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Linode, Physical hardware issues - bosslee
http://bosslee.co/linode-i-was-wrong/
======
bosslee
Hello there, My name is Bryan, I run a small business in Singapore. Have been
using Linode Cloud Services since 2013. In the last 4 months, I have gotten 6
emails regarding physical hardware issues from Linode. Each email it states
the following:
Our administrators have detected an issue affecting the physical hardware your
Linode resides on. We’re working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible
and will update this ticket as soon as we have more information.
The frequency of the disruption is affect my business and the post above
shares what exactly happens. I also have some questions in mind that I like to
hear your views.
1\. There are many independent business owners and startups founders here who
are using Linode services too, are you having the facing the same problem with
the physical hardware issues?
2\. Am I wrong to ask for 2 months compensation? Although the might be "short"
but it is frequent. I believe that having frequent disruption is worst than
the time that it actually occurs
3\. If 2 months is wrong, what is a good compensation to ask for? Or should I
just change the vendor (I did not want to change because Linode used to give
very good services) until now
Thank you and looking to hear your advice.
~~~
LordIllidan
I don't use Linode, but isn't this essentially what you expect when you're
using shared hosting on a budget?
If there's an issue with the hardware, they need to migrate the VMs.
~~~
bosslee
Hi, but Linode is not a shared hosting service. It is offers virtual private
server services. you can say it is like a kind of VM.
> A virtual private server (VPS) is a virtual machine sold as a service by an
> Internet hosting service. from wiki
~~~
LordIllidan
Quite right, but you are sharing the service and hardware with thousands of
other users.
~~~
theist
You are also sharing hardware in AWS and there hardware issues have less
frecuence and much less impact, is a problem in Linode, not in VPS technology,
imho.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Networking rooms 4 podcasts, webinars & other virtual events. Feedback? - panabee
http://www.tekiki.com/cher/40-How-to-Choose-the-Right-Incubator-for-Your-Startup
======
panabee
Sorry, submitted the link incorrectly yesterday. Hopefully this will generate
some feedback! Thanks in advance!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Where do conservative, pro-military software engineers hang out online? - throwaway15392
Looking to find more like-minded peers.
======
jmspring
Interesting article from about 5 years ago —
[https://amp.theatlantic.com/amp/article/390048/](https://amp.theatlantic.com/amp/article/390048/)
------
chishaku
Please define conservative. Also, pro-military.
~~~
downerending
Here's a hand-wavy analogy from the ML world. When searching for "better"
under uncertainty, one has to decide how quickly to "learn", which is
basically updating one's learned information (parameters) in a way that one
hopes will ultimately lead to better results.
A "conservative" strategy updates that information more slowly, while a
"progressive" strategy updates faster. The tradeoff is that if one updates too
slowly, one loses the possibility to improve more quickly and perhaps to adapt
more quickly to changing circumstance. If one updates too quickly, one can
actually "forget" hard-learned lessons, leading to poor outcomes.
Looked at that way, a conservative is someone who is more wary of change, for
fear of losing important societal knowledge.
------
burfog
thedonald.win has a couple posts about software development:
[https://thedonald.win/p/4AjIzHU/im-a-coder--there-are-
many-o...](https://thedonald.win/p/4AjIzHU/im-a-coder--there-are-many-of-
us/c/)
[https://thedonald.win/p/46BjSob/want-me-to-build-a-mobile-
ap...](https://thedonald.win/p/46BjSob/want-me-to-build-a-mobile-app-fo/c/)
Other than that, mostly they endure soylentnews.org and news.ycombinator.com
as best as possible.
In real life, they tend to have families that suck up lots of time. If you
want to meet them in real life, work for a defense contractor. They might also
be found working for relatively industrial companies all across the middle of
the USA.
~~~
throwaway15392
soylentnews.org lol
ya it totally makes sense those with more traditional family values spend more
of their life in real life. working for a defense contractor is an interesting
idea. thanks for the links i'm going to check them out
------
sendbitcoins
Follow twitterers, look at their bios, some will point to social spaces:
telegram, discord, fb page.
~~~
throwaway15392
Do you have any specific recommendations?
~~~
sendbitcoins
Sorry, I don't have anything specific, but I empathize with your situation
~~~
throwaway15392
Thanks anyways, and cheers
------
remarkEon
I suspect if there is such a place, they would not divulge its location on
Hacker News.
~~~
jmspring
The interesting thing is there are technology intersections, like drones,
radio, etc.
Discussion here are always interesting in that interesting forms of
libertarianism come through, some discussions even what would be moderate
positions on things like homelessness get attacked, etc.
The question and responses are certainly interesting.
An example where a discussion can be neutral but go very left or right - off
grid living, homesteading, etc - off gridder or prepper? Same topic in many
discussions, but different flavor of discussion.
~~~
remarkEon
I'm having a hard time parsing what a "conservative" discussion of these
topics would mean though. Like the left right now, the right doesn't really
seem to have a coherent take on these technologies, except maybe some
hostility to those who run the companies that make them. It's a grab bag of
techno-libertarians, leftover neocons, traditionalists, and some statists.
None of these people agree on much of anything anymore.
So, insofar as there's any interesting discussion to be had at all it would
just be a mirror version of the left's own infighting on these topics.
>Discussion here are always interesting in that interesting forms of
libertarianism come through, some discussions even what would be moderate
positions on things like homelessness get attacked, etc.
I assume you mention this because you'd think it interesting to see _less_
libertarianism leak through in the discussion. I'll admit, yeah, that does
sound like an idea I haven't really explored too much.
------
535188B17C93743
What do you mean by pro-military? Pro-conflict, pro-weapons technology?
------
jacquesm
Why? Echo chambers are the best way to stop your education.
~~~
actbsh
or maybe that's why they want to visit the conservative, pro-military forums -
to keep educating themselves.
~~~
jgwil2
It says, "Looking for like-minded peers," so I don't think they're trying to
challenge themselves.
------
krapp
Probably Voat, Gab and 8Chan.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
YUI Theater — “Crockford on JavaScript — Part 5: The End of All Things” - emiraglia
http://www.yuiblog.com/blog/2010/04/08/video-crockonjs-5
======
spenrose
Liked the first 4 better than this one, FWIW. This one he mostly talks about
the browser/JS security model.
------
maxwin
Thanks for the links. Very nice videos.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Hamano: Most elementary use of C – Silver award - anbux
https://www.ioccc.org/2012/hamano/hint.html
======
anbux
Hamano is an offuscated C code written by Tsukasa Hamano for IOCCC 2012. It
implements C+PDF polyglot and creates a beautiful piece of art.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A16Z is re-registering as a financial advisor, renouncing its status as a VC - zt
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2019/04/02/andreessen-horowitz-is-blowing-up-the-venture-capital-model-again/
======
ar7hur
a16z ("our" partner was Chris Dixon) led our seed round at Wit.ai. Working
with them on a day-to-day basis was an incredible experience. They never asked
for anything, but were always ready to jump in instantly when we needed
anything from sales intros to offices in Palo Alto. When we got an offer from
Facebook we founders wanted to accept it. They initially disagreed with us,
but once we confirmed our decision they supported us 100% in the negotiation
process. That's what I call class.
~~~
smallgovt
It's interesting this is the top voted comment when it isn't really
substantive to the article's subject matter.
~~~
rattray
As a would-be founder, this new move from A16Z makes me worry they won't focus
on helping startups like this anymore.
Anecdotes like this help quell that fear a bit, even if wrongly.
~~~
ALittleLight
Why would you want to wrongly quell a fear?
~~~
sokoloff
Why would you assume that _wrongly_ quells the fear? I would tend to assume
that the demonstrated character (good or bad, good in this example) of the
principals of A16Z would remain the same across the company change.
~~~
ALittleLight
I'm not assuming anything. The comment I'm replying to states that this helps
to quell a fear "even if wrongly".
To me, this seems like saying that removing the batteries from your smoke
alarm will help you sleep, even through house fires.
------
jakequist
__tl;dr __\- A16Z is reclassifying themselves as an "investment advisor",
which will allow them to make riskier bets (crypto, real estate, etc). They'll
still invest in startups like any other VC firm.
~~~
srndh
A totally n00b question.
Isn't VC the person with the money, so they are more in control.
While an "investment advisor" is just advising or suggesting where the money
can be put for maximum returns like an investment advisor in banks? So,
presumably less in control.
I don't understand why a title change was needed. Any technical or legal
reasons?
~~~
tomhoward
wpennington answered the overall question better than I could, but one
clarification on this:
> Isn't VC the person with the money, so they are more in control.
Most of the money VCs invest isn't their own. The money is allocated by
"limited partners" (entities such as pension funds, endowment funds, sovereign
wealth funds, rich individuals/families), and the VC firm uses their expertise
and network to invest the money on the LPs' behalf, in exchange for a
"management fee" and a cut of the returns.
The VC firm's partners do usually invest some of their own money (to have some
"skin in the game"), but it's a token amount compared to the outside money
they're investing.
Due to their role as custodians for huge amounts of other people's money
(which, particularly in the case of pension funds, ultimately belongs to
ordinary people), there are substantial regulatory controls and requirements.
~~~
wpennington
Totally--and this is a really good point to clarify, especially if one would
like to understand more broadly how VC works. I intentionally abstracted the
"where does the money come from" in my original reply to focus on the
classification itself, but that admittedly left the comment lacking this
useful context. LP and venture dynamics are both interesting and important to
understand the full picture.
> Most of the money VCs invest isn't their own.
To underscore tomhoward's point--VCs are largely (already) stewards of other
people's money (their LPs). So while they are set up to be "the person with
the money" from the market's perspective (e.g., if you are looking to get your
company funded), they are acting as investment advisors (e.g., where and how
to spend the fund's money--and by extension the LP's money--for a fee). Albeit
with a specific legal exemption set forth in the Investment Advisers Act that
governs certain activity depending on how they are registered* (this is what
is changing for a16z). No matter how they are registered, they do have
compliance requirements as custodians of other people's money.
*Under the Investment Advisory Act, they can be registered as: (1) ERA - exempt reporting advisor (what we are referring here as a VC in the traditional sense), or (2) RIA - registered investment advisor.
As it relates to a16z, they are giving up their IAA exemption as a fund
(registering as an RIA vs ERA). No need to get into why that matters again
(see other posts that have already addressed it well). The point being, VCs
are already in many ways "investment advisors" as custodians of other people's
capital (and sometimes their own) through their funds and they have compliance
requirements, just different depending on how they are registered.
------
chrisco255
Skepticism might be warranted, but it should be noted by now that
decentralized finance has a place in the present and future of our planet and
it's not going away. I strongly encourage technologists to keep an open mind
and do in depth research into the space.
Yes, 2017 was over-hyped. The tech was not mature then, and while it has
matured some since then, there's still quite a ways to go.
Bitcoin Lightning network is growing. Ethereum has successfully navigated core
upgrades and has a clear path to scalability. Other platforms are doing great
innovative things.
But to the core of the argument that crypto has no use case. It's 2019. We've
seen our internet rights to speech and expression violated by companies
imposing their values on their user base. We've seen digital ghosting,
deplatforming, fake news manipulation, propaganda and all kinds of insidious
behaviors from corporate giants that are too big to be truly accountable
anymore.
Bitcoin et al. are a very real promise that the future of banking and finance
and money will be decentralized. Which as far as I'm concerned, is about
freedom as much as speech is. You don't have any freedom if you have to beg
VISA or PayPal for permission to spend your money. That alone should be enough
to justify the existence of block chain technology and we should all be
cheering on its eventual success.
But besides that, the tech is being used in novel ways. From gaming to loans
to tokenized asset trading. Cryptocurrency is programmable in a way that is
just not possible with dollars.
~~~
zby
The problem with decentralized money is that there is no way to manage the
supply - you can only commit to a given supply curve, but you cannot adjust it
according to the state of the economy.
Money is a collective action problem, a public good - it requires a solution
that bounds everyone - just like defence.
~~~
beaner
Some people think this is a problem. Others, a feature. At least now we have
the ability to see what happens.
~~~
zby
You can have decentralized money without crypto - just use gold parity - but
somehow no country uses it now. Maybe they are all corrupt - but maybe it is
just not good way to manage the economy.
~~~
beaner
And maybe it's not, and the government is taking advantage of it's position of
power?
Competing tethered currencies aren't gone because they're a bad idea, they're
gone because they've been made illegal.
Crypto gives the power to operate such a currency back to the people in a way
that can't be stopped.
------
SideburnsOfDoom
"put a dent in the universe" ... "disagreeableness" ... "weaponizing his
popular blog" ... "Being number one"
A phrase from each of the first four paragraphs. Is this parody, or just
pandering cliche?
------
mattnewport
The investment returns on the funds sounded unimpressive given the time
period. I found some info online from the WSJ suggesting the first fund was on
track to return around 250% since 2009. Just investing in the NASDAQ would
have returned over 500% over that same period. Am I missing something here or
is the performance as unimpressive as it appears?
~~~
pbreit
The article itself includes: "The firm’s first and third flagship funds, $300
million and $900 million, respectively, are already expected to return five
times their money to investors, sources say. Its $650 million second fund and
$1.7 billion fourth fund are expected to return three times their investment
capital, good for the top quartile of firms, and are expected to climb."
Selecting the NASDAQ in 2009 is a bit of a cherry-pick.
~~~
mattnewport
I don't think selecting the NASDAQ in 2009 is a cherry pick given that is when
the first fund started and we're talking about a tech focused fund. Even if
the numbers here are more accurate than the WSJ, that still indicates the
first fund is returning on par or slightly below what investing in the NASDAQ
would have done over the same time period.
~~~
mrnobody_67
Venture as an asset class sucks.
Returns also tend to be inversely correlated to fund size and fund reputation.
Top 5 or 10 firms generate virtually all the returns in the asset class.
------
hkmurakami
So Hedge Funds, PE, and VC all converging into a more continuous spectrum of
asset allocation strategies.
------
dzhiurgis
Of everyone I follow it seems it’s only a16z still believes in crypto.
~~~
quickthrower2
What is there to believe or not believe in? It is what it is. Bitcoin is a
perfectly functional means of financial exchange, and has use cases that beat
regular cash, and other use case where it sucks compared to cash.
~~~
chx
> and has use cases that beat regular cash,
Tell me.
~~~
stale2002
Censorship resistant electronic, financial transactions.
The evidence shows that it is much easier to censor a credit card payment, or
bank transaction, than it is to censor a crypto transaction.
~~~
arcticbull
Which only matters if you're trying to do illegal things on an international
scale. Locally, you've always got cash.
~~~
stale2002
There are lots of perfectly legal things that get censored all the time, by
both the government and private companies.
Adult content is one area that comes to mind. If you run a business in this
area, on the internet, which is perfectly legal, you will quickly find that
every major financial institution refuses to do business with you.
~~~
arcticbull
There are payment processors that cater to that market. They charge large fees
(up to 20%) for card transactions, though that's actually due to the crazy-
high chargeback risk. People's spouses tend to discover their subscriptions,
then they declare it wasn't them, their card was stolen, and a chargeback
follows.
~~~
stale2002
Indeed, that's my point.
If you do business in one of these controversial areas, then you will quickly
find that you are being charged extremely high costs and/or kicked off of
their network.
~~~
arcticbull
They're not extremely high, they're the cost of doing business.
~~~
stale2002
And the world would be a much better place if it was harder to impose higher
costs of doing business on controversial, but legal businesses.
Which is why I support solutions that undermine attempts by a couple
monopolies to impose larger costs on legal, but controversial businesses.
~~~
arcticbull
Fair, though this isn't the technology that'll solve that. You've just
centralized the decision making to the PRC which controls more than 51% of
hash power. All it takes is a strongly-worded memo from Beijing and they can
censor payments and rewrite the blockchain.
That said, with $1.26 transaction fees + 1-2% to buy BTC vs. even 20% for a
credit card in this high-risk MCC, the breakeven is ~$7, and while I'm not
sure what adult content costs on a monthly basis, I'd imagine the fee
difference isn't a whole lot.
It's also not an imposition, nobody is required to use credit cards. Adult
content is largely and lucratively ad-supported. Some businesses choose to
offer content on a subscription model like the NYT paywall, and some choose
not to. I don't see anything inherently wrong with the status quo. The cost of
doing business is being passed down. They accept credit cards because even at
a 20% fee, it's in their interests to do so. If it wasn't they'd stop. Either
way, they're recovering their fees from customers.
~~~
stale2002
I mean, buying a bunch of miners in order to 51% attack a network is
significantly more difficult than making a phone call to a Visa or MasterCard
executive.
It is also not enough to censor a singular Blockchain. You'd have to get the
hardware to attack _all_ the chains, because then people would just move to
the other ones.
This is still not impossible. That's why I used the words "censorship
resistant". But it is certainly much more difficult than a phone call to 2 or
3 executives who control the major financial companies.
This is proven by the fact that censorship just isn't happening on most
Blockchains. The actual state of the network proves that it is difficult,
because it isn't happening.
You can talk all you want about theoretical attacks, but those attacks aren't
happening, so it works. Whereas there are many examples of the "phone call to
Visa" that _are_ happening right now.
~~~
arcticbull
My understanding is 2 or 3 miners in the PRC have all that 51%, and in China,
when Beijing says jump you say how high or you may end up escorted from your
penthouse at the four seasons in Hong Kong to seek medical treatment on the
mainland and never be heard from again
([https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2017/01/31/worl...](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2017/01/31/world/asia/xiao-
jianhua-china-hong-kong-billionaire.amp.html))
~~~
arcticbull
To circle back 80% of all hashpower is concentrated in 6 pools, 5 of which
(>70%) are in the PRC. ([https://news.bitcoin.com/chinese-mining-threatens-
bitcoin/](https://news.bitcoin.com/chinese-mining-threatens-bitcoin/))
~~~
stale2002
And yet, those pools aren't censoring anything.
They aren't stopping any transactions, and have never done so, in the 10 years
that crypto has been around.
This is in comparison to visa and mastercard which censor people all of the
time.
So for whatever reason that those pools aren't censoring anything, and have
never done so, but the major finance companies _are_ censoring transactions,
is the reason why crypto is valuable.
------
rdl
If they're now an IA, they're not able to talk about their investments
publicly? Doesn't that hurt the value proposition for startups/etc. taking
money from the new a16z?
------
rdl
Kind of depressing that they gave up on the "GPs must have been operators"
rule (presumably due to pressure by LPs or the press). Do any large VC firms
still maintain that?
~~~
mrnobody_67
I think Matrix still does. Lots of smaller/newer firms as well (i.e. Craft
Ventures).
------
neilv
As a financial advisor, will A16Z have fiduciary responsibilities towards
advisees that it doesn't now?
(I don't know this area, other than a little small business personal finance,
but I recall hearing about some fluctuation in rules about financial advisors,
within the last few years.)
------
CalChris
I've had my morning coffee and it's dawning on me what this means (dawning
slowly because it is quite a change). Yes, A16Z gets to extend its reach, as
if investing in seed and growth stage tech companies wasn't risky+lucrative
enough.
Maybe I'm conservative, but I'd rather they stuck to their knitting (which
they're pretty damned good at). There are downsides to this 'diversification'
first and foremost, losing focus, but also risk. Basically, I can't help but
think of SV's overall trend towards Too Big To Fail.
I'm not a fan of crypto at all. Re-structuring A16Z so that they can bet on
that seems worse than silly. Real estate? Perhaps they can bet on Chinese
ghost cities as well.
------
yalogin
I don’t know much about their business but I tried listening to their podcast,
it was just ads for their companies and ideas. Couldn’t take it.
~~~
elliekelly
Well that will all but stop now that they’re an RIA so perhaps it’s worth
giving it a second listen in a month or two.
------
os7borne
Honestly, I don't understand the implications this has on their investing
activities or the mechanism of this structure. I also don't fully understand
the regulations around VC Funds and RIA's in USA (I'm from India).
From what I understand though, a16z is trying to breakaway from investing in
the limited scope of securities (e.g. equities) of private companies. They
want to offer a suite of wealth management services to their Investors in
addition to VC investing.
But then, will the Investors pool capital in the Fund and the Fund be advised
by the RIA? Or will the RIA directly advise the Investors? The structure isn't
too clear to me. Apologies for the ignorance.
------
twakefield
Matt Levine's take is this is due to fact that "private markets are the new
public markets"[0]. The lines between public and private markets are blurring
so this is a prudent move by A16Z.
TLDR;
As companies stay private longer, and get bigger and raise more money while
staying private:
* The secondary market for private shares becomes more important.
* VC's now may have more asymmetric information or more reasons to invest in public markets.
* Mutual funds are competing with VCs in later private rounds so why should VCs be able to compete with Mutual Funds in public markets.
* The obligatory crypto reference.
Another one he doesn't touch on is maybe it's difficult to efficiently deploy
> $10 billion in just private markets?
[0]
[https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-04-03/buying...](https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-04-03/buying-
the-good-stocks-can-be-bad)
------
engineerworks
I kinda think getting rid of the VC status is better than you can encourage
investment in something unethical and risky without being on the hook because
"we are just the advisors, it's the person with money who takes final shot
with what they wanna do with their money"
I can see why it can help if the opportunities are shrinking in the legit
space.
Maybe the winter is finally coming?
------
ratel
Dear Gentlepeople, can I point out the Elephant in the room, or better the one
leaving it. The most interesting part (especially for HN) is not where A16Z is
going, but what it is leaving behind: VC. Setting aside the shift in social
tide for a moment, why does A16Z think there will be no more profit in VC? Any
thoughts?
~~~
RhodesianHunter
They don't, they're still doing VC. This just lets them invest in other things
as well (like crypto).
~~~
ratel
That may be true, but the fact that they need the new path to make larger
investments outsides of VC raises the question how much VC money will be left.
Furthermore the change still implies that they think other investment
opportunities might be more profitable than the one they were actually quite
successful in.
------
kchoudhu
Does this mean they are going to try to syndicate IPOs as well?
Get your portfolio companies coming and going.
------
xmly
By stopping the investment or no-investment-for-free shares?
------
arisAlexis
interesting link [https://a16zcrypto.com](https://a16zcrypto.com)
------
KasianFranks
> venture capitalists have long traded a lack of Wall Street-style oversight
> for the promise that they invest mainly in new shares of private companies.
> It was a tradeoff firms gladly made—until the age of crypto, a type of high-
> risk investment the SEC says requires more oversight. So be it, says
> Andreessen Horowitz. By renouncing its venture capital status, it’ll be able
> to go deeper on riskier bets: If the firm wants to put $1 billion into
> cryptocurrency or tokens, or buy unlimited shares in public companies or
> from other investors, it can.
Pitchforks and funding purism aside (forget about blockchain debates), crypto
assets are here to stay. They're the new publicly traded vehicles and function
as a way for new startups to raise capital from new truly global 'capital
markets' along with being a valuation metric. a16z figured this out. They knew
what happened with facebook in SecondMarket [1] and also knew the largest
upside in shareprices (aka IPOs/exits) are dictated by a public market
marketplace, not with private startups.
Factor what Fidelity with $6T AUM has already released in rolling out global
crypto services [2].
Separate crypto, as a capital raising vehicle and trading vehicle, from
'blockchain' and then it all begins to make sense. Real scientific and
technical due diligence will help too [3].
[1] [http://fortune.com/2012/05/18/facebooks-pre-ipo-pricing-
hist...](http://fortune.com/2012/05/18/facebooks-pre-ipo-pricing-history/)
[2] [https://www.coindesk.com/coindesk-most-influential-
blockchai...](https://www.coindesk.com/coindesk-most-influential-
blockchain-2018-tom-jessop)
[3] [https://medium.com/@492727ZED/vectorspace-ai-due-
diligence-d...](https://medium.com/@492727ZED/vectorspace-ai-due-diligence-dd-
guidelines-for-crypto-for-2019-aa8cea3df5f7)
------
Alterlife
As a side note, I generally like reading, but I cannot for the life of me pay
attention this circus of an article. The animations give me motion sickness.
I see comments here which indicate there may be something worth reading in
there, but my brain is screaming at me to ignore it. The whole thing feels
like an advertisement.
Perhaps it's because suits are making a corporate comeback.
~~~
rococode
Firefox has a "Reader View" that's super convenient for things like this.
Automatically shows a button in the address bar on sites it supports, and it
turns the page's content into a simple mostly-text view with some nice
customizations:
[https://i.imgur.com/GJ6fW0y.png](https://i.imgur.com/GJ6fW0y.png)
~~~
sidlls
Unfortunately "reader view" does nothing to aid with the "rambling narrative"
model that articles these days have. I read through the first half of this one
before I gave up: the salient points can easily be condensed into a couple of
paragraphs even with some embellishment to avoid being merely a list of facts.
------
markdown
Is the title intentionally clickbaity, or does the author just not know that
"blowing up" could mean two completely opposite things?
~~~
QuackingJimbo
a16z is not the object of the "blowing up". There is no clickbait or
ambiguity.
------
kkotak
I'm disheartened by the power wielded by so few in the American King Making
Machine called the Silicon Valley.
~~~
toephu2
Why? Isn't that the way everywhere else works? I'm not losing any sleep over
it.
~~~
taurath
It’s a clear feature of the economic system, but to a growing group it’s more
of a bug.
------
TheTruth1234
If it looks like a duck ...
Quack, quack!!!
------
seibelj
A16Z’s unapologetic bet on cryptocurrency and blockchain companies is big for
the industry. As crypto heats up again and blockchain 3.0 projects emerge
(Cosmos, Polkadot, Ethereum Proof of Stake) VC will help legitimize the
industry.
~~~
googlemike
Can you provide a single problem where the right solution space is blockchain?
Ive thought about this a good amount, and cannot come up with a single use
case where current established centralized technology is not a better
solution.
~~~
mightybyte
One problem that I think blockchains could be well suited for is the storage
of police evidence. Not physical evidence of course, but anything that could
be turned into data. There was a scene in the show Billions where U.S.
prosecutors tampered with evidence in the from of notes taken while
interviewing persons of interest. Since blockchains are at their core a
tamper-proof append-only data store, if those notes had been stored in a
blockchain that evidence tampering would have been impossible. Any time the
stakes are high enough a centralized technology can become vulnerable to
people being bribed, etc.
Note that my use of the term "blockchain" here isn't limited to public
blockchains. You most likely wouldn't want to store police evidence publicly
on a blockchain like Ethereum. You'd want that to be private, but there do
exist private blockchain consensus algorithms like BFT that do have the same
tamper-proof properties without requiring a public proof of work network.
~~~
peteretep
Why does this need a blockchain rather than being simply cryptographic
signing?
~~~
monson
Securely signing a cryptographic message with a provable timestamp still
requires a trusted third party, as far as I know. A trusted third party can be
corrupted.[1]
Writing data on a decentralized blockchain inherently provides a secure
timestamp that cannot be modified without being noticed. Not to mention the
extreme costs involved with trying to rewrite a blockchain's history. [2]
I disagree with the parent comment on one thing-- I would much rather trust a
public blockchain with a respectable hashrate over a private blockchain. You
could simply store a salted hash of the data on the public blockchain, and
still keep the actual evidence private.
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_third_party](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_third_party)
[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_timestamping](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_timestamping)
~~~
peteretep
> still requires a trusted third party
That would be the judiciary. If they -- the people with the guns and the
resources of the state -- become corrupted, you'd be unwise to think that your
cryptographic signatures are going to help much.
In the example given, having lodged the evidence with the court would have
prevented the abuse.
~~~
monson
> you'd be unwise to think that your cryptographic signatures are going to
> help much
It was you who suggested simple cryptographic signatures in your initial reply
to the parent comment. I was only pointing out that securely signing a message
with a timestamp requires a cryptographic entity known as a "Trusted Third
Party". Please see the first link in my original comment.
> That would be the judiciary. If they -- the people with the guns and the
> resources of the state -- become corrupted, you'd be unwise to think that
> your cryptographic signatures are going to help much.
If there was verifiable proof on a globally distributed blockchain that
evidence had been tampered with by a judiciary member of a democratic country,
I find it very hard to believe they would get away with it in the long term.
~~~
peteretep
> I was only pointing out that
No, you were pointing it out and then saying that the flaw of this system was
that the judiciary could be corrupted.
> If there was verifiable proof on a globally distributed blockchain that
> evidence had been tampered with by a judiciary member of a democratic
> country
Putting aside the many many political and practical ways in which this fantasy
will stay firmly a fantasy, why does this need a blockchain instead of simply
a published list of documents, if this is globally distributed?
------
3mtj20
Dear Lord I hope it's 2017 all over again :)
------
solatic
A18Z: "we'll submit to more SEC oversight so that we can trade like Wall
Street firms"
Wall Street: "Welcome to the big leagues. Ever heard of the efficient market
hypothesis?"
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Staples, Office Depot in Advanced Talks to Merge - fhinson
http://www.wsj.com/articles/staples-office-depot-in-advanced-talks-to-merge-1422937999
======
cpursley
Wait, these are separate companies?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Pod Hunt – The best new podcasts daily - iisbum
https://podhunt.app
======
IanMikutel
Been a supporter of Pod Hunt since the day it launched, decided to have my
podcast (The Better Show) become an official Pod Hunt "Supporter", and spent
over an hour last night with it's founder, Mubs, on Skype talking product
direction.
I can't stress how critical it is to build better podcast discovery mechanisms
for the medium to continue to grow and thrive. Right now, most podcast
discovery is self-reinforcing already successful podcasts. This is neither
good for podcasters, or listeners. For new podcasts, its extremely hard to
grow/learn, and for listeners it limits the ability to show them how broad and
diverse the podcasting world is (which is one of its core strengths, there is
something for EVERYONE!)
After my call with Mubs, I'm super excited to see where Pod Hunt goes in the
future.
------
iisbum
With over 850K podcasts, and an estimated 450K active podcasts finding the
gems to listen too is getting harder than ever.
Rather than discovering podcasts, Pod Hunt makes episodes the focal point of
discovery. You won't find a the same tired list of top podcasts you see
everywhere else.
Instead a daily updated list of new episodes is submitted and voted on by the
Pod Hunt community members.
Would love to know what you all think...
~~~
PradipCloud
Something I've been looking for - the discovery of podcast episodes. Excited
to see what this can grow into.
------
mdesignco
Super simple podcast discovery, much needed right now! Replaces (and improves
upon) the deeply-missed Product Hunt podcast section. Great work, Mubs!
------
cthompson187
Love how easy it is for me to discover new podcasts that interest me. Not sure
how I lived without this before!
------
mkhundmiri
This looks simple but very useful. Could prove to be a major game changer down
the line.
~~~
iisbum
Keeping it simple was hard work!
But seriously wanted a quick clean experience and keep the focus on the
podcasts.
------
jordanmoconnor
Pod Hunt is awesome for podcast discovery, and only getting better!
Excited to see what the future holds.
------
sethlouey
Love the progress. Anything you can share with future features?
~~~
iisbum
Still deciding between 2 directions for the short term (based on user
feedback)...
Either -) More personalization so you can focus in on the topics that really
interest you.
or -) Providing more information on the podcast (hosts and episode specific
information) so listeners can better judge if they will enjoy a podcast.
Will probably do both eventually, but with limited time trying to decide which
is more important and to tackle first.
------
theodore9dy
discovery is so hard in this space so any and all channels to discovery are a
must!
Thank you for making this new discovery channel.
------
jkap111
hands down the best way to discover new shows. excited to see how it grows!
------
xphoniex
Nice work Mubashar!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
10 Reasons To Quit Your Job Right Now - zher
http://techcrunch.com/2012/05/26/10-reasons-to-quit-your-job-right-now/
======
keithpeter
I think I belong to the 10%. I work as a teacher. I get paid to talk to
teenagers, and to get them to think straight and focus their attention. I have
been doing this long enough that I have the _children_ of previous students in
my class ('my Mum told me about you'). There is pressure (paperwork,
deadlines, OFSTED (UK)) but I don't dread getting out of bed in the mornings.
It is the opposite of boring where I work, and I spend most of my time with
groups of people who stay with me for one or at most two years.
Just in case anyone is looking for an alternative to what they do now...
------
newscrunchtime
Eventually, we get to decide to quit our jobs if we are not happy anymore and
I just did that a month ago. I quit my offline job and got a job that I've
always wanted. It's really true that if you want to quit your job you must be
prepared and plan ahead to sustain your daily living especially if other
people or family members are dependent on you financially.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Top 5 Crashes on iOS - andrewmlevy
https://www.apteligent.com/developer-resources/top-5-most-frequent-crashes-on-ios/?partner_code=GDC_hn_top5ios
======
makecheck
The first example’s remedy seems to be wrong.
I am not aware of any reason to test for "nil" in Objective-C, as that remedy
suggests. Sending the "doSomething" message to "nil" should do nothing.
If SIGSEGV does occur for an object, it is probably for the exact opposite
reason: you have a pointer that is NOT "nil" but it refers to something that
has been freed. (Or, the SIGSEGV is not related to objects at all, and is
caused by some other access such as plain C code.)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Snapchat VP of Product Tom Conrad Will Disappear from Tech - LearnerHerzog
https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/24/tom-conrad-leaves-snapchat/
======
LearnerHerzog
> _“I started making software when I was 18 years old, and it’s hard to
> believe I’ve been doing this for 30 years. It’s time for me to put my energy
> outside of tech, into music, food, photography and things closer to art than
> entrepreneurship” Conrad tells TechCrunch. “It’s easy to put these things
> off forever but I didn’t want to wake up 10 years from now and not have
> explored these other passions of mine.”_
I'm happy for him. If I were a billionaire, I'd do the same.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Excessive brain activity linked to a shorter life - jiux
https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2019/10/16/excessive-brain-activity-linked-shorter-life/
======
phasnox
I wonder if this could be related purely to stress.
People with more brain activity tend to have more stressful lives, as they
also tend to move upward the social economic hierarchy. Empirically speaking.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: If C++ is so bad, what should game developers use? - olliesaunders
I've been reading some of the C++ hate that's been on HN of late. I've been successfully convinced (not that it was hard) that C++ is a really terrible language. But, if that's the case, then what else are commercial game developers to use? Is pure C sufficient? What about Haskell, or is that too slow?
======
Maro
"C++ sucks" because it is widely used, its socio-techical landscape is well
explored, _including_ the "sucks" segment. In other words, most other
languages suck as much as C++, they're just not that widely used, or have not
been around as much.
If you're writing your own game project you can use a sane, minimalistic and
syntactically pleasing subset of C++ and gain all the pedal-to-the-metal
advantages. Don't discard C++ because other people say it is terrible. Other
people are usually wrong. Make up your own mind.
For example, the Keyspace code is organized into classes; we use inheritance
and polymorphism; we use templates in a few select cases; but we completely
avoid exceptions, operator overloading (actually operators) and the STL
altogether (we implement our own containers). It doesn't matter what others
think about this specific subset - it works for us, we work well in this
formalism, make few mistakes and produce good code that runs fast.
~~~
dkarl
Very good points. Since C++ is a good match for the way people are taught to
think about programming, it's obvious that anything good programmers can't
easily and consistently get right is the fault of the language. With Haskell,
you can't rule out unfamiliarity as the cause of any difficulties until you're
already heavily invested in it. Most people really have no basis for
challenging the statement that Haskell is perfectly suited for game
programming in the hands of a competent programmer.
Pragmatically, for the OP, I think it's safe to say that C++ and Haskell are
both very challenging languages that take a long time to master. The advantage
of C++ is that there's ample evidence of its suitability for various domains.
The advantage of Haskell is that you'll learn a different way of programming.
The decisive factor may be whether it's your own money on the line.
------
ComputerGuru
Don't let them scare you away... C++ is fine if you use what you need and take
the time to actually understand the tools you're using.
~~~
derefr
Why is C++ suddenly "fine" when you have no other options? There could easily
be a language with all the close-to-the-metal advantages and none of the
baroque, redundant complexity of C++; why must we be content to use the same
language as everyone else in the industry, rather that scratching this itch
and building a newer, more productive one?
~~~
eli
"Newer" isn't necessarily better or more productive. Especially given the
monumental task of having to write a game without the benefit of any of the
libraries developed over the past few decades.
Perhaps the reason there are no other viable options is because C++ is pretty
well suited to the task?
~~~
derefr
Why would you have to lose the libraries? .so files are .so files; it doesn't
matter what language they were written in, as long as they expose an API that
can be cleanly wrapped by your own language.
~~~
nicolas314
... and a standard ABI, otherwise you will never be able to link. C++ did not
have standard name-mangling conventions until recently, which forced you to
use the very same compiler to compile both your libraries and your own code.
This is still unfortunately very much a concern with all these legacy systems
out there. Your only solution is to expose your API as a C library or
distribute your source code.
------
timr
If you let the language trolls on proggit and HN convince you that you _must_
avoid C++ -- particularly whatever 'subset' of C++ scratches your itch with
minimal complexity -- you've made a classic pointy haired boss mistake:
letting the whims of the crowd make a technical decision for your project.
Don't buy into the nonsense. C++ is a fine language. People have been using it
for _decades_ to do real work, and they probably still will be in another two
decades, long after Ruby and Haskell and Blub have been discarded as 'archaic'
by the next generation of 20-year-old language snobs.
------
csmeder
Personally, I would like to see a commercial game developer use FORTH.
from:
[http://www.economicexpert.com/a/Forth:programming:language.h...](http://www.economicexpert.com/a/Forth:programming:language.htm)
"Forth became very popular in the 1980s because it was well suited to the
small microcomputers of that time: very efficient in its use of memory and
easily implemented on a new machine. At least one home computer, the British
Jupiter ACE, had Forth in its ROM-resident OS. The language is still used in
many small computerized devices (called embedded systems) today for three main
reasons: efficient memory use, shortened development time, and fast execution
speed.
Forth is also infamous as being one of the first and simplest extensible
languages. That is, programmers can easily extend the language with new
commands appropriate to the primary programming problem in the particular
application area. Unfortunately, extensibility also helps poor programmers to
write incomprehensible code. The language never achieved wide commercial use,
perhaps because it acquired a reputation as a "write-only" language after
several companies had product failures caused when a crucial programmer left.
In addition, the ease of implementing Forth on a given processor meant that
the barrier to self-development of a Forth system was quite low, so that
commercial suppliers were, in effect, competing head-to-head with hobbyists,
many of whom supported the idea that software should be free."
------
miloshh
You're right, C++ pretty much has no serious alternatives for games. And not
just games, anything that involves computer graphics, physical simulation,
computer vision or image processing.
Python is excellent if some good soul has already written a library that does
exactly what you need (in C or C++, obviously). The combination of
numpy+PyOpenGL+PyCUDA is great for certain kinds of research projects (I have
written a volume renderer in it) but probably far from commercial usability.
Haskell has great potential, but the community is too small and too academic
to produce the necessary libraries and tools (which is a lot of work with
minimal scientific content). The key problem is the absence of an industrial-
strength array facility - there are many kinds of arrays in Haskell, all
somewhat clunky and incomplete.
D might be a contender, but last time I looked the tools seemed very basic and
it did not even support 64-bit systems.
~~~
zentux
I absolutely agree !! I hate C++ too, but as you said , there is no real
alternative for it. Mixing C and python is a good idea ,but real world
applications in my area (computer vision) use C++ widely ...
------
ginkgo
There is a very interesting talk by Tim Sweeney to this topic: <http://lambda-
the-ultimate.org/node/1277>
~~~
kazuya
His point about fp appears to get no traction in video game developers around
me. I heard some iPhone app developers are trying to use Haskell to create
games, though.
~~~
fpgeek
They are. Ryan Trinkle (one of the developers behind this) gave a talk about
why they are using Haskell (echoing Tim Sweeney's talk, but adding his own
perspective) at a meeting of BostonHaskell. Among other things, they've made a
custom iPhone cross-compiler port of GHC that is quite impressive (in the
waltzing bear sense)
Since their basic approach is applicable to other platforms, it will be
interesting to see if GHC ends up with clean, extensible support for mobile
cross-compilation in the future.
------
mrshoe
C++ violates the Zen of Python's axiom that "explicit is better than implicit"
all over the place. C does not; it is very explicit.
I would write as much as possible in Python and use C for the performance
critical stuff (which, for a game, is a large portion).
~~~
nickpp
I see that you would, but have you? Or did _anybody_?
~~~
mrshoe
I have worked on major console games and written games in both C and C++. I
also maintain an open source raytracer which I've implemented in C, C++, D,
and python. So yes, I speak from experience.
Eve online is a great example of a game for which almost all game logic is in
python (stackless). The "engine" is in C++, I think (not sure on that one). So
I would adopt their model but use C instead of C++.
~~~
bd
Also Civilization 4 used Python extensively:
<http://www.python.org/about/quotes/> (look for "Firaxis Games")
------
s-phi-nl
I am under the impression that Lua is widely used for video games.
~~~
Meatshoes
Lua is often used as an embedded scripting language within level editors, for
example to keep track of the progress made on a quest or to trigger an event
when the character reaches a certain point. Lua isn't used to code the game
engine itself (in the vast majority of cases, there may be some obscure
examples of game engines written in Lua)
~~~
kiba
You need some LÖVE!
<http://libregamewiki.org/LOVE>
"LÖVE is a cross-platform, 2D game engine. The latest version of the engine is
0.5.0 released on September 9th, 2008.[1] It uses the SDL library, OpenGL
hardware acceleration and the Lua programming language to program games.[2] It
is licensed under the Zlib license. "
------
JulianMorrison
I'm not sure how ready it is now, but Haskell's nested data parallelism might
be worth looking into as a forward strategy for things like physics and in-CPU
graphics engines, since it should make very effective use of many-core
processors and is expected to later (transparently) gain the ability to
distribute work onto the GPU. This is if you want to do something more fancy
than OpenGL, such as ray-trace or use splines.
Haskell's extreme facility with small light threads and its implicit parallel
"strategies" could also make updating a rule based game board an almost
mathematical, rather than detail-grovelling exercise.
You will not be able to get monkeys to program in Haskell. Whether this is a
problem depends on your plans.
------
Fargren
XNA is great, but your games will only be compatible with windows(and xBox).
Haskell is definetely not a good idea.
~~~
olliesaunders
Why is Haskell a bad idea?
~~~
Fargren
Well, for once, it's not particulary fast, but that's not a concern for all
games(it's not slow either, but it's quite hard to optimize). The real deal is
that it's a completely functional language with not much support, as far as
games go. You won't find any graphics libraries, so you'll have to make them
from scratch. Unless you have been programing in funcitonal languages for a
long time, this will take an absurd ammount of time, and you probably won't be
able to do it at all. Haskell is great for math-oriented programs, but I
wouldn't recommended for much else, in my opinion.
<http://hackage.haskell.org/> is suppossed to be a good source for libraries,
if you are intersted, but I can't get it to load.
~~~
gaius
_You won't find any graphics libraries, so you'll have to make them from
scratch_
Haskell has OpenGL bindings: <http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Opengl>
So does OCaml: <http://glcaml.sourceforge.net/>
~~~
substack
I've used Haskell's OpenGL libraries some, and definitely recommend them over
C++. OpenGL's callbacks feel much more natural in a functional language and
the monadic do notation works very well at managing nested matrix
transformations. Also, having an interpretive shell to play around with the
types of functions is very useful.
------
chipsy
I would take a data-oriented view.
Most of the performance of a game stems from finding a sweet spot combination
of data structures and data relationships so that data is processed at real-
time rates, is accessible everywhere, and can be immediately applicable to the
algorithms you plan to use.
If you design relationships-first, the way you would design a database, you
can figure out a data layout that doesn't involve any high-level semantics to
speak of, just classic data structures from CS: lists, arrays, graphs and
trees to order things, records and hashes to name them. Go through each type
of value and cross-index it across all the structures it needs to be accessed
by.
Then write intersectable queries into the structures to express a complex
gameplay question like "Find all the enemy actors that are near mission
objective X" as the composable "Find positions between boundaries A,B,C,D,
that belong to actors of the enemy type, where A,B,C,D are some distance
relative to the position of the objective entity with the name of X." Since
you aren't writing a generic all-purpose database, this isn't a _hard_
problem. It's just time-consuming to nail down the data model that captures
all of it.
I think you will agree that a fancy language isn't necessary to implement such
an approach to game programming. Done that way, data mostly ends up being
pointers.
If your game is processing-light(which with today's desktop hardware primarily
means avoiding 3d computation), you don't need a fast language: I'm most
familiar with doing game code for Python and Flash and they can do just fine
on modestly-sized datasets too.
------
jomohke
The D programming language [<http://www.digitalmars.com/d/>] was designed
primarily to be a better C++. It has C-style syntax, a vaguely similar OO
model to Java, and compiles directly to machine code, with performance as
priority (it even allows you to drop to assembly if desired). The lack of C
backwards compatibility allowed them to clean up a lot of the uglier areas of
C++.
------
pmjordan
I've been contemplating this, too. C++ was my main language for a long time
(~1999-2007) and about 30% of my consulting work is still in C++ (game
development). I've found that while C++ code can be very clean and concise, it
usually requires a lot of behind the scenes scaffolding, and it's very easy to
get wrong even if you know the damn thing inside out. Programming in more
expressive languages has certainly improved the quality of my C++ code, but
there's only so much you can do.
My use of other languages has therefore gradually increased - I currently use
Clojure where I can, but I'm pretty flexible (PHP being the only language on
my blacklist so far).
For projects on which I'm a lone programmer, I'm free to use whatever language
I want in theory; sometimes the customer has a preference, usually not, so the
main restrictions are technical and legal:
I'd like to use Clojure a lot more, but for game dev, it's problematic.
Performance is the least of my worries, as I can drop to Java or even JNI for
the rough bits. It's also a fantastic choice for server-side programming on
multiplayer games. However, the JVM isn't allowed on the iPhone, say, and
unrealistic or disallowed on consoles. (the Nintendo DS has 4MB of RAM, for
example; licensing/porting is an issue) For pure PC/Mac game dev it's probably
fine, although if by any chance you want to port later, good luck.
