text
stringlengths 44
950k
| meta
dict |
|---|---|
iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus: Preliminary Benchmark Results - srikar
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8559/iphone-6-and-iphone-6-plus-preliminary-results
======
ksk
The A8 chip is "only" a dual-core and clocked at a relatively modest 1.4GHz.
It's heartening to see it beat competing 2+GHz Quad-cores. To me, it looks
like Apple is comfortable enough with their marketing strategy to stay away
from the pointless GHz rat-race that exists in the Android world.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megahertz_myth](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megahertz_myth)
~~~
ctdonath
Methinks Apple has decided/realized that specs are a cop-out. Customers are,
all too often, inundated with numbers not so much to prove how good the
product is, but to conceal that it's not good enough. "Meh, the new iPhone has
a mere 1.4GHz dual-core, but _our_ product has a 2+GHz quad-core!" really
means "here's some numbers that _look_ overwhelmingly superior, in hopes that
will distract you from the fact that it isn't."
Apple went "retina" to end the pixel-count competition: if you can't _see_ the
pixels, you don't care how many there are. Apple refused to state RAM size for
mobile devices from the beginning: user doesn't have an option, and rarely (if
ever) notices the limit, so the actual memory size doesn't matter. Processor
count & speed is irrelevant if it's used efficiently enough to practically
outrun the competition.
Sure, Apple does provide _some_ specs. People are too used to seeing such
numbers, despite few needing to see them IF the implementation is done right.
People want options, so some specs are flexible (at a price). But remember
that behind the scenes at retail, the devices options are labeled little more
than "Good, Better, Best": most users don't want better numbers, they want
superior performance with whatever it's got. Those gloating about size are
likely less able to use it.
~~~
avn2109
This is something I've been harping about for a long time. Apple is a _user
experience_ company, not a hardware or software company (perhaps they're the
only UX company out there).
There's an old saw about the railroads getting killed by the tractor trailer
in the 20th century because they thought they were in the railroad business,
when in fact they were in the transportation business. This time, Apple knows
exactly what business it's in, while the competition seems to have no idea
(compare the highly-curated experience of shopping/buying/shipping/using an
Apple product to the Android or Lenovo analogue).
------
rayiner
The really interesting data point to me is the 6+'s 13.7 hours of WiFi
browsing versus the LG G3's 8.8 hours. Both are 5.5" screens with ~3000 mAh
batteries, but the iOS/A8 combo lasts more than 50% longer.
~~~
Supermighty
The LG G3 has a 1440x2560 QHD screen. It takes more power to dive more pixels.
~~~
kllrnohj
So Android pushed 77% more pixels using only 50% more power? Sounds like
Android is more efficient!
Obviously power is more complex than just that, but seriously Android's
reputation for being inefficient is really not justified due to things like
this, where resolution differences are completely ignored.
~~~
tr0picana
A minor correction: The iPhone 6+ renders at 1242 x 2208 but scales it down to
1920 x 1080. So 30% more pixels at 50% more power?
~~~
bryanlarsen
It's the physical pixels that suck most of the power, so "77% more pixels" is
more accurate.
Certainly the GPU on the iPhone 6+ is going to take more power because it's
rendering at 1242x2208 rather than 1920x1080, but that's a minor effect
compared to the physical screen power draw.
------
blinkingled
To give you a faint idea of how meaningless battery benchmarks are vis-à-vis
real life usage, here are results from Phone Arena -
[http://www.phonearena.com/news/All-bow-to-the-new-
endurance-...](http://www.phonearena.com/news/All-bow-to-the-new-endurance-
kings-Sony-Xperia-Z3-and-Z3-Compact-score-a-record-battery-life_id60922) \- 9+
hrs for Xperia Z3 and 6+ for iPhone 6+ which is lesser than the S5.
"We measure battery life by running a custom web-script, designed to replicate
the power consumption of typical real-life usage"
In other words I would be very surprised if any of these benchmarks translate
to anything close to the numbers they proclaim.
~~~
saturdaysaint
Showing two different benchmarks doesn't actually prove that battery
benchmarks are meaningless.
~~~
blinkingled
Well they are both web browsing battery life benchmarks. If loading different
web pages shows 5+ hours of discrepancy then yes from a user standpoint they
are precisely meaningless.
~~~
meepmorp
No, it might mean that one of the benchmarks is meaningful and the other is
not. Or it might be that they test different scenarios and could be useful to
different groups of users.
What the discrepancy tells you is that there's something odd about the
benchmarks that could stand to be better investigated/explained.
~~~
blinkingled
> there's something odd about the benchmarks
You say odd, I say meaningless :)
~~~
meepmorp
Ok, but they're not the same thing. Odd might just mean a different set of
underlying assumptions that cause the numbers to misalign, or perhaps a bug.
------
gt565k
I'm surprised no one mentioned the ability to use custom ROMs and kernels on
android devices with optimized CPU governers and overclocking on demand and
how that affects the phone's performance.
Android stock branded phones are packed with bloatware from the carriers. This
is something apple actually has a grip on due to how closed their platform is.
I'm running c-rom with lean kernel on my Galaxy Note 3 and running just one of
those benchmarking programs, I get results that are a lot better than what
anandtech shows. Still not better than apple, but pretty close to them for a
last generation phone.
I'll try to run all of the benchmarks sometimes this weekeend and do a post.
~~~
listic
Could you please elaborate what is "c-rom with lean kernel" and how can I run
it? (on the original HTC mini). I bought it because I wanted a non-Android
smartphone that's not huge and decently built, but I'm tired of HTC Sense.
~~~
mpthrapp
(S)he's talking about running a custom operating system on their phone. Check
out xda-developers if you want a overview on the topic. I haven't actually
done it myself, but they're the people to talk to.
Side note, I'm confused, you bought an Android phone because you wanted a non-
Android smart phone? HTC Sense is still Android, just with a custom skin.
~~~
gt565k
Sorry I can see how this is confusing, but it's basically what mpthrapp said.
I've got a unbranded version of android suited for my phone with an optimized
kernel (lean kernel).
It runs a lot faster, the battery lasts longer, and I don't have to deal with
200+ bloatware apps on the phone...
Here's the page for C-ROM. See if it's compatible with your device.
[http://www.c-rom.org/](http://www.c-rom.org/)
lean kernel for note 3 [http://forum.xda-
developers.com/showthread.php?t=2488233](http://forum.xda-
developers.com/showthread.php?t=2488233)
Your best bet is to just get on xda-developers forums and go to your device's
section.
------
nicpottier
I was waiting for some independent battery tests and this kind of confirms
what I suspected would happen. Apple is back to absolutely destroying Android
on the battery front.
Some might not remember, but the drive to bigger Android screens was actually
mostly driven by battery life. Android has always been subpar in this critical
respect, the first devices were absolutely terrible, I suspect primarily
because Dalvik is nowhere near as efficient as cross-compiled objective C and
the rather more restrictive background task management on iOS.
iPhone 5's were holding their own and then some against the much larger
battery Android devices, so now that they batteries are the same on the 6's
there is no contest. Yes, bigger screens do eat more battery, but the ratio of
battery/screen size actually favors bigger screens, ergo why tablets get
incredible battery life. (and why the Note has always been a great battery
performer)
I've carried a Nexus since the very first one, but I think I might jump to a
6+, the advantages are too much to ignore. I'll wait to see what the Nexus X
is first as I really love Android these days, but I sure would love that
battery life and camera.
Nice to see Apple put the screws down.
~~~
Osmium
Yeah, this would be all very well and good if Apple started shipping phones
with larger batteries. The fact that battery life per mAh (may be) better on
iOS than Android means nothing if Apple keeps on rejecting larger batteries in
favour of thinness.
I know a lot of people would much prefer a slightly thicker iPhone 6 (that
didn't require the camera to protrude, for one) if it meant a larger battery.
------
shalmanese
I'd like to see some PC-phone comparisons now that they're starting to
approach parity. By my calculations, the new iPhone seems to be roughly as
fast as a 3 - 4 year old Macbook Air.
------
dan1234
There's a handy Reddit thread[0] with reports of actual "real world" usage.
[0][http://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/2gzxx1/post_your_batt...](http://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/2gzxx1/post_your_battery_stats_screenshots_when_your/)
~~~
mladenkovacevic
I'm always confused by the terms "Usage" and "Standby". Between those two
which is "Time off charger" and which one is "Screen Time"?
~~~
vijaykiran
I think there's a pretty good explanation here:
[http://www.scottyloveless.com/ios-battery-
life/](http://www.scottyloveless.com/ios-battery-life/)
~~~
mladenkovacevic
Ok that explains it a little bit.
So Standby time is basically "Time off Charger", and Usage is supposed to be
"Screen on time"? Except I have a feeling that "Usage" includes any time when
your phone is not sleeping (which would include not just the time when you
have the screen on but also any time when the processor is doing stuff in the
background).
What draws me to that conclusion is the ratio of usage to standby time that
some people in that thread have. I have a hard time believing that most people
are staring at their screens for half of their waking life. I mean even if you
didn't leave the house all day you'd still have to take your eyes off the
thing to prepare food, urinate, put your clothes on.
~~~
arrrg
Yep, listening to podcasts (with the screen off), for example, is definitely
“Usage”.
I’m not quite sure how the phone counts background activity that doesn’t
notify the user or require user interaction (e.g. Mail checking for new
emails, …).
------
melling
Wish they would include the iPhone 5 results. Most people keep a phone for two
years.
~~~
jskonhovd
You can run the benchmarks yourself!
[http://www.webkit.org/perf/sunspider/sunspider.html](http://www.webkit.org/perf/sunspider/sunspider.html)
------
rgonzales
I think the real standout here is NVIDIA. Shield was such an interesting
product from the very beginning, it's nice to see how it is actually holding
up against some of the "big boys".
~~~
asendra
To be fair, the Nvidia shield mentioned in these benchmarks is a 8" tablet,
not a smartphone. I think k1 hasn't yet been shown in a smartphone form
factor. Given the limitations caused by size, it's not really a fair
comparison.
~~~
rayiner
Especially considering that these devices are all thermally limited:
[http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/SoC-
th...](http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/SoC-
throttling.0012-640x480.png)
------
mrfusion
It seems odd they report 10 hours web browser battery life for the iPhone 5.
I'd be lucky to get 1-2 hours of constant browsing.
~~~
josephlord
They are using Wifi and pausing between page loads (so that fast phones don't
load 4x as many pages and lose the test).
On Wifi 10 hours sounds closer to my experience than 1-2 hours.
~~~
mrfusion
My phone is 2.5 years old at this point. Maybe I've been losing battery
capacity so gradually I've never noticed.
That would be amazing to have 13 hours of browsing with a new phone. (as
reported in the article)
~~~
dan1234
The iPhone 5 was only released 2 years ago (21 Sept 2012), yours can't
possibly be 2.5 years old.
~~~
mrfusion
Ok, apparently I have a 4S. Maybe it's older than I thought.
~~~
josephlord
I know someone with a 4S and the battery really struggles now especially when
using GPS.
~~~
malyk
This happened to me. I bought a Mophie Juicepack for it and it solved the
problem...by doubling the weight/volume of the phone.
Got an iPhone 6 on friday.
Yesterday I went on a 2.5 hour, 30 mile bike ride, and the iphone6 battery
meter was essentially still at 100%. My 4s would have been well under 50%. Of
course, the M8 is why, but after 3 years of recharging the 4s every night the
battery was really starting to feel it.
------
Igglyboo
Seems like Apple really knows what consumers want. I spend about 90% of my
iPhone time in Safari/Chrome. Advanced 3D graphics are nice and all but I
rarely take advantage of them, I'd expect that most users are the same.
~~~
jonknee
The top apps include many graphic heavy games, your usage is most likely not
typical (which should be fairly obvious considering what site you're on).
Currently top grossing for the US: Clash of Clans, Candy Crush Saga, Pandora,
Game of War - Fire Age, Farm Heroes Saga.
~~~
nmcfarl
I'm not certain there is a direct correlation between the apps that make the
most money in the App Store, and the apps that people spend the most time in.
It would mean that all the built in apps, and all the free apps in the App
Store relatively unused, and that advertising models are a fools errand as no-
one spends enough time in the apps. I suspect companies persuing these kinds
of apps, including apple, are seeing enough usage to make a business case for
their actions.
~~~
jonknee
Of the free apps in the US store right now are keyboards (new for iOS 8 and
don't really count as "apps") and Facebook Messenger, iTunes U, Amazing Thief
(game), The Maze Runner (game), Instagram, Facebook, Beach Buggy Racing
(Game), etc.
Games are extraordinarily popular on iOS. I see people gaming constantly on
planes, trains, busses, etc.
------
bhartzer
I don't do a lot of gaming on my phone or on a tablet, so seems to me that the
best bet right now (for me) is an iPhone 6 Plus.
------
frik
OT: AnandTech founder Anand Shimpi retires from journalism to work at Apple:
[http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/09/anandtech-founder-
ana...](http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/09/anandtech-founder-anand-shimpi-
retires-from-journalism-to-work-at-apple/)
------
jonchang
I wonder if it's time to start scaling mobile benchmarks by the size of the
device.
~~~
Cthulhu_
Doesn't the "offscreen" test do that? i.e. render something on an offscreen,
fixed and uniform resolution on all devices?
Although battery performance should probably be normalized to battery size /
amperage, yeah. Bigger phones usually have the same resolution as their
smaller siblings but larger battery capacity.
------
hocuspocus
Do we know how Apple's Cyclone shows roughly 4x better IPC against Krait at
Sunspider benchmark? Are the extra registers and bigger L1 enough to explain
that?
~~~
Spittie
My best guess is that the Sunspider benchmark like single-threaded
performance, and Cyclone destroys Krait/Cortex here.
As for why, Cyclone's core are bigger, wider compared to Krait/Cortex, and are
Out Of Order. (This is a nice article on that:
[http://www.extremetech.com/computing/179473-apples-a7-cyclon...](http://www.extremetech.com/computing/179473-apples-a7-cyclone-
cpu-detailed-a-desktop-class-chip-that-has-more-in-common-with-haswell-than-
krait))
------
cevaris
Shouldn't this included iPad too comparisons too, since it includes the Nvida
shield? Else, the Nvida shield should probably not be up there.
~~~
szatkus
Nvidia made quite interesting SoC, that's why they placed Shield in the
comparision. iPad has only slightly boosted iPhone SoC.
------
joeblau
Can someone explain where there is such a huge gap between the 6 and 6+ when
it comes to the Onscreen GFXBench test?
~~~
valley_guy_12
Presumably because the 6+ has a much larger screen.
~~~
ldrndll
Made even worse by the fact that it renders at 2208x1242 and then downsamples
to 1920 × 1080.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Smart Luggage with built-in laptop tray, usb charger and location tracking - bhaile
http://barracuda.co
======
ohjeez
WANT.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
IRS Bitcoin Probe of Goes Too Far, Says Republicans - ryan_j_naughton
http://fortune.com/2017/05/21/irs-bitcoin-congress/
======
RichardHeart
link to letter: [https://waysandmeans.house.gov/wp-
content/uploads/2017/05/20...](https://waysandmeans.house.gov/wp-
content/uploads/2017/05/2017.05.17-Coinbase-Letter-Hatch-Brady-Buchanan.pdf)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Rise of the New Global Elite - pointillistic
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/01/the-rise-of-the-new-global-elite/8343/
======
edj
Single page: [http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/print/2011/01/the-
rise-o...](http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/print/2011/01/the-rise-of-the-
new-global-elite/8343/)
------
patrickgzill
I question exactly how long-lived this new wealth is or will be.
Look at the Rothschilds - they have figured out a way to take the initial
1700s wealth and keep it (we can assume mostly) together in a relatively
cohesive lump for some 300 years.
A less "notorious" example would be the duPonts, easily trillionaires if you
were to add up the wealth accumulated amongst this wealthy family.
Against that, someone worth $100 million who gives 90% of it away when he/she
passes doesn't seem all that significant.
Not sniping, just expressing a contrary POV to consider...
~~~
cturner
> keep it .. we can assume mostly.. in a relatively
> cohesive lump for some 300 years.
I think I disagree but it might just be over choice of words. It's an
interesting topic that I want to develop and I'll charge on.
On the topic of intergenerational wealth, it's not enough to say that you can
keep a lump of wealth. During the 300 years you talk about, governments rose
and fell, and currencies and sovereign debt with them. In order to stay above
water, you have to float your position across multiple regimes and positions.
Or keep it in a lump of gold. That didn't do that - they worked money hard.
Rothschilds took on huge positions in the Napoleonic wars that could easily
have gone wrong. They then would have lost it all due to poor timing over the
end of the waterloo campaign but leveraged up by taking an audacious position
on sovereign bonds that paid off and made them even richer. My point is, they
gambled the house at several points.
Part of what's striking about the Rothschilds specifically is that they kept a
healthy mindset across several generations. This is a wildly interesting topic
that has crossover with another article hacker news today link today to the
atlantic, <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2072200>
In that article you see lots of people who came from aspirational backgrounds.
But how do you keep that? How do you raise a wealthy family in a way that
passes on those values?
~~~
patrickgzill
I upvoted you because you have hit on the core question: how do you stay
hungry after that first x million, and how do you pass it on to the next
generation?
Some family members have achieved relative wealth and I see this with their
children who attend private schools ... I see nephews and nieces likely to
pursue professions, but do not see the same competitive drive being passed
along.
------
drinian
This is a fine exposition on the state of the world today -- and the hope that
these hard-working global citizens will help create a more equitable world --
but it's worth remembering that there's nothing new under the sun.
After all, the British royal family is of German descent.
------
jamesaguilar
> . . . but less connected to the nations that granted them opportunity—and
> the countrymen they are leaving ever further behind.
Because opportunity springs not from the ingenuity of man but the granting of
nations who "own" him.
~~~
simon_
I understand your sentiment, and don't really disagree, but keep in mind that
it's basically impossible to innovate or build wealth under unfavorable
institutions. So... some value probably "should" accrue to nations.
~~~
jamesaguilar
Yes, for sure. Some of the benefits should return to the nation that provided
the favorable conditions (and do, in the form of that person's taxes and also
in the form of opportunity-seekers from around the globe flocking to the
places where growth is possible). But I don't like the notion that people owe
their successes to their country any more than I believe they are indebted to
oxygen or gravity.
~~~
noahth
You may not like the idea but that doesn't necessarily have any bearing on its
truth. None of us does anything on our own - water, power, roads, schools, the
list goes on and on (not all directly attributable to the country itself, but
certainly national governments are high on the list of contributors to these
projects in almost all cases, and I haven't even mentioned things like tax
policy yet). I think the days of the nation-state are numbered but we can't
ignore what those entities did for human progress. Maybe not in the form of a
literal debt, but it's short-sighted and antisocial to pretend that the elites
didn't have a hundred million helping hands on their way up.
~~~
yummyfajitas
Perhaps, but the elites have already paid for all of those helping hands many
times over. The top 5% paid about 60% of the nation's taxes, for instance, and
they almost certainly have not used 60% of the public services.
<http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/250.html>
In spite of this, most of the services they paid for are _not_ the public
goods (e.g., roads, power, water, police) you describe. Of the top 5 biggest
expenditures in the US, only the 4'th is a public good.
<http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/year2008_US.html>
And this completely ignores all the consumer surplus they have created (i.e.,
the happiness you get from using a macbook rather than having $1000). The
elites have paid their debt. Let them leave if they want to.
The US should not become a prison state.
~~~
raleec
I think the point is that the elite benefit from the public services even if
we do not use them directly. E.g. if we work in an office building we benefit
from the services that allowed the worker vacuuming to be there, though we
didn't necessarily take the bus there ourselves. [edit] but this is not to say
that anyone should be restricted unduly.
~~~
yummyfajitas
First of all, if the worker is a taxpayer, the employer is already paying for
those services in the form of pre-tax wages. I pay for my own police
protection, and I raise my wage commensurately [1]. This is all included in
the cost of labor.
Secondly, most government spending does not provide those necessary services.
Roads, police and water are just not very expensive. Most government spending
is just transfers from the wealthy to the less wealthy - see my second link in
my previous post.
[1] Actually, my landlord pays for police protection, and has raised my rent
commensurately.
~~~
raleec
Most of the cleaning service people are not _really_ taxpayers[1], which is
why including them distorts the equation. They are benefiting w/out
contributing, and we do in fact, need them. Also reinforcing my point, How can
you claim that Defense is the only public good in the top 5? What percentage
of the population must benefit to qualify?
[1]From other IRS data, we can see that in 2008, around 52 million tax returns
were filed with either positive or negative AGI that used exemptions,
deductions and tax credits to completely wipe out their federal income tax
liability. Not only did they get back every dollar that the federal government
withheld from their paychecks during 2008, but some even received more back
from the IRS.
------
danenania
Why is Greenspan so often referred to as libertarian or an ultra-capitalist?
Central banking is the polar opposite of both these things.
When Greenspan says something like "capitalism has failed", it isn't some sort
of grand ideological reversal, it's an unwitting joke.
~~~
borism
not that those references are true, but the guy was part of the friggin Ayn
Rand Collective.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarianism_and_Objectivism>
------
stuaxo
If I wasn't skint I would right now buy the domain
fucktheglobalelite.com
Not sure what it would have apart from a link to the article and "seriously,
fuck those guys"
~~~
tomjen3
Why do you have a problem with them? They made money and now they hack word
poverty. What's wrong with that?
------
anaphoric
Is wealth/poverty relative or absolute?
I think most people would be happier if they saw it in more absolute terms. I
have witnessed wealthy people made to feel like paupers when a yet more
wealthy person puts on a display that they can't afford. The phenomena is
actually quite comical.
Still it's fairly clear that wealth will always be a measuring stick that
people will use to display their relative worth. It's like plumage. A lot of
resources go into growing those fancy tail feathers. In itself I don't see
anything wrong with that. It's quite natural.
However it's important for societal cohesion that the absolute wealth of the
average does not fall and that they can maintain some semblance of dignity.
------
sayemm
Good read on the world trending towards meritocracy, esp during these times as
a lot of older institutions are getting turned upside-down. It reminds me of
this old PG post, "After Credentials" -
<http://www.paulgraham.com/credentials.html>
"The course of people's lives in the US now seems to be determined less by
credentials and more by performance than it was 25 years ago."
------
narrator
One thing that's disturbing these days is there is even a huge gap in wealth
between someone in the top 1% and the top 0.1%.
~~~
brc
Why? Why is that disturbing? This is a genuine question.
It doesn't disturb me one bit. As long as each generation is relatively
wealthier than the prior one, I don't care about the spread within that
generation.
My grandfather died of pneumonia at age 56 due to a lack of oxygen and
antibiotics at the hospital. They didn't have enough money to paint their
house and instead used old tractor sump oil. My parents, when married, didn't
have hot water or a toilet inside the house. They had never travelled more
than 200 miles from their place of birth.
My kids have access to better health, leisure, education, food and housing
than even I did, which is not that long ago.
This continual improvement in wealth amongst my own family is proof enough
that the very rich aren't impinging on what really matters, which is improving
living standards for the majority of people.
Paraphrasin PG in one of his essays - it doesn't disturb me that Mozart was 1
million times more musically talented than I am, or that Tiger Woods is 10
million times better at golf. Their ability and success doesn't impede on my
life at all - if anything - it improves it. It's not unfair (in any real
sense) that Federer can play tennis very well and I can't hit the ball to save
myself. So why is it unfair that someone has talent at making money and can
make a million times more money than I can? In a free society, (apart from a
very tiny minority who steal or lie their way to it) the only way they can get
(and stay) rich is by providing excess value to everyone else. That's true
whether you are kicking a ball, trading stocks or building software.
Nobody has ever successfully convinced me why wealth disparity in a free
society is a problem. If anything, I see it as a sign of a healthy society.
~~~
SkyMarshal
No time for a thorough answer, but a few clues as to why it's not always a
great thing.
First, some data:
<http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html>
[http://www.good.is/post/americans-are-horribly-
misinformed-a...](http://www.good.is/post/americans-are-horribly-misinformed-
about-who-has-money/)
In a nutshell: the top 20% of the populace controls 85% of the US's wealth.
1\. Increasing wealth concentration = increasing concentration of political
power => democracy undermined. US is excellent example - the populace can
vote, but only for candidates preselected by funders in the top 20%; populace
can advocate, but top 20% has much better access, influence (due to both
campaign funding and 'revolving door' jobs when leaving office), and in some
cases actually writes the legislation (bank bailout being a major example).
When that happens, you get capture of the government and regulators, financial
excess & crisis, and symptoms of banana republic:
[http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/05/the-
quie...](http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/05/the-quiet-
coup/7364/)
2\. _'As long as each generation is relatively wealthier than the prior one, I
don't care about the spread within that generation.'_
That's held true for decades, but is not guaranteed to continue forever.
Problem of induction: no amount of confirming observations can prove a theory
true, while one single refuting observation can disprove it. Eg, even if all
strata of every generation has always been relatively wealthier than the
previous generation, that is no guarantee the same thing will continue
indefinitely in the future.
Highly concentrated wealth also skews some economic statistics, masking the
plight of the lower and middle class. The latter can even be in decline while
the top 20% are making out like bandits by outsourcing chunks of our wealth-
creating 'making things' industries to higher-profit-margin manufacturing
centers, and that wouldn't show up on some stats based on averages.
The workers get laid off while the CEOs, boards, 'pay consultants', and
shareholders pocket the increased profits. And when the top 20% controls 85%
of the wealth, guess who those shareholders are. Bottom 80% is increasingly
locked out of the wealth that can be generated from ownership, and forced to
subsist as wage slaves.
There are arguments that is what is beginning to happen now.
3\. _'This continual improvement in wealth amongst my own family is proof
enough that the very rich aren't impinging on what really matters, which is
improving living standards for the majority of people.'_
Your standard for 'proof' is pretty low. That's a single data point anecdote.
C'mon now.
4\. Extremely high wealth concentration has historically been associated with
revolutions and other unrest. The French Revolution comes to mind. I'll let
the amateur historians here argue over causality, but it's really not a road
we want to go down.
For anyone who believes in the adaptive, corrective power of free markets and
democratic government, increasingly extreme wealth concentration should be a
concern, since it can and does undermine exactly that.
PS - I'm not implying wealth redistribution is the solution, since that's just
a poor kluge that addresses the symptoms rather than the underlying problem/s.
But I do think the reasons for this accelerated wealth concentration need to
be clearly understood, and in some cases neutralized - unpunished financial
fraud that led to the crisis, CEO pay based on board & pay consultant
connections, free trade with countries that allow effective slave labor, among
others.
~~~
potatolicious
> _"Extremely high wealth concentration has historically been associated with
> revolutions and other unrest."_
The truest statement of all. American history books would glorify the American
Revolution as a battle against tyranny for freedom, but above anything it was
a battle against extreme economic exploitation.
Just like the French Revolution... just like the Russian Revolution... just
like the Chinese Civil War...
The rich are digging their own graves. No amount of economic power will hold
back a sea of desperate, furious peasants who have nothing left to lose and
every desire to see your head on a stick. I'm not looking forward to that
mess.
~~~
tomjen3
Oh please, get a fucking grip on reality for fuck sake. Those populations
starved for _years_ under insanely despotic regimes.
Today even poor people have too much to eat (look at obesity rates) and _leave
tvs behind when they loose their house cause it isn't worth taking with them_.
Your computer would have been worth fighting a war over 200 years ago.
To suggest that we are anything close to a "sea of desperate, furious peasants
who have nothing left to lose and desire to see your head on a stick" while
the peasents have access to better food, medical care, running water,
communications, transportation and entertainment that the Sun King ever
dreamed of shows how crazy that argument is.
~~~
mattobrien
Marie Antoinette would approve of that sentiment. Let them eat Big Macs?
~~~
tomjen3
They have access to Big Macs, they are one of the cheapest foods ever. Do you
think anybody would have cared about that cake remark (which she never said)
if they really had eaten cake instead?
------
pero
"Peter Lindert is an economist at the University of California at Davis and
one of the leaders of the “deep history” school of economics, a movement
devoted to thinking about the world economy over the long term—that is to say,
in the context of the entire sweep of human civilization."
North America: "Deep history" school of economics
Rest of the World: "Marxist"
Stuart Hall must be impressed...
~~~
gwern
Pattern match detected: 'Deep history' and 'Marxism' both discuss human
economies over millennia. Conclusion: Deep history == Marxism.
Pattern match detected: 'George W. Bush' and 'a duck' both have 2 legs.
Conclusion: George W. Bush == a duck.
~~~
wazoox
> _Conclusion: George W. Bush == a duck._
You're probably onto something here.
------
relic17
Sadly, yet another author who either did not bother to read and think about
Ayn Rand's work, or, worse, pretends to have NOT understood it.
~~~
forensic
explain
~~~
sp332
Rich people already have power. Trying to minimize their political power, in
favor of a more "democratic" system, is just denying the reality that the rich
are powerful. If the government antagonizes rich people, the rich will fight
back economically until they get what they want anyway (with lots of
collateral damage). On the other hand, if you give the rich political power to
begin with, you are merely acknowledging that they have power. Then they can
wield it more effectively, and (Ayn Rand hopes) society will be better off.
Edit: Also, income inequality is no big deal if the rich aren't stepping all
over the poor. As the article points out, the super-elite in Shanghai haven't
stopped the middle class in China from exploding, and average income is
growing strongly despite the financial crisis. The super-elite aren't hurting
anything.
~~~
forensic
That's a fair point but I don't think it is obvious from Atlas Shrugged.
You can read that book in many ways.
~~~
brc
You know I've wanted to read Atlas Shrugged for a long time but I can't find a
copy that isn't in microscopic brain-hurting print and crappy paper. Any
ideas?
~~~
joubert
You can also wait for the movie <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0480239/>
~~~
tomjen3
When I clicked that link I though you were making a clever joke.
But they did actually film it - and it only took them 35 years to get it done.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
First release of LibreSSL portable is available - klapinat0r
http://marc.info/?l=openbsd-tech&m=140510291304119&w=2
======
erobbins
So, an audited port of openssl comes out and the discussion centers around:
1\. why CVS sucks and the openbsd team should spend 3 months doing nothing but
reworking their development processes so they can use git like all the cool
ruby hackers.
2\. Lack of formality in the release announcement
3\. Choice of font
wow.
~~~
stal
that's because CVS is shit and they should use git or mercurial.
and why should we trust an SSL tool that uses COMIC SANS on thier website.
these LibReSSL dudes sound like idiot hipsters
~~~
hobarrera
Honestly, if you're using windows (which, AFAIK, is the only OS that includes
Comic Sans), why the are you complaining about being unable to trust security
software from a certain provider?
------
agwa
Source is served from a HTTP website with no PGP signature in sight. :-(
Critical software like this should really be distributed more securely.
~~~
AlyssaRowan
It's a bit early to rely on as critical - this is serious work-in-progress.
I'm not sure I'd _use_ it yet, and I'm not sure you should either, but then, I
suppose I could say that equally well about the OpenSSL library it's forked
from.
It is nevertheless a bit weird to see test sourcecode for TLS support on a
site that _does not support_ HTTPS!
Maybe when the cleanup is complete and it's shored up, they might actually
_use_ it? :)
~~~
agwa
Yeah, a LibreSSL dev has replied saying as much. I did not realize this was
meant to be a preview release, or I would not have been so critical. (But I do
think they could have made this more clear in their announcement and/or
version scheme.)
~~~
AlyssaRowan
Interesting to compare and contrast the approach taken by lib _re_ SSL and
agl's BoringSSL (my own private fork is in the process of being replaced by
BoringSSL, because it's not as hacky as my solutions).
I think I prefer BoringSSL's cmake/make process, because OpenSSL's build
system is _simply horrible_ , I've never liked it. But it doesn't do shared
libraries yet, so I'm having to take the .a files and link them by hand (well,
by script anyway). Not optimal, but better than having to rebase my own
patches so frequently, and it's only a test box.
I love the sheer amount of renovation-via-demolition lib _re_ SSL's doing.
OpenSSL really does have a _terrifying_ amount of #if 0, crufty ciphers and
code no-one ever wants to use.
By the way, you may as well take RC4 out: it's about to get another
significant result...
~~~
mey
Taking out of defaults maybe, but people still need to be able to access
old/broken ciphers to do work. Maybe I'm mis-interrupting your meaning.
------
edwintorok
Where should bugs be reported? It doesn't build on Debian:
md5/md5_dgst.c: In function 'md5_block_data_order':
md5/md5_dgst.c:107:49: error: right-hand operand of comma expression has no effect [-Werror=unused-value]
HOST_c2l(data,l); X( 0)=l; HOST_c2l(data,l); X( 1)=l;
^
~~~
pyroh
Perhaps try #openbsd on Freenode.
~~~
tedunangst
definitely not. mail to [email protected]
~~~
mey
That is a little confusing to have on end point for openbsd, openssh and
Montreal.
~~~
gnuvince
And Montreal...
~~~
mey
Sorry that was a phone auto-correction. I typed in LibreSSL...
------
nayden
The github repo: [https://github.com/libressl-
portable](https://github.com/libressl-portable)
~~~
Kikawala
From the README:
Development is done in the upstream OpenBSD codebase. A github clone of the
official repositories is kept at: [https://github.com/libressl-
portable](https://github.com/libressl-portable) We update this repository from
the OpenBSD respositories semi-frequently, so changes may not show up in
GitHub immediately. The GitHub repository should be used for informational
purposes only.
~~~
raverbashing
Makes me wonder why is OpenBSD still using CVS for their things.
Really, not having atomic commits is a pain
~~~
forgottenpass
Works for them so who cares? No reason to bikeshed tools of a project you're
not sending patches to anyway.
~~~
Karunamon
Windows XP works for some people. There are legitimate costs to operating in
the past, moreso when it's a project other people rely on.
-2 for an absolutely true fact? Wow. I'm not normally one to complain about downvotes but.. seriously.
~~~
LukeShu
There are also significant migration costs.
They likely have a toolchain built around CVS that would have a very
challenging time being migrated to git.
They also have a workflow that involves tracking file IDs as the import/export
files from other projects. Git doesn't do this well.
~~~
Karunamon
Every change (for significant values of, err.. significant) breaks someone's
workflow.
Again, XP works for many. That doesn't mean there aren't vanishingly few
reasons to use it anymore. For CVS, there's the whole non-atomic changes
thing, the whole no renaming files thing, no binary file support, no amending
commits, no bisect (a feature which I believe sells the software even if
everything else sucked), it's harder to collaborate with other users..
Holding onto objectively inferior tools due to a lack of desire to migrate
because "it works for me!" is a huge plague on technology.
~~~
vezzy-fnord
You can't really compare Windows XP and CVS. It's disingenuous.
CVS isn't deprecated. You can't say that it's fundamentally obsolete, either.
It's just really primitive, compared to modern DVCS like Git and Mercurial.
But if the primitive functionality fulfills their use case, why should they
switch?
~~~
Karunamon
Why not?
* Both are perfectly working versions of software
* Both have been obsoleted by newer, more fully featured, and more secure replacements (git cryptographically hashes its commits, cvs does not)
* Both have users that refuse to migrate from them because "it works for them", despite the benefits and impact on everyone else.
~~~
_kst_
CVS still has its uses.
[http://stackoverflow.com/a/7871646/827263](http://stackoverflow.com/a/7871646/827263)
~~~
raverbashing
Humm, let's see
"Unlike Git, you can check out only a subset of the repository."
Maybe useful, you can do that in SVN, also checkouts in GIT are very fast, the
point may be moot.
"So I find CVS (and sometimes even RCS) convenient when the repository is a
collection of largely unrelated files, and I'm more interested in tracking
changes on individual files"
Ok, I guess it makes sense _in this strict case_ (for example, a collection of
config files). Apart from that, if you're wondering with version of file A
works with which version of file B you lost.
"At least once, I've had to manually reconstruct a saved CVS file that had
become corrupted. I'm not sure how I could have done that with SVN or Git."
They wouldn't have corrupted the file in the first place more likely... And
yes there are ways to recover it.
~~~
_kst_
Valid points; I never claimed that CVS is better than Git in general. I still
use it for some things mostly out of habit and the fact that it's not really
worth the effort of migrating (again, this is mostly for collections of files
that don't depend on each other).
As for the (rare) corrupted files, I don't know what caused that. They were
single-bit errors that I could correct by manually editing the *,v files. I
know of no reason to assume that such errors are more or less likely with Git
vs. CVS.
------
strict9
humor/irony or not, I'll never take a project seriously that has such
ridiculous typography for the project home page.
~~~
pjscott
Sure you will. It'll be bundled with your OS, or your browser, or just used by
web sites you visit that have "[https://"](https://") at the beginnings of
their URLs, and you'll take it seriously because you take _those_ thing
seriously.
By the same token, you're trusting OpenSSL unless you go to great pains not
to.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Serious Business: Python is not just for Engineering - PyCon 2011 [video] - swanson
http://blip.tv/file/4878796
======
samuel1604
Awesome talk, a lot of those talks can get really boring but that guy knew how
to present!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Favorite Project Management Solutions? - stanley
We're a small web startup with a CEO in New York, a CMO in Vancouver, a CTO with 4 developers in San Francisco, and a small outsourcing team offshore.
We use Git for SCM, but we haven't found an ideal solution for communicating everything else.<p>Taking into perspective our fractured company structure, what project management solutions can you guys recommend?<p>I know this question has been asked in the past, but like all other software, the options keep changing.
======
bayareaguy
I think it all depends on your feature requirements and employee skill set.
My former company got along pretty well with our own mix of Trac/SVN for code
and engineering issues, Request Tracker for trouble tickets, ScrumWorks for
iteration management and MediaWiki for all other stuff.
------
btakita
Pivotal Tracker <http://www.pivotaltracker.com/> and You Track
<http://www.jetbrains.com/youtrack/>.
------
shaddi
There was a great article about this very topic two weeks ago:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=912141>
------
projectileboy
I recommend Redmine.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
3 New Elements Named - Darmstadtium, Roentgenium and Copernicium - llambda
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/05/science/3-new-elements-named-darmstadtium-roentgenium-and-copernicium.html?_r=1
======
Todd
I just watched an enjoyable BBC documentary "Chemistry: A Volatile History".
The last episode concludes with a visit to the Centre for Heavy Ion Research
in Darmstadt and talks a bit about these elements.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Inequality and Risk (2005) - sillysaurus3
http://www.paulgraham.com/inequality.html
======
MR4D
should be tagged with (2005)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Easy-Type Passwords: A boon to air-gapped credentials - jeffalyanak
https://rights.ninja/passwords/
======
jeffalyanak
Like many of you out there, I use an encrypted keychain to manage credentials,
so remembering all of my passwords is no longer a problem. Unfortunately,
those long, secure passwords I like to use are really annoying to read and
type in situations where I can't auto-fill them from my keychain. This is a
particular annoyance with air-gapped or legacy systems where I have to read
stuff like this off of my phone screen:
C5BWVEQRE7BTxmSeNF7n3E8C
Minor annoyance, sure, but easily solved. The Easy-Type password generator
uses only grade-6 and under vocabulary words and short numbers to provide a
password with a good amount of entropy but one that can be very easily read
and typed:
SorryNorthern73RepresentStood
The word list is currently 634 words long and the generator spits out 4
(pseudo)random words and inserts a (pseudo)random number between 1-99 into the
mix as well.
------
Zekio
The animation it does on load is crazy
~~~
jeffalyanak
How crazy are we talking? What browser are you using?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: My first time developing a rails app. What do you think? - peachananr
I came from a PHP background, and I've decided to jump ship to rails.<p>https://www.bucketlistly.com is the result of 2 months of learning by doing.<p>What do you think of the app? Would love to hear all of your feedback.<p>Feel free to sign up for beta, I'll send an invite to all of you.
======
lowboy
It's got a very strong design which you executed well. It's quite polished.
The rails part is hard to comment on because we can't see your code - but from
the url structure, it looks like it worked well for you.
Having said that, I'm not really a fan of the design overall because I find it
distracting from the actual content. IMO, effective design should help to
focus the user's attention on the content, not be part of the focus in and of
itself. I'm just not a fan of overly skeuomorphic designs in general for that
reason.
The Tips & Tricks animation on the sidebar is also very distracting.
That scripty font renders very thin and isn't very readable for me on chome-
stable Win7: <http://i.imgur.com/FC5oE.jpg>
~~~
peachananr
Thanks for your suggestion mate! I'll definitely try to fix the font rendering
on Windows. It's a shame that PC can't render the same way as mac. It's so
much more pleasing to look at the design on a mac. :)
------
thiagodotfm
Make the "sign in with facebook text" be "facebook sign in". The text is too
big and it seems that both the facebook and the "get an invitation buttons"
have to be of the same size in order to be aesthetically pleasing to the eye.
Anyways, you did a pretty good job. Awesome.
~~~
peachananr
Thanks for a great suggestion! I'll definitely adjust the button sizes. :)
------
holgersindbaek
Looks really hot. Seems like you've done a lot of work on it.
I can't use it though, since I need an invitation for it. A big turnoff for
me.
You should also make your title into a link, otherwise nobody is gonna upvote
your post.
~~~
peachananr
Thanks for the suggestion mate. Really appreciate it. :) I might open up
registration very soon.
------
tectonic
<https://www.bucketlistly.com>
------
OriginalSyn
Why is Facebook always the first auth system implemented in start up apps,
OpenID is so much more simple to get running and will open you up to many
different providers with very little coding. Is it just for the data mining?
~~~
dickeytk
I think being 'easier' in a Rails app is debatable. Facebook authentication
certainly isn't 'hard'.
IMO OpenID is an awful user experience, I much prefer using Facebook. But that
point is certainly debatable as well.
~~~
OriginalSyn
It has similar Allow/Deny UX as Facebook and opens you up to major email
providers like Google and Yahoo as well as the plethora of other providers and
ones such StackExchange if you're creating a technical site/app. Having only
Facebook as an auth alienates 1/3rd of the US population.
------
runjake
I wish I had even 10% the design talent you (or whoever did the site design)
had.
~~~
peachananr
Thanks mate! I did everything my self. I don't usually do this kind of design
so for this project, I went all in with skeuomorphism and this is the result
of that experiment. :)
------
logical42
i like the site design and the javascript scroller is pretty neat.. i think
your images load a bit slowly however, which i think means you could probably
benefit from serving your assets, i.e. images and such, via a cdn (like
cloudfront). all in all, good work, it looks like something to be proud of,
which is always great!
~~~
peachananr
Just switched to Cloudfront. It's running extremely fast! Thanks for the
suggestion mate. :)
------
craze3
What benefits have you noticed from coding this in rails instead of PHP? Does
it run faster or more efficiently?
~~~
peachananr
The app seems to run fine right now, but I'll have to see how it goes. It is
quite expensive though using Heroku but it is a lot easier to scale than using
dedicated vitial machines like I did with MyColorscreen.com (my previous
project).
For me personally, developing on rails made my life so much easier. There's a
gem for everything. Facebook/Twitter/Foursquare can be integrated by just a
few lines of codes.
Also in terms of resources like tutorials, rails community is by far the
largest I've seen. Railscast.com really helped a lot in this project.
~~~
japhyr
Do you mind sharing a bit more about cost? Heroku has a free tier; has the
project already outgrown that?
~~~
peachananr
Sure, I'm currently running on:
Heroku Postgres Crane: $50 (just in case) SSL Endpoint: $25 1 web dyno, 1
worker dyno: $34.50
I'm still using a free Sendgrid to send emails (200 emails per day) but I'm
sure I'll have to pay more sooner or later.
I used to use DV provided by Media Temple and it only costs me $50/month.
------
meta8609
How are you implementing the real-time refresh?
~~~
peachananr
Which part? The landing page? Those are simply a cached result displaying as a
ticker to make it looks real time but it actually loops through the result.
------
danicted
just tested if there is any restrictions in forms but sounds there is none.
------
geekam
Great design!
~~~
peachananr
Thanks! I'm quite happy about the design as well. Trying to create a unique
personality with skeuomorphism. :)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How do you decide features set of your product? - pknerd
I am working on a <i>side project</i> which is not something that is new or unique or out of the world. There are many similar apps available which are being downloaded but I still want to make one by believing that I will find my market anyway.<p>My question from experienced entrepreneurs/product designers, how do you initiate a process to define features of your product that you think could make you different from others? Is it adding MORE or reducing some features of existing competitor's product?<p>Thanks in Advance.
======
mindcrime
My advice: Read _The Four Steps to the Epiphany_ or _The Startup Owner's
Manual_. @sgblank talk about this in detail.
At the risk of sounding flippant, you can basically reduce it to "talk to
customers". _Note_ however, that @sgblank does NOT advocate collecting the
union of all requested features and implement all of them! The idea is to
identify the most requested features, or, to really be more specific, the
_features that somebody is willing to pay for_.
The principle behind this is easy to understand, although the actual process
of doing this isn't necessarily _easy_ as it takes a lot of work to go out,
find potential customers, interview them, etc.
------
catharsis
I'm not in a place to find the link, but 37signals has a very good article
about this. Start right from the core function (for example if the competitor
is photoshop, make paint). The only real issue I think of with this method is
bloat of code and UI, but I still think this way lends itself better to a
strong product.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Mos – A lightweight tool for smooth and reverse scrolling (mouse) on macOS - telcy
https://github.com/Caldis/Mos
======
Zekio
This is one of my biggest problems with MacOS, that the touchpad and external
mouse aren't scroll direction independent....
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Online Screen Recorder - sabbakeynejad
https://www.veed.io/screen-recorder
======
Jaruzel
It shouldn't immediately request mic/camera/screen access on the landing page.
That's a complete put off for me.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Genes Responsible For Cancer-Fighting Substance In Opium Poppies Discovered - sparknlaunch
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112546826/genes-responsible-for-cancer-fighting-substance-in-opium-poppies-discovered/
======
Turing_Machine
Terrible title. In addition to the article saying nothing about a "cure" (as
jinushaun pointed out), the substance in question was found a long time ago.
What was actually found were the genes responsible for producing it. The
"heroin plant" is what most people call an opium poppy. Heroin is a synthetic
drug made using morphine as one of the precursors -- opium poppies contain no
heroin per se. Cancer cure -> wrong. Found -> wrong. "Heroin plant" -> wrong.
------
gaius
Oops, probably shouldn't have been eradicating the poppy crop in Afghanistan,
then
Actual article: [http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/31/us-medicine-
poppie...](http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/31/us-medicine-poppies-
idUSBRE84U11N20120531)
~~~
ginko
The largest producer of opium poppy is actually Turkey.
------
jinushaun
Title of article says cancer fighting, not cancer cure. HN title should be
fixed.
------
nubela
Is this yet another cancer cure that will never see the light of the day?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A dead simple approach to a Vagrant stack - thecodemonkey
https://github.com/MiniCodeMonkey/Vagrant-LAMP-Stack
======
WestCoastJustin
Vagrant is awesome, and if anyone is interested, I've put several screencasts
together about Vagrant [1], and creating a Vagrant box with Veewee [2]. These
will hopefully help you understand what Vagrant is about.
[1]
[http://sysadmincasts.com/episodes/4-vagrant](http://sysadmincasts.com/episodes/4-vagrant)
[2] [http://sysadmincasts.com/episodes/5-create-a-vagrant-box-
wit...](http://sysadmincasts.com/episodes/5-create-a-vagrant-box-with-veewee)
~~~
thecodemonkey
Sweet! I really love the format of your screencasts! Good job!
------
brokenparser
It appears to be based on Ubuntu 12.04 i386, uses Chef and dotdeb packages
(meant for Debian). I don't know why anyone would bother with this, but it
probably has an odd use case somewhere. It's still easier to use libvirt and
kickstart, no VirtualBox needed. You can simply pastebin the kickstart file if
you don't have a webserver yet.
~~~
thecodemonkey
I'm using dotdeb for easier compatibility between Debian and Ubuntu guests
(dotdeb is used to get a newer, backported version of PHP 5.4) which works
absolutely fine.
Please elaborate about libvirt and kickstart, would love to hear more!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Meet the Maker of Apple's Other Tablet - mshafrir
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jan2010/tc20100122_583507.htm?campaign_id=rss_topStories
======
Luyt
If Apple really launches the iSlate in about a week, the days for the modBook
might be numbered.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A running list of sites that don't use AWS - DoctorOW
https://blog.owenwalters.net/2019/02/05/a-running-list-of-sites-that-dont-use-aws/
======
QuinnyPig
I spot at least three errors. Just because a company signs a large deal with
GCP or Azure doesn't mean that they don't have workloads on other providers. I
guess I'm not too clear on the point of this list?
AWS sneaks in everywhere--including groups at Google and Microsoft.
~~~
DoctorOW
I tried my best. Mainly using dig and case studies that specified using
Azure/GCP as their exclusive web provider. I'm very open to fixing errors but
I'd need some idea of where you think they are and ideally some evidence to
back your claim.
In terms of why I'm doing this, there was an Amazon boycott a while back and
someone pointed out that one of Amazon's biggest source of revenue is AWS. So
I wanted to see if it's possible to avoid AWS while browsing the web. I'm not
saying its practical but I thought it was interesting.
~~~
QuinnyPig
Not for nothing, but some of these companies are into the "hundreds of
millions and up" level of infrastructure. Migrating that requires less "a
customer boycott" and more "an act of god."
~~~
DoctorOW
You're right that this isn't practical but it was interesting to put together
and thought it'd be interesting for other people with the same idea.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Writing Great Mystery Plots - jawns
https://www.vulture.com/2019/10/charles-finch-on-how-he-writes-charles-lenox-mysteries.html
======
LeonB
> I start by writing a brief, extremely dull short story ...about three pages
> ... I refine it for weeks...
> that small story contains a full, straightforward account of the case my
> detective must solve, told in simple English. It enumerates who committed
> the crime and why, how they covered it up, and all the stuff of mystery
> novels: clues, red herrings, false leads, bloody knives, mysterious scars,
> anonymous notes, midnight rendezvous — in short, all the details I know I’ll
> have to omit from the real book I write, the actual mystery novel.
This is gold. Thank you.
~~~
fenomas
Interestingly, it's quite similar to how Raymond Chandler taught himself to
write - he took a popular short story (by Erle Stanley Gardner I think), wrote
an outline of its plot, and then wrote his own story from the outline and
compared it to the original. He clearly didn't keep up the process for his
original works; it's interesting to wonder what the result might have been.
~~~
ggambetta
I did the same, except with Dan Brown. I wrote a bit about this process here:
[https://gabrielgambetta.com/tgl_swiss_trains.html](https://gabrielgambetta.com/tgl_swiss_trains.html)
Every time this comes up, someone asks to see the actual spreadsheet. I've
shared it here:
[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HdlD_tmmm1D0zX1JgXzF...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HdlD_tmmm1D0zX1JgXzFVSFB9nk6LT_DMDnsIPugl0M/edit?usp=sharing)
~~~
WA
Cool, thanks for sharing!
------
_bxg1
> The first impulse of each mystery I write is some crime — or occasionally
> some enigmatic and ominous image — that gets a grip on me. (A good test I
> use for these is whether I’d listen to a whole season of Serial about
> whatever I just made up. If not, I scrap it immediately.)
> But writers often falter when they simply ride that feeling without trying
> to shape it, which is why Gone Girl is better than nearly every novel that’s
> been published since it came out. I’m not a complete inspiration skeptic —
> once in a while, as Hemingway said, you get lucky and write better than you
> know how to write — but it’s a rare novel that can survive on it
> exclusively.
Seems like good writing advice in general
------
NotCamelCase
Good read. I recommend a similar essay by Ian Fleming on the topic that I
love, "How To Write A Thriller" which contains quite a few gems:
[https://lithub.com/ian-fleming-explains-how-to-write-a-
thril...](https://lithub.com/ian-fleming-explains-how-to-write-a-thriller/)
> Well, I describe myself as a Writer. There are authors and artists, and then
> again there are writers and painters
> Writing makes you more alive to your surroundings and, since the main
> ingredient of living, though you might not think so to look at most human
> beings, is to be alive, this is quite a worthwhile by-product of writing,
> even if you only write thrillers, whose heroes are white, the villains
> black, and the heroines a delicate shade of pink.
~~~
sweetdreamerit
> There is only one recipe for a best seller and it is a very simple one. You
> have to get the reader to turn over the page. Yes, indeed :)
------
wainstead
> This is why it’s funny when literary novelists who couldn’t write a
> competent John Wick novelization (I put this challenge squarely to A.S.
> Byatt) call J.K. Rowling a bad writer.
Neal Stephenson wrote a lengthy reply (item #2) to a question that touched on
this topic, posed on Slashdot many moons ago, and is still a great read:
[https://slashdot.org/story/04/10/20/1518217/neal-
stephenson-...](https://slashdot.org/story/04/10/20/1518217/neal-stephenson-
responds-with-wit-and-humor)
------
hellofunk
> I refine it for weeks, as carefully as Rudy Giuliani mixing his old
> fashioned before he Skypes in to Hannity, because, like Rudy, I’m focused on
> doing a crime.
Wow did this ever make me laugh out loud, unexpectedly.
> you can be as schematic as James Joyce, notable author of white-hot beach
> reads,
Another one.
------
once_inc
He's basically explaining the snowflake method, right? Start with a most basic
explanation of the plot, sometimes just a single sentence that people would
use to describe the book. Then slowly build out from there, adding more
details in each iteration, until the plot is fully fleshed out. The creative
process then switches from "What is this about?", to "How does this go
about?".
~~~
kd5bjo
There’s two plots in a mystery novel: what actually happened, and how the
detective figures it out. My understanding is that the short story he
describes is the former, and defines the puzzle part of the mystery: what
clues are available, where are they, and what do they really mean?
The actual novel, though, is the story of the investigation. It can be written
in any way the author likes, so long as the detective only uncovers clues that
the prewriting indicates should exist.
One clear example of this distinction is the old Columbo TV series, where the
murder happens onscreen at the beginning of each show. The bulk of the time is
spent on the mental sparring match between the culprit and the detective.
------
Tactic
To summarize: write a spec for the crime, that way when you get to development
it is consistent and focused.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
I’m basically fine with investing in evil (2007) - apsec112
http://blog.givewell.org/2007/01/20/21/
======
schimmy_changa
I think most people miss the point of public, large-scale divestment (as
opposed to private, small scale consumer ethical purchases which I find not
super useful).
Divestment by a well-respected organization like the Gates foundation is a
signal to others: a signal that a particular industry is morally unappealing
to a society, so much so that it's days are numbered. Thus, it's a bad
investment, as likely you will lose capital _in the very long term investing
horizon_.
If this sounds a bit circular, you're right! You're looking as an activist to
start a spiral: first a few high profile, respected institutions signal that
an industry is no longer acceptable to society, then all investors start to
wonder about the viability, then all investors start pricing that risk into
investment, then startup capital dries up, and eventually you see a slow
decrease in power of a once dominant industry.
Generally that's a bit naive and simplistic, but you get the idea. Who on HN
is willing to start a tobacco startup today in the US? No? Didn't think so :)
~~~
usrusr
“a signal that a particular industry is morally unappealing to a society, so
much so that it's days are numbered.“
Or it might be seen as a signal that said industry might be full of
undervalued stock, because a certain fraction of potential buyers opts out
without even considering potential revenue and so on, lowering demand in the
stock. If enough investors are following this heuristic (instead of actually
analyzing the true potential of the companies in question), then high-
visibility ethical divestment might even lead to a twisted amorality bubble.
For the tobacco example, I think it's the other way around: if (and only if)
there is policy against an industry, then divestment will make that policy
appear a lot more serious. But this signal would be even stronger when the
divestment is done by "pure market rational" actors, that are not influenced
by ethics (or that at least give the outside appearance thereof).
~~~
notahacker
It largely depends on critical mass. One large institutional investor pulling
out isn't going to harm a company because a pure profit seeking firm will pick
up the slack.
But a significant proportion of investors that won't touch a stock _is_ going
to have an impact, because even purely rational investors are going to
consider the fundamentals of the business affected by the implied lower future
liquidity, higher costs of capital and lower ability to retain senior
executives with attractive equity offers in future. Even though that impact is
unlikely to be large, it's probably large enough for firms keen to avoid being
labelled "evil" by activist investors being encouraged to spend a bit more on
CSR, tightening up their supply chain and abandoning an unpopular policy or
two. It's that secondary effect of encouraging ordinary firms to be more
ethically conscious - which GiveWell's article doesn't mention - that's the
larger one.
