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KeePassXC 2.4.3 - louib
https://keepassxc.org/blog/2019-06-11-2.4.3-released/
======
Jonnax
I was only aware of Keepass itself. What are the differences between
KeypassXC, KeepassX and Keepass?
~~~
mrrsm
KeePass is the original project. It is an open source dotnet application. The
source code, as of the last time I checked, is released as a tar/zip with the
binaries only.
KeePassX is an open source c++ application. It was one of the cross platform
applications to manage KeePass databases. It has not been under very active
development for a while.
KeePassXC is a fork of KeePassX which is under active developement. They have
added many features and improvements and has stayed up to date with kdbx
updates.
~~~
packet_nerd
KeePassXC is fantastic, I especially like the good Yubikey integration. The
one small feature I miss from the original KeePass was the password templates.
I like all my passwords to follow a grouped pattern so its easier to type into
a phone or something while still being strong.
~~~
arunc
Keepass has templates for password generators. You can create custom templates
as well. I've been using it since 2008 without any issue.
~~~
Meph504
do you mean keepassXC? His statement was saying he missed this feature that is
in keepass.
------
jeltz
While I love KeePassXC this is just a minor bug fix release.
~~~
Lendal
It is, but the 2.4 release introduced integrated updates. I was still on 2.3
and wasn't aware of this, or that my KeePass was out of date until I saw this
this morning. So I am thankful for the heads up. :)
------
theandrewbailey
I switched to KeePassXC a few months ago (from KeePass). It was a no brainer
when I noticed that I didn't need plugins anymore, since SSH keys, TOTP, and
browser integration came out of the box.
------
ComodoHacker
KeePassXC still lacks in-memory protection, so I stay with KeePass, with all
its .NET troubles.
~~~
antongribok
I thought that it did now. For example this PR:
[https://github.com/keepassxreboot/keepassxc/pull/3020](https://github.com/keepassxreboot/keepassxc/pull/3020)
Edit: Also, see this PR:
[https://github.com/keepassxreboot/keepassxc/pull/371](https://github.com/keepassxreboot/keepassxc/pull/371)
~~~
masklinn
[https://github.com/keepassxreboot/keepassxc/issues/2718#issu...](https://github.com/keepassxreboot/keepassxc/issues/2718#issuecomment-466160954)
I'd guess it's this one:
> KeePassXC also cannot prevent data extraction from a hibernation file which
> stores your computer's memory to disk when going to sleep.
KeePass uses DPAPI so password-storage memory is not written to swap (and I
guess hibernatefile) in cleartext. Note that this doesn't protect against
reading the memory directly[0].
Though (on unices) it doesn't mention mlock(2) either.
[0] [https://www.securityevaluators.com/casestudies/password-
mana...](https://www.securityevaluators.com/casestudies/password-manager-
hacking/) subsection "Exposure of Cleartext Entries in Memory" of the Keepass
section
------
giancarlostoro
Been using BitWarden since I stopped using LastPass (lost my 10 year old
vault) anybody know of any good reviews of all the different types of password
managers that go into the security flaws / considerations?
~~~
kekebo
There are a couple of recent posts / discussions on HN regarding the topic:
[https://hn.algolia.com/?query=password%20manager&sort=byPopu...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=password%20manager&sort=byPopularity&prefix=false&page=0&dateRange=pastYear&type=story)
------
amaccuish
Anyone got any good recommendations for an iOS client. I've just moved from
android and there's several but not sure which to pick, which are opensource
etc.
~~~
varjolintu
Strongbox is the best one right now. It supports KDBX 4, while older
minikeepass doesn't.
~~~
amaccuish
Ye I'm using that right now but 25.99 GBP is a lot for me as a student. I know
software development isn't free, don't mind paying say 10, but 25.99 is quite
a stretch for me :(
------
koolba
Anybody know if they've fixed (or plan to fix) the sort by latest modification
date of all records? That was the one missing feature from going from KeePassX
to KeePassXC.
~~~
noisy_boy
I am able to sort by latest modification date (not sure if thats what you
meant).
------
mieses
I switched from KeePass to KeeWeb because of the user interface and Google
Drive integration. KeeWeb is an open source cross platform Electron app.
------
alexnewman
Why should I switch from pass (git+pgp) to keepassx ?What's one feature in
keepassx nto in pass/passx
~~~
ufo
For me the biggest difference is that you have a single encrypted database
file, and that no metadata is stored unencrypted. By default, pass uses file
names as keys, so website names are stored in the clear. (To fix this on
pass.you need to use pass-tomb, which I found very clunky, and could never get
working quite right)
Another thing I like about keepassxc is that it has lots of features. It comes
with a flexible passwird generator, has a friendly GUI UI, can be integrated
to the web browser using an extension, and there are compatible android apps
you can use on your phone.
~~~
benoliver999
I agree about the metadata. I like pass but it's a flaw for sure. At least
it's upfront about it.
Most other issues are covered with pass, like a good android app etc etc.
~~~
elagost
You could always use pass-tomb, which is an extension that stores the entire
tree encrypted.
[https://github.com/roddhjav/pass-
tomb#readme](https://github.com/roddhjav/pass-tomb#readme)
~~~
ufo
As I mentioned further up, pass tomb needs to be installed separately (which
is not trivial depending on your distro) and is clunky to use. AFAIK it also
cannot be used to encrypt the password database on Android.
It also really bugs me that an important security feature like this one is not
the default.
~~~
alexnewman
tomb seems fine on ios and android. I don't use it though
------
diehunde
Is it possible to sync your passwords with other devices?
~~~
ativzzz
Yes, you can store the database file in a shared drive (not sure that's proper
security though)
~~~
ufo
That is secure as long as you have a good master password
~~~
packet_nerd
KeePassXC works really well with Yubikey too. I use a Yubikey and a short pin
for the password.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
An IRC chat about XP SP2 support in Firefox - yuhong
http://krijnhoetmer.nl/irc-logs/developers/20140421#l-1393
======
yuhong
BTW, XP SP3 requiring Genuine Advantage is a myth.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Airships for the 21st Century - mhb
http://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/aviation/airships-for-the-21st-century/?utm_source=techalert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=100710
======
bediger
Airships: like flying cars, jetpacks and hydrogen fusion reactors, they're
always Just 10 Years Away! And They're So Gee Whiz I can hardly Stand It.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A presentation about optical networking [pdf] - aflam
https://www.nanog.org/sites/default/files/Steenbergen.Everything_You_Need.pdf
======
crispyambulance
Having worked in that industry 8 years, I can say that's an excellent
practical introduction of key topics of the physical layer in optical
transport.
Most reading material on optical transport is either elementary on one extreme
or jargon-y material aimed at pro insiders.
It is refreshing to see a survey that covers so much in a clear, concise way.
~~~
aflam
Our company designs optical transport systems; we have a hard time en-boarding
new software people because this gap in training material... I'm currently
writing a blog post on optical modulation, it's difficult to find an
approachable language.
------
wrigby
This is an excellent overview of optical networking - one that I wish I had
found years ago. As transceivers are getting cheaper, more and more industries
are finding use for optical systems. Having a basic understanding of how these
systems work can open up a number of creative solutions to problems that were
very difficult to solve before.
The amount of throughput that fiber achieves over huge distances is
incredible. It's amazing how easy it is to move 100+ gbps between two cities
over a single 2-core fiber run.
------
andreasley
Only mentioned briefly in this document, but may be of interest to some:
10GBASE-LR optics work with old multimode fiber [1].
Replacing the 10GBASE-SR optics with 10GBASE-LR fixed a flapping OM2 link for
me (using mode conditioning patch cables).
[1]
[https://www.flexoptix.net/en/blog/2011/09/getting-a-10g-stab...](https://www.flexoptix.net/en/blog/2011/09/getting-a-10g-stable-
ethernet-link-even-when-using-old-multimode-fiber-om2-om1/)
------
cyberjunkie
I like Slide 80.
On the dangers of looking at a light emitting from a fiber -
• Class 4 – Burns, melts, destroys Alderaan, etc
------
computator
It looks like there is an updated (2016) PDF and video presentation by the
same author here:
[https://www.nanog.org/sites/default/files/Steenbergen.Everyt...](https://www.nanog.org/sites/default/files/Steenbergen.Everything_You_Need.pdf)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KFpXuHqHQg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KFpXuHqHQg)
Can someone update the main article link (which currently shows a 2010
version)?
~~~
computator
Also, there are bunch of other interesting sounding tutorials on the North
American Network Operators' Group (NANOG) website:
[https://www.nanog.org/resources/tutorials](https://www.nanog.org/resources/tutorials)
~~~
ansgri
Thanks, went off to study Traceroute Tutorial
([https://www.nanog.org/sites/default/files/traceroute-2014.pd...](https://www.nanog.org/sites/default/files/traceroute-2014.pdf))
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
NYC real estate prices visualized - JumpCrisscross
https://medium.com/re-form/nycs-housing-cost-myth-9dce6052c139
======
rmxt
Pretty cool visualizations, but I would take the accuracy of the data with a
grain of salt until I saw the source data. There's no universal map of
neighborhoods in NYC, and I think that every New Yorker has a different sense
of where certain neighborhoods start and begin. I'd also question incentive
alignment regarding the real estate sites they used to cull the data. If they
are using the real estate site's self-reported neighborhoods for these
listings, I think that everyone can relate to the situation whereby a real
estate agent tells you that a certain place is a "steal for the Upper East
Side/(generic, more upscale neighborhood)," but when you go out to the
apartment it's actually a few blocks into Harlem/(not so upscale area). Such
vagaries in the listings would distort the prices per square foot for these
boundary areas, but leave the solidly expensive ones alone, which is perhaps
why areas like Central Park South (well defined geographically, and buffered
by upscale areas) stand out.
~~~
untog
I would imagine that the listings have lat/lngs (or at least geocodable street
addresses), and the author has assigned them a neighbourhood by seeing which
polygon the point intersects with. So real estate agents lying about what
neighbourhood a property is in wouldn't matter.
~~~
asciimo
Trulia uses lat/lon to determine a property's neighborhood. While neighborhood
borders are often subjective, they do the best they can to meet the
expectations of public consensus.
------
dsacco
I've lived in NY all my life, in both Manhattan and the Bronx. I also used to
go to Staten Island weekly. Here are some notes:
* The Bronx:
I lived in Woodlawn. I think it's very interesting that it's one of the most
affordable areas to live considering it was recently reported as one of the
safest places in the Bronx.
It also has fair demographic diversity, is extremely close to public
transportation (buses run through the area and it's all within walking
distance of Metro-North, 30 minutes from Grand Central). I lived in a three
bedroom apartment with all utilities for $2400 a month.
Really, great place to live. If anyone is considering a place in NYC with easy
access to Manhattan that is safe and affordable, look into Woodlawn.
To contrast this, Riverdale is also a nice area, but it's technically not as
safe (parts of it are wealthy, but most of it is not). The safest areas are
the colleges (Manhattan College and CUNY Lehman are both in Riverdale and
their campuses are the hubs of that area). Transportation access is about the
same.
* Staten Island
Amazingly cheap, but at the same time, you can't get to any of the wealthy
areas of the island without going through a slum. It's literally a
stereotypical case of the wealthy living on the top of a giant hill
overlooking the working class/poor who live at the bottom/outskirts of the
island.
That said, the neighborhoods at the top of Staten Island, the most expensive
area, were filled with mansions and were absolutely magnificent to drive
through. Naturally, this was close to the large liberal arts college there,
Wagner.
~~~
cauterized
Most NYers would not consider "buses and metro north" to be decent transit
options. In that case you might as well just move to westchester proper.
~~~
rmxt
From Woodlawn you can take buses to 3 different subway trunk lines, with
access to both the East Side and West Side, in addition to an Express Bus to
Midtown East and the Metro-North to Grand Central. Those are pretty decent
transit options. Unless you're fortunate enough to live in the closer-in areas
of Queens or Brooklyn, or Manhattan itself, those also the only options for
"most NYers". Aside from 24-hour subway access to the city, living within the
city limits, as opposed to Westchester, also gives you the perk of being able
to hail a yellow cab and get home for a reasonable rate instead of doing the
livery cab thing.
See here for a map showing that ~20% (eyeballed) of Brooklyn by area is likely
in the same boat as the people in Woodlawn.
[http://iquantny.tumblr.com/post/100729370274/found-the-
brook...](http://iquantny.tumblr.com/post/100729370274/found-the-brooklyn-
residence-thats-farthest-from)
That being said, I'm not quite sure that I believe that their definition of
Woodlawn is completely accurate, nor do I believe that it's the cheapest
neighborhood in the Bronx. If the 3D-bars on the map are to be believed, it
looks like Woodlawn (the area immediately to the east of the green park (Van
Cortlandt) in the north center of the Bronx) and Wakefield (east of Woodlawn)
are lumped together. Adding to personal experience, this map [1] suggests a
pretty big wealth disparity between Woodlawn and Wakefield, with a difference
of ~$20k in median household income. The border between the two is generally
taken to be the Bronx River Parkway/Metro-North, and the 3D-map bars in the
submission seem to gloss over that border. I would venture to say that
Wakefield has a bit lower rent than Woodlawn, and that Wakefield is perhaps
the cheapest neighborhood in the Bronx, but not Woodlawn.
[1] [http://project.wnyc.org/median-income-
nation/?#13/40.8894/-7...](http://project.wnyc.org/median-income-
nation/?#13/40.8894/-73.8693)
------
Strilanc
A top-down 2d heat map would be a lot easier to read.
~~~
moogleii
Yeah, if you're going to do a 3d bar chart over a map, then I'd want to be
able to zoom and rotate.
------
MicroBerto
Four different shades of orange makes for a difficult to read graph...
~~~
mahyarm
Highlight on mouseover would also help in this case.
------
cvalhouli
Thank you for the kind words and thoughtful replies. This project was amazing
fun to do with my friend and collaborator, Cat Callaghan.
We agree with the feedback - and we hope to develop some more robust
visualizations soon. These are ideas that we're working on, and this was a
proof of concept in order to explore some directions and possibilities. That
said, we worked with third-party data from the leading real estate sites and
averaged those in order to account for any outliers. This is an early
iteration, and we hope to get more granular soon.
All best, Constantine @c_valhouli
~~~
billions
Would love a tool that constructs this for other US cities
------
justboxing
I love how the two of you came up with the bar chart overlaid upon a city map
to show the relative price per square foot. It's so intuitive to read and
understand, and personally, I too believe this makes the most sense, rather
than heat maps.
Because, using a data map like this, prospective home buyers can look at
1) their budget -- how much total $$ they can spend, including downpayment,
and then
2) their minimum sq foot requirements (ex: might have kids and need atleast
1,000 sq ft) and
using 1) divided by 2) arrive at the Price / Sq Foot that they can afford.
Then they can use your map, and immediately identify neighborhood within the
neighborhood that are likely to have a place within their budget and sq foot
requirements.
Would be a great tool for potential home buyers. You could try this as a
service in 1 city, and then turn it into a startup that services metros around
the world -- Hong Kong, Sydney, Bombay etc - for a small 1-time or recurring
fee. You could also sell the service to real estate agencies, who use it to
narrow down neighborhoods for their clients based on the 2 criteria mentioned
above.
You get the idea.
p.s. Please make one for San Francisco if you can :) :)
------
cauterized
Given the percentage of NYers who rent, I think a similar map for rental
prices would be super interesting -- even more interesting would be to see any
areas whose rental and purchase prices don't line up.
------
philrapo
Love the visualizations. It would be great if we could look more closely /
zoom in, rather than only seeing the overview.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Prepaid carrier Cricket is getting a pricier iPhone - fpgeek
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57444300-94/apple-iphone-enters-prepaid-world-with-cricket/
======
andyakb
this (and the article) is a loaded title. the 16gb iphone is a full $150
cheaper than the no contract version at ATT. in an absolute sense it is still
an expensive phone, but it is clearly not "pricier" than the comparable phone
at major carriers
------
jaz
I find it interesting to see the major carriers jumping into the prepaid game.
For me, a person who doesn't need "unlimited" data/voice or cell coverage
everywhere I go, prepaid plans are a great value.
Prepaid is even more attractive now with most of the carriers offering
smartphones (and pretty good ones, at that).
------
joezydeco
Pricier?
Let's say I get the $399 iPhone 4 and pay $55/month for two years. Forgetting
taxes, that's $71.63 a month. Three years? $66.08 a month.
What's the cheapest monthly plan for a subsidized iPhone from the major US
carriers?
~~~
silverlake
A comparable plan from ATT is $200 for 4S, $70(call) + $30(data) + $20(text) =
$120/month. That's a total of $3080 for 2 years. I can get by on $70/month
plan (450min, no txt), which is $1880 for 2 years.
The Leap is $500 for 4S, $55/month. Total = $1820 for 2 yrs. It's a much
better deal. A quick search says Leap has slowest data speeds of all carriers.
Is it still worth it?
~~~
drbawb
Cricket is based on the Sprint PCS network IIRC; their data speeds aren't
great (here in the Milwaukee area) but it is unlimited and it gets the job
done.
I do get to some places where Siri won't work, or works slowly - but my data
speed has never been so slow that the AGPS doesn't work properly (which is all
I _really_ care about because I get lost easily).
I certainly wish I could stream videos faster but the phone does what I
absolutely need so I can't complain.
------
runjake
It depends on your perspective.
Pricier than a postpaid plan? Sure.
But on the other hand the 16GB iPhone 4S will cost $499.99 from Cricket _,
which is $150 below what Apple sells this model for unsubsidized.
_ Good luck ever reappropriating this phone for use on any other carrier.
~~~
ConstantineXVI
I doubt Cricket's going to unlock these, but their 4S is likely just as
vulnerable to the unofficial SIM unlocks already in use. Even if Cricket makes
you buy a month of service upfront, this could be a rather attractive option
for thrifty AT&T users that don't want to be stuck in another contract.
(And that's assuming Cricket even bothers to SIM-lock it. I doubt Cricket has
any GSM roaming deals like VZW and Sprint do; leaving it unlocked would make
sure it's still usable overseas)
~~~
shawndellysse
Cricket is CDMA.
~~~
ConstantineXVI
The 4S packs both GSM and CDMA modems, however.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Anyone use a stand up desk? - croucho
I’ve been struggling with weight loss for years. I find that every time I try and start a regime I get really hardcore for 2 weeks or a month and then fall off the wagon. I either get sick or busy working crunch and don’t have the discipline to stay at it.<p>I’ve been tinkering with the idea of using a stand up desk at work but was wondering if the muscle pain and altered workspace would be too much.<p>Any advice?
======
beantownballa
Hey, it might be a bit too much. What you can do to get yourself started is to
perform one specific activity standing up.
>>I used to check all my e-mail standing up and then sit down to do other
stuff. >>Or if there was a site I had a tendency to waste a lot of time (like
a humour or gossip site), I would stand up while surfing that site to prevent
3 hours from disappearing into the Interwebs.
A long time ago, when I was an investment banker, a lot of the senior traders
would sit on those rubber balls and use them in place of chairs. Really good
for your abs, but personally I found them a bit pretentious -- like they were
trying too hard to be cool and flashy.
Let us know what you try and good luck, croucho.
~~~
croucho
Many thanks, I will :)
------
Vyk
I've been thinking about trying this too. I'm about to move, so maybe in the
new place... Do you have a home office where you could do a test? If you watch
any TV shows maybe start standing through some of them.
Your shoes could be a big factor. Heel elevation de-stablizes posture, so you
may want to try barefoot/Vibram FiveFingers or something.
------
croucho
Yeah I planned on trying barefoot. I talked with our IT guy today and we're
gonna rig a little something just to try the experiment for 3 weeks. If after
that I don't keel over, then I suppose we can offer the option to others (and
possibly look into some sweet desks that can raise up).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Is there an open-source clone of Metafilter.com? - xoxa
Basically, a site that allows multiple authors to log in and make posts, and other users to comment on the same.<p>No karma system necessary.<p>I am especially interested in Django-based projects that come close to Metafilter.com
======
arkitaip
Not really. There have been a couple of clones but non are active anymore. You
could, however, Use Wordpress+Buddypress so create a very powerful community
oriented site.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Dizzying Ride May Be Ending for Startups - thatcherclay
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/11/business/dealbook/dizzying-ride-may-be-ending-for-start-ups.html
======
hvs
For those of you too young to remember, there were numerous articles written
about the bubble bursting before it finally did in 2000-01. It wasn't a
surprise that it did, just that no one knew precisely _when_ it would.
My point is that arguing that people have said this bubble was about to burst
and that it hasn't yet isn't an argument that it won't.
~~~
creamyhorror
"Unicorns Dropping Like Flies: First Dropbox; Then Square; Now Fidelity Cuts
Snapchat Valuation By 25%" \- Zero Hedge
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10546947](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10546947)
* Dropbox was warned by its investment bankers that it would be unable to go public at a valuation anywhere near close to what its last private round (which had most recently risen to $10 billion from $4 billion a year ago) valued it at.
* Square, last private valuation of $6bn, $3.9bn at IPO
* Snapchat, written down 25% by Fidelity ($31 -> $23)
* Combined "valuation" of all US unicorns is $486 billion. Their combined profit? $0.
The cresting wave of immense private valuations is crashing onto the rocky
shore of public markets. Funding is going to shrivel.
~~~
austenallred
There's a difference between a correction in the market (or more specifically
a correction with regard to a few companies) and a bursting of a bubble.
Tech investment volume today is much, much smaller than it was in the 2000s,
despite the fact that the number of people on the Internet has grown by two
orders of magnitude. Actually the funding per person online has remained
almost on a flat line from 2002 to today.
There's some frothiness in the late-stage market still, and but those are the
companies that are being corrected. That's largely happening because none of
them are IPOing, and with interest rates being practically 0 investors have to
put their money _somewhere_. So they build some losses into a late-stage
portfolio theory instead of distributing it in the S&P 500.
Some of those companies will end up with lower valuations, but that's always
happened, and that's built into the IPO model. In other words, even if several
late-stage "unicorns" completely failed (and some undoubtedly will), that
doesn't mean that the entirety of tech will be viewed as worthless. The only
way it is worthless is if the companies won't eventually generate profits.
Last time that was largely the case because the unit economics were bad. This
time we see real revenue coming through and the unit economics are there for
most companies.
I remember all of HN being _positive_ that Instagram selling for $1B to
Facebook was the height of the bubble. But now Instagram is returning >$500m
in revenue to Facebook per year. Turns out it was a very, very savvy purchase.
All of the current tech "unicorns" _combined_ are worth 2/3 of Microsoft. You
can make the argument that owning _all_ of Twitter, Amazon, Square, Snapchat,
Dropbox, Uber, Zenefits, etc. would be worse than owning 2/3 of Microsoft, but
I could definitely see the other side of that argument, as well.
~~~
LoSboccacc
Much investment is in private equity anyway, so the market should be fine and
dandy
------
dgreensp
Sam Altman has already explained why late-stage private valuations -- but not
earlier-stage or public valuations -- are bubble-like right now:
>To summarize: there does not appear to be a tech bubble in the public
markets. There does not appear to be a bubble in early or mid stages of the
private markets. There does appear to be a bubble in the late-stage private
companies, but that’s because people are misunderstanding these financial
instruments as equity. If you reclassify those rounds as debt, then it gets
hard to say where exactly the bubble is.
>At some point, I expect LPs to realize that buying debt in late-stage tech
companies is not what they signed up for, and then prices in late-stage
private companies will appear to correct. And I think that the entire public
market is likely to go down—perhaps substantially—when interest rates
materially move up, though that may be a long time away. But I expect public
tech companies are likely to trade with the rest of the market and not
underperform.
[http://blog.samaltman.com/the-tech-bust-
of-2015](http://blog.samaltman.com/the-tech-bust-of-2015)
~~~
paragpatelone
There is a bubble at the seed stage. There are tons of people (accredited
investors) investing that stage and tons of incubators/accelerators to help
introduce those startups to those investors.
Platforms like Angel list are helping fund allot more companies at the seed
stage by having syndicates.
Now even non-accredited investors will be able to invest in startups[1]. So
the seed stage is bubbling up.
[http://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2015/10/30/sec-...](http://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2015/10/30/sec-
opens-door-to-startup-investing-for-all)
~~~
exelius
It's not really possible for there to be a bubble at the seed stage --
valuations at that stage are "paper" values because there's zero liquidity.
Companies also tend not to stay in the seed stage for long enough to cause an
asset bubble; they are either able to acquire follow-on funding (at which
point they're no longer a "seed" company) or they aren't and they disappear.
The seed stage is increasingly crowded, but IMO that's a good thing.
~~~
klochner
Interesting point re: not staying at the seed stage long enough for a bubble.
What we're seeing instead is multiple preferences layered on in subsequent
rounds.
So seed/A investors think they're doing well when the company raises B,C,D,E
rounds at higher valuations, when in fact many will be washed out when the
company eventually IPOs or is acquired at a lower valuation than their last
venture round.
~~~
exelius
That's what I would expect -- the more crowded the market, the less leverage
you have, and the lower your eventual payoff.
There are lots of people willing to provide companies with small amounts of
money in exchange for a gigantic potential payoff. As payoffs decrease,
lenders will exit the market.
------
jgrahamc
It's time for a new term: a "Pegasus" (a different kind of mythical horse than
a unicorn):
[https://twitter.com/jgrahamc/status/658702918200250368](https://twitter.com/jgrahamc/status/658702918200250368)
Pegasus (n)
1. Mythical winged horse;
2. Silicon Valley 'unicorn' with high gross margin.
i.e. one that might actually take off.
~~~
iamsohungry
God, "unicorn" is already stupid enough.
~~~
VLM
On the bright side, if you found that annoying, I've heard rhinos as being
unicorns that became hopelessly obese and are dying out, with the fairly
obvious business analogies. They're not dead unicorns because they're not
dead. They're on the way though! And until the seemingly inevitable bankruptcy
or shutdown, they're living rhinos. They'll be dead unicorns unless something
turns around, sure. Or I guess you could call them dead rhinos?
A quick internet search of rhino and bubble and stuff like that has found
nothing, I've only heard this verbally a couple times.
"Do you have a contingency plan for rolling your your (whatever) off
(whatever)? They're a rhino, you know about that, right?"
~~~
giaour
That analogy would make sense, except for the fact that rhinos are real and
very intimidating. Shouldn't a rhino be a unicorn that has survived an IPO or
something?
------
chollida1
Fidelity has just marked its shares down from $30.72 at the end of June to
$22.91 for the end of September.
To be fair, I think these markdowns have more to do with who is investing than
the companies themselves.
VC's do portfolio valuations much less frequently than mutual funds, PE firms
or hedge funds do and they give less negative scrutiny to the valuation than
the aforementioned firms do, the reason for this....
... is VC firm's typically don't allow redemptions on monthly intervals which
means they can keep an unrealistic valuation for longer where as Hedge funds,
PE firms and mutual funds, who typically allow monthly redemption, need to
properly value each holding at the end of each month.
I mean if you are a VC, do you care if you don't write down Snap-chat at the
end of the month, you really have no incentive to do so?
You get paid on a quarterly basis on the size of your portfolio, why mark it
down until you are absolutely certain that it needs to be marked down, this
point is usually not until you actually go to sell, be it IPO or private
equity deal.
However, if you are a hedge fund and someone wants to redeem their assets, you
want to make sure you value Snap-chat for what you can realistically sell if
for as that's essentially what you are doing when you allow someone to redeem
their funds from your firm.
With people pulling money out of hedge funds, and PE firms on a monthly basis,
this makes you have to pay attention to valuations on a much more granular
time frame than historically VC firms would have.
~~~
surfearth
No PE firms allow quarterly redemptions in traditional fund vehicles. PE firms
and VC firms use precisely the same legal structure and are both generally
required to value assets and report to partners on a quarterly basis. Some PE
larger PE firms will have quarterly/semi-annual audits, but most PE and VC
firms audit their financial statements (and thus valuations) annually.
Also note that most funds calculate fees on committed capital during the
investment period (typically five years) and subsequently on invested cost,
not fair value, afterword. Therefore the portfolio valuation has little to do
with management fee calculations.
------
rdlecler1
If Fidelity just did a 25% write down on SnapChat on the most senior portion
of a $600m investment round, and assuming that Fidelity has at least a 1x
liquidity pref/ratchet, then SnapChat is now valued at $462M floor, not $15
billion.
~~~
vincent_s
What about other investors who also have liquidity preferences?
~~~
ericd
The latest investment/liquidity pref is usually satisfied first.
------
alp1970
I always get scared when "delivery" based start-ups get hot. Reminds me of
Kozmo, UrbanFetch, WebVan, Askville...
~~~
ChicagoBoy11
Everyone in this thread should check out E-Dreams.
------
damon_c
If I may speculate, it seems like the end result of this situation will be
that in the future, startups will avoid taking money from mutual funds or
anyone else who must attempt to accurately value their holdings publicly,
whenever possible.
~~~
untog
If they have a choice. The situation where startups are spoiled for choice in
investors will not continue forever.
Frankly, the fact that public valuations (of any kind - see Square's IPO
level) are lower than private ones should be ringing alarm bells all over, not
be dismissed.
------
code4tee
The only people that don't see a bubble at the moment are the people inside
the bubbles.
If your business has real revenue and real profit then there isn't much to
worry about. If your business is valued on "hype" and theoretical valuations
then you have reason to worry.
~~~
nilkn
I'm so glad I work at a company right now that has never taken funding and is
legitimately profitable. Hiring and expansion have been hard when you don't
have access to far more cash than you could ever generate yourself, but it's
hard to put a number on knowing that you won't be affected much by an industry
downturn (doubly so since none of our customers are software companies).
~~~
icelancer
Yup. The only debt we have is a rotating LOC for physical inventory (we ship
hard goods) of which we have 2x in cash on hand, but obviously debt service of
inventory is more efficient than cash service of inventory.
I read HN and other sites and I am just in shock of the fact people are
creating... basically nothing sustainable and hoping it will somehow magically
become sustainable? It boggles the mind.
------
koblas
What we're seeing an issue with valuations and investments. TechCrunch just
did a really good piece on how a raise of $150M gave a $6B valuation with a
preference that guaranteed a 20% return on investment to the Series E
investors (at the cost to the early investors).
[http://techcrunch.com/2015/11/10/squares-s-1-of-ratchets-
and...](http://techcrunch.com/2015/11/10/squares-s-1-of-ratchets-and-unicorn-
valuations/)
So what we're seeing is that people are starting to re-think valuations in the
face of these preferences.
------
debacle
While things might wind up bad for the next round of unicorns, things are
likely to be better for startups overall once the trend of "To the moon!" dies
down just slightly. Hopefully we can return to a world where an acquisition
isn't seen as a failure.
------
tmaly
I was doing a paid internship at Intel in 1999 out in Portland, OR. I remember
seeing huge numbers of new hires every week. I met people out in Portland that
were hired to due VB programming with no programming experience. A few months
later, the music stopped and there were too few chairs to go around. I always
think of the Austrian business cycle when I see such huge upswings in things
~~~
bredren
I was also at Intel in Hillsboro on a paid internship at this time. I recall a
ton of projects across so many areas, with loose management. There was a guy
in a QA group I worked in who just day traded.
~~~
tmaly
I was in the Product Development Group working on the Itanium chipset at the
time. I remember an older Engineer in the group that had written his own stock
trading book. He only lost a dollar per share when the market went from 72 to
18
------
axis967
I think there are far too many startups that focus solely on growth/reach.
Build a sustainable business: revenue and more importantly gross margin are
the key metrics that need to be thought about. While vcs want fast growth, it
is often not in the best interest of common stockholders to jet ahead at the
paces many of these companies go.
------
bsg75
It would be a nice change if focus was on companies that produced a product or
service with long term revenue prospects, instead of short term wildly high
margins.
The current state of highly educated people looking for get rich quick schemes
(unicorns) is tiresome.
------
andy_ppp
I actually think the opposite, that we are in a period of history where _all_
the software (and arguably businesses) people use day to day go from being
crap to fantastic.
A gold rush for good startups I think.
The returns from sitting the right group of people in a room and getting them
to make doing something a few orders of magnitude better than it was before is
always going to be fantastic.
~~~
icelancer
I think your theory and the one outlined in the original post are not mutually
exclusive. There will be a culling of the chaff.
------
vox_mollis
Meta: why on earth is this submission being flagged off the frontpage ?
------
superuser2
It's an interesting time to be a year from graduation in CS, that's for sure.
Maybe the folks beating the STEM drum will finally shut up when CS sees
employment comparable to underwater basket weaving.
~~~
rchaud
That assumes that CS grads will look for work exclusively in a technology
role. The skill set of a CS major is applicable to roles well outside
programming. Management consulting and financial services for instance recruit
CS and EE grads by the bucket load.
CS employment in startups may decrease in the event of a startup bust, but
mature companies like Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, IBM etc. aren't likely
to drastically change their hiring patterns unless their own business have
been materially impacted.
~~~
superuser2
Oh sure, people will still hire programmers, but I expect conditions to worsen
dramatically. The rockstar making a $100k+ salary in a $1000 chair on top-of-
the-line hardware with free meals at the office experience is very much an
artifact of the startup bubble. Mature tech companies offer that to stay
competitive, but I expect we'll see a return to salaries closer to $50k in
grey cubicle Pointy Haired Boss environments when the bubble bursts.
------
brianmcconnell
Whenever I hear the term "unicorn", I think of the Squatty Potty TV ads
(they're funny!)
------
ForHackernews
Oh thank god, finally. Maybe I'll be able to afford an apartment again.
------
alphonse23
My thoughts right now are: how will this reflect on Atlassian IPO?
------
thinkt4nk
> Dizzying Ride May Be Ending for Startups
> may tap the breaks
------
mironathetin
Next bubble burst is close.
~~~
idibidiart
the sky is falling...
~~~
mironathetin
... on our heads :o))
~~~
mironathetin
Can't help a smile: Our pun is downvoted to be the least helpful on this page.
Now look at the top rated contribution. A few more words but essentially the
same meaning.
Its just that the original nytimes article is so ridiculous, that it deserves
nothing but making fun of it.
~~~
idibidiart
Sarcasm and subtle humor has always been problematic on the internets. It's
just that on Hacker News you'd expect that most people are more clued and
would appreciate the playful/funny variety, but noooo they tend to take it
quite literally.
------
kshatrea
Looking at India, this can be conflated with a global level ending of the
dizzying ride. [0] gives a good overview of this. In short, the free lunch is
now over and people are asking for results. I am sure it has a lot to do also
at an economic level with the Fed now talking of tightening- that means
interest rates are headed higher and there is more aversion to risk. I am not
an economist, so others might have different opinions.
[0] [https://goo.gl/9MfjBa](https://goo.gl/9MfjBa)
------
Alex3917
I think a lot of companies who raised seed funding prior to 2010 or 2012 did
so at excessively low valuations, and then tried to make up for it later by
raising at excessively high valuations once they hit. The 'bubble' over the
last couple years that's driven up pre-seed valuations should actually make
the current crop of startups more stable over the long run.
Also, the decaying state of physical infrastructure in the U.S. is only going
to drive more people to spend time on the Internet, where network effects are
only getting exponentially more powerful as new networks are getting built on
top of existing networks. These days a social startup that's "only growing as
fast as Facebook" might not even be able to successfully raise a seed round.
There might be a cyclical downturn, but none of the underlying trends in
society point to tech being a bad investment over the longterm.
~~~
idlewords
The fact that our roads are crappy is going to turn people into shut-ins?
~~~
Alex3917
Basically, yes. I think better examples though would be:
\- A rapid increase in states requiring HS students to complete some of their
classes online in order to save money.
\- Folks being unable to get treatment for all sorts of health conditions and
mental illnesses.
\- The prison system not providing adequate job training or rehabilitation.
\- The costs of college education increasing while the quality of that
education decreases.
Are Internet startups the best way to solve all of these problems? Probably
not. But in each of these cases startups are going to rake in the bulk of the
money, if only because they're going to be the only game in town.
Thanks to complete gridlock at the federal level and general incompetence at
the state level, sandhill road has effectively become the new congress. And
like it or not, this probably isn't going to change anytime soon.
And as for your example with the roads, to quote @noUpside on Twitter the
other day, "SF specializes in creating companies that are essentially 'New
York as a Service' bc its infrastructure sucks."
([https://twitter.com/noUpside/status/659094021151789056](https://twitter.com/noUpside/status/659094021151789056))
~~~
VLM
"SF specializes in creating companies that are essentially 'New York as a
Service' bc its infrastructure sucks."
I've also heard the "mom" variation. I've never heard "mom" equated with "New
York" but it is insightful in its own strange way.
~~~
eropple
So they've figured out how to mometize new revenue streams, eh...
(I'll show myself out.)
------
billybilly1920
it's ending again? Wasn't it supposed to end the year before, and the year
before that, and the year before that? When is google going to just drop
news.google.com and have an algorithm write the same stories over every year?
Next up: The next [pick top product] killer! you won't believe how [pick new
or underdog product] is going to completely replace [pick top product] due to
it's [pick random feature in [pick new or underdog product]]
~~~
zzalpha
Funny, folks used the same line of reasoning prior to the real estate bubble
popping in 2007-2008.
But, that doesn't stop the Pollyanna's...
~~~
nnoitra
If news like this had any predictive value then journalists would be the
richest group in the world.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Find a Great Domain Name (Beta code is YCOMBINATOR) - bradpineau
http://www.domainhole.com
======
magic5227
Its funny cause, domainhole is a terrible name
~~~
sebkomianos
I quite like the name to be honest.
And I sure like the design as well.
~~~
ksolanki
I too quite liked the name. It incites a strong reaction, which is
good...Guess one either likes it or hates it.
------
symkat
_instant check_
First of all, it's limited to only .com's. That seems silly. I think I'm in
the fairly normal group of people who would want to check at least org and net
too, if not io, pl, and all the other random strange domains. The instant
check service does not seem unique and seems more limited than even the most
basic domain checker.
_name spinner_
This idea is boring. Given a name already either prepend or append a word that
falls into a given "group" and check for it's availability in a single TLD.
This time that TLD is at least selectable.
_expired domain search_
Given a few words locate domains for which that is a substring of if they have
recently expired or are in pending delete. I don't see how this is
particularly useful, you're finding domains that may or may not be able to be
bought in the near future (registrars can still take back a domain that is in
pendingDelete status for a few to ICANN).
From my perspective this is fun from a "hey, I wonder what people use this
substring and don't pay their bill" game, but not really for finding a domain
name unless I happen to be inspired by one of the domains and check under a
different TLD.
_Overall_
I think the approach that is being taken here is not original and has been
done hundreds of times. I have a hard time naming things and have looked
repeatedly for a "Name this thing for me!" service. This is another
disappointment.
I do think that this is a problem domain that has yet to be solved and that a
good solution would make a decent company. I don't think this service at this
point comes close to even beginning to solve the problem.
~~~
bradpineau
The expired domain search becomes valuable when you put in "2" into the
"number of words" input. Now you're getting nice keyword rich 2 word domains.
If you're searching for domains that haven't expired yet, you're best bet is
to backorder it, and hope to grab it first. We'll add other TLDs for the
instant domain check.
------
dbro
caveat: I created a similar site called domainjig.com, so take these as
friendly suggestions.
The expired domain search is cool, well done with this tool.
Make it faster. Right now, loading the page to search for availability is
taking longer than 10 seconds. When searching using the different tools, the
response comes back after a few seconds delay. If you're comfortable
discussing it, what are the major components of the backend? Is your data
stored in RAM? Can you make the availability check instant?
eg. the expired domain search for "rabbit" over the last 30 days took a few
minutes to return 2 pages of results. maybe the traffic referred from this
post on HN is finding some bottlenecks for you?
The name spinner came up with some interesting suggestions. I'd suggest
removing or hiding some of the advanced options, in favor of simplifying the
default interface.
Hope that helps.
------
mendicant
I really like it. Especially that with each suggestion it tells you whether or
not it is available.
The hardest thing I had with the site was when there were a lot of suggestions
I had a lot of trouble reading through all of them, kind of like the words all
ended up running together. It might just be me though.
My wife has been looking for a domain name for a while now, and we've already
found a couple possibilities because of this.
As a future feature suggestion for the domain spinner -- At some point it
would be really cool if you could find a way to choose a domain name that you
kind of like, choose it and only show ones that are similar to it. This would
be especially good when combining with adjectives. Some may be looking for
more cheerful or positive adjectives while others may be looking for powerful
or possibly negative ones.
------
bradpineau
Awesome comments and thanks to all for the suggestions. We've got an awesome
list and we'll start implementing.
Apologies for the slow expired domain search. The server is getting NAILED and
we're obviously not equipped to handle the scale yet. I'll use the excuse: Hey
- we're in Beta!
So we're working on the scale issue as we speak. Hope to have instant searches
back ASAP.
For those who asked - site is built on the LAMP stack.
------
swGooF
Really fun site. I think it is helpful. I did, however, think the list that
was returned was too long by default. Maybe leave off the unavailable one?
~~~
swGooF
My comment applies to the Name Spinner.
~~~
stevenj
You should be able to just edit your parent comment (for awhile longer at
least).
------
revetkn
If you've got all the data stored off up-front, the search should be near-
instant. As-is, it's nearly unusably slow.
However, if the delay is caused by hitting the network for each search result
on the backend (or something along those lines), maybe it would be nice to
quickly return an initial barebones dataset and then the browser could do an
async fetch of each record's details.
------
wccrawford
Nice site!
What surprised me was how many domains were taken that didn't have names I'd
consider worthwhile... Weird.
------
bradpineau
A "First Week of Testing Update" has been posted to the homepage - we've
addressed some issues users have had. Check it out -
<http://www.domainhole.com/>
------
dts
It seems like you arent normalising all strings to lowercase which has a huge
impact on available results in the name spinner. If PitbullHelp.com is
unavailable pitbullhelp.com shouldnt be as well.
------
mikerhoads
This is a great app. I have a similar site that is more curated but less
searchable: <http://www.scoratic.com>
What are you built on?
------
HedgeMage
I like it, overall, but it would be much more useful if I could click to add
domains to a "maybe list" while I try a few different things to find what I
want.
~~~
bradpineau
On the expired domain search, you can "star" a domain to look at it later.
We'll add that starring option to the other tools ASAP.
~~~
HedgeMage
Nifty :)
------
sinaiman
It is going quite slow for me. All three tools.
Usually ajaxwhois.com and instantdomainsearch.com are completely instantaneous
when I use those tools.
~~~
sinaiman
Slow as in I didn't wait around to see the results, like >1 minute.
------
kevindication
Name spinner returned a huge list of available names with a suffix appended to
my seed, but then that list was repeated as unavailable beneath it.
------
bradpineau
Best use of the expired search tool: put "2" in the "number of words" input,
and you'll find some great 2 word keyword specific domains
------
imwilsonxu
A little suggestiong: make the fonts bigger.
I have to zoom in to 144% (in Chrome) to make it readable.
------
eli
It would be neat if it could also filter or score domains based on how
pronounceable they are.
~~~
bradpineau
We have a pronouncable checkbox/score coming next week!
------
nddrylliog
skinnycoders.com, uptightcoders.com and uglycoders.com are taken.
fatcoders.com, pleasantcoders.com and handsomecoders.com are free.
You know what to do.
------
bradpineau
A new tool is available - a web 2.0 name generator.
------
bradpineau
You can use beta code: YCOMBINATOR
~~~
peacewise
Great site. It already helped me find a name for my project.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Disqus redesigned - Smotko
http://smotko.si/disqus-redesigned/
======
Swizec
Actually ... all I really want from Disqus is to see the comments that fly in
through social media.
After posting I will often get tweets on the line of "Hey @Swizec, your last
blog really sucks because of <X>" ... I'd like those to appear on the
appropriate post as comments.
Wonder if that's possible. Maybe if Disqus knew when I post on twitter and get
replies to that tweet.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Is auctions.godaddy.com a scam? - kull
Looking for your startup name with a good domain is hard. I found few nice options, 4 letter domain names with Buy Now option on auctions.godaddy.com. Those were domain names with words you can find in an English dictionary. So, I wanted to purchase them both, well, I can always sell them. When added to the cart, I was progressing with a purchase. At one point my browser froze, and I saw Godaddy website was doing something in a background. I refreshed the page after 15 min of waiting and… a message showed up that this domain was recently sold and is not available. So, either auctions.godaddy.com has outdated / fake data or Godaddy just used some algorithm to see I am trying to get a good domain for cheap and just grabbed it before me?<p>Edit: spelling
======
WaltPurvis
The premium domain marketplace puzzles me. I once had a domain name registered
that was fairly obscure (a play on my actual name, not a real word, not close
to a misspelling of a real word/phrase, not obviously useful to anybody but
me) and that I never actually used, but within a week or two of my
registration expiring it had been snapped up and was now listed for sale for
$500.
I set up an alert in my calendar to remind me a year later, thinking that once
the new registration expired, it might again be available for a normal price.
But when the time came, the new registrant had renewed it for a second year,
and it was still listed for $500.
Fast forward to today, when I saw this item on HN and it prompted me to go
check on that name again. Turns out the registration expired a few months ago,
and I just registered it for $10.
But I can't imagine why it was snapped up by a broker in the first place,
i.e., why anyone ever thought it would be worth $500, and I can't figure out
how it could possibly be profitable to squat on vast quantities of domains
like this. The whole thing seems vaguely scammy to me...
~~~
dpeck
Sounds like it was bought in hopes that the previous owner (you) had let it
expire accidentally and invested ~$30 over a couple of years in hopes of
turning that into $500. Doesn't have to get buyers too frequently for that to
be a profitable scheme.
------
ocdtrekkie
I've successfully bought a domain on auctions.godaddy.com before. That being
said, I am pretty skeptical about the entire "premium domain" market.
Like eBay, there's a good chance you'll need to game the system a bit: Don't
bid until seconds before it ends, and be prepared for other parties (including
domain resellers) to bid it up right before the end.
I had a .net address and the .com became available at GoDaddy's auction site,
presumably because it was left to lapse by the previous owner. In the seconds
before the end of the auction, it got bid up an extra $100 or so, but I
managed to snap it up for, I believe, $112, which wasn't that bad.
A site I have control of lost it's .com when a friend passed away and we were
unable to secure access to the domain before it's subscription lapsed. It's
marked as a premium domain (presumably because it got a lot of traffic back in
the day) for the sale of a couple thousand dollars now, and has been that way
for a while.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Cryptocurrency is driving innovation in the financial sector - newman8r
https://www.theindy.us/crypto-success-is-driving-innovation-in-the-financial-sector/
======
henrikschroder
There's absolutely zero evidence for the headline in the actual bulk of the
article.
SWIFT launched a new service last year, that is now handling 25% of all cross-
border transactions, to the tune of 100 billion USD per day.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin peaked last year at a total trading volume of 5 billion USD
per day, and is now doing less than 1 billion per day. How much of that is
cross-border is unknown, but even assuming 100%, it's still a tiny fraction of
what SWIFT is handling.
Extrapolating from that that cryptocurrencies somehow drove SWIFT to launch
their new service is a bit of a stretch to put it mildly.
~~~
agorabinary
It peaked not from a lack of demand but from hitting an inevitable scaling
roadblock. Now the community is busy deploying a layer 2 (Lightning) to the
Bitcoin mainnet that can offer transactions per second that exceed any
financial system today, not to mention a whole host of breathtakingly
innovative developments powered by this new layer.
I understand the justifiable HN frustration at the prevalence of scams and
overpromises that have plagued the blockchain (mainly ICO) world as of late.
But the blockchain is getting better, and with developments that make SWIFT
innovations seem trivial by comparison.
~~~
nawgszy
>that can offer transactions per second that exceed any financial system today
>that make SWIFT innovations seem trivial by comparison
Listen, those two phrases alone are gigantic signs of your bias. Even if they
were true, the way you phrase it just screams "I own a significant amount of
Bitcoin"
Add to that a sentence about
>a whole host of breathtakingly innovative developments
and, oh boy, do I ever think you are biased.
There is actually a pretty clear value prop for Bitcoin: you can exchange
something approximating money for services which are undesirable or risky to
do so with your traditional money. But needing to build an entirely new layer
which, if I'm understanding right, has some significant impact on the
semantics of how your transactions end up on the blockchain, just in order to
be able to do a completely unimpressive level of throughput, is hilariously
far from "breathtaking innovation" that makes traditional financial
"innovations seem trivial".
~~~
chrisco255
Thise are opinions. It's not necessary for someone to state that an opinion is
biased, that's implied by taking any non-impartial stance on anything.
For what it's worth, programmable, open source money has far bigger
implications than you lead on here.
------
bbimbop
"Ethan M. Penn" deserves some e-gold for this piece.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-gold](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-gold)
~~~
lsc
Lol. I personally didn't get on the bitcoin wagon 'cause I had (well, I guess
still have) frozen e-gold. Not that I speculated in it, but I accepted some as
payment for services back in the day and never got around to cashing it out
for money. I am really surprised that people seem to think that the less-
centralized nature of bitcoin makes it that much more resistant to government
interference; But what do I know? I think bitcoin has lasted a lot longer than
e-gold, and has gained a lot more legitimacy.
I do find it really curious that so many in the bitcoin community either
haven't heard of e-gold or don't see the parallels.
I mean, I am also a huge Stephenson fan, and had read "Cryptonomicon" and the
idea sounded really cool, but I never really had anything I wanted to buy with
e-gold, so other than allowing me to have customers who couldn't get credit,
it was not particularly useful.
(By the way, is there a "Cryptonomicon" of bitcoin? I mean, I guess the idea
of nazi gold is way more compelling than some math? but still...
"Cryptonomicon" seems to be like exactly the template)
But... my loss in the e-gold shutdown (and my relating of e-gold to bitcoin)
meant that I was pretty late to start accepting bitcoin, and that when I did,
I used bitpay; Which has worked fine, I suppose, but I had people trying to
buy with bitcoin fairly early on, and if I had accepted that and sat on it,
I'd probably, well, I wouldn't be hugely rich or anything, but it would have
been a nice payday. But I suppose that's the standard regret one has for not
timing the market when something goes up in value sharply.
I'm personally still a long-term bear on bitcoin... but I kinda have a
reputation for being a bear on a lot of things that have, uh, apparently
inflated values, so who knows.
~~~
darawk
> I am really surprised that people seem to think that the less-centralized
> nature of bitcoin makes it that much more resistant to government
> interference
Why? Decentralized systems are sort of the standard way of defeating
centralized governments. See: Tor, Guerilla warfare, Lone wolf terrorism,
etc..