There was a submission on HN a few months back about using Gambit Scheme for
iPhone and Mac programming. Googling easily retrieves some useful information
on this, but the general idea is that it compiles to C, and you can actually
write Scheme functions with inline C/C++/Objective-C code, so you're using a
2-stage compilation process and retain full control while using a very
expressive high-level language. I'm going to try this with my next iPhone
game, as I'm not all that impressed with Objective-C so far. It looks
extremely promising.
There are of course other languages which have compilers that generate C; I
believe there are some Common Lisp implementations, although especially for
game dev I'm not sure if there's any advantage in using CL over Scheme.
If using a full-blown Lisp feels too high level, there are some Lispy efforts
that are essentially very fancy C preprocessors, e.g. BitC[1] or SC[2]. The
latter is literally C with an S-Expression syntax; I'd be interested how
compactly all of C++'s features could be expressed in such a language. Not
that you'd want the arcane contortions of C++ templates when you have real
macros.
Moving away from C a bit more, there are of course Forth and other languages
in a similar vein.
As I've mentioned, I'll be going down the Gambit Scheme route in future
projects, as it has a very nice interface to C/C++ (this is critical when
dealing with game development oriented libraries - I'd probably make this the
top priority in choosing a language for this purpose), it's very stable and
mature, and it's a Lisp. I'll try and write a postmortem of some sort when the
time comes.
My main worry is the behaviour of GC in an environment with hard memory limits
(no virtual memory or paging), but if the allocator and GC are well written it
should be less risky than explicit memory management.
[1] <http://www.bitc-lang.org/>
[2]
[http://super.para.media.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~tasuku/sc/index-e.htm...](http://super.para.media.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~tasuku/sc/index-e.html)
~~~
huhtenberg
Same here, except that after using C and C++ for over a decade I find
switching to another language quite trying. The habit of constantly thinking
what machine code is generated from the higher language constructs is _really_
hard to ignore.
Moreover, I actually like C. But it is inconvenient. On the other hand C++ is
convenient, but I don't like it. So I started playing with developing a
dialect of C that adds support for parametrized code, closures, _this_ pointer
and type inference. All the stuff that I use or would like to use in C++, but
in a syntactically cleaner way and without all the blubber that C++
accumulated through a design by committee. A hobby project, nothing too fancy
:-)
~~~
pmjordan
I had the problem of worrying about low-level nuts and bolts for a while too;
I guess it must have been the jarring difference in expressiveness between C++
and Lisp that made me stop worrying in the end. I don't think you can
realistically wean yourself from C++'s mind pollution gradually - you have to
go cold turkey and go with a high level language, dynamic typing, garbage
collection, not especially object oriented, etc. Do a couple of smaller
projects with a language like that and you'll probably find that you don't
really want that "better C++" of yours after all.
~~~
huhtenberg
> _you don't really want that "better C++" of yours after all_
I want it because it is an interesting project in itself. But I hear what you
are saying.
------
InclinedPlane
C++ isn't bad, per se. It's an incredibly powerful and rich language, verging
on being a meta-language that allows you to create your own language. However,
that flexibility is a double edged sword. Just like Perl or Javascript, any
powerful, flexible language can, and will, be abused.
The main downfall of C++ is probably that it's too flexible in every
direction. It takes an equivalent amount of effort to do the "right" thing as
to do the "wrong" thing. In a sense, the language makes no value judgments
regarding design. Which is helpful in some ways because it doesn't lock you
into the straight-jacket that Java does, for example, but it doesn't encourage
users to fall into a "pit of success" either (which a truly good language
should, even if it is ultimately flexible enough to let you do those "wrong"
things).
------
nova
I think it's more that although C++ sucks there is no realistic alternative
for this "niche".
------
danek
what about D or OCaml? OCaml can compile to machine code and supposedly can
acheive c++ level performance. D is allegedly a "fixed" c++.
i haven't used either, just conjecturing based on what i've heard through the
grapevine.
------
ygd_coder
Contrary to popular belief. Java is actually pretty good.
~~~
aceofspades19
I suppose if you like over-engineering
~~~
ygd_coder
Over-engineering? You're confusing me with one of those guys that has to do a
UML diagram before he can start coding.
~~~
aceofspades19
I was mostly referring to the language. The standard library that comes with
Java is over-engineered to the point of absurdity
~~~
lincolnq
Not _quite_ to the point of absurdity. I kinda like it. Admittedly, I dislike
it when I have to instantiate four classes to read the contents of a file. But
I have also used the same flexibility to great advantage, and been burned in
other languages when the standard library wasn't flexible enough.
~~~
aceofspades19
What languages are these? because I have never used a language where the
standard library was not flexible enough.
------
wicknicks
C++ is definitely not a terrible language. It was one of the first OO
programming mostly widely adopted (though today there are far better ways of
doing OO with other programming languages). The problem with higher level
languages is their performance. C++ sits somewhere between C and languages
like Java, Python. I would say its probably a good place to program games
which are both memory and CPU intensive.
------
mark_l_watson
I used C++ when I worked on game AI and a few Nintendo U64 games, also for
some virtual reality stuff for Disney and SAIC. Right choice for the games, in
retrospect probably not for VR.
C++ is fine when you need high performance and can live with more expensive
development.
------
iamwil
Depends on what kind of games you want to make. If you're looking for 2D
platforms, try Actionscript or Lua Love.
<http://love2d.org/>
------
jibiki
What kind of game are you writing? If you're just a hobbyist, you might want
to try a popular choice like python. (Pygame is insanely well known.)
~~~
olliesaunders
I edited the original post. I'm interested in commercial game projects. Real
games, the kinds that you see in shops for PS and XBox etc.
~~~
smakz
If you are interested in making games for consoles you are pretty much
restricted to what the console maker's software development kit supports,
which is usually C/C++. It's usually impractical to reverse engineer the
hardware and supply your own system libraries in another language.
Computer games are another story, but the same facts are generally true, that
you should use the language which provides the libraries where most of the
work is already done for you. There are the most number of game development
kits for C++, so that's why C++ is popular for game development.
For what it's worth, I have done a few games using the ORGE rendering engine
and plugged the game elements (physics, AI) with separate libraries and it has
worked fairly well.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OGRE>
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havok_(software)>
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Box_2D>
~~~
plinkplonk
"If you are interested in making games for consoles you are pretty much
restricted to what the console maker's software development kit supports,
which is usually C/C++. "
Unless you want to write a lisp using that c/c++ sdk and then develop with the
lisp you wrote. (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Oriented_Assembly_Lisp>).
So it certainly _can_ be done. Whether you _should_ is another matter.
Post acquisition (by Sony) Naughty Dog seems to have shifted to c++ but seems
to have shifted back partially to lisp (C++/ scheme combo as far as I can make
out) for their "Uncharted" games for the
PS3.([http://www.naughtydog.com/docs/Naughty-Dog-
GDC08-Adventures-...](http://www.naughtydog.com/docs/Naughty-Dog-
GDC08-Adventures-In-Data-Compilation.pdf) Warning PDF)
------
zandorg
I'd code the graphics code in C++, and the logic/game/AI code in Lisp.
------
Dilpil
What other languages are out there that compile into machine code?
~~~
anamax
> What other languages are out there that compile into machine code?
It used to be that almost all languages compiled into machine code.
And you, get off my lawn.
------
gord
any mix of : C, python, lua, scheme
------
bonecandy
Wait a couple of years and you can use MacRuby ;D
------
Zarathu
C
------
thras
I'm with you. Whatever you use, don't choose C++. Sure, everyone on your
programming team knows C++ already. Yeah, your libraries are all written in
it. And successful games have used it again and again. But if it's not one of
the "cool" languages, you shouldn't be using it.
Modern game developers should code in Ruby/Lisp. By the time you've finished
coding all of your graphics libraries from scratch, Moore's law will have made
computers fast enough to run them.
~~~
derefr
Wait, so why can't you use the C++ libraries from Ruby/Lisp?
~~~
thras
I think that best thing to do is look at 1) the libraries you'll be using, 2)
what your team is proficient at, 3) what's worked for other groups, 4)
optimization potential.
If you think that Ruby/Lisp is your answer to the above points, go for it. But
I have the feeling that it won't be for many people.
~~~
derefr
I didn't say I wanted to use Ruby or Lisp--I was simply denying the parent's
point that one would have to "write the graphics libraries from scratch."
Besides, isn't the advice for optimizing _every_ other kind of project:
1\. Start in a high-level language
2\. Port any bits that profile as slow to a low-level language, and then
interface them into your HLL code
Why, all of the sudden, when you're coding a game, is it a better idea to
_start_ in the low-level language? Because your team "knows it?" by that
argument, all games would still be being developed in assembler, because the
most senior members of the team would have more experience with that than any
new-fangled language like C++.
~~~
miloshh
That advice never works. The problem is _data structures_. If your high-level
prototype uses complex data structures of e.g. Python, you will not be able to
access them from C++. You will need to rewrite the whole thing anyway.
The only way you might get away with this approach is if your application is
essentially a number of separate scripts that communicate through files. Then
you can rewrite the key scripts in C++. But that is never the case for games.
~~~
lutorm
Part of Civ IV (mostly gui stuff) is in python. They seem to be able to
communicate with the C++ core fine.
~~~
miloshh
But I assume they did not write the game in Python and the optimize parts in
C++. Quite the opposite - they wrote it in C++ and then found that some part
(e.g. GUI) is growing in complexity while not being crucial for performance,
at which point it is a good decision to use a scripting language for it.
That is a pretty common approach, but what was suggested above (writing first
in HLL and then rewriting parts in C++) is, to my knowledge, never done in
practice.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Alfa Data – Analytics Ruins Football - tropianhs
http://www.alfadata.xyz
======
tropianhs
A Football (Soccer) Analytics Portal made in Flask
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Nintendo to Double Production of Switch Console - Tiktaalik
https://www.wsj.com/articles/nintendo-to-double-production-of-switch-console-1489728545
======
baby
I love this console, haven't been able to sit down and play for long hours in
decades and here I am.
I love that it's handheld, I travel a lot and so far I've played that in the
plane and in various airbnbs, splitting the controller in two and playing
snipperclips or bomberman with my girlfriend.
It's probably the best console I bought since the N64. I see a lot of
skepticism here, but I assume it is mostly from non-buyers. I predict that
this is going to be the biggest christmas for Nintendo this December.
~~~
aaron-lebo
To the deleted comment asking about battery life:
_As for general battery life, based on these figures you 'll get somewhere
between 2 hours and 45 minutes to 3 hours and 15 minutes playing Breath of the
Wild, depending on the settings you use._
[http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/nintendo-switch-
battery-l...](http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/nintendo-switch-battery-
life#jBDJLMgoSqAPsbWf.99)
To the GP, Nintendo products have this effect on people. They're different
enough that people don't know what to expect. You'll find similar sentiments
about the Wii U (especially from Nintendo fans - _the next Mario /Zelda/SSB is
gonna put it over the top!_).
I'm interested in wait and see. The hardware is mediocre even though the form
factor is great. They really have to get more games out before the holiday
season, though, and where they are at they're competing with both mobile
devices and consoles. Parents have to justify spending $300 on this + full
priced games against more games and better experiences on other consoles (MS
IS launching a 4k console, too) and cheaper (much cheaper) games on mobile
devices that aren't restricted to gaming. They're in a no man's land of
markets where they compete with everyone (for good and bad).
....though it'll probably sell like hotcakes.
~~~
quanticle
>... though it'll probably sell like hotcakes
For a while. Then the novelty/fad factor will wear off and people will realize
that it's mediocre hardware, the screen scratches if you put it in the dock
too forcefully, the battery life is abysmal compared to an iPad, and the game
selection is arguably worse. Then sales will fall off a cliff, just like they
did with the original Wii.
~~~
azhenley
As a gamer, why should I explicitly care about the hardware? If the experience
is good, I don't care what is inside it. The graphics appear to be "good
enough".
~~~
aaron-lebo
Do you care about framerate?
Not the same games but Uncharted 4 multiplayer is 1080p 60fps and silky
smooth. That's not even talking about PC games - it's dirt cheap to run CSGO
at 90 fps and 1440p these days.
Bad performance detracts from the experience and it also limits what Nintendo
can do with the console over the next three or four years.
~~~
cholantesh
I agree that performance is a pretty integral part of the experience. But I
think the way it's being brought up in this thread is a bit disingenuous. Most
people that are doing so seem to be glossing over the fact that the stutter is
1) rare
2) mostly resolved by the day 1 patch that Nintendo released
~~~
aaron-lebo
I own the game. Framerate drops are still very common
~~~
cholantesh
In prerelease reviews, there was talk of very occasional drops to below 30fps,
sometimes even 20fps. It's my understanding that, post-launch that a lot of
people (reviewers and people on Reddit, etc) are reporting that this happens a
lot less. Rose-tinted glasses?
------
learc83
Breath of the Wild is the best game I've ever played. I'd recommend getting a
switch just for Zelda alone.
~~~
suvelx
I'm not convinced I like it.
I feel (2 'divine beasts' in):
* It's very repetitive.
* The boss dungeons are unrewarding.
* The shrine dungeons are novel, but get tiresome quickly.
* As you can pretty much do everything off the bat, there's no "oh a boulder, can't move it, better come back later" element to the game. (This is my biggest gripe I think, a big part of the Zelda games was doing a dungeon and getting a gimmick to unlock new places).
* Weapon durability is an annoyance as there's no feedback of how much weapon there is left until the end.
* As my gear improves, I don't feel any stronger.
* Cooking could be 10x easier.
But I seem to be the odd one out thinking this, so maybe I just have bad
taste.
~~~
post_break
The weapon durability kills me. And the fact that it doesn't auto switch to
your next best weapon when it breaks. I have no clue how to cook anything
whatsoever. There was never a guide in the game so I'm getting farther in the
game without any special powers.
Bows that break after shooting too many arrows, ugh...
~~~
RobertDeNiro
The weapon durability one makes me feel like they took the worse parts of
Skyrim and left out all the good ones. I really wish we could repair weapons
and craft new ones. With the way it is you can easily end up in a situation
where you have no weapons and a bunch of ennemies in front of you. I recently
did the shrine dubbed "Major test of strength" and I literally when through 4
melee weapons and 3 shields, all because the damn guardian had 3000 hp. It's
just ridiculous.
~~~
noxToken
You can shield parry guardians. I mean, missing the parry is almost guaranteed
death, but it deals a lot of damage.
~~~
RobertDeNiro
It wasn't a true guardian. It was one of those things with a shield, sword and
spear. It only shoots a beam when it's low on hp.
------
dcw303
Good. I'm getting sick of walking into Bic Camera and asking the same question
when I already know what the (disappointing) answer is going to be.
I get that they're a typical conservative Japanese company, they don't want to
screw up inventory, blah blah blah, but it's getting annoying.
And slightly off topic, does anyone know what is up with the NES classic /
Famicom mini? As far as I can tell that thing never restocked after launch.
You can see how it looks like Nintendo is majorly shooting themselves in the
foot with these slow launches.
~~~
verytrivial
Counterargument: Would Nintendo still exist today if it had speculatively
doubled/trebled production of Wii U?
~~~
nsxwolf
The problem with the Wii U was Nintendo did a very poor job marketing it.
There were almost no ads for it and they failed to make the consumer
understand what exactly it was.
It was out for about a year before I finally figured out that it was an all
new console. I thought it was a wireless tablet add-on for the Wii.
~~~
jcadam
Yep, the Wii U is basically what the original Wii _should_ have been and it's
my favorite console right now. I've got 3 kids and also own a PS4 and an Xbox
one and the Wii U definitely gets the most play.
------
lobotryas
And here I am still waiting to buy a NES Classic. Maybe next year...
Looking forward to getting the Switch because I always liked Nintendo's
handhelds and this qualifies. Just hope they work out the design/quality
issues by the time stock catches up to demand.
~~~
nawtacawp
Same here. No way I am paying those ridiculous resale prices. This was
something I really wanted, it is baffling they released it -- then didn't
produce a ton more when they realized the demand.
A friend of mine built a pi based emulator, I played around with it the other
day -- it was actually very nice. The controllers he used in the setup were
bluetooth (8bit brand?).
[https://retropie.org.uk/](https://retropie.org.uk/)
~~~
shuntress
Based on what (admittedly little) I know about at-scale production of consumer
electronics, it isn't exactly easy to just "produce a ton more" when they
realize the demand.
It is also difficult to tell what the cap on demand is. If they think they
satisfied maybe 70% of the total demand for that product with the N-Number of
units they produced, they may consider that "good enough" and not worth
launching another production run.
------
naringas
I'm betting on the fact the nintendo switch will be able to browse the web and
reproduce music and video (youtube, netflix).
I understand that they didn't officially support this at launch probably
because of time constraints and priorities but it just doesn't make any sense
for the switch not to support this in the longer term. It's form factor is
perfect for it.
~~~
ianai
Why do you care about that from this?
~~~
hrrsn
The consumer value proposition is greater if people can watch media on the
same device.
~~~
bpicolo
I'm not convinced that's true at all. At this point most people have a
plethora of devices that will get the exact same Netflix content on their TV.
My TV has like 4 things connected to it right now that will (TV itself, ps4,
chromecast, fire stick).
~~~
kk_cz
Yeah, but one of the main appeals of Switch is how portable it is. And when I
carry around a device I expect it to not only provide games, but content
consumption as well. Otherwise I can carry an ordinary tablet - it might be
not ideal for games, but as a multipurpose device it would be superior.
~~~
bpicolo
Everybody is already carrying a much-more-multipurpose device with them
everywhere they go (smartphone). Carrying around the sort-of-portable bit of
the switch doesn't seem that much more convenient than having a laptop.
Doesn't fit in your pocket.
------
mpg33
I don't think launch sales are a good indicator to go by...
There is enough of a hardcore Nintendo fanbase to buy up initial launch
supply.
Let me know of the sales in July.
~~~
jerf
I decided to check that claim, and I'd say it holds up reasonably well:
[http://vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/Biggest_game_system_launches](http://vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/Biggest_game_system_launches)
I admit I'm eyeballing it there, but there isn't a _great_ correlation between
launch day/week sales and ultimate success.
Even the WiiU seems to have been at least a modest success upon launch:
[http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/01/11/how-successful-was-
th...](http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/01/11/how-successful-was-the-wii-u-
launch)
Still, I would definitely take a strong launch over a weak one if I had a
choice. :)
~~~
mpg33
Zelda at launch was a strong boost...and I suspect they will get another boost
at holiday season when Super Mario Odyssey comes out. But there are a lot of
months in between that are not filled in with much...
Since the console is not likely to get any 3rd party AAA games Nintendo is
going to have to court nearly every indie dev + churn out as many first party
titles as possible.
Also I'm hoping for a $50 price drop after Christmas...
~~~
mattnewton
If they fix up the browser and ship a YouTube and Netflix app I think they
will also be a killer low-cost tablet. An Amazon fire hd + mario and Zelda is
definitely worth $300 + cost of games.
People forget that the ps2 was many familie's DVD player. That kind of extra
utility goes a long way into driving purchases imo.
~~~
mpg33
yeah...it's just that a lot of people already have at least a 5" smartphone
and/or tablet (tablet sales have been shrinking due to this) so I don't know
how much of the tablet aspect is appealing nowadays...3 years ago it would
have been a bigger deal
------
pmorici
I wish they would double production of the Nintendo Classic. I can't find it
anywhere except places that are charging 3x the list price.
~~~
louhike
They won't do it, they stopped the production. But they are working on a SNES
version.
~~~
vlunkr
Source?
~~~
manarth
FUD in last month's rumour-mill.
\- [http://www.gamezone.com/news/rumor-nes-classic-mini-
reported...](http://www.gamezone.com/news/rumor-nes-classic-mini-reportedly-
ceasing-production-3450632)
\- [http://www.techradar.com/news/dont-panic-nintendo-nes-
mini-p...](http://www.techradar.com/news/dont-panic-nintendo-nes-mini-
production-will-continue)
\-
[http://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/gaming/767007/Nintend...](http://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/gaming/767007/Nintendo-
Classic-Mini-NES-production-ended)
~~~
louhike
Oh, thanks for correcting me.
------
DaveWalk
Was it true that Nintendo held back some of its production of earlier consoles
to spike demand? I remember it specifically with the Wii[0], but I seem to
recall that their production was always playing catch up. Do you think it's an
industry tactic?
[0][http://www.cio.com/article/2434123/supply-chain-
management/n...](http://www.cio.com/article/2434123/supply-chain-
management/nintendo-wii-shortage--shrewd-marketing-or-flawed-supply-
chain-.html)
~~~
JoeAltmaier
I'm not sure how 'spiking demand' when you have no product to sell, profits
Nintendo.
~~~
Kurtz79
What better advertising than having a narrative where your product is "sold
out" and in high demand, with media running stories about it ?
Especially when the "scarcity" problem can be addressed easily.
~~~
JoeAltmaier
It can't be addressed quickly. Takes months to make more. Seems like having
enough when folks are buying makes more sense, than a little free press and
then maybe they'll still be interested in buying in a few months.
------
knodi123
Good, because I absolutely refuse to pay scalper prices. Now if someone could
figure out the left-joy radio issues, I'd buy one ASAP.
~~~
joeax
They are out there. I bought a Switch on Monday. The scalpers will be out of
business soon.
~~~
saghm
Where did you buy it?
------
oculusthrift
what about the nes classic which came out a long time ago and they're clearly
trying NOT to sell??
~~~
NTripleOne
I don't really see what the NES classic has going for it, personally - the
interface is basically the only thing it has over any pi-based solution, and
even that's debatable, depending on how much of a retroarch loyalist you are.
~~~
dagw
_I don 't really see what the NES classic has going for it_
Legality and the fact that anybody can have it up and running in less than 3
minutes from opening the box.
~~~
NTripleOne
Emulation is not inherently illegal, and even if it was I'd imagine that the
people who just want to play some NES games probably don't give half a shit.
~~~
dagw
_Emulation is not inherently illegal_
No, but downloading the game ROMs almost always is.
~~~
drdaeman
Not really. This heavily depends on jurisdiction. Downloading isn't
universally illegal (especially if you have the license for the material
you're downloading), sharing is.
~~~
rhino369
I'm not sure about other countries but in the USA it's indirect copyright
infringement.
It's an urban myth that owning a copy makes it okay. Morally sure, but not
legally.
------
Karunamon
Late again. Nintendo is comically bad at meeting demand.
Every time they have a highly anticipated product release, there are many
multiples fewer products on the shelves than there is demand, for months at a
time, and meanwhile, eBay prices spike to 200%+ retail. Meanwhile, consumers
are disappointed/annoyed, scalpers profit, and Nintendo leaves money on the
table.
I wonder how many Switches haven't been sold since people got tired of waiting
and just picked up Breath of the Wild for the Wii U, which is now going for
fire sale prices?
~~~
jayflux
Yeah I agree, I know some who stopped bothering to ring up stores and ask if
they had switches in stock and just bought something else. They've under-
stocked by a large margin and I wonder how much they've lost doing that.
------
Fej
I sure hope that they come out with a hardware revision, fast. I expect there
to be a class-action suit regarding the left Joy-Con issues and the screen
scratching issue, barring a recall.
~~~
aeturnum
I find your post difficult to take seriously. Nintendo was aware of the
hardness of their screen throughout the design and when they shipped. The joy-
con problems are unfortunate, but seem like the kind of glitches discovered on
wide release. I'm not sure how fixable they are either (no amount of technical
rejiggering will make bluetooth transmit through the human body better).
I don't know that I would have made the same trade-offs, but Nintendo was
clearly aware of the trade-offs they were making. A recall seems really
unlikely and a class action seems very difficult (how much can you get in
damages for an occasional technical glitch in some configurations?).
~~~
Fej
The Joy-Con issue affects all units and has nothing to do with the human body,
although that obviously makes the problem worse. After five or so feet away
from the console, the Joy-Cons begin to respond intermittently, making proper
gameplay impossible. (This is with nothing between the console and
controllers.) The issue lies partially in the design of the antenna. The right
Joy-Con has a better antenna, which alleviates the problem to a degree. I
don't know how this could _not_ be caught before release. A hardware mod can
fix the antenna issue; a courageous user can solder a bit of wire onto the
antenna to significantly extend the range.
The point is that the left Joy-Con is poorly designed.
They may be able to solve this issue by raising the gain on the antennae, at
the expense of a significant amount of battery life. I don't know if they'd
have to go through the FCC for this.
The screen issue isn't that the screen is plastic, it is that the dock itself
damages the console. It takes a day or two with heavy use.
------
mrmondo
I'm a sucker for getting lots of gadgets and then shelving them, the switch is
the first game console / handheld I actually genuinely appreciate both for its
quality and for its marvellous simplicity since the game boy advanced, it's
truly wonderfull. It's has its flaws in that there aren't many release titles
but Zelda is amazing and it's just a joy to use. Mad rep out to Nintendo for
pulling one out of the hat.
------
mrfusion
Does this production come at the expense of the nes classic though? For some
reason I'm really mad I can't buy that stupid thing.
------
Tiktaalik
The great news here for Switch owners is that it means that Nintendo sees the
platform size trending to point that will be large enough to start to attract
attention of 3rd parties. The Wii U never got to this point and really
suffered by essentially being a system of only Nintendo games.
------
phyushin
Login to see the rest of the story :-/
------
shmerl
That will help Vulkan adoption.
------
ghostDancer
This did work for me:
[https://m.facebook.com/l.php?u=https://www.wsj.com/articles/...](https://m.facebook.com/l.php?u=https://www.wsj.com/articles/nintendo-
to-double-production-of-switch-console-1489728545)
~~~
namikaze
Thank you. Is there a browser extension that does it automatically for all WSJ
articles at HN?
~~~
themacguffinman
There is a Chrome extension that bypasses the paywalls of many major news
outlets: [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/bypass-
paywalls/gf...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/bypass-
paywalls/gfbabigadapckiaabchaolgjfbgickop)
~~~
namikaze
Thanks. Anything for Firefox? [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/paywall-pass/](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/paywall-pass/) used to work but stopped working.
------
sillysaurus3
Off-topic:
I notice you've been banned for quite awhile. Some of your comments are pretty
good. Some are not-so-great, mostly the outrage/political comments.
It's none of my business, but have you considered emailing [email protected],
apologize for whatever got you banned, and promise not to do it again? The
mods are more than fair and in my experience that will earn you a second
chance.
More than that, though, your account is named HeavenBanned, so presumably you
created it after your previous account was banned. It's also an amusing name
since you may have been fully aware that new accounts which are created to
circumvent bans are quickly banned, so HeavenBanned would quickly become a
self-fulfilling name.
Therefore it seems like you're fully aware of your status, but you still
comment on HN knowing that almost nobody will see your writing, except the few
that have showdead turned on. While your comments are certainly welcome, I am
moved by curiosity to ask: What compels you to keep commenting even though you
know you're banned? Anything in particular?
The phenomenon is pretty common. There are a lot of banned accounts with
dozens of pages of dead comments. Sometimes the comments are meticulously
written or otherwise took a lot of effort to write. But the most curious
aspect is that the authors _know_ they're banned, yet they continue to write.
I've seen at least a dozen accounts like that over the years, and I've always
wondered why. Why waste time writing something no one will see? Is it
therapeutic, like writing in a private journal?
Again, it's not unwelcome -- the dead/vouch system works quite well, so it's
perfectly fine for someone to write as many autokilled comments as they want.
But I love a good mystery, and so I have to ask: what drives you to do it?
What drives dozens of people to do it?
(It would be ironic if you had no idea you were banned and this was how you
found out.)
~~~
Cthulhu_
> (It would be ironic if you had no idea you were banned and this was how you
> found out.)
It's called shadow banning or stealth banning [1] and it's probably the most
effective way to keep a community clean; explicit bans will anger the user and
make them try and circumvent them by using proxies and multiple accounts,
often to the point of just posting porn or other offensive stuff. Very hard to
get that fixed. Shadow banning on the other hand hides the offensive content
from the users, without the user doing it knowing - they can troll all they
want, but shadow banning takes away their audience and thus the fun of it.
But yeah, telling people "ur banned" defeats the purpose and I'd really like
people to stop doing that. The HN system isn't obvious though. Should have a
help link if you can see hidden comments at least.
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stealth_banning](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stealth_banning)
~~~
sillysaurus3
I asked dang last year whether it was ok to do this, and he said it wasn't a
big deal. I was careful to choose someone who knew they were banned -- my
entire question revolves around the fact that people who know they're banned
still post a lot of HN comments, even for months. They do it in spite of being
banned, which is curious enough that I'd like to ask them why.
~~~
arcticfox
> (It would be ironic if you had no idea you were banned and this was how you
> found out.)
> I was careful to choose someone who knew they were banned
These statements seem inconsistent to me
~~~
sillysaurus3
It was a joke. Their name is HeavenBanned, so they're obviously fully aware of
their situation.
This subthread ended up being boring and cluttered up the main topic. If the
mods have a problem with what I'm doing, they'll say so. In the meantime, you
have both a downvote button and a flag button to employ. I think there was
nothing wrong with what I did, right up until it spawned a useless subthread
about whether what I did was ok. At this point it's worth detaching, which is
frustrating: I really wanted to know the answer to the original mystery! Since
I have to vouch a banned user's comment in order to ask them the question,
there's no way to ask them without also spawning an offtopic subthread. I was
hoping that people would see that it's an interesting subthread and worth
giving some leeway to see where it leads.
In general, it's ok for subthreads to veer off topic as long as it's
intellectually interesting and substantive. Some of the most interesting
comments are generated by that kind of process. But it's easy to push it too
far, and it doesn't work if people get caught up in metaquestions.
------
unlikelymordant
Its paywalled
------
DaveSapien
WSJ? It's a wonder they're not linking Nintendo to the Nazi party...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Facebook is Doomed: Forrester Says Ads Tell a Sad Story - selmnoo
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/facebook-doomed-forrester-says-ads-tell-sad-story-142946812.html
======
adventured
Facebook isn't doomed, they're going to end up like Yahoo, in my opinion.
Granted some consider that worse than death.
Their core product is going to grow stale and begin to erode. Younger
demographics will abandon the uncool service in favor of the latest platforms.
And there will always be a new, cooler service for young demographics to join
instead of the network where their parents hang out.
The dominance Facebook once enjoyed will peak and fracture.
People don't stop using Google because it's boring (which it has been for a
long time, it's a search engine after all). People will however never start
using Facebook in the first place if it's lame. I'd argue we're going to see a
lot of that in the next five years, as the first teen generation to have a
wide adoption of smart phones comes through, with tons of good apps to choose
from. And to the extent that younger users sign up for Facebook, they'll use
it a lot less.
Five or six years from now, Facebook will be a slow growing, very mature
social network. They'll be profitable, and Wall Street will be bored, and will
give them a drastically lower multiple (leaving their stock not worth much
more than it is today; $4b or $5b in profit * 20 to 30 multiple). It'll
probably stick around in that stagnant shape much like Yahoo has, for a very
long time.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The biggest leak of TTIP documents yet: more than 100 confidential papers - rendx
https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/3d0ftu/this_is_the_biggest_leak_of_ttip_documents_yet/
======
AndrewGaspar
Proposal to make it easier for US professionals to work in the EU and vice-
versa:
[https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2162296-14-10-07-eu-...](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2162296-14-10-07-eu-
kom-themenpapier-mobilitat-geschwarzt.html)
------
ExpiredLink
Don't know what "confidential papers" means but TTIP documents are published
regularly (e.g.
[http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/press/index.cfm?id=1230](http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/press/index.cfm?id=1230)
) but seemingly not many people are interested in them.
~~~
swombat
From this page:
> The European Commission is negotiating TTIP as openly as possible.
> A final agreement would have 24 chapters, grouped together in 3 parts:
> \- Market access
> \- Regulatory cooperation
> \- Rules
> And as part of our latest transparency initiative, we're publishing:
> \- new 2-page factsheets, in plain language
> \- negotiating texts we've given US negotiators:
> \- - EU textual proposals on parts 2 and 3 of the TTIP – these set out how
> we'd want a final deal to read, line by line
> \- - EU position papers – what we want to achieve in a chapter.
> We will publish further texts as they become available.
> We will make the whole text of the agreement public once negotiations have
> been concluded – well in advance of its signature and ratification.
Sure seems like they're trying to open this up... wonder what the leak is
about then?
~~~
M2Ys4U
Saying that they're trying to open this up is like saying a fat person is on a
diet because they've switched from regular cola to diet cola.
It doesn't make a dent unless they also exercise more and eat less.
------
tomohawk
It is so ridiculous that we allow these people to play masters of the
universe, with little or no accountability or transparency.
We shouldn't settle for scraps.
~~~
andybak
My off-the-cuff reaction is the same as yours but look what happens to
institutions where all negotiation is public: posturing, media tyranny,
corridor diplomacy and a huge gap between public position and any real
opinion.
Transparency has a cost also.
------
stsp
Direct links to documents:
[http://pastebin.com/fA7z2BPi](http://pastebin.com/fA7z2BPi)
(pastebin since HN wouldn't let me post the full link list as a comment)
~~~
13throwaway
Download them all with wget:
wget -O -
"[http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=fA7z2BPi"](http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=fA7z2BPi")
| wge -i -
------
dhimes
TTIP: Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership- a secret deal between US
and EU
~~~
sandstrom
It's correct that much of the details are secret, but I'd stay it's still more
correct to label it as a free-trade agreement than a 'secret deal'.
I think it's insane that negotiations aren't public, and I also disagree with
some of the contents being discussed. But I think it's more objectively
described as a free-trade agreement (in which there are also a lot of good
parts).
~~~
dhimes
That's a fair point, but since we are all pissed off at our governments for
taking liberties with our well-intentioned permission to conduct espionage on
behalf of our well-being, your are extending more benefit-of-the-doubt than a
lot of us are. That's probably to your credit. But I am wary that the 'secret'
stuff has a lot of implications that are only on the edge of what we would
think of as trade agreement- intel sharing and such.
It _could_ , I suppose, be a positive: everybody come clean about the
past(keep that stuff a secret) and then have fair and reasonable limitations
going forward. There was a day when I thought like that... :)
------
Dwolb
Does anyone know credentials of the people negotiating these deals? Are they
well-paid?
If these deals' negotiations have to be secret and since so much is at stake,
I'd hope my government would have the best negotiators, psychologists,
economists, spies, or other personnel that money can buy.
~~~
swombat
Based on ExpiredLink's comment elsewhere in this thread, it doesn't seem like
the deal is secret at all? Here's the EU page on it:
[http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/press/index.cfm?id=1230](http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/press/index.cfm?id=1230)
~~~
sandstrom
I some parts are still held secret; this is only the EU-side, I think the US
are still keeping their citizens in the dark; and EU only started publishing
some details after heavy criticism, it should have been transparent from the
beginning.
~~~
kuschku
And the EU side decided that all ISDS trials have to be done at a court that
is staffed with judges from both contract partners and rules in public.
------
gotofritz
Needs a mirror
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How to manage professional connections? - ashishb
How do people manage their professional connections? LinkedIn works to find and make new one but not to stay in touch.<p>I am looking for the ability to<p>1. Tag existing connections
2. See my connections by location (eg. If I am visiting New York,I can reach out to some of my connections there)
3. Track when I last connected with someone (through my calendar appointments)
======
Bucephalus355
Salesforce. You can get the Developer Edition for free which has all features
enabled. Or you can just pay $300 for a 1 year license.
Within a day of using Salesforce, even though I hadn’t fully set it up yet, I
had a wave of relief wash over me. Just seeing names, data, events, etc put in
the system took out a lot of unconscious anxiety I had in my mind about
managing my relationships.
Yes it’s not perfect, yes it’s a little bit of enterprise overkill, but it
works and I know it’s going to be around.
~~~
eindiran
Can you expand on this a little bit? I'm not sure if I have the right
impression but I thought Salesforce was intended as a sales and accounting
tool for businesses. Is this an intended use case, or is this a creative
repurposing of the tool?
~~~
Bucephalus355
It’s meant to track Contacts as one of it’s primary features. I then use
“Accounts” as buckets / groups to put people in. Pretty straight forward use
of the product.
MonicaHQ has better features I think (don’t think it has a mobile app though
since it’s written in PHP), but how you manage your contacts is a huge life
spanning project. I hate to play the typical “enterprise software” card here,
but you really want to make sure it’s going to be around a long time, not to
mention secure.
------
privong
This is a bit more oriented towards social relationships, but it might also
work for your use case: [https://www.monicahq.com/](https://www.monicahq.com/)
~~~
toomuchtodo
Second Monicahq. I use it for all of my personal and business relationships;
it works very well and the development roadmap is featurefull.
Disclaimer: No association other than happy paying user
------
farmerinthecity
I’ve found the iOS app ntwrk to be good for this.
~~~
m3tr0s
Seems to be a great idea!
------
hackermamkin
asd
------
hackermamkin
bjb
------
hackermamkin
sfff
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Kuma and Envoy: Multi-Cluster and Multi-Cloud Service Meshes - fosk
https://kuma.io/blog/2020/multi-cluster-cloud/
======
otikik
Will Kuma support also hybrid VM and Kubernetes zones as part of the same
multi-zone deployment?
~~~
fosk
Yes, multi zone mode can be used to enable hybrid service meshes via the
built-in service discovery and native ingress that enables connectivity across
both K8s and VM services. Kuma itself supports Universal mode and Kubernetes
mode to run pretty much the CP and the DP anywhere (including environments
like AWS ECS).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
BrowserFS: an in-browser filesystem with many back ends - setra
https://github.com/jvilk/BrowserFS
======
rektide
I'm a huge fan of the work here & strongly strongly believe in file-system
oriented architectures.
Being able to use a wide number of existing "server side" libraries in the
browser could be a huge win.
And this has interesting server side applications too, where one can use the
same Node.js code but target diverse & interesting backends & overlayed
systems. Having a virtual-fs is an incredibly powerful and useful concept.
"Everything is a file!" still sounds like a great idea.
Alas _BrowserFS lacks Streams support._ Given how async oriented and streams
based a lot of new JS tends to be, that is a huge sticking point for me, and a
glaring exception that will rule out using a very sizable number of existing
packages that otherwise would benefit greatly from BrowserFS. Issue 124,
Support streams:
[https://github.com/jvilk/BrowserFS/issues/124](https://github.com/jvilk/BrowserFS/issues/124)
As an alternative: it lacks the flexible, pluggible/mountable backend of
BrowserFS, but level-filesystem does do streams, and can be run in the browser
(when combined with level-up): [https://github.com/mafintosh/level-
filesystem](https://github.com/mafintosh/level-filesystem)
Final aside, I always thought it would have been cool if the virtual file
abstraction that the Gulp build tool built - Vinyl - had started getting used
outside Gulp. Theres no file-system model, just a file model here, except for
implicitly in that files have paths, but with some mapping one can imagine
making something like BrowserFS or other with the Vinyl model. That said, I
think John has done a great job with his rigorous, TypeScript-ed object model
in BrowserFS.
[https://www.npmjs.com/package/vinyl](https://www.npmjs.com/package/vinyl)
Here's to hoping #124 - Streams Support - sees some progress. Great library
John!
~~~
jvilk
Thanks, rektide! Streams support haven't been added since a) there hasn't
appeared to be great demand from folks using the library, and b) I haven't
needed it for any project at all.
Feel free to leave comments on the issue if you or others would like to use
BrowserFS but have been dissuaded because it lacks streams. I'm interested in
your use cases. If your files are relatively small, then basic stream support
can be bolted on with 100% preloaded files. If they are larger, then it would
require a larger effort to bolt on incremental file loading into each backend
to support streams.
------
nathancahill
For those new to the project: this is the file system that's used alongside
Doppio, written by the same John Vilk. Both projects are excellent examples of
large Typescript projects, the code is very well documented and readable.
~~~
rektide
For those new to Doppio, it's a JVM in TypeScript, useful for ex for running
Java code in the browser. :)
~~~
IgorPartola
What the heck? That's a thing you can do now? I just really wish someone time-
travelled this back to like 2001 when people were still confused about Java vs
JavaScript and MS had their own JVM implementation.
In seriousness, is the performance of Doppio bearable? Also, what are the use
cases for a thing like that?
~~~
jvilk
Performance is 24-40x over the HotSpot (Oracle Java) interpreter on compute-
intensive benchmarks. The primary use case is for non-compute intensive code.
[http://www.codemoo.com/](http://www.codemoo.com/) uses it to teach students
basic Java in a game format.
~~~
mishac
Sorry do you mean it's 24 times slower? 24x performance makes it sound like
it's 24x faster, which doesn't seem like it could possibly be true.
~~~
angli
Yes, slower. 24x faster would be a miracle!
------
_pdp_
For the past 6 months my startup has been compiling everything from node into
browser - emulating a lot of the node's APIs along the way and frankly it has
been a godsend in terms of testability, readability and modularization.
BrowserFS is yet another module to consider to add as part of this toolchain
which will help us stick to the basics instead of reinventing the wheel.
Unfortunately, there is no S3 backend at the moment but by having a quick look
at memory backend it may be an easy thing to add.
------
0b01
so you can use webpack to build react applications in browser? Structor should
look into that and integrate with their GUI
------
sintaxi
Awesome! This would be a welcomed addition to browsers as far as I'm
concerned.
~~~
scriptproof
The work on that has been discontinued by W3C ([https://www.w3.org/TR/file-
system-api/](https://www.w3.org/TR/file-system-api/)), so we have to rely on
extensions... It is a useful tool however, it could have saved me a lot of
time if available earlier.
------
aakilfernandes
Very cool!
------
ryanmccullagh
Is this an actual file system, or a file explorer? Big difference as far as
I'm concerned.
~~~
dsp1234
From the first line of the linked page, "BrowserFS is an in-browser filesystem
that emulates the Node JS filesystem API and supports storing and retrieving
files from various backends."
~~~
_cronjob
Ordinarily, there's a hard cross-orgin security policy separating URLs like:
file:///Users/user/plain.txt
From:
http://example.com/plain.txt
I feel like something that blurs this boundary could be dangerous for non-
developers and less techincal folks.
Things like Flash and Java applets often bridged that gap, causing many
problems.
I wonder how many people understand the reasons for a clear distinction
between browsing files on your machine with an FS explorer, versus an isolated
file store jailed or sandboxed to the browser?
~~~
vertex-four
This... doesn't do that. As evident in the README. It's a VFS API across a
bunch of things you could do anyway.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Why do companies not provide good feedback for rejected candidates? - vishalzone2002
I am curious it is a policy or is it too time consuming ?
======
DanielStraight
When you need to cover your ass, providing feedback for rejection is _always_
a bad idea. If you're dealing with a pushy sales person and you give them a
reason why you're saying no, you've given them something to work with. They
can debate whether your reason is legitimate. They can promise to meet that
criteria, then you have no reason to say no. The same can apply in ending or
rejecting a romantic relationship. If you give a reason, it can create an
expectation that when the reason changes, the rejection will change as well.
Put this in a legal context and giving a reason for rejection is just asking
for trouble. First of all, the rejected candidate could argue that your reason
was illegal. Second, they could argue you were misinformed, so the reason is
not legitimate. Finally, they could argue they've changed, so you have to
reconsider them, since your stated reason no longer applies.
In all these cases, it's easiest to provide no reason whatsoever. (See also
Miss Manners, who frequently has advised repeating a meaningless, "No, because
I can't; I can't because I won't be able to" type response until the other
person gives up.) Giving a reason creates a focus for an argument. No reason,
no argument, just the other person incessantly begging for a reason, which is
never going to make them look good.
------
AngeloAnolin
Three things I could think of: 1\. Cost 2\. Time 3\. Hiring Process
Elaborating further: Cost - Providing feedback to each applicant is a costly
process, that would normally entail multiple systems (people, resources) to
provide feedback that is going to be specifically helpful to the individual.
Time - Crafting feedback takes time. An automated process would generally be
regarded as more backward, especially from the person receiving the feedback.
Hiring Process - Given the two reasons above, organizations tend to exclude
this practice (particularly for large organizations who may need to process
hundreds or thousands of applicants for a certain posting).
------
lovelearning
Besides lack of any explicit policy / lack of time / legal risks, how does it
really benefit the interviewers if they give such (probably unsolicited)
feedback?
Most people are incapable of accepting criticism anyway, and nowadays where
everyone blogs, tweets or posts on facebook, there is a risk that the
interviewing company may have its hiring process tarnished just for giving
constructive feedback in good faith. "No good deed goes unpunished".
------
helpfuldev
Neither. They are looking for the best candidate.
It's not their job to provide detailed feedback to 100+ lesser candidates.
If you want feedback, it's best to apply through a recruiter. Then you can ask
the recruiter why you were not selected.
------
wglb
Certainly time consuming, but any comments could end up being fodder for
lawsuits.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Masks Don’t Work – A review of science relevant to Covid-19 social policy - teknico
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340570735_Masks_Don%27t_Work_A_review_of_science_relevant_to_COVID-19_social_policy
======
lukev
I don't understand why people feel the need to say stuff like this. It's
dangerous and wrong.
Yes, sure, masks are ineffective if you define "effective" as "a complete
barrier to infection". Congratulations, you've successfully unmasked the the
grand mask conspiracy.
Except that definition is next to useless. What masks _do_ do is _reduce_ the
amount of aerosolized particles that are emitted and inhaled. It's not meant
to be a protective barrier, it's meant to be a numbers game.
Saying masks are useless is like saying you can catch Covid from your mailman,
so if you accept mail packages you may as well just go to a concert.
It's all about volume and probability of contact.
