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Don't Outsource Your Thinking (2015) - ascertain
https://medium.com/@blakeross/don-t-outsource-your-thinking-ad825a9b4653
======
mjlee
Michael Crichton observed this and called it the Gell-Mann amnesia effect. I
think he said publicly that the name was to ride on the coat tails of Gell-
Mann's public success:
>>> “Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the
newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray's case,
physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist
has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the
article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause
and effect. I call these the "wet streets cause rain" stories. Paper's full of
them. In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors
in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and
read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine
than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.”
~~~
nemild
One caveat I would make: it is often over-generalized to then dismiss all
media on a topic, especially when readers have some limited knowledge of the
topic at hand.
~~~
jdc
Right, remember to keep your eyes peeled for that 10 or 20% of media that
isn't BS.
~~~
imesh
If only there was some way to know that the 10 or 20% you think isn't BS isn't
BS and you aren't labeling the non-BS as BS.
~~~
jdc
Ofc a more nuanced discussion would have to include something like a
probabilities of expected values. But given the cost of creating BS is cheaper
than refuting it and the media's proclivity for distributing it, I'm very
willing to be somewhat biased against it.
------
ChuckMcM
I wish I could upvote this more. This is such a pain for me, to see a reported
story and see an obvious question that any _serious_ journalist could answer
just sitting there, unanswered. It made me wonder what they teach in
Journalism school these days.
As it turns out, not much about investigation. I looked through the curriculum
at Berkeley[1] (a respected journalism school) and found things like J260[2]
which is a seminar more on "why" of investigative reporting than the "how".
There is also a "web skills"[3] class, but this is just about building a web
site.
They really should consider adding a 'using the Internet to find people,
corroborate sources, discover links between individuals and corporations, and
to track ownership relationships.' Something that, as the author points out,
is really a bunch of useful web sites and how to click them.
[1]
[https://journalism.berkeley.edu/curriculum/](https://journalism.berkeley.edu/curriculum/)
[2]
[https://investigativereportingprogram.com/](https://investigativereportingprogram.com/)
[3] [https://journalism.berkeley.edu/course-section/j215intro-
to-...](https://journalism.berkeley.edu/course-section/j215intro-to-
multimedia-web-skills-section-1-1-fall-2016/)
~~~
hos234
These days newsrooms do have a bunch of technical people on staff (plus access
to an amazing network of experts outside), to do the kind of digging the
article talks about. Resource, time constraints, pressure to publish before
someone else scoops you I think complicate the process.
It's similar to software companies pushing out workarounds and hacks to deal
with bugs that there is no time/resource available to fully investigate.
------
CM30
Good read. Definitely shows how little work is often put into investigating a
story nowadays, even from publications considered reputable in the past.
And it's worth considering given how many controversial stories that lead to
internet mobs and threats had just as little work done on the investigation
side as this one. The covington kids story had no real investigation done on
it, since if someone had actually asked witnesses or looked into video
evidence beyond the original tweet, they'd have seen a completely different
series of events. Same with the story of that guy thrown off a plane for
speaking Arabic; a bit of research would have proven the story was not what it
seemed there either.
And there are plenty of stories where non existent
people/companies/organisations have been written about after a troll submitted
a fake news tip or what not. Hell, it's surprisingly easy to get a
questionable story into the media, since often no one will investigate it
properly. I know, I did that by accident.
As for why that's the case? Eh, probably time. The internet has led to a 24/7
news cycle for every publication in the world, and has created a situation
where being 'first' is often seen as more important than being right. Even
sparing the 10 minutes necessary to investigate a story like in the article is
presumably seen as a 'waste of time'.
Either way, good article.
------
rayiner
If journalism, as a profession, is to add more societal value than random blog
posts, I think there needs to be a fundamental reworking of the medium. As it
currently stands, the medium itself encourages sloppiness. A modest proposal:
1) Articles should, like legal briefs, support each non-trivial point with a
footnote or citation. Primary sources, such as presses releases, documents,
and transcripts, should be hyperlinked from the footnotes.
2) Long form articles—unless they appear in a literary magazine—should contain
section headings ordered in a logical manner.
3) An adversarial aspect should be introduced into the medium. When a judge
receives a legal brief, she doesn’t review the brief in isolation. Typically,
there is an opening brief, a response, and a reply. It should be a matter of
journalist practice to write response articles to other articles. Aggregators
like Google News could then make it easy to see, for example, the Wall Street
Journal’s response to a New York Times article.
~~~
bjelkeman-again
The the first points are very much on point for me. I don’t get why sources
aren’t referenced. Is it because they are afraid the reader will leave the
news site? An attempt at sandboxing the user?
The second point, particularly US writing/journalism seems to really have a
very different writing culture than the European. It seems to want to be a
story with a beginning a history etc before getting to the meat of the
article. It often feels like the writer is paid by the word rather than
interested to getting the point across. European journalism ties to get the
hook in early, and the expand on it and draw you into the article more upfront
with the meat of it.
------
teddyh
Writers for media (I hesitate to call them “journalists”) have no incentive to
find _facts_. They have an incentive to craft a _story_ , based on whatever
information they already have in front of them. If they already have most of a
story, and a cursory search turns up no obviously interesting facts which add
to the existing story, they’ll leave it there. There is simply no _reason_ to
go digging.
It’s only where there’s no story without digging, and/or where the more you
dig the more story you get, when you get investigative journalism.
~~~
medill1919
This is incorrect. Have you worked as a journalist? Do you subscribe to any
news that you actually have to pay for?
------
taneq
Can I just take a moment here to plug how vital Internet Archive (mentioned by
the story, sounding like it's just a thing that the internet does) is to,
well, most things, and getting more important by the day?
I haven't donated to them yet but I'm going to now.
------
methehack
It's seemed to me for a while that you could take an infosec-style approach
and use voluntary controls, policies, procedures and third-party non-
government certification via accounting firms to give the public more
confidence in the press, something that is obviously fundamental to a
democracy.
Just like in infosec, controls (etc) do not guarantee safety (accuracy), but
they let you know that processes were followed and that fact is documented.
Third parties (accounting firms) confirm that you have the evidence of having
followed your processes. Corruptable? Sure. Better? Definitely yes.
Just like in infosec: if you have evidence that every week you've plowed
through the access logs, you're more likely to have caught an
intruder/mistake. The approach tends to route out single acts of sloppiness
and subterfuge and turn mistakes in to conspiracies, which is a much harder
thing to pull off than a single actor looking for fame or a raise.
For my part, I genuinely believe these organizations are trying their best to
do something very hard but that their own efforts at fairness can be
undermined by a lot of factors, especially money. The natural incentives
(clicks/$) need to be counterbalanced with self-imposed "regulation" that is
third-party verified.
[EDIT: s/factories/factors
~~~
everlastingfan
Yeah, be prepared to be treated like a paranoid schizophrenic when you do
that.
You're going to stop having conversations, or will you be recording them all?
Not to say you shouldn't, but it isn't easy and requires a lot of
consideration, energy and discipline.
The digital tools are definitely NOT ready, there's a few gigabytes of raw
mathematical data to be processed by humans into algorithms before we get
there.
~~~
ryacko
>HALDEMAN: It's a limited hang out.
>DEAN: It's a limited hang out.
>EHRLICHMAN: It's a modified limited hang out.
>NIXON: Well, it's only the questions of the thing hanging out publicly or
privately.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limited_hangout](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limited_hangout)
Sounds interesting when people are allowed to grep conversations for the
scandal of the moment.
------
yodsanklai
> We are lucky to live in a time when we are all so empowered.
I remember when I was a teenager, before the internet era. Our science teacher
thought us about critical thinking and not blindly trusting the media.
Everything he said made sense, but still, I felt that I was lacking the proper
tools and expertise to challenge what was said in reputable medias.
It's much easier nowadays, Thanks to the ability to search the web, better
knowledge/expertise in some fields, better understanding of how medias work...
yet it's not easy. It is a skill that needs constant practice, and one
shouldn't fall in the other extreme not to trust anything.
I really think this should be taught in school. Examples of bad journalism,
recent government lies, marketing and PR...
------
chrisweekly
Author Blake Ross ("founder @firefox and former prod dir @fb") makes great
points about poor quality / outright lack of investigative journalism in
reporting. Worth the 2 min to read.
------
cortesoft
I don't quite understand how you are supposed to follow that advice... no one
has time to personally investigate everything. We have to outsource SOME of
our thinking.
~~~
yodsanklai
I don't think we have to investigate everything, but we should try to detect
patterns of wrong information (can be government propaganda, marketing,
incompetence), and not trust blindly every piece of information.
------
jeffml84
This is a little beside the point, but I'm going to hold the author
accountable for his take on a pressing issue.
Author makes the mistake of not holding the retailer responsible for what they
sell. Walgreens, Target, and GNC, to anyone who knows what they're doing, are
NOT reputable, in terms of herbal supplements.
Go to any naturopath or natural health practitioner and they're going to
recommend herbal supplements with their own branding, specialty shop, or
specific brand. They're not going to give you prescription, and call it into
Walgreens like an allopathic doctor will.
Author is effectively saying "It's not the reputable retailers responsibility
to stock their shelves with legitimate products."
Why do you think they sell crap instead of quality herbs? The cost is lower.
Think for yourself, and take your health into your own hands and you'll be a
healthier person, no doubt.
Calling for the FDA to regulate and save the day because a bunch of uneducated
people blindly trusted big corporations...no.
------
nemild
Always value contributors to my media literacy guide. This message is a key
point that underpins all the examples I list.
[https://github.com/nemild/hack-the-
media/blob/master/README....](https://github.com/nemild/hack-the-
media/blob/master/README.md)
There's also one for engineers in the tech industry:
[https://github.com/nemild/hack-the-
media/blob/master/softwar...](https://github.com/nemild/hack-the-
media/blob/master/software-engineers-media-guide.md)
------
bryanrasmussen
I don't believe there is anyone I've ever met whose thoughts were original to
them in all particulars. I think it has been very seldom where I have met
anyone that has had one original thought in their head, I'm pretty sure most
thoughts, including mine were thought somewhere else and transmitted via some
media. Probably in most cases the only originality lies in the assemblage of
the thoughts and how they interact.
~~~
haihaibye
"You're not the first to think that everything has been thought before" \-
Three dimensions by Something for Kate.
~~~
bryanrasmussen
I thought I was quite clear that I did not believe everything has been thought
before, but only that most things have been thought before - or more
specifically that most people think things that have been thought before but
in new configurations.
------
vvanders
Seems a bit like pot calling kettle black considering what Facebook allows to
be advertised these days.
~~~
htk
This wasn’t posted by Facebook. The author used his experience working there
to further question news pieces.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Review my Pivot - Peer Coaching web app for entrepreneurs - aymeric
Link: http://beta.coachfire.com<p>I am currently working on a tool to help entrepreneurs form small groups online to bounce ideas off and get feedback on what they are doing.<p>(This is a pivot from the original version that was focusing on professional coaches.)<p>Please check it out and provide some honest feedback about the tool itself:<p>- Would you use it?<p>- What do you like?<p>- What do you dislike?<p>- Any obvious feature missing?<p>Thanks everyone!
======
anmol
I like the general idea about peer-coaching, but why web entrepreneurs? IMHO
such tools would be more valuable for non-web specialty skills, where RTFM
isn't an option. e.g. I use you tube to learn how to do oil changes for my
car.
any insight on why didn't it work with coaches? too many conflicts? not enough
incentives?
~~~
aymeric
> web entrepreneurs
Because it is a world that I understand better, and because I feel the need
for this app, I think others might as well.
> IMHO such tools would be more valuable for non-web specialty skills
Interesting feedback. I haven't considered that approach. This seems like a
whole new branch to explore. What craft would be more inclined to need online
peer-coaching in your opinion?
> why didn't it work with coaches?
It is too hard to find true passionnate coaches. I aimed to speak with
business coaches to avoid the life gurus, but it was still hard to find people
who were acting with integrity.
> too many conflicts?
What conflicts are you thinking about?
> not enough incentives?
What kind of incentives do you have in mind?
Thanks for your interest, I was a bit disappointed not to get much feedback
from post in HN.
~~~
anmol
IMHO really think you need to aim outside your demographic, pick a lot of non-
web / computing skills.
You'd be surprised how much value tech can add in basic professions.
Also, _learn to partner_. Go to the local cleaning-maids agency, ask them if
you can setup a free peer coaching site for their maids. Or for the local cab
company, or the construction site. No cost to them.
Even if # of users are small, they will be targeted. Great for ad-based
revenue. CPM / CPCs increase drastically when the content and users are
targeted.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Intel Bets Heavily on Chip Stacking for the Future of Compute - rbanffy
https://www.nextplatform.com/2018/12/13/intel-bets-heavily-on-chip-stacking-for-the-future-of-compute/
======
boznz
interesting but someone should sort out the auto-correction errors.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Dan Dennet - Power of meme's - socratees
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/dan_dennett_on_dangerous_memes.html
======
StrawberryFrog
The power of something belonging to meme? That doesn't make sense.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Moment of Silence - gbog
This is titled "a National Moment of silence".<p>I am very sad for the families and for humanity that such a thing happened, but I am not born member of the US "Nation", and feel excluded by this wording.
======
duck
I really dislike how people take a moment of silence and/or a time for prayer,
and turn it into something else with the linked article on gun control[1].
Talking about actions is fine, but why can't people understand that those are
two different things and shouldn't happen at the exact same time.
[1]: [http://www.causes.com/causes/807161-stand-with-sandy-
hook/ac...](http://www.causes.com/causes/807161-stand-with-sandy-
hook/actions/1716727)
~~~
theorique
It dishonors the memory of the murdered to politicize their deaths.
~~~
GiraffeNecktie
If fixing the problem that caused their deaths is "political" I don't think
the murdered would mind.
~~~
marknutter
If everyone agreed on what the fix is, you might be right. But since they
don't, and it will likely result in political fighting, it's probably not
appropriate to tie it to a moment of silence.
~~~
GiraffeNecktie
If it takes a discussion with people taking opposing viewpoints, let's get
started. Now.
~~~
davidw
But please _not on Hacker News_. Thanks.
~~~
rdl
I'd agree generally except that posting an inherently political call to action
on the site essentially makes it the natural forum to discuss it.
And, the tech community (specifically, Ron Conway) are probably the strongest
promoters of this particular program right now, which is interesting given
that the tech community has rarely been politically influential. At most it
has been able to address things like crypto, CDA, and SOPA/PIPA; minimally
effective so far at patents and immigration.
------
rdl
The shooting at Sandy Hook was a horrible tragedy, as were previous incidents
at Aurora, Columbine, Virginia Tech, etc. And really any murders anywhere
(although I can understand why recent and mass incidents are freshest in the
mind.)
This should be a political debate for or against gun control; it's better to
mourn their loss and then to look objectively at policy changes later.
Legislation by emotion has turned out horribly in the past. It certainly
shouldn't be a time to push a specific legislative agenda.
~~~
gbog
> a specific legislative agenda
I don't know. Seen from outside, the gun control issue do not seem to belong
to the "political agenda" layer, along who's next for presidential or the
latest political sex scandal.
From the outside view, gun control belong to the common sense layer, near "he
who stole someone else's money will go to jail" and "tanks are not allowed on
highways".
It should even not be called "gun control", but "lethal weapon for sale at the
next block".
I hope US citizen are aware they are very different from most other countries
in this regard. They may ask themselves if this specificity is an improvement
over other laws, and then should be evangelized abroad. Or maybe it is an
aberation? Or maybe it is some "cultural exception" (a la Chinese) and then,
justified by what specifical traits?
~~~
rdl
The reason why this is something I don't support is that they are promoting a
very specific gun control agenda, which seems to have been essentially
randomly generated (or cynically politically generated), vs. either aimed at
the specific problem in Sandy Hook or the statistically prevalent
causes/factors of gun violence.
Saying "we need to do something about gun violence" is a much less overtly
political message than "we must adopt these specific 3 policy items."
If they wanted to deal with Sandy Hook in specific, enhancing the mental
health bars on getting weapons, enhancing safe storage, etc. would be most
effective with the least cost. After that, banning semiautomatic rifles and
handguns, but this would require constitutional changes. Armed security at
schools would be another approach (being endorsed by Senator Boxer).
For Aurora, mental health bars, possibly waiting periods, and possibly
preempting local gun free zones would be the specific policy remedy with the
least cost; banning semiautomatic pistols and handguns would be the intrusive
but effective solution (via constitutional amendment).
For spree killings in general, the low hanging fruit is consensual agreement
by the media to not dramatize the killers -- don't ever mention their names,
similar to how suicide bombers are handled in Israel. It's not the media/video
games/etc. in general, it is specifically how the media treat these incidents.
If they want to deal with statistically prevalent gun violence, they should
focus on handguns (80-90%) and the drug war. Rifles and shotguns are
essentially irrelevant to that. Domestic violence is another issue, and there
have been really strong changes in the past 10 years to address that
(confiscating guns over even misdemeanor DV convictions, unless you're the
Sheriff of San Francisco.)
Suicide is the other big issue around gun deaths, which I'm not sure you can
really address through regulation, but better mental health access would
probably be the best solution.
There should be a discussion of what the aims of legislation are (reducing gun
crime overall, reducing specific types of crime), and then pick and promote
measures which will actually accomplish those.
As far as I can tell, this was just a bunch of things a few mayors (Bloomberg,
specifically) already wanted (interstate transport, 100% background check for
all sales), and then the magazine ban randomly thrown in.
There is some really low hanging fruit which virtually everyone would support
(100% checks on all transfers, mental health bars for getting guns, enhanced
penalties for crimes at the federal level involving guns, and per-state
changes to gun crime laws).
~~~
gbog
All this seem very Byzantine to me (French). Why not adopt laws used in
Europe: no guns, except for hunting rifles with permit, cops and a few
specifics.
Or you think all Europe, and most other countries are out of their mind to not
allow anyone and his dog to carry a weapon when going to the drugstore?
~~~
thaumaturgy
Not that I necessarily disagree with you, but the problem with this in the
U.S. is that we are indoctrinated at an early age with the notion that it was
the right to own guns that primarily won us the revolution.
i.e., any attempt to limit the ownership of firearms in the U.S. is seen as a
direct assault upon the brave minuteman militia that rose up to defeat those
red coats in glorious battle in 1776. (That last bit was satire, not serious.)
~~~
gbog
Then this creation myth should be slowly amended, because it is harmful. There
is a similar debate in France about the "impure blood" mentioned in the
Marseillaise, should we remove it? If proven harmful, I'd say yes.
Our countries are solid enough to allow some adjustment in their necessary
creation myths.
------
jgrahamc
And if it had been titled "International Moment of Silence" some other person
would have commented that it wasn't an international event.
~~~
cconroy
...and _presumptuous_ too.
~~~
gbog
Sure, what about "A Moment of silence"?
~~~
taybin
Because then there isn't a sense of community with other people/sites doing
the same thing.
------
Tichy
As a comment on the implementation, I think if the overlay blocks the web
site, it shouldn't provide a link to causes at the same time. That makes it
look insincere to me.
------
quomopete
Can you accept the fact, however, that this is not about you?
------
irahul
Erm. I can guess this moment of silence has something to do with the recent
shooting, but why is this submitted without any context?
~~~
hooande
The context is that a "Moment of Silence" overlay was placed across many
websites at 9:30 am today, organized by Causes. People who were checking
hackernews at 9:30 am might want to discuss the experience.
I thought it was a solid gesture, and it brought appropriate attention to the
victims and their families. At the same time, it felt like I was being
compelled to take part in something with no warning (though the overlay was
easy to dismiss). There is no shortage of Sandy Hook coverage on TV and
elsewhere on the internet. I'm on hackernews because I chose to read
hackernews.
~~~
dhimes
I, somewhat ashamedly, will confess: I was actually irritated by the overlay.
I've shared in the grieving...that had to happen sooner than now for me. I
have a young child in elementary school, so this has been a big part of my
life recently.
But I want to do it on my terms. I don't want some asshole telling me I must
pray, or support and argue about gun control, or 'Like' a picture of an out-
of-work marine who is hanging out in the school parking lot today.
I can appreciate the gestures, I just don't like the coercion.
------
Luyt
_"I am not born member of the US "Nation", and feel excluded by this
wording."_
If you want to prevent your screen from going black, you can add
'<http://www.causes.com/moment_of_silence.js> to your adblocker rules.
~~~
gbog
I don't want to block this banner. I find it interesting to have these
"event's overlay".
But I would very much like to point a thing that requires an outside view: the
US netizens seem to forget often that many people from other countries use
their websites.
~~~
taybin
boo fucking hoo.
------
xutopia
I hate moments of silence. If we were to say nothing every time there is a
tragedy in the world we'd never speak up about how to fix atrocities and
organize ourselves to avoid them in the future.
~~~
jack-r-abbit
Would be interesting if someone started a "Moment of Screaming" campaign.
Imagine if for one minute everybody was just repeatedly yelling stuff like
"STOP THE VIOLENCE!"
------
tokenadult
Direct link to the link from the Hacker News homepage overlay (provided by a
third-party service):
[http://www.causes.com/causes/807161-stand-with-sandy-
hook/ac...](http://www.causes.com/causes/807161-stand-with-sandy-
hook/actions/1716727)
Submission of that (almost simultaneously with this submission here) for HN
discussion:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4952794>
------
lucb1e
What is this about? I'm assuming something with the recent shooting, but where
does the submission cite from?
------
taybin
Why is "nation" in scare quotes? How would you prefer it to be worded? What is
the matter with you?
~~~
gbog
I consider HN to not be a US only website. When I see the word "national" it
applies by default to my own country. When I saw the pop-up, I felt I was not
invited.
~~~
taybin
You are cordially invited to get over it.
------
pfortuny
I was surprised by the banner, in what in another context I would say a
positive way, even though I am not from the US. Thanks for the idea.
------
wogg
I thought this was supposed to be a moment of silence. Hacker News posting is
not silence, despite requiring no audible speech.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Good documentaries about finance? - zepearl
I have always more or less hated accounting, but recently I had to admit that it can be as well very interesting => therefore yesterday I watched:<p>- "Enron - The smartest guys in the room" (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1016268/?ref_=nv_sr_1): kind of funny&scary at the same time. It shows the capitalism pushed to its limits; e.g. very interesting and/or crazy the fact that (if I understood correctly) they put their "future estimated revenues" into their current balances (even if I can understand their way of thinking being that "the current employees should benefit now for a great idea which might generate returns only in the future" the foundations for the estimation can be only purely speculative).<p>- "Inside Job" (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1645089/?ref_=nv_sr_1): the explanation about the "Credit Default Swaps" (never heard of CDS until now) was very nice, and the interviews are probably a master example about how things look like when "ethics" don't exist. Maybe a bit too heavy on the mix of short sequences of interviews.<p>- "The queen of Versailles" (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2125666/?ref_=nv_sr_1): this was just crazy, a master example of how money can worsen your life.<p>Any recommendations about other finance docs?<p>E.g. "high frequency trading" sounds interesting => it might be interesting to know what are the technical quirks, what the people behind it are, etc... .
Or maybe something that analyzes again more in depth what happend in 2008?
Or maybe anything that explains well some important concepts of accounting and/or finance, based on theory and/or historical events?<p>For example I did find by googling "Too big to fail", "Margin Call" and "The big short" but as they all involve big names (e.g. Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling, Kevin Spacey), I don't understand if they're fiction or not. I'm not interested in fiction.<p>Thank you :)
======
bb2018
A few favorites that come to mind.
\- Betting on Zero. A documentary on the billion dollar short on Herbalife and
whether or not Herbalife is a pyramid scheme. It is definitely biased towards
making Bill Ackman look good (the guy who made it is friends with Ackman) but
nonetheless is very interesting and if you are anti-MLM it will fit your view.
\- Dirty Money. I wouldn't say it is straight finance but shows a variety of
business stories that are very interesting. I thought the one on the payday
loan guy was the most interesting. It is produced by Alex Gibney (who did the
Enron doc) so if you liked that one then this will be up your alley too.
\- The China Hustle. Highlights some difficult in investing in Chinese
companies and how they differ in terms of standards and reporting.
~~~
zepearl
Thanks!!
\- Betting on Zero
([https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3762912/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3762912/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)):
Ha, I can't believe that Herbalife not only still exists but that if I look at
its share price it even flourished, got into sponsoring, etc... - I know about
the company because looong time back it did a push as well here in
Switzerland, but as at that time I tagged it as "scam" I supposed that it
would soon or later disappear... . Very interesting to be reminded about how
"multi-level marketing"/"pyramid selling" works and very nice that by showing
what that Ackman guy did I now understand as well e.g. all these recent
discussions related to "short sellers" vs Tesla (I wasn't fully aware that
"short selling" could be done in such an active way - I thought that some
regulator would start targeting you...).
\- The China Hustle
([https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7215388/?ref_=nv_sr_1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7215388/?ref_=nv_sr_1))
Very interesting. I never heard about "reverse merges". Additionally I tended
to think that e.g. the SEC and/or other regulators not only establish rules
and react when they're not followed but actively check the truthfulness of the
statements/informations beforehand, but it does not seem to be working that
way (I can understand the reasons, but on the other hand this kind of defeats
the reason of having such rules...). Btw a few weeks ago I stumbled upon some
videos of this guy (e.g. "Why I refuse to buy property in China"
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lAoTBVTTO8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lAoTBVTTO8)
), which explain a bit how chinese people think and some of them are related
to what is mentioned briefly in the documentary about the chinese housing
bubble.
\- Dirty Money
([https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7889220/?ref_=nv_sr_1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7889220/?ref_=nv_sr_1)):
pending... .
------
ArtWomb
The Third Industrial Revolution: A Radical New Sharing Economy
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX3M8Ka9vUA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX3M8Ka9vUA)
Jeffrey Rifkin's oracular vision of an alternate trajectory to the status quo
that obviates an inevitable extinction for humanity. Radical change engendered
by three key innovations: satellite internet, autonomy, and decentralized
clean energy.
It is worth noting that Elon Musk is working on all three of these ;)
~~~
zepearl
Thank you! :)
It's not directly about current "finance" (as the title says it's about
"economy", but of course which will affect finance), and it's a bit "heavy"
(almost 2hrs of speech) and I basically skipped the first 10 minutes but the
rest is for sure very interesting as e.g. it forces to rethink about all what
happened in the remote past and during recent years and shows that a possible
"nice" future is possible.
I'm not as optimistic specifically about the availability of IOT-data (in my
opinion going to be mostly compartmentalized/proprietary), but in an ideal
world it has for sure a huge potential.
Very funny the statement about IBM & the 7 computers, and towards the end the
question in Trump-style :)
Summarized, for sure a good input/thoughts/inspiration about the big ongoing
changes and all what they might affect.
Cheers
------
mayamatrix
Neil Ferguson's "The Ascent of Money" (book and mini-series) is a good primer.
------
progr4mmatic
I loved this video by Ray Dalio. Really gives a great macro economic view and
explains how he timed 2008.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHe0bXAIuk0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHe0bXAIuk0)
------
spoonie
For books there is Graeber’s Debt: The First 5000 Years.
And for a blog there is a series from someone in Belgium documenting how HFT
companies were putting microwave transmitters on towers in order to shave
miliseconds from trade order times between London and continental European
exchanges. It’s called HFT In My Backyard.
------
samstave
Watch the Big Short.
And given the times, really make sure you watch all the Russian/Putin/Trump
documentaries - specifically "Active Measures"
~~~
zepearl
Thank you!
\- "The big short"
([https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1596363/?ref_=nv_sr_1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1596363/?ref_=nv_sr_1)):
Good actors, nice style, sometimes funny, interesting. Again some good
explanations and examples about how short selling works, recap about the US
housing bubble, rating agencies and the whole finance industry in general.
I can think that probably the point of this film is to make people get rid of
their naive view of the financial market/industry? E.g. in my case I always
tended to think that it involved cause&effect / action&reaction but this does
not seem to be always true. It triggers indirectly a lot of thoughts about
many other themes (e.g. is self-regulation effective, impact of governments
getting rid of existing regulations, complexity and interconnections in the
financial markets, risk analysis, etc...).
\- "Active measures"
([https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8135494/?ref_=nv_sr_1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8135494/?ref_=nv_sr_1)):
pending... (cannot hear about this stuff anymore, but the documentary has a
high rating, so I'll give it a try)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Fix the license of Apple Swift - r0muald
https://github.com/apple/swift/pull/17
======
r0muald
This seems next-level trolling (it was closed and locked 3 hours ago). Perhaps
GitHub needs more effective ways of punishing those users who actively waste
other people's time?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Much Ado About IE6 - Nycto
http://blog.digg.com/?p=878
======
jballanc
While I appreciate that Digg actually took the time to do a survey of reasons
why people are still using IE6, I don't think the results are really that
surprising to most web developers.
However, just because users are not empowered to switch away from IE6, that
doesn't mean that an IE6 upgrade reminder page is useless. It's just the
"squeaky wheel" philosophy of getting things done. If enough users see enough
"Upgrade Your Browser!" pages, and if enough of them complain to management
often enough, then management might actually do something about it.
Let us not forget that Internet Explorer's market dominance was built on the
notion that, after some time, many pages didn't work in other browsers. The
only way to break that dominance will involve the same, but in reverse.
~~~
treyp
Actually, I'm a web developer and I've been looking for a larger site to do a
survey exactly like this for a long time.
And as far as changing my behavior developing sites, I'll actually word it a
bit differently now -- something like "please upgrade your browser, or if it's
out of your control, take a moment to email your manager or IT department to
ask them to upgrade your browser, as it is 8 years old and growing."
------
Hexstream
"Currently, IE6 usage accounts for 10% of Digg visitors and 5% of page views
on Digg. While this is down from 13% and 8% a year ago respectively, IE6 still
accounts for a fairly large portion of Digg usage."
This makes me sick. I seem to recall that when Firefox had about 5%
marketshare, lots of people were saying "Why go to the trouble of supporting
Firefox for only 5%?!". And then now when IE6 has 5%, they don't seem to have
the same reasoning.
(Yeah, just an impression).
~~~
modeless
Just look where the money is: they didn't list stats for ad clicks but I'm
willing to bet IE6 users click more than their share of ads, and Firefox users
less.
~~~
I_got_fifty
That's actually an quite interesting notion. I'd like to see digg show the ad
clicks for each browser.
------
snprbob86
Serve them this: <http://m.digg.com/>
------
dsil
"we’re likely to stop supporting IE6 for logged in activity like digging,
burying, and commenting. Users of IE6 would still be able to view pages - just
not logged in. This won’t happen tomorrow, but we’re thinking about doing it
soon."
~~~
ojbyrne
Since a significant portion of the users were forced to use IE6 at work, the
most likely response of IT managers to this action will be "Oh, so you'll be
forced to spend less of your time at work interacting with digg (and other non
work-related sites)? Sounds good."
------
awolf
To take it a step further digg should try to generate publicity around this
and get other web apps on board.
I'd love to see a "ditch IE6 day" where thereafter I can just pretend all web
browsers know how to render transparent pngs.
------
buugs
13% and 8% down to 10% and 5% if you stop supporting the browser now why
support it previously it seems as though the 3% drop was irrelevant.
The real issue should be who is using ie 6 is it people that are loyal diggers
who have no other option while at work, school, etc... or is it indeed people
who refuse to upgrade or unaware that other browsers exist. It seems the
former with the low percentage.
~~~
I_got_fifty
I'd hate to use a four letter acronym, so I wont.
The IE6 users is mostly people who use it on their work computers, as mention
in the article.
------
axl
Build a rendering engine in javascript. Redirect the IE6 users of the world to
it.
~~~
pilif
<http://code.google.com/p/ie7-js/>
but it's terribly slow.
------
edw519
I have a client that just made the decision to upgrade all desktops to IE7.
They put together a project plan that lasts 6 months. That's what we're up
against.
If you want people at work to use your site you still have to consider IE6.
~~~
simonw
I'm genuinely intrigued: what kind of rough steps are there in a six month
plan to upgrade to IE7? Is it mostly testing existing internal applications
for compatibility?
------
embeddedradical
if reddit, myspace, facebook, twitter, and other applications i don't use also
did this --- perhaps that damn thing would finally die
~~~
GeneralMaximus
IMO, Facebook and Twitter could really change things if they wanted to.
Heck, don't drop support for IE6. Just show a banner on the top of the page
which says something to the effect of "Hey! You're using outdated software.
Would you like to upgrade?". Millions of non-geeks use Facebook/Twitter
everyday. Even if 1% of them upgraded, it would make a hell of a difference.
------
volida
how many users is the 5%?
------
Ardit20
In my university, they still use IE6 everywhere. If a website asked me to
upgrade I can not because we can not install anything on the machines.
However, the machines do have firefox, so I tend to use that, but it does not
come spontaneously to many people to look for firefox, while ie is right there
on the desktop.
As for the article, I did find it insightful in as far as I did not know
before why people continue using ie6. I thought the idea to ask them upgrade
was quite a logical one. However, although it might work in forcing my
university to upgrade, I am not too sure as I suppose the IT department has a
lot on its plate and perhaps upgrading their browser is not as important as
say upgrading the online learning environment.
~~~
GeneralMaximus
Upgrading the browser is not too tedious a task. In fact, if your IT
department had left Windows Update turned on, they'd have at least IE7 by now.
Of course, they can't leave WinUpdate on because they did not legally purchase
Windows :p
~~~
fishercs
this is a great point made by someone that has never worked in IT..
Nevermind the fact that nearly all proprietary software on a system may or may
not function correctly with the release of a service pack or a new browser,
testing should always be done before hand which is why auto updates are turned
OFF.
on the IE6 front i completely agree, i have a redirect page setup with a link
to IE 7 for our company website.. IE7 isnt the newest and greatest thing by
any means but its a whole lot better than its predecessor.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google Has a Plan to Disrupt the College Degree - simonebrunozzi
https://www.inc.com/justin-bariso/google-plan-disrupt-college-degree-university-higher-education-certificate-project-management-data-analyst.html
======
codingdave
I think short-term vocational training is great. The days of getting a degree
in order to get a job should be over. And if programs like this succeed,
hopefully the pricing on degrees will correct.
But that doesn't mean degrees are getting disrupted - it means people are
recognizing that their purpose is orthogonal to getting a job. Anyone who
still wants a T-shaped higher education still will get value from a degree.
~~~
jfengel
There's a lot they won't get from a six-month program, like writing and other
soft skills. (Not that a lot of four-year degrees really end up doing a good
job of teaching those, either.)
I'm very interested in Signum University's program to focus specifically on
these[1], at a cost higher than a MOOC since it involves a lot of interaction
with a human being, but still much lower than a four year degree. Between the
two it might just be possible to actually get T-shaped education without the
distressingly high cost of a traditional diploma.
Then we just need to get people to actually hire them, instead of taking the
easy path of requiring a four-year degree as a proxy for education.
[1]
[https://path.signumuniversity.org/badges/](https://path.signumuniversity.org/badges/)
------
jfengel
I'm a big fan of ending the requirement for four-year degrees to get entry-
level jobs, though I'm a bit surprised at the ones they've chosen: project
manager, data analyst, and UX designer. IT support makes a lot of sense, since
it's a fairly well-defined set of tasks, but the others strike me as wider in
scope and thus harder to teach in six months.
If they're really making good on their goal of hiring these people, at decent
salaries, with the idea of starting in apprentice-style positions and learning
on the job, then that would be fantastic. The experience needed to do those
jobs isn't really well served by more years of book-learning anyway.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Blu-Ray Reauthoring Project - Adamantcheese
http://temporary.directory/blog/10-23-2018.html
======
hlandau
The Blu-Ray video format is pretty cancerous in terms of DRM; there's not
really any salvaging it.
One of the most nauseating restrictions of all is that replication plants
aren't even allowed to fabricate Blu-Ray video discs which don't have AACS.
This means that if you want to get some Blu-Ray video disc fabricated which
contains Creative Commons content and you disagree with DRM, for example,
you're out of luck: AACS is _mandatory_. Archive Team had issues with this -
as I recall, the best compromise they were able to find was to just put video
files on a normal Blu-Ray data disc and get that fabbed. I suspect this is
enforced using conditions in the patent licences Sony hands out to fabs or DRM
in the software used by fabrication plants, or both.
You start to realise why this is the case when you research how the production
process works. When you send a Blu-Ray video disc to a fab for mass
production, you don't apply the encryption; the fab does, and you have no
control over the process. Moreover, this process involves sending a request
for encryption keys to AACS LA, who then issue newly-minted encryption keys
for the disc. Yes, this means that all Blu-Ray video discs must be centrally
approved by a single organisation in realtime, as an integral part of the AACS
application process. Which explains why AACS is mandatory; it lets them catch
attempts by commercial pirates to get discs replicated in mass.
So I don't think Blu-Ray can ever become a non-helldamned format. The fact
that the specifications are all secret is just the icing on the cake (this is
actually the case for DVD too, open source implementations all had to reverse
engineer it). I always found it deeply ironic that by comparison, the AACS
specification, which specifies a DRM scheme, a type of thing fundamentally
dependent on security by obscurity, is freely available.
~~~
pathartl
I find this deeply amusing. I see how this could have worked in the DVD era,
but these days with all of the options we have it's no surprise why most
people don't have bluray players. It is kinda sad though because as much as
streaming gives us options, the quality is always terrible.
~~~
superflyguy
YouTube and Netflix stream for me just fine. Are you on 4g/fibre?
~~~
Jaruzel
Theoretically, UHD (4k) blu-rays can go from 80 mb/s to 120 mb/s depending on
the authoring of the disc, compared to Netflix's maximum of 25 mb/s that's a
massive difference.
However... unless you have a UHD projector, or VERY large TV (60"+) then you
are unlikely to see the difference under normal viewing.
Where I feel streaming typically fails, is in the audio. They may 'say' it's a
5.1 surround sound mix, but if so, why does it sound _so_ flat compared to the
same film on blu-ray ? All I can think is that the audio is compression is
also 4x as compressed which to our ears is quite significant.
~~~
yathern
Actually even at 1080p, Netflix streams are visibly worse quality than blu-
ray. Particularly in the compression of dark colors. I'll occasionally see
color-banding, which you never see in Blu-ray.
~~~
Jaruzel
Oh don't get me wrong, I'm 100% in the Blu-ray camp; Netflix is for casual
viewing, but proper viewing such as big hitter movies are on blu-ray always
(I'm yet to get a 4k projector).
------
AdmiralAsshat
I wonder, with some amusement, how much the current state of multimedia
ripping, editing, encoding, MUXing, etc. owes to the underground community of
internet nerds that just wanted to watch their anime.
------
mrec
I'm a little puzzled as to why he's so set on having a physical disc as
output. If this is for personal use, wouldn't it be easier to just rip the
episodes to mp4 using Handbrake, which can also add subtitles? And once you've
got eps as separate files, no need for menus.
I buy a fair few Blu-Rays, but I've never watched one directly. It's just a
distribution format for me.
~~~
esotericn
Yeah. I take the UNIX approach to media storage, everything is a file.
If it's not a file, that's probably due to some anti-user nonsense (a dvd,
bluray, whatever could just be an FS with an mp4/mkv/whatever file on it, but
it's not, 'cos DRM.). A challenge, then.
------
conwaytwitty
I personally own a lot of dvd's and blurays, but it's been a while since I
actually watch them in that format.
I just rip the disc to my harddrive, demux/convert what i want (usually just
the main audio to flac), then remux to mkv and store the result (video + audio
+ eng subs + commentary tracks). Then just watch in kodi/plex.
Dealing with the actual discs etc seems just weird, neither dvd nor bluray as
a media was never any fun to use. Using a remuxed copy of a tv series i'd be
half way through an episode by the time the trailers and fbi warnings stopped
playing on the disc version.
~~~
sigi45
I had probably 400 DVDs and i never started with BluRay.
Not because of the cost, i can afford what i like to watch, but having to buy
the physical copy, which i would rip and put on my storage system and than
would probably need to store or throw away, sucks.
Why can't i just buy a digital BluRay? Like yes i can do whatever i want with
it :|
Yes i know people would copy those asap but still AARGH...
~~~
compsciphd
If you're really rich, you can. Kalaidescope. But the studios really fought
them hard on that.
~~~
sigi45
"I liked it so much I had it installed in all of my homes."
-_-
~~~
jumelles
There's also a whole section about their experience installing systems on
yachts!
------
gambiting
"Blu-Rays are very hard to edit and it's no wonder that they're dying in
comparison to streaming"
I see zero corellation here. Out of people buying blu-rays maybe 0.00001% will
want to rip them and edit them.
~~~
lozenge
But they might want to watch a video of their kids' school play or some other
video not from a big studio.
~~~
paulie_a
Do people actually ever watch those videos though? People love to record
events and then it collects dust afterwards.
~~~
jpfed
My family definitely rewatches videos all the time. As they grow, my kids
become new people every year or so; I like the chance to at least briefly
visit every one of the people they have been.
------
ohithereyou
For comparison between BluRay and DVD: I did something similar, also for an
animated series, for DVD. I took DVDs from Japan, ripped the video, and
inserted good subtitles (the original subtitles for the series as released in
the US were trash), and burned to DVD.
The hardest part was making sure the subtitles were in sync. After that, a
simple shell script and dvdauthor were all I needed. With some modifications,
this shell script could also take speedsubbed episodes and produce DVDs
containing between four and six episodes per disc (this was before streaming
simultaneous releases).
To address a question from mrec above about why physical media was chosen - I
was making this set of discs for a friend for a lending library for their
club. The easiest way to move video around at the time was DVD (this was right
as BluRay was taking off). Having the disc images was also helpful in case the
(relatively fragile) DVD-R media got damaged while it was lent out.
------
m-p-3
I'm kinda glad the piracy community exists because of all the tools and file
format they bring to the masses that are useful for legitimate archival
purpose, which are well thought and make sense.
MKV containers with multiple audio tracks and embedded subtitles in actual
text format makes so much sense that you wonder who the hell thought the Blu-
Ray specs made sense.
It tells a lot when mainstream device manufacturers starts sorting these
formats that came from the scene.
------
ocdtrekkie
I haven't done much Blu-ray ripping, but I try to keep an eye on it to make
sure it's still "working" as a thing. I want a movie collection, but I don't
want to invest heavily in maintaining a RAID array of live drives to store
giant 25 GB archives of each movie. I'd much rather just hang onto the Blu-ray
discs, and know that inevitably they all get cracked, so I'll always have
ripping options if I need it.
As a physical disc you can keep in your possession, it's still really the only
way to "own" a movie these days. Vudu is nice, and I'll do a lot of casual
watching via my digital copy codes, but the discs are my "collection".
~~~
aidenn0
A WD 4TB external drive can store 160 25TB blurays for $100. That adds a "tax"
of $1.60 per disc if you rip the raw disc.
I tend to re-encode as libx265 (preset veryslow CRF=18) which is a fairly
transparent reencode at 20-40% the size, which lowers the storage cost to
under $1 per disc. If you also have backups, that will double the cost, or you
can accept the risk and re-rip them if you lose the drive.
[edit] They have 6TB and 8TB options now that are cheaper per-disc if you have
more than 160 bluray movies.
~~~
ocdtrekkie
Or I could just get the disc off the shelf and pop it in the drive on the rare
occasion I want to watch it. What's the benefit to spend the time ripping it?
Like, I manage an ebook library, and I easily spend more time and effort
managing said ebook library than I actually spend reading the ebooks. So I'm
hesitant to bring myself into movie library management when I have a fairly
robust physical storage medium already handy.
~~~
veridies
Kodi has a great interface for browsing movies, and automatically tags things
like director, year, nationality, and summary. My fiancée likes to flip
through that to pick things to watch; it's a lot easier and faster than trying
to figure out all those details from the backs of BDs, which often make it
very difficult to even see the duration of a film.
And it allows me to mix together video files from BDs and DVDs with files from
other sources (a lot of which are commercially unavailable, such as an
Ethiopian film which has never been released except on VHS and a version of
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg which has been modified to fix a color error) into
one seamless interface.
Obviously, though, this is just what works for me. If physical BDs are easier
then by all means go for it.
------
slartibardfast0
Back when I cared about physical media I wrote a substation alpha to blu-ray
subtitle encoder.
It isn't exactly spec compliant. Hilariously, the spec is patented dispite
prior art & simple run length encoding:
[https://patents.google.com/patent/US20090185789/da](https://patents.google.com/patent/US20090185789/da)).
