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What Startups can learn from the Mittelstand - adoming3
https://medium.com/@ronanperceval/what-startups-can-learn-from-the-mittelstand-399842086221
======
adoming3
With the amount of unicorns in 2014 (68) and more coming online, I personally
find it difficult to remember that VC isn't the only route to global niche
dominance. I hope more entrepreneurs and funders embrace alternate funding
sources for "lifestyle companies".
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Pivotal loses almost half its value after 'train wreck' of an earnings report - jawns
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/05/pivotal-earnings-q1-2020.html
======
RickJWagner
Ouch! The market seems to have reacted pretty strongly.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why aren't there more engineers in politics? - dangoldin
http://dangoldin.com/2013/01/23/why-arent-there-more-engineers-in-politics/
======
ianfernz
Because we're all disillusioned, and politics doesn't play to our strengths.
It's very illogical.
~~~
dangoldin
I feel we're using excuses because we don't want to admit our weakness. We
shouldn't be complaining about the world if we're not willing to make an
effort to make it better.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Single Drop of Blood Will Soon Be Enough to Diagnose Most Types of Cancer - mgdo
http://www.thelatestnews.com/single-drop-of-blood-soon-enough-to-diagnose-most-types-of-cancer/
======
bavcyc
What's the difference between this method and this method:
[https://www.k-state.edu/media/newsreleases/jun15/cancerpaten...](https://www.k-state.edu/media/newsreleases/jun15/cancerpatent61215.html)
?
~~~
howlin
Looks like completely different technology. OP describes a technique that
sequences platelet-derived RNA, while your link is about a technique that
analyzes enzymes in the blood plasma.
------
PhantomGremlin
"still in an early experimental phase". In the medical world, availability by
the year 2020 is "soon".
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Judge Finds Apple in Violation of HTC's Newly Acquired Patents - d0ne
http://www.dailytech.com/Judge+Finds+Apple+in+Violation+of+HTCs+Newly+Acquired+Patents/article22275.htm
======
dpcan
Let's just stop the import of all computers and phones over Patent rulings.
HTC and Apple should stick to their guns and deny imports of their products.
Once nobody can buy computers or phones in the U.S. anymore THEN, just MAYBE,
Congress will decide to fix this Patent mess.
~~~
Taft
Considering the increasingly vocal outcry of rampant patent abuse, it's also
possible that tech giants begin publicly stating their position towards US
patent law: it needn't exist (or one of the many alternatives that have been
proposed). If the market can metabolize that, patent law reform isn't far
away.
~~~
jxcole
I would agree except that a bunch of companies just bought some patents for
$4.5 billion. If patents become ineffective, the value of that purchase is $0.
Very few companies are going to look on this as a positive thing.
~~~
erydo
They already purchased those patents, though. It's kind of a sunk cost. They
wouldn't be losing $4.5 billion cash if patents became worthless, they'd be
losing ammunition for a type of fight that they wouldn't have to deal with
anymore.
That's like saying, "We can't stop fighting this war, then all our guns would
be worthless."
~~~
wheels
Bad analogy. The war isn't over patents, it's general competition. It's more
like the UN pushing you to sign a treaty pledging not to use nukes just after
you spent a pile acquiring them.
Now if patents were only used defensively (which they're obviously not in this
case, since Apple went on the attack) the analogy would then be banning
ballistic missiles right after acquiring a ballistic missile defense system,
which would be easier to swallow.
~~~
erydo
You're inferring something that wasn't intended. Your peace-treaty example was
exactly the type of situation my analogy was referring to.
Patents are being used aggressively because that's the nature of
competition—if anyone is going to use them that way, everyone has to. But it
could be in everyone's interest if that option were removed from the table,
regardless how much each had previously spent amassing an arsenal simply to
remain competitive.
------
bpd1069
Well isn't this a pickle, according to ars the two patents that the judge have
been found infridged have been ruled invalid...
[http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/07/itc-judge-says-
mac...](http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/07/itc-judge-says-macs-
infringe-s3-patents-but-it-may-not-help-htc.ars)
... [Litigating Apple] noted that on the very same day that an ALJ ruled that
Apple infringed two of S3's patents, the USPTO made initial determinations
that the relevant claims of the two remaining patents are also invalid due to
prior art. Apple can ask the ITC to review the infringement decision in light
of the USPTO's invalidation of those patent claims as ipso facto an invalid
patent claim cannot be infringed. ...
ars's source: [http://www.litigatingapple.com/blog/2011/7/24/why-htcs-
court...](http://www.litigatingapple.com/blog/2011/7/24/why-htcs-courtship-
of-s3-might-be-too-clever-by-half.html)
And the soap opera continues.
------
antihero
It's pretty undeniable that the whole patents thing is now one giant
clusterfuck.
The problem is, as technology advances, previously "genius" ideas become
trivial due to more people being able to solve problems.
There was a time in history when things such as spoons were considered an
amazing idea, but how utterly fucked would humanity's development have been if
stone-age people allowed themselves to be crippled by greed and a the blind
seeking of money.
~~~
alanfalcon
We'd all be eating porridge with a spork.
~~~
lutorm
The spork would undoubtedly have been found infringing and sued out of
existence. We'd be eating it with a fork.
~~~
pyre
Or a paddle/spatula. They might have been able to argue that it wasn't a spoon
because there were no raise edges.
~~~
AndyJPartridge
Or chopsticks.
Assuming someone hasn't patented a stick.
(Or come to think about it, the chewing process.)
~~~
akdetrick
Sticks may be fine, as long as you don't use it to play fetch with your dog
later:
[http://www.google.com/patents?id=hhYJAAAAEBAJ&zoom=4&...](http://www.google.com/patents?id=hhYJAAAAEBAJ&zoom=4&pg=PA2#v=onepage&q&f=false)
------
Steko
The level of IP related discourse on HN is reminiscent of talking politics
with people who spend all their time listening to talk radio. I mean of course
Ronald Reagan singlehandedly killed communism and minorities caused the
housing crisis but did you know that the entire patent and copyright system
could be removed tomorrow and everything would be just hunky dory?
Fact: way too many obvious or stupid patents are granted.
The solution is not to abolish patents, the solution is to properly staff and
fund the USPTO and/or change the system so that rubber stamping applications
with approved is not incentivized.
You could fund it by taxing the patents themselves. Think your patent is worth
$10 million? Ok, you owe the USPTO $100K and the legal damages you can claim
from violation of that patent are capped at $10 million (this allows the
competition to effectively public domain patents by buying them out).
~~~
z0r
Taxing a patent directly in the way you suggest is a terrible idea. Then
smaller innovators who might benefit from patent protection are priced out by
larger players directly! The value of the patent becomes proportional to the
wealth of the patent holder, not the value of the innovation being protected.
~~~
dpatru
He's not saying that small inventors couldn't profit. Just that their profits
as a result of monopoly rights should be capped at a dollar amount. Patent
rights are already capped in time: 20 years from the time of filing. After
that, inventors no longer have the monopoly. The problem is that in high-tech
fields, 20 years is too long. We don't want individual inventors to hold back
progress for 20 years. Capping returns seems like a good solution. Inventors
are still compensated, but within reason.
~~~
chc
He isn't saying that, but it would be the result of his suggestion. It would
be hugely lopsided in favor entities with lots of money, since the value of
your invention _to you_ (but not to potential infringers) is bounded by your
cash on hand. The cost of getting a patent is already a hardship on non-
corporate inventors. They won't be able to afford a lot on top of that — the
ROI would just not be there. If Joe Inventor patents his technique for
creating geese that lay golden eggs but can only afford to pay $5000 on top of
the filing fees, then I can rip it off and end up having to pay him fractional
pennies out of every dollar I make off my infringement.
~~~
Steko
"It would be hugely lopsided in favor entities with lots of money"
Much less so then the current system. Much of the uncertainty and potential
liability for small businesses would disappear. Unless your small business is
a patent troll but then that's a feature not a bug.
"the value of your invention to you (but not to potential infringers) is
bounded by your cash on hand."
This is both false (you are bounded by the cash on hand and the value of
things you can use as collateral for loans or equity) and no different then
the current case where you are bounded in the number of lawyer hours you can
afford.
If I find an enormous diamond that is worth $20 million dollars but it costs
more to have it properly appraised and marketed then I have cash on hand,
trust me I will raise that money and sell it near full market price. I may not
get 100% of the proceeds but you'll have a hard time convincing me that the
apprisal system is incredibly biased against people that find diamonds.
------
tghw
_This is actually a pretty favorable outcome for HTC, as the reported industry
average for invalidations during IP review is around 90 percent._
This is one of the biggest problems with the modern patent system.
~~~
GrooveStomp
I was just going to comment on this quote. Glad someone beat me to it.
I wonder if it's actually one of the biggest problems, though? What are the
average number of invalidations for other industries? Do other industries also
suffer from "The Lodsys Problem" to the same extent as software? I'd also like
to see a reference for that number!
My inclination is that, yes, software patents are terrible and should be
abolished. Also, regardless of how 90% compares to other industries - it's a
strong indicator that the way patents are granted in the first place is very
broken.
------
cwp
From the article:
As NVIDIA Corp. (NVDA) is a licensee, units with its GPUs are not in violation.
However, models with graphics by Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) or integrated
graphics from Intel Corp.'s (INTC) (such as the newly refreshed MacBook Air
lineup) are in violation.
Whoa. So this actually goes way beyond Apple. It'll be interesting to see how
this plays out.
------
kenjackson
Given this is a HW and SW patent, and my superficial reading leads me to
believe that this may infringe on HW -- this isn't your typical SW patent
issue. It's HW too. Are people ready to say that HW patents, such as those
held by Intel and ARM, should also go bye-bye?
~~~
aboodman
It annoys me that the tech community always focuses on software patents, as if
hardware ones are automatically more legitimate.
The original purpose of the patent system was to improve consumers lives by:
a) Incentivizing innovations that would not otherwise be profitable.
b) Incentivizing disclosure of invention details that would otherwise be kept
secret.
These are a pretty rare combination of circumstances for most inventions,
whether software or hardware. a) is demonstrably rare since patents are
constantly infringed, yet Apple (for example) still somehow manages to get by.
b) does not apply to any technology that is distributed, since anyone can take
it apart and see how it works.
On the other side, patents of any type actively harm consumers:
a) Products from large companies are driven up in cost due to litigation.
b) Potential innovation from small companies is stifled by fear of litigation.
I'm sure there's some use for a patent system, but it is very small. The US
would be a far better place with no patent system than with the one we have
now.
~~~
kenjackson
I think I'd keep drug patents. Not sure if much else. Drugs take a long time
and a lot of money to create. But copying a drug is cheap is quick. But I'm
not sure if anything else meets the bar.
------
GHFigs
It's amusing that when there is a ruling in HTC's favor the headline is:
"Judge Finds Apple in Violation of HTC's Newly Acquired Patents"...but when
there was a ruling in Apple's favor it was: "Apple's Plot to Kill Top Android
Maker HTC Nears Fruition With Win"
The latter being illustrated with a picture of Steve Jobs as the Emperor from
Star Wars. Classy.
~~~
Pewpewarrows
As others have noted, it's because Apple decided to get their hands dirty
first claiming intellectual property with ridiculously broad patents. In that
sense HTC is being perceived as defending itself to the bully on the
playground by throwing back punches.
~~~
Steko
First, HTC didn't even have these patents until recently.
Second, Android clearly went with a strategy of cloning the iPhone, of course
Apple struck first. Is Apple the bad guy for also wanting to close the fake
Apple stores in China?
The question isn't who struck first, the question is whether each parties
patents are valid or not and whether they are infringed or not. Defending poor
journalism doesn't get us closer to that.
~~~
Pewpewarrows
If you think that Android devices are just clones of the iPhone, and that it
gives Apple just cause to strike first, I'm not even going to bother writing a
real response.
~~~
Steko
Trust me, you didn't.
Android is not "just a clone" but it's clear that they decided to aggressively
clone the iphone's features. If you don't think that's obvious, you missed
what Android looked like 6 months before the iphone debut and 6 months after.
Now whether those features are protectable as IP or not is another matter but
if they are it's no surprise that Apple would want to enforce such
protections.
~~~
Pewpewarrows
Aggressively clone as in...? A top statusbar? A touchscreen? A virtual
keyboard? A grid layout of applications? Custom applications? Hate to break it
to you, but iOS wasn't the first to do any of those, Android included most of
them before the iPhone announcement (from the little that we know of its
development at Google beginning in 2005), and the first Android phone (G1)
didn't resemble the iPhone more than any other smartphone on the market. Most
people that I knew were comparing it to the Sidekick when it first released.
~~~
Steko
"Aggressively clone as in...? "
As in completely overhauled the device from a blackberry knock off to an
iphone knock off:
[http://random.andrewwarner.com/what-googles-android-
looked-l...](http://random.andrewwarner.com/what-googles-android-looked-like-
before-and-after-the-launch-of-iphone/)
"Hate to break it to you, but iOS wasn't the first to do any of those"
I'm not making any claim that (1) iOS was first for any of those or that (2)
whatever claims Apple is making are protectable or not or (3) whether google
violates those claims or not.
What I'm saying is that: (a) some claims and protections have been granted,
(b) it's Apple's right to protect them until/unless these protections are
overturned/invalidated, and (c) I have no sympathy for people violating
legitimate claims. This whole sub-thread is about "striking first" makes Apple
a bully which is total bullshit. They're striking first because they're the
person getting copied, that's how the dynamic works.
"the first Android phone (G1) didn't resemble the iPhone more than any other
smartphone on the market. Most people that I knew were comparing it to the
Sidekick when it first released."
That's rich, every review of the G1 I can find compares it directly with the
iphone. Custom time limit a google search.
~~~
Pewpewarrows
Misleading image is misleading. This is what the first Android phone looked
like:
[http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2008/10/androi...](http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2008/10/android1a.jpg)
Plenty of handsets had full touch-screens before the iPhone came out. The only
difference being that the iPhone decided to ditch any hardware keyboard
option. Oh wait, what's that on the knockoff? A hardware keyboard option, and
almost every other button from the pre-release prototype as well.
Please. The arguments are childish now. Every manufacturer takes inspiration
from devices on the current market. Apple included. Only they decided to go
and start suing everyone left and right.
~~~
czhiddy
I'm curious why that image is "misleading." Is that not a photo of an early
pre-release Android prototype?
~~~
Pewpewarrows
The second image, not the first.
------
thoughtsimple
Just business as usual. Two giant corporations using the courts (or in this
case the ITC) to set the price of a cross-license patent agreement.
These sorts of cases aren't usually very interesting. They almost always get
settled with no disclosure of the final settlement.
------
lutorm
So if Apple is infringing because they used AMD hardware, aren't everyone who
owns a machine with AMD hardware also infringing?
While the whole patent system is tending toward absurdity, it's _really_
absurd that you can be sued for infringement by using a product that infringes
even if you have no idea or even a way of knowing that...
~~~
andrew1
It might be the reason that Apple are infringing on the patent is that they
are selling, not just using, a product which contains something which
infringes the patent.
~~~
cma
Using something with unlicensed patented technology exposes you to liability
as well. Otherwise you could just make shell companies to add the final
software piece to a product and cleanse the liability from all the other
players.
------
nkassis
HTC has some leverage but I have a feeling, after seeing OS 10.7, that Apple
cares less about the Mac then their iOS devices. Would they sacrifice the Macs
for the chance to block Android?
~~~
podperson
More importantly, the same problem applies to anything not using nVidia GPUs,
which is most low-end desktop PCs (Intel integrated GPUs) and a lot of high-
end desktop PCs (anything with AMD).
So now we can't have a PC with the best GPU and CPU because Intel and nVidia
are suing each other over IP, and we can't have a cheap PC because Intel is
infringing on S3 patents, and we can't even give up and get a top-of-the-line
AMD/ATI CPU.
Argh.
~~~
redthrowaway
Not to nitpick, but while Intel owns the high end CPU market, the current
ATI/AMD top end GPUs are much better than nVidia's offering. Unless, that is,
I missed a major nVidia release lately...
~~~
podperson
You're right, modulo whether your favorite GPGPU API is supported.
------
iamdave
Is it still a sign of a broken system even if it means the guy I wanted to
lose actually loses?
_Shakes magic 8-ball_ Signs point to yes.
------
algoshift
I find this comment in the article to be very interesting:
"the reported industry average for invalidations during IP review is around 90
percent."
It would be very interesting to have a look at stats on patent invalidation
reviews. If there's solid data showing that the invalidation rate is around
90% this might be useful as evidence that the USPTO is not doing their job by
issuing patents that should never have been issued.
A number like 90% should embarrass anyone who might wish to argue that the
system is not broken.
------
temp765
Nothing in the article suggests HTC's patent is ridiculous like what was
portrayed recently in the TAL program about Intellectual Ventures.
There doesn't seem to be anything inherently absurd about patenting an image
compression system. I mean, imagine it was a small company that invented a new
compression system that was 20% better then all the competition. Would they
too be chastised if they tried to protect themselves from large corporations
that ignore intellectual property law?
Patent are supposed to incentivize innovation and give the patent holder an
edge against the competition as a sort of prize for his work. This "edge" was
sold to HTC, and now HTC has every right to protect it. Seems like Apple
should just either suck it up and pay a licensing fee, or change their
hardware/software to get around using this technology.
The problem with the patent system is the disgusting legal harassment done by
patent trolls - where smallish companies are sued over absurd patent and
because they don't have the financial means to legally defend themselves
they're pressured into settling; this case doesn't seem to exhibit any of
those problems.
~~~
mcosta
In the real world this small company would be counter sued with any random
patent eg pattern matching. With reason or not the costs skyrockets... Guess
who loses?
~~~
temp765
Yes, that would be the problem I described in my last paragraph, but that has
no bearing on the facts of this case. Just because they could be counter sued
(though I'm not completely convinced it's that east), doesn't mean the
original law suit has no merit. Large companies routinely ignore the
intellectual property rights of others (in part due to so many of them being
bogus), but that doesn't make it okay. HTC is completely within it's right to
demand compensation for technology they own, if their claim is legitimate.
There is nothing in this article that suggests their claim is absurd or
unjustified. Maybe the patent is on some amazing piece of compression
technology that took years to develop. People are just jumping to the
conclusion that it's yet another "toast" or "pop-up text" patent.
------
Hawramani
Wouldn't creating a patent alliance render the evils of this system
ineffective? Members of the alliance would work together to acquire patents,
and these patents will be used as patent lawsuit deterrents. Any non-member
company who sues a member of the alliance will have to face a dozen lawsuits
from other alliance members. (Alliance members should sign a legal agreement
not to sue other members on patent-based issues.)
Of course for this to be effective a huge number of patents is needed, but
there are probably a lot of big companies willing to give big bucks to avoid
the patent menace, and they can raise enough money to acquire a huge number of
patents. Plus each company will come with its own patents.
I guess others have already thought of this and found it impractical, which
makes me wonder why it is so.
~~~
streptomycin
That sounds kind of like the [Open Invention
Network](<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Invention_Network>).
~~~
nkassis
or the mpegla? not sure we want more of those.
------
buddylw
Maybe we can get to the "mutually assured destruction" phase of patents where
everyone has so many ridiculous patents that any lawsuit is sure to ruin
everyone?
Of course, that doesn't stop patent trolls (terrorist rent seekers) with no
skin in the game, but at least this drama would end.
~~~
politician
There's an idea, start calling patent trolls "patent terrorism" to leverage
the current climate of fear for our own purposes.
~~~
buddylw
I think the Patriot Act could actually help us here.
------
nextparadigms
Maybe even Apple will realize that the current patent system isn't really
doing them any favors, either, overall.
When even companies that stand to benefit from the current patent system start
complaining about the patent system, _that's_ when we'll see some radical
change.
~~~
ceejayoz
> Maybe even Apple will realize that the current patent system isn't really
> doing them any favors, either, overall.
I suspect all the big manufacturers realize that. They just don't have an
option - _someone_ is going to sue, so everyone feels they have to.
~~~
nextparadigms
Then I assume all the big companies have no problem supporting Google to push
for an overhaul (or dare I say the abolishing?) of the patent system.
~~~
ceejayoz
Good luck. There's more than just the US patent system at play here.
------
erikb
One of the few articles who recognises these patent law suits as what they
are: means of gaining leverage and cutting into the winnings of other
companies in the same market. Also a lot of references to further reading.
Great article!
------
ConstantineXVI
Curious, it happens that Apple just recently phased out their last Macs that
still used nVidia chips (and thus their only non-infringing models). Anyone
know the reasoning for the switch?
~~~
sjs
Long story short it was to reduce the number of chips and thus cost, area, and
heat (which leads to noise). There are good articles on this on AnandTech or
Ars Technica but I can't find them.
------
deepGem
Well Appe will just use Nvidia chips in the new set of mac airs. I think the
author overstates the damage by saying the ruling will impact the entire mac
line up.
------
ashishgandhi
ITC judge says Macs infringe on S3 patents, but it may not help HTC.
"Litigating Apple noted that on the very same day that an ALJ ruled that Apple
infringed two of S3's patents, the USPTO made initial determinations that the
relevant claims of the two remaining patents are also invalid due to prior
art."
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2815852>
------
CaveTech
Sadly it looks like there's an arms race brewing. Hopefully some sanity is
restored before these companies start destroying each other.
------
Zachhack
Awaiting the day when 'Patent Law 101' becomes a pre-req for Computer Science
degree..
~~~
younata
already there at my uni.
------
barrkel
Paradoxically, the ideal result seems to be only the lawyers coming out ahead.
------
emehrkay
Could Apple do anything about this? It seems to be an AMD and Intel problem
~~~
jrockway
Of course. They can license all their patents to HTC in exchange for a license
to all of HTC's patents.
Everyone wins except the new upstart company without eight billion dollars
worth of bullshit patents. We don't need any new computer companies, though,
there are enough already. The system works!
~~~
iqster
You're not taking patent trolls into account.
------
TeMPOraL
I expected to see Economic Wars soon[1], but so far it seems we're getting
Patent War. Anyway, is getting interesting.
[1] - yes, I've just read "Black Oceans" by Dukaj ;).
------
emilis_info
Somehow this old tale from 1992 springs to mind:
[http://www.csd.uwo.ca/staff/magi/personal/humour/Computer_Au...](http://www.csd.uwo.ca/staff/magi/personal/humour/Computer_Audience/A%20Legend%20For%20Our%20Time.html)
------
billmcneale
Mutually Assured Destruction.
------
netmau5
We live in a capitalistic society. I'd like to think that means IF !STOLEN
THEN PAID and its contrapositive IF !PAID THEN STOLEN. Patents say IF USED
THEN STOLEN. Companies tend to license these patents into their capitalistic
form for many reasons, but the fact that they have a decision in the matter
allows for monopolistic behavior.
I believe all patents should come with a required provision that lists a fair
market value for licensing it which anyone can use, thus IF !STOLEN THEN PAID.
In turn, this forces the USPTO to actually quantify (to some degree of error)
the "useful" requirement of a patent and, by small extension, if it is
"statutory" (product or productizable) and "nonobvious" (existing
competition?). I think it also forces the requestor to give some detail on the
intention of the patent rather than making an arbitrary claim to an underlying
concept.
It's all about the money; they need to stop pretending and judge it that way.
As it reads now, the current patent system was a premature optimization which
planned for a society out of Star Trek instead of, well, lets not go there
today.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Pi-Hole: Network Wide, Hardware Ad Blocking - indexerror
https://pi-hole.net/
======
Borating
See also FreeContributor [1]
[1]
[https://github.com/tbds/FreeContributor](https://github.com/tbds/FreeContributor)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Government Gave Big Oil the Power to Prosecute Its Biggest Critic - pizza
https://prospect.org/power/chevron-big-oil-power-prosecute-its-biggest-critic/
======
pizza
This case is insane to me.
Not only did the government allow Chevron to prosecute him in their place, the
judge overseeing Donziger's case openly blogged in support of Chevron,
suggested to Chevron what they should file against Donziger, and the judge
even put him under house arrest in contempt of court _BEFORE_ the trial even
began, something for which apparently there is no precedent in the history of
the United States.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Does it really make sense to contact bloggers a week before launch? - vaksel
I mean sure if you are the next Google and are launching some enormous project with millions in funding, it might make sense. But if you are just another startup, is it realistic to think they'll be holding their breath for a week to write about your startup?
======
holdenk
It doesn't hurt to get in touch with them and let them know you are about to
launch to give them some time before hand to prepare (if they are even
interested in covering you). You can always follow up on launch day (unless
they explicitly ask you not to). That being said, don't ask for a press
embargo, they might write about your pre-launch thing if it sounds really
exciting to them. If you absolutely can't stand that, wait until the day of.
~~~
vaksel
the thing is that if you don't ask for a press embargo and they cover you, you
just screwed yourself out of most coverage on other blogs. All of the "what we
cover" posts by bloggers, always stress that they don't want to cover
something that's already old news.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Boeing to lay off hundreds more engineers - yitchelle
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-boeing-layoffs-idUSKBN17J1BI
======
madengr
Hell, my company encouraged retirement by promising medical coverage, then one
year later pulled the coverage on those who took the deal.
~~~
SamUK96
That's actually evil...
I find that the withdrawing of medical programs by a company is a pretty
reliable indicator that it'll fold in a few years, since it's a common "exit-
strategy" to earn a few last bucks before the up-top rats jump ship.
Been at two companies who were thriving, and both after only a few months
stopped their medical insurance. After that, _dozens_ of people left over 1-2
years, and the company was massively haemorrhaging money due to customer
dissatisfaction.
False economy.
~~~
madengr
Hell, a guy a fence with had surgery, then came to find out he had no health
insurance as the company stopped paying the premiums and was POCKETING them,
including his contribution. Several years later he finally recovered some of
the medical costs in a lawsuit.
------
buster
So, the number of employees get's less every year[1] but the market value
rises every year[2]. I'm wondering if the wealth distribution, or whatever you
all it, is working right, here..
[1] [https://www.statista.com/statistics/268992/change-in-
employm...](https://www.statista.com/statistics/268992/change-in-employment-
figures-from-boeing/) [2]
[https://www.google.com/finance?q=Boeing&ei=uQf3WOngDM7GsAGJ9...](https://www.google.com/finance?q=Boeing&ei=uQf3WOngDM7GsAGJ9Li4Aw)
~~~
Ntrails
I'm not sure why you're conflating share price and number of employees with
wealth distribution? (not to mention it looks from a casual glance as though
it's been largely flat 2014-2017)
In many ways you'd _expect_ a company that dropped a lot of employees to
improve it's profitability due to reducing costs, and if it's more profitable
it ought to be worth more right? Obviously it's a trade off, ie no R&D means
no new products means it's going to run out of things to sell eventually and
that should reduce expected future cashflows and thus value etc etc.
~~~
buster
Yes, just a casual glance. I usually don't really care about that. But from my
point of view the share price says over a long period of time "this company is
doing fine". The share price has been on a rise since many years. So, when the
company is doing "fine" according to market (and everyone who did nothing
except buying stocks wins money!), how is it that the employees get screwed?
That's how the market works, yes. But i don't have to be ok with it. Actually,
all that stock exchange, share price, money-believing, self-regulating
capitalism bullsh*t is just fundamentally screwed, in my opinion.
~~~
Ntrails
> So, when the company is doing "fine" according to market (and everyone who
> did nothing except buying stocks wins money!), how is it that the employees
> get screwed?
You mean that the people who paid for the company to produce widgets profit
when the widgets are profitable? Not the people who designed the widgets?
Thing is, if the widgets fail and the company goes bust the shareholders lose
their investment. If it does well, they'll make money. They aren't "doing
nothing except buying stocks" \- they're risking their investment.
If the company was funded by debt instead of shares, then the debt would be
paid down at a fixed rate and then profits would go to the private owner. So
even without "the market" the employees don't profit by design unless the
company chooses that as an incentive system.
If, however, the company was owned by the workers then they would indeed
profit from the widgets and suffer from the failure. Such companies do in fact
exist. But they will still lay off staff when it's sensible to do so, and that
may well increase profits which are distributed amongst those remaining.
~~~
smokeyj
I wonder if economic illiteracy leads to a disdain for capitalism or the other
way around.
------
pasbesoin
IIRC, the Washington workers are union while the South Carolina workers are
not? (Though I don't know about the specific roles/titles involved in this
round. But the article raises the open question about S.C. jobs.)
Also, I wonder whether and how much of this work is moving overseas.
P.S. Quick google reveals:
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/02/15/these...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/02/15/these-
workers-want-a-union-deep-in-trump-country-they-just-might-have-a-chance/)
[http://www.engineering.com/AdvancedManufacturing/ArticleID/1...](http://www.engineering.com/AdvancedManufacturing/ArticleID/14348/Machinists-
Union-to-Trump-Bring-Boeing-Jobs-Home.aspx)
[http://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-
aerospace/boeing...](http://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-
aerospace/boeing-agrees-to-open-737-center-in-china-inks-300-new-jet-orders/)
The last two are talking about fit, finishing, and parts, and they cite the
machinists' union. One might call that a bit apples versus oranges with
respect to the OP. Nonetheless, at the time there was language (PR and
corporate-speak) about no jobs leaving Everett and potential increased demand
increasing headcount there.
~~~
kcorbitt
I have a friend who's a long-time engineer at Boeing (in Washington). He'd
always complain that union rules were strict to the point of ludicrousness,
eg. if he got a new desktop computer he was prohibited from plugging it in
himself; he had to file a ticket and get it plugged in by a member of whatever
union had staked a claim to that task.
Not really related to the article, but yeah, I can't imagine that level of
union-driven bureaucracy is good for productivity.
~~~
jamroom
This isn't union - this is just how huge corporations work. I worked for
Verizon and they did the same thing - everything was locked down and you had
to file a Remedy ticket to get anything done (ugh).
~~~
kcorbitt
I don't know... I work for a (non-unionized) company about half the size of
Boeing, and we don't have anywhere near that level of bureaucracy, so I have a
hard time accepting the premise that "that's just how things have to be." I'm
sure there are a lot of contributing factors, but I don't have a hard time
imagining unions contributing to process creep by mandating the allocation of
tasks in a non-optimal way.
I'm no hardcore anti-unionist, but this particular situation seems like a very
plausible late-stage union failure mode.
~~~
drewrv
But your company is smaller. I work for a company smaller still and the amount
of dumb bureaucracy is even less than yours probably.
Also, culturally the aerospace industry is very rule and procedure heavy, for
good reason.
~~~
flukus
I've seen it in big and small (10 people companies), it just depends on having
someone in HR that cares about shit like this and the authority to do
something about it.
Sometimes you can't change a light bulb at a small company, sometimes at a big
one you're first job is to assembly you're own desk.
------
nickhalfasleep
No doubt they will also move more work to their Moscow Design Center:
[https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/boeing-
spreads-77...](https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/boeing-
spreads-777x-design-work-to-charleston-mosco-392371/)
~~~
KKKKkkkk1
Given the troubles that the Russian aerospace industry has with fake diplomas,
I doubt that Moscow is where they are moving those jobs.
[https://themoscowtimes.com/articles/fake-diplomas-fake-
moder...](https://themoscowtimes.com/articles/fake-diplomas-fake-
modernization-1118)
~~~
thriftwy
Linking technicans' vocational school diploma troubles in Komsomolsk-on-Amur
and aerospace engineers hiring in Moscow is a bit of a stretch, isn't it?
It's like linking Facebook performance to Obamacare website launch troubles.
------
hn_throwaway_99
Man, I really feel for these workers. When, say, a back end Java developer
gets laid off, it's usually not too hard to land on your feet, given the tons
of companies that need these skills. If you're an experience aerospace
engineer working on large commerical jets, where else do you go in the US
besides Boeing and maybe Lockheed Martin?
~~~
metaphor
>> If you're an experience aerospace engineer working on large commerical
jets, where else do you go in the US besides Boeing and maybe Lockheed Martin?
You're kidding[1], right? Beyond the aerospace industry, I can think of more
than a few places where the skillset of a talented aerospace engineer would be
very much desireable.
[1] [https://www.artillerymarketing.com/fs/top-100-aerospace-
comp...](https://www.artillerymarketing.com/fs/top-100-aerospace-
companies-2015)
------
metaphor
Shitcan 245 engineers...immediately posture to hire 345 more?[1]
[1] [https://jobs.boeing.com/search-
jobs/engineer](https://jobs.boeing.com/search-jobs/engineer)
~~~
cscurmudgeon
Because every engineer is the same. /s
------
tici_88
The article mentions 'increased competition'. Is Boeing facing a hard time
competing against rivals say Airbus? Are Boeing's latest planes less
competitive or is there less orders in the pipeline all across the industry,
including at Airbus? I wish the article went into more detail here, this would
have been informative.
~~~
marsRoverDev
Unfortunately, hiring for aircraft programs these days is very Bang-Bang. A350
program starts, Airbus hires thousands of contract mech engineers. A350
program winds down, those people are let go. I think that Boeing is similar.
Lay-offs do not necessarily imply 'increased competition', I think that hasn't
changed a whole lot recently. The model is just moving towards highly
contractual work with limited managerial permanent roles for the cream of the
crop.
~~~
sigstoat
> Unfortunately, hiring for aircraft programs these days is very Bang-Bang.
i'm given to understand that's pretty common across all of aerospace. get
contract, hire, finish contract, fire. it makes for an endless supply of
headlines, but isn't actually a surprise to the employees.
------
bertlequant
Product is the stock price. Cost out so executives keep bonuses. Solid tactics
~~~
okreallywtf
For a few years during the current CEO's reign, but how will the next CEO make
their mark when the CEO musical chairs game continues?
------
kingmanaz
First they came for the janitors...
[http://www.vdare.com/letters/first-they-came-for-the-
janitor...](http://www.vdare.com/letters/first-they-came-for-the-janitors)
~~~
SamUK96
My favourite bit there:
> people so willfully stupid that they will cut each other`s throats while the
> bankers drain them dry.
Divide and conquer. Proven classic.
------
pure_ambition
Who else thinks slowing sales is probably due to a supply glut from low
interest rates? I know low rates has meant its prime time to invest in capital
goods, especially expensive ones. Perhaps they've sold new planes to everyone
who wants them, and there's less and less companies interested in buying? Pure
speculation, though.
------
laughingman2
Until the people who painstakingly build the stuff are allowed to own the
results of their efforts , aka worker ownership we will see more and more of
this shit everywhere.
~~~
nickik
If worker ownership would produce superior outcomes it would prevail in the
market. But in reality all practical experience shows that it does not. The
old left excuse that workers are poor and can not start business can no longer
works.
The solution to the problems of the world has never been and will almost
certainly never be worker ownership of the means of production.
~~~
Noseshine
I don't really mind what you say (don't care about the issue), but I _do_ care
when someone very confidently extends a trend into the future, here even into
eternity, based on nothing but "it never worked before". That's just extreme
intellectual laziness, which is fine, until you start commenting and pretend
you know more than you do. There is way too little argument in your argument.
~~~
nickik
I said 'almost certainly' because after a 200 year trend that is a reasonable
thing to say. Plus we have theories of economics of the firm that analyses the
problems with these sort of organsiations.
So I feel reasonable confident saying 'almost certaint'.
~~~
Noseshine
> because after a 200 year trend that is a reasonable thing to say
I don't think you understand how history works. Don't know if this is merely
risible or sad.
------
rebootthesystem
> involuntary layoffs
> involuntary reduction
As opposed to what?
"Boss, 231 of us decided to voluntarily be let go, effective immediately.
Yeah, we know, it's a bummer. We also decided to take three months severance
pay at half salary. Hey, thanks for everything. Have a nice day!"
I sometimes wonder about what might lie behind the twisted language often used
by reporters.
~~~
RandomOpinion
Never seen one myself but it's entirely possible for a business to solicit
volunteers to be laid off [1] or take early retirement [2].
[1] e.g. [http://www.nyguild.org/time-inc-news-details/items/spots-
ill...](http://www.nyguild.org/time-inc-news-details/items/spots-illustrated-
announces-layoffs.html)
[2] e.g. [http://www.wcpo.com/money/local-business-news/kroger-
offers-...](http://www.wcpo.com/money/local-business-news/kroger-offers-early-
retirement-to-2000-corporate-employees)
~~~
irishcoffee
I had a friend who worked at a company asking for people to be voluntarily
laid off. They paid for grad school, and this got said person out of owing
them years of service in repayment. Saved someone else from being laid off,
and said person was able to find a job they liked much better.
~~~
nojvek
I think that is reasonable.
"Folks our company didn't do well this year, we can only sustain X at out burn
rate. We are willing to extend Y offer until Z date for those of who are
willing to volunteer for a lay off"
Much better than firing by force.
~~~
aianus
Would this not select for firing your best workers (who aren't worried about
finding another job)?
~~~
usrusr
It does. But if you do the opposite, the layoff is likely to still inspire
those best people to start looking on their own if they did not already do so
before. And they are the ones most likely to find something and follow
through.
Layoffs often have an echo effect, where a wave of layoffs is followed by a
wave of resignations. Open offers fold that second, unpredictable wave into
the controlled first one. If the nature of your business requires a certain
amount of workforce continuity, the added predictability of an open offer can
be well worth it.
------
mikekij
Events like this highlight the fallacy that big company jobs are stable and
secure, while startup jobs are risky. I think the Expected Value of a big
company salary stream is probably slightly higher than that of a series of
startup salaries, but the difference isn't nearly as large as people fear.
------
brianbreslin
This is a byproduct of the market DESIGN in aerospace. By having a duopoly
rather than either a monopoly or wider competition, you're forcing the margins
down to near zero. This means that there is always a CLEAR replacement option
for every product made by Boeing or Airbus, and the customers (the airlines)
know it. If you had more players (embraer, gulfstream, bombardier, china?) you
could have better competition, but there are few large body jet providers in
the market. Granted this problem stems from the airplane companies own
strategy of trying to get airlines to go single model (all 737s for example)
to save on repair/maintenance.
Economic theory wise its a fascinating market issue because you have clear
view of the buyers and the incentives in the marketplace (also both big
players get huge govt subsidies).