A good analogy is democracy. A few people voting for a fringe candidate
doesn't harm the mainstream candidates; awareness there's another party
complicating the result might even boost the mainstream candidates' votes. As
soon as the fringe party gains some sort of critical mass, however, one of the
mainstream candidates is likely to start wooing their supporters by adopting
one of their more inoffensive policies in some form.
------
gohrt
Standard arguments used in the article:
1\. "It doesn't matter what I do -- If I don't do some particular evil,
someone else will do that evil in my place" aka "I'm just one person, my vote
is irrelevant"
2\. "punishing past mishbehavior is not a deterrent to future misbehavior" (In
this case, the punishment would be lowering the stock price of a company, by
not buying its stock, which punishes the people who (gave money to people
who... recursively) gave money to the founders.
~~~
ikeboy
Also, the cost of preventing the evil is not worth it. It would be more
efficient to spend the money on what you're good at.
~~~
Retra
Better: rationally prioritize the means of achieving your goals. Really it has
nothing to do with "what you're good at," because you might be very good at
being evil.
~~~
ikeboy
S/what you're good at/what means of achieving your goals you're good at
------
Eliezer
Hi! This is the Market Economics Fairy! If you think that not investing in
evil stocks can predictably lower the price of their cash flows, that violates
the weak form of the efficient markets hypothesis! There's nothing else to
say! The end!
~~~
laughinghan
I'll bite.
Hi! This is the Real World Fairy! If you think the real world perfectly
conforms to the efficient market _hypothesis_ , that violates obvious facts!
There's a lot more to say because economics is complicated! The end!
~~~
p4wnc6
But to believe your choice to divest could predictably cause a sustained
downward price movement means you believe that to whatever extent the market
is inefficient, _you_ can predict the effect of the inefficiency. If you can
really do this, you wield enough power to go about eliminating evil in some
way more effective way than slow divesting.
The bigger issue for me is not that the long-term price impact of divesting is
unpredictable (though that's true too). The issue for me is that divesting is
a _selfish_ action designed for the divesting party to benefit from the
current price of the asset's stream of future cash flows.
By divesting in an oil company, say, you are realizing a cash gain roughly
equal to the market's appraisal of the discounted stream of future cash flows
of the company, per share. Instead of owning a piece of that oil company value
in the form of a stock share, you've just converted it to dollar format. You
still benefited (if you experienced capital gain on the asset) via the
operation of that oil company, and if that company obtained value by inducing
a negative externality on the world (say, pollution), some tiny slice of your
cash from divesting is equal to the gain from that unpunished externality.
If you actually cared about rectifying the problem of the externality, you
could instead _give your shares away for free_ to the parties who are damaged
by the externality.
If you think the oil company pollution will cause oceans to rise and will
displace Gulf Coast families, you could give away your shares of Exxon to
those at-risk coasters, paying the cost of your lost shares to subsidize their
hedge against suffering the costs of some Exxon externality.
By divesting, all you would do is to fashion signal that you don't like Exxon.
Apart from some remarkable ability to forecast exactly when your divestment
will cause a sustained price drop (which you don't have), divesting is sort of
like holding up a sign that says "Honk if you don't like _____!" \-- it's a
fine thing to do conditioned on various goals or preferences, but is not near
the highly optimal end of the spectrum of activist actions you could take.
~~~
TheOtherHobbes
Actually the rational thing to do would be to start a class action suit
forcing the entire fossil fuel industry to pay compensation for the
environmental damage it's causing, and to compensate various national
economies for the opportunity cost of getting in the way of a move to a clean
energy economy.
Which is pretty much what's been happening to Big Tobacco. And it's
_compensation_ not _prevention_.
In tobacco's case, it isn't going to bring any dead people back to life.
I think most people, if asked, would say they'd prefer it if someone they
loved hadn't died. Compensation can only go so far to fix that - just as
getting the carbon industry to pay compensation won't un-flood any homes that
are now underwater.
But this is only necessary because the so-called efficient, so-called market,
so-called hypothesis is rhetorical bullshit - _precisely_ because so-called
market pricing is calculated in ways that exclude the true long-term costs of
the external consequences of short term profit.
A genuinely efficient market would have to factor in the reality-based pricing
consequences so that very bad effects became so financially unattractive they
were prevented before they could happen.
Without that, you have a wealth extraction playground relying on political
privilege to pretend to be something it very much isn't.
~~~
p4wnc6
Whether a class action is the right approach seems debatable to me.
If parties possibly damaged by the externality are entitled to shares of any
profit derived from that externality, it acts as an incentive for the company
to derive profits in others ways. Rather than a class action that, as you
correctly point out, merely gives victims compensation for damage done, it
could be better to give _potential_ victims some form of corporate governance.
This is all very hypothetical. The chances that an organization couldn't find
some political maneuvers to dodge really paying for damages they cause are
low. It would be like whack-a-mole. If you incentivize the company to steer
away from ocean-raising pollution by letting potential coastal victims have
some control, well then they'll just find some other group to extract profits
from via unnoticed or unpunished victimization.
I'm not sure society wins by engaging in this game of whack-a-mole. The
company keeps everyone distracted, the barriers for establishing class action
results are high, it's inefficient for us to spend that much time and money on
legal routes, and in the meantime, many bad actors simply get away with it and
continue to extract profits and consumption opportunities at the expense of
others.
This is one reason why I prefer to think about direct actions I can do that
demonstrably help. Giving to Against Malaria definitely helps someone. Getting
all wrapped up in long-term political advocacy for changing the entire
framework in which publicly traded companies operate, so as to prevent them
from extracting profits via unfair victimization ... that seems like a
politics-is-the-mindkiller situation, which will probably do nothing but burn
me out and prevent me from doing other things that actually could have helped.
Don't get me wrong. It's depressing that it's like this and doesn't bode well
for moving towards a more egalitarian society (which I think would be better).
But nonetheless it's just the world we live in, litany of Gendlin, yada yada
yada.
------
imgabe
If we could abolish something we dislike by refusing it an "official" source
of funding, we wouldn't have an illegal drug trade. Clearly, that isn't the
case.
There's no Fortune 500 companies selling heroin, yet heroin suppliers get
capital _somewhere_ to run production facilities.
If the demand stays the same, it will get funded somehow, because there's
profit to be made. I can respect the decision of any investor to not be a part
of something they find morally repugnant, but let's not pretend like that's
going to cause the demand for the morally repugnant thing to disappear.
~~~
talideon
There are plenty of drug companies out there selling heroin. However, they do
it under the generic name 'diamorphine'. Heroin was a Bayer trademark that
became a colloquial term for the drug.
------
applecore
_> The first thing I want to point out, which I haven’t seen acknowledged
enough, is how extremely, extremely minor the impact of a foundation’s
investing decisions are on the companies it invests in._
The irony is that individual company selection has an overall negative impact
on foundation funds' returns. Asset allocation (beta) is so much more
important than security selection (alpha) that it explains more than 100% of
funds' returns.
------
mrweasel
I'm just miffed that the company managing my pension somehow feel that they
need to my moral guardian.
\- "How do you want your pension fund invested?"
\- "Weapons would be good"
\- "Sorry, we can't morally justify that"
Well why not? The only that that's happing now is that people who aren't me
will be making a profit on those stocks. If running a munitions company is
legal, then it shouldn't be morally wrong for my pension to be invested in it.
~~~
golergka
Praise the open market: you can choose another company to manage your pension.
~~~
mrweasel
In Denmark, no. I can choose another company, but they all have the same moral
issues.
~~~
golergka
Oh.
That would sound like a good country to start another pension company if I
didn't know the difference between theoretical free market idea and real life.
------
thinkcontext
Coincidentally last night I was reading about the role of the cotton gin of
the expansion of slavery in the American South [0]. Such mechanical inventions
were the stuff of the era's startups. The cotton was largely shipped to the
UK, which had outlawed slavery, where it was used in their most important
industry [1]. There was some debate about the morality of this, but as we
know, slavery was not ended for lack of demand for its products.
[0] "The Industrial Revolutionaries: The Making of the Modern World 1776-1914"
Gavin Weightman [1] The book quotes Karl Marx "Without slavery, no cotton;
without cotton, no modern industry"
------
matt_morgan
Not a bad article, but there are no ideas in it that one can't arrive at with
a most basic, a priori understanding of charitable giving. No surprise; the
author wrote it just a few years out of college, in the year that he founded
this givewell.org:
Holden Karnofsky | Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director. Holden graduated from
Harvard University in 2003 with a degree in Social Studies, and spent the next
several years in the hedge fund industry. He co-founded GiveWell in mid-2007.
~~~
jcrben
Well, you need a basic understanding of equity markets too, and it seems that
most who know one do not know the other. At least, they aren't writing about
it.
Divestment of evil companies drives down their valuations; consequently, those
who invest in evil can actually earn greater returns. If those evil companies
are not raising capital, their operations are unaffected. It's simple but
widely misunderstood.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How to Setup a Unix News Server (1999) - kruhft
http://aplawrence.com/Unixart/newsserver.html
======
floren
It seems like the way news propagates, it should be possible to eliminate bad
posters IF most people on the network are either running their own server or
posting from a friend's server. If spam is popping up, you can look back at
the path it took; if the spammer's feeds don't stop propagating his messages,
then they themselves will probably get disconnected by _their_ feeds. Earlier
this year I participated in a recreation of a UUCP network, booted on
simulated VAX nodes running Unix; we were able to propagate news pretty well,
but the very old software combined with "serial lines over TCP/IP" meant
things tended to drop on and off. I think a Usenet2 that focuses on small
servers propagating to small servers, rather than the giant ISP-run systems we
have today, could be a very neat thing to set up.
~~~
kruhft
Are not today's standard systems similar to those giant run ISPs today of
yesteryear? I agree, everyone should run their own usenet server and build
some sort of mesh network to create a new usenet, I just don't see how the
software would need to be improved much other than in user interface.
What would have to be changed in 'inn' to make it better than what it already
does other than possibly auto-peer finding?
~~~
floren
I don't think inn really needs any improvement; my gripe was with C-News
running on BSD 2.11 :) I've set up INN on a modern system and it's quite
simple.
Personally, I think auto-peering would be terrible for the reason I mentioned
in my previous post. If you have to manually set up a peer, you have some
control over who and what you propagate. If your friend starts posting
garbage, one of your other peers might get pissed off enough to de-peer you--
which I consider a feature! Configuring a peer isn't _difficult_ , but it does
require an explicit human-to-human agreement.
The way things work today, when somebody wants to post on Usenet, they go to
eternal-september.org and get a free account. I think something like 50% of
postings on text newsgroups must originate from eternal-september, and it's
great that they're providing a free service, but things like e-s and the
Google Groups Usenet bridge means that there's no accountability for garbage.
With a $20 Raspberry Pi, though, you can run a totally capable text groups
server, and I think a network like that might have some interesting people on
it. It's also a foot in the door toward people hosting their own content
rather than shoving everything on some random free online service.
~~~
Kadin
I think this is a great idea and I'd love to participate in something like it,
personally.
What Mastodon does for decentralized / less-shitty Twitter, this could do for
Usenet.
~~~
kruhft
I don't see why Usenet couldn't be used as the backbone for a complete social
media platform. Give it a better interface for reading and peer finding
(possibly through a re-interpretation of 'friends') that doesn't require setup
and you have the perfect multi-machine transport system for posts.
------
LV-426
The Easy Way to Set Up a Local News Server (1996)
[http://www.tldp.org/LDP/LG/issue09/newsserver.html](http://www.tldp.org/LDP/LG/issue09/newsserver.html)
~~~
kruhft
Excellent, much more concise.
Now, how to exchange IPs to find upstream/peer servers?
------
kruhft
Relevant: [https://serverfault.com/questions/218747/how-to-setup-a-
nntp...](https://serverfault.com/questions/218747/how-to-setup-a-nntp-server-
for-usenet)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Got celebrity to tweet about my project... - oldmanstan
she's going to tweet to her many thousands of followers sometime next week.<p>It's a PHP/MySQL website hosted on Dreamhost. I've never had to scale, and don't know anything about handling traffic larger than a few people an hour.<p>How should I prepare for this?
======
rosenjon
Move to a host that will allow you to upgrade resources on demand. Shared
hosting is a bad place to be if you think you're going to get slammed with
traffic.
Either move to a VPS Provider who can scale you up to a dedicated server if
necessary (i.e. VPSLink), or go with AWS (Amazon), which basically has
unlimited scale, but may also have unlimited cost (at some point, it may be
better for your dedicated server to go down than to spend $60,000 in a month
on server resources). Of course, this is both a personal and business choice,
and really dependent on how much promise you think the site has and whether
you can use your traffic stats to raise some money and grow the business.
------
jonah
How many pages/resources can you serve statically or from a CDN?
------
mgkimsal
turn down ttl on dns to a few mins to allow you to change to another host
quickly.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Fluent Interfaces Are Bad for Maintainability - ingve
http://www.yegor256.com/2018/03/13/fluent-interfaces.html
======
Mister_Snuggles
While I don’t like Fluent interfaces at all, I don’t like the alternative
presented much either.
My dislike of Fluent interfaces stems from two things. First, it’s trying to
contort an English-like sentence out of a programming language, which just
looks and feels wrong. It leads to weird methods like ‘.method’ in the
example. Second, Fluent interfaces really try to paper over the fact that the
language lacks an equivalent to Visual Basic’s ‘with’[0] statement.
On the other hand, the example presented is not great either. Should
ResponseAssertStatus be an object? Wouldn’t it make more sense to do the
request then have a separate line of code to evaluate the status? How does it
make sense for BodyOfResponse to be constructed out of some kind of
ResponseAssertStatus object?
Between the two options, the Fluent interface makes more sense, even if the
underlying implementation ends up being kind of ugly.
[0] [https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/visual-
basic/languag...](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/visual-
basic/language-reference/statements/with-end-with-statement)
~~~
braythwayt
I second the notion that fluency is a language syntax problem that should not
be solved with the design of interfaces.
Smalltalk also solved this problem with the semi-colon, but for some damn fool
reason we followed C syntax but didn't find an alternative. And now we're
trying desperately to replicate `&.` in every library and language, but we
still don't have an easy way to write:
someObject
.doThis();
.doThat();
.dontForgetToFinishUp().
~~~
mhomde
I always wanted a language that was built upon the concept on just passing
things forward in a pipe, and was like an hybrid between functional and c
style languages, like:
someobject => doThis() => doThat() => dontForgotToFinishUp()
then you could also possible send multiple objects into that pipe:
obj1, obj2 => doThis() => doThat() => dontForgotToFinishUp()
you'd have to have some semantics for sending them separately, as an
ienumerable or as parameters but perhaps that could be done
(obj1, obj2) => doThis() => doThat() => dontForgotToFinishUp()
[obj1, obj2] => doThis() => doThat() => dontForgotToFinishUp()
add on top of that something that could abstract away multithreading/tasking
in certain cases (automatically assigning them to tasks) and I'd be a happpy
coder :)
~~~
kortex
I spent a half day playing around with something very similar to this. I
wanted a concise language for describing data pipelines in Pandas, and was
(ab)using python dunder methods (operator overloading) to this end. Like:
`data | groupby, "author" | mean`
Would create a graph object, which could be lazily evaluated, run in Dask, TF,
etc.
It started to get ugly when passing in multiple parameters into a function. I
had to watch out for left and right associativity, and manage casting of
arguments.
It was a fun little experiment but I'm not sure how much it would actually
improve workflows. If that sounds interesting, let me know and I'll poke at it
again.
~~~
wenc
I'm not sure if you are aware, but there are several efforts out there to give
Python a more data-pipeline-friendly (composable pipe) syntax:
1) Coconut: [http://coconut-lang.org/](http://coconut-lang.org/)
2)
[https://github.com/JulienPalard/Pipe](https://github.com/JulienPalard/Pipe)
3) Pandas also has a new dataframe pipe method.
[https://pandas.pydata.org/pandas-
docs/stable/generated/panda...](https://pandas.pydata.org/pandas-
docs/stable/generated/pandas.DataFrame.pipe.html)
I would look at those before rolling out a custom solution.
------
LeanderK
I don't agree with the fundamental concern. I think sacrificing
maintainability for ease of use is a valid thing to do.
Saving 100x 20 minutes in developer time for the library users for taking an
hour more to implement a feature is a good trade.
Every rule has an exception, but fluent interfaces being bad for
maintainability is often justified.
~~~
mcphage
> I think sacrificing maintainability for ease of use is a valid thing to do.
I agree. If you're not willing to make your developers' lives easier, then
what are you doing writing a public library in the first place?
------
rjbwork
I disagree with a few caveat - you need to go with the Interface Per Operation
pattern, use a builder, and provide many parameters to your methods. You're
guiding your user through the object building pipeline, so bonus points if you
constrain them to only certain operations at certain points in the pipeline so
that they don't shoot themselves in the foot.
------
Sharlin
> That is the biggest problem with fluent interfaces—they force objects to be
> huge.
Only if your language doesn't support adding methods to types after the fact,
like C# extension methods, Rust traits, or Scala implicits.
~~~
snarfy
Even without that support, if you return interfaces instead of the concrete
type each return can be a different implementation. There is no need to have
one giant class. All of those methods in his example should return
IJdkRequest, not JdkRequest.
~~~
Sharlin
That doesn't help at all because all the methods will still have to be
declared in IJdkRequest and implemented by every concrete subtype returned by
the methods.
~~~
snarfy
IJdkRequest would inherit other interfaces, so the other methods would be
declared there. The default implementation could be handled by a base class.
And now that I typed it out, I see how it also doesn't really help. I see your
point. I'm not sure what's worse, one giant class, or the handful of
interfaces and abstractions just to make it work in multiple classes.
------
cromwellian
It seems most of the examples are builder-pattern like, constructing
configuration for the final object. If that's the case, all you really need it
something like @AutoValue or the @Value.Immutable from immutables.org
Most of the boilerplate is removed, especially with Immutables.org's
annotation processor. Plus, you get immutability and other validation.
~~~
specialist
Ya. Builder, Composite, Method Chaining implementations are (can be)
isomorphic.
Thanks for the immutables.org link. Amazing. FWIW, I once fudged a UI DSL for
AWT/Swing using annotations. It sucked. Too many edge cases requiring shims.
Mostly because the underlying UI components were not designed for (clean)
composition.
Like the OP, I went a little nutty with Fluent APIs for a while. Never again.
Now I prefer Builder for small stuff and DSLs for anything interesting.
Composite & Intepreter is a potent combo.
------
stickfigure
This is horrifying. It prioritizes the ease of the library developer's life
over the library user's life. That smart-object API is just simply painful to
use.
Oddly enough, I (independently) developed a very similar opensource http
library with fluent, immutable command objects:
[https://github.com/stickfigure/hattery/](https://github.com/stickfigure/hattery/)
Of all the libraries I've built in my life, this is probably the one I enjoy
using most. I also don't have any problems maintaining it; I still add
features all the time (most recently, preflight and postflight functions) and
it's still fun.
The reason it's easy to maintain, I suspect, is mostly two reasons: 1)
everything is immutable and 2) there's clean separation between the Request
and the Transport.
------
chopin
I prefer to return different _interfaces_ from each (or almost each) method.
This way also a predefined order of calls is imposed which you may want
sometimes. A predefined order also makes similar uses look similar which I
deem a benefit as well.
~~~
jdmichal
I was wondering why this suggestion wasn't included in the OP, as it's exactly
the route that the JAX-RS client specs took. There are several interfaces, and
some of the fluent calls are basically terminal by leading to one of the other
interfaces.
It starts here with the `Client` interface:
[https://docs.oracle.com/javaee/7/api/javax/ws/rs/client/Clie...](https://docs.oracle.com/javaee/7/api/javax/ws/rs/client/Client.html)
Which then leads to `WebTarget`, then `Invocation.Builder`, then `Invocation`.
`Invocation` objects can then be executed to generate `Response` objects, or
typed responses, depending on the overload used.
------
overgard
Honestly I think ease of use of a library is way more important than
implementation elegance. How many people are ever going to look at your
libraries source code? .001% of your users? I use the C++ stl every day, but
if you look at the implementation it's basically horrifying, but I don't
really care because the interface is straightforward and does its job.
My main issue with fluent interfaces though is you can end up with objects in
weird half initialized states, and there's generally combinations of
parameters that are incompatible which the type system can't help you with.
The point of constructors is you don't end up with semi-initialized objects
~~~
jlg23
> Honestly I think ease of use of a library is way more important than
> implementation elegance. How many people are ever going to look at your
> libraries source code?
Poor idiots like me who get hired to help get the hard, last 10% done.
Given the small percentage of projects that actually have a lifespan of more
than a few months, I'd still chose usability (by devs) over elegance for
prototypes or MVPs, but one should never forget that this can incur a huge
technical debt.
PS: I do not consider the article's proposed solution elegant - quite the
contrary.
~~~
overgard
We probably don't disagree here, because "clever" interfaces generally annoy
me, I just think in terms of priorities interface matters more than
implementation elegance. A confusing implementation might waste a few people's
time, but a bad interface can waste hundreds\thousands of peoples time. (if
you ever worked with COM or Win32 apis you probably feel my pain)
------
wiradikusuma
As a lazy user of libraries, I disagree.
Maybe there can be a middle ground, eg a fluid interface generator ala Lombok.
~~~
jpitz
They (Lombok) are already doing so:
[https://projectlombok.org/features/experimental/Accessors](https://projectlombok.org/features/experimental/Accessors)
>> "Experimental because: We may want to roll these features into a more
complete property support concept. New feature – community feedback requested.
Current status: positive - Currently we feel this feature may move out of
experimental status with no or minor changes soon."
------
crabl
I like the "pipeable operators" approach that RxJS takes in order to prevent
this. Each instance of an Observable has a ".pipe" method which can transform
the observable stream in some way and returns an Observable
([https://github.com/ReactiveX/rxjs/blob/master/doc/pipeable-o...](https://github.com/ReactiveX/rxjs/blob/master/doc/pipeable-
operators.md)).
It would also be nice to have an operator like the proposed "pipeline"
operator, à la F# ([https://github.com/tc39/proposal-pipeline-
operator](https://github.com/tc39/proposal-pipeline-operator)).
------
jlg23
I am not sure I want:
* HTTP-requests done in constructors
* Assertion classes that wrap objects of interest which in turn must be extracted from their wrapper
* Specific methods that assert that one very specific attribute has an equally specific integer value.
~~~
mcguire
The before state may or may not be bad, but the after state is hideous.
Multiply nested constructors?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Dropbox: yet another security kerfuffle? - taytus
http://venturebeat.com/2012/07/18/dropbox-yet-another-security-kerfuffle/
======
trekkin
Would spideroak be a better option then?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Gamevenda – reddit for games. - xerxe6
www.gamevenda.com
======
xerxe6
[http://www.gamevenda.com](http://www.gamevenda.com)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How Can an Existing Centralized Finance System Defeat a Crypto-Currency? - arud
https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/99972/how-can-an-existing-centralized-finance-system-defeat-a-crypto-currency
======
sharemywin
Don't kid yourself look at bit coin wealth distribution.
[https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/1-bitcoin-community-
controls...](https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/1-bitcoin-community-
controls-99-bitcoin-wealth/)
it's way worse than any current wealth distribution.
~~~
sharemywin
which means there's anywhere from 100-1000 people that could decimate the
value of bitcoin by selling there stake.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
We're Sorry - chrisdinn
http://blog.scribblelive.com/2012/03/were-sorry-2/
======
sp332
As an end-user, I like Scribble. And really, if The Verge is putting up with
vid.io's consistently inconsistent crap, they shouldn't complain about an
occasional glitch from Scribble.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google’s Rivals Gear Up to Make Antitrust Case - drkimball
https://www.wsj.com/articles/googles-enemies-gear-up-to-make-antitrust-case-11561368601?mod=rsswn
======
seltzered_
Somewhat related, last month there was an 'antitrust and competition
conference' at chicago booth school of business, and their videos came up last
weekend.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu9q5fb6MO0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu9q5fb6MO0)
is one of the panel videos with some interesting arguments:
FB's free basics implementation in Brazil is free for facebook-owned
properties (e.g. whatsapp), but not for general website usage. Claire Wardle
argues this creates a problem where free basic internet users are less
motivated to fact-check things (
[https://youtu.be/Wu9q5fb6MO0?t=1231](https://youtu.be/Wu9q5fb6MO0?t=1231) ,
specifically
[https://youtu.be/Wu9q5fb6MO0?t=1340](https://youtu.be/Wu9q5fb6MO0?t=1340)).
Barry Lynn of Open Markets had an interesting quote I'm still trying to think
about -
[https://youtu.be/Wu9q5fb6MO0?t=2523](https://youtu.be/Wu9q5fb6MO0?t=2523) \-
"The issue is not that the price is free, the issue is the price is imposed
outside the market. The issue that price is a function not of competition, but
a tool of power. Without a public price, you don't have a public. Without a
public, you can't protect democracy."
~~~
bduerst
Facebook Free basics also suffers the Tom's Shoes problem [1] - basically by
giving away the free service in a developing country, it kills the local
economy for the same service and sets it back, not forwards. By saturating the
ISP market, Facebook is hindering ISP development in Brazil.
This would be less of a problem if Facebook offered net neutral internet
service but they're not - FB is only offering free access to theirs and a
handful of partners websites. It's charity message of bringing "free internet
to people who don't have it" is a red herring to the problems it presents.
[1] [https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/one-one-
business...](https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/one-one-business-
model-social-impact-avoiding-unintended-consequences/)
~~~
z3t4
It's probably Hanlon's razor. But if FB have altruistic motives they should
only offer their service where no commercial alternatives exist.
~~~
zrobotics
If they were motivated by altruism, wouldn't they offer full web access
instead of limiting it to Facebook & Wikipedia? What motivates them is finding
their next billion users in any way possible.
------
sandworm101
Facebook. Google will point to facebook's news feeds and internal mechanism as
evidence that Google is not alone in terms of news and information linking.
Similarly, there are many legitimate competitors in search. DuckDuckgo is a
minor player, but microsoft's Bing isn't.
I think that Google is far too big, but I just don't see an antitrust case in
the areas of news or search. Oldschool advertising would seem an option but
that is a decreasing area, not the place to make real change going forwards
imho. I'd like them to break up youtube, but there too Facebook's video
sharing is a valid competitor.
~~~
loudtieblahblah
> DuckDuckgo is a minor player, but microsoft's Bing isn't.
DuckduckGo, Qwant, and Bing are all the same player.
DDG and Qwant just pull Bing results.
Bing is the only real competitor to Google.
>or search.
Erm. I think it's absolutely there on search. The existence of competitors
doesn't negate monopoly status.
And the accusation can be legitimately claimed, that they use their monopoly
status in one market (search) as leverage to give other services in different
markets a leg up over the competition.
MS can't leverage Bing for the same - no matter how integrated Bing might be
into other products.
If Google tells people to use AMP or be de-ranked, that's monopoly power. Flat
out.
~~~
mrweasel
>DDG and Qwant just pull Bing results.
It there a source for this? People keep saying that DDG is just Bing, but I
can't find any indication of that actually being true. Sure, they may be using
Bing results, but they're seem to be mixed with result from other sources.
The only post I ever found on the subject is Gabriel Weinberg saying that DDG
is not just Bing.
~~~
Yizahi
Yeas, for russian segment it is Yandex. There is basically 4 real search
engines left in the world - Google, Bing, Yandex, Badoo.
~~~
rococode
Baidu in China too, but like Yandex it's another region where Google has
struggled to establish a strong presence.
~~~
jefftk
I think "Badoo" above was a typo for "Baidu"
------
tehjoker
I think it's important to remember that when we talk about competition, it
doesn't mean pick between two companies, one if which is much stronger. Strong
competition would mean dozens to hundreds of sustainable entrants. The
competition in this (and many other) markets is anemic.
~~~
ucaetano
> Strong competition would mean dozens to hundreds of sustainable entrants.
Absolutely not, there is such a thing as minimum efficient scale. Some markets
might only have room for 2 or 3 companies to operate efficiently.
~~~
tehjoker
I agree with you, but this idea undermines the justification of the free
market.
~~~
ucaetano
Nope. It doesn't in any way.
A free market is one where prices are set based on supply and demand without
restrictions on competition due to monopolistic powers, market reserve
regulations, etc.
There are always limits to competition, some due to scale, some due to market
size, some due to availability of resources. None of those prevent a market
from being free.
Even antitrust regulation doesn't necessarily prevent a market from being
free.
~~~
joshuamorton
To add, Adam Smith's original postulation of a free market was an explicitly
regulated market (for example to prevent monopoly influence).
There are all sorts of ways we aren't in that world (for example a free market
requires a fully informed set of buyers, which practically speaking never
exists).
~~~
ucaetano
Exactly! Free market != laissez faire.
But a market where exorbitant costs of regulation drive up the minimum
efficient scale to the point that no new entrants are possible is also not a
free market.
------
drak0n1c
A Google whistleblower today released internal documents and helped Project
Veritas obtain camera footage:
> Google Exec Says Don’t Break Us Up: “smaller companies don’t have the
> resources” to “prevent next Trump situation”
If a single company believes they have the informational monopoly needed to
control national politics, isn't that an admission of anti-trust liability?
[https://www.projectveritas.com/2019/06/24/insider-blows-
whis...](https://www.projectveritas.com/2019/06/24/insider-blows-whistle-exec-
reveals-google-plan-to-prevent-trump-situation-in-2020-on-hidden-cam/)
~~~
jowday
I wouldn't believe anything coming out of Project Veritas.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_O'Keefe](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_O'Keefe)
~~~
grayed-down
Why? Do you think they're deep-faking their videos of people admitting to
nefarious things?
~~~
V-eHGsd_
they have a well documented history of releasing selectively edited videos
~~~
grayed-down
Do you mean like mainstream television news does? The reason I ask is because
I have not noticed any big or even significant shifts in context between
whatever snippets they release and any raw footage that makes it out
afterwards. That's just me, and I'd like to think I'm being reasonable in
looking at this.
~~~
bduerst
I don't think 'mainstream television' tries to bait staffers into committing
voter fraud, fabricates accusations of underage sexual assault, or dresses up
as Bin Laden to make some point about border crossing in Mexico. This
"whatabout mainstream media" falls apart as a deflection because the laundry
list of things that James O'Keefe has done puts him pretty far into his own
camp as being a professional troll.
~~~
grayed-down
Investigative journalists are ALWAYS trying to bait their targets. They
wouldn't have a job if they didn't!
~~~
bduerst
How is paying a woman to lie about being sexually assaulted as a teenager (and
getting paid to abort the following pregnancy) actually investigative
journalism?
~~~
splintercell
> How is paying a woman to lie about being sexually assaulted as a teenager
> (and getting paid to abort the following pregnancy) actually investigative
> journalism?
You do understand that on the other side of the political spectrum there are
people (in large quantities) who don't believe that the teenager who is
sexually assaulted should be directed towards abortion?
You're rhetorical statement is as ridiculous as someone saying "How is going
to baker after baker and trying to find a hard working god fearing Christian
baker and forcing him to bake a cake he doesn't wanna bake, investigative
journalism?"
------
asnack
Every time there's a discussion about tech antitrust (google, fb, amazon, ms)
people point to each of these as being their competitors, therefore, there is
no monopoly or antitrust issue.
Perhaps we need to rethink antitrust in the context of the internet however.
These laws were written in the late 1800, and early 1900s, long before Google
existed. I think there should be some evaluation on needing a new framework of
what is antitrust for tech companies.
~~~
fyoving
The laws are fine, what we need is to not tailor laws according to selfish
political whims or to the whims of publishers and all other inferior
competition.
------
threezero
It’s not just their enemies. We would have been happy to continue being a
customer of Google if they hadn’t massively jacked up prices with little
notice when they recognized their monopoly advantage in maps. So now we’re
happy to be on board the anti-trust train.
~~~
robertAngst
They do not have a monopoly in Maps.
Say what it is, you built your platform using google, and they changed prices.
~~~
pitaj
Yeah what is it with people throwing "monopoly" at everything? Just because
they're an industry leader doesn't mean they're anything close to a monopoly.
~~~
bduerst
Being a monopoly justifies action, hence people who want action against
popular companies will try to rationalize it being a monopoly as a premise for
their disdain.
This monopoly/monopsony misclassification is seemingly a bi-weekly occurrence
on HN with regards to FAANG companies. Don't get me wrong, there are reasons
to criticize these tech companies, but calling them monopolies in markets they
are not is not the right way to do it.
~~~
gamblor956
Antitrust law does not require a monopoly, nor is a monopoly a violation of
antitrust law.
The two are strongly correlated but they're not the same.
~~~
bduerst
Oh for sure. Antitrust law is very nuanced, even by geography (e.g. US
requires market dominance, EU does not) but GP claimed _monopoly_ in maps,
which is more to the point of miss-attribution.
------
thomasec
I do not think this will go well for Google. They are not dealing with one or
two companies going after them - we're talking about dozens companies building
out cases over years that show potential anti-competitive behavior. Google
will have to address each of these individually, and as long as one sticks, I
think the dominoes start to fall. Think about all of the industries Google has
entered over the years - travel, retail, real estate, news - these are all
industries that have players with deep pockets, and mountains of data. It's
totally worth the cost of going all-in if it means either they get a
settlement, or Google has to make fundamental changes to their products,
and/or ad network.
------
nerdjon
I have a lot of mixed feelings on what this could mean for the other tech
companies.
But I hope something is done about Google. While they have done some good,
they have too much power over the internet. Looking at AMP as a prime example
of something that seems universally hated, but basically forced on users and
publishers or risk your placement in Google.
~~~
wffurr
"Universally hated" only in the HN echo chamber.
And even then some AMP defenders show up in the comments. It makes the mobile
web suck less in a way marketroids can understand.
------
fybe
Seems like Google is starting to do some work on trying to fight it.
Few days ago went on Google play store and was greeted with a modal telling me
I can install other search bars and it gave a list of Google, Bing, Yahoo and
DDG.
After that it tells you there are other browsers available to download and it
gives a choice of Chrome, Firefox, opera and some others.
Good move but will it be enough in a high profile case? We shall see
~~~
apocalyptic0n3
Are you in Europe? They had to do this to comply with an EU antitrust ruling
last year. [1]
1: [https://9to5google.com/2019/04/03/google-play-europe-
browser...](https://9to5google.com/2019/04/03/google-play-europe-browser-
search-choice/)
~~~
fybe
Oh that explains it. guess they could add it world wide
------
mfer
Two questions come to mind...
1) Does Google have a monopoly sized market share in search or ads? People
argue it does while using metrics to show it.
2) Does Google use this position to suppress competition? It is often argued
they do. Sometimes with reasoned cased. I've heard there are data based cases,
too.
This second part is what's triggering a lot of people to not appreciate the
monopoly.
~~~
hrktb
They've already been sued by the EU and found guilty in the case was on Google
Shopping. The second part is not much hypothetical at this point.
I think antitrust is not just based on the principle of monopoly or not at
this point, if I'm not mistaken being in a dominant position is enough for a
number of cases.
~~~
londons_explore
The Google Shopping case was really nuanced. Google argued (with data) that
they took actions in the best interests of the public, both individually and
collectively.
The other side _didn 't contest that_, but instead argued that those actions
were not in the best interests of those spammy comparison shopping websites.
(you know the ones which always advertise what you're looking for for a really
low price, and when you go there they redirect you through about 30 banner ads
before finally telling you they couldn't find the price they advertised
earlier unless you get 30 friends to sign up to 10 credit cards each, but here
it is anyway for double the price on amazon).
While there are lots of things Google was doing wrong, not promoting those
scummy sites was 100% in the public's best interests...
~~~
hrktb
From the statement ([http://europa.eu/rapid/press-
release_STATEMENT-17-1806_en.ht...](http://europa.eu/rapid/press-
release_STATEMENT-17-1806_en.htm))
> Google has come up with many innovative products and services that have made
> a difference to our lives. That's a good thing.
> But Google's strategy for its comparison shopping service wasn't just about
> attracting customers. It wasn't just about making its product better than
> those of its rivals. Instead, Google has abused its market dominance as a
> search engine by promoting its own comparison shopping service in its search
> results, and demoting those of competitors.
While it’s nuanced, “instead” doesn’t feel like agreeing did a good job at
this.
Also I’m not arguing Google can design good services, more that they’re proven
to abuse their position in documented cases.
PS: to get back to classics, I feel like hearing back discussion about how IE4
was way faster than Netscape, and was arguably a better browser. Or that
windows was effectively better than the competion and they bribed vendors just
to get better numbers.
Sure, we could agree on the individual products merits. It still harms the
market as a whole, and the customer in the long term.
------
fyoving
Luckily for Google in the US the grievances of a company's enemies/competitors
don't count for much.
I'll credit the WSJ for counting themselves among those enemies, but what I
find vexing with all these reports is the constant and casual mentions of
"breaking up" these companies as though it's a viable and realistic outcome
which it isn't and any self respecting publication should present things in
the proper context.
~~~
ma2rten
The problem with breaking up google is that the vast majority of revenue and
profits comes from search ads. You can't break up search ads from search.
~~~
darkpuma
Is youtube still being operated at a loss? If google runs a video sharing
platform at or near a loss, funded by cash they get from search ads, then how
can any other company possibly compete with them? By also running a video
sharing platform at or near a loss? There is a very small number of companies
that could conceivably do that.
This is precisely why google needs to be broken up.
~~~
v7p1Qbt1im
By your logic there would be no YouTube. Or no user generated video at all. I
imagine most people (including me) wouldn‘t like that.
~~~
darkpuma
> _" By your logic there would be no YouTube."_
In it's current form, no, and I'm fine with that. I'd like to see what a self-
sustaining youtube alternative looks like. The status quo is not divine
providence.
~~~
v7p1Qbt1im
> I'd like to see what a self-sustaining youtube alternative looks like.
What does that even mean? Clearly another platform of similar popularity would
end up heaving the exact same problems.
------
crazygringo
The thing is, according to _current_ antitrust law, there isn't much of a case
to be made.
I personally do think the US should be more aggressive in reining in what I
personally consider to be certain abuses (e.g. using your leadership in one
area, like search or app store, to favor your own items over others,
regardless of whether you're a monopoly or not).
But the problem is there aren't laws against that.
If we want to change things, change the _laws_ first.
~~~
maehwasu
The “should we use the judicial branch to legislate” ship sailed a long time
ago, and it’s not coming back to the harbor.
For better or worse, the judiciary as legislators is our system now, may as
well acknowledge it.
~~~
crazygringo
As someone who majored in political science including constitutional law...
it's not that simple.
The courts have the ability to "legislate" via precedent when choosing between
different conflicting laws or conflicting rights, and have an extra-wide scope
when it comes to interpreting the constitution, because it is so short and
intentionally broad/vague.
But when it comes to non-constitutional issues (e.g. antitrust), and a
situation is clearly covered by existing law (not at the "boundary" of a law
or between conflicting laws), the judicial branch can't do anything.
I mean, that's just not how courts work. And if a court did, it would be
overturned in appeal.
So, no -- I absolutely would never acknowledge the judiciary as legislators
now. That would be a complete constitutional and democratic breakdown, so
thank goodness that's not the case.
Don't confuse gridlock (slow lawmaking) with an unconstitutional usurpment of
power.
------
convivialdingo
Things google has the power to do:
* Ruin or make a business
* Manipulate or exclude information
* Imprison or ostracise using law enforcement and/or access to confidential information or even inuendo based on stupid things you did as a teenager.
* Manipulate an economy by emphasizing or suppressing information
* Manipulate a Democratic election with a degree of immunity from prosecution
This is the ultimate, god-like power that no unelected group should ever have.
------
wil421
Why would the government allow Google to buy all these companies and then just
end up blowing Antitrust smoke everywhere?
It’s weird the Obama administration allowed them to buy so many companies and
the Trump administration’s DOJ is talking about antitrust. I would’ve thought
the opposite.
~~~
HillaryBriss
yeah, I agree. But, OTOH, Democrats portray themselves as the "party of
ideas," intellectuals and academics, and socially tolerant/liberal people and
that's who Silicon Valley and Google are, so there was a natural alignment
between Obama and Google/SV. Also, it didn't hurt that most of Google's
employees were relatively young and probably voted for Obama. And Obama was
younger and his organization was more internet-savvy. Also, campaign
contributions were no doubt involved.
------
seaborn63
If the breakup does happen, the internet will become a brand new place, but if
it doesn't happen, Google creates Skynet for real.
Kidding, but it is interesting to think about what would happen if the breakup
does or doesn't happen.
~~~
v7p1Qbt1im
I‘m probably wrong, but at this point only a real (benevolent) super
intelligence can solve our biggest problems and questions (climate change,
pollution, energy, deep space travel, chronic and terminal diseases, mass
scale decision finding, consciousness).
Futurism aside. The only thing that will happen happen if Google is broken up,
is Microsoft/Amazon/Tencent/Baidu taking over their share. The internet is not
quite like other industries. The biggest possible scale will eventually
assimilate almost everything.
------
ishan1121
It's about time they broke Google up. Google alone has too much power on our
news and information. How do we not know they are not abusing their power?
~~~
myko
Look into Sinclair Broadcasting if you want to see who is abusing their power
regarding news and information.
Google is doing everything they can to be neutral - arguably more than they
should.
~~~
v7p1Qbt1im
But Sinclair et al. preach the politics of the current administration, so
they‘re safe.
------
abfan1127
can't compete in the market so get the government to break them up?
------
awakeasleep
Enemies or victims?
------
marktangotango
_Google’s Enemies Gear Up to Make Antitrust Case_
So customers and users are "enemies"? That's quite and indictment of their
business model!
Edit specifically this part, which I read as "customers and users":
_News Corp, which owns The Wall Street Journal, and other publishers say
Google and other tech platforms siphon ad revenue away from content creators._
~~~
wstrange
The article specifically calls out competitors such as Yelp, TripAdvisor and
Oracle. I don't think these are Google's customers or users.
~~~
curt15
In which of Google's markets does Oracle compete?
~~~
GuB-42
Java.
Oracle and Google are currently what may be the biggest tech-related legal
battle of the decade. It is up to the supreme court now. To put it simply,
Oracle claims that Google hijacked Java for its Android ecosystem.
There may be some other areas where they compete, particularly when it comes
to cloud services, but I think Java is the big one.
~~~
curt15
But Google switched to OpenJDK a while ago, and since that has become the
reference Java implementation, how could Java be monetized nowadays for mobile
devices?
~~~
simion314
Weren't they in fact forked Java the platform? AFAIK you were not allowed to
create your incompatible Java version, Microsoft tried it withe their Embrace
Extend Extinguish tactics and lost in the courts.
What is weird in the Oracle vs Google is that they are debating copyright over
the APIs and that for me seems unrelated.
------
ycombonator
The Google exec Jen Gennai who was in the Veritas video just deleted her
twitter account
[https://mobile.twitter.com/gennai_jen](https://mobile.twitter.com/gennai_jen)
~~~
CapricornNoble
Archives of both of her known/suspected Twitter accounts:
[https://archive.fo/EwXSb](https://archive.fo/EwXSb)
[https://archive.fo/oWfPW](https://archive.fo/oWfPW)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Life on the B Ark: an interview with Ian Stewart - RiderOfGiraffes
http://home.earthlink.net/~douglaspage/id83.html
======
RiderOfGiraffes
This is the chap who wrote the article referenced here:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1594496>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Am I too old to start a programming career? - Colin_M
I first got into coding ~5 years ago. Taught myself a few languages, did some online contract work on the cheap. I decided to go back to school for a CS degree. By the time I graduate, I'll be in my early 30's.<p>I know that the CS field tends to skew young, especially for entry-level work. Am I likely to face significant barriers due to my age?
======
trcollinson
Anecdotally, I hired one of the best engineers I have ever worked with when he
was 31 and a junior in college. I hired him as an intern. Now, 5 years later,
he's making well North of 6 figures.
By the way, as an intern he was still learning. I remember one day he was
running the longest, worst, non-infinite loop I have ever seen. It ran for
hours! He asked me what was wrong. That was his trick. He would ask good
questions and he would remember what he learned and applied it later. That's
why he's such a great engineer. He still learns to this day. So, do it! And
keep on learning.
------
shoeless
I received my CS degree in 1984. I started my first consulting business 12
years later at 35, and founded a startup last year with a co-founder.
You will experience ageism, so plan on cutting your own path in either
consulting, freelance development, or founding your own company. Build your
network - that is where you will expand your opportunities.
Don't let anyone ever tell you that you can't have a productive software
development career at any age.
------
ruraljuror
Based on my personal experience, no you will not face barriers. As a self-
taught web developer in my early 30s (now headed back to school), I was able
to get a lot of interviews at small and large companies. There is a lot of
demand for good software developers. I do not think age will enter into the
equation at all.
Yes I'm sure there is age discrimination in the industry and you might have he
misfortune of encountering it. But based on your other comment, you seem to
have a determined attitude which is great. Now quit inventing problems for
yourself that don't exist and go spend your time doing something more
worthwhile.
------
max_
Here is what i can tell you. dont just be a "programmer" Choose one hard topic
and master it.
I suggest stuff like Cryptography, Machine Learning, blockchain technologies,
networking, low level hardware programming stuff. That is what i think guys in
30's should be good for, the hard things all the kids run away from.
Things like web development are nowadays too crowded with young talent that,
even if you get employed. you will feel weird. around teens and young adults.
------
a-saleh
My advice for you would probably be, to try to work/consult anywhere to get
you the "at least 2 years experience in" your chosen specialization :-)
As far as I have seen, as long as the HR thinks you have been on somebody
elses payroll because of your programming for some time, they will gladly hire
you.
Or you might go the 'Double your consulting rates' way, often proselytized by
patio11 in HN comments :)
------
lsiebert
You could argue that most age discrimination is probably not at entry level
positions, but more people wanting to pay rockstars in cans of rockstars not
the wages that a great experienced engineer deserves.
------
dwhitworth1
Switched careers and got my first gig as a junior developer at 41 years old.
Now 43 years old and a 3/4 of the way through a CS degree as well, still
working full time as a software developer (and loving it). Never too late.
------
jgelliott
I don't think so - I went back to university to study Software Engineering
when I was 34, graduated last year and walked in to a great job. I never felt
like my age caused any barriers when applying for jobs, and actually was a
great help as it made it easier to stand out from the crowd.
------
a3n
I graduated college CS in 1988 at 30. I had no trouble finding work. But that
was 1988, and I've never worked in SV. All the world is not SV.
------
arnold_palmur
I'm curious, in regard to going back to school, are you pursuing a second (or
first) Bachelors in CS or a Masters?
~~~
Colin_M
First; I never finished a degree after High School. I got married instead and
left school for the world of blue collar employment, which worked well enough
for me for a long time, but now I find myself craving a career where I'm
intellectually challenged.
~~~
cylinder
That's funny, I would trade my office job for the right blue collar job
opportunity.
------
dotcoma
I'm going to start a fitness career at age 43.
Just do it.
~~~
Colin_M
I'm going to do it no matter what, I'd just like to hear opinions on what I'm
getting into, so I can plan for likely roadblocks.
------
_I-
If that is bugging you, try choosing places where your managers will be older
than you. problem solved.
~~~
seeing
Significant barriers due to age also include learning. When it comes to new
technologies, do you think you'd learn the most in places where the manager is
older than you?
Did you perhaps mean go to places where the manager is a good learner?
------
deeteecee
nope, nowhere close to too old. if anything, there's not much to worry about
considering you already taught yourself some basics.
------
zippy786
Not at all. I know many in early 30 who are junior programmers.
------
wprapido
outside of bay area bubble, your age doesn't really mater. so, yeah, go for it
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Researchers discuss the challenges posed by science’s embrace of English - salutonmundo
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01797-0
======
FartyMcFarter
I'm not sure I believe this paragraph:
> I’ve worked on many multinational collaborations, and I notice that European
> researchers often speak to each other in their native languages. However,
> it’s relatively uncommon to see Chinese or South Korean scientists talking
> to each other in their own language in an academic setting away from their
> home country. They just don’t feel comfortable.
In my experience, Chinese are one of the most likely to form little cliques
with their compatriots when abroad (and speak their own language while at it).
They're not the only ones to do so, but they definitely seem to do it more
than average.
~~~
ImaCake
I hear equal amounts of Mandarin, Hindi, and Portugese around my current lab.
Honestly, the people least likely to speak their native tongue are the few
Germans floating around. So my personal experience is closer to yours than
that expressed in the original article.
~~~
zaarn
Germans (stereotypically) prefer to speak English poorly over speaking German
if there is the possibility that a non-German listener might be interested,
the other's German is not 100% perfect or the other is a german wanting to
learn english.
------
type0
This article brings some pain points that many people might recognize, I know
at least one brilliant chemist that had professorship delayed by about a
decade or two. The thing is - that actually might be fair because if you need
to teach your students in English you should learn it and be good at it, but
how good speaker one has to be to tech chemistry, huh. Maybe the faculty was
too hard there, who knows, but sometimes your country of origin might also
play a role and not just the language proficiency. I think that some
discrimination happens even at that high level of academia.
------
btrettel
If people don't like English being the lingua franca of science, they should
encourage translation of foreign language articles. Unfortunately scientific
translation seems to have declined significantly since the 1950s and 1960s. I
wrote a Stack Exchange post about locating translations of scientific articles
and few of the sources I mention are currently active:
[https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/93209/31143](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/93209/31143)
The rise of English as the lingua franca of science certainly would lead to
less translations being produced, but I don't think it should reduce to near
zero as it seems to have. Today there's still valuable research that's not
published in English.
During my PhD I published several translations (all produced via Google
Translate and manual editing) and consistently people thought this was some
weird quirk of mine. But I enjoyed it and learned quite a few things I would
not have known otherwise.
~~~
jhbadger
It used to be required that PhD students (even in the sciences, and in the US)
had to demonstrate written understanding of at least one foreign language.
When I got my doctorate in microbiology in the 1990s that rule was still
officially on the books, but not enforced. But certainly before WWII and even
into the 1960s there was a lot of research being published in Russian, French
and German besides English. Even today, China still publishes many Chinese-
language journals which go mostly untranslated.
~~~
madengr
They had this requirement at KU in the 90’s, but a computer “language”
satisfied the requirement.
------
macando
> English speakers have become the gatekeepers of science. By keeping those
> gates closed, we’re missing out on a lot of perspectives and a lot of good
> research.
I'm always baffled with how disjointed and chaotic the global science
community seems. Why there isn't something like Facebook for science? Are
there grants for solving meta problems like this?
One interesting fact about using a foreign language: There is a research
saying that lying in a foreign language is easier. English is not my mother
tongue so don't take this for granted :D
~~~
danieltillett
Given the number of speakers of English in the world there really is no
alternative to English - maybe Chinese, but I doubt anyone in the world
outside of China thinks that it is easier to read Chinese than English.
Of all the problems Science faces the language used is the least of our
problems. Little things like funding, insecure tenure, and the immense publish
or perish pressure are what we need to be looking at.
~~~
mamon
English has additional advantage of being painfully simple logical, grammar-
wise. There's only a handfull of grammar rules to learn, and they are pretty
consistent, exceptions are quite rare. This helps to write clear and concise
text, unlike languages like, say, Polish, which evolved when Poland was under
foreign rule for over a century, and for that reason it is deliberately
cryptic and ambigous :)
~~~
aloisdg
English painfully simple, grammar wise? Wait until you tried constructed
language like Esperanto or Ido.
~~~
Swizec
Eh the hard parts of English arise because it likes to mug languages in dark
alleys and pick their pockets for spare grammar and vocabulary.
This makes it difficult to form a unified theory of the language. The more
elegant your rules, the more exceptions there are.
But it’s also a super power. It makes the language feel more familiar to just
about anyone who speaks an Indo-European language. There’s something homely
and welcoming in english for anyone.
And the readiness with which english adopts foreign vocabulary when practical
is simply inspiring. You can introduce basically any word from any language
and make it stick.
And then there’s Slavic languages where at least in mine, every verb or
pronoun can come in one of 20 or so different forms. Nouns have 20+ different
forms too.
Not expecting Slovenian to become lingua franca of anything any time soon.
It’s just too hard.
------
aluren
I've written various things in English (papers, thesis, abstracts, etc.) and I
loathed using that language every step along the way. English is such a clunky
language for communication, especially in science.
-It has loads and loads of words, many of them overlapping with subtle differences that go over the head of many non-native speakers yet still carry some kind of difference between intended and perceived meaning. Some of them are just synonymous, such as Latin/Germanic cognate couples (godly vs. divine, tiredness vs. fatigue, etc.), and you just sort of have to learn them all if you want to understand everything you read or hear. So you apply yourself and it turns out that you're still not understood because the vast majority of the community doesn't speak English as a first language either and also has trouble understanding one or the other form you're using.
-Its pronunciation and spelling is completely wild and inconsistent. You can't guess how to pronounce a word you first encounter. And in scientific and technical presentations there are a lot of such words! This doesn't even take into account the various accents within native English speakers (I'm somehow supposed to be able to understand both the Californian and Australian accents no matter how nerve-rattling they sound) and non-native speakers (who also have the same trouble pronouncing new words as I do, except they'll mis-pronounce it differently than I would).
-The way sentence structure is designed favors the apposition of many different words without any preposition, leading to ambiguities. This is of course exacerbated in papers with absurd word count constraints that must somehow fill the needs of print journals despite the fact that 99% of people read them online. It also makes for very terse, opaque and generally tedious reading. The only thing more annoying than reading a paper is writing one, because you're also going to have to write in the same opaque style in order to squeeze as much information as you can in order to fit your 3 year project's worth of discoveries into a 1500 word Nature letter.
-It's unfair that non-native speakers be discriminated on peer-review based on the quality of their English. Reviewers and editors like to pretend they're unbiased but they're not. The quality of the work is independent on the author's ability to write in a foreign language. I'll readily admit that judging someone based on their mastery of a language is not unique to English speakers but this particular situation is especially egregious since most native English speakers do not, in fact, speak any foreign language.
-It's generally a constant reminder of the cultural hegemony held by the US and Anglo-Saxon countries in general. Native speakers are advantaged since they have to learn less and are still less discriminated; scientists flock to Anglo-Saxon universities despite other ones being as competent if not more, but less well-known; the top journals such as Nature or Science are either British or American, reinforcing this bias. Univerisities ratings are often based on publications in these Anglo-Saxon journals, further deepening the bias. And lastly, Anglo-Saxons in general (and Americans in particular) have a very strong Not Invented Here syndrome whereby anything that was discovered outside the anglosphere is disregarded or met with much more skepticism than usual. Every so often an American paper comes out touting a new innovative "amazing" method that will completely revolutionize a field despite the principles having been discovered years before but outside the land of the free. It's frankly annoying.
~~~
cheerlessbog
What is your first language?
------
throwayEngineer
Is there any benefit to having competitive languages?
It seems it would only make communicating ideas harder.
Culture? At what expense?
~~~
type0
Competitive languages would hugely hinder the progress. Consider this: Mendel
discovered the field of genetics but Darwin wasn't even aware of his work
mostly because it was published in German, so we should be glad that the
lingua franca of today is a relatively simple language as English, although I
might had preferred Anglish if that was available -
[https://anglish.fandom.com/wiki/Main_leaf](https://anglish.fandom.com/wiki/Main_leaf)
~~~
gwern
Whatever the problems of having a lingua franca for science are, the problems
of _not_ having one are much worse. Weird that Gordin is the only respondent
to even mention this.
~~~
SiempreViernes
That is the obvious advantage that everyone knows, only tangentially related
to the issue at hand: the _challenges_ of being forced to work in a non-native
language.
~~~
gwern
It's not at all tangential. It is the core of the problem. Any 'solution' or
'improvement' needs to understand and acknowledge the benefits of
monolingualism. Look at Dharwadkar, who is calling for breaking up
monolingualism without any consideration of the costs, or Sheridan, who
advocates for more handholding by professors (because they have so much free
time as it is?), or her example of an Indian professor: if the paper is so
badly written that it cannot be understood despite many revisions, then how is
it supposed to add to scientific knowledge? (It's not like scientific journals
have very high standards for prose as it is, so that paper must have been
gibberish at the start.) Consider this quote:
> English speakers have become the gatekeepers of science. By keeping those
> gates closed, we’re missing out on a lot of perspectives and a lot of good
> research.
OK, so let's say we switch to having everyone publish in their own native
language because gosh we wouldn't want to be _gatekeepers_. Now instead of one
'gate', we have... hundreds, because everyone has to learn every language or
else they are being 'gatekept'. Oops.
