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Don't Be a Sucker (1947) – U.S. War Department warning against populism - seycombi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag40XYIj4hE&feature=youtu.be
======
dTal
This is a wonderful piece of work. It could even be called defining. So it's
curious that it says at the end:
"This film will not be shown to the general public without permission of the
War Department"
Wiki tells me "the film was made to make the case for the desegregation of the
United States armed forces", which lends some interesting historical context.
------
krona
The video naturally needs to be understood within the historical context, and
makes a powerful point about the consequences of nationalism as a political
movement.
Google defines populism as "support for the concerns of ordinary people",
which to me sounds like what a representative form of government is designed
to do.
I would argue that it's the opposite that we need to be more wary of;
governments (politicians) who don't listen to the concerns of their
electorate, no matter how unpalatable they may be.
Over time this leads to deep seated resentment, the feeling of being
marginalized within ones own community, and so on. Ultimately this opens the
door to all kinds of demagoguery; the politicians end up with the very thing
they were trying to avoid, except they're no longer in power.
------
adfm
Fascism doesn't end well.
Here's proof from the U.S. Army Signal Corps:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw4noLIFgGQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw4noLIFgGQ)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How to Build Links Without Hoaxes, Whiteboards, or Other Tomfoolery - mattgratt
http://grattisfaction.com/2010/08/5-ways-to-build-links-without-hoaxes-whiteboards-or-other-tomfoolery/
======
bingaman
Linkbait article is linkbait.
~~~
mattgratt
Yes. It has everything - a cute girl, an Arrested Development reference, an
infographics, two parody videos, and an irrelevant opening referencing a meme.
You are completely correct.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Who's to Blame for the 16 GB RAM Limit on the New MacBook Pros: Apple or Intel? - grzm
http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/10/31/intel-mbp-ram
======
pcurve
I'm a little bit surprised at this outrage considering there are very few PC
laptops that offer 32GB+ DDR4. XPS15 offers 32GB but its battery life is
rather poor.
Thinkpad P50 offers 64gb with tested battery life of over 8 hours, but it
clocks in at 5.8lbs.
I'm a pretty heavy duty user and I have 3 machines that each has 8GB. (PC, PC,
Mac). What the hell are people doing on their 13.3 - 15inch laptop that
requires 32GB?
~~~
purple-dragon
I have 16GB of RAM in my MBP. As I type this I'm running at 15.25GB used. I'm
not running any VMs, nor am I running any Adobe Products. Chrome, Spotify,
Slack, Visual Studio Code, HipChat, Keynote, Sketch... this is a typical, yet
light application load for me.
~~~
sjtgraham
\- Chrome
\- Spotify (Chromium Embedded Framework)
\- Slack (MacGap (WebKit))/(Electron (Chromium Embedded Framework))
\- Visual Studio Code (Electron (Chromium Embedded Framework))
Notice a pattern? :)
~~~
purple-dragon
Yes, the pattern is not lost on me :-)
------
legohead
After hearing people complain about the new Macbook limit on 16gb RAM, I went
to check out what the Surface Book offers -- which is, also, a max of 16gb
RAM.
~~~
coldtea
And which nobody even thought of raising as an issue...
~~~
dlss
Because in the windows market, surface isn't a laptop targeting video editors,
game programmers, etc. It's a thin and light entry. Contrast with lenovo
portable workstations which got 64gb over a year ago:
[http://www.theverge.com/2015/8/11/9129681/lenovo-skylake-
xeo...](http://www.theverge.com/2015/8/11/9129681/lenovo-skylake-xeon-
notebooks-p50-p70)
Apple produces every osx compatible device. This means it needs to produce at
least one device that can meet the needs of power users.
~~~
codepope2014
Have you not watched MIcrosofts "can't do that in a Mac" campaign? 3D
modelling, video editing, lots of heavy lift graphics apps...
~~~
coldtea
And yet most video editors I know use Macs, same for "heavy lift graphics
apps". Nobody (ie very few) run around with a 8lbs/4hour battery "desktop
replacement" PC to do such things on the go.
------
plinkplonk
I've been checking his site the last few days just to get the pro Apple spin.
This is awesome.
Can Apple ever make a serious mistake in Gruber's eyes?
~~~
grzm
I think it would be a useful project to compile a list of times Gruber has
been critical of Apple. One topic he has called out Apple on been the amount
of memory in entry-level iPhones and iPads.
[http://daringfireball.net/2014/10/ipad_air_2](http://daringfireball.net/2014/10/ipad_air_2)
I don't know if this meets your criteria for "serious", and it's just a single
example. Just a little push-back against "ever" :)
~~~
plinkplonk
that specific article has a pinch of criticism in a gallon of praise ;-)
That said, I'm fine with Gruber being such a fanboy. He fills a niche, makes a
great living, and his readers are happy. All good.
I personally find his writing amusing is all.
~~~
grzm
_" that specific article has a pinch of criticism in a gallon of praise "_
No disagreement here :) Like I said, just a little push back :)
------
kubatyszko
First gen of Intel Mac's had 2GB limit (even though the chipset could address
3 or 4 GB), this got fixed later. My bet it that revision 2 in 6-12 months
with whatever next Intel CPU generation will take 32GB with no issues.
------
fgpwd
I have a 4gb 2012 MacBook air that works fine. I don't face much performance
related issues with it and can compile apps, use VMs(one at a time) fine with
it. It can get slightly laggy at times, but most of it isn't noticeable. I
usually restart when that starts to happen and it gets fine that way.
I am thinking of saving some money and upgrading to the base 1499 model and
donating my air to a friend who really needs it. But it has got only 8GB of
RAM. Ideally I would have gone for the 1799 model with 16gb ram which makes it
$1999. But don't have that much money right now. However, since even the 4GBs
of RAM have seemed satisfactory to me so far, I am thinking of making the
jump. Non-apple is anyways not an option as I use sketch and need to compile
iOS apps.
With my present air I always regret getting 128GB hard disk as it is too less,
and I need to format my laptop every year to get rid of the junk occupying
hard disk space. I hope I don't end up regretting the 8GB for the next few
years.
------
pwinnski
I am currently using a MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014), and am
running: a Docker VM, IntelliJ IDEA (two instances, one large and one medium
Java project), Slack, Safari, Chrome, iTerm configured with unlimited screen
buffer, a VPN, Dropbox, Fantastical, Backblaze, 1Password, and a few other
things.
For memory, I've got 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Activity Monitor is happily green, and shows me that 11.57GB of my 16.00 GB of
memory is used, with 3.18 GB of cache.
I used to run into trouble with "memory pressure," but switching to Safari
instead of Chrome eliminated all of that. I have 21 tabs open in Safari, only
Gmail open in Chrome.
I'm sure I could come up with some combination of things that would strain the
16 GB I currently have. I might have to work at it a bit, though, and I think
by most of the definitions I've seen in this thread, I should be screaming
about the limitation.
If I ever hit the yellow zone with memory again, I'll just quit Chrome.
------
robUx4
The i5-7200U and i7-7500U both have DDR4 and a limit of 32GB. What kind of U
CPU does the MacBook Pro has?
~~~
robUx4
From
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBook_Pro](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBook_Pro)
the lowest spec CPU is an i5-6360U which supports DDR4 and 32GB of RAM:
[http://ark.intel.com/m/products/91156/Intel-
Core-i5-6360U-Pr...](http://ark.intel.com/m/products/91156/Intel-
Core-i5-6360U-Processor-4M-Cache-up-to-3_10-GHz#@product/specifications)
~~~
ac29
And the highest spec is a i7-6920HQ, which supports 64GB DDR4... but Apple
declined to use DDR4.
------
narrowrail
I think the tech bloggers/ industry have had their fill on the latest Apple PC
lineup. We need to stop this madness of giving them attention. We are being
trolled. My non-scientific estimate is that I've seen ~20 threads in some way
related/ essentially having the same discussion in the last 24hrs.
Build your own desktop behemoth that you can use remotely (Xeon+dedicated
GPU(s) and all), and buy an Apple laptop or Dell XPS with what you need. Done.
If you develop for iOS, the choice is clear.
------
segmondy
I have an intel laptop (w520) from 5yrs that can supports more than 16gig of
ram and currently has 20gb of ram (16+4). Yes spec says max is 16gb but that's
not true. I don't know the max. i7 quad core. 5 years old.
~~~
chillacy
Anyone know why Intel isn't able to support > 16GB of LPDDR4? Is it a
limitation of address bus width in the design?
~~~
yuhong
They don't have support for LPDDR4 at all at this point.
------
sliken
Seems like apple's just blowing smoke. The entry level macbook pro has a 10%
(5kwh) larger battery. Seems rather implausible that an extra 5kwh is not
enough to run 16GB ram for 10 hours.
------
tbrock
What 13" laptop of this form factor and size has 32gb of ram as an option?
Answer: none
~~~
zumu
Just bough a 14 inch thinkpad t460p with 32gb of ram for $980. The form factor
isn't quite as sexy, but the specs compare favorably to the macbook pro, and
the price difference is pretty absurd. It's entirely upgradable to boot.
~~~
fgpwd
Where did you get it for 980? I tried configuring one and a base model with
8gb of ram and 256gb ssd turns out to be over $1250. With 32GB ram it goes
above $1500.
~~~
zumu
On the Lenovo site. I found a coupon for 30% just googling around.
Unfortunately, I believe it ended 10/30\. However, Lenovo often has
sales/promotions, esp around the holidays. So I'm sure there will be more
sales soon. Another trick is to just get the HDD option and buy an ssd off
Amazon.
------
marichards
It was annoying, a few years ago, trying to find a non-Apple laptop with
better specifications. Now it's too easy, as a developer, I rarely find CPU
limits my speed (typing is a limitation) but ram does limit how much I can do
at once, or at least how many vms and containers I can run whilst developing,
testing and searching stackoverflow. However, I use Linux laptops, but my
graphic designing partner who loves to have lots of elements of work open at
once as she works out how to aggregate them, is going to find it harder to
cope, especially as graphics resolutions keep getting better and needing more
memory.
------
ppurka
If I am not mistaken, the chipsets on the Intel NUC models are laptop
chipsets. I have the Skylake Core i3 version and that supports up to 32G of
LPDDR4 RAM (dual channel). Since the thin laptops typically have only one RAM
slot, it makes sense why they are limited to only 16G.
With this in mind, my understanding is that it is perhaps a limitation of the
current Intel chips for single RAM slots, combined with the reluctance of the
laptop manufacturer to include dual channel memory in their (thin) laptops.
~~~
rayiner
Even the Macbook has dual-channel memory. They don't have RAM slots--they
solder memory chips directly to the motherboard.
~~~
ppurka
Having RAM slots that are user serviceable and having them soldered directly
into the motherboard is besides the point.
If there is only one RAM slot (whether soldered-on or otherwise), then the
total memory that can be supported is at most 16G.
~~~
rayiner
There are no DIMM slots at all on an MB or MBP motherboard. There are bare
memory chips soldered in a dual channel configuration.
------
feelix
I would say that, strangely enough, the Federal Aviation Administration is to
blame for the 16GB RAM limit. I posted an explanation why here hours ago:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12841293](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12841293)
~~~
dlss
If the FFA is to blame, how have windows laptops had 64gb of ram for over a
year? [http://www.theverge.com/2015/8/11/9129681/lenovo-skylake-
xeo...](http://www.theverge.com/2015/8/11/9129681/lenovo-skylake-xeon-
notebooks-p50-p70)
~~~
feelix
If you RTA you'll see that it's a forced compromise between battery life and
FFA restrictions
~~~
dlss
I did. The FAA power limit is a red herring. Perhaps an example will help:
High res screens require more power to run, and more power to render for...
which means you could also blame the FAA for Apple not using high res
screens... except Apple does use high resolution screens.
So the situation is not one of forced compromise so much as Apple having
different priorities from its users... which is where we thought we were
before you brought up the FAA.
------
cannonball
My entire company was waiting on 32G, we run a simulation that chokes on 16G.
Now everyone is trying to figure out what is the best non-Mac to do the job.
~~~
Volt
Why not use a desktop?
------
S_A_P
I overrammed my previous MacBook. It was a max of 4 or 8 Gb can't remember but
I ended up going 8/16\. It worked fine until the keyboard failed. I'm going to
replace it eventually.
------
TheLilHipster
Jobs is not a fan of softkeys:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yL7X3DTyS2Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yL7X3DTyS2Q)
This is pretty much directly relevant to the state of apple right now:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AxZofbMGpM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AxZofbMGpM)
It's quite eery.
------
revelation
Battery is a pure smoke screen. They had no qualms cutting battery life to
make it that little bit thinner and put in a watch with horizontal striped
OLED display.
~~~
grzm
_" They had no qualms cutting battery life"_
I haven't seen where Apple cut battery life in the MacBook Pro. Here's what's
reported now (granted, it's from Apple's website):
15" MacBook Pro
2015 - Up to 9 hours wireless web [http://www.apple.com/macbook-
pro/specs-2015/](http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs-2015/)
2016 - Up to 10 hours wireless web [http://www.apple.com/macbook-
pro/specs/](http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs/)
If there are other references out there (particularly if they're independent
of Apple), please share! Or perhaps you're referring to something besides last
week's MacBook Pro updates?
~~~
givinguflac
Yep, battery life is improved but hey don't let that get in the way of Apple
hate lol.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Microsoft introduces free CI/CD for OSS projects - flyingswift
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/devops/azure-pipelines/
======
LyalinDotCom
This is a duplicate with
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17952262](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17952262)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
CircleCI Insights: Helping You Understand Your Builds - craigkerstiens
http://blog.circleci.com/announcing-circleci-insights-helping-you-understand-your-builds/
======
cburgmer
Great to see more data-driven approaches for optimising builds.
Erik has written a bit about his approaches in the past [1] and Graham [2] and
I [3] are both currently trying different ways of visualising pains the teams
have we are working in.
[1] [http://erik.doernenburg.com/2009/11/making-build-pain-
visibl...](http://erik.doernenburg.com/2009/11/making-build-pain-visible/) [2]
[https://github.com/kuona/kuona](https://github.com/kuona/kuona) [3]
[https://github.com/cburgmer/buildviz](https://github.com/cburgmer/buildviz)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Web browser standards support - lucumo
http://www.webdevout.net/browser-support
======
audionerd
_I am currently in the process of testing other browsers and versions,
including Safari and Konqueror. I do not yet have estimated dates for when
this information will be available._
Bummer. It would be interesting to see Safari 4 (and full IE8 tests) in there
as well.
------
lucumo
As a Linux user, I've found this site to be incredibly useful for developing
sites that must be compatible with IE6. It prevents large changes after
testing.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Inside Amazon.com warehouse workers complain of brutal conditions - aaronbrethorst
http://articles.mcall.com/2011-09-17/news/mc-allentown-amazon-complaints-20110917_1_warehouse-workers-heat-stress-brutal-heat
======
potatolicious
Former Amazonian, the constant use of contractors, even in cases where the
jobs are anything but contract, is one of the many things that eventually made
me decide to look for something else.
I had the privilege there of working with some insanely dedicated people,
smart, hard-working, and _good_ , who were kept on near-permanent contractor
status, and then unceremoniously dumped when the legal limits for contract
lengths came up.
And these weren't warehouse workers, these were HR folks, recruiters,
technicians, and the such - people in positions that are neither seasonal nor
temporary.
Beyond the moral/compassion concerns of this, it wreaked havoc with the team
to have a good hire on board for most of a year, and suddenly have him/her
replaced with someone unknown who needed even more retraining. It also placed
a constant load on the people involved, since you're essentially always re-
hiring the same position, over and over, with the requisite interviews and
costs. Suffice to say it caused a lot of disruption with the team, and I have
to question the wisdom of dragging down the productivity of a dozen people to
save money on one.
I can't say I know the official (or unofficial) reasoning for this, though of
course the usual suspects of paying out benefits comes to mind. Also, certain
headcount metrics may exclude contractors, which might be a way for management
to look like they're keeping headcount down while still getting the hands they
actually need. Either way, it soured my faith in the company some, and with a
bunch of other factors led me to depart from the company.
~~~
typicalrunt
EA has the same problem.
It's a US legal system thing. I don't know the law by name, but a contractor
can only be kept on for a period of 6 months to a year. After that, they must
be made full-time or removed. After a cool-down period, they can be rehired.
Some companies are getting around this legally but hiring companies to
outsource, and yet embed, contractors into the client's office under a managed
service agreement.
~~~
jolan
There isn't a law. Each company has their own policy as a result of so-called
Permatemps at Microsoft filing a class action:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permatemp#Vizcaino_v._Microsoft>
~~~
nirvdrum
In Massachusetts you can't hire someone as a contractor that is in effect an
employee. It's really tricky to get right. But they're extremely strict about
it so employers can't evade payroll taxes, workers' comp., etc.
~~~
calloc
In Arizona a person is not a contractor unless they can set their own times
and their own pace to complete work that is assigned.
That means as a contractor you can't be forced to come into the office at 9:00
AM to work till 5:00 PM, if you are not allowed to set your own work schedule
you are not considered a contractor and the company should be paying your
taxes and you should be getting a W2 instead of a 1099.
They were fairly strict in that regard as well, my boss was paying me as a
1099 and I wasn't aware of this, and the business got audited by the IRS and
he had to retroactively pay taxes and they talked to me and I had to redo my
taxes for the two years I worked there. Was a nightmare.
~~~
OstiaAntica
This is federal tax law, and it applies in all 50 states. Contractors also
must provide their own equipment (i.e. computer) and be able to make a profit
or loss on the engagement. Absent these conditions, you are an employee as far
as the IRS is concerned, and your employer is responsible for a great many
taxes and sometimes overtime pay.
~~~
drewda
See IRS form SS-8: <http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fss8.pdf>
More details at:
[http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=99921,00.h...](http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=99921,00.html)
------
mindstab
This is the growing dichotomy and split of american class. You have the
educated who run the business side and programming side of amazon and from
what I hear like their jobs and get paid well. Then you have the labor force.
They don't have the education (different class and have a harder time
affording the expensive american education or affected by the growing american
anti intellectualism) and so they are left with hard labor jobs, which are
drying up. Part of the reason they are drying up is that the rest of the world
has a vastly lower standard of living (and some would arguer better work ethic
too) and so the job can be out sourced to those who will do the same work for
less. And now technology is replacing some of the remaining jobs. Seen the
automated checkouts stores now? DVD rental placing like blockbuster are being
replaced by websites (netflix) and big red boxes in other stores. And
automated assembly in factories. These jobs are never coming back.
This leaves the uneducated class of america fighting for the few remaining low
paying labor jobs left in the country like these ones that have to stay for
locational reasons (the one location on the highway that is with in 1 days
drive from 1/3 of the american and canadian population) and haven't yet been
automated with technology.
The impulse of many of us is yes to just say "well then get educated" but it
isn't that easy. There are big social forces in america about entitlement and
anti intellectualism and education in america is also often just bloody
expensive.
It's a mess and a further symptom of the growing class divide that now their
own lower class people are being worked like we saw nike sweat shops working
Asians not too long ago.
~~~
epicviking
I think people really over estimate the anti-intellectualism side of things.
When you come from hard labor you don't have much time to really think about
your options. You're 18, you're on your own, you need to feed yourself and pay
the rent. You don't have many options. Your family was never in a position to
afford college for you, living paycheck to paycheck and all. Theres a vein of
fatalism running underneath all of this, your daddy worked in a warehouse, his
daddy worked in a warehouse, and you're gonna work in a warehouse too. It is
just how it is. It is sad, but it is how it is.
------
bglbrg
I worked in Amazon warehouses for two summers during college, doing the sorts
of tasks described here. The first year there was no A/C. Actually, it wasn't
so terrible. The next year there was central air, but by then there was quite
a bit more structure. I was on a 10h overnight shift four days a week. There
were traffic lights hanging from the ceilings; if the light was green, you'd
go home at 6am. If the light was yellow, you could opt to work overtime for an
hour. Red light = mandatory overtime.
It was fairly unpleasant, but I was only there 4 months at a time, and for a
19 y/o the pay was better than other things.
There were indeed pretty stringent rules about keeping up a rate of work. I
felt lucky that lifting books at standing height and walking constantly didn't
cause the fatigue that using a tape gun for 10 hours might. I don't recall
getting demerits but I remember the system (this was 10+ years ago).
When I first scanned the report I thought it seemed overblown. However, the
workers interviewed describe a lack of human connection in the face of
difficulties. When I did this work, there were expectations, but there were
also plenty of pleasant, supportive managers around. I never had any problems
doing my work, but I would have imagined more interest and understanding of a
team leader if someone did.
This was long, long ago in the history of Amazon. Given their volume today, I
can't say I'm surprised at the numbers-focused attitude. It's very
disappointing to hear.
------
gregatragenet
When I was 14 I worked a warehouse gig assembling sunday-morning newspapers
(the news printed that morning is combined with a larger pre-printed section
of want-ads, etc). The hours were 3am-6am, it was poorly ventilated, the pay
was bad, and the work tiring. The lesson I took away from that job is that if
I wanted something better I had better improve myself and get some marketable
skills. Skills that'd add value to what I do for an employer, and that'd cause
the employer a loss of value if they were to let me go.
I'd hope current warehouse workers would walk away with a similar lesson - but
apparently not in this case since the employee at the opening of the article
is 34.
Basically, if you are an unskilled worker don't show surprise at the fact that
your employer can and will easily replace you with someone else who'll do more
work at a cheaper price.
If not, I'll provide different advice that I learned in the Army. Drink more
water if it is hot.
~~~
Klinky
Not everyone will have the chances or make the right choices to "better
themselves". That doesn't mean they deserve to work in unsafe or unhealthy
conditions.
~~~
mindstab
that's the problem of the american entitlement. There are still huge chunks of
the rest of the world who would jump for those jobs at those wages. This is
why most of these jobs that haven't been automated have been outsourced. This
one remains for locational reasons.
Sure it'd be great if they didn't deserve that, but it's not just americans
making $11 or $12 an hour. It's huge chunks of the world living off less than
$1 a day
~~~
Klinky
Not sure why anyone can justify anyone being forced to work in unsafe or
unhealthy conditions for low pay. Regardless of what country they're in.
People making $1/day shouldn't be faced with it & the people making $12/hr
shouldn't be faced with. Also let's not pretend that cost of living is
comparable between all countries.
Now this isn't to say that people aren't faced with these conditions, but just
because that's the way it is, doesn't mean that's the way it should be.
~~~
absconditus
It can be justified because our entire economy would collapse otherwise. If
most of the people in the US want to continue to purchase goods at relatively
low prices then this is what is necessary. Go ask the average person why they
do not shop at Whole Foods. Now imagine what would happen if every company
paid their employees as well as Whole Foods does for unskilled labor and put
as much effort as Whole Foods does into sourcing products that are better for
those producing them (<http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/products/whole-
trade.php>). What happens to those on the lower end of the earning scale in
that situation?
------
duck
That sounds a lot like _most_ warehouse jobs. I had a warehouse job while in
college for a while and it was either really hot or cold. Sometimes it was
busy, sometimes it wasn't. One thing remained constant - pretty much everyone
complained about their job and how much they hated working there, yet nobody
ever seemed to leave.
~~~
Natsu
Sad, but true. My employer has a shop floor where the heat was, in fact,
brutal. I personally raised a fuss about the heat, being one of the people
deputized as first aid providers and having seen a few things that worried me.
Thankfully, management responded and the guys got some more swamp coolers, as
well as these things you soak in cool water and put around your neck, which
improved things.
So yes, especially this year with all those heat warnings, miserably hot 100+
degree work floors, mandatory overtime and constant use of temps, harsh
conditions are, unfortunately, quite normal for that kind of environment.
That said, just because it's normal, that doesn't mean that it shouldn't be
improved. If you have to make a fuss, you should. There are a ton of people
out there who simply can't afford to make waves in this economy and they're
suffering for it. The people who can best afford to make waves need to if they
see unsafe conditions.
~~~
ww520
Those water absorbing polymer beads/bands around the neck are life-saver. They
cool down the body temperature slowly overtime. Last time I hiked in Grand
Canyon during summer, it was 110 degree. Those water beads really help to cool
down.
~~~
Natsu
I badgered one guy into wearing one. I noticed a big improvement in his
condition, whether he did or not.
You're right that they help a LOT. I think we were able to get a bunch at a
dollar store for some ridiculously cheap price. I can't believe that more
places don't use them.
------
scarmig
Some of the comments here are along the lines of "Well, they should go get a
better job!"
Hint, folks: not everyone can get a professional job paying six figures a
year. And even if they could, the moment they did, your own wages would drop
substantially.
Have some sympathy.
~~~
ericd
Having sympathy isn't going to fix things, though.
How can we get people in this country to be capable of doing jobs that people
willing to work for next to nothing in other countries can't do just as
capably? If we can retrain a bunch of them to be great software engineers, our
own wages might drop a bit from their absurdly high peaks, but currently the
demand for people able to write good software is underserved, and it could be
much larger, as software enters other facets of life and needs to be
maintained and rewritten to deal with changing demands.
Having more engineers would enable a greater range of software to be created.
~~~
epicviking
You can't outsource customer facing jobs. Someone has to work the cash
registers.
You can't outsource construction jobs. Someone has to update our nation's
crumbling infrastructure.
You can't outsource healthcare jobs. Someone has to change the IV bags and
push around the stretchers.
You can't outsource teaching. Someone has to teach future generations about
math and science and history and puberty.
You can't outsource the maintenance and repair of our utilities. Electricians
and plumbers, they're definitely going to be in demand.
Reports of the death of the American blue collar job are greatly exaggerated.
~~~
cperciva
_Someone has to work the cash registers._
You sure about that? I've seen a lot of supermarkets going self-checkout
lately. Sure, it's not out-sourcing in the usual sense; but it is replacing
workers with something cheaper (equipment which was probably manufactured in
another country).
_Someone has to update our nation's crumbling infrastructure._
True, but the number of workers you need depends on the construction
techniques you use. If manpower is expensive, you buy prefabricated components
and only do the final assembly on site.
_Someone has to change the IV bags and push around the stretchers._
True, but technology and a willingness to spend more on equipment can reduce
the number of people you need to do this. (e.g., "smart" IV bags which alert
staff when they need to be changed, rather than having nurses walk around
checking the bags.)
_Someone has to teach future generations about math and science and history
and puberty._
Khan Academy.
_Electricians and plumbers, they're definitely going to be in demand._
True, but the more expensive they are, the greater the pressure will be to
create hot water heaters which don't need to be replaced every five years.
_Reports of the death of the American blue collar job are greatly
exaggerated._
There are a lot of job categories which will never be eliminated entirely,
sure -- but most of them can still be dramatically downsized via the
application of technology and sufficient quantities of money.
Nobody is so essential to the continuation of civilization that they can set
their own wages. There's always going to be a point where people will say "you
know, we've got a cheaper option".
~~~
sixtofour
"If manpower is expensive, you buy prefabricated components and only do the
final assembly on site."
Not infrastructure, but that's exactly what Boeing has done for years,
assemble airplanes out of prefabbed subassemblies.
When Boeing gets a contract to sell planes to, say, China or Japan, part of
the deal is often that the subassemblies (wings, body sections, whatever) are
made in that country, shipped to the US and assembled by Boeing.
Airplanes are a more controlled and regular construction environment than
highways, but I don't see why it won't become more common. Residential and
commercial buildings too, I suppose. Suburban houses are already cookie cutter
these days.
------
locopati
Submitted earlier as a single-page link
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3017515>
~~~
marcamillion
Thank you. HN never fails me. I saw the 10 pages and closed it without reading
because there is no way I am wading through all those ads for 10 pages.
------
pg_bot
My father is a truck driver, and he refuses to work with Amazon for many of
the reasons listed in this article. Amazon also refuses to pay detention time
for drivers that have been at their facility for more than two hours (an
industry standard).
------
kaybe
It sounds like we really should change the system to where automatisation of
those jobs is a good thing.
The situation is simply ridiculous - we can feed everyone, there is way enough
stuff for everyone (at least in the richer countries, and longterm,
everywhere, I'd wager) and it's possible to automate great parts of hard and
gruesome work. And yet, the system demands that everyone works and gets
stressed out, even if there is not enough to do - it's not just economic
restraints, it's also the value people are given in society.
I'm not arguing against social capitalism here, which seems to work better in
large scales than anything else we've tried, but this really is a problem and
an opportunity that needs to be discussed more.
------
RexRollman
As a fan and customer of Amazon, I am sad and disgusted after reading this
article. I will have to serious reconsider my Amazon Prime membership, which
expires in a couple of weeks.
------
bmohlenhoff
The description of the working conditions, job availability in the region, and
worker treatment reminds me of the initial few chapters of Manna
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manna_%28novel%29>). In the novel, employees
are instantly replaceable cogs in a machine and are treated with complete
disrespect. As there are more people than there are available jobs, any
slacking at all results in employee termination. I guess the story wasn't such
a fiction, after all.
~~~
potatolicious
It was never fiction in most of the world. America (and the West in general)
simply experienced a very brief era where it wasn't true.
The depressing thought for me is that we are simply returning to a historical
norm, from an abnormal spike in quality of life for the middle class.
------
_napw
I worked as a developer there, conditions weren't much better. Frugality means
cheap, and the turnover rate was just insane. A lot of the ones who stay are
only staying because the stock price is so high right now making their options
worth a lot. Really depressing, because upper management at Amazon is very
very competent - they have a long term vision, and they are executing on it
with a ton of energy. They just seem to have forgotten about the peasants
along the way.
------
jolan
Newegg's warehouse for comparison:
<http://www.anandtech.com/print/1945>
~~~
jrockway
What's odd is that Newegg always ships me broken stuff, whereas the stuff I
get from Amazon is always packaged properly to avoid damage. (Note to Newegg.
Don't send me a hard drive in a plastic eggshell case with a few packing
peanuts in the box. I'm surprised those drives lasted long enough to even get
an OS installed.)
~~~
potatolicious
I used to work at Amazon in the operations department. The amount of work they
do to ensure things are undamaged in transit is pretty amazing, and mind-
boggling.
What people see is a brown cardboard box with air pillows, but there is a
really absurd amount of technology and science behind it.
------
jesseendahl
Here is the link to the single-page version:
[http://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-allentown-amazon-
complain...](http://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-allentown-amazon-
complaints-20110917,0,7937001,full.story)
~~~
nadahalli
The posted link is a PerfectMarket page. First time on HackerNews, I think.
------
smountcastle
I've love to see Jeff B. work at one of these warehouses 'undercover
boss'-style. Amazon is in the business of keeping prices low but the
conditions described in that article sound awful.
~~~
snorkel
"This is an amazing device! What do you call this thing? A "push cart"?? I
call it the Future of Transportation! This push cart will transform cities!!!"
------
schiffern
I'm surprised they don't paint the roofs white.
Amazon's Allentown warehouse on GMaps: <http://g.co/maps/ehxta>
~~~
nasmorn
It is ridiculous that Amazon is allowed to have paramedics parked outside and
ship people to hospitals for completely foreseeable events. If they had to pay
for these externalities you bet they would paint their roofs white.
------
curt
That's nearly very plant, factory, and warehouse in the world. There's nothing
unique about these conditions. When I was younger and worked in my family's
plant I'd get to work before 5am to beat the heat. Sometimes I couldn't and
the heat was brutal, but you learn to deal with it (set up fans, take more
water breaks, change your clothes).
~~~
colanderman
> get to work before 5am
Many warehouses don't let you set your own hours. I doubt Amazon does.
> take more water breaks
These employees were afraid to take _medical_ breaks. I doubt they have the
freedom to take extra water breaks without being in jeopardy of losing their
job.
------
donnaware
Maybe Bezos should spend less time fiddling with 10,000 year clock and more
time caring about employees ?
~~~
nitrogen
Why can't he do both? Both are worthy goals that benefit society in some way.
------
dramaticus3
Why didn't they just report it to their union rep ?
In the UK this would be UNITED ROAD TRANSPORT UNION <http://www.urtu.com/>
shit like this would be over
------
zmonkeyz
Breaking news. Working in a factory sucks.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Civil Forfeiture and the Supreme Court (2014) - martincmartin
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2014/02/civil-liberties-and-supreme-court?foo=bar
======
Quanticles
In articles about "innocent until proven guilty" it is popular to say that it
is better to let 100 guilty go free than one innocent be erroneously
convicted. Yet, many are willing to seize assets before that person is proven
guilty in case they try to hide the assets or spend them when the assets are
possibly not theirs.
I would rather let 100 criminals hide ill-gotten gains than let one innocent
person have their assets seized before they can mount a proper defense.
Prosecutors: Freedom means that your job is harder, but fairness and the rule
of law is part of what makes this a great country to live in. We will
appreciate your sacrifice if/when this issue is ever remedied
~~~
Lawtonfogle
>it is popular to say that it is better to let 100 guilty go free than one
innocent be erroneously convicted
It is popular to say, but so often I think people don't actually believe it
once they are taken to task on it. For example, given evidence that there is a
98% chance someone significantly harmed a child, most people would vote
guilty, even though this equates to jailing 2 innocent people to make sure
that 98 guilty do get punished.
------
bmelton
I don't know if it's telling that as of this moment, all of the top-level
comments to this thread are currently gray (except for otterly's assertion
that it should be dated).
I think it's worth noting that civil asset forfeiture, while controversial,
isn't necessarily evil in itself, if done with a high bar to seizure. I think
it's fair to say that someone who makes a fortune using illegal means should
have to surrender that fortune.
Where asset forfeiture falls down on this is that FAR too often, no illegal
acts are proven before forfeiture is initiated, and substantive due process
should need to be the hurdle before that happens. This will of course lead to
the unfortunate likelihood that "bad people" will use some of those fortunes
in their legal defenses, but if "innocent until proven guilty" is to be our
standard, and it's a mighty good one IMHO, then so be it. The alternative is
much worse (again, IMHO), which is that those without fortunes, and hence,
without the means of adequate legal representation, are simply unable to
defend themselves at all except through court-appointed lawyers of potentially
questionable effectiveness.
The trick, of course, is that the state has a hurdle before stealing goods,
and they have no incentive to impose such hurdles upon themselves. I don't
know what the fix for that is, short of being really loud and riotous, but
someone else's off-the-cuff remark the other day struck a chord to me (though
not without its own potential pitfalls) -- limit attorneys general and other
positions of that sort to only defense and criminal attorneys with a history
of having defended the rights of citizens.
If we accept that the job (or at least _a_ job) of the government is to defend
the rights of the citizenry, then such an exclusion makes a certain amount of
sense. As it stands, the state, and its agents, have a disproportionally
stacked playing field.
~~~
wfo
I don't think it would be unreasonable to require that every prosecutor have
worked for 2+ years as a public defender. Helps with the shortage of public
defenders as well.
~~~
dragonwriter
> I don't think it would be unreasonable to require that every prosecutor have
> worked for 2+ years as a public defender.
There may be a serious problem with quality of representation if a substantial
portion of the people working as public defenders are doing it to meet a
checkbox on the way to their planned career as public prosecutors.
~~~
ScottBurson
There's a serious problem with quality of representation already. Simply
having more public defenders seems likely to me to help, even if some of them
aren't as emotionally committed to the job as others.
There's also the possibility that someone who starts out just checking a box
will discover that there are more shades of gray in these situations than they
had realized.
~~~
dragonwriter
If you want more public defenders, just fund the public defenders offices
better, so that they can pay more lawyers, and pay each of them better.
No need to compel people who want to be prosecutors act as public defenders.
Just arrange the economic incentives properly.
------
btilly
How on Earth is this possible? If you read
[https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/forfeiture](https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/forfeiture)
closely, you'll find an explanation.
_Although the conviction requires the government to prove guilt "beyond a
reasonable doubt," the forfeiture is subject to a lower burden--preponderance
of the evidence._
This case demonstrates the real-life consequence of this difference in
standards. In this case the government could not establish "beyond a
reasonable doubt" but the accused could not demonstrate "preponderance of the
evidence" for innocence either. So the accused don't go to jail but still lose
their house.
And here we get to the real problem with how civil forfeiture is actually used
today. How do you establish a "preponderance of the evidence" when no specific
crime was ever alleged? It is effectively impossible! The TSA can always
allege "a smell of marijuana" and claim probable cause for the seizure. They
have a direct financial incentive to do so, and you have no way afterwards to
prove that they were lying.
------
eevilspock
If we want to have a reasonable discussion about this we need to first dis-
conflate two things:
1\. Is pre-emptive asset seizure justifiable to prevent allegedly ill-gotten
gains from being hidden away prior to judgement?
2\. Do such seizures unfairly prevent the accused from hiring the counsel of
their choice?
My thoughts on #2: If you argue that this will result in an unfair trial and
increased likelihood of a false guilty verdict, then what about people who
couldn't afford to hire their counsel of choice in the first place? Any
argument or system where judgements are biased by wealth is fundamentally not
justice. In other words, my answer to #2 is no. The ability to hire good
counsel should _not_ be dependent upon one's assets. The outcomes of trials
should not be dependent upon which side has more money. Some alternative
systems that would be fairer, in my opinion:
A. All counsel is provided by the state and each side gets assigned counsel
randomly.
B. Each side contributes as much as they want to a pool of funds. Each side
gets to spend half of the pool on the counsel of their choice.
B is the better solution for a free market-based society.
~~~
rnovak
Except that if you had read the article, only $140,000 of the defendants money
was "allegedly ill-gotten", meaning the government seized ALL of their money,
not just the allegedly illegal money.
Your #2 is a non-starter because #1 is flawed.
~~~
eevilspock
> meaning the government seized ALL of their money, not just the allegedly
> illegal money.
Red Herring. I made general statements, not opinions about the specific case
in the article. Please judge the statements on their own. I was pretty careful
in my choice of words, e.g. "to prevent allegedly ill-gotten gains".
> Your #2 is a non-starter because #1 is flawed.
You failed to de-conflate.
~~~
rnovak
Your original comment was a top level comment on the article, and is verbatim:
> If we want to have a reasonable discussion about this
The "this" in that sentence (to any reasonable human) would mean that you were
talking about the subject of the article, the people that got their money
seized, not "in general asset forfeiture".
So no....not a red herring.
If you wanted to be careful, your first statement should read: "if we want to
have a discussion about _asset forfeiture..._ ".
------
otterley
Submitter or mods, can you please add the date to this post? This was
published in Feb 2014.
~~~
martincmartin
Done, thanks for pointing that out.
------
swehner
I don't think the "Supreme Court" is held in high esteem.
And it shouldn't be either.
Keyword #laughingstock
------
pm24601
This is why I don't respect the Supreme Court.
This is why I don't think Obama is a great president.
This is why as a liberal I agree much more than I want to with the
conservatives who argue about big government.
Why does the conservative court members always take the side of government
when going against people like me and you?
Why does the conservative court members always take the side of corporations
when going against people like me and you?
Why respect the Supreme Court when its decisions mostly are against the middle
class?
~~~
Kinnard
Maybe you're a 'libertarian'?
~~~
Frondo
He lamented that the government always sides with the corporations.
Libertarianism doesn't fix that; libertarian policy would be far, far worse
for the middle class than what we have now.
~~~
gortok
Yes, it does. Our current system is based on corporatism (labor unions are not
exempt from this behavior); where those with power and connections help make
the laws that keep them in power and from competition.
In a libertarian society (or even in a Constitutional Republic sought out by
the founders), laws are made as close to the people as possible, with the
Federal government having 14 explicit powers (the power grab by interpeting
the 'necessary and proper' clause broadly would not exist, and the 10th
Amendment wouldn't be ignored), so you'd see Local ordinances, county
ordinaces, and state laws most; and very few federal laws (again, they'd only
need to cover their 14 expressly granted powers).
Corporations (and labor unions, and any other 'special interest') wouldn't
have to just lobby the Federal government, they'd have to lobby all 50 states,
plus any localities; in short, it'd be a monumental proposition (even if we
assume they were capable).
Also, since the Federal Government would be necessarily weaker, there wouldn't
be an incentive to try to lobby them -- no one lobbies the person that has no
power.
Currently, you can lobby 51-60 senators and 271 Congressmen and effectively
rule the country (Remember, the ACA was written in part by the insurance
industry), and in a libertarian society, there'd be no basis for that to ever
happen.
Also, sustained monopolies are a by-product of Government intervention (either
through regulation, or explicitly by making rules against competition, much
like the Railroads). In our lifetime, anyone who has 'had a monopoly' has
sustained it with government help (think of Ma Bell; where utility providers
are considered to have a 'natural monopoly' and as such competition is
purposefully limited or non-existent). In Microsoft's case, nothing happened
and their 'monopoly' was very short lived (1995-2005, Maybe?) because everyone
innovated around them. There were no laws restricting who could get into the
browser business, and Microsoft found themselves out-foxed. They're still
trying to make up lost ground.
Before saying "Libertarian policy would be far, far worse for the middle class
right now", you have to ask yourself if you really understand what a
Constitutional Republic actually calls for.
~~~
Frondo
I'm sorry, but what you're replying with is kind of the standard libertarian
fantasy.
Shrink the reach of the federal government, and we'd be looking at rule by
corporations, i.e. that don't answer to us not only in practice, but by
design. How we know this? Weeelll, just look back a hundred years, when we had
a significantly smaller federal government. Big businesses had far, far more
power than they do now.
Libertarianism surely _sounds_ good. That's part of its enduring appeal. But
for real-life workings? Nah.
For anyone interested, this is a pretty good place to start unraveling the
usual libertarian fare:
[http://world.std.com/~mhuben/libindex.html](http://world.std.com/~mhuben/libindex.html)
~~~
maratd
> Shrink the reach of the federal government, and we'd be looking at rule by
> corporations
Nonsense. The corporations are _given_ free reign and support by the
government. If the government didn't establish favorable regulations, they
would be slowly whittled away by their smaller, nimbler competitors.
Economies of scale aren't a simple slope. They're a bell curve. After you get
to a certain size, any additional growth is detrimental and you can only exist
through artificial means.
Get rid of big government and you get rid of big corporations too!
~~~
Frondo
There's no competitive advantage to _not_ polluting, or we wouldn't ever have
needed an EPA in the first place!
There's such an imbalance of power between employer and employee that there's
no meaningful competitive advantage to a safe workplace; if employees really
were all self-empowered free agents, and not scared and hungry people with
families and children to support, we wouldn't have needed an OSHA in the first
place!
All the regulations the libertarians want to turn back, they all came about in
response to the world working so imperfectly that it had to be changed with
force of law.
Undoing that, on the basis of a theory with absolutely no real-world evidence
of working? That just doesn't make sense.
~~~
maratd
> There's no competitive advantage to not polluting, or we wouldn't ever have
> needed an EPA in the first place!
Why do you need the EPA again? My local government represents my locality. It
can easily sue in civil court for any damage to the environment and use the
resulting funds to make repairs. With the feds stepping in, makes this
scenario much more complicated and difficult. They have jurisdiction.
> There's such an imbalance of power between employer and employee > self-
> empowered free agents
Let me posit that if you have a traditional employer, you are not a "self-
empowered free agent". Ditch your employer. Thank the maker we're slowly
moving toward that eventuality.
> All the regulations the libertarians want to turn back, they all came about
> in response to the world working so imperfectly
That's one possibility. Another is that "special interests" lobbied for those
changes at which point the politician came up with a more pleasant
justification for said regulations, sold them to the ignorant public, and now
they're in place.
Which do you think is more likely?
~~~
Frondo
The EPA's a good example, I think, because it's the big businesses that
continually lobby _against_ it. Where are the big industrial players that sit
back and laugh at how pollution restrictions are benefiting them?
Because it _seems_ like the big businesses always complain about the EPA as an
emblem of government overreach, even though getting rid of it would be good
for them and bad for everyone else, especially the people in the community
suffering from the pollution!
And your answer is, "let them (all the people suffering from the effects of
the pollution) all file lawsuits in state/local courts"?
If that wasn't working out before we had an EPA, why would it start working
out now? And how would it be better/more efficient/an improvement to move from
a condition of "pollution is limited" to "pollution is limited, but only after
people file and win lawsuits"?
I mean, I'm really trying to see how we'd be better off if you took away the
EPA, but wanted to keep pollution restrictions in place by this other, far
more elaborate and far less accessible means. Hey, if really you just don't
want pollution restrictions at all, then let's talk about that, let's ask,
would we be better off without pollution restrictions?
Trying to say "no, the EPA is bad, but what they do is good and let's get to
the same place through a complicated and lengthy process of local lawsuits"?
Again, that don't make sense.
~~~
maratd
> If that wasn't working out before we had an EPA, why would it start working
> out now?