~~~
dforrestwilson1
I think you might be underestimating the impact of slackening demand. Emerging
market airlines put in a ton of orders over the past 10 years, now we're
seeing them slash airfare prices and/or cancel orders due to continued
pressure. You can also point to state-owned/supported enterprises in the
Middle East and China which are terrible allocators of capital and have
therefore encouraged the glut. Nevermind the strategic imperative of the U.S.
and Europe to have exclusive access to a producer of worldwide transports
during times of war.
There are many examples of duopolies who do just fine. I think you are
ignoring the negative influence of ambitious countries in this industry.
~~~
okreallywtf
Just FYI there are still markets out there [1] and Boeing is going to try to
take advantage of them [2].
[1] [http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-iran-airlines-snap-
story....](http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-iran-airlines-snap-story.html)
[2] [http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-
way/2016/06/21/482955544/...](http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-
way/2016/06/21/482955544/boeing-says-it-has-agreed-to-sell-passenger-jets-to-
iranian-airline)
------
sytelus
I would have thought there would be hiring spree instead given upcoming large
spending in defense and Boeing would be in strong position to capture good
portion of it. Why this isn't the case?
~~~
devopsproject
Uncertainty. Trump seems to flip his public stance on issues after having a 10
minute conversation with someone.
------
nullnilvoid
All these jobs will be replaced by cheap Indian H-1B visa holders very soon.
------
AliAdams
As opposed to 'Boeing keeps on hundreds of staff they no longer have a need
for'?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Koa11y – FOSS desktop app to detect accessibility (a11y) issues on webpages - jaredcheeda
https://open-indy.github.io/Koa11y/
======
jaredcheeda
Happy Koalaween! We just released a new version of Koa11y. It's an easy to use
program to detect accessibility issues on webpages and output a report in
different formats (HTML, JSON, CSV, Markdown, XML). It's designed to be usable
by less technical folks.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What are good ways to find startup problems to solve? - pigpigs
======
mpbm
If you're looking for a startup, something that's supposed to start cheap and
scale huge in <10 years, then you're probably only looking at problems that
can be addressed by software on the internet.
That being said, you don't have to look there. You can start a huge variety of
businesses just by gaining modest expertise in something new and then charging
people for doing that thing. EX: get a $1K drone, learn to fly it, and charge
half of what it would cost a helicopter/plane to get the same shot. It's not a
startup, but it's a business, and it might lead to a startup.
Startups seem to be bimodal (no I don't have data for this) in that they're
either business-focused or solution-focused. Uber is business-focused. They
don't give a damn about anything other than fat stacks of cash. Tesla is
solution-focused. Musk just needs the business to last long enough to achieve
his goal of shifting the market away from fossil fuels.
It's a lot easier to find a business opportunity than to find a solution
you're passionate about AND makes for a good business. Most people who just
pursue a solution end up in non-profits or simply realize that there's no way
to sustain an organization providing that solution.
If you're just looking for a chewy problem to solve, then PM me because I'm
working on a good one.
------
gernest
This question has also been in my head for a while.
I suggest maybe we stop looking for problems to solve and start solving
problems we have.
A simple problem that I have right now is ,
I am in need of a high quality technical text book that is in my local
language (swahili).
First I can't buy anything from amazon or the other online retailers because I
don't have a credit card.
Second, even if I am able to order from amazon I wont be able to get a Swahili
version of the book ( Due to a myriad of corporate reasons).
Third, I'm broke I can't afford the dollars that also accompany the shipping
costs and the tax that my government has just raised.
So, I sit down and think. Maybe it is about time, we start giving some love to
the millions os swahili speakers eager to contribute to the recipes of this
big cake called internet.
I find static sites cheap, and elegant. I mix the solution with strong
security, and use modern tools to bring speed and relevancy. Many people start
to use my platform, a new eco system is born and bam there goes a new amazon,
solving a real problem and I'm sure as hell I can afford to pay in my local
currency.
The company gets acquired by, guess who? Then you zero the clock and start the
whole process again.
From the example above, you can notice, I never looked for a problem to solve
but I just solved the problem I had.
~~~
icebraining
But how would your startup make money, if your customers don't have credit
cards and are broke?
How do you make something for the hand-to-mouth working class, who are neither
so poor that you can coax the wealthier into donating, nor have any disposable
income?
~~~
gernest
The customers are broke because the quotes are in dollars, and the TSH is less
valuable than USD. Which again another startup problem waiting to be solved.
The lack of credit card, is another problem that I have. Which is another
startup problem waiting to be solved.
People pay if there is value in what you are offering.
~~~
thebenedict
How is the value of the Tanzanian shilling relative to the dollar a problem to
solve with a startup?
~~~
gernest
I admit to over each on that statement. But my point still stands, with
context of the example.
Buying things with local quotations might be good for the scenario.
------
BenoitP
I'd argue that in finding a subject for a startup, you don't want to find a
problem. I mean, why would anyone want _problems_?
What you want for a startup is fertile ground.
\-------
Go to the nearest upper-middle-class person you know (at the 10th percentile
of revenues). Ask for their account statement. For each line, try to answer
the following:
1) What are the margins? Is the price of the item driven by costs of
production, or by what people accepted to pay? You want the latter. Prefer
emotional over utility.
2) How did the person came to know the product? What were the drivers of
acquiring the product? What did close the sale? What were the alternatives?
3) What is the cost of entering this market? Would you be able to do it?
\- Then you have a list of fertile grounds, out of which you can try to work
out:
4) What can be improved over this market? How would you sell differently?
5) What can be improved over this product? What would you modify in the
product?
6) Are they buying it? Build only the store front: throw a landing page
somewhere, stir some activity, see if you get emails. Interview the leads you
got. It's ok to announce to people you won't be doing X.
7) And then, only then, you can work on a problem to exploit the scarcity of
being the only one having solved it.
~~~
danieltillett
Great post. There is no reason to limit this process to the top 10%. Plenty of
money over the years has been made focusing on the middle (think Wamart).
------
lewisjoe
I assume you probably tried 'scratching your itch' and it isn't really going
anywhere from there.
Not all itches are opportunities. All great, subtle opportunities lying out
there may not necessarily happen to be your itches.
That said, if you are looking for problems i.e _your_ problems that you want
to solve, but just couldn't find something, then what's wrong is that you
aren't _doing_ a lot of things.
Go shopping. Watch out for things that you think could be made better.
Accompany a friend to a hospital. See what solvable problems lie in the
process of treating a patient in a hospital. Experience a lot of things. I'm
sure you'll eventually hit on something that you can solve.
Another good exercise is to look for things that qualify as unsolved problems
in different domains/industries. This isn't tough. HN's _Who is hiring_ thread
is a great place to start. These threads are a key knowledge base of people
working on problems. Go ahead, just do a HN search and you'll realize there's
a lot of things waiting to be made better!
"What are good ways to find startup problems to solve?" \- is a deep question.
If you do crack things out (and I'm sure you will), please make sure you share
it with the community :)
------
trjordan
Talk to people who you want to help. Try to figure out if you're good at
something they're not.
If you start a startup, you're going to spend every waking hour for, like, 2
years thinking about the problems your customers have. (After that, you'll
start thinking about building / structuring your company more.) You have to
like them. You have to understand them. Your current ideas about what will
sell and scale are, at best, poorly specified. Go ask people what their hopes
and fears are.
On the other hand, you also have to actually provide something novel. Think
about what you believe that's contrarian, or you learned in the last year or
two about the current state of things. Write that down, but don't spend a ton
of time on it. That's probably going to be at the root of the solution you
come up with.
For me, this was marketing analytics. I was working in marketing, and I like
marketers. I was a dev for a while, so I knew how to glue together the data
sets marketers used. The specific problem/answer took a solid 6 months to
really come together, because it took me 6 months to go have a couple dozen
really solid conversations with VPs of Marketing. It turns out there's about 3
classes of tools that are vastly underutilized by modern B2B marketers because
they're poorly integrated. If you put them together, a 4th tool naturally
emerges. So we're building that. It's going to take a while, because it's a
lot of functionality, but it certainly wasn't something that we knew we were
going to build at the beginning of the journey.
Go talk to people. Empathize, be curious, apply your slant. Your start is
going to have your fingerprints all over it, so don't be afraid to get really
personal about finding a problem that gets you excited to solve.
------
Muted
Paul Graham wrote an essay on this topic which might help you.
[http://paulgraham.com/startupideas.html](http://paulgraham.com/startupideas.html)
~~~
pigpigs
I love this article. I'm very much inspired by what is written here, but for
the most part can't find an 'itch' to scratch.
Right now I'm just building stuff I consider is cool / fun and see how it goes
from there.
~~~
jbpetersen
Just curious, what do you find cool / fun?
~~~
pigpigs
Unprecedented applications mostly enabled by new / disruptive technology.
Things that do scratch my itch (even though most of them don't resonate with
others)
Right now I'm working on Ethereum dApps as I have a strong feeling that the
world will gravitate towards p2p / distributed tech and Ethereum is arguably
one of the key technologies that will bring us there
~~~
jbpetersen
I can't wait to see how the Ethereum ecosystem progresses from now up through
sharding. Plus the drama is priceless entertainment.
------
verdaax
[https://nugget.one](https://nugget.one)
(via
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12215184](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12215184)
[http://www.startupsfortherestofus.com/episodes/episode-297-h...](http://www.startupsfortherestofus.com/episodes/episode-297-how-
to-charge-for-startup-ideas-with-guest-ken-wallace) )
------
jakobegger
"Scratch your own itch"
I've built two apps (MDB Viewer and Postico) because the tool I needed for my
work didn't exist. It turns out, other people often have similar problems!
~~~
jventura
I was curious about your tools since it's really uncommon nowadays for one-man
ventures to build desktop software. I'm assuming your Postico projecto is the
postegres viewer. Not looking for exact numbers, but how is it selling? Are
you able to make a living out of it, or it's mostly beer money?
~~~
jakobegger
My current revenue is around 10.000€ per month (mostly from Postico).
I'm not really a one-man venture anymore; I've recently hired a part time
employee (I'd like to hire someone full time, but it's harder than I expected
to find people)
There are lots of other one-man ventures making desktop apps. From the top of
my head I can think of MarsEdit, Base from Menial, SQLPro manager, Acorn
(image editor), Dash (documentation browser).... all Mac apps made by a single
developer.
------
fractalsea
This startup was created to solve just this problem:
[https://nugget.one](https://nugget.one)
One of the founders is the host of the Techzing podcast
[http://techzinglive.com](http://techzinglive.com). You can hear some of the
background on Nugget if you listen to the more recent episodes.
~~~
pigpigs
Awesome! I was just thinking the problem with finding startup problems might
be a good one to solve aha!
------
jjp
From your follow-on comments I'm not sure whether the challenge for you is
finding problems or identifying that it's a problem that is worth working on.
Providing a little more information on the sort of problems you have seen and
then why you have decided to not work on them would help others be more
specific with their guidance.
~~~
pigpigs
I think that problems will obviously need to resonate with enough people for a
startup to even exist.
As a recent graduate, honestly I have not experienced many of the industry
pain points, and am limited to the really general food delivery, dating apps,
edtech tools.
I did work on certain problems before. A group of us worked on a few versions
of an MVP for an in-class active learning backchannel that many students &
professors thought they needed. It was a complete disaster that ended with
both sides realizing it was not a pain enough problem for them.
I also worked on a dating app that tried to solve a problem in my high school
days. It allowed someone to anonymously send 'smooches' to their crushes, who
would ideally see the email and sign up to do the same to their own crushes,
alerting them of a match if they sent one to a person who sent to them. It was
fun but didn't really get a lot of attention and traction.
Right now in a bit of an idea drought and don't know what to work on
concretely.
~~~
jjp
Thoughts on how to push through
1\. Pick an industry that you are either interested in and/or you believe is
going to be more profitable - i.e. financial services pay more than retail
therefore more potential.
2\. Take a friend from University who works in that industry and not in
technology to dinner, beer, coffee and find out what aspects of their job they
find are the biggest PITA.
3\. Read up what the management consultants are talking about. Not they should
be considered gospel on problem or solution but if they are trying to sell
something they believe there is a) problem that exists in that industry, b)
there is a market for a solution and c) the industry is buying that solution.
4\. Read up what your potential competitors are doing about the problem
5\. Go to your thinking space (mines the movies) and noodle.
6\. Compare your idea to the knowledge you've acquired in 2,3 and 4.
You can bail out at any point, you can do 1 through 4 in any order but do them
before 5 and 6. You can be running multiple problems in parallel and you'll
probably end up with ideas that coalesce. Then when you've got to step 6 make
a decision about whether you're still interested in the problem, because now
comes the hard work.
------
ifemide06
Solve a problem for yourself! Ideas are in our everyday lives - look closely,
those things/services/tools you 'wish' could exist, you just might spot a
niche - then build it for 'you', and you'll realise how many people needs this
product/tools/services!
~~~
pigpigs
That's good advice! But I've been trying to do this and I might be too content
with my life cause I can't find these frustrating problems / 'itches'.
~~~
malcolmocean
Too content with your life? Think bigger. eg...
[http://worrydream.com/ClimateChange/](http://worrydream.com/ClimateChange/)
...it doesn't have to be climate change per se. The point is that if you don't
see things to improve on a given level, look at a higher level. Or a longer
time horizon.
A lot of this is going to be hard to solve on the level of software. But not
all! And maybe you can team up with people with other skills.
------
brikis98
Check out the talk Startup Ideas and Validation [1]. The key insights are:
* Innovative ideas are rarely, if ever, eureka moments. They usually evolve after spending a huge amount of time thinking about a specific problem.
* Ideas do not form out of nothing. You are not creating new knowledge so much as finding new ways to connect knowledge that you already have. So the more you know, the more ideas you can have.
* The environment plays a huge role in helping you combine your existing knowledge in novel ways. There are a number of tweaks you can make to your environment that make it easier to come up with great ideas, including keeping an idea journal (write down not only ideas, but problems you encounter on a daily basis), regularly letting your mind wander and relax (fixation can prevent creativity), adding constraints to the problem (constraints breed creativity), playing the "Wayne Gretzky Game" (live in the future and build what's missing), and seeking out pain (where there is pain, there is opportunity).
[1] [http://www.ybrikman.com/writing/2016/02/14/startup-ideas-
and...](http://www.ybrikman.com/writing/2016/02/14/startup-ideas-and-
validation/)
------
mercurialuser
I solved a problem I had writing some simple scripts. I think it solves a
problem for no less than 5k people in my country.
I spoke with a couple of friends with the same problem and they were really
interested so I integrated all the scripts in a program with a easy to use
gui...
The 2 friends never used the program... the website I created got almost no
visits from organic search.
It solves a problem that is related to schools but you have to use the
software since the start of the school year to be of help so I'm in the
process to cold-email some people about the software...
Unfortunately there are no places where the potential users hang...
After all the time spent reading about mvp, startups, releases, growth
hacking, I'm proud I could complete the software and release it... also if
nobody will never use it.
I had a pain and solved it but it is not enough when it is impossible to reach
the audience of possible users...
------
josephan
I think meeting new people is a great way to find startup ideas if you
personally don't have any. I am collaborating with two different friends that
were complete strangers prior to a couple a months for fun and both the ideas
are not mine. I am working hard to make sure both gets good traction.
------
_audakel
move to a developing nation. i spent 2 yrs on a service mission for mexico.
really opened my eyes to how different life is for people outside the US.
simple things like mobile phone banking are huge game changers in these
countries. go and look around for awhile and you will find some big
opportunities.
------
erikb
If you are looking for problems, it's very easy: Do stuff.
Not doing anything you don't know any real problems and can only think about
the next photo sharing app.
Working with others on actual customer tasks lets you learn to know the
customers situation and problems.
------
dos4gw
Have a kid. Everything is broken.
~~~
michaelrhansen
I am about to do this and am very interested in seeing this, I have a feeling
you are very right. :)
------
weinzierl
Work for a Fortune 500 for a year - finding their pain points will be
unavoidable.
------
blrgeek
Check out effectuation.org/learn
The idea is to start with who you know, what you know, and who you are. Then
through conversations with people you know, ask them their problems that they
are ready to pay to solve. Find common things that several of them are ready
to pay for..
That's a great way to start, and will give you great problems that very few
others might want to solve..
------
nerdwaller
I think the only real way is to live in the world outside of only development.
There you will find crazy niches that are still far behind and could really
benefit from a tech infusion.
Most people who solved a major problem wanted to meet a need of a market, and
that need is hard to see unless you're familiar with the market.
------
samblr
The satiated man and the hungry man do not see the same thing when they look
at a loaf of bread - Rumi.
So be hungry or starve self of necessities. eg: Take public transport instead
of a car. Walk few miles if u want to get somewhere instead of car during
weekends.
------
jennazenk
1) think of frustrating situations that you encounter in your daily life 2)
determine if that is a situation other people also find frustrating 3) if so,
there is probably an underlying problem to the situation, just waiting to be
solved.
~~~
pigpigs
Lots of people talk about this, but do they really occur that often? I don't
seem to encounter many such situations that can be solved much better than
current offerings. As a fresh graduate there is a lack of domain experience as
well for me to understand (or know at all) the pain points in various
industries.
Perhaps I'm just not thinking out of the box enough.
~~~
leesalminen
I tend to notice lots of inefficiencies at small businesses that I frequent.
When the front desk person says they're having computer problems; that's a
great time to strike up a conversation and see what they think about the
software they use every day and how they think it could be better. If you
think you could fix that problem, you're on the right track.
------
ShirsenduK
Google Trends
------
mdotk
Bookmarking, some nice ideas here
------
tiredwired
Start a startup.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
We Shouldn't Wait for Medium - bootload
http://scripting.com/2017/01/09/weShouldntWaitForMedium.html
======
michaelbuckbee
We're mostly developers here and Dave (the author) is in fact one of my
personal development heroes, and while it pains me I think we're all mostly
missing the point.
It's easy to look at a single Medium post and think: I could throw this
together with Jekyll and put it on S3 with a custom domain in about 10
minutes.
What that _misses_ is that there is a legit community that has grown up around
Medium that honestly enjoys reading articles. It's long form Twitter, the
community and following of each author and publication are inextricably linked
with greater site. You can't replace Twitter with a static site of posts
limited to 140 characters for all the same reasons you can't replace Medium so
easily.
I find it maddening. I wish we were all still using RSS + Google Reader, but
if a prominent a voice as DHH can get some wild multiplier of people reading
his words if he types them into the box on Medium instead of onto their very
well established blog, what chance do the rest of us have?
[https://m.signalvnoise.com/signal-v-noise-moves-to-
medium-c8...](https://m.signalvnoise.com/signal-v-noise-moves-to-
medium-c8083ce19686#.jgjbrsfji)
~~~
sharpercoder
This community thing may be the case, it doen't bring in any dollars. At least
not at any signifcant scale to continue developing the platform.
What the world needs is an easy to use web publisher, the Microsoft Word for
the Web. Sure, we can type text and publish that. We can't however add in math
formula's, pictures, excel sheet (parts), word document links, slideshows
anything digital really, with "unexpected simplicity and ease". There's always
pain involved, and I know individuals and companies are willing to pay heavily
if these problems are solved in an online publishing tool.
The community is now just there to generate critical mass for adoption, and
used as highly critical feedback userbase.
~~~
femto
Amaya might be of interest.
[https://www.w3.org/Amaya/](https://www.w3.org/Amaya/)
It's the W3C's reference browser implementation, with equal emphasis on
creation and viewing. To quote:
"Amaya is a Web editor, i.e. a tool used to create and update documents
directly on the Web. Browsing features are seamlessly integrated with the
editing and remote access features in a uniform environment. This follows the
original vision of the Web as a space for collaboration and not just a one-way
publishing medium."
Last time I tried it (several years ago), it would regularly crash, but it's
enough to open your eyes as to what might be.
\---
Edit: I should add a further quote: "It's development is stopped." Whilst it's
not realistic to use Amaya, it would be great if its model inspired others.
~~~
mrkgnao
Wasn't there some kind of static sites-on-decentralized Internet thing on HN a
few weeks back along fairly similar lines?
------
Inconel
Disclaimer: I've never published on Medium, I only follow a few blogs so my
experience is limited, and most importantly, I may be an idiot.
With that being said, I find Medium to be very frustrating to read. For one,
the page layouts seem really inefficient to me. I'm not sure how much of this
is due to the specific blogs I follow but many posts tend to have enormous
screen wide images interspersed between rather thin columns of text. I don't
think there is any other website I read that requires so much scrolling to
read so few words.
Even more annoying than the above is the completely broken commenting system.
Again, perhaps this is due to the blogs I follow and not indicative of the
greater platform but Medium's comments system actually make me nostalgic for
Disqus, which I never thought I'd say.
As an example, after I scroll through an article to get to the comments, I'm
usually only shown 3 comments before I have to press to show more, it usually
takes a while to load the additional comments. Then, if someone responds to a
comment, I need to press a button to show said response. Rather than expand
the comment to show the response, I am taken to a new page, except instead of
showing the response it actually just shows the original comment. I then have
to scroll to the bottom to view the response. Then once I'm done reading the
response, I click the back button on my browser to get to my previous place in
the comments, only Medium doesn't remember this and I'm back at the very top
of the article once again having to scroll through a large thin column of text
and expand the comments section. At this point I usually forgo looking at any
further responses.
Again, admittedly I don't use Medium that much so I might just be unfamiliar
with better ways of using the website. Am I doing something wrong or do others
find it just as frustrating?
~~~
chmike
There is indeed room for improvement. I wish they would listen more the users
or do ergonomic evaluations of the interface. Since the recent reduction of
the team I'm afraid they are now more focused into finding money and a viable
business model than enhancing the interface.
My attention to Medium was attracted by some of their high value articles that
were referenced on hacker news or reddit. I though that it must be a very good
journal. This is a successful result.
Now that I installed the app and browse articles on Medium I feel like I can't
find the start of the long tail. I wish I could adjust the signal to noise
threshold.
------
rmccue
We shipped a REST API in WordPress 4.7, and the API is going to continue to be
a focus of the project going forward. The great thing about that is that it
allows building entirely new interfaces without touching any backend code in
WordPress. As an example, we built a liveblogging app[0] (warning: unoptimised
React app not meant for production) entirely using the API that provided a new
interface customised just for liveblogging. This connects to any site[1] and
any theme.
WordPress has always had an advantage with the degree of customisation that's
allowed, and my hope is that we'll see even more work towards better
experiences with a shorter build-test-release cycle now. But, plugins aren't
the only solution.
In WordPress itself, the big focusses for the next release (4.8) are the REST
API, the Customiser (frontend live customisation), and the Editor. I think
we'll see plenty of movement in this area.
(I'm one of the leads on the API, a committer to WordPress, and also work for
an enterprise WP agency.)
[0]: [http://app.aweekofrest.hm/](http://app.aweekofrest.hm/) [1]:
[https://aweekofrest.hm/liveblog/](https://aweekofrest.hm/liveblog/)
~~~
mozumder
What's the response latncies of the API for an article with a gallery of
photos?
I'm in the fashion space.. would the API be able to handle Katy Perry linking
to a person's site from her Twitter with 95 million followers?
~~~
rmccue
it depends on the caching layers you have built on top of it, but the API did
power parts of HillaryClinton.com during the election.
------
cyberferret
Meh. Back in the early days of Medium, it was a good place to discover new
writers. I remember when they had 'collections' and you could create your own
collection really easily (say, for a writing group or special interests) and
moderate who published what in there.
Very quietly, they removed all that. I found my posts getting less and less
visibility on there until all the 'no name' authors like myself simply
disappeared as we were pushed aside by the 'big names' in the Internet world.
Nowadays it seems that you need the magical "Recommended by Medium Staff" or
"Recommended by Ev Williams" to be even seen by more than 20 people on that
platform. I obviously don't know the secret handshake to get those monikers on
the top of my posts. I have seen some inane drivel tagged with those magical
words, and I have seen some though provoking articles with only 2 or 3 likes
in a whole year because they missed the blessing.
Like Twitter et al, unless you know how to game the system, or you are a part
of the 'in crowd', then it simply seems to be a waste of time to try and
participate.
This may seem like a bitter rant, and it is, in large parts. But I wish there
was another independent blogging community out there which works a little like
HN. At least here, 80% of my posts go relatively unnoticed, but at least 20%
will elicit some interesting discussion and interest.
~~~
cyberferret
Another thing I hate about the new Medium is their removal of the old
'sidebar' comments - that was useful to annotate or discuss certain points
about the post with the author.
Now, you comment below, and EACH COMMENT is posted as a new Medium article?!?
So now my stats are cluttered with my actual posts, and the comments-as-posts.
Just more junk.
Additionally, you don't get to see ALL the comments under a post (you only see
posts from people you follow) unless you click a link. What is that about. It
would seem that some posts I read have NO comments, until I click the link
only to see an active discussion happening.
Oh, and long comments under a post are only partially shown. Clicking on them
refreshes the entire window to show the comment (and the comments to the
comment) in full screen. Going back from here to where you left off on the
stream of original post comments is almost impossible.
It is slowly moving from a nice, clean platform, to a really cluttered mess
that is increasingly difficult to navigate and consume content on.
~~~
hehheh
I get emails from medium reporting stats about some comment I wrote long ago.
I haven't opted out because I find it amusing; they're actually keeping track
of how many people look at a one line comment I made a few months ago. I know
computing is cheap these days but it's not _free_. Someone there thought that
comment view stats were worth tracking and reporting. Wow.
------
xiaoma
Medium will _never_ overtake WordPress.
Medium has a lot of buzz, a great founder and a powerful centralized system.
It felt like an upgrade to the web. WordPress on the other hand, is a force of
nature. Not only does it have a strong team working to improve it on all
levels, but it's open source and has somehow managed to attract _both_
gigantic community of marketers, entrepreneurs and consultants and a hoard of
GPL zealots making sure that code flows back into the mothership.
A dozen years ago, there was another company that held every advantage Medium
currently does, including a younger version of the exact same fouder—Blogger.
WordPress steamrolled Blogger. Even with the support of one of the most
powerful companies in the world, Blogger has faded from prominence and WP now
powers 25% of _all the sites on the web_. [https://martechtoday.com/wordpress-
used-on-25-percent-of-all...](https://martechtoday.com/wordpress-used-
on-25-percent-of-all-websites-report-151115)
The way I see it, posting on Medium is like guest posting on someone else's
blog or like writing on LinkedIn. It's a great way to get some exposure and
it's a tool that should be used, but any serious publisher needs their own
site they're using the guest posts to build up.
~~~
MiddleEndian
>The way I see it, posting on Medium is like guest posting on someone else's
blog or like writing on LinkedIn. It's a great way to get some exposure and
it's a tool that should be used, but any serious publisher needs their own
site they're using the guest posts to build up.
Honestly I see this as a very very good thing. It decentralizes control and
puts content creators in charge of their own works.
~~~
xiaoma
Having their own domain puts content creators in charge of their own works.
Medium can pull the plug on any given user, pivot, die or get acquired at any
time.
~~~
MiddleEndian
Exactly!
------
mcdoug
My biggest problem with Medium is not the platform, but the licensing. I don't
like my content being simply licensed to them.
~~~
onion2k
_I don 't like my content being simply licensed to them._
How would they publish it on their website if it wasn't licensed to them?
~~~
ominous
By not asking for a license? Does a newspaper stand have a license for the
content it sells?
Disclaimer: I may be an idiot.
~~~
adamlett
Copyright is about the right to _produce_ copies, not to sell them. The
newspaper stand doesn't produce the copies it sells.
~~~
ominous
Neither does medium. Medium is a dumb pipe. My browser renders the page. Does
firefox own a license?
Internetting is hard.
~~~
pjc50
Medium is not a dumb pipe, they're a publisher; if they started plagiarising
articles and publishing them without permission, they'd be DMCAd.
There _is_ a legal exemption for "dumb pipe" in EU law:
[https://copyrightblog.co.uk/2012/10/17/what-is-a-
temporary-c...](https://copyrightblog.co.uk/2012/10/17/what-is-a-temporary-
copy-and-who-cares/) which had to be put in because otherwise every single
router on a TCP/IP connection would require copyright licensing.
Your browser renders the page by means of making a _copy_ , which requires a
license to you. Usually this is granted by the website. It has been argued in
some places that this includes a right to control the "integrity of the
presentation", that is that you're not licensed to display the page if you
block ads.
~~~
ominous
For the average reader, there is no difference between medium, google cache,
rss reader, archive.is, screenshot, pdf, getpocket.com, copy pasted snippet or
printed pages of the same article. In that sense, medium means nothing. Just
some meaningless wheel in the whole system, annoying us with their ads. We owe
them nothing. Medium is blogger is livejournal is a column in a newspaper is
private subreddit is google+ is everything2 is svbtle is obtvse is wordpress
is textfiles is github pages is a mailing list is paper.
People ignore it takes some effort to "publish" content. The dissemination of
said content is such that we don't really respect, at all, these "publishers".
I don't really have a point, am just slightly annoyed to be reminded such
plumbing is, in fact, a business model.
------
oblib
I've been working on a site that is similar to medium. Not to compete with
them though. I love medium and the access it and exposure it gives those who
want to say something, and the ease of use.
You can check it out at [http://ibloc.com](http://ibloc.com) if you want.
I have not put near the kind of work into it that the good folks at Medium
have. It's just been an exercise for me to begin learning to use CouchDB,
PouchDB, and other open source tools but I wanted to make something that
anyone could use to share interesting stuff, whatever that might be (with the
obvious limits).
I think if "Medium" has any problems they stem from being a concept that is
still ahead of its time. Investors want to monetize everything, and it's fair
to say that it will have to support itself, but it's also fair to assume that
the old ways of doing that may not work too well.
To address that they will have to come up with some new ways, or adapt new
ways that spring up elsewhere, but there's still work that needs to be done on
the "new media" itself that is being developed.
While making ibloc I began to ponder how to "monetize it". That's part of the
fun of playing with a new or different (to me) concept. I think there are some
new/different ways to do that which might work, but who knows?
I believe we need it thought. Medium has and still is shining a light on a new
way to find and share info. It's an important project.
------
thenomad
A couple of comments on things not mentioned in this article:
\- Medium's design is one of the big reasons it succeeded. Things written in
Medium _look_ authoritative. They're also easy and pleasant to read. And that
means people are more likely to read them. If you're cloning Medium as Open-
Source, you need to clone the design. Yes, probably including the slow-ass
Javascript (or at least, split-test with and without and see which gets more
engagement).
\- Medium's discoverability is the other reason it works. If I write a post on
my own blog, as I have done for 20 years, no new readers find it unless I
promote it myself. I happen to be good at that, but most people aren't. On
Medium, there are built-in mechanisms to bubble content up, and that's
tremendously valuable if you don't already have a large audience and care
about people reading what you write.
\- The domain. I've observed over the years that which domain your content's
hosted on has an increasingly large effect on whether people are willing to
click through to it. (Why? It's shown next to the link on Reddit, Hacker News,
and other places. It's an obvious signal.). A "medium.com" domain link still
seems to carry more trustability than a "randomsite.com". They did a good job
building their brand.
------
dkarapetyan
Isn't medium going to add some ads any day now? Why are people worried about
sustainability. Once the ads are there people will either put up with them or
move on. I'm pretty sure I've seen this movie a few times now.
------
davidgerard
How easy is it to export content from Medium? Say, importing it into a
WordPress instance.
_edit:_ of course, the loved one has a Medium site. Apparently it exports
your posts as just plain HTML. Doesn't appear to have metadata (post time,
etc, though that's in the filename). No idea about comments and annotations.
------
mattbgates
Although there are plenty of carbon copies that have arisen to mimic the
platform, it definitely would be a great idea for Medium to become open
source.
------
getup8
"open source software has been making the editing ease-of-use accessible to
any JavaScript developer"
What's a great open source mediumesque editor at the moment? Feel like the
choices are never ending / always changing. Quill? Medium-Editor? Scribe?
~~~
robinwassen
After some research we went with Scribe and it works well.
Our requirements were clean html output, stable and that it works in Chrome
and Safari.
Worth mentioning is that the maintainers does not focus on broad browser
support.
~~~
antirez
Please could you link to Scribe? Can't find it googling. Thanks.
~~~
robinwassen
[https://github.com/guardian/scribe](https://github.com/guardian/scribe)
Here you go!
~~~
antirez
Thanks!
------
flukus
Does medium do anything not handled by markdown + one of the million static
site generators?
~~~
tempodox
From a reader perspective: It does have a unified and competent optical design
(font + color choices) that's not being messed up by the sometimes strange
tastes of individual bloggers. I've seen too many blogs that _literally_ hurt
my eyes when I try to read them. Also, supports commenting on specific parts
of the text.
~~~
Semaphor
From another reader's perspective: It seems to make people post really large
images with content only available if you feel like scrolling down.
~~~
flukus
That's still a big step up from many blogs/tumblr/myspace/geocities pages.
------
rb1
Something ironic; the page loads white text onto a creamy background when
viewed from Chrome on android on my Note 3.
This made me chuckle a bit.
------
bsbechtel
I think a $7/month subscription to access anything over ~5 articles/month on
Medium would get a lot of people to pay, and I don't think it would chase off
publishers at this point. The value Medium has created is easily worth as much
as Netflix, and without a doubt more valuable than the paywalls other
publishers (NYT, WSJ) ask for.
~~~
douche
I don't know. Most Medium articles are not really worth paying for, in my
opinion, and so paywalling the site would just add it to that collection of
sites that I ignore and filter out, like the WSJ, NYT, Wired, etc, etc.
As valuable as Netflix? No way, not even close.
------
wodenokoto
While Wordpress may have become slow on the server side, I've found Medium
increasingly slow on the client side.
It sorta looks clean, but once you start scrolling, it turns out the page is
actually full of cruft and rather slow. I turn on Reader Mode for Medium pages
when possible now.
------
vonnik
We should wait for Medium ... to make a responsive web site? These guys. We'd
to fix something.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Miirket: SSH access without the need of IP address and port forwarding - recaisinekli
http://miirket.com
======
recaisinekli
What is Miirket?
Miirket is an open source highly gifted socket. It creates a secure tunnel to
let you access your Raspberry Pi and other linux devices over SSH without the
need of IP address and port forwarding.
Why Do I Need Miirket?
You may have distributed linux devices. You may be using devices like
Raspberry Pi, Orange Pi for various IOT applications. Miirket enables you to
have SSH access to these devices and simplify your management in an easy way.
Moreover, you do not have to deal with static IP and port forwarding for this
purpose.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ten questions about entrepreneurs - Sam_Odio
http://avc.blogs.com/a_vc/2008/04/ten-questions-a.html
======
ashu
I actually disagree with a couple points there.
I think it's not true that entrepreneurs are "born". I come from a culture
(middle-class India) where entrepreneurship is so unthinkable, it's almost a
taboo. And yet, I think I am very much passionate about being a startup
founder now. Paul's essays have been a big help in making me re-think quite a
few things about life. So, I'd say that people can learn to be entrepreneurs
as well.
Magnet for money, attention: I don't think these are the primary qualities to
focus on. They are usually a by-product of intense passion for the product and
good taste / judgement.
~~~
volida
_I think it's not true that entrepreneurs are "born"._
you go that one a bit wrong
~~~
volida
Not everyone when exposed to entrepreurship feels the urge to embrace it and
most of all pursue it no matter cost, no matter where they live.
Therefore, it's obvious that those who do, have a different drive.
That's what I meant and some folks here were unwilling to understand with the
short phrase in my previous comment.
------
thenotself
This is a good set of questions and answers. I think that the often-made
comparison between entrepreneurship and ADD is funny. There are also too many
people with ADD who think they are entrepreneurs.. heh.
Remember, that a magnetic personality is really key - if you're passionate
about your ideas, it's also important that you can recruit others to share
your passion.
------
wumi
"What do you look for in entrepreneurs? First and foremost, they need to be
magnets. For talent. For money. For attention. And for much more."
Would be interesting to see how YC founders compare to that standard.
Although maybe YC/PG is so much of a magnet a would-be entrepreneur wouldn't
need to be once gone through YC.
------
lowfat
Natural traits like being a magnet for money, talent and attention certainly
makes one more likely to succeed as an entrepreneur. I don't have such traits.
But desire, work ethic and discipline can be great substitutes - and these are
traits that certainly can be learned. It just ends up taking a little longer.
------
mishmax
"What do you look for in entrepreneurs? First and foremost, they need to be
magnets. For talent. For money. For attention. And for much more."
Do you guys think that hackers actually have this "magnet" quality?
------
redorb
(i can hear the box) being built for entrepreneurs to be put in..
~~~
pxlpshr
I was going to say the same thing... and not to sound bitter that
entrepreneurial interest has increased significantly the past few years, but
it's reaching the point of being "fashionable" amongst educated youth and
blogsphere.
The interest is a good thing because it facilitates progression and capital
flow but I think there is a key element missing from the youth-explosion,
similar to that of a Blackberry user: Lots of typing/philosophizing, no
pudding...
------
dcurtis
"Can entrepreneurship be taught/learned? I don't think so. It's like a
personality disorder. You are born with it."
What an awesome way to put it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What open source are you most thankful for? - colinbartlett
======
onion2k
Probably bind or httpd ... the fundamental tools that took the internet and
transformed it in to the World Wide Web. I wouldn't have a career, a hobby, a
financee, or 20 years of interesting experiences without them (well, I would,
but it'd have been very different, and possibly worse, so yay for the web).
Plus they've helped a few other people do some cool stuff too as far as I can
tell.
------
colinbartlett
Gotta be Tim Pope's vim plugins for me. I can't imagine how unproductive my
everyday existence would be without Fugitive, Projectionist, Dispatch,
Unimpaired, the list goes on and on.
------
ysekand
Linux
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Can you think of variations on the likebetter.com idea? For example, can you use it to detect cheating in online chess? - amichail
======
amichail
Maybe we could address cheating in online chess by showing various images
throughout a game.
The intuition here is that these images will have some impact on your thinking
patterns.
So the idea is to see whether you are reacting as a typical human being would
when viewing these images while playing chess.