This pervasive error, this nirvana fallacy, of praising only the benefits of
multi-lingualism, renders the entire discussion moot. It's a tissue of
complaints and buzzwords.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A hacker accessed a Ring camera and harassed an 8-year-old - zeppelin_head
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/12/12/she-installed-ring-camera-her-childrens-room-peace-mind-hacker-accessed-it-harassed-her-year-old-daughter/
======
mindslight
Buy a surveillance device for your daughter, _get a surveillance device on
your daughter_.
The main problem is that prolific advertising has been able to convince most
everyone (not in the tech sector) that it's a good idea to fill your home with
surveillance devices. This wasn't even some pragmatic compromise like a baby
cam, but rather installing a security camera in an 8 year old's bedroom!
It's unfortunate that these kind of results are one of the few speedbumps to
the surveillance industry's advertising. Although failing fast with petty
crime is much nicer than failing long-term with highly organized crime!
------
aketchum
On the one hand, if this really is a result of hackers logging in with a re-
used password that was found in another companies breach then I don't know
what Amazon is really suppose to do. On the other hand, telling the family
that and saying "nothing we could have done" seems like a terribly in-
sufficient response. I empathize with both parties here, though obviously more
so with the family. Maybe Amazon should require 2FA for logging into Ring?
~~~
dublinben
Amazon should be proactively monitoring that their users haven't reused
breached passwords. Every responsible service should be doing this.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How the Legal System Failed Aaron Swartz — And Us - coloneltcb
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2013/01/everyone-interesting-is-a-felon.html
======
imuakame
"In another time, a man with Swartz’s dark drive would have headed to the
frontier. Perhaps he would have ventured out into the wilderness, like T. E.
Lawrence or John Muir, or to the top of something death-defying, like Reinhold
Messner or Philippe Petit. Swartz possessed a self-destructive drive toward
actions that felt right to him, but that were also defiant and, potentially,
law-breaking. Like Henry David Thoreau, he chased his own dreams, and he was
willing to disobey laws he considered unjust."
~~~
jerrya
Computers, communications, and various corrupting incentives have made it easy
and painless for government organizations to hammer the protruding nail.
------
coloneltcb
"We can rightly judge a society by how it treats its eccentrics and deviant
geniuses—and by that measure, we have utterly failed"
------
wanderingstan
What punishment would Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak have faced for their
illegal phone activities, if today's laws were in place then? Seems that Ortiz
could have gone after them for more than even 35 years.
~~~
rprasad
According to the WSJ, about 6-7 months, which is what the prosecutor actually
sought against Swartz. 35 years was the maximum potential prison sentence
allowed by the law; it was _not_ the prison sentence that the prosecutors were
seeking.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The epic roleplaying stunt Dau is now churning out epicly bad movies - nkurz
https://www.polygon.com/2020/4/23/21232719/dau-natasha-degeneration-review-russian-epic-movies-now-streaming-ilya-khrzhanovsky
======
duxup
Is there more of a summary of what this film or thing ... is?
My reading comprehension sometimes escapes me, but to me the article starts
like I already know what it is talking about. So these people went about their
daily lives being constantly filmed only on set? Round the clock? They lived
there? They chose to do this?
~~~
watwut
The first paragraph seems to answer most of your questions:
> The cinematic behemoth was meant to unfold in a living, breathing three-acre
> recreation of postwar Moscow, built in the Ukrainian town of Kharkov.
> Cameras would follow hundreds of non-professional actors and thousands of
> extras day and night, as they lived life as if under the watchful eye of the
> KGB
~~~
duxup
I felt like that left more questions than answers as to how this played out
exactly. Who chose to participate, what did hey know, how do they feel about
their experience, why?
It seems like an extraordinary system like that should involve ... a bit of
elaboration.
The article seems to question more than just the quality of the film but the
treatment of the actors, and other topics, but doing so without understanding
how such a strange film was actually made seems off...
~~~
watwut
Isnt that odd information to expect from what seems to be primary movie
review?
Even if the article wants also criticise some abuse that happened, the whole
"who chose to participate, what did hey know, how do they feel about their
experience, why" still seems like too much information/expectation. Just
getting interviews and verifying them would take awful lot of work for
basically review.
~~~
duxup
Normally I don't watch a movie and think the people on screen are actually
being abused.
I feel like they raised the issues that sort of ask those questions.... did
abuse happen?
Then yeah you kinda should explore that fact or not.
~~~
watwut
They did not raised questions. They directly stated that abuses happened.
They did not went into bacstories and motivations of people who were actors or
participants.
~~~
duxup
Raise questions, directly state it. I feel like either way they should explain
that a little.
Looking at other article I'm not sure that it's a given fact or such. There
are lots of vague articles but none seem particularly factual as far as what
actually happened.
It seems strange to me to raise the question or say it happened but not
actually address if it happened and the we say discuss how "well it's a movie
review so I don't have to explain that".
~~~
ajzinsbwbs
These are good questions to ask, but I wouldn’t expect a movie reviewer to do
investigative journalism and hunt down the people from this film. It’s not
really in the job description.
~~~
Klinky
Okay then why bring up the abuse from the production at all? Just review the
film as-is? It sounds like not a very good film and the more interesting story
is the story of its making, which this article brings up multiple times
throughout.
~~~
watwut
Because it was reported by other journalists and it is relevant. It is part of
what movie is as-is.
------
tweetle_beetle
Interesting that auteur theory is being applied to the morality of the
production of film - usually it's just for artistic content. In much the same
way that it's not fair(?) to attribute the artisitic merits of a finished film
which is touched by hundreds of people to a single person, there must have
been dozens of people directly enabling or contributing to Khrzhanovsky's
abusive behaviour.
This is quite the list of participants of the film (from Wikipedia): European
Cinema Support Fund Eurimages; Arte France Cinema, Société Parisienne de
Production; WDR/Arte, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Mitteldeutsche
Medienförderung, Essential Filmproduktion; Swedish Film Institute, Film I
Väst, Plattform Production; Hubert Bals Fund, AG Interfilm B.V.
I wonder how a young inexperienced director was able to access such backing
with apparently so little oversight.
~~~
watwut
> I wonder how a young inexperienced director was able to access such backing
> with apparently so little oversight.
He is 45 and this is not the first movie he made. Got some prizes for
previously too. Why did you assumed he is young or inexperienced?
Plus, the above mentioned institutions wont be on the set with you.
~~~
tweetle_beetle
He was 30 when the project started, just 7 years in from his directorial
debut, with just 2 films to his name.
As far as I know, it's very unusual to be raising large amounts of money and
backing for a personal project under those circumstances.
Yes his film "4" had some critical acclaim in a few second circuit indy
festivals, but his family tree probably held a lot of sway too.
(This is all pulled from Wikipedia, happy to be corrected)
------
jarofgreen
Wasn't this the plot of Synecdoche?
[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0383028/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0383028/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0)
~~~
mistersquid
There is structural similarity between the two, but in _Synechdoche_ , Caden’s
(the director) life is the explicit subject of the intradiagetic (in-narrative
world) film. [0] The subject of the OP uses Soviet-era Russia and its
surveillance state as the (um) synechdoche to stand in for the apparatus of
the cinematic production.
To my mind, this project more closely resembles the disastrous subject of the
documentary _We Live In Public_ [1]
[0]
[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0383028](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0383028)
[1]
[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0498329](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0498329)
------
tqi
It troubles me that so much of this article is focused on how bad the films
are. If the director had succeeded in making a masterpiece, would the
conclusion have been that the ends (at least partially) justified the means?
The article briefly mentions directors whose methods we now condem but whose
work we still celebrate, but even then I felt like the message was "at least
those directors produced great art."
~~~
hilbertseries
I don’t really trust polygon for reviews of art films. Looking at some critic
reviews, it seems like Natasha the first film in Dau has had some rave
reviews. For instance the guardian gave it 5/5
[https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/feb/26/dau-natasha-
rev...](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/feb/26/dau-natasha-review-
russia-ilya-khrzhanovsky)
~~~
tqi
But does the quality of the film matter? I don't think making great art
justifies or excuses being a tyrannical/abusive artist, and feel that in
general we should have consistent standards of acceptable behavior that is
divorced from outputs.
~~~
dbspin
Of course it matters... If art has any utility at all, then its impact must be
factored into utilitarian calculations about suffering / opportunity costs and
so on.
Whether the suffering that's alleged to have taken place in its production was
'worthwhile' is an open and complex question, and its a perfectly valid moral
position to believe that it was not. But to suggest that behaviour should be
'divorced from outputs' is not a logically consistent position.
~~~
TheNorthman
I think you are a bit quick to dismiss the entirety of deontology. Could you
expand on what you mean when you say that deontological ethics ``is not a
logically consistent position.''
------
rurban
Terrible movies? Critics beg to differ. Highest rankings all over.
[http://cannes-ratings.herokuapp.com/Berlinale](http://cannes-
ratings.herokuapp.com/Berlinale)
------
throwanem
Zimbardo, interpreted by a wannabe Kubrick.
Are we really talking about whether a story that can only be told by
traumatizing the hell out of unwilling people is a story still worth telling?
Why assume that the story _can_ only be told that way, rather than that it
takes an incompetent hack of a director to decide that the best way to tell a
story is to just shoot a million feet of film and figure out the rest in the
edit suite? That seems to me at least as likely as the other.
I mean, it's not like we don't know how to tell stories about evil without
behaving evilly ourselves. It doesn't take a working extermination camp to
make a _Sophie 's Choice_ or a _Schindler 's List_. Even if it did, would you
think about excusing that?
------
tpmx
Somehow I doubt that polygon.com is going is to provide any kind of truth
about this movie. It's like asking PETA to review a shotgun.
~~~
nkurz
What's Polygon's reputation? I posted this because I was looking for an update
on what was happening with Dau, and this was the best article I could find
with a 2020 dateline. I don't know anything about their site otherwise.
------
Y_Y
Wasn't this supposed to be about Lev Landau, famous for writing physics
textbooks?
------
JoeAltmaier
And, likely, lawsuits to follow. The degeneration of women, abuse of actors,
physical intimidation are being exposed in many industries and vilified. This
project next?
------
cortesoft
Most ambitious art stunt in history?
I would think something like the great pyramids would be a more ambitious art
stunt.
~~~
fastball
Are tombs an art stunt?
~~~
pasquinelli
those aren't just any tombs.
------
yters
Call anything art and it becomes acceptable.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Chris Cox, Zuckerberg lieutenant, to return to Facebook - dcgudeman
https://www.wsj.com/articles/zuckerberg-lieutenant-returns-to-facebook-a-year-after-departure-11591899761
======
Zaheer
The discussion when he left was that Chris did not agree with Facebook's
stance on the role / responsibility they have as a platform. I wonder if this
is a sign of further policy changes they'll make.
HN Discussion from when he left:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19393018](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19393018)
~~~
GuiA
_" Look, I'm all about loyalty. In fact, I feel like part of what I'm being
paid for here is my loyalty. But if there were somewhere else that valued
loyalty more highly, I'm going wherever they value loyalty the most."_
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Mending the RubyGems Fences - sandal
http://blog.majesticseacreature.com/mending-the-rubygems-fences
======
sandal
This is not actually a dead link, but posterous is intermittently 404ing
sometimes. Reload a couple times if that happens, sorry. :-/
~~~
telemachos
Since it's the top-most post, what worked for me when I saw 404s was to go to
the main page[1] and read it from there.
[1] <http://blog.majesticseacreature.com/>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
My two week project turned into a full-time open source startup - darafsheh
http://blog.servicebot.io/my-two-week-project-turned-into-a-full-time-open-source-startup/
======
darafsheh
Hi all, founder of ServiceBot here, we have just released our limited time
free open-beta instances. Feel free to signup on our website
[https://servicebot.io](https://servicebot.io) and give us your feedback.
Note: you need a Stripe account for ServiceBot to complete the setup process.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Writing to the Framebuffer - __sb__
http://seenaburns.com/2018/04/04/writing-to-the-framebuffer/
======
Jasper_
Keep in mind that /dev/fb, on a modern system, isn't an actual framebuffer on
your GPU. It's a land of make-believe, mostly supported to get the kernel
console ("fbcon") working. Going back for at least 10 years, the kernel mode-
setting API (KMS) is used to display buffers, and there's compatibility code
which sets up a user-space buffer in the KMS subsystem [0] which is swapped to
when fbcon happens through a large chain of strange events that are hard to
describe. This explains why you can't write to a /dev/fb during an active X11
session and have it show up: it's a fake buffer that only shows up when KMS
isn't in use.
[0]
[https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/drivers/gpu/dr...](https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/drivers/gpu/drm/drm_fb_helper.c)
~~~
therein
That is correct. One exception perhaps is embedded devices with displays,
including EInk tablets.
For instance one thing I have been working on is a library that allows writing
to and partially refreshing an EInk display with low latency enabling this[0].
I am curious what would happen if I got xorg working on this and used an
additional application to call the `refresh` ioctl so that the changes get
displayed on the screen.
[0]
[https://gfycat.com/CornyHugeIndianRhinoceros](https://gfycat.com/CornyHugeIndianRhinoceros)
~~~
gandreani
That's very awesome! What tablet and project is that?
~~~
therein
Thanks. It is the Remarkable Tablet but the API is entirely undocumented. Took
a fair bit of analysis to get it to this state but now it is actually ready
for people to build their own applications upon it.
The GitHub project:
[https://www.github.com/canselcik/libremarkable](https://www.github.com/canselcik/libremarkable)
~~~
codetrotter
This is cool, you should post it as a “Shown HN”. And don’t get discouraged if
it doesn’t immediately garner attention. Post it again later if you only get
an insignificant amount of upvotes. Your project is front page worthy and if
it doesn’t get there the first time then it’s just bad timing / bad luck (or
poorly worded title, that’s a possibility as well of course).
Post it until it gets to the front page, waiting a couple of days or more
between each time you post it.
~~~
hultner
I agree, this is super cool and deserves attention.
~~~
therein
Thank you. :)
------
tbirdz
The reason why sudo wasn't working is that it runs the command with root
privileges, but redirecting to a file with > is done through the shell, which
is running under your normal user level privileges. If you want to redirect to
a file that only root can write to, you can use the tee command. That command
will write anything passed to it via stdin to the file given as an arg.
For example, echo "foo" | sudo tee /path/to/file
or any of the other ways listed here:
[https://stackoverflow.com/questions/82256/how-do-i-use-
sudo-...](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/82256/how-do-i-use-sudo-to-
redirect-output-to-a-location-i-dont-have-permission-to-wr)
~~~
digi_owl
My first thought was to use the sh -c method.
~~~
pwg
Or, just use 'su' to become root, then write to the device file.
~~~
rusk
su isn't an option that's available to "regular" users. In particular in an
environment where sudo has been set up correctly then it may be for the reason
that you want regular users to be able to perform "some" powerful functions
without giving them the keys to the system.
------
jwilk
> one horizontal line at a time, with one byte for Blue,Green,Red,Alpha(?) per
> pixel (seems like 24-bit true color).
You can (and should if you are writing software not only for yourself) ask the
kernel about the framebuffer layout using FBIOGET_FSCREENINFO and
FBIOGET_VSCREENINFO ioctls.
[https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/fb/api.txt](https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/fb/api.txt)
------
vardump
There may be more than just one simultaneous framebuffer per display on the
hardware level.
GPUs can actually scan to a display from _multiple overlapping framebuffers_
in different resolutions and color formats _in the same time_. Alpha blending
and rotations are often supported as well.
A bit like a very large mouse cursor. In a way, mouse cursors are also
framebuffers. Or like hardware video layers in the nineties.
~~~
derefr
> GPUs can actually scan to a display from multiple framebuffers in different
> resolutions and color formats in the same time.
This is also how early SLI worked: each GPU has a framebuffer, one holding the
"even" scanlines and one holding the "odd" scanlines. Each GPU does its own
rendering work to its own framebuffer, each rendering a vertically-squashed
scene, with one scene offset by one pixel vertically. The master GPU then
interleaves the two framebuffers together (pulling data from the slave GPU's
framebuffer over the SLI link) when outputting a field.
~~~
jimmies
To add to that, "early SLI" stands for Scan-Line Interleave, not Scalable Link
Interface like it is now. CRT was some crazy shit to deal with. I'm glad I
never had to deal with it.
If you ever wondered why some old Youtube video looked like crap and has lines
that don't match up, interleaving was why.
~~~
codedokode
Usually artifacts are not the result of using interleaved source but the
result of recoding done wrong. I remember reading mencoder manual about
"pulldown" and other recoding options.
------
hazeii
Worth noting that the framebuffer works really well on the Raspberry Pi; you
can switch between console and X, all while using the framebuffer. It's even
happy switching between bit depths (using 'fbset') at the same time.
If you want a really fast framebuffer system, get something like an old Nvidia
7600GT and use 'nvidiafb'; while this won't work with X at the same time, it's
blazingly fast and gives brilliant console text output (modern GPUs are super-
slow by comparison).
------
pjc50
Is /dev/fb writing directly to the framebuffer or is there translation going
on kernel side? Is the card in VESA / BIOS mode when on a virtual console
without X?
~~~
yjftsjthsd-h
I _think_ the kernel docs[0] indicate that it's a kernel-managed abstraction?
[0]
[https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/fb/framebuffer.txt](https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/fb/framebuffer.txt)
------
codedokode
I have a feeling that framebuffer must be something very slow. When I used
both Windows and Linux without proprietary drivers for a video card (so they
use some generic VGA or VESA driver), GUI would be slower. For example,
scrolling in a window was laggy. Or dragging a window around the screen. Why
it could be so? Do video card vendors intentionally slow down video memory
access or is VGA or VESA some poorly designed standard?
I was not using Compiz or something like this so it cannot be explained with
the lack of 3D acceleration.
Also, with generic VGA driver you cannot have 100Hz frame rate on high
resolutions.
------
sevensor
In DOS, in real mode, the framebuffer was just mapped directly into memory. If
you wanted to put something on the screen, you wrote to that memory address
(often segment A000). For text modes, you would write ASCII characters
straight into the buffer. For bitmap modes, your bytes would be interpreted as
colors (or shades of gray, depending on the mode.) It was very exciting when I
figured out how to use extended memory to draw high-resolution (640x480)
graphics.
------
yoz-y
Brings back memories. When I started coding graphical applications, writing
directly to the graphic card's memory was the only way I understood. As I
didn't know any better I had to recode stuff like line, circle and sprite
drawing on my own. It was super slow but a very fun way to get into coding.
Maybe it's just me but I have the impression that drawing arbitrary things on
screen has become harder since then.
------
jonny789
I am trying to run as root user :: cat /dev/graphics/fb0 in my android (oreo)
phone. But showing 'No such device' error. Could anyone guide me on how to
make it work so that I could take screenshot directly and do some graphics
stuff on my phone directly.
------
mnemotronic
note: I don't know linux...
Is it possible to get the GPU to copy kernel / system memory to the
framebuffer, then read that back with user space app? I.e. can we convince the
GPU or framebuffer to give us the contents of protected system memory?
~~~
Relys
On the Nintendo Wii U we were able to do this. Check out "GX2 unchecked memory
read/write":
[http://wiiubrew.org/wiki/Wii_U_System_Flaws](http://wiiubrew.org/wiki/Wii_U_System_Flaws).
Same issue with "gspwn" on the Nintendo 3DS:
[https://www.3dbrew.org/wiki/3DS_System_Flaws](https://www.3dbrew.org/wiki/3DS_System_Flaws)
------
mar77i
I have this C project based on CodingTrain videos that also ships an
fbdev_runner: [https://github.com/mar77i/cgbp](https://github.com/mar77i/cgbp)
------
phibz
Given how wayland works and how similar it is to the KMS fbcon abstraction it
might be interesting to discuss that as well.
------
voltagex_
I wonder if there's a way to take over another VT so you don't have the
console text over your images.
~~~
Jasper_
You can do this without taking over another VT by using ioctl(KDSETMODE,
KD_GRAPHICS). This tells fbcon in the kernel to stop drawing console text to
/dev/fb.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Looking to name a new tool, offering a reward of $100 - samerbuna
http://bootname.com/website/70135296-simple-group-emailing-with-mail-merge-and-tracking
======
samerbuna
We're building a simple tool to help us with our group emails, we wanted
something simple, you define (or import) your contacts information, organize
them in lists, compose messages, pick lists where a message go to, and let the
system work the magic.
You can use mail-merge variables in messages, and the tool allow you to
preview all emails before you send them. The cost of using the tool will be 1
cent per email, only for the sending part, the organizing of
contacts/lists/messages is all free.
The tool is built with a responsive UI design to work well on small screens.
------
xxxmadraxxx
Spam-O-Matic®
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Where is WordPress heading in 2018? How's it evolving? - mgos
======
stephenr
Given that they just patched a bug caused by their insistence on using their
own bullshit string futzing "prepared statements", I don't think "evolve" is
the right term.
Stagnate maybe?
~~~
mgos
Interesting. What do you think WP will be like in the coming years even if it
is stagnating?
~~~
stephenr
Maybe lookup the definition of stagnating.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Full-text search of Unix files? - bravura
I have a lot of notes organized as text files in a directory hierarchy on my Unix machine. I would like to index and search these notes, using full-text search and approximate matching (so grep does not suffice). I prefer a command-line utility. I am looking for a simple application that works out-of-the-box, no fuss, no muss, so something like Lucene seems overblown. Any suggestions?
======
timf
See if Beagle fits for you (it can do stemming, for example).
<http://beagle-project.org/Searching_Data>
There's a commandline interface to it. I'm not a beagle user myself, but it
looks like something you should at least check out.
------
gtani
edit(I'm assuming, since i'm always wallowing in python or rails, that google
desktop, regain, don't have the control over stemming and tokenization that
you want...)
here's regain
<http://regain.sourceforge.net/>
to my knowledge, Aksyonoff's sphinx only hits mysql and postgres.
The ferret lib for ruby lists this funcitonality, i haven't tried it
<http://datanoise.com/articles/2006/9/5/fun-with-ferret>
------
lazyant
A few years ago I wrote a little script for what you're describing or similar
(but very simple, no indexing) using a Perl module for fuzzy/approximate
matching; I think it was this one: <http://search.cpan.org/~jhi/String-
Approx-3.26/Approx.pm>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Do algorithms reveal sexual orientation or just expose our stereotypes? - ALee
https://medium.com/@blaisea/do-algorithms-reveal-sexual-orientation-or-just-expose-our-stereotypes-d998fafdf477
======
YeGoblynQueenne
Something that I found truly shocking is that, in the paper's data, the number
of straight men is exactly the same as the number of gay men- and the same for
women (for individuals with at least one picture, i.e. everyone; numbers for
those with more than one picture are different).
The paper itself cites a 7% distribution of gay men in the general population.
Yet they trained with a 50/50, uniform distribution. But- why?
Well- because a problem involving unbalanced classes, like gay/straight
individuals, where your target class (gay men/women) is less than a tenth of
your entire data is a bitch to train a classifier for. Now, if you
artificially equalise the data, by just adding more of that class, you can get
a pretty good "accuracy" score (precision over recall, which they used).
Except of course, that score is completely useless as an estimate of the true
accuracy of your classifier in the real world, against the true distribution
of your data, "in the wild". It's also completely useless as evidence for
whatever hare-brained theory you want to posit, that involves, oh, say, the
distribution of feminine and masculine features in gay and straight
individuals' faces - you know, the point the paper was making.
This should be a cautionary tale: you can't just force a classifier to give
you the results you want it to and then claim that those results prove your
theory. That's just bad machine learning. Like bad statistics, but with more
assumptions.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
One-bit Computing at 60 Hz - Garbage
http://laughtonelectronics.com/Arcana/One-bit%20computer/One-bit%20computer.html
======
chinpokomon
This reminds me of Dave Taylor's "Pinky Processor." [1] Crack dot com has been
shut down for years, so I couldn't find a better source, but the idea was to
have single bit processors and they could be linked in a "Pinky Farm" to work
in parallel. Every instruction would be this type of branching instruction and
it could handle calculations by performing table look ups. 15+ years ago
people had even written assemblers and emulators to demonstrate the theory.
Shortly after publishing his paper, Dave Taylor went to work for Transmeta on
the Crusoe processor and any research into Pinky processors faded out of
existence.
[1] [http://tech-beta.slashdot.org/story/98/06/06/136239/pinky-
pr...](http://tech-beta.slashdot.org/story/98/06/06/136239/pinky-processor)
------
jesuslop
This a very sweet and cool design, it is nice to see this theorical idea
applied to a real use case. I think it should be demonstrable that for a
turing machine, for a size-bound input state space, there is a data bus width
(with matching eprom and register) for this kind of machine, so that it
emulated the said Turing machine. Also, the eprom is a non-invertible
function, but there again is always a wider bus, register and eprom, this time
with a reversible (injective) action, that would have, nontrivially,
equivalent behaviour. In this reversible case, the action of the eprom could
be expressed in terms of a unitary transformation acting on a quantum
register, so the traces of the register values against time would be a subset
of the valid quantum state dynamical trajectories. In this case the two I/O
chips below are not required, and the system would evolve autonomously after
an initial state. So look, this computer is a cousin of a quantum circuit.
~~~
ghkbrew
Interesting, the first thing I thought of was the (classical/non-quantum)
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_instruction_set_computer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_instruction_set_computer)
------
sbierwagen
It'd probably be pretty easy to reimplement this in wood and marbles.
Ex:
[http://woodgears.ca/marbleadd/](http://woodgears.ca/marbleadd/)
[http://shop.evilmadscientist.com/productsmenu/tinykitlist/37...](http://shop.evilmadscientist.com/productsmenu/tinykitlist/375-dcii)
~~~
p1mrx
How would you even begin to implement a 1kB byte-addressable EPROM using wood
and marbles? That's probably the most complex part of this computer.
~~~
sbierwagen
Send the byte in a parallel set of channels, which set a register value, which
dumps the correct row of memory.
Maybe "pretty easy" was a misnomer. It'd take up a wall. "Pretty easy" in
comparison to implementing a 6800 in wood and marbles, or something.
------
Mister_Snuggles
My first instinct in this situation (adding some automation to a printing
press) would be to reach for a microcontroller. I always overlook how much can
actually be done without one.
~~~
cnvogel
Yes, certainly! And I admire the author to have put the idea into production.
For even more inspiration, the "Application Handbook" linked to on the
Wikipedia-page for the MC145000B has a lot more examples similar in spirit:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_MC14500B](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_MC14500B)
But then, in an industrial job, you'd be scolded for the implementation,
because only few of the colleagues would be able to follow this thought or
make modifications to the logic stored in the 2kByte ROM.
I don't know about the precise time the article-author had put his logic into
use, but PALs (the predecessors of FPGAs) were available since 1980 or so, and
they should have been sufficient to implement the "printing-press" logic
mentioned, and they meet the "programmable" requirement.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programmable_Array_Logic](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programmable_Array_Logic)
(it seems the 2716 used in the article's schematic was introduced 1977
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPROM](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPROM) )
~~~
dfox
Assuming that specification of logic performed was in form of some state
diagram or flowchart, transforming that into contents of that ROM is pretty
straightforward, you just assign memory addresses to states and then follow
arrows.
PAL seems to be natural choice for this, but:
* this circuit has more state than what would fit into PAL22V10 (I don't know if it is really necessary), which is largest common PAL device (it would not fit even into 26V12, might into GAL6001) * rewriting some state machine description into logic equations for PAL compiler is significantly more work than creating contents of that ROM. * PAL programmer is more specialized piece of hardware than (E)PROM programmer.
------
tasty_freeze
I would label this a finite state machine more than a computer. Still, if it
got the job done, great. It doesn't say when he created it, but if it was any
time in the past 15 years, a microcontroller would have been smaller, cheaper,
and easier.
~~~
dfox
Judging from the 74C logic and 2716 this was designed more than 20 years ago.
In today's situation only expensive component in this thing is the 2716 (or
just about any (E)PROM) and I believe that even few years ago this thing would
be in single quantities cheaper than using microcontroller (although not
significantly).
------
drakaal
I may have missed something in my quick read, but isn't this a 0 bit
processor?
There is only one instruction, and no No-op,
To be a one bit, shouldn't there be 2 instructions? one for 0 and one for 1.
Again I apologize if I missed something, I get a little fuzzy about what a
Single operation processor should be since 1 bit has 2 states.
~~~
dfox
One bit refers to it having exactly one bit of what could be called
"architecture state" or "datapath", that is the second channel of lower 74C374
going from input to A0 of program store. "Instruction" has two phases and
result of first phase determines what will happen next by means of this one
bit (by changing which pointer to next instruction will be read from memory).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
I fly twice a week with a swiss army knife and have never been caught.. - Edmond
where's the beef is security?
======
GrandMasterBirt
It's like the Israilies say: We screen with insane technology but never look
the person in the eyes and ask them a straightforward question to see if they
are unnecessarily stressed. You would get through security only if you were
completely unstressed about having the knife and probably forgot about it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How can I create an RSS feed for any website/url? - ildix
I've been using feedly.com to track websites and curate content for a newsletter. Certain websites that used to offer public RSS feeds no longer have them, two quick examples: https://genius.com/articles + https://daily.bandcamp.com/latest.<p>Feedly says they are not in the business of creating RSS feeds, only plugging them into their reader.<p>Im wondering if there are any good free/reasonably priced solutions for being able to create RSS Feeds of urls that do not offer them?<p>It seems to me that the web is becoming increasingly private, with devs purposely disabling RSS feeds or making it hard to create them for their web pages. Would love to hear thoughts on this topic.
======
hopesthoughts
There are 2 services I use. feedfry.com and rss.app. RSS.app is the paid one,
and feedfry you can use for free if you don't sign up with an account.
------
rsscircus
[https://feed43.com/](https://feed43.com/) : a bit technical but the free
version is sufficient for most sites
All other solutions are quite limited in their free version (5 news per day
and feed deleted if nothing happens during 1 week)... and quite expensive in
their paid version. FetchRSS Feedity Feed Creator
This last one have a inexpensive "to host" version.
~~~
ildix
I have come across feed43 but have not tried to test it with some of the links
im looking to create rss feeds for. At a quick glance, it didn't seem user
friendly but if you vouch for it ill have to check it out.
------
rsscircus
If ever you read french, here is my tuto on Feed43
[https://rsscircus.com/transformer-une-page-dactualites-en-
fi...](https://rsscircus.com/transformer-une-page-dactualites-en-fil-rss-un-
tutoriel-complet-avec-feed43/)
~~~
ildix
I unfortunately don't speak french but ill try to use English translation for
this.
------
datashaman
Syndicating someone else's content without their permission seems dodgy, if
not illegal.
~~~
ildix
I have heard this argument before. Personally i don't agree. If you are a
content creator and your content is available for free online, is it not your
goal to have the content shared as widely as possible?
A lot of tools/services we use today (eg: Google, Facebook, Reddit) were built
without asking for permission. Reddit co-founder Alexis talked a lot about
this in his book
[https://withouttheirpermission.com](https://withouttheirpermission.com)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Most Un-Impressive Recruiting Pitch I've Ever Seen :( - mattjaynes
http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/372-dear-no-first-name
======
staunch
Interesting because Schwartz Communications was Viaweb's PR firm.
An old Viaweb press release:
<http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_1997_August_11/ai_19658522>
_"CONTACT: Schwartz Communications Viaweb, Inc."_
------
Tichy
Funny, on the other hand I have to say it seems very unprofessional by
3signals to publish their business communications online for the world to
laugh at. I know they are considered the creme de la creme, but does this make
me want to ever communicate with them, like apply for a job? Who knows, I
might make a spelling mistake and they would go on and humiliate me in public.
No thanks.
------
yaacovtp
At least they do "crisis communication" <http://schwartz-
pr.com/services_l2.php?id=63>
------
timg
The generic nature of the content of this solicitation should have been
obvious regardless of whether they included the recipient's name.
------
mattjaynes
Wow, what a contrast to:
<http://senzee.blogspot.com/2007/02/red-5s-pitch.html>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Circular Doubly Linked List - Eyssant
https://www.alphacodingskills.com/ds/circular-doubly-linked-list.php
======
whycombagator
While a circular doubly linked list is an interesting data structure, this is
a slightly strange site/resource - at least as far as algo/ds go.
Perhaps I am being too harsh, but the site is "alphacodingskills" yet appears
to teach just the very basics of various languages. Additionally, all of the
algorithms on the site are sorting algos (except one). For data structures
it's just stack/queue/and variations of linked list
I'm not sure if I were to only know the basics of say Java, how to sort
various ways, & basic ds that I will have "alpha" coding skills, or pass a
rigourous FAANG-style technical interview (there is an interview question
section on the site).
Edit: Overall it's a promising resource, IMO it just needs more content to be
a serious one.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Cambodia's vast medieval cities hidden beneath the jungle - kawera
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/11/lost-city-medieval-discovered-hidden-beneath-cambodian-jungle
======
allisthemoist
_> LIDAR: An airborne laser scanner (ALS) is mounted to a helicopter skid pad.
Flying with pre-determined guidelines, including altitude, flight path and
airspeed, the ALS pulses the terrain with more than 16 laser beams per square
metre during flights. The time the laser pulse takes to return to the sensor
determines the elevation of each individual data point.
The data downloaded from the ALS is calibrated and creates a 3D model of the
information captured during the flights. In order to negate tree foliage and
manmade obstacles from the data, any sudden and radical changes in ground
height are mapped out, with technicians who have models of the terrain fine-
tuning the thresholds in processing these data points. Once completed, the
final 3D model is handed over to the archaeologists for analysis, which can
take months to process into maps._
It's so interesting that technology advancements must often precede discovery
and thus are part and parcel (imo) of the discovery process. The same can very
much also be said for medical and biological science - e.g., MRI and
associated analytic techniques.
~~~
Idontreddit
"Science and Technology in World History: An Introduction" (McClellan, Dorn)
lays out an interest overview of how technology led science throughout world
history.
We naively think that science leads technology, but for much of history, it
was technology that led science/understanding. The telescope led astronomy and
the microscope led germ biology.
~~~
state
Also:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technics_and_Civilization](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technics_and_Civilization)
------
f_allwein
Angkor is a fascinating place and well worth a visit - dozens of beautiful
temples, most of which were hidden by the jungle until the 19th century.
Angkor Wat, the biggest one, is particularly impressive. Very good place to
appreciate that empires come and go.
While it was known that Angkor was the capital of a vast empire around the
12th century, the news here is that large parts of that empire may now be
rediscovered.
------
dankohn1
Amazing story. Here's a shot of me and my wife next to that moss-covered
elephant on Mount Kulen from 2004.
[https://www.dropbox.com/s/r4ebityp95a8ppm/PICT0481.jpg?dl=0](https://www.dropbox.com/s/r4ebityp95a8ppm/PICT0481.jpg?dl=0)
To get there, we rode through the jungle on the backs of motorbikes driven by
former Khmer Rouge soldiers. When my driver told our guide that I was
squeezing him too hard, I apologized profusely, even though I was afraid I
would fall off.
Incredible to think that there's a whole city underneath, although not
surprising given the post-apocalyptic feel to wondering through these ruins in
the jungle.
------
fovc
This is fascinating. I wonder if it will accelerate the pace of restoration of
temples in the area. When I visited, there were many temple complexes
completely overrun with vegetation -- to the point where they filmed Indiana
Jones there!
~~~
aaron695
The beauty of the jungle is kinda the point.
Not hard to poison a tree ;)
It's on purpose.
~~~
fovc
I think the point is better understanding the history of Khmer civilization
------
trextrex
Fascinating! This has been a month of big archaeological discoveries.
There was also a similar recent discovery [1] in India of a large urban
settlement that existed around the same time as the Indus Valley Civilization
[1] [http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/madurai/Harappa-
like...](http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/madurai/Harappa-like-site-
surfaces-in-Tamil-Nadu/articleshow/52495353.cms)
------
ProfChronos
Given the curse of the area, I'm kind of afraid by the discovery: place got
partly destroyed by the Khmer Rouges, then robbed by my fellow French and is
now under tight management by the Chinese. I really hope this will benefit
Cambodians
~~~
tim333
>under tight management by the Chinese ?
I didn't see much Chinese influence when I was there and it's hundreds of
miles from China.
~~~
rveeblefetzer
The general complaint is that Cambodia is under Vietnamese influence, mostly
stemming from its backing of and leading the defectors who overthrew the Khmer
Rouge. People today complain that the top govt officials are still Vietnamese,
whether by backing or by blood, as well as many of the richest tycoons; the
primary deputy prime minister (there's plenty) Sok An is often called a slave
to Vietnam, and he's in charge of the Apsara Authority, which manages the
Angkor complex; Sok Kong (unrelated), is one of Cambodia's richest men and ran
the conglomerate that held ticketing rights to Angkor for decades; he is
ethnically part Vietnamese, and because Angkor's tourism revenue was suspected
to be too low, complaints about the national landmark being sold off to
Vietnam were so huge that it factored in the last general election. An age-old
cultural hatred is at play here, which itself comes from old empire stuff.
------
PieterH
Largest empire in the world in 1200? That seems... implausible.
~~~
technosmurf
The agricultural systems around the big temple complexes suggest that over a
million people lived in the area.
[http://ki-media.blogspot.com/2007/08/metropolis-angkor-world...](http://ki-
media.blogspot.com/2007/08/metropolis-angkor-worlds-first-mega.html)
------
cmarschner
Why am I expecting a comment on HN is like "This is not a surprise at all! I
have been using the shadows of the temples in the last three years to work on
my startup..."...
------
phkahler
>> The findings are expected to challenge theories on how the Khmer empire
developed, dominated the region, and declined around the 15th century, and the
role of climate change and water management in that process.
Wait, climate change in the 15th century? ;-)
~~~
sremani
[From Wikipedia Article of Khmer Empire] In addition, the input of Buddhist
ideas conflicted and disturbed the state order built under the predominate
Hinduism.[END]
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Hulu now longer claims to be "sold out" of online ad inventory - pakafka
http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20081216/hulu-has-fewer-eyeballs-advertisers/
======
jm4
I'm so tired of users who routinely submit links to every single article they
write- whether on topic or not- in order to generate ad revenue. Yesterday
this user posted a link to some lame article about a cop punching a guy in the
face. How about submitting a couple of your favorites that actually might be
relevant here? If we like your stuff maybe we'll subscribe to your RSS feed or
something. We don't need this site junked up with submissions of every single
article from whatever sites a hundred different users are trying to plug.
~~~
pakafka
"How about submitting a couple of your favorites that actually might be
relevant here? " That's what I'm trying to do - and I'm pretty sure that's
most of the publishers/writers/bloggers who post here are trying to do. If
were submitting everything we posted, there would be many, many more
submissions. In any case, sometimes the HN folks like the stuff I submit, and
sometimes they don't. I think that works pretty well, no?
------
AndrewWarner
I've seen filler ads from Ad Council on Hulu for months. There's no way that
they've been sold out.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Consumers - zabbyz
http://founderdating.com/its-so-hard-to-say-goodbye-to-consumers/
======
zabbyz
Great post Noah. Making a pivot is such a hard decision...Anyone else have any
experience with this? I'd be interested to hear more about making the decision
to pivot (or making the decision not to).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Project Longshot: 100 Year probe mission to Alpha Centauri - sown
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Longshot
======
rtf
My favorite Wikipedia article(and also a space-related article) is "Ultimate
fate of the universe":
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimate_fate_of_the_universe>
It's the dramatic title that does it for me.
------
vaksel
sounds like a waste of money...look how far we went with the automobile in 100
years...is innovation that dead? Will we not have any improvements to our
space program in the next 100 years? I sure hope we do, because in the next
100 years the population problem will be huge
~~~
streety
How far has the automobile industry advanced in the last 100 years? Four
wheels, petrol engine. Personally I'm still waiting for my flying car.
Of course that could be slightly harsh. The land speed record has been broken
again and again in that time period. That brings up an interesting point. Only
one of those attempts set out to break the speed of sound, all the rest set
out to beat the last guy.
We need targets to aim for and any project which aims to pass the incumbent
leader in 10 years will be a lot more politically valuable than a project
which will reach Alpha Centauri in 50 years. Even if they are the same
project.
Having said that this discussion is entirely academic. The proposal was made
in 1988 and not followed up. Today, we're just aiming for the Moon.
p.s. Good luck solving whatever population problem there may be via space. I
wouldn't like to try shipping a billion people 100 miles. Moving them to
another world would need more than improvements to the space program. It would
need the space program to be made irrelevant.
~~~
vaksel
Well a few things:
a) We now have dozens of different forms of propulsion(gas, ethanol, biofuel,
CNG, electricity, hydrogen etc) b) We now have FWD, AWD, RWD c) We now have
cars that have 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 16 cylinders d) We now have cars that
come naturally aspirated, turboed, supercharged, twin turboed, twin
supercharged ,quad turboed. e) We now have cars that can take a hit at 100
mph, and you'll survive f) We now have cars that can do a 0 to 100 in just a
couple of seconds. g) We have cars that will adjust the suspension based on a
hairline crack in the road. h) We now have cars, that can go up a 89 degree
slope, in the snow(Audi/Subaru AWD systems) i) And of course our cars now come
better equipped than CEO offices from when they first came out.
But yes space program needs to make space a commodity. Where you can walk to
your roof, get in your personal space ship and go pickup your buddy on Sirius
3 to go that hot new restaurant on Mars.
And it could probably be done, just 100 years ago cars were a thing for the
richest of the rich. Now everyone has one.
~~~
sown
I dunno.
Cars still travel more or less the same speed for the purpose of personal
transport, etc. Getting to Alpha Centauri is going to take a fundamental
change in space travel technology.
Also, a) we had diesel/electric/gas motors a century ago, b) would you believe
that we had FWD/AWD a century ago? We did! c) we've always had engines with
insane number of cylinders d) i'll admit turbos are newer -- 1930's planes
first used them e) i still don't want to be in them and they're not foolproof
as we as having different engineering goals than a normal car. g) no comment.
:) h) so could the original jeep (GP) i) have you seen the inside of a chevy
recently?
Our current space travel tech needs a couple of orders of magnitude in
improvement before we can just travel to distant stars at will. Your examples
are incremental improvements to practical problems. In the mean time, I say we
send a probe! :)
------
Anon84
It would probably return as V'ger and try to destroy the Earth when it
realized that nobody was able to recognize its primitive protocols.
~~~
altano
Or L'shot in this case
------
iamah
100 years, man I feel so vain
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Sent $35,104.11 USD to CoinBase. Never received Bitcoins - mgrunin
This story dates back to December 8th when I initiated an ACH transfer with CoinBase.com for a total sum of $35,104.11. On that very same day, the system informed me that I would be credited with the bitcoins come December 13th.<p>December 13th came by and it was this past Friday. No coins ever came in, the only thing CoinBase did was lock in a price for me @ $868.91. Again, they locked in a price and didn't give me coins on the day they told me they would deliver the coins.Ever since the 13th, my transaction page has been showing the following:<p>http://i.imgur.com/R2qEn8E.png<p>As you can tell, the funds cleared their end on the 11th. BUT... it still says pending for crediting the coins.<p>This is how the history page looks like:<p>http://i.imgur.com/BQ4fUwZ.png<p>Just take a look at that...it actually says that the transaction has been completed here.<p>Let us now look at the email conversation:<p>http://i.imgur.com/6SQht98.png<p>http://i.imgur.com/eNlIS0V.png<p>I gave their team eight hours to get back to me and settle the issue. They have now missed that deadline so I am taking this matter a bit public. Further avoidance by them will lead me to make a few calls to news stations. I have the right contacts to easily put myself in the media.<p>Now the real dilemma for me here is the fact that while CoinBase.com has locked in a price for me, because they have failed to deliver I cannot sell my coins at any rate. Bitcoins could drop down to $200, and only then might they deliver the coins. The issue at that point is that I would be down a crazy percent already. If they had delivered the coins on the 13th as they had initially promised to, there would not be this issue.<p>Give me a break, the company just secured $25m in VC and this is how they are treating their clientele.<p>
======
barmstrong
Brian from Coinbase here. Sorry for the delay on that - definitely not the
customer experience we are striving for.
We should have things squared away for you by end of day.
Edit: your bitcoin credit has now been processed. It looks like as we were
performing server upgrades last week a handful of jobs didn't run as normal.
We should have certainly caught it and responded sooner so that was our fault.
My deepest apologies for the delay and trouble on that. We've credited $50
worth of bitcoin to your account for the trouble, as a small way of saying
thank you for bearing with us.
Edit2: we'll push through the bitcoin credit at today's price instead of the
original buy price (which should be in your favor) since the mistake was on
our part. Sorry again for the trouble!
~~~
seldo
Forget the difference in the exchange rates. Are you saying _you have no
system in place to monitor if transactions execute successfully_? I'm not
trying to be hyperbolic but that's really shocking for a company that is
trying to play a role as a financial institution.
~~~
slg
>that's really shocking for a company that is trying to play a role as a
financial institution.
That is probably the scariest part about the current Bitcoin community. Many
of the big names are simply "playing a role". We have no idea of their
technical expertise, the viability of their software, their USD/Bitcoin
reserves, how they plan to address disputes like this, or even whether they
are skimming of the top.
~~~
seldo
I mean, MtGox stands for "Magic The Gathering Online Exchange". They were
literally set up to sell trading cards. The whole "being the biggest bank in a
new $6bn+ economy" is a pivot. The whole system is crazy. But even by those
standards, taking 35 grand and _not noticing_ you didn't give them what they
paid for stands out.
~~~
nikatwork
Aww, you guys are so cute. You think banks have this stuff under control?
Auditors will "find" hundreds of millions of dollars of missing assets on the
regs.
Many banks are powered by duct tape and loose Excel spreadsheets. That's why
things like Basel exist.
~~~
srdev
Worked at a bank. They have better processes than this. Not gonna say they're
perfect, but they can handle balancing their books and not dropping
transactions. They certainly don't use a non-ACID PoS like Mongo.
Excel was over-used in many places, but was not used for day to day
transactions and operations.
Yet again, bitcoin apologists inaccurately claim (lie) that banks are actually
worse to excuse failings by "their" services.
~~~
remon
Worked at a bank as what? Working at a bank clearly doesn't make someone an
expert on their IT infrastructure. The actual financial transaction
infrastructure isn't ACID.
~~~
srdev
As a software developer on corporate credit card applications, dealing with
managing transactions, accounts, and restrictions. Our infrastructure was
ACID. We certainly wouldn't have used experimental, flaky datastores like
Mongo, and shit was not processed using Excel.
No-one is an expert on every part of a bank's infrastructure -- its too big
for that. But definitely, we had software requirements, as a matter of IT
policy, that kept stuff like MongoDB out of production.
~~~
remon
Yeah, so, you don't work on financial infrastructure. That stuff is almost
exclusively eventually consistent. And I wasn't arguing that you should use
MongoDB or anything else instead. Merely that claims that ACID is the holy
grail of financial software is a myth propagated by people that do not know
how international financial traffic works.
------
justin66
> Further avoidance by them will lead me to make a few calls to news stations.
Eek. The best case scenario is that you'll get a news blurb on local TV where
you're portrayed as a sucker. "Weird online currency thing does weird stuff in
the way you'd expect weird online currency thing to do, and look at this
greedy rube who got sucked in and lost it all! Film at 11."
~~~
seobeaver
Clearly you don't know who mGrunin is. I'd do a little research before making
comments like the one above.
~~~
xauronx
This guy?
[http://instagram.com/p/h_z7OEkWEs/](http://instagram.com/p/h_z7OEkWEs/)
I mean, I don't know who he is but I generally wouldn't fuck with someone who
has $35k to drop on pretend money. Anyhow, main stream news can be foolish,
regardless of who the subject is.
~~~
seiji
His linkedin page sends us to this awesome article too:
[http://sfctoday.com/news/1025-sfc-senior-already-a-
financial...](http://sfctoday.com/news/1025-sfc-senior-already-a-financial-
trader.html)
Edit: Oh gawd, at the end he actually says "you only live once."
Edit2: "Money drives me completely ... I've gotten so used just being able to
go anywhere without looking at any price tags ..."
Let's go ahead and [dead] this thread. Forget it ever happened. (or make a
movie out of it)
~~~
anigbrowl
Pop culture history in the making, indeed.
ಠ_ರೃ
------
PeterisP
To all of you who say that Bitcoin shouldn't be regulated - this is what it
results in.
If it was any regulated financial deal - say, purchase of stock or Yen - then
there are clear rules on how to handle that, namely, you'd be entitled to at
least compensation for any decrease between the 'locked' price at the agreed
settlement date and the real settlement, whenever it may happen, and the
interest for the period. Repeated such situations would result in a rapid
audit to verify if they really have enough assets to pay out all their debts,
and if not, shut them down immediately.
Now you're quite screwed, while coinbase has taken a profit on this (and
probably other) deals by delaying these settlements. And what are you going to
do if you don't get all the losses covered? Your options are quite limited.
~~~
jonpaul
No way. Regulation won't solve these sort of things. It will just make the
barrier to entry that much higher. Now people have a voice more so than ever
before. If companies don't act appropriately, people can post stories and
complaints online. The companies reputation will then suffer. This is exactly
what's happening here.
~~~
PeterisP
We've had some recent bitcoin companies simply shutting down/running away
while taking the customers' stored funds. Sure, they lost reputation - was
that any help to the depositors?
And from history of 'classic' banking we know very well that the 'lost
reputation' doesn't work - we've tried that all over the world in the earlier
times, it resulted in people creating new 'fresh clean reputation' companies
one after another and sucessfully repeating such things over and over.
Raising the barrier of entry is the whole point - if you're unable to meet
your agreements, you should be kept far, far away from that business
permanently.
~~~
jonpaul
Tell me how regulation stopped Enron. Tell me how regulation stopped the 2008
financial crisis with the housing bubble. These all happened in traditional
markets.
You're right that some Bitcoin companies have screwed their users. Consumers
need to educate themselves on who they're doing business with. A lot of these
Bitcoin companies operated anonymously without impunity. Coinbase is an
entirely different case. They are a US based company with VC backing. You know
who you are conducting business with.
If you as a consumer want to purchase something from a company that isn't
transparent, you don't know where their located, and don't know who's behind
the operation, it doesn't matter whether you send bitcoins or your credit card
number. It's still stupid. Common sense must prevail somewhere.
~~~
hbags
And laws against theft don't prevent all theft so theft should be legal.
I will never, in my life, understand why so many Libertarians take the
argument that if some criminal might engage in a crime, then everyone should
be allowed to do that same thing. It's the stupidest argument possible, yet
you all parrot it unquestioningly. It blows my mind.
~~~
jonpaul
Wow. I encourage you to study logical fallacies. In particular:
[https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/strawman](https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/strawman)
I never held the position that you stated.
~~~
hbags
Wow. I encourage you to study written English communication.
Your writing clearly implied that regulation is useless because sometimes
criminals evade regulation. If you were capable of understanding how
communication works, you'd admit this.
Further, I encourage you to learn how not to be a jerk. because you are one,
and it undermines any value that you might have, by ensuring that no sane
person (who disagrees with you on you on any point) will ever want to have a
discussion with you. That said, I can see where an ignorant jerk like yourself
might consider it a feature that only people who agree with you completely are
capable of having a conversation with you.
~~~
jonpaul
I'm sorry. Please accept my apology as that wasn't my intent. As a student of
both writing and communication, I subscribe to the belief of that a person
should write not to be understood, but to not be misunderstood. Clearly I've
failed at that.
My point was that I don't think that regulation is the answer. I honed in on
the idea that regulation has failed in the past (I have more research to do
here) and thus, maybe alternatives should be considered. I wasn't trying to
imply that because laws don't prevent criminals, that we should not have laws.
Obviously, that's ludicrous. It's ludicrous because regulation != laws, or the
principle of having laws. I think we can safely say that regulation may be an
implementation of a law, or a specific law. Much like pizza is food, but not
all food is pizza. Follow me so far? So, philosophically, if we have a bad set
of laws, I wasn't suggesting that we throw out all laws, I was suggesting that
we look for alternatives to the bad set of laws. To bring it home a bit more
to other areas in modern society, it'd be like if I said that I think the war
on drugs is failure, "tell me how the war on drugs has helped stopped drug
abusers and criminals" and then you were to respond with your same response of
"And laws against theft don't prevent all theft so theft should be legal."
when that clearly wasn't my position.
Does this clear up my position a bit? Anyways, sorry I came off as a jerk.
------
sheetjs
From their terms of service:
> Coinbase does not guarantee the value of bitcoin. You acknowledge that the
> price or value of bitcoin can change rapidly, decrease, and potentially even
> fall to zero. You acknowledge that holding bitcoin is high risk. You agree
> to deliver the agreed upon payment for bitcoin upon confirmation of an
> order, regardless of changes in bitcoin value.
> Coinbase will make reasonable efforts to ensure that requests for electronic
> debits and credits involving bank accounts, credit cards, and check
> issuances are processed in a timely manner but Coinbase makes no
> representations or warranties regarding the amount of time needed to
> complete processing because Coinbase services are dependent upon many
> factors outside of our control, such as delays in the banking system or the
> U.S. or international mail service.
It's possible that Coinbase is experiencing delays, and their terms of service
give them a clear escape path. It sucks that they are holding onto your money,
but consider this a learning experience: always start small, make sure
everything smells right, and then scale up. If they were holding onto 35.10
rather than 35.10K, I suspect you would react differently
~~~
fleitz
Fuck their shitty TOS, call the SEC and have them investigate, they need to
comply with the law.
They are acting as financial services provider and must be in compliance with
those laws.
The law gives the OP a clear resolution.
There's a pretty clear resolution here, give the customer back their money
because your business doesn't actually work, or give the customer the coins at
the most favorable price.
~~~
sheetjs
BTC exchanges aren't regulated in the same way as stock exchanges. Coinbase
isn't a BD AFAICT, so they don't have the same type of fiduciary
responsibilities. They also aren't registered as a bank or as a NY private
bank, so they aren't subject to FDIC or other banking regulations.
They are much closer to ebay than to IB
~~~
fleitz
If you get it in front of a judge miraculous things can happen, if a judge
finds as a matter of fact that they are an exchange than suddenly their more
like IB than eBay. By guaranteeing a price they are acting as a counterparty
to the transaction.
That's the whole point of this, CoinBase doesn't want to be like IB so they
should refund the customer his money rather than acting like a fraudulent IB.
There are plenty of more serious operations like
[http://bitcoincapitalpartners.com](http://bitcoincapitalpartners.com) that
take client money seriously.
------
tga
For anyone considering using Coinbase or similar services where you have to
pay via bank transfer -- think twice and take this as a serious warning that
you have almost no protection if they screw you/up somehow.
I have a problem with Coinbase for a much smaller sum (luckily): ordered at
what I was convinced was a fixed price and just received less BTC at a much
higher rate. Their customer support refuses to help (or even to cancel the
transaction) and banks just don't get involved in direct transfers on your
side, the way they would do on a credit card transaction.
Short of going to the police and lamenting on forums (hello!), there is
nothing you can do.
~~~
gaadd33
Why can't you file a small claims lawsuit? It should cost you about $50 and a
few hours of your time.
~~~
sequoia
"a few hours" lol. Also, where? Summon whom to court? If I were coinbase I'd
simply ignore such a suit.
~~~
gaadd33
If its not enough money to spend a few hours on, then I'm not sure its enough
money to complain about either.
Where? Wherever you are, assuming in the US? I'm sure they could motion for
dismissal under their TOS but at that point they will have probably taken note
and fixed your issue.
Summon whom? You file suit against the corporate entity, this is how most
lawsuits against corporations work. They get a notice and its up to them to
either show up or not.
So if they ignore it and you get a default judgement, you can then use the
judgement to collect from their bank since I doubt they are structured to hide
money across international lines. Or you can just sell the judgement to a
collections agency and let them deal with collecting it. Either way, if they
ignore it you will likely get your money back. (Again this all assumes both
you and Coinbase are in the US, if either of those isn't true then its
possible for them to ignore it and have no issues)
------
chollida1
Here is the problem with coinbases tactics.
Consider buying $1,000 worth of bitcoins...
Coinbase can tell you your price.
Coinbase can then just wait, and wait and wait, weeks on end for the price to
dip down. They can then buy the coins at the lower price and deliver them to
you voila, they profit from you. This is very dubious.
If the price goes up they then buy at your price + some percent of their
commission so they don't lose money, either way.
~~~
infinitone
Yeah but what if you decide to withdraw while they are waiting for the price
to dip?
