Whether I'll be successful or not, I don't know, but the journey has been very
rewarding so far.
------
javajosh
_> Over time he completely re-architected the app to have a UI that is driven
entirely from the server and doesn’t need to go through the various app stores
to release changes._
So I'm reading this and wondering: this differs from a webapp how exactly?
~~~
tantalor
There's more to a web app than the UI.
~~~
recursive
True, but the UI is the only part that defines it as a web app.
~~~
tantalor
You can also define a web app by the capabilities of a modern web browser,
e.g., storage, network, graphics.
------
Toenex
As a Brit working in a UK start-up it really is great to hear fellow Brits
making it happen. Well done, you are spreading a little hope.
------
nswanberg
"An immensely useful lesson to learn is how to correlate all the conflicting
advice and apply it to your own situation."
This appears to be the single most important way to get use from YCombinator
(or from reading Hacker News). Even if it seems obvious, keeping this advice
in mind also helps to avoid posting indignant comments on other startup advice
threads.
------
jcampbell1
Wow, thanks for putting this together. I really liked seeing the image of the
press pack. It seems like a excellent example of what to do.
------
govind201
That was refreshing. Congratulations on the journey and the exit Lanyrd!
~~~
natbat
Thanks!
------
Samuel_Michon
Reading this brought back a memory for me too, even if just as a bystander. I
was lucky to be able to attend dConstruct 2010, it was the most wonderful
design conference I’ve been to so far. All the presentations, by the likes of
Merlin Mann, John Gruber, and David McCandless, were very inspiring.
It was a one day event and all the talks were held in the same space. At one
point, the guys from Lanyrd came on stage and explained how the site worked.
They asked all the attendees to tweet to @lanyrd and write that they are
attending dConstruct. That way, everyone got automatically added on the Lanyrd
site as attendees, with profile and everything. It was an impressive demo.
Until now, I didn’t know that was the event when Lanyrd officially launched,
it come across to me like they’d been polishing the app for ages.
------
danvoell
Good Story! Your next startup should be one in which someone can easily add
text on top of photos in their blog, and then allow readers to easily share
those (nuggets of wisdom) photos on Social Media with the click of a button.
------
reillyse
Can't help but notice from the "one click deploy" part that you are still
using Jenkins!
Check out circleci.com you can do some really neat stuff around testing and
deploying and it's a whole lot less painful.
------
johns
Great post, thanks for taking the time to write it up.
I'm curious how the discussions got started with Eventbrite. Were you
discussing another kind of partnership first? How close were your existing
contacts?
~~~
simonw
We were introduced to Kevin (their CEO) by YC for advice when we were raising
our seed round. We worked a little with their business development team on an
API integration project, then got to know their engineering team.
------
ludicast
Congrats, a very sweet story. My wife is not interested in tech (though she
has a very strong science background...) but working together would be a lot
of fun (and stress).
------
julianpye
This is a wonderful and inspiring story. Congrats to you both!
------
jjoe
Congratulations! Has the sum been disclosed?
Thanks
~~~
natbat
Thanks! We're not disclosing the sum, but we are happy and so are our
investors.
~~~
kitanata
So at its peak right now, how many speakers are actively using lanyrd?
Updating their profile, collaborating, etc?
------
Kiro
> One-click deploys
How is this typically achieved?
------
daker
Greeting from Morocco :)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What are the best practices for opening a single outbound connection? - millisecond
In a world where most systems are architected to redundantly handle tons of inbound connections sometimes you need to start a single long-lived highly available outbound one.<p>For inbound, it's pretty easy, run redundant load balancing processes/servers in front of redundant web front-ends.<p>When you need to open a single outbound connection, i.e. WebSocket to a remote service, how do you architect it on the standard cloud platforms to always have a single one open? Need to both catch closes on the remote side and re-open and failures of the code / instance / hardware on the listening side.<p>Thinking something about locking a DB row or using atomic DB operations to claim the resource every N seconds and have a cluster of instances all contending for the resource, but feel like there must be a better way.
======
ahazred8ta
There are tcp-tunnel solutions that use redundant sessions, sometimes even
replicated proxies. This is one of them but YMMV.
[http://blog.ine.com/2008/11/06/ipsec-vpn-high-
availability-w...](http://blog.ine.com/2008/11/06/ipsec-vpn-high-availability-
with-hsrp/)
------
mrits
To be highly available the services certainly need to be aware of the status
of the connection. It seems like a normal election leader algorithm would
handle this just find.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
U.S. Women Are Facing an Infertility Crisis - rbanffy
http://fortune.com/2017/05/03/us-fertility-crisis/?xid=soc_socialflow_twitter_FORTUNE
======
bediger4000
I only had to temporarily allow fortune.com to load the text of the article.
I'd also note that "Fortune" is an unabashed tool of the elite, and elite-
wannabes.
Anyway, the article doesn't support the title - it only gives one doctor's
opinion that "infertility is rampant in the U.S." The rest of the very short
article is some moaning about how health insurance doesn't cover in vitro
fertilization, and a warning for 25-35 year old women to freeze their eggs if
they think they want to reproduce.
I'm feeling a little cognitive dissonance between the title and the article.
I'm feeling a little baffled by the article itself.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Naja Pitches on Shark Tank - majani
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yL11e1eJ2mk
======
_RPM
I think she gave off an arrogant feel. The sharks didn't like that she acted
like she was smarter than everyone. When she said that she met the VC at a
bar.. my immediate thoughts were related to all those stores of women claiming
sexual harassment issues when meeting with VC's.. but the opposite.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ghost in the Shell Official Trailer - wslh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4VmJcZR0Yg
======
icanhackit
The original soundtrack by Kenji Kawai, like Vangelis' Blade Runner
soundtrack, is what helped make the film a timeless classic. I really hope the
music in this clip was to merely engage people who aren't familiar with the
original film by Mamoru Oshii. An excellent soundtrack can make a passable
film a really enjoyable experience - case in point: Solaris (2002).
~~~
toyg
They casted a load of Western actors into a film based in Japan. I don't think
respect for the source material is exactly high on their list.
~~~
Xophmeister
Wasn't the original Ghost in the Shell based in Hong Kong?
~~~
toyg
Per wikipedia:
_" Primarily set in the mid-twenty-first century in the fictional Japanese
city of Niihama, Niihama Prefecture (新浜県新浜市 Niihama-ken Niihama-shi),
otherwise known as New Port City (ニューポートシティ Nyū Pōto Shiti)"_
There are episodes where they operate abroad, but the overall setting is
clearly Japanese.
~~~
gpderetta
The first GItS movie is actually set in Hong Kong (although never explicitly
stated, IIRC). There is no shared continuity between the manga, the two anime
series and the movies. The new live action movie is probably also in its own
continuity.
~~~
Xophmeister
Yes, sorry, I meant "original" to mean the 1995 movie. I remember watching a
documentary about GitS which pointed out that you can identify the setting as
Hong Kong by the low flying aircraft over the city, which also dates it to
before Kai Tak Airport was closed and HK got its new international airport on
reclaimed land.
------
masters3d
This trailer is not that good which makes me feel like the movie is low
budget. Too bad. The went too dark and over futuristic. The whole point of the
original was that even though people choose to be cyborgs, they still want to
be human. The city was still Asian looking. Lots it's lost by making this
futuristic. Major never looked Asian to me. Even Lucy looked better than this.
~~~
piva00
I think you are judging too much (or being too hyperbolic) by watching a
single 2 minutes cut made to be "marketable".
------
serf
I wonder if any of the philosophy elements that made the franchise worthwhile
(to me) will be present in the Hollywood adaptation.
My jadedness towards Hollywood makes me doubt it, but I hold hope.
~~~
corysama
I can't expect the Hollywood adaptation to live up to the original. But, what
I've seen in the trailers looks good and I plan on watching the movie when it
comes out. It looks like it will be a very fun romp through the theme.
For those looking for a heavily philosophical take: obviously watch the
original movie, then GITS:2 Innocence and the TV series GITS: Stand Alone
Complex.
The 2nd movie is more a work of art than a film. If you watch it, you'll need
to have the patience to appreciate that.
The TV series was written by people who wanted a cop drama that happened to
feature cyborgs. Not the other way around. Appreciate that and you'll find a
lot of interesting ideas presented in a cartoon. I still hold that GITS:SAC
presents a better understanding of the Anonymous phenomenon than most techies
have today.
~~~
kriro
I really like GITS: Stand Alone Complex. It's probably the best animated
series I have watched (the other one that comes to mind, while quite
different, would be Batman The Animated Series).
Edit: I'd love some cyberpunk-style recommendations (comic books, series).
What I really want is some sort of corporate dystopia, similar to the
Android:Netrunner universe (I've read those books they were decent but not
great) or close to Blade Runner. Ideally with some noir elements. Where's that
semantic search engine when you need it :D
~~~
yrro
Bubblegum Crisis!
------
vex
Here's a bad-quality version of the opening; the original composer came back
to make a new version of the iconic song:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5amv-
vqUFo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5amv-vqUFo)
~~~
Leynos
That gives me a little bit more confidence in the film. I'm still sceptical
about how it will play out plotwise, given the trailer, but I think they have
captured the visual feel of the anime film well.
The original soundtrack feels really important to me, as I listened to it
dozens of times as a teenager. Knowing that it will be part of this
adaptation/remake make me think it will be handled with a reasonable degree of
competence.
There does seem to be a trend in film trailers where they have, on several
occasions, nearly put me off seeing a film that I actually enjoyed in the end.
------
andreapaiola
Well... I don't know... There isn't much in this trailer... Can be a good
movie, but I don't bet on it.
~~~
legohead
Major doesn't seem herself. she seems confused, and weak. the real Major we
know is straight badass, with some natural, intelligent introspection that
would come from being a full-body cyborg.
I don't like what they've done to the flesh. she should appear more
anatomically human, without breaks in the flesh, with nipples, etc. it adds
more to Major being comfortable with herself. this is minor in the scheme of
things, I suppose. but it is quite a big decision to make, and if they didn't
see this through correctly, it makes me wonder about the rest of the film.
and as someone pointed out, when an official trailer[1] opens up with the main
actor saying how much they enjoyed making the movie, that's never a good sign.
[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTaLafAFrmE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTaLafAFrmE)
~~~
mjevans
The film actually looks like it's exploring an alternate timeline / prequil
period.
If you've seen the recent OVAs (GitS Arise) this could be an alternate view of
what 'the major' looked like before she became the team lead we're more
familiar with in other movies and series from this fictional universe. In a
time when she is still a slave of 'the system' (I mean that more in the
military/industrial/political greed context).
Having made that speculation, I'm not sure that's where this movie actually
is. I hope the trailer is simply trying to convey the genera, art-styles, and
beginning of the plot (without too many spoilers); but I'm used to trailers
that pretty much spoil everything except the culmination of the film.