~~~
Nursie
BTCis centralised in various ways. It's likely that one actor (Bitmain) could
muster 51% hash power relatively easily. There are relatively few on-off ramps
for the ecosystem.
These two facts alone point to possibilities for interference at a large
scale.
------
kylebenzle
We are switching, from paper, declared by fiat to be "money" to a digital
decentralized ledger, it is just that simple.
Get caught holding the last of the paper stuff just one day longer than the
next greatest fool and you will be sorry. SWIFT knows this, governments know
this and now the legacy financial industry (5 years too late) is starting to
get it too.
~~~
foepys
This "digital decentralized ledger" you are talking about is ever-growing. To
be able to handle its size and keep its integrity, special entities have to
keep it running for the layman to use. Nobody can carry terabytes of
"blockchain" around all the time.
These special entities need to record all transactions and verify them against
this ledger. As a result you are now even more dependent on these entities
than ever before. You basically just re-invented banking, only in a bad,
uncontrollable way that is prone to takeovers (51% attack) by anonymous
actors.
~~~
haolez
You must come from a country where the central bank doesn't print money :)
~~~
Nursie
I come from a country where the central bank can issue money (not print it,
that's someone else's job).
It's great. They can use their powers to keep inflation at a small positive
level, help smooth out economic bumps, and help the money supply keep pace
with the economy.
A fixed amount, ever, would constrain economic growth, reward hoarders rather
than investors, disincentivise spending and generally be a poor substitute.
As evidence I present ... the entirety of the Western world and it's multiple
decades of unparalleled prosperity.
~~~
gthaman
Central banking is awful and you know no better than to say what you say
(having not known anything else).
Evil triumphs only when good men do nothing!
~~~
Nursie
You've provided no evidence or argument as to why central banking might be
'awful', after I just explained why there is much to be liked about it.
Please do provide your reasons, but if they're just the usual libertarian
tripe about inflation and taxes, I'm afraid I might not give them much
credence.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Flagged/shadow banned on GitHub for praising s/w? - altCensored
they emailed me back 10 days after my first request for info:<p>"Your account was flagged following reports that you are posting unproductive comments in other users' repositories, specifically for unsolicited advertising."<p>i praise the s/w of a great but unknown repository (2 'Stars', 1 'Fork, 1 'Contributor') ask if they could help me, and that's "unsolicited advertising"???<p>(links in comment)
======
altCensored
indiv. files in item on archive.org:
[https://archive.org/details/github_account_flagged](https://archive.org/details/github_account_flagged)
'offending' comment (redacted) screenshot:
[https://ia601503.us.archive.org/12/items/github_account_flag...](https://ia601503.us.archive.org/12/items/github_account_flagged/github_comment.PNG)
screenshot of altCensored GitHub account when logged in:
[https://ia601503.us.archive.org/12/items/github_account_flag...](https://ia601503.us.archive.org/12/items/github_account_flagged/github_loggedin.PNG)
(contrast with normal):
[https://github.com/altcensored](https://github.com/altcensored)
screenshot of small contrib to TubeUp:
[https://ia801503.us.archive.org/12/items/github_account_flag...](https://ia801503.us.archive.org/12/items/github_account_flagged/github_tubeup_comment.PNG)
gmail thread (redacted)
[https://ia801503.us.archive.org/12/items/github_account_flag...](https://ia801503.us.archive.org/12/items/github_account_flagged/github_gmail.pdf)
------
altCensored
just received an email from GitHub, the account has been restored.
[https://github.com/altcensored](https://github.com/altcensored)
GitHub has been a reference for free speech and transparency:
[https://www.eff.org/wp/who-has-your-
back-2019#github](https://www.eff.org/wp/who-has-your-back-2019#github)
[https://www.eff.org/wp/who-has-your-
back-2019#github](https://www.eff.org/wp/who-has-your-back-2019#github)
------
verdverm
Why don't you share you GitHub handle so we can see the evidence?
------
SamReidHughes
This would be less likely to happen if you capitalized.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The US startup is disappearing - bhuga
https://qz.com/1309824/the-us-startup-company-is-disappearing-and-thats-bad-for-the-economy/
======
moorhosj
Very interesting chart in this article that shows more educated people
(masters, bachelor's, some college) are less entrepreneurial than they were 25
years ago. On the flip side, less educated folks (high school graduates and
non-high school graduates) have seen an increase in entrepreneurship.
"In 1992, 4% of 25-54 year olds with a master’s degree or PhD owned a small
company with at least 10 employees. In 2017, this was true of only 2.2%."
Could it be that the cost barrier is lower today than in the past, but there
is much more money to be made as an educated employee today than 25 years ago?
~~~
rb808
A big difference is that modern kids are conditioned to do what they're told,
work hard and choose a safe path in life.
To get into a good school now you have to spend your time studying hard to
pass the standardized tests.
Previously kids playing around, got bored, chasing girls/boys, leaving home as
soon as possible, maybe joined the army, married young. So a 25 year old
already had a lot of life experience. Able to take the responsibility to
follow dreams and start up a new firm.
Today's kids at 25 are just leaving school and still dont really know much
about the real world. Great candidates to get a safe job in a company, not so
great at starting a firm.
~~~
rmshea
I can attest to this. I'm currently working my way through the college
application pipeline, and my peers are laser focused on what it takes to get
into a good college. Rather than pursuing what interests them, many choose
challenging courses just to have a favorable transcript, and standardized test
stress is an epidemic. Anxiety about "getting in" to a good school supersedes
any dreams of starting a venture or pursuing an option that isn't a 4-year
prestigious university.
The disappearance of new ventures can be attributed in some way to this new
way of thinking. I've been told that college anxiety didn't exist 20 years ago
-- maybe it's time to go back to those days. High school, in my mind, is a
time to experiment and find what actually interests you: not to manifest into
a homework bot that's dominated by stress.
This isn't always the case, though. The 25-year-old with life experience and a
past of experimentation still exists, it's just not the norm anymore.
~~~
varrock
I've done some serious reflecting on exactly what you've said. I'm on that
"safe" route. I went through the college anxiety, the GPA worries -- all of
that was my mantra. To this day, I still admit to being a "resume" builder. I
want things on a paper for a sense of achievement.
This scares me, though. I'm starting to realize that is not what it's about.
It's about making a difference. Sure, you can indeed make a difference doing
what you and I have described. A company needs people like that. But I always
wonder, could I have made an even bigger difference doing something else? I'm
not even talking about my education. I've even thought about this for sports.
For instance, I grew up playing baseball religiously because I had already
invested a lot of my time with it. I didn't want to adhere to anything else
for the fear of wasting my time. Here I am, years later, realizing I would've
been an even better tennis player had I actually been open to trying something
that would've given me more success, but potentially been less safe (starting
a new sport in the middle of being so devoted to one already). Here I am,
hitting with racquet on every volley, wishing that I had bought into the sport
earlier because I know I could've been better at it than I was baseball.
~~~
pteredactyl
I hear you. I believe it's most rewarding, in general, to create your own
path.
You will fail. Embarrass yourself. 'Let down' family and friends. But you'll
know those that really care about you.
And you'll find out what you're made of. Oh, and have some good stories along
the way.
“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”
------
adreamingsoul
As a self-educated software engineer, entrepreneur, and business owner I
cringe whenever data statistics of ”educated” people are only represented by
individuals who have a masters, Ph.D., or doctorate.
I have studied at universities, but unfortunately, the education system in the
USA is not suitable for Autism. From an early age I had to teach myself
because 99% of my teachers and professors didn’t have the resources or time to
help me. Does anyone here have a similar experience?
~~~
DoreenMichele
I was briefly Director of Community Life for the TAG Project. I was
homeschooling my 2xE sons and moderating a gifted homeschooling list,
basically.
Since he was a preschooler, I have told my oldest son he will need to be an
entrepreneur. He won't make it as an employee. I tried to enroll him in
college classes when he was 13. The college accepted him, but the classes fell
through. I think one was full and the other was cancelled.
After that, he told me he really did not want to attend college. He wanted me
to keep homeschooling him, even though what he knew in some areas was beyond
me, so I wasn't really qualified to teach him per se in some areas. So I
became a resource person that fostered his own self education.
Bill Gates is a college drop out. So is Madonna. I used to be able to quote
statistics. A fairly high percentage of entrepreneurs can't be arsed to finish
a degree program. They are too busy making things happen.
Degrees are about credentialing. Entrepreneurs often take classes for a
specific purpose, to learn specific knowledge or skills. Credentials tend to
matter less to them than knowledge and skill.
The minute I post this, you can bet someone will rebut it. It isn't true of,
say, 90% of entrepreneurs and there are plenty who do have substantial formal
education. But the aggregate figures show (or did at one time) that these
things are generally true.
It's certainly not just you. Plenty of entrepreneurs describe themselves as
_mavericks_ or _misfits_ or similar.
~~~
HillaryBriss
i once heard that most small business owners are either the children of small
business owners or small family farmers.
if this is true, perhaps we're in a downward spiral, given historically
smaller startup cohorts and the agglomeration of family farms into corporate
farms.
------
laser
[https://www.theatlas.com/charts/Syh34PDZm](https://www.theatlas.com/charts/Syh34PDZm)
That graph is fascinating. The decreasing value of formal higher education to
becoming a successful entrepreneur is being accelerated from so many angles.
The cost of collegiate education itself has risen dramatically, while at the
same time the cost of access to collegiate educational materials has plunged
to zero due to the internet and open publishing. If this trend continues, I
wonder if motivated, aspiring entrepreneurs will be better off skipping formal
higher education altogether. Could that already be true today? If someone can
decide that the college path is not for them at a young enough age with a high
enough level of maturity, then they can unschool and skip the bull-shit
college-admittance optimization altogether, and instead focus on actually
becoming an educated, masterful individual in domains that will help them
create new value that they, and society, care about.
Of course, there's so many confounding factors feeding into this one simple
graph that I may have over-extrapolated to this particular thrust, but I think
it's a perspective completely absent from the article that should be
articulated.
~~~
usaar333
That's one conclusion you could make.
An alternative conclusion is that educated would-be entrepreneurs are now
receiving higher wages in industry, resulting in the group shifting to
industry. Less educated would-be entrepreneurs see wages lowering/stagnant in
corporations and thus shift to entrepreneurship.
Income source:
[https://www.advisorperspectives.com/dshort/updates/2017/09/1...](https://www.advisorperspectives.com/dshort/updates/2017/09/19/u-s-
household-incomes-a-50-year-perspective)
~~~
laser
Right, that's definitely a huge component, and one that is focused on in the
original article. I bring up these other factors because they're not
mentioned, including the fact that the rate of entrepreneurship has actually
increased among the least formally educated.
------
nemo44x
Every nascent industry is dominated by startups and little guys becoming big
guys. It happened with oil, the auto industry, electronics, and among many,
many others.
Although I believe we're only in the midst of the information revolution it
would make sense that over time as the industry matures it becomes more and
more difficult to break into it. The big guys have leverage and lawyers and I
think what we see today with many startups being built to get bought rather
than as new enterprises that will stand on their own is evidence of this new
phase shift.
------
yohann305
I would love to see if there is a correlation between the quantity of startups
VS new major innovation waves.
Yes, there are less new startups today but if you come to think of it, we
don't have a major innovation at the moment that's easy to jump into. Look at
the late 90s, we had the INTERNET, anyone could make a website with frontpage
or a little html tag understanding.
Then in the late 2000s we had the MOBILE PHONES... I have an idea for an app!
(everyone did!)
At the moment, we have AI/ML but my opinion is that it's not ripe for an
average person to start an ML company. Another major upcoming branch is
blockchain but it's also not mature enough for this major innovation to
trickle down a leaf tree of startups.
What do you think?
Oh, almost forgot to mention AR/VR! Not there yet!!
~~~
HillaryBriss
i also wonder about the funding mechanism and landscape.
could it be that the VC firms have come to dominate and guide the funding
process in such a way that starting a firm is a lot less attractive now?
~~~
umeshunni
Well, for one, they have ensured that joining a startup is financially less
attractive than working at a large company/FANG.
------
sjbase
I'm not sure "the startup is disappearing" is the only explanation for this
data. Isn't it possible that companies are just lasting longer than 2 years?
What if there was a larger percentage of age 0-2 companies '85 because back
then, so few were making it past 2? Maybe easier access to capital has
increased survival rate (or at least slowed down dissolution by a few years).
This explanation also fits better with the massive influx of cash into VC over
the last ~10 years.
~~~
jimbofisher1
Startups lasting longer would have nothing to do with this? 0-2 Years
represents "New" startups, so the number of new startups is declining.
~~~
sjbase
That would be true if this was actually a number, not a percentage. To take a
hyperbolic example, there could be 100x more startups at 0-2 years right now
than in '85 and 100,000x aged 2-4 years; you'd still see a percentage decline
in the former and we'd be pretty far from "the startup disappearing."
------
thisisit
I am curious about the methodology to count startups. One of things is sure
that we are now in a consolidation phase. We are seeing a glut of M&A deals.
In that vein many startups are disappearing because they are getting acquired
by larger companies. No one wants to be the next Yahoo refusing to buy a
company which might become their next chief competitor. And the cheap credit
environment is making this easier.
------
mlthoughts2018
I don’t have enough broad economic insight to know if this should be worrying
generally or possibly even be seen as good.
But what I do know is that work conditions, pay, and equity risk
characteristics in start-up jobs are miserable, not to mention that work life
balance is often poor and the start-up management is often deluded about the
scope and importance of the business.
I would be happy if entrepreneurs believed they needed a far greater amount of
initial capital before starting a business, and viewed it as essentially
mandatory to provide market rate salaries, comprehensive insurance, and
seriously professional work life balance and workplace behavior, all _before_
even hiring the first employee, and also even after accounting for early stage
equity.
If it was something of a cultural norm that you are a shyster, suspicious
“entrepreneur” if you attempt to convince people to work for you without
already having the capital arranged to invest that significantly in giving
them good jobs from day one, I think this would be a great thing for the labor
market generally, and would greatly deter a bunch of hype-driven nonsense
startups that essentially allow already wealthy people to treat it like
lottery tickets at the expense of employees.
------
magd
In my experience, only the founders of startups make any money. If the startup
is successful, then the founders walk away with millions. Everyone else would
be financially better off if they worked for a large company instead.
Also, the executives of the startups take free trips and expense everything on
the company's dollar. While the employees receive low pay.
I don't think the large companies are winning. The startups are killing
themselves.
~~~
usaar333
> Everyone else would be financially better off if they worked for a large
> company instead.
To be fair a lot of the change is because large companies are paying people so
much these days. Barring large amounts of funding, a Series A- startup (based
on the company being 0-2 years old definition of the article) simply can't
compete with salaries.
Perhaps startups should start offering far more equity to early employees (I'm
surprised you don't see more seed stage firms offering ~5% to senior devs) to
compensate for the cash loss.
~~~
foepys
Nobody will give a senior developer 5% equity when even VCs only take 7% for
the first investment that also includes access to professional networking
events.
~~~
s73v3r_
Then maybe those companies don't deserve a senior developer?
------
devilshaircut
The author of the article uses "start up" to refer to a business less than 2
years old - fair enough. As someone who runs a business which falls into this
category, it certainly is frustrating to know how heavily our government
subsidizes well-funded, monied large corporations (whereas small business
owners have very little government-supplied - or otherwise - financial
incentive to fuel their endeavor).
I don't suppose I would want them to stop subsidizing certain deals in the
private sector with corporate America. A lot of that seems to be smart
business to me. But I certainly would like to see the government to place a
higher value on small business innovation. Starting something from nothing is
already hard enough.
~~~
dv_dt
Have you looked at the SBA? There's actually a fair amount of support there,
including preferential treatment for bidding on set aside gov't contracts,
including SBIR - Small Business Innovation Research contracts. Is it dollar
and lobbying wise the same, no, but it is there.
------
pascalxus
They always want to equate disappearing startups with lack of labor supply.
That just seems completely ridiculous. Lack of labor in startups is a
result/effect, not a cause. Labor, as a general rule of thumb, always follows
the money. If Startups were more successful, they'd get more investment and
more labor. If you doubt this, just remember what happened when facebook
opened up it's app store. Just like that, overnight, thousands of developers
and start ups appeared out of no-where. As soon as people smell the money,
they'll leave their cushy jobs at google or anywhere else in a heartbeat. It
all comes down to opportunity.
I mean, just look at the ycombinator and other investor's acceptance rates.
They're that low because there's only so many opportunities. When there's too
many people chasing too few opportunities, this is the result.
The real reasons why start ups are far fewer, is much more complicated: an it
has to do with fewer opportunities. Some opportunities are limited legally,
some due to market barriers and some are just due to what's currently
possible.
The solution is to look at all those barriers and see what govt can do to
reduce or get rid of the barriers. Look at the industries in most dire need of
innovation: transportation, housing, and health insurance (where need is
measured by $ opportunity) ~ and all the downstream industries that support
these - like manufacturing, raw materials, etc. How many start ups are
addressing these needs, and why is it so low?
~~~
toomuchtodo
You were on the right track and then veered off course at the end. The problem
is startups don’t pay enough for the risk you have to take, and there are few
easy problems left to disrupt. There will always be small businesses and sole
proprietors, but there are few winner take all startup opportunities that
require little capital to start.
Also, after seeing what happens when startups flout regulation (Uber, Airbnb,
Theranos), I prefer government regulation stay intact or more of it. The less
startups abusing the commons, the better.
------
baron816
Are mom and pop stores included in the data? What about law firms, doctors
offices, mutual funds? I don’t think we’d consider those new businesses to be
start ups.
------
whatthesmack
I'm surprised nobody's mentioned it, but the bureaucracy of licensing, taxes,
and now national sales tax collection is unhelpful to the startup. Not that
it's a startup, but I just jumped through all the hoops required to legally
hire a nanny in the US state of Washington:
\- obtain Federal EIN number \- obtain state business license & UBI number
(still waiting on this, and I need childcare _now_ ) \- file with state
employment security department \- pay state labor & industries insurance \-
pay state employment security taxes \- pay my portion of income taxes for the
nanny \- pay payroll company to deal with all the tax payouts and paychecks
Oh, and actually pay the nanny.
All of this to just have a nanny and be above board. And what I do for my
startup is way more complicated than this.
~~~
ChristianBundy
I'm confused, to legally hire a nanny you need to start a legal entity and
hire the nanny as a contractor/employee? It seems to me that this would be the
nanny's responsibility to start a business and charge the customer (you) money
for their service.
I'm sure you're much more familiar than me, can you help me correct my
intuition?
------
quadcore
Another factor could be that before, big companies kinda sucked for the
employee. Today's big companies like Google and Facebook are wonderful place
to work for. In the grand scale of things, the new management styles are
considerably more comfortable for the employee, the decision making and the
promotion methods are significantly more efficient, interesting and smart. Not
saying they are perfect, there is definitely room for improvement but 30 years
ago, it was all wage slavery.
~~~
HillaryBriss
i like your idea, but Google and Facebook are very far from typical.
~~~
quadcore
I guess you may be right. Is there still big companies which would fire you
because you're late 2 minutes 3 times this year? Where everybody have to be
there at 8am? And stuff.
~~~
phil248
I've always assumed the laid back approach of employers here was a West Coast
thing.
------
ummonk
Small local businesses / startups get squeezed out by larger brands with name
recognition. No one looks for stuff in the yellow pages anymore - they go to
the most successful brand off the internet.
Additionally, the risks of starting a business / startup are much higher when
the cost of housing and healthcare is so much higher. And on top of that you
have student debt.
------
inetknght
> _This means that, contrary to popular belief, jobs in the US are far more
> secure than they were in previous decades._
This is a fallacy. Your job is not secure if you're not able to speak up about
injustices because there's no competitors to hire you if you were to get fired
about speaking up about something that's immoral but not illegal.
------
HillaryBriss
the paper seems to be talking about "startups" as firms less than 2 years old.
i guess this includes startups in plumbing as well as startups in software.
maybe the reason a young plumber doesn't go out and start their own new firm
is different from the reason a young software engineer doesn't go out and
start their own new firm.
------
tsenkov
If startups fail (test bad ideas) 5x faster than in the 80's and 90's and if
most founders quit entrepreneurship after their 1st failure, even if 2x more
people are founding companies, then it's probably normal that, overall, less
man-years would be spent in startups every year in the US.
------
solarkraft
What I always thought the economic system would naturally come to is actually
happening now. It's interesting why it's only happening now, likely because of
the new growth dynamics of data companies.
------
shmerl
_> Startups are struggling in this era of rising market concentration._
To rephrase it, current anti-trust is often too toothless.
------
arcaster
Oh please... People are just realizing that startups aren't all that glamorous
and at times attract a special breed of shitty egotistical workaholics.
By the merits of this article we should wait to see Paris or some other benign
socialist hell-hole become "the next startup hub". I can assure you that won't
be happening anytime soon.
Silicon Valley is an incredibly un-sustainable incestuous bubble. The future
of startups will be distributed, not in one place.
------
molteanu
From the article:
_Startups are struggling in this era of rising market concentration. In most
industries, since the 1980s, the share of all sales going to the top firms is
increasing. Startups may have a hard time competing with these mega firms,
which can out pay them for the best talent and sometimes attempt to drive them
out of the industry. Previous Brookings research found there are fewer
startups in states where a smaller number of companies dominate the market_
From Lenin, "Imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism" (1916):
_This transformation of competition into monopoly is one of the most
important — if not the most important — phenomena of modern capitalist
economy._
------
pnathan
I paid out $100,000 to pay off my wife & my own student loan debt early.
Student loan debt can not be discharged by bankruptcy; it's always waiting for
you.
This implies several things immediately:
\- You have to take a job which can make payments on the debt.
\- You have to choose stable jobs which will not suddenly fold under you.
There's also a somewhat hard to define aspect to the problem where you have to
ensure that your local system is fiscally stable.
Anyway, non-1% Americans graduated from college not taking risks in their
first 10 years out? _Totally_ predictable, just from the debt perspective.
Then, at 32, 34, a lot of people are married and/or have a kid on the way.
Welp, there's your high levels of downside again.
Add in to all this the fact that housing prices are effectively tethered to
the availability of cash provided to the "highly paid" market (inequality
increases)....
... so if your startup fails, you'll lose your place to live, and remote jobs
are very rare, so you're in trouble in the big city with now-unaffordable
costs of living.
the solution, in part, has a simple policy component: declare jubilee on all
federally-originated student debt; free college for all students who maintain
adequate gpas, no more federal loans. impose cost controls on universities
that take federal money.
that effectively derisks an entire generation and opens up new options.
housing costs are less directly tractable and more politically problematic:
the effective solution is to federally strip single family zoning from all
land, and mandating density minimums and other supply-increasing zoning. (I
_assure_ you, the housing market is an interstate commerce system. :) ). But
that only staunches the wound, it doesn't bring down housing prices into line
with the median American's income.
Wait, this is about _startups_? Ha! No. That's a third order consequence
caused by increasing early-career & mid-career risk, which in turn is
increased by the planning & zoning codes and governmental defunding of
education.
~~~
merpnderp
Just make student loans dischargeable. The market will sort it out at that
point. Loans for degrees that are valuable will be granted, and loans that are
for selfish degrees that produce no skills anyone else wants or cares about
won't be granted. And colleges would have to start cutting costs to make their
degrees more affordable. And given the mind boggling increase in tuition over
the last 40 years, there's an epic amount of fat to be trimmed.
~~~
risotto_groupon
Wait? What? You can't be serious? The market will sort "what is a worthwhile
education"?
Why not let the market sort out legislation? Or court cases? Or child custody?
This is a pretty sad statement of your personal values if you're serious.
~~~
thomascgalvin
The market might not be fit to decide what education is worthwhile, but it
will certainly figure out what degrees are lucrative.
It would be nice if we could all go to college to chase our childhood dreams,
but the reality is that most of us need to prepare to support ourselves and,
someday, a family. That's why I'm a software engineer and not a novelist, and
that's why I got a CS degree and not a BFA in English.
Are the humanities "worthwhile?" Certainly. But should the average person drop
$100,000 on a humanities degree? Absolutely not. And the fact that we're
willing to bury children under that kind of debt so that they can get a
Master's in French Opera or whatever is a crime.
~~~
s73v3r_
"The market might not be fit to decide what education is worthwhile, but it
will certainly figure out what degrees are lucrative."
And those are completely separate things, and should not be conflated.
Basically, you're saying that only the rich should be able to study non-STEM
stuff.
~~~
thomascgalvin
> Basically, you're saying that only the rich should be able to study non-STEM
> stuff.
I'm saying that only rich people _are_ able to study non-STEM stuff. I mean
sure, a disadvantaged person can study literature or interpretive dance or
whatever, but that choice will make them a debt slave with no significantly
increased earning potential.
You don't need to go to college to improve yourself as a human being. You can
be well-read and appreciative of the arts without paying $100,000. And for the
vast majority of people, that is the only sensible course of action.
------
lando2319
Regulations are the problem, imagine wanting to build something and finding
out you'll need to spend $20K on lawyers to go through thousands of pages of
GDRP.
That's even before hiring a developer to actually build an MVP.
... And people laughed when Trump said he wanted to eliminate two regulations
for every one being added.
~~~
lovich
Imagined you bought a meal and had to go to the hospital because they cut
corners on food safety? Regulation is a balancing act between compet in forces
not just a Boolean good/bad
~~~
TangoTrotFox
There's a strange thing about that. I enjoy traveling and living in developing
nations. Food safety organizations and inspections are basically nonexistent.
And in a decade I've gotten food poisoning exactly once - no hospital visit
even then. It's anecdotal, but it's also very typical among other expats.
People that make their living selling food generally know how to cook and
enjoy it! And they also know full well what happens when they serve bad food.
Think about the places you eat at. There's going to be a handful of places you
eat at, over and over again. And this is also typical. Serve bad food just
once, and a business stands to lose immensely. They're going to not only
permanently lose that customer but also deal with all the terrible word of
mouth that they will spread.
And in the end the biggest risk of food poisoning is often not from the food
itself, but from unclean handling of the food. And all the FDA rules and
regulations in the world don't mean a thing when a disinterested minimum wage
worker chooses to not wash her hands after a bathroom visit, or just keeps on
prepping after sneezing on the produce. The one time I got food poisoning was
not from one of the literally thousands of dishes I've ordered from street
vendors, but from a western-targeted chain restaurant. Instead of having the
business owner being the person prepping the food, it was our low wage
disinterested worker -- same story as the times I've gotten food poisoning in
the US.
This video [1] just makes our whole system of food safety regulation seem so
backwards, at Berkeley no less. Not an appeal to pathos, but an appeal to
logos. We're treating people like shit and deterring entrepreneurship for the
sake of enforcing these rules and regulations which don't really have such a
major benefit as we might believe. It's an undesirable cost:reward ratio.
[1] -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_TvG_ZNvQo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_TvG_ZNvQo)
~~~
lovich
Instead of theoretical ideas about what would happen to the food industry or
your anecdote about being fine when eating food that was unregulated I am
going to point you to "Jungle" by Upton Sinclair.
~~~
pitaj
_The Jungle_ is fiction. Only 12 pages of the novel concerned anything close
to food safety, and at the time there were _already food inspections_.
[https://www.zeroaggressionproject.org/uncategorized/upton-
si...](https://www.zeroaggressionproject.org/uncategorized/upton-sinclairs-
the-jungle/)
~~~
lovich
Huh. I knew Jungle was a novel but the part based on food safety was based on
actual situations he observed
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
BBC - Music - Developers - iamelgringo
http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/developers
======
metade
/music and /programmes are implemented in Pinwheel, a Perl MVC framework
strongly inspired by Rails. More details are available here:
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/radiolabs/2007/11/perl_on_rails.s...](http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/radiolabs/2007/11/perl_on_rails.shtml)
------
danw
See also: <http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes>
------
chunkyslink
This is an argument for the license fee in itself.
------
labria
Looks nice. Wonder what platform they're using...
~~~
adw
Pretty sure BBC A+MI is a Rails shop (most of the rest of the BBC, including
iPlayer, is Perl).
~~~
labria
I thought it was in Rails judging by the url schema (the .format notation, and
yaml), but the headers and cookies differ from the usual Rails ones...
------
olliesaunders
The BBC has had excellent policies on web development for a long time, it's
only recently they started following them.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
What3Words – three words identify each location on Earth - erehweb
https://map.what3words.com/
======
HoopleHead
For fuck's sake give up on this pointless crap. Every few weeks it raises its
ugly head on HN. I'm sick of seeing it
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Is it acceptable to write C in C++? - AlexeyBrin
https://www.reddit.com/r/C_Programming/comments/5fhve7/is_it_acceptable_to_write_c_in_c/
======
rahelzer
Acceptable? The whole point of a programming language is that you can do
whatever you want to with it.
Anything "Acceptable" has to be something which follows a pattern everybody
has seen before, and is familiar to the point of being accepted.
Do something shocking--(ie. something which nobody accepts), because they've
never seen it before.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How to self-publish a book: A handy list of resources - vharuck
https://blog.datascienceheroes.com/how-to-self-publish-a-book/
======
ilamont
Indie publisher here. Nice job - it came out quite well, judging by the
images. Curious if the editor and proofreader were working with the same
software, or it had to be exported to markdown or some other format.
Facebook ads are not a good investment, IMHO. They are expensive, campaigns
take time to set up, and most people on FB are not on the site to browse
books. Amazon Advertising is more effective and will be available to Amazon
KDP users.
A note about ISBNs: You don't need one if you are just publishing a PDF on
Gumroad or an ebook on KDP. If you are creating a print edition through KDP or
a service like IngramSpark, you will need an ISBN, though.
For authors based in the states, a warning: The U.S. ISBN registry, Bowker, is
a monopoly and prices accordingly so if you do want to go that route the
outlay will be significant: $125 for a single ISBN in the registry and $250
for 10 (the last time I checked). Bowker will try to upsell overpriced and
unnecessary services, like $25 barcodes and copyright assistance for $80 a pop
not including Copyright Office fees. Bowker also left the barn door open on
its CC page for six months earlier this year
([https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-
news/b...](https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-
news/bookselling/article/78506-bowker-investigating-breach-of-isbn-
site.html)).
~~~
michalskop
$125 for ISBN seems like a ripoff to me - the ISBN are given for free where I
come from: the Czech Republic; and the system is administered by the National
Library
~~~
apocalypstyx
ISBNs and healthcare tend to follow similar patterns in the US, contrasted
with the most of the rest of the 1st world.
~~~
_red
The AMA to both certifies doctors and runs the medical schools. Obviously,
they have a vested interest in controlling supply to protect their membership,
thus artificial scarcity leads to high prices.
------
stakhanov
Is it only me, or does anyone else think that the prevailing business
practices of the likes of Amazon are an absolute rip-off when it comes to the
low royalties? You go through all the work of writing, editing and producing a
book and upload it. Amazon does nothing by the way of marketing & promition,
so you end up marketing links to your book on social media yourself. If you
want a decent price, you get 35% royalties, maybe another 5% for affiliate
marketing. That means that Amazon gets more out of the project than you do,
despite the fact that you're the one doing almost all the work (handling
downloads & payments seems like a pretty commoditized thing these days).
Compare that to selling music on bandcamp: They take 15%, the rest is yours to
keep.
It is absolutely beyond me, how self-publishing authors put up with that.
I GUESS the difference between music and e-Books, to some extent, is how the
channel influences perceptions of the quality of the product. People have got
very used to low quality writing being available for free on the web. So if
your ebook is just another piece of text on some website, many people will not
be willing to pay for it, whereas being on amazon creates an expectation that
the quality would be in line with properly published work (where, at least,
there is a four-eyes principle at work, at shouldering financial risks around
a book project etc.)
Someone should do something about that and create an ebook marketplace that
enforces certain quality standards and pays decent royalties.
~~~
mockingbirdy
A friend of mine did $120k completely passive with his book (+ audio book) on
Amazon. Without Amazon, he would have to get the outreach. Outreach is the
expensive and difficult part. When the customers are already there, it's just
a matter of converting them.
There are many people who make $25k/month completely passive on Amazon. I'm
not a big fan of Amazon, either, but you're not signing a bad deal with them.
Most publishers are worse (and don't deliver the outreach).
edit: Another thing to consider: Don't limit yourself to selling books. Add
value and place upsells in your books. And for fiction writers: Maybe add
merch and other stuff. For non-fiction: Sell online courses or coaching for
your expert topic. Usually the book is just the entry.
~~~
djaychela
What was the book's subject? I've always managed to convince myself that the
poor performance (relatively to values such as I see you have quoted) is
because my market is somewhat niche, but it may not be the case, so any info
on such self-published success would be useful for me.
~~~
mockingbirdy
I'm not gonna lie: Daytrading.
It's _the_ definition of a money topic. But I know that there are people who
make a fortune with small cook books. I know some other very profitable
niches, but I can't talk about them in detail - competition is already
extreme. But trust me: There's a ton of money in most topics.
OT: About daytrading (most people think it's basically a scam) - I know people
who do daytrading on a daily basis (what a pun) and who live relatively
comfortable investing $25-40k. I know a guy who went from 12k to 80k with one
investment (was a 2-year investment, though). He's not gambling, he is a
trading nerd reading the news and all company reports constantly. But yes, 99%
of daytraders lose money because they start to become greedy or have no
discipline.
~~~
stakhanov
...well I guess the important question is whether or not you think you have a
high chance of showing up at a high rank for search terms with enough traffic,
whether you have a chance of being featured prominently by amazon's
recommender engine etc etc. If you want to make that work for you, you
probably have to play a game like being a demand-driven content farm gaming
Amazon in a way akin to how SEO tries to game Google.
Maybe there's money in it, but it's probably not the kind of content I would
either want to produce or consume.
For most authors, the point of departure is probably, more idealistically,
some well written content, maybe with an audience that's a bit niche, and the
desire to find a way to get remunerated fairly on the effort that went into
producing the content. It sounds to me like that's not really what Amazon is
offering.
~~~
mockingbirdy
His book is fairly good and well-written, but I know what you mean.
I'm currently helping an author who wants to write a book and make some money
with it (she wrote books in the past and worked with publishers). I explained
to her how the self-publishing business works and she also had the same
reaction. It's possible to write high-quality content and get fairly
compensated, but you should definitely know that most people seem to be
content with sub-par books. The average quality is really bad and people seem
to like it (e.g. another very profitable niche: erotic books, Shades of Grey
is just one of many of them).
Amazon is very generic. If you want to build an audience, you should stick to
Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, Slack/chat groups, write a blog, do
vlogs and videos, organize local and offline groups, events and other methods.
You can then build a whole community around a niche and sell way more than a
book. This is also what I've recommended to her because this is how you build
high-quality communities.
------
vezycash
Editing your own text can be difficult because when reading it, you'll
mentally fill up missing words that aren't on the text.
Use a text to speech reader like Textaloud, balabolka and you'll catch more
errors.
There's a setting in Microsoft word to check for grammar, run-ons, verb
agreement... and readability rating of your text.
Write first, edit later to reduce writers' block in drafts - Turn off the
spell checker or simply write in notepad.
~~~
satysin
Do yourself a favour and get Scrivener. Don't use Microsoft Word or any
generic word processor if you're writing a book, sure you _can_ do it but god
is it a painful experience.
I have been using Scrivener for a few years now and I couldn't go back to
using a generic word processor for writing now.
I try not to recommend closed source software but there really isn't anything
else that comes close to it.
~~~
ghaff
I have Scrivener and have used it. The problem is that, at some point, I need
to start collaborating and otherwise sharing copies. At that point I need to
switch to a common format anyway. So I'm not convinced that Scrivener helps me
a lot given that I'll have to export well before I'm finished (in my case).
Maybe if I were working on something solo for a long period of time but that's
not how I generally write.
~~~
satysin
Yes I can see the issues in real-time (or near-time) collaboration as that is
not something Scrivener really deals with elegantly. I was talking about it
more from an individual writers perspective which is how I use it.
I export sections/chapters to PDF, ePub, etc. to send to my editors and
technical reviewers.
Actually you got me thinking about how I would need to approach this should a
collaborative project come my way. I need to investigate this further as that
is now an itch that needs to be scratched :)
~~~
ghaff
For work stuff, I use Google Docs as a matter of course and that works well.
It's not perfect insofar as the "it's over to you now and I won't touch it any
more" handoff isn't baked into the workflow but once people learn to have
discipline around that, it works well.
I do like Sccrivener. I just don't really do the working on
screenplay/novel/etc. over the course of months to years that is really it's
sweet spot. The one time I used it which was really useful was assembling a
book partly out of a series of previously written pieces. It was very good for
moving parts around although I suppose outline mode on a standard word
processor could have substituted.
------
austenallred
I self-published a book and sold $250k worth over the past year.
I cannot recommend getting an editor/typesetter highly enough. I paid mine
something like $500 total and she absolutely saved my life.
I'd go the Gumroad + Stripe route (or maybe Kickstarter if you need some
motivation) - Amazon sales have been negligible for me.
~~~
vram22
>I'd go the Gumroad + Stripe route
Why do you need Stripe? AFAIK Gumroad already handles payments. Something to
do with free vs. paid Gumroad plans and features?
~~~
austenallred
They didn't process payments when I set it up. Or rather, they processed them
through Stripe
------
nuklearwanze
Most of those resources only cover text-heavy books in paperback format. i
currently write an astronomy book (many high res images and illustrations) in
a large A3(ish) format. the whole process is completely different.
for example:
\- you should NOT let a third party print the book for you without any control
over the quality of the final product. amazone print on demand does a decent
enough job with paperback text books, but should probably not be used for
printing anything else.
\- unfortunately there is no real (OSS)alternative to CS software like
illustrator and indesign when it comes to actually creating the book. yes, you
CAN do it with other tools - but if you want to keep your sanity, DON'T. ( I
tried and ultimately gave up on the idea of using anything but adobe
software....)
\- color management is a nightmare. prepare for some real headaches when the
first test prints come back and everything that should be "100% black" comes
back in different shades and color variations of dark grey.
\- if you want any layout-heavy book to be easily translatable into different
languages, plan for it from the get go. text like small info-boxes underneath
images tend to vary in length a lot from language to language. some languages
produce much longer texts than english, others are more compact. this can
become a significant problem if all your layouts rely on character-perfect
text placement and fixed lengths.
\- binding techniques vary from one printing company to the next. it is
advisable to choose a company early on, so that you can adjust your layout
process accordingly. a simple change to color management, paper format or line
characteristics can become a huge problem, when you have to change dozens or
hundreds of embedded illustrations.
\- you dont need amazons print on demand at all: most printing companies let
you put in a small initial order (like 200 books). sell those first, then use
the money to order more. margins are great if you actually publish yourself,
so you can easily scale up your orders without risk of financial
overextension. if you do it with the same company this should not take longer
than 2 weeks. that kind of response time is totally acceptable.
Edit: I should add that this only works for books with a high retail price
(like 50+ dollar)
------
djaychela
I've written a book about a domain I know about - Music Technology - and self-
published it about 5 years ago , using lulu.com. It sells for £24.95 [1], and
I get about half of that in a lulu sale. This is a 650 page text book which
has a LOT of content - it would take hundreds of hours to go through it all
for a beginner.
If it sold on Amazon, I would get about £4. I guess I should have gone via
Amazon direct? (given that the author mentions 40%?)
Lulu makes about £4-5 on a sale (going on the printing costs that I pay, and
me factoring in a bit that I would pay even on a copy that I'm buying myself),
whereas Amazon would be taking more like £12-13 going on those numbers.
So, that's why my book isn't available on Amazon - I'd have to sell 3 times as
many to make the same money, and that seems unlikely to me. If it was more
even, I would sell it on Amazon as well as Lulu as I'm sure I'd get -some-
more sales, but not drastically more.
The book is a reasonable seller and a useful source of side income for me, but
it's certainly not an 'earner' \- I've spend about 3 weeks of very full time
work updating it for the latest version, and that will be in print for a year
before the next x.5 version comes out (and usually this means changing a large
amount of content as lots of little things change). Dividing the year's
earnings over the time taken to update it means I get a reasonable rate for
that time, but certainly not a good one.
I've thought about writing another book (going into more depth on the same
subject, and being a Cubase 'expert'), but I remember that it took about a
year of spare time to write the first one, and while it's been a reasonable
proposition over that time, it was only because it got picked up by the
software company's education rep that it went anywhere and reached any kind of
'critical mass' \- for about a year it sat and literally sold only copies to
students I was teaching (which was the initial reason for writing the book as
there was no text book of worth available). Just to be clear, I didn't enforce
purchase by the students, I'd say under 10% of them bought the book.
[1] - [http://www.lulu.com/shop/darren-jones/the-complete-guide-
to-...](http://www.lulu.com/shop/darren-jones/the-complete-guide-to-music-
technology-using-cubase-95/paperback/product-23486148.html) (latest version of
the book, until Cubase 10 gets released, then it will be superseded)
------
thangalin
In my spare time I've been developing a Java-based (don't hate me) WYSIWYM
tool that integrates R, Markdown, and a fair bit more. For example, Scrivenvar
can also transform XML into Markdown via XSLT, then use an R engine to perform
computations that are substituted back into the Markdown document prior to
generating an HTML preview from the final text. (For the OOP enthusiasts, it
uses the Chain-of-Command design pattern.)
I wrote Scrivenvar because I wanted the ability to use interpolated variables
while writing, so as to create documents free from duplicated content (e.g.,
character names, locations, and timeline calculations in a novel). (My
favourite part of the book's R code is integration of a GIS API to compute
driving distance based on the lat/long coordinates of two places in the novel,
falling back to the Haversine formula if the website is unavailable; the
number is then converted to English text using a Chicago Manual of Style
function call. Effectively, if I change the lat/long of either location, the
value of the book is updated without having to remember where in the text that
that particular number was referenced.)
Once a YAML document is loaded, inserting a variable is quick: type a few
letters from a value followed by Control+Space to insert the corresponding
variable name. This is handy if for deeply nested variable hierarchies.
The software is open-source and very much beta:
[https://github.com/DaveJarvis/scrivenvar](https://github.com/DaveJarvis/scrivenvar)
Ping me on GitHub if you like the concept and have comments or questions.
------
__________ttttt
Does anyone know how I can self publish on the “bible paper”? It’s the super
thin yet strong, high quality, paper.
I want to print a large book but want to have it not be too thick.
~~~
agbell
What your looking for is called onion skin paper and it seems to be pricey,
but I agree, great for certain uses
~~~
__________ttttt
I’m willing to pay. Do you know how to get a book bound using that paper?
~~~
schrijver
Like ilamont said you’ll probably have to go through an offset printing
process. There are some online services that offer offset printing for flyers
etc. but only with the most common setups. Easiest is to find a few printing
companies in your area and ask for offers. You might ask book designers or
publishers in your area to recommend printers.
------
innocentoldguy
I enjoyed the article and appreciated the information on ISBN numbers in
particular. In addition to the suggestions in the article, I would also add
Scrivener and Vellum to the list of important writing and publishing tools.
For the most part, I think this article is full of excellent advice. I do
disagree with three of the author's tips on how to write well though.
Specifically:
1\. There is no need to avoid alliteration. You shouldn't drown your work in
it, of course, but skillfully employing alliteration in your text can help
your sentences flow and can make certain aspects of your content more
memorable. I'd say it is better to learn to use alliteration, and use it to
good effect, than to eschew it altogether.
2\. Comparisons are not bad, especially in technical writing. When teaching,
it is helpful to tie new concepts to existing knowledge and comparisons are
one way to create these mental connections.
3\. Generalizations aren't bad in technical writing either, especially in code
samples. For example, telling a programmer how to print "Hello, World!" to the
screen is a helpful generalization. With that knowledge, the developer can now
use that same print statement for console output, messages, debugging,
logging, and other tasks. Developers can take this deceptively simple
generalization and use it for all kinds of specialized needs.
I think the key here is to learn to use alliteration, comparisons, and
generalizations in a way that strengthens your writing, rather than detracting
from it.
~~~
pablo_c
Hi! I wrote the post, glad you found useful!
Also, I'm with you with the recommendations :P It was just a funny image I
found on the internet and shared to produce some laughs...
I use a lot of comparisons alongside the book, especially from the "technical
to the real world".
Generalizations are also important, otherwise, it is impossible to get to the
point. They shape ideas. cheers!
~~~
innocentoldguy
Excellent job! Thank you for your efforts in sharing the information.
------
LeonB
I have a (draft) article where I've dumped all of the technical nitty gritty
of self-publishing: [http://wiki.secretgeek.net/creating-a-
book](http://wiki.secretgeek.net/creating-a-book)
------
ergothus
For papers and presentations at work (ones where i have time to do it right) I
write the text, then run it through the xkcd simple writer
([https://xkcd.com/simplewriter/](https://xkcd.com/simplewriter/)), then make
a new version with that output, then compare the two side by side and either
edit the original down or the simple one up.
It is a fascinating lesson. Some names or terms are understood and should be
there. Sometimes a more uncommon word is still clear AND more precise, so it
stays. Other times I find complete sentences that I can just remove and my
points are more visible.
I try to anticipate counter-arguments and head them off with detail, and/or
add qualifiers to statements at the cost of my main point. This technique
makes it clear when that happens so I can pull such out entirely or move to a
distinct section. Do it a few times and you benefit even when not using the
tool, though I need to refresh my brain monthlyish.
I removed "tend to", "most", "some", "often" and three sentences from the
above. I also broke my second paragraph into two, just from habits I've
learned this way.
------
slap_shot
I'm currently in the process of drafting a book about modern data engineering.
Data pipelines and data warehouses have changed drastically in the last five
years and I feel the few books on the subject are drastically outdated.
I figured I'd just start with content and work my way into the logistics of
the actual publishing process. This, and the comments in this thread, are a
huge help on the logistics side. Thank you!
~~~
malshe
Your book sounds interesting! How to keep a track of your project?
------
codazoda
A shameless plug for my own.
Publish on Kindle by Joel Dare
Explains how to format and publish a book using Libre Office. The book is
short, getting strait to the point quickly. I don't see a lot of sales but
readers that have reviewed it seem to like it.
[https://www.amazon.com/Publish-Kindle-write-ebook-
software-e...](https://www.amazon.com/Publish-Kindle-write-ebook-software-
ebook/dp/B00A4112ZM)
------
marvindanig
> …and a website.
=:) Have you seen Superbooks on web with
[https://bubblin.io](https://bubblin.io)?
Disclosure: I'm one of its developer.
~~~
wyldfire
Pretty cool site. FYI the page turn animation is unstable if I grab it near
the center of the page (it rapidly rocks between angled-down-from-top and
angled-up-from-bottom).
~~~
sonicaa
hi, I'm Sonica, CTO and cofounder of Bubblin here.
Yes, the transition is shaky when the curl is near the horizontal axis. We'll
fix or remove it on our next iteration of Bookiza.JS [1]
[1] [https://bookiza.io](https://bookiza.io)
------
jklepatch
I self published a book with leanpub. I used their online markdown editor.
Then I used their preview feature to export in all formats: pdf, epub and
mobi.
Then I uploaded these to my gumroad account, created a product and setup a
payment widget on my website.
Smooth and simple process.
------
ggm
A few comments. 1) kindle KDP is good, but you need to read up on format
issues for print on demand. fine detail around gutter and margin needs to be
understood for a high quality product. The specific DPI you render cover
artwork in, and sizing has a huge impact. Kindle can be a bit arbitrary on
what they accept and what they reject for print.
2) Kindle ePub demands a different set of outcomes. Do your print hardcopy
first, then modify it to make the inputs to upload. I used calibre to do all
the mods, but people swear by sigil. How you index makes a huge difference.
Remember ePub is flow text. All those pagerefs have to be re-calculated into
logical offsets and marks, not literal paper counts.
Again, the submission system can be a bit opaque.
If you want PoD hardcopy in Australia.. Avoid kindle. The amazon trade war
with Australian taxation has hit hard and they have no local printery.
I recommend Ingramspark, who can do PoD, _and_ manage epublishing into kobo
and nook and the like, and who have an agency status in amazon to sell your
hardcopy. The PoD rates look competitive with the KDP ones, once you factor US
delivery costs in.
(Amazon are pretty cool for worldwide rights)
Ingram demand really tight conformance on the PDF ISO specs for final output.
Adobe, craptacular code though it is, will emit the legal form. Sigil and
(yay!) libreoffice seem to also do this, but ymmv. Again, the DPI of your
images make a huge difference to submission here. Some stuff demands 300, some
demands 72 (for eprint covers)
Employ a professional editor/proofreader. They make a huge difference.
Seriously, its money well spent. Some of them index too.
~~~
sehugg
_Kindle can be a bit arbitrary on what they accept and what they reject for
print._
For e-books, too. One of my books was mysteriously blocked without
justification, and after several months and attempts at escalation was just as
mysteriously re-instated.
------
tuomosipola
Self-published books often have horrible layouts and graphical design, all-
around. Thankfully basic LaTeX styles are quite decent and do their job.
Casas's Data Science Live Book looks nice with its basic LaTeX style, I think.
~~~
pablo_c
Thanks! All the magic for the layout is thanks to LaTeX and the use of the R
package Bookdown:
[https://bookdown.org/yihui/bookdown/](https://bookdown.org/yihui/bookdown/)
Bookdown provides a template to produce the pdf, and you can modify later on
(for example customizing the table of contents, image positions, etc)
You write the book once, and it can be exported to html, pdf, epub (and
kindle)...
~~~
tuomosipola
These multiformat outputs have come a long way in the last five years, and
it's good to see them working. Thanks for the link! The automated approach
works best for technical books, just as in your case. There are still some
esoteric layout features that are very difficult to automate.
------
pablo_c
Hi! I'm Pablo Casas, the author of the "how-to" post & the Data Science Live
Book. I didn't notice the link was here!
Let me know if I can help you, I see a lot of interest here :)
------
atom-morgan
Softcover should be listed here:
[https://www.softcover.io/](https://www.softcover.io/)
You're familiar with it if you've been through Michael Hartl's Rails tutorial.
I used Softcover to self-publish my own book, releasing it in paperback on
Amazon:
[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1980891419/ref=dbs_a_def_r...](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1980891419/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i0)
------
kylegalbraith
Nice post! I am an Indie Publisher as well and you hit on quite a few things I
ran into as well. I went Gumroad right from the get-go and was very happy with
my experience. I later added KDP into the mix as well with a Kindle/Printed
version of the book, it hasn't done great but it is added credentials in a job
interview :)
------
jatsign
Does anyone have experience publishing a book similar to a kid's
coloring/activity book? I'm not interested in the e-book route and the
services I've looked at don't seem to offer the type of binding books of this
type have.