Output is good enough for power dvd when using the admittedly closed source
TSMuxer. Always meant to try to port it to ffmpeg, but it just doesn't seem
worthwhile, given the context of Netflix.
[https://github.com/slartibardfast/punkgraphicstream](https://github.com/slartibardfast/punkgraphicstream)
~~~
Adamantcheese
I actually tested out PunkGraphicsStream as a subtitle renderer, but it had
issues with some fade effects which is why I had to go with easySup instead.
------
babypuncher
What a strange end-goal. I'm not sure why you would want to "reauthor" a DVD
or a Blu-Ray, as their contents are much more convenient once you've ripped
and transcoded them. The difficulty he encountered doesn't sound like a good
reason at all to buy DVDs instead.
I have roughly 200 Blu-Rays in my collection, and I've watched maybe one or
two of them in an actual Blu-Ray player.
------
pjc50
I'm secretly pleased that I never really took up the format and am still
buying DVDs if I want a hardcopy of something.
------
wccrawford
I'm rather disappointed that he pirated some software for this. I thought this
would be a how-to to help people in the future.
>You can find a copy of the BDFix Pro installer and a keygen here.
~~~
mparramon
He said that the cart page of the software website was blank, the last version
of the software was from 2012 and the web page was last updated in 2014, so he
had no other option.
~~~
mnw21cam
Legally dubious, morally ... make your own mind up?
~~~
superflyguy
Legally dubious? Not sure of the "website is old so pop along to a .ru site"
exemption to copyright law. Did the author attempt to contact the copyright
owners or discover an alternative?
~~~
Adamantcheese
I did attempt to contact the owner of the site. Nothing happened for 2 months.
All other alternatives were expensive or not maintained, so that was the best
I could find.
~~~
mnw21cam
Indeed. It may be legally wrong, but what is the risk that they will actually
sue you?
~~~
Adamantcheese
Likely none. The product in question is a translation and upgrade of a Chinese
tool anyways.
------
zzo38computer
Blu-Ray is complicated and stupid.
A better way is, simply patent-free unencrypted video files with track numbers
and caption streams, perhaps on a HD-DVD disc (without using the HD-DVD video
format). We don't need menus and AACS and all of that other junk, please.
------
johnchristopher
So basically you'd be better off ripping and then adding subtitles and video
files as data on your media of choice (BDRay, HDD, networked HDD, etc.).
------
elheffe80
My son, 11, just asked me "What's a blu-ray?" Need I say more?
------
mixmastamyk
> We'll be using easySUP to convert our ASS file to a SUP file.
Was the spec written by precocious twelve-year olds?
~~~
Adamantcheese
ASS stands for Advanced Sub-Station (Alpha). It's a newer version of the Sub-
Station Alpha format. Acronyms aren't always made to be funny, sometimes they
just turn out that way.
------
SCAQTony
Off-topic: Accessibility-wise reversed out type is difficult to read, if one
must have a black background a green colored font is best.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How to make a DIY home alarm system with a raspberry pi and a webcam - Stronico
https://medium.com/p/2d5a2d61da3d
======
dpio
Awesome, I've got a similar setup, I use BitTorrent sync though to send the
files. The problem with that is I need one local computer to be on in order
for it to sync, then I connect that local computer's folder with Dropbox to
view screenshots remotely. I've also been looking at removing the IR filter
for night time viewing, there are a few blog posts on the c270 specifically,
but I haven't dived into that part of the project yet.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
General Electric Dropped from the Dow After More Than a Century - aphextron
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/19/business/dealbook/general-electric-dow-jones.html
======
kennxfl
This will be a common topic this century. A lot of consolidation is happening
especially with FAANG innovating vertically and horizontally. A lot of old
companies won't be able to compete when Mil, GenX and Y take over.
~~~
wahern
GE is still reeling from the financial collapse. At the peak GE Capital
accounted for nearly half of GE's revenue. The winding down of GE Capital
accounts for most of the decline in GE stock.
Companies like GE are theoretically poised better than most companies,
including many new tech companies, to do well because they focus on producing
products for which mature industrial economies enjoy a competitive advantage,
and continually shift their focus as competitive advantages evolve. As China
moves upmarket and diversifies into services and software, many of today's
tech companies are going to disappear just like their low- and mid-market
industrial forebearers. There are cultural and geographic factors that protect
companies like Facebook and Apple, but expect more Twitters and Googles to
come from China.
Plenty of people are going long on GE. They're decently positioned globally,
it's just unclear if management is going to move forward aggressively or throw
in the towel. Either way the stock seems underpriced.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Greatest Keyboard Shortcut Ever - robertbruce
https://twitter.com/markjaquith/status/582956249123319808
======
danso
No. The official best shortcuts (for OS X):
1\. Cmd-Tab to switch between open apps
2\. Cmd-Up to move up to the parent directory when in Finder
3\. Cmd-L in Chrome/Safari/Firefox to highlight-focus the address bar
------
a3n
Is there an equivalent for windows? Cause I'm getting tired of alt - wait - h
- wait - v - wait - s - wait - u - u
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How Indian Americans Came to Run Half of All U.S. Motels - walterbell
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture-exploration/2018/09/south-asia-america-motels-immigration/
======
stephengillie
This model has led to success for other immigrant groups in other industries.
> _Many followed his advice. “They would give each other handshake loans—no
> collateral, no payment schedule, just pay when you can,” Doshi explains.
> Once a family purchased a motel, they would live there, and the family
> members would do all the tasks needed to run it, from cleaning rooms to
> checking in guests. That helped keep costs down, and profits went toward
> acquiring new motels. By the 1980s Gujaratis had come to dominate the
> industry._
The "killer app" here appears to be a lack of resources beyond established
relationships. Because of this, whole families were willing to spend their
time doing work that most Americans feel is not worth their time.
~~~
sidlls
It's not (just) that most Americans feel these jobs aren't worth their time.
There is a very strong individualist streak in American culture and a very
strong taboo against lending friends or family members money for any reason.
There are plenty of American families who have relations who could easily help
bootstrap a profitable small business in the way described here. It just
doesn't happen that way very often.
Instead the typical means to wealth is inheritance or luck of birth providing
access to investment capital (not loans) and business connections. For every
WhatsApp there's a dozen or more Microsofts and Facebooks (Gates and
Zuckerberg both benefitted from the immense social and financial capital their
families could provide).
~~~
sumeetjain
_> There is a very strong individualist streak in American culture and a very
strong taboo against lending friends or family members money_
I think the individualist streak in American culture is better shown by people
being unwilling to seek help from friends/family. I might call an
unwillingness to help others (assuming one can afford to do so) _selfishness_
\-- not individualism. But what I have seen in American is, as you said,
_individualism_ : People are prideful and want to create wealth without help.
An interesting clarification: People will more readily accept help from
_strangers_ \-- e.g. a Kickstarter campaign, bank loan, or VC investment
doesn't diminish one's pride in the way that the same support from someone's
parents might.
There's talk elsewhere in this article's comments here about the "killer
feature" that these Indian Americans have. I would argue that the true killer
feature is not even access to zero-interest capital. It's a culture that
actively fights against pride and individualism.
There are surely tradeoffs, but it's hard to deny the power that can come from
children and adults alike all looking to family for help... and seeing that
help not as something which diminishes their power but rather as something
that bolsters it.
~~~
iguy
I think it's much deeper than "individualist streak in American culture".
Western Europe in the last 1000 years or so has been a very unusual place...
one aspect of which is having nuclear families not extended ones. Because
(crudely speaking) the catholic church wished to diminish alternative power
structures, such as clans. This led to an unusually open society, which had
many benefits... with generally higher levels of trust among strangers.
But it has some costs, too. Like not having tight connections for
bootstrapping motels in a foreign land.
~~~
jlg23
Unless you have some references, I'd call this a "nice theory" (to be read
with a British accent).
Spontaneously:
* South America appeared to be more catholic than any Western European or US-American place I've visited, but family and extended family are still a big thing.
* Calvinists seem to be much more "open" than catholics to me.
* Damn, I want the secret recipe that lets me set a policy and enforce it in vast areas (at times without any reliable messenger system) and across _many_ generations, even if my successor comes from a different faction within the catholic church.
~~~
pard68
By Calvinists I assume you are referring to Protestants? Or are you actually
referring to Calvinistic Protestants? Just curious, outside of Christian
circles and history I don't think I have ever seen someone reference
Calvinists.
~~~
IkmoIkmo
Might be different in the US, in Europe it's not too uncommon to talk about
calvinists, particularly in certain countries like the Netherlands it's a
well-established term (which is even used there to describe Dutch behavioral
culture, because it's deemed to be so fitting), and separate from other forms
of protestantism.
------
bluedino
>> Once a family purchased a motel, they would live there, and the family
members would do all the tasks needed to run it, from cleaning rooms to
checking in guests. That helped keep costs down, and profits went toward
acquiring new motels.
It is the exact same with convenience stores. Work 12-14 hour days. Only have
other family members work there.
------
CodeCube
If you are interested in these kinds of stories, check out the documentary
[http://www.thesearchforgeneraltso.com/](http://www.thesearchforgeneraltso.com/)
Aside from being specifically about searching for the origin of the general
tso recipe, it talks about how chinese immigrants came to own so many chinese
restaurants across the country.
~~~
overcast
Just recommended this film today to someone! Definitely worth checking out,
even outside your interest of what General Tso actually is.
------
amyjess
I find this interesting, because my family used to take road trips all the
time (annually in the '90s, less often since then), and we mostly stayed in
motels that were part of national chains like Hampton Inn, La Quinta, Holiday
Inn Express, Fairfield by Marriott, Best Western, etc., and I honestly don't
recall the staff being Indian (since we mostly travelled through the
Southeast, most of the employees we interacted with were black). I guess the
owners could have been, but that would mean they're hiring people outside of
family.
I'm wondering if this article applies to just independent motels or if it also
includes franchises of the national chains (at least, I assume the national
chains use a franchise model). I'd be honestly surprised if independent motels
were a full half of the number of motels in the US, since the chains are
_everywhere_.
~~~
DhirubhaiPatel
90s is far to early. The anti-asian immigration laws were repealed only in
1965 [1] only to benefit Poles and Italians but then also ended up benefiting
Indians and Chinese. Many of them came to USA during that time and toiled
mostly in menial jobs. It was only around late 80s that they had gathered
enough influence to buy motels and such and this motel takeover was much more
visible during early 2001s. In the Obama era recession the property prices
dropped further and many Indians purchased even more motels.
Also the Patel community is not really into high end motels like Hampton Inn.
They are into Motel 6, Super 8, Choice Hotels, etc.
[1]
------
phakding
It's common enough that urban dictionary has a definition for Potel (patel +
m/hotel)
------
aloukissas
On the same note, I recently watched this video covering how Cambodian
immigrants ended up running so many donuts shops, especially here in SoCal:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQLtRRe5EBc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQLtRRe5EBc)
~~~
hnzix
And Tippi Hedren bringing Vietnamese refugees into the nail salon business.
51% of nail technicians in the United States and 80% in California are of
Vietnamese descent.
[https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32544343](https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32544343)
------
mirimir
I became aware of the Gujarati hospitality empire some decades ago, when my
work involved community organizing in the rural US. I was finding that just
about all the old motels on state highways were run by Gujaratis. And when I'd
become a regular, some would share about their experience. And would invite my
friends and me for dinner, which was heaven. Especially given that the
alternatives were typically burgers, steaks or fried chicken.
------
sophiac
This book provides the investment philosophy behind the Patel success and how
it can apply in other realms.
The Dhandho Investor: The Low-Risk Value Method to High Returns by Mohnish
Pabrai
The author is an investment manager with a focused value strategy.
~~~
hoodwink
+1 Dhandho Investor describes this same story and the philosophy / technique
to replicate this approach in your own life
[https://www.amazon.com/Dhandho-Investor-Low-Risk-Method-
Retu...](https://www.amazon.com/Dhandho-Investor-Low-Risk-Method-
Returns/dp/047004389X)
------
igravious
I look forward to the next National Geographic article in this series where
they document in detail how American Jews came to run a substantial proportion
of U.S. media!
edit: I need to put this more judiciously :) run => exercise control over
------
cryptozeus
I am from gujarat, do not own any motel. In my experience I can definitely
believe this to be true. Personally know so many people heho owns motels. I am
shocked about the 50% though!
~~~
jessaustin
No one who travels and stays in small-to-medium-sized hotels is shocked by
this. I have a complaint, however. We have so many Indian-Americans
distributed all over the nation, and it is still fairly difficult to find good
Indian food outside big cities.
~~~
balls187
Good Indian food doesn't exist in the US.
Take a trip to BC, or the UK, and you'll see what I mean.
~~~
ahstilde
This is incredibly diminutive of Indian cuisine in America.
The Bay Area itself has Zareen's (Michelin guide) and Rasa (Michelin star).
Yes, the UK has much more phenomenal Indian food, but to say the US has none
is wrong.
~~~
th1nkdifferent
I'm sorry Michelin star means squat for Indian food. I have tried both and
they are pretty crappy.
------
known
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakireddy_Bali_Reddy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakireddy_Bali_Reddy)
exploited the Indian caste system to bring young Indian women and girls to
Berkeley, California, From 1986 to 1999, he and his family members and
associates forced them into servitude and sexual slavery and to work in his
Indian cuisine restaurants
------
JohnJamesRambo
Can someone tell me why the surname of Patel is so predominant in the hotel
owners? The article doesn't really explain why.
~~~
newhotelowner
Patel + Hotel owner here.
We are from Indian state Gujarat. Patel is the most common last name in
Gujarat.
90+% of Patels I know immigrated to the USA through chain migration. My dad's
sister-in-law's sister (A) & her husband came to the USA in last 60s early
70s. Sister (A) applied for the immigration visa for my dad's sister-in-law.
My dad's sister-in-law and my dad's brother immigrated to the USA in the late
70s. My dad's brother applied immigration visa for all his brothers & sisters.
My dad & his family (including me) immigrated to the USA in the late 90s.
Roughly 200+ of us were migrated to the USA because of the sister (A). Half of
them speaks & understand very very basic English. They only have limited
options for the job. Mom&Pop kind of motel is easy to run, only requires
talking to a few people and its mostly same every day. So they work their butt
off for a few years and buy a small motel.
Those who can speak little better English end up working at someone else's
hotel when they move to the USA, and from there with the friend/family's help
they buy their motel.
~~~
0xcafecafe
>>Patel is the most common last name in Gujarat.
Fellow Gujju here. It is "one" of the most common last names in Gujarat.
Probably it might be the most common last name of Gujjus outside Gujarat but I
doubt it is so inside the state.
------
rurban
The 50% figure is not ownership, but managing. The article misses several
important points why the Gujariti could take over the whole south and west in
all cheap hotels. The main reason is a special Visa execption, very similar to
the Chinese cook visa exception. Family members can easily come over and work
there. So they can undercut all costs in running a hotel, esp. with Central
American room cleaning. The big chains saw this advantage and put a Gujariti
manager everywhere. They replaced room cleaning step by step and are also
doing the small repairs by themselves. They have a strong community to help
each other out. Biggest problem is room cleaning though. It's a different
experience, it smells. Who knows what kind of chemicals they use. For sure the
wrong ones. When they advance to $120 hotels is it getting better though, then
they can afford proper room cleaning again.
------
pixi02139
So what else is new? How come every other cop - especially in the North east -
is named Dennehy or O'Reilly; every other landscaping firm is owned by people
with surnames like Caruso or Zanatta; every other construction firm in
California (esp. SFBA) is owned by people with surnames like Monahan and
Shanahan.
Ethnic professions are nothing new, and part and parcel of American immigrant
history. Just another chapter...
------
duxup
My understanding is that immigrants often have a high rate of
entrepreneurship.
It's always nice to hear about people coming to the US and not just taking a
chance coming to the US, but also taking advantage of those freedoms to take
the risk of starting a business and the massive amount of work that it takes
to do so.
~~~
iamgopal
The environment back home is so fu __d up, that , whole family working 12
hours a day seems like real stress reliever. My uncle who went USA and doing
the motel thing, used to have business in India. i.e. they were well to do
also in India and went there not for more money but lifestyle and education
opportunities that India can not provide.
------
anad7
While it's certainly true that people from Gujarat are business minded, I have
observed that they are equally narrow minded, especially when it comes to
selecting whom they work with and they almost always select a fellow Gujarati.
I have personal experience with this, I had a Gujarati classmate and we had
plans for starting up after our college, he later went on to work for his
brother in law (who you already guessed it worked in the hospitality
industry), he only told me later when I asked that he was pressured by his
family to work with them exclusively. You may think that this is a one off
example, but it's not, nearly all people I came across had similar mindset.
Also they contributed largely to the election of Modi as a PM in India, who is
also ( __drumroll __) a Gujarati, now this may be good or bad depending on how
you look at it.
After living in western countries for well over 50 years (calling themselves
American, Canadian and British etc), they ooze pride about their
entrepreneurial heritage; but they still vote and contribute money towards
electing a man whose past screams bloody murder and that is plain hypocrisy!
------
Ramesh535
Gujus(Indian Gujarat people) are not just in USA but even within India they
are mostly money lenders and resellers. Most Gujus do not stay in Gujarat,
they are business people(buying and selling only no production)
------
RickJWagner
Awesome. I love stories where hard work pays off. Hats off to this family.
------
JoeAltmaier
Anybody have any real statistics on this? <citation>
~~~
gnahckire
I have a datapoint.
I went to university w/ someone's whose family ran a bunch of hotels & motels
in the San Jose area.
His surname was Patel.
------
dalbasal
_" No boundary existed between work and life."_
I'm some senses, this is a story about an older way of doing things.. or a
capitalism that has existed at a smaller scale alongside the I
understand/liberal system we generally think of as capitalism (or socialism,
really).
That is, things work by convention, affiliation and duty. They don't work
through formal agreements, roles and contracts.
Family is a true economic unit, with productive capacity, credit potential and
such. Affiliations with other families are important.
The ability of one hotelier family to assess an informal loan to another
one... Its not necessarily worse than a Banks's.
------
DhirubhaiPatel
Gujarati here. Our success in Motel and Gas Station industry can be attributed
to the following. The same model then also can be seen in tech industry. I
have explained below :
"Ability to establish trust while bypassing all the conventional channels."
Coming from a socialist country like India to USA I noticed that transaction
costs in USA are damn too low simply because of the trust factor. There is no
two factor auth each time you do a credit card transaction, you can do self
checkouts at Walmart etc. etc. Many of first world citizens might take this
for granted but these factors give a huge boost to economy. There are more
transactions and less wealth is destroyed just to enforce a contract.
We Gujjus take this to the next level in USA. Consider John Smith decides to
run a gas station. He has to appoint a 24x7 attendant at say $10 per hour. So
he has to spend $240 per day just for the person. Assuming the profit margin
per gallon is $0.15 he needs to see around 100 cars filling 16 gallons before
that cost can be earned back. Not to mention these attendants steal cash and
other stuff from the gas station store often too. John Smith then hires Jose
who is an illegal Mexican at $5 per hour. Jose steals his cash one day and is
never seen again or is caught by ICE and deported. Or John Smith sticks to the
law and bleeds $240 per day.
Now Dhirubhai Patel buys the same gas station. He makes a phone call and finds
another Gujju student who is currently on F1 and legally can not earn and is
paying heavy rent in bay area. He agrees to man his gas station at night and
sleep in there too. He saves on rent and takes literally no salary until he
completes his masters. Dhirubhai saves Around $100 more on this. Also the
gujju students is much less prone to stealing and cheating and on other hand
is more thankful to Dhirubhai. After completing his masters this kid joins a
reputed tech company and later employs Dhirubhai's daughter as an intern.
Everyone wins.
I see a lot of hate for Indian tech workers among white nativists tech workers
on apps like Team Blind and also on twitter (search for HR392 on twitter).
They correctly point out that Indians have been succeeding at a much greater
rate than natives. They claim that Indian managers tend to hire Indian
employees even in top firms like Google etc.
That might be true as Indians quickly build trust among each other. It is
common for a new H1B from India to work for a startup at least for 2-3 years
just because founders helped him come to USA even though salary is lower (I
did this). Both my founders were Indians and the company was successfully
acquired. I left within 6 months of acquisition to join one of the FANGs.
Note: I think the lack of proper deterministic path to green card actually
forces smaller ethnic groups to huddle together instead of being more
individualistic. This in some way prevents assimilation. There are over 200K
tech H1Bs who are here for decade or more and yet wont get their green cards.
A lot of them would feel safer in companies where their manager is Indian, CEO
is Indian etc. than a general white owned company and might be willing to work
for less for the safety of job and presence in USA. Same goes for motels,
farming, gas stations and many other businesses which are being completely
cornered by Indian-Americans.
~~~
balls187
> I think the lack of proper deterministic path to green card actually forces
> smaller ethnic groups to huddle together instead of being more
> individualistic. This in some way prevents assimilation.
Every ethnic immigrant group huddles together, regardless of visa status. That
is basic human nature.
------
sunpatel
As a second generation patel I can say entrepreneurship runs in our blood.
Although my dad's hotel did not work out, I've never had a full time job with
benefits and I've spent 11 years trying to build iorad.com.
~~~
anotheramala
Cool app idea
------
rblion
Story of my life.
------
justboxing
The story totally checks out. I moved from Boston to San Francisco in 2006,
did a cross country drive. Back then we only had flip phone, so I would use my
laptop and The Microsoft Streets software with a GPS. Every day, around 3 PM,
I would pull in into the parking lot and locate a Motel 30 or 40 miles ahead
using the GPS and Streets software, and call and book a room.
8 out of 11 motels I stayed in were owned and run by Gujjus (Gujaratis,
originally from the state of Gujarat in India). I was really surprised by
this, because until then, I was only used to seeing East Indians working
either in Tech or in Gas Stations, 7/11s.
Being a 1st generation Indian immigrant myself, almost always the owners would
relate to me and tell me their immigrant story. And yes, almost all of them
said the same thing the story mentions, i.e. borrowing money from family to
buy a run-down / cheap motel business, live in it and work on it. One of them
even shared their Gujju dinner with me as I'd arrive late and all the
restaurants were closed in the Area ( Eureka, CA)...
Not all of them carried the business forward though. 1 guys son was working to
be an Airforce Pilot and another's daughter was going to Law School. As told
by their fathers neither one wanted anything to do with the Motel business,
but they put in their work as kids, working at the motel while off school and
such.
After moving to San Francisco, I met another Indian-American "Patel" , born to
Indian immigrant parents. He too had a family run motel in Portland and would
tell me stories of how everyone in the family had to pitch in to make it work.
Gujjus are hard working people and I really admire their work ethics and grit.
~~~
brandall10
My last ex was Gujarati and her father owned a Holiday Inn Express and a Days
Inn. We both worked remote at the time and a good chunk of our relationship
was spent staying at various hotels under the IHG banner for the "owner's
rate" (a small denomination less than $1).
Their network went well beyond any particular industry though. The first
family friend to come to this country ended up in Houston in the early 70s,
quickly accumulated wealth by innovating accounting techniques for big oil. He
sponsored the next wave, which included her father who started as a nuclear
plant engineer and travelled around the country for a couple decades before
moving into finance then hospitality.
Each successive wave would sponsor others - they all were relatively
successful in India but came here to be executives at tech companies,
surgeons, professors, real estate investors, etc. They really took care of
each other.
While the family did much of what was mentioned in the article, including
living at the Days Inn for a couple years at one point, it didn't mention
anything about partnership stakes in these properties. That seemed to be a big
thing, or at least I had the impression that diversifying property portfolios
was common. Her father owned his properties outright but that was because he
bought his partners out during the financial collapse in 2009. When we last
talked 2 years back, he was looking to acquire new partners and invest in
other properties.
As you say, there was a tension to bring the children in but they had little
interest in moving to a place in a so-so part of Florida - the children were
well educated, travelled, cultured etc and preferred to live in big cities. My
ex and I did grudgingly discuss it as being an option if we started a family.
------
CodeSheikh
Is the author generalizing other South Asian immigrants as Indian Americans?
Or is it factual that Indian-Americans do own 50% of motels in the USA?
Because I have seen a lot of Bangladeshis, Pakistanis and even Arabs owning
motel businesses across the USA. I am not cleared about this just from reading
the article alone.
~~~
sandworm101
I think it safe to say they mean "Indian American" in a racial rather than
national context, akin to "African American". So I'd take it to include people
who have ethnic ties to the entire Indian subcontinent, including Pakistan and
Bangladesh.
As a Canadian who has lived many years in the US, the casual use of racial
descriptors still shocks me. I find is very discomforting to be asked my race
on forms, to see national news talk about how different ethnic groups feel
about this or that.
~~~
nyolfen
indians were categorized as white for govt purposes in the US until the late
70s when they petitioned the government for a census category so they could
benefit from affirmative action. same deal as the new MENA category
~~~
amyjess
Indians don't have their own census category now, either. They're officially
considered Asian; the census lumps them in with East Asians and Southeast
Asians.
~~~
nyolfen
1980 Census
This year added several options to the race question, including Vietnamese,
Indian (East), Guamanian, Samoan, and re-added Aleut.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_ethnicity_in_the_Un...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_ethnicity_in_the_United_States_Census)
------
jiveturkey
TLDR: via aristocracy (a good version of it), more or less. IOW, the hard work
of generations prior, with "compounded interest" of the hard work of each
generation since.
This is definitely worth reading. This short and simple article has lots of
lessons.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Made this today, RankMyPlaylist.com - physcab
http://www.rankmyplaylist.com
======
dmact
You gotta let me see something before I have to sign up for an account. Top
lists, maybe?
------
pedalpete
What makes the 'best' playlist??
You need to explain more about what the site does. I have no idea how it is
shared, how I get my playlists into the site, etc. etc.
I'm not willing to just go down the path because it is there, you have to
interest me and lead me a bit.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Men and women explore the visual world differently - Libertatea
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2012/8981.html
======
adrianhoward
Anybody got access to the original paper?
I'd be interested for how they controlled for this (e.g. they talked about
threat assessment in the OP - is that down to biological gender differences,
or learned behaviour - e.g. would males with builds/experiences that seem to
make them more likely to need to evaluate threat have similar patterns).
The "The study represents the most compelling evidence yet that, despite
occupying the same world, the viewpoints of men and women can, at times, be
very different." line is overstated also. There's been compelling evidence for
some time that male/female visions systems are interestingly different in
places. For example:
* Colour perception - <http://www.journalofvision.org/content/12/1/18.full>
* Peripheral vision - <http://www.citeulike.org/user/neilh/article/1181022>
Not seen anything on the eye tracking front before - but I'm mildly suspicious
of the way it's presented since we already know that eye tracking exhibits
cultural effects (e.g. the F-pattern in left-right-top-down reading cultures).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
My war on SQL - adamo
https://financialcryptography.com/mt/archives/001207.html
======
jacquesm
Screw the _war on anything_ , it is not a war.
If you don't want to use SQL fine, don't.
And if you run a site called 'financialcryptography.com' on a secure server
make sure your certificates are up-to-date.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
SpaceX has (gasp) expended its fifth Falcon 9 in a row - rbanffy
https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/04/spacex-is-gasp-going-to-expend-its-fifth-falcon-9-in-a-row/
======
perilunar
Looking forward to the block 5 launches. The recent launches without landings
are getting a bit dull, especially after the excitement of the Falcon Heavy
double landing.
~~~
practice9
I hope that block 5 launches will become "boring" in the near future (no pun
intended).
As in, reusable rocket launches become such a common thing as airplane
flights.
~~~
neverminder
Exactly. I hope it finally lights a fire under asses of the likes of ULA,
Ariane Space and Roscosmos. It's time for a space race of 21st century -
destination Mars.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google and the Customer Service Myth - bayleo
I think this deserves its own discussion as it isn't _directly_ related to the Google reorg.<p>As far as I can tell Google never received any complaints on their _customer service_ until the release of the Nexus One. It seems like tech journalists everywhere immediately pounced on Google's poor customer service for the device, despite the hardware being produced by HTC and the network being provided by T-Mobile. Since then, people seem to have latched onto the zeitgeist and extended the label to Google Apps, Gmail, and even core monetary products like AdWords/AdSense which I would argue do have sufficient customer support.<p>I don't fully understand why we, the generally technocratic crowd on HN, are doing this. Google, like every company, has finite resources, so the more they focus on customer support, the less focused they become on polishing & innovating. They have a pattern of taking an everyday product (like an email client) and making it so commonsense/easy-to-use that it no longer needs customer support. I assume this is why Gmail was in beta for so long. It was simply a disclaimer slapped on a fully-developed product that there wasn't going to be reps standing by to take your calls. It's almost as if they're betting that things like a word processor are becoming so quotidian that the product won't need to be supported; a bet I would not take them up on.<p>I almost expect these sort of criticisms when I'm reading something like _Wired_, but I would think HN would have different priorities when it comes to customer service. Think about the last time you downloaded a piece of software; did you chose to download the stable version, the beta, or _the nightlies_? In other words, when given the choice would you choose a technically superior product or one that is better supported?
======
dman
Depends on what I going to use it for. Nightlies in a trial virtual machine,
beta on my backup machine, stable on my workstation and long term support in
my business. Business oriented products like Google merchants and Google
checkout do not give you a direct way to talk to someone at google. That is
inexcusable in my book.
------
JayRnotes
seems you haven't use google at all my friend, google is not just a search
engine, but they do have many other products. products like google checkout
and merchant generate millions of revenue for Google, but google never care to
provide satisfactory customer support, read google checkout forums, you will
find hundreds of frustrated buyers and sellers. plus android market place,
when you have transaction dispute, that means a nightmare, auto generated
reply and countless hours of waiting's to get a answer... no! that's not the
way you deal with money.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ghost Rockets – A crowd sourced UFO investigation - peterstark72
http://www.ghostrockets.se/
======
ansible
I used to be fascinated by UFO stories and such when I was a kid. Part of my
interest in SF in general.
As I grew up, I started to appreciate just how vast space really is, and how
much energy it takes to hop over to even the nearest solar system for a ship
of even small mass, like 1kg.
And after I started studying molecular nanotechnology, it occurred to me that
it is very unlikely that aliens have ever visited us. The is nothing they need
from us that they couldn't get more cheaply closer to home.
And if they did visit us, they would be so far beyond our current technology
level that they could easily observe us without our knowledge.
We have nothing to worry about unless we encounter a self replicating plague,
and by then it will be too late.
~~~
Houshalter
What if they don't care about being observed? They just don't usually get
close enough for us to interact with. And the craft don't need to be
extraterrestrial. They could send a pin sized probe, and with advanced enough
nanotech, build everything they need locally.
~~~
ansible
_What if they don 't care about being observed? They just don't usually get
close enough for us to interact with. And the craft don't need to be
extraterrestrial. They could send a pin sized probe, and with advanced enough
nanotech, build everything they need locally._
If they wanted to observe us at all, it would be most useful to not mess with
the initial conditions, and just capture as much detail as possible. Then
construct simulations with variations as needed.
If they truly don't care about being observed, they have sent probes
interstellar distances to basically troll us. Which seems pretty juvenile.
Either way, they would then need to conduct a giant laser to report results
back. And wait decades to millena as well. For what? Were aren't that
interesting. And they could just simulate different starting conditions for
organic life, and get their laughs that way.
~~~
Houshalter
You are making extremely strong assumptions about their motivations.
Simulations are cool, but it's not the same as observing the real thing. Maybe
they want to keep track of what's going on on our planet, and sending a few
probes would cost almost nothing for an advanced civilization.
Sending back messages isn't very difficult, especially if they only need to
travel a few light years, or at least to the nearest outpost they have.
Regardless, they could easily construct whatever equipment they need in our
solar system. Even if they did build a giant laser, we probably wouldn't even
be aware of it. We've only recently begun to track all the various asteroids
in our vicinity, let alone investigate them in detail. There are entire moons
and planets we haven't mapped in great resolution, if at all.
~~~
ansible
_You are making extremely strong assumptions about their motivations._
Yes, though I believe my assumptions to be well-founded.
_Simulations are cool, but it 's not the same as observing the real thing._
No, they're not of course. But they can achieve a sufficient level of accuracy
for entertainment purposes.
Again, what do we have that would possibly be useful? Science, art? Hah. With
the time and resources needed to launch interplanetary probes, they could run
a whole bunch of sims with all kinds of interesting starting conditions.
That's a lot more convenient.
The other factor in this just how fast / hot sufficiently advanced
civilizations will run at. Your meat brain operates at essentially the 10's of
Hz range. You can get anything done at all because it is massively parallel.
A fully optimized brain of similar architecture could instead be running in
the 10 GHz range. So it would be experience reality about a billion times
faster than you.
So now you want to send out probes to nearby star systems to look for
something fun. Let's say you get lucky, and something interesting has
developed 50 light-years away, so you send a tiny probe at nearly light-speed
there. You've got to wait about 100 years for the first results to come back.
But that is our meat-brain time scale.
In your optimized-brain time scale, you're waiting longer than the universe
has existed so far for the results to come back. That, my friends is boring!
Will you really care about the results 100 billion years from now? Eh,
probably not.
Sure, you could put yourself to sleep to await the results, but then you'd
miss out on everything that is happening locally. Who wants to do that?
------
wturner
For anyone interested in this kind of thing (UFO stories that discount the
idea of aliens etc... ), take a read into the back story of Alexander Weygers.
He was a polymath who patented an invention called a 'disc copter' in 1945 (
about 5 years before the phrase "flying saucer became popular"). There is a
gentleman who has an art gallery down the street from my house who is probably
the premier "expert" on the back story of this guy. I was lucky enough to
apply for a web assistant gig there hence he told me the entire back story
over the course of an hour and gave me a tour of some of the original art he
has from Weygers. To make a long story short Weygers use to live in Carmel
California and was a builder, artist, inventor etc. He invented this "Disc
Copter" invention and his students said that "Men in black suits" would visit
him during the course of their mentoring sessions; and when they did Weygers
refused to talk much about it. Look him up. This documentary looks good btw.
~~~
tjradcliffe
Given that the term "flying saucer" seems to be a misnomer from Kenneth
Arnold's report that described the _motion_ of the observed object as being
"like a saucer skipping on a pond" and his sketch of the object shows
something that looks a bit like a flying wing
([http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4376/798/1600/Kenneth%20A...](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4376/798/1600/Kenneth%20Arnold%27s%20Drawing%20Top%20%26%20Side.jpg))
which notoriously have a bucking or skipping motion in the air, it would be
fairly weird if a disc-shaped object were involved. Edit: there's some
speculation it might have been the German Horten Ho 229:
[http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2011/159/e/d/horten_ho_229...](http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2011/159/e/d/horten_ho_229_by_tr4br-d3icg18.jpg)
It would be like you giving me an inaccurate description of something based on
someone else's report, and me mangling your description into something that
_just happened_ to be very much like the original. It's not impossible, but
you'd have to be pretty optimisic to call it remotely plausible.
~~~
wturner
I didn't mean to insinuate the two things were related in that way.I was just
making a comment loosely related to the topic of the thread.
------
vixen99
I read the synopsis in English but after a couple of minutes of mood music and
a succession of images which do not advance the story I conclude that although
for all I know this is BIG nevertheless I think I'll wait for the 'discovery
headline hitting the media' later this year (or not) rather than sit through
it.
------
UserRights
It would be very interesting to read about how to get funding by EU for a
project like this! Is anybody willing to write about his experiences with the
EU funding procedures?
------
dghughes
As with any UFO enthusiast it's not unidentified flying objects they are after
they've convinced themselves it's aliens.
I'm sure their minds are already made up and they searching for something they
think is there which isn't impartial or scientific.
------
dblock
First, let me begin by saying that there's no doubt that UFOs are alien craft
visiting earth.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why Always Docker? - Fizzadar
http://pointlessramblings.com/posts/Why_Always_Docker/
======
melted
To understand scenarios under which Docker/Kubernetes/LXC are useful, you need
to understand the environment in which Linux containers originated. They were
born in Google data centers, where engineers may routinely need to reliably
deploy tens of thousands of preemptible nodes and tie them together into a
service by providing health checks, monitoring, endpoint enumeration, resource
limits, isolation, and so on. Docker/Kubernetes let you do exactly that. At
Google, though, Borg is run by SREs, and engineers don't have to worry about
managing it, so it is quite economical to spin up even single task jobs there.
Google also makes deployment much easier by using static linking, and
structuring their build system outputs in such a way that they can be either
easily deployed by copying over or packaging into an official, versioned
deployment package (+providing command line flags through Borg config files).
When tasks/jobs go away (get preempted or killed -- servers in this
environment usually do not support orderly shutdown), whatever they wrote to
local disk gets cleaned out, including binaries and data files. Persistent
data is written to persistent, distributed storage backends, where it belongs.
As you can see, most parts of this picture map nearly exactly to how
Kubernetes/Docker are supposed to be used. Used in this way to manage large
deployments, containers provide an unbeatable value proposition.
~~~
jacques_chester
Put another way: Google has built several generations of internal PaaSes.
This unblocks continuous deployment at the final step, so latency from idea to
production falls from years/months/weeks to hours. Or minutes.
Docker's had an interesting life: they built a PaaS, discarded the PaaS, now
they're building a PaaS. Because that's what most developers actually need for
their daily lives.
It turns out that tinkering with V8s is a lot of fun for a lot of people, but
most drivers just want to know how to turn on the car and have the same basic
interface work for any workload: wheel, accelerator, brake.
Disclaimer: I work for Pivotal, which is the majority donor of engineering
effort to Cloud Foundry, a PaaS inspired in part by Google's experiences.
~~~
melted
I wouldn't quite go as far as to call Borg a PaaS. It's at a somewhat lower
level, closer to IaaS. You get a known quantity from it in the form of a
stable, tuned, stripped down underlying Linux image, plus a relatively small
set of services, but you can deploy pretty much whatever the hell you want
without a lot of constraints a "true" PaaS would force you to accept.
~~~
jacques_chester
My understanding is that BOSH is the closest to this from the Cloud Foundry
ecosystem.
------
willejs
This raises some interesting points, and I agree in part.
I think docker makes sense in some cases, single, compiled binaries that
adhere to 12 factor app standards, I'm all for putting in a docker container.
I would then run them on a PaaS, if the reasoning is sound. I am working on a
project doing this currently.
However, shoe horning something like a php-fpm & nginx stack in there, or
anything that doesn't fit the aforementioned spec, seems and mostly is
complicated. Doing something like this has caveats, becomes confusing and when
you look into it, crazy.
I am fed up of the hype and people thinking that docker is the silver bullet
that solves all problems, and should be used for everything.
Ultimately, I feel like a lot of people don't understand how docker works
under the hood, and what it takes to deploy and operate applications in docker
containers in production. The result of this is mostly scary.
I feel like I don't have to go into details about security, entry point
scripts, gosu, multi processes, logging, sketchy build processes, mounting
config volumes, persistent storage, layer caches, networking, links, SDN and
more. These are some of the things you have to work with with, around or avoid
with docker, they are the issues people are not aware of, or don't yet
understand.
~~~
magicmu
I think the hype that you (and the author) are talking about exposes an
interesting problem in products that target developers. Overwhelming
popularity is generally awesome for a business / product, but in this case it
seems that over-use may actually be diluting the core value-prop of Docker. If
people were silly, which sometimes happens, I could see a snowball effect
where Docker is generalized to be wholly un-useful, which would be terrible
for the product. Not that that will happen, but an interesting thought.
~~~
ddw
And often tools that the developer masses love optimize for getting started
quickly ("I can spin up an instance of Elasticsearch in one line!") instead of
what is sustainable.
------
sz4kerto
"These kind of systems have their own configs, be it elasticsearch.yml or
my.cnf. The Dockerfile format is completely fucking useless at this kind of
thing."
A solution I like: use Docker and mount the config as a volume or add it to
the image in an additional build step. (I.e. have a my-app:2.3.4-base and then
when moving to prod, create a new image my-app:2.3.4-prod). The reason why
'Docker in production' is inevitable (as I can see it) is because it makes
trivial to iterate on your whole setup, not just your application code. If you
work with gcc version X and Java version y, then you change and test with new
versions, then you want to version control these changes, and update them in
production easily, within your normal development flow.
(By inevitable, I mean that it's going to happen. Images are the new
packages.)
~~~
ownagefool
I don't really get it to be honest.
Sure, the Dockerfile format is simple but if you need to do anything
complicated, you just call another script that does it. I don't really see how
it harms you?
Also, I don't really understand why he wouldn't run his private registry in
kubernetes if he has such a stack. I'd pretty much run everything in it.
------
markbnj
>> ... and I need none of Dockers scaling properties, so I'll run it direct on
hardware.
What is not "direct on hardware" about Docker containers? There's a bit of a
misunderstanding here, and I wouldn't nitpick on it if I didn't think it
betrayed something about the author's point. In some way or other he sees
Docker as additional overhead, like a VM. While there obviously is _some_
overhead this isn't an accurate picture. As for the overall point of doing
everything in a container, according to various sources that is exactly what
Google does now, for example. The reason is that containers capture
dependencies, and they make for much more fluid and manageable systems. As
with most changes of this magnitude there are waves of adulation and
revulsion, but overall I think this is the new world.
On the elasticsearch point: you can use environment variables inside the
elasticsearch.yml file, and you can set environment variables inside a
container when you execute it so there is a complete pathway to pipe
configuration information into the container. There are really only two things
that cause an issue: discovery and disk volumes. Discovery is a problem
because es uses udp multicast by default, but there are plugins that
substitute other mechanisms for listing cluster members. On kubernetes/GKE we
use a fabric8 plugin for this. Disk volumes are an issue just because most
container platforms don't yet deal well with them. We had to roll our own
solution for dynamically attaching replication controllers to GCE persistent
disks, but there are some better solutions in the release pipe.
------
zwischenzug
I have some sympathy with a 'Why Docker' rant, but recently I've had
experiences which has modified my view.
The separation from code and data has made reasoning about my DB upgrades
(postgres, mostly) much easier.
The 'Docker is great for dev, not prod' view is also one I used to favour, but
it's inevitably true that what begins in dev does not stay in dev.
Finally, the Dockerfile limitations led me to create my own CM tool (ShutIt)
so that I could configure my stateless and complex environments into code that
could easily be understood and changed by the casual dev.
------
bitcointicker
Personally the best use case for docker I have at the moment is for the
testing of chef cookbooks with the Chef Test Kitchen Docker driver -
[https://github.com/portertech/kitchen-
docker](https://github.com/portertech/kitchen-docker)
I can write my cookbooks and almost instantly test them inside a container.
You can even test on multiple platforms at the same time (Debian,Rhel etc) in
parallel. You can perform integration testing using serverspec once the
container has converged to the required state -
[http://serverspec.org/](http://serverspec.org/)
~~~
bazfoo
I found myself doing the same thing for Ansible.
The problem I ran into was where I wanted to test service restarting in a
systemd based environment. Older releases using sysvinit work perfectly fine.
~~~
arianvanp
This is why you should check out systemd-nspawn. It was designed especially
for this use case.
Also. If you're on upstart, give lxc a shot. We currently test our ansible
scripts by deploying to lxc by giving each container a static IP in a bridged
network to simulate our production environment. Just swap ansible inventory
files. Works like a charm.
------
meirelles
For my use case chef makes much more sense. I like docker, actually is a very
important tool to my development environment and testing, but with many moving
parts in production, some of them needing persist data, would be a hell split
and manage so many app containers. I can't see how Docker would help me save
time. To production LXC/KVM/nothing + chef is usually better to me.
~~~
bitcointicker
You can use chef and docker together, if you really want to. Containers do
provide some benefits as others have mentioned in this thread ( Packaging,
avoiding conflicts, maybe even as a chroot on steroids for isolation
purposes).
You could have a server managed by chef which installs docker, pulls down a
number of containers and then launches them, hooking them together if
required. If random ports are used, chef can capture these and then hook into
a load balancer to register the containers.
You can even have chef build containers from a Dockerfile, to make sure they
have the latest updates, tag the image and then launch them.
So many options it often makes your head spin :-)
~~~
meirelles
Yes. I agree with you. Have many other good uses for Docker. But I found LXC
easier, as it's possible assign a public IP and let the chef mange the
iptables/service discover exactly like a VM/baremetal. Docker drops almost all
caps, which is great for security, but isn't possible a container manage his
own isolated iptables.
------
KirinDave
> "The Dockerfile format is completely fucking useless at this kind of thing."
