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IRS SSL problems - heyyeverybody
https://sa.www4.irs.gov/irfof-efp/start.do;jsessionid=vNun6wfS+l+xKLt39TSDaOfF
======
heyyeverybody
It appears to only give you a warning when using Windows, Chrome, and on a
desktop. Says they are using SHA1 and RSA.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Commentaries of Julius Caesar [audio] - tosh
https://archive.org/details/Commentaries_Gaius_Julius_Caesar
======
DrScump
Interesting! This is an audio series (think audiobook) authored/translated by
Henry Stuart Jones[0]. _Commentaries_ , _The Gallic Wars_ , and _The Civil
Wars_ are included, broken down by books/chapters.
[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Stuart_Jones](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Stuart_Jones)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro reportedly tests positive for coronavirus - mot2ba
https://www.businessinsider.com/jair-bolsonaro-brazil-president-coronavirus-test-positive-2020-3
======
gberger
He met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago last weekend. This might escalate very
rapidly.
~~~
tantalor
Who is the "he" in your comment?
~~~
gberger
Jair Bolsonaro. Edit: sorry, I had mistyped my original comment. Edited.
~~~
tsomctl
Along with Bolsonaro's press secretary, who also tests positive.
------
gist
To state what is obvious you have a person who by nature comes in contact with
many people in many situations. (Any many of those they come in contact with
also do). So you'd expect them to have a higher probability of getting
infected.
Not only that but you have a person who specifically might have to avoid not
appearing to be 'business as usual' or not wanting offend people by not having
a meeting or a visit as planned. That's quite a different standard then most
of 'regular' people can in trying to avoid socials situations.
------
danso
Fox News has confirmation from his son, however, they are waiting for the 2nd
test results: [https://www.foxnews.com/world/brazil-bolsonaro-tests-
positiv...](https://www.foxnews.com/world/brazil-bolsonaro-tests-positive-
coronavirus)
> _Bolsonaro’s son Eduardo told Fox News that they are doing further testing
> to confirm the diagnosis, adding that they expect the second set of testing
> results later Friday._
~~~
gberger
Haha, of course Eduardo is in touch with Fox News.
~~~
tic_tac
This is a snide and irrelevant comment.
------
aiphex
This thread is devolving and should be removed.
~~~
diego_moita
I agree. It belongs to a conspiracy theories or advocacy sub-reddit, not to
HN.
------
tremon
I'm sure the narrative will be that he doesn't have Covid-19, he's the victim
of an assassination plot by the medical establishment for speaking out against
them.
~~~
miscaware
Yeah, Bolsonaro has literally never said anything remotely close to that
against the medical establishment.
He did underestimate the virus a few days ago, but he's clearly changed his
mind as the government is releasing emergency measures. I see no problem with
that.
------
zekrioca
It was already reported he tested negative.
------
standardUser
Everything we know about Donald Trump tells us he is paranoid about
contracting illnesses, going as far as to refuse to be in meetings with
someone who coughs (per multiple reports). I find it hard to imagine he hasn't
been tested given his recent proximity to the Brazilian President and his
staff. But he insists he has not been tested. I really don't understand the
game Trump is playing here. And where the hell is the declaration of a
national emergency? He declares one for his precious wall but not for a global
pandemic?
------
nathanaldensr
Tests for world leaders and basketball players; no tests for common people.
I feel like it's probable Trump and other extremely high-ranking government
people have the virus. I also feel like it's not being publicized for
political/economic reasons. I admit this is speculation, but even if Trump,
Pence, etc. were tested and "reported" to be negative, should we believe that?
~~~
microcolonel
I mean, there are practical and non-nefarious reasons not to tell people that
your Commander in Chief is out of commission.
~~~
addicted
Not in this case. What’s there to be gained?
If it goes badly he will be dead. You can’t hide that. If it goes well and he
recovers in a few weeks he will still need to be quarantined for those few
weeks. So you wouldn’t really see him or anyone around him so people will
automatically assume he has contracted it. Especially since he was known to
have been hanging out with several people who have now tested positive.
So lying about the Presidents health may be a good idea in certain situations.
It almost certainly isn’t in this specific situation.
Edit: Also, if he lies about it, the hundred of people who have been around
him might not take the actions they need to and continue making things worse
fornthemselves and those around them.
~~~
ghostbrainalpha
There is nothing to be gained from your perspective and prediction of future
events.
Trump has taken MANY actions that defy conventional logic about Gain/Loss and
Future Predictions.
I think a lot of people view the his primary job to be inspiring confidence in
our leadership, and avoiding hysteria and mass panic over the virus. If the
person who is supposed to be telling us everything is ok, is actually not ok
themselves, the panic could grow very quickly.
I agree with you that it would be stupid to lie. But that doesn't mean they
wouldn't be tempted to do it anyway. Especially because we could just have
messages about everyone being quarantined for safety and they could get away
with hiding the President for awhile.
------
pastor_elm
Yet somehow Brazil only has 154 reported cases...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Searching For Online Video's Holy Grail - myoung8
http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/04/technology/kirkpatritck_iamplify.fortune/index.htm?section=money_latest
Guesses on what happens when you get people from Random House and McKinsey running a company, plus a CTO from Accenture?
======
myoung8
Guesses on what happens when you get people from Random House and McKinsey
running a company, plus a CTO from Accenture?
~~~
xirium
@0% affiliate fees on US$100 niche videos sounds really good. However, if the
management doesn't understand their market then you'd be a fool to associate
with this venture.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Fee-free payments with the Droplet API (UK only) - wgx
https://dropletpay.com/blog/fee-free-payments-with-the-droplet-api
======
marvc1
So how does this work? Someone must be paying for it somehow right?
~~~
wgx
Our business model is based on making revenue from other products which we
sell to our merchants. Our core payment service will always be fee-free.
~~~
marvc1
Excellent stuff. That's the answer I was looking for.
------
wgx
Co-founder here. We're really keen to get UK-based engineers on the beta, so
please get in touch if you're interested.
~~~
kintamanimatt
You might have some problems with that as a lot of UK-based engineers will
have rooted devices! I'm excluded from this because your FAQs say I'm not
allowed to install your app on my rooted Android phone.
Also, just a little thing that bothered me: the pins on the map you have on
your website don't display the location's details when they're clicked on.
It'd be nice to see at a glance the kind of merchants I could use this at.
~~~
wgx
Hey! We say 'not allowed' to protect ourselves. A rooted device (thinking iOS
here) may have less protection against malware installation and could be a
MITM attack vector. It still works, we're just saying it might not be a good
idea.
You're right about the map pins. Hooking our public site up to the merchant
data API is in the to-do list, we'll get to it. :)
~~~
kintamanimatt
Awesome!
Psst, this would be ideal for taxis! ;-)
------
acron0
Title says "free-free", rather than "fee-free" :) looks awesome Will, hope it
goes well
~~~
wgx
_edits_ ooops, thanks! :D
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Comment on my 10^100 submission: Reddit on cellphones for geotagging interesting news - mad44
Community voting (a la reddit) using cellphones to promote (and subsequently view) interesting news/stories within a vicinity<p>The news to be voted on are tied to a specific location and time. You are allowed to upvote/downvote a news with your cellphone only when you are present in that location. The score of the news degrade with time, so news that have not been upvoted for some time fall below a threshold and disappear. Using your cellphone you can view the news in your vicinity, upvote/downvote/comment on the news, or submit a new piece of news [with picture]. The system uses karma to reduce the spam.<p>This idea allows local community news of interest to be disseminated quickly and efficiently. Students on campus can use this to promote club meetings, events, pickup soccer games. Customers can use this to rate vendors at bazaars, festivals, shopping malls. Tourists/hikers can use this to share hints with fellow tourists/hikers. Community organizers can use this to organize events. Craigslist functionality may also be implemented with this system.<p>A web service needs to be implemented to serve the news to each affixed locality. Cellphones need to implement localization preferably via GPS or based on celltower connectivity. Reddit like karma system and community voting should be implemented by the web service to reduce spamming effectively. To avoid privacy issues initially this system may need to be restricted to exclude residential areas; privacy and misuse issues need to be considered carefully.<p>Please evaluate. Also comment on other possible applications for this system.
======
brm
Sounds like it has a much better chance of success in the Knight News
Challenge
~~~
mad44
Thanks! That looks very interesting.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
We think in graphs - bholdr
Now that Facebook said it, it must be true! "designers and developers thinks in terms of graph of data"<p>I agree! We need a global and open network, graph-based service abstraction to make it easy for everyone (not just Facebook) to build great information apps.
======
t2015_08_25
Yeah I hear ya.
Basically, anything anyone says is a mere model. Saying we think in graphs
is...great... in as far as it helps us to use graphs as a model for thought.
And it may help us get far, or help us accomplish someone else's agenda, but
the way we think is much, much more than merely "in graphs." And people have
been researching it for thousands of years.
~~~
bholdr
True, there is much more to it. By "We" was referring to developers and
product designers and by "thinking in graphs" I wasn't referring to a
particular data structure rather that is more natural for people for grasp
concepts based on association to other concepts and context.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Loneliness Epidemic - paulpauper
https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/the-loneliness-epidemic-is-so-bad-world-leaders-have-been-forced-to-intervene
======
dexwiz
The Screen and the Job have displaced almost everything else is our lives.
Loneliness is just a primary symptom.
The Screen, whether it’s TV, computer, or phone, has supplanted almost all
social interactions. This manifests itself in things like SitComs on TV (just
a bunch of friends or family hanging out) or Social Media on phones. It’s very
easy to fill the social needs of right now with a Screen. But under even a
minuscule amount of self reflection these are revealed as hollow substitutes
for real human interaction.
The Job has completely taken over as a driving force in evaluating choices.
The average person has to consider all options in the light of both the
current employer and the specter of tomorrow’s. Moving across the country for
a high paying job? Great! Moving to be closer to friends? That’s a career
killer.
No wonder we are lonely. We make choices in the short term that optimize
happiness, often at the expense of our relationships. Ghosting is not just for
dates now. Then turn around and make choices in the long term that optimize
employability at the expense of all else.
~~~
rayiner
> The average person has to consider all options in the light of both the
> current employer and the specter of tomorrow’s. Moving across the country
> for a high paying job? Great! Moving to be closer to friends? That’s a
> career killer.
The median person lives just 18 miles away from their mom. 57% of Americans
have never lived outside their home state. A third have never lived outside
their hometown.
The more I read about it, I’m convinced “loneliness” is an upper middle class
problem.
~~~
LordFast
Interesting. Anecdotally, this checks out. All of my middle/lower-middle class
friends from high school have long been married and raising families, almost
in all cases raising them _with_ their extended families. Most of my
professional tech friends are barely getting started in their late 30s, and
everyone who's started had basically put their career into a slower gear
first.
I made a similar choice a couple of years ago to downgrade my career into a
slower-paced, less stressful scenario with less money, and again personally
for me the results have spoken for themselves.
Unless I'm Elon Musk, the whole business of business isn't really designed in
my favor, so it's logical for me to partake but only just so.
~~~
oposa
By definition you wouldn't know many lonely people. The chronically lonely
ones are going to be the people who didn't end up getting married when they
"should" have, couldn't make it into a proper career or fell out of one at
some point. Most upper middle class people won't be lonely since if you can
afford a career you can afford a social life or you might even be forced into
one. But of course uncertainty and insecurity can make one feel lonely, so I
guess that would count. Still that isn't going to be your epidemic. That is
going to be those left behind.
~~~
badpun
> Most upper middle class people won't be lonely since if you can afford a
> career you can afford a social life or you might even be forced into one.
Social life is not about having money (well unless you're really poor) - it's
about having time and people to spend it with. You can be in top 5-10% of
income and a total loner - plenty such people in tech.
------
rfugger
We evolved living in relatively small groups where everyone knew each other
and exclusion from the group meant likely death. Now we are part of a global
social web where at any time, any of our people may be occupied by other parts
of their network that do not involve us. This risk of being abandoned
instinctively feels like an existential threat, so we live with a constant
underlying anxiety that we do not truly belong and are not really safe. It
will be interesting to see whether this reality selects for individuals better
equipped to cope with it, or whether we develop better systems to allow
everyone to cope better... I'd guess a bit of both.
------
kashyapc
I will quote a previous comment on a similar thread[1] I made verbatim here.
It is from Steven Pinker's _Enlightenment Now_ , where he reviews data on
loneliness in the US students (among two dozen other graphs in the first
twenty chapters).
Pinker implies social critics abuse the words "epidemic" and "crisis" (both
words used in the article of this thread).
After reviewing the downwards-sloping graph (plotted from 1978-2011) and more
data, Pinker writes:
_Modern life, then, has not crushed our minds and bodies, turned us into
atomized machines suffering from toxic levels of emptiness and isolation, or
set us drifting apart without human contact or emotion. How did this
misconception arise? Partly it came out of the social critic 's standard
formula for sowing panic: Here's an anecdote, therefore it's a trend,
therefore it's a crisis. But partly came from genuine changes in how people
interact. People see each other less in traditional venues like clubs,
churches, unions, fraternal organizations, and dinner parties, and more in
informal gatherings via digital media. They confide in fewer distant cousins
but more in co-workers. They are less likely to have large numbers of friends
but also less likely to want a large number of friends. But just because
social life looks different today from the way it looked in the 1950s, it does
not mean that humans, that quintessentially social species, have become any
less social._
I'm not suggesting that everything is hunky-dory, just that we bear in mind
the proportions of the problem. Also Pinker may well be off the mark here, as
others have pointed out in[1].
[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19914075](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19914075)
~~~
rishsriv
> I'm not suggesting that everything is hunky-dory, just that we bear in mind
> the proportions of the problem. Also Pinker may well be off the mark here,
> as others have pointed out in[1].
Tried to find more data on this, which seems to confirm Pinker's hypothesis -
[https://ourworldindata.org/global-mental-
health](https://ourworldindata.org/global-mental-health)
The data seems unrepresentative, though. While data on suicide rates is fairly
clear, it might be more interesting to look at revealed preferences instead of
self-reported ones. To this end, indicators for "lives of despair" (drug OD
deaths, hospitalisation for drug/alcohol abuse etc) might be more appropriate.
------
barberousse
I just hope people don't think the working class somehow has this all down pat
and that this is merely a case of bourgeois overconsumption. As someone who
comes from a ghetto and became a software engineer, I can tell you now that a
lot of people I grew up with engage in combinations of racism, homophobia,
transphobia, etc. The working class are only this candyland of authentic
relations if you _also_ accept all the socio-political tenets that go with
that particular community. That's no better than being alone.
Edit - Removed some emotional language
~~~
mynameishere
_Removed some emotional language_
The part where you condemned the people you grew up with? Oh, you left that
in. What on earth did you remove--something about kicking dogs?
~~~
opportune
There's nothing wrong with having issues with the community where you came
from. I also come from a place with many bigots
------
bazooka_penguin
They say in the article there's no clear rising trend and self reported
loneliness as an "issue" was at a similar level going back to the 1940s as
today. I figure it's mainly up to two things, which the article touches on
briefly.
One, family sizes are down. My parents who emigrated to the US had tons of
siblings. My mom had like 8 or 9 (including a few kids who died early) and
were closely knit until they emigrated the US separately as adults. My dad had
3 or 4 as well iirc.
Two, the transitions, especially the changing of jobs, and especially if it
necessitates a move away from your prior group. People tend to like fixed
roles and fixed communities in my experience, changing that is a big risk and
a big source of anxiety. I've moved around a lot in the US and I've noticed
that a vast majority of people I knew were born and raised in the states they
still lived in, sometimes in the same towns, although college and the first
"career" job tended to be the biggest changes and the transitions slow down
after that unless forced. This even holds true for a lot of the emigrated
workers I've known. As soon as externalities like job security and immigration
status are stable they build families and start looking to settle down and
hope to find a career long employer.
I would imagine that based on what I've seen people would be less lonely with
fixed jobs, in fixed locations, with large, stable families. And people
hopping jobs, company layoffs, long lived local businesses failing, and
families having fewer kids are big causes of "loneliness". Although, like the
article says there's not exactly a strong rising trend going back as far as
the last century anyway...
------
major505
Really. I think the big problem here is social networks. Nobody interact face
to face.I used to go to bars , look for a pretty girl and pay her a drink to
start a conversation. Nowdays this is considered creep. They expect that I
download an app, wait for a match ans just goeet for a quick chat and maybe
some action. Just turn of your computers and go to a bar. Interact to people.
Start conversations with stranger people. You may meet weird people. But also
will meet amazing people.
~~~
astura
I met my husband less than a decade ago in a bar. I still talk to strangers in
bars now too. Its not any more creepy to socialize with strangers in bars now
than it was in the past, as long as you respect boundaries and aren't a creep
about it.
The vast majority of people still meet their partners through "traditional"
means, very, very few meet through sites and apps. And when I say "very, very
few" I'm talking less than 10%.
[https://www.mic.com/articles/112062/the-way-most-people-
meet...](https://www.mic.com/articles/112062/the-way-most-people-meet-their-
significant-others-is-not-what-you-think)
[https://www.bustle.com/p/the-most-popular-ways-people-are-
me...](https://www.bustle.com/p/the-most-popular-ways-people-are-meeting-
their-significant-others-in-2018-8075828)
~~~
swiley
I think he meant buying the drink is creepy. I go to bars on occasion and meet
women my age and younger, but I've never bought them a drink because I feel
the same way (although I don't think they expect it either.)
Starting the conversation is hard and it can be very difficult to tell if they
really want to talk before they do, I guess that's part of why you want a good
bartender because they'll usually start conversations with everyone.
~~~
major505
Welll you just dont walk straing in. You first exchange glances, see if shes
alone, whatt shes drinking (soft drinks, hard licor, beer, some fancy
cocktail) and judge something about her personality, if you think you have a
chance, then you pay for a drink, or just straigth hit her with something, in
my case somthing dumb like "Hey, how much a polar bear weigths? Enougth to
break the ice!".
What I think is creep is some stranger who straigup knows your name, your
face, and can just as easy starting to virtual stalking your life and find out
where you live.
Fucking hating online dating solutions like tinder.... really not good talker
on line, without seeing the person face to face.
------
davidw
I miss the social aspects of living in Italy. It just felt easier to connect
with people there. People are kind of weird and standoffish here in the US,
and in some cases feel a bit fake. If you ask if someone wants to grab a beer
(or spritz/wine/whatever) in Italy, and they respond enthusiastically, it
seems there's a good chance they'll try and make it happen.
~~~
bitL
Try Germany or Switzerland for a year, you'd be super happy to get back to US
;-)
~~~
davidw
Lived in Austria for a couple years... it was hard to say though. I didn't
speak the language there, so people were friendly, but obviously it kind of
limited my interactions to anglophones or locals with the desire to have
English speaking friends.
------
ghostcluster
There was a story here a few months ago that seems pertinent.
> A Solution for Loneliness: Get out and volunteer, research suggests
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19971294](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19971294)
~~~
em-bee
at one point a friend of mine was lamenting how all these volunteer activities
kept her from having a social life, to which i responded that these activities
were my social life, and i would not have it any other way. it's all a matter
of perspective.
------
kodz4
Ants don't meet at the bar at the end of the day to chill with each other. It
isn't necessary. And their society isn't unraveling.
The more connected the human ant hill gets the more we will behave like ants.
Disconnected because we don't need to be as connected. Connected because that
is the only way to survive. Those that can't handle the change...wont. This is
a process of societal metamorphosis whose tracks have already been laid.
~~~
AdrianB1
I think the ant brain and the human brain are extremely different. I bet the
ants are not capable of feeling loneliness, they don't have enough neurons for
that.
~~~
kodz4
That's true. Maybe we are going through a transition where we shed some :)
There is lots of evidence for it.
------
quacked
I think I'll be a little buried, but a thought- where can you go to hang out
and not spend any money? Seems like historical gathering places all now cost
money, or you're not allowed to be there.
~~~
jonny_eh
Tech meetups.
Volunteering.
~~~
quacked
Both of those involve doing something. I'm not talking about meeting new
people or starting a new hobby, I mean just... going to sit and gab with your
friends.
------
mises
> "You can see the problem here: A national culture that promotes polite
> restraint, and which actively fends off and forestalls the forming of
> relationships between strangers, is one that might as well be inviting
> loneliness on its population. And at a time when emotional seclusion is
> increasingly being seen as a crisis in countries around the Western world,
> perhaps this is what has made English people uniquely sensitive to
> loneliness as a major health concern."
This is evidently written from the perspective of an englishman, but I find
the contrast with the American South (where I was born and raised) evident:
here, it is very common to strike up a pleasant conversation with strangers.
If you are left in each other's company for a few minutes, it's almost rude
not to. I find that there's something of a cultural difference which might
help here, as you can get a little bit of socialization from unexpected
places. I regularly chat with the doorman at my office, and know he has
another job as a music promoter. He also figured out a particularly clever way
to game Spotify. Same with lots of other random people.
I'm not positioning this as a perfect solution, but as one more change which
might help. Half of me wonders if this is because the South was always so
spread-out that we took company where we could get it. But I certainly am not
qualified to trace the roots of cultural stuff like this. Anyway, just
something to think on.
~~~
T1glober
Not from the South myself, but I noticed a similar trend in parts of the
Midwest and anywhere that's not a big city.
Similar to the UK would be somewhere like Japan, which is well-known for its
culture of restraint and politeness. Loneliness and suicide rates are high,
while dating and marriage are suffering. It would appear a result of having a
relatively restrained social culture.
PS. what is the spotify trick?
~~~
mises
That's the thing about a trick... if you reveal it, it's gone. I suspect there
are a few Spotify engineers who read this; wouldn't want to give it away.
------
cosmodisk
I'm no psychologist or some sort of an expert,so this is just my own life
experience: I grew up with quite a variety of people: some were pure
criminals(drugs,roberry, extortion,theft),while others ended up being lawyers,
mathematicians, businessman, doctors or civil servants. Some lacked brains
while others lacked courage. Ultimately,if you feel lonely,drop FB, Instagram,
WhatsApp and other crap.Just fucking delete that crap. There are always people
who are interested in the way you think and are absolutely excited to listen
and just talk to you till the sun rises... Feeling outspoken and like going to
places? Go to those night clubs, restaurants or parties.Feel like being quiet
persona in the corner? Well,join like-minded people, play Warhammer, build a
train set and so on. Whatever you do,drop that Instagram/Facebook/LinkedIn
bullshit,where everyone seems to be conquering the world.Just drop it. Go to
the bloody library,local reading club, whatever. Also,learn how to listen.
Actually hear what people are saying,how they feel. All this stuff turns into
conversations, follow-up meetings and ultimately friendship or something more.
there's plenty of space for everyone, despite of looks, character or anything
else. It's not as hard as you make it!
------
rofo1
It only makes sense for this epidemic to take place in the society we've
developed. We are tearing apart the fabric and the bond that kept everyone
feeling as a part of community; namely, religion. Religion was never designed
for people to fear the man upstairs; it was always about the values and the
bond it created between each member of that religion.
Individualism and decadence are being more or less encouraged, or at any rate
tolerated; families are shrinking and relationships are treated just like
another object. The concept of friendship lost value as a result of the
tolerance towards vices (envy being the leading cause).
I believe that the Christian religion was in part developed to address these
problems. I am not aware of any society that lasted without religion and had
strong communal ties.
I don't understand how anyone can be surprised at this result.
Stop for a moment and think: what bonds me with the people living in my
vicinity? Since in 2019, you can't say: religion, race, nationality and nation
without being labeled one way or another. And historically, nothing else
worked.
~~~
Tade0
I grew up in a highly conservative and (according to statistics) religious
society (Poland) and my observation is that it's not correlated.
People who sought company in church were often disappointed, because most of
the others who went there had lives of their own and weren't that invested in
the whole thing.
Hell, the loneliest people I know are consistently religious.
~~~
badpun
Polish society was very heavily wounded by 50 years of hardcore socialism
combined with the police state (at the hands of the Soviets). The levels of
trust people have towards each other are still abysmally low. I wouldn't use
Poland as an example, because it is (like other post-Soviet block states)
still very much not normal.
~~~
Tade0
I don't know about that. My parents both knew their neighbors very well(which
made a lot of sense in times where you'd need a network of people to find some
of the more rare goods), while I have no little to no relationship with mine -
and I was born just before the previous system collapsed.
~~~
badpun
I don't deny that people are more lonely now in Poland that they were in
socialism. In my opinion, it's the combination of convenience (like you said,
people used to need each other for simple things, and now they can just buy
everything), alienating electronics entertainment and capitalism, where
everyone needs to paddle very hard to get ahead or merely stay afloat. It
seemed to me that my parents were happier under socialism than they are now,
even though now their material standard of living is greater by like a
magnitude.
Regarding trust, I would say there was very little trust in the socialist
times as well. You don't need a lot of trust to borrow some salt from a
neighbor or even trade a favors (ex. you get me ahead in the queue to buy a
car and in exchange I get you access to buying foreign holidays), which is
what people mainly were doing in the socialism. You do however need a lot of
trust to start a business together. Since in socialism all people were just
cogs in the giant socialist machine, they never needed to develop trust
towards each other. Now, in capitalism, it's backfiring.
------
mcdramamean
Why do we need to "run away" from loneliness? Maybe we all need to spend more
time alone AND off the phone to discover what really "makes us tick"? Find
yourself, find a mission, find a purpose. Go do something. There is SOOOO much
to be done... I mean it.. Like RIGHT NOW. If you don't have a mission..
Bruh... Go get one. Loneliness is simply childish. Children sit around and
wish someone would talk to them. Adults go join other adults to make something
happen; or they learn to be with themselves. If you can't find happiness
within; it's not going to come from you visiting your parents, or seeing your
grandchildren, or insert whatever Hallmark phrase you like. Sure being
surrounded by people you love when you die will feel nice. But you can truly
"rest in peace" if you know you tried your hardest to make a difference (and
you actually do!.. Because you actually can...)
~~~
slx26
Choosing to be alone (isolation) is not the same as loneliness. Honestly, the
world has changed a lot, and that might end up not being a big problem in the
future; maybe having isolation become more socially accepted wouldn't be that
bad.
The problem we are seeing right now is that it looks like everything is moving
towards a kind of social-contact-unfriendliness. Too much stress, connection
(the expectation of being always reachable, and therefore available for work),
busy streets, dominated by cars, big and impersonal chain stores, etc. Many of
these are not necessarily bad by themselves, but they also had an important
role in social interaction that has shifted now, and we might need time to
find new spaces and solutions for that interaction.
------
vonholstein
This may seem somewhat out there, very uninformed or misanthropic, but I've
been thinking about basic human needs(emotion,ego,the desire for companionship
- both spiritual and otherwise) as vestigial evolutionary artifacts. Evolution
and the survival of the human race _required_ collaboration, those who did not
died and failed to pass on their genes.
In the modern age though, I could argue that close collaboration is _not_ a
necessity for survival or even success, and as such why cant a portion of
humanity thrive without the need for extensive social contact?
~~~
alfwiefjalwe
Some portion of humanity can undoubtedly thrive with limited/no social
contract, but for the majority of us these "evolutionary artifacts" are still
very real and consequently still exert a very real force on our lives.
Until the day comes that we are able to (if we are able to) remove these
drives, neglecting them will continue to have deleterious effects.
------
dkarl
_You can see the problem here: A national culture that promotes polite
restraint, and which actively fends off and forestalls the forming of
relationships between strangers, is one that might as well be inviting
loneliness on its population._
Let's not forget there are two hazards here. Loneliness is one; the other is
the suffocating tyranny of constantly attending to others' ideas and feelings,
because attending to your own would be unacceptably disruptive of precious
social connectedness. In "A Room of One's Own" Virginia Woolf diagnosed the
injustice of a society that reserves the privilege of aloneness to men, and
particularly upper class men, while denying it to women (who are supposed to
be "selfless") and to a lesser extent the lower classes (who are supposed to
be too mindless and animalistic to make anything of solitude.)
Being reluctant to intrude on another's social space is a good thing. It
should be joined with skill at inviting others in, and a readiness to respond
to that invitation. Let's not shit on people who have solved one half of the
problem as if they were inferior to people who have only solved the other
half.
~~~
throwaway3627
Freedoms of being alone:
\- no one asking favors
\- no obligations
\- no emotional BS dumped on you
\- no judgements
\- no going along with what you don't want to do or opting-out
\- no one invading/pushing your boundaries
\- no meetings to keep
\- fewer liabilities
\- no disappointments
\- no hierarchy
\- more projects and work done
Disadvantages to being alone:
\- more stress
\- more anxiety
\- less potential fun
\- less sex
\- less humor
\- less mental stimulation
\- fewer opportunities
\- less productivity for big projects
To each, their own; there are many trade-offs and no simple answers. Key
question "better together?"
------
austincheney
Is this problem more an urban or rural thing? Is it related to any certain age
groups? Is the problem stratified by education or occupational categories?
------
radcon
At the risk of sounding like a crazy hippy, I'm going to go out on a limb and
say that some kind of subsistence-based neighborhoods would be a great option
for dealing with this problem.
Not only would it provide some relief from the feeling of being shackled to
bullshit jobs for life if you don't want to starve to death, it would also
help foster much stronger communities.
~~~
defterGoose
Some friends of mine from college and I, while considering our impending
matriculation into the housing and job market of LA, conceived of the idea of
'failure house'; a place where we could all live when we failed at life. We
still talk about it ten years on, and it has evolved into the idea of 'failure
commune'. One of these friends became a lawyer and bought a house in Orange
County recently. Traitor.
~~~
dwg465
I just graduated college and am having similar thoughts (but think Bay Area
instead of LA). It seems like a great idea but I know of few examples besides
full-on communes. Do you know of any examples of living communities or living
styles that fall somewhere between living on your own and living on a commune?
~~~
radcon
Look up online communities dedicated to Homesteading. There also seems to be a
movement around "backyard chickens" (i.e. raising small amounts of livestock
at an average suburban house).
So far I haven't come across any information on physical communities of
homesteaders, although a local community seems like a necessity if you ever
want to take a vacation again. Can't really leave crops on their own for very
long without them dying, let alone livestock...
------
ronnier
These articles rarely if ever mention the breakdown between men and women. I
do believe loneliness is largely something men deal with.
~~~
imesh
Why?
~~~
leetcrew
anecdotally (and not GP), most of the women I am friends with have several
good friends in the area where they live and easily make new ones if they ever
move to a new place. for many of my male friends, I am the only friend they
have in the area.
I don't think I can generalize to entire genders from my experience though. it
could simply be that it's easier for introverts to make same-gender
friendships, so I only have a set of relatively outgoing women to select
friends from.
------
alexashka
It's more of a journalist epidemic - they keep reaching for straw-men to
justify their existence.
Talking about loneliness is slightly more interesting than what dress
celebrity X wore at event Y. It's just bullshit - at least the dress talk
doesn't pretend otherwise, for the most part.
We're living in the greatest time ever. I understand that when you make no
money and you're writing articles, it may seem like there is a loneliness
epidemic. There isn't - we're doing better than ever. More people are having
first world problems than ever. It's great to have those, just talk to someone
with a little perspective that you respect for it to rub off on you and go on
about your day :)
~~~
condercet
On the contrary, many of the people I've met who most definitely do not have
first world problems -- people living in Africa, Southeast Asia, and other
destitute parts of the world -- often seem to lead genuinely happier lives
than the stressed out existence that is the norm in the US.
Being able to have a cheeseburger delivered on demand does not make up for
systematic loneliness and dehumanization. The more I travel, the more
perspective I get, the more I think that things have gone deeply wrong here.
------
gxx
Could it be that Facebook and social media in general are the cause?
[https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/05/is-
face...](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/05/is-facebook-
making-us-lonely/308930/)
"Likes" and reading narcissistic postings probably are not a good substitute
for real human contact, and the more people become addicted to social media
the less real human contact they are likely to seek. Of course companies like
Facebook and Google (YouTube) purposely design their offerings to be addictive
and as we know additions can be detrimental to one's mental and physical
health.
~~~
higginsc
No. Did you read the OP's article? I'll excerpt a relevant section for you:
_Although the current focus on isolation is often described in the media as
“the loneliness epidemic,” Robin Hewings, Director of Campaigns, Policy and
Research for the U.K.’s Campaign to End Loneliness, warns that for a
subjective, self-reported experience like loneliness, “it’s not very easy to
make comparisons across time, and it’s not obvious that it’s getting worse.”
While he acknowledges that aging populations mean that there are likely to be
a greater number of elderly people around who are suffering from isolation
than in previous decades, he also points out that when you look at the
percentages of those affected, the trends are harder to discern. “There was
some work done in the late 1940s, which would seem to suggest a not dissimilar
level to today. This is right at the speculative end,”_
------
bitL
Solitude is beneficial for an individual and dangerous for society. Loneliness
is dangerous for individual but beneficial for economy. My guess is that
"solitude" is the one sounding alarm, not loneliness.
------
vectorEQ
A lot of people who feel lonely, are hardly ever alone. imagine how shitty and
uninterested we really are to eachother and ourselves... if we can be together
and feel alone at the same time. Stop neglecting yourself, and that will make
you stop neglecting others.
My tips: Actively take time for yourself. to get to know yourself and become
more aware of yourself. Even if you do not suffer from such symptoms yet, it
will be one of the most valuable things you can do for yourself in whatever
position or situation you find yourself.
~~~
AdrianB1
When I go to work there are 500 people in the building, but less than 10 that
I consider close enough to care about. That can be zero in different
conditions. Having over 7 billion people on the same planet has no impact on
loneliness, the discussion is not about physical loneliness.
------
throwaway3627
\- Decline of organized religion
\- Rise of hyper-mobility
\- Rise of the portable screen
\- Rise of inequality necessitating more workaholism
\- Increase of monopolized corporate media
\- Heightened nationalism, xenophobia and politically-polarized, separate
realities
are factors which atomize people from each other.
~~~
umeshunni
Great list. Can you explain the impact of "Increase of monopolized corporate
media" ?
------
Pamar
My contribution to the topic:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17794060](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17794060)
------
leroy_masochist
I thought the puns in the section titles were quite clever, especially "Lonely
Hearts Club: Banned"
------
mrhappyunhappy
.loneliness { position: relative; }
Like all things in life, loneliness is not absolute in origin. Depending on
your circumstances, combined with external levers, loneliness is not easy to
pinpoint, but there are a few common externalities.
For the blue collar worker you have your typical financial concerns that make
you overwork or worry about not having enough work to provide for yourself and
or family. Spending time on people is a luxury most people with financial
concerns simply cannot afford. If you are lucky you’ll be working too much to
be lonely and it’ll only hit you when you have time to catch a breath.
Screen time is certainly a factor but not a cause. It’s a symptom of a sick
society with failed systems, infrastructure, architecture, family structures
and communities.
Depending where you are in the world, design of your community or should I say
the lack of, will play a large role. If it takes a 30 min drive to see a
friend be say a 5 minute walk, it becomes easier to remove yourself from face
to face interactions.
The constant rise in cost of living puts financial stress on families, which
in turn translates to personal stress, health problems, obesity and so on.
This fuels a feedback loop that ultimately leaves little to no room for
interaction with anyone. The easiest way to medicate that issue is you guessed
it, with a screen.
Then you have your constant exposure to media and the team effect of
polarization. People are brainwashed by nonstop streaming of irrelevant crap
which makes them feel like crap and further remove themselves from society.
Add in social media which amplifies all of these effects. The grass is always
greener on the other side and this seems especially true through social media
lens. Down the depression hole we go which further removes us from
interaction.
We make deliberate effort to improve “mobility” and “accessibility” through
roads and infrastructure which alienated public transportation projects. If
you are lucky to live in a small walkable community, you might stand a chance
at running into someone you know to strike up a conversation, but otherwise
good luck talking to everyone speeding down a road. Even small rural
communities in walkable cities are getting less friendly to foot traffic in
certain parts of the world due to vehicle congestion.
Let’s not forget the convenience of online shopping. As awesome as it is, we
simply don’t get as much stimulation as we would going outside and seeing
people face to face, whether we talk or not is irrelevant.
For kids there are video games. Can’t play? No problem, watch others play.
Society norms have changed. In countries like US, depending on where you live,
talking to others outside comes across as odd and unwelcoming. We are so
concerned about everyone’s need to be left alone that we ignore their silent
plea to have anyone take any interest in their life.
Consumer choices have been negatively shaping people to feel more individual.
When everything is customized to your liking, it’s hard to think as a group,
for the benefit of the collective. This in turn leads to more consumerism,
heightened expectations and disappointments when those expectations are not
met.
Information has a large role to play in spread of loneliness. Having to choose
from thousands of products online vs just getting one or two choices, shapes
our expectations. Before, I’d you wanted to buy some nice bed sheets, you’d go
to a store and maybe make a day out of it. Go to the mall, eat out, do things
with others, relatives, friends. Now you click a button and spend days or
hours looking at thousands of search optimized product titles which may or may
not have anything to do with what you searched for. All the consumer choices
and information like reviews, while seemingly great, just cause more mental
fatigue, stress and ultimately contribute to a host of factors, some of which
are tied to loneliness.
This is just scratching the surface. My point being, we are brining this onto
ourselves in many different shapes and forms.
------
Circuits
For me it is a rather paradoxical situation. On the one hand I am a very
lonely person and on the other hand I like being alone. When I am alone I tend
towards depression and crave social interaction but not all social interaction
works. For instance, if I spend a day with my family it is usually great for
about 2 or 3 hours and then all I can think about is getting home so I can be
by myself again.
For me it is not enough to just be with people. For instance, when I was in HS
I would never have characterized myself as a lonely person. I believe that is
because those relationships, long forgotten, had serious depth. I also had
more confidence when I was younger making my intimate life easier to progress.
However, now a days I have neither and I have lost the confidence to strike up
the band. I honestly find it hard to even look a women in the eyes much less
ask her for her name and tell her mine. Tbh, even if I was going to force
myself to make a new friend I wouldn't know where to start.
Luckily for me I have pretty damn thick skin and have learned to deal with my
loneliness, depression and anxiety. That being said, at 32, I find myself
feeling as though dying young and alone is a probability. However, I take
heart in knowing that it could be worse, for many people are simply dying of
starvation and so, on the whole, I am a pretty lucky guy.
If loneliness is a problem that someone else can solve I just don't see how.
From my perspective, this is a problem that, like a snowball rolling down a
hill, builds up over time and eventually takes on a life of its own.
~~~
em-bee
not paradoxical at all. i went through a similar experience. i found that for
me the solution was to have very few but very close friends, including my
wife. those then were the only people that i could socialize with without
being exhausted. but even then i need a few hours to myself every day.
the hardest part was how long it took to understand the problem. you seem to
understand the problem already, and that puts you into the position to do
something about it.
you don't need to strike up the band. find activities that you are interested
in. a hobby, or volunteer somewhere. the nice thing about both is that you are
not expected to do it for the sake of meeting people, so you don't need to
push yourself to talk to anyone, and noone will mind if you just focus on the
work. the socialization will come eventually. by the time you get to look a
woman into the eyes, you may already have shared your activities for a few
months or more. i met my wife that way.
------
trentnix
_When politicians are staging national interventions to force us to connect
with each other — and actually spending real money on the problem — you know
it’s a genuine crisis_
No. Politicians throwing money at something is not evidence of a crisis.
~~~
defterGoose
Can you see that this is an extremely dogmatic view? If society has seemingly
agreed that society needs government, part of society needs to actually
administer that government.
~~~
mises
> Can you see that this is an extremely dogmatic view?
Snuck premise much? I doubt he'd agree that it's dogmatic, nor would I.
Governments are certainly needed for certain things, but politicians tend to
come up with problems to solve, or try to solve problems which they are not
equipped to solve. They aren't really supposed to create a _social_ order so
much as a _legal_ one, anyway. Even if the could, I'd see that as disturbingly
close to brain-washing...
~~~
defterGoose
> Governments are certainly needed for certain things, but politicians tend to
> come up with problems to solve, or try to solve problems which they are not
> equipped to solve.
This is why it's dogmatic. You can't agree that there are use cases and then
in the same sentence denigrate all the use cases. Or... I guess you can,
but...
> They aren't really supposed to create a social order so much as a legal one,
> anyway.
At the risk of being overly ontological, the legal order arises from the
social order, since the law is simply a construct of beliefs that society
nominally agrees on.
> Even if the could, I'd see that as disturbingly close to brain-washing...
...And there it is. It's ok to disagree with some things that politicians do.
That doesn't mean there aren't good politicians.
~~~
impostir
> At the risk of being overly ontological, the legal order arises from the
> social order, since the law is simply a construct of beliefs that society
> nominally agrees on.
That is a big leap to call those two ontological. Laws represent the beliefs
of those that right them, nothing more. I am sure most politicians believe
they know the will of their constituents, which is simply another belief. And
yes, if a law is egregiously beyond social norms, it is possible that it will
be rejected by soceity, but I would argue that is a distinct veto function.
------
yters
The good thing is we can walk next door and meet our neighbor.
It is strange this is an epidemic when it is a problem that seems so easy to
solve.
UPDATE: based on responses to my comment it seems the core problem may be
closer to home than we like to admit. CS Lewis' book The Great Divorce details
this misanthropy, where hell is a product of the residents' own making because
they choose to live on their own because they do not like anyone else.
~~~
squish78
I'm amazed at the responses and downvotes to this comment. Is everyone
terrified of small talk with their neighbors?
~~~
logfromblammo
I live in a place where the neighbors are likely to talk about their religion,
their football team, their other football team, their kids, their kid's
football team, something implicitly racist, something explicitly racist, their
job/boss/business (or lack thereof), or their vehicle. I'd only want to hear
about two of those things.
I'd prefer to talk about events or ideas, or activities that interest me. It's
far easier to join an online discussion already in progress to feel less
isolated in South Bumblefart, USA.
I have found that familiarity does sometimes breed contempt, but absence does
not always make the heart grow fonder.
~~~
squish78
It's hard to make friends when you assume you're superior to everyone
~~~
drivingmenuts
im In the same position a lot of the time when meeting new people. It’s not
because I feel superior, I just lack interest and any knowledge of sports and
cars and most topics that a lot of other people use for small talk.
Now, if they want to talk about that time their fighter gutted an orc with an
awesome double crit, I’m all ears, but Cowboys losing to some other team in
sportsball, not so much.
~~~
logfromblammo
Exactly this. Superiority has nothing to do with it.
Some people have uncommon interests or opinions, and may be reticent about
sharing them in the absence of some enabling signal, as one can be punished
socially just for having them.
It doesn't help that my employer has a mainstream dress code. If I saw an
exact copy of myself before or after work, I wouldn't want to talk to it,
unless we were in a nerd haven.
I've had too many conversations that bring in early "so what church y'all go
to?" or "what's your football team?". The wrong answers can get you a "bless
your heart," which seems to be Southern for "fuck off, asshole". Wearing a
Chicago Cubs tee-shirt sometimes invites conversation, but my spouse is the
fan that live-streams every MLB broadcast that isn't regionally blacked out,
and for me it's really more a signal for "I'm from the Midwest." The Chicago
skyline on my usual payment card has sometimes unintentionally served the same
purpose from restaurant servers and cashiers who are also ex-Chicago-
residents.
It's why I'm considering a nerd tattoo, like "e^pi*i=-1" or the Fano plane
mnemonic for octonion multiplication, or a space-filling model of my favorite
molecule, benzaldehyde.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Rise, Fall, and Rise of the Home Office - SamWhited
https://www.citylab.com/design/2020/06/home-office-setup-design-history-remote-work-furniture/612889/
======
ghaff
I'd never given a lot of thought to it but even the fairly large house I grew
up in during the 60s/70s didn't have a dedicated office although there were
large bedrooms with desks. I was fortunate enough to have a nice dedicated
office before the current situation hit.
One does see a huge contrast on video calls between people in seemingly
offices (or, if bedrooms/living rooms, sufficiently stage managed and lit to
appear as such) and those obviously balancing laptops in a bedroom or kitchen
table.
~~~
flukus
What makes something a dedicated office though? The only two things I can
think of would be a phone line (not so much these days) and maybe being
somewhat separated/distanced from the rest of the bedrooms and maybe near the
front door. That's how I deduced I was an aberration to the family planning
from my "bedroom" anyway.
~~~
mc32
What makes it an office? A separate room (or at least separated area,
dedicated desk and chair, necessary peripherals and paraphernalia, sufficient
electrical outlets and opportunity to not be interrupted.
------
boromi
Interesting article. I'm personanly struggling to find a home office chair,
without being able to try them in store. unfortunately, all the
reccomendations are in the 500$+ range that I simply cannot afford.
~~~
SamWhited
I got an old solid wood chair from the 20s or 30s that was US Airforce surplus
for free (I got lucky and had connections, but they can also be picked up dirt
cheap at surplus places, don't look at antique shops, they'll overcharge you)
and it's nicer to sit in than any fancy expensive $1000 chair I've had at
fancy office buildings before. My lower back starts killing me in most chairs,
but something about these old chairs really helps it despite having none of
the fancy features of modern chairs. It looks awesome too, although it weighs
about a ton.
~~~
scottlocklin
Can you post a photo?
I despise all the fancy aeron chairs (they appear to be classic cargo cult
science) and favor a couple of old Eames and Corbusier chairs. Just curious
what works for others in the "chair that grandparents would recognize as
chair" category.
~~~
SamWhited
It's this one: [https://imgur.com/poAth33](https://imgur.com/poAth33)
I think it's actually later than I was saying, I looked at a USAF one from the
30s but I can't remember if I picked it or not. I'll have to see when I get
back to my desk, it had the Airforce logo on the bottom if it was that one. If
it was the other one, can't remember when it was from.
~~~
SamWhited
Looked it up; this is not the USAF one I was looking at, it's by Milwaukee
Chair Co. and was manufactured in 1924 according to the stamp under the seat
------
mrits
I have a very well planned home office. I've gone through countless chairs
over the year trying to fix back issues. I introduced more weight lifting into
my exercise (deadlift in particular) and I haven't had back issues in a couple
years. I sit on my couch or bed for work most of the time -- which I've been
told is supposed to be the worst for you.
~~~
ulisesrmzroche
Pull-ups are better than deadlifts. Deadlifts actually have a really bad risk-
reward ratio
~~~
kinkrtyavimoodh
They have little to do with each other. The lats are the primary movers in
pull-ups, while they are only a supporting muscle in deadlifts.
Also if you are having general back troubles due to sitting, deadlifts are
more likely to fix them.
~~~
ulisesrmzroche
Risk to Reward ratio. And no, deadlifts wont help with your sitting problems.
Your lats are the ones that need stretching n that case.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Lessons from Google's Geographical GDPR Goof - CrankyBear
https://www.dmnews.com/data/data-management/data-privacy/article/21047138/dont-be-stupid-3-lessons-from-googles-geographical-gdpr-goof
======
ggm
We (staffers) wanted to consider google g suite for integrated mail/calendar.
We couldn't because as an Asia-Pacific entity, we felt we wanted a guarantee
our data was in Asia-Pacific (preferably Australian) DC and under local law.
What we found, is that only the US State and federal governments can demand US
located data from Google. All other economies and agencies can _ask_ for
local, but cannot have it a checkbox requirement: Google retain the right to
host you wherever they decide, subject to laws they decide.
Somebody else has noted that Microsoft, for all their faults, actually looked
at customers in Europe and said "you know what: we can declare hosting in
ireland is subject to EU laws and we will (at the right price) guarantee your
data is in the EU, subject to EU law" and for that, I salute them.
I think Google got this wrong. I think microsoft got this right.
We didn't go with G Suite. We went another direction with mail and calendar.
~~~
dmurray
> as an Asia-Pacific entity, we felt we wanted a guarantee our data was in
> Asia-Pacific (preferably Australian) DC and under local law.
I don't understand why you would want a generic Asia/Pacific location. It
makes sense that you might want it to be in a particular jurisdiction for
legal purposes, so I understand specifying Australia, in the same way other
businesses specify EU or US or China. But why would you ever want to say "put
our data somewhere in this hemisphere, Australia or Malaysia or Korea are all
OK but don't let it be in Ireland or the USA"?
~~~
ggm
Ideally we wanted OZ. Google hadn't even come onshore at that point. We wanted
in our hemisphere, we'd have settled for JP or SG probably. It wasn't on
offer: Google didn't sell "put my data in my chosen jurisdiction" it sold "we
put it where we want to, unless you are the US government in which case yes
sir whatever you want sir"
Being told they do "now" is great. 5+ years too late. And, the evidence about
this is that Google cave to intercept requests far faster than microsoft do.
Microsoft ask for strong evidence you have jurisdiction. Google don't make any
public noise about this, and about how they act.
I am not a hater btw. I use a lot of google product.
(to latency: a lot of fiber in Asia goes odd paths. being in Japan or SG
wasn't actually a good guarantee it would be faster than from the USA)
~~~
fmajid
Oz is probably the worst possible location for any kind of data other than
China or North Korea due to their new encryption law. I realize that wasn’t
the case 5 years ago.
~~~
ggm
Right. Which hopefully will evaporate in the coming election although I
wouldn't trust Labor on that.
------
josteink
Things like this is why Microsoft is still retaining a lot of business-
customers which Google will never touch.
They care about addressing the customers need first and foremost, while
Google’s #1 priority will always be tracking and ads.
When the EU said processing needed to be done in the EU, Microsoft was fine
with that, while Google has been playing nice only on paper.
With rulings like this, guess which one will seem more reliable and dependable
(from a business POV) for the EU market?
Not Google. That’s for sure.
~~~
ipsum2
Pretty odd comment, considering Windows 10 does a lot of tracking and ads.
> Windows 10 Collects Activity Data Even When Tracking Is Disabled, But You
> Can Block It
[https://lifehacker.com/windows-10-collects-activity-data-
eve...](https://lifehacker.com/windows-10-collects-activity-data-even-when-
tracking-is-1831054394)
> We also display advertising in some services, and we’d prefer to show you
> ads you find interesting.
[https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-
us/windows10privacy](https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/windows10privacy)
And the numerous steps you have to take to improve your privacy:
[https://github.com/adolfintel/Windows10-Privacy](https://github.com/adolfintel/Windows10-Privacy)
~~~
emn13
As it pertains to this complaint though, those are all seem less relevant than
the issue of well... plain non-compliance? I mean, if they didn't even have a
DPO...
Still, let's not overstate this "recordbreaking" fine. It's not large, at all.
It's only of a fraction of profits (not revenue) in France alone. Even if
google fully expected to take this hit, it might not have bothered to change
its behavior. The fine, by itself, has no impact on google's business. The
greater risk, really, is that they've got a record now: if they get caught
again, they'll be more likely to suffer more punitive measures that really are
relevant to its core business.
Also, they come across as slightly incompetent, really: I'm kind of surprised
such a huge organization didn't bother to prepare very well. I mean, for some
the law might have come as a surprise, but it's not been unannounced, and it
sure looks like google - amongst others might even count as the law's raison
d'etre. How exactly did they miss that?
~~~
chopin
Legally, they can't pay the fine and continue their behavior. It's not a cost
of doing business as you are required to alter your behavior.
~~~
emn13
Exactly. The fine is basically a token at this point; it's the potential for
followup that matters.
------
theyinwhy
We are currently struggling with firebase cloud messaging as the instance id
has been deemed personally identifying by our laywers which google clearly
does not think is the case (they don't even offer a data processing contract
for firebase). So, if you are currently using Firebase cloud messaging, there
is a big chance you are in violation of gdpr.
~~~
ogeidix
Are you familiar with [1] and [2]?
1\.
[https://firebase.google.com/support/privacy/](https://firebase.google.com/support/privacy/)
2\. [https://firebase.google.com/support/privacy/manage-
iids](https://firebase.google.com/support/privacy/manage-iids)
~~~
theyinwhy
I was told the main problem is that google's view on things is not en par with
gdpr. Google claims that "Data associated with Instance IDs is generally not
personally-identifying" (see 2.) which our lawyers say they clearly are. In
that regard, google does not talk about instance ids or, worse, data
processing in between APNs and the sending backend (see 1).
The current legal situation does not allow us to use firebase cloud messaging.
------
twunde
I don't think I had understood the why behind Google's GDPR fine prior to
this. It's also illustrative of the challenges of running a worldwide business
with GDPR. Google knew it had a target on its back, is organized and spent a
lot of time becoming GDPR compliant and STILL screwed up in a significant way.
~~~
ggggtez
IMO, it seemed that the purpose of GDPR was to create a legal arrangement to
tax/fine Google (and other big US tech companies). The fine was going to
happen one way or another, the question was just how big it would be in the
end.
For some context on why: consider those "cookie" notices you see on every site
now. The notices are often obtrusive, usually don't have a "no" button, don't
make it clear how to withdraw your consent if you do click "yes"... So if
every company is in violation, and no one knows how to do it correctly even
with millions of reasons why... Then how exactly is it going to protect user
privacy in the real world?
~~~
jacquesm
If that is what you got from the available materials and the track record of
the EU DPAs to date then you should probably do some more reading.
EU companies have as much or more stake in being compliant than the few US
tech giants active on EU soil.
I see the impact of the GDPR on EU based companies every week and it is
definitely moving the needle towards more secure operations and a much better
attitude towards stewardship of data-subject related data.
~~~
ggggtez
I don't claim to be an expert, but this random site claims that British
companies have suffers 10k data breaches [0]. According to this, there have
only been 91 fines. I don't see how someone can come to the conclusion that
this is actually helping data be more secure.
[0] [https://tech.newstatesman.com/gdpr/data-breaches-
gdpr](https://tech.newstatesman.com/gdpr/data-breaches-gdpr)
~~~
jacquesm
> I don't see how someone can come to the conclusion that this is actually
> helping data be more secure.
The fines are not what has made things getting more secure, the work done to
avoid the fines is.
Before the GDPR pretty much every company I looked at had absolutely terrible
security, since the GDPR is in effect most companies at least stopped seeing
security as a cost to be avoided, with an associated increase in awareness at
the rest of the company and better processes and controls to ensure that data
does not leave the servers when it isn't intended that way.
It's 91 fines _so far_ , and a whole pile of warnings and interventions, give
it a few years and the cumulative effect will be substantial.
Oh, and that 10K number is only the breaches that the companies are aware of
and that have been reported, the real number is likely to be much higher. And
without the GDPR it would be much higher still.
------
amenod
I have a very difficult time understanding any of this. I mean, yes, for most
of the SME 50 mio dollars would be some money, but for Google? Peanuts. Who
cares if they messed up? If this is the penalty for it, bring it on... It was
cheap school for them (not on how to do GDPR properly, but how to get better
at avoiding penalties in the future).
Seriously, I hope EU can do better than that. We could really use some real
privacy protections, especially from the likes of Google, Facebook, Microsoft,
Apple, Amazon,...
~~~
Macha
If you look at some of the GDPR fearmongering (Particularly stuff like "Oh no
my designated DPO left and it took us a week to find a replacement." or "Oh
no, my 1 person company with no automated process got a GDPR request while I
was on holiday in the bahamas and I took too long" leading to 4% of revenue
fines, one of the points made is that the EU tends to not apply the maximum
penalty immediately based on the severity of the offence and whether it's a
repeat offender. So this is (a) Google's first offence and (b) it seems the
finding is about a technicality that could be a genuine mistake (1 day after
GDPR Google's TOS didn't mention Google Ireland yet), so it's understandable
that they didn't pull out the 4% of global revenue fine. Even though
ultimately the Google behavior is the target of the legislation, not giving
Google the same "first time's a warning" type behavior of local SMEs sounds
like a good way to start a trade war.
The next GDPR violation Google is accused of, they will now be a repeat
offender and more likely to get a higher fine, until they either become
compliant or end up at the 4% of revenue fine.
~~~
Mirioron
> _one of the points made is that the EU tends to not apply the maximum
> penalty immediately based on the severity of the offence and whether it 's a
> repeat offender._
But this is how it's done because it's standard practice, not because the law
stops them from doing it.
~~~
NeedMoreTea
You might want to look up the EU requirement for proportionality in penalties,
and the ECJ cases where a regulation or penalty was found not to be
proportionate, before claiming there is no law that stops them from doing
that. It applies to everything EU wide.
That's quite apart from it already being well established in national laws of
many member states.
[https://www.europeanlawmonitor.org/eu-legal-principles/eu-
la...](https://www.europeanlawmonitor.org/eu-legal-principles/eu-law-what-is-
the-principle-of-proportionality-a-subsidiarity.html)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_principles_of_European...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_principles_of_European_Union_law#Proportionality)
~~~
Mirioron
Interesting. Thank you.
But what's the point of setting upper limits to fines at all then? GDPR says
that the maximum penalty is 4% of global revenue or 20 million euros,
_whichever is greater_.