------
wodenokoto
People who are complaining about the trailer being too mainstream, maybe you
can find solice in the teaser trailers.
well[https://youtu.be/cxRwc8Lp7XU](https://youtu.be/cxRwc8Lp7XU)
------
grzm
And _where are the fuchikoma?_
------
eth0up
2017 and that cursed unwind/bass sound is still being used:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B97jnPsOPZw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B97jnPsOPZw)
I can't help but perceive it as the archetypal 'Daddy' sound, a modern,
universally obeyed cue of something formidable in force or size. It would have
been the perfect sound for that moment in American Pie when the kid is caught
in the act:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82oPNXUf0Ks](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82oPNXUf0Ks)
But not at every display of force. Please find another sound.
~~~
basch
I swear it came from Transformers, where it sort of made sense. It predates
Inception. [https://vimeo.com/3037247](https://vimeo.com/3037247)
------
chillacy
I'm personally refusing to support a movie which continues a long legacy of
poor representation of asian americans in Hollywood movies (e.g. the last
airbender, aloha, along with some others which removed asian secondary
characters). Though I can't deny it looks like it might be a decent
adaptation.
Hollywood doesn't really like asians to be their main characters, though we're
starting to see some good side characters like Glenn from the walking dead.
~~~
TheCoreh
> Hollywood doesn't really like asians to be their main characters
Sort of an odd statement considering Jackie Chan just won an honorary Oscar
today.
Think of it this way: Ghost in the Shell is an anime adaption. Do you see the
anime studios in Japan going out of their way to hire american voice actors
whenever a character is american? If they don't, then why should US movie
studios?
This notion that for whatever reason an actor can't play someone of a
different ethnicity is a very recent sensitivity. Besides her obvious acting
talent, they most likely picked Scarlet Johanson in the hopes that she'll
bring a larger audience considering how popular she is among their intended
audience.
~~~
Tharkun
If ever there was a character where it wouldn't matter, it'd be the one of
Major Motoko Kusanagi. Her lack of a human body makes it entirely irrelevant
what race she is portrayed as.
The fact that the movie is largely about "what's on the inside" makes it a
really poor target for anger about the actors' heritage.
~~~
viraptor
> Her lack of a human body makes it entirely irrelevant what race she is
> portrayed as.
I get the "what's on the inside" idea - it could be irrelevant. But there are
also reasons why it does matter. She's specifically using a generic-looking
body to not stand out and the setting is Japan. Americans do stand out from a
crowd in Japan. (although in the anime nobody else seemed to use the same
model...)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google working with Ryanair on airline price-comparison service - macarthy12
http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/oleary-reveals-ryanairgoogle-plan-to-change-how-we-buy-tickets-forever-29907730.html
======
BMarkmann
I wonder if this based on Google's acquisition a while back of ITA Software
([http://www.itasoftware.com/](http://www.itasoftware.com/))... if I remember
correctly, this caused some excitement in the Common Lisp world, since their
QPX software was written in it, and it would represent the first big app
inside Google to use CL (also the acquisition also brought some big names in
the field to Google). The ITA software already is used in some of the other
big flight-comparison sites (Kayak, Orbitz, and some others).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why No Saudi Arabians Made the Forbes Billionaires List This Year - krn
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryadolan/2018/03/06/no-saudi-arabian-billionaires-forbes-list-2018-alwaleed-alamoudi/
======
anoncoward111
This article really hits the nail on the head about what is happening in Saudi
Arabia. There's been some really excellent journalism about the so called
anti-corruption campaign led by the new political powers in Saudi Arabia.
A multi-billion dollar transfer of wealth from the elite class in Saudi Arabia
to the king/prince himself seems like something Gaddafi would do. And yet, we
don't hear anything about the Saudi situation on TV currently, compared to the
nearly daily coverage of Gaddafi's antics.
I'm not saying anyone is guilty or innocent, or good or bad. But I am saying
that one country was covered in depth on TV, and the other is not.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
InventHub – Visual version control for electronics design - Faizann20
https://inventhub.io/
======
usamaabid
Hi, I am the founder of InventHub. We just came out of private beta and we
need your feedback on the product to help us improve.
Just a bit of intro about InventHub: InventHub is a git based visual version
control enabling real-time collaboration on electronics design projects.
The goal is to provide engineering teams with an efficient development process
and build a connected community for open hardware.
Please visit inventhub.io, try the product and share your thoughts.
Looking forward!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
FDA presses medical device makers to OK good faith hacking - walterbell
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Passcode/2016/0210/FDA-presses-medical-device-makers-to-OK-good-faith-hacking
======
SixSigma
There is probably a lot to find, if the produce recall database [1] is
anything to go by, QA can be a struggle.
[1]
[http://www.fda.gov/medicaldevices/safety/](http://www.fda.gov/medicaldevices/safety/)
------
hga
For a long time I've been saying we'd get more rigorous after a bug kills
thousands to tens of thousands of people. From this article it looks like that
just might happen sooner than I'd guessed it would.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Rate Elevator Pitch Videos - acremades
https://rockthepost.com/pitch/browse
======
FajitaNachos
I watched the first 5 or 6 videos and couldn't help but notice how unrefined
they all were. Is that normal? While I liked a couple of the ideas, it just
seemed like some of these were submitted after only a couple takes.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
MySQL Local/Remote Account Password Cracking - ibotty
http://lists.grok.org.uk/pipermail/full-disclosure/2012-December/089076.html
======
ibotty
previously by kingcope:
<http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2012/Dec/2>
<http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2012/Dec/4>
<http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2012/Dec/5>
<http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2012/Dec/6>
<http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2012/Dec/8>
5 other exploits/weaknesses. i am curious what will come in the next few
weeks.
------
Nick_C
Off the top of my head, I can't think of a case where a user script absolutely
needs change_user to return quickly. Sounds like change_user should be
modified to return only after a delay, say 1 second.
~~~
robbles
It's sometimes used to clear the connection state with persistent connections
to the database (say for example in a high-traffic web app). Changing to the
same user clears any state and local settings from the previous use of the
connection and cancels the current transaction (I believe).
~~~
Bakkot
Easy enough to make it return instantly when switching to the current user.
This would still allow for someone to crack their own password (a problem if
someone has access to the database without having the password, say by an SQL
injection), but would mitigate most of the problem without breaking things for
almost anyone.
------
piqufoh
This post (and previous) make for good reading, kudos king cope!
------
M4N14C
Ha, can't crack mine it's ''
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Promethea Unbound - _dps
https://magazine.atavist.com/promethea-unbound-child-genius-montana
======
YeGoblynQueenne
>> To Jasmine, a little girl with olive skin and dark eyes prone to faraway
expressions, it felt like camping.
This is a weird thing that I've noticed before, with the way non-Greeks
perceive -or at least, describe- the skin colour of Greeks.
It's clear from her pictures that Jasmine's skin is not "olive", but rather
white. In some of her early pictures, she's pasty-white. The same goes for her
mother. Which makes absolute sense, given that their heritage is Greek and
Greeks don't have "olive" skin.
Anecdotally, it seems that many non-Greeks have a firmly lodged belief about
the "olive" colour of Greeks that persists even after they meet a real live
specimen. For example, an older Greek friend who did her PhD in Ann Arbour,
Michigan has told me how her American fellow students called her "our olive-
skinned friend". My friend is blond, with blue eyes and yoghurt-white skin
that is now mottled with a million freckles, from her exposure to the Greek
sun. It's hard to imagine "olive" skin getting freckled.
I've experienced myself this odd disconnect between my actual skin colour and
the skin colour people perceive me as having, when a Sri-Lankan friend
recommended to me her make-up colour, which was at least two tones darker than
my skin has ever been even in the height of summer. I mean, my friend is
chocolate-brown. Like my older Greek friend, I too am fair haired and light
skinned. I'd look ridiculous with brown makeup.
In fact, if you think about it, "olive" doesn't sound like any human skin
colour. Olives' colours range from brownish-green to black. Greeks can range
from fair to dark, but not black- and certainly not green. I think the strange
expression comes from Homer, who is known to have some pretty weird (by modern
standards) ideas about the colour of things. Famously, he described the sea as
"wine-like".
It's kind of funny to see how his strange description has persisted to this
day and how it seems to affect peoples' perception.
~~~
_dps
As a fellow Greek who has occasionally been called "olive skinned" myself, I
too find this pretty odd :)
------
dredmorbius
This story kept popping up among various feeds and streams, without much
context, before I looked at it. A _very_ engrossing long-form read, and a
well-written and researched story.
It's about genius, poverty, opportunity, lack, oppression, persistence, and a
bittersweet resolution, for now.
Read it. And add Mike Mariani to your "writers worth following" list. I have.
------
_dps
Taking the article's statistic of a genius of this level being roughly one in
a few million, and with the global birth rate somewhere around 100 million per
year, there are presumably something like 20-40 such people born per year --
or 200-400 in the age range of 10-20 where you could imagine them having a
reasonable chance of participating in higher education.
And yet one can only imagine how many of those never get the chance to fully
share their gifts (though I hope few of them suffer a fate similar to
Promethea's and her family). I'm struck by how little money it would have
taken to give this girl, and her mother, a chance to flourish.
~~~
gwern
One thing I would point out is that child prodigies typically regress to the
mean; if you took her, say, 5yo IQ scores, they generally correlate something
like r=.5 with final adult IQ scores, so if she was, say, 190 then (+6SD) you
would expect an adult score averaging more like 145 now. Very impressive but
not extraordinarily rare or historic. IQ scores don't really stabilize until
about middle school, and this is one reason why selecting for really smart
young kids doesn't work as well as if you wait until middle/high school to do
your screening. (I think part of it is that child prodigies are as much about
accelerated growth as about their final potential, and benefit from things
like getting adult-levels of working memory much earlier than their peers, but
I'm not really an expert on G&T stuff.)
Anyway, she may be one in a few million but only in the USA. Most of the world
has much lower average IQ scores (unsurprisingly, given economic, medical, and
educational conditions in poorer countries, which is most of the non-USA
countries), and one of the properties of the normal distribution is that a
shift in the mean reduces the extremes much more than you would expect, like
8x or more. So you may be overestimating the number of people globally by
quite a bit.
Promethea's case is strange and sad, but the journalist notes that some of her
excuses don't wash: lots of STEM grad students get stipends and financial
support, and she should be able to get way more than your average grad
student. Not to mention the many options she has for _much_ better paying jobs
than tutoring students - there's no way someone with her talent who was going
to get a CS degree can't get a decent programming job or find another way to
make money. I might be reading this into it, but I think she's just satisfied
with her life and doesn't want to leave her mom.
~~~
blunte
I suspect that her very unusual life (practically every aspect of her life has
been unusual), amplified by her unique and powerful mind, has created for her
a mental condition well beyond what any of us could even fathom.