Right... which is why we have Docker Compose. The point of the image is to
provide the code and the harness for launching it WITHOUT those assumptions.
> "But wait - how do we configure these services for multiple environments
> (test/prod clusters)? They don't read our ENVvars, nor do they know of our
> internal service discovery tools."
This is why docker containers are composed out of other containers. You use an
elasticsearch container as a basis and extend it out with your tools to make
your unique flavor of deployable search unit. This is not a new technique to
anyone, as even the es docker image itself is built off another base image.
I get the impression the writer of this has yet to really internalize what
docker containers are.
> "Tools like pyinfra and Ansible are much more suitable for this kind of work
> (and don't install useless crap to generate a config file)."
Are they though? This is said without really any justification. To me, I'd
100% rather do it via Docker. Next to actually locking everything into one big
solid lump via Nix, Docker actually gives you reproducible and reusable chunks
of code with nearly infinite and modular configurability, without any care
about installations stepping over one another or even library conflicts.
Sure, things like an unprunable stale image cache filling up small disks is
annoying. But the alternative is a continuous and inscrutable agglomeration of
code and configuration files onto a box, eventually leading to total disaster.
But kinda typical of someone who wants to run Go. If you're building Go you've
already accepted that you'll never ship the same executable twice.
~~~
jacques_chester
> _This is why docker containers are composed out of other containers. You use
> an elasticsearch container as a basis and extend it out_
My limited experience is that this recreated all the worst properties of
single-inheritance subclassing. In particular, a lot of subclassing for
construction.
~~~
KirinDave
Docker containers shouldnt have substantial subclassing. In fact, for
production work you should remake it from scratch for security.
The benefit is the triviality and the orthogonality. Docker makes system
components that can't interact and that can cleanly mesh with each other via
simple contracts. As a means of retrofitting older software models into a new
style of system assembly, it's excellent.
------
godzillabrennus
Docker seems to be everywhere these days.
Mostly I see it in dev environments and not production though.
I'm also waiting for Cal Leeming to post his annual update on Docker. Last
years was memorable: [http://iops.io/blog/docker-
hype/](http://iops.io/blog/docker-hype/)
~~~
sleepycal
It's actually coming in about a week or two. I wanted to do it on 17th
(exactly 1 year after) but needed more time to work on it. No spoilers, I
don't want to the ruin the surprise :)
------
Annatar
Why use Docker, when payload can be packaged into an OS package, and run
inside of a SmartOS zone, which is a fully functional UNIX system, yet
completely isolated and running at the speed of bare metal? Makes no sense to
use Docker for anything if I can do configuration managment and payload
deployment with OS packages inside of SmartOS zone.
[https://youtu.be/0T2XFSALOaU?t=1245](https://youtu.be/0T2XFSALOaU?t=1245)
~~~
j_mcnally
Wait.... are you saying docker is slower than bare metal? Have you used
docker?
~~~
Annatar
I'm saying that a lot of people end up running Docker in a VM... why?
I'm also saying that dumping a bunch of files from a developer's laptop into a
Docker image is going to be a nightmare in terms of lifecycle management (how
about a subsystem rollback or upgrade inside of that image?)
And finally, I'm saying I see no point to Docker, if I can just make OS
packages and run them inside of zones. With zones, I have a fully functional
UNIX server in complete isolation and security; with Docker, I have a re-
invented init which isn't really init, and if I want SSH and all the other
things one normally expects of a system, I have to engineer them myself. Why
would I use Docker if I can use zones in SmartOS? What does Docker buy me?
~~~
azernik
a) from a quick look at SmartOS, it looks like yet another implementation of
containerization, with an option to run a full KVM if you want. And it has to
run as a full OpenSolaris-based system image, instead of just being a binary
installable on a Linux system (much more familiar to most developers)
b) "dumping a bunch of files from a developer's laptop into a Docker image"...
I'm sorry, what? I have no idea what workflow you're referring to here.
WRT your specific gripes about subsystem rollback - the usual Docker best
practice is to have each container run only a single subsystem, and to have
images be generated by checked-in Dockerfiles based only on checked-in
resources. If you need to upgrade or downgrade, you spin up a new container
running a different image, fail over to it, and kill the old one.
Once a container starts running it is immutable. Any of the features of a
running container can be inferred just from looking at the Dockerfile(s) that
built it and the connections it has to storage volumes, other containers, and
the external network.
~~~
Annatar
> from a quick look at SmartOS, it looks like yet another implementation of
> containerization
It is the first ever implementation of true containers (zones were released in
2005), and it is modeled on BSD jails.
What is or is not familiar to most developers is irrelevant to me when I am
engineering a solution, because my focus is on encapsulation, stability and
lifecycle management. What others are familiar with is irrelevant in that
case, especially since correctness of operation and data integrity are
priority, with everything else taking a back seat to those.
> WRT your specific gripes about subsystem rollback - the usual Docker best
> practice is to have each container run only a single subsystem
But it doesn't have to be: [http://phusion.github.io/baseimage-
docker/](http://phusion.github.io/baseimage-docker/)
besides, if there is an issue, and one were to follow running only one service
inside of a Docker image, one could not ssh in to troubleshoot the image. With
Solaris zones on SmartOS, it is completely unnecessary to run a single service
or process inside of a zone, because zones offer full isolation. I see no
sense in opting for a harder approach with Docker, especially when that
approach does not offer full isolation nor security.
> If you need to upgrade or downgrade, you spin up a new container running a
> different image, fail over to it, and kill the old one
Which I imagine means that I have to build a whole new image, presumably based
on the old image, then deploy an entire image (what if it is an Oracle
database software, which is anywhere from 800 MB to 2.5 GB, not counting the
database?) It is much cheaper and faster to just rebuild the affected package,
and upgrade it in place inside of a zone, than having to respin an entire
image, especially if that image is several gigabytes.
~~~
tra3
I want to discuss your last point. With Docker, you are free to either modify
the image or the running container. An image is a "template" for a container
and in the scenario you describe, the ideal solution is to create a new image
because it can be potentially running on multiple nodes. However, nothing
prevents you from accessing the container (no SSH required) and modifying the
container in place. Although I do believe it is discouraged.
Thanks for the SmartOS reference, it looks very interesting.
------
willcodeforfoo
It's a good question, especially in the age of small static binaries with no
external depdencies anyway.
Even if the isolation isn't of much value, Docker is still useful as transport
and storage. Getting back to the shipping container metaphor, it's easier to
move things around if they are all the same. And Docker containers are a
pretty good way to do that with code.
~~~
sz4kerto
I don't know if this is the age of small binaries. Maybe in some industries.
The artifacts we're deploying are -- partly because of various constraint,
partly because of the weight of legacy - are between 25-50 MB. Oh, and they
are run inside of a Java app server, that's also 100-200 MB. Ah, and that runs
on a Java VM. The integration tests require a running Firefox, Chrome, V8,
JVM, databases, whatever.
(No, I can't replace these with a couple of command-line Unix tools just yet.)
~~~
lobster_johnson
I suspect the parent is mostly referring to Go.
~~~
auvrw
i do wonder what aspects of Go make it good for the container use-case. both
Docker and the other container system mentioned at the top of the article are
written in Go.
~~~
jacques_chester
> _i do wonder what aspects of Go make it good for the container use-case._
Same as JARs or C/C++ binaries. You can ship the compiled product to the
target runtime and expect it to launch and run as-is.
Languages with an interpreted nature require containers to also ship an
additional runtime, plus a dependencies mechanism.
~~~
techdragon
Go is a step further than these though since it enables "static binaries" you
can run go programs in docker with nothing else in their containers. Just one
file, the Go binary.
Which is amazing and frustrating since it exposes the inability of other
languages to operate in such a simple environment. Even languages like Rust, C
and C++ aren't able to do this reliably all the time, with the results being
highly dependent on libraries and platforms of choice.
~~~
auvrw
thanks for the &replies ;-) ... tbh, Go vs. Rust for the, "i wanna write a
Docker-thing!" use case was pretty much the question i had in mind.
the Rust ppl are looking toward static linking [links]...
[https://internals.rust-lang.org/t/static-binary-support-
in-r...](https://internals.rust-lang.org/t/static-binary-support-in-
rust/2011/48) [https://github.com/rust-lang/rust-
buildbot/issues/24](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust-buildbot/issues/24)
------
zeta0134
I use docker to build a particularly complex (at least to me) NDS project. I
do this because I regularly develop on Windows or Linux, so do my friends, and
none of us have simple working arrangements. The toolkits for NDS are a bit of
a pain to set up, and I want the source for my project to be usable by anyone
in the community, regardless of what platform they use, or what changes happen
to the development tools over time.
Thus, docker. It lets me figure out compile-time libraries and dependencies
once, ever, on one platform. (Debian base.) Then magically everyone else on
the team can just hit up the build script, which calls into the docker image
(building it first if needed) and viola, project built. It's not _nearly_ as
efficient for compiling and making frequent changes, but in our case, the lack
of complex setup and differences between build environments is worth the extra
overhead.
I think there's something to be said for Docker as a development tool in
general; it's nice to be able to play around with development libraries
without (a) cluttering up my main machine's list of installed packages, or (b)
spinning up a virtual machine and sapping my workstation's RAM.
------
MichaelBurge
If it's a single Go binary, I imagine you can just compile it using the
Makefile.
I googled and found this:
[https://github.com/docker/distribution](https://github.com/docker/distribution)
It has a dockerfile that just calls make. Everyone uses the usual unix tools
to build software - Docker makes some sense for deployment, but it's not
really suitable for development(what if I need to add profiling? Dwarf
debugging information? Tweak the optimization settings? Disassemble one of the
object files? Attach gdb to a process? Strace the process to understand it?).
So there'll always be the basic build instructions, and the Dockerfile will
probably wrap them: Adding Docker is way more abstraction than I'm willing to
deal with when debugging a tricky problem.
------
j_mcnally
I for one am excited to get to the point where it doesnt make sense to
dockerize everything?
Docker is like violence, if its not working you aren't using enough.
------
olalonde
> These kind of systems have their own configs, be it elasticsearch.yml or
> my.cnf. The Dockerfile format is completely fucking useless at this kind of
> thing.
confd is meant to solve this problem [0]. We use it at work to keep our
bitcoind server configuration in sync with etcd [1]. Deis (the PaaS) also
relies heavily on it, to generate nginx configuration files for example [2].
[0]
[https://github.com/kelseyhightower/confd](https://github.com/kelseyhightower/confd)
[1] [https://github.com/olalonde/coreos-
bitcoind](https://github.com/olalonde/coreos-bitcoind)
[2]
[https://github.com/deis/deis/tree/master/router/rootfs/etc/c...](https://github.com/deis/deis/tree/master/router/rootfs/etc/confd)
~~~
SevereOverfl0w
I've always felt like config should be "COPY"'d into an image. Etcd/Confd
looks really neat, in principle, but I feel like it's asking for trouble in
terms of "immutable containers."
I'm not overly familiar with the system though, so I may be misunderstanding.
------
dragonsh
Real things get lost in hype cycle, as it is said right tool for right job.
If you are looking for lightweight container VM use LXD. This let you use
saltstack, ansible, chef or puppet etc. CM for system management. Same
configuration can run on bare metal, VM based vagrant on desktop or cloud
services like AWS, Azure, Google or many others.
If you are looking for application containers running single daemmon use
docker (I am not using the term process since many daemons fork multiple
processes and docker still call it single process).
Docker by default doesn't yet support unprivileged containers which poses
security risks on multi-tenant system so can only be used with added overhead
of virtual machine in AWS, Google, Azure etc. But its still good for
continuous integration and development given hype resulted in integration of
many tools around it.
------
euroclydon
If the only instructions or working distribution for a piece of software is a
Docker image and you're not into Docker, than that is probably not an OSS
project you should use.
I learned this the hard way with Bosun. I should have just avoided it totally,
and saved a bunch of time.
------
pekk
Despite its problems, it is an approximation to a packaging standard which
provides enough isolation to manage dependencies successfully.
Does anyone not remember what it was like to fight shared library versioning
conflicts? Do you want to be handling the GitHub issues attached to people
screwing up that kind of thing in 2017 because their distribution or OS X
package manager randomly changed?
~~~
davexunit
>Despite its problems, it is an approximation to a packaging standard which
provides enough isolation to manage dependencies successfully.
Docker is ultimately a non-solution that papers over the problems of
traditional system package managers, language-specific package managers, and
the myriad of software (mostly Java) that no one actually knows how to build
from source. Containers do not compose. There are many runtime environments to
consider, and Docker can't handle anything but containers. You need to use
some other software to manage the host system at the very least. Furthermore,
the container images have no useful provenance for users to inspect. It's a
security nightmare.
Functional package management is the real solution here. Software like GNU
Guix and Nix solve real problems. They remove global state (/usr), enable
reproducible builds, allow unprivileged package management, support
transactional upgrades and roll backs, deduplicate software system-wide for
all users, handle full-system configuration in a declarative way, eliminate
the need to trust any particular provider of binaries, and more.
>Does anyone not remember what it was like to fight shared library versioning
conflicts?
Using Docker to solve this problem is like using a sledgehammer to drive a
nail.
~~~
eropple
_> Docker is ultimately a non-solution that papers over the problems of
traditional system package managers, language-specific package managers, and
the myriad of software (mostly Java) that no one actually knows how to build
from source._
It's interesting that you saythis--I would say almost the exact opposite here:
most of the Java applications are the best-behaved on systems I deal with,
both in terms of execution (it's in the Maven repo) and in terms of process
control (cgroups are nice for, like, a Ruby app, but here I've got -Xmx). The
poorly behaved ones seem to be ones that don't use standard tools, and maybe
I've been lucky but for me that's all third-party and mostly open-source
stuff; a lot of new-hotness stuff (Kafka, _I am looking at you_ , I love you
but you are a pain in the behind to deploy) can't just be run straight out of
the Maven repository with a bash script or whatever.
About the only place I use containerization at all (and I don't use Docker,
for reasons I've described elsewhere around here) is for Ruby or Python
applications where otherwise I do end up with _stuff_ thrown all over the
place and multiple versions of the runtime fighting for supremacy. I'd love to
use Guix/Nix, but it's a hard fight to win in a corporate environment.
_> Using Docker to solve this problem is like using a sledgehammer to drive a
nail._
I wish to upvote this eleven times. I can but do so only once.
~~~
thinkpad20
> I'd love to use Guix/Nix, but it's a hard fight to win in a corporate
> environment.
I don't know how large or flexible your organization is, but I've been driving
hard at my company (which is a bit shy of 100 employees) for using nix, and
it's working. When I started advocating for it there was no small amount of
skepticism, but we started off just using it for a very small and specific use
case, and from there it has slowly but steadily gained acceptance from other
developers (most of whom have no particular interest in FP) as a real solution
to innumerable problems that we have w.r.t. package management. If you're
interested in Guix/Nix, I'd encourage trying to get permission to use it to
solve a specific problem.
~~~
eropple
I'm a consultant. While I can push for a lot if it's conventional, but I have
to pick my battles. That's not one I feel I can win.
------
castell
Run an Linux application in a container like FreeBSD jail or Sandboxie, that's
what I want. I don't need the management overhead
Give me Docker "light" or a good tutorial for LXC(?).
------
NamPNQ
> how do we configure these services for multiple environments (test/prod
> clusters)?
Docker have config ENV varibale and VOLUME, just research about it
------
dschiptsov
The same reason as with Why Always Java - availability bias, self-serving
bias, attribution error and related mass hysteria.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Personal CRM for friendships/colleagues/etc - handpickednames
http://simplerm.co/
======
detaro
Screenshots/demo account/anything to show what to expect inside?
Esp since only social media log-in is pretty much a no-no for me (although
nowadays good to have as an option, since others feel the opposite)
Firefox shows a security warning for the log-in screen due to no HTTPS, and
trying HTTPS shows warnings since a) the cert is only for www.simplerm.co and
b) expired.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Final Fantasy XV: The Kotaku Review - chang2301
http://kotaku.com/final-fantasy-xv-the-kotaku-review-1789400066
======
namaemuta
> One of the first things you see in Final Fantasy XV is a group of four
> beautifully coiffed men pushing a broken-down car down the road
What I saw was a J-Pop group totally misplaced in an American-like desert
town, wearing leather under a hot sun. You can see how the main characters
contrast with the natives of the town who wear less fancy clothes and
specially more common hair styles.
I can hardly empathise with these characters, maybe they are more suited for
teenagers between 14-18 but I find them very plane and boring.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How a Chairman at McKinsey Made Millions of Dollars Off His Maid - tokenadult
http://www.thenation.com/article/the-strange-true-story-of-how-a-chairman-at-mckinsey-made-millions-of-dollars-off-his-maid/
======
pavornyoh
>After a pause, she said, “will you bring me a picture? The next time you
come?” “A picture of what?” I asked her, confused, thinking she wanted a
picture of the house in Saratoga. “A picture of… America,” she said, looking
suddenly wistful..
What a heartbreaking request...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Richard Stallman's Bank Account - JoelJacobson
Anyone knows if he even has one? If so, in what bank? What bank is 100% open source? Like his laptop and its BIOS.<p>Maybe its time to start an open source bank...
======
systemtrigger
"Since I object to general surveillance, I use cash for ordinary retail
purchases. I use a credit card only in the situations where I am forced to
disclose my identity anyway: car rental, airplane tickets, and hotels."
<http://stallman.org/archives/2003-sep-dec.html>
"If you buy by credit card, companies and governments can monitor what you
buy, too. So I buy things with cash. If the business says 'no cash', say 'no
sale'.
<http://stallman.org/archives/2010-nov-feb.html>
"I never use self-checkout machines unless a store gives me no choice..."
<http://stallman.org/archives/2011-nov-feb.html>
~~~
JoelJacobson
How does he get hold of cash? He must at least have an ATM-compatible card. In
what bank?
------
jason_slack
I had to chuckle at this but banks far superseded his passion for completely
open sourced solutions so I think he just tolerates it like we all do...
------
machosx
The Free Banking Foundation.
------
wmf
Bitcoin?
~~~
systemtrigger
He is speaking at the Bitcoin Conference in London this weekend.
<https://sites.google.com/a/bitcoin2012.com/homepage/speakers>
------
glazemaster
How about an "open vault" bank?
------
googoobaby
He keeps all his savings in the form of bath soap.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Two-Liner – The Elevator Pitch of #StartupPR - shanellem
http://www.onboardly.com/startup-pr/the-two-liner-the-elevator-pitch-of-startuppr/
======
pedalpete
Unfortunately, I find their two liner really weak.
"What do we do? We offer content marketing and PR strategy for startups. How
do we do it? We offer a startup-focused three month process that gets our
customers noticed, secures early user traction and acquires new customers. "
Just boiling your business down to two lines, doesn't make it interesting or
understood. I have no interest in what this company does after hearing the
two-liner because they told me what they do, not what they can do for me, and
I think that is a big difference.
It's also just a bunch of buzzwords. Advice I got from a friend long ago was
to speak as you would to a friend. You'd (hopefully) never speak to a friend
in the terms used above. Don't fill yourself with self-importance by using
what you think are big terms, make it simple and make it interesting, and like
the article states, make it short.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Pocket Guide for Bootstrap 4 - iatek
http://bootstrap4.guide
======
axelut
Congrats for the launch, there are a lot of resources there, gonna check them
soon. I have one question about the build of the community, I see this in the
footer "powered by Airstack" and this link to Github
[https://github.com/ThemesGuide/airstack"](https://github.com/ThemesGuide/airstack"),
but on that repo isn't anything. Is that something open source that we can use
to create some similar communities/lists? Thank you!
~~~
iatek
Thanks, and yes the "Airstack" source will be available in the coming weeks.
~~~
axelut
That's great! Already have some plans on how to use it :D
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why aren't (embedded) developers interested in Ada? (2009) - kqr
https://www.embedded.com/electronics-blogs/break-points/4008214/Why-aren-t-developers-interested-in-Ada-
======
orionblastar
Ada is used in Crystal Reports scripting language which it was why it was hard
to learn for Visual Basic developers.
GNAT is free but not the same as commercial ADA languages that need a $10,000
use license per user.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner says the biggest skills gap in the US is not coding - eksemplar
https://qz.com/work/1423267/linkedin-ceo-jeff-weiner-the-main-us-skills-gap-is-not-coding/
======
rorykoehler
You can't lead with soft skills as your lead offering. It's always hard skills
+.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Hands On With The New And Improved Screenhero (YC W13) - jsherwani
http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/26/screenhero-demo-redesign-video/
======
davidjgraph
Being following for a while, looks very interesting. Key thing is what the
pricing structure is will be. We've had the Enterprise Teamviewer for some
time, I like it, but I'm very open to finding an alternative, for various
reasons.
I need to test this out, also. I'm wondering how it compares against having
real-time collaboration natively in web applications. From the video it looks
like other cursors are disabled while text editing is in progress, i.e. one at
a time editing. Although, it's not the same as everyone being able to edit
concurrently, having people edit at the same time as you is pretty off-
putting, this looks like it might actually be a better solution in that
regard.
The advantage is, of course, is if it works OK it's a generic solution to
giving all web applications real-time collaboration.
At a technical level I wonder whether it'll be able to properly detect when to
disable the other cursors correctly for applications more complex than text
editing, maybe an API is needed to signal the correct behaviour where the
sharing couldn't realistically work it out for itself.
~~~
dgoodman
The nice thing about having a native client is that we (Screenhero) have full
control over latency (well, outside of network issues of course!) and
responsiveness, as well as those deep hooks into the hardware to make the
multi-mouse magic happen. Our goal is to make /any/ app collaborative, without
requiring developers hook into our API. I am curious what kind of apps you
have in mind that might need to give hints to Screenhero? Give it a try, we
think you'll find our active-cursor algorithm quite good—and if you don't, we
want to hear your feedback!
------
jvrossb
Huge huge fan of Screenhero. We use it all the time to help our devs debug
issues. When trying to help someone fix a bug in their code remotely nothing
compares.
------
taterbase
We've been loving screenhero. When pair programming many of us can use vim and
tmux but for those developers who use an GUI editor nothing beats sharing the
screen this way.
We've even taken to using it when sitting side by side with laptops to reduce
craning your neck or backseat coding.
~~~
dgoodman
We use it inside the Screenhero office quite a lot too—Aside from eating our
own dogfood, it lets us point without physically jabbing our fingers at the
screen, which is actually pretty powerful!
------
jedireza
Screenhero has been a fantastic tool for me to help my parents with their
computers. Simple. Useful. Currently free. I hope there is a pricing structure
that would allow me to pay for it and still be able to help my parents without
requiring them to pay for copies also.
------
Jemm
In the video they said they were looking at a monthly subscription model which
would be a deal killer for me.
This trend of getting users on subscription sucks.
~~~
dgoodman
Jemm, speaking for Screenhero, we take your concerns seriously (many certainly
share them), so don't freak out just yet! We're trying to think of the right
pricing scheme that doesn't scare off our individual users, and we are
certainly open to feedback and suggestions on this front.
~~~
taterbase
Does Screenhero perform a peer to peer connection or is there a relay server
in the middle the whole time? I imagine a relay server would necessitate a
subscription to keep the lights on.
~~~
dgoodman
We use a peer-to-peer connection for the streaming video, but most of the rest
is mediated by our servers. And future fancy features will require additional
server resources, including video transcoding. So you are right, this is
exactly why we are pursuing a subscription model.
------
ttrashh
We use this working remotely but we use it just as much sitting side by side
in the office. Love this app.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Sony Smartwatch now open-sourced - prajjwal
http://www.linuxandlife.com/2013/06/sony-smartwatch-now-open-sourced.html
======
csense
I would never trust Sony's release of hardware with official open-source
software support, after they removed the official Linux support for old-model
PlayStation 3's [1]. (The support was removed through a firmware update for
hardware in the wild. This firmware update was non-optional if you want to use
subsequently produced official games, or use the console's online service. I
never did either, and Sony and its developers have probably lost hundreds of
my dollars over the past few years as a result.)
This is also the company that put rootkits on CD's [2].
I no longer do business with Sony if I can avoid it.
EDIT: This was downvoted within two minutes? Why?
[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OtherOS#History](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OtherOS#History)
[2]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_rootkit](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_rootkit)
~~~
acc00
Sony is a big multinational corporation. As is the case with, say, Microsoft,
it is not helpful to appreciate its actions as coming from a single entity.
~~~
csense
So if I have a particular experience with them, I can't draw any inferences
about future interactions from that?
Also, _Sony itself_ clearly wishes to be perceived as a single entity, since
they proudly display the Sony brand on all their products and marketing.
I can follow that people -- and corporations -- change over time, and
sometimes problems like this are flukes, rather than part of the fundamental
nature. So I'll stay away from them for a decade or two; if they don't make
any other really sleazy moves in that time frame, I'll eventually give them
another chance if they make something I want to buy.
~~~
pandaman
Had you actually suffered from the Other OS removal? I am asking because
everybody complaining about this on the Internet does not even own a PS3 and
people who actually had ran Linux did not complain about the update as it did
not affect them much.
The only issue you'd had if you used PS3 for computation was the fact that the
hardware had been discontinued (long time before the update), but then it's
been already too expensive for the computing power it provided.
~~~
csense
> people who actually had ran Linux did not complain about the update
I ran Linux on the PS3, and I complained loudly and bitterly about Sony's
actions.
> Had you actually suffered from the Other OS removal?
Yes, I have. I specifically asked the Gamestop clerk for an old model, at a
time when both the old (Linux-supporting) and new (non-Linux-supporting)
machines were available in stores.
I can't speak for sure about a hypothetical alternative reality, but I think
it's likely I would have waited a little longer to buy one, if not for the
Linux feature -- specifically I was worried that the Linux-supporting older
model would become hard to find.
So you can say I wouldn't have bought a PS3 but for its Linux capabilities,
and the removal of those capabilities rendered the rationale for my investment
invalid.
> it's been already too expensive for the computing power it provided
It's not solely a matter of computing power provided. I thought the Cell's
unique architecture was interesting.
Also, in those pre-Raspberry-Pi days, the console wasn't a bad price point to
get a general-purpose system with networking, USB and Blu-ray (especially if
you bought used hardware), that could also do video out to pre-HDMI TV's.
~~~
pandaman
If you did not care for anything other than running Linux why did you update
firmware? It's only needed to play newer games and blu-rays, things you say
that did not matter to you.
This the essential problem that I see (usually put in ridiculous context like
"UASAF used a PS3 cluster and NOW THEY CANNOT!!!!!1!") - if you run Linux you
don't care much about the games and even if you do - all the games you already
had before the update don't go away.
There is no guarantee that new games will ever come again so your ability to
run newer games is not a right. If Sony pulled PS3 off the market instead of
issuing an update you would not get any games as well.
But it's still hard to imagine somebody in need of both Linux and newest games
simultaneously. If you are one of such people - you are member of very unique
and small group. No company size of Sony is ever going to carter to such a
small group.
~~~
krussell
It's not entirely true that "all the games you already had before the update
don't go away". Although you could still play your current games, the
multiplayer portions of those games required you to be connected to the PS
network, which in turn required the latest firmware upgrade that removed
Linux.
I stayed on the firmware with Linux and was fine with not being able to play
new games but it did kind of suck that I couldn't play multiplayer games I'd
already purchased.
~~~
pandaman
This is true, although the MP availability is even less ensured than that of
the new games. MP servers are routinely taken down on all platforms. And for
the same reason the Other OS had been taken down - not enough people used it
to justify the maintenance cost.
------
angusgr
Rather than "open sourced" all I see is "a bit open specced". Yes, the "hacker
guide" has details of what chips are on the board, and how they are connected:
[http://developer.sonymobile.com/services/open-smartwatch-
pro...](http://developer.sonymobile.com/services/open-smartwatch-
project/smartwatch-hacker-guide/) ... and there's a separate page with a guide
to putting it in DFU mode to upload a firmware.
Which is cool, but the chip names could have been found by the people who'd
already done teardowns and the pinouts could be found by buzzing one out
(possibly sacrificially by removing chips.)
The chip datasheets they link were all all already publically available, the
Cypress touch sensor one is even a link to alldatasheet.com(!)
Probably the biggest letdown is the Bluetooth/FM chip made by Sony, arguably
the most useful and most complex device aside from the MCU. That link is to
Sony's marketing specs page with a block diagram and not much technical info
that I can see. I can't find any information about the chip made available to
the public by Sony.
Ironically enough there is a longer 6 page Sony datasheet leaked on datasheet
sites, but even this doesn't have pinouts or begin to explain how the SPI
interface to Bluetooth/FM functionality actually works.
I think it's good that a major company like Sony released even this small
amount of information, although it's worth noting that reverse engineers have
found more information on similar products acting entirely by themselves (take
for instance the PS3 Move controller:
[http://eissq.com/ps3_move/](http://eissq.com/ps3_move/) )
On the other hand I think it's very bad that most people will glance at this
and see Sony "open sourcing" something when they appear to be open sourcing
nearly nothing. The RTOS they used is probably proprietary property of a third
party so they can't open source that, but they could release their application
source code for the smartwatch - allowing people to see how they communicate
with the Bluetooth/FM chip, for instance. That kind of source could be ported
to an open source RTOS.
The optimist in me hopes that detailed technical information will be
forthcoming over time, but the pessimist in me thinks this is the feel-good
last gasp of an end-of-life product. :/
~~~
angusgr
I expanded this comment into a blog post, and corrected some of the factual
errors in the comment: [http://projectgus.com/2013/06/sonys-open-source-
smartwatch/](http://projectgus.com/2013/06/sonys-open-source-smartwatch/)
------
akiselev
I'm disappointed I can't find reference schematics for the smartwatch but they
provide datasheets and specific chip models at
[http://developer.sonymobile.com/services/open-smartwatch-
pro...](http://developer.sonymobile.com/services/open-smartwatch-
project/smartwatch-hacker-guide/)
The watch has bluetooth, a touchscreen, and an STM32F2 microcontroller
[disappointed its not a F4 :( ] which makes it a powerful and cheap
development kit. Their instructions for flashing the firmware of the chip uses
open source dfu-util so IIRC you'll be able to flash a binary to the STM32F2
from any compatible toolchain. Surprise, surprise, this means Arduino from
LeafLabs!:
[https://github.com/leaflabs/www.leaflabs.com/blob/master/pos...](https://github.com/leaflabs/www.leaflabs.com/blob/master/posts/major-
update-experimental-stm32f2-and-f1-value-line-in-libmaple-master.md)
Looking at [http://www.cmw.me/?q=node/59](http://www.cmw.me/?q=node/59) you
could even replace their PCB with your own, preserving the LCD connections and
upgrading the processor to an even more power efficient one with a sensor or
two added on (this is a four layer board at most, you could theoretically make
the ICs even denser). However, you'll probably want to find someone with a
pick and place + reflow at a hackspace or something unless you're confident
you can reflow leadless chips and 0201 components yourself.
~~~
TheLegace
I love the STM32F4, have to tried the libopencm3 library?
~~~
akiselev
Nice library, haven't seen it before. I'll check it out, the USB libraries
seem to be a bit more bearable than the usual stacks I've seen.
------
virtualritz
The legalese in the "Important information – read this before flashing
alternative firmware" section on
[http://developer.sonymobile.com/services/open-smartwatch-
pro...](http://developer.sonymobile.com/services/open-smartwatch-project/)
seems to me to try to discourage people from modding the firmware.
Feels totally half-assed to me, after reading this. Either I want people to
hack & play and support them with it or I don't. How can you damage the
hardware of this simple device with a hacked Android? What do these lawyers
think? That someone hacks a version of Android that makes the SmartWatch go up
in smoke and every kid that has bought one and got a scratch on their glass
will load that up so they can claim warranty on their device? Seriously?
------
axyjo
Here's the TI-Chronos [1]. It's similar to the Smartwatch in many ways, and is
based on the MSP430 chips used in the TI Launchpad.
[1] -
[http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/EZ430-Chronos](http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/EZ430-Chronos)
~~~
georgemcbay
As a big TI fan (I love hacking on the MSP430, Stellaris, BeagleBone, etc),
the Chronos would be great if it weren't so incredibly 1970s/early 1980s dorky
looking. I mean, I'm not particularly fashion conscious, but I wouldn't wear
that thing.
------
tikiavenger
About a year ago, I applied as an app developer and received a free Sony
Smartwatch to develop apps on. I tried wearing the watch for a couple days
before I planned to start programming my app. The user experience was pretty
horrible. The watch wasn't that responsive, had connectivity issues, and had a
pretty poor looking UI.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Are there any projects or compilers which convert JavaScript to Java? - ggonweb
======
philippnagel
There is Rhino from Mozilla: [https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/Mozilla/Projects/Rh...](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/Mozilla/Projects/Rhino/JavaScript_Compiler)
------
smt88
Why would anyone ever want to do that? Why do you want to do that? There's
almost definitely a better way to do whatever you're trying to do.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
If the World Was Created by a Programmer - syrusakbary
https://blog.toggl.com/world-created-programmer/
======
gorekee
I have no experience mit mongoDB. Can somebody please explain the last joke?
------
drtillberg
The comic strip was created by a programmer via AI. Recursively humorous.
------
King-Aaron
I actually spat my drink out through my nose while reading this
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A little-known US-Canada border dispute - tomohawk
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20191215-the-little-known-us-canada-border-war
======
nailer
This article would be far better with a map, particularly for those outside
the US and Canada.
Here's the area anyway: Dixon Entrance
[https://maps.app.goo.gl/F3AnJf6yKKJJxhiV8](https://maps.app.goo.gl/F3AnJf6yKKJJxhiV8)
~~~
rwmj
That makes so much more sense. I didn't realize before that Alaska / US
territory stretches so far down the west coast of Canada.
------
ChrisMarshallNY
That’s a great story.
Reminds me of another unknown “border dispute” I read about, where a Canadian
psychologist was permanently barred from the US, because he wrote about taking
LSD in the 1960s: [https://www.wired.com/2007/04/canadian-
psycho/](https://www.wired.com/2007/04/canadian-psycho/)
------
gregmac
There's a great CGP Grey video on the Canada-US border well worth watching if
this interests you:
[https://youtu.be/qMkYlIA7mgw](https://youtu.be/qMkYlIA7mgw)
------
OrgNet
A border dispute article that doesn't show you it on a map.
------
hermitdev
The article mentioned 4 current territorial disputes between the US and
Canada. Curiously, Wikipedia currently lists 5:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_areas_disputed_by_Ca...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_areas_disputed_by_Canada_and_the_United_States)
Maybe the authors of the article didn't include the northwest passage dispute?
~~~
elfexec
Which is odd because the northwest passage dispute is easily the most
important one and the other 4 are just petty local bickering. The northwest
passage dispute will ultimately be about international trade and that's as
serious as any dispute can be. Maybe the author thinks the northwest passage
dispute won't come to a head until a few years or decades when the passage
clears of ice and becomes easily navigable by ships year-round.
------
decasteve
The last war between the US and Canada (British North America) over the border
between Maine and New Brunswick:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aroostook_War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aroostook_War)
~~~
decasteve
> no one was killed, but two Canadian militiamen were injured by black bears
> prior to the diplomatic compromise.
------
c3534l
A border war is in no way the same thing as a border dispute. Countries
disagree or have ambigous borders all the time. That doesn't imply they
declare war on eachother.
~~~
dang
Ok, we've replaced war with dispute in the title above. Good catch.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Apple opens up lossless audio codec - kiriappeee
http://techstopmuse.blogspot.com/2011/10/apple-opens-up-lossless-audio-codec.html
======
kiriappeee
Direct link to project page: <http://alac.macosforge.org/>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Laptop for Software Engineering student? - hsxd
Hi HN! I bought a MacBook Pro the summer of 2017, the Skylake version and figured I'd be able to use it for a long time, since that had been my experience with their laptops. Unfortunately I'm not satisfied with the computer and I'm looking at getting a new laptop for dev. I don't play games, I just use my computer for writing code, general browsing and watching movies/shows every now and then. I'll be dual-booting Windows and Debian. I'm looking for a laptop that's reliable and has good support for drivers.<p>Does HN have any good recommendations?
======
cimmanom
What about the MBP are you dissatisfied with?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How to Speed Up Code Review Process with Code Review Time - shvetsovdm
This is a chapter from an upcoming book Team Lead 101: Manage and Grow Engineering Teams in Small Startups. Check it out here https://gumroad.com/l/team-lead-101 (clickable link in comments)<p>===========<p>Good decisions are those that remove the need to make repetitive ones – James Clear, Atomic Habits<p>In one remote team that I led, there were repetitive problems that were obvious from looking at the agile board. Tasks spent the most time in the “In Review” column. They piled up in a heap in this column while waiting for initial review or or re-review. In our retrospectives, we discussed the reasons behind this problem week after week, but the problem hit the team on an almost constant basis.<p>My decision was to try holding a specific code review time every day at the same time. We started with 30 minutes just before the daily meeting and then extended it to 45 minutes, which was a good length for the team of 4 developers.<p>Here’s what the code review time solved for us:<p>Developers knew that we needed to review code daily and that we couldn’t skip it for the day and catch up later.
Having a specific time for reviews allowed everyone to be prepared for the code review meeting and plan their day accordingly.
We were all in the same meeting room and could discuss all the issues much faster than in async mode when you wait hours for a review, then respond, then wait hours again for an answer.
As a result, we no longer faced the problem when tasks were implemented but not finished during the week. And the “In Review” column never piled up again.<p>Make a requirement for everyone to be at the code review meeting. If it’s optional, then you lose all the benefits of the practice.
======
shvetsovdm
Link for the book [https://gumroad.com/l/team-
lead-101](https://gumroad.com/l/team-lead-101)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google Has Spent Over $1.1B on Self-Driving Tech - mcspecter
https://spectrum.ieee.org/cars-that-think/transportation/self-driving/google-has-spent-over-11-billion-on-selfdriving-tech
======
tuna-piano
I think by most accounts -
1) Google / Waymo is by far the furthest ahead in self-driving tech.
2) Self-driving is possible in at least certain circumstances in the next
decade or two (already is to an extent today).
3) Transportation / automobiles is an absolutely massive industry. Even
companies like Dana, Inc (maker of axles) have $4bil valuations. It's easy to
see how a self-driving tech maker would be worth far more than an axle maker.
4) Software tends to be a winner-take-most industry.
Given 1-4, $1.1B doesn't seem like much. Even if by chance it doesn't turn out
to be a positive ROI, it seems crazy to think the $1.1B was a bad bet.
And given current prices for self-driving startups (example, Gm's acquisition
of Cruise for >$1B), the current market value for Waymo would likely be >$10B.
~~~
WhitneyLand
How do you come to that first conclusion?
It seems difficult to tell who is the “furthest ahead” because it’s a pretty
complex race.
For starters, we can’t even say with certainty who all of the competitors are.
Some are very quiet or at early stages but could be working on a breakthrough
problem that turns out to be a pivot point.
Some are specializing. Who is going to scale up the best and most cost
efficient solid state lidar? There’s a whole list of key problems being worked
on.
Do you mean hardware or software? Just the algorithms are a huge piece. Just
hardware is a huge pieces.
Beyond price and performance, it’s common that unforeseen factors end up being
important in determining who becomes the most successful in selling
traditional manufacturers components or whole systems. Surely we don’t realize
all of them yet.
Also there is so much still being held close to the vest. These guys are
keeping lots of secrets about how far along they are truly, roadblocks, etc.
~~~
eco
> How do you come to that first conclusion?
I don't really trust any of the marketing (including videos) or friendly
articles about how far along companies are. The best way to judge I've seen is
by the mandatory reports companies testing in California must supply. By
those, Waymo is far, far ahead as of 2016. They've driven 635,868 miles (two
orders of magnitude more miles than their next closest competitor) and their
miles driven per disengagement was 5,128 (an order of magnitude higher than
the next closest, with many still in single digit miles per disengagement).
I'm eager to see 2017 numbers. Perhaps one of the other major companies has
caught up but I'm doubtful. That's a wide gap to close in a year.
Sure, the numbers could be gamed a little (just drive on the same road you can
do perfectly every time every day all year) but doing that will never let you
improve your real world performance (important for the big companies heavily
invested in this, not so much for the smaller companies looking to get
acquired).
I think it's reasonable to just ignore all the small companies working on this
in stealth. It's all about testing for self driving cars. They can't perfect
it just sitting in a garage and thinking really hard about what problems they
may encounter and maybe a few prototype vehicles. They need as many cars as
they can on the road driving and collecting data on real world situations.
~~~
xyzzy_plugh
Isn't Uber testing in Pittsburgh and Phoenix? They wouldn't report those miles
to California.
What about R&D outside of the US?
I don't think California reports are an adequate measure of progress.
Additionally, I am not sure mileage matters as much -- you even suggest why in
the next paragraph.
------
Fricken
I wonder if this includes the 'Fuck you money' engineers on project Chauffeur
received for passing certain milestones. Earlier in the depositions it was
disclosed that Levandowski was paid a 120 million dollar bonus, though it
wasn't revealed how much was given to others on the project.
[https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-02-13/one-
reaso...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-02-13/one-reason-
staffers-quit-google-s-car-project-the-company-paid-them-so-much)
~~~
nostrademons
Levandowski's $120M was an earn-out from the acquisition of his startup:
[https://spectrum.ieee.org/robotics/artificial-
intelligence/t...](https://spectrum.ieee.org/robotics/artificial-
intelligence/the-unknown-startup-that-built-googles-first-selfdriving-car)
(Note the date: this is well before Otto and the Uber/Waymo flap.)
It probably is counted in the $1.1B spent on self-driving tech though.
~~~
Fricken
It was disclosed in the depositions that the 510 systems acquisition was worth
about $20 million:
[http://www.foxbusiness.com/features/2017/05/23/how-star-
engi...](http://www.foxbusiness.com/features/2017/05/23/how-star-engineer-
sparked-war-between-google-2.html)
The bonuses were paid out at the end of 2015. It was shortly after that that
Levandowski revealed Otto to the world. Plus Chris Urmson started Aurora, and
Brian Salesky went on to become CEO of Argo, which is Ford's autonomous
Driving subsidiary.
They all got some kind of huge bonus. It supposedly amounted to a 14% rise in
the aggregated quarterly expenses of Alphabets 'other bets', which lumps
together a bunch of Alphabet's moonshot subsidiaries.
------
adventured
$94 billion in cash burning a hole in their pocket. $20x billion in new cash
pouring in annually, expanding by 10%-20% per year.
In another two years they'll be net cash richer than Apple is (as unlike Apple
they pay no dividend and have almost entirely avoided taking on debt).
There aren't very many large companies they can buy with that money, due to
perpetually increasing anti-trust concerns. I suppose they could maul ~$25
billion buying Snap and probably get away with it due to Facebook (but
comeon).
So what to do? Burn $1.1 billion on self-driving tech. Will it pan out?
Doesn't really matter. Their search monopoly isn't going anywhere near-term
(probably) and they'll have $200 billion in net cash in another 4 or 5 years.
They could vaporize $11.1 billion on self-driving tech in the next couple of
years and it would not matter, either to shareholders (oh, some would pretend
to be upset) or to their operations.
~~~
SapphireSun
That's amazing. Would it be fair to say that at this point it's a dollar
optimizer with no reasoning beyond it?
~~~
killjoywashere
I can't remember if it was Lazlo Bock or Eric Schmidt, but in one of their
books (both?) someone reports a board member opining "You've created the first
self-replicating talent machine." Having worked with those cats, that might
actually be true.
------
cmarschner
The top German car suppliers and car makers have accrued 10x the patents on
autonomous driving Google has [0]. Bosch alone has 3x the number of patents.
Yet hardly anybody talks about Bosch and Continental and Mercedes/Audi/BMW
etc.
[0] [http://www.businessinsider.in/Whos-in-the-lead-in-
developing...](http://www.businessinsider.in/Whos-in-the-lead-in-developing-
self-driving-car-technologies-Hint-its-not-
Google/amp_articleshow/60284606.cms)
~~~
discreteevent
They do generally tend to keep things very quiet until they launch.
------
lpolovets
To put this in context, $1.1b is about 3 weeks of operating profit for Google.
Considering the upside for Google if their experiment pays off, this seems
like a pretty smart bet.
------
siddarthd2919
It is not really that much! 1.1 B in 6 years on a moonshot project.
~~~
robotresearcher
It's a lot if it doesn't pay off eventually.
~~~
visarga
The same tech that is being used in self driving cars could be repurposed for
autonomous robots, and end up with a market much bigger than that of
transportation. SDCs are just the easiest form of autonomous robots.