What makes you think it wasn't working before? Those same corporations would
shit a brick if they had to defend themselves from a 1000 lawsuits vs just one
from the EPA. Everybody would have standing instead of just the EPA, because
really everybody is getting fucked. You think they're complaining now? They'll
go bankrupt if you get rid of the federal _protection_ , which was my point.
~~~
Frondo
Ok, so we're agreed that pollution controls are a good idea. We're agreed that
the basic functioning of the EPA is a good one.
But instead of us citizens charging one government agency to do this specific
job, you think it's going to work out better for us people to have to, as
individuals, research and understand the issue enough to file lawsuits?
That a bunch of regular folks, most of whom probably don't have a lot of cash
lying around to file lawsuits, people who just own homes and work somewhere
and whose community is now being polluted.. rather than use the specific tool
of a government enforcer, the burden's on each of them to go file a bunch of
separate lawsuits?
And this outcome is better for _them_ , and will lead to the same pollution
restrictions they could get from the one agency doing its job?
I mean, that's what it sounds like you're saying, but it just still doesn't
make sense.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Russian Tea How-to - borism
http://home.fazekas.hu/~nagydani/rth/Russian-tea-HOWTO-v2.html
======
snitko
What makes "zavarka" so important is that it's easy to measure how
concentrated you want your tea to be. It's more difficult to achieve with a
teabag. Though, I must note, hardly anyone here makes zavarka anymore.
------
cema
Russia is the land of hot tea, US is the land of iced tea. This must be the
crucial difference between the two; the rest just follows...
~~~
prawn
Here in South Australia, it's often said (Wikipedia's source page from
news.com.au is a 404 now though) that a particular brand of iced coffee out-
sells Coke.
------
dasil003
Sounds like Turkish tea, which we drink at the office every day.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: UniFlow – methodology and iOS framework for writing perfect apps - max_khatskevich
https://xcessentials.github.io/UniFlow
======
max_khatskevich
Every app has an architecture, good or bad. Since there is no universal set of
rules (methodology) about how to build an app, every developer/team has to
come up with their own solution every time an app is being built. There are
quite few design patterns that are trying to describe how to organize overall
application structure on a high level, but one of the most promising is so-
called "unidirectional data flow" pattern introduced by Facebook in their Flux
framework. UniFlow is an attempt to build a universal foundation for any iOS
app.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Python REPL with syntax highlighting, autocomplete and multiline editing - tbrock
https://github.com/jonathanslenders/python-prompt-toolkit
======
aidos
This is actually brilliant. It fixes my (relatively minor) gripes with the
standard iPython front-end. Namely the multiline mode is miles better, so so
much better.
Already mentioned on the thread somewhere else is an issue with autocompletion
on imported modules, but that sounds like a bug that will be fixed.
I'm using the ipython mode and there are a couple of differences. For example
I'm used to typing 'hist -l 100' to see the recent history, now I need to use
the magic ipython variant '%hist -l 100'. Not a big deal, just slightly
different behaviour.
The vi-mode is actually not too bad. For me it's good enough to be used in
this context. Would be great if it was more complete (eg, daw doesn't work).
Maybe it could make use of neovim at some point?
I LOVE that a syntax error means the line isn't flushed so you can fix the
issue and hit enter to execute it again. That's a really smart enhancement
that I hadn't even noticed was a total waste of time in my workflow until now.
Does it read my local iPython config profile? I use auto-reloading heavily for
hot code swapping during my development, will that still work?
Edit: just tested and the iPython auto-reloading isn't working. Maybe it needs
to be converted to run as a front-end to get the full power of iPython?
Also, needed to do _PYTHONPATH=. ptipython --vi_ to be able to load modules
from the directory in which I started the app.
~~~
jonathan_s
Thanks for the feedback.
About "daw": it looks like I forgot about that. To be fixed, but right now use
"diw" instead. (Please create a github issue if there are some other important
key bindings missing.)
At the moment, I don't know yet about auto-reloading in IPython, but that's
worth looking at.
About the PYTHONPATH, that's easy to fix. (Should we always add the current
directory to the path in a REPL?)
~~~
PythonicAlpha
(Should we always add the current directory to the path in a REPL?)
Yes, of course! That was my first problem. The standard "python" always has
the current directory in the module path.
Please also have a look on my suggestion for the search facility:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8391647](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8391647)
It would be really helpful, to just search for some keyword and have the last
occurence (for example import) as template without the need for going back the
history by hand.
~~~
jonathan_s
>> It would be really helpful, to just search for some keyword and have the
last occurence...
In Vi-mode, use ControlX-ControlL after typing the start of the line, then you
have line based completion, which also completes from the history.
------
devnonymous
Disclaimer: this comment includes a shameless plug to something I wrote. Read
further only if you are not offended by this behavior. I am just trying to
help others reading this post who like me think IPython might be a bit of an
overkill at times but aren't really happy with the default python prompt. Now
my comment ...
This Looks really nice and it does seem like it adds a lot to IPython. That
said, I personally prefer working in a proper editor (rather than an
approximation) when doing multi-line editing of commands on the prompt. So I
wrote a small function to just invoke the editor with the lines in the current
prompt 'buffer'[1]. This gives all the things like autocomplete and syntax-
highlighting for free (albeit, when you are in the editor). Further more you
may open up other buffers to refer to other code while editing the thing that
you are on your prompt.
To see what I mean --
[https://gist.github.com/lonetwin/5902720](https://gist.github.com/lonetwin/5902720)
Furthermore, what I wrote is a small enough file to copy as a .pythonrc
(rather than pip install ...).
[1] ...and then I added more ...a _lot_ more.
------
nobodysbusiness
If you're looking for a better python prompt, you might want to check out
BPython as well: [http://bpython-interpreter.org/](http://bpython-
interpreter.org/)
~~~
gknoy
I used to use BPython. I really liked its way of presenting autocomplete.
However, its scrolling drove me NUTS (it doesn't use your terminal's scroll).
I was much happier when I switched to IPython.
Both are leagues better than the plain REPL, though. :)
~~~
vishvananda
If you haven't seen it, you should check out bpython-curtsies, it solves the
scrolling problem problem:
pip install bpython[curtsies]
bpython-curtsies
------
orkoden
For ruby there's something similar called pry
[http://pryrepl.org](http://pryrepl.org) which I've been using instead of irb
for a while now. It's great news to do something similar with python now too.
------
rattray
This is awesome. Can't imagine wanting to use anything else now.
Folks who like the library aspect of this and are interested in building
similar things for bash instead of python might want to check out twosheds
[0], a library by a friend of mine that lets you do zsh-type-stuff in Python.
[0] [https://github.com/Ceasar/twosheds](https://github.com/Ceasar/twosheds)
------
PythonicAlpha
Very useful, indeed.
One thing that I am missing already is searching inside the history for a
specific input. There is some search facility (in vi mode, you can press / and
it says that it will search), but I don't know how it works, since it gives no
results.
Ok, now I see, it just marks the search results, but does not give an
immediate result. That is not, what I would expect and what would be useful
for me. In ksh, I believe, there was the possibility to search backwards in
history and when it was performed, the most recent input line was put into the
active input for replay or editing.
~~~
jonathan_s
This could be confusing. '?' is for searching backwards, '/' for searching
forward. Because we are in a multiline environment, I preferred the Vi
keybindings instead of the readline bindings (where '/' goes backwards.)
Also the ControlX-ControlL sequence can complete a line based on the history.
(Type "imp"C-X C-L and you get your last import.)
------
giancarlostoro
It's refreshing to see that it works with Python 3 as well. Thanks.
------
arocks
Looks like an IPython replacement with syntax highlighting as you type.
Couldn't this be something that could be added to IPython itself?
~~~
jonathan_s
(author here.)
The idea is indeed that ``ptpython`` could become the terminal front-end for
IPython.
The only thing on which ``prompt_toolkit`` is focussing, is reading input from
stdin and returning it to the application. IPython is a very powerful
execution environment, but the current command line interface which uses GNU
readline lacks decent multiline editing and syntax highlighting.
There is a proof of concept of what the integration could look like:
[https://github.com/jonathanslenders/python-prompt-
toolkit/bl...](https://github.com/jonathanslenders/python-prompt-
toolkit/blob/master/bin/ptipython) But in the end it would be nice to have
this as a part of IPython itself.
~~~
andreasvc
How does it compare to bpython, then? That does syntax highlighting and has
support for multiline editing IIRC.
~~~
thomasballinger
Basically it's great, and matches up well with bpython: I wrote up some
comparisons at [http://ballingt.com/2014/09/30/prompt-
toolkit.html](http://ballingt.com/2014/09/30/prompt-toolkit.html) (bpython-
curtsies author here)
------
1331
Great job!
I really like the multi-line editing and IPython-style prompts. The syntax
highlighting feature is nice as well, and it can be turned off with a flag. I
am not a fan of auto-completion, however, so I wish there were a flag to turn
it off as well (perhaps --autocompletion=off).
~~~
jonathan_s
Thank you for the feedback. I'll add an option to turn off the automatic
autocompletion.
------
arenaninja
This is amazing. My niece has recently been interested in "doing what I do",
and Python is the language of choice for that. I was thinking of using
bpython, but I guess I'll have my choice of REPLs
------
jeffrand
This is great, I really enjoy this. The one thing I'd be interesting in
contributing is using ipython's sqlite history database if a user chooses to.
------
firemanphil
This is fantastic and completely intuitive. After wasting many hours fiddling
around with Vim plugins so that I can use autocompletion, this is a relief.
------
antihero
This looks neat, would be great to get it working with django-extensions so we
can have the nice ./manage.py shell_plus using it if available.
~~~
jonathan_s
We have that: [https://github.com/django-extensions/django-
extensions/commi...](https://github.com/django-extensions/django-
extensions/commit/a21d6424e9c753a11ea12fd40c4bd1a806447ea6)
(Not yet on Pypi, we we'll get there.)
~~~
antihero
You beautiful person.
------
Beltiras
Maybe I am just doing something wrong, but ptipython does not autocomplete
anything I import.
~~~
jonathan_s
(author here)
I noticed. You're not doing it wrong. It's a bug and it will be fixed asap.
------
stuaxo
Very very nice. Does it work in windows too ?
~~~
jonathan_s
I'm sorry about this, at the moment there is no Windows support.
However the architecture of the library decouples the input and output from
the rest, so it should be possible to plug in something to make it compatible
with the Windows terminal.
For me personally, it doesn't have priority, but maybe in the future I will
have a look.
------
mrmch
This is freaking awesome. Vi-mode is huge.
------
sgt
Getting some errors trying to define simple functions and call them:
In [3]: foo(Exception in thread Thread-159:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/threading.py", line 810, in __bootstrap_inner
self.run()
File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/prompt_toolkit/__init__.py", line 200, in run
callback()
File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/prompt_toolkit/__init__.py", line 440, in run.7.6
completions = list(line.completer.get_completions(document))
File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/prompt_toolkit/contrib/python_input.py", line 449, in get_completions
for c in script.completions():
File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/jedi/api/__init__.py", line 161, in completions
for call_sig in self.call_signatures():
File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/jedi/api/__init__.py", line 574, in call_signatures
self._pos, user_stmt)
File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/jedi/cache.py", line 90, in wrapper
value = optional_callable()
File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/jedi/api/__init__.py", line 572, in <lambda>
_callable = lambda: self._evaluator.eval_call(stmt_el)
File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/jedi/evaluate/__init__.py", line 226, in eval_call
return self.eval_call_path(path, par, s.start_pos)
File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/jedi/evaluate/__init__.py", line 240, in eval_call_path
search_global=True)
File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/jedi/evaluate/__init__.py", line 113, in find_types
return f.find(scopes, resolve_decorator, search_global)
File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/jedi/debug.py", line 51, in wrapper
result = func(*args, **kwargs)
File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/jedi/evaluate/finder.py", line 46, in find
names = self.filter_name(scopes)
File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/jedi/evaluate/finder.py", line 89, in filter_name
scope = name.parent.parent
File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/jedi/cache.py", line 139, in wrapper
result = func(self)
File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/jedi/api/interpreter.py", line 69, in parent
module = __import__(module_name)
TypeError: __import__() argument 1 must be string, not None
~~~
lake99
HN is not the right place for reporting bugs of this sort. Report it on
github.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ffwd: Delegation is much faster than you think - ingve
https://blog.acolyer.org/2017/12/04/ffwd-delegation-is-much-faster-than-you-think/
======
jsnell
This felt like enough of a "devil is in the details" case that I needed to
read the original rather than a summary. Clicked through to the paper, to be
greeted by an ACM paywall. Blech. But wait, what's this... "article made
available by the morning paper", with a tooltip "special arrangement betwen
ACM and blog.acolyer.com". So that's cool, I guess :)
One odd bit about the design seemed to be that the responses were allocated on
a per-socket rather than per-core basis. The paper implies (but doesn't seem
to state outright) that this is done to pack as much data as possible to each
store buffer. Does that sound right?
~~~
naasking
> This felt like enough of a "devil is in the details" case that I needed to
> read the original rather than a summary.
Seriously, I was very surprised that delegation+combining i slower than ffwd's
delegation alone. I definitely want to see those details.
~~~
jeriksson
Combining is a type of delegation, where threads alternate taking on the role
of the "server" in a conventional client-server delegation scheme.
~~~
naasking
Right, but my point was that combining appears to be slower than delegation
alone. Perhaps it's due to cache effects, since new servers are unlikely to
have the right data in cache, where a dedicated thread will almost certainly
have the most commonly accessed addresses in cache.
------
xaedes
ffwd: fast, fly-weight delegation
One should define such unknown acronyms on first use not in the middle of the
article after the acronym is used a dozen times..
------
eptcyka
I could just move a hashmap into it's own thread, but then I have to deal with
the problem of communicating with that thread - this will inevitably involve
some kind of a lock-free queue or plain old array with a lock. Otherwise, what
is the point? Or am I missing something fundamental about this?
~~~
jsnell
There are two points.
One is that having just one thread access the data structure gives optimal
cache locality.
The other is that locking causes full serialization: if 8 threads want to
access a data structure protected by a lock at the same time, you need 8 full
cache coherency round-trips. Locking also causes lots of ping-pong on the
cache line that contains the lock. This scheme does away with the
serialization by allowing batching of operations. If 8 threads need to access
a data structure at the same time, their requests can be handled in a single
round-trip. It does away with the ping-pong by making every single cache-line
have just one writer. (I think it doesn't need locks or atomic ops, just TSO.)
Which isn't to say it's a free lunch. Two probable downsides:
You need to care about whether you have the right mix of threads doing real
work and threads that are just thin shims on some data structure.
I bet that the data structure threads have to be polling for requests in a
busy-loop for this scheme to have good performance. This would be a major
problem for most applications.
~~~
jeriksson
You are right, the "data structure threads", which we call servers, poll on
requests in a busy loop. If your data structures aren't very busy, dedicating
a thread to serving the data structures may not be a good trade-off, in which
case you don't want to use delegation.
Note, however, that a single server can host any number of data structures,
core counts are growing rapidly, and hyperthreading doubles the number of
available hardware threads, making the trade-off easier to swallow.
------
signa11
honestly, this paper seems to err on the side of too much (scary) numa
details, and not enough on the simplicity of the idea itself i.e. 'only 1
thread for the data-structure'. having used it in fast-forwarding dataplane
applications, the only thing that comes to mind is the high amount of
discipline required for these kind of things. and humans seem to be quite bad
at it.
immutable functional programming nerds may now gloat wisely ;)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Messaging apps shouldn't make money – Pavel Durov and Telegram - bndr
http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2015/03/features/messaging-apps
======
textrmessenger
I think the key thing here is that Durov has the money from selling stock in
his previous company (12% w/valuation of 3-4 billion) which means he can
afford to pay to support the app in the meantime without any external
financial help. I do think there are different ways to monetize messaging
outside of pushing advertisements into people's face or selling information
and third-party paid apps are a good option.
In that regard I think the title is misleading: Durov plans to make money
through the app eventually, just not through selling people's information or
push advertising.
~~~
caoilte
Nobody sets out to do evil but until he creates an ownership structure which
prevents himself from cashing in once he's won everyone's trust this is just
an underdog doing whatever it takes to attract customers.
To be succinct, one day he will sell out and the buyers will have every
incentive to make money out of their users.
~~~
knivets
What's funny is that he was also promising to not put any ads at VK (russian
social network he founded) ever, but pretty soon he acted in an opposite way.
------
trollkarl
No such thing as a free lunch.
Telegram hasn't done a very good job of eliminating the possibility of profit.
The secret chat feature is actually a marginal use case. By default messages
are readable by the back end. In fact, group chats are also reasable by the
back end always, and any conversation which can be accessed from multiple
devices. And last I heard, the official windows desktop app does not have
secret chats.
All of these messages are the normal use case on telegram. And the text is
being indexed by the back end for easy searching capabilities. So essentially
telegram has built a search engine for the conversations of tens of millions
of people who are slightly more paranoid and want a secure messenger. Not only
that, many of the tens of millions have shared their entire address book with
names and phone numbers because the official clients required them to.
If they're trying to avoid having valuable information that someone would pay
money for, they're not doing a very good job.
------
alexwebb2
This read like an ad for Telegram.
~~~
scosman
Yeah, but everything's true. Encrypted by default, huge bounty for security
researches, fast, great cross platform apps.
~~~
aw3c2
Encrypted with their home-grown crypto. Telegram is not fully free and open
source. Encryption by default? That has to be new, it was not when I recently
checked. And of course there is
[http://www.cryptofails.com/post/70546720222/telegrams-
crypta...](http://www.cryptofails.com/post/70546720222/telegrams-
cryptanalysis-contest)
Use Signal/Textsecure, folks.
------
fit2rule
Since the early 90's, newcomers to the Internet have attempted to monetize the
existing phenomenon which the Internet - in all its true free glory - has
allowed.
There have been countless attempts to 'own email', and before that, 'own
Gopher' and 'own Archie' and so on. There was, once, Hotmail. Then came GMail,
and then .. Facebook.
It's quite possible to maintain your own social network with email alone. You
can achieve the same results with a mailing list as you can with the Facebook
timeline.
The only difference is that you must educate the people in your network to
understand how the technology works, and how to operate it in order to
function in as effective a manner as is required to maintain a high standard
of communication. The fact that this is nearly impossible in the modern
context - that you cannot get a group of 200+ people to operate email in the
same, standardized manner, is what Facebook - and other mass-communication
media - depend upon in order to gain their market share.
I would abandon Facebook in 5 minutes if I could be guaranteed that the people
I care about - the links in my social network - were as competent at handling
the solution as would be required in order to maintain the quality of
communication that Facebook currently delivers. Alas, this is not possible -
and those who are attempting to monetize and profit from this mass stupidity
will do little to address the issue - for after all, it matters that people
don't know how to write a proper email. This is the only reason Facebook has
survived as long as it has.
If you want to truly revolutionize communications in this day and age, do
something that allows people to use the existing, free, technologies of
communication to increase the quality of communication among the masses. Alas,
this is a very difficult problem - and like all social ills, the solution is
education. The absolute hardest problem there is to solve, out there, today:
teaching someone how to use an existing technology to effectively communicate.
------
tedunangst
Woah. Hardcore encryption? Is that even better than military grade encryption?
~~~
AngrySkillzz
I don't think any reasonable person would refer to Telegram's horrific chimera
as "hardcore encryption."
------
zackmorris
I wish there was something like Bitcoin for messaging. Users need a better way
to prove their identities (or hide them, depending on the situation) and be
able to verify peers. The current hierarchical security system is probably
destined to require money, but the free alternatives make me uncomfortable
because they tend to need private keys.
What I really want is an open version of Skype where the private key can
always be generated by the user's mind, overcomes all the limitations like NAT
that make users second class netizens, has no central tracker, and
(optionally, but possibly required to work around the limitations) allows a
certain amount of traffic to be forwarded like Tor.
I don't see how we can have a conversation about who pays for messaging when
the underlying infrastructure for truly secure online communication hasn't yet
gone mainstream. I don't really trust Freenet or Tor and can't quite figure
out how come, so maybe we could start there and figure out why that is.
And a billion dollars for anything messaging-related completely blows my mind.
Most of the world-changing software was developed for a few thousand dollars
by a couple of people working in their spare time. To me, paying that much
completely misses the point and probably hinders progress by locking capital
up in niches that exclude developers who are working towards creating a non-
scarcity based economy.
~~~
ignoramous
[https://tox.im](https://tox.im) ?
~~~
zackmorris
That's really cool, I like how you just give the other user a Tox id token and
it sets up the secure channel. I wonder if that's a general approach for
secure communication, because as long as it's sent through another secure
channel (that may use the traditional SSL certificates from an authority) it
could be used to avoid a MITM attack.
Maybe a way to do this in the future with an insecure channel is to give the
peer your contact token using only context that both of you know. So the above
token could get converted to a human-readable string like "that place we met
that first time and what you said to me with 12345abcdef on the end" and the
other party would have to know you to figure out how to find you.
Proving who you are beyond that point would probably involve some back and
forth questioning like in spy movies or a video call (which could be faked in
5-10 years with computer rendering) so shared history will be key.
It already sounds like it can run over Tor, but it would be nice if it had a
standard socket wrapper that could be run over UDP NAT tunneling to look like
an SSH VPN. Maybe WebRTC could be integrated with it somehow. I just mean that
I'd like the negotiation phase to be separate so that if it works, you're just
presented with a secure socket.
------
bmmayer1
Just the opposite. The free software movement has led to apps and programs
where the users are the product, not the customer, and companies bend over
backwards for advertisers. The companies have no incentive to care about your
privacy, just your data.
Paid messaging apps, however (at least until they get acquired by advertising
companies like Facebook), give companies incentives to service their customers
first, and the users are actually the customers. That's why Slack and WhatsApp
and HipChat and Basecamp have taken off--because they offer the security and
paid customer/company relationship.
This article's title is woefully non-conclusive. Sure it would be wonderful if
ALL messaging apps could by built and funded by Russian billionaires such they
were private and free for the end user, but the fact is that to support the
infrastructure of a billion+ user messaging app, you need to make money. And
if you can't make money from the users to whom you are promising security and
privacy (and thus to whom you owe allegiance), you have to make money
elsewhere. And the alternative is arguably what has caused so many security
and privacy problems in the first place.
~~~
troymc
It seems you missed this chunk of the article:
<quote>Will he continue to bankroll the business -- or does he see revenue
opportunities? "We will become financially sustainable at some point," he
says. "It will most likely involve third-party paid apps built on the
_Telegram_ platform."</quote>
~~~
tedunangst
How do you collect rent on an open platform?
~~~
boomzilla
"How do you make money off search?" \-- question by a lot of smart people
around 2000.
~~~
guessbest
The commenter above, bmmayer1, noted advertisers would be how that would be
done. I believe a similar method was used with search engines.
------
amelius
Messaging services (with say >100k users) should fall under general laws for
telecommunications. For instance, this would solve the problem that messaging
services don't interface with eachother (lock-in), and it would solve the
problem of the provider peeking into any of the messages for whatever reason.
~~~
zaroth
Couldn't disagree more. Regulation has not solved any of these concerns, in
fact quite the opposite. Regulation of telecommunication has resulted in some
of the biggest and well-seated monopolies on the planet. Please, god, no.
Messaging services should fall under exactly one law of the land, and that's
the First Amendment.
------
dharma1
Have been using Telegram for work for a few months now instead of (or in
addition to) IRC - it's been very good, the mobile and desktop clients are
great.
Tested Tox last year but it was super buggy. TextSecure looked good but
doesn't seem to have as many users. I think Telegram will keep growing.
I just watched Durov's talk with Jimmy Wales from a couple of years back and
he comes across like he genuinely cares about ideas that benefit all internet
users more so than money.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEHd4HbOLYM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEHd4HbOLYM)
Still, doesn't seem like a sustainable path to have the messaging
infrastructure be a responsibility of one company, both for security and
financial reasons. Surely some kind of tox style p2p infrastructure would be
better?
~~~
dmix
Interestingly in the talk he showed that VK had 33 million visitors monthly
and Telegram apparently already has 35 million.
His new project is even more successful.
------
zanny
> "We're trying to create a new type of IT company, one that never focuses on
> maximising profits, but instead provides value to society,"
This is dreadful. The Free software movement has existed for decades and
Telegram brings nothing new to the table that Google hadn't already a decade
ago (open yet crippled protocol, proprietary servers). There is nothing new
here, besides the fact that Telegram basically makes no money. Which is also
nothing new, since Google Talk and Voice never made money either!
I don't mind it, because we know the protocol and can reengineer the clients
easily in the event they betray their users trust. It is much better than
WhatsApp or Skype being a whole-pipe black box. But at the end of the day,
XMPP has existed, has improved, and today provides all the features of all
these other messaging transports and more, the problem is there is no money to
be had in providing an easy signup XMPP service, so nobody advertises them.
Which makes Telegram perplexing, because their only valuable resource is their
userbase, and they are not directly monetizing it at all. Contrast that with
Duckduckgo having an XMPP server @dukgo.com that basically got a blog post and
hasn't been talked about much since, that I use all the time on all my
devices.
But fundamentally none of this absolves how stupid all these companies re-
implement a wheel poorly (XMPP) because the old wheel is so well known and
understood that you can't lock people in or profit off the users using it.
~~~
vbezhenar
XMPP have troubles with synchronizing chats between clients, with push
notifications, with user-friendly mobile clients. I like XMPP, I did set up my
own server, but I finally abandoned it. It's usable only with one client,
preferably on desktop.
~~~
catern
>synchronizing chats between clients,
The Carbons XEP[0] is now fairly widely supported and does exactly this.
>user-friendly mobile clients.
Conversations[1] is excellent and is free software.
>push notifications
The centralized system of push notifactions on Android and iOS is not yet
supported, it's true, but XMPP with its extensions has pretty good support for
battery-constrained devices with intermittent network connections.
I use XMPP across multiple devices with my own server to communicate to other
people running their own server and it works great. Setting up your own server
is extremely easy ("apt-get install prosody" works out of the box on Debian;
stay away from ejabberd which is a pain) and I highly recommend it.
[0]
[http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0280.html](http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0280.html)
[1]
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.siacs.conve...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.siacs.conversations)
~~~
drdaeman
Not to diminish the good sides, but multi-device XMPP experience is a quite
complicated matter even today. For example, you'll have to give up on OTR, and
you'll have to choose the software carefully.
~~~
StavrosK
You don't really have to give up on OTR, but OTR has to get a lot more user-
friendly for that use case. Right now it breaks all over the place, and with
some really obvious bad UX, too.
------
wmeredith
This raises the obvious question, then who is going to pay for them?
~~~
learnstats2
Who pays for e-mail?
~~~
api
Google and every other company that invests the immense time and money
required to keep it clear of spam. Email without a large spam filtering
infrastructure is unusable.
~~~
Zigurd
I used email before there were infrastructure-based spam filters. It was very
usable with client-based spam filters. You can't do encrypted email without
either a whitelisting system or client-based spam filters.
------
Animats
Is it open source and open protocol?
If so, that's what we need. Email was once a bunch of proprietary systems -
MCIMail, CompuServ, AOL, etc. It was inconvenient that they didn't
interoperate. All those proprietary systems were wiped out by an open one.
------
aaggarwal
Either users will pay with their money or pay with their data (getting ads),
else the model is not sustainable. Since, messaging using Internet is being
considered here as basic necessity, one could argue that Messaging apps turns
to be non-profit organizations or government supported organizations (but
anonymous).
~~~
joelthelion
Costs are very low. If the owners don't want to maximize profit, the service
can very well run like this for a very long time.
~~~
aaggarwal
You are only considering the cost of infrastructure. What about the basic
salary for the people working on the application and monitoring
infrastructure, who will pay for that, if not users and not ads and not
government?
------
boomzilla
The team is amazingly technical. Nikolai Durov is a triple IMO gold medallists
(and from Russia where selection is much more competitive than most other
countries)
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Durov](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Durov)
------
inevrela
It's either app, or users are the product. When I was in Hong Kong recently,
listening to talks about WhatsApp & Facebook, each person using these services
was worth +- $48. Sub. fee? Anything like that.
------
harunurhan
Telegram is a great messaging apps. Private, desktop and web support, fast,
better UI compared to WhatsApp. The problem is my friend don't know it so I
have to be stuck with WhatsApp for now.
~~~
free2rhyme214
The fast follower problem.
------
trollkarl
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9284782](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9284782)
------
benihana
> _Secure messaging should be free for everyone. Displaying ads alongside your
> private communication seems out of place, even immoral_
I completely agree. In this ideal situation, who pays for it? The article
seems to have left this small detail out. How do you plan on getting this
service to work without someone footing the bill?
~~~
avalaunch
It wasn't left out. You must have missed it.
_Will he continue to bankroll the business -- or does he see revenue
opportunities? "We will become financially sustainable at some point," he
says. "It will most likely involve third-party paid apps built on the Telegram
platform."_
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Try Erlang, a hands-on tutorial - sdp
http://www.tryerlang.org/
======
rednum
Some notes after doing a few steps of tutorial:
\- a simple command history feature in the shell would be really nice
\- I wish the notification that I don't follow tutorial didn't appear there
each time I try to play with the shell - well, I like the tutorial but I want
to play on my own for a few moments, and this message is quite a distraction
\- also, proceeding to next step of the tutorial could be done in some other
way - e.g. I see logical operators and I try some of them, and they all
disappear when i type one; it would be much easier for a newbie to learn some
erlang if they stayed a bit longer on the screen
\- there should be a 'back' button in some visible place too - e.g. next to
clear window and reset - I can't find it at the moment
EDIT#1: formatting
EDIT#2: well, it seems that history is there - it just didn't work for some
reason in my browser when I started. At the moment I am stuck in lists and
tuples - whatever I do in 'Building a list' section I got a message it is not
I am meant to do - is the tutorial bugged (or is it my browser again)?
~~~
sdp
Building a list doesn't work for me either. It gives every indication that I
succeeded in creating a list, but the tutorial tells me I'm not doing the
right thing. =(
------
uros643
Don't get me wrong, I respect these try-X efforts. But they have glaring
annoyances (usually popping up in the name of Security) that are just begging
me to open a good old-fashioned command-line REPL (but that's if I'm at my own
computer).
For instance, in Try Erlang, io:format is out of reach, not to mention spawn.
Same goes for Try Clojure: there doesn't appear to be a way to create threads.
Don't you think, given the languages we're talking about here, that these
projects are self-handicapping from the start? (the seriousness of those
security measures notwithstanding)
I'm getting the feeling that these online REPLs were created just to show that
it's possible to do, not to address any practical concern or to highlight a
strength of these languages.
Again, I don't mean to disparage the efforts of the authors. Just my $0.02
~~~
andrewtj
I think these sites are trying to cater more toward FUD-encumbered newbies
than those for whom installing and having a play with a new language is second
nature.
~~~
andrewtj
Would the down-voter care to explain their rationale?
------
vmind
Very nice so far. The online REPL tutorials are always a great opportunity to
try something new quickly.
"Operations on integers (and floats) include addiction.." Just a rather
amusing typo in one of the first sections.
~~~
nickpinkston
Yea, I'm with you - this is a great way to get people tinkering with a new
language. Does anyone know of any similar websites for for playing with other
languages? I'd love to see a language test drive site with as many languages
as possible in a format like this.
~~~
chrisdone
<http://tryruby.org>
<http://tryhaskell.org>
<http://try-clojure.org>
------
roryokane
It’s pretty annoying to have to type “.” after every expression. I’m sure
there’s a reason for it in Erlang, but perhaps it would be better for the
tutorial to automatically add it for you for the first few sections of the
tutorial, until you learn what it really means, and come upon a situation
where you finally don’t want it. At the very least, a clearer warning message
than “syntax error” should be shown if you forget the dot, in one of those
fading black rectangles.
~~~
rubyrescue
i think it's good that it makes you type it as it quickly becomes a habit and
you need the practice when you first start erlang.
However, perhaps he can put a big floating arrow pointing left that just sits
there saying "DONT FORGET THE PERIOD" as soon as you hit enter without a
period.
------
fbu
I got a 503, anyone else does?
~~~
zck
It was up 15 minutes ago. My guess is there were too many concurrent users.
~~~
atlbeer
Ironic for erlang..
I kid.. I kid
~~~
zck
Glad you got the joke. :)
------
prone
This video is also a great way to get up to speed on Erlang:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyVvGjNjBOA>
------
jacktang
This is not exactly what was requested by the current tutorial step. Feel free
to play with the shell, anyway.
Erlang R13B04 (erts-5.7.5) > node(). "This functionality has been disabled for
security reasons in tryerlang.org." > q(). "This functionality has been
disabled for security reasons in tryerlang.org." > ls(). "This functionality
has been disabled for security reasons in tryerlang.org." >
------
rubyrescue
first thing i did, lists:map(fun(X) -> X * 2 end, lists:seq(1,100)), and it
worked! very cool.
next thing i did: application:which_applications(), and that didn't work.
------
metamemetics
_Expressions using arithmetical operators
Operations on integers (and floats) include addiction_[sic]
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Site with future Vulkan tutorials for beginners - ibobev
https://learnvulkan.com/
======
sevensor
The author's earlier project, learnopengl.com, helped me catch up to modern
OpenGL after having been away from OpenGL since shortly after it became Open.
(I learned iris GL first.) Looking forward to the Vulkan version.
~~~
LaneRendell
Yeah it's a great resource. I'm eagerly awaiting this Vulkan version
------
nspattak
I found the learnopengl.com web site to be an amazing resource, it is of
similar quality to a good book! Thanks Mr. De Vries.
~~~
juliangoldsmith
Oh, it's the same author? I'm definitely looking forward to this, then.
------
askmike
Right now Google Analytics is loaded but there is no tracking code configured!
Not the biggest fan of trackers but definitely would want that configured if
my post would be on the HN front page.
------
k_sze
Somewhat disappointed that it's yet another book about Vulkan _graphics_.
I want Vulkan _compute_.
~~~
gmueckl
Why would you want that exactly rather than CUDA or OpenCL?
Although I haven't written a compute shader yet, compute in Vulkan looks
trivial to use once you have waged your initial battles against the rendering
pipeline setup. Most of the complexity with Vulkan lies in understanding
descriptor sets, pipeline layouts and pipeline objects. I find that the Vulkan
interface is remarkably consistent once you get over the initial - and
substantial - hurdles.
~~~
sydd
Because Vulkan is cross-device, cross-platform. I dont want to tied to the
Desktop or to Nvidia.
Vulkan Compute shaders work in recent Android devices and on every
Windows/Linux PC that has a <5 year old dedicated GPU. And for iOS/OSX there
is an interop layer in the works that will enable Vulkan over Metal.
~~~
gmueckl
Apple has direct support for OpenCL. Why would you want to use a Metal wrapper
instead?
~~~
sharpneli
iOS doesn't support OpenCL
~~~
gmueckl
Oh, I did not know that. Still, using Vulkan strictly for its compute shaders
sounds weird to me.
------
nolite
I was really hoping to live long and prosper :-/
------
illlogic2
Well, I just bought OpenGL SuperBible and was eventually going to go about
making a simple game engine from scratch and learn the linear algebra required
for graphics engines.
Would anyone still suggest learning OpenGL/building a graphics pipeline or
just proceeding on to Kronos's Vulkan?
~~~
cobalt
opengl, possibly even something higher level. Vulkan has a lot of low level
stuff thats just tedious, esp for a beginner
~~~
vvanders
+1, if you really care about learning just the math OpenGL is a lot simpler
from an API perspective. Once you start caring about performance then dig into
Vulkan to understand the various render commands/pipelines/etc.
------
thriftwy
I wonder if there's something for people who are not game engine developers,
but they need some 3D visualization for e.g. science.
In my experience it is a pain point.
~~~
gmueckl
While the final rendering code for visualizations may look very differently
from game rendering code, the underlying techniques are exactly the same
unless you are doing some really hard out of core stuff or something else that
is really extreme. So I do not see the point for separate resources, to be
honest. Visualization is much more about the pipeline that you execute before
you start rendering.
~~~
thriftwy
Visualisation usually has much much smaller scope than game development. So
frequent vs infrequent developer problems apply here, as in
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16561901](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16561901)
Any new concept or tool dependency, e.g. 3D editor or shader, is a pain point
here since it increases project compexity superlinearly.
Also, many "game engines" which aim to speed up development impose a lot of
constraints on client code. For example, they're not compatible with non-GL
windows from same process or with external event loop. I made a mistake trying
to use a few of those and impedance mismatch was really painful. Had to divest
to plain OpenGL.
~~~
monocasa
I mean, yeah. If you try to use a framework intended for games, it won't be a
great fit for other use cases. Look into Open Scene Graph if you want a higher
level API that isn't as opinionated towards games.
Vulkan isn't a higher level API though, which might be why you and the other
guy are kind of talking past each other.
------
shmerl
Great, that would be very helpful for those who want to learn Vulkan without
delving into OpenGL first.
~~~
andrewmcwatters
You can learn the basics of modern OpenGL and the related modern toolkits in
very little time. That knowledge directly carries over.
~~~
shmerl
Sure, I didn't mean it's not useful.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Apple working on two new chips, A5X and A6 - techblock
http://www.thetechblock.com/articles/2012/rumor-apple-working-on-two-new-chips-a5x-and-a6/
======
jonny_eh
"according to the evidence presented, it does appear that Apple has been
working on new chips"
Ya don't say!
~~~
wmf
Standard rumorology; people care more about what something is called than what
it does.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Visual Studio Code extensions for productivity - ypkuby
https://kuby.ca/best-visual-studio-code-extensions-ive-found/
======
JeanMarcS
Well it could have been a bit more usefull with a short explaination of what
each does, or at least a link to the module.
~~~
ypkuby
Sorry, I've been tweaking my theme and it got hidden by mistake. It should be
back now!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Amazon beats Netflix to new car show from Top Gear presenters - owenwil
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2015/07/30/amazon-beats-netflix-to-top-gear-presenters-new-car-show/
======
wodenokoto
Is prime streaming even available outside the U.S.? I always thought top gear
was one of those international successes that were big everywhere but the U.S.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
HTTP Immutable Responses - okket
https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc8246
======
edmorley
For more on the rationale behind this feature, see:
[https://www.ietf.org/mail-
archive/web/httpbisa/current/msg25...](https://www.ietf.org/mail-
archive/web/httpbisa/current/msg25463.html)
[https://bitsup.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/cache-control-
immutabl...](https://bitsup.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/cache-control-
immutable.html)
Rough summary:
> At Facebook, ... we've noticed that despite our nearly infinite expiration
> dates we see 10-20% of requests (depending on browser) for static resource
> being conditional revalidation. We believe this happens because UAs perform
> revalidation of requests if a user refreshes the page.
> A user who refreshes their Facebook page isn't looking for new versions of
> our _javascript_. Really they want updated content from our site. However
> UAs refresh all subresoruces of a page when the user refreshes a web page.
> This is designed to serve cases such as a weather site that says <img src=""
> ...
> Without an additional header, web sites are unable to control UA's behavior
> when the user uses the refresh button. UA's are rightfully hesitant in any
> solution that alters the long standing semantics of the refresh button (for
> example, not refreshing subresources).
~~~
fulafel
What's the hurry to optimize away the revalidation requests when the user
clicks reload? Is it just beancounter mindset about saving a few "304 Not
modified" responses? In that case they shouldn't count the percentage of
requests, but percentage of bandwidth or CPU seconds. Tiny responses are much
cheaper with HTTP/2, so be sure to benchmark with that.
~~~
Denvercoder9
At Facebook scale, the sum of all those "304 Not Modified" responses is
probably a significant amount of resources.
~~~
fulafel
I'm not sure it's a good argument to take up the biggest companies and then
tally up effects of a micro improvement. You could argue for all kinds of
complexity increasing changes resulting in %0.01 efficiency improvements this
way.
~~~
marcusarmstrong
At my company, 304s account for 3% of our CDN requests.
~~~
fulafel
304 requests are so tiny that you probably end up in the order of 0.01%.
------
DanWaterworth
I think a better way to handle this would be to use subresource integrity [1].
Then, if the browser's cached version matches the hash, it can be sure that it
doesn't need to do any requests.
[1] [https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/Web/Security/](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Security/)
------
manigandham
It would be far better to have user agents handle caching headers correctly
instead of creating another configuration option (which will likely suffer
from the same implementation problems).
_cache-control: private_ with either sliding or concrete expiration time
already handles this.
~~~
prolurker
cache-control: private doesn't seem to imply that a resource won't ever change
and on page refresh the browsers have to check if the resource has been
updated, immutable would avoid the 304's responses cascade.
~~~
manigandham
That's the entire point of the expiration time. Use a 2 year range and it's
effectively immutable. No content will stay on device forever anyway and
headers can easily be set to a smaller time-frame or _must-revalidate_ if the
content owner wants it.
Browsers mistakenly continue checking for new copies when they shouldn't
within the expiration time. Fixing poor implementations with more standards
never works well.
~~~
prolurker
The problem is that servers are allowed to update their resources at any time
without waiting for any specific expiration time. So when a user instructs
it's browser to refresh the page, usually expecting to get the most up to date
version, the browser has to choose between giving the still valid, but maybe
not completely updated, cached version or actually checking if the resource
has been updated.
Immutable makes it clear that the server won't update the resource in place
and will handle updates by generating a new one so the browser can happily
avoid checking those resources on page refresh.
~~~
taeric
And many people are almost certainly going to find that they actually need to
either recall an old immutable thing, or mutate it.
Also, I will certainly want to clear out my browser's cache on a regular
basis. I do not want it keeping immutable things just because they shouldn't
ever change.
~~~
Dylan16807
You can't 'recall' something you already sent out to browsers, and if you need
to mutate then it's easy to make a new URL.
This header won't make browsers cache data any differently. It skips a step
when the cache is being read from.
~~~
taeric
But in the current world, you can serve new content on the conditional check
that caches currently do.
That said, I am ultimately for this. I think. There is plenty of data showing
that this is a low hanging fruit to hit.
~~~
Dylan16807
The conditional check that they do _sometimes_. Now half your users see the
new version and half see the old version. Not much of a recall.
~~~
taeric
Still more of a recall than will be possible in the new world. And you can
always detect the old code and prompt users to refresh. (Typically happens on
a restart.)
Again, though, I am ultimately for this. I just remain skeptical of any
panacea.
------
meandmycode
What does immutable really mean when you only rent a domain name? I think
about this occasionally with domains and email addresses, they've become a
trusted piece of information, but over time the ownership of that thing
changes, does make me wonder about fraud in the future when sizeable companies
die off and their domains free up.
~~~
icebraining
In this case, if a company dies and a malicious actor gets the domain, there's
not much they can do besides tell the browser to load those assets - but they
could probably just take a copy of the original site and serve a copy of those
assets themselves.
The attack might work the other way around: the attacker buys a bunch of
domain names, serves "sleeper" malicious JS files with this on common paths
(say, the paths used by Wordpress and other common CMSs), then releases the
domain. When the new owner installs a CMS and start serving their site, the
browser loads the malicious JS instead, which is now running under the new
site's Origin (security context).
~~~
joosters
But to make this attack work, browsers would have to visit this site before
the new owner takes it over, in order to receive and cache the malicious JS.
And if you can make people receive malicious JS, you've already got your
attack vector - immutable caching isn't needed.
~~~
icebraining
_if you can make people receive malicious JS, you 've already got your attack
vector_
No, because a malicious JS file by itself can't do much. The attack vector is
the malicious JS running on the new site, with permissions to steal session
cookies and interact with the application. That's why caching without
verification is important: to make sure the browser uses the cached malicious
JS instead of fetching the new one.
------
lgierth
Nice to see this has made it through the standards process -- the `immutable`
keyword is tremendously useful for systems that store and provide actual
immutable data, e.g. content-addressed distributed systems.
------
carussell
It would be nice to have strong resource pinning. I've been in contract
situations where coordinating with in-house IT for a new server deployment
would have been a massive, go-nowhere headache, while throwing a webapp
together on my own and self-hosting would've been easy but a big problem wrt
company policy on data export. Resource pinning solves this by bringing us
into the realm of "auditable". Strong resource pinning would look something
like this RFC, except the browser would refuse to accept new resource
deployments without deliberate consent of the client. (Something that can be
bypassed with a hard refresh, as in this RFC, is not strong enough.)
Other situations I imagine would benefit from this are web crypto and HIPAA
compliance.
------
jlgaddis
I have a feeling this will end up like HSTS. It sounds really great at first,
then a bunch of folks will get burned by it (just wait until somebody
accidentally sets it for /index.html or whatever), and finally the general
recommendation will be to stop using it altogether ("more harm than good").
Forever is such a long time.