For example, some images may have a negative effect in tactical positions.
One can have players play a against a computer every once in a while without
telling them to see if they are cheating.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Advice from the frontline of “Startup-ing” - Jagannath
https://medium.com/p/aa2c14912eea
======
by_Seeing
I'd be curious to read even a short sentence about how you learned each
lesson.
------
rock_hard
Great read. Thanks
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
SaltStack wins Gigaom Structure - UtahDave
http://gigaom.com/2013/06/20/devops-player-saltstack-wins-structure-launchpad-competition-and-investor-interest/
======
ivan_krechetov
We use SaltStack for both the development environment under Vagrant/VirtualBox
([https://github.com/saltstack/salty-
vagrant](https://github.com/saltstack/salty-vagrant)), and in production; and
are pretty happy with this setup.
I tried looking at Chef and Puppet, and was scared away by the complexity
thrown at me upfront. I find Salt way easier to pick up. I like its being
declarative, concise, and unsurprising. Also, it has received a seal of
approval from our admins. That doesn't happen here with software often :)
Thanks! And congratulations!
------
terminalmage
Recent hire and long-time community member here. Salt has been a very fun
project on which to work. Very proud of our team.
------
eip
SaltStack is awesome. I use it a lot.
~~~
nmcfarl
As do I, a great project!
------
pentabular
I've never worked with better people or software.
------
UtahDave
Disclosure: I'm an early employee at SaltStack.
------
dynamowku
Congratulations guys!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
ZeroDB, an end-to-end encrypted database, is open source - mwilkison
http://blog.zerodb.io/zerodb-open-source-announcement/
======
lewisl9029
This is fascinating. Awesome work!
An encrypted server-side database with client-side decryption definitely seems
like a great building block for private, secure applications! However, my
ideal building block for the data-layer would take one step further: by only
storing data on the client, and be able to synchronize between separate
clients in a fully distributed manner.
This would open up the door to purely client-side applications with zero-
knowledge sync clients that can be _optionally_ hosted on servers to improve
availability without any compromises to privacy. It also has the potential to
offer better-than-centralized UX due to the fact that all data is available
locally, so there is no network roundtrip to be concerned with. A centralized
solution like ZeroDB definitely still has it's place though, especially in
applications that involve sharing and collaboration between multiple users,
and in applications where the size of each user's dataset is too large to be
managed fully locally.
My previous project, Toc Messenger [1], used a custom encryption layer over
remoteStorage [2] to achieve something close to this, but remoteStorage is not
a fully distributed protocol, and has to rely on the existence of a
centralized storage server to function. For my next project, I'm hoping to
experiment with something like Swarm [3] for the data layer instead, which
uses CRDTs for conflict resolution and supposedly supports direct P2P sync in
the upcoming 1.0 release [4].
[1] [http://toc.im/](http://toc.im/)
[2] [http://remotestorage.io/](http://remotestorage.io/)
[3] [https://github.com/gritzko/swarm](https://github.com/gritzko/swarm)
[4]
[http://swarmjs.github.io/articles/2of5/](http://swarmjs.github.io/articles/2of5/)
~~~
michwill
Oh wow, thanks for the links, will need to go through that!
We've seen gundb [[http://gun.js.org/](http://gun.js.org/)] keeping data
distributed between clients. Also, I'm even thinking if it is possible to run
ZeroDB on top of SpiderOak's Crypton (which is inspired by ZODB) :-)
------
swswsw
a very cool concept for doing a lot of projects where users need shared db.
------
ex3ndr
I wish i will have NaCL-sompatable encryption that can be used to easily
implement your own clients.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Dallas Buyers Club startup advice - maximecormier
https://medium.com/p/50eb93732e5e
======
sogen
tl:dr version: * Solve a pain * Start small * Work in a confortable place *
Check your cash flow
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Easy way to engage your customers - soho33
Since i used to work in the entertainment industry before, i always ended up getting lots of emails about different events, promotions at restaurants clubs etc. i never ended up reading them so i was thinking there has to be a better way to engage your potential customers than just random emails.<p>so as a side project, i created this little website to allow businesses to send out different campaigns such as SMS, Voice or text to speech to their customer database. It will automatically call your customers for you and playback your message or have a computer read it out to them. The benefit of it is that you can have your own number show up on their caller ID which will personalize the experience.<p>let me know what you think.<p>Thanks<p>http://www.invitebuzz.com
======
dclaysmith
Clickable: <http://www.invitebuzz.com>
Did you use Twilio?
~~~
soho33
thanks for the clickable link.
yes I did. They have an amazing API.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Where to Score: Classified Ads from Haight-Ashbury - tintinnabula
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/03/14/where-to-score/
======
xxr
>Would-be bull fighter needs sponsor
Is this gay slang? Urban Dictionary's second definition[0] suggests something
like a "beard" (straight cover for a closeted person), but I would not be
surprised if it were someone who got a wild hair about becoming a real
toreador.
[0][https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bullfighter](https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bullfighter)
------
mgleason_3
More like classified ads pleading for kids to call their parents.
------
garethsprice
Looks like a fun read for $6.99 shipped. Something about that time seems so
wild and free - is it even possible to disconnect ("drop out") that completely
any more?
------
stuartd
"So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las
Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the
high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back." \-
Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
------
kgilpin
Don’t disappear from your parents. You have no idea how much it hurts them.
~~~
IAmEveryone
The ads are quite excellent at tackling the #1 reason I have ever had not to
call: avoiding all the why-do-nerver-call accusations.
Of course, this being the 60s, many young people probably had many valid
reasons to be angry. From what I gather, the “Greatest Generation” went on to
create the most self-satisfied, stuffy, racist and misogynistic societies
possible.
My father was kicked out for having a black friend, and my mother was told by
her professor that no girl was ever going to become a doctor at his faculty.
They met taking LSD somewhere in California, made a modest fortune, and only
ever went back to piss on a new grave.
~~~
coldtea
> _From what I gather, the “Greatest Generation” went on to create the most
> self-satisfied, stuffy, racist and misogynistic societies possible. My
> father was kicked out for having a black friend, and my mother was told by
> her professor that no girl was ever going to become a doctor at his faculty_
Well, before that generation, the black friend would be a slave or easily
lynched, and the girl wouldn't even get into the university (or be able to
vote).
So I really doubt the Greatest Generation itself created the "most self-
satisfied, stuffy, racist and misogynistic societies possible".
~~~
IAmEveryone
Yes-history arcs towards justice. I believe the 60s counterculture was mostly
a reaction to the “stuffiness” (and Vietnam), but that sentiment is a lot
harder to illustrate with examples.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How to build a profitable SaaS app? - SaaS_dreamsr
======
verdverm
By asking the question, What problem can I solve for you, for which you will
give me a fair exchange of money?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A patent example of beneficial IP - kalu
http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=16153508657179172499&q=Powell+v.+Home+Depot+USA+Inc.,+663+F.+3d+1221+-+Court+of+Appeals,+Federal+Circuit+2011&hl=en&as_sdt=2006
======
kalu
Patents get a bad wrap. This court decision from 2011 describes what may be a
clear cut example of a patent protecting its inventor from malicious business
practices.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Graphical timeline from Big Bang to Heat Death - timf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphical_timeline_from_Big_Bang_to_Heat_Death
======
nfnaaron
The monetization period is going to be relatively short lived.
------
timf
Note the double-logarithmic scale.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
At Goldman Sachs event, Travis Kalanick compared his company’s woes to Ferguson - justinv
http://pando.com/2014/11/20/on-stage-at-goldman-sachs-event-travis-kalanick-compared-his-companys-woes-to-ferguson/
======
justinv
I do not envy Uber's PR team this week. (Or most weeks, to be honest)
~~~
justinv
Also, remember that this is from Pando, so there are two sides to a story of
course.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
WebOS 3.0 SDK - rafaelc
https://developer.palm.com/
======
brianwillis
I've been thinking a bit about how the tablet game plays out over the next few
months. Just for fun, here's some speculation:
1) Apple sells a crap ton of iPads. Their biggest problem will be that they
can't make them fast enough. Don't whine to me about "openness" or the
notifications system. They'll sell lots of them and we all know it.
2) HP gets the TouchPad into stores. There are no queues to buy one on day
one, but it does OK in the first few weeks. Sells maybe a million units in the
first three months.
3) Consumers shopping for a tablet are now faced with a choice: I can buy an
iPad and wait four to five weeks for it to arrive (those are the times Apple's
website is currently quoting), or I can buy a HP TouchPad and take it home
today. For some, that'll be enough to bring them over to HP.
4) HP's TouchPad gets some traction. Enough to justify a version two. Nowhere
near enough to knock Apple off it's perch.
5) HP does something badly wrong. One of the MBAs gets in the way, makes a
decision he has no place making, and hands one of HP's competitors a major
competitive advantage. Maybe they decide the TouchPad should be US only for
the first year. Maybe they piss off developers in some creative way, so no-one
writes apps for the platform. I don't know what they'll do, but I can't shake
the feeling that they'll fuck it up somehow.
6) Android tablets come out too. Nerds like me buy them, while our
grandmothers buy iPads and TouchPads. There are many more grandmothers in the
world than nerds. Android tablets do badly. Attempting to explain this,
reviewers looking at 2011 retrospectively will cite a confusing UI, a flash
implementation that was promised but never materialised (or materialised in a
broken state), and many of the same compatibility issues that we see now with
Android phones.
7) Microsoft announces Windows 8 with a completely redesigned UI based on
Metro. This UI will try to work just as well with the keyboard and mouse as it
does on touch devices. Ballmer will use the phrase "bridging the gap" a lot.
~~~
morrow
I thoroughly enjoyed reading that -- spot on. Just for kicks, here's my more
optimistic vision for the future:
1) HP/WebOS focuses it's marketing message on using "open" tech (HTML, CSS,
JS). Some iOS/android developers convert apps, some web devs convert websites,
most don't bother.
2) People pick these up as they are in stock and get to the sites people need
with flash as a big selling point as well (news, mail, youtube, hulu,
entertainment, etc).
3) Google releases a ChromeOS Tablet, using point 2 above to their advantage
by claiming compatibility with all internet sites (even flash!). They sell
quickly and cheaply, as google takes a loss on each tablet in hope of gaining
market share and increasing google search usage (it's the default home-page on
this device).
4) More hardware / software manufacturers follow Google's lead, and momentum
shifts towards using tablets mainly as dumb web-clients (with offline storage,
better graphics, and other "native" features provided by HTML5 APIs).
5) Apple raises the bar by releasing an extremely-polished-at-this-point
itunes.com and a super-cheap "air/cloud" tablet (similar to chromeOS's offer),
allowing you to buy and sell "cloud" apps (HTML CSS JS) with existing app
store rules and credit cards on itunes.com or in the "cloud" app store. Buy
once, use on all your iOS and Mac devices (includes apps, music, video).
6) Tablets aren't bought and sold based on whether angry birds runs on them
(its a web-app and runs everywhere), but instead on hardware features and
performance (battery-life, screen size/resolution, heat, weight, etc.). Forced
to compete on these grounds, hardware manufacturers invent better batteries,
hybrid color e-ink/lcd screens that can be used in the sun, better speakers,
and maybe even something crazy like user-replaceable batteries, RAM, and hard
disks.
One can dream, anyway...
~~~
jdavid
If there is one thing apple is right about people won't buy tablets based on
specs. I do think they will buy on features.
I think the touchpad has a quad-core chip in it from qualcom.
------
lukifer
If any team has the right attitude and technology to out-Apple Apple, it's
HPalm. I really hope they do well, and I can't wait to tinker with this SDK.
My only peeve: no 7" WebOS tablet. It's a glaring hole in Apple's lineup,
currently dominated by the Kindle and Nook Color, but which will be a gold
mine for the first company to get it right. Blackberry has a chance with their
PlayBook, especially if they're willing to keep iterating on both hardware and
software.
~~~
tene
According to the rumours, there will be a 7" WebOS tablet in September.
[http://www.precentral.net/hp-touchpad-targeting-june-
release...](http://www.precentral.net/hp-touchpad-targeting-june-release-
priced-499-7-inch-coming-september)
------
forgotAgain
HP is comparable to Apple in that they have complete control of their product.
Yet I haven't seen anything that makes me believe that the management of HP is
comparable to Apple.
Installing webOS on all of their PC's strikes me as a really dumb idea. From
what I've read they are not delivering quality PC's these days. Associating
webOS with a poor product seems like a bad idea. Also I think a boot menu will
confuse the heck out of a lot of people. It seems that they are desperate to
show that they are doing something with the product and this is all they could
do in a reasonable time frame.
They have already owned Palm for a year and if that's all they got then I'm
not impressed. The creativity of HP was seemingly gutted by Hurd and will need
to be rebuilt.
We can learn a lot from the troubles Microsoft is currently having updating
their phone. An important key to success is turning out to be control of the
devices after they are sold. Microsoft is apparently screwed because there are
so many players in the process of releasing updates with each having a vote.
First Microsoft develops the update but then the device manufacturer and the
carrier have to agree to the release and can change the release to fit their
own needs. That's not the case with Apple. They control everything. Successful
product owners will need to mimic Apple and not Microsoft. They will need a
management with stones in order to get that deal if it's even possible now
that there are so many alternative products the carrier can provide. Android
also has this issue as can be seen by the number of OS versions that a
developer has to support.
Where HP has an opportunity is in their enterprise connections. I think this
will be a short lived advantage. HP would have to own this market before
Microsoft launches an enterprise tablet and reluctance to change gives them
the advantage.
HP has a great opportunity because they bought a great product. The odds are
better than even that they will blow it.
------
SingAlong
Best part about the signup form was a comfortable option for the security
question _"What is your favourite programming language?"_ , although a lot of
my friends can guess it if I used the right answer, it's still a good try to
give options related to the user.
------
jdavid
a few reasons WebOS is not done yet.
* pre 3 will be fast, really fast
* touch-to-share WebOS enabled devices can touch and share files.
* somehow drobox is tied into WebOS 3
* Unity Union - Unity Technologies will help you port your game.
* TouchPad - WebOS does multiple apps better than iOS.
* WebOS is way better than ChromeOS. HP will use it on Netbooks.
------
philthy
Requested access about an hour ago. Excited.
------
todd3834
It seems the more options we have for a mobile OS, the more persuasive a web
application vs native application becomes.
~~~
zmmmmm
It's persuasive until you actually try and do it. Then you find that you can't
make anything nearly as nice and it takes you 10 times as long to do it
because you spend forever figuring out weird quirks of mobile browsers that
make not much sense at all.
At least that was my experience.
~~~
ryanwatkins
Or you use the web technologies for a "native" app and focus only on the
browser for that platform. Then port to others as needed, rather than trying
to support them "all" from day one on a web app.
Certainly a web app is usually still not as fast and responsive as a native
app, but its getting much better.
People used to say the same thing about web mail services - that they were not
nearly as 'nice' as a native mail app. Now go look at how many people use
Gmail and dont bother with a native mail client on their PC anymore.
------
cheez
Well, WebOS was one of the things I was really looking forward to but the Pre
hardware was not very usable for me.
I really hope WebOS gets a decent second chance. When will the tablets be out?
~~~
philthy
What are your thoughts on the Pre3?
~~~
newman314
Handled one. It's quite nice and I'll be getting one along with the TouchPad
and Veer when they come out.
Also, the Pre3 will be a world phone in 2 flavors:
1) CDMA (US) + GSM (RoW) 2) GSM (US + RoW)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
SQL Layer launches, bringing Google F1 like capabilities to FoundationDB - Dave_Rosenthal
http://blog.foundationdb.com/sql-layer-launches-bringing-google-f1-like-capabilities-to-foundationdb
======
kolev
If you (like me) wondered about those small displays:
[https://www.doublesight.com/product/detail/55.html](https://www.doublesight.com/product/detail/55.html)
------
kolev
I expect this to be forked soon to support other key-value stores.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Pirate Bay Making $9 Million Per Year - horatio05
http://rixstep.com/1/20060708,00.shtml
======
mynameishere
_sold ads for The Pirate Bay for an average of EUR60,000 per month_
Let's see: We could advertise on google and target people specifically
searching for a product, and pay as little as 10 cents per click, or...
We could advertise on a criminal website marketed towards people who hate
spending money for products and pay 60K Euros a month.
Hmm, think, think...
~~~
omouse
> people who hate spending money for products
Correction: people who hate spending money for _shitty_ products. Or they hate
paying an inflated price. Piracy is competition and should be treated as such.
~~~
mynameishere
_people who hate spending money for shitty products_
Uh, no. Unless you consider 95 percent (or whatever) of all the movies and
music and software ever made as consistently "shitty".
_Or they hate paying an inflated price._
Look up "beethoven symphonies" on piratebay, and you'll see plenty of people
seeding and leeching. Then look up the same on amazon, and you'll see that all
9 are available together as low as 20 dollars. If 20 dollars is an "inflated
price" for that product, well, then there's no point in trying...
_Piracy is competition and should be treated as such_
Compete with zero? Sigh. Blah-dee, blah-dee, blah.
------
staunch
Al Capone is shouting from his grave at these guys.
------
gustaf
If that's true it would be awesome, unfortunately it's not.
------
daniel-cussen
9 million per year...with a possibility of going to Swedish jail. I bet those
are mighty fine jails, but I'm still not sure that's a gamble I would make.
~~~
palish
Do the Swedish have.. I'm not sure what it's called.. "You can't make
something into a law and then convict everyone who used to be doing that"
provisions?
~~~
patrickg-zill
I believe it is called "ex post facto".
~~~
palish
Yes! Do they have ex post facto laws?
------
rms
Good for them.
~~~
palish
Why?
~~~
rms
There is always an economic incentive for violating the law. It takes a
certain amount of bravery or lack of risk aversion to skirt the edge of
legality. Someone has to push the political agenda of the Pirate Party and the
more money they have, the more they can change the world.
This artificial scarcity of media doesn't make any sense. Why should something
that I can get for free cost money?
~~~
palish
Listen, I agree with you in spirit, but it's not practical. Here's what I have
no problem with:
Let's say foo is 15 and he wants to download Super Expensive Program 9000. He
spends all day looking for a torrent. Then, once he's downloaded it, the next
day it takes him another full day to figure out how to install it and get the
various cracks working and everything configured.
Right, that's fine. Here's the problem:
Time passes, foo's grown up. He's 25, and a software engineer, making $75k a
year. He goes to thepiratebay.org and finds Super Expensive Program 9000
immediately. He downloads it in about an hour. It installs immediately with no
requirement to apply a crack or any other technical detail. It just installs
and works.
Okay, I have a problem with the second one, because once piracy becomes a one-
click solution it starts to hurt those that make the program. The first isn't
a problem because 15 year olds don't buy programs anyway, but they might buy
it when they grow up (Like I did with Visual Assist).
If there's a way to make it artificially hard to get something for free, I say
let them get it, because only the committed will be able to. If it's easy
(Napster, ThePirateBay, etc) it needs to be made harder.
Also, making money by giving away people's work for free in a one-click
solution is just evil. If you're going to give it away for free, make it hard,
and don't make any money from it.
~~~
rms
Piracy HAS become one-click easy because information is not scarce anymore.
The fifteen your old of today that you think should be able to pirate software
has no choice but to download it in a ridiculously easy manner.
There's no turning back now, unless there's an international movement to start
policing the internet which involves cutting off countries that have been
declared piracy havens from the rest of the internet. This, of course,
contradicts the principles of the internet.
I'm too much of a moral relativist to think the Pirate Bay is evil. Stalin was
evil. George W. Bush is evil. Making something people want (one click access
to free information) is not evil. Laws are not inherently good and violating
laws is not inherently evil.
I'll admit that it's not practical for all information to suddenly be free,
but in the long run, information will be free. In the meanwhile, people like
you and me get to argue about how free our information should be. This debate
is part of the process of freeing our information.
~~~
palish
Okay. So for someone like me, in a position where I have very little money and
I want to get out of that situation, to hear "Whatever people make should be
free" is just silly. Yes, open source is wonderful, and I really want to
contribute to it. But needing to feed myself everyday and to pay for my car
and a place to live takes precedence.
Would you tell PG that Viaweb should've been free? Why? Because it's a
service? There's no fundamental difference between a service and a piece of
desktop software, except you can't steal it.
~~~
randallsquared
It's not that "whatever people make should be free". It's that buying
something should not automatically restrict your rights to what you already
own. If you can figure out how to make a non-easily-copied copy, then you
won't need to forcefully (with law) restrict people from using their own
computers after purchasing your copy. But the ease of copying (and thus
competition) doesn't justify using force.
Web applications are one way to solve the problem of "how do I sell use of
software without making the copy they're using easily copied". Other ways
include, for example, DRM, but web applications are a far more robust solution
than DRM, for the class of applications they can provide solutions for.
~~~
palish
How would you write a web application to deliver some music without being able
to steal it? You can't. It's not a panacea. People have to be moral. If you're
15, fine, steal it, because you can't buy it anyway, and it's not hurting
anyone. If you're 25 and you have money, don't be selfish. It _is_ stealing.
And if it's stealing, then laws apply. They protect ownership rights.
~~~
randallsquared
"How would you write a web application to deliver some music without being
able to steal it? You can't."
No, web applications are not a panacea. But _some_ business model will work,
and finding that business model is far more profitable than attempting to
legislate a hold on digital copying. If there's some particular type of thing
for which there is no profitable method of distribution, then that thing won't
be produced for profit. Law can distort this to a degree, but such distortions
always produce more problems than they solve. The market always wins. :)
~~~
palish
Well, okay, I totally agree with that. I just feel bad about it because there
_is_ intrinsic value in a piece of music, as there is in a book. It's
creative, and as such it's a thousand times more valuable than being able to
do backflips or other specialized skills.
..But because it's so easily copied, it's not really worth anything unless the
laws enforce it, which can be heavy-handed. So I don't know the right balance.
~~~
randallsquared
I think the first copy of a book or other creative product (that will sell
well) is incredibly valuable, and I have some ideas for ways to get a large
chunk of that value for the author/artist, but they require micropayments to
be widespread, and that's what I'm working on right now. :)
~~~
palish
Cool. Good luck! :) I'd like to hear more about it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Ranking Your University Using PageRank on Wikipedia - turtlesoup
http://blog.argteam.com/coding/university-ranking-wikipedia/
======
jamessb
It would be interesting to compare your ranking to that obtained by simply
sorting by the number of alumni with their own wikipedia articles.
------
jmduke
Heh, this is pretty interesting -- with the caveat that this really only makes
sense as a ranking for _research_ institutions (which I think the author
addresses quite nicely in his definition of 'contribution to world
knowledge'.)
Related note: at what point do we expect to see things like Udacity and
Coursera to appear in the USNWR college rankings?
~~~
cosbynator
I've actually computed a PageRank vector for all articles in Wikipedia. If you
are interested, Coursera is about 0.0013% of Harvard which would put it very
close to the bottom of the ranking.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How the Apocalypse Will Bring Out the Best in People - pmcpinto
https://psmag.com/how-the-apocalypse-will-bring-out-the-best-in-people-56f51136e770#.oegshdfkk
======
splitrocket
There's a user on Metafilter.com, Dee Xtrovert,(
[https://www.metafilter.com/user/45778](https://www.metafilter.com/user/45778)
) who lived through the siege in Sarajevo.
Their stories of what it's like are so vastly different than what you would
expect. Do yourself a favor: dig in and read.
"Well, unlike the majority of you (I assume), I actually lived several years
in a period of savagery and killing, during which nothing - food, water,
electricity, phone, clothing, sense of safety, school, the ability to go out
in public, etc - was available, except during totally unpredictable, brief and
sporadic occasions. "
A collection: [https://www.metafilter.com/137458/In-war-not-everyone-is-
a-s...](https://www.metafilter.com/137458/In-war-not-everyone-is-a-
soldier#5461243)
My Favorite: [https://www.metafilter.com/78669/What-if-things-just-keep-
ge...](https://www.metafilter.com/78669/What-if-things-just-keep-getting-
worse#2430771)
~~~
slv77
"Ferfal" lived in Argentina during its economic collapse at the turn of the
century and has a similar unique perspective. He's now has a blog but some of
his early posts are here:
[http://www.rapidtrends.com/surving-argentinas-economic-
colla...](http://www.rapidtrends.com/surving-argentinas-economic-collapse-
part-1-3/)
~~~
hga
Those are excellent, and presumably are included in his book:
[http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Survival-Manual-Surviving-
Econo...](http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Survival-Manual-Surviving-
Economic/dp/9870563457/) (which I've bought but not yet read).
------
aethertap
I live in a rural area in tornado alley. We also live on a major fault line,
so there are a few potential "big ones" that could affect my area.
I spent quite a bit of time thinking about that, trying to figure out what to
do in order to be prepared for a realistic disaster. What I ended up deciding
was that I can afford to help my neighbors (and whoever else may show up). I
have an extensive first-aid setup, stuff to purify water, tons of trash bags,
and some easy-to-prepare food. If we have a major disaster in my area, I plan
to distribute as much of that as I can. For a fairly small investment I have
enough stuff to keep everyone on my street healthy and fed for about a month
even if their pantries are empty. No Mad Max necessary.
As an interesting side note, as part of that process I did some calculating on
relative costs and discovered that you can buy enough storable basic calories
(white flour, stabilized cooking oil, and sugar - no health food here) to feed
about 100 people for a month for less than it costs to get a single mid-grade
rifle with no ammunition (about $1000). To me, that's the best answer to the
idea that being prepared means getting armed to the teeth and fighting off the
ravening hordes.
I may be wrong, but I agree with the thesis of this article that people tend
to band together and try to help each other in a disaster, so I built a plan
around that assumption.
~~~
hga
That's a thesis that noted survivialist Bruce Clayton developed in the early
'80s or so, although he went with whole wheat, and add some salt and powdered
milk for the Mormon Four plus the oil, which is needed by children for them to
thrive (see more details in _Nuclear War Survival Skills_ if interested, which
Clayton recommended before any of his books).
In my world view, you're better off with "A kind word _and_ a gun", food etc.
plus the ability to restrain bad actors, should any turn up. Some just might,
as seen when an EF-5 tornado roared through my home town of Joplin, MO, but
tornadoes, at least, have very limited effects, you don't have to walk far to
get out of the areas of destruction. If the New Madrid fault goes you've very
much want such preparations already in place.
~~~
aethertap
Thanks for the pointer to Bruce Clayton, I'll have to look him up. I don't
mean to come across as being against having the gun - I actually agree with
your "kind word and gun" idea. I just wanted to get the point out about how
much relief can be accomplished with that money because I think it gets missed
in a lot of discussions, and of the two it seems a lot more likely to be
relevant in a real disaster to me.
~~~
hga
Here's my recommendations from the classic era of survivalism (mid-late-70s
through the '80s):
_Nuclear War Survival Skills_ , get a PDF to see if it's interesting to you
(e.g. [http://www.oism.org/nwss/](http://www.oism.org/nwss/)), get the green
softcover for when the lights go out and for accurate patterns for the Kearny
Fallout Meter: [http://www.amazon.com/Nuclear-War-Survival-Skills-
Expanded/d...](http://www.amazon.com/Nuclear-War-Survival-Skills-
Expanded/dp/094248701X) (it says something about the times that Amazon is
keeping it in stock, they didn't a few years ago) or from the publisher
(previous link).
This is the bible of expedient nuclear war survival, everything from quick to
build shelters to sprouting wheat to avoid vitamin deficiency diseases, based
on many years of serious research at Oak Ridge, _and tested_ , they'd go so
far as to hand a copy of shelter plans to average American families, and then
videotape them following the plan, and improve the design based on that. Vs.
too many of those classic Civil Defense shelter plans drawn up by bureaucrats
in the Beltway that would kill their inhabitants due to too little ventilation
to remove heat and humidity.
Maybe then check out his recently published _Jungle Snafus ... and Remedies_ ,
his hardcore work on survival started in WWII, and he started thinking about
nuclear war survival in the mid-late '30s (sic) after learning about the idea
of nuclear weapons while at Princeton (quite a few people thought and wrote
about it before the details were worked out after E=mc^2 and all that, see
e.g. the SF of the pre-end of WWII era).
Then Bruce Clayton's magnum opus, _Life After Doomsday_ , get the Dial Press
paperback which has annotations and comments made after the first edition:
[http://www.amazon.com/Life-after-doomsday-survivalist-
disast...](http://www.amazon.com/Life-after-doomsday-survivalist-
disasters/dp/0803747527/) And perhaps check out some of his other works, the
food for others concept was not, as I recall, originally published in
_Thinking About Survival_ [http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-About-Survival-
Bruce-Clayton/...](http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-About-Survival-Bruce-
Clayton/dp/0873642937/) but you'll find it there (probably originally
published in an issue of the hard to find Mel Tappan _Personal Survival
Letter_ ).
The other two major intellectuals of the era were Jerry Pournelle, see his two
relevant novels coauthored with Larry Niven, _Lucifer 's Hammer_ and
_Footfall_ , and Mel Tappan, start with his _Tappan on Survival_ :
[http://www.amazon.com/Tappan-Survival-
Mel/dp/1581605099/](http://www.amazon.com/Tappan-Survival-Mel/dp/1581605099/)
The obscure and now very expensive used _Bad Times Primer_ by C. G. Cobb had
insighs, especially on survival on a budget, I didn't find anywhere else at
the time (there is of course the new wave of "prepper" thought and literature
that's no doubt worth checking out that might cover things like that):
[http://www.amazon.com/Bad-Times-Primer-Complete-
Survival/dp/...](http://www.amazon.com/Bad-Times-Primer-Complete-
Survival/dp/0960660801/)
Finally, _Total Resistance_ [http://www.amazon.com/Total-Resistance-H-Von-
Dach/dp/0873640...](http://www.amazon.com/Total-Resistance-H-Von-
Dach/dp/0873640217/) is _the_ manual on _sane_ armed resistance and such,
commissioned by the Swiss Non-commissioned Officer's Association, very Swiss
vs. USSR invasion and '50s-ish, it's not written by wild eye idiots. Much
updating and thought is required, of course, but I would start with that
foundation, and for best reading quality, track down the original hardback, I
think the publisher reproduced the paperback edition from it.
For modern works, I'll only note _The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the
Economic Collapse_ [http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Survival-Manual-Surviving-
Econo...](http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Survival-Manual-Surviving-
Economic/dp/9870563457/) since it's written from the author's experience of a
less than total collapse in Argentina. See also people's writeups of the much
worse collapse and warfare in post-Cold War Yugoslavia.
~~~
aethertap
Thanks again, this looks like a lot of good stuff. I've actually read
Lucifer's Hammer (several times if I'm totally honest), I had no idea he was
involved in that.
------
grecy
Living in the Yukon we sometimes talk about what would happen to most "city
folk" if their world fell apart with no supermarket and electricity.
Most of us hunt our own meat, grow our own vegetables, build our own cabins
and get our own firewood. Tons of people up here are already living entirely
off-grid.
We all agree, our biggest problem would be lack of gasoline to run chainsaws,
and none of us really has a solution to that. Cutting firewood by hand would
be doable, though it would be a full time job to get enough for the winter. A
decent size house will burn through roughly 10 cords in a single winter.
~~~
pyre
On the flip side, things like this[1] play out in severely rural areas. It
always annoys me when people in rural areas paint a picture of how much
"better" it is to be living there.
[1]: [https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/when-a-woman-is-
raped...](https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/when-a-woman-is-raped-in-
rural-alaska-does-anyone-care)
~~~
deelowe
lol. Really? People really think this is common? I just don't know what to
say. It's not like that at all.
Look, generally speaking, people are decent and have morals. The vast majority
do. Shocker I know, but it's true. Most people aren't racist, homophobe,
rapist assholes. Doesn't matter where they live.
~~~
DanBC
> People really think this is common?
Rape and sexual violence are pretty common.
You might want to find a trustworthy source of numbers. Here's one for England
and Wales:
[http://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandj...](http://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/bulletins/crimeinenglandandwales/yearendingdecember2015)
~~~
deelowe
I was talking about it being significantly more common in rural areas.
------
PhasmaFelis
The one thing this article misses, I think, is that all of these scenarios are
temporary and local. If an area is devastated by an earthquake, there's still
a food supply chain in the outside world, aid supplies and workers will
eventually start trickling in, and generally you will have _some_ support (if
limited and fragmentary) to help you pull yourself back up to a "modern"
living standard over weeks and months.
If a complete societal breakdown should occur--the traditional global-nuclear-
war apocalypse, a major governmental/infrastructural collapse in a large,
developed nation, etc.--things get rougher. People may start off being civil
and helpful, but modern urban society is utterly dependent on food grown on
farms spread across thousands of miles and distributed via high-tech
infrastructure. If that stops for long enough, in a large enough area, then
people start to get hungry, and things start to get really bad.
I still find the article heartening in general. Disasters on that scale are
not terribly likely in the modern world. Still, it's worth considering.
~~~
JoeAltmaier
Alarmingly, one of the biggest breakdowns in ancient times, at the end of the
Bronze age, now seems to have given rise to the 'sea people', a band of
refugees that roamed and pillaged. There was a chain reaction of famine,
revolution, refugees spilling over to neighbors who also had a poor crop, more
famine, more revolution. In an expanding circle of fire, most known
civilizations fell in just a few years and produced an enormous army of armed
refugees. They only stopped when Egypt armed everybody and killed them all.
Even then Egyptian society was so disrupted (by arming civilians, seeing their
god-kings bleed, fragmentation and slow rebuilding) that it took a century to
have a unified government again.
I see some parallels in our modern world. We have a slash-and-burn air-assault
style of war that leaves millions homeless and infrastructure in ruins.
Refugees are mounting alarmingly. At some point, they'll become 'sea people'
and we'll all have a hard decision to make.
------
bbarn
When I think of "Apocalypse" I'm thinking something a little more permanent
than an earthquake. As long as there's an end in sight (i.e., it will
eventually be going back to normal) people are going to act a lot differently.
It's when it truly looks hopeless that I'd expect to see the movie style
looting and violence.
~~~
jrcii
One summer in the early 2000s there was a blackout along the whole west coast,
I was in Palm Springs where the temperatures that time of year regularly
exceed 110F. The water filtration shut off so all the city's water was
declared possibly contaminated and the gas pumps were off so if you needed gas
to get to water there was none. People realized the last clean source of water
was bagged ice and started forming mobs banging on the locked doors of
convenience stores. I saw people siphoning other people's gas. Basically all
hell broke loose. The kicker? The power was only out for 6 hours. When people
are scared it doesn't take long.
------
protomyth
I think an apocalypse[1] will bring out what's in people not their best or
worst just what they really are. I think of the apocalypse as being the big
dark[2] that allows you to see people's true character.
As to survival kits, I tend to think that combining the standard survival kit
for winter in the northland with the basics a person would take deer hunting
and fishing would probably go a long way.
1) short term disasters are a bit different but a lot of madness tends to hit
- see all the rioting in mini-disaster scenarios
2) Character is what you are in the dark. - Dwight L. Moody
------
jonathankoren
Having to redo my 72 hour bag recently I ended up on a bunch of survivalist
websites. (Mostly [http://offgridsurvival.com/](http://offgridsurvival.com/) )
They all have this tendency to start reasonable, and then go off the rails
into crazy town. You'll have some good reviews of legitimate things you'd want
like flashlights solar power radios, cooking stoves, knives, multitools,
stableized food and the like, and then it goes into gasmasks, trauma kits for
your "everyday carry" and of course guns. Lots and lots of guns, oh and
bullets in common calibers for "ballistic wampum".
The subculture paints a world of black helicopters, and roving gangs of George
Soros funded Black Lives Matter cannibals, ISIS EMP attacks, Supervolcanos,
and so we're going to have to secretly leave cities by shooting our way out to
our hidden mountain cabin ("Never tell anyone where your redoubt is. That's
basic opsec.") Oh and along the way you'll may want to hand over boxes of
ammunition to strangers for needed supplies.
The thing is though, I totally get it. It's a problem. How long can you hold
out with resupplies? How can you pack this better? How can you reduce weight?
It's an engineering problem. The right wing conspiracy theories and and that
up it neighbor is just waiting for the right moment to kill, eat you, and your
skin into a jaunty hat is just absurd wish fulfillment fantasy.
~~~
bcook
Yeah, it's unfortunate that the (clinically) paranoid survivalists, that
honestly have good information to share from a survival perspective, often
have paranoid political beliefs.
Just like anything in life, you need to separate the good information from the
bad... thank god for people that are "different". :)
------
JoeAltmaier
Of course most people will be civil. Its not 'most people' that would be at
issue in an apocalypse. In the examples given, the 20,000 soldiers had 'little
to do'. In part because the presence of 20,000 soldiers is a calming
influence?
Initial looting isn't the only public order issue. Its desperate people when
supplies run low, taking what they need to survive from other desperate
people.
------
facepalm
What about situations like the last plane out of a war zone with a limited
number of seats? I think people tend to become less charitable then? Or if
scarcity really hits?
~~~
prodmerc
I think there's a fundamental difference between man made catastrophes and
natural disasters in people's minds.
If it's man made, they will want to blame someone, so people will be more
aggressive towards anyone else.
If it's a natural disaster, everyone accepts that everyone else around is in
the same situation and will help as much as they can right away...
~~~
facepalm
I remember specifically an issue in Europe a couple of years back where a
series of snow avalanches was destroying hotels and killing people (in the
alpes, I think - hotels had been built in illegal places). Roads were blocked
and the only way out were helicopters. Supposedly there were some ugly
displays of selfishness around getting on the helicopter first.
------
rrggrr
There is a book, Einstein's Dreams, by Alan Lightman that describes this
phenomena beautifully. It's a short and wonderful book.
------
rk06
in "attack on titan" (fiction), apocalypse happens and humanity is hit the
hardest.
but no, it does not bring any good. instead people do atrocious and horrible
deeds in the name of greater good.
So, I would say, "No, apocalypse can destroy humans but not change them."
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Facebook survives Q4 with slowing 1.4B daily users but record $12.97B revenue - artsandsci
https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/31/facebook-q4-2017-earnings/
======
lev99
Interesting numbers:
Facebook spends more then 1/3 of it's money on R&D. YoY increase of Daily
users by 14%. Facebook paid an effective tax rate of 23% in 2017.