~~~
robotresearcher
> SDCs are just the easiest form of autonomous robots.
That's a claim I have never heard before and I don't agree with. You have some
kind of argument to support that drive-by claim? Since there are no fully
autonomous SDCs yet you'd have to explain away any existing autonomous robots.
~~~
the8472
Roads are a fairly structured and rule-based environment already designed with
machines operating on them in mind. And those aspects that are not designed
for the physical properties of cars are still designed to be easily
perceptible by the human operators, e.g. signs, lane markings.
That can't be said for many other environments in which autonomous robots
would have to operate.
~~~
robotresearcher
There are literally millions of Roomba cleaner robots sold. They are
autonomous.
Simple, but autonomous.
------
coldtea
Don't know about how it's in the US, but if it's anything like in some
European countries, a question is:
How much of that $1.1 are recouped as "investments in research" etc. and thus
contributing to tax-deductions (and in some cases even subsidies)?
~~~
jellicle
100% of it would be tax-deductible. Corporations don't pay tax on any money
spent on salaries, equipment, expenses, etc. Whether there would be ADDITIONAL
subsidies, I do not know.
------
davesque
Can anyone put this figure in context? I'm inclined to imagine that $1.1B is
chicken feed for Google.
~~~
jldugger
[https://finance.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ%3AGOOGL&fstype=i...](https://finance.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ%3AGOOGL&fstype=ii&ei=BX68WZm5FNT82AbHrI-4AQ)
Google made 3.5 billion in their most recently reported quarter. It would have
been even higher, except for a nearly 3 billion dollar 'unusual expense'. It's
not exactly chicken feed, but 1.1B isn't an unexpected number given their
focus on 'other bets'.
------
siscia
But am I the only one thinking that maybe we are trying to solve the wrong
kind of problem?
If we had spent the same amount of money into creating a grid of mini-train I
believe that most cities would already have some working prototype...
And mini-train is a control problem that we could solve yesterday...
(With mini train I mean something roughly big as a car but that is constrained
to move in some predefined path, it will means that they could move way faster
than cars and be more space efficients...)
------
amaks
And $120 million of that amount got paid to Anthony Levandovski?
------
Animats
Probably more since the end of 2015, since they've been increasing the number
of vehicles.
------
slewis
They've likely spent way more than that, since the article's number is only
through the end of 2015:
"Between Project Chauffeur’s inception in 2009 and the end of 2015, Google
spent $1.1 billion on developing its self-driving software and hardware"
------
mempko
Only $1B? Kind of highlights that they are not that serious yet about the
technology yet.
------
anigbrowl
It's a lot and yet it somehow seems cheap at the price. DAROA seems to invest
on a similar scale.
------
bukgoogle
you really trust your family to be in car that doesn't have a steeringwheel
and it's controlled by "don't be evil" google ???
Seriously people, wakeup!
------
asdfologist
And over 10% of it went to Anthony Levandowski.
------
dingo_bat
With literally nothing to show for it except litigation with Uber.
------
0xbear
Meh. Less than Hillary's presidential campaign.
------
known
And Uber won over Google's self-driving tech;
------
simonsarris
Serious question: Why not acquire Tesla and position yourself leaps and bounds
ahead of the other tech giants?
~~~
killjoywashere
I rather seriously doubt Elon is selling Tesla.
~~~
Salgat
He owns 22% of shares.
------
userbinator
Google already has a huge amount of power over where people go on the
Internet. It seems having power, however indirect, of where people go in the
real world is their next goal, and it is quite deeply unsettling to consider.
Imagine self-driving cars that will be cheaper but take you to "sponsored
places" before going to your destination, refuse certain destinations "for
your safety", and play ads continuously while you're helplessly transported
around.
Given that amount of power they will have if they succeed, spending $1B on the
(very real) possibility of getting to that situation is definitely expected.
And very very scary for everyone else.
~~~
jellicle
"Since you uploaded a video which was removed from Youtube, your Google
Driving account has been permanently revoked."
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Bitcoin heading towards $200, new bubble forming - paps
http://bitcoinwisdom.com/markets/mtgox/btcusd
======
pearjuice
\- _Bitcoin? Sounds interesting but I am not going to waste CPU cycles on it.
This will never be of any real value!_
\- _Bitcoin seems to be steadily growing. Well, as soon as they realize it is
worth nothing, it will return back to non-existency._
\- _Yeah, this is definitely a fad. It is growing too fast. No way I am going
to mine._
\- _So, mining at home is redundant now. Well, don 't picture me buying into
it! It can collapse any second._
\- _Haha, it collapsed. Good grief. No way I am buying all the leftovers. This
will never recover._
\- _Recovering? This will be temporarily. Bitcoin has no future._
\- _A new peak? Well too late to step in, now. Just wait for the new burst._
\- _Yet another peak!? This is the last one. Buying now would be stupid._
\- _Bitcoin heading towards $(peak of some arbitrary rounded number), new
bubble forming_
Every time.
~~~
M4v3R
Very relevant - Market emotions cycle:
[http://cuffelinks.com.au/wp-content/uploads/AO-
cycles.png](http://cuffelinks.com.au/wp-content/uploads/AO-cycles.png)
------
neals
$200? Hardly. Maybe if you look at Mt.Gox, it might look like you could get
$190 per bitcoin. Howerver, there is no way to actually get that money to your
bank account, since Mt. Gox hasn't been doing any banktransfers for months.
The price is high on Mt.Gox because people that have money on there can only
get it out by buying Bitcoins and transfering those to other exchanges. This
drives the Mt.Gox price up.
If you look a the exchanges that are actually solvent, the price is more
around $160.
~~~
waterlesscloud
People have been saying this for the last $100 or so of rise.
And yet here we are.
~~~
neals
Yes indeed, people have been saying they can't get their money out of Gox for
quite a while. Thanks for backing me up on that, I guess?
------
pmarca
Oh no, something is showing the slightest glimmer of working, it must
immediately be a bubble!
------
spindritf
Could we ban the words "bubble" and "disrupt" from submission titles?
~~~
wtvanhest
Disrupt is fine. Its basically a quick way of saying a company is in a
specific industry.
disrupt industry x.
Bubble, lets lose that. People are so bad a predicting bubbles it is
laughable.
~~~
DennisP
That's what disrupt means now. It used to mean a company is changing the way
an industry does business. But then everybody started claiming they would do
that, no matter how trivial the change, so now it means "there's a new company
in this industry and it has a hip website."
~~~
wtvanhest
Yeap, it definitely has changed definitions. I would never use the term, but
it definitely has changed definitions.
------
doctorfoo
I'm going to sell when I can retire on it. Which won't be for a couple orders
of magnitude yet. Some of us are holding for the longest time...
I apply this same logic to my startup attempts. If anyone offers me enough to
retire, I'll sell with no doubts.
~~~
jafaku
By that time you won't need to sell. Besides, are you seriously gonna risk
your money like that? Switching back to a currency system that can be
frozen/confiscated, inflated, etc.?
------
Sagat
I wonder who Satoshi is and how much he's worth now. Not many people can put
on their CV that they created a new currency.
~~~
hannibal5
Wrq ZpPnyro with high probability. Look at what he has done, where he lives
and how he writes.
~~~
Sagat
Who is that? There are no google results.
~~~
Geee
ebg13 ftw
~~~
Sagat
Why waste people's time like that?
------
nolok
I know you can sell your coin when the price is high; but can you trade
quickly enough to profit from such temporary surges (buy low then sell high
only a dozen hours later) ? What is the average request processing time if you
want to buy, say, 10 BTC on mtgox ?
~~~
citricsquid
An exchange will allow you to trade instantly; the moment your sell/buy orders
go through, the btc/usd is available in your account for usage, however
getting USD into the exchanges can take some time and in the case of mtgox,
getting USD _out_ is almost impossible (it's why the price at mtgox is about
10% higher than elsewhere). Your location matters most, if you're in Europe
you could get money into Bitstamp within a couple of hours if you pay for a
fast transfer and once it's in you can trade instantly.
------
mediocregopher
It's better to not use MtGox as a baseline price anymore, it's at about $20
higher then any other exchange due to the fact that you can't actually get
your money out of it ATM. Check the btc-e graph for a better view:
[http://bitcoinwisdom.com/markets/btce/btcusd](http://bitcoinwisdom.com/markets/btce/btcusd)
(They both show the same trend, I'm just being pedantic)
~~~
dwaltrip
One cool thing that has happened over that several months is that Mt Gox has
drifted down to a market share of around 30% of the total trade volume
(generally speaking; ocasionally this trend weakens on days with huge swings,
but less often than before). It is good to see more healthy exchange
competition.
------
c0ldfusi0nz
"New bubble forming" \- LOL. Yes, there will be volatility, but the long term
trend is UP.
------
joelthelion
I'm still hesitant to sell my (smaller) stash. The probability that bitcoin
will explode is fairly low, but trading a small but real possibility of
becoming a millionaire against a few thousand dollars is a difficult decision
:)
~~~
peteretep
So take a decision now about when you'll sell, write it down, and stick to it.
Mine has a 5 year timeline, or a specific value (a few orders of magnitude
more than today) at which I'll sell.
~~~
yafujifide
If bitcoin replaces the dollar as the unit of account, currency of
international trade, world reserve currency, and so on, it might be better
simply to spend the bitcoins than to "sell" them.
~~~
jafaku
If that ever happens, our homes are gonna be visited by flying drones. But you
don't need that to happen for Bitcoin to make you rich. It could very well
just stay as a high value, scarce commodity. A few whales buying in can make
it happen.
------
peteretep
Why does this imply a bubble?
~~~
bayesianhorse
Because nowadays any exponential growth is called a "bubble in forming". And
because all stochastic exponential process eventually crash, or
"underperform", it sounds really smart to "predict" a crash months or years in
advance. Especially when using non-logarithmic axes, the predictions and the
crash look really impressive.
You don't, however, often see these prophets of doom profiting from their
predictions, because the exact timing of crashes isn't that easy at all.
~~~
Choronzon
Its actually generally a lot easier to profit buying a bubble than shorting
it.There are a lot more points of increase than points of collapse. Paulson
made a fortune shorting the housing market,plenty of people predicted the
collapse but Paulson picked the peak correctly. The interesting thing is given
his shocking trading performance since then he appears to have been lucky
rather than smart.
Didier Sornette has some interesting theories(and dubious models) about
bubbles,well worth a read.
~~~
matwood
Exactly. On shorting a bubble: _the market can stay irrational longer than you
can stay solvent._
------
kken
What is the reason? Can't find any news.
~~~
Choronzon
Its inherently deflationary anyway (which is a terrible idea for a currency).
~~~
LinaLauneBaer
I know too little about currencies but to me it looks like that our "real
currencies" are inherently deflationary as well... At least this is how it is
supposed to work - right? I mean what if governments weren't printing new
money all the time? Then there would also be a limited amount of money
available in a big pool... Wouldn't it depend on the growth rate of country to
determine weather or not a currency is deflationary?
\- Number of people is growing, same amount of money for the people, no new
money is printed => deflationary?
vs.
\- Number of people is shrinking, same amount of money for the people, no new
money is printed => inflationary?
~~~
Choronzon
Printing money is basically intrinsic to our "real currencies" so if you
remove that you have something quantitively different,effectively a new type
of currency. Technically currency is a medium of exchange and can be linked to
anything,industrial production,gold,number of cows,someones else's currency
etc ,so whether it is inflationary or deflationary depends on its social
framework and design.
Now what is a deflationary currency inherently bad?Say I am Mr Big with my 2
million bitcoins, I can invest in your new business with a variable prospect
of success or I can sit on my arse and watch the value of my money go up due
to deflation,which am I more likely to do? How do you deal with exiting debits
in a deflationary spiral? In deflationary systems money does not circulate and
that is the death knell of commerce. But bitcoin is circulating! Well yes,but
its value is due to it being traded for speculation and extralegal activities
(a lot of which Im actually sympathetic to) ,not as an actual replacement
currency.
~~~
Tichy
But why does a fixed supply make it deflationary? What happens when all BTC
have been mined, will the price still go up all the time?
I guess it could go up if the Dollar goes down at the same time. The actual
price is staying the same, but the Dollar is worth less, so it takes more to
buy X. Not sure why that would be bad.
Also I suspect banks will create virtual bitcoin, as they do with money
(lending BTC that they borrowed). Perhaps that will affect the price as well.
~~~
maxerickson
Well, if you assume economic growth, a fixed number of counting tokens will
have to represent larger values over time.
The real trick is to read 'deflationary' as 'will create deflationary
pressure', not as 'will inevitably cause deflation at every moment in time'.
~~~
Tichy
You mean, assuming there was only one Bitcoin: if a VW Beetle costs 1 BTC this
year, and next year a Porsche is published (growing the economy by replacing
cars with better cars), the Porsche would also have to cost 1 BTC because
there isn't more than 1 BTC?
That seems incorrect. While impractical, there might be other solutions, for
example the Porsche could cost 1 BTC+ 1 Carrot, or maybe it could cost 2 BTC
anyway. The buyer just wouldn't be able to pay in one go.
~~~
maxerickson
Marginal effects don't really reduce well to narrow examples like that.
What I mean is that if you assume a healthy trade in something of limited
abundance, you should be prepared for demand to drive up the value of that
thing. It might not, but given the simple dynamics of supply and demand
(microeconomics isn't really controversial), it is prudent to be aware of the
possibility.
(I do sort of assume that people are mostly using bitcoins to complete
transactions and speculate, I don't assume there is a healthy trade in them)
------
MarcusBrutus
How many legitimate real world services and products currently accept
Bitcoins? I understand it is only the Chinese search engine. I also take it
for granted that any major Euro/US-based organization (be it Google or
Domino's Pizza) that starts accepting Bitcoins will instantly face very
serious political repercussions. Given these facts it is astonishing that
Bitcoin seems to be heading from strength to strength.
~~~
elux
> _How many legitimate real world services and products currently accept
> Bitcoins? I understand it is only the Chinese search engine._
The hundreds (thousands now?) of (mostly) small businesses accepting bitcoin
for goods and services include gift card vendors. [1]
You can spend your bitcoins on gift cards (a form of virtual currency in
itself) which you can use at some of the world's largest retailers, for
example Amazon[2] or Walmart [3].
It's a two-step process, but you can use your bitcoins at Amazon or Walmart,
today.
[1]
[https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade#Gift.2FDebit_Cards](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade#Gift.2FDebit_Cards)
[2] [http://www.gyft.com/shop-for-gift-cards/](http://www.gyft.com/shop-for-
gift-cards/)
[3]
[http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1om2jm/egifter_now_...](http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1om2jm/egifter_now_sells_walmart_gift_cards_buy/)
------
tjaerv
Editorialized title much?
------
lma21
i see they're updating their market data with socket.io. but the graph bit is
nicely made. Anyone knows how they're doing it with canvas?
------
etherael
not a bubble, just reversion to the mean exponential trend that has been
consistent since genesis.
------
r0muald
by 2015 google will be accepting bitcoin
------
hannibal5
For a more clearer picture, look at this graph:
[http://bitcoincharts.com/charts/mtgoxUSD#rg1460zig12-hourztg...](http://bitcoincharts.com/charts/mtgoxUSD#rg1460zig12-hourztgWzm1g10zm2g25zvzl)
Bitcoin is deflationary and has enough actual use to support small trading
volume even without speculators. It's perfect vessel for speculators and
bubbles, but the long trend is pretty obvious. I suspect that it will grow
until it has reached all of it's potential users and potential speculators.
It has actual use as currency for bad stuff, money laundering and avoiding
currency restrictions like in China for example, so I think the exchange rate
will grow for some time. I suspect that grey economy might support money
supply worth of 200-300 billion at least. Government interventions might cut
it into much smaller number though. Virtual currency has little value if you
can't interact with the rest of the economy.
It's not path to cyberanarcist-utopia, but it's not clearly useless either. I
think it might find it's niche or be replaced with something similar.
------
notdrunkatall
I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again: the biggest risk to
bitcoin is a government (specifically the US government) deciding that they
don't like it. Barring that, its growth will likely continue.
~~~
snitko
You don't need to be a prophet to guess that. Of course they don't like it. To
me, it's not even a question. The question is, what are they gonna do about it
and for how long will they manage to delay Bitcoin adoption.
~~~
notdrunkatall
My thinking is along the same lines. They're tacitly accepting it now, not
because they accept it, but because they think it might collapse on its own.
When they realize that it's not going to go away, I'm almost certain that the
government will step in somehow and try to put the kibosh on bitcoin. How long
that will be is anyone's guess.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Python gevent suddenly switches from libevent to libev - jedsmith
https://bitbucket.org/denis/gevent/changeset/7c503dc16209
======
wladimir
From the libev page: "A full-featured and high-performance (see benchmark)
event loop that is loosely modelled after libevent, but without its
limitations and bugs."
What limitations and bugs? Could someone add some context here?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Senator Al Franken's petition to overturn Citizens United - foobarian
http://action.alfranken.com/page/s/e1307cue
======
japaget
On the linked to website I was hoping to see the text of the proposed
amendment and whether it was going to be submitted to Congress or to a
Constitutional Convention. Unfortunately, I saw neither, and the amendment was
summarized using inflammatory language. Unless Sen. Franken is trying to gauge
public support for his idea, I fear that signing his petition would be nothing
but slacktivism.
~~~
bcks
I agree, it would be nice to see something more specific here... but petitions
don't only function by applying direct political pressure, they are a time-
tested way of building a list of interested supporters. As such, the
inflammatory language may be deliberate: it may be a tactic to recruit highly
motivated, partisan supporters with the eventual goal of mobilizing them to
reach out to others in their own broader networks, or to donate to the broader
outreach campaign. And I think outrage travels through the Twitters faster
than policy specifics.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Joining A Startup: 1,000 Terrors, 9,000 Delights - jkresner
https://keen.io/blog/79899208386/joining-a-startup-1-000-terrors-9-000-delights
======
mysteriousllama
Working at non-vaporware startups is hard. Very hard. Bootstrapping one is
even harder.
Long hours, little time for family. After a big push I'll be entirely strung
out and exhausted, staring at a wall mumbling random thoughts like someone who
suffers from dementia. It's miserable.
And rewarding in so many ways. My personal favorite is that at the end of the
day I get to say 'Look at what I built! Millions of people are using it!'..
Nothing beats that feeling.
I'm not young anymore. I've done more startups than most. I'll eventually be
taken as a joke no matter how up to date my skill-set is. But for now.. This
is what I love. Some people are just built for it.
~~~
gphat
That's a good perspective. It's not for everyone. I didn't touch on that in my
post, but it's important. I maintain a pretty rigid schedule and it's not been
a problem at this job.
A reason I'm well suited is perhaps many years of ops and on-call work. I am
not necessarily at my desk banging out code all day and night but weekend and
middle-of-the-night emergencies are nothing new.
I also have a spouse who very much believes in me being happy. She's been
really great in this process too.
Thanks for your comments!
------
samwilliams
Why on earth is this title in caps?
~~~
dkador
Yeah, I was wondering that too!
~~~
samwilliams
Presumably OP just copied and pasted the title from the blog which actually
has the title in caps (rather than using text-transform: capitalize).
Nonetheless, this is hardly the HN way.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Don't signup, Just review the Startup product - kylecsteele
Would love to get feedback on our new startup. Launching MVP soon. Good, bad, brutal or whatever, just comment.<p>www.doccaster.com
======
LarryMade
I had to strip of the www for it to work, need to fix your url or your
webserver settings.
I like the animation, good points to get my interest. the background was odd,
throwing stuff in the air in an empty field? think about that. How about
something like a lightbulb over your ipad or something saying doccaster
"sharing" or something - with a bunch of lightbulbs over disperse folks in a
crowded room?
So you have to have your potential clients load up some app in order to
access. Then it is limited by time and range... I guess that is a good thing
if it is paid conference materials that you want stricter control over
distribution...
So I take it you would have to create some sort of flyer or brochure on how
potential clients can setup and sign into doccaster in order for them to
access your stuff then? (cue the cute animation of people grabbing your flyer
and throwing it in the trashcan) Will it work on my Linux laptop? or my
Blackberry? etc. requiring an app will be limiting.
Document presentation/management is a great thing, but I think you have put in
a few stumbling blocks to "gotta have it" adoption. I think you would get
better results with a web portal where accounts are accessed like
www.doccaster.com/mybizdocs which presents a graphical brochure rack to click
and choose documents. Distributors could put that address on a card with
friendly easy to read type "the Iludium Q35 Space Modulator:
www.doccaster.com/q35info" five words and an address (maybe a graphic of it on
the back of the card) just enough not to loose the attention of an ADHD
executive.
But then again, you don't have the geographic control... but would you via a
laptop either?
~~~
kylecsteele
Thank Larrys for the feedback. The product video was modeled off other web 2.0
intro videos (Dropbox 2min, Linkedin 2:35min) and was designed to provide
first time users with an overview. We tried to create the stumbling blocks in
the beginning b recreating events that commonly take place in the sharing of
documents that the viewer would relate too. Probably, could have done better.
Ultimately, we hope the video sparks interest by showing people the advantage
of using our system over traditional document distribution methods. Thanks
again.
------
relaunched
Your video needs to be between 30-60 seconds...MAX
Your phrasing, "Broadcast any document into your location" doesn't explain
what you do. I'm probably slower than the average hacker news reader, but that
being said, I don't get it...especially after watching the video (which
explained it to me). Something like, "Location-based document sharing" is a
very functional explanation, but lacks lacks creativity. But, you get the
point. A one-liner has to be both easy to remember AND something that when I
repeat it to a friend, they get it too.
As another commenter insinuated, generally, the product applies to a lot of
people, only a very small percentage of the time. I highly recommend you
target carefully. Maybe the convention audience (thought probably not), or
college recruiters. Be something specifically important to someone first and
grow from there.
Caution: this has been done with QR codes. Check out why others that have
tried solving this problem a different way have been or weren't successful.
Find out, as early as possible, how much people would be willing to pay for
something like this.
Best of luck,
~~~
kylecsteele
Cool and thank you very much! Our vertical is the convention/ conference
space. We live in Orlando which is a large convention market and have been
tide to the space for a while which is the reason why the product was
developed.
------
verelo
Hm...i would love to provide more valuable feedback, but the page doesn't load
for me.
Firefox says "The connection to the server was reset while the page was
loading."
~~~
verelo
Ok now it loads.
1\. So its a bit like google buzz for documents?
2\. I get the pain point...i have always printed too many or not enough, and i
hate seeing that go into the bin either way...
3\. The site is ok, but i just don't feel interested enough to signup.
4\. I suspect i would want to signup, if i currently needed to use something
like this, right now i don't. Maybe this is something to consider when you're
thinking about customer acquisition.
~~~
AznHisoka
Same here, I get the pain point but am not motivated to try it... maybe I'm
just not target audience.
~~~
kylecsteele
I understand. Not a everyday tool at all. Only good for events, conventions
and meetings.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ted Linden, 1938 - 2009 - shutter
http://glinden.blogspot.com/2009/01/my-father-ted-linden-1938-2009.html
======
davi
"All of this from a man who was the son of a millwright, only in America."
I wondered, What exactly is a millwright? It's one of those older words that
everyone once knew the definition of. Apparently, they set up and integrate
heavy equipment in mills and factories:
<http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos190.htm>
[http://www.guymturner.com/rigging-millwright/equipment-
proje...](http://www.guymturner.com/rigging-millwright/equipment-projects.asp)
So it looks like they are skilled, blue collar, mechanical/industrial hackers.
Greg Linden sees his father's programming proclivities in himself and his son;
perhaps the tendency extended back to his grandfather, too.
------
wmwong
My condolences. I too know how it feels to have lost my father. It will
definitely be hard with ups and downs, but as you have already started to
discover, he has done great things and have brought joy to many people. And
for this, his life should be celebrated. I know that dark days have arrived,
but after darkness, there is light. Stay strong and be with family and
friends. Their support is priceless. I wish you the best.
------
okeumeni
Sorry for your lost Greg. Nice to share your story it’s inspiring.
------
edw519
_we can only hope we might have a fraction of the positive impact he did._
If the article is any indication, you're off to a pretty good start. Even with
all the cool stuff that he did, you and your sister are probably his greatest
legacy.
My condolences. Thanks for sharing.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Whats Public about you? - ifyouwillit
http://whatspublic.me
======
Indyan
The atrocious design almost forced me to close the tab even before the results
were completely loaded.
------
ifyouwillit
changed color scheme... tightened up the design... can you tell me your
specific issues with the design?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Programming for the masses requires a programming language for the masses - sicxu
http://starscript.wordpress.com/2012/01/22/programming-for-the-masses/
======
sicxu
This post is quite relavent to the recent discussion on whether regular people
should learn programming. I take it as a challenge and ask: do we have a
programming language that regular people can learn easily. Star Script is my
attempt at meeting the challenge. I would like to hear your feedback. Thanks!
Note: You can download and try star script at <http://www.starsrc.org>. You
can try it online at <http://www.myezapp.com>.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Do I have to sell to my cofounder? What can I expect? - olebrown
Our company ran low on funds about 4 months ago. We decided it would be best If I took on an advisory role and went to work elsewhere to cover my personal expenses. I have vested shares in a large portion of the company. We had raised a modest seed round from a few investors.<p>Recently my Cofounder who has been absent reached out to me and stated he needed to buy out my shares to help secure further funding for the company. I'm unsure if I'm obligated to sell to him. If so what can I expect from the sale?
======
andymoe
I don't know (probably not _obligated_ to do anything) but I keep seeing
questions here that should really be asked to an attorney or advisor you
trust. So I'd like to make a suggestion to the community of programmers and
entrepreneurs here young and old. If you get a job or happen to be in a
position where contracts are involved ask around and find an attorney to read
over your employment contract or other contract you run into. It should not
take them more than an hour or two. They can usually give you a nice bullet
point email or a quick phone call of what's in there and what it all means. It
helps if you give them a list of your concerns upfront.
Now you have a relationship with an attorney and have developed some kind of
trust with them. That's awesome! (Keep sending them your employment contracts
when you change jobs! There are some crazy things in there!)
So you find yourself out on your own and need advice on something really
important like if you have to sell your shares of a business you started to
your co-founder so they can raise another round. Who are you going to ask?
Your trusted attorney who hopefully reviewed your original contract with said
co-founder!
------
brudgers
(IANAL)
If you have an operating agreement it would ordinarily cover buyouts and the
conditions under which they are mandatory.
Otherwise, any obligation to sell is less likely under ordinary circumstances.
------
amorphid
Ask a lawyer. I'm guessing you don't have to sell if there's no contractual
obligation to do so. Selling may be a good idea anyway, but that's a different
matter.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Proposal: Darpan – People Directory for companies - ankit84
https://github.com/ankitjaininfo/Darpan
======
ankit84
Startups/companies (50+ ppl): What problems are you facing in people
management?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Ripple button effects for the web - holloway
http://holloway.github.io/ripple/
======
Mr_P
For reference, here's a demo of google's buttons implemented in polymer:
[http://www.polymer-project.org/components/paper-
elements/dem...](http://www.polymer-project.org/components/paper-
elements/demo.html#paper-button)
Note that google's appear to have a soft gradient and respond to the length of
time for which the button is pressed. IMO this creates a less-jarring effect.
~~~
serkanyersen
You are right, this is a better demo in my opinion though
[http://www.polymer-project.org/components/paper-
ripple/demo....](http://www.polymer-project.org/components/paper-
ripple/demo.html)
------
bradhe
Woof. This reminds me of 2003 for some reason...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Loopback-next – Build modern applications that require complex integrations - guifortaine
https://github.com/strongloop/loopback-next
======
Solkaz
If you haven't already, you should read the article on writing v4 and why it
is happening: [https://loopback.io/doc/en/lb4/Crafting-
LoopBack-4.html](https://loopback.io/doc/en/lb4/Crafting-LoopBack-4.html)
------
sterex
Having used loopback version 2, moving to version 3 was relatively easy. I
don't think it will be the same from 3 to 4.
Introducing MVC architecture is good - I'm yet to go through the code, but I'm
guessing this will be inline with how Laravel is built.
But, why TypeScript? This seems like a strange decision to me.
~~~
STRML
I've used Loopback for a while as well. IMO, TS is a welcome change, I'd be
happy to write APIs in it and I'd prefer it to untyped libraries.
It's hard to understate how nice it is to have your editor autocomplete
functions, argument order, object shape, etc. It's a real productivity
booster, gets you sanity checking out of the gate and makes the framework
discoverable. This is a good decision. I can't make any cogent argument
against it, aside from dependency bloat.
------
krzkaczor
If you're looking for something similar and not in alpha state go check out
nest.js [https://nestjs.com/](https://nestjs.com/) Its embracing MVC, supports
TypeScript and DI. Really sweeet.
------
stocktech
Only concern with the loopback project is the licensing for the database
connectors, at least mssql. Can anyone using this in an enterprise setting
weigh in?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Should drivers licenses use negative points instead? - churnek
http://followingtherules.com/why-drivers-licenses-should-have-negative-points/
======
drucken
Administrative outweighs psychological in this instance, I imagine. The
convenience of easily being able to set different thresholds and zero points
always meaning no deductions may outweigh anything else.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Command Line Tool to Sort CSV and TSV Files by Multiple Headings in Go - johnweldon
https://github.com/johnweldon/sortcsv
======
z1mm32m4n
I’m a huge fan of csvkit, which includes a similar utility along with lots
more:
[http://csvkit.readthedocs.io/en/1.0.2/scripts/csvsort.html](http://csvkit.readthedocs.io/en/1.0.2/scripts/csvsort.html)
Some of my favorites tools it includes are csvsql and csvlook.
~~~
johnweldon
Cool, looks like a nicely built set of utilities in python. Thanks for the
link.
------
sigil
Equivalent sort(1) invocations for your examples:
sort -k2 -k1 -k3 contacts.tsv
sort -k1 -k2 -k3 contacts.tsv
This assumes TSV input, but there are plenty of reasons to prefer that to CSV.
If I'm working from CSV sources I usually convert to TSV first thing in my
shell pipeline.
~~~
feelin_googley
When sort is used on really large files, it will automatically attempt to use
disk, putting temp files in TMPDIR. This can be really slow.
To overcome the slowdown of disk I/O, perhaps a workaround could be to use mfs
or tmpfs, maybe something like:
mkdir /dir
mount -t tmpfs tmpfs /dir
TMPDIR=/dir sort -k2 -k1 -k3 contacts.tsv
TMPDIR=/dir sort -k1 -k2 -k3 contacts.tsv
Personally, I gave up on sort for large files and use k/kdb+. I suspect it is
faster for sorting than sort or the Go libraries, but I could be wrong.
~~~
sigil
For a dataset larger than physical memory, using a memory filesystem like
tmpfs for the merge stage will either swap (|tmpfs| < |ram|) or deadlock
(|tmpfs| >= |ram|).
Instead, your best bet in that case is to give sort as much physical memory as
you can spare:
sort -S 95% -k1 huge.tsv
Extra disk I/O is inevitable since your dataset doesn't fit in memory. At
least during a merge sort your disk reads will be O(N) and sequentially
ordered.
Note: in the special case that your dataset is slightly larger than physical
memory, splitting it up in advance such that one of the `sort -m` input files
lives on a tmpfs should indeed be faster.
Other things to check out if you need Very Fast Large Sorts:
\- Use `sort --parallel=N` to use multiple cores. By default it only uses 1.
\- Use `sort --batch-size=NMERGE` to increase the number of files merged at
once. Otherwise you may be doing more mergesort stages than are necessary.
------
feelin_googley
Can anyone provide sample input and output for the example? I find it
difficult to evaluate text processing software quickly against existing
solutions when there is no example given, such as: here is some sample input
and here is the desired output, as is done at, e.g., unix.com.
~~~
johnweldon
I updated the README.md with some example usage and output. Thanks for the
feedback.
------
bfrog
I've been using
[https://github.com/BurntSushi/xsv](https://github.com/BurntSushi/xsv) which
is quite nice and has a few other very handy csv tools.
~~~
johnweldon
I hadn't seen that tool, thanks for pointing it out.
~~~
bfrog
Indeed, perhaps it will give you some fun ideas!
------
mdaniel
While not "in Go", Homebrew showed me this tool a while back and I like it
bunches:
> Miller is like awk, sed, cut, join, and sort for name-indexed data such as
> CSV, TSV, and tabular JSON.
[https://github.com/johnkerl/miller#readme](https://github.com/johnkerl/miller#readme)
------
johnweldon
Works great with previously shared Go command line tool jw4.us/to8 when input
files are not UTF8.
Use to8 to convert from UTF(32|16)(LE)? etc. to UTF8 first, then sort with
this tool.
~~~
donatj
Is there an advantage to to8 over iconv?
I've used iconv for years and it's never let me down.
~~~
johnweldon
I wrote this tool because I don't want to explicitly know the original
encoding, I just want _any_ encoding to be converted to UTF8. AFAIK, iconv
requires the source encoding to be specified on the command line.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Empirical: A platform for computational experiments - strin
http://empiricalci.com/
======
dummyai
Experiment framework seems a big need in research community. However, focusing
on scalability rather than reproduciblilty might be a better strategy.
Reproduciblilty often comes naturally with scalability.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
To SQL (relational) or not to SQL (NoSQL) that is the question - joedevon
http://chuckjohnson.wordpress.com/2012/03/19/to-sql-relational-or-not-to-sql-nosql-that-is-the-question/
======
electrichead
I thought it was generally accepted that NOSQL actually meant "not only SQL"
as in use the tool that is best for the task and not the whole problem.
~~~
joedevon
Well some people objected to the initial way NOSQL was described/marketed and
others decided to ease the objections.
At the end of the day, I think it's far more important that people understand
what problems NOSQL was built and is designed to solve and use it accordingly.
I plan to bookmark that URL for future reference, though I already have a
pretty good idea where to use which.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A.I. Has Arrived in Investing, Humans Are Still Dominating - smollett
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/12/business/ai-investing-humans-dominating.html
======
leggomylibro
Everything is always painted in such an adversarial light, it makes you
despair sometimes.
I think that The Atlantic's recent article on this topic is a more nuanced
insight[1]; human-machine cooperation is probably where the big money will be.
Companies that seek to cut people out of the loop will probably run into a lot
of problems, as will those that smash the looms. Whereas trying to smooth the
interface between AI/ML conclusions and human oversight is probably going to
see the most success.
[1]:
[https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/02/employ...](https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/02/employers-
are-setting-workers-up-for-failure/552050/)
~~~
vanderZwan
> _human-machine cooperation is probably where the big money will be._
As it has been for as long as machines have existed, really. This reminds me
of Douglas Engelbart and his vision for computers. I'll cite the section of
his wikipedia page that paraphrases an interview with him from 2002[0][1].
> _[Douglas Engelbart] reasoned that because the complexity of the world 's
> problems was increasing, and that any effort to improve the world would
> require the coordination of groups of people, the most effective way to
> solve problems was to augment human intelligence and develop ways of
> building collective intelligence. He believed that the computer, which was
> at the time thought of only as a tool for automation, would be an essential
> tool for future knowledge workers to solve such problems._
He was right of course, and his work lead to "The Mother of All Demos"[1].
Machine learning is the next step in using computers as thought enhancement
tools. What we still need to figure out is an appropriate interface that is
not as "black-boxy" as "we trained a neural net, and now we can put X in and
get Y out".
EDIT: Now that I read that quoted section of wikipedia again, it's funny to
note that computers were "only seen as tools of automation", and how modern
fears of AI are also about automation. Automation of thinking.
[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Engelbart](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Engelbart)
[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeSgaJt27PM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeSgaJt27PM)
[2] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJDv-
zdhzMY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJDv-zdhzMY)
~~~
leggomylibro
It's funny that you bring that up - it does seem like the concept of 'extended
cognition' is one of the biggest benefits that we've collectively realized
from computers (and other relatively nonvolatile communication mediums like
books.)
This is a computer-oriented analogy, but most fields have their own tables and
charts and maths that are tedious to keep on the tip of your mind. Still, for
example, I don't need to remember the details of every API that I use; I can
just remember that there is a 'do X' call available, and refer to the
documentation when and if I need to actually use it.
In the same vein, I can quickly get a feel for whether an idea is possible by
stringing together a bunch of abstract mental models. "Can I do X?" becomes,
"are there good tools available for doing A, B, C, and D?", and that
information is only a quick search away. Actually using those tools involves
an enormous amount of detail, but it's detail that I can ignore when putting
an idea together.
And in most cases, that 'detail' is a library or part that already abstracts a
broad range of deeper complexities into something that I don't have to think
about.
The question becomes something like: how do we expose people to enough
information that they are aware of how much they can learn if they need to,
without drowning them in trivia that they will never be interested in?
~~~
cinquemb
Your example also is related to my experience briefly working in P&G chemicals
R & D lab; the ChemE's around me routinely used google to look up reaction
kinetics of different compounds (as well as other similar queries) rather than
rely on their memory of such. I was attending a local university at the time
(mostly for calculus and mathematical modeling using mathematica, and french),
but I'd say this experience is largely one that started my questioning the
value attending university in general (I dropped out an ivy about two years
later, for this reason among others).
I suspect that the concept of 'extended cognition' as it is realized with the
use of computers and how people use it day to day to get work done is in
conflict with how we all are mostly taught via rote memorization, and then
application of information; therefore it should naturally follow that those
who are heavily invested/exposed in 'non extended' cognition services have
relatively more to lose, as well as any currently realistic answer to this:
> _The question becomes something like: how do we expose people to enough
> information that they are aware of how much they can learn if they need to,
> without drowning them in trivia that they will never be interested in?_
will bring cognitive dissonance to those who need the answer most (those with
heavy exposure to relatively 'non extended' cognition services).
~~~
ethbro
When you're looking at effects, I think you need to dig down into what exactly
is being extended.
Are more data sources being made available? Is data being preprocessed? Is an
initial task being automated?
Because the truth of any worker (in less than a ruthlessly specialized huge
company) is that they may be an "extended cognition" worker, but still perform
many "non-extended cognition" activities as part of their job. Because there
was previously no alternative and work needs to get done.
Fast forward that, and you're never going to fully automate a goal. But you
will automate sections of the process that are amenable to machines.
Advice? Recognize which type of work you spend most of your time in, and don't
get caught being the "non-extended cognition" person...
------
quantgenius
AI arrived in Investing a long, long time ago. If you limit AI to deep
learning, as in deep neural networks, maybe only 3-5 years ago. Strategies
based on news have been around for decades. Figuring out what the news means
isn't necessarily as helpful as it seems because it's hard to put much size on
when there is limited time even if you are first. However, various patterns
around news is much easier and to do that all you needed to know was that some
important news had arrived, not necessarily whether it was good or bad, the
goodness or badness was plainly visible in how the price action. Figuring out
the magnitude but not the sign of the importance of a news item has not been
difficult for a long time. Yet somehow we keep getting articles about how AI
has arrived in investing.
As far as the return forecastability deniers out there, particularly the ones
who claim to be doing it on the basis of some sort of empirical thing, well,
if you can't be bothered to actually look at the data or even read academic
literature on the subject, I can't be bothered to educate you.
~~~
joncrane
If you can reliably predicts the magnitude, even without the sign you can
still trade very profitably on the volatility of a stock.
~~~
jnordwick
Not so sure about that.
I've literally missed the sign on a trade before, and it was 7-figure
disastrous. (I've missed the direction of movement on individual symbols a
number of times, but this one time I literally went the wrong way on
everything by accident.)
Markets adjust too quickly to flip your position and profit in any reliable
way. On planned or anticipated events, people are all locked and loaded
waiting for something to happen.
However, I'd much rather know the sign because at least I can put on some
position and guess a little at the magnitude.
~~~
perl4ever
I have no professional experience in finance, and I wouldn't try to go long
volatility because it's too expensive and risky, but why can't you buy puts
and calls at the same time? Or, I have read that there are options on the VIX.
------
rukittenme
Breaking news: robots and humans both equally unable to predict the next digit
in a random sequence. Obviously an incredible over simplification of whats
happening in finance and this article.
~~~
headmelted
Probably not that much of an oversimplification.
Side note: Why is it that we need something so physical to attach these
concepts to?
The photo of the monolithic POWER7 rig that houses Watson with it's
translucent logo is akin to all of the Bitcoin articles with shiny gold coins
with an icon. I understand the need to have some kind of image, but it's just
so detached from the reality of what's going on in practice.
Getting back on topic, I do wonder how much data they're feeding in - it's one
thing to pass masses of historical trades into the algorithm, quite another to
have it watch for relevant news events that affect the asset prices.
~~~
mevile
> Side note: Why is it that we need something so physical to attach these
> concepts to?
Posts with images get more clicks.
------
cik
I run a similar experiment, with real money and allow my robot to trade on my
behalf. For long-term investments, I continue to follow the indexed-only ETF-
based couch potato model, but I'm happy to let this run. I view it as a risky
investment, akin to investing in any startup, and have invested accordingly.
The other reality is that over the long-term it's highly unlikely to beat the
market. Realistically (almost) nothing beats the market over a long-enough
period. At the same time in my testbed, with real data, real 'money where your
mouth is' it worked. It's no crazier than any other idea.
Ultimately whether humans or AI drive investment is immaterial if you believe
in an indexed portfolio. Should those investment approaches succeed, they'll
join the indexes in some way. Similarly, should they fail, they won't
~~~
mikevm
I'd also really love to create a trader bot for part of my money. Any chance
you could give a few pointers on how to get started in this field? (good
resources to read, frameworks to use, etc...)
~~~
cik
Sure. I use a variety of free datasources - including Alphavantage, and the
nightly Nasdaq dumps, to collect a bunch of data nightly, in addition to real-
time. My robot is based on errbot - which I integrate with a private slack
organization/channel so that I can interact, and have all the logging
infrastructure I need.
The database is MySQL, and communicated with via SQLAlchemy (through errbot of
course), with a series of commands and crons (errcron) set up, in order to
both notify myself and execute on various data gathering activities. The rest
of the processing code is likewise - in python. I don't rely on scipy, numpy,
or anything else, given that I don't see the need.
The reality is that there are a series of activities that are profitable at
the micro) level in the geography in which I trade, which is why my robot
currently integrates with Questrade - specifically so that I can execute from
Slack, while I work at my 'regular' job. All passwords and reusable tokens are
stored in an ansible-vault, so that I can commit and push my repository
around.
I'm running two different experiments actively: one that does an arbitrage
based on data I'm looking into, the other than specifically tries to eke out a
$0.10 gain per share, closed daily. Going into Jan 1 2018, I'd made ~57% from
August 31 (first day of trading). This year, I'm down ~8% overall so far.
Passively, the return has been great.
Now, I'm changing my focus - enough people I know are generally interested and
willing to light the same amount of money that I am on fire. So, I'll keep
experimenting, but I'm taking 1% of the overall return for the 'bank' (i.e. my
corp).
This will all clearly catch fire.
------
_delirium
> the E.T.F. runs most of its calculations on I.B.M.’s Watson supercomputer
Every time I read an article that mentions Watson, it's sprouted a new thing
the name is applied to. Previously it was a question-answering system, which
famously won Jeopardy. Then it became a general NLP platform. Then it became a
brand name for basically all IBM machine learning offerings. Now it's also a
supercomputer?
If what this really means is that they built a bot that plugs a bunch of data
into IBM's cloud ML platform and trades on that basis, I'm not really
surprised it's not beating the market. Building an auto-trading bot using off
the shelf ML techniques is actually a pretty popular university project that's
worth trying if you're curious, though (at least with simulated money, or
money you can afford to lose). They can probably do better than a typical
university project, because I assume they have more extensive financial data
feeds. But everyone else serious about automated trading (which lots of people
are) also has those data feeds plus the same off-the-shelf ML, so unless they
have something else...
~~~
ardit33
Watson is a marketing term, and a division of IBM.
Think of it similar as "Amazon Cloud", which really consists of over 100
different type of services/products, some of them very different, and build by
different teams, but the "Amazon Cloud" is more of an umbrella.
~~~
zaphod12
and one that hasn't been terribly successful in a lot of areas! It's often
sold as almost a software/business consulting effort, which requires a ton of
money and time to get up and running
MD Anderson Cancer Center wasted $62 million on it:
[https://www.healthnewsreview.org/2017/02/md-anderson-
cancer-...](https://www.healthnewsreview.org/2017/02/md-anderson-cancer-
centers-ibm-watson-project-fails-journalism-related/)
------
jedberg
It's amazing how a little bit of light insider trading can trump all the
algorithms...