Besides, aren't there already ways to say "cache this resource for <acceptable
timeframe>"?
------
glacials
This is also known as key-based cache expiration, detailed by DHH here:
[https://signalvnoise.com/posts/3113-how-key-based-cache-
expi...](https://signalvnoise.com/posts/3113-how-key-based-cache-expiration-
works)
You never worry about when to expire your cache entries if the key changes
every time the item does. It's nice to finally see cache-busting coming out of
the woods.
~~~
jrochkind1
You can already use that kind of cache expiration with HTTP of course, and
many of us do -- but you can't _tell the user-agent_ or other client that you
are using it. The best you can do is set a far-future expires date. Some
agents/clients will still do HEAD/If-Modified-Since requests to check if it
_really_ changed before your expire date.
So this is a new thing, properly called immutable responses, to tell the
client that they really can treat this (in various ways) as a completely
immutable response.
------
cpburns2009
I like the idea of this. This would be very useful for versioned resources
(e.g., images, JS, and CSS files) because it would eliminate unnecessary
requests for them after they're cached.
The example of a 1 year cache time seems a little extreme, though. I think a
month would be better.
~~~
fooey
A 1 year cache time doesn't force the browser to hang on to it for a year, it
just lets the browser know that if it's seen that resource in the last year it
shouldn't bother getting it again. The browser is still free to dump whatever
it wants to reduce its footprint.
~~~
jrochkind1
Of course the browser/agent still can with a response tagged immutable too.
There will never be a standard that _forces_ agents to hold on to cached
content regardless of their disk space availability and needs.
But the immutable keyword gives an additional clue to the agent about
semantics, to inform caching.
------
mjs
Chrome is not going to get this:
[https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=611416...](https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=611416#c46)
Instead, when the user attempts a full-page reload, Chrome will revalidate the
resource in the URL bar, but not subresources (they will come from the browser
cache, if the cache-control header checks out):
[https://blog.chromium.org/2017/01/reload-reloaded-faster-
and...](https://blog.chromium.org/2017/01/reload-reloaded-faster-and-leaner-
page_26.html)
~~~
jbverschoor
Yeah I thought that was the current behaviour, and shift-cmd-r actually
invalidates all
------
IncRnd
Section 3. Security Considerations
"Clients SHOULD ignore the immutable extension from resources that are not
part of an authenticated context such as HTTPS. Authenticated resources are
less vulnerable to cache poisoning."
This must NOT read SHOULD. It must read MUST! Otherwise, your computer will be
subject to an executable planting vulnerability.
I'm surprised they don't have a much larger list of security considerations.
There are many other issues that can happen.
~~~
jlgaddis
If "an authenticated context such as HTTPS" isn't being used -- regardless of
the presence of this extension -- isn't your computer _already_ "subject to an
executable planting vulnerability"?
~~~
IncRnd
Maybe. That isn't exactly true. This adds the ability to persist a new threat.
There is a temporal difference. An attacker may wish to plant something today,
in a coffee shop, that would execute in a protected environment, tomorrow.
Immutability of caching can only help an attacker.
Yes, there are other ways for an attacker do this, but there is no reason to
add to more ways! That's why the web is in its current state.
I see how you put "executable planting vulnerability" in quotes. Sometimes (in
the current marketing), these are called APTs, but they have been around
forever. e.g. Think of dll planting in Windows and the millions of attacks and
three or four new API sets from Microsoft that resulted from that single
ability to plant a dll in the search path.
This type of persistence can also be called incubation.
------
masterleep
It's sad that there's still no good way to do deployment based expiration of
assets without horrible hacks like sticking the asset checksum in the URL. I
know that none of my assets will ever change unless a deployment occurs, and
even then, most of them won't change. HTTP doesn't seem to support this use
case well at all.
~~~
toomim
What do you mean by "deployment-based"? You want things to expire each time
you "git pull" on the server?
~~~
jeremiep
Wait you're actually running git on production boxes? Doesn't that mean your
entire build toolchain also lives on production?
The last company I worked for did that and everything was much slower and
fragile than it would've been had we deployed packaged artifacts instead.
~~~
jrochkind1
Eh, heroku seems to handle it fine.
~~~
krallja
No, Heroku has a separate build step before it deploys to your dynos.
------
Lxr
What happens when wrongly configured servers or frameworks with default
settings implement this too aggressively? Browser vendors want their product
to work as expected when the user hits refresh, so will be forced to either
voliolate the standard or show stale content.
~~~
jlgaddis
Per _foota_ [0]:
Clients SHOULD NOT issue a conditional request during the response's
freshness lifetime (e.g., upon a reload) unless explicitly overridden
by the user (e.g., a force reload).
The server is still going to serve up the resource when requested. This
behavior is for the client-side of things (browser).
[0]:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15262108](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15262108)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Equatorie of the Planetis (1393) - pacaro
http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-PETERHOUSE-00075-00001/1
======
pacaro
More descriptive information is at
[http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/heavens-
above](http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/heavens-above)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Pentagon Expands Inquiry Into Intelligence on ISIS Surge - randomname2
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/22/us/politics/military-reviews-us-response-to-isis-rise.html?_r=0
======
jimrandomh
People tend to think of there being a unified "US government", but the reality
is that there's a large number of mostly separate organizations connected only
loosely by a theme. Sometimes they lie to each other. Sometimes they lie to
the politicians in Washington, who are nominally in charge but who seem to
have less real power with every passing year.
~~~
AndrewKemendo
God I wish more people knew this and understood that it's a feature, not a bug
of our system.
In this case, that message is not quite exact because MAJCOM commanders have
the POTUS as their boss. But between state governors, POTUS, Congrees and the
Judiciary, there is an intentional and functional disconnect.
~~~
Nemcue
To the citizens of nations that are being bullied by those organisations it's
NOT a feature.
~~~
hguant
Right, but the concerns of those citizens quite frankly aren't a primary
concern of the United States.
~~~
nitrogen
Governments that maintain such shortsighted positions will eventually find
themselves superseded on the world stage.
~~~
vinceguidry
I'm curious, do you have any examples to point to?
~~~
nitrogen
It's based on intuition and is only a response to the direct parent comment.
If the US of .3 billion people ignores the needs of 6.7 billion people,
eventually those people will find a way to escape the needs of the US.
I'll note that the HN article title used to be significantly different, so
some of the conversation makes less sense without the "accused of lying to the
president" in the title.
------
randomname2
Summary: US Central Command is accused of lying to the President and Congress
about airstrikes and the ground fight against ISIS, obscuring the fact that
America’s strategy to combat ISIS simply was not effective, as "senior
officials" at Centcom were determined to "overstate the progress of American
airstrikes against ISIS."
In September, The Guardian reported that the tendency for Centcom to provide
upbeat assessments of the fight against ISIS may have been influenced by James
Clapper (Director of national intelligence), who was "said to talk nearly
every day with Grove – 'which is highly, highly unusual', according to a
former intelligence official." ([http://www.theguardian.com/us-
news/2015/sep/10/james-clapper...](http://www.theguardian.com/us-
news/2015/sep/10/james-clapper-pentagon-military-official))
------
otakucode
I don't understand why anyone would be surprised by this. This is par for the
course in intelligence. The intelligence agencies exist to provide whatever
fiction those in power wish to hear. In the 80s, the CIA determined that the
USSR was a paper tiger destined for collapse. But Reagan wanted an enemy. So
the higher-ups at the CIA took the report by the head of their USSR division
and threw it away, crafting their own fictional representation of the USSR as
a powerhouse. This is why every major world event comes as a huge surprise to
the CIA and other intelligence agencies. It doesn't surprise any of the
analysts working there, they actually know what is going on most of the time.
But because the truth is not politically convenient, the agency as a whole
cannot be made to seem like a danger to the political machinations of those
who influence their funding. Some of the gymnastics this involves are
sometimes funny. Reading the CIAs reports on Iran's 'nuclear weapons program',
for instance, are an adventure in absurdism. Pile after pile of pages of
extensive descriptions of total knowledge of Iran's operations culminating in
not a single shred of evidence of any weapons program gets topped off with
"but then again, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. There could
be a super-duper-extra-top-secret weapons program buried 50 miles underground"
which gives the politicos and media the ability to report it as "CIA says Iran
may have secret weapons program in new report!"
Oh, and that head of the CIAs USSR division whose report showing the truth of
the USSRs weakness was Aldritch Aimes. It was at that point that he realized
the intelligence game was a sham and just being used to lend an air of
mystique and 'secret knowledge' to whatever position those in power want to
make seem legitimate and decided if everyone else was just playing a game, he
might as well play to, and cut a deal with the Russians to act as a double
agent.
~~~
randomname2
The article says intelligence/Centcom lied to the President and to Congress,
how exactly is this is par for the course?
~~~
CamperBob2
I think the leadup to the Iraq war taught us everything we need to know about
the CIA. They're appointed by the executive. They report to the executive. Yet
every other branch of government relies on their assessments.
The CIA is merely a tool by which the President leads Congress around by the
nose. It's their _job_ to lie. What's harder to understand is why Congress
continually falls for whatever they're selling.
------
rrggrr
It wouldn't suprise me to learn the Obama administration downplayed ISIS
purposefully. Nothing builds a coalition like a common enemy, and apart from
some disagreements over targeting, the key players (Iran, Russia, Europe,
Turkey) are coordinating efforts to destroy ISIS. Economic necesssity requires
the US defense establishment to downsize, and after decades of costly wars in
the middle east, there really is no option but to let others lead this fight.
I suspect the administration is now rebuilding and retooling for high
intensity conflict, and that Syria/ISIS is a distraction the US doesn't need
but a conflict that requires regional actors to form a coalition. To which:
[http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-11-22/russia-
cal...](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-11-22/russia-calls-for-un-
brokered-moves-in-fighting-terror-ifx-says)
------
cowardlydragon
Since operations in Iraq are just a government fraud / boondoggle by the
Pentagon and it's incestuous corporate leeches, this bad attempt at coverup
isn't surprising
------
oxide
Is this not treasonous?
~~~
koenigdavidmj
What person, owing allegiance to the US, is levying war against them or giving
their enemies aid or comfort?
~~~
oxide
Since we call whistleblowers traitors, maybe we should call yes men traitors
too.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A WebSocket Primer - caitiem20
http://caitiem.com/2013/12/02/a-websocket-primer/
An overview of the basics of the WebSocket protocol, what you need to get started
======
pornel
It's funny that the article says _" This enables server sent events"_ without
actually referring to the HTML5 _Server Sent Events API_ :
[http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/eventsource/basics/](http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/eventsource/basics/)
SSE is realtime server->client protocol that's fully compatible with HTTP and
has lower handshake overhead (no Upgrade roundtrip, doesn't require HTTPS to
go through proxies).
~~~
rch
Agreed. Both approaches have their place, but I see SSE getting overlooked too
often.
~~~
yogo
I'm not 100% up to speed on SSE but since there is no way to "push" to a
client isn't it just some form of polling at the end of the day?
It's also not supported by IE yet:
[http://caniuse.com/eventsource](http://caniuse.com/eventsource)
Compare with [http://caniuse.com/websockets](http://caniuse.com/websockets)
~~~
dspillett
_> isn't it just some form of polling at the end of the day?_
Probably long-poll, a single connection from client to server kept alive with
the occasional byte sent one way which sends the message and disconnects when
there is something to send (the disconnect, requiring a new request from the
client is because some clients won't process what has been sent immediately
unless the connection is closed).
I once wrote a messaging client that operated this way. It is efficient in
terms of bandwidth use and client footprint, though if you are using a process
based we server it can be quite inefficient there (an event driven service on
few processes/threads is far more efficient for handling many long-lived low-
activity connections).
------
shubber
Related: definitely check out
[https://github.com/sockjs](https://github.com/sockjs)
~~~
TheMakeA
Also check out
[https://github.com/primus/primus](https://github.com/primus/primus) It's an
abstraction layer over sockjs, socket.io, etc.
~~~
jdp23
Does any have experiences with Primus they can share?
The idea of being able to insulate the rest of the code from the specifics of
which lower-level library I'm using is very attractive. On the other hand, any
abstraction layer can introduce bugs in its own right. Thoughts about the
tradeoff?
~~~
corford
I'm using it now for a project that's due to go live early next year and so
far it's been a dream. Case in point, I ran in to a bug on Monday and it
turned out to be with engine.io itself rather than Primus. The workaround was
a one line code change swapping the transformer to something else.
Arnout Kazemier (the lead dev) is a really nice guy and when I pinged him
about the egine.io bug, he pushed out a change to Primus 24 hours later that
worked around the bug and let me continue to use engine.io as the transformer.
YMMV but so far I've no regrets using it.
------
general_failure
Does anyone know the purpose of Sec-WebSocket-Key and the associated Accept? I
know the hashing stuff
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebSocket](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebSocket))
but I don't understand why it exists.
~~~
tec27
It's there to help guarantee that the server the browser is connecting to
actually understands websockets and isn't being "tricked" into opening a
connection through clever request formulation. With that guarantee in place,
browsers can trust servers to properly check for and limit cross-domain
requests and the like and not need to use something like CORS to negotiate
that stuff.
~~~
general_failure
Why not skip all the hashing stuff? Why not just have Sec-Key: 'secret' and
expect a reply with Sec-Accept: 'secret'. (where secret is hardcoded constant)
------
moron4hire
I've actually been writing a MUD in Node.js with WebSockets (well, Socket.IO,
thus I get failover support). It's been a lot of fun, and has been really easy
to use.
What is really interesting is just how easy it is to use WebSockets with the
latest libraries. I've got a project in .NET that relies on a lot of
Microsoft-specific libraries right now. But with the ease of WebSockets, I can
rewrite the UI in HTML5 like we always wanted and get around to rewriting the
MS-specific stuff in Java or Python more likely whenever I feel like it.
It's like completely platform agnostic pipes, in a way that TCP/IP sockets
never seemed to quite do.
EDIT: I think it's just that I don't have to listen for new connections and
figure out how to bind them in a loop that I keep alive myself. I get an event
when users connect.
------
tibbon
Found out today that WebSockets now work on Heroku. Wrote a little quick app
that uses them:
[http://colorchats.herokuapp.com/](http://colorchats.herokuapp.com/)
Need to clean up a few things, but it was a neat 45 minutes.
------
warfangle
Would have rather seen sample code as Plain Old Javascript, or some other
language that you can use without buying into the Microsoft ecosystem.
Suggest the title be changed to:
A WebSocket Primer for .Net 4.5
The rest of it is a cool read, though. Thanks for submitting.
~~~
brudgers
Maybe C# was just the language at hand when the research was done, perhaps as
part of a day job. Why not blog something up about web sockets in JavaScript?
------
gwu78
Is there a commandline http client that can negotiate WebSockets? If so, I
might be tempted to experiment.
~~~
tlb
Libwebsockets contains a simple command line client and server:
[http://libwebsockets.org/](http://libwebsockets.org/)
------
firen
Great explanation!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Could we use Shellshock to patch vulnerable systems? - mperd
Since we know that it took weeks before most servers were fixed from the Heartbleed vulnerability, couldn't we use Shellshock to make a worm that would upgrade bash wherever it can? Are there legal issues about fixing a vulnerability in a system that doesn't belongs to you?<p>[edit] Ok, I guess the part about the legal issues was a bit candid. What I am really saying is wouldn't it be a good thing to have a worm closing vulnerabilities, compared to the thousands of hackers exploiting this vulnerability to steal or spy?
======
johngalt
It would be treated the same as exploiting a system for any other reason.
Friendly worms have been done before (welchia). The problems with friendly
worms are numerous. It is more than just a legal issue. A malicious worm is
looking to propagate quietly and perhaps leave some sort of backdoor control
channel. A friendly worm has to propagate (faster than malicious worms), and
patch (without DDoSing patching infrastructure), and self terminate (which
harms it's ability to propagate). It's hard to imagine a real world scenario
where a friendly worm would be effective. It would either take too long to
develop, or it would do just as much damage as a regular worm.
~~~
mperd
Thanks, I did not know about that kind of worms or about the Welchia worm.
------
feth
In France, you deserve 3 years in jail and a fine of 45000€ for this.
[http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichCodeArticle.do?idArticle...](http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichCodeArticle.do?idArticle=LEGIARTI000006418316&cidTexte=LEGITEXT000006070719)
------
thrillgore
Since this is a RCE bug, sure, you can fix it. But its not your place to fix a
vulnerability. It's on the vendor to provide the patch.
I will point out like its been pointed out in another comment this probably
breaks the law somewhere.
------
krapp
>Are there legal issues about fixing a vulnerability in a system that doesn't
belongs to you?
Yes. Because it doesn't belong to you. Therefore you have no right to 'fix'
it.
------
therealidiot
I'm pretty sure in many places this would be illegal
Definitely in the UK
------
JensRantil
It's a good idea, but I would expext most applications vulnerable to not run
as root. You would need to be root to patch the bash executable.
~~~
mperd
Good point. So I guess one would have to combine that with another
vulnerability to be able to get root privileges.
We could also imagine a worm contacting the owner of the server and asking her
to fix it.
------
Spoom
If you attempted to do this, you would likely end up in jail for a very long
time under the CFAA. Fair warning.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The eerie otherworldliness of slow undersea life sped up to a human pace - YeGoblynQueenne
https://aeon.co/videos/the-eerie-otherworldliness-of-slow-undersea-life-sped-up-to-a-human-pace
======
celias
Not sure why, but I had a flashback to watching Eraserhead in college while
watching this.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
It's Time to Disrupt Housing - joshuabaker2
https://medium.com/@josh_53953/its-time-to-disrupt-housing-2262bb88477c
======
seeker61
And once we're done with that, let's disrupt food production and fire
protection!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Titanium: Project to prevent criminal use of the dark web and virtual currencies - mbgaxyz
http://cordis.europa.eu/news/rcn/141335_en.html
======
RichardHeart
tldr: "...develop efficient and effective forensics tools enabling the
reasonable use of different types of data from different sources including
virtual currency ledgers, online forums, peer-to-peer networks of underground
markets, and seized devices."
------
djsumdog
Bitcoin isn't really anonymous. Transactions are in a ledger. Isn't think why
people use rollers to redistribute coins?
~~~
tribby
this is why I'm surprised zcash and monero haven't taken over the markets.
~~~
ktta
Zcash is anonymous by option only (transparent addresses and secret
addresses). If you ask me that kind of defeats the point. It will raise
questions like 'why did you choose an anonymous address?'. Optional privacy
hurts the people who need to be private.
~~~
Casseres
Zcash also relies on a trusted setup: a master private key was used to
initiate it, and that you have to trust the key was destroyed. If someone had
a copy of that key, they could create infinite coins without detection.
People have to decide whether they want to trust that a copy of the key wasn't
made, or if they want to use a trustless setup.
Monero doesn't require trust, and it's also private by default.
~~~
ktta
There are actually more problems, but I didn't want to go off topic. Like
about how the developers get paid a certain percentage. Someone made the
calculations to be about $3m a year for all the developers combined each year.
I know that they deserve to get compensated, but that goes completely off what
cryptocurrencies stand for.
Like the whole thing seems to be riding on the concept of zk-SNARKS, but the
fact of the matter is, there is already Monero which offers the privacy aspect
that zcoin advertises (but fails to deliver on that too)
~~~
Casseres
What ktta is talking about is the 10% Founders Reward that goes to the company
and its investors.
For those that may read this who don't know, Zcash is a company. It's Founder
and CEO wrote this on Twitter:
> I think we can successfully make Zcash too traceable for criminals like
> WannaCry, but still completely private & fungible.
[https://twitter.com/zooko/status/863202798883577856](https://twitter.com/zooko/status/863202798883577856)
------
lightbyte
>funded by the European Union aimed at developing technical solutions for
investigating and mitigating crime and __terrorism __involving virtual
currencies and underground market transactions.
Has there EVER been a terrorism situation that involved the dark web and/or
bitcoin? This smells like a power grab feeding on fear.
------
whatnotests
Will they require some kind of license to purchase and/or sell crypto
currency?
This de facto criminalization ad then licensing the privilege (nay right) to
utilize these tools is a step in the wrong direction.
~~~
dogma1138
You need a license to operate a currency exchange why would digital currency
be any different?
The large bitcoin exchanges already comply with many if not most financial
regulations.
You can't setup a shadow economy valued in the billions without governments
taking note and moving to regulate it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
U.S. Cattle Herd Falls to 1958 Low as Losses Climb - cwan
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-01-27/u-s-cattle-herd-falls-to-1958-low-as-losses-climb-survey-says.html
======
frankus
Did anyone notice the little haiku (almost) at the end:
Beef Cows Dairy Cows
All Cattle Cows That That Have That Have
& Calves Have Calved Calved Calved
------
johnl
glad to see the economics of supply,demand,and price working somewhere.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN the updated version of too-long-didnt-read.com - christophe971
Hi again!<p>In this thread http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2171135 I was lucky to have interesting feedbacks. I incorporated some of them this morning, I think you will like it:<p>* No more need to sign in with a Twitter account to create a summary<p>* The latest summaries are on the homepage<p>* All summaries are accessible, with a pagination<p>Edit:<p>A summary I like: http://www.too-long-didnt-read.com/ropcyu#summary_4
======
christophe971
Some clickable links:
The previous thread: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2171135>
The website: <http://www.too-long-didnt-read.com/>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What are good books for advanced topics in Python? - michelleclsun
I have been programming for almost a year and full time for 5 months. Looking to add to my holidays reading list. So far I've seen recommendations, eg Think Python(http://www.greenteapress.com/thinkpython/thinkpython.html) and Programming Python (http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Python-Mark-Lutz/dp/0596158106/). Thanks for any tips and advice!
======
tordf
Foundations of Python Network Programming is pretty ok on network related
topics([http://www.amazon.com/Foundations-Python-Network-
Programming...](http://www.amazon.com/Foundations-Python-Network-Programming-
Goerzen/dp/1590593715))
~~~
michelleclsun
Thanks @tordf!
------
poof131
I guess the question is what do you mean by advanced topics? What direction do
you want to go in? The latter book you mentioned seems to cover a number of
topics and is probably a good bet.
If you are interested in the web, both these books were good:
[http://www.amazon.com/Python-Web-Programming-Steve-
Holden/dp...](http://www.amazon.com/Python-Web-Programming-Steve-
Holden/dp/0735710902) [http://www.amazon.com/The-Definitive-Guide-Django-
Developmen...](http://www.amazon.com/The-Definitive-Guide-Django-
Development/dp/143021936X/ref=pd_sim_b_12)
Here are a few books that cover some "advanced?" topics that I'd like to read
when I have time (would also like to hear other peoples' recommendations on
them): [http://www.amazon.com/Python-Data-Analysis-Wes-
McKinney/dp/1...](http://www.amazon.com/Python-Data-Analysis-Wes-
McKinney/dp/1449319793) [http://www.amazon.com/Twisted-Network-Programming-
Essentials...](http://www.amazon.com/Twisted-Network-Programming-Essentials-
Fettig/dp/0596100329) [http://www.amazon.com/Foundations-Python-Network-
Programming...](http://www.amazon.com/Foundations-Python-Network-Programming-
comprehensive/dp/1430230037/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_y)
[http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Tornado-Michael-
Dory/dp/1...](http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Tornado-Michael-
Dory/dp/1449309070) [http://onlinebookplace.com/programming-computer-vision-
with-...](http://onlinebookplace.com/programming-computer-vision-with-python-
tools-and-algorithms-for-analyzing-
images?region=us&engine=google_pl&gclid=CJDNub2Z9rMCFe5FMgodTy8Azw)
I'm not sure on your background or the quality of these books, but an
understanding of data structures, algorithms, and object oriented programming
could be considered important: [http://www.amazon.com/Data-Structures-
Algorithms-Using-Pytho...](http://www.amazon.com/Data-Structures-Algorithms-
Using-Python/dp/0470618299) [http://www.amazon.com/Python-Algorithms-
Mastering-Language-E...](http://www.amazon.com/Python-Algorithms-Mastering-
Language-Experts/dp/1430232374/ref=pd_sim_b_2)
[http://www.amazon.com/Python-3-Object-Oriented-
Programming/d...](http://www.amazon.com/Python-3-Object-Oriented-
Programming/dp/1849511268)
Although these and other intermediate to advanced topics tend to be covered
better in non-language-specific books such as this shotgun blast to the head.
Don't worry, it's just an "introduction": [http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-
Algorithms-Thomas-H-Corme...](http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Algorithms-
Thomas-H-Cormen/dp/0262033844)
~~~
michelleclsun
Thanks @poof131 - I'd like to go deeper into algorithms / data manipulation /
social network analysis (for my job), and also web programming using python
(weekend reading).
I'm currently reading Python for Data Analysis but feel like I can read about
how to use a library but it's hard to retain specific syntax use cases if I'm
not using those libraries immediately / frequently.
One book I really like is Collective Intelligence
(<http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596529321.do>), which has some good
examples on social network analysis.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Yes, the "gigantic enormous" Windows really can run on a tablet - kenjackson
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/yes-the-gigantic-enormous-windows-really-can-run-on-a-tablet/3422
======
bluekeybox
I bet that 100 years from now, in the post-Singularity wasteland with pockets
of humans surviving here and there, and with unimaginably advanced hardware
available that responds to your thoughts at will, Microsoft if it survives is
going to try to port Windows with all its bugs to the latest thought-
controlled quantum hypercomputer, their marketing message being that "it turns
blue when you're sad -- it's still Windows!"
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Hyper-growth in SaaS - chrija
http://christophjanz.blogspot.com/2015/03/hyper-growth-in-saas.html
======
dnevogt12
This was an awesome post - really enjoyed it!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: tubehaiku - streamlined viewing of poetic youtube videos - philipbjorge
http://tubehaiku.com
======
bloggersway
nice
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Real Tennis World Champion will be decided tomorrow - cromulent
http://www.irtpa.com/index.php/realtennis/world_champs
======
cromulent
Fahey has held the title for 16 years, but it's been hotly contested since
1740.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_real_tennis_world_champ...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_real_tennis_world_champions)
------
kierank
I'll be honest and say I had no idea people still play real tennis.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Network Man – Reid Hoffman’s big idea - burritofanatic
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/12/the-network-man
======
dannypgh
Anyone else chuckling at the "big idea" of having a million people raise a
billion dollars... so that a billionaire politician can run for office?
~~~
forgetsusername
But Michael Bloomberg is just like us!
~~~
jackgavigan
Well, he _is_ a (wildly successful) fintech entrepreneur!
------
jackgavigan
I feel like the tech sector is at risk of losing one of the things that made
it special if we go down a path where networking skills and "who you know"
become more important to a person's (or company's) success than than raw
ability.
~~~
johnward
What makes you think we haven't gone down that path already? This industry is
really no different than any other. Who you know gives you a ton of leverage
but I think that's just basic human nature.
------
graycat
Ah, let Reid make money selling ads while you become a _public person_ whether
you really should be or not!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A Woman Who Makes Prosthetic Pinkies for Ex-Yakuza Members - mhb
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-woman-who-makes-prosthetic-pinkies-for-ex-yakuza-members
======
mmcconnell1618
From the article: 45% of members have at least one part of a digit amputated.
Those are probably not stats they tell you on recruitment day!
~~~
dclowd9901
It also seems a bit of a defeating cycle. If you lose part of your pinky, you
are, almost by definition, less effective than you were before (with the
exception of maybe running), thus leading you to make more mistakes.
I get tradition, but you have to wonder if 45% of your people are operating at
99% of their capability, that's quite a bit of lost manpower.
~~~
GSimon
That's one way to look at it. You could also see it as 45% of your workforce
has now a much greater difficulty finding a normal job because of this now
visible gang affiliation. Those 45% have less options to make a traditional
living which increases their reliance on the Yakuza.
------
justinclift
That lady would certainly have a lot of interesting people owing her favours.
;)
------
jorgecurio
so most of these pinkies are cut by the yakuza members by themselves after
some offense. Like one guy got drunk driving his boss's car alone and crashed
it.
Considering how much the Yakuza pulls in (billions), I'd thought they could
write it off as a business expense. But nope, the young Yakuza employee had to
cut off his finger and exit the company. No severance or pensions or benefits.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jmp8_PAej3c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jmp8_PAej3c)
I think that in some ways this is actually very effective because instead of
killing your underlings for fucking up or offending you, you have them
mutilate a part of them but little at a time to not ruin their productivity or
affect their job. Which explains why ex-Yakuzas have different digit count...
And let's face it their industry is largely underground with no enforcement
from the government due to being declared illegal. Nobody would do their jobs
seriously if there wasn't some kind of morbid air of fear in the work
atmosphere. Your underlings wouldn't take your orders etc. Killing them is
tough because recruitment is much tougher in Japan, unlike America where gangs
thrive. Young people in Japan are starting their own gangs now and don't like
the rigid culture of the Yakuza.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jw_ICAAFoiM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jw_ICAAFoiM)
Imagine if your startup made a policy that you had to pay $1000 in cash each
time you made a mistake, how scary is that?
~~~
hguant
The interesting thing about the yakuza is that, in Japan, they're not actually
illegal. The activities they partake in are, but actually being a yakuza
member isn't a crime.
~~~
jorgecurio
they are cracking down on it now I think with the equivalent of RICO act
making it easier for police to search yakuzas...but face it, Japanese police
are more on the quirky side and yakuzas seem to not take them seriously and
harassing them.
[http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/japanese-robocop-
tra...](http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/japanese-robocop-train-bosses-
recruit-3181592)
------
kazinator
How are pinkies not "regular prosthetics"? Yakuza ex-members are just humans.
------
jefurii
These might be good for Emacs users too.
~~~
pvaldes
Nah, I'm naturally growing an extra pinky for pinky-mode.
Hum, that makes me think about some interesting ideas. Would be needed a
frodo-mode in emacs for disabled people? Can you still be efficient with a
computer with a fake finger?
~~~
fennecfoxen
Real emacs power-users can also consider _foot-pedals_.
(No, I'm not joking.)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
PSA: Use a CDN for external assets like HTML5shiv - acusti
http://www.acusti.ca/blog/2015/01/23/psa-use-a-cdn-for-external-assets-like-html5shiv/
======
acusti
Advice for web developers on how to easily use a free CDN for loading open
source external assets or any GitHub-hosted resource. It’s actually old news,
but I still see the HTML5shiv being included using the googlecode SVN repo
link (which is NOT a CDN), even on brand new websites.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
AWS RoboMaker – Develop, Test, Deploy, and Manage Intelligent Robotics Apps - appwiz
https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/aws-robomaker-develop-test-deploy-and-manage-intelligent-robotics-apps/
======
hcrisp
This looks like a cloud-enabled way to scale up agent-training for
reinforcement learning, am I correct? If so, this could be a great enabler for
developing robotic controls. I'm surprised that the article does not mention
"reinforcement learning" at all.
~~~
coleray
I would like to optimize the entire develop/deploy/monitor process by being
able to make a change, iterate quickly in simulation, get the change out
safely, and monitor once it's in production.
By being able to create simulations easily, as well as scale them out,
training reinforcement learning models is a natural use case, however it
extends to other aspects of robotics development as well.
------
coleray
I'm an engineer on the RoboMaker team, I would love to hear feedback about our
service.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
German WW2 code machine found on eBay - mhb
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-36401663
======
Animats
If all they found was the teleprinter, and not the crypto machine, this isn't
a big deal. That is just the Lorenz version of the Teletype Model 14 tape
printer, built under license. These are not that rare. I have three of the
Teletype Corp version. (One is in operation right now at the Clockwork Alchemy
Steampunk Convention in San Jose. Visit the Telegraph Office there today.) The
crypto machine part is separate; it's a big electric-powered rotor machine,
like an Enigma with more rotors. This tape printer may be special because the
serial numbers match a historic crypto machine, which museum types care about.
Here's my overhaul of the Teletype Corp. version.[1] Here's a Lorenz version
someone else has.[2] Here's Bletchley Park's set, with the crypto unit and the
teleprinter.[3]
After I got my first Model 14, I had the paper tape they need made by a
company in China. The minimum order was 500 rolls, so I sometimes sell paper
tape to museums. (I tried US manufacturers first. Either they didn't want a
small order, wanted a very high price, or the edge quality of the paper was so
bad the tape would jam.)
[1]
[http://www.aetherltd.com/refurbishing14.html](http://www.aetherltd.com/refurbishing14.html)
[2]
[http://www.teleprinter.net/english/inhalt/t2.shtml](http://www.teleprinter.net/english/inhalt/t2.shtml)
[3]
[http://cryptomuseum.com/crypto/lorenz/sz40/img/301491/000/fu...](http://cryptomuseum.com/crypto/lorenz/sz40/img/301491/000/full.jpg)
~~~
Animats
From [1]: _“We saw the swastika and then we noticed one of the keys was
devoted to the double lightning bolt symbol of the SS.”_
Now that's a Baudot/ITA2 character set variation I haven't seen. There's
already USTTY, ITA2, weather symbols, fractions (⅛, ¼, ⅜, etc., for stocks),
versions with £ instead of #, and versions with a pilcrow. (¶). But I've never
heard of a double lightning bolt symbol.
Unicode has a single lightning bolt (Stack Overflow cannot handle this) up in
the astral planes with the new emoji. But no double lightning bolt. I suppose
a request for that now has to go into the Unicode consortium.
[1] [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/29/hitlers-top-
secre...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/29/hitlers-top-secret-coded-
messaging-machine-snapped-up-for-950-af/)
~~~
bct
It's not a lightning bolt, it's the rune ᛋ.
~~~
Animats
I suspect the "double lightning bolt" is just a glyph to print for end of
line, for CR or LF. A tape printer doesn't do anything special for CR or LF,
but some of them print something. One of my machines prints "=", and one
prints an oversized comma. There's no standard for that.
------
userbinator
_But one key part is still missing and volunteers are still searching for it.
"It looks like an electric motor in black casing with two shafts on each side,
which drive the gears of the Lorenz machine," explains volunteer John Wetter.
Volunteers hope the public will look out for it and if all else fails are
hoping someone might want to build them a new one until they find it._
If it's just a dual-shaft motor with nothing else special about it,
fortunately those are widely available:
[http://www.surpluscenter.com/New-
Arrivals/1600-RPM-115-VAC-D...](http://www.surpluscenter.com/New-
Arrivals/1600-RPM-115-VAC-DUAL-SHAFT-FAN-MOTOR-1-40-HP-10-2838.axd)
~~~
Marazan
I think they are looking for original parts.
------
mevile
I get that Museums aren't well funded but I feel like ten quid isn't enough
value being returned to the owner. That owner didn't know what they had and
was taken advantage of, even if it was for a good cause. I hope their name
becomes part of the story of the device at least.
~~~
ChuckMcM
I understand your emotion but consider it from the owner's point of view. It
was _junk_ taking up space, now they have 10 quid and more space. They are
_quite happy_. Sure that junk "might" have been valuable but if you go down
that road you end up a hoarder thinking someday velvet paintings of elvis are
going to be really really valuable.
She could have taken it to the local Antique store and had it evaluated, or
asked the museum about it, but instead did what many do, throw it up on Ebay
and see if anyone wants it. She's happy, the museum is happy, that really is
all that counts here.
~~~
MrJagil
I think the problem is the phrasing. "Keep the change" sounds like they
exploited her ignorance and ran off with a bargain. It's just not how most
people want things to be. Despite the logic of the situation, it doesn't
_feel_ right. Attributions are free.
Further, though, there are some practical considerations. If they'd shown her
appreciation, future dialogue about how it got there, clues to the motor etc
should be easier to develop- they obviously asked, but no reason to
potentially burn any bridges.
~~~
ChuckMcM
I largely agree, but I note that we're reading the BBC's retelling of a story
told to them, so we don't really have a good handle on how the transaction
went down with the owner.
I have related experience with finding items to add to my DEC VAX collection.
I've found equipment that would sell for a premium to one of the folks who
maintain old computers for companies, and the owner has offered it up to me
for a few dollars. I always tell people in that situation what we're looking
at and often they are just glad to see it going to a good home rather than
wasting away in their closet/basement/storereoom. Sometimes they will decide
to try to sell it for more elsewhere.
In this particular case, the historical value is high, but the number of
people who would pay more than 9.5 pounds for it is probably in the single
digits. Remember it's only a part of a larger artifact. Further, _they found
it on ebay_ so others had the opportunity to see it and bid on it. In the past
I've found that things really do find their "market" price on ebay and
sometimes that is very different from what either the seller or the buyer
thinks should be the market price.
Finally there is the question of "value." It would be fun and cool to have an
ancient encryption device, but what is that "worth" to you? So many times I've
met people who kept old computers when they were enjoying them (high value)
and then discarding them after the excitement/fun has worn off. Cleaning out
and disposing an in-law or relative's estate after a long life is also really
useful for internalizing cash value vs sentimental value.
Really the best you can hope for is that both parties are satisfied with the
transaction. This person in the story might be looking forward to visiting the
artifact in a museum some day.
I'm not trying to argue that there aren't people who would exploit an
imbalance of information in a market to profit at the expense of others. Hedge
funds are full of people like that. I'm just saying that from what we've heard
in this story, both parties seem happy with the transaction. The BBC could
always follow up with a phone call to the owner and say "If you knew what it
was would you have asked the museum for more money?" Only then do we have
enough information to consider whether or not the museum was being exploitive.
~~~
MrJagil
All valid points.
Interestingly, I just remembered that we in Denmark have a law called
"Danefæ"[0], which states that the government has claim on all found
"treasure". Here you can read what is "danefæ" (i.e. claimed)
[http://natmus.dk/salg-og-ydelser/museumsfaglige-
ydelser/dane...](http://natmus.dk/salg-og-ydelser/museumsfaglige-
ydelser/danefae/hvad-kan-vaere-danefae/). As the law is mostly written with
ancient, dug-up items in mind a contraption such as the one in question would
not be covered. It's interesting though, how it would solve the moral dilemma.
It's surprisingly hard to find information on this in english; do the
states/UK have a similar setup? (your DEC VAX collection obviously wouldn't be
covered (yet))
[0] [http://natmus.dk/salg-og-ydelser/museumsfaglige-
ydelser/dane...](http://natmus.dk/salg-og-ydelser/museumsfaglige-
ydelser/danefae/)
~~~
stordoff
The UK has a broadly similar scheme for buried treasures under the Treasure
Act 1996. IIRC, it only covers items more than 200 years old.
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasure_Act_1996](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasure_Act_1996)
------
ck2
If someone is holding a bar of gold but thinking it is just foil wrapped
chocolate and offers to sell it to you for $10
but you know it is real gold and say "okay here's $10"
is that honest and moral?
------
smoyer
The description of the "missing motor" sounds more like the motor-transmission
assembly. Since the identification plate on the motor looks standard, if they
find an identical part number, it may be for the motor only. Is there any
chance of getting clear pictures or the motor-transmission from numerous
angles (and including all identifying marks)?
~~~
Animats
That's a special motor and drive train for the cyphering unit. Here's one with
the motor.[1] The cypher unit has two selectors - the two curved mechanisms on
the top front. Those are mechanical UARTs, serial to parallel converters, and
they're the same design used in Teletype machines from 1924 to 1959. Those
need power from a driveshaft. The same motor drives both, which is why there's
a special motor with a shaft out each end and two right-angle reduction drive
gearsets. That's not a standard teleprinter part.
The wheel with the black and white bars is a centrifugal governor. The speed
is adjustable, and you use a special tuning fork with a shutter to calibrate
the speed. This is a standard Teletype motor feature for when you can't rely
on AC power line frequency.
It's still not clear if this find included the crypto unit, or just the
teleprinter. If they actually found a crypto unit, this is a big deal. Those
were very rare.
[1]
[http://cryptomuseum.com/crypto/lorenz/sz40/img/301491/000/fu...](http://cryptomuseum.com/crypto/lorenz/sz40/img/301491/000/full.jpg)
------
n72
"We said 'Thank you very much, how much was it again?' She said '£9.50', so we
said 'Here's a £10 note - keep the change!'"
Kind of a dick move.
------
chiph
Note the 5 transfer bars to the right of the printing mechanism. It almost
certainly used the European variant of the Baudot code.
------
egberts5
I am wondering if the removal of the motor is some form of temporary disabling
of the unit in question.
------
anf
But how does it work?
~~~
bboreham
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorenz_cipher](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorenz_cipher)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
PyPy 1.6 Released - Full Python 2.7.1 Implementation - jparise
http://morepypy.blogspot.com/2011/08/pypy-16-kickass-panda.html
======
lliiffee
Can I take advantage of this thread to ask the HN crowd a technical question?
Some time ago, I implemented an automatic differentiation tool. Using operator
overloading on a special "autodouble" type the tool would trace the execution
of a block of numerical code. Then, some calculus would automatically happen,
and it would output and compile fast c-code that would compute the original
function and derivatives in pure c. This was great, except the c-code that was
output was freaking gigantic (like hundreds or thousands of megabytes) albeit
very simple, and so the c compiler would take _forever_ to run. Sigh.
My question is: could I leverage pypy somehow to avoid this? Can I output
RPython? Can I output whatever RPython is compiled down to instead? Can I do
this with no more than, say, a 3x penalty compared to c?
(I apologize for asking a question only marginally related to the particular
article here...)
~~~
carterschonwald
Off hand and guessing about the problem:
You might want to look at approaches that use dual numbers. Likewise, in
instead of inlining the procedures, generate a differentiated version of each
procedure with a new name. If those don't cover your problems, perhaps look at
how other autodiff tools for C do it?
~~~
lliiffee
For being offhand, those are very good guesses! Dual numbers won't be
efficient, as I want reverse-mode autodiff.
As to the multiple procedures: Well, as I was doing it, even a single
procedure can be many hundreds of megabytes large. Even for very very simple
code, however, I noticed that GCC was superlinear in code size. I suppose I
could somewhat arbitrarily break up the code into arbitrary functions. I
wonder if that would speed things up?
Other autodiff tools: Well, they basically trace execution, but then run an
interpreter instead of trying to actual generate compiled code. I wanted to
both be faster than that and have the wonderful experience of writing pure
python...
~~~
carterschonwald
it sounds like you're getting lots of code duplication. 1) try running a
common subexpression elimination process on your code before doing the
autodiffing, and create a procedure for each shared expression 2) for prim
ops, again, have a procedure created for the diffed version instead of
inlining, and sub in the procedure instead.
perhaps something like these ideas would help
If you want an example of a nice high level Auto diff lib, a nice one that
works via operator overloading is <http://hackage.haskell.org/package/ad> ,
which seems quite nice though I've not had the opportunity to use it myself.
yes, optimizing compilers such as gcc use algorithms that are superlinear in
code size when they're optimizing. Perhaps you should instead try out the
operator overloading approach (and see if you can )?
gl :-)
Aside: When I hear the phrase execution trace in the context of program
analysis, i think abstract interpretation, though I'm not sure if thats
relevant for you.
cheers!
~~~
lliiffee
It isn't exactly common subexpressions. Basically the problem is things like
matrix multiplies _always_ get unrolled.
I've used lots of operator overloading based autodiff packages for C++. They
are great, but the issue is not how the function is recorded (I used operator
overloading myself in my python package) but how it gets executed at runtime.
Unless a compiler (or JIT) is called sometime between when the operator
overloading happens and execution happens, the function is basically being
interpreted at runtime. This is what happens in, e.g. ADOL-C, SACADE, and
CPPAD, all of which come with a significant (e.g. 20x) performance penalty as
compared with hand-written derivatives.
------
voyvf
> has beta level support for loading CPython C extensions.
Is this via ctypes, or "real" support in much the same as how CPython would
behave?
I ask because this is one of the features that I've been waiting (impatiently)
for - I've run some Flask projects using PyPy and gunicorn, and _love_ how
fast it goes, but really want to be able to use the rest of my codebase, which
unfortunately does rely on some C (and Cython) extensions. (:
~~~
vgnet
It's "real" support, using your criteria. However, it's slower in PyPy than in
CPython and than what the same thing based on ctypes would be on PyPy.
If there's a pure-Python version of the C extension, it might be faster on
PyPy than the C extension support that cpyext (PyPy C-API compatibility
module) provides.
Cython-based code is currently incompatible (it goes well beyond the public
C-API), but a GSoC project to generate ctypes-based pure-Python code from
Cython is (was?) going on.
~~~
voyvf
> It's "real" support, using your criteria. However, it's slower in PyPy than
> in CPython and than what the same thing based on ctypes would be on PyPy. >
> If there's a pure-Python version of the C extension, it might be faster on
> PyPy than the C extension support that cpyext (PyPy C-API compatibility
> module) provides.
That's fine, the mere ability to run them will be nice. (:
> Cython-based code is currently incompatible (it goes well beyond the public
> C-API), but a GSoC project to generate ctypes-based pure-Python code from
> Cython is (was?) going on.
