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Show HN: Mobcrush, an iOS sdk to stream your game to Twitch.tv, Hitbox.tv, etc. - jgh
http://www.mobcrush.com
======
Rizzo95
Looks cool. Just some feedback.. You should make your logo on your home page a
bright color with a black outline. It's hard to see.
------
jgh
You can download the binary for free from
[http://www.gum.co/mobcrush](http://www.gum.co/mobcrush)
| {
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Albatrosses counted from space - T-A
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-39797373
======
pvaldes
In fact is more like "albatrosses counted manually one to one on a satellite
image from some desktop on planet earth, that is a little less glamurous.
But is very interesting in any case.
------
rectangletangle
The technique presented in the article is very interesting, and it show's
promise for accurately surveying and conserving many species.
However I'm skeptical of this quote.
"Commercial fishing has depleted the stocks on which these seabirds also feed,
and the baited longline gear used by some vessels has an unpleasant knack for
attracting foragers and pulling them underwater where they drown."
From my several seasons of experience long-lining black cod off the California
coast, I suspect that albatross are a species which directly benefit from
commercial fishing (population wise). Black-footed albatross follow boats
around scavenging the deep water bycatch, these fish would otherwise be
physically inaccessible to them. These deep water fish are in a distinct
ecosystem, and only have indirect interaction via the transitive nature of the
food web.
Anecdotally, I've _never_ seen one get caught in gear. So I strongly suspect
physical danger from long-line gear has an insignificant impact on their
overall population. Since the birds are very common, and attracted to the
boats/bycatch, there would seem to be plenty of opportunity for the gear to
harm the birds. They appear intelligent enough to actively avoid the gear,
maintaining a close but safe proximity.
Now this isn't to say that there aren't any anthropogenic impacts on their
population. However, any impacts likely stem from other more diffuse human
activity (climate change). Also I can only speak for species endemic to
Californian/Alaskan water's, though I believe their behavior is probably
pretty universal.
~~~
emj
To hear someone talk about albatrosses from his local perspective is amazing.
That said you are using anecdotal observations from an area which is located
more than 10 000 km from the habitat of these Albatrosses. There is a recorded
history of deplating fish stocks around the world and how it effects fauna, so
I would say the statement in the article has a lot more to it than your
comment.
That said I know too little about albatrosses and fishing in the California
current, so for me your view on your local area is interesting, and I really
hope it's true because meeting albatrosses on the open sea is on my bucket
list.
------
jjwiseman
Reminds me of counting ships via satellite imagery:
[https://www.planet.com/pulse/experimenting-with-the-deep-
dat...](https://www.planet.com/pulse/experimenting-with-the-deep-data-stack-
ship-counting/)
------
wolf550e
[http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ibi.12482/full](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ibi.12482/full)
------
theprop
Wow...extraordinary the detail they can resolve to. Probably we'll all be
tracked in real time by AI bots analyzing real time satellite video feeds
soon...
------
tentacle_
A UAV launched from a nearby ship would have provided much better imagery.
------
asquabventured
I love your in depth analysis, thank you.
| {
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TodoMVC in Rust - dumindunuwan
http://tcr.github.io/rust-todomvc/
======
mattmanser
I appreciate it's to demo the capacity to compile Rust to js, but that's some
really nasty code.
[https://github.com/tcr/rust-
todomvc/blob/master/src/main.rs](https://github.com/tcr/rust-
todomvc/blob/master/src/main.rs)
Why put it all in the main? Why define functions as variables? Why
.parent().unwrap().parent().unwrap()?
~~~
steveklabnik
> Why define functions as variables?
I'm not sure what you mean here, exactly.
> Why .parent().unwrap().parent().unwrap()?
I'm not mega familiar with the code, but using a low-level binding to
something else that has nulls often means a lot of Option, which means a lot
of unwrapping. A nicer library could probably get rid of some of this.
~~~
valarauca1
>which means a lot of unwrapping
.unwrap()
In rust is generally a bad pattern to use. Its basically short hand for
let o :Option< u64 >;
let value :u64 = match o {
Some( t ) => t,
None => panic!()
};
So if you don't met the condition, you explode. When ever you see .unwrap() in
Rust just mentally switch it for / _TODO add error handling_ */
~~~
steveklabnik
Yeah, I was just using "unwrapping" as a more general term for "extract the T
out."
We almost changed 'unwrap' to 'assert', but people found it a bit too weird.
~~~
valarauca1
>We almost changed 'unwrap' to 'assert', but people found it a bit too weird.
That is weird. idk I guess its already sort of being done, you're more or less
asserting Option::Some( _ ) is the value.
------
tinco
Would be cool if there was some small web framework you could use so you could
avoid having your state in RC(RefCell)'s. Perhaps it's the Haskell guy in me
but I always try to make my code have zero RC or even RefCells. I'm also a
complete rust noobie, so perhaps that's not good practice at all :)
~~~
timcameronryan
I'd love to refactor this to not need RC's for DOM nodes. I'm new to Rust, but
I expect there's a ton of room for refactoring.
------
Reefersleep
What's the development process like for a Rust-in-the-browser project like
this? I mean, is it like; write some Rust - manually start a compile process -
wait a while - view result in browser - repeat? Are there nice tools? :)
I'm used to working with raw JavaScript, ClojureScript with Figwheel, and
Java/xhtml with JSF. Of the three, ClojureScript/Figwheel has given me the
smoothest process so far, though I know there are tools for autoreloading raw
js as well, just haven't gotten around to using them.
~~~
steveklabnik
The general workflow with Rust is
$ git clone <foo>
$ cd <foo>
$ cargo run
With something like this, you might want to also use
[https://github.com/passcod/cargo-watch](https://github.com/passcod/cargo-
watch) , which, after installing it, changes that last line to
$ cargo watch
and then it will recompile when you change a file, automatically.
I haven't been able to test that this project works exactly this way because
it looks like they're on an older nightly than I have on my machine, but it
looks like that's all you need.
~~~
brson
I will be amazed if true! Last time I looked at the emscripten-Rust stack it
was a tower of hacks and required a custom-hacked standard library. If that's
all abstracted behind cargo build scripts that's awesome, but we're still a
ways from having this be elegantly integrated into the Rust system.
It's going to improve rapidly though.
~~~
steveklabnik
I think it's gotten better due to recent LLVM changes in emscripten, last I
heard, but maybe maybe not. Can't wait until it's just trivial.
------
girvo
For something compiled with Emscripten, this was stupid quick to startup. Wow.
~~~
flohofwoe
I had to check and the generated .js file is 248kByte compressed, 787kByte
uncompressed. That's in the same ballpark as a comparable C++ demo, looking at
the code it is even a bit big (e.g. my emscripten demos here are between
100kByte and 500kbyte:
[http://floooh.github.io/oryol/](http://floooh.github.io/oryol/)).
There is some inherent size overhead because the linked parts of the C runtime
library and C++ std lib are part of the emscripten-generated JS (std::iostream
and printf seem to be the biggest offenders on the C++ and C side) while on
some native platforms this code lives in DLLs, but gzipped asm.js code itself
isn't bigger than its gzipped 'native equivalent' (usually within +/\- 10%).
It _is_ easy to created bloated code with emscripten, especially when using
C++ instead of C, but for the same reasons the code would also be bloated as
native executable (e.g. massive use of template and inline code).
------
aikah
Nice. Maybe that can be one good use case for the use of rust. Using it in
place of C++ for Emscripten. I wonder what are the other languages supported.
------
xiaoma
Where's the code?
~~~
the_mitsuhiko
[https://github.com/tcr/rust-todomvc](https://github.com/tcr/rust-todomvc)
------
mtgx
Looks fast.
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Apple tablet launch: live coverage - prat
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2010/jan/27/apple-tablet-launch-live-coverage
======
pasbesoin
I'm wondering whether there is provision for wireless keyboard and mouse. Last
week, a friend was asking whether they might substitute this for the Macbook
they are considering purchasing. Their overall computer use is pretty light
and Internet focused: Email, browsing, some light document editing (which
Google Docs or similar could handle). Having the form factor of a tablet,
without having to make two purchases, would be of use to them.
(My personal reaction to this approach was not entirely positive (e.g.
guaranteed access to data and security of same?), but I take their point.)
P.S. Or wired input accessories. Wireless just seems more intuitively in line
with the design and form factor.
Also, this was before the stronger rumors circulated about it hosting the
iPhone version of their OS, although I was speculating/suspecting about just
how locked up it would be. And without Flash (Gruber, et al.), its "general"
browsing and online document editing potential will be limited.
~~~
roc
My guess? No.
If the tablet supports keyboards, people will think of it as half a laptop.
The keyboard will be denigrated as an unofficially-required-but-not-included
peripheral. Everyone will get stuck on the usability annoyances of lugging
around a tablet with separated keyboard and 'how do you prop up the screen'.
(Chance of integrated kick-stand is around 0)
Further, devs will get keyboards and write software that assumes people have
them too, exacerbating the above.
A pen is iffy. I don't think Apple wants anyone thinking of the tablet as
another-pen-based-mistake. Not while finger-on-iPod is such a smashing UI
success. But the upside to a stylus is pretty huge (maybe they'll attempt to
re-brand it as something else; a 'brush' perhaps).
But I think physical keyboards are right out.
~~~
ugh
I think Apple may allow kayboards and mice but not right away. They might very
well wait two or three years to first "educate" everyone about how tablets are
supposed to work.
Just an example: I don't think it would harm the iPhone now if Apple started
to sell pens. It would have hurt the iPhone when it started.
~~~
roc
On the contrary, I think the longer the platform goes without kb/m, the less
relevant they become. At this point, with so many people so used to touch* and
typing emails on their iphones about as quickly as they did on their
blackberry, how many people in Apple's market would choose the hassle of a BT
chiclet keyboard?
(*the most common usability complaint I hear RE: Android, is apps that don't
expose functionality through on-screen UI, iphone-style, but via the 'menu'
button)
As for pens, Apple may be content to let third parties handle that. User
expectations don't get confused, but much of their power can still be
harnessed.
~~~
roc
For the record, I literally /facepalm'd when I saw the keyboard/dock.
------
paulsmith
Naïve question: is there a live video stream of the event?
~~~
GHFigs
There hasn't been in years. Usually a stream comes up within an hour after the
event ends.
~~~
ntoshev
Sounds like a promotional opportunity for Justin.tv.
~~~
mrduncan
It'd be a great opportunity for anyone doing video. I think the real reason
that they don't stream live is that the video quality usually isn't that
great. By releasing the videos later they can provide higher quality and give
it a more polished feel.
------
jsz0
Given Apple's track record I'm sure this will be a wonderful device but I
think pricing is going to be a big problem for them. I would expect an iPhone
2G style price drop by summer if the price tag is over $800 as rumored.
~~~
SwellJoe
The price issue, I think, is key. No one has mentioned, as far as I know, that
since the device is designed to be always-connected, it could be bundled with
a mobile contract (albeit a data-only plan), just like an iPhone, and thus
heavily subsidized by the carrier. While most of us know that a two year
contract is a really expensive way to get $300 knocked of the price of a
phone, it does allow for really amazing devices to have really amazing looking
prices, like $200 for the iPhone or $180 for the Nexus One. I suspect the
tablet could see a similar subsidized price (and similar lock-in to a single
carrier that made a deal with Apple, hoping for a knock out hit like the
iPhone has been for AT&T; they'll be disappointed, but the deal probably could
have been made).
------
allenbrunson
looks like the screen is four times the size of an iPhone. it can run iPhone
apps, either tiled or pixel-doubled to fullscreen. it is of course tied to the
App Store. there will be an emulator to develop for it, just like the iPhone.
the new SDK and emulator is supposedly available today.
the liveblog sites are too overloaded for me to get much more than that.
------
savrajsingh
I wonder if anyone is using qik.com to stream the event from their iPhone...
------
thras
From the Engadget leaked photos, it looks like it has both cellular
connectivity and a front video camera. Video calling, here we come.
Still, the more I find out about the device, the less interested I am. It
looks like it's just going to be a huge iPhone. Fun, but not _useful_. And
while I miss almost nothing about my previous smartphones before the iPhone, I
do miss the ability to be able to install whatever I wanted. Locked devices
foster an entirely different application ecosystem -- one that's not super
useful for programmers, I find.
~~~
anigbrowl
I'm with you. Although I feel sure (tr: believe without specific evidence)
that this will be a well-made device and cause even more people to throw money
in Apple's direction, and I like tablets a lot, I'd prefer something built
around a more open platform. I can live without the cellular connectivity.
Obviously Windows and Linux desktop metaphors are inappropriate for a device
of this size (the main reason they haven't taken off in this space
previously), but to my mind the front end is only a shell anyway, no?
This isn't meant to rain on Apple's parade, though. Rather, kudos to them for
pushing into new territory and bringing the future that extra step closer.
| {
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Discover a new book every time you open a new tab - tanto
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mojoreads/pohamgcdmijdenmcpikbgbmgkbngbaoa
======
vydyas
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mojoreads/pohamgcd...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mojoreads/pohamgcdmijdenmcpikbgbmgkbngbaoa)
| {
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Alt-f2 is your friend - da_coke_chef
http://digitaldiplomacy.tumblr.com/post/3230936606/alt-f2-provides-many-generic-functions-for
alt-f2 is your friend. try it!!!!
======
da_coke_chef
i honestly don't think enough people are using gtk or qt.
| {
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Assholes: A Probing Examination - zdw
https://www.nomachetejuggling.com/2019/06/03/dont-hire-assholes/
======
colechristensen
Hello, my name is Cole and I can be an asshole.
The definition posted of an asshole casts a very wide net making discussion
difficult.
Diversity is important and it isn't just about sex and skin color. People act
differently, people have different priorities, confidence varies, life
situations outside of work alters behavior as do medical conditions and
treatments. Different cultures even in this country value vastly different
behaviors.
Not everyone is perfect just how they are but everyone doesn't have to act the
same way to be acceptable.
Labeling, setting up dichotomies, and othering people can be a much more toxic
behavior than being an "asshole".
People with Asperger's or otherwise on the autism spectrum can be huge
"assholes" by the definitions here. Does autism make you unemployable?
Behavior issues in the workplace and out are much more nuanced than this.
It is _good_ to be pushed out of your comfort zone in both needing to develop
thicker skin AND showing empathy to others' sensibilities but within bounds.
Sorting people into bins: assholes and victims, is problematic.
When it comes down to it, not everyone must work well together. Just like
there is a wide diversity of people's dispositions there can be a wide variety
of team dispositions. Not fitting into a particular group doesn't have to make
a 'wrong' person, it can just mean the best fit is somewhere else. Become a
big enough organization and it is something you will have to face.
~~~
harryf
Oh and the other thing I didn't see anyone address is teaching "victims" the
right Ju-Jitsu for dealing with (intentional) assholes / bullying - the
mindset of don't let anyone make you a victim.
I had the "good fortune" of having an internship years ago with a tyrant. This
person loved publicly shaming the interns, among a whole bunch of other toxic
behaviour, continual needling etc. etc. Their life was a mess, marriage
falling apart and alcoholic but beating up the interns was this person's way
of boosting their ego up again. They were also a master of ducking and
deflecting any possible blame.
Being on the receiving end of this for a year, I was so upset and frustrated
that I vowed never to let it happen to me again.
After trying various strategies I found the most effective solution is very
simple: get a group of people laugh at the asshole, ideally as a direct
response to bullying from them in a group setting. Typically you only need to
pull that off once and they will leave you alone from that point on - most
bullys are cowards in the face of real resistance. Actually you don't even
need to be funny - you just need to do something that can't missed by the
group or the bully and creates awkwardness, e.g. a loud, slow clap in response
to their comment then if they quiz you on it, you just say "Just giving you a
round of applause"
I could write a lot more on this, and much of it would be easy to misinterpret
in today's PC culture so I won't but, in essence: don't fall into a victim
mindset - stand up for yourself.
~~~
dsr_
In 2010, Dieter Zapf and Claudia Gross took 149 victims of self-described
bullying at work and taught them various conflict resolution techniques and
studied the results. The effect? Victims tried various strategies and even
altered their strategies several times before realizing nothing worked. Many
resorted to frequently skipping work, but even more resorted to fighting back
with the same kind of behaviors. Eventually, most victims left the company.
\-- from the second section of the article.
~~~
harryf
Not refuting this but I just remembered something that inspired me way back
when I was an intern - the book of five rings -
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Five_Rings](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Five_Rings)
I guess the essence of what I got from it, was if someone is attacking you,
you want to observe how they’re doing it and what you think is driving them to
do it. The idea I got from the Book of Five Rings is that for any type of
attack there is a response that can stop the attack in a single strike. That
response varies depending on the attack. But that’s how I came to group
laughter being the “strike” that will usually stop the intentional asshole /
office bully type.
And yes that may sound like childish, school playground stuff but often the
reason someone behaves badly in an office hs it’s roots in their childhood
------
glangdale
This article is overly fixated on _overt_ assholery. Much of the worst asshole
behavior I've encountered has been done by people who are outwardly polite and
high functioning and have often never had a cross word for anyone.
I would much rather get a tersely worded group email (ooo) than have to do
someone else's job for them.
Let's be frank. The #1 asshole thing not mentioned here is (shouting and
swearing alert) NOT DOING YOUR FUCKING JOB. This is an immense source of
frustration for other people, whether because they have to do the person's job
for them, or because the person's failure to do their job creates disasters.
In many of the situations I've seen (or, frankly, participated in) where
someone is behaving somewhat like an asshole, the root of the situation is
that (a) someone isn't doing their actual job in a remotely competent way, (b)
that someone isn't doing anything to fix that situation and (c) management
doesn't know or care.
~~~
Udik
> the root of the situation is that (a) someone isn't doing their actual job
> in a remotely competent way
Not really. I've worked with several assholes. They were all extremely
assertive, and usually also very competent (but I've found also the utterly
incompetent ones). The problem is that even if they're right 95% of the time,
the 5% of the times they're wrong they force everybody along the wrong path,
because their purpose as work is not to get stuff done right, but to assert
their status. So talking them out of a bad idea is impossible, and they tend
to favour solutions that serve more the purpose of demonstrating their skill
than to get good results.
(As an aside, since assholery is widespread in software engineering, it is
legitimate to wonder how much of the so called "best practices" floating
around are just exercises in one-upping each other in a status game- "hey, you
write your tests first, but you should really write them first in this obscure
DSL that is being promoted by the creator of ... ")
~~~
tomp
Sounds like their bias is that they're right (regardless of ego), and if
they're right 95% of the time, I'd say that bias is pretty accurate...
~~~
Udik
HAL9000 had a pretty strong and justified bias about his being right too. It
didn't end very well. :)
------
klenwell
> Asshole behavior begets additional asshole behavior from others. Non-
> assholes are hardened into assholes over time to survive, and a spiral of
> incivility reigns.
I've been infected by this before. Never again. (I prefer to slap up so I
ended up getting shown the door.)
Before we go through a hiring round with my team nowadays, I like us to review
what I've seen approvingly referred to over on Metafilter as The Baboon
Article:
[https://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/13/science/no-time-for-
bulli...](https://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/13/science/no-time-for-bullies-
baboons-retool-their-culture.html)
~~~
sdrothrock
> I prefer to slap up so I ended up getting shown the door.
What does "slap up" mean?
~~~
klenwell
From the article:
> Slapping down people of lower status in the company hierarchy.
This would be the other direction.
------
stakhanov
To me, the definition of an asshole is slightly different. An asshole is
someone who acts out every social interaction on the principle of "dominate or
be dominated". It's the lack of a middle ground that makes an asshole, so that
people can't just go into an interaction being each other's peers, and also
finish the interaction with being each other's peers, having been nice and
respectful towards each other, preserved each other's individual freedoms, and
exchanged some information.
I agree that assholery has a tendency to spread, and the mechanism in my
observation is as follows: You can start out NOT being an asshole. When there
is an asshole for you to deal with, you'll realize "All of my interactions
with this person end up with this person dominating me." But you don't like
being dominated because that's natural (psychological reactance), and bad for
your career. So next time you interact with that person you know you have to
act on the principle of "dominate or be dominated", i.e. the asshole-
principle. Soon enough it becomes a habit, and you may inadvertently behave
towards non-assholes as an asshole as well, making you an asshole.
Another interesting corollary of this definition of asshole is this: If you
perceive a lot of assholes around you, maybe YOU are the asshole.
It also explains why you find more assholes as you go up the corporate ladder:
Being higher up means you get more opportunity for exhibiting domineering
behaviour without repercussions (namely towards your subordinates).
~~~
woodandsteel
>To me, the definition of an asshole is slightly different. An asshole is
someone who acts out every social interaction on the principle of "dominate or
be dominated".
Your definition is complementary to the author's. You are talking about
relational motivation, the author about the feelings that are evoked in the
person being dominated.
------
marksweston
> It may seem “unfair” to toy with the idea of losing the assholes,
> particularly the unintentional assholes. Since they “don’t know better” it
> seems almost cruel to let them go simply because they’re making everyone
> around them miserable, and it somehow feels like a smaller request to have
> 50 people tolerate one asshole’s behavior than to demand one asshole figure
> out how to not alienate everyone with whom they interact. Frankly, I think
> you’d be doing an asshole a favor by losing them, nothing is a better
> teacher than failure.
So…..
Once you have successfully labelled someone, you should actively fight any
tendency towards empathy with them. Don’t bother worrying about whether their
behaviour was intentional. Just kick them out. It’s for their own good.
At this point, I’m labelling the author an asshole.
~~~
Hasknewbie
Yes, this article felt like reading the rant of a scientologist about
'suppressive persons'...
~~~
DonHopkins
Your intolerance of religion has been noted, and will go on your permanent
record. ;)
------
jchw
I really love the euphemisms/double entendres/word play. It definitely makes
it more fun to read.
One thing I realize as I read this is that, I’ve definitely engaged in certain
‘asshole behaviors’ at times. It’s been a long challenge to become more
socially skilled and handle pressure/emotions better, but a lot of bad habits
linger, I think.
The worst habit of which is definitely complaining about coworkers to other
coworkers. Not in a hateful or personal way, but sometimes when I get
frustrated by something someone does, I vent to someone unrelated instead of
confronting the other person.
Another terrible habit that I had in the past was a tendency to respond while
still fuming, which never ends well; usually it ends in both sides of an
argument escalating while others grab the popcorn.
I hope I make enough effort to not be the kind of asshole that needs to be
flushed out of an org, but similarly hopefully it’s not just me that is
imperfect at the art of not being an asshole.
~~~
rodhilton
>Another terrible habit that I had in the past was a tendency to respond while
still fuming, which never ends well; usually it ends in both sides of an
argument escalating while others grab the popcorn.
Right there with you and I'm the asshole who wrote this post. I know I have a
tendency to want to strike back when I feel struck and I also have a tendency
to go way overboard, in that "don't throw the first punch but throw the last"
kind of way. Honestly I think everyone has asshole behaviors every now and
then, a true asshole doesn't know or doesn't care when they act like a prick.
The fact that this is something you're consciously aware of and working on I
think means you're fine.
One book I might recommend though is 'Nonviolent Communication' by Marshall
Rosenberg. It definitely feels a little hippy dippy at times and the skeptical
asshole in me occasionally rolls my eyes at it, but I think it's really helped
me understand some of my own communication tendencies and given me a lot of
tools to help curb my own shit.
~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
Haven't come across Marshall Rosenberg, will have to look him up when I get a
chance.
Have you come across Fred Kofman, he has this thing he calls _Verbal Aikido_ ,
check it out here
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6N9nvk8bvE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6N9nvk8bvE)
\- he also has some books that fall loosely in to the hippy dippy category
while still valuable in my opinion.
------
Razengan
At least 10 thousand years of civilization, and we are _still_ trying to
figure out each other and ourselves.
Why is "Don't be a dick" so hard to codify?
All these religions, ethics and philosophical systems, and all this
technology, convenience and comforts.. and we still have so much friction in
interacting with others of our own species.
The best solution we seem to have found is leaving each other alone.
I've come to believe that true maturity is the realization that everyone is
capable of feeling the same things you feel.
But most of us – me included – seem to have "Single Player Syndrome" where we
feel that we are the only person capable of feeling what we feel, and everyone
else is an NPC with diluted senses and processing capabilities.
~~~
julius_set
The major problem is we die, so if we didn’t die then yes those 10,000 years
of civilization would help because of the life experiences of the survivors,
So:
1.) Not everyone reads history books 2.) We die 3.) Social stats reset at
birth, pray you have parents who treat you and other people well
The only permanent solution is an evolution of our species where the asshole
gene is gone or a collective hive mind
~~~
Razengan
Some social improvements do propagate across generations.
For example, we no longer throw virgins into volcanoes.
On the other hand there are also regressions with pockets of civilization
reverting to outdated practices here and there, even now.
------
dreamcompiler
Excellent article. I hope managers read it. The toughest problem I've had
w.r.t. assholes was convincing managers that certain people were in fact
assholes and they were not essential to the company's survival. Assholes are
extremely good at kissing up and shitting down. And managers don't like to
hear they've been manipulated.
~~~
drtillberg
The a--hole royalty that I've encountered defeat every measure offered in this
article precisely because of the effectiveness of their kissing up and sh---
ing down strategy. Actively sabotaging literally every decent person they
encounter (because the other people don't share their 'culture'), turning
every item in their punchlist into a tool of political conquest where the
rules are: make your victims look bad by any means possible, and then the
kicker-- when they choose to turn on their social skills, expressing a highly
superior feeling of confidence and ability to persuasively blame _all the
other a--holes_ for their own tyrranical behavior.
No, when you get a royal a--hole into a large organization, I really don't
have much hope for average managers with typical business training to do
anything but watch.
------
DoreenMichele
_When you learn something from a non-asshole you walk away thankful for the
mentorship._
Sadly, it often doesn't work like that. Frequently, people just feel like
"Damn, I'm good!" and give zero credit to the person who was good to them.
------
paulfurley
Not sure exactly how but I’ve mostly avoided places where being an asshole is
acceptable. This could be to do with actively avoiding bro-fest type places,
looking for high-impact rather than high-pay kind of work, but I can’t really
take credit.
Separately, I’m quite shocked reading this HN thread seeing people defending
the behaviour the article describes. I suddenly feel like I don’t really know
the tech industry at all!
------
krumpet
What's ironic is...the only people I can think of that I've worked with over
the years who exhibit the signs called out in this piece were VP level or
higher.
~~~
Bakary
Being an asshole or having dark triad traits is often an adaptive and
successful behavior in the modern world.
------
fasteo
Offtopic.
Slang for "asshole" in Spanish is "capullo" or "gilipollas". Originally, these
words described a dumb,candid,innocent person, but nowadays they are used to
refer to "smart assholes".
"listillo" is another word for "smart asshole" that I like. Literally, it
means "little smart person". Diminutive of the word "listo" (smart)
"enterao" is yet another word for "smart asshole". It is a contraction of
"enterado", a person that knows about everything.
Sorry for the interlude.
(*) By the OP standard, I am an asshole.
~~~
nestorherre
That's in Spain's spanish, not in America's spanish.
------
keyle
This writer is brilliant, very tight article. I wish someone would write the
news this way, everyday. Life wouldn't be so dark...
Because after all, assholes are popping up in the news constantly.
~~~
rodhilton
Thanks!
------
Melchizedek
This post conflates two very different things:
1\. Benign lack of social skills (terse emails etc.). These people are not a
major problem in my experience, and are sometimes even under-appreciated
because they don't (successfully at least) sell themselves or play politics.
They don't really have bad intentions and can often improve their behavior.
2\. Narcissism (belittling others, must always be right, etc.) This is a
_huge_ problem that in severe cases can destroy an organization. Such people
are basically incurable because this is a deep seated psychological problem
(really a personality disorder) and nothing a manager can fix. You must get
rid of such people at all costs.
------
Iv
Unfortunately, we have plenty of examples of successful companies where toxic
behavior is rampant.
I agree that firing assholes improves a company's morale and environment, but
sadly there is little evidence that it actually help a company's business.
~~~
rodhilton
I linked to as much hard evidence as I could but I'll agree that it's a little
light. My hunch, just based on my own observation doing this for 20 years, is
that an asshole is like a black hole of productivity, draining it from
everyone else to such an extent that they're simply not worth having around,
and that no matter how Brilliant they are, the rest of the team can figure out
their areas of expertise with the morale boost they get after leaving (or
drastically changing their behavior, though sometimes the bridges are burned
too much for recovery).
Again this is mostly anecdotal, from what I've seen teams do when the Resident
Jerk was fired or left. I've never in my 20 years as a professional software
developer seen a single person leave a team and then see the team immediately
fall to pieces because that person really was the critical lynchpin that
people thought. I've seen lots of people stick around far, far too long
because folks (management usually) were WORRIED that's what was going to
happen, but it never actually seems to.
~~~
deanmoriarty
I have seen that a couple times, mostly in startups: a highly functioning
brilliant jerk was doing a pretty good job leading teams, but they had no
patience towards poor performers and that caused morale issues.
Eventually the person got managed out (not fired, just isolated from the
teams) and upper management thought the team would just eventually thrive
after some short loss of productivity, but that never happened: the poor
performers were put in front of the customer who commissioned the project
(role that was usually handled by the jerk, who was highly competent at that
due to their technical brilliance and assertive personality even with the
customer), and after a few round trips the customer smelled the incompetency
and literally said “we’re going to quit this project, we feel like there’s no
technical direction lately”. Massive loss for the company, in the 7 figures.
It almost caused the company to fail due to that being the largest customer at
that phase.
In those cases, the jerk did an amazing job at keeping a very productive
technical communication with the customer, and keep the high performers on
track towards what really needed to be done in those projects.
~~~
drtillberg
Part of the problem is an a--hole is surrounded by a zone of disaster and
chaos of their own creation, which makes them all the more indispensable. A--
holes do not groom successors, they burn competitors (which everyone else is).
------
ganzuul
Around these parts the term 'attitude disability' gets floated once in a
while. It doesn't translate very well... but the translation doesn't need the
negative connotation it has over here.
Nullifying a circle of tit-for-tat takes a lot of energy, and stable blood
sugar. Too much short carbs in prefab food is causing all of us all kinds of
damage.
------
kazinator
You know, maybe "asshole" is just a manifestation of "empowerment".
You give people a safe environment in which they feel free to voice what they
really think without fearing repercussions, and there you go.
~~~
rodhilton
I honestly think this kind of hits the nail on the head. The industry (in my
opinion) is far too tolerant of asshole behavior for many reasons, and it's
basically just created a safe place to be a jerk without any repercussion. I
largely wrote up what I did because I'd like to see this change, we should
treat rude and annoying behavior the way that most other industries do by
making it something we culturally don't accept. The same folks who realized
they could be jerks and it wouldn't hurt their careers will simply figure out
that now it will and knock it off.
------
appwiz
Also see "Brilliant Jerks in Engineering[1]" by Brendan Gregg.