Given that, I don't think it's fair to judge her inaction or reduce it to
merely "satisfied with her life and doesn't want to leave her mom". Her
reasoning could be much more complex.
Besides, she's still quite young. Even if she's just satisfied and not wanting
to be apart from her mother, is that so bad? I would argue that she's earned a
break.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Social Marketing: How to Attract Viewers to Your Live Show - jasonlbaptiste
http://www.ustream.tv/blog/2008/04/28/social-marketing-how-to-attract-viewers-to-your-live-show/
======
jasonlbaptiste
Great post since live video is the next big "wave"
------
schlichtm
Basic but great info
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Prioritized Grammar Enumeration: Symbolic Regression by Dynamic Programming [pdf] - henning
http://seminars.math.binghamton.edu/ComboSem/worm-chiu.pge_gecco2013.pdf
======
henning
Thank you to verdverm for pointing this paper out.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18766651](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18766651)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Extracting Secret Test Cases from the Google Foobar Challenge - aw1621107
https://medium.com/@mfe5003/extracting-secret-test-cases-from-google-foobar-challenge-6b0a0bea61c4
======
CobrastanJorji
> It turns out there are 48 exceptions, which means I can get 5 bits of
> information out of a single test run that raises a coded exception...
Oh my. Well done, sir. But wait, I'm not particularly familiar with Python,
but could you not create new types of exceptions and grow the error space?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Apple buys Siri as war with Google heats up - fromedome
http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-buys-siri-a-mobile-assistant-app-as-war-with-google-heats-up-2010-4
======
gluejar
This has more info than the Scoble article
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Emotions killing your intellectual productivity - joeyespo
http://lemire.me/blog/archives/2009/01/20/emotions-killing-your-intellectual-productivity/
======
wslh
I love emotions and they challenge my intellectual sense of productivity. I
don't see research without handling (but having) frustration. Emotions are
good flight instruments.
Since I love to find intellectual boundaries, it will be sad to have
boundaries without emotions.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Gawker's Numbers Tanking - tgrass
http://therawfeed.com/gawkers-redesign-is-killing-the-network
======
thechangelog
I can explain part of it: the hash based URLs are completely broken in Canada
(and presumably elsewhere). Any link I follow (e.g. gawker.com/#12345)
redirects to ca.gawker.com. The hashes aren't preserved on redirect, and I'm
not interested enough in the content to go searching.
~~~
corin_
Same for me in the UK, can't remember the last time I clicked a Gawker link
and ended up reading the content.
------
ghshephard
It's interesting - I'm down in Sao Paulo, Brazil right now, and I spent the
better part of 15 minutes trying to read a story there. Every time I tried to
enter the URL it kicked me into a .br page and I was unable to find the
original story.
I eventually just gave up.
------
aphistic
Is this any surprise considering their new design? The only way I can read any
Gawker site is via an RSS feed and even then I can't stand to read past that
and actually visit the site.
~~~
duke_sam
I know a number of people who fell back on using the mobile version but it was
so much hassle they just found alternative sources. I used to hit Kotaku and
io9 multiple times per day but the new design meant I spent more time trying
to find stories than actually reading. Was a pity to lose sources that were
usually pretty solid.
------
jokermatt999
I stopped visiting Lifehacker not just because of the redesign, but also
because the noise began to drown out the signal. They post a ridiculous amount
a day, and I just wasn't interested in most of it. I'd rather follow something
with fewer posts and much better quality than be overwhelmed by their
firehose.
Of course, that's just for browsing by RSS. I suppose the "tons o content"
model is geared towards people that visit occasionally over the course of a
day. But with the hideous design, why would you want to?
------
mattcurry
Also they F-ed up the RSS feeds. Take a look at this one for the top stories
on Deadspin: <http://deadspin.com/tag/top/index.xml>
Barely anything since Feb. Before then there were 4-5 items per day.
~~~
z2amiller
They've F-ed them up worse than that, a few months ago I got a full feed of
Fleshbot in the place of my Gizmodo feed. Fortunately I closed my laptop in
time, or it could have been a much more interesting meeting at work (No doubt
followed by one with HR)
------
eli
With their AJAXy interface, I wonder if perhaps page views are not being
counted properly. Put another way, I'd like to see a chart of ad impression
numbers.
I'm sure the redesign cost them, but I'm surprised it's such a big hit.
------
3pt14159
I love how designers and product visionaries absolutely refuse to test major
redesigns. Hey guys, why not fork 1% of the traffic to your major redesign and
see how it performs? Millions of dollars on the line that could have been
saved with about $5k worth of developer time.
------
patrickk
Lifehacker's numbers are conspicuously absent. I've read through other sources
that their pageviews took at a bit of a hit but remained relatively steady. I
guess that piece of information didn't fit nicely with the story.
<http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/17/gawker-redesign/>
EDIT: link
~~~
eli
<http://lifehacker.com/stats-month> shows lifehacker pageview declining pretty
significantly this year and a _dramatic_ decline in "new visitors." (Somewhat
fittingly, the buttons on the stats pages don't work quite right for me)
~~~
TillE
I said at the time that the redesign would hurt Gawker, especially when they
responded to the backlash with "well, everybody complains when Facebook
changes" - not realizing the power of Facebook's social stickiness. But that's
quite shocking even to me. Their own stats show visitors cut to _a third_ of
what they were in January.
I guess UI matters, huh?
------
hugh3
I discovered last week that the redesign isn't so bad if you go to "Blog
view". I don't know when that got introduced between the day I stopped reading
gawker sites due to the redesign and last week, but it's reasonably
inoffensive.
Still, every gawker site has a less-annoying competitor, and I'm guessing that
most of the folks who used to read the gawker version are now reading another
version with the same damn stories. Once people have been driven into the arms
of a competitor it's tricky to get 'em back.
------
brianbreslin
One of the commenters mentioned the geo-redirects. I'm assuming this doesn't
affect the individual domain's traffic count (since the source measures entire
domain?). Now what if they are charging substantially higher rates to the
advertisers though, since they are keeping the time shown of an ad up.
------
jarin
I don't really mind the redesign since I usually get linked to individual
articles instead of browsing around their sites, but that grey line at the
"fold" really bugs me. Anyone else get that?
------
maxharris
This is just fine with me. I still won't read Gawker sites because of what
they did with the iPhone 4.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Jimmy Wales on Desert Island Discs (radio Interview) - DanBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05vstzl
======
DanBC
IMO he comes across well in this interview. I fist-pumped when he mentioned
the arbcom case about punctuation - I use a similar case when I describe how
sub-optimal some bits of Wikipedia are.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A lot of “idiotic” things have reasonable explanations (2011) - luu
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/12/if-everyone-else-is-such-an-idiot-how-come-youre-not-rich/249430/
======
GlenTheMachine
A similar story that I love regarding the infamous Van Halen brown M&M
contract rider:
“Van Halen was the first band to take huge productions into tertiary, third-
level markets. We’d pull up with nine eighteen-wheeler trucks, full of gear,
where the standard was three trucks, max. And there were many, many technical
errors — whether it was the girders couldn’t support the weight, or the
flooring would sink in, or the doors weren’t big enough to move the gear
through.
The contract rider read like a version of the Chinese Yellow Pages because
there was so much equipment, and so many human beings to make it function. So
just as a little test, in the technical aspect of the rider, it would say
“Article 148: There will be fifteen amperage voltage sockets at twenty-foot
spaces, evenly, providing nineteen amperes …” This kind of thing. And article
number 126, in the middle of nowhere, was: “There will be no brown M&M’s in
the backstage area, upon pain of forfeiture of the show, with full
compensation.”
So, when I would walk backstage, if I saw a brown M&M in that bowl … well,
line-check the entire production. Guaranteed you’re going to arrive at a
technical error. They didn’t read the contract. Guaranteed you’d run into a
problem. Sometimes it would threaten to just destroy the whole show. Something
like, literally, life-threatening.”
[https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/brown-out/](https://www.snopes.com/fact-
check/brown-out/)
~~~
michaelcampbell
> So, when I would walk backstage, if I saw a brown M&M in that bowl … ...They
> didn’t read the contract.
I don't know that that necessarily follows. It could be that they read it,
said "fuck that", and did everything else to spec. Good story tho.
~~~
romwell
> It could be that they read it, said "fuck that", and did ...
Exactly. You wonder what else they said "fuck that" to because _they_ don't
care or think it's not necessary.
An even better case to catch.
~~~
jschwartzi
Yeah. I'm imagining the guy who says "fuck that" to picking the brown m&ms out
as the same kind of person who goes "10A circuits should be fine. They build
safety margins into those" or "those rafters should be fine to hold 2 tons of
equipment. They're really stout 2x6's." You know, the kind of person who just
assumes they know better and that what is planned doesn't matter. And if you
let them do that they will totally kill you with their negligence.
~~~
michaelcampbell
> "fuck that" to picking the brown m&ms out as the same kind of person who
> goes "10A circuits should be fine. They build safety margins into those"
You've never worked with an electrician. This is not how these things work.
I love that this story gives people the warm fuzzies; enough to downvote. =D
------
georgespencer
This article puts it better than I ever could. I had a similar reaction when I
read extremely critical press coverage of some VCs in Europe investing in
YPlan, which eventually sold for a nominal amount to Time Out London.
The synopsis of all the coverage was: "How could they have spent all that
money? And how could the investors have been so STUPID?"
My friend Fred Destin wrote a great essay on this[1], and I'll do the horrid
thing of quoting my own note to him in reply:
> It’s analogous to a soccer fan questioning the manager’s decision to put
> player X on the field instead of Y. The manager sees both players on the
> training ground for hours every day, knows their mood, talks to them,
> understands how they respond to different situations, and consults his
> coaches. Then the matchgoing fan sees 90 minutes of output on Saturday and
> makes a judgement with <1% of the data a manager has.
> Past a certain point in fundraising and traction, it’s impossible to believe
> that a startup failing is anything more interesting than a combination of
> poorer-than-expected execution, and bets not paying off.
[1] [https://medium.com/tech-london/hey-yplan-how-do-you-dare-
go-...](https://medium.com/tech-london/hey-yplan-how-do-you-dare-go-
bust-177bc67efdbb)
~~~
asdff
Scale this up to anything and you will want to be governed by a benevolent
dictator. Not even senators themselves read the full bills they vote on, and I
don't blame them with it being hundreds of pages of reading that could easily
be parted out to aides, but the electorate certainly doesn't have this
advantage. Maybe 1% of voters are truly informed.
~~~
blaser-waffle
My IT director doesn't know every facet of what is in our environment, and
generally is not up to date as to what changes are happening on the day to
day. _And he doesn 't need to be._
The point of high-level workers is so they can focus on high-level priorities.