I'd also be interested to hear someone with more knowledge of the science
weigh in on the studies he cites. If masks are as completely useless as he
claims, I would expect the (already high) infection rate among medical
providers to be even higher, at 100%. What gives?
~~~
DanBC
People make two claims for masks.
1) They prevent the wearer from getting the virus from other people.
2) The prevent the wearer giving the virus to other people.
People talk a lot about viral load, and about breathing droplets deep into
your lungs. So, (2) doesn't make much sense to me. The person with mild
covid-19 infection places a mask around their mouth and nose, thus trapping
all those infected droplets, which then get breathed back in. If the mechanism
of action really is "breathing the virus causes severe infection" why would
you want to trap the virus by your mouth and nose?
> If masks are as completely useless as he claims
They're not saying they're completely useless. They're saying that lots of the
people wearing masks expect 100% protection, even if they're doing fucking
stupid things. There's absolutely no point in both wearing a mask and going to
a football match.
[https://www.thenational.ae/image/policy:1.998514:1585469410/...](https://www.thenational.ae/image/policy:1.998514:1585469410/337768-01-05.jpg?$p=bbe75aa&w=1136&$w=ec52ab9)
If we're going to force people to wear masks we need to make sure they're
wearing them correctly, because an incorrectly worn mask may do more harm than
good.
------
bootlooped
The first linked study, the one from Japan, had 32 participants that finished
the study and there were only 2 colds observed, one in each group. To me, a
layperson, that feels like such a small sample size to be totally useless. Am
I wrong about this?
It's also stated, "The main transmission path is long-residence-time aerosol
particles (< 2.5 μm), which are too fine to be blocked". Why when I look at a
CDC article on masks does it say N95 is effective on this particle size?
Unless the author is using "blocked" to mean "100% prevented from moving
through the filter", which would be a higher standard than N95 masks claim to
have.
[https://blogs.cdc.gov/niosh-science-
blog/2009/10/14/n95/](https://blogs.cdc.gov/niosh-science-
blog/2009/10/14/n95/)
~~~
zzzcpan
Both surgical masks and N95 masks can filter out 2.5 μm particles coming in,
the author even cites research showing no difference between them, but it's a
trolling piece, not a scientific paper. The author claims a lot of ridiculous
things.
------
JPKab
Jeremy Howard (of FastAI) is doing a major metastudy on masks at the moment.
Pretty sure they work.
~~~
magduf
Correlation doesn't guarantee causation, but the Asian countries where mask-
wearing has been commonplace for a long time have done far, far, far better
with this pandemic than nations where no one wears masks in public.
~~~
zinclozenge
> Correlation doesn't guarantee causation
This is a vacuous statement in this context and adds nothing to the
discussion, because you can never prove causation via a study/experiment, only
reject the null hypothesis.
------
throwaway743
_If the neuroinvasion of SARS-CoV-2 does take a part in the development of
respiratory failure in COVID-19 patients, the precaution with masks will
absolutely be the most effective measure to protect against the possible entry
of the virus into the CNS._
Can be found in the document under "Supporting Information" at the following
address:
[https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jmv.25728](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jmv.25728)
------
DanBC
I've been fairly strongly anti-mask. I'm not sure the linked paper is
persuasive.
I prefer the papers mentioned here (which argue against my anti-mask position
and are changing my mind a bit): [https://www.fast.ai/2020/04/13/masks-
summary/](https://www.fast.ai/2020/04/13/masks-summary/)
------
Zenbit_UX
Hey doctors in ICUs right now, masks off! You heard it here first folks, a
study says masks are pointless despite all common sense and decades of usage
in hospital settings.
Anyone want to take bets before this information is tweeted out by potus and
on infowars?
------
cbm-vic-20
Masks tell me who is taking this thing seriously, and who might not be.
~~~
skat20phys
In what direction? I think part of the point of this paper is that most masks
aren't taking things seriously enough.
~~~
magduf
No, the point of this paper is that masks are not completely, absolutely,
perfectly, 100% effective and foolproof, and therefore we shouldn't use them
at all.
I really have to wonder if the people pushing this have some kind of agenda.
------
teknico
Is this accurate?
~~~
elmerfud
I can't comment if his paper is accurate without investigation of all the
citations. In general masks are meant to stop larger particulates than what
viruses are, that includes the n95 masks. Also medical masks and shields are
intended to protect the wearer more than they are too prevent the wearer from
spreading their infection. Breathing out puts positive pressure behind the
mask causing it to bypass any filtering effect of the mask.
Cloth masks are a complete joke as far as preventing spread unless you're
someone who constantly sprays spittle when they talk. If you are that person
then no one wants to be in spray range already . Cloth masks will barely
filter dust out. The anecdotal story I share about the masks being more about
a social construct than a medical one is this. My wife works in reception at a
medical office. They started requiring all staff to wear makes but those in
non-paitent facing roles (like her) only get cloth masks. They acknowledged
that the cloth masks did nothing to prevent the spread but it was important to
make masks socially acceptable.
The papers closing does seem to have the conspiracy angle to it which I can't
comment on if this is the case or not but overall there does seem to be quite
a bit of "virology theater" going on with policy making.
~~~
d1str0
Cloth masks can definitely help though. They are good at one thing in
particular, reducing spread and velocity of air movement from your face. If
you breath, cough, or sneeze, the transmission distance is highly reduced. You
still have virus escaping, but it cannot travel as far.
~~~
magduf
This is the key here, and what all these "masks don't work!" people seem to
constantly miss somehow. No, masks are not 100% effective at filtration; any
idiot can see that. They don't have to be 100% effective, they just need to be
better than nothing, and that'll slow the spread of the disease. Keeping
people from spewing germs 20 feet when they sneeze or cough is a big help in
slowing this pandemic.
There's a reason masks have been commonplace in Asia for many years now:
they're meant to protect society, not the wearer. When someone thinks they're
sick in Japan, they're supposed to wear a mask to keep _everyone else_ from
getting sick: it's good manners. It only works when lots of people are doing
the same thing.
Similarly, the cloth masks are actually called "surgical masks", because
they're normally used in surgery. They have absolutely nothing to do with
keeping the surgeon safe from the patient; they're in place to keep the
patient, who has a huge gaping wound in his body, from being infected by
droplets from the _surgeon_ as the surgeon bends over the wound site, and is
breathing and talking to other people.
------
vangelis
Paqing idlewords.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
99-problems in Java 8, Scala, and Haskell - shekhargulati
https://github.com/shekhargulati/99-problems
======
egeozcan
I find the language percentage information (~ Java 57%, Scala 37%, Haskell
5%)[1] a bit scary (and admittedly hilarious), given that I have only serious
experience with Java among the three.
[1]: [http://i.imgur.com/zRwFzSC.png](http://i.imgur.com/zRwFzSC.png)
~~~
stepvhen
Well the 99-problems were originally in Prolog, and many have to do with list
manipulation, something that Haskell has built in. Additionally, Haskell will
benefit from its lazy, functional nature, which makes dynamic programming,
searching, and even some data structures a little cleaner.
I haven't worked with Java in quite a while, but I imagine that it still
requires a lot of boilerplate and set up for trivial things in other
languages. I'm sure if C were also included it would be the most verbose.
~~~
spullara
Java does still include some boilerplate for setting up classes — though that
may go away in 10 when they add scripting. However, it is a lot more terse
than in 7:
package com.shekhargulati.ninetynine_problems._02_arithmetic;
import java.util.stream.LongStream;
/**
* (**) Determine whether a given integer number is prime.
*/
public class P31 {
public static boolean isPrime(long number) {
return !LongStream.rangeClosed(2, Math.round(Math.sqrt(number))).anyMatch(n -> number % n == 0);
}
}
------
krat0sprakhar
OCaml version:
[https://ocaml.org/learn/tutorials/99problems.html](https://ocaml.org/learn/tutorials/99problems.html)
------
sean_the_geek
Warning:shameless promotion, here's my 'R' take on 99 problems, needs working
on though!
[https://github.com/saysmymind/99-Problems-R](https://github.com/saysmymind/99-Problems-R)
------
cjlarose
Maybe someone who knows more about logic programming can correct me, but it
seems that these are just imperative solutions to problems designed to be
solved in a logical programming context.
For example, take a look at problem 2.07 from the original 99-problems for
[Prolog][1] and compare it to the [Java][2] solution in the linked repo. In
Prolog, you're defining relations, so with GCD defined, you can compute the
GCD (g) given two integers a and b, but you can also compute possible values
for b, given a and g, for example. The Java solution doesn't allow for
anything like that.
So, given the README information, I expected to see the implementations in
different language platforms utilize some prolog-esque logic programming
library (like core.logic for Clojure), but that isn't the case.
[1]: [https://sites.google.com/site/prologsite/prolog-
problems/2](https://sites.google.com/site/prologsite/prolog-problems/2) [2]:
[https://github.com/shekhargulati/99-problems/blob/master/jav...](https://github.com/shekhargulati/99-problems/blob/master/java8/src/main/java/com/shekhargulati/ninetynine_problems/_02_arithmetic/P37.java)
------
agentgt
For the Java version I would seriously consider not using JUnit 4's assertThat
and instead rely on AssertJ [1].
Besides AssertJ being easier to use and IMO more elegant than Hamcrest, JUnit
5 will be removin `assertThat`.
I contemplated filing a bug/request but its more of a conversation point than
an issue.
[1]: [http://joel-costigliola.github.io/assertj/](http://joel-
costigliola.github.io/assertj/)
~~~
coredog64
According to this issue[1], JUnit5 will still allow the use of Hamcrest's
'assertThat' in the next major revision.
[1]: [https://github.com/junit-
team/junit5/issues/147](https://github.com/junit-team/junit5/issues/147)
~~~
agentgt
How is that possibly if Hamcrest isn't going to be put in?
I think you misread that bug report.
>Closing this issue since there are no plans to include direct dependencies on third-party assertion libraries within JUnit 5.
------
RodgerTheGreat
K version: [https://github.com/kevinlawler/kona/wiki/K-99%3A-Ninety-
Nine...](https://github.com/kevinlawler/kona/wiki/K-99%3A-Ninety-Nine-K-
Problems)
------
joeblau
I've never used Haskell, but it seems like everything in Haskell can be done
in one line :).
~~~
griffinmichl
It helps that everything in haskell is an expression
~~~
dllthomas
Everything but declarations, anyway.
------
NKCSS
when I read that headline: "... but a B*tch ain't one!"
~~~
parennoob
I'm guessing people are downvoting this comment because they don't want the
Redditization of HN.
If it's any consolation, that was the first thing I thought as well. I even
thought the problems would make some joke reference to the song.
However, it seems as if Werner Hett at the Berner Fachhochschule came up with
this independently of Jay-Z.
~~~
user_0001
Ice-T, Jay-z copied it about 10 years (probably more) later
~~~
lgas
Everyone always forgets about Brother Marquis.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Meter hackers find free parking in San Francisco - abennett
http://www.itworld.com/hardware/73131/meter-hackers-find-free-parking-san-francisco
======
Locke1689
_To figure out how the payment system worked, Grand hooked up an oscilloscope
to a parking meter and monitored what happened when he used a genuine payment
card. He then analyzed that data by hand, and wrote a software program that
would emulate the smart card. After some trial and error, he finally figured
out what his program needed to say to the meter in order to work. Then he
built a card that would replay the same data, using a programmable smart card
called a Silver Card._
A replay attack? Someone hasn't figured out encryption yet...
~~~
jrockway
The cards that do crypto cost 0.05 cents more each. Think of the profit margin
erosion when you sell them for $5 each.
~~~
ars
Why do the cards have to do the encryption? Why can't the meter do it?
~~~
pcc
In a general smart card system, neither the card nor the reader its inserted
into, is supposed to trust the other, as either could be a fake.
Further, the mechanism used to establish the trust (eg challenge-response)
could be observed by a "man in the middle", so should be designed to resist
replay attack.
Yet its scary how easy it is to get this wrong -- e.g. some of the satellite
TV conditional access hacks came about as a result of random number generators
always yielding a predictable (short) sequence, facilitating a basic replay
attack without the hackers even realizing there was an otherwise-passable
challenge-response at work.
Even more scary, on a related note, not that long ago I witnessed the
implementation of a network security "protocol" for a rather prominent US
defense contractor, where the latter insisted that authentication was to be
achieved by encrypting an access password with AES256 using a static shared
secret, refusing to allow any type of challenge-based auth, and failing to see
any problem with always encrypting the same plaintext with the same key (which
obviously yields the same result on the wire every time, making it a breeze to
replay without needing any understanding of the underlying "encryption").
------
felipe
For a moment I thought the title said "available parking" instead of "free
parking". Now _that_ would be a great hack!
------
RobGR
I attended a talk by Chris Tarnovsky at last year's Defcon. It was the best
talk I went to, and the main reason why I resolved to go back to Defcon --
unfortunately I won't be able to attend this year, but if anyone from here is
going , I advise you not to miss his presentation.
------
clistctrl
I noticed this about the meters in Davis Square, I've been contemplating if it
was possible...
------
edw519
We are "hackers" who build things for others.
They are "hackers" who take from others.
We are to be encouraged and admired.
They are to be caught and punished.
We do the right thing no matter how hard it is.
They do the easy thing no matter how wrong it is.
We love turning nothing into something.
They love turning something into nothing.
We get a rush when we see something appear for the first time ever.
They get a rush when they see the same thing disappear again.
We will persevere no matter what it takes.
They will quit when no one notices anymore.
We will leave our mark.
They will take someone else's mark away.
Don't confuse us with them.
~~~
tptacek
A strange response from a very smart person to a rather impressive
technological achievement.
~~~
edw519
My response was not to the technological achievement, but to the ethics of it.
I am always unimpressed with doing wrong things, not matter how impressed
others are.
Many people here at hn are capable of impressive cracking, but choose not to
even go that way. I'm sure there are systems out there I could crack if I
tried, probably quite a few for financial gain. But I dare not go there.
That's one cherry that will never be popped.
Say what you will about the technical merits of individual feats, but I'm much
more impressed with someone who tackles the problems of other people and goes
to work every day building something of use rather than shooting fish in a
barrel, which much cracking is.
I stand by every single word I wrote. In fact, it's one of my favorite posts.
Since crackers often do what they do to impress their peers, perhaps we should
all just be unimpressed so that they can channel their energy into something
more useful.
I didn't know what to expect when I made that post, but I have to say I'm
disappointed. Why am I so often the only responder who has a sense of right
and wrong?
Thanks Thomas, for providing me an opportunity to explain with the only reply
that was suitable.
~~~
tptacek
Sometime in the next N*10 years I'm going to end up in the same city as you,
buy you a drink, and by the time you finish that drink you will have conceded
that what Joe and Jacob did was praiseworthy and impressive. Doubt me? Raise
the stakes: I'll bet you $100.
~~~
edw519
You're on. Hopefully WITH city = "Mountain View" && N = 1.
Warning: I'm "ethically" required to disclose that I'll be ordering a double
Goldschlager top shelf Long Island Iced Tea, so I won't mind losing that bet
:-)
~~~
rms
My money's on tptacek.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
It's Harder to Read Code than to Write It - edw519
http://www.jakevoytko.com/blog/2007/12/22/reading-comprehension-will-make-you-a-better-programmer/
======
cduan
Great post, so true. One point I'd add, though: when you're writing code, make
it readable by commenting well! Sure it's obvious to you why you used a
ternary operator expression that uses a postfix-decrement operator and raises
an exception, but that's not clear to me. Until you tell me that you're
testing to see if an object reference count is zero, decrementing it if not,
and raising an error if so.
Good comments are tedious work and seem pointless at the time, but just wait
until you're reading your own code two weeks later, or even worse, someone
else's. The time you spent explaining yourself frequently makes up for the
time you'll waste later reimplementing what you did the last time around.
~~~
jamesbritt
> Until you tell me that you're testing to see if an object reference count is
> zero, decrementing it if not, and raising an error if so.
But that won't tell me _why_ your code is doing what it's doing
> Good comments are tedious work and seem pointless at the time,
Good comments should make you think about your code, not be some pain point
you are compelled to endure.
If you think it's tedious and pointless, there is a good chance the reader
(quite possibly yourself not to far in the future) will consider the comment
tedious and pointless as well.
~~~
cduan
> But that won't tell me why your code is doing what it's doing
Indeed, that's what the rest of the comment is for.
> Good comments should make you think about your code, not be some pain point
> you are compelled to endure.
Fair point. Yet the fact is that many people enjoy neither commenting nor
thinking about their own code, and that's not going to change. The question is
how to convince people to write good documentation in the face of intrinsic
motivations not to do so, and I think the best persuasion is a reminder of how
they will use that documentation later.
------
gruseom
It's harder to read _bad_ code than to write it.
~~~
parbo
No, _bad_ code is really easy to write.
~~~
gruseom
Am I missing something, or was one of us up too late? :)
~~~
brlewis
No, one of you didn't go to bed early enough. ;-)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Firefox reached 29% share in Europe - rockstar9
http://mozillalinks.org/wp/2008/04/firefox-reached-29-share-in-europe/
======
dualogy
Sometimes you have no choice. Under Linux, for once: I'm loving it, but I
loathe FireFox which is still the only decent browser I've come across there
(but then, I'm only a recent convert = noob in Unixland). Under Windows, my
favourite was Safari, with IE 7 second. But Safari under Wine isn't pretty.
------
kxt
Also, accoring to <http://www.en.rankings.hu/> Firefox 2.x is the most used
web browser version in Hungary. (Although IE6 + IE7 combined are still way
beyond 50%.)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Top-secret UFO files could cause “grave damage” to national security if released - weare138
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/top-secret-ufo-files-could-cause-grave-damage-to-us-national-security-if-released-navy-says/
======
markus_zhang
This is going to be buried deep in the archive. Nothing is going to be
revealed to the public in the near future.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
We Invite Everyone at Etsy to Do an Engineering Rotation - kevingessner
https://codeascraft.com/2014/12/22/engineering-rotation/
======
karmacondon
I'm a huge fan of cross disciplinary rotations of all types. A startup
company, or any organization, should act as a unified whole. "It's not my
problem" is not an option, especially when the company is small and the stakes
are high. Sales depends on engineering which depends on support and
management, an interconnected web. Rotations build empathy, lead to innovative
thinking from outside perspectives and give people greater context. I've
proposed them at several of my past jobs only to be shot down each time. It
says a lot about the management of Etsy that they encourage designers and
product managers to do a rotation on the coding side, when I wasn't able to
convince my team leaders to let php developers from one project rotate to work
on another.
"Human resources" has come to mean paperwork and discipline, but the real
value of the term is much closer to its literal meaning. Developing peoples'
innate capability is very important. Any company can compete to hire the "best
people", but the really smart companies put that effort into increasing the
value of the people that they have. The capacity of the human mind is one of
the broadest and most versatile things in the universe, but most of us quickly
settle into limiting patterns of thought. Just a few days of seeing things
from a new perspective can make all the difference in the world. Etsy's
engineering rotations seem like fun, but I think they will pay off in a big
way. It's hard to put a number on increasing teamwork and understanding.
Programs like this are a great way to maximize that value.
------
robertwalsh0
I loved everything about this article. At my company, we've also found that
providing spaces where people are able to work in a cross-disciplinary fashion
gives the opportunity for innovative ideas. Every Thursday, a team member is
paired with another from somewhere else in the company. While say, a marketing
person can get to learn tech – it's also very rewarding to an engineer to be
able to work with a marketer or a sales person to see that side of the
business. Exposing a marketer to engineering may help her have epiphanies
like, "i might be able to track how effective my last campaign was by doing X"
and an engineer might think about things that could be added to a feature to
maximize user growth. We wrote a blog post about our intra-company pairing
here: [http://blog.scholasticahq.com/post/91759651948/pairing-
thurs...](http://blog.scholasticahq.com/post/91759651948/pairing-thursdays-
how-we-keep-our-team-sharp-by#.VJhVvsABA)
------
pvnick
That is just the coolest idea ever. For non-engineers, software can be a sort
of black box filled with "code," whatever that means. This knowledge gap
frequently leads to conflicts when engineers take longer to build a feature
than non-engineers would like, or when things break that just seem so simple.
Getting everybody involved in the deliberate, painstaking process of writing
quality software is a fantastic way to ensure the everybody is on-board with
the way code is written and minimizes interdepartmental friction. Kudos to
Etsy!
------
Wonnk13
Great idea. I'd love to see a writeup about a rotation in the other direction,
ie give engineers a taste of the business side of the house. As a data
scientist I speak a lot with Sales and Engineering and sometimes the two teams
seem worlds apart...
~~~
lexap
A customer service rotation for everyone in the company is more important.
~~~
stevesearer
Zappos does this and their customer service is some of the best in the
business:
"Each new employee goes through a rigorous month-long training that focuses on
nothing but customer service. They spend 40 hours on the phones helping our
customers because regardless of the specific department they were hired for,
customer service is the priority. Each holiday season when call volume goes
up, everyone in the company pitches in and jumps on the phones because we want
to maintain the same level of service no matter how busy it gets."
[http://www.zapposinsights.com/blog/item/zappos-insights-
anno...](http://www.zapposinsights.com/blog/item/zappos-insights-announces-
its-latest-offering-in-culture-and-customer-service-training-the-school-of-
wow)
~~~
paulhauggis
So instead of temporary staff, they take people off of their current projects
to work in customer service?? This doesn't sound like a good idea to me.
Especially since I've been in positions where I have been on tight deadlines.
The most likely outcome in this scenario is that the employee will not only
have to get their customer service rotations done, but also get their tight-
deadline project done. With me, it's difficult to move from customer service
right back to software development/engineering.
~~~
einhverfr
> So instead of temporary staff, they take people off of their current
> projects to work in customer service?? This doesn't sound like a good idea
> to me.
Why not? It improves solidarity. Actually when I worked at Microsoft doing
tech support, I got pulled _off_ the phones to help with sudden mandatory tech
support rotations due to virus outbreaks. It was great to see marketing
managers have to help people assess whether their systems were infected and
apply appropriate tools. I would take escallations but generally people did a
good job. (Oh and these people showed up with very little training on customer
service or tech support so that was fun).
But I think one thing that Microsoft got out of it (this was in 2002-2003) was
a stronger sense by everyone why it was important to focus more on system
security. I think this improved the company and lead to better software.
> Especially since I've been in positions where I have been on tight
> deadlines.
If management know of the rotation, they will have to adjust the deadlines.
How many deadlines are really necessary beyond a simple measurement rationale?
Management can usually adjust as needed, or reschedule the rotation to a
better point.
> With me, it's difficult to move from customer service right back to software
> development/engineering.
Isn't the point though to ensure that people are engineering and developing
software with customer service in mind?
~~~
paulhauggis
"Why not? It improves solidarity."
There are plenty of better ways to do this.
"I got pulled off the phones to help with sudden mandatory tech support
rotations due to virus outbreaks."
It doesn't sound like you are in any kind of engineering role. When you are on
the phones, you don't have one large project to work on with deadlines and due
dates. It's easy for you to be shifted over to another position.
"If management know of the rotation, they will have to adjust the deadlines.
How many deadlines are really necessary beyond a simple measurement rationale?
Management can usually adjust as needed, or reschedule the rotation to a
better point."
This sounds like a nightmare to deal with. In addition to tight deadlines as a
manager, I now have to deal with customer service rotations?? It's hard enough
to get projects completed with upper management changing scope (which has
happened at pretty much any place I've worked over the last 15 years).
"Isn't the point though to ensure that people are engineering and developing
software with customer service in mind?"
I'm fine with this as long as management realizes that deadlines will need to
change and it might take a couple of days (or even a week) to get back into
the flow of a project that an engineer/developer has been taken off for
customer support. In my experience, management doesn't know or care about
either of these things and thinks you can just move people around when needed.
I'm glad I run my own company now, so I don't have to deal with this bullshit
any longer. I would never implement something like this.
~~~
hhandoko
I think the better way to put it is: it improves empathy.
More often than not, in large teams or organisations there is often a culture
of blame or lack of accountability. I believe these exercises do help to
foster greater teamwork and a sense of ownership (of the business).
I would assume from the fact that you run your own business, surely in the
early stages you would have to take on multiple roles / responsibilities?
------
frostmatthew
I like the rotation idea, but I can't say I see much logic in the desire to
have new engineers deploy to production on their first day mentioned/linked in
the opening. At VMware (or at least on my team) we try to have new engineers
commit code their first week (this doesn't always work out, and when it does
it's usually the 4th or 5th day) and I almost feel that's too soon...first day
just seems nuts.
You don't see this in other professions, e.g. I doubt doctors are performing
surgery or lawyers are going to court on their first day at a new hospital or
firm. I'm just not seeing the value in having someone commit code before
they're possibly familiar with the codebase and [unless it's a product they
used before getting hired] may be equally unfamiliar with what the product
even does.
~~~
rahij
In my experience, I think it has more to do with getting an engineer
acquainted with the pipeline from writing code to getting it live on
production. Once he/she is familiar with this, it takes a huge barrier out of
the way for the person to be productive whenever they are ready to write some
non trivial code in the codebase.
~~~
enjo
That's exactly right. It's not about pushing meaningful or complex code to
production, it's about pushing a small change so that a new engineer can see
the whole process from end-to-end.
We do have people push on their first day here at Gridium and I think it's
really beneficial. The new engineer sees how we work, and the rest of the team
sees that new name in the git logs, on chat, and everywhere else. It sends a
strong message that there is a new _member_ of the team who is going to be
contributing from now on. It helps to establish cultural norms (everyone makes
a big deal out of that first commit which is fun).
I really like the effect it has on our team. Even changing two characters in a
string feels like a big deal and that's awesome.
~~~
frostmatthew
> it's about pushing a small change so that a new engineer can see the whole
> process from end-to-end
Is that really an accurate portrayal of the process though? Most changes
aren't small and take days of development, not minutes or hours. Not to
mention code reviews and QA.
~~~
mcfunley
Yes, it really is an accurate portrayal of the process. Etsy isn't pushing
days of development out in a deploy. That would be considered poor practice at
Etsy.
To make a sizable feature live, you use a bunch of methods in cooperation:
* Only mutate a bare minimum number of executed lines as code deploys.
* Turn features on and off quickly with (much faster) config deploys.
* Release and test features for internal users first (in production).
* Ramp features up to small amounts of production traffic at a time.
* Deploy new code paths and queries so that they're executed, but aren't visible to end users. (You can use this to detect performance problems early.)
But what you never do is sit on days of sizable code changes that you don't
deploy. If you try to deploy a massive diff people in your push will generally
suggest that you not do it.
~~~
frostmatthew
> But what you never do is sit on days of sizable code changes that you don't
> deploy.
That's certainly sensible but I wasn't suggesting sitting on "days of sizable
code changes" \- just that it takes days to make the code changes
(particularly once you factor in code review and QA).
------
zavulon
It's a great idea, but I'm having difficulty understanding the specific task
non-coding employees are doing: adding their own photo to Staff page.
Shouldn't there be a nice user-friendly back-end interface that would let them
do that in about 10 seconds without any code knowledge?
~~~
kellanem
We actively resist automating this process. Because of the way Etsy
development is structured this gap gets fixed periodically and then we have to
go back and un-automate it.
It's a key part of our 1st day push program:
[https://codeascraft.com/2012/03/13/making-it-virtually-
easy-...](https://codeascraft.com/2012/03/13/making-it-virtually-easy-to-
deploy-on-day-one/)
Also it would violate my first rule of engineering which is: "Never build a
CMS"
~~~
zavulon
Thanks for the explanation. Totally agree with "Never build a CMS" rule. But
why not use a pre-built CMS in the first place? Either use Wordpress, or a CMS
plugin for your framework if you're using something like ROR. If you're not
using a CMS, how are you updating the copy on pages like About? Does that
process require a developer each time?
~~~
chucklarge
The Etsy blogs use Wordpress, so we do use existing third-party tools where is
makes sense.
Kellan might have a rule to not build a CMS but we certainly have built one to
manage help page content and other knowledge base pages. That content is
largely managed by our support staff.
I wrote the current tool but it is actively being replaced. We chose to to
roll our own since we'd have to do some work to integrate a third party tool
into our database architecture and authentication system. The tool is heavily
integrated into other internal tooling and has specific workflows that also
make using an existing tool challenging.
The About page content is largely static, aside from the staff photos
mentioned in the above post.
------
drderidder
Kudos to Etsy for doing this. I think there's great value in learning basic
programming skills even if not everyone has the inclination to become a
software designer. Kind of like how taking music lessons has all kinds of
tangential value even if the student doesn't turn out to be another Van
Cliburn.
------
pnathan
I'm continually impressed by Etsy Engineering's descriptions of their
practices and process.
Rotations are a wonderful idea and, IMO, should be done more regularly.
~~~
code_duck
Their descriptions of their practices and processes are the best part about
their practices and processes. For all of Etsy's talk about how wonderful they
and the enlightened philosophies that drive them are, it's very hard to see
evidence of this working with them as a customer or developer.
------
badmadrad
From a UI perspective, I don't love Etsy but I think they really have a world
class engineering team. This not the first time I've heard of good things from
that outfit.
------
hw
As much as the rotation idea is interesting, and can be beneficial on the
surface, I'm not sure if doing so on a recurring basis provides more value
than interruption and the setup/teardown costs of context switching.
Sure, a non engineer could learn a thing or two about how code works, and an
engineer as well on handling support, but I'd be cautious about these sessions
leading to a false sense of understanding how things actually work, which
might eventually lead to, for example, a support person making wrong
assumptions about an issue a customer is having just because he/she paired on
the relevant code base.
IMO cross disciplinary 'rotations' should happen naturally, instead of making
it explicit on a certain day in the quarter. Engineers should have exposure on
a day to day basis on what customers want as well as have exposure to the
product and business side of things in the planning stage of a sprint,
understanding why a story or task is prioritized the way they are, etc. Same
goes for non engineers like product managers or support personnel who often
deal with engineers on an ongoing basis, and the sharing of technical
knowledge should come naturally with each discussion.
------
Havoc
Wish my employer had that. I'd kill for an engineering / IT dev
rotation...since those we're close 2nd & 3rd on my choice of career.
~~~
Kiro
What's your current career?
~~~
Havoc
Finance.
------
pkaye
I wonder how to do this with engineering that requires deep knowledge. At my
work we have SoC designers, layout, analog designers, board layout and
firmware among the engineering departments. I don't think we can even rotate
within the engineering departments as everything is so specialized.
------
radicalbyte
It's not just tech companies doing this. At Volvo we did it as part of our
continuous integration process. It was great fun, it really helped you to
understand the business better.
~~~
Fomite
Many academic departments do this as well, to give people exposure to lots of
different projects in their first few years of graduate school.
------
sytelus
This should be also applied to within engineering teams as well. Employees
when encouraged to move from team to team after certain intervals (such as 3-4
years). There has been argument that this doesn't allow people to specialize
but I feel 3-4 years is long time after which returns are probably diminishing
in developing specialization. This keeps life interesting and you get insights
on how other teams work, their process and tools etc.
------
gohrt
Thank you for not putting "Why" at the beginning of the article title.
------
deepGem
This is really cool. What would be awesome is a design rotation for engineers.
The way some of the top designers work is a joy to experience. Even their
scratch book looks so well organized.
------
kevinSuttle
So many parallels to other industries. The greatest chefs often describe how
they'd held every job in a restaurant before becoming chefs.
------
logicallee
This is like an opera company inviting everyone - altos, contraltos, baritone
and bass male singers, the conductor, the symphony orchestra - to do a
rotation as a soprano singer.
------
frsandstone
This is awesome.
------
productcontrol
It is true, i used to clean the bathrooms there and i went on code rotation,
or as we called it "stink patrol". I thought the stalls were bad, but man,
that codebase was far worse!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: We're 2 engineers and we've built product search better than Google's - dmpn
http://goodzer.com
======
leeHS
Hey there! So I took it for a spin. I entered "bike brakes" since you use this
as an example in your "About" page, but nothing came up within a 50 mile
radius.
Maybe because I'm in Toronto? But if that's the case, perhaps you should have
an "only works in the US" message pop up once your geolocation sees that I'm
outside the country.
Since you mentioned google, I ran the same search on google maps, and all
kinds of stuff came up for bike brakes. Now, much of it was noise, which is
what your product is likely designed to deal with, but at least I got
something!
From a design standpoint, looks clean and clear. Easy to navigate.
Best of luck! Hope it takes off.
~~~
dmpn
Ah, yes it works for US now, Canada will be added before summer.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How do you deal with potential acquirers? - rexreed
How do you respond to someone who says they are interested in acquiring your business (especially a potential competitor) but won't make an offer until you share your financals and other confidential data? Do you ask them to make an offer without seeing the books first or share your data, hoping they make an offer, but realizing you're sharing confidential info? And how do you differentiate serious offers from time wasters who will chew all your time only to either not offer or low-ball after seeing your financial state? Can you get away with saying: "I'm not sharing you anything until you make an offer?" But then how can you obligate them to that?<p>And what if they are adamant that they won't make an offer until they see your books and do due diligence? I would think that if investors can make a Term Sheet commitment contingent on due diligence, so can you do that with potential acquirers. But they don't seem to see it that way?<p>Here's some suggestions we've gotten, but I don't know what is common place or accepted:<p>* Tell potential acquirers that they must first submit a Contingent Offer providing your books substantiate certain minimum metrics.<p>* Tell potential acquirers that they have to pay for your time in doing due diligence, setting a flat rate (say, $20k for sake of argument), with the amount counting as a non-refundable deposit towards the acquisition amount<p>* Use a trusted third party to do a due diligence review, providing your information to the third-party who will not disclose it to the acquirer, but only verify certain required facts or due diligence requests. The Trusted third party inspects the books and doesn't disclose them to the acquirer but knows their desired metrics.<p>* Breakup fee that penalizes them for walking away.<p>* Confidentiality agreement with huge damages for disclosing any of the information outside a small group of people in the acquiring company.
======
pg
Here is some more general advice: assume acquisitions are not going to happen,
and that this whole conversation is probably a waste of time for you. Even if
you tell them everything they want to know, they either won't make an offer or
will lowball you. And meanwhile it will have been a huge and uniquely damaging
distraction.
This model of the world doesn't imply any specific strategy you should follow,
but you'll find that adopting it will change the way you think about the
situation. You'll stop bending over backwards (why bother, since nothing is
going to happen?) which will in turn make them take on the burden of figuring
out how to make the deal happen, which they'll do if they're serious.
~~~
rexreed
Good advice! But how do you respond to indications of interest? Just ignore
them and say you are not interested until they are literally waving cash in
front of you, begging to aquire you, or require that they follow specific
steps to indicate real interest, such as a Contingent Offer with a due
diligence deposit, breakup fee, and strict NDA?
How is this done with the lots of sub $10M acquisitions that happen? Clearly
deals are being done here, so I'm sure it doesn't pay to ignore bona fide
offers, but obviously there's a lot of time wasters out there too.
What do you advise your YC portfolio companies to do here? Just ignore all
offers or refer them to their lawyers or investors?
~~~
pg
Our first advice is not even to talk to acquirers unless you want to sell the
company now. It's remarkable how often founders who don't actively want to
sell will talk to acquirers anyway, just to see if they'll make some offer too
good to refuse. But acquirers never do that. When their offers are surprising,
they are always surprisingly low. And the conversation is far from zero cost.
Very far. That's the other big mistake.
~~~
the_watcher
My assumption would be if an acquirer is willing to make you an offer too good
to refuse and you aren't actively looking to sell, then not talking to them
would be the best way to actually spur that offer.
------
patio11
With regards to companies, I think pg's answer is the correct one.
In real estate, there is an institution called "earnest money." It is
structurally similar to your 2nd bullet point -- a deposit against the
eventual transaction price which is forfeited if the prospective buyer doesn't
close the transaction within a particular window of time. (It gets returned if
the seller kills the deal.) Earnest money protects the interests of the
potential seller by screening out bozos. It protects the interests of the
potential buyer by reassuring the potential seller that there are 120,000
reasons attesting to the buyer being really serious about the $6 million
commercial property acquisition being discussed and therefore questions about
e.g. engineering, permits, tenants, etc should be responded to as quickly as
feasible.
$50,000 is barely about two work-weeks or less at the rates involved of
professionals involve in M&A. If you want a quick out from fishing
expeditions, tell them that you're willing to entertain offers but that, to
avoid wasting the business' legal/accounting/engineering resources, you'll
require $50k earnest money prior to dedicating them to exploring the
feasibility of a deal.
A related strategy: "I'm not super-interested in doing an investment /
acquisition / etc at the moment, but I'm a reasonable businessman and willing
to entertain your offer." "We need a $FOO to get the ball rolling." "I have
entertained that offer and do not feel it is the best use of our time to
proceed on this at this time." "It is absolutely standard to..." "If your firm
really wants to do this, I'm sure you'll figure out a way to make it happen.
If not, no worries -- we'll both end this chat no worse than where we started
it. Best of luck in your endeavors."
------
xrd
I would assume that all agreements are something that can and will be broken.
The only thing that works is make them put their money where their mouth is.
If they are serious about acquiring you, they must be prepared to spend money
to do it: lawyer fees, accounting fees, and money paid to you in exchange for
your company. So, make sure there is money on the table: a non-refundable
termination fee, which could be a percentage of the theoretical purchase
price. I went with 5% with the sale of my company.
A good salesman will never put a price out there first, so you will probably
need to come up with that valuation: just put it out there high enough so you
will be happy were it to go through, and assume this is the beginning of the
negotiation. If you and the acquirer cannot get close in that discussion, this
is a good gauge of future success in the other more complicated discussions
that will come.
As others have said, get a good lawyer. There are lots of places where this
can go awry. When I sold my company (~$450k), I did not understand the
difference between an asset sale and a stock sale which has vastly different
taxation implications. A good accountant is worthwhile here as well for the
same reason.
You can tell them you cannot engage in a detailed discussion without the
termination fee conversation completed since you will be spending money as
well.
~~~
eru
> A good salesman will never put a price out there first [...]
Why would that be? Wouldn't a good salesman anchor as many details of the deal
as possible in his favour?
~~~
patmcc
Naming the first price tends to give up too much information. The other party
now knows what you value it at (at either the highest or lowest price,
depending on the side) and can negotiate you up or down from there. It also
puts an immediate floor or ceiling on the negotiation that could burn you.
This is _especially_ true if the information is asymmetrical.
Imagine you're interviewing for your first job in a new industry/country -
they ask you what you want to earn, and you say "$50,000". Now they can either
say "oh, that's much higher than our starting rate" or "that sounds about
right" \- they'll almost never say "really? We were thinking $75k."
~~~
ricardobeat
It might go against the business' interests to lowball a hire beyond the base
salary, and in many places it is illegal to pay someone a lesser salary than
somebody else in the same position. I've heard of the "we were thinking +$xx"
happening a few times; I guess both sides end up very happy.
~~~
eru
> [...] and in many places it is illegal to pay someone a lesser salary than
> somebody else in the same position.
So everyone gets the same salary (in the same position)?
------
bliti
First of all, get a lawyer. I went through the same thing, and talking with
lawyers helped me get my head set correctly. There are various firms in SV and
TX that focus on this sort of thing. I don't remember their names, but a web
search will surely help you find them. Talk to the lawyers, tell them what you
want, and what you got. Then have them take care of things. Otherwise, you
might end up being liable for stuff you did not know about.
Also, a lot of companies do this to take away your focus. Don't treat the
buyout as something real until the money clears. Otherwise, focus on the
business.
~~~
cullenking
I am going to counter this advice, and say first thing you do is gauge
interest, start the conversations, let them push for it. When things are
obviously starting to solidify and are getting serious, then consult with an
attorney.
I just went through this situation last year, and while taking legal advice
early on is good, it's _very_ easy for lawyers to get their share of money. If
you already have a relationship with a lawyer, sit down with them for an hour
and get an overview, but don't have them do anything like draft documents,
review dialogue, etc. They'll want to do these things (billable hours) but
they'll just cost you a ton, when 95% of the time the deal isn't going to
happen anyway.
------
tptacek
Here's an answer I wrote to a similar question a couple months back:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6650317](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6650317)
Acquisition negotiations are extremely expensive. Assume they're going to fall
through, and that you'll lose a lot in the process.
------
mikekij
Confidentiality agreement + breakup fee.
Be more worried about wastng your time and diverting attention from running
your business than your competitors seeing your books.
Stay focused on your business. Sacca says companies are bought, not sold.
------
amorphid
Find a founder or board member type person who has been through a couple of
these. I sold my company a couple years ago, and it was invaluable to be
counseled by proven exit veteran.
Here's some general advice: * Come up with a number that you'd be willing to
sell for, mostly to know when a deal is at least good enough * Anyone who is
serious about dealing with you will not expect you to work for free, unless
you truly have no power, which I suspect is unlikely * Keep growing & running
your business until it's not your job anymore * Have fun, and don't make big
decisions when tired or grumpy
Good luck my friend :)
------
sheetjs
> * Breakup fee that penalizes them for walking away.
This is pretty standard, especially when there are regulatory concerns. AT&T
ended up shelling out more than $1B when the T-Mobile deal fell apart.
~~~
rexreed
But what about the typical run-of-the-mill startup scenario where you're doing
minimal to some small revenues and the potential acquirer is either a
competitor or a larger company? Are breakup fees common in these single to low
double digit $M acquisition scenarios?
~~~
xrd
Understand that "common" is a made up concept here. Every acquisition is
different. You get what you demand here.
------
redtexture
Unstated is any indication of your own desire to continue with the business.
Why would you entertain the time and effort for a failed conversation? Get
this straight first.
Consider the likely possibility that your potential competitor learns of your
financial situation, and operations in detail, and walks away, with the intent
to modify their own business based on what they learn, thanks to your
tutorial.
------
sarojt
I would impose a breakup fee to penalize them for walking away.That way you
can keep non serious buyers at bay and safeguard your interest.
------
blazespin
I think you have a number of ideas already, anything more specific would
probably depend on knowing the unique parameters of your situation. What
business do you have that someone wants to acquire?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
It's 2012, and there's still no official SIP to Skype gateway - xxqs
Any idea why Skype does not provide any official means to call skype accounts from a SIP connection? Even a paid interface is not available.
The only thing that is available is a paid service where you can call phone numbers from Skype to your SIP trunk<p>so, there's a huge world of SIP telephony, and another huge world of Skype users. And they don't talk to each other.<p>I'm not considering dirty hacks which bind Asterisk or FreeSWITCH with a Skype GUI client installed on the same machine.
======
wmf
The purpose of Skype is to have a monopoly on the namespace and interop
threatens that. Realistically, don't most people use SIP with phones that can
only dial numbers?
~~~
xxqs
there's plenty of ways to assign a numeric alias to a SIP name. For example, I
run a virtual PBX with my internal numbering plan. I could assign internal
numbers to skype names, for example.
------
blakdawg
Who would make money if this existed? Who would lose money? I have a hard time
articulating a concrete benefit for Microsoft that would result from a
gateway.
~~~
xxqs
as I mentioned in above comment, I already pay for skype-to-PSTN calls, and I
wouldn't mind paying for SIP<=>Skype calls as well
------
tnuc
>so, there's a huge world of SIP telephony, and another huge world of Skype
users. And they don't talk to each other.
They do talk to each other, users pay for the privilege.
Think of it as a win/win for skype/sip providers. Just not a win for the
users.
~~~
xxqs
see my other comment below. I know about SkypeConnect, and it's only usable
for particular types of businesses.
the win/win for sype/sip providers is only when the calls go through PSTN
beween them.
~~~
tnuc
>I know about SkypeConnect, and it's only usable for particular types of
businesses.
I didn't mention skype connect.
>the win/win for sype/sip providers is only when the calls go through PSTN
beween them.
Do you really think the operators of skype or the sip providers cut the PSTN
people in for anything when they don't have to? The only direct through pstn
as a last resort.
I have called peoples skype-in numbers from my skype account. I do get charged
for this. I am certain it goes through no pstn network.
~~~
xxqs
could you be more specific? what exactly service did you talk about in the top
comment?
~~~
tnuc
>what exactly service did you talk about in the top comment?
Skype.
~~~
xxqs
>They do talk to each other, users pay for the privilege.
what exactly service are you talking about? what kind of communication,
between which parties?
------
mcs
There's an online service called Blue Jeans Network that lets you have a
conference call with Skype, H.323, Google Talk, and Microsoft Lync
participants.
<http://bluejeans.com/>
~~~
xxqs
yes there are some services like this. I tried Comfytel about a month ago:
[http://txlab.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/comfytel-com-one-
more-...](http://txlab.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/comfytel-com-one-more-free-
pstn-to-sip-gateway-provider/)
the problem was, about 30% of calls didn't reach my skype client. I guess
Comfytel uses one of those dirty hacks. Probably bluejeans too.
~~~
mcs
I used to work there, and they have a skypekit license. It doesn't use the
"spawn a skype linux client and use the plugin interface" method, it's a
direct integration.
~~~
xxqs
hmm, thanks. It's probably a quite expensive license, as the default developer
agreement is quite restrictive: [http://www.mail-archive.com/asterisk-
[email protected]/ms...](http://www.mail-archive.com/asterisk-
[email protected]/msg48959.html)
any explanation why 30% of calls were dropped?
------
iso8859-1
Here's a link for the hack you mentioned:
[http://www.personal.psu.edu/wcs131/blogs/psuvoip/2011/12/sky...](http://www.personal.psu.edu/wcs131/blogs/psuvoip/2011/12/skype_for_asterisk_the_hard_way.html)
~~~
xxqs
yes, and I'll never run it on my voip server :)
------
learntogoogle
"Still no"?
There was "Skype for Asterisk" for a long time, and unsurprisingly it's the
first hit on Google. It was killed shortly after MS bought Skype. Life is hard
when you buy into proprietary protocols.
~~~
ComputerGuru
It was killed shortly after MS bought Skype, but it wasn't MS that killed it.