[1] http://www.brendangregg.com/blog/2017-11-13/brilliant-jerks.html
~~~
kspp
Clickable link:
[http://www.brendangregg.com/blog/2017-11-13/brilliant-
jerks....](http://www.brendangregg.com/blog/2017-11-13/brilliant-jerks.html)
Saves one second per person, that's like a whole man-day across all the
readers.
------
sokoloff
I’m giggling more than I probably should at the well-chosen sub-headers in the
article.
~~~
keyle
Also "Picture unrelated" are unrelentingly cunning.
------
olgeni
I always get the impression that it's "technical assholes" vs. "wise managers
who should be brave enough to fire the assholes."
In practice: I see lots of assholes in management up to the director level,
and the CEO doesn't do anything because they just hired their friends. Then,
people just leave. Nobody cares because the issue of "tech assholes" is trendy
these days.
~~~
DFHippie
I think the issue of assholes winding up in management was covered.
------
deanmoriarty
I’ve been struggling a little bit with this myself, and while I don’t think
it’s been a massive problem for me (yet), I am aware of it.
I have a very assertive personality, which has done wonders for my career
despite my average technical competency. Managers love to hear from me because
I have (and have been told so) good communication skills, specifically the
ability to quickly summarize pros and cons of solutions, while keeping extreme
fairness in my technical judgements. On top of this, my “fearless” (asshole?)
personality makes me treat everyone in the hierarchy (including VPs and upper
management) as peers, and I have no problem arguing with them if I feel I have
a reasonable technical issue I care about and diverging opinions from theirs.
Most of my brilliant coworkers, much more technically talented than me, tend
to be more introvert and never “pick an argument with management”, which also
means they never get the visibility I get, which results in public praises,
financial incentives, and interesting work. I wonder if they perceive me as
asshole.
~~~
abyssin
I can find myself in your description. One thing I conscientiously do in the
hope of not being an asshole is using my assertiveness to publicly praise
those brilliant introvert coworkers that I feel deserve more recognition than
they get.
------
orpheline
I've dealt with my share through the years... the most problematic asshole I
encountered was definitely in the 'unintentional' mold: friendly, outgoing,
always willing to help others... So what made this person an asshole?
They WOULD NOT LET GO their solution to a problem. If the team agreed on
another approach, every planning meeting or conversation for the next month
got derailed to rehash why this persons' idea was the best, and why we should
change our decision. If we held to the original decision, this person would
call team meetings with PO and PM 'to help resolve the issue'.
This person didn't badger juniors. On the contrary, this person would have
side conversations with the most junior devs to get them 'onside', then come
to the senior devs with "the rest of us have been talking and we think the way
forward is X".
Caused a lot of divisiveness on our team before getting fired.
~~~
ordinaryperson
Yes, this is a better point than the one the OP was making: while everyone can
agree assholes are bad it's not always easy to spot them.
Similar to your experience: I had a colleague who was extremely negative.
Everything was horrible, every manager was stupid. Nothing was done right,
ever. We never worked on the right project and if we did we never did it the
right way, according to him.
I think he just valued his role as a contrarian: if everyone else was wrong
all the time it meant he was always right, that he knew better and more than
the rest of us.
I used to tell him if he hated things that he should suggest better ways of
doing things to management or, if all else fails, find a new role or new
company that would make him happier.
But he never did, he just liked complaining and/or making others miserable.
But he didn't walk around with a sign that said "asshole" \-- he could be
polite and friendly and well-adjusted during the normal course of a work day.
Then what do you do? Do you engage the person and argue with them? Ignore them
and hope the problem goes away? We all know toxic coworkers exist, the
question is how to change their behavior or deal with them effectively.
------
enriquto
This article builds on the premise that a few employees are assholes and none
of the managers are. In my experience, the reality is the exact opposite,
where all managers (especially those at the higher level) are assholes. In
that case, none of the considerations of the article seem to be useful. Yet,
it is a fun read, especially the "unrelated" pictures and the colorful
language.
I am surprised by this sentence:
> Formalizing social skills as part of the job description can help with this.
This kind of thing leads to a subtle but most damaging form of management
assholery, whereby employees are "invited" to participate in social gatherings
at expensive places, and are frowned upon if they don't participate.
~~~
HelloNurse
If a job description "formalizes social skills" I expect very distressing
interviews in which HR idiots are going to judge my personality and my values
and an oppressive environment in which, for instance, managers are going to
draw a line between disagreeing and having a bad attitude.
------
pnutjam
You can train people technically, but it's hard to unasshole someone.
~~~
jimmaswell
I dunno, seems easy enough to give a set of rules to follow in the workplace
but as someone who's worked as a college tutor, it can be hard to impossible
to get some people up to speed technically.
~~~
pnutjam
True, you can't train anyone, but whether someone is trainable and eager to
learn is usually apparent very quickly. It's not always something that comes
across in an interview, but usually.
------
runamok
The article rang true for me in that I am the asshole to some people but I
don't start out an asshole. I just get impatient after explaining or
documenting something 10 times and people ignoring it.
I still want to minimize that bad karma but just letting people be bad at
their job with no consequences doesn't seem good either.
------
ChrisMarshallNY
I deal with rather...prickly folks on a daily basis. Nothing like dealing with
folks that have multiple violent felonies on their record (and, to be fair,
many of them are now extremely decent people) to help develop your "people
skills."
I try not to be an asshole, myself, and do try to avoid contact with them,
where possible; but we don't always have the luxury of being able to pick
those with whom we must interact.
In my experience, I have found that I have a great deal more control over the
nature of my interactions than you would expect. If I am dealing with an
asshole, I can rather quickly figure out what kinds of things are likely to
exacerbate their issues, and avoid those behaviors. Doesn't let them off the
hook, but helps me to exert a bit of control over our relationship.
------
d--b
I work for a company where the CEO has specifically implemented a "no-asshole
strategy" from the start.
He too talked about the "asshole effect" that causes companies to fall apart.
Hire one asshole, and everybody eventually turns into an asshole. Results: the
company is only nice guys, and it feels so good. Sure we occasionally hire the
asshole. But they're rooted out fairly quickly.
How to keep assholes at bay:
1\. Stay small: Bringing the right people in is more important that shipping
that project faster. Fast growing companies all get the asshole disease and
then have to cut their arms off.
2\. Have a lot of people interview: I had 18 interviews for my job. The
company had 25 people.
~~~
wozmirek
Interesting bit about the 18 interviews. While your company sounds like
something really cool, I'd probably not go through all those interviews unless
a) they're brief and we move through them quickly (like, in <2 months tops),
b) I know about the process in advance so I can prepare and c) I'm paid for my
time, starting from after the screening interview.
Regarding c) - 18 interviews, each taking at least 30 minutes (screening would
be 15 on average but other would make up for it), that's roughly 9 full hours
of my very own time, if not more.
~~~
d--b
I had one quick phone screening, then 2-3 hours on Skype, then they flew me
over for a full day of interviews. the whole thing was less than a month.
~~~
wozmirek
Ah, so by 18 interviews you also meant e.g. 8 interviews during a full day?
For some reason I thought it was spaced out, like you had 18 calls :D
~~~
d--b
yes, I met almost everyone in the company over a single day. Some guys I
talked to several times.
------
t176
Firstly, what's the opposite of asshole. Is there a name for that?
Secondly, this: _> Really, you can’t afford to keep assholes around - it’s
better to have a hole in your team than an asshole._
That may not always be true. It may actually be better to have an asshole than
a teamhole, particularly if project delivery is dependent on the asshole. It
may be unpleasant but unavoidable - at least temporarily. It may also be a
financial issue and financial issues affect shareholders, and shareholders can
be assholes. You win some, you lose some.
The closing section made it all worth while. Probably the best 3 paragraphs
I've read all year.
------
giaour
The article's advice on making positivity an official part of a company's
culture is great! As is the mentorship/management strategy described for
fostering positive behavior in problem cases.
But firing an "unintentional asshole" over their lack of social skills seems
like an easy way to be on the receiving end of lawsuit, particularly if
terminated employee has a medical condition that explains the behavior in
whole or in part. Firing someone with autism over their lack of social skills
could land you in deep shit.
------
epynonymous
i strongly believe in a diverse workforce, especially in large companies,
diverse workforces often times mean better results especially since problems
today are even more complicated. having said that, i totally understand and
have seen some of the bad behaviors you mentioned like putting people down,
insulting others, this can be quite toxic. i'm not saying i condone any of
those types of behaviors because i certainly don't, but i think _asshole_
labeling can be quite arbitrary, e.g. someone that's terse and seemingly
abrasive may just be more direct/candid, is he/she an asshole? what i'm saying
is that bad behaviors should not be condoned, but these individuals definitely
have value to companies and can create beautiful work, and we shouldn't reject
them based on certain labeling because the labeling is quite frankly
discrimination and should equally not be tolerated. one person that
particularly stands out in my mind is linus torvalds. asshole? for sure, by
almost all counts of your definition of an asshole. given that he's improved
lately and has admitted his issues, but he's still an asshole by my books :)
would you want anyone else working on linux kernel which requires having a lot
of different contributors working in large teams, probably not.
------
tomatotomato37
My problem with this is that it assumes there's only a single isolated asshole
in the company and he exists in a social vacuum. It's much more common for
multiple assholes of varying degrees to exist somewhere, and being assholes
there's a very good chance they are not working together and instead are
engaged with each other in GoT-tier power struggles. If a firable asshole is
suppressing a worse unfirable asshole, do you still try to get rid of the
former?
------
sz4kerto
Asshole: people who you don't like. Every interaction with others should make
you feel good about yourself otherwise the other person is an asshole. You are
never an asshole by definition, of course. Maybe a victim, but asshole --
never. Diversity means having people around who think and behave the same way
as you do but have different hairdo or different thing between their legs.
Introverted or depressed people are assholes, needless to say. Again, the most
important thing for you to prioritize is your own good feelings about yourself
because everything that's non-assholey in the world is designed to make you
feel good.
<3
~~~
NoodleIncident
There is a straightforward list of specific behaviors early in the article.
None of it is defined by how anyone else feels; that's just the effect of
someone who engages in that asshole behavior on a regular basis. The next
comment down and probably half of the readers are trying to figure out if
they're the asshole themselves, so I don't know where you got the idea that
"you" are never the asshole.
(Sure is great how HN shows me this wonderful comment on top because it
happened to be posted 9 minutes before I loaded the comments)
~~~
Nasrudith
I can't help but regard some on the list with suspicion as being far more own
fragile ego driven than any actual assholishness. More "you made the sociopath
angry by not going along with his bullshit" ones which I see in the anti smart
"jerks" one.
Some of them are unconditionally valid of course but the list includes
questionable ones.
* Publicly calling out and blaming others
What if they actually are to blame or deserve to be called out? Putting it on
the never list is a bad idea but it should probably be a last or N to last
resort.
* Stirring shit and troublemaking
That is dangerously ambiguous as terms to include both in terms of what
qualifies as stirring shit. If it is actually trying to rile people up fine
but that exact phrase could be used for anyone who goes against the grain.
Trying to stop bad practices which /will/ lead to literal disaster because "we
have always done it that way" or reporting misconduct can also be called the
exact same thing.
Related cluster * Ignoring people trying to contribute * Dismissing the
opinions and ideas of others without discussion * Undermining someone’s
confidence for asking questions
There is one major problem with this sub-block. It never stops to ask if the
"victim" is themselves massively wrong and doesn't get the hint that they are
themselves negative in productivity and not even getting any learning out of
it. To be frank the case where they aren't ignorant or even inept but an
outright idiot who doesn't take a hint.
Like saying insisting the company should make their next car run on water and
doesn't listen to why that is thermodynamically impossible (it would actually
run on whatever substance it reacts with). While there are values to
considering alternative approaches and departure from conventional wisdom
willful ignorance isn't equal to actual expertise no matter how "polite" it
may be to treat as such.
This may be where the you are never the asshole perception really creeps in -
despite all of the talk about two way communications and feelings of others
that the other party may be in the wrong and not "the asshole". It can look
like every reference to the others is really just obfuscated grammar for
myself to make the writer sound less self centered and like they have more
support than theh really do.
~~~
C4stor
Yours is one of multiple comments defending "Publicly calling out and blaming
others" as a valid occasional behaviour.
In my experience, this has never produced any positive result for the
companies I worked for.
I don't mean people don't make mistakes, I mean that the punishment strategy
of blaming them don't seem to me to have any positive effect when used. Then
again, I'm not very experienced, so have you (or anyone else defending this)
had any positive experience with that ? (on either end of the interaction)
------
cheez
I .. thought I was an asshole. I am a saint... Good article!
~~~
aitchnyu
> Eyerolling, sighing, or otherwise negative body language... Tersely worded
> group e-mails that make people feel uncomfortable... Interrupting people who
> aren’t done talking...
I need a dash of these, but I will hate anybody using it all the time.
------
mbubb
There are assholes who are "constraints" (in the "Goal" or "Phoenix Project"
meaning of this word). The newer incarnation of the BOFH. How do you get
around this? This is a problem at the core of devops (as an idea not as the
pseudo position). Management should look at constraints to see where the
likely conditions for assholery are.
------
dboreham
"At least your number two priority"
------
saagarjha
If nothing else, I wonder how long it took the author to come up with those
section titles and “unrelated” pictures.
------
bawana
Is assholish-ness a sign of a good founder? Do incubators use this as a secret
criterion for admission? Ultimately can we write a word2vec implementation
that produces an ‘asshole score’ based on a personal essay or job description
as?
------
qrbLPHiKpiux
I have one RIGHT NOW that I'm working on trying to dismiss. SHE is such a
PITA. The way we're doing this to put it on paper is to do a "performance
improvement plan."
This, this, this needs to be done by this time.
If not, this will happen.
------
ochronus
MY. GOD. THE. WORDING.
'probing assholes'
'asshole examination'
'sniffing out assholes'
I hope it was intentional.
~~~
jotm
Of course it was, look at the pictures :D
It would've been a punnier article if the subject was different... Or if the
author wasn't wrong about half of the things (my subjective opinion).
------
mcs_
I'm an asshole. If you work form me, work come first, as is the most important
thing to me, after (and outside the office) your life, lifestyle and
everything that is important for you.
------
ChrisMarshallNY
Do you have a problem?
There is help. There is hope!
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1QFlgnN-7Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1QFlgnN-7Q)
------
alexandercrohde
I do think there is another side to this though. I think equally bad for the
organization are people who are entirely supportive of huge mistakes:
\- Encouraging people to try any technology they want in an important, tight-
deadline project
\- Telling people there's "No wrong way" to do things
\- Spending tons of time mentoring people who show little/no-motivation and
low rate-of-learning
\- Refusing to perform a root-cause-analysis because it might seem to
indirectly indicate blame
\- Inviting unknowledgeable people who talk to much to meetings above their
station for "inclusion"
\- Not correcting the spread of misinformation
------
Veen
If everyone who exhibits some of the qualities on this list is an asshole, I
don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who isn’t as asshole.
~~~
woodandsteel
What the author meant by the term asshole is someone who is consistently this
way, not just occasionally.
------
alexozer
Favorite quote from the article: "It's better to have a hole in your team than
an asshole."
------
eyeball
Hard to solve when asshole number one is the top person in the department.
~~~
signa11
vote with your feet ?
~~~
DonHopkins
Kick them in the ass?
------
tomerbd
some times its much more delicate to track:
1\. arrogance 2\. cynicism
its not always the case that the above 2 make an a __*e in most cases not but
sometimes yes without having the extreme qualities described in article.
------
sixtypoundhound
Naive. The author has no concept of how psychologically damaging these ideas
can be in the hands of a passive aggressive HR team. Put the genie back in the
bottle.
Values are good; they can rally a team. Feedback is good. What's missing is
that feedback is never a two way street; there is always part of the company
which is effectively immune from critique, by virtue of their position and
rank. And this is where the psychopaths gather.
Bullshit happens. Senior executives frequently re-write the corporate
narrative to justify developments. Sometimes this is for the greater good,
other times it merely pads their own situation. Nobody is incorruptible - when
you have people, you have bad actors.
Now lets look at how this is communicated.
As a society, we're pretty good at dealing with getting screwed over by
assholes. The interactions are mercifully short - most assholes have learned
to give the bad news and get offstage as quickly as possible. Some beer is
consumed, some words are said, and life goes on.
Most importantly: the recipient of the "dick move" is able to process and
recognize it for what it is, a self centered pile of shit inflicted by their
superiors.
There is minimal lasting damage.
Now these fuckers.... would use values to rationalize all significant events.
From the bully pulpit of their role in HR and senior leadership. With licence
to lie, omit, and otherwise distort facts to support their narrative. While
the employee was bound by an "integrity policy" and a "code of conduct" that
required "professionalism". Not that these are bad things, but when one side
can lie - and the other cannot call them on it... you're going to have a bad
day.
So basically - all of these "discussions" devolve into a fucked up version of
a therapy session where the other person really doesn't have your best
interests at heart. Where you are directly questioned and attacked on your
values and the degree to which they align with whatever your inquisitor
currently wants. And all of this deranged feedback is carefully calibrated to
operate at a very personal level - there's nothing wrong with us, all of this
is a function of your personal deficiencies.
I survived. Got a great job offer from an ex-boss. And left.
My kids and wife commented a month later: "Wow, Dad finally started smiling
again". Yeah. That bad. Literally fucked with my own perceptions of my self-
worth.
A lesser person would have been driven into therapy.
This is not how a workplace should operate.
~~~
dhimes
_A lesser person would have been driven into therapy._
Careful there.
~~~
astine
You seem to have taken this to mean that only weak or 'lesser' people go into
therapy, but I think it's pretty clear what the OP meant: That this sort of
institutional treatment is a sort of gaslighting. They convince you that
because of a simple personality difference that there must be something deeply
wrong with you and that you need therapy. The thing that makes someone
'lesser' in this instance is that they fail to recognize the gaslighting and
stand up for their own rights.
------
appwiz
The last paragraph is pure gold!
~~~
DonHopkins
He forgot to mention the important roll of a long paper trail for cleanly
wiping out assholes.
------
tomp
I'm pretty sure one or both of Elon Musk or Donald Trump (both exceptionally
successful individuals admired by many) would be judged as _massive assholes_
by almost any person. So I'm not sure "being an asshole" is really a good
reason to disqualify someone...
------
Lapsa
AFAIK people tend to exhibit such behavior to comfort themselves and feel safe
------
adnjoo
what if the a-hole is the boss?
------
jonathanstrange
I checked how this test fares in Academia my country (I won't mention its
name) and there seems to be a surprising number of assholes here. I'm even
suspecting that I might be one.
> Insulting or degrading individuals or groups
Every boss in my country does this from time to time. -1
> Joking and teasing to belittle others
My British colleagues do that, but otherwise it's rare. +1
> Tersely worded group e-mails that make people feel uncomfortable
I do that. -1
> Slapping down people of lower status in the company hierarchy
Everybody in my country seems to do that, I rarely found any exceptions. (I'm
a foreigner and where I come from this is frowned upon.) -1
> Eyerolling, sighing, or otherwise negative body language while others are
> speaking
Every boss in my country does that, even the nice ones! -1
> Ignoring people trying to contribute
Every boss does that if they don't want contributions at a time. -1
> Interrupting people who aren’t done talking
Extremely common. -1
> Touching or invading personal space
Normal for all people in my country. It's in Southern Europe. -1
> Threatening or intimidating confrontations
Many bosses do that where I live. I only dream of beating up annoying
colleagues. -1
> Publicly calling out and blaming others
Habitually done in my country of residence, unless by "others" you mean a
boss, then it's not done at all. -1
> Undermining someone’s confidence for asking questions
That one is rare. Especially the psychopathic narcissist are always happy to
answer questions. +1
> Gossiping about coworkers to other coworkers
Everybody I've ever met in Academia has done that. -1
> Cliquey behavior and exclusion
Everybody does that in every country and on every conference I've ever been.
-1
> Taking credit for the ideas or work of others
Our bosses love to do that. Some of them want their name to appear on books
they never even read, let alone written. -1
> Stirring shit and troublemaking
Sounds what I do when somebody really annoys me or is totally incompetent or
just a plain asshole. -1
> Singling people out for uncommon traits they have
Yep, everybody does that. We had a guy using unreadable powerpoint colors all
the time, wearing bizarre ties in an environment where nobody wears ties, and
generally suffering from Asperger so much that he sat down on the farthest
table from everyone else to have lunch at international conferences. I liked
him, but he was singled out for his behaviour. -1
> Dismissing the opinions and ideas of others without discussion
Everybody does that in our institute. X is dismissive of Y's work, Y is
dismissive of Z's work, and so on, until the full circle is reached. -1
Thinking about it, we could be a whole institute of assholes according to
these criteria.
That being said, I personally prefer to work together with a competent asshole
rather than with an incompetent nice guy. I'm fine with an arrogant colleague
if he has a reason for being arrogant, if there is something behind it.
(Admittedly, these people tend to be the least arrogant, but there are
exceptions.)
Nice incompetent fools in higher positions, on the other hand, infuriate me
more than anything else.
~~~
Dr_Dee
Once I had to call a Spanish academic about a payment to a software he wrote;
we needed that software badly so instead of exchanging email, we called the
'professor' and had a conversation. Never in my life did I ever experienced a
person who was so full of smugness and self-rightouness. So, I guess that
southern european country is Spain because I have heard stories from people
who worked there that Spanish can be quite a bunch of a@@holes. Is that right?
~~~
jonathanstrange
Portugal, so you're very close. IMHO, the cultures differ vastly between those
countries, but in that respect they might be the same. Social hierarchies are
a big thing here, one of the biggest downsides of an otherwise beautiful
country. (As a tourist, you'd never notice any of this.)
------
Data_Junkie
Author seems a little butt hurt.
------
true_tuna
It’s actually not hard to sniff out assholes. You just ask them about how they
resolved a recent conflict and picture yourself on the other side of the
story. We had a great net eng candidate who zero of the interview team said
they’d want to work with. Otherwise smart and capable, we gave him s hard
pass.
~~~
rodhilton
I mention a question really similar to that in the article itself and yeah, I
think that question and similar ones are probably the first tools we reach
for... but while I think those might suss out some obvious assholes, or
unintentional assholes, I think it's too easy for self-aware or intentional
assholes to answer "what they want to hear" and pass the question. I'm
definitely glad you sidestepped this for-sure asshole in your interview
process but I think the fact that _everyone_ on your team wanted to avoid him
or her kind of supports my "only the world's biggest assholes get weeded out
this way" theory.
That's why what I advocate for instead is to genuinely build a culture where
asshole behavior isn't tolerated, and then warn candidates that you've
successfully done this and take it seriously. Self-aware assholes will just
bullshit through these kinds of questions, but if you can truly impart how
seriously you take this sort of thing to them, they'll weed themselves out of
your process.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Asshole % - DiabloD3
http://clutchmagonline.com/2011/10/artist-takes-shots-at-beyonce-anderson-cooper-kim-k-with-occupyhollywood/
======
jeffool
Eh, really seems like a dick move by the artist. I don't begrudge someone
wanting a hefty share of the wealth they explicitly created (celebrities,
athletes, tech (b/m)illionaires) through their goods and services. It's more a
feeling of discontent with those who "got over", and exert undue political
pressure.
I think he could've chose better targets, or been more thoughtful with his
criticisms. I mean, why does Chaz Bono's sex change make him an asshole?
Also, I don't upvote because of a recent thread about the quality of the site.
Seems about as far off topic as you can get. But I comment because it is
interesting nonetheless.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
List of Samsung Devices Getting Android Nougat Update - thewise
http://thewise.in/samsung-device-getting-android-nougat-update/
======
StreakyCobra
I bought 3½ years ago the (quite expensive) Samsung Galaxy Note 3. I bought it
for three reasons: 1) It was a mainstream phone, so geek/hackers will buy and
use it; 2) It is possible to change the battery; and 3) It has good specs.
I couldn't be more happy with this choice today, as:
1) Thanks to some passionate people [1] who are spending their time to port
new Android versions to it, I already have Android Nougat on my phone, before
most other devices on the market. Quite impressive for a 3½ old phone to still
have geek/hackers working on it.
2) Thanks to the replaceable battery, I just got my phone a new youth. 48h of
uptime easily, up to 72h if I don't use it too much.
3) I paid the price for the specs back in the time, but 3½ years after this
phone run really smoothly without any noticeable slowness.
If I clean the screen, you will swear that this is a brand new phone: no marks
(even if I stopped using a case 1 year ago), a more recent Android version
than most of the phones sold today, a good battery life, running a smooth
interface without any glitches even on the most demanding apps/videos and
having all the features that are built in phone nowadays (NFC, IR, GPS,
Accelerometers, Compass, Camera, Sound, LEDs), you can even consider that it
has more than them thanks to the stylus and "wacom" screen that are just
amazing.
I think I love my phone, let's hope that will continue!
All this to say that even if your phone is not going to have the Nougat
update, if you are nerdy enough you can look on xda-developers to see if
someone has ported it to your phone, who knows?!
[1] [https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-
note-3/general/rom-c...](https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-
note-3/general/rom-cm14-1-christer12-unofficial-cm14-1-t3501138)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Anyone else notice the Microsoft touchscreen program CNN is using? - aerovistae
One of the CNN reporters is working with a large touchscreen display running what strikes me as a really well-designed piece of software.<p>He's been moving seamlessly between states, counties, simulations, counts, past and present results, all with just 1-3 touches. The number of options the software has displayed, all with very intuitive UX, has really impressed me.
======
mgliwka
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perceptive_Pixel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perceptive_Pixel)
[http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/11/04/magic.wall/](http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/11/04/magic.wall/)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=6&v=KiPMzz_rkIg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=6&v=KiPMzz_rkIg)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Republicans Introduce Legislation Redefining Pi as Exactly 3 - prs
http://www.marco.org/4030115737
======
Umalu
Very funny but, alas, not true. Similar to a famous prank described in snopes:
<http://www.snopes.com/religion/pi.asp>.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google Wallet moves to the cloud, opens up to all credit and debit cards - modeless
http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/01/google-wallet-moves-to-the-cloud-opens-up-to-all-credit-and-deb/
======
mpclark
There's a bit of sleight of hand going on here, in that it seems to be a
Mastercard prepaid card in the phone which just charges your transactions to
other cards you have on file with Google. So you don't pay the retailer with
Amex, you pay with MasterCard and the charge eventually lands on your Amex.
This makes it a bit like PayPal, but we already know that PayPal prefers to
draw money from your bank account rather than your credit card because it is
cheaper. It will be interesting to understand how the fees are structured
around all of this because it seems to me there could be 2x friction in
play...
~~~
ben1040
I wonder how this plays in with chargebacks & consumer protection from cards.
If Google's partner bank is a proxy between the merchant and, say, your Amex,
what happens if you need to invoke a chargeback? Does Google's partner get
involved and push back against Amex?
------
benologist
Summary spam stuffed and tagged with SEO spam.
[http://googlecommerce.blogspot.com/2012/08/use-any-credit-
or...](http://googlecommerce.blogspot.com/2012/08/use-any-credit-or-debit-
card-with.html)
~~~
jrockway
Ironically, I posted that link immediately after we posted the announcement
and it didn't get any traction. I think people like the editorialized versions
better, or something.
~~~
modeless
I think HN's policy of requiring the article title be used as the submission
title really hurts here. Blogspam reposts generally have snappier titles than
primary sources like company blogs (even to the point of outright lying in
many cases).
This is a hard problem that no social news site has solved. One idea would be
to allow users to connect stories to each other through some sort of
collective voting mechanism, so blogspam submissions could be linked to each
other and the primary source even after they hit the homepage.
~~~
benologist
I think HN could easily solve it - they don't need anything from these sites,
a moderator could just replace their URLs and it doesn't matter if the content
farms don't like it - it's not like digg and reddit where their widgets made
it some sort of (probably massively lopsided) traffic and link exchange.
~~~
malandrew
I am so in favor of this approach. If HN wants to maintain high quality, it
needs to make a commitment to primary sources and ban secondary sources.
Articles that are replies to articles should be fine, but articles that
summarize other others really have to go unless they (1) do a remarkable job
of shining like on the subject or (2) provide a novel viewpoint/opinion
amongst the summary.
We should call seo spam summaries "spummary" or "spammary".
------
jdelsman
For those of you who wonder why Starbucks and others continue to support their
own card apps instead of PayPass/Google Wallet: credit card fees. Starbucks
loads up $25 at a time, with a single $0.30 fee (or whatever they are
charged), rather than having to pay $0.30 per small $3 (iced coffee, for
example) transaction.
------
jsight
AFAIK, this still does not support phones which lack a secure element
(T-Mobile US, SGSII... probably others as well). Hopefully that will come in
another iteration or two.
~~~
ajross
Those phones don't have NFC anyway, which is a more realistic impediment. It's
NFC-based wallet that is the real innovation here. Online payments by
themselves are hardly new territory.
~~~
nuclear_eclipse
However, my Nexus S (on T-Mobile) does have the NFC chip and the Play Store is
still reporting it as being incompatible.
~~~
tonfa
Could you side-load it?
~~~
nuclear_eclipse
I'm planning to try. My wife's got a Galaxy Nexus on T-Mobile, so I'll install
it there and see what I can do with it. Now to get it away from her for 30
minutes...
------
nuclear_eclipse
Still being blocked for users on Verizon....
~~~
andrewpi
My friend with a Verizon Galaxy Nexus who had previously sideloaded the
Wallet.apk says that his Wallet application updated from the Play Store today
with the new features.
~~~
ben1040
There seems to be a loophole where if you have already sideloaded a version
originally downloaded form the Play Store (i.e. if you extracted the apk from
a rooted HSPA+ Nexus device), then you can get updates.
If you've not installed it, then the store won't let you have it.
------
batgaijin
Does this have anything to do with competing with Stripe as a payment system?
The article seems to focus on the mobile aspect, so I'd assume not, but
engadget focuses on consumer improvements.
------
eblume
When can I use my HTC One X as a replacement for my credit card? Call me when
that happens, until then I see this as just another PayPal.
Unless we're already there, but some short internet searches found nothing but
misleading blog post titles.
~~~
StavrosK
The One X has an NFC sensor, so it should work with Wallet. Doesn't it?
~~~
maratd
The international version does, after lots of hacking and side-loading. The
AT&T HTC One X does not. It is missing the secure element. As soon as Google
decides to take this seriously and make their software compatible with devices
whose names do not start with Nexus, then yeah, I'll be interested in this
too.
And it really is up to them. It shouldn't be any more difficult than hitting
install in the Google Play store. If I choose to buy an "insecure" phone,
that's up to me. Warn me, fine ... but don't make the software incompatible.
That's lame.
~~~
Cherian_Abraham
It's not that it is missing the Secure Element. Simply that Google does not
have access to the Master Keys for that Secure Element.
------
ars
They need to get WalMart, Target and some large grocery stores to gain
critical mass here.