~~~
sequoia
You can't because your coins aren't "available." I've only used coinbase once
and haven't done more than buy btc, but it did take several days for the coins
to become available (presumably for bank transfer to clear), during which time
the price dropped by about $100/btc. I'm not mad about this- it was clear at
time of purchase that I'd have to wait for transaction to clear, but >3 days
would have upset me.
------
buss
They've had some problems recently. I'm now at day 12 waiting for an "instant
buy" to clear. The ACH transfer cleared over a week ago but I still don't have
my coins. (Support #67989 for anybody at coinbase)
It's weird, I performed several small buys in a row just in case this exact
thing happened. I got 5/6 purchases but this one is stuck in some weird state.
I really like coinbase; they're just having some trouble handling the huge
increase in volume recently.
~~~
buss
And all it took was a single comment on HN to get it resolved. Thanks!
~~~
alttab
You are really thanking them for that?
------
nathas
I hate to be that guy, but Coinbase is pretty clear that you'll get your coins
_eventually_.
If I were doing thousands in transfers, I'd absolutely be using an exchange.
They're also a small start up, funding or not.
Their support team has always come through and usually eats the cost
difference if it was a bump on their end. I'd just wait it out.
~~~
d23
Can you explain the difference between Coinbase and an exchange? I'm afraid
now that an order I put in could be futzed up.
~~~
nathas
Sure. Coinbase, as far as I know, sources its coins from the exchanges (Mt
Gox, Bitstamp, btc-e, etc). I could be wrong about this.
Coinbase acts as a nice middleman where you can securely link your bank
account, and for this convenience Coinbase charges you a higher fee than the
exchanges. They procure your coins, handle the financial leg work, and
suddenly you have access to bitcoins.
I wouldn't worry about it. I've used both quite a bit. It was a huge pain in
the ass to gain access to Mt Gox. Coinbase is just better imo. The support
team always comes through for any problems.
------
margaux
Not to shamelessly self promote, but the best way to buy/sell large amounts of
BTC is directly, without going through an exchange/retail site. It is faster,
cheaper and definitely a better customer experience. I've worked at two
bitcoin exchanges so I know from experience. Now I am arranging private deals
between a buyer and a seller. Here is the plug now though
www.BitcoinCapitalPartners.com
~~~
ciupicri
How can I be sure that the other person won't run away with my money?
~~~
margaux
I use a btc escrow for non trusted sellers
------
mgrunin
The situation has been appropriately resolved by CoinBase. I would like to
thank Brian for making this right. It is unfortunate that this situation had
to be dealt with in the public light, but this was my last resource before
contacting lawyers.
I will answer other comments later tonight.
Thank you HackerNews.
\- Martin
------
baddox
> Now the real dilemma for me here is the fact that while CoinBase.com has
> locked in a price for me, because they have failed to deliver I cannot sell
> my coins at any rate. Bitcoins could drop down to $200, and only then might
> they deliver the coins.
It's scary that they can literally guarantee constant wins for themselves by
choosing how long to delay the delivery of Bitcoins to customers.
~~~
msand0621
I don't think they're maliciously delaying the delivery of bitcoins. I just
think they need to hire more customer support reps to deal with problems like
these in a timely manner when they arise.
~~~
WoodenChair
Do you really believe these systems are so non-automated? Of course the price
swings must have something to do with their delays!
~~~
bushido
Actually if there was a delay alone this would not really be illegal and could
be forgiven.
If you look at:
[http://i.imgur.com/R2qEn8E.png](http://i.imgur.com/R2qEn8E.png)
They clearly quoted a transaction price for the BTC conversion. This price
should be calculated as:
=> (rate at which the bitcoin have Already been purchased) + (costs incurred
by coinbase) + (fees owed from client)
The rate Can Not under any circumstance be quoted unless the transaction has
already been executed.
If the trade(s) were not executed, Coinbase broke laws that they are governed
by regardless if bitcoin is regulated or not.
If the trade(s) were executed, Coinbase still broke laws(albeit different
ones) that they are governed by regardless if bitcoin is regulated or not.
------
sard420
I'll say this again about coinbase, I'm convinced they are playing the market
on peoples investment. I bought when bitcoin was starting to rocket, they tied
my money up for weeks, bitcoin doubles in that time. Then after that I get a
sorry letter and my money back. What was my money doing in that time? Probably
making them money.
~~~
powertower
Something tells me if the price went the other way (in coinbase's favor), the
situation would have not ended with refunded money.
------
Moral_
I feel bad for you, honestly. But serious question as well: Would you have
went public with this if the price hadn't fallen dramatically? Perhaps if it
went back up to $1500 a coin would things be different? Either way I hope
things get resolved for you.
~~~
makomk
If the price went back up to $1500 a coin, Coinbase would cancel his
transaction whether he wanted them to or not despite the supposed price lockin
(and return his dollars in their own sweet time). Their usual justification is
"excessive risk".
~~~
Istof
They also have an history of halting Bitcoin sales when it's value drops too
much.
------
agib
I also have some very strange behavior going on in my account:
[https://twitter.com/agibralter/status/411685377015947264](https://twitter.com/agibralter/status/411685377015947264)
Basically they're showing a transaction of selling BTC that I never made or
authorized. Also, it's showing up in my transaction list but not in my
history...
They said they're looking into it, but I haven't heard back in days.
~~~
agib
Update: I just logged in and saw the coins returned to me as a new, separate
transaction. Very strange. Still no word from customer service.
------
seanalltogether
HN is really getting overloaded with bitcoin noise the past couple weeks.
Honestly this just doesn't feel like the right venue for advice and support
about this stuff.
------
GarrettBeck
This is the same situation as Facebook's IPO with NASDAQ. Orders were placed
$40, then cancelled, then filled at $40 six hours after the market closed (at
which point Facebook was already trading below its IPO price).
Unless you are a massive financial institution with some serious clout/legal
department, I recommend you cut your losses and move on.
Your time is much more valuable spent doing something else rather than the
time you will spend trying to recover $X,XXX
~~~
ajju
Not sure if this is sarcasm, but $35,000+ is a HUGE sum of money for even the
decamillionaires I know.
~~~
GarrettBeck
$35,000 is a huge sum of money. I'm suggesting he sell the 40 or so bitcoin he
purchased immediately at market price (~$550), cut his loses and move on. By
doing so he would limit the damage and would only lose ~$12,700. Bitcoin will
continue to fall and he will continue to lose money.
He won't get his money back from CoinBase and he is losing money every second
he holds his bitcoin.
Losing money sucks. It happens to everyone who invests, gambles or takes a
risk. Take your medicine, learn for your mistakes and be better tomorrow.
~~~
GarrettBeck
$549...
~~~
ffrryuu
Bitcoin's been extremely bouncy, there is a chance that it could re-test
resistance at around 700-800, or it could retest support at $300 short term.
------
zt
ACH transactions are reversible FWIW.
~~~
mgrunin
Yes, I am aware of that. I told them in my last email that I will be reversing
my ACH if they continue to ignore me.
~~~
dusing
you should just get it reversed as soon as possible. Combined with the fall of
BTC you are lucky to have a "out".
Also once you threaten the reversal there isn't much reason for them to work
with you. What if they give you BTC tomorrow and you reversed the ACH already.
~~~
yapcguy
Second this. Get your money back, live to fight another day. Why ask for
delivery and suffer a loss?
------
7Figures2Commas
Welcome to counterparty risk, Bitcoin style.
~~~
codegeek
shouldn't it be more like Market Risk ?
~~~
7Figures2Commas
In this case, the counterparty to the transaction appears unable to meet its
obligations, at least according to the OP. That's counterparty risk.
~~~
codegeek
But the ACH is completely reversible. So not really a risk specially
considering that price has fallen :).
~~~
7Figures2Commas
There are rules that govern ACH reversals. My understanding is that reversals
are permitted in cases where the amount transferred was incorrect or the
transfer was not authorized.
As another poster on this thread noted, Coinbase's terms of service appears to
give them great flexibility in processing transactions. The OP, on the other
hand, seems to have the understanding that Coinbase was obligated to complete
his transaction within a very specific period of time.
This is a dispute between two parties to a transaction. One is arguing that
his counterparty failed to meet its obligations; it appears the other has the
ability to argue that under its terms of service those supposed obligations
never existed. Given the amount of money involved, either party might be
motivated to resolve this matter through legal action.
Again, this is all an inherent part of the wonderful world of counterparty
risk.
------
scrame
I bought 1 a few weeks ago. I got a notice last week that they rejected it and
would be returning my money. They have still not returned my money, and their
customer service emails just return an automated "we are looking into it",
with no follow-up.
It seems like they take orders as long as they make money (a friend ordering
the day before took a loss and they accepted his payment no problem). Looking
around their forums, the arbitrary rejections seem very common and make the
company seem quite scammy.
------
tylerlh
FWIW, I made a small transaction with Coinbase not long ago and while they
"guaranteed" the coins would be in my account by a certain date, they didn't
actually deposit them until 2-3 days after that. Struck me as pretty odd.
Hope your situation gets settled quickly.
------
keeran
If you search for 'coinbase' on
[https://bitcointalk.org/](https://bitcointalk.org/) you get a sea of people
complaining about the same or similar issues - stay well clear.
------
jbverschoor
Tbh... I would still reverse it. I refuse to do business anymore with
companies that do not respond.
------
drcode
HN is now a coinbase support forum?
Why would you put that much money into a service that isn't a true bitcoin
exchange? Do you realize they're an extra middleman that is likely to add more
delays to any transaction?
If you look at reddit.com/r/coinbase you'd know this sort of thing is a common
occurrence with coinbase- Why are you surprised this is happening? Seems like
they have a history of this sort of thing that should have warned you of the
risks you were taking. Why give them your business if they're known to do this
type of thing?
If people keep supporting businesses that act in a manner they're not happy
with then what is the incentive for anyone to create a better alternative?
~~~
justincormack
All HN posts are now about bitcoin, so yeah I guess its a support forum now.
Its quite hilarious that people are prepared to throw that much money away,
but hey.
------
ffrryuu
I got some Tulips you can buy to make up your loss on.
------
bsiddiqui
Coinbase customer service sucks - I rarely get a response, given I've never
been this screwed over
------
kjackson2012
Do an ACH chargeback as quickly as possible, don't be an idiot and wait for a
response, otherwise you may miss your opportunity to walk away without losing
$10k.
------
yeahwhateverbro
So Coinbase put me in a similar situation but they haven't bothered to respond
to any of my emails thus far. Is this where I contact Coinbase customer
support?
~~~
midas007
[email protected] :)
------
issdispatch
I am really confused and frustrated. I sent my first ever BUY through
Coinbase. I got my checking all set up. Made my purchase on 12-16-2013(an
earth shattering .12 coins $100 bucks) No biggie. On 12-17-2013 the US funds
left my bank account and off to coinbase. Alas... All I need to do is wait now
until the 20th to spend my now 30 dollar loss due to market. Well here it is.
The 20th of December somewhere in the world so I go to look at my account and
there are no coins. Further inspection of this I find my transaction was
canceled. No explanation. Just a big red canceled. Wheres my money now? I
really want to be an advocate and intend to move WAY more than $100.00 into
the bitcoin market place but seriously? Just a hundred dollar transaction that
made one of their customers slightly irritated? Im glad I DIDN'T trust them
with serious cash like the originator of this post! Come on... GUYS! Don't
take the fun out of all this! Figure it out! (Because if its not fun... It
certainly wont be VIABLE!)
------
kolev
I've had poor experiences with Coinbase as well, hit major bugs, which cost me
hundreds. The only reason people use them is that they are the only choice at
the moment. Can't wait for more alternatives such as Circle to launch! In
cases like this , regulation and compliance don't sound like something
negative!
~~~
cromulent
> The only reason people use them is that they are the only choice at the
> moment
Has anyone tried Kraken.com ?
Registered there, but no transactions yet. Serious question.
~~~
mrud
Yes, I personally like them. I don't have much money with them but it works.
The only minor problems are the verification time and the API rate-limits.
They don't publish the rate-limits. :/
------
fnordfnordfnord
This was posted to imgur a few hours ago. I have no idea of its authenticity,
but hopefully they're just really busy, and will do the right things. Good
luck.
"Coinbase being a bro - saved me $400"
[http://imgur.com/r/Bitcoin/E52ILfD](http://imgur.com/r/Bitcoin/E52ILfD)
------
heavymark
I'd go straight to anyone and anyone who will listen. Companies don't escalate
until they need to. HackerNews is big for us technies but you need to blow up
their twitter,facebook, retweets daily as every day your going to lose value
as bitcoin continues to drop with the news about china.
------
coinhoarder
I'm in the same exact situation, except for the amount of BTC (I purchased
10BTC). The ACH was cleared on Friday Dec 11th and the message read "Your
bitcoin will arrive by the end of day on Friday Dec 13, 2013.". The actual
coins didn't show up until mid-day Dec 18th, 5 days later and $400 below the
Friday's levels. Can I have my purchase price adjusted as well? Or Coinbase
have some sort of a preferential treatment program? My Case # is 73898.
------
WoodenChair
Apparently mgrunin's website was also hacked. Not his week.
------
yeukhon
Leaking the last four digit of your bank account can be dangerous.
[http://www.nbcnews.com/id/44231957/#.UrKovi95F7M](http://www.nbcnews.com/id/44231957/#.UrKovi95F7M)
Though old news god wonders what other services still do this.
We know your name is Martian and if we spend enough time we might be able to
identity your true identity and possible to start trying things.
If you want to hide your identity, you probably should just use something more
distinct.
Just saying.
------
bachback
If you have serious money to transfer into BTC, this is not the way to go.
Coinbase essentially is an intermediary, not a wallet. The whole point of
Bitcoin is to get of intermediaries as are inefficient and make profits along
the way. Bitcoin will solve this, it will just a take a couple of years. Btw,
online-wallets neglect the working of the algorithm at some point. The system
depends at the moment depends that people know what they are doing.
------
AH4oFVbPT4f8
Did you have prior experience with CoinBase and buying bitcoins from them?
If not, why didn't you start with 1k to make sure the transaction went
smoothly before sending over 35k?
~~~
mgrunin
I have purchased from them before, to a tune of $18k over several different
transactions.
------
sergiotapia
His website is hacked by some terrorists:
[http://www.winningportfolio.com/](http://www.winningportfolio.com/)
------
C1D
I get you're angry about the bad customer service but dude, you need to get
off your high horse and realise you're not that special. I don't know who you
are and don't care and googling you name doesn't come up with anything
special. Get over your self, unless you're a real celebrity no one will care,
even if your story made it on to tv (which I highly doubt).
~~~
ceejayoz
Why do you have to be special to get customer service?
~~~
shortstuffsushi
I wouldn't say you need to be special to receive it, but resorting to
threatening to expose them to the media seems desperate and childish.
------
rjbwork
Hey, do you know your website has been hacked?
------
sifarat
Now take my sincere advise, take a trip to Hawaii for couple of weeks. don't
sell them fast. Once you are back, you will either have another trip, or just
cash out successfully. end.
As for coinbase, _Well played Sir_ , this comes from a broker but in a
different field. every fucking pun intended.
------
camus2
Can we say coinbase is basically shorting bitcoin with its customer's money ?
(it's a question.)
------
thinkcomp
The official way to file a complaint is with the California Department of
Business Oversight, and the form is here:
[http://www.dbo.ca.gov/forms/tma/Form2120_English-
Spanish.pdf](http://www.dbo.ca.gov/forms/tma/Form2120_English-Spanish.pdf)
------
wintermute2013
mgrunin isn't alone.
I have been having severe issues with Coinbase recently. Attempted to sell a
small amount (less than 1) Bitcoin, and it has been nearly a month now -- no
money in my bank. According to their own customer support representative, the
transaction should take 2-7 business days. It has been more than double that.
I've inquired again as to what the heck is going on, but I'm still waiting for
a response. Unless they can get their act together and complete the
transaction soon, I don't know if I'd trust Coinbase with my money.
------
frodopwns
My first purchase with Coinbase took 7 full business days (not far off from
what you waited). Other than that my experience with Coinbase has been 100%
positive...extremely fast and reliable service.
------
miguelrochefort
> Further avoidance by them will lead me to make a few calls to news stations.
> I have the right contacts to easily put myself in the media.
Cringe.
------
arun_bansal
Since it has taken this long, I guess you would rather have the lock price
removed. It's around ~551.57 vs your original 868.91
~~~
mgrunin
Yes, and that is only because they didn't deliver the coins on the day they
locked in the price even though they said they would deliver then.
~~~
arun_bansal
I too had a sour experience with them, took more than 7 days to transfer coins
after transfer took place.
------
wil421
How could you get that amount of money back to dollars, if lets say the price
doubled and you wanted to sell?
Like back in my bank account dollars.
------
cehlen
Question for mgrunin. In your opinion did CoinBase make things right? If not,
why? If so then can well just drop this!
------
deutronium
Wow, what a disgraceful way to treat people. Certainly a company to steer
clear of then.
------
bsiddiqui
What're your non-Coinbase platforms for purchasing coins?
------
thaifighter
Crap. I was looking at Coinbase. Has this happened to others?
------
_nato_
Yikes! I really hope this gets resolved for you!
------
adizam
Well now I know not to use coinbase :)
------
wavefunction
Speculation is a risky endeavor.
~~~
dragonwriter
Yes, but the usual significant expected risk is in the market value of the
speculative commodity, not whether or not the broker ever bothers to execute
your order.
------
tyang
Bitcoin amateur hour continues.
------
logjam
So wonderful to watch this little drama (complete with breathless appeals to
get the news media involved) play out today on HN, which appears to have
become "Bitcoin News".
A match made in heaven, between this genius financial entrepreneur and this
competent, reliable trading platform, seems to at least sum up Bitcoin nicely,
if not the brainless economic philosophies underlying this horseshit.
~~~
ceol
_> HN, which appears to have become "Bitcoin News"._
Seriously, what's up with this? There are at least two Bitcoin articles on the
front page every day.
I had no idea Coinbase was funded by YC, though. I wonder if there's any
correlation.
------
yarou
This is why I can't take Bitcoin seriously. It's a liquidity depth issue. Much
like HFT, there is a _perception_ that the order book has depth. But there's
no guarantee that you'll get execution at the price displayed. At least market
makers in the past were forced to execute up to a certain amount by
regulation. No such regulation exists here.
------
justinzollars
ouch
------
melling
Those guys in finance don't make or sell anything. They're just greedy. Too
many of the smartest people go into it just to make money... Me on the other
hand, I'm gonna make a difference.
Where can I get me some of those Bitcoins!?
------
iblaine
The guy who bought these coins is a douche. The fact is bitcoins are highly
unstable and he bought them when the price was high(for this week). It is
doubtful he would have had the sense to sell them before todays drop. If he
really believes that bitcoins are a good investment, which I do, then he
should have faith that they will rise in value over time(months, years). It's
speculators like this that buy in when the price is high then immediately
complain about the volatility that give bitcoins a bad name.
~~~
ceejayoz
> It is doubtful he would have had the sense to sell them before todays drop.
Based on... what?
~~~
iblaine
My spidey sense. Plus he bought in at $950 for $25k. Either he's rich or a
gambler.
~~~
alttab
Or at least, temporarily one or the other.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Can Bird build a better scooter before it runs out of cash? - clairity
https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-bird-scooters-money-profit-strategy-20190505-story.html
======
siruncledrew
> _The apparent life span varied between models. The Xiaomi m365 — the
> consumer model with which Bird first launched — averaged 124 days on the
> street. The two Segway models, the ESB and ESX, diverged in their
> reliability: The simpler ESB averaged 155 days, while the ESX, ostensibly
> more advanced with a longer battery life and easier-to-service parts, lasted
> only 82 days on average. Bird Zeros averaged only 116 days._
That’s surprisingly bad these scooters can’t even last 6 months. I’m more
skeptical how environmentally friendly these scooter startups actually are if
battery-powered scooters are getting tossed (in some way) after such a short
service life.
Aside:
This reminded me of the Chinese bike sharing graveyard pictures:
[https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2018/03/bike-share-
oversup...](https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2018/03/bike-share-oversupply-
in-china-huge-piles-of-abandoned-and-broken-bicycles/556268/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Open letter to Microsoft on specs for obsolete file formats [2012] - yuhong
http://unsustainableideas.wordpress.com/2012/10/22/open-letter-ms-obsolete-formats/
======
yuhong
MS response:
[http://unsustainableideas.wordpress.com/2012/11/26/response-...](http://unsustainableideas.wordpress.com/2012/11/26/response-
open-letter-obsolete-ms-formats/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Apple Q2 2012: 35.1M iPhones, 11.8M iPads, 4M Macs, and 7.7M iPods - aaronbrethorst
http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/24/apple-q2-2012-35-1m-iphones-11-8m-ipads-4m-macs-and-7-7m-ipods/
======
spdy
They sold roughly 60M units of high margin products in one quarter. They are
printing money for years now. One of the quotes usually around this is "they
did not meet the expectations of analysts" and i really dislike it. Hopefully
someday we will move away from quarter performance.
~~~
calloc
Analysts were actually below what was posted this quarter. Next quarter looks
to be disappointing for analysts, they are aiming higher and Apple's guidance
is lower ...
~~~
huxley
Apple always low-balls their guidance and it is always well below most analyst
estimates, so nothing to go on there.
Even their "bad" quarter Q4 2011 had a guidance of $25 billion and $5.50
earnings per share with actual numbers of $28.27 billion and $7.03 a share
(which was up from $20.34 billion and $4.64 per share in Q4 2010).
------
ldayley
$6.5 million in PROFIT generated every hour. Mindblowing.
------
ralfd
To get this into perspective: <https://mobile.twitter.com/#!/asymco>
"The largest company grew earnings by 94%."
~~~
recoiledsnake
To get that into perspective, is that year-over-year or sequentially?
~~~
jimmyvanhalen
comparisons are always yoy. comparing the current quarter with the previous
quarter doesn't make sense due to seasonality (holiday season, summer, etc.).
------
Jabbles
[http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2012/04/24Apple-Reports-
Seco...](http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2012/04/24Apple-Reports-Second-
Quarter-Results.html)
------
icki
AAPL is up ~8% in after hours trading
------
ricardonunez
Is above $600 again and all of a sudden the panic disappeared.
------
calloc
94% growth Year-over-year. Any other company doing that well?
------
shpoonj
"Overall hardware sales decreased from its record previous quarter but with
the notable exception of the iPods: they’re up from the same quarter a year
ago." > "However, the iPod didn’t fare so well: Sales are down 15% over last
year’s quarter."
What?
~~~
shpoonj
Also...
"In that period Apple sold 37.04M iPhones, 15.43M iPads, and 5.2M Macs. Even
the iPad sold well with 15.4M units."
Being a journalist keeps getting easier...
~~~
silvestrov
So 3 iPads for every Mac. The average selling price of an iPad is ~$600 [1],
so if the average selling price of macs are less than $1800 (likely), _the
iPad is bigger in revenue than the Mac._
1: [http://www.ipadjailbreak.com/2012/01/ipad-average-selling-
pr...](http://www.ipadjailbreak.com/2012/01/ipad-average-selling-price.html)
------
recoiledsnake
Looks like they beat estimates on the iPhone(though still down from the last
quarter) and failed to meet estimates of 4.4M Macs and 13M iPads.
~~~
pook1e
Last quarter was a holiday quarter, so I think the drop in iPhone sales is
expected. They only sold 2 million fewer in this quarter, which I think is
pretty amazing.
~~~
diminish
i remember one analyst telling, chinese new year is important for smartphone
sales too. but the big question is why is ipad/mac sales are below
expectations? didnt the new ipad help much?
edit: analyst expectations are averaged from
<http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-q2-2012-earnings-2012-4>
~~~
guywithabike
Because "expectations" are just wild-ass guesses.
iPad sales are up 150% year over year. How that's disappointing, I'll never
know.
~~~
dkokelley
I'll tell you why that can be described as disappointing. Apple is extremely
profitable. Sales are climbing at a great rate. Shares of ownership (and by
proxy, a share in that profit) are priced according to this wild growth and
profitability. The market buys stock based on this expected growth and return.
When the expected return is less than the actual return, this is disappointing
EVEN IF THE RETURN IS 150%.
This like buying an expensive sports car and having it ONLY go 150MPH when
similarly priced cars can reach 200MPH. 150MPH is great compared to a stock
Honda Civic, but you will be disappointed when your friends best you with
their supercars, because you paid so much. Apple stock is a supercar stock, so
when it doesn't perform at supercar standards, the market is disappointed.
~~~
runako
First: the market is actually not disappointed. If that were the case, the
stock would not be up substantially by real people spending money to buy the
stock on the basis of this news. The market likes this news, the (clueless)
writers at media outlets were disappointed.
Your analogy also misses on a number of levels. But to make it crystal clear,
I'll correct it. Today's results are like buying an economy car in a price
band where similarly priced cars can reach 60 MPH and finding out that yours
goes 800 MPH and being disappointed. For a share of AAPL is priced more like a
Kia than a Ferrari relative to its growth.
To clarify: the stock is not expensive by any classical valuation metric. The
stock is trading at a multiple of < 16, which is lower than companies in much
slower-growing businesses. For example: McDonald's (18), Procter & Gamble
(20), Coke (20). In fact, the Dow Jones index of utility stocks trades at a
higher earnings multiple. And now there's a dividend in case 100% EPS growth
isn't enough for an investor. So unless your idea of an expensive high-flying
stock is a stodgy utility, AAPL is absolutely not priced for wild growth and
profitability.
~~~
huxley
Amazon has been trading at 137.4 P/E ratio. Now there is a stock priced for
wild growth and profitability, Apple is a cheap stock in comparison.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Really back Hackers inject Windows 7 start menu code in Windows 8 - jeffreyfox
http://www.myce.com/news/its-back-hackers-inject-windows-7-start-menu-code-in-windows-8-64344/
======
shdon
Nice one. This may actually convince me to get Win8 as it would then become a
much more useable desktop OS.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Is there a state-by-state guide to IP assignment issues that affect startups? - teuobk
I've been talking with some friends about doing a startup, but there's a concern about the potential IP minefield we might be encounter. In short, one of us has a contract with a software company that makes an extremely aggressive rights grab. According to the contract, all work done by this person, even outside of work hours and without using any company resources, becomes the property of the company. This seems like it might be overly broad, but I'm not a lawyer and I know that the law varies considerably from state to state.<p>Is there a resource somewhere online that discusses the issues in state IP/employment law for startups? For example, I've heard that non-compete clauses are unenforceable in California, and a clause like that described above would be unenforceable in Minnesota. Something like a table showing the differences would be great.<p>Alternatively, since the usual response is "talk to a lawyer," can anybody recommend a competent yet affordable-enough-for-a-bootstrapped-startup attorney who could answer similar questions? I'm particularly interested in the law for California, Minnesota, and New York. Thanks!
======
noodle
talk to the corporate lawyer for the company that the one person with the
tight contract works. or, at least, request to do so.
at my company, we had a terrible contract, and the employees brought it up and
got it changed. bring it up, see if you can get an exemption clause drafted
and signed.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How My Start-Up Failed - mijustin
http://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/magazine/article/?article_id=41260
======
edw519
_Like Edison and the lightbulb, like Gates and the pc operating system...I was
about to become the first person in America to sell condom key chains._
That was probably your first mistake. Neither of your heroes succeeded by
being first with a great new product. They won through ruthless competition
(some may even say cheating), unfair advantages, endless promotion, and
competing in the courtroom and legislature as much as in the marketplace.
Perhaps Googling things like "Nikola Tesla" or "CP/M" or reading
<http://theoatmeal.com/comics/tesla> may have changed your business plan.
~~~
swapnilt
Interesting to know about Tesla and Edison. I've always seen somewhat similar
parallel between Jobs and Wozniak. For all his greatness, I always see Jobs as
an overrated CEO and Wozniak as underrated geek.
~~~
wildranter
Just tell me one more thing. Who consistently shipped more?
~~~
unimpressive
Tesla vs. Edison? From what I know, Tesla.
Jobs vs. Wozniak? Jobs. Easily.
~~~
kamaal
Saying that Steve Jobs shipped frequently than Wozniak is like saying the
manager of a software team ships more frequently than the programmers who
wrote it, since he is the one who sends out the 'release notification email'.
~~~
jonmrodriguez
Actually what he's referring to is that Woz basically made the Apple 1, made
the Apple 2, and then, having produced two once-in-a-lifetime masterworks,
essentially retired.
Jobs, though less technically useful on any one hands-on task, never retired
even after getting rich. He just kept shipping, ultimately an order of
magnitude more projects and a way more grandiose total portfolio.
~~~
rooshdi
And who helped him keep shipping? Or did you forget the thousands of other
workers at Apple? Let's get real.
~~~
jodrellblank
Where by "real" you mean what, exactly?
"Out of Jobs and Wozniak who shipped more?" "thousands of other apple workers
because I don't like Jobs" ?
~~~
rooshdi
No. Apple and its products are the result of countless hours of work from
thousands of employees. Step out the damn reality distortion field already.
~~~
wildranter
_Step out the damn reality distortion field already._
Likewise.
Who do you think built and rebuilt the aforementioned company?
The thousands of people who worked on Apple producs acknowledge that Jobs was
fundamental because of is hyper focus and vision.
If you stop hating the man you might learn a thing or two.
~~~
rooshdi
I don't hate anyone. In fact, I respect Steve a whole lot for pursuing his
passion and vision for technology. I just hate the lies people believe.
Shipping involves more than any one individual. It's an ongoing collaborative
process. Read up:
[http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-20124720-37/jonathan-
ive-s...](http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-20124720-37/jonathan-ive-steve-
jobs-stole-my-ideas/)
~~~
mmariani
Well, I shouldn't. But I'm gonna bite this one anyway. Who recognized Jonny
Ive's talent and gave him a promotion?
Anyway, I think the reality distortion field you previously referred is in
fact a hyperbole machine created by the media outlets. I don't like it too as
it only serves to increases the distance between us and real facts just for
the sake of getting some viewers.
The real reality distortion field [0][1] was born as a complement and caution,
referring to Steve's epic focus, indomitable will, and eagerness to get things
done. When well applied, it can be an incredible tool to shift paradigms.
[0] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_distortion_field>
[1] Steve Jobs biography, Chapter 11
~~~
danabramov
I like how Miguel de Icaza put it[0]:
>"Reality Distortion Field" is a modern day cop out. A tool used by men that
lack the intellectual curiosity to explain the world, and can deploy at will
to explain excitement or success in the market place. Invoking this magical
super power saves the writer from doing actual work and research. It is a con
perpetuated against the readers.
>...
>The biography has some interesting anecdotes, but fails to answer any of
these questions. The biographer was not really interested in understanding or
explaining Steve Jobs. He collected a bunch of anecdotes, stringed them
together in chronological order, had the text edited and cashed out.
>Whenever the story gets close to an interesting historical event, or starts
exploring a big unknown of Steve's work, we are condescendingly told that
"Steve Activated the Reality Distortion Field".
>Every. Single. Time.
>Not once did the biographer try to uncover what made people listen to Steve.
Not once did he try to understand the world in which Steve operated. The
breakthroughs of his work are described with the same passion as a Reuters
news feed: an enumeration of his achievements glued with anecdotes to glue the
thing together.
>...
>The "Reality Distortion Field" is not really a Steve Jobs super-power, it is
a special super power that the technical press uses every time they are too
lazy to do research.
[0]: <http://tirania.org/blog/archive/2012/Nov-07.html>
~~~
mmariani
Let's give a chance to Andy Hertzfeld, so he can explain in his own words [0]
why, how, and where the term was born.
[0]
[http://folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story...](http://folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Reality_Distortion_Field.txt)
------
digitalengineer
I quit my business january the first. I sold people. Actual people including
kids, grandma's, six-pack's and what not as models for agency's and
photographers. My company was different: You could select people like you can
cars: Size, color, tattoos and a location. I sold people including all the
royalties, like a Shutterstock for people with a fixed price (no matter how
well known the client is). I had everything worked out: a simple signup
process, legal protection for models (no nudity) and a legal framework for
clients and my own company.
I upset the expensive agencies (boy were some mad at me), but ultimately
failed because I underestimated how far people will go to get something for
"free". People would rather spend 8 of their own hours finding friends,
neighbors, relatives to use as a model, than select a perfect local model and
pay him or her a few bucks. I work for a design agency for the biggest names
you can think of but even those PR-people would rather throw away 8 of their
own hours and work with shitty contracts if it could save them a few dimes.
Of course becoming blind didn't help. Thank God the doctors got my vision
back, but if you're a one-person-company shit like that can certainly kill
your company. But that's not why I failed. I failed because I thought I could
use _greed_ and let people save a lot of money. Turns out people were even
more greedy (or dumber?) than I thought.
A few screenshots (as the site is offline): <http://imgur.com/4JMDS>
<http://i.imgur.com/63e4Z.png>
~~~
Avalaxy
Yup, even the smallest price creates a huge barriere for most people.
Personally I'd rather throw some money at problems than waste my precious
time, but everyone is different.
P.s. groetjes uit holland! ;)
~~~
digitalengineer
Yup even though they would be spending some money in order to save a lot of
time and money. Did great with finding models but not good enough with the
agency's. OT: Just read your blog and like to know if you've got something up
and running already?
~~~
Avalaxy
Not yet! I haven't been able to work on my project lately because I'm too busy
with my graduation and freelancing, but I stopped freelancing now to work on
my project full-time. I hope to release it around March :-)
It will be a platform (non-SaaS) targeted at the US, and I've got Microsoft
sponsoring my cloud hosting, doing my marketing, etc.
Oh, I did create a few Windows 8 apps in the meanwhile, that also stole quite
some time from my main project. I created the first and only wordfeud solver
for example: [http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/en-us/app/scrabble-
solver/...](http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/en-us/app/scrabble-
solver/f45ddd05-dcf4-4419-8dda-19bdfd1d8c60) (I earned only €13 with it so it
isn't a great business idea, but I was fun to build).
~~~
digitalengineer
Good to see you're sharpening your skills and knowledge "in the real word" and
you'e not just studying.
I can really identify with 2nd/3rd projects 'stealing' time from the main
project. I'm like that as well. It's a bit of a trap but when you're always
full of ideas it feels good to check them out as well. (And it's easy to
become bored when you've worked on project for a long time).
I did a extensive personality test once and it showed I _need_ the challenge.
If I don't get it I will deliberately make projects more difficult by delaying
work or trying to find new and exciting ways to accomplish something. Anything
but boring, repetitive work!
------
seanlinehan
This grind feels very familiar. I joined a product company when it was at this
stage and can say that this guy's story resembles our own quite a bit. The
difference, though, was that we did not shut down shop because we had a little
bit of debt. We kept going, are still going, and after more than two years in
business are finally beginning to see some traction. The truth is, building a
consumer product is just not easy. It takes time to build channels! The
struggles that the author had were completely to be expected... every business
has its quirks that you can't know until you're waist deep.
~~~
jacquesm
Contrary to the 'fail fast' mantra: the definition of a successful business is
that it is one whose backers didn't give up before it gained traction.
Underestimating the time it takes to get off the ground is a very frequent
cause of business death.
~~~
seanlinehan
I look at the guys over at Weebly as prime examples of this. David spoke at
Startup School this year and said that for something like 4 or 5 years they
didn't really experience much success. They kept at it and now they power
something like 2% of all sites on the internet!
------
paulmolluzzo
"Though I had a Stanford MBA and regularly consulted on multimillion-dollar
projects, I didn't know the first thing about starting a business."
~~~
ytadesse
Ironic that the number 4 story on HN right now is: "All I learned in college
was how to work for someone else"
------
kokey
He probably learned more about business from this venture than $10,000 of
business education would have given him. I've also lost that much on a venture
once, and the irony is that like his business it was also a potentially
profitable and viable business and may have succeeded if we had the experience
to approach it differently.
~~~
onlyup
Seems like everything he learnt should have been common sense.
\- Do better market research
\- Do the maths before proceeding
\- Know all the ins and outs with shipping your product
\- Don't give your product away
~~~
kokey
Some of it is not really common sense, because people make these mistakes all
the time. I suspect the main mistake he has made, and this happens very often,
is that in order to get a decent margin on his product he had to order a
fairly large quantity. This broke two things, one not being able to test out
the product to determine if that is what the market wants, the other is not to
get the hang of all the things that can go wrong with importing goods. I think
he was particularly lucky to get it through customs so quickly.
------
mijustin
Here's a photo of a condom keychain:
<http://d24w6bsrhbeh9d.cloudfront.net/photo/51576_700b.jpg>
~~~
tferris
Looks nice. How hard was it to break the glass?
~~~
prostoalex
This is slashdot^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H Hacker News, the issue never came up.
------
delinquentme
"My love affair with my product soon began to fade. The key chains would not
come clean. No matter how much I scrubbed, they still felt as though a posse
of banana slugs had just oozed over them."
Not a stanford chemist I take it?
------
dmor
Like so many startup ideas, this could probably be a great idea for somebody
who can actually execute it. I feel like a jerk saying this, but this seems
like a recurring theme lately - people saying "the market was too small" when
the reality that they needed a huge target because their execution was near
non-existent.
------
robbiea
Amazing story and the ending was great. I'm also not sure many of the
commenters are aware that this happened in 1999
~~~
onlyup
In the end he lost 10k. How is that great?
And thanks for pointing the date out, I had missed that!
~~~
robbiea
by ending was great, I meant that the last sentence was a great editorial
ending to the story. The fact that he lost 10k is not great, but overall a
great piece on his startup.
------
orangethirty
I'll tell you the story of how one of my startups died.
Some years ago, I was looking for the next business the start. Being one of
those serial entrepreneurs, I was used to searching for products that could be
easily marketed by me. I'm one of those weirdos who enjoys to program and
enjoys marketing. Anyhow, I found my next product on a magazine article. There
it was, all shiny and plasticky. Why? Because it was actual plastic. Or better
yet, shrink wrapping plastic. The one used to cover botas during winter.
The magazine article talked about a business in Arizona who was shrink repo'd
houses, cars, boats, equipment, etc. They were doing a fine job with all the
people going bankrupt, and all the banks needing a way to keep their
properties in good shape for re-sell. I did some market research and it was a
viable business to do locally. There were plenty of things to shrink wrap.
The shrink wrap was sourced from a distributor in Michigan. It was dirt cheap,
and would allow me to mark it up without fear. Each sq. foot cost me around
fifteen cents, and I would sell it for three dollars. Problem was the
shipping. I reside in the Caribbean. The plastic had to travel all the way
down from Michigan, get on a plane, and to my doorstep. The costs tripled, but
the nice margin kept things at bay.
I went off to market it the product and made a huge first sale. It was for
about $2k worth of shrink wrap. It was to wrap industrial machinery that was
being shipped overseas to Zeus knows where. I got so excited by the "sale"
that I ordered a roll of shrink wrap _without_ taking a deposit or a purchase
order number (the sale was for a local construction company). The client was
actually pressuring me to get the material so they could ship it out. It was a
safe bet, or so I thought.
The plastic arrives a couple days later, and its a heavy sumbitch. I pushed
and pushed until it was resting in my garage. I call the client and let him
know that everything is ready to. He replies by stating that everything will
be setup for me to go and do the shrink wrapping. Awesome!
But wait. He asks for my proof of insurance. Yes. I had forgotten to check
with the local insurance company to see if they would insure me. So I told him
that I would process the insurance, but to go ahead and schedule, because I
was sure someone would step forward and insure me. After contacting every
insurance agency, pawn shop, church, and barber shop on the island, my dreams
of being the shrink wrap king were fading away.
I call the client and let him know that no one would insure it. Surprisingly,
he told me that they were so needy of the product (I was the only person
offering the service locally), that they would take the risk. At the end of
that phone call he said "I'll call you back when it setup."
One week passes. Two weeks. On the third week I call him. He says they were
having trouble scheduling access to the equipment, but to not fear, because
they need it to do it. I wait another week and he calls. Finally!
That was not a good phone call. They had sold the equipment to a local, and
would not be needing my product. I did not have an agreement, deposit or
anything. There was no way to get them to pay, and it was a waste of time.
From that experience, I created my party-pooper business checklist. It has all
sorts of questions that I must answer before even thinking about investing my
time or money into anything. It has saved me countless headaches, and
resources. It keeps my serial entrepreneur in check, and forces me to think
about every little bit before doing anything. Sadly, it cannot predict when
people will scam me. I've had people in the valley scam me out of work, just
like every freelancer out there. It sucks, but each time it happens I get to
learn from it. One thing you get to learn after doing business for as long as
I've been doing it, is that bad shit is going to happen no matter what. You
are going to get scammed by people who sell you their close association to YC-
funded company (which I thought made their project more legit, but it
doesn't), and you will make costly mistakes. Being really good at marketing
doesn't save me from those things. But anyhow, realize that you will make
mistakes. Those mistakes do not define you, but teach you. Failure is all but
guaranteed. So have fun, learn, and don't take it personal. After all, like
the founder of a startup that scammed me not long ago, its business and not
personal.
~~~
trvlngwlbry
Out of curiosity, where does all the used shrink wrap go when winter is over?
I'm picturing a whole house's worth of plastic wrap ending up in a landfill or
floating its way out to trash island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and
it makes me throw up a little bit in my mouth.
Anyway, thanks for sharing the story -- a good case study to learn from -- but
I hope for the sake of humanity that this business of shrink-wrapping boats
and houses is a thing of the past.
~~~
kaliblack
An important part of any business model is how to deal with by-products (aka
waste).
~~~
Tloewald
I wish this were true, but it doesn't seem to have adversely affected roughly
all startups in the history of business.
~~~
kaliblack
Apart from all the industries, services and products that exist because of by-
products and waste, you are correct. Businesses don't have to worry about
waste and can still be successful. However, I'd argue that eating healthy and
exercising is an important part of any life. You can still have a good life if
you don't, but the benefits are well documented and very clear.
------
Sami_Lehtinen
I really hate these badly designed web sites: "Sorry, we are unable to supply
content for this web page, either because the Internet security on your
browser is set to high, or because you have disabled Javascript. For
information on how to change these settings in your browser, please see the
Help page"
~~~
CamperBob2
Life is short, the art long. Enable Javascript and live dangerously.
------
amikazmi
You should call the article "How My _Business_ Failed", because that what it
was.
If I opened a restaurant, even if on a new set of dishes, no one will call it
a start-up, and it can be a huge business.
PG: "A startup is a company designed to grow fast. Being newly founded does
not in itself make a company a startup. Nor is it necessary for a startup to
work on technology, or take venture funding, or have some sort of "exit." The
only essential thing is growth. Everything else we associate with startups
follows from growth."
------
bparsons
"Though I had a Stanford MBA and regularly consulted on multimillion-dollar
projects, I didn't know the first thing about starting a business."
This guy was awarded a Stanford MBA and didn't know that you had to have
paperwork to import goods from Thailand? Am I missing something?
~~~
netrus
Case studies are more about management, less about paperwork.
------
perlpimp
I wonder if fellow news readers can chime in as to what are the boundary
conditions to let go and shut down a service. Some services have survived
through waves of investment cycles - ie flickr etc, others vanished and are
not remembered by but a few.
There are couple of scenarios I am currently involved in. One is sort of
bootstrapping traveler assistance service - this one is bootstrapped but with
fairly large - 10 people editorial staff. The other is my small project that I
am interested in using myself. The third one is a job style project that is
suppose to break open a new market in the internet retail and has been running
for already a month...
Qualitatively there are different reason for closing a startup - boreddom,
disinterest, lack of funds, the growth curve is too slow. From my
understanding startup is not a company but a place to invest money in - that
has a vertical market and near future potential for geometric function style
growth and if it isn't happening startup isn't a startup anymore... but there
are so many stories out there of people sticking it out for 2 years and others
giving up in 3-6 months...
It would be nice to have some sort of coherent picture when to give up and
when to soldier on evolving product, adding users - trying new things...
links to resources are welcome! TIA!
~~~
sdrinf
There are quite a few quantitative indicators for businesses on exit
conditions; for web businesses in particular, see eg:
[http://viniciusvacanti.com/2011/12/12/when-do-you-throw-
in-t...](http://viniciusvacanti.com/2011/12/12/when-do-you-throw-in-the-towel-
on-your-struggling-project/)
~~~
perlpimp
much appreciated thanks!
------
porter
"Though I had a Stanford MBA and regularly consulted on multimillion-dollar
projects, I didn't know the first thing about starting a business. "
Truth. The only way to learn how to start a business is to start one, mess up,
and keep going.
------
akg_67
Whenever someone comes to me with a physical consumer product idea, I tell
them to go read MouseDriver Chronicles first. The authors went through similar
experience with golf driver head shaped mouse. It is an interesting read.
[http://www.amazon.com/The-MouseDriver-Chronicles-
Adventures-...](http://www.amazon.com/The-MouseDriver-Chronicles-Adventures-
Entrepreneurs/dp/0738208019)
------
louischatriot
Reading suggestion for him: Lean Startup.
He went with an idea that needs to be validated (I don't find obvious that
condom key chains are a sure kill ...) and instead tries to produce 10,000 of
them the first time. Wow.
~~~
wtracy
Lean Startup is really hard to apply to this kind of business. Even when he
had them made 10k at a time, he was only able to eke out 75 cents of profit on
each one. If he tried a smaller batch, the production costs would have eaten
him alive.
That said, I could see making a first batch knowing it will sell at a loss
just to test the market.
------
dexter313
Condoms near any sharp object like keys seems a very bad idea to me, great
story though.
~~~
mikeryan
_Condoms near any sharp object like keys seems a very bad idea to me_
There goes carrying a condom around in my pockets... (no wait marriage took
care of that one)
These were encased in hard plastic, I'm pretty sure they were safer then most
condom transportation mechanisms.
~~~
gcheong
Probably a little too safe.
~~~
wiradikusuma
But is the manufacturing process safe for the condom? I.e. won't damage it.
------
tferris
Nice story, a little too long though and I'd have liked bigger and sharper
pics of the actual products.
What seems very obvious to me or maybe I didn't get the point: Carrying a key
chain with a condom is more than just a key chain, it's a statement. It
somehow says in a very obtrusive way that you want to f$%#, that you are
anytime ready to f$%#, yeah it just says that you are so desperate and
unf$%#$% that any f$%# is welcome. And that's definitely not the way to get
laid (for men at least).
Sorry, but who should buy this? 12yr old kids?
However, I think that the OP learned a lot, so it should have been a good
entrepreneurial experience in any case.
~~~
GuiA
>Sorry, but who should buy this?? Maybe 12yr old kids?
I take it you've never seen college boys (or even some young professionals in
certain areas) wearing shirts with slogans such as this one
(<http://i.imgur.com/4vt3m.jpg>).
Somewhat related, these (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truck_nuts>) are also
quite popular in Texas.
(in case you're located outside the US- American culture, despite its puritan
roots and persistent culture, is quite open about crass jokes in that spirit)
~~~
RegEx
I see those on quite a few trucks in East Texas. I can't believe people
actually do that.
~~~
GuiA
I had to tell my dad (non american, first saw them when he helped me move
across the country) what they were. It is now his favorite anecdote to tell
about Texas :)
------
meisterbrendan
I think this underscores the need to have smart advisors. I could see myself
making similar mistakes; to avoid them, consult people who have done stuff
similar to what you're trying to do. It seems most of these issues could have
been prevented if the author had consulted folks in his MBA network and gotten
their advice on what he should do in his business, on pricing, on setting
expectations for how hard it is to launch a successful product like this, on
importing, and on general advice. Who knows--he might even have gotten a smart
business partner to help him sort through these tough issues.
------
stesch
Because you can't even display a fail story without requiring JavaScript? :-(
------
amalag
Now all he needs to do is get on Shark Tank.
~~~
brianbreslin
i think this venture took place 20+ years ago. His MBA was from 1984, and in
the story he says he was a freshly minted MBA.
~~~
mijustin
Yup. This was originally published in Summer of 1999.
------
blacksqr
Or as his resume states: his shrink-wrap app business was wrecked by an
incursion of trojans.
------
rossjudson
They forgot to say "Are the condoms any good? Our condoms are f __*ing great!"
------
bw00d
Great story. Very good idea. I'm sure it was a good learning experience.
------
ky3
Winners don't quit. Quitters don't win.
~~~
onlyup
What if you gamble some money and then quit gambling. You're a winner that
quit!
------
harrypotter
My whole internet business was failing until I learned SEO.
~~~
onlyup
Story?
------
mymoint
Lesson: Shoulda joined YC. Then it would have succeeded.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Trump invites tech leaders to roundtable next week - DelaneyM
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2016/12/06/trump-invites-tech-leaders-roundtable/95042516/
======
minimaxir
This is the third article submitted about the story, yet it keeps getting
flagged.
Political stories _with a strong tech component_ don't fall under the ban, yet
people are using it as an excuse.
------
ngoldbaum
What a strange coincidence that HN banned political discussion for a week
yesterday.
~~~
dang
I noticed you said that in another place too and replied there:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13125358](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13125358).
This is randomness doing its usual thing and looking like narrative rather
than randomness. Not only do we have no idea whatever of anybody famous's
schedule (or care, really), the odds that _some_ "what a strange coincidence"
event would come up this week are surely not that small.
------
internaut
This is both amusing and slightly terrifying.
I think he'll be in mending bridges mode. He needs SV if he is serious about
reform.
On the other hand the Media had their Red Wedding.
“It was like a fucking firing squad,” one source said of the encounter.
I wonder what it's like to be shouted at by somebody with access to nuclear
weapons.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
'Female' hurricanes cause more deaths, because people don't take them seriously - edward
http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/2/5770778/hurricanes-with-female-names-deadlier-because-less-threatening
======
ColinWright
Discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7835925](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7835925)
Other sources:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7838123](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7838123)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7837881](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7837881)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7837530](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7837530)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7837191](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7837191)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7836509](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7836509)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7839076](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7839076)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google chart API - daily limit lifted - r7000
http://code.google.com/apis/chart/#usage
======
r7000
I may have missed this before but the updated usage policy is:
"There's no limit to the number of calls per day you can make to the Google
Chart API. However, we reserve the right to block any use that we regard as
abusive, an apparent denial of service attempt for example. If you think your
service will make more than 250,000 API calls per day, please let us know by
mailing an estimate to [email protected]."
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
US Secret Service: “Massive Fraud” Against State Unemployment Insurance Programs - elsewhen
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2020/05/u-s-secret-service-massive-fraud-against-state-unemployment-insurance-programs/
======
yalogin
I am amazed at how well these criminals from another country know the details
of the systems in the US when we in the US have probably a handful of people
who understand the end-to-end line they do.
I am not surprised this is happening. The small offices in each state are
responsible for 100s of millions of dollars and they awfully unequipped for
it. This is sort of thing that the federal government should do and provide a
portal for each state to use so that they can track and do stuff across states
to look for fraud. However i don’t know if states rights and separation of
duties screws this up.
~~~
mattm
> we in the US have probably a handful of people who understand
When I moved to the US from Canada and HR was helping me setup my health
insurance on the first day, I was overwhelmed trying to understand it and said
"Sorry, I don't really understand how health insurance works here."
The HR person responded:
"That's ok. Most Americans don't understand how it works either."
~~~
caconym_
> Most Americans don't understand how it works either.
When I dislocated my jaw and went to an in-network ER for treatment (it popped
back in as I was sitting on the bed), I wasn't _surprised_ to get a call from
a collections agency regarding bills I never received from an "out of network"
shell corporation for "consulting physicians" (never even saw a doctor, only a
nurse), but I definitely didn't see it coming.
Count me an average American, I guess.
~~~
tiborsaas
Sorry, can't decide if it was a scamming attempt or it was a legit request?
~~~
antsar
That’s just a matter of perspective :)
------
unnouinceput
Quote: "The Service’s memo suggests the crime ring is operating in much the
same way as crooks who specialize in filing fraudulent income tax refund
requests with the states and the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS), a
perennial problem that costs the states and the U.S. Treasury hundreds of
millions of dollars in revenue each year."
A perennial! problem, hundreds of millions each year. It blows my mind how 80+
years later SSN is still used as identity, far beyond its original purpose. I
mean with only one year of those losses US gov. could easily adopt something
better.
~~~
Dobbs
The Dutch system to this is pretty nice. Your BSN gets attached to a digital
id (DigiD).
You might give your BSN out to a company (healthcare, doctor, etc) but that is
used to create the link to your DigiD. From there if you want to login to
something like your healthcare company it will then bring up a form where you
copy four characters from your DigiD app on your phone. This makes sure the
requests match, then you just scan a QR code and type in a pin.
So if you want to login to do something related to your taxes, or healthcare
online you have very strong two factor auth.
Additionally banks work similarly for making payments or purchases online. I
want to order a pizza for delivery online it redirects me to a payment page on
my banks website. I then take out my bank app on my phone, type in a pin, scan
a QR, and approve the payment.
~~~
rbanffy
> it will then bring up a form where you copy four characters from your DigiD
> app on your phone
What happens when you don't own a phone?
~~~
coblers
Can't chime in for Netherlands, but here in Denmark you can get an actual code
card you use for 2FA. It has 100 codes on it.
If you're doing online shopping/purchases chances are you have a phone though.
------
canada_dry
In context of how much "personal identifiable information" (e.g. SSN) that is
stolen through data breaches in the USA - it's hardly a surprise.
The list of breaches just goes on-and-on:
[https://krebsonsecurity.com/category/data-
breaches/](https://krebsonsecurity.com/category/data-breaches/)
~~~
asciident
I think it's time we just eliminated the concept of personally identifiable
information (PII). Your SSN, birthdate, name, etc. are no longer secret.
Operate with that assumption. Invest in a department in the government (e.g.
digital service) to make this change once and for all. Heck, let's eliminate
DST and move to the metric system while we're at it. Let's call this "moving
to new standards" that will pay off in dividends in the future.
~~~
sp332
Why would a bank give someone a loan if they have no idea who the person
really is?
~~~
dodobirdlord
How is any of this information supposed to secure anything? Name, birth date,
address, etc are all public record or essentially public record. The only
"secret" piece of information is the SSN, which is (a) public for almost all
Americans and (b) specifically forbidden for being used as an identification
number.
~~~
3737e6y3yrydy
This is a very 'tech' response in a good way, it made me smile. I think they
meant why would a bank give an anybody a loan? You have no way of knowing if
an anybody already has a loan out with you and you have no ability to evaluate
their risk. Why would you loan money to someone with no ability to review
their credit health and financial situation? It's an impossible battle without
inventing a user specific metric.
~~~
Xelbair
>It's an impossible battle without inventing a user specific metric.
And that's exactly what happens over here. There is no credit score, nor other
such bullshit.
You get assessed for viability by proving your current income for last X
months depending on the loan.
There also exists a national black list of debtors - but to get there you must
really mess up and not even try to pay back your loan.
~~~
3737e6y3yrydy
How do you price your current income with no identifying information is the
point that was being made. If you can prove your income then you have
identifiers.
~~~
Xelbair
you get a standardized form from your employer, or income transactions from
the bank. They can use that data internally, but they cannot sell it nor give
it to 3rd parties.
------
icegreentea2
I wonder what the rate/total volume (or detected volume) of fraud is? How does
it compare to baseline levels of fraud? The article says the amount of fraud
has kept pace with dramatic increase in claims in Rhode Island. If it's just
keeping pace, why are we surprised? Do we even need to worry that much? Is the
current situation making it easier to commit fraud? Or is it just generating
more volume and noise to hide fraud in?
------
ipnon
My friend's desperately needed unemployment funds are frozen because they were
requested using a Romanian IP address. My friend has never been to Romania nor
spoofed their IP in such a manner. The New York state unemployment website
seemingly allows no recourse for this incident. They are now unemployed and
unable to receive any income.
~~~
marcinzm
The recourse as I understand it is to try and call the agency to speak to a
person. Of course the call systems are overloaded so that's easier said than
done.
edit: This is the general approach by US agencies, the IRS website barfed on
my info and I had to call a local office to get a person to help me (the
nation wide number was 100% automated and likewise barfed on my info).
~~~
ken
Calling the unemployment office right now is virtually impossible.
Conventional wisdom these days is that if you want to collect unemployment,
you need to make filing a claim your full-time job. You start calling at 7am
when they open, and keep re-dialing until you get through -- hopefully before
they close at 4pm, and you have to start again the next day.
Also, don't call before Wednesday, if you don't absolutely need to.
Monday/Tuesday are unofficially reserved for people who really need the money.
Of course, even if you get through to a person and get the right bit flipped
in their database, there's no guarantees. I also hear lots of stories of
people whose claims were approved 4 or 6 weeks ago and still haven't gotten a
dime.