They have staff -- legal aids, system admins, business analysts, whatever --
whose job it is to digest that stuff and put it into simple briefings for
leadership to evaluate in the context of other issues.
> I don't blame them with it being hundreds of pages of reading that could
> easily be parted out to aides, but the electorate certainly doesn't have
> this advantage
The electorate isn't expected to have this advantage, and is not expected to
read the bills. The whole reason for representative democracy is so that the
common voter does not have to parse this stuff -- that's explicitly the point.
I find someone who reflects my views and I put them in office, and trust that
they'll be able to digest what's happening and vote accordingly. The common
man isn't expected to understand tariffs, international banking, military
theory, computer engineering, social justice issues, and food scarcity.
~~~
cvlasdkv
A lot to unpack here.
> The common man isn't expected to understand tariffs, international banking,
> military theory, computer engineering, social justice issues, and food
> scarcity.
What better use is there of the common man's time than understanding societal
issues like justice and scarcity? Are you describing how the world is or
claiming how it should be? If you do not understand justice, scarcity, etc.
how can you claim to elect someone who reflects your views--ignoring that a
lot of politics is lesser evil voting?
An uneducated populace voting is a worst-case scenario for a representative
democracy.
~~~
michaelcampbell
> > The common man isn't expected to understand tariffs, international
> banking, military theory, computer engineering, social justice issues, and
> food scarcity.
> What better use is there of the common man's time than understanding
> societal issues like justice and scarcity?
Both of those can be true.
~~~
cvlasdkv
Hence my question of whether the OP is prescriptive or descriptive.
------
BlackFly
People call people idiots instead of trying to understand how they made a
mistake because of fundamental attribution error. We all do it.
People are predominantly successful because of luck. Opportunity, connections,
upbringing, all luck. Yes, you still need to make the right decision at the
right time.
There is a pernicious tendency to make a fallacious argument for intelligence
because of success; that is, people become convinced of intelligence because
of success. The most obvious example today is the president of the USA. He is
convinced of his own intelligence because clearly he is one of the most
successful people in the country. I don't think many reasonable people would
argue for his genius. On the other end of the spectrum, it seems obvious to me
that in the billions of poor people on this planet there is an unknown genius
unable to escape his or her circumstances.
We make mistakes. We don't try to understand the mistakes of others as we call
them idiots. We are not necessarily capable of succeeding even if we are
smarter than those that have.
~~~
pdimitar
Thank you! Even if your comment is slightly off-topic I always get upset when
people just immediately assume genius because of success. Some people almost
literally didn't have to do anything but to open their wallet to receive
dollars in, at the right time, while being at the right place.
This very often gets overlooked. The world's economy is an MMORPG game and
networking / contacts matter much more than many of us who swear in
meritocracy would like to believe.
------
iEchoic
Another form of this that seems to have taken over online discussions in the
last few years is “<person> did <thing> because they are evil” (or rich).
As an example, I’ve noticed that privacy-related discussion on HN is often
thought-terminated by comments that reduce down to “<company> is doing
<perceived privacy-destroying thing> because they want to destroy your
privacy”. On reddit, a common form of this is “<politician> is doing
<something implausibly comic book villain-y> because they are evil”.
When the motive isn’t clear, I often enter these discussions trying to learn
more about _why_ \- but more often than not, I just leave feeling the same way
as the author here.
------
vikramkr
They picked an example that really aged well. Look at netflix today - it's
clear that a little bit of humility would have been warranted in 2011 when
talking about the company.
------
mD5pPxMcS6fVWKE
Communication is a key to a high-level position in a hierarchy, and therefore,
to the wealth. But very high IQ people have difficulty connecting with the
majority of other people, so they lag behind.
------
quickthrower2
A interesting take on this phenomenon from the point of view of the insider
and outsider - [https://commoncog.com/blog/good-synthesis-adapting-to-
uncert...](https://commoncog.com/blog/good-synthesis-adapting-to-uncertainty)
------
Traster
I feel like what isn't really properly understood in these situations is the
statistical chances that are involved here. 10 people put $50 on the roulette
table, and then we celebrate the guy who hit their number. That genius who hit
their number still had a negative expected value when placing that bet.
Colette Martin would've been right to criticize Reed Hastings if he were
making that bet with Netflix's money. But we don't read articles about the
CEOs who make bad bets and lose them, and we don't really know if the CEOs who
won made good bets or bad bets.
It's possible the richest CEOs are actually the worst at picking bets, because
they're the ones who picked bets that were the least likely to pay off, and
therefore got the biggest pay out when they won. If 50 people were making the
same bet as Reed Hastings, then Netflix would've found it _far_ harder to
succeed, since they would've been competing for talent, content and customers
with 50 other companies. The reason Netflix exploded in growth is partly
because they were the only ones serving that market. Maybe that was a genius
stroke of insight, or maybe he was one of a thousand people making bad bets,
and he's the one that it paid off for.
~~~
tomhoward
> we don't read articles about the CEOs who make bad bets and lose them
Yes we do, all the time: Theranos, WeWork, WebVan, Myspace, Friendster,
BlackBerry, Enron, Worldcom, etc, etc, etc.
Sure, we don't hear about companies that never get anywhere because they never
did anything interesting to start with, because that's unremarkable.
But we hear a lot about the companies that attracted a lot of success or hype
early but then "bet" wrong. (In fact, these stories arguably get a
disproportionate amount of coverage, due to schadenfreude from journalists and
their audience.)
The roulette spin analogy is not apt, because building a successful company is
not a single bet; it's many many bets, every year/month/day over many years,
which moves it well out of the realm of random chance and mostly into the
realm of skill.
And before someone says it: nobody argues good luck is not a factor in a
company's success. But that is mostly at the very beginning (e.g., Steve Jobs
meeting Woz; Bill Gates' mother knowing the chairman of IBM) and luck alone is
not nearly enough.
Skilled leadership over the long term makes all the difference between success
and wasted opportunity.
~~~
scottlocklin
It's interesting that plenty of people were flinging poo at Reed Hastings when
he was making the transition between mailing DVDs and streaming, and pretty
much nobody in the media dared fling poo at the obvious "violating laws of
physics" shennanegins happening at Theranos before Tyler Shultz took them to
the ground.
None of the other examples are really comparable to Netflix either; they were
all companies which eventually failed, but which business reporters didn't
particularly dislike until after they failed. Netflix was nearly universally
reviled for making "dumb" decisions which turned out to be correct, and
Mcardle deserves credit for noticing that Hastings was probably a better CEO
than most business reporters.
------
esmi
> "If everyone else is such an idiot, how come I'm not rich?"
Unfortunately the answer to that question is, I spend way too much time on
hacker news.
------
silveraxe93
While I agree with the main thrust of the article (Chesterton's fence, etc.),
the author seems to take as a given the fact that Netflix is sliding back into
becoming as expensive as cable, because the content providers are setting the
prices.
But Netflix's value is not from competing against cable on price, it's
competing against _piracy_ on _convenience_.
Content providers will never again see the same profits, because the de-facto
price of content is zero. It's too easy to pirate, and morally grey enough
that people are willing to do it.
Netflix got so big because it captured the market of people who were willing
to pay for the convenience. If this gets too high they will just go back to
pirating.
~~~
nemothekid
I’m not sure if that’s a given. People going back to piracy sort of assumes
people will happily walk back to watching sketchy streams on laptop screens. I
think the bar will pretty high for people who wish to watch on Apple Devices,
Rokus or Smart TVs.
There has been enough time for people to get locked into walled gardens.
~~~
asdff
Piracy in 2020 is more polished than first party streaming platforms.
~~~
nemothekid
I think content acquisition still has several hurdles as well as the pipelines
of your favorite metadata scraper isn't exactly trivial to setup.
The actual software, once installed is really nice (I have a Plex Server +
Infuse on an Apple TV), but in my case I still pay for content (via usenet).
~~~
asdff
There is software that has already done this for you, no need to configure
anything, just open the app, search the title, and start watching.
------
ramraj07
What's ironic to me is (IMO) Netflix is probably the shrewdest big company in
existence now. Hastings has dominated not one but two markets, the second
obviously larger and more insurmountable than the first. Almost Every single
decision they make (including and especially ones that make customers unhappy,
like their shitty browsing experience) seems so calculated and thoughtful it's
just amazing.
Even I thought Disney plus might be the beginning of the end for Netflix, that
it finally met a Goliath it couldn't best, but now even that isnt obvious
anymore.
~~~
quickthrower2
Meh, Netflix is one of many for me. Would be happy if it didn't exist, to
watch other stuff on other streaming and I don't think they necessarily have
the best content.
Netflix try's to get you hooked on their originals, but the problem with that
is once you binged a series you want something else - they cant keep feeding
you the crack that is that current series because they take months to produce,
so you switch to something else - and at that point it could be something else
on Netflix, or just as easily something else somewhere else. I don't think
Netflix is really that sticky.
But maybe I am proving the point of the article and I'm missing the strategy.
~~~
ramraj07
Exactly. We all keep talking about leaving Netflix but it looks like we
aren't. How long has Netflix now been without major movies? Clearly whatever
they're doing works - from my ground-level experience, everyone has at least a
couple of shows that they like watching in Netflix, and everyone shares
accounts as well so in the end it's a few dollars a month for always having a
backup service with a lot of "meh" titles at the least.
Perhaps that's what the company is gunning for? Perhaps they noticed that the
crowd that sees Adam Sandler movies is the main market and they don't
necessarily need to pander to "sophisticated" audience to be a successful
company? Who knows. It just looks mindful, minimally, where they're trying to
chart out a path that they CAN do, given all their constraints (mainly every
major IP now being protected by their parent for their own streaming service).
------
aetherspawn
It's an intelligence to realize that in order to make a lot of money, you have
to be ruthless at business. In order to be ruthless like that, you need to
neglect being a good and reasonable person, even to those closest to you. Such
is the cost of money. Money doesn't buy real friends or happiness, and so the
smartest among us are deliberate in not accumulating wealth needlessly. Whilst
everyone else assumes their stupidity for not accumulating wealth, in truth,
it’s a Dunning-Kruger situation.
------
abellerose
I've encountered a few individuals fairly well off and where they think of
everyone as idiots. These individuals came from an upbringing of lower class
and they eventually had the right opportunities happen for getting ahold of
some money. Example from something comparable to bitcoin happening. Nothing in
anyway of were these persons were contributing to society in how they gathered
a good portion of wealth.
I've also encountered people from wealthy families and these individuals
typically don't comment on what they think of others less fortunate in
society. They also stay out of politics or anything where people get
disgruntled about. I'm unsure if it was how they were raised and or they know
the game of life is rigged. In any case, I respect this group the most which
is sort of odd because everything was handed to them.
Anyway, the first group of individuals probably would have been better persons
if they were just born into money as well. They have a fallacy in their head
of they earned their success and wouldn't have had it any other way in life.