Most important quote: "2017 was a strong year for Facebook, but it was also a
hard one," said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO. "In 2018, we're
focused on making sure Facebook isn't just fun to use, but also good for
people's well-being and for society. We're doing this by encouraging
meaningful connections between people rather than passive consumption of
content. Already last quarter, we made changes to show fewer viral videos to
make sure people's time is well spent. In total, we made changes that reduced
time spent on Facebook by roughly 50 million hours every day. By focusing on
meaningful connections, our community and business will be stronger over the
long term."
Direct link to the earnings report, instead of the tech crunch article.
[https://investor.fb.com/investor-news/press-release-
details/...](https://investor.fb.com/investor-news/press-release-
details/2018/Facebook-Reports-Fourth-Quarter-and-Full-
Year-2017-Results/default.aspx)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Malcolm Tredinnick (malcolmt) has passed of a burst aneurysm - masklinn
https://twitter.com/rayloyzaga
======
masklinn
Multiple sources confirmed it (or annouced before @RayLoyzaga) but he seems to
be close to the family and have more details to come.
See
[https://twitter.com/search?q=%40malcolmt%20&src=typd](https://twitter.com/search?q=%40malcolmt%20&src=typd)
for reactions
~~~
m8rl
Jacob Kaplan-Moss posted it today on djanoproject.com:
[https://www.djangoproject.com/weblog/2013/mar/19/goodbye-
mal...](https://www.djangoproject.com/weblog/2013/mar/19/goodbye-malcolm/)
~~~
masklinn
Indeed, just saw it and was going to add a link to it. Also, link to its own
HN submission: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5402137>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Future Is Now? Pretty Soon, at Least - donna
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/03/science/03tier.html?_r=1&8dpc&oref=slogin
======
donna
Ray Kurzweil might be wrong about many of the future developments he predicts,
but I'll bet that's generally _not_ because of technological issues.
..great quote : “My colleague Francis Crick used to say that God is a hacker,
not an engineer,” Dr. Ramachandran said. “You can do reverse engineering, but
you can’t do reverse hacking.”
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Is Techcrunch better post-Arrington? - cavalcade
Is it me or Techcrunch became less tabloid-y lately and amped up the quality of writing since Arrington got pushed out? How do you find the blog's quality now?
======
al_james
It seems to talk about watches more.
------
thigbee
Seems the same to me.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Faster password hashes cracking based on the DES algorithm on CPUs - pwg
http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=11212
======
pwg
Password Gorilla : <https://github.com/zdia/gorilla/wiki>
Store much longer, more complicated, passwords, without having to remember
them.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Uber Partners with Betterment to Offer Drivers I.R.A.s - JumpCrisscross
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/25/business/dealbook/uber-partners-with-betterment-to-offer-drivers-iras.html?em_pos=small&emc=edit_dk_20160825&nl=dealbook&nl_art=9&nlid=65508833&ref=headline&te=1&_r=0
======
sharemywin
they sound more and more like empolyees to me. not sure why they don't bite
the bullet and make the plunge.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Strapdown.js - Instant and elegant Markdown documents - arturadib
http://strapdownjs.com
======
fijter
I like the use of markdown for this kind of purpose but i'd rather just
compile from markdown to the generated HTML and put that online for a better
user experience (no flash of unstyled markdown content) and possibly better
Google indexing.
~~~
arturadib
That's fair. I personally wrote Strapdown since I couldn't find a really
simple Markdown framework that generated beautiful docs and Just Worked(TM) :)
~~~
fijter
Oh yeah, it generates great output for sure, I might just write a simple
wrapper (in PhantomJS or whatever) to automate the compilation step using a
markdown document and strapdown, or if I'm lazy I'll just save the generated
code from the Chrome inspector :)
------
desireco42
I really love this approach. It simplifies a lot of back and forth that I have
to do on a server, even with all the plugins to make things easier, front end
is the right place to do this. So, thank you.
------
marban
Did someone come across any stats about markdown adoption/acceptance among
regular users over richtext editors?
------
mattmanser
I do like it, one question though, anyone can speculate as to why he says use
an xmp tag, but then himself uses a textarea on the page? And will google
index it?
~~~
taylorfausak
I hadn't heard of the <xmp> tag before now. His reasoning ("so that users
don't have to escape special HTML characters") seems to be correct, except
that it's a deprecated tag (<http://stackoverflow.com/q/4545>). Perhaps he
used a <textarea> on this page so he could have the literal "</xmp>" in it?
~~~
arturadib
That's correct. Although the tag is deprecated, I've tried it with all modern
browsers (IE and mobile Safari included), and it seems to work just fine.
I'd think it would take a long time to phase this tag out as it was apparently
popular among HTML spec writers, which means there's probably a ton of them
still in the wild:
<https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=12235>
~~~
RyanMcGreal
Couldn't you just escape it, i.e.
<\/xmp>
inside the text?
~~~
taylorfausak
There's no provision for escaping things inside an <xmp> tag. From the HTML
2.0 spec: "no markup except the end-tag […] is recognized"
[http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/html-spec/html-
spec_5.html#SEC5.5.2...](http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/html-spec/html-
spec_5.html#SEC5.5.2.1)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: International Standard for Programming in Safety-Critical Environments? - anticensor
Why do most of us ignore those standards in safety-critical environments such as automotive, aviation, banking?
======
airbreather
There is a whole family, with the parent being IEC61508. Then 61511, 62026,
etc etc.
TUV and Exida offer training to become a certified practitioner, which is a
requirement of the standard.
Warning, it's not your grandmother's software, there is no "move fast and
break things", traditional application is waterfall and v-model, with full
traceability.
My company was involved with a new mine winder, it was a bit more involved
than usual, but from first inquiry until first use was around 8 years.
~~~
anticensor
Initial post edited to your response.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Which domain extensions are startups using in 2020? - jamesnames
https://jamesnames.com/2020/05/data-driven-which-extensions-are-startups-using-in-2020/
======
jamesnames
Hey everyone! I've done an analysis of 991 startups that have been launched in
2020 to see what kind of domain extensions are popular.
Knowing the type of domains other companies are launching with may help with
your own projects.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How secure is Linux's random number generator? - hpaavola
http://lists.randombit.net/pipermail/cryptography/2013-July/004728.html
======
nullc
The annoying thing is that the Linux RNG is really limiting without something
like RdRand.
It used to be that most drivers contributed to the randomness pool, so it
seldom ran short. It used to be that you could configure the size of the pool,
so if you were running short you could make it larger. But then it was
discovered that the pool resizing had a locally exploitable vulnerability so
it was removed, leaving it always at the smallest value; and it was realized
that many driver sources weren't very random and/or were externally
controllable so most were removed.
The end effect is that much server hardware only gets about 50-100 bits per
second added only to a pool of 4096, and /dev/random is constantly running out
leading to weird performance problems (like ssh connections taking a long
time). This results in a desperate need to replace /dev/random with something
like RdRand when it could just otherwise be another untrusted contributor if
the rest of the system around /dev/random were sane.
~~~
raverbashing
Apparently, for some "security experts" it's damned if you do, damned if you
don't
If you don't use RdRand then you have few sources of "true" randomness, hence,
your RNG is predictable, manipulable and you're an idiot and a 5 year old can
break your crypto
If you use RdRand then "blah blah blah this is opaque", hence, your RNG is
predictable, manipulable and you're an idiot and a 5 year old can break your
crypto
Perfect solutions exist only in labs and my impression is that most of these
"experts" make things less secure.
~~~
nullc
Meh. Simply making the default pool larger would go a long way towards moving
systems out of a desperate situation. With that done there would be a lot less
reason to short circuit it and go RdRand only.
No one is concerned about RdRand as a contributing source— with other genuine
source of randomness RdRand isn't likely a back door once mixed in.
~~~
tytso
Making the pool larger isn't sufficient for embedded systems that don't have a
lot of sources of entropy in the first place. Especially since very often the
most critical secrets (such as the RSA keys for the certificates used by
network printers, for example) are generated when the embedded system is first
installed, where even if you have a larger pool, there isn't any opportunity
to fill with the extremely limited amount of entropy available to said device.
~~~
raverbashing
Yes, this is _very_ bad in embedded systems
As in your example, the only source of entropy a network printer has: network
data, easy to manipulate or even no activity. So no way to generate keys for
example.
In some cases hardware sources are a must. Yes, in the end you'll need to
trust them
------
olympus
Just because something is closed source doesn't mean it's insecure. RdRand
meets various standards for RNGs and the dieharder tests don't show anything
of concern. While you can't be 100 percent sure of the reliability of RdRand
because you can't audit it, I feel safe trusting it for all but the most
critical of applications. Here's a blog post describing testing RdRand with
dieharder: [http://smackerelofopinion.blogspot.com/2012/10/intel-
rdrand-...](http://smackerelofopinion.blogspot.com/2012/10/intel-rdrand-
instruction-revisited.html)
~~~
oellegaard
You are right that closed source doesn't mean its insecure - on the other
hand, open source could prove that it is indeed secure. With new scandals
coming up every week these days, about hidden backdoors in security software,
I trust open source more than ever before.
~~~
tptacek
Ironically, it's particularly vis a vis cryptographic random number generation
where we can most easily show open source cryptography failing its users;
Debian fatally broke the OpenSSL CSPRNG so badly that attackers could remotely
brute force SSH keys.
~~~
tankenmate
Whereas with closed source you would _almost never_ know. Crypto is very hard
to do properly, but at least with open source you have the possibility of
independent third party analysis.
~~~
lmm
Wasn't the debian vulnerability discovered because someone noticed that two
different servers had the same key? That would have gone down exactly the same
with closed source.
------
dave1010uk
For those that aren't aware, the security of a rand number generator is very
important:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_number_generator_attack](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_number_generator_attack)
~~~
surement
A personal favourite:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=639976](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=639976)
~~~
homeomorphic
That was a wonderful read. Thank you.
------
sejje
Am I the only guy who can't figure out how to navigate mailing lists archives?
These things are internet hell.
~~~
jevinskie
I agree. Try searching for the title on gmane.org
~~~
ReidZB
Here's the list on gmane:
[http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.security.cryptography.rando...](http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.security.cryptography.randombit)
Not sure how to link a particular article in that view. The 'direct link'
sends you to an article-only page. But the message by the OP appears as the
third top-level thread in that view.
~~~
secure
The link is
[http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.security.cryptography.ran...](http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.security.cryptography.randombit/4689)
You get to that by clicking on the subject in the bottom frame.
------
guns
And here is the mailing list thread that the author refers to:
[https://lkml.org/lkml/2011/7/29/366](https://lkml.org/lkml/2011/7/29/366)
~~~
semenko
There was a lot more follow-up later, see e.g.
[https://lkml.org/lkml/2012/7/5/422](https://lkml.org/lkml/2012/7/5/422)
The important commit here is:
[http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.g...](http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=c2557a303ab6712bb6e09447df828c557c710ac9)
Excerpted:
_Change get_random_bytes() to not use the HW RNG, even if it is avaiable.
The reason for this is that the hw random number generator is fast (if it is
present), but it requires that we trust the hardware manufacturer to have not
put in a back door. (For example, an increasing counter encrypted by an AES
key known to the NSA.)
It's unlikely that Intel (for example) was paid off by the US Government to do
this, but it's impossible for them to prove otherwise \--- especially since
Bull Mountain is documented to use AES as a whitener. Hence, the output of an
evil, trojan-horse version of RDRAND is statistically indistinguishable from
an RDRAND implemented to the specifications claimed by Intel. Short of using a
tunnelling electronic microscope to reverse engineer an Ivy Bridge chip and
disassembling and analyzing the CPU microcode, there's no way for us to tell
for sure._
------
acqq
The best approach to have is IMHO here:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//dev/random](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//dev/random)
_Gutterman, Pinkas, & Reinman in March 2006 published a detailed
cryptographic analysis of the Linux random number generator[5] in which they
describe several weaknesses. Perhaps the most severe issue they report is with
embedded or Live CD systems such as routers and diskless clients, for which
the bootup state is predictable and the available supply of entropy from the
environment may be limited. For a system with non-volatile memory, they
recommend saving some state from the RNG at shutdown so that it can be
included in the RNG state on the next reboot. In the case of a router for
which network traffic represents the primary available source of entropy, they
note that saving state across reboots "would require potential attackers to
either eavesdrop on all network traffic" from when the router is first put
into service, or obtain direct access to the router's internal state. This
issue, they note, is particularly critical in the case of a wireless router
whose network traffic can be captured from a distance, and which may be using
the RNG to generate keys for data encryption._
It shouldn't be a religious but an engineering problem. If you manage keep
some state between reboots and use it after the next reboot, you're making it
hard enough for anybody not having the physical access to that state. Then you
can also use RdRand to mix it with the output of your stream based on your
state, and with other sources of entropy if you have them. If RdRand turns out
to be suspicious, you're at least much better off than using only hard coded
states.
Anybody knows if some kind of described state is used now?
~~~
caf
Yes - for example this is done by /etc/init.d/urandom on Debian and Ubuntu
systems.
~~~
acqq
My question was for /dev/random. The main problem RdRand solves is quantity:
obtaining a lot of random bits per second. Even if they were produced in a way
that somebody knows possible weaknesses, mixing them with something
cryptographically strong where we control the seed we'd preserve quite a high
throughput. I know that there is /dev/urandom which can often be good enough,
but I know that too much applications in fact prefer to use /dev/random so
making /dev/random robust has sense.
I see Ted Ts'o commented too, and as I understand, having RdRand is still much
better compared to having the platforms without it. There's a lot more to care
about than is RdRand "perfect" and once you have something like RdRand you can
use it safely enough, compared to not having anything.
~~~
caf
It applies to /dev/random too - the same write() implementation is used
kernel-side for both devices so it doesn't matter which one you write to.
The seed that is saved at shutdown and reloaded at startup will alter the
internal state of the /dev/random pool, but it won't add to the entropy
estimate (which makes sense). This means that the output will be more robust,
but it could still block waiting for "real" entropy.
------
denrober
Prior two Edward Snowden's whistle blowing I think you could perceive the
maintainer as paranoid around leaving the project (see linked thread) however
now I think you can't discount what, if any, cooperation technology companies
have been providing to the NSA.
~~~
dfc
I am not sure I agree that before Snowden this could have been perceived as
paranoid. As part of the discussion on the crypto list Ben Laurie brings up an
important point:
_" But what's the argument for _not_ mixing their probably-not-backdoored RNG
with other entropy?"_[1]
Does your answer to this really change that much "pre-Snowden"?
[1]
[http://lists.randombit.net/pipermail/cryptography/2013-July/...](http://lists.randombit.net/pipermail/cryptography/2013-July/004745.html)
------
tptacek
So this is logic that more or less rules out all hardware encryption,
including HSMs, right?
~~~
vilda
No. In fact it's a matter of trust.
You can trust Skype that calls are encrypted and cannot be eavesdropped, you
can trust Verizon that your cellphone metadata are not passed to government
automatically, and you can trust Intel that their rnd is not backdoored.
Or you don't.
~~~
tptacek
Help me understand how someone who believes rdrand might be backdoored could
trust any HSM?
~~~
chiph
You can't, if you're that serious/paranoid about it.
It's possible that the HSM maker wasn't approached by the NSA and is secure,
but there are very few of them in the US so chances of the NSA having missed
one is very low. Plus, without a STM to inspect the silicon and reverse-
engineer it, how would you know?
So what if you buy one made outside the US? Say, China. Well, there's the
obvious possibility that the Chinese authorities have backdoored the silicon.
But my guess is that the Chinese maker just cloned one of the US vendors,
including the portions inserted by the NSA...
------
benmmurphy
this is my favourite conspiracy theory that the CPUs are backdoored. just
assign a bunch of registers with some special values and execute a specific
instruction and the CPU will drop all memory protection. take something like
google's NACL or a javascript JIT where you have enough control over the
registers and you have a permanent browser exploit.
~~~
marshray
The best backdoors are indistinguishable from dumb bugs when they're
discovered.
They'd looks something like Debian's OpenSSL. But I believe that was _not_ an
intentional backdoor.
------
tytso
There are several different ways in which randomness is used in the kernel.
One general class of randomness is things like randomizing the sequence
numbers and port numbers of new network connections. If you can predict the
result of this randomness, it becomes easier to carry out attacks such as
hijacking a TCP connection. (Note that if the active attacker controls the
path between the source and the destination, they'll be able to do this
regardless of the strength of the RNG; this makes just makes it easier if they
don't have 100% control of the routing.)
Another class of randomness is that which is used to randomize the layout of
shared libraries, stacks, etc. --- address space layout randomization (ALSR).
If someone is able to guess the randomness used by ASLR, then they will be
able to more easily exploit stack overrun attacks, since they won't need to
guess where the stack is, and where various bits of executable segments might
end up in the address space's layout.
Another case of randomness is to create crypto keys; either long-term keys
such as RSA/DSA keys, or symmetric session keys. If someone screws this up,
that's when the "bad guy" (in this case, people are worried about the NSA
being the bad guy) can get access to encrypted information.
It is only the first two use cases where we use RDRAND without doing any
further post-processing. These are cases where the failure of the RNG is not
catastrophic, and/or performance is extremely critical.
We do not use RDRAND without first mixing it with other bits of randomness
gather in the system for anything that is emitted via /dev/random or
/dev/urandom, because we know that this is used for session keys and for long-
term RSA/DSA keys.
The bigger problem, and it's one that we worry a huge amount about it, is the
embedded ARM use cases which do not have RDRAND, and for which there is
precious little randomness available when the system is first initialized ---
and oh, did I mention that this is when long-term secrets such as SSH and
x.509 keys tend to be generated in things like printers and embedded/mobile
devices and when they are first unwrapped and plugged in, when the amount of
entropy gathered by the entropy pool is usually close to zero? What we
desperately need to do is to require that all such devices have a hardware
random number generator --- but the problem is that there are product managers
who are trying to shave fractions of a penny off of the BOM cost, and those
folks are clueless about the difference between cost and value as far as high-
quality random number generators are concerned.
What if the RNG has been compromised by the NSA? Well, that's where you need
to mix in other sources of randomness into the entropy pool. The password used
by the user when he or she first logs into an android device, for example.
Screen digitizer input from the user while they are first going through the
setup process. In the case of a consumer grade wireless router, it could sniff
the network for a while and use packet inter-arrival times and mix that into
the entropy pool. Yes, someone who is on the home network at that time will
know those numbers, but hopefully someone who is in a position to spy on those
numbers, isn't also going to have access at the same time the super-secret NSA
key used to gimmick the RDRAND instruction (assuming that is gimmicked, which
is effectively impossible for us to prove or disprove.) But then again, your
wireless router isn't going to have access to unencrypted plaintext which is
critical --- if you're sending anything out your wireless network without
first encrypting it first, I would hope that you would consider it completely
bare and exposed!
If you are super paranoid, you'll need to find a hardware random generator
which you've built yourself --- and hopefully you are competent enough to
actually build a real HWRNG, and not something which is sampling 60 Hz hum (or
50 Hz hum if you are in Europe :-), and mix that into the entropy pool as
well. In that case, even if the Intel RDRAND is compromised six ways from
Sunday, the NSA won't have access to the output from the HWRNG --- and if it
turns out you were incompetent and your HWRNG is bogus, at least RDRAND is
also getting mixed into the entropy pool.
And if I were in China, I'd use a hardware chip built in China for the RNG,
and combine that with an Intel chip. That way even if the HWRNG chip is
compromised by the MSS, and even if RDRAND is compromised by the NSA, the
combination is hopefully stronger since presumably (hopefully!) it's unlikely
that the MSS and the NSA are collaborating with each other at that deep a
level. Ultimately, of course, if you don't trust Intel, you don't trust the
silicon fab, etc., then you'll have to build your own computer from scratch,
write your own compiler from scratch, etc.
(MIT CS undergrads used to have all of that knowledge, starting with building
a computer out of TTL chips and how to build a Scheme interpreter from machine
code, etc. But not any more, alas. Now they learn Python and it's assumed that
it's impossible to understand the entire software stack, let alone the entire
hardware stack, so you don't even try to teach it. But that's another
rant....)
~~~
gngeal
_If you are super paranoid, you 'll need to find a hardware random generator
which you've built yourself --- and hopefully you are competent enough to
actually build a real HWRNG, and not something which is sampling 60 Hz hum (or
50 Hz hum if you are in Europe :-), and mix that into the entropy pool as
well._
What do you propose as a low cost solution? I've seen some interesting
suggestions, such as having a small fish bowl or tube or tank, having air
pumped into the bottom, and sampling the patterns of bubbles with some CV
solution. Sounds geeky, would make for a nice decoration on one's table, but
building it seems like quite a job.
~~~
rational_indian
I think a zener diode based solution will suffice in a pinch
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noise_generator](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noise_generator)
~~~
gngeal
Hmm. Haven't thought of that. Comparatively simple, yet also compact at the
same time. Thanks, nice!
~~~
rational_indian
Solid state FTW! :)
------
DanBC
What's the suggested attack here?
That Intel is cooperating with the TLAs and providing a weak on-chip random
number generator? Or a random number generator that can be made to be weak? Or
what?
And how credible is the risk when that information is used to seed a pool of
entropy, rather than being used raw?
------
teawithcarl
A longer excerpt from the same email list:
[http://cryptome.org/2013/07/intel-bed-
nsa.htm](http://cryptome.org/2013/07/intel-bed-nsa.htm)
------
marshray
[https://lkml.org/lkml/2011/7/31/139](https://lkml.org/lkml/2011/7/31/139)
_Since there was a minor amount of confusion I want to clarify: RDRAND
architecturally has weaker security guarantees than the documented interface
for /dev/random, so we can't just replace all users of extract_entropy() with
RDRAND._
I still don't get it.
~~~
wtallis
What don't you get? RDRAND is an interface to a non-blocking PRNG backed by a
HWRNG. You can't directly get the output of the HWRNG. Intel uses the PRNG to
condition the output of the HWRNG, but it will still give you numbers if the
HWRNG is having trouble (HWRNG errors can be detected, but the RDRAND
instruction itself doesn't trap on HWRNG failures). If you trust Intel's PRNG
sufficiently, then you can use RDRAND directly for /dev/urandom, but it takes
a lot more trust to use it for /dev/random.
~~~
marshray
It's documented to have the potential to not return random data, so in that
sense it's blocking like Linux' /dev/random. Sample code shows some type of
polling loop IIRC.
------
cambecc
So... taking this line of reasoning to its logical conclusion, if you don't
trust RDRAND, then you should also not trust _any_ of the hardware the OS runs
on. I imagine there would be much easier ways for Intel to implement backdoors
to the system than through the non-deterministic random number generator.
------
pronoiac
What does it take to reverse engineer the silicon? I thought I'd seen an
project for automating it, but I can't find it.
~~~
nullc
Even reversing the silicon won't likely help— and, uhh. Reversing a state of
the art CPU is not do-at-home stuff.
The reason it won't help is that the design is _explicitly_ microcoded. E.g.
RDRAND triggers running loadable microcode which is supposed to read the real
RNG and AES it. Maybe there is an unrelated "bug" that allows that microcode
to be corrupted after some particular instruction sequence happens. All your
investigation would turn up everything looking like normal.
~~~
pronoiac
It looks like the microcode is _also_ encrypted. But perhaps _that encryption_
could be reverse engineered from silicon? The Silicon Zoo tutorial noted that
Pentium I-era chips were "easily viewable" [1], probably with optical
microscopes. So perhaps some parts of some newer Intel processors can be done
at home. So, the "plan of attack" (ha!):
* decap an Intel CPU and scan it
* decode the microcode encryption
* figure out how the hardware RNG works with the microcode (it's AES? ok.)
* and then analyzing the system of microcode and hardware for robustness and security.
Yeah, this is hand-wavey and probably _incredibly_ implausible. But it seems
like an interesting and challenging project or three.
[1] [http://siliconzoo.org/tutorial.html](http://siliconzoo.org/tutorial.html)
------
Qantourisc
Lame answer I know but: recompile kernel (or patch) out this crappy Intel HW
support then ? And IIRC the Linux pseudo random generator was quite good. The
only problem is exhausting the entropy pool.
~~~
__alexs
I believe you can add 'nordrand' to your boot flags to turn off the kernel's
usage of it.
------
bobbyi_settv
Further down the thread:
> Not to mention, Intel have been in bed with the NSA for the longest time.
> Secret areas on the chip, pop instructions, microcode and all that ...
What does "pop instructions" refer to here?
~~~
nitrogen
AIUI the story goes like this: for a long time NSA required all CPU vendors to
provide a "popcount" instruction (to count the number of one bits in a
register) for any hardware contract. NSA was buying a lot of Intel processors,
but Intel CPUs lacked a documented popcount instruction until very recently.
So, there was speculation that an undocumented opcode would function as a
popcount instruction in older Intel CPUs (perhaps after modifying the CPU
microcode), and from there people speculate that there may be other
undocumented instructions and CPU features. Or so the story goes.
------
jMyles
Wow. So not very?
------
ivanbrussik
ugh had no idea intel was built into the core
i distrust
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
This USB Drive Is Just Thicker than a Penny and Holds 2TB - mccooscoos
http://www.netbooknews.com/33811/2tb-usb-the-size-of-your-finger-nail/
======
MaysonL
And is almost certainly vaporware, at least as far as a 2TB version available
any time soon is concerned.
------
tobylane
SDXC cards can also go up to 2TB, you can only buy a 128GB now. These
headlines don't count.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Australia Powers Up the World’s Biggest Battery – Courtesy of Elon Musk - QAPereo
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/30/world/australia/elon-musk-south-australia-battery.html?module=WatchingPortal®ion=c-column-middle-span-region&pgType=Homepage&action=click&mediaId=thumb_square&state=standard&contentPlacement=2&version=internal&contentCollection=www.nytimes.com&contentId=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2017%2F11%2F30%2Fworld%2Faustralia%2Felon-musk-south-australia-battery.html&eventName=Watching-article-click
======
ColinWright
In case you're wondering why this isn't apparently getting any attention or
discussion, it has been submitted before, and the story has certainly been
discussed before:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14723853](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14723853)
(166 comments)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14715679](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14715679)
(76 comments)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15764449](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15764449)
(53 comments)
The first of those was nearly six months ago, the last just 9 days ago, so the
story is "live" and getting discussion.
You can see submissions of the story from other sources here:
[https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Australia%20Battery&sort=byDat...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Australia%20Battery&sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=story&storyText=false&prefix&page=0)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The car century was a mistake. It’s time to move on - ph0rque
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-theory/wp/2016/02/29/the-car-century-was-a-mistake-its-time-to-move-on/
======
ph0rque
_Good public transport coupled with fast, safe, pleasant walking and bicycling
can easily meet the need for movement within our cities._
Where would you place the boundary between car and bike? Would one of these be
allowed in the city center?
[http://organictransit.com/](http://organictransit.com/) What about several
generations later, when it's just as fast as a car?
~~~
dalke
It's not like this is a new question as e-bikes and electric golf carts have
been around for decades.
Here's the EU definition for pedal assistance, from
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_bicycle_laws#European...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_bicycle_laws#European_Union_definition)
:
"Cycles with pedal assistance which are equipped with an auxiliary electric
motor having a maximum continuous rated power of 0.25 kW, of which the output
is progressively reduced and finally cut off as the vehicle reaches a speed of
25 km/h (16 mph) or if the cyclist stops pedaling."
If it goes "just as fast as a car" then it requires a licensed driver, and it
is not permitted on the bicycle lanes any more than an electric motorcycle
would be.
The FAQ on the Organic Transit site points out that while it's a motor
assisted bicycle under federal laws, some states classify it as a moped or
motorized bicycle.
The boundaries for what counts as a "bike" will necessarily require an
arbitrary definition, just like the boundary between different classes of
moped and motorcycles. Here in Sweden, for example, a class 2 moped (the
smallest type) is designed for a top speed of 25 km/h, has an engine with
maximum 1.0 kW, and unless marked otherwise can go on bike lanes, while the
heavier class 1 moped (maximum speed of 45 km/h) requires a license and
registration plates.
The vehicle you pointed to can go 20 mph using the electric motor, so in
Sweden would be a type of moped.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Dell Closes $60B Merger with EMC - jonbaer
http://www.wsj.com/articles/dell-closes-60-billion-merger-with-emc-1473252540
======
chollida1
The new company services 98% of all fortune 500 companies. That's a pretty
incredible reach. And 140,000 employee's. If I were a betting main, I'd expect
that number to drop in the very near term.
Selfishly I'm very interested in following a private Dell,as tech tends to
lead to huge companies in monopoly/winner take all verticals. Dell being
private is a decent case study to see how well a private company does against
its public counterparts, specifically wrt short vs long term investment.
If you were wondering how the new company is doing post merger...
Moody's just upgraded Dell's credit rating from Ba2 to Ba1 following the
merger. They claim that even though the new entity has significant amounts of
debt and leverage, its overall credit profile has been upgraded.
The tracking stock, DVMT, that EMC owners were given has traded pretty well
since it was released, it's slightly up, so atleast people who want out of the
new entity have an easy avenue.
~~~
johansch
I'm just fascinated by the fact that in 2016 there are still huge companies
like this making their money on ancient tech that is insanely overpriced to
the alternatives.
(~20 years ago when I started working in software I thought I would eventually
get how these enterprise software giants actually were worth it. The more I
learn and age...)
In the end I guess what companies like Dell and EMC do is to provide access to
tech that otherwise (because of cultural reasons) is not available to non-tech
companies. But.. anyway, all of this seems like it's ripe for disruption.
~~~
2close4comfort
It is solid state will be the first place that EMC has faltered. And it has
NOTHING to offer. XtremIO doesn't count because it is going to be deprecated
soon and still is not a part of vBlock so its future is sketchy.
~~~
parasubvert
Eh? XtremIO is selling like bananas, they're like 40%+ of the all flash
market. (I don't work for EMC but I do work in the DellTech federation and
talk to people).
Thing is, much of that stuff is transitioning to software-defined storage
eventually. But that's what VSAN and ScaleIO are about.
------
internal_tools
The Dell-EMC merger itself is fascinating, but really stands above it is all
the other company's that EMC owns: VMWare, Spring, Pivotal, RSA Security, and
a whole stable of backup/recovery companies.
All of these have deep inroads in the enterprise and really makes working on
Dell-owned products opaque to the user. It's like Dell has become, or will
soon become, the Koch Industries of the computing world.
------
jasonjei
Dell tried to get into the cloud services market a long time ago, and didn't
succeed. VMware is a weird case too, especially with containerization and
cloud service vendors being cheaper to use than building your own cloud. If
Dell is trying to make their own cloud, I wonder if they'll succeed this time.
Some people have said that ship has sailed for them. Then again, a company
like Google has made a compelling competitor to AWS.
~~~
tracker1
My hope is they'll actually put some resources into bringing VMWare current,
and more open as an option, closer to how they were a few years back. ESXi is
still a pretty nice server, but running a local/free version instance has
become difficult with a few pitfalls if you do the wrong things somewhere...
You're all but stuck with windows-only mgt software instead of a web-
management interface.
I'd like to see dell go closer to the Redhat model when it comes to VMWare
after this closes out. Which would be a stark contrast to prior efforts. Also
of interest would be offering "private cloud" hardware/software options. Would
be very cool to have a turn-key solution for self-cloud hosting, and with
VMWare's work so far, they might be in a better position to actually integrate
docker as a solution than others, despite being different than their prior
efforts.
~~~
newman314
If you are running the latest versions of ESXi, you might be interested in
this.
[https://labs.vmware.com/flings/esxi-embedded-host-
client](https://labs.vmware.com/flings/esxi-embedded-host-client)
Without going into more detail, VMware recognizes that Flash is a dead end and
is working on converting things to HTML5. I'm fairly happy with the direction
they are heading towards from a UI standpoint although I still mostly do
things via CLI.
To your other points, you might want to check out Cloud Foundation.
Disclaimer: not a VMware employee, just a customer.
------
2trill2spill
I hope Dell does not screw up EMC Isilon, because Isilon is a big contributor
to the FreeBSD project and it would suck to lose their contributions. The link
below shows the over 3,000 commits they have made to the FreeBSD project over
the years.
[https://secure.freshbsd.org/search?project=freebsd&q=emc](https://secure.freshbsd.org/search?project=freebsd&q=emc)
~~~
afraidknot
Not quite on the same scale, but they do care -
[https://secure.freshbsd.org/search?project=freebsd&q=dell](https://secure.freshbsd.org/search?project=freebsd&q=dell)
------
walrus01
You, too, need a $200,000 SAN with software licensing costs, even if you don't
know it yet! Even if you're a small business that would be served well by two
machines with mdadm raid6 and Linux drbd.
------
89vision
Funny, I just got back from an interview with EMC. Would now be a good time to
take a position?
~~~
jdpedrie
My dad works for EMC, and he's fairly bullish on the whole situation.
~~~
xadhominemx
Why is that? Feels like AWS and Azure are bad for pretty much every aspect of
their business. Genuinely curious.
~~~
jdpedrie
There's a lot of companies that need or prefer on-prem or non-cloud offerings
for storage. EMC does really well in enterprise services, and likely will
continue to do well.
------
smartbit
Nice comment by Trevor Pott
[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/09/07/my_dell_merger_wish_...](http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/09/07/my_dell_merger_wish_list/)
> More precisely, they didn't understand their own irrelevance.
> EMC's brass – along with that of many other tech companies – believed in a
> sort of manifest destiny. Their corporate largesse and sheer market share
> meant that they could dictate terms to customers. They believed, seemingly
> honestly, that this would persist.
...
> To this end, my wish list for EMC II revolves around R&D. Dell: please let
> EMC II experiment. Let them try new things. Above all let them fail.
Archive link [http://archive.is/tYQy7](http://archive.is/tYQy7)
------
rosstex
This good be a great break for competitors like Pure Storage, Nimble, etc.
------
biztos
I know some really smart and _very_ ambitious people who went to work for EMC
over the last few years. Just as a wild guess, I bet there's huge money being
made there and very fat bonuses to the people who are seen as delivering it.
Hope the Delliverse works out for them.
~~~
loeg
Very modest bonus in the trenches. RSUs granted before October 2015 vest early
(today). You could buy a nice new car, but not a yacht. (I couldn't buy a
Model S with my buyout bump, for example, although I'm sure some others are
seeing bigger bonuses.)
------
shmerl
So Dell owns VMware now?
~~~
Mac2125
Yes, but keeping it as its own entity.
~~~
donretag
And VMWare owns SpringSource. So basically the Spring framework is owned by
Dell.
~~~
walterclifford
> And VMWare owns SpringSource
VMware hasn't owned SpringSource since Pivotal was created in 2013
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpringSource](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpringSource)
(i.e. "the Spring framework is owned by Dell" is still accurate, but not
through Dell owning VMware)
~~~
donretag
I was under the assumption that VMWare owned Pivotal after it was spun off. I
would assume at the least that VMware owns a large share.
~~~
parasubvert
Pivotal is mostly owned by Dell/EMC (60%), followed by VMware (22.5%), and the
balance by GE (10%), Ford (5%) and Microsoft (2.5%). The percentages are
educated guesses based on the original 70/30 split EMC-VMware.
The reason I think is that a lot of the of the revenue producing assets came
from EMC (Pivotal Labs and Greenplum), VMware had SpringSource & GemFire which
were decent revenue, but Cloud Foundry made no money until 2014+ (and now
accounts for a large chunk of revenue).
------
janeFondler
Is it going to help them make better computers?
------
unixhero
Whoa
------
oDot
Now that this is done they go on and make a ~1.3-1.5kg XPS 15 with a 4K screen
that lasts > 9 hours.
Please.
------
matthewhall
This took so long... they announced this in like 2013
~~~
parasubvert
more like October 2015: under a year.
------
ArkyBeagle
While I agree with the DOJ decision on the Halliburton-Baker Hughes acq. (
even though it may have cost me a job ( but probably not - they were headed
full-on Luddite well before ) ) it's really interesting that the same logic
does not apply when it's explicitly technology.
I wouldn't wish Dell on anyone - although they've done what's necessary to be
the leader.
------
throwthisaway00
Dell will fail because of a systemic problem of hiring poorly skilled and
educated engineers. An analogy to cancerous cells in the body multiplying and
spreading is not such a stretch. Dell needs a very invasive treatment to
eradicate gobs and gobs of worthless engineers and do-nothing mid-level
management.
~~~
jhall1468
Now that the merger is complete a purge is inevitable. Whether or not they get
rid of the correct employees remains to be seen.
~~~
signa11
> Whether or not they get rid of the correct employees remains to be seen
does that ever happen ?
~~~
benmcnelly
Depends on which employees you ask later ;-)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Virtual Reality applications and games, next big thing or another bust? - runewell
How does the HN crowd feel about the upcoming return of VR? Anyone here order an an Oculus Rift dev kit from Kickstarter like me? Anyone actually try the device out first-hand?
======
runewell
Some things you guys may find interesting.
Best Oculus Rift Reactions:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJo12Hz_BVI>
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uso6vxZ5O4c&list=UUFq6WCd...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uso6vxZ5O4c&list=UUFq6WCd0xcEVA-c7QNLrSgg)
Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation:
This tech is being discussed for use in VR because it stimulates nerves to
make your body feel like it's moving. Imagine that roller coaster feeling
while playing a flight simulator.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guaiDZdsDjI>
Sense of Smell
This tech was a little crazy before but people are discussing its possible
return if VR becomes popular.