~~~
smabie
Why are Monday/Tuesday unofficially reserved for people who really need the
money?
------
kryogen1c
remember when SSNs were being implemented and the government promised it
wouldn't be used as a personal identifier?
~~~
ashtonkem
Not personally, because I’m not 90 years old.
But you’re right that the original purpose wasn’t identifying people, however
it was private banks that really latched onto it as a convenient way to
identify people and associate debts to individuals.
~~~
apta
Just goes to show how much of a net negative the parasitic banking system is
on society.
~~~
closeparen
Your lifestyle must be pretty ascetic then? A society that only contains
business bootstrapped by independently wealthy owners is pretty small. Almost
everything we have required somebody else's capital to build. There was a
reason unemployment spiked when lending stopped in 2008.
~~~
pbhjpbhj
Lock up all capital with a small group of individuals and you will then need
to acquire that capital in order to create large projects, that's pretty
truistic.
A system where you instead has to convince a "capital" assignment group
(really a work+resources assignment)- who would only profit if your project
benefitted society - could also work.
You'd get different assignment of resources too as ability to extract maximum
value from the system and lodge it with a small group of capital holders
wouldn't be the principle aim.
This only works with systems where everyone is on board and there are no
greedy people, ...
~~~
apta
It may come as a surprise to people, but there have been societies which
banned interest/usury, yet got things done just fine (e.g. Islam bans usury,
but the Islamic Golden Age speaks for itself). Even until relatively recently,
when Western colonialists forced their usurious banking system onto Islamic
nations post WWII, things were done interest-free.
~~~
andresgottlieb
Coming from a jewish background (Judaism also "bans interest/usury"), I advise
you to take these rules with a grain of salt. In the case of Judaism, there
were (sometimes still are) many tricks to the system, for example: you could
lend with interest to non-jews, you could have and trade slaves, etc.
I'd assume Islam, being similar to Judaism, uses the same kind of tricks. For
example, after a quick search, I found this:
"The common view of riba (usury) among classical jurists of Islamic law and
economics during the Islamic Golden Age was that it is only riba and therefore
unlawful to apply interest to money exnatura sua— exclusively gold and silver
currencies—but that it is not riba and is therefore acceptable to apply
interest to fiat money—currencies made up of other materials such as paper or
base metals—to an extent."
Source:
[https://books.google.cl/books?id=1MKrCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA23&lpg=PA...](https://books.google.cl/books?id=1MKrCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA23&lpg=PA23&dq=%22surplus+value+without+counterpart%22+%22to+ensure+equivalency+in+real+value%22&redir_esc=y&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=true)
~~~
apta
Thank you for chiming in. I'm aware that Judaism bans interest, but you're
also correct that thier Rabbis made loopholes such that only Jews don't lend
money with interest to other Jews, but they're allowed to lend money with
interest to non-Jews. Christianity bans it as well, but people don't practice
what they preach so to speak.
With Islam, there are no such tricks, because it explicitly calls out tricks
like what you're mentioning and warns people who engage in them. Of course, it
doesn't prevent some people from claiming certain things, but you'd have to
look at the overall consensus. If you ask scholars today, they will tell you
that you cannot deal with interest with fiat money, the consensus is that you
cannot take an interest-based loan or mortgage from a bank.
I can't find the author of the book you cited, but it seems he's misguided and
conflating two things. There was no paper money back during the Islamic Golden
Age, so I'm not sure why he mentions it. Secondly, he seems to be conflating
Riba that applies to certain materials (explicitly mentioned in [0][1]) with
Riba due to loans. The Islamic notion of Riba encomposses more than simply
usury and interest. For example, exchanging 5gm of 22 karat gold for 8gm of 18
karat gold falls under Riba, and is prohibited.
What is permissible is to have exchanges of different types, as mentioned in
those Hadiths. For a modern manifestation of this: I can exchange a certain
amount of USD to a different amount of Euros. However, I cannot lend out $100
and ask them to be returned $105.
[0] [https://sunnah.com/nasai/44/112](https://sunnah.com/nasai/44/112)
[1] [https://sunnah.com/abudawud/23](https://sunnah.com/abudawud/23)
~~~
smabie
The profit and loss sharing instruments used by Islamic banks are structured
in such a way to be _almost_ identical to charging interest.
~~~
apta
Yes, and if you look up the opinion of present-day scholars, you'll find that
many of them call said banks out on it (if it walks like a duck and quacks
like a duck). While I'm not a scholar, I completely agree that it's jumping
around the issue and it is almost certainly interest. It doesn't mean Islam
allows it. This in my opinion, is a manifestation of what I mentioned how the
West pushed their usurious banking system onto Islamic nations, and because
many of those governments were installed by Western nations, now the people
are having a difficult time breaking out of it.
------
drawkbox
Direct payments are better for this very reason. They also become bonuses for
those working. Banks and broken state systems have really caused problems
getting stimulus out as expected.
Lots of people calling for temp UBI like Cuban [1]. It was obvious from the
beginning we needed this.
With everything we learned from the Great Recession 'bailouts/stimulus' we
should have expected this and just not gone the bank route or unemployment
alone. Direct payments takes pressure off everything, unemployment, state
budgets, individuals, mortgage/rent, small business, demand from purchasing
power etc.
[1] [https://www.marketwatch.com/story/mark-cuban-says-
families-s...](https://www.marketwatch.com/story/mark-cuban-says-families-
should-get-1000-in-stimulus-checks-every-two-weeks-with-one-big-
catch-2020-05-17?mod=home-page)
~~~
cat199
how would a buggy implementation of payment dispersal relate in any way to any
perceived need for UBI?
~~~
drawkbox
I didn't say buggy, I said broken, sometimes on purpose.
In "Study finds 44% of U.S. unemployment applicants have been denied or are
still waiting" it shows the systems don't work [1]. This is one article, study
or example in many, many reports on this.
Direct payments, at least during the crisis and maybe auto UBI during
recessions, would make it to everyone, not prevent people from weighing going
back to work, not overload state budgets, reduce unemployment, and more. Some
systems like Floridas were meant to not really work at all to minimize usage.
Basically anyone in a state with a bad unemployment state system suffered.
Direct payments gets around all that by using identity and tax system
information.
Direct payments to everyone also get past the whole idea of selective
stimulus. Money to everyone gets to where it needs to be that no central
planning could ever predict from food, gas, housing, insurance, health, etc
[2].
Direct payments during recessions would make the floor higher and bring back
purchasing power demand sooner, or keep it with some semblance of consistency
in times like this.
[1] [https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/15/44percent-of-us-
unemployment...](https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/15/44percent-of-us-unemployment-
applicants-have-been-denied-or-are-waiting.html)
[2] [https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/15/coronavirus-stimulus-
checks-...](https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/15/coronavirus-stimulus-checks-how-
americans-are-spending-money.html)
------
hilyen
If only we saw this coming.... oh wait... Equifax's data breach of 143M
records.
People have been calling for social security number system to be updated. In
what world does it make sense to prove your identity with just a username (ss
#) and not a password as well?
------
mdturnerphys
_. . . a substantial amount of the fraudulent benefits submitted have used PII
from first responders, government personnel and school employees._
Seems like this should have generated some red flags, as public sector
employees haven't been subject to layoffs.
~~~
haram_masala
Makes you wonder if the infamous OPM breach
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Personnel_Management...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Personnel_Management_data_breach))
has been distributed beyond China.
~~~
kyuudou
No wondering, I just assume that's the case. Like, whatever the Chinese
equivalents of 4chan and pastebin are would be in constant discussion over the
best ways to exploit that information. OPM is a big umbrella over the US
Federal Govt. They even got biometric data in the form of fingerprints.
There are certainly worse things to breach but it's basically HR for the US
gov't. Imagine your company's HR dept getting totally owned, then people using
the CFO's data to get large loans, make harmful business deals or blackwash
someone high-profile.
------
chrischen
That’s funny because my dad has been struggling to get unemployment due to
state bureaucracy (he was working remotely for a company in another state,
which complicates the filing). I guess the same bureaucracy is probably what
enables the fraud.
~~~
mixmastamyk
If you pay taxes in the state, shouldn’t it be enough?
~~~
chrischen
Yes he is entitled to it. The problem was that it was unclear which state he
was supposed to file in (because he works remotely out of state), and one
state's department just said to go to the other state.
------
llarsson
Well, if I am employed in one state, that means I am unemployed in almost 49
others, doesn't it? Time to fill out some paperwork!
For certain things, this perhaps one of them, there are benefits if handled on
a federal level with more oversight.
~~~
unishark
Is that all it takes to get unemployment now? Just an application and they
take your word for it? I thought you needed to get legitimately laid off (i.e.
not quit or be fired for cause) by an employer in the state who notifies the
state of this fact for you, and perhaps who has to pay part of your benefits.
And there's always both upsides as well as downsides to handling things
federally versus state.
------
TeaDrunk
I’m surprised banks literally don’t have the ability check for suspicious
behavior like blatantly having the same account receive multiple unemployment
benefit dollars from a state that the person doesn’t reside in...
~~~
toomuchtodo
That’s not the bank’s responsibility. This is no different than the issues IRS
faced with fraudulent refund activity. Unemployment systems should’ve invested
in KYC-like systems, knowledge authentication, etc.
Simply look at the talent running unemployment departments though. No
engineering mindset, no accountability, hence financial fraud with no
repercussions for government or perpetrators.
For the love of Vint Cerf, please get involved in local government if you’re a
technologist. It is the only way this gets better.
~~~
sokoloff
Most technologists likely have an aversion to anything as backwater
bureaucratic as government “tech” programs. Couple that with pay that _wildly_
trails the market and the outcome is fairly easy to predict I think.
~~~
toomuchtodo
What if the resulting code was open source and someone paid for the effort out
of their own pocket. Non profit 18F style. Might even be able to distill
requirements from existing code if that code can be retrieved with a FOIA
request.
I can empathize with not wanting to work directly for the bureaucracy. There
are alternate paths to success.
[https://18f.gsa.gov/](https://18f.gsa.gov/)
~~~
sokoloff
Interesting idea! I don’t know how to think about the threat model of “pay for
it yourself, and then the government will run your code for essential
services”. I suspect there’s a juicy target there, but it’s something I hadn’t
considered so thanks for giving me something to mull about.
~~~
toomuchtodo
An independent application security assessment would need to be performed
prior to handoff of the code base (with follow ups each time you cut a new
release), but if you can meet the requirements of all 50 states (not trivial,
but also likely not overly onerous), that’s a huge reduction in duplicated
effort.
Glad I could provide something to ponder!
------
ValCanBuild
Same thing is happening with the UK furlough scheme. Government is paying 80%
of people's salaries while they're off work but some employers are actively
defrauding the scheme and telling those people to work...
------
pnw_hazor
The true scope of the fraud will come clear when IRS starts coming after the
named beneficiaries of the fraudulent disbursements.
In WA state (not sure about other states), the unemployment insurance agency
does not automatically withhold taxes from disbursement checks. (It is an
option the beneficiary can choose).
The IRS will come looking for those taxes.
------
jld
I got a letter yesterday informing me I made an unemployment claim. Bummer.
------
lgleason
Not surprising given the creaky state un-employment systems. I would not be
surprised if bank account numbers are compromised as well.
~~~
CodeWriter23
> I would not be surprised if bank account numbers are compromised as well.
I don't that works too well for this kind of scam. What do you do with the
money? ACH it to a totally traceable other account? This scam relies on a
network of trust, that the mules will draw out the cash and take their cut
(and only their cut) and walk the funds to another location for tender.
~~~
elliekelly
That’s what I don’t understand about this kind of scam. It seems like an awful
lot of work. Juggling all of your fake internet significant others or
employees and then building up enough trust to make the ask. I can’t imagine
the payout is that substantial given how much effort would be required.
~~~
CodeWriter23
Think about the mule more like a drug mule. Someone who doesn’t have much to
lose, is recruited by gangsters, work is ok as long as they do what they’re
supposed to do, and they are beaten or killed if they go off script.
------
mostlyjason
It amazes me that there is no authentication provided by governments in the US
to citizens. They just accept a social security number as if it was some sort
of password, when it was never intended for that purpose. Other countries give
citizens an electronic ID to authenticate themselves. It seems this would
prevent hundreds of millions of dollars in fraud and identity theft.
~~~
MattGaiser
> It amazes me that there is no authentication provided by governments in the
> US to citizens.
Vast numbers of Americans would view that as a big step towards
totalitarianism and taking their guns away.
~~~
sershe
How about making the id voluntary to get, but required to get benefits. Want
to get the guvmint out of your life? Sure, then don't ask for unemployment
benefits.
~~~
tptacek
"Voluntary to get, required for some benefits" is another way to say
"involuntary". What is citizenship but a collection of benefits?
~~~
arcticfox
> "Voluntary to get, required for some benefits" is another way to say
> "involuntary". What is citizenship but a collection of benefits?
This is pretty clearly a poor extrapolation. For example, Global Entry. Is
signing up for Global Entry involuntary? It is voluntary to get, required for
some benefits.
~~~
jrockway
You're not getting any intrinsic benefits. If you are a US citizen, you are
allowed to return to the US after international travel. Global Entry doesn't
change any of that.
On average, it does make returning easier, which is nice... but the machines
could be out of order, or you could be flagged for questioning in the usual
manner, etc.
~~~
akerl_
If “making something easier” doesn’t count as a “benefit”, I think that maybe
there’s a fundamental disagreement about what it means for something to be
beneficial.
Global Entry is pretty clearly beneficial for the user, as part of the border
control experience. Whether having things like Global Entry is beneficial to
_society_ is, as `tptacek points on parallel to your comment, a very different
question.
------
ItsAlwaysMe
I received a letter on May 8th telling me that I applied for unemployment
benefits... but of course I did not. I am also in WA state. I filed a fraud
report, so we'll see how it goes. So incredibly frustrating...
~~~
finnh
Me too, I just got one (although it wasn't saying I applied, it was just
referring to my "claim #" and telling me about a retraining opportunity).
Where did you file your fraud report? I've been meaning to but haven't figured
out where to call yet.
~~~
ItsAlwaysMe
I had the same opportunity letter, something about entrepreneurship but also
referenced a claim number.
Here's the link: [https://esd.wa.gov/unemployment/unemployment-benefits-
fraud](https://esd.wa.gov/unemployment/unemployment-benefits-fraud)
~~~
finnh
(thanks - once I typed my comment I thought "hmm I bet I can just _find_ that
form" and lo! it was findable).
Considering whether to also send a paper letter, as those still seem to be
"more official" and the state ESD IT systems are clearly a bag of frowns.
It's good luck that the entrepeneurship letter-sending program actually works
off my real home address, not whatever the scammers may have input. I
certainly didn't receive any other letters from the state regarding my
"claim".
------
tehjoker
Keep in mind the fraud is in the hundreds of millions and the size of the
program is in the hundreds of billions ($260B from the CARES act alone:
[https://www.nelp.org/publication/unemployment-insurance-
prov...](https://www.nelp.org/publication/unemployment-insurance-provisions-
coronavirus-aid-relief-economic-security-cares-act/))
~~~
brentonator
I'll use the food stamps argument: All I see is millions and regardless of how
insignificant that number is with regard to how many the program has helped,
I'm going to argue the whole program should be shut down because my party says
so and uphill bootstraps.
If it's 200M of fraud that's less than a percent. I don't think you can safely
say less than 1% of Americans have had their identities stolen so they've done
a hell of a job if you ask me.
------
bluedino
This pairs well with the high amount of income tax return fraud.
Basically, someone files your taxes for you and steals your refund check.
~~~
MattGaiser
That explains why I see so many "volunteer" tax preparers on various sites.
------
bpodgursky
Doesn't surprise me in the slightest, given that two days ago someone in
Michigan attempted to use my wife's info + email to get unemployment benefits.
We live in Seattle, never lived in Michigan.
Managed to file a fraud claim in this case, but only because they happened to
use her email address for some reason.
------
mensetmanusman
People should look at this as a business opportunity.
Look, states are losing tens of millions of dollars a year in fraud. I bet
they would pay many millions to prevent it with smart data analysis and red
flagging...
~~~
Nextgrid
But it will be outsourced to some bullshit consultancy that will take 10x the
initial budget and end up not delivering anything.
~~~
asciident
True, but part of this higher cost would also be to handle all the
"requirements" from the government from years of accumulated desires from the
people (accountability, supporting minority owners, prioritizing US suppliers,
hiring veterans and the disabled, reporting sexual harassment, etc.). In the
end, it's all one big cycle with each part blaming another, when in reality
this is roughly the best we can do with a system where everyone acts in their
own self interests and agency.
In such a system, doing anything takes a lot of time and money. Look at
extending subway lines in NYC. The unions, negotiations with property owners,
environmental regulations, etc. also impose a major cost and roadblock. Not
saying these are bad things to support, as we do want those things, but we
should recognize that each of these requirements reduces efficiency (probably
exponentially).
------
paul7986
All monies from stimulus to unemployment should've and should be directed
right into taxpayer's bank accounts; those who made less then 75k last year
instantly get the funds. If they are not needed up to the discretion of each
person to do the right thing or not.
The unemployment system was a terrible choice with it's antiquated technology
systems and no surprise tons of fraud going to scammers while many Americans
still haven't gotten their funds to survive on.
------
feross
Duplicate:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23200553](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23200553)
------
joncrane
Interesting that it's the banks that are catching this.
I know we trash banks, and they do some terrible things to customers, but they
have become important partners in fighting financial crime including AML (Anti
Money Laundering) and other crimes.
I'm sure some banks are using ML to detect anomalous transactions, and I
wouldn't be surprised if one or more ML models are what first flagged this
activity as suspicious.
------
fortran77
Every time our Government wants to help people with cash payouts, there's
always massive fraud. You'd think they'd learn.
------
Fjolsvith
Could it be possible that the unemployment numbers being reported in the media
are larger than the actual number of people unemployed at this time? As in,
the economy isn't really in as bad of shape as we are being led to believe.
------
mirekrusin
Jokes aside, blockchain w/zero knowledge proofs could actually help here a
lot.
~~~
austinheap
I'm already on the hook for fixing the in-laws WiFi, printer, and IoT cat
water bowl -- how could this possibly scale to the masses?
~~~
Melting_Harps
> I'm already on the hook for fixing the in-laws WiFi, printer, and IoT cat
> water bowl -- how could this possibly scale to the masses?
IoT cat bowl? Leave it out...
As for how it'd scale, I'd say a look to the past would suggest that much like
we saw with COVID, every State takes an initiative to deploy it [1] based on
each departments need [2]. Hell some States have their own mining operation
they were able to fund through some work/jobs program, and were able to get it
funded through tax money.
Personally, I tuned out when people at our local meetup were pushing for this:
it seemed like government lobbying and I have no interest in pandering to
politicians so I stopped listening--my co-founder was doing enough of that for
her other ventures and I felt disgusted just asking her about it, let alone
doing it myself.
But if I recall correctly, they did manage to pilot test it. Its just that,
while I advise everyone to pay their taxes, I hardly see the novelty or
utility in pitching politicians to see this tech as a viable means to collect
taxes. Especially since the actual talent in this space is already spread far
too thin, as it is.
These were ETH guys, so being the Bitcoin guy (maximalist, as they often
called me) in the room I didn't want to see needless bloat on the network
(after 2017 we all had main-net tx paranoia) so never really bothered to ask
any further questions.
1: [https://statescoop.com/colorado-lawmakers-push-for-
blockchai...](https://statescoop.com/colorado-lawmakers-push-for-blockchain-
in-government/)
2:
[https://choosecolorado.com/blockchain/](https://choosecolorado.com/blockchain/)
------
raverbashing
The ironic part of this is the spam comment (that was not removed from there
on purpose) and most likely is one gear of this fraud system
------
scroot
It's almost like decades of governance by people who say government is the
problem leads to ... inept governing ...
------
gknight
Pardon my ignorance: Could someone explain to me why this is under the purview
of the Secret Service?
~~~
arrosenberg
It's a bit of a historical oddity, but the Secret Service is responsible for
policing counterfeiting and wire fraud. When the USSS was founded in 1865
there was no federal police agency (other than USPIS I believe), so they
handled that particular crime and no one has taken the jurisdiction away from
them.
[https://www.secretservice.gov/investigation/](https://www.secretservice.gov/investigation/)
~~~
gknight
Why I love HN. Thank you!
------
cgb223
Wow Nigerian Scammers have really kicked it up a notch since the “Prince of
Nigeria” days
------
bhewes
Ah this is what happened to the lady I faxed stuff for at the UPS Store. That
sucks.
------
relativitypro
I guess the equitax data breach will lead to real consequences. Just not for
equifax.
------
ejz
Indeed. This complex Nigerian crime ring is best known as PRINCE.
------
WalterBright
I'm not surprised this is happening in Washington State. Here the voter
registration requirements are writing a name on a piece of paper, here's your
ballot.
But no voter fraud is ever detected. Hmmm.
~~~
WaxProlix
This has nothing to do with voter fraud, and how easy or hard it is to
register to vote doesn't seem to bear on the topic.
~~~
WalterBright
When they send out ballots with literally zero checking to see if the
recipient is an actual person, that sounds a lot like what is happening with
the unemployment benefits.
------
andreskytt
This is a political choice. By choice, the identity system in US is broken.
Therefore, it will be used for personal gain. And fraud scales well with
technology.
------
exabrial
Brought to you by Equifax!!
------
Fiveplus
This is a repost. @dang
~~~
gus_massa
I only see
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22990237](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22990237)
but it has only 3 points.
From the FAQ:
> _Are reposts ok?_
> _When a story has had significant attention in the last year or so, we bury
> reposts as duplicates. If not, a small number of reposts is ok._
------
bradleyjg
Gee I sure am glad hard working class action lawyers were able to secure me
“highly valuable” credit monitoring services after corporate negligence
allowed my sensitive information to be stolen.
------
12xo
I find it ridiculous that you cannot buy pseudoephedrine without the pharmacy
checking whether you've purchased any quantity of the OTC medicine in any
other state via a inter-agency, multi-state networked solution... And yet this
kind of stuff still exists.
There is more than enough way to solve these problems, but for some f'n reason
there is no will...
~~~
verst
EDIT: The following may be specific to the U.S. state.
Also ridiculous but only tangentially related: Psychiatrists (or similar
functions) cannot send prescriptions for ADHD drugs (Adderall / Amphetamines
etc) to pharmacies (by any method) [EDIT: at least in Washington State as of
March 2020]. You need to pick up the physical prescription from the health
care provider, then take it to any pharmacy. The pharmacy may not even have
the medication, and certainly will need some time to fill it on the spot.
Of course this is a controlled substance. Somehow this process is imposed by
the DEA perhaps together with the FDA (unsure). I know it's a running joke to
throw out the term Blockchain, but this really is where Blockchain might be a
good solution. Regardless I don't see how a physical piece of paper changes
the potential for abuse or any tracking of the patient. The pharmacy doesn't
exactly make me verify my identity any differently from normal prescriptions
to be picked up.
Also, the prescription is generally only issued for a month. You may get a few
prescriptions with different start dates into the future. So every month you
will make your pharmacy scramble (and waste your own time) because they could
not prepare for your prescription to be filled.
All of this is even more annoying in the time of COVID-19. I need to
unnecessarily have in person interactions for things that can happen remotely
or virtually.
~~~
colejohnson66
> Also ridiculous but only tangentially related: Psychiatrists (or similar
> functions) cannot send prescriptions for ADHD drugs (Adderall / Amphetamines
> etc) to pharmacies (by any method). You need to pick up the physical
> prescription from the health care provider, then take it to any pharmacy.
> The pharmacy may not even have the medication, and certainly will need some
> time to fill it on the spot.
This is not true, at least in California. I take a certain ADHD medicine
that’s a Schedule 2 drug. So I’m limited to 30 day prescriptions with no
refills (so my doctor sends in 3 at a time), but my doctor can most definitely
send them direct to my pharmacy.
~~~
omgwtfbyobbq
That's odd that you can't get a 90-day supply. I'm also on a Schedule 2 drug
for ADHD in California and have gotten a 90-day supply with Kaiser.
Granted, when I was seeing an individual psychiatrist prior to having Kaiser,
she said I could only get a 30-day supply as well and would just send 3 at a
time too. I feel like there is a way to do a 90-day supply that many providers
either don't want to do or don't know about.
Edit - It might be something that's possible with electronic scripts and not
possible with paper.
~~~
texasbigdata
I don't think insurance will allow you to triple fill something and don't
prescriptions for controlled substances expire?
~~~
lnanek2
You don't triple fill all at once. The doctor calls in one prescription for,
say January, then one prescription for February, then one for March. You have
to go to the pharmacy each month, but the doctor only 4 times a year.
Basically the doctor can prescribe a prescription that doesn't start until a
certain time. So the start time on the three prescriptions differs.
~~~
WarOnPrivacy
That's how it's done in FL for non-opioid schedule II. None of our Dr's can
call or transmit Schedule II Rx, they have to be hand carried paper scripts.
Opioids are limited to a 3 day supply tho (with some tight exceptions, for
those patients that can afford a PM Dr).
------
memset
Interestingly, there is exactly one top-level comment right now on HN. (Now
there are two.) That comment, and the ensuing thread is about buying
pseudoephedrine. How does this relate to fraudulent unemployment insurance
claims?
~~~
billme
No, there is not just one top-level comment. Minimize that comment, then click
“more” to see additional top-level comments.
As for the comment you commented on, that comment would be better placed as a
child comment, but it’s about interstate commutation issues, which clearly
relates to the topic.
------
macinjosh
More like massive fraud against tax payers. The State is part of the problem
here, not a victim. Glad the money I earn by laboring is being taken from me
(without consent) and literally handed over to criminals.
Edit: I see some of you just down vote what you don't agree with. That is OK
it doesn't make me wrong. The state is complicit here in funneling tax payer
money to fraudsters due to their own incompetence. This money is being taken
out of the hands of those these programs are for. Anyway, I'll stop making you
uncomfortable with the truth now.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Health Insurers Pay Facebook Gamers Virtual Currency To Oppose Reform Bill - Hunchr
http://www.businessinsider.com/health-insures-caught-paying-facebook-users-virtual-currency-to-send-letters-to-congress-opposing-reform-bill-2009-12
======
julio_the_squid
In related news, Health Insurers Pay Congress Members Actual Currency To
Oppose Reform Bill.
------
anigbrowl
there's something particularly barf-worthy about not only renting a mob to
advance your political agenda, but paying them with play money into the
bargain.
------
gfodor
Wow, and so the circle of evil is now complete.
------
jcromartie
When the article says:
> Zynga has since removed all offers from its games
Does that mean that _other_ games are still participating?
~~~
Vindexus
Yes. They probably don't know it though as the ads are run through a third
party, such as Gambit, OfferPal or SuperRewards.
------
amalcon
How do they know that the players are actually writing letters? How do they
know they don't just click "Yeah, sure, I wrote it. Now, where's my [virtual
currency]?"
I suspect the number of people doing this would rather dwarf the number of
people who actually bother to write letters.
~~~
Deestan
From the article:
> Instead of asking the gamers to try a product the way Netflix would, "Get
> Health Reform Right" requires gamers to take a survey, which, upon
> completion, automatically sends the following email to their Congressional
> Rep:
> "I am concerned a new government plan could cause me to lose the employer
> coverage I have today. More government bureaucracy will only create more
> problems, not solve the ones we have."
~~~
orangecat
Ugh. I don't support the proposed plan, but protecting "employer coverage" is
just about the worst possible reason to oppose it. Why should my employer have
anything to do with my health insurance, any more than they do with my housing
or auto expenses? In fact, much of my opposition to Obama's plan is that it
strengthens that foolish and harmful dependency.
~~~
walkon
If health benefits didn't have tax breaks, employers would probably stop
giving them and would be able to pay a bit more in salary (benefit cost -
increased taxes). I personally would prefer to be paid more and use that to
select my own health plan, that way it would be portable.
~~~
potatolicious
Except non-employer health plans rarely cover pre-existing conditions, which
ultimately is what ails most people and contributes most to prolonged
suffering in quality of life.
I'm of the opposite opinion, having grown up in Canada (now in the US). I'd
much rather have a public plan, even if it means worse care for a moderately
well-to-do individual like myself.
The whole American health care debate appears to me as a matter of the haves
vs. the have-nots, with the added complexity that a lot of have-nots seem to
incorrectly identify themselves as haves.
~~~
walkon
The game would be significantly changed if employers stopped offering it as
part of a benefit package. I'm sure the housing hazard insurance industry
would look much different if it was a standard employment benefit.
Ultimately, insurance of any kind is a financial risk mitigation pool. The
financial risks are spread over those in the pool instead of just one.
Everyone in the pool shares the cost of everyone else. I don't want the
government creating a super large public pool that I am required to pay for,
even if I'm allowed to choose not to be a member of it.
~~~
potatolicious
> I don't want the government creating a super large public pool that I am
> required to pay for, even if I'm allowed to choose not to be a member of it.
This may seem innocuous to Americans, but for us Canadians this sentence
epitomizes why American health care is in the mess it is today. The lack of
concern for your fellow man is disconcerting at best - and based on people
I've talked to here in the US people generally don't feel that _other_ people
being sick and dying will negatively affect them.
IMHO this is the big difference: in socialized medicine countries we
acknowledge that when a large swathe of the population goes without basic
medical care, we all lose - lost productivity, general misery, etc. There's at
least the general notion of paying up "for the greater good".
In America I get the feeling it's more treated as "meh, maybe you should work
harder". The level of apathy demonstrated for people less fortunate is frankly
the one thing that has shocked me ever since moving here, and nowadays is part
of my "definition" of the American consciousness. It's always someone else's
problem, not _our_ collective problem.
~~~
walkon
I would like to add a comment about your, "meh, maybe you should work harder,"
observation.
Perhaps you haven't noticed, but we have a serious problem with a lack of
frugality here. In regards to the lower working class your comment is
referring to, all too often, they'll have no problem spending $2,000 for a
awesome TV. Dropping $110 a month for 200 cable channels? Well, that's a
necessity. Oh, gotta get a new cell phone every 10 months because it's the
latest trend. Get a new (or newer) car for virtually no reason but to look
cool? No problem. Eat out every day? You bet! Pay for a dental checkup? HELL
NO!
That is where I take issue. Many of these people have no problem buying the
fun stuff, but when it comes to the "grown up" things, they balk, and simply
don't put up with it. So, I ask, why should I pay for their "necessities,"
enabling them to go buy fun stuff, while I have to forgo fun stuff for myself
to pay for their said "necessities"?
~~~
potatolicious
It's fun to assume other people are irresponsible, that their ignorance and
stupidity is the only (or primary) reason they suffer.
In my experience that assumption is generally incorrect - and IMHO is really a
very simplified, polarized view of the world, where people are dumb or smart,
good or evil.
This seems to be especially popular on the internet, maybe nerds _are_ a
little bit disconnected from reality, or maybe we just lack empathy.
For what it's worth, I used to have the same opinion of poor people - and then
I (accidentally) spent 4 months living on the wrong side of the tracks.
Suffice it to say, I now refuse to subscribe to such arrogant notions about
the poor. Perhaps you should do the same - spend Christmas with someone living
in a bad neighbourhood, befriend some of them, treat them like nuanced human
beings instead of caricatured archetypes. You will learn a lot - I know I did.
~~~
teeja
Indeed. It's easy to criticize from a distance, easy to be disgusted by
egregious fraud by a rare few when it's trumpeted left and right by the media,
deliberately harming the interests of the great majority. I too have been on
'both sides of the track' at times, and noticed that people who've never known
real misfortune are most likely to criticize situations beyond their
experience. Many people live with situations that the fortunate can hardly
imagine.
What many people can't afford is preventive medicine. As a result, they arrive
at the clinic or hospital with advanced disease that costs far more to treat.
Anyone can understand this, and it makes perfect humane and fiduciary sense to
make preventive visits as affordable as possible. That's the meaning of basic
health care - and to deny it to anyone is illogical and mean-spirited.
------
patrickgzill
Fake money for fake outrage ... has a certain insane consistency.
------
DanielBMarkham
Paying for outrage is not new. I used to work in D.C. and almost every week
there were ads in the paper for protesters. As I remember, it was relatively
good pay if you were of college age.
But virtual money for emails? I have to say I like it. Now everybody can be
fake outraged.
Or maybe I should say I'm outraged?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Live London Air Traffic in BigQuery - alex-olivier
https://github.com/alexolivier/flight2bq
======
iamdave
Haven't looked at the code, but something stuck out to me in the readme:
What's with those squawk codes? Hashed, perhaps?
~~~
lerxst
The headings are a little misaligned on the readme.
For the first row of data in the readme, A023AF would be the 24-bit ICAO
hexadecimal identifier for the aircraft, which using FAA's Registry would
point to US tail number N108NY, operating under callsign EJM685. In that
example, 7660 is the squawk code that the aircraft's transponder is emitting.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
World's Fastest Production Drone - x0054
http://utbgeek.com/uncategorized/tanky-drone-ready-to-fly-racing-at-its-best/
======
Billonto
What about landing, it looks like it's landing directly on the battery. Would
be nice to have a stand or plate to protect the battery. Looks really fast
though.
~~~
x0054
Creator here. We use .5mm FR10 (fiberglass) plated batteries, to keep them
safe in a crash. We considered using CF, but CF is conductive. We will
probably make an optional bottom battery plate. The battery on the bottom
balances out the had, making the drone super agile.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
‘We were sold off’: WeWork’s staff face uncertain future as company collapses - vanusa
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/nov/22/we-were-sold-off-weworks-support-staff-face-uncertain-future-as-company-collapses
======
rollerboi
I don't have the sources for this atm, but I heard last night that SoftBank
doesn't actually have the $9.5B it needs in funding to secure its controlling
stake in WeWork. Which means the guy hasn't gotten his $1.7B yet.
So Softbank needs funding to buy out the controlling stake in WeWork. They're
reaching out to Japan's largest bank, Mitsubishi UFJ, for that $9.5B. As of
last night, MUFJ refused to lend money to Softbank if they intend on using it
as a rescue package for WeWork.
Now Softbank is in a conundrum. This morning, I read that they're trying to
figure out a way to slash Neuman's golden parachute from that $1.7B figure.
Schadenfreude is sweet sometimes.
~~~
chewz
MUFG likely to turn down SoftBank loan over WeWork[1]
SoftBank Seeks $2.8 Billion in Financing From Japan Banks[2]
SoftBank wants to reduce WeWork rescue package[3]
SoftBank Execs Discuss Trimming WeWork Offer and Adam Neumann Payout [4]
[1] [https://www.ft.com/content/d69e84c0-0c1b-11ea-
bb52-34c8d9dc6...](https://www.ft.com/content/d69e84c0-0c1b-11ea-
bb52-34c8d9dc6d84)
[2]
[https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-21/softbank-...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-21/softbank-
said-to-seek-2-8-billion-in-financing-from-japan-banks)
[3] [https://therealdeal.com/2019/11/22/softbank-wants-to-
reduce-...](https://therealdeal.com/2019/11/22/softbank-wants-to-reduce-
wework-rescue-package/)
[4]
[https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-21/softbank-...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-21/softbank-
execs-discuss-trimming-wework-offer-and-neumann-payout)
~~~
rollerboi
Ah, thank you. So it seems that the $9.5b is a total figure, and they're just
short the $2.8B they need from MUFJ.
------
nknealk
I'd love to hear from WeWork customers about recent events. Are customers
watching this thinking "oh man, I don't know if my workplace will be the same
in 6 months, better start looking for alternatives?" Is the atmosphere in
their offices any different now?
~~~
rollerboi
I might be revealing too much here, but I work for a company that leases space
from WeWork, so I go to a WeWork every day and in the evenings I read about
its eventual demise. (Might explain why I'm so morbidly curious about this
company)
The running joke in my dept is they're going to start cutting back on
amenities (watered down mouthwash, less cut up fruit in the fruitwater, etc.)
and we won't see as many maintenance people as we did six months ago.
The private phone booths are still boarded up because of the formaldehyde
issue (our booths weren't "affected" but they're still closed off). There was
a meeting room with a couch that had bedbugs in it, so that was closed off for
a couple weeks. We refuse to use that meeting room now.
WeWork has just had its problem after problem in my time working here. We're
not exactly scared (because we're a larger company and could probably just
telecommute while our office is moved to another building). But we have
noticed that the WeWork associates have become less chipper over time.
~~~
autokad
really strange person. reveling for the downfall of a company that would yield
negative effects on you and your coworkers.
while I find this story interesting to see how things play out, what lessons
learned, etc, I don't revel at all about what is happening even though it has
no direct impact on me. I feel bad for those 2.5k+ employees that went from
'our company is going to go public and this is going to pay off nicely to me'
to "I got nothing and now I'm being laid off". Its sad, sorry that happened to
them.
The wework debacle is already having negative ramifications in tech where
companies are over correcting from earnings growth and investment to higher
bottom lines. This will also lead to lower pay and opportunity for many tech
workers. I'm not reveling.
~~~
woah
I think you might be mixing up “reveling” with “revealing”
~~~
rollerboi
I just read this after I posted a long reply... is this what they meant?? lol
------
timwaagh
Guardian sometimes isn't the best. Their editorial philosophy in this case
wont allow them to on report good news even when it is obvious. WeWork must
downscale or else they are over, so these surplus staffers would ordinarily
have been let go. This is normally not avoidable as there is no option to do
anything else when a company must rapidly downscale. Now they get to keep
their job. I think WeWork deserves a lot of credit for this. They complain
their pay is bad? It is a normal salary paid for the kind of job (cleaning)
that usually has to rely on the black market or extremely temporary gigs.
Although the situation is pretty bad, they have managed it well.
~~~
randycupertino
> It is a normal salary paid for the kind of job (cleaning) that usually has
> to rely on the black market or extremely temporary gigs.
Many cleaning workers are actually unionized, the SEIU is a large union of
service workers with contracts for hospitals, large office complexes, prisons,
schools, etc.
------
corporateslave5
SoftBank and their investors deserve this. SoftBank wanted to take wework and
jam it on the stock market, then pull their money out. They knew this company
was trash, they are no better than Adam Neumann. Congrats to Adam for exposing
and exploiting softbanks attempts to exploit the USA stock market. In the end
this will stop future cases of investors trying to jam garbage companies into
the public markets, essentially stealing money from retail investors who don’t
know better
~~~
arcticbull
There are no good guys here.
Neumann, by taking money from SoftBank, was completely complicit. He knew his
financials, he knew the company was a flaming dumpster, he knew he had no plan
to fix it, other than _buying a wave pool company_ and assigning his family to
high-level positions.
You really think if the company had gone public, Neumann would have what,
stepped up and said "see, this is why we need to add more investor
protections"?
~~~
rolltiide
He didn't need plans to fix it, Softbank got all the information they needed
for their due diligence and invested.
There are plenty of private companies with outside capital that are not
structured for a stock market debut. WeWork was one of them and the investors
tried to list it on the stock markets anyway.
Neumann played the best cards available to him and cemented his consolidated
ownership, with a different share class becoming a mere conduit for payment,
and voter control allowing for unilateral signing off on contracts to himself
and his other entities.
------
dang
Related from yesterday:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21595493](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21595493)
------
sieabahlpark
Anyone who stayed after the IPO fell through is an idiot. What did you expect
to happen? The company is failing so apply elsewhere already
------
zelon88
The guy is getting $1.7bn.
That is gluttonous. To put that into perspective, if you took even just $100m
and divided it among the 1,000 workers laid off each one would get $100,000.
Yet they get nothing. And this one man gets $1.7bn from a company that isn't
even healthy enough to survive while nickle and diming janitors who get paid
$24k/year.
This is what late stage capitalism looks like.
~~~
codegeek
I am a Capitalist but I approve this message. There has to be a sense of
morality somewhere even when running a company. I truly believe that a company
can make great profits while taking care of its people. I also believe that it
is ok for the initial risk takers like founders/CEO to make a hell lot more
money BUT not by destroying other people's lives.
I don't think any private company should have any interference by the Govt.
BUT every founder/owner/CEO should think about their people first. Is this
even possible ? I really hope so. "Moral Capitalism" anyone ?
Disclaimer: I run a small private company of 12 of us and I struggle with this
everyday.
~~~
soulofmischief
> I don't think any private company should have any interference by the Govt.
> BUT every founder/owner/CEO should think about their people first.
This amounts to an _ideological_ viewpoint, however it doesn't map to reality.
If the government doesn't step in, the worst of the worst will sift up to the
top, and the most complacent will sift to the bottom. It's how things
naturally fall into place.
Exploitative people in an unchecked market have an unmatched advantage. If you
believe in real market competition, then pure capitalism cannot work because
it stifles competition by creating unfair disadvantages for CEOs who think
about their people, discouraging them from acting benevolently.
The problem is that you see the government as this authoritarian beast who
must be kept in a cage for the safety of its people, when in reality a healthy
government _is its people_. Government regulations in a free market are a
result of the consumers who participate in the market wanting protection.
In the end, you either favor consumer protection or corporate protection.
Which seems more moral to you?
~~~
flavmartins
> consumer protection or corporate protection
Pick one. Couldn't have said it better. This is what people ALWAYS have to
remember. And as a reminder, the corporation will always take care of the
corporation.
~~~
codegeek
I think it depends on the size and nature of the corporation. For a small
bootstrapped private company (I run one), I always think about taking care of
employees along with making a profit. For us, customers come second because I
have the freedom to decide that (no outside board/investors to answer to). So
I would say it depends. Corporation is not just about taking care of the
corporation. There can be a middle ground even though I agree that a
corporation is not a charity and the goal is obviously to make money. I
personally don't believe in "Profits over people" even though I have the
freedom to believe and act accordingly. perhaps once you get VC funding and
the hockey stick growth pressure, all that goes outta the window ?
------
pastor_elm
A company that hires somebody 'at-will' has no obligation to keep them
employed forever. Employees at places like WeWork, which are transparent with
their unsustainable nature, should understand that and act appropriately. IMO,
it's a detriment to worker's rights to believe in this sense of Big Brother
Capitalist altruism.
~~~
rexpop
"obligation" is an interesting word to use, though I agree that naïveté is
detrimental to one's capacity to advocate for less-precarious working
conditions.
------
bpodgursky
Adam Neumann jacked $10B in funding from dumb, rich, foreign investors
(SoftBank). Over 80% of that money was pumped into salaries and domestic real-
estate deals.
Why are people mad about this? Dude is a modern Robin Hood -- a national hero.
Let him keep the $1.7B change.
~~~
Apocryphon
Robin Hood didn't keep the money he stole.
~~~
typeformer
Good rebuttal ^
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Hands-On with the $159 Google Pixel Buds - rbanffy
https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/04/hands-on-with-the-159-google-pixel-buds/?ncid=rss&utm_source=tcfbpage&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&sr_share=facebook
======
axaxs
My opinion: Google is selling and pricing hardware based on software
capabilities. For a lot of people, myself included, some of these features are
amazing. That said, at the end of the day, it's still a $160 version of
something that are commonly broken, and have cheaper 'dumb' versions of for a
few bucks. This makes me really hesitant to buy.
Ideally, what I'd like to see to make myself, and I'm sure some others, a
buyer is a free replacement program. I'm more than willing to support awesome
software if I don't have to worry about it's backing hardware breaking so
easily, especially something a lot of folks jam in their pockets.
~~~
jib
I'm on the other side I guess, but with the same conclusion.
I can tell from the design that I will never wear those ear buds. There is no
way to create a decent seal in the ear using just hard plastic, so the sound
will suffer for music, and that's the main reason I buy earbuds.
I'm not a snob about music stuff, but for around 100 USD I get a decent pair
of earbuds that create a proper seal and gives me good music quality. I'd love
the features, but I'm not going to sacrifice the main reason I use in-ear
headphones in the first place - the ability to relatively cheaply have good
quality sound.
~~~
nvarsj
They can be a safety hazard. Pedestrians wearing them don’t pay attention to
their surroundings at all. The fact they are in ear means it’s hard to notice
when someone is wearing them. I view non isolating as a necessary feature for
earphones generally used on the go. I know people swear by them for long train
and subway commutes but I think it’s pretty stupid wearing them for walking
about, just like wearing headphones while cycling.
~~~
potatolicious
Agreed - I'm into these earbuds specifically because they _don 't_ seal. I
have nice headphones at home for "actual" listening.
When I'm out and about I have to balance sound quality with not getting hit by
a bus. For me anything I wear outside needs to let in outside noise.
------
dingo_bat
This is just google trying to be apple, except with shitty products. The $160
airpods actually bring something new and worthwhile to the market. This $160
"wireless" wired earbud brings nothing except inconvenience.
~~~
soared
Google's translate in real time, while apple's were a copy-cat of countless
other wireless headphones. I'd argue the opposite of your claim. (Apple did
make them smaller than usual though, which is new I suppose).
~~~
djrogers
Googles _don 't_ translate anything though - all they bring to the party is a
button that works with Google's translation software on your phone. Previous
HN threads included responses from googles who worked on the feature that
confirm this.
Also, which earbuds do you think the AirPods are copy-cats of? The only real
wire-free buds out when they were announced were the original Bragi ones which
were priced over $100 higher, had lower battery life, and were larger.
[1][https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15404918](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15404918)
~~~
connorl33t
I seem to remember FreeWavz & HearNotes before Apple's "AirPods"
~~~
allwein
You mean the FreeWavz that still aren't shipping or the HearNotes which ripped
off all their Kickstarter backers before getting sued into oblivion?
~~~
cptskippy
Earin actually shipped and so did Bragi.
~~~
macintux
Earin: no microphone. Bragi did ship first but with lots of flaws.
------
donald123
Do the earbuds actually do any of the translation work? I think they are just
bluetooth earbuds with touch control, all the real-time translations are done
in google's translation app. Google released this real-time conversation
translation to the app back in 2015. I don't see anything special to the
hardware itself that could justify the $160 price.
~~~
dharma1
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15404918](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15404918)
~~~
euyyn
Thanks for the pointer! That explains it.
------
dorfsmay
Read the article because I thought google came out with a "light" version of
the pixel.
Given how fast phones become outdated, and battery life deteriorate, 200$ is
what I want to pay for a phone if I have to replace it every other year...
I lose and break headsets all the time. For me they are consumable. That's way
too expensive for consumable.
~~~
jsight
Just get a Moto G or something. They fit the price and function well as a
"consumable".
~~~
bronson
The G5 is dirt cheap at Costco. It's a great phone except for the camera.
If Moto could put a decent camera in there (go ahead and charge me an extra
$50), it very well could be my ideal phone.
~~~
intrasight
What is the G5 price at Costco?
~~~
maxsilver
The Moto G5 Plus is around $220 at Costco, but has been as low as $180
depending on sales that may be running in any given week.
~~~
puzzle
It should also have the same sensor as the Pixel 2, although not the same
software, OIS, etc.
------
vanattab
What I really want is a windows desktop version of the google translate app so
I can understand all the Chinese PUBG players who are playing on the NA
servers(For some reason I can't really wrap my head around the Chinese say
their own servers are unplayable do to latency). It's supper frustrating join
a 4 play squad game on the NA servers and discover you can't understand any of
your teammates in a game where communication is fundamental.
------
nunez
This is not a good review. It was a quick “I put them in my ears during the
event and wrote about it” article.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Calculus Is So Last Century - enitihas
http://www.wsj.com/articles/calculus-is-so-last-century-1457132991
======
arcanus
The article paints a false dichotomy between teaching calculus and
statistics/heuristics/linear algebra.
In reality, it is increasingly important to have exposure to all these fields.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Stevey's Tech News, Issue #1 - fad
http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2007/09/steveys-tech-news-issue-1.html
======
joe
I'm glad Steve doesn't take himself too seriously.
------
edu
What about videos showing how people uses iSuck on myTube?
Em, wait. Forget about it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Indoor Mapping Data Format - davidkhess
https://register.apple.com/resources/imdf/
======
davidkhess
Some more context and background here:
[https://blog.safe.com/2018/10/indoor-mapping-ios-
imdf/](https://blog.safe.com/2018/10/indoor-mapping-ios-imdf/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Top 15 U.S. Startup Accelerators and Incubators Ranked - pitdesi
http://techcocktail.com/top-15-us-startup-accelerators-ranked-2011-05
======
pg
This site is banned on HN (I'm not sure whether for posting fluff articles or
for spamming), but I unkilled this post lest it seem like we were trying to
suppress it.
They certainly don't seem to understand how YC works though. They say that YC
has a "hands-off approach," when in fact the biggest distinction between us
and the others is that at YC the startups are advised by people whose full
time job is to advise them, while at most or all of the others they're advised
by a pool of people who've agreed to advise a few startups on the side.
~~~
replicatorblog
This is another major ding for the Kauffman Foundation, though they were only
indirectly involved. For instance, shouldn't exit size/frequency be measured?
If so Heroku alone would crush the rest of the competition. Shouldn't there be
some kind of rating, rather than just a ranking? Sequential ordering doesn't
begin to illustrate the distance between YC/TC and the rest. You were very
kind to unkill this.
~~~
ph0rque
Should the last sentence be, "You were very kind to unkill this."?
~~~
replicatorblog
Yes, my bad, edited
------
ffumarola
I imagine there is a large gap between the top 5 and the bottom 5. But, I
guess I would need to see the data behind the calculations.
~~~
pmjordan
While their analysis may or may not be valuable, it's completely useless to
the public as long as they don't publish their data. I think the ranking is
probably secondary to collating all the data and other information they've dug
up in one place.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Couresera HD Video Downloader - gurrrung
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/coursera-hd-video-downloa/kpnmpopgchfdpjephjkcgikfjnbpoahf
======
gurrrung
Right now, an issue with video downloads of Coursera is that it doesn't allows
to download videos in HD. This extension resolves that issue by providing the
video download in best quality available.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Crowdfunding – Best Practice - protdum
Hi guys,
I've been looking at how to raise funds from my small startup and a lot of ppl are pointing that crowdfunding could be the way to go. In most cases I see that ppl have physical products that they give away to those who support the idea, but how about if you're doing online software product?
I see that there are also different types of crowdfunding - those where you give equity and those where you give your product away.<p>Any suggestion, comments, ideas are more then welcome :)
======
bitcrazy
Since yours is software its much easier to give away freebies. Discount codes,
special features, early access features, etc are much easier to do than a
physical product. Also its a great way to get feedback and generate buzz on
the project.
Echoing the other comment, I would agree to avoid giving out equity. The
customer is far less vested in your company's success than you are.
------
mytailorisrich
My view is that you always want to avoid giving equity. Whether you have a
physical or online product does not make much difference in allowing you to
give it away for free. In fact it's even easier and cheaper to do with a
software product that has no marginal cost. You could consider to give free
lifetime licenses to early backers, for example.
~~~
protdum
Awesome input! That's that I was thinking. Out product will have freemium and
premium subscription. Premium subscription would remove ads and give you the
access to premium features. So, I was wondering if I could leverage that over
getting backed up by the crowd?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Spiders think with their webs, challenging our ideas of intelligence - jonbaer
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24532680-900-spiders-think-with-their-webs-challenging-our-ideas-of-intelligence/
======
leshokunin
Interesting to think of how this relates with the Extended Mind theory
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Extended_Mind](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Extended_Mind))
and how our environment and setup is effectively part of our cognition. In a
way, maybe we should consider intelligence to not just be about our ability to
connect A to B in complex ways (or equivalent views) but rather as the ability
to create frameworks both in an internal and and internal process. In that
sense, you could think of intelligence as a stack. Would love to hear thoughts
on this.
~~~
AquiGorka
Thank you for sharing this "Extended Mind" concept, it is mind-blowing -> on
an arbitrarily contained mind inside a skull to keep collateral damage to a
minimum. In the mind experiment of Inga and Otto they use a notebook to
extends Otto's mind and claim it is so because "it is constantly and
immediately accessible to Otto", can we say the same of the Internet? Does it
extend our own minds?
~~~
leshokunin
Absolutely. More specifically, the Internet itself can be thought of as an
extended network of neurons. To extend cognition with it, you need to
integrate its knowledge without yours (for example by reaching information as
quickly as via in-body cognition, eg via Google or a notes app), and you need
applications that can deliver this knowledge (usually SAAS). If you have such
a system in place, it's functionally the same as having a bespoke work stack
that complements your cognition.
------
dr_dshiv
Distributed cognition is a really powerful idea that breaks a lot of our
assumptions about individuality and agency. When applied to something like AI,
I think it promotes much better thinking about how to get productive work done
-- since it isn't so much about the algorithm as the system as a whole.
I recommend Ed Hutchins book "Cognition in the Wild" or Don Norman's "the
design of everyday things"
Other related ideas are "the extended mind" and "actor-network theory". It is
hard not to come to the conclusion that personal identity is useful for
drivers licenses but ultimately a very elaborate social illusion/myth.
I really like the implications for reincarnation, though!
------
fsloth
Well, I extend my cognition quite extensively to my pen and paper notes, my
whiteboard and my code. Suddenly I get a sense of familiarity with the
spider...
------
hyperpallium
Based on encephalization quotient, spiders are the most intelligent animals.
Some baby spiders' brains overflow even into their legs.
I guess a web can be used as a turing machine tape... though, 3D and finite.
Their big problem is asociability.
------
CodiePetersen
Well it's not too crazy when you think about it. The web is just encoding
location and size data for them. Any medium that generated the same results
every time would do the same thing. I think because of their smaller
intelligence it just seems more profound than it actually is because it
represents a significant portion of their capabilities.
We see this in some types of machine learning. Echo state networks and
reservoir computing essential just encode the data with their random
connections.
So I think it's cool, but not that surprising. The spider is just learning the
world through its web just like a musician learns music through a specific
instrument. The difference is its not a significant portion of our
intelligence and we have extra space/power to learn the world through
different tools. Language, writing,reading, computing, mathematics, etc.
------
_0ffh
Well, we know that ants use their extended phenotype (pheromone trails) as
part of their collective decision making processes. And we know spiders that
use their extended phenotype (net) as part of their sensing apparatus. And we
know that sensing and sensory processing are not clearly distinguishable.
Personally, TIL that there is already a name "extended cognition"/"extended
mind" connected to the idea. I just wonder that neither Wikipedia article
recognizes that this is clearly a subfield of the more general idea of the
"extended phenotype".
------
vladharbuz
Does anyone have a link to the paper?
~~~
spicymaki
I found this paper online:
[https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10071-017-1069-7#...](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10071-017-1069-7#Abs1)
------
LargoLasskhyfv
Lacks mention of
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portia_(genus)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portia_\(genus\))
the jumping spider which hunts!
------
reportgunner
Do people think with _The Web_ too then ? Baity headline.
------
pvaldes
Sorry, but I don't see a lot of real substance here. It seems like "Forcing
the religious idea of an universal consciousness again down to our throats".
Are spiders smart? yes. With capital letter. Some at least can be top of the
game for a small arthropod. But If spiders think with their webs then we
should consider the hair in our arms, our shoes and our googles part or our
brain also. As philosopical idea It could have some merit, but it has not any
sense in biology when what we call brain is clearly defined and delimited.
~~~
platistocrates
Oh but the brain isn't clearly delimited. You think with your gut, your spinal
cord, your hormones. Even your eyeballs preprocess information before passing
it up to your brain. :)
------
ganzuul
I wonder if cats and dogs carry scents around like memories. If so they have
to be really confused when you bathe them.
~~~
basch
I'm thinking of ants and scent trails, and bees dancing.
------
alexanderhorl
And humans think with their phone today.
~~~
dr_dshiv
It is like the third hemisphere of our brain
------
jarrell_mark
️️🧠
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Is it worth open-sourcing my early stage startup? - derwiki
It's something I was interested in trying to do at my last job before I quit, but the battle was hand auditing an entire, mature codebase. The site I want to open source (http://www.cameralends.com) is less than 2 months old and could easily be audited. I'm interested in open source because:<p>- holds me to a higher standard of quality<p>- reduces the barrier for collaboration (anyone can submit a pull request)<p>- builds trust with the users<p>I think I understand the application level risks I'd be taking doing this, but I'm not sure about the business/legal implications. Would doing this make my startup stronger or weaker?
======
teyc
Your site is a marketplace. What users need is trust in other users, not trust
in your source code. What happens if someone loses your pricey lens? Or sells
it on ebay and disappears? Those are the main issues.
Furthermore, you aren't in the open source business. What happens if someone
offers you a patch, and it is not in the direction you want to go? What
happens if someone is not satisfied with your service and forks the code base?