In reality they just had a worse path to eventually becoming financially
independent and sadly these individuals place their ego around wealth because
of it.
I don't necessarily believe in the traditional idea of luck. I think
everything is predetermined at birth. But wow does it help to be born into a
wealthy family with somewhat decent genetics. Quality of life will be so much
better. It's so noticeable that I sometimes wonder how others don't see it as
well.
------
LatteLazy
I've been learning this slowly over the last few years. I was a typical
science guy. Then a close friend dragged me to the gym (which was just foreat
heads right?). And it really helped with my depression and now it's a major
activity for me. Same for Networking and Sales skills and Watching Sports and
Foreign languages...
Embarrassed me would like to publically apologies for assuming everyone else
is an idiot and should do what I do. Sorry guys!
------
marcus_holmes
>> I mean, Reed Hastings did manage to build this rather large and successful
business that killed off one of the most successful retail operations of its
day. It's possible that he just sort of did this by accident. But is this
really the most likely explanation?
It's possible, yes. And if we consider that there were possibly a few thousand
people at that time trying to make that business work, then "by accident" does
start to look like the best explanation.
Was/is he smarter than everyone else trying to do the same thing? Probably
not.
Was/is he better connected, better funded, more able to run a business, than
the others? Possibly, but probably not.
Was/is he luckier than everyone else? Almost by definition, if we define
"luck" as "something that helps people succeed".
It's a very nebulous definition. But there's definitely a Venn diagram overlap
of "by accident" and "by being very lucky". Even without getting to FedEx
levels of "lucky", there is definite "luck" involved in making decisions based
on incomplete information that will turn out to have outsize effects on the
business later. This is a normal activity for startup founders, and I'll bet
serious money that more than a few of them were made in Netflix' early years.
We always underestimate survivor bias when considering successful startup
stories. And without studying the other people who were trying to build the
same business at the same time, we have no idea why some of them succeeded and
others failed. Without this information, it's impossible to say whether
Netflix succeeded "by accident" or by design.
------
santoshalper
I had a manager early in my career who used to say "everyone else's job is
harder than you think." That really stuck with me.
------
V-2
A non-native speaker here - what does "debacletacular" mean? The word only has
a few hits on Google. I understand it's a neologism of sorts, a conflation,
but what's the meaning?
I'm guessing "a spectacular debacle" \- AKA "epic fail"?
~~~
tomgp
it's a port-manteau of spectacular and debacle i.e. a spectacular debacle
~~~
V-2
Port-manteau, another one :) Thanks!
------
fit2rule
Oh, this is easy.
The usual response to such a question is - "you're just an anti-intellectual!
Being rich doesn't mean you're smart - any fool can do it! Real non-fools
write their opinions down and other fools follow them."
/s
I've known some utterly immoral people become very, very wealthy - I might've
even helped them along the way. The reason I'm not rich and they are, is that
they decided they didn't want to help me along my way.
Being rich isn't an indicator of intelligence, nor is it an indicator of hard
work or decent ethics. It does, usually, mean that someone wanted to give you
money for some reason - and even a fool or an intellectual can do such a thing
for love. Or, not.
~~~
taneq
> It does, usually, mean that someone wanted to give you money for some reason
Isn't that the definition of participation in the economy? You created goods,
or provided services, or arranged for goods to be created or services
provided, and in exchange people give you money?
Cases where people are given money without in some way earning it are far in
the minority.
~~~
pessimizer
> You created goods, or provided services, or arranged for goods to be created
> or services provided,
or drank with someone on a regular basis, or married one of their relatives,
~~~
taneq
It's almost like building social connections and establishing trust with other
people is important to later being trusted in other contexts!
------
goto11
So do not attribute to stupidity that which is adequately explained by you not
understanding the whole picture.
~~~
kqr
I have for a long time now extended Hanson's razor with "... and never
attribute to stupidity that which is adequately explained by ignorance."
The beauty of it is that it doesn't need to say who is the ignorant one!
------
boffinism
Because you're an idiot too. Also me. We're all just muppets, with blind
spots, distorted perspectives and emotions that override reason. Some idiots
are just lucky in the right ways at the right times.
Hey, at least it's consistent.
------
doorstar
I kept thinking this when the 'cybertruck' was unveiled. Suddenly everyone
around me was explaining in detail why this truck was going to be a complete
fiasco and a danger to everyone else on the road. I'll happily acknowledge
that Musk is off his rocker, but can people really think that he doesn't know
how to make a car?
( I'll admit a soft spot for the thing after someone pointed out it looks like
what happens when you let back end engineers design the front end )
~~~
philwelch
I will fully admit that Musk knows how to make a car. He’s a car person and
had a history of owning and enjoying sporty luxury cars before Tesla. But he’s
not a truck person.
~~~
doorstar
He didn't own any rockets either.
I don't know if the cybertruck is a good or bad idea. I don't know if it's
going to succeed or fail. I don't know how anyone can possibly declare with
confidence that they do know how the truck will do when released.
~~~
philwelch
The whole problem with eg the BMW i-Series or most other electric cars is that
they are designed in a silly way that says, “look at me, I’m a weird electric
car, I’m not a normal car at all, I’m willing to look like a total dork in
order to virtue-signal about being eco-friendly”. Teslas just look like sports
cars—except the Cybertruck’s styling is 100% “dorky virtue signal about having
a weird special truck”, and truck people are even less likely than car people
to put up with that.
I looked to see what truck users on /r/Trucks had to say about it.[1][2] Here
are some highlights, both positive and negative:
> It’s really damn cool aside from the roof coming to a point. I’m not sure I
> understand that design decision. However, onboard air compressor, 110v/220v
> accessory power, fast as shit, good ground clearance, integral bed cover and
> ramps, air ride suspension, and tough shell to boot... there is a lot to
> like here. I might just have to buy one in a couple years.
> Yeah because everyone wants a ‘bed’ you can’t load from the sides.
> I think [being able to load the truck bed from the sides] really only
> matters for people who use their trucks for actual work. This is obviously
> for people who want a truck for play and not work.
> ... he could have taken this seriously and actually made an impact. Now he’s
> proven the older anti EV crowd 100% correct that an electric truck isn’t a
> viable alternative.
> Clearly designed by someone who has literally never even used a truck once
> in their entire life.
> It's stupid tall bedsides ruin it for slide in campers too. If it wasn't for
> that the 3500lb payload and huge battery would make it great for a slide in.
> I'm surprised you all are not pouncing on the unibody. The other "truck"
> (Honda) that uses a unibody construction does not get much love.
> [People who like the Cybertruck design are] those who've never actually used
> a truck to haul items and/or trailers. Those who are in the ranching,
> mining, and other similar industries are laughing at this.
> Is the bed cover transparent? Seems like the rear window is only usable when
> the cover is retracted. I'm sorry. This is a truck for the Ridgeline crowd.
> No 8ft bed option. Only crew cab configuration. AWD, not 4WD. Can't tow a
> Gooseneck or 5th wheel, which you're gonna want when towing a 14K trailer.
> People will buy it. I won't.
> It’s a weird case of form over function. He was so focused on the blade
> runner vibe he forgot to make sure it was usable as a truck. Can’t even get
> to the front of the bed without opening the tailgate and getting inside.
> Trucks have a utilitarian purpose. There is a reason for their shapes. And
> if you look worldwide there are some differences, but also some
> commonalities. Like being able to access the frigging bed. That’s a massive
> failure here.
> There’s some things about truck design that are important to the function of
> being a truck. Like not having angled bed sides so you can fucking reach the
> first 1/2 of the bed without getting in it or being able to tow a 5th wheel.
> After looking at more pictures today I realized it doesn't even have a true
> 6.5' bed. It's much shorter than that, but angles in underneath the rear
> seats. Probably ok for hauling a few sheets of plywood, but putting in, say,
> furniture, would be harder.
> I set things in the bed over the bedside a lot. And climb in the sides. I’d
> have to awkwardly yeet shit over the side of that angled monstrosity
> This truck looks like an absolute nightmare to load and unload tbh. I
> actually even ditched my bed for a Bradford flatbed to make my truck easier
> to use. Rear/side visibility looks awful. Boasts a 14,000 towing capacity
> yet it looks like a nightmare to hook up to a trailer. I’d love to know how
> far this thing can tow 14,000lbs. Payload of “3,900lbs”. What does the truck
> itself weigh? Does Tesla understand GVWR or how to calculate payload or is
> it assuming it’s potential buyers do not? I guess I just don’t understand
> the whole concept and what exactly they’re going for. Seems like they’re
> trying to do too much. This has been the plague of these types of
> “crossovers” which is exactly what this is. El Camino, Ford Ranchero, Subaru
> Brat, Subaru Baja, Chevy Avalanche, Honda Ridgeline, the list goes on and
> on.
> Having a large locking cover would give me so much peace of mind when I'm
> parked with my tools in there. Having the thing build of stainless steel
> made me ask why hasn't trucks been main of stainless steel for years.
> The bed has some L-Tracks and T-Slots in it too for easy tie downs, which
> was something I learned from a video I saw that someone did a test drive in
> Literally the only good truck feature is the integrated full width ramp in
> the tailgate.
> And you can lower the suspension in the back to make it easier! I would have
> killed for that the last few times i was loading heavy equipment into the
> back of my truck by myself. I had to make due with backing up to a hill and
> using a shitty steel ramp that would fall if i so much as looked at it
> wrong.
> Let's be honest, most people in suburbia/cities with trucks are just
> drugstore cowboys anyway. This truck will meet the needs of most consumers
> Good luck towing a 5th wheel with that thing
> If you need a truck, Cybertruck's already disqualified itself. Little
> clearance, no room for mods, unibody, no side access to the truck bed,
> likely range issues (once you add a load), and that's just the stuff we know
> about now. I can only imagine buying this if you buy a truck just so you can
> feel like you're driving a truck but never plan on using the truck features
> beyond occasional off-roading.
[1]
[https://old.reddit.com/r/Trucks/comments/dzvqhx/tesla_truck/](https://old.reddit.com/r/Trucks/comments/dzvqhx/tesla_truck/)
[2]
[https://old.reddit.com/r/Trucks/comments/e061ru/style_contra...](https://old.reddit.com/r/Trucks/comments/e061ru/style_contrast_tesla_cybertruck_and_ford_f150/)
~~~
cameldrv
I think that the market for the Cybertruck is the Burning Man/offroad desert
campout guy. I'm sure Elon is/knows a lot of these guys, since the Mojave is
just over the hills from LA. It's perfect for this application.
It has huge ground clearance, the paint doesn't get screwed up when you scrape
it on some brush, the bed is big enough to hold dirtbikes, and they are easy
to load/unload with the included ramp.
You can sleep in the bed and it's covered, but not like a normal bed cover
that creates a coffin like compartment, or a camper top that doesn't let you
load tall items.