A year+ before, Asterisk users received an email saying that the contract
would not be renewed.
------
vollmarj
So... Skype launched their official SIP service years ago. It is called Skype
Connect. They wouldn't provide a gateway because that would cannibalize their
low cost SIP trunking service. See <http://www.skype.com/intl/en-
us/business/skype-connect/>
~~~
xxqs
this service does not allow to call a skype user from a SIP trunk. What they
offer is just a regular SIP-to-PSTN service, plus a way for skype users to
call into your SIP trunk.
I am paying Skype for PSTN calls already. I wouldn't also mind paying them for
SIP-to-Skype and Skype-to-SIP (with any public SIP destination) calls if there
were such service.
------
wslh
It is complex to fully reverse engineer Skype:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype_protocol>
~~~
xxqs
I'm actually talking about officially supported ways of communicating, not
hacking
------
patrocles
and no IPv6.
granted, getting rid of NAT probably means Skype dies
~~~
xxqs
I don't think so. They have an easy to use client, and a huge user base. I
guess they will also add ipv6 support as soon there's enough ipv6 adoption on
the residential market.
I also don't have ipv6 at home from my cable provider, and they don't even
tell when I can expect it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Comparative Advantage in economics confirmed by evidence - chewxy
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/confirming-ricardo-0620.html
======
chewxy
Paper can be found here: <http://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/17969.html>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Here's What to Do If Both Your Pilots Die on a 737 - mirap
http://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/a19397/heres-what-to-do-if-both-your-pilots-die-on-a-737/
======
makecheck
Please stop linking to the page-that-talks-about-the-page.
They're actually referring to this Quora page: [https://www.quora.com/What-
should-I-do-if-the-pilot-passes-o...](https://www.quora.com/What-should-I-do-
if-the-pilot-passes-out-and-I-with-no-flight-training-have-to-land-the-plane)
------
EvanPlaice
If both pilots die I'd land that pig.
One of the benefits of prior experience working on flight simulators is I
actually have practice landing 737s (testing is fun).
Talk to the control tower, request a runway for approach. Dial in the
navigation station to the specified ILS beacon. Pray to god there's no cross
wind. Decrease speed @ 5-7 nautical mi range and switch flaps to 20 degrees.
Watch the ADI for the cool little runway indicator to popup when the runway is
in range (the analog ones are especially cool). Drop landing gear. Adjust
approach to stay within one dot on the horiz/vert glideslope indicators. Land.
Reverse thruster to slow down. Steer and brake using the foot petals.
The change in flaps is necessary to increase lift @ slower speeds and slightly
upturn the nose on landing for that nice rear-wheel-first touch down. Do _not_
attempt to land @ 0 degrees flaps. I've done it before in a 747-400 sim while
testing the EGPWS, "you're doing it wrong" callouts. It only took the 5 tries
to hypothetically not crash and die.
If you're in an Airbus, 'land' mode is the equivalent to 20 degrees flaps
because European pilots aren't smart enough to understand geometry.
Useful tips:
Don't wear yourself out fighting the yoke, the little up/down triggers on the
yoke will adjust the trim to compensate for wind and/or resistance. Pitch/roll
on the yoke, yaw with the petals. Don't manhandle the yoke, a light touch is
enough. Avoid roll on approach. Use yaw to compensate for wind. It's better to
be slightly above altitude than touch down short of the runway. If the first
approach sucks add power and go around.
_Aside: I totally probably forgot something critically important._
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
One Policy to Control Them All: Shared Modular Policies Agent-Agnostic Control - jonbaer
https://wenlong.page/modular-rl/
======
pathak22
Tweet-print (summary of the paper):
[https://twitter.com/pathak2206/status/1281656944718053378](https://twitter.com/pathak2206/status/1281656944718053378)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The "Unix issue" is 35 years old - phkamp
http://www3.alcatel-lucent.com/bstj/vol57-1978/bstj-vol57-issue06.html
35 years ago they wrote: "UNIX is not the end of the road in operating systems innovations, [...]" but it very much was the final word: Today the only OS's left are those which converged on "the UNIX model" and your mobile and your TV both run UNIX.
======
phkamp
... and to be fair: Rob Pike absolutely nailed this 13 years ago:
[http://herpolhode.com/rob/utah2000.pdf](http://herpolhode.com/rob/utah2000.pdf)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
What ABOUT Sanders? - yadayadayada
What are your educated and intelligent thoughts about Sanders? I really want to believe; but, the odds are stacked against the guy heavily.<p>Thoughts?
======
sharemywin
The problem I have with most politicians is that most changes come with pros
and cons. And they completely want to ignore the cons.
Quote from Forbes website: "The United States remains the world leader in
medical innovation, having produced more than half of the world’s new
medicines over the last decade. But our edge is slipping away because of
crippling domestic regulatory and tax policies.
A new report by Battelle, an international science and technology company,
found that other countries are working aggressively to lure research
facilities and high-paying jobs away from the United States. They are offering
friendlier regulatory policies so companies can get products to patients
faster, and they are lowering taxes and offering other incentives to boost
private investment in new medicines and medical devices."
I'm not saying a single payer system can't work, just what are the things that
need mitigated if it were to come to be.
~~~
yadayadayada
I think Sanders is taking a very level headed approach contrary to what the
MSM tells us. He is well aware that profits drive innovation; but, it should
not be at the cost of egregiously high prices and big pharmaceutical companies
devoting HALF (yes, half) their profits to marketing schemes and lobbying
policies.
I mean, if you have bankers telling what laws to pass for or repealing those
against their interests in a democracy (which, I assume all of us want, or
not?), then things have clearly gone too far.
As for libertarianism... My qualms with it is that if we woke up to a
libertarian country (assuming you and other readers are from the US, which
isn't the case obviously; but, for sake of this argument we may assume
that...) then any potential competition to the present powers that be (think
Coca-Cola or... well you get the point, I hope) would face total annihilation
from the unrestrained influence of such conglomerates. Anyway, my point is to
get off my tangent is that the playing field isn't level and definitely not
fair.
Is Sanders a solution to ALL the problems we face? No; but, then again arguing
with his closest friend, Chomsky, is a hard thing to do and I mostly agree
with most of the REASONED, not ideological (that needs more emphasis), ideas
that Sanders proposes, and they aren't all that "radical" as the MSM says they
are.
Cheers.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Resurrecting the extinct frog with a stomach for a womb - ComputerGuru
http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/03/15/resurrecting-the-extinct-frog-with-a-stomach-for-a-womb/
======
verelo
This is seriously cool and great to see coming out of Australia.
I know there have been attempts to clone several other species in recent
years, what are the most common issues with attempting to do this? I suspect
not having a sufficient DNA sample, so how was one obtained for this case? Are
the DNS repositories out there for extinct animals or those nearing extinction
just so that one day we can bring them back? If not, i think this wouldn't be
a terrible idea...
------
diego_moita
He injected the DNA of an extinct frog into the egg of a living frog.
I wonder if Jurassic Park is the next step.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Vo Trong Nghia Architects – S-House 2 - ph0rque
http://votrongnghia.com/projects/s-house-2/
======
linhchi
I've been in one of VTN's awarded house in Saigon. I've read quite a lot
discussion of Vietnamese's architects around his works in general.
I agree with some comments that, VTN creative points in his designs (a very
nice lighting solution for dining room, for example) comes at a quite high
cost of other parts in the house. He pushes the stairway till the point of
feeling suffocated so that he can have an innovatively beautiful corner
somewhere in the living room.
He pays functionality for beauty, so you may admire his work on picture or if
you visit the house once or twice but living there long enough, you'd start to
be annoyed. Which makes me think it's not a good sacrifice.
------
drsim
I worked on building a school in Uganda. There our main issue was being able
to afford the cement and corrugated roofing.
The bricks were made from baked clay and basic tools were the same as used in
small agriculture. We took rocks from the ground and smashed them up to give
us hardcore. Labour wasn't a problem as the entire community pitched in.
Prefabricated structures just weren't affordable at all. Taking free building
materials from nature was key. The transport and cost of cement was our
constraint.
This project uses a prefab structure, either on a prefab or poured slab
foundation. That doesn't seem readily transportable by boat as they state.
Rather than just using local materials for finishing a better solution would
surely be to come up with ways to use modern construction methods with locally
sourced materials.
------
galfarragem
It's good to see architecture in the HN front page even if this is _just
another project_.
There are _hundreds_ (not exagerating) of interesting approaches but you can't
see any of them prospering. Why? Being interesting is different from being an
epiphany but specially because the lack of political backup. Architecture
without politics will hardly ever change anything.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
ISPs Aim to Use Facebook Fracas to Saddle Silicon Valley with Crappy New Laws - sqdbps
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180409/09020639593/broadband-industry-aims-to-use-facebook-fracas-to-saddle-silicon-valley-with-crappy-new-laws.shtml
======
drawkbox
The ISPs are in an all out attack on competitors like
Facebook/Google/Netflix/others. ISPs bought their way into the market with the
ISP privacy protections being removed [1][2] and net neutrality being killed
rather than innovating. The privacy protections being removed helped lessen
the FCC grip on privacy and helped their case, with legislators not the
people, to remove FCC net neutrality protections.
It is obvious everywhere that massive PR pushes are going on and astroturfing
to a heavy degree everywhere ISP competitors on the advertising/privacy/data
space are.
Instead of innovating their way in with products people want and improving
their networks so people pay more, the ISPs are trying to win this via bribing
for legislation and mud slinging. They bought their way in with the ISP
privacy protections being removed under the FCC to the FTC because they have
more leverage there.
It is sad ISPs have resorted to this instead of innovating and creating
products people want by improving them rather than trying to slow down
competitors via bribing and lobbying.
ISPs were once a beacon of innovation bringing in broadband, now they are in
the milking it phase.
[1] [https://eff.org/deeplinks/2017/03/five-creepy-things-your-
is...](https://eff.org/deeplinks/2017/03/five-creepy-things-your-isp-could-do-
if-congress-repeals-fccs-privacy-protections)
[2] [https://www.flake.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2017/3/op-
ed-f...](https://www.flake.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2017/3/op-ed-for-the-
wall-street-journal)
~~~
ethbro
I find it ironic that two classes of monopolies (ISPs and Big Web) are being
discussed here with diametrically opposed recommendations.
For ISPs, the council is that they should be regulated (e.g. net neutrality,
data privacy).
For Facebook, Google, et al. the council is that they shouldn't be regulated
(e.g. EU GDPR).
I have yet to see a cogent argument justifying that difference. My suspicion
is that it ultimately falls down to "ISPs are unpopular, web companies are
popular."
When it comes down to it, regulation promoting consumer privacy, price and TOS
transparency, and access by new entrants to the market is almost always
beneficial... to the consumer.
Because let's not kid ourselves that Facebook or Google are fundamentally
different than someone who owns the last mile of your network connectivity.
Their current behavior might be (mostly) benevolent, but the centralization
they've engineered means if they want to maximize monetization tomorrow...
~~~
joe_the_user
_I find it ironic that two classes of monopolies (ISPs and Big Web) are being
discussed here with diametrically opposed recommendations._
Technically, "Big web" would be perhaps a structural oligopoly [1] or you
could say the market has monopolistic competition[2]. they're protected by the
network effect, they provide unique products that are hard to duplicate. They
are not actual monopolies as economists define them (and not really monopolies
in the popular understanding either).
But ISPs are straight, government-granted monopolies [3]. Such companies have
essentially one incentive, be good at influencing regulators and legislators.
Glibly equating these market structures distorts the situation.
As to why ISPs should be regulated in the name of neutrality and privacy?
Well, they _already are highly regulated_. They are _creations_ of regulation.
The public damn well should get something _out_ of that regulation,
especially, the regulation is all about ameliorating the abusive situation
their (actual, not pseudo) monopoly position invites.
[1]
[http://www.economicsonline.co.uk/Business_economics/Oligopol...](http://www.economicsonline.co.uk/Business_economics/Oligopoly.html)
[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopolistic_competition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopolistic_competition)
[3] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government-
granted_monopoly](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government-granted_monopoly)
~~~
ethbro
So your contention is that structural oligopolies (or markets with
monopolistic competition) should _not_ be regulated?
I'd be curious to know why.
~~~
joe_the_user
_So your contention is that structural oligopolies (or markets with
monopolistic competition) should not be regulated?_
That's nowhere in my argument. I merely pointed that government grant
monopolies pretty much automatically _should_ be regulated since they are
virtually extensions of government fiat already ("we" give Comcast etc a
monopoly on placement on phone poles and similar stuff, we should get
something for that) and that this situation isn't comparable to monopolistic
competition.
If you're curious, I think actual private companies should be regulated when
their actions involve negative externalities [1] in their production process -
chemical companies should not be able to dump toxins into rivers, broadly
greenhouse gases should be limited, etc.
One might argue that Facebook selling people's data to the highest bidder is
another kind of negative externality. I would argue that a better outcome is
consumer education, gradually people learn whatever they post online has a
significant risk of being public. Similarly, it's better for people to learn
not to be manipulated by simple schemes than to imagine a firewall against the
manipulations of evil people. Just consider that a firewall against
manipulations of evil people would _let in the manipulation of "good people"_,
right? Perhaps that's the whole idea.
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Externality](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Externality)
~~~
rayiner
> we" give Comcast etc a monopoly on placement on phone poles and similar
> stuff, we should get something for that) and that this situation isn't
> comparable to monopolistic competition.
Comcast doesn’t have a monopoly on placing things on utility poles. Poles are
mostly owned by power companies or the local phone company, and those entities
are required to lease pole space to everyone at non-discriminatory rates.
------
scottie_m
Silicon Valley needs new laws, accept that, and make the fight about ensuring
those laws aren’t burdensome, anticompetitive, and downright stupid. If you
spend your energy trying to make those laws not happen at all, they’ll be done
to us and not with us. It’s time to accept that a significant (more than 65%)
of people want regulations in the tech space, and calmly, patiently explain
what kinds of regulations can be helpful and which would be disastrous. Accept
that it will be a matter of compromise (at best) and that means no one will be
entirely happy.
~~~
sambull
Silicon Valley doesn't need new laws that's bullshit. People and privacy need
strong laws that protect them. Irregardless of who's doing it.
~~~
DanielBMarkham
That's a great point.
_I_ need the protection. We don't need to go and start creating huge
regulatory bodies around various industries, pitting one against the other.
Make it so my information can't be captured -- or it can't be shared. Or make
it so that keeping any information of mine past 30 days is a felony.
Then no matter who the businesses are, people can sue them and owners can go
to jail.
Instead of trying to figure out exactly where the tech is right now, and how
things might change? Bullshit. Protect _me_. With enough protections, the rest
of it will work itself out.
~~~
state_less
I think the problem is the roll back of net neutrality for ISPs and at the
same time calling for regulation on content providers. It doesn't seem like
these interests are protecting the citizens.
Anyhow, I do agree we should be protecting peoples right to privacy and
unfettered access to the internet.
~~~
DanielBMarkham
You're right, of course, but as scottie_m points out, the main issue here is
one around messaging.
The enemy of getting this fixed is complexity. Once we start targeting
individual companies, types of internet connections, or hardware devices?
We've lost. It's all over.
It's not these things don't need fixing, it's that we have about ten words or
so to put into a slogan. That slogan needs to be repeated over and over again.
I am a firm believer in Net Neutrality -- but that's not the right slogan to
march under. If we get Net Neutrality and everything else stays the same, it's
a complete loss.
By shifting the focus to each user, we can talk more directly about benefits.
And by making penalties perhaps draconian, we can leave the management of the
complexities to the vendors, where it belongs, instead of the public debate,
where the lawyers win.
Privacy and anonymity are much bigger fish to fry than whether YouTube costs
more than Instagram. If we could come up with a simple slogan to cover both of
them, sign me up. Otherwise? We gotta stop everybody from putting telemetry on
every detail of our lives.
Before the 60s in the U.S., there was pervasive and deeply-held racism, but
most people didn't see it, even those who wanted to be morally superior to
everybody else. (See the movie "The Help"). Many times I think of what that
issue is for us. What will we look back on in 50 years as being barbaric and
evil? What is our current equivalent to the Civil Rights campaigns?
It's storing tracking data about the minute parts of people's lives. We will
either morally overcome this or we will enter a new Dark Ages. There's no
middle ground. Here. Here is the moral battle.
~~~
state_less
It's not just the Net Neutrality rules, along with Obama era Net Neutrality
rules that were set to be put in place, there were security and privacy rules
that ISPs also overturned. If we simply regulate the content providers, we
won't get privacy on the internet and we'll also reward ISPs for their
lobbying and manipulation.
ISPs don't need to collect our data to provide service, yet they do. Content
providers don't need to track us, yet they do. They both need to be addressed,
or as you say, "we've lost." So, Privacy Now! Or some better clarion call.
[https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/10/verizon-asks-
fcc...](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/10/verizon-asks-fcc-to-
preempt-any-state-privacy-or-net-neutrality-law/)
[https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/04/trumps-
signature...](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/04/trumps-signature-
makes-it-official-isp-privacy-rules-are-dead/)
------
carlmcqueen
Can we please lump the data leaks of Equifax and the like in with the need for
these new laws that shift user data from something companies are mining to
something they are protecting and disclosing?
~~~
lithos
ISPs are planning to get into the data game. They aim to have laws that limit
SV type startups, rather than increase their future liability.
~~~
mortenjorck
The only good outcome will be for this to backfire _spectacularly_ with
privacy protections that limit ISPs just as much as the tech companies.
The ISPs are already playing a dangerous game. Unlike their buddies at the
FCC, congress is elected, and with enough popular pressure (and midterms
coming up), they can be persuaded to do the right thing.
~~~
aerotwelve
Particularly since the perceptions of the telecom industry are not exactly
positive as a whole.
It's worth raising a question -- do the executives at
AT&T/Comcast/Mediacom/Verizon really think that the public is on their side?
------
mkirklions
As someone that is programming a finance tech app, every regulation is bad for
the future.
I am not afraid of regulation but its an annoying burden to keep big players
big, and small players non-existent.
Most people do not have the money or motivation I have, and those people lose
out because of regulations.
Never let a good tragedy go to waste.
~~~
moate
If you don't regulate you allow bad players to keep doing bad things.
If you do regulate you force bad players to work harder to keep doing bad
things.
I understand that regulation has negative side effects and unintended
consequences. But truly free markets lead to child labor and depressed worker
wages. It's impossible to craft perfect regulations, but it's implausible to
assume "everything will just sort itself out if we let the free market be
completely free" since that has literally never happened on a broad scale.
------
simion314
IF there is a war between ISPs and social networks maybe we get some benefits
like the practices of ISPs and social networks getting more public for the
regular person.
------
cwyers
This article feels so slanted it's unreadable. Conceding that Facebook and
Google probably actually do need to be regulated happens near the very bottom
of the article; until then you'd be forgiven for thinking that the ISPs made
all their concerns about those companies up.
~~~
_bxg1
Agreed. Silicon Valley could frankly use some "crappy new laws". Of course, so
could ISP's, and that didn't happen.
------
Gargoyle
HN users have been pounding loudly on the anti-Facebook wardrums. Where did
you imagine that going?
~~~
saagarjha
A place where Facebook changes their policy to take into account their users'
privacy?
------
yalogin
Is there any website that documents who all the ISPs sell our data to? Or at
least can we know how much they earn from our data?
------
macspoofing
ISPs and traditional media outlets (old media).
------
walshemj
"Oh dear how sad" hand back your licence then :-)
------
bitrazor123
Frankly as an end-user , one has to choose between bad and worse. Consumers
are a true product now, readily available for exploitation
~~~
quantized1
And to worsen the legal system doesn't come to rescue. Infact they joined hand
with business and created a bible size EULA with legal jargon, which end-user
have to accept and move forward.
------
sqdbps
So does the news industry.
------
908087
Techdirt really doesn't live up to its name. When that site isn't actively
avoiding major stories that make Silicon Valley megacorps look bad, they're
busily defending the Surveillance Valley business model outright.
The "ISPs are bad, therefore Silicon Valley should be allowed to continue
running roughshod over users' privacy" narrative is really idiotic. It tries
to present this as a situation where we have a choice of either regulating
ISPs, or regulating privacy-invading Silicon Valley surveillance corporations,
but not both.
Edit: I just read the full article, and yes maybe my assumption wasn't
charitable. That said, I had just got done reading this article where Mike
Masnick encourages us to continue giving the benefit of the doubt to someone
who has repeatedly violated trust for more than a decade, which left me _ass_
uming it would just be more of the same.
[https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180408/22400539590/faceb...](https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180408/22400539590/facebook-
derangement-syndrome-company-has-problems-must-we-read-worst-into-absolutely-
everything.shtml)
~~~
jklinger410
Your comment reflects a bad faith reading of the article and actually doesn't
reflect the content of what was written.
Maybe read the article next time and not make such a low-effort comment.
~~~
908087
Most of what I've read on techdirt over the past couple years seems to
represent a bad faith effort to frame the current situation as "ISPs vs.
Silicon Valley and the users", where the reality of the situation is "ISPs and
Silicon Valley vs. the users" (and there's a recent situation in California
where the ISPs teamed up with Silicon Valley to prove that point). It's hard
to give the benefit of the doubt to that site at this point.
..and I say this as someone who used to be a big fan of that site. It's
disappointing.
------
dsfyu404ed
The people who make up the tech industry been a huge proponent of regulating
all sorts of things at all scales, from individual actions to small businesses
to large corporations.
The use of the FB/CA "scandal" to promote knee jerk legislation that burdens
the tech industry is just tech being on the receiving end of something they
have no qualms about advocating for when it happens to a different industry.
~~~
Consultant32452
This is a bit like the old adage about noticing how bad news reporting is in
areas you're an expert, but then just blindly swallowing all other news. In
this case it's regulation rather than news coverage.
------
mtgx
Silicon Valley brought this to itself. I used to warn of this before, too,
that they can't continue to do "evil stuff" and expect to have people's
backing when the governments will come after them to regulate them for
whatever reason. But they continued because they saw that nobody leaves them
over the crap they pull so they thought there must be no consequences to their
anti-consumer moves.
The only downside I see is that governments will use this excuse to bring more
censorship and anti-encryption laws, too, and I _hate_ that Silicon Valley
companies put is in a position where we have to either put up with their crap
or side with governments and get some bad internet laws passed.
But right now, I think it's time to rein in on the Silicon Valley companies
over their abuse of user data. Then we can deal with the abuse of user data by
ISPs, data brokers, and everyone else. Ideally, this would be solved with a
GDPR-like law, so that even ISPs "lose" in this scenario, and the consumers
win. If we're lucky we may be able to stave off the government from trying to
put an anti-encryption bill into the whole thing.
~~~
Reedx
That's like what the game industry went through in the early 90s. When Mortal
Kombat and the like were generating controversy and getting the attention of
regulators, the industry proactively created the ESRB.
~~~
jerf
There's a big difference though. "The video game industry" wasn't really in
the business of creating video games that offended cultural norms. It had a
subcomponent of that industry that did it, sure, but even that subcomponent
would have survived by making different games with regulation.
There is a lot of Silicon Valley right now whose core business is doing the
things that are very likely to be regulated out of existence.
So I'd say self-regulation isn't an option at this point, as "self-regulation"
is asking Facebook to return to unprofitability with no prospect of profit in
the future, the destruction of huge swathes of the ad industry, any number of
other companies based around data mining and selling and abusing information
asymmetries... there's no way the wolves are going to self-regulate themselves
into dogs.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Learning iOS/Swift tempted to switch to React Native as it seems like the future - Egamis
I've been learning iOS for a couple of months and I like it so far but more and more I feel tempted to switch to React Native instead as it really seems like the future and the most flexible and also quicker to develop than native (not to mention the advantage of being able to compile for both iOS and Android). More and more it seems that the market is for the app to be on both platforms, so React Native seems more viable.<p>Has anyone else gone through the same? What did you do? Is native development and being confined to one platform (iOS) a good long term choice?<p>Thanks in advance
======
GoldenMonkey
I’ve been a native iOS developer since 2008. So far, I haven’t seen the need
to switch to react. And have run across a few developers failing with products
on react native platforms. The right tool for the right job. I just don’t
think it’s an all or nothing proposition. There will be opportunities for both
react and native. So, if you are leaning towards react. There are probably
plenty of jobs in the react mobile space.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: The Byte – A Byte-Sized Podcast about Containers, Cloud, and Tech - vegasbrianc
http://thebyte.io
======
quickthrower2
Looks interesting. I will take a listen tomorrow on my drive to work.
~~~
quickthrower2
I listened to three of these and they were great. Thanks.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Apple's Swift Programming Language May Be Adopted by Google for Android - Jerry2
http://www.macrumors.com/2016/04/07/google-possibly-adopting-swift-for-android/
======
thevibesman
Discussion on the original source of the story:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11451093](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11451093)
------
Grazester
I don't see that happening
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Detecting Sarcasm with Deep Convolutional Neural Networks - fagnerbrack
======
bjourne
Missing link? [https://medium.com/dair-ai/detecting-sarcasm-with-deep-
convo...](https://medium.com/dair-ai/detecting-sarcasm-with-deep-
convolutional-neural-networks-4a0657f79e80)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Rocket Launch Real-Time Telemetry Server - JoshTriplett
http://live.psas.pdx.edu/profiles/Default
======
JoshTriplett
Also see [https://twitter.com/pdxaerospace](https://twitter.com/pdxaerospace)
for live commentary on the launch.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Study of 4chan's Politically Incorrect Forum and Its Effect on the Web - jtanderson
https://arxiv.org/abs/1610.03452
======
internaut
Are the academics involved in the creation of this document aware that they
are, in 4chan parlance, 'raiding'?
So far as I am aware this is not illegal, merely annoying or immoral.
Here's an example of when somebody almost certainly from /pol/ managed to
stage a TED talk.
Sam Hyde's 2070 Paradigm Shift - YouTube
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yFhR1fKWG0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yFhR1fKWG0)
Professional trolling is an ancient internet tradition that is worth
defending. There's a difference between harassment and bringing narcissists
back to earth.
------
dugditches
the board's quality is very bad. lots of racism/shitposting that got /new/
shutdown in the first place.
However it's very useful for breaking news and events if you're able to sift.
'Happenings' are often kept in fast moving threads where people pool together
information rapidly as the threads degrade and vanish.
------
chippy
Chapter eight is refreshing. I hope it makes it into print.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Malcolm Gladwell on spaghetti sauce - mun411
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/malcolm_gladwell_on_spaghetti_sauce.html
======
covercash
[2004]
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
BitBucket now has voting on issues. - planckscnst
https://bitbucket.org/site/master/issue/3674/add-ability-to-vote-for-issues-bb-3647
======
planckscnst
Issues for BitBucket itself, sorted by votes.
[https://bitbucket.org/site/master/issues?status=new&status=o...](https://bitbucket.org/site/master/issues?status=new&status=open&sort=-votes)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Microspaces (aka Nested GUIs) - mbuchanan
We're just about ready to release several products using our new technology. Essentially it's a new category called 'nested GUIs' (aka Microspaces).. With microspaces you can keep info in multiple GUIs and are able to nest them in each other.<p>I'd really like to get any feedback and signups for our private beta. Please take a look at www.nestedguis.com .. (especially the videos tab) and offer any comments. Thanks
======
MaysonL
It's hard to tell whether it'll be useable or not. Have you applied it to your
codebase?
~~~
mbuchanan
It takes a few minutes to get used to... You still can click to open any
portion in a new window so you're not relying on hovering.
I don't understand the codebase question?
Also, The UI is evolving.so please join the private beta. We really want
feedback.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: A Google chrome extension to add a little bro in your browsing. - swiil
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/bro-ifyme/hfpgpmnapkjlmdogaeiimdoplddnokeb?hl=en-US&utm_source=chrome-ntp-launcher&authuser=1
======
DonateKarma
Bro, did you give yourself a 5 star review? Not cool.
------
swiil
I whipped this up in a couple of hours as a fun project.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Svgbob – convert ASCII diagrams to SVG, now with styling support - ivanceras
https://ivanceras.github.io/svgbob-editor/
======
mbar84
I recently wrote an editor for this:
[https://mbarkhau.keybase.pub/asciigrid/](https://mbarkhau.keybase.pub/asciigrid/)
~~~
michael-ax
excellent! created something sensible and relevant just doing what seemed
obvious.
------
flying_sheep
Try this
_______
< Meow >
\-------
\ ^__^
\ (oo)\_______
(__)\ )\/\
||----w |
|| ||
~~~
jagged-chisel
[https://imgur.com/a/Og0vYAv](https://imgur.com/a/Og0vYAv)
------
kstenerud
This is cool, except the alignment is wrong in almost all diagrams. Labels are
off center, things overlap, etc. If that were fixed, it would be very nice and
usable.
~~~
virtualritz
Yes, this is indeed the only reason I couldn't use this otherwise great tool
yet.
See my comment here:
[https://github.com/ivanceras/svgbob/issues/11#issuecomment-5...](https://github.com/ivanceras/svgbob/issues/11#issuecomment-586307447)
------
dpfu
Also check out Markdeep, which provides this (and a whole lot more) via JS:
[http://casual-effects.com/markdeep/#features](http://casual-
effects.com/markdeep/#features)
------
2sk21
What a great idea! I have been using a text to UML sequence diagram tool and
this seems to be very much along the same lines.
~~~
joefarish
What is the name of the tool?
~~~
2sk21
Its a Mac app: [https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sequence-
diagram/id1195426709?...](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sequence-
diagram/id1195426709?mt=12)
------
dang
A thread from 9 months ago:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19857349](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19857349)
Also 2017:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14422777](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14422777)
------
djmips
Nice. I'd like the other direction. SVG -> ASCII
~~~
catalogia
You could rasterize the SVG with imagemagick then use aalib to create ascii
art from that. However the quality of the result would doubtlessly depend on
the nature of the SVG in question.
------
vihren
That seems pretty great, but I always have the problem of creating the ASCII
art in the first place. Is there a tool to help with that?
~~~
inferiorhuman
I really liked monodraw but am reluctant to pay for a license now that it's
more or less been abandoned. I still like it, but only bought a copy for work
at megacorp and foolishly didn't put it in my name.
~~~
dewey
What makes you think it's abandoned? The author is active on Twitter, the last
update for dark mode was in May 2019 and I don't see any show stopper bugs or
crashes on Catalina. Small utilities like this don't need an update every
month. I bought it a while ago because
1) It's very cheap and a great show case for a small niche Mac app that's both
beautiful and works well
2) The two times per year I use it, it's already worth it and fun to play
around with.
[https://blog.helftone.com](https://blog.helftone.com)
~~~
inferiorhuman
_What makes you think it 's abandoned? _
The last blog entry I saw was that it's been put into maintenance mode. If
your interest has fizzled but you still want to keep the product out there,
that's a great use case for open source. I'm just not that inclined to pay for
something that's not being actively developed.
Obviously at some point last year it got a new feature (yay). That speaks to
the app itself being feature incomplete.
------
andybak
Sometimes works with [https://www.asciiart.eu](https://www.asciiart.eu)
For example: [https://www.asciiart.eu/cartoons/felix-the-
cat](https://www.asciiart.eu/cartoons/felix-the-cat)
------
kats
Seriously, that is very cool! I wonder how PlantUML diagrams would look in
Svgbob or Markdeep, if they were imported from text.
------
wolfgangK
Nice ! Now I just need to be able to have org mode source blocks for that .
------
_frkl
This is pretty impressive. Are there builds for a cli?
~~~
inferiorhuman
Well the project's workspace defines svgbob and svgbob_cli crates so probably.
~~~
_frkl
yes, ive seen that. was just wondering whether/where there are prebuilt
binaries i can download directly
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
We Analyzed 12 of the Biggest Direct-to-Consumer Success Stories - pmp301
https://www.cbinsights.com/research/direct-to-consumer-retail-strategies/
======
wwwdonohue
A while ago it seemed like the incredible margins that you could make off
selling something DTC was going to make this the dominant business model of
the future, but that seems more and more untenable given how pernicious the
power of the big social media platforms is.
Being a Warby Parker or a Dollar Shave Club was awesome a decade ago when it
easy to get organic reach on Facebook. Not so anymore. That means that these
companies now have to raise a lot more just so they can pay it renting the
customer acquisition channel. And there's so much more competition.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A gallery of large graphs - davi
http://www2.research.att.com/~yifanhu/GALLERY/GRAPHS/index.html
======
Dilpil
Cool stuff, but it would be cooler with more context as to what each graph
represented.
~~~
davi
If you click on a thumbnail, then on the "click here for this matrix" link,
you get a bunch of additional information.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Review the project idea for Android - db42
I am thinking of doing some project on android platform. Right now, these are the thoughts on my mind.
People carry smart-phones 24X7 with themselves so, there is a lot of scope for interaction between these devices (through wifi, bluetooth or whatever). For example, I may want to sync my device's music library with my friend's or I may just want to copy recently added pictures in my friend's device.
So, I am thinking of developing some kind of back-end and interface to communicate with all the devices that are present in the range of my device. It will create opportunities for new apps that target sharing between mobile devices.
What do you guys think of this? All suggestions are welcome.
======
bigmac
If you're going to be developing a sort of API and plumbing that underlies
this, you'll probably want to have at least one application that you use as
your test bed for the API. Sort of how HN was PG's test application for Arc.
It should be a realistic, non-trivial application.
Sharing music libraries sounds like a minefield -- maybe you'd want to start
with picture sharing or something like that.
~~~
sammcd
I agree, I probably am not going to use an API that I don't see _any_ app
using. Also if you write an app that transfers between two phones you will
have a _much_ better idea of how the API will need to work.
Picture sharing is a good start... Something like Bump would also be a good
start.
------
db42
I am particularly concerned with these things: 1) Does this idea make sense to
you. 2) What core services do you expect it to provide.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Airbnb allegedly purged more than 1,000 New York listings to rig survey - jflowers45
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/feb/10/airbnb-new-york-city-listings-purge-multiple-apartment-listings
======
jakevoytko
Honestly, it couldn't be easier to find listings that violate the law. This
stuff isn't abstract, you can go look for yourself and see how pervasive
short-term full apartment rentals are.
I just looked on the block where I live, for a one day stay starting next
Monday. Six listings. One was legit, one was borderline (daytime office),
three state that the guest will explicitly have the whole apartment to
themselves, and with the final one you can infer that the host will not be
present. Even giving the last one the benefit of the doubt, 50% illegal.
OK, let's look at somewhere that guests might not want to stay because it's
far from tourist attractions, the Lower East Side. Random block, 4 listings. 2
legit (I'm giving one the benefit of the doubt), 2 illegal.
OK, let's go even further away, Fort Greene. Random block. 2 units, one of
them is actually not legit. Damn, I thought I would be done here.
South Slope, harder to find blocks with units. Pick one near the park. 2
units, I'll give both of them the benefit of the doubt, because it's not
listed one way or the other.
If the fines were high enough, the state of New York could make a healthy
profit on paying inspectors to rent out units for one night and levying fines
against violators.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Where/how can I find a personal Programming Coach? - spking
I'm a professional designer, but I want the ability to build my own ideas. I've stopped out of learning Ruby (and Rails) three times now due to frustration, lack of discipline and just not getting beyond parroting the tutorial examples from the books and videos. I can follow along, but I'm just not grokking it.<p>I'm making this (learning how to code) a top priority in my life for the next year. I'm setting aside an hour a night to learn, but I need a coach (and I'm willing to pay market hourly rates for an experienced developer's time). I'm looking for someone who can spend an hour with me every week night helping me learn how to code, either in person (Pasadena, CA) or over Skype with a screensharing app.<p>Where/how can I find this person? [email protected] or 805-404-7732. Thanks for your help!
======
Joakal
Lack of discipline sounds like you have focus issues. I suggest looking up
threads in HN on procrastination. You could also try
<http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=startups> Most likely will find some
procrastinators ;)
Codecademy does sound like a good idea. If you need to ask questions with such
material, you can make a post to forum, mailing lists or even stack overflow
depending on where most of the Ruby support is at. Especially if you only
commit an hour as responses may take some time.
Personally, I've learnt very well to know what keywords to ask in Google and
it returns relevant results so I rarely post for support help.
Keep doing your best.
------
nurik
Maybe this also helps, I found it quite useful:
[http://495west.com/post/9885249988/the-wrong-question-i-
want...](http://495west.com/post/9885249988/the-wrong-question-i-want-to-
learn-to-code-what?73331330)
------
darrennix
Try codecademy.com; they've taken the pain out of learning introductory
programming.
~~~
spking
Thanks, I have given that a spin. I follow along, but still struggle with
understanding the "why" and really grasping the concepts. I need someone to
answer my questions as I'm doing the exercises.
~~~
ericHosick
Yes. What gets me is that, in my opinion, most people think that learning to
code starts with coding.
Really, I think the most difficult aspect of programming is taking the real
world process, as you see it in your head, and turning it into an automated
process using a programming language and all of the "best known practices"
that have come about over some 30 to 40 years.
I suggest you look into Behavior Driven Development (BDD). BDD forces you to
look at the why and even forces you to run through the "does it even make
sense to make this".
You have the chance to describe the Behavior of your program in something that
looks almost like English (you should also use mockups of how you want your
program to run using pen/paper or something like balsamiq mockups).
Then, you start writing the minimal amount of code to make the program do what
you described using BDD (Gherkin).
This will allow you to focus on learning a few aspects of programming you need
to make that one behavior work.
I also wrote a book on programming that focuses on the "why" (I was able to
keep the number of lines of code down to like 10 if I recall). If we can
exchange emails in some way, I'll let you have a copy. (edit: doh, I just saw
you email above so I'll send you a link).
~~~
njstartups
Hi Eric, may I please have a copy of your book as well? Like the OP, I too am
not a learner that learns just by the act of doing; I need to understand they
"why" behind it as well. Would really love it if you could help me out! My
email is njstartups (at) gmail (dot) com
Thanks
~~~
ericHosick
Should be done. Let me know if it helps. Any feedback would be greatly
appreciated.
~~~
njstartups
Received it. Thanks!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
You Shouldn’t Wake Up at 5AM - CreamPuff
https://medium.com/1-one-infinity/you-shouldnt-wake-up-at-5am-12252618eef5
======
vhodges
Sorry, I am not signing up just to read some friggin' blog post.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A Look at Gab, 'Free Speech' Social Site Where Synagogue Shooting Suspect Posted - kadendogthing
https://www.npr.org/2018/10/28/661532688/a-look-at-gab-the-free-speech-social-site-where-synagogue-shooting-suspect-poste
======
angersock
Looks like both Joyent and Paypal pushed them off their platforms. Paypal has
always been kinda scummy, but it's interesting seeing Joyent suppress free
speech of paying customers.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Presentation on giving presentations? - ZoFreX
I'm pretty sure I saw this on HN but my search-fu is weak today. It was a presentation (on slideshare I think) on how to give presentations. It emphasised bold use of images and colour, and minimal use of text. If anyone has any idea which one I'm talking about, I'd appreciate a link very much :)
======
ZoFreX
Nevermind, I did eventually stumble upon it! It's "Steal this presentation" by
jessedee. Slides: [http://www.slideshare.net/jessedee/steal-this-
presentation-5...](http://www.slideshare.net/jessedee/steal-this-
presentation-5038209) HN discussion:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1939272>
~~~
btilly
Another useful presentation on giving presentations is
<http://perl.plover.com/yak/presentation/>.
It is somewhat idiosyncratic, but it is good advice.
~~~
ZoFreX
Interesting, thanks!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Developing HTTPS Services in Node with Self-Signed Certificates - mattcbaker
https://mattcbaker.com/post/developing-https-node-local/
======
z3t4
Save a ton of work by placing a http proxy infront of your NodeJS apps, and
also let the http proxy serve static content. That way you dont have to
implement a http-server+SSL+routing+file-server for each nodejs project. There
are a lot of advantages to keeping a program small: For example less bugs,
less maintenance, and faster implementation.
~~~
gbuk2013
I second this. In production I will typically front my Node app with Nginx
that takes care of SSL and static file serving. There is also a substantial
performance benefit.
Can all be bundled up in a single Docker container for super easy deployment.
:)
------
ikornaselur
Me and my engineering team has been working with a combination of Zerotier +
Caddy for a while now. We have a development domain and then every engineer
has a subdomain, which is just `username.example.com` and
`*.username.example.com` that points to their Zerotier address. Since it's all
on a Zerotier network, we use DNS-01 validation, which works well.
Each engineer then has caddy running on his development machine with domains
such as `server.username.example.com` and `web.username.example.com`.
The useful thing about this is that we're spread out remotely, but can at any
point, while pairing or something like that, connect to the services running
on each others machines. I've also grown used to simply using my own domain,
rather than localhost, when developing, especially since it's served behind
HTTPS.
------
tootie
If you own a domain, create a A record for local.mydomain.com and point it to
127.0.0.1 and you can generate a valid cert with Let's Encrypt.
~~~
schoen
In this case you'll need to use the DNS-01 validation method for the domain
issuance, not HTTP-01 (because local.mydomain.com won't be able to receive an
inbound validation connection from Let's Encrypt).
~~~
tootie
There's various tricks. You can also assign the domain to a static IP long
enough to verify your ownership then change it. Using a TXT record is probably
easier to automate renewal though.
------
mholt
You can also front it with Caddy in a single command, no need to generate the
self-signed certificate manually and find a place to store it:
$ caddy -host localhost "proxy / localhost:9000" "tls self_signed"
This will serve your Node application (assuming it's on port 9000) at
[https://localhost:2015/](https://localhost:2015/). And you can change the
port from the default port with the -port flag.
------
turdnagel
I've never tried to serve HTTPS locally without a proxy (ngrok etc.) or behind
a load balancer, because I always end up serving the app with one or the
other. And now there's Let's Encrypt. Why would you ever develop with HTTPS
locally?
~~~
arkadiyt
> Why would you ever develop with HTTPS locally?
One good reason is to mimic the production environment, as there are an
increasing number of browser features that depend on HTTPS (HSTS, cookie
secure flags, new html5 APIs like the location api, etc). Though when I do use
https locally I also typically use an nginx reverse proxy.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Project Management tool with flexible tracking time - sharmi
Hi,<p>I'm on the look out for a task tracking tool.<p>1. It should be able to work with just the duration of the task with the starttime and endtime of the task being optional.
2. I should be able to indicate which task depends on which.
3. After summing the expected duration of all tasks, it should give an estimate on when the tasks will be over.
4. It should have a gantt chart to show the flow of tasks. If I change the expected duration of one task, the following tasks should be changed accordingly.<p>The problem I'm trying to solve is this. I working alone at home on a project. I have a sequence of tasks to do before the project can be launched. Some tasks take more time than I expected (the data scrubbing has been throwing up one surprise after the other :) ) and now I'm losing track of how long I have to go. It would be good to be able to track the tasks I do.
======
mahadazad
Have a look at timedoctor.com
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
This Video Has 477,200 Views - loayxz
https://youtu.be/BxV14h0kFs0
======
ummwhat
Inaccurate submission title. Can one of the mods please change it?
~~~
emsign
lmao (that's the whole point of the video)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Does YC ask for option pool and pro-rata rights for their standard deal? - foreign-inc
I have received an angel investment offer from an incubator in SV. They are offering 125K at 4m valuation using original YC safe style docs. They have asked for pro-rata rights, 10% option pool and 3% common advisory stock(post-option pool).<p>I am looking to apply to YC this week. I am afraid that my current offer might not wait until I hear anything from the YC application process. So, choices for me are take the money now or wait for YC application process and probably get nothing. One thing I would like to know if any YC founder is reading this post, does YC also ask for option pool creation and pro-rata rights for their standard deal(7% for 150K)?
======
snowmaker
[https://www.ycombinator.com/deal/](https://www.ycombinator.com/deal/)
We do get pro rata rights, but we don't care about the option pool.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The skill-building recession - dangoldin
http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2009/11/the_skillbuilding_recession.cfm
======
Wilduck
A good follow up question would be: Will the US economy be able to absorb
these skilled laborers upon graduation?
------
beza1e1
Well, the recession may be an indirect reason why i'm going for a PhD instead
of "working for real".
~~~
beilabs
It's the reason I'm working full time whilst studying for a M.Sc. in Software
Engineering full time. Just because the world is in a recession it does not
give any person the excuse of not learning new skills or not applying their
current skills to interesting problems.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
This Is Why Poor People's Bad Decisions Make Perfect Sense - gabzuka
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/linda-tirado/why-poor-peoples-bad-decisions-make-perfect-sense_b_4326233.html
======
jareds
It was also not explained why this person is going to school. Why are they
going to school? I would assume that if they were making the choice to put in
the work for school they have not completely given up on a better life in
which case I would expect them to at least consider making some other better
decisions.
------
mjwhansen
Looks like she just wrote a book, "Hand to Mouth: Living in Bootstrap America"
that will be available in early October: [http://www.amazon.com/Hand-Mouth-
Living-Bootstrap-America/dp...](http://www.amazon.com/Hand-Mouth-Living-
Bootstrap-America/dp/0399171983/)
Also, shouldn't this article have a (2013) tag?
------
WalterSear
No one ever explains why having children in poverty makes perfect sense. It's
not that unavoidable either.
~~~
mjwhansen
She actually explains it in the article:
\- The nearest Planned Parenthood is 3 hours away
\- The college she attends has free condoms, but most people in poverty aren't
college students
\- Low-cost medical clinics/clinics with sliding scales still have a co-pay
\- Sleeping with someone makes you feel valued and is free way to make
yourself feel better, if only for an hour
The last point is something that many middle class/rich people do as well --
sleeping with people to feel valued -- but most of them are able to purchase
birth control methods and/or easily access free birth control (like the condom
jar).
~~~
WalterSear
You don't put it in if you don't want babies. People equate this with not
having any sex, which is simply inane.