Now you have even more problems.
------
QuantumGuy
It doesn't really matter as long as your startup is good, people really could
care less. Besides with an open source startup people can help you debug.
Which is exactly what the people I am working with did.
<https://github.com/lefnire/habitrpg>
<https://github.com/lefnire/habitrpg/wiki/Business-Model> We even got a
kickstarter for our open source startup
<http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lefnire/habitrpg-mobile> So no it is not
a bad idea to open source your startup just be careful.
------
officialjunk
Doesn't sound like open sourcing is relavent to your product. Focus on the
minimal viable product, getting users and growing that revenue stream first.
You can always open source later.
------
AznHisoka
Honestly, it doesn't matter. You're better off worrying about how to get a ton
of users by ranking high in search engines, and developing good word of mouth.
------
miriadis
I absolutely agree with other comments here. This is not a software startup,
is a service and nobody cares about the software that supports it. You should
concentrate you efforts on provide the best support you can and not the
technical details.
------
arb99
>\- builds trust with the users
Most of your market honestly won't care if you have open sourced your code
(and it won't build up any further trust).
~~~
jmm57
Maybe not main stream users. However, the market right now seems to be early-
adopter-type camera geeks in San Francisco. I would think open sourcing the
application would garner some serious respect from that crowd, if not trust.
~~~
argonaut
Unless these camera geeks are also software developers that actively follow
open-source projects, I doubt they actually care. The intersection between
those two groups, multiplied by the very slight amount of trust that is gained
(teyc was right in that users don't care about your code, they care about
other users), while non-zero, is not substantial enough to warrant open-
sourcing and all the hurdles that come with it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Cloudflare’s CEO has a plan to never censor hate speech again (2017) - fennecfoxen
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/12/cloudflares-ceo-has-a-plan-to-never-censor-hate-speech-again/
======
sarcasmatwork
In regards to: [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/05/technology/8chan-
cloudfla...](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/05/technology/8chan-cloudflare-
el-paso.html)
------
fennecfoxen
It is interesting to contrast the plan with the execution of the plan in
practice, whether one regards the 8Chan shutdown as defensible or otherwise.
------
quotemstr
The concept of the slippery slope is no fallacy.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Student Who Found GPS Device On His Car Due To Reddit Comment Sues The FBI - jedwhite
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110304/10254213366/student-who-found-gps-device-his-car-due-to-reddit-comment-sues-fbi.shtml
======
tptacek
For my little branch of this comment thread, can we leave aside the FBI's
reason for planting a GPS monitor? Just assume the FBI had no reason
whatsoever. That they did it randomly. I tend to agree that in this case, they
didn't seem to have a good reason. But, then:
Exactly what is the damage this guy suffered? What's he suing over?
Why should it be unconstitutional for the FBI to use technology to do
something they can _clearly_ already do without technology? It is not a
violation of your civil rights for an unmarked car to follow you around and
watch you.
There clearly is a line here, so let me foreclose on that response right up
front. Yes, it would be unconstitutional if the FBI tried to track all of us,
by making coded GPS monitors mandatory on all cars.
But in this case, if they couldn't plant the monitor, they could just follow
him. He'd have no case. It's almost exactly the same loss of privacy. So why
it such a big deal in the GPS case?
~~~
iujyhfgtrtgyhju
>Exactly what is the damage this guy suffered? What's he suing over?
That's what we are trying to find out! He was being spied on because he has a
foreign sounding name -
is he now on a no-fly list? is he on a secret do-no-hirelist for defense
companies? for telecoms companies? for any companies with govt contracts? Does
the FBI secretly OK who state colleges accept?
If being secretly tracked by the secret police is no real damage - at what
point is there damage? When the cattle trucks arrive ? Or when they get over
6Million
~~~
dhughes
> That's what we are trying to find out! He was being spied on because he has
> a foreign sounding name
That's the worst part, fixating on such a useless thing.
Imagine if the US and Canada went to war, I as a Canadian of Irish heritage
could easily blend in, meanwhile the French with accents would be targeted.
Meanwhile the people who don't fit a stereotype are planting bombs.
It's incredibly unprofessional, amateurish and ignorant for government
security agents to use such superficial reasons to think a person is a threat.
~~~
byrneseyeview
>It's incredibly unprofessional, amateurish and ignorant
I think the term you're looking for is "Bayesian," actually.
------
hollerith
If this is how they react to a comment on Reddit, just think of how much
quicker or more drastic their reaction to a similarly provocative comment on a
site with the ominous name _Hacker_ News.
("ominous name": Although the word _Hacker_ is not ominous to most of us, it
is to almost all non-technical members of the Washington establishment.)
~~~
acangiano
Prosecutor: "Is it true Mr. Hollerith that you self-identify as a hacker and
that you frequent a community of hackers known as Hacker News?"
You: "Yes, but..."
Prosecutor: "A simple yes or no will suffice."
You: "There are questions that can't be answered with a simple yes or no. For
example, you could ask me if I have stopped beating my wife."
Prosecutor: "Have you, Mr. Hollerith?"
In short, a jury of "peers" is not going to be comprised of peers. On average
they are people who have a poor grasp of logic, statistics, and the
personality of hackers. They'll judge you based on the way you look, talk,
etc... And since you are all Mr. Smarty Pants, members of the average jury
will not trust you, like you, or relate with you. As such, hacker types have a
major disadvantage in court, even before tossing around labels that are
considered as "shady" by the general public.
~~~
mcantor
Is it permissible in American courts to require the prosecutor to
unambiguously define "hacker" before answering?
If not, can you feign ignorance of the definition and explain that you are
thus literally incapable of providing an honest & informed answer; and since
you are under oath, require a definition before answering?
~~~
jrockway
"It depends upon what the meaning of the word 'is' is."
------
davidk0101
All these goof-ups by the FBI don't paint a pretty picture about the agency at
all and I'm surprised some news agency isn't up in arms about their funding
and incompetence like they are with the teachers' unions.
~~~
raganwald
_All these goof-ups by the FBI don't paint a pretty picture about the agency_
Do you mean the agency founded by J. Edgar Hoover?
[https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/J._Edgar_Hoov...](https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/J._Edgar_Hoover)
Its founding principle was that there are baddies out there who need a special
force of investigators who have powers far exceeding the regular police and
who collect dossiers on suspicious citizens rather than simply waiting for
crimes to occur and then investigating.
In a certain sense, they aren't being incompetent, they're doing exactly what
they were designed to do. The problem isn't the execution, it's the mandate.
Here's another tidbit:
<https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/COINTELPRO>
~~~
davidk0101
I have no problem with the mandate. It's the clear lack of competence in
intelligence gathering that bothers me. Who honestly considers anything said
on reddit to be of any significant value to state security matters? They might
as well throw a dart on some board and make decisions that way if they are so
desperate as to use postings from reddit.
------
ajays
I'm sorry I'm late to this discussion, but: some people seem to be saying,
"what's the harm? what damage did he suffer?".
I'd like to point them to Kyllo -vs- United States
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyllo_v._United_States> . Basically, the USSC
ruled that taking a thermal image of a house amounted to "unreasonable
search". Even though the heat rays emanating from the dwelling can be
considered "public knowledge", the cops can't use it to then conclude that
there's a grow op in the house.
So, just because something is sorta "public" it doesn't mean the cops can
reach for it.
~~~
jeza
Wouldn't it be a little scary finding such a device in your car? At first, you
might wonder if it's linked to a a bomb. Then if you consider it's a tracking
device, who is actually following you? I'm sure it's enough to give some
people at least moderate anxiety and others possible severe. Who knows what
else.
------
aw3c2
actual and better source:
[http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110303/ap_on_re_us/us_gps_track...](http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110303/ap_on_re_us/us_gps_tracking_warrants)
~~~
GHFigs
Much better source.
" _His lawyers say Afifi, who was born in the United States, was targeted
because of his extensive ties to the Middle East — he travels there
frequently, helps support two brothers who live in Egypt, and his father was a
well-known Islamic-American community leader who died last year in Egypt._ "
This is part of the story that TechDirt left out in favor of the inflammatory
but misleading man-persecuted-over-Reddit-comment angle.
~~~
furyg3
Replace the words with whatever country is 'scary' to you, and you've got
probable cause!
_"His lawyers say Wing, who was born in the United States, was targeted
because of his extensive ties to asia — he travels there frequently, helps
support two brothers who live in China, and his father was a well-known Asian-
American community leader who died last year in China."_
Ridiculous... racism is not probable cause.
~~~
pbhjpbhj
>"well-known Islamic-American community leader"
This sort of comment I always assume is double-talk (government-ese maybe) for
someone who they know has close ties to terrorists. I'm guessing one of the
family has been undertaking some "terrorist" activities and that makes it look
bad for Afifi as he's sending money home. Of course this is speculation and
Afifi himself wouldn't likely know if it were true or not so I have no way of
knowing either.
~~~
Confusion
Martin Luther King was a "well-known Christian-American community leader".
That's how you should read it.
That you think otherwise means they already managed to indoctrinate you that
far, to accept the seeds of doubt and mistrust they try to plant. That way,
however it turns out, they are always right.
~~~
GHFigs
_That's how you should read it. That you think otherwise means they already
managed to indoctrinate you that far..._
What doctrine are you beholden to that gives you the right to declare someone
"indoctrinated" if they don't interpret things exactly as you do? Is no man
free to think for himself?
------
smutticus
What I don't get is why he had to give it back. Since the FBI stuck it to his
car isn't it his now? When they came to demand it back he should have refused.
Are they going to arrest him for harboring stolen property? They gave it to
him.
~~~
ErrantX
If I recall correctly he did ask for proof that it was theirs before he would
hand it back, but I seem to remember they refused and basically threatened him
into returning it.
~~~
Evgeny
What would they do to him if he just destroyed it as a suspicious, unknown,
but potentially dangerous object?
~~~
SandB0x
Or had "accidentally" dislodged it and attached it to a freight truck.
~~~
mcantor
"Jeez. This guy really drives a lot, for a student."
------
naner
He didn't find it "due to Reddit."
His mechanic noticed it when doing maintenance work (it was hidden improperly
and was an older, bulkier model). Then the kid posted a picture of it to
Reddit and asked what it was. Shortly after the FBI showed up at his house and
asked for it back.
~~~
mitcheme
I think the headline is supposed to mean that the GPS device was on his car
due to a Reddit comment.
It is a really awkward headline though.
------
waterlesscloud
Leaving aside the particulars of this case since all we've heard so far is
what his lawyers are saying happened, the troubling issue here is that somehow
attaching a GPS device is an action that does not require a warrant.
I can accept the argument that it doesn't gather information that couldn't be
gathered by other warrantless activity such as following him with agents.
But it also MUST require that they entered the personal property of his car.
You can't search a car without consent or a warrant, why can you enter it
without either?
------
Kilimanjaro
If they can plant a GPS in your car, what will stop them from planting a
microphone or video camera in your bedroom? Wiretapping is so common nowadays
that we don't even complain any more.
------
code_duck
The consensus here seems to be that the FBI crossed the line from passive to
active tracking, and should have needed a warrant, when they entered his
property to place the GPS device into his vehicle.
Tracking you by something like GPS on your cell phone doesn't require physical
interaction with your property. The effect is similar, though. What's the
difference?
------
printerjam
Open information systems (the internet) leads to all sorts of changes in
closed system (Middle Eastern governments, State Departments, the FBI). The
internet is fun again.
------
shennyg
Not sure if I missed it but what was the comment he posted that flagged him to
the FBI?
~~~
eapen
This was actually his friend's comment on Reddit.
[http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ciiag/so_if_my_de...](http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ciiag/so_if_my_deodorant_could_be_a_bomb_why_are_you/c0sve5q)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
In Defense of Older Workers: There’s No Substitute for Experience And Maturity - henrik_w
http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130425040156-8451-in-defense-of-older-workers-there-s-no-substitute-experience-and-maturity
======
nowarninglabel
Hmm, all the examples of people given that did great things after 40 are the
same people who established themselves as great names early on. That's not
going to be true of the vast majority of older workers.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Babushka. Sane deployment. - speek
http://babushka.me/#demo
======
ben_h
Thanks for submitting this, speek :)
For those that are interested in trying out babushka, here's a 30 second crash
course. To install:
bash -c "`curl -L babushka.me/up`" # If you're on a Mac
bash -c "`wget -O - babushka.me/up`" # If you're on Ubuntu
Some good examples to start with:
babushka rubygems # Installs, updates, or adds gem sources as required for your system
babushka homebrew # Sets you up for sudoless `brew install`s
babushka Cucumber.tmbundle # Clones the latest, installing / restarting TextMate as required
babushka Chromium.app # Pulls the latest Chromium nightly to /Applications
If you want to see what will happen without making any changes, use `--dry-
run`:
babushka Transmit.app --dry-run
If you're on a Mac, you can follow along in TextMate too using `--track-
blocks` — babushka points out each piece of each dep as it runs them. (This
also works with `--dry-run`, so you can inspect the code a tree of deps would
run.)
mate /usr/local/babushka
babushka 'Ruby on Rails.tmbundle' --track-blocks
Any questions, get in touch with @babushka_app on Twitter, #babushka on
Freenode, or email [email protected].
Cheers — @ben_h
[edit: fixed the babushka.me/up links.]
~~~
drhodes
bash -c "`wget -O - babushka.me/up`" # If you're on Ubuntu
Needs a closing tick before the last double quote there.
This project will no doubt save a significant amount of time. Thanks for
sharing your work.
~~~
ben_h
I should have copied and pasted instead of typing it out :) Thanks for the
correction, fixed.
------
shazow
Thought I'd point out that Babushka means "grandmother" or "old lady" in
Russian.
Based on your logo, you were thinking Matryoshka.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matryoshka_doll>
It's also known as a "Babushka doll" (because it features a grandmother-like
image) but the doll is definitely not the first thing that comes to mind when
hearing "Babushka".
I have no feedback on the actual product. Looks fun, best of luck. :-)
~~~
ben_h
Yep, I was aware of that :)
I chose babushka because here in Australia at least, the nested Russian dolls
are known as babushka dolls. (Also, Matryoshka is kind of already taken by the
video container format <http://www.matroska.org/>).
And hey, I'm cool with babushka being a kindly grandmother that helps you
remember things you've researched, as long as you explain them in its DSL
first :)
~~~
hristov
Little known fact, babushka also means butterfly in Russian (if you put the
stress on a different syllable). So if you do not like the old lady as a
marketing image you can always go with a pretty butterfly.
~~~
d0mine
grandma and butterfly are different words in Russian. Listen
<http://tts.imtranslator.net/A3Xz>
~~~
hristov
yes butterfly is technically babochka, but they sound the same to the english
ear.
~~~
gruseom
There's no "technically" about it. That's just what the word means. It's
irrelevant how similar they sound to the English ear; you might as well argue
that "the" is interchangeable with "duh".
Also, contrary to the GP, there's no difference in stress, which is on the
first syllable in both words. The reason they're different words is that "sh"
vs. "ch" is a phonemic distinction in Russian, just as it is in English.
That's why we distinguish between "sheep" and "cheep", for example, and would
regard it as bizarre to conflate them.
~~~
Groxx
Maybe they can go for a near-homonym pun? A nested grandmother doll with
butterfly wings?
------
pedoh
Some people might lean towards this instead of Puppet / Chef / cfengine
because the "normal" way to use Puppet is in a client / server model, and that
might seem overly complex for some projects. But Puppet can be used in a
serverless way.
At it's simplest, Puppet can do what it looks like Babushka is doing, without
the interactive nature of Babushka (which could be viewed as a positive or a
negative). Getting more complex, rules about what gets done / installed /
modified can be pulled from a central location, even without a Puppetmaster
(server).
I'm not saying the Babushka author is crazy for creating this. Perhaps he had
an itch that needed scratching and wanted to build this just for the pleasure
of it, or felt that Puppet was overly complex for his needs. I think the work
he's done is pretty slick, but there doesn't appear to be much add-on value
for anyone who is already using Puppet or Chef or cfengine.
If Ben is lurking around here, I'd enjoy hearing his motivations for creating
this. He might disagree with my assessment, too, and that'd be interesting to
hear.
~~~
ben_h
Hi, great questions.
Chef and puppet have a lot to offer. In particular, there are things that chef
and puppet can do that babushka can't, like orchestrating ecosystems of
multiple machines, and provisioning new hardware automatically.
Deployment is a problem that I'm very interested in, being a web developer and
maintaining my own production machines, and I think babushka has a lot to
offer in that area. However, I don't think of babushka as a deployment tool. I
think of it as a "remember what I researched or learned the first time" tool,
and part of that is deployment.
In building it, I'm aiming to build the most concise, powerful DSL I can for
automating chores, and at focusing it as hard as I can towards the "no job too
small" end of the scale.
My other main motivation is making babushka immediately useful and
approachable, both as a user and a contributor—i.e. I want you to be running
deps and seeing results within 2 minutes of discovering the app. And I want
you to be able to write your own deps as easily and quickly as possible, push
them to github with a single command, and have anyone else run or incorporate
them into their own trees of deps equally easily. Most of that is already
possible today using automatic dep sources, and the remainder I'm working on.
:)
For example, Josh Bassett has been building a template for installing vim
plugins: [http://github.com/nullobject/babushka-
deps/blob/master/vim_p...](http://github.com/nullobject/babushka-
deps/blob/master/vim_plugins.rb) \- which means you can automate the
installation of your own plugins by writing a babushka dep like Josh's:
vim_plugin "vim-cucumber" do
source "git://github.com/tpope/vim-cucumber.git"
end
You can run that dep with a single command, even if you've never used Josh's
dep source before:
babushka nullobject/vim-cucumber
And so on, to configure anything and everything you like. It's already doing
this job, which I'm really excited about.
<http://twitter.com/harvinius/status/13116470017>
Similar things are already working well for textmate bundles, OS X app bundles
and installer packages, git repos, and so on. The idea is that babushka is
purely the engine (plus enough deps for it to install itself), and it should
be as fast and pleasant as possible to not only write deps like the vim-
cucumber one above, but to create new templates and make new tasks I've never
thought of. You can extend the DSL using the DSL. :)
So — I have a lot of time for tools like chef, and probably have a lot to
learn from them too. I'm building babushka to be complementary to those tools.
For example, part of larger deployments is doing specific, more focused jobs
at certain points, which is something that babushka is just right for.
------
mitchellh
I've look around shortly (github page, website) and I couldn't find anything
so I'm going to ask what I think is the obvious question here:
Why not Chef?
Why not Puppet?
Why not _X_?
Babushka looks very cool, don't get me wrong. But I'm curious about the above
questions.
~~~
ben_h
It's a really good question, and one I probably should answer more directly on
the website and in the README.
As I wrote above, I have a lot of time for these other tools—in fact the
creators of sprinkle (Marcus Crafter) and deprec (Mike Bailey) are both mates
of mine here in Melbourne, Australia—and I don't want to just duplicate their
work. I'm trying something different here. Deployment is definitely still
important to me with babushka, but I'm trying to build a more general tool
that makes it as fast and pleasant as possible to automate getting to some end
goal.
And that's one of the other differences—babushka is goal-oriented, not task-
oriented. Unless there's some specific incompatibility, you can install
babushka on (for example) any Mac in any state with this
bash -c "`curl -L babushka.me/up`"
And then running this
babushka homebrew
Will get you all set up with homebrew. But what it does is achieve the end
goal of having homebrew set up—which might mean doing nothing, or cloning a
git repo, or possibly just doing a `git reset --hard` to drop a binary in
place. It depends on the system. The upshot though, is that if you're working
on some other problem and a new colleague needs homebrew, you can run one
command and you're done, instead of getting sidetracked for 15 minutes.
In focusing on that, I sacrifice usability in other areas—for example, right
now there's not really any such thing as an unattended run using babushka,
because most complex dep trees require user input at runtime. It's still very
much a hands-on process. And that's cool with me—there are already tools out
there that solve those problems, and solve them well.
I'm looking at working on deployment with babushka more with @glenmaddern,
@dgoodlad and some other Melbourne hackers soon. But I'm very conscious of all
the existing tools out there, and I'm a strong believer in deferring to the
right tool for the job whenever possible. So I'm looking to integrate with
existing tools where it makes sense, and solving old problems in novel and
awesome ways whenever I can. :)
------
ELV1S
Unrelated question. How did you make syntax highlighting for bash prompt? I
mean, yellow strings ('user exists' on 5:40) and orange wrong commands
(enclosed string "'use").
I've found no clue in <http://github.com/benhoskings/dot-files>
~~~
a-priori
I believe that's a feature of Fish.
<http://fishshell.org/index.php>
------
ams6110
Your website is useless to people who don't have Flash.
~~~
ben_h
Agree to disagree :)
The only Flash component is the embedded screencast, which is hosted at Vimeo
and downloadable as an mp4: <http://vimeo.com/6782671>
------
Legion
If you had spelled it "Babooshka" like Kate Bush, there's no way I could have
refused to use this tool.
I would have been "all yours".
(For those too young to know who Kate Bush is, imagine if Lady Gaga took the
effort she puts into weird & eclectic outfits and made weird & eclectic twists
on pop music instead)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
I'm not crazy, things are listening, Part 2 - mring33621
I was just in the elevator with a colleague at work. He told me that over Christmas break, he built custom 'Loft' beds for his kids, with desks positioned under the beds. I mentioned that my kids would like that, too, and we both agreed that bunk beds are fun.<p>5 minutes later, I'm on boingboing.net, which then presented me with an ad for "Bunk Bed with Desk -- Custom Built to Order" at the bottom of the page I was reading.<p>I had NOT searched or even typed anything about 'bunk beds' in any application.<p>I do have a Huawei Mate SE Android phone in my pocket.<p>Very strange...<p>FYI, my previous, similar post is here:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21071459<p>Also, please don't take this as an accusation against Huawei -- I'm actually very happy with the phone.
======
planetzero
Are you using Wifi at work? If so, your co-worker probably searched it on the
network, which is why you are seeing ads for it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How MSG Got a Bad Rap (2016) - matt4077
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-msg-got-a-bad-rap-flawed-science-and-xenophobia/
======
userbinator
IMHO the fact that Asians have been consuming it in huge amounts for over a
century, and yet there hasn't been any common health problems linked to it,
should be enough of a clue that it's not really harmful...
I've found that restaurants in China in general tend to use a _lot_ more MSG
and other glutamate products than North America, enough to give me a little
bit of a "high". It would not surprise me that someone not used to it would
probably not like the experience. I once went to a "no MSG" one (they exist
over there too, because the "chemicals are bad" line of thought is just as
prevalent) without being aware of it, and found the food rather bland --- only
upon leaving did I notice the signage.
~~~
noxToken
> _IMHO the fact that Asians have been consuming it in huge amounts for over a
> century, and yet there hasn 't been any common health problems linked to it,
> should be enough of a clue that it's not really harmful..._
This isn't really a good argument. Western people use lactose in a variety of
ways such as a drink additive (tea), for cooking (cheese, cream-based sauces),
and even consuming by the glass (good ol' fashion milk). However, there's a
high prevalence of lactose intolerance in Asian countries. There are just some
sensitivities, diseases, and reactions that are more prevalent in some
ethnicities than others including lactose intolerance, sickle-cell anemia, and
Tay-Sachs disease.
For the record, I keep a bottle of MSG in my pantry. I love the stuff, and the
only way you'll get me to stop using it is by prying it from my cold, dead
hands.
~~~
alexandercrohde
Not to mention "Asian Glow." There are a number of health experiences that are
personal.
Clumsy attempts to make across-the-board statements about healthy or not will
necessarily fail in these circumstances.
------
YeGoblynQueenne
It's the first I hear about "Chinese Restaurant Syndrome" but MSG is 12.28g
per 100g sodium and so should be avoided by, or at the very least restricted
in the diets of, people on a low-sodium diet, such as hypertensives, kidney
patients and diabetics.
_________________
Source of the 12.28g per 100g claim:
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5694874/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5694874/)
Which actually advocates for the use of MSG to reduce sodium, which I find
very unreasonable. The point of MSG is to increase the umami taste- but you
can get that from glutamate acid, without the sodium. The only extra thing you
get from MSG is the extra sodium.
The article says that only a small amount of MSG is required to enhance taste,
but just try asking workers in restaurants how much MSG is in the food they
serve you. Try asking them how much salt is in it, even - I have a relative on
a low sodium diet and I know it's pointless, people don't even understand the
question. "How much salt? What do you mean?".
And of course, just because someone puts MSG in their food doesn't mean they
don't also add extra salt to it. The result is that people like my relative
can't eat food with MSG without getting about twice their safe daily intake
from a single meal.
Another study on 1227 Chinese adults found that MSG increased blood pressure
over a period of 5 years:
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21372742](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21372742)
But I can't read the full text.
~~~
imjustsaying
>But I can't read the full text.
append the link to sci-hub.tw/
[https://sci-hub.tw/https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21372...](https://sci-
hub.tw/https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21372742)
------
ttul
I routinely sprinkle MSG onto my roast potatoes and into salads. Just a tiny
bit and everyone is wondering how I make such amazingly tasty food.
MSG won me over after I read about Nathan Myhrvold using it in his science
kitchen.
~~~
ramraj07
I am totally all for spewing MSG on everything, but it might not be best that
you're secretly adding msg to foods you serve a bunch of people without their
awareness. Not that I agree with their stupid world views but if someone wants
to believe that MSg is bad for them, then it's their choice. I think we should
not accidentally or deliberately serve something to someone they might not
prefer to eat.
~~~
hueving
What about secretly adding salt or pepper? How about olive oil?
If you're cooking food for people it's not common to get pre-approval of the
ingredients beyond asking for any dietary restrictions.
~~~
serf
>If you're cooking food for people it's not common to get pre-approval of the
ingredients beyond asking for any dietary restrictions.
you're a lucky chef. You'll get a real reality check when cooking for an
elderly bunch of diabetics who automatically presume the world is low-sodium.
I've found it's just easier to automatically presume that _everyone_ has
dietary restrictions, just some much more mild than most (some hate brocolli,
and some will _die_ if they are near peanuts, but it's the same scale.).
~~~
afarrell
> I’ve found it's just easier to automatically presume that everyone has
> dietary restrictions...
Could you explain more how you do this in practice? Do you list out all
ingredients in a menu? Or do you have a list of standard dietary restrictions
that most people have (pork, shellfish, dairy, beef, coconut, peanuts,
horseradish, salt, ...) and just remove all of them?
~~~
pjc50
Don't presume, ask; something like "do you have any dietary requirements?"
along with a dinner invitation. Covers everything from vegetarianism to highly
specific allergies. Also puts the ball in the other person's court to be clear
upfront before anything is cooked or purchased.
~~~
mlrtime
Nobody will mention MSG in this scenario unless they have a very acute allergy
to it.
~~~
hopler
Then everyone gets MSG if the chef wants it. Chef is not telepath.
------
TehCorwiz
It's present in large quantities in Doritos, most other packaged salty snack
foods, Kentucky Fried Chicken, soy extract, shiitake mushrooms, broccoli,
walnuts, etc.
I highly doubt MSG has any health risk associated with it due to its natural
presence in many foods.
It's more likely that it became a racist stand-in, considering there are other
false Chinese food tropes: Quality or source of meat (allusions to cats and
dogs), cleanliness of kitchens, MSG, etc.
~~~
alexandercrohde
The race thing is a complete red-herring. The only question that matters is
"How does it make me personally feel after I eat it?"
It really doesn't even matter how it makes the average statistical sample
psychology students feel.
~~~
Sohcahtoa82
> The only question that matters is "How does it make me personally feel after
> I eat it?"
Even this question is problematic because of the nocebo effect.
------
rubyn00bie
FWIW I've always called MSG "Makes Stuff Good," because it does just that... I
realized it wasn't bad mostly because there was no seeming regularity to if I
felt bad after eating foods with it.
Eventually it dawned on me that perhaps overeating an abundance of oil in
foods with it probably makes me feel like shit, and... yep, it was the oil
(maybe others will have similar anecdotes).
~~~
soft_dev_person
I think it makes everything taste the same in an intense but uninteresting
way, to be honest. It gives it the bad Chinese restaurant quality. Quantity
matters, obviously.
~~~
hopler
I read a comment years ago about a chef who stays that msg makes water taste
like soup. So yeah, it improves the taste, but not in a good way. It's similar
to drinking tea with a cup of sugar mixed in. msg isn't as bad as sugar when
normalizing on how much people consume, but it's still used as a replacemment
for good food.
------
Rooster61
Though I am skeptical of the bad rep MSG gets, I find that I can get the same
umami flavor for the most part from using nutritional yeast. I like the fact
that it gives me control over the umami aspect of what I'm cooking without
altering the salt content. That let's me control the saltiness of the food
with actual salt rather than adding MSG and hoping I'm not oversalting for the
sake of having that "secret sauce" effect MSG imparts.
I have no idea if it's truly healthier than MSG (the claims on both substances
are many and varied, both heavily skewed by questionable research), but it's a
great ingredient to cook with.
(Full disclosure, I'm not a vegetarian/vegan, so no bias there. I know
nutritional yeast is usually tied to that group, but I'm just a person who
likes cooking with just about everything I can get my hands on.)
~~~
xutopia
I find nutritional yeast tastes cheesy. It's just not the same as MSG. I also
find that MSG goes a long way... just a dash in an entire casserole can
elevate the taste without going into salty territory.
~~~
Rooster61
By themselves, they definitely do not have a 1-1 taste. But if you put MSG and
yeast in a dish where they are well integrated (such as the casserole you
mentioned) and evened out the salt, I'd be hard pressed to tell you which is
which.
That's just me though. I see what you are saying.
------
fenwick67
On this topic, there's an excellent episode of This American Life where
someone looks into one of the origins of this idea, and it takes some
interesting turns:
[https://www.thisamericanlife.org/668/the-long-
fuse](https://www.thisamericanlife.org/668/the-long-fuse)
------
batbomb
Just use yeast extract and _magically_ nobody will get headaches.
~~~
gotocake
Something similar is done to placate “intelligent free thinkers” who think
nitrates and nitrites are the devil. If you go into a Whole Foods practically
every cured meat is labeled “Uncured! Nitrate free!” If you follow the
inevitable asterisk though, you see the the caveat “Except those derived from
natural sources, such as celery juice.”
_facepalm_
Just... eat less bacon, and don’t kid yourself that it somehow matters how the
nitrates got there.
~~~
hopler
Nitrates are unhealthy, even if vendors are intentionally misleading about
celery.
~~~
amanaplanacanal
The weird thing is, many vegetables are full of nitrates but people only seem
to care when they are in meat.
~~~
NikolaeVarius
That (probably) has some reality, because the issue is that nitrates and high
heat cooking + proteins probably causes generation of Nitrosamine, which are
carcinogenic.
Don't eat meat all the time and you will be fine.
------
temp-dude-87844
The MSG panic was one of a chain of food ingredient hysterias that have
surfaced the last few decades. The government regulates food additives, in an
effort to ensure that we can all trust our food supply. But food is the "think
of the children" of personal choices where risk-averse preferences are
difficult to criticize, science has vague answers about no observed adverse
effects that don't satisfy choosy people, research is rife with conflicts of
interest, and anyone can pretend to be an authority and dispense opinion. It
also doesn't help that food regulations aren't the same in every country. This
invites scrutiny into the reasons why some have banned a substance while
others have not, or perhaps not yet.
MSG got caught up in an extended wave of unease against artificial
preservatives, artificial colors, trans fats, and even high fructose corn
syrup. Smart companies picked up on "changing consumer preference", and
replaced these until a few years passed and the hysteria began to die down.
------
js2
Better (from a science perspective) and more recent article on the topic:
[https://www.seriouseats.com/2019/01/ask-the-food-lab-the-
tru...](https://www.seriouseats.com/2019/01/ask-the-food-lab-the-truth-about-
msg.html)
------
UIZealot
MSG is most likely safe to eat, judging by the copious amount poured into each
and every dish ever, in each and every Chinese restaurant that I've been to.
It tasted great when I was only eating in restaurants once in a while. I soon
got pretty sick of it after eating out a few times a week for a few months.
There's probably a judicious amount that could enliven a dish without
overpowering the food. Alas, the amounts Chinese restaurants are using just
make everything taste the same sickeningly savory taste.
~~~
gatherhunterer
From the article:
> As my colleague Christie Aschwanden has explained, once we reach false
> conclusions, our brains prevent us from accepting new information that can
> correct those mistaken assumptions.
------
JoeAltmaier
Can't find any science in that article or its links? Just pop culture
references.
Best I can find say "Further study needed" or "Effect is uncommon". Neither of
which deny there can be a link between MSG and headaches at least for some
people.
~~~
js2
If you want anything approaching science when discussing food, serious eats is
the place to go:
[https://www.seriouseats.com/2019/01/ask-the-food-lab-the-
tru...](https://www.seriouseats.com/2019/01/ask-the-food-lab-the-truth-about-
msg.html)
------
TACIXAT
I've isolated MSG as a cause of sinus headaches for me, along with a handful
of other foods. It is in some flavored chips, and the first few times when
going back and trying to figure out what caused my headache I was surprised to
see it in the ingredient list since it has such a stigma. I also run into it
at kbbq places mixed in with the salt.
Not saying it is bad for everyone, but it is a consistent issue for me.
~~~
ramraj07
Not sure you've "proven" it's MSG though. Warm up some chocolate cubes,
sprinkle msg and sandwich the cubes so it's in the middle. Then ask an SO to
randomize and give you chocolate with or without msg every few days without
telling you and note when you get headaches. My initial guess is that doing
this 6-9 times you should get sufficient signal (if it's indeed true that MSG
absolutely gives you headaches Everytime ) to fairly conclusively prove it.
~~~
gotocake
You’d need to administer it in such a way that you can’t detect it by taste,
and as pmoriarty says, to be double blind is a further challenge. You can
however modify your protocol. Instead of chocolate buy some unfilled pill
capsules (very cheap) and have a friend fill half with a pinch of salt, and
half with a pinch of MSG. This friend makes a note of which caps are MSG, and
without informing you or your SO which is which. The friend can simply assign
each cap a day, and keep the key to which day is MSG in a notebook and be
revealed later. From there, follow your protocol. It’s now double-blind, and
you won’t taste what it is you’re taking and have some subconscious reaction.
~~~
ramraj07
I intended to write that s/he should just swallow the chocolate to not taste
what's inside but I forgot. I mean if we are gonna give this dude headaches at
the least let's make it chocolate?
~~~
djmips
Bad science. Chocolate has a lot of confounding components such as Tyramine
which is said to trigger migraines in the sensitive.
~~~
lugg
Which would show join the test put forward.
Agree with your point but the way you got there doesn't add up.
------
p1necone
Sliced tomatoes sprinkled with salt, pepper and msg on toast are very good.
Although I imagine if you can get decent vine ripened heirloom tomatoes where
you are the msg would probably be unnecessary.
~~~
icelancer
> decent vine ripened heirloom tomatoes where you are
If this is in America, not grown in your own garden, I'd love to hear where
this is, because tomatoes in Seattle are absolutely terrible.
~~~
StudentStuff
Try a non-Kroger/non-Safeway owned green grocer like Rainer Farmers Market,
they generally have tastier veggies and fruit (along with stuff you don't get
at chain stores) as that is all they deal in.
Limes are way cheaper at green grocers too, I swear its a Seattle thing where
the large grocery stores know your only buying limes to go with your liquor,
and thus charge obscene prices :c
~~~
icelancer
I live in the valley and have been to a few of the fruit stands; Columbia City
Farmer's Market can be OK too. Still, not much luck. I am aware tomatoes are
hard as hell to grow consistently well and I should accept some variance, but
man, outside of Red Roma Tomatoes (had had good luck with them generally for
caprese salad), it's been tough.
------
dang
Discussed at the time:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10866115](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10866115)
------
dnprock
I grew up eating foods with MSG. I'm usually aware of it. It's one of cooks'
favorite abused ingredients. Eating a lot of MSG is bad, just like eating a
lot of anything, sugar, salt.
~~~
kazinator
Would you drink a can of pop in which 30g of sugar were replaced with 30g of
MSG?
~~~
yoz-y
That would taste terrible! More on point: ingesting 30g of MSG is probably
less harmful than 30g of sugar.
~~~
kazinator
That could be true even if the MSG happens to give you an awful headache in
the short term.
~~~
Uberphallus
No[0], it won't [1], that's the point of the article.
[0]
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4870486](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4870486)
[1] [https://academic.oup.com/jn/article-
abstract/125/11/2891S/47...](https://academic.oup.com/jn/article-
abstract/125/11/2891S/4730581?redirectedFrom=fulltext)
~~~
kazinator
[0] is shill work by researchers working for a MSG manufacturer. I have seen
this before. One even has an "ajiusa.com" e-mail address right there,
/palmface/. Can't comment on on [1]: the entire paper is paywalled as far as I
can see, not even a hint at the results.
Let's try something else:
Graham TE, Sgro V, Friars D, Gibala MJ. 2000. _Glutamate ingestion: the plasma
and muscle free amino acid pools of resting humans._ American Journal of
Physiology-Endocrinology and Metabolism 278:E83–89.
These researchers provided single 150mg/kg oral doses of MSG to 9 healthy
volunteers (8 males, 1 female) to determine the plasma and muscle
concentrations of glutamate following ingestion. All volunteers reported
transient headaches.
Shimada A, Cairns BE, Vad N, Ulriksen K, Pedersen AML, Svensson P, Baad-Hansen
L. 2013. _Headache and mechanical sensitization of human pericranial muscles
after repeated intake of monosodium glutamate (MSG)_. Journal of Headache and
Pain 14:2
More than 50% of healthy, male subjects given 150mg/kg daily doses developed
headaches.
~~~
loeg
> Let's try something else
N=8 or 9 (low power), 150 mg/kg(!) doses.
That's like ingesting 11 g of the stuff for a 75 kg adult.
------
psiops
I have no antipathy towards MSG. I can taste that it tastes good. The thing is
really: _It messes with my sleep_. I don't know how, but sometimes I get a
high dose in me and I just cannot get to sleep, like at all. Elevated heart
rate, mind racing, all night long. _That_ I do not like. I don't believe it's
an evil chemical, it's naturally occurring after all. But yeah, if someone
knows a hack to cure the occassional insomnia... that'd be great.
~~~
maaaats
See comment from tptacek from an earlier discussion here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10866718](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10866718)
~~~
lugg
Could the intense short lived headaches be caused by something other than
glutamate? I consume a lot of msg and aren't bothered by it but I do get
severe acute head pain when I eat McDonald's spicy buffalo sauce. Kind of
freaked me out the two bites I had before quitting.
------
glup
I inferred it was probably basically fine when my Swiss relatives served a
(relatively fancy, celebratory) dinner and provided it in a labeled shaker
alongside salt and pepper.
------
sneakernets
MSG was a godsend to me because I am one of the few people on the planet
allergic to yeast. Then everyone decided MSG was bad and put allergens all in
their foods again.
------
iheartpotatoes
Caldo de Tomato!!!
[https://www.amazon.com/Knorr-Granulated-Bouillon-Tomato-
Chic...](https://www.amazon.com/Knorr-Granulated-Bouillon-Tomato-
Chicken/dp/B008OFGXEK)
This stuff is essential for good Mexican cooking. Funny that only Chinese food
gets a bad rap for MSG when it is far more pervasive.
------
kazinator
Actual science:
_The role of monosodium glutamate in headache_
[https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/24/...](https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/24/items/1.0224000)
~~~
pmoriarty
This seems:
1 - not to have been published in any peer-reviewed journals
2 - a study on rats
3 - the rats were injected with MSG intravenously
4 - the amount of MSG injected intravenously was 50mg/kg, which would be
equivalent to 2.5 grams of MSG for a 50kg person
Because of all of the above, it's not clear whether it's good science, and not
clear if any of this research applies to humans, who normally don't inject
gigantic amounts of MSG in to their veins.
~~~
kazinator
> _2.5 grams of msg for a 50kg person_
MSG is slightly more dense than sugar, with a specific gravity of 1.6 and
comes in a crystalline form that resembles sugar.
4 grams of sugar is about a teaspoon, and the same can be expected of MSG.
They can easily dump half a teaspoon of the stuff into your soup or sauce in a
restaurant, treating it like salt or sugar.
This amazing paper is valuable not just for its work on rats, but for its
references.
It's also noteworthy that the researcher basically considers it a settled
question that MSG causes headaches.
In this work, she isn't trying to answer the question "do rats get a headache
from MSG".
~~~
MertsA
You'd have to be crazy to add 2.5 grams worth of MSG to a single meal. Accent
calls for using like 1/10th that amount in soup. That's no different than
using 10x as much salt as a recipe calls for, it's not going to turn out so
great.
~~~
equalunique
I work in restaurants and have seen chefs add two heaping table spoons of it
to a pot of soup without hesitating.
~~~
kazinator
That's something like 40 to 50 grams. Say it's an 8 liter pot, serving 16.
That's like 2.5g to 3.1g per person, ouch! Then there is glutamate in that pot
already from natural sources as well as possibly ingredients like processed
meats and whatnot.
~~~
MertsA
No, it's actually more like 24g to ~30g depending on how "heaping" the
tablespoons were, you might be thinking of the specific gravity and using that
to estimate the weight but an important consideration is that it's in a small
crystalline form. 1/4 tsp of MSG is 1.0g which puts a tbsp at 12g. An estimate
of only 16 servings is probably a bit on the low side as well. Even assuming
all of that, that still only amounts to 24 mg/kg for a 70kg person whereas the
paper you referenced indicated there was a threshold effect and used doses of
150 mg/kg.
~~~
kazinator
> _might be thinking of the specific gravity and using that to estimate the
> weight but an important consideration is that it 's in a small crystalline
> form_
I'm relying on the density of MSG being similar to that of sugar, and both
being in crystalline form, then working from information around the web about
the mass of heaped tablespoons of sugar.
(I know that not all crystals are of the same shape and not all pack the same.
Something with needle-like crystals will end up fairly fluffy, unless
mechanically crushed.)
------
thorwasdfasdf
MSG is well known by scientists to lead to obesity. In fact, they know it so
well, that they've created a very reliable and reproducible procedure for it.
Whenever they need to experiment on Rats, they put them under a procedure
called: MSG induced Obesity. And just like that their appetites shoot through
the roof and the rats reliably get really fat, every time.
Anecdotally, I eat asian food on a regular basis and I can tell whenever it's
got MSG in it just by the taste. It gives you a sort of High and really drives
your appetite making you feel you can't get enough of the dish. For someone
like me, there's a huge noticeable difference between a dish with MSG and one
without.
------
waynecochran
MSG will give me a headache every frickin' time. Guaranteed.
~~~
bjl
Unless tomatoes, Parmesan cheese, and aged beef also give you headaches every
time, then its guaranteed not to be the MSG.
~~~
equalunique
Eat a teaspoon of MSG. Remember, "its guaranteed not to be the MSG."
~~~
waynecochran
I might be willing to try this, but I am afraid of the outcome. The headaches
are violent. I have had these headaches decades and I know my triggers. MSG is
the king of triggers.
------
lugg
[https://www.thedailymeal.com/eat/foods-you-didnt-know-
contai...](https://www.thedailymeal.com/eat/foods-you-didnt-know-contain-msg)
Doritos, Pringles, KFC, campbells soup among others.
MSG fear is mostly about racism at this point.
This video is pretty relevant and more recent with some good information /
background on things.
[https://youtube.com/watch?v=Sm8Yx-gWlMs](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Sm8Yx-
gWlMs)
------
AtlasBarfed
MSG unquestioningly is a headache trigger for me. I've done multiple A/B tests
with MSG with/without spices.
~~~
dymk
Were the tests blinded? Did you do an additional test with just salt?
~~~
alexandercrohde
Does he need to? It's his own body.
If I burn my hand on a stove, am I obligated to to do a blinded A/B test with
N=15 before I decide, for my own personal case, that the hot stove caused the
burn mark?
I don't get why you're putting people on trial for noticing their own
individual reactions to food. The article itself admits some people are
sensitive to MSG.
~~~
__david__
Because people are notoriously terrible at this kind of self diagnosis.
I'm going to answer an anecdote with an anecdote here, but I was getting
headaches that were completely correlated with food containing MSG. I
"researched it" (cursorily google searched) and found that MSG was totally
safe so I didn't want to believe it, but the correlation was there. Later I
found out I had high blood pressure—the high MSG foods were also high sodium
and the sodium was kicking my blood pressure up really high and causing
headaches. When I got my blood pressure under control I tried MSG again and no
headaches at all.
The body is complicated and things aren't always what they seem to be to our
pattern seeking brains.
------
5oksuuhm
I hereby title this post "Ingesting supplemental levels of glutamate — the
single most important endogenous neurochemical — invariably does various stuff
to the nervous system, the single most complicated system we study. Spending
decades debating between black/white positions of 'it's always bad for
everyone' and 'it's always fine for everyone' is ridiculous."
I've never met anyone in real life, or had a proper 1-on-1 online with anyone
(with basic biology/neuroscience knowledge) who denied MSG's health/biological
effects.
It's frickin glutamate. That's it. GABA is the main inhibitory
neurotransmitter. Glutamate is the main excitatory neurotransmitter. Ingest
various/increasing doses of the former, and you will be relaxed verging on
sedating. Ingest increasing doses of the latter and you (and your whole
nervous system) will be stimulated verging on seizure-y (for various reasons
it wouldn't be possible to _orally ingest_ enough glutamate to actually
seize).
It's all a matter of doses. But seriously, grab some size 0 capsules, put
500mg of GABA or Glutamate (sodium glutamate aka MSG being the most readily
available) in each, mix 'em up and have a party. You'll easily be able to tell
which one you've taken after 15-30 mins. This is basic stuff.
Individual traits (species, morphology, and brain chemistry/epigenetics) all
play a part, the same way they do for sensitivity/tolerance to any other
ingested food constituent, herb, supplement, or drug. But for Glutamate at
least, these factors mostly equate to differences in tolerated doses, because
in the end there isn't anybody (or any species that I know of) for which
Glutamate doesn't play the vital nervous system role we know it to play.
So, that's basic biology. Supplementing Glutamate/MSG generally isn't
needed/wanted/pleasant. But is it so much of a problem in the amounts found in
food? That's what the whole debate is about after all.
The answer is there is no answer. It's a nearly meaningless question. It's the
kind of meaningless question/debate that comes out of the relationship between
regulatory agencies and business/industry, because the former is tasked with
the impossible task of making conservative black/white/one-sized-fit-all
health decisions for the public, and the latter is tasked with making
addictively-tasty things regardless of health impact as long as it's legal.
They NEED the answer, and the answer they've come up with is SAFE.
The real answer, like any real answer to any biological/health question, is
it's complicated. Or at least variable. It's a matter of how much you ingest
until you experience/feel something you don't like. Maybe it's 500mg, maybe
it's a gram or two. It doesn't really matter. "Consumers" should simply be
able to know in advance the same way they do for salt and sugar content.
Please no one jump on this post for lack of sources. I'm not going to
copy/paste 5 decades worth of research on Glutamate in humans/mammals for the
sake of winning what is basically a nonsensical political/conspiracy-hunting-
mob debate.
------
mikorym
TL;DR I can eat MSG?
~~~
astura
Yes.
------
bengale
Makes my friend go blind for a while after he eats it.
~~~
Matticus_Rex
He should donate himself to science, and should also avoid... most food.
~~~
bengale
Yeah he's super careful with processed food.
------
alexandercrohde
This is a garbage non-article.
It admits some people have sensitivity to MSG.
It doesn't offer evidence against some other additive in chinese food is
making people experience racing heart.
It doesn't even _consider_ the possibility that in the past MSG had some
impurity that caused a health issue that may not be reproducible now.
It doesn't even _consider_ how detached the long-term effects of food are
(think how long it takes to put on weight).
It likens the situation to anti-vaccine, which is basically the new Godwin's
Law.
It has an obnoxious air of "Science knows everything right now and anybody who
doesn't believe me is anti-science."
(The problem is that studies take decades to come to a consensus. The initial
studies about leaded gasoline said it was totally safe, for example. But in
this case the author doesn't bother to cite a single study that supports his
case! Rather he just relies on name-value and a tone of superiority)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What is your current job? Are you happy with it? - parth_setya
What constitutes a work day in your life?
Are you happy with the money you make?
======
godelmachine
I'm working as a BMC Remedy Consultant. My job is akin to that of System
Administrator. I'd say I'm quite happy with it since I get to learn so many
things here. My profile right now is Tech Support. My organization used to
provide opportunities for Customization/ Development & Integration too, but I
doubt if I'll be able to work on those projects anytime soon.
One thing I miss is command line/ console based coding like we do in Java or
C++. BMC Software has developed their own fourth gen programming language
called Developer Studio, which mostly consists of dragging & dropping field
from palette to create forms. I feel insecure that I'm not as competent as
those who work on command line coding like Angular/ NodeJS/ JavaScript/ C/
C++.
These days, ServiceNow is proving to be a formidable competitor to BMC
Software, and is fast eating BMC's market
I'll be moving to Canada soon, and am quite afraid if there are BMC Remedy
jobs in Canadian market. One company that I know of is Air Liquide.
~~~
partisan
I would say that the feeling you are experiencing is your gut telling you
something that you should listen to. Becoming a specialist in a specific
technology can be lucrative and can be the focus of a long career, but the
technology you pick must have a life outside of the company who makes it.
~~~
godelmachine
That's my point.
Java/ Angular developers are in demand anytime, anywhere.
BMC Software is used by many Fortune 500 companies. I was thinking of getting
into their R&D where I could get to do some product development.
------
justaguyhere
Web dev (php, laravel, mysql etc). Nice colleagues, ok salary and I get to
work from home. Not learning anything new and not doing anything interesting
(can't leave the job, so I'm stuck).
Would absolutely love to do things like data analysis :(
~~~
kypro
Was in a similar position for about 5 years. Had a really good salary, but was
doing fairly basic PHP+MySQL stuff.
I knew given my skills it was going to be difficult to find a better paying
job, and remote jobs are also harder to come by in the UK and I really liked
that aspect of it.
In the end the company had a difficult few months and I had to find a new
position anyway. I took my time and found a new job I knew I would learn a lot
from instead of just looking at salary alone. I'm in a much better place now
and feel a lot more comfortable with my career moving forward. Honestly, I
think you may regret more not just taking the risk. Being to comfortable isn't
a good thing typically.
~~~
justaguyhere
My problem is that I can't change jobs easily (visa, paperwork etc). I took a
risk last year and it didn't turn out well (for reasons outside of my
control).
I'm learning random things in my free time, but without a focus. I know I am
aging dinosaur, but I just don't know how to get out of it :(
------
chris__butters
Head of digital for a small design studio. And not really happy here due to
the sometimes hostile environment between the egotistic designers and myself
and even the partners who don't have the back bone to do anything about it. My
day is made up of development, server health checks, writing proposals,
helping out with strategy. The money is nice but that should come second to
actually enjoying the role to me.
------
potta_coffee
Freelance web dev.
Extremely lax schedule, except for the occasional hard deadline. Lots of
freedom, pays the bills (barely).
On the other hand, it doesn't pay enough. I'm not saving as much as I need to
to take the next steps toward my goals.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Toronto Star’s owner dreamed it would be a nonprofit. It’s being sold to PE - raybb
https://www.niemanlab.org/2020/05/the-toronto-stars-owner-once-dreamed-that-it-would-be-a-nonprofit-now-its-being-sold-to-a-private-equity-firm/
======
GoRudy
Smart move by these PE guys. The print business is scary but they own 55%ish
of a subsidiary which basically just spits out $40MM - $60MM a year in profit.
They could easily flip that and own TorStar for free.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Did you get today off work? - sbochins
======
marpstar
We did. This is the first year they've offered this day off. Our clients are
almost entirely in the public sector, so I'd imagine that our support lines
would've been dead and our sales team without clients to sell to.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why the next big thing after VR/AR and self-driving cars is health - kobleistvan
https://medium.com/neveli-cares/why-the-next-big-thing-after-vr-ar-and-self-driving-cars-is-health-1d0935141794#.76owhq7zs
======
ohitsdom
Not a very strong argument, IMO. AR/VR and self-driving cars are poised for
huge growth because 1) they will drastically change the way we do certain
activities and 2) they are just now becoming achievable (due to hardware,
software, and economic advances).
What change is prompting health to be the next big thing? We have more data,
but I don't think that alone is enough. Health is just as important now as it
used to be, and I don't see a big tech breakthrough that is going to have
health become the next "big thing" (whatever that means). I think we may be on
the verge of several discoveries/advances that could lead to huge growth
(CRISPR, cheaper genomes, molecular surgery), but until they happen it's just
wishful thinking.
~~~
lorandm
I think that the opportunity comes from both reducing overall costs—in 2015
the US health expenditure per capita exceeded $10,000 (according to the CMS)
as well as AI, which is fast becoming a "thing". Molecular surgery, maybe not
so much, but it's definitely in the books.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Choose the Right Language to Save the Planet - yglukhov
https://yglukhov.github.io/Choose-The-Right-Language-To-Save-The-Planet/
======
llccbb
If only there was something useful to this post... Maybe real examples of a
single algorithm written in a minimum of two languages? Maybe an expanded view
of greenhouse gas emissions resulting from running some code under different
fuel mixtures (basically no one on earth is running code on 100% coal powered
electricity). Some sort of meaningful analysis should exist.
~~~
rijoja
I suppose it was meant as food for thought!
------
foxyv
I was kinda hoping this was an article about Esparanto.
Oh well...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
As Facebook Sweeps Across Europe, Regulators Gird for Battle - carlchenet
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/26/technology/as-facebook-sweeps-across-europe-regulators-gird-for-battle.html
======
jakozaur
As a European I wish EU would fight harder to create its own tech giants,
rather than fight existing ones (e.g. Facebook, Microsoft, Google).
There might be some merit in better regulation privacy, data protection,
natural monopolies in tech. However, so far regulations seems backwards (e.g.
permissions to use cookie, VAT regulations). It would be awesome if more
people at EU were a bit more tech savvy.
~~~
tdkl
What would be the incentive of majority of people flocking to EU services ?
~~~
brador
Better privacy protection would pull in some users.
~~~
solve
Yes, your local government controlling your communication channels will result
in far better privacy than some remote government who doesn't care about you
controlling it. /s
~~~
Sir_Substance
Not in the slightest bit true.
The way the US bill of rights applies to non-citizens not residing in the US
is complex, but considering how little the US courts care about the question,
functionally we have no rights when dealing with the US government.
This is the lynchpin to things like seizing people passing through US airports
and holding them indefinitely in Guantanamo bay.
At least my own government can't get away with treating me like a brick.
~~~
solve
Parallel construction.
------
blisterpeanuts
_" But with that size comes responsibility."_
Why would European regulators even care about Facebook? It's a completely
voluntary service and anyone's free to create an alternative. It's non-
essential.
If a huge U.S. retailer muscled into the EU markets and started driving mom-
and-pop retailers and smaller chains out of business, I can see where the
regulators would go nuts and try to stop them. It's a clash of U.S. capitalism
versus European style capitalism and if they don't like the raw knock-down-
drag-out American approach, it's understandable.
If huge Asian car manufacturers started undercutting European makers with high
quality, low cost vehicles, causing thousands of factories and parts suppliers
and dealerships across the continent to go out of business, I can see how
regulators would want to limit or stop the disruption.
But Facebook? Just don't use it. Don't browse to facebook.com, problem solved.
Nothing is affected. What am I missing here? It looks like just another
shakedown of a highly successful foreign company that the regulatory
bureaucracy regards as a threat of some kind. Too profitable, too
entrepreneurial, too brash -- some combination of too many ick factors, I
suppose.
As jakozaur says, why not promote and encourage domestic competition? There
are brilliant computer folks in Europe and I'm sure they can come up with a
few classy, high quality alternatives to Facebook. As an American, I'd love to
see some competition to FB.
~~~
DanBC
> Why would European regulators even care about Facebook? It's a completely
> voluntary service and anyone's free to create an alternative. It's non-
> essential.
Tthe problems are
1) privacy setting
2) unfair competition
The EU has strict privacy and data protection rules. Facebook appears to
trample those, and if they want to continue to be allowed to operate in EU
they should probably have a look at whether their rules are compatible with
laws of democratic nations. Facebook probably have tight internal auditing. I
have no doubt that a Facebook employee using engineer access to creep on FB
users would quickly lose their job. So, partly all FB has to do is demonstrate
that to regulators. The rules are pretty simple: tell people what you're
collecting and why you're collecting it; don't collect too much; don't keep it
for too long; make sure other people don't get hold of it. That's not onerous
for FB.