I remember that GSoC! Any idea as to what happened to it, if it was scrapped,
or whatever?
~~~
vgnet
> I remember that GSoC! Any idea as to what happened to it, > if it was
> scrapped, or whatever?
I know it made a lot of progress in Cython-land (updates at
<http://rguillebert.blogspot.com/>) but no real overview or high level status
update has been given yet (AFAIK). Since it's from GSoC 2011, it's about time
for that to happen... and for other people to start contributing code <hint,
hint> :).
------
sylvinus
I'm always blown away by the consistent performance gains they reach with each
new version. Congrats!
------
kristofferR
In general I'm very happy with my choice of Ruby/Rails instead of
Python/Django, but PyPy is one of the few things I envy Python developers for.
I wish something similar could be developed for Ruby.
~~~
irahul
> but PyPy is one of the few things I envy Python developers for.
Depending on your needs, there are others - numpy, scipy, matplotlib, nltk,
gevent.
> I wish something similar could be developed for Ruby.
Isn't <http://rubini.us/> supposed to be the PyPy for Ruby? It's not complete,
but then neither is PyPy.
~~~
stephenjudkins
Rubinius and PyPy take quite different approaches to solving the same general
problem. It's inaccurate to analogize them.
Rubinius specifies a bytecode (see <http://rubini.us/doc/en/virtual-
machine/instructions/>) and implements a VM that executes this bytecode. The
VM is written in C++. The main difference between Rubinius and other Ruby
implementations is that nearly everything else is written in Ruby. The lexer,
parser, and parts that compile the AST to bytecode is all written in pure
Ruby. Further, large parts of the standard library and Ruby language that are
implemented in lower-level languages in other implementations are instead
written as runtime-level Ruby. However, large and important parts of the
infrastructure (including GC and memory allocation) are written in C++.
PyPy takes an altogether different approach. It specifies a restricted subset
of Python known as "RPython". Basically, it's statically-typed Python. There
is also a "compiler" (also called a "JIT generator"), written in pure Python,
that compiles an arbitrary interpreter written in RPython into a fast JIT.
(See [http://morepypy.blogspot.com/2011/04/tutorial-writing-
interp...](http://morepypy.blogspot.com/2011/04/tutorial-writing-interpreter-
with-pypy.html) for an example of writing a very simple, small interpreter in
RPython.) A cool feature of RPython is that while there must a statically
RPython AST to compile, during the "eval" stage you can leverage the full
dynamic capabilities of Python.
The second part of PyPy is a full Python interpreter written in RPython. Since
RPython is a subset of Python, you can actually run this interpreter sandboxed
inside any other Python implementation, albeit very slowly. The PyPy toolchain
compiles this down to a very fast Python interpreter that features JIT
compilation, among other cool features.
The neat part of PyPy (in contrast to Rubinius) is that the toolchain part is
largely decoupled and generalized away from Python-the-language. Conceivably,
one could write ANY language in RPython (or what's compiled down to RPython)
and have a fast JIT interpreter. Experimental language features can be added
and changed (see the source code for the different garbage collectors in PyPy)
with little mucking with the low-level VM.
Rubinius is a neat, pragmatic project that could turn into one of the best
Ruby implementations around. However, it's not breaking new ground like PyPy
is.
~~~
headius
Rubinius's parser is C/++ code derived from the same Bison grammar as regular
Ruby. That's not to say it couldn't be pure Ruby, but it isn't right now.
~~~
stephenjudkins
I stand corrected. Thanks.
------
sho_hn
I'm still bummed at being stuck with the dilemma of having to chose between
CPython 3.x and PyPy. PyPy with Py3k support would rock.
------
socratic
Are there production users of PyPy?
I feel like PyPy has always been the most academically interesting Python
implementation. But has it taken away mindshare from CPython?
~~~
vgnet
Yes, there are.
Recently Quora announced it was running on PyPy[1]. Some other disclosures
were made (a Django project[2], LWN internal processing[3], tweets about
speedups in production, etc.), but the PyPy team is thinking about officially
asking for success stories in the near future[4].
[1]: [http://www.quora.com/Alex-Gaynor/Quora-product/Quora-is-
now-...](http://www.quora.com/Alex-Gaynor/Quora-product/Quora-is-now-running-
on-PyPy)
[2]: <https://convore.com/python/whos-using-pypy-in-production/>
[3]: <http://lwn.net/Articles/442268/>
[4]:
[https://bitbucket.org/pypy/extradoc/src/tip/blog/draft/succe...](https://bitbucket.org/pypy/extradoc/src/tip/blog/draft/success_stories.rst)
~~~
socratic
To me, this list seems to suggest the opposite actually.
[1] is the company where one of the main developers of PyPy works. [2] appears
to be a discussion where they are looking for anyone using PyPy in production.
[3] seems to be an article about someone experimenting with PyPy for git
processing. [4] is the developers looking for non-toy examples of production
use so that they can get more funding.
~~~
vgnet
It suggests that there aren't many production users, true. But it does prove
that there are some.
~~~
socratic
Indeed. Though two-ish production users after 7 years of development hardly
seems like a success.
By way of contrast, (1) in the Ruby world, YARV went from an alternative
implementation to the official implementation within two years, and (2) in the
JavaScript world, node.js is similarly being used in production in tons of
places after only two years. (Though I realize that those examples aren't
exact parallels.)
This isn't meant to criticize your response, rather, I find it interesting
that the Python world seems to have so many alternative implementations (PyPy,
IronPython, Jython, Cython) despite what appears to be really minority
mindshare compared to CPython.
~~~
sqrt17
* Jython is a really nice alternative if you want to use Python-the-language in a Java environment. Its suboptimal speed and the fact that it's really easy to write Java code that can be used from Jython means that you'll probably use it more as a scripting language * The relation between IronPython and .NET is probably very similar * For CPython, people have always wrapped their favorite C library and started using it - with SWIG in the old times and nowadays with Cython, which is a compiler for a subset of Python extended with types. In fact, quite a lot of useful Python libraries use Cython (whether as a glue language or as an implementation language), and it's probably in production use at a lot of places.
One of the problems of PyPy is that, while targeting Python-the-language, it
also gives up CPython compatibility by using their own PyPy VM (in the sense
of, GC'd execution environment with a JIT that's not really compatible with
other C/C++ code or even CPython). Because they're targeting their own
execution environment, they cannot profit from either the plethora of C/C++
libraries that exist or even the very decent library support that exists on
the JVM.
The PyPy people have recognized this and started to take care of the affair
with a JNI-type version of CPython's ctypes library. The problem is that very
few library wrappers (or even non-Python CPython extensions) are based on
ctypes, so that it's not useful as a replacement for CPython for most of the
people (especially those that need the speed improvements).
The reluctance of PyPy developers to start thinking about a solution for all
the existing CPython extensions has severely limited the appeal for using PyPy
in production use - having 10x gains for new code is not all that appealing
once you realize that you need to rewrite the other couple thousand lines of
(C++ or Cython) code and hope that you can optimize the PyPy code as well as
you optimized the C++ or Cython code.
Having said that, I'm really excited by the idea of a Cython variant that can
be used to wrap C/C++ code (or use Cython code) in PyPy's execution
environment. (This is the GSoC project that was referred to earlier) Or even
if I could use Cython to compile my C/C++ Python extensions for the JVM or
.NET.
~~~
nickik
Thats the problem all scripting languages have. They start slow, then people
want to be faster and start writting C code and that makes it really really
hard to have alternativ implementations. The guy implmenting Erjang had the
same problem he had to rewrite alot of C functions in Java. I think the python
comunity should recognisse what an awesome technolagy pypy is and start making
an widespreed effort and discurage C extentions. Pypy makes python-code so
much faster that alot of C extentions are not really worth it anymore.
~~~
sqrt17
Rewriting things in C, or Cython, also makes things much, much faster, without
the hassle of PyPy. And because you can do your own memory management (in the
places where it makes sense), Cython code is quite a lot better for well-
defined numerical applications than what you can get out of a GC-based
environment.
Realistically, you always want to be able to take advantage of one of the two
big ecosystems - namely the C world and the JVM world - because there are so
many libraries out there doing nontrivial things you do not have to
reimplement. Right now, writing C code that works well with generational
garbage collection (or really any kind of garbage collection that moves
objects around - i.e. all the well-performing ones) is either very tedious
(when you try to take account of objects being moved) or slow and possibly
error-prone (if you rely on JNI-style locking and unlocking of object
references).
As a result, it may actually be more attractive to build a Java bytecode JIT
into PyPy (and be able to have PyPy use Java classes within its more powerful
representation scheme) and get mindshare among the people currently using
Jython than trying to get the diehard C extension users to switch.
So much for the '"the X community should recognize what an awesome technology
Y is" is a surefire recipe for building sucky software' talk. People will do
whatever they do, and calling them idiots because they don't do what you think
is awesome doesn't lead anybody anywhere. (Though having a decent installer
and usable documentation may actually lead to more people discovering the
advantages of PyPy).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Do you really need a full-time hire for that? - antichaos
http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2012/03/do-you-really-need-a-full-time-hire-for-that.html
======
ComputerGuru
I have the opposite problem - or more accurately, it's the opposite face of
the same problem: same issues, opposite approach. I have a lot of different
tasks that I would like to hire someone(s) to do, but nowhere near enough work
to make it worth the overhead and inefficiencies of doing so.
As such, I end doing the mail, finance, support calls (omg, the support calls
and emails!), etc. for our startup, and can only hope to weather it out until
the amount of work becomes enough to make it actually worth hiring someone.
The real problem is that a lot of it is very domain-specific. This isn't
generic stuff that can be freelanced - it's ongoing work that'll take up an
hour of my (your) day and requires intimate familiarity with the how and what
of our day-to-day routine and products. I still outsource/contract stuff like
design work and other "parcelable" jobs, but most of the drudgery will remain
on my shoulders until the problems outlined in TFA are no longer applicable
for me.
~~~
true_religion
I had this same problem but lately I've decided to emulate the model of my
Uncle.
He has been a fairly successful businessman since the late 70s, with ventures
ranging from publishing to travel service to real estate.
One thing he always did though was draw in members of the family to help.
You'd be surprised how happily people will help you once asked, and being able
to step away from a task for an hour or two is a huge relief.
Also the quality of advise goes up highly once people become more involved
with your business---from the outside looking in, everything seems hunky-dory
and you're liable to just have family grin and say "its awesome!" if you ask
for their help. Once they've worked on it for a little while too, maybe
because they feel they've earned the right to have input they'll tell you what
they really feel.
This applies to your users/customers too--get buy-in from Day 1 and they'll be
the best QA department you ever had. When you have someone right out a 3 page
email detailing their thoughts, _then_ you know you're onto something.
------
reilly3000
I consider using outside resources a great strategy. Having an influential
agency on your side rather an a full time designer can mean connections that
wouldn't have happened otherwise.
It also keep the focus on projects with a beginning and an end. FTE's are
great for somebody that represents a core function of the business. In my
services company we have 6 of them, end everybody is at 95-100% capacity and
bought into what we're doing. Adding even one more person though can be
treacherous, especially when building a product.
The article is right, users will let you know endlessly about how to fix the
UI, you don't need some UI god to figure that out before you have something
built.
------
zeroonetwothree
One problem with this idea is that most quality people aren't going to want to
work as contractors part-time. Now if the work you need to do is not
particularly hard or you don't need it done particularly well then this might
work.
~~~
_pius
_One problem with this idea is that most quality people aren't going to want
to work as contractors part-time._
That's a strong assertion for which I see no evidence in the market. Plenty of
great programmers and designers neither have to nor want to work for anyone
else.
------
jackmcdade
My thoughts exactly. Be smart with your hires.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Theory of Mind for a Humanoid Robot [pdf] - lainon
http://groups.csail.mit.edu/lbr/hrg/2000/Humanoids2000-tom.pdf
======
robotresearcher
This is over 15 years old. Title should probably reflect that. There are
several early versions of the paper: here is probably the definitive one,
published in 2002.
[https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023%2FA%3A101329850711...](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023%2FA%3A1013298507114?LI=true)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Get the Tipjoy Bookmarklet. Tip any site, while you're on it. - ivankirigin
http://tipjoy.com/bookmarklet/
======
mdemare
It's actually kinda cool, going around the web, reading articles on my
favorite blogs, and for once, _leaving a tip_. It makes me feel good.
~~~
ivankirigin
I love the internet
------
anewaccountname
At least be honest: tip Tipjoy _and_ any site you chose while you're on it.
Tipjoy does take a cut, right?
~~~
ivankirigin
We take a small cut. Smaller than other services, like PayPal. We're open
about this: <http://tipjoy.com/faq/14/#q14>
I stress the bookmarklet not because of our cut, but because it will grow our
userbase -- people receiving lots of tips without being Tipjoy users will
probably soon become users to claim the tips.
edit: I should also mention that our effective cut is small when you consider
that tips can be recycled back into the community. Tip receivers can tip other
things for essentially zero overhead. We take our small cut when someone
cashes out.
~~~
anewaccountname
Cool, allowing tips to be used inside the system to fund other tips is a good
touch that also have the side effect of encouraging even more generosity.
------
PStamatiou
how does a site that does not use tipjoy ever find out that someone tipped
them? Is it one of those if they login they'll find out things?
~~~
ivankirigin
We actively seek out people that have received money that aren't users. We're
thinking about ways to automate this, but making it personal is probably going
to be the most effective.
You can search for a domain, url, or email here to check if it's been tipped:
<http://tipjoy.com/domainSearch/>
If it has, you need to authenticate that you own it through one of a few
methods.
~~~
anewaccountname
Does the tip get debited only after the intended recipient receives it?
~~~
ivankirigin
No, when the tipper gives it. Also, someone only receives the money into their
account when the tip is paid, but they are shown the level of unpaid tips.
I expect a number of blog posts of people saying "hey folks, pay your tips!".
We're deploying some friendly ways of encouraging it too.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
NYU Stern's Poster Boy – A Look into the 18 Year Old Hedge Fund Manager - startuppanel
http://www.startuppanel.co/sp-meets-julian-marchese-the-18-year-old-hedge-fund-manager/
======
pfusiarz
I'd love to see this in 10 years when he actually has experience.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Hi HN: Building a 'Group Buying' service - elboheme
My friend and I are building a 'we'-commerce platform (http://hopponit.com). We are aware that a couple of very well-funded startups (namely Mercata, funded by Paul Allen, and Mobshop, co-funded by Marc Andreessen) have failed in this area. However, there's plenty of academic research on this topic. Do you believe that a group buying service can be made valuable? If so, I'd love to read your thoughts on 'how'.
======
jaekwon
Group buying might be the wrong model.
What if, instead of focusing on products (which might have been mercata's
downfall?), we focus on pooling money for the local community? It's a
fundraiser service, except the service will also take care of several loose
ends.
(1) people bid real money to get something done in their local community (fix
potholes, install solar panels, bring music bands into their local bar,
whatever).
(2) the service builds web tools to help the community discuss options and
reach a consensus about a solution
(3) people can opt out at any time until the proposed solution (reached via
community vote) gets implemented (by contracting out or whatever). This gives
the users the power of choice.
($) the service primarily makes money when fundraising communities can reach a
consensus. There are also infinite possibilities for making deals with meat
world service providers (construction contractors etc) at a large scale. Also,
the money that users pledge will actually be deducted from their accounts and
held, accruing interest, until the user opts out or a solution is reached.
------
Travis
A friend of mine is part of the team at groupon.com, which is a great group
buying site. They've been extremely successful because they've managed to know
and target their prime demograpic perfectly. Also, they localize their deals
to a city, so that you're buying things like teeth whitening sessions and
dinners at fondue restaurants.
But the key to their success has been their customer / market validation, and
the singleminded pursuit of their target demographic (which is itself
interesting, as they're targeting 25-40 y.o. females in a high socioeconomic
class).
------
byoung2
If you can get the price significantly below the lowest price people can find
online, and it's not too inconvenient to use your site, then yes you can have
a successful group buying service. I'm not sure how feasible that is, because
the things people are most likely to buy online in a group are electronics,
computers, phones, etc., and the margins are already so thin you'll have
trouble beating buy.com, newegg, and amazon.
------
adrianwaj
Check out this model: <http://bit.ly/Lw6Id>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Italian Video by CGTN (China GT Network) Just Before Pandemic Hit Europe - giardini
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNMdg4morQs&feature=youtu.be
======
tpmx
Context: CGTN is owned by the chinese state. Used to be branded CCTV
International; I guess that brand got too much bad reputation.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Global_Television_Networ...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Global_Television_Network)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Docker 1.0 Backed By IBM, Red Hat, Rackspace - WestCoastJustin
http://www.informationweek.com/cloud/platform-as-a-service/docker-10-backed-by-ibm-red-hat-rackspace/d/d-id/1269547
======
nickstinemates
This is only the beginning:)
Thanks for submitting, Justin. If you're ever in SF I'd love to catch up and
just chat.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Economic Lessons the U.S. Forgot - robg
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/weekinreview/17goodman.html?hp
======
ckinnan
The financial crisis was grand political theater-- namely banks, their
creditors, and derivative counterparties created a panic in order to stick
taxpayers with trillions of dollars in losses. The media and policymakers were
either in the bag or cowed by unsubstantiated fearmongering about economic
collapse. If we had instead created an orderly way for these banks to fail
(while protecting retail savers and insurance policyholders), we'd be on the
path to recovery by now-- a recovery led by responsible banks. Instead we face
massive new levels of government debt, an expansion of corrupt crony
capitalism, and likely years of stagnation. Meanwhile, the perpetrators of the
crisis-- Fannie, Freddie, AIG, Citi, Goldman-- are largely intact and now are
taking on even greater risk under the umbrella of expanded government
backstops and even direct taxpayer funding.
~~~
old-gregg
I don't know much about economics but it seems that capitalism as I (used to)
understand it, with classic supply/demand curves and rational enterprises
competing for consumer cash, was just a fantasy.
Turns out that competing (and, generally, working) is a pain in the ass - so
the smartest people have long realized that nearly everybody can't go without:
* Healthcare
* Financial system
* Legal system
They have learned, that by merging with the state it becomes much easier to
extract arbitrary sums of money for these three basic functions [that normal
governments should provide for free].
Tools for wealth extraction vary: plain-vanilla taxes, insane medical
insurance costs, insane legal expenses, or just printing money at will (i.e.
devaluing what we already have).
Hasn't an average good parent been wishing for his/hers kid to become a
(lawyer|doctor|banker) within last 20 years? WTF? These "markets" don't create
any value - we don't choose to use their services, we _must_ pay them. No
wonder these costs have been skyrocketing.
Imagine a struggling entrepreneur with a monthly $1,400/mo medical insurance
bill (because that's what they _feel_ like charging), renting a crappy
apartment for $2,000/mo (because banking system has inflated property values
to insane limits) facing $10,000 fee to obtain a patent which will cost _much_
more to defend in court anyway.
Now: if you're 18, who do you want to become after college - an entrepreneur
or one of these people who extract these sums of money from him? No wonder the
private sector has been shrinking, while government and banking system have
been growing.
Listening to the news is depressing: they keep interviewing people, keep
asking "how to pay for healthcare? how to save our banking system?" instead of
just asking simple _why?_ Why doctors need to make millions? Why do medical
equipment salesmen need to have private jets? Why 5% down-payments for 30 year
mortgages are the norm? And why our banks need to be so freakishly huge that
we're afraid they could fail?
~~~
amalcon
That last one's bugged me for a while. If small, local banks weren't permitted
to merge until such time as they were "too big to fail", there would likely be
no need to bail them out today.
There are economies of scale in banking, but they're not on the same level as
manufacturing industries and that sort of thing.
------
stcredzero
Looking at our history of financial debacles, it seems like people are
learning from them: namely the perpetrators! It's like the S&L crisis was just
a rehearsal for the recent Ponzi Scheme Economy.
------
Dilpil
How many times does the new york times need to write this story?
------
TweedHeads
Cleptocracy is the modern form of government.
Those in power don't look after the people anymore, all they want is to steal
all they can while securing their loot.
There is no financial crisis, not in the sense of a '29s depression, that was
just a smoke curtain to make everybody forget about all the Bush
administration did wrong while looting even more from the already drained
institutions and tax payers.
And they succeeded, we already forgot...
~~~
jibiki
[citation needed]
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Downside to Freelancing - arthurk
http://manwithnoblog.com/2008/07/14/the-downside-to-freelancing/
======
simianstyle
I just quit my job and started freelancing, and one thing that I have to point
out is that although I'm working from home now, It still sometimes feels like
a 9-5 job. I can only handle one contract at a time, and will get burned out
if I do more than 8-10 hours of work a day. The weekends are all mine however
(including Fridays).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Make your iPhone app look beautiful - niico
http://www.uipsd.co/circles
======
binaryorganic
"No design skills required!" is not something you should read when making
design decisions for your app. Period.
~~~
mootothemax
_"No design skills required!" is not something you should read when making
design decisions for your app. Period._
So what's your alternative? Either investing a load of time in learning, or a
load of money in hiring a designer?
If you don't have the time/money/talent, this solves a very real problem.
~~~
potatolicious
> _"Either investing a load of time in learning, or a load of money in hiring
> a designer?"_
Yes.
The app store era has significantly raised the stakes - it's no longer enough
to ship something functional, people demand that it also be beautiful and
usable.
For every product niche worth tackling, there is a competing app that _has_
had the proper love of a designer. And it will win.
The success of a modern iOS app hinges heavily on ranking and featuring - go
to the App Store right now and look at any of the featured lists. Are there
_any_ lazily-designed apps there?
So in short, _there is no alternative_. Proper design is _not optional_ for
success in the app store. The only exception here is if your app has some
functionality that is so powerful, so utterly necessary for your users, _and_
so exclusive no one else can meaningfully copy it, that your users will live
with your crappy out-of-box UI.
~~~
mtrimpe
I'd say you're witnessing the rise of what seems to be WooThemes for iOS and
calling it useless.
It's probably not for you, but I would be surprised if this isn't highly
valuable to a lot of people.
~~~
adambenayoun
As someone who's running a marketplace with hundreds of iOS components and
templates, I can certainly say that there's a need for these kind of
templates.
A lot of people will use these templates as a good base to get started and
release a MVP, much like people use github bootstrap or a wordpress theme and
customize it to reach the market faster.
------
danielhughes
Looks great. I'm quite tempted to buy this. But I have a few questions:
1) Is a tab bar included?
2) What other iOS controls have you styled and included in the kit?
3) I see some icons depicted in the screenshots. Are those included? If so,
what other icons are available?
4) Any plans to target iPad?
~~~
cpursley
+1 on all 4 points.
------
niico
Use the 'hackernews' promo code to get a 29$ off on the Full UI + xCode
project pack.
~~~
davidkatz
detailed screenshots needed. can you email me at hi at davidkatz dot me?
~~~
niico
Updated! Check out all the screens now here: www.uipsd.co/circles Thanks guys!
~~~
cpursley
+1 for quick iteration!
------
epaga
Love the look of the site. A few remarks/questions:
* Is there a possibility to get PNGs in addition to PSDs?
* It's Xcode, not xCode.
* What exactly is in the Xcode project already? A storyboard? Any functionality?
~~~
eddieroger
I don't know the answer to number 1, since I haven't purchased, but expecting
that everything is properly layered and labeled, Slicy [0] would be a good
thing to have around. It really makes communicating with Photoshop a ton
easier for both designers and developers. (Not affiliated with MacRabbit, but
I love Slicy)
[0] <http://macrabbit.com/slicy/>
------
marknutter
Kind of like Twitter Bootstrap but you have to pay for it.
~~~
cpursley
This is much nicer than bootstrap.
~~~
antoinec
Actually it's not, it's just different and less common (for now).
------
kybernetyk
> beautiful
For some values of beautiful that is.
------
pretz
If you can't get the capitalization of Xcode's name right, can I trust your
code?
~~~
danielgrieve
You're right, that is definitely an indicator that his code is absolutely
horrible. He should have spent more time obsessing over which letter to
capitalize.
~~~
CanSpice
An important part about design is the attention to detail. Missing a fairly
easily-caught detail that will be glaringly obvious to his target audience
that he missed it isn't showing the proper attention to detail, and it makes
it less likely that his target audience is going to use his product.
------
mcabral
I'm using Chrome on Windows and I'm noticing that when I have my Chrome window
on one half of the screen, the responsive design breaks a bit. Basically, if I
try to scroll to the right, about 1/4th of the "Ready-to-Code XCode" is cut
off.
See: <http://imgur.com/JnOp2CE>
------
BHSPitMonkey
I'm not quite understanding this. How does getting handed a .psd template help
me make the app? Is this simply one possible alternative to the stock UIKit
skin that's been packaged up as an idea to reuse? (Like Bootstrap, if
Bootstrap was just a Photoshop document instead of usable CSS/HTML?)
------
thomaslutz
A followup on the marketing effect of this post regarding visitors, sales,
etc. would be useful.
------
yoda_sl
Kind of remind me of App Design Vault: <http://www.appdesignvault.com/>
Not associated to that site, simply got a few existing templates a few months
back when there was a super promo discount.
------
Evenjos
I'd like to see a site that matches designers and artists up with mobile
developers.
------
ryandetzel
So now the app store is going to be flooded with apps with all the same
design. :-P
------
sandofsky
The hamburger menu is a pretty bad anti-pattern in iOS design.
Worse, in the screen shot, there are only five items. They could fit in a
conventional iOS tab bar, which is significantly less clunky to navigate.
------
S_A_P
This looks very much like the capital one mobile app...
------
cpursley
This is actually pretty nice. Considering buying xcode version. Would be
better with a video overview of working xcode project.
------
alexgaribay
This looks great. I love the flat design of the site. And I love the UI
design. It looks very clean and minimal to me.
------
andrewroycarter
This is really cool- I'd love to see a lot of different templates to choose
from!
~~~
niico
As this first test was quite successful, I will be releasing new UI templates
soon. Also will be working on different platforms such as Android and iPad.
~~~
andrewroycarter
That sounds awesome! Looking forward to it
------
BaconJuice
How about an Android version?
~~~
niico
Sure, I wanted to "test the waters" before releasing other versions. But
definitely will release an android version!
~~~
wlindner
Have you considered creating this as a Xamarin theme component?
<http://components.xamarin.com/> It could be an easy way to get the theme in
front of more buyers.
------
holgersindbaek
Looks cool. What exactly does the Xcode project consists of though?
------
scosman
anyone who has purchased: care to comment on code quality?
~~~
scosman
Buyer beware. I bought the PSD and the font is Gotham Bold. Gotham isn't on
iOS and doesn't have an interactive/UI licence so it's not even an option to
buy it.
The developer's response: use Helvetica.
------
avijeets
Xcode. Not xCode.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: list of United States regions, state, county, city, zip list - hhimanshu
Where can I find the information about regions, state, county, city, zip for United states, I need this for building a geography dimension. I tried looking up various places but could not find the complete information, please help
======
pauldi
Have you tried geonames? I've not specifically used it for the US but that
kind of information is in there for other countries. Only drawback of using
geonames is that it can be a bit of effort getting what you want out of their
feed.
This seems to suggest the data you're after is in there:
<http://www.geonames.org/postal-codes/postal-codes-us.html>
~~~
gyardley
Yep - with the possible exception of exact ZIP boundaries, it should all be on
the download server: <http://download.geonames.org/export/dump/>
Grab the US.zip file and the English-language feature codes, filter down the
data to the stuff you're interested in, and you're good to go.
------
mjs00
For $40 these guys have something that also includes area code, time zone and
is recent data & quick download, if that matters for your project:
[http://zipcodedownload.com/Products/Product/Z5Commercial/Sta...](http://zipcodedownload.com/Products/Product/Z5Commercial/Standard/Overview)
Regions for states is not something well defined, at least that I've found, as
the definition varies depending on purpose (commerce, agriculture, political,
...). If you find something good, I'd love to hear about it.
~~~
hhimanshu
for region to states, I found this -
<http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0770177.html>
Let me know if that is what you were looking for
~~~
mjs00
Hi hhimanshu - I totally mis-understood what you meant - if you were looking
to group states into national regions, your link looks pretty good. I was
thinking of regions in terms of grouping counties into logical/meaningful
state regions. I do that thus far for CA and NY where in each I have about 10
regions.
------
akira2501
I'm not entirely sure what you're trying to accomplish, but the USPS TIGER
database can (sometimes) be useful in this area:
<http://zip4.usps.com/ncsc/addressmgmt/tiger.htm>
~~~
alexgandy
Here's a direct link to a CSV of the 2000 Census Fips Region/Zip code, which I
believe is taken from the USPS TIGER DB:
<http://www.census.gov/tiger/tms/gazetteer/zips.txt>
~~~
hhimanshu
All I need is a mapping from county to cities, which is missing in this data
too
------
eknuth
If you aren't looking for an API solution, you might want to check this out:
<http://zips.sourceforge.net/>
It isn't the most recent data, but it ought to get you started.
------
br0ke
CivicSpace released a CSV db of that a while back.
<http://www.boutell.com/zipcodes/>
------
chaithsc
look up melissa data at <http://www.melissadata.com/products/zip-data.htm>
------
vrikhter
Have you tried looking at factual.com?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Saudi Arabia’s Arab Spring, at Last - zonotope
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/23/opinion/saudi-prince-mbs-arab-spring.html
======
candiodari
I highly doubt that the king massacring half of the current power structure
for his own ends, and castrating the other half is an arab spring, and will
not bring increased freedom.
We all know what's coming next: a few incidents where the old power structure
takes some small measure of revenge, followed by mistrust, fear and
repression. The king, and all of the new government, does not trust it's hold
on power and will have to cut benefits across the population. These things
don't mix well.
Half the western press is implying that the current king, who was not even the
successor to the throne as little as 5 years ago is really an attempt to
modernize and westernize saudi arabia. This is exactly the line the saudi
government is putting out (while keeping significant parts of the old power
structure hostage at gunpoint one might add [1], maybe worse than just keeping
them hostage [2]). Currently the king is taking a populist viewpoint, but
that's out of desperation and fear.
The economic reality means he's going to have to cut financial benefits to the
population by a lot. And if there's one thing for absolute certain in this
world, it's that that has never brought social progress. Conservatives will
increase in power as a result of this for obvious reasons. What will happen ?
It's embarassing, one might even suspect a lot of money is involved in that
western press attitude.
[1] [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/06/how-saudi-
elit...](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/06/how-saudi-elite-became-
five-star-prisoners-at-the-riyadh-ritz-carlton)
[2] [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5108651/American-
mer...](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5108651/American-mercenaries-
torturing-Saudi-princes.html)
~~~
_nedR
One 'anonymous' source cited by the Daily mail; Really? That too claiming that
billionaire prince Alaweed no less is being dangled by his feet.
------
hedonistbot
Just came to say that Tom Friedman is a hack and this op-ed reads like a paid
commercial. To call a top-down authoritarian power grab "Arab Spring" is mind
boggling.
------
polotics
The Saudis rulers are trying to sell a small chunck (5%) of Aramco, for about
a hundred billion bucks. If they fail to attract capital, it's back to camels
after oil.
------
wavefunction
>>it will not only change the character of Saudi Arabia but the tone and tenor
of Islam across the globe. Only a fool would predict its success — but only a
fool would not root for it.
That's for sure. Murdering millions of their fellow muslims in Yemen. What's
not to root for?
------
stablemap
A collection of like stories in the Times over the last 70 years:
[https://twitter.com/anhistorian/status/934080718816399361](https://twitter.com/anhistorian/status/934080718816399361)
------
thisisit
> So when his father, who has never been tainted by corruption charges during
> his nearly five decades as governor of Riyadh, ascended to the throne in
> 2015
Is it just me or that sounds sarcastic?
------
erikb
No revolution, written by a man, talking about another man before he even
really started his reforms, a good chance that most of the "reforms" the
Prince is planning are more on the marketing side than on the implementation
side.
~~~
_nedR
Some of the reforms have already happened. Prominent examples include the
reforms to the guardian system and woman's driving issue. Also there is the
planned and widely announced IPO of Saudi Aramco. If the IPO announcement is a
marketing stunt, then it is a pretty lame one as it is easily
verifiable/disprovable. I have trouble figuring out what the short term gains
could possibly be from announcing a fake IPO.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Wallapatta static blog generator - vpj
http://vpj.github.io/wallapatta.html
======
fiatjaf
I don't understand it.
~~~
vpj
The setup or the syntax?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why some investors think more big falls are coming - samizdis
https://www.ft.com/content/cb31917c-fc08-487a-af0d-f9e54c8717dd
======
samizdis
De-paywalled: [https://archive.is/waGv3](https://archive.is/waGv3)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Michael Bloomberg Promises $500M to Help End Coal - uptown
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/06/climate/bloomberg-climate-pledge-coal.html
======
vikramkr
Cheap natural gas is doing a great job ending coal without the need for big
flashy investments
~~~
tomglynch
Not here in Australia unfortunately - the government and coal execs are all
best mates.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The press-release conviction of a biotech CEO and its impact on research - bqe
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-09-23/national/42314943_1_intermune-scott-harkonen-actimmune
======
jonnathanson
Was this article written by Dr. Harkonen's publicist or something?
The case seems pretty clear: he knowingly misrepresented the results of a drug
trial for the financial benefit of his firm and, by association, himself. He
did this at the possible expense of critically to terminally ill patients, and
at the further expense of the scientific and medical integrity of his
research. And he received 6 months of house arrest at his cushy, 3-story San
Francisco home as punishment. Forgive me if I don't strain myself reaching for
my violin.
I sincerely hope this piece is not representative of the journalistic
integrity of the _Post_ under its new ownership. The article's blatant slant,
its casual blending of editorial opinion and facts-based reporting, and its
weirdly patronizing tone (ex: "the so-called 'p-value'") do no justice to the
reputation of the newspaper.
The author opens with a rather silly rhetorical question, one with an obvious
answer:
_" Is it a crime for a medical researcher to hype his results? To put a heavy
spin on the findings when there are millions of dollars, and possibly lives,
at stake?"_
Yes. Yes, it is. _Especially_ when there are millions of dollars, and possibly
lives, at stake. You don't get to cut corners in the scientific method because
you _think_ you're on to something.
~~~
nkurz
I got the opposite impression. In fact, I think this may be the best medical
statistics article I've ever seen in the popular press:
But there was a problem. This mild-to-moderate subgroup
wasn’t one the researchers said they would analyze when
they set up the study. Subdividing patients after the
fact and looking for statistically significant results
is a controversial practice. In its most extreme form,
it’s scorned as “data dredging.” The term suggests that
if you drag a net through a bunch of numbers enough
times, you’ll come up with something significant sooner
or later."
I don't presume it has anything to do with Bezos, but if it does, I hope stays
on a buying spree! I was inspired to find out more about the author:
[http://www.washingtonpost.com/david-
brown/2011/02/28/AB2Y0sM...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/david-
brown/2011/02/28/AB2Y0sM_page.html)
It turns out he's a part-time journalist and part-time licensed physician: "He
works four days a week at the Post and two-thirds of a day at a general
internal medicine clinic in Baltimore supervising third-year medical
students."
I also didn't find it biased toward Harkonen at all. Consider the closing:
InterMune did run another trial. It was big — 826
patients at 81 hospitals — in order to maximize the
chance of getting clear-cut results. It enrolled only
people with mild to moderate lung damage, the subgroup
whose success was touted in the press release.
And it failed. A little more than a year into the study,
more people on the drug had died (15 percent) than people
on placebo (13 percent). That was the death knell for the
drug.
It even links to the actual study:
[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19570573?dopt=Abstract](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19570573?dopt=Abstract)
I don't know if I've ever seen a major newspaper link directly to a primary
scientific paper as a source. I encourage you to read it again and see if your
view changes. I've read it twice now and think it is an absolutely stellar
piece of science writing, worthy of a Best Science Writing compilation.
~~~
freshhawk
Subdividing patients after the fact and looking for statistically significant
results is a controversial practice
If by controversial they meant "is considered outright fraud" ... then yes, it
is controversial. This is one of the parts that made me see an unacceptable
level of bias.
There are a lot of parts that are similar to this, it might do a better than
average job of explaining p-values and talking about the realities of
experimental design but the tone in every case is dismissive in the "bunch of
eggheads worrying about little details" kind of way.
This is so biased I assume there is an agenda here rather than just bad
journalism, the other explanation is that the writer is a good writer,
researched the unfamiliar terms but didn't understand any of it and is good
enough at regurgitating information to make it look like they did understand
it. Either way, it's awful science writing even if they did use a lot of
science words correctly. I have a higher standard for my hypothetical Best
Science Writing awards I guess ... like requiring they get the science right.
~~~
mbreese
> If by controversial they meant "is considered outright fraud" ... then yes,
> it is controversial
Hold on there... controversial, yes, but fraud - no. If the original data was
reported, and after the fact you discovered a class of patients responded
differently than the rest __and __you could find a good classifier, then it 's
certainly not fraud. In this case, they weren't just taking all the "good"
patients and putting them in one adhoc group and all the "bad" patients and
putting them in another. They found they were able to sub-classify the
patients using _existing_ clinical traits.
I thought the article did a pretty good job trying to explain the statistical
issues at play. As described, the study isn't very clear, but it's hardly
fraud to spin the results in that way. Is it reaching? Perhaps, but I so is
calling this criminal. Remember using 0.05 as a p-value cutoff for
significance is just a convention the number itself is arbitrary. In my work,
I have to use something much more stringent such as 0.001 due to multiple
testing issues.
In my reading, the issue wasn't the analysis. The issue was the hype of the
analysis. In this case, he definitely went overboard, but I'm not sure it rose
to the level of fraud.
~~~
PeterisP
If you divide patients in 20+ arbitrary groups (say, based on first letter of
their name) and give them a 0 efficiency treatment, then almost always you'll
see a group with a p-0.05 significant improvement; that' just basic stats.
So, if you afterwards discover some class of patients with this different
response, it is grounds only to investigate that group further separately, not
anything more - claiming that there is such an effect is fraud. You can't make
extra claims until you have verification of that separate group.
For an illustration, see [http://xkcd.com/882/](http://xkcd.com/882/)
~~~
mbreese
Of course, but they divided the patients into two groups: Mild/moderate and
severe clinical phenotypes. It's not optimal, but it is far from subdividing
into 20 classes or making up arbitrary classifiers until you got the number
you were looking for. The clinical phenotypes were already established prior
to the analysis.
------
jerrytsai
As a trained (and hopefully ethical) statistician, I agree with the
interpretation that Dr. Harkonen did mis-represent the results of the trial.
This article does a pretty good job describing the controversy to a layperson
audience, but I do not feel the result is all that controversial.
It is well-known to statistically-minded people that p-values are computations
that rely on particular assumptions being made. One of those assumptions is
that only a single, pre-specified hypothesis is being tested. By making
additional comparisons, the p-value that was reported by Dr. Harkonen mis-
represented the true significance of the trial. Perhaps factually the p-value
was 0.004, but publicizing the p-value as if it were obtained by a fair trial,
as opposed to finding it in a hunt for (quasi-)statistical significance, was a
manipulation of the facts to support one's personal interests. That's not
science; it's bias, and self-serving bias at that.
~~~
mbreese
I'm not as convinced as you are.
Just because the original study wasn't found to be significant, that doesn't
mean that an already-existing sub group wasn't significant. They used an
existing clinical trait as a separate classifier to look at the patients in a
different way. That isn't too controversial (if you have a high enough patient
count, which was probably the biggest fault of this post-hoc analysis).
Then again, I'm a biologist. We're trained to not trust statisticians. (Or
course, we're also trained to not speak in absolutes and cover every statement
in doubt, so he failed in that regard too).
~~~
jerrytsai
What is likely, although we cannot of course know for sure, is that the doctor
looked at more than disease severity (the "existing clinical trait") as a
separate classifier, hunting for subgroups for which the p-value indicated a
promising trend.
The principle behind the proscription against multiple comparisons is well-
known to statisticians. If we consider a 1 chance in 20 result to be
statistically significant, then, randomly, on average 20 "trials" will yield
one statistically significant result.
By dividing the patients into disease severity subgroups, Dr. Harkonen
increased the number of "trials" from 1 to 4, thereby elevating the likelihood
of yielding an effect that appeared to be statistically significant. If he
also examined other subgroups in his quest to find a positive result, then he
elevated the likelihood of finding a positive result toward certainty.
Our desire to find patterns and see cause and effect make us prone to
confirmation bias. We can guard against this bias with care, including the use
of statistics. It was not a surprise that a subsequent study looking only at
the "mild-to-moderate" group did not demonstrate any benefit of the treatment.
The belief that the treatment would benefit "mild-to-moderate" patients was
speciously derived.
~~~
mbreese
Right... multiple testing correction, false-discovery rates, etc... I'm quite
familiar.
(Even if they did correct for multiple tests, I think the sub-group would have
potentially been significant. An uncorrected p-value of 0.004 is what is
sticking in my head).
But the point is, just because he's bad at statistics does that make it fraud?
Based on what we know from the article, I'd argue no. People are allowed to be
wrong and make mistakes in their analysis. They just aren't allowed to
knowingly make those mistakes. And this is what we don't know... what he knew
and what he thought _at the time_.
~~~
x0x0
sure, but when people deliberately lie in order to gain millions of dollars, I
can't get that upset when they get 6 months stuck in their house
he, and statisticians at his company, knew or should have known what he was
doing was wrong. This stuff is covered in the first inferential stats course
taken as an undergrad.
------
DanBC
> This mild-to-moderate subgroup wasn’t one the researchers said they would
> analyze when they set up the study. Subdividing patients after the fact and
> looking for statistically significant results is a controversial practice.
> In its most extreme form, it’s scorned as “data dredging.” The term suggests
> that if you drag a net through a bunch of numbers enough times, you’ll come
> up with something significant sooner or later.
He could have just kept that data secret, and ran another trial but
specifically targeted at people with mild to moderate illness. That would have
protected him legally, and made the numbers look even better.
That's the kind of thing that many people are campaigning against. Companies
should release all the research they do rather than cherry picking the useful
(to them) results.
~~~
Bakkot
Actually, that would have been way better. If they had done the study you
suggest, and the result had still been significant, then he would have been
entirely justified in reporting what he did.
The issue is that dividing the participants after the fact and then looking
for correlation _in the existing data_ reduces the significance of the
statistic considerably (we have other statistics for that). The p-value is not
representative when used that way.
But if you do another study focused on that group in particular and still get
a significant result, you're fine! The problem isn't that they located a group
on which the drug worked in a dishonest way, or some such - the problem is
that they were dishonest to claim they had significant evidence that the drug
worked on that group. If they'd done an additional study on that group in
particular, they would have their evidence (or, of course, a null result).
~~~
andrewcooke
i think the person you were replying to was implying that the same data be
used, while what you are arguing is that there should be new observations made
(and i agree with you, if the new work is independent; i just wanted to
explain why i think the original comment was arguing for greater
transparency).
~~~
Malician
I believe he's suggesting that the doctor could have legally covered up the
results of the first trial (by simply not releasing them,) then run a second
trial on only the most beneficial population, releasing those results without
mentioning the first trial.
At that point, his product would look great, hiding its failures.
This way, while he misinterpreted the P value in an illegal and fraudulent
way, he did release all relevant information - ironically, better for the
informed reader than if he had rerun the trial legally.
~~~
feral
Malician, I'm not sure you and DanBC understand this fully?
It would be absolutely fine to run a new trial on the supposedly most
beneficial population (those with mild/moderate lung damage; lets call them
'the subpopulation').
If that second trial succeeded, then it would be strong evidence that the drug
was beneficial for the subpopulation.
There would be _no need_ to hide the results of the first trial, as the first
trial did not provide evidence that the drug didn't work on _the
subpopulation_.
If you read the article to the end, they did in fact do such a trial on the
subpopulation. And they got evidence it wasn't working on the subpopulation -
which is how science goes.
The problem was that the first trial wasn't set up to examine the
subpopulation, but they reported results as if it was. You can't do that with
standard NHST, as it invalidates the assumptions of the statistical framework
being used.
But you can absolutely decide to run a whole new test on a new sub population,
based on hints you get from the first results.
And, while it'd in general be better if all test results (positive AND
negative) were published, that is not relevant to this situation - the first
trial said nothing bad about the effects on _the subpopulation_ , so there'd
be nothing to gain from hiding it, if you just wanted to claim it worked on
the subpopulation.
Its not like a situation where they got evidence that _the subpopulation_
would not benefit in the drug in the first test, and then decided to do
another test, planning to only report the second.