~~~
alexanderss
So every time you "put it in," you are trying to make a baby? Poor people also
know about the different kinds of sex acts available to humans, I'm not sure
if you're a virgin, trolling, or just don't understand how human biology
works.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Long-tail acquirers for medium exits - revorad
http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2012/05/long-tail-acquirers-for-medium-exits.html
======
ramanujan
One aspect of gabe's otherwise excellent post that went unmentioned is the
cultural issue associated with an acquisition of this sort.
For the acquired company to make a difference, it is going to need to be put
in control of a large number of business processes. And for it to produce
productivity gains, it will likely automate away many of the existing jobs at
the acquiring company. Finally, if the acquired company is in fact a failing
startup (as gabe postulates), it won't have a large team, or much revenue, or
have proven itself against the acquirer in the marketplace.
These things will combine to produce intense and arguably justified political
resistance at the acquiring company. The old guard there will see a bunch of
young whippersnappers, who just became millionaires, without any revenue, who
are coming in and expecting to tell them what to do when they are the ones
who've been producing profit for this company for 20 odd years.
In this view, the only way this works is if it's a Mint/Intuit-type deal,
where Mint crushed Intuit's online offering to such an extent that it gained
respect within Intuit.
~~~
epi0Bauqu
I should have made this more clear, but exactly as you say I had the
Mint/Intuit deal in mind. I didn't include it because it was a software
company acquirer.
In other words, the case I was thinking of for the medium exit was a success
case not a failure case. The big co would take the success off the table and
try to incorporate it into their internal processes.
I referenced an earlier post on the failure case, which was geared towards
small exits for talent acquisition.
------
asanwal
Interesting premise although I don't think this is playing out yet (my company
tracks this data). That said, we do see lots of corporations entering the
venture ecosystem which is probably a precursor to what Gabriel is mentioning.
That said, I do think @antrod's point that Gabriel references is somewhat
flawed if I'm understanding his point correctly.
For a public company doing an acqui-hire, dilution would likely not come into
play as the amount being paid is probably small (for the acquirer) and so EPS
(earnings per share) dilution doesn't really become a factor. Of course, if
the deal is larger, it does, but then it's probably not an acqui-hire either.
In terms of valuing on a EBITDA multiple, that may be the case for some
companies, but I wouldn't underestimate the power of feeling like they (big
co) might be left out from a coming boom or be disrupted as motivation to pay
a price that is not strictly based on a financial ratio. I used to work in a
big co in a previous life, and if they believe it's a burning platform need,
financial constraints can and will be overridden.
------
twelvedigits
The most interesting case study would be Home Depot's acquisition of
Redbeacon. Does anyone have:
\- acquisition price
\- Redbeacon's # of employees
\- Redbeacon's revenue
\- reports from members of either team on how the integration is going? (this
would be the most interesting)
~~~
sriramk
The rumor I heard from trusted sources is ~90m
------
hkarthik
I'm curious on the financials behind the acqui-hire deals when the startup is
only seed funded with little to no revenue. Valuations based only on the seed
amounts and equity doled out seem too good to be true.
What kind of purchase prices do we see here and how much do the founders
usually get? Would love to hear from members of the communities that have been
acquired and are willing to share some numbers.
~~~
asanwal
Acqui-hires by definition are not a purchase of the startup but of the talent.
What we've seen in talent acquisition valuations we've captured is the range
is large ($2-$5M/engineer). While these numbers look very appealing, please
note that many of these acqui-hires are paid for in part or in whole in stock
which vests over time.
When the stock is coming from a publicly traded company, it is liquid and so
has real value (once vested).
When the acqui-hire is done by a private company, and you receive stock, that
stock is highly illiquid and the valuation is far from precise. And given
market dynamics, that valuation could look very different by the time it
vests.
~~~
byoung2
_What we've seen in talent acquisition valuations we've captured is the range
is large ($2-$5M/engineer)._
How much of that typically goes to the engineer? I imagine that a $20 million
purchase of a 10 engineer company roughly works out to $2 million per
engineer, but I imagine the founders and early investors would get the lion's
share.
~~~
asanwal
Unfortunately, don't know the answer to this as even getting the $2-5M number
took us some digging. But your assumption is probably right and is only
logical in that the "spoils" of an acqui-hire are not evenly distributed
across the team.
~~~
hkarthik
It's unfortunate that there's not much info available yet, as I suspect most
folks involved in these kinds of deals are tied up in non-disclosure
agreements and need to wait for vesting options to expire before they can open
up.
I look forward to finding out how the acqui-hires went in about 5-7 years,
much like we're finding out about Flickr now.
------
adventureful
Every company is not going to be doing software acquisitions. Regardless of if
software eats the world. The premise of the article is wrong.
It will never happen for the same reason that every company doesn't employ an
army of electricians and plumbers. The same applies for duct work, air
conditioning, construction, architecture, food services, and on and on. Your
average company also has no interest in running their own cloud setup, or data
center; they'd much rather outsource that for all the obvious reasons.
Some extremely high percentage of companies will continue to outsource their
software needs, exactly as is done today. There will be no broad based
software acquisition binge. It's a very difficult world to specialize in,
innovate in, and manage unless software and tech is what you already do.
~~~
lifeisstillgood
>doesn't employ an army of electricians and plumbers.
But the whole premise of software eating the world, is its sooo prevalent, its
not like hiring air-conditioning workers, its like hiring _literate_ workers.
Writing code will be like writing essays at college and memos at work.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Python REST Examples For Parse - bjornick
http://blog.parse.com/2012/07/09/python-rest-examples/
======
seanodonnell
very nice, and very nice docs as a whole, is this built on top of an existing
documentation framework, or is it a completely in house tool?
------
hanapbuhay
Points for using Day[9] and 1337 in the example.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Is velocity a good metric to measure team performance? - duykhoa12t
======
_niom_
Short answer is no.
Problem with the velocity is that we developers are really poor in estimates
and the velocity is rarely accurate enough.
So what I would like to recommend is that you first check your definition of
done and then start experimenting with velocity by following how many stories
you get done per week. After 4 weeks calculate the average. Each week through
out put should be fitted in 1 Standard deviation (Normal distribution). Make
it a strict rule that only ready for prod is done done.
This contains a problem that the stories are not equal size but when we
experimented with this we used shirt sizes (S, M, L) and made a rule that only
S and M size stories (Small enough) where only allowed inside the sprint. Our
S was max 2 days and M max 5 days. We got to a point where our through out put
was 3 stories per week (Small team: 2 devs + a test expert).
------
realstuff
No. Agile does not work. Tasks will get delayed, need reviewing, etc, etc. A
task is done when it's done. Deal with it.
~~~
duykhoa12t
I totally agree with you. We tried, but things aren't expected
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Oil Industry’s Covert Campaign to Rewrite American Car Emissions Rules - pingou
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/13/climate/cafe-emissions-rollback-oil-industry.html
======
nimbius
Disclosure: im a full-time auto mechanic learning python in my ample spare
time.
In terms of emissions, you wont come close to what a diesel long haul truck is
putting out, and those are the vehicles no one really talks about.
Freightliner and peterbilt all showcase their latest trucks with urea
scrubbers and nox emissions reduction technology, or even hybrid/electric
systems when they go to trade shows, but most fleet operators are on a 30 year
curve. No trucking company wants to buy a truck new.
and thanks to loopholes in EPA regulations they dont need to. fleet owners can
do whats called a "glider" conversion. You essentially take the guts of a 30
year old tractor trailer, and wrap it in a nice new body. this works well to
refurbish trucks that have been in rollover accidents or written off by
insurance companies. they are easier to move from salvage to titled.
Assembly of a glider is also prone to problems. Professional mechanics can do
it well, but its not cheap, so to drop the cost of a glider most fleet owners
sub this work out from their main shops to subcontractors of Salvadorian day
laborers. The result is that the truck runs, but critical things like the urea
tank wont run, the pyrometer is broken, and the dashboard lights up like a
christmas tree. Ive even seen gliders where the speedometer was so incorrect,
the driver told me to "use the gps" on my phone instead.
These trucks are miles off spec for EPA, but most states only halfheartedly
enforce the EPA regulations for trucks. Fleet owners title them in states like
Indiana, florida and Ohio for a reason: these states couldnt care less if the
truck smokes out the parking lot of a wal-mart just starting up.
~~~
thinkcontext
This is a great argument for why a price on carbon is a better solution than a
direct regulatory approach. You can't game the price at the pump or find a
loophole, or at least its more difficult to do so.
~~~
Hupriene
Not true. Many of the problems described by gp wouldn't affect the fuel
efficiency of the truck, but still vastly increase the pollutants the truck
puts out. Replacing your catalytic converter with a steel pipe is the obvious
way to game a carbon tax.
~~~
SilasX
That would be an argument for taxing the pollutants too.
(Yes, it's not a perfect policy, but please don't criticize it with an
argument equivalent to saying that a unit of pollution is infinitely bad. It's
not.)
------
gameswithgo
The Koch brothers are amazing. Cars are bigger and heavier than ever, almost
everyone has a huge truck in Austin, TX and usually an SUV if not that. They
all have more power than ever. But they want to craft a narrative that Obama
has been foolishly limiting our choice of cars with efficiency standards.
There are certainly lots of regulations that make cars more expensive than
they need to be but I don't think MPG standards are one of the first order
cases.
~~~
travisporter
Is there a way to remain safe driving in these places besides also buying a
large heavy vehicle? I despise gas guzzlers but my sedan may not survive an
accident.
~~~
rootusrootus
I'm reaching back a ways to my college days, but as I remember, two objects
can have masses 2x apart (e.g. 3500 pound car, 7000 pound truck) and for all
practical purposes it doesn't really change the collision dynamics much.
Something about velocity squared, as I recall.
So ... buy a Subaru Forester, I guess. Or another CUV. Taller bumper so you
don't get run over by a pickup, but still a smallish vehicle.
~~~
dsfyu404ed
KE=0.5MV^2
Vehicle and cargo (you) damage is more strongly related to force than kinetic
energy. You can be going 150mph and stop just fine by using the brakes to
convert that kinetic energy into thermal energy. Using a concrete barrier and
the vehicle to dissipate that force throughout the structure of the vehicle
would work as well as far as getting rid of the kinetic energy but will
probably have a less desirable outcome for the contents of the vehicle. Same
energy in both cases, way different forces involved. It's like how a
sledgehammer hits with more force the more rigid the thing you're hitting is.
Also it's not the acceleration that kills you[1], it's the bouncing off things
in the cabin that kills you.
[1][http://www.ejectionsite.com/stapp.htm](http://www.ejectionsite.com/stapp.htm)
(8th to last paragraph)
------
clouddrover
It may not matter so much. Car makers will still have to comply with European
and Chinese emissions standards anyway (test cheating aside). How much
incentive will there be for them to develop a separate car purely for the US
market?
And there will be many models of EVs available across the next 7 years. In
addition to Tesla, most of the major car brands have EV development programs.
Here are four EVs available now or in the first half of 2019, depending on
where you live:
\- Jaguar I-Pace: [https://www.jaguar.co.uk/jaguar-
range/i-pace/index.html](https://www.jaguar.co.uk/jaguar-
range/i-pace/index.html)
\- Audi e-Tron: [https://www.audi.co.uk/electric-
car/e-tron.html](https://www.audi.co.uk/electric-car/e-tron.html)
\- Hyundai Kona: [https://www.hyundai.co.uk/new-cars/kona-
electric](https://www.hyundai.co.uk/new-cars/kona-electric) Review:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LATZ0g-Sz2s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LATZ0g-Sz2s)
\- Kia e-Niro: [https://www.kia.com/uk/new-cars/all-new-e-
niro/](https://www.kia.com/uk/new-cars/all-new-e-niro/) Review:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR5sDwF5aBM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR5sDwF5aBM)
The Hyundai Kona and Kia e-Niro are interesting as practical cars with good
range at a more affordable price than the luxury EV options. The Kona and the
e-Niro have the same drivetrain so they're quite similar, but of the two I
like the e-Niro better.
Hyundai and Kia also have some on-car solar options in development:
[https://electrek.co/2018/10/31/hyundai-kia-solar-roof-
electr...](https://electrek.co/2018/10/31/hyundai-kia-solar-roof-electric-
vehicles/)
I think the future is bright for low or zero emissions vehicles, despite the
oil industry's efforts.
~~~
dao-
> How much incentive will there be for them to develop a separate car purely
> for the US market?
Aren't they doing that already? The whole pickup truck class mostly doesn't
exist outside of the US.
~~~
clouddrover
Well, they're selling them in Australia:
[https://www.ford.com.au/commercial/ranger/](https://www.ford.com.au/commercial/ranger/)
And in China soon if not already:
[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ford-motor-china-
idUSKBN1...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ford-motor-china-
idUSKBN17916D)
[https://www.ford.com.cn/performance/raptor/](https://www.ford.com.cn/performance/raptor/)
~~~
mtw
Do they sell the full-size trucks in Australia or China (like F-150 instead of
Ford Ranger, Toyota Tundra instead of Tacoma/Hilux)
~~~
dsfyu404ed
I know there's a Chinese company that makes a near direct F150 knockoff. I'm
not sure how many get sold but clearly the market exists.
------
njarboe
It is really too bad we can't implement a revenue neutral carbon dioxide tax.
Start at a low level and gradually ramp it up until we are carbon dioxide
neutral or a bit negative. Pay for taking CO2 out of the air at the same rate
as the tax and let American ingenuity do the rest. Even the oil companies are
not against a CO2 tax if you bring it on slowly. Seems like if Congress could
just ignore the crazies on either side for a bit, most people would agree this
the best way forward to reduce CO2 emissions working with the strengths of
American culture instead of going against it.
~~~
hackeraccount
I'm in favor of this idea though the tricky part is how you figure out which
taxes to lower to make it revenue neutral. I tend to think of politics as
"Help my friends/Hurt my enemies" and the important thing to realize is that
no one really thinks that a carbon tax helps them.
Not even the lefty leftiest greenies believe that. They think a carbon tax
might hurt their enemies so they're accepting of it to some limited degree but
they don't really believe it will help them. If they did they wouldn't care
what taxes would get cut or how the revenue would be spent. Instead they're
super interested in how the money would be spent or who's taxes would be cut.
They're also interested in the least broad version of carbon tax for the same
reasons.
I think theirs a political agenda on the Left and they view climate change as
magic that will let them have their way. The same way the Right sees religious
imperatives. Or national defense.
It's a view that assumes the other side are all idiots. It won't work.
~~~
njarboe
Yea. My thinking on it is that you would just mark it for paying to sequester
CO2 at the tax rate and any leftover goes as a straight per adult tax credit
(i.e. you can lower the tax you pay with it).
------
PeterStuer
The insanity is that we built a system that cultivates and breeds extreme
greed at any price, and then hope that the reigns to keep it under control
will be forever flawless.
It means the protectors need to be eternally on top, while a single victory of
the beast can destroy the world.
------
shmerl
These crooks are worrying, that with demand for oil dropping in the near
future, they'll be left with tons of cheap oil that no one will need. So in
their greed they are ramping up efforts to profit from their oil now, before
prices will plummet. It's also the same reason they rushed to reverse oil
conservation limitations, and drill now more than ever. As usual, their
mentality is "rip off everything now, and don't care about any future outcome
it will cause".
There should be stronger push back to stop them in their tracks before they do
more damage than they already have done.
------
dao-
Oh, the irony:
[https://www.nytimes.com/shell](https://www.nytimes.com/shell)
~~~
ajmurmann
Even if we had a "net-zero emissions world by 2070" it would be way too late.
I suspect we needed that 10 years ago.
If we want to prevent disastrous climate change we should ban all combustion
engines by Jan. 2021 and pay insane amounts of money for captured carbon. Of
course that would be incredibly painful. Many people would starve to death,
all our quality of life would go down dramatically for a while. But the
alternative is that even more people die.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Defund the NSA - This Isn't Over - sethbannon
http://defundthensa.com/#
======
pvnick
This is great! A followup contact, either praise or criticism, is like
Pavlovian conditioning for our representatives. I'm happy to say I was able to
give positive reinforcement to my congressman. Forgive me if I'm mixing up my
theories, I haven't taken a psychology class in several years.
Also, great job to Sina and the taskforce!
~~~
iwasanewt
What you're talking about is operant conditioning (
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operant_conditioning](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operant_conditioning)
)
------
tieTYT
Here's what I want: A link that I can click on that will add a google calendar
event to notify me with the list of representatives to vote AGAINST when
voting season comes. I'm pissed now, but like all americans, I'll probably
forget about this come election.
~~~
cinquemb
That is a good idea. Yesterday in irc, we could only think of trying to get
people to confront their local reps in their offices. I'll pass this along.
Edit: If anyone knows any place to programmatically get (r)election dates for
districts, please tell us here:
[https://github.com/tfrce/DefundTheNSA/issues/14](https://github.com/tfrce/DefundTheNSA/issues/14)
~~~
na85
>irc
Which channel/network?
~~~
cinquemb
##rritf/freenode, but I don't know if anyone is there now.
------
thinkbohemian
Idea: pre-prepared websites that call to attention representatives that are
against privacy (voted for SOPA, the NSA, TSA, etc.) make them available to
deploy on heroku, github, s3, whatever. Then developers in support of privacy
can litter the internet with them come election time.
If all these guys care about is getting re-elected, lets make it clear not
supporting their constituents will seriously damage their chances.
Also love the followup idea.
~~~
diminoten
What makes you think they're not supporting their constituents?
~~~
drcube
Because they support spying on them. That's kind of the opposite of supporting
them.
~~~
diminoten
You should pay more attention to polls - it's not quite the landslide you're
implying it is. Many people are okay with being spied on.
~~~
drcube
This is why we have morals. So we don't have to conduct opinion polls to see
what's right and wrong.
Plenty of atrocious things were wildly popular. They get absolutely zero extra
legitimacy for being so.
~~~
diminoten
Do you believe your moral compass to be perfect, or is it flawed?
In the event that you think it's flawed, how do you recommend making sure your
flawed moral compass isn't going to cause something immoral to happen?
~~~
drcube
>how do you recommend making sure your flawed moral compass isn't going to
cause something immoral to happen?
Careful reflection. Self examination. Dialog and debate with others I consider
intelligent and ethical. Certainly not a popularity contest.
~~~
diminoten
Each one of the ways you check your moral compass are easily corruptible by
your moral compass.
A vote, or a so-called "popularity contest", is, out of all the things you
just listed, the least corruptible by your own biases.
------
ctdonath
A near-even split on the first try over a high-stakes issue is a pretty darned
good showing. Lay into those supportive of the state violating every semblance
of privacy, and then try again.
~~~
diminoten
I said this before, but the closeness of the vote has _nothing_ to do with how
close the vote actually was. Once the whips figure out if a bill is going to
pass or not, they then let people vote however will get them more money.
~~~
bargl
I'm curious how whips work. Do you have anything I could read up on it to
learn more? It makes sense from a certain perspective, but does that mean that
they decided to look into how many people were going to vote no for sure
(which was 217). Then the remaining legislators would get more money if they
voted yes (205) or maybe they voted yes because it was what their constituents
wanted. That's all speculation but it's seriously interesting and very
disturbing.
~~~
diminoten
Once you know a vote isn't going to happen, the voting gets rearranged to look
good. Since the outcome is the same, it doesn't really matter how the outcome
happens, so long as the 'yes' or the 'no' is still a 'yes' or 'no'.
And it's probably one of the least improper things that happens in US
government.
I'd also like to take a moment to explain why this vote doesn't have a chance,
ever, and it's the exact same reason all spending cuts to defense don't
generally go through - all it takes is one bad thing to happen, and suddenly
every single person who voted to reduce defense spending/the NSA budget is at
risk in their district.
It's the easiest attack ad in the world to construct: "My opponent was one of
the people who took away the NSA's power to defend this country, and as a
result we were attacked again!" That's a guaranteed and immediate hit that's
very easy to understand. What's _much_ more complicated is the 'yes' argument.
It's nuanced, confusing, many constituents don't even want it, and in general
a big risk.
The _biggest_ win for members of congress is if no change actually happens,
and yet they still get to have a voting record that shows they're against what
the NSA is doing (exactly how it turned out). Those "yes" votes were probably
pretty damn expensive for the congresspeople who got them, but they'd be HUGE
liabilities if the vote actually passed.
In other words, 'yes' votes were worth more if the 'yes' lost.
~~~
Amadou
While that is all true, it is still worth noting that worst case they still
cared enough to be disingenuous about their voting records.
If they believed that they could just get away with sweeping it under the rug,
they would not even have tried to manipulate the optics of the vote. That's
still a victory in the face of all the propaganda downplaying the importance
of the issue.
~~~
diminoten
They _are_ getting away with sweeping it under the rug. You're being pandered
to by worthless voting records, if anything I'd be more upset were I in your
position.
------
evanm
The NSA spying program is horrible, yes. And I think it should be halted
immediately. But we need the NSA—they do important things for this country
despite the bad clout they've received because of this one domestic program.
That program is minuscule in size compared to the sum of the important
operations that are conducted in the agency.
I want to make myself clear. I think the domestic intercepts are 100% wrong
and unconstitutional. That needs to stop. But that agency is home to smart
people who do other necessary work to protect us.
~~~
matchu
For reference, here's the text of the amendment: [http://amendments-
rules.house.gov/amendments/AMASH_018_xml27...](http://amendments-
rules.house.gov/amendments/AMASH_018_xml2718131717181718.pdf)
It short, it defunds the NSA's ability to conduct surveillance on people who
are not being investigated.
------
jasonkolb
I think this could get legs.
Are there any other like this issues where the government is blatantly
thumbing its nose at its own people? I'm running a survey right now and one of
the elements is support for the NSA surveillance, and almost nobody supports
it. Like, 85% just say it's flat-out wrong.
~~~
rayiner
Survey of who? Do you have a tech-biased or liberal-biased or youth-biased
audience?
[http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/most-americans-
suppor...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/most-americans-support-nsa-
tracking-phone-records-prioritize-investigations-over-
privacy/2013/06/10/51e721d6-d204-11e2-9f1a-1a7cdee20287_story.html) ("Overall,
56 percent of Americans consider the NSA’s accessing of telephone call records
of millions of Americans through secret court orders 'acceptable,' while 41
percent call the practice 'unacceptable.'")
~~~
jasonkolb
I'm just trying to get random people to respond. I would refer to gknoy's
comment about how easy surveys are to manipulate, and question whether the
survey you mention was created with a purpose.
I've been working with some research companies lately and one thing which
surprised me was the fact that surveys are often constructed with the sequence
of questions carefully set up to test various messages. Unless you can see the
survey itself, I would question the results.
For example, the question prior to 'How do you feel about the NSA’s accessing
of telephone call records of millions of Americans through secret court
orders' might have been 'Is it important that the NSA’s accessing of telephone
call records of millions of Americans has stopped terrorist attacks?' This
type of question can mightily swing the outcome, so if you don't have access
to the survey you need to ask yourself if the organization putting out the
survey has an agenda...
~~~
rayiner
What do you mean "random people?" What sorts of sites are you posting the
survey to? If people like my mom aren't part of your survey demographic, your
methodology is flawed.
The Washington Post-Pew survey is detailed (through a link) in the article,
specifically this question:
"Q: As you may know, it has been reported that the National Security Agency
has been getting secret court orders to track telephone call records of
MILLIONS of Americans in an effort to investigate terrorism. Would you
consider this access to telephone call records an acceptable or unacceptable
way for the federal government to investigate terrorism?"
58% responded 'acceptable' and 41% responded 'unacceptable'.
~~~
Amadou
FWIW, I think the WAPO-PEW phrasing is slightly biased in favor of the NSA. I
think the following would be more accurate and thus more closer to neutral
(italics indicate changes):
"Q: As you may know, it has been reported that the National Security Agency
has been getting secret court orders to _collect_ telephone call records of
_nearly all American cell phones_ in an effort to investigate terrorism. Would
you consider this _collection of_ telephone call records an acceptable or
unacceptable way for the federal government to investigate terrorism?"
What isn't clear to me is if the phrasing has changed from the survey a month
ago to the most recent survey. If the phrasing (of the entire survey because
cross-question context is important) is not identical then the results just
aren't comparable no matter what biases may or may not be built into the
questions.
------
mtgx
Might as well add this one to the criticism sent to your representative:
[http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/congress/senate-
bill-...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/congress/senate-bill-
authorizes-sanctions-on-russia-or-any-other-country-offering-snowden-
asylum/2013/07/25/feaaf55e-f53c-11e2-81fa-8e83b3864c36_story.html)
------
Fuzzwah
Great site. I was able to research and find that Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema,
serving Arizona's 9th District was cosponsor of the Amash bill but voted
against the amendment, stating that it "has an unintended consequence".
Her press release is full of wonderful contradictions and weasel words:
[http://sinema.house.gov/index.cfm/press-
releases?ID=b23deeab...](http://sinema.house.gov/index.cfm/press-
releases?ID=b23deeab-d42e-4a22-808c-787ef7190761)
From:
“I have very real concerns about the federal government’s action and lack of
transparency regarding the collection and retention of law-abiding Americans’
private information. "
Straight to:
"I believe that we must work toward less intrusive methods to ensure our
security. The broad language we considered today could have limited the
ability of our national security and law enforcement community to prevent the
bombing plot against the New York subway system or to quickly respond to
events like the Boston bombing."
Wrapping it all up with:
"There are other ways than the invasive collection of metadata to ensure the
security of Americans while protecting our precious 4th Amendment rights.”
Ok... so there are other ways, gotcha.... but you don't vote for an amendment
which would have forced the NSA into using / finding other ways. Cool.
Edit: I give her props for responding to my tweet though:
[https://twitter.com/fuzzywah/status/360441317609840642](https://twitter.com/fuzzywah/status/360441317609840642)
------
AndrewKemendo
Does anyone find it ironic that the same folks who are anti-libertarian (not
necessarily the HN crowd) and anti-tea party are strident supporters of a tea-
party favorite congressman's amendment. The idea that such a group would rally
around someone who they would not have voted for, seems strange.
I am not sure if I should be proud that a citizenry can see past politics and
rally based on substance, or if they are totally out of touch with how
politics works.
------
mey
Source info
http://clerk.house.gov/floorsummary/floor.aspx?day=20130724
It was Roll call #412, the Amash ammendment for Bill H.r. 2397
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2013/roll412.xml
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/hr2397
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/113-2013/h412
------
evykoala
I called both of mine (FL), one voted one way and the other the other. Do I
thank the one, and what would I say to the other?
~~~
jdp23
Good job calling! And yes, call both again - with thanks (it shows you really
care and are paying attention), and with disappointment, asking why they voted
the way they did, letting them know this may influence your vote in the
primary and general election, and recommendations about what they should read
to get a different perspective when the next vote comes up.
~~~
mzs
What's the list of stuff they could read? Thanks
------
giardini
Astonishingly page doesn't work in Opera.
And why all the effort in a "defund NSA" site to find out as much as possible
about visitors (e-mail, zip code) and link them to Facebook, Twitter and
Google, the second-tier sinners in this scandal?
Just provide good information at a pre-defined URL - I'll get around to it if
I want to.
~~~
beaugunderson
We will definitely test in Opera going forward--thank you for reporting that
it doesn't work.
We are trying to figure out how to best spread a message while still being
privacy-conscious. One possible idea is to put the sharing functionality on a
second page, thus allowing people who want to share to do so but not loading
scripts for people just visiting for the first time. Another is to load
sharing scripts on the same page asynchronously only if people click a 'Tweet
my legislator!' button--that's how the current site would work if there were
not the three social buttons at the bottom of the page.
We'll also be dropping Google Analytics for Piwik (which is self-hosted) soon.
------
JumpCrisscross
Representatives up for election in 2013 [EDIT: 2014] should be flagged. Ones
in competitive states should be at the top, with donation links for those who
voted Aye. If they voted Nay and their competitor is anti-NSA, their
competitor gets a donation link by the incumbent's name.
~~~
dragonwriter
> Representatives up for election in 2013 should be flagged.
That's going to be a pretty short list, as regular elections for all seats of
the House of Representatives (and one-third of the seats of the Senate) occur
in every even-numbered year.
The only House elections in 2013 would be special elections, which would
normally be to fill a _vacant_ seat, and thus would not have an incumbent
running.
------
joelg236
Not sure who would know how to fix this, but the tweet button only puts
half[1] of the message in. (URL maybe too long)
[1] - [http://imgur.com/z7JDuXV](http://imgur.com/z7JDuXV)
~~~
FridayWithJohn
weird, it worked fine for me. Try to just manually add it. The positive Tweet
was "Thank you for supporting #privacy! You're earning my vote, keep up the
good work! #defundNSA [http://defundthensa.com/"](http://defundthensa.com/")
while the negative Tweet was: "It's shameful that you voted for
unconstitutional record collection instead of #privacy! #defundNSA
[http://defundthensa.com/"](http://defundthensa.com/")
------
izx
another good link, providing full information about everyone that voted on
this, with clickable links to more detailed information about each
representative.
Makes it easier to get people to pester the appropriate representative.
[http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/113/house/1/vote...](http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/113/house/1/votes/412/)
------
mattmanser
Broken on Chrome/Win 7.
EDIT: Whoops, it's Adblock Plus on Chrome. For some reason it gets rid of most
of the site.
------
wtvanhest
What is going on with the photo of Judy Chu and the guy below her? I'm
referencing the duct tape.
------
tvtime15
WWRPD?
------
potatoman2
I'm a trifle pessimistic over the chances of this ever succeeding.
~~~
pvnick
Did you not see the vote spread yesterday? Twelve vote difference. That's
incredible, and this is only the beginning.
Also remember, there are still leaks to come, we've only seen a glimpse of the
full scope of the revelations.
~~~
haakon
My understanding is that even if it had passed with flying colours, Obama
would have vetoed it. So all of this process is just for show.
~~~
ctdonath
If it had passed with flying colors, pressure on the Obama to _not_ veto it
would be tremendous.
~~~
sillysaurus
He's already been reelected, so he doesn't care what the general public thinks
of him.
~~~
ctdonath
True that he doesn't care per se, but as I doubt he's going to quietly retire
to a Hawaiian villa in 3.5 years, he does have to gauge who thinks what of
this presumably unexpected issue & backlash.
------
btbuildem
FYI, you're missing the congresspeople who abstained.
~~~
beaugunderson
Very good point--abstentions and absences should also be listed.
~~~
chinpokomon
Had those who abstained voted yes, it would have been a tie. It would have
still failed to pass because the WH would have the final say, but I'm
encouraged that it was as close as it was.
------
josephby
Too many secrets.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
In Law Schools, Grades Go Up, Just Like That - dnorris10
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/22/business/22law.html?&pagewanted=all
======
gaius
_If somebody’s paying $150,000 for a law school degree_
Colleges don't sell degrees, they sell educations - you have to earn the
degree. Or you used to, anyway. Why not skip all the lectures, coursework and
exams and save time?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask YC: Do you guys think a think tank startup would work? - zitterbewegung
By think tank I mean a startup which generally does research and possibly sells or markets the ideas. You have a group of people implementing the ideas and the same group also thinks up new ideas to implement.
======
nreece
Sure. That's how Idealab, for example, started: <http://www.idealab.com/>
------
bstadil
Yes, if the ThinkTank mostly outsources its efforts. Meaning build a network
of domain expertize that it could bring to bear on the problem. This probably
should include an initial assessment of the problem itself by experts in
various aspects of the problem as defined. Problem definition is often the
weak link in the chain toward creating something new.
That service alone might be valuable.
------
jasonervin
Dream job. Yes, been thinking of starting one for years. Something like
www.brainstore.com, but more technology based and less fluff.
www.ihdea.com
------
jasonervin
I give away ideas all the time. www.flairjax.com
------
sam_in_nyc
Being part of a think tank is my dream job.
~~~
popat
what's your email?
~~~
sam_in_nyc
[email protected]
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google: Changes Coming To G+ This Week - mindcrime
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9218303/Google_Changes_coming_to_Google_this_week
======
joebadmo
Changes I'm looking forward to:
* Integration with Google Reader.
* Group chat (why is Huddle a mobile-only function?).
* Photo/screen-sharing (like the youtube sharing) in Hangouts.
* More granular control (I'd like to see my stream minus the Following Circle, since that's all the people I actually know or have met IRL).
* Finer control over UI (I'd like to be able to see my Following Circle with the comments collapsed by default, so it's easier to scan for content).
* "Places" (blog post: [http://blog.byjoemoon.com/post/7072771434/a-new-metaphor-for...](http://blog.byjoemoon.com/post/7072771434/a-new-metaphor-for-social-networking))
Just off the top of my head.
~~~
antihero
It'd be awesome if they could integrate it with Calendar for events/RSVPs etc.
------
jeffclark
_"There should be a private messaging option in G+," said another user._
Love this. There is a private messaging option (it's email) but people are
trying to replicate Facebook with a Google logo on it.
Will that help or hinder it's growth?
~~~
rwolf
Not only that, but you can make a post that has only one recipient. Private
messaging is a special case of "I can send this post to specific recipients."
Facebook's private messages exist as a separate thing in part because of how
hard it is to control the audience of your Facebook posts.
~~~
kelnos
Except there's no good 'record' of private posts you've received. If someone
sent me something a week ago that I want to refer to, it's a bitch to find it
again. This is why I'd rather see some gmail integration, essentially Facebook
messages backed by your real gmail account, but with a simpler, prettier
frontend integrated into G+ when you just want to fire off quick messages
without context switching out of G+.
~~~
rwolf
Sounds like a search problem. A thousand +1s for adding search.
------
FilterJoe
I'd like to see:
* filtering options for the main stream - at the very least be able to choose circles to include/exclude
* a "muted" stream (then I'll quickly mute the 90+% of the stream I find of little interest - but can still access or unmute if I want to)
* Something similar to facebook groups. I know this can be done elsewhere (Facebook Groups, Ning, reddit, etc.) but Google+ has the potential to integrate small groups into my daily workflow. More importantly, there are many people I know only because of a specific interest - and I'd like to only interact with them on that specific interest.
All 3 of these specific suggestions are under the same umbrella: reduce noise
while engaging in more meaningful conversation and information sharing on
topics I care about.
------
pilif
I would love to be able to flag a post as public but also only make it appear
in specific circles streams.
My Google+ followers are mostly migrated from Twitter and they are mostly
technical users with a lot of JS background.
This means I don't want to spam them with "funny" pictures or one-off comments
about strange stuff, maybe even local to where I live. I DO want to post that
stuff to my coworkers though as they are at least moderately interested and
posting it to Google+ is less annoying than email for all of us.
I can already limit these posts to the "Coworkers" circle, but that means that
the post is now not public any more. People looking at my profile don't see
it. I can't link it directly and when a recipient decides to reshare, they get
a (otherwise well-meaning) warning, even though the post is totally non-
private - I just didn't want to spam my JS followers with that.
This is a shame because with Google+, I finally found an outlet where I can
post stuff for the various groups of people without spamming others.
------
wccrawford
They aren't saying what changes, just that there will be changes? To a product
that isn't launched yet?
Isn't that a bit of non-news?
~~~
bonch
Yes, but since sites like Hacker News have been dutifully advertising Google+
non-stop since it came out, Google can release non-news and have it covered
like it's news.
------
john2x
Not sure how it would look, but lately I've been seeing blog-type posts on G+
pages, so it would be cool to see support for Markdown-like syntax.
------
hfaber
> "There should be a private messaging option in G+," said another user.
Isn't that what email is for?
~~~
eam
Yes, I think you're right. Google just needs to integrate it better with
gmail, possibly add a mail icon on the users' page and when clicked the user
can be taken into the gmail interface.
------
lists
"'It would also be great if I could put circles within circles,' wrote one
user.
This would be pretty mega. Covers A LOT of bases.
------
pradeepbheron
Welcome to All Changes.........
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Any tips to get VC funding for a consulting business? - googlycooly
======
davismwfl
So I agree with svennek that VC and consulting businesses are not generally
compatible but I disagree with the logic used. Marketplaces being the
exception, but in those cases those businesses aren't even categorized as a
consulting business, just a broker. e.g. what most of SV calls a marketplace
has for generations been brokered business, just a new/different term.
I built two different consulting groups and both were successful and made good
money. One even took a modest outside investment at a point to grow faster,
just not VC dollars. You can absolutely scale a consulting business into the
billions of dollars of revenue, hello KPMG, IBM Global Services, etc etc.
What makes consulting businesses non-compatible with venture capital is that
VC's are looking for leverage on their investment, they don't care about
"scaling". Founders get hung up on "scaling" cause it is the term we use when
growing the business as a catch all, scale people, sales etc. But financially
speaking VC's generally look at leverage on their dollar not scaling, in fact,
they want you to stay as small and lean as possible but leveraging their money
to make more money while spending the smallest amount reasonable.
I am not trying to be argumentative, and I get the difference is subtle but it
is a critical difference. You can research this and you will find they are
different. For example, you could scale out your sales and team yet remain
unprofitable, which means you didn't leverage the investment very well.
I point this out because if you can show an investor how you can leverage
their dollars into more dollars, generally that's how you can get an
investment. VC's don't play the game in this way for valid (and sometimes
invalid) reasons but high net worth individuals do, and frankly for a
consulting business a few HNI's are always a better source of funding.
~~~
googlycooly
Good point. But if we notice, there is no new consulting company that has
grown big like KPMG, Infosys, etc in the last decade. Is it because achieving
that scale as a consulting company is no longer possible?
~~~
davismwfl
Yea, I think that is a reasonably fair point.
But depending on how you want to measure growth and define consulting, HP grew
its services division in the last 15 years (so did Dell ~20years) or so and it
went from nearly 0 to billions in revenue. They always had a little services
revenue/work but not like they developed in the last 15 years or so. A lot of
large consulting companies you never hear about because they stay private and
aren't in the "tech" sector. IBM GS grew in the billions during the last 15
years, even as they laid off people, proving the work is there to support that
value.
One thing to note, consulting does best when economies are doing poorly to
moderate. When economies are booming and employment recovering consulting
actually goes down, when employment levels off at "fully employed" then
consulting starts to pick up a little during a boom period. It makes sense if
you think about it: it is much cheaper to hire a consulting agency to work on
a project or add a feature when the economy is down as hiring FTE's would
increase the burden on the business permanently. Both of my consulting
businesses grew the most when the economy was doing poor, dot com bust was one
time and the housing & overall market crash the other. We grew massively
during those times and never did as well when companies came back to feeling
good about the economy and growing internally. I say this because the last 10
years has been a more or less booming economy so consulting isn't doing as
well during that time period, although it is picking up now with employment
numbers being so low. But if you go back into the downturns you'd see
differently.
Also consulting is a big field right, if you remove the SV/tech only bubble
and look at the economy as a whole tons of defense businesses are purely
consulting in nature and grew from 0. And quite a few hit over a billion
dollars in the past 15 years. So just depends where you look.
I think if you look at the number of new product companies that come out that
do ok but never reach a billion in annual sales and compare that to consulting
agencies you'd find a pretty similar trend with similar percentages.
One other point. A lot of tech is defense phobic right now for whatever their
reasons are, but if you look at almost every major large consulting firm that
is large they had a staple of defense and government work, both within the US
and outside. Ignoring one of the largest employers because you feel principled
in doing so is completely fine, but you only add to the complexity of growth
at that point.
------
svennek
Venture Capital and consulting businesses are incompatible by nature.
Venture capital is about scalability (i.e. cost per unit goes down when number
of units goes up - preferably considerably...)
Consultancies are unscaleable business by design, because they sell "hours".
Every employee can deliver a certain number of hours only, so per-unit
(marginal) cost is flat.
And therefore VC and consultancies does not match... at all..
~~~
googlycooly
Yea but some companies like Gigster, Pivotal managed to raise VC funding, even
though they work in the same model. Any idea why?
~~~
detaro
Gigster is in many ways a market place, connecting Customers to Freelancers.
Pivotal does services, but also has products they offer the services around,
makes the majority of money from licenses.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Forget philanthropy. The super-rich should be paying proper taxes - paulpauper
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/02/forget-philanthropy-super-rich-should-be-paying-proper-taxes
======
roenxi
At least everyone can agree that government taxing should be higher than
government spending^.
This article is mainly baiting rich v poor division; on a close read it
doesn't actually say much.
The real issue is that everything in general has become so complicated that
nobody has a hope of understanding how it works. Unless we have accountants on
deck today nobody really has a feel for how much the rich pay in taxes
(including under the '70%' regime - I bet there was nobody actually paying
anywhere near 70%) and nobody has a great feel for how those taxes are being
spent. And _nobody_ has a feel for what happens to the money that rich people
control and what it actually goes into doing. They aren't hiding it under the
mattress, that money is out there causing real outcomes in the real world that
go far beyond the rich having nice houses.
The rich could pay 0% taxes if we had confidence that they believed they
should invest it all into ordinary people. We could tax at 100% if we had
confidence that an enlightened government would spend it with prudence and
intelligence. We will do neither because we know both those assumptions are
stupid.
Quoting GK Chesterton and observing that politicians are treacherous is not a
powerful contribution.
^ EDIT: Thanks neogodless - I mean specific policy for literally right now, to
pay down debt.
~~~
blantonl
The '70%' regime was then reinvesting all those profits right back into their
businesses to avoid those taxes, which spurred job growth and R&D innovation.
The simple reality is that today's "regime" simply stockpiles that wealth for
their own benefit and then gives out a few token amounts to charitable causes
and thinks that will stave off the pitchforks when the uprising begin.
Giving money to charity doesn't cleanse your soul of it's moral responsibility
to society. As abrasive as it sounds, it may very well be true that if someone
is in the position to be giving out millions to charitable foundations that
end up making a lot of people fat from managing them, maybe they took too much
in the first place.
~~~
rayiner
This argument makes no sense. The super rich aren’t keeping their money under
a mattress. They’re investing in VC, public markets, etc. It’s the exact same
result, except instead of investing in the same company, profits can be
invested in a different company.
~~~
JoeAltmaier
...whereupon they reap the profits. The new reality is, the money men own most
everything, and skim the vast majority of benefit from every industry.
It's not about how much money is in the system. Its about who benefits from
it.
~~~
rhino369
They'd also reap the profits from businesses investing in themselves since
they own those companies. The only difference would be encouraging
conglomerates instead of new companies. Not sure why that benefits anyone.
------
ctdonath
Why the notion that gov't should be the provider & arbiter of all? Why do none
of the "they don't pay enough taxes" crowd not realize the rich do so much of,
and more efficiently, what the gov't purports to with massive overhead? Job
creation, charity, arts funding, lowering costs of necessities, etc - and at
levels & locations which gov't would never achieve.
The "tax/soak the rich" notion seems almost entirely punitive, not productive.
Yeah Musk has $billions, he's also creating thousands of jobs (direct &
indirect), making the expensive affordable, improving environment, etc - and
able to _because_ he's very rich. Even the "mean" rich create jobs & markets
etc that gov't can't.
~~~
AlexandrB
> Why the notion that gov't should be the provider & arbiter of all?
Because the government is democratically elected. Billionaires are not.
> Why do none of the "they don't pay enough taxes" crowd not realize the rich
> do so much of, and more efficiently, what the gov't purports to with massive
> overhead?
[citation needed] In fact, there's an easy counter-example. Healthcare. More
expensive than any public system, with worse outcomes for the general
population.
~~~
malvosenior
I trust politicians as much as I trust billionaires: not at all. In fact as
the OP points out at least the occasional billionaire will do something
productive for society. The same can't be said for the government.
> _[citation needed] In fact, there 's an easy counter-example. Healthcare.
> More expensive than any public system, with worse outcomes for the general
> population._
The only reason health care is so expensive in the US is because of government
regulations. From doctor accreditation, FDA approval, health insurance
"marketplace" rules... The government is the single largest force pushing up
the price of health care.
~~~
pintxo
Assuming you live in the USA, the simple fact, that you can leave your house
and have access to a (still) working transportation infrastructure and do not
need (I hope) private security to protect your life and property is proof that
the Government does something productive for society.
I am as ____off by a lot of recent Government actions and their seeming
inability to fix _obvious_ issues. But to argue they to nothing productive for
society? That is just plain wrong.
Also, I'd like to highlight that millions of citizens are only healthy/alive
because of regulations. Are they perfect? Far from it, but can we live without
them? No.
~~~
logicchains
>Also, I'd like to highlight that millions of citizens are only healthy/alive
because of regulations
Citation needed? There were practically no regulations a century ago compared
to now, and while more people died then, it certainly wasn't millions (unless
you're counting something like vaccines as "regulation").
~~~
ceejayoz
There are a _lot_ of regulations you'd have to add up, but millions probably
isn't an enormous stretch.
Crumple zones, seat belts, and air bags save tens of thousands a year
([https://www.nhtsa.gov/seat-belts/seat-belts-save-
lives](https://www.nhtsa.gov/seat-belts/seat-belts-save-lives)).
The EPA estimates the Clean Air Act alone saved 100k/year.
[https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171226105042.h...](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171226105042.htm)
Lead paint, workplace safety, FDA approval, product recalls, aviation
safety... Hell, fighting the tobacco industry is a big regulatory move.
------
rayiner
There are two major problems with this line of reasoning:
1) The bit about the 70% tax rate is wrong. The 70% was on wage income, but
other sorts of income was taxed lower, and a lot of income wasn’t taxed at
all. [https://taxfoundation.org/70-tax-rate-entrepreneurial-
income](https://taxfoundation.org/70-tax-rate-entrepreneurial-income). Actual
tax rates on the rich have been highly stable since the 1950s:
[https://taxfoundation.org/taxes-on-the-rich-1950s-not-
high/](https://taxfoundation.org/taxes-on-the-rich-1950s-not-high/)
2) The amount of tax the super rich pay is way down on the list of issues to
be worried about. The top 0.01% (household income above $7.5 million per year,
so not even “super rich”) make just 3.3% of all income. Tax them at 25% or
75%—it doesn’t make much of a difference to the Treasury. Taking _all of their
money_ would add maybe 3% to total government spending. That wouldn’t pay for
Medicare for All. It won’t pay for the Green New Deal. It might just about pay
for universal child care and pre-K.