~~~
darethas
To take your comment a little deeper despite me knowing you are being
facetious, I think that's exactly it: the algorithms cannot communicate to
facilitate these types of advantages. They cannot, in essence, be human.
In a world ran and dominated by humans, there will always be an inherent
advantage to being part of the race that creates the game. If algorithms
perfect a system in such a way that there stands no gain to be made by those
at the top, people will simply create a new game to play.
~~~
ChuckMcM
until they can. And at that point it gets really weird. I have heard reports
(but cannot confirm them obviously) that machine learning techniques are
already creating trading strategies that exploit weaknesses in other trading
system algorithms. At what point does the algorithm correlate what it can see
in email inboxes on a connected cloud service with advantageous stock trades
...
~~~
danieltillett
This is where the real money is to be made in AI trading. Of course this sets
of a very interesting series of countermeasure/measure battles.
~~~
perilunar
Is money being made? Seems to me that all trading does is just redistribute
existing money, and no wealth is created.
What a waste to have all these computational resources engaging in a continual
'series of countermeasure/measure battles' instead of calculating something
useful.
~~~
aianus
Trading results in price discovery. Accurate prices allow more informed
investment decisions and the development of more real wealth. The alternative
is something like a centrally planned economy which have generally been
unsuccessful.
------
apetresc
My impression was that humans are still routinely bested by indexes in the
long run, so being "dominated" by humans sounds downright scathing.
> Those programs may be useful, but they are not A.I. because they are static;
> they do the same thing over and over until someone changes them.
Oh, I see. It's better because it's AI. My mistake, then.
~~~
hodl
Indeed! how could all humans beat the index?
------
WalterBright
In college in the 70's, a fellow student was developing a stock trading
program on the institute's PDP-11. He figured it was going to make him rich. I
asked him what the algorithm was, but he was very secretive about it.
It was likely some form of technical analysis.
I wonder sometimes if it ever worked out for him.
------
WalterBright
> artificial intelligence has an edge over the natural kind because of the
> inherent emotional and psychological weaknesses that encumber human
> reasoning.
It's Mr Spock's problem. He always produced inferior decisions because he
failed to take into account the emotions of others.
~~~
PeterisP
The Mr Spock's problem is fictional, designed to make for an interesting plot,
not to reflect reality.
For example, in humans, an innate lack of empathy (the ability to feel the
emotions of others) and being unemotional yourself are factors correlated with
being a _better_ , more effective detector of emotions and manipulator of
emotions; taking into account the emotions of others can be done better if its
done in an analytical way (however, it requires attention, it's not an "always
active" skill then), and lack of emotionality allows you to express the
emotion that's most beneficial for your goals in current situation instead of
whatever you actually think.
If anything, a realistic advanced AI / Spock should be expected to have the
communication skills of a good hostage negotiator combined with a charismatic
politician combined with a wise psychotherapist combined with a sleazy car
salesman. Having and feeling emotions is not required to understand them in
others and show them yourself. For _normal humans_ (excepting e.g. some cases
of sociopathy) it's hard to fake emotions because we're evolved to have
emotional expressions as a somewhat trustworthy, hard to fake signal; it's a
limitation built in homo sapiens, not an inherent limitation.
~~~
WalterBright
> not to reflect reality.
Oh, I know that well. I just find it amusing. Spock is actually the most
illogical character in the show, and the most emotional.
I'm not convinced this is intentional on the part of the scriptwriters. For
example, how does a scriptwriter write a character who is more intelligent
than the writer is? Most "advanced intellects" in scifi seem remarkably
average in their intelligence, reflecting the intelligence of the writer.
~~~
FeepingCreature
This is in the context of a certain work of _Harry Potter_ fanfiction, but you
may find this set of notes for how to write intelligent characters
interesting. I specifically direct your attention towards the section "Level 2
intelligent characters", which goes into how to write a character that appears
smarter than the author.
[http://yudkowsky.tumblr.com/writing](http://yudkowsky.tumblr.com/writing)
Also on Spock in particular, there's a good talk by Julia Galef, The Straw
Vulcan, about how irrational Spock really is and what a rational Vulcan
_should_ look like.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv1nMc-k0N4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv1nMc-k0N4)
~~~
WalterBright
It seems that both of my observations are well-trod territory!
Anyhow, the book "Brainwave" by Poul Anderson has the best description of what
more intelligent characters would be like - they spoke with fewer words, as
the rest of the information was more obvious from context.
------
zitterbewegung
AI and humans have arrived in investing. S&P is dominating for now.
I just pulled out of my "intelligent" portfolio from a 401k rollover into the
S&P. Using that portfolio tool was unintelligent for me :(
~~~
hyprCoin
The more people that follow index funds, the larger my portfolio grows.
Definitely follow this advice, nothing can go wrong and the price can only go
up. Unless of course, there is a large withdrawal event looming around the
corner that will incredibly impacts the current market price of every stock.
When were baby boomers set to retire again?
~~~
sigstoat
> When were baby boomers set to retire again?
they've been retiring for years. 1945 births are 73 now, well into retirement
age. boomers will start retiring over the span of 2007 to 2034, depending on
when they were born and the age they choose to retire at. they'll then be
drawing down their retirement funds for decades.
are you trying to suggest that this ongoing multidecadal process will
constitute a large "withdrawl event"?
~~~
hyprCoin
What does it look like when a large group of people start selling a large
amounts of stock directly into a buy wall?
Fear of an insolvent retirement can trigger this behaviour which then can
compound on itself as other retirement plans are jeopardized. An entire new
generation of wealth giving up on prior security and stock distributions in
favor of new markets can also trigger this, such as what almost happened in
South Korea with crypto currencies.
Hope none of this happens of course, but please be aware of the risks you are
implicitly taking.
~~~
zitterbewegung
My retirement is primarly S&P at this time. Of course a 20% correction could
always be around the corner especially with the market being so high for so
long.
South Korea has a much different demographic than the United States. Samsung
plays a large part of the whole countries GDP.
Insolvent retirement is actually a fear of anyone. Primarily because you don't
know when you will die. So, how long do you accept the inherent risk and start
making your assets more liquid.
I really think that Baby boomers retiring isn't as big as an issue as the
consumer credit market and student loan credit. It seems right now that some
of the S&P's upside is the fact that its on the backs of people putting their
new toys on credit cards and finance plans. I don't think that this can last
forever and also the fact that the things they put on them keep on lasting
longer and longer.
But, for my retirement I'm pretty long on S&P (I'm only 30 years old). I am
not going to pull out at the moment and timing the market for things like that
is hard for me to fathom. Taking defensive positions is more for actually Baby
Boomers and people that are day trading. As you say that this correction will
be triggered by Baby boomers retiring the only thing that actually counters
that is medical science. I have a few coworkers in their 70s and they look and
act like 50 year olds.
~~~
hyprCoin
Here is my belief, may be different from yours:
There is a massive generational theft that's been happening over many
centuries. Property prices inflating along with the rising cost of education
and loans are further rigging the system towards the older, wealthy and
established.
Instead of this trend slowing, it's accelerating at the expense of class
mobility for the young, poor and intelligent. This disillusions these
individuals en masse.
Where have disillusioned intelligent people recently been life-changingly
rewarded for their efforts? Cryptocurrencies have done so, loudly. In fact,
there are developer celebrities in many of these communities.
The choice to the young and intelligent: Seemingly immediate power, prestige,
and potential class mobility versus an stressful period of self improvement
that causes extreme debt (college).
The game needs to be better for the young and intelligent or they are going to
play a different one. Many already are.
I'm extremely long on cryptocurrency for this (and other) reasons. For a sense
of time scale, I have an iota retirement plan that begins distribution in 10
years and lasts 35.
~~~
nl
Can I ask how old you are?
Why do you think that Cryto-currencies are fundamentally different to the
internet boom which made 20-somethings like Larry Page/Sergy Brin/Mark
Zuckerberg some of the richest people on earth in only 10 to 20 years?
I’m sure plenty will get rich on Cryto. I’m unconvinced that this time that
makes it different for some fundamental reason.
~~~
hyprCoin
Sure, I'm 35.
The ease of access to capital for good ideas without any of the bullshit
involved in startup fund raising is what has convinced me of this. It really
doesn't matter what ivy league school the CEO went to, it's outweighed by the
idea, the ability to execute and the ability to convince others to contribute
resources.
Crypto is like the internet boom if the boom was more distributed, as anyone
could take part in investment from the seed round.
------
indescions_2018
Market capitalization based weighting, the basis of the Nasdaq-100 index and
$QQQ ETF, probably constitutes a baseline for what can be considered
"unbiased". Any AI agent that measures market "sentiment" can only be
conditioned upon the quality of the data it is fed. Which will vary across
companies.
An example of one of the best algorithmic strategies I have seen is the
following. During secular bull market eras. Simply buy and hold for a period
of 24 months. Every IPO that comes down the pike. Regardless of sector.
Backtesting this strategy yields annualized 50% rates of return. Which beats
$FB performance the last four years :) No doubt, ML could further optimize
selectivity, weightings, hold duration, etc. The central thesis is that growth
in market cap is strongest during the growth phase of a company.
Of course, today is the day another great algorithmic trading idea: fading
volatility spikes. Unwinds in most violent and consequential fashion. Be
cautious out there!
Two Big Volatility Players May Be on the Loose as VIX Tops 15
[https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-02/two-
big-v...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-02/two-big-
volatility-players-may-be-on-the-loose-as-vix-tops-15)
~~~
nradov
Most retail investors aren't able to participate in most IPOs. The majority of
IPO shares are allocated to institutional investors or high net worth
individuals. Your strategy doesn't work if you can't get a share allocation
and have to buy on the secondary market at higher prices.
~~~
perl4ever
The other problem is identifying "secular bull market eras". Well, identifying
them going forward, not retrospectively.
------
paulryanrogers
Ultimately markets serve humans, even if the number of beneficiaries is
shrinking. And living in a world of limited resources I doubt that AI will
have a long term future. It's so dependent on humans to provide: electricity,
computer hardware, maintenance, and even purpose.
Humans, at present, also seem better equipped to adapt to irrational markets;
especially when they are the source of irrational behavior.
------
frgtpsswrdlame
>Between Oct. 18, when it began trading, and the end of the year, the E.T.F.
rose 3.1 percent, compared with a 5.1 percent gain for the Standard & Poor’s
500-stock index.
A three month track record? "Dominating"? Come on. This article is either an
advertisement or a nothing-burger to get that clickbait headline although I
can't decide which.
------
LearnerHerzog
> _" It is to early to say whether the E.T.F., A.I. Powered Equity, will be a
> trendsetter or merely a curiosity."_
The New York Times are now hiring people who don't know the difference between
"to" and "too"? Well, that explains the sophomoric understanding of AI
showcased throughout the rest of the article!
------
jumpkickhit
You can see the unregulated AI in the cryptocurrency markets.
I wonder what the profits have been so far. People have invested in faster
internet trunks for trading ages ago, just for a few ms quicker trades.
[https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0927/outfront-netscape-
ji...](https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0927/outfront-netscape-jim-
barksdale-daniel-spivey-wall-street-speed-war.html#362f56f741ad)
[https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a...](https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a7274/a-transatlantic-
cable-to-shave-5-milliseconds-off-stock-trades/)
------
sandworm101
"Investing" is more than public stocks and other securities. Humans will
always be needed for investment in new tech or evaluation of a venture's
potential. Show me the machine capable of pickinv between vhs or betamax ...
before either hit the shelf.
------
gumby
Amazing they could write a whole article like this and not mention funds like
2Sigma which are entirely AI-focused. Those funds have been sucking cash out
of the rest of the managed fund sector at an astonishing rate (2S alone have
over $50Bn under mgmt).
No connection to these guys BTW
------
acd
The title is misleading that humans dominate investing.
Cats selecting stocks with its whiskers and monkey throwing darts on a
newspaper on average beats most human professional investors. Most amateur
investors are better of with low priced index funds tracking stock index than
buying more expensive managed products as those have higher fees.
Book A random down walk wall street.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Random_Walk_Down_Wall_Street](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Random_Walk_Down_Wall_Street)
~~~
narag
If machines are better than human investing, is there people that use machines
to select investments? I don't mean high frequency, but long-term.
~~~
zone411
Since it's a trade secret, it's hard to know exactly what they do and how much
human input there is - but a couple well-known quant hedge funds are
Renaissance Technologies and Two Sigma. They were both started by
mathematicians/computer scientists and they manage 10s of billions.
------
vadimberman
Considering that today the press can label any piece of software AI, one could
say it happened in 1990s.
------
harry8
Return over 10 years after fees as compared to a minimum expense index fund.
Everything that loses to that is a con (98-99% of actively managed funds).
Matters little if you were ripped off with a human picking the losers, an AI
or both or neither.
------
idrism
If humans are still dominating, AI has not arrived.
------
sirmoveon
A.I. doesn't have insider trading expertise.
------
sabujp
you don't buy on a dip, you buy after the dip is finished and it starts going
up again
------
SirLJ
Good morning NYT, i have been doing this for years with my stock trading
robots and my inspiration was not some obscure SV etf or other fin tech
gimmick, but the leaders on Wall Street period like RenTec, 2Sigma, etc...
------
superquest
Stopped reading after their first example of an investing model was "high
frequency trading" ...
------
blunte
"It is to early"... I know it's picky of me, but when the NYT can't edit their
work, what is the point of even trying to educate children on grammar. Surely
this was just a typo, but that is no excuse.
~~~
CodeCube
Let them who has never released a bug into production throw the first stone ;)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN - How to research a stem cell doctor - jmatthews
A good friend of mine has a child that was born with ONH. As a result he is blind. The family traveled to China a couple of years ago for stem cell treatment and the result were measurable, but didn't really change his quality of life.<p>They're now considering going to Southern California to work with A Dr David Steenblock<p>I've exercised all of the google-fu I have in order to try and research the guy. I've found a quackalert page excoriating the guy and a lot of self-referential sites raising him up. I'd really like to help my friend out and either give him a thumbs up or thumbs down as to the guys quackery.<p>people in my buddy's situation are in a really tough spot. The USDA and AMA move so slowly, and are so politically driven that good medicine is often the third or fourth priority. So what I'm asking for is if any of you guys or girls know of a resource I could use to get vetted, or reputable information regarding his patients, their outcomes and any complaints against him.<p>It is pretty rare to find a situation where most all of the critiques and all of the praise are self-referential. Any help would be appreciated.
======
mbadge
You should check out the personalized medicine research being performed by
MetaMed-[http://www.metamed.com/missionoverview](http://www.metamed.com/missionoverview).
They've got a team of computer scientists, mathematicians, and biomedical
researchers that sort through this kind of problem for patients and
physicians.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Connecting the dots on ebays local shopping strategu - jgreenough
http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/15/connecting-the-dots-on-ebays-local-shopping-strategy/
======
jgreenough
Google enables all things adSense, e-Bay enables all things PayPal. There is
one more major item that I think is still on their list. Any guesses? Hint it
rhymes with Where...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Corral Rides - All your SF transportation options in one place - hellonoam
http://www.getcorral.com
======
ajju
Hey guys. You need to add InstantCab on here. Email me: [email protected]
~~~
snir
Sure thing. Just dropped you a line.
------
bkad
Where did you get these glasses: <http://www.getcorral.com/about>
I must have them.
~~~
samstave
From the birdmen of Zeist.
~~~
snir
Haha. You dont have to go that far :)
They're called "Fly Goggles" for those actually interested...
------
pakeha
Really well executed - well done. I was surprised and impressed with the
output of my first search.
One feature request: the ability to save common journeys. I take Uber(x) from
home to the office frequently; if I could easily compare other providers on
that trip before I leave for work, maybe I'd use other services more often.
~~~
hellonoam
Thanks, we'll see if we can make it happen for the next release.
I don't know if you noticed, but we show you a history of your recent
searches, so that could be a quicker way to get your favorite route.
------
doorty
First of all, this is great. I'll definitely be using it on a regular basis
for public transit and 'taxi' rides. Second, I love that you have bike
directions too. BUT, the bike directions seem to be car directions when you
hit the link to google maps. Please explain...
~~~
snir
Strange. They should be distinct. I'll look into it.
On the biking side, we're considering looking at joins between biking and
other modes of transit. So for example, you could bike an extra mile and get
on a different, more direct bus/train (assuming it can carry your bike).
Glad to hear you like the app :)
~~~
hellonoam
Google directions APIs offer biking routes, so on the backend we figure out
the time it takes to get to the destination. Unfortunately the Google maps app
APIs doesn't support biking directions yet just driving/walking/public
transport so for now driving makes the most sense.
If there's a biking app you usually use we'd be happy to integrate with it
------
markolschesky
I like it!
Is there anyway that when you pass the user from Corral to Google Maps that
you can pass their location using a discrete address vs. Lat/Lng coordinates?
Sometimes I forget what I was googling directions to awhile later and I'd
prefer the to/from vs. the lat long.
~~~
hellonoam
The lat/long coordinates are more accurate which is why we're using it.
However, we've heard this from a few people already, so we might change it in
the next release.
------
jedberg
I was just talking about the need for something like this the other day.
Brilliant!
~~~
hellonoam
Glad ya like it ;)
------
niccolop
When do you think you'll have a version for android?
~~~
snir
We'll be working on that momentarily. We picked up iOS development just for
this, and will do the same with Android. Hopefully in two weeks.
~~~
niccolop
Looking forward to it.
------
gojomo
Great idea... but do you have confidence that Uber/Lyft/Sidecar are happy to
be aggregated like this?
~~~
snir
We would be happy to take any of those providers down from our listing if they
reach out to us.
As we perceive it, if they chose to be removed, they provide an advantage to
their competitors. We're listing them as benefit to our user base, but in
doing so, we send over free traffic.
~~~
sourcemine
First of all, I love your idea.. wanted to do the same thing. I showed this to
the product team @ lyft just FYI, not sure if they see this is a violation of
their terms/data or not. We will find out tho.. love the idea. Uber may charge
a booking fee.. would be nice if they would share that with you as a lead..
Will be watching your progress, please update twitter/facebook as you go..
------
nikunjk
This is awesome. Do you rev-share with the clients? Any plans to monetize
this?
~~~
snir
Glad you like it!
We dont have any revenue sharing relationships in place with any of the
services we link out to. We don't have any plans to monetize at present
either. We found ourselves switching out between these different apps whenever
making transit decisions, and decided to build it out. If we observe operating
costs getting too high, we might seek out those relationships.
------
Noreaster76
SF mass transit: epic fail. Unless you need to get up and down Market, in
which case... you're in luck!
------
safeer
So awesome.
------
seanholbert
love it.
------
vhnguy2
so cool!!!
~~~
snir
Thanks :)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why is there only one Elon Musk? Why is there so much low-hanging fruit? - yarapavan
https://guzey.com/why-is-there-only-one-elon-musk/
======
vikramkr
Even with the disclaimer that the variables are all probably correlated, I
think the author is vastly vastly underestimating how strongly correlated
these variables are going to be. Raw mental power and creativity + long-term
planning and vision-making have a _lot_ of overlap. Energy and persistence
could basically be the same thing. Risk and pain tolerance is already captured
by energy, persistence, ambition. These seem to boil down to about 2
variables. Ambition to do big things, capability
(intellectual/physical/creative) to do big things. It's also missing a _huge_
variable (which is part of capability) in resource availability. Doesn't
matter how many of those characteristics you have if you're born in a war torn
region in syria and don't have the opportunity to get out. You could still
successfully pull yourself out of the situation and create a better life for
yourself, which could be more difficult than building a rocket to go to mars,
but the point is you won't be building the rocket, you'll be using your time
figuring out how to escape.
With those 2-3 aspects, I think you'll find that there are a few thousand or
tens of thousands of people at that level, which lines up with what we see.
There's more than one billionaire (and people like Einstein revolutionized
plenty without ending up on Forbes richest list). Throw in a bit of pure luck
for good measure (really helps to have a tech bubble going full speed at the
start of your career to get you the capital you need for later life, and on
the flip side I'm sure SpaceX wasn't any easier to run when the 3rd rocket
launch failed because of a really dumb little error that was nearly enough to
destroy the company).
~~~
guzey
I think the points you make are reasonable and it comes down to our feeling of
how much exactly of overlap there is + what percentile exactly are we talking
about here (what if to build SpaceX + Tesla one needed to be in 99.9%
percentile of one of the variables?) + the number of such traits and how much
they can compensate each other.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Next Housing Recession in 2020, Predicts Zillow - t23
https://www.investopedia.com/investing/next-housing-recession-2020-predicts-zillow/
======
mrosett
This article is based on a survey of experts that was conducted in May 2018
[0]. Many of those experts cited monetary policy, and the Fed did indeed raise
rates three times over the remainder of 2018. However, the Fed has
subsequently cut rates twice. In other words, this is outdated and shouldn't
have been submitted.
[0] [http://zillow.mediaroom.com/2018-05-22-Experts-Predict-
Next-...](http://zillow.mediaroom.com/2018-05-22-Experts-Predict-Next-
Recession-Will-Begin-in-2020)
------
nickgrosvenor
I welcome it, as metropolitan home prices are comically out of reach for
nearly all income levels.
~~~
notathrowaway27
While I agree, wouldn’t a recession caused by rising interest rates keep
housing unaffordable for these same buyers? Since getting a loan would then be
more expensive.
~~~
pmart123
Housing prices would likely fall in that scenario. In the early eighties,
homes values were cheap, but mortgage rates were expensive.
------
wil421
An owned by Zillow house has been for sale in my neighborhood for 5 months.
Meanwhile 5-6 other houses have sold including my neighbors. Myself, my
mother-in-law, brother-in-law, and 2 co workers have bought and sold (except
me) houses this year with ease. The houses were on the market for less than 30
days with offers at or above asking prices, 2 of them had small bidding
“wars”. They had offers at the first open house.
I closed in March and everyone that closed after me has gotten a better rate
due to the Fed drop.
Still shocked the owned by Zillow house has not sold.
~~~
sjg007
I am not shocked. Local real estate agents won't show the houses to a client.
~~~
kminehart
Why not? They would still get commission on the sale, right?
~~~
heelix
Zillow and the classic real estate brokerage don't get along. There is a push
to make buying a house an internet shopping cart thing, which the brokers
really don't want. Were people to get the information, automate the
regulation, and do the 98% common paperwork - folks would watch that 6%
disappear.
There are plenty of gotchas that can go wrong in one of the most expensive
purchases people make (rarely, at that). Also, most of these brokerages are
(somewhat) trying to build their own systems. That MLS insider 'advantage' is
being devalued by most folks. Zillow does make it easy to couch surf without
having to deal with the contract, contract, sign, sign, agent. Those leads are
worth cash.
------
bcheung
Zillow is not making a very convincing argument here. Seems like a wild guess
at best.
------
masonic
Zillow can't even get my original purchase price within 100% of reality
despite it being public record. Also, it estimates my home value almost 40%
off identical floorplans on my same street.
------
paxys
If everyone is convinced there's going to be a recession then there isn't
going to be a recession.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A binary coder for Swift - chmaynard
https://www.mikeash.com/pyblog/friday-qa-2017-07-28-a-binary-coder-for-swift.html
======
userbinator
_the numbers are byte-swapped to be endian agnostic_
Regardless of how fast it is, it seems wasteful to do all this byte-swapping
when the vast majority of systems today, outside of more specialised
applications, are little-endian.
~~~
DSMan195276
You can do byte-swapping in one instruction on x86, so it really isn't
something worth worrying about. There aren't many big-endian systems out
there, but it doesn't really matter that much. If you wanted to, you could
change this so it always stores the numbers in little-endian (and does a swap
on big-endian systems) but a lot of the uses of this will likely be for
networking, and people generally expect big-endian in that situation.
~~~
cgb223
> You can do byte-swapping in one instruction on x86
Well considering the vast majority of swift code runs on Apple's ARM chips
(iDevices) rather than x86 processors (Mac), I think that's kind of a moot
point
~~~
mikeash
Moot twice, since ARM also has a single instruction for byte swapping.
------
victor106
How stable are swift releases now? What are some good resources to start
learning swift?
~~~
heifer2822
I think, as a starting place, Apple's Swift Programming Guide is hard to beat
~~~
penpapersw
In my experience, it's difficult to go through because it's so comprehensive
and thorough, and I guess it has to be because it has to assume the lowest
common denominator audience. Personally I'd like a shorter guide that assumes
you know a few languages (C#, ObjC, JS, Java) and skips a bunch of the tedium
of how _programming languages work in general_ and gets right to what's
different about Swift. It may seem like it does that, but look at their page
about control flow[1] and tell me it's not an unreasonably long-winded way of
explaining switch, for, for-in, while, break, continue, and if.
[1]:
[https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/Sw...](https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/Swift/Conceptual/Swift_Programming_Language/ControlFlow.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40014097-CH9-ID120)
~~~
heifer2822
I agree but Swift is a new enough language that I'm not sure such a resource
exists yet. When I learned Swift I just skimmed through the parts that weren't
interesting and that worked for me. It was a good overview of the language.
As an aside, the book, Advanced Swift, by the objc folks is fantastic but
assumes you already know Swift. It's not what you're looking for, but
something to move onto after you grasp the basics.
~~~
unkown-unknowns
Maybe there is room for a publisher that makes books for people that already
know how to program?
------
pirocks
Interesting how this has 57 points and as of now no comments.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Behavioral Immune System - 80mph
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_immune_system
======
stared
I suggest looking at trypophobia here
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trypophobia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trypophobia)
(PLEASE DON'T GOOGLE THAT BEFORE YOU KNOW WHAT'S THAT).
Only in the last decade it was identified and classified as a different
reaction than fear and disgust. It is theorized that we have it to protect us
against skin parasites (pathogens, insects) - and hence the skin shivers. See
"Skin-transmitted pathogens and the heebie jeebies: evidence for a subclass of
disgust stimuli that evoke a qualitatively unique emotional response"
[https://sci-hub.tw/https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2016.120...](https://sci-
hub.tw/https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2016.1202199) for a nice overview.
------
vekker
> One study found that the mere visual perception of diseased-looking people
> stimulated white blood cells to respond more aggressively to infection (as
> indicated by the production of the proinflammatory cytokine Interleukin 6 in
> response to a bacterial stimulus).
I wonder if this is also why many people perhaps showed nocebo effects
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocebo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocebo))
at the onset of the covid19 crisis & the many disturbing images (especially
from Italy) being shown in the media.
------
strangetimes
I wonder if this explains why people forced to work in open plan offfices
become less sociable? It’s well documented how illnesses travel in open plans.
~~~
alexpetralia
Very interesting theory.
------
spangry
I found the xenophobia thing quite interesting : "In addition, the behavioral
immune system appears to contribute to xenophobia and ethnocentrism. One
implication is that these prejudices tend to be exaggerated under conditions
in which people feel especially vulnerable to the potential transmission of
infectious diseases."
I wonder if we'll see a rise in xenophobia, and consequent long-term shifts in
government policy, due to COVID-19?
~~~
carlmr
>I wonder if we'll see a rise in xenophobia
I think it's already there.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_incidents_of_xenopho...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_incidents_of_xenophobia_and_racism_related_to_the_2019%E2%80%9320_coronavirus_pandemic)
It is a form of innate social distancing if you will. Of course in a
globalized society this instinct is more harmful than useful.
~~~
salawat
Globalized society isn't a given; it isn't like the world doesn't work with
nations maintaining domestic manufacturing capability.
In fact, the biggest push to economically globalize was actually a strategic
move to spread influence in the Cold War era, and a means to the end of
international peacekeeping through economic interdependence.
This pandemic in particular has highlighted some of the fundamental flaws in
that model, however. Namely that if you don't have maximum commitment by all
members (to help, and to not hinder), it leads to decisions being made that
are worse for everyone globally.
For instance; Chinna may have completely shut down, and allowed western help
if they did not feel it would unduly threaten their national security; and
that they could with full faith trust that other nations would not exploit the
period of temporary weakness while the virus was in the process of being
contained.
That did not happen, nor will it likely ever. The fact is, globalization is
only touted it seems by idealists, and capital wielders looking to stretch the
buck that much further. In terms of local sociocultural security; it tends to
be a non-starter.
It's a pity really. I can understand and see both sides of the issue's
sentiments. I'll be damned if I can figure out any way to reconcile their
contentions though.
------
vmchale
The wikipedia article mentions xenophobia but I think things like OCD/anorexia
would be quite interesting in this context.
~~~
Angostura
It's a slightly odd article, in that it mentions things like avoidannce of the
obese, the elderly and xenophobia, but it doesn't really talk about the
obvious things like the disgust reflex - avoiding shit, mouldy food etc.
------
7373737373
This is also very interesting:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defence_mechanism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defence_mechanism)
------
ak39
I wonder if this somewhat “explains” the awkward silences of strangers in
confined spaces such as elevators.
Fascinating theory.
~~~
combatentropy
People in elevators are not more silent. The reason they're quiet is because
they're strangers, not because they're standing too close. In a more open
space, like a grocery store, strangers still aren't chatting.
Or maybe you're asking why elevators feel more awkward. It feels awkward
because the physical relationship does not match the emotional one. Also, the
stranger has an up-close view of you: any flaw in your appearance or words is
received by someone who you don't trust, don't understand. You can only guess
what they'll think. They'll likely be polite and say nothing critical, but the
thought that they might secretly think something critical is enough to hold
back most people. The concern for what strangers think is another interesting
subject in psychology.
~~~
perl4ever
You can observe a bunch of people and say, "they are not talking to each other
because they are strangers". But if you observed a randomly selected group
over a decade, you would see that some of them talk to strangers now and then,
and those are the ones that have a tremendous advantage in creating new
relationships, whereas the ones that _never_ talk to strangers might even be
handicapped/pathological.
Like, there's a huge difference between someone who, on average, consistently
starts a conversation with 1 of 1000 people they meet vs. someone who does
that with nobody. But observing people for a minute or two at a time, you
wouldn't see the difference.
------
Khelavaster
Serotonin and vasopressin truly mediate the immune system in all sorts of
ways.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Bridging the design resource gap for early-staged startups - jasonli
https://medium.com/tomyum/bridging-the-design-resource-gap-for-early-staged-startups-2f9990873f57
======
jasonli
Hey everyone. We're experimenting with Startup Packages, where we offer our
design services at a bundled discount for early-staged companies.
This is our first go at making design more accessible to startups. What we’re
offering here is the result of speaking to early-staged companies and
understanding their budget and needs. However, we’re not expecting to
completely hit the mark on the first try. If you have any feedback, please let
me know here.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Startup idea: Collaborative payment for open-source dev - billboebel
http://startup-ideas.posterous.com/collaborative-payment-for-open-source-dev
======
pella
another idea - "OpenCompany"
<http://e-texteditor.com/blog/2009/opencompany>
<http://www.metagovernment.org/wiki/Open_company>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Evidence Shows Hackers Changed Votes in the 2016 Election but No One Admits It - nhoven
https://www.theroot.com/evidence-shows-hackers-changed-votes-in-the-2016-electi-1827871206
======
travmatt
Even stronger evidence shows the Republican Party worked with Russian
intelligence to obtain the voter rolls that they used in their micro-targeting
ad campaigns, but oddly enough nobody is talking about that. Aaron Nevins
literally bragged about recieving stolen property from Russian intelligence
and using that to further his political goals of electing republicans.
~~~
cgb223
Thats a big claim. Do you have a source on that?
~~~
travmatt
Literally google Aaron Nevins. He openly discusses it.
------
dalore
So Georgia rather then let DHS look at their machines decided to delete and
wipe them clean? and the backups? Why would they do that unless something was
wrong?
~~~
criley2
The FBI made full images of all Georgia machines.
~~~
tomrod
Source?
~~~
criley2
[https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/07/18/mueller-i...](https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/07/18/mueller-
indictments-georgia-voting-infrastructure-219018)
"The good news is that FBI agents in Atlanta made a mirror image of the server
that Lamb breached when they were investigating his intrusion, and the
plaintiffs are hoping the judge overseeing their case will rule that they can
examine this image. It’s unclear, however, whether the image preserved
everything that was on the server and whether the image still exists.
A spokesman for the FBI’s Atlanta office refused to comment on the matter and
referred POLITICO to KSU. KSU did not respond."
[https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2017/10/26/computer-
file...](https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2017/10/26/computer-files-heart-
georgia-election-security-case-deleted-day-after-suit-filed/803579001/)
"The FBI is known to have made an exact data image of the server in March when
it investigated the security hole. The email that disclosed the server wipe
said the state attorney general's office was "reaching out to the FBI to
determine whether they still have the image."
Atlanta FBI spokesman Stephen Emmett, responding to AP questions, would not
say whether that image still exists. Nor would he say whether agents examined
it to determine whether the server's files might have been altered by
unauthorized users."
------
ceejayoz
I remain shocked that voting machines are not open source and publicly
auditable.
I'm also surprised the NSA isn't specifically tasked with a regular, detailed,
high-resources code review of the codebase.
~~~
enzanki_ars
The biggest problem would be open sourcing _everything_ , not just the
software that used. The OS, the network configurations/setup, access
controls/policies, etc. Even then, without a verifiable and private way of
verifying counts, we could never be sure about a vote count.
~~~
rusk
Do it on an openly observable blockchain so everyone can see what’s going on
in realtime
~~~
enzanki_ars
I knew once I posted it that someone would suggest using a block chain.
The problem with the block chain is privacy. Publishing people’s votes can and
will have a huge impact on their life. It would also make buying votes much
easier.
A block chain solution would have to find a way to ensure that only valid
voters can place a vote, ensure that only people that could vote were the only
people that placed a vote after the fact, and ensure that none of this can be
tied to a real identity. Otherwise, either bad actors could place votes, or a
complete voting record for a person is published.
Solve all of the above, and a block chain may be an acceptable way to go,
though it would be a waste of energy in my mind compared to a normal database,
which could easily be exported with only the vote and signature stating it was
a valid and verified vote for a person.
In the end, we have just made something more complicated than a paper ballot,
which has been shown to be reasonably secure against foreign and/or national
actors attempting to influence an election, except in already corrupt nations,
especially those without term limits...
~~~
rusk
A distributed ledger with an entry for every single voter who gets to move
their single “token” from one column to another column with their selection.
Roll it up and there’s your result. Enough bits and everyone can have their
own token that is unique, anonymous and secure. The argument about corrupt
regimes is a nonstarter cause you’ve got bigger problems.
------
bhouston
Georgia was traditionally a red state so even if the votes were changed it
wouldn't have affected the result.
Are any swing states suspected of having their voting system hacked to have
changed the final result?
It is weird that the electronic voting system is u likely to get fixed. I
guess it will have to get much worse in the future to cause action?
~~~
dragonwriter
> Georgia was traditionally a red state
Georgia has been becoming progressively less red, and was early on in the 2016
cycle seen as a potentially swingable state.
> I guess it will have to get much worse in the future to cause action?
At least, it will have to _not_ help the party in power in the state.
~~~
eli
> Georgia has been becoming progressively less red, and was early on in the
> 2016 cycle seen as a potentially swingable state.
I'm having a really hard time imagining an EV scenario where Georgia is the
deciding state. An election where Clinton takes Georgia is one where she wins
by a landslide.
And in the end the results in Georgia were right in line with both those of
other states and with the exit polls.
There's no story here and, frankly, it distracts from real issues affecting
voters like bogus Voter ID requirements, intentionally understaffing or
removing polling places on college campuses, etc.
~~~
tomrod
Under traditional expectations, sure.
------
tomrod
We are hackers, and this is a technology problem. Was it flagged because it
have overlap with politics?
~~~
DoreenMichele
It gets flagged by users, not moderators.
Flagging is kind of like upvoting. No one person gets to say what ends up on
the front page. It's an outcome of group consensus, basically.
I don't ever bother to ask "Why is this being flagged?" because the answer is
that the exact reason will vary from person to person, my understanding is
that multiple people have to flag it (I don't know how many) to have a
noticeable effect, I have no means to determine who flagged it, etc. So I
consider it to be unanswerable.
------
squozzer
>Russia actually got inside the voting systems of seven states, including 4 of
the 5 largest states in terms of electoral votes—California (55) Texas (38)
Florida (29) and Illinois (20).
And yet two of those states listed went for Hillary. Maybe the Russians didn't
want to be obvious.
Author spends a lot of time on Georgia, with its "D" rated voting system and
its 16 electoral votes.
>Georgia’s systems would have been an “ideal” target for Russian hackers
because the state doesn’t use a system with a paper trail so there is no way
to audit the system.
Let's accept that for the sake of my next question - would a paper trail
actually help? Maybe, depending on who gets the paper. Does it mean the voter
gets a receipt? That might cause a few problems of its own.
For instance, a group of well-armed people acting as a "voting integrity
militia" might decide to inspect people's voting receipts for any "errors."
One can only imagine how the article's writer would characterize _that_.
Now let's pretend some of all of the states _admit_ their systems had been
compromised. Should we trust the results of any election, or just the results
we don't like? We can reasonably guess the author's answer to that question.
~~~
AnimalMuppet
> Maybe the Russians didn't want to be obvious.
If California voted for Trump, that would in fact be obvious...
------
eli
This is a really weak article that does not support its headline and veers
into conspiracy theory territory.
------
RickJWagner
What a waste of time. There's not a shred of evidence in that article.
------
kangnkodos
Georgia Exit polls: Trump 51%, Clinton 46%, Other 3%
Georgia reported results after possible Russian hacking: Trump 51%, Clinton
46%, Other 3%
[https://www.cnn.com/election/2016/results/exit-
polls/georgia...](https://www.cnn.com/election/2016/results/exit-
polls/georgia/president)
[https://www.politico.com/2016-election/results/map/president...](https://www.politico.com/2016-election/results/map/president/georgia/)
------
deweller
This article asserts that Donald Trump is the Kremlin’s Executive in Charge of
U.S. Operations. That makes it very difficult for me to take seriously.
~~~
rusk
That actually sounds like one of the more plausible assertions
------
hellofunk
This article is amateur.
> And despite what Donald Trump, the Kremlin’s Executive in Charge of U.S.
> Operations, would have you believe
It's hard to take an article seriously when it uses a tone like this (even if
there is some truth behind it).
~~~
pohl
There once was a time on HN when it was customary to respond to a comment like
this with a referral to Paul Graham's Hierarchy of Disagreement, suggesting
that it might be better to aim higher than "responding to tone."
~~~
EpicEng
It's not just tone though; it's an obvious journalistic bias. It couldn't
possibly be _more_ obvious. It's nonsensical to pretend that doesn't affect
the author's credibility.
~~~
pohl
Someone should probably mention that calling the source biased is just
circumstantial ad hominem, which is even lower on the pyramid than responding
to tone.
~~~
EpicEng
>Someone should probably mention that calling the source biased is just
circumstantial ad hominem, which is even lower on the pyramid than responding
to tone.
Yeah, that gets thrown around a lot by people who like to parrot logical
fallacies to sound smarter than they are. In reality credibility matters. A
lot. Especially for journalists.
You're trusting this person to report the facts accurately. You're trusting
them to report fully and not omit relevant details. You're trusting this
person to commit to an investigation which is as impartial as possible.
All of those require trust, and trust is built by credibility, which is built
by demonstrating that you do your job well.
So no, of course it doesn't mean that everything else in the article is
incorrect. Of course, I never said that (straw man on your part? Thought you
may enjoy that.) It _does_ mean that I will take anything I read afterwards
with a grain of salt.
~~~
pohl
I see it as a tradeoff. If someone wears their bias on their sleeve, you know
where they're coming from. If not, you have no way of knowing whether you're
reading someone who is judiciously adhering to a process that minimizes bias,
or whether they are deliberately concealing their bias, or whether they are so
deluded that they imagine themselves to have no bias whatsoever, which would
be absurd.
Regardless, you're still advocating for a low form of argument.
~~~
makomk
Well, the article got pulled, so I guess it was a pretty solid warning sign
after all:
"Editor’s Note: This story was an opinion piece asserting there was evidence
that hackers changed votes in the 2016 election. However, a number of
statements in the piece are disputed by experts. As a result, we have pulled
it down for editorial review, and will update it once that review is
completed."
~~~
pohl
The editors are operating a full three levels higher (than “responding to
tone”) in the hierarchy of disagreement. They’re setting a good example.
(Although a bit later than ideal.)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Swift Blog - sferik
https://developer.apple.com/swift/blog/
======
clayallsopp
Wow, this is an interesting/refreshing development from Apple. I can't recall
them ever having a public blog to communicate with their developer community.
Until now, it's mostly been through their developer forums, private support,
and in-person at the yearly WWDC.
How they've developed as a developer-facing company this year is really
encouraging. Google et al have always been transparent as glass relative to
Apple's iOS work, but this blog, the twitter dialog from Swift's development
team, and the no-NDA release of iOS8 has really changed my opinion of the
direction they're pushing the ecosystem.
~~~
darthgoogle
Well, let's just wait and see, because frankly, I'm tired of reading marketing
fluff like "We can’t wait to see what you build!".
After years in the making (which means plenty of time to think of an answer),
one of the most important questions still hasn't been answered, and not even
mentioned on the blog.
Namely, will Swift be open-source and submitted to standards bodies? Will key
libraries also be released?
If I make an investment to learn Swift, what are the chances that I can take
this knowledge and use it outside of the Apple ecosystem? Or is Swift destined
to follow the fate of Objective-C and be completely useless outside of Mac/iOS
apps?
~~~
austinz
Their lack of transparency on this matter sucks, but at least they haven't
committed to making it proprietary:
[http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/pipermail/llvmdev/2014-June/073698....](http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/pipermail/llvmdev/2014-June/073698.html)
~~~
darthgoogle
Interesting thread. Not buying Chris's (with his Apple hat on) answer though.
The idea that you spend a few years to create a new language and have not even
had a discussion yet about whether or not it will be open source is simply not
credible.
Unless Swift was rushed to release because companies like Apportable were
making too much progress and they wanted to herd developers back into the pens
with new proprietary languages and APIs e.g. Metal.
~~~
jaegerpicker
Have you ever worked at a company that open sources code? I mean it's fairly
common, even VERY common that the devs are all for open sourcing the product
but the legal department has not made a decision yet. Engineers move at an
incredibly swift, no pun intended, pace but Lawyers tend to take glacial ages
to decide anything. It's completely and totally credible that the legal
department hasn't given their final ok on things, especially at a company like
Apple and as large as Apple is.
~~~
mythz
How is "incredibly swift, no pun intended, pace" not intended?
It's an unnatural forced use of the term expressly for that purpose, expressly
saying something _is not_ exactly what it _is_ , isn't in anyway accidental.
~~~
jaegerpicker
How is it unnatural moving at swift pace is a very common phrase. I can think
of several times that I and others have said it.
------
equalarrow
This is great news. Apple seems to be going the proactive route with all this.
I think that's a really good idea on their part.
That said, as soon as I saw Swift was announced, I took the plunge and started
my own journal about learning Swift.
[http://www.swiftpursuit.com](http://www.swiftpursuit.com)
Figured I'd document my progress as I went along and it's been a lot of fun so
far. This is something I plan on doing over the long haul and I'd like to get
in some small 5-10 min videos that covers not only the language but also new
things coming out in XCode as well.
I'm two posts behind, but I'm trying to release a new post every week. My
biggest slow down has just been figuring out the blogging software and
hosting.
------
arturhoo
I am currently downloading XCode 6.3 Beta [1] without being a registered
developer (used my ordinary credentials), does that mean that I will be able
to write applications and play with the REPL? Has it just been made available?
[1]
[https://developer.apple.com/devcenter/download.action?path=/...](https://developer.apple.com/devcenter/download.action?path=/Developer_Tools/xcode_6_beta_3_lpw27r/xcode_6_beta_3.dmg)
~~~
Osmium
I believe so–that's what the blog says at least!
Would've been nice if they'd done this from the start (says someone who just
paid his registration fee last month solely for access to the new XCode
beta/Swift) but better late than never. Maybe there was some strategic value
in only letting paying devs have access it for the first month or so as the
news settled in...
~~~
josephlord
Beta 1 was really pretty flakey and Xcode tended to crash every 20 minutes or
so. Beta 3 is much better. I suspect the quality and readiness for a
potentially less friendly audience is what caused them to keep it to
registered devs rather than an attempt to get more cash.
Hopefully you end up getting some value from your registration. You could
always ask for a refund but I don't know if they would give it to you.