<http://www.howstuffworks.com/internet-odor1.htm>
Interesting Projects in Development for the Oculus Rift:
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRHVJVgFF38>
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjtQwk7zg24>
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1O-n-4S0E2U>
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWRVGlwkAx4>
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7tm_T6-0-g>
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I-pGCpl2PE>
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JdjWhXrq68>
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCIRkfNES0Y&playnext=1&#...</a><p>Possible
Peripherals for Rift:<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSTge5IDxF4"
rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSTge5IDxF4</a><p><a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40L3SGmcPDQ"
rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40L3SGmcPDQ</a><p><a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d6KuiuteIA"
rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d6KuiuteIA</a><p><a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKLv8tyL2vU"
rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKLv8tyL2vU</a><p><a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBQhyqhuLxw"
rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBQhyqhuLxw</a><p><a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvxM-pC7K2U"
rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvxM-pC7K2U</a>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Am I too late with my startup idea? - Justen
My friend and I have been working on an idea that we believe has great potential. This was somewhat validated by hearing yesterday that a competitor is releasing their product at the end of the month which is very similar to ours. However, we've only been working on it for about 2 months and need maybe another 2-4 months to release.<p>One thing that's similar between both of our products is that users build up their profile with ranking/awards as they interact with the site, and since we're targeting the same group of users, we're worried that since we are going to be beat to the market, those users won't be interested in signing up with our product and building up their profile again.<p>What should we ask ourselves to see if we should abandon our project, or continue? Any other insight?
======
benologist
Continue. Your only competitor is "nobody cares you exist" and the same goes
for the other dudes. You'll both have beaten the odds if you reach the point
where people are actually choosing between your products.
------
dylanhassinger
Ignore the competition, it's just a distraction from finishing your product.
But that doesn't mean you don't need to pivot. For any startup, but especially
a community-driven site like this, you need a Custom Acquisition strategy.
Why will people sign up for your app? << That's a question you want to have
answered _before_ you start building. Then take that a step further, and start
building a waiting list of signups.
If that's not practical, maybe you need to downsize your idea/pivot. Marketing
is harder than building!
More here - <http://startupbook.net>
------
mikecane
This story might help:
[http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/07/15/vince-
gilli...](http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/07/15/vince-gilligan-on-
how-breaking-bad-almost-didn-t-happen.html)
------
vesky
I'm not a developer or a founder but I hope I can help.
My advice would be to look at the positive side of this. Watch carefully what
works and what doesn't work in your competitors product.
See what problems they face and fix them through your own service. That way,
when you release your product, even if it's a few months after, you're going
to have all the problems they have fixed.
Long story short, you could use their product as your own "alpha testing" so
you can make your own better than theirs. Hope it helps. Good luck!
------
alid
"The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but
goes on making his own business better all the time" - Henry Ford. I say stay
on your vision. There are a lot of variables in your competitors' execution
that could affect their traction. Execute well and focus on a kick-*ss value
proposition, nail your brand and price-point, and add a bit of emotional
design for good measure. You could then find that they fear you, not the other
way around. Best of luck!
------
cloanic
In the end I'd recommend having a great UI. That alone could be the difference
of either product "winning" so to speak.
------
OafTobark
Keep going. You won't attract 100% of the same users even if your MVP are
similar and the long term evolution of the product will change drastically
------
mtrimpe
Will you be able to stay ahead of the competition in the long run? Do you feel
that you have a longer term vision than them?
Our startup is in a very similar spot where around our launch date 5 other
competitors launched; now there are over 40.
Most of our competitors though are stuck in the niche that for us was just the
most obvious place to start. We're starting to expand to a much broader market
and have a multi-year roadmap of features and functionality to add; which
means that we're by no means out of the race yet.
In general, it's always a marathon. There are always others and there always
will be. The real question is if you will be able to last longer and get
farther than they will.
~~~
Justen
See that's the thing, I know what we eventually want to do after we release
and some of them are very large ideas to integrate which will take a lot of
time. I believe that our product idea is way better than anyone else's, but
the fact is this competitor hasn't really shown off what their product is
besides in a post outlying the general "obvious place to start" as you say.
There doesn't really exist a service that we have in mind currently, so it's
hard to not see it as a race. Especially if they release first, then a couple
months later, we release practically the same thing and then we start work on
what makes us different. But what's to stop them from copying our extended
features?
~~~
mtrimpe
It _is_ a race, but more of an unlimited time cross-country marathon.
Right now you're just two random people/teams showing up at the same starting
line. They have a bit of head start, but the chances that over the course of
months/years you'll be able to cover the same distance are virtually nil.
It's far more likely that either they'll be able to run circles around you or,
hopefully of course, that you'll be able to execute an order of magnitude
better than them.
Right now, there's absolutely no way of knowing which one it is. For all you
know they could have already exhausted their runway and the team might be
falling apart as we speak.
So for now don't worry too much and just focus on your ability to execute.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
An example of Docker multi-stage building with Golang - nodejs-news
https://github.com/itwars/Docker-multi-stage-build
======
nodejs-news
Any feedback ?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
An Idea for Good Procrastination - fluffster
I keep checking HN again and again throughout the day. And I don't get anything out of it. I would like to use my habit to do something useful.<p>I don't think this is the same as contributing to an open source project. I want to lower the barrier to entry and get over akrasia. The point is to use my distraction and habit of procrastination to do something fun and useful (even if it's for someone else).<p>So, do you have any small problems I can solve for you?<p>I am good at math and know Python, Ruby, Javascript, C, a bit of lisp and even VB (yes it's true).<p>Thanks.
======
mahmud
<http://savannah.gnu.org/people/?type_id=1>
<http://sourceforge.net/people/>
~~~
fluffster
Thanks mahmud. I should probably look into one of these but I was hoping to
work on small problems and for one person rather than a group.
------
v4us
We are procrastinating too :-) I think it is an information adiction.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Next browser 1.3.0: your Lisp daily driver - jmercouris
The Lisp browser you've dreamed of is finally here! Next 1.3.0 has enough features necessary to completely ditch Chrome and make Next your full time browser.<p>About Next:<p>Next is a keyboard-oriented, extensible web-browser designed for power users. It's fully configurable and extensible in Lisp. Hack your browser live while it runs!<p>New in this release:<p>In this release we have made strides in turning Next into a daily driver! We have implemented VI keybindings, ad-blocking, downloads, a Qt webengine port (blink renderer) text search, and more! To see the full list, please view the changelog here: https://github.com/atlas-engineer/next/blob/master/documents/CHANGELOG.org<p>Download:<p>https://next.atlas.engineer/download<p>Future work:<p>We plan to add an inspector/debugger, a package manager to share extensions, and more Lisp goodies.<p>If you would like to support Next and be a part of our project, please find our campaign for version 1.4.0: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/next-browser-v1-4-0#/<p>Thanks for your support :)!
======
zzo38computer
I looked at the changelog list for 1.4.0 (upcoming), and some of them I think
is good idea:
* Search across all tabs (if the user enters the command to search across all tabs)
* Jump to heading across all tabs (again, another command for this purpose, perhaps)
* Per tab isolation (proxies, Tor, and whatever other settings may be applicable to this)
* External editor
I also had my ownn ideas how to make up a better web browser program:
gopher://zzo38computer.org/0textfile/miscellaneous/web_browser
It might be necessary to write a new HTML parser and so on, to work some of
the stuff I mentioned
------
karmakaze
For some reason clicking the post title shows the post rather than
[https://github.com/atlas-engineer/next](https://github.com/atlas-
engineer/next)
------
vindarel
Previous thread:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20073072](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20073072)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Prosthetic Limbs, Controlled by Thought - clebio
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/21/technology/a-bionic-approach-to-prosthetics-controlled-by-thought.html
======
grej
Really fantastic work by the team at the Johns Hopkins APL. It's amazing to
see the struggles Mr. Baugh goes through, and then his reaction to having use
of arms again.
It's unfortunate that there's no way currently for him to have access to the
robotic arm unit outside the lab. I think it would benefit the team to learn
the how quickly people gain proficiency with the prosthetic limbs under a
constant use scenarios, which might better inform the design process.
Hopefully that will come soon.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Lucian Asks, Why Sports? (180 CE) - pepys
https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/sports-games/lucian-asks-why-sports
======
Stratoscope
The date may be off by a few hundred years, but isn't the essential message of
sports the same?
We must win, and they must lose. They are not us, and when we win, as we
surely will do, they will not share in our winnings. The glory is ours, for
defeating our foes.
That's true, isn't it? That's what I was taught in high school. How could that
other school's foolish imitation of a "sports" team ever compete with ours? We
are superior, and any challengers will be defeated in battle.
I didn't learn this very well. I was happy enough with my ham radios and
Teletype machines. Alas, I didn't get the girls like the jocks did. They were
the winners. I was just another nerd.
This was in 1969. Maybe it is different today.
~~~
buckthundaz
That is one reading. A more nuanced reading is found in the cliche: 'It's not
whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game.'
I believe that sports serve as a teacher of morality to the masculine aspect.
> "Everything I know about morality and the obligations of men, I owe it to
> football (soccer).”
― Albert Camus
------
pepys
The date for this one is an estimate based on Lucian's lifespan; looks like
the good people at Lapham's Quarterly were mistaken in attributing it to c.
590 Athens, seeing as how he wrote during the Roman Empire. He did set the
fictional dialogue in the Athens of that time though.
------
gadders
In case you were wondering who the protagonsists are:
Anacharsis:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anacharsis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anacharsis)
Solon:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solon)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Rails in the Cloud: AWS, Heroku, and Morph - jeggers5
http://www.digitalhobbit.com/2008/11/13/rails-in-the-cloud-aws-heroku-and-morph/
======
terrellm
FYI this article is from November 2008
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Why isn't there a "search" on HN? - terrykohla
======
gee_totes
Ironically not the first time this question has come up:
[https://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=why+isn%27...](https://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=why+isn%27t+there+a+search+on+HN)
------
uslic001
No footer if you have continuous scroll turned on.
~~~
jack-r-abbit
Can you point me to the HN setting that turns on continuous scroll? I can't
find it in my HN profile page.
------
roldenburger
Check the footer
------
greg7mdp
there is... at the bottom of the page.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Good license for public academic notes? - noobermin
I'm a physics graduate student at a large US university somewhere. I'm planning to post on the web publicly a number of examples and walk-throughs of textbooks (like working out equations in between the steps) just for my sake and for anyone's sake. What would be a good license for something like this?<p>I essentially want it to be open source-ish, in that anyone can copy, redistribute, modify, adapt, etc, it, but all I want is that they grant others the same rights and that I get attribution, in some form, as well as anyone who makes changes. What would be the best license for something that is in between creative and technical like this?
======
detaro
Creative commons BY-SA: [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-
sa/4.0/](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
What is category 19 of ITAR reserved for? - iaw
http://pmddtc.state.gov/regulations_laws/documents/official_itar/2012/ITAR_Part_121.pdf
======
runlevel1
Category XIX is a placeholder for a proposed rule to clarify what constitutes
a "gas turbine engine" for export control purposes.
It's primarily intended to alleviate blanket restrictions on components that
don't really warrant regulation under the Arms Export Control Act.
From "FR Doc No: 2011-30977"[1] (slightly altered for readability):
This proposed rule establishes USML Category XIX to cover gas turbine engines and associated equipment currently covered in Categories VI, VII, and VIII.
The USML identifies engine subcategories in all three of these categories, but there has been confusion concerning the controls in:
- Category VI: currently lists only "naval nuclear propulsion plants"
- Category VII: controls both diesel and gas turbine engines under the same general term "engines"
- Category VIII: controls "military aircraft engines" but not reciprocating engines.
[1]:
[http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-12-06/html/2011-30977.h...](http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-12-06/html/2011-30977.htm)
~~~
iaw
Thank you, much less exciting than I was hoping for but I'd been trying to
figure that out for quite some time.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Move off the venerable Newtonsoft.Json library and move to System.Text.Json - nilsandrey
https://www.hanselman.com/blog/UpdatingMyASPNETPodcastSiteToSystemTextJsonFromNewtonsoftJson.aspx
======
tomashubelbauer
Worth reading the comments on this one. People don't seem to have such an easy
time switching, because a lot of basic functionality is missing or behaves
slightly differently.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Future of Digital Products is in Storytelling - dmadray
https://medium.com/design-of-a-technology-business/21e841927513
======
fishk
Great read on storytelling. One point I'd be interested on your thoughts is
how data drives the story. How do you know you're telling the right story?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Implementing a trustless security with hardware wallets and multisignature - nvk
https://medium.com/@Ledger/implementing-a-trustless-security-solution-with-hardware-wallets-and-multisignature-8f50732c6f4c
======
nvk
\- Here is a link to a guide on setting it up
[http://blog.coinkite.com/post/116127008376/](http://blog.coinkite.com/post/116127008376/)
\- More information about the multisig setup
[http://blog.coinkite.com/post/102291566521/](http://blog.coinkite.com/post/102291566521/)
\- And some info about the multisig/co-sign API
[http://blog.coinkite.com/post/103555747636/](http://blog.coinkite.com/post/103555747636/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A unifying approach for controlling flying robotic insects - dnetesn
https://techxplore.com/news/2019-11-approach-robotic-insects.html
======
sixplusone
>[...] for insect-scale micro air vehicles (FWMAVs)
uh, "Insect-Scale" == 'FW'? WTF.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Behind the Lion Air Crash, a Trail of Decisions Kept Pilots in the Dark - simonbr
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/03/world/asia/lion-air-plane-crash-pilots.html
======
del82
Based only on what I read in this article, I can kind of see Boeing's point?
From what I understand, the procedure/checklist for an uncommanded nose down
didn't change from the old to the new version, even with the addition of MCAS.
So from the Pilot's perspective, there is nothing that they should do
differently in the new vs. the older 737s when this happens-- follow the
checklist, which will (eventually) cause you to flip the Stabilizer Trim
Cutout Switches, and that will fix the problem.
So the interface didn't change, and the procedure's the same. Should Boeing
and airlines update training every time they change something "under the
hood", even when the procedure for pilots is the same? How about when they
make software updates to already-flying models?
~~~
rocqua
One interface change was the effect of 'pulling hard back on the stick' in
case of runaway stabilizers. That worked with the old system, but not with
MCAS.
This seems to be exactly the interface change that lead to the crash.
~~~
CydeWeys
To use a car analogy ...
You can always override cruise control by stomping hard on the brake (like to
avoid an imminent crash). That's how it's always worked and you've gotten used
to this, and done it on occasion when warranted.
Now imagine that the next generation of adaptive cruise-control/"auto-
pilot"/whatever comes out, and stomping on the brakes no longer does anything.
You have to first disable the cruise control by pressing a button on the
steering wheel, and only then will inputs to the brake pedal do anything.
And then you don't tell drivers about this change.
You can totally see how, right in the lead-up to a fatal accident, a driver is
going to be focused solely on stomping on that brake pedal in increasing
panic, wondering right up to the moment of death why that's not doing
anything. They won't consider the cruise control off button because it's not
their most immediate need (braking is), and they've never needed to use it
before.
~~~
twtw
I do not think this is a good analogy.
Firstly, there is no single equivalent to "slamming on the brakes" for
uncommanded nose-down. This could be caused by a variety of faults, and pilots
are trained to respond in a fashion that will be effective for even those in
which the first thing to try doesn't work. There is a standard procedure in
place to use in this type of situation - arguing that the pilots should only
be expected to do one thing with increasing desperation is essentially arguing
that they will not be able to respond to a whole host of emergencies causing
uncommanded nose-down.
Second,
> Information from the flight data recorder shows that the plane’s nose was
> pitched down more than two dozen times during the brief flight, resisting
> efforts by the pilots to keep it flying level ... _The standard checklist
> for dealing with that sort of emergency on the previous version of the 737
> focuses on flipping the stabilizer trim cutout switches and using the manual
> wheels to adjust the stabilizers._ [emph mine]
your argument essentially hinges on the assumption that pulling hard back on
the stick is a sufficient solution for all the problems that may happen with a
plane with the exception of a fault with MCAS (the new system). I don't think
that is accurate. Even prior to the the 737 max! It sounds there were a lot of
things that would require further action that pulling back on the stick.
~~~
callmeal
>Firstly, there is no single equivalent to "slamming on the brakes" for
uncommanded nose-down.
Actually in the "old" version, there is.
From TFA:
Older 737s had another way of addressing certain problems with the
stabilizers: Pulling back on the yoke, or control column, one of which sits
immediately in front of both the captain and the first officer, would cut off
electronic control of the stabilizers, allowing the pilots to control them
manually.
Which makes the car analogy apt.
~~~
loeg
Drivers aren't trained to follow checklists and usually don't have dozens of
seconds to respond to mechanical emergencies. Cars also don't fall out of the
sky if they break down. It's not a great metaphor.
~~~
twtw
> have dozens of seconds to respond
12 minutes, in this case.
~~~
loeg
Yeah, I figured it's usually many minutes but didn't want to underplay the
stress and difficulty of following a checklist in an extreme emergency. In
contrast, car major mechanical failures generally resolve themselves extremely
quickly.
------
fabian2k
> In designing the 737 Max, Boeing decided to feed M.C.A.S. with data from
> only one of the two angle of attack sensors at a time, depending on which of
> two, redundant flight control computers — one on the captain’s side, one on
> the first officer’s side — happened to be active on that flight.
The one thing that seriously surprised me was that an automated system that is
able to point the airplane towards the ground is intentionally fed by a
single, non-redundant sensor.
Everything else I've read about various safety systems that limit or override
the pilot has explanations about how redundant sensors are used. And how the
system does switch itself off in case the sensors don't give consistent
results.
~~~
rocqua
There is one more technical surprise in this article for me. Pulling hard back
on the control collumn would override the stabilizer runaway in old versions,
but not MCAS. That is a major interface difference between the old and new
planes.
It sounds like the old flight manual stated one of two possible methods for
dealing with runaway stabilizers. Because the second method (hard back on the
control) wasn't in the manual, changes to that way weren't taken into account.
Hence a non backwards compatible change slipped through.
~~~
BlackFly
From the Semver perspective, change to an undocumented (and therefore not
public) feature is not a major change. The point is that their safety
documentation doesn't change from one system to the next.
Anyone who was "doing it by the book" was not pulling up on the stick.
Now, maybe Boeing was suggesting via side channels that there were alternate
ways to solve certain problems and those side channels should qualify as
public documentation... but it may have been intuition earned through
experience overriding standard procedure.
~~~
kelnos
That ignores the fact that people will rely on undocumented behavior anyway,
and a responsible developer should keep that in mind.
With a normal software library, you might make the decision to cause breakage
anyway, even if it inconveniences users of your library. Or you might not,
because you believe the inconvenience will be too great, and instead just
document the behavior and make it a part of the API.
With an airliner control system, you need to be a bit more careful, since a
pilot depending on undocumented behavior may do so in a way that could cost
lives if that behavior is changed. Is the pilot _correct_ to depend on that
behavior? No. But that's irrelevant when lives are at stake.
------
danielvf
Here's a video from a few years ago of two student pilots handling a trim
runaway in a 737 simulator.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pPRuFHR1co&t=154](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pPRuFHR1co&t=154)
You'll notice that it's a loud, physical event, with a very simple solution.
This happened over twenty times in the accident flight, and the pilots never
disabled the problematic automatic stabilizer system.
~~~
robocat
This is a great video showing the UI - it makes what is going on much clearer!
------
Someone1234
Makes one wonder if the FAA is too close to Boeing. Not only did they green
light this but they also put considerable pressure on EASA to do the same. The
FAA's first priority should be safety, not Boeing's bottom line or their
ability to more quickly deploy an aircraft update.
Pilots are pretty unhappy about this M.C.A.S. situation. They're literally
expected to fly an aircraft, and not even being told how that aircraft
functions. And while the checklist may eventually take care of this, that
isn't a substitute for a professional pilot in the cockpit. Just the lack of
training/simulated failures for this new system is highly irregular, pilots
are used to and expect such training while transitioning to a new major
aircraft version.
The biggest drivers here seem to be cost and Boeing's competitiveness, not
safety. I think it might be time for the EASA to trust the FAA a little less,
at least until they get their house back in order.
~~~
PedroBatista
The revolving door between FAA and cushy positions at Boeing is not a secret.
The shortcuts Boeing has been making with the blessing ( or willful omission
of the FAA ) have been discussed but with many interests in the middle, like
strong competition from Airbus, geopolitics, internal politics, States
outbidding each other to create more jobs, national ego, and straight up
greed.
"Word on the street", is that Boeing has lost most their safety reputation and
most people just do their job and try to not get burned when the planes start
to crash. I want to believe most are just blowing of steam, but I don't know..
~~~
dingaling
The 737 models of two generations ago ( 300 / 400 / 500 ) had several fatal
accidents in the 1990s due to runaway rudders. That dented Boeing's reputation
with users but not with the FAA.
------
danielvf
There's something called the "Swiss Cheese Theory" of accidents.
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_cheese_model](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_cheese_model))
In a mostly-robust system, different layers catch and defend against the
errors of other layers in the system. For a major accident to occur, holes in
multiple layers have to line up that day.
In this case we have four holes that lined up that day - a plane model with a
possible rare software bug, an aircraft with a faulty sensor feeding bad
information to the computers, an airline company with internal culture that
continues to fly a specific aircraft that keeps trying to point at the ground,
sometimes without even making an attempt at fixing the problem, and finally,
on this fatal day, a crew that did not follow the proper procedures even after
twenty-three nose down incidents during the flight.
Even without the MACS system present, the last two holes seem like they would
bring down an airliner eventually, from one cause or another.
Pilots are rightfully mad about not being told about the MACS system. But it's
just one of many systems on a 737 that can trim the stabilizer to point that
it can't be flow. That's why the procedure for any stabilizer problem is to
disable automatic control of the stabilizer. The training and checklists that
the accident pilots had covered this, and previous pilots flying the accident
aircraft did this and then had uneventful flights.
~~~
FabHK
Still, to have a system on board that, with _one_ sensor malfunctioning,
repeatedly trims you down (unless you switch the cutout switch or physically
arrest the trim-wheel), is pretty tough.
By the way - in small airplanes, you can overcome trim with elevator pressure.
That's not necessarily the case on a passenger jet; and not only because it's
much bigger, but because the trim works differently [1]. I wonder whether that
played a role. I must admit that before I read [1], I had assumed that bad
trim is something I can overpower, when push comes to shove.
[1]
[https://www.skybrary.aero/bookshelf/books/2627.pdf](https://www.skybrary.aero/bookshelf/books/2627.pdf)
~~~
danielvf
Yeah, when the trim is a giant screw changing the angle of the whole
stabilizer, rather than just a little tab, it's a whole different ballgame.
There are plenty of single components on an airliner whose failure can cause a
stabilizer trim runaway. Different airliners handle it differently. On a 737
can you can cut out automatic control, and use wheels connected to the
stabilizer jackscrew with metal cables. On other airliners, you can cut out
automatic control, then switch second electric control system and use it
manually. A 737 stabilizer runway isn't an instant thing, and is a loud event
in the cockpit.
------
eternalny1
Boeing should face some major fines for this, and additional regulation is
going to be needed to make sure this doesn't happen in the future.
This all seems to come down to the fact they wanted to avoid having to retrain
pilots ($$$), so these automation changes were kept in the dark.
The crew before them dealt with this same problem but they successfully cut
out the trim system. They got lucky and they should have been more vocal in
expressing the fault outside of just a post-flight note about it.
The fact that the 737 can auto-trim itself beyond manual elevator authority,
due to a SINGLE faulty AOA sensor, is mind-boggling and scary.
~~~
extrapickles
From what I can tell, the previous crew did not get lucky, they just followed
the checklist which would have solved the issue in this case.
Auto-trim beyond the elevator authority is not a problem as the pilots can
take manual control of the trim by grabbing the trim wheel (its in a very
obvious spot on the 737).
The actual fix is hard as adding another alarm can get tricky from a UX
perspective during an emergency. Probably the only “fix” is to reinforce the
value of following the checklist.
~~~
kelnos
There already _is_ another alarm: an optional "angle-of-attack disagree"
indicator that Lion Air was apparently too cheap to install.
Now, that wouldn't have _directly_ pointed to what was wrong, but it would
have been pretty suggestive.
(I would suggest, though, that having an optional configuration that lacks
robustness for a system that can automatically point the plane toward the
ground... a really poor choice of options.)
------
cmurf
Actual example: Normal takeoff in instrument meteorological conditions (no
external visual references, flight by reference exclusive to instruments). The
attitude indicator shows proper climb attitude, vertical speed and altimeter
show positive rate of climb, airspeed indicator shows speed increasing above
target speed. Pilot response? Probably nose up and/or power reduction; OK they
do both. Airspeed indication continues to increase. Pilot noses up and powers
down. Airspeed increases. Pilot noses up aggressively. Stall. Crash.
What happened? The pitot tube and drain were clogged. Static port was clear.
This turned the airspeed indicator into an altimeter - it was incapable of
showing correct airspeed from the moment of blockage.
The cause of the crash is pilot error. The pilot is expected to recognize from
other instruments that the airspeed indicator is unreliable, and this is part
of training for instrument rating.
If the MCAS in the Lion Air crash made a similar mistake - using a single data
point to determine a stall condition. That is an error. It's functionally
"pilot error" to have no means of determining if the angle of attack sensor is
wrong, and no mechanism for disregarding its data. Further, the corrective
action it took, had the flight condition actually been true, sounds excessive.
If a human pilot did the exact same thing MCAS did, I expect the human would
be blamed - it would be pilot error to so aggressively nose down that you've
exchanged a level flight high speed stall (a rare event indeed) for a high
speed dive. That is not a competent recovery, in particular that there's
apparently no recognition of the danger of high speed dives let alone recovery
from them it's probably a really good idea if your stall recovery does not
ensue in a dive!
------
coldcode
If it affects flight stability especially in an emergency, then pilots should
be trained to understand what it affects. Period. Not doing so to save money
or get more sales is beyond stupid. Watch Air Disasters to see what happens
when highly trained pilots fail to do the right thing because they hadn't
trained to deal with what went wrong because the problem was something
different than what they knew. Flying is easy when things are working, pilot
training is the difference between dealing with an emergency or being dead.
------
Animats
From the article: _" In designing the 737 Max, Boeing decided to feed M.C.A.S.
with data from only one of the two angle of attack sensors at a time,
depending on which of two, redundant flight control computers — one on the
captain’s side, one on the first officer’s side — happened to be active on
that flight."_
They created a single point of failure that way. Why?
~~~
danielvf
By having each redundant flight computer hooked to completely different
sensors, in case of a bad sensor the crew can bypass not only the sensor, but
also any computation done with that sensor.
It's not a single point of failure as we think if it - if it starts acting up,
you can easily disable the automatic stabilizer system, per the procedures.
737 stabilizer runaways take several seconds to take effect, and are
recoverable afterword. Later you can switch flight computers and then be using
clean data, though you are supposed to leave the stabilizer system off for the
remainder of the flight.
~~~
Animats
Using only one sensor at a time, there's no "sensors disagree" fault to tell
the pilot there's a problem. Or to tell the flight control system it shouldn't
be taking drastic action based on that sensor.
Airbus uses three angle of attack sensors and compares them. They've had at
least one crash when two sensors failed in a consistent way.[1] The
vulnerability of aircraft flight control systems to bad AOA data is well
known.
[1] [https://news.aviation-safety.net/2010/09/17/report-
blocked-a...](https://news.aviation-safety.net/2010/09/17/report-blocked-aoa-
sensors-caused-loss-of-control-during-a320-check-flight/)
~~~
kirykl
There wasn't a "sensors disagree" alert in the Lion Air plane because they
didn't have installed the optional AOA Disagree indicator.
As comparison, Southwest had the indicator but has now also installed an
enhanced AOA Disagree indicator as a result of the Lion incident
[https://theaircurrent.com/aviation-safety/southwest-
airlines...](https://theaircurrent.com/aviation-safety/southwest-airlines-is-
adding-new-angle-of-attack-indicators-to-its-737-max-fleet/)
~~~
Animats
That's not a feature which should be a extra cost option.
------
dsego
Mentour Pilot did a youtube podcast about this air crash back in November.
[https://youtu.be/zfQW0upkVus](https://youtu.be/zfQW0upkVus)
------
hlandau
When we first heard this crash was due to a change in computer-controlled
stabilizer behaviour, my question was "why on earth did Boeing do this?".
Perhaps I didn't read deep enough, but the summary explanation that it was to
improve handling was a poor answer.
I guess what really bugged me about it is how un-Boeing-like this behaviour
was; a computer overriding a pilot (even if there is a way for a pilot to
override it in turn). It's fundamentally an Airbus-esque design.
As I read this article though, everything fell into place. As you read it you
start to see, with utter clarity, exactly how this happened organizationally.
It's well known that Airbus uses software flight envelope protection to enable
them to reduce the safety margin applied to the airframe, reducing weight. In
other words, fuel efficiency is improved by making airframes less airworthy
and compensating for it in software. I don't actually disagree with this as
such; it's been demonstrated to be a sound approach, but historically Airbus's
domain.
Essentially, it seems like what happened here is that Boeing finally felt the
need to adopt similar techniques to compete with Airbus on fuel efficiency
(though regarding engine size issues, not airframe safety margins, but still
making a plane's airworthiness more caveated and fixing it in software).
Essentially, we're witnessing the point at which Boeing feels its traditional
user interface philosophy (do what the pilot says) is conflicting with market
pressures.
If this were a new plane with a new type rating, this wouldn't be
unreasonable. Trying to tack this on to an existing plane, and not only that,
but doing everything in your power to minimise the amount of transition
training, is OTOH extraordinarily egregious.
The problem with this change isn't so much that Boeing's reasoning for not
telling pilots about it isn't logical. If anything, the problem is that their
reasoning _is_ utterly logical: the checklist will solve the problem anyway,
no matter the cause. You can see how this decision must have percolated
through different teams at Boeing, through regulators, via this unimpeachable-
seeming logic. The market pressures involved (fuel efficiency and retraining
costs) would have made it particularly hard to contest. It's a completely
logical line of reasoning... yet here we are with fatalities.
I'm very interested to note, though, this new revelation (to me at least) that
the yoke behaviour re: extreme deflection mitigating stabilizer runaway was
removed in the MAX. So what was Boeing's justification for _this_ change? Was
it even mentioned? If not, what on earth were the regulator's justifications
for allowing it to go unmentioned? I want to hear those justifications, since
it seems impossible to justify. I was under the impression that compatibility
of type ratings fundamentally revolved around an absence of differences in how
two planes handle, and how they respond to the yoke.
I should add, the reliance on a single sensor is also remarkable; makes me
wonder if this entire subsystem was really rushed and not given proper design
review, which would make sense given the circumstances (panicking to get a
product to market).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Can I write all my doco using markdown? - DamonOehlman
OK. I'm tired of having to use Word, Pages, whatever the word processor is when it just seems to get in the way of getting words and information down.<p>I coding and website land I have pretty much transitioned to using markdown everywhere thanks to (joDoc and Jekyll, Django's markdown support is helpful too), but when it comes to writing doco for clients it's back to word processors.<p>How can I be free from this enslavement to GUI tools and use markdown and <insert your favorite text editor here, so as not to spark debate> to author these docs?
======
chrishorsley
Here's an experiment we are running here for our technical documents.
We have an Etherpad server (<http://etherpad.org/>) we heavily use, and we've
used it to write some of our technical docs in Markdown. We use other pads to
define HTML templates. Then, we have simple web app which merges a chosen HTML
template with the Markdown content, which lets the user preview the rendered
results before saving the final HTML output.
Advantages: you get all Etherpad's realtime collaboration goodness, automatic
version control and revision history, the HTML templates can be edited simply
(and restricted to editing by certain users), it's pretty quick to pick up.
Disadvantages: Etherpad is primarily text based so you're SOL if you need
diagrams etc, slight complexity of the parts (templates, content, web app) to
make it run.
~~~
DamonOehlman
Sounds like a pretty nifty way of doing things, I might try running up an
etherpad server at some stage and going down a similar track.
I'm setting something up at a shell level using Jekyll
(<http://jekyllrb.com/>). Won't have the collaboration goodness, but I guess
it could be transitioned over to Etherpad at a later date.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Nuxt's $2M Seed Round - rmason
https://nuxtjs.org/blog/seed-round
======
rmason
Further proof that even the large VC firms won't put somebody on a plane to
Paris or Detroit. Even for something as huge as Nuxt.
If you're not willing to travel to the Valley it's really like you don't
exist. I've been using Nuxt for some time and I am really impressed with it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Namecheap.com emergency maintenance - medmunds
http://status.namecheap.com/archives/27188
======
davb
I've been planning to diversify my domain registrars recently, and have seen
plenty of discussions on HN comparing the alternatives. While I'm looking at
possibly splitting registrations across other registrars, I'm more interested
in alternative NS providers.
Namecheap's API isn't exactly welcoming (contact support to enable, XML-only
with no official libraries). Additionally, their web interface is terribly
slow (accessing from UK).
Does anyone _not_ use their registrar's DNS services for small deployments?
Especially looking at how other people manage lots of small project sites,
none of which are big enough to necessitate a dedicated NS and the associated
management overhead.
~~~
medmunds
I used AWS Route53 at a previous employer where the domains were stuck at a
different registrar, and thought it worked well.
FWIW, though, we've been using Namecheap on side projects for years, and had
generally positive experiences. (In particular, their chat support has always
been responsive and empowered to help without bouncing you around the
organization -- which I wouldn't necessarily expect from a company with
"cheap" in its name.) Assuming they're transparent about this issue, I won't
be rushing to leave them.
------
leejoramo
Look like they have now been offline for over 13 hours.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Building a resolution-independent iOS 8 app - ckoglmeier
http://craftsy.me/1smzoYO
======
ckoglmeier
Hey all, OP here.
We've noticed a number of posts (on HN and elsewhere) from iOS developers
concerned about iOS8 - and more specifically the new iPhone screen sizes and
their impact on the asset creation/delivery/storage problem.
This is our solution from @Craftsy. It's been working great for us for months
now and has lots of benefits beyond not breaking on new screen
sizes/resolutions. We'd love to hear from other teams who are doing it
similar/differently/better. This is definitely not perfect but as we said in
the post, solves a lot of the potential problems.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Carl Malamud’s Lawsuit-Fighting Kickstarter to Put Public Standards Online - tmoretti
http://nextcity.org/sharedcity/entry/carl-malamuds-lawsuit-fighting-kickstarter-campaign-to-put-public-standards
======
thinkcomp
The docket for the lawsuit Carl is fighting can be found here:
[http://www.plainsite.org/flashlight/case.html?id=2506677](http://www.plainsite.org/flashlight/case.html?id=2506677)
Appropriately, PlainSite uses a lot of materials that Carl helped make
possible (including Aaron Swartz's initial PACER data dump, which he still
hosts).
------
sfall
I am really torn on this lawsuit. I work with NFPA standards. Currently many
standards are available online for free on the nfpa website.
The issue with this being a completely free publication is how would we
maintain the development? The people who sit on the committees already
volunteer their time.
NFPA still has to maintain the documents, handle grant application, research,
publications, free resources (like fire safety month). Would they be able to
solicit enough donations to handle even their core duties. Large companies
could handle it but how many copies are sold to firms that would prefer not to
spend anything on it?
~~~
r0h1n
It would be great if you could add some context for readers who don't know
about NFPA, or about how the US standards system currently works. Otherwise
I'm (from India) having a hard time trying to figure out why public works
standards would ever need to be monetized/paywalled/copyrighted?
~~~
reginaldjcooper
Starting halfway through the article:
"To the SDOs [standards development organizations], the system works rather
well. They take on the burden of developing standards, an obligation that in
many other countries falls on government. They convene experts and build
systems for collating and distributing these standards. They even offer
limited free access... [Malamud] argues, the effect of these standards is felt
on the ground each and every day, as well as in the pocketbooks of local
governments. In a video posted by Malamud, the head building inspector for
Sonoma County, Calif. testifies that the country spends about $30,000 during a
code cycle buying copies of building code for staff."
Everything the government uses as a standard should be _freely_ available to
the public in a machine readable format. By selling standards to the
government I assert the SDO's should be required to forfeit their copyright.
But that will never happen; it's the same bullshit as with PACER and court
documents, some asshole has found a way to rent-seek on publicly owned IP and
the system allows it because few people care out loud.
~~~
briancpotter
In fact, court rulings have upheld that once a standard becomes a law, the
SDOs DO forfeit their copyright. "The law can't be copyrighted" has legal
precedent dating back to the 1800's, and was most recently upheld
(specifically with respect to building codes) in the vase of Veeck vs. SBCCI:
[http://www.studentweb.law.ttu.edu/cochran/Cases%20&%20Readin...](http://www.studentweb.law.ttu.edu/cochran/Cases%20&%20Readings/Copyright-
UNT/veeck.htm)
That's why Malamud hasn't been sued by the ICC, even though he makes their
primary publications (The International Building Code, which every state uses
some flavor of) freely available.
------
ChuckMcM
This stuff is well worth supporting. It annoys the heck out of me when IEEE
and ANSI hold standards hostage.
------
Fuxy
He's setting himself up for failure everybody agrees with the fact that all
public standards should be available on the internet however very few people
are willing to pay for that to happen.
We kind of think it's the government's duty to release and make public on the
internet as well as everywhere else these standards without us having to spend
our hard earned money on it.
That's what we pay taxes for.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
China Bitcoin Roundtable Votes for SegWit2x and New York Agreement - jonsouth
http://bitsonline.com/china-bitcoin-roundtable-segwit2x/
======
TalonTech
So they are moving forward and trying to stay compatible. That might make
Bitcoin even more expensive.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Raspberry Pi Microwave - zw123456
http://madebynathan.com/2013/07/10/raspberry-pi-powered-microwave/
======
jloughry
You have an interesting approach: more or less a wrapper function around the
original API^h^h^hUI. It has the advantage of preserving the—presumably
verified, and maybe even certified—safety protocols.
This technique might have application in the healthcare field. We have already
seen evidence [1] of diagnostic or therapeutic equipment going unpatched for
years because the manufacturer disallows configuration changes after FDA
certification for fear of triggering a recertification event. Besides adding
convenience features, it might also be suitable for retrofitting safety
features to existing, irreplaceable, but hazardous equipment [2].
A similar approach was used to control a toy _Big Trak_ in BYTE years ago [3].