If proportionality is a concept that's followed so well, then why have upper
limits at all? Why word it in a way that clearly hurts smaller businesses
more?
~~~
NeedMoreTea
It doesn't work like that.
I think it was Germany first introduced proportionality into sentencing, in
the later 19th century. They still have maximum penalties for offences. The
maximum allows a regulator or judge to frame the seriousness of offence within
those limits, with fewer surprises, and across the range of legislated
offences, as intended by the legislature.
A proportionate fine for a first offence, technical breach by a multinational
like Nestle or Google, who should have plenty of people in legal, might be a
gentle €50 million slap on the wrist. As we can see from this very discussion,
there's been a couple of comments along the lines of "...but that's too small
to hurt, why bother?". A proportionate penalty for a Google or Facebook on a
fifth offence, showing a wilful attempt to dark pattern around the law, might
well turn out to be €4% of global. It's no different to setting criminal
offences with a maximum of ten years in jail and finding most get a fine, and
just a few get jail, let alone a maximum term.
A proportionate first offence penalty for a 5 person early startup, who made a
minor breach, might receive a helpful, but sternly worded letter to help them
comply. The same 5 person startup showing a wilful, habitual pattern of breach
might get (plucks number out of the air) a €20k fine for their fifth offence.
Probably levied after providing proof of their revenue and profit.
The point is supposed to balance the need to a) enough to encourage them to
not do it again, and b) not nuke them from orbit. It _doesn 't_ clearly hurt a
smaller business more. It's meant to hurt each about the same: "enough to
achieve compliance". Intent and extent will affect what is enough too. The aim
is compliance, not revenue, or remaking some sort of financial equivalent of
the Bloody Code. A bankrupt business cannot comply and generates no revenue.
Mistakes, disappointingly large or small penalties and the subsequent appeals
will happen, such is the nature of all law, everywhere. IANAL or I might have
explained that better. :)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Web Is Dying; Apps Are Killing It - personjerry
http://online.wsj.com/articles/the-web-is-dying-apps-are-killing-it-1416169934
======
SiVal
Just yesterday, I was reading about the theory of "Peak App", which is based
on surveys of leading app publishers showing that being #N in Apple's App
Store (for very high-ranking N) means _significantly_ less money than being #N
in the App Store just two years ago.
Though the overall sales in the app stores (Apple and Google) are still
increasing, they are increasing much more slowly than the number of available
apps, and developers are able to charge less today than in the past for each
app, resulting in a situation where the vast majority of apps just aren't
worth building as products in themselves. Fewer and fewer people are buying
their first phone, and first phone buyers are the main buyers of apps. People
on their third phone don't do much shopping for new and interesting apps. They
just use what they've been using--the apps that came with the phone plus a
handful of other standards from, say, Google, Facebook, and Twitter--and
beyond that they don't care.
It's getting to the point where the only reason to develop a new commercial
app (as opposed to a personal project) will be as a component in a business
that sells things other than apps. If you are trying to build a business
selling apps (including in-app purchases of upgrades and add-ons), your
chances of success are falling fast.
So, apps are not only "killing the Web", they are in that same sense killing
themselves.
What's really dying here is just the potential for most people to make a
fortune building websites or phone apps as competition drives it toward
ordinary compensation for ordinary work.
~~~
porter
This should be in every econ 101 textbook.
------
softdev12
This is behind a paywall. The main points are the following:
1) It's now 86 to 14 percent of phone time for apps vs web. 2) App stores
(controlled by Apple/Google) take big fees and make the world much less open.
3) Lists on the stores drive adoption. 4) Search in the stores are broken. 5)
Market dominance is bad for innovation and consumers
~~~
pohl
86 to 14...I wonder where my time reading web pages in my Twitter and FB apps
— and Reeder — account towards.
------
personjerry
This article sounded worrying at first, but it's not that bad.
Most people, consumers, don't necessarily desire the "open-ness" of the
Internet, but rather the usefulness of the tools made by corporations which
happen to have been delivered over the Internet. Indeed, this would be why
those corporations are so big. So technically, consumers win.
The problem is we (hackers) don't like to hear this. We want to believe in the
era where a startup like Instagram can thrive. But it's not like the Internet
is going to become dysfunctional. Rather, if the web is indeed dying, it will
regress to a state where only the "counter-culture" kind of people use it. For
most people, it's easier to just use apps anyway, and that's fine.
------
Ashwinning
An article talking about the "walled garden" of app stores, behind a paywall.
Classic.
~~~
cylinder
Those are not the same thing.
------
doctorshady
It's strange, you'd think almost the opposite would be true. Maybe it's just a
matter of who you talk to, but I've heard a lot of people frustrated with
companies trying to force feed them apps.
~~~
tracker1
Funny, when Facebook force Messenger as a separate app, I uninstalled both...
I'm using the web interface now, and though not great, isn't bad. As a result,
I'm using facebook less, and the more emails I get from them, the less I want
to use facebook. I can only speak for myself though.
I'm really hoping that more companies do spend time on their mobile
sites/interfaces... because I can't be the only one that's starting to abandon
the spyware apps in favor of mobile web.
~~~
personjerry
Hey I do this too! Glad to see I'm not the only one who hated how they forced
their users to download another app.
------
adam419
Non-paywalled link:
[http://online.wsj.com/articles/the-web-is-dying-apps-are-
kil...](http://online.wsj.com/articles/the-web-is-dying-apps-are-killing-
it-1416169934)
~~~
Bahamut
Still paywalled on mobile.
------
amrtnz
Is there any way to read this without a WSJ account?
~~~
symlinkk
Yes, if you're referred from Google it lets you read the whole thing. So just
Google the title of the article and click on the first link.
~~~
mychaelangelo
good tip - this link worked fine for me
[https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web...](https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCIQqQIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticles%2Fthe-
web-is-dying-apps-are-killing-
it-1416169934&ei=RBFrVLe5GsTlatGagsgJ&usg=AFQjCNH_GRuh0Lrw6Rhq61CxrJT0JdVM4Q&bvm=bv.79908130,d.ZWU&cad=rja)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Deep Diesel: Machine and Deep Learning for Diesel Car Detection - rhiner
https://blog.codecentric.de/en/2018/10/deep-learning-detection-of-diesel-cars/
======
WestCoastJustin
I bet you could do this via engine sound too. Diesel's have a pretty
distinctive sound and you could probably do some type of real-time analysis
with a few sensors [1]. This would work day/night/rain/fog/snow and in almost
any conditions. It would also catch folks that don't have the sign up. Or,
maybe you use both side-by-side to snap photos / record audio for training
data, etc.
[1] [https://blog.google/technology/ai/fight-against-illegal-
defo...](https://blog.google/technology/ai/fight-against-illegal-
deforestation-tensorflow/)
~~~
blattimwind
> Diesel's have a pretty distinctive sound
Try telling TDI and TFSI apart :)
~~~
gruturo
Shazam’s technology might, with some adaptation, have no trouble with that.
Hell it might even be able to tell you make, model, year and diagnose a few
engine conditions.
If anyone builds it successfully and makes millions with it, and this post
ends up the earliest mention of the idea, you owe me a beer.
~~~
toomuchtodo
[https://autoweek.com/article/car-news/car-making-
mysterious-...](https://autoweek.com/article/car-news/car-making-mysterious-
noises-theres-app)
[https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/5612099](https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/5612099)
------
cpcallen
As a Brit, I find it slightly depressing that the author dismisses out of hand
the possibility of classifying vehicles based on their registration (licence
plate) for being too invasive - because of course in London this is the norm
(and we can be quite sure the police do indeed compile extensive databases of
vehicle movements).
~~~
sandworm101
There are considerable gaps in this information, at least on the uk. Even more
difficult when it comes to diesel trucks as so many are international.
------
syntaxing
Interesting but kind of disappointing how it Part 2 goes from a HOG classfier
and Part 3 is AWS Lens according to the future parts' title. Seems to make
more sense to have a Part 2.5 (?) where you can use transfer learning on a
existing model (VGG or GoogLeNet) to classify the signs for you.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
AngularJS 1.4x and ES6 application boilerplate /w testing practices using Webpack - ziyasal
https://github.com/ziyasal/ng-espack-boilerplate
======
meat_fist
I'm not the hippest with the newest front-end libraries, but doesn't Webpack
replace Bower? And also Gulp?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
French journalist "hacks" govt by inputting correct URL, later fined $4,000+ - Cynddl
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/02/french-journalist-fined-4000-plus-for-publishing-public-documents/
======
steeve
The ruling is more complicated than that. If you can read french, I suggest
you read Maitre Eolas' take on it [1].
[1] [http://www.maitre-eolas.fr/post/2014/02/07/NON%2C-on-ne-
peut...](http://www.maitre-eolas.fr/post/2014/02/07/NON%2C-on-ne-peut-
pas-%C3%AAtre-condamn%C3%A9-pour-utiliser-Gougleu)
~~~
sejje
I can't. Mind making a brief summary?
~~~
a3_nm
The main count on which Bluetouff was found guilty is that of "maintien
frauduleux dans un système de traitement automatisé de données (STAD)",
namely, remaining "in" a computing system (STAD) without being allowed. The
key point is that Bluetouff made an important admission, apparently during his
30 hours of "garde à vue", meaning, being under arrest at the police station,
where he seemingly neglected to apply his right to remain silent: he
recognized that, when going up the folder hierarchy, he landed on a username-
password login page. From this, according to the court, he should have
inferred that the documents were private and that he had nothing to do there.
Instead, he spent several hours siphoning the documents _afterwards_ , which
established his intent to remain in the system despite having found out that
he wasn't supposed to.
One can then discuss whether this law is fair or not, whether things would
have been different had Bluetouff not made this key admission, whether it is
reasonable to consider that the login page was sufficient to indicate that the
documents weren't intended to be public, and whether the 3000 EUR fine is
balanced or not.
Meanwhile, Bluetouff has appealed the ruling to the Cour de cassation,
France's last-resort court for civil and criminal cases, whose role is to
break rulings where the law was not correctly applied (without discussing the
findings, only the application of the law and the adequate forms). I do not
think we know yet how Bluetouff will phrase his appeal, but Eolas estimates
that there would be a possible way to attack the ruling based on the court's
finding that Bluetouff's retrieving the documents constitutes "vol" (theft)
though it does not fall within the scope of the formal definition of theft
(because the ANSES was not deprived of the files).
~~~
jordanthoms
This is a good time to remind people: Don't talk to the police. Ever, under
any circumstances - it can only hurt you, never help you.
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc)
~~~
pyre
This is a very US-centric view. In some places, you have a right to remain
silent, but that _can_ be used against you in a court of law...
~~~
nodata
He means don't talk to the police until your lawyer is there.
Which countries will use that against you?
~~~
ItendToDisagree
UK or US, among other countries, if you are being held on 'homeland security'
(read: Suspected terrorist) charges.
IE: You are required by law to answer questions/turn over passwords when
suspected of such things. David Miranda being a recent and well known example.
~~~
nodata
"Let's wait until my lawyer gets here" will count against me?
You got a cite for that?
~~~
ItendToDisagree
Heres the first hit on google, I'm sure many more instances, citings could be
procured.
_According to former White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales (later the former
attorney general), “[t]he stream of intelligence would quickly dry up if the
enemy combatants were allowed contact with outsiders during the course of an
ongoing debriefing.” Warren Richey, “Beyond Padilla Terror Case, Huge Legal
Issues,” Christian Science Monitor, August 15,
2007,[http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0815/p01s08-usju.html](http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0815/p01s08-usju.html).
Yoo also explains that introducing a lawyer immediately after capture of an
enemy combatant would disrupt interrogation as any competent defense counsel
would tell his/her client to remain silent. Yoo, War by Other Means, 151._
~~~
refurb
That quote is in reference to enemy combatants, not those who fall within the
regular court system. I get your point though.
~~~
ItendToDisagree
As my post said _' homeland security' (read: Suspected terrorist) charges_ who
are not part of the normal court system.
But this also happens to immigrants or those stopped at the border in general.
[0] The right to counsel is being eroded at the edges (apparently not applied
to non-citizens whenever possible).
_Over the past year, the American Immigration Council, along with the
American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), has documented instances
where the DHS immigration agencies—Customs and Border Protection (CBP),
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and U.S. Citizenship and
Immigration Services (USCIS)—have deprived noncitizens of access to counsel.
For example, ICE also has taken the position that there is no right to consult
with a lawyer during an interrogation. Likewise, many CBP offices outright
deny access to all lawyers._ [1]
[0]
[http://law.psu.edu/_file/Immigrants/LAC_Right_to_Counsel.pdf](http://law.psu.edu/_file/Immigrants/LAC_Right_to_Counsel.pdf)
[1] [http://immigrationimpact.com/2012/01/23/its-time-to-
improve-...](http://immigrationimpact.com/2012/01/23/its-time-to-improve-
noncitizens-access-to-counsel/)
------
rch
> Bluetouff ended up admitting in testimony that when he found the documents,
> he had traveled back to the homepage that they stemmed from, where he found
> an authentication page, which indicated that the documents were likely
> supposed to be protected. That admission played a part in his later
> conviction in the appeals court.
Of course the fine seems absurd to me personally, but this excerpt hints at a
couple things one should _definitely_ not do.
~~~
ben0x539
This seems weird to me.
If I go to, say, the twitter homepage, I will find an authentication page, and
yet most content on twitter is obviously intended to be public.
~~~
tempestn
I don't know about France, but in many jurisdictions, a "reasonable person"
standard is used. While I don't personally believe accessing publicly
available files should be illegal in _any_ case, I do think that in the
situation as described (with the admission of traveling up the path hierarchy
to find a login page), most "reasonable people" would indeed infer that the
files were not intended to be publicly available.
~~~
frobozz
Not really. If I found a page that redirected me to a login, I would assume
that that page is not intended to be publicly available, and that other
content that I don't know about exists which is not intended to be publicly
available.
I wouldn't infer that just because (as noted by the parent comment)
[https://twitter.com/](https://twitter.com/) requires a login, I shouldn't
look at
[https://twitter.com/twrbrdg_itself](https://twitter.com/twrbrdg_itself)
Now, if all those pages I looked at before finding the login page had a banner
saying "private, not for public consumption, don't share this with anyone who
doesn't have an account", then I might think "hmm, perhaps I'm not supposed to
be here".
~~~
tempestn
That's not a fair analogy though. I agree that I wouldn't expect every page on
twitter to be protected. But if you find a direct link to a random document
indexed by Google, then check and the page that links to that document is
protected, I personally anyway would assume the document itself was exposed
accidentally. Obviously not everyone agrees though, which makes the reasonable
person thing difficult to decide.
As for the lock on the door comment, I'd say it's more like if you noticed a
store is left unlocked in the middle of the night, and therefore assume you're
welcome to go in and walk around. In fact, they probably didn't leave it
unlocked as an intentional invitation.
------
gcb0
happened in brazil as well.
everyone knows you only build large public projects there if money change
hands. and it usually happens that the gov official get the quotes from all
the companies, call the one paying him the most and tell the other quotes and
that company submit a little lower than the lowest and get the job, later
including several hidden fees, etc.
the, for the sao paulo subway expansion, a journalist did a search and found
documents proving all that for that specific job (yellow metro line) and
published them.
gov removed the documents, waited for all signs of it ever being indexed to
disappear and then sued him. i think the trial is still going and they still
deny those documents ever existed.
~~~
whitey-chan
Do you have any links with further info on that case by any chance? Would be
interesting to see how that turns out.
------
rurban
How can government agencies still can get away with accusing someone of
"theft" and accessing a "private computer" and "private documents" when they
just publish documents on the web, and the public is consuming them? The fact
that there was a HTTPAUTH protected login page in some up path on the site
does not infer that the documents should have been protected. They are or they
are not. And they looked legit, i.e. public.
Esp. with government documents you are safe to assume that they are public, if
they are public and look public.
~~~
MildlySerious
Exactly. Also, the HTTPAUTH is directory based and does not necessarily
include subdirectories, just like permissions on all Linux distros. So that
doesn't imply in any way that subdirectories should have been private.
------
zacinbusiness
I'm really on the fence with this one. As has been pointed out, the fact that
there's some auth somewhere on the server doesn't necessarily mean that those
specific documents were supposed to be private. However, as a journalist he
decided to publish the documents on his blog which I think we can take to mean
that he assumed they were, in some way, "juicy." And he wouldn't think that if
he didn't at least suspect that they were supposed to be private.
This is all assumption, of course, but I think it's pretty logical assumption.
Still, freedom of the press is a strong right. Though freedom, as they say,
isn't free (there can be and often are consequences to exercising your
freedoms). In this case I think he's lucky to just get what amounts to a hefty
access fee. If he had stumbled onto U.S. documents he may well have found
himself taking a ride in a black helicopter.
------
higherpurpose
How many years would he get in prison for this in US? While the interpretation
of the law or the law itself are pretty bad here to begin with, at least the
punishments are saner for stuff like this. US seems to have both completely
terrible and easily abused hacking laws, but also extremely disproportionate
punishments.
------
nswanberg
This is more or less what happened to some kids applying to Harvard Business
School about seven years ago: [https://freedom-to-
tinker.com/blog/felten/harvard-business-s...](https://freedom-to-
tinker.com/blog/felten/harvard-business-school-boots-119-applicants-hacking-
admissions-site/)
Their penalty was a denial of admissions, but their hack of using a specially-
crafted URL was about the same.
------
thomasjoulin
I don't understand why he's getting fine for that. Those were publicly
accessible documents, even though they were intended not to be, as indicated
by the login form that Bluetouff admitted to know about.
If that's the law, then it needs to change.
------
fuckpig
Reminds me of what happened to Andrew Aurenheimer, only iterated a bit more.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Is Lenovo Advertising Thinkpad Tablet as 4:3? - hcurtiss
http://shop.lenovo.com/us/products/tablets/thinkpad/
How I wish it was 4:3. Seems Lenovo does too. The pictures on the site are, to my eye, not 16:10. Why do you frustrate me so, Lenovo?
======
hcurtiss
How I wish it was 4:3. Looks like Lenovo does too. To my eye, those images are
not 16:9. Oh, Lenovo, why do you frustrate me so?
~~~
MaysonL
1280x800
16:10 (8:5)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google Sets 10-user Limit for Free Access to Apps - johndbritton
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/google-tweaks-apps-pricing-for-smbs-sets-10-user-limit-for-free-access/47818
======
bence
If you are a current customer your limits wont be affected.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
What's new in Apache Solr 5.2 - jonbaer
https://lucidworks.com/blog/whats-new-apache-solr-5-2/
======
MichaelCrawford
I tried to use solr once. Just once. Every time I had the slightest little
error it threw an exception stack trace in its log file. At least I knew to
enable the log file, the poor guy I inherited the project from didn't know one
could do that.
Those stack traces would show me what source file lines were impacted by my
misconfiguration, but they wouldn't explain what was wrong.
I never want to have anything to do with Solr ever again.
After a few days I asked the company owner why he didn't put "solr sucks" into
google before betting his company on it. When I tried I got 600,000 hits.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google's Project Zero researcher discovers “major” security issue in LastPass - aloukissas
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/lastpass-hack-security-problem-password-manager-a7658806.html
======
sp332
Previous discussion
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13960097](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13960097)
------
kakarot
If you use online password management for anything security-critical then
you're a fool. It pains me to see Lastpass so readily trusted even by the HN
community.
~~~
thraway2016
Agreed. A combination of cryptsetup luksOpen foobar && mount foobar && vim
foobar/passwords.txt has always worked fine.
I suspect it has to do with the modernist fetish of convenience. Not having
all your data synchronized to all devices at all times is apparently a fate
worse than death.
~~~
CobrastanJorji
I started using LastPass because I found that for all but my bank, Google, and
Amazon passwords, I was using the same password on every other page. I've
found that it's really great to just let LastPass pick a lengthy password for
every new site I join and know that I'll still be able to log into it later
from my phone or my laptop or my desktop without problem.
I get that it's got some serious security holes, but it's better than not
using it, because if I don't use it then I'm just gonna start repeating the
same username and password across sites again.
The enemy I'm fighting is my own laziness. I'm not choosing between "use
LastPass" and "lock my passwords in an encrypted fileystem." I'm choosing
between "use LastPass" and "use the same password everywhere," and LastPass is
better than that.
------
ry_ry
So if they want 2fa enabled and users to avoid browser plugins it
inadvertantly suggests a vector to start looking at.
At a guess, an API vuln that issues a token of some description?
------
astrodust
LastPass tire fire continues to spread.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Twins’ Facebook Fight Rages On - donohoe
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/31/business/31twins.html?_r=1&src=twr
======
strlen
The fact that this travesty continues (and how it is portrayed in the media)
shows what society still thinks of as a proper place for geeks like
Zuckerberg[1]: to implement some business guy's vision. The message is loud
and clear: "you may be smart, you may go to the same schools as we do, but you
are an inferior being." Our skills are thought of as a commodity, that we can
implement a site like Craigslist, Amazon or Facebook (in its modern
incarnation) in a weekend: it's as if the idea is the hard part.
This applies not only to Zuckberg, but also to the employees at Facebook who
have been busy working nights and weekends building, scaling out and
monetizing the site. Apparently, however, society thinks nothing of a wealth
transfer from the workers to the privileged elite (i.e., the twins).
I'll be the first to say: even if the allegations are true, fuck these
jocks[1]: everybody and their mother had a "social network for X" idea; the
idea wasn't unique, turning it into an a product users love was.
[1] It's popular to portray Zuck as some PHP script kiddie, but that's not the
case. He's written a Winamp plugin in high school, for which Microsoft offered
him a $1mm bonus if he signed on as a full time employee (forgoing Harvard).
His initial technology choices may be disagreeable, but he's still one of us.
[2] <http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10016183-36.html>
~~~
alexgartrell
Fuck these jocks
So maybe I'm being a little oversensitive here, but attitudes like this toward
athletes are total bullshit. I'm going to go out on an egotistical limb here
and say that I'm a pretty fucking competent coder, but before I was I was a
pretty decent Football player. Don't make this an "us vs. them" thing, because
that's a false dichotomy if I've ever heard one.
~~~
strlen
No, you're not oversensitive here. I am. I regret putting that comment in.
It's a visceral, emotional gut reaction. Nonetheless, I'll leave it there:
editing it out would be Orwellian.
However, there's an interesting point: they spent their time perfecting their
rowing skills to an olympic level, that's where their passion lays. It's
difficult to be an olympic rower and a top notch hacker at the same time: it's
one thing to dabble in both, it's another to master one.
I work out for at least an hour 5-6 days a week, but I'm not an athlete. The
hours I have to spend to become proficient at programming don't leave time for
equal amount of hours (10,000 according to Gladwell) to be spent on sport.
Winklevii made their choices, Zuck made his.
~~~
fingerprinter
Going on a HUGE side tangent here b/c working out, fitness and overall health
is a huge passion of mine...
people don't know how to workout....and people don't know what an 'athlete'
does when they workout. I've been around professional and collegiate athletes
for quite some time and I think most people would be amazed to see how little
they actually workout.
The basic thought the past 20 years was 'more is better' when it comes to the
body; more working out is better than less working out. What we are learning
and something good trainers and athletes have known for some time is that the
amount of working out takes a huge backseat to doing the right kind of working
out at the right intensity level.
It is more mythos created by the sports industry when we hear that someone is
'in the gym' 10 hours a day. This might be accurate, but the time they are
actually working out is minimal (or, rather, it should be if they value their
asset aka body).
Now, to someone like you working out 5-6 days a week for (guessing) an
hour...I guarantee that if I changed your routine and intensity levels you
would become an athlete you never dreamed you could be. I could probably do it
in literally half the time as well.
I'll leave you with this...which do you think is more effective as a workout:
60 minutes on the treadmill or elliptical or 10 minutes of sprinting intervals
@ 75 max effort? Did you know you can get one of the best and hardest workouts
of your life if you just did 5 minutes of Tabata style kettlebell swings (20
seconds swings, 10 sec break for 5 minutes)?
Knowing the body and being able to hack the body are so foreign to most folks
they literally have no idea what it means to workout like an athlete.
~~~
moultano
Have a good resource on "tabata style kettleball swings?"
~~~
fingerprinter
The technical name is 'Tabata Protocol' and google is your friend here. Also,
YouTube is awesome for finding good workouts if you know the right search
terms.
To get you started, this is a good video.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtgRcqaOqDo>
Just note that you should be going much, much harder (more intense) than she
is doing. Remember, 20 seconds all out, 10 seconds rest. You can also vary the
intensity by weight of KB and not just speed. I use a 53 pound KB for single
arm swings and a 70 pound for double arm swings (at the gym...don't have a 70
for the home yet).
If you have a tough time counting 20 seconds and 10 seconds, the GymBoss timer
(<http://www.gymboss.com/> ), available on Amazon is a great way to time.
Some quick articles on tabata: [http://www.thefitnessmonster.com/2010/02/hiit-
for-fat-loss-t...](http://www.thefitnessmonster.com/2010/02/hiit-for-fat-loss-
tabata-protocol.html)
[http://ezinearticles.com/?Kettlebell-Tabata-Workout---
Swings...](http://ezinearticles.com/?Kettlebell-Tabata-Workout---Swings-For-
Rapid-Fat-Loss&id=3772838)
You can do anything in a tabata fashion. For instance, you can sprint, you can
do an exercise bike if you have some issues running (I'm rehabbing an Achilles
tear so I stick to KB, swimming and some variants I'll talk about in a minute)
or anything you can do for 20 seconds.
I'll even make circuits for Tabata workouts. This is a great one that gets you
quite exhausted and will boost your metabolism sky high as well...
2-4 rounds, 20 seconds of each exercise in order, 10 second in between
exercises.
Pushup - you can do any type: traditional, military, diamond, plyo. Even vary
it up in the different rounds. KB swings - See previous Burpees -
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MGljX4bbps> Air Squats or Jack/Power Squats*
- <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1FpWEfJW1s> \-
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEwitPuU0Xg&feature=relat...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEwitPuU0Xg&feature=related)
Plank crunch (or variants) - <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31SbKgmHcmw>
Once done...take a 10 second break and start over again going for 2-4 total
rounds. If you do 2 rounds, that is 5 total minutes for working out. 4 Rounds
is 10 minutes. This is very, very tough (honestly) and sometimes I have a hard
time doing all 10 minutes w/ full intensity.
------
narrator
Moral of the story folks. Be very careful about people you go into business
with. If you smell a hint of "douche" or especially narcissism, just walk
away.
------
snprbob86
Now that I'm working on a proper startup -- raising money, building a product,
hiring a team, making deals, acquiring customers... I feel a renewed deep
respect for people who _actually make things_. No amount of hearing "the idea
isn't as important as the execution", no amount of startup culture
indoctrination can really prepare you for doing it yourself.
Building something that people want is just so much harder than anyone could
possibly imagine until they try it. I don't think any typical judge could
possibly understand. If they did, a case about "he stole the idea" would be
instantly thrown out with prejudice. The idea is so unbelievably
inconsequential in the scope of skill, determination, and heart needed to
succeed.
Even if Zuck mislead these guys into thinking he was building this exact
product for them and on their time, I don't think they are entitled to
anything. Even if the Harvard Connection was the most popular social network
and Zuckerberg was hired as a 10th engineer and left and build Facebook to
compete. I don't think they'd be entitled to a dime. Love him or hate him,
Zuckerberg built an incredible business with a stellar team in a remarkably
short time period. Luck was involved, but this was no accident.
------
edanm
It still amazes me how different my perception is on starting successful
businesses, versus most other people.
I mean, there's the whole "the idea is not the important part" slogan, which
is true to at least some degree, which seems completely lost on the twins.
And take this quote: _When asked if they could have turned ConnectU into a
site with hundreds of millions of users, like Mr. Zuckerberg did with
Facebook, the twins replied in unison, “Absolutely.”_
Seriously, have you ever heard anyone who would say that they could
_absolutely_ succeed with _any startup_? The optimistic chances of success for
any startup aren't huge, what makes them think they would absolutely succeed?
Moreover, they're not talking about the kind of success that YC is happy with,
or even the kind of success that VCs are happy with. They're talking about the
kind of success of a once-in-a-decade company.
Lastly, I've worked on my own startup for almost the past year. It's been a
year of attempts, false starts, "pivots", eventually throwing out some ideas
altogether and starting from new. From what I understand, after the Winkelvoss
twins approached Zuck, less than 2 months passed before he went and released
Facebook. 2 months, to me, seems like such a tiny, inconsequential amount of
time when you're talking about starting a startup.
Any way you look at it, from the facts as I understand them, this just seems
like 3 people who have no idea what they're talking about, trying to squeeze
money out of someone successful just because they can.
------
kylelibra
This is getting to the point of embarrassing. It is time to give it a rest.
------
naner
[http://viewtext.org/article?url=http://www.nytimes.com/2010/...](http://viewtext.org/article?url=http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/31/business/31twins.html)
------
bl4k
It seems you can't be successful, especially in tech/web, without a dozen
people hanging onto your coattails claiming that you stole the idea or that
you were lucky.
MySpace were written off as lucky spammers, Zuck a theif, Bill Gates stole MS-
DOS, etc. etc.
~~~
pyre
Bill Gates stole MS-DOS? So far as I know, he _bought_ DOS to license to IBM.
There's a difference between being a skillful hacker and being a shrewd
businessman. Claiming that someone isn't a skillful hacker doesn't mean they
are completely without brains/skills/etc.
MySpace were 'lucky' in that people latched on to their horrible interface
because it had features that they wanted (to put music, videos, media on their
'homepage'). People could have easily rejected the interface despite yearning
for the features.
Zuckerberg isn't necessarily a thief, but he certainly should have covered his
ass a lot better with contracts and such. Though, with the amount of money
that's on the line, there would be people coming out of the woodwork no matter
how airtight of a contract they had.
> It seems you can't be successful, especially in tech/web,
It's the "I thought of that too, so where's my money" syndrome. "I thought of
The Clapper first! I should be the one making money!"
~~~
bl4k
I didn't say I agree with it - I said that is what you hear a lot of.
Zuck and Bill deserve absolute credit for their successes.
------
blantonl
It is pretty clear what is driving this - attorney's fees. The attorneys can
conjure up all kinds of (remote) scenarios for additional, potential,
settlements now that they had the taste of the previous settlement.
~~~
edanm
Their original attorneys were fired, not paid, and had to go to court to force
the Winkelvosses to pay them their attorney fees. The Winkelvosses withheld
the money due to their claims of their lawyer's incompetence.
------
smokey221
If Zuckerberg was a more likable guy like Leo Laporte or Kevin Rose I'd feel
sympathy for him. The Winklewosses might be tools but Zuckerberg is hardly
more sympathetic.
~~~
younata
Never met Zuck, but, I have far more respect for him than I do for the
Winklewosses.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Someone Just Found an Embeddable Google +1 Button - It Works - Jsarokin
http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/31/omg-someone-just-found-an-embeddable-google-1-button-%E2%80%93-and-it-works/
======
trotsky
Good job keeping up your journalistic standards in your headlines, TC.
~~~
robinwauters
I read somewhere that the more braincells one has, the easier it is for a
person to recognize sarcasm.
~~~
RiderOfGiraffes
Sarcasm is _awesome!_
------
aw3c2
Direct link:
[http://www.yvoschaap.com/weblog/the_google_1_button_discover...](http://www.yvoschaap.com/weblog/the_google_1_button_discovered)
------
ck2
Ah so here it is
[https://madrelease.google.com/_/doodad/button?url=http://new...](https://madrelease.google.com/_/doodad/button?url=http://news.ycombinator.com&height=100)
[https://ssl.gstatic.com/s2/oz/images/stars/po/ESAPv1/buttonS...](https://ssl.gstatic.com/s2/oz/images/stars/po/ESAPv1/buttonSprite.png)
Ugh so now we are going to see those everywhere.
Google basically will now be able to track you across every last site, even if
they don't use analytics or adsense.
One more thing for adblock I guess.
~~~
tonfa
My guess would be that the number of sites having a +1 button and not using
analytics is __very __small.
------
jcapote
ZOMG!!!
------
zachahack
All those poor single people..
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Fossil versus Git - noch
https://www.fossil-scm.org/xfer/doc/trunk/www/fossil-v-git.wiki
======
i_feel_great
Probably not going to entice companies stampeding out of github, but for solo
and small groups, Fossil is an absolute godsend. The workflow and commands are
similar enough to Mercurial and git to get going quickly.
Comes with a simple and almost no-setup-required issue tracking system. Beats
setting up and configuring Jira or Trac etc.
For centrally-hosted Fossil repos, there is chiselapp.com. Not https though,
but you can host your own behind any https front end.
A good guide is this pdf: www.fossil-scm.org/schimpf-
book/doc/2ndEdition/fossilbook.pdf
Grateful thanks D. Richard Hipp if you are watching. And for your database
too.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Breakthrough Prize announced by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs - laurent123456
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/feb/20/breakthrough-prize-silicon-valley-entrepreneurs
======
skosuri
$3M each. Winners include Cori Bargmann, David Botstein, Lew Cantley, Hans
Clevers, Titia de Lange, Napoleone Ferrara, Eric Lander, Charles Sawyers, Bert
Vogelstein, Bob Weinberg, Shinya Yamanaka
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Books with syntax highlighting, or why I prefer reading code from screen than paper - nailer
I recently noted an odd phenomenon. Maybe it's just me, but I suspect it's not.<p>One case: I own the paper Book of DJango. But I keep noticing I prefer to read it from the screen of my laptop. I also read newspapers, but prefer to read those from paper.<p>The reason for wanting to read code from screen is because I've become so used to syntax highlighting, whether in vim/gedit/TextMate/eTextEditor or on websites. I've come to expect it from he internet, where I do most of my learning. Going back to textbooks, black code on a white background seems like a massive blur of text.<p>Thing is, I'd happily pay for The Book or DJango, or any other text, in full color with syntax highlighting.<p>Am I the only one?
======
swombat
Nah, I have no problems with non-syntax-highlighted code. I'm sure some people
do, but I'm quite comfortable reading black and white code.
------
davidw
The real problem is not being able to grep books.
~~~
ivanstojic
That reminds me... I recently used my old, inherited book of my grandmother's
cake recipes. I know there's a recipe for a cake I like in there, but for the
life of me I cannot find it (the book is huge).
I cursed about seven times before giving up.
------
ninjackn
The lack of syntax highlighting in books don't bother me too much, it's the
size of the book. I've gotten used to a wide screen monitor for code so it's
nice when that long if statement is on one line.
For the purpose of learning from a book the bold and italics in print is often
good enough for me. Have def in bold and comments in italics and i'm generally
pleased. Then again it could just me a bias I have since i prefer to reading
books than pdfs on a computer.
------
Herring
Yeah i find it really hard to read non-highlighted code. Incidentally, give
kate a try if you use gedit. You might like it more.
------
Oompa
I've been reading the Pragmatic Programmer and the copy I have is in black and
white, and I've noticed the exact same thing.
------
travisjeffery
I like reading from the book most of the time.
One reason could be that I've paid for it and feel like I've made a commitment
and learn it, so it gives me some more motivation.
I can doodle, and write down thoughts easier than doing it on the web or using
one of the features in any pdf viewing app.
------
KevBurnsJr
I wondered why Symfony's online book was so good.
<http://www.symfony-project.org/book/1_2/10-Forms>
------
yagibear
Real men read in hex.
~~~
eru
Syntax highlighted hex.
------
alparsla
Color in print is expensive
~~~
nailer
Sure. The question is, would people pay for it?
I would, and it seems like I'm not the only one.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Using other videos/music as footage - Copyright issue - huy
me and friends are organizing a small TEDx conference and we're making a small promotion video for the event. Then suddenly all the copyright issues brought up when we try to use some other good existing videos on youtube as excerpts.<p>Then it gets me thinking. I saw a lot of youtube videos that use other videos and music (the ones where you create a photo album of your trip's pictures and insert a background music, or making an inspirational video with music etc).<p>My question is, is it legal to do so? Do people usually ask the owner of the video/music/pictures before using them in their videos?<p>The other day I submitted a video to youtube and got and email say the music I used is copyrighted by some music group. I, following other videos, carefully put a note in both the video and description of youtube. I know this wouldn't be enough. But how about other tons of videos out there?
======
what
"Common Examples of When You Need a Voluntary License Include:
. . . Using a sound recording in a movie, commercial or other visual work. If
you want to use a sound recording in a visual work, you need a synchronization
license, so called because the music is "synched" to the video. You’ve already
created your visual work and you want to put some music under it. You want
just the music for your movie, commercial, documentary, sitcom, or any kind of
audio/visual presentation, no matter where it is aired, even the Internet.
Synchronization licenses are granted by individual sound recording copyright
owners." [1]
Whether anyone comes after you for not having such a license is a different
story.
[1]
[http://riaa.com/whatwedo.php?content_selector=whatwedo_licen...](http://riaa.com/whatwedo.php?content_selector=whatwedo_licensing)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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The impact of sleep on eyewitness identifications - hhs
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.170501
======
Sam_Odio
Interesting thesis, but...
> The prediction that participants in the sleep condition would have greater
> discriminability compared to participants in the wake condition was not
> supported. There were also no differences in reliability.
~~~
bikeshaving
Society’s treatment of alternate hypotheses as somehow more interesting or
sensational than null hypotheses leads to bad science. I think it’s
interesting that sleep doesn’t seem to have an effect on eyewitness
identifications.
------
gaahrdner
Reminds me of the impact of lunch, on parole judgements:
[https://www.wired.com/2011/04/judges-mental-
fatigue/](https://www.wired.com/2011/04/judges-mental-fatigue/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
WHAT IS INTELLIGENCE? - mikkokotila
http://autonom.io/what-is-intelligence/
======
dozzie
INTELLIGENCE IS TO KNOW NOT TO USE ALL CAPS.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)
~~~
waterswaters
I was just about to say the SAME THINGGGGGGG
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: A web site that is vulnerable to a good competitor? - andrewtbham
I have been thinking about how lots of successful web sites were late to the market, but were cheaper, or better designed. (stack overflow, plenty of fish, all the 37 signals products, etc.) Can you think of a site where a lean competitor could steal market share?<p>I have been thinking about survey monkey.
======
klapinat0r
TVRage.com, or even TV.com, are both sites which are very good at certain
points. TVRage mainly: having up-to-date episode listings. TV.com mainly:
relevant news to the navigated page, extensive bio/episode description
archive, respectively.
Both sites have forums. Neither of which are particular active. TV.com's forum
takes the lead in that area, however it seems the audience for tv-serie forums
are located on fan-site forums instead.
Both sites use userbased contributions (to some extend). TV.com seems more
professionally handled (also endorsed, so obviously has an advantage), whereas
TVRage summaries, bios etc., seem more random and not necessarily added to
complete a show's info.
Perhabs a better ranking/modding scheme could make for a TV.com/TVRage
competitor? I haven't given it much thought, but taking something simple and
easy to use like, say, up/down voting (which web users of today are familiar
with) as an aid to moderate the info on the site could be an idea.
An advantage of TVRage is it's open-ness and (willingness to have an) API.
I've used this many times, and in a web-age where people want to present stuff
at their own website how they want (kind of like a new-age "embedded link" or
"widget"), APIs are a great way to show that your core speciality is
information, and the accuracy of this, and if someone wants to present it in a
blue/yellow website so be it, as long as people know where to go to get to the
source: you.
------
keiferski
Wufoo (YC 06) is essentially a better designed Survey Monkey.
<http://www.wufoo.com>
~~~
andrewtbham
That site does have great design... it's a little cartoonish, but well done.
There are a lot of competitors in the space.
------
ig1
Well Plenty of Fish seems like a good target, bad design/UX makes it
vulnerable
Vault and eBay are another two examples.
What these all have in common is requiring a critical mass of users to work,
which gives them a barrier to entry that allows them to become complacent.
------
dawson
Microsoft HealthVault
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Biggest Legal Mistakes that Startups Make - icey
http://walkercorporatelaw.com/ask-the-attorney/%e2%80%9cask-the-business-attorney%e2%80%9d-what-are-the-biggest-legal-mistakes-that-startups-make/
======
grellas
This is a nice summary of many of the legal issues affecting early-stage
startups.
Any entrepreneur or startup lawyer can take issue with any given issue but
this does not detract from the overall value of this piece.
Points of difference and/or clarification:
1\. LLCs often work fine for early-stage startups, offering an easy and
inexpensive way for founders to get started in many cases (caution here: if
there is an "always" to be said in these situations, _always_ do an initial
consultation with a knowledgeable startup lawyer to at least understand what
trade-offs and compromises are involved in doing this sort of "simple" setup
because it is not without risks - such a consultation is very inexpensive and
well worth it for the knowledge gained - for a start on the main pluses and
minuses of an LLC, see my comment here:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1276805>).
2\. High on the list should be to make sure that IP assignments are done in
connection with any equity grant made to founders for work performed before
the company is formed. If you don't do this, all such IP will normally belong
separately to the founders who did the work and not to the company, even if
they do get a fat stock grant at the start. A formality, but a very important
one.
3\. I am not dogmatic about Delaware and, indeed, have pointed out that
Delaware is more VC-friendly than it is founder-friendly
(<http://grellas.com/faq_business_startup_002.html>) - therefore, think very
carefully before making this decision. Delaware can be a good pick and may be
the best - it just should not be automatic in my view.
4\. Vesting for founders is not always required. It normally is when you have
a founding team of relatively equal founders (for the reasons stated in this
piece - you don't want someone casually walking away with a big piece of the
company). If one founder is dominant in relation to others being brought in
for more secondary roles (and for comparatively small equity pieces), there is
no need necessarily for the primary founder to make his shares subject to
vesting at inception. Of course, if the company gets funding, investors likely
will insist that vesting apply but not all startups look to fund in this
manner. At the start, (1) all founders can have their stock subject 100% to
pro rata vesting; (2) none of them need do so; (3) some may be subject to
vesting while others are not; (4) any given founder can have his equity grant
partly vested immediately while the balance is subject to vesting; (5) such
vesting as is used may vary widely, from one to four years or more, with or
without cliff (usually not for founders); or (6) any of all sorts of
variations on the foregoing. Hence, there is no dogmatic rule here. It all
depends on what the founders needs are and how much value they have built up
before starting the company (this is relevant because vesting necessarily
raises the risk of forfeiture and no one wants to forfeit that which has
already been made valuable prior to the start). Collateral issues: accelerated
vesting on certain events, such as termination without cause and acquisition -
each of these has a variety of issues associated with it and investors in
particular will often object to any liberal forms of acceleration.
5\. Tax is often a _huge_ issue at the start if the company formation is
mangled - that is, if founders take their "cheap" stock at or about the same
time as investors pay large dollars for theirs, there may be a serious risk of
service income being attributed to the founders on which they must pay tax.
6\. Concerning 83(b), this is also _huge_ but irrelevant if there is no
vesting and no risk of forfeiture connected with the grants made to founders
(it is virtually mandatory if stock is granted as restricted stock, with its
attendant risk of forfeiture, but not otherwise). It also is not needed for
stock options unless there is an early exercise provision which is exercised
at the start.
A nice checklist for going through legal issues at the start, with related HN
commentary, may be found here: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1198968>.
------
alain94040
I'll insert my ad in here, because this topic is so close to my heart: Before
incorporating, _if you have co-founders_ , protect yourself with
<http://fairsoftware.net>.
I know many people who didn't use us (or a similar co-founder agreement,
except we are the only game in town if you are looking for a reputable,
lawyer-approved, silicon-valley, tech-friendly one).
They regretted it dearly, later. In general, first time founders are pretty
clueless about IP assignment (if my co-founder dumps me, what happens to his
10,000 lines of beautiful Python), vesting (if my co-founder doesn't work out,
why does he keep 50% of my company), etc...
You know better than start coding without some kind of code repository. Don't
start cofounding without an agreement. You've been warned :-)
------
enjo
A couple gripes:
\- You will find a number of angel investors happy to invest in LLC's
(depending on the stage and complexity of the funding round). While it's true
that some investors require a more complex structure, the blanket statement
that it's "required" is just wrong. It can also be destructive. There are REAL
benefits to an LLC for a pre-revenue startup.
\- Place of incorporation. I've never had an investor care about the state
we've incorporated in. There are obvious tax implications, but it's often
easier and cheaper to just do the paperwork in your state. It really just
depends.
Points of emphasis:
83b election: This is SUPREMELY important, and applies to anyone attempting to
invest equity (under any legal structure). Without properly handling the 83b
you run into incredibly onerous tax issues. Learn about it and do it when you
incorporate.
~~~
walkercorplaw
I disagree re LLC's: not only won't VC's invest in LLC's, but conversion to a
C corp can be extremely complex and expensive. Indeed, it cost one of my
clients about $15K to address tax issues relative to such conversion. In
addition, issuing "stock options" is a nightmare with LLC's - not to mention
the extraordinary complexity of operating agreements, with their complicated
layer of partnership tax provisions.
------
jsiarto
All good points--I don't completely agree on the LegalZoom issue. Our company
incorporated in Illinois through LegalZoom and it worked out great. I've done
LLC/partnerships on my own and the paperwork is easy. It's good to think of
LegalZoom as a paralegal service and not as a lawyer. We had an actual
corporate lawyer draft contracts and other important documents but I'm not
paying someone $300/hour to fill out forms.
~~~
slapshot
You incorporated in Illinois?
I don't know Illinois law well, but there are good reasons why most
corporations are Delaware (with a few in Nevada and a couple other states),
including tax and governance issues. Did you ask an attorney if Illinois was
the right state for you?
~~~
anamax
> I don't know Illinois law well, but there are good reasons why most
> corporations are Delaware (with a few in Nevada and a couple other states),
> including tax and governance issues.
CA works really hard to ensure that there are no tax advantages to
incorporating elsewhere. If you do biz in CA, you pay CA taxes on that biz
(and possibly some other biz - CA wants money).
In fact, CA even has a minimum fee ($5-800 IIRC) for doing biz here even if
you don't make money.
------
jonpaul
You don't need a lawyer of LegalZoom to incorporate. Do it yourself, it's even
cheaper. Just make sure to do due diligence in your operating agreement.
DocStoc has a lot of template that you can reference. However, you should find
a lawyer for legal matters when doing agreements for other companies.
If you don't plan on seeking investment, it the short-term you should go with
an LLC for simplicity and tax reasons.
------
mkramlich
That post read like a job security pitch for his field. I think as a general
rule you want to avoid and delay using lawyers as much as possible: too much
complexity, paperwork and cost, too early. Get to a sellable (and selling)
product/service first, otherwise you're wasting your money and time.
~~~
slapshot
On the flip side of that, a few hours of lawyer time in the first year of
Facebook might have saved the IP ownership dispute that has now cost about
$100 million dollars in settlements, and might still go higher.
There are a lot of stories of startups that went under because the 50/50
owners couldn't decide on a plan of action, or turned out to not own any of
the IP that they thought they owned.
~~~
fghjkoi8uygt
So pay us (lawyers) lots now or pay us more lots later.
Last time I heard an offer like that it was some italian americans commenting
on how flammable a restaurant was
~~~
slapshot
Pay us (doctors) for vaccinations or pay us more later for treatment?
Pay us (construction workers) for high quality materials now, or pay us later
for repairs?
Pay us (clothing manufacturers) for high quality clothes now, or pay us again
later when yours wear out?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Muen Kernel: Trustworthy by Design – Correct By Construction - jervisfm
http://www.muen.sk/
======
aetherspawn
Signed up just to comment on this. I've been wanting to do something similar
for a while now (although, an exokernel).
You should update your source to use the new 2014 tools. The verifications
become part of the syntax.
~~~
zobzu
yeah verifications part of the code syntax seems like a decent concept for
such cases
------
ballard
For embedded/industrial applications the future is in domain-specific
operating systems that are JEOS by virtue of not compling unneeded syscalls.
OSes like Linux have way too many ABIs and internal machinery that just aren't
necessary for headless systems and merely opens a huge attack surface by
default... Even with make menuconfig stripped .config, there's still a ton of
extra bells and whistles.
In a positive direction, it would be nice to be able to be able to strip out
more functionality and still produce a functional kernel. Unfortunately, I
don't think this is scalable with autotools or any configuration management
setups without having more #ifdefs than code. Haskell could be a good
candidate for such a kernel framework, but I'm sure there are other functional
and imperative languages that have better complex configuration mgmt support
with formal verification.
~~~
hga
Recently I've been thinking we need a "Device Driver Linux" distribution which
can sit off to the side in systems like this or Xen, and just provide access
to devices through careful external channels (although there's things like NFS
you might want to use...).
The attack surface will still be huge, but perhaps by such hiding you can make
it too hard for an attacker to actually get to it.
------
fab13n
Honest question: who has a use-case for which a Raspberry wasn't powerful
enough, but a Banana would have been?
Given that the Banana is about twice as expensive, here's a subsidiary
question: who has a use-case for which TWO Raspberries wouldn't have been
powerful enough, but a Banana would have been?
~~~
robinh
I think you accidentally commented in the wrong thread. Gave me a hearty
chuckle in this context, though.
~~~
Zenst
Me too, just came from that Raspberry PI thread and thought, oh no my browser
has corupted. Good chuckle.
------
read
> The Muen Separation Kernel is the world’s first Open Source microkernel that
> has been formally proven to contain no runtime errors at the source code
> level.
I had the impression seL4 was the first microkernel formally proven to be
secure.
~~~
Someone
SeL4, AFAIK, isn't _Open Source_. You can only download binaries
([http://ssrg.nicta.com.au/software/TS/seL4/](http://ssrg.nicta.com.au/software/TS/seL4/))
Also, _no runtime errors_ is quite different from _secure_ , and _at the
source code level_ (which I think applies to both OSes) leaves room for
compiler, linker, or standard library to introduce issues.
~~~
pavpanchekha
It's my recollection that seL4 was proven correct at the binary level.
~~~
pgeorgi
"We present our experience in performing the formal, machine-checked
verification of the seL4 microkernel from an abstract specification down to
its C implementation." [http://www.sigops.org/sosp/sosp09/papers/klein-
sosp09.pdf](http://www.sigops.org/sosp/sosp09/papers/klein-sosp09.pdf)
Of course they might have improved on that later, this paper is ~5 years old
now.
------
hga
Hmmm, one problem I see with this, at least for us open source mortals, is
that all this rigor sits atop a festering pile of C, that is, the GCC (the
GNAT Ada compiler in it)....
At least as these people are using SPARK/Ada.
Then again, maybe I should return to looking at Intel CPU and chipset
errata....
On the third hand, these guys aren't using systems with ECC....
([http://ark.intel.com/products/64893/intel-
core-i7-3520m-proc...](http://ark.intel.com/products/64893/intel-
core-i7-3520m-processor-4m-cache-up-to-3_60-ghz)).
------
leccine
This is amazing. I wish a company would build a minimalistic mobile platform
on this without any support for social media. :)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
$1 Trillion Trove of Rare Minerals Revealed Under Afghanistan - givan
http://www.livescience.com/47682-rare-earth-minerals-found-under-afghanistan.html
======
Cheyana
"The mineral riches could lift Afghanistan out of poverty and fight crime and
terrorism, said Said Mirzad, co-coordinator of the U.S. Geological Survey's
Afghanistan program."
Yeah, I guess it could do that, but more than likely the guys at the top will
just keep the money for themselves stashed in foreign banks, until the next
coup throws them out.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How Cassandra handles failures - koobe
http://cassandra-user-incubator-apache-org.3065146.n2.nabble.com/How-does-Cassandra-handle-failure-during-synchronous-writes-td6055152.html
======
koobe
TL;DR Disappointed to see Cassandra does not have Amazon Dynamo like eventual
consistency. Or even acknowledge any lack thereof.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A total rewrite: costly, time-consuming, but worth it? - vidarl
http://www.webnodes.com/a-total-rewrite-costly-time-consuming-but-worth-it
======
tzs
If you want to do a total rewrite, but think some people won't be onboard with
the idea, just call it "extreme refactoring". That sounds cool and trendy, and
then everyone will be OK with it.
------
JoeAltmaier
Depends on the crew; depends on the quality of the 1st effort. The risk is:
you end up with something that is bigger, costlier, slower and has different
bugs. But on the plus side, its always easier to write code with a working,
debugged version to refer to. Its in fact a whole different kind of effort.
------
petervandijck
One really really big advantage of a rewrite is that it can be a good time to
let you drop a bunch of crufty features that have been added over the years
but aren't being used much. That's a win. Refactoring still sounds like a
better idea though.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Beautiful thumbnail hover effect using CSS3 - akashbhadange
http://www.dzyngiri.com/index.php/beautiful-thumbnail-hover-effect-using-css3/
======
mnicole
Terrible UX. Not only does it make it nigh-impossible to hover over the other
thumbnails, but transforms (scale most notably) often leave behind
artifacts/borders as it does in this demo, putting white lines all over the
images and their surroundings.
~~~
yen223
It didn't put any white lines or artifacts for me.
Chrome 22.0.1229.94, WinXP
~~~
mnicole
[https://img.skitch.com/20121011-k29i1jdb68u41g1ikhqdkemmjx.j...](https://img.skitch.com/20121011-k29i1jdb68u41g1ikhqdkemmjx.jpg)
Chrome 21.0.1180.89, OS X (10.6.8)
I've been able to replicate this in my own projects as well.
------
hnal943
It is easy to cause the image to constantly expand and contract by leaving
your mouse over the thumbnail. That makes it very difficult to use.
------
fady
my issue with this specific demo is that the hover effect makes the image too
big to select the photos right next to the active one. maybe make it smaller
or have the others shift so they're still accessible when one of the
thumbnails is still active.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Automated Visual Testing and Pixel Comparison - WebtestingIO
http://webtesting.io/
======
tluyben2
What value does Excel add here? I find JSON in Excel hard to read and further
it feels like a kind of gimmicky feature (you use Excel, so you can use
this!). Maybe I'm missing something.
~~~
gowan
nontechnical buisness users like excel because it's familiar.
though i do not think having test data for automation scripts in a binary
format is good. first excel is harder to work with than csv or json. second
excel does not lend itself to version control.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Palestine's unique stretchy ice cream [video] - MiriamWeiner
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20180815-palestines-secret-stretchy-ice-cream
======
js2
It’s stretchy due to the addition of mastic gum. I had to look that up.
_Mastic is a resin obtained from the mastic tree (Pistacia lentiscus). In
pharmacies and nature shops, it is called "Arabic gum" (not to be confused
with gum arabic) and "Yemen gum". In Greece, it is known as the "tears of
Chios," being traditionally produced on that Greek island, and, like other
natural resins, is produced in "tears" or droplets.
Originally a sap, mastic is sun-dried into pieces of brittle, translucent
resin. When chewed, the resin softens and becomes a bright white and opaque
gum. The flavor is bitter at first, but after some chewing, it releases a
refreshing, slightly pine or cedar-like flavor._
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastic_(plant_resin)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastic_\(plant_resin\))
~~~
majos
There's also a similar stretchy ice cream in Turkey called dondurma. It uses
both mastic and salep, a flour made from orchid tubers.
~~~
patates
Dondurma just means "ice cream". What you mean is "Maraş Ice Cream" (Maraş
Dondurması). It takes a lot of patience to get it from a traditional shop:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYNhiv5FJ9Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYNhiv5FJ9Q)
------
CydeWeys
There's an ice cream shop of this style in Williamsburg, Brooklyn (because of
course there is) if anyone wants to try it out first hand. It's called
Republic of Booza.
It was worth it for the experience but I prefer normal ice cream better. The
texture is ... unusual.
------
forvelin
Gum-added ice cream is something you can find around Aegean Sea -Turkish or
Greek coast-. Especially around Chios and Izmir it is quite common and tasty,
so you can try that out without going all the way to Palestine ;)
~~~
patates
Also popular as "Maraş Ice Cream" in Turkey:
[https://www.google.de/search?q=mara%C5%9F+dondurmas%C4%B1&tb...](https://www.google.de/search?q=mara%C5%9F+dondurmas%C4%B1&tbm=vid)
It is of middle-east origin, as far as I can tell. It also comes with its
traditional show, as you can see in the videos.
------
dogma1138
Gum Ice cream like Booza (iirc the oldest "ice-cream" in the world) or
Dondurma Maras is prevelant all around the region it's common in Cyprus,
Greece, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and the entire Levant and Aegean region.
------
dehef
Not into politics, but what is the point? I neither understand BBC nor HN to
publish a story like this one? It's notorious that Ramallah has shops like and
other city, so in Israel, and people have normal life here. Just 2 month ago I
got a interview for a company (freightos) which has both branch in jerusalem
(west) and ramallah, so I suppose that people success to get their things
together somehow?