~~~
kamechan
Works at Whole Foods and Peet's coffee.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Rllab – framework for developing and evaluating reinforcement learning algorithms - dementrock
https://github.com/rllab/rllab
======
florensacc
Comprehensive benchmark of the most important (and recent) algorithms in RL.
Extremely modular so that it's easy to implement your own algorithm and
straight-forwardly compare its performance in many different continuous
environments. I am a happy user of it!
------
tsukuyomi2044
Very detailed implementation of various methods in RL. Surprised by the work!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Seattle Should Demand High-Quality Rail - jseliger
http://seattletransitblog.com/2015/08/18/seattle-should-demand-high-quality-rail/
======
stephengillie
We had a mayoral candidate who was campaigning on this plan, but Seattle voted
for Ed Murray and his Highway 99 Tunnel project instead.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
LinkedIn can now use you name and picture in any of their advertisements - doh
https://plus.google.com/103833340718811445818/posts/jNna2Zabifx
======
johng
Mine was on by default, I had to opt out. But I also used it as an opportunity
to cancel my LinkedIn account.
I'm upset that they don't allow you to turn off all emails, only some of them.
I get spammed daily by them with no way to stop it.
LinkedIn is built off of spam from your friends and LinkedIn itself.
No more for me.
------
r00fus
I really like LinkedIn, I've used on both sides of the hiring table, and from
a social aspect it's stuff I'm interested in about my social connections.
Consequently, while this move concerns me (and I've opted myself out and
removed a lot of other "default" settings and "apps") I still find LinkedIn
useful enough to keep my account around.
------
sloak
For me this is off by default and I have to opt-in.
~~~
j_s
It is less bad because it is opt out (and the submission says 'can use', not
'will'); I won't say it's best. From the summary of the changes:
Section 2.K. Advertising and Endorsements on LinkedIn: We added this section
to explain that LinkedIn may use you profile picture and name in social
advertising shown to your network on LinkedIn. We also explain that social
advertising will contain information from you and your connections’
interaction with the LinkedIn site (such as when you recommend a product or
service on a company page, follow a company, etc.). We also point you to the
Setting where you can control the use of your profile information in
LinkedIn’s social advertising.
[http://www.linkedin.com/static?key=pop%2Fpop_privacy_policy_...](http://www.linkedin.com/static?key=pop%2Fpop_privacy_policy_summary)
------
joejohnson
Coincidentally, I deleted my LinkedIn account yesterday. Why do I need yet
another social network?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Will FTC's Intel Suit Hurt Silicon Valley? - alanthonyc
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/will-ftcs-intel-suit-hurt-silicon-valley-2009-12-18?reflink=MW_news_stmp
======
grellas
Antitrust law is famous for enabling the government to chase after pyrrhic
victories in the name of benefiting consumers. Competitors will cheer, of
course, because they get to see the big guy hammered in a way that might
benefit them competitively and that costs them nothing.
In the microprocessor field, during the years between 2000 and 2006 (when
Intel's alleged monopolistic practices supposedly hurt consumers), the quality
and performance of microprocessors improved significantly while prices fell at
an annual rate of 48.9%. So we have anti-competitive behavior that, far from
raising costs, has lowered them in a huge way - yet, and this is key for
antitrust purposes, at no time has Intel sold below cost (which places it
squarely within two decades of Supreme Court precedent consistently rejecting
antitrust challenges to above-cost price cuts).
In this context, the FTC seeks a remedy "[r]equiring Intel to make available
technology . . . to others, via licensing or other means, upon terms and
conditions as the Commission may order."
Now _that_ will certainly spur companies to spend hundreds of millions in
fields such as this to innovate.
Will this hurt Silicon Valley? Draw your own conclusions. The cheering
competitors will say no. My guess is that just about everyone else (at least
those who are informed about the issues) will seriously question whether
having regulators throwing their weight around helps innovation or the
consumers that benefit from such innovation. But at least we can all feel
satisfied that the bully is getting its comeuppance.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Time for the ‘teenage coding god’ meme to die - dsr12
http://positech.co.uk/cliffsblog/2017/01/21/time-for-the-teenage-coding-god-meme-to-die/
======
kevinwang
No, this article is baseless. Teenagers can be great coders, just like adults
can be.
Swartz:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz)
Tourist:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gennady_Korotkevich](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gennady_Korotkevich)
George Hotz:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Hotz](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Hotz)
And really, the "teenage coding god" meme is just a specific instantiation of
the concept of young prodigies. Terrence Tao, Mozart, Ramanujan, Bobby
Fischer. So the claim that teenagers can't be competent at their art because
of their youth seems silly.
~~~
dursk
For any meaningful discussion on this subject to take place, we have to first
specify what we mean by "great coders". The skillset required to win
programming competitions is very different than what it takes to build
maintainable & scalable production systems.
~~~
nilkn
Mathematics has a similar phenomenon. Not every great performer at the IMO
(and similar) becomes a great researcher, although overall they certainly do
better than the average. And even the most prodigious IMO performers rarely do
any meaningful research until after completing a PhD later in life.
Terence Tao is an example of someone extremely prodigious at math competitions
who also ended up being one of the world's best researchers. And he also
didn't really do meaningful research until after his PhD.
~~~
credit_guy
I think "better than the average" is an understatement. I think they do much,
much, much better than the average. While not very great IMO performer becomes
great researcher (example: a friend of mine with 2 gold medals who didn't
finish his Ph.D. because of mental illness), I think that most of them do
become good researchers, if they choose a career in research. Of course, many
go and join Wall Street or Sillicon Valley, so it's hard to say what their
potential could have been.
------
mrec
Carmack has commented on this piece: "I was making a dent at 19, but in 1990,
the game industry didn't have many graybeards. I wouldn't have been so
impressive at Bell Labs..."
------
tptacek
_Firstly, its much easier to break something than build it. You build software
with 100,000 lines of code and 1 line has a potential exploit? you did a good
job 99,999 times_
I found this article hard to read after getting to this point.
~~~
efraim
Why?
~~~
tptacek
Among other things, because "it's harder to build things than to break them"
is a hoary and largely discredit trope. And of course because the "got things
right 99,999 times" thing betrays a lack of understanding of how software
works.
~~~
lutusp
> Among other things, because "it's harder to build things than to break them"
> is a hoary and largely discredit trope.
The application of that argument in this context might be misguided, but it is
certainly true that it is much easier to destroy something than to build it in
the first place. The reason is entropy -- highly ordered systems are
particularly vulnerable to unraveling in the face of this natural law.
~~~
tptacek
That may be true in the abstract, but it is entirely false in the particulars.
Everybody can, for instance, design a cipher they can't themselves break; most
competent developers could, within a few weeks of self-directed training, add
a feature to Chrome. Try breaking Chrome.
~~~
lutusp
My point was a simple one -- entropy isn't a "hoary and largely discredit
trope." It's a very well-established principle, grounded in copious evidence.
> Try breaking Chrome.
Happens every day. Google must remain constantly vigilant for this possibility
and offers substantial monetary rewards to those able to break it:
[https://www.google.com/about/appsecurity/chrome-
rewards/](https://www.google.com/about/appsecurity/chrome-rewards/)
If breaking Chrome was a practical impossibility as you suggest, this program
wouldn't exist or pay out rewards. But that's false.
Source: [http://www.eweek.com/blogs/security-watch/google-
increases-b...](http://www.eweek.com/blogs/security-watch/google-increases-
bug-bounty-payouts.html)
Quote "Since that first set of bug bounties was paid in 2010, Google has paid
out over $1.25 million and fixed some 700 reported bugs."
------
djrogers
FTA: "Most coders look pretty boring. Most of us are pretty boring. "
Yeah, ok - so you just rebutted your entire thesis here. Why would writers,
directors, and producers want to have 'boring' characters in their movies and
shows? It's fiction. Entertainment. That's it.
Do you watch Brooklyn Nine Nine or Longmire and think "that must be exactly
what cops are like..."?
------
menssen
Apparently it is also preposterous for young-ish adult working-age women to be
good programmers.
(Mackenzie Davis, the "Halt and Catch Fire" photo, is in her late 20s, and
Alice Wetterling, the "Silicon Valley" photo, early 30s.)
------
zx2c4
"Firstly…lets get something straight., The ‘cleverest’ programmers are not
usually ‘hackers’. Firstly, its much easier to break something than build it.
You build software with 100,000 lines of code and 1 line has a potential
exploit? you did a good job 99,999 times, versus a hacker who finds that one
exploit. "
Having done a fair bit of both over the last two decades, I'm afraid I have to
disagree here...
Writing good solid code is a skill, gained with focus and experience.
Reversing, auditing, exploiting are also on their own difficult skills, gained
with focus and experience.
Saying one is "much easier" than the other is to entirely misunderstand either
building or hacking or both.
------
_raoulcousins
Has the author seen Silicon Valley? Alice Wetterlund's character isn't a
teenager.
------
golergka
If anything, Silicon Valley did actually subvert this meme.
------
leecarraher
it's the same trope as the "all people with autism are secret math geniuses",
"nerds lack social skills", etc. the ending of the abomination, "the big bang
theory" show will hopefully usher in at least some change... but unlikely,
hollywood hates prejudice, but somehow can't overcome stereotypes.
------
mmjaa
I was a teenager coding god. 30 years ago. Now I'm just a creepy old guy who
hangs out with teenagers.
------
iseanstevens
Carmack did a bunch of exceptional work by like 20/21 years old right?
Sometimes people are brilliant even when they are young.
Calling out Hollywood for exaggerating seems kind of silly, I thought that was
the point - creating interesting experiences that may be largely synthetic.
~~~
frostmatthew
> Carmack did a bunch of exceptional work by like 20/21 years old right?
According to Carmack himself[1]: "I was making a dent at 19, but in 1990, the
game industry didn't have many graybeards. I Wouldn't have been so impressive
at Bell Labs"
[1]
[https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/825718689458708480](https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/825718689458708480)
------
cLeEOGPw
Nobody wants to watch a show with mundane, uninspired, boring everyday
characters, that have nothing special about them. OP needs to learn about
tropes and character design before criticizing, because he clearly can see
only his point of view.
------
tomc1985
Half of his examples come from a time when computing was much younger, with an
underground absolutely _saturated_ by those types. Citing WarGames/Hackers
inadvertently argues against his point.
------
widforss
Isn't the kid in War Games rather nuanced? It was a while since i watched it,
but looking for passwords in a drawer and war dialing is not exactly highly
sophisticated h4x0r-skills.
~~~
onion2k
_looking for passwords in a drawer and war dialing is not exactly highly
sophisticated h4x0r-skills_
Some of the best hacks are simple things that work well.
------
shawndumas
Question, how good was a teenaged John Carmack?
~~~
ahipple
Given that he started publishing games before he was 20 and had produced
Commander Keen, Wolfenstein, and a couple of Dooms before he was 25, I'd guess
he was well on his way in his teens.
Not to say that success correlates with skills, I suppose, but he's fairly
well-regarded as an innovator from an early age. Odd choice of example from
the article's author.
------
bane
The "teenage coding god" archetype (not going to use meme on this), is one
that I think doesn't have enough thought put into how it formed and why it
exists. Early computing was very sober, very adult, work...principally because
the equipment was incredibly expensive and fragile and the people who ran it
tended to come from academic and government backgrounds.
[http://img.tfd.com/cde/_ENIAC.JPG](http://img.tfd.com/cde/_ENIAC.JPG)
The public knew about these computers, and their promise and the incredible
value they were providing to society, but didn't know much else. When mini-
computers came out, computing was still very much confined to corporate
offices and operated by working age to senior salaried workers.
[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/ESO_Hewl...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/ESO_Hewlett_Packard_2116_minicomputer.jpg)
But microcomputers (what we might call "personal computers" today) were the
first to enter homes. Use in business kept to the same general class of
employee, but at home, busy parents simply didn't have time to learn the
arcane commands and methods of operation. That had to fall to people with lots
and lots of time and the mental capacity to understand these early computers.
The perfect demographic for that were teenagers and college students.
[https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-
public/thumbnails/imag...](https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-
public/thumbnails/image/2015/01/23/03/5787367.jpg)
[https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-
public/styles/story_me...](https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-
public/styles/story_medium/public/thumbnails/image/2015/01/23/03/5787364.jpg)
Early personal computing is very much a reflection of these people, their
interests and their economic realities...it took the form of mostly games, but
also the formulation of the piracy scene, which begat the art movement known
as the demoscene, and many many hacking tools and techniques.
The early British microcomputer market was almost entirely made up of teenage
bedroom coders writing games for teenage bedroom consumers. It was only the
computer manufactuers and software publishers and their business relationships
that tended to have an average age older than 18.
It was also these "kids" who brought new ideas into computing. Advertisements
for what could be done with micros fixated on recipes, word processing,
personal finance and vague "education" statements...and that was pretty much
it. Would we have have of what we have today if all these teens hadn't shown
that there were so many more possibilities with these devices?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Features for a programming resource portal? - andrew_gardener
What features would you like to see for a website linking to outside resources for programming languages/frameworks/technologies/libraries?<p>I want to build a website to help programmers find relevant resources for beginner/advanced subjects or tutorials for languages/technologies/whatever. I've had this idea for a side project in my head for a while now and I think I've finally convinced myself its worth pursuing.<p>It'll mostly consist of a simple search + tagging system on links to other websites. The main thing I'm hopping to have to make it better than just googling is:<p>a) User rating system to help promote good resources and demote bad ones (think something like HN).<p>b) Focus on programming resources (so less crap links in results).<p>c) Some social aspects to add weight and opinion to resources.<p>The social aspects I'd like to add are comments on resource links and possibly forums for every top level category (languages, frameworks, etc) for QA and general discussion.<p>Does anyone have any ideas to add to the pot? I really interested in what what anyone has to say about this (criticisms included).
======
sharemywin
preferences/filter for language, platform etc. user request section for
content that doesn't exist. Be able to add code snippets. I would also build
landing page first to get some email addresses for members. No point in
building something out if people aren't gonig to use it.
~~~
andrew_gardener
Thanks for the advice and suggestions.
I'll likely just build a prototype and link it to HN for initial 'beta'
signups. I'm not really a fan of making landing pages to extract email
address. Its great for certain things but I don't think my side project really
needs one.
------
hershel
it seems pretty close to lobste.rs .
~~~
andrew_gardener
hummm, ya I guess that could be close to what I want to do. Thanks for the
heads up.
I'm planning to do stuff a little differently though (mostly visually. I don't
want to make a HN clone). The only other major difference is I want to
separate resource links from general discussion (just have them in different
tabs/sections or something).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Last.fm discontinues radio service in many countries - stingraycharles
http://www.last.fm/announcements/radio2013
======
stingraycharles
It's weird, last.fm used to be one of my favorite websites. But ever since CBS
acquired last.fm, improvements to the site seems to have stagnated. They made
radio a subscription-only service in many countries, and now will be
completely discontinued due to licensing issues.
It makes you wonder what the long-term vision for the site seems to be,
especially considering the competition.
~~~
runarb
Looks like we can add Last.fm to the list of companys that was neglected after
an acquisition. This seems to happen a lot when a fat and happy industry
leader buys a young an innovative startup.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Chris Sacca says sorry for harassing women entrepreneurs - dsr12
https://medium.com/@sacca/i-have-more-work-to-do-c775c5d56ca1
======
acjohnson55
Damn. I really hope to be this reflective in times when I realize I've been
wrong or done wrong. We fetishize people who strive for external greatness,
but what's much harder is figuring out how to work on being better people.
We're quick to forgive the clear failings of other people, because it also
lets us excuse ourselves.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Do you need help solving business problems with data? - trapezoid
My company is looking to better understand how businesses use data from disparate sources to inform decision-making. Do you have a business problem you've been wanting to solve with data, but haven't gotten around to? I'd love to work with you and help you through it.<p>I'm an MIT-trained engineer with a background in data analysis. I'm looking to work with a few people, for free, to get feedback and a better understanding of your process. If you're interested, email me: [email protected].
======
AznHisoka
Yes, there are many business problems I'd want to solve with data. For
instance, I'd love to know trending Twitter topics specific to a core group of
people interested in X.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Quick Snake – A fast-paced snake game for the terminal - gregstula
https://github.com/gregstula/quick-snake
======
gregstula
Hi, I decided to get back into C++ by making a project with a clear criteria.
This project uses some C++17 features like structured binding so a modern-ish
compiler is required.
This is my first Show HN post, so feedback and code review is more than
welcome!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A minimal blog engine written in Go, compatible with Ghost themes - Maksadbek
https://kabukky.github.io/journey/
======
Kabukks
Author of Journey here (thanks Maksadbek for posting it on HN). I'm going to
repost my comment from Reddit:
I've been working on this blog engine in my spare time for the last few
months. My blog has been running on it without hiccups for about a month now
(low volume, 700 visits a day tops).
I'd like some opinions if anyone has the time to try it out. (Worth pursuing?
Any ideas for features? Should I die in a fire because my code quality sucks?)
Thanks :)
~~~
zura
Regarding Golang's if-hell e.g. in
[https://github.com/kabukky/journey/blob/master/database/upda...](https://github.com/kabukky/journey/blob/master/database/update.go)
Couldn't you use panic/recover locally, inside functions - just for having a
single error handling code?
~~~
vardump
Explicit error recovery is not hell, it's a blessing. Much easier to
understand and to maintain than exception handling.
~~~
tomjakubowski
There is a third way. See Haskell's Either l r, or Rust's Result<T, E> types.
See [http://lucumr.pocoo.org/2014/10/16/on-error-
handling/](http://lucumr.pocoo.org/2014/10/16/on-error-handling/) and
[http://lucumr.pocoo.org/2014/11/6/error-handling-in-
rust/](http://lucumr.pocoo.org/2014/11/6/error-handling-in-rust/)
I don't know why so often, the immediate reaction to legitimate criticism of
this wart in Go is to argue against exceptions, even when nobody has even
brought up exceptions as an alternative.
~~~
vezzy-fnord
Option types are nice. The fourth way (and I think the best) is supervision
trees, though this is more applicable when you have multiple units of
execution... which Go does, so not having something similar out of the box
seems strange.
That said, even something as simple as errors being literal values that you
can pattern match on is surprisingly versatile. Exceptions don't necessarily
have to be awful weights that spill down all over the call stack, either. They
can be distilled to a more basic catch/throw mechanism for shuffling around
error properties and states.
~~~
threeseed
Personally I love option types but working on a large Scala project at the
moment it sometimes results in non ideal behaviour from developers especially
those coming from the Java world.
What I've seen a lot of is swallowing of errors. For example
readFromFile().orElse("") where there is no indication from an outsider that
anything wrong happened. A cool feature would be logging any instance of when
orElse was the result.
Would be curious how these work in other languages.
~~~
Jweb_Guru
The trick is to make it very ergonomic to return the error. I thought Scala
had do notation to make this the case. In Rust, the try! macro (which returns
on error) is shorter than almost any other way to handle an error, so people
usually use that.
------
_mpu
Are people serious when they say they "love the idea" of copying a binary to
their server to run a blog service? It sounds very much like installing a
shareware in the 90s.
In the current context (NSA, generalized spying, ...), I hope that everybody
realizes it's not an ideal way to distribute software.
Please provide cryptographic signatures or at least sha sums, if you really
think this is the best way to distribute software.
~~~
Kabukks
I agree that one shouldn't copy just any binary on their server and run it.
I'd like to help with this. Are you just thinking about providing SHA sums
next to the binaries/zip releases on the download page? What kind of
cryptographic signatures do you have in mind?
Regarding Journey:
You can always compile from source. Go makes that easy, dependencies on GitHub
will be downloaded automatically.
If you trust my builds, the releases page on GitHub is served via HTTPS, so no
one should be tinkering with the binary on the way from the server to you.
~~~
_mpu
In your case, PGP would be the best and not so hard to implement.
If you don't want/know how to use PGP you can also publish the SHA1 sums of
the files available on your download page. It's better than nothing.
The second alternative is weaker because an attacker would simply need to
change the binary and the sum on the website. In the PGP case, the attacker
must get access to your PGP private key, and provided that you use PGP
reasonably (no private key on your web server), this is harder.
------
nodesocket
We run our blog on Ghost ([http://blog.commando.io](http://blog.commando.io)),
and honestly not sure there is much wrong with the node.js implementation. It
can handle insane traffic, gzip, expires headers already supported. You are
correct, it does not support https, but you could either run nginx in front,
or modify the source code a bit.
I do love the idea of just copying a single binary (thanks go) to any server
and running Journey. Is Journey's editing/writing interface up to snuff with
ghost? Support for tags, SEO metadata, full markdown support, image upload?
~~~
Kabukks
There is definitely nothing wrong with Ghost and node.js. I've used it for
some time now and I still love it :)
Two major points drove me while developing Journey: I wanted to learn (more)
about Go (the bigger point here). And I wanted something that I could just
drag and drop on any server to quickly create a temporary blog or micro site
without setting up dependencies like nginx or node.
~~~
nodesocket
Absolutely. I applaud the effort and enthusiasm to learn go. Go is awesome. My
concerns are just feature parity for users wanting a blogging platform to run
in production. You'll need rss feed, sitemaps, tags, SEO metadata, etc.
------
fiatjaf
About theme compatibility between CMSes of all kinds, I wrote a post at
[http://fiatjaf.alhur.es/programming/reusable-pure-css-
themes...](http://fiatjaf.alhur.es/programming/reusable-pure-css-themes/)
And I have a initial implementation of the thing I envisioned at
[http://fiatjaf.alhur.es/classless/showcase/](http://fiatjaf.alhur.es/classless/showcase/)
------
Rapzid
Hi, this is really cool.. I'll admit to having never heard of or used Ghost,
but I applaud the effort of building this to learn a new language. There is
also a hidden value many people underestimate in having a project that is
quite similar to others but in a different language.
I'm really curious about your Lua integration. I had also not previously heard
of gopher-lua. How has your experience with this been?
~~~
Kabukks
Using GopherLua is a pleasant experience. Easily integrated and surprisingly
fast. But the documentation is lacking.
If you use it in a web server that executes Lua with requests, take a look at
the LState pool pattern[1].
[1] [https://github.com/yuin/gopher-lua#the-lstate-pool-
pattern](https://github.com/yuin/gopher-lua#the-lstate-pool-pattern)
------
davis_m
Why would you not name it Goul?
~~~
Kabukks
Oh my god. I'm deeply ashamed now. /thread
------
bootload
Excellent read, going through the source code this afternoon. How did you work
the theme compatibility with Ghost: api?
__Worth pursuing? __
Yes, can you make money on it? maybe depending on demand. There 's always a
market for well designed tools, especially if you could make it, _' the key
tool'_ to create and prototype themes.
~~~
Kabukks
I pretty much just reverse-engineered the Ghost helpers using the theme
documentation. Take a look at
[https://github.com/kabukky/journey/blob/master/templates/hel...](https://github.com/kabukky/journey/blob/master/templates/helperfunctions.go)
for all helpers that are implemented yet.
I'm not looking to make money off it. It is tempting to expand the
functionality into a full CMS, but that should be a task for a fork.
------
Immortalin
I am really hoping for a good CMS in Go, I am currently using Drupal but the
overhead sometimes is really huge.
------
karmakaze
Source looks well factored to plug in alternate markups. Markdown is great,
but sometimes too limiting.
------
unicornporn
Does it need a database? I see no such information. But, the Github project
says
> high priority goals are support of MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Google App Engine.
~~~
Kabukks
It uses SQLite internally. One Database file at
journey/content/data/journey.db
I'm working on being able to just drag and drop a Ghost db in there and
loading that one. Only the timestamps need to be converted for that to work.
~~~
unicornporn
Cool. Even cooler: it would create static HTML files. I've been searching for
a software like this for long. Jekyll only works on computers I've installed
it on. I want an admin interface, but no db and static output. Only thing I've
found is [http://prose.io](http://prose.io)
------
relaxitup
Looks cool. Tried on Alpine Linux and no worky:
jb:~/web/journey_blog$ sh journey
journey: line 1: ELF4LS�4: not found
journey: line 10: syntax error: unexpected word
and using bash:
jb:~/web/journey_blog$ bash journey
journey: journey: cannot execute binary file
jb:~/web/journey_blog$ ls -ahls journey
11716 -rwxr-xr-x 1 jbrown jbrown 11.4M Apr 28 21:25 journey
~~~
Kabukks
Thanks for trying it! I would guess this is because I build the linux releases
with gnu libc. See here: [http://www.blang.io/2015/04/19/golang-alpine-build-
golang-bi...](http://www.blang.io/2015/04/19/golang-alpine-build-golang-
binaries-for-alpine-linux.html)
You can also try compiling from source (see the Journey Wiki on GitHub for
instructions).
------
srameshc
Something I through I would do to learn Go. Thanks it will be a little easy
learning :)
------
guybrushT
this is very well made. i was hoping to make something like it - but way
(way!) more minimal. here is the first draft -
[http://adombic.appspot.com](http://adombic.appspot.com)
------
Vecrios
Dang, this was next on my side projects ideas. Looks good though.
You looking for contributes?
~~~
Kabukks
Pull requests are very much welcome. :) Here's my high priority feature list
right now:
Gzip support, hashes for serving static assets (and/or expires headers),
multi-user support, support for all of the Ghost theme helpers, MySQL,
Postgres, and Google App Engine support.
------
melted
A template for getting on the front page:
"X that no one uses, now written in Go"
~~~
vitaut
I'd say more: "X that noone uses, now written in language Y that noone uses".
~~~
kid0m4n
Upvoted for inaccuracy!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Should scientists consider health care careers - prabhjotsingh
http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2013_04_05/caredit.a1300064
======
prabhjotsingh
One of the hardest parts of applying technology solutions in healthcare is
finding providers willing to iterate with you. Hardest for enterprise level
innovations, for obvious reasons. Article made me think about the power of
someone with a CS background entering every/any part of the healthcare
ecosystem (nurse, PA, doc, admin, community health etc...). Every place health
system I've worked in favors "one of their own" leading innovation over
someone with greater expertise from outside. Storm the castle from inside &
out?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Call Someone Who Cares - andrewmwatson
http://www.call-someone-who-cares.com/
======
ookblah
"There is nobody that cares" hahahahaha. I feel sad now.
------
anthonyb
The idea's coming from the right place, but it looks like a serious troll
magnet to me...
~~~
joeyespo
This might be a good example of where karma can be useful.
Karma for listeners: Highly upvoted accounts can take precedence to talking to
newcomers; they've proved that they can listen well, giving new callers a good
experience. This will encouraging them to come back or even to sign up as a
listener by following the good listener's example.
Karma for callers: If they ever call again, they will be able to talk with
newer listeners. Perhaps you need to have enough karma to even _be_ a
listener. Why? Listening is a more important quality for the site to be
successful. Starting out as a caller lets allows you to follow the top
listeners by example, while keeping the trolls away from other callers.
Also, a low enough score can block the account for an X amount of time. Where
X increases each time they get blocked. And I think more karma = more weight
on your vote could help with regulation. Mostly because voting will take place
much less often than on other social sites.
This is an awesome idea though, I hope it catches on.
~~~
intended
I would love it to catch on, but there are massive social/legal/moral issues
with it.
Eg 1- someone going through a depressive phase hits up with a troll (ref: case
where someone was in a chat room, streaming a video of himself just before he
committed suicide, people in the chat room egged him on)
Eg 2- Someone is suffering a depressive/manic episode, but turns to this and
is not directed to medical help immediately OR someone has an issue which
would require them to go to a professional, but the listener is not
trained/aware and hence can't give them critical advice
Eg 3- Young adult who has had a traumatic day turns to this service, gets put
in touch with someone who has strong beliefs. (or even mild ones)
Eg 4- High Karma person is taping calls of people talking to them
~~~
joeyespo
Yes, I do agree that there will be some edge cases with moral and legal
issues. For everyone else with something on their minds, most of the time you
just need to talk it out with another human being. It's the emotional side of
their problems that they need help with. They shouldn't really be looking for
advice here.
Kind of like AirBnB (for example) needing to have both parties be trustworthy,
this will also require an element of trust. In the sense of confidentiality
and compassion.
Just because the problems aren't immediately solvable doesn't mean we should
avoid it though. We should instead try different things. Maybe on different
sites or throughout the evolution of this one. But ultimately test to see what
keeps the abusers away and also avoids the social/legal/moral issues.
------
rokhayakebe
Let me sign up and give an hour (of my choosing) block per week to listen to
someone else. I would do it for karma.
~~~
epanastasi
Thanks for the feedback! Right now the app is pretty barebones. I can see what
I can do to hack together a better user / presence system when I get some
time.
------
neoveller
"There is nobody that cares. Maybe you should be that somebody."
Okay. Waiting for someone to call... ... ...
This is the most inefficient way to rickroll anyone ever
------
JayNeely
You should consider teaming up with <http://compassionpit.com/>
------
agilo
As the Reader's Digest once put it (according to Dale Carnegie): "Many persons
call a doctor when all they want is an audience". This could save people if
done well.
------
badhairday
I can't give Twilio access to my microphone on Lion with the latest stable
version of Chrome. So no, I can't really someone someone who cares.
~~~
johns
<http://www.twilio.com/help/lion-tamer>
~~~
tftfmacedo
[Honest question] By doing that aren't you allowing any app that uses the
Twilio API to open your mic/camera without permission?
------
ADiMichele
Good work! I've had some cool ideas for Twilio projects but so far the pricing
has made them all impractical. The Twilio Client is really opening some doors
in this respect, being 1/4 the cost of a phone call and a cool feature to
boot!
I still hope you have some throttling in place though because 1000 concurrent
users will cost you $150/hr...
------
dmor
Go Frank!
~~~
epanastasi
Thanks! It was just a fun little idea I implemented when I should have been
doing real work. :)
------
known
<http://www.airbnb.com/> \+ <http://www.call-someone-who-cares.com/> is better
~~~
johnx123-up
For down voters, please refer top story
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2811080>
------
frytaz
There is nobody that cares :)
------
suyash
nice idea...(chat roulette - video)!
~~~
daten
This reminds me of anicechat.net but it looks like it uses sound?
------
ericdschmidt
Bravo!
------
zackattack
Hey, I run CompassionPit.com and have built up a sizable, stable community....
(40,000-200,000 unique visitors/month). I would be very happy to collaborate
with a like-minded individual. The app is on the node.js stack and I've funded
development and hosting entirely. I've released the source for free.
<https://github.com/zackster/CompassionPit--Node-/>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Are there any Thunderbolt3 or USB 3.1 docks? - exabrial
Are there any _actual_ Thunderbolt3 or USB3.1 docks that work? Amazon is littered with USB 3.0 docks that have a USB-C connector, but can't do full gig-speed network transfers while dual monitors are attached.<p>Has anyone found an _actual_ thunderbolt3 or USB 3.1 dock that delivers full gigabit network speed while also supporting dual monitors (1080p is fine)? Thank you!
======
PatentlyDC123
I think the CalDigit TS3 Plus Thunderbolt 3 Dock would work for you. CalDigit
has another, cheaper, Thunderbolt3 dock as well. Hope this helps!