~~~
Malician
Yes, I understand this. This is correct if the result of the test on that said
subpopulation is only interpreted by the public and/or scientific community as
applying to the subpopulation.
However, if the results of the original test are hidden, the results of the
second test could well be taken as evidence for a wider or stronger effect,
yes? If this isn't the case, then I wouldn't see a problem with that behavior
- but from the reading I've done, I suspect it is in fact the case and is
common practice.
edit: I may be completely wrong on this - if, indeed, that's not a significant
problem.
~~~
andrewcooke
ah, ok. so, you're right, but not as right as th eoriginal issue being
discussed :o) i can explain if you're interested...
what i think you're saying is that they would hide the original negative study
and publish a subsequent (new, separate, on different people) positive study.
[aside - that's not a perfect description because for one particular group the
first study was positive; it's just that the group in question wasn't
explicitly targetted].
and, in general, that's considered a bad thing. because (1) you can keep
repeating studies until you get a positive, and then publish and (2) because
the negatives aren't published, people have incomplete information.
but it's not a terribly bad thing, because if something isn't true then, if
you repeat a study, it's likely going to show it isn't true. the standards are
set high enough that you'd need to do hundreds of studies before you showed
something to be true (when it really isn't).
and because hundreds of studies are expensive, it's unlikely to happen (but
then you think of the industry as a whole, and it is doing hundreds, and so
some of those are likely wrong...).
in contrast, what this guy was prosecuted for was hunting in the data. you can
think of that like doing a new study, but without the cost. it's pretty easy
to dream up hundreds of different questions you can ask existing data. and
just by luck you're going to find the occasional surprising answer.
so hunting through data is like doing hundreds of studies until you find
something, but it's cheap! and that's why it's "worse" than simply hiding
negative results and repeating studies. because it's much more likely to
happen in practice.
------
JoeAltmaier
Alternate title: "Man commits fraud to profit from terminally ill patients,
gets slap on wrist"?
------
yarou
This is very interesting. In most papers I read during uni, the p-value was
always set to 0.10. But I suppose it makes sense to have a more rigorous null
hypothesis testing when you are talking about saving lives. I'm curious to
see, on the whole, if all researchers in pharma try to move the goalposts like
this guy did.
------
greenyoda
Here's a statistician's take on this story:
[http://wmbriggs.com/blog/?p=9308](http://wmbriggs.com/blog/?p=9308)
~~~
sanskritabelt
Everybody reading this and saying 'oh! a statistician!' should remember that
Briggs is also, among other things, a global warming denier.
~~~
nkurz
Thanks for pointing that out. Yes, it's hard to believe that someone with so
much education (degrees in Statistics, Atmospheric Science, Meteorology, and
Math) and so much professional experience (University Professor, Wall Street
Quant, National Weather Service, US Air Force) would get that completely
wrong. What do you figure the chances of that are? ;)
[http://wmbriggs.com/blog/?page_id=1085](http://wmbriggs.com/blog/?page_id=1085)
~~~
sanskritabelt
Yeah its almost as if he has a track record of going against the evidence in
favor of acting the iconoclast.
------
mnbvcxza
Who's got the Dune quote for this?
~~~
foobarbazqux
Science is made up of so many things that appear obvious after they are
explained.
------
downandout
This case, like so many others, appears to be the product of an overzealous
prosecutor looking to add to his resume before he begins applying to work at
much higher paying private law firms. The concept of moral hazard does not
exist for prosecutors - they can take all the shots they want at other people
with no consequences. Until there are consequences, we will continue seeing
blatant abuses of our justice system for the personal gain of those that work
within it. Though it will never happen, private law firms should simply refuse
to hire former prosecutors - many of these nonsensical prosecutions would
vanish overnight.
------
fiatmoney
Thank God R.A. Fisher still had all his toes when he invented the concept, or
we could have been stuck with a P-value threshold of 0.052631579...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Caring about things - romymisra
http://romymisra.com/caring-about-things/
======
porker
I'd like this to be true, but I think it's a very utopian ideal. If people
care as much as the founders do about the company, they're going to get very
disillusioned when the founders head in a different direction to the one
they'd take the company _and they get no say in it_. Because although they're
as invested in the company as the founders, they don't have the power.
I also wonder why (apart from the charity sector) employees would be that
invested. They don't get the financial rewards or the kudos that the founders
do, so why invest their soul in someone else's problem?
~~~
jared314
> why invest their soul in someone else's problem?
Depending on their age, they might not know better. Young developers are sold
the ideal of changing the world through passion, but still end up as just
employees. I still remember the first time a company offered me options
instead of an annual raise, and a more experienced coworker quietly informed
me why they did that. My enthusiasm was quickly brought down to earth.
~~~
skyraider
Wait, why did they offer you options instead of a raise? I just want to hear
why that reason tempered your enthusiasm. (I don't get excited about options
since I have to buy them, but they can be more incentivizing, at least for me,
than salary in the rare case that they are given on fair terms.)
------
akanet
I agree with a lot of stuff said here - caring, or intrinsic motivation, is
one of the most powerful attributes you can hire for. There are, however, a
plethora of other attributes out there, and restricting your potential hires
to the tiny subset of people that are as insanely motivated as yourself seems
like a recipe for never hiring anyone and paradoxically never actually solving
any problems.
Specifically I don't think points 3 and 4 are quite on the money - how much
you care is often based on how much you perceive people care about you, and
equity can be a pretty big signal of that. Additionally, I think people who
care can be quite contentious.
Still, a good enough point to talk about. Apparent enthusiasm is one of the
best things you can select for, when you see it, and it can make up for a lot
of other things that might be lacking.
~~~
nikatwork
> Additionally, I think people who care can be quite contentious.
People who care will challenge the status quo. This is often deeply unpopular,
especially in larger orgs. If you don't empower the people who care to make
positive changes to the status quo, then those people will give up and stop
caring. And then probably leave.
------
infinity0
You can learn all the math in the 'verse, but you take a boat in the air that
you don't love, she'll shake you off just as sure as the turning of the
worlds. Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down, tells you she's
hurtin' 'fore she keens. Makes her a home.
------
legulere
Please place spaces after , : and - and reduce the width of the text. It's
very hard to read this way.
~~~
jamesdelaneyie
Caring about typography :')
------
airtonix
While this is a great thing, make sure you support these valuable team members
by ensuring the rest of your team also care just as much.
I've had the pleasure to be a part of a team where I was given pretty much
free license to do as I saw fit simply because I cared as much about the
product as the founders.
But hiring just one or two champions and filling in the gaps with mere
enthusiasm or brute force is going to put an enormous strain on your
champions.
------
mathattack
I used to hate campaigns that would just "Raise Awareness" because I thought
that raising awareness never fixed anything. After a while I realized it was
the first step to getting people to care. Presenting a solution before anyone
cares doesn't fix anything either. I'd put "Do what it takes to solve the
problem" instead of a blurb about IQ, but otherwise I agree.
------
jamesdelaneyie
This is well good. There is just one thing that can be an issue with people
who care. Are they caring about the right things at the right time? Suppose
that's the manager's role to help focus the team.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Min Slack – A Minimal Slack Client in a Chrome Extension Popup - nilch
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/min-slack/jiljhhmbanlpahbpfjfibcoggpfoanlf?hl=en
======
rot25
I've been waiting for someone to make this. Multiple team support would be
amazing!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Stop using so many divs An intro to semantic HTML - ingve
https://dev.to/kenbellows/stop-using-so-many-divs-an-intro-to-semantic-html-3i9i
======
arkad
As a backend developer that occasionally needs to add a nice looking front-end
I can say that the biggest source of divs comes from the bootstrap templates I
use in my projects. Not sure why the semantic syntax is not more popular among
these template creators.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A Japanese Ghost Town in a Canadian Forest - pionerkotik
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/japanese-immigrants-in-canada
======
walrus01
It's a logging camp. For anyone interested in the history of Japanese
immigration to the west coast, google "Steveston japanese history".
[https://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&hs=1AJ&channel=f...](https://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&hs=1AJ&channel=fs&sxsrf=ACYBGNQTgQ40VrEvzvc9ZltS1p-OJKsJ1Q%3A1573423288013&ei=uIjIXdwawcLQ8Q_xw6a4DA&q=steveston+japanese+history&oq=steveston+japanese+history&gs_l=psy-
ab.3..0j0i22i30j0i333.6922.7659..7731...0.2..0.154.515.5j1......0....1..gws-
wiz.......0i71j0i67j0i20i263.sWch36NA-
Ow&ved=0ahUKEwjc1qbB0uDlAhVBITQIHfGhCccQ4dUDCAo&uact=5)
~~~
braythwayt
If I read it correctly, The Fine Article explicitly says otherwise: It
suggests that the people were likely employees of a Japanese logging company,
but settled in the forest when the logging petered out and became self-
sufficient.
\--
I guess it depends upon the definition of a logging camp or settlement. In
another discussion on HN, the definition is based on whether the settlements
are seasonal or only inhabited for the duration of the logging work.
If this settlement was year-round, and occupied for two decades after the work
dried up, it had transitioned from being a logging camp to being an
independent settlement.
But I suspect I am arguing "potato" vs "spud."
------
5555624
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20914027](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20914027)
------
dade_
Yeah, it's what happens when you round people up and put them in internment
camps. I am sure anything of substantial value was taken and sold...
------
ekianjo
> *Update 9/25/19: This post has been updated to clarify that Canada entered
> World War II in 1939, not in 1942.
How can you run a journal and EVEN get such basic facts wrong? It's not like
it was a minor event in History or something.
~~~
wolfgang42
They didn’t get the date wrong, just poorly phrased it. Here's the original
sentence (from the Internet Archive):
> _On February 24, 1942, after Canada’s entrance into World War Two..._
And after the correction:
> _On February 24, 1942,_ several years _after Canada’s entrance into World
> War Two..._
~~~
mattkrause
Canada also declared war _on Japan_ in December of 1941, which makes the 1942
date a bit more salient.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
California Franchise Tax Bureau - roccogen
I need some help! Can the California Franchise Tax Board hold a single owner personally liable for not paying the $800 annual fee for a foreign LLC formed in Florida and registered with the State of California. It was registered in California in 2012 and legally stopped in 2015. The company has never made money, but lost a lot. No money was given back to the owner. They are threatening me saying they can pierce the corporate veil and make me pay. I know California needs money but I put so much money into this corporation I don't have anything left. I think they are trying to scare me!
======
pbarnes_1
California doesn't "need" money -- but the FTB are no joke. Don't mess with
the FTB.
You need to consult a lawyer (probably costs more than $800), or just pay them
the $800.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How can/should I publicize my startup? - joe
======
staunch
This is really a great question. It's tough being isolated and tiny. At this
stage you would rather be hated than ignored, but one even cares enough to
hate you.
For your first users I think you have to do it "the hard way", by really
_selling_ the product. Go manually find the low-hanging fruit for your
product. Find the early adopters -- the people who will be delighted to learn
your product exists and immediately understand its utility.
Bug all the people you know and get them to use your product where it makes
sense.
------
joe
A little background: I'm the lead developer on a self-funded Web startup. It's
a (mostly) free service to help musicians and bands stay in touch with their
fans. I have a lot of confidence in it as a great product. What are some
(cheap) ways I can make noise about it and get people using the site?
~~~
python_kiss
Here is a nice tactic I came up with: Type your competition's name in
Technorati and determine all the blogs that reviewed your competitior. Next,
dispatch an email to all those bloggers informing them that you have created a
rival product. The bloggers are usually interested in covering products
similar to those they have covered in the past :)
------
PindaxDotCom
You could start by giving us the url lol!
My #1 guideline is never pay for publicity. Look for free publicity always!
~~~
joe
http://www.scriggle-it.com/
------
corentin
Go to concerts, offer drinks to the bands and talk about (read: sell) your
product. I don't know if it's efficient (I guess it probably is) but at least
it's fun.
------
domp
How about emailing people at some of the popular ezines that are in your
target demographic. They could post about it and you'd probably get a lot of
traffic and artists interested in signing up.
I also agree that going to shows and introducing yourself to bands will help.
Any personal interaction like that would get me to try out the service over a
junk spam message on myspace.
------
r7000
The feature set you have put together might be very useful to some potential
users who aren't bands. You might be in one of those "we built it thinking of
market X but ended up filling a need for Y" sort of situations.
~~~
joe
What sort of alternative end users (or possibly uses) would you foresee?
There are already quite a few generic mailing list services out there, which
is why we're trying to target musicians and build a site centered around fan
bases.
------
dawie
Look at ways to make it viral. Get fans to invite each other
------
staunch
Find customers using a crappy solution to the problem you have a good solution
to. Help them move to your solution.
------
agentbleu
try startupcrunch
~~~
joe
If only it didn't cost money. We've also considered newswire press release
services, etc., but I'm unconvinced as to how things like that would attract
actual users.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Clearview AI CEO: ‘over 2,400 police agencies’ are using its facial recognition - dmitrygr
https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/26/21402978/clearview-ai-ceo-interview-2400-police-agencies-facial-recognition
======
Tostino
From everything I've seen and read about Clearview, I'm super uncomfortable
and wish there was some hope of this being reigned in. I'm not hopeful though.
~~~
uniqueid
They make me uncomfortable, too [https://huffpost.com/entry/clearview-ai-
facial-recognition-a...](https://huffpost.com/entry/clearview-ai-facial-
recognition-alt-right_n_5e7d028bc5b6cb08a92a5c48)
------
Yc4win
The best protection we have for this blatant invasion of our privacy (and
dignity) is CV Dazzle camo.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why Smart People Are Stupid - mshafrir
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/frontal-cortex/2012/06/daniel-kahneman-bias-studies.html
======
lmkg
The research is using SAT score as a proxy for general intelligence... I
wonder if this sort of heuristic short-cutting actually correlates with test-
taking ability more than it correlates with intellgence.
A lot of "test-taking" training basically consists of saving time by training
_away from_ full reasoning, in favor of cheap-and-good-enough heuristics.
Furthermore, those heuristics are over-fitted to the particular problem types
on standardized tests. I wonder how much of this study is actually measuring
their ability to trigger test-taking instincts on problem types they're not
designed for.
~~~
rstevenson542
It is ridiculous to suppose that one's score on a multiple choice test is an
accurate measure of innate ability or real-world intelligence.
The SAT, ACT, IQ tests, and all standardized test like them are socially
constructed concepts that ATTEMPT a method of measuring intelligence.
Intelligence (in the real world) reaches far beyond one's abilities to answer
multiple choice reading comprehension, basic math and writing. Not to mention
that problem solving in the real world has no time constraints.
Beethoven would not have gotten a perfect score on his SAT's. However, we all
can attest to his innovation, creativity and musical genius. How can a
multiple choice test measure the creative abilities of people like Sir Richard
Branson, Steve Jobs, or Pablo Picasso?
The idea that "smarter people... were slightly more vulnerable to common
mental mistakes" is a nonsensical conclusion. These findings are completely
worthless.
~~~
achompas
Don't worry, you're both right. No self-respecting researcher uses SAT scores
as proxies for intelligence in the social sciences.
~~~
ajross
The study detailed in the linked article does exactly that...
------
DavidWoof
For the types of testing that he's doing, I suspect he's measuring boredom
more than anything else, especially since he's testing largely in a university
setting. Intelligent people are accustomed to being bored with endless entry-
level evaluation exams, and at first glance this looks like it's just one more
of them. And because the stakes here are so low (essentially zero), lots of
people will just fly through without really reading and analyzing the
question.
What he's seeing isn't something new, it's something so old that it's part of
popular culture: the absent-minded professor syndrome. It's the stereotype of
the brilliant physicist forgets what he's supposed to buy at the supermarket
because he's thinking about their quantum properties. Analytic people are
horrible at things that don't interest them.
Pay the students $50 for each correct answer, and there's not a doubt in my
mind that the results will be the complete opposite of what he's seeing now.
~~~
unfocused
I also agree with your comment. I did both questions as fast as I could and
only got the first wrong and the second right. It reminded me of a brilliant
Civil Engineering professor I once had who was showing us his notes on the
projector (the kind with the light bulb and magnifying glass over head) and
someone asked him if he could turn off the lights. The student meant the
lights, as in the classroom lights so he could see the projection better. The
professor turned off the projector instead :)
~~~
keithpeter
I saw a pound coin and a 10p coin (UK) and got the first one wrong, I saw a
bar graph with a lot of doubling bars, and saw the long history of doubling
and got the second one right. I saw the money by denomination, and not as a
quantity perhaps. Interesting.
~~~
cheatercheater
Just a sec.. where are you seeing that?
~~~
keithpeter
Sorry, I was describing the visual images I get when solving problems like
this, the article is pure text.
~~~
unfocused
Hmmm. Interesting that you point that out. I think if we were presented with a
math formula (symbols), we'd have aced it.
I think the reason why my wife did it so fast is because it was fed to her as
text only - in fact, I just read it to her. She's a lawyer and she's much
better at interpreting text than most people.
------
gojomo
The bat-ball and lily-pad questions are 2 of the 3 questions on a short test
called the 'Cognitive Reflection Test' (or 'CRT') meant to measure whether
people make the effort to think beyond the obvious (but wrong) answer.
By using those examples, after its headline, this article seems to imply
smarter people do worse on these CRT questions. But that is _not_ what I've
read elsewhere -- which is that the CRT is positively correlated with other
quantitative measures of intelligence (including IQ scores, SATs, and high-
school/collegiate grades). 'Smart' people (by those measures) do tend to do
better on the CRT.
And if you read this article carefully, you see that while it uses these two
CRT questions as examples of tricky questions, when it discusses the results
about awareness-of-bias not helping alleviate bias, it isn't necessarily
saying smart people do worse on those two CRT questions. It's a bit muddled in
what it's saying, and reviewing the linked abstract doesn't help much either.
The paper is evaluating some very specific things under the umbrella term
'cognitive sophistication', which might not map to what we usually call
'smart' or even 'test-smart'.
BTW, I personally think the CRT may be especially useful for evaluating
software/systems proficiency. The bat-ball question probes understanding of
algebra; the lily-pad question probes understanding of geometric growth (and
someone accustomed to powers-of-2 will find it easier); the third question
probes understanding of parallelism and projected-rates-of-work.
That third question happens to be:
"If it takes 5 machines 5 minutes to make 5 widgets, how long would it take
100 machines to make 100 widgets?"
(A software person might also think of it as: "If it takes 5 cores to compress
5 GB in 5 minutes, how long would it take 100 cores to compress 100 GB?")
~~~
archgoon
>>(A software person might also think of it as: "If it takes 5 cores to
compress 5 GB in 5 minutes, how long would it take 100 cores to compress 100
GB?")
I don't think that most compression algorithms are Embarrassingly Parallel
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amdahl%27s_law>), so it's not clear to me the
software scenario is equivalent, or are you saying that the jobs come in 5
gigabyte chunks?
~~~
gojomo
You could raise the same objections to the original 'machines'/'widgets'
formulation. (There are always economies or diseconomies of scale.)
Typically such questions imply the unstated assumption, "answer to the same
level of precision/abstraction as the question itself, and assume you have all
the info needed to give an answer". With that assumption both questions should
be answerable.
Compression tends to be pretty parallelizable, if by nothing else than
choosing to break the input into separate chunks. You might lose a little bit
of efficiency in output size – more restarts, each compressor has less global
information – but those don't mean slowdowns (and in a few contrived
situations might even mean speedups at the cost of size). See for example
'pigz' and 'pbzip2'.
If I were asking this question, I'd accept the 'rough, assuming perfect
parallelization' answer as correct-enough in the spirit and level-of-precision
implied by the question. If the answerer brought up the difficulties in
assuming perfect parallelizability or specific to compression algorithms or
choice of inputs, that'd be worth some extra credit, and would trigger
followups along the lines of, "how would those factors affect the size?" and
"what bottlenecks might you expect?" and "could it ever be faster when split
among more machines?"
------
tokenadult
Link to the study linked in the article (PubMed prepublication abstract):
[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=west%20stanovich%20m...](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=west%20stanovich%20meserve)
The psychologist Keith R. Stanovich is quite controversial among other
psychologists precisely because he writes about what high-IQ people miss in
their thinking, but his studies point to very thought-provoking data and
deserve to be grappled with by other psychologists. I have enjoyed his full-
length book What Intelligence Tests Miss
[http://yalepress.yale.edu/YupBooks//book.asp?isbn=9780300123...](http://yalepress.yale.edu/YupBooks//book.asp?isbn=9780300123852)
which meticulously cites much of the previous literature on human cognitive
biases and other gaps in rationality of human thinking.
And here is the submitted article's link to a description of the Need for
Cognition Scale:
<http://www.liberalarts.wabash.edu/ncs/>
~~~
jerf
The book mentioned, "Thinking, Fast and Slow", despite the boring title, is
quite good. If you're the sort to hang around lesswrong.com it won't blow your
mind, those less exposed to those ideas will find it fascinating (and probably
a bit more accessible in book form).
------
Jun8
"Although we assume that intelligence is a buffer against bias—that’s why
those with higher S.A.T. scores think they are less prone to these universal
thinking mistakes..."
This fallacy is at the heart of the matter. Intelligence and resistance
against bias are only loosely correlated. Such resistance comes not from
intelligence but from careful study and mental exercise, e.g. looking at
various important ethical and philosophical arguments and analyzing them.
This is like saying all large people are strong. There is _some_ dependance
but a smaller gym-fly can kick a slacker giant's ass. The sad thing, while it
is obvious that you have to exercise your body to be healthy and strong, the
fact that the same is quite through fro your brain is often overlooked.
~~~
nileshtrivedi
Isn't resistance against bias a very requirement for considering someone
intelligent? What exactly is intelligence if not the ability to think clearly?
To me, this looks like a definition game. Smart/stupid is a black & white view
of looking at it and hence, misleading. As one overcomes his primitive biases,
we call him smart, even though he remains susceptible to other biases.
In other words, people aren't smart or stupid. People's actions are smart or
stupid in a particular situation.
~~~
quanticle
Kahneman divides our thinking into two subsystems: type 1 and type 2. Type 1
thinking is fast, intuitive, unconscious thought. Most everyday activities
(like driving, talking, cleaning, etc.) make heavy use of the type 1 system.
The type 2 system is slow, calculating, conscious thought. When you're doing a
difficult math problem or thinking carefully about a philosophical problem,
you're engaging the type 2 system. From Kahneman's perspective, the big
difference between type 1 and type 2 thinking is that type 1 is fast and easy
but very susceptible to bias, whereas type 2 is slow and requires conscious
effort but is much more resistant to cognitive biases.
Traditionally, "intelligence" (as colloquially defined) has correlated with
type 2 thinking. So, a reasonable conjecture would be that people who are
better at type 2 thinking would use it more and, therefore be less vulnerable
to bias. However, this research shows that even those who are very good at
type 2 thinking (as measured by their SAT scores and NCS scores) are even more
vulnerable to cognitive biases. This is a deeply counter-intuitive result. Why
is it that people who have a greater _capacity_ to overcome bias have a
greater _vulnerability_ to bias?
~~~
meepmorp
> Why is it that people who have a greater capacity to overcome bias have a
> greater vulnerability to bias?
Overconfidence. If you've become accustomed to thinking of yourself as being
better able to avoid cognitive bias, you come to be confident in your
abilities, to the point where you (perhaps unconsciously) think of yourself as
not susceptible to biases.
~~~
quanticle
That's certainly one possible explanation. Another possible explanation is
that their brains are just faster _in general_ , so that even though their
type 2 systems are faster than others', their type 1 systems are faster yet
and manage to override even more consistently than in others. In any case, I
don't think it's something that's "obvious" or "expected" by any means, and I
do think that it should bear further investigation.
------
keiferski
Intelligence is overrated as a metric, from the get-go. Being smart doesn't
mean anything - accomplishing something, whether that be writing a book,
founding a company, making a new scientific discovery, sculpting a
masterpiece, etc., is a much better metric.
Unfortunately everyone seems to be hung up on the "idea" of being smart, as if
having a high IQ somehow constitutes an accomplishment.
~~~
beersigns
I'm on the same page. IQ is property of the genetic dice roll, not something
that a person earns. Tangible results based measurements seem more
appropriate. Pure intellect is the raw material & needs to be refined/applied
to be useful.
edit: grammar
~~~
upquark
The rest of your personality traits that allow you to accomplish great things
(diligence, perseverance, focus, empathy, etc), as well as external factors
such as being born at the right place and the right time, are also arguably a
genetic / environmental dice roll.
~~~
beersigns
I'd argue all of those areas you list are far more likely to be improved over
the course of a lifetime than sheer intelligence. Pure intellect is pretty
much set at birth, or at the least the ability to improve it isn't
statistically significant. I'd argue that genetic dice roll and environmental
dice roll are quite different things as well. You have FAR more ability to
change your environmental situation than your genetic one. Does everyone have
an equal chance to alter their environment? No, but who said life is fair?
------
pjscott
If you'd rather not just accept your current level of cognitive bias, the web
site Less Wrong has a bunch of articles by and for people trying to become
less wrong about things. Anecdotally, I've noticed that people I know via the
Less Wrong community tend to be decidedly less full of crap than average, so
it seems to work. For example, here's a series of articles on the subject of
avoiding excessive attachment to false beliefs, which I found to be generally
entertaining and insightful:
[http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/How_To_Actually_Change_Your_M...](http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/How_To_Actually_Change_Your_Mind)
Any of those articles are a good place to start, so don't be intimidated by
the amount of stuff there.
~~~
coffeemug
_"Logic is the beginning of wisdom, not the end" - Spock_
Anecdotally I found that the Less Wrong community tends to be decidedly _more_
full of crap than average. In the same vein as spiritual materialism[1], many
people that engage in a bias witch-hunt seem to be falling prey to "logical
materialism", where the whole exercise turns into people deluding themselves
into thinking they're somehow "better" than others because they're less full
of crap than average.
It's good to know thyself, but it's no use if your knowledge isn't tempered by
wisdom, and you're not going to get that by reading blog posts about cognitive
biases online, no matter how good the posts.
[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritual_materialism>
~~~
Cushman
It's nice to know I'm not the only one who thinks this. I think it's really
telling that a community which is ostensibly concerned with the science of
achieving desires spends so much time focused on the "problem" of akrasia.
It's also heartbreaking to see intelligent people getting so excited about
ideas like cryonics and personality uploading. I mean, they're interesting
things to talk about, but a lot of people on LW seem to actually think they
might get to live forever. It's kinda sad.
~~~
ableal
> actually think they might get to live forever
And they aren't horrified at the prospect of that being possible?
Not much thinking going on there, I suppose.
~~~
D_Alex
Why would you be horrified at the prospect of living?
I suspect it is _you_ that needs to put a bit more thought into this matter.
~~~
D_Alex
Oh wow! A downvote! So, the message I'm getting is that a) it is appropriate
to be horrified at the prospect of living; and furthermore b) asking why is
inappropriate...?
This is seriously weirding me out.
~~~
Jach
The message I've taken from this entire subthread is "try to laugh rather than
shake my head." The behavior makes a lot of sense if I frame it in status
signaling (which helps make sense of so much that I suspect it of being too
broad a framework). My own comment on the topic of living is: so it may be
physically impossible to live _forever_ , I think shooting for even a "mere"
200 years is doable and would be fucking awesome. At least we're not dogs,
they get less than two decades.
------
dools
I'm reading the book Priceless by William Poundstone which discusses the work
of Kahneman and Tversky (among others) in great detail as it relates to the
psychology of pricing (excellent read, btw).
This is O.T from what the article is saying but mildly O.T (meaning on-topic)
and I'd love to hear HN's opinion on this.
One of the problems presented in Priceless is:
Would you rather $3,000 as a sure thing, or an 80% chance of $4,000 and a 20%
chance of nothing
versus:
Would you rather a $3,000 loss as a sure thing, or an 80% chance of losing
$4,000 and a 20% chance of losing nothing.
The erroneous path that most people take, in the eyes of these researchers, is
that they set their base reference point at the sure thing, ie. they say "well
the $3,000 is a sure thing so I can assume I have it".
If you do that, then your answers are different:
In the first instance you keep the $3,000 (because it becomes an 80% chance of
winning $1,000 versus a 20% chance of losing $3,000).
In the second instance you go to court (because it's an 80% chance of losing
$1,000 versus a 20% chance of winning $3,000).
However if you don't "rebase" your reference point, then you would make the
same decision in both cases - that is you would take the 80% of $4,000 bet
because it's "worth" $3,200.
As much as I realise what they're saying and they say it's statistically
incorrect to do this, it really seems to me the most sensible way to make the
decisions (which is, I guess, exactly what they're saying right? I'm human,
ergo fallible to this kind of illusion).
The thing that kills me is this: if this is a one time thing, I'd rather be
sure of the $3,000. If I'm buying and selling these bets all day, then sure I
should take the $4,000 at 80% because even if I lose this round, the next time
I take the bet will make up for it (ie. law of large numbers).
But what this problem doesn't address is how _often_ I get this opportunity?
Depending on my circumstances, $3,000 could be a life changing opportunity,
ie. if I "win" $3,000 or $4,000, my circumstances are essentially the same so
I should always go for the sure thing. If I lose $3,000 or $4,000 I'm equally
screwed, so I should take the risk and try and win in court.
What am I missing?
~~~
kristopolous
I'm trying to follow.
So you are saying that with the following scenario:
1\. +3000 at P100 or +4000 at P80
2\. -3000 at P100 or -4000 at P80
Depending on the context, the answer is basically universally different if you
say "1 then 2" as opposed to "just 1" or "just 2"?
~~~
dools
The issue is that the answers are (yes basically) universally different
regardless of whether both options are provided, but that statistically
speaking they are identical.
The foible of humanity that makes the answers different is that we first
"rebase" our expectations to the 100% chance, rather than considering our
current position to be the baseline.
~~~
kristopolous
Yes, statistically they are identical. However, the fact that people consider
the significance of the objects and the context of the decision isn't a fault
of human intellect.
Really, stating otherwise is a fault of human analysis. It's a game theory
problem I think (likely a variation of the stag hunt:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stag_hunt>). It's a paradox only because
Armchair mathematical intuition fails to explain it.
~~~
roel_v
No because the stag hunt family of problems are about trust in other people,
the situation in the OP is not. It's about risk aversion. Whether or not that
is a 'fault of human intellect' is a matter of definition and up for debate,
it's not as clear-cut as you make it out to be.
~~~
kristopolous
Ok thanks. I am no specialist in this by any means. But I do know enough to be
cautious when dealing with these types of problems. Glad you clarified.
------
crazygringo
This explains, when you look in your git repository for who created a bug...
When you find it and it's by someone else, it was obviously a stupid, idiotic
error that you would never make.
When you find it and it's your own, it was obviously an understandable mistake
that anybody could have made.
Particularly if you consider yourself a great coder.
:)
~~~
pjscott
You're more likely to go back and notice the stupid broken code you wrote,
because it disproportionately comes back to bite you later. The good code just
works, so you don't notice it as much. Classic selection bias.
------
sageikosa
Got the ball and bat one right, and the lily pad one. I must not be as smart
as I hoped :-(
I think it comes down to having a value system where you'd rather be wrong and
corrected (even if you have to do it yourself), as opposed to always
projecting yourself as"perfect". Once you accept you aren't perfect, its
easier to work towards perfecting what you've got.
~~~
planetguy
Ah, that's the author flattering the reader. If the author had picked a
genuinely tricky example for the first one it would have turned many readers
off.
Of course a question like the old bat and ball one is ridiculously simple,
_after_ you've been warned that many people get it wrong and hence that you
should probably stop and think for a few seconds before blurting out the first
answer that pops into your head. Do it without that warning and it's easier to
get it wrong.
~~~
dllthomas
When I first encountered these, without the "it's going to be tricky" priming,
I must admit I got the bat and ball one wrong until I revisited it. The lily
pad one I got right with no deep thinking - my explanation is that experience
working with bits primed me for treating "doubles" more correctly. That's post
hoc and anecdotal, of course, so take it for whatever, but I thought it
interesting...
------
jakeonthemove
Well, at least people are collectively smarter today compared to 100 years ago
- the percentage of people who can answer those questions correctly has gone
up considerably :-)...
Also, I just _hate_ these kind of questions - they've always been used to
prove that I'm stupid by those who knew the answers, and they're not solving
anything useful - I need the problem to solve something I care about in order
for my brain to fully focus on it and "do the math"...
~~~
moron
These questions are not designed to demonstrate intelligence if you get them
right. They are designed to show how our cognitive biases trip us up, often
without us even noticing. You're not stupid if you get them wrong, you're
completely normal.
------
Jabbles
FYI the tallest tree in the world is ~ 116 m or 379 feet.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperion_(tree)>
~~~
Splines
That question sort of bothered me - I have no idea how big a tree is, and even
if I saw one, I have no reference for how many feet it is without doing some
fairly exhaustive mathematics (and at the scale of "largest redwood", I'd
likely be wrong). Given _some_ information about redwood trees, _of course_
people are going to use that information in the subsequent guess. They're not
going to imagine a redwood tree, then imagine a building next to it, then
count the floors and estimate the height. Or estimate the girth, then guess a
height/girth ratio that makes sense given the composition of a tree, and then
estimate the height. They're lazy.
If I asked you, "Will a frooble fit in my pocket/empire states building?", and
then asked you to estimate the average size of a frooble, you'd certainly take
into account my earlier question.
See <http://lesswrong.com/lw/k3/priming_and_contamination/> for some better
examples. IMO, the more insidious form of anchoring is contamination (vs
sliding adjustment).
------
cyclic
For all of the high and mightiness of this article, this bugged me:
In a lake, there is a patch of lily pads. Every day, the patch doubles in
size. If it takes 48 days for the patch to cover the entire lake, how long
would it take for the patch to cover half of the lake?
If a lilypad is 20 square inches (which is probably conservative), and you
started with 1 lilypad, after 48 days of doubling it would cover 1.4MILLION
square miles. That is 44 times the surface area of Lake Superior.
I get the point of the question, but if you're trying to play "gotcha" on
people, at least ask a reasonable question.
~~~
ableal
It was 20 days when I was a kid.
Inflation, I suppose.
------
ilaksh
My takeaway is that smart people are in fact fairly dumb, in other words even
fairly bright specimens of homo sapiens make stupid mistakes and irrational
decisions quite often because of this shortcutting.
I also think that on the other hand those types of shortcuts are actually
probably very useful aspects of our human intelligence.
I think that within 50 years or so we will see new species/upgraded humans or
AIs that actually don't have those problems, because they will have built-in
checks and alternative types of intelligence that rely on those shortcuts
less.
------
Sander_Marechal
I highly recommend reading "Predictably Irrational" by Dan Ariely if you
thought this article was interesting. It covers exactly this subject and makes
for fascinating reading. I picked up the book about a week ago via some other
post linked here on HN and I'm loving it.
[http://www.amazon.com/Predictably-Irrational-Revised-
Expande...](http://www.amazon.com/Predictably-Irrational-Revised-Expanded-
Edition/dp/0061353248/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339561700&sr=8-1)
------
arihant
Got the lily pad one. I still cannot believe I said 10 cents on the first one
with a completely non-sarcastic chuckle.
This article reminds me of pg's reasons to have a co-founder to avoid being
delusional. Better be proven wrong on the inside than on the outside.
edit: Although on second thought, I think this bias theory probably extends to
organizations as well. Probably that's why big companies sometimes can't see
the obvious which a startup does.
------
gwern
Full text: <http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5317066/2012-west.pdf>
------
b1daly
Well I got both those questions right by following the heuristic that the most
obvious answer off the top of my head would not be the answer.
To my mind on any test that was supposed to be hard the appearance of any
obvious an answer triggers me to check for the proverbial trick question.
On the other hand, most brain puzzler type questions that get discussed on HN
(for example interview questions at Google) I find to be damn hard. I can't
imagine that "smart" people would do worse than "stupid" people on truly hard
problems. I guess that is the area of bias being pointed to in the OP.
------
Jordan_N
All of this is covered (much better)in Kahneman's 'Thinking, Fast and Slow'.
------
numeromancer
Here's a good mental test for the author:
When you're done with an article for the "Frontal Cortex" section, read it
aloud to yourself and smack yourself in the head with a frozen herring for
every time you use the word "we", "us" or "our" in your article. If you have a
headache when you're done, burn the draft and rethink the whole thing, b/c
your article obviously suffers from a "smug we" bias.
------
sin7
I don't see why, when smart people are trained to be lazy, researchers are
surprised that smart people are lazy.
~~~
terangdom
I am surprised. I thought cognitive traits had high correlation. I did not
expect laziness would factor into it so much.
------
antithesis
Just a couple of weeks ago we had an article about why smart people don't
think of others as stupid (<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3984894>),
and now they're stupid themselves? I'm puzzled.
~~~
terangdom
A careful reading will tell you that the article you refer to is normative not
descriptive.
------
astrofinch
_This finding wouldn’t surprise Kahneman, who admits in “Thinking, Fast and
Slow” that his decades of groundbreaking research have failed to significantly
improve his own mental performance. “My intuitive thinking is just as prone to
overconfidence, extreme predictions, and the planning fallacy”—a tendency to
underestimate how long it will take to complete a task—“as it was before I
made a study of these issues,” he writes._
Doesn't Kahnman distinguish between intuitive and deliberate thinking? So it
could be possible to think better by distrusting our intuitions and
deliberating more, right?
------
marquis
Well, the ball one I've heard before and the lilypad is obvious if you've been
exposed to biology. Is this not more a matter of education not being applied
to real-world cases and relying on theoretical teaching?
~~~
saraid216
What, exactly, does the lilypad one have to do with biology...?
~~~
wtracy
Population growth follows an exponential curve.
------
harrup8
There is a simple cure for smart people to not be stupid, they can detect
those errors and bias easily in other people thinking, but not in their own
thinking because introspection doesn't work. So the cure is to play as if you
were the actor in a theater, that is pretend that you are not yourself when
you are thinking. You should imagine you are thinking as a known stupid person
and by miracle you get smart and not so stupid.
~~~
dmak
Easier said than done.
------
tetha
This isn't big news for me. It took me about 7 years to understand two courses
of high school while finishing my master of science. If you ask me the right
question or try to teach me just the right matter in just the right way, a
donkey will get it sooner than I do, and I'm talking about possibly years
sooner. I might just not see the problem or I might think the wrong way, I
don't know. There are things I just don't get.
------
javert
New Yorker articles (that get posted here, anyway) always have some sort of
take on things that attempts to bring down the good. Same for The Atlantic.
I'm not saying they're always _false_ , but there is a certain kind of thing
that these publications are interested in, and it's a kind of thing that makes
me feel dirty---or as if they're trying to make me feel dirty. Anyone else
noticed this?
------
akandiah
What did you think of first when you read about the bat and the ball problem?
Also, what's your background (e.g. CS, Maths etc.)? As someone who has a
relatively strong background in maths, I quickly saw the outlines of a simple,
algebraic substituion problem. I'm quite interested in how people analyze
problems, so I'd love to see how the HN community approached this.
------
farinasa
I think this is more an issue of the English language. English is not a good
way to speak math or logic. In the bat and ball question I mistakenly (and I'm
guessing everyone who got it wrong) ignored the word "more". That word
represents an operator and is therefore crucial to the question, but is
extremely diminutive in terms of English language.
~~~
sageikosa
Possibly, I immediately substituted one dollar plus ball for bat, then saw I
had 2 balls and a dollar making up $1.10. Or 5 cents a ball. I honestly didn't
pull out the algorithm sheet, it just sort of worked itself out in my head
before I had time to think: what are they looking for...
Not to say I don't have biases, just not for word-number problems.
Poker on the other hand is another matter, I still chase straights and flushes
in games with wild-cards, even though I _know_ those hands are almost
worthless.
------
dutchbrit
I answered the question correctly, which I'm sure the majority here probably
did too. When someone asks a simple mathematical question, I always seem to
give it more thought since I always know it must be a dodgy question. 4 years
ago, I'd probably of answered the question incorrectly. But the baseball
question is an obvious mindfuck.
------
Karunamon
So because I'm suffering from a deep case of the derp today, how are the first
guess answers to those questions wrong?
~~~
alaskamiller
Since most people don't get calculus they use simple math to shortcut to
answers that sounds right.
~~~
jere
Calculus? These problems require elementary school arithmetic or, being
generous, basic algebra.
~~~
alaskamiller
Think it through.
The first problem is operational and the second problem is change on a slope.
People use what they know to deal with problems, so facing these two they use
basic math (subtraction and division) being ignorant of higher-level math
concepts such as algebra or calculus. The answers they come up with _appears_
right to their known level of logic.
If you were the type of person that got to learn about high level math
concept, and are the studious type to double check answers, then these two
problems are condescendingly seen as trivial.
~~~
jere
I see it differently. The whole point of the article is that these problems
affect _smart people_.
>For one thing, self-awareness was not particularly useful: as the scientists
note, “people who were aware of their own biases were not better able to
overcome them.” This finding wouldn’t surprise Kahneman, who admits in
“Thinking, Fast and Slow” that his decades of groundbreaking research have
failed to significantly improve his own mental performance. “My intuitive
thinking is just as prone to overconfidence, extreme predictions, and the
planning fallacy”—a tendency to underestimate how long it will take to
complete a task—“as it was before I made a study of these issues,” he writes.
It has nothing to do with knowledge of higher level mathematics because these
problems are easily solvable with arithmetic. Lacking calculus doesn't kill
you on this problem. An intuitive gut feeling that you've already arrived at
the right answer and laziness is the source of confusion.
I've even read about that damn bat and ball problem and it STILL tripped me up
this time. I could easily have double checked my answer, but I wanted to read
the article. Even a child knowing nothing other than addition could get it
right with a little bit of trial and error. I hope after admitting that you
see that I _don't_ find the problems condescendingly trivial.
Personally, I found the second problem much easier... probably because
programmers have a better intuitive grasp of powers of 2. Bringing in slope is
stretching it a bit. Working in reverse from the completely covered lake, it
should be obvious that going back one day halves the lily pads. However, I
could imagine how someone more familiar with linear processes would get the
wrong intuitive result.
>The answers they come up with appears right to their known level of logic.
A studious habit sure, but checking your answer isn't a higher level math
skill.
------
melvinmt
Where can I find more of these questions?
------
taylorbuley
I studied "Choice & Behavior" at Penn -- the names Kahneman and Tversky were a
common refrain. If you're looking to self-teach, my prof Jon Baron has a great
course outline online: <http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~baron/p153.html>
------
jpwagner
do we all think about the same thing at the same time or does Jonah Lehrer
read HN religiously?
i _just_ watched that talk a couple of days ago because it was posted here:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4082308>
------
njharman
Comments here reinforce the research.
------
karolist
These sort of questions always put me into "hold on, think about it" mode and
statements like "Your first response is probably to take a shortcut" are
simply not true. I'm actually more vulnerable to over-think a problem rather
than provide a quick wrong answer.
------
unlinear
If the lily pad patch was a mere 1 square inch, on the 48th doubling, the pond
would have to be (check my math)about 70k square miles - or 10 times the size
of Lake Erie. Those lilies would be consuming a serious amount of co2 during
that last doubling!
------
nadam
Both those questions are trivial and I answered them correctly. This is in
line with the article's conclusion: I don't consider myself very smart. I mean
I had some moderate successes in my childhood at math competitions, I am a
reasonably good programmer, but I am not very smart. I even failed at the on-
site Google interview.
But here is the problem with the article: The people who I consider smarter
than me (in the mathematical/IQ sense) also answer these kind of questions
correctly. This includes my friend working at Google, some researcher
mathematicians who I know from math forums who won serious math competitions
as a child, etc... These questions are really-really trivial. The researcher
mathematician guy who I know do not even make mistakes on 10x more tricky or
hard questions, it is scary how he do not make mistakes and thinks incredibly
fast. Something seems to be wrong with this study.
------
EricDeb
I remember the SAT as more about checking oneself's first reaction to a
problem. They often try to trick you with the obvious answer. The GMAT and GRE
were quite similar. I would often have to stop myself from taking shortcuts
------
vain
A bat and ball cost a dollar and ten cents. The bat costs a dollar more than
the ball
bat + ball = 1.1
bat = ball + 1
2bat + ball = ball +1.1 +1
2bat = 2.1
bat = 1.05
ball =0.05
~~~
debacle
I parsed that as:
bat = 1.1
ball = 1.1
bat = ball + 1
It confused the hell out of me.
~~~
saraid216
I immediately switched to generic variables X and Y, rather than keeping the
original names. It helps.
------
grandalf
I think that smart people are also prone to falling for headlines like this.
The reality is much more complex.
------
sonicaa
The last line "The more we attempt to know ourselves, the less we actually
understand." is worrying me a bit.