------
ggambetta
A similar example based on my own experience, but for a non-technical book:
[http://www.gabrielgambetta.com/tgl_open_source.html](http://www.gabrielgambetta.com/tgl_open_source.html)
------
amelius
Just curious, is it (still) possible to make a living from writing books?
------
C0d3r
Does anyone have a recommendation for just simply printing a book (epub or
pdf) that I'm not interested in selling? Just to print a copy for me?
~~~
codazoda
For short / simple books or "zines", consider a simple rotatable stapler and
print at home. Look at many of the zine resources online. This is my own
favorite way to publish small one-off or short run books.
------
nyc111
I use [https://leanpub.com/](https://leanpub.com/) and it works for me.
------
grecy
Does anyone know of a PoD service that will do hardcover books for a decent
price?
~~~
djaychela
Can you define 'decent'?
~~~
grecy
ha. OK, how about a PoD service that does hardcover books, at any price!
~~~
djaychela
[http://www.lulu.com/create/books](http://www.lulu.com/create/books)
I've done all my books through Lulu - including doing a couple of projects for
clients (schools) who did a 'make a book' project with the kids writing the
stories, etc... their service has always been pretty good. The site is a bit
clunky, but works. I've done a couple of one-offs for my own use as well.
And looks like they do hardcover (although I've never tried it).
~~~
wrycoder
I bought Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces in hardcover from Lulu.
[http://www.lulu.com/shop/http://www.lulu.com/shop/remzi-
arpa...](http://www.lulu.com/shop/http://www.lulu.com/shop/remzi-arpaci-
dusseau-and-andrea-arpaci-dusseau/operating-systems-three-easy-pieces-
hardcover-version-100/hardcover/product-23779861.html)
The book is over 700 pages. It's very nicely done. The front and back covers
are just the right thickness. The book is not bound in signatures, it's edge
glued ("perfect bound") like a paperback. But, the spine is extremely flexible
and not attached to the casing. I was very careful to open it properly by
gently creasing down sections of pages starting at the front and the back. If
this is not done, there is risk of breaking the spine. I can open the book at
any page and it lies flat on the table. The paper is medium weight, light
ivory, and non-glossy. The casing is printed nicely with the title, and the
dust jacket is first rate. Altogether, I'm quite pleased.
------
girmad
Traditional offset printing company with a plug / PSA: below 500 copies print
on demand services are great. Above 500 copies going with a traditional offset
printing house will get you a better price. Of course you take on more
inventory risk that way.
You also get access to more finishing and cover options, etc.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why HTTPS for Everything? - maxt
https://https.cio.gov/everything/
======
maxt
Here's a Mashable article about adopting HTTPS served via plain old HTTP:
[http://mashable.com/2011/05/31/https-web-
security/](http://mashable.com/2011/05/31/https-web-security/)
It worries me that major websites like this have still not made the switch to
HTTPS/TLS yet. Quite irksome are the reasons (actually, excuses) site owners
sometimes give like overhead, claiming switching over to HTTP/TLS will be
costly and annoying, or even worse - that their threat model doesn't include
HTTPS, and the burden is on the visitor to encrypt their connection to the
site. The onus is on _both_ parties to encrypt, instead of shunting the
encryption to the visitor. As for threat models, the news can be a sensitive
topic for some, and HTTPS can be of great service to visitors who enjoy their
privacy.
I enjoy initiatives like Secure The News[1] which is a small public awareness
campaign urging news outlets to adopt HTTPS/TLS. Initiatives like Google's
HTTPS Transparency Report[2] are great too and give us great insight into the
adoption rate of HTTPS/TLS:
[1] [https://securethe.news/](https://securethe.news/)
[2]
[https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/https/grid/](https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/https/grid/)
~~~
waqas-
im a lead dev for a large publisher. when we switched over to https we faced
the following non-trivial issues:
1\. a lot of third party advertisers/ad servers still run on http, these ads
need to be embedded via DFP usually, which you can understand does not work
out well. We made the switch months ago, to this date i am still making
advertisers switch to https.
2\. google says they give better ranking to https sites, thats simply not true
so far as i have seen. in fact, in the short run your site takes a hit. not
only that, in google webmaster console and google news, you cant shift from
http to https, you have to make new accounts for ur https sites. to this day i
do not know which ones is google crawling. For google news, my new https
account has yet to be approved after months, it looks like google just
magically shifts to https in google news. but if feels icky and hacky:
explicit is always better than implicit.
3\. microservices. remember those microservises that were all the rage? well,
its a bunch of different servers and subdomains, you have to shift all to
https when you shift the mothership to https.
while above points are valid, i still pushed in my org to shift to https. we
now use shiny stuff like http2 and web push, which is awesome. i'd recommend
all publishers to do so. but its understandable that management finds all this
scary, esp cuz its sounds like a major overhaul of your web assets (which is
everything when ure a web publisher) - even though it isnt really actually an
overhaul or anything.
~~~
izacus
> 1\. a lot of third party advertisers/ad servers still run on http, these ads
> need to be embedded via DFP usually, which you can understand does not work
> out well. We made the switch months ago, to this date i am still making
> advertisers switch to https.
So not only the ads collect personal data, slow down web experience and make
every non-adblocked site a pain to watch... you go the extra step to not even
encrypt transfer due to them?
~~~
Fnoord
Adblocking in 2016: using a HTTP firewall, blocking all HTTP requests by
default.
------
timthorn
I feel for later generations - learning tech gets harder and harder. Of course
as the sum of knowledge increases this must be true, but as we go HTTPS-only
the ability to type commands to a web server over telnet as a learning
experience will be a loss.
~~~
userbinator
...as is the ability to inspect the traffic in your network to and from the
devices you own. I think that is an even scarier situation, considering what
others have discovered about "smart" devices precisely because their traffic
was not encrypted. E.g.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6759426](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6759426)
Personally, I'm for HTTPS connections to things like government websites
(which is what this article seems to be mostly about), but against "HTTPS
everything" in the way it's going to be implemented.
~~~
test235
> but against "HTTPS everything"
You being against HTTPS everything, is the same as being in support of MITM
attacks somewhere. I am curious when is that the allowable case?
~~~
userbinator
I own my computing devices and I should be able to control the traffic they
create. Encryption must not prevent me from doing that.
~~~
pfg
Encryption does not prevent _you_ from doing that, just everyone else.
Of course, with non-free software and walled gardens, that might involve some
amount of reverse engineering, injecting a CA certificate in a trust store so
you can run a MitM proxy, or do something to bypass key pins, but that's never
really stopped anyone from finding out what an application is sending on the
wire.
You acknowledge that there is a certain amount of traffic that ought to be
encrypted, so you really need a solution for all applications either way.
~~~
ethbro
Effectively, I feel like it does prevent you from doing that due to the
reverse engineering necessity. The time multiplier between engineering vs
reverse engineering is too large.
Who's going to spend the time hacking through {random Chinese smart
lightswitch clone #8392727} that's sold in small volume?
There's going to need to be a legal "right to decrypt traffic" on black boxes,
if we're serious about this.
~~~
ufmace
And that's where we run into problems. How do we make it so that You can
decrypt the traffic from your devices, but random hackers, your ISP, the NSA,
etc can't? It's the same arguments against special decryption keys for the
Government - a backdoor for one entity can be exploited by other entities.
~~~
userbinator
_How do we make it so that You can decrypt the traffic from your devices, but
random hackers, your ISP, the NSA, etc can 't?_
The suggestion made at
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13303650](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13303650)
of terminating TLS at the border addresses this --- traffic on the public
Internet is encrypted, but is decrypted in the private local network. In some
ways it is similar to a VPN. I run a filtering/adblocking proxy that works in
the same way.
~~~
ethbro
Any pointers on what the encapsulation for that would look like? It seems like
one good option, but I'd say it's only feasible if it doesn't require work on
the part of the manufacturer.
My other thought was just mandating a method of loading CA certs onto all IoT
devices using an open standard connector. If the owner so chooses.
------
ggregoire
Related: last week I deployed my web app for the first time, on AWS. In two
clicks and for free I've been able to create and configure two certificates,
one for the React app on CloudFront and one for the API on BeanStalk. Really
surprised and amazed how simple and smooth was the whole process. Thanks
Amazon for this.
------
dahart
> The IETF has said that pervasive monitoring is an attack, and the Internet
> Architecture Board (the IETF’s parent organization) recommends that new
> protocols use encryption by default.
While HTTPS does prevent just anyone from monitoring, I've long been under the
impression that the government, and possibly influential corporations,
probably have access to any certificates issued by the large CAs.
Is this a tinfoil hat theory? Is anything legally or technically preventing
this from happening, and/or are there ways for me to know when my own browsing
is truly private between myself and only the party at the other end, and not
other curious or intrusive uninvited third parties?
~~~
cesarb
> I've long been under the impression that the government, and possibly
> influential corporations, probably have access to any certificates issued by
> the large CAs.
Everyone has that access. Click on the padlock icon on any HTTPS-using
website, and after a few more clicks you can export a copy of the site's
certificate (at least on Firefox).
But that gains you nothing without the corresponding private key. The private
key is generated on the website's server, and is never sent to the certificate
authority (what is sent is a "certificate request", which has basically the
same information found on the certificate).
> are there ways for me to know when my own browsing is truly private between
> myself and only the party at the other end, and not other curious or
> intrusive uninvited third parties?
Now that's a different question. While having access to the certificates is no
problem at all, being able to create a new certificate for an arbitrary
website allows one to pretend to be that website. The only defense against it
is that, if a CA is caught issuing these certificates, it risks being removed
from the browser's trust lists, which is a death penalty for a CA's business.
Also, there is a new initiative (Certificate Transparency) to make it easier
for these certificates to be caught.
~~~
rhblake
> Now that's a different question. While having access to the certificates is
> no problem at all, being able to create a new certificate for an arbitrary
> website allows one to pretend to be that website. The only defense against
> it is that, if a CA is caught issuing these certificates, it risks being
> removed from the browser's trust lists, which is a death penalty for a CA's
> business. Also, there is a new initiative (Certificate Transparency) to make
> it easier for these certificates to be caught.
There is a defense against rogue CAs: HTTP Public Key Pinning (HPKP) [0].
Chrome, Firefox et al use a HPKP preload list, but unlike with Strict
Transport Security (HSTS) there currently appears to be no way to submit one's
own site for inclusion in the preload lists. See e.g. Mozilla's policy [1].
[0] [https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/Web/HTTP/Public_Key...](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/Web/HTTP/Public_Key_Pinning)
[1]
[https://wiki.mozilla.org/SecurityEngineering/Public_Key_Pinn...](https://wiki.mozilla.org/SecurityEngineering/Public_Key_Pinning)
------
c3833174
So, what's an embedded system supposed to do when it can't reach its NTP
server and needs to validate a cert?
~~~
lvh
As usual: it depends.
Why does it need to validate a cert? How acceptable is it if you get it wrong?
Depending on the answer, perhaps "have a more reliable clock" is the right
answer (plenty of embedded devices certainly have a decent idea of what time
it is, and if it's already big enough to validate TLS). It seems reasonably
probable that the NTP server stops being available for a reasonable amount of
time before you have no idea what time it is anymore and can no longer
validate certificates; so depending on the device, telemetry might be a good
idea too.
It doesn't sound like a reason to give up, though :)
~~~
c3833174
What I meant is:
\- Device is rebooted
\- Can't reach NTP, no RTC or dead RTC battery, happy that time is January
1st, 1970
\- HTTPS breaks
~~~
yjftsjthsd-h
You can reach a web host but not NTP? That seems like an edge case.
------
therealmarv
Main part is "When properly configured". I recently tried out Brave browser on
mobile which supports HTTPS everywhere. It slows the mobile web experience so
much down that it is not funny. I really like to have HTTPS everywhere but
unfortunately not everybody does a good job with that (Handshaking... SPDY,
HTTP/2 etc.)
~~~
nsgi
Interesting, do you get that when browsing HTTPS sites with mobile
Chrome/Safari?
------
wereHamster
Funny that this comes from *.gov. It's in their (the governments) interest to
keep traffic unencrypted so that they can intercept and store everything
(makes life of CIA/FBI/NSA easier). Why bother enforcing HTTPS? /me confused
The people at NSA are probably like "Oh god why? No, stahp it".
~~~
vtlynch
It's almost as if the government is made up of many departments and people who
have different goals and values...
~~~
konklone
And this is a White House policy, with their official blog post and rationale
here: [https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/06/08/https-
everywhere-...](https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/06/08/https-everywhere-
government)
"It is critical that federal websites maintain the highest privacy standards
for the users of its online services. With this new action, we are driving
faster internet-wide adoption of HTTPS and promoting better privacy standards
for the entire browsing public."
(Disclaimer: I work on [https://https.cio.gov](https://https.cio.gov), at
GSA.)
------
davidgerard
The thing that convinced my employer this was actually important was the
announcement that Chrome 56 would mark non-SSL login pages as unsafe. Cheers
to Google!
------
newman314
One thing I haven't necessarily seen raised is that including subdomains on
HSTS headers would also affect internal websites on the same domain.
I'd argue that it's a good reason/way to get all internal sites upgraded to
HTTPS but it might not be feasible for a large organization. So something to
consider.
------
dajohnson89
Isn't the CIO a presidential appointment? I wonder who the next one will be.
Or, will there be one at all?
~~~
konklone
Yes, the federal CIO is a presidential appointment.
------
ns8sl
All web traffic that is not encrypted is vulnerable to having its contents
altered enroute.
This is a type of man in the middle vulnerability that allows for javascript,
posts, etc. to be changed into something malicious.
------
ge96
A+ on Qualys yeaaaa
I see people mention Let's Encrypt, maybe I'm a sucker paying the $9.00 for a
year's worth versus free but every 90 days.
~~~
grzm
Let's Encrypt is set up to strongly encourage a completely automated set up,
including renewal. From my experience "but every 90 days" is effectively for
as long as desired.
~~~
ge96
Yeah maybe I'm just using it as an excuse for not learning to do Let's
Encrypt. If it's the same as a standard $9.00 domain validation SSL then I
could be saving that $9.00 by not being an idiot.
------
greggman
Is there any work on a solution for IoT or other end user programs/devices
that would benefit from being able to serve HTTPS instead of HTTP?
------
calvins
https.cio.gov SSL Labs test result:
[https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=https.cio.gov](https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=https.cio.gov)
Of note is that they're using a Let's Encrypt cert and running in AWS.
------
ArkyBeagle
"Today, there is no such thing as non-sensitive web traffic..."
I just don't agree. Is it sensitive for me to google a man page or look up
some algorithm or another? Because that's mainly what I use the Web for. The
Web - not intranet ( which is usually quite sensitive ).
Blog reading is sensitive? Hacker News? No, no they are not.
~~~
Veratyr
> Is it sensitive for me to google a man page or look up some algorithm or
> another?
It doesn't make sense to cut out such specific uses. The real question should
be "are my Google searches sensitive?" and the answer to that, for most
people, is "yes".
> Blog reading is sensitive? Hacker News? No, no they are not.
They're not particularly sensitive but they show anyone watching your internet
connection that you're interested in these subjects. Why let that happen when
you can not?
~~~
ArkyBeagle
The claim was that _ALL_ Internet traffic is sensitive. I provided
counterexamples. Position refuted.
I don't care who reads my Google searches. Hope they have plenty of coffee,
because it's pretty boring stuff.
I still get on Usenet. So I know at a very deep level that it's _all_ public.
All to the better.
------
andrewfromx
I use neverssl.com everyday
~~~
yjftsjthsd-h
Why?
~~~
andrewfromx
coffee shop wifi's will not connect unless u goto an http only site.
------
edblarney
A better question is 'why HTTP for anything'?
------
eclipsetheworld
Having a "https." subdomain feels so weird.
~~~
paulddraper
Yeah, should be https.www.cio.gov .
It's too bad the www.www.extra-www.org people are gone; they could have teamed
up for a new proposal.
------
Steeeve
It's worth pointing out that this is an effort to secure government sites: "A
Policy to Require Secure Connections across Federal Websites and Web Services"
Which makes sense to a degree and on the surface.
But it doesn't actually make sense. From an individual standpoint of "my
personal government held information should be secure" it certainly does. From
the standpoint that the government should provide easy and open access to data
it does not. And let's face it - browser warnings about bad certificates are
generally ignored, and the fact that they haven't presented one provides no
real confidence that a connection is in fact secure.
Should I really have to pay someone to find out if a car has been used as a
rental car or in an accident? Is there a real benefit to that data being
transmitted via an https session vs. a http session?
If I'm looking at a congressman's voting history, is there a real benefit to
that data being transmitted via an https session vs. http?
What's the drawback?
There's a layer of complexity in the way that isn't necessary or helpful.
Anybody who has done web based automation has run into plenty of issues with
expired / incorrect / insecure / misconfigured ssl certificates. And we've all
seen trusted certificate authorities compromised. Heck, some of us compromise
secure http ourselves pretty regularly as part of the development and testing
cycle. What happens when we're accessing data from a custom device with
minimal resources? Text processing and network connectivity is one thing.
Adding in encryption support and maintaining SSL is a whole different problem
to deal with.
And what happens when a guy working a low level office wants to expose a web
service for something like viewing an event calendar? There's additional work
to be done to obtain certificates and configure his web server to use them. So
now maybe he doesn't do it because the bureaucracy in place is too painful.
\---
I'm not a fan of making blanket decisions based on flimsy logic. I find it
ironic that their first reason for doing this points to a TAG finding that not
only points out several drawbacks, but lays out that one of the primary
reasons for preferring secure communication would be to minimize pervasive
government monitoring.
~~~
cesarb
Like many, you are forgetting the other half of what TLS provides. It's not
only confidentiality, it's also authenticity. It ensures not only that nobody
can eavesdrop the connection within the browser and the server, but also that
nobody can modify it, for instance to inject a piece of Javascript with a
browser exploit.
~~~
throwaway6845
He's not necessarily "forgetting" it and I wish HTTPS-everywhere advocates
would stop ascribing forgetfulness or bad motives. Some of us have a different
opinion based on our own genuinely-held beliefs.
Requiring HTTPS everywhere is weighing certain factors above others. For many
people, encryption and consequent lack of snooping/MITMing is an absolute
which outweighs all other possible factors. That's fine. You're entitled to
hold that belief. But please don't accuse others, who don't hold that as a
trumps-everything absolute, of "forgetting" or (like the guy upthread who said
"You being against HTTPS everything, is the same as being in support of MITM
attacks somewhere") arguing in bad faith.
~~~
dispose13432
>Some of us have a different opinion based on our own genuinely-held beliefs
Such as?
Browsing a website with an adblocker in a public place may literally give me a
virus.
That's what HTTPS everywhere protects against.
~~~
throwaway6845
Browsing any infected website, HTTPS or otherwise, may give you a virus.
~~~
konklone
Right, but if it's HTTPS, only the website can give you a virus. If it's HTTP,
the website can give you a virus, plus the owner of any network device your
requests traveled through on the way to and from the website. That's often a
lot of owners.
------
be21
Nazi Enigma encryption was cracked, because they encrypted everything, even
repetitive information like weather reports. Https for everything is promoted
by NSA.
~~~
Ao7bei3s
Modern ciphers are designed to resist chosen plaintext attacks.
------
kogepathic
It's great to see a positive attitude toward security also gaining support in
Government.
I just wish all software projects felt the need to be more secure [0]:
> Redis is designed to be accessed by trusted clients inside trusted
> environments.
> While Redis does not try to implement Access Control, it provides a tiny
> layer of authentication that is optionally turned on editing the redis.conf
> file.
> Redis does not support encryption.
This is just broken by design software development. [1] It's irresponsible in
2016/2017 to assume you have impenetrable perimeter security.
Redis' excuse is just bullshit. PostgreSQL supports authentication, SSL, and
even client cert pinning.
[0] [https://redis.io/topics/security](https://redis.io/topics/security)
[1] [http://antirez.com/news/96](http://antirez.com/news/96)
Edit: Loving the downvotes by butthurt developers who have never had a
security audit...
~~~
theGimp
Redis and Postgre are meant to play different roles.
If you don't like what Redis does, you're welcome not to use it.
~~~
kogepathic
> If you don't like what Redis does, you're welcome not to use it.
I like what Redis does, and it's also heavily used in industry. What I am
saying, not incorrectly, is that their approach to security is harmful to
their users. Most of whom won't know, care, or implement additional security
which they should.
It's the same argument with HTTPS. Of course HTTPS is optional in a web
server, but all major web servers support HTTPS, and there has been a
concentrated push to have more people using SSL.
e.g. LetsEncrypt
We should be making it easier for people to deploy secure services. Redis'
approach to security makes it extremely difficult for developers to deploy
secure services.
I'll say it again: It's irresponsible in 2016/2017 to assume you have
impenetrable perimeter security.
~~~
jrudolph
I don't get why it would be that way? It's built to be deployed in a DMZ on a
private network and that's how 99% of users (typically professionals) use it.
~~~
1_2__3
The idea of a hardened perimeter around a soft squishy interior has been
proven repeatedly not to work.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
DI Containers Are Code Polluters - yegor256a
http://www.yegor256.com/2014/10/03/di-containers-are-evil.html?2014-39
======
SchizoDuckie
Call me oldskool, but I wholeheartedly agree.
Dependency injection via settings files leads to 'magic' code that's a mess to
debug if you're new to a platform/stack (I'm looking at you, Symfony2)
No longer can you just click through an object and follow the path to where a
dependency comes from, you now need to wade through stacks of code and then
end up in some xml/yml/json file.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Scribd Streamlines Embedded Docs With iPaper 2 - trip
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/10/scribd-streamlines-embedded-docs-with-ipaper-2/
======
mattjaynes
Congrats JR!
I know that many folks on HN much prefer raw pdf's to a flash viewer, but JR
(sole programmer for iPaper) has done an amazing job single-handedly replacing
a multi-billion dollar company's product: Macromedia's FlashPaper.
JR is a quiet, but very friendly french canadian, an avid roller-blader, and
was previously one of the programmer's on the Assassin's Creed (
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassin%27s_Creed> )
When I worked at Scribd, JR and I shared an office while he was writing the
first version of iPaper. The sheer complexity of getting all the fonts worked
out and embedded images and searching and compression and streaming in the
document for faster load times etc etc was quite a feat for a single
developer. He would come in early and leave late, all the day working with an
amazing focus. He's a real work horse.
I remember when his Programming Erlang book arrived - he devoured it in a
couple of days and re-architected the iPaper system to more efficiently stream
the documents to the viewer. Despite the iPaper viewer being in flash, there
are some very sexy technologies under the hood.
Anyway, just wanted to shed some light on the guy behind the product. It's not
a team of highly paid flash code monkeys - just JR quietly working away to
make billion dollar company's products obsolete.
~~~
jrbedard
Hi Matt, thanks but I wasn't directly involved with this new iteration of
iPaper, it's the work of Ed, Michael and Barish at Scribd. Good to hear from
you!, cheers :)
~~~
mattjaynes
He he, I'm clearly behind on the project changes in the last year! Either way
- iPaper 1.0 was an excellent foundation :)
------
bradgessler
I still don't get scribd: <http://blog.bradgessler.com/i-dont-get-scribd>
~~~
skip
Can't agree more. And they want me to sign up in order to see or download a
plain PDF, thats not going to happen.
~~~
bradgessler
Scribd would be much more useful if they supported predictable URLs of a
document in their various formats. For example, if I uploaded
My_Awesome_Document.docx, it could throw it into an URL like
<http://www.scribd.com/bradgessler/My_Awesome_Document.docx> and let me enter
URLs like
http://www.scribd.com/bradgessler/My_Awesome_Document.pdf
http://www.scribd.com/bradgessler/My_Awesome_Document.doc
to download the various formats of the doc. an URL shortner would sweeten the
deal for tweeting/sharing docs. iPaper could just be another option for
sharing/embedding a doc.
I'm probably just a vocal minority.
------
blasdel
While it's nice that it doesn't look like a shit Flex app anymore, the
interaction behaviors are still awful -- let me use my goddamn scroll wheel!
Google's PDF viewer used for attachments in Gmail is better by leaps and
bounds -- I hope they start using it in SERPs at some point. I wonder if an
API could be hacked together for use from a Firefox extension...
~~~
earl
In what browser does your scroll wheel not work? It works for me in firefox
and safari.
~~~
blasdel
The Firefox 3 + Flash in the current Ubuntu.
Something else might be fucked, as none of the buttons on it's little toolbar
seem to do anything.
~~~
earl
Do you have js disabled?
Will try to test on ff / ubuntu
~~~
blasdel
I do not have JS disabled, as I am not a mouthbreather.
Just checked at home on Gentoo x86_64 / FF-3.0.10 / Flash-10.0.22.87 -- and
got identical behavior.
The old iPaper works, except that when embedded normally the scroll wheel
doesn't work (but it does when viewing the swf directly).
The new iPaper fails embedded or directly -- clicking / dragging and the
contextual menu works, but none of the toolbar items work. Scrolling doesn't
work at all.
------
lionheart
Wow, this is much better. Loads quicker too.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
At $3 Million, New Award Gives Medical Researchers a Dose of Celebrity - zt
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/20/science/new-3-million-prizes-awarded-to-11-in-life-sciences.html?hp
======
amirmc
I'm impressed and anything that promotes and furthers fundamental science gets
a thumbs-up from me.
However, I do find the process a little odd. Specific things irk me like the
ability to win multiple times and all winners also being on the selection
committee. _"Dr. Levinson [CEO of Genentech], in consultation with his
colleagues, helped Mr. Milner select the first Breakthrough winners. These
winners will form a committee that will select future winners, Mr. Milner
said,"_ I also dislike this [1], but I guess you have to start somewhere. The
Nobel Committee's aren't without controversy [2]. The prize money seems
unnecessarily large but that's an easy way to 'compete' for recognition with
more established prizes. It also helps since more research is collaborative in
nature so a split of the prize is still meaningful.
It'll be interesting to see whether these prizes succeed in putting science
more in the public eye. I'm not convinced they will unless the foundations
involved also do the extra work of marketing and promoting the winners (rather
than marketing the prize itself, as this article does).
[1] I was a research scientist so this 'industry influence' in the selection
process immediately rubbed me the wrong way (industry promoting it's own
interests etc etc). Though those feelings may not be warranted in this case.
[2] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Prize_controversies>
------
hirenj
In response to the comments about whether this would provide incentive to
those that would practice science, I would argue that it's probably not the
point. Rather, it rewards those who think big and encourages risk-taking, both
qualities that are not necessarily associated with the biological sciences,
where incremental success is the norm.
Quoting Milner: "With the mapping of the genome sequence there are
expectations of significant progress in the next 10 or 20 years so I think the
timing is really appropriate to create an incentive for the best scientific
minds" [1]. In other words, with a timeframe of 10-20 years, you're talking
about people already in science. To get up to this level in 10 years, you'd
have to be pretty damn brilliant.
Personally, I look at this like some icing on an already delicious cake, and
cements my commitment to a strategy to fill in some huge gaps in biological
knowledge within the next 5-10 years.
[1]
[http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/feb/20/breakthrough-p...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/feb/20/breakthrough-
prize-silicon-valley-entrepreneurs)
------
jahewson
Academia has managed to function just fine without this prize for a long time.
What's the sudden need for this, aren't academics supposed to be intrinsically
motivated people, rather than extrinsically motivated? I've always disliked
the Nobel prize as a concept too. Is this prize really going to cause anyone
to become an academic? If not then its just rewarding persistence and good
luck, which just re-enforces the staus quo.
~~~
maxerickson
I don't think Milner is trying to motivate scientists, I think he is trying to
see what happens when they get a break from writing grants (which is pretty
contrary to enforcing the status quo).
The people getting these certainly have more flexibility to work on blue sky
projects.
~~~
bpicolo
Or he wants to encourage more people to work on immortality research.
------
Flenser
Do awards like this lead to more research being done? It's easy to throw large
sums of money at problems, it's harder to hand out lot's of smaller amounts. I
suspect that if this money was awarded as smaller grants to many researchers
it would have a much bigger impact.
------
belorn
Wonder if this will help incentive invention, in the same way that prize money
for security vulnerability incentive security researchers to vulnerabilities
in software.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Staple Food Vending Machines Serve Those Living on $4 a Day - ca98am79
http://www.psfk.com/2015/03/algramo-vending-machines-food-staples-feeds-the-poor.html#.VRVuVCCfTVo.twitter
======
jsilence
In Germany the small beverage company "Premium" does not offer discounts on
larger orders. Instead they offer "Antimengenrabatt" for smaller customers, in
order to give them a chance to enter the market.
They operate on a couple of those principles which they call the "Premium
Operatoing System for companies". [http://www.premium-
cola.de/betriebssystem](http://www.premium-cola.de/betriebssystem) (Sorry,
german only).
So while I like the idea of the algramo vending machine, I think it makes the
world a little bit more inhumane for the poor, while Premium makes the
business world a little bit more humane.
------
vskarine
I hope that www.soylent.com and www.spacenutrientsstation.com would do
something similar in US
------
Turing_Machine
This seems like something that might've been in Stephenson's _Snow Crash_.
------
aceperry
Looks like something that can be useful here in the US.
------
jqm
This is awesome! (I just hope for these poor people's sake that it's more
reliable than the Coke machine at my work).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Golang automation for mining cryptocurrencies on the Spot Market - alexellisuk
https://github.com/alexellis/spotminer
======
jlgaddis
Be careful with this kind of stuff.
Someone posted a link [0] to a GitHub repo here a few days ago that would fire
up a miner on some AWS GPU instances... except that they hard-coded their own
account (wallet) into it so any profits would go to them. It hit the HN front
page pretty quickly.
This might be completely legit but, at minimum, take a few minutes to look
through the code before you just blindly deploy it.
[0]:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16249372](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16249372)
~~~
alexellisuk
Always read the code - this is why I'm not supplying a binary.
I don't even know if this is valid within the T&Cs - but I hope it will be
interesting and of educational value at the least.
~~~
swedish_mafia
But you are supplying a binary !
This docker container calls a pre-compiled binary ./cpuminer. There is no way
to tell if this binary faithfully uses the bitcoin address provided in the
command line (yes there is some code there but you cannot confirm that this it
was compiled from that code.)
But it gets worse. Even if someone does disassemble the binary, you could
update the the docker container to add this capability, and nobody will be
able to tell because the image gets pulled each time.
~~~
alexellisuk
Have you taken a moment to read the README? The Dockerfile is linked in the
mine-with-docker project. You are well within your rights to rebuild that. The
concern raised was what happened with the cloud API.
------
broz
It seems the repo has a hardcoded mining address here, isn't it? I'm not sure
how do you configure a user at a mining pool, but be careful.
[https://github.com/alexellis/spotminer/blob/master/main.go#L...](https://github.com/alexellis/spotminer/blob/master/main.go#L161)
~~~
alexellisuk
I've fixed that - it was unintentional and thank you for pointing it out.
------
jarym
So if enough automated miners hit Packet.net's spot market does that mean that
it'll take the cheap supply away so that non-miners will be competing for
cost-effective instances?
------
IgorPartola
How quickly will I lose money with this?
~~~
np_tedious
Slower than if you used dedicated EC2s
~~~
IgorPartola
Heh that’s fair.
------
unusximmortalis
What's the spot instance which can be used and not lose money on mining with
'em?
~~~
malux85
It's not for GPU coins, but some altcoins are pop in and out of profitability
on CPUs, if you balance it in realtime you can make money. (I have an employee
doing this as a learning project)
But if making a lot of money is your goal then you're better do it it trading,
no I'm not going to elaborate
~~~
bufferoverflow
Is trading really better? With this you're basically guaranteed a profit, as
long as you can find a spot instance cheaper than the mined amount.
~~~
malux85
youre guaranteed a small profit. Trading is greater risk greater reward.
Mining might get you hundreds, low thousands a month. Trading is 10s thousands
/ low hundreds thous. Month
~~~
bufferoverflow
I remember seeing stats that something like 90% of the traders lose money
trading stocks. I'm sure it's the same in crypto, though it's compensated by
the nearly constant growth. I doubt though that many traders beat the simple
buy-and-hold strategy.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Journey to Mars: Pioneering Next Steps in Space Exploration [pdf] - pp19dd
http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/journey-to-mars-next-steps-20151008_508.pdf
======
hackuser
If you have any interest, I highly recommend reading this. It's not marketing
fluff; it has a creative and (seemingly) complete vision and well-thought-
through planning, and is clear, concise, and detailed. Maybe someone who
follows these issues closely will already know much of it (or maybe not; I
have no idea), but it is an education for me and by far the best thing I've
read on the subject.
For example, the three phases in the title are defined not by physical
locations or technological developments, but by dependence on Earth:
* Earth Reliant
* Proving Ground: R&D in 'cislunar' space
* Earth Independent
Maybe that's old news to space geeks, but it's new to me and shows an effort
to carefully conceive of the mission.
~~~
nickff
I wish that NASA's plan were wise and thoughtful... but it isn't.
NASA has created a plan which supports the continuation of all projects
currently running and in development as part of the 'path to Mars'. While this
may be a good jobs or aerospace stimulus spending program, these projects are
not critical to getting to Mars. If NASA were serious about going to Mars as
soon as possible, they would cancel the Space Launch System (SLS), and spend
the money on in-orbit low-gravity research, ion thruster research, and
SpaceX/Blue Origin/Orbital Sciences/ULA super-heavy lift capabilities. If they
did this, NASA could send astronauts to Mars in 2024. As things stand, SLS is
too expensive and slow a program to survive changes of administrations (i.e.
presidential elections), like its predecessors, SLS and its descendants will
go into cost/scope death spirals and get cancelled/restarted.
In short, if NASA really wanted to go to Mars, they'd focus on going to Mars.
If you're interested in the subject, I suggest you watch "The Mars
Underground", as it is a good primer on the recent history of Mars exploration
ideas/initiatives.[1]
[1] [http://documentarystorm.com/the-mars-
underground/](http://documentarystorm.com/the-mars-underground/)
~~~
jules
Why should we want to go to Mars at this point in time? Given the choice of
putting billions into going to Mars or doing something else, why should we go
to Mars? It seems to me that there are far better places to put this money.
~~~
nickff
This entire thread is based on the premise that sending humans to Mars is
desirable, and we are discussing how best to get there. The purpose of my
comment was to address how NASA should spend its money, not whether it should
have the money in the first place.
If you would like to discuss de-funding human spaceflight and/or NASA, I think
there are points for and against both, and would be interested to read your
thoughts on the matter.
~~~
jules
I understand, it's just that your comment made me doubt whether going to Mars
is a good idea at all :)
Why I thought that going to Mars might not be a great idea (yet):
NASA's budget is about 17 billion so lets guesstimate that going to Mars will
cost 100 billion. It's probably a lot more to establish a colony, let alone a
self sufficient colony. What is the benefit of having a colony on Mars? We
aren't lacking space on Earth; it would be a lot easier to colonize the
Saharan desert than to colonize Mars. Instead that money could go to
scientific research (e.g. renewable energy generation, medical research, AI
research, robotics research), or to some other cause. Wouldn't that be of much
greater benefit to humanity?
If you're looking purely at space exploration it also seems to me that there
are better ways to spend that money than to put humans on Mars. For the same
money we could probably put a whole bunch of telescopes in space and send
several probes/rovers to asteroids/planets/moons.
Even if the ultimate goal is to establish a colony on Mars, it might be a
better strategy to build it with robots than with humans...?
~~~
kvz
I recommend reading the last waitbutwhy post. Also available in audio, which
is nice to digest the material if you're doing a few hours of less
inspirational work
------
ohitsdom
I'm curious how much cost is added to the flight to Mars if they build a
tether/rotating system on the spacecraft to simulate gravity. Seems like too
much of a health risk to forgo this and spend years in micro-gravity, although
research is limited on the topic (the first two men in a year long study are
at ~7 months in space).
~~~
nickff
NASA has unfortunately been neglecting low-gravity (centripetal acceleration)
research. The only research I am aware of in this area was conducted by the
Soviet Union on mice, and (to the best of my recolection) they found that
~0.3G and relatively low RPM were required to maintain fitness. I agree with
you that further work is required on this subject, as it could help future
Martians to be healthier and more productive throughout their journey, but it
does not seem to jive with NASA's current priorities. NASA has repeatedly
rejected proposals for studies and experiments in this area.
~~~
baobabaobab
NASA actually did a tethered artificial gravity experiment during Gemini with
the target docking vehicle. They got it working, although they only spun it up
to like .01g.
~~~
nickff
From what I read, they were never even sure of what the centripetal
acceleration (G-force) actually was, because of the uncertainty of the
measurements. Either way, I suppose you could call this research, but I have
always categorized this as a proof of concept of a potential research method.
It should also be noted that NASA has had trouble with tethers in the past,
due to vibrations along the wire(s) and orbital mechanics related issues.
------
Animats
Congress failed to fund the Commercial Crew Program, which would have put
astronauts in space on Space-X boosters using the existing Falcon rocket and
Dragon capsule. Instead, NASA's pork programs are getting funding.
Colonizing Mars is a fantasy. The worst real estate on Earth can support life
better than the best real estate on Mars. It would be easier to colonize
Antarctica or underwater on a continental shelf than Mars. Send robots to look
around, sure. We now know what Mars looks like. Nearly airless, dusty, rocky,
maybe some brine or ice. Years of orbiters haven't found anything really
exciting that justifies more surface exploration.
The US should build a Venus lander that can survive that environment and let
us get a good look at Venus. The only surface pictures of Venus are from
Soviet spacecraft of the 1970s. It's time for another look.
~~~
pdabbadabba
> Years of orbiters haven't found anything really exciting that justifies more
> surface exploration.
Beyond liquid water, I'm not sure what more you could hope for. Little green
men, I guess?
------
richmarr
This is great & inspiring and all.
I just can't help pausing at the apparent tension between "we embark on this
journey for all humanity" and "strengthening America’s leadership on Earth and
in space".
There's certainly nothing wrong with the USA's space agency serving the
interests of the USA, and there will (eventually) be technology & economic
benefits for other nations too, I just find the language jars.
~~~
MrZongle2
The cynic in me says for you not to worry.
In 10 years the United States will (unfortunately) be no closer to landing a
man on Mars. The mess that is the Congressional budget process will guarantee
it.
Much like fusion and AI, an American on Mars always seems about 20-25 years
away.
------
shostack
Is it just me or has NASA really been on point with capitalizing on the PR
opportunity surrounding The Martian?
\- Numerous Reddit frontpage posts/AMA's
\- Great buzz around discoveries
\- This plan
Not knocking them--NASA needs all the love they can get. I've just become very
aware of a much larger NASA presence in my news sources than I'm used to.
~~~
pp19dd
Nah. For me it was this 70 MB photo of Pluto that convinced me that they're
not hyping anything, but delivering actual results:
[http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/cro...](http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/crop_p_color2_enhanced_release.png)
Think I spent half a day staring at that photo, just zooming and panning and
wishing I had a bigger screen. Anyhow, they bring up this data bandwidth issue
front and center in the PDF.
More to my point (if I had one), the probe was launched in 2006 and took 9
years to get there. The 70 MB photo was taken half a year ago and just now
managed to get transmitted (surely they had other things queued up and so
forth.) I don't think that I've done anything for 9 years, and I would never
wait half a year for a page to load, so NASA's convinced me that they can do
longevity.
------
devy
Not impressed. Considering Dr. Robert Zubrin's Mars Direct plan and later
revised Mars Semi-Direct plan announced in the early 90s even with the space
technologies back then. [1][2][3][4]
[1]:
[https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/376589main_04%20-%20Mars%20Direct%2...](https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/376589main_04%20-%20Mars%20Direct%20Power%20Point-7-30-09.pdf)
[2]:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7ZDf5KZGAk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7ZDf5KZGAk)
[3]:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcTZvNLL0-w](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcTZvNLL0-w)
------
hackuser
Is there a web version of this? It's too bad if all this great information is
hidden away in a PDF, which few will bother to open (even on HN, and fewer in
the general public) and which I'll probably be unable to find in the future. I
found the following website, but my initial impression is that it's lacks a
lot of the great material in the PDF:
[http://www.nasa.gov/topics/journeytomars/index.html](http://www.nasa.gov/topics/journeytomars/index.html)
~~~
mpweiher
Why? I click on the link and it opens in the browser like any other content.
Except that it's easier to download.
~~~
hackuser
> I click on the link and it opens in the browser like any other content
That's one thing I'm not doing. IME Firefox's PDF rendering is worse than
external applications; it has trouble rendering many more files and the
rendering is much harder to read.
------
awfullyjohn
I hope this plan includes the Rich Purnell maneuver.
~~~
gjkood
The book/movie depicts Rich Purnell using some NASA/JPL supercomputers to
verify his calculations.
Knowing nothing (or less than nothing if thats possible) about Celestial
Mechanics, considering that the technique (gravitational assist/slinghsot
maneauver???) was used in space probes as early as the 1970s, how much
computing power would be needed to do these calculations?
I guess the faster the computing resources, the earlier you would get your
solutions. But are these calculations that could be done on more run of the
mill computing hardware?
~~~
scigeek42
In the book it describes how the difficulty with the calculation came from the
fact that they were continuously firing the spacecraft thrusters (it was some
form of drive that used a constant small acceleration). Thus far most all of
our probes use short-term bursts to change their velocities. I'm not sure how
many ion-engine equipped probes we have that have needed to calculate multiple
slingshot manoeuvres.
In his interview with Adam Savage the author described how he wound up writing
his own custom code to calculate the trajectories of their spacecraft. One
could imagine that NASA would need to consider a lot more "real-world"
variables than a sci-fi author, so it is somewhat reasonable to think time on
a supercomputer could have come in handy.
------
stevecalifornia
Kudos to NASA for improving their communications with the general public. This
is exactly the kind of document I want to see-- broad yet appropriately
detailed and decorated with wonderful art.
I am excited for a future where Mars plays a similar role in science as
Antarctica. I hope that my two young daughters have the opportunity to do
research on another planet if that's what they want to do.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
China's stock market crash: A red flag - anigbrowl
http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2015/07/chinas-stockmarket-crash
======
Pyxl101
Limitations on short selling always concern and perplex me. Why is that a good
idea? Isn't that preventing the market from properly adjusting to whatever
circumstances have occurred, or new information that has arrived? Limitations
like this feel like "Let's all pretend that the truth isn't true".
It astonishes me that in this day and age there are still so many arbitrary
controls on marketplaces, such as the Greek stock markets shutting down due to
their financial crisis. Isn't it important for the market to adjust and
properly accommodate those events? (If the market simply cannot function due
to the crisis itself, then that makes sense. I assumed it was shut down
because people are afraid of how prices will change as a result.) Sure, some
people might panic in an unreasonable way, and if they do, they will get taken
to town by other people who go long during the same time period. Just like
people who are overly confident will be taken to town by short sellers if
there's a bubble and it bursts.
I understand why there are controls on the marketplace like around prohibiting
naked short selling, or reversing transactions that were obviously erroneous,
but controls like preventing short selling seem absurd. If someone wants to
bet that prices will decrease, let them! That's an important signal and an
important correction to the market. Perhaps we would have fewer market bubbles
if there was more continuous correction.
Is anyone working on a bitcoin-based stock market with no limitations on
trading? Could such a thing be legal? Perhaps actual shares of stock are not
being traded, but rather some other kind of financial instrument that
represents the right to the upside or downside of some shares without having
to own them, but you own the upside or downside. Then the idea would be that
anyone can buy these instruments using currency or bitcoin on a market that
operates differently than today's conservative markets.
I imagine this is probably illegal for a variety of reasons, such as "know
your customer", but it's interesting to think about. How would the stock
market be different if trades were unregulated, in the sense that there are no
limitations on buying and selling shares. It operates 24/7 and never shuts
down no matter what happens, and never imposes constraints on selling or short
selling. I imagine this market would need to operate as a central authority or
federation of trusted brokers (someone needs to verify that the seller
actually owns the shares they've promised to deliver), but the authority or
brokers would be willing to transact in both regular currency and bitcoin.
Would this be a more effective market, or a dysfunctional one, and why?
~~~
dflock
This would be true if people always behaved like Econs, not Humans. In normal
times, the mass market averages out irrational behaviour (and there's less of
it when things are calm) - but, occasionally the herd stampedes. Perhaps it's
better in these cases to slow the panic until things calm down and people
start behaving more rationally again.
There are also cases where people individually rationally maximizing their
individual financial interests is, collectively, devastating for society as a
whole.
Continuous adjustment sounds great, but sometimes we get crashes, which
aren't.
~~~
georgebarnett
It's curious that there's only intervention in the markets when they're
tanking. If the underlying reason for the intervention is to prevent
irrational behaviour then where was the regulator when the price was going up
like wildfire? Surely it should work both ways?
~~~
lkrubner
There are many, many regulations that limit the rise of the markets, the most
obvious being the limits put in place on credit and margin. All Western
governments intervene in the various stock markets, everyday. That's been true
since at least the 1930s. The interventions are sometimes direct, but are more
typically indirect.
These last 40 years there has been a movement afoot, especially in the English
speaking nations, to weaken the controls that limit the spikes, up and down,
in the market. There may be some advantages to this policy, but there are also
many disadvantages.
------
smaili
Note: I'm not an economics expert by any means, so go easy on me :)
I'd just like to ask why in situations like this, governments tend to
intervene? In the long term, wouldn't it actually be better to let the market
just naturally figure itself out? That way the end prices reflect the real
value.
~~~
lmm
A free market can't handle limited liability. It's only government
intervention that can provide things like orderly bankruptcy proceedings. If
the government is obliged to be a lender of last resort then it seems
reasonable for it to take less binary steps before that eventuality.
~~~
tomp
> A free market can't handle limited liability. It's only government
> intervention that can provide things like orderly bankruptcy proceedings.
Obviously. And it's the government that actually establishes the free market,
regulates it, and provides all the surrounding infrastructure (roads, police,
courts, ...).
A "free market" doesn't mean that you can do whatever you want - the name for
that is "anarchy". Free market only means that everybody is free to compete
under equal terms. Additionally, governments would step in if a single player
got too powerful and would exert its power in ways that would undermine
competition.
------
tokenadult
The _Los Angeles Times_ reporting about the first two days of trading this
week in China[1] is also interesting for perspective on how the stock market
in China influences the broader economy of China. The key idea is that the
current situation, even WITH government intervention, is very likely to
severely hurt the personal savings of a lot of households in a country with a
strong tradition of personal savings. That could turn many well educated,
high-earning people who were previous supporters of the Communist Party of
China leadership of China into doubters about their government or even regime
opponents.
The CNN report based on official media reports from China strongly suggests
many economic upheaval from the current intervention in the stock market in
China.[2] The most dynamic and innovative companies in China are those most
likely to be unable to raise further investment funds.
[1] "It's a bumpy ride for China's stock market investors"
[http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-china-stock-
market-2...](http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-china-stock-
market-20150707-story.html)
[2] "Nearly 25% of Chinese stocks have stopped trading"
[http://money.cnn.com/2015/07/07/investing/china-stock-
market...](http://money.cnn.com/2015/07/07/investing/china-stock-market-
companies-stop-trading/)
------
jamespitts
The shadow banking sector in the mainland worries me more than anything else
in this emerging situ. It is an information problem, but magnified by the
potential for political distortion or simple opacity. In freer societies, the
issue is merely a gap between expectations and emerging reality, and we know
how extreme even that can get.
A lot of firms may be severely impacted by this share price collapse, both
financial and non. More alarmingly, "shadow" bank failures may occur unseen,
or structural problems that would normally be covered or speculated about by
the media suddenly rear their head. We may only find that large sources of
financing vanish long after the fact.
Many expect the CCP to swoop in and save the day, but perhaps it chooses to
not do so, or do something more extreme than changing some rules or commanding
the buying of shares in the big indexes.
------
jamespitts
How to get a read on mainland stock prices:
Over the years I have used FXI to watch general stock prices in China. But FXI
only indexes the large cap stocks listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Since the mainland stocks began reversing after the extreme price rise, I
found the Shanghai stock exchange composite to be far more useful than FXI. To
get the current price, use "Deutsche X-Trackers Harvest CSI 300 China A-Shares
ETF":
[https://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSEARCA%3AASHR&ei=Uj6cVcG4...](https://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSEARCA%3AASHR&ei=Uj6cVcG4AsjFigKxxJKgAQ)
Any ideas about how to easily get the price on an index covering the Shenzen
stock exchange?
~~~
jdhawk
SICOM:IND and SZCOMP:IND?
[http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/SICOM:IND](http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/SICOM:IND)
[http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/SZCOMP:IND](http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/SZCOMP:IND)
~~~
jamespitts
Excellent -- thanks!
------
vegabook
Inevitably, whenever The Economist (or the press in general) latches onto a
markets story, it's because everything is already in the price. Shorts should
be taking profit here, because the journos are usually the last to know.
Recall, this is the paper which wanted to sell gold at 300, and wanted to sell
oil at 11.
~~~
leoc
Bet you $5.
~~~
vegabook
Bet me what? That SHANCOMP will go lower from here? And I assume you already
know that your payout will be skewed: options price in a higher chance of
downside than upside already so you should probably pay me $7 if it rallies
against my $5 liability if it falls. Point is: this "China is tanking" idea is
on everybody's lips and the surprise risk is now a rally.
~~~
leoc
> our payout will be skewed: options price in a higher chance of downside than
> upside already so you should probably pay me $7 if it rallies against my $5
> liability if it falls
No doubt, but the market in Hacker News Shanghai Composite side-bets is not
big and liquid so you may not be able to find someone to offer you $7, and if
you're that confident in your thesis you should be willing to accept $5 in
that case. ;) It's OK though, I'll go to $7.
(I didn't downvote you btw.)
~~~
vegabook
Looks like I owe you five bucks (as of 8am London time) ;-)
Assuming $2.50 market in upvotes, duly upvoted you twice! ;(I'll wear two
downvotes if you want to be strict about it).
------
curiousjorge
How can we, as North Americans, profit from China's demise? Is there a Chinese
index that I can short? Because it sure as shit not going to go back up, not
after the recent announcement of buying up bad chinese stocks.