~~~
exabrial
Any personal experience with the TS3? Curious how it works "in practice"
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Developers, how do you automate your email workflows? - tusharsoni
I am working on a project that involves me sending emails to check-in with the users to make sure they have everything they need. This is in addition to sending engagement emails few times a year. To make life a little bit easier, I have been researching email automation tools like Drip, Mailchimp etc. While these tools are great, they are fairly expensive for my usage and have way too many features.<p>For now, I was able to solve my problem by writing a custom solution that sends bulk emails using AWS SES. However, this got me wondering what a productized email automation tool for developers would look like?<p>So, if you are a developer working on small projects, what are your email automation needs? How do you solve them today?
======
soared
I’ve used Zapier for a lot of my low-volume email automation needs. You can
have your email list on google sheets with dates for triggering a message,
have a google doc email template with variables filled by the data in your
sheet.
Probably doesn’t scale super well and mildly prone to breaking, but free and
straightforward. Also easy to combine with google forms as well.
------
robk
Cloudmailin for all incoming then a fairly sophisticated parser app I wrote
just using expressjs to put things into crm or tickets or forward as needed to
the right folks.
~~~
tvbuzz
Just recently found Cloudmailin - love their product
------
TheFullstackGuy
A lot of developers love to “build over buy”, but I think HubSpot would be a
great solution to this use case. All of the features you want are available
under the free tier
------
jmercouris
You can use GNUs and Emacs to easily automate your emailing solutions without
needing to write much at all.
~~~
xyzwave
As an Emacs user looking to do this, can you expand on the workflows you’ve
built?
~~~
jmercouris
Basically you can sort things in GNUS based on some rules. You can also
perform any arbitrary lisp based on some rules. So you simply add some regex,
check the body of the message, and then perform whatever actions you want by
either depositing the messages in a queue, or just directly doing those
operations.
Sorry if that was vague, there isn't much to really say about it. I'm afraid I
have no helpful pointers/tips to give.
~~~
jimmyvalmer
Gnus is a thin veneer over raw elisp -- it's a framework like any other with
mail objects and "best practices" ways of manipulating them. You'd need to be
a green belt in elisp to "Gnus" a workflow. It's only a few steps away from
building it from scratch in perl or python.
~~~
jmercouris
You are mostly correct. Elisp does however provide many functions for dealing
with/sorting text not available on other platforms.
------
ecesena
Check out Sendy: [https://sendy.co](https://sendy.co)
~~~
tusharsoni
I saw Sendy and the product seems solid, although a little dated. I wonder if
a more modern, hosted competitor to Sendy would be appealing to enough users.
I especially like their non-subscription based pricing model. I would opt for
something on the lines of per-campaign pricing.
~~~
JonoBB
[https://sendportal.io](https://sendportal.io) is a more modern alternative to
Sendy.
(Disclaimer: I'm part of the dev team).
~~~
topicseed
Interesting product. Does your product handle follow-up email series (e.g.
Woodpecker/Mailshake)? And drip campaigns?
~~~
JonoBB
Drip campaigns are coming soon!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
XKCD forums breached – 562k accounts - rahuldottech
https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2019/09/03/xkcd-forums-breached/
======
ahazred8ta
We refer you to [https://xkcd.com/1656/#now-it-
begins](https://xkcd.com/1656/#now-it-begins)
and [https://xkcd.com/1022/#so-it-has-come-to-this](https://xkcd.com/1022/#so-
it-has-come-to-this)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Fraught Cold War History of Novichok - tomohawk
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/novichok-has-long-overshadowed-moscow-washington-relations-a-1204481.html
======
sbmthakur
The page asked me to disable my Adblocker even when I am not using one.
Moreover, the notice was in German.
~~~
Yetanfou
Run uBlock origin in 'advanced' mode, block all third-party content, scripts
and frames. You'll get the article in a usable state without all the problems
caused by the zillion of third-party 'services' it tries to load. Even the
comments work, for which I think Der Spiegel should be commended as these
usually suffer first when running a strict blocker.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Asimov's Foundation - thallukrish
https://medium.com/@thallukrish/asimovs-foundation-39a79fc03545
======
eesmith
> Why would I bang my head on obscure stuff if my next meal or a decent living
> is assured to me ?
What sort of view is this?
We know that many people do exactly that.
Darwin was a self-funded "gentleman scientist", as were many other scientists
of his era. (See
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_scientist.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_scientist.))
Why did Darwin work on obscure stuff like insect pollination when a decent
living was assured to him?
Why does Elon Musk work on "obscure stuff" like rocket science, when he has no
need to work for the rest of his entire life?
On less grandiose levels, I know people who would spend their time doing FOSS
if they had a basic income, instead of making a living developing commercial
proprietary software.
We also know some lottery winners will continue to work - because _most people
like to be engaged in productive activities_.
> Because science fiction is the opposite of history, it is a wild painting of
> the future. And you find that human race wherever they are, whether they are
> confined to this tiny planet or spread across the Milky way in the future,
> they never change.
I don't think that's the right view of SF. SF authors rarely paint about the
future. They paint about the present day in a different and often futuristic
context. And they write for what their readership knows.
Asimov's future humans are mid-20th century Americans ... in space.
But even then, Asimov's humans _do change_. The Earth culture of the Caves of
Steel are different than the Spacer culture.
As an even more direct counter-example, the Gaia project in Foundation and
Earth is a deliberate attempt to make a different type of human. From
[https://asimov.fandom.com/wiki/Gaia](https://asimov.fandom.com/wiki/Gaia)
"the human beings on Gaia, under robotic guidance, not only evolved their
ability to form an ongoing group consciousness, but also extended this
consciousness to the fauna and flora of the planet itself, even including
inanimate matter. As a result the entire planet became a super-organism."
If that's not change, I don't know what is.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How come some group of hacker Uber drivers hasn’t disintermediated Uber? - abrax3141
The Uber (etc) drivers could be paying themselves instead of the owners investors if someone were just to write an open source gig manager and apply everywhere.
======
BoorishBears
Because there's way more to Uber than an app.
There's so many facets I don't know where to start
\- Background Checks
\- Payment Infrastructure
\- Insurance, and not some off-the-shelf insurance, complicated messy layers
insurance
\- UX
\- Expensive marketing and subsidies (which is what creates trust in brand so
we all feel comfortable hopping into cars with strangers)
\- Local laws (even if they break a lot of them, they do still follow some)
There's an open source Uber-like platform:
[https://libretaxi.org/](https://libretaxi.org/)
But making an Uber app is easy, making an Uber platform is expensive.
~~~
abrax3141
A union of drivers could easily do all that.
~~~
greenyoda
1\. If it's so easy, why hasn't anyone done it yet? I've seen this idea
mentioned on HN dozens of times already.
2\. Even if you could set this up, you'd still be competing against Uber,
which is a name everyone knows already and which can afford to burn billions
of dollars a year to grow their business. They could temporarily lower their
rates or driver's fees in the area that you operate in and quickly put you out
of business, since they can afford to lose money much longer than you can. The
same drivers who'd use this app will still be driving for Uber and Lyft
(they'll go wherever the money and customers are).
------
troydavis
> could be paying themselves instead of the owners investors
Uber isn’t “paying the owners [sic] investors,” it’s (still) consuming huge
amounts of their capital. From [https://investor.uber.com/news-
events/news/press-release-det...](https://investor.uber.com/news-
events/news/press-release-details/2019/Uber-Announces-Results-for-Third-
Quarter-2019/default.aspx) :
“As such, we are improving our full year Adjusted EBITDA guidance by $250
million to a loss of $2.8-2.9 billion”
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Bill Gates Comments On iPad - kloncks
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/bronstein/detail?blogid=47&entry_id=61674
======
proee
FYI, this is the only content in the article related to iPad.
"You once said Steve Jobs could see the next big thing. Do you like the iPad?"
It's okay. The scenarios aren't that clear. But it's good looking. [Steve
Jobs] does good design, and [the iPad] is absolutely a good example of that.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Yet another service providing hosted memcached instances for Linode customers - JshWright
http://alittletothewright.com/index.php/2010/09/memcached-instances-on-the-linode-lan/
======
JshWright
So I didn't really expect my service to be "yet another," but ritonlajoie
seems to have beaten me to the punch by a little bit
(<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1727045>). If anyone was interested in
ritonlajoie's service, but has a 'node in Newark rather than Dallas, feel free
to check out my service.
~~~
photon_off
Wow, only a 4 hour difference in two people launching nearly the same thing.
Pretty neat.
------
petervandijck
Here's what I want: someone to offer memcached as a service on aws. I only pay
for memory used. I can set a maximum of memory. I don't have to setup/admin
the memcached server. It can cost a little more than a bare server, but since
I only pay for what I use, it's cheaper for me, and you still make some profit
since you have multiple customers.
Anyone?
~~~
milkshakes
Northscale
~~~
petervandijck
Thanks for the pointer (checking them out), but that's not what I want, right?
I still have to set it up and manage it myself.
I just want easy memcached access. No setup/management for me. I'm actually
waiting for Amazon to add this themselves.
~~~
milkshakes
they do hosted memcached on ec2 for heroku. you're right though, there's no
mention of a service on their site.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak says he's left Facebook over data collection - rmason
https://www.freep.com/story/tech/2018/04/08/apple-co-founder-steve-wozniak-says-hes-leaving-facebook/497392002/
======
jiveturkey
more “you are the product” pitchfork activism. it’s more nuanced than that and
woz knows it.
(speaking as someone that has never had a facebook account because the cost of
being the “product” isn’t worth it to me for the value i would receive.)
~~~
dkural
how is it _qualitatively_ more nuanced than that, for an advertising-driven
product that's "free" for the end user?
~~~
jiveturkey
Not sure if this answers your question, but I get a lot of value out of gmail,
a "free" advertising-driven product.
Am I the product or the user?
~~~
elvinyung
cf. the concept of 'prosumption':
[http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1469540509354673](http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1469540509354673)
------
ggggtez
TL;DR: "You are the product", says rich guy who runs competing business.
~~~
ForHackernews
What's his competitor? I'd be curious to try a social network developed by
Woz.
~~~
ggggtez
I was referring to Apple. If you look you'll find that FB has various products
that compete with Apple. One obvious example is Messenger vs iMessage.
~~~
danpalmer
Woz doesn’t work at Apple.
I’m also not sure that iMessage and Messenger are even that direct
competitors, the former is not a revenue stream for Apple directly, whereas
the latter is for Facebook. I personally use them for very different purposes,
and to communicate with different sorts of people. I’d suspect many people
might be in a similar position.
------
YOrlandoLO
Same with Google right?
"Old man yells at clouds."
\- sums it up nicely.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Mark Cuban’s tips for eventual winner of the $1.4B (or more) Powerball jackpot - gerrys0
http://thescoopblog.dallasnews.com/2016/01/mark-cubans-tips-for-eventual-winner-of-the-1-4-billion-or-more-powerball-jackpot.html/
======
AstroJetson
Cuban “It’s OK to spend 2 dollars for entertainment value,” he said via email.
“If you have 10 dollars go to a Mavs game.”
Based on prices, my $10 won't cover parking, much less seeing a game. So we
spent the $10 on Powerball and talked about how we would open up Makerspaces
in a 3 hour radius from Philly. Lots of 10,000 sqft spaces we can outfit and
keep running with $670 million in after tax dollars.
We decided to build metal, wood, fabric, electronic and music "pods". Each
space would have primary pod (ie metal) that are decked out, with two smaller
pods. Group them in 15 mile clusters, so that you are "close" to all types of
of the spaces. So you might have a metal one in your town, but 15 miles from a
wood and electronics primary pods.
It was a fun time, always good to have dreams. We got our $10 worth.
~~~
yid
Sounds like top-notch facilities. They'd still be finite though, so how would
you decide who gets to use them in order to maximize, say, societal benefit?
(Edit: I say top-notch, because you'd presumably simultaneously want universal
access and the best talent to work on it?)
~~~
AstroJetson
I don't think that will be a problem to start. We talked that we would still
need to advertise to get people in.
Since I don't have a clue who could "maximize societal benefit" it would be
first come first serve. For the last decade I've been working with Middle and
High School students I've been blown away by their creativity. And then there
is that 70 year old woman that makes those great metal sculptures. How do you
choose?
------
gct
"Don't take the lump sum"? Yeah the pittance return the government will give
you is a lot better use for that money...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Anyone else had Disqus Reveal ads activated without their permission? - tkfx
======
herbst
thanks for the reminder! I activated it about a month ago and forgot about it.
That shit is so useless it's incredible, it uses more space than all my other
ads together (i used the $$$ option, which promised to pay the most) and would
average on about $1 a day. Adsense does about $50 a day on the same site, even
if they pay worse than adsense (expected) that's 50 times as much.
Edit:// I did not had this happen to me, did you may click on the email they
send to join the beta? That has automagically automated it for me as well some
time ago.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Does Digg Have a Secret Co-Founder in the Attic? - kwamenum86
http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/11/kevin-rose-is-k.html
======
nostrademons
Not news to us since ojbyrne posts here, but it's nice to see Owen getting
some of the recognition he deserves.
------
mikeryan
So what is a co-founder? Kevin came up with the concept and paid Owen to
implement it. Owen may have been there since the beginning and undoubtedly had
an influence in its direction, but a "founder"? Dunno seems to be a gray area.
~~~
ojbyrne
I've never been clear on that myself. So I'll suggest a simple test - let's
look at another company from the same keiretsu - pownce.com. Leah Culver has
been a salaried employee since the beginning, and is described as a "founder."
What's the difference? What makes a "founder?" Significant equity? I pass. At
some point in time others in the enterprise thought of you as a "founder?" I
pass. At some point later on people decided you weren't a founder? I fail on
that one.
~~~
alaskamiller
Are you a hot young blonde girl? I think that's the litmus test.
~~~
ojbyrne
What I find fascinating is that I've been following Kevin's advice about PR -
tweet, comment, etc. etc. It works, though it takes some basic notoriety to
start with, and some persistence.
~~~
alaskamiller
Well he also lives in SF where every other woman working in PR has the hots
for him.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Examples of Good Software Development Contracts - orware
I decided a few weeks ago I wanted to see what the environment for local software development might look like if I sent an old fashioned letter directly to a bunch of businesses in my community.<p>Yesterday I sent out the letters so I'll soon be finding out what sort of response I'm going to receive.<p>Assuming I get a few responses, I wanted to see if anyone that already does software development for other businesses would be willing to share examples of the contracts that they use (preferably) or ways to structure things so I don't sell myself short.<p>One of the things I'll be gauging over these next few weeks (and talking with the businesses and building some nice software for them) is to see if any of these projects have some more general commercial opportunity so within the contracts I'd like to retain any ownership of the software and not grant the rights over to the company I'd be working with (this might be assumed, but I'm not sure if it has to be written into the contract explicitly).<p>I've read in past threads that I should charge at least $100/hr or try and schedule things in blocks (day/week) so additional details on the best way to do that would be great (I have a day job, so I don't have unlimited free time, scheduling things out in longer blocks probably wouldn't work too well in my case, but may still be an option I can use some of the time).<p>I'm sure I could use Google and find a decent example contract I could put to use but this seemed like a good topic that would generate a fair amount of discussion and I'd be happy to hear the community's advice on this one ;-).<p>Thanks!
======
Terretta
A sample fixed price agile contract:
[http://www.coactivate.org/projects/agile-contracts/sample-
fi...](http://www.coactivate.org/projects/agile-contracts/sample-fixed-price-
agile-contract)
Innovative clause for early delivery encourages client to say you're done
before you hit cap.
~~~
orware
Thanks for sharing Terretta, this should be a good example for me to review.
------
nnnnnn
Hey, I worked as a consultant for a while and would be happy to share my
contract with you. I had it drafted by a good lawyer that I trust. Contact me
through my site mailer: [http://nealke.mp](http://nealke.mp) I am very glad to
see you are being proactive about getting a good contract form to start. I did
not do the same and was burnt.
I also highly recommend getting a lawyer you trust so you can go to him/her
with questions. I also have some more advice contained in a conf talk I did
back in January
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUCl0PPAT9U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUCl0PPAT9U)
Hope that helps, consulting is a fantastic job when done properly! Feel free
to reach out with more questions
~~~
orware
Thanks, I'll contact you shortly!
------
cpayne
Just remember what the purpose of the contract is. (For me) its "what do I
want to happen when things go horribly wrong?".
High level would be: \- Payment terms. Fixed price, with 50% deposit? Time and
materials? Something else? \- When will payment be made? (End of month, +30
days after invoice submitted) \- Just _what_ are you delivering? What do they
get for their money? \- What _aren 't_ you delivering? (Out of scope) \- What
happens when there is a disagreement? (Jurisdictions) \- Who owns what? \-
Where is the work done (onsite / offsite). What hours are you expected /
agreeing to?
Depending on how big the project is, sometimes the above can be broken up into
several documents. This can help with negotiations. Eg things like payment
terms and jurisdictions can be in a "Master Services Agreement" type document.
While scope can be in a "Scope of works" type document.
You may want to split the document into expectations & actuals. Expectations
are your estimates (I estimate this piece of work will take xx hours / days /
weeks / months) and actuals are the hard facts. $1,000 per day / Invoices
submitted fortnightly and paid within 14 days etc.
In the end, you really should consult a lawyer...
------
saurabh
You should spend some money and better ask a lawyer about to draft the
contract. There is [http://www.docracy.com/](http://www.docracy.com/) though
if all you want are examples to study.
~~~
javajosh
All a lawyer does is copy/paste from LexisNexis and charge you $500 or more
for the privilege. You're better off picking up a book on contracts and
constructing your own, adding and removing clauses as needed. It takes an
afternoon at a Barnes and Noble (or even a library!)
~~~
radnam
Which book would you recommend?
~~~
javajosh
I don't remember which book I used. It was probably a NOLO guide. You could do
a search on amazon for "contract books" and get a selection that would work
well, or browse the legal and/or business section of a library or bookstore to
find something that works for you.
------
jmathai
Ultimately if neither party is bad then the contract aims to set expectations
and clearly outlines what each party expects. But....
The moment you have to "enforce" or "defend" a contract you've essentially
lost.
Do you trust the other party? If not, then no contract will save you.
The other thing I strongly suggest is to limit the amount of work you do prior
to getting paid. You should keep a slim amount of work (none, if possible)
that hasn't been paid for.
Always think in worst case scenarios and assume anything that's completed but
not paid for can be withheld.
~~~
orware
Thanks for the reply...typically I'm a very positive/trusting guy so I don't
think too much about the enforcing part, and like you said, once you've
started to go down that route it's not good.
I typically haven't used any contracts in the past (only ones the group I was
working with made me sign), but it seemed like it would be a good idea to see
what I could be using to protect myself :-).
~~~
jmathai
> typically I'm a very positive/trusting guy
So was I. So was I.
------
faster
My contract was written by a Silicon Valley attorney, so in a different
context you might have different concerns.
Essentially, it says
I'm a contractor I'm a contractor I'm a contractor Work products not part of
client's secret sauce belong to me The rest belongs to the client (I will add
"after full payment" per patio11) Client has a perpetual non-exclusive license
to use the part that is mine
The details of the scope of work and payment terms are in attachments to this.
There is the usual stuff about late payments, jurisdictions, etc.
~~~
orware
I'd be interested in taking a look at it as well if you're willing to share
:-)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Homomorphic Evaluation of the AES Circuit - johlo
https://github.com/shaih/HElib/issues/20#issuecomment-68373909
======
higherpurpose
Would it be possible to add some kind of hardware acceleration for homomorphic
encryption, to lower that encryption time by another 10x+?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Password-less text message log on for Yahoo, is it safe? - BestVPNposts
https://www.bestvpn.com/blog/15598/password-less-text-message-log-on-for-yahoo-is-it-safe/
======
deitcher
Actually, it is an inconvenient insecure mess. It just looks good at first
blush. Here is my take
[http://blog.atomicinc.com/2015/03/16/yahoos-on-demand-
insecu...](http://blog.atomicinc.com/2015/03/16/yahoos-on-demand-
insecurity-2401/)
I wonder if they put a college intern in charge of authentication services...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
UK Internet Filter Blocks VPNs, Australia to Follow Soon? - alan_cx
http://torrentfreak.com/uk-internet-filter-blocks-vpns-australia-to-follow-soon-130905/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Torrentfreak+%28Torrentfreak%29
======
frank_boyd
Going further down, on the slippery slope...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Haptic Feedback for Macbook Touch Bar Keys - STRML
https://www.haptictouchbar.com/
======
matheweis
Just downloaded and tried it.
Unfortunately, the feedback comes from the area of the trackpad, and you can
tell it comes from there, which is far enough away that it’s almost as jarring
as having no feedback at all.
Still, it’s a very neat idea, and Apple should definitely do this for the next
iteration of the touch bar (anyone from Apple listening?)
~~~
cjcampbell
Noticed this as well. I could hear the feedback more than I could actually
feel it. Though I wonder whether the experience is better on the 13” model???
~~~
matheweis
I did indeed try it on a 15”
------
skinnymuch
This is great. Not sure if this is the first app or not, but this has been
needed. I'm hyped. About to try it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Re: GPL, BSD and the FSF - barbudorojo
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/qilang/mVSJIyp-OhM
======
belorn
A bunch of conspiracy theories added with RMS bashing.
> According to de Raadt, Stallman disclaimed all knowledge of the episode.
> ("The FSF is not involved in this dispute."). However it seems Eben Moglen
> had knowledge of what was going on, and since Moglen is the right hand of
> Stallman, it is hard to credit Stallman not knowing the existence of the
> dispute.
I am not involved in 9/11\. I have knowledge about it, as got anyone who lived
through 2009, but I am not involved. Yet accordingly to this person line of
thinking, I have knowledge and thus must be involved.
But lets not focus on conspiracies. Lets talk about copyright law, as in "by
law, a new person doing small changes to an original work is not allowed to
assert copyright".
The originality threshold is, by law, not defined as being either small or
large. A small change can be original, while at the same time, a large change
might not. US courts has for example said that it require a minimal degree of
creativity, which a small hand written change to a large code base might have.
On that same line of thinking, a big batch of changes coming from automatic
tools might not qualify for copyright, since the author of those changes has
not contributed any act of creativity. The law focus is not about size, a fact
easy forgotten when talking about copyright law.
After those two, the ramblings gets into "GPL is evil, proprietary software is
good". They should join the "Freeing slaves are evil, slavery is good" folks.
------
MTarver
A small change to a large body of work does not give you copyright over the
work itself. no matter how original your change is. At most only over the
change itself.
Stallman's statement 'The FSF is not involved in this dispute' (about the
appropriation of BSD under GPL) might be interpreted as a statement of
ignorance (I don't know what is going on) or as a disclaimer of involvement (I
know what is going on, but the FSF is not involved). I find both
interpretations to be straining the bounds of credibility and certainly
Stallman knew after Theo wrote to him.
But this is not the important issue that the thread is focused on - which are
the relations between BSD and GPL. Stallman defends the appropriation of BSD
code under GPL (at great length) based on a faulty interpretation of law and
that interpretation needs to be put right.
The analogy of any of this to 9/11 or slavery seems rather silly.
~~~
belorn
The posted discussion thread is rather silly, so if you find the analogy
silly, it only comes as a result of an silly "2 Minute Hate of the
FSF/GPL/RMS".
I also find it strains the bounds of credibility that someone accuses people
of being involved when they has nothing to support the accusations. This is
what the term conspiracy theory was created for, like "it must be aliens who
did it" or "A shadow Government". Its nutjobs that talk to other nutjobs,
creating their own reality in order to feel good about themselves.
RMS answer this speculation directly at:
[http://openbsd.7691.n7.nabble.com/Real-men-don-t-attack-
stra...](http://openbsd.7691.n7.nabble.com/Real-men-don-t-attack-straw-men-
tp55042p55288.html)
But sure, lets talk to the real issue. BSD permit that changes to copyrighted
work be placed under a different license. This explicit permission is why
proprietary software developers like BSD/MIT licensed software, since they can
do changes and then add a proprietary license to the then created derivate
work. GPL do not permit this, and thus we have the difference between GPL and
BSD. The question about what defines derivate work is originality, which the
word "small" or "big" has no impact on. A small change to a large body of work
has similar impact as a green change to a yellow body of work. Originality do
not care about sizes, it cares about creativity (in the United States).
In the linked mailing list, there is also some discussion if an redistribution
of a work can add a license without doing any changes at all, which is how the
apple app store does it. Apple puts puts work that is under BSD, with no
changes, and redistribute it in the app store under the terms of app store
license. The legal view by most lawyer/apple/fsf and others is that apple is
legally allowed to do so under BSD license, since the requirement for
distribution has been followed by Apple. If there is a change in consensus
regarding this, the proprietary software distributors would be the first to
react and the small number of BSD work that get distributed under GPL, while
still retaining the BSD notice, would be quite small in comparison.
The relevant part of the mailinglist discussion can be seen here:
[http://openbsd.7691.n7.nabble.com/Real-men-don-t-attack-
stra...](http://openbsd.7691.n7.nabble.com/Real-men-don-t-attack-straw-men-
tp55042p55384.html)
------
teddyh
Amidst all the animosity, an accurate description and summary:
> […] _our 2 Minute Hate of the FSF /GPL/RMS_ […]
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Show HN: RossTennis - RossTennis
http://www.rosstennis.com
======
RossTennis
Hi folks,
After a couple years of toil and grind I finally managed to build a predictive
model for pro tennis. It analyses around 100 data points per player and
creates odds / probability of winning the match. That model is now winning at
a flat rate of 12.5% (over a smallish sample of a few hundred bets, but looks
solid).
So, after the model was working, I decided to build a website with my friend
where other tennis fans can check matchups, see predictions and get a better
head to head analysis than anything else that exists out there. (Point: Most
other h2h sites show data which is not directly comparable between the two
players, where as my site produces relative comparison points).
I'd love for you to check out the site and see what you think. Any feedback,
good or bad, is always welcomed! And if you are a tennis fan you can join my
whatsapp betting group too.
And if you are interested in the business side of things:
We are trying to generate revenue three ways: 1) affiliate revenue 2)
licensing our data to other sites 3) the betting fund (currently 25k)
We're also working heavily on SEO optimisation, and building up a community of
tennis betting fans.
I might also sell tips in the future as there is a big market for that but I'm
currently aiming more high end, e.g. fund investment, high priced tips. Pretty
much testing a few things at present and see what might work.
Thanks for checking it out.
Ross.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Which is the most important feature for an business email account - MelissaRajon
http://www.poll-maker.com/poll959000x7A884047-40
======
masonic
I can't decide between "Advacend sieve filter setup" and "Email attachmens
size".
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Men gather to settle scores – and reduce gun violence – by pummeling one another - pseudolus
https://www.washingtonpost.com/photography/2019/09/30/these-men-gather-backyards-near-nations-capital-settle-scores-by-pummeling-each-other/
======
Rannath
Come on guys. We were supposed to talk about this.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A court ruling that could blow up Uber's business model - jackgavigan
http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-uber-s-business-model-20150902-column.html
======
1024core
I admittedly don't take Uber too often. I have taken it maybe 10 times in my
life. After the first time the "employee -vs- contractor" controversy broke
out, I made it a point to ask the drivers: do you like Uber? What do you like
about it? And to a man (all were men) they said they loved the fact that they
could set their own hours, take off for something else whenever they wanted,
etc.
Also, given the presence of cab companies, Lyft, etc., why does everyone think
that Uber is "exploiting" the drivers?
~~~
henrikschroder
I saw an article a few days ago that I just can't seem to find again, that
pointed out that many low-wage employers like Wal-Mart or Starbucks use
sophisticated scheduling software to schedule a large amount of part-time
workers such that they never work more than 29 hours a week (which would make
them entitled to full-stime benefits), while making sure that staffing meets
demand. Schedule changes can be very short notice, and if you as an employee
can't bend yourself to fit the the company's demands, they'll simply fire you.
In contrast, the Uber model also mobilizes a large amount of low-wage workers,
but never _forces_ people to work when they don't want to, they simply use
market incentives to make sure supply and demand gets balanced.
And people who are in these jobs _vastly_ prefer the Uber model, because they
are real people with real schedules, and working when it suits them best gives
them agency and control over their lives, which is worth much, much, more than
an increase in minimum wage.
~~~
henrikschroder
Found it: [https://medium.com/the-wtf-economy/workers-in-a-world-of-
con...](https://medium.com/the-wtf-economy/workers-in-a-world-of-continuous-
partial-employment-4d7b53f18f96)
This must have been posted here?
~~~
henrikschroder
Indeed:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10147912](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10147912)
------
noarchy
On a related note, how many IT workers here are working as "independent
contractors", when they'd probably be considered employees if anyone took a
close look? It seems to be very common where I am (Canada), to the extent that
recruiters and the like seem to think nothing of it. You can be working side-
by-side, with full-time employees, working the same hours, and answering to
the same supervisor, but technically be working for yourself.
~~~
jdietrich
In the UK, contracting has some very attractive tax implications for highly-
paid workers. Our tax service has created a complex set of rules that
distinguish a contractor from an employee.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IR35](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IR35)
------
jwatte
If I wanted to build a legitimate middle man platform - solve
contractor/customer match up, and intermediate payments, how should that
service be built? Under the theory of this lawsuit, can such a service be
built at all, or would it automatically look like an employer?
~~~
rayiner
It looks more like EBay and less like Uber. The more you exercise control over
prices, quality, and service, the more you offer a service instead of just
being a middleman.
I take Uber several times a week. I think of it as the service. E.g. when the
driver takes a shitty route, it's never been the driver's fault. They're just
blindly follow the company-provided navigation. So I never leave a less than
five star review and whenever I file a request for rate adjustment (maybe once
a month), I take care to point out I'm blaming the app, not the driver.
~~~
tedunangst
Solution for Uber: allow drivers to set prices. I wonder how long that would
last.
------
aaroninsf
I find it entertaining how people seem to have a hard time separating their
personal satisfaction, as customers, from a defense of a business model which
achieves much of its 'efficiency' by sidestepping the hard-won obligations
employers have to their employees.
Calling someone a contractor, and pointing at 'work on demand' as if it were a
silver bullet that slays those obligations, don't make it so.
------
jhartist
The endgame for Uber is replacing their drivers with self-driving cars. The
legal distinction of employee/contractor can only matter for what, 15-20 years
until that happens?
~~~
stvswn
Exactly. The real minimum wage will always be $0, and we will only hasten the
moment when self-driving cars are worthwhile investments if we continue to
insist that labor should cost more.
~~~
0_00_0
Good.
------
pdq
Here is what I don't understand. Uber is not supplying the cars -- the drivers
are.
If you look at virtually any other "employee" field (trucking, taxis, etc),
the company owns and maintains the fleet of vehicles, and the employees
operate them.
Based on this, Uber drivers look more like independent contractors than
employees.