------
carsongross
Because they spend all day on HN?
------
Mordor
Taking more shortcuts as I get older too - a constant battle to stop and
think...
------
DannoHung
English is a terrible language for formalism: News at 11.
------
namank
Because they don't ask enough questions.
------
wissler
No, research did't show that "we do this" or "our approach is that" or "humans
aren't rational" -- what the research showed is that the _typical_ person does
this or that.
A similar experiment where people draw the wrong conclusions is the Milgram
experiment. Yes, most people are obedient to authority figures and do what
they are told. But not _everyone_ acts that way.
This research likes to sweep the best human beings under the rug, as if being
virtuous is not something to try to emulate, but is something to hide. This
explains why the majority of people act the way they do. Perhaps if they were
taught that their "we're only human" vices are not the ideal to emulate,
perhaps if the best that humanity had to offer were put forth as the ideal
instead, then these lesser human beings who make up the majority would become
what they might be and ought to be.
~~~
roguecoder
Animals are less irrational than humans. Children are less irrational than
adults. Why do you assume rationality is better, rather than maladaptive?
~~~
wissler
I don't "assume", I induce. See Newton's rules of reasoning. Pay particular
attention to Rule IV.
It is clear from many examples that rationality gives us the utmost ability to
adapt, prosper, and survive over the long term. And there is _no_ example that
truly leads in the other direction. (There are many perverse definitions and
applications of "rationality" that seem to trick some people into thinking it
does lead in the contrary direction).
~~~
cheatercheater
> I don't "assume", I induce. See Newton's rules of reasoning. Pay particular
> attention to Rule IV.
u so smaht
~~~
wissler
Your deranged sarcasm eloquently sums up what's wrong with our educational
system: kids are taught that their opinions matter, regardless of how idiotic
they are. Well the truth is, your uninformed opinion doesn't matter.
------
planetguy
Now _that's_ the kind of headline I'd give to my article if I wanted it to
reach the top of the HN front page.
------
moron
I notice this all the time, all over the place. It drives me nuts, to the
point that I am now extremely skeptical of what we call "intelligence".
Taleb's "The Black Swan" really opened my eyes to this. He talks a lot about
how we reason in ways that do not correspond to reality.
I don't know what right is, but I know the way we currently think about
intelligence is wrong.
~~~
farinasa
Agreed. IQ is a terrible method of evaluation also. For instance, if you
practice taking IQ tests, I guarantee you will get better at answering those
questions. Even if you gauge only the first attempt, how do you know their
daily job wasn't very similar to those exercises. In fact, IQ tests are very
much like building software to only work in one architecture and then hoping
it applies to others. It really only judges speed and word/number pattern
recognition. This encourages short cuts and is hardly applicable to any
practical situation.
------
phene
I find the abundance of "See? Smart people are actually dumber than I am!"
posts amusing.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Is app UI testing broken? - khitcher
I found that app UI test is usually really hard to set up. What do you think?<p>I'm currently working in an app company, where we spend most of the time creating new features. It becomes increasingly often that engineers break previous features, sometimes important ones.<p>Testings are almost always done manually here, as it's often considered impractical to write all the test cases given the time constraint.<p>To make manual testing harder to replace, usually new features introduce drastic changes on UI or interaction. Those changes really make it hard to implement UI auto test in any comprehensive way.<p>Is there a very easy way to set up automatic UI test for iOS/Android apps? Ideally I'm thinking about just showing it once and have an automation system repeat my actions.<p>Thanks
======
wingerlang
I thought UI testing would be hard for iOS, but in practice it was only the
new "style" of interacting with the app that was an obstacle.
Xcode literally allows you to record your taps, however the code will be
impossible to maintain. It is better to pause the application with
breakpoints, inspect the app through "po app" and see what it allows you to
click. Then just add the code to click whatever you want. Then continue.
There's a lot of "aha" moments but as each one gets ironed out you'll become
faster at it.
As an added bonus you will be more knowledgable about how your app perform in
'accessibility' mode.
I also consider the "breaking" of UI tests a feature. Because if you do some
breaking change, you might have added some new bugs. In practice I haven't had
the 'hell' period of many tests breaking though.
------
LifeQuestioner
android espresso is built for this i.e it fires up the simulator and simulates
a robot playing on the app in order to test it.
[https://developer.android.com/training/testing/espresso/inde...](https://developer.android.com/training/testing/espresso/index.html)
------
chriszelazo
App UI testing is so rudimentary and difficult to use. We could use some real
tooling
------
owleysagen
I've found UI testing to be very brittle esp on Android but that probably also
applies to other platforms, UI tests are hard work to maintain when the
designs change in small ways - it's so easy to get false negatives. We try and
mitigate that a little by trying to get as much of our code out of the view
layer as possible so that nearly everything can be unit tested. What's left
should (almost) not need testing - we still run some high level espresso
tests, but it's not part of our CI at the moment, so not ideal
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Asiana Airlines Flight 214 Final Report [pdf] - lsh123
http://www.ntsb.gov/doclib/reports/2014/AAR1401.pdf
======
lsh123
TLDR;
The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of
this accident was the flight crew’s mismanagement of the airplane’s descent
during the visual approach, the pilot flying’s unintended deactivation of
automatic airspeed control, the flight crew’s inadequate monitoring of
airspeed, and the flight crew’s delayed execution of a go-around after they
became aware that the airplane was below acceptable glidepath and airspeed
tolerances.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Transcript from Elena Krasnoperova’s Learning Hacks for Bootstrappers - skmurphy
http://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2017/01/27/transcript-from-elena-krasnoperovas-learning-hacks-for-bootstrappers/
======
e_krasnoperova
Hi, Elena here (the founder of Calroo). To answer your question of why we
started with iOS: 1. the installed base in the US is roughly 50-50, 2. as
dragonwriter pointed out, iOS users are more likely to spend money on apps
than Android users, and it is overrepresented in the Bay Area where we are
based, and 3. my husband (who is also my co-founder) happens to be an iOS
developer, who worked at Apple for 17 years. With all of that said, rest
assured, we have full intention of quickly following up with an Android app -
in fact, it's already half-built. Think of it as us "practicing" on iOS users
first before giving you the perfect Android app :-) Please do sign up for our
Android beta list at www.Calroo.com - we'd love to get your feedback on it.
------
skmurphy
She offers a seven step approach for bootstrappers
1: Make time for learning new skills – your startup’s success depends on it
2: Figure out your preferred learning style, as that will determine your
learning medium.
3: Master the basics – start by reading (or listening to) these 3 recipe
books: Lean Startup, Traction, and Lean Analytics
4: Figure out what skills you need to acquire next that will be most helpful
to your startup.
5: Acquire the knowledge (in your preferred learning style)
6: Collect examples of what works and absorb the knowledge implicit in them by
taking notes, using a swipe file, and creating a reference library.
7: Apply the knowledge. Do a (small) real project to solve a real problem for
your startup
------
jenkstom
I need that app. Why does anybody start with Apple in today's world? Isn't
android 80% of the market?
~~~
dragonwriter
Android is more of the userbase, but the Apple userbase is disproportionately
willing and able to spend money, so it remains attractive to target.
It's also probably overrepresented among influencers in many areas, making it
attractive to target for other reasons.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Apple: even its most banal features require a proficiency in machine learning - mpweiher
https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/19/apple-makes-the-case-that-even-its-most-banal-features-require-a-proficiency-in-machine-learning/
======
davidkuhta
PSA: The article is about the "Hey Siri" functionality and not anything relate
to Core ML.
The underlying technical content can be found in Apple's Machine Learning
Journal article: _Hey Siri: An On-device DNN-powered Voice Trigger for Apple’s
Personal Assistant_
[https://machinelearning.apple.com/2017/10/01/hey-
siri.html](https://machinelearning.apple.com/2017/10/01/hey-siri.html)
I hadn't considered the nuance of distinguishing between "Hey Siri" and "Hey
Seriously", so that was pretty neat to learn about.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How to Create a Tab UI with Riot 2.0 - robertwpearce00
http://www.robertwpearce.com/blog/riotjs-example/
======
bshimmin
Aside from the usual unpleasantness of muddling together views and logic (and
welcome back `onclick`, how I've missed you...), I find the idea of the
"parent" scope rather troubling. If you have something nested inside a tab,
let's say a link, what is its parent - an individual tab, or the whole "tabs"
component?
~~~
tipiirai
Since Riot is a "React- like 2.5KB UI library" the main purpose is to "muddle
together" related layout and logic.
------
tipiirai
Instead of
class={ tabItem: true, is_active: something() }
you can just write
class="tabItem { is_active: something() }"
~~~
robertwpearce00
oh, that's awesome. will update
------
SimeVidas
Custom elements must contain a hyphen:
[http://w3c.github.io/webcomponents/spec/custom/#dfn-
custom-e...](http://w3c.github.io/webcomponents/spec/custom/#dfn-custom-
element). Just `<tabs>` is not allowed.
~~~
maemre
According to [1], Riot developers are aware of that and chose to support
custom tags without a dash:
> W3C specification demands you use a dash in the tag name. Instead of
> <person> you must write <my-person>. Obey this rule if you care about W3C.
> Both work fine.
However using hyphens to be standards-compliant and future compatible would be
better.
[1]: [https://muut.com/riotjs/faq.html](https://muut.com/riotjs/faq.html)
------
quest88
Of course we'd still have posts in 2015 about how to make tabs.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Grand Theft Auto IV’s First Week Sales: $500mm and 6mm Units - berecruited
http://ryanspoon.com/blog/2008/05/06/grand-theft-auto-ivs-first-week-sales-500mm-and-6mm-units/
======
rrival
I wonder what Rockstar would do with a persistent GTA universe a-la WOW.
~~~
rms
God, I don't think I'd ever leave the house, that would be much better than
real life.
------
slater
what's an "mm"? mega millions? :D
~~~
aneesh
MM is actually just millions ... it's a weird Roman numeral thing.
~~~
xirium
MM in Roman numerals is 2000. Perhaps the double M is to distinguish between
mille (1,000) and million (1,000,000). Cue discussion about short and long
form billions and use of dots and commas as numeric seperators.
~~~
Novash
Millions would be M with a slash above the letter. I don't think we can make
slashs above letters with any encoding, though.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The best way to present your company in 2010 (flash) - eagleal
http://www.atksolutions.com/
======
eagleal
Someone wrote it on twitter
<http://twitter.com/paddydonnelly/status/13810325308>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Thinking This iPad Mini Thing Even Througher - raganesh
http://daringfireball.net/2012/08/ipad_mini_even_througher
======
alwaysinshade
For anyone wondering why Daring Fireball is able to garner a lot of attention
(and for that matter, almost any article pertaining to Apple) I refer you to
two studies:
\- When, Why, and How Controversy Causes Conversation by Zoey Chen and Jonah
Berger
\- What Makes online Content Viral? by Jonah Berger and Katherine L. Milkman
Results from the first study reveals that controversy significantly affects
likelihood of discussion. The second study comes to a similar conclusion but
fleshes it out a little more eloquently:
"Importantly, however, our findings also reveal that virality is driven by
more than just valence. Sadness, anger, and anxiety are all negative emotions,
but while sadder content is less viral, content that evokes more anxiety or
anger is actually more viral. These findings are consistent with our
hypothesis about how arousal shapes social transmission. Positive and negative
emotions characterized by activation or arousal (i.e., awe, anxiety, and
anger) are positively linked to virality, while emotions characterized by
deactivation (i.e., sadness) are negatively linked to virality. More broadly,
our results suggest that while external drivers of attention (e.g., being
prominently featured) shape what becomes viral, content characteristics are of
similar importance (see Figure 2). For example, a one-standard deviation
increase in the amount of anger an article evokes increases the odds that it
will make the most e-mailed list by 34% (Table 4, Model 4). This increase is
equivalent to spending an additional 2.9 hours as the lead story on the New
York Times website"
Apple is well known for controversy and Gruber is known for his snark (though
I found this article to be insightful speculation) - the two seem to really
complement each other and a lot of their success comes down to their
behaviour. So for anyone who feels inclined to write another "Why is Gruber on
HN?" post, that's why.
~~~
jopt
Backing your opinions up with studies is great. There sure are plenty of
reasons (other than quality, which is the elephant in the room IMHO) that
Gruber might sometimes find himself on HN.
But your analysis is more about why _any_ article of his can qualify. Wouldn't
it be better to judge this individual piece on its merits instead of pleading
the general case?
If you label each of his articles as "Controversial; Pro-Apple" you run a risk
of forgetting to read them. Today's piece should count against that label, not
reaffirm it.
------
ghshephard
I'm not sure what's gotten into Gruber lately, but not only is this entire
essay basically attitude free, he's also got a lot of content, and, dare I
say, math/geometry in this piece?
He gives credit to Digitimes of all orgs for the original (March!) prediction
of a thin-bezel ipad - and goes out on a bunch of limbs predicting what the
new iPad Mini might look like. In particular, his weight prediction, of 265
grams, is somewhat hard to believe - but would be very much appreciated by
those of us who spend 2-3 hours a day reading books on our (somewhat overly
large for that function) iPad.
I guess we'll know in another 30 days.
~~~
TillE
If you're just reading text-based books, why not go with a Kindle? They're
cheap and much better suited to the task.
Graphics-heavy stuff beyond the scope of the Kindle is usually larger format
anyway, and even the 10" iPad feels a bit small for that.
~~~
officemonkey
EInk Kindles can't really do email, or twitter, or skype or angry birds. Right
now I tote around three devices (four when I haul my laptop.) A smaller iPad
means I get rid of the Kindle and the iPod touch.
~~~
philbarr
Really? I find reading on any device for a decent length of time that isn't
e-ink a real pain.
~~~
officemonkey
EInk is definitely better, but I read the entire "Game of Thrones" series last
summer on my iPod touch using the Kindle.app.
~~~
geon
I have used the GoodReader app on iTouch/iPhone and read about 10 MB of txt
files so far. (The 2001 triology, all Stainless Steelrat, the Red/Green/Blue
Mars triology, a lot of Heinlein, the Ringworld triology)
I find the iDevice very easi to read on. Perhaps e-ink is even better.
------
twoodfin
I'm glad Gruber seems to be writing more of these long form pieces. Short and
snarky is not as much of a strength for him as he thinks it is.
On the content: Right on. I will definitely be surprised if the words
"thinner" and "lighter" do not feature prominently in Apple's keynote, both
vs. the Retina iPad and the Google/Amazon competition.
~~~
tambourine_man
_I'm glad Gruber seems to be writing more of these long form pieces. Short and
snarky is not as much of a strength for him as he thinks it is._
My thoughts exactly. His recent talk with Siracusa must have helped.
[edit]
From the show, 1h24m23s: “You haven't done one of those in a while where you
do like screen shots and stuff, you used to do that more…”
He also changed his favicon soon after Siracusa remarked that it wasn't retina
ready, so he probably listens him.
<http://daringfireball.net/graphics/favicon.ico?v=005>
~~~
recoiledsnake
He still manages to come up with gems like this:
[http://daringfireball.net/linked/2012/08/01/nokia-nail-
polis...](http://daringfireball.net/linked/2012/08/01/nokia-nail-polish)
He and Siegler come off as partisan hacks and nothing else. Hence mostly only
Apple fans seem to think he writes great. I do not know why they have to hate
other competing platforms so immensely to love Apple.
~~~
shinratdr
Even outside impartial observers see the Nokia situation just getting worse
and worse, and Windows Phone doing absolutely nothing to pull them out of the
hole they're in.
I appreciate Gruber because he's unapologetic about something like that. We
can dance around it forever, but judging by sales and in-the-wild presence of
WP7, that briefly if crudely summarizes the Lumia & WP7 ecosystem to date.
Doing this stupid old world stuff like distributing nail polish that matches
your phone isn't distracting anyone from the increasingly untenable situation
Nokia is sliding into right now. Moreover, moves like that make it seem like
they're treating their situation flippantly.
It's not about "hate", it's about not candy coating things to appease certain
groups. We heard for the last two years about how beautiful and fast and
revolutionary WP7 is and how nice the Lumia hardware looks. Now it's time to
put up or shut up and they just haven't. That's a fact, and I don't see why
someone should have to ignore that and paint a happy face on the situation to
not be considered a "hack". Moreover, I don't think you can extrapolate from
that that Gruber hates Nokia, the Lumia or WP7. It's just a snarky
observation.
If your issue is with the joke itself, I'll give you that. It wasn't all that
funny or anything. I also agree he's a much better writer when in long form,
and his snark does get over the top. I see where he's coming from here though.
~~~
cooldeal
See, even you managed to write many more words than him. It's not just that
one post linked which is bad, it's a whole series of posts especially about
Google and Android full of smugness, snark and sneering designed for his
target audience, Apple fans and apparently, Google haters. It's like some of
his posts are inside jokes at a fraternity club, and frankly are of that
quality. It's tabloid journalism and nothing else, frankly.
You think any article by someone calling Ping a brown piece of shit would ever
be featured on HN? Hell, even Paul Thurott's Winsupersite is hellbanned on HN.
------
mcantelon
>If you think these stories appearing within a day of each other in the two
most-respected business publications in the U.S. — at the same time the Nexus
7 reviews began appearing and the device started shipping to customers — is
merely coincidental and not a strategic competitive leak from Apple PR, then I
would like to invite you to play in my poker game.
>The angle to these stories is not merely “Apple is set to release a smaller
iPad”, but “Apple is set to release a smaller iPad and it could squelch the
Nexus 7 and any other smaller tablets before they ever really get a chance to
take off”.
Gruber will apparently even try to spin a "me too" response by Apple as
genius.
~~~
__chrismc
You seem to assume the "iPad Mini" hasn't been in development since well
before the Nexus 7.
Given how short a timeframe (4 months) Google gave the development of the
Nexus 7[1], and Apple's supposed "don't release until it's 'perfect'"
attitude, I wouldn't be surprised if it was indeed the case that the iPad Mini
entered development first. If so, does it really count as "me too"? Or just
later to market?
(speculation) What if the Nexus 7 was a response to the rumoured possibility
of a 7-inch iPad? A way to try and capture that segment of the market before
Apple rolled into town?
[1]:[http://www.forbes.com/sites/danielnyegriffiths/2012/08/06/se...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/danielnyegriffiths/2012/08/06/seven-
inches-four-months-a-number-one-sales-target-how-asus-built-the-nexus-7/2/)
~~~
huggyface
_Given how short a timeframe (4 months) Google gave the development of the
Nexus 7_
The Nexus 7 is a rebranded Asus device that was talked about last year. Then
consider the Galaxy Tab, and the basic fundamental that Android has never
dictated the sizes of devices.
Only Apple so tightly coupled their API with very precise, specific form
factors and sizes. It is impossible to view Apple's move (especially after
widely criticizing a 7" tablet -- recall the sandpapered fingers nonsense) as
anything but a me too maneuver.
~~~
officemonkey
Jobs used to disparage a product line while secretly working on a superior
product. Anyone remember 2009 and netbooks? Jobs dissed them the entire time
Apple was working on the iPad.
The "sandpapered fingers" bit was just Jobs saying "small tablets are junk.
We're working on the problems so our product won't be junk."
~~~
nchlswu
I'm being pedantic, but wouldn't the Air be a more appropriate netbook
comparison?
As for the sandpapered finger thing, I imagine that you're right, but at the
time, I wouldn't necessarily think the sandpapered fingers comment was just
blowing smoke.
I'd guess that Jobs was simply conveying his findings at the time. Obviously,
this is purely speculation, but the in years leading up to the iPhone and iPad
touchscreens and software weren't that great and users weren't familiar with
them either. I'd wager that the testing that went into touch-target
optimization led to results that made Apple/Jobs uncomfortable with releasing
a 7-inch.
~~~
officemonkey
>I'm being pedantic, but wouldn't the Air be a more appropriate netbook
comparison?
The Air predates the brief netbook craze. The netbook was supposed to be the
cheap computer you can take everywhere. People were surfing the net from their
couch, using it on long commutes, and bringing them everywhere. The iPad
pretty much killed the nascent netbook market.
The Mac Air took a couple iterations to get popular, but it's now
cannibalizing the college kid/small business person's laptop. The Air might be
as light as a netbook, but it's not a cheap compromise, like the netbooks
were.
------
beloch
I'm not a regular reader of daringfireball, but that blog post is very long on
speculation and decidedly short on facts. It's random chance whether any of
the resolutions, dimensions, weights, or features he settles on wind up
proving to the true. This is firmly in the "Bluray support will be native in
the next version of OSX!" sort of speculation.
~~~
ryanstewart
I've started to read DF posts like this with the mindset that he has some
inside information. It is very short on facts, but the logic seems mostly
sound. Unfortunately it comes across to me as a "I have 75% of the info, I
need to create 100% of the story" kind of piece.
~~~
Tyrannosaurs
It's exactly that sort of piece but that's actually why I read Daring
Fireball.
Gruber obviously comes from a very specific position when it comes to certain
things, but whatever you think about him he's someone who watches Apple very
closely and has done for some time.
With someone like Apple where 100% of the information isn't out there, if I'm
going to read speculation then I'd rather read Gruber's speculation than most
because he's far better equipped to try and fill in the gaps.
------
JVIDEL
I wonder if Apple is going to replace the iPod Touch with this.
Think about it: the Touch didn't get a spec bump while the iPhone, iPad and
even the AppleTV did, and it sells for the same price of a Kindle Fire, Nexus
7 or Nook Tablet, all popular small tablets in the category where this iPad
mini would compete.
PMPs are dead mostly because the same kind of people who bought PMPs are now
buying tablets and Apple can't make this new iPad too expensive or it will be
too close to the iPad2 and consumers will buy that one instead, nor can it
make the Touch cheaper or it will cannibalize the Nano.
~~~
alanfalcon
I've seen it suggested that the Nexus 7 isn't the Android iPad, it's the
Android iPod Touch. This makes sense to me, and it makes sense to me that
Apple could be moving in a similar direction with the iPod Touch itself,
especially if it can hit those weight goals. This would also seem to open up
some space for the iPod nano to gain functionality.
~~~
fratis
Alternatively, maybe soon – with the small iPad filling the $249 price gap –
Apple will finally kill the iPod Classic and cut prices on the rest of the
line. They've been manufacturing the lower quality retina display for the iPod
Touch for two years, and costs must be down significantly.
Combine that with falling costs for flash storage, and I could see them going
down to $150-$250 for the Touch ($150 for 16GB up to $250 for 64GB), $100/$125
on the Nano, and keeping the Shuffle at $49.
~~~
zachrose
I'm hoping they keep the iPod Classic around, regardless of how well they
sell. In my mind, it's the seed of the Apple renaissance.
~~~
freehunter
There really is a dearth of high-capacity PMPs anymore. I still have my Zune
120 in my truck, constantly plugged into the stereo. I sync it over wifi when
I want to add new music, and I have my entire music collection available if a
certain song unexpectedly pops into my head and I have to listen to it. 64GB
is still too small and too expensive to be feasible for carrying around an
entire catalog. With the Zune gone, Apple is the only game in town for high
quality, high capacity media players (surprisingly, CNet doesn't include it in
their "best hard drive mp3 player" list, only the mediocre Archos 5 at $500).
------
zachwill
After reading both this and the iMore article, I really feel like Q4 this year
is going to be like nothing we've ever seen. There won't be a reason for the
average consumer _not_ to get an iOS device. I think we're heading into a time
where Apple's dominance will pass the threshold of what Microsoft had in the
90's.
And, if you consider a revamped TV is on the way in a couple years — man,
we're talking about iOS in the living room, in your lap, and in your pocket.
It's astonishing to think that the iPhone is only 5 years old at this point.
~~~
ajross
Um... So a quarter notable mostly for Apples entry _into a tablet form factor
market already pioneered by other competitors_ is somehow a testament to the
platform's... dominance?
(I really want to respond to the idea of yearning for another IBM/Microsoft-
scale monopoly too, but I'll limit myself to simple snark for now.)
~~~
officemonkey
Apple's entry into the phone market already pioneered by other competitors is
a testament to the platform's dominance.
Also, no one would be making tablets of any size if it weren't for the success
of the iPad (introduced January 2010.) If you recall, 2009 was all about the
netbooks. Remember them? Nobody else does either.
The Nexus 7 (released at the end of June) is the first non-iPad tablet of any
size that has ever gotten a legit positive review. It's hard to see how the
unimpressive Android tablets of the past two years and the Kindle Fire
constitute successful pioneering. And now Apple looks to introduce a very
strong competitor three months later.
Here's my prediction. Unless the iPad mini is an unmitigated turd, Apple's
iPad mini will outsell the Nexus 7 five-to-one during the Christmas quarter.
That's platform dominance.
~~~
duiker101
it will outsell the Nexus 7 just because it has an apple on it's back. I know
that like everyone in here.
------
DirtyCalvinist
From the standpoint of a mobile developer and a user of one of Samsung's 7"
tablets, the 7" form factor is too big for phone apps to really feel right on
it, and too small for the big tab apps to be naively scaled down and feel
right. So any Apple tablet at that size will suffer from a lack of good
software until everyone catches up.
On the plus side, with the entry of an Apple device, there will be a much
greater incentive to create workable design paradigms for the form factor, and
both Android and iOS devices this size will benefit.
~~~
simonh
You're assuming that an iPad mini screen would be roughly as usable as a nexus
7 screen, but if the rumours are correct they would be very different. The
Nexus 7 has a 'letterbox' widescreen aspect ratio compared to the iPad's
chunkier 4x3 screen. Also the iPad screen would be 40% bigger. These are not
small differences.
------
Someone
I do not see how anybody might think it would have iPad-like edges
An edge to place your thumb on must be about an inch wide. A 7 inch diagonal
screen is 4 by 6 inch or so. With a one inch edge, the edge would be 16 square
inches, or about a third of the area of the device. I do not see how they
could sell you that (well, maybe, if they used them for solar cells and
managed to power the device from it)
------
css771
This was a very good piece from gruber and I say that as someone who has
consistently hated his snarkiness and apple fanboyism in the past. He makes
deep analyses of the ipad mini here and dare I say, sets himself apart as a
key asset in the Apple tech press. There should be someone as capable of doing
in-depth analyses in other tech fields too. I was thinking specifically about
android device news. The folks at androidpolice are the best I know. But not
of Gruber's calibre.
~~~
tjmc
Anand Lal Shimpi of <http://www.anandtech.com> is of that calibre and far less
partisan - particularly if you're looking to buy components like motherboards
or an SSD.
~~~
msh
I like Gruber, but Anand's reviews/analysis are of a far higher calibre than
grubers.
------
hack_edu
The thinness angle doesn't sound right to me and would be a bad decision to
trade it for real features. Thinness is important, don't get me wrong, but
nearly all iOS device users use cases.
The thickness of a case can often double overall size and weight in your hand.
This that isn't going to change, probably ever.
~~~
csmeder
The extreme popularity of the mac book air and now pc clones of that form
factor would indicate otherwise. I think Gruber hit the nail on the head with:
Don't think of it as an iPad mini but an iPad air.
Once the early adopters flash their iPad airs around with no case (or an
extremely thin mag cover), an ipad 3 is going to look fat and heavy. A nexus 7
is going to look bulky and old. Soon it will be a basic expectation that
tablets are light as feather computers with no perceivable thickness. Tablets
that don't come in this form factor will be seen as clunky relics of the past.
The best way to tell if an apple product will do well, is to ask your self:
"Once this product gets wide spread adoption, will this product make its
predecesor seem, old, clunky and/or unrefined". From a tactile and visual
stand point a iPad air will do this.
~~~
hack_edu
OK, but everything will still be in a case so still fat and heavy and clunky
looking. A shock proof case can only be so thin and only when you can prevent
thin glass/metal/plastic from breaking or warping so easily (let's see how
long that takes) will that cease to be the limiting factor. And the cases you
see around town aren't the mag covers, I'm talking about fully blown folio in
synthetics or leather. Mag covers only protect the screen from scratches and
provide the auto sleep function. You can't bring the MBA into the comparison.
People don't carry them around everywhere they go, whipping them out 100+
times a day and dropping them on a regular basis.
Full disclosure: despite my argument, I hate cases on my devices and refuse to
use them aside from a thin tablet screen cover.
~~~
tomflack
So they should make it out of rubber because "it'll end up in a case anyway
and be fat and heavy and clunky looking"?
There is a severe flaw in what you're saying - Apple didn't design the iPad 1,
iPad 2 or iPad 3 with a full case in mind _, in spite of the audience using
them lots.
_ Yes I realise they make the smart case. I think of this like the bumper -
offering something demanded, but the core product was designed without it.
They also introduced it significantly after the iPad 2.
------
sasoon
For me, ipad with 7.85" screen makes sense. You do not lose screen real estate
because it is the same resolution as iPad 1 & 2, it is easier to carry around,
apps will not need new versions to support iPad mini. This is real size
comparison of iPad 7.85" with iphone 4 and standard ipad:
[http://www.sizeall.com/compare/Apple-iPad-7-85-inch-
mockup-A...](http://www.sizeall.com/compare/Apple-iPad-7-85-inch-mockup-Apple-
iPhone-4-Apple-iPad-2-Wi-Fi/75)
------
greendestiny
This all makes sense to me and I can see this being a successful product. I
don't know if its too early yet, but normally when Apple telegraphs a new
product people will fall over themselves to hype up the specs and decry it as
useless if it doesn't meet expectations. That hasn't started happening yet - I
can imagine Apple hates the over expectations but I wonder if the opposite is
worse. Maybe this is just a better understood fit in the market, or maybe it
hasn't sparked peoples interest in the same way.
Personally I'll definitely be buying one, but mostly because I'm very money
conscious and would love a slightly bigger iOS device.
------
jonknee
As a Kindle Fire owner I have to say the form factor of tablets this size is
great. I just wish there was a better fix to the resolution issues. Limiting
to low PPI for app compatibility seems like a hack.
~~~
bluthru
>Limiting to low PPI for app compatibility seems like a hack.
What, and give developers another resolution to develop for? No.
The iPad Mini will use the iPhone 3GS LCD pixel density. Then in a year, the
iPad Mini will adopt the iPhone 4 pixel density. This means that every
"retina" iPad app that currently exists will display natively on the device.
So basically: wait a year and then you'll have that crazy-good iPhone 4+
density.
~~~
jonknee
How will that work without having that other resolution you want to avoid? The
issue was avoided on the desktop by not requiring everything be full screen.
I understand the issue, but my personal iPad usage would not be affected by
more resolutions (I surf, read and watch video) but the greater PPI would be
very appreciated. That's why it's frustrating.
~~~
quarterto
It's pixel-doubled, so you just need to update the graphics, not redesign the
entire app layout.
------
gte910h
I think retina is very possible still:
iPad 2012 is 264 ppi at 9.7 inches
Gruber got a 7.85 in measurement somewhere (I think from a past article of
his).
264ppi / 7.85 * 9.7 = 326 ppi
i.e., if they made a 7.85in iPad Mini, it would have the exact same DPI as a
iPhone4/4S. I can COMPLETELY see this as a viable option, as they might be
able to use some of the same lines as they do for the phones and they already
know 326ppi is possible.
------
nazgulnarsil
ipod touch thin = ridiculously fragile screen, like the macbook air.
~~~
ghostganz
I haven't heard of anyone's Air screen breaking, they can't be that fragile.
(But I have heard of several people destroying them with coffee or beer).
~~~
duiker101
Well I think that if you pour coffee or beer you would destroy any device,
Apple or not.
------
abuzzooz
> You might need more thumb-rest room on the sides than you do on the iPhone,
> but not nearly as much as you do on the full-size iPad.
Why? The iPhone is meant to be held in one hand and manipulated by the other.
The iPad has a different use model and hence a slightly different design. How
would the use model of the iPad mini be different?
------
samirsoriano
Why don't you just wait for it to get released instead of obsessing over it
ahead of time!
------
zerohm
I enjoy reading Gruber quite a bit, but it's not for his snark or his
analysis. It's for his perspective. He has lots of readers because he can
connect the dots. He finds stories or details that may not seem relevant at
first glance, but are signs of where things are headed.
He also loves to call bullshit on trashy link bait.
~~~
smackfu
>He also loves to call bullshit on trashy link bait.
By linking to it. On his massive blog.
------
mcpoulet
I think the iPad Mini is just a huge misunderstanding. Here's what I think the
iPad Mini really is : [http://www.hteumeuleu.fr/wp-
content/uploads/2012/08/ipad-min...](http://www.hteumeuleu.fr/wp-
content/uploads/2012/08/ipad-minnie.jpg)
------
Kilimanjaro
My prediction: iPad Mini in seven delectable colors for just $299.
------
atc
Who the hell gives a shit?!
~~~
Hari_Seldon
With 97 comments (as I write this) I'd say many people :-)
------
newman314
Um, I think it's supposed to be "more thoroughly". Just saying.
~~~
shinratdr
That's if you're trying to say thorough, which he wasn't. He was saying
through. Different, although similar words.
This post is a direct continuation, picking up where the Thinking This iPad
Mini Thing Through post left off. It's "Through-er" both as a joke and to make
it perfectly clear it's a sequel to the previous post.
Thoroughly would imply something different, like he wasn't really thinking
about carefully it in the first post. That isn't his intent. It's not supposed
to supersede the other article, it's just "more".
~~~
rahoulb
When I read it I also immediately thought of Apple's "funnest iPod yet" line:
<http://daringfireball.net/linked/2008/09/09/funnest>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Documents Show How Goldman et al Engaged in 'Naked Short Selling' - llambda
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/accidentally-released-and-incredibly-embarrassing-documents-show-how-goldman-et-al-engaged-in-naked-short-selling-20120515
======
casca
That naked short selling is allowed is an anachronism coupled with the
lobbying of the self-interested. In the olden days, it was reasonable to give
a time delay to deliver the physical paper that proved ownership. Now
everything is electronic so _could_ be verified instantly. But there's a lot
of money to be made by doing it and the government will covert catastrophic
losses, so it should be expected that everyone does it.
Fortunately the solution is quite simple. Force short sellers to make the
shares available instantly at the time of the short. They could be held in
escrow by the exchange until settlement either way. Go go gadget SEC?
~~~
roel_v
What's the problem with it, really? If A promises B to sell him something and
then A can't deliver for some reason, then B will stand to be compensated by A
for any damages resulting from that. Why would it be special for stock? Of
course there is the risk that massive naked trades will influence the price of
stocks, but that should just be priced in, like any other risk, no? What am I
missing?
~~~
Yrlec
When you're selling something you don't own you're distorting the market's
price discovery mechanisms. In many contexts I think most people would
consider it fraudulent to sell something before you've bought it.
~~~
cynicalkane
I've never got the impression that most economists think short selling
distorts the market's price discovery mechanisms, and it's really dishearting
that the GP is being downvoted for, plainly and clearly, stating what is
economic orthodoxy.
Anyway, the futures market has functioned for centuries with people buying and
selling what they don't own, and the big institutional buyers and sellers
commonly use futures prices as their benchmark prices. It looks like the smart
money isn't too concerned about negative effects on price discovery.
Also, let's not confuse playing by the clearly established rules of the market
with "fraud". Moral objection is no excuse for equivocation.
~~~
Yrlec
Normal short selling doesn't distort price discovery. Khan Academy describes
this quite well: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAkMhEqWFF0>.
However, with naked short selling it's a different story. When you're short
selling something that you don't own you're in effect making it look like the
supply is bigger than it actually is. This distorts the price discovery
mechanism.
~~~
cynicalkane
Naked short interest is almost certainly too ephermal to distort the price,
but suppose it does due to illusory oversupply.
So what's the objection? If you buy, hold, and sell, you want prices to be
overall lower. Selling low isn't bad if it means you were also buying low. In
short, as Warren Buffet likes to point out, _low prices are good for
investors._
------
tedunangst
Article lists a bunch of interesting details, and even is very careful to make
sure the term 'muppets' gets incorporated twice, but doesn't quite connect the
dots and explain just exactly how the naked shorting fucked the muppets. For
example:
More damning is an email from a Goldman, Sachs hedge fund client,
who remarked that when wanting to “short an impossible name and
fully expecting not to receive it” he would then be “shocked to
learn that [Goldman’s representative] could get it for us.”
I mean, there are all sorts of reasons why naked shorting is bad, but the most
damning thing we can say is "Goldman offered to make their customer happy"?
That's what passes for screwing the 'muppets'?
~~~
waterlesscloud
I'm lost on the mechanics here, but doesn't this mean that any profit on the
part of a short-selling customer was actually coming out of the pockets of GS?
I mean...where does the money to cover the customer's profit on a naked short
come from?
~~~
asmithmd1
Come on, you know it was not coming out of GS pockets. It was a heads I win
tales you lose situation.
Evidently there is some amount of time between when a stock transaction is
booked and when it clears - like a purchase made with a check. They were
essentially writing bad checks by selling stock they didn't own. If the price
of the stock went down, they would actually go out and buy the stock at the
new lower price. If the stock went up they would say, sorry that stock
transaction "failed" - darnedest thing, just happens sometimes.
"Instead, he preferred to just sell stock he didn’t actually possess. That is
what is meant by, “We want to fail them.” Trafaglia was talking about creating
“fails” or “failed trades,” which is what happens when you don’t actually
locate and borrow the stock within the time the law allows for trades to be
settled."
~~~
quantgenius
We want to fail them means we are going to issue a failure to deliver because
it turns out that the stock we thought was available is not. If you fail on a
trade, you don't cancel the trade, a trade is binding, it means you require
the customer to buy the stock back to cover the short sale since the stock
wasn't actually available. Since in this case the Goldman rep had told the
client they could get the stock even though the client thought the stock was
likely to be available, issuing a fail to deliver and requiring the client to
buy the stock back would lead to egg on the face for whoever the client spoke
to at Goldman. The other option for Goldman of course was to buy the stock to
lend the customer and hedge out their risk maybe with a put option or to keep
looking somewhere else for stock to borrow.
------
krob
This kind of aggressive shorting makes me start to wonder are these type of
investors the real cancer behind the unemployment growth in this country? You
read more and more about these kind of shenanigans and start to wonder what
would happen if we actually started to lock-up/punish all of these crooks,
what would be the aftermath? Would we see a slow growth in this countries GDP
based on income growth from small & large businesses? Makes you wonder if we
came swinging with large hammers and destroyed their worlds what kind of
foundation would arise out of their financial destruction.
------
CUR10US
Should the public have the right to see the full details of "fails"?
The SEC website says disclosing this info would put firms like GS at a
competitive disadvantage.
But someone has to know which sales cleared and which did not.
How can we accurately set a market price for something based on historical
sales data that may in part be false (i.e. sales that were never cleared)?
------
rapind
Every time I read about complex wall street scams I get so unreasonably
infuriated. At this point I can't help but unfairly assume that anyone who
works at an investment bank is a complete douche. Just thinking about the
bailouts gets me worked up.
~~~
twoodfin
The bailouts that have largely been paid back? At this point, even if you're a
high income taxpayer, these guys lost very little money that you didn't choose
to give them.
And really, getting your blood boiling is just about all Taibbi is good for.
~~~
rapind
I'm not sure I'd say largely paid back.
<http://projects.propublica.org/bailout/main/summary>
------
asynchronous13
Ok, here's the full quote:
Last week, in response to an Overstock.com
motion to unseal certain documents, the
banks' lawyers, apparently accidentally,
filed an unredacted version of Overstock's
motion as an exhibit in their declaration
of opposition to that motion. In doing so,
they inadvertently entered into the public
record a sort of greatest-hits selection of
the very material they've been fighting for
years to keep sealed.
And now let's parse it:
Last week, the banks' lawyers filed an
unredacted version of Overstock's motion
as an exhibit in their declaration of
opposition to that motion.
This means that Overstock's accusation is now public. This says nothing about
the veracity of the accusation.
~~~
Natsu
> This means that Overstock's accusation is now public. This says nothing
> about the veracity of the accusation.
The information about this comes from _internal Goldman emails produced during
discovery_ which admit to the practice. Emails that Goldman has fought in
court to prevent the release of, only to have one of their own lawyers screw
up by filing something not under seal.
EDIT: If you want to quote the actual emails, I've added most of the quotes
from them below:
"Fuck the compliance area – procedures, schmecedures," chirps Peter Melz,
former president of Merrill Lynch Professional Clearing Corp. (a.k.a. Merrill
Pro), when a subordinate worries about the company failing to comply with the
rules governing short sales.
"He should be someone we can work with, especially if he sees that cooperation
results in resources, both data and funding," the lobbyist writes, "while
resistance results in isolation."
“We are NOT borrowing negatives… I have made that clear from the beginning.
Why would we want to borrow them? We want to fail them.”
“Two months ago 107% of the floating was short!”
“We have to be careful not to link locates to fails [because] we have told the
regulators we can’t,” one executive is quoted as saying, in the document.
------
CUR10US
Has anyone read the motion (available from an economist.com server)? This what
the Rolling Stone article is based on.
Is the issue whether and how GS makes money from the practice of naked short
selling? Maybe the issue is that feeding the market with info about short
sales that are never actually cleared (but which the market assumes will be
cleared), can destroy the value of a company's stock.
Obviously if you can sell something without ever having to own or deliver it
(is that really a sale?), you can do a lot of selling; and you can exert
considerable influence on the market for a stock.
Maybe what happened here is a company, Overstock, believes they got screwed by
naked short selling.
I need to read the motion to get a better idea of what happened.
------
rottyguy
I started reading Patrick Byrne's adventures in Naked Short Selling in the
beginning but have since trailed off (this is like 10 years ago mind you).
Perhaps his infamous "Miscreants Ball" diatribe kicked everything off which
has been ridiculed since day one but begins to be prescient as more and more
news of NSS surfaces. He now funds/participates in
<http://www.deepcapture.com/> which is fun reading from time to time. It's
been quite a ride; I must give him kudos for his stamina but having read his
speech from Pan-Mass <http://www.pmc.org/articles.asp?ArticleID=110> regarding
his life, one can't help but root for the guy.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Linguistic Cracking of Passphrases Using Markov Chains [pdf] - xxtesterxx
http://www.simovits.com/sites/default/files/files/PederSparell_Linguistic_Cracking_of_Passphrases_using_Markov_Chains.pdf
======
wodenokoto
I thought passphrase was supposed to be a series of random words. If you use
natural sentences you limit the choice of words.
~~~
yeukhon
Nothing on Earth is safe and uncrackable, given enough time and compute power.
We are living in paranoid. Password and passphrase are theoretically no
different. You can generate a password like the one below and you can
considered that as a passphrase. "Password" and "Passphrase" are just
labels/names. I have passwords which are probably more secured than a
passphrase because of length, more use of upper case/lower case/number/special
characters.
Passphrase (which is supposed to replace the concept of password), should be
long and hard to guess, but easier to memorize. Is "bravo multiple
Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis mixture chemistry Gordon Ramsay"
a better passphrase? Oh sure. But who the hell would come up with this
passphrase? Unique but this is something I made up and I expect myself not
able to memorize it even if I know how to spell each word right.
Passphrase and password generation by a human is always limited to her own
knowledge of things. I just finished playing Battlefield 4 and the random
words I am thinking right now are bravo, delta, charlie, because these words
are constantly ringing in my ears. I just finished watching Hell Kitchen so
Ramsay is on my mind. So there are other channels you can gather what a
passphrase is likely to be for a particular user.
My point is, advise user what is a good passphrase/password, but don't make
them choose totally random words. Reject ones you know are totally weak. It is
hard enough to memorize password, so don't sell passphrase like a huge savior
while making it look like a password. You ain't helping. That's the
conclusion/advise given by the authors. Security hardness all comes down to
the strength of the policy. If you allow a plain English passphrase you are
weaker, but a requirement to mix upper/lowercase/special char/number? Back to
the traditional password.
Oh and the greatest insult to password/passphrase security? We don't change
passwords/passphrase on every site we register. So you are basically screwed
from the beginning. This ain't "update OpenSSL and you mitigate X attack."
~~~
zokier
> But who the hell would come up with this passphrase?
Computers could, except for ...
> Unique but this is something I made up and I expect myself not able to
> memorize it even if I know how to spell each word right
That's why a wordlist of _common_ words is generally used as a source.
> Passphrase and password generation by a human is always limited to her own
> knowledge of things.
That's why passwords should not be generated by a human, but a computer.
> My point is, advise user what is a good passphrase/password, but don't make
> them choose totally random words
Don't make them choose words at all. Give them tools that generate the
passwords for them.
~~~
yeukhon
If you have a word list you are no better than choosing a phrase you invented.
If you are searching for random word on the Internet, you are also likely to
suffer from common words appearing on the Internet. Password generation means
memorizing something very hard and a lot of push to use passphrase is to get
rid of the traditional password generation and different password requirement
policy. You are better off generating a SHA256 hash of some random source
(from /dev/urandom or /dev/random) if we were to generate random password.