~~~
geggam
This graph doesnt agree
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Historical_Marginal_Tax_R...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Historical_Marginal_Tax_Rate_for_Highest_and_Lowest_Income_Earners.jpg)
~~~
rayiner
That’s the top marginal rate on wage income. It doesn’t actually look at the
total tax people pay as a percentage of their total income. That changes not
just based on the top marginal rate, but on where each bracket kicks in, the
composition of income, and the tax base. For example, back in the day, things
like corporate expense accounts were not treated as taxable income. And the
highest brackets kicked in at the equivalent of $3.5 million today, which
means even top 0.01%-ers had half their income taxed at a lower bracket.
------
skrowl
It's probably different in the UK where The Guardian is, but in the USA the
bottom 45% of wage earners pay $0 federal income tax while the top 20% pay 87%
of it. I'm not sure how much more you should slap on the "evil" job-creating
rich before it's "proper", but 87% already seems pretty high to me.
[https://www.marketwatch.com/story/45-of-americans-pay-no-
fed...](https://www.marketwatch.com/story/45-of-americans-pay-no-federal-
income-tax-2016-02-24)
~~~
DanTheManPR
What would you propose, squeeze more water from the stone? The bottom 45% of
wage earnes are broke as hell, they hardly have any income to tax. Meanwhile,
the top 20% have so much more money that you can raise 87% of income tax
revenue even with today's more flattened tax brackets.
~~~
jazzyk
But in the supposedly socialist Europe, even lower income people pay SOME
amount in taxes.
For example, in Spain, you pay 19% on the first 12,450E, and the rate quickly
goes up to 45% for anything over 60,000E (average income is ~30K)
There are some personal allowances and deductions, but most people pay at
least _some_ tax.
------
falcolas
Too many temporarily embarrassed billionaires in our population to push for
this from the bottom, and too many billionaires using their version of lunch
money on our politicians to get traction from the top.
Great concept, won’t ever actually happen.
~~~
dwrowe
This is such a tired take. Is it not possible to just believe that a person
shouldn’t HAVE to pay more (percentage-wise) in taxes because they’re
successful - while at the same time, be fine with the credits / deductions
available to the less fortunate? I can’t be the unicorn here.
~~~
geggam
Why is it tired?
The wealthy benefit from the social infrastructure they live in. Should they
not pay for it ?
Think of the wear and tear the roads get from the Amazon delivery service
alone.
~~~
ajsnigrutin
Doesn't amazon pay road taxes for their trucks (or whatever they're called
over there)?
~~~
geggam
The US road taxes doesnt cover the damage done.
Not to mention the US is huge, the actual cost of fixing the infrastructure
would be staggering. It needs fixing too.
------
rafaelvasco
Philanthropy, at least in theory, directly benefits people; Taxes don't; We
should keep both; The focus of every government must be the well-being of
people, and most importantly, setting things so that the people have better
opportunities to be the owners of their own lives and being able to care for
themselves, returning value to the country and the World. Yes we need money
for that, but when people focus on money instead of caring for others,
corruption ensues. It is inevitable.
------
bogus_323423
> we must make them be good
Lash the sinners into virtue, eh?
Good luck with the whole killing satan with his own pitchfork thing. All this
does is turn those who try into demons; if you can hurt class enemies for
being insufficiently good, you can do the same to anyone. And nobody ever
accused the proletariat of being excessively possessed of virtue...
This is just a thin veneer over the libido dominandi. "We can't wait to remake
society in the image of the blood god, so sacrifices must be made. No, not my
kids ha ha"
------
deckar01
Extremely wealthy people don't just donate to charity to cherry-pick the
social programs they support. They also gain influence over organizations and
communities. They promise support to gain favor and threaten withholding to
gain influence. People this rich don't need more money, they want more power.
------
grecy
I just read that Jeff Bezoz will pay a lower tax rate than someone earning
$7.25/hr. Incredible.
~~~
ctdonath
He's also giving thousands of people jobs, making necessities available to
millions at low prices, and paying enormous amounts in total taxes. Can gov't
really do more with his money than he can? Do you really want to
disincentivize what he does for humanity?
~~~
pizza234
> He's also giving thousands of people jobs
Enterpreneurs don't "give" jobs to people. Refer to the "wage labour"
definition:
> Wage labour is the socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an
> employer, where the worker sells their labour power under a formal or
> informal employment contract.
precisely, they're purchasing labor. And actually, Bezos is puchasing it at a
dirty cheap price.
~~~
ctdonath
Pedantic. He created a job opening, they accepted it. Ask NYC how terrible
those 30,000 new Amazon jobs are ... oh right, they don't exist there because
the "Bezos is a meanie" people drove them away.
A job is better than no job. Bezos hired them to do something productive.
~~~
wycy
Incorrect. Amazon says it was not about the politics[0]. Plus, Amazon is still
coming to NYC anyway, because there was still demand for an office there[1].
But now NYC gets it for free rather than paying billions in subsidies.
[0] [https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/10/amazon-reveals-the-truth-
on-...](https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/10/amazon-reveals-the-truth-on-why-it-
nixed-ny-and-chose-virginia-for-hq2.html)
[1] [https://nypost.com/2019/05/27/amazon-is-reportedly-eyeing-
of...](https://nypost.com/2019/05/27/amazon-is-reportedly-eyeing-office-space-
on-manhattans-west-side/)
------
smitty1e
Forget proper taxes: give us a simple, coherent, 21st-century system for
taxation that reasonably links what I'm paying to an _actual_ budget, and
maybe all of this class-warfare whinging on will sound less laughable.
Back to my fantasizing .
------
hevi_jos
Paying more than 70% of what you earn is not fair. It is slavery and
confiscation.
And it always happens the same way, those in charge, in power, who control
this 70% will manage to spend it on themselves one way or another.
In the soviet Union official markets will have stands selling just one potato,
or one lemon or egg. Then in the black market the communist families could
buy(or access, because with power and influence you don't need
money)everything, from good meat, fish...
People that traveled abroad, with public money were the children of the
communist... they had access to (imported)TVs, good houses and cars instantly
while the rest of the population will wait for years or decades, only to get
bullshit TVs, bullshit houses and bullshit cars.
In the UK,and the US with confiscation taxes rich people found ways to not pay
taxes at all. It was only a barrier of entry to middle class.
~~~
wycy
It's only 70% of what you earn on dollars _after_ certain other nominal
limits. For example, 70% of what you earn _after_ you've earned your first
$1,000,000.00. Please do spare everyone these absurd tears for the "enslaved"
rich.
------
diegoholiveira
Why give more power to politicians? I really don't get that.
~~~
signet
Because they are democratically elected?
~~~
flyingfences
So what?
------
chooseaname
> Er, the United States, an economist sitting next to him replied, where the
> highest tax rate averaged about 70% from the 1930s to the 1970s, “and those
> were actually pretty good years for growth”. Rates are nowhere near that
> now. The supposed populist Trump gave a $1.5tn tax cut mainly to the richest
> corporations and individuals and the top rate now stands at 37%.
Go ahead and tax the likes of Bill Gates at 70%. You won't get much more than
you do now, relatively speaking.
------
bonoboTP
Scott Alexander had a compelling argument against this:
[https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/07/29/against-against-
billio...](https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/07/29/against-against-billionaire-
philanthropy/)
~~~
hiccuphippo
If they are deterred from donating to charity by the negative press, was it
philanthropy in the first place?
~~~
ben509
Why does it matter if their motives are pure? You don't need a moral
justification to do a thing that helps other people and is entirely at your
personal expense.
~~~
zpallin
You're right, but unless a person is spending money for a social-cause that
benefits us all, they absolutely do not deserve any special status, press
coverage or a title such as "philanthropist." They're just spending money for
themselves, and that's nothing special. Anyone can do that.
~~~
ben509
If everyone has to benefit, this seems to define philanthropy to be an
impossible feat.
I suspect you're thinking of some celebrities or causes you agree with and
assuming their motives must be pure because they agree with your interests.
This isn't saying you have some devious intent, I'm just pointing out a
potential unquestioned assumption you may hold.
Maybe the compromise is this: Wanting people to like you (or wanting good PR)
may be an impure motive, but it's also the least concerning impure motive.
After all, if a very powerful person wants to be liked by others, that
motivation forces them to then listen to others and consider their interests.
~~~
zpallin
I didn't try to define philanthropy at all. Call it what you will.
I'm not thinking of any celebrities, and it's really weird that you made that
assumption.
It's simply unimpressive to me when people give away money through foundations
or other organized means just cause they're rich. The bar should be much
higher to earn anyone's praise. That's all I'm saying. And I don't have
anything to add to what you've written.
------
ctdonath
Comment threads like this always amaze me by the number of socialist/communist
advocates on a site devoted to full-on capitalism.
~~~
foogazi
I was surprised that a Marxist was quoted in the article
------
magwa101
FUCK YES.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Carbon: Create and share images of source code - polm23
https://carbon.now.sh/
======
oefrha
I learned about Carbon maybe three years ago. Back then the README example
looked like this: [https://user-
images.githubusercontent.com/10369094/30791512-...](https://user-
images.githubusercontent.com/10369094/30791512-cb001438-a167-11e7-952b-f0f0e5c4499e.png)
Now it looks like [https://user-
images.githubusercontent.com/8397708/63456416-b...](https://user-
images.githubusercontent.com/8397708/63456416-b27d1a80-c403-11e9-9572-105b089be885.png)
complete with weird cursive font and all.
IMO this niche obsession with cursives, ligatures and stuff in programming
fonts actually hurts first impression for a significant percentage of people
landing on this README.
~~~
nurettin
Obsession with dark, unreadable text colors are much more destructive to my
eyes than cursives. Whoever came up with the idea that blue on black was a
good color for displaying code on a screen, or dark green on black was a good
idea for comments should just stop using computers together with everyone who
installs and uses those themes.
~~~
leotaku
I mean, everyone should be able to use themes that they are comfortable with,
right? I don't think there is any evidence for dark themes "destroying"
anyones eyes. And even if there was, I think you'd be able to survive looking
at a Screenshot for some trendy JS project.
~~~
dr_zoidberg
For me, dark themes help reduce eye strain, particularly at night or if I've
been staring at the screen for a long while already. But I don't judge others
for picking color themes which are comfortable for them. Your screen, your
rules.
------
politelemon
I'm of the opinion that showing window controls (the top left/right buttons)
and the window chrome on a code snippet is poor form. The focus of the
screenshot is to be the code itself, there is no need to highlight the crud
around it which is distracting to users coming from different OSes. It is
reminiscent of of various sites that showcase their products on specific
phones and laptops. You're wasting valuable space on something that appears
dated and cringey just a few months down the line. A well put-together div,
font and background will last longer.
~~~
throwlaplace
It's an affordance - it signals immediately to the reader that the block of
text is source code
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affordance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affordance)
Best example of affordance is handles on doors: horizontal spanning the whole
door for push to open and vertical for pull to open.
~~~
ken
No, it's the opposite.
> "In 1988, Donald Norman appropriated the term affordances in the context of
> human–machine interaction to refer to just those action possibilities that
> are readily perceivable by an actor."
Putting a door handle on a door is an affordance: you can see how to open the
door (action).
Putting window controls on something that's not a window and can't be
controlled as such is not an affordance: it's misleading. There's no action to
be perceived here.
~~~
throwlaplace
... these code screen caps are inserted into presentations not demos?? As far
as I know no audience member expects to walk up to the projector screen and
minimize a window. The point is to prime someone's perception for how they
should interpret something. Good try being completely literal though.
edit: i can't believe i have to explain this. the window serves exactly the
same purpose as offsetting code blocks in text in a different font, in a
different color, with a different background: it's to indicate that there's
something meta-semantically distinct about this block of text from other
blocks of text. to contextualize the code even moreso accomplishes the same
goal - implicitly communicating distinction.
~~~
matheusmoreira
> The point is to prime someone's perception for how they should interpret
> something.
And what perception is that?
The macOS semaphore controls make the square look like a macOS window. Not all
windows are text editors: people still have to look at the content of the
window in order to understand it. Not all text editing is source code editing:
people still have to read the text in order to realize it's source code. The
Carbon twitter contains images of error logs and ASCII art.
Monospaced typefaces and syntax highlighting of the text are the design
features that truly denote source code. A container with contrasting
background color distinguishes the source code from the other elements on the
page or slide.
> the window serves exactly the same purpose as offsetting code blocks in text
> in a different font, in a different color, with a different background: it's
> to indicate that there's something meta-semantically distinct about this
> block of text from other blocks of text.
They don't have the same purpose. The information conveyed by all of those
elements are completely different. Monospaced, syntax highlighted text looks
like source code to any programmer. Placing that text inside a container
allows it to be quickly distinguished from the surrounding prose.
Adding macOS controls to this design makes it look like source code _that 's
being edited in macOS_. Why convey those additional bits of information? Does
the code not work outside of macOS? Are users of other systems not part of the
target audience? Is the author subtly signaling their use of macOS to other
macOS users in the audience?
------
genezeta
I've been using Carbon more frequently lately in some development documents in
my current team.
We have a MediaWiki and, for some reason, the administrator wouldn't be
bothered to set up syntax highlighting correctly. So, after asking a number of
times, I thought I would just use Carbon and be done with it and have the docs
looking a bit nicer.
Immediately, I thought about the issue of having code as images. You put an
example in the docs but the developers can't just copy and paste it into their
code. But then I realized I actually _wanted_ this. I didn't want them to
continue copy&pasting code without understanding a single thing they do, like
they have been doing for the last twelve years.
I have it set up to remove the window frame and background, and use Iosevka.
It's much less noisy that way.
~~~
jlengrand
The corollary of that though is that your code is also not accessible. I've
been struggling with this myself, I don't find it fair that my snippets, no
matter how beautiful, aren't readable by screen readers. The only solution I
found is to keep providing actual code as a snippet or gist next to the image.
~~~
genezeta
I understand that, and in a different setting I wouldn't use images for code
no matter what.
In this case though, as I said, the setting is very controlled (internal,
temporary docs) and I explicitly did _not_ want it to be easy to copy.
~~~
jlengrand
Not saying you're doing any evil :). Those might not be yours to fix, but one
could argue that if copy/pasting is such a problem in your current environment
there are deeper issues at hand. Nothing that carbon will fix, and nothing
that accessibility will helps with in any case. Good luck!
~~~
genezeta
Oh, sure. There _are_ much deeper problems in that project.
Thanks.
------
saagarjha
I’m glad that this gives better results than screenshots of code but, to be
honest, a bit saddened that it has to exist at all. Twitter, I get a little:
it’s meant for short thoughts and can’t really work well for code, but Medium
(for example) not supporting code is hard to understand.
~~~
cyberferret
AFAIK, Medium does support embedded Gists from GitHub etc. At least it did
when I last wrote a programming guide in it.
Update: Still seems that it does (scroll down) [0]
Edit: Oops, I just remembered that HackerNoon moved off Medium to their own
CMS, but those Gists _did_ used to work on Medium too, complete with code
formatting.
[0] - [https://hackernoon.com/building-a-face-recognition-web-
app-i...](https://hackernoon.com/building-a-face-recognition-web-app-in-under-
an-hour-345aa91487c)
~~~
oefrha
Supporting embedded gists is hardly "supporting code". We're talking about
fetching one additional iframe plus a third party script per code blob, for
what should be inline HTML plus ~30 lines of CSS (check out pandoc rendered
HTML with syntax highlighting, for instance). The page you linked also
demonstrates visually broken embeds with extraneous white space on the bottom;
hardly a glowing endorsement.
I get embedding Codepens and stuff for rendered code. Embedding gists for
static, verbatim code is just sad. (Not saying it doesn't have its uses, but
_having to use it_ is another matter.)
But this is far from the most annoying thing about Medium, so meh.
------
KayL
This site should warn us the code posted to public
[https://twitter.com/carbon_noreply](https://twitter.com/carbon_noreply)
Looking for a way to copy the code, eg. [https://carbon.now.sh/#code-
ID](https://carbon.now.sh/#code-ID)
~~~
genezeta
As far as I know, it is not posted there unless you actually do it yourself,
pressing the "Tweet" button.
You can also get a link if you choose "Export -> Open". It will open a new
window/tab with the URL of the generated image.
------
polm23
So an unfortunate reality of the world today is that sometimes you need an
image for a post that doesn't need a photograph, if only for better exposure
with embeds. This is great for that. It's also great for posting code on
Twitter.
I see a lot of people complaining about not being able to copy-paste code.
That's a legitimate issue. As chrisma0 pointed out, the URLs can have a one-
to-one correspondence with gists, so in blog posts you can just link directly
to gists with little loss of convenience. Also note that it seems to use
Twitter's alt text correctly at least.
An even better option would be to use a steganographic technique like pico-8
carts do to embed the text and then use an extension (or oembed or something)
to surface that where appropriate.
pico-8 cart details:
[https://pico-8.fandom.com/wiki/P8PNGFileFormat](https://pico-8.fandom.com/wiki/P8PNGFileFormat)
------
jp1016
I have created a similar tool
[https://codekeep.io/screenshot](https://codekeep.io/screenshot), which has
pre made templates for code screenshot , for eg: notes - where you have
description , title and code, good/evil - which can be used to distinguish
between good and bad coding practices, and it can be used along with the
service of codekeep, you can store your snippets on codekeep and instantly
create screenshot from it. a short description of codekeep below, ️ CodeKeep,
Combining features from Google Keep to better organise your code snippets by
tagging them with labels and categorising into folders.Tagline: Organize ,
Discover and Share Code Snippets. [https://codekeep.io](https://codekeep.io)
let me know your thought
~~~
alibaba_x
Does anyone actually buy the paid version of your tool?
------
franky47
For VSCode users: I've been using the CodeSnap [1] extension which lets you do
similar code screenshots without leaving the editor.
[1]
[https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=adpyke.c...](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=adpyke.codesnap)
------
duiker101
Inspired by Carbon I made a tool that I think complements it to obtain the
same effect but on screenshots rather than text.
[https://graphite-shot.now.sh](https://graphite-shot.now.sh)
You can see how it works in the Tweet where I announced it.
[https://twitter.com/Duiker101/status/1241657523825934338](https://twitter.com/Duiker101/status/1241657523825934338)
~~~
ryall
This is _very_ cool. You should make it more obvious that you match the
background colour automatically, I don't think I would've even tried it if I
hadn't seen that comment on twitter.
~~~
duiker101
Thanks for the suggestion! I'll add it to the page!
Now that I think about it I should probably have some example or something to
see what it's about because I am realising it's not really clear when you open
the page
------
erwinh
Super love the design of this, @searchableguy does have a point though. Would
be great if there is a way to add copy-paste to something like this.
Maybe through some accessibility feature it's possible?
------
tsumnia
I don't use Carbon, but I would say I endorse using images to help prevent
copy/pasting of source code. My last research paper [1] studied the results
from students that completed optional typing exercises while learning Java. In
summary, students labeled as "Completers" of typing exercises earned higher
final course grades, "Completers" that also scored below the median on their
first exam showed the highest learning gains on their final exam, and
practicing typing exercises reduced the number of build failures these
students saw in programming programs.
If you are looking for other methods for creating images, you can always go
simple screenshotting. For my research, I use a combination of Dom-to-image
[2] and CodeMirror [3] so that I can generate images from the CodeMirror
interface which students also use to retype the code.
[1] [https://go.ncsu.edu/typing-exercises](https://go.ncsu.edu/typing-
exercises)
[2] [https://github.com/tsayen/dom-to-image](https://github.com/tsayen/dom-to-
image)
[3] [https://codemirror.net/](https://codemirror.net/)
------
_ZeD_
how can I have windows' window buttons? I can choose between 3 combination but
all of them are on the wrong part
------
gorgoiler
Is there a good free equivalent of SF Mono with which I could use this? I
believe the license for SF Mono restricts usage to non commercial iOS / macOS
work.
It’s my favourite typeface for code by far. I enjoy the sort of 1980s “Unix
Manual” width of it. Sort of like the writing on architecture plans, which in
the last would have been drawn by a plotter.
The face in _Carbon_ is close but had too many distracting letter forms for
presenting content.
~~~
Bishonen88
Perhaps not suuuper alike, but I found the jetbrains font to actually be
awesome:
[https://www.jetbrains.com/lp/mono/](https://www.jetbrains.com/lp/mono/)
~~~
imedadel
Surprisingly, setting JetBrains Mono to 13px in the editor is still way more
readable than any other font. Especially on Windows.
------
fxtentacle
While I felt highly sceptical at first, I have now learned that this is an
amazing sales preview tool for source code tutorials.
Inside the article, all source code is posted as images using Carbon. That
way, your readers can follow along and understand what you're doing.
But you didn't have to give away the source code, so you can still ask people
to sign up for your $5 monthly membership which grants access to all source
code projects as downloads.
Of course, your dear readers could also manually type in all the source code
shown in the Carbon images, but at that point lazyness kicks in and they pay
the $5.
My personal opinion is that knowledge should be shared, so I'm not sure if I
consider such an approach good for our craft. But I can understand the
business model that is created by having a tool such as this, which allows
indie developers to earn a passive income from tutorials.
The next logical iteration is then to put your source code screenshots into a
video, e.g. [https://gorails.com/](https://gorails.com/)
~~~
trishmapow2
Next HN post - UnCarbon: easy bulk OCR of source code. Ligatures would be a
bit annoying to deal with, but shouldn't be too hard to get around... and once
one person uploads the code as text everyone has access.
~~~
fxtentacle
Probably that would get an amazing success rate, because source code has both
a limited vocabulary and a formal grammar.
------
bastijn
For me it would be worth more if the tool would make sure it would always have
line breaks at places which enhance readability instead of only responsive to
screen size. The single feature I would want from a tool as carbon is making
captures of source code that would aways be super readable, no matter which
device my audience reads it. The sample on an iPhone is completely the
opposite breaking at my small width making a single line stretch over 4 rows,
broken at random points where my screen ended.
It should smartly take my screen size into consideration and find a optimal
balance between font size, line breaks and readability. I'm fine doing some
small horizontal scrolling if that would improve readability. Kind of a
"prettier" for sharing code automatically running when a reader reads it on
any device.
------
tehsauce
I can't understand why a screenshot tool would generates the macos window UI.
------
chrisma0
Neat! So this is the kind of tool all those hip programmer folks on Twitter
use :)
I especially like that it works directly with GitHub gist IDs
([https://carbon.now.sh/c4ad9e84088d867a2b4670c3dc50e67a](https://carbon.now.sh/c4ad9e84088d867a2b4670c3dc50e67a))
and that the tool considers making the image accessible for people through
image descriptions: [https://help.twitter.com/en/using-twitter/picture-
descriptio...](https://help.twitter.com/en/using-twitter/picture-descriptions)
~~~
searchableguy
And I hate it because you can't copy paste code from a picture. It's going
backwards unless it's just a few lines. I cry because all those medium, blogs,
devto etc articles are using it.
~~~
bArray
Perhaps it could be output as an SVG with an embedded image in the background?
That way you could still have the image _and_ copy-able text.
EDIT: Seems to output SVGs, they just aren't well supported right now:
[https://github.com/carbon-app/carbon/issues/943](https://github.com/carbon-
app/carbon/issues/943)
------
obituary_latte
[https://carbon.now.sh/](https://carbon.now.sh/)
For a demo.
Wasn’t clear from readme on quick blush that there was a live demo.
------
cyberferret
Been using Carbon for quite a while now when illustrating code in my blog
posts or on Twitter etc. It is even on my Chrome shortcuts bar.
Copy and paste aside, it is ideal for showcasing important bits of code such
as variable or function names that you want to stand out for illustrative
purposes. It is a wonderful teaching tool.
In any case - who wants to be a copy and paste programmer?? </wink>
~~~
petepete
Who wants people with visual impairments to read their posts?
~~~
anthonybullard
It's called ALT text. If you don't paste the same source in the alt attribute,
that's the problem. Not having a nice image for sighted folks.
~~~
petepete
Alt text certainly wasn't intended for this kind of use. Screen readers don't
cope with newlines in alt text particularly well, most just stop at the end of
a line[0]. Also more care has to be taken when escaping the contents of the
attribute, it's something people will definitely get wrong.
[0] [https://developer.paciellogroup.com/blog/2015/09/short-
note-...](https://developer.paciellogroup.com/blog/2015/09/short-note-on-
coding-alt-text/)
------
pcr910303
For people who find the default padding too big(I did), you can control the
presets with the Settings button - and if you want pixel-level control, you
can export the carbon-config.json file from the Settings > Misc > Export
config, edit in your favorite editor, and import it. I use a padding of 12px,
instead of the (IMO) super big 56px.
------
pknerd
Wish there was an HTML export option for blog posts.
------
Saurabhjain507
Ok. This is what the cool folks of Twitter use I guess. Thank you for sharing.
------
dylan604
So, this is for people unable to take a proper screen cap?
------
dang
Url changed from [https://github.com/carbon-
app/carbon](https://github.com/carbon-app/carbon), which points to this.
------
fxtentacle
How useless.
1\. With the current design standards, "beautiful code" just means lots of
useless whitespace everywhere. Code should be compact and functional, not
airy.
2\. It breaks copy & paste, so this is really only useful for showing off, but
not for actually communicating about code or writing tutorials.
3\. This tool has lower contrast and lower readability than black text on a
white background.
Combined, it's a tool for bragging about the wrong metric while excluding the
elderly.
~~~
fooker
>Code should be compact and functional, not airy.
Airy and functional seems better for readability.
~~~
fxtentacle
If I had to choose between 2 screens full of source code with lots of
whitespace, or half of a screen condensed, I'd always choose the variant that
fits on my screen.
So my personal preference is strongly against airy and more like "cram what
you can into one line".
But given the quick downvotes to my parent post, it seems I'm in the minority
with my view that source code should be first and foremost useful.
~~~
fooker
>cram what you can into one line
This is how code gets thrown away and rewritten. Fixing bugs in dense code is
a nightmare, if the code was written by someone else.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Oracle NoSQL Database 11g - nosh
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/nosqldb/learnmore/nosql-database-data-sheet-498054.pdf
======
gerardo
What the hell? First, they dissed NoSQL, and then make their own
implementation?.
What is this marketing sorcery?.
~~~
Udo
They recognized NoSQL as a threat (after laughing about it for years). Now
they do a classic two-pronged strategy: attack it viciously _and_ provide a
solution of their own. It's old school corporate behavior.
------
wmf
It's a cluster version of Berkeley DB Java Edition.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Arguing Is Pointless - acconrad
http://blogs.hbr.org/bregman/2011/02/arguing-is-pointless.html
======
Fargren
No, arguing is not pointless. But the point of arguing is rarely to convince
someone of anything. The point of arguing is learning the other persons
arguments and the flaws in your own. Arguing is platonic dialectic. The author
gets very close to the point of argumentation, and then misses it.
~~~
trickjarrett
In my mind, you're making the case for debate. Argument has an emotional
connotation, where as debate is more educational in connotation.
~~~
xenophanes
Arguing over minor differences in words when a person's intent is sufficiently
clear ... really is pointless.
~~~
Semiapies
Not a minor difference; debates happen in civil threads on this site.
Arguments involve situations like blowhards yelling at cops giving them
parking tickets.
TFA confuses the two to some extent.
------
filosofo
Some of the most heated, seemingly-intractable arguments I've participated in
have led me later upon reflection to change my mind. I'm thankful the other
party didn't take this viewpoint that arguing is pointless.
Also, a just society needs to operate by certain fictions: for example, that
people are innocent until proved guilty or that all men are created equal.
Among those should be the assumption that others can be persuaded through
logical means (as opposed to say force or habit). I think it's somewhat akin
to the principle of charity.
~~~
stcredzero
_Also, a just society needs to operate by certain fictions: for example, that
people are innocent until proved guilty or that all men are created equal.
Among those should be the assumption that others can be persuaded through
logical means_
This is good if you are using this as a filter to find exceptional people. The
exceptional people _can_ often be persuaded, because they actually listen and
consider unfamiliar ideas and ways of thinking. (Also note, that they aren't
_always_ persuaded.)
However, if you are playing the odds - odds are people aren't really listening
or devoting sufficient attention to a complex or genuinely novel idea.
------
dustingetz
One Christmas, at Mom's house, I walked by the Christmas tree, and--MEOOWRAAWR
--her monster of a cat jumps out from under the tree and claws my foot! At
this point, the reflex is to kick the cat, out of self-defense instinct.
TIMEOUT!
if i kick the cat, the cat will hate me, it will be a problem in the future as
he feels defensive, and my poor mother will expel me from the house. So i
swallowed my reflex, put neosporin and slippers on, then nicely petted the
darn cat.
My personal relationships sure got a lot better after realizing this.
------
msluyter
IMHO, some arguments can be highly productive, but I think it takes a certain
amount of rapport to effectively argue with someone. I've had discussions with
friends where we began with one set of positions, and by the end had swapped
positions! Those sorts of arguments are enlightening and memorable, but they
require a certain amount of openness and ease with the other person, where you
can feel free to toss around ideas without necessarily having to defend them.
If you don't have that, then indeed, confirmation bias will kick in.
In cases where I've felt that happening, I've found it helpful to try to
pinpoint fundamental assumptions or values that are (by definition)
inarguable. Unveil these, and you'll either resolve the debate with "well, you
value X and I value Y, and no amount of arguing will change that," or "we both
assume/value X but have reached different conclusions, Y and Z -- what would
it take to falsify Y or Z?" My girlfriend and I have somewhat opposing
political views, so I have some practice at this.
~~~
stcredzero
I'd phrase this as a rule: "Only argue if you feel close enough to the other
party to admit if you're wrong, and if they feel the same way."
------
thejash
Instead of emotionally arguing with someone, you should rationally consider
how to persuade the person, and whether it is worth it. That's a much better
suggestion than "doing nothing" as suggested in this pointless flame-bait
article*
*please think before replying to that sentence.
~~~
jerf
"Instead of emotionally arguing with someone, you should rationally consider
how to persuade the person,"
What is your evidence that this works any better than raw applications of
social power (which is the failure state described in the article)?
~~~
thejash
My statement would still be true in that case. You would just be proposing a
shortcut because "rationally consider how to persuade" would be a constant
function that always returned "apply raw social power".
However, as can be pretty clearly seen from psychological literature, neither
making emotional and oppositional statements (what I was saying) or "raw
application of social power" (whatever that means) is the most effective
method of persuading someone. Here is a list of 18 studies demonstrating the
subtleties of persuasion (3rd google result for "psychological studies on
persuasion")
[http://www.spring.org.uk/2011/01/the-psychology-of-
persuasio...](http://www.spring.org.uk/2011/01/the-psychology-of-
persuasion.php)
~~~
stcredzero
_"apply raw social power"_
This follows my experience of how decisions are made in corporate America.
It's all about animal dominance games. Logic is only an auxiliary weapon. It's
a grenade launcher beside the main cannon.
------
Semiapies
Depends on the argument. It helps _to not be flat wrong_ , as the author was
in the case of his parking ticket and his attempt at appealing it.
I thought that was funny, because he was essentially playing the part of the
guy trying to cut into line (from his later example), and the cop was the
person _not actually arguing with him_ while not letting him get away with it.
Mind, stopping yourself from arguing with people who call you on doing the
wrong things is probably a wise change to make.
------
wladimir
Defeatism at its worst. If arguing is pointless, why even have your own
opinion at all? And what point does democracy have?
~~~
stcredzero
_If arguing is pointless, why even have your own opinion at all?_
So you can live your life by it?
_And what point does democracy have?_
Democracy involves artificial environments and contexts where there are rules
constructed to make arguments follow a certain structure so they can be
settled through voting.
------
Calamitous
NO IT'S NOT
------
Charuru
Arguments are necessary. There must be a way to intellectually resolve
disagreements without resorting to ignoring the other. If one think that the
other person is hopeless, then the relationship is in a terrible state. That's
how wars get started. Humans should be above that, we should be able to
communicate well, and resolve differences of opinion with ease.
Currently much of the frustration associated with arguing comes from the
terrible tools and methodology we use.
Sign up for ArgueX. Real communication in arguments. <http://arguex.com/>
I'm a co-founder of ArgueX.
~~~
thejash
I'd be interested in this--I tried building something like it a long time ago,
but it's a very difficult problem.
~~~
Charuru
We think we have 'the solution'. Please sign up for beta. Invites will be
going out soon.
~~~
brlewis
Excited to see your concept, but if you want to appeal to the HN crowd, don't
store/email me my plaintext password.
~~~
Charuru
We're using Drupal, and from what I understand the password is md5 encrypted
before it is saved into the database. However it sends you a one time email of
the password before encryption. This is so that you have a local copy of your
password.
------
bigwally
Politely discussing issues with people can be very productive.
Arguing on the internet is pointless.
~~~
pbhjpbhj
>Arguing on the internet is pointless.
Have you never been convinced by a counter-argument delivered via "the
internet"? Not even enough to alter your position even slightly, nor even your
approach to others in presenting your position?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Javascript Trap - rlm
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/javascript-trap.html
======
tsally
There's a disturbing lack of understanding in this community about free
software, the GPL and other licences, and RMS himself. Of course Stallman is
an extremist. Every leader of such a movement by definition must be an
extremist, even if it makes them look foolish. The ACLU for example takes
cases that make them look like a joke, but they are forced to because they
must exhibit unwavering believe in their ideals. As the leader of the free
software movement, RMS must act in the way that he does.
And as for the commercial viability of open source software, consider
37signals. Their entire tool set (Rails) is open source, and they make
millions. Keeping Rails closed source was not necessary for their success.
When you pay for a 37signals app you pay for their reputation and quality. If
someone else made the same application a year earlier, it wouldn't sell nearly
as well. Saying that you need to keep your software closed source is
overvaluing the software. That's only a small piece of what makes a successful
product. Hell, 37signals probably could open source Basecamp today and they
would still make millions.
~~~
ced
_Every leader of such a movement by definition must be an extremist, even if
it makes them look foolish_
Why? RMS's movement would benefit most from convincing _us_ , as developers,
to contribute to FOSS. I pray that being a foolish-looking extremist isn't the
best way to do that.
~~~
tsally
Again, going with the ACLU analogy, it's not the ACLU's job to convince you
that the Bill of Rights is a good thing. It's their job to rigorously defend
it without giving an inch. The same goes for RMS, it's not his job to convince
developers to join up with FOSS. Leave the convincing to people who are better
at it. Google's summer of code is a great example.
Based on the growing size and productivity of the FOSS community, I really
don't think RMS needs to change what he is doing. Programmers have already
produced billions of dollars of free software and will continue to do so. It's
an amazing display of our (the hacker) culture.
------
alecco
Anybody who dares call herself or himself a hacker should respect RMS. The
name calling on this page is disgusting.
You don't know the guy, you don't have any thing on him. He doesn't force
anybody to use his licenses. He is just warning users of a proprietary
software trap, that's all. If you happen to serve this kind of website it's
stupid to just get into the name calling and instead perhaps state clearly
your JavaScript isn't free software. Add a license, you need it anyway to
cover yourself.
~~~
vinutheraj
Exactly, I am sure a large number of the YC guys use free software on their
servers and workstations, yet how many have given monetary support to the FSF
in the form of donations or anything ? I won't be surprised to know the answer
will be too few.
Anyway, just give the man some respect, he is somewhat an extremist, but if it
weren't for this guy you wouldn't be starting all these startups on shoestring
budgets and I know that everyone in their heart of hearts knows that the world
is a better place because of RMS.
~~~
axod
>> "if it weren't for this guy you wouldn't be starting all these startups on
shoestring budgets"
I don't think you can really argue that at all. If he hadn't done some useful
stuff, someone else would have.
~~~
scorpioxy
I've heard this statement before. Often along the lines of "why should i do
something to benefit others"...since its clear that somebody else will.
Now imagine for a second if everybody thought this way and left it to somebody
else...
I say, if it is in your power to have a positive impact, then it becomes your
responsibility.
~~~
axod
Did a _single_ person invent the telephone, or the car, or computer?
No, several people happened to invent them at pretty much the same time. It's
just luck as to which got the credit for 'inventing'.
Sure, if _no one_ innovated, then we wouldn't progress, but that's not what I
was saying.
I was just saying that the OP "if it weren't for this guy you wouldn't be
starting all these startups on shoestring budgets" was wrong.
------
dasil003
RMS is awesome. The fact that he's out there fighting the good fight every day
so I don't have to is incredible. We all owe him a lot, and we should
demonstrate that by contributing back to open source as much as we can.
That said, I think he's totally out of his league on the software as a service
model. At the very least he needs to spend a lot more time mulling it over. As
far as I see it, freeness of javascript more or less meaningless in a web
application. The fact is that the barriers to making web applications free are
much higher, and there are a lot more legitimate arguments as to why it
shouldn't be free. Of course Stallman would argue for freedom under all
circumstances, and he's right that web applications do present a risk to
freedom of software in the long run, but I don't think it's as easy to argue
from his idealogical standpoint when it comes to web apps. Too much baby
flying out with the bathwater.
~~~
mattmaroon
That's bullshit. He's not fighting any good fight, and even if he were, he's
doing it in a way (very much like PETA) that makes sure he's seen as an
unpalatable nutjob by any sane individual. His own extremism will prevent him
from accomplishing anything.
~~~
randallsquared
He's already accomplished a very great deal, exactly by doing things in the
way you say will prevent him from accomplishing anything. Of course, you may
believe that this is incidental.
~~~
trapper
What has he really accomplished? All he has done is shift the focus from
desktop development to SAAS models. Why do you think all software companies
are doing SAAS now? We can use gpl on the server and not have to release our
code. Just like google. You get the best of both worlds. FOSS becomes the
infrastructure.
FOSS can't compete in this space because they can't afford the servers - you
have to have revenue to make it in SAAS.
~~~
randallsquared
I think that SAAS was inevitable anyway. You just can't control what people do
with their own machines, unless they're not really their machines in fact, and
that makes SAAS one of the few ways to make money from software in the long
run. The main effect that Stallman had was to push openness farther and faster
than it otherwise would have gone at this point, and to make FOSS a legitimate
alternative to completely closed systems. The SAAS world is still better than
the world in which the IP regime managed to turn the freedom to read into the
war on drugs 2.0.
~~~
ibsulon
In many ways, the SAAS world is worse for free software. First, have you lost
freedom 0. How many times have you heard about someone being kicked out of
Facebook or Twitter, for example? You have lost an unstated freedom - the
freedom to control your data as you see fit. (It's a lot easier to reverse
engineer software that has your data than pull it off of a company's servers
who have a vested interest in locking you in.)
~~~
randallsquared
You absolutely have the freedom to control your data. What you can't control
is _their_ data about you. You shouldn't be able to control someone else's
data, no matter what it's about.
------
jmtulloss
Yes, RMS is an extremist, but his central point is valid. It's very difficult
to develop and deploy open source web apps.
However, I'm not sure that it wouldn't be easily done if there was a demand
for it. Most web frameworks come with easy ways to run the environment
locally, so you should be able to release a RoR app open source without many
problems. It just doesn't seem to be in high demand.
------
arebop
"Current free browsers do not offer a facility to run your own modified
version instead of the one delivered in the page."
GreaseMonkey can do that in Chromium
[[http://dev.chromium.org/developers/design-documents/user-
scr...](http://dev.chromium.org/developers/design-documents/user-scripts#TOC-
Early-Injection)]. Stallman mentions Greasefire later on, but it sounds like
he might not clearly understand that Greasefire finds applicable GreaseMonkey
scripts, while GreaseMonkey enables user scripting. He may not realize it, but
I think the infrastructure is already mostly available for building the
detect-and-substitute feature he wants.
~~~
youngnh
feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that GreaseMonkey scripts
run on the same page, but in no way _replace_ the scripts a site serves.
what, I think, Stallman envisions is being able to use your local copy of
Gmail instead of the one Google's serving you without any loss of
functionality.
~~~
arebop
GreaseMonkey scripts can modify the page contents, and if only GreaseMonkey
scripts could run before whatever JavaScript is included with the page could
start, then it could completely replace the site's script rather than just
modifying its behavior shortly after the site's script begins to run. I think
so anyway, I haven't actually implemented this so I won't claim to know for
sure that it can be done.
Chromium has this "early injection" feature for GreaseMonkey scripts, so
that's one free browser for which it would be very easy to build Stallman's
replacement feature. See the link I gave earlier in this thread and also
[http://www.mail-archive.com/chromium-
[email protected]...](http://www.mail-archive.com/chromium-
[email protected]/msg03760.html) for some background.
------
critic
RMS is complaining about Obfuscript. Speaking of obfuscation, I hope someone
would deobfuscate LGPL for me.
~~~
patio11
I have always read LGPL as "Look for another piece of software which does this
and save yourself some headaches."
~~~
jrockway
Because you can link with it with absolutely no restrictions on the derived
app? Yeah... that sucks...
~~~
critic
That's what they want you to believe. Try reading the license.
You have to know how many _lines_ from the header file you are "distributing"
(in the GNU lingo). If you are using C++ templates, you are probably screwed.
You have to make sure you link dynamically (or else). LGPL seems to require
advertising the library. And if you want do static linking, talk to a lawyer.
Linus and RMS disagree on what constitutes "derived work", btw.
_Edit: I'd like to know what motivated people to upmod parent, when it's
factually incorrect and can cost developers dearly if they take the message at
face value._
~~~
azanar
You are talking about Section 3 of the LGPL? IANAL, but this section seems
pretty logically simple to me, and I think you are misreading it. If you read
the terms, you are required to do either of the following:
* a) Give prominent notice with each copy of the object code that the Library is
used in it and that the Library and its use are covered by this License.
* b) Accompany the object code with a copy of the GNU GPL and this license document.
How is needing to provide a mention of the LGPL'ed libraries and the fact that
they are LGPL'ed in any way screwing you? You also have to provide a copy of
the GPL and LGPL amended your own legalese. You are not required to distribute
the source for the library, nor the source of your own application. I've seen
several large commercial applications make mention of included libraries, some
under the LGPL, and it has never bothered me, nor anyone else who purchased
it.
I understand that you want to be able to charge money for the software you
write, but that you seem to perceive the LGPL as a threat to this ability
seems excessively fear-mongery. I agree that anyone concerned about licensing
terms should consult an attorney, but because you want to understand things
better, not because you are fearful of software development turning socialist.
~~~
critic
If, as you say, LGPL, is clear to you, what do you think "object code" refers
to in the (b) clause you just quoted? How are the "ten lines" counted in the
paragraph above (you didn't quote): separately or total? etc. etc.
~~~
azanar
1\. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object_code>
2\. I'd assume as lines are normally counted. The number of line-feeds and/or
carriage returns in a file. I don't see what the big deal is anyway; if you
are at all concerned, just include the license text. Is doing so that big a
deal?
~~~
critic
No. _Whose_ object code? Is it talking about my object code or the library's?
Ten lines per function, per header, per library, per program?
_Edit: I think you didn't understand LGPL yourself either. I think in the
quoted lines, "object code" refers to your code, and accompanying them with a
copy of GPL refers to having to release your code under GPL. Or do you think
you only have to say you release it under GPL and not actually release it?_
~~~
azanar
The object code is the aggregate of your code and the library's header code.
If you have just your object code, you are not bound by the license of the
library, then you don't need to include it.
If you have just the library header code, then you are not incorporating it
into anything else, and have no obligations by the license.
If you have both the library header code incorporated into your object code ,
_then_ you are bound by the license to provide attribution _along with_ that
incorporated object code.
As for you second question, I'd guess lines per file. But it is a bit
ambiguous, as almost all legalese is. Again, you could just err toward
caution, and include the license text regardless. Are you averse to this for
some reason?
Oh, and as per the wiki link, object code is the compiled binary of your
source code. At this point, whatever headers you included would already be
integrated.
~~~
critic
By accompanying your object code with GPL/LGPL, you are promising your
customers that your code is GPL/LGPL, i.e. you will be bound to open your
code.
The fact that your understanding of the license is different shows just how
sneaky and obfuscated LGPL is.
~~~
arebop
If that were true, why would would the FSF say that "using the Lesser GPL
permits use of the library in proprietary programs; using the ordinary GPL for
a library makes it available only for free programs"
[<http://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-not-lgpl.html>]? The LGPL is not designed to
trick you into using the moral equivalent of the GPL; it's designed to occupy
the middle ground between GPL and BSD licenses.
~~~
critic
Nonsense.
> Lesser GPL permits use of the library in proprietary programs
That means "in some cases", not "in all cases". Logical fallacy on your part.
> ordinary GPL for a library makes it available only for free programs
Here, GPL'ers contradict themselves (for both senses of "free"). GPL code can,
technically, be non-gratis. And GPL code can be used in non-GPL programs (you
just can't distribute them easily).
------
shader
I like freedom. Freedom is good. The only question in this instance is -
freedom for whom? Freedom for the developer to write code without comments, so
that you can't hack it? Or freedom for you to read his code? I think that
javascript currently embodies both of these freedoms in the best possible way.
The author does not force you to execute his scripts; by your http request you
asked for them. At the same time he is not being forced by you to make his
source code "intelligible."
The implementation of JavaScript is most likely open source, and the script's
code is obviously available. Am I missing something? Is he saying that it's
not "Open Source" if it doesn't have enough comments?