~~~
dakidd28
the vehicle could be considered a tool such as a hammer for a carpenter or a
pipe wrench for a plumber
~~~
douche
Unless you are an independent contractor, your employer should be providing
your tools, if for no other reason than liability, should the employee be
injured using substandard tools, which the employer would then be on the hook
for.
~~~
tedunangst
But you don't stop being an employee just because you don't get those things.
If I work at Google and one day they take away my work computer, I don't
magically become a contractor just like that.
------
oconnore
from
[http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/faq_independentcontractor.htm](http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/faq_independentcontractor.htm)
: "an employer-employee relationship will be found if (1) the principal
retains pervasive control over the operation as a whole, (2) the worker’s
duties are an integral part of the operation, and (3) the nature of the work
makes detailed control unnecessary"
1: Yes. They run the app, jobs come in through the app, progress is tracked
through the app, payment is made through the app.
2: Yes. No drivers, no Uber.
3: Yes. Did you get from A -> B, and was the customer satisfied?
------
harryh
Here's the thing that never seems to get mentioned in these stories. Aren't
almost all yellow cab drivers contractors? And hasn't it been that way for
decades? Isn't it kind of weird that Uber comes along and all of a sudden the
rules (might) change?
------
douche
I welcome any expansion of Uber service and availability, and oppose anything
that supports the entrenched and terrible existing taxi services. I've only
taken a handful of Ubers, but the quality of service is far higher. Moreover,
it's the convenience that really wins out. Being able to see the GPS locations
and ETA of an incoming Uber is far superior than calling a taxi and hoping
they show up sometime close to when the dispatcher said they would. Not to
mention that it's a completely friction-free experience - the driver arrives,
you jump in, chit-chat a little on the way (Uber drivers are, in my
experience, far more pleasant human beings that taxi drivers...), then you
jump out, and they charge your card. No frigging around with change, or having
to make sure you hit an ATM before you call the cab so you have cash on hand,
or getting the evil eye because you didn't volunteer the unstated but expected
tip on top of the exorbitant fare.
Taxi companies can die in a fire, for all I care. The last trip I took, I had
to get about 10 miles from a train station to where I was going. The first
leg, I caught an Uber, and it cost me about $13, in a clean vehicle, with a
very pleasant driver. The way back, I had to take a taxi, and I spent $40 to
ride with a driver who was kind of a dink, swerved all over the road, and
drove a dirty, rattle-trap old Crown Vic. Uber uber alles.
~~~
chrismcb
Uber is a taxi company... So it can die in a fire?
------
ClintFix
"Uber almost certainly can thrive even if it pays its drivers more, and even
if it picks up their expenses and pays them benefits like a genuine employer.
It won't make as much money per trip, but its service may become more reliable
instead, which could expand its market."
Well, if that's the case then forcing the change need not happen. If there is
a financial or competitive benefit (better service and more reliable) to the
company, it will either make the change voluntarily or a competitor will
figure that out and eventually grow larger. If not, then your assumption is
wrong.
Oh - nobody forces anyone to work with uber. They know what they're signing up
for. They're not entitled to anything from uber except for what they agreed
upon in the contract to work.
~~~
awa
"Oh - nobody forces anyone to work with uber. They know what they're signing
up for. They're not entitled to anything from uber except for what they agreed
upon in the contract to work."
You can make the same argument against minimum wage, or any other abusive
contracts (payday/predatory loans). A lot of time one of the party signing the
contract has no other option depending on his situation, that doesn't mean a
company/individual should be able to take advantage of his situation and get
him in a tough bargain.
Also, not all contract signings are created equal, that's how a lot of
companies sneak no-compete's which have been deemed unenforceable many times.
~~~
dragonwriter
> You can make the same argument against minimum wage, or any other abusive
> contracts (payday/predatory loans).
The people who make the argument against labor laws like the ones at issue
with Uber often _do_ make the same argument against minimum wage laws, or
other laws restricting "abusive" contracts.
~~~
masterleep
Indeed they do, and they are right to do so.
~~~
hwstar
Employers have too much power in the asymmetrical employer/employee
relationship. In order to counteract this and level the playing field, there
must be minimum labor standards enforced by the state.
I know that a lot of right-leaning Americans think that government should stay
out of private contracts, but they'd be dead wrong. If the employee was just
as powerful as the employer, then the situation would be different.
~~~
stvswn
I think you're giving yourself the ability to reason along the spectrum, but
assuming that more libertarian leaning people are incapable of admitting that
some standards are OK. Of course some standards are OK, it's these standards
that we object to. Workers need to be protected from unsafe working
conditions, sure. Minimum standards aside, there's no reason to cast Uber vs.
drivers as a Marxist class struggle when the Uber drivers themselves seem to
be satisfied with the arrangement.
~~~
dragonwriter
> Minimum standards aside, there's no reason to cast Uber vs. drivers as a
> Marxist class struggle when the Uber drivers themselves seem to be satisfied
> with the arrangement.
(1) The existence of the lawsuit means that the generalization serving as the
explicit premise here is incorrect.
(2) Without defending Marxist class struggle as a valid or correct framework
for addressing reality, the idea that the drivers seem generally satisfied
with the arrangement is relevant to whether characterizing it as a Marxist
class struggle is necessary may reveal a poor understanding of the entire idea
of Marxist class struggle and particularly the role of class consciousness
within such a struggle.
------
AndyNemmity
I'm interested in how this could affect other business models that use
independent contractors due to less responsibility.
Even more, what are all the benefits a company receives by using independent
contractors vs. employees? Does anyone know that can list them? I realized I
am not aware, I've been a salaried employee for 15 years.
~~~
nness
It going to vary from state to state, and country to country, but usually it's
a combination of reduced labor rights and decreased liability. Contractors
often don't have union or collective bargaining rights, they aren't entitled
to healthcare or superannuation (for countries with such a thing), and often
have to handle all of their own personal liability insurance and payroll tax.
They also have no sick, parental or annual leave entitlements (again, for
countries with such things), overtime/weekend/award rates or other kinds of
employment protection. The cost of a labor force the size of Uber's would be
huge if they did it on an employee basis.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How to teach Python to non-programmers online? - webartifex
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgK7lVBHzeuXjvohiEXkgyA
======
webartifex
Hello world,
two weeks ago, I recorded and published my "Introduction to Python &
Programming" course that I have been teaching to non-CS majors over the last 2
years.
Materials on GitHub: [https://github.com/webartifex/intro-to-
python](https://github.com/webartifex/intro-to-python)
Playlist on YouTube: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Zns-
vfhuic&list=PL-2JV1G3J1...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Zns-
vfhuic&list=PL-2JV1G3J10lQ2xokyQowcRJI5jjNfW7f)
Question: Because the semester is over at the end of April and I have no
teaching obligations until the fall term, I was wondering if I should be
teaching the course over the summer. I have no experience with developing a
MOOC, so I am curious to hear your suggestions.
My plan was to put one video lecture up per week and then have a Q&A for the
students on, for example, Zoom. My university has a big license.
My big observations over the last couple of semesters are that non-CS majors
need some personal tutoring. No need to be 1-on-1. Assigning students into
small study groups and then talk to the groups is enough.
So, I am basically offering my time once a week for free for any beginner to
Python.
Maybe we can start an initiative where other software engineers also volunteer
their time in a similar format.
I audited a couple of the standard MOOCs on edX and coursera in the last year
and find that especially beginners struggle if they only have a message board
to ask questions and not an interactive tutor.
What are your thoughts?
~~~
aabbcc1241
Beside showing videos lecture. Setting up interactive exercise maybe helpful
to some type of students. Example like codeingame.
~~~
webartifex
I created lots of exercises. They are all on GitHub (see *_02_exercises.ipynb
files on [https://github.com/webartifex/intro-to-
python](https://github.com/webartifex/intro-to-python)). My "offline" students
take between 4 to 8 hours per exercise set.
------
DoreenMichele
I have no suggestions, but wanted to say thanks. I want to learn Python. I am
"non technical" for the HN crowd and I keep failing to learn to program cuz
Reasons.
I wish I had brilliant suggestions. But I suspect if I knew what on Earth I
need someone to do for me, I would not be continuing to fail to learn to code.
I have made a note of this HN link in my "I have fantasies of learning to code
-- someday!!!" files and I hope to check it out soon, but not right this
minute, cuz Reasons.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Complying with the EC’s Android decision - ucaetano
https://www.blog.google/around-the-globe/google-europe/complying-ecs-android-decision/
======
zokier
Well, that's big fat middle finger towards EC. Because the permission to use
forked Android is limited to EEA, no manufacturer is going to use that and
lock themselves out of the rest of the world. But the real punch comes here:
> we will introduce a new paid licensing agreement for smartphones and tablets
> shipped into the EEA
While it is bit vague, it certainly sounds like Google will be levying "EC
stupidity tax" for all EEA devices.
So congratulations EC, you accomplished exactly nothing but making devices
more expensive in your market and padding Googles pockets even more.
~~~
Reelin
I hadn't really been following this previously, but I did glance at the
official EC press release just now ([http://europa.eu/rapid/press-
release_IP-18-4581_en.htm](http://europa.eu/rapid/press-
release_IP-18-4581_en.htm)). From that document:
* has required manufacturers to pre-install the Google Search app and browser app (Chrome), as a condition for licensing Google's app store (the Play Store);
* made payments to certain large manufacturers and mobile network operators on condition that they exclusively pre-installed the Google Search app on their devices; and
* has prevented manufacturers wishing to pre-install Google apps from selling even a single smart mobile device running on alternative versions of Android that were not approved by Google (so-called "Android forks").
That last one in particular sounds quite abusive to me, given that I'm a fan
of FOSS.
> it certainly sounds like Google will be levying "EC stupidity tax" for all
> EEA devices
Is it really stupidity to attempt to prevent a large international corporation
from abusing its market dominance? Or are you perhaps suggesting that the EC
should have backed down in order to avoid being bullied by Google?
~~~
zokier
> Is it really stupidity to attempt to prevent a large international
> corporation from abusing its market dominance
It is stupidity to attempt _and fail so spectacularly_
~~~
Reelin
So what are they supposed to do then? Just pretend nothing is wrong?! This may
raise prices somewhat in the short term, but hopefully it will curb this kind
of behavior in the long term.
~~~
zdragnar
I'm not following your logic. How will fatter margins for Google lead to less
of this behavior?
~~~
Reelin
> How will fatter margins for Google lead to less of this behavior?
I never claimed that Google would have larger margins, nor do I agree with
that assumption.
First, the behavior in question. They abused their market dominance to force
other companies to do things which were advantageous for them. They have been
fined for it, have officially announced that they will no longer be doing it,
and if they were ever to resume would presumably face further very steep
fines. Moreover, this turn of events will hopefully give pause to anyone
thinking to emulate their strategy in the future. Regardless of what happens
to their margins going forward, there will almost certainly be less of this
behavior.
More than that though, your assumption that their margins will increase
doesn't make very much sense. If that were the case, why didn't they pursue
this sort of licensing scheme previously? The obvious answer is that in their
best estimate the new way of doing things will actually hurt their margins.
Presumably driving users to their services was worth more than charging a
licensing fee to offset the cost of developing GApps, as they make money off
of user data. It also had the bonus of preventing any meaningful competition
from developing - their search engine was installed by default (minimizes
competition), their software was installed by default (minimizes competition),
and you couldn't charge a licensing fee for a competing suite of software
because their price (free) would always substantially undercut yours.
Even if you did somehow find a way to compete on the software front, you
couldn't do business with any of the major manufactures. If they went with
your software instead of Google's on _any_ of their devices they could no
longer license GApps _at all_. Ending their abusive licensing practices opens
the door to companies offering devices with an Android fork if that makes
sense for them. Importantly, it means that a top tier manufacture can now
continue to offer official Android devices with GApps while also trying out a
competing (unofficial) design. So yes, prices may go up in the short or even
long term, but nonetheless Google's margins will likely be damaged.
------
Nomentatus
More recent articles: [http://fortune.com/2018/10/17/google-eu-android-
antitrust-ma...](http://fortune.com/2018/10/17/google-eu-android-antitrust-
manufacturers/)
See also: [https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/16/17984074/google-eu-
andro...](https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/16/17984074/google-eu-andro..).
The latter fumbles breaking down what parts "Android" has, neglecting the Java
Virtual Machine, and thus most of the OS.
------
mcphage
> We believe that Android has created more choice, not less.
More choice in what? Definitely not more choice in mobile Operating Systems.
~~~
Nomentatus
They are weaseling: they mean more choice than Apple-thats-it, which was
briefly the case. Having to refer to so ancient and obsolete a virtue is
damning in itself, I agree.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Stitcher's plan to outshine terrestrial radio - waderoush
http://www.xconomy.com/san-francisco/2013/01/02/stitcher-the-pandora-for-talk-works-to-make-internet-radio-easier/
======
tsar
This is one of the better profiles of Stitcher that I've seen. It really
contextualizes how we're trying to disrupt terrestrial talk radio (I work for
Stitcher).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Coffee meetings - rastasheep
https://medium.com/i-m-h-o/637aa2156f86
======
lifeisstillgood
oh dear, I started ranting and could not stop - sorry
1\. The meeting _does_ have a natural end - when you have finished coffee.
Today my accountant gulped half his down in seconds. I took it as a sign.
2\. the wifi issue - In the UK Costa is taking on Starbucks but... I have to
ask _at the till_ for a unique 30 minute token that I cannot read and has more
entropy than a mathematicians kettle. Really guys, I spend a f&!%ing fortune
at your place, please just let me google for the three minutes I am standing
in line.
3\. You cannot do more than say 2 coffee meetings in a day.
4\. Food. Look, by 11.30 I am a bit snackish. A biscotti ain't gonna cut it.
So that means the poor bugger opposite me needs to watch me feeding my fat
face and explaining how Persona will change Identity on line with mozzarella
and spinach hanging out between my coffee stained teeth. Not sure where to go
with that, just feeling a little self conscious.
5\. Going back in. Now that we have finished the coffee, and meandered to the
door, how to handle the "well, actually I am going to go and buy a sandwich I
was too embarrassed to buy when sitting with you". It just looks weird,
6\. stop calling it a loyalty card!!!!
7\. I like the baristas. I chat meaninglessly to them. Except when the owner
pops in. Suddenly they correctly ask if I want a pastry with that? Do I have a
loyalty card. Stop it !
8\. Your laptop did not pay for a coffee. Your laptop does not get a table
space all to itself. Thats why there are chairs in front of the table - for
people to sit at.
~~~
ballstothewalls
what bugs me the most is when the barista asks for your name, but then doesn't
use your name to call out your coffee. Or when they ask for my name and my
credit card is in their hand.
~~~
steveklabnik
> Or when they ask for my name and my credit card is in their hand.
This is useful for a number of reasons, one of the biggest is trans
individuals.
I had a situation where I was at a table where the check was split. The
waitress decided to hand ours back individually, so she started calling out
names... leading to embarrassment for basically everyone involved, and
possibly out-ing someone who may not want their sex known. Luckily, we were
all friends, so no harm to that individual... but you just don't know.
~~~
gehar
Good (if rare) example of why it is not appropriate to take information
provided for one purpose (payment authorization) and use it for another
purpose (general communication).
The same restraint should apply to dumping my payment information into spam
marketing databases.
------
lenkendall
Thanks for posting my article.
~~~
rastasheep
Sorry, it's really great, and i didn't saw it here.
~~~
jdludlow
I don't think that Len was being sarcastic. I think what he really meant was,
"Thanks for posting my article."
~~~
adambard
Handy tip: If you want to appear sincere on the internet, use an exclamation
point.
"Thanks for posting my article!" doesn't come off sarcastic, even if it
overstates your exuberance.
~~~
signed0
A smiley works as well :)
~~~
lenkendall
THANKS FOR POSTING MY ARTICLE! :) <3
(But seriously, I was sincere in my appreciation and not being a dick. I think
the above syntax tips are all great suggestions.)
------
xoail
What a timing. Going out to meet someone over coffee. Although I tend to buy
coffee for the other person by invitation, "I would love to buy you coffee and
chat about xyz".
------
asmosoinio
Could not read it, for some reason the article refused to scroll on my Android
browser (the standard one on Android 2.3.x).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How WooCommerce helped earn an author $20000 in just 24 hours - freshfey
http://www.woothemes.com/2011/10/case-study-copyhackers/
======
farms
It was all down to woocommerce, clearly ;)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Mozilla Labs Releases Weave Sync 1.0 - mocy
http://blog.mozilla.com/blog/2010/01/29/mozilla-labs-releases-weave-1-0/
======
jsm386
While this seems like a cool idea, I definitely don't want my (bookmarks - I
don' t see the point, but it doesn't concern me) saved passwords, browsing
history and open browser tabs synced to my phone.
1) If I lose my phone that is a lot of personal data/security info that is
available on my phone. Saved passwords would be useful, but I don't save any
passwords on my phone now, and this isn't going to change that.
2) Last thing I want, if I'm returning through US border is all of this data
on my phone, given
[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/16/laptop_border_search...](http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/16/laptop_border_search/)
(There are better articles, but that is the first Google result)
~~~
wtallis
That blog post doesn't make it clear that Weave is also good for syncing
between computers. I've been using it for months to sync between my desktop
and my two laptops, where each laptop is running two operating systems. For
me, the coolest thing about it is that the history syncing means that the
suggestions as I'm typing in a URL are the same on all the machines, so that
when I type 's', slashdot and stackoverflow are the first two.
Bookmark syncing is also nice because NoScript can store it's rules in a
bookmark, so I will only have to whitelist any site once.
------
mattyb
I hope Google adds support for browser history and password storage to their
Chrome extension API so that I can write a similar tool for Chromium.
Weave (and Xmarks) use these:
[https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Using_the_Places_history_se...](https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Using_the_Places_history_service)
<https://developer.mozilla.org/en/nsILoginManager>
------
celticjames
Anyone care to compare this to Xmarks for me? I've been using Xmarks because
it also supports syncing between Firefox, IE, Safari, and Chrome. What
advantage do I get from Weave?
~~~
mattyb
Weave is only for Firefox & Fennec (it's a Mozilla project).
Weave synchronizes bookmarks & passwords like Xmarks, in addition to browsing
history and open tabs.
------
euroclydon
SyncPlaces lets you do this to a file or FTP server.
<http://www.andyhalford.com/syncplaces>
~~~
mattyb
No history syncing though, which is big for me.
------
hexis
Bookmark, history, and tab syncing appeals to me. Passwords, not so much. Does
this extension allow me to exclude passwords and sync the rest?
~~~
csytan
Yes
------
joshu
congrats to the Weave team! a bunch of the ex-delicious folks went there.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Elon Musk Isn’t Religious Enough to Colonize Mars - Luc
http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/10/10/elon-musk-isnt-religious-enough-to-colonize-mars/
======
imaginenore
This article is a great example how religions try to infiltrate new tech. The
argument is completely nonsensical.
~~~
gus_massa
Agree.
From the article:
> _That means asking and answering initially awkward questions, like, would we
> be best off if our first Martian colonists were religious observers?_
I propose to send to Mars only people that has a different religion than the
author. Is that still a good idea for him?
------
zerognowl
The whole enterprise of space exploration has deep roots in religion,
specifically the lunar missions where apparently landing man on the moon was
expressing Christendom.
If "keeping the light of human consciousness on" as suggested by Musk is not
religious, well it does sound very religious.
~~~
imaginenore
Bullshit. The lunar missions were the result of the space race with USSR.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
iRobot Announces Create 2: An Updated, Hackable Roomba - spectruman
http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/diy/irobot-announces-create-2-an-updated-hackable-roomba#.VIhxkpKzS9U.hackernews
======
ivankirigin
I used to work for iRobot's research devision, which isn't on the same team as
the Roomba folks.
I'm really excited to see this come back! I'm a bit surprised they haven't
taken advantage of the smart phone revolution since 2007. There should be a
dock for your phone. The basics would involve beaming back sensor data and
sending movement comments. The phone would also come with a camera.
Basically I'm wondering why they didn't build a better Romo
[http://www.romotive.com/](http://www.romotive.com/)
~~~
Fuzzwah
Looks like they've signed up for the R-Pi revolution instead.
[http://www.irobot.com/~/media/MainSite/PDFs/About/STEM/Creat...](http://www.irobot.com/~/media/MainSite/PDFs/About/STEM/Create/RaspberryPi_Tutorial.pdf)
Makes me happy, since I'm a card carrying R-Pi nut.
~~~
soylentcola
Yeah, I'd prefer something like Pi as well. Rather than using my phone (which
I would like to keep free for typical phone stuff) or buying a second device
(can be awfully pricey), a RPi would be more flexible and potentially more
affordable for students and tinkerers.
I'm sure plenty of us have an older smartphone around for projects and
experiments but I think that just as many people sell or trade theirs in for a
discount. That doesn't even take into consideration the issue with the variety
of devices and types of docks out there. Something like a Pi is meant to be
hacked and modded to fit into different use cases and you aren't automatically
paying (both in terms of money and performance) for all of the overhead of
general smartphone hardware and software.
~~~
ivankirigin
I have 8 old iphones in my house.
There are literally billions of old smartphones waiting for a good use.
------
discardorama
If I'm reading it correctly, the Create series does _not_ have the vacuum
components.
I used to be a big fan of iRobot, but after going through 4 of their robots, I
have soured on them. Their batteries would die right after the warranty period
ended. Plastic parts broke off from regular use. Each of them ended in the
recycling bin after 1.5 - 2 years of use.
~~~
alttag
I had similar issues, but opted to go the route of replacing the battery
rather than the whole Roomba. It's worked well for me.
In addition, Amazon reviews point to some third-party batteries that
supposedly last even longer than iRobot ones.
~~~
whoisthemachine
Same here, I just replaced the battery with a cheaper third-party battery when
the original ran out and get about 45-60 minutes of runtime out of it still
after 2 years.
------
djb_hackernews
I bought the original Create when it came out in 2007. It was an awesome piece
of tech back then, very stable/rugged, reasonable low level API, extendable,
and yes "hackable".
The only downsides was the interface felt old even for 2007, which was a
serial port (you'd see a lot of Create projects driving around with a laptop
sitting on top of it). And the "battery pack" was useless and ran on I think
12 AA batteries which lasted about 10 minutes.
I got the bluetooth upgrade, which was $50 and the rechargeable battery pack
and charge station which was probably another $100.
It's awesome to see the Create 2 includes a rechargeable battery pack AND
charge station. It references Arduino and Raspberry Pi but there doesn't seem
to be any special integration.
Can anyone find the exact sensors included? Same as the original Create?
~~~
Fuzzwah
I can't find a simple list of the sensors. But reading through this:
[http://www.irobot.com/~/media/MainSite/PDFs/About/STEM/Creat...](http://www.irobot.com/~/media/MainSite/PDFs/About/STEM/Create/create_2_Open_Interface_Spec.pdf)
And based on the fact the Create 2 is based on the 600 series I checked the
wikipedia entry and figure the list will be:
* Bump sensors (left and right)
* Wheel drop sensors (left and right)
* Four infrared "cliff sensors"
* Acoustic-based dirt sensors
* Optical sensor located in front of the vacuum bin
* Virtual Wall Lighthouse sensor
------
jason_slack
Very cool, I bet I could get my younger kids interested in programming if we
could chase the cats around :-)
~~~
agumonkey
Reminded me of the bigtrak
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Trak](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Trak)
------
swalsh
This is an excellent opportunity to create a DJ roomba.
------
neuromancer2701
The original ROS turtle bot used the first Create. When Willow Garage
refreshed it a couple years ago and a korean company redesigned the Create.
[http://kobuki.yujinrobot.com/home-
en/about/specifications/](http://kobuki.yujinrobot.com/home-
en/about/specifications/)
I wonder how this second gen Create compares to the Kobuki base.
------
seidler
Sorry, if it doesn't have LIDAR, I don't want it.
~~~
Symmetry
An onboard LIDAR would make it quite a bit more expensive. I think if I were
to play with one of these I would find a friend with an unused Kinect and use
that for the sensing.
~~~
iandanforth
What do you think about the Neato? Many robot hobbyists will buy one just to
get its scanning range finder and it's in the same price range as a roomba.
~~~
Animats
Now that would be more interesting. The Roomba is sense-deprived for a robot.
It doesn't know where it is, and navigates by bumping into stuff. That's kind
of lame. Hobbyists had those in the 1980s. Grey Walters' "turtles" did that in
the late 1940s. Computing has made some progress since then.
By now, a hobbyist robot should have at least 2D SLAM, able to map its
surroundings and navigate using the map.
------
firefoxNX11
Clicking the buy now link is taking me to the NL site. anyone else seeing
this?
~~~
tehaugmenter
Does this link work for you?
[http://store.irobot.com/irobot-create-2-programmable-
robot/p...](http://store.irobot.com/irobot-create-2-programmable-
robot/product.jsp?productId=54235736&cp=2591511)
~~~
firefoxNX11
Nope. Gets redirected to irobot.nl
~~~
tehaugmenter
I looked into it a bit and it states the following:
> _At this time, we are able to ship within the United States and Canada
> only._
Might be the reason for the redirect?
------
angmar5
Modular and open does not equal "Hackable". Just saying.
~~~
mcphage
What else would you like it to be?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
What's Coming in PostgreSQL 9.5 - thomcrowe
https://www.compose.io/articles/coming-in-postgresql-9-5/
======
bmh100
Let me just take a moment to point out how important row-level security is as
a concept. That features allows one to create essentially a secure analytics
data model by tying security business logic into the values of a table. For
every query, just join to that security table, and now the database is
flexible and secured.
Example:
Tie a salesperson to an order placed, and use the order table as the primary
fact table. For all reporting and visualizations that can be tied to orders,
all one has to do is incorporate an association to that table. Worrying about
which customers, products, time periods, etc. a salesperson can see are
automatically handled by that association.
I am not saying that PostresSQL implements what I am describing, but this
example can be expanded by creating an intermediate table with many-to-many
associations. E.g., this table might have one row for each salesperson's
access and one row for each salesperson under a supervisor. Once again, a
centralized location for controlling access throughout the entire analytical
data model. It is a very useful tool that I have relied upon extensively.
~~~
emidln
Meh, you can already do this with a query AST. For every request, grab the
user's data permissions represented in the same query AST and then AND them
together. Compile your query AST into whatever search technology (I've seen it
done with ES, Postgres, MySQL, Mongo, Solr, and Rethinkdb in the last couple
years). If you're being super fancy you can even use your query ast to match
on a document stream in real-time by compiling to some actual programming
language and checking things on whatever document stream.
~~~
pgeorgi
The difference is that postgres can enforce this for arbitrary queries.
This doesn't matter in the typical webapp where all accesses to the DB happen
through the same database user id, but when actually using the user system of
the DB, it allows for fine grained access control to a common data set.
The closest you have without explicit RLS support is to create a view for each
user. RLS generates per-user views on demand under a common name.
~~~
darrhiggs
I use schemas[0] for this. Could someone explain what advantage is gained from
RLS in comparison, either to views or schemas?
[0] [http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/ddl-
schemas.ht...](http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/ddl-schemas.html)
~~~
bmh100
I am very familiar with RLS, but not schemas. Could you provide an example of
how you would use schemas? If not too much trouble, could you also use my
salesperson example from my other comments?
------
rdtsc
BRIN (Block Range) Indices look really interesting.
Instead of storing the whole B-Tree (and spending time updating it) just store
summary of ranges (pages).
This for example, would be great for a time series database that is write
heavy but not read as often.
I found these benchmarks here explaining the differences:
[http://www.depesz.com/2014/11/22/waiting-for-9-5-brin-
block-...](http://www.depesz.com/2014/11/22/waiting-for-9-5-brin-block-range-
indexes/)
\---
Creating 650MB tables:
* btree: 626.859 ms.
* brin: 208.754 ms
(3x speedup)
Updating 30% of values:
* btree: 8398.461 ms.
* brin: 1398.711 ms.
(4x speedup)
Extra bonus:
* size of btree index: 28MB
* size of brin: 64kb
Search (for a range):
$ select count(*) from table where id between 600000::int8 and 650000::int8;
* btree between: 9.574 ms
* brin between: 21.090 ms
\---
~~~
saosebastiao
Yep, this is a big deal, for me at least. It basically makes it almost cost-
free to add indexes to tables that are write heavy.
I've always felt like Bitmap Indexes were a killer feature, and never
understood why they weren't used more in databases. If you have a low
cardinality column (anything suitable for an enum), your indexes become
incredibly fast and cheap.
~~~
pjungwir
There was an effort to build bitmap indexes for Postgres a few years ago.
There are details in the mailing list archives. It looks like it was almost
completed! It's high on my list of things to tackle if I ever get time to
start contributing, but maybe someone else will get to it first.
~~~
facetube
Is that different than the bitmap index access method, which IIRC landed in
8.1 or so, and is used to combine results of multiple index scans?
~~~
pjungwir
Yes, totally different thing. :-) A great book on query plan stuff is here:
[http://www.amazon.com/PostgreSQL-High-Performance-Gregory-
Sm...](http://www.amazon.com/PostgreSQL-High-Performance-Gregory-
Smith/dp/184951030X)
------
mixmastamyk
Love me some postgres. If I could be so bold as to ask for a feature or two,
it would be great if the initial setup were easier to script.
Perhaps this is outdated already but we have to resort to here-documents and
other shenanigans to get the initial db and users created. Is there a better
way to do this?
Next would be to further improve the clustering, to remove the last reason
people continue to use mysql.
~~~
Roboprog
Here is my script to create a test instance in about 5 seconds (albeit without
any tables define yet, just space for them, with a running server on that
space, and an account to create and use the tables in the DB):
(puts tablespace in folder under current directory)
<code>
#!/bin/sh -x
# create and run an empty database
# note: fails miserably if there are spaces in directory names
PGDATA=`pwd`/pgdata
export PGDATA
# make it if not there
mkdir -p $PGDATA
# clean it out if anything there
/bin/rm -rf $PGDATA/*
# set up the database directory layout
initdb
# start the server process
nohup postgres 2>&1 > postgres.log &
sleep 2
# create an empty DB/schema
createdb edrs_test_db
# create a user and password ("demo") to use for connections
psql -d edrs_test_db -c "create user guest password 'guest'"
ps auxww | grep '[p]ostgres'
echo run tail -f postgres.log to monitor database
# vi: nu ai ts=4 sw=4
# __* EOF __*
</code>
"edrs" is the name of an app - sub in something more applicable. I'm running
this on OXS, but should work on Linux as well.
~~~
AlterEgo20
Why `nohup postgres 2>&1 > postgres.log &` instead of `pg_ctl start`? You
could also use `pg_ctl -w start` to wait for proper server startup instead of
`sleep 2`
~~~
Roboprog
Why? Ignorance. I'm used to running postmaster from years past (when not
starting from an /etc script). Postmaster is now just called postgres, and it
works for a disposable test instance setup.
I'll look into that, though, as it sounds like the right thing vs the sleep
hack.