------
based2
[https://github.com/sparell/phraser](https://github.com/sparell/phraser)
------
merpnderp
Texas nitrogen snail purple penut.
Every word from a different domain, complete with a word I often misspell, and
at least one word not in the top 10,000 most common words. I think you're
going to need a bigger Markov Chain.
~~~
atemerev
No, unless you obtained these words using a crypto-rated PRNG. Otherwise your
passphrase is vulnerable to semantic network analysis (somewhat more
complicated than Markov chains, but still trivial).
Sorry, humans can't generate secure passwords and passphrases anymore. (You
still can memorize secure passwords, but it becomes increasingly harder).
~~~
chronial
Yes, this. If you want a password that is secure against a bruteforce attack,
I would strongly advice against making it up yourself. You will never know the
entropy of your password and it could be anything.
I personally just generate 10 passphrases from a wordlist and take the one the
I like the most. This way you get both – predictable entropy and good chances
of getting something you can remember. Even though I could never quite figure
out which effect the "pick one of ten" method exactly has on the entropy :).
If anybody has any good input on that, I would be very happy to hear it.
If you have a wordlist that contains information on the type of word, you can
generate grammatically valid sentences without loosing too much entropy. I
wrote a tool to this in my native language (german) and I get sentences like
"schleimendes Hervorbringen transportiert krampflösend". This (very) roughly
translates to "slimy production transports anticonvulsantly". The german
sentence has an entropy of 52 bit.
~~~
gjm11
> which effect the "pick one of ten" method exactly has on the entropy
Probably impossible to say exactly without knowing what your brain is doing
when it picks one. But let's be pessimistic and suppose it picks the "nicest"
in some global sense and that "nicest" is the same for everyone (or, at least,
that an attacker knows what you consider "nicest".
Then the question is this. Generate _m_ samples uniformly from {1,...,N} (with
replacement? without? That depends on exactly what you do if you happen to get
two passphrases the same, but the probability of this is small enough that it
likely doesn't matter) and take the smallest; what's the entropy of the
resulting probability distribution?
That seems like a difficult combinatorial question, so let's consider a
continuous approximation. If we pick numbers uniformly on [0,1] and take the
min of m of them, the CDF is 1-(1-t)^m because the probability the min is >= t
equals the probability all m numbers are >= t, so the pdf is m(1-t)^(m-1). We
can compute the continuous entropy of this distribution (if both Wolfram Alpha
and I have done our parts right, the answer is - log m + 1 - 1/m) and of the
uniform distribution (zero). Continuous entropies are kinda meaningless but in
the limit their differences equal those of the corresponding discrete
distributions -- and for large N we are close to that limit.
So I think what this means is that by picking the "nicest" of m choices, you
lose log(m) - 1 + 1/m nats of entropy. (Divide by log 2 for the number of
bits.)
Crappy simple approximation to those: you lose log(m) nats of entropy (log2(m)
bits), which is just the same as if you divided the number of possible
passphrases by m. In reality the amount you lose is a little less.
So, e.g., if m=10 you lose about 1.4 nats or 2 bits. (The crappy approximation
says 2.3 bits.)
~~~
chronial
Thanks a lot for this clear analysis. I had gotten till the “difficult
combinatorial question” and was stuck. Didn't think of just going into
continuous space.
The “crappy approximation” is actually what I used up until now and it's good
to see that I wasn't wrong in assuming it would overestimate the loss.
You made one small mistake at the end: The approximation says you loose 2.3
nats = 3.32 bits, so they actually differ by over a bit.
Btw: What did you ask wolfram alpha to get the -log m + 1 - 1/m? It was out of
computation time when I asked :)
[http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=-+int_0^1+%28m*%281-x%2...](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=-+int_0^1+%28m*%281-x%29^%28m-1%29%29+*+log%28%28m*%281-x%29^%28m-1%29%29%29++dx)
Or do you have a subscription?
~~~
gjm11
> You made one small mistake at the end
Oh yes, so I did. Sorry about that.
> What did you ask wolfram alpha to get the -log m + 1 - 1/m?
This, I think:
[http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=Integrate[m+t^%28m-1%29...](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=Integrate\[m+t^%28m-1%29+Log\[m+t^%28m-1%29\],{t,0,1})]
I get a message about computation time exceeded, but I also get the answer
(both the indefinite integral and the definite).
I don't have a subscription.
~~~
chronial
Fascinating ^^. Removing the minus before the integral and changing 1-x to x
is the difference that matters. I would have though that wa is so quick with
those transformations that it doesn’t make a difference. Well, I was wrong :).
------
Pelam
XKCD got it right. Just pick 3 random words from a dictionary and the
resulting nonsense will still be easy to remember.
I wrote a script that even estimates the entropy for you based on the
available dictionary size:
[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12646318/tools-for-
genera...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12646318/tools-for-generating-
strong-passphrases/12646320#12646320)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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SATA 3.0 Released, Solid-State Drives Rejoice - vaksel
http://tech.yahoo.com/news/pcworld/20090528/tc_pcworld/sata30releasedsolidstatedrivesrejoice
======
pmjordan
I can't seem to find info on this, but it doesn't look like the "trim" ATA
command made it into this spec, which is a bit of a shame. This would allow
the OS (well, the file system or some smart block layer) to mark regions of
the device to be discarded, which would help avoid constantly copying data
between banks in SSDs.
Apparently, Win7 has support for it, and on the hardware side, the latest OCZ
Vertex firmware apparently does too. Last I heard, Intel are waiting until
there's an official spec.
~~~
DenisM
This would be too inexcusable to be true...
~~~
pmjordan
They can just make it a point revision or a standardised extension. There is
no point in supporting this command on something like a hard disk, so it would
always have to be optional anyway. It's quite possible the SATA 3 standard was
too far along, or they wanted to make it an extension to SATA 2.
So it's no big deal, but I'd still like to see this standardised ASAP as I
think it will drive quite a bit of file system innovation.
------
MetricMike
The article states SATA 3.0 should have a maximum throughput of 6
Gbits/second. But isn't that the same expected throughput of USB 3.0? What
advantage would I have in using SATA 3.0 (Revised?) over USB 3.0?
~~~
pmjordan
* SATA is point-to-point, so each drive gets this bandwidth. USB is a tree, bandwidth is arbitrated between devices.
* SATA 2 came into commercial use relatively shortly after introduction. I haven't seen any USB 3.0 devices yet (host adapters/motherboards _or_ nodes) and driver support during the USB 1.1->2.0 transition was pretty bad. Apparently, Windows users will need to wait for Microsoft to release host controller drivers. I suspect they'll only be available for Windows 7. No idea when OSX will support it, presumably Linux will be first, assuming the spec is made available to the developers.
~~~
MetricMike
Thanks! I've been trolling the Wikipedia pages for both of them but that's
easily the best summary I've come across so far. =)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
An Interview With Eric Lippert - josette
http://www.i-programmer.info/professional-programmer/i-programmer/7154-c-guru-an-interview-with-eric-lippert.html
======
fayyazkl
He has great insights and uses classical analogies to explain ideas. Here is
his stackoverflow profile
[http://stackoverflow.com/users/88656/eric-
lippert](http://stackoverflow.com/users/88656/eric-lippert)
containing a lot of answers, worth reading even if you are not exactly looking
for solution to the problem at hand.
A classic one [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6441218/can-a-local-
varia...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6441218/can-a-local-variables-
memory-be-accessed-outside-its-scope/6445794#6445794)
------
kvb
While C# isn't my favorite language, I always enjoy reading Eric Lippert's
measured take on language design. He also has a particularly good sense for
how to step back from a question and reframe it in an insightful way, which
makes him a good interviewee.
~~~
suyash
Well, C# basically followed the footsteps of Java. Nothing too novel about
that.
------
infogulch
> What will the feature set of C# 6.0 be?
> I am under NDA and cannot discuss it in details ... Incidentally, I knew
> Wesner slightly in the 1990s. Among his many claims to fame is _he invented
> the pivot table_. Interesting guy.
I.e. _HINT HINT_ (just don't ask me what he's hinting)
~~~
wesnerm2
I don't usually see my name mentioned on the Internet, but I did not invent
PivotTables. I essentially was the only full-time developer of PivotTables in
Excel 97, and after that release, about 50% of the PivotTable code was written
by me.
------
roberthahn
I love the way Eric cheerfully ignores the practical aspects of thawing and
freezing cooks while explaining by analogy the difference between asynchronous
and parallel processing. I wish I could do that as flawlessly as he can.
------
dgritsko
Is there a reason why you linked to your blog, and not the full interview at
the original source?
[http://www.i-programmer.info/professional-
programmer/i-progr...](http://www.i-programmer.info/professional-
programmer/i-programmer/7154-c-guru-an-interview-with-eric-lippert.html)
~~~
wslh
It seems like the poster is a spammer. All his posts are texts copied from
other sources.
~~~
dang
We banned the site and changed the link. Thanks wslh and dgritsko.
~~~
fiberbrb
but in the very beginning it states "Here we host an overall summary of the
highlights of the interview ranging over topics as diverse as the future of
C#, asynchronous v parallel, Visual Basic and more (the link to the full
interview on i-programmer can be found at the end of this page)". How can this
be considered spam ????????????? I think that the notion was to read the
highlights and if you find it interesting and want to see more then follow the
link to the whole interview
~~~
wslh
Do you ever see a site like this that was not a spammer? I don't think too
many people will click in the link the whole interview.
~~~
fiberbrb
if that is so, then you must consider this one as the exception to the rule
since that's the PR manager of O'Reilly UK not just 'someone'....
~~~
wslh
_...since that 's the PR manager of O'Reilly UK not just 'someone'_
If she was my mother I would do the same.
~~~
fiberbrb
it wasn't meant in that to treat her in a 'special way', but that being the PR
manager of O'Reilly for the whole of UK proves that she is NOT a spammer and
that she should not be treated as one
~~~
wslh
You can see blackhat tactics everywhere. Please take a look at the "Reddit
Bans The Atlantic, Businessweek In Anti-Spam Crusade":
[http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2012/06/13/reddit-...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2012/06/13/reddit-
bans-the-atlantic-businessweek-in-anti-spam-crusade/)
I love The Atlantic but they were engaged in these blackhat tactics.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
PI Day 2015 - toddsiegel
http://www.piday.org/
======
toddsiegel
Pi Day has been submitted before, but this year is a little special since Pi
Day has extra significant digits this year: 3/14/15 9:26.
Although I guess this does not fit in all date formats.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Ask HN: Looking for Project for Quick Freelance Job - invinceable
Long story short, I need to make a few thousand dollars ($3,500) in a week. I'd like to build anyone's project (or add on pieces to an existing project) over the next few days/week at the most. Upon emailing me I will send you my LinkedIn, FB, and resume. Pay when you see 50% of the project is done, and the final 50% on completion. Not looking to go through a recruiter and that process, too much time.<p>Skills: Web application development, mobile application development, and any kind of marketing online you can think of.<p>Specialities: PHP (CakePHP), MySQL, HTML/CSS, Javascript (jQuery), Python (Django), graphic design, UI/UX, titanium mobile sdk.<p>Email: [email protected] please I will keep an eye on it as soon as this is posted. I can build anything.
======
anderspetersson
The first day of every month HN has a thread where freelancers can post their
skills and people can announce they are looking for someone to do work for
them.
If you wait 2 more days you should see alot of people posting gigs availble
for freelancers. The thread is called something like "Freelancer? Looking for
Freelancers?
~~~
invinceable
Thank you!
------
padseeker
there is an interesting startup idea - small freelance jobs. I work full time
but would like to pickup an interesting side project here or there that could
be done late at night on my own without the hassle of odesk or whatnot. I have
no work for you but you hit on an interesting concept, freelance jobs for
under $1000 maybe? Just a thought.
~~~
yolesaber
You might want to check out the /r/forhire subreddit. I have done several
projects from there that didn't take very long and paid quite well.
~~~
padseeker
Is there a location that is good for part time or after hours development?
That would be ideal - full time developers looking to do very part time work
after hours. I'd be willing to accept a less that a typical freelancer, but
still do the work as long as the expectations are within reason, i.e. the work
needs will be done later in the evening. Has anyone tried to do that?
~~~
yolesaber
All the projects that I have done were incredibly flexible in terms of hours
and billing. The usual process was that I would work on my own time as long as
I was sending commits on a reasonable basis as outlined in a contract /
discussed with the person contracting me.
------
invinceable
If it is a 1 day project for $500-$800 that is fine too. Thanks.
[email protected]
------
invinceable
Still here guys. Last bump I guess :/
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
PCall: Common Lisp library for parallelism at function call granularity using thread pools - scott_s
http://marijn.haverbeke.nl/pcall/
======
scott_s
I'd also like to point out the background discussion, which talks about
multithreading in Common Lisp in general:
<http://marijn.haverbeke.nl/pcall/background.html>
(I consider these two pages one item, but the concept here is one URL = one
idea.)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Pest – Fast parser generator written in Rust - dragostis
https://github.com/pest-parser/pest
======
jorams
I'm a bit confused by the benchmark. I looked through the benchmark code and,
without _really_ understanding what I'm looking at, the result of the nom
parser looks much closer to the "pest (custom AST)" benchmark than the "pest"
benchmark. The description above the image, however, primarily compares the
"pest" result.
Am I misunderstanding something or is the comparison not fair?
~~~
dragostis
I've added a clarification. The point of the benchmark is not to compete with
other projects, it's merely there to put the parsing speed (and not
necessarily the processing that comes after it) in a representative window of
performance.
------
weberc2
This is a neat project! I might take a look at this if/when I get started on
my dream language. :p
One constructive criticism, which may be only an unpopular opinion, but I find
creative operator overloading unnecessarily hard to read. And I don't think my
opinion is entirely subjective since, by definition, you have to learn new
semantics whereas a good function name would make the meaning obvious. Maybe
this syntax would be familiar to people who are already familiar with formal
grammar notations?
~~~
dragostis
I agree with your point. I tried my best not to sway too far off of some of
syntax I've seen in other PEG projects, while also keeping it compatible with
Rust's standard macros. While pest does have this constraint any longer with
the new beta, changing the grammar too much would have been a nuisance for
anyone who had grammars written in the older versions.
~~~
weberc2
Understood. Thanks for taking the time to explain!
------
DC-3
What type of parser does this produce?
~~~
dragostis
For now, it produces a recursive descent parser. Packrat parsing is an open-
question since I'm afraid that adding a memoization layer all throughout the
parser will lead to a consistent general slowdown.
~~~
DC-3
Interesting. I'll try and find some time to read the source - am interested to
see how this is implemented.
~~~
dragostis
A good place to start would be in the manually written example. [1] My current
plan is to try and limit the the use of memoization such that it still
guarantees linear parsing, but it doesn't memoize unless necessary.
[1]: [https://github.com/pest-
parser/pest/blob/master/pest/example...](https://github.com/pest-
parser/pest/blob/master/pest/examples/parens.rs#L20)
~~~
DC-3
I appreciate the link - I'm teaching myself about parsers right now and like
the rest of HN I like Rust programs ;)
------
OtterCoder
I remember playing with PEGjs back in the day, making a toy implementation of
JS in JS. It had terrible Unicode support though. To build a token out of
valid Unicode non-whitespace characters took pages and pages of range
definitions. Is that any better here?
~~~
runevault
Rust by default uses Unicode for strings. I would be surprised if this had
problems with them.
~~~
OtterCoder
The difficulty wasn't in the engine. JS itself is just as good with accepting
Unicode characters as Rust, both in code and strings. The problem was with the
PEG implementation. Without some sort of shorthand for Unicode families,
defining programming languages that are valid in multiple real-world languages
becomes a serious burden.
~~~
yellowapple
This is one of the things Perl 6 does _really_ well,).
------
turboladen
Been using this for a couple weeks now and dig it. The DSL feels familiar and
the speed is yummy. I'd been using LALRPOP for some months; I dig it too, but
just couldn't get the speed I was after from it.
------
hobofan
Shouldn't the title better by "Pest - Fast, modern parser _in_ Rust"? The
current title made me think that this would be a Rust AST parser, similar to
syntex.
~~~
reificator
Exactly what I came into this thread expecting. Was curious why when it looks
like there's already great IDE support for Rust with existing tools.
~~~
dikaiosune
There's actually a parser for rust called syn, and it's very useful for
procedural macros, as the current API exposes a stream of tokens, not a full
AST.
~~~
steveklabnik
To elaborate a bit on that, exposing an AST directly means that you're tied to
that version of the AST; this was considered really hard for compatibility
over versions. Token streams are much easier to define an interface for, and
more flexible: you're not just stuck with whatever AST representation we'd
have given you.
For example: [https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/first-edition/procedural-
macr...](https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/first-edition/procedural-macros.html)
| {
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Covid-19 Digital Rights Tracker - severine
https://www.top10vpn.com/news/surveillance/covid-19-digital-rights-tracker/
======
AshamedCaptain
The virus may come and go, but any of these draconian responses are here to
say. You know the drill.
~~~
kyuudou
But, 9/11? Oh wait, you don't remember that... Covid-19!! Covid-19!! Fear,
citizen, fear!
------
oliv__
Sidenote but navigation on this site feels incredibly snappy and user
friendly. Wondering what the tech stack is. Anyone know if this site is
server-side rendered or full on static?
~~~
sudosushi
Seems to be pretty static. But built with react, next.js, webpack, http/2,
vanish caching, and some apollo js.
~~~
inetknght
Maybe it uses javascript, but the site works _great_ without it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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EasyMVP – Android library with annotation processing and bytecode weaving - joblack33
https://github.com/6thsolution/EasyMVP
======
StavrosK
Can someone explain what these are? I'm not familiar with Android code.
~~~
BoorishBears
The Android ecosystem is a few decades behind the rest of the development
world for design patterns because, to frame it in web technology, every time
you resize your window the entire browser restarts and its up to your page to
restore its state (Activity/Fragment = Page)
People were so busy fighting that mess in the early days they ended up writing
a lot of shitty code.
Then Android has reached where programming was after Smalltalk came out, about
a year ago when MVP became "that exciting new way to write less shitty code"
No one really knew what MVP was but they had to have it.
Then someone stumbled upon Uncle Bob and everyone needed to write "Clean code"
Google threw a wrench in things by releasing its data binding library which is
MVVM so now there's the holy wars over that on the horizon.
And everyone is doing MVVM bindings the way everyone else figured out was
wrong in the mid 2000s (using your bindings to do business logic) so it looks
like MVP is pulling ahead before the war even starts.
So this library is for MVP that works around the whole "reopen the browser"
issue because your presenters get killed when the browser restarts.
~~~
StavrosK
Wow, great explanation, thank you. I thought mobile programming was at the
cutting edge, given how much code and focus there is on mobile apps. I'm sad
to hear it's exactly the opposite.
I would have imagined mobile devs/languages would have nailed asynchronous
programming by now, since mobile apps are basically one huge jumble of
asynchronous events and processes.
~~~
crla
I don't believe it is as bad as BoorishBears says.
Yes, configuration changes cause a tear down and recreation of your
view/controller layers, but there are several patterns to deal with this
cleanly (view controllers whose lifecycle spans multiple instance of a view is
one of the more common, with the view instances detaching/attaching as they
come and go). If you use a Flux like pattern for handling application data
state you don't even necessarily have to do that since your views are just
observing data stores whose lifetime outlives the views anyway.
As for asynchronous handling, there are quite a few popular libraries that are
very powerful and make it easy to compose multiple asynchronous operations,
update views on changes, etc - RxJava for instance has been pretty popular for
the last couple of years and is very powerful, but has a steep learning curve.
There are others such as Agera (from Google itself), as well as simpler async
libraries like Bolts (similar to .Net task futures).
The Android SDK itself does not contain much in the way to help with any of
this though (I would avoid pretty much any of the async classes that come with
the SDK such as Loaders and AsyncTask) - so you do have to research and learn
about third party libraries to get to a state where you can write clean and
concise code.
~~~
BoorishBears
Don't get me wrong, I don't mean to imply writing clean apps is impossible but
I believe it's a fair assessment of the "state of the Union" for development.
Even your comment kind of alludes to the mess:
Yeah there's RxJava but it doesn't inherently solve the rotation issue because
your Observables so you still need to persist the information needed to
recreate them. And any long running tasks need a separate solution because
tearing down the Observable will reset the operation
Googles app development team made Agera which was widely panned as an inferior
NIH RxJava
Having your view's controller persist also requires custom logic because only
your application will persist through configuration changes and even then the
process can still get killed leaving you with nothing but data stored to disk
via Parcelables or your own custom solution.
Android Devs solved asynchronous operations, the problem is keeping those
operations going after a configuration change. If the operations reference the
view you'll get NPE when the view is destroyed while a job finishes, and if
your view references the operation you need to lay down infrastructure to let
your asynchronous operations exist completely separate of the view and be able
to cache their results for when the view comes back.
It's not impossible, everyone does it somehow, but it's created a lot of
divergent theories on how it can be done
~~~
crla
I also think the Activity handling of configuration changes was a mistake; it
should have only ever just been the view that was recreated.
However, I don't think that in the end it's that horrible, once you overcome
the learning curve.
If your process is killed and the user returns to the app, you have to be able
to restore state from either the Activity's saved instance state or from some
other form of persisted state anyway - whether the current approach to
configuration changes was in use or not makes no difference here, it's due to
the entire approach of the OS to killing and restoring processes as required
(and I believe this same approach is used on iOS and for UWP Windows
applications).
For handling of async results - once the owner of an async operation is not
tied to a single instance of a view and is instead tied to the overall
lifetime of that part of the application (e.g. retained Fragment, a Conductor
controller, or pretty much any other reasonably modern view composition
library), it's pretty trivial to handle. You're guaranteed that nothing else
will run on the main thread for the duration of an Activity destroy/recreate
cycle, so you don't need to worry about being in some unknown state. If the
view was recreated due to a configuration change, rebind your view model/s
when it attaches. If you're being torn down because the user left the retained
Fragment/Controller/whatever the operation was tied to, you'll receive an
indication of that and you can either send a cancellation signal (e.g.
unsubscribe), or if that's not possible, have an isDestroyed check where you
receive your result to ignore it. If you're on the back stack and still alive
but have no view (i.e. view NPE), don't bind your model immediately - update
your view model, and the same code you use to rebind on view reattach will
kick in when the user returns and a new view is created and attached.
~~~
crla
I should add - I do think the learning curve is much worse than it should be,
in part due to this.
It would be nice if Google provided some more recommendation and best
practices & patterns around this. I have come across and had to work on plenty
of code that handles this all very poorly.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Historical view of browser usage - peter123
http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/asa/archives/2009/06/historical_view.html
======
adamc
Well, it's obvious that the trends cannot continue to be linear indefinitely.
But at the current rate, IE would drop below 50% market share in around 2
years.
------
ramchip
No Opera?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Lawsuit Filed to Prove Happy Birthday Is in the Public Domain (2013) - mpweiher
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130613/11165823451/filmmaker-finally-aims-to-get-court-to-admit-that-happy-birthday-is-public-domain.shtml
======
dbbolton
What disturbs me somewhat about this copyright, besides its age and that is
contrary to the basic underlying ideas of copyright, is the fact that the
people who originally registered it did not compose the song, and the people
who ostensibly did compose it did so as a derivative work (they changed the
lyrics, which in a song of 7 words isn't a very substantial creative
contribution). It probably never should have been copyrightable in the first
place.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Birthday_to_You](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Birthday_to_You)
~~~
bediger4000
And yet millions of dollars of steady revenue derive from this copyright. It
just goes to show you that Copyright Works! No, wait, it goes to show you that
copyright protects incumbents, and probably doesn't really encourage
innovation. It certainly doesn't increase the public domain, as currently
constituted.
------
libria
Someone w/ legal chops enlighten me: Is it possible to reverse all past
decisions in one fell swoop? I thought each defendant had to appeal
individually.
~~~
Natsu
What past decisions? I'm not sure this has been litigated before and it's a
class action lawsuit.
------
dctoedt
Let me go way out on a limb here </sarcasm> and predict that after the usual
preliminary fencing by the lawyers -- which could take months longer -- this
lawsuit will settle on terms that include a payment of generous attorneys'
fees to the plaintiffs' lawyers by Warner/Chappell Music.
That's because this is a class-action lawsuit (filed a year ago). The
complaint was signed by a lawyer whose Web site announces that he
"concentrates his practice in entertainment and consumer litigation" [1]. The
other signatory law firm bills itself as "one of the most prominent class
action firms in the world." [2]
Last October the judge granted Warner/Chappell Music's motion to stay some of
the peripheral aspects of the lawsuit. [3]
[1] [http://www.randallnewman.net/lawsuit-seeks-declaration-
that-...](http://www.randallnewman.net/lawsuit-seeks-declaration-that-happy-
birthday-belongs-to-everyone/)
[2]
[http://www.whafh.com/modules/practice_area/index.php?action=...](http://www.whafh.com/modules/practice_area/index.php?action=view&id=19)
[3] [http://www.law360.com/articles/481852/warner-wins-stay-of-
so...](http://www.law360.com/articles/481852/warner-wins-stay-of-some-claims-
in-happy-birthday-suit)
------
herf
An amazing thing about this case is Google Book Search. 20 years ago the
research in this case would have taken a team months & months to do.
Today, anyone at all can do it in 60 seconds:
[https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Happy+Birthday+To+You%22&...](https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Happy+Birthday+To+You%22&biw=1161&bih=733&source=lnt&tbs=cdr%3A1%2Ccd_min%3A1%2F1%2F1900%2Ccd_max%3A1%2F1%2F1935&tbm=bks)
------
Mithaldu
Will a success here mean that Warner/Chapell would be liable for
damages/punishment for all the past abuse?
------
dang
This is a repost of
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5878417](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5878417).
------
jahewson
It's a class action lawsuit, so no need for each plaintiff to file their own
case. The filing requests the return of license fees which were wrongfully
collected due to the copyright being invalid. Presumably it will need to be
shown that the invalid filing was deliberate, the issue being whether or not
Warner believed they owned the rights in good faith.
------
moss
This article is from a year ago and change. Have there been any recent
developments? I've seen the link going around lately, but I can't tell whether
it's because there's news or just because it happens to be going around again.
------
raverbashing
Big companies are always in favor of Copyright violation when it benefits
them.
And this is not only for getting payed for songs in the public domain, but
actually releasing albums without due compensation.
------
coder23
Mods please merge with this:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8092875](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8092875)
~~~
wglb
Requests to the moderator are more likely to be seen if you email to
[email protected] with your request.
------
kumarharsh
who the ____was paying for this? This is ridiculous...
~~~
Karunamon
The fact that Happy Birthday was copyrighted, or the fact that someone is
suing to get it thrown out?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: sites for getting alpha testers - Everest
Hi, my site is in private alpha and we are looking to recruit alpha testers to provide feedback/report bugs and more importantly add content. Are there sites that make it easy to recruit paid and unpaid alpha testers for web 2.0 sites?
======
barnaby
We're preparing to launch our private alpha in a week and a half at a local
conference. Starting with friends and collegues is a good idea, we strongly
believe. At least we're thinking this way because we're in an incubator, and
launching at a conference for innovators and entrepreneurs.
------
Everest
Interesting...I assumed that since Mechanical Turk is pitched as a cheap
solution for baseline intelligent labor, the quality of people who are part of
the network is very low. As a bit of context, we need users who are willing to
write reviews of online authors and bloggers. Do you think the people at
Mechanical Turk can write intelligent reviews of David Brooks or Steven
Levitt?
~~~
knightinblue
_'baseline intelligent labor'_ , _'the quality of people who are part of the
network is very low'_
Some mighty elitist assumptions there.
Don't assume anything. Do the actual work of checking it out for yourself. You
could be surprised.
~~~
Everest
Sorry reading that post again, it was a little elitist. We've had a lot of
trouble using services like Craigslist and I thought that the same type of
people would be on Mechanical Turk
------
mrduncan
Why not post a link here on Hacker News?
------
dxjones
Amazon's Mechanical Turk (mturk.com) would be one place for you to look.
------
csomar
depending on your website kind, forums (like digital points) can be a good
place to find cheap testers (if your site is a non-brain application)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Boostrap 5: Removing JQuery & dropping IE 10 & 11 support - themesberg
https://themesberg.com/blog/design/bootstrap-5-release-date-and-whats-new
======
guitarist102
About time
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Justin Frankel: The world's most dangerous geek (2004) - bootload
http://74.220.215.94/~davidkus/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=82:the-worlds-most-dangerous-geek-&catid=35:articles&Itemid=54
======
mvkel
FYI, his personal site is at <http://blorp.com>. It hasn't changed in at least
10 years.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Does anyone use DB normal forms in their job? - bbcbasic
I learned about the different normal forms at uni and to be honest I don't remember them and have never used them explicitly in a job. Had some conversations where the word 'denormalize' has been used but that is about it?<p>Has anyone used DB normalisation levels at work, explicitly referring to the level of normal form and advantages/disadvantages etc. when designing schemas?
======
typicalrunt
I use them indirectly like I use design patterns. I'm not thinking "Oh, I'm
using 3rd NF" or "I'm using Singleton" at work. Instead, when designing
databases I'm thinking about removing duplication (which is the crux of normal
forms). However, like proofreading, you can go too far and normalize your
database too much, making it hard to work with, so you allow duplication of
some fields (hence denormalization).
Hope this helps.
~~~
rgacote
Agree. Any database design over two tables should include review of NF.
------
smadge
Similar to you, sometimes my coworkers and I will use the terms 'normalized'
and 'denormalized' when talking about databases. It is usually in reference to
and ideal schema versus a performant schema. We don't actually use the precise
definitions of the various forms, or verify our schemas satisfy the various
laws. Maybe there would be value in actually formally normalizing a schema.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Tiddlywiki – A non-linear personal web notebook - entelechy
https://tiddlywiki.com/
======
mih
Ever since the decline of Evernote, I've been looking for something as
convenient, but been pretty much disappointed in the alternatives. For a while
Qownnotes was my choice, but it's not without its drawbacks. Currenlty Joplin
( [https://joplin.cozic.net/](https://joplin.cozic.net/) ) is the one I'm
taking for a test drive, and I'm pretty much pleased with what I've seen so
far. Among the features that impressed me most in terms of personal priority
are:
\- Importing from Evernote (.enex files)
\- Cross-platform support (Win/Lin/Mac) + Mobile apps (ios / Android)
\- Synchronization (Dropbox, Onedrive, Nextcloud, WebDAV, Filesystem)
\- Support for encryption
\- Webclipper extension (for Firefox and Chrome)
\- It's FOSS, with a number of active contributors on GitHub
([https://github.com/laurent22/joplin](https://github.com/laurent22/joplin)).
A good bus factor and no more dependence on the whims of private
organizations.
\- A command line interface
\- Use of Markdown. Drag and drop support for files and media in the GUI.
There are still features of evernote I miss such as inline PDFs and audio
recording
~~~
luckman212
I've got my eye on Joplin as well to replace EN. The deal-breaker issue for me
right now is that the mobile app (iOS) only supports Dropbox as the backend
sync provider. I refuse to use Dropbox, and prefer to sync via filesystem. I
use Resilio Sync (formerly btsync) for this. Until some other method is
allowed, I can't make the jump.
~~~
garfieldnate
Why do you refuse to use Dropbox?
------
TomDavey
A hyperlinked knowledge-management system for personal use, on all my
computers, is essential. To achieve it, I use Emacs and Org-Mode and Dropbox.
An additional benefit of using Emacs: the personal wiki can be integrated with
my task-management system, which Org-Mode handles as well. Plus I can draft
and edit at warp speed, having customized the native Emacs keybindings to suit
me better.
Were I going to publish my wiki to the Web for others to use, I'd export the
wiki to HTML with Org. But for now it's all personal.
~~~
danShumway
How do you handle images/screenshots/handwritten notes?
I am also using Org-Mode and Dropbox for the majority of my notes. I really
like it. In particular, Orgzly for Android works great with this system, so
check it out if you want mobile notes as well.
The problem is that I also like to take paper notes, and take videos/pictures
of stuff, and scan documents, and download webpages. Org-mode kinda stinks for
embedding external content that isn't text? As far as I can tell.
I can link to external content, and if I export to HTML it'll show up. But...
I never export to HTML, because, as you probably already know, it's way easier
to read notes in an editable format. I can turn on picture rending in Org-
mode, but it's not responsive, and I can't crop the pictures or annotate them
with a stylus, or do any of a dozen different things that I want to do.
What I've thought about is that I really just want the ability to render
HTML/CSS inside of an Org-mode buffer, and ideally to be able to set up custom
CSS classes that would be applied to every snippet. Just set up a quick
region, write some helper functions to compile/render the HTML, etc...
I've been thinking for a while about taking some time off of work to just try
and solve the problem. Is it already solved? I know that at one point people
were looking into getting webkit embedded into buffers. Did that go anywhere?
I guess you can build GTK widgets for Org-mode as well? But then you lose the
ability to define custom styles on the fly.
~~~
nextos
You can make some tweaks to org to get images to display nicely:
[https://lepisma.github.io/2017/10/28/ricing-org-
mode/](https://lepisma.github.io/2017/10/28/ricing-org-mode/)
~~~
danShumway
A) That is beautiful, thank you for sharing
B) Does it actually address the image problem? The config appears to be using
the built in inline-images, which don't support responsive widths.
Even getting rid of responsive widths, simply embedding the image into the
buffer isn't really good enough for handwritten notes -- you need _at least_
the ability to crop/zoom.
~~~
nextos
I'm not sure whether it solves the problem you mention. But it might be a good
starting point. If you can roll your own solution, I'd be very interested in
hearing about it, and probably most org users! I keep my scanned notes in
separate files, though.
------
pixelmonkey
I personally think Tiddlywiki is a fascinating project and I even used it
professionally for a few years. But, these days, I think you likely do better
with either a Dropbox directory full of Markdown files or installing the free
tool Simplenote everywhere (mobile/desktop) and using its support for
notes/Markdown. It's true that if you go with these simple schemes, you lose
wiki-style linking. But, I've found that YAGNI applies here.
~~~
another-cuppa
Anyone reading this thinking a "bunch of markdown files" sounds like a good
idea should really look into org-mode. Trust me.
~~~
pqs
I used the great org-mode for many years, but the lack of a good option to
view and edit my notes from mobile pushed me to Evernote, which I'm happily
using since, even though I miss the simplicity of text files and the power of
git.
~~~
pqs
I just have checked orgzly and it impressed me. It has really progressed since
the last time I checked it.
So, now I have to think about the possibility of reverting back to org-mode
after a couple of years of heavily using Evernote.
~~~
kaushalmodi
I've used EverOrg[0] to convert my evernote files to Org files, retains the
attachments (images, PDFs, etc) wonderfully too.
[0]: [https://github.com/mgmart/EverOrg](https://github.com/mgmart/EverOrg)
------
Glawen
I discovered TW a few months ago and I decided to use it for our new project
at work. We use it to document our SW, one tiddler for each module. So far, it
is working great, we can quite easily merge our code and doc because
everything is in one file.
I find it much easier to use than Word. My colleagues were startled by it, but
they mastered it now.
The only annoying thing are:
\- we need to press 2 carriage return to go to the next line
\- the markup languages are never standard. we use redmine with textile which
is kinda compatible with TW, but not 100%
------
hobo_mark
I look at TW every couple of years or so, and there has never been either:
\- a sane way to keep a wiki on something like Dropbox (at the time, the only
way to have persistence was to disable browser security and allow JavaScript
to write to disk directly) or
\- a service to sync a wiki between machines
Has that changed nowadays?
~~~
jimpick
I hooked up Dat multiwriter and the Automerge CRDT for my own personal use...
I’ve been using it for several months and it works well.
I haven’t tidied it up for a public release, but feel free to try it out:
[https://dat-tiddlywiki.glitch.me](https://dat-tiddlywiki.glitch.me)
[https://github.com/jimpick/dat-tiddlywiki](https://github.com/jimpick/dat-
tiddlywiki)
~~~
tgirod
Wow this looks great. Can you tell me a bit more about how it works ? I've
been looking for a way to do collaborative work with TiddlyWiki for ages ...
------
TeMPOraL
A bit of a tangent, but I'm looking at the (official? shown on site)
Tiddlywiki poster[0], and I just have to ask: what is that fish doing, and
does this really communicate something positive about the product?
\--
[0] -
[https://tiddlywiki.com/poster/images/TiddlyWiki_TiddlerPoste...](https://tiddlywiki.com/poster/images/TiddlyWiki_TiddlerPoster_en_L.png)
~~~
OJFord
Never used Tiddlywiki, just guessing from your link:
the fish is a tiddler [0], it's consuming a mess [several entangled lines] and
excreting something unified and cohesive [single line].
[0]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiddler](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiddler)
('Tiddler' is perhaps BrEng slang? I'm British, and I'd say it's slang -
especially when applied not to a fish, but to something or someone small - but
I don't know how widespread it is.)
~~~
tofof
From that wiki page:
> A small fish, especially the three-spined stickleback
My wife, a neuroscientist researching three-spined stickleback, has never come
across the term 'tiddler'. Midwestern US.
So, yes, I would say it is solitarily British slang.
------
lxe
The most unique thing for me is the fact that it's an .html file that you can
just download and run. The data/saving mechanism is completely separate. This
"unhosted-ness" seems to be a growing trend.
~~~
kvakil
You might find this interesting:
[https://unhosted.org/](https://unhosted.org/)
------
eponeponepon
I tried using TiddlyWiki some years back but never really reached the stage
where I felt I could definitely trust my use of it to result in it saving my
notes properly. The real utility of it, I'm sure, comes with a large corpus -
but I never got there.
At the time though, my only option was keeping it as a local file on a single
machine - these days my home infrastructure is much more developed, and I
think I might have more luck running it on a proper http server. Maybe I'll
give it another shot.
------
cbau
I've been writing a personal encyclopedia for the last five or six years or
so. I have some 1500+ articles multiple of which are 50+ pages. I think it's
been really valuable. I think I get a few things out of it:
1\. Perfect recall. Every little detail I read in a book/blog/article stays
with me. Makes it easy to synthesize results from multiple pieces across time,
which is useful when you only have a casual interest in something. (I really
like downloading the cool education images/GIFs and and inserting them in
articles- otherwise I don't know where I'd keep them.)
2\. Reveals what I don't know about a subject. For example, whenever I start
off writing a new article on some topic, the first thing I write is a
definition, e.g. "A cat is an animal that ...". The process of doing that
often reveals gaps in my understanding.
3\. It makes me better at asking questions when I'm trying to understand
something. The analogy I like to make here is that learning a second language
is harder than a third language, because after learning the second you know
what you need to know to understand a language. But there's no reason that
should be limited to languages and couldn't apply to all things, and things
themselves. Some questions I like to ask are "What is the function/uses of
this thing?" "What are the parts of this thing and how are they arranged?"
"How do we make this thing?" "What's the history of this thing?" "What
subtypes of this thing are there?"
The downside is that it dramatically slows down my reading speed, since I now
feel I need to take detailed notes, and then I often have to reconcile them
with notes on other things which can be time-consuming. Considering the number
of books a person could realistically read in their lifetime is limited, it's
unclear if it's worth the tradeoff.
I'm curious how other people think about remembering things, and if they have
a system, what tools they use. It seems unsatisfying to me to read a book and
realize I'll probably forget it in four years, yet most people seem content to
do so.
If anyone is interested in the specific software I use, here's the Github
project:
[https://github.com/Ceasar/Encyclopedia](https://github.com/Ceasar/Encyclopedia).
It uses restructuedText (as opposed to Markdown) for the text. I edit them
using Vim. All the files are stored in Dropbox so it gets synced between my
devices. A simple Flask web server renders the pages in a prettier format.
Still very primitive compared to what it could potentially be, but combined
with regular Unix command line tools it's worked fine for my needs. (I like
the idea of a hacker-wiki by the way, more than something like this which
comes out of the box. Seems like an personal wiki designed for a power user
could be way more interesting.)
~~~
themodelplumber
Thank you for sharing. I have a system that is kind of like this. Except it's
not meant for memory as much as analysis. And I don't consider the entries
"articles" but rather refer to them as "models" as in mental models. Like a
real life model, say a toy car, I try to cover enough bases that it--
metaphorically--at least _resembles_ a car at first. Then as I identify needed
leverage points in the model, I refine my analysis and expand the model. So
maybe at that point it has a hood you can open, and an engine you can see, so
to speak.
I think I'm at or near around 800 of these, and many are very short. But no
matter how short they are, they are all there because they provided me or
continue to provide me with needed leverage.
I keep the bulk of the information in markdown in a Dropbox folder and also
occasionally try new methods. For example, for topics that will quickly
benefit from hyperlinks, I developed a LibreOffice web template and a
companion PHP script that indexes these files and inserts additional CSS,
variables, JS, etc. when they are served up. For searching I like Regexxer a
lot, but I also use grep quite a bit :-)
On my XFCE desktop are buttons for opening a random one of these files, and
for opening a random journal entry to try to harvest new models, so to speak.
And there's some paper involved here too... Can't get away from it, because
paper has its own special leverage points...
I'm not concerned about memory, knowing it's a special weakness of mine. If
I'm working in a context where memory is super important, my energy is best
spent moving to a more sustainable context. :-) Memory is a hobby for me, a
side gig for memorizing pi, that kind of simple and fun thing.
~~~
Noumenon72
I have no idea what it means for a piece of text to have "leverage points" or
a hood you can open.
~~~
themodelplumber
A model has leverage points if there are parts of it that can be useful for
solving a problem. For example, a website-building model might provide useful
links to software that can be used to build different kinds of websites. Those
links are important leverage points.
Each model has different leverage points. Your comment, taken as part of a
model of your psychology, provides leverage for understanding that part of my
text was not well received by your psychology.
Regarding the hood, look at it this way: If you don't know much about cars,
you might look at a simple toy car _without an opening hood_ and make
assumptions about what happens in the front of the car. When you get a car
where the hood opens, maybe all of a sudden you make a huge leap: There is
stuff under here, and it does something. So at this point, maybe you start
working on (by asking around, or reading), or building, a model with a working
engine. Or even just a working dipstick, who knows. As the parts are revealed,
the model gains leverage. Pretty soon you are able to run more advanced
simulations and predict traffic dynamics, things like that. Or you change
models and learn the leverage points of the tractor, or motorcycle. You begin
to learn why a motorcycle is helpful and even necessary in some circumstances.
Texts work the same way as they unfold. And there are also various text-
creation methods that expose different leverage points. Reliance on charts and
graphs, or emotive graphics, etc. All of it is helpful in some way, and maybe
--like my original comment--low-leverage in other ways and for other people.
Anyway I hope that helps, but I know I'm still couching this in metaphor which
isn't a high-leverage communications method for everyone. YMMV, which is what
makes human psychology so cool.
------
hboon
An anecdote:
In a previous job as a presales engineer, I kept notes of prospects and
customers in a TiddlyWiki. When I left, I handed the file over to my
replacement. He told me after a few years that the "wiki" was of great help to
him.
------
agentdax5
I looked into Tiddlywiki before but it seemed too involved to maintain easily
and overkill for my use case. I have recently found
[https://www.notebooksapp.com/](https://www.notebooksapp.com/) and am in the
process of converting all my desperate notes and documents into it using the
internal linking to create my own kind of wiki.
Everything is plain text, has markdown support, apps on most platforms,
ability to automate things for everyday use, and easier to use overall.
Also I just can’t stand the idea of “tiddlers”.
~~~
moioci
Although I kinda love the idea of desperate notes and documents, I think you
probably meant "disparate."
------
jtl999
I remember first hearing of TiddlyWiki back in 2005(?)
Glad to see it's still here.
~~~
Milner08
I was wondering if it was the same project I remembered! I used to use it in
high school, with its stored on a USB stick that i'd carry around on my keys.
Was pretty useful at the time, wouldn't want to carry around a USB stick now,
but using dropbox is interesting.
------
hyperpape
I wrote my own system for capturing and organizing information
([https://lobste.rs/s/ord0rg/does_anyone_else_keep_their_own_k...](https://lobste.rs/s/ord0rg/does_anyone_else_keep_their_own_knowledge#c_cxecdn)),
so I understand the desire to fiddle with your own system.
That said, the list of literally 20 different ways of storing your Tiddlywiki
data is user-hostile. Don't tell me that you have a Node server and a PHP
server, just give me the easiest way to self-host, how to use Dropbox/Google
Drive, or perhaps one more option. You can include a link to "other options",
but don't put them front and center.