------
nadavami
Unrelated, but am I the only one surprised that bbc.com is not not served over
https?
~~~
Keres
Not surprised at all, especially since the news site has only recently made
the switch to https [https://medium.com/bbc-design-engineering/bbc-news-on-
https-...](https://medium.com/bbc-design-engineering/bbc-news-on-
https-182b45ef60c)
------
dbatten
Random observation: I'm always fascinated by how poverty and development can
co-exist in a lot of places on earth. During conflicts between Israel and
Palestine, you always see photos of the insides of Palestinian hospitals and
the lack of sanitation and equipment is heartbreaking. But then this ice-cream
shop has high tech equipment, high sanitation standards, and a seemingly
relatively wealthy client base. And the street looks like it could be any
street from any other relatively stable, developed nation in that area.
I suppose it's also all a matter of the point that the media are trying to
make with the article... A travel article is going to highlight the cool
parts, while an article on the horrors of war is going to focus on the
disasters.
~~~
shim2k
You are mixing the Gaza strip with Ramallah, which is where this ice cream
shop is.
Ramallah is actually a pretty developed and secular city in the west bank.
~~~
dbatten
Interesting. I knew Gaza and the West Bank were geographically separate, but I
didn't know conditions on the ground were so different. Thanks!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Switching.social: ethical, easy-to-use and privacy-conscious alternatives - dredmorbius
https://switching.social
======
wishinghand
We may need a category for Reddit one day too.
I'd love to recommend an app for messaging, and a few for Adobe.
Messaging: Wire. It's always secure by default, not a setting you have to
switch anywhere. It has a Slack-like paid service for businesses, but is free
for personal users. Based in Germany. I enjoy it's interface and it has an
option to verify the user you're speaking with, along with a fingerprint or
password screen to just open the app.
Art: Affinity Photo (bitmaps) and Designer (vectors). I didn't see anything on
the website if the software has to be open source, so if that's a priority
these are out. However, they're pay one price ($50 or $60 USD), and have a
similar interface to their Adobe counterparts and near parity on features,
including a few that I don't believe Adobe has. They're also working on
Publisher, which is an analog to InDesign.
There's also Skylum's Luminar, which is a Lightroom replacement. I don't have
as much experience with it, but there are companies striving to accommodate
that audience.
------
CM30
Neat list, though testing out some of these showed me why normal users may not
be willing to use them as much as the mainstream versions. I mean, I looked at
most of the Medium alternatives and created accounts there, and posted a few
articles to see how they'd work.
In doing so, I realised that:
1\. Most of them still lack the WYSIWYG side of things, which is a huge part
of why Medium.com is so popular (and why the likes of WordPress do so well as
hosted alternatives).
2\. Their use of Markdown makes things confusing, since the 'language' has
about a million different versions all of which support different things, and
said sites don't document which they're using.
3\. In some cases, the interfaces glitched, like with Plume not loading the
full post and instead only showing about the first four paragraphs of it in
the post editor.
Point being, the alternatives here really need to do more work on the UI
design and documentation side, and lack the standard of polish or
professionalism their corporate competitors have.
~~~
wishinghand
Only a few of these may need polish. The majority are well polished, mature
products. It is true that UI/UX can suffer on libre or open source software.
------
stevenicr
cool collection! wish the h3's were more like 1.75em or so, they get a little
lost in the mix when scrolling with my system.
Was kind of hoping to see buddypress plugin for wordpress on the section of
facebook alternatives... I know it's a little more involved to spin up and
deploy than just a WP or mastadon - but a wp + bp + media plugin with some
spam blocking settings can be a viable alt.
I'd consider adding startpage.com to the google alternatives - though it's
technically still google results, so it does not get you out of their
censorship bubble, it does provide a little less spying.
Hope to see more niche search options in the future.
alt for G analytics.. awstats, analog stats, webalizer?
alt for the internet, would scuttlebutt kind of count? ipfs? tor? Firechat?
Nice to see these options and some details on how to use some of them is
great, makes it a resource worth sharing.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
SLAyer - Tomte
https://github.com/Microsoft/SLAyer
======
rochacbruno
If a successful metal band tries to change its name to e.g: "Active Directory
of Hell", "SQL Server No More" or something like this, for sure Microsoft
lawyers would do something against. Now I think Tom Araya from Slayer should
do it against microsoft. It is a trademark from hell.
~~~
dsp1234
Unless Active Directory or SQL Server are trademarked names in the music
category, there isn't much they could do. There is no possibility of
confusion.
Just as there is no possibility of confusion that this software was written by
the band Slayer, or is even endorsed by them.
Although, 'They official C formal verification tool of the band Slayer' would
be a pretty funny tie in.
------
daveguy
It is a tool for verifying memory safety from Microsoft under the MIT license.
1) From MS under the MIT license? What? Did MS abandon their proprietary open
source licenses?
2) What is the significance of SLA? Service level agreement doesn't seem to
fit. I thought it would be a tool for the facilitation of SLA (in terms of
service duplication). I guess verifying program safety would improve uptime
for each individual instance (but there's a whole lot more to it than that).
Is that what this SLA refers to?
Edit: Thanks everyone for the clarifications! I knew SLA as service level
agreement didn't fit. And @zamalek _bing_ ing on open source hah! so punny.
~~~
zamalek
> Did MS abandon their proprietary open source licenses?
This is not new, Microsoft has been _bing_ ing on open source lately (much to
my glee). Many things on their GH org[1] are permissively licensed, including
CoreCLR (the .Net runtime).
[1]: [https://github.com/Microsoft](https://github.com/Microsoft)
------
akavel
Is anyone aware what are the tool's limitations? Seems open-sourced ~1-2
months ago already, with publications history spanning _much_ longer [1], but
the README is very sparse, and I wouldn't probably understand much if I tried
to dive into the research papers. Or am I to believe it will find 100% _all_
memory issues?
[1]: [http://research.microsoft.com/en-
us/projects/slayer/](http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/slayer/)
~~~
saminishtiaq
It's a static analysis tool, so it has many TimeOut limitations :-) In
practise, many abstract interpretation based tools generalize too much, lose
too much information, then get lost and TO instead. The test suite released
there gives a good empirical idea of what SLAyer can do. You'll see lots of
while-loops over single- and doubly-linked lists as SLAyer can generalize
Separation Logic points-to predicates to 'sll' list predicates.
~~~
akavel
I'm specifically interested here in what the tool _cannot_ do, more than what
it _can_ do. For now all I can tell is it "works for some empirical cases, and
maybe works in rest of cases, but not strictly defined, don't expect anything
concrete".
------
nv-vn
Anyone have more information for the NS library included in src/Lib? It looks
very similar to Batteries or Core so I'm interested in why Microsoft chose to
develop their own solution instead. Also, Microsoft hasn't released it as a
separate library from SLAyer. Is the whole library being open sourced here (or
are they only sharing a small part of it?)? And if so, why doesn't Microsoft
create a new repository for it and publish it to OPAM?
~~~
saminishtiaq
NSLib was just a small modification (change argument orders, other HO
functions for Map, etc)to the OCaml stdlib that SLAyer used. It's not
essential or necessary here, should have been cleaned up before release.
------
krylon
Who doesn't love a good pun? As a a Slayer fan, programmer and Windows admin,
I really dig the name. ;-)
In "I Sing The Body Electronic", Fred Moody describes Alice Cooper visiting
the Microsoft campus (which is home to a fair share of metal heads,
apparently). "Why are you guys called Microsoft? Wouldn't you rather be called
Macro-Hard?"
The same book also mentions a programmer having to work the weekend before
Encarta is shipped, because a freelance programmer put an article titled
"Slayer sucks like vacuum" in it. So, historically speaking, this kind of
evens things out. ;-)
------
nn3
Here is a web demo for people to try it out (and actually some documentation)
[http://research.microsoft.com/en-
us/projects/slayer/](http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/slayer/)
From some quick experiments it seems to be weak on malloc, no problem with:
int main() { char *p = malloc(1); p--; free(p); }
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Comcast Says It Wants to Charge Broadband Users More for Privacy - Rondom
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Comcast-Says-It-Wants-to-Charge-Broadband-Users-More-For-Privacy-137567
======
kevincox
This actually makes quite a bit of sense if you look at it backwards. "Comcast
provides customers a discount if they allow Comcast to sell their
information."
If providing cable costs $50 and you sell it for $80 you can provide the
second option for $60 if you can make $30 selling their info.
Not that I think my ISP should be anything more then a dumb pipe but logically
it's not that crazy.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Uber Hasn't Had an Effect on Drunken-Driving Deaths, Study Finds - mdagostino
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/07/29/487906925/uber-hasnt-had-an-effect-on-drunken-driving-deaths-study-finds
======
seibelj
I live in Boston. Until uber, the minimum taxi fair was $6, they always had
broken credit card machines, and there was never enough cabs when you needed
them. I remember s New Year's Eve where we had to promise the dispatcher we
would pay a $100 tip to get anyone to pick us up. The "reducing drunk driving"
theory was a happy side effect but ultimately not important. Über destroyed a
a BS industry full of idiots and made it professional and reliable.
~~~
p4wnc6
I lived in Cambridge for eight years (moved last summer) and never experienced
anything remotely like this. I lived on Prospect Street right near Central Sq,
and frequently took taxis around the area.
I called ahead to have taxis pick me up for early morning rides to the
airport, and they were always early and helped me with my bags. I took taxis
over to the Boston College area when I was taking music lessons at a studio
there. I took taxis home from sports events and concerts near Fenway. Even
when coming out of a crowded show at House of Blues, it was a short wait for
taxis.
I never once experienced a broken credit card machine. I once did ask a driver
if they accepted credit cards, he said no, and I waited about 30 seconds for
the next taxi to come by -- on a side street on the Somerville side of Porter
Sq, so not even close to usual taxi spots.
Getting taxis in Boston is cheap, safe, and reliable, with pretty short wait
times, easy to deal with dispatchers, drivers who show up on time, cars that
are clean and 99.999% of the time have functioning credit card machines.
I honestly don't know what on earth you're talking about.
None of this is an argument _against_ Uber anyway, because people use Uber for
features that even good taxis don't have, including price reduction, better
real-time tracking, an app interface, and other things. And Uber drivers
certainly can do things worse than taxis -- such as simply fail to show up,
treat you rudely during the ride, or try to make you exit the car in an
inconvenient/unsafe spot of the street at your destination. Uber is not
intrinsically better about this kind of thing than taxis.
But some things you absolutely cannot say, at least about taxis in the Boston
area, are that they are anything but clean, safe, reliable, punctual, and able
to take your credit card.
~~~
kaishiro
Well, this is why we have anecdotes I suppose. I lived in Boston and Brookline
for twelve years as well and find your claims equally laughable.
We quite frequently found ourselves in cabs with credit card readers, only to
be told they didn't work when it came time to pay. I also simply gave up using
cabs trying to get to Logan because while they would _usually_ be on time,
there were others when they simply wouldn't show up at all. Now you're under
the gun to find a ride - not sure if they're late or just not coming.
All I can say is that while I believe you when you say these things (I have no
reason to think you'd lie to make a point), I also think you've simply lived a
very charmed life when it comes to taxi service in Massachusetts.
The fact is, the taxis in Boston had very little reason to improve their
service prior to competition from Uber. Now they're being forced to adapt to
survive.
Edit: spelling
~~~
marcoperaza
I'm a big fan of Uber, but the secret to dealing with cabbies is to be firm
and obstinate. Like any street business, they're going to take advantage when
they smell weakness and fold when they sense strength. Credit card machine
doesn't work? Okay, here's the address where you can send me the bill. Don't
try to stop me from leaving the cab, it'll be a big mistake involving police
and you getting arrested for false imprisonment. Another thing I've done to
much success is negotiate the fare to the destination up front, which prevents
problems at the other end. Always remember that possession is nine-tenths of
the law and that as long as you're in possession of the money, you're in the
position of power. And when you act as such, you'll get more respect from the
cabbies to begin with.
~~~
kaishiro
Or I could just use Uber :)
------
mc32
So responsible people are trading Yellow taxis for Über and irresponsible
people are still driving while intoxicated. Or, alternatively, the amount of
drunk drivers is so huge that whatever number taxis and Uber take off the
streets is negligible in relative numbers.
But ride services want to promulgate the idea to cities they bring safety in
order to counterbalance the annoyed voices of the yellow cabs decrying the
conditions the ride service drivers must endure...
~~~
officemonkey
Or perhaps, drunk driving happens in areas where Taxis, Mass Transit, and Uber
are not available or economical.
~~~
mc32
"Researchers... looked at the 100 most populated metropolitan areas, analyzing
data from before and after the introduction of Uber and its competitors"
Fair inquiry, but no. They studied the top 100 metro areas, not the Podunks.
Now, it does not say whether the rate has remained steady despite, perhaps, an
increase in people who now feel comfortable getting drunk cuz they can get a
cab fairly easily with the intro of ride services. However, they have not
decreased the totals, as they have claimed, according to the findings.
~~~
officemonkey
Uber doesn't launch in areas where there isn't a market. If there is no need
for extensive taxi and mass transit services, Uber won't be there either.
I maintain that Uber is just another option in the top 100 metro areas. If
Uber did work everywhere, then I am sure you would see reductions in places
that do not have competing services.
------
sandworm101
From talking to Brits, I'm starting to think that the greater availability of
alternatives to driving one's self home seems to increase drinking. The need
to get home, to get one's car home, is a good reason not to drink. During
university I rode a motorcycle to school/work and can say it kept me away from
many an afternoon at a beer garden. London's nightlife, the serious drinking,
can only exist because nobody has to drive themselves home.
So dropping Uber into a city, giving them another option for getting home,
might increase the overall level of drinking. This would muddy the drink-
driving numbers. For every drunk driven safely home by Uber there may be some
other person out there pressured into having a drink that otherwise wouldn't.
And some of them might drive.
~~~
laurencerowe
Drinking is definitely more socially acceptable in Britain than the US, but
that has more to do with differing history (no prohibition) than options for
getting home.
Drink driving became socially unacceptable in Britain only in the last 20-30
years but alcohol consumption hasn't really changed. The anti drink driving
ads on TV every Christmas were really quite hard hitting. I've seen nothing
similar in the US.
~~~
smt88
The US has extensive ads fighting drinking and driving. I imagine there isn't
much difference there.
~~~
DanBC
The UK has had drink driving ads on mainstream TV for 50 years, since 1964.
This BBC page shows some of the ads, and discusses others.
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29894885](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29894885)
------
philip1209
It sounds like the null hypothesis is that Uber has not affected drunken
driving deaths. Didn't the study just fail to disprove the null hypothesis,
meaning that its result is meaningless and inconclusive?
------
austinl
It's worth reading the other report [1] the article cites — it's a lot more
comprehensive than the author makes it out to be. The study didn't find a
relationship between Uber and alcohol-involved accidents/fatalities (which the
NPR article is about), but did find a statistically significant relationship
between Uber, traffic fatalities, and DUIs. They also found that introducing
Uber increases auto-theft.
_Using a differences-in-differences specification, we find that fatal
accident rates generally decline after the introduction of Uber. Specifically,
in the unweighted regressions, we find that entry is associated with a 6
percent decline in the fatal accident rate. Fatal night-time crashes
experience a slightly larger decline of 18 percent. In both the weighted and
unweighted estimations, we also discover a continued decline in the overall
fatal crash rate and the rate of vehicular fatalities for the months following
the introduction of Uber. For each additional year of operation, Uber’s
continued presence is associated with a 16.6 percent decline in vehicular
fatalities._
...
_Again employing a differences-in-differences specification, typically with
county specific trends, we find a large and robust decline in the arrest rate
for DUIs. Depending upon specification, DUIs are 15 to 62 percent lower after
the entry of Uber. The average annual rate of decline after the introduction
of Uber is 51.3 percent per year for DUIs._
[1]
[http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2783797](http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2783797)
~~~
scythe
Classic case of proving the null hypothesis. The p-value hit the threshold for
DUIs and deaths, but not for alcohol-involved accidents. If you're wondering
_why_ , here's a hint: the mean rate for alcohol-involved accidents was less
than 1 in 100,000.
The headline, then: "Uber hasn't had an effect".
------
Overtonwindow
Why does it seem the media is so intent on tearing Uber down. There have been
a lot of articles on HN about Uber is fucked, Uber is going down, Uber is
doomed... Uber is really great. No, they don't pay their drivers enough. No,
they don't do everything they can to ensure their drivers are responsible, and
vetted. Yet they provide an invaluable service against a corrupt, entrenched
industry that has needed a serious kick in the pants for as long as any of us
have been alive. Uber has a lot of improvements to make, but I would rather
have the option of choosing them over the corrupt taxi industry than not.
------
gojomo
I'm suspicious. It seems the study may only be regressing on 'availability' of
Uber – the single bit flag of whether it has launched in a city. If adoption
is gradual, as the habits of drinkers/drivers change over months (or years),
beneficial effects might not be seen by such a study, or remain hidden by all
the other controls applied.
The best analysis would likely need to use ride volume data; there's no hint
in this study's abstract they've done that, and the paper is paywalled.
~~~
officemonkey
Uber doesn't launch in areas where there isn't a market. If there is no need
for extensive taxi and mass transit services, Uber won't be there either.
In places where Uber has launched, they're probably just picking up riders
that would normally take a cab or a train if Uber wasn't there.
~~~
gojomo
Of course they only enter markets where there's demand. But it takes a while
for people to understand and adopt something new as their preferred transit.
Some initially view Uber/etc as weird, before later becoming big fans.
In San Francisco, it appears Uber/Lyft have massively increased the total
number of paid-rides taken. They're not just shifting trips from taxis or
public transit, but also from private car usage – and creating new trips where
people would've just stayed in or walked.
That points out another stat a 'gold standard' study should try to identify:
fatalities per trips (or ride-miles) taken, rather than just absolute number
of fatalities. If cities with Uber have the same number of fatalities, but
spread over twice as much travel, that's giant safety and welfare win, too.
------
stuaxo
Maybe all that's happened is people that used to take traditional taxis moved
onto Uber.
------
shanacarp
I'm wondering if their thesis if off: is this due to where uber is rather than
cost
Ie - suburban to exburban uber is just expensive and rare, (low coverage), and
therefore people are more likely to drunk drive. I mean, how many taxis to
start with are there in small suburban towns?
------
silveira
Maybe the group of people who drink and are responsible enough to call a Uber
does not significantly overlaps with the group who drinks and are
irresponsible enough to drive.
------
xupybd
Totally off topic, but totally bugging me. Why is it (in this case) Effect not
affect?
~~~
bumblebeard
Effect is usually a noun and affect is usually a verb.
~~~
the_mitsuhiko
That's not an explanation. Effect and affect are just different things with
different meanings both as nouns and verbs.
------
nickgrosvenor
Commonsense says this study is flawed in someway. Uber has giving millions and
millions of car rides with drunk people, and how many of those wouldn't ride
with a sober friend or take the time to call a cab?
~~~
p4wnc6
Or perhaps the study says that common sense is flawed in some way? If the
study holds up to scrutiny (not saying it will) then updating to have new
common sense is the whole point.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Turn your browser into a notepad with one line - bitsweet
https://coderwall.com/p/lhsrcq
======
tikhonj
This is what the _scratch_ (EDIT: read _scratch_ as * scratch * without the
spaces--is there any way to escape that properly on HN?) buffer is for in
Emacs, and I find it extremely useful. Also, unlike using a different tool, it
allows me to use all the Emacs-specific features I usually rely on. (For
example, I can easily type special characters like r₁ × r₂ ≈ r₃ using the TeX
mode.)
If you want more than one scratch buffer--which happens to me once in a while
--you can just create a new buffer with any name, and it will also do. New
buffers are in a different mode by default, but you can set it up to work
exactly the same way as _scratch_ if you want.
As another commenter pointed out, you can use the browser to evaluate
JavaScript. Emacs lets you do the same thing with elisp in the scratch buffer
by default: try entering in an elisp expression and pressing C-j.
Just a fun alternative to this trick for the Emacs users around here :).
~~~
lukes386
There's also a "scratch" plugin for vim that offers similar functionality:
<http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=664>
~~~
lomendil
For vim, I just open an unnamed buffer (:new). I think this is exactly the
same as the scratch buffer in emacs.
~~~
wfn
The only differences being, when you close vim, the scratch buffer does not
yield a save prompt, and also, if you open a scratch buffer, then close it,
and then reopen it again with :Scratch during the same vim session, any
leftover contents from before (but during that same vim session, of course)
will be restored, which is neat/convenient. :)
edit: misread your comment, thought you were comparing :new and :Scratch
(linked above), not emacs' scratch. Not sure about that one, but again, the
'reopen scratch -> find leftover contents' functionality is a neat thing.
~~~
dschep
:new | set buftype=nofile
------
simonsarris
Ah shoot. If Chrome allowed localStorage to be accessible from file:/// then
we could add save (CTRL+S) and automatic load using this:
data:text/html,<html><script>window.onload=function(){var a=document.body;a.innerText=localStorage.mydoc;a.addEventListener("keydown",function(b){b.ctrlKey&&83==b.which&&(localStorage.mydoc=a.innerHTML,b.preventDefault())},!1)};</script><body contenteditable></body></html>
Firefox will save it to localStorage but clear the local storage afterwards.
Weird.
Oh well.
At least we can still turn our (Chrome) browsers into desktop calculators by
pressing CTRL+SHIFT+J!
(If you want the un-minified version of the code I wrote:
<http://jsfiddle.net/d5sGq/>)
~~~
jfaucett
That is so cool :). I just slapped together a (really) simple chrome ext for
opening up a new tab in "contenteditable" mode. It saves the contents into
localStorage, thats it for now :) Here it is if anyones interested
<https://github.com/jwaterfaucett/textpad>
~~~
zchr
Made it a chrome extension for an easier install.
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/textpad/edopaieiod...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/textpad/edopaieiodmddkbhpkfpjdlcjigacnkf)
~~~
cfontes
Thanks, works like a charm.
------
Cushman
For even more fun, turn your notepad into an interactive JavaScript
environment:
data:text/html, <html contenteditable onkeyup="eval(this.innerText)">
Then you can upgrade it by pasting in something like this:
this.onkeyup = function () {
this.style.backgroundColor = 'white';
try {
eval(this.innerText);
} catch (e) {
this.style.backgroundColor = '#FFAAAA';
}
}
~~~
shurcooL
Is there an equivalent to `this.onkeyup` for touch devices that don't generate
onkeyup events? Trying to make this work on an iPad, but I only have surface
knowledge of JS.
~~~
Cushman
Hmm... I only have an iPad simulator with me, but it works just pasting in
what I wrote above. Maybe something in your data URI is getting munged?
Keyup is used here rather than keypress (which fires only once for each down-
up event) since backspace won't fire keypress events, which is a nice thing to
have in a live environment. But I can't think of any environment which would
implement keypress and not keyup, or how one might work around not having key
events at all.
I did, however, discover that if you alert in mobile Safari (in simulation and
on my iPhone) on a backspace keydown, the keyup never gets through and it will
happily erase everything before the cursor.
~~~
shurcooL
You're right, it works fine with onkeyup. I tried pasting the URL directly
instead of opening from "other devices" and it worked. Thanks.
------
JacobIrwin
After some mix-and-matching of the awesome code snippets posted in the
comments, I came up with something easy on the eyes (with a nice little color
transition (for webkit-enabled browsers):
data:text/html, <html><head><link
href='[http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Lato:100,200,300,400,...](http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Lato:100,200,300,400,700,400italic,700italic)
rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'><style type="text/css"> html { font-family:
"Lato"; color:#e9e9e9; background-color:#222; } * { -webkit-transition: all
linear 1s; }</style></head><body contenteditable style="font-size:2.2em;line-
height:1.4;max-width:60rem;margin:0 auto;padding:4rem;">
~~~
stephth
Thank you. I've tweaked it to my preferences. I've gotten in the habit of
writing with a black on light grey monospaced font. Removing the web font
dependency (and the transition, again matter of taste) made the page snappier.
data:text/html, <html><head><style type="text/css"> html{background-
color:#CCCCCC;font-family: Monaco, Consolas, "Lucida Console", monospace;font-
size:14px;color:#424242;line-height:1.4;max-width:60rem;margin:0
auto;}body{background-color:#F0F1F1;padding:100px;}</style></head><body
contenteditable>Poop.</body></html>
~~~
drharris
Love this version. It's like writing on nice paper.
------
cooop
Forgive me for the shameless plug...but thought this might be useful for other
HNers and related to OP.
I put together a little project that uses the browsers localstorage so you can
jot notes down and come back to them, I find it useful as I'm always in the
browser, hope you do too: <http://a5.gg>
~~~
zevyoura
FYI local storage is not reliable, so you may want to think about a fallback,
or at least putting a disclaimer explaining that what you write will probably
but nitndefinitely still be there when you come back.
~~~
cooop
Good call. I intend it's use to be temporary for that reason e.g. quickly
scribble down a phone number/website/name etc to refer to asap.
~~~
zevyoura
Makes sense, and I like the simplicity of the design quite a bit. Maybe one
way to augment it would be to add a button that throws the content into a
gist/pastebin.something similar, so it could be more easily shared or
preserved? Of course, it's a fine line between that and having social media
buttons all over.
------
JonnieCache
Personally I'm more interested in the concept of typing gibberish to clear
your mind. What particular kind of gibberish? Doggerel verse? Blind keyboard
mashing?
~~~
mikebridgman
I often do an exercise that I've started referring to as a "brain dump".
Sometimes when I feel overwhelmed, for whatever reason, it helps to just
simply start typing. I start by just saying whatever is most present on my
mind, and each new thought starts on a new line. More often than not I end up
drilling down to some kind of inner conflict buried pretty deep in my mind.
What's really amazing is when seemingly unrelated stressful moments in your
life are revealed to be from the same source.
~~~
ChuckMcM
Apropos of nothing I believe this works because it frees up space in your
brain. Sometimes, when I'm trying to get too much done at once, I'm stressed
out by trying to keep to many things in the forefront of my thoughts at once.
When I get stuck like that I create a scratch pad document with three 'zones'
Doing:
stuff I'm working on right now
ToDo:
Stuff that I know needs to get done
Done:
Stuff that is now done.
Start by dumping everything I'm thinking of in 'Todo' and pick one and put it
in Doing and while I'm in the middle of doing it when I think thoughts like
"oh and this should really do x" I add that to the Todo pile and go back to
doing. Each time I finish of the 'Doing' task I scan the todo list, move
anything I need to into Done and pull one up for the Doing pane.
By externalizing the bookkeeping of all the things I'm trying to keep straight
in my head I free up cycles to actually work on something.
~~~
jarel
Did you mean: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanban_board> ?
~~~
ChuckMcM
Nice! I hadn't actually seen that but that is exactly what I mean. Although
rather than help the team be more productive it's to let _me_ be more
productive :-)
~~~
ISL
<http://www.trello.com> ?
~~~
ChuckMcM
Yes, Trello does this pretty well. Not "switch to the buffer in vim" well :-)
but its a great tool. An iPad version would be cool.
------
e1ven
Very clever!
I set this as the default URL for new tabs.. Now, everytime I open a new tab,
I have a quick scratchpad for pasting/testing/etc.
~~~
muzzamike
That's a great idea, did you do it for Chrome? Seems like with Chrome it's
non-trivial to set the page for new tabs...
~~~
stephth
You can set it as the homepage (enableable in Settings). It adds an extra step
after opening a new page (either clicking on the home icon or shift-cmd-h) but
I prefer that to replacing the default Chrome page (with its Most visited and
Recently closed menus).
------
ernestipark
Nifty trick. To build on this, if you use chrome, add it as a search engine
with a special keyword so you can type in your URL bar something like "note +
<ENTER> \+ <TAB>" then you're in typing mode.
~~~
darxius
Yeah this is nifty. For the lazy:
Name: note
Keyword: note
URL: data:text/html, <textarea style="font-size: 1em; width: 100%; height:
100%; border: none; outline: none" autofocus /> %s
Of course, you could change the style of the URL. That's just what I defaulted
to.
~~~
franze
hi, here is my final version i use
name: note
keyword: n
URL: data:text/html, <html><head><script>function placeCaretAtEnd(el) { el.focus(); if (typeof window.getSelection != "undefined" && typeof document.createRange != "undefined") { var range = document.createRange(); range.selectNodeContents(el); range.collapse(false); var sel = window.getSelection(); sel.removeAllRanges(); sel.addRange(range); } else if (typeof document.body.createTextRange != "undefined") { var textRange = document.body.createTextRange(); textRange.moveToElementText(el); textRange.collapse(false); textRange.select(); } }</script><style> html{background-color:#CCCCCC;font-family: Monaco, Consolas, "Lucida Console", monospace;font-size:14px;color:#424242;line-height:1.4;max-width:60rem;margin:0 auto;}body{background-color:#F0F1F1;padding:100px;}</style></head><body contenteditable autofocus onload="placeCaretAtEnd(window.document.body);">we%20did%20this </body></html>
it uses the "paper" look and feed and sets the focus to the end of the
document so that you can just continue writing
------
ajross
> _Sometimes I just need to type garbage. Just to clear out my mind. Using
> editors to type such gibberish annoys me because it clutters my project
> workspace (I'm picky, I know)._
This is a hack and a workaround. The bug is clearly using an editor restricted
to editting files in a "Project Workspace". Yikes.
Everyone has their own workflow, and they're all insane (for myself, I have an
emacsclient wrapper that when called without a file will create a unique name
under ~/.emacsclient-scratch and edit that -- so I never lose anything I know
I was typing at one point). Still... this just seems like a really bad
solution. You get an "editor everywhere" but it's the default editor in your
browser. Ick. It's cute though.
~~~
zrail
That's a really good idea, thanks. I have `e` aliased to `emacsclient -nt` but
there's no reason why it couldn't make scratch files if not given an argument.
------
jnorthrop
That's pretty handy. In Chrome ctrl+b and ctrl+i bold and italics the text
respectively. If I can get bullets that could be a nice replacement for the
text editor I currently use for notes.
~~~
dbh937
At least on OS X, bullets are alt-8. Can't speak for any other OS. Looks like
this: •
------
darxius
Now I just need some javascript to listen for Ctrl+S and save it as a text
file in ~/Documents/scratchpads. Time to get crackin'
~~~
gruseom
How do you save stuff in files from the browser?
I've googled around about this a couple times and not found anything good, so
if anyone can point to some clear documentation I'd appreciate it.
~~~
mmastrac
I'm on mobile so I can write to much accompanying text, but start here:
<http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/file/filesystem/>
~~~
gruseom
Thanks to both of you. I'll check it out.
~~~
mrcoles
I don’t think that’s going to work, since the data URI is inherently local
(and only works on Chrome), and you can’t use the Chrome file-system API or
even localStorage when you're viewing a local file, unless chrome was opened
with `--allow-file-access-from-files`
------
Too
Nice gimmicky hack but not so practical.
Just pin notepad/your favorite editor to the taskbar(win7+) and open it with
win+shift+[whatever number that corresponds to the position you placed notepad
on the taskbar].
Much faster and much more powerful.
~~~
sturmeh
It's another window which isn't tab-bound to the browser.
~~~
dredmorbius
Oh, you're one of those Mac types.
You should still be able to navigate to that alternate app readily.
I find it easier to navigate to a clearly identifiable text editor session
(Linux) than try to track to a specific tab somewhere within my multiple
browser windows (on multiple workspaces ...).
------
shocks
Very cool.
I like this guys implementation too. <https://gist.github.com/4666256>
Perhaps an implementation with vim bindings support? :D
~~~
jey
I just use a hot key that launches a gvim instance...
------
donniezazen
750 Words[1] is a great tool for clearing your mind.
1\. <http://750words.com/>
~~~
WA
Interesting concept, but Facebook login + my (unique) real name (yes, there's
only one of me in the whole world) + unencrypted PRIVATE journal with
subconscious gibberish + possibly my email address = privacy hell.
I'd rather install this thing on my private webserver.
~~~
donniezazen
The analysis that 750 words does is very unique and interesting. You don't
have to connect it with Facebook or your real name. You may create an
anonymous account. Personal computer are very prone to failure. You will have
to save your information somewhere on the cloud. They all shady. It is a
compromise that you have to make based on your best judgement.
~~~
WA
Look, I wouldn't enter personal data anywhere on the internet. If I write 750
words a day, I write about personal things that could be clearly related to me
(by name or by my company name). I can't take that risk. Not because the guy
behind 750words is not trustable. I don't know him. But because I have no idea
whether or not his webserver is secure enough, whether or not he stores his
FTP password somewhere in plaintext on his mobile or his laptop.
It doesn't have to be him who is the weakest link in that security chain.
What I don't get from your posting is the second part. Personal computers
aren't prone to failure at all. I never had a single HDD crash. I backup my
data on a second HDD just in case. It's incredibly unlikely that my data is
going to be lost and that the cloud is the only solution for that.
So, there's clearly no compromise for me. Rule is: No cloud, no internet
service for private data. And heck, I don't even use any analytics software or
other software on my company website that I cannot self-host.
~~~
donniezazen
I see your problem and I agree with you. I think it's a complex issue. I am
afraid of not backing up. My hard drive or local server might fail and I would
like to keep a copy local and a copy offsite. All offsite vendors are somewhat
shady. At the end of the day, if you use computers connected to Internet, you
make yourself vulnerable of serious attacks. It is far from providing your
data yourself but point is security in a relative term. So, it comes down to
how sensitive is your data and how much you valve it.
------
TerraHertz
It's cute, but I can't help observing that we're what, 70 years into the
computer age, and there's still no ubiquitous, small, fast, clean text editor
present by default on all personal computers. (DO NOT speak to me of
Notepad.exe)
So discovering that 'by accident' web browsers can act as a simple (but huge,
bloated and feature-starved) text editor seems like a big deal.
Personally I keep a simple, tiny, old freeware editor called Editpad 3.4, on
every PC I use, accessed via desktop shortcut and 'right-click send-to'.
~~~
DougBTX
"all" is tricky, there isn't a standard command on all computers to list the
contents of a file, let alone edit. But even my WRT54G has vi installed on it,
and you can expect to find emacs and vim on almost any *nix.
------
mrcoles
I think the best part is how short and elegant it is.
I assume a lot of people won’t realize you can bookmark that URL since it
looks so weird. Also, once you’re bookmarking, you can cheat and put more
logic into the page. I made a slightly improved one with a dark background and
larger font (hard to post the link on HN, so on a separate page):
<http://mrcoles.com/one-line-browser-notepad-bookmark/>
~~~
shmerl
The second scratch+ doesn't work (Firefox 18.0.1).
This one works (# is breaking it really):
data:text/html, <html><head><style>html,body{background:%23111;color:%23fff;font: normal 16px/24px "Helvetica Neue",helvetica,arial;}body{padding:24px 48px}</style></head><body contenteditable><script>document.body.focus();</script></body></html>
------
darxius
You know what's the most amazing about this? The amount of community
collaboration its driven. I saw this post when it was on the "new" page and
had no comments. Coming back a couple hours later, I can see tons of people
doing some tinkering on their own and sharing their finds back here.
I dunno, just something I noticed which I think is completely awesome and
indicative of the benefits of open-source and open-knowledge.
------
msoad
Bookmark this text editor I just made:
* Dark background * Tabs work as they suppose to!
<pre> data:text/html, <style>*{padding:0; margin:0}</style><textarea
style="font-size: 1.5em; width: 100%; height: 100%; border: none; outline:
none; background: #111; color: #eee; padding: 10px;" autofocus
onkeydown="if(event.which==9){ this.value += ' '; return false;}" /> </pre>
~~~
larrys
I like that.
Possible to add a button that brings up the save dialog in a particular
directory (as opposed to cmd-s and choose directory?) Or just the button (just
happen to prefer to cmd key myself)?
------
alpb
Looks more like Notepad with font face attribute.
data:text/html, <html contenteditable style='font-family: monospace'>
------
suyash
Beautiful...what other nifty things can you do except for making the element
'contenteditabe' ?
------
cunninghamd
I do this 2 ways:
1) I have a constant editor opened with a Notes.txt file, so I can save it.
2) I use Sublime Text 2 which maintains the state regardless of whether I've
saved the file or not, and is extremely cross platform.
------
robertomb
<http://dontpad.com> can help you guys! :)
Minimal and disposable browser notepad with friendly URLs being used to
save/password protect files.
------
dag11
The nicest thing about this is that you can CTRL+S save it as a .html file,
and then you can also CTRL+O load the file and it's still editable, and save
it again!
~~~
TerraHertz
Does not work in Opera. If you save as type: text, the text saves OK. But if
you save as html, the file just contains " <html contenteditable>"
Also, HOW to open an existing file while retaining 'contenteditable' mode?
Everything I try alters the URL field, so returning the browser to standard
display-only mode.
------
TerraHertz
It's about 10 years since I did any software development, and I only bother
with surface tracking of web-languages progress. So a lot of this is news to
me. Also maybe some of the posted 'improved versions' provide what I'd like
with this 'contenteditable' thing. It'll take a while to try them all.
Anyway...
So far I don't see one crucial feature: the ability to load an existing file,
and edit it. Am I stupidly missing something 'obvious'?
Being able to edit text and save, but not load existing documents and edit
them makes this a useless novelty.
I did notice one suggestion to load a doc then use a short js command to
switch to contenteditable. But that's not quite there.
Ideally, a browser could be made to work like this:
* Multiple ways to get it started: bookmark, desktop shortcut icon, url to public or private html page containing the config script. Once working like an editor it should stay that way, for multiple file load/saves and multiple tabs open.
* An 'open file' for any existing plaintext or html file, loaded from local filesystem (via file selector popup or bookmark) or the web (type known url or use bookmark).
* Ability to switch back and forth between three modes on the same document: raw plain ascii (no formatting), minimal formatting (B, I, U, bullets), and full html formated display.
* A document 'save as' as plain text (formatting stripped) or html, to the local filesystem, OR (best feature yet) anywhere with write enabled on a public or private web server.
* Nice if also handles encrypted load/save, so the doc is never in plaintext except on the local machine.
With that, the big name 'cloud' services can go take a leap. I could use my
own server(s), or ones I happened to trust. There is flatly no way I would
ever trust large enterprise cloud services.
Also, a tool like that which would allow editing on ANY machine with web
access and local file r/w enabled for the browser, would be very useful for...
things.
It always astonished me that browsers did not provide the capability to
natively edit the html they displayed. Such an obvious need, and you'd think
so simple to implement, that I'd concluded the absence of this ability had to
be a deliberate industry-wide agreed policy of capability avoidance. Which
means, for political reasons.
~~~
sesqu
The File API is still kind of poorly supported, but you could add that
depending on your browser (though you'd want to use an extension, since it'd
be a bit more code).
As for live-editing HTML, that's usually been considered out of scope for a
web browser, and been pushed to authoring or debugging programs. Chrome ships
with their developer console integrated, but IIRC Firefox still relies on
extensions.
~~~
aapl
Firefox now comes with a console, DOM inspector and JavaScript debugger out of
the box.
------
iandanforth
Slightly slower but I use this etherpad clone:
piratepad.net/[gibberishstring]
It's totally public though and there is no way to delete pads, so use with
caution.
------
drucken
Interestingly, NoScript addon for Firefox brings up the following message on
attempting the URL:
_"javascript: and data: URIs typed or pasted in the address bar are disabled
to prevent social engineering attacks. Developers can enable them for testing
purposes by toggling the "noscript.allowURLBarJS" preference."_
------
natural219
I use Workflowy for this. In the url bar, I type:
w <enter>
Or, if you're a a super-organized shortcut-type,
w <enter> <esc> "@misc"
Bonus points -- combine with ctrl+T and ctrl+W for command-line-fu-like syntax
on whichever page you're currently browsing!
~~~
javajosh
I use workflowy too, but I'm not sure what you're talking about. `w <enter>`
is going to send you to the first site with w in the name (which in my case is
'wikipedia.com' - I have to type 'wor' for workflowy.com to be selected).
The `<esc> @misc` part also doesn't make sense. That just does a search for
tags, it doesn't put you in a mode to just write, which is what the OP's
solution does.
Last but not least, a little pro-tip for ya, since you like the command line
(or keyboard shortcuts as they are also called:) : Command-L puts the cursor
in the location bar. So you can do <cmd>+L w <enter>. Also, shift back to a
previous tab with cmd+shift+[ and +].
~~~
natural219
I'm simply describing my workflow -- Workflowy is easily my #1 "w", so that's
why this works for me. Probably not very helpful -- I just thought I'd
illustrate the "exact" same steps I take to achieve the same effect.
Same goes for "@misc". When I want to brain-dump some gibberish, as in the
OP's use case, the @misc tag contains a big dump of stuff that I generally
refine or delete later.
I don't know why I don't use ctrl+l -- i usually use ctrl+e or ctrl+k and then
backspace (why do these do the same thing in chrome?). But yeah, thanks for
the advice.
------
sergiotapia
This + Ruby syntax highlighting.
<https://gist.github.com/4666256>
~~~
minikomi
Thanks for this. Adding ace is a great idea!
~~~
jdkanani
<https://gist.github.com/4670615>
with support for Firefox 18 as well, and It comes with many languages and
themes.
------
homosaur
I'm actually surprised this link got this much traction, I actually thought
this was a thing that most developers were aware of. Shows you that you ought
to reconsider when disseminating information that you as a learned developer
think is "too basic" to bother writing about.
~~~
whichdan
To be fair, I knew nothing about contentEditable until I sat down and tried to
design my own RTE. It's actually very cool how little it takes to develop one
that works, and FontAwesome makes it even easier. I would definitely consider
it obscure.
As an aside, it's really interesting to look at the source for Ace[1]. It
doesn't use contentEditable, but certainly represents the sort of complexity
we'd need without contentEditable available.
[1] <http://ace.ajax.org>
------
symkat
I do this in terminals:
cat > /dev/null
Type whatever you want, then control-D to end.
~~~
oftenwrong
That is a UUOC. This...
> /dev/null
...does the same thing.
~~~
tedunangst
No, it doesn't. It just drops you to another shell prompt.
~~~
jasonm23
Not in zsh it doesn't. (tip: it's a zsh thing.)
~~~
tedunangst
oh, well, unspecified shell snippets are usually assumed to be some bourne
derivative, in which case the cat is necessary.
~~~
jasonm23
Agreed, just adding the caveat.
------
kenshiro_o
Awesome command. Now in Windows I won't have to do Start Key + R, then type
"notepad"...
The browser is the new OS!
------
Freestyler_3
I just hit F4 and click on my notepad. (opera) What's the advantage of this
guys way?
~~~
Tomis02
It's not an advantage, it's catching up.
------
ajanuary
So "data:text/html, " is the new "about:" to do some inline html? Useful to
know.
------
Skoofoo
The contenteditable element is neat for quickly turning HTML elements into a
notepad, but scripting custom functionality into it (creating a header after
pressing enter twice, etc.) was a huge pain in my experience.
------
iso-8859-1
In the summer of 2011 an infinite textarea was posted to HN. You'd be in
replace mode per default, and you could share it by URL. It would
automatically save. I'd be delighted if someone knows its name.
------
_quasimodo
I used to use a similar oneliner:
data:text/html,<textarea style="height:99%;width:100%;" autofocus onfocus="this.value=localStorage['txt']" onchange="localStorage['txt']=this.value;">
------
taylorbuley
Now I just need to code up a quick "send to Gist" bookmarklet and I'm set.
------
ycuser
Nifty code. Nice to know trick. Personally the usefulness ends there. Folks
are adding in just about every little css,js goodies. Internet is an awesome
place to throw a stone and see it gather mass.
------
blisterpeanuts
Thanks for this nice trick. I have Emacs bound to ctrl-alt-E so can pop that
up whenever I need a scratch pad (Linux, obviously), but this is just cool.
I've bookmarked it.
~~~
dredmorbius
Vim for me, but same thing.
Actually, hotkey bindings: vim, terminal, root terminal, mail, web, and bc.
------
Nilzor
But... Why? I know he tried to justify it in his post, but to me, having a
save option FAR outweighs the "benefit" of having your notes in a browser.
~~~
jasonm23
It's almost like it's completely pointless... no?
Coming soon, find out what happens when you 20 GOTO 10!!!
------
gootik
That's a very clever hack! I've also been using this
<http://pencil.asleepysamurai.com/>
------
franze
i didn't know of contenteditable before, so 1000+1 thx. in my job i need to
scribble above existing pages like crazy, so i mashed together this
<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5140200> \- a one liner / one unicode
icon bookmarklet to liveedit any page.
------
jaxb
There's a similar hack floating around:
javascript:document.body.contentEditable='true';document.designMode='on';void
0
(lets you edit currently loaded page.)
------
maskedinvader
if you want something more like this, chrome notepad [1] seems like a good app
that lets you sync notes across multiple devices using google account sync
1][https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chrome-
notepad/ffb...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chrome-
notepad/ffbhefmlcoihbjcmibbfkocmnaiacinp)
------
vette982
Extremely useful! I'm getting tired of opening Sublime, TextMate, or even
worse, Notes.app or Stickies.app.
------
shurcooL
I used to do WinKey+R whenever I needed to type or paste some plain text, when
I was using windows.
------
cfontes
We just need to port all Sublime 2 features( 3 maybe) to JS and add as onload
and I am set.
:D
------
PStamatiou
data:text/html, <html contenteditable><script>var t=prompt("what shall we name
this file?","new");document.title=t;</script>
^ you can now hit ctrl+s to save the file with a real name
------
jkd
polished version you can use <https://github.com/tholman/zenpen>
<http://zenpen.io/>
------
pla3rhat3r
This is the best post since Al Gore invented the internet!
------
anxrn
Very neat. Is there a way to only do plain text?
~~~
mmastrac
Try <textarea> instead of <html...
~~~
stevetursi
Thanks. Just expanded on that idea and did one of these: data:text/html,
<textarea style="border: 0px; width: 100%; height: 100%; background-color:
#F8F8F8">
------
malkia
Works on Safari, Chrome, Firefox, but not in IE
------
psteinweber
any ideas how to smartly send the written things to evernote? the webclipper
doesn't work.
~~~
epochwolf
Why don't you just log in to evernote and take a note there?
------
windsurfer
Does anyone else feel wary of typing _any_ data: URIs into their browser? It
might seem safe, but how can you know?
------
shaggyfrog
data:text/html, <html contenteditable>ATARI COMPUTER - MEMO PAD</html>
Ah, much better.
~~~
infinity
Yes :)
I have added some color:
data:text/html, <html contenteditable><body style='background-
color:rgb(0,81,129); color:rgb(93,180,227);font-family:monospace;font-
weight:bold'>ATARI COMPUTER - MEMO PAD</body></html>
------
sea6ear
This is really useful. Thanks.
------
nextstep
Works well on Mobile Safari.
------
icpmacdo
Very cool!
------
adjin
i bookmarked it as 'notes'
------
jQueryIsAwesome
In unrelated news coderwall.com really needs good syntax highlighting. Is
called CODERwall for God's sake.
------
IdealEthos
S.I.T. = Shit Is Tight
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: My first iOS game released - jason_slack
My first iOS game is released. It took me 2 weekends to develop and 9 day approval time.<p>Here are a few promo codes. If you take a promo code, can you please also leave a review?<p>Happy to answer any questions. An update is already being prepared for iPhone support as well as a more major update that adds difficulty adjustments and a "dreaded" twist :-)<p>The Game: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pop-corn/id905859076?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4<p>Promo Codes:<p>F79LRP4JNWT4<p>X94XXNNW77E3<p>PEWJ77FHTME7<p>9PHN99RLLE6W
======
chrisBob
The game was interesting, but I have a few critiques:
1) The first thing I checked was to see if it was multitouch, and I was
disappointed. I should be able to tap kernels with as many fingers as I have
(or 11, whichever is smaller).
2) It is not obvious when a round will end. One lasted 41 seconds. Another
lasted 44. There are not instructions, and I can't tell after playing a few
rounds.
3) I would recommend giving your contact info either in the app description or
on your webpage. If I can't find contact info then I am likely to complain
about bugs via an app review because that is the only method you gave me.
4) Please give some visual feedback for which kernel is about to pop. Some are
different colors, but there is no apparent reason as they are all the same
type.
5) You only see the opening menu the first time you play the game. There is no
way to get back to the menu after a round only a exit button which exited the
whole app. That is possibly a bug and it just crashed.
6) After one of the rounds I didn't get any menu and had to force quit the app
to play again.
7) If you exit the game (ie. with the home button) it does not stop the clock,
and then it shows a large time when you resume and finish the round.
8) The splash screen flashes up for a fraction of a second. The recommended
method is to have a splash screen that looks mostly like the menu screen, but
maybe without the buttons, so that the launch looks smoother.
~~~
jason_slack
Could you tell me which model IPad you have?
Thank you for the feedback! I'll go over each of these with a fine tooth comb.
I have a 1.1 version that addresses a few of these concerns already.
1\. Good idea on multitouch
2\. The round ends when you have 125+ kernels on the screen
3\. I'll update both today
4\. The time each kernel pops is generated at random. I think you are right,
feedback is important.
5\. Its not a bug. I did it on purpose :-) Well my logic behind it was you
either want to replay or quit. Getting back to the main menu right now felt
weird since the only options are Play and About.
6\. I'll look into this.
7\. You are right, I have this fixed in the next build.
8\. I'll look into this. I used other games I was playing as an example and
they all seemed to have a different launch image and main menu, etc.
~~~
chrisBob
Its a 4th generation iPad.
1) depending on how you wrote this, it could be easy to implement. The easiest
way would be to have each kernel be its own view, and then a touch makes it
disappear. Then each view handles one touch each, but the result is a better
experience.
5) This is the only app I have seen with an exit button. I did not even know
that there was code to do this since there is a nice hardware button that does
the same thing.
8) The splash screen makes more sense if there is a longer loading time. One
option would be to have another view that is the same image and then hold it
for 1-2 seconds. I have seen some apps do this.
~~~
jason_slack
1\. Each corn kernel has its own event listeners on it. I'll debug this. I
actually (as well as my wife and son) tended to play it with 1 finger. Thanks
for demonstrating another method of play.
8\. Good idea.
~~~
chrisBob
It is interesting to find out how other people play your games. I had one
where I knew to just touch and hold, but when other people swiped repeatedly
it showed a problem that I would have never seen on my own.
~~~
jason_slack
Just FYI There is a 1.1 update waiting for approval and I am submitting a
1.1.1 that utilizes full multi-touch. What a difference it makes in the game
play....
------
tjosten
As far as I remember, customers who used a Promotion Code to buy something
from the (Mac) App store are not able to leave a review for the app.
~~~
chrisBob
I used the first promo code, and I can confirm that you can't leave a review
if you use a code.
~~~
jason_slack
I had no idea this was the case. Thanks for trying to leave feedback though.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Einstein letters reveal a turmoil beyond science - known
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2006/07/11/einstein_letters_reveal_a_turmoil_beyond_science/
======
denglish
It must have been hard for him and his family to have their private lives
scrutinised by the world - it's not like he chose a profession likely to bring
him world fame!
------
psnajder
I'm in the middle of the Einstein bio by Isaacson, who uses many of the
documents referred to in this 2006 article to paint Einstein's private life as
it complimented his public works. (I certainly recommend the book to you all!)
One of Isaacson's main points is that it was not mere intellect that made
Einstein superior. Great scientists, such as Poincare, were working in the
same fields at the same time, but were conditioned within the realm of
university research to hold on strong to the classical beliefs of Newtonian
science. The four papers Einstein wrote in 1905 (written during his patent
office period while he was essentially blacklisted from a position at a
university) each had the benefit of his outsider voice. While his work in
college was above average, it did not translate into genius until Einstein had
the ability to generate, on his own, a complete theory of how he
intellectually envisioned the world. More important than Einstein's given
intellect was his particular perspective.
Anyways, I find judging intelligence by means of a test is absolutely
pointless; IQ, in particular, measures only a few ways that a person can be
intelligent.
In conclusion, as always: Genius is as genius does.
------
SingAlong
Any way to read more about this or the transcripts of those letters? Sounds
very interesting to me. Is the Hebrew Univ planning to put these online?
These letters will help know more about this great man and relate to him as a
human than just merely knowing him as a scientific genius.
If these details are out as a book it would surely break all records and would
become everyone's favourite.
Here's how he explained a radio:
_A telegraph is like a long cat. You pull its tail in New York and it meows
in Los Angeles. It's the same with a radio. You send the signals from on place
and receive them at another, just that there is no long cat here._
------
peregrine
We will all study Einstein forever until so we can find out how to create
people like him.
~~~
andreyf
He was a very smart guy - but not much smarter a lot of people are today.
He was also a great marketer, mostly because he could explain his research to
the press in terms people could understand.
~~~
chollida1
> He was a very smart guy - but not much smarter a lot of people are today.
I had this long reply written but then I realized that there probably isn't a
quantitative way to prove your statement wrong.
Given that, I would appreciate it, if you could explain your statement. I
think most people would assume a man of his accomplishments would certainly be
more than "not much smarter" than alot of people today are.
~~~
DabAsteroid
_I think most people would assume a man of his accomplishments would certainly
be more than "not much smarter" than alot of people today are._
Einstein is commonly claimed to have had a +4 sigma g-strength (IQ of 160, on
typical scales). Even assuming a normal curve, rather than the more-popularly-
believed fat-tails curve, that would leave millions of people today with
higher g-strengths than Einstein had.
.
Arthur Jensen writes:
Creativity _and_ genius _are unrelated to g except that a person's level of_ g
_acts as a threshold variable below which socially significant forms of
creativity are highly improbable. This_ g _threshold is probably at least one
standard deviation above the mean level of g in the general population.
Besides the traits that Galton though necessary for "eminence" (viz., high
ability, zeal, and persistence),_ genius _implies outstanding creativity as
well. Thouhj such exceptional creativity is conspicuously lacking in the vast
majority of people who have a high IQ, it is probably impossible to find any
creative geniuses with low IQ's. In other words, high ability is a necessary
but not sufficient condition for the emergence of socially siginificant
creativity. Genius itself should not be confused with merely high IQ, which is
what we generally mean by the term "gifted" (which also applies to special
talents such as music and art). True creativity involves more than just high
ability. It is still uncertain what this is, but the most interesting theory I
have seen spelled out in detail is Eysenck's. He hypothesizes that the
essential personality factor in creative genius is what he terms_ trait
psychoticism, _which has a genetic basis and is explainanble in part in terms
of brain chemistry and physiology._ (The g Factor. Ch14, The g Nexus.
pp577-578.)
This is Eysenck's book:
<http://www.google.com/search?q=eysenck+genius>
~~~
13ren
Great comment! Can persistent effort increase intelligence?
[http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-secret-to-raising-
sm...](http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-secret-to-raising-smart-kids)
~~~
DabAsteroid
_Great comment!_
Thank you.
_Can persistent effort increase intelligence?_
No. Why do you ask?
~~~
13ren
Are you being sarcastic? Have a look at the link provided if you are not.
_EDIT_ oh, I see: you thought I was asking you a question, but my question
was an introduction to the linked article.
~~~
orib
The article confuses work ethic and intelligence and ability. I think that
although there's overlap, they're quite different things. And using grades as
an intelligence indicator is horribly flawed.
~~~
13ren
Do you know of evidence that intelligence is not affected by effort?
~~~
DabAsteroid
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=315938>
~~~
13ren
Those references don't seem to address my question about effort having an
effect on intelligence. My question isn't about the heritability of
intelligence, but whether effort (that is, training) can enhance one's
intelligence. Let me explain with an analogous question:
Does athletic training increase athletic ability? In terms of strength,
flexibility, aerobic fitness, speed, perception, assessment, reaction times,
specific skills, strategy?
Do believe that mental exercise has no effect whatsoever on mental ability?
That would be contrary to everyday experience, and studies showing that a lack
of stimulation (i.e. mental exercise) retards cognitive development. e.g. that
the visual system does not develop without stimulus; that the speech centers
do not develop unless exposed to speech within the window (closes at around
7yo).
_EDIT_ interesting: "Breast feeding makes a huge difference, about 7 IQ
points." [http://www.amazon.com/Factor-Science-Evolution-Behavior-
Inte...](http://www.amazon.com/Factor-Science-Evolution-Behavior-
Intelligence/dp/0275961036)
~~~
DabAsteroid
_Those references don't seem to address my question about effort having an
effect on intelligence._
To paraphrase Captain Malcolm Reynolds of the Firefly class ship Serenity:
"Well -- they do." Try checking the subject index of The g Factor:
Abecedarian Project, 342-44, 500, 522
Head Start, 337-39
Milwaukee Project, 500
.