Trying to prevent people from releasing source code without comments because
it's not easily hackable is a bit much. Almost everything about RMS is "a bit
much" though, and that's why so many hackers like him ;)
------
critic
Somebody, please save RMS, write an Emacs mode that inserts spaces into
JavaScript and converts single char names into made up longer ones! For extra
bonus, insert comments that talk about how if you are not using GNU, you are a
slave! A slave, I tell ya!
~~~
omouse
I think Steve Yegge's JavaScript2 mode could handle that...
<http://code.google.com/p/js2-mode/>
------
azanar
Apart from the political squabbling, the feasibility of implementing something
that "detects" JavaScript released under a free-as-in-freedom license seems
tricky and error prone.
The suggestion in the article that you put a license delimiter and then parse
the text of the license seems error prone; not because the license is
particular difficult text to parse, but because text parsing in general is a
rather fussy and fragile enterprise. And someone could put after the licensing
tag "Just kidding, here's the real license..." which the parser wouldn't
catch, but someone litigating a case of copyright infringement would.
Maybe I'm not being imaginative enough, but I can't think of a way this is
feasible with just the client attempting to glean licensing on its own.
Having a global registry of free JavaScripts wouldn't solve the problem,
either. Assuring correct URL parsing in every case is a risky thing to rely on
for such restrictive behavior, and nothing stops the web site owner from
renaming the free script to something else, or renaming one of his non-free
scripts to the same name as the free script. Verifying file hashes wouldn't
really help, since the free script is allowed to be modified.
Regardless of the political ramifications, the feasibility of this seems
really questionable. Are there ways of doing this I am not realizing?
~~~
etal
Well, it could be treated similarly to version numbers in code. Once a given
JS file is loaded, whatever __LICENSE__ evaluates to (e.g.), that's the
program's stated license. If that global variable isn't set, then you know you
can't assume anything about the code.
------
duskwuff
Erm. The Google Docs JS source is (in all likelihood) "obfuscated" because
it's generated code - it's the output of the GWT Java-to-Javascript compiler.
~~~
boucher
GMail is not built with GWT (and to my knowledge, no major project at Google
is).
~~~
duskwuff
I don't know about GMail, but the Google Docs code
([http://docs.google.com/doclist/client/js/1263044158-doclist_...](http://docs.google.com/doclist/client/js/1263044158-doclist_modularized_core.js)
for the current version) looks a lot like the GWT-generated code I've seen
([http://gwt.google.com/samples/Showcase/com.google.gwt.sample...](http://gwt.google.com/samples/Showcase/com.google.gwt.sample.showcase.Showcase.nocache.js)
for instance). It might not be using the GWT toolkit, but it's probably output
by the same compiler.
------
hymanroth
Whilst respecting what Richard Stallman has achieved in the past, I just
couldn't read his latest post on javascript without getting a bit hot under
the collar.
His position is, in my mind, completely untenable. He sees everything through
his 'free software' glasses, the same way a dyed-in-the-wool communist sees
everything through his Breznospecs. It's not enough for him that a Google Docs
javascript file be free (gratis) – he objects that the file is not easy to
read and has no comments. The fact that removing unnecessary white space is a
commonly-used practice in speeding-up page loading is not mentioned, even in
passing. What is this guy on?
I have in mind a special device for Stallman, Raymond and the other gratis
software nutters. It consists of a big plastic bag that envelops their heads
and into which is pumped the aroma of roasted coffee beans. It is required
that they use this apparatus until such a time as their eyes light up and they
utter the required phrase.
Today, more than ever, we live in a world of economic reality. In the recent
past it was easy to find some chump to lend you all the money required to buy
that house/car/tv you really couldn't afford, or finance your startup based on
a 10 page deck and the words “web 2.0”. But things have changed. And perhaps
for the better.
The open software movement cares more about its users than it does its
developers. Hacker kudos doesn't pay the fucking rent. I want to know whether
all the people writing iPhone or Facebook apps would have tried so hard if
they knew their expected return would be exactly $0? Somehow I don't think so.
We've got to move away from this notion that software should be free (gratis).
If you use it and can afford to pay for it then why should I give it to you
for free? Note: I'm not arguing against open-source, I'm arguing against
working for free. If I spend a great deal of time writing a funky database
application and big_multi_national dumps Oracle in favor of my code and saves
itself $20million in the process, why shouldn't I get my sniff? There's
nothing wrong with making an honest dime...
If the same code is used by some charity or someone's personal website then
I'm happy to tip my hat and say 'glad to be of service', but not if they're
Coca Cola, or Hertz, or... (you name it).
If there existed a fair and balanced way of rewarding open source developers
then I believe the whole sector would explode with a level of commitment and
energy that would dwarf the already impressive achievements seen by the
community.
That time has come.
It's time for revolution's founders to retire gracefully, and for a more
realistic (though still ethical) guard to take its place.
David Semeria Milan, Italy
~~~
azanar
_He sees everything through his 'free software' glasses, the same way a dyed-
in-the-wool communist sees everything through his Breznospecs._
Just as a dyed-in-the-wool capitalist sees everything through their Smith-o-
specs.
We have always lived in a world of complete economic reality, by obvious
tautology. It is that economic reality that _gave rise_ to the GPL and the
Free Software Movement. These were market instruments made to route around
other market instruments perceived as damaging or inefficient. That there is
so much under the GPL right now suggests that there was real market damage or
inefficiency being routed around. Just because there isn't _money_ involved in
this doesn't mean there isn't a _market_ involved. This market just happens to
trade in something other than money; you seem to see something wrong with
that.
I think I see why, as well. These people, who will work on software for free
-- for hacker kudos -- are perceived as a threat to those who would work on
that same software for money. They are not forced, they chose to, but it still
means market forces threaten to drive the salary of a developer down. You
think this will drive hackers into economic poverty. If anything, it has had
the opposite effect. The software people release for free earns them a
reputation that allows them to later release other software for a very
handsome profit.
_The open software movement cares more about its users than it does its
developers._
The movement is very little apart from the developers, so this reduces down to
the developers caring more about the users than they do about themselves. Are
they being too altruistic? I don't know. If they are, they'll soon find
themselves being less altruistic out of need. If not, I don't see why we need
to cast aspersions their way. They choose to work this way.
As for threatening the livelihood of programming work-for-pay, it isn't. There
are still problems out there that you would need to pay people to work on,
partly because they haven't forgotten about their rent in all of this, and
partly because there just isn't that intrinsic motivation for some of the
software people need written.
~~~
dasil003
There also seems to be some sort of underlying belief that software is a zero-
sum game. That every piece of free software is taking money out of someone's
pocket.
The problem with that belief is that every piece of free software makes it
possible to build more valuable new things on top of it for cheaper. Software
is additive in a way that no other prior asset has been.
As such, the value of free software is tremendous, almost incalculable. At
every step somebody bemoans that the GPL is preventing them from grabbing free
software and turning it into an incredibly profitable proprietary product.
They quickly point to the lost potential revenue, and completely ignore the
value that would be lost by the free software being supplanted by a
proprietary product.
What if Red Hat had forked Linux to a proprietary model 10 years ago and done
enough to become the standard. Do you think they could have delivered as much
as the entire community has done since then?
------
akie
Richard Stallman is an extremist. Seriously.
~~~
berntb
rms is arguably not totally in the mainstream -- but the world is a better
place because rms is in it just based on emacs, gcc and the GNU (-: no editor
war-answers, please. I don't have the time :-).
(Also, note that the guy's opinions and world view have been getting more and
more popular.)
~~~
dasil003
In the early days free software was the norm. Everyone in computer science
took it for granted. RMS, however, saw which way the wind was blowing, and
helped codify the free software ideals for posterity. If it was not for him,
we may very well not have Linux or any significant open source software today.
We may think he's a wacko, but his extremism is necessary in a world where our
freedoms are bought and sold by monied interests. He represents the public
good in the software world in a way that benefits everyone (including many
businesses and almost every startup). These young YC whippersnappers with
dollar signs in their eyes owe him respect.
------
known
Programmers predominantly think in terms of RIGHT or WRONG and MBAs in terms
of PRIORITIES.
------
vlisivka
I have same thoughts as RMS.
As leader of our national Ukrainian Linux Users Group, I involved in fixing of
various problems with support for Ukrainain language in foreign programs.
Here is my experience: MS: some problems still around for more than 20 years
(from MS DOS era till today); SUN: almost 10 years to fix trivial problem;
Apple: good support; IBM: good support of official standards, not so good
support for net standards; Google: some problems are still around for years,
nobody response to my letters, no way to fix. Linux/*BSD/GNU: very easy to fix
(or create) problem in any supported program, much harder when program in no
longer in development (need to maintain our own version of program in our own
distribution).
All these problems are trivial (charset support, proper charset translation,
national keyboard support, message translations, etc.), so they are very easy
to fix. Currently, then only OS'es that have no problems with Ukrainian
language is GNU/Linux. Even Non-GNU/Linux systems are easy to fix in most
cases.
I agree with Stallman: web services are closed, so they introduce high risk
for our freedom.
------
hank777
what a whacko. I should allow you to access my servers and services for free?
I should allow you to control how you use my resources in a way that
guarantees I loose money? Stallman is a digital socialist. The idea of
services (or anything other than direct labor) that people charge for offends
him. That offends me.
~~~
inklesspen
I don't see anywhere where he demands free-of-charge access. Stallman supports
"free software" where the "free" means that the user's liberty to manipulate
the program is preserved.
In Stallman's dream world, you would be free to charge for your service, or
put ads up, or whatever you like. But your service would use standardized file
formats, and the user would be able to modify the application (both server-
side and client-side) to suit his needs.
~~~
hank777
if you can "modify" the server side and the client side, you can "modify" the
need to pay.
~~~
jrockway
Of course, but we already do this. I block all ads, which means I'm modifying
your app to not make any money off of me. Such is the reality of the Internet
and general purpose computers.
~~~
axod
No, you just _think_ you block ads. It's extremely naive to think you actually
block all ads. I'm sure a lot of people have made money out of you online from
advertising you don't recognize as advertising.
edit: Sure, downvote me if you like. If you like to think adblock etc actually
block all adverts I guess it's up to you. It blocks a small class of 'obvious
adverts'. Several websites will pass outgoing links through a jump script
which may or may not then go through affiliate links. Adblock is useless
against such things. There are several such examples.
~~~
jodrellblank
That's fine. I use flashblock and adblock to block annoying flashing animated
noisy colourful page disrupting ads, to block ads and ad servers tracking me
and giving them power and commercial gain with no gain to me, and to stop
FireFox playing noise from background tabs I can't find quickly.
I don't do it to stop site owners 'making' money from me. If you can get non-
annoying ads to me, and make money from me, that's brilliant. If that's all
anyone did, I'd get rid of *block altogether.
------
axod
Sorry, but these are the ramblings of a mad man. With little understanding of
webapps.
------
swolchok
Look, dude, web software is often part of a software as a service model. If I
let you dig through my JS, you would get the service for free. In short: No.
~~~
mahmud
Facebook can release its entire application platform as Free software and you
could not take their user base away from them.
I think web developers are over estimating the sophistication of their work
:-)
~~~
axod
If their software was available from the _very_ _start_ \- eg before they had
any users, it's quite possible someone else may have 'won'.
You can't argue based on a 'network effect' website that has obvious lock-in.
Look at some non-social webapp. Say an online image editor. If the source was
available, copy cats competitors could spring up and take away market share.
There's no upside to releasing the source code, and obvious downside (Assuming
you're in it to make money and not just spread love).
~~~
mahmud
"If the source was available, copy cats competitors could spring up and take
away market share."
Image-editing algorithms are published in text-books. Graphics API for the web
(flash, java, canvas, etc.) are published in API documentation. Nothing is
secret. If someone copies your GPLed Free software and improves on it you can
go and copy the improved version if you want it.
If a competitor is blindly copying you, you probably have nothing to worry
about (should I elaborate?.) And if your competitive edge can be taken away
with cut-and-paste, then you have ALLOT to worry about.
~~~
axod
It's a decision that should be up to the author. And I personally have
complete respect for both decisions.
~~~
mahmud
Respects.
But allow me to add that the great majority of web startups are running on the
value of a "social network". Remove the users and the service is worth
nothing. You can't say that about shrink-wrap software; even if the great
majority of the people don't use it, there is that one or two lucrative
corporate or government contract to make it all worthwhile.
So in that light, shouldn't the users of web apps be entitled to something a
little more than "free use"? Say, a little assurance that the platform they
trust so much of their private lives is transparent, extensible, and should
the company sink tomorrow, available for replication?
What happens when you strike it rich, sell the startup to a Mega Corp and move
to Tahiti? The users will be at the mercy of greedy suits who will fill data
warehouses with every click, persona and profile of your users, the very same
people who made you rich.
~~~
axod
I agree, once you've grown to pretty much the size you'll be, and have
captured a good amount of your sectors market, for many social based webapps
releasing the source code may be a win. Reddit didn't suddenly drop in usage
when they did.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Impending Demise of the University - nostrademons
http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/tapscott09/tapscott09_index.html
======
tokenadult
I thought this looked familiar:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=642478>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How White Nationalism Courts Internet Nerd Culture - aeontech
https://medium.com/@DeoTasDevil/how-white-nationalism-courts-internet-nerd-culture-b4ebad07863d
======
slphil
> IQ is a pseudoscience
This is how people trying to oppose the alt right shoot themselves in the
foot. Alt right intellectuals and propagandists immediately capitalize on this
kind of nonsense. (The fact that the author identifies as a communist before
denying the strongest predictor in psychology is somewhat telling as well and
acts as free fuel.)
~~~
chickenfries
Is it non-sense? I've heard many times that there a hell of a lot of
problems/criticisms of IQ and that it's history is intrinsically linked with
eugenics and other kinds of pseudo science. Can you link me to something
supporting your claim that it's " the strongest predictor in psychology"
(predictor of what... I'm not sure)?
~~~
YSFEJ4SWJUVU6
IQ is, as far as I know, a pretty strong predictor of success in life (be it
financial, educational, health-wise or longevity).
------
dvt
This article is pretty bad and it's kind of annoying that it (somehow) reached
the top of HN. But I'll bite.
1) IQ is _not_ a pseudoscience. Admittedly, IQ is a pretty shitty test for
intelligence (as it's highly culturally-biased), but calling it pseudoscience
is just dumb and shows an inherent misunderstanding of what it's supposed to
do. Yeah, white supremacists are idiots and use it to justify racism, but
that's a different point than what the author is making.
2) Author criticizes Trump's sharing of the "black on black" statistics
arguing that it's fabricated. However, some cursory research shows that it is,
in fact, not as fabricated as one might believe: [https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-
in-the-u.s/2013/crime-in-the-u.s.-...](https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-
the-u.s/2013/crime-in-the-u.s.-2013/offenses-known-to-law-
enforcement/expanded-
homicide/expanded_homicide_data_table_6_murder_race_and_sex_of_vicitm_by_race_and_sex_of_offender_2013.xls)
According to the above, 90% of African American homicides were perpetrated by
African Americans. This can be compared with white homicides which were
perpetrated by 83% whites. Obviously, the numbers are highly skewed in the
infographic shared by POTUS, but to bury your head in the sand and pretend
this isn't a problem in black communities is unfair and does a great social
disservice.
3) It doesn't take some kind of genius to "spot the signs" of Neo-Nazism.
Swastikas are kind of a tell-tale sign.
4) "Deo is a union Millwright and a 12 year member of the Furry Fandom who
spent 6 months infiltrating multiple Alt-Right and neo-Nazi online groups
observing and recording how they recruited, organized, and operated." \--
laughable. "Infiltrating" = joining a few discord servers and posting on
4chan. Got it.
Completely worthless article devoid of any actual real social commentary,
potential solutions, or plans of attack. Medium has been turning into a
soapbox lately.
~~~
slphil
IQ tests are not culturally biased. This is a decades out of date canard. Some
tests, like Raven's Progressive Matrices, don't even require the test giver
and taker to share a language. IQ, as a statistic, washes out almost every
other psychometric in predictive validity -- there are a staggering number of
psychology papers which pointedly do not include IQ because whatever
predictive power their metric purports to have is totally overridden by IQ.
There are many subfields of intelligence and two major categories (fluid and
crystal) so it's true that intelligence can't be defined as a single number,
but this is a strawman since intelligence researchers have never said this.
~~~
sharemywin
Let's assume resources are also important in success and you use IQ "tests" as
a way to allocate resources to candidates. Then, your biasing your results.
~~~
slphil
Yes, this is a legitimate problem because there are both genetic and
environmental contributions to intelligence. We must be wary of eugenic
arguments. After all, the easiest way to raise the average IQ of a society
would be to kill everyone who doesn't meet a specified minimum IQ. A more
politically palatable way would be to allocate resources away from those
groups.
This isn't a matter of biasing results, though, because the metric validity of
intelligence testing doesn't require that we play nice with making sure
everyone has equal access. These are separate problems. Intelligence research
is a scientific problem, and resource allocation is a political one.
We already know that environmental contributions to IQ are important, and a
reasonable and moral person who is literate on intelligence research thinks
that resource allocation to lower-performing people is critically important.
------
grawprog
I don't think I've ever read anyone babbling on about white people being
superior because they invented technology, that's a a new one for me honestly.
The article was pretty rambly and I have to admit I just skipped a bunch of
it. My takeaway was he pretended to be a furry nazi for a while and discovered
a bunch of idiots believing in idiotic shit then had to write a bunch of
idiotic shit about his 'traumatic' experience listening to idiotic shit.
Furry nazis are pretty fucking hilarious though. I wonder if they realize real
nazis would have executed them for their sexual attraction to cartoon animals?
~~~
Toboe
>My takeaway was he pretended to be a furry nazi for a while and discovered a
bunch of idiots believing in idiotic shit then had to write a bunch of idiotic
shit about his 'traumatic' experience listening to idiotic shit.
She said something the nazis didn't like, then there was drama including
threats against her. She didn't back down, and kept her position. She also
read in some of their chats. (If they let her in or someone send her logs)
Then she posted that text about nazis trying to infiltrate nerd cultures like
the Furry fandom (which she is a member of).
So, you completely missed. But at least you tried?
~~~
grawprog
Nah I gotta be honest. I didn't really try at all.
------
SolaceQuantum
I think there should be space for all kinds of discussion, even those I don’t
agree with, but in this case what worried me the most was the authors claim
that once a person enters a community to discuss whatever white nationalist
subjects, they are told or manipulated into believing they cannot leave, or
they are made to watch propaganda videos in order to stay in the group. That
crosses the line from communication of ideas to coercion and cult behavior. I
don’t know why people don’t see that they’re being treated in this
manipulative way, though. Even at my most lonely, I was highly suspicious and
dodgy whenever any similar tactic was used on me; I preferred to be lonely.
~~~
slphil
Because a good propagandist does two things:
1\. Ground the argument in some vestige of reality (the reliance on statistics
is very strong). 2\. Point out the opposing denial of reality (magical
thinking, social constructionism, blank slate lunacy) in order to push the
radically opposite perspective without nuance.
This is inherently isolating but also makes the adherents feel very powerful.
Think pieces like this do not oppose but rather support the cause they purport
to be against, since the ideological leanings of the writer are plainly
obvious and their _own_ denials of reality stick out like a sore thumb.
As long as the political left is dominated by social constructionism and other
lunacy, the alt-right will never be exterminated. The task ahead of us is not
trivial.
~~~
fahayekwasright
Social constructionism is lunacy why?
~~~
slphil
Because it's factually wrong. Biology matters, and I'm not trying to bring in
concepts like race (which is a total intellectual disaster, since the term
refers to multiple concepts that mean radically different things). Many
studies do not account for simple heredity, when adoption studies have already
shown that traits like IQ and even personality are heritable to some degree
(1). There are genetic correlations with intelligence, aggression, etc that
are difficult to untangle but undeniably real.
Humans are incredibly unique animals, but you are still a biological machine
and your brain is not a piece of magic pixie dust. Without getting into the
free will debate, biology does not determine behavior but does influence it
heavily.
Edit: I'm not denying the existence of culture or social norms. These matter,
but are also undoubtedly linked to the biological machinery of the human
animal. Human society is an evolutionary result (2).
Second edit: It's very easy to find evidence that the social evolution of
humans is a biological process. Here is one of my favorite papers on the self-
domestication of the human species (3).
1: [https://www.amazon.com/Blank-Slate-Modern-Denial-
Nature/dp/0...](https://www.amazon.com/Blank-Slate-Modern-Denial-
Nature/dp/0142003344)
2: [https://www.amazon.com/Before-Dawn-Recovering-History-
Ancest...](https://www.amazon.com/Before-Dawn-Recovering-History-
Ancestors/dp/014303832X)
3:
[http://resources.seattlecentral.edu/faculty/jwhorley/Gracili...](http://resources.seattlecentral.edu/faculty/jwhorley/Gracilization.pdf)
------
moz-hx
It's incredibly aggravating how aggressively Nazis are attempting to corrupt
internet culture to espouse their hateful ideals. The original mindset that
developed on the internet was about how nobody's identity IRL mattered, and
what you said/did was what proved your worth. Now, a bunch of basement-
dwelling Nazis are trying to turn that meritocracy into their own whites-only
club? Fuck that, that's not what internet culture is about.
I strongly believe that anyone who cares about the internet and its culture of
free ideas will recognize it as a place where people can be judged based on
their skills and the quality of their ideas rather than their race or gender,
and will harshly judge anyone who attempts to exclude others based purely on
such superficial metrics.
~~~
danharaj
There were white supremacists pushing holocaust denial on usenet. What
actually happened is that the social places on the Internet suddenly stopped
moderating themselves which let white supremacists congregate, organize and
normalize.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Flea Marketers Rejoice TSA Auctions Large Lots For Cheap - DanielBMarkham
http://freedom-or-safety.com/blog/flea-marketers-rejoice-tsa-auctions-large-lots-for-cheap/
======
DanielBMarkham
Wonder what kind of market there would be for a site called something like
"TSA Took My Knife" where you could sell people their stuff back to them?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The case for cities where you’re a sensor, not a thing to be sensed - raleighm
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2020/jan/17/the-case-for-cities-where-youre-the-sensor-not-the-thing-being-sensed
======
kristianc
> It’s not hard to see why: “smart” has become code for “terrible”. A “smart
> speaker” is a speaker that eavesdrops on you and leaks all your
> conversations to distant subcontractors for giant tech companies. “Smart
> watches” spy on your movements and sell them to data-brokers for ad-
> targeting. “Smart TVs” watch you as you watch them and sell your viewing
> habits to brokers.
I guess that would make the Guardian a “smart website”.
> The problem is that the smart city, as presently conceived, is a largely
> privatised affair designed as a public-private partnership to extract as
> much value as possible from its residents
I looked quite hard for any evidence in the article that this was the case
other than ‘I don’t know, it feels kind of icky’ but couldn’t find any.
> If you want to page a minibus – something like an Uber Pool, but run by the
> city, licensed, safe, paying a living wage and not mining your data – you
> can summon one, and yes, this exposes your identity so that the driver can
> find you.
Ah, and there’s the nub of it. It’s fine for a responsible (read public-
sector) technocrat to mine and process your data, but it’s evil when a company
does it.
~~~
SQueeeeeL
It's evil if both/either were to collect more information then is necessary
and sell it to 3rd parties for analytics.
The DMV in some states have started to sell people's data, that's fucked.
~~~
luckylion
Selling data is a problem, I'm with you so far.
Having the government (that also controls the police, the military etc)
collect & analyze large amounts of data on citizens is a recipe for disaster
even if they never sell that data to a third party. I hear people say "but we
can write laws that they cannot use that data for anything nefarious" and I'm
amazed that there are still people alive that believe that laws have ever
stopped a government.
I'm fine with "let's limit the amount of data corporations can collect on
citizens", but I'm really not fine with "let's allow the state to collect any
data on citizens other than absolutely necessary to provide basic services, at
least they don't sell it".
------
kijin
> _In the "internet of things," we’re promised technology that will allow us
> to project our will on to our surroundings ... But ..._
This is spot on. Technology has always been, and will always be, a means to
project our will onto our surroundings, nothing less, nothing more. The only
question to be asked is, whose will is being projected onto whose
surroundings? Do those surroundings include other people?
To me, all this talk of "smart" household devices is just marketing bullshit
designed to mask the fact that the manufacturer is imposing their will onto
users. The devices are dumb as fuck. They have no capacity to make any kind of
judgment call. The manufacturer does, as they have the source code. Calling
the devices "smart" makes it look like they're learning and making decisions
for the owner's benefit when they really aren't.
My fridge and air purifier wants internet access for some reason but I'm not
giving it to them. I'm not buying a smart TV and probably never will. I prefer
my appliances dumb and simple. After all, uneducated and isolated slaves are
far less likely to revolt. As soon as they are given a voice of their own,
they'll begin to speak for someone else's interests! (Who knew that 19th
century slave owners' arguments would turn out to be surprisingly convincing
when the slaves aren't humans?)
------
alexfromapex
I like this idea. It could be called privacy first mesh architecture or
something like that.
~~~
sroussey
I bought privacymesh.com a while back for this purpose!
------
tarr11
Is it really true that collecting only anonymous, stateless data has the same
value as stateful, identifiable data?
What kind of insights do we lose? Is it simply just advertisers who lose, or
will we also lose other things?
For example, if I can track your path around a city, wouldn’t I be able to
make better predictions about traffic then if I could only track the
aggregated count of locations that had been visited over the course of a time
period?
~~~
ryukafalz
>Is it really true that collecting only anonymous, stateless data has the same
value as stateful, identifiable data?
Value to whom?
>What kind of insights do we lose? Is it simply just advertisers who lose, or
will we also lose other things?
Who is "we"? Who gets to collect that data, control access to it, etc? How do
they get it? Who would lose other things in the absence of that data
collection?
>For example, if I can track your path around a city, wouldn’t I be able to
make better predictions about traffic then if I could only track the
aggregated count of locations that had been visited over the course of a time
period?
Maybe, but that doesn't mean I want you tracking me.
------
mirimir
A perfect example is community-sourced apps that warn about police and speed
traps.
I also recall reading about apps that warn about video surveillance. But
that's a difficult thing to search for.
------
lifeisstillgood
I have a phrase "topless computing" which for me is allowing the data to be
accessible in an onwardly usable fashion. Not assuming the use case you have
in mind is the final one - someone will always have a better more specific use
case
It does mean we all need to become proficient at using those data flows - to
become coders as we are all readers and writers today.
~~~
justinclift
> It does mean we all need to become proficient at using those data flows ...
Pretty sure that's extremely unlikely to (ever) happen for even a majority of
the population.
a) People have their own interests and goals. They generally aren't going to
put time into anything like this unless it seems like it'll help them achieve
one of their interests/goals
b) Not everyone is "switched on" technologically. Kids, elderly, even just
some people with non-technical personality types. :/
~~~
lopmotr
b) is education. Literacy is terrible without school too. But now nearly
everyone spends years learning that skill and can use it throughout life. Not
to say coding is necessarily as useful as reading and writing though.
~~~
justinclift
Education _definitely_ won't work for many elderly people who are 1. Not
Interested, and 2. May no longer be capable of picking up (or retaining) the
skill. :(
~~~
lopmotr
I'm not talking about re-educating adults. Just that we could teach nearly
everyone to program if it were important, in the same way we teach nearly
everyone to read and write. Kids already learn long division at school, which
is an algorithm. Programming is kind of easier in a way because if you have a
goal, you can fumble you way towards it until it works, but you can't really
fumble your way through long division if you don't know how to do it.
~~~
justinclift
Hmmm. Not sure you really understand what elderly people are like. :/
For example, my father - who used to be able to do at least basic programming
in C and Python - is no longer able to grasp the concepts for any length of
time.
eg teach him, verify he's gotten it... and the next day it's a blank.
Repeatedly. :/
------
mzakefnazkmen
I'd argue what is being done with smart cities could be done with smart code
bases. For instance: any language's core library has functions that almost
nobody uses. That would change if we had a measure of how frequently these
functions are used, starting with why we write these functions in the first
place: as I see it, this would lead to a more experiment-driven fashion of
writing code, instead of idealising the use of these functions as we do
nowadays.
~~~
IfOnlyYouKnew
That does happen. Ruby 2.7 was going to remove something called the swip-swap
operator (or similar), which was thought to be essentially unused.
That plan was shelved after a search of GitHub turned a few examples of usage
in the wild.
~~~
Twisol
The flip-flop operator, I think: [https://nithinbekal.com/posts/ruby-flip-
flop/](https://nithinbekal.com/posts/ruby-flip-flop/)
------
lopmotr
But what about crime? Surveillance really does stop crime. America has parts
of cities that are too dangerous to walk alone in at night, and it's so well
known that if somebody is murdered doing that, people blame the victim for
being too stupid. That's how ingrained the acceptance of crime is. Being able
to safely leave your house whenever you want should be a pretty high priority
for a good city. What's the alternative to surveillance? Lots of police
patrolling everywhere? Isn't that equally creepy but also much more expensive?
~~~
titzer
It used to be that people thought about deep societal issues that might
underlie the causes for crime, like joblessness, drug addiction, poor
education, lack of job opportunities, gangs, being poor. Apparently today
we've lost the imagination for this and the only choices left are more police
or more cameras.
~~~
lopmotr
They're the only choices that have any chance of happening. I absolutely agree
we should solve not crime specifically, but the terrible lifelong personal
suffering that causes it. For every violent criminal, there must be a lot of
harmless damaged people. We need to fix parenting to prevent neglect, abuse
and incompetence. But how can you do that without being even more
authoritarian than surveillance?
~~~
titzer
Like I said, we've lost the imagination to think about investing in society.
It's gonna cost money, time and effort, none of which people want to spend
these days. You gotta stop treating people like criminals. You gotta invest in
education, healthcare, addiction programs. You gotta hire people--
sociologists, psychologists, educators, and yes some policemen. You gotta set
up government departments that are dedicated to studying people's well being
and tracking long term trends. You gotta have effective social programs. You
gotta stop the propaganda lies that socialism is the same is communism or is
some kind of authoritarian nightmare--it isn't. Socialism is high taxes to pay
for effective government services run by well-paid professional bureaucrats
who know what the heck they are doing. Period. And _for fuck 's sake_, you
gotta stop spending trillions on pointless wars, hyper-advanced killing
technology, and tax cuts for the rich. In short, do everything the opposite of
what America is doing.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
EU plans to plant 3B trees and expand organic farming - onetimemanytime
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2244115-eu-plans-to-plant-3-billion-trees-and-massively-expand-organic-farming/
======
fsflover
I wonder why organic farming is so popular. Wikipedia says:
1\. "Researchers at Oxford University analyzed 71 peer-reviewed studies and
observed that organic products are sometimes worse for the environment."
2\. "According to a 2012 meta-analysis of 71 studies, nitrogen leaching,
nitrous oxide emissions, ammonia emissions, eutrophication potential and
acidification potential were higher for organic products"
3\. "The Oxford meta-analysis of 71 studies found that organic farming
requires 84% more land for an equivalent amount of harvest"
4\. "there is insufficient evidence to make claims that organic food is safer
or healthier than conventional food"
The list goes on:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_farming](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_farming)
~~~
Scarblac
A problem is that insecticides and artificial fertilizer (two main things not
allowed in organic farming) cause ecological problems in the region where the
farm is located, _even if_ organic farming would need more farm land in total
and would thus destroy nature elsewhere.
Many crops are better grown in greenhouses, where pests can be kept out or
controlled without pesticides, and plants can be grown in stone wool and given
exactly the nutrients they need. That should count as organic, but
unfortunately doesn't.
~~~
docgonzo
Organic farming uses pesticides as well. Are they safe for the environment? We
don't know because they're organic and therefore must be safe. See links
within: [https://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/organic-
pestic...](https://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/organic-pesticides/)
------
buboard
> _“The biodiversity strategy is essential for boosting our resilience and
> preventing the emergence and spread of future diseases such as zoonoses.
> Because by destroying nature at an unprecedented rate, and now with around 1
> million species at risk of extinction within only decades, we literally
> threaten our own life, our health and our well-being,” he told a press
> conference._
This doesnt even make logical sense. As a EU resident i wasn't ever informed
of an EU Green Deal etc. Either this isn't happening, or it's being vastly
exaggerated. (and in any case organic farming is not about natural
biodiversity, it's a frankenstein/zombie policy). If anything i 'd think this
is the time to get serious about biotechnology
~~~
onetimemanytime
>> _As a EU resident i wasn 't ever informed of an EU Green Deal etc. Either
this isn't happening, or it's being vastly exaggerated._
I understand your anger for not being informed or asked. But a lot of
countries are trying to reforest and clean the air.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reforestation#Implementation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reforestation#Implementation)
~~~
buboard
AFAIK, nature is pretty very good at reforesting itself if you leave the land
alone. But if you expand organic farming, which doesnt scale, you 're making
it worse
------
SllX
Just dived in[1], but apparently this isn't so much a plan as a plan to have a
plan. In particular it mentions a EU Forest Strategy to be proposed in 2021.
You know, it sounds "nice", but here's the pet peeve I have whenever I hear
about reforestation efforts nowadays: there's no talk about making sure the
trees in the forest are themselves, y'know, biodiverse. It's easy to plant a
lot of trees if they're all the same species, clones, etc. but the problem is
you end up with a forest that isn't so resilient to either natural disaster
nor disease. Entire crops of trees have been wiped out before because the, to
put it mildly, economical approach to getting things done quickly meant just
planting a lot of the same species of tree.
Well, I guess we'll see next year what their EU Forest Strategy is, I hope
they take biodiversity in the flora as seriously as biodiversity in the fauna.
[1] [https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/communication-
ann...](https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/communication-annex-eu-
biodiversity-strategy-2030_en.pdf)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: traditional PPO or HDHP PPO medical plan? - yeukhon
I received a new offer and I am in the process of selecting health benefit. What a boring and sophisticated process.<p>I like the benefit of HSA in HDHP PPO, but the high deductible is kind of a bit bummer.<p>I am single, and I am pretty healthy. I plan to have semi-annual body checkup and getting flue shot every year. For a $1,500 deductible, is HDHP PPO a good plan? How did you decide?<p>Also, are there companies out there use a single insurance provider to cover medical, dental, vision and life insurance for their employees? I am surprised that these days they split into multiple providers (I heard that's for cost saving, but it's quite a headache). I also wonder if there are companies provide full care and employees simply don't pay anything.
======
tomohawk
You can put more than enough pre-tax money into an HSA to cover a $1500
deductable. If at all possible, put in the max allowed HSA, and you'll soon
have money saved you may need in the future if you have an emergency. For
example, we once flew to another state to get the care we needed. Another
thing to look at is the max out of pocket for the plan, and also how extensive
the ppo network is. When you get into a situation where you need medical care
and need to go to a top tier facility, does the ppo network cover it?
Also, don't forget to sign up for long term disability insurance. This
insurance is in many ways more important than health insurance.
~~~
yeukhon
Thanks. I live in NY so Anthem is pretty much the standard here for medical
insurance. I will do some digging.
The long term disability - my understanding is if i sign up now I don't have
to pay taxes on the benefit should I ever need that benefit.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Software Development Dogma That Needs to Die - wayofthesamurai
http://thinkfaster.co/2015/11/software-development-dogma-that-needs-to-die/
======
0xdeadbeefbabe
I think hating the tools is timeless.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Who Doesn't Want Their Own Personal Flying Watercraft? - mielles
http://www.futureofgadgets.com/futureblogger/show/1337-who-doesn-t-want-their-own-personal-flying-watercraft-
======
yan
As someone who is currently getting his pilot's license, I wouldn't be
comfortable sitting in a craft that abstracts flying to making "it seem like
more of a car that is able to move in three dimensions." Regular pilots are
well-versed in everything from weather, to emergency conditions, to physics of
flight and practicing everything that can possibly go wrong. Not to mention
interacting with other aircrafts. I really hope that they took this into
account. It's very improbable that they didn't.
I am just scared that many drivers' feelings of entitlement being transferred
to something that flies. People forget that a car is capable of injury and
death and end up taking liberties behind the wheel. Then again, it might be
psychologically different when you're actually flying.
I'm all for opening up aviation to a wider audience, but something doesn't
smell right.
edit: Looks like they require a sport pilot license. I'm less worried now :)
~~~
ryanwaggoner
You don't need to worry too much...unless they manage to get it under 254
pounds and qualify it as an ultralight, the FAA will still be the last word on
the requirements to fly it.
~~~
paddy_m
Sport pilots are allowed to fly Light Sport planes. Light Sport planes can
weigh up to 1320 lbs. If you are interested in flying read some of Phillip
Greenspun's stuff.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-sport_aircraft>
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot_certification_in_the_Unit...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot_certification_in_the_United_States#Sport_pilot)
~~~
ryanwaggoner
Sport pilots and Light sport planes still fall under FAA rules and still
require fairly extensive flight training and certification.
------
ryanwaggoner
This airplane looks like it will be awesome. However, as someone who has grown
up around aviation and is always looking at what's available and the new
companies that are launching, this seems like another vaporware project. A big
warning sign to me is the amount of press and publicity they're going after,
but almost all their promotional images are CG mockups. If they're planning on
mass-producing this thing in 2010, they should have flying models right now.
Not saying it'll never happen, but don't be surprised if the price point and
delivery date both change. I hope I'm wrong.
~~~
volida
hello? there is a video with a prototype flying?
------
dmix
300 preorders? Not bad for a new expensive product/technology.
~~~
vaksel
its not that expensive compared to other planes. + people always want to be
the first to have the latest gadget
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Young entrepreneurs turn a Tweet from Richard Branson into $1 Million - ahlemk
http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/young-entrepreneurs-turn-a-tweet-from-richard-branson-into--1-million.html?fb_action_ids=10100137262022753%2C10100137211768463%2C4381961266023%2C10100137295874913%2C10100137272476803&fb_action_types=news.reads&fb_ref=type%3Aread%2Cuser%3Ayo7P_jX-MtPx1x1aimvV0XIDiNE%2Ctype%3Aread%2Cuser%3AdNxYkXFY8RDbENFkZ8cz-oFwOPs%2Ctype%3Aread%2Cuser%3A8WxvqIFAUhtDWjtWTnfik46e8fU&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7B%2210100137262022753%22%3A10151032496944835%2C%2210100137211768463%22%3A10151032496944835%2C%224381961266023%22%3A10150969731529342%2C%2210100137295874913%22%3A10151086246274935%2C%2210100137272476803%22%3A10151906558735416%2C%2210100137271788183%22%3A10151022720879675%7D&code=AQDR1t5ao7gGR4OkAlE4PNTI7gXZAqwr_NpJBcAW67r7qpzIzX-Shkw5R2-sdr3LveO52R9KqKdUUO09s-oICChAi1_bq0aBOa1kI1qUK6LQATQMrCKiiSgXtEkYIyta6mzZqTxUpRL1uXg5KxPVqxP_Ui8FtGq_6h0Vwbx6jCw1NiMXmR4Mlub8IZaenWWpm5A#_=_
======
natrius
From their security page:
_We are very secure and make sure to cover many angles to insure your data
can never be compromised. Many often ask what exactly we do to make the data
so secure. Unfortunately, one of the things that makes the site so secure is
that we do not disclose the exact encryption practices._
I just threw up in my mouth a little.
It's also a bit weird that it's apparently two unrelated products in one.
Pinterest and LastPass: two great tastes that taste great together?
~~~
justauser
This is quite an eye-opener too...
"How secure is MySocialCloud.com? From day one, it has been our goal to
provide the best security on the web. While we don't expose how we keep
MySocialCloud secure (if we told you, it would be unsecured!), we do ensure
that not even our employees are able to see any of your sensitive data."
One of their videos shows a bookmarket so I'm going to presume they're using
that for somekind of encryption clientside with AES???
~~~
tylermenezes
"if we told you, it would be unsecured!" doesn't sound like AES... It sounds
like they're using _entirely_ security through obscurity.
------
AlexMuir
Only managed the first paragraph before the bubble-o-meter went off the
fucking scale.
\- Crap buzzword filled domain name. Check.
\- All encompassing vague idea. Check.
\- Young computer whizzkids. Check.
\- 1 millllion dollars. Check.
~~~
law
Don't forget the obligatory leave-of-absence from NYU.
~~~
wickedchicken
Drop out of college to make a combo Delicious/LastPass!
~~~
adrinavarro
Why the hell would anyone want such thing? The fact that people might use both
things doesn't mean they can go together.
Hell, there is a lot of things you can glue together, but these aren't ones.
~~~
borplk
I'm sick of this social frenzy in web already. Every goddamn website wants me
to share, discover, connect, cloud, blah blah blah...share friends boom
revolutionary idea...why don't we share photos? wow! here...take all my
billions...what if we mix your cloud crap with your passwords? sweet jesus
take all my money. Don't get me wrong, it's good to see people innovate, but
it feels like most (at least those who are being seen) have forgotten about
the true problem solving and innovation and are just mixing services and APIs
together and selling it as yet another revolutionary idea.
------
richardv
This is ridiculous. I actually started reading with a really positive mind,
but Richard Branson is never going to see any of that $1M.
\- Scott... got the idea when his computer crashed and he lost a spreadsheet
containing all his usernames and passwords.
Using this as a story to explain his startup is awful. So, you are running a
tool to manage passwords, where you previously stored everything in a
spreadsheet? This guy obviously knows a lot about security. Where can I sign
up?
~~~
toyg
That's harsh. I have to say, his pitch resonates with the common man more than
you think. How many people keep their passwords in spreadsheets or other
haphazard ways? Zillions. How many stop and think "mh, what's gonna happen if
I lose this spreadsheet"? Not many -- otherwise they wouldn't store passwords
in spreadsheets to begin with. Scott just reminded them that they'll be
screwed at some point, and he's here to help. I expect part of the reasoning
behind Branson's investment is that the man himself (or some of his minions)
must have had the occasional lost-password-crisis here or there.
Clearly, with a bland but fairly descriptive name like MySocialCloud, they are
not targeting paranoid geeks (the ones who worry about details like "who's
running this service?", and would rather use services going by dorky names
with random missing vowels), they are targeting the common man who stores
passwords in spreadsheets. They are scratching an itch they themselves had,
which is often how you validate your own business plan. I don't see why they
should be ridiculed for it.
(This said, the whole post is just planted marketing of the lowest quality.
Hardly HN-worthy, if you ask me.)
~~~
lelele
> Scott just reminded them that they'll be screwed at some point, and he's
> here to help.
Problem is: he doesn't know how to help, yet people are going to trust him
because they don't know better. I'd bet they are going to store their users'
password on an Excel spreadsheet, but they will take care to backup it often
;-)
There is LastPass already, and they are doing a great job. Competition is
good, but why should we support clueless competitors?
That said, I'd bet MySocialCloud.com will succeed. Worse is better, isn't it?
And now they have lots of money.
------
coderdude
There's a lot of over-the-top hating from the peanut gallery in this thread.
I'll balance it out:
What a ride this must have been so far. They're doing a great job getting
their name out there, that's for sure. An investment from Richard Branson and
a co-founder of Photobucket, plus this article in Yahoo Small Business that is
now trending the HN front page. I hope they're able to take this massive
opportunity they've been given and turn it into a successful business.
------
elmuchoprez
Regardless of whether this is a good idea or not, to say they "turned a tweet
into $1 million" is a bit of a reach.
They saw a tweet advertising an event which Branson would be at, borrowed
several thousands of dollars from their parents to attend the event, and used
that opportunity to get an email address that was capable of reaching Richard
Branson, which they used over a period of time to develop some sort of
relationship with him and another (Murdoch), and through a series of pitches
both in person and remote, they secured initial funding.
~~~
mkramlich
... in a time when investors are desperately seeking anything to throw their
money at that will get good returns. And it's hard to find software engineers.
And, especially to less sophisticated investors, they just know "social" and
"cloud" are the hot hot thing so they want to park some bets in something with
those words involved. Thus... MySocialCloud.com
------
jakeonthemove
I just checked out the service and I don't understand what's with the hate?
It's a Pinterest/Delicious/LastPass mashup, and while I would not trust them
with my passwords (they really should rephrase that explanation, or give a
real overview of their security measures), there are plenty of people who will
(my parents still store their passwords in simple text files :-)).
If they add RSS-reader functionality, I can actually see myself using the site
as a home page!
I believe it's got potential - they'll have to work hard on the marketing and
keeping even or ahead of the competition, though...
------
gilrain
...and so we told Richard, "Hey, just sign up for LastPass!" He was so
grateful, he gave us a million dollars.
------
calydon
This reads like there is something missing from the story. They already had an
office and a 9 person team, but they needed to borrow $4k from their parents
to meet Branson?
------
SagelyGuru
What a ridiculous country. It is OK to lend them $1M but illegal to offer them
a cocktail?
------
mkramlich
Wow. This has both bubble and disaster written all over it. May things go much
better than that for them, though, of course. But it reads more like a parody
or a list of warning signs than an article about a real new business.
------
jbranchaud
Here's a better venture idea based on the experience, "Scott... got the idea
when his computer crashed and he lost a spreadsheet containing all his
usernames and passwords."
How about designing computers that crash when users try to store usernames and
passwords on them. Users will eventually learn to stop doing that.
~~~
natrius
There's nothing wrong with storing usernames and passwords. There is something
wrong with storing them in a spreadsheet.
------
yaix
> he got the idea when his computer crashed and he lost a spreadsheet
> containing all his usernames and passwords.
Sounds like a good idea to entrust him with all your passwords then.
------
tkahn6
The more I see things like this, the more I believe I have no idea how the
world works.
~~~
codgercoder
It just reinforces my feeling that it's easier for simple, bad ideas to get
funding than complicated, good ones. Modulo the reporting, of course.
~~~
waterlesscloud
Your last sentence is probably the most insightful on the thread. We really
have no idea what actually happened.