~~~
vegabook
Just sell some aussie dollar or for the brave, buy USDZAR. Much more liquid
than the stocks, and exposed to all the second order factors which are already
priced into stocks but not yet into the the implications for currencies: lower
commoditiy prices, structurally lower demand for Australia's output, less
Asian capital investing in the country.
The ZAR angle gives you exposure to a possible slowdown in the huge Chinese
investment in Africa, plus the dire politics in SA. The downside is people are
already short the unit.
~~~
curiousjorge
I also thought about shorting Canadian banks, especially Vancouver, the joke
is that there's not many corporations traded on stock exchange, but I feel
like the Chinese economy crashing would send ripples here where Chinese money
is keeping BC afloat, especially when the real estate bubble here pops, we
will see vast majority of homeowners using debt to make payments default.
~~~
vegabook
Yep decent strategy I would think. The idea is to find the second order
implications which are not yet priced in. The first order "China is slowing
down" is already in the price of the pureplay indices, and as you point out
above, the implied downside vol is now much higher than the upside as a
result.
~~~
7Figures2Commas
Playing the collateral damage is always a wise strategy to consider, but it's
also worth considering the possibility that the decline has a lot further to
go.
In hindsight, prices today might look like ideal entries for short positions
months from now if this is just the beginning of a major decline. In markets
like this, no action should be taken without a thorough fundamental and
technical analysis. Making an ill-researched assumption one way or the other
will cause a lot of people on both sides of the market to lose money.
~~~
vegabook
Both sides cannot lose money simultaneously, by construction of the financial
markets. +1 - 1 will always equal zero. Not -2.
If your point is that "it always goes back to the fundamentals" and therefore
fundamentally-driven investors will always win in the long run, I put to you
that there is so much accumulated capital over centuries in Europe, that the
ECB can wield this to fight the fundamentals for far longer than you can stay
solvent.
Consequently:
When we're in a regime-shift scenario, as now, fast decision making is a much
better value-adding skill than weeks of fundamental analysis which can be
swept aside at the whim of a policy maker.
Therefore I completely disagree with you. Those who are currently holding on
to fundamental analysis are losing money hand over fist in a market which
values connections and reading of policy maker tea leaves. I give you as
evidence, the EURUSD exchange rate. Here is the most liquid series on earth,
and one which is barely moving on fundamentals, namely the existential crisis
which the euro itself is facing. It is manipulated and no amount of
conscientous fundamental analysis will help. Instead fundamentals will just
bog you down in irrelevant detail and a false identification of the drivers.
Techs, positioning, and fast moving gut feel is what matters in this market.
Basically: there is no definitive winning formula in finance. You have to use
your instinct and flit between strategies as the state of the world requires.
Sometimes that's fundamentals. Right now it isn't.
~~~
7Figures2Commas
> Both sides cannot lose money simultaneously...
You're being far too literal here my friend.
The instruments you use, your timing, horizon, leverage, money management,
etc. all affect your ability to _realize_ gains, even if your overall
investment or trading thesis is correct. For instance, I could be on the right
side of a trade but a margin call could screw it all up.
When all is said and done, people playing China long and people playing China
short will both end up losing money during this volatile period. Not because
they were all wrong about what was going to happen but because many of them
won't be positioned perfectly or have the wherewithal to see their positions
through.
> If your point is that "it always goes back to the fundamentals" and
> therefore fundamentally-driven investors will always win in the long run
I wrote "In markets like this, no action should be taken without a thorough
fundamental and technical analysis." How in the world did that lead you to
conclude that I was arguing "'it always goes back to the fundamentals' and
therefore fundamentally-driven investors will always win in the long run"? Why
did you completely ignore my reference to technicals? It seems you're
searching for an argument that doesn't exist.
------
fokinsean
First Greece, then China, coming up soon is Puerto Rico, is the US next?
------
x5n1
yes just like 'murica's debt. command economies don't play by any given set of
rules. they make their own rules. as long as there is demand in the world for
chinese goods, the chinese economy will continue to function.
~~~
fennecfoxen
I don't know how much that's true.
China's current economy is built on the impact of its 1-child policy on its
historical culture of children taking care of elderly parents: that's really
really hard to do now, so everyone saves like crazy, and the government uses
those savings (in state-run banks) to finance state-run industries with below-
zero real interest rates, which are of course wildly profitable, and the
plutocratic elite splurges on its take of the surplus.
But they really need to watch out for a number of shocks, of the whole scheme
could fall apart badly and spark social unrest. In particular, inflation
(eating away at those savings) sometimes leads to riots, and their monetary
policy has been very extreme for many many years. (In different ways than US
policies, but still, makes "Helicopter" Ben Bernanke's interventions look like
the amateur leagues.)
Economists continue to worry and it's not 100% clear that China will continue
to function after a real economic crisis. They might, but it's really hard to
tell (they're so opaque it makes detailed analysis impossible).
~~~
x5n1
What if I was to tell you that all the money that you deposit in the banks is
not used for anything. The banks borrow money using a credit lending window
from the central banks. They can get as much money as they want. Money doesn't
actually exist. It's a virtual method of coercion to get people to do things.
As long as there are things for Chinese people to do, the Chinese economy will
keep running. As long as China can source raw materials and sell them for a
markup to someone else, the Chinese economy will keep running. At the end of
the day even if robotics threatens the Chinese economy, the government can
step in and stop robotics from destroying jobs. That's the level of control
they have. Any problems that they will have economically, everyone else will
have first.
Most of these pundits that run Western economies follow rules that they
themselves make up, and then use those rules to control other people. But
China don't play these games homie, China knows the game homie. China make its
own rules.
~~~
jerf
China may make its own rules, but reality gets a veto.
I'm perfectly even-handed with that assessment... it 100% applies to _any_
economy, of any form.
~~~
x5n1
> but reality gets a veto.
Are the Chinese working as hard as American workers? Are they productive
people that produce a lot of economic output? If the answer is yes, then there
is nothing reality can do for you.
~~~
jerf
I was talking about reality, not my opinions about reality. Real reality, if I
must qualify it. Where logic and reality part ways, reality wins. China may
make all the rules it likes, but reality stays real.
If you are dismissive of reality's impact on, ah, reality, well, I appreciate
your candor, but please don't be surprised that I just mentally dropped your
credibility score to zero.
~~~
x5n1
I don't know what you are rambling about? What are the real constraints in an
economy? Resources. That's about it. Everything else is virtual.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Concrete Steps To Combat Sexism At Tech Conferences - chrisyeh
http://chrisyeh.blogspot.com/2013/03/2-concrete-steps-to-combat-sexism-at.html
======
gregjor
I think this is a slippery slope. No one has a right to _not be offended._ And
everyone has the right to say stupid things or act like a jerk.
Hate speech and sexual harassment are not tolerated because they cause actual
harm or create a hostile environment where real harm is imminent or likely.
That's a long way from a dongle joke. A female friend made fun of the male
nerds wearing Utili-kilts at OSCON a couple of years ago. Should we have
guidelines for that too?
I also don't think there's any such thing as a "tech community" or a typical
tech conference crowd. Part of what's wrong with this PyCon discussion is
extrapolating something about the imaginary "community" of tech workers or
their position on gender relations from the actions of three people.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Essential Tools of Scientific Machine Learning - ChrisRackauckas
http://www.stochasticlifestyle.com/the-essential-tools-of-scientific-machine-learning-scientific-ml/
======
jofer
This is an aside to the main point of the article, but I have to take issue
with a couple of quotes:
> For a long time scientific computing has kept machine learning at an arm's
> length because its lack of interpretability and structure mean that, despite
> it’s tremendous predicitve success, it is almost useless for answering these
> kinds of central scientific questions.
> However, the recent trend has been to merge the two disciplines, allowing
> explainable models that are data-driven, require less data than traditional
> machine learning, and utilize the knowledge encapsulated in centuries of
> scientific literature.
Recent trend?? This is the norm in every scientific field I've even slightly
worked in... This quote just described what we call "inverse theory" in the
geosciences. It's the root of pretty much everything we do and has been for
many decades. Those of in the scientific computing world have hardly been
keeping machine learning at arm's length... A lot of machine learning methods
come from scientific fields (e.g. gaussian processes).
There's more to machine learning than CNNs, and many fields have been using
machine learning much longer terms like "data science" and "AI" have been
around. We just trend towards parametric approaches or approaches that can be
reasoned about more clearly. (E.g. lots of convex optimization problems and
interpolation/"super-resolution" problems.) Those are machine learning methods
as well.
All that said, most of what they're talking about in this article is about
approximating solutions to differential equations with purely non-parametric
approaches. That is somewhat new and is a much narrower topic, which this
article does a nice job of describing. (I don't really take objection to the
article as a whole, but a few sentences in it strike me as presumptuous.)
~~~
ChrisRackauckas
Solving inverse problems has been around forever, agreed. Not just in
geosciences but also aerospace, biology, etc. But, some of the ways that
people are beginning to use universal function approximators inside of
scientific simulators is new. The techniques are very similar to traditional
inverse problems though: use adjoint equations for gradients and update
parameters with some optimizer. It's just now they models include more non-
mechanistic terms to fit. There were hints of it before with latent force
models, but I am not sure of anyone using this idea to successfully solve 100
dimensional PDEs until 2 years ago.
>There's more to machine learning than CNNs.
Most definitely agreed. I think there's a lot to do with utilizing all of the
methods of machine learning neural networks and beyond, automatically within
scientific simulation codes.
~~~
jofer
Yeah, using non-parametric methods to approximate PDEs is really what this
article is about, and it is a recent and very fruitful trend. I got a bit
unnecessarily up-in-arms about phrasing.
(edit: And I just realized you're the author -- excellent work by the way!)
------
haddr
Very much Julia oriented. Nice that Julia is catching up with other. This one
however is missing comparison with R tools. I guess R would also be quite
green on the "Quick Summary Table".
~~~
ChrisRackauckas
Do you have an example of an R automatic differentiation package which has an
ecosystem of compatible tools like PDE solvers, automatic sparsity detection,
convolutional neural networks, and global sensitivity analysis? If you have
one I'll add it to the list. But the ones that I know are things like madness
[1], radx [2], and TMB [3], all of which are good AD systems in their own
right (the latter most having some good parallelism), but are missing most of
the relevant features for a discussion of scientific ML (but would be great
for standard ML). I could also point to autodiffr [4], but that's using Julia
to autodiff R.
But if there's one I missed I'd love to hear about it and start tracking the
project!
[1]
[https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/madness/vignettes/in...](https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/madness/vignettes/introducing_madness.pdf)
[2] [https://rdrr.io/github/quantumelixir/radx/man/radx-
package.h...](https://rdrr.io/github/quantumelixir/radx/man/radx-package.html)
[3]
[https://www.jstatsoft.org/article/view/v070i05/v70i05.pdf](https://www.jstatsoft.org/article/view/v070i05/v70i05.pdf)
[4] [https://non-contradiction.github.io/autodiffr/index.html](https://non-
contradiction.github.io/autodiffr/index.html)
~~~
haddr
I don't, but maybe a disclaimer on R in this article could bring those who
could share their experience with R?
------
xor0110
Good thing I did not ever "Give Up On Julia"™! So happy to see numerical
programming breaking new grounds like this
~~~
taigi100
You and me both ^_^
------
mrguyorama
How do I, with a very nice AMD GPU, and running on Windows, play around with
any sort of GPU accelerated learning for anything? Last I knew, pretty much
nothing worked with either of those caveats.
~~~
apl
Running Windows is perfectly fine; the major libraries for GPU-accelerated
autodiff and networks (CUDNN with Pytorch or Tensorflow) have great support
nowadays. It's the AMD GPU that remains essentially useless, as of 2019. If
you want to get into the game, I'd recommend buying a middle-of-the-road
NVIDIA GPU like the RTX2060.
For toying with autodiff and basic CNNs, CPU works just fine by the way...
~~~
mrguyorama
>It's the AMD GPU that remains essentially useless, as of 2019
I guess more important question... _Whyyyyyyyyyyyyy_
~~~
jawilson2
Probably support for CUDA over OpenCL.
~~~
ChrisRackauckas
CuBLAS and CuDNN are just better libraries than what exist on OpenCL right
now. Until that changes it'll be hard to switch for numerical work.
------
peter303
I was hoping 'scientific' meant publishing the training data and resulting AI
model in order that others could either use it or reproduce it. A lot of
neural net A.I. isnt really scientific in this sense.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How do I present my prototype to you? - dschmidt11
I'm the run of the mill wantrepreneur with a vision and a first draft business plan. (Hypothetically speaking) I get the funds raised to get the prototype built. What context should I present to you (the programmer) for what I want built? Eg. Powerpoint? Sketches on napkins?
======
gspyrou
You could try using Baslamiq Mockups <http://www.balsamiq.com/>
------
sabalaba
Learn HTML and CSS and use that. If you expect to work with somebody
technical, build something technical, and be a technology entrepreneur, get
technical.
------
logn
I prefer: <http://wireframesketcher.com/>
~~~
logn
Also some people mock stuff with Adobe Air
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Tarot for Hackers - zephyrfalcon
https://christine.website/blog/tarot-for-hackers-2019-07-24
======
juped
The use of tarot decks for divination dates back only to the 18th century,
well after magic stopped being useful (because all the skilled or talented
magicians rebranded to "scientists" or "naturalists"), so I'm skeptical of its
value as a system of symbols and motifs. (You will find preachers condemning
it much earlier, which is often cited wrongly as evidence of its use for
divination, but they were condemning card games, not divination.) For me, it's
like squeezing blood from a stone, despite the cool illustrations that _look_
like they should form a symbolic system of Rider-Waite (1910!).
If you're serious about your magic, you should probably cast the I Ching for
this sort of thing (imo).
~~~
adrianN
What's the point of being serious about magic? I doubt that the I Ching works
better at predicting the future than other RNGs.
~~~
lou1306
Tarots, the I Ching etc. can guide creativity. Not because they are magic in
any way; it's just that their rulesets act as a framework for thought
processes.
See: The Man in the High Castle (PKD wrote it by using the I Ching) and The
Castle of Crossed Destinies, by Calvino (based on tarot readings).
~~~
C1sc0cat
Brian Eno (Producer on Bowies Heros) actually produced a deck of cards to help
with inspiration.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oblique_Strategies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oblique_Strategies)
------
CharlesW
If this intrigues you, Oblique Strategies[1] (online version[2]) might also
interest you.
Although created for artists (musicians in particular), it can help reframe
almost any creative endeavor in interesting ways.
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oblique_Strategies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oblique_Strategies)
[2]
[http://stoney.sb.org/eno/oblique.html](http://stoney.sb.org/eno/oblique.html)
~~~
gav
Along similar lines, Pretend Store (purveyors of fine goods such as the Pocket
Developer[1]) have a set of Prompting Cards[2].
[1] [https://pretendstore.co/collections/all/products/pocket-
deve...](https://pretendstore.co/collections/all/products/pocket-developer)
[2] [https://pretendstore.co/products/prompting-
cards](https://pretendstore.co/products/prompting-cards)
------
blamestross
Tarot cards and similar forms of divination can be really useful if you use
them right.
The cards you draw are random and have little significance. A GOOD tarot
reading asks you to reflect on how your life fits to the cards you drew. It
doesn't tell you anything you don't already have in your head. It just
provides a context to present your personal crises and reflections to
yourself. Done well it gives you a chance to reflect and learn about yourself.
It has no power over anything but your own mind.
I consider myself a "Rationalist Chaote" Ritual, Faith and "Magic" have power,
abet a small one. They are useful tools for intentionally modifying your own
behaviors and outlooks. They are not a replacement for therapy or medical
attention when you are having issues but they are a tool you should keep in
your arsenal of self-improvement.
------
ghthor
I've been doing quite a bit of research into the origins of the tarot deck.
From what I've found is heavily based in hebrew mysticism, aka Qabbalah. The
22 major arcana are symbolic representations of the meanings of the 22 letters
of the 22 alphabet[1]. My most recent finding is even more exciting. The 4
suites numbered 2-10 come out to to 4×9=36 cards. 36×2=72. The myth about the
72 3-letter names of God matches here, where each of the numbered suite cards
Carrie's the meaning of a pair of 3-letter names from the set of 72.
[1] I've been researching why the 5 final forms used in the 27 letter alphabet
were not included and I dont really know why. I've made a deck adding new
major arcana cards for to include this discovery.
------
kixiQu
Someone else has already linked to Oblique Strategies, but I wrote a ~response
to Christine's blog post. Mine is about randomness, Tarot, and Oblique
Strategies: [https://lesser.occult.institute/introducing-randomness-
into-...](https://lesser.occult.institute/introducing-randomness-into-chaos-
culture-oblique-strategies-and-tarot)
------
saagarjha
Sounds a bit like rubber-duck debugging: you solve problems by explaining them
outside of your head and hope that can get you to think about them in new
ways.
~~~
Matumio
A great explanation of the rubber-duck method:
[http://lists.ethernal.org/oldarchives/cantlug-0211/msg00174....](http://lists.ethernal.org/oldarchives/cantlug-0211/msg00174.html)
------
chrisbennet
My girlfriend used read them.
One day I said to her: “Maybe they don’t predict the future, maybe they _make_
the future.”
I don’t think she’s touch them since.
------
hcarvalhoalves
That’s a great use of tarot cards. I’ve heard of it being used to help on
therapy and decrease anxiety, but using it to help debugging is an ingenious
one.
I believe it helps anytime you have a difficult challenge and don’t know where
to start, or your previous attempts failed, by introducing some randomness and
instigating lateral thinking.
------
Buge
I don't think drawing a random tarot card will help me write a better
postmortem. If I started doing so my colleagues would probably start to doubt
my judgement. Maybe skimming through all the tarot cards in order to pick
relevant ones might be useful though.
Or how about tarot cards for interviews? After I conduct an interview I read
the tarot cards to figure out how to judge the candidate.
~~~
geofft
> _Or how about tarot cards for interviews? After I conduct an interview I
> read the tarot cards to figure out how to judge the candidate._
I wonder how many tech employers know for sure that their in-person interview
process has a higher accuracy than this one. If you've passed a resume filter
/ internal referral and can demonstrate that you're not simply lying about
being able to code (or whatever the job is) does the rest of the in-person
interview reliably, provably add signal?
That's sort of the implied argument of the article - that we deal with complex
systems so complex that systematic and rational debugging isn't obviously
higher-signal than picking things at random.
------
pickdenis
I'm curious what the significance of the tarot cards is here. Why not just
write the following article: (this also serves as a TL;DR)
When you encounter a problem with your program, consider the following in
order:
\- your Motive
\- Facet (localize the failure)
\- Immediate Past (what changed to cause this problem)
\- the Action (that you need to take)
\- the desired Result
While the message is valuable, I'm not a fan of the obfuscation.
~~~
anigbrowl
The problem many technically inclined people have when it comes to thinking
outside the box is that they begin by defining the box in such great detail.
~~~
xena
Which is exactly why I define the box to begin with :)
------
amerine
I’m grateful for Christine. I had the pleasure of working with them before,
and one of the things I appreciate is their openness around idea sharing.
Talking about tarot or other woo-woo stuff, even philosophically, is hard in
tech circles and posts like this continue to make inroads in dulling the
negativity.
~~~
reificator
> _Talking about tarot or other woo-woo stuff, even philosophically, is hard
> in tech circles and posts like this continue to make inroads in dulling the
> negativity._
I mean, you can talk about reading tarot at home and I'll support your hobby.
No problems there, I'll ask you what you've done with it recently with genuine
interest, and I'm not going to even think about saying you shouldn't do what
you enjoy.
But you talk about using tarot for debugging at work, there's basically no
chance I'll ever take you seriously again. I apologize for my _negativity_ for
not wanting to use tarot cards for debugging or a Ouija board for requirements
gathering.
~~~
vorpalhex
It's just a form of rubber ducking.
Frankly, a Ouija board for requirements gathering might be a lot less
mysterious and esoteric than some of the scrum practices I've seen...
~~~
sillysaurusx
Plus, if it works, who cares?
It's a bit strange to have an objection to a thing based on the idea that it's
impossible.
I once objected to the idea that colors look fundamentally different in
darkness than in light. When put like that, it's kind of silly to imagine that
one could object to it. But my objection was mostly to do with the way it was
presented: Someone told me to stare at a picture and let my brain "buy into
it." I was younger and practically laughed it off. But sure enough, after
actually doing it, the picture looked much more vivid.
One possibility presents itself as to why Tarot debugging might be effective:
Perhaps it gets you to try more things than you otherwise would have.
The post begins:
_envision the product or service you are trying to understand more about.
Think of the plans that went into it, the users of the service, how this
understanding will help them, and where the missing part of knowledge fits
into the larger whole. Write this all out if it helps, the more detail the
better._
So, user stories. Right?
From further down:
_draw The Action. This card will help you decide what action you need to
take. This could be restarting a server, fixing a communication pattern (or
lack thereof), or even just doing nothing and waiting a few minutes. Sometimes
it means that you need to stop what you are doing and try to do the read again
later. It’s okay for that to happen, though that should only be a very rare
occurrence._
This sounds pretty similar to ad-hoc debugging techniques I've seen.
I'm not saying it's a great idea to, y'know, restart a production service
based on a card telling you. But on the other hand, have you _tried_
restarting it to see if that helps? Who among us hasn't tried that, honestly?
And being told to do it just to see what happens seems like it has a decent
chance of being effective.
I kind of want to go the other direction and make a deck of cards for
debugging. You shuffle the deck, draw a few cards, and see if you've tried all
the techniques it mentions. You could even have decks for designing systems,
refactoring code, etc.
It seems like there's a deeper disconnect here: We want to believe so badly
that programming is scientific work. But it's craftsmanship. Are these rituals
really so much stranger than the rituals of Japanese swordsmiths? Why engrave
a sword with such embellishment when it serves no functional purpose?
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_swordsmithing#/media/...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_swordsmithing#/media/File:Wakizashi_horimono.jpg)
~~~
newnewpdro
> I'm not saying it's a great idea to, y'know, restart a production service
> based on a card telling you. But on the other hand, have you tried
> restarting it to see if that helps? Who among us hasn't tried that,
> honestly? And being told to do it just to see what happens seems like it has
> a decent chance of being effective.
Yeah, restart the malfunctioning thing and throw away what precious state you
had for meaningful debugging of a potentially hard to reproduce problem.
If I ever encounter someone guiding their engineering or administration tasks
with tarot cards somewhere I have the authority to, they'll be promptly
dismissed.
~~~
geofft
Restarting the server because the tarot deck said to is certainly a way
_better_ reason than the ones I occasionally see in practice - e.g., "because
the uptime was unusually high and that seemed suspicious," well did you
suspect that it was manually configured and nobody was rebooting it for a
reason? That one is an actively bad reason to reboot a server during an
outage, at least the tarot deck isn't making decisions contrary to evidence.
Also, if you read the article closely, it's not advising you to trust the deck
blindly, it's advising you to use it as a way to think about the problem from
a new angle. If you're restarting it blindly based on a tarot deck, you're the
sort of sysadmin who's ready to restart it blindly based on finding a five-
year-old wiki page with a vaguely similar error message on a totally different
platform. Should that be a fireable offense? (Maybe! Or at least maybe the
company should find you a different role that recognizes that making decisions
about production servers is not actually one of your skills.)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Java Deployment Toolkit Performs Insufficient Validation of Parameters - fogus
http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2010/Apr/119
======
drowsydream
This is covered in InformationWeek Article 'Serious Java Flaw Surfaces'[
[http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2010/04/se...](http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2010/04/serious_java_fl.html)
]
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Cohorts: a simple, purely Javascript split test framework - jamesjyu
http://github.com/jamesyu/cohorts
======
sync
This looks great for folks using heroku and taking advantage of the provided
Varnish full-page caching.
Other solutions (like A/Bingo) require you to have a dynamic part of the page.
~~~
patio11
A/Bingo does require dynamic parts of the page, and I am very unlikely to
change that. I'm always glad to see an increasing diversity of solutions to
A/B testing.
Now we just have to keep convincing folks to actually _use_ the suckers. (Do
A/B testing! It will make you a lot of money! </plug>)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A dataset of 1M programming solutions with state changes - FraserGreenlee
https://fraser-greenlee.github.io/2020/06/25/A-dataset-of-ran-code.html
======
sharemywin
Pretty cool.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How YouPorn Tries To Hide That It's Spying On Your Browsing History - arturadib
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101130/21535012065/how-youporn-tries-to-hide-that-its-spying-your-browsing-history.shtml
======
fab13n
the shifting-by-one is probably not intended to throw off people, but search
engine indexers. They probably don't want to contain their competitors' names.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Slime Mole Is As Good an Economic Model as Any - chrismealy
https://medium.com/@katierosepipkin/the-slime-mold-is-as-good-an-economic-model-as-any-ebec4062acd7
======
kseistrup
Somebody, please correct the title from “slime mole” to “slime mold”.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why you need a degree to work at Bigco - byrneseyeview
http://weblog.raganwald.com/2005/07/why-you-need-degree-to-work-for-bigco.html
======
Alex3917
There's two types of jobs. Those where what you do creates value for people
within the company, and those where what you do creates value for people
outside the company. You only need a degree for the former.
Rule of thumb: Ask someone what their greatest accomplishment is. If what they
say is relative, i.e. "I am better than someone else at ___," then chances are
they aren't very good at anything.
Avoid those whose self-worth comes from comparing themselves to others, be it
through degrees or GPA or money, etc. They're losers and hanging out with them
will keep you from accomplishing anything in life.
The funniest thing is that investment banks hire based on GPA even though
there is zero correlation between GPA and alpha, and alpha is 100% of your job
performance.
~~~
ecuzzillo
a) What's alpha? b) There are some things where relative accomplishments are
OK, like sports. Saying you're an Olympic gold medalist means you're just
better than everybody else, but it's still quite an accomplishment.
~~~
Alex3917
Each portfolio has an expected return based on risk. The higher the risk, the
higher the return has to be to justify the risk. Alpha is the difference
between the expected return based on the risk of the portfolio and the actual
return. So positive alpha is good, negative alpha is bad. Traders are
compensated based on their alpha.
My point about the relative accomplishment thing is just that you can go
through your entire life trying to beat other people at stuff, but just
because you can beat someone at something doesn't mean you're making the world
a better place.
Being an Olympic athlete is certainly an accomplishment, although hopefully
one goes on to do stuff that benefits others. And I say that as someone who
pulled a 500 meter piece on the rowing machine that was faster than ltwt
Olympic standard this afternoon.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Salt: Like Puppet, Except It Doesn’t Suck - Baustin
http://blog.smartbear.com/devops/a-taste-of-salt-like-puppet-except-it-doesnt-suck/
======
SandB0x
I'm not a web developer but I have a side-project that runs on a cobbled
together EC2 instance. The server state is in theory documented in a set of of
shell scripts and virtualenv requirements files.
I know that I should be doing this in a more robust way but whenever I try and
read up on configuration management tools like Puppet and Chef, they're all
described in comparative terms - Puppet does X better than Vagrant which does
Y better than Chef, etc. I quickly lose patience and get back to digging
myself into a deeper technical hole.
Is there a non-recursive explanation of what these tools are able to do and
where someone like me should start?
Edit: Thanks for the helpful responses!
~~~
the1
if you're using EC2, why not just create an AMI and forget about configuration
tools?
~~~
bfrog
Having done this a dozen or more times... can you package your ami for your
developers to use? Can you remake your image exactly the same way again as it
was when you first imaged it should it be lost in the cloud (100% reliability
isn't something AWS provides).
Provisioning tools let you create it, and incrementally update your image in a
way that lets you redo it from scratch at any time.
That alone is the reason why I like the idea, not necessarily the resulting
applications that have been created so far for the task.
Shell scripts could do the same and have for years if your only interested in
from scratch setups.
~~~
gyepi
This is not a difficult problem. I recently had to stand up a cluster of EC2
instances for a job that required a cluster of them and used these three
steps:
1\. Write a script to configure an instance and run it when the instance
starts.
2\. Clone the instance to an image
3\. Run instances based on the image.
It's quite straightforward to do. See [http://github.com/gyepisam/fcc-
textify](http://github.com/gyepisam/fcc-textify) for more details.
------
tptacek
I've used Fabric, Chef, Puppet, and Ansible, and have settled on Ansible; it's
a sort of middle ground between Fabric and Chef that does more than just run
commands on servers but doesn't require me to buy into a whole elaborate
universe of configuration management servers and whatnots. Ansible is great.
The ZeroMQ stuff makes sense if you're pushing configurations inside a data
center, but it's a dealbreaker for us having things hosted externally.
~~~
frankwiles
I don't understand why ZeroMQ outside of a data center would be a deal breaker
for anyone. You do realize the data on the wire is encrypted right?
~~~
tptacek
Awesome. How many people have reviewed it for flaws? How many people have
reviewed OpenSSH?
~~~
emidln
How many people have reviewed Paramiko? In particular, how about that ecdsa
patch[1] to Paramiko that you'll need to be accessing modern Ubuntu or Fedora
(and before long, RHEL/CentOS). What about the python-ecdsa[2] (that
paramiko's provisional support for modern Fedora and Ubuntu's default configs
is based on)? This entry from its README seems pretty frightening:
This library does not protect against timing attacks.
Do not allow attackers to measure how long it takes you
to generate a keypair or sign a message. This library
depends upon a strong source of random numbers. Do not
use it on a system where os.urandom() is weak.
I'm not saying Paramiko (or its patch sets) are insecure, just pointing out
that the same arguments can be made against the libraries and code that
Ansible is based on.
[1] -
[https://github.com/paramiko/paramiko/pull/152](https://github.com/paramiko/paramiko/pull/152)
[2] - [https://github.com/warner/python-
ecdsa](https://github.com/warner/python-ecdsa)
~~~
dsl
> Do not use it on a system where os.urandom() is weak.
So, don't use it in the cloud? [1]
1\. [http://harvey.binghamton.edu/~ychen/chen-
kerrigan.pdf](http://harvey.binghamton.edu/~ychen/chen-kerrigan.pdf)
------
contingencies
Salt/Puppet/whatever. I ignore them all. Why? I have put a lot of thought in
to this area.
IMHO, the _overwhelming_ problem with salt/cfengine/puppet style solutions
(which I will refer to as 'post-facto configuration tinkerers', or PFCT's) is
that they potentially accrue vast amounts of undocumented/invisible state,
therefore creating what I refer to as _configuration drift_.
IMHO, a cleaner solution is to deploy configuration changes _from scratch_ ,
by deploying clean-slate instances with those changes made. In addition,
versioning one's environment in this way creates an identifiable point against
which to execute automated tests. (This class of solution I refer to as
'Clean-slate, Identifiable Environments' or CSIES.) Examples are Amazon AMI's,
and any other kind of versioned/identified VMs.
PFCT's deployment paradigm tends to be relative slow and error prone. CSIE's
tend to be fast and atomic. PFCTs are headed for the dustbin of history. They
are temporary hacks that clearly grew from old-school sysadmins' will to
script. CSIEs embrace modern day devops, as more holistic entities that
embrace virtualization and recognize the integrity of the environment as
critical to preventing ridiculous numbers of environment-induced, service-
level issues that are an expensive tangent to service development, testing and
deployment. Thus, I would argue that what we are looking at with PFCT's is a
failed paradigm, and with CSIEs, the now real and current opportunity for
something far more elegant.
(Disclaimer: Haven't tried ansible or vagrant first hand, but they do seem to
be PFCT's to me.)
~~~
mechanical_fish
_a cleaner solution is to deploy configuration changes from scratch, by
deploying clean-slate instances with those changes made._
All of us who have built big cloud-server clusters have dreamed of this plan
at least once. But there are big practical problems.
Relaunching infrastructure is easy in theory, but from time to time it becomes
very difficult. There is nothing like being blocked on a critical upgrade
because your Amazon region has temporarily run out of your size of instance,
or because the control layer is having a bad day, or because you've
accidentally hit your instance limit in the middle of a deployment, or...
A much bigger issue is that bandwidth is finite, so "big" data is hard to
move. This is a matter of physical law. It's all well and good to declare that
you're never going to apply a MySQL patch in place: You're just going to
launch a new instance with the new version and then switch over. But however
fast you manage to launch the new instance (and you will be hard put to launch
an instance faster than you can apply a patch and restart a daemon...) you
will be limited by the need to copy over the data. Have you ever tried copying
half a terabyte of data over a network in an emergency while the customer is
on the phone? It is _very_ annoying. Because it is often physically impossible
to do it quickly: Cloud infrastructure isn't generally built for that, and
when it is it costs money that your customer will not want to spend for the
luxury of faster, cleaner patch-application.
A solution to this is to use cloud storage like EBS. Now your data sits in EBS
and you just detach its drive and reattach it to a new instance. That actually
works okay, provided you're happy with the bandwidth and reliability of EBS,
which lots of people aren't – and, as those people will cheekily point out,
you have now solved the "relaunches are slow" problem by replacing it with an
"everything is uniformly slow" problem. Moreover, detaching and reattaching
EBS volumes isn't instantaneous either. You have to cleanly shut down and
cleanly detach and cleanly restart, and there's like 12 states to that
process, and all of them occasionally fail, and if you don't want your service
to go down for thirty seconds every time you apply a patch you need a ton of
engineering.
Which brings us to the other problem: Complexity. Most programmers are not
running replicated services with three-nines-reliable failover that never
breaks replication. But even if you are, because you've got the budget for
excellent infrastructure and a great team, it will always - for values of
"always" measured in several more years, anyway - be more complicated and
risky to fail over a critical production service than to apply, say, a
security patch to 'vi' in place on a running server. 'vi' is not in your
critical path. If you accidentally break 'vi' on a live server ( _and you won
't, because vi is older than dirt and solid as a rock_), you will have a good
laugh and roll it back. Why risk a needless failover, which _always_ has a
chance of failure, when you could just _apply the damn patch_ and thereby
mitigate risk?
At Google scale that argument probably stops applying. But most people don't
run at that scale and it will take decades to migrate everyone to a system
that does, if that even happens.
So, "dustbin of history", maybe, someday, but in the long run we are all
retired, and I will be retired before our dream becomes reality. ;)
~~~
contingencies
The bulk of your comment - your second, third and fourth paragraphs - focus on
issues of speed, bandwidth and reliability in a third party hosting/cloud-
based architecture, which are a design-time tradeoff, so I don't see them as
strictly relevant (though anecdotally informative).
Your fifth paragraph describes problems related to operations process, which
are entirely avoidable.
~~~
mechanical_fish
Well, okay. Give my regards to Saint Peter and all the angels!
------
susi22
IMO, ansible is even better:
[https://github.com/ansible/ansible/](https://github.com/ansible/ansible/)
It doesn't require any deamon and does all its work over the good old unix
fashion way: SSH. And it's python too.
~~~
lobo_tuerto
From the article:
"Chef works atop ssh, which – while the gold standard for cryptographically
secure systems management – is computationally expensive to the point where
most master servers fall over under the weight of 700-1500 clients. Salt’s
approach was far simpler."
Does that assertion about Chef somehow don't apply to Ansible?
On the use case:
"I have this command I want to run across 1,000 servers. I want the command to
run on all of those systems within a five second window. It failed on three of
them, and I need to know which three."
~~~
susi22
Well, ansible by default runs with paramiko which is a python implementation
of SSH protocol. It will also keep connections open for multiple commands. It
also has a pull mode and it also has a fireball mode which uses 0mq:
[http://jpmens.net/2012/10/01/dramatically-speeding-up-
ansibl...](http://jpmens.net/2012/10/01/dramatically-speeding-up-ansible-
runs/)
However, you're not forced to use this. In the beginning, you can just seed
your CentOS or debian with a Kickstarter or seed file and then run your inital
thing with ansible simply over ssh (using all the goodies, ssh-agent, password
less ssh etc..).
One huge plus for ansible is also that it used yaml which is rather simple.
I've been following both project for >1 year and it seems that recently
ansible has picked up a lot and will probably make the "race" (IMO).
~~~
danudey
Salt also uses yaml for its configuration backend (by default). You can also
write your state in Python if you prefer, with all the power that that brings
(including pulling data from databases, remote API calls, or whatever you
like).
------
jtreminio
I _was_ frustrated with Puppet when I first started. All I wanted was a VM to
install a few things so I could do some development and not have to worry
about managing my VM.
It turned out to be a rabbit hole. As soon as I thought I learned just enough
to get it running, something else popped up that stopped me.
That's why I created PuPHPet [1]. So far the reception has been fairly
positive.
At one point in my learning, I got fed up and tried Salt. I couldn't get the
Salt hello-world running. I followed the directions to a T. If your tutorial
is incorrect, or hard to follow just to get the most basic version up and
running, it will turn people away.
Also, this was all on top of Vagrant.
[1] PuPHPet - [https://puphpet.com](https://puphpet.com)
~~~
dave1010uk
PuPHPet looks really good. What's the default PHP setup? It would be great to
be able to switch between and configure mod_php, fastcgi, fcgid, PHP-FPM,
suPHP, suExec, etc.
~~~
jtreminio
Default is:
* Ubuntu Precise 64 Bit (12.04.2 LTS)
* Apache
* PHP 5.4
You can switch between Apache/Nginx and PHP 5.4/5.3 (5.5 coming today!)
------
memset
I think salt is neato, but I also find it very frustrating to use! (Possibly
through no fault of salt itself - I feel like I must be missing something.)
I am generally able to SSH into a box and get things configured the way I
need. However, I have huge amounts of trouble translating that into salt
scripts.
Consider logrotate. Here is the only documentation I can find on the topic
[1]. From this, I have _no idea_ what to put in init.sls to make sure a given
log file is being rotated correctly. It seems this would work on the cmdline,
but not necessarily in a salt script.
And that's just for logrotate! My uswgi + nginx configuration - translating
that into salt - I don't know where to begin.
How do I make sure things get installed in a certain order? (Answer seems to
be having 10 directives, for 10 packages, each depending on another, to
enforce order.)
Is there anything that more closely mirrors what I _actually_ do when
configuring the box? SSH in, set certain values, etc? I guess I could write a
shell script (or use fabric) but then I seem to have lost the point of
configuration management.
[1]
[http://docs.saltstack.com/ref/modules/all/salt.modules.logro...](http://docs.saltstack.com/ref/modules/all/salt.modules.logrotate.html)
~~~
Jedd
Hey memset - these sound like pretty straightforward questions (with
straightforward answers). Perhaps asking on the mailing list, or hop onto the
#salt channel on freenode IRC?
~~~
memset
That is a great suggestion. I almost never do this for fear of sounding like a
noob, but I ought to try giving it a shot more often.
~~~
tech-dragon
As one of the people on that list who may well respond there, I'll reply here
as well so its on the record.
You will be very well off if you read and 'digest' the Salt docs on States
first, before moving on to modules, pillars, grains, custom returners, etc.
What you probably need to do with logrotate is take the configuration that you
normaly setup on your servers, then add it to your salt system. So top.sls
calls 'logrotate' running the 'logrotate/init.sls' and that has a definition
that says "I want logrotate installed, I want it running as a service, and by
the way take the file 'logrotate/config.conf' and shove it in
/etc/logrotate.d/ as <correct filename>, p.s. If i change that file, restart
logrotate"
With States & the requisite declarations to enable salt to know what order
things need to be in, you shouldnt have much trouble adding a simple service
like logrotate along with a specific config file to use for that service.
------
Goladus
I'm still looking for a configuration management system that doesn't assume
that the first step towards managing servers is to add a new "master" server.
From the thread, ansible looks promising. In the meantime I'll keep using
chef-solo until opscode kills it.
~~~
akoumjian
You can run salt masterless. See the quickstart.
[http://docs.saltstack.com/topics/tutorials/quickstart.html](http://docs.saltstack.com/topics/tutorials/quickstart.html)
~~~
Goladus
Thanks, it may even be that a salt master is lightweight worth configuring.
But I should note there's a difference between "can run" and "intended to
run."
It's as much a semantic thing as a technical thing. Instead of thinking about
an unconfigured node as a "minion" awaiting orders and provisions from central
command, I prefer to think of a node like a stem cell, fully capable of
differentiating itself based on signals that it receives. You need a way to
update the DNA and a way to send the signals, that's it.
This may seem like a meaningless difference, since there is still value in
centralized services (package repositories, security, reporting, monitoring).
But it's still a subtly different focus and over time yields different
results.
For my part I think the distributed, organic "stem cell" way of thinking will
win out over "master/minion" in the long run.
------
kapilvt
The thing that bugs me about salt is the almost complete lack of
testing/coverage. They had tons of egg-face releases for crypto bugs, upgrade
issues, things a basic test suite would have solved. I'd rather not trust my
production environments to something that's a roll of the dice of whether its
working, secure, or upgradable on a given release.
------
uggedal
I used Puppet for a few years (and created a few modules for it
[https://github.com/puppetmodules](https://github.com/puppetmodules)). I
switched to Salt a year ago. My main motivation were its simplicity
(YAML+jinja), lower memory consumption, easier source code both to read and
contribute to, and its support for both push and pull based architectures.
If you want to get a feel for how salt looks like when managing some servers
and laptops you can take a look at my states:
[https://github.com/uggedal/states](https://github.com/uggedal/states)
------
gaadd33
Is communication to/from ZeroMQ encrypted? If not it seems like this wouldn't
be a very secure way to configure or distribute files over anything other than
a VPN or LAN?
~~~
DASD
They use AES and RSA but their implementation has had vulnerabilities.
[http://docs.saltstack.com/topics/releases/0.15.1.html](http://docs.saltstack.com/topics/releases/0.15.1.html)
[https://github.com/saltstack/salt/commit/5dd304276ba5745ec21...](https://github.com/saltstack/salt/commit/5dd304276ba5745ec21fc1e6686a0b28da29e6fc)
Here's a good article( [http://missingm.co/2013/06/ansible-and-salt-a-
detailed-compa...](http://missingm.co/2013/06/ansible-and-salt-a-detailed-
comparison/)) with a comparison to Ansible that others are also mentioning
here. Ansible uses KeyCzar which which seems more sane than rolling your own
crypto as many readers here on HN know.
------
wunki
I just released a open-source package which enables you to create a Django
centric stack on Vagrant with the help of Salt. It was indeed very easy to
write. You can check it out here:
[https://github.com/wunki/django-salted](https://github.com/wunki/django-
salted)
~~~
StavrosK
Same thing for Ansible: [http://www.stavros.io/posts/example-provisioning-and-
deploym...](http://www.stavros.io/posts/example-provisioning-and-deployment-
ansible/)
------
UtahDave
SaltStack also won at Gigaom Structure last week!
[http://gigaom.com/2013/06/20/devops-player-saltstack-wins-
st...](http://gigaom.com/2013/06/20/devops-player-saltstack-wins-structure-
launchpad-competition-and-investor-interest/)
(I'm a SaltStack employee)
~~~
jemeshsu
Whole article about SaltStack winning the award, and not a link back to
SaltStack website.
------
hi2usir
"Salt’s approach was far simpler."
Funny, that's how I feel about Ansible compared to everything else including
Salt.
~~~
crdoconnor
Funny, that's how I feel about salt compared to ansible.
------
spudlyo
_Chef works atop ssh, which – while the gold standard for cryptographically
secure systems management – is computationally expensive to the point where
most master servers fall over under the weight of 700-1500 clients._
It doesn't have to be this way. The situation where one host repeatedly needs
to talk to hundreds via SSH is precisely where the SSH ControlMaster socket
shines. This saves you a _ton_ of overhead by not having to start up and tear
down the session every time you want to issue a command via SSH.
I often use this trick on busy Nagios servers that execute many active checks
via SSH -- it works well.
------
cultureulterior
Personally, I don't think puppet sucks
~~~
susi22
The problem is most dev-ops and sysadmins don't know ruby and that's a HUGE
disadvantage. In the end configuration management will often by done by
sysadmins.
~~~
pilif
I'm only managing 24 machines with puppet, so nothing fancy, but I managed to
do all of the stuff I needed without writing a single line of Ruby code.
That was handy for me too as while I'm somewhat familiar with Ruby, I'm no
expert at all. I can read Ruby no problem and I can write ruby that's not-
quite-idiomatic and I'm terribly slow at it.
~~~
susi22
I forgot to mention that just installing ruby is a HUGE PITA on anything but
the most common OSes. It took me 3h last week to get it on a CentOS installed.
And I don't even want to try to get it running on our Solaris hosts...
Point is: Python is the number one scripting language (after bash) for
sysadmins just like Perl used to be.
~~~
yxhuvud
yum install ruby
took you 3h? It may take slightly longer if you want 1.9, but it still exists
in fedora so it should not take 3h to solve.
~~~
susi22
Yes I needed 1.9.3 for this silly software. And I had a little special setup
so rvm failed to compile. I'm also very overwhelmed by rvm,gem,bundler etc...
Python has pip,easy_install(old) and virualenv. Which are just easier to
understand for me. Ruby is too much magic and is trying to do everything
automatically (IMO).
~~~
sciurus
Red Hat recently released Ruby 1.9.3 packages as part of "software
collections"; I assume CentOS is rebuilding these and making them available
the same as they do for other Red Hat Enterprise Linux packages.
[https://access.redhat.com/site/documentation/en-
US/Red_Hat_D...](https://access.redhat.com/site/documentation/en-
US/Red_Hat_Developer_Toolset/1/html/Software_Collections_Guide/)
------
AaronBBrown
This article makes a claim (...Puppet...Suck(s)), but does not take even
attempt to explain what it is that sucks.
What, specifically, "sucks" about Puppet and Chef and what is so much
"simpler" about Salt or Ansible? As an Ops guy who has been running Puppet
since 2008 (and Chef most recently) against hundred of servers, I don't see
the simplicity reflected in the documentation, nor do I find Puppet or Chef
particularly complicated.
(Ok, Chef's attributes system is a bit confusing at first, but it is hugely
powerful.)
~~~
fusiongyro
From the article:
> Chef works atop ssh, which – while the gold standard for cryptographically
> secure systems management – is computationally expensive to the point where
> most master servers fall over under the weight of 700-1500 clients. Salt’s
> approach was far simpler.
I think I'm with you (without the experience): I find "it works over ssh" a
lot simpler than "we wrote a custom protocol on 0mq." Simplicity apparently
has lots of interpretations. I couldn't care less if ssh performs well enough
to support a trillion connections. In practice, you only need a handful,
usually one.
Maybe Salt is fantastic. I'm not really in a position to judge. The article
made it sound interesting to me, but I'm not sure attacking Chef/Puppet was
really necessary, especially since it wasn't really expounded on.
------
justincormack
I much prefer the immutable server model [1] to the puppet model. Build a new
tested server with the new config and roll that out.
[1]
[http://martinfowler.com/bliki/ImmutableServer.html](http://martinfowler.com/bliki/ImmutableServer.html)
~~~
rektide
There's words written about "automatic configuration" in that link but I don't
see any guidance or information on what those configuration tools are. The
focus is certainly not on automatic configuration: the focus is on use and re-
use of images, on taking images, doing something to them, and getting new
images.
The notion is deeply flawed to me: using an image as a precondition for making
an image, over time, becomes an intractable mess and requires very careful
supporting documentation to prevent the scheme from devolving into a bunch of
"buckets of bits" with no transparency into what work has gone on to make it
that way.
The #1 thing that I enjoy about automated tooling is that I can take a bare OS
and spin up a complete new system in a matter of minutes, and I get to watch
that entire process happen before my eyes. There's no mystery, no external
dependencies, no existing work I'm riding off of: everything that happens is
visible to me in an immediate way.
There's a value & use to immutable images, but please decouple your image
making from past images made: no one wants to root around to figure out what
twelve horrible things you did to install Java 9 image instances back
whenever, nor are they going to have any fun reproducing it on the twenty nine
active variants of that ancestor image when there's a security fix to be done.
~~~
justincormack
I think most people use puppet to build their immutable images at present. It
is still rather different from running it on production. Sure you should not
start from a non reproducible point.
------
v0land
I use SaltStack for managing a render farm consisting of 73 Ubuntu nodes. My
requirements are rather simple, really: most states just install some
packages, put configuration files into place (sometimes using a template) and
enable/start services. However, I can't recall a single problem when setting
everything up. SaltStack is clean, simple, and just works.
------
boothead
This is timely! I've just started writing a set of salt states to capture the
set up of my new dell xps 13 (sputnik) so I never have to go through the pain
of setting up xmonad, emacs and various other development environment stuff
again.
What I really like about salt is that everything is in one place and all goes
towards building the same data structure that everything runs off.
------
knowshan
Both Salt and Ansible look interesting. It's much easier to define system
state using Ansible or Salt than Puppet.
However, I am not sure how would one use Ansible where VMs get launched
dynamically (private cloud/virtualization fabric where devs can instantiate
systems) and then receive their configuration without any manual steps.
For example, one can create kickstart/VM-images which get a hostname based on
certain regex pattern, register with a Puppet master, the Puppet master auto-
signs certs matching this specific hostname pattern and then client nodes
receive their catalog. This is really useful pattern wherein systems pull
their configuration state almost immediately after boot. It requires manual
setup only while writing kickstart/VM-iamge profile and Puppet master
configuration.
Ansible's SSH keys setup requires manual intervention, however, I think it can
be automated using pre-defined keys in kickstart/VM-images. Haven't tried it
yet though...
~~~
killing_time
Yes, having predefined keys in your VM images does the trick, and is exactly
what we do for (almost) zero-intervention deployments of our servers in my
particular environment.
We tend to destroy and recreate servers more often than we scale out, so we
haven't bothered to remove the manual step of adding the server's hostname to
the ansible inventory_hosts file. However, that's easily automatable...
Ansible will _execute_ your inventory_hosts file if it's executable, and IIRC
it just needs to return a JSON or YML data structure representing all your
servers and the groups they're in. So, as long as you have a library which can
query your infrastructure (e.g. boto for EC2 etc) it's not hard to automate
this.
------
dmohjoryder
What I prefer about ansible above all others, besides its simplicity, is that
its use case scales up and out. By that I mean ansible can be used for
platform/app stack provisioning while OS/infra sys admins maybe another tool.
To often an agent based approach causes a conflict with OS sys admins and
platform/app team regarding ownership/sharing. I want to offer self service as
much as possible. Further, most cfg mgmt tools are monolithic in that they
want to manage all servers as tho a single team/overload manages them all,
rather than various independent sys admin teams. With various independent
teams its just too much hassle trying to share roles appropriately or setup
separate master/agents. Ansible does not have these issues.