_My question isn't about the heritability of intelligence_
Why would you think that a book called "The g Factor: The Science of Mental
Ability" would only be about heritability?
.
_Do believe that mental exercise has no effect whatsoever on mental ability?_
Yes. Why do you ask?
.
_studies [show] that a lack of stimulation ... retards cognitive development._
What studies are those? Would you consider being locked 24 hours, seven days a
week, in a dark attic with a deaf-mute mother, and no toys, to be adequate
stimulation for a developing child? The child rescued from that situation
turned out to have mentally-developed normally, including having a normal IQ.
Read all about it, and other cases of rescue from severe adversity, here:
[http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Early+Experience+and+the+L...](http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Early+Experience+and+the+Life+Path%22+attic)
.
Jensen discusses the case of Isabelle (reported by Clarke and Clarke) on page
113 of the g Factor:
_From birth to age six, Isabel [sic] was totally confined to a dim attic
room, where she lived alone with her deaf-mute mother who was her only social
contact. Except for food, shelter, and the presence of her mother, Isabel was
reared in what amounted to a totally deprived environment. There were no toys,
picture books, or gadgets of any kind for her to play with. When found by the
auothorities, at age six, Isabel was tested and found to have a mental age of
one year and seven months and an IQ of about 30, which is barely at the
imbecile level. In many ways she behaved like a very young child; she had no
speech and made only croaking sounds. When handed toys or other unfamiliar
objects, she would immediately put them in her mouth, as infants normally do.
Yet as soon as she was exposed to educational experiences, she acquired
speech, vocabulary, and syntax at an astonishing rate and gained six years of
tested mental age within just two years. By the age of eight, she had come up
to a mental age of eight, and her level of achievement in school was on a par
with her age-mates. ... She graduated from high school as an average student.
What all this means ... is that the neurological basis of information
processing continued developing autonomously throughout the six years of
Isabel's environmental deprivation, so that as soon as she was exposed to a
normal environment she was able to learn those things for which she was
developmentally "ready" at an extraordinarily fast rate, far beyond the rate
for typically reared children over the period of six years over which their
mental age normally increases from two to eight years. But the fast rate of
manifest mental development slowed down to an average rate at the point where
the level of mental development caught up with the level of neurological
development. Clearly, the rate of mental development during childhood ... is
largely based on the maturation of neural structures._
~~~
13ren
Thanks for your considered reply. I'll check those references, when I have
access to a copy of the book.
_Why would you think that a book called "The g Factor: The Science of Mental
Ability" would only be about heritability?_
Because I read all the reviews on the amazon page, and that is all they talked
about. Not having a copy, that's the best I could do - and that is why I said
it "doesn't _seem_ to". You're putting words in my mouth.
Perhaps the greatest source of survival ability in human beings is the ability
to co-operate. General capability, in the sense of "g", of course contributes
not only to individual capability, but also to this ability to cooperate. It
seems though, that a preoccupation with "g" itself can become an instrument of
division between people (and peoples), and ironically this preoccupation
therefore reduces its possessor's survival ability.
.
_Yes. Why do you ask?_
Because I find that my life is better, and I make a better contribution to the
people around me, when I am aware of the things that we do have influence
over, instead of the things we don't. Some aspects of mental ability seem to
fall into the first category. I asked you, because you seemed to know
something about it.
.
_When found by the auothorities, at age six,_
I said "that the speech centers do not develop unless exposed to speech within
the window (closes at around _7yo_ )." There have been only few documented
cases of severely neglected children. In those cases where child was rescued
before age 7, they recover; but in those cases where the child was rescued
after ago 7, they did not recover. With so few cases (thankfully), it's hard
to be accurate - but the window seems to be about 7yo, from the data. This was
from Psych 101, and sorry I don't have references on hand - it was almost 20
years ago - but any first year text should have it. Note that the opposite
story of Isabelle ("neglected child/adult found with retarded mental
abilities; never recovers") will be much less reported in the mainstream press
and have a lower pagerank. Quite possibly, new data has been uncovered since
then (though hopefully not), which could well invalidate the above hypothesis
- but the particular case of Isabelle does not. Again, you have not taken into
account what I have written - in this case "closes at around 7yo".
Incidentally, Isabelle demonstrates that before stimulus was available, the
mental abilities were not present - only the potential for those abilities.
Without appropriate mental stimulation, our potential is not realized.
.
You seem pretty arrogant in your rhetorical questions, so I'm going to leave
you to it at this point. Thanks for the references, and good luck to you. :-)
~~~
DabAsteroid
_I'll check those references, when I have access to a copy of the book._
You have access to The g Factor right now, if you have web access, since the
entire text of The g Factor is online at Amazon.com (which allows viewing of
any page, up to some predetermined page limit).
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0275961036/ref=sib_dp_ptu#re...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0275961036/ref=sib_dp_ptu#reader-
link)
Searching for _milwaukee_ , returns hits for pp340-43, 348, 490, 500, 552.
Searching for _abecedarian_ , returns hits for pp335, 342-43, 349, 490, 500,
505, 552.
Seaching for _head start_ , returns hits for pp335, 337-40, 407, 495, 500.
Seaching for _stimulation_ , returns hits for pp155, 160, 251, 326, 340-42,
466, 487.
.
The entire text of The g Factor is also available online (in a format that
allows full text-select and copy) at Questia (<http://www.questia.com>), which
requires a pay-subscription that starts at $10/month for single collections
(for example, Psychology is one such collection option).
------
andreyf
Are the full versions of the letters available online?
------
cglee
Every time I read something like this, I'm reminded of the Freudian idea that
all we do in life is in pursuit of sexual ends.
~~~
Herring
It's misleading to phrase it like that.
------
known
You are a product of your environment. --Clement Stone
~~~
zandorg
So, the solution is to try and _change_ your environment.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Show HN: Weekly Robotics Podcast Project Ep1 – BioRobotics with Auke Ijspeert - msadowski
https://weeklyrobotics.com/podcast-ep-1
======
msadowski
Hi HN!
I've recently decided to branch off my robotics newsletter slightly and start
recording podcasts when I have some spare time.
In this episode I've interviewed Auke Ijspeert, a professor at EPFL, who
focuses on bioinspired robots. I've learned a ton making this episode and hope
you will too!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Ask HN: Which JavaScript framework to choose - thatgerhard
Currently I feel it's time to upskill and the JS frameworks route seems like the way to go.
The three choices are Angular (2/4), React or Vue.js
In your opinion, which one will be the most widely used in the next say 5 years?
======
dehef
If you check HN regularly there is a general consensus that React will become
the most used framework, if its not the case already. Personally I will stay
on Angular because like many I'm coming from java. Also generally making
"CRUD" type application.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How do you deal with a pessimistic co-founder? - dakrisht
The title kind of says it all.<p>How do you deal with a pessimistic co-founder? You can't get rid of him because he's vital - and he's a friend.<p>But every conversation with an investor or advisor or etc. is taken too literally by him. Sure, the positive is absorbed but the negative equally as much.<p>Everyone has an opinion, there will always be the naysayers, the doubters, the idiots... but that shouldn't dissuade someone from sticking to the core vision, to the belief and the journey of making great things. It's tiring and stressful (not to mention depressing at times) when dealing with a co-founder who has to be put back in check after someone mentions a small problem or issue to him... I don't get it.<p>It's a product of upbringing and how he was raised, and I do value people who are very grounded and more "reality-based" than some of us dreamers and people living up in the clouds. And you need that for a successful company.<p>But what do you guys think.<p>Sorry if this seems like a rant, it isn't, I just wanted to hear some thoughts from people who have or work with people that are too negative and pessimistic for their own good...
======
mknappen
Core vision and core value are two different things. For example, a marriage
is anchored by shared values but the vision of who they are in the world and
where they are going can change many times depending on circumstance. A
marriage can survive many job changes and different addresses. If you have
someone who is going a whole different place value-wise then the partnership
is not going to work. If this is a vision thing, you are probably going to
have a productive, if frustrating time of it. There is a successful, multi-
decade corporation/partnership team I know made up of a detail-oriented,
responsible pessimist and the big-picture, visionary optimist. The trick, I've
been told, is that they are willing to force the other to justify their
thinking. By the time they make a big decision, they have slugged it out
behind closed doors and have a very honest understanding of all possible
outcomes. They use "proof of concept" trials prior to a big leap because
someone needs to actually prove the concept to the other prior to changing
direction. Also, they keep enough cash on hand to survive a failed initiative,
because neither wants to bring down the company after the other signs on to
the new vision. The founders have driven each other crazy at times but both
admit that there is no way either could have been even 25% as successful
individually.
------
nati
I believe that one should analyze things pessimistically, plan realistically
and act optimistically. So he is allowed to be pessimistic behind closed doors
when you asses possibilities or do SWAT ... but not in front of customers and
investors. maybe he can live by this mantra :-)?
------
jfoster
Does he view himself as a pessimist? Raising his level of self awareness might
be a good start if not.
~~~
dakrisht
I think he acknowledges it, but that's just the way he was raised. I try to
empower him and he gets it for the most part but I think there will always be
an element of cynicism within him. That's just who he is. It's great when gets
excited and driven, but the negativity is overwhelming at times and needless
to say, counter intuitive to our goals.
------
Cardeck1
Well are you dealing with this situation right now or you just want to know
what happens in this case scenario?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Duplicity in the Double Vowel: From Taazr to Proxino - unignorant
http://blog.proxino.com/post/8694310609/duplicity-in-the-double-vowel-from-taazr-to-proxino
======
wccrawford
It's more memorable if you say 'Tee Double-Ay Zee Arr'.
But it really sounded foreign, and that's a bad thing. When people think
something is foreign, they give up -trying- to understand or remember it
before they ever start.
Oh, and you may have change the domain name, but you didn't bother to update
the text on the page.
------
wtracy
I forget where I originally read this, but I heard a suggestion that if you're
going to go with a creative misspelling for a company name, only make one
spelling change, not two.
So, either double the a (Taazer) or drop the e (Tazr) but don't do both.
(Think Digg or Flickr.)
------
losvedir
Taazr looks Arabic to me (تازر). According to Google Translate, it actually is
a word: "Synergy." Was that the origin of the name?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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What Happens When Apple Features Your iPhone App - PStamatiou
http://blog.return7.com/what-happens-when-apple-features-your-app
======
patio11
As an aside: developers often cite ongoing costs as a reason to charge in an
ongoing fashion for services like, e.g., push notifications or web
applications.
It doesn't particularly matter to me how you explain your business model to
your users (although "Boo hoo we have costs and have to feed our children" has
always struck me as less persuasive in prying money out of people than "Look
at how much value we give you!"). However, as long as we're just developers
here, I'd just like to point out that marginal users are too cheap to meter
and as long as you're continuing to sell the service there is no reason you
can't fund the server costs entirely out of present sales.
Example from my app so you can see I'm not blowing smoke: my VPS costs $85 a
month. My users pay $30, once. Suppose, for the sake of argument, that I can
tolerate 10,000 users in one day (which is absurdly low given typical peak
concurrency for my application, but we're just playing napkin-math).
This means that $85 buys me 300,000 user-days a month. Trial users typically
go up-or-out within 3 user-days. Paid users consume less than 5 user-days per
month. ( _Far_ less in my case but hey, napkin math.)
Assuming I like keeping half of my safe allocation available for trial users
(150k user-days or, as seen above, enough to support 50k new trials per month,
which is more than 1.5k per day, which is more than 10 times my best day
ever), this means that I can support up to 30k paying users on one $85 / month
box.
Now, hypothetically, if I were getting 1.5k trials per day, I'd be getting
somewhere on the order of 30 sales per day. 3 sales _per month_ would pay for
the server. It is clearly sustainable without having to use a subscription
model.
I mention this mostly because some users groups are extraordinarily resistant
to subscription models and I don't want anyone to feel they absolutely must,
must, must price on a subscription if they offer a service.
I'm not intimately familiar with push notifications to iTunes apps but I
suspect they require something on the order of one HTTP request. If so, on a
per user basis, they're too cheap to meter. I'd (personally) offer them to
everybody just to increase the amount of sales I got from the daily gravy
train. (Well, to the extent that iPhone sales are driven by features, which I
think is pretty darn limited.)
~~~
amdev
IMO, this breaks down due to the App Store's volatility. To compete, one
generally (there are exceptions) has to lower prices to silly levels. That's
fine and dandy when you're selling a couple hundred copies a day, but as soon
as you fall off the chart in your category, you fall into the pit of selling
0-5 copies a day. At that point, not having a subscription model becomes
unsustainable. There are 75k+ (and growing) apps on the store and a very small
percentage of them actually get noticed. When they do, they often fall back
into obscurity quickly. Very few apps maintain a solid rank for a year. You
can't bank on getting sustained sales forever because you take the risk of
having to foot the bill for the server yourself when the sales stop, VPS or
not. Anyway, the feature is optional and the app works great without it. Apple
recently added a listing that shows apps pulling in the most revenue. I think
their hope is it will help alleviate this "race to the bottom" pricing. Time
and market will tell.
As for push, there are two bits: client<\-->server interaction and opening a
socket connection to shoot data to APNS to send the notifications themselves.
It was pretty fun to get together and really the hardest parts dealt more with
business rules than integrating with Apple's service. I would personally have
preferred APIs to hook into the phone's calendar app, but push is useful for
IM apps and the like, in lieu of background processes.
~~~
amdev
I should mention the cost of our app is $0.99. It would cap out at about
$2.99. I don't think asking for a dollar a year is unreasonable given the cost
of the app.
~~~
netsp
I don't think there has ever in the history of the world been a consumer
market where unit prices are so low.
BTW: Personally, regular payments (especially small ones), do put me off. But
I wouldn't mind a prepaid model so much. IE, I pay for a month or six upfront
and then pay again to renew. I know this kind of opt-in/out is rarely
beneficial to vendors, but in some cases it might work.
~~~
whatusername
low relative to what?
There's still an awful lot of the worlds population who earn less than $1 /
day.
~~~
patio11
Most of them, presumably, do not walk around with $600 cell phones.
------
timdorr
I'd be most interested to see what happens a week and a month from now. That
graph is obviously going to go back down, but I'm curious at what level it
reaches an equilibrium and is that going to be a higher number than the prior
sales date.
~~~
amdev
We'll definitely do a follow up post with that info :)
------
jvdh
Your site goes down?
~~~
amdev
Yea, apparently. Working on it. Sorry. :D
~~~
RyanMcGreal
Title should be, "What Happens When Hacker News Features Apple Featuring Your
iPhone App".
~~~
amdev
You find that it's a great time to have your server in the cloud and be able
to upgrade easily :D
------
amdev
Up now, sorry for the downtime
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Scalable C – Writing Large-Scale Distributed C - ingve
https://hintjens.gitbooks.io/scalable-c/content/preface.html
======
jasode
_> The more C++ you know the worse you become at working with others. First,
because your particular dialects of C++ tend to isolate you._
So why is using something non-standard and non-universal like <czmq.h> not
perceived as a "dialect" of C?[1] Any non-trivial source codebase beyond _"
printf("hello world")"_ will be a "dialect" of the programmer(s). When looking
at the C source files of Linux kernel, Redis, and SQLite, etc, the syntax
patterns, helper macros, string manipulations, etc do not look the same.
Also the author's example of,
for (i = List.begin (); i != List.end (); ++i)
cout << *i << " ";
is not the same semantics as:
char *fruit = (char *) zlist_first (list);
while (fruit) {
printf ("%s ", fruit);
fruit = (char *) zlist_next (list);
}
The C++ loop is multithread safe. The C version is not. For the zlist_next()
to work, the "list" data structure needs to maintain mutable state in between
subsequent calls. (Think of how something like strtok() works by mutating the
string).
[1]possibly because Pieter Hintjens is the programmer & CEO behind ZeroMQ and
czmq.h. Therefore, it doesn't feel like a dialect to him?
~~~
PieterH
CZMQ is a library of around 30K lines of code. The Scalable C book is in many
ways a guide to using that library in real projects.
Of course every programmer develops their own dialects, just as every writer
has their own voice. C is however a small language and if you stay away from
weird macro magic, any well-written C code is mutually intelligible to other C
programmers. Whereas with C++, dialects can have so little overlap they are
not mutually intelligible.
FWIW neither of the fragments is safe if you are sharing state between
threads. In practice we do _not_ share objects between threads, and each
object holds its own state, and thus our C code is 100% thread safe and
reentrant.
~~~
jasode
_> The Scalable C book is in many ways a guide to using that library in real
projects._
I'm not criticizing the book or czmq. I'm sure it's a fine library. I just
found your characterizations of C++ to be strange.
For example: " _> , any well-written C code is mutually intelligible to other
C programmers._"
If you're going to qualify C code with " _well-written_ " to help make your
point then can't the same qualification be applied to C++? If so, it means you
believe that there is " _well-written C++ code_ " that is simultaneously
unintelligible to other programmers. In your opinion, what would be an example
of that? (E.g. If you can point to github of unintelligible but well-written
C++ source code.)
And your other statement: _> , because your particular dialects of C++ tend to
isolate you._
I don't know if CryEngine and Unreal game engines are well-written C++ but
they seem attract developers. There's also the scuba diving app[1] written in
C++ that also has Linus (who you already know hates C++) modifying the source
code. I contend there are bigger factors than C++ dialects causing isolation.
The C++ _ABI_ may be more isolating than the C _ABI_ because of C++ name
mangling incompatibilities. But I don't see how the C++ dialects (of well-
written code) are isolating.
[1][https://github.com/torvalds/subsurface](https://github.com/torvalds/subsurface)
~~~
PieterH
Since you ask, I'll admit it: I enjoy trolling C++ users because the language
has so often thought of itself as superior to C. Beating on the language
always gets lots of discussion going, which is fun. I've nothing against the
language, or any other language, as such. Good tools, in the hands of good
developers.
~~~
unscaled
I find it the other way around. It's usually C hackers who tend to describe
C++ as the devil incarnate. C++ developers tend to be more pragmatic - we'd
happily write in C if necessary, we just find it limited. And since C++ is
almost a superset of C, there's rarely any need to use it.
------
SFjulie1
Exactly the kind of code I make.
I use C for performance.... as an extension for python that have a GC and a
GIL. But more than never, I first use numpy (fortran) because it is dazzling
fast and has specialized tricks of digital signal processing availables
(ifft). And I do C after the profiler says to do so. When needed. If needed.
Most of the dynamic data structure (message sent with zmq) the config, the
parsing are better handled in python.
And since I do as much sloc / day in C and python ...
(1 python loc = 6 C loc)
I code 6 times faster.
And I don't have the headeaches of the dependency management
I am totally okay with C, but when doing distributed system more often than
never you also multi-threading. And C is not builtin for thread safety, it is
harder.
So I C some masochisms at work here.
And I am pretty sure I am not the only coder thinking this book is full of
pedantism and of advices not to be followed and it is empty.
How did such a poor news made it to the top?
~~~
vidarh
> more often than never you also multi-threading
This is a Windows-ism that's crept into Unix-likes over the years, and it's
not a good trend. Just don't do it. Especially since sharing direct access to
state makes it harder to decouple components to scale them further. This book
specifically argues to pass state via IPC for a reason.
> And I am pretty sure I am not the only coder thinking this book is full of
> pedantism and of advices not to be followed and it is empty.
Maybe, but iMatix has been a successful company for more than two decades, and
delivered impressive open source applications (e.g. Xitami web server) and
code-generation tools (Libero ec.) as well as cross-plaform utility libraries
for C (SFL etc.) already two decades ago, and have gone on to develop large-
scale C-based distribued systems and in the process developed things like AMQ
and 0MQ that's been incredibly successful, so I for one tend to at least pay
careful attention as they actually do have a track record.
~~~
SFjulie1
I know a lot of successful companies with products that are notoriously poorly
coded : \- "security software"; \- "game industry"; \- "car industry";
And if you read correctly I think the biggest issue is TIME is MONEY.
What are the advantages of using techniques that:
\- are expensive (productivity is constant in sloc whatever the language);
\- are notoriously a systemic risks given their domain of work and is hard to
audit;
\- that can be smoothly achieved by upgrading a faster to build architecture
in a scripting language ;
They may have bigger balls of steels than me doing it in C and be the best
programmers in the world. My question is business oriented: what is the
economic rationale of a full C solution from start?
~~~
ArkyBeagle
Beats me.
I know that if I had a large enough project and had to add people, I have a
dozen people in my Rolodex who speak 'C' at the expert level and that they
will perform. But depending on the problem domain, that might mean C++ or it
might mean Python or something else.
But given the level of hostility the language inspires, I have to wonder. To
wit "bigger balls of steel" and "best programmers in the world." Both
sentiments are quite foreign to the sorts of environments I've worked in, I
assure you.
~~~
SFjulie1
Sorry for you then. Living in such a boring world, and what a disdain-full
answer that makes my point.
I have add my share of conferences technical or about FOSS. And I met peoples
with a _lot of_ passion ... and code delivered. You probably use their
software daily.
I have been using more than 13 langages ranking from C to forth, matlab, vhdl,
spice, python, perl and php.
There are definitively cultures associated with languages and beliefs.
Perl community is thinking coding is like speaking/writing a foreign language;
Ruby about you IQ and technical skills are totally correlated with how nice
your apple laptop looks like and how expensive it is. They are our hipsters
(troll);
Python secretly hides a sect hating braces and everything that looks like C
and believe C coder can't make safe thread code, malloc, correct string
handling. And they hate braces.
for c++ coder referring to linus torvalds rant would be the spirit.
Java coder believe in the utltimate safe portable VM and the power of GoF. And
think people look the wrong way;
Haskell thinks of themselves as alchemists loving to use obscure terms coined
by an hallucinated metaphyscian priest that said ET must exists and that no
one will notice. They still laugh of their ultimate joke;
And C coders think that only them are the pure programmer, the only one that
can see the matrix between the purity of abstraction and the undetermination
of hardware/norms due to the imperfection of the humans. But, with their
discipline that is above the norm (no noob accepted) they can fight the God of
Entropy
FORTRAN coder think that computers are a pain and would just like to have
exact figures much more than nice looking interface and wonder when a correct
intuitive language will appear (<\--- My sect)
They appear maybe because for each language comes a practical field of use and
that one computer language cannot fill all the needs.
The need for correction and exactitude in science conflicts with the "ease of
use" of numbers.
The need for having cheap workforce conflicts with efficient cheap to maintain
code;
The need for preventing embezzlement (origin of SQL) conflicts with creative
accountability;
At one moment, at my opinion C is like a middle age corporation. Trying to
promote a one best way of CS that always boil down to C.
C community maybe "professional" as opposed to "enthusiasts". But I think it
does not always serve them.
And I do not think that recognizing Computer Science is a peaceful uniform
land, but an arena full of organic entities in conflicts with logical distinct
rationalities for the same resources.
In short, I have the write to mock other cultures.
~~~
ArkyBeagle
Nicely put. Very nicely put.
I don't know how you came up with "disdainful"; it's more sort of sad and
weary as I read it now. After all, I started with "Beats me" \- such a
decision would have to be very local. The first rule of 'C' is "don't use 'C'"
these days... the people I know _DON 'T_ swagger; that was my point.
The "professionals" vs. "enthusiasts" divide is extremely interesting in all
fields of endeavor. I'm definitely on the "professional" side.
I... don't think 'C' programmers are "above any norm"; they just sort of know
where the rocks are right under the surface of the water. It's more difficult
to explain than to do. If a bunch of people misrepresent themselves as ...
badass because they sling 'C', I can't help that. The appropriate mentality
for it is one of caution. I specifically called that out here...
It also matters less because coding a system is roughly 5-10% of the actual
cost of most deployed systems. Language matters much less than mechanism.
Meanwhile, the worst horrors are inflicted using systems like SAP.
Don't feel _too_ sorry for me; I use at least three language systems every
day, and have messed with ... dozens ( all resulting in deployed code at some
level) , including graphical CASE tools.
------
halayli
This looks like it's coming from someone who doesn't know C++ well and is just
coming up with reasons to fit their bias. The fact that he/she didn't mention
any disadvantage to the C code written beside verbosity makes it clear.
For one, it's easy to forget to call zlist_destroy. Who owns what in C can get
very complicated and you can run into dangling pointers. At least in the C++
version you can manage ownership easier in their case.
I am not defending one language over the other, I use them both and have
experienced the advantages and disadvantages of each.
What's being shown in this book is not how typically you create link-lists.
man queue(3) to see how it's generally done.
The C++ for-loop is not how you typically iterate over a list , again the
author decided to show a bad example to confirm their bias:
for (const auto& i : List)
cout << i << " ";
~~~
unscaled
More likely, someone who hasn't programmed C++ in the last 10 years.
Forgetting auto, and using the cumbersome 3-part for loop with iterator
boilerplate when you only need value shows age. Initializing the list is also
easier now, with initializer lists syntax, so you could just do:
list<string> lst = { "tomato", "grape", "apple", "orange"};
and cut another 4 lines, making the C++ line count half of C version. Not a
negligible difference, as the author claims.
------
nickpsecurity
Nice work in progress, Peter. Look forward to seeing more of it given your
prior work. I light how you preempt many C-related counterpoints with model-
driven development that generates C. Done excellently by iMatix and many
others. I'm especially interested in how you'll apply that to distributed C.
------
petke
I'm a cpp programmer who recently spent a week learning zeromq to replace
named pipes in a project. By the end I was disappointed by the cpp language
bindings as they only cover the low level library. Had I known from the start
I probably would have looked elsewhere. Its a shame cpp is ignored in much of
the open source community in favor of c. If nothing else Cpp after all is a
safer c.
~~~
dschiptsov
http://250bpm.com/blog:4
http://250bpm.com/blog:8
~~~
petke
Yes I read those before. I didn't find them convincing. Intrusive lists is an
anti pattern that you can also do in cpp if you want. Getting rid of
exceptions doesn't mean you get rid of errors. It just means you can more
easily ignore errors and continue running a corrupted program. But the big
picture though is that cpp I a safer language. A core library might be written
in c for whatever reason. But its good to provide a wrapper in a safer
language for users to use.
------
neikos
> _/ /Solution: make /usr/local writeable.//_
> _This is a brutal and effective solution, the best kind of solution_
I... uhm, what?
> _Solution: grab the latest CZMQ git master from github._
No, you do not want to run your software off of master, and the fact that
Master doesn't always build (because of errors) should be a fringe occurrence
with CI now being free/cheap and highly flexible.
~~~
michaelmior
I'm not sure about CZMQ, but I assume what you eat is that you don't want to
run code from a development branch that's rapidly changing. That's not
necessarily what master is in all projects. The master branch is sometimes
used as the latest stable release.
~~~
neikos
True, I forgot about that aspect. However in this case that doesn't apply
either as a stable branch should always compile.
------
lukaslalinsky
It's funny how this centered around ZeroMQ, which is written in C++.
~~~
geocar
This might be part of the reason:
* [http://250bpm.com/blog:4](http://250bpm.com/blog:4)
* [http://250bpm.com/blog:8](http://250bpm.com/blog:8)
~~~
jeremyjh
Which are weak arguments that point more to the author's dissatisfaction with
the architecture of libzmq than with problems in C++ language. This was
discussed previously here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3953434](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3953434)
------
vidarh
Github repository:
[https://github.com/hintjens/scalable-c](https://github.com/hintjens/scalable-c)
------
tom_mellior
I'd be interested in this if it were nearing completion. I think structuring
the book around problem-solution pairs is a nice technique. But it would be a
much better read if fewer irrelevant statements of opinion were strewn in.
Also, a lot of the bizarre statements of irrelevant "fact" should be checked,
for example:
> In the Old Times, creating a repository was days, weeks of work.
I can't begin to comprehend what this may mean. "svn create" (or whatever it
was called) was always instantaneous. Setting your project up for network
access took longer because you had to read docs and write a config file, but
the same is true for Git.
> Optimizing compilers (...) may remove assertions.
Bullshit. Using NDEBUG removes assertions, and yes, this indeed means that
assertions must be side-effect free. But an optimizing compiler? No. If that
actually happened for calls to impure functions (and no, it really doesn't
happen), it would be a major compiler bug.
> a nasty reminder of the old days when computers stored data and code on
> different kinds of rust, and languages enforced that
Code and data do live in different places in memory; nowadays more than ever,
for reasons of security. C's original "declarations before statements" rule
(the context here) was simply because it makes it much simpler to write a
primitive single-pass compiler.
> The standard C library often puts destination arguments first, which is a
> hangover from assembly language. MOV X, Y.
... or maybe it's an analogy with assignment statements, X = Y?
Note that three out of these four examples are just irrelevant opinions, so
they should be removed from the text even if they weren't factually false.
~~~
PieterH
Creating an svn repo was fast, yet you could not use it without a dedicated
server, DNS configuration, security configuration, firewall configuration,
etc. etc. If this was your only job, sure, a few hours' work. For the rest of
us, begging a sysadmin or spending days learning the details.
Whereas with git it's literally "git init ." or clicking on Github.com and
we're ready to roll.
I do appreciate the fact checking, and you're welcome to send me more
comments. Errors of fact don't survive the editorial process, one hopes.
Opinions, that's a different story.
~~~
tom_mellior
> with git it's literally "git init ."
That doesn't magically give you a shared, network-accessible repository with
all the correct access controls.
> or clicking on Github.com
SourceForge has existed since 1999, and after a click you have always been
ready to roll.
> and you're welcome to send me more comments
But I probably won't if your strategy is "spread misinformation first, then
make others work to point out mistakes, then defend an indefensible position,
then maybe change it". That's not how communities are built. That's what you
yourself criticize in the section on merging strategies...
------
bluejekyll
> then you know where C stops working, as a language.
He actually makes a really strong argument against using C right in the first
two paragraphs.
C is a dangerous language. Assembly is even more dangerous. There are
languages that compile to close the same speed and are systems oriented with 0
overhead.
I'm truly curious, if you're working on a new project would you pick C? Or
would you reach for something that's going to reduce the bugs that inevitably
come from writing even 10 lines of C?
~~~
chris11
What languages would you personally pick over C?
~~~
bluejekyll
Rust, no debate.
------
signa11
this seems to be still it is early nascent stage, with a complete toc missing,
most likely, in the works. caveat emptor.
~~~
PieterH
Yes, indeed. I've updated the book title on Gitbooks to make this clear. I'm
writing and publishing the book piece by piece, to get feedback early on in
the process.
------
magicmu
I know the basics of C, but stopped short of getting deep into threading and
concurrency since it seems like Go and Rust handle that in a more efficient
way (although there's no way I would use Rust in production yet). Are there
any advantages to using C/C++ for a new large-scale project?
~~~
steveklabnik
Just for curiosity's sake, what specifically would make you not use Rust in
production yet?
~~~
OopsCriticality
Not OP but from the perspective of the industrial side: no track record, no
formal standard, changes too fast, incomplete documentation, doesn't have an
extensive commercial and supporting ecosystem (e.g. Parasoft, Java Path
Finder), limited pool of experienced programmers with embedded and regulated
environment experience. Arguably, it falls under the heading of "too new".
I'd prefer to deal with known knowns rather than the known unknowns or _gasp_
unknown unknowns of something new. It's a very conservative position, but it's
borne out of the expense associated with mistakes and corrections of.
~~~
steveklabnik
Cool thanks! I'm trying to figure out what blockers are so we can prioritize
things; a lot of these are very reasonable, but not immediately actionable
things for me. Sounds good. :)
~~~
OopsCriticality
Sorry I can't offer anything more specific and actionable; I guess comparing
Rust to a fine wine, something that must be aged to reach full potential, will
have to do :)
~~~
steveklabnik
Hehe, no need to be sorry. It's one of the best answers, actually: it means
that there aren't any fires, it's just about playing the long game and letting
time pass. I prefer that. :)
------
_pmf_
> While C lends itself to building libraries, it has no consistent API model.
What language has? Wouldn't this require first class modules (which few
systems have; JS' hacked together solution is obviously not to be considered a
true solution)?
~~~
vog
OCaml has a typesystem in which modules are first-class citizens, just like
functions. They have a clear separation between interface (they call it
"signatures") and implementation. The compiler enforces that you can only
write against the interface, making modules with the same interface really
exchangeable. The modules are also parametrizable (they call such modules
"functors").
[http://caml.inria.fr/pub/docs/manual-
ocaml/moduleexamples.ht...](http://caml.inria.fr/pub/docs/manual-
ocaml/moduleexamples.html)
[https://realworldocaml.org/v1/en/html/functors.html](https://realworldocaml.org/v1/en/html/functors.html)
[https://realworldocaml.org/v1/en/html/first-class-
modules.ht...](https://realworldocaml.org/v1/en/html/first-class-modules.html)
~~~
tom_mellior
That's all true, but it doesn't mean that OCaml has a "consistent API model",
whatever that may mean. Unless "provide a fold and a map for all datatypes",
which I guess is consistent across most APIs, is a "model".
------
doodpants
So far I've only read the Preface and part of Chapter 1. What bugs me is this:
> * Write portable code that runs on all platforms.
Ok, good plan.
> * An operating system you are comfortable with. Linux will give you the best
> results. OS/X [sic] and Windows are usable if you have no choice.
So... results vary by platform? And then after the "hello world" example:
> And you should see that familiar Hello, World printed on your console. If
> you are using OS/X [sic] or Windows, it won't be this easy. I'll repeat my
> advice to install Linux.
Funny, this example works just fine for me on OS X. You do realize OS X is a
Unix-like system, right?
> Having said that, remember this rule:
> Linux is the native environment for C development.
Gee, I wonder how people like Dennis Ritchie ever managed to write C code
before Linux came along?
------
jheriko
those three points in the bullet list near the start all seem to miss the mark
for me.
------
fizixer
Love it.
I dream of the day when all current system-level fads bite the dust, replaced
by new fads, while C is still running as the system layer. (hint: just like it
is happening today with the 90s fad called C++, replaced by fads like Go,
Rust, D).
~~~
dunerocks
lol? C++ is hardly a "fad"!
~~~
kev009
Well, IMHO it was, and C was too (google books magazines from 80s and 90s).
The people left using both languages are usually doing so deliberately rather
than because it is trendy.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How to Allocate Memory (2016) - tosh
https://geocar.sdf1.org/alloc.html
======
ShroudedNight
I don't like this article. It comes across as being written with the intent of
highlighting the elevation the author's status as a 'low-level wizard', while
conveying as little as possible to the ignorant reader. From the scattered
aspects of memory management it covers to it uses of unexplained magic numbers
in its code examples, it comes across more as an unsolicited secret handshake
than cogent, empathetic attempt to elevate others in the practice.
Disclaimer: I had a hard time following this article. I'm also (ostensibly
anyway) not the target audience. I was at one point the primary person
responsible for the memory management in the JIT compiler[1] used by OpenJ9,
though I haven't done that for a couple of years now.
[1] That is, the memory used by the JIT compiler itself, not its interactions
with the garbage collector.
~~~
SlowRobotAhead
I am the target audience. I get exactly what he’s going for but found a
different gripe.
I really dislike his coding style! It’s written to be “short” in favor of
clear. I see what the code does, but not necessarily his intent.
void*page_alloc(unsigned long long bytes) {
void *x;
for(;;) {
x = mmap(0, bytes, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_ANONYMOUS|MAP_PRIVATE, -1, 0);
if(x != MAP_FAILED) return x;
out_of_memory();
}
}
For embedded I stoped using “unsigned long long” in favor of uint64_t. He
spends all those extra characters but can’t put a space in the void pointer
function definition?
~~~
geocar
Apologies! I usually typedef long long J;typedef unsigned long long U; and
that makes it a bit shorter, but I wanted each example to compile, and not to
get bogged down on typedefs.
~~~
einpoklum
If you use this kind of typedefs, most people reading your code will kind of
hate you... either that or you're targeting the Internationl Obfuscated C Code
Contents [1].
[1] - [https://www.ioccc.org/](https://www.ioccc.org/)
~~~
saagarjha
Perhaps this might help explain their reasoning:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22010590](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22010590)
~~~
SlowRobotAhead
I didn’t downvote you, but your link contained this... and I considered it.
ZI http(I d,I f,C*p,I r,I*sd){I i,o=0,b=0,s=0,w=0,g=0,e=0,c=0,cf=1,m=0;K q=0,a=ktn(11,0),v=ktn(0,0);
for(i=b=0;i<r;++i){switch(p[i]){
case'\n':if(!e)e=i;if(!q){q=kpn(p+w,g-w);if('\r'==(cf=p[i-1]))cf=p[i-2];}else if(!c){w=!!strchr("kK1",cf);if(!o)sc(d,0,sd);else if(w){if('g'==o)cwrite(f,OK("200","keep-alive")BLANK);else cwrite(f,OK("204","keep-alive")END204);}else{if('g'==o)cwrite(f,OK("200","close")BLANK);else cwrite(f,OK("204","close")END204);close(f);}a=k(o?-d:d,"dash",knk(2,q,xD(a,v),0),0,0);b=i+1;if(!o){if(!a){poop(f);R 0;}if(10!=a->t){r0(a);poop(f);R 0;}writer(f,kC(a),a->n);r0(a);if(!w)close(f);}if(b==r)R 1;q=0;o=0;a=ktn(11,0),v=ktn(0,0);}else{if((c-m)==10&& !strncasecmp(p+m,"connection",c-m))cf=p[s];js(&a,sn(p+m,c-m));jk(&v,kpn(p+s,e-s));}w=e=g=s=c=0;m=i+1;break;
case' ':case'\t':case'\r':if(w&&!g)g=i;if(s==(e=i))++s;break;
case':':if(!c)s=1+(c=i);break;
case '/':if(!w)w=i+1;case '?':case '&':if(r>=(i+4)&&p[i+1]=='f'&&p[i+2]=='=')o=p[i+3];default: e=0;break;}}if(a)r0(a),r0(v);if(q)r0(q);R b;}
Thanks, I learned about something I absolutely hate.
------
asveikau
Using sbrk(2) as an application stack seems like a bad idea. A lot of times
that is where malloc gets its heap addresses from.
The article even says this but not strongly enough:
> It is worth mentioning that the C library malloc might be using and caching
> the results of sbrk it may be unwise to mix this trick with your C library
> malloc, but it is very useful in new programs that you have no intention of
> using the C library malloc with.
No it is not a good idea to write "new programs" to apply hacky uses of
sbrk(2) and conflict with malloc. Any use of sbrk(2) outside of a malloc
implementation is pretty suspect as code smell. And you will be hard pressed
to find any program or library that doesn't use malloc, short of embedded use
cases.
~~~
wruza
Not only malloc, but the entire libc, as no functions in it explicitly
guarantee that they do not call malloc and/or mess “your” brk range. You can
guess it by what it does and ENOMEM in possible return status, but that is a
stupid idea. sbrk is basically a remnant api and is now either an
implementation detail of libc memory management or a fool’s crutch [1].
[1]
[https://opensource.apple.com/source/Libc/Libc-1272.250.1/emu...](https://opensource.apple.com/source/Libc/Libc-1272.250.1/emulated/brk.c.auto.html)
~~~
asveikau
Yes. Notably stdio typically uses the heap. So I hope this author isn't
planning to use printf for New Programs.
~~~
geocar
I don't, at least not when I care about performance.
stdio is a big unknown with highly variable performance across platforms and
libc-versions.
~~~
smabie
Sure, yeah but it’s not like using printf is a problem for error messages or
logging. Using write() for that kind of stuff is more hassle than it’s worth.
~~~
geocar
Oh it so is!
I can’t count the number of times I’ve gotten 20-50x speed ups just turning
off logging. Assuming printf is free (or even cheap) is the sort of thing
that’ll get you into trouble. It might not always matter, but when it does if
your application is parsing strings at runtime at high volume, it’s going to
hurt!
I rarely log messages anyway, preferring to set state that I can then printout
on command (e.g. siginfo)
~~~
jstimpfle
So did you just turn logging off, or did you in fact write a better custom
implementation? And how much faster did it go? Did you actually measure that?
What kind of system was that on?
My first thought is, probably there was an fsync() or similar after logging
each message. Also, printf() and friends have to lock the streams, so there
might be some contention somewhere in case you're multi-threaded. That's not a
problem that you can solve without some custom routing of logging messages.
Using printf, you can easily write dozens of megabytes of the most complicated
formatting code on contemporary systems (I'm just pulling a number out of thin
air here). More than any system should want to log.
~~~
geocar
People who deal in megabytes have different problems than people who deal in
petabytes.
Usually just turn it off. At least at first. Note I’m talking diagnostic here;
If I _need_ the log messages obviously I have to write a custom streaming
system even if the system printf is fast enough because the API complicates
recovery.
Printf can also vary in performance by 10msec or more based on the internal
state. That’s not good enough since my entire application has a hard limit of
around 30msec. I can’t even do one printf — even every N messages (for any N)
because I’ll never catch up.
~~~
jstimpfle
> People who deal in megabytes have different problems than people who deal in
> petabytes.
I just hope that this is not meant ad-hominem. At the very least it's a bad
reply, unless you are dealing with petabytes _per second_. (Btw one of my
current projects is a text editor that can handle gigabytes in memory; local
operations take 5-50 microseconds. So I have reason to think I'm not entirely
clueless).
> I rarely log messages anyway, preferring to set state that I can then
> printout on command (e.g. siginfo)
That sounds much more reasonable to me giving the volumes that you cite, and
why shouldn't we use printf() for that?
Why would printf "vary in performance by 10msec" or more, in ways that another
application wouldn't? For how much data is that? How many printf() calls?
Anyway I shouldn't have gotten in the woods here. The blanket statement that
printf() is slow and therefore an obscure API like sbrk() is a better use, is
nonsensical for a guide that seemingly gives general advice for memory
allocation.
------
saagarjha
> One major limitation of malloc (and even the best implementations like
> jemalloc and dlmalloc) is that they try to use a single allocator for each
> data structure.
I’m not sure what this is supposed to mean, but it’s good to note that malloc
will switch between different paths based on the allocation size and what
memory it has available to service the request.
~~~
geocar
malloc() has incomplete information. It doesn't know that this allocation of 0
bytes is soon going to balloon to a few GB in a future realloc(), so if it
starts in brk, it'll mmap later and memcpy the data over. The good news is
that the caller knows this.
By saying "I want a sizeof(Cons) object" versus "I want a buffer that's going
to get big and used for a long time" versus "I want a buffer that'll get big
but go away right after" means you get to avoid these unnecessary operations.
That's important because they really add up when dealing with lots of data.
That's how replacing a complicated and intelligent malloc() which has to rely
on heuristics to decide which of the "different paths" to follow can lose big
to a simpler strategy.
~~~
saagarjha
Why not just mmap at the start then?
~~~
geocar
Well then you’re not using malloc() which is kindof my point.
Or are you asking something else?
------
zerotonine
Can anyone think of a use case for creating a second stack, without a thread,
to allocate memory? The approach I have in mind: 1) Create a new stack POSIX
makecontext() w/ initializer thread. 2) Initializer thread makes function
calls to allocate objects. Functions are called in sequence and never return.
The thread eventually reaches the end of its initialization sequence and
stalls. 3) Use swapcontext() to return to the original thread from #1. 4)
Original thread may reference all objects allocated on the stack of the other
context.
This seems like a widget that could be used to accomplish something
interesting, but I'm not sure what that might be.
~~~
geocar
A forth interpreter is probably the simplest and most-common example of a two-
stack system someone might be familiar with.
Sometimes I'd like to push an event onto a queue from an interrupt (e.g. a
signal handler) and the buffer size can balloon some; sbrk() might be used
because it's faster than malloc() and I know the consumer is fast enough (even
though it's currently busy).
Sometimes I know the memory usage is very temporary, but I don't want to
contort my program to use alloca() and so again: using brk can be convenient.
There are other things that are stack-like that we don't often think of as
stacks.
One interesting place might be an undo-stack: An editor typically has an undo
and redo-button and will never be freeing this state anyway, so rather than
malloc/realloc my state (and have extra copies going on), and without trashing
my heap with a long linked list, I might prefer the performance of sbrk(). You
could possibly use alloca() as well, but this would make redo very difficult.
Another might be in a consensus algorithm: If implementing raft you wanted to
queue messages until you had a chance for your election, your "stack" might
take several seconds before you can start processing it. Keeping this on the
"other" stack would make it difficult to do any other processing (where's the
event loop?), and using malloc/realloc() will introduce copies. Reserving
sbrk() for this stage might make everything much more straightforward.
~~~
jstimpfle
> One interesting place might be an undo-stack: [..] so rather than
> malloc/realloc my state (and have extra copies going on), and without
> trashing my heap with a long linked list, I might prefer the performance of
> sbrk().
You can implement a stack-like thing that avoids copying, and even gives
stable addresses, by linking fixed-size chunks (say 128 elements) in a list. A
stack "pointer" is then a pointer to a chunk + offset.
That said, editor/undo redo items are not performance critical. And you will
be hard pressed to find a reason why you need to optimize memory consumption.
Assuming a memory overhead of 16 bytes per allocation and assuming that a
human would make < 1M edits.
Preferring an obscure API like sbrk() instead is not good general advice. It's
not portable and it precludes the use of basically any library including libc.
~~~
vardump
> And you will be hard pressed to find a reason why you need to optimize
> memory consumption.
You might want to minimize fragmentation and number of underutilized heap
pages.
Even if your allocator minimizes fragmentation by allocating similar size
objects from same area, allocating a large number of objects risks some other
code (possibly running in a different thread) allocating long-living objects
in the same time.
This can cause pages to exist just to hold a single small object, preventing
optimal use of memory.
In some algorithms, 90-99%+ of runtime can be in allocation and freeing small
objects!
On top of that, accessing a sequential stack (array) is significantly faster.
CPUs are built for that type of access patterns.
~~~
jstimpfle
I had to read a little between the lines to understand your point, which I
think is this: Even if you have an object type that requires only lowest-
performance memory management (say, editor undo/redo items), you should
separate these allocation concerns from all the other allocation concerns in
the program, because you might risk contention. It's important to group
allocations by lifetime.
To which I'll say, shouldn't we rather optimize and separate the high-
bandwidth stuff, so we can keep using malloc-per-object for the unimportant
stuff?
The rest of your comment does not apply to a simple undo/redo system:
> In some algorithms, 90-99%+ of runtime can be in allocation and freeing
> small objects!
> On top of that, accessing a sequential stack (array) is significantly
> faster. CPUs are built for that type of access patterns.
~~~
geocar
Not the person you’re replying to, but:
> shouldn't we rather optimize and separate the high-bandwidth stuff, so we
> can keep using malloc-per-object for the unimportant stuff?
If it helps, sure, but one problem that shows up nasty at high bandwidth is
variable latency: malloc might be too clever and vary on the order of msec and
with hard-real-time environments you can’t amortise the cost over multiple
messages since missing one means you never catch back up (without e.g.
throwing data away)
~~~
ShroudedNight
I've only cursory exposure to it, but my understanding is that TLSF malloc[1]
is designed to directly address those concerns. Is it known to be deficient
such that its claims are invalid in / worthless for real-world use?
[1]
[http://www.gii.upv.es/tlsf/files/ecrts04_tlsf.pdf](http://www.gii.upv.es/tlsf/files/ecrts04_tlsf.pdf)
------
Koshkin
Abstractions are leaky - much more often than one would like to think. On
modern 64-bit systems, for example, with the apparently "limitless" virtual
memory one has to pay close attention not only to the allocation patterns but
also to the access patterns: random reads and writes from/to a huge array may
lead to a significant drop in performance.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Top 50 Tech Visionaries - edw519
http://www.pcworld.com/printable/article/id,145290/printable.html#
======
jpeterson
This list is just silly. Herbie Hancock??
~~~
jamesbritt
Lists like this are no fun unless there is at least one WTF item.
(Though I do think an argument could be made for Hancock.)
~~~
rms
Definitely, but I think someone like Wendy Carlos or Kraftwerk would make more
sense.
~~~
jamesbritt
Very good point.
------
xenoterracide
linus is too far down and rms is not on there. As if GNU and the GPL have't
made an impact. Bad list.
------
yaj
where is wozniak?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
‘Forgot your password?’ may be weakest link - ajbatac
http://redtape.msnbc.com/2008/08/almost-everyone.html
======
linhir
There might be some selection bias here in Thompson's friend. Despite our
narrow view that everyone has a blog, and a ton of personal information out
there, most people's favorite middle school teacher isn't readily available. I
think the solution, that I have noticed many sites doing more recently, is to
more carefully create the list of questions. I am no longer asked my best
friend's last name or my dog's name, but rather more obscure questions, which,
as the article suggests, is a step in the right direction.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
BigTable and Why it Changes Everything - edw519
http://jetfar.com/bigtable-and-why-it-changes-everything/
======
tx
How old is the blogger? You've got to be 11 holding "Python in 21 days" to
claim that multi-dimensional map is an "alternative" to RDBMS.
Besides, how reliable is that infrastructure? There is only one customer in
the world who's running it - Google themselves. And judging by how often
google maps falls apart and properly loads only about 80% of regions, and by
gmail that loses my labels (and takes up to 20 seconds to send a message
sometimes), it makes me scared to think that airline reservations, banking
translations, stock exchange or social security system may be ran by one of
these dudes when they grow up.
Before one starts drooling over words like "distributed", "transactional" and
"multi-dimensional", he should ask himself: _"How many terabytes of data am I
going to store?"_ Sometimes this simple question makes one to rethink his
definition of "everything" and flat text files may instantly gain an ability
to to change "it".
~~~
ra
I think the point here is that persistent storage is evolving.
RDBMS are fine for just about any task you can throw at them, but then so is
Perl. However, neither is usually going to be the best solution.
What is implied is that RDBMS have inherent complications not due to volumes
of data, but rather due to to complexities of using them (both from a sys
admin, and developer point of view) particularly when HA is required.
I, for one, look forward to a more loosely typed flexible persistence layer
than RDBMS however it may come.
BTW: Any form of data persistence is an alternative to an RDBMS!?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Who cares if languages become extinct? - abie
http://www.ultrasaurus.com/sarahblog/2009/02/who-cares-if-languages-become-extinct/
======
mechanical_fish
Let me translate for programming.reddit readers: There's a lot of hard-won,
specialized human knowledge encoded in CPAN, but if you don't have a Perl
hacker around you're doomed to reinvent it -- or, worse, to never even realize
it was there.
(Okay, I confess that I've taken liberties with the original, which is not
about computer languages at all, so you should all go read it. But I'm being
serious: This really is the argument. And it's a pretty good argument, though
it's a little stronger when applied to thousand-year-old human languages than
to twenty-year-old computer languages.)
For a more poetic take on the same thing listen to Wade Davis:
[http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/wade_davis_on_endangered_...](http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/wade_davis_on_endangered_cultures.html)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Global secondary indexes - r4um
https://lethain.com/global-secondary-indexes/
======
r4um
Spanner secondary index link is broken correct one
[https://cloud.google.com/spanner/docs/secondary-
indexes](https://cloud.google.com/spanner/docs/secondary-indexes)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Theres a Campaign to Rename the Software “RuboCop” Because “Cop” Is Offensive - TerracottaEggs
https://github.com/rubocop-hq/rubocop/issues/8091
======
cmdshiftf4
It seems that, as a rule, modern open source communities devolve into an utter
shitshow. Well done to the voices of reason, thumb voters and the maintainer
for handling this appropriately.
~~~
Aaronstotle
Yes, I find it incredible that seeing a word like "cop" makes someone
uncomfortable/unable to do their job. Reading the rest of the replies made me
feel like I was crazy one. (thankfully the thumb votes show that most people
disagree) I know these people mean well, but I view these people as bullies
disguised as allies.
~~~
chilukrn
Also, for all the "projection" they talk of, they are projecting US-centric
views on to the wider world innit? Not many countries have cops carrying
military grade guns/tanks and randomly shooting...
~~~
cmdshiftf4
>they are projecting US-centric views on to the wider world innit?
Projecting, maybe, but at the same time the last few weeks have shown there's
a not insignificant amount of people in other Western countries who are
addicted to American culture, latched closely to the teat, who are all too
eager to have American issues imported into their own societies.
------
bryal
Why are you bringing this up again? It happened over a week ago, and afaik,
things are all settled now. Are you looking to spark light to the flaming
again? Please stop with the needless provocations.
~~~
pmdulaney
The point -- for me, anyway -- isn't what some piece of software happens to be
named. You all can call it what you like. The point is that the prevailing
mindset in the US today has devolved to the point that people actually reason
in this fashion. And that is hardly settled now.
------
criddell
Here's a link to a blog post detailing the thinking of Bozhidar Batsov,
RuboCop's author:
[https://metaredux.com/posts/2020/06/08/the-rubocop-name-
dram...](https://metaredux.com/posts/2020/06/08/the-rubocop-name-drama-
redux.html)
------
shuntress
Can we take a moment to appreciate that the movie this project is named after
is about the harm done to society by an out-of-control overly militarized
police force?
------
mrlonglong
You couldn't make this up!
------
renewiltord
Thing is resolved: use rbhint if you care, do whatever you want if you don’t
care
------
clamprecht
Call it RoboPig, after the filthy animal.
~~~
BotanyIsFun
Pigs are highly intelligent and sympathetic creatures. I'm told that they're
more intelligent than dolphins. Please do not malign them, and please consider
not eating them.
~~~
clamprecht
It was a Pulp Fiction reference. A dog's got personality.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZA_Tl1kvlQU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZA_Tl1kvlQU)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The myth that programming experience does not matter - IvoGeorgiev
http://blog.linvo.org/post/20220382539/the-myth-that-programming-experience-does-not-matter
======
alex3t
Point me please discussion where talking "programming experience does not
matter". It's completely stupid. Who in normal mind talking about this? Of
course programming language experience does not matter but programming
experience..
~~~
bunderbunder
Programming language experience matters very much. Not least of all because it
takes time to become accustomed to that language's idioms: Until you are
fluent in them you are going to take longer to read others' code, you are
going to write code that's harder for others to read, and thus you are
ultimately writing code that is harder to maintain. And unless you are a very
meticulous tester (and none of us are nearly as good at testing as we want to
think we are) you are also going to write code that is more buggy because you
are less aware of the quirks and gotchas that motivate many of those idioms.
------
codgercoder
Hard point to make when people explicitly advertise for recent college
graduates.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Curious Case of the Fortnite Cheater - kelukelugames
https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/9/17333292/fortnite-cheater-lawsuit
======
anigbrowl
Interesting, but please the edit the headline to not be all caps. Thanks!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why computer programmers need to stop calling themselves engineers already - gukov
http://www.businessinsider.com/why-computer-programmers-need-to-stop-calling-themselves-engineers-already-2015-11
======
DrScump
Original article posted days ago:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10513371](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10513371)
------
mohaine
I've got to call bullshit on this one. Sure SOME engineers need
certifications, but most do not. Pretty much just the ones that build
buildings/bridges here in the US. I've got 2 engineering degrees(CE/EE) and
when I got out college, I took the first half of the PE exam (need to take the
second part after 5 years in the field to be a PE) but the only reason I took
it is because it is almost impossible to pass after you leave college since it
covers the entire field, not just your specialty. It was a "Better off safe"
sorta thing. All my professors basically said an EE/CE will never need a PE
but you never know...
That said the term Engineer is definitely watered down, but this has been the
case at least as long as "Custodial Engineer" has been a term.
------
sotojuan
I would welcome an ABET accreditation for software engineering with open
hands. It would get rid of the whole debate on what Computer Science degrees
should teach.
------
wmat
I'm pretty sure all Engineers in Canada get to wear the iron ring, including
Software Engineers.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Apple blocking Google Voice blocking webOS App - davidcuddeback
http://flpalmdev.blogspot.com/2010/02/apple-blocking-google-voice-blocking.html
======
boundlessdreamz
He is comparing Google not providing an API to AT&T redirecting google.com to
bing.com or apple blocking the voice app? Lost his argument, right there.
Wish he provided more technical details instead of just just ranting. What is
the "uper easy access number" and whats with the headline ?
I understand he is frustrated but he is trying to reverse engineer a product.
It is rarely easy. And since google voice has a mobile version, it is not even
that webOS users are locked out.
------
ajross
I'm not sure I get the complaint. It's Google's service, it's never been free
software, and clearly they're going to exert some control over what clients
get to connect. That's clearly within Google's power and rights to do, and it
doesn't hurt anyone but competing voice app vendors who want to use Google's
(!) service.
How does that compare to banning a Google Voice app from the iPhone store,
which while also within Apple's power and rights, is clearly harming
_consumers_ who don't get to use the service?
~~~
briansmith
I'm not sure I get the complaint. It's Apple's operating system, it's never
been free software, and clearly they're going to exert some control over what
apps get installed. That's clearly within Apple's power and rights to do, and
it doesn't hurt anyone but competing app vendors who want to use Apple's (!)
operating system.