As for unfair competition: well, I dunno. You might have a point there. I see
that eg Amazon has decided to start following a more sensible tax reporting
scheme so EU pressure does seem to work to change behaviour. I'm not sure if
this is a French NIH problem - see also Courrier électronique, galileo, and
the continuing anti-Google measures (first a competitor search engine, and
then drives to force google to present alternative search engine results, etc)
------
jakejake
I'm not sure what this means in Europe, but in the U.S. "Government scrutiny"
often means "this company has gotten big enough that politicians can squeeze a
lot of cash from it"
------
kuyfiuyg
And on it goes, the EU 'protecting' up from voluntary services... They protect
the tech scene so well there are hardly any great software companies, even
though the EU is (or among) the richest areas in the world, and full of
technical know-how!
Thank you politicians :D
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
LinkedIn to Buy Online Education Site Lynda.com for $1.5B - qnk
http://techcrunch.com/2015/04/09/linkedin-to-buy-online-education-site-lynda-com-for-1-5-billion/
======
calinet6
Congratulations Lynda.com!
Story time. When I was in high school, I worked in a little computer lab in my
small hometown of Ojai, California, that taught classes in Photoshop,
Fireworks, web design and development, Flash, and more. That little technology
education company was just called "Lynda," and classes were taught directly by
Lynda Weinman, Bruce Heavin, and others. There were maybe ten or twelve
employees. I learned a lot from them over two summers about the intersection
of development and design, about teaching and working with people, and so much
more. It launched my interest in user experience design and development. Not
to mention the epic LAN parties we used to have in that computer lab with all
the top-of-the-line graphics workstations... good times.
I have a lot to be thankful for, and I'm so genuinely happy to see their
success. They were the nicest people to work with, and I'm sure that remained
true as they grew. Congrats to these guys, and I hope they find a good place
with LinkedIn.
~~~
72deluxe
I remember reading her "creative html design" book back about 20 years ago (it
was from 1997); that book was a work of art. The techniques may have changed
somewhat but the sites in there would likely be acceptable today I suspect
(which either shows how little progress we have made, or how well the book was
written!)
~~~
neovive
That was a very inspiring book. She was a pioneer in the field of web design
and it's great to see their success. I'm a long time Lynda.com member and I
hope they continue to produce the same quality courses going forward.
------
kirinan
This is a pretty interesting acquisition. Linkedin is trying to position
themselves as a full service job market. If you want a particular job, go to
Linkedin and even if you are missing a few skills you can pick it up on their
site and get "Linkedin Certified". This provides Linkedin with a series of
"Linkedin Certified Professionals" that recruiters need to pay to get access
to. It's an interesting position to be in: desired from both sides of the
equation (Job Seekers and Recruiters/Talent Sourcers).
~~~
alexashka
It's quite terrible, I mean, amazing for Lynda :)
Now that we have free Stanford, MIT, etc courses online, for free, what has
Lynda got to offer? It's a sinking ship. The 'one-stop for all your learning
needs' is simply a bad model - all programmers know this. You have to go and
seek out different resources that work for you and now we CAN, more than ever.
The only reason to choose Lynda is out of ignorance or laziness. Both of which
are indicators of somebody you don't want to hire!
LinkedIn's head must be operating in oldschool mode of certificates actually
meaning something. They don't. Unless they're HARD to get, really hard. And if
they are, then you are better off going to a real college/university where you
can get realtime feedback and support.
What few skills can a working programmer get from Lynda? Honestly...
~~~
rosser
_> What few skills can a working programmer get from Lynda? Honestly..._
The myopia some technologists display is really staggering sometimes.
I mean, it's not like people who _aren 't_ technologists would ever want to
learn new skills or anything, would they? They should totally just stay at
their menial, paper-shuffling desk jobs, or serve lattes to programmers, or
something.
~~~
alexashka
"Now that we have free Stanford, MIT, etc courses online, for free, what has
Lynda got to offer?"
I'm not saying people shouldn't learn. I'm saying there are superior
alternatives for every area Lynda is offering to teach.
Not sure whose point of view you're disagreeing with really.
~~~
unreal37
Lynda.com currently makes a $150 million per year in revenue. With all those
free sources you mention, how are they doing that? Why are companies paying
for education for their employees?
People pay for education. People will continue to pay for good education,
forever. Education will never ever be free, because it has value.
Oh you can pick up some Ruby on Rails skills with a manual and some free
tutorials. Not really what we're talking about here though.
~~~
KaoruAoiShiho
Really shortsighted to think of the value as in the cash extracted from the
student. The real value is that more people are educated. Ways that an
educator can see the cash from that created value are various. They can make
job referrals, they can do credentialing signaling, they can do ads, they can
sell premium tools while providing free education on how the use the tools. So
yeah, education can be free, should be free, and will be free (and in most
cases are already free if you consider public schooling).
------
Someone1234
This, to me, is terrible news. I am a big fan of Lynda.com. They've always had
a great library (both for tech' stuff but are also one of few sites that offer
non-tech video training (business courses, photography, etc) and their prices
were always very reasonable.
LinkedIn can only make the site worse as far as I am concerned, and I already
avoid LinkedIn due to the fact that they've essentially become spammers who
work to allow other spammers to spam you. That's all they are, a giant spam
platform at this point.
So too bad about Lynda. It will be greatly missed (by me).
~~~
jasallen
Totally agree. I simply cannot see Lynda.com's current (amazing) setup
blending well with LinkedIn. Lynda.com is going the way of the History
Channel.
~~~
brazzledazzle
I think it's less about changing Lynda.com and more about driving people
towards it as a revenue stream for LinkedIn. "LinkedIn Trained and Certified
with <X>". Promote those profiles and stick a fat enough badge on them and
people will pay. Some money and a few hours to sit through some videos and
maybe a test will be seen as a small price to pay for someone looking for an
edge.
------
jasode
As an outsider looking in, LinkedIn's purchase of Lynda.com looks like an odd
duck in comparison to their previous acquisitions[1].
As far as I can tell, the Lynda.com brand name isn't that well known outside
of tech circles. (Virtually all of their courses are Adobe, Microsoft Office,
and web development, etc) I'm guessing those computer courses are relevant to
less than 5% of LinkedIn's user base. It was very recently (last year or so)
that Lynda started doing more business courses[2] (how to calculate ROI, how
to write a business plan, etc) Since those business courses are probably their
thinnest and weakest offerings, I can only speculate that it was a partly a
"proof-of-concept" to show a prospective acquirer (such as LinkedIn) the
breadth of topics the content platform could deliver.
In that case, LinkedIn is really buying Lynda's content delivery platform (
_the technology_ ) as opposed to seeing value in the existing portfolio of
courses ( _the copyrights_ ).
It will be interesting to see how it plays out. I'm somewhat saddened that a
controversial company like LinkedIn (UI dark patterns, creepy privacy
invasions) was the one who bought them. I would have preferred a company like
github (synergy with code sharing) or Apple (enhance iTunesU) to do it.
Unfortunately, github doesn't have the cash/stock and Apple is busy with more
grandiose plans.
[1][http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn#Acquisitions](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn#Acquisitions)
[2][http://www.lynda.com/Business-Skills-training-
tutorials/484-...](http://www.lynda.com/Business-Skills-training-
tutorials/484-0.html?previousCategory=29)
~~~
nly
How can their technology possibly be worth $1.5B?
~~~
danvoell
Linkedin is paying for the content and ongoing business model. Lynda had $100M
in revenue in 2014. Sure LinkedIn could have replicated the content but they
are taking an existing business that works, building on it, and assuming that
by marketing it via linkedin.com they can expand Lynda to a larger audience.
~~~
martin-adams
Plus, they have one less key competitor in that space if they buy Lynda than
to build it themselves
------
gz5
One of the many steps we will see that will have a net effect of
disintermediating traditional secondary education. With companies like
LinkedIn filling an Uber type role.
It used to be that the secondary degree was the middle man between employee
and employer (for many professions).
Certifications from companies like Microsoft and Cisco changed this in some
realms.
MOOCs and companies like Lynda expanded to different sectors.
Now layers like LinkedIn can essentially be the Uber between employers and the
myriad of certifications and degrees that will be available to employees. An
Uber layer for connection, credibility, aggregation, certification, etc.
I don't believe traditional secondary education gets completely
disintermediated. But I believe the landscape becomes much more heterogeneous,
which is a good thing.
------
whatok
No idea on valuations on this but seems kinda crazy to pay so much when all of
the various free MOOC offerings seem to be getting better and better. Realize
there's a difference motivation-wise when you actually have to pay and that
"learn how to do x" vs "learn about the subject x is under" has value but
don't know if $1.5bn is that difference.
I see great value for Linkedin users if there's some "official" certification
for skills learned through Lynda services that leads to them being more
marketable. That's pretty exciting.
~~~
rtpg
The Lynda.com courses aren't like MOOCs. They're not classes on theory, but
rather condensed practical things, to get you up and running quickly. They're
really aimed at working people catching up on new tech/learning the bases of
new skills.
I do recommend the service if you want to figure out how to get started
quickly with things like final cut or whatnot. It's realllly high quality
stuff condensed into 2h or so
~~~
whatok
I realize what Lynda courses are like and have done some in the past which is
why I mentioned the "learn how to do x" concept in my post. Other non-
traditional MOOC services offered by non-college institutions have a lot of
programs mirroring or closely resembling the Lynda approach. There's also zero
reason why Coursera and the like would not be able to pivot into this area.
~~~
rtpg
Ah, sorry, I misread how you wrote that.
My impression has been that Coursera is really about applying Socrate's (or is
it Aristotle's) dream: free classical education for all.
Learning about Final Cut Pro is great, but getting classes on general machine
learning ( at least ones that are worth more than a 2000 word blog post)
generally require going to a school with a 5 digit price tag. I think Coursera
and Lynda aren't trying to compete with each other on that end.
------
dd367
I'm 100% sure LinkedIn probably offered to buy Coursera at a similar price:
1\. A lot of Coursera's engineers are LinkedIn veterans. 2\. Coursera is
arguably a much better quality and more highly regarded education platform
than Lynda. 3\. Coursera certifications were something LinkedIn and Coursera
were actively working on.
I would imagine that Coursera refused because their vision of education is
much broader than what they might have been able to achieve within LinkedIn.
What do you guys think?
~~~
GCA10
Coursera doesn't monetize nearly as well.
------
brudgers
To me, this is another sign of most Linkedin profiles gradually becoming just
another resume on the web and LinkedIn as the next web generation's soft-core
version of Monster.com.
LinkedIn isn't a social network because having a LinkedIn profile is mostly
about required maintenance. The main activity is updating [and rolling back
spurious skill endorsements]. Integrating online education is just another
recruiter platform service. Professional colleagues don't care if I took a
PhotoShop class online.
------
fillskills
This is a very bad day for me. I was working on the integration of skills and
education at fillskills.com. Serves me well since I gave up on it because of
various reasons. Mostly because I was afraid of what people would say when I
launched.
This is great for education in general though. Imagine finding the skills to
you need to build your career and then the exact education to build it with.
------
neovive
A wonder if it's a coincidence that the latest video published today is: Up
and Running with LinkedIn.
Seriously, as a long time Lynda.com subscriber, I've noticed a steady increase
in the volume of courses in the "business" category. As a designer/developer,
I find some of the business videos quite interesting and a nice expansion
beyond their core design-centric courses.
I definitely see the synergies, but am a bit concerned that a company the size
of LI is going to slowly move away from the designer/developer focused videos
to certification-oriented courses; more of a direct competitor to Udacity's
Nanodegrees and Coursera's Specialization Certificates. However, there are
much better options these days for targeted developer video courses (e.g.
Egghead, Tuts+, Laracasts, etc.). This was a great exit for Lynda.com--they
have built up an amazing brand over many years.
LI brings such a massive scale with great channels to monetize courses beyond
subscriptions. Enticing a relatively small percentage of the LI user base to
upgrade to a new paid subscription tier justifies the cost; not even
considering the additional opportunities this creates for both employers and
job seekers.
~~~
aoakenfo
Same. I was just looking at the new courses last night on Lynda...all
business-oriented. I left the site with relief that I had canceled my
membership. With the acquisition news this morning I see now why new developer
courses have been lacking.
------
caseysoftware
At first, I was thinking the same as many others "this is terrible news!" but
then I started thinking about the data that LinkedIn has and how they could
apply it to Lynda.com
Imagine some scenarios:
\- You are looking at a job. Based on the requirements, LinkedIn can recommend
different Lynda courses you may take. Now, instead of meeting some of the
requirements and not knowing the next step, you can fill those gaps.
\- LinkedIn knows what people are endorsed for and who is "similar" to you.
Based on that, they can make recommendations for courses that may
improve/expand your skills to become more like the other person.. or
potentially stand out from that person.
\- You're posting a job. Instead of broadcasting it to the world, you can
filter it to "promote to people who have skill X listed or who have taken one
of these Y courses." Now you're more likely to get a better qualified set of
candidates.
Disclosure: Two time Lynda author here.
------
junto
I wonder if Pluralsight is also on their target list?
~~~
petercooper
Maybe, but Pluralsight looks more like it's aiming for an IPO to me. They've
made quite a few acquisitions but then not really integrated them much into
the core product - mostly adding big lumps of subscribers and revenue to their
numbers which looks better for an IPO than an acquisition.
------
tosh
Very smart move. LinkedIn == career. This might mean heavy competition for
Coursera & others going forward.
~~~
S4M
They could very well partner. Let's say you are a recruiter looking for
someone who knows machine learning and is based (or wiling to move to) a
certain place. A quick search on linkedin and you are shown, amongst others,
all the candidates who completed the Machine Learning course on Coursera and
match your location criteria. And the other way works as well: if you
completed an online course and tell linkedin about it, it can indicate you
positions in your area were your new skills could be useful.
------
smackfu
Wonder if they will cut their podcast ad budget... they are one of the big
advertisers on tech podcasts.
------
ThomPete
Congrats to Lynda.com a service I can't recommend enough if you want to get
started with programming.
It's been around forever and the quality is amazing. I learned to program
using it and I always recommend people to use it if they can afford it.
Going to be interesting to see where they will take this.
~~~
DanAndersen
I'm also a fan of Lynda.com's tutorials. One thing to mention to anyone out
there is to see if your workplace offers access to Lynda to employees. The
university I work at does, and it's nice to have that as a resource.
~~~
ThomPete
Agree. I used to run a design agency, we offered that to our employees it was
a great way for people to keep up with various trends and actually much more
effective than to send them at courses (which we also offered).
------
Htsthbjig
oh, sh*t, no!
I loved the site. Now I will have to add it to the long list of companies that
got bought and lost their essence, like cdbaby, reddit, or digg.
I started using whassapp in order to scape facebook. Now those bubble monsters
are acquiring everything they can while money is free.
~~~
UUMMUU
Honestly, I am one of the masses who thinks LinkedIn is Monster 2.0 but you
can't say it's going to be crap just because a crap company bought it. Just
wait and see, keep being an active supporter until they change something you
don't like and stop. Them losing users is the best way to affect change. Also,
throwing Reddit into that category is unfair, true reddit changed but it's
grown into something useful if you know where to go (avoid /r/funny aka
/r/thingshighschoolersthinkarefunny)
------
ausjke
Why not udemy/coursera/udacity? Lynda is great but seems a bit "old-style",
but anyway I think this is the right move, a job site companied by training
~~~
UUMMUU
Dunno udemy.
Coursera seems to offer more of an academic lesson plan (learn linear algebra,
algorithms, history of modern China) which doesn't seem very applicable to a
specific tech job. These are more for people who want to learn for the joy of
learning. (Same thing would be said about edX although I think it's owned by
the schools (could be wrong))
I would say they didn't go after Udacity most likely because of the small, and
also younger, user base where as Lynda.com seems to appeal to more of the
people who want to transition out of a job into another job.
This is all pure speculation though as I've only done a few courses on udacity
and coursera and actually never done any on Lynda.com but have known people
who have.
------
bstar77
Linda.com is one of those rare companies that has tempered assaults on their
business model from every flank by sticking to what they do best and have
somehow managed to come out shining.
Seriously, these guys were founded in 1995, they've been through all of the
web turmoil and still managed to improve their technology offerings and stay
relevant. Not sure what this acquisition means, but I hope things don't change
much.
~~~
btzll
*Lynda.com
~~~
bstar77
thanks, stupid autocorrect
------
onhopwood
This could be interesting if you of it think from the ideal, that college
traditional education is becoming an outdated format and project based
learning is leading the way to gain real world experience. Now job seekers are
creating a blank linked-in profile, taking and finishing some online course to
show there skills, while automatically generating their resumes and profiles
for employers to see.
------
alejoriveralara
Really happy to see big exits in the Edtech space. Hope this brings more
entrepreneurs to the industry!
------
SloopJon
Much has been made of online education's mini bubble, with an emphasis on
MOOcs like Coursera, Udacity, and edX. Having taken several of these classes,
it all seemed kind of silly to me. They're great for curiosity and continuing
education, but nowhere near replacing a college degree.
Seeing the kind of money that's going into these ventures, there are obviously
people still betting big. I think they face a real challenge marketing these
classes and certifications as valuable to the students and employers. Coursera
used to award a free statement of accomplishment (a PDF, basically). The
classes that I've taken recently only recognize students who pay for a
verified certificate. The fee is really small, but it's not really worth
anything to me.
I've very much enjoyed having free access to so many different classes. I
don't know whether it's sustainable as is, but I fear that an acquisition like
this may step up the pressure to monetize, show a profit, etc.
------
aurora72
Wonder how they will be able to compete with free online courses, there are
plenty of them and they're just as quality. I also wonder how Linked-in itself
can compete with other social networks.
~~~
jonknee
Considering Lynda has been competing with them for two decades, I'm sure
they'll do OK.
~~~
aurora72
Didn't know they were for 20 years, I've just taken a look at Lynda'a
wikipedia entry and oh yes they've been for 20 years, that's interesting. But
revenue at $100M/year and acquisiton at $1,5B is more interesting. Still
wonder how they'll compete with hundreds of good quality and free online
courses, free badges, Mozilla certifications, etc. Good luck to them.
------
Aoyagi
Isn't this a good time to recapitulate the things why LinkedIn is not exactly
ideal social network? I forgot most of it, other than how they scour through
people's address books.
------
chocksy
Whaaattt? What are they going to do with it? It seems like linkedin is trying
to get into teamtreehouse + facebook.
------
shahocean
What can be LinkedIn's take on this?
~~~
kjw
From LinkedIn's conference call:
Strategic rationale:
\- Believes that the acquisition of lynda.com will be an important step to
fulfilling LinkedIn's vision of developing an "economic graph"
\- Views lynda.com as essential for professionals to advance their skill sets
\- Believes that acquisition of lynda.com will expand the addressable
opportunity by 30B into corporate employee education and professional
certifications market
\- Believes that by leveraging LinkedIn's professional context, content
distribution platform and channel focused base of customers, LinkedIn is well
positioned to become leader in learning and development market
\- Believes the mission and strategy of lynda.com is aligned with LinkedIn and
will help integrate lynda.com into their business
\- Sees lynda.com having large traction on university campuses which overlaps
with LinkedIn's strength looks to capitalize on overlapping presence
Financial details:
\- Primary focus will be maximizing long-term member and business value over
short term financial results
\- Views lynda.com revenue mix as 2/3 consumer driven subscriptions and 1/3
corporate enterprise
\- 50% of customer base is higher education in government and other 50% is
corporate enterprise
\- Sees lynda.com business model made up of 70% gross margin, ~20% content /
engineering and ~35% Sales and marketing with EBITDA margins of 5-10%
~~~
_sword
What's good StreetAccounts highlights
------
jonknee
Seems like there is room for some integration (not sure about $1.5B worth of
integration, but hey).
------
jordhy
I'm so happy for Linda. I think most old timers like me learned with her
books! She rocks.
------
z3t4
Whenever I want to learn something I just search on the Internet or ask
experiences people to recommend a book. Or lookup what course literature the
well known schools are using.
What are the benefit of online courses more then that you get a badge or paper
that says you have taken the course?
~~~
edgarvaldes
Some people prefer an structured learning path. You can build it yourself, or
you can go to sites like Lynda.com.
------
Nktakumi
Codeschool acquired by Pluralsight, Lynda acquired by LinkedIn.
What's next, Treehouse?
~~~
stephen
That's the goal of startups, right? (Or IPO, but that is rare.)
------
lydialiu
linked in buy lynda.com, and it provides online training based on the skill
categories. It is innovative.Actually I never use lynda.com before. Hope the
sessions will be continuous, informative and effective.
------
aerialcombat
RIP Lynda.com
------
rasz_pl
Daphne Koller must be happy today, this is a huge validation for Coursera
business model.
~~~
aikah
> Daphne Koller must be happy today, this is a huge validation for Coursera
> business model.
makes no sense. It would be like saying Facebook success validates Twitter
business model, just because they are both social networks. Lynda doesn't
issue certificates if you complete their courses. And AFAIK they don't work
directly with universities or colleges.
Coursera content is academic, while Lynda.com is practical and focus on
specific software and/or technology. Sure they have a few "theory courses",
but that's not their core business.
~~~
Zelphyr
From a business standpoint it makes total sense. Investors see Coursera and
Lynda as being in the same or similar market so Lynda getting bought helps
them clarify the valuation of Coursera if its for sale _.
_ If Coursera has taken investment money then it is for sale.
~~~
aikah
> From a business standpoint it makes total sense.
Investors are not idiots. Not saying you are, you might be just misguided.
Lynda and Coursera are nothing alike.
------
ahmedali972
ahmedali972
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Are you ready for Perl6? - cygx
https://github.com/cygx/p6-tinycc/commit/43987c8ef008513012a820b682c8a049a04af443
======
esaym
How about an explanation of what is going on here?
~~~
cygx
It's a combination of the | prefix operator that interpolates into a list, the
~ prefix stringification operator and the => infix pair constructor via <<
hyper operators so it works with a single value on the left and an array on
the right.
So if $bin contained a list like [42, "foo", 7], we would get out a list of
pairs
1 => "42", 1 => "foo", 1 => "7"
Another way to write it would have been something along the lines of
($bin // Empty).map({ 1 => .Str }).slip
I did _not_ set out to write the code as obscurely as possible - it just
happened 'naturally' ;)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Huddle's 'highly secure' work tool exposed KPMG and BBC files - evansd
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-41969061
======
gejjaxxita
It seems from the article that security tokens were not unique and being
generated with a 20 millisecond granularity, furthermore the security tokens
were the only thing required to access files (no username etc).
If this is correct then this is astonishingly poor design and this problem was
completely predictable and obvious.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Adding something Special to my semester project - roversoccer18
I am a CS student at Penn State, and for a class I have to come up with a project that makes use of networking sockets connecting to a MySQL data base, HTML 5, and real time synchronization of the data in the data base. My idea was the create a website in which that the user is able to submit code in multiple languages(one at first) and save it to the data base. All code is visible to everyone and able for real time updating from anyone.(Kinda of like Github). This project will be fine, but I was thinking of adding something that would make my site unique from other ie Github or other code sharing site. Any thoughts?
======
chrisaycock
Penn State alum here.
Is this project for one of your courses? If so, "finishing in time" would be a
great feature to have. Bear in mind that GitHub uses Git to store the code;
they didn't need to create a custom database and synchronization mechanism.
You aren't going to succeed in up-staging someone else just by reinventing
wheel (worse if you end-up with a square).
~~~
roversoccer18
The project is for one of my courses, and I am going to to what I outlined
above I was just trying to get some more ideas from other people. We
are...Penn State.
------
maxdemarzi
Integrate it with Gource? <http://code.google.com/p/gource/>
<http://code.google.com/p/gource/wiki/Videos>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Visualizing Fitts's Law (2007) - kevin
http://particletree.com/features/visualizing-fittss-law/
======
oneplane
IIRC this is one of the reasons the UI on the Mac opted for a fixed context-
dependant menu bar at the top of the screen instead of the per-window one used
by Windows (and Java).
It's basically 'fling your pointing device at the top' and 'go left or right
to get the button you want'. Due to the lack of borders/stops, this would be
harder if it was sandwiched between a titlebar and window content.
~~~
205guy
The reasoning is that mouse stops the border of the screen no matter how far
the mouse is moved, making an effective target that is huge off the screen, so
easy and quick to hit. This would hold true even with large screens, unless
you dial down the acceleration of the mouse for fine control--as others have
pointed out.
But the issue is Apple broke the whole mechanism with hot corners. Now if I
move fast anywhere near a hot corner, it gets activated. And now the menu bar
near the corners is tiny and hard to hit with a "huge" hot corner right nearby
(the hot corner gets the benefit of the inifinte off-screen target). I find
the same problems will full-size browsers (with tabs along the top), I'm
always hitting the hot corners instead of the top lerpft and right tabs. I
guess I can always change my corner settings.
Additional gripe about the top menu in MacOS: the biggest fault I've found is
that it can be active for an app whose windows are hidden or that currently
have any windows, thus creating a mismatch between what you see (other
windows) and what is active (responding to keyboard shortcuts for example).
~~~
lloeki
> But the issue is Apple broke the whole mechanism with hot corners.
Well I always hated hot corners, and anyway by default they're disabled on
macOS.
------
kurthr
The engineers way of thinking about Fitt's Law is as a human control system.
We motion control our hands by using feedback (visual, tactile,
proprioceptive). The servo time response to a step function (new location to
click) of that feedback loop depends on the required accuracy and allowed
overshoot. The larger the target, the higher a velocity/acceleration you can
use to hit it without missing. You learn very quickly that large objects (like
edge of screen) allow much more gross movements than single pixel target...
and the farther you have to go the larger the time at a given tracking
velocity.
What is at least as interesting is the cognitive load of tracking/pointing,
clicking/chording . Mental load and apparent time appear to be the reason why
typing can be slower than a menu system, but it feels faster. Similarly,
people will report a feeling like a trackpoint (IBM keyboard nipple) takes
longer than a mouse even when they're actually faster in hitting targets.
Presumably, this is because they have to track the cursor to know velocity and
position, while a mouse or touchpad uses your body's knowledge of hand
position/velocity that is missing from a force based input.
What you're used to feels right in any case.
------
ProxCoques
And after you've read that, give yourself The Quiz!
[http://www.asktog.com/columns/022DesignedToGiveFitts.html](http://www.asktog.com/columns/022DesignedToGiveFitts.html)
------
deventis
Laws of UX has a nice overview of the different laws that exist in user
experience! Fitt's law: [https://lawsofux.com/fittss-
law](https://lawsofux.com/fittss-law)
~~~
seanmcdirmid
Principles of interaction design has even more entries and is quite detailed.
Unfortunately, it’s a book that isn’t free!
~~~
whoisjuan
I think you meant: "Principles of Interactive Design" by Lisa Graham. Right?
~~~
seanmcdirmid
No. I got the name completely wrong:
[https://books.google.com/books?id=3RFyaF7jCZsC&printsec=fron...](https://books.google.com/books?id=3RFyaF7jCZsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=universal+principles+of+interaction+design&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjlma7GwfbZAhUSz2MKHWjdA3AQ6AEIJDAA#v=onepage&q=universal%20principles%20of%20interaction%20design&f=false)
Universal principles of design. The book is like an encyclopedia of design
principles.
------
todd8
On some early graphical computer user interface, I can’t remember which one,
one could specify that the mouse cursor would “wrap” to the opposite edge. It
was like the ultimate non-Fitt’s law configuration. I hated it when I tried
it, I would lose the cursor and not be able to find it.
~~~
radiorental
Just to be pedantic, while somewhat related, that's not Fitts Law.
Fitts Law is specifically about targeting.
The 'feature' to wrap the pointer may compound targeting issues but it's
secondary. Again, Fitts' is about distance to and size of a target.
~~~
todd8
You’re right. What I discovered was that I would lose the mouse cursor because
I couldn’t quickly move it to an edge without tracking it visually all the way
to begin with and once the cursor crosses the edge it breaks visual continuity
by jumping to the opposite side. Today’s multimonitor configurations have the
same problem to some extent because they have so much area with small
discontinuities at the edge where the cursor jumps to a different monitor.
------
macqm
Windows 8 Start UI was designed to take advantage of this. Theoretically it
was great: when you open start menu the mouse pointer is in the bottom left
corner, tiles close to you are wide and tall, tiles far from the pointer are
smaller, wider at the bottom, narrower at the top. Hot corners were supposed
to be easily accessible (infinite distance). Yet is was a failure, because
uses were not familiar with it, it broke their habits.
~~~
Doxin
The whole problem with the tiles is that they are much too big. Bigger targets
are easier to click, but targets farther away are again harder to click. The
targets in the start menu were plenty big to start with anyways.
------
simula67
Previous discussion :
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11208463](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11208463)
I posted this in previous discussion too, a much simpler explanation :
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3gS9tjACwU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3gS9tjACwU)
------
rwmj
Clicks edge of screen above NetworkManager icon ... Confirms it's still broken
in XFCE 4.
------
walterbell
How does this work with radial menus and touch interfaces?
~~~
DonHopkins
Pie menus benefit from Fitts' Law by minimizing the target distance to a small
constant (the radius of the inactive region in the menu center where the
cursor starts) and maximizing the target area of each item (a wedge shaped
slice that extends to the edge of the screen).
They also have the advantage that you don't need to focus your visual
attention on hitting the target (which linear menus require), because you can
move in any direction into a big slice without looking at the screen (while
parking the cursor in a little rectangle requires visual feedback), and you
can learn to use them with muscle memory, with quick "mouse ahead" gestures.
[http://www.donhopkins.com/drupal/node/100](http://www.donhopkins.com/drupal/node/100)
An Empirical Comparison of Pie vs. Linear Menus
Jack Callahan, Don Hopkins, Mark Weiser (+) and Ben Shneiderman. Computer
Science Department University of Maryland College Park, Maryland 20742 (+)
Computer Science Laboratory, Xerox PARC, Palo Alto, Calif. 94303. Presented at
ACM CHI'88 Conference, Washington DC, 1988.
Abstract
Menus are largely formatted in a linear fashion listing items from the top to
bottom of the screen or window. Pull down menus are a common example of this
format. Bitmapped computer displays, however, allow greater freedom in the
placement, font, and general presentation of menus. A pie menu is a format
where the items are placed along the circumference of a circle at equal radial
distances from the center. Pie menus gain over traditional linear menus by
reducing target seek time, lowering error rates by fixing the distance factor
and increasing the target size in Fitts's Law, minimizing the drift distance
after target selection, and are, in general, subjectively equivalent to the
linear style.
[http://www.donhopkins.com/drupal/node/98](http://www.donhopkins.com/drupal/node/98)
The Design and Implementation of Pie Menus -- Dr. Dobb's Journal, Dec. 1991
There're Fast, Easy, and Self-Revealing.
Copyright (C) 1991 by Don Hopkins.
Originally published in Dr. Dobb's Journal, Dec. 1991, lead cover story, user
interface issue.
Introduction
Although the computer screen is two-dimensional, today most users of windowing
environments control their systems with a one-dimensional list of choices --
the standard pull-down or drop-down menus such as those found on Microsoft
Windows, Presentation Manager, or the Macintosh.
This article describes an alternative user-interface technique I call "pie"
menus, which is two-dimensional, circular, and in many ways easier to use and
faster than conventional linear menus. Pie menus also work well with
alternative pointing devices such as those found in stylus or pen-based
systems. I developed pie menus at the University of Maryland in 1986 and have
been studying and improving them over the last five years.
During that time, pie menus have been implemented by myself and my colleagues
on four different platforms: X10 with the uwm window manager, SunView, NeWS
with the Lite Toolkit, and OpenWindows with the NeWS Toolkit. Fellow
researchers have conducted both comparison tests between pie menus and linear
menus, and also tests with different kinds of pointing devices, including
mice, pens, and trackballs.
Included with this article are relevant code excerpts from the most recent
NeWS implementation, written in Sun's object-oriented PostScript dialect.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jvi98wVUmQA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jvi98wVUmQA)
Demo of Pie Menus in SimCity for X11. Ported to Unix and demonstrated by Don
Hopkins.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG0FAKkaisg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG0FAKkaisg)
Pet Rock Remote Control: Pie menu remote control touch screen interface for
sending commands to pet rocks.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KfeHNIXYUc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KfeHNIXYUc)
MediaGraph Music Navigation with Pie Menus Prototype developed for Will
Wright's Stupid Fun Club: This is a demo of a user interface research
prototype that I developed for Will Wright at the Stupid Fun Club. It includes
pie menus, an editable map of music interconnected with roads, and cellular
automata.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-exdu4ETscs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-exdu4ETscs)
The Sims, Pie Menus, Edith Editing, and SimAntics Visual Programming Demo:
This is a demonstration of the pie menus, architectural editing tools, and
Edith visual programming tools that I developed for The Sims with Will Wright
at Maxis and Electronic Arts.
~~~
walterbell
Thanks for the references!
Any idea why these are not often used with touchscreen mobile interfaces, e.g.
press for contextual pie menu? Even without OS support, they could be
implemented within apps.
~~~
DonHopkins
There have been various implementations of pie menus for Android [1] and iOS
[2]. And of course there was the Momenta pen computer in 1991 [3], and I
developed a Palm app called ConnectedTV [4] in 2001 with "Finger Pies" (cf
Penny Lane ;). But Apple has lost their way when it comes to user interface
design, and iOS isn't open enough that a third party could add pie menus to
the system the way they've done with Android. But you could still implement
them in individual apps, just not system wide.
Also see my comment above about the problem of non-transparent fingers.
Swiping gestures are essentially like invisible pie menus, but actual pie
menus have the advantage of being "Self Revealing" [5] because they have a way
to prompt and show you what the possible gestures are, and give you feedback
as you make the selection.
They also provide the ability of "Reselection" [6], which means you as you're
making a gesture, you can change it in-flight, and browse around to any of the
items, in case you need to correct a mistake or change your mind, or just want
to preview the effect or see the description of each item as you browse around
the menu.
Compared to typical gesture recognition systems, like Palm's graffiti for
example, you can think of the gesture space of all possible gestures between
touching the screen, moving around through any possible path, then releasing:
most gestures are invalid syntax errors, and they only recognizes well formed
gestures.
There is no way to correct or abort a gesture once you start making it (other
than scribbling, but that might be recognized as another undesired gesture!).
Ideally each gesture should be as far away as possible from all other gestures
in gesture space, to minimize the possibility of errors, but in practice they
tend to be clumped (so "2" and "Z" are easily confused, while many other
possible gestures are unused and wasted).
But with pie menus, only the direction between the touch and the release
matter, not the path. All gestures are valid and distinct: there are no
possible syntax errors, so none of gesture space is wasted. There's a simple
intuitive mapping of direction to selection that the user can understand
(unlike the mysterious fuzzy black box of a handwriting recognizer), that
gives you the ability to refine your selection by moving out further (to get
more leverage), return to the center to cancel, move around to correct and
change the selection.
Pie menus also support "Rehearsal" [7] -- the way a novice uses them is
actually practice for the way an expert uses them, so they have a smooth
learning curve. Contrast this with keyboard accelerators for linear menus: you
pull down a linear menu with the mouse to learn the keyboard accelerators, but
using the keyboard accelerators is a totally different action, so it's not
rehearsal.
Pie menu users tend to learn them in three stages: 1) novice pops up an
unfamiliar menu, looks at all the items, moves in the direction of the desired
item, and selects it. 2) intermediate remembers the direction of the item they
want, pop up the menu and moves in that direction without hesitating (mousing
ahead but not selecting), looks at the screen to make sure the desired item is
selected, then clicks to select the item. 3) expert knows which direction the
item they want is, and has confidence that they can reliably select it, so
they just flick in the appropriate direction without even looking at the
screen.
I wrote some more stuff about pie menus in the previous discussion of Fitts'
Law. [8]
[1] Android Pie Menus:
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lazyswipe](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lazyswipe)
[2] iOS Pie Menus: [https://github.com/tapsandswipes/iphone-pie-
menu](https://github.com/tapsandswipes/iphone-pie-menu)
[3] Momenta Pen Pie Menus:
[https://www.microsoft.com/buxtoncollection/detail.aspx?id=17...](https://www.microsoft.com/buxtoncollection/detail.aspx?id=170)
[4] Palm ConnectedTV Finger Pie Menus:
[http://uk.pcmag.com/connectedtv/29965/review/turn-your-
palm-...](http://uk.pcmag.com/connectedtv/29965/review/turn-your-palm-into-a-
tv-remote)
[5] Self Revealing: [http://uxmag.com/sites/default/files/uploads/Brave-NUI-
World...](http://uxmag.com/sites/default/files/uploads/Brave-NUI-World-Sample-
Chapter.pdf)
Self-revealing gestures are a philosophy for design of gestural interfaces
that posits that the only way to see a behavior in your users is to induce it
( afford it, for the Gibsonians among us). Users are presented with an
interface to which their response is gestural input. This approach contradicts
some designers’ apparent assumption that a gesture is some kind of “shortcut”
that is performed in some ephemeral layer hovering above the user interface.
In reality, a successful development of a gestural system requires the
development of a gestural user interface. Objects are shown on the screen to
which the user reacts, instead of somehow intuiting their performance. The
trick, of course, is to not overload the user with UI “chrome” that overly
complicates the UI, but rather to afford as many suitable gestures as possible
with a minimum of extra on-screen graphics. To the user, she is simply
operating your UI, when in reality, she is learning a gesture language.
[6] Reselection:
[https://www.billbuxton.com/PieMenus.html](https://www.billbuxton.com/PieMenus.html)
In general, subjects used approximately straight strokes. No alternate
strategies such as always starting at the top item and then moving to the
correct item were observed. However, there was evidence of reselection from
time to time, where subjects would begin a straight stroke and then change
stroke direction in order to select something different.
Surprisingly, we observed reselection even in the hidden menu groups. This was
especially unexpected in the Marking group since we felt the affordances of
marking do not naturally suggest the possibility of reselection. It was clear
though, that training the subjects in the hidden groups on exposed menus first
made the option of reselection apparent. Clearly many of the subjects in the
Marking group were not thinking of the task as making marks per se, but of
making selections from menus that they had to imagine. This brings into
question our a priori assumption that the Marking group was using a marking
metaphor, while the Hidden group was using a menu selection metaphor. This may
explain why very few behavioral differences were found between the two groups.
Reselection in the hidden groups most likely occurred when subjects began a
selection in error but detected and corrected the error before confirming the
selection. This was even observed in the "easy" 4-slice menu, which supports
the assumption that many of these reselections are due to detected mental
slips as opposed to problems in articulation. There was also evidence of fine
tuning in the hidden cases, where subjects first moved directly to an
approximate area of the screen, and then appeared to adjust between two
adjacent sectors.
[7] Rehearsal:
[https://www.billbuxton.com/MMUserLearn.html](https://www.billbuxton.com/MMUserLearn.html)
Requirement: Novices need to find out what commands are available and how to
invoke the commands. Design feature: pop-up menu.
Requirement: Experts desire fast invocation. Once the user is aware of the
available commands, speed of invocation becomes a priority. Design feature:
easy to draw marks.
Requirement: A user's expertise varies over time and therefore a user must be
able to seamlessly switch between novice and expert behavior. Design feature:
menuing and marking are not mutually exclusive modes. Switching between the
two can be accomplished in the same interaction by pressing-and-waiting or not
waiting.
Our model of user behavior with marking menus is that users start off using
menus but with practice gravitate towards using marks and using a mark is
significantly faster than using a menu. Furthermore, even users that are
expert (i.e., primarily use marks) will occasionally return to using the menu
to remind themselves of the available commands or menu item/mark associations.
[8] TLDR: bla bla bla pie menus bla bla bla. ;)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11219792](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11219792)
------
dang
We merged the earlier discussion
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16610903](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16610903))
into this one.
I invited Kevin to repost his old article that was posted in 2007 but never
got any discussion on Hacker News:
[https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Visualizing%20Fitts%27s%20Law&...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Visualizing%20Fitts%27s%20Law&sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=story&storyText=false&prefix=false&page=0).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Nuclear deterrence is limited by geography - robszumski
http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/archive/1204122/nuclear-deterrence-the-revenge-of-geography/
======
cameldrv
Jeffrey Lewis often has smart things to say, but sometimes his articles make
no sense, at least from a technical, on their face, perspective. If nukes
really do fly, whether they fly over Russia or not is totally irrelevant. At a
minimum, given only a heading, Russia would see that only the far east could
be conceivably attacked, which is not a threat to the Russian nation, or its
nuclear deterrent, and would not be the action of a power trying to attack
Russia. In reality, satellites and radars would also be able to measure
velocity, and this, even only with satellite and without radar, would make it
clear that the target was NK. Russia might lodge a protest about its airspace
being violated, but this would be comically minor compared to the rest of the
diplomatic issues to be resolved after an actual nuclear attack.
~~~
KGIII
Would the missile be in the atmosphere at the time it passes over Russia, or
would it still be in space? I hit up Google and it wasn't helpful in answering
this question.
If it is still in space, I'm not sure that Russia really has much ground to
stand in, with regards to complaining.
~~~
olympus
This really has nothing to do with the altitude of the missile. Any ICBM that
the US sends over Russia without talking with them first would be an extreme
provocation, and would give Russia justification to do whatever they wanted
(hopefully WWIII wouldn't result, but lots of other bad things could happen).
This is not the same scale as North Korea test firing a missile over Japan
(and look how nervous Japan got). Pre-coordinating a strike with Russia
removes the time advantage that ICBMs have over bombers, and it would be a
rare situation where Russia would give permission to let an American nuke
overfly its territory.
Similarly, if Russia shot an ICBM over US territory at any altitude, the US
would freak out and be justified in sanctioning the crap out of Russia.
Unfortunately, the US is not in the way of any of Russia's targets (unless the
target is the US), so it's mostly a one-way consideration.
~~~
KGIII
I'm sure they'd be upset, but the USSR was the first country to overfly other
nations with a man made object in space. I doubt they'd do anything other than
yell about it? It's not like they could effectively sanction the US.
I am not an expert in these matters but, if I understand correctly, they can
tell velocity and direction to see that it's not going to hit then. I'm not
sure that it enters their airspace, however.
Are there any treaties or international laws regarding this? Again, Google is
not being helpful.
------
pidge
Incidentally, there’s actually a map projection where all “great circle”
routes (shortest paths on a sphere, ie missile paths) are straight lines. It’s
called the gnomonic projection, and it could have been used to illustrate the
Russian-overflight issue more clearly.
Although it’s limited to only showing half of a sphere at a time, so it
doesn’t solve the problem of illustrating a southern around-the-world route.
An azimuthal equidistant projection centered at the launch site or target
would work for that.
~~~
cousin_it
The existence of the gnomonic projection isn't very surprising, as it's just
the perspective projection used by all artists to go from a spherical field of
view to a flat plane. That way it's also easy to understand why it can't
handle more than half of the sphere.
~~~
jacobolus
To the grandparent poster: A gnomonic projection is not the most useful for
these particular maps, because the distances are so long that distortion
starts getting out of control.
Better would be some kind of azimuthal projection centered on North Korea
(azimuthal equidistant perhaps), with other segments (those not including NK
as an endpoint) drawn as the appropriate great circle arcs.
------
NamTaf
The big unmentioned thing here is that what would Russia do to respond to an
ICBM flying over them _from the South_? If they have an engage-on-detection
doctrine, is that only pointed north towards the US or would it still apply
from something originating from NK?
In essence, does Russia become a similar defensive blanket for the US?
~~~
olympus
No, one of the first things that is considered when deciding if an unknown
missile is hostile is to look at its point of origin (comically abbreviated
POO). If a missile originates from NK, then Russia would first assume it is
headed for the US. They would need to gather trajectory information indicating
that the missile was heading for a Russian target before they did anything.
They would be pissed at North Korea for starting WWIII, but would probably
just let the missile fly overhead and try to take advantage of the political
situation later.
------
pluma
Can someone explain in simple language why we still think nuclear deterrence
is a good idea? Is any nation on Earth myopic enough to think that responding
to a nuclear attack with a nuclear escalation is a viable strategy?
Making North Korea easier to hit by US nukes won't make them step down. North
Korea is scared senseless and backed into a corner (they've been at war with
the US for the better part of a century and preparing for an invasion by an
enemy that is several times their size), trying to scare them further won't
prevent them from doing anything stupid.
Maybe I'm missing something but this sounds like it's only concerned with
maintaining American military dominance rather than guaranteeing peaceful
coexistence or at least the continued existence of the human race. Nuclear
weapons are neither necessary nor sufficient to win a war against North Korea.
If the conflict were to ever go nuclear, nuking North Korea won't make the
country back down -- it will only alienate China, South Korea (or what's left
of it) and Japan. Not to mention the entire International Community.
~~~
planteen
Nuclear deterrence has been a controversial topic for 50 years. There have
always been arguments for nuclear disarmament instead.
I took the point of this article to be that the ICBM portion of the US triad
does not work on NK since a missile must overfly China or Russia.
I personally don't think there is much risk of war with NK. NK has everything
to lose and nothing to gain by starting any sort of war.
------
vtange
Since we have Trump on board, the post might be even more interesting with a
slide 10: let South Korea/Japan go nuclear, in face of the political issues.
~~~
olympus
The US doctrine on nuclear stuff is (paraphrasing here) "if you want something
done right, you have to do it yourself." There are very few countries that we
trust enough to hand over a job as important as nuclear deterrent. Australia
would be a much better choice from an allied perspective but their military is
much too small to be a real deterrent against China. Combining Australia,
Japan, and South Korea might be an effective deterrent, but we still don't
trust Japan and China will never let a nuclear South Korea happen.
Letting Japan have nuclear weapons is many decades in the future. The US
monitors/controls the development of the JSDF very closely. They were only
recently [1] allowed to have an "aircraft carrier." (edit 2: This presupposes
that Japan even wants nuclear weapons. They, of all countries, would think
twice about something that has destroyed two of their cities- also the
"peaceful" application of nuclear power has devastated the area around
Fukushima. New Zealand has a strong anti-nuke sentiment and they were only
used as a test site.)
South Korea is so close to China that their defensive reaction time is
effectively zero. The same goes for China's reaction time from a South Korean
missile. China would be extremely upset (to the point of sabotaging missile
installations) if we were to allow South Korea to develop nuclear weapons.
Imagine if China allied with Mexico and started helping them with a nuclear
program. The US would go apeshit. (edit: Rather than make up a hypothetical,
just look at the Cuban Missile Crisis to figure out how crazy it could be. Why
did I not just use that example in the first place?)
The US wants to control its own nuclear weapons and would rather lease bases
from allies than to let the allies have their own weapons. This increases the
perceived security of the weapons (from being stolen), as most military
commanders believe that their own base is a much more secure place to keep
nukes than someone else's base. Whether or not this is true is up for debate.
Manning your own defenses instead of an ally also increases your perceived
defensive readiness. Most commanders also believe that their own troops are
better prepared than someone else's troops. Whether or not this is true is
also up for debate.
[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hy%C5%ABga-
class_helicopter_de...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hy%C5%ABga-
class_helicopter_destroyer)
~~~
QAPereo
_and China will never let a nuclear South Korea happen._
It’s possible, although highly unlikely that the RoK could go nuclear in a
manner similar to Israel, and in essence, China wouldn’t have a say. Never say
never, just based on the strength of opposition.
~~~
yongjik
Israel can do that because it always has the US at its back and it doesn't
really care what Iran or Egypt think.
South Korea, on the other hand, cannot hope to enjoy that kind of support (can
you name one prominent Korean-American politician?), and China is its biggest
trade partner.
That is, South Korea has little to gain and a lot to lose by developing nukes.
~~~
QAPereo
They have the same thing which any country has to gain from a nuclear arsenal;
a near guarantee against outright invasion. As for Israel they did it, like
Pakistan and India, because they could, and once they had no one could stop
them. That’s pretty much why the DPRK wants them, although they’d probably
sell the tech too.
~~~
yongjik
North Korea wants nuke because (1) they're genuinely afraid of American
invasion, and (2) they're already an international pariah so additional
sanctions mean little. They have something to gain from nukes, and not much to
lose.
As for South Korea, it can bulldoze over North Korea with conventional
weapons. It doesn't need nukes to defend against North Korea. On the other
hand, China has so much firepower that having a few nukes won't tip the
balance much, so nukes are not much useful against China either.
Now consider that South Korea is practically an island country, heavily
dependent on trade. Almost all its neighbors will vehemently protest a nuclear
program, and its economy will suffer greatly. AND it will increase tension in
East Asia. And probably provoke Japan into its own nuclear program. Just what
we need.
Frankly, as a South Korean, I cannot think of a single desirable outcome that
can follow a nuclear program. If we're serious about national defense, what we
really need now is not nukes but a powerful navy that can secure our trade
routes.
~~~
QAPereo
_As for South Korea, it can bulldoze over North Korea with conventional
weapons. It doesn 't need nukes to defend against North Korea. On the other
hand, China has so much firepower that having a few nukes won't tip the
balance much, so nukes are not much useful against China either._
Sure, but they’d have turned Seoul into a series of shallow craters however,
and you should assume that China would use the DPRK as a proxy in another
shooting war. Meanwhile having the credible ability to destroy a few major
Chinese metropolitan centers probably has more of a deterrent effect than you
are admitting.
~~~
yongjik
We don't need nukes to deter China (or any other country) from an all-out
invasion. We already deter them by being a small, heavily populated and
industrially developed, largely monocultural, and largely mountainous country,
which has half a million soldiers and is only accessible via sea or through
one of the world's most heavily fortified border. Invading South Korea will
cost any country more than Invading Iraq cost America. It's simply not worth
it.
That's not saying South Korea is invincible, or there aren't any ways China
can apply military pressure.
A much more realistic scenario is like this: some Chinese patrol ships
suddenly find a need to "protect" Chinese fishing boats from being "harassed"
by South Korean coast guards patrolling its EEZ. In such a case, nukes won't
help, because what are you going to do with them, bomb Beijing? Can you
imagine what would happen to KOSPI index if a South Korean politician so much
as made a joke about using nukes?
I still fail to see the utility of nukes. Any national leader has to be
batshit insane to consider invading South Korea, and if they are already that
insane, I don't see how having a few nukes will suddenly cause them to back
down. (Don't be fooled by North Korea: they're carefully cultivating the
_image_ of a batshit insane trigger-happy country because it benefits them.)
------
petermcneeley
Surely I am missing something. Nuclear subs and Space deployments make these
slides moot.
~~~
shangxiao
Space deployments are banned by the Outer Space Treaty [1]. Slide 3 mentions
Fractional Orbital Bombardment System (FOBS) which was not banned by the Outer
Space Treaty but subsequently by SALT II. Interestingly enough the US never
ratified SALT II [2].
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Space_Treaty](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Space_Treaty)
[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional_Orbital_Bombardment...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional_Orbital_Bombardment_System#The_FOBS_and_SALT_II)
------
andy_ppp
Brilliant slides and explanations. I really hope that President Trump
understand the nuance here. Sigh.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ten years of Ubuntu - hpaavola
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/10/ten-years-of-ubuntu-how-linuxs-beloved-newcomer-became-its-criticized-king/
======
pjmlp
Ubuntu LTS is the only GNU/Linux distribution that keeps me on Linux on one of
my laptops (an Asus netbook).
All the other distributions fail short of 100% laptop support out of the box.
As I am no longer on my 20's with lots of time to spare, either it works out
of the box, or it doesn't. I don't care about starting weekend projects that
become week long projects just to get something working.
Or just trying out distributions to see how they look like. My first
distribution, Slackware 2.0, was a long time ago.
Ubuntu is great and I do like Unity as desktop environment on my netbook.
~~~
hiou
Why is this at the top? It's obvious flame bait.
Yeah, we get it. You are really worried about yourself and your time. Yeah, we
get it that you want to make a generalization that "All the other
distributions" don't have 100% support. Which is obviously not true by any
respect. I'm typing on one right now that both Debian and Arch work without
issue.
"I don't care about starting weekend projects that become week long projects
just to get something working." It's been almost 10 years since I've had that
experience with Linux. This is over 4 desktops and 3 laptops. Can we please
bury this meme?
What is it with Linux that someone really needs to hop in an talk about what's
wrong with it, no matter what the topic beyond the mere mention of Linux?
Edit: To clarify a bit about this silly meme. Many people find some hunk of
junk that the don't use anymore and that they never thought about working with
Linux when they bought it. Then they are surprised it doesn't just work. To
me, that isn't much different then buying a PC and trying to install OSX on it
and complaining about how it didn't just magically work. Many laptops and
desktops are certified and targeted to work with Linux. From many of the large
manufacturers. You obviously might have trouble if you are trying to cram
something onto something that it is not designed for. Are you even an
engineer? How do you not realize that?
~~~
testing3212
> It's been almost 10 years since I've had that experience with Linux. This is
> over 4 desktops and 3 laptops. Can we please bury this meme?
Maybe with desktops, but even just last year, trying to get wi-fi setup on my
beagle bone or raspberry pi were hell. Multiple programs to do the same thing,
and none of them work quite the same. So running scripts from the command line
with the usual commands wouldn't work, so then the only thing that did work
was the gui. But what if you don't want to use the gui, because you want the
thing to reconnect automatically after power down (an option the gui didn't
provide)?
Maybe running ubuntu, this wouldn't have been an issue, but beagle bone had
archlinux, and then I tried multiple versions for the raspberry pi, most of
them debian based.
So, no. This meme won't die just because most versions work out of box for
desktops. It would have to work out of box for anything linux runs on.
~~~
thearn4
Yeah, I have to agree with this. I used GNU/Linux on my laptop exclusively
when I was in grad school, and every "sudo apt-get update && upgrade" felt
like taking a turn in Russian roulette. The generic device drivers were almost
always a nightmare. Power management was abysmal. And this was on a Lenovo
machine that is generally considered to be pretty Linux friendly.
While I never did have a problem that wasn't eventually solvable, I finally
came to accept that I really don't like playing sysadmin, and would much
rather know that I can pick up my machine, perform library updates, and
actually go work on something at a moments notice.
At least on a laptop. On a desktop machine, I'm willing to be much more
patient.
~~~
hiou
Just for my own curiosity, did you intentionally chose a Laptop that you knew
was 100% compatible to begin with?
Edit to the downvoter who can't use their words: The above comment said
"Lenovo machine that is generally considered to be pretty Linux friendly".
Seems like a relevant question as to whether that meant 100% compatible via
Lenovo's declaration or online research and an educated guess. It was a
sincere question as Lenovo does provide specific information about Linux
compatibility.
[http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/documents/pd031426](http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/documents/pd031426)
Mind explaining to me what I did wrong there?
------
eloisant
What I really loved in Ubuntu is that they were the first distribution that
really considered itself an OS, not "a way to install Linux" and make choices
about what it should include.
All the other distributions started by asking whether you wanted KDE or Gnome,
Abiword or OpenOffice, and ended up installing a bunch of software you may or
may not want "just in case". Ubuntu made choices, if you didn't like it you
could always change it later on or use a different distribution but you had a
consistent OS to start with.
~~~
agumonkey
It's strange. I have a hard time remembering why I liked Ubuntu right away.
Maybe a blend of good enough looking, works out of the box mindset, which made
a community grow rapidly and kicking a nice network effect where you would
quickly find solution on their board/wikis.
I was impressed later when they managed to bring new Window Management ideas
without too much time or pain.
~~~
ZeroGravitas
It was summed up for me at the time by the joke "Ubuntu is an ancient African
word meaning 'can't install Debian'".
Their focus on getting stuff installed and working was a big deal then.
~~~
pessimizer
Wasn't this mostly Knoppix's accomplishment?
~~~
duaneb
I believe Knoppix was the first to formalize the debian live cd concept—I
don't think they did the major work for supporting hardware and supporting
installation from the live cd.
------
cyphax
I was an Ubuntu user for a few years. I remember when they'd ship the CD's out
for free. One of those things that made Ubuntu great. It was also really good
at presenting a very usable Gnome 2.x desktop that was ready to use from the
first boot, and I was a very happy user for a while, until they started
shipping software a little bit too soon (PulseAudio for example; suddenly
Ubuntu didn't have sound out-of-the-box anymore on my machine) and I've once
been bitten in the behind by an update that made my video card unsupported all
of a sudden, so that prevented X from starting... and then they replaced Gnome
with Unity and I kind of stopped caring around that time so I went back to my
previous distro. Hopefully for good. :)
Congratulations to Mark for starting this otherwise great project! May it have
many years ahead of it!