Not having access from the sides is a lot less of an issue than it used to be.
With a new full sized 4x4, only very tall people can reach much in the bed
from the sides anyhow. If you're going to give that up, you might as well go
big and provide huge enclosed cargo volume. The ramp makes it much easier to
just walk into the bed while carrying heavy items rather than loading from the
sides.
------
TBurette
It seems people are commenting on the title of the article and not on what the
article says : it's easy to think someone is stupid when you read about them
making a bad decision in the news.
Classic examples are:
"Hitler was stupid to invade Russia". In fact he needed to conquer oil fields
to keep the ability to wage war andhe Russian army was particularly weak at
that point.
"Kodak was stupid not to sell digital camera". In fact Kodak did develop
digital camera technology. They were behind one of the first commercial
digital camera (The Apple QuickTake), they licensed their patent and were
number one sellers of digital camera in the US at some point.
It's easy to fall into this trap when you only high level information. I think
that when you get more detailed information this effect dissipates. You then
realize that there are many factors and stakeholders.
------
oh_sigh
(2011) is important context here.
~~~
LolWolf
Very. I read the article and was very confused for quite a while until I
realized this.
~~~
klaaz0r
Yes, maybe the title can include the date.
------
chewz
> Any fool can make money these days and most of them do. But what about
> people with talent and brains?
Catch-22
[https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/8578531-it-takes-brains-
not...](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/8578531-it-takes-brains-not-to-make-
money-colonel-cargill-wrote)
------
stevens32
It's really easy to think you have the better answer when you don't even
understand the problem. You're working in a weightless fantasy land while the
actual people involved have to work with the messy, dirty, heavy reality.
------
aeternum
Great ideas can still have poor execution. It seems to me that major the flaws
in the Netflix execution of the Qwikster spinoff was the source of much of the
criticism. Most people lump the idea and execution together.
------
aytekin
This is why when investors replace founders the companies stop innovating.
Obvious ideas don’t have any value. You need deep domain knowledge to see how
things really are, and not how things seem to be.
------
robert_g
Dismissing a successful person but seeming "dumb" person is a benefit to them.
Now, they can continue succeeding with less scrutiny.
For a long time I thought many politicians were "dumb" based on their public
comments, propelled only by their connections. Now, when I look up some
politicians who's spouting objectively false / misleading statements and find
they've graduated a top-tier university _and_ have a JD I realize these are
not intellectually stupid people. They're skilled in their field, have drive,
and less empathy/morals than others.
Now, I watch these "dumb" people more closely.
~~~
krapp
US politicians often act "dumb" because Americans mistrust intellectualism and
"book smarts," but they trust plain-spoken cowboys who shoot from the hip and
speak like common people.
Hillary Clinton attended Wellesley and Yale, and speaks like someone who did,
and many Americans hate her. GWB attended Harvard and Yale, but he played up
the stereotypical Texas country-boy stereotype and fumbled over his words, and
got two terms. Donald Trump went to Wharton business school, but speaks (and
shitposts) at the level of a common Reddit troll, and he was elected in large
part _because_ of that.
You'd think Americans would stop falling for it at some point.
~~~
pessimizer
> Hillary Clinton attended Wellesley and Yale, and speaks like someone who
> did,
Hillary Clinton put on a terrible fake Arkansas accent for the beginning of
her political career, talked about baking pies, and quoted country-western
songs in interviews. The reason she uses her natural accent in her later
career is because she has positioned herself as a "wonk," and often against
Republicans who were doing folksy.
i.e. she's looking for a different set of Americans to "fall for it." Trying
to appeal to an audience who thinks that everybody else is a sucker and
they're the shrewd one.
When she goes to black churches, she puts it on again. Instantly starts
dropping her g's and praising the lord like she would never do in a white
church.
------
jdofaz
I still have and use their disc rental service. I go to dvd.com and it
forwards to dvd.netflix.com where I only rent blu-rays. Maybe they would have
had better luck with a different name.
------
eximius
Risk aversion and capital?
------
dang
Discussed at the time:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3305870](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3305870)
------
mdoms
If the thesis of this article is that rich successful people can't be stupid
then I disagree. Vehemently.
------
teekert
Yeah, you idiots all want to be rich! I'm really smart and don't want to be
rich, problem solved.
------
acoye
Consider `life` been a nonlinear chaotic process, so causality from been smart
alone cannot be established.
------
dustingetz
Communication; gifted people can struggle to explain what they’re doing to
normies
~~~
robocat
In my experience, the ability to explain is a side effect of being gifted. A
gifted person can simplify complex subjects and concentrate on the important
points, they can find different metaphors that work, or fit their explanation
to your knowledge, and are often self aware enough to understand their own
thought process. The less gifted often struggle to teach.
However “that’s obvious” is also often said intuitively by very smart people,
where they are correct but they can’t actually explain how they know they are
correct.
~~~
dustingetz
Reconcile that with how power concentrates on charisma and relationships
(Politics, Startups, Businessmen). Power is about getting other people to do
things, which is about communication!
------
TopHand
Most of us chose the profession/vocation we practice because that is the
opportunity that presented itself at the time. Very few people set out to be
"rich". What they really want is to be comfortable, and able to pursue
contentment. An anecdote from when I was a young person. A friend was working
very hard to become a plumber. At the time I thought who would want to be a
plumber, it is a gross and dirty job with a limited future. One day I asked
him out of curiosity what he thought a plumber's place was. His reply
surprised me. He said "a plumber's job is to protect the health of the
community." Now that I'm older and reflect back, I can see that being a
plumber is a solid vocation, that is needed by most communities, where a
person can live anywhere they choose. But they don't get "rich". They make a
comfortable living and feel they are contributing to the well being of the
community. Isn't that what most of us really want from life?
------
okareaman
What do you call people like me who is an anti-materialist and believes the
religious impulse that a vow of poverty will make it easier to achieve
enlightenment -- but keeps falling ass backwards into money.
------
Konohamaru
A good thing to keep in mind for avoiding pride.
------
atian
Because at the low level, everyone is an idiot.
------
heavenlyblue
> A lot of “idiotic” things have reasonable explanations
It doesn’t, however - often make them less idiotic.
------
cathames
2011 is the context: a height of the start-up wave, ascendance of FB--
presumably due to "genius". The implication being that if you are really
smarter than others you must have the rewards to show it. Hopefully this would
be received today as a tone-deaf denial of privilege. The great myth of
meritocracy has been blown apart.
~~~
blackoil
Do you really believe Zuckerberg is an idiot? He has successfully navigated
industry shift to mobile. He decisively and swiftly purchased Instagram and
WhatsApp, buying his way into two major upcoming trends. You may think he is
jerk or evil but no way an idiot.
~~~
cathames
"idiotic" was stated by the original post, not my reply. My objection is to
the formulation that massive financial success in tech is proof of genius-
level intellect. Being relatively smart may be necessary, but it is certainly
not sufficient. Connections, opportunity, timing, and greed are other
prerequisites. On the other hand, moral concerns about the negative downstream
effects of your goals--something that a supposed genius would have insight
into--would be inhibitors. As to the purchases you mentioned, I would argue
that the game is a lot easier when you already have hotels on Boardwalk. And I
certainly don't attribute strong imperial instincts as a mark of genius.
------
bitxbit
Wealth = Human Connections.
------
CaptainActuary
Luck. The answer is luck.
------
DecayingOrganic
While I agree with the article, it is important to distinguish the macro from
the micro point of view.
From the micro point of view, a talented individual has a greater a priori
probability to reach a high level of success than a moderately gifted one.
On the other hand, from the macro point of view of the entire society, the
probability to find moderately gifted individuals at the top levels of success
is greater than that of finding there very talented ones, because moderately
gifted people are much more numerous and, with the help of luck, have -
globally - a statistical advantage to reach a great success, in spite of their
lower individual a priori probability.
~~~
Grustaf
I think it's mostly just that intelligence is not terribly important for
success. Tenacity, street smart, charisma, connections, passion are all more
important than IQ.
~~~
xtiansimon
Don’t forget good looks and a rich uncle to bail you out of a jam.
~~~
fao_
Exactly. People on here seem to forget that almost every single rich person
that can be named had hereditary money.
Jeff Bezos now has more money than can be made if an American family earned
63k for 2 million years. He also had parents that gave him a so-called "three
hundred thousand dollar investment" (more money than most people see in a
lifetime even _while_ working hard for their family, dedicating most of their
life to work and barely managing to enjoy life), while ignoring or dodging
every single tax he can get away with.
It's weird how most people are fine with that, because they seem to see
themselves as temporarily embarrassed billionaires, or because they aren't
able to understand the sheer amount of money.
~~~
adventured
> He also had parents that gave him a so-called "three hundred thousand dollar
> investment" (more money than most people see in a lifetime even while
> working hard for their family, dedicating most of their life to work and
> barely managing to enjoy life)
Jeff Bezos also had a teen mother, a biological father that abandoned him, and
a Cuban immigrant father that came to the US alone at 16 with nothing and no
ability to speak English.
After passing through a refugee camp, just six years later Mike Bezos was
raising Jeff as his own and had successfully gone to college.
If - having survived all of that well enough to build a decent life for
himself - Mike could afford to invest into his son's business, then it's a
remarkable accomplishment that should be cheered, rather than attacked.
~~~
johnmarinelli
I don't know much about Jeff Bezos so I try to reserve my judgement about him.
But I am confused - how does one come from a poor family and then receive a
$300k loan from said family?
~~~
danieltillett
The poor family through hard work and saving became a moderately wealthy
family over time.
~~~
johnmarinelli
Sure, I didn't mean to sound like I am stomping on the Dream. What I meant
was, how specifically did this family that came from poverty accumulate $300k?
Quick research says that Mike Bezos worked as an engineer for Exxon after
graduating college, and saving that money wisely can add up to $300k.
~~~
xtiansimon
That does not change the calculus in my mind, because the situation goes
beyond just money. How did the Sr. Bezos land such a well paying job with
Exxon? An engineer position puts him in a privileged class. We have to look
back further generations to see how his family was in such a position to raise
a successful engineer?
Let alone that Sr. should have the knowledge and support he required to manage
his money so well. I look at the Jr. Bezos having a privilege to have a father
who he could turn to for advise, or who may have guided his development. Not
saying he did, cuz I don't know the family, but it sounds like it was a real
possibility. Who saves all that money, only to entrust it to his estranged son
who he don't know or trust--as if he haven't had a hand in imparting the
necessary temperament, sensibility, and wisdom for his son to be successful in
some way in the economy? LOL.
How many people today are fortunate to have grown up in this time, in this is
a period of unprecedented economic growth and social change, who have
squandered their earnings, because they didn't have the support of
knowledgeable and trustworthy parents or family?
Sounds to me like a chain of great decisions, luck or both.