How does that compare to banning a WebOS app from the accessing the Google
Voice service, which while also within Google's power and rights, is clearly
harming consumers who don't get to use the service?
~~~
ajross
You're being amusingly snide, but just plain wrong, sorry. Blocking Google
Voice at the app store quite clearly prevents iPhone users from using Google
Voice, a service Google wants to provide to them. But for a third party
(Apple) those users would be able to use it, so without it they are harmed.
Google doesn't want to provide/support service to WebOS, or other third party
clients. These users wouldn't be served anyway, they aren't "harmed" except by
reference to a utopian world where we all run free software all the time. It's
like demanding that Apple support iTunes on the Linux or Palm Pre; it's a
ridiculous argument.
~~~
jsdalton
If all they were doing was not supporting third party clients or failing to
provide an API, I would agree with you. However, from the article:
> ...they are implementing byzantine security to actually prevent 3rd party
> apps from accessing the same functionality that their Android native app is
> capable of or their new mobile site is able to access.
There's a big difference between failing to support and actively creating
obstacles to use. Seems like Apple and Google are both equally guilty of this,
to the detriment of end users.
------
mattmaroon
This is the problem with "don't be evil". Evil all depends on your point of
view.
Google probably views the iPhone as evil given its closed nature, and thus
Android is their attempt to save humanity from Steve's evil clutches. Thus
anything they do to facilitate that, including closing off their own products,
is morally justified.
------
caryme
This seems to contradict Sean Kovacs' (the developer of GV Mobile) post at the
release of the Google Voice mobile web app:
<http://www.seankovacs.com/index.php/2010/01/im-in-love/>
I don't know from personal experience, as I haven't tried to do any of this
myself. Also, Kovacs' post was from a month ago, so something may have
changed.
~~~
megaman821
That is why developer is complaining. Using that used to work but does not
anymore, possibly because of security protocols.
Also it seems like Google is using a secret api in the Android app. Why not
just slap the tag 'Beta' on the api and publish it? It may suck when an api
changes but at least it is in the developer's control to get his app working
again.
~~~
caryme
Got it. Thanks for the clarification.
I totally agree with the beta api idea.
------
jsz0
Google probably wants to ensure that Android phones have the best GV
integration. At some point, as we saw with Buzz, Google will start leveraging
other popular services to compete. It's inevitable. Google Voice can be a
killer app and could sell a ton of first party Google phones.
------
davidcuddeback
I agree with the sentiment in this blog post, but I can't help but wonder if
regulations on telecommunications services require Google to implement the
extra security.
------
fnid2
If you are involved in advertising, marketing, and branding at all, you begin
to realize that advertising is really taking all the weaknesses of a product
and making them strength of the product.
So, with Google, the engineers realize that it is impossible for a company
with that much power and investment capital involved to avoid evilness, thus,
they take the opposite of the company and make it the slogan, thus an evil
company becomes a company with slogan of "do no evil."
~~~
stanleydrew
This is kind of ridiculous. The "don't be evil" slogan originated in 2001
supposedly, when Google had $7 million in profit and very few employees. They
were hardly a powerhouse, although things looked very promising at that point.
~~~
fnid2
The founders of Google were visionaries who understood the humanity involved
in any large organization. The very slogan was introduced to help them
remember not to do bad things when they get big. Unfortunately, it hasn't
worked out that well.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Things You Should Do Immediately After Launching a Website - abraham
http://sixrevisions.com/website-management/things-you-should-do-immediately-after-launching-a-website/
======
bill-nordwall
Be careful with these robots.txt suggestions.
Disallowing your css/js files in your robots.txt is probably not a good idea -
Matt Cutts said as much himself: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNEipHjsEPU>
If you're running Wordpress, disallowing your /uploads/ directory will nuke
your Google Image Search prospects, as Googlebot won't be able to crawl any of
your images to begin with.
Also, submitting to a paid directory such as Best of the Web or the Yahoo!
Directory would be a much better use of your time. DMOZ is still a valuable
directory (for a lot of reasons), but the likelihood is small that they will
review, let alone add your site to the directory in a timely manner (if ever).
A few other things worth doing: \- Create a Twitter account for your site. \-
Create a Facebook page for your site.
~~~
gojomo
Indeed. Blocking JS and CSS from all robots will also cause your site to
render poorly in most web archives, like the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.
------
ary
_After_ launching? Not to nit pick, but I'm pretty sure nearly all of these
should be done _before_ you launch.
~~~
seiji
Depends on what you are launching. A weekend project? Just get your work in
front of people. Something you spent six months in stealth mode working on?
Sure, get it all set up before launch during the development process.
~~~
ary
Can't say I agree with you. Even with weekend projects I'll throw some
analytics and other quantification tools in from the beginning as I want to
see what kind of traction it gets. How else would I even begin to know if
there's interest in what I've created?
------
thingie
There is only one thing on the list that is not completely obvious -- dmoz
still matters. Is it possible? Sure, it's a valuable list of sites touched by
a lot of care and bureaucracy, but does anybody who wasn't online 10 years ago
know about it?
~~~
dmitri1981
I can't imagine Google pays much attention to this anymore. Many of the
categories have near absent editors and it can take over 6 months to be added.
~~~
carbocation
6 months? I've been waiting for 4 years in my category.
~~~
richbradshaw
I've been waiting over 5 now! It's a joke! I even applied to be an editor for
the category 3 years ago to try and speed it up...
~~~
zach
At least you could submit. They had some sort of catastrophe four years ago
when I tried to submit -- there was just some sort of "come back in a few
months... yeah" blurb.
I forgot all about it until I saw this, so I guess I'll check back sometime in
2013.
------
bryanh
The same thing I said in their comments (dunno if they'll approve my blatant
self-promotion):
If anyone is interested in automating their fetish for checking their organic
SEO rankings, I’d be happy to give you a free spin in my app
<http://rankiac.com/>. Basically, you enter your keywords and domains, and we
email you daily with changes in ranking.
Hit me up at [email protected] if you want your account sprinkled with some
free “Pro” subscription magic dust!
Regardless, this is a good list and contains a few things I ALWAYS forget to
do (site-map & Google Webmaster tools).
~~~
akronim
Do rankings change often enough to need daily emails?
~~~
bryanh
Some people like it as it keeps their mind on SEO and their keywords. We also
offer a weekly option which might be more appropriate for some.
------
gabrielroth
OK, to everyone who read this list and said, 'That stuff is all obvious': What
would you add to the list?
~~~
alexro
1) Write a blog post about your launch 2) Let others know 3) Monitor Twitter
for the chance of mentioning your product 4) Contact influential bloggers
ADD: most importantly, understand why "they" don't come :)
------
olalonde
For a more comprehensive list: [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/72394/what-
should-a-devel...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/72394/what-should-a-
developer-know-before-building-a-public-web-site)
------
citizenkeys
Good organic seo is almost always the best way to advertise your site.
Spending money on fleshing out your site with lots of pages with lots of
relevant specific copy and keywords is much more cost-effective than simply
spending money to advertise the site.
A couple important things the article leaves out:
1) Create a cron script or otherwise automate sitemap creation. Otherwise, its
easy to forget to manually add new pages.
2) Put a useful succinct meta description in the header of all your pages.
Otherwise you leave the little blurb of text that shows up on google search
results to chance and miss potential clicks on search results.
------
yread
+1 for not saying "8 Things You Should do..."
~~~
ryanwaggoner
Yeah, God forbid you should number your main points.
Seriously, what is the problem with a list post? Yes, it's a hook. Why is that
a problem?
~~~
AgentConundrum
Personally, I don't really think there's anything wrong with a "x tips for y"
title, but it does go against the submission guidelines for HN:
_If the original title begins with a number or number + gratuitous adjective,
we'd appreciate it if you'd crop it. E.g. translate "10 Ways To Do X" to "How
To Do X," and "14 Amazing Ys" to "Ys." Exception: when the number is
meaningful, e.g. "The 5 Platonic Solids."_
I think the point of the guideline is to keep things fact-oriented here, and
to keep the amount of sensationalism, hyperbole, and "link-baiting" on HN to a
minimum.
~~~
ryanwaggoner
_I think the point of the guideline is to keep things fact-oriented here, and
to keep the amount of sensationalism, hyperbole, and "link-baiting" on HN to a
minimum._
I agree that we should respect the HN submission guidelines, but the OP seemed
to be expressing approval that the original post wasn't titled as such.
Additionally, I hardly think that numbering your main points counts as
sensationalism or hyperbole. _Maybe_ it's link-baiting in some cases, but I
think that's a stretch.
------
joshrule
As someone just starting up their first website
(<http://wayofthescholar.com>), there's a lot of helpful material here, and a
lot I still need to work through.
Although each item may be obvious and discussed in greater depth a thousand
other places, a list is sometimes really helpful.
------
iworkforthem
I would also redirect my feeds/rss to FeedBurner, just to have an idea the
number of subscribers I might have, and which are the more popular items
people read about me.
~~~
steveklabnik
Not to mention that you can move feeds later and keep all of your subscribers.
I've done this, it's super useful.
~~~
riledhel
And you save bandwidth and gather stats...
------
Towle_
Wow!
Sifting through sixrevisions.com ... they have some fantastic shit. Good
writing, sure, but GREAT topics-- and that's _such_ a rarity.
A big* high-five to abraham for the submission.
*The kind that makes your hand sting. Because I love you, that's why.
------
coffee
"Submit Your Website to Dmoz" Are you kidding me? Please, please don't waste
your time...
------
terra_t
uhhhh... i can't believe so much blogspam is getting in here
------
RtodaAV
Dmoz?
Good Luck getting in.
------
seociety
XML Sitemap along with Google notifications goes a long way!
Many sites do not notify google when their XML sitemap is updated yet it is a
very efficient way to achieve instant indexing for new content!
While large sites with high PR are crawled frequently, crawling rates for
small/medium sites will never result in instant indexing unless they use this
method.
Use it and gain some search engine results momentum!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
With numbers as small as 2⁻¹²², consider what may seem impossibly unlikely - bemmu
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20160114-00/?p=92851
======
brudgers
_Numbers that fool the Fermat test are called Carmichael numbers, and little
is known about them other than that they are extremely rare. There are 255
Carmichael numbers below 100,000,000. The smallest few are 561, 1105, 1729,
2465, 2821, and 6601. In testing primality of very large numbers chosen at
random, the chance of stumbling upon a value that fools the Fermat test is
less than the chance that cosmic radiation will cause the computer to make an
error in carrying out a ``correct '' algorithm. Considering an algorithm to be
inadequate for the first reason but not for the second illustrates the
difference between mathematics and engineering._ \-- SICP
[https://github.com/ikr/sicp/blob/master/exercises/chapter_1/...](https://github.com/ikr/sicp/blob/master/exercises/chapter_1/1.27.scm)
| {
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Robert Scoble: I didn’t sexually harass women as I lacked power over them - briandear
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/10/robert-scoble-i-didnt-sexually-harass-women-as-i-lacked-power-over-them/?comments=1
======
ColinWright
[https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Robert%20Scoble&sort=byDate&da...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Robert%20Scoble&sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=story)
| {
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How to surprise your website visitors this Halloween? - darielnoel
http://darielnoel.github.io/articles/how-to-sorprise-your-websites-visitants-on-halloween/
======
alialkhatib
This is unrelated, but if people using the HTTPS Everywhere extension are
seeing a broken page, it's the extension's fault; the page's CSS and JS files
are all being called by the HTTP protocol, which browsers tend to frown upon
when the page is HTTPS (or vice versa).
To the author, you can avoid this by using a "protocol relative URL" (instead
of calling for http[s]://... you would call for //...).
More details here: [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4978235/absolute-urls-
om...](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4978235/absolute-urls-omitting-the-
protocol-scheme-in-order-to-preserve-the-one-of-the)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Ogo, a new take on personal transportation - prawn
http://ogotechnology.com/
======
DavidSJ
Looks very cool.
One thing I noticed about the video introduction is the speaker is explicitly
talking to the viewer as if he or she is not the target audience, e.g. "while
you and I may take this for granted ..." and "the disabled are exactly the
same as you and me ..."
~~~
notahacker
The video is presumably made to be shared amongst a wider audience than the
target market.
And I guess that for a disabled person it would be a huge psychological win to
have able-bodied people looking with _envy_ rather than _sympathy_ at their
means of locomotion.
~~~
kevinmchugh
Reminds me of this great TED talk, where one person is jealous that someone
with prosthetic legs can change their height:
[https://www.ted.com/talks/aimee_mullins_prosthetic_aesthetic...](https://www.ted.com/talks/aimee_mullins_prosthetic_aesthetics/transcript?language=en#t-405000)
~~~
harryjo
Hmm, how does the law (DMV, passport office, etc) deal with that?
~~~
dereke
I don't think it is illegal to wear heels so probably in a similar way.
------
paulsutter
This looks like a huge improvement over a wheelchair (have you ever tried the
joystick control on an electric wheelchair?). Way better mobility.
And it looks cool. Completely the opposite feeling of watching someone on a
Segway, which could make even the coolest person look like a mall cop.
~~~
scribu
I agree and I think the cool factor comes from the fact that users of Ogo
_need_ it in order to move without their hands being tied up and also that it
actually takes a bit of muscle effort to operate. Compare to Segways, which
are associated with laziness (at least in my mind).
~~~
TeMPOraL
Segways are cool. Don't have one but I got a chance to test it once.
I can see how they could be useful for things like malls and factory floors,
in a similar way a kick scooter is. But you know what? Kick scooter is even
cooler! The speeds you can achieve on a good concrete surface are
exhilarating!
~~~
masklinn
From the outside, powered monowheel seem cooler and less obnoxious than
segways. The speed of some of them seems utterly ridiculous though (some
brands/models are quoted at 20mph)
~~~
glibgil
No, no they don't seem cooler. They actually trigger a grade school tripping
reflex making others want to stick out their foot and topple the rider.
~~~
TeMPOraL
People sometimes behave like douchebags. This is probably the same phenomenon
that leads some to call users of another piece of technology "glassholes".
------
ThomPete
It's very easy to get tied up in valuations, unicorns, growth metrics and
living the life as a startups with a great idea but no way to monetize it
until you get 500millioner users.
But at the end of the day they most optimal recipe for success still is
1) Find a real problem 2) Build a solution 3) Start selling
There are alternatives to growth-hacking and content marketing and what other
tricks are out there.
Just look around you there are real problem everywhere where the solution
doesn't need a marketing budget. It just needs to make itself known. And it's
revenue from day one.
Love every single second of this.
~~~
triangleman
While I agree with the spirit of your post, let us step back and think clearly
about where your criticism lies.
Think about what it means to "hack" on something.
Today we often use the term to describe a programmer working feverishly on his
software project "hacking away".
But based on your use of the term ("growth-hacking") we can see that it can
often be used in the sense of hacking a problem into something more
manageable. Jury-rigging, taking a smart shortcut, duct taping things
together. Working smart, not hard [1]. Is that not what most of the people
here are aiming to do?
So let's not get offended that someone else's hack is different from your own.
You admit that selling is important, and yet a good solution "doesn't need
marketing", because I suppose the product sells itself? This board is filled
with hard-earned lessons from fellow hackers who had a great product but no
market(ing), and ultimately failed.
This "ogo" product is certainly not getting revenue from day one.
[1] [http://threevirtues.com/](http://threevirtues.com/)
~~~
cushychicken
Man, you completely missed the point of what OP was saying in your rush to
talk semantics.
He was saying that this product showcases a lot of thoughtful development to
solve a problem that a non-trivial number of people have that can't really be
solved through marketing shortcuts. And I think we both know exactly the sort
of marketing shortcuts he/she is talking about - the apptification of
everything, the hype endemic in software product launches, the VC blogosphere.
That sort of hack doesn't apply here at all. Taking a Segway as an inspiration
or starting point for this product? Maybe that's the hacking you're trying to
associate with by posting this. But that's not what he was talking about.
OP is saying what a breath of fresh air it is to see someone sink such time
and effort into making a well designed solution to an actual problem, and that
kind of effort creates marketability commensurate to the development.
~~~
triangleman
I didn't miss the point. Of course I agree that it's wonderful to see a
product that solves an actual problem. My point was that even in the case of a
clearly useful and "marketable" product, it is not at all clear that it will
ultimately be successful and change people's lives. The Segway itself is a
great example of this: The product works, it does what it claims it will, but
nobody owns one. Society is no better off because of it, unfortunately.
I used the rubric of "hacking" to demonstrate that there is a middle road--
between inflated valuations/expectations and pure engineering prowess--that
will ultimately create life-changing solutions to problems.
Think about Apple's successful products: They did nothing new compared to what
was already on the market. But by creatively _removing_ features they made
their products more marketable and ended up changing the world.
~~~
cushychicken
> I didn't miss the point.
I'm not so sure you didn't. You keep bringing the conversation back to
"hacking", and I'm really unclear as to why. Are you trying to equate hacking
to product design? Because neither Apple nor Segway were hacking anything -
they both saw a consumer experience they wanted to deliver, and then designed
a product that was supposed to deliver it. Both companies took a focused,
highly planned approach to delivering their respective experiences. That's
just about as antithetical to the "try this and see what happens" hacker
mentality as it's possible to get. The only real difference between your
examples was the size of their respective markets. (I say that because the few
people that buy Segways tend to be outspoken about loving them. Or maybe
that's just Woz.)
Now, if the question you were trying to bring up in the first place was "Do we
have any indication that the product designed here actually has some appeal to
its target market?", I would find your statement a little more credible.
------
netcan
Looks cool, but I don't know anything about this market so I can't really
comment directly on utility or prospects. But, to take a tangent:
I think there's a shift that hardware oriented entrepreneurs might mine for
some ideas.
Around web 2.0 time there was a shift where people got more comfortable with
the internet. They used real names, and pictures without expecting this would
inevitably lead to serial killers at the door. Facebook worked because people
agreed to tell the internet their name. Online dating went mainstream.
Twitter, Linkedin, all sorts of sharing become common. The interesting part is
that the technological trends like were only part of the picture. Cultural
shifts were just as important.
Tech is cool now, that's the new trend. Where a calculator watch in the 90s
would get an 8 year old beat up, todays equivalents are status symbols.
Interestingly, glasses became cool in recent years.
So, ideas might be found by looking over old technology that is uncool and
seeing if it can be re-imagined as 2015 tech. A regular electric wheelchair is
uncool. This segway thing is cool.
One real obvious device to think about Apple-ising is hearing aides. Hearing
aids are so uncool 80 year olds don't want to be seen with one. They are all
about being small, flesh colored and "invisible." I think there's a decent
chance a bright green large ear piece might be cool.
And speaking of hearing aids… Can hearing aids improve the hearing of non
impaired people. Can you get better than normal hearing from a hearing aid?
~~~
randlet
As a hearing aid wearer, I can probably think of a couple of ways hearing aids
could be used to improve hearing of non-impaired[1] but you definitely don't
want just "broad spectrum amplification" (hearing every small click, clack &
whir gets old fast). Think more along the lines of decrease of external noise
in a cafe so you can focus on a conversation, a tunable amplification of quiet
sounds, as replacements for blue tooth headphones etc (sound quality is not
great currently) stuff along that lines.
> Hearing aids are so uncool 80 year olds don't want to be seen with one. They
> are all about being small, flesh colored and "invisible."
This might be true for older populations but kids can get brightly coloured
hearing aids and moulds[2]! When I was first being fitted for HA's (at age 32)
my audiologist assumed I would want the least visible model possible but I
opted for larger more visible behind the ear models...I _want_ people who I
interact with to be able to see that I have hearing loss. People tend to get
annoyed if you ask them over and over to repeat themselves but are generally
much more patient if they know you are hard of hearing.
[1] Just FYI The term hearing-impaired is somewhat offensive to some people
(not me) who prefer hard-of-hearing or deaf, or Deaf
[2]
[https://www.google.ca/search?q=kids+hearing+aids&num=30&sour...](https://www.google.ca/search?q=kids+hearing+aids&num=30&source=lnms&tbm=isch)
~~~
jessaustin
I appreciate your healthy outlook toward your hearing loss. With my family
background, it seems inevitable that my hearing will continue to get worse
than it already is. I want to take your attitude as an inspiration rather than
the less healthy attitudes that I often see.
~~~
netcan
It's interesting that glasses, sitting in the middle of your face are seen as
less of an issue than hearing aids. It's really just a random whim of fashion.
I think this may change soon. It will almost certainly change if a device
targeting non-impaired gets any traction.
~~~
stegosaurus
I'm not so sure that it's a simple matter of fashion.
Wearing glasses is, for lack of a better term, 'normal'. I don't know the
statistics but probably a quarter of the population has impaired sight (I'm
one of them). Additionally in the majority of cases it presents no handicap at
all once corrected - often it results in acuity above the average.
------
nsxwolf
Is "personal transportation" a new euphemism for "wheelchair"? I've never
heard that before.
~~~
zyxley
If it's not (legally) a wheelchair, it doesn't need FDA approval, and from
what I understand FDA approval is an extremely expensive process (as in,
"increase unit price by hundreds of thousands of dollars" expensive).
~~~
ljk
So in the end this is a good move? People who need wheelchairs can get them
for cheaper, like how gluten-intolerant people get a lot more choices now that
gluten-free options are getting so popular
~~~
avian
Probably not a good example. I've heard that gluten-intolerant people can no
longer trust a label "gluten free" these days. It is now used as a marketing
device for healthy people and not meaning that it is safe for those with the
medical condition.
~~~
ljk
Didn't know this was happening, sad but not surprised though..
~~~
necessity
You still don't, unless "some stranger in the internet said he heard someone
say" is your knowledge of the situation.
------
dfan
Judging by all the comments here from people who evidently didn't watch the
video, they could really use a bit more explanatory text on the home page.
~~~
ams6110
Video is a bad way to convey information on a website, especially one
targeting disabled folks.
~~~
vonklaus
This is one of the better usecases for video. I can't parse a video quickly,
and an interview is a rather lengthy way to receive information if the only
value is spoken text. Not the case here. The number one piece of information
people want when hitting the site is how it works. They went with bootstrap
and the embedded video isn't responsive but no one really gives a shit because
as long as it can be clicked you can get a product demo.
~~~
hugh4
A video is a good idea for this product, but there should be sufficient text
to tell you what it is and what it does without needing to play the video
anyway, eg if you're in public without earphones or have severely limited
bandwidth,
------
JulianMorrison
So basically a SegWheelchair then?
That will work for people whose core muscles work, and don't flop or twitch.
Which is not everybody. But still a nifty thing.
~~~
azernik
And for that subset, it might be _better_ (healthwise) than a regular electric
wheelchair, since it keeps more muscles working. Smaller market than "everyone
in a wheelchair", but I think (?) it addresses that market well.
------
JulianMorrison
One downside I can see for this: it looks like, if the user had a seizure, it
would be _extremely_ dangerous. It would keep them in the seat but interpret
their movements as erratic hard accelerations and sharp turns.
~~~
bpodgursky
Ok... so are cars (in fact, they are much worse), but we survive somehow. I
mean, I guess this is true, but being paralyzed usually does not mean you are
unusually predisposed to seizures. This criticism kind of feels like hunting
for problems.
~~~
openasocket
people who regularly get seizures are not allowed to drive. The laws vary a
lot by country and state and can be looked up here
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epilepsy_and_driving](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epilepsy_and_driving)
Most of the time the law is of the form "you must be seizure-free for <x>
months in order to drive"
~~~
acjohnson55
Right, and I suppose one probably wouldn't buy this if they were prone to
seizures, either. I presume there's enough of a disjunction between people
with impaired mobility and seizure risk for that to not be such a big deal.
------
rco8786
Super cool. However I can't look at this thing and _not_ think Wall-E
~~~
khill
Yep. I actually went as far as googling the Wall-E humans to see how close it
was.
------
tajen
Little marketing point: Shouldn't he put the subscription box on the main page
instead of redirecting to another page?
Excellent speech, excellent copy, short presentation. Is it legal not to write
one's address and privacy policy?
On the other hand, being European, I... applause him for not displaying the
(mandatory) cookie header.
~~~
chronial
As other people here pointed out / got confused by, the lack of textual
information is probably a bigger issue.
------
bluedino
The market for devices like these is a joke. You fall into two categories,
expensive and not that well designed, and inexpensive and very cheaply made
overseas.
The problem you need to solve is getting the insurance companies and Medicare
to pay for your device. You need lobbying and certifications and all that
bureaucracy. No matter how mediocre your product is, you can then sell it like
hotcakes.
------
vomitcuddle
Q&A:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThwLzeEpP5I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThwLzeEpP5I)
------
t0mk
The site could show a bit more info, e.g. the technical parameters of the
thing. It would be interested to see even for the prototype.
Also, is this how New Zealand accent sounds like?
~~~
syllogism
Yes, that's a New Zealand accent.
~~~
gaz
New Zealander here, its Australian.
~~~
stonith
Australian here, suspect he's spent significant time in both countries because
the way he says 'this' is not how an Australian accent sounds, but other parts
of his speech sound very Australian.
~~~
pandler
I thought it was kiwi too. I've spent more time in NZ than OZ though and am
less familiar with the Australian accent. If this website[1] is correct, then
the company is registered in NZ at least.
[1]
[http://www.infobel.com/en/newzealand/ogo_technology_limited/...](http://www.infobel.com/en/newzealand/ogo_technology_limited/otaki/NZ100610116/businessdetails.aspx)
------
agentgt
I wonder if they have any plans on dealing with stairs. Honestly I think the
arm freedom is a big deal so I think they could come up with some novel ideas
for stairs or other terrain. Bipedal movement (or I guess any number of legs)
is impressive in that it can handle a variety of terrain.
A trite and cheesy observation... it seems we are trying to make machines
learn to walk and humans learn to roll :)
All in all I think the product/idea are great.
~~~
jdsullivan
The iBot was able to "walk" up and down stairs:
[http://www.dekaresearch.com/ibot.shtml](http://www.dekaresearch.com/ibot.shtml)
In retrospect, it's a bit surprising they never enhanced it to operate hands
free like this - it was made by the same folks as the segway and feels like a
natural evolution.
~~~
EvanKelly
I remember talking about the iBot with a wheelchair bound friend when it came
out.
His response was "the people who designed this have obviously never been bound
to a wheelchair". I think I was in 9th or 10th grade at the time, so I don't
remember his reasoning, but I remember the disdain for the invention.
Any iBot users out there that could chime in?
------
visarga
Looks great! What if they added spatial navigation by video camera and voice
control to cover people who have trouble controlling the chair with their body
position.
At least for simple navigation I think the tech is mature enough to make it
today. Just make sure to avoid obstacles and people and find your way from A
to B.
Couple that with the Google car fitted with an automatic docking station and
you have an almost complete system of transport.
------
BillShakespeare
Saw an article with a little backstory about this on Reddit today -
[http://www.infoblizzard.com/the-blog-smog/engineer-
invents-a...](http://www.infoblizzard.com/the-blog-smog/engineer-invents-a-
hands-free-wheelchair-for-best-friend-who-was-left-a-paraplegic-after-skiing-
accident)
------
notahacker
For those people looking at the guy moving around by shifting in his seat and
thinking "I want one!", it looks like this Segway modification is the closest
thing you can actually order:
[http://suigenerisseat.com](http://suigenerisseat.com)
------
AliAdams
I worry that there might be difficulties leaning over and picking things up
without the chair moving.
Imagine dropping something and instinctively leaning over to catch / retrieve
it.
~~~
taejo
The Q&A video
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThwLzeEpP5I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThwLzeEpP5I)
shows a switch which disables side-to-side movement (and a joystick which can
be used to turn when lean-to-turn is disabled).
------
london888
Great idea but I would worry about stability - I'd like to see what happens if
people bump into you - can the user get pushed off the seat?
~~~
arbabu
Even I was thinking the same. A handrest would have been really useful!
------
swayvil
It's the end of man, obviously
[http://imgur.com/deahE27](http://imgur.com/deahE27)
~~~
ljk
Add TV on it -
[http://www.chud.com/articles/content_images/117/WALLE3.JPG](http://www.chud.com/articles/content_images/117/WALLE3.JPG)
------
wgx
It's what the Sinclair C5 could have been, if only battery/motor technology
had allowed...
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_C5](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_C5)
------
erlend_sh
It suddenly dawned on me that I'll most likely live to experience certain
categories of disability that'll grant you access to technology which will
make you altogether _more_ able-bodied than the average "non-disabled" person.
~~~
marcosdumay
Well, footless runners are already faster than non-disabled ones.
------
sspross
wheelchair from scalevo (ETH zurich), similar "segway tech." including
stairclimbing
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lb_8nmy90c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lb_8nmy90c)
~~~
cowsandmilk
scalevo appears to use a joystick, the hands-free nature of ogo is what I find
the most interesting.
~~~
giarc
Ya when I watched I pictured the user being able to carry their baby while
moving down the street or in a mall.
------
bborud
Unfortunate name.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcuSHwdmxM0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcuSHwdmxM0)
(I'm probably going to get downvoted for this, but hey, I like to live a
little)
~~~
nsxwolf
He messed up the punchline!
------
rotten
This is right out of Wall-E.
------
baconwagoneer
Here's the founder's website if anyone else was curious like me:
[http://khalsall.com/](http://khalsall.com/)
------
mirimir
What I want is a human-sized quad copter :)
Maybe they'll exist by the time I need one.
~~~
zo1
It's already here, they just need to improve battery tech for more fun:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L75ESD9PBOw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L75ESD9PBOw)
------
jfmercer
This is a remarkable innovation. I wish Ogo Tech the best of success.
------
simonhughes22
Wow that's brilliant. Why didn't I think of that!
------
rasur
So, this isn't mainly for disabled people, I take it?
~~~
mrweasel
The title is a bit weird. I don't understand why they call it "personal
transportation". I mean it is personal transportation, for people in wheel
chairs, but not a new take on personal transportation in the way Segway tried
to be.
~~~
prawn
It is personal transportation, just focused on a particular set of users.
------
makenova
How long till Segway decides to get litigious?
------
nitin_flanker
Well the handicapped will feel awesome. This makes them super agile.
------
sigmonsays
Looks like a wheel chair for the disabled.
------
dalacv
If we all ride these, do you think that the handicapped will feel less
alienated?
------
BtM909
I actually saw a disabled guy driving some sort of Segway but with a chair.
That seemed more practical and useful compared to this.
This was in Rome which isn't known for its nicely paved streets.
~~~
darklajid
There used to be the iBot, which looked like an amazing product for people
using a wheelchair today - but it is discontinued.
I remember Michael Kaplan (a Microsoft guy, regularly linked from the old new
things/Chen for character set/encoding/unicode stuff) praising his iBot in
quite some posts.
~~~
ansible
The iBot was apparently reclassified as a class 2 medical device, which makes
certification easier. Allegedly, it is being redesigned, and will go back into
production.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBOT](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBOT)
------
andy_ppp
Oh god, reminds me of the Wall-E hover chairs used by the humans who have
basically ceased moving...
[https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=wall-e+hover+chairs&tbm=is...](https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=wall-e+hover+chairs&tbm=isch)
~~~
teekert
The movie seems to target disabled people, not fat/unhealthy people.
~~~
andy_ppp
I thought this but the article title is "Ogo, a new take on personal
transportation". I think I'm fine, unless the article title is wrong... It's
been known to happen :-)
~~~
mintplant
Watch the video. The inventor was inspired by a paraplegic friend.
------
ThinkBeat
That is a with some pictures of a beefed up wheelchair and almost no
information whatsoever.
~~~
codewithcheese
Watch the video...
~~~
collyw
Not always possible in work environments.
------
piyushpr134
It has come to this that able bodied men and women need a automated wheelchair
to roam around! Wow. That shitty future that movies has shown is really here!
~~~
prawn
The inventor designed it for his paraplegic friend. It's clearly shown in the
video from the beginning. The entire thrust of the video is about the item
empowering disabled people.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgat4a1TrEM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgat4a1TrEM)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
New material mimics strength and toughness of mother of pearl - bookofjoe
https://phys.org/news/2020-07-material-mimics-strength-toughness-mother.html
======
bookofjoe
>Tough and Strong: Cross-Lamella Design Imparts Multifunctionality to
Biomimetic Nacre
[https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.0c01511](https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.0c01511)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Rosencrantz and Ethernet (2014) - DonHopkins
https://www.shakespearegeek.com/2014/10/rosencrantz-and-etherne.html
======
gumby
[http://www.ultimate.com/phil/pdp10/quux.poem](http://www.ultimate.com/phil/pdp10/quux.poem)
I think that I shall never see A matrix lovely as a tree. Trees are fifty
times as fun As structures a la PL/I (Which Dijkstra claims are too baroque).
And SNOBOL's strings just can't compare With all the leaves a tree may bear.
And COMIT strings are just a joke. Vectors, tuples too, are nice, But haven't
the impressive flair Of trees to which a LISP is heir. A LISPer's life is
paradise!
Many people think that JOSS And others, too, are strictly boss; And there are
many BASIC fans Who think their favorite language spans All that would a user
please. Compared to LISP they're all a loss, For none of them gives all the
ease With which a LISP builds moby trees.
RPG is just a nurd (As you no doubt have often heard); The record layouts are
absurd, And numbers packed in decimal form Will never fit a base-two word
Without a veritable storm Of gross conversions fro and to With them arithmetic
to do. And one must allocate the field Correct arithmetic to yield, And
decimal places represent Truncation loss to circumvent: Thus RPG is second-
rate. In LISP one needn't allocate (That boon alone is heaven-sent!) The
scheme is sheer simplicity: A number's just another tree. When numbers
threaten overflow LISP makes the number tree to grow, Extending its
significance With classic treelike elegance. A LISP can generate reports,
Create a file, do chains and sorts; But one thing you will never see Is moby
trees in RPG.
One thing the average language lacks Is programmed use of push-down stacks.
But LISP provides this feature free: A stack - you guessed it - is a tree. An
empty stack is simply NIL. In order, then, the stack to fill
A CONS will push things on the top; To empty it, a CDR will Behave exactly
like a pop. A simple CAR will get you back The last thing you pushed on the
stack; An empty stack's detectable By testing with the function NULL. Thus
even should a LISPer lose With PROGs and GOs, RETURNs and DOs, He need his
mind not overtax To implement recursive hacks: He'll utilize this clever ruse
Of using trees as moby stacks. Some claim this method is too slow Because it
uses CONS so much And thus requires the GC touch; It has one big advantage,
though: You needn't fear for overflow. Since LISP allows its trees to grow,
Stacks can to any limits go.
COBOL input is a shame: The implementors play a game That no two versions are
the same. And rocky is the FORTRAN road One's alpha input to decode: The
FORMAT statement is to blame, But on the user falls the load. And FOCAL
input's just a farce; But all LISP input comes pre-parsed! (The input reader
gets its fame By getting storage for each node From lists of free words
scattered sparse. It parses all the input strings With aid of mystic
mutterings; From dots and strange parentheses, From zeros, sevens, A's and
Z's, Constructs, with magic reckonings, The pointers needed for its trees. It
builds the trees with complex code With rubout processing bestowed; When
typing errors do forebode The rubout makes recovery tame, And losers then will
oft exclaim Their sanity to LISP is owed - To help these losers is LISP's
aim.)
The flow-control of APL And OS data sets as well Are best described as
tortured hell. For LISPers everything's a breeze; They neatly output all their
trees With format-free parentheses And see their program logic best By how
their lovely parens nest. While others are by GOs possessed, And WHILE-DO,
CASE, and all the rest, The LISPing hackers will prefer With COND their
programs to invest And let their functions all recur When searching trees in
maddened quest.
Expanding records of fixed size Will quickly programs paralyze. Though ISAM
claims to be so wise In allocating overflow, Its data handling is too slow And
finding it takes many tries. But any fool can plainly see Inherent flexibility
In data structured as a tree. When all their efforts have gone sour To swell
fixed records, losers glower. But list reclaimers hour by hour By setting all
the garbage free Yield CONSequent capacity: Thus trees indefinitely flower.
(And trees run on atomic power!)
To men of sensibility The lesson here is plain to see: Arrays are used by
clods like me, But only LISP can make a tree.
- The Great Quux
(with apologies to
Joyce Kilmer)
------
projektfu
There’s definitely a shortage of doggerel in this field.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Tiny VPS Hosting - cdvonstinkpot
http://www.97cents.net/
======
0x4a42
There are not much info about the service on the site but this doesn't looks
like VPS to me. The "P" in VPS stands for Private. This looks like a very
limited shared hosting with a Cpanel manager, not a VPS with SSH and full
control other the virtual server.
And you are forced to register or transfert a domain name to use with the
hosting which are both (?) priced at $17 for a .com. That plus 12 x 97c and
you are at the same price as a cheap "real" shared or vps hosting from many
other hosting services + registar.
------
vvoltt
They are just shared hosts, but 97c for SSD hosting is really good. All the
other cheap hosts are still running the slower SATA drives.
also, check option 3 when signing up: "I will update my nameservers on an
existing domain Or I will register a new domain"
You can use your own domain and not buy one from them.
------
LaurensBER
Quality shared hosting for 0.97*12 is not in any way special.
A decent VPS for 0.97 cents a month would be awesome, I tried some of the
providers mentioned on lowendboxes.com but I can't say that I've had great
experiences with any of them.
------
unwind
Pet peeve: they should simplify the redundant "$0.97c" price.
It's either $0.97, or 97¢, it can't be both can it?
------
juliangoldsmith
Interesting, though the title is misleading; these guys host websites, not
VPSes.
------
cdvonstinkpot
Superb Customer Support In My Experience- felt obliged to let everyone know.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A look at the 10x paradigm - devupio
https://devup.co/10x-or-not-youve-got-to-do-things-right-8e45311ecbcb#.pdul8uywo
======
wvenable
Like others here, I don't consider 10x programmers to be someone who writes
10x the amount of code. In fact, most 10x programmers actually write less code
but get more done with it.
Personally I think the narrative works better when you think there are 1x
programmers and 0.1x programmers. And a very large number of developers are
actually between 1.0 and 0.1. These 0.1x programmers somehow manage to solve
problems by simply puttering away at it over time. For example, these
programmers might start out reading a web service into an XML file, re-opening
that XML file to process the result, copying that file someone else that is
never read again, taking the result and inserting it into a database table,
reading the table to create an aggregate result, and then finally inserting
that result into another system. And they do this all day long every day for
every problem they come across.
Not everyone is quite that bad, there are 0.5x programmers who know better
than that but still manage to write 6 classes to solve a problem that could be
done in a single 2-screen long function.
Tools and processes can help and code reviews are pretty invaluable. Any good
process will have weeded out 0.1x programmers already and they will settle in
those places without them.
~~~
eecks
> 6 classes to solve a problem that could be done in a single 2-screen long
> function
Isn't the former promoted as better programming? IoC, decoupling, Law of
Demeter, testability etc
~~~
1138
Promoted? Yes. Actually? No.
~~~
eecks
So, genuine question, why?
~~~
ktRolster
You scatter the code all over the place, making it harder to understand and
less flexible (less flexible, because if you want to change something, now you
have to change it in six places).
Best practice doesn't mean "make as many classes as possible" although I would
probably break up two-pages into a few different functions (large functions,
even when they are good code, invite programmers who come later to add to them
in a messy way).
~~~
rimantas
If you have to change it in six places it just means that you did something
wrong. Keeping those six places in the single file is not the solution either:
next time you will need something similar, but not exactly the same you will
copy that file. And next you will find yourself changing twelve places.
~~~
wvenable
The good rule of thumb is not to refactor into reusable parts unless you need
to do something similar. It isn't hard, _at that point_ , to split things up.
Premature design is like premature optimization -- you do the wrong things, or
things you never need to do.
And yes changing things in six places means you did something wrong, but
that's easy to do when you _start_ by splitting things into six places. The
worst, of course, is when developers don't change it when it needs to be
changed and instead just keep adding. Once you have something so _designed_ it
makes removing and changing code more painful than adding code.
------
wting
10x is a measure of impact relative to others. From that definition, I have no
doubt it exists. There's a couple ways to find 10x'ers:
# A person that does things no one else can.
A problem requires calculating taxes for an invoice. Someone who computes this
programmatically is better than a person who hand calculates everything.
A problem requires calculating the area under the curve. Someone who uses
calculus is better than someone who only knows algebra and geometry.
A problem requires charging a user's credit card once on checkout. Someone who
understands idempotent operations is infinitely better. (I was charged 3 times
for a single purchase yesterday, and now disputing with the merchant.)
# A person that grows the people around them.
A person growing teammates to 2x or 3x their previously level has a cumulative
10x impact.
This can be teaching how to approach problems, choose the right abstractions,
make engineering tradeoffs, manage risk, write robust code that is easily
testable, etc.
# A person that makes others more efficient.
If the average dev waits 1 hr for a build, and someone reduces that to 5
minutes then they have saved: x devs * y builds / day * 55 min
This has indirect effects such as maintaining flow state, minimizing context
switching, etc.
# A person that brings down the teammates.
A dev that builds fast enough (5x), but grows tech debt such that the rest of
the team operates at 0.5x. By definition they are a 10x relative to their
teammates. :P
------
devishard
This article starts off with addressing how so-called-10x developers are often
just building tech debt into their applications. I was with Tiwari on that.
Then he moves on to creating a non-judgmental culture... not sure I agree
there. And then... linters? Huh?
I think that the anti-judgment folks are trying to achieve something good, but
they're throwing out the baby with the bathwater. We need to make a
distinction between judging behaviors and judging people. The former isn't
just good, it's fundamental--the only way to improve your behaviors is to
judge them. But judging people is generally pointless, at least without some
sort of temporal limitation--almost everyone starts at a new job as -0.5x net
contribution until they're onboarded and improves from there.
~~~
d23
> This article starts off with addressing how so-called-10x developers are
> often just building tech debt into their applications. I was with Tiwari on
> that. Then he moves on to creating a non-judgmental culture... not sure I
> agree there. And then... linters? Huh?
Thank you. Did anyone read the damn article? It's all over the place --
borderline nonsensical. I suppose it's intended to be a promotion of their
company. Color me unconvinced.
------
Darmani
There are a couple ways to be called a 10x programmer.
One is by doing more, by throwing around more code and building more features.
This is the kind that the article talks about. It's quite hard to maintain
this kind of multiplier, no matter how much technical debt you're willing to
create. I can think of one example of someone like this, and his multiplier
was definitely not 10x. At the time, he was at best labelled "up-and-coming."
He'd go home over the weekend and write thousands of lines of code, and then
the team would come in and find everything broken.
Another is by doing less, and simply being at a higher level than others.
In my experience, no-one gets to 10x by just banging harder and letting other
people clean up the mess. Even if you do, those aren't the people whose impact
is felt for years after they leave, at least not in any positive sense. You
get to 10x by being the one person who can spot the mess the rest of the team
is about to create before they've written the first line. Your impact isn't
felt for years by writing code: it's felt by setting the architecture, by
making design decisions that constraint people into writing good code for
years to come.
~~~
ktRolster
_In my experience, no-one gets to 10x by just banging harder and letting other
people cleaning up the mess._
Yeah, that's a good one. Cleaning up your messes is a way to improve your
architecture skill quickly. I can give you other ideas that will quickly push
you to 10x skill level:
* Focus. Put away your phone, don't surf the internet at work. That alone will raise you above the crowd and let you go home early.
* Fix bugs early. Don't send them out to QA, don't send them to customers. Once your bug count starts increasing, it's a death cycle that slows you down like molasses.
* As soon as bugs (or problems) come in, try to think of a way to avoid that problem in the future. Over time, you'll develop habits that will serve you well.
------
j45
It's less about 10x programmers and programmers that can do 10x architecture.
Clever and elegant architecture will always beat clever programming.
It's almost always a large part of how "10x programmers" achieve so much.
10x effectiveness comes out in different way on different projects, be it new
code vs existing code, or knowing enough about the solution space vs being in
an unknown world.
~~~
maxxxxx
I'd say that coming up with a 10x architecture is also a matter of luck.
Sometimes your architecture pans out, sometimes it doesn't. It's hard to
anticipate future requirements.
Where good people win is that they adapt quickly when there are signs that the
design doesn't work. A lot of people just "stick to the plan" although
everybody knows that it won't work.
~~~
devishard
I think "anticipating future requirements" is entirely the wrong way to
approach the problem.
Instead, you should look at how those requirements will be produced. If your
architecture "thinks" the same way as your users, it will be able to be
modified easily to include more of their thinking. So instead of trying to
predict future requirements, you should attempt to capture and accurately
model the way your users think about the problem. Sometimes that creates
designs that mathematically/algorithmically seem pretty ugly. But in the long
run I'll often discover that the ugliness exists for a reason--people mostly
only add complexity to their mental models because that complexity allows them
to solve a problem. So even when the domain expert's thinking seems
overcomplicated, it's usually actually the _least_ complicated model that
accurately represents the problem.
~~~
tensor
This has definitely not been my experience. Users vary greatly, some like
simple mental models, but some love complex mental models. You definitely
shouldn't be letting your users define your product.
Rather, listen to your users problems, listen to what they think a solution
is, then let your design team determine if there is a better and more simple
solution. Sometimes there may not be, but often there is.
~~~
devishard
Of course you shouldn't let users define your product. Nothing about what I
said suggests that.
When you get requirements from your users, they're going to mix in how they
think about the problem with how they think that problem should be represented
in the program. The problem with that is that they don't know what computers
can do, so they can't possibly be expected to know how the problem should be
represented in the program. And in fact, the UI, which is the only thing they
ever see, will probably be more task-oriented than representation-oriented, so
they probably will _never_ see how your program actually models the problem
and therefore won't be able to suggest good changes to it.
Ultimately, though, there's an underlying mental model that the user is using
for the task. And for most fields, there's really only one correct mental
model, so I actually disagree that expert users have different mental models,
at least not with significant differences.
------
leovonl
Fact: everybody wants a 10x programmer but nobody wants to be a 10x manager.
Also, dealing with a skilled programmer is not just a matter of top-down
policy: a 10x programmer may have a different opinion about tools and
processes and will not be happy on simply conforming - as opposed to the
programmer who doesn't know better.
~~~
ktRolster
>but nobody wants to be a 10x manager.
How would one go about becoming a 10x manager? Like, what would that person
accomplish?
------
ktRolster
Every study I've ever seen has found that some programmers are dramatically
more productive than others (10x is a vague estimate). I don't think it's a
controversial 'paradigm' at all.
It also matches with the fact that skill in general is an exponential
distribution, not a bell curve.
------
blacksmythe
Does anyone doubt that there are 2x programmers (programmers twice as
effective as an average senior developer)? I have worked with a number of
them.
If one were to assume some sort of power law or Gaussian tail distribution, it
is logical to assume that a few 10x programmers exist. However, they are going
to be sufficiently rare that you are not likely to be able to find them or
recruit them.
A more interesting question is if there are 3-4x programmers, and if so, is it
feasible to find and recruit them? I have worked with people (rarely) that I
would consider 4x programmers.
------
x64_lol
Where is this rush to hire 10x people taking place? I asked the last 10
recruiters who called me if they know what a 10x developer is, and they had no
idea.
------
BerislavLopac
The main problem with the "10x productivity" myth is that it's not clear what
is that 10x _of_. Is it the amount of functionality? Or maintainability of the
code? Reusability? Performance?
I've seen many developers implement some functionality in a record amount of
time, but the resulting code was later discovered to be a) bug-ridden, b)
difficult to maintain, c) unscalable or d) all of the above.
~~~
mathgeek
> the resulting code was later discovered to be a) bug-ridden, b) difficult to
> maintain, c) unscalable or d) all of the above.
I think this describes most code that's ever been written.
------
hashkb
[http://kytrinyx.com/presentations/here-be-
dragons](http://kytrinyx.com/presentations/here-be-dragons)
An excellent talk that can put this in perspective for non technical people.
------
x64_lol
I see the point here.
No matter what it's called, you're talking about people that don't use best
practices, for better or worse. Best practices will get you where you're going
in a predictable way, but there is a ton of inefficiency, as they don't take
your specific problem into account.
When I was new to moving away from best practices, I wrote a lot of difficult
to understand code that was very performant. I spent my evenings reading
documentation, reading the code of the people I admired (mostly decompiled
framework code), and was very excited to put what I learned into practice and
learn by experience. It made me proud to write code that out-performed my
coworker's code by orders of magnitude. I worked for one of the top 100 most
trafficked sites in the US, and on a platform that was not designed for that
level of traffic (none are).
A month later, the lead architect and I had a discussion that did not go my
way. I was asked to write a very public and humbling apology to the team, and
that apology still exists hosted on the internal network at that company (in a
place that is easy to find). I had a lot of talent, but not a lot of wisdom.
From that day on, I was to work on the most difficult projects exclusively,
and under direct supervision of that architect. We worked on maintaining the
performance edge, but doing so in a way that is easy for other developers to
understand and extend. He taught me to interface directly with the other
departments and senior management to make changes to the development process
before work got to development; to enable us to do our best. It was a
difficult road, and I was yelled at a lot; but eventually the architect
cleared me to work without supervision. What followed is the most productive
two years the company I worked for had ever had. I was promoted multiple
times, was awarded patents, and was able to do a lot of lasting good. I had a
hand in every project, feature, and department. I designed and internally
evangelized a few myself, and had become the go-to guy to get difficult things
done. You know this company, if I told you their name you'd recognize them and
their product immediately (you've likely used my work).
I left about 4 years ago to build my own company. I do consulting during the
day, and take jobs that require a hero to survive (to stay sharp). Since I
left, there have been no significant new features or achievements out of the
company I left.
Moral of the story: If you're talented, your idea of a good night is reading
documentation and decompiling/memorizing products you like, and want to be a
10x developer; get someone you admire to yell at you, rip your work apart
every day, and tell you that you're garbage for a year. It will do you (and
your company) a lot of good.
~~~
tensor
There must be more to this than you've said. Simply writing difficult to read
code doesn't seem like a good reason to tell someone they are garbage and to
publicly humiliate them by forcing them to give the team an apology. Usually
simply bringing it up in a one on one should be enough, most people when
pointed out that they should focus on documentation or readability by others
will quickly and gladly take that advice without being yelled at.
~~~
x64_lol
There was more to it. I was not just writing pages, I was writing a micro-
framework to support my pages. I was doing manual complex multi-threading,
run-time code generation and compilation, custom memory caching, run-time
server-side generation of graphics (before HTML5 canvas or solid SVG support)
etc. Two days after my hire, I was assigned solo to a very difficult project
and the product department recognized me as a way to get everything they
wanted done without push-back (and without going through the normal chain of
command). I never told them no, so they gave me everything someone else
wouldn’t do (including projects that had been previously cancelled due to
technical complexity concerns, breaking the design refinement process that is
meant to take place). Since they kept giving me challenging projects, I took
every project as a personal challenge, and I finished them in record time. The
team was very busy, and there was very little time for code-review. My micro-
framework went unnoticed for quite some time. My pages looked simple, as they
were mainly just making calls to the micro-framework. I thought I found my
place; I was getting individually requested by the product department for
projects (which was unusual), and I was giving them everything they were
asking for. I thought I was taking pressure off of the rest of the team. I
thought I was being a hero. What I was actually doing was creating an area of
the code-base that effectively a black hole for everyone else and giving the
product department unrealistic expectations. There is a natural trade-off
between performance optimization and readability; and I chose performance
optimization every time. My inspiration (decompiled framework code) had no
comments, so I had no comments. It was performance optimized, so my code was
performance optimized. I wanted to be my heroes; and there were plenty of
heroes to become. The maintenance developers did not share my enthusiasm for
study, hard-core mathematics and lateral thinking. They referred to my work as
“the space shuttle”; as in “I don’t want to touch that, I might break the
space shuttle”.
I was never literally told that I was garbage, but I was made to feel that
way. It was necessary, I was getting mixed messages; some of the managers
loved me, product loved me, the designers loved me, the other developers
didn’t know what to think of my work. Technically everything was written
concisely, extensible (by someone who understood it), performed very well, had
few bugs (if any), and was pixel perfect when compared to the comps. I was
giving people what they wanted, quickly and relatively bug free. I lacked
discipline, and my architect was ex-military. He effectively stripped me of my
ego, and I am very glad he did. I imagine the apology was a plan to make sure
management and other developers didn’t encourage me (and it worked).
The year of discipline was the best thing that could have happened to me. It
completely changed the way I thought about software development. It wasn’t
just me anymore, it was everyone. It made me a much more effective employee,
and taught me to spread complexity out. I am still fast, the code is still
performant, but I stopped building black holes and do more of my code and
process optimization in architecture, design, and process and less in fringe
techniques. I still use fringe techniques when there is no “normal” way to
accomplish what needs doing (and we can’t change what needs doing), but they
come with full explanations now, are built to be discoverable, and I spend
significant time training a second person in how to do the same in case I am
hit by a bus.
Before, if management gave me the requirement that they should be able to
flush a Doberman down the toilet, I would build them the world’s most powerful
(and frightening) toilet. After, I knew to argue that we should be burying
dead Dobermans outside, and I knew how to get management to agree.
TLDR: I am considered a 10x developer by my co-workers, but early on I was one
of the scary people this post is warning about.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Facebook will filter 'fake news' in Germany - yskchu
http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-tests-fake-news-filtering-in-germany-2017-1
======
nom
Oh man I'm so sick of this 'fake news' hype here in Germany.
It's the internet. Get used to it!
edit: I'm also very curious how Facebook plans to accomplish it. They probably
gave the usual response 'yeah we'll fix it', so our politicians and news
outlets stop talking about this nonsense.
------
chopin
Major news outlets in Germany publish unverifiable news from undisclosed
sources as well. I fail to see why Facebook should get a special treatment in
this regard.
~~~
tdkl
Left wing media and governments go hand in hand.
------
ommunist
correctiv.org is independent non-profit, based in Berlin, which is interesting
setting. This is a rather small company, with editorial office in Essen. It
looks like it relies on 16 journalists (some of them high-calibre), and one
traineeto fulfil their duties. Of which Facebook is not the only one. Which
inevitably poses a question, how good is this backup and is this not another
kind of attempt of a Dutch boy stopping flood of the whole Nederland with his
finger in the dam?
The dam is of course the German FB, standing the flood of fake news. I failed
to recognise how many 'viral' stories on FB are fake, however, so can't really
estimate that Correctiv is much of a finger in such a dam.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Weighing the Good and the Bad of Autonomous Killer Robots in Battle - evo_9
http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/04/28/476055707/weighing-the-good-and-the-bad-of-autonomous-killer-robots-in-battle
======
JoeAltmaier
Overheated hype. There are already over 100 million land mines deployed around
the world. Pretty stupid as robots go; but the same heartless automated
indiscriminate killing. Been going on since World War I. So yes we'll get used
to it, since we already have.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Learning Morse code in the 21st century - hggh
https://airfactsjournal.com/2019/12/learning-morse-code-in-the-21st-century/
======
drmpeg
I learned Morse code back in 1992 in order to pass the General class amateur
radio license. Back then, the test was 13 words per minute. I practiced for a
few months with cassette tapes and over the air copy. After I got up to about
18 WPM, I went and took the test. I almost choked, but was able to recover and
pass the test. I haven't used Morse code since then.
~~~
vvanders
There's been a bit of a resurgence with the lower solar cycle, for mobile
radios such as the KX3/2 and FT-817 which top out at 15W, having a mode that
concentrates most of its power in ~500Hz of bandwidth(vs ~3kHz for voice) is a
huge advantage.
Aside from FT-8 and related digital modes it has an impressive ability to
punch though when few other modes will.
~~~
drmpeg
I have nothing against CW, it's just not for me. Also, I don't operate HF any
longer. At this stage of my ham radio adventure, it's all about SDR on UHF and
microwave frequencies. Current project is wideband (10 MHz) digital links on
10 GHz.
~~~
vvanders
Oh yeah totally, just more for context who might not be aware that there's
still some practical benefits along with the historical aspect.
------
heelix
I've learned a bit of morse code from flying. The older VOR navigation systems
identify themselves with a three letter code, so to confirm you have the right
frequency dialed in, you listen to the dot/dashes getting beeped at you. I
cheat - I found a font that would translate the VOR name FCM when I printed it
for my kneeboard.
The charts, for example, lists the morse code for the VOR, which translates to
FCM
[https://skyvector.com/?ll=44.80208246787191,-93.453170428716...](https://skyvector.com/?ll=44.80208246787191,-93.45317042871639&chart=117&zoom=1&fpl=%20KFCM%20undefined%20KFCM)
------
interactivecode
My uncle used to work as a radio guy. I remember visiting The National
Maritime Museum with him and he just walked up to a morse machine and started
writing stories.