———
[1] David Talbot. 'Computer Viruses are "Rampant" on medical Devices in
Hospitals'. Technology Review, 17th October 2012. URL:
[http://www.technologyreview.com/news/429616/computer-
viruses...](http://www.technologyreview.com/news/429616/computer-viruses-are-
rampant-on-medical-devices-in-hospitals/)
[2]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therac-25](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therac-25)
[3] [http://archive.org/stream/byte-
magazine-1981-02/1981_02_BYTE...](http://archive.org/stream/byte-
magazine-1981-02/1981_02_BYTE_06-02_The_Computer_and_Voice_Synthesis#page/n45/mode/2up)
------
skeoh
Previous discussion here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6025221](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6025221)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
After 20M Downloads On Android, Japan’s Bitcellar Brings FxCamera To iOS - tarof
http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/26/bitcellar-fxcamera/
======
shao1555
coolest camera app!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Sheryl Sandberg’s New Job Is to Fix Facebook’s Reputation and Her Own - aaronbrethorst
https://www.wsj.com/articles/sheryl-sandberg-leans-into-a-gale-of-bad-news-at-facebook-1536085230
======
UpshotKnothole
Even if Facebook actually wanted to change, intended to change and put time,
money, and talent to the task this would still be a serious uphill climb. The
idea that anyone could rehabilitate their image when they have no such
commitment is laughable. Does anyone seriously think what this really isn’t
just crisis mangement? Every quarter that FB can stave off inevitable backlash
and regulation is money in their pocket, even if it’s only a decaying orbit.
Like the tobacco industry in its day, delay delay delay because thst delay is
profitable. If you can’t make your product “healthy” without throwing out your
product, this is how you act.
~~~
jliptzin
Facebook is the cigarette of our generation
~~~
mehrdadn
Really? Besides "feeling good" (I assume?), I would be hard pressed to think
of a single beneficial thing about cigarette. Facebook certainly has more
productive uses than just making you feel good... the question is whether
they're worth the downsides.
~~~
waterhouse
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotine#Uses](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotine#Uses)
"Enhancing performance: Nicotine is frequently used for its performance-
enhancing effects on cognition, alertness, and focus.[38] A meta-analysis of
41 double-blind, placebo-controlled studies concluded that nicotine or smoking
had significant positive effects on aspects of fine motor abilities, alerting
and orienting attention, and episodic and working memory.[39] A 2015 review
noted that stimulation of the α4β2 nicotinic receptor is responsible for
certain improvements in attentional performance;[40] ..."
Not that this is how most people use it (esp. because those who do smoke are
likely not allowed to do so inside an office building, meaning they couldn't
be e.g. programming at their multi-monitor desk while doing it; seems the
half-life of nicotine in the body is 1-2 hours, so perhaps it could be net-
beneficial to go outside briefly); nor that it couldn't be done via skin
patches or other delivery mechanisms.
~~~
sebleon
Very interesting - the few times I've had a cigarette, I've definitely noticed
a sense of clarity in thinking and alertness. For non-smokers, showers seem to
be one of the rare times where one is left alone with ones thoughts to
explore, while cigarette smokers may experience this with every smoking break.
~~~
gaius
Yes, I’ve never smoked cigarettes but I’ve always envied the way smokers could
always just take a few minutes to gather their thoughts whenever they wanted.
And smoking as a social activity cuts out all class and other boundaries.
------
ilovecaching
To those of you saying Facebook provides no value, here are some concrete
examples:
\- In countries where fraud is rampant and people try to sell basic goods on
messaging platforms, marketplace allows small business owners and tradesmen to
barter goods. This is leagues safer and more efficient than their old methods.
Facebook provides a place where people can plan events and create “websites”
for their shops and activities for free via pages. Facebook connects people to
their pages and gives people a place to hold forums with public officials
without anonymity.
\- Facebook pioneered removing anonymity from a social media platform. On
Facebook I can have more accountability and I am more likely to be myself. I
can keep in touch with the real people who have passed through my life. I met
my wife on Facebook this way.
\- Facebook allows me to stay connected to people I rarely see. I’m still
friends with many people from highschool I haven’t seen in over a decade. No
other platform provided that type of value. Even if we rarely interact, they
can always reach me on messenger even if they don’t have my phone number.
\- Facebook gives me the ability to hear from people I don’t agree with.
Instagram and twitter are just echo chambers based on what I like or are just
pictures of sunsets. On Facebook I have found that my friends and family often
post opinions that I don’t agree with during world events. This has led to
discourse that has allowed me to broaden my perspective.
\- Facebook’s ADs platform allows small business to compete against much
larger entities on a small advertising budget through targeted ads. I have
joined several hobbyist communities by having ads targeted at me that were
relevant to my interests.
~~~
speedplane
> Facebook pioneered removing anonymity
Not at all. There are so many fake accounts on Facebook that it's now
impossible to tell who is real and who isn't. True, they removed anonymity,
but they replaced it with fraud.
> Facebook allows me to stay connected to people I rarely see.
If you rarely see them or interact, how much true value are you gaining other
than an abstract sense of nostalgia.
> Facebook gives me the ability to hear from people I don’t agree with
Hearing people that disagree with you isn't enough. You need quality to build
a rich library of ideas. Facebook does no vetting, giving everyone a
microphone regardless of how thought-out or truthful the message is.
> Facebook’s ADs
Good advertising on a platform may make the platform less bad, but it doesn't
make it good. Who goes to Facebook to enjoy nice targeted ads?
Overall, the biggest issue is the first one. It's now impossible to tell
what's real and what isn't on Facebook. The site is rife with bots and hacked
accounts, you don't really know if you're talking to a person or someone with
a hidden agenda.
~~~
mercer
> > Facebook pioneered removing anonymity
> Not at all. There are so many fake accounts on Facebook that it's now
> impossible to tell who is real and who isn't. True, they removed anonymity,
> but they replaced it with fraud.
While true, it's also true that for most people, most of their facebook
friends _are_ real people using their real name. That's decidedly different
from how people use Twitter, Reddit and the like.
~~~
speedplane
If just 5% of your “friends” are fake, it ruins any trust you may have in your
community, it doesn’t need to be anywhere close to a majority. The other
networks have similar problems, but Facebook is the worst offender at
promoting a false sense of trust.
------
elorant
Fixing Facebook isn't a hard problem. Fixing it while keeping advertisers
happy is pretty much impossible. If you try to be more vigilant on privacy
settings then you give advertisers less choices to target people. And with
Amazon moving into the ad market aggressively, and Google being the behemoth
that they are the last thing you want is to hurt your advertising platform.
~~~
speedplane
I don't think Facebook's problem is legitimate advertisers misusing personal
information. Rather, it's the spammers, scammers, bots, and foreign spies that
destroy trust in the system. If Facebook could get rid of those (not an easy
problem), they could rebuild trust and keep legitimate big-money advertisers
happy.
------
armini
I loved hearing Tim Cook's response about the incident "we would never put
ourselves in the position of selling our user data". Fundamentally the
Facebook business model was flawed & destined to fail. We hope the new
generation of applications learn and evolve to better & stronger platforms
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkyH3JRxndc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkyH3JRxndc)
~~~
Jyaif
FB does not sell user data and Tim Cook knows this very well. Puzzling that he
reduces himself to propagating such FUD.
~~~
xiphias2
Tim Cook never said that.
When asked what he would do if he were currently faced with the problems
confronting Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Cook said: "I wouldn't be in this
situation."
------
charlesism
"Move fast and repeatedly betray your users' trust" isn't a good strategy,
long-term.
~~~
trophycase
Their market cap begs to differ I suppose
~~~
ardy42
>> "Move fast and repeatedly betray your users' trust" isn't a good strategy,
long-term.
> Their market cap begs to differ I suppose
It seems to do OK in the short to medium term.
~~~
trophycase
I just mean they are one of the largest companies in the world and don't seem
to be going anywhere with the rise of Instagram. It more or less seems that
they have had no penalty for using this strategy.
~~~
charlesism
Everyone here is aware FB has had a good run. I wouldn't bank on them _long-
term_. This stuff does not bode well...
> Facebook on Thursday posted the largest one-day loss in
> market value by any company in U.S. stock market history
> after releasing a disastrous quarterly report.
~~~
dingaling
'Facebook' didn't post any loss, its short-term shareholders did.
------
dblohm7
[http://archive.is/H640P](http://archive.is/H640P)
------
electic
[https://outline.com/5PcXMf](https://outline.com/5PcXMf)
------
gkanai
There is nothing FB or Sandberg can do to fix Facebook's reputation in my
mind. I have deleted most of the content I have posted to FB and keep my
account only because I sometimes use Messenger.
~~~
JKCalhoun
I esp. would not use Messenger. That would seem to be the "spyingest". But I'm
assuming you have someone who is all-in on Messenger you would lose otherwise.
Deleted FB and all content a year ago. Honestly, as I was on my way out, I was
beginning to enjoy the "groups" I had discovered. Wish there were a lurker
mode....
~~~
vlehto
I found such too. But the quality of discussion is sub par even when the
original idea was good.
Large share of the people who are still active on facebook seem to be types of
people who have very few friends and like to shout their ideas into the abyss.
Or alternatively very connected people who promote slogans to mindless crowd
of agreeing zombies.
It's mostly result of "your aunt sees what you just said" which means that you
rarely see anybody genuinely argue anything. Because the feeling of your aunt
briging up your facebook discussion from two years back at summer cottage is
not worth it. Facebook is shitty at managing interpersonal connections, kinda
weird at this point. Then the lack of dislike button keeps noise levels high
from people with no aunts. Even the few actual discussions typically develop
into pointless drama.
Reddit has very bad problems with eternal September, but its not nearly
brainless if you dig deep enough into subreddits.
------
deytempo
Seeing as I’ve never heard of her prior to reading this article, I think the
best course of action on her part would be to make a ton of noise doing good
things for the community so that it increases the chances of people who
haven’t heard of her, learning of her through those actions rather than these.
------
GreeniFi
MZ (screaming): you broke my Facebook, so you better damn fix it.
CS: Whoah Mark, you know people want me to run for president. I can’t scorch
my reputation fixing your dumb internet site. Plus enough of my shares have
vested for me to leave with my pockets full of loot. It’s not like I ever have
to work again.
MZ: [redacted]
CS: OK, I’ll do it.
What did Mark promise her? Would love to know what deal she cut.
~~~
L_226
He just promised not to publish whatever private FB messages she's been
sending... /s
------
stevehawk
But... Who cares?
~~~
dang
Maybe no one, but please don't post unsubstantive comments here.
------
zwaps
Paywalled article :<
~~~
Grangar
outline.com/[url]
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Browser extension to open videos in mpv - baldomo
https://github.com/Baldomo/open-in-mpv
======
baldomo
Hi everyone, author here. I was quite impressed to use this functionality in
the awesome iina player [1], but it a Mac-only app so I made this for Linux
and I plan to make it work also on Windows and Mac. I use mpv as my main video
player so I needed something like this to stream videos from youtube and
whatnot (any website supported by youtube-dl). Enjoy!
[1] [https://github.com/iina/iina](https://github.com/iina/iina)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Duct Tape Considered Harmful - markdennehy
http://stochasticgeometry.wordpress.com/2009/09/25/duct-tape-considered-harmful/
======
tptacek
I have a bad feeling that this Spolsky post --- which I liked, for what it's
worth --- is going to spark a very long, very boring testing vs. shipping
controversy, in which both sides, by taking sides, are going to come off
grating and sanctimonius.
~~~
wastedbrains
I agree and I find that the people who are architecture astronauts as he
refers to them, are very vocal and active on forums, twitter, and blogging.
I don't want to get into the whole testing debate, but I think you can read
the whole article and remove the one point on testing and it still holds.
------
daleharvey
What I took from Spolsky article wasnt that you shouldn't touch X/Y/Z, but
that you should approach new code in the simplest and quickest way you can.
I have often been guilty over engineering things to do them the "right way",
to either end up throwing the feature out anyway or having to reengineer
because I didnt know enough about the problem to fulfill its design from the
outset anyway.
while prototype fast is a reasonably mundane point, Its still one we get wrong
time and time again, and I think programmers pay lip service to it as an
ideal, but when it comes to actually having to leave that nasty bit of code
alone because it does its job, too often we go down the wrong path of making
it "right"
~~~
steamer25
"We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time:
premature optimization is the root of all evil." \--Knuth
------
aarongough
I have a friend who develops OpenGL drivers in C for various aerospace uses
and his perspective on code quality was very interesting to hear.
As a web-developer I used to think of tests as frivolous wastes of time,
whereas he saw them as an essential and necessary part of the development
process.
Since I started implementing testing on all my projects I have noticed that my
ability to change the code has actually gone _up_ , which in in stark contrast
with my initial expectations. I think that having a sounds testing methodology
definitely has benefits even in cases where financial/life loss due to
software failure is an impossibility...
~~~
ajross
But the point was that the decision interacts with the market, though.
Obviously testing is good and omitting testing completely is bad. But at the
end of the day the someone or something needs to _pay_ for the software.
Software vendors that ship late due to elaborate design and testing regimes
get paid less, in practice, than the "duct tape" folks who beat them to
market.
The video drivers you mention are a good example: an aerospace customer is
almost certainly operating on a slower schedule, and probably has contracted
the revenue already. The value of time to market here is less. And of course
the value of code quality in a vehicle safety application is much higher than
it is in a consumer web app.
So I'm not surprised at all that sane and smart people would make different
testing decisions in the two regimes. They're _both_ right.
~~~
markdennehy
"The market" was the motive behind the Ford Pinto memo as well, wasn't it?
~~~
eugenejen
When I was a child, my father got the Pinto. even though it is a unsafe car as
we knew later. But in a then poor Taiwan, it is like a luxury and it helped
him to do his job.
Here is an argument against Ford Pinto case
[http://www.pointoflaw.com/articles/The_Myth_of_the_Ford_Pint...](http://www.pointoflaw.com/articles/The_Myth_of_the_Ford_Pinto_Case.pdf)
~~~
markdennehy
I wrote "the ford pinto memo", not "the ford pinto".
The point wasn't whether the car was okay, it was about the amoral behaviour
of the company. Ford crossed a line between wanting to produce something to a
given spec; and depraved indifference to the damage the errors in the design
would cause. It only sounds like a subtle difference.
~~~
eugenejen
Please read the article about the myth. The memo is not specially evil. Its
decision is based on NHTSA. The company and the government agency are pretty
rational. But it just tells us even we are rational, the complexity of the
world is much more unpredictable.
Companies and governments should be amoral but rational. otherwise church and
state will not be able to separated from each other. To me, moralistic
companies/governments do more harm than welfare to humanity.
------
raganwald
“Considered Harmful” Essays Considered Harmful:
<http://meyerweb.com/eric/comment/chech.html>
------
wglb
Let's take a step back here. Joel's blog entry was about ONE chapter in Codes
at Work. If the anti-duct bloggers were to read the entire book, they would
see that TDD, C++, templates, pattern fever, OO oration, IDEs--don't get much
credibility with the whole lot of them.
But there are self-interest forces at work in arguing against the duct-tape
arguments--advocates of patterns, tdd and so on.
Two parties in this argument here have shipped real software in crunch mode.
Perhaps others in this argument have not.
~~~
plinkplonk
"Two parties in this argument here have shipped real software in crunch mode.
Perhaps others in this argument have not."
This is a key point. Agile methodology vendors who wax loudest about TDD and
other "core practices" have never shipped any significant software [1]. None
of them ever built a software product or a startup. Neither do they _show_ us
any decent body of code written with their superior approach [2] (vs talk
interminable about how _our_ code will be better if we adopt their advice and
pay them the big consulting $$).
After all the book is about _Coders_ At Work, not "Methodology Vendors at
Work" (which might be an interesting book, in a very horrific fashion).
[1] How many of the creators of the Agile Manifesto have shipped any
significant software or built a software company? Most (All?) of them are
methodology consultants.
[2] Kent beck has JUnit. Robert Martin has Finesse. The rest of the agile
gurus don't have anything. I leave it to the readers to decide if JUnit and
Finesse are significantly superior, designwise, to other Open Source code
bases, written without TDD.
~~~
ZeroGravitas
You don't actually say that no _real developers_ use TDD, but you seem to
imply that by focusing on the fact that the teachers, authors, consultants and
trainers that promote it "loudest" are earning money via the teaching,
authoring, consulting and training in which they loudly promote it. Bit of a
catch-22 there, no? Since if their job involves communication about
programming topics you automatically ignore the message and you'll only listen
to those not trying to communicate.
Luckily, I just finished reading this article by one of the Twisted guys in
relation to the recent release of Tornado which, in passing, sings the praises
of TDD, basically calling it essential for the work they do:
[http://glyph.twistedmatrix.com/2009/09/diesel-case-study-
in-...](http://glyph.twistedmatrix.com/2009/09/diesel-case-study-in-that-
thing-i-just_24.html)
~~~
plinkplonk
"You don't actually say that no real developers use TDD, but you seem to imply
that by focusing on the fact that the teachers, authors, consultants and
trainers that promote it "loudest" are earning money via the teaching,
authoring, consulting and training in which they loudly promote it."
No that isn't what I am saying. I am saying many of these people have _no_
programming experience worth a damn. If someone were to tell me how to
program(which is what all these methodology sellers do), they would be much
more credible if they actually had the programming chops to back it up.
Musashi writing a book on swordsmanship is one thing. If I (who couldn't wield
a samurai sword to save his life) write a book that claims my "style" of
swordsmanship is better than anything all the others existent today, I
shouldn't be surprised if practicing swordsmen don't pay me much heed.
It is the juxtaposition of people with no demonstrated/demonstrable
programming skills being loud and obnoxious about the superiority of their
advice about programming which I pointed to.
I was also careful to distinguish between Beck and Martin (who at least walk
the walk by putting out code developed using the methods they preach) from the
other more "all hat no cattle" folks like Jeffries. so to answer your
question,
"Bit of a catch-22 there, no? "
No, Not at all. :-). I don't have any problems with people telling me how to
program. But I don't trust people who _demonstrate convincingly that they know
nothing about programming_ (like Ron Jeffries does with his Sudoku code) who
also claim to be "masters" of programming.
That would be like trying to learn fighting skills from a martial arts
"master" you saw getting bashed around by a couple of punks at the bar last
night, and ended up being taken to hospital and is still covered with bandages
and walks with a limp! A master who wins fights would be much more convincing
if he claimed he discovered a new martial art which makes existing ones
obsolete.
I explicitly said
"None of them ever built a software product or a startup. Neither do they show
us any decent body of code written with their superior approach (vs talk
interminably about how _our_ code will be better if we adopt their advice and
pay them the big consulting $$)."
I stand by this. These guys write books that are the programming equivalent of
"Who Moved My Cheese"?. "Coders at Work" otoh, focusses on people who actually
_are_ great programmers. Each interview contains more wisdom on programming
than reams of "agile" (and these days "lean") textbooks.
FWIW, I did TDD almost exclusively for three years (when I worked at
ThoughtWorks), but I don't do TDD anymore, though I still have unit tests.
~~~
ZeroGravitas
It still seems excessively _ad hominem_ to me.
I don't know about the specific people named in swordmanship but generally in
sport the best teachers, coaches and managers will not necessarily be the best
at the actual sport. Maybe that doesn't apply in the martial arts though.
And that's at the top level. For ordinary folks I'd suggest that the advice
given by a legend may be inspirational, but that pragmatic advice from a
standard teacher which is aimed at their level (e.g. "walk away from bar
fights if at all possible") may be more appropriate. So I have no problem with
methodology suggestions provided by the less than _leet_.
Also, your reply suggests you unit test, you just don't write the tests first.
Which means, compared with the average programmer, you're like Greenpeace
complaining about PETA and while you see a big difference the 'average' person
just lumps you in together under the general heading of "extremist weirdos".
~~~
plinkplonk
"It still seems excessively ad hominem to me."
Fair Enough. You have a right to form your own opinions. Asking for proof of
competence is not "ad hominem", especially in a context where that competence
is what is under discussion. But yeah,, whatever.
I think most agile guru can't code for nuts. If you have difference of
opinion, _show me_ some great code these agile gurus wrote that in your
opinion gives them the "level" to teach us how to code. Or a wildly successful
project they managed(No the original XP project at Chrysler that failed
doesn't count! ;-)) to the point they can give us the rest of us lessons.
"So I have no problem with methodology suggestions provided by the less than
leet."
I don't either. But I _do_ have problems with people who can't put one foot in
front of the other _masquerading_ as martial arts teachers. A teacher should
know _something_ beyond the students they purport to teach.
Shifting form martial arts to music, If someone doesn't know how to string a
guitar and sets himself up as a "master guitarist" , should we all
automatically respect him as a maestro just because he _calls_ himself one?
Programming like music depends on quality of the _output_ , not what title is
on a visiting card. if someone can't sing "Jingle Bells" in tune, he is hardly
a "musician" no matter what he calls himself or how much he
blogs/tweets/writes self promoting pamphlets. Likewise for the programmatic
equivalent of what (agile "guru" Ron Jeffries's attempts at TDDIng a Sudoku
solver are. Please do a web search for "Ron Jeffries Sudoku Norvig" for the
gory details).
A master musician is someone who can _play_ very well. A music teacher should
play _much_ better than the untrained/untalented, if not at superhuman levels.
There is a minimu,m bar of performance where it is criminal to let such a
person "teach".
" your reply suggests you unit test, you just don't write the tests first."
I use what works.
But your vague Green peace/PETA analogy doesn't hold. You have your history
mixed up.
You imply that anyone who uses unit tests is different from a an Agile Kool
Aid drinking, propaganda spouting full time TDDer only as matter of degree. So
Unit tests = agile to some degree !
Yeah Right :-).
Unit (and other) tests were used _much_ before the agile weirdos came on the
scene and blew it up into some ultimate design method (which I don't believe
in - I've stated what I believe in - I think the Agile movement is _largely_
inhabited and sustained by consultants and "scrum masters" and people who
write books but no/very bad code.).
Using unit tests is not supporting Agile/XP/whatever. Drawing an occasional
UML ish diagram on the whiteboard doesn't mean you support the RUP methodology
salesmen.
FYI. I am done with this thread. I have no intention of going back and forth
with you on a long and tedious thread. The PlinkPonk Thread Depth Alarm just
went off. If you are really interested in discussing this offline, my email is
in my profile. Else, well met and have a great day.
------
gfodor
The amount of false dichotomies and developer stereotypes Spolsky and Atwood
manage to get spewed from ordinarily calm and logical people is astounding.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Text Mining Wikipedia for Misspelled Words - shrikant
http://jonsview.com/text-mining-wikipedia-for-misspelled-words
======
mukyu
Odd that they didn't use the API or action=raw to get the wikitext and instead
just scraped and went digging.
It would require post-processing anyways (rip out templates, wikilinks,
reflists, whatever) but it would be easier to isolate what is actually in the
page.
| {
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So you'd like to... become a mathematical finance quant starting from scratch - ekm2
http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/syltguides/fullview/RDXHW9HPBHCOT/ref=cm_syt_fvlm_f_1_rlrsrs0
======
frugalfirbolg
In passing it looks like a nice reading list. What motivated you to study this
topic and are there any achievements resulting from this regimen that you
could share?
------
bsenftner
WTF? An amazon ad?!?!?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google BigQuery hits the gym to beef up even more - vgt
https://shinesolutions.com/2016/08/19/google-bigquery-hits-the-gym-to-beef-up-even-more/
======
vgt
Here is the blog describing the Capacitor storage engine (successor to
ColumnIO, which was the inspiration for Parquet):
[https://cloud.google.com/blog/big-data/2016/04/inside-
capaci...](https://cloud.google.com/blog/big-data/2016/04/inside-capacitor-
bigquerys-next-generation-columnar-storage-format)
Here's the blog post describing Google's in-memory execution (some of what the
new Dremel version is doing, including pipelined execution, dynamic in-memory
shuffling, dynamic partition sizing, etc):
[https://cloud.google.com/blog/big-data/2016/08/in-memory-
que...](https://cloud.google.com/blog/big-data/2016/08/in-memory-query-
execution-in-google-bigquery)
These are some of the more significant improvements since the Dremel paper:
[http://static.googleusercontent.com/media/research.google.co...](http://static.googleusercontent.com/media/research.google.com/en//pubs/archive/36632.pdf)
------
paulasmuth
If you care about not having your data locked-in to Google's ecosystem or
think BigQuery is too expensive, please consider to give the open-source
EventQL [0] alternative a try.
[0] [https://eventql.io](https://eventql.io)
~~~
vgt
Really excited to see the open source community around big data grow.
Three minor points on "locked-in" and "too expensive":
\- BigQuery now has fully standard SQL and allows for easy exports of ALL your
data out of BigQuery
\- BigQuery has a Free Tier
\- BigQuery is a vast multi-tenant cluster, and you pay for it per-job. Folks
who are spending just a couple of dollars a month get to experience running
SQL on a HUGE cluster for a few seconds at a time.
Broadly, it's very exciting to witness emergence of open source distributed
data processing technologies (Apache Druid and Flink ftw!). BigQuery stores
data and runs SQL well, yes, but it is also a serverless fully-managed service
with a pay-only-for-what-you-consume pricing structure, seamless downtime-free
upgrades and maintenance, encryption, high availability, durability,
compliance and proven at scale to XXX PB.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Elon Musk, of PayPal and Tesla Fame, Is Broke - VictorHo
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/22/sorkin-elon-musk-of-paypal-and-tesla-fame-is-broke/
======
kls
This article is so typical of sensationalism reporting. Individuals Like Mr.
Musk, are able to take advantage of the separation of entities that a
corporate charter provides. So while he probably stopped paying himself a good
salary due to impending litigation. The source that has been providing the
revenue has not dried up, all he has to do is turn the spicket back on, when
he is ready.
------
frossie
_He subsists, according to court filings, on $200,000 a month and still flies
his private jet._
So, for various values of "broke", then. Moreover he seems to have no cash at
the same time as he is going through divorce proceedings where the spouse
wants $6 Mil in cash. A cynic might say this is awfully convenient.
Oh well, Tesla is cool, SpaceX is cool, I hope he sticks around.
~~~
smiler
What I can't understand is why the NYTimes author didn't pick up on this or
comment - it seems to me like he just wanted to avoid paying as much as
possible to his ex-wife and decided to tie it up in company assets so it was
harder for her to get hold of.
------
stretchwithme
he's broke again? wasn't he just broke the other day and also a few weeks
back? he's had more ups and downs than a Tesla tachometer.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
JRuby 9000 released - headius
http://blog.jruby.org/2015/07/jruby_9000/
======
aurochs
JRuby is a great idea.
It has one pitfall which consistently stops me from using it though : poor
support with newer releases of Rails, usually due to the Active Record stack
not working well with the AR JDBC adapter.
I know some work was being done on a JRuby version of the standard pg gem
(without the need for JDBC) which would be fantastic if it was completed and
working.
~~~
astrodust
Define "newer" and define "poor"? The JRuby team has done a fantastic job of
keeping things working. Do you have any specific problems other than vague
grumblings?
Anyone married to the MRI ecosystem because of dependencies on modules with no
JVM equivalent may have problems, but new projects usually have no such
issues.
~~~
amalag
I don't want to complain because it is a free product. But there is no doubt a
big lag with activerecord. Rails 4.2 is still not supported:
[https://github.com/jruby/activerecord-jdbc-
adapter/issues/59...](https://github.com/jruby/activerecord-jdbc-
adapter/issues/599)
~~~
juliangregorian
Currently, there's $1700 in store for whoever does support it:
[https://www.bountysource.com/issues/5831191-tasks-to-
finish-...](https://www.bountysource.com/issues/5831191-tasks-to-
finish-4-2-support)
~~~
ch4s3
Yep, I've put up money for it myself, and regularly be on twitter for other
folks to do the same. I wish a big company that uses jRuby would step up and
support the tools they use :/
~~~
headius
Agreed.
~~~
ch4s3
Know anyone? ;)
------
Freaky
Concurrent threads using magic regexp vars like $1 stomp all over each other,
quite nasty:
[https://github.com/jruby/jruby/issues/3031](https://github.com/jruby/jruby/issues/3031)
Stumbling over a serious race condition in the first 5 minutes of trying it
with real code makes me a bit wary. All the performance in the world isn't
much good if it's randomly _wrong_ :/
~~~
rugmug5
You really shouldn't be relying on globals anyway. Using $1 etc. is a serious
code smell. It shouldn't by definition be threadsafe in any event. The only
way that would work would be if you rely on the threads not actually running
at the same time as an implementation detail of the MRI.
~~~
infraruby
$~ and friends are not global:
def f
p $~ # => nil
"123" =~ /\w+/
p $~ # => #<MatchData "123">
end
p $~ # => nil
"abc" =~ /\w+/
p $~ # => #<MatchData "abc">
f
p $~ # => #<MatchData "abc">
~~~
headius
Matz himself has said he regrets putting these variables in the language, and
some day they may disappear. We'll match behavior as much as possible, but
they're a relic no matter how you slice it.
------
Scarbutt
_JRuby 9000 now uses native operations for much of IO and almost all of
Process. This makes us the first POSIX-friendly JVM language._
Did they achieved this via JNI?
~~~
mdavidn
This will prevent running JRuby 9000 in (today's) Google App Engine.
The project has been drifting away from App Engine support for some time now.
See #2304.
[https://github.com/jruby/jruby/issues/2304](https://github.com/jruby/jruby/issues/2304)
~~~
chrisseaton
There's a pure-Java fallback that has most of the same functionality. But if
you wanted precise POSIX function calls you probably weren't running on App
Engine anyway.
~~~
jshen
Have you tried the pure-Java fallback on App Engine? I tried it for JRuby 1.7
and it didn't work. I haven't tried yet with 9000, have you?
~~~
headius
We welcome GAE users of JRuby but they never seemed to be a big segment of the
community. And we continue to maintain non-native IO and process logic for
limited environments. If that is not sufficient for GAE, we'll work with you
to make it so.
~~~
jshen
Jruby 1.7 simply doesn't work in GAE, and maybe it's not worth making it work
there, which I would understand. I opened an issue a while ago
([https://github.com/jruby/jruby/issues/2304](https://github.com/jruby/jruby/issues/2304))
and I spent about a week trying to fix it. Each time I fixed one issue another
one popped up and I gave up after hacking up JRuby beyond my comfort level.
Edit: I just want to stress, the JRuby team is amazing, and I've always been
impressed with the responsiveness and openness of the team. This comment isn't
meant as a critique in anyway, just a statement of fact with my experience
trying to run JRuby on app engine.
------
magicdream
We're using JRuby in some core projects and it's great. From my experience
(moved 2 high load projects to Jruby) transition to JRuby from Ruby is not
just changing Ruby version. But often you spend around 1-2 weeks to move
medium size project on it, change some gems and configure Java options to not
have out of memory errors. So it works fine, I'd not say that it works much
faster than latest Ruby. But I think that main reasons why you should switch
are multithreading and Java libs. We switched because of we was need to use
latest Java libs for Kafka. But the main disadvantage is that sometimes when
you need to deal with Java objects you need to think about object data type
casting (from Ruby object to Java and vice versa). And this is extra actions,
extra memory usage.
I'm very happy to see JRuby 9000 and hope we'll upgrade soon.
------
flowerpot
I've actually found JRuby to be very handy when it comes to packaging. Using
warbler I can generate a jar file and then using the javapackager I can create
self contained packages for all the major platforms/package managers: windows
(.exe/.msi), linux (.rpm, .deb), osx (.dmg). Way more painless than packaging
a ruby runtime. I've tried traveling ruby, but have not had the same seamless
experience. Especially when it comes to multiple platforms. However, packaging
with java, jruby and my application usually turn out to be quite large. Around
80Mb for a CLI and the startup time for short running programs like CLIs using
JRuby can be quite long.
------
mataug
Damm, I so wish Jython improved like this too. I've been thinking of helping
out.
~~~
brightball
jRuby is one of the biggest reasons I lean to Ruby over Python. Ruby gains a
lot more from the JVM than Python (at least that's my understanding) does and
that leads to much more momentum behind jRuby.
~~~
WaxProlix
Like what? They both benefit from the lack of GIL (Jython maybe moreso) as
well as the portability and other benefits of JVM as a platform.
~~~
chrisseaton
Jython doesn't use advanced functionality like invokedynamic.
~~~
jrochkind1
It's unclear how much benefit invokedynamic actually provides at present, I
recall seeing benchmarks not showing much.
I think the big JRuby advantage is actually that by and large code written for
MRI Just Works on JRuby. The exceptions are relatively few, and usually easily
worked around, or if not quickly bug fixed. Despite this thread, I haven't had
significant troubles with ActiveRecord-ODBC, although in Rails 4.2 have
occasionally run into relatively minor worked-around-able issues.
My impression is that code written for standard Python tends to have a lot
more trouble running on Jython -- not from any fault of Jython, but because
'standard' Python code tends to be more likely to use native C than typical
ruby.
~~~
headius
Invokedynamic's benefits have been a bit of a mixed bag, but id _does_ make
the JVM see through dynamic call sites and optimize them like it does
statically-typed call sites. That generally improves performance for JRuby,
but there are cases where simply inlining the code together doesn't lead to a
measurable increase.
~~~
mike_hearn
Given that both you and Chris are posting to this thread, I was kind of
surprised to learn that you're planning to focus on a non-Truffle
compiler/optimisation engine in future. Isn't Truffle meant to give huge
speedups? It sounds like you might eventually get JRuby 9000 to be faster than
MRI but that a rewrite of the current code didn't do it yet.
Is there some kind of vision or plan for how Graal/Truffle fits into the JRuby
roadmap?
~~~
chrisseaton
Truffle is a research project. It is not a short-term goal to replace the
current IR-based runtime in JRuby, and Truffle isn't really part of the 9k
release (it's there but I wouldn't recommend trying to use it).
We are working towards being fully compliant and we're getting there fast - I
think with four full-time people and more in support we are now the largest
employer of Ruby implementors anywhere. But since we aren't ready yet,
stopping work on IR isn't an option even if we wanted to do so and we all need
Charlie and Tom to continue their excellent work on the IR.
In my personal view, Truffle will be good enough to replace JRuby runtime at
some point in the next couple of years, but we aren't advocating for this now
and if it did happen it would be because the JRuby community and leadership
make that decision for themselves.
I think we might come up with some kind of roadmap, or at least stated plan,
at JRubyConf next week.
------
kul_
So why does JRuby never got as much traction as other jvm langs like clojure,
scala, groovy? I have heard good things about the ruby syntax, top that you
get unparalleled powers of jvm like gc, cross platform, libs and much more!
~~~
VeejayRampay
For the same reason that alternative implementations of Python never got the
kind of traction they deserve, because 90% of the gems, libraries and
everything are specifically tailored to MRI and it's always harder to play
catch up.
Also, the strong anti-Java culture in the Ruby community probably didn't help
(even though JRuby has nothing to do with Java, or very little).
~~~
pjcabrera
Nothing to do with Java? Really? How did you come to that conclusion?
------
rf3000
Fantastic news! Very excited about seeing the Ruby ecosystem advance.
------
lgleason
Big thanks to the Jruby team!
------
gary4gar
is it faster than MRI?
~~~
FooBarWidget
That depends on what you mean by faster. For CPU-bound work, JRuby is almost
always faster. The JVM is very good at optimizing. However, the best
performance doesn't kick in until the JVM is sufficiently warmed up, which
means JRuby shines mostly for long-running tasks. Warming up can take a few
minutes, although some people tell me that I should warm up for half an hour
(!).
On the flip side, JRuby starts much more slowly than MRI. This is a general
Java problem: startup times are problematic. Also, code reloading performance
may be worse than MRI, so things may be slow in development. JRuby is
optimized for production-level long-running workloads. So something like
'rake' will likely take longer with JRuby.
~~~
astrodust
In practice I've found the start-up times aren't all that different. The drag
is more pronounced on older hardware, though. A current i5 or i7 system with
an SSD is usually _roughly_ the same.
~~~
FooBarWidget
That is very contrary to my experience. A Rake task in a Rails project almost
always takes somewhere like 15-20 seconds just to start up (on MRI it's around
2-5). Just today, I tried to run the Middleman static site generator. Where on
MRI, Middleman starts building after around 3 seconds, on JRuby it starts
building after around 10 seconds. And I'm on a 2012 Macbook Air.
------
fokinsean
It's at 9000!
~~~
igorgue
One more version to be over 9000!
------
joegyoung
If I committed to using jRuby instead of regular ruby, I would have that
nagging fear that Oracle would go after all the other companies that build
their product using Java APIs.
~~~
headius
We work closely with engineers at Oracle and JRuby is one of the premier
projects on the JVM. There's also no legal way they could come after us; their
suit against Google is about copying Java APIs, a very narrow domain.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Yaml load denial-of-service - taha_jahangir
https://gist.github.com/tahajahangir/c079bf554786b7a68310
======
TimWolla
Billion laughs
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billion_laughs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billion_laughs))
strikes again.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Lexus hoverboard in motion - bitzerlander
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awAzM9kTvC0&feature=youtu.be&sf11678837=1
======
paulhauggis
It needs a magnetic surface to work. How is this practical?
~~~
DanBC
Skateboard parks; amusement parks.
~~~
bitzerlander
Maybe a prototype for magnetic roads and hover cars?
~~~
DanBC
You have to refill it every ten minutes with liquid helium. That skatepark has
hundreds of thousands of dollars of magnets in it.
A fun, expensive, bizarrely impractical, toy.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Linux (In)Security - djsumdog
https://madaidans-insecurities.github.io/linux.html
======
stuzenz
I wonder if Redox (rust OS project) will take off one day.
A lot of the goals of the project seem to line up well with dealing with
issues noted in the post.
A huge endeavour of course - to build an OS from the ground up. I hope they
get there.
ref: [https://doc.redox-os.org/book/ch01-03-our-
goals.html?highlig...](https://doc.redox-os.org/book/ch01-03-our-
goals.html?highlight=security#our-goals)
"Redox is an attempt to make a complete, fully-functioning, general-purpose
operating system with a focus on safety, freedom, reliability, correctness,
and pragmatism.
We want to be able to use it, without obstructions, as an alternative to Linux
on our computers. It should be able to run most Linux programs with only
minimal modifications.