I can give a counter example. I moved to an affluent town on the North Shore
of Long Island, NY. I met a woman in my neighborhood who described to me her
career at the local hospital, as a nurse, for over 20 years. She's African
American, and landed this job in the late 70s early 80s by my calculation. She
benefited by the social changes at the time that accepted African Americans as
nurses in a largely white community. I also met her son, and he struggles with
under-employment in his career. I had the impression she didn't understand why
he was in that situation. She was proud of her success. I imagine it was
difficult for her to reconcile her career in nursing, and her son's struggles.
She had success, why not him? Unlucky, more like it.
Right now--that hospital is part of one of those large health care corporate
systems. If she had this job today, its very possible she would not have seen
her salary increase year after year, nor enjoyed a pension, nor stayed with
the same organization for so long just being a nurse. There will always be new
nurse graduates with more energy with just enough knowledge who are more
manageable by corporate. That's the reality of hospitals and healthcare today,
despite growth in this field.
Fortune goes to the right person who is in the right place at the right time.
And if you frack up and fall out, someone else is ready to take your place,
hey. Who in a great position can say they did it entirely alone? Meag Lottery
winners. haha.
------
tinyhouse
Didn't bother to read the article. Just the comments. My take? The smartest
people I know are the ones who married well and have a great family and social
life. Wealth / education are great but worthless if your personal life is a
mess.
Take Benjamin Netanhau as an example. The guy is very wealthy and successful.
I think he graduated from both Harvard and MIT. (Although one degree might be
an MBA that anyone with money can do). However, he is married to a psycopat
who controls his life and is hated by everyone around them. I don't even want
to talk about his son. Do I want his life? Hell no!
------
jjeaff
I agree with the premise of this article. That armchair quarterbacking is
rarely helpful and usually oversimplified.
But I dislike the common implication in the headline, which is that
intelligence somehow always equates to wealth.
First of all, it's not always easy to judge how wealthy another person is, no
matter their profession or outward appearance.
Secondly, I think we all need to disuade ourselves of the notion that everyone
in the world wants to become wealthy. Plenty of extremely intelligent people
are perfectly happy where they are and are perhaps smarter for not chasing
wealth like all those genius entrepreneurs. Just look at the lives of those we
idolize so much for their success. Do you really want that life? A lot don't.
And there is a good chance people more intelligent than those "successful"
people don't want that life either.
Additionally, I know quite a few wealthy people that are rather dim. But they
were hard workers and an opportunity presented itself because they were at the
right place at the right time and they took advantage of that opportunity and
worked it dry.
~~~
koheripbal
Would you agree that higher intelligence equates to a greater likelihood of
wealth over the long run (lifetime)?
~~~
WJW
As a general trend, yes. But since your life is lived with N=1 and you can't
generally change your innate intelligence, that is not usually relevant to
guide decision making.
------
aasasd
_[perhaps obsolete now that the title 's been changed]_
> the author uses a witty title on an article on business strategy
> the HN poster keeps the title almost verbatim, as is tradition
> people in the thread commence writing about the title instead of the
> article's content
So it goes.
------
baddox
I don’t really understand the point of the article. It seems to be challenging
an assumption that being “smart” has something to do with being financially
successful. But why would we start with that assumption? Why would we conflate
being “intelligent” with being good at making money?
To me, this seems as preposterous as asking “if you’re so smart, why are you
so bad at playing the violin, or why aren’t you a Hollywood movie star, or why
can’t you run a 4 minute mile, or why don’t you have a million Twitter
followers?”
Even if we make the questionable assumption that the very concept of general
intelligence (something like what an IQ test purports to show) is sensible,
why would we assume that it correlates positively with success in any
conceivable discipline?
~~~
mam2
Nah it just means too many people think they are "smart" while not applying
their supposed edge to get any practical thing done better.
Money is just one example. The baseline is "if you are so smart why how come
you don't have a better life", this can be more money, a better job, more time
for your children, a hotter wife for some.
If you don't like the materialistic versions, My personal version of it is "if
you are so smart why are you complaining so much instead of fixing your
problems"..
~~~
rho4
love your personal version
------
axegon_
There is no correlation between being an idiot and being rich. Being rich is
(in most cases) the ability to... Sell yourself, for the lack of a better
expression. And smart people commonly can't sell themselves or their products
because they often solve problems which are far more complex than the ones
ordinary people have. They will spend brutal amounts of resources and efforts
to solve a problem which ordinary people just don't have. Ask any developer
how often have they been in a non-tech circle having a casual conversation and
saying "Wait, you paid how much for someone to do X?"
X usually being the work of two (below) average Joe developers which can be
done in a few weeks. And there you are, sitting and wondering how to build
something big.
Which is another common mistake: people rarely become rich overnight and it's
a gradual process. You are looking at people who are light years ahead of you,
while the route to success is a tight and windy mountain road, full of crests
and dips. Looking at the people standing on the mountain peak isn't productive
and doesn't give you any valuable information. It's those who are one or two
corners ahead of you that you need to be looking at.
~~~
MagnumOpus
> There is no correlation between being an idiot and being rich
Correction: there is actually a rather strong correlation [0].
Of course it is not a perfect correlation and a lot depends on other factors
like luck or hard work. So out of a billion people you can always point to
millions who are outliers.
[0][https://ifstudies.org/ifs-admin/resources/income-by-afqt-
cop...](https://ifstudies.org/ifs-admin/resources/income-by-afqt-
copy-w640.png)
------
Bambooly
There is a correlation between intelligent and income but we have been
conditioned to misunderstand what intelligence is. we are taught that
schooling is as sign of intelligence but that is just a sign of Memory and a
sign of formatting. Many people fail because their ideas as are not formatted
correctly or their ability to remember remember during an exam. There are many
people who have failed education and still succeed in their dreams. Elon Musk
is an example where he said "I didn't go to Harvard but all my lawyers did".Is
Musk more intelligent that his lawyers even though he does not have the same
education. So what is intelligence? The issues is also how do you measure
success. May people choose Money as that quantifies things and then we can
compare. The main issue is Quality is not comparable. Neither is Happiness.
Success can only be measured with yourself. because you have to do the things
that need doing to get into the positions to be seen as dumb. The Politician
who says some really dumb thing or the businessman that does not seem to know
what he is doing, have done some really smart things to be in a position to be
dumb.
~~~
knolax
Musk went to an Ivy League...
> While awaiting Canadian documentation, Musk attended the University of
> Pretoria for five months.[51] Once in Canada, Musk entered Queen's
> University in 1989, avoiding mandatory service in the South African
> military.[52] He left in 1992 to study economics and physics at the
> University of Pennsylvania; he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in
> economics and a Bachelor of Science degree in physics.[53][54][failed
> verification]
src:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk)
------
seqizz
Since this is about money, isn't that a bias? I mean what are the chances of
"son of (insert a billionaire name here)" to be rich vs me. TBH I can be
stupid too with that amount of money, since I can _afford_ it.
------
bravoetch
To answer the question posed in the title (and yes, I read the fluffy article)
- luck decides who gets rich.
~~~
dlivingston
I think that’s needlessly reductionist. Read the biographies of people like
Mark Cuban and Richard Branson: both of these men were born entrepreneurs and
salesmen, with Cuban starting his first business at age 12 and Branson at age
16.
A good parallel to this is the music industry, actually: yes, there is a
significant amount of luck in “making it.” But you cannot deny that talent is
one of the strongest predictors: at the very least, talent is the bar to
entry.
~~~
hesk
Looking at examples of successful people is classic survivorship bias. Smart
people who lucked out on their businesses do not get to write biographies.
EDIT: spelling
~~~
blackoil
Being smart may not be sufficient, but seems necessary atleast to make your
own money.
------
Barrin92
Well, the title is easy to answer, even many exceptionally talented people are
never rich, and there's a significant amount of luck involved in being rich.
It's pretty easy to be smarter than many people while never having financial
success, or respect, or an audience or whatever.
It's worth picking up the actual thesis from the article though. If for
example Hastings is rich, does that mean he's not an idiot (or does not often
make idiotic decisions)?
It lowers the chance obviously but on the other hand fame and money is often
fleeting. The average S&P 500 company now lives _fewer than 20 years_. So that
means a lot of people who could be considered to have made good decisions in
the recent past will fuck up in the near future.
The fat tailed nature of tech investing means that someone can make 30 bad
decisions and one good one and be insanely rich. At the end of the day they
often just survived the bad ones, but you'd still have been right in calling
them out on the 29 bad ones.
So I think on a case-by-case basis net-worth is a shoddy indicator.
~~~
solidasparagus
> average S&P 500 company now lives fewer than 20 years
No, the average age of an S&P 500 company is now less than 20 years. Which is
heavily influenced by the rise of technology and the many S&P 500 companies
that were created in the last ~20 years. It does not mean that companies are
dying faster, just that S&P 500 is filled with young companies.
~~~
Barrin92
I don't think that's correct, at least according to this soruce
([https://www.imd.org/research-knowledge/articles/why-you-
will...](https://www.imd.org/research-knowledge/articles/why-you-will-
probably-live-longer-than-most-big-companies/))
_" A recent study by McKinsey found that the average life-span of companies
listed in Standard & Poor’s 500 was 61 years in 1958. Today, it is less than
18 years. McKinsey believes that, in 2027, 75% of the companies currently
quoted on the S&P 500 will have disappeared. They will be bought- out, merged,
or will go bankrupt like Enron and Lehman Brothers."_
~~~
solidasparagus
I didn't see any evidence backing up their estimates nor any number that
represent how many former S&P 500 companies go out of business. The studies I
could find listed some of the companies that fell out of the S&P500 and AFAICT
most of them still exist.
I would be careful about taking McKinsey's carefully crafted quotes and
projections at face value. 'Disappeared' is intentionally vague. They also
intentionally use age of a company when talking about the past and tenure on
the S&P500 when talking about the future to make the numbers seem more
dramatic[1]. It's part of their sales pitch - "it's harder than ever to run a
company so you should really hire a consulting company to save you".
[1]
[https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/Industries/Electri...](https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/Industries/Electric%20Power%20and%20Natural%20Gas/Our%20Insights/Traditional%20company%20new%20businesses%20The%20pairing%20that%20can%20ensure%20an%20incumbents%20survival/Traditional-
company-new-businesses-VF.ashx) (page 4)
------
risyachka
Money an intelligence rarely correlate. I know many very smart people that are
just not interested in creating the business, though they are working on super
complex things just for the sake of science.
Also there are lots of idiots why can become rich. There are so many
opportunities.
So you can be absolutely right saying that some guy is an idiot even if he has
billions.
~~~
tosssingaksla
Depends on what you call "Money"
If you meant income, you are wrong.
If you meant wealth, you are right.