Last weekend when we talked he mentioned being sad that a lot of this
knowledge is getting lost. Must be a strange feeling walking through a museum
and it being the tools of your trade.
~~~
aasasd
I mean, JS coders now can have that experience after a year or two. Only they
don't get their past exhibited in museums.
------
ponsin
Does anything have a recommendation of how to learn Morse today? maybe an app?
the app the author recommends is only for iOS and I have Android
~~~
sverige
The best is G4FON's Morse Trainer, requires Windows, works on Wine.
[http://www.g4fon.net/](http://www.g4fon.net/)
Edit: You'll have to navigate to the Morse Trainer link from the main page.
Also, it's the best because it has knobs for all the variables -- speed,
number of characters sent, even options to add QRM (interference) and variable
sending speed (imitating very well someone with an unsteady fist).
As an aside, it's pointless to learn code visually. It's only really useable
as an auditory messaging system.
~~~
SiVal
_only really useable as an auditory messaging system_
What? When I was a kid, it was common for camping flashlights to have pressure
buttons on the side, which was intended for (and we used for) morse code.
Ships used bright, shuttered lights for Morse code, soldiers used it, scouts
used it, kids communicated with friends in the neighborhood at night.
~~~
sverige
OK, yes, but it's still the rhythm of the flashes that are being interpreted,
not _ .... .. ...
Plus, I am willing to bet that far more messages using Morse are sent over
radio than with lights.
------
tasty_freeze
Maybe three years ago I dove into cheap SDR receivers for a few months,
exploring different SDR devices, different frequency bands, different
decoders, etc.
One really surprising thing was how little morse code was to be found. And
when I did find it, the decoders (like fldigi) were unreliable in decoding.
I'm not sure if it was because of their decoding algorithms or if the senders
simply had too much variance in their timing.
The bit of traffic I did decode was simply exchanges of contact so each could
log a new call sign in their books. I'm not sure what I was expecting to find:
because the bits seemed to be "secret" due to my ignorance of morse code, my
brain heuristically assumed information they hid must be important.
~~~
thepete2
A while ago I dove into ham radio a bit. I think what you saw was the 40m and
80m bands (HF band, very high range) which are used mainly for "competitions"
(essentially exchanging callsigns).
I still find it intriguing because it's such a simple way of communicating.
You can build the circuits yourself and with a license communicate with others
over kilometers (with a good antenna sometimes thousands of kilometers). Think
about it, without cell phone towers, satellites and all that commercial
infrastructure it's really the only way to reach anyone.
------
geogra4
You would think it would make sense for Morse to be the foundation for
computer representation of text, being binary and all. But the real challenge
is that Morse code does not use standard lengths for each character.
It's, imo, one of the earliest technologies that shows the divergence between
what is easy for humans vs what is easy for machines.
~~~
toomanybeersies
Morse code isn't binary, it's trinary.
You have 3 signals: dots, dashes, and spaces.
Here's the relevant extract from the wikipedia article on Morse Code:
> Each Morse code symbol is formed by a sequence of dots and dashes. The dot
> duration is the basic unit of time measurement in Morse code transmission.
> The duration of a dash is three times the duration of a dot. Each dot or
> dash within a character is followed by period of signal absence, called a
> space, equal to the dot duration. The letters of a word are separated by a
> space of duration equal to three dots, and the words are separated by a
> space equal to seven dots
~~~
thepete2
You can represent it as both binary and ternary
R is: .-. (dit dah dit)
which could be 121 in ternary (0 being pause)
or 1011101 in binary, since one dah is three dits long
~~~
dilutedh2o
In that case we may as well use the alphabet tbh
------
sdoering
I remember writing morse code letters with my then girlfriend while in my last
years in school. back then I was able to fluently read and write morse. We
didn't want others to be able to easily read what we wrote. It was in the late
90ies and we were so sweetly naive.
Today, except SOS, I can't read/write anything in morse.
------
nullandvoid
I recently enjoyed the chapter in "code" about Morse code [1]. After some
googling around I also found this morse chat rook which is a good laugh for
anyone looking to kill some time struggling to spell profanities in morse :)
[2]
[1] [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware-
Sof...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware-
Software/dp/0735611319)
[2] [http://morsecode.me/?room=1](http://morsecode.me/?room=1)
~~~
lightlyused
[2] was strange, keyboard straight key is the worst.
------
obilecantrem
I learned back in 2000 at Ft. Huachuca, it took about 30 8 hour days for me to
get through the basic Morse course, I don't remember how long it took to get
through the rest of it. I do remember getting a certificate, the Samuel B
Morse award, for copying at slightly above the required speed which I think
was something like 22 groups a minute.
------
jimmyislive
I wrote a text to morse code converter some time back if anyone is interested:
[https://text2morse.jimmyislive.dev](https://text2morse.jimmyislive.dev)
~~~
gnufx
..././. ./\--/.-/-.-./... --/-....-/-..-
--/\---/.-./..././-....-/.-././\--./../\---/-./.-.-.-
~~~
lightlyused
...- .. -- .... ..
------
wglb
Morse code is one of the few signal encodings that can be understood by both
humans and computers.
------
madengr
I like to hunt Non Directional Beacons on the long wave band. Unfortunately I
have read they are being decommissioned.
~~~
thepete2
Are you sure? There are some beacons by the IARU [0] - across the world - that
one after the other transmit their callsign. It can be used to test reception
and it can be a challenge to receive a signal from 100s of kilometers away
without a repeater.
[0] [http://www.iaru.org/beacon-project.html](http://www.iaru.org/beacon-
project.html)
~~~
madengr
These can be heard out to a few 100 km:
[http://www.dxinfocentre.com/ndb.htm](http://www.dxinfocentre.com/ndb.htm)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
White House Drafts Order to Probe Google, Facebook Practices - Jerry2
https://www.bloombergquint.com/business/2018/09/22/draft-order-for-trump-would-crack-down-on-google-facebook#gs.vJ6cFkE
======
orev
I’m not seeing the connection here between “antitrust” and the alleged
discrimination against conservative views. How does alleged discrimination
become an antitrust issue, other than as a cudgel/threat by the government to
try to punish these companies?
While I do think there are probably some monopoly issues with these tech
companies, this seems more like a government witch hunt against them because
the current administration doesn’t like what they’re doing, not because they
are truly concerned about the possible monopolies.
~~~
craftyguy
> How does alleged discrimination become an antitrust issue
It doesn't.
> other than as a cudgel/threat by the government to try to punish these
> companies?
It's exactly this.
~~~
tptacek
In fact, the EO appears to be explicit about being retaliation, since it
mentions "platform bias" in its reasoning. "Platform bias" isn't an antitrust
concern, and, in fact, the President has no authority to "de-bias" private
companies.
~~~
charmides
>"Platform bias" isn't an antitrust concern, and, in fact, the President has
no authority to "de-bias" private companies.
This is a very common refrain and I would agree completely with this if we
didn't live in a society where Facebook, Twitter and YouTube dominated the our
communication channels. I wish that we had a neutral way (like email) to reach
a large audience and that it wasn't owned by three or four private companies.
~~~
tptacek
It would seem to be difficult in the extreme to wield antitrust law against
Twitter, which is embattled, competes bitterly with Facebook, and holds no
monopoly on anything.
~~~
abraae
Twitter seems to hold somewhat of a monopoly on a certain kind of shouty,
instantaneous social interaction.
------
olliej
This sounds like they want the equal representation policies that the
Republican Party got rolled back in the 80s (ruled unconstitutional iirc).
It’s what allowed the rise of partisan “news”. It seems like any “equal
exposure” policies would hit the same issues.
That said the primary “imbalanced exposure” seems to be due to evicting people
who simply spend their time attacking minorities, attack equal rights, and
promoting violence towards anyone that they dislike. For whatever reason the
Republican Party seems to have decided that those people represent
“conservative” views that private companies should have to support.
~~~
patrickg_zill
i. e. : People who are exercising their right to free speech.
~~~
craftyguy
'Right to free speech' does not exist outside the government. It never has,
unless there's an amendment to the first amendment that no one is telling us
about..
~~~
anonymousab
When people talk about free speech outside of government affairs, they are
generally referring to an idealized universal human right or ideal, rather*
than the US constitutional right.
~~~
craftyguy
> an idealized universal human right or ideal
There is no such thing. Implementing/requiring 'free speech' for consumers of
a service (e.g. facebook) means that now suddenly the service and its
employees lose _their_ right to free speech. If the service's management wants
to be biased towards one political 'party', they have a right to do that, but
if they suddenly are forced to be unbiased then they have effectively lost
that right. See how you cannot have 'universal free speech'?
~~~
AlexB138
This is a nonsensical interpretation of free speech. Censoring someone is not
an exercise in the censorers free speech. Free speech is a negative right,
meaning for it to exist others must not stop you from speaking.
In your argument, whoever has power would just censor whatever they don't like
and claim they're exercising their free speech. You're literally arguing that
censorship is free speech. Straight out of a totalitarian play book.
~~~
dvtrn
_whoever has power would just censor whatever they don 't like and claim
they're exercising their free speech._
Have you ever heard someone claim "freedom of speech is not freedom from
consequences"? [1]
Seems like an increasingly popular mechanism to publicly litigate the affair
in public, muzzle someone from the comparative out-group while insulating
themselves from all consequences one might faces themselves from their own
petard.
I'll admit there's probably some merit to it-if you applied enough context and
nuance to it. Problem is the types of people I observe online deploying this
conceit very rarely do so in good faith and rarer still express any
willingness to appreciate context or nuance.
[1] [https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/01/10/when-
satire...](https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/01/10/when-satire-cuts-
both-ways/freedom-of-speech-not-freedom-from-consequences)
~~~
AlexB138
Indeed.
As you say, there is merit to the argument. Social censure is often the
appropriate response to repugnant ideas. I wouldn't invite an extremist to a
party, for instance, but I wouldn't, and shouldn't, seek to ban them from
speaking in public.
And again, as you said, these argument are almost always used in bad faith.
There is a breed of political extremism, popular in our industry, that is very
against free speech and they have turned these bits of tortured logic into
memes (in the cultural sense). The problem I personally have with it is the
two-faced misrepresentation. Attempting to avoid outright saying they don't
believe in free-speech, while at the same time advocating censoring any speech
that doesn't conform to their ideas. While there's still an argument to be
made against it, I at least respect the logical consistency of those saying "A
private platform can censor political speech their leaders disagree with if
they want to".
~~~
fzeroracer
You can believe in free speech while advocating for moderation. There has been
many attempts over the past few years to turn the free-speech argument into
one against moderation, because in order to moderate a platform it
necessitates censoring opinions.
A lot of these arguments remind me a lot of the days when I used to play
Garry's Mod. Where people claim admin abuse, censorship etc for being banned
or told to go away as a result of ruining the game for other people.
~~~
AlexB138
Agreed, and if I came off as arguing otherwise I misspoke. What you can't be
is for free speech and for "moderation" of only speech you disagree with,
which is simply bias censorship and what is often happening.
~~~
fzeroracer
The flaw with that is moderators and companies have to make a determination
for speech they disagree with. Not all sites ban people in the same way for
violent threats, and similarly all sites view inflammatory or derogatory
speech in different ways.
At some point in the equation there will be a value judgment made in terms of
what breaks the rules. People banned by that moment will cite censorship and
demand to be heard (see: the various subreddits banned by Reddit) while people
wanting that content removed will celebrate. Making the argument into one
purely about censorship ends up removing the nuance and reasoning for why
someone was banned, which is why when people talk about conservative voices
being banned by twitter, they often ignore the damage and harm Alex Jones for
example has been responsible for to many families involved in school shootings
or the various conspiracies he peddles.
------
mc32
This looks like this draft order is pretty wide-ranging. It covers opinion
manipulation (speech) as well as the more meaty anti-trust aspect of the above
companies.
Whether this administration or another has the will, remains to be seen, but
it seems clear that these advertising companies up to this point have
collected user data with impunity and use it with impunity.
I may be mistaken but I think people will eventually wake up from their
indifference to this in the US and demand congress pass comprehensive data
collection and usage reform.
~~~
tptacek
It can be _written_ as wide-ranging as they want it to be, but the Executive
Branch has only the authority to enact laws passed by Congress, so unless
there's some "opinion manipulation" statute none of us have heard of, the
administration is going to be stuck with stuff like antitrust.
I don't know about Facebook, but Google has been preparing for antitrust
investigations for over a decade.
~~~
patrickg_zill
Yes, and the Constitution is very clear that only gold and silver are to be
used in payment of debts.
But here we are...
Edit for the search-deprived:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract_Clause](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract_Clause)
~~~
Erem
That clause describes the power of the individual states, not the federal
government. And unless you've seen Oklahoma trying to pay their debts in OK
Bucks I think it holds true today.
The federal government is allowed to use whatever means they legislate to pay
their debts.
~~~
patrickg_zill
So do those who win state contracts get paid in gold and silver?
~~~
tptacek
You can literally just Google "gold and silver clause" to see that this is a
Wesley Snipesian conspiracy theory. You might just as productively argue about
gold-fringed admiralty flags here.
------
w_t_payne
How would such a probe be carried out?
Are they going to start reviewing source code?
------
tptacek
Any order like this --- retaliation for perceived political slights --- is
chilling. But try to remember that every administration makes a spectacle of
writing "Executive Orders", and they usually mean less than people think they
do.
In the US system, the President cannot simply make new laws or take arbitrary
actions by fiat. With the exception of powers extending from those enumerated
to the Executive in the Constitution, the President can only administer laws
passed by Congress.
In reality, the President is a sort of CEO of a giant conglomeration of
federal agencies, all of which are animated by statutes. What you generally
see in these EOs is reprioritization and, in some cases, requested changes to
rulemaking --- rulemaking being "places where Congress explicitly left it up
to the Executive to figure out how to manage a particular law".
So: unless there's some "opinion manipulation" statute none of us have heard
of (unlikely, because of that pesky 1A), this is really just Trump retaliating
against political enemies by threatening antitrust investigations. That
squares with what Bloomberg is reporting, and Bloomberg appears to be the only
outlet that has seen a copy of the EO.
~~~
chasing
> In reality, the President is a sort of CEO of a giant conglomeration of
> federal agencies...
This is such an awful comparison. I wish people would stop making it. A CEO
and the President (should) operate in very different ways with a very
different set of constraints with a very different set of desired goals. They
might both sit at the top of large organizations, but the Executive Branch of
the US government and a company are two very, very, VERY different beasts.
------
Mountain_Skies
Perhaps companies like Twitter, Google, and Facebook are actively trying to
incite regulation. Social media companies have become beholden to a relatively
small group of very loud activists who have frightened the companies into
compliance with their political goals. They're afraid of standing up to these
noise makers and have a legitimate difficulty in deciding how to best moderate
the content on their platforms in a way that alienates the fewest users.
Government regulation would tie their hands, allowing the companies to claim
they're powerless to manipulate content in the way that activists demand it be
manipulated. In such an environment where all companies are legally obliged to
treat content the same way, boycott threats would be meaningless. Likely tools
would arise to allow individual users to have better control over what content
they do and do not see instead of insisting on the platform censoring content
for them and imposing those standards on everyone else.
------
nonbel
People just need to use other services.
1) DuckDuckGo is great for search.
2) Protonmail is great for email.
3) gab.ai instead of twitter (heard about it but never used it; I guess
twitter has some use...).
4) Voat instead of Reddit (it seemed to offer the same capabilities when I
visited it a bit).
5) Facebook, nothing like this should even exist but I'm sure there is some
alternative out there.
~~~
chasing
Have you, uh, looked at gab.ai and voat lately? Because my lord, they might
attempt to copy some of the technical aspects of Reddit and Twitter, but their
communities are something else entirely, to put it mildly...
~~~
nonbel
See here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18047264](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18047264)
------
acidburnNSA
I have been frequently and respectfully conversing with a relative who's a
full-on Breitbart-parotting die-hard Trump supporter for the past year or so.
He was throwing around a leaked TGIF video (of Sergey Brin explaining that he
finds the election offensive) and saying that this confirms that Google is
part a Democratic Party front that's indoctrinating children and teachers
against conservative viewpoints.
He then went on to spend the next 2 weeks parrotting Breitbart's article after
article about how they use foreign workers and that they're building a Chinese
government spy system and that the government needs to step in and stop them
and on and on. It was fascinating.
We discussed the government's role in regulating private companies and it was
clear that the philosophy is totally tribal. Break up companies run by
liberals, even if there's no demonstrable liberal bias of the service, by any
means necessary. Political philosophy be damned. It's quite a time indeed,
though I wonder if it's ever really been any different.
~~~
fzeroracer
I've seen similar chilling arguments be made that Alex Jones of all people is
a proper conservative voice and deserves to be heard. All of these attacks on
google, facebook etc are not attempts to actually fix the huge monopolies they
control but a clear partisan attack because they believe they're being
persecuted or censored by these tech companies.
These are the same people that claim to be anti-regulation and anti-big
government, yet this is one of the more obvious examples of overreach yet.
~~~
nonbel
>"These are the same people that claim to be anti-regulation and anti-big
government"
Is it? From some other comments in this thread it sounded like "those people"
already built alternatives for themselves (voat and gab.ai). Or did you mean
"republicans"?
------
charmides
The Trump administration's critical stance on the tech giants is one of the
very few things coming from them that I support, even though their actions
here appears to be rooted in self-interest and self-preservation only (just
like everything else they're doing).
I hope that this probe will lead to some antitrust action that will be
continued by the next administration.
------
prolikewh0a
From the article itself:
>The document doesn’t name any companies.
Poor title, poor article. It's nothing but speculation based on prior Trump
tweets, mixed with the main topic of the document: antitrust.
~~~
dguaraglia
You mean based on public-record statements by the President of the United
States? Sounds like a pretty solid basis to base "speculation" on.
------
curo
This seems like rich fodder for a tech debate: Trump's Twitter bans were
deemed unconstitutional, how does that apply to the companies themselves? Is
Google's discussion to change algos after the immigration ban just? Should
antitrust laws protect not just consumer rights & competition, but voter
rights & viewpoint diversity? How do you build a better algorithm for
political threads?
Instead, even on HackerNews, you just see partisan criticism, minor viewpoint
suppression, etc. This is ground zero for fixing these problems.
------
billfor
They should be classified as common carriers.
[https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/202](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/202)
------
jim_bailie
It's ironic and tragically funny that all the comments in support of this
article's premise and of the successes of the current administration are being
grayed out.
~~~
ignoramceisblis
HN is profoundly biased in the comments that appear--and those that are
"squelched". It's pathetic.
Example:
1 hour ago, user "remarkEon" posted something that was flagged, and then
removed entirely, but before it was removed, the children comments gave hint
that it included essentially: 'Many people with conservative views in general
are being suppressed; it is not limited to people who speak out e.g. against
minorities.'
I assume this because, the comments replying to it were essentially bashing it
as if the onus was on remarkEon to provide examples substantiating his/her
claim. As if the concept is so unfathomable.
For example, a child comment from user "notatoad" 1 hour stated (in full):
> Can you give even a single example of how the parent comment is a gross
> misrepresentation?
> Who is a conservative personality that's been silenced by a tech company but
> has never attacked minorities, equal rights, or promoted violence?
An early reply to that from user "itbeho" stated (in full):
> Just today...
> [https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-09-22/james-woods-
> suspen...](https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-09-22/james-woods-suspended-
> twitter-over-satirical-meme-could-impact-election)
"itbeho" was further grayed out. For providing exactly a requested example
substantiating the statement that remarkEon was alluding to. And an example
from /just today/.
All posters who were critical of the parent poster "remarkEon" were "in full
view"\--with black comments.
As with tech in general, we need particular users and/or moderators of HN to
stop suppressing true statements of fact. Especially when there is a systemic,
clear bias against a specific "political flavor" to the statements.
This is precisely the issue discussed in the linked article. Peoples'
perspectives of reality are being warped by what is shown to them--and what is
hidden from them. Certain facts are being suppressed, which creates an
extremely distorted view of reality, e.g. real events and the rate at which
they occur.
~~~
krapp
You can turn showdead on to read remarkEon's comment, it wasn't removed.
It said, verbatim, "The kind of gross misrepresentation you’re doing right now
is part of the reason why Trump has found justification to do this kind of
thing in the first place."
It wasn't flagged because it went against HN's political bias, it was flagged
because it was tedious, partisan and uncivil, and threads like this are
destined to become cesspools anyway.
~~~
malvosenior
The parent comment it's replying to says:
> _That said the primary “imbalanced exposure” seems to be due to evicting
> people who simply spend their time attacking minorities, attack equal
> rights, and promoting violence towards anyone that they dislike. For
> whatever reason the Republican Party seems to have decided that those people
> represent “conservative” views that private companies should have to
> support._
How is that also not "tedious, partisan and uncivil"? Not only is it not
flagged, it's upvoted.
~~~
krapp
The trope of "x (thing liberals/leftists/feminists/democrats have done) is the
reason for Trump's election" has become a tired cliche at this point, and
RemarkEon's comment was just that and a dismissal without any evidence or
support for their argument. The parent was partisan, yes, but at least it
presented an argument.
Maybe it shouldn't have been flagged, but it deserved to be downvoted.
Whether downvoted comments deserve to be edited out is another matter - I've
been complaining about that for years but Hacker News is never going to change
that. Unfortunately there's no way to downvote someone here without also
censoring them globally, and HN is designed so that only a few downvotes have
a massive effect on readability.
~~~
ignoramceisblis
You're being hypocritical.
The parent comment by "olliej" presented absolutely no argument for their
statements:
> That said the primary “imbalanced exposure” seems to be due to evicting
> people who simply spend their time attacking minorities, attack equal
> rights, and promoting violence towards anyone that they dislike.
> For whatever reason the Republican Party seems to have decided that those
> people represent “conservative” views that private companies should have to
> support.
Again, remarkEon was simply pointing out the fact that "olliej" _presented no
argument_, and was giving another tired example of grossly misrepresenting
conservatives. "olliej"'s comment literally was evidence for remarkEon's
comment. A comment on the pathetic hypocritical state of discourse today.
~~~
krapp
You know what? You're right. The more I look at them, the more similar they
seem in tone and quality.
~~~
ignoramceisblis
Not that my opinion should hold much weight, but: I truly appreciate your
candor.
(As a general statement,) I, and many others, only wish to have reasonable,
rational discussions. It's impossible to do that when there exist people who
seek to subvert those constructive discussions by simply branding people--who
they very likely know next to nothing about--and then inferring all sorts of
(incorrect) beliefs from those brands (e.g. "conservative"). We would all
benefit from not jumping to conclusions. And from having access to the truth,
undistorted.
~~~
krapp
I don't think people are trying to subvert constructive discussion, rather,
people have a low bar for what they consider constructive for certain
subjects.
~~~
ignoramceisblis
I agree. I also feel that the majority of people have a low bar for that, like
you say; I don't suspect most people consciously try to subvert constructive
discussion, but I do know that's a tactic employed by a small minority.
------
velox_io
I don't think there's been such powerful organisations since the East India
Company.
~~~
ecshafer
When Google and Facebook start having personal armies, navies, and courts then
I think it will be fair to compare them to the East India company. It's
premature to even use them in the same sentence until then though.
~~~
presscast
"Power" doesn't necessarily imply "military power".
~~~
blantonl
Yes it does, because until these organizations have the power to take things
by physical force, it's not even in the same league.
~~~
rdtsc
What are things? Is money a thing? Can PayPal decide to lock your account and
not give you your money back? What about selling your data to other companies?
Are those things. You bought media on Google or Amazon and then they close
your account because you criticized them on social media. Is that media
"things"? See it is a bit more nuanced in today's world than just saying well
they didn't knock on your door and took your microwave away, so qualitatively
a different situation.
~~~
CydeWeys
It's trivial to not use PayPal, though. They don't have a monopoly on money.
They can't come take all of your possessions and land like the militarized
colonial-era private companies could. It's not remotely comparable.
If you want a better modern day example than Silicon Valley tech companies,
look at Chiquita. They have had paid paramilitary forces committing murder to
protect their interests during this millennium. Until PayPal is literally
killing people in order to steal their money and property, you can't say that
they are remotely similar.
This is not a defense of PayPal by the way; I dislike them for the same reason
you do. But perspective is important.
------
HillaryBriss
> _The document instructs U.S. antitrust authorities to “thoroughly
> investigate whether any online platform has acted in violation of the
> antitrust laws.” It instructs other government agencies to recommend within
> a month after it’s signed actions that could potentially “protect
> competition among online platforms and address online platform bias.”_
Back in 2014, Google outspent Goldman Sachs in campaign donations.
[https://www.rt.com/usa/197104-google-usa-political-
campaign/](https://www.rt.com/usa/197104-google-usa-political-campaign/)
I wonder how much Google will spend in 2020.
~~~
lern_too_spel
Goldman Sachs's policy opponents don't spend much, so Goldman Sachs itself
doesn't need to spend much on lobbying to achieve its policy objectives.
Opponents of Net Neutrality were heavy spenders in 2014.
[http://amp.timeinc.net/time/3677301/google-lobbying-
comcast](http://amp.timeinc.net/time/3677301/google-lobbying-comcast)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
SocialCoin: A Cryptocurrency for a Global Basic Income - llSourcell
http://llsourcell.svbtle.com/socialcoin-a-cryptocurrency-for-a-global-basic-income
======
woah
Any 'SocialCoin' scheme pales in significance to the prospect of a
decentralized network that can prove individuality, which the author brushes
off with a 'oh someone will figure it out'. This kind of technology would have
huge, far ranging impacts, much greater than any impact that Bitcoin,
Ethereum, or even Dogecoin could ever hope to aspire to.
If you have proof of individuality, proof of work goes out the window, proof
of stake goes out the window. The entire thing that makes Bitcoin and any
decentralized network hard goes out the window. Proof of human individuality
in a decentralized network would completely rewire society and computer
science in ways we can't imagine.
This SocialCoin thing is rooted in the world we have today, but the idea is
predicated on a technology that would make it irrelevant.
~~~
liamzebedee
I'd be interested in reading about any potential research in this area, it's
quite a fascinating unsolved problem. Like Bitcoin's solution to the P2P
untrusted consensus problem (Two Generals Problem), I would think that the
solution to ensuring individuality (see the Sybil attack [2]) lies in some
approach that isn't 100% failsafe but probabistically ensures the desired
result is highly likely (see 51% attack).
I think a web of trust [3] is something that could work. Given a system of
nodes with public keys (the most common form of identification in P2P), a
possible approach to estimate the 'individuality' of some identity/key would
be to measure its degree of relationships with other nodes who vouch for its
authenticity, weighted according to the 'individuality' of the other nodes
(something that could be solved with an iterative approach, as in
PageRank/EigenTrust). The idea being that while a malicious node might vouch
for many of its identities, it doesn't have any link to any other node and
thus would be weighted lower.
Turns out this exact approach had been developed in 2011 [5] (just found out
now, wow, see fig.1 on page 3) and also in other research with SybilGuard [4].
I'm not sure of the limitations of these formalised definitions, but it looks
to me like much of P2P research (see PolderCast, a marvellous innovation) --
the possibilities are never realised until someone implements it in software.
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Generals%27_Problem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Generals%27_Problem)
[2]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sybil_attack](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sybil_attack)
[3]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_of_trust](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_of_trust)
[4]
[http://www.math.cmu.edu/~adf/research/SybilGuard.pdf](http://www.math.cmu.edu/~adf/research/SybilGuard.pdf)
[5]
[https://ccl.northwestern.edu/papers/2011/kurve.pdf](https://ccl.northwestern.edu/papers/2011/kurve.pdf)
~~~
wyager
Any known identity system can be gamed, including web of trust.
Proof of work is the _only_ known viable sybil attack prevention mechanism.
------
oakwhiz
_> In order for SocialCoin to work, we need to figure out a way to create a
decentralized ID system that doesn’t rely on government issuance like a
Driver’s License or a Passport. This is currently an unsolved problem._
_> One possible way to do this is to have there be agents in the SocialCoin
Distributed Autonomous Corporations who a user would schedule appointments
with._
I can imagine these "agents" colluding together to prevent people from
receiving their basic income unless they receive a cut for themselves.
~~~
monkeycantype
I think eventually we will learn to do this by analysing a person's connection
to a network. Today a spy/criminal can gain a new identity by acquiring a fake
passport, what if verification of identity came not from a document, but from
an analysis of your relationships on a blockchain, who had signed that they
know and trust you, and when had they done it, and who had signed that they
trusted them. A trusted identity would become something that took years to
build. I work with a small team of developers, drip by drip I'm trying to
convince the other three this is what we should be working on.
~~~
dllthomas
I've long been quite interested in whether there's a meaningful way to use WoT
approaches to demonstrate _uniqueness_ of an identity.
------
TrainedMonkey
I do not think bitcoin derivative is the right solution for something like
basic income.
It is hard to distribute resources fairly and anonymously, this kind of thing
that governments excel at precisely because there is no expectation of
anonymity. It might be possible to come up with a solution, however at that
point it would likely be either too complex to be practical, or not fair, or
not anonymous.
TL;DR doing this with crypto-currency defeats purpose of crypto-currency.
~~~
lukifer
Another way of framing the problem is that we don't currently have a
distributed way to authenticate identity at scale; currently the least worst
solution is some kind of bureaucratic institution. (Public key encryption is a
good start, but it doesn't prevent the creation of infinite sock puppets, or
offer a good solution for stolen keys.)
~~~
patcon
Maybe the limiting factor for each participant is social interactions of a
certain sort -- something to act as a rough proxy for "time", specifically
"time interacting with fellow humans". After all, time is the finite resource
that we can only divide between our sockpuppet identities, but we can't poof
more of it into our aggregate identities. That's assuming that this "certain
sort of interaction" is something that can't easily be scaled out of sync with
our time (as could perhaps be done with our digital interactions on Twitter).
My first crazy thought was some sort of average proximity from other human
beings, where perhaps our phones could sign a digital transaction when we pass
within a certain proximity and stay there some amount of time /t/, for some
value weighted by proximity and time. The time-proximity (to make up a word,
because why not?) from fellow humans might vary by geography, but I assume it
might have some degree of consistency on the order of magnitude. So someone in
Toronto, Canada would have a value comparable to fellow citizens, but would
obviously not be on the same magnitude as someone in a rural Russian village.
So if I'm in a certain geographic place and my time-proximity for interacting
with my fellow humans is consistent, and aligns with margins of error for that
place, then maybe some undescribed service or oracle monitoring the identity
network are happy. but if that drops drastically, then maybe that's because
i've created a new identity and started to sign interactions with that. Or
maybe it's something more innocent, like a job switch. Or a depression. Maybe
that's what the oracle needs to confirm.
But anyhow, simple time-proximity wouldn't work, as the real humans are using
phones that aren't visually confirming the interaction with another real
human. So maybe it would need to be something like Google Glass that
recognizes and signs transactions using eye contact as the trigger --
detecting eye contact as a symmetrical relationship, reading/sharing
identities, signing and broadcasting a record of that human interaction.
Someone could fake data, but it would likely interact with the "real" world
network's data in a detectably odd way.
I guess what this is all about is a distributed, self-referential version of
TrustCloud.com. But none of this seems to solve the "this is a human: y/n"
sort of question -- but more like a "this human is likely 80% of a human
identity in geography X" or something like that. So maybe they now deserve a
certain take of a pie (if socialcoin were a thing).
Anyhow, I'm sure this is incredibly flawed on many levels, but it was a fun
thought experiment to work through :) Feel free to point out any glaring
errors in logic, or to promptly ignore it, for that matter
~~~
patcon
ugh. embarrassed by my uncharacteristic rambling... :/
------
gremlinsinc
One thing this autonomous corporation should do is have a tax built in to pay
the verification teams, and also to keep the system going as mining becomes
harder and harder -- if say 2-3% of all transactions go to pay verifiers, and
into the GBI pool, ... it might be more stable. You could also have some sort
of bonus program where people could run small-time cpu/gpu miners on their
home pc--donate all the hashing power back to the main network where 100% goes
towards the GBI pool, and it'll sort of be like a huge botnet of miners
keeping the gbi aspect going... etc... -- There will need to be a LOT of
thought about how to ensure stability 5+ years into the future.
------
thomas4019
You're right about the problem, your solution is off.
> It doesn’t matter if retailers don’t accept the coin, users can just
> exchange the coins for bitcoins or local fiat currency for immediate real
> world use.
No entity would give fiat currency for these SocialCoins unless they had some
real or speculative value.
> The basic idea is that 10% of the profits that miners earn from mining this
> coin is pooled and distributed to every member of the network on a bi-weekly
> basis.
Are these "profits" from inflation or a transaction fees?
~~~
dllthomas
_" No entity would give fiat currency for these SocialCoins unless they had
some real or speculative value."_
Or the entity had some other interest in keeping the scheme going.
Not that this necessarily seems likely/sustainable/advisable...
------
broolstoryco
"In order for SocialCoin to work, we need to figure out a way to create a
decentralized ID system that doesn’t rely on government ... This is currently
an unsolved problem ... The user would set an appointment with 3-5 agents
individually and each agent would scan the user’s irises in person to verify
that they are a real human"
This has to be satire
------
dr_win
I think that governments will sooner or later start taxing work of robots to
redirect the resources into social safety nets.
------
UweSchmidt
Could this be the most ambitious project of all times? It requires
\- mass adoption of cryptocurrencies
\- guaranteed basic income
\- libertarian principles limiting the role of government
My guess is that we'll have that mars colony first.
------
orasis
You could bootstrap the identity verification off of Facebook and do some
machine learning to look for bot clusters.
------
Executor
Or we can get rid of monetary systems and use a resource-based economy (read
Venus Project).
------
dllthomas
If this can actually be worked out, I'd love to see it. I'm pretty skeptical
though.
------
wyager
Hahaha. This is so blatantly stupid.
>In order for SocialCoin to work, we need to figure out a way to create a
decentralized ID system that doesn’t rely on government issuance like a
Driver’s License or a Passport. This is currently an unsolved problem.
It's unsolved because it is literally impossible. There is no rigorous
mathematical definition of identity, and no way to construct a generic
identity-proof algorithm. Even humans can't agree what constitutes an
identity, and we've had many millions of years as social animals to evolve
heuristics.
Are clones separate people? Are molecular copies separate people? Are brain
simulations separate people? If they are, I can just spawn 1,000,000 copies of
my brain and collect their SocialCoin. And then it becomes a competition of
computing power, just like Bitcoin!
And, of course, there's no non-blinded automated test that can differentiate a
human and a machine, neither in theory nor in practice.
The only people who think up foolish schemes like this are those who utterly
fail to grasp the genius of solving voting problems with HashCash style proof-
of-work mechanisms.
~~~
dllthomas
I don't think we need to solve the question of molecular copies or brain
simulations before considering this. Clones already exist, of course, in the
form of identical twins - and I can't imagine us considering them anything but
separate people.
I totally agree that this can't be done with math _alone_ , but I've not seen
any proof that it's "literally impossible" to produce a system where the
incentives work out for enough people to play by - and enforce - the rules
with the _help_ of math.
I've also not seen credible proposals for such a system, I don't _know_ that
such system could exist, and I certainly don't know that we will be able to
produce such a system any time soon. These _are_ hard problems. But "literally
impossible" is a bold claim - far too bold unless you have more to support it
than what you wrote above.
------
lorddoig
The economics behind this is staggeringly flawed.
Technological innovation _increases wealth_. This is a basic economic
principle as evidenced by the industrial revolution (machines took over most
of those old jobs, and now there's much less unemployment, poorhouses don't
exist, and the average person is much richer in _real_ terms.) To speak of
some kind of saturation point where there is a machine for everything is
pretty crazy.
Let's step into lala-land and assume there's one machine that can produce
anything and perform any task. It requires no maintenance and no inputs.
What's the problem? Everyone can have everything. No money required. Winning.
Stepping back to reality all these machines will require production, sales
efforts, maintenance, electricity, network infrastructure, yadda yadda. Goods-
producing machines will need a supply chain and QA, and people to figure out
what to make with it next. And when exactly do we foresee machines taking over
the service industry? A machine that provides business consultancy? Cuts your
hair? Caters to your animalistic needs? This stuff is a long way off if it's
even possible.
Even when machines can do all this we'd need to remove every source of
friction in the economy before we could even begin to dream of approaching
that saturation point - in short that means global governance and regulation,
no taxes, free trade, no behaviour limiting contracts, no currency risk, no
language barrier. All of these things create market distortions that create
the potential for profit, and where the potential for profit exists, people
will exploit it, and there will be jobs.
Long story short: we have many, many problems left to solve before we can all
kick back and let the robot butler massage our feet.
Further, the idea that a basic income is best tackled with a crypto-currency
is nonsense. Crypto-currencies, like other currencies, derive their value from
the underlying assets. You can mine coins, but you can't mine value. In the UK
we have a bottom-line tax rate of about 30% of GDP, and about 30% of that is
social security. We're a generous country in this regard and have lots of
people happily living their lives doing nothing. It's pretty close to this
romantic notion of 'basic income'.
If you haven't done the maths on that yet, the UK's percentage of GDP spent on
social security is 30% x 30% = 9%. Assuming SocialCoin is the only currency in
the world and that global PPP is uniform (and in line with the UK today), we
need to solve (as per the 10% of mining proceeds idea):
required_inflation * 0.1 = 0.09 required_inflation = (0.09/0.1) = 0.9 = 90%
A world with 90% inflation is a world in crisis. Assuming instead that we give
_all_ mining profits to the needy, we'd still need to maintain 9%
inflation...which is also a world in crisis.
I haven't, and won't, even touch on the absurdity of the very notion of 'basic
income' (but there's a reason it doesn't enter economists heads).
All in this is just a thin and problematic veil over the desire to
redistribute wealth from those who have it to those who don't. Theoretically
this is already solidly solved - you take lumps of money from the rich (in any
currency you fancy), you walk over to the poor, and you hand it to them. You
don't add conditions to it and you do everything to seriously minimise
administration costs. This is the _second fundamental theorem of welfare
economics_.
~~~
ewzimm
The problem of wealth distribution is certainly not solved, because the system
you are describing, in which wealth is taken from someone, involves coersion.
It requires violence to enforce. It requires consolidation of power. The
system proposed here, however simple, is describing voluntary wealth
redistribution. No one is forced into the system, but the rules of the system
are set to level the playing field.
I think this is a good start, and we will likely see many more implementations
of this basic idea. One genius aspect of software-based currency is that it
allows the possibility of the establishment of laws without a police force.
The currency is its own police force. Anyone who doesn't like the rules can
choose to use another cryptocurrency with different rules. This is consensus-
based law, and it is a movement in the right direction.
------
seoguru
crypto-currency's value is derived from the "greater fool theory" I don't
think socialcoin will fly. Happy to be proven wrong.
[http://neweconomicperspectives.org/2014/05/need-taxes-mmt-
pe...](http://neweconomicperspectives.org/2014/05/need-taxes-mmt-
perspective.html)
------
monkeypizza
A system where people can survive and reproduce without working can't end
well.
Imagine it in the context of computer resource management - "every program
deserves this much RAM and this much CPU". When you have randomly varying,
recombining programs, what will the result be after 50 generations? Eventually
a program will evolve to reproduce faster, and it will come to dominate the
population. Why would you think that such a thing wouldn't happen with human
beings, too?
What do you think happens when you provide unlimited free food to a population
of rats? A few continue being "productive" \- searching for new food supplies,
etc. but they get out-reproduced by the ones who just eat all day. So the
population explodes, eventually the food runs out, and then they all die.
So overall I think that a global basic income, combined with unlimited
reproduction, would have a horrible outcome for humanity.
~~~
codemac
> What do you think happens when you provide unlimited free food to a
> population of rats?
1) No idea, I'm not a rat, nor do I have any expertise in the economic lives
of rats. Have there been any studies that show this? I don't have access to
many journals.
2) Do you think that humans have the same goals, aspirations, and survival
behaviors as rats? Do you think they are so similar that given a cage and
food, humans would reproduce until they all died out?
~~~
monkeypizza
This link is somewhat relevant:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mautam](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mautam)
In India there's a species of bamboo that flowers every 48 years; during each
flowering, the rat population explodes. Once they've eaten all the bamboo,
they turn to anything else they can find.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Stockfighter's Jailbreak CTF trainer is live - alt_
https://www.stockfighter.io/#jailbreak
======
j4pe
I rarely want to like a product more than I want to like Stockfighter, because
of both the people involved and the underlying concept.
But there are a million other things I want to sink time into improving.
Music, my Starcraft MMR, boxing. To finish a day hacking and coding, come
home, and - for months, if I want good results - do more hacking and coding
feels like an exhausting prospect. Even if the scenario is fun, it feels
contrived.
I'm not presenting any solutions. Maybe I'm just not the target market,
because I don't have the desire right now to code all day and then code some
more. But I wonder how big that target market is?
~~~
doktrin
> because I don't have the desire right now to code all day and then code some
> more
Tell me about it. Speaking only for myself, I have near-constant coder's guilt
- a term I just made up to describe the nagging voice in my head that keeps
telling me I should be coding more in my free time. It sounds something like
this :
"somewhere a rockstar wizard ninja is writing a C compiler in Haskell and here
you are wasting your time with Overwatch, you miserable slacker"
~~~
tinco
Hi man, I just interrupted my game of Overwatch because a colleague pointed me
to this comment. My C compiler in Haskell is located here:
[https://github.com/tinco/nanc](https://github.com/tinco/nanc) it's not fully
functional yet, but will be soon ;) Also, just got owned by a team with 3
tracers :(
edit: Just read what this thread is about. I really like to program, so much
so that I usually find an hour or two per day to code (not every day, check my
github streak if you want) Usually it's between 11pm and 1am, after dinner,
after a movie with my partner, when she's playing a video game or watching a
series, I do some coding.
So I also play video games or watch movies. I like competitive games, mostly
SC2, DotA and now Overwatch, but I don't worry about my MMR the way I used to
when I played over an hour per day. Compared to achieving a high MMR building
a ninja rockstar software project like a C compiler in Haskell is easy. Who is
going to compete with me? It's a crazy idea anyway! I just work on it a couple
hours per week, and after a year or two it'll be an impressive project no
matter what. It's got everything I learned in it.
Regaining the MMR I had in SC2 back in University will take me months of hard
practice, but when I feel like continuing my C compiler, the commits are still
there. The C compiler stems from a deep passion I have and a deep frustration
I feel with the state of the art, that's why even if I don't dev on it for a
few months, I'll go back to it eventually and continue. So... I can relax and
play Overwatch for an hour or two, no worries. (Overwatch is much more
forgiving than SC2 or DotA btw.)
~~~
doktrin
> Hi man, I just interrupted my game of Overwatch because a colleague pointed
> me to this comment. My C compiler in Haskell is located here:
> [https://github.com/tinco/nanc](https://github.com/tinco/nanc) it's not
> fully functional yet, but will be soon ;) Also, just got owned by a team
> with 3 tracers :(
Haha what an unexpectedly fantastic response. Kudos on your cool side project,
and triple Tracers sounds like the pinnacle of frustration :P (is this a new
meta? I was just watching a top tier EU game where one team rolled 3 tracers +
2 winstons)
> Overwatch is much more forgiving than SC2 or DotA btw
Couldn't agree more. I personally find SC2 almost too stressful to play
competitively these days (as a 30 year old fogey), and the match length of
your typical MOBA is also a major turn off for a casual like me.
> So I also play video games or watch movies. I like competitive games, mostly
> SC2, DotA and now Overwatch, but I don't worry about my MMR the way I used
> to when I played over an hour per day. Compared to achieving a high MMR
> building a ninja rockstar software project like a C compiler in Haskell is
> easy. Who is going to compete with me? It's a crazy idea anyway! I just work
> on it a couple hours per week, and after a year or two it'll be an
> impressive project no matter what. It's got everything I learned in it.
I'll be using your experience for inspiration. I also love coding -
particularly once I get started - but lack the discipline to make a habit out
of it in my spare time. Hopefully in a few months I'll have some similarly
interesting work to show for myself :)
~~~
tinco
Could very well be then! They played 3 tracers a winston and a Mei. (Winston
had a play of the game smashing four of us in Mei's ulti :\\)
I'm 29, experience the same with SC2, it's just not fun if all you can do is
to learn the meta and polish your mechanics.
Whatever you build, make sure it's test driven! Nothing beats sitting down to
work on your project and the only thing you need to do is to run the test
suite to remember what you should work on next. It also helps you chop your
project up in fun achievable sized bits. I make it a point ending every
session with 1 red test.
------
dcw303
I was lucky enough to beta test this so I've had time to clear the trainer
levels. And let me just say, wow. The tricks and turns you have to navigate to
get through this are some of the best fun I've had sitting in front of a
computer.
I like that people are evaluating this against things like Overwatch, because
for me, Stockfighter is a form of entertainment. I still play video games
occasionally, but in my growing adult years, I'm not able capture that same
rush from winning.
Not so with CTFs. Maybe it's because I'm a relative newbie, but the dopamine
rush I get from winning a level is incomparable. There is something about a
solve, when you get that brainfeel where you just _understand completely_ what
is going on, that is unique. Perhaps that's what black hat hackers feel when
they p0wn a system. The closest recollection for me is when I smashed through
that top level brick in World 1-2 of Super Mario Bros, and I could run across
the roof to win the level.
~~~
unknownkadath
Brainfeel...I like that word. I'm going to keep it.
------
tptacek
You all have great timing. It's very likely that something will melt down
soon, but I'm not going to notice, because I'll be in a chair getting my arm
inked up. It's going to be a nine-fives kind of day!
Mean feedback about the UI, especially if accompanied by an even meaner
summary of what you'd rather the UI does instead, is most welcome.
_Later_
(Erin's Calcifer tattoo is taking longer than expected, so if you want to wait
like another 15 minutes before doing whatever unforeseen sequence of things in
the UI that will hard-panic all the servers, your timing will be perfect).
~~~
nathas
I was actually going to say I like the UI quite a bit at first glance. I
haven't bit in yet, but overall I really dug the layout.
~~~
tptacek
There are things I want to do with this UI that we couldn't do in
Microcorruption --- ways to make assembly a little more accessible to
programmers who aren't already from security or game development, where the
people who crushed Microcorruption came from --- because the assembly was a
flat marked-up blob of text. But there are definitely ways in which it's a
step back.
------
gue5t
The user interface is appalling. Whoever designed this has managed to produce
worse ergonomics than a single 1970s-style terminal, for essentially a similar
set of tasks (editing text+binary files and piping data through commands).
I see some discussion of "files", but seem unable to list them or explore the
filesystem. I don't know if this in-game filesystem is supposed to be on the
"AVR" device or an imaginary "developer machine". Where do the outputs of
running commands like "compile" go? Why can't I inspect the compiler? What
actually comprises the state of the system I'm interacting with? If this is
notionally to find good developers, why is the UI sandboxed inside a web
browser, where building and using tools (which is what good developers and
reverse engineers _do_ ) is incredibly painful?
Half the commands produce no output and make no visible change to any state,
e.g. "load garbage". Almost all commands silently ignore extra parameters.
There's _no tab completion_ , _no history search_ , commands don't even show
up in the output log...
Links and commands seem to randomly be assigned to either always open in new
tabs or load in the current tab of the browser, both in the "debugger" and
help pages.
Moving through command history puts the cursor at the left hand side of the
prompt. There's noticeable latency when single-stepping the program, which is
just astounding.
Did nobody try to use this shit, even a little?
~~~
nialo
I haven't tried this, but
[https://github.com/ketchupsalt/debugger](https://github.com/ketchupsalt/debugger)
might be of interest to you.
More generally, it's not actually sandboxed inside a web browser, you can
interact with system through REST-ish API as well. see
[https://starfighter.readme.io/docs/retrieve-device-
status](https://starfighter.readme.io/docs/retrieve-device-status) for some
documentation on that. It's obviously pretty inconvenient to get a full
debugger type experience that way, but I don't really see how they could make
it less sandboxed, given the constraint that the authoritative copy of
everything must run on their servers for security.
I do wish all the commands gave some sort of feedback, load in particular is
super frustrating that way.
~~~
gue5t
This line seems like a bug to me (assigning the int 16 to a variable that
should be of an enumerated type {I8, I16, I32, S, R}, though I don't know if
Go has those):
[https://github.com/ketchupsalt/debugger/blob/master/commandl...](https://github.com/ketchupsalt/debugger/blob/master/commandline.go#L73)
~~~
tptacek
There are probably a zillion little bugs in that thing (I haven't used it in
months) but if people really want it to work, I'm probably less than 4
concerted hours from making it workable.
------
citizens
"Starfighter is a new, weird kind of recruiting company. We detect and market
underpriced programming talent. We do that by creating opportunities for
programmers to casually and effectively demonstrate aptitude."
Having a hard time parsing this. Do you find underpriced talent and help them
get paid more?
~~~
pchristensen
Susie works making crud apps for a boring insurance company. She is a
brilliant programmer but due to where she lives, personal situations, she
hasn't faced a challenge that lets her know the extent of her abilities, etc,
she is working below her potential.
Susie creates a novel solution to one of Stockfighter's games. Stockfighter
uses that solution as evidence to present her to companpanies as a great
engineer. She gets job offers for more money, challenge, and satisfaction than
she currently has.
~~~
logicalmind
Is that really the problem though? In my circle, plenty of people are doing
the boring crud apps at random big company. The problem is that they're paid
very well. So taking a job that is more challenging often involves taking less
money, for more risk, with a small possibility of a payoff. Is there really a
surplus of highly interesting tech positions with better than average pay that
are desperately looking for people? If you're struggling to find talent,
you're probably not paying enough.
~~~
superuser2
>The problem is that they're paid very well
Are you sure? Tech companies you've heard of on the west coast (other than
Amazon) are paying their most junior people at least $100k. When I looked at
big boring insurance companies in the Midwest (toying with the idea of staying
close to home) I was seeing closer to $50k for entry level and $80k for mid-
career.
------
nsfmc
I know this is a low-quality comment, but i just want to congratulate the
whole stockfighter team for getting the jailbreak ctf out. it looks like it
was a ton of work and looks fantastic. as somebody who was excited about it
after trying my hand at microcorruption, i'm super excited to see this
finally. hats off!
~~~
nsfmc
one comment on the trainer: when you click on the Jailbreak link, it just
drops you into the debugger, if you, like me got lost, run the `tour` and then
click on the little person+ head and go to the documentation and go through
the quickstart.
yay!
------
lifeisstillgood
I am a bit worried that stock fighter is the wrong approach. If Susie wants a
better job inwould recommend my path:
\- if you want to find a better paying job, take each lunchtime and call every
job advert you qualify for that pays 20k more than you earn. Do this for three
months. You will get the raise.
\- even better is to supplement this with LinkedIN, blog posts, network
maintenance (when did you last have call or have coffee with your previous
boss?)
\- do this for the next three jobs.
You are now at the pay ceiling for your skill set. Well done.
Now ... err ...
Start your own business, preferably selling something that scales (your time
does not scale and you are selling it at pretty much the max - say 100-150k)
------
s3nnyy
Dev hiring is a sourcing problem, not a filtering problem.
The people behind starfighter are brilliant and I respect them big time. So,
probably they know what they're doin. I am excited to see how they want to
solve dev hiring since starfighter looks more like a product that does
filtering, not sourcing.
(I am thinking since a long time to build something that leverages Github to
find and reach out to engineers; e.g., when a company looks for Angular people
to just parse the Angular repo for engineers that watch / contribute to the
repository and reach out to them. if you have any ideas on this or want to
help, please shoot me a message).
~~~
lj3
It's both. They're focusing on the sourcing part, which is commendable, but
I'd still like companies to engage a better filter. The one most have now is
the equivalent to trying to hammer square pegs into round holes with bit of
wood they happened to find.
Unfortunately, changing that appears to be a very tricky social problem. It's
going to take a recruiter (or recruiting company) with such a great reputation
and track record that companies trust that recruiter's judgement in personnel
implicitly. But how?
------
mcphilip
Question: are frequency, consistency, and productivity important metrics for
bubbling up users that get noticed as really good candidates?
I poke around every now and then on stockfighter but am definitely not looking
for a job change in the near term. Is this use case something y'all support?
Thanks!
------
yagyu
wow, I just found microcorruption, now it looks like there's man-months of fun
ahead.
Technical comment: "forgot password"-link is not wired to anything? Not
working for me on FF at least.
~~~
awesomebob
The forgot password link doesn't work for me in Chrome either, but I found
this URL and it seems to work:
[https://www.stockfighter.io/ui/forgot_password](https://www.stockfighter.io/ui/forgot_password)
~~~
patio11
Fixed. (And yep, that is the correct URL.)
------
archimag0
Is the server struggling again? None of my input into the UI seems to be
having an effect.
~~~
tptacek
I'm getting crazy high latency just through the login page. Looking into it.
The emulator servers (a pair of m3.mediums) are barely breaking a sweat.
~~~
vox_mollis
Is the tour supposed to end abruptly at "this is r1" ?
~~~
tptacek
It is not! You are the third person to tell me that's happened. Looking into
it.
------
rando289
So it's proprietary?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Is there something better than screencast? - saadalem
I'm wondering if there is a way better to do communication rather than screencast ?
======
nolok
What specific requirements or improvement would you like ? What itch doesn't
it scratch for you ?
~~~
saadalem
I'm just asking if there is a better solution
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Win customers and improve products with HTML prototypes - seanjohnson
http://digintent.com/prototyping-in-html.html
Why HTML prototypes can improve customer development and lead to better products. Includes a demo HTML prototype with some good pointers for improving workflow.
======
wushupork
I think HTML prototypes are vital to the success of a web app. That said there
is a true danger with an HTML prototype that looks too good. Customers often
have a difficulty understanding that this is a mockup and it doesn't work. Non
savvy customers think it looks like it works even though the guts of the
application which takes up the bulk of the development time hasn't even begun.
~~~
seanjohnson
Totally agree - other than relevant images (the shoes, in this example) we try
to avoid using much in the way of color, icons or other design. We use
variations of gray shading, unstyled buttons, Helvetica across the board.
~~~
seanjohnson
Haven't been able to convince ourselves to use Comic Sans though :)
------
joedwy
I agree that customers don't always understand why it doesn't work when an
HTML prototype looks too good. However, I think that's more of a project
management issue than anything else. Presenting it properly can help customers
understand what they're doing... and then they love that they can test
usability and flow before it's too late to change without a change order.
------
matt1
Shameless plug: I'm working on a HTML5-based high fidelity mockup tool called
jMockups [1], which is intended to be an alternative to Photoshop and HTML for
creating website mockups.
You can't link the mockups together yet and its still a bit buggy, but long
term I want to make it effortless for even the most design-challenged
developer to design beautiful websites.
Let me know what you think: [email protected].
[1] <http://www.jmockups.com>
~~~
seanjohnson
That's pretty slick man. Nice work!
------
jefflinwood
Do you use Boks (<http://toki-woki.net/p/Boks/>) with your Blueprint CSS
framework? I've found Boks to be a great way to bring some of the benefits of
mockups to HTML prototyping. I still start from pen and paper first, because I
find that I have to know what I'm going to put into Boks.
(I'm a developer, not a designer, but I've found myself doing more front-end
work recently for myself and clients)
~~~
seanjohnson
Never have - looks interesting though. We'll have to try it out!
------
alttab
Prototypes shouldn't be in HTML.
Edit: Clarification, when using "prototypes" with clients I pretty much always
mean mock-ups. Try not to write code unless you have to.
------
doubleg
Easily showing the client different states of a page was something I was
missing the last time I used this technique. So I created a small jquery-
plugin, demo here:
<http://thinkcreate.github.com/jquery_protoparts/index.html>
~~~
seanjohnson
That's very clever. Thanks for suggesting - we'll have to try that soon!
------
trustfundbaby
Axure RP <http://www.axure.com/> also generates some pretty sexy HTML
prototypes ... all completely self contained and renderable in any browser.
Has helped make every app I've ever done for a client involving it, go really
smoothly.
------
jtchang
HTML prototypes are good for web applications but not so much for marketing
type websites. I use HTML prototypes as a tool for getting the initial set of
requirements and setting some scope.
~~~
seanjohnson
Agree - we primarily do product development, so it's usually relevant for us.
I will say we've implemented HTML prototypes for checkout processes in the
past with some success as well.
Can you elaborate on how you've used them to set scope?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Bernie Sanders helping American workers would hurt the world’s poorest - baron816
http://www.vox.com/2016/3/1/11139718/bernie-sanders-trade-global-poverty
======
sharemywin
What is Trump supporting on trade? And if Cruz wins how quickly do millions of
federal workers get put out of work? I sure an american depression from all
the out of work federal employees wouldn't help the world poor either.