------
bkeroack
Nobody has mentioned jsonb partial updates yet. This is huge and goes further
in superseding MongoDB use cases. Previously you would have add your own
locking mechanisms (or use SELECT ... FOR UPDATE) so read/modify/update could
be performed atomically. Now it will be built in.
~~~
jrochkind1
You already could do that with postgres hstore, I think, but postgres hstore
is limited to a flat list of key/values, not nested data structures like json.
I've been wishing for a while though that Rails ActiveRecord would support the
atomic partial update operations inside hstore that postgres already does.
([http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.0/static/hstore.html](http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.0/static/hstore.html))
------
jtwebman
Do you guys think row-level security will eventually replace the crazy logic
we have to add to our systems normally to allow for this? I can think of many
places this might help a bunch if combined with SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION
command.
~~~
brlewis
I thought you could do that now by making a view and setting security on the
view. Oracle allows for that sort of thing.
~~~
jtwebman
True, I have seen Microsoft SQL systems like that as well.
------
lephyrius
No, partial updates of materialized views it seems like.
~~~
pilif
nope. but since 9.4 you can at least update them without an exclusive lock on
them.
------
Roboprog
Cool stuff for multi-tenant DBs! Aside from the obvious row level security,
tenant ID makes a nice BRIN key for some tables, I suspect.
------
therealunreal
It sounds like BRIN could replace partitioning on some cases. Am I right?
Assuming you have a huge log table, partitioned by week, would this be a
better fit?
~~~
saosebastiao
For a log table or anything immutable and write heavy, definitely.
That being said it might be difficult to know when you won't get any benefit
out of it unless you have control or knowledge of how rows are laid out in the
table space. For example, deleting some rows based off of a fairly random
criteria may make Postgres insert into those spaces on subsequent writes
(after a vacuum), which could "pollute" the block ranges with non-ordinal data
and make the block ranges less targeted.
------
ExpiredLink
Upsert, oh well. CRUD becomes CRUDUM: Create, Read, Update, Delete, Uperst,
Merge.
Instead of 4 orthogonal concepts we now have 6 overlapping. Because the
majority voted for it. That's progress!
~~~
andrewl-hn
Well, philosophically, CRUD is a lie. You only ever need two operations: READ
and UPSERT.
Create with upsert and Delete by upserting "deleted = true" flag.
~~~
bmh100
That "deleted" flag is extremely useful in data warehousing and OLAP
applications. I wish every table had a "deleted" column and an "updated"
column.
~~~
Todd
They do in my schemas :)
One extra tip, which I have found useful, is to make the deleted column a time
data type (just like created and updated), but nullable. That way, your
Boolean check just needs to change to an IS NULL check, but you get the
additional 'when' information without using an extra column.
~~~
pjungwir
That is the normal pattern in Rails apps using the `acts_as_paranoid` or
`permanent_records` gems (`deleted_at` to match `created_at` and
`updated_at`). But I often also have `deleted_by_id` to capture Who, and I
wonder if I shouldn't just have a separate `deletions` table with the who/when
and other context, and then `deletion_id` on the record.
And then I wonder if I should track updates too. There are auditing solutions
to record all that, but the ones I know are (rightly) not really designed for
building application logic on top of.
The idea of a relational schema having some kind of temporal dimension letting
you get at changes is something that's been on my mind a lot lately.
~~~
mason55
> _There are auditing solutions to record all that, but the ones I know are
> (rightly) not really designed for building application logic on top of._
Yes, a big problem with table-level audits is that you lose all kinds of
information about the other entities in the system. Sure, now you have an
audit log of when a row was changed, but you don't really know anything about
the state of all the other pieces of the database at that time, so you can't
really usefully reconstruct what the entity looked like at the time it was
modified.
In theory you could parse through the whole audit log to reconstruct the state
of the DB but in practice it gets very complicated.
~~~
bmh100
A better solution is to perform row-level snapshots with a compressed storage
format, such as a column store. I maintain a database which takes monthly
snapshots of data and supports an application that allows period vs. period
comparisons of aggregates or even individual rows. In my case, I use
snapshots, but more space efficient (at the cost of computation) would be to
only store changed records, then dynamically determine which data to show
based on the desired periods and sorted the row changes.
~~~
pjungwir
I think what mason had in mind, which I agree is a major pain point, is when a
central table "owns" records in other tables, e.g. a `book` might have several
rows in `pages`. I want to say "give me edition 3" and get not just the book
at that point but all its pages too. Tracking changes to the book is not so
hard, but reconstructing it with all its child records is a pain.
~~~
mason55
Yes exactly. Piecing together the state of all the foreign tables across the
system at a specific point in time is difficult/painful.
This is one place where document stores really shine as you generally keep
everything in a single place. When you update a document you don't have to
worry about the values of all the foreign keys, you just save the current
version which contains all your values.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Show HN: Pincone – A Bookmarking Tool for Teams - ivanbozic
https://pincone.com/
======
njakic
Looks really nice and simple to use. Great job.
------
ldulcic
Very nice app! Been looking for something like this.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Uber Poaches PR Chief Whetstone from Google - abetaha
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/05/13/uber-poaches-pr-chief-whetstone-from-google/?mod=WSJ_TechWSJD_NeedToKnow
======
JoeAltmaier
That would mean something if people were cattle that are herded around against
their will. Time to stop using the meaningless word "poach".
~~~
dragonwriter
I think the word "poach" accurately reflects the attitude corporations have
toward their "human resources", even if it doesn't reflect either the legal or
moral reality of the relationship.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Wikileaks defectors to launch Openleaks alternative - zacharyvoase
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11981301
======
rick888
"Unlike Wikileaks, Openleaks will not publish or verify material; leaving that
role to newspapers"
What's the point then? If the leaks aren't verified, then they are just
rumors.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Volkswagen’s Diesel Fraud Makes Critic of Secret Code a Prophet - sinak
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/23/nyregion/volkswagens-diesel-fraud-makes-critic-of-secret-code-a-prophet.html
======
snowwrestler
I think that the code that operates dangerous machines should be publicly
available. I think that applying the DMCA to keep it hidden is a bad
application of that law and beyond Congress's intent.
The DMCA was intended to protect creative works like movies or songs, where
the whole value is in the encoded file.
Code that runs a car is the opposite: it is worthless by itself. Keeping it
hidden from the public just enables bad behavior.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What are reasonable actions to take with COVID-19? - nouveaux
Given the information we have, what are reasonable actions to take either personally or for your business if you're not currently in a high risk region?
======
sysbin
Personally, I've purchased water, canned food & bags of beans, supplements,
medication, an air purifier and cleaning supplies. I'll be working from home
if the virus hits where I live. I think I'm not prepared in the sense of what
I would like if the virus truly hits where I live. I'm guessing you would want
to isolate yourself from everyone. I can only theorize but I assume 6 months
would be how long the disaster could last. An ideal situation would be living
in the middle of nowhere with 6 months of supplies. Lastly, invest in things
to keep your psych positive.
------
byoung2
The same best practices always apply whether there is an outbreak or not.
Prevent the spread of germs by washing your hands thoroughly and often, keep
high traffic surfaces clean. For the current novel corona virus, avoid travel
to the affected region and avoid contact with people who have recently
traveled to the affected region. So far all cases have been people who have
traveled to Wuhan or have had prolonged direct contact with someone who has
(e.g. a spouse).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Things I Wish I'd Known At 20 - teejayvanslyke
http://www.teejayvanslyke.com/2016/11/02/what-i-wish-id-known-at-20/
======
quickpost
Great list. I'm 37 and I still haven't mastered many of those things.
The only one I would really take issue with is "Don't Buy a House". If you get
a good deal on a property that is good for you and your family, buying always
makes more sense, especially at current interest rates. You can fix your
monthly cost for year after year instead of paying ever increasing amounts of
rent.
~~~
teejayvanslyke
Thanks for the comment! I think my main point here was that buying a house
isn't necessarily a good investment, depending on your goals and the price of
the house relative to its value.
I will say though, that it makes sense for owners to defend their position,
since they're already owners. And, as a renter, I'm likely to do the same.
Regardless, I appreciate both perspectives!
~~~
johnwheeler
It's really strange that, ever since the financial crisis, 20-30 somethings
are starting to rationalize rent over ownership. It's a counterproductive
argument that hinges on interest rates quickly shooting back up to 7-8% so
housing prices go back down. There are a lot of forces moving against that
though. Asset holders (homes and stock) aren't so keen on giving up the new
values they've become accustom to, and Europe has negative rates. When Ben
Bernake left the Fed, he started giving these 250K dinners to Wall Street. The
crux of his message was low interest rates are here to stay.
[http://www.businessinsider.com/r-at-big-ticket-dinners-a-
blu...](http://www.businessinsider.com/r-at-big-ticket-dinners-a-blunt-
bernanke-sounds-theme-of-low-rates-2014-16)
And, even if interest rates do rise dramatically over the next 10-20 years,
inflation will act as a counterweight against the argument of buying now.
Instead of rationalizing rent, I think you'd do better to downsize and try to
get a house you can afford. That way you have a strong asset you can work with
if your $150,000 in 401K money doesn't amount to squat in your 70s.
Not trying to be a jerk, but America has been sold a lie with the 401K (watch
"The Retirement Gamble" on PBS), There's going to be a major crisis in 30
years. In my view, there's no real answer other than trying to amass a shit
ton of assets and hoping technology relieves some of the burden rather than
compounding it. Ok, now I'm getting off topic... :-)
Anyway, yours is a smart piece, and I'm sure you'll do fine.
------
uola
While I agree with most of this I think it's somewhat too strict. For many
people their twenties is the only time they will have time, money and vigour.
If you get the chance you should take advantage of that.
------
petecooper
>Invest in ergonomics. Stand at work.
I invested in a Mirra chair in 2006, transitioned to a stand up desk in 2014
and I wholeheartedly recommend doing either or both if your finances and
ability permit.
------
fred_is_fred
Lots of these are mutually exclusive. Don't sweat work and work 8 hours a day,
but if you're in debt, work hard. Don't spend any money and live like the
average person and don't drink but fall in love. Where will you meet this
person who loves your boring frugal 20 year old self? Don't go out, but enjoy
sex now. Don't be in debt but follow your dreams.
------
srgseg
"Symbols of status matter, but the symbols aren’t your car, house, or
clothes." What are the symbols that matter?
~~~
teejayvanslyke
Hm. I'd say happiness, influence, and respect. Maybe those aren't symbols.
Maybe I just liked the way that line sounded as I typed it.
------
gandolfinmyhead
I'd correct one thing. Instead of "If you’re a man: Respect women." to
"Respect people."
------
CodeWriter23
This is a great list. The only thing I would add:
35.1 Gratitude is not a feeling but an action.
Can I go back in time 30 years now?
------
HiroshiSan
Great list though 13 and 24 seem almost contradictory, can you expand on 24?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Ask HN: How can I be competitive? - brewerhimself
I don't have any projects to show off. I haven't been programming since I was 5 years old. I don't have a college degree. How am I supposed to compete with those who went to Stanford, started programming while still in the womb, and have already started 2 or 3 companies? Obviously I am exaggerating, but there are still loads of potential developers out there whose resumes would run circles around mine. What can I do to make sure I stand a chance?
======
NonEUCitizen
Take the time (a few years at least) to learn, and to write code. AFTERWARDS,
you might be competitive, and might stay so if you continue to learn and code.
Note that it might be possible to do so while getting paid. I know of a guy
who years ago applied for a job with Borland in SDK tech support. They gave
him an open book test, saying "if you can find the answers in the manual,
we'll hire you." After years of doing tech support, since he was immersed in
the info day in and day out, he became one of the most knowledgeable C++
programmers I've met. Other potential paths include starting in QA, or tech
writing.
Take classes. Khan Academy, Coursera, Udacity, and EdX offer free classes.
BUT it will take time. If you're not willing to spend the time, pick another
field.
~~~
brewerhimself
This is interesting because, while I know it will take time, I don't want to
wait. Right now I feel so far removed from the technical community because the
city I live in doesn't offer a lot. I think that, given the opportunity, I
would be very happy to work in QA while I learn.
What resources would you recommend for finding a QA or similar job? I've never
held a job even remotely related.
------
leot
Most people spend most of their "free" time browsing the internet and being
unfocused.
Don't be like most people.
~~~
brewerhimself
Last night I read something about 16 ways to be productive or something like
that. After some thought, I realized how much time I waste just mindlessly
surfing the net every day.
One point the article made was that scheduling is key, especially is self-
discipline isn't your strong point (and believe me, it isn't a strong point of
mine). So I decided that, before going to bed, I would create a schedule for
the following day (that is, today) and stick to it. There were a few bumps
along the road that required moving some things around but now it's 7:00 PM
and I've managed to complete everything on the list up until this point.
From now on, I will be explicitly scheduling free time (I actually have some
coming up in about 30 minutes).
~~~
shyn3
If you struggle to schedule, which you don't seem to, you can de-schedule.
What I do is schedule time for goofing off (browsing) that way the rest of the
time is focused on what I have to do. Granted it helps listing the tasks but I
struggle to complete tasks in allotted time frames.
~~~
brewerhimself
I tend to schedule more time than I think I'll need to complete a task, rather
than less. Any time left over goes to tasks that I didn't complete earlier in
the day and, if none exist, I browse.
------
shyn3
I am not a developer but a few people I know were able to score freelance gigs
by creating open source software for businesses and blasting them.
One guy created a small utility for text expansion and easy to program
keyboard shortcuts, hundreds of these exist, he emailed the Git URL to several
businesses in the area who he thought would find it useful. They replied and
now he has clients asking to modify/enhance his open source software.
------
lumberjack
Perhaps you are being unrealistic. Don't expect to be competitive now. If you
don't have the skills, you need to develop them. This takes time.
But then again all you need to create a startup, is some working code. I
doesn't even need to be bug free or optimized or thoughtfully designed for
that matter. If it's good enough to offer something for someone it's enough to
get you started.
~~~
brewerhimself
I would think that releasing before working out bugs is considered to be bad
practice. Is this not the case?
~~~
lumberjack
Bugs have priorities. It depends.
------
pizza
For now, do what you need to do pay bills. Eventually, you'll find problems
you want to solve, and solve them for fun. Once you've programmed for long
enough to deliver great solutions, you become competitive.
~~~
brewerhimself
No offence, but I'm looking for something more proactive. :) I want to
actively work towards my goal, not wait for something to come along.
~~~
bonesinger
I'm in the same boat as you, but the above advice is good advice. I'm looking
for any job so that I can pay my bills while I take online classes and
complete Ruby on Rails tutorial.
I also have 2-3 ideas that I want to develop that I can showcase. These
projects are just vehicles to showcase my technical expertise. Then I'll apply
for positions and use my portfolio I have made to showcase experience.
This is actively working towards your goal. If you can't find a job in the
profession you want, you have to generate the opportunities yourself!
~~~
brewerhimself
I was thinking about working on a Reddit clone while making some open source
contributions. How does that sound?
~~~
bonesinger
Go for it man! the RoR Tutorial builds a twitter clone. The process of making
the clone is the learning period.
Once I'm done with going through RoR, I want to develop my own blog from
scratch.
I'm also taking some Udacity classes and Coursera as well.
Lastly, get involved, do some volunteer work (e.g. design a site for a
nonprofit, church, whatever..)
Those kids from Standford started programming at a young age, but they built
up a nice portfolio, you should do the same.
~~~
brewerhimself
Shoot me an email at [email protected] sometime; I'd be interested to
hear what you think about Udacity. I'm taking the Introduction to Statistics
class right now myself.
------
jiggity
You have it the other way around. Resumes, programming skill, college degrees
mean nothing. NOTHING. You should be complaining about your ability to think
up interesting problems and interesting solutions to solve them.
.
Think of programming like Legos. The only fun way to play with Legos is to
pick an awesome thing to make beforehand (Say a 3 foot tall T-Rex) then figure
out how to put random pieces together until you have what you had in mind. It
doesn't matter you don't know fluid dynamics, rigid body mechanics, or
structural engineering. You don't need a physics degree from MIT to make
something interesting in Legos. In fact, the only real thing that really
matters is your ability to pick something amazing to make. You _will_ learn
how to make it if you have sufficient motivation. You will get motivated
because what you're about to make is incredibly exciting.
Say there was an amateur who managed to make a 3 foot tall T-Rex vs. a
mechanical engineer who made a 10-inch high structurally sound lego table. An
audience sudden enters and they immediately warm around the T-Rex. "But, but,"
protests the mechanical engineer, "my chair is built with industry best
practices. Look at that T-Rex! It's a mish-mash of random structure. No self-
respecting engineer would be seen next to that thing." The audience doesn't
care. The T-Rex is cool. The T-Rex is interesting. The T-Rex is fun.
Could the amateur have built a better T-Rex if he knew about some of the
engineering principles? Yes. But in the end, it doesn't matter. The mechanical
engineer chose to build something stuffy and boring. The amateur, using his
superior problem discovery skillset, chose to build something amazing.
There are a million engineers out there who can build to industry best
practices. There is only one out of a million who trains up his ability to
think of something crazy new and interesting to build.
.
A personal story:
I went to MIT and I still didn't know how to do MVC in php properly until my
senior year. What I did know how to do was pick a fun problem then bash my
head against it repeatedly until it worked. I would spend hours perusing
through the docs and obscure questions on bulletin boards until I found a code
snippet that did what I wanted. Even then, I didn't always know how the code
snippet worked. I just pasted it in and prayed to god it worked. Sometimes it
did, most times it didn't. When it didn't, I fiddled around with the variables
until somehow, somehow I made it work. And boy, that felt great!
If a semi-decent programmer had looked at my code, he would've gouged his eyes
out. The redeeming factor to all my franken-code was the fact that if I did
manage to get everything functional at the end, it was always a fun result.
Because it was fun, I did side project after side project. It was an addictive
cycle -- with the new skills I picked up, I could envision even more fun
projects. During the process, I learned about php, MVC, mySQL, then rapidly
accelerated through to Android, ObjectiveC, Flash, HTML5, RabbitMQ, Node, and
Redis.
.
_Jiggity's Guide to Become a Rockstar Startup Founder_
1\. Try your best to think of a FUN problem. (Think T-Rex equivalent of
something "cool" and "interesting" in tech.)
2\. Try your best to think up a FUN solution. (Most people never fully achieve
steps 1 and 2, settling for mediocre problems and mediocre solutions.)
3\. Figure out what is the minimum set of skills you need to make the
solution.
4\. Learn those skills while making the solution.
5\. Congratulations! You've added a creative product to your portfolio and
increased your skillset by X amount.
~~~
brewerhimself
Thanks for taking the time to type that beast. I can see how most people never
achieve steps 1 and 2. I find it difficult to come up with an idea that other
people think is really cool or, if I do, it's a ridiculously difficult idea
that I don't possess ever a fraction of the required skillset.
One project that I've considered before is some sort of auto-piloted arduino-
based plane that would fly across the US from Jacksonville, FL (where I live
now) to Mountain View, CA. I think this might be comparable to your T-Rex
example in that, while it has no practical use, it's still pretty damn cool.
Thoughts?
~~~
jiggity
That's excellent! It certainly had me going, "That's pretty cool." I was
checking the arduino docs and it looks like it has a ton of support for
connecting the board to the Internet -- even being able to host its own
webserver / connect with Twitter / run a Telnet client.
If your goal is to learn further web development, try including a net
component as a more central piece of your product vision. It's your way of
hacking your brain such that you'll have to, _want_ to learn that stuff to
achieve your cool project.
~~~
brewerhimself
I'll keep it in mind! Thanks!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
What's the best way to build a multi-tenant system like Hashnode? - emekaallison
My team and I are currently build an platform in which each user can add their custom domains. I'm just curious. How do companies like Hashnode do that?
======
factorialboy
Build an app server that understands hosts names. For example a middleware
that parses host names, extracts domains / subdomains and passes that to route
handlers.
That's all there is to it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Newscatcher API Beta – JSON API to search for relevant news data - artembugara
https://newscatcherapi.com/docs
======
chris_f
Cool, I've used Webhose and NewsAPI, but it's always good to have another
structured news feed option.
The one thing that sets these services apart is the ability to provide the
full text of the articles vs. a snippet.
~~~
artembugara
Yeah, but it is quite of illegal to redistribute the full article text.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
I hate/luv my job social network - rokhayakebe
Alright guys, I haven't research this one, but can someone put together a social network for people who hate their jobs and are trying to find ways to get out. Obviously the best way to do what they love would be to connect with people who already doing it. Hook it up and let me know. You got 2 weeks.
======
run4yourlives
Just a point: Social Networking is not a cure all for everything. I'd imagine,
the market for people who hate their current jobs and want to get out is both
small (most people don't have the guts) and temporary (once you do it, it's
done).
I don't imagine this would be a successful venture, but who knows?
~~~
rokhayakebe
budddy. 80% of all people dislike their jobs. Now Hating is totally more then
disliking, but disliking is the start.
~~~
run4yourlives
I didn't say they didn't dislike them; but they won't leave them either.
80% of people not willing to stop doing something they don't like to do isn't
a recipe for anything but a giant bitch fest.
Of course, that might in itself be profitable.
~~~
rokhayakebe
Sure enough. And because most wont change their job, there is your opportunity
to do something revolutionary.
~~~
dfens
So what's stopping you?
~~~
rokhayakebe
I am already working on my own project. Plus I only like to work on mobile
tech. But if no1 does within 2 weeks I am gonna use joomla and put this up
quick
------
jraines
Isn't this pretty much what YCombinator startup Overhear.us is doing?
~~~
yubrew
I think overhear.us is a place where you can bitch about your job, but doesn't
offer any way to do anything about it. Rokhayakebe is suggesting to fix this
problem via social networking.
I think the alternatives are the intact networks that people use to find new
jobs (alumni, friends, professionals, head hunters). How will it compete with
Facebook?
Right now on Facebook, I can search by employer of interest (e.g. Google,
McKinsey, etc) and it will pop up the closest contacts by some sort of FoaF
distance algorithm. I can friend them and message them to open up a dialogue.
~~~
rokhayakebe
That is a good start. Who ever wants to do it should add audio and video
support. just so I can say this SH?? out loud. That would make me feel good.
------
twism
Ning... maybe?
------
joshwa
Make a facebook group.
------
ivan
Hm ... great idea :)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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My next step: Mathematics and functional programming? - EgeBamyasi
Hi!<p>First, a proper introduction. Im a 22 year old student from Sweden who have been programming on and off since I was 12, and at the moment Im studying "application development", at something called KY(basically a little less fancy university where you have 6 months of mandatory internship at some company).What we do at school is object oriented programming day in and day out for two and a half year, and during my summer break Im working with a iPhone-app. I would say that my understanding of the object oriented paradigm is steadily getting better and better.<p>Although I really enjoy this and never get bored doing it I have begun to think about what would be my next step, after i graduate October 2011.<p>Over the last couple of years I have stared to enjoy mathematics more and more and have been looking at functional programming(mainly Haskell) for a while and I feel that this is something I would be willing to spend a good portion of my life doing(among artist, record label owner, custom bicycle builder and rock star :-) ). Im interested to work with functional programming and to know math, not so much work with it.<p>So, I have a couple of questions.<p>A. What would be best choice to get the most out of a degree and get the deepest understanding about FP? A CS-bachelor with mainly math and functional programming courses(in Sweden Chalmers offers quite a lot in this subject) or a Mathematics bachelor with lots functional programming courses?<p>B. Should I work for a few years before I start studying again? On one hand I think It would be nice to get some real experience but on the other Im afraid that if I get to deep down in the OO-rabbit hole I would get stuck in it, have a harder time grasping all the, for me, abstract techniques and theorems behind FP or just get comfortable with the salary and refuse to start living as a poor student again ;-).<p>C. I know there is always exiting work for a good programmer, but how is it for a functional programmer?(I'm not limited by living in Sweden, I really want to work all over the world). Do you have to be among the best to get somewhere? Is there many jobs where you program a good portion in the FPparadigm etc etc.<p>D. Is the idea of studying a lot of math stupid since Its mostly for my personal interest? Would it be better to do a CS, have fun on the math-courses, and choose other courses, maybe software engineering stuff like that to broaden my OO-understanding?<p>And since Im a music nerd and have held your attention for this long I would like to offer a song as compensation for the long text :-)
I present; Tetragon - Fugue, on of the most awesome and epic song of all time.
Part 1/2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNlOuzNkF40
Part 2/2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9bXMtMIR-s
======
rudin
I'm finishing up a mathematics degree so I'll tackle question A from my
perspective.
If you know how to program a CS degree can be very tedious. This is mainly why
I made the switch to mathematics. On the other side mathematics will teach you
many things that are fairly archaic as the discipline has not really caught up
with the advances in computing over the last few decades.
Both are good for what you want. If I could do it again though I would select
a few CS courses (fp etc), some mathematics (graph theory, algebra,
cryptography), and actually major in a liberal arts area like linguistics.
~~~
EgeBamyasi
Do you feel that your programming skills have increased due to your
mathematics studies(I make a difference between programming and problem
solving, this is maybe the wrong way to see it?)?
Why is it that you would have majored in another area if you where to do it
all again?
My plan is to use logical reasoning, problem solving and mathematical
knowledge in lots of different fields outside computer science hence the main
interest in mathematical studies.
Computers have been my Nr. 1 interest for as long as I can remember but I
don´t think that I want to WORK with them for more than about 15-20 years,
there Is so much more to do, music, building stuff, working with people on a
non technical level etc.
Anyways, thanks for the reply!
------
nimms
My advice is to follow your interests, especially since they mean getting into
solving deeper and more interesting problems.
There are lots of people out there with standard programming backgrounds, not
a lot coming from the deeper and more esoteric ones.
I figure if you want interesting work, you gotta have an interesting
education.
Also don't too hung up on the OO vs FP shiz. They're both just tools for
solving a problem. Learn them both and take what you need.
Also I like your fugue...but <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoA0cTC228M>
...turn it up
~~~
EgeBamyasi
Yeah, I get that FP, OO, Logical etc etc. paradigms just is different ways to
model problems around and that you should choose the one best suited for the
task.
What I meant was that If I were to work with OO 8hr/day for a longer period of
time Im afraid that I would get so "wired up" in the OO way of thinking that I
would have a hard time learning and understanding to think in a correct FP-
manner.
Oh, This Is Happening is an excellent record! Since were in on electronic
stuff I must recommend Bot'Ox - Blue Steel :-)
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMEUpF7mNb0>
------
hga
As a general comment, you're not likely to regret studying a lot of math
whatever you end up doing. It's very useful general purpose stuff, both it and
how it trains you to think.
~~~
CyberFonic
Have you looked at FOOP - Functional Object Oriented Programming? It very
neatly marries FP and OOP. ECMAscript and Python both implement the paradigm.
Suggest learning a solid foundation of Lisp, then languages like Clojure, etc
will be easier to pickup.
Uni level math is very different from high school. If you need a bridging
course take a look at [http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-
comput...](http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-
science/6-042j-mathematics-for-computer-science-spring-2005/lecture-notes/).
------
gtani
Somebody observed (around here or reddit?) recently that there are no
unemployed mathematicians. By that, s/he probably meant
statistics/probability, linear algebra and diff EQ's as good things to be good
at:
[http://measuringmeasures.com/blog/2010/3/12/learning-
about-m...](http://measuringmeasures.com/blog/2010/3/12/learning-about-
machine-learning-2nd-ed.html)
=====================
FP, there's pretty strong interest in erlang, ocaml, haskell, F#, scala ,
clojure. Also scheme/CL .
[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/805429/learning-scala-
or-...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/805429/learning-scala-or-haskell)
[http://www.slideshare.net/brweber2/functional-concepts-
for-o...](http://www.slideshare.net/brweber2/functional-concepts-for-oop-
developers-presentation)
[http://enfranchisedmind.com/blog/posts/what-killed-lisp-
coul...](http://enfranchisedmind.com/blog/posts/what-killed-lisp-could-kill-
haskell-as-well/)
[http://ivory.idyll.org/blog/jun-10/functional-programming-
la...](http://ivory.idyll.org/blog/jun-10/functional-programming-languages)
~~~
EgeBamyasi
Thank you for the links, although I already know the basics of FP(or Haskell
at least, good enough to solve most of the Project Euler problems I've been
able to do with OO) and at this moment Haskell seems to be the best tool for
learning FP for me so Im going to stick with it :-). And if I know one FP-
language really well would't it be just like with procedural programming
languages, trivial to pick up a new language?
What Im after is a full understanding of what happens "under the hood", I've
read some articles about lambda calculus, higher order functions, monads etc.
but I get lost in all the math and abstract thinking.
~~~
ananthrk
Not to discourage you, but have a look at this comment from mahmud
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=538241>
Infact, that whole thread is awesome.
~~~
EgeBamyasi
Thanks! Micah´s blogpost and Norvig's page were fun reading.
------
EgeBamyasi
For anyone who might be interested in readin more about FP, whats its good for
and when to use it here are som reading.
Why functional programming matters, by John Hughes(This one is recommended all
over the place :-) ). Its really fun to read and he writes in a natual and
easy to understand way.
[http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.63....](http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.63.7911&rep=rep1&type=pd)
A comparison of an Quick Sort implementation, C# vs Haskell. For problems
involving large amount of data and the need to operate over it functional
programming seems like the perfect choice.
[http://shunsuk.blogspot.com/2008/02/quick-sort-haskell-
vs-c....](http://shunsuk.blogspot.com/2008/02/quick-sort-haskell-vs-c.htm)
------
ryanteo
Hi, New to FP as well, and I like your list of interests =)
Have you ever considered Clojure with Incanter?
http://data-sorcery.org/
~~~
EgeBamyasi
Not until now, thanks for the tip! :-)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Intercom for Stripe - patrickod
http://intercom.io/stripe-integration
======
eoghan
Eoghan McCabe here, CEO of Intercom. Happy to answer any questions you might
have. We're really excited to see what people do with this integration. It's
already quite deep, but we've got a few more interesting features on the way.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Plastic-eating wax worms and the global pollution crisis - vixen99
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/04/24/plastic-eating-wax-worm-extremely-exciting-global-pollution/
======
tdburn
Very cool
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Strange Birth and Long Life of Unix - naish
http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/software/the-strange-birth-and-long-life-of-unix/0
======
fendrak
The rebellious nature of Unix sharing in the early days taught an important
lesson for would-be sharers today: either take pains to make sure your
software can be used by anyone who wants to, or risk being shackled by lawyers
and corporations who don't want it to be used.
------
jamesgeck0
I can't remember a time before CVS (and now DVCS). Distributing patches via
geocache sounds awesome.
~~~
sixtofour
"Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling
down the highway." —Tanenbaum, Andrew S.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sneakernet#In_media>
~~~
eru
The latency is the problem, not the bandwidth.
(By the way, considered as a means of transferring information sex has lots of
bandwidth, too. Not, yet, useful for sharing patches, though.)
~~~
sneak
Well, not consciously-designed ones.