Even open-source tools that appeal to us nerds need some attention to
marketing.
------
carapace
Here's a single-page "simple self-contained web notebook inspired by the
"classic" version of TiddlyWiki."
Live demo:
[https://calroc.github.io/HulloWurld/Hullo.html](https://calroc.github.io/HulloWurld/Hullo.html)
Once you're seeing the page you have it all. Click the "Save..." button to
keep a local copy with any edit you've made. If you right-click and "save
page" you'll get the original content only.)
Repo is here:
[https://github.com/calroc/HulloWurld](https://github.com/calroc/HulloWurld)
It's just a simple experiment, nothing fancy.
------
rwbt
TiddlyWiki is great, but I really need is something like Notational Velocity
but everything is stored in a single html file (with .js embedded of course),
so that it's very portable.
------
ttroyr
[https://www.notion.so](https://www.notion.so) offers an excellent balance of
power & simplicity. Definitely worth a try for those who prefer to visualize
the connection between different projects. Shines in long-term planning & wiki
knowledge collection.
------
igorp74
After TiddlyWiki classic with tons of plugins, I used SpringPad while it
lived, then Evernote but markdown was able only via browser addon (Markdown
here or something). OneNote never suited for my needs and finally settled down
with Quip.com. It is like TW with all fancy plugins + live editing...
------
rb808
Nothing beats a plain text file for me.
~~~
galfarragem
A text file formatted as markdown and a text editor is an easily searchable
_flat wiki_. After having tried _a lot_ of stuff I can say that nothing beats
it on my usecas e.
------
rmu09
For those who want to sync TiddlyWiki between multiple computers, there also
is [https://noteself.github.io/](https://noteself.github.io/).
This TiddlyWiki-variant stores documents in the browser (pouchdb) and can sync
to a couchdb-server.
------
platz
[http://mgsd.tiddlyspot.com/demo3.html](http://mgsd.tiddlyspot.com/demo3.html)
TiddlyWiki powered GTD system
there is a newer version, but I think it's worse than the old one.
------
darpa_escapee
Besides Tiddlywiki, does anyone have recommendations for personal wiki
software?
~~~
interfixus
Zim, if you actually need the wiki-like stuff. Cherrytree, if you are mainly
after the structured note-taking functionality.
I use both. Cherrytree for all my daily notational needs.
[http://zim-wiki.org/](http://zim-wiki.org/)
[https://www.giuspen.com/cherrytree/](https://www.giuspen.com/cherrytree/)
------
qwerty456127
Does it integrate with Gitub Pages? I'd like my personal WiKi to be shared as
a part of my Jekyll-powered Gitub Pages blog (and I'd love to see more people
go this way sharing their knowledge).
------
shawn
I'd like to be able to press a shortcut key and have my computer save a
screenshot of whatever I'm looking at, along with letting me type a brief note
for context. Ideally it would also record the URL of whatever the browser was
visiting (if it's a screenshot of a browser page), or the file path of
whatever was open.
So basically Pinboard, but for pages of PDFs and other random scraps.
~~~
submeta
Evernote does something like this. And it let's you search for text in the
images as well. I have over 12k notes in Evernote. Many screenshots. It has
excellent OCR capabilities, full-text search (via Lucene?) and syncs across
devices.
~~~
luckman212
What platform do you run EN on? I have 9.3k notes and find it _horrifically_
slow to run searches on macOS (Quad core i7 Mini 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD).
It's so bad that I am actively looking for alternatives, even though I'm
dreading getting my highly-formatted data out in a usable form.
~~~
submeta
Mainly macOS. Well, to begin with: I don't perceive it as "terribly slow".
Yes, it has hiccups at times, but we are talking about several thousand notes.
And in that range I haven't seen a real altrrnative. For instance I imported
my 12k notes in BearApp. The app won't open anymore after the import.
I am in the exact same position. Especially so after several senior execs left
the Evernote company. I even work on a custom notes store (Django and mysql
backed) to keep kopies of all my notes because I really see no real
alternative with the search capabilities of Evernote. And no, OneNote is not
the same (search wise)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Growth of Unpaid Internships May Be Illegal, Officials Say - tokenadult
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/03/business/03intern.html
======
grellas
Federal law for unpaid interns in for-profit organizations requires that six
criteria be met: (1) the work or training should function as an extension of
the intern's educational training; (2) it should be provided primarily for the
benefit of the intern; (3) it does not replace the work performed by regular
employees; (4) it does not provide the employer with any immediate benefit;
(5) it does not entitle the intern to employment at the end of the internship;
and (6) there is no expectation by employer or intern that compensation will
be paid for the work or training. To have a bona fide intern, _all six_ of the
criteria need to be met.
State law may also impose additional requirements, as for example in
California where the training must be part of an official educational
curriculum at an accredited school - California imposes other restrictions as
well.
All in all, the rules may be well-meaning but they effectively kill
opportunities for students to get training in many situations where the
employer would otherwise normally be glad to make the opportunities available.
In practical terms, it means that an employer wanting to open opportunities to
students needs to pay minimum wage at least. Of course, the idea of the
regulations is to prevent employers from circumventing minimum wage rules by
dressing up what is really a job as an "internship" and in this sense they
serve a protective function.
Mark Cuban once did a piece entitled "Want an Unpaid Internship So You Can Get
Valuable Experience - Screw You" ([http://blogmaverick.com/2009/09/05/want-an-
unpaid-internship...](http://blogmaverick.com/2009/09/05/want-an-unpaid-
internship-so-you-can-get-valuable-experience-screw-you/)) in which he
recounted his frustrations in dealing with the federal regulations, and this
in turn elicited an interesting and lively thread here at HN
(<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=806563>).
~~~
_delirium
In tech at least, I've always found the "valuable experience" argument to be a
bit of a scam. There are plenty of companies that will be happy to pay you a
_good_ stipend (not even anywhere near minimum wage) for an internship. If you
want something less job-like, you can work informally with lots of smaller
companies, visiting their office and doing odd jobs, essentially as an unpaid
freelancer (e.g. find something crappy about their site and offer to fix it).
But if they want someone coming in to the office 40 hrs/wk, with a boss and
deliverables, they should be prepared to pay them in something more than vague
promises of "valuable experience".
~~~
brettnak
I, too, believe that most technology internships are a total scam. The usual
phrase from a small company is that they want a 'rock star' ( insert your
synonym here ) intern. I'm fairly certain that any 'rock star' intern can
replace many hours of labor spent by an FTE.
To put it in some perspective, and this is all personal point of view, I
believe that a company in three to four months of a full time internship
should be able to teach a computer science student ruby, rails to a working
knowledge extent, the why's and how's of why rails is the way it is (the ups
and downs of MVC, convention over configuration, etc), limited database
knowledge, and some basic UI/UX considerations.
Deeper knowledge into any of those (especially databases with CAP and the
whole sql/nosql argument) would be valuable if there were any time remaining.
And, obviously, the previous paragraph can be replaced by the equivalents in
your specific niche.
EDIT: spelling
------
ladyada
There's a really good ('selfish') reason to properly put interns on payroll. A
tech company that has an unpaid intern working on something 'useful' - like
writing code - is in a terrible position. If the intern is ignorant, sure no
problem. But what if that code makes it into a shipping product, or some other
asset that's sold? And suddenly that person feels like they were screwed over
because they were not paid? Or what if they get hurt at work, or are harassed
and want to bring suit? Its already a risk with proper employees on payroll
but at least you have insurances for that. Or perals - they file for
unemployment and put your company down as their last employer with $0 pay.
(Have any of you had to -really- deal with your local DoL? You'll -wish- it
was the IRS!) This is a very bad position to be in. Isn't $10/hr worth it to
avoid these problems?
------
luminary
I was in the job market for the past few months and stumbled across postings
where even certain well-known tech companies (startups can be considered as
exceptions) were looking for unpaid interns. You could see smell their BS from
a mile.
------
codexon
This is an interesting turn of events.
Just 2 weeks ago when this story popped up on HN recommending unpaid interns
(<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1202168>) I thought it may have been
legal, but now we know where the lawmakers stand.
~~~
kjhnbnfghj
When I was a student the first year of a UK law graduate's work in a practice
(articles) was unpaid. This was necessary to keep the wrong sort of people out
of the legal profession after they started letting anybody go to university in
the 60s and 70s.
~~~
_delirium
Yeah, this allegedly happens in some areas in the U.S. too, especially
business and law--- unpaid internships as a way to filter out the poor, who
can't afford to work unpaid internships.
~~~
garply
It's not just business and law in the US. When I was a CS student in college
(not very long ago), during the summer students had to make a choice to go do
low-paying internships for brand-name companies like MS, Google, and Amazon or
take real summer jobs that would pay better but not look as good on a resume.
Poorer students with more debt would take the short-term better paying jobs
while students whose parents were footing the bills would take the internships
that would give them better future prospects.
~~~
joshhart
What are you talking about? I interned at Microsoft for a summer 3 years ago
and was compensated almost 20k... Low paying my ass.
~~~
_delirium
Yeah, in my experience it's always been the opposite: internships from
companies like Google, Microsoft, and Intel are about the highest-paying
summer jobs (~$30-50/hr) any college student is likely to find, versus
"normal" summer jobs that pay more like ~$15/hr at best. When I decided to do
a $5k-stipend research internship instead of working somewhere like that, it
was turning down a good deal of money.
~~~
Locke1689
My upcoming Microsoft internship is more than $5k a month. My summer NSF REU
last year was $3k _total_.
------
kjhnbnfghj
No problem, register the internships as training courses and charge the little
idiots/candidates for working there
~~~
fexl
In our town someone made a business of that, starting a technical and
vocational training school many years ago. They're doing quite well trading
knowledge and experience for money.
------
axiom
Ugh. What possible good could it do to outlaw unpaid internships? Do people
actually think the result will be companies deciding to pay interns rather
than just not offering internships?
Just put yourself in the position of a manager making the hiring decision -
suddenly you get word that you may be sued for offering unpaid positions, is
your reaction going to be "wow, we'd better pay them" or "ok, no more
interns."
Who does this kind of crap benefit, other than self-serving politicians
masquerading as defenders of the public good?
Something about laws explicitly framed to protect people from themselves (i.e.
students from accepting unpaid positions) drive me insane.
~~~
argv_empty
_rather than just not offering internships?_
And then, after a little while, it becomes impractical to insist on prior
experience for entry-level positions.
------
pw0ncakes
The problem is that large, macroscopically psychopathic corporations
(including universities) have complete control over access to most of the jobs
out there, and so they can dangle "experience" (access) as a carrot that can
be offered as a sole reward to the desperate masses.
------
vv
Doesn't "Growth of Unpaid Internships May Be Illegal" mean it's legal not to
pay interns, but illegal for them to grow up?
~~~
jackowayed
If anything, I'd say it technically means "it was legal when they were rarer,
but now that they're becoming more common, it's illegal" as it's the growth of
unpaid intern _ships_ , not of unpaid _interns_ , that may be illegal.
They were trying to fit the fact that unpaid internships may be illegal and
the fact that they've been growing all into one title, and it didn't work so
well.
But splitting hairs a) is kind of annoying, and b) doesn't add anything to the
conversation about the content of the piece.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Is Berkeley DB a NoSQL solution? - yarapavan
http://blogs.oracle.com/berkeleydb/2011/01/is_berkeley_db_a_nosql_solutio.html
======
yarapavan
Some usecases mentioned in this article:
* MemcacheDB is a server that implements the Memcache network protocol but uses Berkeley DB for storage and HA to replicate the cache state across all the nodes in the cache group.
* Google Accounts, the user authentication layer for all Google properties, was until recently running Berkeley DB HA.
* Voldemort, choose Berkeley DB Java Edition for it's node-local storage
I know that openLDAP and Apache httpd server also makes use of Berkeley DB.
What are the other big use cases?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Facebook’s global lobbying against data privacy laws - sorokod
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/mar/02/facebook-global-lobbying-campaign-against-data-privacy-laws-investment
======
kartan
> I don’t think it’s a surprise that the UK chancellor would meet the chief
> operating officer of one of the world’s largest companies …
It is. Politicians need to be transparent and serve the public. Private
meetings without public record with big influent corporations is concerning.
Politicians should keep public records of this kind of encounters. That a
public officer talks about his right to keep secret talks to remove privacy
from his citizens is wrong at many levels.
------
sorokod
"Facebook... Used chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg’s feminist memoir
Lean In to “bond” with female European commissioners it viewed as hostile."
and
"the memo reveals that Sandberg’s feminist memoir was perceived as a lobbying
tool by the Facebook team and a means of winning support from female
legislators for Facebook’s wider agenda"
cute.
~~~
pjc50
If someone was looking for a genuine place to deploy the trite phrase "virtue
signalling", this is what that actually looks like.
~~~
sorokod
from [https://leanin.org/book](https://leanin.org/book)
_In response to Sheryl’s 2010 TEDTalk on the ways women are held back—and the
way we hold ourselves back—viewers around the world shared their own stories
of struggle and success. This overwhelming response inspired Sheryl to write
this book. In Lean In, she shares her personal stories, uses research to shine
a light on gender differences, and offers practical advice to help women
achieve their goals. The book challenges us to change the conversation from
what women can’t do to what we can do, and serves as a rallying cry for us to
work together to create a more equal world._
I guess that in a more equal world men and women can more equally act in a
morally reprehensible way.
------
dannykwells
Serious question: how should we as informed individuals act towards our
friends/family that work at Facebook? Is it like working at Blackwater or
Haliburton, i.e. worthy of scorn or st least distance ? Or do we accept them
and not talk about it and just have a nice time, even though they are actively
undermining democracy as we speak?
~~~
baroffoos
I talked to a guy working at facebook and he just insisted its not actually
that bad and nothing shady is going on. He clarified that nothing shady meant
nothing that the public doesn't already know.
~~~
dannykwells
I mean, was that guy Zuck? Because I would guess that every engineer at
Facebook wasn't aware of all of the shady stuff before it broke. Personally,
I'm guessing that much more of this is to come.
Plus, shady is in the eye of the beholder. Maybe it's legal to sell ads that
undermine democracy in the West, lead to ethnic cleansing in Burma etc., but
it doesn't mean it's not horrendous. And it's guaranteed there will be more
examples like those until the platform is regulated (which it _has_ to be
imo).
------
Spearchucker
It's great that this is reported by The Guardian. What's missing is a way to
communicate the same thing to the masses in a way that motivates them, i.e.
somehow linking knowledge of this to a sense of loss or impending loss to the
reader or user of Facebook.
Just on Sunday I had lunch with a friend who works at the ECB and asked
disbelievingly whether phones and apps can really track your location or not.
So if Guardian readers with TWO PhDs don't get it, how are we going to educate
a woman on the breadline with two kids, living in a shanty on the outskirts of
Lilongwe?
~~~
craigsmansion
I fully agree it would be great if the masses would somehow absorb and process
this information, but in this case I'd like to think the Guardian a very
effective venue.
No politicians on a European level, especially female representatives, would
want to be caught dead getting cosy with Facebook. Facebook lobbying efforts
are effectively dead in the water for the EU for the moment.
~~~
jos6
Facebook can prop up or destroy a politician in every EU country overnight by
minor tweaks that no one will ever be able to detect. And for every politician
that takes a tough stand there will be a politician who won't. They will
actively put feelers out about their "flexibility" in return for social media
"training/consulting services" for their campaigns before elections, funding
for pet projects etc etc etc.
We are way past the point were anything can be done by politicians or the
responsible press (both of whom have benefited from social media and have
stuff to loose by being hardline). Things should have happened 3-4 years ago.
Now we just wait it out till everyone learns lessons the hard way.
Niall Ferguson makes the case that this moment in time (transitioning from
hierarchy to hyperconnectedness) has similarities to events that unfolded
after the invention of the printing press. People remember the Reformation or
Martin Luther as the positive outcome as information and connectedness
suddenly exploded. But there were huge chaotic negative outcomes too -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_wars_of_religion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_wars_of_religion)
Educating the masses today is as hard as it was back then. Education requires
a healthy environment and a good guide/teacher and time. In todays world
assuming the press is going to fill this role is very unrealistic.
------
renholder
> _“Sheryl took a firm approach and outlined that a decision on the data
> center was imminent. She emphasized that if we could not get comfort from
> the Canadian government on the jurisdiction issue, we had other options.”
> The minister supplied the agreement Facebook required by the end of the day,
> it notes._
As the old adage goes: Money talks.
------
Ultramanoid
At least they didn't succeed in derailing the passing of the GDPR. That's
certainly encouraging and I guess the only piece of good news from the
article. The rest paints a pretty depressing picture.
~~~
NeedMoreTea
The amount of worry they showed in the two articles about GDPR reassures that
it was adequate. So long as it's enforced adequately.
~~~
jonathanhd
The Irish DPC has 10 open cases on Facebook, we'll have to wait and see if
they shake out to meaningful change.
------
darawk
What exactly is the expose here? "Company lobbies against laws that threaten
its business model", seasoned with various innuendo phrases that mean nothing
like "secretive".
~~~
Krasnol
> What exactly is the expose here?
Facts & Names.
------
mc89
It's been a while since a Trump or Brexit type unexpected/unpredicted event
that Facebook influenced has happened. As in nothing at a national scale.
Does this mean the architecture is getting better? Or are we going to get hit
by more randomness soon?
~~~
clydethefrog
There was reporting last year about Facebook being a catalyst for spreading
violence against the Rohingya in Myanmar.
Facebook owned Whatsapp also caused several so called Whatsapp lynchings in
India based on rumors that were quickly spread via the app. Brazil's current
president's campaign also used a succesful disinformation campaign via
Whatsapp.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: 6nomads – matching tool for remote devs and tech companies - 6nomads
https://6nomads.com
======
breck
I once got a couple of interviews through the
[https://weworkremotely.com/](https://weworkremotely.com/) site. Seemed like a
good selection there, and it was open, which was nice. Seems like this one is
aspiring to be like that. That's cool, it's a growing space. Any others?
Personally I ended up taking a local job as I find it more enjoyable to work
alongside a team, but maybe in the future would take another look.
~~~
mratsim
RemoteML for data scinetists? Never tried, but I saw some offers here and
there: [https://remoteml.com/](https://remoteml.com/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
England crime map website - kul
http://www.police.uk/
======
JacobAldridge
We had a kid shot in front of our house a fortnight ago (he survived, four
arrested, we spent a few hours nursing coffees in McDonalds while forensics
closed the street). So the numbers from this site were never going to look
good for us!
1500 in the 'area'; only 3 on our street although that doesn't include the
aforementioned shooting (unless 'attempted murder' is not classified under
'anti-social behaviour').
~~~
timrobinson
'Violent crime'?
------
timrobinson
After being down all day yesterday, the site's now working for me.
Not much crime in my small part of south-east London, except for an ominous
'other crime' at the end of the street...
------
kul
I simply love the fact that there are moves towards opening up this data. And,
the site works remarkably well (ignoring the downtime after it launched).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How can I become a homeowner? - throwaway215
I'm a young-ish person, dreaming the American dream of purchasing a home.<p>Like a lot of people my age, I've had an almost pathological aversion to taking out loans or using credit cards extensively. I don't have suspect credit history, so much as little credit history at all.<p>The good news is I have negligible student debt and healthy savings, in addition to a job and current income stream that allows me to put a bit away each month. I already have about 10% of the downpayment for what I think I could afford saved up. I just have no idea what the next steps are.<p>Thanks in advance for any advice or resources to help cure my real estate ignorance.
======
sharemywin
advice I would give someone I know:
1\. bankrate.com - go to 2-3 lenders go with best APR. 2\. don't buy the most
expensive house on the block. 3\. don't buy any big purchases until it's
closed. 4\. look for good schools even if you don't need it. 5\. stay away
from condos and new builds. 6\. shop home owners insurance yourself and save.
------
tjr
You could go to your bank (or whatever bank you like) and ask them to
determine how much of a house loan you would qualify for.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Double Pendulum Visualization - SiempreViernes
https://jnafzig.github.io/2018/02/05/double-pendulum.html
======
gus_massa
Nice graphics!
In the bottom graph of the time to flip:
The point of the white eruption to the right looks like a fractal. Is it a
fractal or it's only an artifact of the simulation? Can you post a zoom of
that part? Can you run that part with more precision in the simulator and
compare them?
What is the white smooth quarter/parabola at the bottom? Is this the zone
where the energy is not enough for a flip? Is there an easy way to
calculate/approximate it analytically?
Image version of the questions:
[https://imgur.com/a/siyEy](https://imgur.com/a/siyEy)
~~~
rocqua
I had the same thoughts.
There definitely is an easy way to calculate a lower bound on the amount of
energy required for a flip. It is simply the gravitational energy with the top
pendulum on the lowest position and the bottom pendulum upright.
The total energy of an initial condition can be calculated very similarly,
because it starts of stationary. For the exact calculations it matters whether
the pendula have a point mass at the bottom or matter throughout the stick.
This matters a lot more for the actual simulations though, due to moment of
inertia.
Let's presume point masses at the pendula, a weight of 1 unit for both and a
length of 1 for both. Similarly, we set the gravitational acceleration to 1.
We set the energy where both masses are level with the pivot as 0. We call the
angle of the top pendulum A and that of the bottom pendulum B. Angles are
measured against the horizontal (doesn't match the image but is easier to
calculate with)
Then the potential energy of an initial condition is: sin A for the top
pendulum and (sin A) + (sin B) for the bottom one leading to 2 sin A + sin B
in total. The minimal energy for a flip is -1.
Thus the threshold energy for a flip would be the curve [2 sin A + sin B = -1]
wolfram alpha tells us this:
[http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=2+sin+x+%2B+sin+y+%3D+-...](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=2+sin+x+%2B+sin+y+%3D+-1)
That curve seems to match the image if you take into account the rotated angle
(I took angles with the horizontal, the image uses angles with the vertical,
with an angle of 0 pointing down).
So I'd guess that indeed when there is enough energy for a flip, it tends to
happen. This is kind of expected when you know that chaotic systems are often
'ergodic' (not sure how that works in Hamiltonian systems, i.e. those with a
preserved energy). This vaguely means that movement is so erratic as to reach
every single point it could. Thus when it can flip, it probably does. The real
interesting question is why it doesn't flip in that seemingly fractal part. It
would be even more interesting if we could have some formulation of that
fractal kind of like the julia or mandelbrot fractal.
~~~
ThrustVectoring
The fractal part looks to me like it's probably better colored as a very deep
green. It likely would flip eventually, but reached a simulation time limit
first. There's a few other small areas that are near green streaks that are
also colored in white, too.
------
user2994cb
Another visualization, using JS to solve the Langrangian:
[https://matthewarcus.github.io/lagrange/](https://matthewarcus.github.io/lagrange/)
------
euler_
I really like the animation, but I'm confused by it. I thought that the whole
thing with chaotic systems is that extremely slight differences in starting
positions lead to very different outcomes. The continuity of the gif is
surprising.
~~~
aaachilless
You'll see the chaotic behavior if you look around the vertical initial state
at the top center of the graph. The initial states nearby evolve quite
differently than each other.
"Chaotic" describes a system only locally around specific initial states. So a
system can be chaotic near one initial state and stable near another.
------
happyguy43
Using automatic differentiation is very cool. Kudos
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Heroku & IndexTank “Build A Search-Based Webapp” Holiday Challenge - jhandl
http://www.rubyinside.com/the-heroku-indextank-build-a-search-based-webapp-holiday-challenge-4125.html
======
petercooper
It is somewhat weird to be doing this on a post pointing at your own site, but
still, this is a double dupe: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2025810>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2013777> .. yes, being a responsible HN
user wins over more pageviews for me this time (!)
Nonetheless, good luck in the contest if you choose to enter, folks.
------
diego
By the way, here's another app that I hacked to test the plumbing for the
contest, a (very limited) Instagr.am search:
<http://igsearch.heroku.com>
The default search is photo caption, but you can search by fields such as
username or filter:
[http://igsearch.heroku.com/photos?utf8=%E2%9C%93&query=f...](http://igsearch.heroku.com/photos?utf8=%E2%9C%93&query=filter:earlybird)
------
diego
While we are here, let me know if you have any questions about the contest.
Happy to help!
~~~
nestlequ1k
Will you allow the apps to stay up for a while after the competition? If I
have an app that indexes a million docs, but has low traffic, I really can't
afford to be paying 300/mo immediately after the competition ends.
Maybe you can offer a deal where if someone puts a "built with indextank"
sticker/link on the app you'll keep it up for a little while? Could be good
marketing maybe?
~~~
diego
It's a good question. The app would be taking up resources so it has some not-
insignificant costs to us regardless of the traffic. Having said that, if an
app has value and we like it I'be happy to discuss and try to work it out.
Awesome apps built with IndexTank are good for us!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
San Francisco Opens The City’s Data - vaksel
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/19/san-francisco-opens-the-city%e2%80%99s-data/
======
vaksel
Site doesn't seem that polished, since hitting the logo gets you an error
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why Load Testing Ajax is Hard - rickharrison
http://ajaxian.com/archives/why-load-testing-ajax-is-hard
======
ars
I don't see how you can scale the solution. To actually load test you'd need
thousands of browser instances, which is not practical.
For example auto-complete has a built in delay of about half a second for each
keystroke. So how do you load test that? The fastest you can go is two
requests per second if you use a real browser.
~~~
modoc
Or hundreds of thousands of browser instances. The whole point of most load
test tools is they can generate far more load per hardware unit (CPU, RAM,
etc...) than browsers could due to being lighter-weight specialized programs.
I'm not sure why this is such an issue. Most commercial testing tools use
proxy recorders which will happily record all the AJAX requests along with the
normal requests, and will spit out test scripts that include the AJAX calls.
If you don't want them all using "banana" then just record 10 different
scripts (which you should be doing anyhow to cover the most common usage
models/flows for your site).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
America’s monopoly problem, explained by your internet bill - rahuldottech
https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2020/2/18/21126347/antitrust-monopolies-internet-telecommunications-cheerleading
======
IXxXI
If america has an ISP/telecom monopoly issue, why didn't Donald Trump receive
more support when he tried to block the sale of Time Warner to AT & T?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The 'premature optimization is evil' myth (2010) - jerf
http://joeduffyblog.com/2010/09/06/the-premature-optimization-is-evil-myth/
======
jasode
The _longer_ Knuth quote is _“We should forget about small efficiencies, say
about 97% of the time; premature optimization is the root of all evil”_
In the inevitable meme transfer in the telephone game[1] and shortening of
memes to smaller soundbites, the _" small efficiencies"_ part is left out.
To me, "small efficiencies" was trying to "optimize" your old C code from...
x = x + 1;
to...
x++;
to...
++x;
... because you read/saw that a C compiler created tiny differences of
assembly code based on post- vs pre- -increment operators which results in a
0.00001% runtime difference.
Knuth isn't talking about being ignorant or careless with choosing bubble sort
O(n^2) vs quicksort O(log(n)). Or _not_ placing an index on a lookup key of a
1 terabyte table (that's a 1-hour full table scan vs millisecond b-tree
lookup). Those are not "small efficiencies".
If one leaves out the "small efficiencies" as a conditional, regurgitating the
"premature optimization" is a cop out for not thinking.
[1][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_whispers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_whispers)
~~~
hn9780470248775
> quicksort O(log(n)).
Quicksort is O(n log n) average case and O(n^2) worst-case.
~~~
jasode
Yes, I saw that error after the edit window closed so I couldn't fix the typo.
There has to be an extra "n" because qs has to touch _every_ element at least
once so a baseline complexity of O(n) is unavoidable.
Hopefully, it didn't detract from the point that Knuth was talking about
premature _micro-_ optimizations and not _design /architecture/algorithm_
optimization. Some inexperienced people are repeating "premature optimization"
to try and win internet arguments instead of using it as nuanced advice to
avoid wasting time.
~~~
cossatot
>to try and win internet arguments
is pretty much the antithesis of
>to avoid wasting time.
------
ska
Pretty verbose way of (yet again) reiterating that Knuth was essentially
correct, but that many people misunderstand or misapply what he was saying.
Joe says as much again in the conclusion.
To me that makes the "myth" part of the title more than a little click-baity,
which is unfortunate.
Knuth is right: premature optimization is a bad idea, full stop. That doesn't
mean that there aren't performance related activities you should be
undertaking at various stages of implementation, that either aren't
optimization, or aren't premature, or both.
~~~
biot
> Knuth is right: premature optimization is a bad idea, full stop.
A bit of a "no true Scotsman" though, isn't it? Any optimization that is a
good idea to do now is "not truly premature", whereas everything else is
actually premature.
~~~
gutnor
But that's basically every rule or guideline in the software world.
You should do X always, unless it does not make sense.
How do you know the difference ? With enough experience or enough ignorance.
Knowing when you are in one category or another for a specific topic is the
tricky bit.
~~~
biot
I'm going to have to agree with ska's other comment[0] and say that it's
knowing the difference between good design and optimization. Being able to
design a performant system means choosing designs which are inherently fast.
Squeezing the last few percent out of bubble sort makes no sense when you
should have gone with, say, insertion sort in the first place.
Once you have the right algorithms, data structures, and system architecture
in place and working, it's going to be fast enough and you can choose to spend
time optimizing only where absolutely necessary. Even then, you should default
to getting order of magnitude better performance via a better design rather
than tweaking inefficiencies.
[0]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11284817](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11284817)
------
mwfunk
He is refuting a version of "premature optimization is the root of all evil"
that I have never heard in practice:
"Mostly this quip is used defend sloppy decision-making, or to justify the
indefinite deferral of decision-making."
I have never heard it used in this context. Sometimes I've heard it used as a
gentle way to suggest to someone that they are going off in the weeds and need
to refocus on what they should be focused on, but usually I've just heard it
used as it was originally intended by Knuth.
Optimization often involves making code less clear, more brittle, or with a
more pasta-like organization. Frequently optimization requires writing code
that if looked at out of context, doesn't make sense or might even look wrong.
When these sorts of optimizations need to be made, they should be made only as
needed (and documented). It shouldn't be done without knowing whether or not a
particular code path is even a bottleneck in the first place, and it shouldn't
be done if speeding up that particular bottleneck wouldn't make the software
better in any tangible way. That's all the phrase means.
~~~
adrusi
In a lot of circles, especially where web developers are involved, you'll get
called out for premature optimization for spending any mental energy worrying
about memory usage or bandwidth. The idea is that computers are fast, so we
can just do whatever we want, and worry about it if it becomes a problem. The
result is that it becomes a problem, then gets patched up to meet whatever
bare minimum performance standards the company has (or the deadline arrives
and it's released unoptimized) and we end up with the absurdly heavy and
resource-greedy software we see today.
~~~
Swizec
It's a cost optimization. How much engineer time does it take to shave 0.2
seconds off of an action that's got a 0.3s animated transition anyway? How
much engineering does it take to care about the memory footprint of a website
users are going to close in 5 minutes anyway?
Most of the time, the answer is "Too much, not worth it". Some of the time the
answer is "Let's do it". Knowing which situation you are in is key.
Ideally, I should write code for readability and maintainability and let the
compiler and runtime worry about optimizations.
~~~
yongjik
No opinion about the rest of the argument, but a 300ms animated transition is
looooooong. It will be noticed by basically everybody and annoy a good number
of them.
The only good reason I can think of is that you're somehow stuck with 300ms+
delay anyway, so you provide an animation so that the users don't think "WTF?
I just clicked on it and why is nothing happening?" But if you can shave off
0.2 seconds then you can probably get rid of the animation altogether!
~~~
Swizec
You'd be surprised by how many people think those 300ms animated transitions
are a good thing.
I think they're terrible.
You'd also be surprised by how many people will completely misunderstand your
UI and get confused by things popping around magically, if the transitions are
too fast or inexistent. You have to build a UI/UX that your typical user will
enjoy and be able to use, not a UI/UX that your nerdy friends are going to
love. (unless they're your target users)
~~~
mrob
The only good UI animations I've seen were in Metacity (window manager for
Gnome 2). It would move windows instantly, but also provide a transparent
trail showing the path they would have taken if they had been animated
traditionally. It let you continue working without delay if you knew what you
were doing while still helping beginners.
------
jerf
I posted this article less for the negative "countering the myth" that the
comments here seem to be responding to, and more for the positive description
of how exactly you write code in a thoughtful manner while not overdoing it
into "performance uber alles".
I tend to think of it more as not painting myself into a corner than
necessarily getting it perfect the first time. It's amazing what some thought,
maybe a day in the profiler per couple of months of dev work to catch out the
big mistakes (and as near as I can see, nobody ever gets quite good enough to
be able to never make such mistakes), and some basic double-checking (like
"are any of my queries are doing table scans?") can do for performance, long
before you pull out the "big guns".
~~~
markbnj
If it were positioned as an article about writing thoughtful code then I doubt
the comments would be as focused on the claim in the headline. Knuth's point
was that even thoughtful programmers could get caught up in pursuing
performance in areas where it ultimately didn't matter, and even more
critically, that even thoughtful programmers could be guilty of discarding a
clear, comprehensible piece of code in favor of something terser, and less
accessible due to a perceived performance benefit.
~~~
jerf
"If it were positioned as an article about writing thoughtful code then I
doubt the comments would be as focused on the claim in the headline."
Sorry, I did not mean to delegitimize those points. I understand where they
are coming from.
------
ninjakeyboard
I think the "premature optimization is evil" heuristic exists is not to avoid
doing efficient things but to avoid prioritizing optimization over design.
Yes, you want linear or logarithmic runtime complexity and NEVER quadratic,
but you won't use mutable datastructures in scala until you know that there is
a space complexity issue for instance. Then, and only then, do you optimize to
reduce memory usage as it hurts your design quality.
I think the title is a bit misleading because it's a good heuristic and you
agree with that too.
------
WalterBright
Reminds me of:
1\. novice - follows rules because he is told to
2\. master - follows rules because he understands them
3\. guru - transcends the rules because he understands that rules are over-
simplifications of reality
~~~
aidenn0
Except this is railing against a bastardized version of a rule. Leaving out
the "small efficiencies" allows the rule to be applied in contexts where it
clearly was not intended.
------
linkregister
I can't agree more with Joe Duffy's viewpoint.
In case you're interested in a graphical representation [1] of some common
latency costs, someone at UC Berkeley put together an interactive chart with
the original Numbers Every Programmer Should Know from Jeff Dean's (Google)
large scale systems presentation.
[1]
[http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~rcs/research/interactive_laten...](http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~rcs/research/interactive_latency.html)
------
danra
It's good to invest time in making decisions and coding them when it actually
ends up making a positive difference to your work. Otherwise, by definition,
it is premature optimization. (of performance, design or otherwise.)
For instance, you often figure out you don't need a piece of code only after
you've written and tested it, or after your thought process about the design
has evolved. When you delete that code, it doesn't help anyone that a couple
of hours ago you've invested five minutes in picking the "right" data
structure for the implementation. The right data structure for unstable code
is the one which lets you work with it and takes up the least of your time. As
your code becomes more stable, it could then make sense to invest time in
picking and coding a better data structure; it's less efficient to do so
prematurely.
------
kazinator
> _First and foremost, you really ought to understand what order of magnitude
> matters for each line of code you write._
And that is: amount of time that will ever be spent in it across all
deployments and execution instances, versus how long it takes to develop,
taking into the cost of that CPU time and development time.
You could spend, say, $100 of development time such that the total CPU time
saved over the entire installed base of the code over its lifetime is worth
$5.
Secondly, even if the saving is greater than $100, that means nothing if it's
not recouped! That is to say, suppose you spend $100 to optimize something,
and the entire user base saves $200 worth of CPU time over the next 25 years,
when the last installation of the program is shelved. Only, oops, the users
never paid a single penny more for the improvement. Moreover, suppose the
improvement was only marginal and in some relatively obscure function, so that
it didn't help to sell more of the program to more users. So in the end,
you're just out $100.
> _Mostly this quip is used defend sloppy decision-making, or to justify the
> indefinite deferral of decision-making._
Here is the thing. An program optimized for performance is "bad" because it's
hard to change its organization later (for instance when it needs to be
optimized). It's harder to debug, too.
We consciously avoid optimizing code in order to have the code in a state that
is easier to work with.
But we must ensure that we _actually_ achieve this. In effect, we should be
actively optimizing for good program organization, rather than just focusing
on a negative: not optimizing for performance.
Or optimizing something other than performance, and good program organization.
A really bad approach is, for example, "optimizing for the minimum amount of
time I ever have to spend learning effective use of my programming language,
libraries, and existing frameworks in my project".
You get code that isn't performance optimized, avoiding the "root of all
evil", but it's garbage in other ways.
------
rubber_duck
I think his example using LINQ vs loops is not realistic - if you're using
arrays like he is who's going to use LINQ with that ? The only reason I would
specify a concrete type like that is if I cared about performance - otherwise
you'd just specify IEnumerable/IList/IReadOnlyList or whatever and then use
LINQ because it's cleaner. Use abstract interface when you don't care about
performance at all - and IMO over 80% of the code is like that -
initialization code, edge cases, stuff that gets touched less than a 0.01% of
execution time and spending the time to optimize is simply not worth it.
He starts the article by judging laziness - after spending a lot of time on
stuff that ends up being irrelevant in retrospective I wish I was more lazy
about this stuff.
------
mchahn
> First and foremost, you really ought to understand what order of magnitude
> matters for each line of code you write.
Isn't that exactly what the phrase means? Understanding where it is important
and where it isn't? At least that is what I always thought.
------
golergka
TL;DR: be careful with the word "premature". Knuth's quote is still correct.
------
rjurney
There are things you can do to scale well, that you tend to have to learn from
longstanding error, that don't take a lot of time up front. You don't spend
much time on them, and these efforts bear fruit later. Then there are things
that do take a lot of time that are unwarranted. You have to avoid these.
Knowing the difference is key, and this is why senior engineers should be in
charge of making architectural and design choices up front, and on an ongoing
basis. Of course, most businesses can't attract such people, as scalability is
not common knowledge outside major internet cities :(
------
amai
Given that performance is not such an huge issue as it used to be I believe
that nowadays premature flexibilization is really the root of all evil:
[http://product.hubspot.com/blog/bid/7271/premature-
flexibili...](http://product.hubspot.com/blog/bid/7271/premature-
flexibilization-is-the-root-of-whatever-evil-is-left)
------
shifter
Designing for big-O performance is a good thing to do while writing code.
Optimizations beyond that are typically an anti-pattern.
~~~
pjscott
As the author emphasizes, that depends on the speed requirements of your
software. There _are_ places where nanoseconds matter, just as there are
places where tens or hundreds of milliseconds don't.
------
colordrops
A lot of confusion could be saved by reframing the discussion. Instead, talk
about whether the performance characteristics of a particular choice are
understood or not. If not, then don't optimize until it is either understood
to be a problem through measurement or some other form of discovery.
------
pklausler
Rewritten: Keeping performance in mind when considering design alternatives is
never premature.
------
j45
In the case of MVP & Prototype development and maybe even the long run:
Clever architecture will always beat clever coding.
In the early stages premature optimization can engage too much clever coding
and architecture.
There's no shortage of time spent building and optimizing a stack that largely
introduces overhead to quickly iterate and solve a problem. I guess this
perspective also keeps in mind you should likely throw away the first version
of whatever you build because it uncovers _how_ the architecture should be,
and where, if anywhere the clever coding and optimization should be.
It's not to say optimization isn't worth thinking about. It's not just worth
obsessing about at a scale perspective, and experienced developers develop
clever architecture approaches and habits that buy their designs breathing
room as they may grow.
The fundamental issue here is every piece of software is meant to break at a
certain capacity, just like hardware. As the author very eloquently mentioned,
understanding what you may come back to revisit and develop often may be one
thing, and other areas you may not end up touching again, and may be worth a
different type of design thought.
The mentors I have worked with have balanced the thought of being kind to your
future developer self in the present, and that can mean not under, or over-
engineering a solution.
Quite often the architectural design needs to be proven and verified before
building a lot around it. Spending more time on the schema and architecture to
ensure this is where I've found massive gains in baking in optimization to the
bread with little development overhead other than planning and thinking a bit
more.
Quite often if I want to dive in to build a throw away prototype, I'll stop
myself and think of a plan. When I'm hesitant to build without a plan, I often
let myself prototype lightly to aid development of a plan.
Developing for the simplest common denominator in the early stages to allow as
many people to participate in the learning and direction of the solution is
extremely critical as well. When problems reach the 10-100 million row level
there will be a lot more to figure out than just optimizing it.
Quite often technologies get caught up in optimizing technical design and
code, and not users, problems or solving them. Maybe users need to be the
focus for Technical developers, and technical understanding is something to
focus on for non-technical developers who trivialize technical matters.
------
api
"Premature optimization is the root of all evil" is like "don't ever roll your
own crypto." It's "talking down" advice intended for programmers considered
less knowledgable than the advisor.
Personally I think "talking down" advice is harmful and goes very much against
the pro-learning pro-self-education mindset of our industry. People either
ignore it, in which case it accomplishes nothing, or they obey it and it stops
people from learning or trying new things. It's also subject to a lot of
misinterpretation. The "premature optimization" quote is often misinterpreted
in practice to mean "never optimize or think about performance at all."
A better version of the premature optimization quote is:
"Don't sacrifice correctness, capability, good design, versatility, or
maintainability to optimization until you already have something that works
and you know what you need to optimize."
Another nuance on optimization is: "optimize through better algorithms before
you micro-optimize." Micro-optimization means tweaking out a for() loop or
implementing something with SSE, while picking a better algorithm means
picking something with O(N) over something with O(N^2). Picking a better
algorithm is often something you do "prematurely" during the design phase,
while micro-optimization is best left until the end.
A better version of the crypto quote is:
"Don't attempt to implement any kind of _production_ crypto code until you
know enough about crypto to know how to break crypto at the level you are
implementing, and label any crypto experiments as experimental and don't try
to pass them off as production or as trustworthy. Also make sure you are up on
the state of the art and can name e.g. the last few major attacks against a
major crypto implementation and can describe how they work."
If you can't meet those criteria then no, you should not be implementing
_production_ crypto (though you are free to play around). But that advice also
tells you what paths you need to go down if you want to learn enough to
attempt crypto and how to recognize when you might know enough to attempt
crypto. Can you explain exactly how BEAST, CRIME, POODLE, and DROWN work? Can
you tell me why crypto must be authenticated and why you should encrypt-then-
MAC instead of MAC-then-encrypt? If so, then maybe you're ready to swim in
that pool. Otherwise, learn.
~~~
aidenn0
The original premature optimization quote is not at all talking down. 3% of my
code is pretty close to what fraction benefits from microoptimizations, and it
is about "small efficiencies." It is useful advice for a novice and does not
become less true as one gains in art.
"Don't optimize" would be the talking-down version.
"Don't optimize prematurely" is naturally tautological. "It is wrong to do X
prematurely" is true regardless of X; if it isn't wrong to do X at this point
in time, then doing X now isn't premature. It's closer to the pop-culture
version of the advice, and like any tautological advice can always be wielded
against someone. It's worse than "talking down," which can reduce the mental
load on a novice, it's actually not-useful at any stage, as it provides no
advice on when optimization is premature and when it isn't.
The pithy version of Knuth's quote might be "Don't microoptimize until you can
tell the difference between the 97% of code that doesn't need it and the 3% of
code that does" which is in line with pretty much the entirety of your
comment.
------
lugus35
The important thing is to use the right algorithm for the right task.
------
Tharkun
When in doubt, use your head.
------
falsedan
> I am personally used to writing code where 100 CPU cycles matters.
Not me, bucko. I'm used to writing code that, if it needs to go fast, I buy
more CPU time and run it in parallel.
~~~
kuschku
And that’s when you discover that (a) electricity isn’t unlimited, (b)
ressources aren’t unlimited, (c) money isn’t unlimited, and (d) maybe you
should just save for the sake of efficiency.
~~~
vinceguidry
a) and b) can be so cheap relative to the total cost of the application and /
or the value that application produces that they might as well be unlimited.
Essentially, if you are running into electricity / resource constraints on,
say, an e-commerce website, then unless your design choices were absolutely
hideous, then you are having a Very Good Problem.
Many programmers can spend their entire careers on building and maintaining
such apps. The infrastructure costs are outclassed by their salary by several
orders of magnitude. A decent website costs _millions_ to develop in total and
hundreds monthly to host. It can bring in several million in revenue every
year.
All this and it's still a sideshow to the main business. A site I maintain
does $3 million in business every year, whereas our retail partners do 7.
~~~
kuschku
Electricity prices aren’t globally the same, in some regions in Europe they’re
over $0.40/kWh.
And renting servers from AWS can end up being more expensive than paying
another dev and using dedicated systems.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
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