~~~
baron816
What I really don't like about Sanders is that his main issue is inequality,
but global inequality is so much worse and so much more serious than just
American inequality. He would strip billions of unskilled workers' ability to
have clean water, feed themselves, and send their kids to school, so that
American unskilled workers can have large house with a two car garage, 4 weeks
vacation every year, and retire at 60.
~~~
sharemywin
The big problem with any trade deal that protects the american worker results
in higher costs and some kind of trade war.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
UI Trends - restruct
http://uitrends.com/
======
stingraycharles
Why do people always feel the need to overgeneralize things ?
From [http://uitrends.com/2009/09/03/command-line-interfaces-
dont-...](http://uitrends.com/2009/09/03/command-line-interfaces-dont-call-it-
a-comeback/) :
_command line interfaces are back again, hiding under the name of search_
No, they are not. Yes, it's also a box in which you type text, hit return and
see results. But a command-line tells a computer to _do_ stuff, a search box
tells a computer (Google) to _retrieve_ stuff. By stating that search engines
are the new commandline, well, it's not as silly as claiming the web is the
new OS, but it's close.
The only reasons I can see why they make these generalizations is either that
they don't understand what a commandline does, or it simply brings them more
attention. I suspect the latter.
~~~
DEinspanjer
I think that they mixed their message a bit, but I believe that the point they
were trying to make about the Google search box is that there are more
commands like "define" and "translate" that are getting integrated into the
search box. The second have of the blog post was about Ubiquity which I
believe most people would certainly define as a CLI.
~~~
xtho
Or just think of keyword searches in firefox. Or bookmarklets etc.
~~~
yosh
All those are power user features though. Most users don't even know they
exist, and why would they, since they aren't very discoverable.
------
slater
seem to have a bit of a chip on their shoulder wrt the iphone:
<http://is.gd/2X6U4>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Is a one word .co domain worth a few thousand dollars? - Spinosaurus
Looking to purchase a domain/name for a new product, and have been in contact with a domain broker for a cool 1 word .co domain. I'm being quoted several thousand dollars.<p>Would it be worth it, compared to a longer two word .com domain?
======
tomcam
Given the very very modest amount of information you’re giving us: no. Judging
by your post several thousand is a substantial sum. If that’s the case reserve
your money for developing awesome site content. All else being equal, .com
domains still do better in SEO tests. The name spinosaurus.co is less good
than spinosaurus.com, for example, but if your site is about nothing but the
spinosaurus then spinosaurus.co will do better than spinosaurus-hq.com.
Source: I do a fair amount of domain name business, and my most successful
sale was $300,000.
~~~
Spinosaurus
Hey, thanks for the response.
Instead of spinosaurus.co vs spinosaurus.com, a better comparison akin to the
two names i'm contemplating would be something like "eagle.co" vs
"bluetable.com". In other words, a simple, 1 word noun .co vs a two word .com.
Given the above example, should one opt for the two word .com instead of the
one word .co, or would the one word .co be better to build a brand around?
~~~
tomcam
SEO says the compound .com (hyphens are bad) will perform better. Sorry for
the tardy reply.
------
foobarbazetc
A domain is worth however much someone is willing to pay for it. :)
Non .com are generally 10% or so of the equivalent .com price on namebio.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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UK engineers have completed the build of the novel Quantum satellite - gyre007
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46825269
======
portillo
That headline is quite misleading, as there are several re-configurable
"software-defined" satellites active in orbit, each one presenting different
degrees of flexibility. Dynamic power and frequency allocation have been used
since the first HTS (Viasat-1, Echostar 23...), while dynamic bandwidth
allocation is also a standard design in new satellites (Viasat-2, for
example).
Furthermore, other satellites such as Hispasat 36W-1 already have direct
radiating arrays / phase-arrays (which I am pretty sure is the core technology
of EUTELSAT's Quantum). Sure, Quantum might be (one of) the first satellite
that makes full use of this technology, but this is the current trend and all
the big satellite comms. companies are going to launch a similar satellite in
the next 1-2 years (SES-17, SpaceX Starlink, mPower...).
In any case, I believe that the dynamic resource management (DRM) software
(which EUTELSAT claims to have developed) will play a crucial role in all
these new satellites. Given the payload flexibility, optimally configuring all
these degrees of freedom will become a very very challenging task.
~~~
sctb
We've updated the submitted title (“UK engineers have finished building
Quantum, the first software-defined satelite”) to the sub-heading from the
article. It's too easy to get things wrong when editorializing! This is one
reason the guidelines ask submitters not to do it.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)
~~~
foobar1962
I found the title confusing too.
May I suggest leaving the word "Quantum" out of the title completely. IMHO
it's rather cheeky (and misleading) for the satellite manufacturers to use
that name at all for something that doesn't involve quantum-mechanics-based
technology.
~~~
davegardner
The word quantum has been used as a synonym for quantity since the mid-16th
century. Its use as a physics term is a much more recent development, which
has definitely not fully replaced the original definition yet.
~~~
varjag
Noone thinks about Renaissance use of Latin when seeing a headline about
quantum satellites.
~~~
wyattpeak
Renaissance use of Latin? It's a moderately common modern English word. Did
people think Quantum of Solace was about physics?
As it happens I agree the title is very confusing, but I think you're
overstating the point.
~~~
varjag
Well it was you who picked the century to illustrate your point.
Many of scientific/technology terms have different colloquial uses. Context
makes all the difference, as am sure you are fully aware.
------
pliny
Within a year: First astronaut travelling to GEO, to physically reset a
satellite with a broken ssh config.
~~~
GlenTheMachine
An astronaut at GEO would exceed their lifetime radiation exposure limit in
less than an hour (in a spacesuit). The reset is gonna be robotic.
~~~
w1nt3rmu4e
That's interesting. Do you have source(s) for that?
I'm not a 'the Moon landings were faked' person, but how does this reconcile
with manned Moon missions?
[Edit]
So I don't have to add another comment:
My first thought was, 'oh shit, how long before someone hacks one of these and
repurposes it?'
~~~
GlenTheMachine
The Apollo astronauts a) were inside a spaceship, not performing an EVA; and
b) passed through the Van Allen belts pretty quickly; and c) the Apollo
trajectory was actually optimized to expose astronauts to the least amount of
radiation possible.
This is a pretty good discussion:
[https://www.popsci.com/blog-network/vintage-space/apollo-
roc...](https://www.popsci.com/blog-network/vintage-space/apollo-rocketed-
through-van-allen-belts#page-3)
Unfortunately the references I have for the “one hour” claim (which, to be
fair, has a lot of uncertainty associated with it - it depends on the current
space weather, where you are wrt your spacecraft, the engineering of your
space suit, etc.) are all behind paywalls. Here’s one, if you can get it:
[https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-1-4613-1567-...](https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-1-4613-1567-4_6)
------
shaklee3
This article has a lot of incorrect information in it, specifically how it
alludes to this being the first of its kind.
"Quantum's coverage, bandwidth, power and frequency can all be altered in
orbit."
All of those can be configured on several different modern satellites.
"It will bring unprecedented flexibility to our customers, allowing for in-
orbit payload re-configuration and taking customisation to a new level, while
also opening the way to a paradigm shift in the manufacture of
telecommunications satellites,"
There is nothing this satellite does that's more customizable than others,
such as mexsat from 2010:
[https://boeing.mediaroom.com/2010-12-20-Boeing-to-
Build-3-Sa...](https://boeing.mediaroom.com/2010-12-20-Boeing-to-
Build-3-Satellite-System-for-Government-of-Mexico)
"The components and technologies that enable software-defined satellites will
become more and more the future of our industry,"
There is a trend towards the opposite, since space resources are a precious
resource, allocating a substantial portion of the spacecraft for signal
processing makes the bandwidth demand gap fall behind faster.
------
okl
The part of the satellite being "software-defined" is probably the phased-
array antennas of the transponder/payload. I think it is unlikely that all the
GHz RF processing is realized as SDR. Maybe someone can dig up more
information?
~~~
FPGAhacker
It’s possible it’s the GHz RF. Even for hardware processing, you have to
downconvert to something reasonable like a couple hundred MHz before it’s
feasible to digitally signal process.
If your software/processor/bus can’t keep up with that data rate, you can
always go lower in hardware and still leave enough headroom for software to
tune and process.
I haven’t looked into SDR much though it’s in my “someday” list, so I don’t
know how much is typically expected to be handled in software. I suppose it
varies depending on the spectrum of interest.
My last project, the GHz spectrum was downcoverted in analog to the hundreds
of MHz range, and digitally downconverted further with low pass filters and
frequency shifting and then piping out over pcie to a ring buffer for software
to do the interesting signal processing.
Xilinx has an RF Zynq FPGA in the works, or maybe available now, that has the
analog front end conversion capabilities paired with an fpga with an embedded
arm[1]. (No affiliation)
1\.
[https://www.xilinx.com/products/technology/rfsampling.html](https://www.xilinx.com/products/technology/rfsampling.html)
~~~
shaklee3
They can definitely do on-board signal processing once down converted. This
will have a substantial hit on total capacity though, which is what matters
most. See my other comments.
Btw, you cannot use standard fpgas in space. They are a special kind hardened
for radiation and redundancy.
~~~
Rebelgecko
Standard FPGAs _can_ be usable in space depending on where they are. Consumer
stuff can do OK in LEO, especially if you have some sort of watchdog or voting
system.
~~~
shaklee3
I suppose you could, but all FPGA manufacturers sell space versions of their
FPGAs. Do you know of anyone using non-space-grade?
[https://www.xilinx.com/applications/aerospace-and-
defense/sp...](https://www.xilinx.com/applications/aerospace-and-
defense/space.html)
~~~
Rebelgecko
I haven't been following this space that closely for a few years, but when I
was more familiar with the offerings from Xilinx and Altera, anything rad-hard
was at least 2 generations behind. This led to correspondingly worse
performance and SWaP (size, weight, and power). Some of the fancier SOCs like
Xilinx Zynqs didn't have any rad-hard version at all. Using consumer or
automotive grade chips is not unheard of, especially for lower budget things
in LEO like cubesats.
~~~
shaklee3
They're behind, but you may end up installing far more of the non-hardened
versions, and do the redundancy yourself. That seems like a tough trade-off to
do given that there's no fixing it once it's there.
------
kiallmacinnes
Serious question, I know, I know, everyone is sick of the word .. I'll not use
it! .. but:
How does the UK leaving the EU affect it's ESA membership?
Can the UK continue to use the French territorial launch sites as easily as
they do now?
And finally, from the article, "23 of its 38 currently operational spacecraft
as having British input". I wonder are they referring the to Isle of Man here?
Which has plenty of satellite companies due to, from what I understand, a very
favourable tax regime for space companies.
~~~
marsokod
It does not affect the ESA membership, and does not prevent UK companies to
launch from French Guyana. However, shipping may become a bit more complex and
costly, and procurement will be thougher, especially in the first months.
------
dana321
Here was me thinking that they were about to launch the first satellite with
quantum processors onboard.
~~~
grifball
Yeah, now when I web search for "quantum satellite" I won't find all the cool
research they're doing in China on space quantum entanglement
------
jtms
I wonder if they have automated builds :-)
git push orbit master
------
mshockwave
I'm more interested in the security concern
~~~
jrgd
That was exactly my first thought; once hijacked, what can you do with this
and for how long before it shows?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Engineering Habitats for the Moon and Mars - ggcdn
http://www.structuremag.org/?p=12389
======
avar
A much more cost-effective way of dealing with radiation on Mars is to
construct shelters out of something that doesn't shield against radiation at
all, then only pick astronauts who are smokers, and send them to Mars without
cigarettes[1].
For the smokers sent to Mars living in flimsy shelters this'll decrease their
lifetime odds of dying from cancer compared to smoking two packs a day and
staying on Earth.
This article like so many others describes designs for Mars habitats that are
optimized for being accepted under NASA's strict safety rules, and it's an
organization run by safety-obsessed bureaucrats.
I predict that once the second space race kicks off in earnest these
unpractical restrictions are going to be quickly dismissed, because NASA's
going to have to compete with e.g. China which'll likely use much simpler
designs because they're realistic about their risk assessments.
1\. [https://www.space.com/21813-mars-one-colony-space-
radiation....](https://www.space.com/21813-mars-one-colony-space-
radiation.html)
~~~
dsp1234
_much simpler designs_
Simpler than a water reservoir and regolith sandbags? The former is required
anyways, since people will need water, and the later is about as simple as it
comes (we use sandbags here on earth all the time for impromptu buildings).
~~~
avar
There's a world of difference between trying to build a house on Mars, and
trying to build a house whose every external wall is a water tank, having that
water tank also be an active water source (as opposed to a frozen block of
ice) is going to be a construction and maintenance / cleaning nightmare.
Even just regolith sandbags are going to suck, instead of just having your
roof be a simple pressure vessel it's now going to also have to withstand tons
of sandbags and water tanks.
And that's before we get to the problem of trying to either ship all of this
extra water mass over, or trying to mine it locally, or the construction
logistics of piling up hundreds of tons of sand.
All of this will be needed _eventually_ , but it's absurd that NASA is trying
to get in the way of Mars colonization by setting these overly conservative
safety requirements which'll significantly hinder initial colonization
efforts.
~~~
Pica_soO
Eh- the structure carrying problem- was kind of answered in your own post. We
regularly build roads out of ice- and ice infused with carbon has the strength
of steel. So frozen beams of water carrying the sandbags it is?
Also - the simple designs have a problem here- they are not easily repairable
with local materials. And as you can see on any airplane- those simple soda
can designs- wear out pretty fast, if pressure changes regularly. So, yeah-
its a simpler design as in - simpler on earth to maintain, but on Mars its
going to blow up like Mark Rodneys Potatoefarm from stress around the
airlocks.
~~~
avar
We regularly build lots of heavy and complicated things, building them on Mars
is going to be a problem. The biggest thing we've shipped there so far is the
size of a small car.
The process of colonizing Mars should be that we realistically look at how
much payload we can send up there, how much it costs, and then we find some
adventurers willing to take risks to go.
I don't think it's unrealistic to say as a first approximation that the first
people to land on Mars can expect a 10% chance of dying by just trying to get
there, and 30% of dying early due to some complications, e.g. radiation
exposure.
Those would have been fantastic odds when the New World was first colonized,
or when soldiers landed on Omaha beach. Colonizing Mars needs to be looked at
like that, not in terms of sending some government employee into a dangerous
situation, as if though they're going to repair some machinery here on Earth.
Instead, NASA views their rules on safety as immutable, and is coming up with
designs for habitats and ships to satisfy those rules, without ever having the
discussion that perhaps those rules are unreasonable given the endeavour.
------
hsnewman
I suspect that the reason Elon is investing in the Boring Co is to send a
drill to Mars to create underground structures cheaply. This would create
structures protected against radiation (and alot of space) relatively easily.
~~~
semi-extrinsic
Sure, a 100m long, 6000+ ton payload made from things that spin around quickly
sounds perfect for launching to Mars! It's only, what, three-four orders of
magnitude larger than anything we've ever sent to the red planet. And it only
requires the power from one gas turbine powerplant running continuously.
Should be cakewalk. And when it breaks (they all do, all the time) I'm sure
spare parts and engineers are plentiful up there.
~~~
YaxelPerez
That's where the BFR (Big Falcon Rocket) comes in. I think Musk said that it
could carry a fully loaded 747 as cargo to space.
~~~
martindevans
If the 6000+ tonne number quoted above is accurate then a BFR is a _very_ long
way from sending one to Mars - I can't remember the precise payload figure but
I think it was around 100 tonnes to the surface of Mars.
------
elihu
I think a sensible low-tech way to build a small-to-medium sized mars or moon
structure is to dig a big hole, stack bricks or cut stone to form an igloo-
like dome in the bottom of the hole, and then bury it in dirt with a staircase
to get in and out. The inside can be sealed with an air-tight liner material
and an airlock installed.
The weight of the dirt counteracts the air pressure and protects against
radiation and temperature variation. The bricks provide a rigid compressive
structure to maintain the shape and hold up the dirt.
The liner doesn't have to be particularly strong, just resistant to accidental
tears. Theoretically, the brick dome could be omitted if you can exactly
balance the weight of the dirt with internal air pressure, but that seems kind
of risky (and every time the internal pressure fluctuates slightly, the dome
gets a little smaller as the dirt settles).
The hard parts of this plan are a) how do you get/make thousands of bricks?
and b) how do you do all the excavation and assembly? It would be great if we
could get robots to do the whole thing and have a habitat ready before humans
arrive on the scene, but with current tech a lot of the work might have to be
done manually by guys in space suits with construction equipment. I suppose
once you have one habitat, it's a lot easier to build a second one next to it.
------
valuearb
Interesting, succinct read. One thing I liked about it is that it didn't
mention the old bugaboo of radiation exposure. Obviously regalith on the
living structure is going to help minimize that, but the real answer is that
the first mars explorers are willingly going to accept moderately higher
lifetime cancer risks.
~~~
QAPereo
That’s certainly very humane of you, but also wrong.
[http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/05/space-radiation-
may-d...](http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/05/space-radiation-may-damage-
astronauts-brains)
_After letting the mice rest for 6 weeks, the team put them through a battery
of cognitive tests, including a task that required the rodents to distinguish
between familiar and novel objects, such as toys. The mice hammered by
radiation were “severely compromised” on several measures compared with an
unexposed control group, Limoli says. Control mice, for example, spent more
time sniffing around a new item placed in their cages than investigating
familiar objects—a sign that their ability to react to novelty was intact.
Irradiated mice, in contrast, spent equal time exploring new and old items,
suggesting their ability to learn and remember new information about their
environment had been impaired._
Talk of mars colonization is riddled with myopic assumptions about something
we barely understand. Focusing on those few issues we may have in hand to the
exclusion of the many critical unsolved problems is troubling.
~~~
cptaj
They can just wear a helmet. Lead lined balaclava?
They also mention that is not a showstopper and that it can potentially be
countered with entertainment and exercise.
It also remains to be seen what the effect is like on humans. Might be
negligible on a mars trip.
~~~
MikkoFinell
I believe the thickness of lead required for any significant protection would
make the weight of the helmet unreasonable. Unless the exercise you mentioned
consist only of weighted neck curls.
A more realistic approach to mitigating the issue is in my opinion to have
rotating crews. They would spend most of their time in underground shelters,
and only some minor fraction of their time doing surface work. Advances in
medicine, specifically in regard to cancer, along with minimizing exposure
time, is what I believe will make the risk low enough to be within acceptable
bounds.
~~~
logfromblammo
At 38% Earth's surface gravity, you might need to wear lead clothing all the
time anyway, just to keep your bone strength and muscle tone.
------
nickff
If you are interested in this subject, I highly recommend Andrew Geiszler's
presentation to the 18th Annual International Mars Society Convention (titled
"Living, Working & Growing in Glass Houses: Construction Methods for a Martian
Colony"). He gives a very interesting overview of materials and design
considerations.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faEfgDYCYzU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faEfgDYCYzU)
------
aerophilic
One alternative/something that can be used in conjunction is sealing/building
in “lava tubes”. We have already confirmed that there are some that are quite
large: [https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/gigantic-lava-tube-
coul...](https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/gigantic-lava-tube-could-be-
home-moon-colonists-ncna813396)
I think something around this approach is the way to go.
------
vannevar
The idea of using inflatables for space habitation has been around for a long
time, but was seriously revived by NASA in the late eighties. A group at
Johnson Space Center designed inflatable lunar habitation back then, including
building test articles. And there is currently an experimental inflatable
module on the International Space Station.
[http://www.nss.org/settlement/moon/library/LB2-303-Inflatabl...](http://www.nss.org/settlement/moon/library/LB2-303-InflatableHabitation.pdf)
[https://er.jsc.nasa.gov/seh/gotomoon.html](https://er.jsc.nasa.gov/seh/gotomoon.html)
------
nickparker
The quoted top speed for micrometeorites has to be wrong. Perhaps missing a 0?
45 mph is silly low, there's no way Martian atmospheric drag could slow them
that much, let alone the case of the moon.
~~~
VLM
I found the exact source of the falsehood, its from a stackexchange discussion
about theoretical sci fi aspects of lunar sports injuries and if you jumped
down a vertical lunar mineshaft pressurized to 1 atm the lower gravity means
terminal velocity would be reached in about 1 km of falling (handwavy) at
roughly 45 MPH (actually 49 m/s).
[https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/4678/how-far-
can-y...](https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/4678/how-far-can-you-fall-
on-the-moon-without-injury)
a 100+ MPH impact on earth would require a survival capsule too tough for
normal purposes so we use parachutes. However a 45 MPH impact is unsurvivable
if naked but a car like structure for an elevator means you could likely walk
away from a mining accident where your elevator falls down a mineshaft on the
moon. Its likely lunar mineshaft elevators will require little more than
extensive crumple zones in the floor, unlike on earth. Also on the earth
stuntmen require weird inflated balloons to break their fall but on the moon a
terminal velocity of only 45 MPH means something like a ball pit or a
relatively shallow (compared to earth...) water pool would make falls
survivable.
I'm too lazy to run the math to figure out the maximum gravity where a human
could fall from a very far height and hit the ground at less than a survivable
10 MPH or whatever is defined as survivable.
[https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/4678/how-far-
can-y...](https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/4678/how-far-can-you-fall-
on-the-moon-without-injury)
The big mistake of course is the lunar atmosphere is, as an engineering
approximation, 1e-15 atm not 1.00 atm.
In practice its interesting to think about a micrometeor strike hitting a
large structure, given the very low mass and low structural stability of a
random rock chunk vs aerodynamic forces, it would blast clean thru the
ceiling, then shatter and lose velocity very quickly down to sonic range or
perhaps far below. Something like a giant balloon stretched over a tall crater
would be reasonably survivable when hit by a meteor. Decades ago how to repair
the tiny slow leak would be a major puzzle, today its just a boring job for an
autonomous drone. Possibly the assumption in the article is if the roof is
thousands of meters overhead and a meteor breaches the roof, it'll hit a human
in the head at 45 MPH, which is quite survivable if the colonists wear
construction hard hats but not so good out in the open. Sleep with a roof over
your head, even rather minimal, and you probably won't wake up dead, if the
balloon ceiling is far enough overhead.
------
boznz
People who live in these will be real pioneers and I don't think there will be
anything glamorous about it (thinking more modern caveman rather than moon
base alpha). I think the people who go will have to be crazy, wreck less and
have a death wish, however I totally encourage them to do this.
I'm a big fan of space, but I don't see me going there until something better
than rockets are invented and all the other many problems are solved so I can
just sit at a nice coffee shop and enjoy the view.
~~~
AJ007
I think a large percentage of time will be spent in virtual reality, making it
less like living in a Siberian prison camp.
Also note, this makes John Carmack's contribution to space colonization
significant.
------
jlebrech
all we need to do is bore down and put a lid on top. years later we can make
it more complex.
we could drill a few holes into lava tubes for example
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martian_lava_tube](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martian_lava_tube)
and direct light into it for something a bit more elaborate.
------
ggcdn
Note that the title was edited (by a mod?) from my stylised version (oops - I
had used the tweet title) to "Engineering Habitats for the Moon and Mars"
which is actually a subheading within the article. The actual title is
"Structural Challenges for Space Architecture."
------
JoeAltmaier
More leverage in adapting existing structures, such as lava tubes and roofing
over meteor-impact cracks and fissures? Much larger volumes at much reduced
construction costs.
------
perilunar
psf, °F, inches, mph, feet, psi, pcf — What a mess. Do structural engineers
seriously still work in imperial units?
~~~
ggcdn
Surprisingly, yes! Even in Canada, about 9/10 of the projects I work on are
using these units.
These units are generally much more pleasant to remember and work with, even
despite the code using empirical design equations that require SI units
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How to Become a Silicon Valley Mogul in 10 Easy Steps - pathik
http://www.aialex.com/2007/07/23/how-to-become-a-silicon-valley-mogul-in-10-easy-steps/
======
betaPass
you could have put a disclaimer:
Step -1: Get hold of Steve Job's creditcard Step 0: Stand 10 steps away from
the Bank, with a gun in your hand NOW,Take the rest of the 10 steps forward.
Easy! :-)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ubuntu – Steam Client Installation and Review - pinehead
http://pinehead.tv/linux/ubuntu-steam-client-installation-and-review/
======
claudius
I still don’t quite understand why they litter one’s $HOME with this –
creating a small setuid binary that checks the signature of a given .deb and
then installs said Debian package system-wide, plus keeping certificates of
purchase in one’s ~/.Steam directory appears to me to be a much more viable
approach. This would allow for the easy specification of dependencies, would
avoid having to re-download a game for multiple users and would allow easy
‘clean-up’ using just apt-get/dpkg. After all, package management on Linux is
a solved problem (or as solved as it will get).
~~~
CJefferson
While package management is a solved problem in Linux, I imagine they want to
keep the coffee as similar as possible between Windows, Mac and Linux, and
cross platform packaging is certainly an entirely unsolved problem.
Also in steam it is traditional for games to just have a directory to
themselves. Getting them to install things in the right place would be more
work, and opens up risks from badly packaged games.
------
nsomaru
It is annoying that when I zoom this site only line-spacing changes and not
text size.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Nvidia Turing Architecture White Paper. [pdf] - ibobev
https://www.nvidia.com/content/dam/en-zz/Solutions/design-visualization/technologies/turing-architecture/NVIDIA-Turing-Architecture-Whitepaper.pdf
======
acoye
As I understand the paper they caught up with AMD's GCN async compute as
Turing features a hardware scheduler.
> Turing GPUs also inherit all the enhancements to the NVIDIA CUDA™ platform
> introduced in the Volta architecture that improve the capability,
> flexibility, productivity, and portability of compute applications.Features
> such as independent thread scheduling, hardware-accelerated Multi Process
> Service (MPS) with address space isolation for multiple applications, and
> Cooperative Groups are all part of the Turing GPU architecture.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
VCs Promised to Help Black Founders – My Experience Shows a Different Reality - gammarator
https://thebolditalic.com/vcs-have-a-well-known-black-founder-problem-but-really-they-have-just-forgotten-about-people-2e8452029793
======
graeme
This post would be a lot more persuasive with the pitch deck, or some growth
numbers, or something indicating the app is in fact on a success track and is
the type of app that is potentially VC scale.
I found no mentions on reddit. On google there is a single review on Capterra,
no other results.
The Canadian ios app has no reviews, can’t check US on my phone. The Google
play version has 88 reviews, but all but 3-4 of them are from Jan 26-Feb 2,
with only one since, in May.
So some evidence of traction, product market fit, growth, or the general idea
behind the app (pitch deck) would help with the argument.
The author does highlight an issue of how to get funded if you don’t have an
existing network though. Network based introductions seems to be the norm for
VC from what I’ve heard. And to be clear, there may be racism involved: my
point is it’s hard to tell without knowing more about the app’s and whether it
seems plausibly a fit for VC. Once an app has been around for a year you need
more evidence of traction.
Edit: I should mention that if the app is indeed somewhere between “can be
bootstrapped” and “needs VC investment” then there are are new options like
Tinyseed aimed at this middle ground of company. Another commented pointed out
that a competing app has 1-10 employees, which is not VC scale.
~~~
dlivingston
The US reviews are very peculiar: [https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-bright-
app/id1471800945?ls...](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-bright-
app/id1471800945?ls=1#see-all/reviews)
101 ratings with all but two being 5-stars. I hesitate to say that the
positive reviews are largely fake, but it sure seems like it. Broken English
and vague praise for the app characterize most of the reviews.
For example: "My friend recommended to me for experiencing this app. At the
fist time, I didn't know this application could bring benefits to me. However,
after all I use this app more frequently because its advantages. Very useful!"
What? Further, all 5-star reviews with the exception of one were written
between 01/28/2020 and 01/30/2020\. That leaves exactly three reviews of the
101 written outside this two-day window. Massive red flag.
~~~
Jommi
Let's just refrain from going too far with any ambiguous quips at the product.
I dont think anyone is going to gain from that.
~~~
mad182
But this is relevant. If both the product and her CV are weak, the racism card
doesn't hold up. If I was deciding if I want to invest money in some app, I'm
pretty sure seeing most of the reviews are poor quality fakes would be a lot
more important factor than founders race.
~~~
Jommi
You're mistaking the forest for the trees. You could go look at a handful of
other funded apps and evaluate their reviews. You're going to find similar
things.
My point was that you don't need to get into a more subjective, personal quip,
as the arguments brought by others (eg. The CV) here are already strong enough
to dismiss the racism claim.
~~~
jjeaff
I think you are also missing the forest for the trees. The point of her post
is that she submitted the exact same proposal to the exact same VCs from her
husband's email instead of her own and actually started getting responses for
the first time.
~~~
lightgreen
Or maybe that’s because her husband has a LinkedIn page which is easily
googleable and mentions three years of working in Google, and she has zero
relevant experience.
~~~
jjeaff
Her husband is on both decks. So at best, they didn't so much as glance at her
pitch deck until the husband sent it.
Or maybe they only look up the senders of the emails before deciding to even
open the pitch deck. Seems rather odd.
------
anotherfounder
I'm so glad she wrote this, and that she named names!
As a female founder (not black though), we went through a similarly
congnitively dissonant process. A-List investors who would publicly talk about
supporting female founders would behave the worst (esp. female investors, Hi
Aileen!), investors whose entire brand was around supporting ethical startups
(or insert any similar alternative movement) would be the least interested in
that aspect (Hi Spero Ventures!) All of that, along with a healthy dose of
rudeness.
In our experience, those at the very very top of the totem pole gave us the
fairest chance, and those below them, were the very worst. In the end, it was
hard no to feel that an investor's Twitter persona was a sham, in the end they
would invest only in the hottest SAAS startup by an ex-Googler.
FWIW, I know my experience was not alone. There are tons of now well-funded
female founders who will echo this sentiment. I just wish there was a way to
have a public list of those who walk the talk and those who just tweet the
walk..
EDIT: Adding something from thread below to focus more on solutions, and
providing perspective on why what is happening is not enough.
>...What is frustrating about these investors (and YC) is that it all is very
surface level. I'm sure they believe they are doing the right thing but all of
their assumptions, ideas, pipelines, and teams, all are informed by those
biases. And there isn't enough being done to deconstruct that. For example,
what does it mean to say 'too early' to an under-represented founder? who is
the comparison to? How many of your last X investments or team members came
from Stanford or ex-FAANG?
> Let's put in place processes, time allocations, smaller programs. And let's
> put all of this in place first for those raising their first rounds - the
> angel or the mythical pre-seed.
~~~
m0zg
VCs invest into your track record and the ability to put together and retain a
good team. "Ex-Google" is a good signal that the person can at the very least
_technically_ do what they are promising to do, once they take the cash.
What's your track record?
Nobody has ever promised that money will be given for phenotype traits alone.
~~~
avilay
And given that a majority of "Ex-Google" engineers are males, where does that
leave a woman (or any under-represented group) founder?
She is not asking for money "just because" she is a woman. She is asking for a
fair chance. And we need to give folks from under-represented communities a
_more than_ fair chance to combat inherent selection bias.
~~~
m0zg
> She is not asking for money "just because" she is a woman.
That's why I asked to see the track record. You won't get anywhere in this
business without a track record. Moreover, if you do have a track record being
a woman is an advantage these days, not a disadvantage. There are a lot of VCs
chomping at the bit to invest into women- and minority-led startups. But they
won't give you money if they don't have some degree of certainty that you can
do what you're promising to do.
~~~
triceratops
[https://www.portablepress.com/blog/2014/04/chomping-vs-
champ...](https://www.portablepress.com/blog/2014/04/chomping-vs-champing/)
------
xibalba
The author of this article cites as evidence of racism higher response to her
husband's solicitations of VCs than her own. However, comparing their resumés,
its pretty easy to see that this is unlikely to be attributable to racism.
Husband has founded multiple start-ups that were acquired, is technical, and
worked at Google and YouTube. Meanwhile, the author has personal trainer and
gym owner as experience.
~~~
adam
I think the larger point the author was trying to make was don't give lip
service to specifically going out of your way to try and help Black founders
if you're still going to use the exact same credentialing signals you always
do: track record where someone has worked, name brand of their school, etc.
One might argue that without the special consideration these VC's rushed to
say they would give, how would someone like the author ever have an
established track record of starting/selling their businesses in the first
place?
I'm frankly still expecting VC's to make decisions on what they think is going
to be most profitable for them, full-stop. But plenty of other firms like
large consulting firms, do set aside people and resources to work with non-
profits for example. Why couldn't VC's do the same to try and level the
playing field and eliminate some of these inherent advantages the well
connected/well credentialed have? A "no" is potentially fine, but how you
deliver that "no" can make all the difference.
~~~
digitaltrees
Yes. Exactly this. If a VC is going to use the same filters for inbound deals.
The same networks to connect to founders, the same metrics and stats. Then all
their rhetoric is BS.
~~~
callalex
Are you arguing for equality, or affirmative action? (I am not going to take a
stance on which one is the right choice, but I do think you are conflating the
two.)
------
sonofaplum
The nature of VC being what it is, it's extremely difficult to prove racism at
the level of proof that most HN readers seem to need. 99.99% of all startup
ideas are bad, 99.99% of all apps are terrible, so how can we know if she was
rejected for being black, or for just being another supplicant denied by the
VC gods?
The email thing is the strongest evidence she provides, but obviously, a
doubting mind can find other reasons that her husbands email would get
responses but hers wouldn't.
We do know, however, that African Americans are greatly under represented in
tech, in startups and in VC. There are many interlocking reasons for this, and
its not unreasonable to expect that racism, whether conscious or unconscious,
is one of them. (Why should tech, uniquely in American society, be immune from
racism?). Because there are so many interlocking reasons, it's easy for each
individual link in the chain of tech to deflect blame to the other links
(business can blame the pipeline, colleges can blame the high schools, high
schools can blame the financial structures etc etc etc).
So, is it reasonable to expect individual VCs to make a stand against racism
instead of doing what comes naturally to them? (trying desperately to make
money). Not really!
However, I do think it's reasonable to expect, that VC's who make big
pronouncements about what their firm is going to do to combat racism should be
expected to follow through with it! And guess what, given all the interlocking
problems that prevent black people from founding companies, VC's probably
aren't going to be able to follow through on that mission by relying on
business as usual of warm intros only, five minute pitch reviews, blow off
emails.
Just level with us. We are all adults. Just say, I'm not actually that
interested in explicitly helping black founders, I just want to keep trying to
make money the way I've been doing it. Conversely, if you do give juicy quotes
to the press, then be prepared to walk the walk.
~~~
jbay808
The author's point about VC firms providing no contact information
disproportionately impacting minority founders who don't have network
connections is also a good one, and fixable.
~~~
danenania
Whether or not they publish contact details, someone without a 'pedigree' or
serious traction is _far_ more likely to end up in meetings with VCs by
applying to well-known accelerators like YC than by reaching out directly to
VCs. This is the primary way that founders without a network get plugged in.
There can obviously be bias issues at the accelerator level too, so I'm not
saying it's a solution, but you can be sure that someone will at least take a
look at your application.
~~~
adrr
There are accelerators that focus on under represented groups, Morgan Stanley
has one. Like you said, once you’re in accelerator you can quickly build out
your network .
------
phnofive
I think the argument here is suffering as the business is questionable, though
I wholeheartedly agree that pointing a founder to a blog post and pretending
that counts as mentorship is bullshit.
> none of the VCs I contacted even tried downloading my app (I use Intercom
> daily to see all the new users trying our app). They dismissed its worth
> without even giving it a shot.
Fair, but I just had a look at the app store - this had two reviews since late
January (when about ninety-five 5* reviews were posted over a few days), and
neither were positive.
Additionally, a cursory search for personal trainer apps will turn up dozens
of well-rated alternatives. Putting myself in the mind of a VC, I would be
hard-pressed to invest or advise the founder of such a company.
Would love to learn more about why the VCs wouldn’t respond to her emails,
though - seems like another failure to meet the commitment.
~~~
atlasunshrugged
As far as why VCs wouldn't respond to emails, from my brief time working at a
VC firm I think the logic was either 1) We don't want to start a conversation
and give them false hope and 2) Not replying makes it seem like we're too busy
and important to respond to everyone (and also there was some thought process
of we don't owe anyone anything in the same way the average person doesn't
feel obligated to respond to spam emails)
~~~
huffmsa
But they responded to her husband, but not her.
Supposedly the same content, same info. Just the sender was different.
Unless of course you think she's not being entirely truthful.
~~~
callalex
“Same content, same info. Just the sender was different”
When it comes to early-stage investment and company building, the sender is a
huge part of the contents of the message.
------
henriquez
It seems like the author could search and replace “racism” with “sexism” and
put out an otherwise similar article based on her experience having to use her
husband’s LinkedIn rolodex to reach these people.
I think it’s shameful that VCs make empty promises to support black founders -
but it’s also not surprising. Most of the people paying lip service to racial
equity now didn’t give a shit six weeks ago before it was fashionable to do
so. But empty promises are par for the course as they’ve been for decades. My
experience living in Minneapolis where George Floyd was murdered is that the
same people suddenly promising to fix the problem are the ones who created it.
VCs only want to make money. The author raised insufficient evidence that she
was a victim of racism. If any unfair discrimination occurred it’s more likely
sexism. But the simplest explanation is also the most likely: the VCs just
weren’t interested in her pitch.
~~~
glitcher
The author seems clear to me that she is considering both racism and sexism.
> Curiously, when I used my husband’s email to send our pitch, that’s when I
> started getting some responses. Do VCs only read pitches submitted by men?
> Do they prefer to hear from someone who is Asian rather than Black?
~~~
henriquez
So she assumes bad faith but isn’t sure of the exact nature of that bad faith,
meanwhile the merits of her pitch or business idea are not even a factor in
her discussion of why she could have been rejected. (Let’s see, a personal
trainer app when people are quarantined ...)
I’ve seen numerous other founders here on HN handle rejection with more
humility and constructive resolve. I don’t think the author is doing herself -
or her husband - any favors with this kind of response.
------
danenania
I'm on easy mode (white and male), but I had no network and no prestigious
previous employers or schools to point to when starting on my company a few
years ago. There were many points when I felt like raising money would be
impossible, but I eventually did so. In case it might help someone who's
feeling hopeless and has it much harder than I did due to their background,
here are a few things I've learned about how the game is played:
\- Talking to investors is a waste of time in the beginning. It's much better
to focus on getting into an accelerator first.
\- Never talk to one investor at a time. That gives them all the leverage.
It's better to schedule many meetings with many different investors all in a
one or two week period.
\- Timing is everything. Don't talk to investors before you're ready to even
if they say it's "just a casual coffee". They are looking for reasons to rule
you out. Try to only talk to investors at inflection points where a graph of
_some_ important metric is going steeply up and to the right.
\- Move on quickly. Unless an investor is _obviously_ enthusiastic by the end
of the first pitch, they are highly, highly unlikely to invest. Don't waste
time answering their questions or getting their "feedback" or giving them
additional meetings if they seem skeptical. Just move on to the next one.
\- Don't ask for introductions from investors who turned you down. These are
actually anti-endorsements that significantly decrease your chances with the
investors you get introduced to this way.
~~~
anon102010
excellent advice!
------
gnicholas
Seems like the most compelling evidence of racially-disparate treatment is
that she got no responses when reaching out via her own email address, but
received some responses when reaching out via her husband's (he is an Asian-
American man with a recognizably Asian name). Assuming the emails sent were
identical, this would be pretty solid evidence of bias.
One potential confounding issue is that her husband is a former Google
engineer, and she doesn't mention having any similar experience. It wouldn't
be surprising if a VC's vetting process involved checking linkedin to see what
experience the person had, and giving points to former FAANG engineers (note:
I am not in this category).
Regardless, it's still pretty lousy that VCs that claim to want to help
certain types of founders don't even respond to inbound inquiries.
~~~
oh_sigh
Her name is "Nerissa Zhang" \- unless they are looking through for profile
pictures of her or something, wouldn't they assume she is Asian as well? At
least for me, "Nerissa" is a name of unknown origin, maybe Greek. Zhang is
clearly Chinese. I would assume the person was Chinese or at least 50% Chinese
if I was forced to guess about their race/ethnicity.
~~~
jbay808
Do people usually change their email accounts when they marry and take their
partner's name?
~~~
9HZZRfNlpR
You can route old account emails to new and answer people from new account.
It's quite seamless, to new people you give the new email. At least I knew few
people who have done it after name change, but marriage and taking new name is
less common nowadays than it used to be I guess.
------
anon102010
She asks why her husband gets more of a response (a sign of the racism she is
facing).
\- Her linkedin doesn't show what her major was as an undergrad.
\- After 4 years of working she was a powerlifting coach.
\- Then boom, in 2017/2018 she is an owner of two gyms and in 2019 she is
trying to get benchmark to invest in her app.
Her Husband:
Google Engineer
Masters in CS from Berkeley / Undergrad in CS
Started companies and managed employees.
15 years experience - 40 apps developed. Top 10 apps
Multiple successful exists (to zynga then another one to google).
Talking about being successful as a gym owner etc she says folks can assume
its because black folks were helped out.
"They assume it’s because they’re somehow lucky or exceptional or that they
gained success because of help from white people. This—of course—isn’t true,
but it’s an idea that continues to spread, sending the message that Black
professionals require help from white people to build their careers."
"We need to put an end to the lie that Black people are still in need of white
folks’ help,” she continues. “What we need is the freedom to live, work, and
act without white people and white institutions disproportionately targeting
us and stopping us from building the success we are already capable of
building on our own."
So it's a bit of a confusing set of messages.
~~~
sahaskatta
Just to add a counterpoint.
I raised a $2M seed for Smartcar. I had no college degree as I had dropped
out. I had no prior work experience. I had no team. The product was still an
early prototype.
MANY of the founders I know who've also raised similar sized rounds from top
VCs have stories quite like mine.
~~~
anon102010
Her point is that her husband got more responses. My guess - her husband would
get more responses than you as well.
As someone who also took time off (and built apps) from college, the fact that
I'd built some apps (that got write-ups) was a big positive for my early
career, even if just prototypes. But I was at a top education org before
taking time off so I'd already proven I could get into a reasonable place.
No need to disclose, but your and my story tends to work if you (and or others
on team) got into a place like an Ivy or a UC or top liberal arts, majoring in
CS or engineering, then dropped out (aka were into the entrepreneurial space)
I think it works a lot less well with an undisclosed and possibly non-tech
background.
If you had a path like hers then I am very impressed, your deck or prototype
must have been compelling. But very often there are some other proof points
(top school acceptance / cs majors etc). That is almost silicon valley cliche
at this point.
An awesome scenario would be if someone focused on black led businesses in
terms of VC and made a killing.
~~~
Apocryphon
> An awesome scenario would be if someone focused on black led businesses in
> terms of VC and made a killing.
This is what Tim O'Reilly was talking about funding:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23657403](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23657403)
------
madballster
If there is VC racism, doesn't that also mean there is a market opportunity
for VC money to focus exclusively on African American tech startups. Even if
there aren't many, there appears to be zero competition selecting investments.
The author is rightfully frustrated. But instead of focussing on lack of
interest in their app, maybe there's a bigger opportunity here.
~~~
graeme
In principle yes. I can think of a few possible problems though:
1\. You’re focussing on a much smaller subset of the market. It may be hard to
find enough investments
2\. It is probably illegal.
3\. You may not get the best VC’s. The best VC’s will focus on total return
and probably fund from a wide pool to find rare outliers that may grow huge.
So founders may have worse VC experiences. VC includes mentorship, network
etc, so this could hamper startup success.
4\. You may also not get the best African American startups. The very best
will be able to get attention from the top VC firms. So, there will be an
adverse selection problem for any VC specializing in African American startups
#2 is probably the main reason no one has tried. But #3 and #4 in combination
are also deadly.
But, if discrimination is a factor in startup funding, there would certainly
be a market opportunity for VC’s to focus _more_ attention on underserved
groups.
Edit: Another poster points out backstage capital is doing this. So, maybe it
doesn’t violate any laws? I’ll be very interested to see how their returns are
over time. They fund women and people of color. They may well have hit on a
market opportunity.
Found this article when I searched Backstage capital on HN. They’re a startup
too it seems: [https://news.crunchbase.com/news/founders-arent-giving-up-
on...](https://news.crunchbase.com/news/founders-arent-giving-up-on-backstage-
capital/)
~~~
graeme
Someone in the thread linked a Tim O’Reilly interview where his partner
pursued the “invest _more_ in women and people of color” strategy and it seems
to be working for him.
In addition to diversity, he also selected different types of businesses. More
medium size, not the rocketships.
[https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/26/tim-oreilly-makes-a-
persua...](https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/26/tim-oreilly-makes-a-persuasive-
case-for-why-venture-capital-is-starting-to-do-more-harm-than-good/)
------
TedDoesntTalk
> Black women are the most educated group when you look at the number of
> associate and bachelor’s degrees earned within each demographic.
Can anyone confirm this? When I follow the links, I get to this source:
[https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=72](https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=72)
That bar chart doesn't say anything to me about inter-demographic data. It
looks confined to each demographic; i.e. women earn more degrees than men
within each demographic, but that doesn't say anything about Black women vs.
White men vs. Hispanic men vs. White women
~~~
phonon
[https://familyinequality.wordpress.com/2016/06/07/no-
black-w...](https://familyinequality.wordpress.com/2016/06/07/no-black-women-
are-not-the-most-educated-group-in-the-us/)
~~~
bagacrap
this. tldr, undergrad degrees awarded to Blacks are highly skewed towards
women. Somehow this has been misinterpreted across the web as Black women
being the most educated group.
------
mrnobody_67
Sequoia is primarily a Series A investor, without seeing the deck and
traction/usage/retention/revenue metrics, it's really hard to make definitive
conclusions at least with regards to that one example.
In the context of wrong stage/check size, Alfred's response was reasonable.
------
Kednicma
The part about Nguyen was frustrating. It's hard to imagine a more honest
hypocrisy than explicitly saying, on the record, that one will be forthcoming
and helpful towards the marginalized, and ending up being just as dismissive
and unengaged as everybody else.
~~~
jchonphoenix
I get the sentiment, but Ha was more helpful than she realized. I've been in
this game from both sides the table. From this post, it's pretty clear she
does lack basic knowledge.
She needs to understand how VCs are evaluating her business, what metrics and
data she needs to show, and what types of businesses are even a match for the
VC model.
Ha's post covers much of that. And having been in VC, the fact Ha even spent
time giving advice is more than 90% of cold reachouts to VC can expect with a
Google resume or not.
VCs write these 101 posts because they want founders to know when it's time to
come to them and how to present the info. That's very much what she makes it
seem she needed.
------
Animats
It's an app for personal trainers to help them organize their business. Not a
big niche, and there are other apps in that space.[1] That one is from Fitii,
which has software for trainers, customers, and gyms, talking to each other.
Crunchbase shows Fitii as being from Melbourne, AU, with "1-10 employees". In
that situation, VC funding seems unlikely.
[1] [https://www.mypthub.net/](https://www.mypthub.net/)
------
anotherfounder
It is amazing to me if that the entire conversation on the thread is about her
credibility, and not at all towards the systems that lead to blogposts such as
these. It isn't one interaction, or one round or one app, these are system
issues!
I think it is more interesting to discuss how all of the investor assumptions,
ideas, pipelines, and teams, all are informed. And there isn't enough being
done to deconstruct that. For example, what does it mean to say 'too early' to
an under-represented founder? who is the comparison to? How many of your last
X investments or team members came from Stanford or ex-FAANG?
Maybe YC can take the lead here? @mwseibel?
~~~
areoform
Just wondering if we could talk over email. I feel your frustrations and I'm
wondering if there's something that could be done.
------
avilay
Even if her business idea was bad, or her app didn't have traction, or her LI
profile was not impressive enough, she deserved, at the very least, the
following:
* Access to VCs, she had to use her husband's email to get access.
* Some constructive and personalized feedback. This does not have to be very detailed, a couple of no-BS sentences will do the trick.
I get that VCs are too busy to respond to each and every email they get, but
they, and every one of us in the tech sector who is in a position to do so,
needs to walk the extra mile to pull in people from under-represented
communities who are trying to get in.
~~~
anon102010
Anyone who interacted with her got called out by name as racist.
------
AMerePotato
I'm not sure why this article is so controversial. Whether her app deserved
funding or not wasn't what the main point of the article was. No one is saying
they are obligated to fund a startup because a person is black.
If VCs want to claim to put effort into supporting black founders, then they
should follow through on that with their actions. They had committed to
meeting and helping black founders. Ignoring emails and generic responses is
in no way helping. They could have still said no and been more accommodating
as they claimed they would do.
------
latte
VCs' duty is to act in the interests of their limited partners, so they have
to make investments that they think will generate the highest returns, within
the fund's investment mandate.
It may make sense for the activists to apply pressure on the limited partners
(many of these being institutions with some social / public angle, such as
pension funds, university endowments or sovereign and municipal funds) to
demand higher diversity of founders from the venture funds they invest in.
Some large-scale investors have a history of adopting a social or
environmental based elements in their investment strategy (for example,
Norway's SWF divesting from coal and oil companies) - probably similar moves
(but aimed at equal opportunities for all backgrounds) can be demanded from
major US based asset management institutions - I don't see why, just to take
an example, Harvard's board of trustees can't agree to that - even if that
change is not directly aimed at generating the highest return on investment,
it may be the right move from the longer term societal development perspective
and for the university's brand value.
------
amb23
I don't know how to flag this thread to the mods, but--hey mods, can we lock
these comments? It's disheartening to see threads on women/minorities in tech
on Hacker News get strong, negative reactions from the community like some of
what's written here. I would hope the forum can hold itself to higher
standards than what I'm reading here.
~~~
SamReidHughes
You mean you want to be in charge of what people say on the basis of how you
feel, instead of on the basis of what's true (or not).
~~~
amb23
In order for internet communities to thrive, you need to install some sense of
"psychological safety." I'm using this term in the same vein that Google uses
when they say that psychological safety is the foundation needed to build
highly effective, high-performing teams. (It has nothing to do with "safe
spaces" and whatnot.)
On this thread, a female founder made the top comment with a personal
experience relating to the article, only to get inundated by comments telling
her she was wrong (from one commenter in particular). Similar reactions were
found to the article itself. Yet someone's lived experience is just that; it's
their perspective on their own, true personal experience. Calling perspective
"untrue" right off the bat is like a form of internet gaslighting; it stifles
open dialogue.
If we want have good conversations online--something that's incredibly hard to
do, yes--we need to give space to the people who share their experiences. I'm
disheartened because I look to Hacker News for open commentary on issues and
problems in the tech industry, and it's sad to see that dialogue overrun with
people who just want to tell others they're wrong. If it takes locking a
thread to improve the overall conversation, and get back a sense of
"psychological safety" needed for those good conversations--so be it.
------
towaytie4567
Why is it that African-Americans (not including Black Africans in this) tend
to seek acceptance into White institutions and power structures, instead of
building parallel ones? For instance, TiE[1] (The Indus Entrepreneurs) was
specifically set up to fund Indian founders. At the time, there was pervasive
bias (not that it doesn't exist today) against Indians as being good enough
only as rank-and-file engineers, but not as founders or leaders [2]. TiE was
instrumental in funding some of the earliest Indian founders many of whom are
successful VCs today. They effectively forced the White VC power structure to
sit up and take notice. Today, there is a flourishing ecosystem of Indian VCs
and founders.
On a related note, as an Indian, I'm envious of what China is doing today -
they realized pretty early that the Western world order would never have a
place for China as equals. Hence, they began to develop viable alternatives to
Western technology and institutions. Those efforts are beginning to bear fruit
today. The borderline insanity and paranoia that the West has developed [3]
about China is justification enough for those efforts.
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TiE(https://en.wikipedia.org/w...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TiE\(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TiE\))
[2]
[[https://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archiv...](https://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2000/05/15/279748/index.htm\]\(https://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2000/05/15/279748/index.htm\))
[3] [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-10-04/the-
big-h...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-10-04/the-big-hack-how-
china-used-a-tiny-chip-to-infiltrate-america-s-top-
companies\]\(https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-10-04/the-big-hack-
how-china-used-a-tiny-chip-to-infiltrate-america-s-top-companies)
------
atdrummond
I’ve seen this with a firm I advise; I get far better responses to outbound
fundraising than the founder, who has a distinctively African name.
------
twayback
This is the problem with all of these "diversity" pushes --- people have
started feeling they should be "helped" and even funded.
Top VCs reject thousands of pitches every year, you are one. Black or white
does not matter, deal with it.
------
areoform
Venture Capital started out as high-risk, high-reward high technology
investments. Genentech, LSI, Teradyne, BTU International, and Apple. As Sam
Altman, Thiel et al, and others have noted, VC lost its way since the late 80s
and started focusing on widgets and "blitzkrieg" capital. The point of
differentiation shifted from proprietary semiconductor or recombinant DNA
technology to the ability to deploy large amounts of capital at scale,
quickly.
What has mattered has also shifted. Uber's ride hailing solution was a
revolution, of sorts, but it was an incrementalist one. The breakthrough that
led to the production of synthetic insulin was a transformative one. Uber
isn't a sustainable business. Genentech is still alive and kicking.
The personality types that are chosen for to create a business where the only
metric of "innovation" is growth and genentech are different. In one, Steve
Woz is a viable co-founder. In the other, he simply isn't, and is filtered out
actively and implicitly.
There is discrimination in Venture Capital, that much is clear. But this issue
makes it far worse. As it creates an ineffable bar that is vague and entirely
defined in the VC's head. It is easier to answer the question if someone is a
genius. Because genius is genius no matter the gender identity or race. A
scientific or technological breakthrough is a breakthrough. No matter the
origin. But the ability to "blitzkrieg" a business? Who knows.
When the only metric for success is rapid growth, and the only way for rapid
growth to be predicted is for it to happen, it creates a murky set of rubrics
and metrics where the number of bad companies by white/asian, cis-male
founders who went to Stanford outnumber the number of great ones by people who
don't qualify for those checkmarks.
The new system delivers sub-par returns and it is obvious that an alternative
is needed. Despite great work being done by people like 1517 fund, Sam
Altman's new firm, YC, Founder's Fund, Lux Capital etc, the industry isn't
actively seeking out people with potential breakthroughs. It is creating
artificial barriers to their success. Personally, the most significant sign
that something is wrong with the ecosystem is that a potential breakthrough in
phenotypic screening of pharmaceutical molecules wasn't sought out
[https://www.daphnia-labs.com](https://www.daphnia-labs.com) , but the "Uber
for X" by Template Stanford Founder Y will be.
It is also apparent that an alternate financing system is needed for companies
that aren't technologically innovative, such as Nerissa's but aren't quite
small businesses either. Companies that do fall under the "high-growth
potential" label, while lacking the other qualities.
The blurring between VC, traditional PE, and small business banking have led
to sub-par outcomes for all involved.
------
hckr_news
VCs shouldn’t be the gatekeepers to capital. The game is rigged. Who gets
funding is decided by arbitrary metrics, inherent biases, and already
established networks. Personally I’m planning on bootstrapping my own business
and don’t plan on asking a VC for a hand.
~~~
mad182
Of course they should. Investors have every right to choose where to invest
however they want, it's their money and nobody is entitled to it.
~~~
thinkindie
The very point of the article, I guess, is pointing out those VCs that rode
the wave around BLM topics just for the sake of their own public image without
even delivering anything close to their pledge.
~~~
callalex
Just because some rich a-hole tweets and blogs something doesn’t mean that
anybody actually believes them. In fact, most people have a decent BS
detector, see these fluff statements for what they are, roll their eyes, and
move on with their life.
------
jrsj
Capitalists only pretending to care about an issue to improve their image
while continuing to only optimize purely for profit instead of taking
additional risk to do the right thing? Shocking. /s
------
s4n1ty
Does she offer any actual evidence that she was rejected due to racism? She
just seems to assume it.
~~~
Geoffhk
The part where she doesn't get a response when using her email but does when
using her partner's email is pretty convincing. There are many studies that
gauge racism in hiring by sending out resumes that only differ in candidate's
name.
~~~
xibalba
I don't think so. The husband's resumé is dramatically more qualified that the
author's. He has multiple startups/exits and was a FAANG engineer.
------
eevilspock
Wow. This post was marked dead within a minute of it being posted. I "vouched"
for it, though given my pariah status on HN for calling out SV on social
issues (such as racism), I'm surprised my "vouch" had any affect.
I have a lot more to say but HN doesn't really welcome my point of view, so...
~~~
dang
That site has been banned on HN for 7 years, for whatever reason. Posts get
autokilled when a site is banned.