~~~
Osmium
> I suspect the quality and readiness for a potentially less friendly audience
> is what caused them to keep it to registered devs rather than an attempt to
> get more cash.
Probably true.
> Hopefully you end up getting some value from your registration.
Definitely got some value :) For one, I had the time to play around with it
last month, that I don't have this month, so for that alone it was worth it.
So not bitter about it!
------
kennethfriedman
It's really great to see Apple opening up - maybe not in their products, but
in their culture. Programming language blog, a presence on social networks
(mostly Twitter), posing for pictures with devs at WWDC, and generally
embracing the dev community. All of these individual things seem small but
together show a much more open side of Apple.
A side effect of these changes: Apple can control their own story now; whereas
the rumor mill and the Apple-Needs-To-Release-A-New-Category-In-The-
Next-30-Days-Or-They-Are-Doomed websites have been controlling their
story/image for the past couple years.
------
BlackLamb
Great timing, was just reading the Swift ebook
let interestingNumbers = [
"Prime": [2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13],
"Fibonacci": [1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8],
"Square": [1, 4, 9, 16, 25],
]
var largest = 0
for (kind, numbers) in interestingNumbers {
for number in numbers {
if number > largest {
largest = number
}
}
}
largest
Excerpt From: Apple Inc. “The Swift Programming Language.”
~~~
josephlord
Note that if you downloaded the original book into iBooks you need to delete
it and download it again to get the version that matches Beta3 (fixed array
semantics and new range operator ..<)
~~~
tjl
Did both the Swift books get updated or just the one?
~~~
josephlord
It looks like they both did along with examples. I don't know if the changes
are significant[0].
Revision history for main book:
[https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/documenta...](https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/documentation/Swift/Conceptual/Swift_Programming_Language/RevisionHistory.html)
[0]
[https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/navigatio...](https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/navigation/)
and search for "swift". All the docs seem to have July dates.
------
wonderzombie
Slightly off-topic: is this the first time Apple has hosted a blog? I realize
it's developer.apple.com rather than apple.com, but still.
~~~
CodeWithCoffee
Steve Jobs blogged on Apple's main site
[https://www.apple.com/hotnews/](https://www.apple.com/hotnews/), including
the famous Thoughts on Flash article [https://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-
on-flash/](https://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/).
------
matthewwiese
I like the idea of a blog, something where I can get official news and tips
from is great. Perfect supplemental reading for all those blogs run by outside
developers. I look forward to using Swift.
Also, for those that may have missed it, you can use Swift in XCode 6 beta, so
long as you are a registered Apple Developer.
------
Kluny
Has anyone used Swift yet? Report please?
~~~
archagon
I've been using it for my latest project. Haven't done anything too fancy with
it yet. Lack of automatic type conversion between ints and floats is driving
me up the wall a little bit, but maybe that's a personal flaw rather than a
flaw with the language. String manipulation is also incredibly confusing to
me: I have yet to figure out how to get the number of characters in a string,
or how to generate a random character. Other than that, it feels pretty nice
to use.
EDIT: also how to get character n in a string.
~~~
TylerE
In general, there are good reasons to not do implicit casts, especially
between ints and floats. For one, it's actually a fairly expensive operation.
~~~
Locke1689
Eh, not really. Certainly conversions from int->long should be implicit (I
don't know if they are in Swift, though).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Developers vs. machines, how long will it last? - montbonnot
I believe developers will soon be replaced by machines. Product people or even marketing folks will generate apps/software in one click. What would you do if you were to lose your job and become obsolete?
======
cfelix
The day a machine capable of transforming ambiguous and sometimes plain dumb
input into code will be the day that developers are replaced.
------
theaccordance
Except someone has to write those generators...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Shifting Gears - twic
https://jenkins.io/blog/2018/08/31/shifting-gears/
======
nrclark
I love Jenkins, and use it professionally.
With that said, I'd really like to see better documentation on the Jenkinsfile
Pipeline format. I've tried to get started with it a few times, and haven't
had tons of success. Stuff like "How do I pull in secrets", and "How do I
control a plugin". I appreciate that it's Groovy-based, but that's not
particularly helpful information (for a hack like me, at least).
The snippet-generator is nice, but it doesn't necessarily produce working
code. Especially for things like getting secrets into a build. And it doesn't
give me a broader picture for "How do I even write one of these from an empty
text-box".
I recently tried the job-to-Pipeline exporter plugin, and that didn't work on
my jobs - it generated stuff that didn't match the input job, and also wasn't
structured like the example snippets Jenkins provides natively.
Maybe some kind of a sandbox I could experiment in? Or a REPL or something? It
would really help to have something that gave great discoverability, with fast
feedback. Faster than I can get by editing a job, saving it, running it,
waiting, then realizing I still don't have the syntax right.
~~~
shoo
After working in a team that was heavily using Jenkins files & scripted
pipelines I started to believe that writing Jenkins scripted pipelines is a
bit of an anti pattern, as you end up with lots of build script code that can
only run inside of a Jenkins, perhaps coupled to plugins, which hampers your
ability to locally develop and test changes.
Perhaps sometimes using Jenkins scripted pipeline is a good idea, but if
you've got the choice of implementing something as a Jenkins pipeline script
or some other script that isn't coupled to Jenkins, prefer the latter.
~~~
auxym
I work with Jenkins day in, day out.
Doing anything build-script related in Jenkins, whether Pipeline or freestyle
jobs, is definitely an anti-pattern. All build-related scripts should
definitely be in standalone scripts / build tool config files (make or
whatnot), for reasons you describe.
Jenkins should be there to handle the "side effects", as I view them. In our
case that's stuff like integration with git PRs (posting results of linting,
building, unit tests), sending emails when new builds are available,
integration with JIRA (we automate some workflows), publishing artifacts to an
internal server, etc.
Conversely, putting any of those side-effects or stateful steps inside build
scripts is a bad idea, and it leads to not being able to run build scripts
locally without worry of messing up a JIRA workflow or spamming people with
build emails. Thus, they should be stored only in Jenkins.
These are all mistakes of my predecessors that I am still living with to this
day.
~~~
michaelneale
I think thats a great rule of thumb. Declarative pipeline came after the
script was "invented", which is slightly unfortunate, had it came before it
would have encouraged the practices you describe (declarative is just for
orchestration), and script would have been mainly an escape hatch (I think
many people get the idea now though).
------
jonthepirate
I worked on Jenkins at Lyft and completely set it up for DoorDash. If anybody
needs help with their Jenkins setup, hit me up I give free advice and have a
few blog posts on the matter.
If you happen to be using AWS, GitHub, and Slack, we at DoorDash have
developed lots of goodies for streamlining things. We have secured our Jenkins
behind our VPN, created load balanced Jenkins clusters, built a shared Groovy
library for all of the Jenkins behaviors that are useful for each of our
microservices, implemented a Flask app that receives each of the GitHub
webhooks which starts pipelines instantly (rather than git polling), setup
Okta integration, interfaced with our internal secrets store, and implemented
a way to map GitHub users to Slack users allowing us to Slack message people
when they are mentioned in GitHub (when their PR's receive LGTM's etc.) When
new microservices launch, Folders automatically appear in Jenkins configured
correctly for the service's pipelines.
If any of this sounds good let me know, maybe we open source some of our work.
I love working on Jenkins and am happy to help advise you on how to scale,
secure, demystify your own Jenkins setup. Links on my HN profile page.
~~~
kohsuke
You should be presenting in a future Jenkins World event!
------
chinhodado
Jenkins's biggest strength is also its biggest weakness: plugins. Any
development shop that has been using Jenkins for a while is using at least a
bunch of plugins. Plugins are not stable, they break every now and then. They
require constant update with new Jenkins versions. They get abandoned by their
creators (hell, many plugins still don't support pipeline).
It's a fundamental issue with how Jenkins is set up that I don't know how they
can get away with unless they abandon the whole plugin architecture all
together. But obviously that's not a solution.
~~~
oblio
They kind of made several plugins "blessed": Pipeline, Blue Ocean, Git, etc.
The core package plus these "blessed" plugins is a lot more stable than
throwing every random plugin on top of a base installation. Just write a bit
of glue script code and you're golden.
~~~
isbvhodnvemrwvn
They still have their own issues. Blue Ocean requires a lot of stuff I have no
need for (like github support) which in some cases conflict with stuff I do
need (like bitbucket support)
~~~
chinhodado
Same. Every time there's a Blue Ocean update it requires you to update two
dozens other plugins, many of which I don't use and can't get rid of (like the
github one). And more annoying is the fact that you can't "select all" to
update all plugins, you have to select them one by one.
~~~
geerlingguy
There’s a select all link at the bottom of the plugin updates page...
------
mothsonasloth
I think this is too much too late for Jenkins.
I can't speak for other countries but in London a lot of companies are now
using Gitlab or Circle CI.
I migrated all my builds (12 projects) to Gitlab CI. After figuring out the
first CI pipeline using DockerInDocker, it was easy to then setup the
remaining pipelines.
Self hosting Gitlab was perfect for our needs (private docker registry). I use
Gitlab for personal use too.
I wonder if they will get rid of Ruby in the future though and go Java to make
it more performant, as it does slow down sometimes.
The Jenkins box is still running though, more out of sentimental value :)
~~~
sytse
Thanks for using GitLab! I'm glad to hear you found it easy to set up.
I just wrote an article in response to the OP
[https://about.gitlab.com/2018/09/03/how-gitlab-ci-
compares-w...](https://about.gitlab.com/2018/09/03/how-gitlab-ci-compares-
with-the-three-variants-of-jenkins/)
We're working on making GitLab more performant. It is mostly fixes to our
code, the parts where ruby is a problem are already rewritten in Go. GitLab
self-hosted should be fast if it has enough memory, so make sure you check on
its memory consumption.
~~~
yebyen
> The current legacy version of Jenkins needs to be restarted once a day by an
> administrator
Is this true? Do you have a source that says this? We have a Jenkins instance
that Kubernetes is configured to scale down from 1 replica to 0 at night, and
up to 1 again in the morning, so if it is true we never would have noticed.
(It hasn't always run on this cron cycle, which is why I'm a little
incredulous at this claim, but if it's given in the OP or somewhere else easy
to find this, I'll concede it... ah... found it: > It’s not unheard of that
somebody restarts Jenkins every day.)
Honestly I don't understand this about "making a version of Jenkins that runs
well on Kubernetes" – this is the _only way_ I have ever run Jenkins, and I
think it runs already extraordinarily well for our purposes. I'm thrilled that
they are making it their focus, and I'll concede also that our use of it is
pretty narrow, but I haven't had these issues.
We installed it from the stable helm chart nearly 2 years ago and have hardly
needed to make any tweaks. We are not tracking every K8S release, so maybe
that's why I haven't noticed Jenkins falling behind, and we also haven't tried
GitLab seriously (heard great things, but my work is very risk-averse when it
comes to new technologies, and to be honest we rarely try new things on a
short cycle once a given problem has been solved adequately for us... we are
also not primarily a development shop, so maybe it makes sense.)
> The article doesn't mention how Cloud Native Jenkins addresses the problem,
> maybe it doesn't allow plugins.
Like I've been saying, we've always used the stable helm chart for Jenkins and
started maintaining our own values.yaml about a year and a half ago. Over time
we have had less need to change the templates as more configuration got moved
into values.yaml. When I have needed a plugin or other configuration that is
able to be set in values.yaml, that's easy and almost makes maintaining
Jenkins fun. It is a little obtuse that I have to maintain my list of plugins
and their latest versions there manually, but this could be something that
gets resolved in Cloud-native Jenkins if they are ultimately providing an
operator or something like that.
(Breaking a rule by commenting before I've read all of the content, but I
liked your article and wanted to give you some feedback since you posted it.)
For configuration that doesn't live in values.yaml, Jenkins chart maintains a
Persistent Volume where configuration and build artifacts/history are stored.
It is easy enough to take backups of that with the ThinBackup plugin, and the
storage costs of that are sure not breaking the bank.
> Services interacting through Kubernetes CRDs in order to promote better
> reuse and composability
And there it is! That's the big announcement from today. Knative is still
early but this news from Jenkins sounds supportive and I should really read
the whole article / watch the video now.
~~~
jacques_chester
> _Honestly I don 't understand this about "making a version of Jenkins that
> runs well on Kubernetes" – this is the _only way_ I have ever run Jenkins,
> and I think it runs already extraordinarily well for our purposes._
I think the idea is not that Jenkins runs _on_ Kubernetes, which as you note
can already be done. It's rather that Jenkins uses Kubernetes as a replacement
for the worker infrastructure.
~~~
michaelneale
yes that is right I believe.
~~~
yebyen
This can be done with plugins, kubernetes-plugin for example. I'm looking
forward to seeing what they come up with. It was good to see knative on their
roadmap! This could be something else majorly.
------
rosshemsley
I was seduced by BlueOcean and tried using Jenkins for CI, using Github and
AWS ECS builders (which felt like a common enough use-case).
Unfortunately it ended up costing an astonishing amount of engineering time to
get working and maintain, with builds frequently stalled or failing.
Since moving to CircleCI 2.0 enterprise (admittedly far from perfect) and
Airflow, we have _dramatically_ reduced eng. time spent managing our job
scheduling.
The core of our problem was how fragile and complex the Jenkins ecosystem
seems to be: any change to the config or settings and it would easily burn a
day of engineering, due to random bugs and hard to understand error messages.
In the end, no one wanted to touch it!
I think there's a great project hidden somewhere here, but just getting the
basic "everyday" stuff done with it can be a real PITA.
~~~
kohsuke
I'm sorry to hear the bad experience.
I recognize those challenges in my pitch, we have various efforts already
under way to address them, and with this gear shifting, I think we'll be
combining those in a compelling way.
For example, defining Jenkins config in YAML in Git is a key piece to solve a
fear of config change, and this is called "Jenkins Configuration as Code" and
is under way for a while now.
Cloud Native Jenkins will also split single process "master" into many build-
as-a-function kind of processes, so it isolates builds and allows changes to
be rolled out more incrementally.
There's more focus on us owning a bigger responsibilities around "basic every
day stuff," too.
------
ak217
Having used Hudson/Jenkins for many years, I recently considered setting it up
for a new project, and backed away mostly due to the issues Kohsuke describes.
We ended up choosing GitLab instead.
GitLab has been pulling ahead in features and usability, compared to other
things I've tried. Right now, different projects I'm involved with use a
combination of GitLab Enterprise, Travis, Circle, and Google Cloud Build. Of
those, GitLab accommodates the heaviest and most sophisticated workloads,
without having to go through too much trouble to set up, maintain, and
instruct developers how to use it (certainly less trouble than Jenkins). I
highly recommend taking a critical look at all of these services, to see which
best fits your needs.
~~~
Sir_Cmpwn
If you don't mind, I'll shill my service as another option: builds.sr.ht. It's
still in closed alpha, but it's being used seriously by several open-source
projects for complex build automation. It also deploys itself, here's the
build manifest which does it:
[https://git.sr.ht/~sircmpwn/builds.sr.ht/tree/.build.yml](https://git.sr.ht/~sircmpwn/builds.sr.ht/tree/.build.yml)
And an example of a build which used it:
[https://builds.sr.ht/~sircmpwn/job/6974](https://builds.sr.ht/~sircmpwn/job/6974)
If you or anyone else would like to try it, please let me know. I used Jenkins
for a long time (and still do at work), Travis for a while as well, also tried
Drone and Circle, but none of them were exactly right. I think builds.sr.ht
does it very well.
------
cfontes
Nice to know there is a plan and it's refreshing to see that they can
understand most of the problems from the customer perspective now.
I hope they address the constant shifts in focus with this plan and Jenkins
can secure it's market spot, it really deserves it from a historical point of
view in the least. It should not be a Nokia or a Xerox, it's better than that
and has been a major tool for the industry.
The whole CRD is a great way to move forward, but Argo is looking great right
now and it's way ahead, if they manage to finish it soon and make it
production ready it will be hard to beat it.
The problem is that every segment has it's player now and there are some big
ones, GiLab, GoCD, Spinnaker, Concourse... So many tools and the difference is
that most of them have more focus than Jenkins does, they also have newer code
and more speed, each has a niche but Jenkins has the market share, it will be
an interesting match.
Jenkins is fighting a bit of a uphill battle but with a huge army.
I hope they keep it simple, focus in being the best in one or 2 things and
then scale to other areas, that is my 2 cents.
~~~
twic
First i've heard of Argo CI. Why would i want that rather than Concourse?
Which can now be deployed on Kubernetes, it seems:
[https://github.com/helm/charts/tree/master/stable/concourse](https://github.com/helm/charts/tree/master/stable/concourse)
~~~
jacques_chester
Concourse's _components_ (ATC, DB, Workers) can run on Kubernetes, but it is
still handling the scheduling of containers it creates.
Delegating container scheduling to Kubernetes is the next major epic on the
Core track for Concourse.
As for Argo: I am not particularly in favour of Turing-complete YAML.
Disclosure: I really like Concourse. I work for Pivotal, which sponsors
Concourse development.
~~~
cfontes
Valid point.
Don't fly you end up creating a turing-complete config file as well? I
remember it being stored as some kind of Yaml like syntax.
~~~
jacques_chester
Fly does substitutions, but that's it: no loops, no if-thens. It's almost
certain that something can be tickled into being Turing-complete; it's
actually devilishly difficult to avoid doing it by accident. My hunch is
pipelines are Turing complete, but I haven't gotten around to proving it.
But there's a difference between trying not to introduce it and going out of
your way to build a programming language in YAML. An actual, honest-to-god
programmable YAML.
------
Aissen
I'm surprised they have such a good understanding of Jenkins' shortcomings.
It's a good first step in fixing them. Although to be fair, this has been
coming a long time as the post says; but having Cloudbees' CTO publicly
acknowledging those is even better.
~~~
oblio
He's not only Cloudbees CTO, he's the original developer and architect.
And before someone lambasts him for the Jenkins architecture, Jenkins/Hudson
was created in 2005, when things were a lot different, and Jenkins managed to
create an entire subgenre of software and lead it to the current day. Jenkins
hasn't aged gracefully but how many software products from any category have
even survived 5 or 10 years? :)
~~~
mooreds
I can think of a number (Linux, Eclipse, vim, mysql, etc), but as a percentage
of total software produced, it's very small.
------
lima
OpenShift's Jenkins <-> Kubernetes integration plugin is pretty neat.
Authentication, SSH secrets and - most importantly - running each build in an
ephemeral pod works out of the box.
[https://docs.openshift.com/container-
platform/3.9/dev_guide/...](https://docs.openshift.com/container-
platform/3.9/dev_guide/dev_tutorials/openshift_pipeline.html)
~~~
jstrachan
OpenShift's Jenkins integration is good.
Though its even cooler to use Jenkins X on OpenShift as you get automated
CI/CD pipelines + Environments, Preview Environments on Pull Requests and
GitOps based Promotion between environments.
------
curtis
The biggest deficiency I found in Jenkins is that GUI-based job configuration
is great for simple setups and one-off jobs, but the moment you throw in any
sort of parameterization it becomes a real headache. At that point you really
need to be able to configure your jobs in code.
~~~
dharmab
And the Jenkinsfile documentation is relatively bare and reliant on examples.
------
tannhaeuser
I'm wishing Jenkins all the best. I know it since the Hudson times as _the_
de-facto CI system for Java (and Cruise Control before that as my first
encounter with CI).
OT: does anybody know a CI system based on plain Makefiles, convention-over-
configured for autotools-like default targets, and supporting file-suffix
based build and test rules for C + JS + custom compilers and such?
~~~
jstrachan
invoke `make` from inside your `Jenkinfile`? :)
------
mbubb
I love working with Jenkins - I know it is a pain to keep up to date but for
me it has become a way as a sole or small team syseng to manage all kinds of
stuff. "Jenkins-Ansible-Github" where you have a Jenkinsfile sitting in the
git repo you are bulding/ deploying etc., has been a pretty good set of tools
to manage heterogeneous environments.
~~~
oblio
Agreed. Now if only they could generalize Configuration as Code:
[https://github.com/jenkinsci/configuration-as-code-
plugin](https://github.com/jenkinsci/configuration-as-code-plugin). It's the
missing piece.
~~~
csanchez
That's definitely the goal, part of Kohsuke announcement.
------
Thaxll
I'm trying Gitlab atm, it's great to see something simpler than Jenkins to do
CI/CD.
~~~
dsumenkovic
Glad to hear that. We'd love to hear your feedback about GitLab CI/CD.
~~~
Rowern
I've been working with gitlab CI for the last year. Here are some of my
feedbacks:
\- 6 months ago we seriously considered moving away because it was really
unstable (even when running on private runners) but now its a lot smoother
\- with private runners you can have a very powerful CI without having to
manage a master (as Jenkins) for a fraction of the costs (runner with docker-
machine on spot instances)
\- beware that if your CI flow is more complex than just a simple pipeline to
build and deploy your project (we have a project for our code, that then
trigger a project for end-to-end tests, that then trigger a deploy to our env)
you will need to do a lot of boilerplate code (you will need to manually
manage artifacts if they need to be shared between jobs)
\- variables from a triggered pipeline should be available through the API and
made more visible in the UI
\- we do not use kubernetes so eveything CD is off the plate for us
(environment and monitoring tab are useless)
\- DO NOT USE THE BUILT IN CACHE, it's super slow and will fail unexpectedly
(simply do cp to s3 and it will never fail)
\- IF YOU USE THE BUILT IN CACHE, parallelism will be hard (you cannot
populate part of the cache from a job, another part from another job and in
the next step use the result of both cache)
\- triggers are weird, its a curl to an API endpoint but it does not use the
normal auth mechanism and it will answer with a useless json (please add the
project id, variables etc to the result of the trigger it's a must have for
anyone that needs to parse the output)
\- the gitlab API is top notch except on the CI part...
\- be ready to restart some jobs 2-3 times if gitlab is deploying a new
version ;)
\- be ready to have some random errors that can be fixed by a retry
\- it will seem a good idea to run gitlab-runner on every laptop of your team
to reduce cost. DO NOT DO THAT, if you are more than 2 in your team the guy in
charge of making the CI run (me) will make you restart you docker, delete a
specific image, restart gitlab-runner, etc... invest 1 day to setup the docker
machine on spot
\- please show in some way when a job triggered another one (maybe a section
in the YML, or even better check make us populate an env var with a link to
the triggered pipeline or anything)
\- design your pipeline so that if a part fails you can restart it without
breaking everything (I'm looking at you terraform)
This list seem really long but, I have worked with Jenkins and even if more
stable the steady improvements and addition to gitlab CI still make it my
first choice for my needs.
~~~
orf
> it will seem a good idea to run gitlab-runner on every laptop of your team
> to reduce cost.
Will it?!
~~~
artursapek
Agreed, that's a crazy way to try to reduce cost
~~~
crazysim
Reminds me of the Xcode built-in distcc thing they had back then.
------
CamouflagedKiwi
I'm impressed about how honest the author is about the shortcomings of Jenkins
as it is now. Very appropriate that he mentions being in a local optimum -
that is where most organisations end up with Jenkins. The server nearly
immediately becomes a snowflake, most stuff is configured through the GUI
rather than code, probably some people know it's not ideal but getting to
something better requires changing everything and people know how it works
now.
Having said that, I think the conclusion is wrong. The next-generation CI
already exists (CircleCI, Gitlab, etc), attempting to evolve Jenkins into that
seems like a punishing task given the huge legacy and relatively little
strategic advantage. Don't want to take anything away from them blazing the
trail, but in the same way RCS and CVS did that and eventually bowed out of
the game. Jenkins should gracefully do the same.
~~~
kohsuke
Thanks for your thought. I took your main question to be "why bother?"
I think a part of it is that I fundamentally believe in an extensible system.
The world of software development is so diverse, and we have smart people
everywhere. So I always felt that the best thing a geek like me can do to
other geeks is to give them a shoulder to build on. I don't think that's a
solved problem, and to me, that'll always be an important value of the Jenkins
project, more so than any code.
I think a part of it is the responsibility to users. Jenkins is very widely
used software, and it's an incredibly important part of the software
development process for many. I appreciate that kind of trust, and I want to
deliver better software for them. I think people in the community shares the
same passion.
As CTO of CloudBees, serving our users and customers, and broadening the
adoption base are an obviously important business goal. So the interests are
aligned there as well.
And finally, I think this kind of "reinvention of the brand" happens all the
time. Windows got reinvented from 95 to NT, Firefox got reinvented a few
times. There are many other examples less famous but closer to my part of the
universe, like Maven 2, GlassFish 3, ...
------
honkycat
The worst part of my job is configuring our Jenkins server and managing builds
in their dumbass groovy based DSL.
I'm willing to bet that most people just want to build GitHub repos. Then why
do we have to do this mess to get a decently repeatable deployment strategy:
[https://coderanger.net/jenkins/](https://coderanger.net/jenkins/) I should
not have to crack open plugin source code in order to configure the plugin
programmatically. It's dumb and bad.
Also groovy is a bag language. Managing Jenkins pipeline library deps is a
pain.
Also yeah, plugins break constantly and upgrading them is always a nightmare.
~~~
zmmmmm
> Also groovy is a bag language.
This seems to be a repeated pattern that is really giving Groovy a bad
reputation: it keeps getting embedded as an extension point / scripting
solution inside other products. It is sold as "it's almost the same as Java,
so we don't need any documentation for it" \- and the result is that people
with little to no Groovy knowledge end up trying to use it and get incredibly
frustrated with it.
I'm curious if your conclusion above is based only on encountering it inside
other things (Gradle,Jenkins, etc) or if it's actually from analysing its
characteristics as a language more generically?
(FWIW, Groovy is probably my favorite language, but I use it as a full stack
language for application development, quite a different mode to how most other
people encounter it).
------
baylisscg
At ${DayJob} Jenkins is our default of yore. Returning to refresh a 1.x
install for one group's product we're faced with the poster child for a
Jenkins install gone bad. Looking at you Chuck Norris plugin. We can't upgrade
and we can't migrate to a fresh install due to how Jenkins handles plugins. So
we're left with a critical chunk of infrastructure that's a time bomb.
Ultimately instead of making the jump to 2.x and Jenkinsfiles we're trialing
Buildkite with great success so far and the confidence that we can jump ship
to CloudBuild, TravisCI, Concourse, CircleCI, ect should we need to.
------
bdcravens
The focus on cloud-first Jenkins is interesting considering Codebees's
acquisition of Codeship earlier this year. Obviously Kohsuke would be biased
to Jenkins, but as CTO, I'd imagine the corporate goals take precedence.
~~~
jstrachan
even from an OSS goals perspective I'm looking forward to seeing better
alignment, reuse and interoperability between Jenkins, Jenkins X & things like
CodeShip & Knative Build
------
toredash
I'm surprised that I haven't seen more of this announcement in my media
streams. I'm not a big fan of Jenkins, I find it overly complex and a Swiss
army knife.
When you can do anything, you often end up with poor implementations (IMO). If
the tools you have are restrictive but useful enough, I find it easier to
adopt my workflow for the tools instead of demanding that my complex workflow
fit into this one tool.
------
batbomb
I wish we could get encrypted credentials a lá travis in a Jenkinsfile. I’ve
found most configuration for a job can be in a git repo but you have to manage
some things through the web interface, and it’s not that easy securely
managing credentials for a Jenkins installation, even with Folders and Roles
~~~
jstrachan
BTW we use the kubernetes credentials provider plugin in Jenkins X which
exposes Kubernetes Secrets as Jenkins Credentials; then the `credentials` step
in the `Jenkinsfile` encrypts them from any build logs
------
slavik81
This is nice to see. I wish them luck on their project, because it is not
going to be easy.
------
misterbowfinger
Hate to be that person, but what's "Cloud Native" even mean? Is there a
glossary for buzzwords somewhere?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Dignity is Deadly, Part Two - pj
http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2006/02/dignity_is_dead.html
======
spitfire
The author seems to confuse dignity with bureaucracy.
If you don't have dignity, you are a joke. You'll know it, your customers will
know it, your competitors will know it.
Bureaucracy on the other will (slowly) kill any business. Unless you have a
legal monopoly.
~~~
unalone
Yes. You can be a dignified person and not be entirely stiff and formal and
boring. Dignity doesn't mean you can't be rude at times or have a sense of
humor. It means that you know when to be what, and you treat things you deal
with with respect.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
GitHub wins: Microsoft is shutting down CodePlex - dragthor
https://venturebeat.com/2017/03/31/github-wins-microsoft-is-shutting-down-codeplex-on-december-15/
======
erik_seaberg
See also:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14006734](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14006734)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Bill Gates: Inventing the Myhrvold Way - loboman
http://www.thegatesnotes.com/Thinking/article.aspx?id=137
======
threepointone
Unbelievable, and rather disturbing. I never thought Gates would promote a
patent troll. Either he's aware of it and ignoring it, or he's unaware and
truly believes IV is a force of good.
Both possibilities send me into cyclical-wtfs.
------
bhiggins
It's just so frustrating. Inventing the Myhrvold Way means not executing, not
actually bringing anything into this world -- just sitting around waiting to
license people derivative ideas or sue them.
~~~
hga
Indeed; I might extend the old saw that "Ideas are cheap" to something like
"Ideas are cheap, except when Myhrvold patents them and then asks you to do
the hard work."
Has _anything_ major and good come out of IV?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ephemeral, a Ruby ORM for in-memory objects - Bantik
https://github.com/bantik/ephemeral
======
blaines
Nice, does it have a full CRUD?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Remind HN: Your systems need to be ready for World IPv6 Day June 8th - mhansen
http://worldipv6day.org/
======
k33n
This is a sensationalist title. FYI, you are not required to do anything by
June 8th, so don't feel the need to drop what you're doing and implement IPv6.
~~~
mhansen
You don't need to implement IPv6, but you do need to be prepared for any
problems that may arise in your network when google, youtube and facebook
start advertising AAAA records. Some companies running older software and
older operating systems might encounter problems.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
U.S. Navy’s Costliest Carrier Was Delivered Without Elevators to Lift Bombs - Alupis
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-02/costliest-carrier-was-delivered-without-elevators-to-lift-bombs
======
tomohawk
tldr:
> the weapons elevator is among “the most advanced technologies being
> incorporated into” the carrier
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Can you break this code from Boards of Canada? - crgt
http://cosecha-transmisiones.com
======
amerika
Intriguing. I've asked the experts:
[http://www.hou2600.org/hacking/can-you-break-this-code-
from-...](http://www.hou2600.org/hacking/can-you-break-this-code-from-boards-
of-canada/)
I know nothing about the Boards of Canada (except the soundtracks they did for
"Until the Light Takes Us") but that OpenVMS prompt looks quite inviting...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Mississippi is dying, and I want to record it. - mercuryrising
Humans don't do nice things to the environment. Before we populated the Midwest, you could actually catch fish and eat them out of the Mississippi river. Now you can maybe eat one a year due to the Mercury in the water. We neglect the river, we destroy it, and we treat it like a toilet, not nice like the faucet it could be.<p>I just graduated from college, I don't have a job (by choice). I want to do something awesome. I want to ride a boat from the start of the Mississippi (Lake Itasca) down to Lock and Dam #1 (the first large amount of human control exerted over the river, and conveniently located near my house). I want to take water samples the whole way down (hopefully with some kind of real time chemical sensing equipment). I want to collect this data, put it online (raw data), and build a visualizer for it overlaying Google maps or something. I'll put the raw data up so you can do something cooler with it.<p>I would like this project to spark interest in other people to take care of their water sources, I want other people around the world to take on similar projects. I want people to realize that the environment is not an unmovable object, but humans may be an unstoppable force until we go too far.
======
maxharris
The _human_ environment is a lot better today than it ever was before. That
era that you could catch and eat fish out of the river? It's the same era
where medicine was primitive (no antibiotics, no anesthetics, no
chemotherapy), food was comparatively scarce (and most of the population
toiled to produce it), etc. Everything was much harder to do, and life was
generally shorter on top of all that.
You say "before we populated the Midwest, you could actually catch fish..."
But that presupposes that I exist in the first place. If you somehow repealed
the industrial revolution, I and millions of other people would not exist.
Without modern industry to transform it, the natural environment could not
sustain the majority of people alive today. (So there might be lots of fish,
but not many humans to catch and enjoy them.) Nature as you hold it does not
represent any kind of ideal, because under that view, I (and nearly everything
I hold dear), do not exist.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Intel Has a Big Problem - MilnerRoute
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-01-18/intel-has-a-big-problem-it-needs-to-act-like-it
======
013a
Intel is a hot mess even without these security disasters.
Just look at their product release lifecycle: In years past, they'd get maybe
one extra product release off each new arch (tick/tock); for example, Sandy
Bridge bore Ivy Bridge and Haswell bore Broadwell.
Skylake has born SIX new product lines; Goldmont, Goldmont Plus, Kaby Lake,
Kaby Lake Refresh, Coffee Lake, and the upcoming Cannonlake. Their failed 10nm
shrink has forced product delays; remember, Cannonlake (the 10nm shrink of
Skylake) was supposed to be released in __2016 __, and its not even out yet.
Just at CES this week they said they 've shipped mobile Cannonlake CPUs.
They have zero presence in mobile. Their best efforts involve competent
Y-series processors. Then Apple comes around and, seemingly without even
trying, destroys them [1] with a product that's more thermally efficient and,
in some ways, more powerful than Intel's _best_ mobile processors, not just
their thermally efficient ones.
They have little presence in HPC/AI, where Nvidia is slaughtering everyone and
its not even close.
Its completely inevitable they're going to lose Apple as a customer for
consumer products; its just a matter of time. AMD is gaining traction with
Zen, and they're moving in the direction enterprise cloud provider want (lots
of cores, not much $$). How much longer can Intel keep holding on? Do they
have an ace they've been hiding? Will people even trust their ace after
Meltdown?
[1] [https://9to5mac.com/2017/06/14/ipad-pro-versus-macbook-
pro-s...](https://9to5mac.com/2017/06/14/ipad-pro-versus-macbook-pro-speed-
tests/)
~~~
saas_co_de
> Their failed 10nm shrink has forced product delays
This is the most important thing. AMD has already made the switch to Multi
Chip Modules which makes it much much easier to produce chips for 10nm (what
TSMC/GF/Samsung call 7nm).
Right now Intel cant even make a dual core low speed mobile chip on 10nm. How
are they going to make a giant 30+ core server processor? This is extremely
bad news for them that has not been fully realized by the markets because they
have faith that Intel will figure it out, but they may not.
AMD may ship 7/10nm server chips before Intel and Intel may never ship them
before switching to MCM themselves.
MCM is as revolutionary as AMD64 was but most people dont realize yet how
important it is and how much of an advantage AMD has because of leading with
it.
~~~
colejohnson66
> 10nm (what TSMC/GF/Samsung call 7nm)
What’s the reason for this? From my understanding of numbers, 10 is not 7
~~~
mappu
"10nm" and "7nm" are marketing terms that are not directly comparable across
foundries.
~~~
colejohnson66
How? I thought the number was the size of the smallest transistor?
~~~
Valmar
The numbers are almost pure marketing, these days.
From
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7_nanometer#7_nm_process_nodes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7_nanometer#7_nm_process_nodes)
> The naming of process nodes by different major manufacturers (TSMC, Intel,
> Samsung, GlobalFoundries) is partially marketing driven and not directly
> related to any measurable distance on a chip – for example TSMC's 7 nm node
> is similar in some key dimensions to Intel's 10 nm node.
------
sdhgaiojfsa
I'm skeptical that Intel really has that much of a problem, and the investors
in the stock market seem to agree. Intel only has a problem if alternatives
come to be seen as economically viable. And right now it doesn't seem like
there's any particular danger of this happening.
Pundits want to say that there's a huge thing here, because pundits don't
optimize for the truth. They optimize for clicks. So you really need to be
careful looking to their writing for the truth.
~~~
Spooky23
Don’t be generous to Intel. I work in a vertical strategic to Intel, and get
regularly called on by them and get NDA presentations and the ability to talk
to engineers about strategic projects.
For this incident, I got an email a few hours after the embargo was lifted,
that essentially said that it was no big deal and referenced public
information. The purpose of the communication was to have people like me
message up the chain that this was no big deal. That misdirection is
inexcusable, particularly when they could have given meaningful guidance under
NDA.
We had some follow up questions, which weren’t really answered. We were
directed to hardware OEMs, as ETA for microcode updates are out of their
control and according to Intel are the full responsibility of the OEM. In
reality, Intel was struggling to deliver the code, and the OEMs we deal with
issued patches in hours, and had to pull back updates due to Intel code
revisions.
Personally, I do have alternatives for strategic parts of the business that
drive high margin Intel sales. Many critical aspects of my business can run on
Intel or Power platforms, and we can engineer solutions either way in similar
cost footprints.
Less strategic aspects of the business, like end user compute now have niche
competitors that can gobble up Intel business very quickly. Half of my desktop
users run on VDI, mostly with AMD thin clients. 50% of my constituencies can
run their core line of business functions on iOS. iPad with a keyboard could
reduce my Intel desktop spend by 50-75% for 2-3 years.
~~~
lima
I'm also under Intel NDA and it took them days to provide any meaningful
guidance at all.
The only useful thing in these documents was a timeline/detailed list for the
microcode patches, all of which should be public.
They also claim that Spectre/Meltdown are "not a bug or flaw in Intel
products" and their slide deck has a whole slide dedicated to forward-looking
statement disclaimers. Sigh.
Needless to say, we're not impressed.
~~~
Simon_says
They know what they're saying is bull hockey, but they have to say it,
otherwise they'll lose their lawsuits. They have to be able to point to the
public spec and say "See!? We're completely in spec! No bugs here." Nevermind
that the bug is in the spec.
------
VHRanger
The main problem with intel is direction and process. Dan Luu pointed out in
2015 [1] that intel chips had serious bugs and, given how intel acted, it was
only a manner of time before something like this popped up.
What I see happened to Intel is that once they consolidated their monopoly in
the late 2000s, they lost the healthy management practices that tend to come
from being in a competitive industry.
All this talk from upper management about velocity was about trying to find a
way to make more money when you've mined out your current niche completely. It
ended up instead opening the door for AMD to make a comeback on x86
[1] [https://danluu.com/cpu-bugs/](https://danluu.com/cpu-bugs/)
~~~
harryh
I think that comparing the types of bugs in Luu's post (which is excellent)
and Spectre/Meltdown is a mistake. The former are mistakes caused by
insufficient testing. The latter are conceptual problems that are nearly
fundamental to modern processor design. No amount of simple testing would have
uncovered them.
~~~
pcwalton
Spectre is fundamental to processor design, but Meltdown is pretty much a bug.
~~~
wklauss
It is only a bug once you have discovered that branch prediction can be used
as a vector of attack. Until then, it was a perfectly valid design
implementation.
~~~
jotm
What actual data can be extracted by a Meltdown/Spectre attack? Still need to
find an answer to that, nothing online says anything specific.
Datacenters should probably be worried, but what about the hundreds of
millions of users out there? Doesn't seem like a big deal, tbh - until an
actual exploit is out there, why should they worry?
~~~
tptacek
Meltdown allows userland native code (the Javascript your browser loads from
random websites is JIT'd down to native code) to dump kernel memory.
~~~
DSMan195276
It is worth clarifying, when people talk about "kernel memory", for x86-64 it
really means _all_ of memory, because all of physical memory is mapped into
the kernel's address space. So really, meltdown allows userland code to read
_anything_ in memory.
~~~
zerohp
Incorrect. When people talk about kernel memory, they are talking about pages
marked as supervisor in the page tables for a particular process. That is not
"anything in memory."
~~~
Filligree
Meltdown allows applications to read any mapped pages, regardless of the
protection bits on those pages. That mainly means kernel memory, which is the
only page set that's normally unreadable. The kernel mapping normally includes
all of physical memory.
------
Nokinside
Intel still has the advantages that allow them to screw up and survive.
1\. Process knowledge and manufacturing capacity. You can buy from others only
as much as they have manufacturing capacity. Only real threat to Intel comes
from combined volume of GlobalFoundries, TSMC, Samsung and UMC. Apple, NVIDIA,
AMD, ARM and Qualcomm can get past Intel only trough these companies.
2\. Profit margins. Intel makes 60 percent profit margins, AMD struggles from
decade to decade. That's not a coincident. It's the direct result of pricing
decisions by Intel. Whenever AMD gets ahead Intel in uP technology, Intel has
always the option of cutting profit margins and prevent AMD from gaining more
market share.
~~~
Tharkun
The odd bit of anti-competitive behaviour (and billion-dollar lawsuits that
come with it) is also something of an advantage...if an unfair one.
------
danpalmer
I think Spectre and Meltdown are a fantastic opportunity to rediversify the
CPU market, and I don’t think it could have come at a better time.
\- AMD has just had a great release with Ryzen, showing they can compete on a
price/performance basis.
\- Apple is moving core OS functionality on its newest desktops/laptops on to
Apple designed ARM chips.
\- Mobile platforms are getting bigger, especially with things like ChromeOS
that could be (are being?) easily run on ARM based hardware.
\- Open Power has come a long way and could be poised to take some of the
server market for customers who want more control than they got with Intel.
I’m excited for this. Obviously the vulns are an issue that needs to be
solved, but we could get some real competition in terms of manufacturers, and
even in terms of architecture. The industry will take some time to readjust to
compiling for/running on multiple architectures, which I think much of the
industry hasn’t needed to deal with for a while. The result though will be a
market where customers can choose an architecture that makes sense for their
use case, and can choose from a range of good options.
(I realise other chips are vulnerable, not just Intel, but the publicity has
been Intel focused and I don’t think the technicalities of it matter too much)
------
yeasayer
I think Intel might get away with it.
Last 5 years they were slacking off, because economically there is no reason
to go over the usual 10-15% yearly performance bump. But actually they were
accumulating aces up their sleeves. Again, no reason to show your hand, if you
don't have to.
But the time has come. Right now Intel has 3 major problems: 1)
Meltdown/Spectre situation 2) AMD is awoken from sleep with surprisingly good
Ryzen lineup 3) Apple craves new powerful CPUs to satisfy unhappy MacBook Pro
customers
Intel can fix all of this with one sweep. Just by releasing a brand new CPU
that will surprise everyone. Of course with hardware Meltdown/Spectre fix.
They were holding off, but it's time to drop all these hidden aces on the
table. And I believe it's gonna happen. Not right now with Cannon Lake, but
with the one after - Ice Lake on 10nm transistors, by the end of 2018. It's
going to be even bigger than NVIDIA's GTX 1080 success.
~~~
fyi1183
Doubtful. You don't just develop a new processor over night, and if they truly
had all these aces up their sleeves, they would have dropped them already in
response to Zen last year.
Intel's process advantage is shrinking. They're struggling like everybody else
because the physics is getting harder and harder. Apart from the fact that it
would have been nice to get easy process shrinking forever, this is good news
for almost everybody: it means competition for them is getting tougher.
~~~
lttlrck
It’s doubtful that they would drop all their aces in response to Zen.
~~~
nhaehnle
Actually, I'd turn this on its head and ask: Why is there this claim that they
had or have _any_ aces in the first place, Zen or no Zen?
What you and the ggp are basically saying is that Intel slowed down the
improvement in their processors on purpose over the last several years. Why on
earth would they do that?
Besides, all the evidence points to the contrary, what with them being unable
to compete in the mobile space.
~~~
rudedogg
> Why is there this claim that they had or have any aces in the first place,
> Zen or no Zen?
I'm not a big hardware person, but from what I've heard the speed they
released 6 core processors after Ryzen makes it likely they were capable of
producing 6 core (consumer) designs earlier.
~~~
vonmoltke
The original hexacore Xeon is almost eight years old (March 2010 release).
Intel released a _consumer_ hexacore in response to Ryzen. Intel's artificial
market segmentation is ridiculous, but so is the typical AMD watcher's near
total ignorance if what is happening in the Xeon line.
~~~
hajile
That may be overstating AMD's ignorance by quite a bit. The big marketing push
with the zen launch was that Intel had a chip with a lot of cores, but it was
2x the price for with slightly worse performance.
------
Animats
Bloomberg says Intel has a big problem. The Economist says Intel has a big
problem. Three class actions already filed against Intel.
Intel has a big problem. They're probably going to have to replace a lot of
CPUs.