~~~
terminalmage
[http://docs.saltstack.com/ref/clientacl.html](http://docs.saltstack.com/ref/clientacl.html)
------
dysinger
Puppet is mature and has tons of cookbooks & community. You may not like it
but saying it "sucks" is not right. It works and is used tons.
Chef doesn't run over SSH in any environment I've used that wasn't a toy
(vagrant w/ chef-solo). Please fact check.
Fanboy article.
------
mncolinlee
We're actually a Windows-centric shop and have been actively evaluating
configuration management solutions for Windows-based virtual machines.
Initially, we were only looking at Puppet, Chef, and a commercial product
called uProvision along with Vagrant. I was surprised to find that Salt had a
real community behind it.
Our greatest challenge has been coming up with a tool which can manage images
for both VMWare and Microsoft Hyper-V. This article introduced a web
integration between Salt and libvirt called Salt-virt. Has anyone tried this
interface for managing images? Does it work better than the young integration
between Vagrant and libvirt?
~~~
mncolinlee
For anyone else looking, I just found Foreman. This seems to do exactly what
we're looking for, but it uses Puppet instead of Salt. Even if it requires a
Linux server, making our solution more complicated, it appears to meet our
needs very nicely.
[http://theforeman.org/](http://theforeman.org/)
------
misiti3780
I use fabric for everything just because I dont have time to learn another one
of these technologies. This salt article seems great - but at the end of the
day (and I may be way off base here) all I want to do is install a given
version of a piece of software on my server. I dont want to create a receipt
(chef), or learn another configuration format (sounds like I would need to do
this with Salt stack), etc. My fabric file really seems to do only three
things: use pip to install shit that is python (I use Django), use apt-get to
install anything that is ubuntu specific, and make wget calls to various
pieces of software, pull them down, and build them from source. Until there is
an easy way for me to do this without needing to learn yet another technology,
I will continue to use fabric (or, until the job of doing this gets so big I
can hire a dev ops guy that actually already knows, but I am not there yet :)
). Sorry for the rant, it's just every time I see these articles I wish I had
time to learn the technology but then I realize I don't.
So - is it just me or is there seem to be a big/huge learning curve for all of
these dev ops technologies?
~~~
tech-dragon
Yaml is a hair above "properly indenting my templates" as far as complexity
goes. You write django templates, you can handle Yaml ;-)
As current 'devops guy' on a django project myself, salt works wonderfully.
Salt has states available that let you setup all that software, create the
virtualenv you need (including telling it you want to use the requirements.txt
that you pulled down with your django project source code - Salt gives me my
own little Heroku :D ) and for anything left in those wgets you can throw a
block of salt cmd.run calls using specified ordering to enable them to run
neatly in the sequence you desire.
------
crb
_> MCollective (which Puppet Labs acquired several years ago) was (and
remains!) fiendishly complex to set up._
I didn't find MCollective hard at all - you just install some debs, a message
queue server (Stomp was easiest at the time - it's now deprecated, but surely
is not much different to RabbitMQ?) and it Just Worked for me. And there was a
great screencast.
Did it get far more complicated since I used it last?
~~~
druiid
Well, rabbitmq is kind of a pain to get working with it. Additionally, the
modules for rabbitmq and mcollective, for puppet, don't really work that well
together (read: I had to re-write the ones I found to get them working).
~~~
apenney
I'm starting work at Puppetlabs in exactly a week's time as part of a brand
new "module team" and I personally promise you here and in the open that I am
going to tackle the puppetlabs-rabbitmq module and fix it so that it actually
works and isn't an abandoned wasteland.
Come to that I'm hoping we can start building out a full set of mcollective
modules to replace the existing ones that will be fully supported and kept up
to date so that getting mcollective running will be as easy as including a
class and waiting.
A huge part of this job is ensuring community patches get merged in and
contributors get treated as I would like to be treated when contributing to a
project. I hope we can reverse your experience with modules within a few
months (I took this job because I've been in exactly your position, grabbing
official modules and having them not work at all!)
~~~
druiid
FYI we've spoken in the #puppet channel about just this issue ;).
------
otterley
When used with Chef Server 11 (or Hosted Chef), Chef scales reasonably well.
You install a client on each node, and the client speaks to the server via
HTTPS + REST.
The unqualified assertion that Chef uses ssh is inaccurate. You can run chef-
solo via ssh if you like, but you'll run into the same scalability ceiling as
with any other ssh-based solution.
------
WickyNilliams
Is there a comparable tool for Windows?
Powershell works great for executing commands on arbitrary servers (which
sounds like the basis of Salt), but it'd be great to declaratively say "I want
the server in this state" like the config management side of salt. I assume
there is a tool built atop of Powershell like this somewhere?
~~~
lmickh
As mentioned, this can be done with Chef, Puppet, and Salt, but be careful
about how you go about it. It is important to recognize when it is best to
leverage AD for your Windows configs.
It is easy to fall down the rabbit hole of trying to implement things in a CM
tool/Powershell combo that could be done in AD far easier.
~~~
drummer32
Genuine question: Why would you have Windows servers joined in an AD domain?
Or are you talking about pushing changes to workstations?
~~~
AjithAntony
Because the services you provide depend on a domain for authentication and
configuration like Exchange, Citrix, IIS, Sharepoint, SCCM, and every other
Microsoft server product.
I am dying for the chef/puppet/salt/ansible/cfengine recipe that will let me
fully configure this stuff, including the domain memberships.
------
frio
From skimming the top level of comments, it seems most people don't like these
tools. Fair enough.
That said, on-topic, I just wanted to say that having tried Puppet, Chef and
Salt, I've found Salt the easiest to use. Straightforward installation (no
messing with Ruby versions/rvm/etc.), really simple setup (systemctl start
salt-master; systemctl start salt-minion; salt-keys -L; salt-keys -A yourbox;
done), and the YAML-based configuration syntax has been a breeze to work with.
Really quite pleased with it; it's made getting a few of my hairer boxes under
control much easier than I expected (and much easier than I found with Chef or
Puppet).
------
abtinf
Yet another un-googlable project name. Pretty much kills it for me.
~~~
frankwiles
Have you tried Googling salt stack? I've had zero problems finding tutorials
and documentation.
------
knowshan
Good to see tools that work as a system configuration framework and also allow
command execution.
[ControlTier]([http://www.controltier.org/](http://www.controltier.org/)) had
(don't think it's actively developed now) options to execute general system
commands, configure systems and application deployment. But it was fairly
complex and required [ant]([http://ant.apache.org/](http://ant.apache.org/))
skills.
------
dmourati
It seems most people miss the fact that any sufficiently large system is going
to require _both_ a pull-based _and_ a push-based solution.
So, take ansible. Primary use: push. But has ansible-pull.
Look at puppet.
Primary use: pull. But has mcollective.
IMO, and I am not there yet but soon to be. The gold standard is to _combine_
two strong players that specialize one each in push/pull. For me, it is
looking like ansible/puppet.
------
cowmix
For years I have been trying to spread the gosspel of bcfg2 because, while not
perfect, I thought was a more complete system over Puppet or Chef. Bcfg2,
however has some big warts of its own AND it never really caught on.
In the past few months I've been slowing converting to SaltStack and it really
is everything I ever dreamed of for a CM system. Fast, easy, real-time. Lovin'
it.
~~~
Goladus
If bcfg2 was a complete system, it never caught on because the documentation
was entirely missing. Every time I looked at it, I blocked on actually getting
anything done because I couldn't find an equivalent to these reference
manuals:
[http://docs.puppetlabs.com/references/latest/type.html](http://docs.puppetlabs.com/references/latest/type.html)
[http://docs.opscode.com/resource.html](http://docs.opscode.com/resource.html)
[https://cfengine.com/archive/manuals/cf-
manuals/cf2-Referenc...](https://cfengine.com/archive/manuals/cf-
manuals/cf2-Reference#Concept-Index)
------
ishbits
I've recently been thinking I need to learn Chef or Puppet. This thread has
convinced me to pick up and try Ansible first.
------
1gor
[https://github.com/seattlerb/rake-
remote_task](https://github.com/seattlerb/rake-remote_task) is all you need if
you use ruby.
require 'rake/remote_task'
set :domain, 'abc.example.com'
remote_task :foo do
run "ls"
end
~~~
danudey
State management is about a lot more than 'execute this command on a server'
(which is discussed in the article). It's about creating a set of rules and
performing idempotent actions.
If you're just running shell commands, it's easy to screw up and waste your
time or break your server by accidentally having the same commands run twice.
------
WestCoastJustin
I've thrown together a little puppet demo if anything is interested.
Highlights what puppet is, and how it works.
[http://sysadmincasts.com/episodes/8-learning-puppet-with-
vag...](http://sysadmincasts.com/episodes/8-learning-puppet-with-vagrant)
------
tegansnyder
I use Salt to run commands across our EC2 environment to do things like
restart Varnish, clear logs, and run updates. Paired with Unison for file
synchronization it works well when your auto-scaling kicks in and you need
your new AMI to be synched from staging.
------
tetsusoh
emm, Private chef also use zeromq to implement the pub job feature.
Puppet has MCollective (with ActiveMQ) to implement the similar feature.
------
gunmetal
Salt is missing templates, the ability to use higher level programming
language and all the environment/roles that I find the most powerful part of
Chef.
~~~
Game_Ender
You are wrong on all counts here. Salt supports Jinja2 template engine, so you
can template your states [1]. You define custom states in python [2]. In the
root configuration file (top.sls) you target configuration based on host name,
grains (machine specific information) [3].
1 -
[http://docs.saltstack.com/topics/tutorials/states_pt3.html](http://docs.saltstack.com/topics/tutorials/states_pt3.html)
2 -
[http://docs.saltstack.com/ref/states/writing.htm](http://docs.saltstack.com/ref/states/writing.htm)
3 -
[http://docs.saltstack.com/ref/states/top.html](http://docs.saltstack.com/ref/states/top.html)
------
moe
Dead-end. Use ansible.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Deal alerts for products you want, curated from around the web - jodi
http://stingycoin.com
======
kyu
The products I want will never go on sale...
~~~
jodi
What kind of products?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What's your preferred authentication method as an end-user? - horizontech-dev
To be clear, looking to hear whats your preferred authentication method as an end-user (not as a developer).<p>Example:<p>Phone Number
Gmail
Social (fb, linkedin, github etc)<p>Sorry, if there is already a discussion around this. Feel free to link me.
======
pwg
login-id + password
Random websites simply _do not_ get my phone number (and if they persist, they
often receive 123-456-7890 which quiets them down). I do not use gmail (and
random websites would not get it if I did). I also do not use fb/linkedin, but
even if I did, random websites also would not get that information either. Do
have a github account, but again, random websites will not receive that
information either.
~~~
horizontech-dev
Got it. Thanks.
Are security and privacy the reason for the aversion to phone number and
social methods?
~~~
ColinWright
Firstly, I usually don't have the methods being asked for. I don't use Linked-
In, I barely use FB and certainly can't remember my password. And seriously,
would you go around giving your phone number, email, physical address, etc.,
to everyone? The opportunities for social engineering abound.
And just because the people I give it to may be trusted today, there's always
(a) buyouts, (b) security breaches, (c) going rogue.
Why are you asking these questions? Are you trying to learn about security?
Are you surprised at the responses?
Would you, without reservation, give random people your email, phone number,
login-id for other services, etc?
If so, why do you _not_ have concerns?
------
ColinWright
I second everything that pwg said[0]. Why should I give a random website
information? There has to be an exchange, and it has to be fair. Do they
provide enough value for me to give them information?
Rarely.
Do they _need_ the information to perform the service they are offering?
Rarely.
For me, login-in / password. If they're asking for more then it had better be
obvious from the start that it's worth the trade.
[0]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22771460](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22771460)
------
zzo38computer
For HTTP(S) stuff, HTTP authentication (basic or digest auth). However, better
would be to use SASL (which is usable with many protocols, although I think
HTTP(S) unfortunately doesn't), and then from that to have some sort of SASL
method which allows decentralized authentication like OpenID but does not
require a web browser.
What I hate is using a telephone number (I don't want them to call me on the
telephone, and other people in my house might use the same service so then
that won't work so well!), Gmail (I don't use it), GitHub (again I don't use
it), Facebook (again I don't use it), etc.
------
gshdg
Email + password. I can isolate the email in case of breaches and it helps
avoid leaking behavioral data to social networks.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Air Gaps - bostik
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2013/10/air_gaps.html
======
wikiburner
Is there an effective way to "mostly" airgap, if you need Internet
connectivity for your work? This is a comment I posted on a similar thread a
few weeks ago.
=========================================
Just curious, how would airgapping be practical if you need Internet
connectivity for your "real work"? For example, let's say you run a quant
trading firm and the algorithms you're concerned about being stolen need
connectivity to download live trading info, and then after processing that
info they need to communicate buy/sell orders to the outside world. Are there
any methods that could be used that would prevent all communication with a
secure system (with an airgap level of certainty) besides the strictly defined
data you need to do your "real work"? \-----
gaius 19 days ago | link
Sure, you would just use Radianz, and that is in fact what everyone does. This
is a very solved problem! Bloomberg also operates a private network, and there
are others too. These systems can operate perfectly well without access to the
public Internet. A couple of jobs ago I worked at a financial services firm
with 2 networks and 2 PCs on everyone's desk. Rednet for outside connectivity,
and an internal network for real work, and never the twain shall meet. NO-ONE
needs the Internet for real work, let's be honest, just for goofing off. Time
we all started to prioritize security over mere convenience. \-----
*
wikiburner 19 days ago | link
Yep, maybe trading wasn't the best example, although they are still
effectively at the mercy of the security of their data providers network -
which admittedly is probably quite good. Let's say you're a P.I., journalist,
researcher, law enforcement, or intel agency, and need to automate news or
people searches for some reason. If you were able to very strictly define the
data you're expecting to receive, isn't there any way you could automatically
pass this data on to a secure system without opening yourself up to exploits?
~~~
Spearchucker
I've not played in this space for a looong time but...
There are four things you want to do -
1\. Get a herd of cash together. The stuff that follows is not cheap.
2\. Set up a hardware data diode (an appliance that only allows data to travel
in one direction). [1]
3\. Set up an air gap like Whale Comm's appliance used to do (two 1U rack-
mount servers, back-to-back, which [dramatization alert] automates plugging a
USB stick into one server, copying data onto it, pulling it out, sticking it
into the other server, and coping the data onto it - at ~10Mb/s, if memory
serves). [2]
4\. Any time anything traverses the trust boundary, convert from one format to
another, so PDF becomes RTF, DOC becomes TXT, PNG becomes GIF, and so on. The
point is that converting attachments into other formats drops malicious
payloads, or stops them from exploiting vulnerabilities in the apps that open
the original formats.
[1] Tenix used to do one, but they cost crazy money (millions). I don't know
much about this space anymore, but this might provide some pointers:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unidirectional_network](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unidirectional_network)
[2] Whale Communications was acquired by Microsoft. The product is now called
ForeFront Unified Access Gateway, and while still a good application firewall,
no longer provides that air gap
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Forefront_Unified_Acc...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Forefront_Unified_Access_Gateway)).
I've no idea who else can do this.
~~~
JoachimSchipper
My employer (Fox-IT) sells a data diode ([https://www.fox-
it.com/en/products/datadiode/](https://www.fox-
it.com/en/products/datadiode/)). List price is "call us for a quote", but the
quote won't be anywhere near $1 MM.
Using a "proper" diode instead of hacking something yourself gets you a
guaranteed-good solution - how much do you trust your firmware? - plus some
software that automates "I want to send X through this machine" for many
common and/or high-value instances of X. That said, custom hardware plus
custom software plus certifications plus enterprise sales is indeed (a lot)
more expensive than snipping the tx wire/fiber.
Automatically copying USB sticks doesn't seem particularly useful to me.
~~~
Spearchucker
The air gap (copying data out of band, as it were) is useful in that the
connection can be physically broken by software on the system high side, using
a software kill switch, automated schedule or other rules.
------
leephillips
Knuth on his air gap: "I currently use Ubuntu Linux, on a standalone laptop—it
has no Internet connection. I occasionally carry flash memory drives between
this machine and the Macs that I use for network surfing and graphics; but I
trust my family jewels only to Linux." :
[http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1193856](http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1193856)
~~~
jonlucc
In a post-Stuxnet world, can we trust flash drives? If I remember correctly,
that virus would jump onto flash drives to spread to the next few computers it
touched. I think I might prefer an ethernet wire connection without the
outgoing wires.
~~~
dublinben
As long as you wipe and format the flash drive from the secure computer every
time you use it, there shouldn't be any risk. I don't think even Stuxnet could
have infected a linux machine that didn't mount or autorun the partition.
~~~
sneak
Flash drives are not dumb. I know that Travis Goodspeed has had some success
in reflashing their microcontrollers to speak corrupt USB to attack USB stacks
of host machines (which of course run in kernel mode).
~~~
lesterbuck
A fascinating talk by Travis Goodspeed on the mayhem possible by reprogramming
the USB controller in a disk:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8Im0_KUEf8](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8Im0_KUEf8)
Writing a Thumbdrive from Scratch: Prototyping Active Disk Anti-Forensics
------
nlh
I find it somewhat amazing that a few months ago, I'd have read an article
like this and thought "Man, talk about paranoid."
But today, after all that I've read and learned recently, it makes perfect
sense.
~~~
easytiger
I read a comment just like this a couple of months ago. Someone saying that
until this point they thought Richard Stallman was a complete paranoid nutjob
but it turns out he was completely correct. I guess that's why he will be seen
as a visionary in so many areas.
And speaking of stallman and airgaps: [http://stallman.org/stallman-
computing.html](http://stallman.org/stallman-computing.html)
> I generally do not connect to web sites from my own machine, aside from a
> few sites I have some special relationship with. I fetch web pages from
> other sites by sending mail to a program (see
> git://git.gnu.org/womb/hacks.git) that fetches them, much like wget, and
> then mails them back to me. Then I look at them using a web browser, unless
> it is easy to see the text in the HTML page directly. I usually try lynx
> first, then a graphical browser if the page needs it.
~~~
xanderstrike
While I admire his dedication to free software and security, I find it sad
that he who has done so much for the internet and modern computing eschews
most of it.
~~~
ygra
You could have said something similar about Dijkstra, who most of his life
didn't even use a computer.
~~~
easytiger
Ihad a formal methods lecturer who insists that no computer scientist should
be allowed to use a computer until they are 40
------
beagle3
I've been setting up networks since 2002 the following way:
Internal network, NOT connected to the internet. External (small network) is
connected to the internet, and has "terminal server" (Windows Terminal Server
if I must, Xrdp if I can let the external servers be Linux).
Firewall between outside world and external network, configured to allow
reasonable work on that network. Firewall between external network and
internal network only allows internal network initiated connections to the RDP
port (3389) on the external network.
Also, an rsync setup that allows some controlled transfer of files between
inner and outer networks (preferable to USB drives - the USB ports should be
disabled logically and physically, although I didn't always get to do that).
This rsync setup goes through a different port, with a cable that is usually
not connected (the air in "airgap"). When files need to go in or out, I plug
the cable for a few minutes, and unplug when not needed.
From experience, this lets you keep a network reasonably secure, without
having to put two PCs on everyone's desk.
Of course, there's risk: There might be a way to root the inside machines
through a bug in RDP, after rooting the outside machines. However, it will
work well, against "standard" attacks and malware that assume internet
connectivity. Even if they get in (through a USB drive, as schneier says was
done in the Iranian and US army facilities), they can't just call out to the
internet.
~~~
j_s
RDP makes it easy to access drives, devices, etc. from the the client... do
you do any additional configuration to disable these features?
[http://geekswithblogs.net/DesigningCode/archive/2010/04/19/f...](http://geekswithblogs.net/DesigningCode/archive/2010/04/19/file-
transfer-using-rdp.aspx)
~~~
beagle3
Yes, drive sharing was disabled server side (though, if the external RDP
server is compromised, one could turn this back on). On the client side, we
set up the connection not to try to share anything.
------
zactral
It is completely possible that mentioning Windows in the article was meant to
be only a smokescreen. I'm sure a person in his position would absolutely not
want to publicly declare the exact solution he is using. In reality, it might
as well be something completely else, like Slackware or some USB-bootable
distro. Yes, this might be security through obscurity but considering that he
admitted that he isn't familiar with the inner workings of Truecrypt etc, it
is the safest bet. Not disclosing what exactly you are using doesn't allow an
adversary with unlimited resources to adapt and optimize to break this
specific scheme.
~~~
hyperpape
That doesn't seem plausible. He could non-specifically say "don't use Windows.
Ideally use [some stock linux distro] or investigate other unix operating
systems that can be configured for safety." That wouldn't really give away
anything.
~~~
aliakbarkhan
It's not about giving things away -- it's about delaying your adversary. If
the NSA takes Schneier at his word and targets him accordingly, then (assuming
this is a diversionary tactic) any 0days or other attacks they attempt to send
his way will fail. Now obviously that's not a long-term strategy, but it does
provide an extra layer of protection against naïve attacks based on his public
statements. To be clear, I'm not sure I buy the smokescreen idea, either, but
your reason for disbelieving is flawed.
~~~
hyperpape
It's fair that this would make some difference. But it's not as "he's not on
Windows, but we have no clue what he is on?" is a recipe for quick success. He
doesn't have to say what linux distro he uses, just give a placeholder for a
decent one, and he doesn't even have to use Linux.
In any case, is it worth potentially misleading a lot of people for the sake
of such a marginal increase in his own security? He could have an even more
secure setup if he didn't talk about instituting an air gap. He's already
giving away information.
------
kephra
Windows is a bad choice for an air gapped system. A much better would be
Slackware, where its even simple to maintain an air gapped system. Maintaining
a Linux with a package manager, e.g. Debian without internet is much more
trouble.
I had scripts to maintain an air gapped Debian 10 years ago, but can no longer
recommend them, as Debian now has signed archives, and the script breaks the
sign.
~~~
claudius
You can still use optical media (CD/DVD) or USB keys to install packages with
APT, so I don’t see how Slackware would have any advantage over Debian there.
There’s even a apt-offline[0] to create a list of ‘needed’ packages on one
system, then download these packages on another one and transport them to the
air-gapped system. Of course, you will still have to decide whether to trust
these downloaded packages, and unless you trust at least some Debian
Developers to do the right thing, this will be hard to do even with GPG
signatures on all packages.
[0] [http://packages.debian.org/wheezy/apt-
offline](http://packages.debian.org/wheezy/apt-offline)
~~~
vezzy-fnord
Slackware is generally more secure by default, such as explicitly requiring
root (not sudo) for package management and at least sudo for utilities that
prompt the kernel. This is much in the vein of the *BSDs.
Also its conservative nature, constant security advisories and eschewing of
bleeding edge are a bonus.
~~~
claudius
$ dpkg-query -W -f '${Status}\n' sudo
unknown ok not-installed
IOW, it is perfectly possible not to use (or even install sudo) on Debian. I
don’t want to argue whether Debian or Slackware have a more ‘conservative
nature’ nor whether that’s an advantage, but there are of course also security
advisories for Debian (e.g. today for the systemd packages…).
> at least sudo for utilities that prompt the kernel
Basically everything ‘prompts the kernel’ in one way or another, could you
expand on how exactly Slackware manages to run when every syscall needs sudo?
(Or what you mean by ‘prompt the kernel’.)
I guess at the end of the day, you can configure a Debian installation to be
more secure than any given Slackware installation and you can configure a
Slackware installation to be more secure than any given Debian installation –
this, of course, depends on your skills and experience with any of the two, so
you should use with whatever you’re more comfortable :)
------
csandreasen
> 1\. When you set up your computer, connect it to the Internet as little as
> possible. It's impossible to completely avoid connecting the computer to the
> Internet, but try to configure it all at once and as anonymously as
> possible.
There's no technical reason you can't keep your airgapped computer completely
off the internet for its entire life cycle. I'd even go so far as to commit
heresy say that this is just plain bad security advice that Mr. Schneier is
giving out here. Instead, you should probably get your install media from a
trusted source and use that to install the OS and any initial updates (maybe
that's a manufacturer's install CD or a Linux ISO that you burned yourself -
avoid anything that isn't write-once). If the OS on your airgapped machine has
a unpatched remote vulnerability, you're already putting that system at risk
by connecting it to the internet even once.
Don't discard that trusted install media - if you need to create another
airgapped machine, you're using the same airgapped data to perform the
install. I realize that Bruce was discussing setting up a stand-alone
computer, but I thought I'd share my experience: Years ago, around the same
time that Blaster was a nuisance, I managed a network of airgapped machines.
If any one of them had been hit because I chose to just let it download
updates off the internet, the entire network would have been compromised. This
would be much worse if you were worried about a targeted attack - every time
you connect a fresh computer to the internet with the intent of moving that
box over to the secure network, you're giving the attacker another opportunity
to gain access.
For transferring data back and forth, I've used CDs in the past, but toyed
with the idea of using a dedicated serial cable for transfers instead. Tar up
the files, connect the cable, tell the remote machine to listen, shoot them
over, then disconnect the cable. The connection has no network stack to worry
about independent programs sending data across the channel; if extra data is
added, the result on the other end likely won't untar; there's no auto-
execution of programs to worry about. The only thing I have to worry about
being compromised are my copies of tar and cat. Removeable media in general
has issues - Schneier mentions a few examples in the article of successful
compromises using USB sticks.
~~~
pdonis
_If the OS on your airgapped machine has a unpatched remote vulnerability, you
're already putting that system at risk by connecting it to the internet even
once._
Even if it's behind a NAT firewall with no external ports open? And you only
connect via SSL (or SSH) to specific known hosts?
~~~
csandreasen
There are whole bunch of things you can do to mitigate the risk, and whole
bunch of other variables regarding the network environment that you're setting
it up in. The network behind that NAT might be compromised, and depending on
the operating system there may be ports open by default that could be
compromised before you can close them or there could be some other remote
vulnerability. I remember about a decade ago having a Windows box that I was
wiping/restoring for a family member infected with Blaster after its first
reboot before all of the system updates were finished downloading.
Something with a good reputation for security, like a clean OpenBSD install
with no ports open, is unlikely to get hit on its first round of updates. Even
so, if you're going to go through all of the hassle to set up an airgapped
system anyways, why bother taking the risk?
------
john_b
For the _really_ paranoid, to the extent that your data can be represented as
a text file, you can print it on paper from your internet connected machine
and OCR it into your air gapped machine, and vice versa. In this case, you
only have to worry about your printer or scanner having a backdoor. If you are
very confident in your OCR accuracy, you can encrypt it prior to printing and
decrypt it after scanning.
Just remember to burn the paper afterwards.
------
keyme
"Don't worry too much about patching your system; in general, the risk of the
executable code is worse than the risk of not having your patches up to date."
Not good advice. If you plan to open anything other than text files on the
machine, un-patched software is almost as big a risk as transferring
executables. The only difference is that it seems less dangerous to you.
~~~
tptacek
I came here to say the exact same thing. The problem with complicated file
formats isn't that they contain "macros"; it's that the code that parses and
interprets those files is prone to memory corruption.
------
notacoward
I'd do two things differently.
First, instead of using removable media from which data could still be
recovered, I'd get a second Ethernet switch. Whenever I wanted to move data
from my regular machine to my secure machine, I'd have to move the cable on my
regular machine from one switch to the other. Thus it would be physically
impossible to be connected to both internal and external networks
simultaneously, _and_ I wouldn't be leaving any persistent physical data trail
like a USB stick or CD-ROM.
The second thing I'd do is a _double_ air gap. Think of it as an airlock: you
can't open the inner door until you're sure no contaminants got through the
outer door. The intermediate host would have a single purpose: run malware
checks. Thus, only data that had already been checked in a secure environment
would even be allowed to touch the real secure machine.
~~~
mseebach
You're assuming that the only way to compromise a computer is through a direct
internet connection. This is wrong. Pre-internet viruses spread on diskettes.
The point of the air gap is to assume that any computer that has ever been
connected to the internet is infected in an undetectable manner and that this
infection is capable of spreading autonomously. Only by _physically_ denying
the infection the means to spread can you protect against it. Secondarily, you
want to deny the infection the means to communicate back home, but sometimes
the point of an infection isn't to steal data - see Stuxnet.
~~~
notacoward
"You're assuming that the only way to compromise a computer is through a
direct internet connection."
I'm assuming the exact opposite. I recognize, as does Schneier, that infection
can occur without such a connection. Any mechanism that facilitates transfer
of data also facilitates infection. That includes USB sticks and CD-Rs, which
have the _additional_ problem of leaving artifacts around for others to pick
up later. It's the "we can secure USB sticks better than we can secure
networks" belief that's magical.
"Only by physically denying the infection the means to spread can you protect
against it."
As soon as you physically move a USB stick from one machine to another, you've
effectively created a network. A really crappy one with high latency, but that
doesn't make it any more secure _as you yourself illustrate_ with the diskette
example.
~~~
mseebach
A network connection, even brief has an enormous attack surface. The
corresponding surface when using physical media is much smaller.
~~~
notacoward
Bull. A network connection _on a physically separate network_ subject to
proper inspection/monitoring has a very small attack surface. The
corresponding attack surface for a USB stick is larger, with new exploits
being discovered every day. The separate switch is functionally identical to
the USB stick. They both allow transfer of data. They can both potentially be
attack vectors. They both (in this construction) require manual intervention
to complete the data path. The only difference is that it's a lot easier to
get a copy of someone's data on a USB stick, after someone conveniently
recorded their data transfer on a readily purloined bit of media.
You can't acknowledge the exploits that have occurred via diskettes or USB
sticks, and then also say they're fundamentally better than an isolated
network. It's illogical. In fact, it's stupid.
------
acomjean
I worked on an "Air Gapped" network. We didn't call it that. As the internet
and open source took off it became more and more painful.
To get files over to the network, we'd have to download from internet and then
burn to dvd and bring it over. The thinking was that DVD's with their write
once capability would prevent unwanted files from hoping aboard. This didn't
help if the file you were transfering was infected, but files were virus
checked before burning.
Oddly files went Windows->Dvd->HPUX machines meaning the virus scan on windows
was somewhat useless.
But having no access to cpan or online research on your main work machine was
hard.
------
kbart
This article misses the most important security tip: _do not_ use any
proprietary software, especially the ones starting with "W" made by MS.
~~~
skrebbel
Are you sure? How much more difficult would it be for an intelligence agency
to get an open source hacker to "accidentally" inject a vulnerability
disguised as a bug, than to pressure MS to write a backdoor? (or to get MS to
hire a mole)
~~~
kbart
Yes I'm sure. It would be much more difficult, because that vulnerability
could be possibly detected by many people reviewing the code, so it must be
more sophisticated and hidden than the one buried in the precompiled binary.
Also I haven't seen any discovered backdoor/vulnerability on widespread open
source product yet, contrary to the countless examples of products by big
names. Not saying that open source is 100% secure, but it's still _much_ safer
than proprietary programs.
[EDIT] Thanks for pointing out Debian SSL example, I wasn't aware of that. But
it still doesn't deny the key point I mentioned - that there are more
discovered backdoors and vulnerabilities in proprietary software than the open
one.
~~~
DanBC
All those people reviewing the code took two years to discover the Debian SSL
bug.
[https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/05/random_number...](https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/05/random_number_b.html)
[https://wiki.debian.org/SSLkeys](https://wiki.debian.org/SSLkeys)
~~~
sneak
Now how long would that have taken WITHOUT source code?
Would we _ever_ have known (without keyfiles on disk to analyze)?
------
scott_karana
Man, Bleachbit sure took no time at all to put up his "testimonial" blurb on
their site!
> "Since I started working with Snowden's documents, I have been using [...]
> BleachBit" \-- Bruce Schneier _
~~~
nivla
haha I was thinking the same when I noticed it. Has anyone here used
BleachBit? From the description it looks like ccleaner + eraser mix.
~~~
scott_karana
I'd try it out if I weren't a Mac guy these days. Looks decent, and nicely
minimalist.
------
mrpdaemon
What about isolation? With heavy use of virtualization one can make the air
gapped machine even more secure:
\- Only open documents in a virtual machine \- Only interface with the
document transfer media (cd/dvd etc.) through virtual machines. Don't ever
mount or use this media on your host. \- Clone a new throw-away virtual
machine for opening EACH document and delete it after reading the document
About his points:
1) This is nonsense. It's possible to set up an OS (for example linux) with
zero internet connectivity, just download the ISO on another computer, verify
checksums and signatures, burn onto optical media and you're set.
8) Also, use one-time media. Write once on the internet host, fill up and
finalize media, read once on the air gap host, destroy media.
Also, I don't think Schneier is recommending to use Windows for this task.
He's just assuming that most people out there is using Windows and can use
these tips to improve their security. For his own high security setup(s) I'm
pretty sure he'd have the common sense to not use Windows.
------
jeanjq
Surprised that he decided to use Windows.
~~~
Zigurd
If you assume your connected machine is going to get p0wnd, and you rely on
the air gap to prevent your secure machine from being penetrated, you could
run any OS you like, no matter your opinion of how much the vendor cooperates
with the NSA.
~~~
vacri
Given that he's going to the level of preferring a store-bought USB stick over
one found in a parking lot, it shows he's concerned about transferring
malware. Not using the OS for which the most malware exists seems like a
sensible choice.
After all, if you're going to all this trouble and inconveniencing yourself in
the name of security, what's a touch more inconvenience with using an
operating system that you're less user-friendly with?
~~~
danielweber
Who is your threat? Are you worried about a spray-and-pray attacker who just
dumps a bunch of malware out there? Or are you worried about being
specifically targeted by someone who wants your stuff?
In the first case, a USB key bought at a big box store might be full of
malware. In the second case, the big box store is the perfect place to buy
something, as long as it's not the store where you always buy stuff, because
the APT wants to keep his profile small.
------
7952
Ironically it is a result of modern encryption that separating things from the
internet is so difficult. If every app sends data over an encrypted channel it
makes it much harder to audit what exactly it is doing. You can't impose rules
if you don't know what the data is or where it will end up.
------
paul
He forgot to mention keeping the computer in a faraday cage. If he has Snowden
info, it seems likely that intelligence agencies would be monitoring him
closely enough to use Van Eck phreaking to spy on his laptop display (or other
part of the computer that leak info through rf, which is all of them).
~~~
elq
Schneier explicitly mentioned tempest
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempest_(codename)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempest_\(codename\)))
in the article.
~~~
jedunnigan
Wild stuff!
[http://lasecwww.epfl.ch/keyboard/](http://lasecwww.epfl.ch/keyboard/)
------
gluejar
"the first company to market a USB stick with a light that indicates a write
operation -- not read or write; I've got one of those -- wins a prize".
Get to work, people!
~~~
chiph
There are sticks out there that have hardware write-enable switches (I keep my
medical records on one), so that you can at least control when writes occur.
~~~
sneak
Nothing is stopping a compromised host system from flashing the
microcontroller on the USB stick to make it lie to you. They aren't
appliances.
~~~
jessaustin
What you propose is probably possible for many USB sticks, but I don't think
it's possible in general. Flashing a microcontroller often requires access to
a serial interface like SPI, I2C, or JTAG. That's typically on different pins
than USB (which pins can be buried in potting or otherwise inaccessible to
compromised hosts). In addition some models can have particular pins connected
to disable flashing.
~~~
fest
Some microcontrollers I've been working with, that had USB capability also
supported DFU- flashing new firmware via USB.
I have also resurrected a write-broken flash drive, by re-flashing it's
firmware (a tool for which was provided by microcontroller vendor, which I
found out by looking at VID/PID values and googling them).
~~~
jessaustin
Oh definitely it's possible for many microcontrollers. DFU is very handy
during development. I was just reacting to this statement:
_Nothing is stopping a compromised host system from flashing the
microcontroller on the USB stick to make it lie to you._
Nothing, that is, except possibly a complete absence of such a facility! It
depends on the microcontroller and how it has been wired into the USB device.
------
danso
Schneier is not as paranoid or as particular as I thought he would be:
> _1\. When you set up your computer, connect it to the Internet as little as
> possible. It 's impossible to completely avoid connecting the computer to
> the Internet, but try to configure it all at once and as anonymously as
> possible. I purchased my computer off-the-shelf in a big box store, then
> went to a friend's network and downloaded everything I needed in a single
> session. (The ultra-paranoid way to do this is to buy two identical
> computers, configure one using the above method, upload the results to a
> cloud-based anti-virus checker, and transfer the results of that to the air
> gap machine using a one-way process.)_
A friend's house is not "anonymous". If you have the need for an air gap, then
you probably should assume that your attackers have the ability to suss out
your off and online social network. In a not-too-distant future, it's not hard
to imagine a surveillance operative being able to expand their examination of
network traffic to not only include you, but associates of yours, and then to
detect when an online-installation routine was run. At that point, the fact
that that computer's fingerprint (however it may be calculated) was never seen
again from that friend's home might be one flag of several in a comprehensive
surveillance flag.
Though I guess if Schneier is talking about a off-the-parts computer, I'm
assuming he means a desktop computer that can't be assembled in the Starbucks
two states away to connect to the Wifi. OTOH, I think I would prefer a Linux
laptop as my air-gapped computer
------
avn2109
I'd actually be interested in hearing from Tptacek on this topic, but he's
absent for once. Weird.
------
guard-of-terra
Also you can boot from livecd each time. You can use livecd boot on your
internet-enabled device. Imagine fellow rootkiter's frustration when he
realises root filesystem is read only.
Of course you're still vulnerable to BIOS/firmware malware.
------
derekp7
There is another backchannel that can be used if your air-gapped computer ever
does get compromised, which I haven't seen anyone discuss yet. If your
internet-connected computer and air-gapped computer both have audio speakers /
microphone, then that seems like a perfect covert way for a compromise to set
up wireless communications between them An audio signal can appear to be
similar to fan noise, or outside of human hearing range. I wonder if this has
ever been exploited before.
------
gknoy
Bruce gives a good collection of tips, but in his specific case it probably
matters little. If he is a target of surveillance, I would be thoroughly
surprised if he did not get "black bag" intrusions (as he puts it). He is a
target that is definitely high enough priority ("I have Snowden's documents!")
that dedicating assets to investigation is more likely, and at that point an
air gap seems more like an inconvenience to the attacker than true protection.
------
CurtMonash
I ordered a new desktop computer last night, and a number of the options from
which I chose did NOT seem to have Wi-Fi built in. Rather, they sold low-cost
USB devices for Wi-Fi connectivity. I didn't actually check all the
motherboard specs to confirm this, but it seems pretty accurate.
So getting an air-gapped computer without Wi-Fi would seem to be the least of
the problems.
------
Sami_Lehtinen
I've been using serial cable with data leds and gpg ascii armored data over
it. Very easy to visually inspect all data before further processing. Only
attack vector remaining is gpg ascii armored parser, signature verification &
decryption.
Afaik, this is quite safe.
This computer has not been connected to the internet ever, and it won't be in
future.
Don't forget physical site security.
------
logicallee
Secure Linux air gap.
Here is a real secure Linux air gap:
1\. From a friend's computer, burn two copies of your favorite Linux liveCD.
2\. Hold the two identical discs so that you can see the reflection of the
document in front of you in one (mirror writing) and the reflection of the
reflection in the other. (normal writing.)
3\. You now have a secure Linux air gap with which you can read any document.
------
MarkMc
I'd like to sign my executable files on an air-gapped machine. Problem is, the
code-signing tools for OS X and Windows (ie. codesign and signtool.exe) seem
to require access to my private key to generate the signature AND and an
internet connection to generate the timestamp.
Is there any solution here?
------
ChrisNorstrom
What about using a Linux CD? You can get online and use it for what you need
without it downloading or installing software. Every time you re-boot it's
guaranteed to be the same OS without any spying malware on it... I guess you'd
have to save files on a USB drive though.
------
spindritf
> if you're using optical media, those disks will be impossible to erase
I pop the old optical disks I'm tossing away into a microwave oven for 10
seconds at 1000 watts. How recoverable is the data stored on them? (And how
cancerogenus the stench?)
~~~
venomsnake
More than you would like. The amount of surface area left is substantial so
something could be recovered. The best way is to melt them with thermite. If
it is legal in your area.
~~~
chii
wait, thermite is illegal?
~~~
venomsnake
I have no idea. Chances of a mix that violently burns at 1300 degrees being
under regulation somewhere in the wide world are not that slim.
~~~
angersock
It's useful for fixing cracks in cast iron and joining rails, so I don't see
why it'd be regulated.
~~~
jlgreco
Something being regulated does not mean that it can't be used industrially.
Many types of explosives are regulated even though they are used industrially
every day in quarries and mines.
Still, restricting thermite would be silly and ineffective. As a chem-lab
assistant, I made the stuff in highschool. Aluminum powder is widely available
and rather cheap, as is iron oxide (obviously ;). I also made cupric oxide
thermite, but that didn't work as well.
------
Shivetya
this reminds me a lot of what a lot of radio personalities who deal with
personal finances recommend, the system which you do your banking on should
only do that and nothing more.
While such a system is obviously still connected to the net, you reduce your
risk by running a discreet set of software.
To be totally safe you would need a room which protects from emissions
escaping it. Back in my service days we had system isolated as such simply
because you could be monitored through walls.
~~~
g8oz
_discrete_
------
BrianYesh
"Note: the first company to market a USB stick with a light that indicates a
write operation -- not read or write; I've got one of those -- wins a prize."
------
apaprocki
Isn't this an example of poor OPSEC? If he is in fact using the procedures
spelled out in this post, he's giving his potential attackers a clear picture
of all of his security measures so that they can focus effort on exploiting a
weakness.
------
Grue3
He forgot that the computer must be wrapped in tinfoil.
------
macca321
How about conducting all IO by webcam OCR?
------
antocv
Schneier is kind of disappointing more and more...
Be cautious of this advice dear readers.
" (The ultra-paranoid way to do this is to buy two identical computers,
configure one using the above method, upload the results to a cloud-based
anti-virus checker, and transfer the results of that to the air gap machine
using a one-way process.)"
No, the ultra paranoid would buy two computers, perform install 1 from friend
1s internet connection, downloading everything keeping a copy and check-sums,
then perform install 2 on a friend of a friends connection, then compare the
results of both the downloaded check-sums and the installation. (For certain
flavors of Linux it should be the same).
There is no point in uploading to a cloud-anti-virus checker if the NSA is
after you, its not like they are going to use Slammer or some other known
virus against you.
Jesus christ, and he is using Windows !? WTF. He is going against his own
advice - to use public/free software as often as possible.
For the step of moving files between air-gapped computer, he suggests using
USB sticks. _He forgot to say that you must encrypt the entire usb-stick as
well_ , You dont write a file-system to it! Only an encrypted blob. As
"viruses" can be transferred on the NTFS he is probably using. Even Linux fs
had a vulnerability - when the kernel tried to mount the fs it would privilege
escalate to root and run code - code that can be hidden in the NTFS alternate
(hidden) streams.
EDIT: For the NSA-agent wishing to leak, a good idea is too look into HaikuOS,
MenuetOS etc and use those instead of GNU/Linux, or ArchHurd. Something very
rare, something unexpected. Modify the installation from the default as much
as you can. Hm, we should make an Ask HN thread - what is the best ingenious
methods for current NSA employees to leak again, now that they have to share a
computer with a partner?
~~~
Lagged2Death
_No, the ultra paranoid would buy two computers..._
The ultra-ultra paranoid might use their popular and widely read blog - a blog
which is almost certainly read by more than one or two people at the NSA - to
post an enormous boat-load of misdirection that is nevertheless also helpful
advice for people who are actually stuck attempting to secure Windows
computers. Advice that happens to highlight what a nigh-impossible task that
really is. (TEN rules? Good luck.)
I can't think of any reason for someone in Schneier's position to publicize
his _actual_ security arrangements at this time.
Then again, maybe he feels he has a duty, as a security expert, to use and
thereby remain familiar with the most popular systems around.
~~~
dublinben
>Then again, maybe he feels he has a duty, as a security expert, to use and
thereby remain familiar with the most popular systems around.
I think this is the case for security experts like Schneier and Krebs. Most of
the threats they're interested in affect Windows. Most of their readers run
Windows. They would be a less useful resource if their first recommendation
was always "ditch Windows" even if that's accurate.
~~~
joe_the_user
Maybe he needs to use Windows but whether or not his single air-gap-ed
computer runs Windows or not isn't going to determine whether he's going to be
running Windows in general.
I don't know how maintaining a full off-Internet computer isn't much more
extreme than switching OSes. If he is recommended an off-Internet machine, it
seems clear he'd want to recommend the hard steps as well as the easy steps.
I mean, he says he's running open office so Linux should be able to work great
for him.
------
fit2rule
I'm not sure air-gaps are as safe as we think they are.
Yes, its tinfoil time: the NSA and various other Defence agencies have
deployed satellites capable of tuning into any CPU built since 1998.
Air gap in a deep, deep hole. Or maybe on the other side of the Sun. These are
the only really safe places fur humans subjects of the new Tech Overlords to
to stash data...
~~~
qwerty_asdf
[citation needed]
~~~
fit2rule
I don't have a desire to provide a citation because I'm exploring,
conjecturing .. I mean, after all its not infeasible that the satellite-
launches that the NSA has been progressively making, over and over, are to
support a network of CPU-sipping listening posts. This had been discussed even
in the 80's, in certain circles ..
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
InfiniteUSB-C - neverminder
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/668098663/infiniteusb-one-usb-port-unlimited-devices/description
======
unwind
This is a quite nice design.
Obviously (?) this is a 2-port hub in the connector housing, with one port
going to the extension cable, and the other to the through-port.
Those hubs chips will need energy to run, so there will be a limit to how many
you can daisy-chain.
I didn't see any mention of what this limit is, it would have been interesting
to see if the higher power spec of USB 3.1 means it comes closer to infinity
than for USB 2.0.
~~~
BringTheTanks
The chips use virtually no power.
The only limit is the power the connected through the hub devices draw.
~~~
craftkiller
That and USB's limit of 127 devices
[http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How to Write a Maths Library in 2016 - ingve
http://www.codersnotes.com/notes/maths-lib-2016/
======
fao_
In regards to the section on `vectorcall`, I think that the UNIX x64 ABI
specifies that any floating point/SSE parameters are passed in the XMM*
registers, so it _should_ stay in the registers the whole time.
OTOH I am not sure if GCC actually does this in practice. Whenever I've had to
read x64 code produced by GCC with -S, I've noticed it tends to constant spill
quite a lot.
~~~
kayamon
Does that still work if the floats are contained in a small struct? (a la
float3, float3x3 etc)
~~~
fao_
To be honest, I have only limited experience with vectors at the moment, so
I'm not entirely sure. I scanned the ABI[0], but in my current sleep-deprived
state I can't make all that much sense of it, sorry. You might have better
luck!
[0]:
[http://www.x86-64.org/documentation/abi-0.99.7.pdf](http://www.x86-64.org/documentation/abi-0.99.7.pdf)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Improving LinkedIn endorsements using graph connections and weights - ipapikas
https://ratein.io
======
dozzie
Improving something that has the underlying idea broken beyond repair? What?
O_o
Endorsements are an idea completely useless for showing that the endorsed
person really knows something. I've been endorsed for knowing tools by people
who never ever had worked with me on a project, much less have seen me using
the tools they say I know.
~~~
ipapikas
That's we are trying to solve, the underlying idea. It's broken because it's
based on what you just described.
But, getting a rating (or an endorsement) from a stranger, it won't affect you
really (it won't always go +1) as it's based on the person's knowledge about
that tool. On the other hand, if the person knows that tool really well (has a
good rating), then that's good for you, I guess :-)
Does this make sense?
~~~
dozzie
> But, getting a rating (or an endorsement) from a stranger [...]
I've never had an endorsement from a _stranger_. All the people who are in my
contact network are people who I really know.
And even if your comment was about somebody who doesn't know the tool they say
I know, my comment (that they usually couldn't tell I know the tool) still
stands.
> [...] if the person knows that tool really well (has a good rating), then
> that's good for you, I guess :-)
> Does this make sense?
If the person knows that tool, it still doesn't tell whether the person has
seen me doing anything with the tool. There's just not enough context about
the relationship between endorser and endorsee to derive anything meaningful,
this is why the very underlying idea is broken beyond repair.
~~~
ipapikas
Ok, maybe the initial position, mentioning endorsements, was very strict.
A tool, maybe in your case is a development or design tool, can become a
generic skill. It is common to get a rating/review for something that it's not
that personal and it can come from a stranger. Maybe we can think about ebay
reviews or stackoverflow upvotes.
Although the problem from this point of view remains, it can be a large
improvement in general ratings and reviews.
I hope this helps!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Blame ‘Amazon Effect’ for proposed bump in S.F. garbage bills - coloneltcb
http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Blame-Amazon-Effect-for-proposed-bump-in-11168558.php?cmpid=twitter-premium
======
QuinnyPig
I'm wondering how long it will be until something replaces cardboard boxes for
shipping.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ways You Can Help EFF - diziet
https://www.eff.org/helpout
======
dottrap
Don't forget The Humble Bundle :)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Red Bull's Billionaire Maniac - forcer
http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/11_22/b4230064852768.htm
======
atgm
It really bothers me how, over the last 10-15 years, caffeine has gone from
something people use to jump-start their day to some kind of... fad drug.
People brag about how many cups of coffee they inhale every day, how many
liters of soda they can drink in one sitting, how many bottles of bawls they
have on a shelf, or how many cans of red bull they need to chug to stay awake
after their all-nighters, but even worse than that is how many people just
acknowledge this as a normal thing. Especially among geeks and gamers.
Edit: For example, quotes like this: "It's an efficiency product. I'm talking
about improving endurance, concentration, reaction time, speed, vigilance, and
emotional status. Taste is of no importance whatsoever."
He makes it very clear that he doesn't think of it as a soft drink, but as a
performance-enhancing drug. Yet people are out there pounding it because it's
"cool."
~~~
dchest
Really? I noticed a different trend -- The Green Tea Fad. More and more people
talking about how they no longer drink coffee, because it contains the most
dangerous drug in the history of mankind -- caffeine!
~~~
hristov
Green tea has a lot of caffeine too.
~~~
networkjester
For reference:
<http://www.stashtea.com/caffeine+and+tea.aspx>
Not that much really.
------
ohashi
He doesn't come off as a maniac at all. I rather enjoyed his philosophy and
his success speaks for itself. He sold a crappy tasting drink for more money
than anyone would have imagined possible. The guy is brilliant.