We're aiming towards a complete, safe Rust ecosystem. This is a design choice,
which hopefully improves correctness and security (see Why Rust).
We want to improve the security design when compared to other Unix-like
kernels by using safe defaults and disallowing insecure configurations where
possible."
------
totony
Agreed, Linux is way behind in kernel and userland hardening. Things are
slowly getting better, with some of grsec/PaX's features being merged upstream
[0] and X being slowly replaced by wayland (but it still has issues before
mass adoption). SELinux/Apparmor fix some issues, but their policies are not
restrictive enough (and when they are, they get disabled because they're too
user-unfriendly).
Android did a good job integrating SELinux in their ecosystem to provide some
sort of sandbox, I wish there were similar project for desktop Linux, but it
seems only Redhat cares about SELinux in the OSS world (and they don't seem to
have this kind of project in the works).
sudo is Linux's UAC, and I agree that it is insecure, but its use is optional
and with good selinux policies, you shouldn't be able to highjack it like in
the OP (unfortunately, there are no good, easy-to-use selinux policies)
Linux has too big an attack surface IMO and I wish microkernels like GNU/Hurd
or seL4 would become more popular, but, like most things in OSS, there are not
enough people interested.
[0]
[https://kernsec.org/wiki/index.php/Kernel_Self_Protection_Pr...](https://kernsec.org/wiki/index.php/Kernel_Self_Protection_Project)
~~~
gizmo686
Much of my job is based on writing SELinux policy. The problem is that SELinux
is not well suited to the needs of a desktop environment. Consider a web
browser. Ideally, it should not be able to read any local files (except its
own). But sometimes, users want to use web browsers on local files; and
sometimes users want to save/download web resources to arbitrary locations, so
you end up needing to give browsers those permissions anyway.
Redhat's approach is a targeted policy. Users and user applications run in an
unconfined domain, while system and services run in a secured domain.
Android uses a similar approach where SELinux provides system level protection
(as well as application level isolation). However, the security model most
people (even Android app developers) are familiar with is not SELinux. The
difference between an app that has permission to use the microphone and one
that does not is not SELinux. It is implemented by a userspace security
manager.
I am not fammilar with Apparmor, but I do not see how any solution based on
the Linux kernel's security module system would be adequate. The type of
security needed for a desktop system requires a lot of userspace work.
~~~
totony
I've experience this too while writing policies, but firefox could open an
unconfined file manager which is like a "selinux setuid", where it asks the
user what to do and change the mcs level of a file until it is written
to/read. I don't think this is unsolvable.
Edit: actually, that file manager could pass an open fd to firefox, I'm not
sure how that would work policy-wise
~~~
totony
Or maybe a hook could be added to the kernel in the looks of "if mozilla_t is
denied access to user_home_t, execute /usr/bin/notify and if it returns 0
allow it for this time"
~~~
gizmo686
You can kind of do that already using SELinux booleans.
In policy, have something like:
if (mozilla_read_user_home) {
allow mozilla_t user_home_t:file read_file_perms;
}
Then, firefox could execute /usr/bin/request_file_access user_home_t read
request_file_access could then be spawned in a privileged domain and:
1) Check the domain of the parent process and see that it is mozilla_t
2) Check whatever security policy it wants to implement (possibly by prompting
the user)
3) Assuming the access is allowed, set the mozilla_read_user_home variable to
true (and set a timer to disable it at some point in the future)
4) firefox then can open the file normally.
Keep in mind that denials actually happen quite frequently on many SELinux
systems, and policy is usualy written to not even log the expected ones. Any
hook that needs to run on every denial would likely introduce unacceptable
performance hits; particuarly if it needs to spawn another process.
------
sbrass
The author suggests that security has to be enforced by the system itself,
i.e. by the usage of an appropriate programming language, security tools (e.g.
sand-boxing, ...) and other. However, the author's comment fell short to honor
the history of the kernel development, specify user applicability and discuss
any improvements. I partly agree with the author, but "default" settings are a
very sensitive topic (why he doesn't provide any suggestions?) and hardly to
answer for every application scope.
I don't think that Linux is _more_ secure "than any other OS". First, we have
a wide variety of Linux desktops. Second, when required, experienced (!)
system administrators/business vendors invest a lot of time in order to get
their system secure. However, (unexperienced) "home users" are at
disadvantage, because of lack of knowledge. They would/will suffer from the
perception of an superior security notion of Linux. We have to get that right.
That's it.
------
rossvor
To give some context on the perspective this piece is written from, since the
article doesn't provide a disclaimer -- the author is a developer of Whonix.
------
thayne
But are windows or mac osx any better?
~~~
tptacek
On many of these items, yes. That's the premise of the post. It's not saying
"computer science could be so much better than Linux achieves". It's saying
Linux fails to achieve things that other systems do achieve.
~~~
thayne
I'm not an expert on windows or mac, but here's my run-down:
> There is no strong sandboxing in the standard desktop.
I don't know of any strong sandboxing in Windows or Mac OSX, but that could
just be my ignorance.
> Most programs are written in memory unsafe languages such as C or C++
This is true on windows and Mac as well (let's include objective-c in there).
> It is a monolithic kernel written entirely in a memory unsafe language
Also true of windows and Mac.
> has hundreds of bugs, many being security vulnerabilities, found each month.
> In fact, there are so many bugs being found in the kernel, developers can’t
> keep up which results in many of the bugs staying unfixed for a long time
I don't know enough to comment on this.
> a compromised non-root user account with access to sudo is almost equal to
> full root compromise
Is this any different on windows or mac? Mac has sudo as well, and on windows,
the main user is typically an administrator.
> X’s lack of GUI isolation
well, yeah. I don't know what the situation is like in windows and mac for
this. But one of wayland's design goals is to fix this (although it also
breaks things like screencasting...)
~~~
RcouF1uZ4gsC
> > It is a monolithic kernel written entirely in a memory unsafe language >
> Also true of windows and Mac.
I believe Windows is hybrid kernel not a monolithic one.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_kernel](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_kernel)
~~~
thayne
as I understand it, a hybrid kernel doesn't have a security advantage over a
monolithic kernel, because the drivers/modules are still running in kernel
space (as opposed to running in user-space in a true microkernel).
------
DmitryOlshansky
> Due to inevitable pedanticism, "Linux" in this article refers to a standard
> Linux or GNU/Linux distro.
I too sadly realize the dire need to post such disclaimers. Boy, these people
are boring sometimes...
------
abjKT26nO8
What is the point of wayland-keylogger[1] that is linked in the article? Do
Wayland compositors normally run under a different user account than the one
that logged in via the login manager? I see this as being an issue with full
filesystem (or just home) access given to applications, but I don't see how
LD_PRELOAD is the problem here. Yet the author of TFA seems to suggest that
this is the issue.
[1]: [https://github.com/Aishou/wayland-
keylogger](https://github.com/Aishou/wayland-keylogger)
------
commandlinefan
> the attacker can just setup their own fake sudo program to grab the user
> password.
I've thought about that vulnerability a lot using enterprise SSO apps: it
would be trivial for anybody inside a corporate firewall to set up, say, a
ticketing app that presented an SSO sign-in box, recorded whatever was input,
but responded to everything as success. An attacker could harvest a LOT of
passwords that way before being caught.
~~~
nielsole
That's why ideally you redirect people to the identity provider and teach
users never to enter their password elsewhere.
------
justaj
I wonder what the author thinks about grsecurity [0], and about the Kernel
Self Protection Project [1]
0: [https://www.grsecurity.net/](https://www.grsecurity.net/)
1:
[https://kernsec.org/wiki/index.php/Kernel_Self_Protection_Pr...](https://kernsec.org/wiki/index.php/Kernel_Self_Protection_Project)
~~~
tptacek
The better comparison is to Qubes.
~~~
est31
Or Chrome OS. It's very different from the traditional GNU OS which allows it
to be more secure but also more restricting in user freedoms.
------
Mic92
Hardening a side for most users Linux distributions however offer a different
practical security advantage. While on Windows/macOS despite their apps stores
it is still quite common to download applications from shady websites while in
common Linux distributions most software comes from curated repositories.
------
inshadows
I've read through the author's blog recently it got posted here. Author refers
to many pseudo-weaknesses but does not accept that that's simply the current
state of things and there's work to be done to make it better. IOW, author
doesn't offer any alternative except implied use "Windows/Mac/Chrome because
they say it's secure". I'm all about software rants, but you have to approach
the problem from all sides instead of bitching like a teenager.
Let's evaluate this one:
> On ordinary desktops, a compromised non-root user account with access to
> sudo is almost equal to full root [...SNIP...]
So author here probably means access to sudo where the account has the right
to become root. Once someone compromises your account... well, that's it. The
rest of the text is just garbage, many things are taken completely out of
context. Once an attacker can run under your account she can just for instance
append 'sudo /bin/.doevilstuff' to your ~/.bashrc.
~~~
LinuxBender
be sure to add -n so that it silently fails (assuming you redirect output) and
does not alert the user. If they have a sudo token active, then it will
silently succeed.
Here is an example:
curl -s https://ohblog.org/test.txt | bash
Read the test.txt file first of course.
~~~
inshadows
Why does sudo matter at all? If you run this curl it can literaly steal your
Firefox credentials, your photos, record your passwords, ...
~~~
LinuxBender
Absolutely true. I was just adding a more silent way to use sudo without being
detected. In fact, without sudo, I can still piggy-back on peoples SSH
connections if they don't disable multiplexing. As an added bonus, there are
no syslog entries when I ride that channel.
------
blackrock
When can microkernels finally become a reality?
The previous complaints was that it was always slower than a monolithic
kernel. But with all the multicores, memory, and SSD storage available today,
then at some point, the extra processing becomes irrelevant.
~~~
renox
\- Spectre's mitigation are probably extra painful for microkernels. \- AFAIK
the most secure microkernel is SeL4, but AFAIK it isn't proven for multiple
cores, and I wouldn't be surprised if (some) low-power settings of CPUs would
give him troubles.
~~~
AstralStorm
And ultimately none of the microkernels has a credible set of drivers for a
typical PC, much less verified ones.
Drivers are a huge hole, especially easily accessible ones like video due to
3D APIs.
------
greatgib
This article is a piece of crap.
It is not factual but playing on baseless fears. Like that something is unsafe
just because not made with last _hype_ language. Take go for example if
anything unexpected happen, this shit trigger an assert that crash everything.
Is it safe?
Like the sudo example is ridiculous: the command allows you to execute a
restricted command but it is not made to check your current environnement.
It is safe if you know the context you are using. But if you just arrive on
the screen of someone else ans it is asking for your password, sure it is
unsafe to type your password: maybe you are not even in a Real shell, maybe
all are just fake screen. For example, someone can create a rigged fake
webbrowser and within tell you to connect to your facebook. Then ssl check
marks does not help to ensure the safety. That is an user issue and not a
platform issue!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: is lean startup applicable to B2B? - pilap82
I'm looking for some feedback from entrepreneurs who launched B2B companies to understand what parts of lean startup methodology are relevant or not.
Typically: experimenting might be tricky when your users have to perform a business process which is (supposedly) stable.<p>any additional tip is welcome.<p>thanks!
======
BenjaminDyer
Yep, my startup business Powered Now is pure B2B. The same methodologies apply
regardless of the market, however I take your point about stable processes. I
think (and would love a discussion on it) the idea of a "stable process" comes
with scale, the larger the orginisation the less likely they are to consider
adapting or trying new things, although that might be a sweeping
generalisation.
Regardless of the size of the business there are always people on the cutting
edge, the early adopters you need to find and involve.
Best of luck, I'll watch this thread with interest.
~~~
pilap82
I agree with you. But i think that beyond scale and state of mind, one key
factor in B2B is the tolerance of the organisation (not only the leader) to
change and experiments.
It takes a great deal of leadership to bring everyone on board and convince
the naysayers. In my case, on of my customer has ~100 users. the problem is
not my stakeholder, but a slice of the 99 other users, who have to deal with
the change. Some request additional training, some complain...
With all the good will of the leader, i just fear that he eventually grows
tired of fighting for each change, regardless the value brought by such
change.
So the question about experiment is maybe more a question of overcoming user
resistance (and, in a company, the associated cost).
The reactions to UI changes in Facebook are probably a good indicator that
it's a tough battle :)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Proof That Startups Don't Care About Privacy - jnorthrop
http://jnorthrop.me/2012/02/18/proof-startups-dont-care-about-privacy/
======
kmfrk
Whether you agree or not, I think we are approaching a situation where our
trust in fledgling start-ups, popular or not, is in decline. Just browse the
names: Twitter, Path, Instagram, Google, Facebook, etc., etc. Not exactly
obscure companies, many of whom are well-liked by their users.
I would be as worried as a founder as a consumer, because the joy of being an
early adopter might be waning in light of this. The address book security
breach has made it undesirable to just try out all apps you see and worry
about security later. Before, I basically only had to worry about non-SSL and
plain text passwords - something that rarely mattered.
I don't know if using "we don't send your information unencrypted and
unsafely, and we certainly don't sell your private information nor nab your
contact list" is going to do more good than harm to a new company. It sounds a
little creepy.
Maybe we should organize a pillory service with a track record in crimes
against privacy and security instead as an alternative to Crunchbase. The FTC,
bless their hearts, have limited resources and don't seem to be doing to much
to make Facebook do what they do, and a track record does not need to be kept
up to date, as great as it would be. It doesn't need to be an exhaustive list;
having the biggest companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Tumblr, Microsoft,
Dropbox, and Twitter would suffice in most instances, because, honestly, as
much as I loathe Facebook, I have an awful memory and have to rely on my
bookmarks to remember just how bad they are.
Perhaps this database can be extended to follow founders or CTOs involved
directly or indirectly in these screw-ups, when they leave their company, so
they don't pull the same stunt the next time.
This could be done with something as basic as a GitHub collaboration.
Who knows, maybe this can even be turned into a start-up - it seemed to work
for Chris Dixon.
------
dguido
Actually, I have evidence to the contrary. Check this out:
PrivacyParrot: See if a site sells your personal information.
<http://www.privacyparrot.com/>
It uses AI and NLP to parse privacy policies into easily readable statements:
<http://www.privacyparrot.com/privacy-policy-for-twitter.com>
~~~
slowpoke
That's a damn cool little website. Thanks.
------
tworats
For a very early stage startup caring about privacy does not immediately
translate to displaying a privacy policy.
For us it was a day 1 decision: we will not do anything remotely creepy with
your data. We will guard what you give us carefully and collect only what we
need to operate our service.
This is a fundamental and important part of our ethos.
Still, it took us more than 6 months to get an externally visible privacy
policy in place, because lawyers are expensive and not displaying a policy did
not kill us.
~~~
jnorthrop
> we will not do anything remotely creepy with your data
That is exactly what I'm trying to advocate for in my post. However, I don't
agree that you should wait until you can afford a lawyer to put up a policy.
Think of it this way: If a regulator comes knocking at your door accusing you
of some privacy violation are you better off saying, "I couldn't afford a
lawyer which is why I have no policy," or "I couldn't afford a lawyer but I
did my best to comply with the law as I understood it?"
I think the later is obviously the better position. In addition you get the
trust building benefits to boot.
~~~
tworats
The issue is that the Privacy Policy is (or certainly can be viewed as) a
legal document. Therefore I'm strongly inclined to believe you're better off
with a lawyer approved document.
I'd love to have our privacy policy be "we will not do anything remotely
creepy with your data" (in fact maybe we'll add that to our current document),
but that is so ambiguous I think users will not be satisfied, and lawyers will
have a field day.
------
46Bit
The lack of a privacy policy isn't good enough evidence for people not caring
about it. It just means people haven't written one up. I'd question whether a
privacy policy that says "we'll collect any information about you we can and
sell it to everyone we can" would be an example of caring about privacy.
~~~
jnorthrop
A privacy policy would only take the bare minimum of interest and attention.
20 minutes with a free policy generator and a simple link on the site is all
it takes. A lack of a policy might not be the best "evidence," nor is a policy
assurance they will respect your privacy, but it is a start.
------
gregsqueeb
Hey I made CleanIcons.com and I was just wondering what kind of privacy policy
you are expecting for the site? I am using a third party purchasing service
(gumroad.com) and I am selling icons that I made. I guess I could have a
privacy policy that says I will not sell your email to people? Is that what
you are expecting?
------
lamby
Have you considered the possibility that "privacy" is mostly a Hacker News
moral panic, an obsession of the sententious personality that only really
leaks out into the outside world when it can drive eyeballs or pageviews?
~~~
pessimizer
You're overestimating the influence of Hacker News, and underestimating the
historical concern that people have had about their personal information being
used to power commercial business.
[http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/classes/6.805/articles/priva...](http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/classes/6.805/articles/privacy/Privacy_brand_warr2.html)
Hacker News, 1890?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
First Impressions of GitHub Codespaces - legostormtroopr
https://www.aristotlemetadata.com/blog/2020/08/first-impressions-github-codespaces.html
======
setzer22
While impressive technology, I still get that eerie feeling of my computer's
ownership being slowly taken away from me. The problem is not Github
codespaces offering us an alternative to traditional dev environments, the
problem may be 10 years from now, when someone says: "All the coding is done
on the web nowadays, why should we allow users to install compilers and dev
tools on their machine? They may use those for _hacking_ and compromising the
security of our systems. They may hurt themselves in the process and sue us!
Better not take risks". I'm afraid to go into a future where this is normal...
~~~
bryanrasmussen
>They may hurt themselves in the process and sue us!
has a hacker ever hurt themselves by hacking and sued the company whose
computer they were using?
Anyway I guess people can also buy their own computers if they want to play
outside the sandbox.
~~~
setzer22
Fair enough. But that was not my rationale, it was just a made-up corporate
rationale that is not too far from what I can observe in reality. Take, for
example, lobbyists in right-to-repair hearings. They use arguments like this:
"If we let users repair their smartphones, they might hurt themselves, so it
must not be allowed and instead always performed by a skilled technician". The
implication always being, that if users hurt themselves, they will sue.
> Anyway I guess people can also buy their own computers if they want to play
> outside the sandbox.
My point was, precisely, that we might get to some point where this is no
longer possible. Imagine they stopped selling what we today call "PC", and
instead everything is closer to smartphones or tablets. There would be no way
to setup a development environment on the machine. There's no sudo access, no
compiler toolchain...
------
fotcorn
There is also coder.com which provides more or less the same thing (running
Visual Studio Code in the browser).
The code is actually open source and you can run it on your own machine:
[https://github.com/cdr/code-server](https://github.com/cdr/code-server)
Hint: Set the following environment variables before starting code-server to
get access to the official Visual Studio Code extension marketplace. This is
against the TOS of VSCode, but some extensions are missing/broken on the
alternative marketplaces.
SERVICE_URL=[https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/_apis/public/gallery](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/_apis/public/gallery)
ITEM_URL=[https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items)
------
albertzeyer
I also just got access to the beta. It works very seamlessly. You can install
all the VSCode extensions you want.
It came preinstalled with some Python 3.8 venv. The venv was put into the Git
repo root directory, which is a bit strange, as I first needed to modify my
gitignore to ignore that.
Git push directly from the VSCode menu directly worked and pushed the change
back to GitHub, without further setup.
I did not expect that I get a full virtual machine, but it seems so. I edited
some Latex project, and pdflatex was missing, so I did `sudo apt install
texlive-full`, it installed 4GB of packages, and then all worked fine.
I also edited some TensorFlow stuff, and `pip3 install tensorflow` also just
worked.
The side preview (eg. for markdown or Latex) somehow is broken. It stays
blank. However, e.g. you can open the Latex PDF preview in a new browser
window, which works.
The speed just felt native. There was no latency. It feels exactly like native
VSCode.
I very much like it. I guess the side preview will get fixed soon. I will
probably use it for a couple of smaller projects, of different kinds, like
Latex, Markdown notes, smaller Python stuff, or other smaller code projects
where VSCode is fine.
Otherwise, for e.g. Python, I still prefer PyCharm, which has far superior
code browsing and auto-completion. Codespaces with PyCharm would be really
nice! Or maybe VSCode can improve on that. Or maybe VSCode can even reuse the
language server from VSCode. Or at least the inspections. I think this part is
open source, right?
~~~
dlkmp
From the blog post I understand that my vscode configuration is somehow stored
within my browser, not connected to my github account. Is it also stored per
project or globally?
Because either choice brings its own problems. I want the vim plugin to behave
the same on all instances but language-specific plugins or similar only make
sense in the context of a specific project. How does this work currently?
~~~
albertzeyer
It stores settings just as usual in .vscode/settings.json in your project. (I
usually have .vscode in my .gitignore, but maybe it make sense to include it
in the repo.)
Additionally, there is some "Settings-Sync" feature, which I have not really
explored yet. Maybe this is global for all instances.
Btw, the startup time of the codespace VM is a bit annoying. It takes approx
30-60 seconds when it was inactive. And it get automatically suspended after
30 minutes of inactivity.
~~~
WorldMaker
In addition to project local .vscode/settings.json and the still Beta Settings
Sync, it should also pick up your user settings if you set up a dotfiles
repository.
------
sudhirj
The big draw for me is working on the iPad. If you attach the keyboard it
becomes a pretty awesome 'do anything' device, now that you can code on it as
well. Can't build native apps yet, but seems like a future opportunity. Web
apps / PWA development works great, I can just have the app running in a
hovering window / on a quarter of the screen.
~~~
greggman3
It's such a contrast to see this and the post by setzer22 right next to each
other
~~~
georgebarnett
I'm in the process of switching a lot of my work onto iPad.
I don't see a conflict here - I'm still using a "compiler" api, its just
somewhere else (i.e. not on my local device), its just in somebodies cloud. I
can't see why that would go away in the future and I don't really care where
the compiler actually is (if I did, I could self host).
------
desmap
> as a co-founder who is spending less time as a developer, and more time in
> meetings, writing emails, strategy papers, [...] this is just amazing [...]
> I’ve been spending a lot of time getting Windows Subsystem for Linux working
lol, just ssh into a $3 vps as dev machine, real Ubuntu, real tmux/(n)vim, no
setup, no hassle
_Edit: to be fair, Cloud9 was my entry drug into remote development bringing
me to my setup above; the idea is awesome and Github Codespaces is too but
there are just too many limitations and having a real, ever-running Linux vps
everywhere, even on your phone is just magic and even when you write strategy
papers..._
~~~
josephg
I respect developers who make that work, but the development experience over
SSH (vim, etc) is never as good as local development. You can't use vs code.
You have to deal with lag delaying keystrokes. If you download a file and want
to copy it into your dev environment you need to SCP it over. If you want to
test a network service its nontrivial to point your local browser at the
remote machine. If you sleep your laptop and open it again, you need to
reconnect your SSH sessions. Etc etc.
A lot of these issues can be solved with enough extra work setting everything
up - but that completely defeats the point. "no setup, no hassle" is never my
experience.
~~~
desmap
> vs code
check coc.vim, uses vsc's native LSP, 99% of LSP's features
> delaying keystrokes
I have 16ms latency as my 60hz screen does and def less latency than a local
vscode
just use a vps close to where you are
~~~
robotmay
Or use Mosh, which eliminates the keystroke lag.
------
millstone
What are the specs? How much memory, CPU, disk space?
Of course it's in beta so nothing's final, but it would be good to get a sense
of order-of-magnitude.
MS Codespaces starts at 4 GB RAM, 2 cores, 64 GB storage.
------
soco
I'm surprised nobody mentioned GitPod[1] - it's in business since quite a
while in my GitHub projects, powered by VSCode, with terminal, pretty much
everything Codespaces does... Any thoughts on such a comparison? Is GitHub
reinventing the wheel locally?
[1][https://www.gitpod.io/](https://www.gitpod.io/)
~~~
AbuAssar
Gitpod is powered by eclipse theia
~~~
soco
The GitPod own page says "Gitpod is an open-source Kubernetes application
providing prebuilt, collaborative development environments in your browser -
powered by VS Code."
Might be they mean that Eclipse Theia can run VSCode extensions?
~~~
anaganisk
Eclipse thea is a wrapper On Vscode for users who want to build upon it.
------
Normal_gaussian
The pieces are starting to fall in place for a decent virtual first
development experience.
I don't expect my recent laptop purchase, which was a combination of form for
comfort, form for clients to see, and perf for working to last more than 3
years. At a $2500 purchase (most expensive damn laptop I've ever got) I'm
aware that half that price or less would get everything but the perf.
So if a cloud solution was good enough, I have about $400 a year to spend on
it.
It's about $.5 an hour to match perf on EC2, but we should consider:
\- I only need the top perf for minutes at a time. A lot of work could be
browser based, but browsers cant do the heavy lifting
\- I also have a desktop, which I use more than the laptop, is significantly
cheaper and higher perf. Its most useful to me if both envs are the same.
------
mintyc
I still don't understand why people want their code dependent on the web.
I want to share my one true dev environment, but I want to be able to do this
on my private premises setup without internet access.
I don't trust the internet and things like codespaces not to leak my company's
code whether nominally in a private repository or not.
I don't trust using internet dependencies either.
Even something like pair programming etc with a shared view of a project is
very appealing, but again, it needs to be appealing in a private context and
not dependent on public access.
What might be OK for an open source project is unlikely to be true for a
company's valuable IP, but people just seem to get carried away.
Secure first, managed dependencies first. Please.
~~~
evolve2k
“Most of my daily tools are Windows based, so I’ve been spending a lot of time
getting Windows Subsystem for Linux working alongside the rest of my daily
workflow, which comes with its own headaches. So being able to quickly
checkout a branch, make changes and take some load of my local machine seems
very promising.”
Making it easier for more devs to use and stick with Microsoft tech, is, I
think, a core driver behind this initiative.
------
sdn90
I'm pretty excited about what Codespaces is going to bring to the table. I can
already see a lot of good use cases.
I've been using an iPad Pro as a laptop replacement for the past year and
Codespaces makes it a pretty viable development machine. I'd been mulling over
switching back to a laptop, but I'll probably stick to the iPad for now.
Before I was using Blink shell to ssh into my desktop and run Emacs. Not
really ideal for me since I mainly use VS Code on my desktop (which is my main
computer) and hardly touch Emacs anymore.
~~~
patrick91
do you use codespaces in safari? doesn't work that well for me, scroll using a
touchpad doesn't work, and I guess not having a real fullscreen mode is kinda
annoying too
~~~
fallenhitokiri
AFAIK This is a bug that was introduced earlier this year when WebKit changed
how scroll events are handled [https://github.com/cdr/code-
server/issues/1455](https://github.com/cdr/code-server/issues/1455)
If you can add a shortcut to the dev environment to your homescreen it’ll load
the app without safaris control elements which comes relatively close to
fullscreen. (Not sure if this will work the way codespaces is built)
------
alienspaces
"Most of my daily tools are Windows based, so I’ve been spending a lot of time
getting Windows Subsystem for Linux working alongside the rest of my daily
workflow, which comes with its own headaches."
My work place is considering switching providing developers with a MacBook Pro
to a Dell Windows machine. At one point we were all allowed Linux which was
awesome.. Is WSL still painful to use? My prior experience came to a dead end
when I had irreconcilable Docker issues, the fine details I don't quite
remember now other than it had something to do with accessing the host
network. All good now or still meh?
~~~
d3sandoval
With the release of WSL2 and the new versions of Docker that take advantage of
it, I would say that most of the pain around the WSL toolchain has been
resolved.
Compared with trying to get anything working in powershell or dealing with the
slowness of git bash or Cygwin, WSL2 is a breeze.
The only pain point I still have is running Linux GUI applications. It
requires running an XWindow server on the Windows side and letting WSL talk to
it over TCP. Apparently MS is working on that now and hopes to have a solution
later this year on the slow ring of windows update. That'll make running
things like Cypress a hell of a lot easier and (fingers crossed) prevent me
from squinting on HiDPI displays.
------
wildpeaks
One of the things I hope to use Codespace for is a CMS editor directly hooked
into source control and its permissions (given static sites already get
generated by the CI), instead of hosting some admin UI on a thirdparty server
that needs to deal with all the authentication flows, without sacrificing ease
of use for non-devs.
If all goes well, it could even customize the Codespace with VSCode plugins to
fit customer-specific needs (but I have yet to see what limitations there are,
luckily by now I'm quite used to writing plugins for my local VSCode).
So I hope to be in the beta sooner or later.
~~~
greggman3
My problem (so far) with github for CMS is no preview. Maybe preview could be
added to Codespace as a VSC plugin. It needs to access all the media I'm
adding as well. Hmmm, maybe I will look into this :)
~~~
greggman3
AFAIK VSC is explicitly not iOS/Android friendly. Maybe Codespaces will end up
changing that but they make a point of Monaco (The editor portion of VSCode)
not being designed for tablets/mobile
[https://microsoft.github.io/monaco-
editor/](https://microsoft.github.io/monaco-editor/)
------
darumderum
Actually, you can self-host VS Code on a server and access it via browser:
[https://github.com/cdr/code-server](https://github.com/cdr/code-server)
------
swiley
I’d bet this stuff is mostly popular because of really really broken platforms
like iOS.
Also OT: Wow. That’s an entirely new level of broken web design. The links
don’t even work! How can you mess up HTML this badly?
~~~
legostormtroopr
Which ones - we're a pretty lean startup so if you've found some errors, I'd
like to know.
~~~
swiley
(sorry for the long delay, I struggle with compulsive hacker news usage and
have noprocrast on.)
On ios none of the links on that page appeard to work, coming back with
firefox they all do.
~~~
legostormtroopr
Thanks for coming back to clarify, glad to hear its not broken. I'll check the
iOS compatibility anyway.
------
bregma
The pendulum swings again.
Remember mainframes? Remember PCs? Remember thin clients? Rememeber PCs again?
Remember this i a couple of years as the pendulum starts to swing back.
~~~
quicklime
It’s not a pendulum, the industry is always moving towards two goals:
miniaturization (for portability) and centralization (for efficiency).
Sometimes it appears to go “backwards” towards decentralization when there’s a
shift in form factor. This is just to avoid getting stuck at a local optimum.
Eventually we’ll get to the global optimum where everything’s centralized but
available from everywhere.
------
jacquesm
That is a very badly chosen name. Codespaces was a company that went under
because they were (or claimed to have been) hacked.
[https://threatpost.com/hacker-puts-hosting-service-code-
spac...](https://threatpost.com/hacker-puts-hosting-service-code-spaces-out-
of-business/106761/)
If you want to instill confidence this name is not the best start you could
have picked.
~~~
IfOnlyYouKnew
Nobody (but you) remembers a minor company that went under six years ago. And
those that do are unlikely to believe there’s a connection.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Tiny Humanoid Robot Learning to Fly Real Airplanes - eplanit
http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/humanoids/tiny-humanoid-robot-learning-to-fly-real-airplanes
======
tinyhumanoid
I'm not sure how I feel about the IEE Spectrum site having near youtube level
trolls.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
I know my lack of extreme excitement can be off-putting - domino
http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2011/09/my-lack-of-extreme-excitement-can-be-off-putting.html
======
timr
Amen. I'm exactly the same way. There should be a support group.
Worse than being merely off-putting, I think it actively hurts, personally and
professionally, when your don't get as excited over every little thing as your
peers. People take it as a sign of indifference, and judge you for not being a
"team player" or other such nonsense.
I long ago learned that it's always best to keep your mouth shut rather than
saying negative things in public (though it can certainly be a lot less fun).
But the little trap that no one warns you about is that it's possible to be
perceived as negative simply by being less enthusiastic than baseline. And it
drives me _nuts_ when people put me into positions where my only option is to
feign enthusiasm, or to say something negative:
Rude Person: _"isn't Yanni just the most brilliant musician ever? And how
about that Kenny G -- jazz will never be the same, right?"_
Me: _"um. indeed."_
This kind of stuff happens all the time, and it never gets any easier to
navigate.
~~~
Jach
I'd bet that enthusiasm is significantly related to memory, too.
"What's the most exciting project you've worked on?"
"What's your most exciting vacation?"
If I haven't already considered the case for such interview/icebreaker
questions, I just don't tend to remember things on that axis since most of
them kind of clump together around the origin. So if I want to even try and
give an answer they were looking for, I have to do a random search through a
bunch of memories and guess at levels. Or default to the first thing I
remember regardless.
~~~
aangjie
My lack of excitement was interpreted as a lack of passion. And I was told
startups look for passion. So sorry. I found it both annoying and silly.
Silly, because the founder hadn't sounded any more excited than me and passion
is such a vague term for him to look for.
The irony is i can and have gotten extremely excited (mostly when i am not
recalling anything similar) in the past, but found that it is a disappointment
almost always. So nowadays, i try to recall similar things and try to see the
differences.
~~~
amcintyre
> My lack of excitement was interpreted as a lack of passion. And I was told
> startups look for passion. So sorry. I found it both annoying and silly.
I was just told the same thing at a big company. I'm sorry, but I thought I
was hired to develop good software, not be on a cheerleading squad. My
mistake.
------
prpon
I've never been impressed by any of the startups that are released in the last
few years (YC or other wise). Including my own products. I find them run of
the mill, meh kind.
The last product that I thought was cool, was Dropbox and that was a few years
ago.
I was doing this judgment thing while I am trying to promote my own products.
And I realize how hard it is, how difficult it is to find anyone to give a
shit.
I now applaud anyone who gets a semblance of recognition or notoriety.
Gimmicks or otherwise. I know how hard it is to pull those off. May be some
are lucky and are born to attract the world towards them. But most are not.
There must have been an incredible amount of sacrifice, self doubt and
disappointment that I do not know about.
I now celebrate every one's victories, no matter how small they are. I know
how hard they are to come by.
------
5hoom
Gabriel Weinberg is amazing at blogging! He revolutionised the anti-extreme
excitement movement!
Seriously though, it is a good idea not to get swept up in the waves of
hysterical enthusiasm that can follow some personalities and companies.
As the post states, apathy isn't the answer. I think a bit of healthy
skepticism is all that's needed to be able to see past most PR/fanboy noise.
------
frou_dh
In my experience, the difference in _default level of communicated excitement_
between UK and US teams can lead to friction because to the Americans it seems
like the Brits are being surly at all times.
~~~
arethuza
The differences in default humour settings are also _really_ noticeable on
transatlantic conference calls.
------
Bo102010
I'm the same way - I can't remember the last time I became so excited about
something that I became visibly animated.
Like Gabriel says, that doesn't mean I'm not passionate, but others may
interpret it as such, or think that I don't care at all about anything.
When something happens and I feel like there's a risk of someone
misinterpreting my lack of visible reaction as something it isn't... I give a
visible reaction.
That is, if something legitimately good and exciting happens, and I'm the only
one in the room not celebrating, I'll force a smile/laugh/shout if there's
someone present who doesn't know me well enough to understand my stoicism.
I don't feel like a fraud or phony for doing this; doing it is like
accommodating a guest. If I raise my voice when talking to someone who has
hearing loss, I'm not faker, even though I don't normally talk that way. If I
use simple English to talk to someone who primarily speaks Spanish, I'm not
being duplicitous.
It's not a disavowal of my personality or "wiring" to do this; it's a
recognition that not everyone is so familiar with me to understand my
particular emotional set point.
~~~
enjalot
I also share this stoicism, and have a good friend who is the complete
opposite.
I like that this thread both supports people like us, but also reminds that it
has a real effect on communication with others. I like how you put it, it's
like we need to learn to speak their language to keep communicating.
The burden is on us, because our natural state is to not communicate in the
ways they are used to.
My friend has come to understand me and now knows how to read and question me
to pull what he wants out, but I do think that many more people are like him
than you or I.
------
Mithrandir
What I hate is when someone gets uber-excited about x and I don't, they then
get offended because they think I don't like it all that much or that I don't
like them. Yet if I say something critical (constructive or not) about x, they
also get offended, even if they have nothing to do with it. I guess there's no
'right' thing to say.
------
resnamen
I know some people that have the excitement-meter ratcheted up to 11. I don't
put any faith into what they have to say, because the hyperbole makes it so
hard to separate the wheat from the chaff.
I have noticed a similar trend in the last few years of startups - the field's
just so crowded, everybody's trying their hardest to get noticed, so what
better way to attract attention than to bludgeon the word "awesome" into a
bloody pulp?
------
jsmcgd
I've often regarded this as one of the main cultural differences between
Americans and Britons (with Gabriel being more like a Brit in this particular
generali[z|s]ation).
And my conclusion is that this phenomenon cuts both ways. There are benefits
and downsides to being highly enthusiastic or being reserved and I'm glad that
there are different kinds of people on this planet. Kumbaya.
------
sadlyNess
That's what the aikido principle, Living Calmness or Seishi, is, IMO. Just
because i'm not expressing my enthusiasm, doesnt mean i don't think its cool,
I'm just Calm.
<http://www.aikiweb.com/spiritual/reed1.html>
------
cafard
Somebody wrote that the English "His work is quite sound, actually" may be
equivalent to or exceed the American "His work sets the standard we all aspire
to." The fellow writing was a dean at Virginia Tech; I remember the name of
the book as _To Rise Above Principle_.
------
pawn
This was a very fascinating read. As I was reading it, I kept thinking "I
didn't write this, did I?" I've honestly ne er read or heard someone as
accurately describe the way I feel about getting excited about stuff. My
friends tell me I'm weird for not getting more excited - one swears I'm an
android. Truth is though, I feel it's a strengh of character that we can
control our excitement. It allows us to stay rational in situations that
others find impossible.
------
benmmurphy
i think the problem is people find it hard to adjust to other people's
different excitement baselines. if you are less excitable or more excitable it
shouldn't really matter because people should be able to adjust in the long
term to take more notice or less notice. i'd be more suspicious of people who
have high excitement baselines because it seems like it might be more
beneficial to have high excitement than low excitement.
------
michaelochurch
Something I have learned is that at least some varieties of "extreme
excitement" are a sign of character flaws, an indication that someone's trying
to sell something not worth buying. That said, a morose lack of any excitement
is also a negative sign. Best to be in the middle, a bit subtle but with a
keen eye for quality and an affectionate (but not infatuated) respect for
excellence combined with a reasoned aversion to idiocy and disease.