~~~
rphlx
May not be a winnable argument on HN (where the consensus seems to be that
this is nearly-100% Intel's fault), but I think a significant fraction of the
blame properly belongs on their customers, particularly their multi-tenant
public cloud customers, for assuming a level of HW thread and guest isolation
that has _never_ actually existed. These huge-scale customers did not do
proper security due dil on the silicon they were buying and made assumptions
that were never, strictly speaking, guaranteed by Intel, and in some cases
were explicitly documented as _not_ guaranteed within the Intel optimization
manuals.
~~~
bsder
> These huge-scale customers did not do proper security due dil on the silicon
> they were buying and made assumptions that were never, strictly speaking,
> guaranteed by Intel, and in some cases were explicitly documented as not
> guaranteed within the Intel optimization manuals.
But the commodity hardware is _SOOOOOO_ much cheaper, you know?
Everything about Intel was always about "good enough" from since probably ...
1982? And "good enough" security in hardware was always "nobody cares". IBM,
certainly, was screaming about the level of insecurity in commodity hardware
and software _forever_. DEC similarly.
But commodity hardware is SOOOO much cheaper.
No one. And I mean _NO ONE_ was every going to give up even 10% on performance
or cost in order to be even slightly more secure. At any level of the stack.
Intel, Microsoft, Google ... _all_ are guilty of this up until probably this
year. Anybody who suggested that would have gotten laughed at and/or fired.
The market spoke--and security became an afterthought.
Sadly, this is _STILL_ true. While there is much gnashing of teeth about
Intel, everybody's implementation of security is far worse. The thing that is
biting Intel is that the monoculture means that it is a universal and scalable
tool as opposed to at the software level where each individual company has to
be compromised in a slightly different way.
It's only been since everybody is putting everything in the cloud that people
now care about actual _absolute_ values of security.
The problem is that all of the hardware solutions to these bugs cost RAM
somewhere. And RAM is now the gating factor of cost and performance on most
chips. RAM fell off the Moore's Law curve back about 32-22nm and isn't coming
back. So, the performance hit to mitigate this is real.
No one was going to be the first to fix this _EVEN IF THEY KNEW AND CARED_.
Everybody learned from painful business experience that the first guy gets all
the arrows and the second guy gets all the profits. So, everybody was going to
wait until they were the second guy--which was only going to happen when
something bit _everybody_.
~~~
rphlx
I would have agreed with you about very poor SRAM scaling until very recently;
it looks like 10nm/"7nm" made some decent progress there at last, though
nothing like The Good Old Days when it actually scaled close to what the
marketing number implied.
In any case, it is not clear to me that you need _that_ much SRAM to greatly
minimize the various side channels that Spectre uses; it's on the order of a
portion of the L1D size, which is pretty minimal compared to how much SRAM
there is on-chip already for the LLC.
------
kazinator
> _Part of what makes Meltdown and Spectre so terrifying is that they upend
> more than a decade of conventional wisdom about information security._
The combination of speculative execution, virtual memory, caching and
user/supervisor privilege separation isn't ten years old.
These flaws upend something like 40 years of conventional wisdom.
~~~
omginternets
I'm confused as to what this conventional wisdom they're alluding to actually
is. Would you mind spelling it out?
~~~
syncsynchalt
Conventional wisdom such as:
// it is impossible to read past the end
// of the array in this code:
if (i >= 0 && i < array.size())
x = array[i];
~~~
inimino
The conventional wisdom has always been that it is impossible if and only if
your hardware is not broken.
If the hardware is broken, all bets are off. Nothing in the conventional
wisdom has been challenged, except perhaps the complacent assumption that
"Intel hardware is unlikely to be broken in ways that invalidate our
security".
~~~
cesarb
Spectre is not just Intel. That "array bounds" example is Spectre variant 1,
which affects everyone except in-order processors (older Atom and slower ARM).
So far, I haven't read of any hardware mitigation for it (unlike variant 2 or
Meltdown aka "variant 3").
The mitigations for variant 1 I've seen are either introducing a speculation
barrier on array bounds checks, or faster masking tricks which convert
speculated out-of-bounds values into safe values. It won't surprise me at all
if conventional wisdom changes to include speculation effects, much like it
has changed to include cache effects once memory got slower than the CPU.
------
cybervegan
The holes in this article belie an fundamental misunderstanding of how the
flaw works, and, how computers in general work. I agree with the general
premise of the article, but if they don't understand it, they should avoid
trying to explain it.
------
lower
Could it be that Intel is communicating the way it does because they're afraid
of lawsuits? I mean, if they admit that their processors are faulty, then they
may have to recall basically all their processors.
~~~
gkya
How can that even happen? My laptop has a vulnerable i3 chip, but I'm not
giving it or the chip to anybody, I need the computer. And I guess no data
centers would "temporarily close" in order to change CPUs (though maybe they
can do that gradually).
~~~
lower
Back in 1994 when the Pentium had the FDIV bug, they offered to replace the
chip. Wikipedia says "Although it turned out that only a small fraction of
Pentium owners bothered to get their chips replaced, the financial impact on
the company was significant."
------
StillBored
I don't know why people are so focused on intel here. Its not like other
processors aren't affected, even ARM's latest core (A75
[https://developer.arm.com/support/security-
update](https://developer.arm.com/support/security-update)) is susceptible to
meltdown. I suspect that if they had been building aggressive OoO CPU's with
deep ROB rather than focusing on perf/W there would be a lot more cores on
that list. Similarly IBM's high end POWER processors are also vulnerable
(although they don't break it down as nicely as ARM
[https://www.ibm.com/blogs/psirt/potential-impact-
processors-...](https://www.ibm.com/blogs/psirt/potential-impact-processors-
power-family/))
So, everyone is like Intel is so bad, when they just happen to be the one that
people are running the most untrused code on.
Let me quote IBM "This vulnerability doesn’t allow an external unauthorized
party to gain access to a machine, but it could allow a party that has access
to the system to access unauthorized data."
People on this board are upset, because after spending the last decade+,
making promises about how secure "cloud computing" is, once again the
naysayers were proven correct. This time the flaw is so fundamental that in
order to fix it you have the OS vendors making changes the destroy system
performance for most applications that are I/O or just syscall intensive. This
likely won't be the last time either if history is to be believed.
But javascript you cry, again I'm going to say that you shouldn't be running
random code from random people on the internet.
I'm not a big fan of intel, but in a way I applaud them for pushing back
against what I view as the crazy extent people go to in order to allow native
code execution from untrused sources. I would much prefer this change be
isolated to hypervisors, and have chrome/ff/etc detune their JIT's a bit to
keep people from running cache timing attacks.
So, I likely will be turning the kpti off on most of my machines the same way
I run them with the iommu's disabled because I'm not running VM's with
untrused code.
(BTW, once the dust settles, i'm guessing a pretty large number of other
aggressive OoO processors are vulnerable as well (old Alpha/PA-
RISC/SPARC/etc)).
------
chiefalchemist
> "Krzanich sold $24 million in company shares. Intel says the stock sale was
> part of a plan that had been in place before anyone there knew about
> Meltdown or Spectre..."
Certainly, if there's proof, they would, under the circumstance, provide it.
Without out that proof the sale of this many shares in that time window tells
us all we need to know.
Off topic: How has Intel become so dominate, and not been pursued as a
monopoly? Legal issues aside, how did so many big customer allow all their
collective eggs to be in a single basket? It seems to me, at some point, some
of the responsibility needs to be shared by other industry titans.
~~~
mr_toad
Given the cost of designing a CPU and setting up manufacturing capacity you
could argue that they’re a natural monopoly. At the least there is a
significant hurdle to entering the market, which intel can use to its
advantage.
~~~
chiefalchemist
Yes. But still a monopoly. And now that such chips are global the whole
world's eggs are in a single basket. What could go wrong? Wait! I think they
just answered that.
------
5ilv3r
Lots of Intel apologists in this thread. I for one am excited by the idea of
healthy competition in the processor market.
------
40acres
I wonder which, if any, government organizaations knew about this. Did the DoD
know? Russia? China?
I remember reading about a "cyperweapon" the US government was using to cause
North Korean missile tests to fail before launch. Could attacks like this be
possible through meltdown?
------
HenryBemis
To quote from the "Quest for the Holy Grail" and the scene with the Black
Knight (guarding the 'bridge'): "'Tis but a scratch".
Intel doesn't care. They will downplay it, misinform and misdirect till the
cows go home. No point beating a dead horse. The only think Intel (and most
other corporations) unerstand is to stop buying their products. This is the
only language they 'speak'.
------
frankharv
The article has some false information "Intel says it’s already provided
software fixes for 90 percent of its chips"
This is a falsehood. They MCU updates only cover IvyBridge and newer CPU's.
Check the dates on the MCU files.
------
anonu
From the article:
>> Starting in the mid-2000s, Intel added a layer of security within its chips
and began encouraging developers to store users’ most sensitive information in
the walled-off area rather than in regular software memory.
Can anyone explain what the author is referring to as "walled-off" area? L1,
L2 Cache?
~~~
JdeBP
This is a botched attempt to explain the user/supervisor mode distinction,
that gets the dates and the purpose wrong.
------
rdiddly
I'm confused, did Vegas change from a place that's all about a show, to one
where one expects to find seriousness, honesty, contrition? In a _keynote_?
------
make3
It's literally the first thing he mentioned in the speech, though I admit he
likely went too fast on the subject and was not convincing or reassuring at
all
------
jwilk
> Starting in the mid-2000s, Intel added a layer of security within its chips
> and began encouraging developers to store users’ most sensitive information
> in the walled-off area rather than in regular software memory.
What "layer of security" and "area" they are talking about?
~~~
nootropicat
It's a very confusing attempt to explain the difference between kernel and
user memory space. I don't think article's authors understand it.
~~~
jwilk
Yeah, but that'd be 1980s, not 2000s. :-\
~~~
capitalsigma
I think they're talking about going from an unprotected to a protected memory
model. The windows 9x line was unprotected (ending with "Windows ME" circa
2000) and NT was protected. The first consumer NT was XP in, what, 2002? That
lines up with their "early 2000's" comment.
Why they're deciding to credit Intel with protected memory models is beyond
me, though. Maybe they thought they needed to give some credit to Intel for
something to make the article seem more balanced.
------
josh2600
Maybe I’m missing something... this article says every smartphone is
exposed... is that actually the case? Which smartphones use Intel chips?
Maybe they’re referring to the fact some of these bugs are present on other
chipsets but that seems weird in an Intel article. Am I missing something?
~~~
dragontamer
Spectre affects all advanced chips with out-of-order execution.
But Spectre cannot break kernel memory. Its more of a "new class" of bug,
similar to how "Buffer Overflows" don't describe a particular attack, but a
methodology that hackers will use to exploit new bugs.
Spectre affects virtually every high-performance computer in the world.
Smartphones, SPARC, PowerPC, Intel, AMD, ARM. All of these designs use out-of-
order execution, and in theory, a rogue Javascript would be able to read the
rest of process memory if a programmer isn't careful about how things work.
Meltdown took it one step further: and showed that code could read Kernel
memory. That was an Intel-specific mistake.
~~~
titzer
> Spectre affects all advanced chips with out-of-order execution.
It's not out-of-order execution, it's speculative execution (all forms of
branch prediction) plus the ability to affect the cache state during
speculative execution.
~~~
dragontamer
I'd be surprised if there was an out-of-order CPU that didn't do speculative
executions. I mean, a major benefit of OOE is to fill up the pipelines /
execution units, and speculative execution is a very "obvious" way to do that.
------
xtrapolate
Meltdown and Spectre have opened up new hacking threats, sparked class actions, and enraged longtime partners.
At this point in time, it is known that Intel isn't the only vendor producing
hardware susceptible to Meltdown and Spectre, which is another of saying AMD
is in the same boat. Given this fact, I'm struggling to understand why Intel
is being continuously singled out.
Meltdown and Spectre aren't the first, won't be the last. I personally feel
that a more interesting discussion should take place: how to prepare/plan-
for/deal-with similar issues further down the road. One particular thought
that comes to mind is that this industry lacks an effective recall mechanism.
~~~
jacoblambda
As far as I'm aware, Intel is the only vendor susceptible to Meltdown.
~~~
johnbellone
There are some ARM CPU that are also vulnerable to Meltdown[0].
[https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208394](https://support.apple.com/en-
us/HT208394)
------
Pica_soO
Here we are at the high point of our historic exhibition of the horrors of the
22 century. The first public occurance of public/private law.
A company which had a major flaw in its products, secretly negotiated a silent
phase out of its flawed products for its bigger customers creating a private
settlement, while avoiding the public courts by declaring the error trivial.
This company was too entrenched to fail, as in every big actor agreed upon
that seeing the company go under and half of all legacy software rewritten to
accommodate new hardware, was not in the interest of a "informed" public.
Liberal fanatics of course, had no such distributed hostage effect in there
market-models, and where under the illusion that the Anorexia state they
created, was still too much of a influence, while in truth the upholder of
citizen rights was not even present anymore at the negotiation table.
This catastrophe would later on lead to a heretic movement among the fanatics,
that viewed hardware dependence in legacy not as something ugly but
inevitable, but something threatening to their deity, the one free market.
Please follow me into the next exhibition hall, where we will see the
reintroduction of generational slavery by debt for the underclass. Please
watch your steps, some of the tiles on the floor are in slight disrepair-
------
HugoDaniel
They are too big to fail. It is us, the users, who have a problem: we have to
put up with their mess and shady tactics.
------
neonate
In case anyone was confused like I was, trying to find the article text:
[http://archive.is/ywGYJ](http://archive.is/ywGYJ).
------
alkonaut
Long term Intel will have to "fix" these issues - but what about short term?
Even if they won't have to replace sold processors (which is not likely), what
about CPU's in their current pipeline? If properly fixed chips are 3 years
out, what are they doing for 2018/19? Are they just going to keep making small
tweaks to their current chips, and sell them with the known flaws?
------
coldtea
Aside: as if Moore's Law (in the form often casually understood, about
processing speed/power, not transistor count) wasn't screwed enough as it is.
~~~
djsumdog
We've been out of the Moore's Law window for a while. Processing power no
longer really increases in a linear fashion. Instead, manufactures increase
throughput by smaller improvements in the processor and by squeezing in more
cores per chip. This also means our tasks/programs are changing to utilize
more multi-threading capabilities.
The idea of what is high performance has really changed.
~~~
xigency
Moore's law works on transistor density, so adding cores to a chip can be a
continuation of it. The barriers to faster single core performance are
power/heat in increasing clock speed and diminishing returns in superscalar
architecture.
Moore's law is still alive, it's just dwindling now.
~~~
alkonaut
> Moore's law works on transistor density,
I thought it was transistor _count_ in IC's?
If we assume that for state of the art chips the area is more or less fixed
(by speed of light, manufacturing constraints, thermal constraints etc) then
there is no difference between "transistor density" and "transistor count" \-
but is that the case? Is there no margin for die growth (Disregarding
yield/cost - considering only physical constraints)?
------
simik
> Krzanich showed off a full-size pilotless helicopter Wait... what?
~~~
elihu
That was a Volocopter. I think it uses some Intel parts or technology, but I
don't remember what exactly.
------
exabrial
x86 is a problem... Itanium was supposed to be the life boat but it came too
soon.
~~~
pmlnr
Alpha? SPARC?
------
MechEStudent
Paywalled?
------
exabrial
Well written article! Definitely a few waited in there that explain the
problem in plain English
------
saalweachter
Frankly I think this says something about the security of modern OS's that two
of the most recent exploits have been hardware based.
~~~
yborg
[https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-
bin/cvekey.cgi?keyword=Linux](https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-
bin/cvekey.cgi?keyword=Linux)
I wouldn't say that the security of the "modern OS" is a solved problem. The
Meltdown/Spectre issues happen to be broad-based and heavily publicized, I
don't think you can draw any more general conclusions from them.
In general, as long as human beings are designing and implementing information
processing systems, there will be bugs. Once AI systems are building them,
there will also be bugs, but no human being will be able to understand them.
------
can3p
A really wish the topics with clickbait title like this were banned on hacker
news
------
bigbugbag
> The company makes about 90 percent of the world’s computer processors and 99
> percent of the server chips in the data centers that effectively run the
> internet.
Since when do datacenter servers run the internet ? The journalist seem to not
understand the role of routers and network equipment to connect those servers.
You could add AS to the mix but the datacenter servers are connected to the
internet not running it. The internet would still work if we removed all those
servers, it would work as intended even.
------
waynecochran
It's almost as if the author didn't watch the Vegas Keynote. It was the very
_first_ thing that was addressed when the CEO spoke.
~~~
foobarbazetc
You need to put a disclaimer at the end of your post.
~~~
JdeBP
Only if xe confuses _disclaimer_ for _disclosure_ , of course. (-:
------
guhcampos
The article is ridiculously biased. It makes absolutely no sense to talk about
"moving away from Intel" to anything else because of Spectre. Every modern CPU
is vulnerable to this type of attack. The "fix" involves turning off branch
prediction, and that will slow down any CPU, from any vendor, of any platform.
CPUs which are not affected generally do not take advantage of branch
prediction anyways, and that generally makes them less powerful. Why the hell
would anyone move from an underpowered Intel chip, spending copious amounts of
money for such migration (you don't just change your CPU), and replace it with
an even less powerful chilp?
And Meltdown... Well, that's just the FIRST platform specific vulnerability
found using the Spectre strategy. There will be more, hell, there are probably
more already, just not published yet.
No brand is safe, this is not an Intel bug, it's a bug in Computer Science
itself. If anyone wants to profit from it, they'll need more than paid
Bloomberg posts, they'll need to rethink how we build processors.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Another Spanking for Apple from Judge Posner - grellas
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20120704142749867
======
ChuckMcM
The great thing about patent-a-geddon is that its really bringing the problem
out front and center, both to the judiciary who are learning how the patent
office failed us around the turn of the century and Congress where companies
are crying out for relief and promising campaign money if they get it. I
predict it will do a lot to make this stuff saner.
~~~
glesica
Agreed, although it's always a risky bet hoping Congress will turn corruption
(promises of campaign money, cozy ties with lobbyists) into good legislation.
I'm sure it happens on occasion, but we could just as easily wind up with laws
that gave relief only to a few very large companies in certain (ill-defined)
industries.
But here's hoping!
------
chj
Somehow Apple forgot that he was borrowing (let's not use stealing) many ideas
from other companies. The "Slide to unlock" probably was inspired by Sony
walkman's "slide to open". Surely, they must have got a lot of experience in
suing other people over ideas they borrowed back from the windows GUI case in
80s.
~~~
reitzensteinm
You don't even have to look that far back - pre iPhone, it was used on the
Neonode N1m:
<http://youtu.be/7ru2GjBTHRY?t=3m56s>
Even if the iPhone were the first to use it, the patent is still ridiculous.
If you tasked 100 engineers to come up with an unlocking solution for touch
screens before the iPhone existed, I'd bet good money at least 50 of them
would consider it an option. That's not non-obvious.
Patents in software are no longer about inventions, they're about being the
first do obvious technique x in context y.
And sometimes, that's not even necessary - I've had a technique I used for
displaying cross domain ads in Flash that I considered obvious at the time
patented out from under me later on. The "in Flash" bit being the novel part,
I assume - I try not to spend too much time dissecting insanity.
At least we're starting to see notable investors rally against them, like pg
and Fred Wilson - the very people who should be benefiting the most from a non
broken patent system.
Edit: Clarified line about the 50/100 engineers.
~~~
oemera
Sure 100 engineers would come up with the idea "slide to unlock". After you
see and use something it's always easier to find _this said solution_. BUT
before Apple it seems that none of the 100 engineers you mentioned came up
with the idea and it was never build and that means it was never obvious
before Apple created it.
Saying things are obvious after someone already _invented_ a dead simple and
good solution for a problem we had for years is always easy.
EDIT: Grammer.
~~~
reitzensteinm
Come on, I clearly meant _before_ Apple first used it. Today, 100 out of 100
engineers would consider it.
You are right that obviousness changes over time, and it's important to
consider it from the perspective of the time of the invention.
But some things genuinely _were_ obvious at the time of their 'invention'.
~~~
taligent
The obvious question is why didn't it appear on ANY of the major OEM's phones
before the iPhone ?
~~~
tjoff
Because the previous touchscreens was resistive and used with a pen/nail. And
their UIs wasn't at all about dragging stuff but rather clicking on them.
Once you define your UI around a capacitive touchscreen "slide to unlock"
becomes trivial.
~~~
huggyface
Which is really the key aspect to all of this.
Technology moves forward enabling new behaviors that were never possible
before, and much of the "innovation" that people declare is nothing more than
a land-rush (see the "on a computer" that was the invention of countless
patents). The iPhone stood on the backs of the GPS industry, for instance,
that pushed much of the innovations in mobile chips, GPUs (OpenGL ES and
mobile GPUs were made for the in-car GPS industry), screen and touchscreen
technology. Suddenly the technology was there to do things that couldn't be
done before and the land grab was afoot. Is a land grab innovation?
I don't discount that Apple invented and refined a lot, or that some companies
seem to be addicted to simply cloning (Samsung is particularly guilty of
this), but a lot of what Apple is credited with isn't much more evolved than
"on a computer". And now that we have all sorts of innovations in battery
technology, chipsets, etc, things like Google's glasses are possible, but only
a fool would imagine that they created them out of the ether, instead of
simply moved to where technology had brought them.
------
vibrunazo
Why isn't there a bill circulating in the house or congress for patent reform
yet? It's reasonably common in my country for companies to sponsor bills.
Company having problems with legislation -> pays lawyers to write a bill ->
lobby a few congressman to put bill to vote -> bill gets voted -> if no one
opposes it, company gets its new law approved.
Is it too different in the US? Why hasn't Google done this yet? They're sure
under a lot of pressure, have a lot of interest in patent reform and have
enough lawyers to write a great bill. Just getting something like this to get
voted, so it would show up on media, that would be huge. The MAFIAA is doing
it to defend their interests. Why isn't Google doing the same to defend
theirs?
~~~
benmccann
There are many powerful interests on the other side of the issue. For example,
pharmaceutical companies have very different desires for the patent system
than Google would.
~~~
vibrunazo
I can think of a bazillion of more problems like that. I can also think of a
bazillion solutions (ex: reform only for software). An initial draft doesn't
need to be perfect. But it would be great to get the conversation started. I'm
not optimistic that a patent reform bill would be approved anytime soon, nor
in it's first few attempts. But we have to start somewhere, right?
~~~
thomasjoulin
A proposed bill to ban software patent would be great, but maybe Google, Apple
and co. actually "like" the status quo ? It's a kind a dissuasion weapon that
only huge companies can get, so even if they don't like to fight with each
other, at least they prevent new competition to arise
------
BadassFractal
Patent lawyers everywhere are laughing all the way to the bank. This is a
phenomenal time for them to cash in on the dozens of giant lawsuits that are
happening every single day. The customers are enormous and willing to pay
however much it takes to make sure that their billion dollar investments are
not removed from the market. What's a few hundred million dollars compared to
the kind of money that Apple is reaping from their devices? Fortunes are being
made as we speak.
These folks have a lot to gain from the patent system not changing. I'm going
to guess that their spin will be "defending America's ingenuity" and "letting
creators benefit from the fruits of their labor".
------
aptwebapps
There was a Castlevania game for the DS where you had to swipe patterns to
unlock some doors (among other things), does that count? I forget which one,
but definitely pre-iPhone.
~~~
jcurbo
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castlevania:_Dawn_of_Sorrow>
------
Polarity
I dont know why people dont getting the reality of the whole patent thing. If
apple not patenting things, someone other does and come back to kick apple in
the nuts. Its just one of the many legal capitalism games. Stop the patent
laws and nobody does it. Just simple as that. If Samsung or Google would lead
the mobile Race, they would act the same (and they do already).
~~~
TheEskimo
>If apple not patenting things, someone other does...
No, not at all. Patents are only granted if there's no prior art and as such
if apple uses anything (such as slide to unlock) in one of their devices
without patenting it that also removes the possibility for anyone else to
patent it.
>If Samsung or Google would lead the mobile Race...
There are already more android devices than iOS devices. Google also leads in
various other internet spaces and isn't nearly as aggressive patent-wise as
Apple.
You're right that patent reform is the real solution, but I don't think it's
us who "dont [sic] get the reality of the whole patent thing" but you.
------
gecko
Could someone explain to me why NeXT Software/NeXT Computer is listed as a co-
plaintiff, on a lawsuit that was only recently filed? Did Apple and NeXT not
fully merge in some capacity? As-is, this would be like reading Attachmate,
Inc., Novell, Inc., and WordPerfect Corporation had just sued Microsoft.
------
verroq
Is a point not a zero length line?
edit: it's going to have to be line segment isn't it. Since nobody drags
infinite lines across a screen.
~~~
tsunamifury
This has irked me because those who don't know anything about touch screen
technology don't seem to understand that 'taps' are actually small swipes. The
sensors have a far higher resolution than your fingers ability to stay still,
so the system rounds down small 'swipes' based on x time over y legnth into
what the user meant as taps. It senses the touch down (start point) and the
touch up (end point) which may or may not be a zero length swipe or even a
small distance swipe.
At a a hardware level and strictly speaking, taps are swipes, Apple just
abstracted tiny swipes away into a tap function.
~~~
steve19
It irks me that some people who don't know anything about the physics of touch
screen technology and don't seem to understand that 'taps' are actually small
changes of capacitance of an array of capacitors. [0]
At a a physics level, and strictly speaking, taps and swipes don't exist.
Patents are pragmatic and full of abstractions. You are not required to
specify a patent at every level of abstraction all the way down to its
mathematical or quantum properties.
(I have to read a number of mechanical patents each week as part of my job).
[0] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitive_sensing>
~~~
tsunamifury
This is very interesting, thanks for the perspective.
------
eragnew
> 'Another Spanking'
What does that mean, exactly?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Coding tricks I learnt at Apple - whiskers
http://blog.joemoreno.com/2011/06/tricks-i-learned-at-apple-steve-jobs.html
======
BrandonM
_> These tests were run against a copy of the live database in a production
environment._
This is pretty terrible from a security standpoint. A development environment
is typically much less secure than the live environment, and for good reason.
The development environment must be accessible to developers, typically both
on-site and remote. All developers have access to test databases for the
purpose of testing their changes. There are often many more software packages
in a development environment, and development servers have a higher
probability of running vulnerable services. Live environments typically have
much better logging and auditing.
Every company should have a program that can be run to sanitize the live
database for use in testing. I've seen too many situations where the
production environment was appropriately locked down and audited, but the
development environment was compromised. It's not unheard-of for a developer
to lose possession of his laptop, and if it contains a copy of the live
database it's no better than the site, itself, being compromised.
~~~
schrototo
You make some very good and interesting points, though I think it's wrong to
just presume Apple is lax on security based from that one sentence.
~~~
JoeMoreno
I have to second BrandomM's comments. Don't make a complete copy of your live
database to use in dev. Sensitive data needs to be scrubbed, ideally by a bona
fide DBA, before bringing it over. Best to avoid this if at all possible so
you don't have to worry about overlooking something that was sensitive.
Also, I don't recall ever seeing any security issues with our environment or
how we handled the code and data. There were some very smart engineers
"minding the store."
------
tptacek
Hash tables are worst-case O(n) time.
B-trees are an external storage technique; he means balanced binary trees.
The answer to the interview question is another question: "what operations
does the container need to support?". It's not "hash tables are O(1)".
~~~
endtime
I agree that the article was wrong, but...is there really never a case in
which a B-tree is a useful in-memory index, rather than a storage technique?
~~~
tptacek
I'm only commenting because of the "job interview" comment, but when someone
compares hash tables to B-trees, I usually assume (fairly or not) that they
don't really know what a B-tree is.
~~~
ckuehne
So what you are saying is that the whole database research community does not
really know what a B-Tree is [1]?
[1] Every database implementation techniques lecture compares the two. See,
e.g., <http://infolab.stanford.edu/~hyunjung/cs346/>.
~~~
tptacek
You know that's not what I'm saying. You're just trying to assert nerd
dominance.
------
unshift
no real tricks here, this guy just seems happy he worked on a team with
professional standards. thorough testing like that is, while not the norm,
pretty commonplace at most of the better places i've worked.
~~~
prpon
Yeah, I would have liked to see specific things he learnt at apple. Load
testing tools, algorithms for caching, how and which metrics they measured
etc.
I am trying to figure out who would find this article useful without any
details.
~~~
ctdonath
Those who would find this useful are those who have not figured out that
following these basic principles WORKS. Too many teams think bypassing mundane
correct process will somehow buy them time. There is no magic or secret to
great success, only doing things right all the time.
------
sc68cal
_We had one, highly specialized piece of software code which could only be
checked out, worked on, and checked in by a single engineer at a time. You
were only allowed to touch this piece of code if you possessed a physical
token._
Ahh, the all powerful Source Control Shingle:
[http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/The-Source-Control-
Shingle.a...](http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/The-Source-Control-Shingle.aspx)
~~~
brown9-2
This is really interesting and I would love to know what the code in question
was responsible for.
Requiring that work on it be done single-threaded like this suggests that some
other part of the overall process broke down somewhere - the
developers/automated tests/continuous integration server couldn't catch merge
conflicts? Code reviews weren't done and made visible to everyone else on
changes to this special code?
~~~
sc68cal
Good question - though I don't think it's a problem of broken process, but an
absence of processes like you listed above. That's when these types of
"solutions" are devised/used.
~~~
marshray
Two things I've learned in my years as a developer:
1\. Sometimes the best process is old fashioned communication between people
with common sense.
2\. Never underestimate the power of a rubber chicken.
~~~
sc68cal
>1\. Sometimes the best process is old fashioned communication between people
with common sense.
I most wholeheartedly agree. Git, or a Source Control Shingle cannot replace
effective communication. In fact, a solving a merge conflict is much more
painful than a quick discussion.
------
edw
Perhaps I'm too attuned to NDA issues after having listened to the most recent
episode of Gruber's Talk Show (<http://5by5.tv/talkshow/46>), but I am
guessing that this guy is coming dangerously close to — and is perhaps
crossing — the line with respect to disclosing details about Apple's
technology and software development practices.
When in doubt, STFU. Not just for legal reasons, but also because you don't
want future collaborators and employers thinking you're a Chatty Cathy who's
going to tell everyone about your secret sauce.
~~~
phillco
I agree. He should remove the picture of that Darth Vader token immediately,
it's clearly a very important Apple trade secret.
~~~
JshWright
s/Vader/Tater/
------
svdad
So this is all well and good if you work with a team like this. But I have two
questions:
(a) How do you find out, before going to work somewhere, whether they actually
work like this? Are there questions you can ask? Word of mouth? ... ?
(b) If you don't work somewhere like this, how do you start putting
professional processes in place? Assuming in particular that you have never
actually worked somewhere like this, so you can't speak from experience, only
from instinct about what seems to be a good way of working.
------
lamby
> We had one, highly specialized piece of software code which could only be
> checked out, worked on, and checked in by a single engineer at a time.
Why? Also, is this common these days?
------
synnik
Wait a sec - "it was always an interesting experience to turn the store back
on after Steve Jobs walked off stage following one of his keynote
presentations"
??
Does Apple seriously turn off their store while Jobs talks? Or is he talking
about pushing new content out based on announcements?
The former just sounds... Odd.
~~~
groby_b
Yep. During keynotes, the web store is usually "down for maintenance". For
simple reasons - they don't want to pre-announce before "The Steve(tm)", but
they want to have all the new products immediately available after the
keynote.
~~~
synnik
Ok, but that sure sounds like a design flaw. I would have expected that they
would still have an option to push the new products live at the time of their
choosing vs. disabling online purchases of their existing products.
I would think an appropriate separation of content from the site itself would
allow them to reach their same business goals without deliberately giving
themselves an outage.
~~~
schrototo
It's not so much a technical issue as it is a marketing decision. The store
being down creates a sizable amount of suspense. Of course they could leave it
up if they wanted to, but it's as much part of Apple folklore now as Steve's
turtleneck.
------
tszming
It seems to me that the author was very proud of the O(1) sophisticated
caching algorithms invented at Apple.
------
stretchwithme
I was thinking the physical token would have had a USB connector that you
actually had to plugin to use it.
------
steilpass
"Before writing any production code, we'd write our unit tests." With XCode?
Somehow I have my doubts.
~~~
warwick
He mentions they're using Eclipse. The store is written with Java/WebObjects.
------
kevinburke
How can I learn how to test like Apple does? I feel like I don't know where to
look for good resources on thorough website testing.
------
vilda
I'm afraid the methodology described has little to do with Steve Jobs.
------
benihana
_When you're asked, during a job interview, which is the fasted lookup
function, don't, as is very common, say, "a B-tree." Perfect hash tables
always win, hands down._
Wait, saying a B-tree is the common answer?
~~~
thurn
Furthermore, B-trees are designed for storing things that don't fit into
primary memory. They _are_ the right answer for things like file systems, I
think almost every file system uses some variant of them.
~~~
lallysingh
Surprisingly not:
[https://ext4.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Frequently_Asked_Ques...](https://ext4.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Frequently_Asked_Questions#History_of_ext2.2C_ext3.2C_and_ext4)
<http://www.geeksofpune.in/drupal/files/8058778-ext34talk.pdf>
ext2,3 used an indirect-block tree structure. Ext4 uses an extents system
which is nicer, but still not (AFAIK, I've only skimmed this part) a B tree.
------
seanp2k
>"Coding tricks I learnt at Apple"
I'd wager "learning how to properly use 'learned'" wasn't one of them.
[http://www.urch.com/forums/english/9214-learned-vs-
learnt.ht...](http://www.urch.com/forums/english/9214-learned-vs-learnt.html)
"The _descriptive_ answer in American English is: There is no such word as
"learnt". Use "learned" always."
~~~
maukdaddy
Hate to break it to you, but not everyone on the Internets speaks American
English.
~~~
michaelcampbell
You don't sound like you hate it one bit.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Getting on cancer’s nerves: A surprising way to thwart tumours - DamonHD
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23631480-200-how-hitting-our-nervous-system-could-let-us-defeat-cancer/?cmpid=SOC%7cNSNS%7c2017-Echobox&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#link_time=1508753394
======
DamonHD
I lost my uncle to pancreatic cancer. I suspect that this would all have been
to late to make a difference to him. But still the thought that no (very) new
drugs or surgical techniques would be needed to fix a lot of people is
interesting.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A proactive approach to more secure code - pjmlp
https://msrc-blog.microsoft.com/2019/07/16/a-proactive-approach-to-more-secure-code/
======
leshow
They are claiming up to 70% of the vulnerabilities can be avoided in a
language like rust, I think a good chunk of the other 30% can be avoided using
a language with a type system like rust's. I'm continually amazed at how much
an expressive type system can help minimize bugs
~~~
kiliancs
We've also seen dramatic changes in the amount of defects found after
migrating most of an app to TypeScript in strict mode.
~~~
leshow
Typescript makes writing large codebases in js actually possible. But it's
still missing a few things and there's not much they can do about it. Pattern
matching, and real support for sum types (not just having a 'type' field w/ a
string) would be at the top of my list I think. Working with type parameters
can also get a bit unweidly, and bounding them with the 'extends' keyword is a
pain in the ass. IMO of course.
------
skrebbel
Is this an influential body inside MS? Sounds like good news for the Rust
community that a team like this recommends that a bigco like MS explores Rust.
~~~
pjmlp
MS is already exploring Rust via Azure IoT Edge, VSCode search engine, Actix,
Firefox for HoloLens.
So it is positive that security group is also pushing for it, alongside .NET
and Core Guidelines for C++.
Now how much politic weight they are able to carry, remains an open question.
If WinDev was more sympathetic towards DevDiv probably Longhorn would have
actually happened, as proven by Singularity and Midori.
~~~
roca
Singularity and Midori relied on GC for memory safety, and that was a huge
problem for Longhorn/Vista because it was very difficult to write code that
would work reliably when memory is critically low.
Rust is a completely different story. Sure, Rust's standard library treats OOM
is fatal, which is the right thing for almost all application code, but it's
not difficult to create Rust libraries that treat OOM as a recoverable error,
or that don't allocate at all.
If the Singularity group had invented Rust instead of Sing# things might have
turned out differently.
~~~
pjmlp
Yet according to MSR Midori had no issues powering a portion of Bing in
production.
Multiple OSes have been written in GC enabled system languages.
Having a GC doesn't mean all memory is required to be GC allocated on the
heap, usually the same mechanisms of a language like C++ are also available,
e.g. Modula-3, System C#, D and so forth.
Joe Duffy clearly states in one of his Midori talks that WinDev did not
believe in Midori, even with it running in front of them.
------
CiTyBear
For those who wants to see some rust in action, here are some OSS tool written
in Rust and very efficient:
RipGrep[0]: Replace Grep and it is blazing fast
bat[1]: Replace cat with better display and colours
exa[2]: Replace ls with many more options
[0]:
[https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep](https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep)
[1]: [https://github.com/sharkdp/bat](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat)
[2]: [https://github.com/ogham/exa](https://github.com/ogham/exa)
I do not have any affiliation with them, I just use them a lot
Edit: formatting
------
_ph_
So 70% of the vulnerabilities are still caused by lack of memory-safety, and
that doesn't even account for all the defects that don't end up in a
vulnerability. Imagine how much more safety and correctness there would be, if
not only those 70% didn't exist, but no time had to be spent to fix them and
rather concentrate onto avoiding the other 30%.
~~~
pjmlp
Morris worm is 30 years old now, what allowed it is still pretty much 2019
regular C code.
------
vijaybritto
This would be a massive boost to the rust community as a whole as many would
have a look at it!
------
rurban
Replacing a safe language, C#, with an unsafer but faster language, Rust, is
of course fine, but then they shouldn't label it wrong.
------
tptacek
This isn't an advisory, it's just a blog post. We're meant not to editorialize
titles, and this one was a doozy; the appropriate title is "A proactive
approach to more secure code".
~~~
ChrisSD
I've noticed that happening a lot lately. It's frustrating because the blog
post is interesting on its own merits and doesn't need to have a click bait
title inserted.
~~~
mises
See the recent front-page post about "England selects new face of fifty-pound
bill" or something of the sort. The title of the linked BBC article included
that Alan Turing had been chosen, yet the poster chose to make it click-bait.
------
syxun
In other words, Windows is about to become slower.
~~~
Someone1234
Depends on which memory safe language they use and how (plus this blog post
isn't by the Windows team or about Windows specifically). The biggest thing
that slows Windows is lock contention, back-compat, and abstraction layers.
Those problems all remain regardless of language choice.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Startup Foundry is giving away $6,620 worth of goods to 2 Lean Startups - g0atbutt
http://thestartupfoundry.com/2011/03/13/were-giving-away-6620-worth-of-goods-and-services-to-2-lean-startups/
======
yannickmahe
Aww, and here I was hoping no one would know about it...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Is it a phone, is it a bank? - JumpCrisscross
http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21574520-safaricom-widens-its-banking-services-payments-savings-and-loans-it
======
dobbsbob
Sending money via SMS doesn't sound very secure. Lending to a phone you can
just throwaway, steal or clone doesn't sound very secure either. When do
Kenyan hackers fraud this service out of existence
~~~
PotatoEngineer
Maybe the market is small enough, and the transactions small enough, that the
competent hackers are attacking other systems.
~~~
i2pi
The market is large enough, the transactions are relatively large, too.
In Kenya, M-Pesa is by far, the #1 payments service, with nearly half the
country using it. It grew acceptance as a replacement for the other way of
remitting money from the cities to villages - busses. Prior to M-Pesa, bus
drivers would act, for a fee, as money carriers, bringing income back from the
cities to families back home.
The competent hackers were, literally, brute-forcing the old system. Bus
drivers are easier to compromise than mobile handsets and infrastructure.
------
utunga
So much amazing innovation is driven from the valley but in this case it's
Kenya showing us the way. Why is that? Worth thinking about.
~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
Because these are sectors not fully developed there. The existing institutions
here are hard to topple. But their equivalents perhaps don't fully exist
there, so there is a gap to fill.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Max/MSP: A visual programming language for music and multimedia - zaiste
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_(software)
======
jancsika
Max is Max/MSP, where:
* MSP is an engine for generating/synthesizing/analyzing realtime audio which the user builds as a diagram in a GUI. The backend automatically sorts the diagram into a graph and generates the audio as the user builds the program. So by the end, the programmer has used their ears to measure whether the program can indeed compute audio for the diagram in realtime. (And the corresponding classes for signal computation are designed with soft realtime scheduling in mind.)
* Max is a general purpose programming language where the user creates and connects various branches of different Rube Goldberg machines together in a GUI. This appears superficially similar to DSP diagrams above. But each object in the chain can do anything from simple realtime appropriate math to doing file i/o while allocating large chunks of memory. There's no easy way to tell which of these Rube Goldberg objects are realtime safe. Plus one can iterate infinitely and recurse into already recursive chains of calls with ease. (The MSP engine prohibits recursion.)
Due to lack of constant aural feedback for Max diagrams, users typically keep
a separate, erroneous mental model of all the Rube Goldberg machines in their
short-term memory. In fact, most users practice a novel form of cryptography I
call "Fresco-based write protection": the user keeps drawing and connecting
more Rube Goldberg machines atop one another until their short-term memory
becomes the only private key that can decode them. Given about 30 minutes for
the frescoes to "dry," this technique is proven secure even against rubber
hose attacks.
For maximum frustration, Max/MSP has objects which let the user hook Rube
Goldberg machines up to a DSP graph, and vice versa. And I mean maximum
frustration: while such inter-diagram connections give users functionality
they wouldn't otherwise have, they also give users the false-confidence
necessary to schedule a performance that ends up with that user staring at a
silent laptop and muttering, "I don't understand, this worked fine on
Tuesday."
Edit: clarification
~~~
floatrock
> users typically keep a separate, erroneous mental model of all the Rube
> Goldberg machines in their short-term memory... the user keeps drawing and
> connecting more Rube Goldberg machines atop one another until their short-
> term memory becomes the only private key that can decode them.
It really was a cute rant (we've all been there where we've hated using
something _that_ much!), but honestly this bit describes every piece of
sufficiently complex software I've worked on. Not sure about you, but I poke
my coworkers all the time to ask "hey, can you explain what this bit of
business logic does again? I think I need to reuse it for this new feature..."
Maybe Max just needs a unit testing framework.
~~~
AndrewUnmuted
lol unit testing? Max/MSP objects are just enormous json blobs. They have much
bigger problems with that language than unit testing.
People interested in musical programming should investigate SuperCollider and
completely bypass Max/MSP. It’s terrible software.
~~~
qmmmur
The object connections are described in json but the objects themselves are
c++.
~~~
AndrewUnmuted
Yes, that is technically true. A more objectively correct statement on my part
would have been, "Max patches are JSON blobs."
But let's be real: it's highly dubious software, exploiting the tired and
inefficient trope of the noodly "patch connections" approach made famous by
modular synth folks. The sound engine sucks, even with the new updates made
recently. The new versions are made using the JUCE framework, and yet it has
no Linux support. WTF? Good luck doing anything low-latency, on any platform,
using any kind of hardware. Seriously, last time I tried to agonize with
Max/MSP, that shit would start crackling at 48k and a block size of 192,
that's absurdly poor performance for any sort of "modern" audio software.
Max/MSP is something made to take advantage of "computer musicians" and "audio
engineers" who know very little about the actual computing platforms they
continue to exploit. These people have become decidedly easy to trick, they
simply don't approach their own so-called "craft" with the amount of
skepticism they must have in order to continue to practice that craft.
~~~
qmmmur
> exploiting the tired and inefficient trope of the noodly "patch connections"
That's the whole point. pd works the same way and so does vcvrack among more
localised tools like Reaktor.
> The new versions are made using the JUCE framework, and yet it has no Linux
> support. WTF?
I don't have any love for JUCE but you are naive to think that its as easy as
setting a new compile target and pressing go. Max is for profit and they need
to target the most salient customers. Forget how little the percentage of
people is that use Linux - you are aiming this product at a niche of niche
people already. Be realistic here if you're own money was at stake.
> Good luck doing anything low-latency, on any platform, using any kind of
> hardware. Seriously, last time I tried to agonize with Max/MSP, that shit
> would start crackling at 48k and a block size of 192, that's absurdly poor
> performance for any sort of "modern" audio software.
I can't say I've had as much problems as you. I have a friend whose work has
to be as low latency as possible (so that onset detectors are working really
fast) and his system is running somewhere at 16/32 for vector size. The
processing after this is non-trivial also.