~~~
hugh3
My favourite passage from a James Bond book:
_Doctor No said, in the same soft resonant voice, "You are right. Mister
Bond. That is just what I am, a maniac. All the greatest men are maniacs. They
are possessed by a mania which drives them forward towards their goal. The
great scientists, the philosophers, the religious leaders - all maniacs. What
else but a blind singleness of purpose could have given focus to their genius,
would have kept them in the groove of their purpose? Mania, my dear Mister
Bond, is as priceless as genius. Dissipation of energy, fragmentation of
vision, loss of momentum, the lack of follow-through - these are the vices of
the herd." Doctor No sat slightly back in his chair. "I do not possess these
vices. I am, as you correctly say, a maniac"_
~~~
sayemm
Awesome passage, thanks for sharing it. Maniacs exemplify "the anatomy of
determination" - <http://paulgraham.com/determination.html>
------
jonknee
"It wouldn't be Red Bull if it didn't start harmless and end up as a
catastrophe,"
Heh. Here's a photo of the Threesixty bar:
[http://v2.lscache7.c.bigcache.googleapis.com/static.panorami...](http://v2.lscache7.c.bigcache.googleapis.com/static.panoramio.com/photos/original/43859516.jpg)
~~~
zwieback
I like the next sentence even better: "And architects are really only paid
discussion partners anyway."
Applies to SW development too.
~~~
jonknee
I'm friends with too many architects to enjoy that one. There are certainly
architects out there that serve as paid discussion partners (and I don't doubt
that Red Bull uses them), but by and large it's an artform.
~~~
SoftwareMaven
It is an art form, but the work is commissioned. When I commission a
sculpture, I get to give a lot of input about what I want, but I want the
artist to make it beautiful.
Just like in software, if both sides don't respect the other, the output will
be atrocious (which appears to be ok with Red Bull).
------
petercooper
_The success of Red Bull defies logic in one important regard: It doesn't
taste very good._
That's like saying beer, oysters, caviar, or Coca Cola don't taste very good -
it's entirely subjective. I like the taste of Red Bull a great deal and I'm
fussy.
~~~
waqf
Now a followup question, and it shouldn't be taken as a hostile one because I
agree with you entirely:
Would you like the taste more or less if it didn't cost $2 a can?
~~~
petercooper
There's an element of brand in there, for sure. But.. I'm a bit of an energy
drink junkie and I've tried almost all of them over the years.
Red Bull is a bit like the Coca Cola of energy drinks to me. It might not be
the absolute best tasting one _but_ it's the best to fit almost any situation.
That is, a specialty cola can taste better than Coca Cola for a once-off, but
you'd find it too sickly on a long-term basis. That's where I stand with Red
Bull. It's not the best but it's the most consistent and most palatable I've
found.
I can't put my finger as to how much the brand plays into that but acknowledge
I'm as human as anyone else and that it undoubtedly reinforces my preference.
------
pclark
I try not to care too much about what I do and do not consume, but even _I_
avoid Red Bull.
~~~
e40
Agreed. I'm proud to say I've never consumed a single "energy drink."
------
helipad
The beauty of Red Bull's marketing is its focus.
One product, a few versions. Original, sugar free, small shots - that's about
all I know of.
How many other companies make billions with essentially just one product?
~~~
chopsueyar
Coca-cola?
~~~
mkuhn
Taking a look at this Wikipedia Article listing Coca Cola Brands
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Coca-Cola_brands> you will realize that
Coca Cola, the company, is much more than just Coca Cola, the drink.
~~~
chopsueyar
So, are you saying Coca Cola makes less than a billion dollars per year from
Coca Cola alone?
PS <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Bull_GmbH#Sport_ownership>
PPS The Red Bull product page has 4 different drinks, unless you believe Coke
and Diet Coke are the same product, why would Red Bull Energy Drink and Red
Bull Energy Drink Sugarfree be the same product?
PPPS My open source hair-splitting machine written in Python is almost
complete.
~~~
rfrey
You're probably just having some fun with semantics, but I'm sure helipad
meant to say, "how many companies with essentially one product make billions?"
~~~
chopsueyar
Red Bull makes 4 products.
------
antonp
> Mateschitz, 67, has been a patron saint for more than two decades to late-
> night partiers, exam-week undergrads, long-haul truckers, and, above all,
> extreme-sports athletes everywhere.
I would think that the overwhelming presence of the brand on extreme-sports
events has more to do with demographics of the tv-audience than with
'athletes' liking the drink.
~~~
mkuhn
I think the remark in the article was more about how Red Bull helps finance a
lot of these extreme sports and the athletes that compete within. Without Red
Bull a lot of these things would not see any sponsorship.
------
JabavuAdams
I use it occasionally if I need to stay up late, or _crunch_ , but it
typically takes me half a week to recover.
OTOH, I'm not sure whether the "recovery" is from the Red Bull, or the after-
effects of sleep deprivation.
In general, I recognize the insidious and far-reaching effects of sleep
deprivation, but I still do it sometimes. :\\.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Finland Writes History With Crowdsourced Copyright Law - Lightning
http://torrentfreak.com/finland-writes-history-with-crowdsourced-copyright-law-130722/
======
container
There's even a diff file of the proposed changes to the law, although I'm not
sure if this version is official or current anymore. Google translation of the
file, originally in Finnish, in the link:
[http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=fi&tl=en&js=n&prev=...](http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=fi&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/okraisan/tol-
diff.html&act=url)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Can Saccadic Eye Movements Enhance Implicit and Explicit Memory? (2018) - qrian
https://sciencetrends.com/can-saccade-eye-movements-sire-effects-enhance-implicit-explicit-memory/
======
qrian
Just found out about saccade induced retrieval enhancement and wanted to share
here. It's about how moving eyes for a bit enhances explicit recall. There
weren't many articles covering this phenomenon so sorry for picking an article
with somewhat editoralized title.
------
hliyan
Could this be related to the same phenomenon as EMDR
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_movement_desensitization_a...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_movement_desensitization_and_reprocessing))?
------
zahrc
Interesting. My SO just noticed yesterday that I have a certain look on my
face and my eyes move around a lot when I’m thinking about programming.
------
sunstone
Also might be a usable source of entropy.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How Should I Spend My Summer? - dschmidt11
My summer officially starts in 9 hours (eff you finals). I'm a business major meaning I have 0 code experience. My thoughts took a 180 degree turn when the idea for my startup hit. Being a broke college student, I would be bootstrapping this to the fullest extent. Being only $20k away from having a team of hackers build my MVP, I am really considering the following two options (which is when you guys come in).<p>Do I spend the following 3 months building a strategic business/marketing/sales plan? And search for some startup cash?<p>or<p>Do I start teaching myself how to program (I believe Python/Django is the route I would need to go)?
======
harrisreynolds
This content on being a Wantrepreneur is good too:
<http://www.appsumo.com/wantrepreneurs-videos/> ... the main idea is to test
if there is market for your idea before investing loads of time and money on a
product.
------
SuperChihuahua
You should also read a book about selling and try to practice it in some way -
I've learned that's much harder compared with the programming thing. "Everyone
can create a copy of Facebook - but everyone can't get the users!"
------
harrisreynolds
+1 to teaching yourself to program. Here's one perspective on this:
[https://twitter.com/#!/FAKEGRIMLOCK/statuses/160523976773349...](https://twitter.com/#!/FAKEGRIMLOCK/statuses/160523976773349376)
------
lifeisstillgood
The fact you know about HN, and have even asked the question is I suspect the
answer you need.
Yes, code something up. _what_ is now decided - _how_ you code it is a harder
question.
Start small, rent a box from rackspace (10 dollars a month) and put a simple
django site up. Get comfortable with git.
Just try. If you Show HN in a month, you might find someone interested to
help. StackOverflow is your friend.
Good luck. (Also see Ncombinator)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
To Battle Yelp, Google Buys Appetas, A Website Builder For Restaurants - adidash
http://techcrunch.com/2014/05/07/to-battle-yelp-google-buys-appetas-a-website-builder-for-restaurants-will-shut-it-down/
======
rahimnathwani
The title is misleading. From the Appetas blog:
_To focus on our new endeavors, we’ll be shutting down the Appetas service
and working with our customers to transition their websites over to
alternative platforms._
I don't know how many customers they have, but this is really nice:
_We’ll be reaching out to each customer individually to ensure a smooth
transition._
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Reviewing Zeppelin and Jupyter Notebooks - micheda
https://www.stratosphere.dev/posts/2019/Mar/16/reviewing-zeppelin-and-jupyter-notebooks/
======
PyroLagus
There's also Iodide from Mozilla, which is pretty cool:
[https://alpha.iodide.io/](https://alpha.iodide.io/)
GitHub: [https://github.com/iodide-project/iodide](https://github.com/iodide-
project/iodide)
Post explaining what it is: [https://hacks.mozilla.org/2019/03/iodide-an-
experimental-too...](https://hacks.mozilla.org/2019/03/iodide-an-experimental-
tool-for-scientific-communicatiodide-for-scientific-communication-exploration-
on-the-web/)
It uses this markdown like file format: [https://iodide-
project.github.io/docs/jsmd/](https://iodide-project.github.io/docs/jsmd/)
------
ivan_ah
There is also another tool called `pynb` (by the same author) that can be used
to achieve human-readable format. The logic is a bit different there, since it
generates a .py script file with markdown cells appearing as Python comments.
example diff:
[https://github.com/minireference/noBSLAnotebooks/commit/9005...](https://github.com/minireference/noBSLAnotebooks/commit/9005d37d06d9bdaca53806214b70ca81ea0a2007)
script:
[https://github.com/minireference/noBSLAnotebooks/blob/master...](https://github.com/minireference/noBSLAnotebooks/blob/master/util/makepynb.sh)
pre-commit hook:
[https://github.com/minireference/noBSLAnotebooks/blob/master...](https://github.com/minireference/noBSLAnotebooks/blob/master/util/pre-
commit-hook.sh)
~~~
micheda
Hi Ivan, author here. Happy to read that pynb is useful! it can be used in a
similar way (I used it also this way until I required support also for
Zeppelin), however, it's limited to Jupyter and there's no Markdown support as
you already pointed out.
------
na85
Why wouldn't you just use org-mode and ob-ipython which lets you call out to
jupyter kernels and have the results appear in your org file?
At least then you're dealing with diffs of plain text instead of json.
------
taeric
Emacs org mode definitely got this right. Storing everything as json feels
like an ok choice, but there is a huge advantage to storing in the repo
exactly what you review.
------
amirathi
Converting notebooks to markdown is a fine idea (although you have to maintain
both versions).
I built ReviewNB ([https://www.reviewnb.com/](https://www.reviewnb.com/))
specifically to review Jupyter Notebooks on GitHub.
------
oomkiller
There's also jupytext:
[https://github.com/mwouts/jupytext](https://github.com/mwouts/jupytext)
------
fulafel
This works on Github: [https://www.reviewnb.com/](https://www.reviewnb.com/)
------
paulsutter
Github formats Jupyter notebooks but not Zepplin, which for me is pretty much
a slam dunk for jupyter.
~~~
curiousgal
Git + Jupyter notebooks is a disaster though.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Metasploit – A Walkthrough of the Powerful Exploitation Framework - manishmshiva
https://medium.com/manishmshiva/metasploit-a-walkthrough-of-the-powerful-exploitation-framework-6974c4ed0ea7
======
greenie_beans
one time i downloaded metasploit onto my computer and my anti-virus software
freaked out
~~~
0xdeadb00f
As it probably should have.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Microsoft's GitHub account hacked, private repositories stolen - aspenmayer
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/microsofts-github-account-hacked-private-repositories-stolen/
======
aspenmayer
“This evening, a hacker going by the name Shiny Hunters contacted
BleepingComputer to tell us they had hacked into the Microsoft GitHub account,
gaining full access to the software giant's 'Private' repositories.
“The individual told us that they then downloaded 500GB of private projects
and initially planned on selling it, but has now decided to leak it for free“
~~~
aspenmayer
Name of the group is ShinyHunters with no space
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Split Tunnel SMTP Exploit Explained - sr2
https://blog.securolytics.io/2017/05/split-tunnel-smtp-exploit-explained/
======
soetis1
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14441025](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14441025)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
USSR Believed a Top Secret Room was at center of Pentagon - was a hot dog stand - rb2e
http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=1049
======
SagelyGuru
> “They thought this was the Pentagon’s most top secret meeting room, and the
> entire Pentagon was a large fortress built around this hot dog stand.”
I like this story. It neatly captures strangely symbolic, even poetic,
meaning. What does Pentagon and its entire defense edifice ultimately protect?
The American way of life, which is mostly hot dog stands and burger bars.
------
bobdvb
> The Pentagon was declared a national historic landmark in 1992, and because
> the courtyard is one of the five historically protected features of the
> building, the hot dog stand must be replaced by a building of roughly the
> same size, and exactly the same shape as the Pentagon, Eaton said.
> “In general, the design will kind of replicate what we have here right now,
> but it’s going to be much more modern and a lot bigger. It will really give
> us an efficient food service delivery system for the Pentagon,” said David
> Gabel, the renovation program manager for Pentagon renovation and
> construction.
Really? Apparently in the US preserving a landmark means making it "much more
modern and a lot bigger"? I don't understand you guys sometimes.
~~~
derefr
It's the courtyard that's the preserved feature, not the stand itself.
Presumably the requirements just translate to "from the perspective of a
visitor to the courtyard, there should be a pentagonal thing in the center,
yey-big, with an owl on it." It could be a real building or a facade, it
wouldn't matter, except inasmuch as it affects the courtyard.
------
zwdr
It obviously is a top secret illuminati bunker as you can easily see by the
owl on top. Wake up sheeple!
------
bonchibuji
Seems like someone at HN is reading TodayILearned subreddit diligently...
[http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1il1fm/til_du...](http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1il1fm/til_during_the_cold_war_the_ussr_thought_the/)
~~~
akinder
As someone who deleted their reddit account 2 days ago to escape the cesspool,
I'm glad that interesting articles are floating this way.
------
ybred
> The new building will cost about $1.2 million to complete, he said.
hmmm ... 1.2 million for a hot dog stand ... let the ridicule begin.
~~~
a3n
It has to survive the missiles aimed at it.
------
ovoxo
The title of this post is misleading because it implies that the USSR believed
it was a hot dog stand.
Either use the original title from the article or add the words "it was
actually just a" before "hot dog stand".
------
mathattack
At least the Russians weren't looking to nuke the Wiener Circle.
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wieners_Circle](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wieners_Circle))
------
vacri
Or, alternatively, it was a known place where the brass congregate, and hence
a good target anyway.
Or, alternatively, it was in the middle of the Pentagon and hence the bulls-
eye for a missile aimed there anyway.
The story does smack of a little hubris.
------
jerrytsai
What is "Top Secret" is what went into those hot dogs...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Understanding Waiting Times Between Events in a Poisson Process - nicolewhite
http://nbviewer.ipython.org/github/nicolewhite/notebooks/blob/master/Poisson.ipynb
======
chejazi
A similar model applies to analyzing Bitcoin blocks. The "event" in this case
is a block that is at its maximum capacity:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/38zww2/tom_harding...](https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/38zww2/tom_harding_block_size_experiment_underway/)
~~~
kylebrown
The Poisson process equation is actually in Satoshi's whitepaper. The 6-block
confirmation rule-of-thumb comes from it.
------
mrcactu5
I am nervous he should first very from his server logs these visits are indeed
described by a Poisson process (which is very likely the case).
~~~
nicolewhite
It's not from the server logs that I would verify this is a Poisson process;
it's from the intuitive understanding that these events occur independently
from each other and at a constant, known rate. This process also possesses the
necessary properties[1] of a Poisson process.
[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisson_process#Definition](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisson_process#Definition)
~~~
mturmon
Of course, for many web sites, the events are not independent.
If I visit one page, I'm likely to visit several more. If I see an interesting
page, I'm likely to forward it to friends. If I happen to have 1M twitter
followers, my visit could spark a cascade of visits.
Unless your models of site visits are very good (good enough to verify
independence), you would need to examine logs to determine if effects like
those above kick you completely out of a domain where independence is a good
approximation.
Note, time-dependence (a non-constant but deterministic rate λ(t)), is usually
easy to cope with. Lack of independence is much harder, because then you are
left with Cox processes
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cox_process](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cox_process))
and worse.
~~~
nicolewhite
Those are good points. The event in question is not a simple user visit,
however. Let's say it's a particular user action that's a bit more involved,
e.g. filling out a form. The assumption here is that users fill out this form
independently from one another.
~~~
mturmon
Ah, I just noticed you are the OP.
Sure, you have to start somewhere with any analysis, and Poisson is the place
to start. Anyone (like me) can then question independence assumptions from the
sidelines.
I was moved to speak up originally because a commenter referred to inspecting
the logs to verify the Poisson assumption, and in my experience, looking at
the data is always an excellent principle, and generally preferable to just
stopping at an intuitive understanding of the arrivals process.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Probability Theory — A Primer - nickmain
http://jeremykun.com/2013/01/04/probability-theory-a-primer/
======
rgarcia
If this kind of stuff interests you, you should check out the lecture videos
from Harvard's Stat 110: <http://stat110.net>. Prof. Blitzstein is hilariously
nerdy but still has a very clear presentation style (he had kind of a cult
following back when I took the course [1]). If video isn't your thing, the
article here is basically the first few chapters of the textbook [2].
[1] <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAwS7vzvLnY>
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQvVLhWOiis>
[2] [http://www.amazon.com/First-Course-Probability-7th-
Edition/d...](http://www.amazon.com/First-Course-Probability-7th-
Edition/dp/0131856626)
------
loup-vaillant
For a moment I thought I would read something like Jaynes book, only simpler.
Much examples and definitions, but not many ties to real world problems. It
sounds quite arbitrary, in fact.
I think that a good primer needs to talk of probabilities as degrees of belief
from the start. Then sketch the basic premises (Probabilities are encoded in
real numbers, they abide common sense, and are consistent). Then go on to the
[0, 1] interval and state the product and sum rules. We can gloss over Cox
theorem, though we probably should stress that the sum and product rules are
not axioms, but theorems based on the basic premises above.
And _then_ , one can talk about probability distributions, random variable and
"probability space", in terms of the above.
From then, one would understand why a toss of a die yields a uniform
distribution: not because the dice itself is "fair", but because we just have
no idea whatsoever which side will come up, and don't have any reason to
favour any hypothesis over the others. This distribution is not a property of
the die, but a measure of our own ignorance.
------
StevenXC
I just spent some time going though this blog - very interesting stuff,
ranging from probability to code to topology to poker puzzles. Nice link.
------
tom_m
If you guys like probability and real world examples, you may wish to follow
my research (and educational process) here:
<http://www.shift8creative.com/posts/social%20media>
I'll be updating it with more geeky math and how it relates to social media in
the future.
I'm not a statistician or mathematician, so I really appreciate this article
and the links in the comments. Thanks!
------
polskibus
Does anyone know of a similar resource but with real world examples and
perhaps R snippets? Would be great if I could practice two things at the same
time.
~~~
textminer
R's not going to teach you about pre-measures, Carathéodory's theorem, or
Radon-Nikodym. Break out the whiteboards!
(Then bust out R again when you want to play with stochastic processes and
Brownian motion.)
------
dexter313
Quality stuff right here.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Recommend HN comments based on your comment history - nl
I love the HN community.<p>Too many third-party sites republish links to popular HN stories, but readers of those links miss the best part: the discussion on HN.<p>http://hnrecommender.qontex.com/ attempts to find comments and stories you may find interesting based on your comment history.<p>Feedback & ideas more than welcome!
======
nl
Clickable: <http://hnrecommender.qontex.com/>
------
snissn
Can you make it deep link able?
~~~
nl
You mean to a username?
I can - it's all AJAX though, so you won't be able to spider it or something
(If you want to do that, there is an API I could expose).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Want To Give Pinboard A Try? You’ll Have To Pay $2.84 - jasonlbaptiste
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/12/want-to-give-pinboard-a-try-youll-have-to-pay-284/
======
jsz0
Nah I'll just use one of the many other free alternatives. Charging for
something is fine but it helps to do something unique if you actually want
people to pay.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How do you validate an idea before you build it? Sell it - n_coats
I recently identified a market opportunity for a startup that I am interested in pursuing. Having made the mistake in previous ventures of building first and then realizing that no one wanted to pay for what I built, I promised myself to always validate new ideas to be sure someone would actually buy when it's finished.<p>Slightly thrown off at first, I had to think about how to validate. In the past I designed a few mock-ups or landers and counted the amount of users that stayed on the check out page for more than X minutes. I would post it on boards or forums where my target market conversed and see what happened.<p>Knowing how much it sucks when you realize no one will buy what you've spent the last 6 months bringing to life, I decided against my previous methods and spent the last two days going from business to business selling my software prior to writing one line of code. I was honest and told all potential clients that the software is not built but will be in a month (enough time for me to build it). I offered businesses a 50% lifetime discount if they enroll in the presale today.<p>It started out rough, but I quickly dialed my pitch and was able to sell what I haven't yet built. I learned more about my market and some of the problems and needs my customers have. I've decided the sale I made and the overall response and interest is enough to go for it and build the software. Once it's done I've already got one customer and multiple leads who admitted they would like to try the service out once built.<p>Have you waisted a lot time and effort building for no one before?<p>How have you validated ideas prior to bringing them to market? What seemed to work and what didn't?
======
canterburry
For [http://www.pixtulate.com](http://www.pixtulate.com) (on the fly cropping
and scaling of responsive images) we simply read lots and lots of blogs from
the responsive web design community. We eventually narrowed down on a problem
everyone was discussing and was trying to build various home grown solutions
to.
After reading all the great posts by Jason Grigsby
([http://blog.cloudfour.com/](http://blog.cloudfour.com/)) the problems with
sending one-size-fits-all images to mobile and tablet devices was obvious.
Additionally, most existing solutions require you to pre-scale/crop multiple
versions of the same image which is tedious and labor intensive. Even the
proposed srcset attribute and picture element have this requirement.
Next, we looked at any existing players in the space and found that a few
where starting to crop and getting traction which further validated our
premise that people where looking for a robust solution.
So, we considered it worth at least building an MVP and will soon be looking
for interested parties to try it out (drop me a line if interested - and yes,
our site is butt ugly).
------
agibsonccc
I got my current start (granted not super successful, just started about a
month ago) with my product paying all my bills by looking for an audience and
just selling manual services that emulated the product itself. Once I saw
secured actual contracts and demand, I built it.
In my case, I used a few different marketplaces, but I might also recommend
competitor's forums.
Just go to where your audience frequents and sell them something, and if they
pay for it, build it.
Some of this might be considered spam, but I would imagine if you did a bit of
research or attempted to explain how you add value in some way: I'm sure
people don't mind direct emails or direct messages (if something exists)
With that, I'd recommend stuff like linkedin/twitter etc to find relevant
people in the industry you want to sell to and work from there.
~~~
n_coats
Well done, good idea to offer the service in dosage manually and then identify
what needs to be streamlined!
------
amberes
Yes, we once had a more or less finished base product. But at that time my co-
founder had to start doing sales so he shited his pants and suddenly invented
a whole new addition that would surely sell.
I worked my ass off, and in the end when it was released, it turned out more
than 90% of people only use the base product.
I think I'm still mentally recovering from that one and it it was the
initiator for the spoiled relationship with the co-founder.
It takes courage to contact people, ask for a meeting and tell them what your
plans are.
But it beats spending months working on something no one wants.
And every time you do it, it takes less courage.
~~~
n_coats
Sorry to hear about your experience. I've felt your pain and it can be
terribly discouraging. Couldn't agree more with your thoughts.
------
lifeisstillgood
Did you actually take credit card Pre-orders? There is a line that actually
forking cash over crosses.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Visual breakdown of S&P 500 companies - Omie6541
https://tijorifinance.com/us/company/AMZN
======
siddharthhegde
We are extracting data from 10K’s, 10Q’s & other company filings to build out
a visual representation of S&P 500 companies & their metrics.
In this version we’ve tried to capture:
1\. Revenue breakdowns
2\. Sales Growth Breakdowns
3\. Operational Statistics
This is the 1st draft, will be increasing the coverage & adding more features
soon.
Some example companies:
Exxon Mobil:
[https://tijorifinance.com/us/company/XOM](https://tijorifinance.com/us/company/XOM)
Netflix:
[https://tijorifinance.com/us/company/NFLX#overview](https://tijorifinance.com/us/company/NFLX#overview)
Costco:
[https://tijorifinance.com/us/company/COST#overview](https://tijorifinance.com/us/company/COST#overview)
Tesla:
[https://tijorifinance.com/us/company/TSLA#overview](https://tijorifinance.com/us/company/TSLA#overview)
Search for any other company:
[https://tijorifinance.com/us/](https://tijorifinance.com/us/)
------
ketanmaheshwari
Curious question: Does the companies in S&P 500 remain constant or do they
change? If they change -- is it periodical or continuous?
~~~
siddharthhegde
No its not constant, the S&P 500 index is re-balanced quarterly
------
desaibhai
This is awesome, especially financial section is too good to visualize graph n
pie charts for lazy folks like me
------
madhurjain
Great job guys! I see myself using this for investment decisions :)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How do you find AWS management tools? - veermanhas
I have been working on a project and wanted to get some feedback from the community to make sure, I am headed in the right direction.<p>CloudEgg.net<p>The whole idea is to have a repository of vendors, open-source solutions that are available for their use cases. If we have to trivialize it, it's a review website for only AWS Cloud Management tools.<p>What's the process you follow to find a tool today?
======
mtmail
Will it be an open directory? By open I mean can website visitors search for
the tools? The wording on the website sounds like you collect requirements, do
a (manual) search ("We do a thorough search of our database and the internet")
and contact (email?) the user with results. That would make you a middleman,
possibly taking a referral bonus.
I use directories like
[https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/](https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/)
[https://elements.heroku.com/addons](https://elements.heroku.com/addons)
[https://github.com/marketplace](https://github.com/marketplace)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: The “New” page – bug or feature? - nsns
After lurking here for several years, I've come to realize that there's a basic problem with the manner in which this forum works: while posts that make it to the main page usually get up-voted according to their merit, the way they get there seems much more random and capricious, having nothing much to do with their intrinsic merits.<p>This is because most HN members probably do not visit the "New" page at all, and even those who do, would not browse more than the first few pages of it. Consequently, the first 5 or so up-votes a post gets are somewhat randomly dependent on the amount of viewers visiting the "New" page during its short stint there - before it gets hopelessly buried behind newer submissions, most of them senseless spam.<p>Hence, my questions: which percent of HN members actually visits the "New" page?<p>Shouldn't this perhaps be solved/improved by the addition of a "Rising" page - displaying only new posts that have already received an up-vote or two?<p>I'm mostly thinking of all the important/interesting stories (especially from obscure sources) that get lost, but would have got a serious up-vote had they made the front page.
======
gus_massa
I remember that someone proposed this a few years ago, but it didn't get
implemented. You can use some of the unofficial HN search engines, for
example: [http://hnapp.com/?q=score%3E2](http://hnapp.com/?q=score%3E2)
Also, sometime the mods cherrypick a story to give it a second chance. More
details by dang:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10705926](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10705926)
Anyway, please visit the "newest" page. It's very nice to find an interesting
story and later see that it reached the front page.
------
tokenadult
I visit the new page at least daily, sometimes more often. I agree that it is
up to us to upvote the stories that best fit the Hacker News guidelines and
are from good sources and gratify intellectual curiosity.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Landed (YC W16) on why teacher home-ownership is central to improving schools - lebanon_tn
http://blog.landed.com/teacher-homeownership-is-central-to-improving-americas-schools-3/
======
gregatragenet3
If they focused on home ownership for educators teaching medicine they could
achieve the trifecta! Markets in which government has decided 'everyone must
have this' and subsequently interfered/distorted until they've created
bubbles/crashes..
I'm pessimistic that encouraging anyone to take on more debt then they could
ordinarily obtain is a helpful thing in the long term.
The post talks about how educators find their rents unaffordable - how does
getting them out of an unaffordable rental into an unaffordable mortgage make
their situation any better? If anything it makes their situation worse.
They'll be locked into a mortgage for a house bought in a bubble. If they have
an opportunity to move for a better position or more salary they'll be unable
to do so.
~~~
jra6
I similarly struggle with that pessimism. I mentioned below that our primary
goal is to even access to homeownership across people who make similar
incomes.
A big component of housing-related credit is equity (ie. collateral). Many
parts of that dynamic are very rational -- having equity is a proxy for
financial responsibility (you know how to save money, or have access to other
people who don't mind occasionally gifting you equity). Having equity also
buffers the lender from loss when housing prices cycle, which is a very
important part of building resiliant financial infrastructure.
I think our high-level argument is that for a very specific group of people
(tenured employees) in very specific places (urban diversified economies that
are resistant to land bubbles), there is opportunity to push the edges of the
box.
~~~
monk_e_boy
What do you think of teachers who re-train and get a different job? Around 30%
of newly qualified teachers do this.
~~~
jra6
Our investment follows our educators regardless of what they do afterwards. I
do think that less educators would re-train if they had more financial
security in their chosen profession.
------
jra6
[One of the co-founders of Landed]. This post doesn't really talk much about
what we do. What we do is run down payment assistance programs for private
schools and public school districts to help their teachers become financially
secure near the communities they serve.
That's a mouthful! The economic problem here is that if you're a median wage
household in a city like SF, NY, DC, etc. you will struggle to save enough
money to make a conforming down payment while paying rent. Most of our
teachers get trapped in a cycle of their wages increasing at the exact rate of
their household expenses.
Homeownership in cities is not for everybody. But for those community members
who are making a very long-term commitment to a place with very predictable
salary schedules, locking in your housing payments is an important part of
your security. In the absence of rent controls (which we can talk about at
length on why they are often misguided), homeownership is the only form of
insurance on rising housing costs.
As an owner (especially in California thanks to Prop13), you can be protected
from the failure of all levels of government to build sufficient housing for
rising economic activity in cities.
~~~
greyhoundmatt
The fact that you are praising Prop 13, which is a large factor in the unequal
funding of schools and has exacerbated the exact problems that you refer to in
your blog post, is supremely troubling. I'd welcome a more in depth
explanation on your thoughts on Prop 13.
~~~
jra6
I think when I came to California, I shared your position on Prop13... namely
that it was a unnecessary market distortion that distributed wealth from the
new to the old that ultimately worked against the apparent intent of the
legislation (to make California more affordable).
I've sinced developed a more nuanced view. I believe Prop13 for owner-
occupied, primary residences is perhaps flawed, but something I believe two
reasonable people can disagree on (happy to explain more fully). I believe
Prop13 for anything else has absolutely no rational justification and needs to
be overturned at the earliest opportunity.
~~~
ScottBurson
I'll offer my view. First, I absolutely agree that it should have been limited
to primary residences -- extending it to rental and commercial property is
lunacy that wasn't even justified by the primary selling point (keeping fixed-
income seniors in their homes).
Secondly, I contend that the limit should never have been on the amount of tax
levied, only on the amount of tax that actually had to be paid in a given
year. The locality would receive a lien on the balance which would be paid
only when the property was sold. (The lien could also be capped at 1/3 the
selling price, to answer objections that it might become so large as to make
it uneconomic to sell the property at all. I suggest this because whenever I
float this proposal on HN, someone comes along and fixates on that
possibility, which is actually extremely unlikely; the market would have to
tank very severely for this cap to come into play.)
This way, fixed-income seniors could stay in their homes just as long as Prop.
13 allows them to, but localities would still get their money.
~~~
TulliusCicero
This is a brilliant solution.
------
bradleyjg
This post is a bait and switch. The title and first few paragraphs talk about
America, but all the analysis is focused solely on the Bay Area. No
justification is given for why the results for the Bay Area should be
generalizable for America writ large.
There's nothing wrong with focusing on the Bay Area, that's certainly a big
enough problem to tackle. But the title, graphics and first few paragraphs
should be changed to reflect that.
~~~
jra6
I don't disagree with your comment -- none of us are necessarily great blog
writers :).
I would say the way we think about this is that there is both a cyclical and
structural housing problem in American cities. The structural piece is that:
1\. there is a limited supply of land in near proximity to economic
opportunity -- most of this land is concentrated in cities. 2\. cities need a
wide variety of people to live in them to function properly. 3\. even if we
paid all of those people a median wage, the median person will struggle to
accumulate significant wealth while paying rent. 4\. the banking system cannot
be expected to take low down payment risk without making the entire system
vulnerable to another housing crash. 5\. therefore if no 3rd party equity
exists, then the only people that will be able to acquire any land holdings
will be the sons/daughters of those with existing land holdings
(intergenerational wealth transfers)
~~~
wbl
And this isn't a problem if cities permitted adequate housing growth and
goverments didn't encourage detached single family homes in urban areas with
massive subsidies.
------
futun
Be very careful of the word "home ownership". It means different things to
different people.
Much like the weasel-word "affordability" (which means better access to
credit, and not cheaper prices) "home ownership" means "mortgaged, bank-owned
properties". Both terms mean debt slavery and a preservation of the status quo
(ie: property owners stay rich. buyers, mortgagers and prospective buyers
remain poor).
What is needed is cheaper housing.
Not "affordability" or easier-to-access debt.
The way to get cheaper housing is to destroy housing as an investment class.
And the way you do that is by taxing 2nd and 3rd properties at increasingly
higher rates.
~~~
esoterica
> And the way you do that is by taxing 2nd and 3rd properties at increasingly
> higher rates.
And then those taxes end up getting passed on to renters, who are on average
poorer than their home-owning counterparts.
~~~
dimva
This would be the case in an efficient market, where the risk-adjusted
economic profit of renting out homes is close to 0. This is not the case
because San Francisco artificially restricts supply of housing. This causes
rents to be determined solely by (small) supply and (large) demand. Increasing
taxes would not decrease supply of housing or increase demand for it, so it
would just serve to decrease the excess economic profits landlords are making.
~~~
cmdrfred
You can't really say that without knowledge of how high those additional taxes
would be. If the costs rise to the point that a reasonable profit for the
level of risk involved can't be made then prices would certainly have to rise
irrespective of demand. I suspect given the nature of ever rising taxation in
most municipalities that introducing this tax even in a modest form would
increase perceived risk[0] of property ownership enough to increase average
rents.
[0]If the cost of an unoccupied property or a nonpaying tenant goes up, rents
will likely go up in response.
------
jedberg
I live in the Bay Area and my wife is a teacher. I know a lot of Bay Area
teachers. And the ones that live anywhere close to the school they work at are
all married to engineers, without exception. That's the only way they can
afford to live near school.
~~~
jra6
You certainly have to be a dual income household to have a chance of making it
as a teacher in the Bay Area. That said, educators in Mountain View are paid
reasonably well ($80,000 - $130,000). Two educators can still afford to buy a
home reasonably close to Mountain View, they just can't save money fast enough
for a $200,000+ down payment while concurrently paying rent.
One of the first homes we did was a principal in Oakland. He was just able to
make it work on a single income.
~~~
monk_e_boy
If you could wave a magic wand to fix housing for teachers, what would the
solution look like?
~~~
jra6
In California, I would eliminate Prop 13 for landlords (which would increase
teacher salaries 20%-30%). To me, that's a no-brainer. The other no-brainer is
decreasing political barriers to additional density.
Everything else requires trade-offs. \- If you allow educator salaries to
track property values instead of CPI, you create massive inequities between
school districts. Maybe a regional inflation index that includes housing
costs? \- If you raise salaries, you have to raise taxes. \- If you build
teacher-specific housing, you're just passing the buck to the next profession.
Regardless of all the above, I think you'll need mechanisms for people to
share the investment risks of expensive land ownership. I'm not sure mortgage
insurance is the best mechanism -- hence Landed.
~~~
gm-conspiracy
"If you raise salaries, you have to raise taxes"
This is not necessarily true, as the assessed value of all land in the area is
"increased", additional tax revenue is gained without "raising" taxes. As
assessed values fall, the chances of a budget shortfall increase.
To me, increase density as a solution to affordability, is as effective as
adding additional highway lanes to reduce traffic congestion.
------
clairity
from a purely capitalistic perspective, i can understand that providing
financing of this sort could be of some economic value, but i worry that it
simply continues to exacerbate wealth disparity by funneling more money to
already wealthy financial institutions under the guise of helping teachers and
children.
rather than this type of roundabout financing, the economics can be
straightforward: school districts in wealthy areas should just pay their
teachers more. and it sounds like they are, at least in some districts,
according to co-founder jra6 elsewhere on this page: "...educators in Mountain
View are paid reasonably well ($80,000 - $130,000)...".
even so, the idea that teacher homeownership is the central problem for
schools is quite a stretch. poverty and a dozen similar issues are much more
likely the central problems for schools, not teacher homeownership.
~~~
jra6
I don't disagree -- I definitely struggle with this. The problem we are
solving shouldn't exist. We should live in an society where people with equal
incomes should have equal access to credit.
The reality is though that intergenerational wealth transfer are the primary
way people acquire the necessary equity to buy homes (they get help from Mom
and Dad). So I think you need both... both higher incomes, and mechanisms that
create intermediary stages being renting and owning.
And on being a stretch, don't disagree. I feel the incentive is to be
provocative beyond reasonableness, so apologize for that! Public schools in
America are suffering death from a thousand cuts. I will tell you though that
when urban school turnover (largely as a result of rising housing costs) is
now up to 25%/year... it becomes your primary issue pretty fast.
~~~
bkohlmann
Are intergenerational wealth transfers the primary means to down payments
across the Bay Area or the US? The latter doesn't comport with my friends
experience, but I'm always easily persuaded by hard data. Any references?
~~~
jra6
The hard data is piss poor. It's largely self-reported data collected by media
agencies. Just google "Bank of Mom and Dad", there are lots of poorly done
studies. This one is okay:
[http://paa2005.princeton.edu/papers/51443](http://paa2005.princeton.edu/papers/51443)
The reason it's poor is because everyone has an incentive (bank, broker,
parents, you) to under-report the parental funds. Parents send the gift money
in advance (3 months to be exact), banks look the other way to meet equity
requirements and the transaction takes place.
------
ada1981
I appreciate the effort here, but in general I don't think more fine grained
mechanisms of offering selling debt to the lower classes is going to help long
term.
Perhaps if you put upper limits on the assets of the people who can invest,
but that seems unlikely.
Also, home ownership tends to be one of the "liabilities disguised as assets"
that middle / upper middle class people love to buy.
Since our economy appears to be heading towards a post labor society with a
massive divide between rich and poor, what exactly is the utility of educating
kids to work in an economy that won't exist?
Seems to me the core skills we ought to help facilitate are creativity,
maintaining an authentic self, emotional and Relational mastery, cooperation /
democratic citizenry, permaculture, eco-regenerative architecture..
Instead of the industrialist model we have now, perhaps we ought to be
teaching them how to develop, integrate and share technology into eco-
regenerative housing and permaculture farms.
Use the education resources to purchase land, kids can help learn to build and
work cooperatively along side adults, in a democratically run community.
You provide cool tiny-homes to anyone who needs them. And build them together,
learning all sorts of great skills as you go along.
I am adivising & working on 2 such pilot projects in Costa Rica right now with
a group of accomplished intellectuals (some of whom you may know). Costa Rica
was chosen for a number of reasons including climate, mental health of
population and a lack of a standing military.
We aim to develop a globally connected network of such projects in a neo-
tribal model that fits with the emergent archaic values as post-modernism
gives way to a more holistic and connected world.
Happy to invite any of you down to check out the property if you like,
anthony+cr at 175g . com
Ps, I hope Landed helps some people, at least in the short term, and also that
there passion to serve underserved populations with integrity continues no
matter the success / failure of this particular manifestation.
~~~
sudosteph
Cool tiny homes with electricity and running water, I would hope? Because if
not, it sounds like you're just advocating for families to live in poverty and
have their children work on farms instead of attending school. Which sounds a
bit... backwards.
I mean, the idea of a commune is hardly a new one. Socialists and religious
folk have been at that game for a while, so I wonder how you think plan to
differentiate meaningfully.
Also, > a neo-tribal model that fits with the emergent archaic values as post-
modernism gives way to a more holistic and connected world.
Holy cringey buzzword mashup Batman! Sounds like the market appeal here is for
the vaccine-denier crowd. I don't think many people here would agree with
"archaic values" being an innately good thing. I read that sentence and I can
only think of the short, brutal lives human beings experienced during the era
of tribalism. Not of something holistic and connecting.
I'm also a bit amused that you say you chose Costa Rica for it's "lack of a
standing military". I worry that might be interpreted in a less-than-positive
way by the government there.
~~~
ada1981
The idea of an archaic revival is the return to more connected communal living
with the best that technology has to offer. Our property in Costa Rica is now
the worlds largest permaculture farm and we also have high-speed fiber optic
cable.
I'd imagine the primary differentiator is that I'm advocating for one where
the founding values are best scientifically supported practices for health and
community vs. a religious text or cult leader.
"Holy cringey buzzword mashup Batman!" >> Check out Don Beck's work on psycho-
social development if you aren't familiar with the words / concepts.
Costa Rica is proud of its non-aggressive position and welcome other folks who
aren't interested in supporting a militaristic global agenda.
------
hanoz
Homeowner property wealth is a ponzi scheme, enriching early adopters and
money lenders at the expense of wealth generators - like teachers. Helping
people get on at bottom, while it may help them outbid their compatriots,
ultimately benefits the higher ups to the detriment of everybody else.
~~~
jra6
Land is like any commodity of fixed supply. It is increasingly valuable as
incomes and inequality grows. Until such a time that the supply/demand dynamic
in cities is significantly altered, it will be valuable (whether it is
properly priced is another matter altogether).
I guess I'd rather live in a place that has more distributed ownership of
land, rather than less :)
~~~
DesiLurker
No land is plenty, even in markets like bay area, its the schools that are
limited commodities. add to that various building restrictions and you have
perfect recipe for the mess SV is in.
I recall around 2006 Elizabeth warren did a study for most markets in US and
found for every single point deviation in school performance there was 2 point
deviation in housing cost. translation people are mortgaging themselves to the
hilt to get the best opportunities for their kids. commute is the second
factor. essentially people extend their commute till they can afford the
house/school.
------
HarryHirsch
But what do they actually do, and why do you need a startup to do it? Hanover,
NH has a housing price problem, but Dartmouth College offers subsidized
housing to its faculty. Why can't school districts do the same?
~~~
lnanek2
The blog post doesn't say, but if you dig through their site you eventually
find an explanation. Go here then click on "how it works":
[https://landed.com](https://landed.com)
No idea why the direct link to that is broken.
Anyway, it looks like, they pay your down payment, then take 25% of any profit
when you sell.
~~~
xrd
Fascinating. I'm curious if this will work, strong(er) incentive to not sell
and unlikely that a teacher will receive a sudden windfall permitting them to
move. But, maybe if they are a part of the success story of a neighborhood,
they can share the increase in their equity with Landed.com. I love the long
term bet that is happening here with this startup and their customers.
------
maerF0x0
Homeownership is a luxury, not a right. Its still within reach in many
locales. If the locals value education as a product they will bid it up.
I dont see how this isnt just the market telling educators they should go
elsewhere?
~~~
dcosson
> Homeownership is a luxury, not a right.
Why do we spend $100+ billion per year of tax payer dollars subsidizing luxury
purchases? (via the federal mortgage interest deduction)
~~~
toomuchtodo
That's chump change compared to the subsidies through FHA, Fannie Mae, and
Freddie Mac. The US government plays a direct role in subsidizing
homeownership _because it creates community cohesion_.
~~~
maerF0x0
someone cannot have community cohesion as a long term renter? Anecdata to
illustrate the point. A friend of mine and his family rented their home for
something like 20 yrs. It often makes sense to have people not buy. The
capitalization for a house can be long in the past, meaning that the cost vs
rent is very favorable to the landlord.
Similarly, the only reason to sell an asset is when you think you can make
more money on the equity elsewhere. If its true that the landlord can take
their equity elsewhere for a better return, maybe the renter (soon to be
owner) should be investing elsewhere?
Also, afaik young people are increasingly mobile, meaning they're going to be
giving a large portion of their equity (either downpayment or profits) to real
estate agents' commissions, banks closing costs, legal fees, etc etc.
if housing is not affordable, its probably because of artificially (or
temporarily) restricted supply.
~~~
toomuchtodo
The data doesn't agree with your anecdotes. Millennials will move out to the
suburbs just like their parents did to have a yard for their kids.
[http://www.curbed.com/2016/6/21/11956516/millennial-first-
ti...](http://www.curbed.com/2016/6/21/11956516/millennial-first-time-home-
trends-suburbs)
------
sna1l
When you click on how-it-works on the navbar from the homepage, it navigates
to the page as expected. But if you refresh then you get a 404. Looks like
there isn't a SSL certificate on the first load, but when you refresh or
navigate to the link directly there is ([https://www.landed.com/how-it-
works](https://www.landed.com/how-it-works)).
------
zazpowered
This is kinda like point.com right?
------
chrisseaton
Did you know I can't find a single link from this blog article to your
website?
Even the link at the bottom which says 'landed.com' actually links to
'blog.landed.com'! And then there's actually text that says 'www.landed.com',
which isn't a link! Why do you do this?!
It's brought up lots of HN and I can't believe people still do it. You've got
me reading your blog, but you aren't going to link to your website? Presumably
the whole point of the blog is to get people interested in what you're doing,
but you aren't going to link to it? It's madness!
Edit: actually there is just one - in the author's profile at the bottom.
There isn't one in any of the layout of the blog page, or the blog front page.
~~~
jra6
Shamefully poor tech competencies! Come help us! :)
~~~
bjterry
You should put your e-mail in your Hacker News profile so people can contact
you!
------
fiatjaf
This argument is so wrong in so many ways it will end being absolute truth
because no one can explain its full wrongness in less than 50 hours.
------
vogelke
Articles like this are embarrassing. Here's how to fix the schools:
1\. When a parent withdraws their kid from a school that's not doing the job,
the parent's money GOES WITH THEM to whatever other school they ultimately
choose.
2\. If any kid in any class disrupts the class and prevents anyone else from
learning, the teacher informs the principal. The principal says "Yes,
sir/ma'am, I'll take care of it", removes the kid from the room, places them
in a different room, and informs the kid's parents.
3\. If any kid in any classroom verbally threatens or physically assaults a
teacher for any reason at all, the kid is immediately expelled. Any lawsuit
over this by any parent is dismissed via lack of standing to sue, and the
parent pays the school's court costs.
Problem solved.
If you work at a school that can't seem to fire incompetent teachers, you'll
be out of business and good riddance.
If you teach at a school, your word is SCRIPTURE when it comes to a disruptive
or dangerous student. That means you have the last word about when or whether
a student is returned to your class, not the pricipal or the board or some
parent who can't discipline a kid.
If you're a parent and your little snowflake can't handle the concept of
"don't hit the teacher and don't start screaming in class", you are free to
educate him yourself.
~~~
djtriptych
This is wrong on many levels. Here are some problems.
1a. This policy favors parents who can pick up and leave a school (and ship
their kid somewhere else) if they're not happy with it. For low income
parents, school often doubles as day care and this may not be feasible.
1b. We are ignoring the reason why this school might be failing your kid.
Maybe it's a bad school. Maybe your kid has an undiagnosed learning
disability. If it's the latter, and we flood the hardest-to-teach students to
the best schools, what happens? In real life, schools have to worry about
composing teachable classrooms, and this policy is a great way to destoy that
balance.
2\. This policy, in practice, will likely prove to be both sexist and racist.
Boys are WAY more likely to disrupt classrooms especially at a young age. This
policy is a good way to segregate the sexes. Not that that's necessarily bad,
but certainly its an undeclared side effect. On the race front, black kids are
way more likely to be punished harshly for similar offenses as white kids. Who
determines what is disruptive and what's kids being kids? Why on earth you
think any (every??) teacher is qualified to make these distinctions is beyond
me. When you're talking about public dollars, this matters.
3a. Please show me a successful school where this policy is 100% implemented.
It's absurd. For teenagers, you are dealing with people at the most
emotionally volatile time of their life. Any school system should seek to
first serve the student, and this policy flatly fails that test. Also, why
just physical assault against teachers? What about physical assault against
other students? How about sexual assault? Hate crimes ok? How about libel or
slander? Kids, it turns out, will be kids. There's a reason we don't let them
vote or drive or buy guns. Zero-tolerance policies are unlikely to be
enforceable without devastating effects on outcomes.
3b. A 1-strike policy of expulsion for outbursts will guarantee a higher
dropout rate, which costs taxpayers (that's you) hundreds of thousands of
dollars in lost tax revenue over the dropout's lifetime. Still a great long-
term idea?
I could go on.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Instant confirmation via Bitcoin payment protocol - HostFat
https://github.com/greenaddress/bips/blob/bip-payment-request-instant-confirmations/bip-payment-request-instant-confirmations.mediawiki
======
BrokenPipe
Hello :) author of the proposal here, if you have any question or comment feel
free to ask!
Users that trust [https://GreenAddress.it](https://GreenAddress.it) can check
the instant confirmation inside their wallet (on a UI 'badge' similar to the N
confirmations or unconfirmed).
While some platforms are interested in the instant confirmation some will take
longer or won't.
For this reason and for external wallet users you can still manually check if
a specific transaction is instant via
[https://greenaddress.it/instant](https://greenaddress.it/instant) provided
that you are the recipient of the transaction and can prove it - and of course
that you trust GreenAddress to not allow users to double spend.
The external instant confirmation link does not work for multisig or P2SH
external addresses yet.
Link to the reddit discussion
[http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/284me8/instant_conf...](http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/284me8/instant_confirmation_via_payment_protocol_bip70/)
Cheers!
Lawrence
------
thisjepisje
I thought of something like this when I read this entry:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7732463](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7732463)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Enroll in the New Advanced Protection Program in an Instant - jdivo
https://www.blog.google/technology/safety-security/new-advanced-protection-program-account-security-instant/
======
sarcasmatwork
And Cloudflare is pushing Galileo...
[https://www.cloudflare.com/galileo/](https://www.cloudflare.com/galileo/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Talk to people pirating your products - arjunappdupe
http://appdupe.com/news/piracy-embrace-work
======
arjunappdupe
Please share your approach to counter someone pirating your products. We could
all brainstorm on what works. Cheers!
~~~
patio11
I switched from downloadable software to SaaS. Not really much more to it than
that.