~~~
ooz
Similar story. It started as a tidied up Debian fork. Then since about 12.04
LTS it turned into a tidied up Debian unstable fork with all the bugs in it.
As a server only and LTS only user, I had no end of problems from there on
with unstable kernels, duff and buggy packages, update roulette and terrible
support.
We're on Debian 7 now and it's rock solid, relatively bug free in comparison
and the support is good. Just where I want it to be.
The best outcome for me was that it caused Debian to rethink their release
cycles a bit.
~~~
icelancer
Totally agree. After 11.x, Ubuntu's "desktop" uses crashed for me and many I
know.
------
davidw
I was a Debian developer for a while, but gradually ran out of time for it,
and eventually went with Ubuntu as my desktop and server OS.
By and large, I'm very happy with it, although I wish they'd sink a bit more
time into avoiding regressions than trying to create new things.
I like the predictable release schedule, and the fact that it's a bit more
focused than Debian.
Yet, underneath it's still all (almost at least) free software that I can hack
on if needs be.
These days I use Xubuntu, with Xfce, because that's a bit more to my liking as
a desktop: focus follows mouse is not something I care to do without.
~~~
johnchristopher
May I ask what you are missing from Debian as a desktop ?
I went from Ubuntu minimal to Debian (stable, nonetheless),tiling wm for me,
gnome for friends and guests, and found Debian easier to maintain (for me and
my friends whose computers I manage).
I must say I feel Debian's desktop experience is really top notch and crosses
all the check marks of what a desktop is supposed to do (for me at least) and
so I don't really see what is gained from switching from Debian to Ubuntu
regarding desktop features.
~~~
davidw
> May I ask what you are missing from Debian as a desktop ?
When I switched, Debian was in the process of taking 3 years to go from woody
to sarge. After that it would be another 5 before etch.
I'm sure Debian makes a fine desktop these days. I could definitely see
switching back at some point.
I do like that there is someone who takes decisions Ubuntu; I think that
streamlines things in some ways. Debian can get into pretty long and involved
flames/discussions about things. Sometimes good comes of it, sometimes it just
distracts people from putting out a good OS.
~~~
liotier
I went down the same path when Ubuntu's appearance suddenly made Debian look
slow and outdated. Now I have been back on Debian for a few years and it just
feels better - Debian has come a long way... I believe that Ubuntu's mere
existence gave it a good jolt !
~~~
davidw
Yeah, a better release schedule helps. I recall Debian servers from 'back in
the day' where you'd start accumulating all this stuff from unstable because
you started needing something that wasn't 4 years old, and then it would have
dependencies, and so on. It could get a bit messy.
------
dijit
So, before I knew what linux was (and was teased on various forums) I ordered
some free CD's from Ubuntu. (I didn't have the internet at home). (eventually
I got them; ubuntu 5.04 I think [Horny Hedgehog from memory])
When I received them I was pleased, everything worked.. well, not everything,
but it sorta worked! I had a desktop environment and a command line and I felt
a small sense of accomplishment because I'd navigated the strange menu's
safely _before anakonda or full-framebuffer installers_
Because of the peer pressure I learned about how to do my bits, and I carried
on.
Later in the year I found fedora, and Blue is a nicer colour than brown (I was
young and fickle) but it was less user friendly, so I committed to learn that
and get off the "Noob Friendly" Ubuntu OS.
Many years later I got a small laptop for my mother, at this stage in my life
I was "awoken" and I knew the power a machine could hold if it ran linux, so I
put ubuntu on it- She's not the most technically apt lady in the world but was
able to do most things with ease, and I put that down to having a "Good UX
outside microsoft" (since most people who learn the microsoft way are
generally committed to a mindset and anything outside of that is pushed away).
A few issues with Flash, some performance hiccups on some websites that seemed
to try and avoid supporting linux in strange ways (that I take for granted I
know how to bypass) and eventually the machine gave up the ghost.
I bought a new machine and put ubuntu on it (13.10 I think) and she was
somewhat less than pleased, the UX had changed, she didn't know what was
available anymore, nothing was organised in a way she understood.. and so I
installed mint, she's now happy.
So I'll say this for Ubuntu, they put linux in the hands of people who we
should really be targetting, it allowed me access to linux acting as a base
plate and later acting as a full blown system for someone who was not
interested at all in computers. And they pushed a trend for that, so we should
all be thankful.
~~~
dijit
A follow on from this story and many moons after my "fickle" switch to
Fedora/RHEL.
At this point in my life I'd been involved in a half dozen large companies and
used linux on enormous scale.
I moved to a company that was using ubuntu LTS (10.04) (old at the time) in
production, it was heavily invested and I expected that wouldn't change as
Developers were very hesitant to change to debian (which is too old/doesn't
make things easy enough) or centos/RHEL which suffers the same issues and has
the added benefit of having SELinux (which I'm an advocate of understanding
rather than disabling).
I go through my daily security advisories and a local privilege escalation
means all our virtual machines and virtual machine hosts are affected, luckily
it's patched as 10.04 is still supported so I apt-get update;apt-get upgrade
and send out an email saying the server will be down for 30 minutes while it
receives patches.
I was wrong, it was down for 6 hours.
unfortunately someone upsteam caused that particular kernel update to rebuild
all initramfs' on the machine, and had also named lvm2 to lvm, so now my
drives wouldn't mount.
On any kernel version/initramfs version
normally you can drop to shell load the module, mount the drives and continue
startup, but unfortunately that stopped a lot of things from loading such as
the bonding we had in place on the nics.
obviously I didn't know why it broke at the time and was attempting to get
help from #ubuntu on freenode.
the response was "Sometimes it's better not to know why it broke"
that server was smoothly running CentOS before I left that company.
So in my opinion support and enterprise is where it falls down.
------
hpaavola
For me the biggest thing about Ubuntu is that it does not feel like a
distribution. It's an OS. They don't just pack others stuff inside one image
and call it a day. Ubuntu does things in a way that they feel is the correct
way. If there is a suitable OSS package for that, great. If not, then they
make it. Fedora, Debian and others just gather what's there and ship it. AFAIK
Elementary OS is the only other distro that works kinda like Ubuntu, but it
looks like an OSX clone.
~~~
SunShiranui
Elementary does look like OSX, but I wouldn't judge them negatively for that.
I've been using the distro for a while and I'm quite happy with it.
~~~
rkuykendall-com
As a mac user that gets nervous when Apple announces new OS X versions, I'm
glad there are linux users out there keeping the principles that make OS X
great alive. If OS X ever goes too iOS / iCloud for me to bare, I hope
Elementary is waiting for me with the same attention to detail, stability, and
ease of use that god me hooked on OS X.
~~~
t0mislav
Same thing here.
------
latch
There's gotta be a lot of OSX users like me who'd switch in a heartbeat given
better laptop options. I know they're getting better, but it still isn't that
close.
~~~
tormeh
What we need is for Canonical to release their own laptops where they support
the entire hardware+software combo. Canonical Nexus, please?
Any other company with their own Linux distro and hardware would also work, I
guess. I really like Unity, though.
~~~
peatmoss
The Nexus model chooses a manufacturer and then works with them to create the
current year's creation. I'm not sure Canonical has enough resource or
leverage to do that.
That said, I'd love to see an Apple-esque model where I could point to 3
laptops each year and say "large, medium, and small" and know that they would
work completely with zero fussing.
Maybe Canonical could start down this road by refitting their devs with new
laptops on an annual cycle and saying, "these are the laptops we will be using
this year."
I'm a NetBSD-to-Apple switcher (circa 2003) who has a fair bit of ambient
familiarity with Ubuntu as his auxiliary OS. I don't run any proprietary
system beyond what comes bundled with OS X nowadays. I could switch to Ubuntu
for day-to-day work and be perfectly content.
I can say that the SOLE factor of why I haven't has everything to do with not
finding a rival to my MacBook Air 11". Part of that may be there simply isn't
a comparable machine. But part of that may be that the hassle of searching for
alternatives is simply too great.
~~~
Mikeb85
There is the Dell XPS 13 developer edition which comes from Dell with
Ubuntu... ThinkPads work great with Ubuntu (at least the T, X, and W series),
I've been using a T530 for a few years now and every single function key, the
fingerprint reader, absolutely every feature it has works. And of course there
are a few boutique manufacturers that ship Linux systems.
I'm sure other laptops work great with Ubuntu but these are the ones I'm
familiar with...
~~~
pessimizer
I use one of the boutique systems (the ZaReason UltraLap) as my work laptop
and like it a lot, but when my home laptop started to give up the ghost for
the fourth or fifth time (a 6-year old Dell Inspiron 1525), I realized that
for home use I need the secondary parts market to be active. I fix computers
that break (the Inspiron is on its second motherboard, third power board, and
the screen and backlight inverter of someone else's 1525 that they were
throwing out.) The ThinkPad T430 is cheap enough that it often undercuts the
boutiques, but I'm not locked out of ebaying for a new power board.
------
_nedR
As an Ubuntu user since 10.04, what I would really like to see is Ubuntu
matching or beating Windows/OS X with regards to battery life. When I first
installed 10.04, my ubuntu setup actually beat Windows Vista in battery life
and stability. Then 10.10 came out with serious power regressions (related to
kernel regressions, Unity, etc.) - which I still blame from killing my
battery.
Since then, Windows 7 and 8 have gotten more stable and better battery life
while Ubuntu has struggled to keep up. With 14.04, Ubuntu is better (finally
with basic support for NVIDIA PRIME)but has yet to catch up with Windows.
Seriously, Mark Shuttleworth and Ubuntu devs, if you are reading:- Ubuntu is
promoting global warming and creation of electronic waste with its current
actions. Forget the features and fluff for now - Fix the battery issues and
make sure things just work.
Thank you Ubuntu for all the great work you guys have done for Linux over the
last 10 years. Still love you.
~~~
mattfrommars
Have you tried TLP out?
~~~
_nedR
No. I would like to, when I get the time (Also powertop
-[http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=ubuntu_14...](http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=ubuntu_1404_powertop&)
)
But thats the point. Lot of us depend on our computer for work and don't have
the time to fiddle with lot of error-prone settings.
This is why Linux users have been migrating to OS X for years. Deep down, we
are all idealistic hackers who would love for FOSS, and open-source to win,
and give the finger to big brother, but we also need to put food on our
tables.
Canonical lately has been chasing unicorns and leprechauns to find the Next
Big Thing (never mind that they are late to mobile, tablet, and even unified
interfaces). Canonical is right that mobile is the future. Mobile first of all
includes laptops, tablets , phone. And the basic requirement for a successful
mobile platform is battery life.
------
lmedinas
I like Ubuntu, we use (LTS releases) at work and it's been very stable and
easy to maintain. It's also by far the most popular Linux distro for a lot's
of reasons. Although i rarely use it at home (switched to OSX) I still keep
myself updated and try every release. Imho i feel they should get more in the
"latest technologies" bandwagon like they did a few years before Unity (for
those who remember Ubuntu pushed always the latest GNOME releases with the
latest technologies developed by RedHat and get it right even before Fedora)
and upstart in order to not cause more fragmentation on the Linux desktop.
Let's take Unity example: First was desktop on top of GTK2 which looked and
worked better than gnome-shell. Then the transition of GNOME3 started and now
GNOME was able to get a ecosystem of applications that fit's on GNOME not
Unity, so currently GNOME apps don't fit on Unity desktop and even gnome-shell
perhaps it's more useful than Unity. Same for upstart: It started as an new
modern init system but then systemd came out and become the standard in Linux
(or at least it's trying to). Now Ubuntu is migrating to systemd because their
init system never gained traction. Not to mention the manpower they invested
and now they don't get any result out of it. I fear the same will happen with
MIR since it will NOT become the standard on Linux like Wayland.
For the future I hope Canonical don't pull the plug on Desktop and Server
(which is also very popular) and give it's users the choice of using Wayland,
GNOME, X11, systemd, XFCE, LXDE or other technologies instead of the "home
made" technologies. Also let's hope for more bright 10 years ahead trying to
get Linux Desktop in the right direction giving people a choice between
Operating Systems.
------
bubblemachine3k
I've had a play with Ubuntu on the Nexus 5. I don't think it's a daily driver
for me yet, but I'm excited and they look like they are working hard to get
there. Can't wait.
------
adamors
"Linux for human beings" sounds like an oxymoron to me, after 5+ years of
tinkering with Linux on the desktop.
After years of Ubuntu (and Arch, Debian, Mint etc.) I'm not ashamed to say I'm
really happy on OS X. Less customisation and more time to focus on actual
work/leisure.
~~~
Dewie
Ubuntu is really user-friendly... until you are having any kind of non-trivial
problem, which can happen to anyone if they are unlucky with their drivers,
the sound doesn't work, etc.. Then you are relegated to copying command line
gobbledygook from askubuntu into the terminal, being able to understand
nothing about what it does. At least with those tedious "click on X, then on Y
when that pops up"... you're able to understand the gist of what you're doing.
I'm a programmer so I've become somewhat accustomed to working with the
command line. But it's hardly a nice user interface for most people.
~~~
slgeorge
I would estimate (from a relatively well-informed position) that about half
the serious issues that users face are due to hardware interactions. You'll
remember that a few years ago the famous example was WIFI chip-sets.
The reality for the distributions is that if there is good support from the
component manufacturer and the OEM then you can provide a good user-
experience. We put massive effort into enablement with manufacturers such as
Dell, HP and Lenovo [1].
As a user the best thing you can do is to buy hardware with components that
will work. In the old days that used to mean looking at hardware component and
comparing them to whether they worked with Linux. Now we have certification
sites.
The second sort of problem is the general end-user issues. I actually think
that Ubuntu is beyond the point where you need to open the command line for
normal end-user activities. The big weakness there is that there's no
equivalent of the 'Genius Bar' for Linux users.
[1]
[http://www.ubuntu.com/certification/](http://www.ubuntu.com/certification/)
~~~
Dewie
I guess I was lucky in that installing Ubuntu on my Acer mostly just worked. I
had some problems, which were not easy to figure out as a Linux rookie, but
some help from forums and installation of some proprietary drivers were enough
to give as good of an experience for casual use as I was having on Windows.
Since I installed Ubuntu initially out of necessity, I never really had the
time to consider whether my hardware would be supported or not.
------
weavie
As someone who's current phone is more powerful than his laptop, I am really
looking forward to seeing what Ubuntu Touch can deliver.
------
bufordsharkley
I love, love Unity; I love keyboard shortcuts for getting things done quickly,
and Unity's keyboard shortcuts are intuitive and cover just about everything.
And the visual design is beautiful.
...I just know that if the average person could walk into their Best Buy and
get a Windows laptop for $X and an Ubuntu version of that laptop for slightly
less, we'd see Ubuntu everywhere. One can dream.
------
maouida
I tried to switch from Windows to Ubuntu multiple times but I go back to
Windows each time.
I have mainly 2 issues:
\- Upgrade to newer version always fails. I'm left with a broken OS at the
end.
\- Although the UI has improved a lot since the early days of Ubuntu, I still
don't like it. I know I can customize it but it always causes issues on some
apps.
~~~
tribaal
I've been upgrading my laptop through 6 releases (it's 3 years old), and never
had a single failure.
Do you use the provided upgrade path? It's very surprising to me to hear that
- we test upgrades pretty thoroughly.
Disclaimer: I work for Canonical.
~~~
cowardlydragon
I've had to rebuild with a new OS install twice. I've run Ubuntu for
probably... crap, is it 10 years now?
It usually coincided with a oh-well-might-as-well-upgrade decision...
At least one was a two major version upgrade. But still.
------
danbee
Ubuntu got popular during the 3 year period between Debian Woody and Sarge. I
think many Debian users jumped ship because they got bored of waiting for a
new release so a new distro that was basically Debian but up to date was
welcome.
The joke around that time was that Debian was either obsolete or unstable.
------
tatterdemalion
> Like it or not, Ubuntu or whatever your OS of choice is does have root
> access to your machine. Not literally of course, but it's effective access
> given that their code is running with root privileges on your machine and
> chances are you haven't reviewed it lately. You trust your distro to make
> sure that code is secure, stable, and acting in your best interests.
Actually, I trust that of the millions of Ubuntu users, there is at least one
person who would sound the alarm if Canonical had slipped spyware into their
distribution (as, of course, people did about the absurd Amazon lens). Free
software means trusting the public at large to audit the software rather than
trusting the software's producer.
------
_navaneethan
If Ubuntu is not avail now, _then I have to go payment course for learning
Windows_
Ubuntu is pure white box to learn. I am enjoying it from my college life where
I just touched the computer initially, then immediately ubuntu was loaded.
~~~
hackmiester
I love that it's becoming so common. I don't use Ubuntu personally but I think
it is a great "first experience" with Linux.
------
bitwize
I have an ambivalent relationship with Ubuntu. Personally, I hate Ubuntu but
I'm glad it exists. It means a few more people who otherwise would have used
Windows, don't. I keep coming back to Slackware because it's in a nice sweet
spot where "stable", "just works", "lets me configure it just the way I want"
and "doesn't bother me with needless distro-specific cruft" all intersect. So
Ubuntu is definitely not for me. For the people it is for, it does a pretty
good job.
------
sandaru1
One of the main reasons Ubuntu got popular (compared to other distros) on Sri
Lanka because they shipped free CDs. Lots of people in Sri Lanka didn't have
Cable or DSL internet connections by that time. It was limited to a smaller
area of the country - even when people had it, it was 512kbps.
No one was going to bother download a huge distro DVD to try out a new OS.
However, when you get a CD, you tend to try it out. The smooth installation
process certainly helped a lot.
------
Aloha
I actually think Ubuntu has done wonders to enhance the usability of debian
out of the box. We've come so far in 10 years, when I first used debian, I had
to write an X config by hand, now thats all automatic, its so much easier to
use. I stopped using Ubuntu even though I was an early adopter, and went back
to debian, but the development downstream of debian has clearly from my point
of view rolled back up hill.
------
bigbugbag
This article overlook a few facts of history such as ubuntu actively trying to
poach debian devs in an attempt to take over debian, or the fact that packages
were out of date for 6 months and that the upgrade process from one version to
the other often ended in a reinstall from scratch. Not to mention the numerous
things that kept breaking (video drivers, pulseaudio and so on).
------
unknownBits
I'm on arch linux with kde. I tried ubuntu several times, but I can't stick
with it. The installation is a breeze, but for the rest it's not that exiting.
Btw, I consider myself as a human being too!
Still, I am very happy with the existence of Ubuntu, helping millions of
people moving away from Windows and OSX. This is a huge boost for the
development of software for linux.
------
johnchristopher
I remember when I firs tried Ubuntu 10.4 [0] and forum acquaintances were
teasing me about it because there were no MP3 support out of the box. `What
distro doesn't include that ?`. Well, it certainly was way easier to install
and run than the RedHat from those days (but the handbook was.. there actually
was a handbook at least).
[0] edited
------
buckbova
I've been trying various distros for 15 years now and pretty much stopped at
Ubuntu.
Every week I used to visit [http://distrowatch.com/](http://distrowatch.com/)
and look for a new distro to try. I liked Mint and #! too, but Ubuntu gave me
the most consistent experience with the best repositories.
------
era86
I used Ubuntu in 2004 right when I started college as a comp-sci student. It
was the only distro that worked with my laptop with very minimal effort. I
also love the package management (though Brew on OSX is a close second).
Great read, thanks for sharing!
------
KedarMhaswade
I am still unhappy with wifi detection/configuration and problems with Compiz.
But overall, I agree, Ubuntu is getting better.
------
jamesfisher
> By Canonical's estimates, Ubuntu has roughly 90 percent of the Linux market.
Wat? Seriously? How is this measured?
------
badloginagain
I'm surprised they didn't bring up shuttering Ubuntu One cloud service.
------
cobbliu
I have transferred from Ubuntu to Mint recently.
------
cowardlydragon
Ubuntu has been going backwards for at least two years.... \- Unity doesn't
seem to improve, and just further fractures and balkanizes the linux desketop
\- They dropped the installation versions where I can do software RAID
setup... all my desktops are RAID0 dual HDD and SSD OS/swap/boot. \- Ubuntu
desktops have been getting slower as I upgrade my hardware, not faster.
OSX has maddening keyboard shortcuts, and Windows is committing suicide.
With the excess cores, GPU power, huge disk space, virtualization, and other
advancements, I should be able to seamlessly run several OSs at once. There is
such amazing potential out there, but it is pretty clear that Canonical is now
just putting minimal resources into Ubuntu.
It still mystifies me that Google didn't make a seriously good desktop
distribution on par with OSX to destroy the windows monopoly. Instead...
ChromeOS?
~~~
aruggirello
You can still install Ubuntu on a RAID0 or 1 mdadm device (I did so on a
couple SSDs). You just have to use the Ubuntu Server iso instead of the
Desktop one, and follow a few more steps:
[http://www.ubuntulinuxguide.com/software-raid-
ubuntu-14-04-s...](http://www.ubuntulinuxguide.com/software-raid-
ubuntu-14-04-setup-install-configure/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Hurricane Maria Killed as Many American Citizens as 9/11 Did - vinnyglennon
https://warisboring.com/hurricane-maria-killed-as-many-american-citizens-as-911/
======
roenxi
9/11 was tragic, but consider the damage caused by the response in the last 15
years [1]. The number of Afghani civilian deaths alone is an order of
magnitude more destruction than 9/11 and it seems unlikely that even a
plurality of them cared about America or really understood why they were
dying.
Assuming that nobody thought to mention this or take a deep breath and think
while mobilising the army is only barely plausible to me. It seems much more
likely that the absolute damage done was never an issue, and hence it isn't a
powerful comparison. There are so many things worse than 9/11, including even
_the immediate response to_ 9/11, that the raw damage just isn't important.
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Afghanistan_(2001%E2%80...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Afghanistan_\(2001%E2%80%93present\)#Civilian_casualties)
~~~
throwaway8879
There are always side effects to geopolitical powerplay. The lives of the
"them" are never as valuable in an "Us vs Them" scenario especially when the
players and their motives are complex. The modern hegemony is the same as
those of the ancient world. We just have better projectile weapons.
------
umanwizard
Smoking kills 50-100 times more Americans every year than 9/11 did.
There are a few obvious reasons why the response was much less: (1) Natural
disasters are more common, more expected, and less psychologically dramatic
than terrorist attacks. (2) Americans intuitively view Puerto Ricans as
foreigners regardless of whether they legally have US citizenship. (Due to
different culture, language and religion)
~~~
sanbor
Mass shootings are also psychologically dramatic but policies are still not
changed in USA.
~~~
rayiner
Yes they are. Maryland for example has gone through several rounds of taking
away peoples’ gun rights in the last decade.
~~~
cuboidGoat
In Maryland, did they actually take away any guns particularly?
~~~
craftyguy
No, GP is just echoing rhetoric they heard.
~~~
harryh
On April 4, 2013, the Maryland General Assembly approved legislation imposing
significant new restrictions on gun ownership. The bills ban the sale of
certain semi-automatic firearms that they define as assault weapons, limit
magazine capacity to ten rounds, require that handgun purchasers be
fingerprinted and pass a training class in order to obtain a handgun license,
and bar persons who have been involuntarily committed to a mental health
institution from possessing firearms. Martin O'Malley Governor at the time,
signed the legislation into law on May 16, 2013.[14] Regarding ten round
magazine limits for rifles purchased in Maryland, 'standard' 30 round
magazines may be purchased outside Maryland and brought into the state for
personal use. Those standard magazines may not be transferred, given, sold or
manufactured inside Maryland.[15]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_laws_in_Maryland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_laws_in_Maryland)
~~~
craftyguy
The GP comment is still wrong. They didn't take away firearms from anyone.
Limiting _sale_ != taking away what is already owned.
~~~
rayiner
I didn’t say they took away guns, I said they took away gun _rights_.
Restricting the kinds of guns you can buy, or ability to sell ir transfer
existing proprty, is taking away part of your rights.
~~~
craftyguy
Meh. It's more of a clarification of rights. When the second amendment was
written, firearms were quite rudimentary by today's standards. I'm curious how
the conversation will turn when we have 'laser guns', hand-held railguns and
other weapons in the future that we cannot even comprehend today. Will folks
complain about the government taking away their rights to owning an automatic
railgun? Probably. Did the writers of the second amendment mean for it to
apply to massively overpowered weapons? Probably not. If you believe it did,
then why aren't you complaining about the government not letting you own
ICBMs?
~~~
RcouF1uZ4gsC
>When the second amendment was written, firearms were quite rudimentary by
today's standards.
When the first amendment was written, the press was quite rudimentary by
today’s standards. TV, radio, and internet were not envisioned. Maybe the
government is allowed to regulate all news that isn’t physical printed. Also,
it should be able to ban automatic printing presses. The printing presses of
the timer were manual, one press one page. Nowadays the printing presses can
spew thousands of pages with a single press of a button.
~~~
krapp
Thomas Jefferson wanted a revolution every 20 years, but we don't string up,
draw and quarter our entire government every other decade.
It isn't ridiculous to question whether eighteenth century political and
cultural standards should always apply to a 21st century state. The
Constitution isn't holy writ. Somehow much of the rest of the world manages to
have free, democratic states without a 2nd Amendment or its thesis that a free
state requires an armed and violent populace and a lack of any regulation on
firearms.
~~~
rayiner
> It isn't ridiculous to question whether eighteenth century political and
> cultural standards should always apply to a 21st century state. The
> Constitution isn't holy writ.
The appeal to the text and original meaning of the Constitution is not about
giving deference to 18th century attitudes over 21st century ones, it’s about
resolving a dispute amongst two contemporary views. If _everyone_ agreed that
the framers were out to lunch on the 2A, it would be trivial to change it. But
people don’t agree that the 2A is obsolete.
If you saw the word “arms” in a contract, would you think it was limited to a
particular type of gun. If someone sells just automatic weapons, are they not
an “arms dealer?” Like in a contract, if both sides agreed to change the word
“arms” to something narrower, they could do it. But just like a contract,
where the sides don’t agree, one is entitled to have the contract enforced as
written.
~~~
cuboidGoat
'Arms', in the general sense, is up to and including nukes though.
~~~
rayiner
Maybe. The Constitution protects the right of "people" to "keep and bear" (
_i.e._ keep and carry) "arms." There is at least a textual basis for
interpreting "arms" to exclude weapons (like nukes and attack aircraft) that
are not ordinarily carried by individuals.
But note, at the time of the founding, it was perfectly legal for private
citizens to own armed warships. These ships had dozens of cannons that could
fire over a mile (thus sieging a city). Canons moreover could fire grapeshot,
causing massive casualties to groups of people. These weapons were far more
destructive than an AR-15.
~~~
cuboidGoat
There are backpack nukes specifically designed for individuals to carry, like
the B-54. If your legal cutoff was 'designed for a single person to carry',
they would be included as legal.
~~~
rayiner
Then maybe backpack nukes are protected by the Second Amendment? The
Constitution says what it says--"we don't like the result" is a reason to
amend it, not ignore it. In any event, whether or not backpack nukes are
"arms," AR-15's clearly are within the category denoted by the word "arms."
~~~
cuboidGoat
Can't really fault you on any of that. Also, I do appreciate that I am carping
from the sidelines here as I am not living in the US, so whatever works for
you. My intent is only in passing commentary, not in trying to tell people
what to do. It just looks a bit risky from the outside, is all.
------
UncleEntity
> Certainly, there were major logistical challenges to moving materials on an
> island a thousand miles away from the U.S. mainland. Yet such obstacles did
> not prevent the deployment of the 82nd Airborne Division across the 7,000
> miles from Fort Bragg, South Carolina to Saudi Arabia in August 1990...
Ok, first off, Fort Bragg is in _North_ Carolina.
Secondly, the 82nd Airborne Division's job was/is to be ready to deploy
halfway around the world on a moments (OK, two hours) notice and I can say
that we weren't ready to do much of anything once we landed in Saudi Arabia
other than be "speed bumps in the sand". Also, as was seen in Haiti (I
believe), it isn't such a good idea to send combat troops off on missions like
this since they are war makers and not peace keepers -- bad things happen
because up to that point you are trained to fight the enemy and not much else.
So, yeah, they could've had the 82nd on the ground pretty quickly but doing so
wouldn't have been a very good idea unless the Cubans were invading or
something.
------
ulldma
I don't like this comparison of death toll numbers.
At the same time I think the death toll of 9/11 is unfortunately much higher
as an alarmingly big number of first responders were diagnosed with cancer and
many of them died already.
------
sneakware
That's weird, they do not mention the water and food left to rot on
governmental parking lots and airport runways. I guess they just completely
forgot about it..
~~~
vuln
That doesn't help push the narrative that it's all Trump's fault. Do you
expect them to blame the victim?
------
wruza
While I'm sure that in reality terrorism is rather a great political leverage
than a biggest threat, it also has one specific property that HN should be
familiar with: scalability. Hurricane, shooters and road/cancer deaths are not
scalable, i.e. they cannot be over-produced because it's just weather,
psychopathy* and other statistical accidents. Terrorism though can be scaled
by orders of magnitude by pretty simple means.
* terrorists can be viewed psychopats, but let's leave that question open, since it is more military than civil.
~~~
TeMPOraL
I agree about hurricanes, but about the rest - how so? Does history record any
case of terrorism scaling up? Meanwhile, both road and cancer deaths scale up
directly with the growth of modern civilization - more people = more cancer
deaths; more roads & cars = more car deaths.
~~~
wruza
But, same people = same cancer deaths; same roads & cars = same car deaths.
You cannot increase it from outside and claim that it was your revenge.
>Does history record any case of terrorism scaling up?
Do you mean that if after first acts of terror no one would bring up a defense
against it, then there would be no more acts than it is? By "first" I mean the
time since our world got good enough life to see it as outstanding event --
burning village was obviously a regular thing at earlier periods.
------
stevew20
War on Weather!
------
maxxxxx
I sometimes wonder how much of an impact 9-11 would have made if the planes
had killed 3000 people in poor neighborhoods in Louisiana or Alabama. Same for
Maria. If it had devastated Manhattan I think there would have been much more
of an effort to help.
~~~
craftyguy
Or if it had hit mar-a-lago
------
HillaryBriss
I don't disagree with the author's basic idea, but there's this other analysis
of death from all causes in the case of 9/11 which puts the death toll higher.
One analyst ascribed an additional 1595 deaths to 9/11 because of increased
car traffic in the year after 9/11\. So, the numerical comparison does not
result in such a close match.
[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/sep/05/september-11-r...](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/sep/05/september-11-road-
deaths)
~~~
Retric
Those deaths where not caused by 9/11, they where caused by people’s responces
to 9/11\. By that token the moon landing or any major event caused deaths by
changing people’s behaviors, but saying the moon landing killed people seems
more obviously wrong.
By comparison some people had heath issues directly caused by 9/11 and you
could reasonably add those deaths to the 9/11 death toll.
~~~
nyolfen
the 3000 number for maria comes from taking the total death rate in puerto
rico in the 6(?) months following the hurricane and subtracting the average
death rate for that period in previous years. it's an nonstandard way of
calculating disaster fatalities, chosen specifically because it gives a big
number that is useful for relief lobbying purposes (it's like 9/11!), and if
you calculated 9/11 casualties the same way you would surely come up with a
significantly higher number. the number of people killed directly by the
hurricane, during the course of the hurricane, was under 100.
~~~
cuboidGoat
I thought they ended up doing that because the bodies were piling up uncounted
and the governor admitted that that the civilian infrastructure required to
keep track of the dead had itself failed and so asked for outside help from
academics on the mainland. They didn't go with the highest academic figure
either.
If they were actually trying for high figures, as you suggest, why not go with
the Harvard study placing it at around 4600 dead?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Random password generator (cli app) - sepisoad
https://github.com/sepisoad/rpg
======
seba_dos1
pwgen?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Stack Overflow Hits 10M Uniques - nands
http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/25/stack-overflow-hits-10m-uniques-boldly-goes-where-no-qa-site-has-gone-before/
======
pierrefar
Just to be clear: 10 million uniques is measured using analytics cookies,
quantcast in this case. The exact definition varies by analytics provider, but
regardles, it has nothing to do the number of user accounts.
Of course it's an estimate as there are complications in calculating it like
users deleting cookies, one user with multiple browsers (ahem, programmers),
etc.
It's still an awesome milestone.`
~~~
ig1
Just for reference there are roughly in the region of 15-30 million
professional developers in the world. However this doesn't include a fairly
large chunk of people (i.e students) who are probably the group most likely to
be using StackOverflow. So I think Joel might be pushing it a bit to say most
software developers are using it (although they have a fairly respectable
chunk of the market).
~~~
spolsky
Where did you get the 15-30 million number? We believe the number is closer to
9 million.
For the United States, there are 1,336,300 programmers, according to the
Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The United Kingdom has 333,000 "software professionals," according to the
Office for National Statistics.
In Canada there are 387,000 people working in IT according to Statistics
Canada.
I haven't dug down to other countries but it's unlikely you could get to 15-30
million. Most development tool vendors report that about 40% of their sales
are in the US.
~~~
ig1
I did something similar to you pick up numbers from individual countries and
summing them, I don't have the underlying data to hand (I did this about a
year ago). But I'll do it again as I need the data anyway and post an update.
IDC put the figure at around 12million in 2002, and at 15million in 2008
though. I assume they did a more thorough job than either of us :-)
------
niyazpk
This is a classic case for "Be so good that they cannot ignore you".
For such a long time TC have deliberately refrained from mentioning/promoting
StackOverflow.
Thank you guys (the SO team and the contributors), for providing such a
valuable website for programmers.
~~~
nikcub
There was never a deliberate effort from TC to ignore StackOverflow, I linked
to it in some of my posts there.
IIRC we simply were not in the loop on their news, announcements or tips.
A lot of the TC'ers use Quora which is why it is mentioned a lot, but in TC
dev we were definitely big fans of StackOverflow, its just that the full-time
writers didn't use it or notice it as much.
If you look at Techmeme, you can see that StackOverflow hasn't been getting
much attention from the usual tech blogs:
[http://techmeme.com/search/query?q=stackoverflow&wm=fals...](http://techmeme.com/search/query?q=stackoverflow&wm=false)
I figure it is for the same reason - they weren't actively reaching out to the
tech bloggers and instead using their own blogs for PR. Still worked out well
for them :)
~~~
ig1
Quora has become hugely significant in the startup community, it's probably
now the largest online community of startup people.
~~~
JasonPunyon
How can you tell how many users there are?
~~~
ig1
I'm not saying that with any scientific basis, but rather on the basis that a
much larger percentage of the startup community seems to be active there than
on other sites.
Often when you see someone ask about a random startup you'll get the startup's
founder or an investor answering, something which you rarely see elsewhere.
------
nands
Stack overflow has probably been the best Q&A site around, content-wise, user-
experience wise and probably every other criteria a user would care about.
Good work !
~~~
AgentConundrum
Agreed. I've found it especially valuable as a bit of a teaching tool lately.
I spent three years in a mind-numbing COBOL-based job, and now I'm building a
PHP application to try to showcase the fact that I am more than the sum of my
career, and to try to find a decent job.
Since I'm doing this in isolation, I'm trying to use StackOverflow as a
surrogate mentor. When I have a question about how to do things, mostly design
issues, I can usually find an existing discussion (yes Jeff, _discussion_ ) on
the topic. It sucks up an awful amount of my time, but I feel like I've grown
a lot professionally because of it.
~~~
oiujhygtyhuji
About the only drawback is that it's now so popular that new questions only
show up on the front page for a few minutes. So finding questions to answer -
or getting your question answered is becoming harder - unless you are prepared
to do a very narrow subject specific search.
One of the nice things about the early SO was it was so broad, you could see
interesting questions that weren't directly in your language and read those as
well.
------
nhangen
Still a noob programmer, but I'm a huge fan of SO. I've yet to find a thread
with any real bickering or pretentiousness, and 9 out of 10 times find an
answer.
It seems like they dominate search results also, which is why I'm surprised
that Quora, which I've never heard of, seems to get more respect?
~~~
codexon
Quora has a much smaller community mostly composed of people interested in
start-ups in the Silicon Valley. They get coverage on sites like TechCrunch
and HN because of that and the founders left Facebook (most likely because
Zuckerberg replaced one of them as CTO with Brett Taylor).
I talked to them and they believe they can beat the competition simply by
piggybacking off Facebook's social system and by using AI filtering to prevent
people from being overloaded since they allow every topic unlike
Stackoverflow.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
In a fatal crash, Uber’s autonomous car detected a person, but chose to not stop - consumer451
https://www.technologyreview.com/the-download/611094/in-a-fatal-crash-ubers-autonomous-car-detected-a-pedestrian-but-chose-to-not/
======
privong
Lots of discussion here already:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17014807](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17014807)
~~~
consumer451
Sorry, I looked but didn’t see it. Thanks.
------
natch
A while back some academics at MIT designed some surveys for probing what
tradeoffs humans would make if they had a chance to decide between bad
outcomes in a vehicle fatality incident.
[https://www.technologyreview.com/s/542626/why-self-
driving-c...](https://www.technologyreview.com/s/542626/why-self-driving-cars-
must-be-programmed-to-kill/)
This shows that the menu of ethical dilemmas posed at that time was not
complete.
In addition to "should I veer left, avoiding the grandmother and grandfather
couple, but killing the pregnant mother" the survey questions should have also
included some questions like "should I brake hard to avoid killing the
homeless person detected with 40% probability, or should I assume the
detection is a false positive, in order to maintain a smooth ride of luxurious
comfort for the occupants?"
------
consumer451
Many years ago I was coding the UI for one of the first touchscreen check-in
systems at an airline. The guy in the next cube was doing weight and balance
software for the actual flights. I realized that I could not handle the
pressure of thinking that a bug in my code could lead to a crash, no matter
how remote the chances actually were.
I'm sure that some of you work on code where lives are at stake, how do you
deal with the possibility of truly fatal bugs?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Blog Timestamp is Dying - champion
http://graysky.org/2013/09/blog-timestamp/
======
ezy
I was hoping that the author would be complaining about this, but they didn't.
That is unfortunate. The date something was written is a very important part
of its context. This is one thing newspapers get right, and a lot of "web
journalism" gets very very wrong. I've noticed this more and more as the web
gets older and older -- I want to know the date something was published, and
that information is really hard to come by a lot of the time.
~~~
champion
I have mixed feelings about it. I certainly think it is helpful to know when
something with published for the context you mean. I think it also probably
makes sense to lead less with it for content that isn't that time-sensitive.
The broader point is that I think people will organize their content less
around timestamps and more around relevance, the reader, etc.
~~~
ott2
You cannot know whether the date the content was published will be relevant
for a reader or not. It is not your assessment of timeliness that matters, but
the reader's. So in the interest of doing the right thing, don't obscure the
date.
------
DjangoReinhardt
TL;DR: A small rant about why I find most of the points in the blog shallow,
misleading, dangerous and downright doomsday-ish at times.
YMMV. Discussions and arguments are welcome. Name-calling will be ignored.
Trolls will not be fed.
\----------
> Downplaying the timestamp attempts to make the content appear more
> evergreen.
This is dangerous.
Imagine a newbie developer landing on one of your old posts looking for
directions on something. Unfortunately for her, there isn't any other relevant
material available anywhere else on the web. Also, whatever you wrote in that
post was was relevant only for a few weeks after it was written. Can you
imagine the anguish you'd be putting them through because they tried to follow
your directions and failed miserably?
Before you claim it to be an edge-case, I've fallen prey to the same situation
many times in my search for such elusive knowledge.
Personally, this is one of the reason I HATE the non-availability of time-
stamps, especially on tech blogs. What the hell are you trying to say? That
your code is perfect and won't need to change ever? You aren't fooling me,
rather, you are fooling yourself.
> RSS is dying.
RSS isn't dying, sorry.
Tracking google search trends isn't a good way to measure how popular RSS - or
anything, for that matter - is. A simple explanation could be that because
more people know about RSS today than a few years ago, searching for it is no
longer necessary. Almost everyone knows about Hurricane Katrina, but they
don't search for it everyday, do they?
The consumption of RSS has changed, though.
Until a few years ago, feeds used to be the ONLY way to consume RSS. Then
mashups happened. Then APIs became ubiquitous. PubSubHubbub, JSON & JSONP have
flourished in recent times. All of these were 'derived' (in a broad sense)
from RSS.
Oh, and before you point to Google Reader, allow me to make an anticipatory
point. Google shut down Reader because they didn't find it worth the effort to
monetize - it had nothing to do with the consumption of RSS. Even till the
very last day, there were people clamoring for Google to continue or hunting
for a suitable GReader replacement. In what way does that strike you as the
'death' of RSS?
Almost every site out there, that updates regularly maintains a feed. Except
Twitter, of course. But then, Twitter implementing an RSS feed isn't adding
much anyway. Their existing consumption patterns and the ecosystem around them
is robust enough to do without RSS and Atom feeds.
If anything, I agree that RSS is very unidirectional, but that's where I
believe PubSubHubbub can make a difference. In fact, if I may be so bold, I'd
say that RSS is evolving and PubSubHubbub is one of its evolutionary
intermediates.
With the insane number of consumption platforms and our burning desire to
instantly know everything, I wouldn't be surprised if, sooner or later,
someone finds a new way to consume RSS & Atom feeds.
I have already begun this process for myself by building @updt_me - I now
consume all my RSS & Atom feeds through Twitter. Yeah, that was a plug but
hey, it also happens to be extremely relevant.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
I2C in a Nutshell - fra
https://interrupt.memfault.com/blog/i2c-in-a-nutshell
======
inamberclad
Probably one of the least painful digital buses.
If anyone is wondering how to access an I2C bus from a Linux computer, say, a
raspberry pi:
int fd = open("/dev/i2c-1", O_RDWR);
ioctl(fd, I2C_SLAVE, [slave address here]);
Then you can read() and write() to the device with the kernel taking care of
all the transmission details. Usually all that's exposed is a few bytes for
the registers. To set a register, write two bytes: first the register address,
and then the value. To read a register, write the register address and then
read a byte. Most of the devices have linear address spaces, so reading out
multiple registers is as simple as reading multiple bytes.
The i2c-tools package has some very handy CLI tools for exploring an I2C bus.
Electrically, the bus is an open-collector design on both ends, so devices can
only pull the lines to low, and they release them to set them high. Don't
forget pull-up resistors!
~~~
inamberclad
A quick note: buy one of the really cheap (~$10) logic analyzers on ebay and
use Sigrok/Pulseview to to watch the bits get sent over the wire! It's an
absolutely invaluable tool for the price.
The hardware inside those logic analyzers is fascinating in its own right,
too!
~~~
hartzell
I've found the
[I2CDriver]([https://www.adafruit.com/product/4267](https://www.adafruit.com/product/4267))
device to be really useful with debugging, poking, and otherwise prodding I2C
devices.
------
Ives
I really don't like I2C. Yes, in principle it's pretty simple, but if you
consider NACKS, slaves holding SCK low, what happens if your master resets
while the slave is trying to send a 0 bit (hint: power cycle!), etc, it's so
easy for the peripheral to get stuck.
SPI is much easier to write correctly, and pretty much only has the extra wire
(usually not a problem) and the phase polarity issues as a negative point.
~~~
fra
I think I2C and SPI have very different use cases. Over I2C, you can interact
with 127 devices with just 2 pins. To do the same with SPI, you'd need 130 (4
+ an additional CS for every device on the bus).
You may think of the extra pins as not a problem, but on every product I've
worked on we've been pin-limited on the MCU.
~~~
clarry
> Over I2C, you can interact with 127 devices with just 2 pins.
In practice, I don't see that many chips offering 7 bits of address
configuration. You buy a chip, it has a hardwired address. Maybe a pin or two
for selecting another address.
~~~
danellis
That's still seven bits of address, though. If you're lucky, the hardwired
part will be different enough between chips that you can still have a
significant number of them on a bus.
~~~
rcxdude
I've yet to get above 4 devices without conflicts. Even with evenly
distributed addresses, you reach about 50% chance of conflict with 13 devices
because of the birthday paradox.
------
Isamu
Very nice! I especially like that it starts with a discussion of why you would
choose to use I2C, as well as why you may not, depending on your application:
>I2C is not appropriate for all applications however: When higher bandwidth is
required, SPI may be the right choice and can be found in many NOR-flash
chips. MIPI can go even faster, and is often used in displays and cameras. If
reliability is a must, CAN is the bus of choice. It is found in cars and other
vehicles. When a single device is on the bus, UART may work just as well.
~~~
_sbrk
Article misses two of the best features of CAN: Built-in, non-corrupting
collision resolution (lowest CAN ID wins) and CRC-protected frames. The latter
feature is usually done by hardware, just as in Ethernet.
~~~
bsder
CAN also autobauds so if you have frequency drift it compensates. That's why
it forces bit transitions via bit stuffing if it gets too many 1's or 0's in a
row.
~~~
PinguTS
I would not call bit-resynchronization as "autobaud". Because CAN has no
autobaud.
That said, with Classical CAN you can implement an autobaud (better: automatic
bit rate detection) like mechanisms when you can make some assumptions on the
used bit rates. With CAN FD and the upcoming CAN XL you cannot do that.
PS: Baud is a term specifically applying to communication systems that
transmit symbols and a symbol can represent more than a bit. That is why I2C,
SPI, LIN, CAN, Ethernet have a bit rate. While RS232 has a baudrate, which is
different from the bit rate depending on the type of symbol used.
------
linker3000
Here is a shameless plug for a build-it-yourself multi-function FT232H-based
(USB interface) board that can do I2C among other things (JTAG/SPI/UART/GPIO)
and has a few extras compared to similar commercial boards from elsewhere
(pullups and some blinkenlights).
The board works with various apps and frameworks, including OpenOCD and
CircuitPython.
Full build details and some other resources are here:
[https://github.com/linker3000/shukran](https://github.com/linker3000/shukran)
------
Zenst
Worth reading this afterwards: [https://hackaday.com/2019/04/18/all-you-need-
to-know-about-i...](https://hackaday.com/2019/04/18/all-you-need-to-know-
about-i2s/)
~~~
fra
Yes! I considered adding a bit about i2s, but since the article is already
clocking at ~2500 words I thought I'd leave it to another time.
I2S is everywhere in audio.
~~~
Zenst
Agreed, you can oversaturate the learning process and what you have is
elegant, laid out well and wonderful, also covers the subject and I2S would be
another subject.
~~~
fra
Thanks for the kind words! I was up late last night writing this up, it's
encouraging to see folks enjoy it.
------
imagiko
I just want to take a moment to thanks folks over at memfault for bringing us
in depth content from the world of embdedded systems. Be sure to check out
their articles on ARM, RTOS etx.
~~~
fra
Thanks! We've been writing all the content we wish had existed when we started
out as embedded software engineers. It's fantastic to hear from folks who
enjoy reading it as much as we do writing it.
------
metaphor
> _In doubt, go to 2K resistors._
I find handwaving recommendations like this rather pervasive and annoying,
especially in a professional setting.
If you're serious about I2C after gratifying yourself with this bootcamp-style
smashbang intro, I highly recommend reading the actual spec[1] (which is more
like a casual app note IMHO); the blog apparently doesn't link to it. It's
free, relatively short, and oh by the way, there's an entire section which
properly addresses pull-up resistor sizing and then some. You'll also be able
to spot inaccuracies like:
> _It has transfer rates up to 400Kbps_
[1] [https://www.nxp.com/docs/en/user-
guide/UM10204.pdf](https://www.nxp.com/docs/en/user-guide/UM10204.pdf)
------
skybrian
I wonder what people think about i2c connectors? I see that Sparkfun has Qwiic
and Adafruit has Stemma, and there are others like Grove.
I'm designing my first circuit board and I'm wondering if I should bother with
JST connectors or just use header pins.
~~~
kaik
This. I would also love to know what connectors I should use for my hobby
projects. I’m also designing my first PCB board and something as simple as
choosing connectors is daunting...
~~~
bsder
Through-hole .100 headers. Always. Unless you have a _REALLY_ good reason
otherwise. (weatherproofing, signal integrity, compatibility with existing
solution, etc.)
First, if you have a small number of pins (up to about 4-6), a 2x2 or 2x3 .100
header isn't that much larger than any alternative. Compare this:
[https://www.tag-connect.com/product/tc2030-fp-footprint](https://www.tag-
connect.com/product/tc2030-fp-footprint) to a 2x2 of .100 headers. It's
actually bigger, and now you need a special cable instead of that bag of .100"
jumper wires you have.
If you have something like 20 genuinely used pins (not 6 active and 14
unused), okay, you may need a different connector. But are you really sure
about this? 20 pins communicating simultaneously has signal integrity needs
and small connectors have _WAY_ more coupling than .100" spacing.
Second, through-hole is always way more stable than no-through hole. Once you
give your smaller pitch connector through holes, is it really smaller than
.100"?
Third, manufacturers have no problems with .100" headers. Smaller pitches may
increase the cost of your board. Try costing out a board that can mount and
route a modern USB-C connector which has both surface mount and through-hole
at small pitch. You're probably going to get a cost bump.
Fourth, you can buy _really_ long .100" headers which allow you to conect to
them _and_ put a scope probe underneath. That's really convenient for
debugging.
So, go through-hole .100" header until you've got a good reason otherwise.
~~~
nlfwhulsdhouv
I agree overall but that's a weird comparison with the tag connect. It's not
meant to be small, it's meant to avoid soldering a header down to the target
board for programming. It's useful for Z-height or cost savings, not for XY
savings.
~~~
bsder
Sadly, it's not uniquely useful for _that_ either.
I can solder a set of pins (or pogo pins) on a .100 spacing and mate into the
.100 header holes. Or I can offset the .100 holes very slightly so they
friction grab a .100 2x2 male header in the holes.
Or I can buy a breakout board that does the same thing for $7.00 for 2 rather
than $50 per cable like Tag-Connect:
[https://www.pcbway.com/project/gifts_detail/PogoProg_Model_D...](https://www.pcbway.com/project/gifts_detail/PogoProg_Model_D_Pogo_Pin_Programmer___2_Pack.html)
.100" headers are hard to beat for general effectiveness.
------
otterpro
I don't know if anyone else noticed, but the web page uses SVG for signal
graph, which I originally thought was an image. The way SVG is used is very
subtle but very nice looking.
~~~
metaphor
The right-click-to-save-as-PNG-or-SVG feature is quite nice as well.
------
bsder
I'm happy to see all the discussion against I2C in the comments here. I
thought I was the only one who loathed debugging I2C stuff.
The only things I take exception in the article to is:
> When a single device is on the bus, UART may work just as well.
The problem with UART is _clock drift_. It's remarkably easy for your two
chips to get out of sync if they don't use crystals and don't have autobaud
(normally rare). That is one thing that I2C, SPI, and CAN do better. They
either don't care as they have a single master clock (I2C and SPI) or they
autobaud detect and then adjust (CAN).
------
whalesalad
I've been having a lot of fun learning how to work with I2C on a Raspberry Pi
with the Nerves framework. tl;dr it's an end-to-end development framework for
deploying Elixir to embedded devices.
I2C was easy enough to understand, but understanding the obscure ways to
configure and speak to a device has been really challenging. Spending a ton of
time reading datasheets and experimenting with assembling binary messages.
The next time you are frustrated and unhappy with the state of modern web
development (REST and/or GQL) take a ublox GPS chip for a spin and try to get
it to give you high frequency location data. You will think, hey gee this
isn't so bad after all compared to encoding and decoding a binary protocol by
hand.
~~~
fpgaminer
> Spending a ton of time reading datasheets and experimenting with assembling
> binary messages.
That's embedded development in a nutshell. The only part you're missing is
wasting a week of your life tracking down a compiler heisenbug, because
embedded devices have niche, poorly maintained compilers.
Though to be honest it's a matter of taste; natural sadists tend to "enjoy"
embedded.
~~~
jlangemeier
Take the sadomasochism one step further; do FPGA programming, learn the joys
of properly enumerated case statements (or the hell of finding what one is
blowing up your flip-flop/latch diagram).
~~~
fpgaminer
You don't know true embedded BDSM until you've debugged incorrect timing
constraints on an FPGA ... with a customer on the other side of the planet ...
only to realize later that they have no idea how to design an HDMI compliant
board and none of it was your own fault.
Or spending three weeks trying to achieve timing closure on a design, only to
finally realize after much inspection of the routed designs by myself and an
IntelFPGA FAE that the router was smoking digital crack the whole time and had
no clue how to route their own divider units?
Or maybe the programming facility reversed bit ordering on a batch of the
FPGA's flash chips and you only learn of that after a very, very long couple
of nights of language barrier back and forth with a flummoxed customer.
The joys are endless.
------
jhallenworld
Here's an I2C to RS-232 serial converter for long term monitoring of an I2C
bus. I needed this at one point, and made it with the cheapest FPGA board
available on eBay:
[https://github.com/jhallen/i2cmon](https://github.com/jhallen/i2cmon)
------
TOGoS
I'd like to know why 1-wire isn't more common. It seems to me like a more
elegant protocol than I2C. Not least because every device has a unique baked-
in address so you don't need to worry about address collisions or dip switches
to alter them.
(Also: needs one fewer wire)
~~~
AWildC182
If I had to guess, using clock-less (serial) protocols like 1 wire and UART
requires some logic on each RX side to figure out what the clock of the
incoming signal is, usually a PLL of some sort, and you'll need lots of
crystal oscillators to ensure that clocks are sufficiently stable and accurate
as to ensure reliable communication.
~~~
andyjpb
1-wire is pretty slow (kbps max in normal mode) and very tolerant of devices
with a wide range of timing skew.
~~~
agapon
I wouldn't call it very tolerant. Some timings are pretty tight, like 1 to 15
microseconds, and every microsecond can count. And I am not talking about the
overdrive mode where the timings are much tighter.
~~~
andyjpb
One of the datasheets I have here says:
\----- During the initialization sequence the bus master trans- mits (TX) the
reset pulse by pulling the 1-Wire bus low for a minimum of 480µs. \-----
There is no maximum time limit for the reset pulse.
\----- The bus master then releases the bus and goes into receive mode (RX).
When the bus is released, the 5kΩ pullup resistor pulls the 1-Wire bus high.
When the DS18B20 detects this rising edge, it waits 15µs to 60µs and then
transmits a presence pulse by pull- ing the 1-Wire bus low for 60µs to 240µs.
\-----
A tolerance of 15uS to 60uS on the device side and 60uS to 240uS on the driver
side seems pretty wide to me.
Now, it's hard to actually get a good figure for these specifications because
different datasheets give different values, which further suggests the
tolerances are large.
Another datasheet that I have here says that the presence pulse should be
sampled after 72uS. This leaves at least 12uS slack for rise times, long
wires, etc.
To give an idea of whether 10uS is very long or not, remember that the cycle
time on, for example, an 8MHz AVR as you might find in an Arduino, is 125nS.
That gives you 80 instructions every 10uS (at the AVR8's advertised
1MIPS/MHz). This is plenty of time to implement the 1-Wire driver in software.
~~~
agapon
It seems that you didn't reach the part of the spec that describes how to read
and transmit data bits.
Also, even for simplest slaves there is still a need to keep track of time
which requires additional hardware (an oscillator or some such).
------
neillyons
This article has appeared at the perfect time for me. I was just trying to use
i2c with a BMP180 temperature/pressure/altitude sensor and a micro python
board and was rather confused. Love Hacker News
~~~
chasd00
hah i'm doing the same thing, building an altimeter for my son's model rocket.
There are altimeters out there for sale but i wanted to get into embedded
programming as a hobby.
~~~
neillyons
ha me too. I wanted to learn micro python and record the altitude of my
quadcopter.
------
vic20forever
Comparison of I2C and SPI:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9303405](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9303405)
------
AceJohnny2
> _We’re partial to Saleae devices, which come with an easy to set up I2C
> decoder._
I can vouch for these. We have a couple for our team to debug HW issues, and I
was amused, once in a Chinese factory, to be handed one there when I asked for
a logic analyzer (I know Saleae had issues with clones in the past, and had to
implement countermeasures some years ago...)
------
shivji
[https://12minuteaffiliatereviews.blogspot.com](https://12minuteaffiliatereviews.blogspot.com)
------
thesh4d0w
FYI you're missing a word in "for pulse on the SCL line", I think is supposed
to read "for every pulse"
------
jgalt212
am I correct on the I2C use cases?
\- reduce number of wires / overall length of cable runs \- more
sensors/actuators than GPIO pins
------
nehagup
Was this a nutshell??
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Subsets and Splits