You're certainly not a pariah on HN. But would you please stop posting
unsubstantive and/or flamebaity comments? You've done it a lot, and those
comments usually get downvoted, which is a correct use of downvotes. Your
point of view is as welcome as anyone else's, if you'd express it more
substantively.
~~~
manaman
Hello Dang,
Could you please share more details on sites getting banned? I did a quick
glance of the site in question, doesn't see much to get banned.
Thanks
~~~
dang
There are lots of reasons why a site might get banned, but the main ones are
when they are spam or consistently a source of off-topic or low-quality
articles.
In this case it's hard to say because 2013 was a long time ago. It might have
been because someone was oversubmitting or trying to promote the site on HN.
That's another reason why we might ban a site.
This site looks like an online magazine focused on the SF Bay Area. When I
look at the submissions I see a penchant for sensational titles and a lot of
articles that aren't on topic for HN, but also a few articles that would make
good HN submissions, except possibly for the titles. Two examples of good
ones:
[https://thebolditalic.com/the-remarkable-story-of-the-
golden...](https://thebolditalic.com/the-remarkable-story-of-the-golden-gate-
bridge-b126070998d8)
[https://thebolditalic.com/how-tech-is-deciding-who-gets-
to-g...](https://thebolditalic.com/how-tech-is-deciding-who-gets-to-go-
camping-7481c587d94) (good article, bad title)
For that category of site, we generally don't ban the domain, but rather
downweight it to countervail the sensationalism. I'll switch this one over.
------
cowpig
My experience in trying to raise capital is pretty similar to the author's,
and I'm a white guy. However, I don't think that detracts from her point.
If the system were more meritocratic, the demographics of people being funded
would more closely match the demographics of the world. But it's actually a
game of personal connections, theater, and psychological manipulation that has
little relation to competence in most business domains.
I think VC (and financial) culture in general is totally broken and far from
meritocratic, unless you feel that getting good at the wealthy-capitalist-
image-of-success-signaling metagame is a measure of some kind of merit.
~~~
bagacrap
Structural racism ensures that whites have better access to
education/experience from an early age. By the time VCs get involved, it may
well be meritocratic.
------
oh_sigh
An insidious effect of racism is that one can explain any negative interaction
through that lens if one is inclined. Based on her post, I don't actually see
racism, I see someone with a stronger background and more bona fides being
more successful at pitching than someone with less of those things. In most
other situations, HN commenters would be saying something like 'anecdotes are
not data'. I think it's hard to draw large scale conclusions of a 'different
reality' from this.
~~~
manaman
Did you read the linked TechCrunch article and how some of the VCs mentioned
wanted to help some demographics which founder belongs to?
~~~
oh_sigh
Yes, and?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Programmers Are Hipster Librarians - throwaway344
http://omniref.com/blog/blog/2014/09/19/programmers-are-hipster-librarians/
======
dalke
For comments, see
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8341158](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8341158)
from 6 hours ago.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Visual question answering using CNN+RNN - abhshkdz
https://github.com/abhshkdz/neural-vqa
======
n0us
Amazing. I only had a chance to read the README.md but my question is this.
What happens if you ask it questions that it could not possibly answer, as in
if it were given a picture of the man playing tennis and you asked it what the
score was? Is it capable of discerning between questions that cannot be
answered (given a particular input) and those that can?
~~~
abhshkdz
Priors from the language play a much bigger role in the answers that are
predicted than the image itself. So for example, if you ask 'What color is
...?', irrespective of the image, it is more likely to spit out colors as the
answer. The answers are usually well-aligned with the question that is being
asked. 'Yes/no' for binary questions, 'red/blue/etc' for 'What color...',
'tennis/baseball/etc' for 'What sport...' and so on.
------
KnightHawk3
Is there a catch to the effectiveness of this?
I haven't seen it before and it seems pretty magical.
~~~
abhshkdz
Although there is no catch, it's far from perfect and hardly magical. Its
accuracy goes up to ~55% on the VQA
([http://visualqa.org/](http://visualqa.org/)) dataset (which is short of
state-of-the-art by ~7%).
------
arocks
I have seen sites using captchas which ask such visual questions thinking that
only a human can answer them. This project really makes me doubt the
effectiveness of such techniques.
~~~
abhshkdz
As it stands currently, it's quite far off from cracking captchas. :-)
------
mrdrozdov
How do you measure accuracy? Is this a new baseline?
~~~
abhshkdz
Accuracy is measured as min((number of humans that provided that answer)/3, 1)
i.e. 100% accurate if at least 3 humans provided that exact answer, as
outlined here:
[http://visualqa.org/evaluation.html](http://visualqa.org/evaluation.html).
No, this model is from the NIPS15 paper by Ren et al
([http://arxiv.org/abs/1505.02074](http://arxiv.org/abs/1505.02074)).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why Does Exploding Dots Work? - dwohnitmok
https://mathenchant.wordpress.com/2018/06/16/why-does-exploding-dots-work/
======
romwell
FWIW, the answer to the question in the article (why you always end up with
the same set of coins if you don't use quarters) is "Diamond Lemma"[1]. The
author does mention it in a footnote, but doesn't go into details.
As a mathematician, I love the concept. I love New Math, too, however -- and
yet it was not a success.
Why? I believe that the article is asking the wrong question: will _the kids_
get it?
The question to ask is: will _the teachers_ get it?
Given that the answer is hidden in the footnote (and is usually not taught
unless you're getting a graduate degree), I am pessimistic about that.
I've spent a long time thinking about how we can teach math better (and quite
a bit teaching it, mostly as a TA, but also as an instructor and tutor). I
think the answer is -- we have to raise a new generation of _teachers_ before
even trying to change the curriculum or methods in any way. As it stands, a
college degree in math education (or even _mathematics_ , sadly) does not
prepare someone to be able to do mathematics. And that's the thing that needs
to change _first_.
[1][https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newman%27s_lemma#Diamond_lem...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newman%27s_lemma#Diamond_lemma)
------
webkike
I'm confused, isn't exploding dots just binary?
~~~
Jtsummers
Not just binary. It seems to be teaching the place value idea with a graphical
representation. It would work for any base.
~~~
schoen
In fact, it seems that the representation is also used to study polynomials
and other objects.
------
foobarbecue
For binary, I like this better:
[https://youtu.be/zELAfmp3fXY](https://youtu.be/zELAfmp3fXY)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Machinima, one of YouTube’s biggest and oldest channels, goes dark - Tomte
https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/19/18189611/machinima-youtube-fullscreen-warner-bros-multi-channel-network
======
sattoshi
Finding dead links to YouTube videos is increasingly becoming a frustration of
mine. Whether it is because someone decided to private it or because YouTube
decided to ban the creator for one reason or another. As an end user, it's
frustrating to have no recourse to view them.
I don't know if there is a solution to this, but people who say that the
internet is forever are demonstrably wrong.
~~~
honksillet
I've noted that in my playlists not only are the videos deleted, but title of
the video in your playlist is also deleted. So, say, if you had playlist full
of music videos you like and want to remember, gone! Good luck finding out
what you thought you were saving years ago.
~~~
zaider
A good solution to that is to google the link to the video and often times you
may find a site that listed the title of the video before linking to it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Nassim Taleb (Black Swan) open letter to David Cameron - keven
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/aug/16/nassim-nicholas-taleb-economics-cameron
======
jkuria
Taleb needs to find something new to talk about. In his book Fooled By
Randomness, he takes a paragraph and makes it a chapter. Takes a chapter and
makes it a book, talking endlessly about black swans, how people who are
successful are successful because they got lucky and repeating analogy after
analogy to make the same basic point. In this post he makes sweeping
statements about debt being bad, based on wisdom from Babylonian times and
Roman proverbs:
"David, you must counter this complexity by lowering indebtedness. We have
known since Babylonian times that debt is treacherous and allows no room for
mistakes: felix qui nihil debet goes the Roman proverb ("happy is he who owes
nothing")."
He sounds like Ahmedinejan in his letter to former president Bush advising him
to embrace the ways of the prophets of old :)
There are many situations where debt is your friend but like all good things
it can be abused. Common Taleb, find something new to talk about! Black Swan
is so 2002!
~~~
cia_plant
Isn't it better to have one idea that is insightful and correct, than to have
many ideas which are wrong, like most commentators?
~~~
katamole
Not when it keeps being rehashed _ad nauseum_.
~~~
tc
Maybe he intends to keep rehashing it until people _understand_. Good ideas,
it seems, need to be repeated.
~~~
katamole
_Good ideas, it seems, need to be repeated._
Absolutely not. Ideas that are diffuse and unoriginal, on the other hand, are
often repeated because they are uncompelling.
I've read _The Black Swan_ , and although it was entertaining, I didn't feel
like I learned anything of value.
~~~
tc
_Absolutely not._
Bastiat articulated the Broken Window Fallacy in 1850, and here we are 159
years later shredding perfectly good cars to 'create jobs.' It certainly seems
like some good ideas can't be repeated often enough.
------
keven
"Work on building a "robust" society, capable of withstanding errors, in which
the role of finance (hence debt) would be minimal. We want a society in which
people can make mistakes without risk of total collapse. Silicon Valley offers
a good example, where people have the chance to fail fast (and repeatedly)."
~~~
cwan
Impressively scathing of both the Obama and former Bush administrations. I'm
not sure how he would go about implementing some of his ideas since on one
hand he argues against additional regulations and on the other he argues for a
ban certain types of complex financial products (ie who would be the arbiter
of what he calls a return to products that dependend on trial and error?). He
is however a great writer and more importantly, he, even more than Peter
Schiff was right (from an FT article that echoes some of his points in the
letter and in some cases is a bit more specific -
<http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/tenprinciples.pdf>) :
"Then we will see an economic life closer to our biological environment:
smaller companies, richer ecology, no leverage. A world in which
entrepreneurs, not bankers, take the risks and companies are born and die
every day without making the news."
Having been on both sides of the coin, I do wonder how much those who allocate
the capital (bankers) should make relative to those who generate the ideas and
innovation - but clearly in recent years, it was skewed towards the former.
Lots more from Taleb at his site: <http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/>
~~~
neilk
Taleb wants financial services to come in two flavors: boring, predictable,
public banking utiliies; and no-safety-net no-bailout risk-taking investment.
He sees current regulation as helping to create the monsters we have now,
where the risk-takers are allowed to play with the money that's supposed to be
stable.
~~~
cwan
"Taleb wants financial services to come in two flavors: boring, predictable,
public banking utiliies; and no-safety-net no-bailout risk-taking investment."
But how do you get there? How do you make sure they don't spin out of control
or even how do you decide which firms to break up and how? (I don't disagree,
I am genuinely interested in learning how he sees it can be implemented and
without new significant regulations no less).
~~~
zupatol
One way to make banks boring and predictable would be to define precisely what
kind of products they are allowed to sell. This sounds like what Taleb would
want, but it don't think it would be good to entirely eliminate innovation.
But if regulators would forbid any product valued by models they don't
understand, it would probably be a good start.
~~~
MaysonL
Taleb has no problem with innovation - as long as the risk of the innovation
is borne by the innovators, or investors putting their own money at risk. The
problem occurs when people bet other people's money, reaping nost of the
rewards when the bet pays off, and incurring little loss when the bet goes
wrong.
------
sh1mmer
Having not read his book, was I the only person annoyed that he used the
phrase "black swan" a dozen times in the first paragraph without qualifying
it?
He could have been saying _"You and your party may be the only hope we have
for a resilient society insulated from negative oranges and in which everyone
has the opportunity to benefit from positive oranges."_ for all the difference
it makes to me.
~~~
dtf
I cringed too - especially at the capitalization. I shall cringe again when
Cameron starts using it. Forced memes like "black swan", "outlier" and
"tipping point" are like little mini-advertisements for their books and their
authors. Getting them into the vocabulary of politicians and business leaders
is the ultimate marketing ploy.
~~~
pbhjpbhj
I honestly don't know what memes you're referring too (nor the books) but
outlier and tipping point have basic meanings without interpretation: tipping
point is a cusp or specifically the point at which the force vector
originating at the centre-of-gravity passes outside the foot of a body causing
it to tip over. Outliers are statistical anomalies or unexpected results that
are usually ignored as if they are insignificant.
Black swans on the other hand are birds with a particular pigment.
Now what are the additional layers of meaning, we see black swans referring to
apparently unlikely events that nevertheless will occur (that's possibly not
the definition given by this guy), but what about the super-definitions for
the others?
------
compay
Unless you're an entrenched partisan, I think it's still a tad too early to
call Obama's economic policies "disastrous" or "calamitous."
~~~
cwan
I'm pretty sure that Taleb isn't a partisan - having also been pretty critical
of Bush/Republicans (though he did point out the Obama administration's
spending is magnitudes larger than his predecessor(s)). In the lead up to the
crisis, Taleb was one of maybe only a couple people who not only forecasted
the crisis but bet right on how it might occur. He used similarly dire
language and was laughed at by many of his detractors. For this reason alone
he shouldn't be so quickly dismissed.
~~~
nostrademons
"For this reason alone he shouldn't be so quickly dismissed."
I'm not sure he'd agree with you. Taleb's books repeatedly stress the
importance of survivorship bias. In any population, they'll be someone
forecasting just about any conceivable event. No matter how unlikely events
turn out to be, _somebody_ is eventually going to be right, and then that
person is lauded as a genius for having forecasted correctly. When really
they've done no such thing; rather, people have just retrospectively picked
out the person who happened to guess right.
I think Taleb would say you shouldn't dismiss him because there's ample
evidence _throughout history_ that he's right, not because he happened to
guess right this time. Whenever debt levels have risen to what they are now,
it's resulted in economic instability and chaotic behavior. It's not just this
century: you can find examples back to Roman times.
------
Estragon
This is ridiculous. The financial crisis was not a "black swan." Many people
saw it coming and prepared accordingly. It was only groupthink and willful
ignorance which kept most people from doing so.
~~~
Rexxar
It's not a black swan for everybody but it's a black swan for a lot of people.
------
dankjaergaard
I think Taleb makes an excellent point with his Black Swan theory. The point
is, that we don't know what will happen. We don't know and governments don't
know. Problem is, governments spend like they know :-)
------
joubert
Before one gets hysterical, consider debt as a function of GDP.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USDebt.png>
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_public_debt>
~~~
bwd2
Yeah, but the problem is that the rest of the world is not currently blown to
smithereens and in need of American labor and capital to rebuild it the way it
was in 1945 (not to mention deeply indebted to the United States as well). The
trough of that graph is about the point where Western Europe and Japan managed
to rebuild their economies to the point where they could actually compete
effectively. The United States has no such competitive advantage at this
point.
~~~
joubert
So where is all the US output going?
------
andyjenn
I wonder how Taleb reconciles his views on probability with respect to Cameron
winning the next election in May?
------
movix
Forget the Black Swan, please God just deliver us from Cameron.
Margaret Thatcher when asked what was her greatest political achivement -
'Tony Blair' she replied. Isn't Cameron just a more greasy version of the
slimy Blair, Black Swan spotter or not?
------
adnam
Submarine.
------
drewcrawford
> It is a low-probability, high-impact event that, because of its rarity and
> the instability of the environment, cannot be scientifically evaluated in
> terms of risk and return.
I stopped reading here. The _only_ objective evaluation of economic matters is
in scientific, risk-and-return terms. Anything else is quackery, fear-
mongering, or worse.
A great deal of evil has been done in the last decade or so in the name of
protecting us against horrible things. We are told that much good has come of
it, because nothing horrible has happened. While I'm sure this is partly true,
I wouldn't mind trading a few more horrible things for a little more autonomy.
~~~
oakmac
Black Swan theory isn't about denying science; it's about recognizing the
limits of science.
Taleb's position (and argument in this paper) is that we need to recognize
instances where we don't know the answer instead of making decisions based on
assumptions that we do.
~~~
mynameishere
You can't discount the apocalypse. You just can't. And this pan-phobic concept
"black swan" is just various degrees of unknowable apocalypses that we are
supposed to account for based upon their very unaccountableness. I don't buy
it. Read the tea leaves first, then tell me about swan feathers.
The housing bubble was _BLATANT_. No black swans involved. I remember talking
about it with friends in 2005. No big deal, really.
~~~
frossie
_"The housing bubble was BLATANT. No black swans involved."_
Yes, but what was not blatant was that the housing bubble popping would kill
Lehman Brothers, cause runs on banks and almost bring down the whole world
economy.
Taleb's point is that you can't go around behaving like any system is, to
borrow a phrase "too big to fail" - or rather too cleverly thought
out/regulated to fail. To some extent this is simple engineering. I can test
the resilience of my cluster to network failure by pulling out an ethernet
cable and see what happens - maybe there's a small hiccup while systems fall
back onto local resources, maybe nothing fails over properly and I am hosed
for 12 hours. As I understand Taleb, his argument is that the economic powers
(bankers, traders, politicans) spend too much time trying to figure out how to
prevent network failure, rather than making sure that when the network does go
out, it doesn't take your whole mission down with it. Because, no matter how
well you think you have engineered the system, the chance of your network
going out somehow, sometime is non-zero.
I do agree with the posters that Taleb overstates the cleverness of his own
insight; but unfortunately, in his field, it seems that people really were too
dumb/greedy to grasp this. Irrespective of what you think of his
interpretation of events or the validity of his suggestions (and I too
question them), I think as systems engineers we can appreciate the risk of
designing political and economic systems under the assumption that they can't
fail.
~~~
nazgulnarsil
the problem isn't that people were too dumb/greedy to notice. it's that they
weren't punished for not noticing it. you'd be amazed what a little incentive
does to people's willingness to self educate.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Matlock Extension – Discover the Open Source Libraries Pages Are Using - onassar
https://getmatlock.github.io/
======
njn
I just received this email:
Hi Nikolas,
My friend Oliver and I have included d3 in our chrome
extension https://getmatlock.github.io/, which works by
identifying the open source libraries a webpage is using.
Our goal is to give credit to the work that open source developers make.
We just submitted it to Hacker News news.ycombinator.com,
so if you think this would be useful for open source
developers, we hope you'd consider throwing an upvote our way ;)
Hope you don't mind the unsolicited email
Lol. Okay, every time I submit something to Hacker News I'm just going to spam
a bunch of people as well :P
~~~
onassar
Hey njn; apologies for the annoyance. My buddy Adam who I worked on it with
reached out because we included d3 as part of the extension. Thought it would
be useful, but apologies that you got annoyed by it :(
------
onassar
Hi all - Been working on this extension with my buddy Adam (for both Chrome
and Firefox) for a while. I wanted to know which Open Source libraries pages
were using, and pull in info/context/data from GitHub (and a couple other
sources) based on those libraries.
The idea is pretty straight forward: you click on the Extension Icon, and
it'll analyze the page you're on and show you the libraries, basic data from
GitHub (like star-count and when it was last committed to), the location of
the developer(s) (if shared), and the description.
Open to any feedback or questions :)
------
kenguest
this is very useful for figuring out what components your legacy projects are
using. very nicely done. thanks for the hard work guys!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Suggest a new name for my Smartwatch startup - bonbon
http://irisgear.com/
======
therobot24
So it's basically a month or so after the prototype phase, what's the
progress? I see some nice photoshop mock-ups, but where's the tech demo. I can
say from personal experience, the heart-rate monitoring from the wrist is very
difficult - bloodflow noise (generally a low SNR), bad data (constant movement
or loose connection), and beefy processing (for a wristwatch at least) to get
anything better than guessing.
~~~
bonbon
some good points there; the tech demo is currently using a flexible eink
display powered with a beagleboard. Heart rate monitor is difficult and we are
licensing the software that optimises down to everybeat for athletic
applications.It's an attempt, should make a lot of progress.
------
the-kenny
Seriously? 5 months to create a product (assuming you don't have anything
right now, based on the not-existing pictures & the scenes from Iron Man as
the product video)?
That won't work.
Also, what about 'iWatch'? It obviously features the iOS keyboard and
homescreen.
~~~
bonbon
you are right, but we are working in stealth; only to save the fun for a
launch. The problem with showcasing the product too early is someone emails
you claiming the troll IP, and it happened.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Writing Maintainable Tests for Backbone Views - kjbekkelund
http://open.bekk.no/maintainable-tests-for-backbone-views
======
e12e
Very nice writeup! Anyone have tips on similar write-ups for other frameworks?
Angular?
~~~
kjbekkelund
Thanks. I would love to see more "experience reports" with testing Angular and
Ember apps. Especially with regards to end-to-end tests.
------
selbekk
Great read. ^up
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How Sugar and Fat Trick the Brain into Wanting More Food - daegloe
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-sugar-and-fat-trick-the-brain-into-wanting-more-food/
======
norea-armozel
Most of this article reads like the summary of "You on a Diet" from Oz and
Roizen. I'm glad much of the science hasn't changed. It's not that calories
don't count, but that satiety as a signal of sufficient food gets messed by
overeating and obesity as a whole.
I'm glad they didn't try to foist the "hormonal" theory of metabolism on us
again because calories in vs calories out is still a solid model for weight
loss. It's just not enough if you eat the wrong things to fix your satiety
signals.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
An independent crew is taking control of a NASA satellite - nkurz
http://betabeat.com/2014/08/civilians-in-abandoned-mcdonalds-seize-control-of-wandering-space-satellite
======
mturmon
There are so many half truths and lies in this story. I wanted to mention just
this one:
"Until now, when NASA wanted to conduct research, they’d collect data and
disappear with it for a few months before publishing. But the data from ISEE-3
is going to be available to anyone who wants access to it."
This is grotesquely wrong.
Plenty of space weather data is available in near real time form, as soon as
it is received by ground stations. E.g., for relevant imagery,
[http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/](http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/), but many
other space weather sources are available. The time stamps on the images at
the above link should be only a few hours old. Those are quick look products
(jpegs), but the science formats are also available, for free.
Significant Earth science data ([https://earthdata.nasa.gov/data/near-real-
time-data/rapid-re...](https://earthdata.nasa.gov/data/near-real-time-
data/rapid-response/about-rapid-response)) are also available free, within
hours of receipt, for anyone, including disaster responders.
Other data is broadcast directly, with open formats, so any ground station
underneath can receive it directly. ("Direct Broadcast,"
[http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/login.jsp?tp=&arnumber=565052...](http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/login.jsp?tp=&arnumber=5650520&url=http%3A%2F%2Fieeexplore.ieee.org%2Fxpls%2Fabs_all.jsp%3Farnumber%3D5650520)).
The people involved in these programs have spent a lot of effort in engaging
disaster responders ([http://www.nasa.gov/applied-
sciences/disasters.html#.U-hc5WK...](http://www.nasa.gov/applied-
sciences/disasters.html#.U-hc5WK9KSM)) to make end to end data services that
will actually be useful.
Sure, there are other disciplines in which space data are sat on by the PI --
planetary missions, cosmology. The reason is that the data is not well
understood and there would be too many bogus results. But even, say, for Mars
data, there has been a lot of outreach to make sure both US and international
scientists can be part of the team and share in initial results. This slower
timeline is special to these disciplines. The article is making a broad
statement that is not true.
~~~
humbert
The team is making space science and technologies accessible and
understandable to a wider technical public audience than any previous project.
That's the key point that the article tries unsuccessfully to relay. The team
calls this "citizen [space] science" in their Education and Public Outreach
post. [http://spacecollege.org/isee3/education-and-public-
outreach-...](http://spacecollege.org/isee3/education-and-public-outreach-
lunar-orbiter-and-isee-3.html) "Imagine what feats of exploration might be
possible if an empowered and engaged citizenry realized that exploring space
is really something anyone can do."
------
sebcat
This article made me think about Travis Goodspeed and his "southern
appalachian space agency". If you are interested in real DIY-space stuff, you
should check it out.
------
ForHackernews
I thought they'd discovered there wasn't any propellant left in the
spacecraft?
~~~
sosuke
Looks like you're right, but it still will be able to collect and send some
kind of data in a solar orbit. [http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/08/crowd-
funded-isee-3-r...](http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/08/crowd-funded-
isee-3-reboot-mission-to-begin-sunday-after-lunar-flyby/)
------
nospecinterests
This article is starting to bug me.
First, the author makes the claim that the team was given the McDonalds for
use for this particular mission but that, as far as I know, is false. They
have had the space for some time while they were restoring lunar orbiter
images.
Second, the team's/company's news updates show that they had to buy more
equipment than an old radio, a mac laptop and some parts to fix a broken tv,
specifically, a software defined radio (sdr).
~~~
humbert
The team bought the old McDonalds for use as a hackerspace, and also to
prevent it from being torn down.
Their $159,602 crowdfunding on
[http://www.rockethub.com/42228](http://www.rockethub.com/42228) paid for
necessary equipment and services, the most expensive being access to large
radiotelescopes to transmit commands and receive telemetry.
------
trackofalljades
Do we really need the reddit headline editorialization on HN?
When you're working with NASA, and they officially help you with the
encryption, you're not "seizing" anything. This is a very cool and interesting
story without the L33T HAXX0R DUD3Z angle being weirdly inserted into it...the
McMoon team are heroes many times over and awesome in their own right.
~~~
forgotpasswd3x
It's the EXACT headline from the article! Maybe HN should penalize people for
complaining about the titles of submissions, because it seems like no matter
how someone titles their submission, _someone_ is going to have a problem with
it. Complaining about "headline editorialization" doesn't do anything to fix
the problem.
Downvote and move on. We don't need to have this stupid conversation every
time.
~~~
dang
The HN guidelines call for using the original title except when it is
misleading or linkbait. trackofalljades is right that this one was linkbait,
so we changed it to a phrase from the first sentence.
You're also right—complaints about titles are tedious. It astonishes me how
much time and energy they take up.
There is a way to complain about titles productively, though: suggest a better
one.
------
frozenport
Hasn't this been going on for a while?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Lug-Nut Driven Development - belisarius222
https://medium.com/@belisarius222/how-to-start-a-software-project-ad51373c1510#.rcl1ppk83
======
hcarvalhoalves
> Build the whole thing badly.
It doesn't have necessarily to be _poorly_ written code though - you can start
with lots of constant functions and later replace with actual logic, and
still, at each iteration you'll have a complete testable flow.
Some test frameworks like Clojure's midje [1] and Python's mock [2] help a lot
with this by making mocking functions inside the test painless, so you can
start with what you wish you had and then fill the blanks.
I believe someone on the internet named this "Wishful Thinking Driven
Development", quite ingenious.
[1] [https://github.com/marick/Midje](https://github.com/marick/Midje)
[2]
[https://docs.python.org/dev/library/unittest.mock.html#the-p...](https://docs.python.org/dev/library/unittest.mock.html#the-
patchers)
------
superswordfish
This is a scattershot of some good practices, most unrelated to the title. But
on that topic,
> Think of changing a tire: you screw in the lug nuts loosely first, in a star
> pattern. Once you have all the lug nuts in loosely, you tighten them a
> little bit at a time, going around in that star pattern, until they’re all
> tight.
It just doesn't work this way, the bad code stays there. I'd be a little
concerned to take over software you wrote, because that tightening plan lives
in your head and the issues are global, not local to some module.
You (author) are on the right track though, it's a good idea to have a reflex
against perfectionism.
~~~
mikeryan
_It just doesn 't work this way, the bad code stays there._
I read this differently. I didn't feel the author is saying the code is bad or
"fast and dirty" to be cleaned up later so much as limited in features. Do
limited features along the stack to get the whole toolchain in place before
adding more features.
There's recent image with respect to UX which I think is relevant here
[https://twitter.com/jopas/status/515301088660959233](https://twitter.com/jopas/status/515301088660959233)
~~~
MaulingMonkey
> Do limited features along the stack to get the whole toolchain in place
> before adding more features.
This is the kind of codebase I like to take on. Limited features = less code =
less to refactor, and what _is_ there is probably better tested and has fewer
bugs. I get to writing new features myself instead of just fixing someone
else's work.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
AMD’s 7nm Ryzen 4000 laptop processors - t4h4
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/03/amds-7nm-ryzen-4000-laptop-processors-are-finally-here/
======
Roritharr
So Anandtech has this to say about Thunderbolt 3 support:
"Display support for the CPUs allows for two 4K monitors through DisplayPort
over Type-C, an additional 4K monitor if Thunderbolt is used, and a fourth
monitor if USB 4.0 used. AMD has designed Renoir to not need additional chips
to detect which way a Type-C is connected – that is all handled on die. With
the display and USB support, the processor allows for concurrent USB 3.2 and
DisplayPort use, with the peak DP v1.4 8.1G HBR3 standard in play using
display stream compression (DSC)."
Which begs the question what does in-built mean? The Showcase Notebook Lenovo
Yoga Slim 7 does not include USB 4 or Thunderbolt 3 so these modes will
probably need additional chips.
...i want this 8-core chip with 32GB of LPDDR4X in a 13" Notebook that has 2
Thunderbolt 3 Ports and a matte Full-HD Touchscreen.
~~~
DiabloD3
No, you want the _next_ generation, for the same reason: Thunderbolt is now
officially dead, it has been absorbed into the official USB4 standard.
There is _very_ unclear support for existing Thunderbolt-over-Type-C devices
under USB4, and it is likely your devices will stop working.
Please wait until USB4 and USB4-based solutions start shipping before you
start adopting it, else you're going to be stuck with a bunch of devices that
are no longer being supported, or cannot be cross-supported across Thunderbolt
3 and USB4 variants.
~~~
Roritharr
I already have a bunch of TB3 Docks in our company, so ditching them would
really be painful and a reason to stick to Intel.
~~~
DiabloD3
Intel's own version of their USB4 controller _might not support it either_.
Absolutely nobody I know has been able to get a straight answer out of anyone;
not Intel, not the USB IF, not other members of the USB IF, on if existing
Thunderbolt 3 devices will work on USB4 hosts.
And it will be a complete and absolute shitshow if it doesn't, because Type-C
has swindled us into thinking Type-C is just Type-C.
------
storrgie
It'd just be nice if integrators like lenovo wouldn't nerf things like
displays. It looks like their lineup for AMD mobile graphics is going to be
significantly different than the Intel counterparts.
~~~
macawfish
For real! What's up with the lack of 2-in-1 AMD x13? I have an artist friend
who needs a new laptop and I'm telling him to wait for Ryzen 4000 laptops. Am
I supposed to tell him to get a gaming laptop or something?
These recent Intel laptops often have really dicey real-time performance
because of how aggressively their clock speeds are controlled.
For someone who does mixed multimedia work, a Ryzen 4000 2-in-1 would be
amazing. All those cores are perfect for real-time audio work, rendering and
3d stuff.
~~~
fstephany
The announced Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 might tick the right boxes.
~~~
macawfish
Oh wow, that one is so close! Just needs some more memory...
edit: at first I read that this would have 8 GB RAM, but now I'm reading that
you can get up to 16 GB, which I think would be adequate for some basic
multimedia work.
edit 2: wait I'm confused, according to the announcement, the AMD version is
set at 8 GB of RAM.
[https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/coming-soon/IdeaPad-
Slim-7-14AR...](https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/coming-soon/IdeaPad-
Slim-7-14ARE05/p/88IPS701400)
------
close04
I'm not sure if my next laptop purchase is going to be an AMD one because I
haven't got enough data yet, specs, benchmarks, etc. But I know one thing for
sure, I will exclude from my shortlist any OEM that does _not_ have a serious
AMD based lineup. If they only have 1-2 models, or only in the low cost
segment just to tick a box, I will be looking at other brands.
I can't help but remember Intel's practices in the past. So I'll vote with my
wallet and go with OEMs that give both Intel and AMD an equal chance.
Hopefully if enough people do that OEMs will find any backroom dealings less
attractive.
~~~
bsdubernerd
In my case, I'm in the need of a new laptop this year, and I'm explicitly
waiting for an AMD Ryzen.
I don't even care about the performance to be honest, I'm sure it will be
adequate and I simply don't want Intel anymore.
With all the mitigations applied, I've lost the performance gain of the last
two Intel laptop generations I had.
The integrated intel gpu is ok performance-wise, but being on linux I'm also
tired of their development model: there's a fresh new driver/engine being
developed every year, and it always buggy. It's true that intel always gets
the latest kernel features first, but by the time is stable and it _works_, it
gets deprecated in favor of a new buggy one. Way to go!
I've been using top-of-the-line lenovo laptops for a decade now. This has been
the same every year, year after year, and I'm tired.
~~~
richajak
I would suggest to get another Thinkpad as other brands may not not be tweaked
to Thinkpad loyal customers. For me, I always find my Thinkpad is quiet and
cool during heavy workload.
As for Ryzen, I just bought their budget laptop, E485 (with Ryzen
2200u+SSD+FHD screen) last year. I was waiting patiently for Thinkpad deal to
come, it was worth to wait, as my aging SL410 was still working. It has been
matching my expectation so far: affordable, snappy enough, and good battery.
As for Thinkpad models, I find that their budget ones are sufficient for my
startup and personal usage, as I do not use enterprise-level features, like
those in T series (that I used during my corporate lives).
~~~
bsdubernerd
Although thinkpads work fine, I attribute this due to the number of developers
using them, definitely not because Lenovo is spending _ANY_ money to make it
work. This is not how it's supposed to be working. There are a few big issues
that are making me reconsider them entirely.
You cannot buy a Lenovo without a Windows license. This is minor considering
the price I'm usually going for, but since I don't use it at all, I consider
it a microsoft tax.
Their "computrace" bios feature is still there in every new laptop.
With skylake, the last edition of the Yoga and X1 Carbon couldn't do S3 sleep
by default anymore. For no other reason than to force windows use S2Idle. It
requires a quite annoying work-around on linux to force S3, and only ~6 months
ago we finally got a bios patch to re-enable S3...
The temperature throttling defaults are different from linux to windows,
causing linux to throttle much more aggressively than needed on skylake. This
is also caused by some bios issue which you can work-around with msr
registers, but again... why?
I overall like the hardware. I'm quite fond of the built-in wacom pen too. I
have minor quibs about the keyboard (QC issues) and screen (all TP I had in
the last 5 years tend to develop bright spots in the backlight), but overall
it's hard to find something similar. The dell XPS developer line is the only
alternative I would be considering, and mostly due to their linux offering.
------
abrowne
They mention Linux at least once in the article. That's always good to see.
~~~
kemotep
Patches for Renoir based APU's appeared in kernel 5.4[0]. Looks like by the
time these launch they will have out of the box Linux support which is huge
compared to how Raven Ridge launched.
[0]:[https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=AMD-
Reno...](https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=AMD-Renoir-APU-
Linux)
~~~
snvzz
And 5.4 is a LTS kernel. They were just in time apparently.
------
akvadrako
A better article here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22599598](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22599598)
~~~
Tuna-Fish
All the current articles are terrible, because none of them have independent
benchmarks. Apparently, no-one got review units in time because of all the
disruption, but AMD went ahead with dropping the embargo anyway.
~~~
lonelappde
It's a laptop chip. Due to thermal throttling variability and all the
ergonomic factors, reviews only make sense in the context of a whole retail
laptop you can buy. You aren't going to buy a laptop and then choose your chip
separately.
~~~
BubRoss
This is a really good point. Modern CPUs remind me of home internet with
maximum speeds advertised even though pragmatically it isn't anywhere close to
what people will get. Laptops, Intel NUCs, AMD desktop APUs, etc. all take a
huge amount of BIOS tweaking at least to make them run hotter before they
throttle, use less power, and possibly disable temporary clock speed boosts
that heat up the CPU too much and make it throttle. Anything in a small
enclosure seems to be an exercise in optimizing heat.
More airflow, lower max clocks and higher throttling temperatures make a
massive difference on the set ups I've worked with.
------
holtalanm
my laptop is a couple years old at this point, but I've been extremely happy
with my ryzen 2500U HP Envy 15z.
when i replace this eventually, I'll be looking at AMD again, more than
likely. Really solid.
------
tedunangst
None of these battery benchmarks seem to normalize for work per unit time. 2.0
hours of cinebench rendering on one cpu and 2.5 hours on another cpu can't
really be compared unless you know how many frames were rendered.
------
gtm1260
Is there any chance Dell releases and AMD XPS 13?
~~~
sfshaw
I would be very interested in this as well but I fear Intel and Dell have some
kind of exclusivity agreement for our beloved product line. In the meantime
we'll all just switch to Zen2 ThinkPads.
------
leptoniscool
Awesome, Moore's law is back on track
------
kissiel
Except they're actually not. I would love to buy one, but there is no one
laptop with 4000 series in shops here, in EU.
~~~
Zenst
Yes the whole supply chain is somewhat having a bumpy time, it will get there
in the end.
But had a quick look from the UK and plenty here for next day delivery.
Even some fancy ones like: [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Zephyrus-GA401IV-GeForce-
Graphics-W...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Zephyrus-GA401IV-GeForce-Graphics-
Windows/dp/B084N16YTY/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=ryzen+4000&qid=1584449576&s=computers&sr=1-2)
So technically they are available in the EU, just a slowly transitioning
supply due to logistical human malware factors comming into play.
~~~
kissiel
For the laptop you linked it says: This item will be released on April 16,
2020. Which considering human malware may be May+
~~~
Zenst
Oh yes, defo saw maybe that or another one next day delivery - but may be case
of bad listening and got corrected.
Did try look for the other listing I saw but not showing now, so hmmm.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Snitch.io – SSL auditing and alerting - yourabi
https://snitch.io/
======
_asciiker_
I think you're trying to solve a non-problem since the company that sells the
certificates warns you (sometimes even more than those intervals), afterall,
they want you to renew as well. As for checking for quality, that should be
the sys admin task or the webmaster. good luck though!
~~~
yourabi
Thanks for your feedback but I strongly disagree and I think recent history
supports that CAs don't do much for you once they've collected your payment.
CAs won't alert you if someone breaks into your server and replaces your
certificate. They won't alert if you if you accidentally push a config change
and start serving the wrong certificate to customers... And they certainly
will not alert you if you are using a revoked certificate in production.
I've bought multiple certificates from different reputable vendors - I only
ever got one Heartbleed notice. (This pattern repeats itself)
Many shops don't have a dedicated admin / webmaster auditing their
certificates and even those that do have had public issues (Akamai, Apple,
GitHub, Stripe...etc)
The value in a service like Snitch is that we worry about your SSL
certificates. Many people don't have the interest or time in rolling their
home grown monitoring of this stuff...
~~~
_asciiker_
"CAs won't alert you if someone breaks into your server and replaces your
certificate. They won't alert if you if you accidentally push a config change
and start serving the wrong certificate to customers... And they certainly
will not alert you if you are using a revoked certificate in production."
You have valid points, my advice would be to make that part of the message as
clear as possible. as a sys admin I could be a potential customer but then
again, I already have to worry about certs I implement.
~~~
yourabi
Thank you for that feedback! It is very valuable to hear that I didn't message
this effectively - I'll work on improving that.
I'd love to chat more out-of-band - would you mind emailing me (this username
at currylabs.com or gmail.com)
------
yourabi
We built Snitch to make it simple and easy to get a handle on your SSL
certificates. Our mission is to help people avoid getting blind-sided by SSL
issues - losing customers, reputation and business in the process.
We've been working on this for a few months and would appreciate any feedback
- thanks!
If anyone wants to email me directly it is my username at currylabs.com or
gmail.com
PS: If you are an Open Source project we offer free subscriptions.
~~~
johns
Who's "we"? You need an about page.
------
cddotdotslash
Idea is great, but pricing seems a bit expensive.
Have >25 certs? Add this check to Nagios:
[http://exchange.nagios.org/directory/Plugins/Network-
Protoco...](http://exchange.nagios.org/directory/Plugins/Network-
Protocols/HTTP/check_ssl_cert/details)
Saved you $200/month :)
~~~
leesfer
Yeah especially since some people offering this same service for free
[http://voodooalerts.com/free](http://voodooalerts.com/free)
~~~
yourabi
Sorry, but that is not factually correct.
These are very different services.
Voodooalerts requires you to place JS on your page. Because of this I am sure
they cannot run the full suite of audits that Snitch does.
~~~
leesfer
No, Voodoo Alerts FREE has no JS. Its a server ping just like Pingdom or this
service, except its free.
The full paid version of Voodoo Alerts requires JS to be installed but that is
for RUM alerting
Edit: you're right about it not doing everything that snitch.Io does, but
saving $10 a month on simple alerting sounds good to me
~~~
yourabi
Thank you for visiting Snitch.io. Unfortunately, your statements are still not
correct.
I signed up for a free account on VA and put in a site with a revoked SSL
certificate. It has not generated an alert. It has been over 12 hours. It is
still prompting me to insert the JS on my site, by the way.
As to your second point. Snitch isn't simple alerting.
It runs a full range of tests on an SSL certificate: checking for expiration,
checking for revocation, checking that all of the intermediate certificates
have not been revoked, checking the certificate is valid for the domain
(including SNI), checking that the certificate isn't signed with a weak
algorithm such as SHA-1 that Chrome is about deprecate, checking that the
certificate has not been changed (incorrect server config, malicious
intent...)
Snitch is not targeted at people who just need to know if their site is up or
down.
If you are are a business and users browsing to your site get a big red
warning in their browser because your SSL certificate is
expired/revoked/weak/misconfigured - that is a problem and you lose money.
That is what Snitch is addressing.
~~~
leesfer
I should have mentioned that I am in the beta for VA and that feature doesn't
open up until next week for all users.
In fact I'm probably breaking terms mentioning it...
~~~
yourabi
Thanks for the clarification.
I was wondering if you were also going to mention that you are VoodooAlerts'
founder?
I, personally, think it is poor form to advertise features that don't exist
while pretending to be a customer of VoodooAlerts.
I wish you the best of luck with VoodooAlerts!
[https://twitter.com/Leesfer](https://twitter.com/Leesfer)
~~~
leesfer
Being a #2 employee isn't exactly a founder, now is it?
Good luck in this field, it's competitive :)
------
michaelmior
This is seems potentially quite useful. It would be nice if it could also
notify you if your server is not configured according to best practices in
terms of things such as protocol versions and cipher suites.
~~~
yourabi
Thanks for the feedback!
That is definitely on the roadmap and will go out soon.
------
spacefight
Great idea, will definitively check it out.
Where are you incorporated, if? The terms says nothing about it. Who is my
contract party when I signup?
~~~
yourabi
Thanks for the feedback.
We're in Oakland, California.
~~~
spacefight
And who's behind it?
------
bowlofpetunias
Great idea, will certainly give it a try.
Not a big fan of pricing plans that mix volume with features, always makes me
feel I'm being screwed when I only need one or the other. (Even though I might
be perfectly fine with paying the same amount if the pricing structure was
different.)
~~~
yourabi
Thank you for the feedback!
Definitely something we'll consider. Email me if I can help out in any way! hn
username at currylab.com / gmail.com
------
msane
I think this is a brilliant idea, and seeing what you've built I'm sort of
kicking myself for not having acted on the same idea. It's the sort of thing
that is feasible for a company to do on their own but is difficult enough that
it is very seldom done.
~~~
yourabi
Thank you for the kind words, msane.
------
evandena
$10 a month for one certificate seems kind of expensive, considering a script
with openssl can do the same thing for free.
And only 25 for enterprise? Our midsize business is currently using 416 certs.
~~~
iancarroll
Can I ask how you've created 416 certificates for a mid size company? Holy
shit, lol.
Unless those include SMIME certs, but still...
~~~
evandena
Lots of internal web services, web servers, VM hosts, MQ channels, LDAP
stores, etc (times 5, for different platforms and locations). Everything gets
a cert, haven't been using wildcards. Lots of internal signed certs, but they
suffer the same problems that this service is trying to solve.
------
ef4
I use and really like [http://wormly.com](http://wormly.com).
Their monitoring includes SSL cert validity, among many other things.
------
junto
Cool idea. I had the same idea back when Heartbleed was in full swing. Nice to
see that someone has actually executed the idea. Bravo!
~~~
mobiplayer
There are various implementations of the same idea out there and they've been
there for long.
In any case, very nice execution on the front end. Good job.
~~~
yourabi
Thank you!
We're constantly improving and adding extra checks.
------
yugcesofni
Considering you can get much of this functionality from programs created by
CAs (for example, [https://www.digicert.com/cert-
inspector.htm](https://www.digicert.com/cert-inspector.htm) from my CA), this
seems... way too expensive.
~~~
yourabi
There are some pretty crucial and obvious differences between these two
products.
Does DigiCert provide any guarantees on how often they monitor your
certificates? Do they offer any alert mechanisms other than email? Do they let
you monitor certificates that are on your critical path but not necessarily
ones you own (partners...etc)
You also mention cost..but since you are not paying them you are not their
customer - you are their product.
Snitch is clearly aligned with customers since our goal is to help you succeed
at securing your site. Our goal is to make it easy for you (site owner) to do
the right thing and provide a good experience to your customers.
------
spindritf
You do more than that but really the CA should handle alerts about expiring
certificates. They have full knowledge of all certificates, and contact to the
responsible party.
~~~
rficcaglia
true but then you need to actually renew it amd then install it....too many
times tickets are filed but get put at the bottom of this list until last
minute, or worse a customer reports the nasty browser security warning page
though i do wonder if "this is a feature, not a company"?
~~~
yourabi
Thanks for the feedback.
We're constantly improving and rolling out new features. We're confident that
over your question will become less of a question :-)
------
Thaxll
Better off using your own solution with Nagios or something similar.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Zero Knowledge Protocols without Magic - cossacklabs
https://www.cossacklabs.com/zero-knowledge-protocols-without-magic.html
======
sulam
As someone who knows very little about subject, initially it appeared to me as
if they were going to present some method to authenticate users without any
shared knowledge, which seemed pretty close to magic to me! In fact the tl;dr
is that two parties have a shared secret, but effectively they transmit proofs
of possession that, statistically, achieve a high probability of being the
same secret without needing to transmit it.
Calling this "zero knowledge" is sort of confusing from that perspective, but
makes sense once you know what they're solving for.
~~~
Ar-Curunir
A rigorous definition of a zero knowledge proof would be as follows.
Given some problem P (say proving that two graphs are isomorphic), you want to
create a protocol such that the view of the verifier can be simulated
_without_ access to the witness (the graph isomorphism).
By "simulated" we mean that there exists some polynomial time simulator that
produces a "fake" protocol transcript that is nonetheless indistinguishable
from an actual protocol execution.
The existence of such a simulator implies that whatever the verifier could
have learned from an interaction with the prover, it could also have learnt by
interacting with the simulator.
------
fryguy
It's kind of sad that even in an article about zero-knowledge proofs doesn't
understand the difference between a zero-knowledge proof, and a proof of
knowledge (without the zero-knowledge part). The ladder are usually much
simpler than the former, and typically the zero-knowledge part is not
necessary.
~~~
Ar-Curunir
In this situation, both the ZK and the PoK properties are essential; indeed I
would say that for most useful applications of ZK proofs, the PoK property is
necessary.
~~~
fryguy
The ZK property absolutely doesn't matter. Imagine that instead of passwords
the client stored a private key, and transmitted the associated public key to
the server. Then when logging in the server sent a challenge and the client
signed the challenge with their private key. The server then validated the
signature against the public key for the user. This is absolutely not a zero-
knowledge proof, but is a definite proof-of-knowledge since you've proved you
know the private key.
Zero-knowledge proof (soundness, completeness, zero-knowledge) is a subset of
proof-of-knowledge (soundness, completeness), so your last statement is true
by definition.
~~~
Ar-Curunir
Languages that have Zero knowledge proof are not necessarily a subset of
languages that have a PoK, for example Graph Non-Isomorphism is a CoNP
problem, and so unlikely to have short witnesses. The classical protocol for
GNI is not PoK, I believe.
PoK is a stronger condition than soundness.
~~~
fryguy
Because it's got a zero-knowledge proof means it's got a proof-of-knowledge.
Quicksort is O(n^2) so that means it's in NP. It also means it's in P. Same
with GNI being in ZKP, and also in PoK.
What's missing is the cheating verifier that can generate a transcript of a
valid interaction without actually knowing the secret.
~~~
Ar-Curunir
No, being zero knowledge does not imply being proof of knowledge.
------
anonymousDan
Good description of the intuition behind zero knowledge proofs is the
following:
[http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~mkowalcz/628.pdf](http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~mkowalcz/628.pdf)
------
anonymousDan
Does anyone have a feel for what the performance overhead of zkp
authentication would be? Presumably the main cost is having to do lots of
round trips?
~~~
rhyzomatic
As Ar-Curunir mentioned, you can use a technique called non-interactive zero
knowledge proofs (NIZKs). Usually in ZKPs the prover will go through a part of
the proof, send it to the verifier, the verifier will then send back a
challenge, and the prover will reply with the final part of the proof based on
the challenge. The basic flavor of NIZK I've seen is that instead of getting a
challenge from the verifier, the prover simply does hash(prover id | first
part of proof) and uses the result as the challenge. The `prover id` part is
there such that they don't have complete control over the input to the hash.
Doing it this way allows the prover to do the entire proof on their own and
then send the whole thing to the verifier who can check the proof without any
further interaction, saving network costs in exchange for a single hash.
------
makomk
So basically, it's magic.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
History Must Be Curved - bdfh42
http://www.popehat.com/2013/10/09/history-must-be-curved/
======
DanielBMarkham
People continually underestimate the power of the narrative.
Humans want to see things in terms of _stories_ , of drama, heroes, and so
forth. Even if the underlying history doesn't fit the narrative, allowance
will be made so that it does. The story wins out over all else.
This is why the internet meme is so powerful. Nobody steals your kidneys and
leaves you in a bathtub, but it makes for a helluva great story. Bill Gates
isn't giving away money for emails, but wouldn't it be awesome if he was? I
could probably put together a list of 100 Hollywood movies that purposefully
destroy the truth just in order to sell more movie tickets. And people love
it. (sidebar: "Big Fish" is a great movie about this topic) Movies will even
go to great lengths to reassure you that they are telling a true story -- then
bullshit the hell out of you.
People _know_ that they're stretching and murdering the truth, but guess what?
They don't care. A good story is much more interesting than what actually
happened, or some cold collection of facts.
And I think 3 centuries is being generous. Most times this begins way before
the people involved die. There are many people alive today trying to restore
in the public's mind what actually happened, instead of what the public
believes happened through consuming some terrific story.
~~~
lazyant
yep. see "made to stick"
------
dsego
I think history should be rewritten. The great leaders of the past like
Napoleon or Columbus
([http://theoatmeal.com/comics/columbus_day](http://theoatmeal.com/comics/columbus_day))
should be portrayed for what they were, blood thirsty psychopaths. Emphasis in
history lessons should be on science and art, not war and conquest.
~~~
pavel_lishin
Emphasis in history should be on those events that made a large impact.
Would you emphasize the Dada movement over World War I? Would you focus more
on the discovery of nuclear fission, rather than World War II? (For that
matter, could you?)
~~~
dsego
Fair point. But too often those events are simplistically described as us vs.
them, good vs. evil (with good always being us). Maybe the emphasis could be
put on individual stories (e.g. Anne Frank) instead of anthropomorphising
nations.
------
simias
I wonder if this tendency to simplify and turn older history into myths is
going to disappear or at least change dramatically starting with, say, 2nd
half of the 20th century.
We record everything, we store everything. We have videos of everything.
Cleopatra, Julius Caesar and many others became legend through the retelling
and deformation of their stories.
Will Barack Obama, Albert Enstein and others become legend 5 centuries from
now?
Will there be a funding myth of the Gods giving the internet atop of a
mountain to the prophet Berners Lee?
Would Cleopatra be a legend nowadays if we could browse her teenage posts and
selfie shots on facebook?
I think myths exist to fill the gaps in our knowledge, in this case our
knowledge of what actually happened to Charlemagne and Arthur. If we had
detailed and completely trustworthy accounts of what those people did on a
daily basis back then, with photos and videos to prove it there would be no
myth, I postulate.
~~~
thaumasiotes
This tendency will not change in even the slightest way. It's not about not
having the information available in the world. It's about what fits in
people's heads. (It's also about the need to back up moral pronouncements with
stories.)
Albert Einstein may or may not be legend five centuries from now, but he's a
legend _today_ , and we've got plenty of documentation of him (including a
ritually-preserved blackboard that he filled when lecturing -- he was
considered a legend before he died).
~~~
mcherm
But I notice that the study of "history" changed dramatically (came into
existence where previously there had been no such thing) when writing made it
possible to find contemporaneous records from older societies. I wonder
whether ubiquitous recording and giant databases will wreak a similar change
because of the degree of contemporaneous original sources, or whether it will
be fairly similar to the written record we have of "history" today --
fragmented and messy enough that it is difficult but not impossible to extract
a sense of the time by careful study.
------
bdfh42
Michael Flynn's essays are splendid - a "must read". Plus - I am now tempted
by the novels.
------
ctdonath
_Science doesn’t follow a mythic positivist ideal but the plural scientific
methods described by Feyerabend: a mixture of empiricism, flights of fancy,
intuition, aesthetics, doggedness, and jealousy. Scientific theories are
underdetermined. Any finite set of facts can support multiple theories, and
for a long time the available facts were equally explained by geostationary or
geomobile models._
This marvelously addresses the current HN thread _Should We Stop Believing
Malcolm Gladwell?_.
------
mathattack
While I don't subscribe to Howard Zinn, I like to read him for an alternative
viewpoint. He has strong views about how we curved the opinion on Columbus and
built a myth around him.
[http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/zinncol1.html](http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/zinncol1.html)
------
innino
Trojan horse for rehabilitating religion.
~~~
kijin
If so, then what?
Just because X is bad (I'm assuming you think religion is bad) and Y
facilitates/rehabilitates/resembles X doesn't mean that Y must be wrong. Just
because science historically hasn't been the perfect antithesis of science
doesn't mean that science is religion, nor vice versa. It's just an inevitable
consequence of the fact that people aren't perfect.
History and Philosophy of Science (HPS) is often criticized by hardcore
atheists like Dawkins, because it draws attention to similarities and
relationships between science and religion, throughout history and sometimes
even in the modern age. Yeah, that can be a bit embarrassing to some. But it's
not the historians' fault that a lot of European scientists in the early
modern period casually crossed the boundary between science and religion every
day. Whatever religious beliefs they had does not lessen the importance or
correctness of their discoveries in any way.
If you don't like someone telling you a true story because your opponents
would love to tell it, too, that's your problem. Lots of dictators also hate
it when people tell true stories about them, but we tell them anyway because
the stories are true.
~~~
innino
Sorry but the savvier religious strategists do this stuff all the time: a
friendly message about how the medieval Church "wasn't all that bad," a little
chuckle about how modern science isn't as epistemologically pure as it wants
to be - the basic message is hey, we're not all that different after all...
It's not that I think they have any real chance of success with these tactics,
but I do find this behaviour insulting. No good historian thinks such
simplistic nonsense about the Galilean episode. Any good historian is well
aware of the progressive simplification of the past. It's not that these
specific points aren't all true, it's way they're used, the subtle
insinuations, that I find slimy.
As for Feyeraband, well, again he's a favourite of the religious pundits -
doesn't matter that none of his critiques of science really had an impact -
again the suggestion is that hey, knowledge is limited, so all these
scientists who like to think they're purveying ultimate truth are so silly,
and maybe hey this religious stuff isn't all bad? Again it's insulting - any
good scientist is highly aware of the limits of reliable knowledge - and
anyway, just because there are some limits on the reliability of knowledge,
doesn't mean we can't at least try and distinguish between more and less
reliable knowledge. The religious pundits don't want us to do so, of course,
they would rather that we get shocked over the hubris of prideful scientists,
and walk around "knowing" that everything is relative, nothing is really
knowable... Helps them out.
This is all textbook religious propaganda to me, the more so because it's so
benignly packaged.
~~~
kijin
A lot of benign facts are used in textbook political propaganda, too. More ice
in North Pole this year! Global warming must be false! Doesn't make it any
less interesting that ice levels fluctuate as wildly as it does. Sure, it gets
annoying when people with the wrong ideas repeat it all the time. But if
you're someone who is genuinely interested in how polar ice caps behave, it
doesn't matter because you already know that those little fluctuations are par
for the game.
Historians of science need to stay away from both extremes: (a) the religious
pundits who claim that science is just like religion, as well as (b)
simplistic views of science that paint it as more objective and value-free
than it really is. If every historian flocked to (b) just because they got
annoyed of having their work co-opted by (a), we'd end up with an
understanding of science that is just as unrealistic. Without a solid
understanding of how social, psychological, and even religious factors
influence science, how do we even go about trying to reduce such influences?
You don't solve problems by pretending they don't exist. Who cares if Jerry
Falwell's ilk use it in their propaganda, they bend and use _everything_ in
their propaganda anyway.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
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