~~~
arjunappdupe
That is definitely the best way, I would say. Keeping cards close, and
controlling the entire experience. Man, I would have to work to get there.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Western US 'literally out of firefighters and equipment,' fire official says - jelliclesfarm
http://katu.com/news/local/western-us-is-literally-out-of-firefighters-and-equipment-clackamas-fire-chief-says
======
jelliclesfarm
Why can’t we use airships to douse fires?
~~~
jelliclesfarm
To the anonymous users who are protected from displaying their ignorance by
downvoting me without any comments/replies:
[http://www.euroairship.eu/index.php/forest-and-urban-
fires/](http://www.euroairship.eu/index.php/forest-and-urban-fires/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Industry pushes sugary products, while obfuscating the health hazards - laurex
https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2018/12/412916/sugars-sick-secrets-how-industry-forces-have-manipulated-science-downplay-harm
======
foxfired
I started to notice that sugar content has increased in sodas.
I used to work in a grocery store 12/13 years ago, and I remember stacking
sodas on the shelves. The sugar content was 35g. I stacked them everyday so as
far as I remember this was the norm at the time for a one serving in
California.
Only a couple months ago, I started looking at the labels of sodas again. The
content varies from 39g to 55g in California.
I was recently in Utah, and I took a picture of label of ginger ale. I
compared it to the exact same can in California, the one in CA has less sugar
content.
~~~
nradov
Are you sure that's adjusted for serving size?
~~~
cyphar
Does the US not have a section telling you the nutritional content per-100g
(or 100mL or whatever "standard" measurement you folks have) so you can
compare products? Or is everything given in serving sizes (which can be
arbitrarily chosen by the producer)?
~~~
DanBC
55g of sugar per 100ml of product would be insane. Coca Cola has about 10-12g
per 100ml. Starbucks Mulled Fruit Drink (widely reported in the UK as a very
sugary drink) has about 14g per 100ml.
~~~
cyphar
That wasn't my point -- I was confused that there isn't a standard way to
compare food content in the US. In Australia, by law, nutritional information
contains a column with the "serving size", and a column for 100g or 100mL of
the product so you can compare similar products much more easily) I can only
imagine how difficult it would be to compare the nutrition between two
different drinks or foods if they have different container sizes.
In other words, you could easily track the change in sugar content over the
years if you paid attention to the "per 100{g,mL}" column without having to do
any maths.
~~~
DanBC
Sorry, yes, I agree with you.
------
maxxxxx
It's mind boggling how much sugar is in everything. Just looked at my
girlfriend's Starbucks Chai tea container. 100g sugar! She would be better off
drinking a bottle of Coke. And Starbucks are supposed to be good guys .
On a related note: how do they get that much sugar into these drinks? If I
made a liter of Chai tea and poured 100g sugar into it I don't think it would
be drinkable.
~~~
paganel
> It's mind boggling how much sugar is in everything
I remember traveling to Western Europe a couple of years ago (I live further
East) and trying to buy plain yogurt from a supermarket, I mean yogurt which
should have tasted as close as possible to the one my peasant grandma used to
make. It was close to impossible to find such a product, as even the yogurt
labeled as "plain" had a sweetish taste, you could definitely tell that they
had put sugar in it. I imagine that in the US the state of affairs regarding
sugary foods is even worse.
~~~
MrBuddyCasino
Can’t be Germany, natural yoghurt is commonly available here. And yes, US
makes it very difficult to buy healthy food.
~~~
influx
its Amazing how much less sugar common foods in Germany have than the USA. It
took us a bit to adjust but when we got back all the bakery sweets here tasted
disgusting. Wish we could change the culture here to be closer to European in
that aspect.
~~~
chki
When I was about 10 years old my parents took my siblings and me on a 5 week
vacation to the US (I'm from Europe). It was a lot of fun, but I distinctly
remember that it was impossible for me to eat the bread that we would buy at
the supermarket because it was just too sweet. And this was not because my
parents just bought some bread but they actually tried to find some "normal"
tasting bread and it was not possible.
But for pudding the problem was kind of the reverse: It was hard to find
normal tasting pudding because instead of sugar and fat there were artificial
sweeteners in everything.
~~~
Gibbon1
I used to eat rye bread because it was heartier than white or 'wheat' bread.
Because unlike modern wheat rye still had historical ratio's of carbs to
protein.
Now it's just rye flavored white bread.
And all the healthy hippie dippie bread have buttloads of hidden sugars in it.
So now I mostly avoid bread.
~~~
cyphar
You can always bake your own bread. Takes only about 10 real minutes of your
time (plus 2 hours proofing and 30 minutes baking), you know exactly what's in
it, and it's certainly cheaper (you just need flour, water, salt, yeast, and
optionally a little bit of olive oil).
------
oblib
Sugar, all by itself is bad (awful bad), but when you add "Red 40" to the mix
children go into instant hyperactive-overdrive. They start bouncing off the
walls and you might as well be feeding them crack cocaine.
I spent a total of 24 days watching our grandkids this year and everyone of
them was a battle over what they'd eat. I could not get the oldest (11 years
old now) to take a single bite of real food during the course of two 10 day
stints or the past four days. I did only slightly better with his younger
sister, 5 years old now, and she's getting worse, not better.
Last night we had a huge spread of wonderful homemade food for Christmas
Dinner and those two kids didn't taste a bit of it.
It's like watching my grandkids get slowly poisoned. It's insane and there is
nothing I can do about it.
~~~
Puer
That sounds like poor parenting more than anything else. Also, the "sugar ->
hyperactive ADHD kids!" thing is a myth.
~~~
oblib
It is no doubt poor parenting.
And no, sugar does make kids hyperactive. You really only have to spend time
with them to know this. Anyone who says otherwise hasn't.
~~~
luc4sdreyer
Actually, sugar does not cause hyperactivity in children. As soon as you
double-blind the people evaluating the children's activity levels, no one can
tell which children had sugar.
Here are some links to the research:
[https://www.webmd.com/parenting/features/busting-sugar-
hyper...](https://www.webmd.com/parenting/features/busting-sugar-
hyperactivity-myth#1)
[https://www.psychologicalscience.org/uncategorized/myth-
too-...](https://www.psychologicalscience.org/uncategorized/myth-too-much-
sugar-causes-hyperactivity-in-children.html)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_misconceptions#...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_misconceptions#Nutrition,_food,_and_drink)
The reason most people have this misconception is confirmation bias. Children
are almost always eating sugar, and almost always "hyperactive".
If you still don't believe me, (I'm sure _your_ children are different), do
your own study. It would be a fun thing to do with your children, and very
easy. It's very important that make it double blinded:
[https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-double-blind-
study-27...](https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-double-blind-
study-2795103)
If you're right and your study shows it, you'll overturn a 30 year scientific
consensus, and probably become internationally famous.
~~~
oblib
"you'll overturn a 30 year scientific consensus"
Wouldn't be the first time but I still wouldn't be famous..
My first wife suffered from postpartum psychosis twice years before the cause
and effect was recognized by the health care industry and both times I pointed
out the connection and then argued with her doctors about it.
When you're right, you're right. Doesn't matter what others say or think. I
know I'm right on this issue. The science needs to catch up and start trashing
those junk "pay for conclusions studies" and that's what this particular link
posted here talks about.
------
kevin_b_er
How long do we wait for "market forces" to magically correct under the
information asymmetry of rich corporations vs the common person which inhibit
the public from understanding the danger introduced in order to make more
money?
~~~
maxxxxx
The free market can only work if everybody had perfect information and no
secrets. Otherwise whoever has more information can manipulate reality.
~~~
cgrand-net
Perfect information and unlimited computing power.
~~~
gnulinux
I think this is a more important point that is always missed in free market
debates. You need not only perfect information, but also unlimited computation
power _and_ skill to compute necessary information. If you can get a CSV file
of global potato and onion producers with transportation cost, but you have no
means of solving this TSP problem, you will not make an optimal decision.
In particular, relevant to this thread, if you have a magical CSV file created
by an Oracle associating every food available in US with how "healthy" they
are and how much calory they provide, in order to build a 2500 calory diet
that maximizes health and minimizes cost, you need to solve a knapsack-like
problem. In this environment market will necessarily be a little random not
because we don't have enough information but because we don't have enough
computational power.
~~~
cheald
This is generally the argument against command economies, in _favor_ of market
economies. It's formally referred to as the Economic Calculation Problem.
~~~
gnulinux
I wasn't making a point against/in favor of free market nor was I suggesting
this was a hidden factor I just unraveled. I just don't see this discussed in
free market debates, here or in reddit but I think this is a very practical
problem for some markets. I personally try to take as much rational decisions
as possible and one of the limiting factors for me is knowing good enough
algorithms to efficiently compute rational decisions. Of course, we don't have
perfect information, so that's a problem too.
EDIT: I must also admit that I know absolutely nothing about economics. I'm a
regular software engineer.
------
dgudkov
>Stop Blaming Yourself
I'm not sure if such advice is good. Of course, the industry should start
reducing/removing added sugar from products. You can keep eating what you're
eating, keep blaming the evil corporations and wait for ages until the
industry starts changing.
Or, you know, you can take a bit of responsibility for own eating habits and
get noticeably healthier in a matter of weeks. Adapt to the reality where most
packaged products are full of sugary stuff and therefore should be avoided as
if they are spoiled. Maybe buy less packaged products, and buy more fresh
food. Maybe cook sometimes instead of watching TV. Maybe start paying more
attention to ingredients and don't buy products which contents is more
appropriate for a chemical lab rather than a kitchen. It doesn't take much and
it definitely is not "an incredible burden" as the article states. Yes, it's a
burden, but far from "incredible".
And no, you don't necessarily have to start going to the gym to become
healthier. It would be a nice addition to your new lifestyle, but it's not
strictly required.
------
mack1001
Sugar industry mirrors the approach that the oil industry has taken. Both
should be addressed aggressively by introducing real education, researching
and developing worthwhile alternatives. Both have unprecedented costs to
humanity.
------
tyfon
My father in-law is in hospital right now with gallstones and various other
infections due to this. He had severe stomach pain and went to the hospital.
Tomorrow he'll be transported to another hospital via helicopter and airplane
for operation.
It's not too serious when treated but the doctors say it's due to high sugar
intake.
Personally I prefer natural sugar over the artificial stuff but, as with
everything else, moderation is key.
~~~
nradov
What do you mean by "artificial stuff"? Pretty much all sugar sold for human
consumption comes from natural plant sources: corn, beets, sugar cane.
~~~
tyfon
Aspartame, sucralose, saccharin etc
------
skilled
The crazy part is that a lot of people would go absolutely insane if their
sugar was to be cut off all of a sudden.
That's the one thing we don't want to hear. And in doing so, pretend that
everything is great. The same goes for canned and long shelf-life food.
If you eat a healthy diet then getting naturally occuring sugars is not a
problem.
And I understand the argument that eating 'healthy' _might not_ be possible
for everyone. Especially someplace like US where organic food costs ten times
more than anything else.
~~~
NikolaeVarius
So, your argument is that on a healthy diet, you can eat whatever you want.
Got it.
And the fallacy that organic food = healthy is absolutely mind boggling to me.
Study after study has shown that there is minimal difference in the
nutritional quality of "organic" vs "non-organic" foods. It doesn't matter,
and also the perceived benefit to the environment is nil.
And whats wrong with canned and long shelf-life food? Are you against
vegetables being kept for long periods of time without refrigeration and
maintaining 99% of their nutritional content? Ditto for Jams and Honey which
are both long shelf-life food due to their extreme abundance of "natural"
sugar.
~~~
skilled
The funny thing is that I have no reason to talk out of my butt. I am just
expressing my personal experience with food.
My idea of a healthy diet is fruit, seeds, nuts, and occasional grains /
legumes. The 'Steve Jobs' diet if you will.
It's honestly surprising to see how much lighter and energetic you become once
you drop meat and huge blocks (carbs) of crap that makes you feel like you ate
something worthwhile.
~~~
ryanobjc
Given Steve jobs prematurely died due to his diet, I feel like that wasn't a
wise choice in anecdotes.
Funny thing is how much more energy and lighter I became when I only ate meat.
So much for dropping meat.
~~~
skilled
Actually, Steve Jobs was following solely a fruitarian diet. So, maybe I was
just testing your wits, huh?
And here I was thinking that I am the sensitive one. :)
------
Ologn
In a desire to eat healthier, I decided instead of eating candy as a snack, I
would eat dried mangoes. It naturally contains fiber, Vitamin C and natural
sugars.
When I go to the supermarket and look at the labels, I see most of the brands
don't just have the mango's natural sugar, but add extra sugar as well. If I
go that route, I might as well have a candy bar. Luckily, one brand I found
does not add extra sugar.
~~~
nradov
If you can shop at Costco they have good prices on dried mango with no added
sugar.
------
solveit
The article, while making copious allusions to damning research, is light on
actual damning research and heavy on rhetoric. The linked website
([http://sugarscience.ucsf.edu](http://sugarscience.ucsf.edu)) is also full of
references to studies that are suggestive but nothing conclusive.
What's really worrying is the constant refrain that they just "knew" something
had to be wrong. Doesn't exactly inspire confidence in their research. They
then keep following up with references to diabetes, as if diabetes is
obviously a sugar consumption problem, but I understand that that's not the
case ([https://www.diabetes.org.uk/guide-to-diabetes/enjoy-
food/eat...](https://www.diabetes.org.uk/guide-to-diabetes/enjoy-food/eating-
with-diabetes/diabetes-food-myths/myth-sugar-causes-diabetes)).
All in all, with references to research that is weaker than they suggest,
fearmongering rhetoric, and pushing a narrative of Big Sugar stifling honest,
brave scientists, this article is indistinguishable to a layman (me) from an
antivaxxer screed.
And honestly? The comments here are also indistinguishable from comments on an
antivax website.
~~~
will_brown
>They then keep following up with references to diabetes, as if diabetes is
obviously a sugar consumption problem, but I understand that that's not the
case
In good faith anyone talking about sugar consumption being the cause of
diabeties is obviously talking about type 2. Your linked articles is muddying
the waters and introducing type 1 highlighting people are born with type
1...no one thinks type 1 has anything to do with sugar consumption. That is
elementary and bad faith discussion.
Type 2 is when the body no longer responds to insulin. What triggers insulin?
Types of sugar not processed by the liver, which go into the blood and
requirie the body to produce insulin to regulate blood sugar levels. With type
2 the body continues to produce insulin normally but the body no longer
responds to the insulin...it’s all triggered by sugar.
To put it another way if you remove sugars requiring insulin production from
the diet...100% of type 2 cases can be prevented. Only laymen argue this point
as it’s not controversial...all thats needed is a single case of type 2 to
disprove that, but none exist to date. Further, many cases of type 2 can
actually be reversed through diet (ie avoid sugars that trigger insulin
spikes) and lifestyle changes.
How about nonalcoholic fatty liver disease? Do you believe that is not caused
by the other types of sugar (ie sugar processed in the liver)?
~~~
solveit
The link I included specifically says:
> With Type 2 diabetes, though we know sugar doesn’t directly cause Type 2
> diabetes, you are more likely to get it if you are overweight. You gain
> weight when you take in more calories than your body needs, and sugary foods
> and drinks contain a lot of calories.
It's misleading to talk about sugar when the problem is obesity.
I don't have answers to your questions as I am not an expert on nutrition and
it would be stupid to hold opinions on what I don't know. However, I don't
have to be an expert on nutrition to note that the UCSF link is contradicting
other domain experts (may or may not be damning) and is being intellectually
dishonest (definitely damning).
~~~
b_tterc_p
It’s misleading to deflect from sugar onto obesity when consumption of sugary
foods is a primary driver of obesity.
~~~
abaldwin7302
It's an important distinction though. It's possible to consume sugary foods
and not be obese. See twinkie diet.
~~~
will_brown
But skinny people get diabeties also...and if you follow a Twinkie diet and
manage to keep your calories consistent and not gain weight you will be
priming your body for obesity.
All those twinkies have triggered insulin, a side effect of which increases
cell size, with significant impact on fat cells. If your fat cells are
enlarged from insulin, then you are primed to become obese because your cells
are ready to store more than someone who hasn’t been wrecking their body with
insulin spikes from twinkies all day every day.
------
travisoneill1
Why has everything got to be an "Evil Corporations" plot? I remember
explicitly learning that sugar is bad for you from the food pyramid in
elementary school and implicitly from being told I can't have candy well
before. If some companies tried to convince people that sugar is healthy they
wasted their money. Every few years we get a new food bogeyman, so seems like
whatever science is out there is far from conclusive. I have a hard time
believing that the link between sugar and all these diseases is so obvious
that it was found and buried by what is essentially a marketing department of
some food company, while completely eluding every independent researcher out
there.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Open-sourcing bioinstruments - homarp
https://liorpachter.wordpress.com/2019/01/18/open-sourcing-bioinstruments/
======
sinab
My name is Sina Booeshaghi a second year PhD student at Caltech and I built
and designed the poseidon system (with the help of Eduardo Beltrame, Jase
Gehring, Dylan Bannon, and Lior Pachter) in the Pachter Lab.
If you have any questions I'm happy to answer them!
~~~
sbr464
I was needing a fully digital (controlled) microscope stage and stand
recently. I was suprised to find a lack of motorized stages compared to other
items. It would be nice to have a modular stage so it could be used with
different stands. Rotation and height adjustment would be nice as well.
Have you came across anything similar? It seems like it would be trivial to
build similar to your other designs.
~~~
munfred
I have been thinking about this problem for a while. I would like a cheap,
open source, commercially available kit for xyz gantry systems. That's
essentially what desktop CNC machines and 3D printers are and people hack them
for all kinds of purposes.
Unfortunately my current conclusion is that there is no solution that
satisfies all 3 at the moment. Your best bet for building such a system is
looking at cheap 3D printers and CNC machines, but it'll always be a little
bit of a hack and extra work because you'll have to remove parts (hot end,
drill bit..) and adapt something that was not designed with the intent of
being entirely re-purposed.
If anyone here knows of a xyz gantry system kit that satisfies all 3 (cheap,
open source, commercially available) please let me know.
~~~
Ccecil
It would be fairly trivial to build. Basically, it is just a CoreXY 3d printer
without the head.
I have modified a small CNC mill/router to be used as a "paste printer" for
printing frosting/ceramic
([https://youtu.be/XwjnVzfl0wA](https://youtu.be/XwjnVzfl0wA)). Many people in
the 3d printing community have done similar things with their printers.
I would recommend something without a bed that moves in the XY direction.
CoreXY designs would be great but there may be limitations on the carriage
weight. In that case a gantry style cartesian printer would be suitable but
with 2 Y motors to carry the X stage without skipping.
Edit: Also, See Openbuilds.com there are many machines that fit what you are
looking for.
~~~
munfred
Looking at openbuilds.com, in terms of functionality it definitely fits the
bill, I'll look at the designs with care.
I'd like to have a generic open source xyz gantry platform that I could just
order on amazon for <$200 and tinker around with.
------
AndrewGYork
A different target audience, but in the same spirit, here's an open source
microscopy project from our lab:
[https://andrewgyork.github.io/remote_refocus/](https://andrewgyork.github.io/remote_refocus/)
My friend André Maia Chagas is doing some inspiring work in open hardware too:
[https://mobile.twitter.com/chagas_am](https://mobile.twitter.com/chagas_am)
------
kemitchell
The BioBricks Foundation, an organization bringing the spirit of open source
to genetic programming, engaged me to develop Public Domain Chronicle, a fast,
easy, and free way to secure scientific methods and findings for the public
domain.
[https://publicdomainchronicle.org/](https://publicdomainchronicle.org/)
Public Domain Chronicle combines elements of defensive publication, open-
access scholarship, and commons licensing to make public domain advocates the
fastest runners in the race to publish, preventing others from patenting their
findings.
PDC's disclosure form for findings in biology is shorter and easier than any
standard corporate or academic invention-disclosure process, and produces an
immediate, public, republishable prior art record.
[https://pdc.biobricks.org/publish](https://pdc.biobricks.org/publish)
It's early days for the project, and we're seeking out as many potential
researcher-contributors as possible. We're particularly keen to hear from
academic scientists and folks in corporate tech transfer offices who may
prefer PDC to expensive defensive publication services.
------
neltnerb
Oh, this is awesome. I build a lot of random equipment, how do I help? This
kind of thing could kickstart a lot of novel systems that'd take forever to
design or cost a ton otherwise.
~~~
sinab
I love your enthusiasm! Why don't you shoot me an email and we can chat some
point next week.. It would be really cool to get a great community around the
project, extending capabilities and adapting the core technology to random
equipment.
My email should be in my profile.
------
amelius
Some critical questions: who is the target audience for these instruments?
Aren't academic budgets sufficient to provide for a lab with proper basic
instruments? Are these kind of instruments a financial bottleneck when setting
up a lab? And do we want biology PhD students and postdocs to spend time on
instrument-making (and publish papers on that) rather than on biology?
~~~
sinab
Hey amelius!
Great questions. The target audience for these instruments are scientists and
hobbyists who don't want to spend a ton of money on similar commercial
systems, and want the flexibility to modify their operation (e.g., poseidon
can run custom flow profiles per experiment whereas off-the-shelf commercial
systems typically only run one flow rate per experiment). The purpose of
poseidon is to show that open source biological instruments can be developed
and used by a community, similarly to how open source software tools in
biology are developed and used.
Academic budgets vary from institution to institution and are sometimes
determined by exogenous forces beyond the lab's control.
A complete commercial system to do single-cell RNA sequencing costs tens of
thousands of dollars! Using alternatives such as the Harvard Apparatus syringe
pumps and DropSeq [0] to run the same experiment will still cost you into the
thousands of dollars. With the poseidon system, we greatly reduce these costs.
Users can build the instruments to run these experiments for less than $400
and are not restricted to additional costs and tedious firmware upgrades to
expand the system.
In response to your point on time management and instrument-making, I think
that if there exists a need to develop these systems such that they will
advance biological experiments then it's totally cool to have academics work
on these sorts of projects! Biologists and bioengineers have always developed
tools alongside discovery and this is no different from developing
bioinformatics tools.
[0]
[https://www.cell.com/abstract/S0092-8674(15)00549-8](https://www.cell.com/abstract/S0092-8674\(15\)00549-8)
~~~
amelius
Thanks for these great answers. The only point where I would disagree is your
comparison with bioinformatics software. The difference there is that
installing a bioinformatics package and learning to use it takes far less time
than crafting an instrument, especially considering tasks like finding the
right suppliers of components, and calibrating and testing the device (for
which you might need other instruments). But on the other hand, perhaps
building these self-made instruments can become a task for specialized,
facilitating instrument-makers that are already part of many institutions.
~~~
munfred
Note: I also helped develop poseidon
The poseidon system was explicitly designed with ease of assembly in mind. If
you look at the build videos [1] you'll see that assembly of the entire system
(3 pumps + microscope station) takes less than an hour and requires just
pliers and screwdrivers.
The importance of ease of assembly was a lesson that we took from assembling
the miniDrops microfluidics station [2] developed specifically for one kind of
experiment (dropSeq) [3]. The miniDrops is very good at what it does but
assembly was somewhat cumbersome: it required ordering a custom PCB,
specialized parts only available from one vendor (whom I had to nag over the
phone to send me a quote!) and assembly of the device itself took 10-20h.
Not every kind of equipment can be made as easy to source and assemble as we
did with poseidon, but we really think that keeping this at the front of your
mind can make or break the adoption of a piece of open source hardware. This
is especially true in the context of biology laboratories, where many people
are not what you could call "hackers" or "makers" and will be immediately put
off by a daunting assembly process.
[1]
[https://pachterlab.github.io/poseidon/hardware](https://pachterlab.github.io/poseidon/hardware)
[2]
[https://metafluidics.org/devices/minidrops/](https://metafluidics.org/devices/minidrops/)
[3]
[https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-0265](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-0265)
------
GautamGoel
I work with Lior at Caltech. He's an amazing guy, probably the only person I
know who is capable of doing first-rate work in both biology and mathematics.
| {
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Switching from macOS: Hardware - Mayzie
http://blog.elementary.io/post/152750962276/switching-from-macos-hardware
======
JBReefer
I love the idea of a more polished Linux desktop experience but this is just
an ad for a few partner companies and then some guessing about what might
work.
------
alanfranzoni
What about a laptop than can properly and surely support a 4k external monitor
over dp 1.2? It's hard to find them.
------
tracker1
Wish some of the hardware sites mentioned were more en-US friendly, cool to
see though.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Give your side-projects a home on the web - isaacsu
http://www.makedock.com/
======
Mongoose
Any links to example pages? They offer little-to-no info about what the pages
actually look like. Why would I use this instead of GitHub?
~~~
isaacsu
I guess side-projects may not always have a coding element to it, or maybe
someone wants to showcase the end-product without necessarily showing the
source code.
~~~
nrbafna
still, an example or demo page would be a good addition.
------
leeHS
This makes me wonder why there isn't a kickstarter for startups (is there?).
You could "dock" your startup in one place, then people could decide if it's
good enough to invest in, or even request joining your team.
~~~
jmonegro
You can use kickstarter for that, or angel.co
------
dieselz
isaacsu, great idea and I hope you gain a ton of traction. I just submitted
<http://phinish.me/>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Placebo Button for android - paweln
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=it.nadolski.placebobutton
======
paweln
I created this app inspired by placebobutton.com website (see
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9686357](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9686357)).
It somehow motivated me to do it after I pushed button titled "I will create
placebo button android app today" :)
The app allows to share buttons and saves history of all buttons created. If
you have any suggestions for this app - please let me know. I hope you will
enjoy it and the button will bring you many benefits :)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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The Noob Guide to Online Marketing - aymeric
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-noob-guide-to-online-marketing-with-giant-infographic-11928
======
rcavezza
To save time, here are the main points:
Set up your pages for SEO Have a blog Use Adwords Get your name on Twitter &
Facebook Submit blogposts to reddit, digg, hn, etc... Create an email list Use
Feedburner Monitor, Track, and Test Everything
Nothing groundbreaking.
~~~
waterside81
But I think that's the point - there are no shortcuts. It takes persistence,
measurement, and a sound strategy to get where you want to go.
~~~
duck
I agree. If you don't have time to read this and you're starting off then you
might want to figure out another career path. This article is great because it
truly is a large task list that you can use. A handful of them are a little
out there for the average person/startup, but overall I think this is a great
list to start with.
------
aymeric
Question: The article mentions you should guestblog. I know this is important
but writing is a chore to me.
I am in the outsourcing space but I find outsourcing writing really hard to
outsource because I need someone who can express my ideas or who have a good
experience in outsourcing.
Is there a place where I can contact great writers?
~~~
mkr-hn
The Problogger job board seems appropriate: <http://jobs.problogger.net/>
~~~
aymeric
Found this timely article that mentions it too:
<http://maplebutter.com/content-marketing-for-startups/>
------
hxf148
Great article but it missed the mobile angles. It's exploding and having good
mobile working content is more important every day and it's already important.
:)
Working on <http://infostripe.com> which gets you online and mobile-friendly
in just a few minutes. See others using it here
<http://infostripe.com/network.php>
~~~
aymeric
I thought you were wrong saying Mobile is important so I went to check my web
analytics and noticed that 5% of my visitors are coming from a mobile device.
I thought: "Meh, not worth the effort". And then I looked at the conversions
from Mobile users and basically a Mobile user is worth twice a normal Web
browser!
I will go on and set up a mobile stylesheet...
Thanks.
------
grimen
Excellent overview! Even if one are aware of the basics and/or one choose
their own creative way of doing the marketing I really think it is perfect to
have the best-practices like this like a roadmap. Even experts will get use of
this.
------
swah
I never thought about doing email marketing, since it sounds a lot like
"unsolicited email" that I hate to receive. When is it interesting to use, and
beneficial to both sides?
~~~
lichichen
E-mail is a great way to reach out to certain segments of your consumers. It
is useful and beneficial when you are able to communicate information that is
of value.For instance, company updates, product updates and offers. The idea
is not to push information but to tailor relevant information and use e-mail
as tool to build up communities.
As well e-mail is a great tool to test copy. When you do A/B splits to see how
you can use certain copy to drive the most action out of that segment.
I would still recommend E-mail over having Facebook Fan pages because it is
easier to maintain, less time consuming and communication is easier to
control.
Great tool to use for small businesses to publish newsletters/e-mails.
<http://mailchimp.com/>
A few other ideas to use e-mails are
1) Trigger e-mails by Sign in. If the user has not accessed their account
after x period of time send gentle reminder
2) Trigger e-mails based on birthdays
------
el_zako
amazing visuals. it renders me incapable of judging the content.
------
kirpekar
Old, but gold
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Affirmative Action - A Complicated Issue for Asian-Americans - lambtron
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/04/education/edlife/affirmative-action-a-complicated-issue-for-asian-americans.html
======
rorrr
Aren't we all of African descent?
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"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Atlassian’s HipChat user data breached - sunnykgupta
https://icodestartups.com/atlassians-hipchat-user-data-breached/
======
tedmiston
From the email:
> According to our records, your HipChat account is inactive. As a precaution,
> we have deleted the password for your inactive HipChat account. No action
> related to HipChat is required on your part.
That's a very sensible solution from Atlassian / HipChat.
------
a_imho
It is very nice of them sending an email 2 weeks after the incident.
_According to our records, your HipChat account is inactive_
Thank you Atlassian/HipChat for holding onto my data after deleting my
account, much appreciated.
| {
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The enigmatic complexity of number theory - monort
https://mathoverflow.net/questions/282869/the-enigmatic-complexity-of-number-theory
======
jimhefferon
Is there a name for the principle that the more interesting a topic is on a
Stack Exchange forum, the more likely it is to be closed?
~~~
monort
And Scott Aaronson quits mathoverflow due to this "off-topic" policy:
[https://mathoverflow.net/questions/282869/the-enigmatic-
comp...](https://mathoverflow.net/questions/282869/the-enigmatic-complexity-
of-number-theory#comment698104_282869)
~~~
weinzierl
This is so sad, MathOverflow was once such a great community. Here is his
comment for context:
> I regret to say I'm ending my participation in MathOverflow, for the same
> reason I decided a decade ago never again to edit Wikipedia. It's hard to
> express how disheartening it is to spend hours of volunteer labor explaining
> stuff---in this case, in a way that at least 19 MO users apparently found
> useful---only to have your work overridden by a smaller set of users, for
> being (part of something larger that's) "off-topic" or whatever it is. Who
> the hell has time for that? From now on, if I have math questions, I'll post
> them on my own blog. Was nice being here for 6 years; thanks everyone. –
> Scott Aaronson 3 hours ago
------
rocqua
I'd pose this as caused by the simplicity of calculating in Z as a ring. This
has allowed us to experimentally find many interesting true conjectures.
Number theory is no more complicated than any other system. What differs is
the ease by which we can find statements that are probably true. If the field
appears more complex, that might be because we've been enticed by these
probably true statements.
~~~
pmiller2
I'm not so sure about that. Take a look at cellular automata. It's pretty
trivial to screw around with them (though not as easy as with integers, I'll
grant you). Where are the theorems? There seems to be an awful lot of land,
but no maps.
To a lesser extent, graph theory has this problem as well. In the ~60 years
that it's been a subfield in its own right, we haven't got an awful lot of
fundamental new methods. Results being proven today could be easily understood
by a graph theorist from 40-50 years ago transported ahead in time, perhaps
after at most the equivalent of a semester-long grad course.
~~~
rocqua
Cellular automata are much harder to screw around with. Partly that is because
computation by hand is a lot harder, partly because there isn't much that one
can combine.
What makes the integers interesting is that addition, multiplication and
exponentiation are all easy, all operate on the same numbers, and yet they
behave very differently. This allows one to pose very easy questions (e.g. Can
I express every prime as a sum of ...) that have no obvious solution to them.
------
raverbashing
Yes
Number Theory is a tough nut to crack and I feel that, while mathematicians
have advanced a lot, there hasn't been any "master theorem" to handle it
Factorization, one way or another, still is done with brute-force (even if
it's done in the EC domain or with NFS or related algos). Same for modular
logarithm
Most of the theorems still fell like digging a pool with a spoon. Fermat's
last theorem was finally proven, with a lot of effort and diversions. It
really seems we're missing something "basic" (but complex) about it
~~~
fdej
I'm not so sure that we're missing anything basic. The top rated answer by
Scott Aaronson seems spot on to me. The natural numbers are just too powerful.
As the resolution of Hilbert's tenth problem shows, we can at best hope to
solve special cases of statements involving natural numbers, and the solvable
cases are bound to require techniques of increasing complexity.
What would count as a "master theorem" for some field, anyway? I suppose
something like Tarski's quantifier elimination of semialgebraic sets over R^n
might be an example, though for actual computations the best algorithms have
double exponential worst case complexity (i.e. even worse than integer
factorization). Or for something even more basic, perhaps the fundamental
theorem of linear algebra (along with Gaussian elimination). There's the
saying that mathematics is the art of reducing any problem to linear algebra
-- I suppose the hard problems in number theory are the ones that don't have a
good linear algebra reformulation :-)
~~~
raverbashing
Yeah I read that comment and I agree with you
> What would count as a "master theorem" for some field, anyway?
I think you gave good examples, but it could be something like the discovery
of Calculus, where suddenly a lot of problems became tractable. And in the end
we even managed to solve (some) differential equations by solving polynomial
equations.
So maybe you're right and it's linear algebra all the way down, but we're
missing the weird trick to convert a factorization problem into a polynomial
or something like that
------
mrkgnao
The closest thing number theory has to a Grand Unified Theory is the Langlands
program. It's a huge, highly interconnected, often surprising bunch of
conjectures relating number theory to geometry, algebra, and even[s] string
theory -- and also something that I know next to nothing about. :)
I'll put the Wikipedia[w] intro here, and note with some happiness that
Frenkel has used that exact phrase before:
> _In mathematics, the Langlands program is a web of far-reaching and
> influential conjectures about connections between number theory and
> geometry. Proposed by Robert Langlands (1967, 1970), it seeks to relate
> Galois groups in algebraic number theory to automorphic forms and
> representation theory of algebraic groups over local fields and adeles.
> Widely seen as the single biggest projects in modern mathematics, Edward
> Frenkel described the Langlands program as “a kind of grand unified theory
> of mathematics._
Wiles' proof of the modularity theorem (and hence Fermat's Last Theorem) is a
proof of a some of the Langlands conjectures "in dimension 2": one of the
pinnacles of human mathematical achievement is just _an incomplete portion of_
a special case of Langlands' vision.
> Andrew Wiles' proof of modularity of semi-stable elliptic curves over
> rationals can be viewed as an instance of the Langlands reciprocity
> conjecture, since the main idea is to relate the Galois representations
> arising from elliptic curves to modular forms. Although Wiles' results have
> been substantially generalized, in many different directions, the full
> Langlands conjecture for GL(2, Q) remains unproved.
To give you a little taste, here's a 10000-miles-above-the-ground view of what
this says.
A modular function is a certain kind of object in complex analysis (something
like calculus with complex instead of real numbers[c]).
A Galois representation starts with a Galois group, which tells us something
about the large-scale structure of a number system, and extracts[p]
("represents") a small part of the information it contains: the full
"absolute" Galois group is incomprehensibly complicated. Every elliptic curve
gives rise to these representations.
There's no reason these things should be related: most number thought the
modularity conjecture was an improbable goal. Now think about how it's just a
tiny part of a much larger whole. They don't call it "fantastically bold"[n]
for nothing.
\---
[w]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langlands_program](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langlands_program)
[s]: [https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/4748/why-is-
ther...](https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/4748/why-is-there-a-deep-
mysterious-relation-between-string-theory-and-number-theory)
[n]:
[https://golem.ph.utexas.edu/category/2010/08/what_is_the_lan...](https://golem.ph.utexas.edu/category/2010/08/what_is_the_langlands_programm.html)
[p]: As I understand it, Wiles' proof only uses 2-dimensional representations.
[c]: ... but it's hard to overstate how much nicer and more uniform everything
becomes!
~~~
mathgenius
I would also recommend the book by Edward Frenkel, "Love and Math" where he
talks about his involvement in the Langland program.
Also, he has a very cool lecture on the subject here:
"What Do Fermat's Last Theorem and Electro-magnetic Duality Have in Common?"
[http://online.itp.ucsb.edu/online/bblunch/frenkel/](http://online.itp.ucsb.edu/online/bblunch/frenkel/)
| {
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A Place To Store App Ideas - taylorkpotter
https://appsto.re/us/2WcC0.i
======
natch
How would I know that this app isn't siphoning off my ideas to its own server?
Not that I'm saying it does. Just curious how people might do traffic sniffing
ala lil' snitch on an iOS device.
I guess one way is to set up your own WiFi network on a desktop machine, then
connect to that network, and also set up a proxy like Charles on the desktop
to watch traffic? Not sure this configuration works though. Anyone done
something like this?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Amazon Upgrade: a really useful idea that nobody has heard of - camtarn
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jan/15/amazon-upgrade-google
======
camtarn
I've been wanting a feature like this for absolutely ages - I keep wanting to
do a full-text search of books I only own in physical format. Strange to find
that someone has already implemented it, but that it never really took off. It
would be great if someone launched something like this now that e-readers are
much more mainstream.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Like VR but Don't Like Game Development - throwaway29292
I am about to graduate and want to decide which field I'll focus on in my career, and pursue post-graduation studies in. I've had an interest in VR since long but am not interested at all in Android/Unity/Game Development/3D math/Graphics etc. I like building products and prototypes for the web, not mobile.
How do I decide if Virtual Reality is a serious career option for me to go into, currently it seems it is all about game and app development and hardware research, should I leave it for a few years, or are there interesting areas related to web?
======
corysama
Gaming in VR gets all the attention because it is flashy, easy to convey to an
audience and makes for good screen shots. But, at least half of VR
applications (and probably more than half of revenue) will be in non-gaming
applications. Design, simulation and training will be major areas. Sit inside
a car while designing it. Walk around underneath Canada while looking for oil
fields. Play out your role in the operating room a hundred times before doing
it for real.
WebVR is a real thing, btw. It's VR delivered through the web --like video via
the web. Between WebGL and WebAssembly, it should at least be able to keep up
with the best mobile VR platforms.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/WebVR/](https://www.reddit.com/r/WebVR/)
[https://aframe.io/](https://aframe.io/)
[https://hacks.mozilla.org/2016/03/introducing-the-
webvr-1-0-...](https://hacks.mozilla.org/2016/03/introducing-the-
webvr-1-0-api-proposal/)
------
mathiasrw
VR is gonna be big in finance.
~~~
mrfusion
Explain.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How to learn Flash - coliveira
During the last few years I have seen more and more web sites that use Flash not just for media, but also for UI interaction -- in the same way one would use Cocoa or Win32. It looks like Flash is becoming the "low level" API for web apps, that is, whenever something is not available as DHTML/Javascript, one uses Flash to achieve it.<p>Considering this, I am thinking that learning Flash is really necessary. Do you have any good resources to do this (books or web sites)? Also, is it possible to develop Flash sites with open source tools?
======
Chirag
If you are just starting with Flash, goto <http://flash.tutsplus.com/> and
start doing the tutorials with the examples and once you are fimilliar with
the environment.
Visit <http://www.gotoandlearn.com/> for a very good set of video tutorials
and examples. Gotoandlearn is IMO one of the best starting points to dive into
flash.
After this you have Google :)
------
wallflower
Open source tool: FlashDevelop.org (Windows only but runs on Parallels/Mac)
------
dtby
For someone just starting out, I would recommend checking out haXe.[1] It's
certainly not a traditional Flash development environment, but it offers some,
to my knowledge, unique advantages in the space particularly in terms of
offering multiple output targets. And it's got plenty of open source tools to
help you along.
However, first I would ask myself "If I can't accomplish my goals in DHTML and
Javascript, is the web the proper place to deploy my application?" I'm pretty
sure this is an unpopular view in these parts, but it may be worth
considering.
[1] <http://haxe.org/>
~~~
DanielStraight
The number of things you can't do with HTML and Javascript is getting smaller
every day. I see no need at all for flash in the long term. The only time I
_like_ flash is flash video players, but those will be replaceable in the
future as well.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ghost in the Shell FUI Design - cryo
http://www.hudsandguis.com/home/2017/4/17/ghostintheshell-fui
======
d33
I couldn't easily find in the post what this FUI abbreviation stands for, so
here's a reddit on it:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/FUI/top](https://www.reddit.com/r/FUI/top)
~~~
FridgeSeal
Subscribed to that so fast.
While it copped a lot of flack, visuals wise there was pretty much nothing
wrong with GitS.
~~~
intoverflow2
I disagree, although they created a beautiful vision of the future it just
doesn't resonate with what GITS is to me.
The world of GITS never felt like a neon billboard strewn "Neo Tokyo", felt
like it has always had a wider visual language than just that one note. Feels
like the city is trying to demand presence as an entity in the remake while in
the originals the city was mostly just an anonymous sea of sky scrapers that
was then experience though more intimate close moments.
I realise Ash is a huge fan of Akira and I can't help but think how Neo-Tokyo
plays almost as a larger than life character in that film has influenced his
work in this.
Compare this [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB-ik-
Bpl0c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB-ik-Bpl0c) to
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixAHUWgBKsw&t=0m35s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixAHUWgBKsw&t=0m35s)
~~~
anon1253
You might be interested in "Ghost In The Shell: Identity in Space"
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXTnl1FVFBw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXTnl1FVFBw)
~~~
the_af
That video is very insightful and resonates with what I love about Mamoru
Oshii's movie. The city is definitely a protagonist in that classic movie as
well, but it's not garish like in the new movie.
------
danielcarvalho
It was an absolutely stunning film. Love the sheer amount of design effort
that went into it, it really paid off. So much polish at every level.
~~~
awjr
Loved every minute of it until the last 5 minutes, where they went so far away
from the original story line, it would be like remaking Star Wars and having
Luke turning to the darkside.
~~~
Tharkun
Only the last 5 minutes? Did we watch the same movie? The plot, to me, looked
like it was written by someone who watched the original while drunk.
~~~
partisan
I remember thinking that whoever made this movie must have hated the original
movie.
I guess it is a gamble the director has to take: to be remembered as a great
director, you can't simply remake movies verbatim. You have to put your spin
on it and hope people think you made something greater than the original.
The movie did not capture the feeling of the original movie nor did it seem
convincing as a future reality the way the original does.
Btw, hologram ads featured in a COD Advanced Warfare Tokyo map a few years
ago. Given the color scheme of the movie and that of the map, I would not be
surprised if the map was a bit of inspiration for the movie's designers.
------
AriaMinaei
And this blog is dedicated to Sci-Fi UIs
[http://sciencefictioninterfaces.tumblr.com/](http://sciencefictioninterfaces.tumblr.com/)
------
zipwitch
I recall seeing a navigation app a few years back that copied almost perfectly
the navigation views from Standalone Complex. Never did get the name of it.
------
adamwong246
personally, I disliked all the holograms. They're in every movie these days
and they are sooooo boring, not to mentioned impossible. The original Ghost in
the Shell had none and the city was much more gritty and interesting without
these silly "solograms." Really ruined the feel of the film in my opinion.
------
bhhaskin
Thank you for sharing this. I have always loved FUI.
------
bert2002
Very nice. Thanks for the link.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
India power plant fire: Nine reported dead in major blaze in Telangana - teacupnews
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-53861457
======
enlightenedone
Could also be a cyberattack,given the border tensions with country have one of
the most advanced cyber military,
You never know!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Docker Says Absolutely Not to Collaboration on Standard Container Specification - Alupis
https://github.com/docker/docker/issues/9538#issuecomment-65967102
======
debacle
They didn't say no, they just said they wouldn't spend effort conforming to a
3 day old standard that no one was using.
That just makes business sense.
------
katabatic
Irrespective of the public back & forth between Docker and CoreOS, that's a
completely reasonable stance to take. Standards need to be proven in the real
world before being adopted. That's why the ANSI and ISO standardization
process takes so much time (EDIT: or at least, _one_ of the reasons).
When you write "standards" without implementation, what you get is the Object
Management Group, which published spec after spec that are impossible to
actually implement.
------
WestCoastJustin
It might be worth pointing out that Alupis (OP), and Shykes (Docker creator),
have had somewhat of a flame war on HN since Rocket was announced.
~~~
Alupis
I wouldn't really call it a flame war... more or less pointing out issues with
Docker the company. I feel it's greatly important since container technology
is poised to become a very big thing in the Unix ecosystem and we should take
a moment to think about the motives of a commercial for-profit company such as
Docker, before we embed it into everything. Shykes seems to take issue with me
pointing these things out, as I would expect him to.
Anyway, that does not change the content of Shykes' message on Github, which
makes it outstandingly clear he, and Docker, have absolutely zero intention of
collaborating openly on a standardized container format. They had zero
intention of creating a standard format prior to the Rocket announcement, and
just last night have published their own proprietary and incompatible
specification which they now call the standard.
That's not collaboration...
~~~
fluidcruft
Is there anything technically wrong with the Docker format, or do you just
have doses of Lovecraftian fear and uncertainty to offer?
~~~
Alupis
The issue with the Docker format is that there was no format, at least a
standardized one. The image format has changed, and without a formal format
specification, it's subject to future change. That makes it difficult to rely
on when building 3rd party tools, or alternative runtimes.
I'd argue that a single, universal standardized container format specification
is crucial for such a piece of technology that will soon be (is?) at the heart
of all application deployments, both servers and desktops. We can look at the
OVF specification[1] for a clear example of why this is necessary. Back in
2007 the top hypervisor vendors (VMware, Dell, HP, IBM, Microsoft and
XenSource) collaborated and created thhe OVF spec which would allow a virtual
machine which conformed with the spec to be portable between any of their
hypervisors. This enabled users to switch at-will, and provided great
orchestration between clusters of heterogeneous hypervisors.
We've seen how successful a format is when a single for-profit company self-
declares their format as the "standard" for all others to adhere to -- .RPM
promoted by Red Hat. Even today, there are systems that do not use RPM's
because there never was a consensus around what that format should look like
-- It was just declared one day it was the standard because they had market
share.[2]
A world where one becomes locked into any single vendor for any piece of
technology is not good to say the very least.
An inter-operable, collaborated standard is what is necessary.
[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Virtualization_Format](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Virtualization_Format)
[2]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_Standard_Base#Choice_of_R...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_Standard_Base#Choice_of_RPM_package_format)
~~~
belak
_we should take a moment to think about the motives of a commercial for-profit
company such as Docker, before we embed it into everything. Shykes seems to
take issue with me pointing these things out, as I would expect him to._
What about the motives of CoreOS, also a for profit company?
_I 'd argue that a single, universal standardized container format
specification is crucial for such a piece of technology that will soon be
(is?) at the heart of all application deployments, both servers and desktops._
Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the new container proposal do the exact
opposite of this? Why not collaborate with Docker on a container format?
From the Github post: _But here 's a suggestion for you. If you were to
complain that Docker's image format and runtime specification, as massively
adopted as it is, is not appropriately documented, and it could be made easier
to produce alternate implementations - then I would completely agree with
you._
You state that Docker has _absolutely zero intention of collaborating openly
on a standardized container format_ however they explicitly invite help into
standardizing and documenting theirs, which is currently the most commonly
used.
This is the last thing I'm going to leave here.
[http://xkcd.com/927/](http://xkcd.com/927/) It may not be the most credible
of sources, however it makes the point I am trying to make quite well. Making
an additional standard when there is already something well established does
nothing but fragment the ecosystem.
You may be questioning the motives of Docker, Inc, however that leaves the
rest of us to question the motives of CoreOS. I did not seen ANY efforts at
collaboration by CoreOS before they released their own container
format/runtime. Especially in the passive-agressive (mostly agressive) way in
which they did it. If their motives were truely to create a "single, universal
standardized container format specification", the first step would have been
to at least attempt to work with Docker to create this. Instead of this
happening, this whole argument has turned into a pissing match between the two
companies. Seriously, both companies need to set aside their differences and
have a real discussion about this, not just doing things on the internet to
piss each other off.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Is Facebook Becoming the New AOL? - buckpost
http://www.markevanstech.com/2010/11/27/is-facebook-the-new-aol/
======
jballanc
I think this is a classic example of hacker (or tech-savy types in general)
having a very different experience than the rest of the population. For
example, do you know when more households had DVD players than had VCRs? If
you said Q3 2006, you win! ([http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nielsen-
study-shows-...](http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nielsen-study-shows-
dvd-players-surpass-vcrs-57201447.html))
If you're the typical tech-savy type, that fact probably seems rather
unbelievable. Almost as unbelievable as the idea that most people _stuck_ with
AOL precisely _for_ the walled garden. I mean, it make sense...Facebook's rise
is because of, not in spite of, AOL's decline. Same as the iTunes App Store is
more successful than the Android store (never mind the handsets, the app store
contest still seems to be a very one-sided ordeal).
AOL's big flaw was that they _thought_ their major offering was a dial-up
internet connection. What they didn't see was that their main product was
actually just the walled garden internet experience that _most_ people (i.e.
not the tech savvy types) were looking for. If they had realized that, then
AOL could have been the Facebook of today. So, in a way...I guess Facebook is
becoming the new AOL, but that's probably not a bad thing!
------
tewks
"In the end, AOL’s walled garden became irrelevant as people discovered the
Web had so much more to offer than the limited view offered by AOL."
This analysis is totally off the mark.
What killed AOL largely was its inability to provide broadband to American
consumers. The phone and cable companies cut them off. This was before
multiple DSL providers were available at a given address.
If AOL had the means to provide broadband nationwide, this could have turned
out totally differently.
Obviously, this point in history does not apply to facebook, thus it is harder
to imagine such an impetus that would cause users to leave the service in
droves.
------
cousinlarry
The app store is the new aol
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
MIT nuclear fusion record marks latest step towards unlimited clean energy - danielmorozoff
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/oct/17/mit-nuclear-fusion-record-marks-latest-step-towards-unlimited-clean-energy
======
arcanus
Scientists are optimistic that the promise of fusion energy is only twenty
years away.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Twitter: An Open Love Letter - fields
https://medium.com/@fields/twitter-an-open-love-letter-efa256044a9c
======
chmaynard
> It’s too hard to find the right people to follow for your detailed
> interests.