I'd be curious to know what your professional use of Max is as you seem to
have an incredibly aggressive attitude to the software, how its made and the
people that use it.
~~~
AndrewUnmuted
> Max is for profit and they need to target the most salient customers.
The problem with this is that...
> professional use of Max
... surely, you jest.
This software is not stable enough, useful enough, nor performant enough to be
used in professional settings, outside of perhaps some of the "multimedia
performance" buffoonery of people like Carsten Nicolai.
One could not reasonably use Max/MSP for scientific or academic purposes, for
anything where precision was required. There is are so many useless GUI/state
management operations being performed by the sound engine that it makes it an
unreliable tool.
Contrast this with Max's FOSS cousin pD, the highly performant SuperCollider,
ChucK, or Csound even! It's a blow-out - Max/MSP is the worst-performing, has
the least imaginative and least innovative approaches, and doesn't really do
much at all in the way of refactoring for performance or for broad
compatibility with other software/hardware. Its community is the least-
knowledgeable and contributes the least - by far - to the broader computer
music community.
I had this Max/MSP nonsense thrown at me all throughout my collegiate
education. I was always able to easily convince people I didn't need that
specific, useless, proprietary software, to do my work. But it was a constant
uphill battle I had to fight. Because all Max/MSP did was entrench itself in
areas of the audio technology world that did not know better.
It's terrible software, designed with a terrible software development
ideology, and made popular for all the wrong reasons.
~~~
tayistay
Why do you find Pd so much better?
FWIW, Radiohead used Max/MSP live IIRC. Aphex Twin has used it. Neither are
"multimedia performance buffoonery". Though I love your characterization
because I've been subjected to plenty of said buffoonery.
~~~
sunjiroaoul
For us plebes, the FOSS makes pd great. Backwards compatibility is nice,
resurrecting 10 year old patches has never been a problem for me.
I suspect being successful musicians, cycling74 has an interest in getting
their product into your rig. I bet Johnny Greenwood gets custom objects if he
calls them up.
------
H1Supreme
I've been using MaxMsp for a few years now, and I've been writing software for
much longer. When I'm using Max (for audio and midi), it does not strike me as
a "visual programming language", nor do I feel like I'm writing software. It
strikes me as a modular environment like Reaktor or VCV rack, but one step
closer to the "metal".
And in that space, I think it works wonders. I initially got into Max because
I had a lot of ideas for midi sequencing that I couldn't execute with more
traditional tools. Initially I tried writing it by hand in C++ (which I did to
an extent), but it became tiresome.
Max was a breath of fresh air. I was building sequencers, clock dividers,
sequential switches, and all types of bespoke tools very quickly. A background
in software definitely helped, but it was still a quick learn. Additionally, I
can sync with DAW's, grab data off of IAC busses, and map controls to Midi
controllers very easily. All things I'm happy to not concentrate on while
being creative.
I don't have as much experience with the MSP (audio) side, but I have built
some loopers and granular inspired patches.
------
tayistay
Max and Pd are interesting languages. Quoting the original designer, Miller
Puckette [0]:
"The design of Max breaks many of the rules of computer science orthodoxy,
sometimes for reasons of practicality and sometimes of style."
Audio and control signals are both represented in the same canvas, but with
substantially different semantics. Audio signals are roughly what you might
expect if you are familiar with analog audio processing: plug one box into the
next, and data is constantly flowing. The control signals are actually
messages (think MIDI), and can have some counterintuitive semantics. For
example: if a single message is sent to two different objects, then those two
objects send a message to a third (diamond shape), the third object will be
executed twice, despite all of this happening in the same logical time-step.
Execution order also depends on the position of the objects in the canvas,
IIRC.
The semantics are at least partially historical, because when Max was
originally developed, real-time DSP wasn't available.
[0]: [http://msp.ucsd.edu/Publications/dartmouth-
reprint.dir/](http://msp.ucsd.edu/Publications/dartmouth-reprint.dir/)
~~~
jancsika
> For example: if a single message is sent to two different objects, then
> those two objects send a message to a third (diamond shape), the third
> object will be executed twice, despite all of this happening in the same
> logical time-step.
That's not an accurate description of the language's semantics.
For example-- is the third object a unary or binary operator?
Also-- for a unary object in a proper flow-based language, what happens if
that third object is a unary operator like `sin`? I think the
language/frontend cannot let you make the connection because it doesn't make
any sense (or you'd end up implicitly overwriting one of the values/vectors).
In a Max control chain you do get two outputs from two incoming connections to
a unary operator. But then perhaps the programmer wanted to collect those two
values into a two-item list and trigger that further down the chain. If they
practiced "Fresco-based write protection" as they were trained, the diagram is
encoded as spaghetti and we can never know for sure. :)
~~~
qmmmur
I mean, this kind of comment really only comes from someone who has never used
the language in any kind of depth. Whether or not the object triggers twice
depends on type of object as you pointed out, ordering of inputs forgetting
whether or not two executions is perhaps intended.
~~~
tayistay
Proving my main point--that the semantics are interesting--by way of nitpick
and ad hominem.
------
raptorraver
Opensource alternative Pure Data is also worth mentioning:
[https://puredata.info/](https://puredata.info/)
~~~
strbean
There was a cool web implementation back in the day...
[https://github.com/sebpiq/WebPd](https://github.com/sebpiq/WebPd)
Looks like the creator is gearing up to pump new life into the project (as of
11 days ago!). In the issue linked at the top of the README, he bemoans the
fact that he hasn't really had any other contributors. If anyone is looking
for an interesting project...
~~~
jancsika
If I had to guess, big blockers would be:
1\. webpd doesn't have a GUI editor, so you cannot leverage the browser to
prototype new ideas (or edit old ones). With that ability webpd would be like
a codepen for audio and therefore garner a lot more interest.
2\. Pd's gui logic mostly happens inside the audio engine which is coded in C.
It's a huge hairball of code that's a pain to work with.
3\. Pd's GUI paridigm is having multiple toplevel windows like the old Gimp
interface. That's a pain to use in Pd, but it's especially a pain to try
porting that to a browser. An HTML5 editor/display needs to be much less
complicated than motif in a Linux window manager.
I've been thinking about doing parallel work on a single-app style interface
for Purr Data and shipping it with a feature flag. (Parallel as in not
upsetting the current UI.) There has been some interest in such a project for
GSoC, but it's a beast of a project with lots of little pain points and detail
work to get it right.
------
pier25
Also check out GEN which was recently added to Max.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDYs2UZzhI4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDYs2UZzhI4)
It's a low level DSP engine that is already used in Ableton Live and embedded
systems for modular synths.
~~~
qmmmur
I absolutely love gen~. Graham Wakefield's software is all super interesting.
His research centre at UoY is also very curious.
------
sideb0ard
If you're in SF in march and interested in Max/MSP, my conf/music festival,
Algorithmic Art Assembly, has a workshop on Creating Digital Instruments with
Max/MSP -
[https://aaassembly.org/workshops/](https://aaassembly.org/workshops/) (conf
also features Miller Puckette, Curtis Roads and many more!)
~~~
suyash
That's neat, I live in SF and would love to submit my proposal for this event
on AI & Music possible?
------
jcelerier
If anyone's interested - I'm working on ossia score
([https://ossia.io](https://ossia.io) ;
[https://github.com/OSSIA/score](https://github.com/OSSIA/score)) which is a
bit like Max & PD, but the dataflow is integrated directly in the timeline
which allows for better expressibility of evolution of time in the artwork.
------
pmoriarty
I have a real problem with visual languages like Max and PureData (and all the
other visual languages I've ever seen).
They seem like a good idea, and might be fine for computer-phobic people just
starting to be introduced to programming, but whenever one tries to make
anything even a little complex in them they inevitably become a mess of
spaghetti-code.
Languages like these also don't have the almost hundred years of research and
effort in to creating an ecosystem around them like text-based languages do.
There's no way to grep, diff or sed the source while remaining on the visual
level. There's no way to harness the incredible power of text editors like vim
or emacs. When there are lots of connections, determining what's going where
becomes difficult to determine, though at least they do have some modularity.
Debugging and tracing facilities tend to be minimal to non-existent. There are
no static analysis tools, refactoring tools, fuzzing tools, unit-testing
tools, or behavior-driven testing tools, no way to design by contract.
These things are in their own little backwater. They look cool, and are easy
to start with, but that's about it.
~~~
qmmmur
These are valid criticisms (although parsing max patches is very easy as they
are just json files). However, I think you're missing the point. The point of
Max is to be one notch away from something like Ableton - a language and
methodology for programming your own routines, patterns and at the lowesr
level DSP algorithms (something that gen~ has facilitated nicely). You might
even write your own objects in c++ if the need for functionality grows. I'd
say I'm an expert in Max having spent considerable time in it developing
applications and doing research and the trade off of not having those
'traditional' software engineering and computing tools is that you can work in
an incredibly dirty and ad hoc way. At the end of the day it's a tool designed
with creative goals in mind and the idea of unit testing, deploying, etc etc
are not paramount to people's practice mostly. They just want to develop ideas
fast in fairly stable real-time environment.
~~~
pmoriarty
This kind of reinforces my point of the languages being only really suitable
for simple patches, as the more complex they get the more they'll need things
like sophisticated debugging facilities, testing, tracing, etc to figure out
what's going on, why things work the way they do or why they break when they
don't.
As for them being just JSON files, that doesn't really help because these
languages aren't designed to be programmed on the JSON level. They're designed
to be programmed visually. Having a JSON file you can edit doesn't help any
more than having an XML file of a Word document. You're not going to be
editing your Word document using the raw XML. You need a word processor like
Word itself or Libreoffice to make sense of it and edit it in any kind of
meaningful way.
The potential is there, of course, to build text tools around manipulating the
raw JSON that would be Max-aware, but that would break Max's visual paradigm
and then you might as use a traditional text-oriented language to begin with.
~~~
qmmmur
If you have Max installed I'm happy to send you incredibly complicated DSP and
musical problems solved visually and cleanly. Open your mind for a second and
realise that musicians needs are almost entirely different to software
engineer's in a language.
------
JoeDaDude
For those interested in learning formally, there is an online course in
Max/MSP available through the Kadenze online school:
[https://www.kadenze.com/courses/programming-max-
structuring-...](https://www.kadenze.com/courses/programming-max-structuring-
interactive-software-for-digital-arts-i/info)
------
_def
I don't know if you can use this with the Max standalone version, but here are
plenty of devices for Max4Live (Ableton Live's integrated version of Max):
[https://maxforlive.com/](https://maxforlive.com/)
------
skybrian
I've used PureData a bit and found the UI rather minimalist. VCV Rack has a UI
that's considerably more fun, but from a programming perspective, most modules
are quirky rather than orthogonal and general-purpose. How does Max compare?
~~~
gmueckl
VCV Rack is firmly in the Eurorack tradition, which has an enormous amount of
deliberate quirkiness to inspire experimentation and new sounds. Max is pretty
a graphical programming language with a focus on signal processing, but a
scope that goes considerably beyond that.
------
Doctor_Fegg
Opcode did so much great stuff: their sequencer Vision was so much more
immediate and intuitive than anything else I ever tried. It was a tragedy when
Gibson bought and gutted them.
------
techbio
Anyone familiar with music design languages—-how do this and others mentioned
in comments (supercollider, puredata) compare with Ruby/midi based sonic-pi?
------
billfruit
Does it do rhythm heavy scores with regular drum beats etc?
~~~
jm547ster
It can, however you’ll have to build your own sequencers or find other
people’s work to cobble together
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Rails vs. Node.js- the comparison - mohitchawla
https://thebittheories.com/rails-vs-nodejs-the-comparison-feba9081251f#.jufu0hgid
======
pmontra
The premise of the post is incorrect. Rails should not be compared with
Node.js but with some web framework running on Node.js. The correct comparison
would be Ruby vs Node.js
Ruby is quick to learn, has flexible project structure and has flexible
filenames (you can require "x" which defines class Y). Rails was also quick to
learn in my experience, but I started with 1.0 with few concepts so maybe a
newcomer could have different feelings.
Rails is opinionated, which is a very good thing if you share its opinions.
Jump into somebody's else project and by the look of the URL you know exactly
where every single file is, unless the dev wanted to be extra clever. You can
start fixing things and adding features in a few minutes.
Less opinionated Node or Python or Ruby frameworks are hell to me because I
must chase files across folders and understand what the original developer was
thinking. It takes more time to me and it costs more to my customer. I don't
see the advantages.
------
johnhenry
Great article, but there are some issues with the comparison, specifically
with the "Pros" listed for Rails:
1\. Multi threaded -- This is not a "Pro" as node can take advantage of
multiple cores using the built in cluster module:
[https://nodejs.org/api/cluster.html](https://nodejs.org/api/cluster.html).
Node is multi-threaded too.
2\. No callbacks -- I wouldn't consider this a "Pro" as even though it makes
programming more complicated, asynchronous code can simulate synchronous code,
but not the other way around. Further, thanks to additions like promises and
async/await, asynchronous programming in JavaScript will soon be about as easy
to wrap one's head around as synchronous programming without the use of
callbacks.
3\. Code Maintenance -- It's hard to call this a "Pro" \-- it's like comparing
apples to oranges. As mentioned in the article "NodeJS is a Runtime
Environment for running JavaScript as a server." and "Rails is a Framework for
Ruby Language." You'd find less of a difference in comparing Rails to
something like Sails ([http://sailsjs.org/](http://sailsjs.org/)), a Framework
for JavaScript.
~~~
pmontra
Rails can be multithreaded but most often than not it isn't. If you run on MRI
you have the GIL so only one thread can run at the same time. Parallelism is
achieved by running multiple Ruby processes. However, if you compile with
JRuby and run on the JVM you have real multithreading. Not a very popular
option in the setups I saw, probably because using JRuby in development is
still quite painful and slow compared to MRI.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Seeking Technical Cofounder - techxc
I'm looking to hire a technical cofounder for an 'augmented reality' / location based services startup with angel backing. I have a good prototype built and a huge library of proprietary content - and I am looking for someone to put some finishing touches on it so we can launch in Beta (at which point we will secure VC funding). The technical cofounder will also be responsible for building out the technical team.<p>I'm looking for developers with experience in building scalable, secure web applications (mobile a plus). There are several interesting problems to work on, so a CS degree and algorithmic experience is a plus. The majority of the system has been built on PHP/MySQL, j2me and Objective C (iphone). The candidate we select will work on a contract basis for a trial period.<p>I'm a well connected investor / former entrepreneur (sold first company to Nokia) and current tech executive. If your experience is commensurate with our needs I will set up a phone interview followed by an in person interview where we will walk you through the project in detail. Email me a brief description of your background and interest (attach your CV) at techxc(at)gmail.com
======
webwright
Just a thought-- you should tell more about yourself and provide links to
places where people can vet you a bit. Right now, this is akin to a personals
ad saying, "Looking for a wife. I've had a great relationship in the past.
Please send me pictures and some detail about your last 4 or 5 relationships."
Sounds like an interesting project-- g'luck with it and with the co-founder
hunt!
------
vaksel
what made you switch from looking for an employee to looking for a cofounder?
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=652061>
~~~
techxc
just forgot to clarify. one of the people who responded to the first post
asked about longer term opportunities and i realized i hadn't clarified that
in the JD. to be clear - we are seeking a long term partner who will be
responsible for building a highly technical organization.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Milton’s notes on Shakespeare appear to have been found - pepys
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/sep/16/when-milton-met-shakespeare-poets-notes-on-bard-appear-to-have-been-found
======
bryanrasmussen
I put the cam.ac.uk post on this up a couple days ago
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20969349](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20969349)
~~~
calhoun137
This is the better link. Omg I love this guys humble style. If I ever think I
have made a big discovery in math or physics I am totally going to present it
like this: "You know how I am always coming up with bad ideas that turn out to
be wrong, well I just had another one. No big deal, silly me I can't help
myself [big sigh] This is so embarrassing, but I think gravity and quantum
physics could be related by ...
------
toss1
Last paragraph, the discoverer is quoted:
>> This is evidence of how digital technology and the opening up of libraries
[could] transform our knowledge of this period.
Indeed! Just bringing many more eyes (and perhaps AIs) to the works can vastly
accelerate the growth of knowledge, and they're already doing further research
based on this discovery.
Who knows how many more centuries this knowledge might have languished
unrecognized, just sitting in the stacks? And how much more like it is still
awaiting?
~~~
benbreen
Agreed - and if anyone is interested in this specific sort of work ("meta-
textual" analysis of things like marginalia and the material characteristics
of a piece of writing) there is a wonderful resource in Rare Book School at
the University of Virginia:
[https://rarebookschool.org](https://rarebookschool.org). They offer summer
classes and a fellowship program, and it isn't just about old books - when I
was there I met people working on digital texts, and even things like the
preservation and archiving of VHS tapes and other old analog formats.
Nick Wilding's discovery of a forged Galileo manuscript is another fun example
of this type of research:
[https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/12/16/a-very-rare-
bo...](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/12/16/a-very-rare-book)
~~~
eitally
+1!
I studied under Terry Belanger there as an undergrad and it was one of the
most rewarding experiences of my time in university.
------
nwj
If you had asked me 5 minutes prior to reading about this, who was the earlier
writer - Milton or Shakespeare? - I would have said Milton. I now know that
it's the opposite. Shakespeare preceded Milton.
There's something about Shakespeare's writing that feels closer to modernity
though. Milton seems sort of medieval, perhaps because of the religious themes
(and the fact that I've only read a small portion of Paradise Lost...).
~~~
jacobolus
Multiple people have suggested this here. It seems very strange to me, since
Shakespeare is one of the most famous Englishmen of the Elizabethan era, and
Milton was politically active 50+ years later during the English Civil War.
~~~
kragen
People in the US don't even know there was an English Civil War.
~~~
jfengel
A surprising number of English people don't know that there was an English
Civil War. When you've got a thousand years of continuous history to pack in,
Oliver Cromwell ends up being kind of a footnote.
Maybe if it had occurred before Shakespeare, instead of after, he could have
written a cycle of plays about it, and we'd remember it as well as the Wars of
the Roses. But as it is, English schoolchildren forget it as soon as class is
over... and I suspect the rest of the UK cares even less.
------
StavrosK
My understanding is that we already had the notes, we just recognized that
they're Milton's, is that correct?
~~~
CrazyStat
Correct.
~~~
StavrosK
So why is this so groundbreaking? At most, I'd expect it to be an interesting
anecdote.
~~~
mirimir
Because we care about what Milton wrote a lot more than we care about what
some random book buyer wrote.
~~~
StavrosK
Why? We obviously read the notes and we didn't especially care for them before
we found out they were Milton's, so why is that? This implies that we care
more about a famous person writing dreck than an anonymous person writing
fantastic insights.
~~~
veridies
The article mentions one allusion Milton made to Shakespeare. It is possible
that we can learn more about what ideas Milton was referencing and responding
to in Shakespeare. It gives us more insight into him than into Shakespeare.
~~~
StavrosK
Ah, that's fair.
------
canjobear
I see a lot of evidence that these annotations are similar to Milton’s style.
But the question is, are they _more_ similar to Milton’s style than to any
other random literati of the time? Has this been looked at?
------
gumby
I admit I only skimmed the article but it I didn't see it say that Milton
actually physically met Shakespeare, right: this is simply a metaphorical use?
Doesn't detract from the excitement of the article, I just would love to think
how the elder might have influenced the younger.
~~~
commandlinefan
I'd think it would have to be metaphorical, if Wikipedia is correct -
Wikipedia says Shakespeare died in 1616 and Milton was born in 1608... so if
they did meet, there was no great exchange of ideas there.
~~~
gumby
Thanks, and _blush_ for not doing my homework myself.
~~~
commandlinefan
Well, don’t give me too much credit. I had to look it up because I was
surprised to learn that Shakespeare and Milton were alive at the same time -
but if I had been on a gameshow, I would have guessed that Milton lived and
died hundreds of years before _Shakespeare_ was born.
------
bobcostas55
...and of course they're hoarding them instead of just putting up a torrent of
high-res scans.
~~~
roland00
It is a public library and they are already putting it out a display open to
the public (instead of keeping it in records in the back.) They are also
making available other Milton stuff they have on hand such as a 1st edition of
Paradise Lost.
Free Library of Philadelphia's Parkway Central branch 1901 Vine St.,
Philadelphia, PA 19103 Shakespeare First Folio on Display Monday, Sept. 16,
through Saturday, Oct. 19
Source: [https://www.phillyvoice.com/free-library-display-
shakespeare...](https://www.phillyvoice.com/free-library-display-shakespeare-
first-folio-rare-book-department/)
------
EGreg
So Shakespeare was real after all!
That take, _Anonymous_ the movie :)
~~~
CrazyStat
This is about Milton reading and annotating the published collection of
Shakespeare's plays, not Milton meeting Shakespeare in person. It doesn't have
any bearing on the debate over Shakespeare's identity.
The title is a little misleading.
~~~
AdmiralAsshat
Milton would have been not yet eight years old when Shakespeare died, to boot,
so I'm not sure a physical meeting would have meant much to him.
~~~
dev_dull
People would be talking about him/her during that time, so I think their
observation would have been very relevant had they made one about the
identity.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Advice for the man who is all dressed up and getting nowhere (1988) - ohjeez
http://www.csmonitor.com/1988/0209/fmoll.html
======
draw_down
Well, I think bosses should look and act like bosses instead of pretending
like they're my friend, like just another schmoe on the production line.
Also notice how the ultimate point of this is trying to get workers to work
harder and be more loyal to the company. The company which will lay them off,
decrease their hours, reduce benefits, etc, as the board and executive staff
see fit.
So let's cut the shit. Management and labor aren't the same and we're not
friends. If you want workers to be happier then offer them a better workplace
and do right by them instead of wasting money on stupid consultants to talk
about your clothes. I mean, shit, that in itself says so much.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Cheatsheet to LA tech incubators for LeanLA event - bootload
https://twitter.com/#!/Pv/status/167050211552800769
======
bootload
_"... Cheatsheet to LA tech incubators for tonight's @LeanLA event
--<http://t.co/Op3mLDED> #LeanStartup..."_
A tweet by @pv "Patrick Vlaskovits". The pdf file direct link is here ~
<http://t.co/Op3mLDED> Fascinating reading.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Louis C.K.: The Man Who Loves to Hate Himself - dwynings
http://jonahweiner.com/RS_Louie_CK_Jonah_Weiner.html
======
dwynings
The actual interview transcript is interesting too:
[http://jonahweiner.com/Louis_CK_Q&A.html](http://jonahweiner.com/Louis_CK_Q&A.html)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Twitch temporarily bans President Trump - snake117
https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/29/21307145/twitch-donald-trump-ban-campaign-account
======
MR4D
Regardless of what people think about the current president, the banning of a
sitting president on a platform will have enormous implications for the tech
industry.
I expect one of the first things will be losing their Section 230 immunity and
being treated more like publishers instead of telecos (this has actually
already started, so perhaps I'm not being super creative here...).
Second, should he win a second term, I expect Trump will have the Federal
Election Commission investigate this, as their bias (not just Twitch, but
anyone) will probably be targeted as unregistered Superpacs. This will
probably cause fallout on both sides of the political spectrum over time.
Future presidents & politicians of all parties are going to have something to
say about this too - especially when they feel they are treated unfairly.
I think that platforms will have to become less "public" in order to minimize
their liability. For instance, you don't need an account to view tweets, so it
being truly "private" communications can be challenged (i.e. it is not the
same as communication on a members-only forum that is inaccessible to the
general public).
Twitter and others may have to seriously reconsider their current openness.
Twitch probably will have the same issue, as I can watch a gamer like NickEh30
at [https://www.twitch.tv/nickeh30](https://www.twitch.tv/nickeh30) without an
account easily .
Honestly, I don't know what the right answer is, as censoring speech is a
tricky proposition (and has been since the beginning of time in democracies).
But I do know that the politics surrounding this issue is about to get a lot
louder on all sides of the political spectrum. Hold on tight - 2020 is about
to get even more fun...not.
~~~
Valgrim
What would happen if these platforms simply decided to migrate in a different
country?
~~~
MR4D
Not sure, but they might have to register as foreign agents like some Chinese
news outlets did recently.
Would be interesting to see though.
------
Gollapalli
I didn't know the president had a Twitch account.
>One of the streams in question was a rebroadcast of Trump’s infamous kickoff
rally, where he said that Mexico was sending rapists to the United States.
Twitch also flagged racist comments at Trump’s recent rally in Tulsa.
Oh, it was a channel for campaign rallies. That makes more sense.
But this puts us into deep hot water so far as content platforms go. This is
removing the campaign content of a sitting president. For a platform to be
unfavorable to on candidate over another as a matter of policy (whatsoever the
official stated reasons may be) politicizes the platform, moves them into
being "not a platform but a publisher". If there is to be any investigation of
electoral meddling, it should be into the political bias of technology
companies, and if Trump wins another term, that is likely exactly what will
occur.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
CodeSchool - NodeJS : Free Pass - reji
http://go.codeschool.com/Q_Jr7g
I reached Level 4 for the "Realtime web with NodeJS" course, within 12 hrs of using CodeSchool. Here's a two day free pass to review some of their material.
======
reji
A two day pass to CodeSchool. I reached level 4 on the 'Realtime web with
Node.js' course in about 10 hours. Pretty good material.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Why do different TLD have different prices. What or who sets it? - stevefromIT
======
saaaaaam
The registry sets their own prices. For the new generic TLDs it is basically
the Wild West - they can charge whatever they choose, hence the fact that most
new gTLD registries go for bargain basement pricing in the hope that they can
get enough volume for someone to want to buy them before the whole sorry mess
comes tumbling down.
For country level TLDs it’s a little more nuanced I guess. Extensions like
.fm, .io, .co and .ai have either managed to position themselves as a
fashionable alternative to the very crowded .com (or whatever you first choice
is) or have been fortunate enough to have an extension that “fits” a
particular industry. Because they work and for some people have become an
“accepted” alternative to .com they can charge a premium for brand name fit.
~~~
tedmiston
To expand on that -- the registrars also set their own prices on top of the
arbitrary price for a domain (TLD) set by its registrar.
For example, .dev domains are more expensive from everyone else besides Google
Domains (Google is the registrar). Seems kind of unfair, but such as life I
guess?
------
mtmail
[https://www.namecheap.com/blog/why-some-domains-cost-
more/](https://www.namecheap.com/blog/why-some-domains-cost-more/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Why marketing is eating the world - gmays
https://elizabethyin.com/2020/06/30/why-marketing-is-eating-the-world/
======
ycombonator
No it’s not
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Bitcoin Network Growth is Finally Slowing - aosmith
http://alexsmith.io/?p=155
======
kordless
A small number of individuals amassing enough hashing power is a bad thing.
Crypto currencies are, at their core, about decentralization and trust. Even
power split between a few entities can represent a threat to the system.
Thankfully the system has other means by which it deals with this: alt
currencies.
This is just the beginning. Nothing is slowing - it's just changing form. It
would be interesting to overlay the amount of Bitcoin being bought with alt
coins.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why Anti-Corruption Strategies May Backfire - dnetesn
http://nautil.us/blog/why-anti_corruption-strategies-may-backfire
======
smallnamespace
One of my US high school history teachers once taught us that bureaucracy and
endless mounds of red tape were the natural consequence of Americans valuing
fairness over efficiency, and in the end getting neither.
We want a system that is:
1\. fair, and Americans immediately suspect that humans tend to favor their
friends
2\. based on clear, written rules, so everyone can compete on an even playing
field
3\. good enough to handle any edge case, so that 'exceptions' to rules via
human override (and potential corruption) can be avoided
Implementing 1-3 means building a giant, inflexible bureaucracy, where
responsibility is widely distributed (so nobody can be corrupt) and an immense
book of rules and red tape (so it can handle every edge case).
Unfortunately Americans don't even really get fairness in practice.
The cost of following all the rules to the letter is _so incredibly expensive
and inefficient_ that obviously government agencies and their favored contract
bidders have back channels with one another so that they know exactly how to
structure their bids to win.
This is why conservatives sometimes have a point - many regulations not only
do _not_ do anything for the public good, but they actually help entrenched
interests.
~~~
js8
I suspect if you think that U.S. is too bureaucratic or unfair, you have never
been to other countries, really. There is only a handful of countries that can
be said to do better in one of those respects.
It seems to me that you claim that there is a trade-off between bureaucracy
and corruption. I disagree, to me it seems (although I cannot readily prove
it) that these are more often correlated than not.
~~~
smallnamespace
> U.S. is too bureaucratic or unfair
Not so much at the local level where a citizen deals with the bureaucracy, but
certainly at the level where _lots of money gets allocated and spent_ , such
as military procurement.
Just look at what SpaceX has managed to achieve largely _outside_ the world of
government cost-plus contracting at a small fraction of the budget of its
competitors.
Large parts of the military-industrial complex are jobs programs for
underserved portions of the country disguised as 'defense'. The inefficiency
is purposeful. It keeps mounds of people employed in states where there
otherwise wouldn't be much investment.
It requires an army of federal bureaucrats who spend years writing detailed
waterfall-style calls for bids, then an army of engineers at the large firms
that craft bids that are happen to be perfectly suited to the government's
needs. A clique of politicians from those states that will provide unwavering
support to make sure the jobs remain in their states
A small town worth of lawyers, accountants, inspectors, to make sure that the
entire process is 'fair' and 'transparent', and to produce thousands of pages
of documentation to a public that will never read (but is always available to
defend against charges of corruption).
This is still 'corruption', but legally, done at a massive, industrial scale
and with more steps.
But note that much of this is simply make-work, the equivalent of digging
holes and filling them again. The country would probably be safer and have a
better military if we were just honest with ourselves, made those industries
efficient, and then pay off the existing beneficiaries with direct transfers
and massive investments in health care and education.
------
belorn
The conclusion/title seems a bit obvious but also wrong at the same time.
In society when corruption is not punished and you combine that with full
transparency, what you get is open crime. Prohibition comes to mind, and I am
pretty sure no one has thought since then that prohibition would have worked
if we just shone enough sunlight on the lawbreakers. That said, more
transparency on the bribery and political corruption could have led to further
reduced trust in the police and political system until the breaking point
where civil war breaks out and the system gets replaced.
The researchers' experiment did not allow for total replacement of the system
and leaders. It can show the obvious that transparency can reduce trust when
it demonstrates corruption and a failure to punish it, but what happens next
is left unanswered.
------
meshr
Let me disagree. Corruption is corruption but not cooperation. The same as
cancer is a decease but not your new living form. The “bribery game” is bad
corruption model because corruption often occurs when you don’t have a choice
and you have to accept the corruption risk (which can cost you infinite
money). “The public pool is multiplied and divided equally among the players”
– they modeled Denmark but not Kenya to learn corruption, didn’t they?
“Corruption is largely inevitable” – they should learn about blockchain.
Lastly, I grown up in corrupt country (Russia) and I do not only think that
bribes are acceptable but also think that anyone who does this should donate
the same money to anticorruption agencies to treat this disease.
~~~
petre
Anticorruption agencies can essentialy be neutered by corrupt leadership.
They're subject to public funding. This is what happens as we speak in Eastern
Europe (notably Poland and Romania). Bad economic conditions, lack of
infrastructure and education only make it worse. This is why the Marshall Plan
did wonders to post-war GDR. And this is why halting EU funds to corrupt
Eastern Europe states will only make matters worse and reutrn these countries
90s cleptocracies.
------
throwaway122517
This is such bullshit. Corruption is not cooperation, it's more like a leech
on public resources.
I work with one of the big consultancy corps which got hired by one of the
indian state governments to help put in place the eGovernance initiative. Well
it turns out a lot of the civil servants involved have made it their goal to
make sure that the system is as incompetent as possible so that people are
forced to fall-back to the old systems where it'll be easier for them take
bribes.
It infuriates me to no end that progress (which is supported by the elected
government) in a country is being blocked by corrupt numbskulls who just wish
to make sure they can fill their pockets.
~~~
smallnamespace
I think you missed the entire point of the article
> What we call “corruption” is a smaller scale of cooperation undermining a
> larger-scale.
The vast majority of people don't work for some abstract social good. They
work for specific concrete goods: helping themselves, helping their loved
ones, helping their friends first and foremost.
People also believe in reciprocity and fairness. Sometimes that means that if
someone 'helps you out', you do the same back... even if that interaction
wasn't completely 100% sanctioned by the rest of society.
Corruption is not people ignoring their moral instincts and choosing to be
evil. It is them weighing _one_ set of moral instincts more strongly than
_another_ set of moral instincts (egalitarianism, not breaking rules).
The struggle is to _align the incentives properly_ so that 'helping yourself'
also means to help society. Unlike what many libertarians and pure free-
marketeers seem to believe, _this doesn 't just happen magically_, but
requires careful thought and planning.
------
scotty79
Corruption is not only present with relation to government officials.
It's not uncommon that small companies bribe employees of large companies so
they award them contracts for services.
Bribes are whenever person has decision power larger then income from making
correct decissions. Then he can be bribed to make incorrect ones but
beneficial to the one who bribes.
------
vemv
I think the article's point would be more convincing if they related that
study to real-world examples.
Personally I cannot imagine how corruption makes the world any better?
~~~
petre
It doesn't. I fell like this article is a summary to a game theory study.
~~~
Overtonwindow
I'm glad you say that because I had the same thought.
------
baxtr
I wonder for a long time now: what are _underlying_ factors for societies to
be less corrupt than others? How come that many western states fare better
than other countries?
It’s gotta be related to what’s mentioned in the article: people valuing a
larger-scale cooperation higher than a smaller-scale/immediate one. By why?
Ideas/hints anyone?
~~~
smallnamespace
Social trust and cohesion, a unified set of values that every member of
society agrees with.
> How come that many western states fare better than other countries
Because Western societies are by and large the product of 19th-century
nationalism. The ideal has always been: one nation, one people, one language,
one state. If you steal from the public, you are also stealing from members of
your own 'group'.
If you don't view other members of your country to be part if your own social
group, then of course it's much easier to be corrupt. You can see this
happening in India in particular -- everything is drawn along lines of
religion, ethnicity, and caste. The same thing is happening to the US.
------
alexryan
I dispute that corruption is inevitable and propose that its origins lie the
violation of a foundational moral at the heart of most religions:
In Christianity, this is the commandment: Thou shall not steal. In Buddhism,
the precept is more explicit: Do not take that which has not been freely
given.
If we live in a society where the majority of people are willing to violate
this rule by directing the state to steal from those who have more and
redistribute to those who have less, those who are being robbed will naturally
seek to find a means to defend themselves and their families from the
predation of the majority.
Being outnumbered, they do not have the votes to defend themselves at the
polls. Naturally, they will use the resources they do have. They can bribe
those who are tasked with committing the theft. This is entirely rational. No
matter how many prohibitions against corruption are erected, those who are
being preyed upon will seek to defend themselves and there will always be
people willing to help them, especially in exchange for cash.
The origin of corruption lies in the decision to violate the prohibition
against theft. The violation of the prohibition against theft creates a need
for bribery which would not otherwise exist. When a need is created, market
forces will move to ensure the need is met.
One way to create a society free of corruption is for the majority to
voluntarily commit to the prohibition against theft and to enforce the
prohibition against those who choose to violate it.
I would further propose that this could lead to a more general replacement of
zero sum games with positive sum games. This, in turn, would serve to further
accelerate the rate of innovation and thus speed the rate at which all,human
needs are met. When trust is strengthened, instead of seeking to meet our
needs at the expense of each other, we are naturally more willing to work
together to solve the larger problems which afflict us all.
~~~
Fnoord
> If we live in a society where the majority of people are willing to violate
> this rule by directing the state to steal from those who have more and
> redistribute to those who have less
I don't know about your ancestors, but we've lived the past millennia in
societies where the regents rule over the masses in various forms. Mostly,
those in power over those lacking that power, and who _want to keep it that
way_. Money grants power. Therefore, the rich are powerful. More powerful than
the poor. An example where you can see all of this in practice is Europe's
colonial history. Furthermore, wealth is currently vastly unfair distributed.
So what I quote from you, those tax laws you're likely referring to, don't
make up for that. They don't fix that, not in the slightest; it isn't their
goal either.
> Being outnumbered, they do not have the votes to defend themselves at the
> polls.
Outnumbered? Where exactly? On the contrary, right-wing Christians & liberals
(European definition, not United States definition) together apparently
defined as conservatives are steadily in control in the United States, United
Kingdom, The Netherlands, and Germany. Occasionally a party like the Democrats
(US), Labour (UK), PvdA (NL), or SPD (DE) get in control but they're quite on
the right end of the left-wing spectrum. The only exception is the far right-
wing nationalism which is on the rise. Examples are Trump (US), UKIP (UK), PVV
(NL), AfD (DE). You can draw many examples for other countries & parties, such
as France, Austria, Belgium, and many, many more.
If you speak about absolute numbers then see my comment about unfair
distribution of wealth.
My explanation of corruption is far more simple: it is white collar crime.
With crime in general, if people get away with being selfish (risk of getting
caught), get no or low punishment when caught (lack of repercussions), and
they're unhappy with their possessions & wage (equality, happiness) then it
will occur more often. White collar crime, or corruption are no exception to
this.
~~~
alexryan
"unfair distribution of wealth"? What is wealth? If you offer me something
that meets my needs, I will feel grateful and offer you something in exchange
for it. You have _earned_ that wealth. If you are really good at meeting the
needs of others, then you will be better at earning wealth. There is nothing
unfair about that. You do not deserve to be looted and I would defend you from
the looters.
It is true, that amongst the looters some are significantly more successful in
their looting than others. They attain power and use that power to further
their looting. There is no disputing that. I agree with you.
I am simply suggesting that generalized looting is not a solution which will
ever yield a corruption free system because looting itself is the problem.
There is plenty of evidence from the past hundred years to support that
conclusion.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Montenegro domains available for pre-order. - crzivn
http://domain.me/
======
crzivn
The landrush period has already passed it seems (doh) but there are still many
good names available for preregistration at the various accredited registrars.
I'm wondering what a good strategy might be to acquire a couple of names; do I
go to several registrars and register the same names to increase my chances?
Assuming a limited budget of course.
~~~
tlrobinson
How does one preregister a domain?
~~~
crzivn
Click on 'Register a .ME Domain' and choose a registrar. Then go to their site
and purchase a domain the normal way. You are not guaranteed to get it. Beware
though, some registrars may not refund you the money but instead allow you to
use it to buy other domains through them. So I revoke my earlier idea to try
and register the same names through multiple registrars.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
What developers should know about Unicode and character sets in 2013 - oyvindeh
http://the-pastry-box-project.net/oli-studholme/2013-october-8/
======
jrochkind1
> Never assume that the data you’re dealing with is UTF-8 — ASCII appears
> identical unless you view the hex to see if each character is taking one
> byte (ASCII) or three (UTF-8).
Um, what? This is just wrong. ascii-equivalent characters only take one byte
in UTF-8. Other characters may take two, or three, bytes.
If the author actually viewed text in ascii that, when in UTF-8, had three-
bytes per character.... I don't know what they were looking at, but it wasn't
UTF-8.
~~~
jrochkind1
Also, if the data is ASCII, and includes only legal 7-bit ASCII characters --
it is simultaneously ALSO valid and legal UTF-8. UTF-8 is a superset of ASCII.
I'm not sure this guy understands what he's talking about.
------
PeterisP
The concluding statement is a bit wierd: "ASCII appears identical unless you
view the hex to see if each character is taking one byte (ASCII) or three
(UTF-8)"
That isn't accurate, ASCII text would appear identical even if 'you view the
hex', because it is identical in UTF-8, that's the whole point of UTF-8. You'd
have to look at non-ASCII characters to see how they're encoded.
~~~
ygra
Notepad also doesn't save as ASCII by default but »ANSI«, the default legacy
codepage configured for your Windows installation.
~~~
apaprocki
Yes, the default Windows code page -- many pieces of software don't realize
that registry keys, file paths, etc. are all encoded in a different code page
if you are running, for example, Japanese Windows. (Also, it isn't _exactly_
Shift-JIS...)
------
VLM
Some background not covered in an otherwise pretty good article:
"In general, don’t save a Byte Order Mark (BOM) — it’s not needed for UTF-8,
and historically could cause problems."
This attitude comes from agony in processing from UTF-16 files. I interface
with a group that finds it hilarious to send me textual data in UTF-16 format
and the first hard won lesson you learn with UTF-16 is superficially the
default order should be correct 50% of the time if guessed randomly but
somehow its always wrong. So say you read one line of a UTF-16 text file and
process it accordingly after passing it thru a UTF-16 decoder. OK no problemo,
it had a BOM as the first glyph/byte/character/whatever and was converted and
interpreted correctly. Then you read another line, just like you'd read a line
process a line with ASCII or UTF-8. However they only give me a BOM at the
start of a file not a start of line, so invariably I translate that to garbage
because the bytes are swapped.
Now there are program methods to analyze the BOM and memorize it. Or read the
whole blasted multi-gig file into memory all at once and then de-UTF-16 it all
at once and then line by line the file. But fundamentally its a simple one
liner sysadmin type job to just shove the file thru a UTF-16 to UTF-8
translator program before it hits my processing system. I already had to
unencrypt it, and unzip it, and verify its hash so I know they sent the whole
file to me (and correctly), so adding a conversion stage is no big deal.
And this kind of UTF-16 experience is what leads people to do things like say
"oh, its unicode? That means I should squirt out BOMs as often as possible"
even though that technically only applies to unicode UTF-16 and is not helpful
for UTF-8.
------
danso
I hate to be "that SEO guy", but the OP needs to do some SEO. The submitted
title here is nowhere to be seen, which is too bad because it's a great title
and one that I would try to Google after forgetting to bookmark this page.
Luckily I do use Pinboard, which auto-grabs the title, if it existed. But this
is a helpful reference to many devs who don't read HN, and it's all but
obscured.
------
golergka
Oh, one more fun fact: some emoji characters occupy more than one _Unicode_
character, and can be encoded in different ways depending on the device that
uses them. (Before they were introduced into Unicode, they used character
codes designated for custom platform-specific stuff).
Debugging a text input field where user can enter emoji & RTL text is FUN.
~~~
twic
Are there really multi-character emoji? Or is it that they are single
characters on an astral plane which are encoded as two code units in UTF-16,
and therefore behave rather like two characters if your language uses 16-bit
chars?
~~~
golergka
Several characters, yes. And those characters, in turn, can be presented as
low and hi surrogate pairs in UTF-16.
[http://apps.timwhitlock.info/emoji/tables/unicode](http://apps.timwhitlock.info/emoji/tables/unicode)
Look for flags and numbers. Here's German flag in ASCII:
\xF0\x9F\x87\xA9\xF0\x9F\x87\xAA 8 bytes, 2 unicode symbols, 4 UTF-16 symbols.
~~~
tuukkah
Are these handled in the font as ligatures?
~~~
golergka
In what UI framework? When I worked on that, I decided to render them from a
different texture that doesn't depend on the current font, but scales to it's
size.
------
ygra
Site appears to be down; Google cache:
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:A8oNdl-...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:A8oNdl-
pbKIJ:the-pastry-box-project.net/oli-
studholme/2013-october-8/+&cd=1&hl=de&ct=clnk&gl=de)
------
ohwp
Note that some browser do use the <meta charset="UTF-8"> even if the content-
type header already sent the charset.
Another thing to add: always open a database connection in the charset of
choice. And if you are a PHP user (like I am): there are still functions that
don't support multibyte so be careful.
~~~
oneeyedpigeon
This is the biggest current driver towards me trying to muster the effort to
move off of PHP. Also, I had no end of trouble working with filenames that
contained UTF-8 characters using PHP, and had to give up in the end.
------
hcarvalhoalves
> While there are a ton of encodings you could use, for the web use UTF-8. You
> want to use UTF-8 for your entire stack. So how do we get that?
You should use your language's internal unicode representation, and decode
from/encode to UTF-8 on I/O.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
1D Cellular Automaton Being Fed as Input to a 2D Cellular Automaton - mrrrgn
https://mrrrgn.github.io/1d2d
======
ahuth
This is cool. However, the blue link text on the black background is
impossible to read.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Troll Hunters - danso
http://www.technologyreview.com/photoessay/533426/the-troll-hunters/
======
dang
[https://hn.algolia.com/?q=troll+hunters#!/story/forever/0/tr...](https://hn.algolia.com/?q=troll+hunters#!/story/forever/0/troll%20hunters)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
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