Just do a quick google search with income and IQ correlation. Random first
article: [https://ifstudies.org/blog/can-intelligence-predict-
income](https://ifstudies.org/blog/can-intelligence-predict-income) , don't
even know if it's a good source, but google was showing results for IQ having
a correlation to income, and also for show results saying IQ having no
correlation to wealth.
You own words:
> Though they are working on super complex things just for the sake of science
Those kind of things tend to pay higher that you usual trade job, and are only
available to higher than average IQ. Wealth and Income are very distinct
things.
------
bno1
>When internet commentators see odd behavior that they don't understand, why
do they assume that the most parsimonious explanation is that management must
be a bunch of drooling morons?
I don't think most internet commentators have the patience or even the
interest of painting an accurate picture. Most of them are shitposting.
------
barrenko
"If you secretly despise wealth, it will elude you."
------
foobar_
Even thieves can be rich. Even idiots can learn how to steal.
------
AbrahamParangi
Whenever you see someone who you believe to be an idiot succeeding, it usually
means they're really good at the game _and you don 't even understand what the
game is_.
~~~
nsgi
So Trump is really good at the political game, for instance?
~~~
jmeister
Trump is a world-class salesman. And this skill is more about instinct than
cerebral/deep thinking, which is why nerds “just don’t get it”.
Check Scott Adams’ writing on Trump’s persuasion abilities.
~~~
krapp
>Trump is a world-class salesman.
When did Mexico agree to pay for the wall?
~~~
lucozade
He's not world class at selling walls. He's world class at selling Donald
Trump.
~~~
krapp
Unfortunately, selling "walls" (policy) is his actual job.
He's like a vacuum cleaner salesman who can always get his foot in the door,
but can never manage to sell a unit.
~~~
lucozade
Not quite.
He's like a vacuum salesman who promises to give his customers dishwashers and
toasters for free if they buy a vacuum cleaner.
When they buy the vacuum cleaner, it turns out he lied about the other goods
but they still ended up with the vacuum cleaner. But what a lot of people
really wanted was the dishwasher.
I may have pushed the analogy a little too far...
------
jojobas
Should be: > If idiots call everyone else idiots, how come their are not rich?
~~~
aeternum
The author probably is, assuming she bought NFLX.
------
wegs
A much more thoughtful treatment of this problem is "The Dictator's Handbook."
There are three possible explanations:
1) The CEO knows something I don't.
2) The CEO is dumb.
Those are rarely it. The third one is:
3) The CEO is optimizing for personal wealth / fame / success, and there are
political considerations.
Most CEOs can recognize that a business decision can be absolutely the right
thing to do for the business and not make that decision if it either would
cost them (1) their standing with shareholders (2) their annual bonus (3)
their standing with the board (4) their standing with internal constituents.
The key skill CEOs need to be CEOs can be summarized as: "How to become a
CEO." That involves a lot more management of politics than it does business
success (but still a fair measure of both). Furthermore, if a strategy leads
to business success but costs a CEO their job, they cannot take that strategy.
~~~
lazyjones
It blows my mind how people can come here and attempt to write a serious
answer claiming the CEO "rarely" knows something his armchair critic doesn't
(as a basis for their "bad" decision). Then proceed to peddle cliches and
conspiracies.
Also, shareholders aren't stupid, they usually reward CEOs for good business
decisions and so does the board. Sometimes it's unclear what is better long-
term and short-term results are preferred, but nobody knowingly punishes or
fires a CEO for a good decision. That just exists in the imagination of people
whose involvement with business decisions consists of reading Dilbert
cartoons.
~~~
wegs
... to the extent you consider one of the most influential and best-researched
management books a "cliche and conspiracy."
I'll mention I didn't claim that a CEO rarely knows something a critic
doesn't; just that things like the CEO's greater understanding of something
like market dynamics are rarely the basis of what is externally perceived to
be a "bad" decision by an armchair critic. The basis is usually political
dynamics (which most armchair critics have far less insight into than the CEO
-- the information gap is greater).
And as a shareholder, I can say I don't think my intelligence matters very
much in this story. The amount of time and thought I can put into each company
in my portfolio is what matters. That's both especially true because I have
index funds, and why I have index funds.
As a footnote, if you'd like a more extreme take on this, Pfeffer's Power is a
good read (but quite controversial -- the book basically makes the claim that
CEOs are fundamentally psychopaths). Pfeffer is at Stanford.
Dictator's Handbook is considered hardly controversial at all. It's a game-
theoretic argument, backed by pretty good data. The author is at New York
University.
I'll also mention that simply insulting the poster of an argument ("just
exists in the imagination of people whose involvement with business decisions
consists of reading Dilbert cartoons") doesn't strengthen your point. You know
nothing about my background. It just makes you look like you're either a jerk,
or ran out of sound arguments.
~~~
lazyjones
> _Pfeffer 's Power is a good read (but quite controversial -- the book
> basically makes the claim that CEOs are fundamentally psychopaths)._
Can you point me to a summary that makes this claim? Because
[https://www.slideshare.net/johnnemo/power-by-jeffrey-
pfeffer...](https://www.slideshare.net/johnnemo/power-by-jeffrey-pfeffer-key-
takeaways) certainly doesn't.
> _You know nothing about my background. It just makes you look like you 're
> either a jerk, or ran out of sound arguments._
You made 2 appeals to authority - of dubious authenticity - and I have no
reason to assume you wouldn't make a 3rd if you thought it'd give you extra
points. My background is: ex-CEO.
~~~
wegs
No, I can point you to reading the books.
If you're don't read books, I don't think this is a bridge you'll cross. And
I'm sorry you find two respected professors, one at NYU and one at Stanford,
to be of dubious authenticity. I'm not quite sure where to go from there in
the conversation. There are many individuals who find Pfeffer dubious, but de
Mesquita is extremely highly regarded.
I'm not going to share my background on the internet, but ex-CEO doesn't make
you qualified to talk about much of anything. It depends on the organization.
I've virtually never seen these sorts of dynamics at organizations below 100
people, and they don't become universal until around 1000-10,000 people. You
need to reach a certain scale of competition before people start acting in
ways which are game-theoretically optimal. If you have 10 people, it's easy to
keep alignment on mission, vision, community, and business. If you have e.g.
10,000 people, and 1% are gunning for CEO, the only way to get to the top is
to out-gun the other 99. That competition is what leads to these dynamics.
~~~
lazyjones
> _And I 'm sorry you find two respected professors, one at NYU and one at
> Stanford, to be of dubious authenticity._
Obvious straw man. I have no qualms with those professors, just with your
claims about their books, which at least one summary contains no trace of.
Should I read those books merely to verify your claims? I'm not so sure.
> _I 've virtually never seen these sorts of dynamics at organizations below
> 100 people, and they don't become universal until around 1000-10,000 people_
So your initial claims don't apply to CEOs of corporations with less than 1000
people? Moving the goalpost much?
~~~
wegs
Your username suggests you shouldn't read these books. You should skim notes
about these books and write obnoxious posts based on those, claiming the
person you're talking to is lying based on no evidence at all.
Indeed, Dictator's Handbook has a nice summary someone posted in this thread.
Your link wasn't even a summary, but someone's take-home notes for their own
career.
> So your initial claims don't apply to CEOs of corporations with less than
> 1000 people? Moving the goalpost much?
That's where the goalposts started. They haven't moved an inch. The article
was talking about Reed Hastings and Netflix. We were talking about publicly-
traded companies with shareholders. "Power" talks about ... power. CEO of a
5-man shop isn't power. It talks about how people climb to the top of
corporate ladders at big organizations, and the selection mechanism for who
makes CEO. Dictator's Handbook is about big organizations too. It's a game-
theoretic treatment.
Obviously some context went over your head. Maybe that goes with digital
communications, or maybe that goes with not being interested in longer texts,
so much as in skimming summaries.
~~~
lazyjones
> _The article was talking about Reed Hastings and Netflix. We were talking
> about publicly-traded companies with shareholders._
You were writing about "most CEOs". Pardon me for taking you literally and/or
seriously.
> _maybe that goes with not being interested in longer texts, so much as in
> skimming summaries._
I'm very interested in worthwhile texts, just not based on recommendations by
people making obviously false claims on the Internet.
------
econcon
I've many times tried to people make money but they get pretty defensive with
their ideas and dreams and their plans, so I've decided different way, I drop
them hints if I care for them enough and move on.
A lot of people just look at cause Vs effect in a wrong w
------
torstenvl
> _I think we should eliminate the corporate income tax . . . and tax income
> once, when it hits a person._
LOL what? Can't have it both ways, pal.
I've seen this line of thought expressed a few times before, and it strikes me
as disingenuous to hold that a corporation is a person... right up until the
moment that idea puts slightly less money in your pocket.
~~~
tonyedgecombe
Corporation tax does have its problems though. In particular it's easy for
globalised companies to shift profits around the world to avoid paying it.
Personally I'd rather we started treating dividends and even capital gains as
normal income and eliminate corporation tax.
------
lazyjones
I love the way people who consider themselves smart rationalize their lack of
success/wealth, including here.
\- I don't want to be wealthy anyway
\- To be wealthy you have to be ruthless and I prefer to be nice
\- smart people are so busy with issues much more important than money
\- wealthy people are just lucky idiots
\- wealthy people are just idiots who are better at exploiting other idiots
\- people who are wealthy spend their lives chasing wealth instead of enjoying
it
It's sad that people refuse to acknowledge that assuming responsibility for
one's own or even their family's lives means to take care of every aspect of
it, including financial issues. If you are "too busy" to take care of your
finances to the best of your abilities, you are incompetent and not in control
of your life.
~~~
mam2
This is so true i don't understand the downvotes
~~~
Traster
It's getting downvoted because it's not a good argument. Accusing the people
you disagree with of coming to their conclusions through motivated reasonsing
neither actually addresses the logical arguments people are making, or gives
the people you're disagreeing with any intellectual credit. It also throws up
some horrendous strawmen - you have to be _rich_ to take care of your family?
Want to have an open conversation with someone you disagree with? I have a
good tip, don't open the conversation by accusing them of being incompetent
and not in control of their own lives.
~~~
mam2
Ok here's the conversation, but the thing is that it's not reeeealy a debate:
"Money is good to have".
But everytime you say exactly this, there are swarms of people trying to
explain to you why it's not so important. It's just pure rationalisation.
That doesn't mean "you should or shouldn't dedicate your life to money because
it will not make you happy", but this specic argument IS the strawman people
give usually everytime you talk about money, and THIS is actually how most
people actually kill the conversation.
~~~
lazyjones
It's not even only money that gets this reaction. Every time somebody shows
off or is lauded for having something that would actually take critics some
effort to achieve, such reactions are common. Whether it's muscles (body
building is ugly, unhealthy, only possible with horrible drugs...), good looks
or many children. People will find some disadvantages and let you know.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.