------
plessthanpt05
other than unix (clearly) being one of the most important technological leaps
forward in computing, which is just a given at this point, well, that pic is
just awesome!
------
Getahobby
Ok. Awesome article. Even more awesome that I didn't have to click "next page"
12 times.
------
vorg
> By the mid-1970s, the environment of sharing that had sprung up around Unix
> resembled the open-source movement so prevalent today.
Not sure what percentage of today's open-source movement has an environment of
sharing. Much of it is cathedrals in bazaar's clothing.
~~~
thwarted
Code availability and development methodology are independent axes of sharing.
One is sharing the output and the other is sharing responsibility.
Since you don't even need to even _ask_ for the code for open source projects,
it's there for the taking, the sharing is actually _better_ than it was in the
1970s. Largely this has to do with the greater ease of communication and
distribution. It's easier for me to share my code by putting it on github or
providing a .tar.gz and forgetting about it, than it for me to have to cut a
tape every time someone asks for it. In fact, when companies honor the letter
of many open source licenses by only making their modified source available if
you actually ask for it or assert your identity by filling out a web form,
rather than putting it on a publicly accessible site somewhere, they are often
chided for making the user have to jump through hoops to get the source
(notwithstanding the companies that actually violate the license and don't
make the source available via any means, of course).
That the development style of not directly/immediately incorporating various
changes from other parties may be a more cathedral, rather than bazaar, but
nothing is stopping the recipients of the code from forking it and
distributing and sharing their own changes with each other. In fact, the very
definition of open source is such that that is encouraged; that few do, or
that people are not motivated to fork, has nothing to do with the culture of
sharing the code, and, again, most likely has more to do with the ease of
which it's possible to get the canonical version of the code and the branding
behind the consistency of that canonical version.
I can bring a baseball bat I turned on my own lathe to the park and let other
people use it, but just because I don't let someone else customize my bat or
use my lathe doesn't mean I'm not sharing the bat.
~~~
vorg
> Code availability and development methodology are independent axes of
> sharing. One is sharing the output and the other is sharing responsibility.
They're different degrees of sharing, rather than independent axes. Sharing
responsibility is a greater degree of sharing than sharing output because you
generally don't have an open development process without shared source code.
My comment about "a cathedral in a bazaar's clothing" describes projects which
start out as open process, but after a while become less and less open so they
end up as open source only. The people taking them over keep up the appearance
and terminology of the original open processes, but without the reality.
------
cygwin98
Not to nitpick on the author. But 16KB was quite a bit memory in early 1970's.
~~~
ajross
Indeed: 147456 (probably plus some for parity; not sure what the PDP-7 memory
bus looked like) tiny little beads threaded onto tiny wires by human beings.
That amount of memory in an SRAM array (almost a million transistors!) was
unthinkable in a minicomputer, and DRAM had just been invented and was even
more expensive than core.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Tumblr is hiring a Weapons Engineer.. wtf does that even mean? - manny_nyc
https://boards.greenhouse.io/tumblr/jobs/32646?gh_jid=32646
======
BrentSkillhd
Welcome to link bait, may I take your order?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Apple employees arrested for selling private user data in China - typingduck
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jun/09/apple-employees-arrested-selling-private-user-data-china-criminal
======
merricksb
Heavily discussed yesterday:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14513184](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14513184)
------
romdev
Misleading title. They were, according to the article, employees of an Apple
“domestic direct sales company and outsourcing company”.
------
DavidHm
It's a good thing Apple, Google and Facebook care deeply about our privacy and
would never abuse the trust of their users. Or the users' lack of interest in
protecting one's privacy.
~~~
heavymark
In regards to the sarcasm, Google and Facebook "the companies" purposely use a
users data in ways that can abuse their privacy to offer features they believe
would be beneficial, so they can get more users and make more money. Where is
Apple stands on the other side where it attempts not to use user data in such
a way, and uses their strength in privacy as a reason to get more users and
make more money. This article is about some rogue employees in China breaking
the law on their own, not Apple. Very different than Google the company
instruction employees to build software that may concern user privacy.
~~~
DavidHm
The sarcasm was more aimed at the fact that a company's good intentions are
ultimately irrelevant. One of the reason we don't want to trust our government
with all of our data is that even if the current government behaves perfectly,
you never know what is coming down the road - either in terms of government
changing, or the data falling in the hands of specific government people with
ill intent.
Likewise, the big conglomerates' good intentions are not enough to make giving
them access to all your personal data justifiable.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Inception becomes reality: People can teach themselves new skills in dreams - pier0
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2077185/Inception-reality-People-teach-new-skills-dreams.html#ixzz1hY5hgMRG
======
atulveer
That's awesome! But I am waiting for the day when we could learn skills while
we are awake! Like Trinity learned to fly the chopper or the way Neo learned
Kung Fu :). I know its still a dream, but I believe that day is not very far!
Thanks for sharing this post!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Lego robot plays freemium iPad games while creator sleeps - dgyesbreghs
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-04/15/lego-jurassic-park-robot-ipad
======
ColinWright
A word for web designers. That black bar across the top? Don't do that. Or at
least, don't do it like that.
See, when I click on the scroll bar on the right of my screen, I expect to see
the next page worth of data. What I don't expect is for some of that to be
hidden behind a bar I can't remove, and don't want. Try it for yourself.
Position some text immediately under the "fold", then click on the scroll bar.
See? Not there.
Bad designer. No pizza.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
More Schools Embrace the iPad as a Learning Tool - px
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/05/education/05tablets.html?pagewanted=2&src=twr
======
danilocampos
Fraser Speirs' iPad 1:1 deployment odyssey at a private elementary school has
been fascinating to watch:
[http://speirs.org/blog/2010/9/23/the-ipad-project-how-its-
go...](http://speirs.org/blog/2010/9/23/the-ipad-project-how-its-going.html)
_At this point, all I can give you are some practical anecdotes which, I
hope, will give you a flavour of the change.
I picked up a ream of printer paper yesterday. It had dust on top of it.
Primary 2 pupils have now memorised their passwords. That's not something that
happens when they get 40 minutes a week on computers. Last week, we couldn't
get the Primary 3 pupils to stop doing maths and go for lunch. My daughter
April asked me if I could install the educational apps from school on my iPad
so she could use them at home. We're seeing a reduction in the amount of
homework forgotten or not done. "Forgetting your folder" for a subject is now
a thing of the past._
tl;dr: iPads are an epic, epic win in education – if you can afford them.
------
TomOfTTB
Nice idea but as someone who manages technology for a school I can say tablets
just aren't there yet. A few things (that might not be apparent with 41 hand
picked kids)...
==========
Damage: Understand that planning technology for a school is all about scale.
It isn't about "Can we afford to buy this for each kid" its "can we afford to
buy this for each kid and deal with a 30-40% damage rate". Because they're
kids.
Remember the way you treated your backpack in Jr High and High School? Now
imagine how a $750 iPad would have done if you carried it around all day.
Most hardware companies combat this by either (a) making devices durable or
(b) making them easy to repair. The iPad is neither of those things.
Control: The problem with an iPad right now is there's no way to lock it down.
If a student decides to start browsing the Internet while you're giving a
lecture there's little you can do about it (why do you think most schools ban
Cell. Phones at this point). It's hard to focus a class when their text book
can also be used as a Game machine and Internet browser.
Software: The most obvious point is that Apple hasn't compensated for mass
purchasing yet. I should be able to have a "Purchaser" account that allows me
to log in to each system and install multiple copies of a given software
package. At least the last time I investigated this option that process was a
mess (At first it wouldn't let me pay for multiple copies of software because
it said I'd already purchased it then it would lock me out because I'd
installed it too many times and so on)
============
There were some other issues that are escaping me now but the bottom line is
it's a great dream and a great opportunity for some startup. But just plain
old stock iPads don't work.
Edit: A few I forgot...
\- Power: You either have to find some way to power them during class (which
requires rewiring the classroom) or limit their use. Plus kids forget the
charger and use it as an excuse not to do homework or participate in class.
\- Eye Strain: You'd be amazed how parents who park their kids in front of a
TV all day will come back at you complaining they read a report that said
extended viewing of an LCD screen is bad for the eyes.
\- Updates: Since there are no over-the-air OS updates its a chore to update
the things
\- Kids Content: Since there's no way to lock kids out of the administrative
functions of an iPad a few will just change the account to their iTunes
account and start downloading media on it which causes all kinds of problems
\- Theft: There's not much of a market for Jr High Text Books on ebay. The
same can't be said for iPads.
~~~
davidedicillo
Control: There's parental control and control is the same problem you would
have with a laptop (at least you won't be able to play flash games ;) )
Software:Schools can apply for the Education program and purchase software at
50%. While I haven't tried myself, I'm sure that if they let you buy in bulk
they won't lock your account while you are doing it (if you are an authorized
buyer).
Power: Not sure you have tried an iPad but mine lasts days without being
charged. Can't say the same about my laptop.
Kids Content: again, parental control.
Also who said that giving each kid an iPad is the only way to use tablets in a
classroom. We had teachers contacting us because they were using SyncPad (
<http://mysyncpad.com> ) in place of devices like SmartBoards (that if I'm not
mistaken can cost up to $40,000). At that point they would need only one or
few iPads to pass around to actually interact with on the whiteboard when
asked, while everyone else can follow looking at the board itself or on their
laptop.
~~~
TomOfTTB
Control: I'm talking about control in the classroom. Being able to stop a kid
from browsing the Internet while you are giving a lecture.
Power: If you think an iPad will last all day while constantly in use you
haven't tried it. In my test it ran for 6 hours and change which isn't enough
to get a kid through a whole day of classes plus make it through the ride
home.
Kids Content: Parental Control won't survive a hard reset and kids aren't
stupid.
Finally there are plenty of ways tablets can be used in the classroom but that
wasn't the premise of the article being discussed. The premise of the article
being discussed was giving each kid a laptop in place of textbooks
~~~
glhaynes
Are any of those dealbreakers though? There are all sorts of non-tech things
that go on in the classroom and can't be controlled other than by the "old
fashioned" method of the teacher looking around. I'd be really surprised if a
student ever needed to have their tablet on for six full hours out of the day
- my kids are only in school for 7 hours total, and if you take out lunch, PE,
recess, bathroom breaks, and time without textbooks open, I'd guess they'd
only need about 3-4 hours max (they certainly don't have to use it during the
ride home). And is the parental control situation any different with iPad than
with any other computer? Anyway, I'm not saying that iPads are necessarily
right to replace textbooks (maybe, maybe not - I'd be way more excited about
using them in school in other ways besides), but these reasons don't seem like
serious problems to me.
------
RoyG
“You can do everything that the iPad can with existing off-the-shelf
technology and hardware for probably $300 to $400 less per device,” Professor
Soloway said.
Really? This is why they refer to it as the Ivory Tower!
------
wallflower
When they weren't the market leader[1], Apple used to give good discounts to
schools to use Macs. What about now?
[1] You can argue that they are the market leader in the next generation of
computing, tablets.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Which companies doing Clojure dev in Netherlands? - bcambel
I wonder which companies are pushing Clojure code to production ? Please also indicate the city.
======
ilya-pi
Screen6, Amsterdam
Adgoji, Amsterdam
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Is there a shorthand equivalent for taking notes digitally? - borncrusader
I have briefly studied Pitman Shorthand (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitman_shorthand) in the past and I've wondered how easy it is to concisely represent a lot of information in a few pencil strokes.<p>For those of you who take notes regularly - short of improving typing speed, is there a shorthand-like alternative to taking notes or encoding information digitally? Are there any efforts that have been made in this regard?
======
elviejo79
Stenography
Look at this video introduction
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62l64Acfidc&t=80s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62l64Acfidc&t=80s)
And this is a developer using steno, to program
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBBiri3CD6w](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBBiri3CD6w)
~~~
borncrusader
This is precisely what I was looking for :)
------
auslegung
Have you thought about creating keyboard snippets for common words or phrases?
Similar to how iOS replaces omw with On my way! You could create replacements
at the OS level that would apply to everything you type. Build them as you go
so that your average characters per word is 3-4 characters, it might work out.
~~~
borncrusader
This is an interesting idea. I've used tools that have autocompletion and also
on vim with a plugin that I use to type notes. But the annoying thing is this
is something that I'll potentially have to set-up.
------
ClassyJacket
You could get a stenography keyboard, but they are expensive and hard to
learn.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
New cool polling tool - huli
http://poll.ly
======
sdfsdfdsf
I don't know, maybe it would be nice to get to the polls directly (you know
without the need of entering a username).
------
lukelight
Wow feels nice and Snappy. How was the implementation made?
~~~
huli
We used golang for backend, it runs on the appengine, so it scales easily. To
keep the costs low (minimal reading calls), we use just one poll object. To
deal with the writing problem, we sharded the poll objects
([https://cloud.google.com/appengine/articles/sharding_counter...](https://cloud.google.com/appengine/articles/sharding_counters)).
This is very cool stuff, it was completely new for us.
~~~
lukelight
Thx for the fast answer!
------
frankonilator
sweet thx for sharing :)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ikea sells 500 Euro standing desk in Netherlands, not North America - j45
http://www.ikea.com/nl/nl/catalog/products/90088946/
======
ef4
Here's something equivalent for even less money. I have one, and it works
great. I actually used a tabletop from Ikea for the desk surface:
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005NJUQVG/ref=wms_ohs_prod...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005NJUQVG/ref=wms_ohs_product?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
~~~
j45
Standdesk.io has a motorized desk for the same amount too -- I'm interested in
an electric desk.
Still, if Ikea sold standing desks, I wonder if they'd get mainstream quicker.
------
deanfranks
A couple of years ago IKEA NA sold a motorized sit/stand desk. No idea why
they stopped carrying it, but I would assume slow sales was the reason.
~~~
j45
I didn't know that, it's too bad :)
------
fallinghawks
Not sure of the point of the post, but here's the base I bought for 500
_dollars_ and I threw on a beautiful piece of birch finished marine plywood I
scored on craigslist for $50.
[http://www.thehumansolution.com/uplift-900-electric-sit-
stan...](http://www.thehumansolution.com/uplift-900-electric-sit-stand-desk-
base-silver.html)
~~~
j45
The points were a few:
\- Why doesn't Ikea make this available in more places where shipping heavy
standing desks is not reasonable (ie., Canada from the US)
\- As bulky as the Ikea standing desk looks, I could see it being used in a
lot of offices in North America just because it was easily accessible
For me, I discovered the uplift shortly after posting too -- it looks like a
great deal and great table. Glad to hear you are liking it too. I'm presently
speccing one out!
~~~
fallinghawks
I'm real pleased with mine. The only advice I'd say is to place the uppydowny
switch as far out of the way as you can deal with. The case is a bit flimsy
where it screws to the table, and I worry I'll break it off if I knock it with
my knee a few more times.
------
SNvD7vEJ
On August 1, 2014, the "GALANT" series will be replaced by a new series called
"BEKANT". Maybe this is what is going on?
Here is the short info (in swedish):
[http://www.ikea.com/se/sv/catalog/categories/departments/wor...](http://www.ikea.com/se/sv/catalog/categories/departments/workspaces/desks_and_tables/)
------
Jimmy99
I used a cardboard box to create a standing desk. I then changed jobs & needed
something portable. After not finding anything My father & I decided to build
our own. We are launching on kickstarter soon, if you are interested you can
find out more here [http://zestdesk.com/](http://zestdesk.com/)
------
chromaton
Doesn't include the top apparently.
You can search my post history to see how I made a sit/stand desk for less
than $200.
Does anyone know how well the legs stay parallel and if this is a problem with
the motion components?
------
nexerus
Typical americans, welcome to the rest of the world. Try living outside of NA
for a month or so and see just how many things aren't available to you, or the
insane prices you have to pay.
~~~
ubiquitouscroak
What kinds of things are we missing? And do you mean insane high prices or
insane low prices? For most things I was under the impression the U.S. was
cheaper.
~~~
nexerus
Outside the US people have to pay up to 50% more for products from the US. See
the recent case in Australia about the prices they pay for software and Apple
products.
Then there's the "This website/service is not available in your country.", for
example, see Netflix, Hulu, Pandora and so on.
------
rdtsc
Unrelated question, is IKEA website broken on Chrome for anyone else? If I
switch to Firefox it works ok. Chrome doesn't -- the image of the desk
overlaps the text on the right.
~~~
nirix
Looks fine for me on OS X running Chrome 35.
------
maxcan
its not exactly comparable, but:
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001MS7106/ref=oh_aui_detai...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001MS7106/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
------
Grue3
500 euro is insane price for a desk.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Fox: White House Sent Pro-Immigration Talking Points to Celebrities - zo1
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2016/06/06/white-house-pens-social-media-script-for-hollywood-listers-to-tout-immigration-policies.html
======
moshiasri
hahaha, really fox news?!?
Hey i have a suggestion why don't you change you motto or subtext or what ever
you call it from "FAIR AND BALANCED to "LYING AND CUNNING".
it would look cool and badass at the same time, imagine FOX NEWS "LYING AND
CUNNING" or LYING AND CUNNING fox... it kinda has a ring to it as well.
hey just a thought.!!!
------
praneshp
test
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Android Market Search is broken...for developers - warrenmiller
for the last few months the Android Market search facility has been broken.
When you search for an app why name/description you are shown the number of possible results (usually in the thousands) but when you scroll down you are only ever allowed to see about 20 results.
eg: search for ringtones it shows 25479 results but only the top 20 are ever shown in the results list.<p>Google have listed this error as a known bug and have it up on their "known issues" page (http://www.google.com/support/androidmarket/bin/static.py?page=known_issues.cs)
but it's not fixed in the latest version of the market (from your article: http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/01/android-market-v3-3-11-apk-now-available-adds-auto-update-by-de/) and has been evident for months -
at least since August (http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Android+Market/thread?tid=0fe7684aaf99d3cc&hl=en)<p>The issue here is that it's really hurting app developers - unless you're being favoured by Google and have your app featured, or is a top selling app it's very difficult to be found anywhere on the market.
This hurts new, smaller developers who have no way of making their new app visible, unless they're willing to fork out a healthy chunk of change to get their app advertised - usually forked over to Google themselves
via their Ad network purchase Admob. I'm not saying these facts are related just very aware that this is a problem which needs to be fixed.
======
bookwormAT
I think this bug was also mentioned at the android developer lab in paris. But
beside the point that this should be fixed: Do you expect your app to become
more visible if your customers can browse through the whole search list?
As far as I know, most people never look beyond the first 10 or so results in
a Google web search result. So why should that be different here?
IMHO there are so many apps in all the app markets right now, that a search
without page rank is as useful to the customer as altavista was in the early
days.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Mozilla suspends Firefox Send - woranl
https://zdnet.com/article/mozilla-suspends-firefox-send-service-while-it-addresses-malware-abuse/
======
hnarn
support.mozilla.org says that[1]
>In light of recent reports of Firefox Send being used to distribute malware
we have decided to temporarily take the service offline to implement new
features, including:
> An improved abuse reporting capability
> A requirement that users have a Firefox Account to share content
> We are also evaluating other features and capabilities to improve Firefox
> Send.
Personally I think this makes sense. The previous setup was too good to be
true, and definitely was bound to attract malware and other illegal material.
[1]: [https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/what-happened-
firefox-s...](https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/what-happened-firefox-send)
------
jdashg
Worth noting this is not an effect of the recent layoffs, being from July 7.
------
rvz
"while it addresses malware abuse"
Please, just add this missing context to make it less clickbaity. It has
nothing to do with the recent Mozilla events.
------
woranl
This reminds me of
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24119024](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24119024)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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How many plants would you need to generate oxygen for yourself in an airlock? - cpeterso
http://io9.com/5955071/how-many-plants-would-you-need-to-generate-oxygen-for-yourself-in-an-airlock
======
dbuxton
I am not a biologist but my recollection of high school biology is that
photosynthesis is basically carbon dioxide + water + light energy = oxygen +
glucose. So saying, "About 300 to 500 plants would produce the right amount of
oxygen, but it's much harder to estimate the amount of carbon dioxide the
plants absorb" is wrong - the quantity of oxygen produced will be exactly
proportionate to the amount of carbon dioxide consumed. (There is also an
issue of how much oxygen the plants' respiration would consume but let's not
get into that).
_And finally, some plants only "breathe," at night in order to save water_ \-
I also remember this (many if not most plants control water loss through
transpiration by shutting down their stomata during , but I'm pretty much sure
that no plants are able to photosynthesise at night! That _would_ be an
interesting species...
Overall, seems like some relatively serious misunderstandings of the basic
science if even I (not a great GCSE mark in biology...) find myself wringing
my hands...
~~~
ars
> but I'm pretty much sure that no plants are able to photosynthesise at
> night! That would be an interesting species...
There are three types of plants, and instead of explaining them, let me just
provide links.
The type of plant that breathes at night are the CAM ones.
* <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C3_carbon_fixation> \- most common, almost all plants are like this
* <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C4_carbon_fixation> \- very efficient, corn is the most common example
* <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAM_photosynthesis> \- night breathing, pineapple is the example
~~~
dbuxton
Very interesting! Although as the other reply points out only some of the
photosynthetic reactions take place at night. However I assume (but it's not
exactly clear from scanning the article linked) that the actual emission of
oxygen is likely also happening at night as this would require stomata to be
open, although the actual production of oxygen is one of the light-dependent
reactions in the photosynthetic chain. Is this correct?
------
ari_elle
_"[...] but it's much harder to estimate the amount of carbon dioxide the
plants absorb, especially if every time a person breathes out, they inhibit
oxygen production."_
Not having scrolled down far enough to see the end, this is the moment where i
hoped this article would burst into a wild jungle of different scenarios and
scientific data analysis. But it ended... :(
Still nice thing to ponder about though...
------
imchillyb
Algae, would prove a much better oxygen producer than plants.
There are many studies being done, and done previously, on the viability of
algae oxygenating artificial atmospheres.
<http://www.ecology.com/2011/09/12/important-organism/>
~~~
ghshephard
I read through the article a couple times, but couldn't find any pointers
regarding the efficiency of algae as an oxygen producer - only that there is a
lot of it out in the ocean. Do you have any citations that would suggest algae
would be better in an airlock than a potted plant? (starts off on his 90
minute google/wikipedia distraction of the day)
[15 minutes later - this is the best link I've been able to find - from a Navy
research paper in 1963, no less:
[http://torpedo.nrl.navy.mil/tu/ps/doc.html?dsn=7590785&h...](http://torpedo.nrl.navy.mil/tu/ps/doc.html?dsn=7590785&hi=1&p=1)
\-- snip --
The results obtained with a small pilot plant containing 6200 ml of algal
suspension have been evalu- ated; the effects of light intensity, rate of
stirring, rate of carbon dioxide supply, and other variables were part of this
study. Light energy was supplied by six 1500-watt incandescent lamps which
extended through the suspension and were encased in 50-mm O.D. cooling
jackets. When the light intensity at the surface of these jackets was 34,000
foot-candles (the limit with the equipment at hand), the oxygen production was
4500 cc per hour. Oxygen production increases with light intensity, but the
oxygen produced per watt of electrical en- ergy expended is constant over a
wide range of light intensities. The amount of electrical energy re- quired to
provide enough oxygen for one man is between 30 and 50 kw, depending on the
design of the gas exchanger. This high requirement makes the process
prohibitive at present; but the development of more efficient high-intensity
light sources could change the outlook. The dependability of the algal system
in providing a constant supply of oxygen has been assured by this study; also,
the volume requirements of the algal system are competitive with existing
systems for carbon dioxide removal and oxygen production.
\-- snip --
~~~
mturmon
That's nice, because it pays some attention to alternative means to use energy
to sink CO2, which is one way to look at the plant example.
------
derekp7
One simple rule of thumb -- get enough plants to produce 100% of the food you
consume. Your body converts food into co2, and plants convert co2 into food
(yeah, a bunch of details are left out, but that is the simple version).
------
ghshephard
Photosynthesis really seems to be this weeks "what if" scenario: <http://what-
if.xkcd.com/17/>
------
mochizuki
I wonder if you can scale this down to be scientifically accurate for Sandy
from Spongebob, one tree per squirrel seems like it would be alright.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Dell acquires Sonicwall - primesuspect
http://www.sonicwall.com/us/company/Acquisition.html?elq=8f755563d68e4a0f9430f75edfc9fe1c
======
PythonDeveloper
Two dead companies do not make a live one... SonicWall lost their edge 5 years
ago, and now they compete with the likes of Pfsense and M0n0Wall.
As a former SonicWall customer, I _MUCH_ prefer PfSense to their products, and
the price is MUCH better... FREE. SonicWall, You lost me by holding back
feature updates to nickel and dime me into upgrading to an ever-increasing
support contract.
Dell, since you are flushing money down the hole these days, how about you
send me some. I'm sure I can make a better return on it than you can.
Cheers! :)
~~~
huggyface
Dell is "dead"? I suppose relative to the incredible profits of Apple, every
other company is dead.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Facebook | Do we really need to write our own search engine? - dawie
http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=2535632130
======
nanijoe
In theory, if everyone had a facebook profile, wouldn't a facebook search be
more useful than a google search in many instances? I don't think the search
has to be difficult to be useful. A facebook search can certainly provide more
contextual (and by extension, more useful) information than a google search.
The question is, how large of a context do you want your search to touch?
I think that the size of the facebook (or myspace) user population can grow to
such a point that internal search becomes a serious substitute for a more
general search with an engine like google or yahoo.
~~~
willarson
I think the trend you are pointing out is already in full force: often you'll
jump over to Wikipedia directly, or IMDB to get data on movies. It is really
easy to make search work when individuals format their own data into a
specific format for usage by your search engine. This keeps on being useful
until people start abusing it. In a social app like facebook it seems
relatively less rewarding to abuse the system though.
------
staunch
"Search engine" is an amazingly ambiguous term, to the point of being almost
meaningless. It can refer to anything from a one-line SQL query to Google's
system. Searching data that's completely under your control just isn't very
difficult in general. When money is no object it's usually trivial, just throw
memory at it. I look forward to the many clueless articles claiming this is a
challenge to Google.
------
bilbo0s
Uh ohh . . .
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Warp Directory (wd) unix command line tool for any shell written in ruby - kigster
https://github.com/kigster/warp-dir
======
kigster
wd add proj # add current directory as a warp point
cd ~/
wd proj # jumps to proj
wd list # lists all points
wd rm proj # removes proj
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Confusion about GDPR and logless webservers - mildlyconfused
Hi all!<p>I intend to run a simple website on a VPS using an Apache web-server.<p>My plan is to disable logging completely. All pages on the website will be static and the website will not utilise cookies. No personal data pertaining to visitors will be stored on persistent storage under my control.<p>Initially I thought this would exclude me as a data controller under the GDPR, so I drafted a privacy policy explaining how I would store no personal data pertaining to visitors, etc.<p>After closer inspection, it seems that the act of collecting the IP address of an EU data subject to respond to HTTP requests would make me a data controller, even if I don’t store that IP address in a log.<p>Something about my interpretation of the GDPR seems off.<p>If I understand correctly, I would need to provide contact details in the privacy policy and respond to requests to be forgotten, requests for access, etc.<p>If someone sends me an email requesting to be forgotten, they’ve just provided me with their email address and any other personal data they include in the content, so suddenly I’m storing their personal data and would have to respond and delete it.<p>Similarly, if someone sends me a request for access, their email contains personal data. It seems like I’d have to send them back an email saying “Yes! I hold your personal data. Here it is:” with a copy of their email attached.<p>It seems as though by providing contact details in the privacy policy of that website and receiving emails about that privacy policy, I’d be processing personal data that I would not have otherwise processed, purely for the purpose of GDPR compliance.<p>I am sure most will see the irony in this interpretation.<p>I was wondering if anybody here has dealt with situations like this or has a different interpretation of how the GDPR applies to such websites.
======
mikece
Would GDPR cover not logging individual requests and sessions but calculating
aggregated statistics without keeping per-request, user-identifiable info?
~~~
mildlyconfused
I suspect it would because personal data needs to be collected in order for
such aggregated statistics to be made and collection seemingly counts as
processing, but I’m not sure as I do not yet fully understand the GDPR. Sadly
I cannot provide any advice on the topic. In the case of my planned website, I
will not even be calculating aggregated statistics.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
NASA will not warn us about asteroids over Twitter during the shutdown - tareqak
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/10/01/nasa-will-not-warn-us-about-asteroids-over-twitter-during-the-shutdown/
======
Shivetya
Yawn, sorry its been done better before... I guess the sycophants in the press
had to start somewhere.
Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling! Forty
years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes... The dead rising from the grave!
Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!
~~~
venus
That's a lovely straw man you're hacking to pieces there.
No-one has said anything of the sort except you.
~~~
Nogwater
Whoosh
[http://youtu.be/9S4cldkdCjE?t=2m19s](http://youtu.be/9S4cldkdCjE?t=2m19s)
------
coldcode
This is major Tom to ground control, I'm stepping through the door
And I'm floating in a most peculiar way
And the stars look very different today
Here am I sitting in a tin can far above the world
Planet Earth is blue and there's nothing I can do
~~~
linker3000
That's more than 140 characters.
------
tokenizer
And apparently some Panda in a reserve wont be fed according to the news. It's
pretty sick when people believe this is the only way to partially shut down
the government.
Most of the NSA (85%), FBI (85%), CIA (85%), Congress (Fully), The Judicial
Branch, The Senate (Fully) will be paid and working.
If the US government partially shuts down the government, but chooses to spend
on defense but not National Parks and NASA, then it chooses to shut down in
that way...
~~~
AlisdairSH
> And apparently some Panda in a reserve wont be fed according to the news.
I think you misheard. The panda web camera feed will be shut down. Pretty sure
they'll still feed the little critter... [http://jezebel.com/government-
shutdown-might-kill-an-adorabl...](http://jezebel.com/government-shutdown-
might-kill-an-adorable-panda-cam-1429790611)
~~~
mherdeg
It's also economically in our best interest to keep feeding the pandas.
We're contractually obliged to China to feed pandas in the National Zoo — if a
panda dies due to American misconduct, we have to pay them $800,000. See
[http://qr.ae/N5H14](http://qr.ae/N5H14) //
[http://web.mit.edu/mherdeg/Public/smithsonian-panda-
agreemen...](http://web.mit.edu/mherdeg/Public/smithsonian-panda-
agreement-2011.pdf) .
I'm not sure how feeding the other zoo animals would qualify as "essential",
but for pandas there are diplomatic (and monetary!) concerns.
~~~
tokenizer
Wow. Thanks for the detailed information!
------
nateabele
Don't worry, my friend Rick[0] told me it was going to be okay.
[0]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_P._Binzel](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_P._Binzel)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Mass-syndication and angel financing across the Atlantic? - drivingsouth
http://periferi.co/
======
drivingsouth
European startups could benefit from angel financing through mass-syndication
involving angels from both sides of the Atlantic, and into some extent vice-
versa.