I love to follow people who post creative, well-written, ironic, humorous
tweets. It almost doesn't matter what their area of expertise is. The only way
I know to verify that someone is a good tweeter is browse their tweet history.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Is your Slack-based product profitable? - EtienneLem
Looking at the last few days on ProductHunt, I’m seeing about 8+ products for Slack. Some of them are a sub-product of the main one with either their own pricing or used to promote the main product. Some are a full-fledged startup, some even only seem to work in a Slack environment. Pricing vary between Free to ~$50/months.<p>I’m guessing the Slack ecosystem is pretty healthy but is it profitable? I’m particularly interested in products with a dedicated pricing.
======
dskaletsky
Derek from @relayhq & @knowtifyio here (@relayhq is our slack app).
It's way too early to tell. It's early for our app (we only launched a few
days ago) and it's early for Slack. So...very hard to say if over the long
run, you can build profitable businesses of that platform.
When Salesforce launched Force.com, people questioned whether or not you could
build strong, stand-alone businesses of the SF platform. It was a little
easier to see the path in that case given SF's adoption at that point, but
still, I don't think anyone predicted the scope and scale of the products that
have build great businesses off SF.
While I don't think Slack will create the same impact as SF has, I think over
time we will definitely see profitable businesses built off their platform...
------
ernesto-jimenez
Ernesto from [https://slackline.io](https://slackline.io) here.
It's definitely working for us.
We have hundreds of companies collaborating through Slackline. From investors
and startups, to agencies, consultancies and universities. We've been growing
nicely since we launched.
With that being said, our objective is to cover much more than just Slack.
It's a great platform to start with, but we have had vision that goes beyond
Slack from day one :)
~~~
ianlevesque
Yeah you can tell by the name that the vision extends beyond slack :)
------
keydunov
Artyom from [http://www.statsbot.co](http://www.statsbot.co)
A lot of teams have installed Statsbot and have been using it on a daily
basis. Since we haven't even introduced paid plans yet, it is too early to
tell in a long term. However, we have a few paying customers through direct
sales, which covers our server expenses.
------
DaneOfKnowtify
Dane from [https://relay.knowtify.io](https://relay.knowtify.io)
We only launched a week ago so it's definitely too early to say if we'll be
profitable if you factor in dev time, expenses for our server, db, tools...and
CPA. But we do have some strong early interest and paying users so we're
excited about Relay.
One of the big reasons we built Relay is to extend functionality for teams
using Knowtify and integrating through Segment. Since launching Relay, our
Knowtify signups have at least doubled.
~~~
EtienneLem
Very interesting. Would love to see some more numbers in a few months for both
Knowtify signups and Relay usage.
~~~
DaneOfKnowtify
I wont share any specifics on any of our customers but happy to share high
level stats if you want to email me in a few months. It might be interesting
to poll 20-50 apps 3 months after launch and turn it into some sort of
visualization.
[email protected]
------
mrfusion
What is slack? Their website wanted me to watch a video to learn what it is.
~~~
atomical
Watch the video.
------
coderKen
I guess we'll have to find out in the coming years.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Uyghur woman forced to marry Han Chinese man in exchange for family's release - baylearn
https://twitter.com/WBYeats1865/status/1176865152676683776
======
baylearn
Related article “China coerces Uighur women into unwanted marriages” with more
context:
[https://share.america.gov/china-coerces-uighur-women-into-
un...](https://share.america.gov/china-coerces-uighur-women-into-unwanted-
marriages/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Mails from Twitter | XSS - ulf
"Hey there.<p>Due to concern that your account may have been compromised in a phishing attack that took place off-Twitter, your password was reset. Please create a new password by opening this link in your browser: [...]"<p>Now THIS is nice...at least now they seem to realize how they failed with this problem
======
swolchok
Did you check the link to make sure _that_ mail is not a phishing attack? It
sounds, well, phishy.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: I have $1200 to spend on gadgets, what should I buy? - bhoomit
======
throwaway_yy2Di
A vacation.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1474454](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1474454)
~~~
umrashrf
I think it exceeds his budget by the fact that he will also have to spend time
which he can otherwise use to make more money. Doesn't it?
~~~
Cthulhu_
You could skip sleep too in order to make money.
------
pavlov
If you don't have any specific needs, are you sure it's worth spending that
money on electronics?
Personally I hate the remorse that comes every few months when I go through a
drawer and discover a barely used iPod touch or other device that I once
thought might improve my life, but didn't.
~~~
bhoomit
I was worried about the same thing when I bought my point and shoot. But I
used it like one use his cellphone. And the other thing is for a long time I
wanted to hack new gadget like leap motion.
------
ISL
Freedom.
Find whatever makes you free, and do that. Gadgets are a small set of the
tools that can make that possible. Knowledge is even better.
I see that bgar's already asked you what you have.
What do you want to do?
(For me, if constrained to gadgets, perhaps a DAQ card can open a lot of
doors. Arduinos are cheap, LabJacks and fancier can get a lot more done with
greater sensitivity. Got only $10 and an I2C interface? You can have an
unreasonable quantity of fun with an AD7746. Seriously.)
------
corporalagumbo
If it was me, it'd be a toss-up between a combination of: eReader, tablet, and
a Nexus 4. Items to increase my learning efficiency (eReader/tablet) and
productivity (Nexus 4).
And I would wait til October for the new Paperwhite and probably the new Kobo
Arc.
Also I would want to put about 10-20% away into some sort of investment fund
unless there were some items that offered a serious short-term productivity
increase the money could rather go to. Just a general rule.
~~~
bhoomit
I already have Nexus 4, thinking about iPad mini.
And this is 80% of the actual amount :)
------
staunch
High quality 24-27" IPS monitor, mechanical keyboard, mousepad, earbuds,
chair.
1\. Dell Ultrasharp
2\.
[http://www.elitekeyboards.com/products.php?sub=special&filte...](http://www.elitekeyboards.com/products.php?sub=special&filter=spacesaver)
3\. SteelSeries QcK
4\. Logitech G500
5\. Etymotic ER4
6\. Herman Miller Aeron
~~~
nazdak
etymotic ER4 are a bit expensive for earplugs that are not molded to your ear
canal.
~~~
markgreville
You can get buds moulded separately, they are fantastic IEMs if you are
prepared to pay the money IMHO.
~~~
crcastle
I just purchased a pair of Westone UM3X in-ear monitors. I was cringing at
spending $320 (best I could find on amazon) for headphones, but since I
received them I never want to take them out.
For those of us that work with or use technology a lot during our days, I
think there's something to be said about spending a little extra on the part
that connects the human to the technology. Connecting these two very different
things in a pleasing, comfortable, exciting way is not easy.
------
jacquesm
Save it for when you need it. Donate it to Watsi. Whatever you feel like but
don't buy crap you apparently don't need.
~~~
fmax30
i have saved up 1000$ to buy gaming consoles and equipment (LCDs, Leap motion
, games etc). But it is mainly due to the fact that before becoming a
professional i was never able to afford the latest consoles and games :P.
~~~
jacquesm
Savings: something you don't need when you have it and that you won't have
when you need it.
------
LarryMade2
If you don't have a need for anything and that cash is burning a hole in your
pocket, invest in tools or supplies .
I mean real tools - Maybe a repair kit that includes all those fancy security
screws and stuff to fix your iPhone, or some portable muilti-use power tool,
so when you need em and have em (it's a good feeling). Best to get the stuff
you know you will actually use.
Supplies - got a color laser printer? stock up on those pricy extra toner
packs, buy that bulk pack of ink, get extra paper.
Ergo stuff, how about your workspace, need a better chair or desk (I got
myself an adjustable standing/sitting desk, it was a good investment) Maybe
dual LCDs?
Organization stuff - example - If you have a ton of DVDs filling up bookcases
may I suggest Disc Sox - [http://www.amazon.com/DISCSOX-DVD-POLY-SLEEVES--
25Pack/dp/B0...](http://www.amazon.com/DISCSOX-DVD-POLY-SLEEVES--
25Pack/dp/B001S54OCG) Put your cover and DVDs in these things and you can cut
your DVD shelf space by 75%, also you and your friends will know its your DVD
because of the cool flexy case.
Safari Library Subscription - get on-line any time access to thousands of
O'Reilly books and manuals -
[http://www.safaribooksonline.com/](http://www.safaribooksonline.com/)
------
hislaziness
Recommend an experience - Vacation, Sporting Activities over buying something.
[http://www.psychologytoday.com/files/attachments/2557/howell...](http://www.psychologytoday.com/files/attachments/2557/howellpcheliniyer2012the-
preference-experiences-over-possessions.pdf)
------
iterationx
Expobar Lever Semi-Auto Espresso Machine
Boosted Board
Wool & Prince dress shirt that supposedly doesn't need to be washed
Vespa-like scooter
Yamaha Digital Piano
Brompton folding bike
Taga Bike that transforms into a stroller (if you have young children)
------
cm-t
You have this for example:
* [http://www.indiegogo.com/projects?filter_category=Technology...](http://www.indiegogo.com/projects?filter_category=Technology&filter_quick=popular_all)
* [http://www.kickstarter.com/discover/categories/technology?re...](http://www.kickstarter.com/discover/categories/technology?ref=sidebar)
* ...
(Patience required)
------
cowls
Grammar police here.
The (all) is not needed, "what should I buy?" already covers the plural case.
I have noticed this a lot in Indian English.
~~~
murli
That's truly funny. Have you also heard the Anglo-Indian use of "y'all all"?
:)))
------
sixQuarks
Oculus Rift developer's kit ($300). Start messing around with it and develop a
game before release. This thing is going to be huge.
------
yashg
If you love taking pictures get a DSLR + Tripod.
------
murli
I'm guessing you're asking because you have a gadget allowance from a new job?
If so, and assuming whatever you're buying needs to be at least slightly
relevant to your job, looking around at what your co-workers bought may be
useful. This doesn't mean you buy what your co-workers buy but at least you
may get some ideas.
~~~
bhoomit
No, you can think of it as a reward for some part time work.
------
vinchuco
Donate to the EFF
------
akamaka
Wait, if you can. Gadgets are nearly always much cheaper and better with each
new generation.
If you must spend the money, though, I'd recommend a high end ergonomic chair
or a treadmill desk.
------
bgar
What do you already have?
~~~
bhoomit
I only have a smartphone, and a point and shoot camera(I love taking
pictures).
~~~
sheldor
Invest in photography then. Buy a brand new DSLR with decent lens or one of
the new hot mirrorless micro four thirds.
~~~
ISL
That and a masterful course on photography. Stay cheap with the hardware until
you know what you want.
------
giffo
Forget things. Invest it into your progress, your own projects. Purchase
value, Whatever makes you more productive in the things you like doing.
------
meerita
Kindle, Nexus 4 and that's all I would need.
~~~
bhoomit
Already have Nexus, would probably buy iPad mini.
------
usermac
Get yourself a SanDisk SD Plus card. <strike>Best</strike> Handiest technology
I've ever used. Ever.
------
kybernetyk
A good ($200+) mechanical keyboard.
------
dutchbrit
Invest it in your own project(s)
------
razzaj
for 200 extra i would go for a makerbot digitiser
[http://store.makerbot.com/digitizer.html](http://store.makerbot.com/digitizer.html)
assuming you have a 3D printer, that is.
~~~
bhoomit
Don't have a 3D printer.
------
antocv
A bicycle, so you can take more pictures with your already good camera.
------
guyinblackshirt
i'd get a basis band, a couple raspberry pi's, and a kindle with a bunch of
books. the rest I would spend in a vacation @ southeast asia :-)
------
wldlyinaccurate
One of those Internet Fridges. Yeah, buy one of those.
------
evadne
Accidental damage insurance.
------
timmillwood
Save it
------
rorybireland
Raspberry Pi
------
jrockway
A bicycle.
~~~
bhoomit
Already on my list :)
------
U2EF1
VTSMX
------
moneyrich4
1\. one of those aeron (?) chairs - 300 on ebay
could be really uncomfortable or the best chair ever, nerds are
picky about chairs and unreliable at furniture advice
2\. your favorite game, GTA 5 coming out soon
3\. a phat screen, 25" lcd or 50 tv - 400 bucks at frys
4\. oculus vr dev kit (VR) - 300$
VR half life, tf2, portal... cool. also really stoked to try a really scarey game.
5\. lucid dreaming goggles on kickstarter - cheap lucid dreams... cool
------
mosselman
A course on 'stop being an insensitive douche', that is probably where you
should start.
We have had posts about helping Syrian developers get jobs outside of Syria,
people hit hard by economic crisis, people dying. But you don't care, you want
to waste $1200 on crap you don't need.
[http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/fight_club/quotes/#quote_386...](http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/fight_club/quotes/#quote_38665)
This is an international place to share news about technology and how it can
help us better our lives. These kinds of posts belong on Facebook, if
anywhere. But to be honest, I think your 'friends' will not appreciate this
type of bragging.
~~~
argonaut
No. Just no. HN is a forum for hackers to talk and discuss anything that
interests them, which may very well include the latest cool gadgets someone
wants to buy. In fact, HN guidelines specifically say: _Off-Topic: Most
stories about politics_.
HN is not the zero-sum, channel of communication-most-important that you think
it is. This is not a zero-sum game.
HN is not a place where you badger other people for talking about a topic just
because you think another topic is more "important." You don't yell at your
friends for talking about startups instead of Syria. At least I hope you
don't.
You're just being mean.
~~~
digitalnomad
Absolutely agreed with Argonaut ^^
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
When the Mac mini goes pro, will the pros get Mac minis? - inostia
https://www.macworld.com/article/3300182/macs/when-the-mac-mini-gets-pro-will-the-pros-get-mac-minis.html
======
ksec
It is a funny situation, Apple wants most of the people to move to iPad, and
leave the Mac for pro uses. That is a perfectly fine strategy excepts its
execution has been rather poor by Apple's standard.
The iPad aren't anywhere near ready for business uses. And the Mac aren't
being loved by the Pros.
In the old days Apple would have continue to do small improvement to the Mac
and milk the hell out of it, until iPad overtakes it.
~~~
wodenokoto
> It is a funny situation, Apple wants most of the people to move to iPad, and
> leave the Mac for pro uses. That is a perfectly fine strategy excepts its
> execution has been rather poor by Apple's standard.
I agree with you on this, but not on the rest of your analysis.
> The iPad aren't anywhere near ready for business uses.
Didn't you just say that it was the mac that was for pro users? Business users
are the largest professional segment, by far.
I think this is where most pundits mess up. A pro computer is not a rendering
farm or a rack for software compilation. And rarely do you need to run several
virtual machines locally in order to code in an IDE.
A pro use case is someone who works on a machine all day. Compared to an
"amateur" machine, it has to stand up to more wear and tear and it can afford
to be "nicer" to use, because it is cheap compared to the monthly wages of the
professional user. Business class doesn't fly faster, it is just "nicer" to
sit in.
Apple's pro features have traditionally been heavily skewed towards usability.
10 years ago, "pro" was aluminium body and backlit keyboard. But now that
these features are common-place they are struggling to differentiate their pro
line-up.
But with that being said, I think Apple could use a little bit of Ballmers
"developers, developers, developers", as they don't offer anything for larger
businesses to use for rendering and compiling. Instead we have large app
developers cutting screens off MacBooks and racking them ...
~~~
ksec
>Business users are the largest professional segment, by far.
I disagree. Most business segments, by large majorities are ERP, CRM,
PowerPoints, Word Processing and Emails. Some spreadsheets and other fairly
light computational requirements. And trust many of these people may very well
work longer on the computer than what most "Pros" do. Staring long at the
computer doesn't make it pro usage. Very little in the business segment are in
the Pro category.
But business are very reluctant to changes.
~~~
wilsonnb3
Those people _are_ pros.
Anyone who uses a computer for their profession is a pro user, regardless of
whether they're making power points, sending emails, or developing software.
~~~
ksec
So all these "pros" will have to get a "pro" machine for Apple?
Macbook Pro, iMac Pro, iPad Pro?
------
Doctor_Fegg
Weird to cite “adventurous hackers who want to figure out how to fit a Mac
mini into their car“ as a target market, but not app or web development.
------
tonyedgecombe
My guess is there won't be separate Mac mini and Mac Pro lines but rather
something that covers both use cases.
~~~
robbyt
I agree, they hinted at a "modular Mac pro coming in 2019" and what's more
modular than a little macmini with an external GPU, external storage, and lots
of USB-c ports.
------
StudyAnimal
It’s basically for doing iOS app development. The other options are either too
weak or not cost effective. Higher end models are usually too expensive.
------
robbyt
I have a solution for Apple: that surely no one has thought of: spin off the
Mac into it's own company. They can keep their shareholders happy with
wonderful sales of the iPhone, and the pro users who rely on these computers
will have access to real pro gear.
~~~
stephenr
A good chunk of the appeal is the ecosystem.
Your solution works for shortsighted shareholders who don’t use the products
and basically no one else.
~~~
jrrrr
The ecosystem integration is valuable for personal computers, but I don't
think it matters so much for professional use.
Think it'd ever make sense to spin _that_ off? Just the pro market?
I guess then they wouldn't control the means to producing iOS apps, so
probably not.
Imagine a world in which ApplePro exists independently and isn't compromised
by AppleConsumer's priorities. Would we have waited so long for a MBP update?
Would the pro desktop ever be permitted to go years without an update? Would
thin & light still be prioritized over repairability and upgradability? Would
we have a touchbar?
------
gammatrigono
Will the Mac Mini Pro also be designed with insufficiently derated capacitors,
shitty ribbon cables that short out, crappy thermal dissipation structures,
and a shitty no-fix warranty just like every other post-2010 Apple product?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Twitter gets its 'million dollar homepage' scheme - fromedome
http://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-gets-its-million-dollar-homepage-scheme-2009-3
======
kbrower
$1 per tweet is a little cheap. $1 per character would be better
~~~
fromedome
Ha, yeah.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Was Paul Feyerabend Really Science's "Worst Enemy"? (2016) - commons-tragedy
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/was-philosopher-paul-feyerabend-really-science-s-worst-enemy/
======
osullivj
His insistence that there is no scientific method is pro-science. Science’s
only method is “opportunism,” he said. “You need a toolbox full of different
kinds of tools. Not only a hammer and pins and nothing else." This is what he
meant by his much-maligned phrase "anything goes" (and not, as is commonly
thought, that one scientific theory is as good as any other). Restricting
science to a particular methodology--such as Popper's falsification scheme or
Kuhn's “normal science”--would destroy it.
:s/science/software/g
~~~
jhbadger
Well, it's true that the cliched "scientific method" taught in high schools is
a gross oversimplification, and many discoveries are made by accident rather
than deliberately trying to test a clearly defined hypothesis. But in the
1980s-1990s "Science Wars", there was a movement by postmodernists to try to
claim that science is just an ideology no better than religion or magic. This
movement liked to quote Feyerabend and Kuhn regularly. That's why many working
scientists don't really have warm feelings towards philosophers of science in
general.
~~~
amatic
That sounds interesting. Do you have a recommendation for some reading
materials on those Science Wars?
~~~
jhbadger
I'd recommend Samir Okasha's "Philosophy of Science: A Very Short
Introduction" (one of those Oxford University Press "Very short introduction"
books that are only around 100 pages) as he has a short section on the Science
Wars, and then if you are interested in more, James Robert Brown's "Who Rules
in Science?: An Opinionated Guide to the Wars". Both Okasha and Brown are
philosophers of science themselves, and do cover both sides, but they are are
scientific realists in that they believe that scientific models do reflect to
some degree the reality of the universe.
------
jnwatson
Feyerabend's work reminds me a bit of Alvin Plantinga's.
As a young objectivist at university, I had the idealistic idea that if two
people could use logic and science to determine certain facts, they could
settle any disagreement, even moral ones.
However, science is built upon certain assumed first principles, like
causation and other minds sharing your reality. Plantinga argued that one
could start with additional first principles (he called "basic beliefs"), in
particular, belief in God.
In this way, two people might disagree without having any way to resolve
disagreements, because they don't share the same first principles.
Science does not have primacy here. It is just one of several ways to arrive
at knowledge.
~~~
ukj
Have you heard of Aumann’s agreement theorem? [1]
Consensus is possible, provided that the interlocutor have a shared goal and
maximize for information exchange.
Otherwise, the whole notion of discussing one’s “beliefs“ is philosophical
(non-empirical) nonsense. If I shut my mouth there is no way to empirically
determine whether “I believe in God or not”.
I don’t have beliefs - I have methods of various degrees of effectiveness that
get me what I want. To those ends knowledge is only instrumental. Which makes
me an unapologetic opportunist/pragmatist/instrumentalist.
To you it may be “knowledge” - that Earth is round, to me it is
inconsequential and immaterial even if I “believed“ (whatever that means)
Earth was triangular.
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aumann%27s_agreement_theorem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aumann%27s_agreement_theorem)
~~~
ordu
_> I don’t have beliefs - I have methods of various degrees of effectiveness
that get me what I want._
It is a self-contradictory claim. You believe in your methods. You believe
that your vision works by means of your methods, but how do you know this?
Take a look at a your hand, all your mind get from it is a bunch of "pixels"
from your retina, and by some means your mind construct a mental
representation named "hand". How your mind had learnt to do it? Did it use
bayesian learning or maybe it used some other mistaken method and your vision
fools you? Maybe in the basis of your bayesianism lays totally non-bayesian
vision? Maybe information about reality you have is not facts?
You fool yourself believing that you use bayesian reasoning. Mostly your mind
thinks for yourself by itself, all you can do is to get into your consiousness
some small part of reasoning and to check it with bayes. No one proved that it
is possible to build mind based on the bayesianism. Our computational
resources are weak for this. You cannot be a bayesian mind while you have no
ability to reflect all the reasoning of your mind, starting with individual
"pixels" from your retina as informational input and ending with claims like
"there is no God".
So you are believing that you are bayesian mind, and therefore Aumann's
theorem is applicable to you.
~~~
ukj
That's generally how all the Philosophy language-games work.
You claim that I've contradicted myself and then you go onto re-describe my
argument in your vocabulary. Ex falso sequitur quodlibet...
You are imposing your language/vocabulary onto me, rather than adopting mine,
while failing to realise that language itself is just another instrument. I
use it for communication.
Not only are you imposing your language onto me, you are trying to impose your
logic onto me also - failing to realise that logic is also just an instrument.
And in so far as you seem to care about contradictions - your dogma/religion
is the 'Law' of non-contradiction. It's a false God, a man-made authority.
Trivially side-stepped with either Dialetheism or Paraconsistent logic.
Do I contradict myself? Very well, then, I contradict myself; I am large -- I contain multitudes. --Walt Whitman
Bayesianism, Intuitioinism, Structuralism, Counter-factualism, Reflection,
Introspection, Self-reference, methodism, particularism (obviously the list is
incomplete) are just some of the tools (formal languages/models - used for
communicating with other humans, not to be mistaken for ontologies) in my
toolbox. How and when I might use any particular instrument is context-
dependent and is largely up to me. It's purposeful and intentional.
The rest of the time my mind does whatever it does all by itself - I can't
tell you what the autopilot 'believes'.
And I am not here to be persuaded (by you or anybody) that your way is better
than my way - I can change my mind all by myself if you give me the relevant
information. That's how I use introspection/reflection.
~~~
ordu
_> You are imposing your language/vocabulary onto me, rather than adopting
mine, while failing to realise that language itself is just another
instrument. I use it for communication._
You mentioned Aumann's theorem, so it seemed for me that you are bayesian
thinker.
_> Bayesianism, Intuitioinism, counter-factualism, methodism, particularism
(obviously the list is incomlete) are just some of the tools in my toolbox.
How and when I might use any particular instrument is up to me._
No, there comes another question: how you might claim that Aumann's theorem is
applicable to you, if you are not a strictly bayesian? Maybe logic is also
just a one tool of many, and can be rejected when you feel like that? Have you
formal rules to judge when some or other tool might be used or rejected? If
so, do you believe in this rules to work?
All I want to show, that you cannot reason without some beliefs you take as
granted. So your claim that you have no beliefs is false.
~~~
ukj
>You mentioned Aumann's theorem, so it seemed for me that you are bayesian
thinker.
As with all things in Logic/Formal languages - the conclusions are true IF you
accept the axioms. The CHOICE to accept (or reject) the axioms (read: play the
game according its set of normative rules) is up to you. It's cooperative game
theory.
Aumann's theorem applies to me in as much as my goal in any
conversation/interaction is to optimise for consensus-building - to this end,
I will happily abandon my language and adopt my interlocutors' (if they are
not comfortable doing so). If my interlocutors understand how 'the game' works
and are themselves comfortable using language
effectively/metaphorically/constructively/adaptively in real-time then there's
no need for compromise on my part.
It seems to me that you are playing a non-cooperative game. You are trying to
'be right. That signals to me that you aren't even playing by the same rules
as me.
So if you dislike the word 'methods' and you would much prefer me to use the
word 'beliefs' when talking to you - I will happily do that (after I've made
my point).
>All I want to show, that you cannot reason without some beliefs you take as
granted. So your claim that you have no beliefs is false.
Then it's false. So what? You seem like you belong to the Church of Truth
also...
All models are wrong, but some are useful --George Box
Since you are the one making positive claims about 'my beliefs', then (by the
rules I am guessing you subscribe to, but I don't) the burden of proof is on
you?
~~~
ordu
_> Aumann's theorem applies to me in as much as my goal in any
conversation/interaction is to optimise for consensus-building_
But Aumann's theorem is true for rationalists only. I checked wikipedia
artice, and seems that it is not just about bayesian rationality as I thought,
it is about any rationality. Why do you think, that you are rational agent?
All the psychology shows that people are irrational beings.
_> It seems to me that you are playing a non-cooperative game._ _> That
signals to me that you aren't even playing by the same rules as me._
Maybe I am. Why should I? What could I gain from being cooperative in this
particular case? What could I gain from following your rules?
_> You are trying to 'be right._
No, I'm trying to make a point. I'm not interested in the search for
consensus. I need no consensus. I made a point. You have a choice to
understand it or to not understand. You have a choice to agree or to disagree.
I'm interested in your understanding, but I'm not interested in your
agreement. Your disagreement is much more fun, it could be much more
educational for me. It is more educational for you also, though it is more
about your gain, then mine. An agreement is boring and useless.
_> So if you dislike the word 'methods'_
No, it is misunderstanding. I'm trying to say, that methods are also beliefs,
or they based on beliefs.
_> Then it's false. So what? You seem like you belong to the Church of Truth
also... > All models are wrong, but some are useful --George Box_
Of course all models are wrong, but some are useful. Moreover, our mind can
work only with models. Logic is one of such a models, it can simplify a lot of
cases by reducing them into true/false statements. Either you have beliefs or
you have not. Isn't it? Or your point that it is not so simple and dichotomy
cannot capture all relevant properties of the problem? Could you propose some
other model which we can use to speak about your beliefs that you take as
granted and do not question?
_> Since you are the one making positive claims about 'my beliefs', then (by
the rules I am guessing you subscribe to, but I don't) the burden of proof is
on you?_
I cannot prove that, because to prove I need to find an example of your
belief. It is a hard work by itself and it is more so, because English is not
my native language. But I can give you tools to find your beliefs which you
had not questioned yet. Dig your methods, they are themselves based on
assumptions.
------
Rochus
If a field of knowledge is associated with a person or group of persons
("Frankfurter Schule", "Wiener Kreis"), I am a priori sceptical. Genuine
scientific knowledge exists for itself and does not require authority and
sectarian admiration. Philosophy can produce more useful things (e.g.
knowledge representation, ontologies) than subjective individual opinions.
~~~
tokai
So how do you feel about Newtonian physics or algorithms? All knowledge is
social.
~~~
Rochus
Expressing opinions does not create new, reliable scientific knowledge.
Instead scientists observe, make claims, deduce the effects of their claims,
and then conduct experiments suited to possibly observe these effects. So it's
not just claiming. And the laws of physics exist by themselves, even when
there is no human society to discover and know them.
It's a different story how knowledge is passed on or accepted by society.
We know that the proof of authority is the weakest and most unreliable type of
evidence. But still the proof of authority dominates in practical everyday
life. We believe things because our parents or teachers tell us, even if we
had the possibility to check them ourselves from a scientific point of view.
But parents and teachers are not the source of knowledge, they are only
transmitters.
In the humanities ("Geisteswissenschaften", and similar disciplines) the
situation is different. Knowledge is rather believable and not falsifiable,
but only accepted on the authority of the person who uttered the sentence.
~~~
claudiawerner
>In the humanities ("Geisteswissenschaften", and similar disciplines) the
situation is different. Knowledge is rather believable and not falsifiable,
but only accepted on the authority of the person who uttered the sentence.
I'm curious if you have any evidence that this is a general trend. Your
original comment is also wrong; the "Frankfurt School", one of your examples,
does not ascribe particular authority to its members by virtue of being part
of the "school"[1] - rather, it denotes a particular tradition, very similar
to the way we use the term "school" in music. A school of thought[0]
specifically denotes a commitment to a particular method or set of principles,
not a commitment to certain personages. Although a school may take after one
person, it's not _because_ of the person but because of the content of their
thought.
Besides, the Frankfurt School never claimed to be carrying out science. Other
schools were, for instance, committed to certain ideas of science. These
philosophical schools are ontologically prior to science.
[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_of_thought](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_of_thought)
[1] Habermas is a "member" of the Frankfurt School of thought, yet he is
criticized by those inside and outside the school. This, at least, shows that
a school of thought is not a dogmatic adherence to a person or their ideas.
------
mmhsieh
No, but he was very much Lakatos-intolerant.
------
ukj
There may well be a method to “science” (whatever that is), or acquiring
knowledge in general.
Is just that we haven’t invented the ‘right’ language to describe the process
with.
Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer. Art is
everything else we do. —Donald Knuth
In as much as software development is theory-building and iterative
development is about hypothesis testing/experiment validation/reproduction -
it is scientific/empirical.
Beyond that ... We are forever stuck with theory, which is never a good enough
substitute for practice.
------
mxcrossb
That was a good read. I found this part:
> First of all the perceptual system cuts down this abundance or you couldn't
> survive." Religion, science, politics and philosophy represent our attempts
> to compress reality still further.
Very interesting to think about in the context of artificial intelligence.
------
ngcc_hk
You need an alternative view. He provided one. A good deal. Philosophy is
never about convenience.
The real question - is philosophy of science helped science or human. I am not
sure.
~~~
gmueckl
Philosophy of science is more helpful than people give it credit for. For
example, Ernst Mach basically laid a lot of groundwork for the General Theory
of Relativity with his philosophical work about the nature of physical
theories.
I have also personally had a couple of discussions with philosophers who
worked on understanding scientific simulation and trying to approach an
abstract, but accurate definition of its nature. Even just the attempt to do
that forced a lot of introspection onto the scientists they talked to about
their work. My takeaway was that these discussions uncovered a lot of implicit
assumptions that were unknowingly made. So even if the results the
philosophers wanted - a generic definition of what a scientific simulation is
- might not be very useful in themselves, the mere process of getting there
helped everybody develop a better understanding.
------
345218435
side note: feyerabend is a variation of the german word „feierabend“ which
consists of the two nouns „feier“ and „abend“, „party“ and „evening“
respectively. we use that word for „home time“ after the work day. i.e.
„feierabend! i’ll call it a day and go home“.
------
pjc50
> "I have no position!" he cried. "If you have a position, it is always
> something screwed down." He twisted an invisible screwdriver into the table.
> "I have opinions that I defend rather vigorously, and then I find out how
> silly they are, and I give them up!"
By modern social convention this is "trolling".
> If he was not anti-science, I asked, what did he mean by his statement in
> Who's Who that intellectuals are criminals? "I thought so for a long time,"
> Feyerabend said, "but last year I crossed it out, because there are lots of
> good intellectuals."
This was more or less the justification used in the Cultural Revolution or
"Year Zero" for murdering "intellectuals".
In the end he has a bunch of valid criticisms, but I suspect his overall
outlook is, like that of a lot of people, rooted in the trauma of his time. In
this case WW2, which was an extremely "scientific" war, containing both the
"race science" of the Nazis plus the development of weapons of mass
destruction and the use of scientific methods to maximise lethality.
~~~
vageli
> > "I have no position!" he cried. "If you have a position, it is always
> something screwed down." He twisted an invisible screwdriver into the table.
> "I have opinions that I defend rather vigorously, and then I find out how
> silly they are, and I give them up!"
> By modern social convention this is "trolling".
Can you expand on this? That hardly sounds like trolling and more like "Strong
opinions loosely held" which is an admirable intellectual stance to take in my
opinion.
~~~
mcguire
I like pjc50's answer, but here's an alternative take: it's a matter of
intention. Trolling involves making people angry because making them angry is
fun. It's not any kind of intellectual stance.
The alternative is a method of teaching or learning, where unpopular opinions
are as something between a counterfactual for exploration and the best way of
getting a question answered on the internet: by asserting a wrong answer.
"Strong opinions loosely held" requires the opinions to actually be loosely
held. You have to admit there are other options and you have to let go when
yours are shown to be silly.
On the other hand, keep in mind that intent is impossible to judge from the
outside.
------
iron0013
“Feyerabend, who defended astrology and creationism...” go ahead and stop
right there, that’s all anyone needs to know, frankly.
~~~
dang
" _Please don 't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A
good critical comment teaches us something._"
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)
~~~
lacker
Honestly I found this comment to be useful. Supporting astrology and
creationism is a pretty damning set of facts about someone.
~~~
dang
It's not a useful or interesting representation of Feyerabend.
The internet habit of reducing everything to its most sensational detail, and
cleansing it of all context, for damning purposes, is a bad one. It's what
that HN guideline is intended to cover.
~~~
QuesnayJr
There's a flipside, where certain writers get to be read with infinite
charity, while everyone else has to take their lumps. Feyerabend really did
make that argument -- it's right there in black-and-white in "Against Method".
But since he's an "important thinker", we have to read him with more care than
he wrote with.
"Against Method" is a fun book, and I enjoyed it when I read it back when the
stakes didn't seem so high. But he chose to write a fun book rather than a
serious one, and he can't complain when people take him seriously.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
There's more to HTML escaping than &, <, >, and " - jamesbritt
http://wonko.com/post/html-escaping
======
nbpoole
...except when there isn't. ;-)
PHP's htmlspecialchars function, which is called out specifically in this
post, is actually fine for most use-cases. If you write code like this:
<input type="text" name="foo" value="<?php echo htmlspecialchars($_GET['bar']) ?>" />
Then an attacker can't break out of the attribute (and consequently can't do
anything bad). htmlspecialchars also accepts a flag, ENT_QUOTES, which allows
it to sanitize values for single-quoted attributes properly. If you don't
surround an attribute's value at all, then you're still vulnerable: you also
have invalid HTML.
The real takeaway here can be found in the middle of the post: " _you must be
aware of the context in which you’re working with user input_."
~~~
wbond
Right, htmlspecialchars() works perfectly as long as you use it for an
attribute value surrounded by quotes, or if you escape a whole string. The
only way you can get into trouble is if you use it on an attribute value that
doesn't have quotes.
If you are using PHP and want to accept any user input that should be
interpreted as HTML, you basically need to be using
<http://htmlpurifier.org/>. If you are going to be accepting text input, clean
the input value to ensure proper character encoding is being used (important
for multi-byte encoding such as UTF-8) and then use htmlspecialchars(), and
make sure to specify your encoding as the third parameter.
// Specify your encoding to the browser
header('Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf8');
function get_escape($field) {
$value = iconv(
'UTF-8',
'UTF-8//IGNORE',
isset($_GET[$field]) ? $_GET[$field] : ''
);
return htmlspecialchars($value, ENT_COMPAT, 'UTF-8');
}
// Safely output text user input
echo '<html><body><p title="' . get_escape('title') . '">' . get_escape('content') . '</p></body></html>';
~~~
rll
That's actually not true, and htmlspecialchars() will automatically do the
UTF-8 validation for you as long as you have set your charset correctly. But
even if you do that, you are still vulnerable.
Inside on* handlers and style attributes, the rules are different. Take
something like this:
<?php $foo = htmlspecialchars($_GET['foo'], ENT_QUOTES);?> <a href=""
onmouseover="a='Fantas<?php echo $foo?>tic';">Mouse Over Me</a>
htmlspecialchars() does its job here. It turns a single quote into '
however, inside on* and style attributes the ' entity is treated as a raw
single quote. You need to double-escape in this particular case to be safe, or
better yet, don't use raw on* handlers and style attributes. There are much
cleaner ways to do those, but if you have to, don't ever put user data in them
because you will mess up the escaping.
You can try a live example here:
<http://talks.php.net/show/flux/14>
It is not possible to write a single generic html escaping function that will
work in all contexts. If it was, I would have written htmlspecialchars()
differently.
There are more examples of how you can mess up even if you always quote your
attributes if your escaping function isn't smart. The UTF-7 hack was
mentioned, which is good, but the invalid UTF-8 hack wasn't explained. That
is, if you send an invalid UTF-8 sequence, like %E0 then certain browsers
(well, just IE) will lose their minds unless you make sure you don't display
that invalid UTF-8 sequence back to the user. So htmlspecialchars() does more
than just escape the set of chars you mentioned, it also validates the
characters and makes sure it never outputs an invalid UTF-8 byte sequence.
0xE0 by itself is the first byte of a 3-byte UTF-8 char and IE will simply eat
the following 2 bytes to make up the char. So if you output: "<e0>"> even
though the byte is inside quotes, IE will eat the following "> and replace
those 3 bytes with the dreaded (?) char, but more disastrously it will think
it is still inside the quoted attribute so the next raw quote it sees will end
the attribute and you have yourself another quoted xss hole.
~~~
premchai21
> Inside on* handlers and style attributes, the rules are different.
That may be so, but I'm not sure I'd call that an “HTML” escaping problem per
se. An attribute always has an additional syntax, and you have to account for
the subsyntaxes of whatever attributes are in place—but those aren't at the
HTML layer proper, only implied by it. E.g., a's href attribute takes a URI.
onfoo attributes take JavaScript code. style attributes take CSS. So in order
to make HTML “safe” (FSVO “safe”) when it contains those attributes, you have
to make those values “safe” recursively according to their subsyntaxes—e.g.,
if you want to allow CSS with url(), then you have a URI inside CSS inside an
HTML attribute inside an HTML document inside (for instance) a UTF-8 string,
and you have to take all the layers into account.
It may be that a lot of people don't realize there's several potential layers
of syntax involved, think of it as a monolithic and simple thing, and then get
confused when it is not. Things like PHP htmlspecialchars can inadvertently
encourage this kind of inaccurate view.
(I'm not disagreeing with you exactly, just describing from a variant
perspective. A bit of redundancy in discussion can create an antialiasing-like
effect.)
~~~
Sizlak
Is this thread a parody of how no one should use PHP?
~~~
premchai21
That certainly wasn't my intention specifically. I mentioned htmlspecialchars
because it was the example being used upthread, but any API with analogous
functionality is potentially subject to similar provisos, and if any
surrounding cultural element encourages its use without thinking through the
syntax layers, it can have a similar effect. I assumed this was implicit.
------
hedgehog
When generating output for a browser what you're really doing is writing an
HTML serializer. Kind of tricky to do right by concatenating a bunch of
strings together. Some template systems (such as Genshi for Python) actually
parse the template as HTML or XML so they understand how to encode all of your
outputs correctly for their context.
~~~
wladimir
Indeed, if you're generating the HTML/XML stream as tokens instead of as plain
text, the context-sensitive quoting can be done automatically.
When I do have to generate HTML as text I usually go with escaping &<>"' and I
double quote all attribute values. Isn't this best practice?
Is there anyone using 's or (eek) unquoted HTML attributes at all?
~~~
nostrademons
We use unquoted attributes at Google sometimes. It's for bandwidth/latency-
saving reasons. They're usually limited to literal template text (i.e. class
names, width/height attributes, etc.) and not user-generated text.
------
DanBlake
Cant believe nowhere in the article is the tick/grave mentioned ( ` )
That bugger can really do some damage.
~~~
rgrove
I debated whether or not to mention this, and in the end decided I didn't want
an in-depth discussion of edge cases to overwhelm the basic message I was
trying to get across, which is that context is key.
As far as I know, ` is only an issue when using user input in innerHTML with
IE. Are there other situations where it can be harmful?
~~~
nbpoole
` can be used in place of single or double quotes around attribute values in
IE.
~~~
rgrove
My understanding (and I tested to confirm) is that IE only treats ` as an
attribute delimiter when it's assigned to an element's innerHTML value
dynamically. So this is important when working with client-side code, but not
so much when generating HTML on the server.
Am I wrong?
~~~
nbpoole
I just tried the following HTML:
<input type="text" value=`asdf` />
In IE, the input box contained the string asdf. In other browsers, it
contained the string `asdf`
~~~
rgrove
You're right. I was mistakenly testing only a limited case (described at
<http://html5sec.org/#59>). Thanks!
------
yuhong
Personally I’d just consider quoting attribute values to be best practice. And
BTW, escaping < and > is not even necessary if you are using quotes with HTML
attributes, unless you need compatibility with browsers prior to Netscape 2.
~~~
xentronium
> Personally I’d just consider quoting attribute values to be best practice.
> And BTW, escaping < and > is not even necessary if you are using quotes with
> HTML attributes, unless you need compatibility with browsers prior to
> Netscape 2.
<a href="...">Label with evil angle brackets</a><script>...
~~~
yuhong
Sorry, I forgot to say within attribute values.
~~~
rgrove
That's exactly the point of the blog post: it's all about context.
------
oconnore
<a href="/user/foo" onmouseover="alert(1)">foo" onmouseover="alert(1)</a>
I put this example into my browser and there was no attack. Replace the second
mouseover with alert(2) and it's clear that it is never parsed as javascript.
Am I missing something? [Edit: yes, I am missing something]
EDIT: Blerg! I misread it! Disregard!
~~~
JoachimSchipper
The first alert() should work - note that it's _not_ part of the template.
The second alert() is just garbage, of course.
------
Yxven
I was concerned about this because I wrote an open source python html white
list that escapes/eliminates everything that isn't on the white list, but it
sounds like my filter works as long as you quote attributes. I guess I need to
add a warning for that.
Will someone double check me?
<https://sourceforge.net/projects/htmlfilterfacto/files/>
~~~
JoachimSchipper
You'll want to check at least <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2525126>,
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2525181>.
~~~
Yxven
I'll fix it. Thank you.
------
leviathan
I can't find a use case for the example the article is working with. Who in
their right mind would take user input and put it in an HTML attribute?
If your system accepts 'foo" onmouseover="alert(1)' as a username, you've got
bigger problems.
~~~
pornel
> If your system accepts 'foo" onmouseover="alert(1)' as a username, you've
> got bigger problems.
Technically that shouldn't be a problem. I can put that in HTML, in URL, in
the database. I can even make directory with that name and use it in shell
scripts — as long as every one of them uses correct escaping.
Bobby Tables is welcome on my systems.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
What do you miss about your country? Food? Cosmetics? - torimo
As Japanese expats abroad, we wanted to find a simpler + more cost effective way to access the products we love.<p>That's why we launch Torimo https://torimo.io/<p>Torimo matches shoppers searching for locally unavailable products with travelers looking to earn some cash while traveling.<p>Torimo will find you a traveler who is going to the destination where the product can be purchased and can bring it to you for a reasonable price. The traveler on the other hand, can earn commission to cover flights, hotels, and all other expenses while enjoying the trip with less concern about the budget.<p>Please check it out!<p>https://torimo.io/
======
gus_massa
In the "Upcoming Trips" page it shows the destination of the trip but it
doesn't show the origin. It's weird because if someone buys something in
Mexico, s/he must give it to me and I'm in Argentina.
If I assume that you are restricting the service to USA, it can be a problem
if the traveler is from the East cost and the requester is in the West cost.
~~~
torimo
Thank you for your comment! At this point, we focus on New York, so all users
including travelers are New York residents and meetups to pick up the
requested items happen in New York. We mention it several places in the
platform, but it has to be more clear. Thank you for your feedback!
~~~
gus_massa
Focusing in a big city initially looks like a good idea.
In the list, there are travels in the past to NY. Does it mean that someone
from abroad went there with a package? Perhaps that line should show the
origin of the traveler.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Do you use G Keep and Evernote together in your note taking workflow? - rodolphoarruda
In fact, this is a problem that I have. I started using Evernote years ago for virtually everything, a true swiss knife. One day I learned about G Keep and decided to give it try. I loved it. So simple and lean, but powerful.<p>So now I have this personal organization, PKO, dilema in my life. I want to keep using both apps, but for the right thing.<p>Please share your thoughts, experience or advice. Thanks!
======
thrifter
I use both daily. I use G Keep for temporary notes of any kind, and Evernote
for posting on my blog (via Postach.io) and anything I'll want to keep long-
term.
So G Keep for short term, Evernote for long term.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
VICI.tv - Just turned YouTube into TV (just for fun) - ARolek
A buddy and I were playing with the YouTube chromeless player, Javascript API, and data API the last couple weeks and next thing you know we made essentially Pandora for Videos. Leveraging jQuery on the front end and a bunch of intelligent filtering, recommendation, and sequencing algorithms (to handle videos in parts 1 of 4, 2 of 4, etc.) on the back end we ended up with a pretty fun web app.<p>Try typing in a random topic (I dig Heli Skiing & High Stakes Poker) or your favorite musicians (Weezer, Miike Snow are both great) and sit back and enjoy.<p>Let me know what you guys think. - http://VICI.tv<p>Happy Halloween<p>Alexander
======
ARolek
Thanks everyone for the solid feedback! The feature requests and critiques are
invaluable. This was an alpha version we put together to see what type of
response we got before we started to develop additional features.
@Adrianwaj - I dig your favorites video idea. I'm going play with some
interface designs and see what I can come up with. You have a lot of great
suggestions here. I think we can incorporate most of them over time, but I
want to avoid having too many features and making the app too complicated for
the user. I do appreciate all the great ideas. Thanks!
@iwr - I was debating between wrapping the YouTube chromeless player in Flash
or JavaScript. To achieve a full screen button, I would need to wrap the
player in Flash, but overall I much prefer working in JS, especially with the
push towards HTML5 and CSS3. You bring up a great point about dual screens. I
think as HTML5 develops, so will a solution. As browsers continue to trend
towards being more minimalistic maybe a they will soon offer a JS full screen
mode.
@makuro - We have not developed the seek scrubber or volume control quite yet.
I wanted to see the overall response to the core application before I started
working on those additional features. I have designs for them though, so keep
an eye on us. ;-)
@iworkforthem - Thanks for the positive feedback! I would love to use this
interface to build out content channels for others. You bring up a really good
utility here. Using the Data API we could easily grab all the videos from a
certain user, and booya you have a custom channel. Ping me if you know anyone
who could use this. [email protected]
@Vantra - Someone else mention that thumbs up \ thumbs down idea too. We are
essentially doing that with the next button. We figured if you hit the next
button the video was not engaging enough for you to watch all the way through.
We capture that data and consider it when choosing videos for everyone. Our
back end crowdsources what videos are the most entertaining using the next
button and a few other pieces of critical data pumped through a some cool
ratio analysis and comparison algorithms. With this AI, VICI.tv will filter
though YouTube and deliver better and better content over time.
Again, thanks for all the comments and keep them coming. We will put in more
features based on what people suggest the most. Any questions, feel free to
find us on twitter (@VICItv) or drop us a line: [email protected].
Lastly, what channels are everyone's favorites? I saw so many awesome ones pop
up yesterday. A couple of my new favorites are Parkour and Chris Farley.
Alexander
~~~
shib71
On a side note - veni [email protected]? Well played.
------
iwr
If the youtube window loses focus while in fullscreen, for whatever reason, it
reverts back to small web size. This is a PITA for people with multi-monitors
who would want to use one screen as a webtv.
So far, workarounds involve hacking the assembly code of the particular
flashVM executable (won't work if you update). Another option is to use a
flash video downloader and just view your videos offline.
Focus-lockable fullscreen is a must-have feature of webtv.
~~~
makuro
While this is true, am I missing something? VICI.tv doesn't have a fullscreen
button. At most it just takes up 100% of the width of the browser window.
Unrelatedly, I am really enjoying this, but also am wondering if it was a
conscious design decision to remove the progress bar? Usually TV ends on the
00, 15, 30, 45 minute marks, but here it's hard to predict when the current
clip will end.
------
adrianwaj
Suggestions:
\- have a way to hide the left and right arrows on the screen.
\- have a way to favorite, or, view on youtube.com the actual clip
\- have a way to enter a username, then show their profile:
[http://code.google.com/apis/youtube/2.0/reference.html#User_...](http://code.google.com/apis/youtube/2.0/reference.html#User_profile_entry)
and then display the favorites of that user:
[http://code.google.com/apis/youtube/2.0/reference.html#User_...](http://code.google.com/apis/youtube/2.0/reference.html#User_favorites_feed)
their playlists (maybe subscriptions) too:
[http://code.google.com/apis/youtube/2.0/reference.html#Playl...](http://code.google.com/apis/youtube/2.0/reference.html#Playlists_Feeds)
[http://code.google.com/apis/youtube/2.0/reference.html#Subsc...](http://code.google.com/apis/youtube/2.0/reference.html#Subscriptions_Feed)
a way to switch over to their contacts:
[http://code.google.com/apis/youtube/2.0/reference.html#Conta...](http://code.google.com/apis/youtube/2.0/reference.html#Contacts_Feeds)
(check out <http://twitya.com> as my example of surfing usernames on twitter)
------
iworkforthem
I love it! I think you can make your own TV station here... Pick a niche
audience group, work with a selected few Directors/Gurus, brainstorm a few
good shows with these partner a year. You have a hit!
Leave some space in your website for advertisers or leave a few seconds in
your shows for advertiser.. Either way I think it is very possible here!
------
corin_
Looks great in terms of what you've achieved - however I should say that I
much prefer <http://www.youtube.com/leanback> (not that I'd personally use
either other than to see what they are, so my opinion is fairly pointless.)
------
vantran
This is great! I wanted to do something like this a while ago, and YouTube API
is powerful enough to build on top of, but never had time.
Why don't you have a quick Thumbs up / Thumbs down feature, so you can store
data of videos people like to use for recommendations?
------
olalonde
Clickable: <http://VICI.tv>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
What advertising can't fix - bdfh42
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/09/what-advertisin.html
======
DabAsteroid
First paragraph:
_If you spend more than a quarter of a billion dollars on an ad campaign for
a tech company, people will talk about it. If you give Jerry Seinfeld, the
most famous comedian ever, $10 million to be in a few of the commercials you
do, people will talk about it even more._
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
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