Also, something one learns over time is that the startup/technology world also
has its in-crowds and celebrity bullshit just like any other social ecosystem.
Yes, we have people getting million-dollar checks who don't deserve them; it
happens. The celebrity nonsense is generated by, and it benefits, people of
low character who really don't belong in our world, people who care more about
exclusive parties and velvet ropes than about buckling down and getting shit
done and building something great. The good news is that in 15 years, each and
every one of them will be a bitter, morose has-been. (I made the mistake of
working for a late-'90s dot-com celebrity, someone who spent more money than
most people make in 20 years on a fucking launch party before crashing and
burning a year later. Details withheld since this is my real name.)
------
rokhayakebe
Well then I do have one advise. Do get excited. And next time it happens,
scream a little. Laugh out loud. Hug the person next to you. "There is no
growth in comfort".
~~~
palish
Oh, sod off. Some people simply can't. I know, because I'm one. We're still
excited -- we just don't show it.
Literally, we can't. You may as well be asking us to detach our arm.
~~~
gallamine
You can't perform those physical actions? Were not talking about conjuring a
feeling, were talking about emulation the actions that usually accompany them.
~~~
_delirium
Isn't forcing yourself to emulate an expression pretty weird, though? It
reminds me of the companies that demand everyone be "enthusiastic" and love
their "fun workplace", rather than just allowing people to be quietly good at
their job (<http://www.kmjn.org/notes/funsultants_and_gamification.html>).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Facebook Users Are Fans of Entertainment - jfarmer
http://20bits.com/2008/05/19/facebook-users-are-fans-of-entertainment/
======
barryfandango
Fans of entertainment? So they're entertained by things they find
entertaining. Great headline!
~~~
jfarmer
Thanks for the constructive feedback. Both your wit and your insight serve as
examples for all.
~~~
barryfandango
No need to be so caustic. You wrote a redundant headline. Learn from it and
move on.
------
jfarmer
Any thoughts?
~~~
matt
Here's the real question -- when will Facebook let me customize my profile
with a Tila Tequila themed background?
~~~
jfarmer
Tuesday.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
At What Point Should You Start to Freak Out About Climate Change? (video) - mooreds
http://time.com/5575658/bill-mckibben-climate-change-falter/?xid=tcoshare
======
basicplus2
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Climate Change
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Flavors of Frustration (2017) - tobr
https://www.foddy.net/2017/01/eleven-flavors-of-frustration/
======
sdwr
Wonderful post. I love writing that builds a bridge to internal sensation.
Will the kind of feelings described here ever be modeled accurately?
~~~
rzzzt
Is all frustration felt in different parts of the digestive system?
------
xanamander
Hmm, seems the author forgot to define the seventh flavour.
~~~
js8
I think it was used in games like Doom where they tell you at the end of the
level, how many secrets you could have found and you did not.
------
js8
One of the best flavors of frustration in video games is a creeper in
Minecraft.
It doesn't only force you to start over, to regress on a path predetermined by
the author of the game. It can destroy something unique that you created and
existed only in one copy.
------
rohitbhats
Great post! Reminded me of ‘The art of game design - A book of lenses’ The
first lens, author talks about is ‘lens of emotions’ and mentions that — while
designing games emotions like ‘frustration’ and ‘fear’ play an important role
in defining a users’ experience.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Man Sued Winklevoss Twins in 2009, Saying They Stole Company Stake From Him - aepstein
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40593836/ns/business-us_business/
======
grellas
This suit was filed in December _2009_ and I'm not sure why it is being
reported now as if it were a new filing.
The procedural context is intriguing, though. Among other things, when the
court fights first started, Facebook sued ConnectU, the Winklevoss brothers,
_and_ Mr. Chang for what is known as declaratory relief. This is a special
court remedy by which a party can anticipate that another party will sue for
relief and beat that party to the punch by suing first. The point of the
preemptive suit is to file in a favorable venue and ask the court to consider
and resolve the conflicting claims to the subject matter in dispute (here, the
rights to FB's assets). Thus, Facebook sued all these parties in order to get
a declaration (and judgment) from the court that neither ConnectU nor any
other party had any rights to the FB assets but that, instead, Mr. Zuckerberg
and FB owned all such assets free and clear of any of their claims. This
included asking for such a declaration against Mr. Chang as well.
According to the allegations in Mr. Chang's suit, the Winklevoss brothers
retained counsel to defend the declaratory relief action and also paid for
such attorneys to represent Mr. Chang as well. Mr. Chang then alleges that his
own attorneys sold him out in favor of the Winklevoss brothers by failing to
advise him properly concerning the settlement that was ultimately reached in
the case by which the brothers received a huge payout and he got nothing (he
claims that he and the brothers had formed an entity into which the assets of
ConnectU, including the FB-related rights, were transferred and that he
therefore owned up to half those assets and should have received up to half
the settlement proceeds as a result of this).
So you have claims that the Winklevoss brothers stole what belonged to Mr.
Chang, that Mr. Zuckerberg then stole what belonged to the brothers and Mr.
Chang either separately or jointly, and that the attorneys representing the
brothers and Mr. Chang connived with the brothers to stick the knife into Mr.
Chang while extorting a massive payout from FB. And, to cap it off, the
brothers and ConnectU have moved to set aside this settlement because they
claim the Mr. Zuckerberg misled them about the value of the FB stock when he
did the settlement.
Definitely one for the books.
~~~
ttol
Very thorough research. -Wayne Chang
~~~
ttol
Why am I getting downvoted?
~~~
fizx
I think people don't realize you're actually claiming to be Wayne Chang. They
perceive your statement as a bad attempt at humor (there's a similar reddit
meme).
------
aepstein
The actual court docs, if you're in to that kind of thing:
[http://www.businessinsider.com/irony-alert-man-sues-
winklevo...](http://www.businessinsider.com/irony-alert-man-sues-winklevoss-
twins-says-they-stole-company-stake-from-him-2010-12#chang-is-also-suing-the-
winklevoss-twins-business-partner-divya-narendra-and-their-father-howard-
winklevoss-1)
------
rayval
Per the comments in the link, this story is almost one year old, and was first
covered by Caroline McCarthy of CNET
<http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10424028-36.html>
------
alanh
Summary: The man (Chang) said ConnectU (the Winklevoss venture) joined with
his company and the litigation was an asset, but he received none of the
settlement.
An interesting argument. IANAL but it sounds like a compelling case.
------
ajaimk
Hmmm the wonderful sound of irony.
------
candre717
If Wayne was a programmer - a good one at that -, why did the twins hire
Zuckerberg
------
arrty
Why did he wait this long?
~~~
MichaelApproved
Filing a lawsuit isn't always the first action, typically it's the last
resort. There could have been negotiations and other attempts to come to a
settlement before finally suing in court.
------
lotusleaf1987
Awesome, this has to be karma.
------
AndrewMoffat
_cues Yakety Sax_
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
What other communities do you frequent online? - Tichy
======
Tichy
Wondering if you are taking part in any other online communities. Myself, I
don't even know many places to visit. Sometimes I indulge in discussions on
Slashdot-like pages (not a really community), another place is a closed
community run by a friend, with mostly other friends from real life. How many
other people have a place like that? Do many people just use the social pages
(MySpace etc) for that? Somehow I doubt it, it doesn't feel the same.
It just would be great to find likeminded people for the one or other thing.
For exmaple sometimes I enjoy discussing economics, but I couldn't find a good
online community for that yet.
------
Laurentvw
In general, Digg, Facebook, Youtube, and also the TechCrunch forums for
startup related discussion ( <http://forums.techcrunch.com> ).
I also visit a lot of Web2.0/startup blogs (Valleywag, Read/WriteWeb,
FoundRead, Mashable, Guy Kawasaki, Webware), but I guess those are not real
"communities".
------
mattculbreth
<http://reddit.com>
<http://programming.reddit.com>
------
zaidf
crooksandliars, webhostingtalk
------
papersmith
Usenet.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Interpretable Machine Learning - skilled
https://christophm.github.io/interpretable-ml-book/
======
lalaland1125
"Interpretability" is probably one of the most misunderstood topics in ML. The
key with interpretability is that it's actually an Human Computer Interaction
(HCI) problem, not a statistics or math problem.
The problem is that people have particular tasks that they need to accomplish
and the goal of interpretability techniques is to help them solve those tasks.
This is somewhat similar thematically to how a keyboard layout can help
someone achieve their typing speed goals. The two main tasks that
interpretability is usually geared towards is model error detection and
hypothesis generation. In model error detection, the goal is that a human
wants to be able to better evaluate (improve their accuracy) at detecting
whether or not a model is "incorrect" or not. Hypothesis generation is more
about the generation of testable causal hypothesis that can them be
manipulated to manipulate the outcome.
The real trouble in the interpretability field is that very few people
actually evaluate on those end tasks. The only paper I know of that did such
as evaluation had a negative result
([https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.07810](https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.07810)) in that
the "interpretability" did not improve the ability of people to detect
incorrect model predictions. As it stands, there is currently no reason to
believe that any interpretability techniques actually work in helping people
achieve the tasks they care about.
~~~
Der_Einzige
This is plain wrong.
[https://arxiv.org/abs/1602.04938](https://arxiv.org/abs/1602.04938)
A simple counter-example. A really neat library called "eli5" and
specifically, it's white-boxing functionality for NLP and CV applications does
a great job of helping one figure out if their model is learning "incorrect"
information in its prediction pipeline. The paper I link show why this does a
good job of improving user trust in models, which is your second point on
human-computer interaction
[https://eli5.readthedocs.io/en/latest/tutorials/black-box-
te...](https://eli5.readthedocs.io/en/latest/tutorials/black-box-text-
classifiers.html)
For instance, one can run the same TextExplainer algorithm on a word embedding
powered model, which encodes its features in some N dimensional space that
doesn't correspond to anything that a human understands directly.
TextExplainer can reverse engineer which words were most important for a
classifier predicting x sample in y class, when this would otherwise be
difficult to do (as is the case for basically all state of the art NLP models)
All you need to do is comb through your models erroneous predictions with
Textexplainer and you can figure out what "incorrect" information is being
learned. I found out this way that punctuation is pretty bad for generalizable
NLP, and should be preprocessed out in most circumstances. I can take the
_really simple_ vizualizations and show them to managers and suits to justify
why a model was wrong somewhere. This is _value_ gained from
_interpretability_
This absolutely is an interpretability technique which actually helps people
achieve a task they care about. The only cavet of this method is that the
white-box model which immitates the black-box model isn't 100% accurate, but
its accuracy is a hyper-paramater.
PS. If you look into who the developers of eli5 are - it's an agency which
takes money from DARPA and works with sigint agencies. Eli5 and text-explainer
can work on any type of black-box model. Spooks want to crack open the models.
That should be your signal that there's valuable information to be gained from
interpretable machine learning.
~~~
SiempreViernes
As I understand it, DARPA funds a lot of things and they aren't that stingy
with money either, so I wouldn't view that as some sort of golden indicator of
importance.
For instance, the DARPA grand challenge is a impressive source of footage of
robots falling over for no apparent reason...
------
gajeam
I was doing academic research on this exact topic and Chris' is the only book
that I found that breaks down the techniques one at a time this way. This book
is nothing short of brilliant.
~~~
mlevental
brilliant? really? who didn't already know that linear models and random
forests were interpretable and that you can look at feature layers in nets?
I'm not usually a naysayer but I feel like
[https://youtu.be/FSubdmYGVEI?t=105](https://youtu.be/FSubdmYGVEI?t=105)
~~~
anthony_doan
To be fair linear models are statistical models and many of those are
explainable.
Random Forest is not explainable per say... A decision tree is explainable but
an ensemble of it is not to say explainable in at least statistical models
sense.
In linear models the coefficients give you a linear numerical sense and also
linear associations where as Random Forest give you OOB and feature importance
which isn't as clear cut. It also really dependent on the quality of data and
most machine learning that aren't statistical models depend heavily on a large
amount of data to overcome the model's weakness (random forest being selection
bias).
Statistic, to toot my horn a little, have very vast breath and depth in
inferences/explainable with huge literatures on it including different fields
(e.g. econometrics with time series, biostatistic with longitudinal, survival
analysis, etc..). There are also techniques on building parsimonious models
too like logistic regression with purposeful selection by Dr. Lemeshow and Dr.
Hosmer. And different ways to build inference models versus
predictive/forecast model.
I think many people know a general idea but not in depth because I mean
there's a field with many deep rabbit holes.
------
BayezLyfe
Nice perspective in "Interpreting AI Is More Than Black And White":
[https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexanderlavin/2019/06/17/beyon...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexanderlavin/2019/06/17/beyond-
black-box-ai/)
------
r0f1
Nice book, and already included in this awesome list:
[https://github.com/r0f1/datascience](https://github.com/r0f1/datascience).
------
0xd171
Something that is often left out when talking about interpretability is the
relationships between the predictors and the dependent variable in
simulations. For example:
\- I fit a complex, difficult to interpret model to a dataset, attempting for
forecast my sales (structure of the dataset largely irrelevant for this
example)
\- I take an entry from the training set and decrease the value of some price
attribute by 15%, leaving everything else unchanged
\- I try to predict the sales for the entry I just created using the trained
model
\- What happens if the model now predicts lower sales? There is a clear
relationship between price and sales volume going in the opposite direction.
Would lowering my prices by 15% really lead to a decrease in my sales? How do
you track what's happening in the model to create this forecast? Did I use the
wrong model? Was my training data incorrect? How do you explain this to a
client or to a product user?
------
ivanech
Wow, this is great - I wish I'd had this book a year ago. I actually ended up
making ICE plots (book chapter: [https://christophm.github.io/interpretable-
ml-book/ice.html](https://christophm.github.io/interpretable-ml-
book/ice.html)) without knowing this was something people did.
------
0815test
> Interpretable Machine Learning
...is called statistics. At least, _truly_ interpretable machine learning is.
The whole point of that 'machine learning' (or god forbid, 'data science')
moniker, as opposed to 'computational statistics', is a way of saying "we have
no idea what we're doing!" It's magic!
~~~
0xd171
Not really. I get the dislike for the hyped up terms but there are many
companies that work in ML/data science (and hire ML engineers or data
scientists) that do know what they're doing. And there are distinctions,
though sometimes subtle, between the terms.
------
sdl
I think the paper "Explaining Explanations in AI" by Brent Mittelstadt
([https://arxiv.org/abs/1811.01439v1](https://arxiv.org/abs/1811.01439v1))
gives a really good overview of the different goals and approaches.
------
wespiser_2018
I cannot stress how important this stuff is for machine learning in production
systems. If your ML problem interacts with a client, interpretation matters,
and this book gives you a good collection of tools to get started with!
------
FPGAhacker
Tangential, but I like the website. Has a similar look and feel to the Rust
book. Same backend?
~~~
this_is_not_you
GitBook. In this case it uses an R package to render it.
[https://github.com/christophM/interpretable-ml-
book#renderin...](https://github.com/christophM/interpretable-ml-
book#rendering-the-book)
------
maddy1512
Nice, except for the first short story about medical pumps! It was quite
weird. :D
------
iseahound
The "Interpretability" part is really just philosophy.
~~~
avmich
Philosophy, at least the real one, isn't "just". It's almost by definition
deepest and widest study of what's possible to study, with all consequences
and offsprings like sciences.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
SHOW HK: Changed phone can't login my gmail account ever again. Any help? - ttty2
Just trying to log in my old gmail account with correct email and password and they ask me to verify my old phone number and the date I created that account.<p>Without this information, the account is completely lost forever. Thank you Google!<p>What can I do?
======
mkbkn
Nothing can be done. It's Google's stupid policy.
In my case, I knew the username, password, the date when it was created plus I
have access to the backup email id (non-Google), but no phone access. Still,
Google refused access.
~~~
ttty2
Oh crap. I really need to move on from them, I can't accept this anymore from
them.
~~~
lighthouse16
Take a look at ProtonMail.com
------
throwaway5250
Yeah, lost my account this way, even though it would have been blindingly
obvious who I was. Even had a Googler buddy go to bat. No dice.
If it absolutely, positively has to work, don't do it with a Google account.
------
bigblind
contact them. If you get it wrong there's usually a link to contact support.
~~~
ttty2
Last I heard, Google has no support. Can you please provide me a link to a
support page/email/phone number? Thank you
~~~
OafTobark
Not OP but Google does offer support for their paid products. With something
like gmail, you might be extremely limited to getting help if you can reach a
Googler. Worse case you can purchase one of their paid products in an attempt
to reach a human being but I don’t know if that will help at all. Probably
not.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Microsoft gets SaaS-y with Albany - maurycy
http://venturebeat.com/2008/04/18/microsoft-gets-saas-y-with-albany/
======
wmf
This doesn't look like SaaS to me. It's software rental. I'm sure a lot of
customers don't know what the difference is, though, and it probably benefits
MS to confuse the two.
------
maurycy
This is a huge news when it comes to popularizing SaaS software. They'll
create, or at least hugely expand, enterprise SaaS market.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
BlackBerry Met With Facebook Last Week to Discuss Potential Bid - kloncks
http://online.wsj.com/news/article_email/SB10001424052702304655104579165781081533064-lMyQjAxMTAzMDIwOTEyNDkyWj
======
boyter
I always thought that Blackberry would be a strategic buy for Oracle. They
would then be in a position to provide near end to end business services for
enterprises assuming assuming they started manufacturing laptops and PC's or
acquired someone already in that space.
------
redthrowaway
Print version for those that prefer their text to be text:
[http://online.wsj.com/news/article_email/SB10001424052702304...](http://online.wsj.com/news/article_email/SB10001424052702304655104579165781081533064-lMyQjAxMTAzMDIwOTEyNDkyWj#printMode)
A word to the wise for those who don't: find a nice, quite corner of the
screen, and leave your cursor there. WSJ seems to think that every single
element on that page needs to have a big tooltip that jumps out and blocks the
article whenever your cursor grazes it.
------
selmnoo
> Cisco, Google and SAP are among the other tech firms reportedly weighing bid
Fascinating. All the while we here at HN thought Blackberry was just done,
done, and done, we see all these companies lining up with interest to buy?
While we thought it wouldn't be acquired by any serious buyer, the 'Warren
Buffet of Canada' makes the move?
We just live in another world don't we. Does anyone want to comment on this --
the big difference in our line of thinking (the typical HN reader) and that of
the finance world on the outside?
~~~
recuter
BBRY has a market cap of ~4B, and 1.5B in cash still. So really they are being
picked up for practically nothing.
Edit: Make that 2.6B in cash apparently (as the article says).
~~~
bdc
BBRY Market cap today: $4.3 bn
Cash: "about $2.6 bn in cash"
Patents: "estimate [...] between $1 bn and $3 bn"
That leaves not a whole lot of value in the company's other assets after the
cash and patents - their personnel, supply chains and branding are valued at
almost zero in the market. I'm kind of amazed by that.
~~~
kamkazemoose
Maybe they have some other debts to balance out their assets?
~~~
abrahamsen
According to the article, no.
> BlackBerry is sitting on about $2.6 billion in cash and has no debt,
------
programminggeek
BlackBerry still has millions of customers and a pretty decent OS built,
someone could buy them and probably do pretty well, especially someone like
Lenovo, Oracle, Dell, IBM, etc.
------
jjoe
This somewhat explains (but doesn't justify) their desperate, last minute push
of BBM across competing platforms. With real subscriber cash flow taking a
nose dive, reasoning now is let's grab user market share and look good for a
sell out pulling the social network card that's BBM.
------
samstave
FB phone an epic flop - let's buy the dinosaur of the market!
Id love to see FB buy rim just to see the debacle of throwing their hubris at
the HW and see how widely it misses the mark.
------
taylor-smith
A usatoday article? C'mon
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Hover: Possible Unauthorized Access - chmars
I have just noticed the following mail from Hover in my inbox:<p><i>Dear Hover Customer,</i><p><i>We are writing to let you know that we reset your password today. If you are unable to log into your Hover account, you will need to use the “I forgot my password” option on the sign in page to change your password.</i><p><i>We did this as a precautionary measure because there appears to have been a brief period of time when unauthorized access to one of our systems could have occurred. We have no evidence at all that any Hover accounts have been accessed, but even the possibility that this could have happened moved us to err on the side of extreme caution.</i><p><i>We apologize for the inconvenience.</i><p><i>Sincerely,</i><p><i>The Hover Team</i>
======
natch
Super misleading title on this post, given what the email says. For the
record, at the time of this comment, the title is "Hover hacked".
~~~
chmars
I am open to suggestions, I did not intend to use a 'super misleading title'.
For now, I have changed to title to 'possible unauthorized access'.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How much do you earn (and save) as a software engineer in bay area? - symbolepro
- Please tell your no. of years of experience.<p>- And whether it is a startup or fortune 500 company.
======
kull
Answers to this question may give people wrong impression if you do not
include a cost of living in the bay area. Salaries are very much connected to
the local economy and a cost of living.
~~~
symbolepro
Thats why asked - How much you earn and how much you save.
Cost of Living = Earning - tax - saving
Isnt it obvious?
------
symbolepro
From my friends who work in Bay area, I will list their details.
\- Google, 3 yrs, 137k + bonus (~10k), saves 50-60k yearly
\- Uber, 2 years, 125k + bonus (~10k), saves 40-50k yearly
~~~
itamarst
They also get stock or options, though... and for Google that'll be a lot of
liquid money.
~~~
symbolepro
How much stock do google employees get yearly 9n average which is liquid ?
~~~
itamarst
Varies, but short version is "a lot".
~~~
cam3ham
$200K - $500K vested over 4 years.
So approx. ~$100K average per year.
~~~
symbolepro
And after 4 years?
~~~
cam3ham
not sure, maybe someone else ca chime in.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Learn the ropes of Mobile Services with Brent Simmons (iOS/Windows Azure) - leejoramo
http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/mobile/ios/
======
leejoramo
Interesting to see long time Mac/iOS developer Brent Simmons collaborating
with Microsoft in this way. Is MS beginning to adapt to the realities of
mobile? I see that they also have resources for Android.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Mobilizing an ER department to handle a mass casualty incident - tptacek
http://epmonthly.com/article/not-heroes-wear-capes-one-las-vegas-ed-saved-hundreds-lives-worst-mass-shooting-u-s-history/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosvitals&stream=top-stories
======
tptacek
I felt like the title of this story was almost certainly going to generate
threads from people reacting to the headline without reading it, which would
suck, because this is from start to finish an amazing story about incident
response and improvisation. So I synthesized a title from the intro paragraph.
A bunch of the terms used in this piece (like "crumping", which apparently
means dying without doctor permission) are emergency medical jargon, all easy
to look up.
------
karlkatzke
Wow, lots of impressive thinking ahead of time. I’m heading up our incident
management team at work and this is definitely going in my presentations.
A few things that jumped out:
\- Thinking ahead to how he was going to handle an MCA probably saved dozens
if not hundreds, even if he made some choices that he shouldn’t have if you’re
sitting in our present armchairs.
\- This is great demonstration of why the incident commander needs good
oversight of the whole situation, and why not everyone makes a good incident
commander. The three doctors in Station 1 should have felt empowered to solve
the bottlenecks, but they did not... they just kept working within established
procedure. That’s ok. You need good operators. But the good leaders in
incidents are the people who know how and when to establish and communicate
new standard procedures.
\- Getting ahead of and staying ahead of a cascade failure is a difficult
thing to manage, one that we don’t often accomplish in operations/sre
incidents. I know I’ve had one or two incidents like that, mostly DDoS or
other attack types. This story shows the value again of staying frosty and
planning to handle your next problem before it snowballs and hits you from
behind.
~~~
JshWright
> This story shows the value again of staying frosty and planning to handle
> your next problem before it snowballs and hits you from behind.
My experience in emergency services is my greatest asset in ops work. So, half
the datacenter has crashed, and the other half is about to buckle under the
load. Is anyone literally going to die in the next 5 minutes? Ok, cool, then
let's just sort this out and get on with our lives.
------
gizmonty
I was pretty astonished by this article. I work in the medical field in
Australia and I can’t imagine any hospital here responding and coping in this
manner. Our trauma is generally from car crashes and only rarely from guns. I
think the victims of this incident were very lucky that this guy was running
the show that night. What I would like to know is how well they coped with
record keeping and infection control. These are the things that I find tend to
get deprioritised in a crisis.
~~~
JshWright
I work in EMS in the US (upstate New York).
Generally there is an "MCI kit", which has a form that can be attached to the
patient (an elastic band around the wrist or ankle, generally). That form will
contain whatever information we know about the patient, interventions thus
far, etc. It stays with them throughout the process (in the triage and
treatment areas, to the OR, etc). That being said, documentation is often a
tertiary concern at best in large scale events like this.
As far as infection control goes, the OR is obviously using standard sterile
procedures. In the ER, infection control is mostly "changing your gloves a
lot" (be sure to put on two pairs, any only change the top pair, as your hands
are going to get really sweating, and putting a new pair of gloves on your
bare hands is going to be impossible).
~~~
js2
> documentation is often a tertiary concern at best in large scale events like
> this...
_People came in so grievously injured and so many at a time that Fisher, who
is the medical head of trauma services for the hospital, and his colleagues
used markers, writing directly on patients, to do triage.
When someone arrived, an emergency room physician would mark their wounds. It
was quick, simple and impersonal by necessity.
Fisher says in those first few hours, the patients were functionally anonymous
to the surgeons trying to save their lives. "There's no paper charts prepared
for all those patients," says Fisher. "No documentation, so literally they
just write on the patient. Just write where the wounds are."_
[https://www.npr.org/sections/health-
shots/2017/10/04/5555849...](https://www.npr.org/sections/health-
shots/2017/10/04/555584905/sheer-number-of-casualties-makes-las-vegas-count-
difficult)
> As far as infection control goes...
How soon do patients get antibiotics administered?
~~~
JshWright
Yeah, that's another common technique in extreme circumstances. You can
sharpie a lot of info onto someone's forehead...
------
JshWright
Let me preface this by saying I am in no way trying to "Monday morning
quarterback" this incident. This doctor's decisive actions saved dozens of
lives.
To facilitate discussion though, I'd like to highlight this section:
"By textbook standards, some of these first arrivals should have been black
tags, but I sent them to the red tag area anyway. I didn’t black tag a single
one. We took everybody that came in—I pulled at least 10 people from cars that
I knew were dead—and sent them straight back to Station 1 so that another doc
could see them."
There is a reason the "textbook" calls for a black tag. The simplest
definition of a "mass casualty incident" is when you need more resources than
you have. Sending those dead patients to the treatment area was a waste of the
most critical resource they had (the time and attention of medical providers).
It is likely some outcomes were worsened by that waste of resources.
~~~
mathgenius
It seems like he just wanted a second opinion. Maybe he was just seeing too
many people arriving to trust his own judgement about the black tag.
~~~
scoot
That sentence caught my eye too, and I would have commented on it if JshWright
hadn't. _" If the two of us ended up thinking that this person was dead, then
I knew that it was a legitimate black tag."_ Sending them _all_ back to the
red-tag area doesn't get you a _second_ opinion, it simply passes the
responsibility to someone else.
A better explanation might by that by taking this approach, he was tiering the
triage, in much the same way that the neurosurgeon in the article's comments
mentioned that they were able to "neuro triage" patients sent to them.
I can't begin to imagine handling this type of situation.
~~~
khed
There are a couple reasons why he might do this that I can think of.
1). He didn't know how many people were going to come in or how serious they
would be. Triage in MCI does depend to a certain degree on what your facility
is capable of and the expected volume and status of patients. If he
underestimated the volume or criticality of the patients about to come in he
might have put more into the red pod than he would have otherwise.
Underestimating seems plausible in this case because this was the worst mass
shooting in history in the US.
2). Medicolegally he might have a fear that he would be judged harshly if he
didn't automatically try to save everyone.
------
ja27
Here in our county (that includes Tampa), we have an annual mass casualty
drill. The larger hospitals actually get mock patients (high school students,
some in makeup) transported and practice triage. Every capable facility in the
county, even little surgical centers in strip malls, practice communicating
with emergency dispatch and "tabletop" how they would handle trauma patient
overflow. Fire rescue practices coordinating patient transport to send more
minor cases to the more remote facilities. They rotate where they actually do
the drill so they get experience working in the different sports arenas,
airport, etc.
~~~
bbarn
When I was in the military, between boot camp and going to our first school,
we were en masse "volunteered" to be patients in a mass casualty drill at a
hospital in Chicago. I'm not sure if it was really worth the trouble. Most of
the triage staff rolled their eyes and looked annoyed when we showed up. It
was a lot of effort - probably 20 busses full of 19-25 year olds staged in
McCormick place all day, trained, made up to look wounded - I can't imagine
what it cost to put on, and it seemed to only piss off the staff.
~~~
arthur_pryor
could've still been helpful training, even if they didn't want to be doing it.
------
forg0t_username
Reminder to donate blood, this is what allows medical professionals to save
lives, be it in dramatic incidents such as this one, or in more mundane
settings.
UK: [https://my.blood.co.uk/](https://my.blood.co.uk/)
US: [http://www.redcrossblood.org/donating-
blood](http://www.redcrossblood.org/donating-blood)
~~~
tehlike
I wanted to, but it sucks to be coming from a country which is in the
"restricted donation" list.
[http://www.militaryblood.dod.mil/Donors/can_i_donate.aspx](http://www.militaryblood.dod.mil/Donors/can_i_donate.aspx)
Good thing is i don't have a rare blood type.
~~~
jopsen
That doesn't suck.
I'm glad they don't want my blood, I really dislike vampires.
I'm guessing it makes sense as a rough way to limit infectious deceases. You
need only look to China to see how far something like AIDS can spread if you
don't do blood donations right. If I recalls correctly they infected something
like 50k people by accident.
Notice, that the next infectious decease like AIDS might not have been
discovered yet. Hence, why a lot of precautions around blood donations makes
sense.
~~~
tehlike
I believe some of this for the europe related restrictions was due to mad cow,
but i am not entirely sure. It was weird times for sure.
~~~
kaybe
Probably. In Germany you are unwanted if you were in UK in a similar
timeframe, with Mad Cow Disease given as reason.
By now we also have some Malaria risk areas in Greece and the Italian Po
valley.
~~~
jopsen
and MSR
but does this really exclude enough people to be problematic, if not... then
it better to have too many restrictions..
------
jxramos
Learned some pretty interesting concept on this one with the notion of "Golden
Hour":
In emergency medicine, the golden hour (also known as golden time) refers to a
time period lasting for one hour, or less, following traumatic injury being
sustained by a casualty or medical emergency, during which there is the
highest likelihood that prompt medical treatment will prevent death.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_hour_(medicine)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_hour_\(medicine\))
~~~
martinmunk
At least here in Denmark, "Golden Hour" is no longer thought as a rule of
thumb to the new recruits in the national emergency agency "DEMA"
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danish_Emergency_Management_Ag...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danish_Emergency_Management_Agency))
Time is off course at a premium, but there seems to not be anything special
about the 60 minute mark.
~~~
cstejerean
Wikipedia says the same thing in the linked page so it’s not just Denmark.
> It is well established that the patient's chances of survival are greatest
> if they receive care within a short period of time after a severe injury;
> however, there is no evidence to suggest that survival rates drop off after
> 60 minutes
It’s a rule of thumb though and in this case it wasn’t so much about survival
rates specifically but rather the condition worsening for those with orange
and yellow tags during that time frame.
------
js2
I was looking for an interview I heard with someone from this hospital and
could not find it, but I did come across this piece with quotes from many of
the staff (it's complementary to the submission):
[https://hcatodayblog.com/2017/10/06/sunrise-hospital-
staff-s...](https://hcatodayblog.com/2017/10/06/sunrise-hospital-staff-share-
their-experience-after-las-vegas-shooting/)
------
x0x0
Even on this, the useful idiots are out trying to claim the vegas murders were
fake...
> _FB_
> _Dr. Anson,_
> _Did the bullet wounds you saw match the caliber of weapon used in the
> shooting? I ask because wounds would have been more severe than what is
> being reported. Thanks._
====
> _Dr Menes: There were single bullet-pass through-multiple extremity wounds,
> entrance /exit through narrow torso, and entrance only through dense torso
> consistent with 5.56 ballistics._
------
deepandmeaning
This story is incredible.
The standout's for me were:
* Plan - have a plan in place in advance * Flow - recognise and shift bottlenecks + understand the impact to the system * Prioritise - rank what is critical, urgent, or standard - and be ruthless * Process - simplify the processes to make it more effective and efficient * Shift - innovate and adapt in the face of changing circumstances.
These sound like no brainers, but reading the story you get a sense of how one
individual pushing these forward in a tough situation had an incredibly
powerful impact.
How could we apply these powerful lessons more widely?
~~~
walshemj
I am surprised from the article that all hospitals don't have plans in place
for major incidents and its only his experience with the SWAT team that led
him to devise the plan before time.
Also I know in the UK they do role-play major incidents out using the police
and emergency services to test there plans.
BTW this guy and his team deserve an honour of some sort
~~~
JshWright
Hospitals absolutely have plans like this in place. He certainly leaned on his
prior experiences to apply lessons learned previously (as we all do), but
there was absolutely a plan in place outside of his personal experiences.
The trauma center in our region holds similar "mock incidents" at least once a
year. Certainly nothing to this scale (there's just no way to practice
that...), but they routinely run drills with dozens of patients and simulate
various in-hospital system failures.
------
razakel
Wow. That guy's forward-thinking probably saved dozens of lives. Hats off to
him.
------
PuffinBlue
> For years I had been planning how I would handle a MCI, but I rarely shared
> it because people might think I was crazy.
I should state up front I'm ex-military and volunteer for a disaster response
organisation.
I find this to be incredible. Who in their right mind would ostracise a trauma
professional for conducting such planning? In fact, who who dare not _support_
such a professional to plan for such eventualities?
I actually can't quite believe the implication here, that there is a systemic
reluctance to plan for such events. Maybe things are different in my country
(UK) but this 'worry' the doctor has seems frankly absurd!
> The first thing I did was tell the secretaries I needed every operating room
> open. I needed every scrub tech, every nurse, every perfusionist, every
> anesthesiologist, every surgeon—they all need to get here right away.
I thought I'd misread the article, maybe I still have, but this sentence seems
to back up the claim no MCI plan was already in place.
It may be a product of our troubled history and extensive threat of terrorism
(including the Irish dissident threat) but here in the UK Major Incident
Response planning is practised extensively, and not just for medical
emergencies. Planning is in place at almost every level to deal with such
incidents. Almost every large institution, let alone just hospitals/emergency
services, will deliver a 'Major Incident Response plan' (just Google 'Major
Incident Response Plan UK' and you'll get many many examples), which will
almost universally include a Mass Casualty Response Plan.
Indeed, there is even an NHS Tactical Command Framework in place to deal with
Mass Casualty Incidents that will usually span several local health trusts and
setup a coordinated response framework dedicated to responding to incidents
like these.
Equally, all local governments departments have well rehearsed responses,
integrating tightly into the UK's Gold/Silver/Bronze Command response
coordination structure. Usually our emergency services, military and hospitals
will have physically practised inter-operability via joint exercise and will
utilise other joint working practices like JESIP and the METHANE reporting
system.
I know for a fact the US follows the very well planned ICS system which links
into both FEMA and local/state level emergency planning. I find it absolutely
unfathomable that no well rehearsed and fully scoped plan of similar
thoroughness to the UK was ready to go and instead this doctor simply made it
up on the hoof.
Despite my own disbelief, it seems this Dr. actually did have to make it up as
he went along - what an amazing, stunning personal achievement, and what a
devastating systemic failure.
------
rb666
Amazing read for sure. I wonder how many of these patients have to pay for
their life with bankruptcy. USA! USA! USA..., etc.
------
WillReplyfFood
Only tangential related: But the quality improvements in ER has saved
countless potential "murder" victimes over the last two decades. The problems
these victims phase, after they have been patched up are severe. Chronic pain,
disabilitys and hardships. But they are not murders, so its not so bad in the
city of <place-name-here>. We should write into the news how bad the victims
future prospects are limited. Not just a "wounded", but "wounded, with future
limitations on autarc living"
~~~
jopsen
Yeah, the news often only counts the dead, but there were over 500 people
shot.
------
aerovistae
i link this, nobody upvotes. tptacek links this, front page. CONSPIRACY.
~~~
grzm
It's not uncommon for a given piece to be submitted a number of times before
it "takes" (if it does at all). Also, it looks like both times this has been
submitted the article title has been different. It might get more visibility
if it's submitted by a well-known HN member, but overall, I wouldn't read too
much into it.
~~~
aerovistae
i kid
~~~
jopsen
try using an emoji next time you sarcastically cry conspiracy.
~~~
ryanlol
How would you know if he had? Or is this some advanced sarcasm.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
India's Philanthropist-Surgeon Delivers Cardiac Care Henry Ford-Style - kanamekun
http://www.npr.org/blogs/goatsandsoda/2015/01/05/375142025/india-s-philanthropist-delivers-cardiac-surgery-henry-ford-style
======
kanamekun
These guys are using the same "pay what you can" model that Dr. V is using to
treat eyes at Aravind. Amazing that two separate hospital systems in India are
able to offer free or cheap surgeries to poor people, while very few hospital
systems in the US can say the same:
<< "We do about 30 to 35 major heart surgeries a day. And we have never
refused a single patient because they have no money."
The fees from the rich offset the costs for the poor. Patients with money pay
several thousand dollars for open heart surgery. But patients with little
money — and little hope of raising any — pay very little. They are 60 percent
of the cases. >>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
So much for "Rhapsody won't bow to Apple's subscription policy" - boctor
http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/sof/2227161489.html
======
boctor
2/15: Rhapsody won't bow to Apple's subscription policy
<http://engt.co/gY3gHO> 2/21: Rhapsody posts Craigslist ad for iPhone
developer <http://j.mp/dVv4vQ> Screenshot in case ad is removed:
<http://twitpic.com/42fl5d>
------
minalecs
it would be disappointing if these companies don't stand together and stand
firm. If everyone moves over to the other platforms, people will come.
------
schraeds
great find
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
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