What do you think? Would it be possible, interesting? Let the discussion flow
here or on <http://periferi.co>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
PowerVR SGX code leaked - seba_dos1
https://libv.livejournal.com/26972.html
======
MichaelGG
While the author is correct, the tone feels so _wrong_. It's terrible that
laws exist that make knowing certain information a liability to embark on
creative endeavors. Just a very real view on why IP laws are harmful (despite
potential upsides).
Also, what are the kind of super secrets in drivers? If the secrets are so
valuable, certainly competitors would have no trouble simply getting a spy to
work as an employee. Or just RE from the binaries.
It reminds me of the idiocy of Canon and Nikon in refusing to document their
raw formats.
~~~
rayiner
> It's terrible that laws exist that make knowing certain information a
> liability to embark on creative endeavors.
Why?
We don't find anything objectionable about the law extending property rights
to, say, land, which we had no hand in creating and will continue to exist
long after we're all dead, so why find an objection to Imagination having
property rights over something that is wholly their creation?
I would argue that to the extent you can morally justify any sort of property
rights, copyright and trade secret more more justifiable than nearly any other
kind.
Furthermore, I don't see what _creative_ endeavor is being harmed here. It
reduces the meaning of _creative_ to nothing if you apply it to reverse
engineering efforts, which are the opposite of creative--they are derivative.
~~~
icebraining
Private property is a system that's useful to reduce conflicts that arise from
two properties of land: rivalry and scarcity. Ideas and other creations need
to such system, since they can be shared infinitely and concurrently.
Also, the "wholly their creation" is often untrue, especially when it comes to
patents. It's often just a result of having the money and/or knowledge to
submit it. Multiple people can and have came up with the same patentable
concept independently.
------
CamperBob2
_I doubt that IMG will now try to bullshit us with the inane patent excuse._
It's not inane. Their fear is a natural consequence of mixing ludicrous patent
systems with cutthroat industry politics.
Most GPU vendors don't have massive patent war chests of their own. They have
a lot to lose by exposing their implementations, because _of course_ they all
infringe on various patents held by other vendors. Any program longer than
hello.c is likely to infringe on various patents. When there's money at stake,
the incentives all point towards keeping the driver sources private.
~~~
mschuster91
> Most GPU vendors don't have massive patent war chests of their own.
The largest by marketshare, nVidia and ATI (by belonging to AMD) certainly
have a sh.tload of patents. Do correct me, but aren't IMG/PowerVR and nVidia
holding the majority of the mobile GPU market share anyways?
~~~
wtallis
NVidia is a minor player in the non-laptop mobile space. PowerVR and Qualcomm
have the most popular GPUs, followed by Vivante and ARM's Mali as the second
tier. NVidia's mobile GPUs are only used in their own SoCs, and the Tegra has
never been that successful.
------
userbinator
I take the exact opposite stance, since the practice of secretly studying
"leaked" proprietary code is not new - one of the earliest examples I can
think of is the Lions' book[1]. In fact, knowing how the proprietary version
does it could be valuable in writing your own implementation, as then you can
be certain you're not coincidentally doing the same thing and use an approach
which could be better in some ways (more efficient, etc.)
[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lions%27_Commentary_on_UNIX_6th...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lions%27_Commentary_on_UNIX_6th_Edition,_with_Source_Code)
------
StringyBob
Given one reason gpu manufacturers use for keeping drivers closed is to avoid
patent cases/trolls, can prosecution lawyers use leaked IP as a basis for a
patent case? Would that then lead to a counter-suit for illegal ip access?
In particular I'm thinking of the current nvidia/Samsung/Qualcomm debacle
([http://www.anandtech.com/show/8715/samsung-nvidia-counter-
su...](http://www.anandtech.com/show/8715/samsung-nvidia-counter-suit))
~~~
DannyBee
"Given one reason gpu manufacturers use for keeping drivers closed is to avoid
patent cases/trolls,"
No, this is what they state. IT is of course, not in any way accurate. Having
access to source code does nothing for patent trolls, or anyone else. They
don't go scouring source code and then suing people. They go suing people and
then scouring source code.
Since they'd get source code access in discovery anyway, it doesn't matter
whether they publish or not.
It's really that they think they have magic secret sauce.
------
1ris
I don't get what they author want to tell me. This not great for powervr
because now their chips will be cloned and competitors have access to trade
secrets.
Neither of that will get worse by some non commercial developers looking at
the code. Nor will their code become a copyright infringement unless they do
copy and paste. And with a VCS (that everybody with a task that big needs
anyway) it's not hard, if trivial, to show it's not. And ever better, they
don't need to show it's not, somebody else needs to show it is. Source to look
at is a great thing for everybody who tries to understand powervr. Not less
work, but more information.
Sticking the GPL to is of course bullshit.
------
xmrsilentx
Everyone else is thinking it... So I'll just say it... It's about goddamn
time.
------
supercoder
"I am horrified about the lack of responsibility of a lot of people. These are
not some cat pictures, or some nude celebrities. This is code that forbids
people from writing graphics drivers."
I'm not sure if that line is mean to be sarcastic but if taking literally
definitely undermines the credibility of the writer !
~~~
drivingmenuts
He has a different set of concerns. That's all.
If we weren't able to narrow our focus, then we'd be all wound up about
everything that's supposed to be an outrage and we'd never get anything done.
How many outrages? How many people you got?
~~~
cbd1984
Besides, there are few better ways to feel morally superior than to find
someone whose outrages don't line up with your own.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Computational Mathematics Inspired by ISAAC NEWTON – TEST ONLINE( Heru.com.br ) - Herutech
======
Herutech
Strong encryption and method that REPLACE THE BINARY TREE
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
HN: Call for Hackers - DanielBMarkham
Call for hackers<p>I really enjoyed reading that piece by Philip Greenspun on HN the other day, "Online Community Integration"<p>Article: http://philip.greenspun.com/business/online-community-integration
HN Discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=896013<p>Anybody else excited about this idea? I think it has a lot of merit.<p>How about all the HN readers that are interested get together and see if Greenspun will chat with us for a bit on how he would implement something like this. Then we could decide whether or not it might make a good business venture.<p>Anybody else interested?
======
dasht
I'm interested. It is not in exact alignment with the project I'm working on
but it is "pretty close". I've been coming at this from the publication
perspective as much as the consumption and posting-comments angle and thinking
in terms of a framework (on which such a thing as Greenspun describes should
be a pretty simple hack). I've been thinking about monetization a little bit
more broadly than just ads. Partly in response to the recent Startup-School
I've most recently been working on simplifying things down to try to figure
out what I can deploy very quickly (weeks).
You can find contact info for me at the bottom of pages at
<http://basiscraft.com>
Regards, -t
------
DanielBMarkham
As an addendum to this post I just got an email from Greenspun and he's agreed
to a telephone chat tomorrow morning.
~~~
bkrausz
I don't know if I have the time to commit to the idea but I'd be interested in
hearing more. Mind if I join in on the phone conference (depending when
"tomorrow morning" is)?
Email's on my profile page.
~~~
prakash
same here. email in profile. thanks!
------
iisbum
Sounds a lot like Alltop?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Gestural interfaces: A step backwards in usability - ssp
http://jnd.org/dn.mss/gestural_interfaces_a_step_backwards_in_usability_1.html
======
jckarter
"But the place for such experimentation is in the lab."
That's a silly, elitist statement. No matter how much testing you do in the
lab, the ultimate test is in the hands of end users. Lots of dumb WIMP UI
ideas, like modal dialogs, MDI windows, and nested menu hierarchies, survived
the labs at Xerox, Apple, and Microsoft, but fell out of favor over years of
real user experience. On the other side of the coin, lots of now-popular
desktop and web UI elements were conceived by run-of-the-mill developers far
from any research campus. As the new-car smell wears off touch devices, plenty
of touch UI conventions will get drop-tested in the wild, the stupid ones will
get discarded, and the good ones will get copied by everyone and become taken
for granted. This will happen far faster in the cutthroat app marketplace,
under the eyes of millions of customers, than in any HCI lab.
~~~
JadeNB
Judging from the evidence of my browser, and every other common browser out
there --including new IE's!-- I'm not so sure the S- vs. MDI debate is
completely settled. I think that a lot of the text editors for the Mac
--TextMate, maybe?-- have tabbed interfaces, too; vim and emacs certainly do.
(I don't know anything about mobile browsers, so the statement may well be
false for them.)
~~~
jerf
Tabs are still SDI. MDI was a full windowing environment inside of the program
itself, including icons and sub windows and a separate, distinct notion of
maximization, minimization, window position, and... well, it was as if it were
designed to be as confusing as possible by adding a second unnecessary
dimension of potential confusion to virtually _every_ core concept in the UI.
Tabs are just tabs, nowhere near as complex on any level while still
accompling pretty much everything you could want.
------
makecheck
A good first step may be to have a standard way to show the gestures that are
currently enabled (e.g. pinch, swipe). That way, you at least know what is
_significant_ to the current app in the current mode, and don't have to try a
bunch of things.
Though in some respects, it is unfair to criticize touch technology based on
its initial use in phones, because those screens are _small_. Some of the
article's goals aren't practical on a small screen, e.g. GUIs have
"discoverable" interfaces because of always-visible menus, but a phone can't
do this without seriously reducing usable screen space.
On the other hand, the touch screen of an _iPad_ probably _should_ fix more of
these problems. For instance, an iPad app can probably have a discoverable
"menu bar" like a Mac app does, and not really hurt usable screen space.
~~~
raganwald
A friend worked with a high end image manipulation program that had "pie"
menus. You held the menu button down on your tablet, and after a pause a
circular menu popped up at the mouse position. You dragged in the direction of
your choice. If there were submenus for that choice, another circle popped up
and so on.
Because of fitts' law, this was far more efficient than standard popup menus:
the 'target' for any choice was larger and therefore much easier to hit.
The gestural part was this: If you held the menu button down and immediately
started to move the mouse, it would select the choice without bothering to
display the pie. Advanced users quickly learned the sequence of zigs and zags
required for their most common menu operations and preferred using the pie
menus to keyboard shortcuts or standard menus in the window panes.
As the OP points out, this system provided discoverability as well as
consistency. The same gesture always produced the same result.
~~~
nirmal
For searching ease, this variant of Pie Menus is called Marking Menus. PDF of
paper
[http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.93....](http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.93.7499&rep=rep1&type=pdf)
------
zmmmmm
I had to laugh: when pushing the 'menu' button in Android:
> (The keyboard does not always appear. Despite much experimentation, we are
> unable to come up with the rules that govern when this will or will not
> occur.)
So apparently these 'user interface experts' have been unable to figure out
what I and everybody else I know managed to understand implicitly without any
particular effort: that a long press is a different action to a short press.
No wonder they think it is a poor UI - they must be utterly confused all over
the place. But honestly, this is a fairly common UI concept in space / button
limited devices. I somehow doubt they are really as 'expert' as they suggest
if they haven't come across this before.
~~~
Tichy
I've had a N1 for several months now and I didn't know that pressing the menu
button for a longer time is different from pressing it briefly. Nor did I
notice the same concept for other GUI elements. Sorry, but you are wrong.
~~~
zmmmmm
Do you also claim to be a user interface expert and write articles about it?
This technique is pervasive throughout Android. You should try long pressing
on every UI element - especially the home button and the home screen - to see
all the different actions you can do.
~~~
Tichy
The point is not "can a user interface understand this menu", the point is
"can an average user understand this interface".
I agree that once the different behavior emerges, it might not be that hard to
find the source. But I am not sure - the keyboard never appeared for me
because I never pressed the menu button for a longer time. Now I tried it and
it worked, but I already knew why because of the article.
In the other hand, I use my iPod Touch only very rarely. I think there is
supposed to be some kind of tap bar (I know this from reading about PhoneGap),
and I managed to bring up a menu once in a game I have installed by tapping
around on the screen wildly. I was unable to bring it up a second time, so no,
it is not always easy to identify the source of some activity.
------
akkartik
Key criticisms:
_"gestures cannot readily be incorporated in menus: So far, nobody has
figured out how to inform the person using the app what the alternatives
are."_
_"Accidental activation is common in gestural interfaces, as users happen to
touch something they didn't mean to touch. It may not even be obvious what
action got you there. If a finger accidentally scrapes an active region, there
is almost no way to know why the resulting action took place. The trigger was
unintentional and subconscious."_
_"When a mouse is clicked one pixel outside the icon a user intended to
activate, the mouse pointer is visible on the screen so that the user can see
that it's a bit off. [On a touch screen] Users frequently touch a control or
issue a gestural command but nothing happens because their touch or gesture
was a little bit off. Since gestures are invisible, users often don't know
that they made these mistakes."_
_"When users think they did one thing but "really" did something else, they
lose their sense of controlling the system because they don't understand the
connection between actions and results. The user experience feels random and
definitely not empowering."_
------
far33d
"Bold explorations should remain inside the company and university research
laboratories and not be inflicted on any customers until those recruited to
participate in user research have validated the approach."
So much for innovation.
------
celoyd
It’s hard to tell what they’re actually saying here other than that a newly
popular, relatively open platform has some bad UIs. Why’s it gotta sound so
grouchy?
------
tomiles
[http://johnnyholland.org/2010/05/26/usability-
ain%E2%80%99t-...](http://johnnyholland.org/2010/05/26/usability-
ain%E2%80%99t-everything-a-response-to-jakob-nielsen%E2%80%99s-ipad-usability-
study/)
------
cracki
nice background color. and they presume to talk about usability?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
LastPass requesting password reset after facing unknown anomaly - sathyabhat
http://blog.lastpass.com/2011/05/lastpass-security-notification.html
======
twodayslate
I am perfectly fine with them being paranoid. They should be. They are being
paranoid for me. They are doing a good job protecting the user.
~~~
frio
I completely agree, but I'm not particularly happy about the apparent lack of
detail in their logs/IDS system.
------
mbreese
I'm curious about why they have an Asterix server on the same network as their
database... is there a voice authentication feature, or are we just talking
about their office phones?
Either way, they seem to be taking this seriously, even if they are just being
overly paranoid, I find it comforting.
------
andrewcooke
i'm surprised by the reactions here. maybe i am misunderstanding the blog
post, or maybe others are?
as far as i can see they are being extremely paranoid. they seem to be
monitoring (and following up on!) traffic flow, which is itself pretty
impressive, are flagging this even though they have no other error signs, and
have done a good enough job in their implementation that can say, without any
more details, that the only risk is via brute force cracking.
i use keepassx locally, but my take on this is that they are way better than
average. this kind of report would make me use a company, not switch from
them.
------
jonursenbach
Not happy that I'm finding this out via a blog post and not an email.
~~~
sathyabhat
I found this out when trying to login to LastPass, was redirected to "re-
enable your LastPass account" page <https://lastpass.com/activate.php>
~~~
3dFlatLander
I just tried logging out and back in a few times, nothing. Very weird.
~~~
Jencha
"Joe Siegrist said... @SEV We're only forcing the issue right now you when we
see you come from an IP you haven't used in the past few weeks (if you disable
logging logins this might mean immediately)."
[http://blog.lastpass.com/2011/05/lastpass-security-
notificat...](http://blog.lastpass.com/2011/05/lastpass-security-
notification.html?showComment=1304568208559#c6006851993433158567)
------
kjetil
Nice to see a company so transparent about situations which could easily have
been hushed down.
~~~
nikcub
I didn't think it was transparent at all. More like the minimum corpspeak
required to inform their users that they should change their passwords
Transparent would have been describing exactly what they saw
~~~
pilif
The blog post said that they detected traffic patterns in their network that
they couldn't account for. They also said that they checked logs and checksums
and found no intrusion yet.
So the post basically means: "we have no idea what's going on/went on, but
here we are, informing you early. Here's the steps we have taken and here's
the steps we are going to take"
You can't have everything: On one hand, everyone wants to be notified early
(see playstation network breach), on the other hand, people want to know
everything when they get the information.
I think that's asking a bit much. Either we get informed early ("we've seen
something strange, but we have no idea what's going on") or you want all
information ("we've discovered and researched a breach. here is what's
happened", followed by a story that spans two weeks).
As lastpass contains potentially sensitive data, I'm happy they chose to
inform early, even before they had a complete picture.
(disclaimer: I'm not using LastPass nor any other password manager as the risk
of losing access to that and to all the services I used them with is too high
for me)
------
pstack
Interesting, it isn't prompting me to do any such thing.
Anyway, since many are mentioning 1Password - I used that for a couple years
and switched to lastpass, because I was tired of having to install plugins
across all the browsers on a platform and then having to find workarounds with
Dropbox for syncing on additional machines and the lack of a Windows client,
when I'm stuck working on Windows.
Also, since I use two-factor authentication, I wonder if that's the reason
they have not asked me to change my password?
~~~
brown9-2
_I used that for a couple years and switched to lastpass, because I was tired
of having to install plugins across all the browsers on a platform and then
having to find workarounds with Dropbox for syncing on additional machines and
the lack of a Windows client, when I'm stuck working on Windows._
I find that Keepass, with the database saved on my Dropbox folder, works well.
No browser integration needed - Keepass registers an OS hotkey (at least on
Windows) for ctrl+shift+A which will autotype ${USER}TAB${PASS} in the
currently focused field, using the title of the browser window as the entry to
look for in the pw database. Great for a free solution.
~~~
16s
In my mind, that's the primary design flaw with traditional password managers.
Why should end users store passwords? It introduces so many issues. Must have
proper encryption. Must deal with synchronization. Must have master password.
The list could go on and on. Passwords should be generated (locally on your
device) when needed, and never stored in any way.
Edit: Some more negatives to password storage. Must protect stored password
file. May be required to log access to stored password file for compliance
reasons. Stored password files may become corrupt and stop working.
~~~
brown9-2
I don't think I understand this - if the password isn't stored, do you expect
the user to memorize all the various passwords?
~~~
16s
End users don't need to memorize any passwords. They don't know them and they
do not care what the passwords are (nor should they). They only need to know
how to generate them when needed. Read about SHA1_Pass and try it out. I use
it (and wrote it) to deal with hundreds of passwords that change frequently.
I tried to make traditional password managers work for a number of years,
before realizing that the traditional approach (password storage, master
password) is fundamentally flawed and introduces more problems than it solves.
~~~
pzxc
I've looked at SHA1_Pass when it was posted here on HN a while back, and I'm
not impressed. You have to memorize a passphrase, which is only marginally
easier than remembering a master password, but you also have to remember an
individual word for each account/website. Yes this is easier than remembering
individual passwords but not as easy as just remembering one master password
that unlocks an encrypted database (like Keepass). From the FAQ for SHA1_Pass,
it says "when your bank asks you to change your password, just increment your
word from BILLS to BILLS1 or BILLS2". More stuff to remember, which BILLS was
I on again?
Additionally, some accounts have restrictions on usable characters or password
length. The FAQ for SHA1_Pass says "try base64 half-encoding, its only 14
characters, and if that's too long maybe you shouldn't be using that website".
Well I'm sorry but some BANKS do not allow passwords that long. You and I both
know it's idiotic, but some banks have a small maximum password length, and
some of them even restrict you to alphanumeric characters only.
I applaud SHA1_pass for trying to be innovative, you don't know what works
unless you try it, but it looks like the result is a failure to me... too much
complexity generated around the goal of trying to make passwords easy to
remember, yet hashed to be secure. Just generate a random password with
Keepass, whatever length and character sets you want, and store it.
What's the big deal? Yes, there's a chance that Keepass didn't do their
encryption properly and your master password will be crackable, and someone
will hack into your dropbox account and then have all your passwords. But with
SHA1_pass there's also a chance someone will guess or socially engineer your
passphrase, and since all your site words are "facebook" for facebook etc etc
they too have full access to all your accounts.
~~~
16s
_"You have to memorize a passphrase"_
This is an inaccurate statement. You remember a sentence. Sentences are
naturally and easy to recall. _The fat, green stick._ for example. And then a
word for each site you visit. That's it. You can use it anyway you like and
take my samples for what they are... samples.
_What's the big deal?_
Controlling your passwords on your devices and not relying on others.
Passwords are IT Security 101, if you get them wrong you fail.
------
kitcar
Wow, Lastpass won't let me login to my account now, and doesn't throw any
error message whatsoever. When I try to change my password it says I can't
because I don't have their browser plugin. Wacky, this is quite frustrating
~~~
ukdm
Someone brought up the same issue in the comments on that post. Here's the
solution given, two options:
1) Login in 'offline mode' then reconnect your cable/wireless connection and
go to gmail... This is the preferred method. 2) Download Pocket, and have it
find your local offline copy from the drop down of files and login there.
~~~
mike-cardwell
People using two factor authentication, eg with a Yubikey, can not log in, in
offline mode. Some people will also have turned this feature off. No idea what
Pocket is.
------
alanh
Result of me trying to log in to delete my account, just in case (having
switched to 1Password): <http://cl.ly/3T0B2W09262N3k2j2U3k>
------
dfischer
So I just started using 1password and was thinking of lastpass. I'm still
trying to figure out which is better. Anyone have any comments?
~~~
16s
I would say use SHA1_Pass and never store, synchronize or forget a password
again. I'm biased though, I wrote it and use it daily. It's entirely free,
cross-platform (GPL licensed) and you can get the source code from github.
Edit: Also, SHA1_Pass does not rely on websites or anything remote from your
device to operate. It just requires you (the user) and your brain ;) That's
the biggest reason I wrote it.
------
tomjen3
That's not very smart considering that a lot of people won't be able to lockin
to their email to verify their emails because they don't have access to the
login details of their email because they haven't verified it.
And why the hell didn't they use scrybt in the first place? For a company so
paranoid, that seems to border on neglect.
~~~
incongruity
And that, right there, highlights why all of my passwords aren't kept with
their (or any) service - for many, it just introduced a single point of
failure. Imagine being locked out of every website you have an account on,
just like that.
Nope. I'll make strong passwords on my own and encrypt my own copies, thanks.
~~~
VMG
just separately save your email password, all other services restore the
password via email
~~~
bruceboughton
Making your email password the weakest link...
~~~
crocowhile
My gmail account is actually more secure than lastpass since I have OTP
enabled with two factors identification.
~~~
rakkhi
Well done, hopefully more will do following this type of incident. You can
also use Yubikey to add two factor authentication to your Lastpass account if
you want keep using LP
------
mike-cardwell
That's the final straw for me. Just exported my login details, emptied out my
lastpass vault and uninstalled the addon. Will stick to storing my login
details in a Dropbox distributed GnuPG protected flat file. Less convenient,
but at least I'm not reliant on a third party.
~~~
y0ghur7_xxx
You still rely on Dropbox.
~~~
eitland
As for not getting his passwords compromised: no, not more than a vpn user
relies on internet to keep his data secret.
As for getting access to his data anytime: Yes, except if he has a backup.
~~~
mike-cardwell
I don't understand why you think I wont be able to access my data anytime?
Dropbox synchronises the files so you have a local copy on each of your
Dropbox hosts. So if Dropbox is offline, or you get disconnected from the
Internet, you can still access them...
Worse case scenario is something causes the file to get deleted and that
propagates to all of the other hosts and deletes their local copies. But yes,
I have backups so that isn't a problem.
------
jojo1
IMHO everyone who is using such a service is a moron.
~~~
latortuga
This is an irresponsible position to take and akin to telling people to "make
stronger passwords." It simply isn't realistic. LastPass allows creation of
randomly generated passwords very easily and encrypts and stores them so you
can use them anywhere. The alternative for most normal users is to create one
or two passwords and use them everywhere, compromising the security of all of
their accounts. Obviously your response to this would be that they shouldn't
do that but the fact is, without something like LastPass, they have little
other choice.
This freakout reminds me of the radiation poison bullshit from a few months
back. Bananas have radiation therefore bananas are dangerous. Practicality
dictates that you are plain wrong.
------
maguay
Suddenly, I'm glad I switched to 1Password.
~~~
RyanKearney
Yeah 1Password is pretty awful when you consider the amount of features you
get with LastPass like multi-factor authentication. 1Password relies on
Dropbox. Your passwords are all stored on your computer. Granted they're in an
encrypted format, but if you have a jerk for a room mate they could copy your
encrypted files, key log your vault password, and have access to all your
passwords.
On the other hand, if you get my LastPass password you better have my grid too
(I keep it online so I can access it wherever, password protected).
Additionally LastPass is working on SMS codes for login.
~~~
bigiain
The there's somebody how can key log hardware you (think you can) trust,
you're hosed whatever security you're relying on.
~~~
ZoFreX
Negative, LastPass can generate one-time passwords which you can then use on
computers you suspect to be insecure.
~~~
pzxc
But most of the damage from keyloggers happens to people who do NOT suspect
they are using an insecure system (their own).
------
crocowhile
Does anyone know if there is a way to encrypt my lastpass db using both a
password and an RSA private key?
------
kmfrk
Let this be a reminder to LastPass to include a password expiration date by
default.
~~~
beaumartinez
...So you then have to replace a safe, well-thought-out password for a less
safe one?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Trump transition team picks regulation foe as telecom point man - taylorbuley
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/trump-transition-team-jeffrey-eisenach-229276
======
ljw1001
In related news, he picked a climate-change skeptic to head the EPA transition
team: [http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/297755-top-
clim...](http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/297755-top-climate-
skeptic-to-lead-trumps-epa-transition)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: So news is bad for us, but is the solution to follow people directly? - pedro1976
There seems to be an agreement among the HN community [1] that "news is bad for you" [2] and that we need to find a replacement for the primary news feed providers, cause their main purpose is to make make profit and not to keep us informed.<p>My idea of an alternative news feed is to keep following inspiring people you encounter, like a professor you have in university, or the no-name author of a movie. Following should be agnostic of a social network platform, just to keep track of all their public feeds. That way you would build up your personal network of people, that keeps growing and producing more value.<p>Whats your thoughts on that?<p>Maybe we can keep this on a conceptual level, and avoid technical problems of networks in general (like power laws and spaming), implementation details or reward mechanisms.<p>[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16763604
[2] https://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/apr/12/news-is-bad-rolf-dobelli
======
Cypher
Isn't that what everyone has been doing?
Have you considered making a private search engine that filters out media
sites and click bait generators as well as grabbing celeb adblocks.
~~~
pedro1976
Yes I have, thats my current side project, I am testing this approach
currently.
------
jerrre
How do you deal with the fact that many interesting people don't have/take the
time to write anything out?
~~~
pedro1976
Those people probably would not attract your initial interest at all.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Reddit begins accepting bitcoins - buttscicles
http://blog.reddit.com/2013/02/new-gold-payment-options-bitcoin-and.html
======
mdelias
Bitcoin as a payment option is now 2 clicks away from every reddit comment.
[Give Gold >>> BitCoin (sic)]
------
speeder
More impressive than accepting bitcoin is they using coinbase instead of
bitpay ( that supports WordPress.com ), really good for fostering competition!
Go free market!
~~~
w-ll
Not really given Coinbase is YCW12 IIRC.
But still this is awesome, the word bitcoin is 1 click away on every comment.
The community over in /r/bitcoin has been asking for this for what seems like
forever.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
An introduction to Scuttlebutt, the lovely decentralized social network [video] - alannallama
https://vimeo.com/236358264
======
CarolineW
An 11 minute video? No transcript? No subtitles?
Really?
~~~
alannallama
Feel free to volunteer to write subtitles! I'm sure the filmmaker would
appreciate the help.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Blue light glasses vs. flux? - arisAlexis
I am using flux with daytime settings. I am wondering if glasses provide something better dinxet the alternative is free? Or flux does not really cut blue light?
======
bitxbitxbitcoin
I have tried both religiously over the years.
One advantage of the glasses is that they work for screens that you don’t have
software control over - how often you might look at such screens depends on
your particular circumstance.
How often do you do image editing? Another advantage of glasses is that it
only affects what you see and you won’t get questions from others about why
your screen looks all red.
One advantage of software like flux, redshift, twilight, etc is that you can
customize its schedule and get really granular.
They both work - which one is better just depends what for. If money is tight
the software is more than sufficient and a great example of why FOSS is
awesome.
------
masonic
Note that many modern Samsung devices have a blue-light filter available right
in the main icon tray (the 11th out of 21 on my Galaxy SO+, for example).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Three Girls Win Intel Science Fair - aswanson
http://wayofthewoo.blogspot.com/2008/05/three-girls-win-intel-science-fair.html
======
timr
This is nice to see, but the Intel fair is hardly a meaningful measurement of
demographic trends.
Winning the Intel competition depends heavily on a high-school student's
(rather privileged) access to university-level research. It's no secret that
universities are invested in youth outreach for women and minorities in
science. In other words, there's a huge, not-so-hidden selection bias going on
here.
A far more _interesting_ question: what happens to these women after 8+ years
of post-secondary education? (Hint: they don't tend to stick around to gather
more awards)
~~~
ardit33
from what I know, it is always kids with parents that are into the industry
that win it. So, privileged, also means having a parent working on advanced
research or R&D with heavy access of materials and knowledge that normal
parents don't.
~~~
Shooter
While it's very true that privileged parents/school connections help some
students tremendously, good science is still good science. Anyone with a good
research idea that can execute well will be able to go pretty far in the
competitions. You don't have to have PhD parents or go to a private school to
win.
I won several awards at ISEF many years ago, including a few full-ride college
scholarships. That was before Intel took it over completely. I also won awards
at Westinghouse and some of the DoD science competitions. My Dad was a truck
driver and my Mom was a waitress at the time. They are 'normal' - for the most
part ;-) I also went to a small, rural high school that was definitely NOT
known for its science programs. Despite this contrary anecdotal evidence, I'll
have to mostly agree with you about the background of the people that win at
these competitions...although I can't speak directly to the gender issue. (I
do remember quite a few female competitors...?)
I was definitely the odd guy out at most of the competitions because I didn't
go to a private school and/or come from a very wealthy and educated family. I
was also a little lower on the...uh...Asperger's scale that most of my
competitors, to put it diplomatically. While I was a geek at my high school, I
seemed like an extroverted uber-jock at most of the competitions because it
turns out that everything IS relative. It was a very weird (but nice) change
in roles.
They have some great awards at these competitions. I won a trip to MITI City
in Japan, for example. It's also fun...the practical jokes that come about
with that many geeks hanging out are amazing! ;-)
~~~
timr
Well, like they say...the exceptions make the rule.
I think what's interesting about your story is not so much that you did these
things, but that you were _able_ to do them. In particular, what happened that
allowed you (rural high school kid with blue-collar parents) to do
Westinghouse-caliber work? Did someone approach you with a great opportunity,
was it the result of tenaciousness and single-minded dedication, did you have
a Homer-Hickam-style, one-in-a-million series of fortunate events...all of the
above?
The fact that you're agreeing with us about the overall competitor pool in
these contests suggests that your experience was a pretty rare event.
------
maximilian
Did you read the shit they did! They did some pretty crazy shit for being high
schoolers.. I hardly knew my way around an integral in high school let alone
doing what these kids did.
------
nazgulnarsil
lol, asian and two indians like I expected. white girls are stupid and lazy :p
(bring on the downmods)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
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