------
kasahmed
Great story
------
waldemarb
This startup app stores your encrypted passwords on DropBox:
<http://passboxapp.com/>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Tiled: fee, easy to use and flexible tile map editor - cheiVia0
http://www.mapeditor.org/
======
candiodari
Perhaps "fee" should be "free" in the title ?
~~~
cheiVia0
Yes, too late to edit it though.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Facebook, Axios and NBC Paid to Whitewash Wikipedia Pages - danso
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/wikipedia-paid-editing-pr-facebook-nbc-axios_n_5c63321be4b03de942967225
======
ilamont
_A few people, however, have figured out how to manipulate Wikipedia’s
supposedly neutral system to turn a profit._
Neutral system? A few?
Let's not kid ourselves here. Wikipedia is filled with bias. Yes, there are
some informative articles and it's great that some people have spent a sizable
chunk of time tending to the garden. But there's a lot of stuff missing, and
the problems of new contributors being shut out or shut down is well-
documented ([https://www.technologyreview.com/s/520446/the-decline-of-
wik...](https://www.technologyreview.com/s/520446/the-decline-of-wikipedia/)).
As for paid/planted content, it's easy to spot certain types (fawning
celebrity or corporate profiles) but others are far more subtle. And sometimes
when I'm reading an apparently well-researched article on a technical,
historical, or scientific topic, I wonder if some contributor way down the
line had an axe to grind or is outright messing with audiences by inserting
bogus information.
~~~
_Codemonkeyism
Basically every history article is heavily biased, just compare the different
language versions.
~~~
gabbygab
Pretty much every political or corporate sensitive topic has heavy bias. Even
biology related topics are subject to external pressure from journalists,
politicians and activists. There have been huge fights over how fetus, gender,
sex, etc are defined on wikipedia.
And it isn't just wikipedia, it's all of social media and pretty much all of
the internet. From silly nonsense like movie reviews to serious matter like
war footage, if it has political or financial impact, it is subject to heavy
censorship and bias.
~~~
umvi
Reminds me of when Bradley Manning's wiki page turned to Chelsea Manning
within seconds of the announcement. It was unreal. It was like there were an
army of activists ready to pounce as soon as the announcement was made and the
article was quickly locked.
I've seen other, more important, news take much longer to update (hours) on
their main pages.
~~~
tim333
The way Wikipedia works you don't need an army of activists - just one
enthusiast to edit it. The important news probably took longer because no one
was very interested. That's how it works with volunteers.
------
IronWolve
Wikipedia reflects what people believe to be the Truth, so historical or news
are often filled with mistakes and half-truths. My favorite wikipedia deletion
was an armchair historian who would correct common myths, such as Canada did
not have Troops in the Vietnam war. He would even link to the Canadian
military site that listed medals to soldiers station in Vietnam.
He kept getting all his updates reversed, as the perceived fact was the only
one allowed. His proof was discarded.
He finally gave up, and only updated his personal comment page. And then the
wikipedia did a personal page purge to stop searches from showing personal
pages. Coincidence? I doubt it.
Those who control the history books they say.
------
deathhand
If people are this open and brazen about it then ultimately we have passed the
point of usefulness. This can be seen in social media vote farms where you pay
for exposure. Once they start appearing en masse then it is the death knell of
the platform.
This also has a chilling effect on free speech and what an individual is
allowed to know about an organization, person, company etc. As any 'trusted'
source of information is now spoiled.
The way we get ahead of this is do what the internet forefathers wanted to do
to any problem... re-route. There are wiki clones and methinks their
popularity will only grow now.
This should be the chief concern for Jimmy Whales and the Wikimedia foundation
if they actually cared about providing 'an encyclopedia for all' because they
are no longer providing a platform for learning but rather just another
corporate blog.
~~~
oblio
> The way we get ahead of this is do what the internet forefathers wanted to
> do to any problem... re-route. There are wiki clones and methinks their
> popularity will only grow now.
It's wishful thinking. In the software and internet world, once something is
entrenched, it's rarely removed from first position unless it no longer serves
its primary purpose to its main audience. Which Wikipedia does.
It's a bit like Facebook vs Mastodon. Ask your non-techie friends about
Mastodon and they'll probably go: that was a sort of elephant or dinosaur,
wasn't it?
~~~
xondono
I’m amazed of how many people share this “once stablished things never change”
mentality in this forum.
Most of the people reading here are either thinking of or trying or actually
becoming living proof that this way of thinking is wrong.
Maybe instead of asking non-techie friends about mastodon we should be asking
kids about myspace..
~~~
oblio
Myspace popped up before the market was mature and it definitely didn't have
80% market share all across the globe.
Facebook might fall on its own due to user fatigue. But it will still have 1
billion users 20 year's from now :)
------
jessriedel
Can someone link to a particularly egregious example of an untrue/non-POV/non-
verifiable Sussman edit, or an in-bad-faith comment? So far the ones I see are
basically reasonable.
~~~
alexandercrohde
Yeah that's kindof a weak argument.
That's like saying "Did the judge who took a bribe say anything unreasonable
in their ruling?" or like saying "Did the academic study that was paid for a
big corporation without disclosing make any logical leaps?"
Any paid, undisclosed influence is wrong, period. And almost certainly against
TOS.
~~~
jessriedel
> That's like saying "Did the judge who took a bribe say anything unreasonable
> in their ruling?
In fact, it's much more like the _attorney_ is paid, which is considered fine
in courts. Indeed, having contributors who are potentially biased, but who
each argue their point and agree to a method of conflict resolution, is
considered one of the most powerful methods of seeking truth. It's also used
in academics, where each researcher bring their own biases to the table.
> Any paid, undisclosed influence is wrong, period.
I guess you didn't read the article? The paid influence was disclosed.
~~~
viivaux
>In fact, it's much more like the attorney is paid, which is considered fine
in courts.
In theory (though tbf not in reality) everyone has the right to an attorney.
AFAIK there is no corresponding right to a paid Wikipedia editor.
>> Any paid, undisclosed influence is wrong, period.
>I guess you didn't read the article? The paid influence was disclosed.
“But the plans were on display…” “On display? I eventually had to go down to
the cellar to find them.” “That’s the display department.” “With a
flashlight.” “Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.” “So had the stairs.”
“But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?” “Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did.
It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused
lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.”
Wikipedia articles with significant edits from paid PR hacks need a big red
warning sticker.
------
lordlimecat
>casual racism depository Nextdoor
I think Sussman is getting edits approved because (at first glance) they're
substantially better written and still fall within the bounds of dispassionate
writing.
Maybe Huffington Post could use some lessons in that, if their idea of
journalism is to randomly drop not-dispassionate digs at Nextdoor with neither
context nor justification.
~~~
altfredd
Sussman isn't "getting edits approved". He is literally bribing other editors
in open.
Ever wrote anything on Wikipedia talk pages? Unless you are commenting on
article with hundred thousands of daily views, your comments will remain
ignored for years. Nobody is going to "implement your suggestions" or "accept
corrections", —at best you will be ignored, and at worst you will be told to
f##k off in Wikipedia's politically correct newspeak.
Who are the people, implementing his changes to pages? A certain number are of
course bots and sock puppets. But relying on those exclusively is risky, and
he would eventually get discovered and singled out by mods and check-users. So
_some_ of his editors got to be real people. Does he have an actual team of
editors working on keeping articles updated full time through series of
proxies? Probably not, — would be too expensive and also prone to ban.
Let's perform a mental experiment: you are a poor sod in Cambodia/North
Korea/Thailand etc. who have recently discovering a beauty of Wikipedia. You
look at the talk page of "Facebook" article and stumble upon comments of some
guy, who says, that he is a representative of dedicated PR company. You make
some quick calculations: your daily wage is several orders of magnitude
smaller than average US wage, and the guy is probably getting paid A LOT of
money by Facebook and the likes; going to darknet to regularly buy a new bunch
of "proxies" (hacked computers in US residential areas) will costs you $XX per
month; if you get him to pay you $YY, the rest of money will be your net
profit...
You can guess the rest.
------
Thorondor
Sussman's Wikipedia contribution history is available here:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/BC1278](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/BC1278)
~~~
deathhand
That you know of. Who knows how many sock puppet accounts they may have.
Heck it could even be an additional fee 'well for an extra 10k I will create a
new personality that isn't tied to anything'
~~~
djmips
That's what I would suspect. The main thrust is above board but why not tip
the balance by corrupting Wikipedia editors or having a shadow stable of
editors.
------
booleandilemma
The problem is that all sources of information are biased. And it’s worse than
that. People you meet on the street are biased. Your own friends are biased.
I’m biased. People that claim they’re unbiased are _definitely_ biased.
Everyone has an angle, everyone has their own personal and cultural historical
baggage that’s going to color their perception of everything from commercials
to politics.
It’s up to you to think critically, get information from multiple diverse
sources, and form your own (biased) opinion, and always, always, be skeptical.
~~~
minikites
That requires a level of media and information literacy that is evidently
uncommon in the general public.
------
sneak
For seven years, what I strongly suspect is paid astroturfing has been up on
wikipedia for one of the largest hotel/casino conglomerates on the Las Vegas
strip:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Las_Vegas_Sands](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Las_Vegas_Sands)
It surprised me that nobody had added the “reads like an advertisement”
template in all that time, so I did. Get out there and be vigilant.
~~~
tim333
Wikipedia works quite well in spite of that though.
The Sands article looks like it was written by a company employee / PR which
I'm not sure is quite astroturfing. Depends on your definitions I guess.
It reminds me of a page I put up on the company Algenol which I thought
interesting as it was trying to make ethanol direct from algae and sunlight
and saying it would be cheaper than regular fuel. Then the whole thing got
rewritten by someone like Algenol's PR and someone flagged it but I couldn't
be bothered to re-edit the whole thing - takes ages. Then Algenol kind of
failed, fired the boss and went on to other things. Not sure how the page is
now.
------
harry8
What a defence "I'm not the bad guy for robbing people's houses, the real bad
guys rob _and_ assault the occupants..."
------
mlthoughts2018
I’m surprised Wikipedia doesn’t simply ban any communication through the
Wikipedia platform itself between a person awaiting edit approval and others
who could approve it.
Similarly, why not put a strict word count limit on discussion on Talk pages.
If you can’t make a rebuttle succinctly, then the risk of Talk page
filibustering is too high and mitigating that risk matters more than letting
people write diatribes of objections to decisions about edits.
~~~
l9k
I disagree. I was surprised the conversations were public and visible on the
website itself.
What would be more scary, and probably happens already in other cases, is if
nefarious editors organized via private channels.
------
badhatter
This has been going on a very long time. Just take a look at any politicians
Wikipedia page.
~~~
Dahoon
If you really want to see history rewritten on Wikipedia look at articles on
US wars. Especially those about WW2 japan or war crimes by US GIs.
------
babyslothzoo
Does anyone take Wikipedia seriously at this point?
Calling Wikipedia 'neutral' is comical, it's full of opinion, ideology, bias,
misinformation, disinformation, astroturfing, and other nonsense noise and
utter garbage.
~~~
unethical_ban
I wouldn't bet my PhD on it, or get the entirety of my education on a complex
subject from it. Though it has a TON of factually correct statements. It is a
good starting point for a ton of stuff, and I would never wish it to be gone.
------
Rebelgecko
There's been a couple times that I've revisited a Wikipedia article and
noticed that someone had erased a negative section about a person or
organization. I've always wondered if it was organic or part of a larger for-
pay effort
------
saltvedt
My project, the news aggregater Cited News
([https://cited.news/](https://cited.news/)), uses Wikipedia references as
source for news.
~~~
aboutruby
Cool project, but I don't see the link with the article apart from being
related to Wikipedia. It might be better off as a Show HN.
~~~
saltvedt
I tried adding it:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Facebook&type=rev...](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Facebook&type=revision&diff=887903150&oldid=887791830)
The article is dated on 14. of March though, so it should not appear on the
front page but here:
[https://cited.news/wikipedia_pages/date/2019-03-14](https://cited.news/wikipedia_pages/date/2019-03-14)
------
fvjft
Blindly trusting what you read on Wikipedia is like blindly trusting what you
read on the media. And I don't think there's much we can do to avoid it.
Because conventional wisdom says more education will fix it. But wasn't there
a study that showed that even highly educated people believe anything that
confirms their biases?
~~~
cjslep
I'm currently reading _Manufacturing Consent_ which to me shows how dangerous
blindly following the mass media can be in a rigorous manner without requiring
one to become a conspiracy theorist.
There's certain ways to effectively critically read newspaper articles that I
was taught at a young age and it's definitely a learned skill that I wish the
US education system did better with.
~~~
wongarsu
> without requiring one to become a conspiracy theorist.
People conspire all the time, so shouldn't any sane person suspect some
conspiracies?
Hijacking the word "conspiracy theorist" to mean nut job seems like exactly
the twisting of reality you are advocating to avoid.
~~~
Vinnl
In this context, I interpret "conspiracy theorist" as someone who thinks there
are relatively large groups of people conspiring, without the majority of
people being aware of that. A small conspiracy when playing Diplomacy is
believable, but e.g. one in which everyone behind mass media has agreed to put
forward a certain message is not.
Thus (not having read it myself), Manufacturing Consent could show how
emergent properties of mass media might lead to them pushing a certain
incorrect world view, rather than proposing a theory that requires the teams
behind them to all agree to conspire and none of them to make that public
knowledge.
~~~
herbstein
> Thus (not having read it myself), Manufacturing Consent could show how
> emergent properties of mass media might lead to them pushing a certain
> incorrect world view, rather than proposing a theory that requires the teams
> behind them to all agree to conspire and none of them to make that public
> knowledge.
That is right. Chomsky proposes 5 filters through which this process happens.
These filters operate, according to Chomsky, not just in media, but in all of
society. From kindergarten to our deadbeds.
I think this was best illustrated with Chomsky's 1996 interview in "The Big
Idea" on BBC by Andrew Marr. Chomsky is outlining how the filters make sure
certain viewpoints are popularized, and Andrew Marr asks "How can you know
that I'm self-censoring?". To which Chomsky replies "I'm not saying you're
self-censoring. I'm sure you believe everything you're saying. But what I'm
saying is, if you believed something different, you wouldn't be sitting where
you're sitting."
The 30 minute episode[1] is well worth a watch, but the three minute clip of
the above exchange is also available[2].
[1]: [https://youtu.be/GjENnyQupow](https://youtu.be/GjENnyQupow) [2]:
[https://youtu.be/lLcpcytUnWU](https://youtu.be/lLcpcytUnWU)
------
l0b0
Here's a suggestion: _Allow each user to do only a certain amount of editing
within a time period._ Of course there are technical difficulties with this,
but if done right this would pretty much guarantee that edit farms and paid
actors are much less useful. Wikipedia as a whole would probably be much more
useful in the long run, since there are an absolutely massive long tail of
experts in every conceivable field.
~~~
josephg
There's a long tail, but my understanding is that there's a core wikipedia
contributor community who contribute a staggering number of edits[1]. If
wikipedia limited the number of edits that each user could do, they would
anger their core community. It would be similar to youtube putting a limit on
the number of views each video was allowed to get. It would be suicide via the
destruction of their tribe.
And I don't even know if it would work that well. Per-IP edit limits would
only stop PR companies with deep pockets for so long. They would do what the
russians do, and just make account farms.
[1] Or so I've been told. I'd love to see actual stats on this. It probably
follows a Pareto distribution; but with what power?
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_distribution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_distribution)
~~~
Dahoon
>They would do what the russians do, and just make account farms.
I'm sure whitehatwiki.com would have been called exactly that if it were from
Russia or China.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Having Frequent Diarrhea as a Child Shapes Your Adult Mate Choice - lkrubner
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/bering-in-mind/2014/08/12/this-queasy-love-how-having-frequent-diarrhea-as-a-child-shapes-your-adult-mate-choice/
======
anigbrowl
This is one of the worst-written articles I have ever encountered - I feel
like I'm trapped in an elevator with an annoying 12 year old. Scientific
American continues its long sad decline into tabloid dreck.
What actually matters:
_The hypothesis for de Barra and his colleagues’ study was therefore pretty
clear-cut. Adults who are sickly in childhood grow up to prefer opposite-sex
faces displaying exaggerated sex-typical features: testosterone-forged faces
in men, that’s to say, and ultra-feminine faces in women._
They used a longitudinal study from Bangladesh where diarrhea is closely
monitored because it's a leading cause of mortality in children as the source
data and found that people who suffered badly from illness as children
developed a strong preference for hypertypical gender features compared to a
control group. Diarrhea was selected as a proxy for childhood malaise because
of its commonality.
~~~
lotsofmangos
I thought the part informing us that men cannot be inseminated was
particularly educational and reflects the high levels of experimental research
being conducted on behalf of this fine publication.
Though it does perhaps lack a certain rigor, as surely there is nothing to
stop men being inseminated. It is merely that they are unable to then become
pregnant after insemination, as other visitors to this planet can surely
attest from their long running experiments on unlucky country folk. Which will
no doubt be the subject of next months exciting issue.
~~~
anigbrowl
Exactly. I have a chip on my shoulder abot this because up to about 15 years
ago SA used to be incredibly good- a solid digest of non-specialist science
education for about $100 year. I would happily have paid more, I considered
the time and dollar cost involved well worth it for the intellectual exercise
it provided.
Then they went downmarket in search of a circulation boost and it's been in
decline ever since. I stopped reading the month I noticed that I had consumed
the new issue in 3 hours rather than the usual 6, and took out an issue from a
few months earlier to compare - turned out that they increased the font size
and line spacing to produce a magazine with the same number of pages and the
same price but about 30% less text. I hope an asteroid lands on their offices
and reduces them to a smoking crater in the ground.
~~~
lotsofmangos
I stopped bothering with it ever since they cut the amateur scientist column.
I remember they used to cover stuff like sonoluminescence in there -
[http://techmind.org/sl/](http://techmind.org/sl/) \- it was awesome.
Let me know if you ever want help working out candidate asteroids and how to
achieve the required trajectory adjustments.
just found this though :) -
[https://archive.org/details/TheAmateurScientist](https://archive.org/details/TheAmateurScientist)
~~~
anigbrowl
Good finds! Feel free to drop me a line via (same name) at gmail - nice to
find a fellow spirit.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How WeChat faded into the silence in India - HalfRebel
https://factordaily.com/how-wechat-faded-into-the-silence-in-india/
======
yorwba
WeChat seems to have never tried very hard to adapt their app for
international users.
The English interface is reasonably well-tested (many of my Chinese friends
use it to practice their English), but other languages might cause overflowing
UI elements because the translated text is longer than accounted for.
That problem also affects the English version in some places e.g. when adding
a contact, the short introduction you can write to explain who you are and why
you're adding them has a length limit. It's probably enough for Chinese text,
but requires being very concise when using English.
Many features are designed to prevent virality. Comments on a friend's
timeline ("moments") are only visible to your shared friends. Small chat
groups can be bootstrapped by scanning a QR code or by typing a shared
passcode simultaneously, but beyond 100 users newcomers need to be invited by
a member first. Comments on public articles are hand-picked by the author and
only the author can reply directly. There used to be a feature displaying
trending articles, but it seems to have been removed.
Those limitations prevent regime-critical opinions from spreading too quickly,
but they also mean that only users with a large social circle on WeChat are
going to stick with the app.
The article mentions women being harassed via the "people nearby" feature. My
impression is that it is mostly used by men looking for hookups and by "women"
who are prostitutes or pretend to be prostitutes to scam those men.
Successfully entering a market without already-strong ties to China would have
required making large changes about the way their app works.
~~~
vorg
The people nearby and friend invite requirements being in problem in India but
not in China can be explained by:
> QQ messenger – already had over 750 million monthly active users by the time
> WeChat launched. A user could port her entire QQ social graph to WeChat by
> just logging in with her QQ ID.
It sounds like WeChat is really just a renamed QQ of sorts. So any adoption
comparison of messenging app uptake in other countries with that of WeChat in
China should use the QQ launch of 1999, which makes WeChat's rise to ubiquity
far less impressive.
~~~
dangrover
More impressive is that, while this was going on, the original QQ quickly
pivoted the actual mobile version of QQ in competition with WeChat.
Mobile QQ had more users than WeChat until 2015, and even today, there remain
parts of the country + user segments that strongly prefer QQ on mobile.
------
0xcafecafe
It's interesting how ubiquitous whatsapp has become in India that it has
become a verb. My parents and other older generation folks often say "whatsapp
this to me".
~~~
otoburb
WhatsApp seems to have similar widespread market adoption in Brasil[1] too.
[1]
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/whatsapp-i...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/whatsapp-
is-upending-the-role-of-unions-in-brazil-next-it-may-transform-
politics/2018/06/09/777e537e-68cc-11e8-a335-c4503d041eaf_story.html)
~~~
davchana
Orkut too was much popular in India & Brazil, looks like these both countries
have similar users.
~~~
pkaye
From my limited experience, I know in India you can get a lot of SMS spam. I
wonder if people migrated to whatsapp for that reason?
~~~
abhgh
I think one of the bigger reasons was something the article touches upon -
image sharing. Internet connections can often be sketchy, and Whatsapps
compressed image sharing often ran circles around its competitors.
The other reason was the identity to phone number mapping and the ease of
setting up communities with those identities.
Yet another reason was you didn't need to separately pay for a mobile data
package and a SMS package anymore - WhatsApp replaced SMSes and it fit
frugally into the data plan.
I know that in my circles these played a big role. Reason 1 was especially
significant for my parents/older relatives since my conversations with them
are not text heavy (maybe them getting used to a device to type in for casual
communication is a factor) - we often share images, family photos - and
WhatsApp killed it in this niche use-case.
------
bruceb
TL:DR WeChat was too big for phones back few years ago when many people didn't
have space to spare and data was expensive and slow. WhatsApp compressed files
so they loaded quicker and you could keep more of them.
Then in 2016, Tencent for some reason invested in Hike Messenger when it was
already in trouble. Hike was created by the son of a telecom guy. Sorta if the
son of Verizon's CEO created an instant messenger app and got investment and
support from his dad and the company.
~~~
pmlnr
The last time I tried Wechat it slurped into the 300MB range after
installation (apk + app data) - I have 3 contacts there.
Comparison:
WhatsApp apk 39.86MB (2018-10)
I have a few leftover installers for ancient windows, eg. XP, for the fun and
memories.
1.9M Apr 18 2009 SkypeSetup.exe (2.6 I think)
8.7M Dec 15 2007 trillian-v3.1.9.0.exe
I so badly want the ancient skype back.
~~~
fooker
Ancient Skype pioneered the concept of having a shim setup and downloading the
actual setup.
~~~
pmlnr
That's... valid, though I seem to recall that particular version was skype
itself. I need to install that on an XP without internet now to verify.
------
thedancollins
Can anyone tell us if WeChat's inability to flex to the Indian market was
intentional and "arrogant" or was it unintentional? They call them "blind
spots" for a reason.
------
type-2
hike is dead, everyone uses whatsapp, the kids use snapchat, and people use
telegram for large groups / interests.
~~~
nolok
I'm not sure what your message is supposed to be saying / bringing to the
table.
Also, what a very localised generalisation. The article is about how the
dominant app in China is faring in India. Other countries have different
usages.
Eg near both india and china Line and fb messenger are dominating Thailand
while Whatsapp has trouble there (lots of people have it, nobody uses it),
snapchat is still hisptery/rare, wechat is limited to chinese expats and
nobody has even heard of telegram.
~~~
type-2
Just my personal observations. I thought we were talking about use of chat
apps in India so of course it makes sense for me to talk local. Another
personal observation; the tibetan community in india uses wechat, snapchat is
very popular among the youth, so is instagram. FB is for old people. The
important thing to take away from the article was that _" India is divided
into three consumer segments: the first 100 million, mainly the urban or
affluent Indians and are the main targets of indulgent e-commerce brands; the
second 100 million classified as the aspiring class; and the last a little
over a billion — three segments he calls the splurgers, strivers and
survivors."_ and wechat appealed to none
------
exabrial
Perhaps backdooring by the Chinese government?
~~~
exabrial
To the downvoter: I'm sorry but this is not speculation but a statement of
fact. All Chinese communication systems are state mandated to be backdoored,
and given the industry, state officials get an automatic share in the company
and a seat on the board. It's not too say the CIA/nsa/FBI hasn't tried to do
the same in America, but it's _legal_ to provide secure software here, whereas
in China it's illegal.
------
mrweasel
What supprised me is that you need to design your app around the fact that the
entire country has a stalker problem. That really annoys me.
~~~
westiseast
I think that point in the original article isnt 100% accurate.
The ‘People Nearby’ feature can be turned off in the settings, but you also
have to click into it to use it - it’s by no means automatic (ie. you sign
into Wechat and suddenly it start getting random harassing messages). Your
visibility expires after a few minutes.
It’s never been used as a feature to add a contact - in China is was mostly
used for hookups in the early days, and now if you’re in a big city it’s
mostly prostitutes and/or people trying to sell products.
Chinese women using that feature would absolutely have received ‘stalking’
messages, but that’s basically the same as women receive on _any_ kind of
dating or hookup app.
The only difference I can see (speculating somewhat about Indian users) is
that Chinese users have always seemed quite happy to use an app for their
work/business/friends/school that also includes basically sex-on-demand type
features. I know whenever criticisms of Wechat are brought up in the West, a
lot of people focus on the fact that how could you recommend this app to your
dad or gran or kids, knowing that it has this weird dark and nefarious corner
in it.
So I dont think it’s fair to say India has a stalking problem based on this -
more like, Wechat has a weird feature that enables potential sexual harassment
that Chinese users don’t seem to care about.
~~~
yorwba
> Your visibility expires after a few minutes.
Last I checked, it was 6 hours. You can clear it manually, but that might not
be obvious to a first-time user who clicked through the explanatory pop-up
without reading. (Or maybe that was added later.)
~~~
dangrover
This is set differently based on account region. International users have a
higher expiry time.
------
kawaiiKitty123
After reading the article, much more assertive on DO NOT USE Whatsapp. Hate
being sent messages from strangers. Even I have someone on my contact,
probably it is someone I somehow know from work or long-time-no-see met-once-
person, why do you you want to have them on your social chatting app?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Why doesn't google.com implement DNSSEC? - kralos
https://dnssec-debugger.verisignlabs.com/google.com
======
kralos
Does anyone know why Google hasn't implemented DNSSEC on google.com ?
~~~
tptacek
Because DNSSEC is silly and doesn't solve any real problems, but does
introduce a major operational burden where screwups have immense costs.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
“Origins of the Apple human interface” lecture – an annotated transcription - NaOH
http://morrick.me/archives/8432
======
syspec
I love the bit about being able to view content in a larger window. “This
thing called an elevator shaft, with an elevator in it. That thing is still
there today, called the scroll bar”
That makes so much sense how it came to be
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Bug in the Physical Building - kqr
http://two-wrongs.com/the-bug-in-the-physical-building
======
brudgers
The 1995 story in the _New Yorker_ :
[http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1995/05/29/the-fifty-
nine-...](http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1995/05/29/the-fifty-nine-story-
crisis)
It is misleading to classify the original welded design as adequate for
quartering winds by virtue of the safety factor incorporated into the design.
The safety factor accounts for the gap between the design and its execution in
the physical world. It takes into account reasonably likely implementation
errors not possible design errors.
The safety factor is a try-catch for IO. It's not there for kernel panics.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The State of Espresso in 2015 - daledavies
http://www.jimseven.com/2015/08/31/the-state-of-espresso-in-2015/
======
brudgers
I realized I am so pavlovian conditioned to expect bullet points regarding an
open source javascript framework at the other end of the link, that I had to
read the article twice just to make sure it was about something I could drink
[where "drink" is not a javascript package manager].
An article as refreshing as an espresso.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Angular's $watch, $digest and $apply explained - bjoe_lewis
http://angular-tips.com/blog/2013/08/watch-how-the-apply-runs-a-digest/
======
funkiee
It really is easy to end up with over 1000 watches in a page if you use any
sort of list of length 100 or greater with complex data. Directives like
bindonce help cut down on the watches, but it still isn't an easy problem to
deal with.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
If Nvidia wants a proof-of-concept of A64 in a compute cloud, here's one - kristianpaul
https://www.theregister.com/2020/09/15/aws_t4g_burtable_arm_instance/
======
kristianpaul
AWS is bursting with pride for its Arm CPU cores – so much it’s put them
behind a burstable instance type
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Facebook Overhauls Groups, A Social Solution To Create “A Pristine Graph” - ssclafani
http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/06/facebook-groups/
======
amanuel
I'm not buying the idea that a social graph has long term value. Relationships
come and go. People die. People delete their Facebook accounts.
A social graph is just a digital incarnation of a yearbook. I don't recall
yearbooks being valuable or useful...perhaps on a personal sentimental level.
Perhaps I'm being too cynical.
~~~
ctice
You're right that yearbooks are not terribly useful on a day-to-day basis
since it's static. However, I think Facebook's value comes from the organic
nature of the site. You can update and craft your social graph to how you see
yourself interacting with different groups of people at a given point in time.
Of course your social graph will morph over time -- Facebook will hopefully
make that as frictionless as possible. Facebook is a history of yearbooks.
------
hrabago
It seems to me they could have supported lists better. I created a bunch of
lists and try to make sure everyone is in the correct list, but most of my FB
browsing is now through the iPhone app, which doesn't prompt me about this
stuff. It always felt like they did just enough to have a decent
implementation of it, but it never really got as integrated as it needed to
be.
If it's a feature that isn't used as often as they hoped, it's likely because
(a) their support for this feature is lacking, and (b) they haven't educated
users about this feature.
Both of these points weren't surprising to me because I always believed that
FB wants people to share as much about themselves to as many people as
possible.
I think without Google Me, and perhaps frid.ge, they would never have
reconsidered these concerns.
------
Nervetattoo
Now i finally can have a social network with my real close friends again
inside facebook. Even reminds me of real social life. Does this imply facebook
is even more integrated in our lifes when we clearly define different circles
of trust?
For my uses it just lacks albums to be perfect.
------
hugh3
Wait, so let me get this straight. Someone can add me to a group without my
permission, and I suddenly start getting notifications about all the crap that
goes on in that group? That sounds obnoxious even by facebook standards.
~~~
smackfu
Think it needs to be a friend that adds you, and you can remove yourself and
they can't re-add you.
The same friend could message you to death if they wanted to.
~~~
hugh3
True, but they'd probably realise they were being annoying. I'm concerned that
some of my less ... sophisticated friends might start adding me to every group
they think is funny.
------
markkat
This is a good move on their part, as it was a big reason why people didn't
like Facebook, why I didn't like FB. I am still not getting an account, but
one obstacle has been removed.
------
seiji
Did this just destroy frid.ge?
~~~
koblas
IMHO frid.ge was always a bit questionable, I personally built a comparable
product and quickly realized that there is a huge amount of momentum around
getting people into a system that is pretty much devoid of people you know.
Groups (and Events) are two features that Facebook has left somewhat sidelined
over other feed oriented features. If they can get the mojo right on Groups
then whole classes of me-too features (like frid.ge) are somewhat suspect. The
interesting question is can you have a group that's coworkers who aren't your
Friends, thus digging into Yammer is a serious way.
------
wccrawford
"He says that 95 percent of users on Facebook in tagged in a photo"
They're tagged in photos because of those stupid apps that tag a photo with a
bunch of random people from your friends list. I hated those things. I was
constantly going and untagging myself from them.
~~~
hugh3
Really? I've never seen one of those apps.
(I'm tagged in a bunch of photos because I go places and reflect photons.)
~~~
shrikant
It's usually apps along the lines of "Born in July!" and "Names Starting with
S" and "All Sagittarius Chicas!" and the like.
~~~
hugh3
Odd, I've never seen those. While some of my friends (bless their hearts) are
not quite _au fait_ with the how-to-avoid-spamming-your-friends thing, I don't
think any of 'em have ever added any apps quite that annoying.
Then again, I wasn't born in July, don't have a name starting with S, and am
most definitely not a Saggitarius Chica, so maybe I'm just missing out.
------
whackedspinach
Has anyone seen new API features for these new groups? I want to write a
script to pull members from old groups (already possible), and then add them
to one of these new groups. They seem more useful, but I don't want to deal
with adding 100+ people to the new group.
------
smackfu
Uh, yeah, so don't play around with this because everyone you add to a group
gets notified, and it's kind of a pain to delete a group since you need to
remove each person individually.
------
skbohra123
may be this is 'the facebook' killer.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Is amazon or flipkart better for purchasing a macbook pro? - stealthmodeclan
I am gifting it to a developer friend who expressed desire for a macbook. Need help from developers.
======
andymoe
If you’re in the US but not in NY Give
[https://www.bhphotovideo.com](https://www.bhphotovideo.com) a look. They are
are large shop based in NY and don’t have a national physical presence so it’s
possible you can save a couple hundred bucks on sales tax up front.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
IBM and Red Hat to Vote “No” on Java Modules (Jigsaw) - taylodl
https://www.infoq.com/news/2017/05/no-jigsaw
======
lvh
Jigsaw breaks far too much stuff to be useful in its present form. There are a
_lot_ of cross-links between things you might expect to be separate; e.g.
java.sql's date objects using java.util.Date.
Despite all the breakage, Jigsaw still totally punts on the problem of
versioning. So, all it lets you do is declare that you need something (with a
self-destructing opt-out); but it still doesn't solve the problem of two
libraries requiring two distinct, mutually incompatible versions of the same
library.
Producing clever vendoring tricks in build packages would solve actual
problems that Jigsaw doesn't even begin to address. Until then, the added
value seems pretty questionable.
There are a lot of nice things happening in JDK9 that just makes everything a
little bit better as if by magic, and they're being held back by a standard
that breaks stuff and ostensibly few people want. That doesn't mean the
exercise was futile; the source code reorg is probably an improvement
regardless.
~~~
cromwellian
I've never liked the hacks around loading multiple versions of the same
library. To me, this seems fragile and bloated workaround, and it would be far
better to encourage people to fix their dependencies. In other ecosystems
where they can't abuse a classloader, this kind of multi-version dependency is
discouraged, and at Google we completely ban it for Java.
~~~
_pmf_
> In other ecosystems where they can't abuse a classloader
That's not abusing the classloader; it's using the classloader.
> and at Google we completely ban it for Java
Yeah, I'll sure to listen to Java tips from the developers of the Android API.
~~~
cromwellian
Well, we also developed Guava, so karma balanced. :)
------
jfoutz
Awesome. I really like keeping two separate GUI toolkits in the docker
container for my webservice. I don't print, like ever, but it's good to know i
could hook up a lineprinter and do hard logs of every web request. Oh, and the
CORBA and RMI registires. So comforting to know i have those options if i need
them.
~~~
tetha
On the other hand, if porting our app to Java9+Jigsaw requires us to wait a
year (because breakage with maven), costs like half a year to a year (I know
our codebase), while upgrading our application servers (because classloading)
and possibly re-doing a lot of the build process at the same time... I'll have
to support Java8 for just about forever.
That upgrade wouldn't happen, or it would be really nasty. I'll rather
tolerate a standard library with a lot of bollocks in there and provide
security around it.
~~~
melling
People have been waiting a decade now? I remember listening about Jigsaw on
the Java Posse back in 2009:
[http://javaposse.com/java_posse_259_jigsaw_and_jsr_294_inter...](http://javaposse.com/java_posse_259_jigsaw_and_jsr_294_interview)
[https://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=294](https://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=294)
~~~
tetha
I didn't mean wait for Jigsaw. I meant: Assume jigsaw breaks maven, i.e. it's
not compatible and there's no easy ugly workaround without runtime errors.
That'd mean, my place - and pretty much every place - has to wait at least a
year or more, until all dependencies are ported to jigsaw. If all dependencies
get ported. This sounds way too similar to the whole Python2/Python3 mess to
me to be a good idea.
------
ChuckMcM
Now _that_ is a trip down memory lane. Back in 1994 I was working on a strong
capabilities security model for Java with a cryptographic signature based
class loader. Amongst the challenges of doing such a system was having a
strong versioning system, clear and enforced lines between public and private
interfaces, and a dynamic bytecode editing system which would actually elide
capabilities from the class being loaded that weren't authorized (system is no
good if reflection can show you things you aren't supposed to see right?)
Reading that proposal I can see that Jigsaw has run up against and is trying
to 'create' some (but not all of course) very similar features on which to
host a module system. And some of the very same arguments come up against
them.
In particular this statement from the recommendation[1]:
_Jigsaw 's implementation will eventually require millions of users and
authors in the Java ecosystem to face major changes to their applications and
libraries, especially if they deal with services, class loading, or reflection
in any way._
Is nearly a word for word echo on the reasons why my 'overly complicated and
invasive' security requirements would all the people writing Java code that
really didn't care all the much about such strong security guarantees.
I don't have a position one way or the other, I've been out of the Java world
for a long time now, but it really struck me like Deja Vu to read that
objection.
[1]
[https://developer.jboss.org/blogs/scott.stark/2017/04/14/cri...](https://developer.jboss.org/blogs/scott.stark/2017/04/14/critical-
deficiencies-in-jigsawjsr-376-java-platform-module-system-ec-member-concerns)
~~~
rietta
Java was not publicly released until 1996? That is when I first remember it.
So does this mean you were working at Sun at the time with Mr. Gosling?
One of my clients is apparently friends with Mr. Gosling and was surprised
when I recognized him from a photo at a Sharks game in the "oh wow! That's
James Gosling". Never met, just from having read a wikipedia page.
~~~
ChuckMcM
Yes, technically Java was announced in March of 1995. I had joined the secret
project known as 'Green' in 1992 to build an OS out of it and do networking
and security work. (very old picture
[https://stuff.mit.edu/afs/sipb/user/marc/hotjava/doc/people....](https://stuff.mit.edu/afs/sipb/user/marc/hotjava/doc/people.html))
~~~
rietta
Very cool. My very first exposure to programming Java was being given a copy
of Visual J++ 1 by a neighbor along with a book. I quickly learned that real
Java was better. From the time I was 14, I was in love with coding starting
with GW Basic, QBasic, Turbo C++, etc.
------
givemefive
Here is maybe some reasoning behind the no votes
Concerns Regarding Jigsaw(JSR-376, Java Platform Module System)
[https://developer.jboss.org/blogs/scott.stark/2017/04/14/cri...](https://developer.jboss.org/blogs/scott.stark/2017/04/14/critical-
deficiencies-in-jigsawjsr-376-java-platform-module-system-ec-member-
concerns?_sscc=t)
~~~
halestock
A rebuttal: [https://blog.plan99.net/is-jigsaw-good-or-is-it-wack-
ec634d3...](https://blog.plan99.net/is-jigsaw-good-or-is-it-wack-ec634d36dd6f)
~~~
mcguire
A highlight:
" _Following links with enticing sounding names like “Where to start” simply
gives you a bunch of links to off-site tutorials written by implementation
vendors, none of which are any good._ There is also a list of _five_ different
books on the topic. _This developer experience is not excellent. But mostly
it’s complicated because its design is genuinely enormous._ "
Five books? That's horrible.
(By way of introduction, I've spent a good deal of time with OSGi and none at
all with JBoss or Jigsaw. I am more-or-less out of the Java environment at
this point.)
Ok, here's the deal: OSGi looks big and complicated. Part of that is due to
the fact that it's been around for like 20 years and part is due to people
trying to do fancy things with it in the Java environment, where everyone else
is trying to do fancy things with basically incompatible magic. (Virgo[1]
waves desolately from off in the distance.)
[1] [http://www.eclipse.org/virgo/](http://www.eclipse.org/virgo/)
In reality, OSGi isn't that bad. I learned it mostly from reading (part of)
the spec, which isn't the worst as far as specs go. OSGi is fundamentally a
generic container; if you're familiar with servelet lifecycles and have used
Tomcat to deploy and undeploy web apps, you're familiar with about 60% of
OSGi, which is a subset of that. The other 40% of OSGi's fundamental
complexity is built around the sole purpose of allowing an application to
depend on a library A, which in turn depends on version X of library B, while
at the same time the application depends on library C, which itself depends on
version Y of library B. (The other 10% of OSGi's fundamental complexity is the
"services", which are double-plus fun extra features that make life better in
many ways. But we can ignore them here since we're talking about modularity.)
Doing that sort of thing is hard. Doing that in Java, where everything uses
reflection, dynamic code generation, and classloader magic, is not so much
hard as terminally bizarre.
Personally, I view a module system as an aid for the programmer: it prevents
stuff that you shouldn't touch from leaking into stuff that you should touch.
As a result, both OSGi (and, I think, Jigsaw) fail badly as module systems: If
it waits until runtime to blow chunks, it's not helping the programmer. But,
in the Java environment, modularity in my sense is impossible. (It's also
unwanted, but that's a rant about Java developers for another day.)
Anyway, when you say, "oh, they're just whining that their system didn't win",
you are right, sort of. But on the other hand, "their systems" have spent a
long time dealing with the insane, Sorcerer's Apprentice-type nuttiness that
is the rest of the Java ecosystem, and it appears that Jigsaw is just ignoring
that nuttiness, that the majority of Java programmers use, and enjoy, every
day. Which was the major worry from the OSGi community when the Jigsaw project
was announced.
As an amusing aside: version numbers. OSGi has a moderately complicated
semantic versioning [2:PDF] system to support that fundamental goal up there.
OSGi version numbers look like major.minor.micro.stringy, with specific rules
for bumping the major, minor, and micro numbers. Jigsaw originally started out
with an incompatible version number format, apparently due to the fact that
Java versions have a fixed constant major number of 1. The current [State of
the module system] for Jigsaw says,
[2] [http://www.osgi.org/wp-
content/uploads/SemanticVersioning1.p...](http://www.osgi.org/wp-
content/uploads/SemanticVersioning1.pdf)
> A module’s declaration does not include a version string, nor constraints
> upon the version strings of the modules upon which it depends. This is
> intentional: It is not a goal of the module system to solve the version-
> selection problem, which is best left to build tools and container
> applications.
The Jigsaw requirements[3] go further to say,
> Multiple versions — It is not necessary to support more than one version of
> a module within a single configuration.
> Most applications are not containers and, since they currently rely upon the
> class path, do not require the ability to load multiple versions of a
> module. Container-type applications can achieve this, when needed, via
> dynamic configuration, as outlined above.
> Version selection — The process of configuring a set of modules need not
> consider more than one version of any particular module.
> In other words, this specification need not define yet another dependency-
> management mechanism. Maven, Ivy, and Gradle have all tackled this difficult
> problem. We should leave it to these and other build tools, and container
> applications, to discover and select a set of candidate modules for a given
> library or application. The module system need only validate that the set of
> selected modules satisfies each module’s dependences.
[4] [http://openjdk.java.net/projects/jigsaw/spec/reqs/02#non-
req...](http://openjdk.java.net/projects/jigsaw/spec/reqs/02#non-requirements)
Therefore, Jigsaw is explicitly free to be incompatible with OSGi or any other
existing container system. Yay.
TL;DR: It's not so much that someone else's system didn't win, but that Jigsaw
doesn't care that Java is a big, giant, hairy bundle of nasty and that fact is
likely to make everyone's life harder.
P.S. For OSGi information, I strongly recommend Neil Bartlett. His OSGi in
Practice and blog posts are exceptionally good and he is very helpful and
friendly in the OSGi community, as I recall. He's also on the Jigsaw experts
group. And one of the Concerns regarding Jigsaw contributors.
[http://njbartlett.name/osgibook.html](http://njbartlett.name/osgibook.html)
~~~
geodel
I do not know of any big OSGi success apart from eclipse. At one point Spring
put a lot of effort and then they dump all that at eclipse project after not
seeing much traction. Apache has bunch of OSGi related projects and they do
not seem very popular compared to straightforward Java/EE components.
For my applications I see some value in Jigsaw specially modular images.
Despite being available for long time OSGi still is some esoteric technology
without mass developer appeal whereas Jigsaw seems to have potential to be
really useful to lots of developers.
It is rather sad that OSGi people keep piling on Oracle for not using their
barely successful technology.
~~~
chopin
I worked a good deal with OSGi and think it is sad that it didn't get more
traction in the server world. I once adapted a jetty container to use OSGi
dependencies instead of packaging all dependencies into a single war file. I
gained wonderfully light weight deployment units and the possibility to patch
dependencies without touching downstream modules.
~~~
mcguire
I used the SpringSource server (later known as Eclipse Virgo) as a sort of
"platform as a service" for enterprise apps. It could deploy anything from
plain war files up to OSGi-aware apps that could access custom services for
configuration, db access, authentication/authorization, and so forth. Worked
rather well, with decent uptime and no hair pulling on my part.
The down side was that OSGi requires modularization, which exactly no Java
developers to my knowledge had any experience with. Plus OSGi modularity is
entirely done at runtime and Spring's tooling to try to support it was
incredibly flakey. Conversations went like:
"My app works fine on my dev box but blows chunks when I try to deploy it."
Me: "You have to be explicit about whay you are depending on in your app's
manifest."
"I see your lips moving, but all i hear is barks, grunts, and squeals."
"Sigh. I'll fix it."
I can't really see jigsaw making the situation any better, especially since it
explicitly ignores versioning and containers.
~~~
chopin
On the other hand you have the same kind of problems with Maven. You have to
state your dependencies explicitly which can be a pain. And Maven does not
support multiple versions when running tests. Everything is lumped into one
classloader (afaik), where I sometimes wish Maven would make use of something
OSGi like. With regards to dependency declaration both are pretty similar.
------
bokchoi
Modularizing the JDK has been in progress for quite a long time -- getting
"no" votes so close to the JDK 9 release date is pretty discouraging.
------
thearn4
So for someone who has tinkered on the periphery of Java development (but does
not work with Java/JVM languages professionally), it isn't entirely clear to
me what the purpose of modules is for developers, over the encapsulation
already provided by packages. Is it to simplify deployment?
~~~
jcrites
Java packages are a fine "module" system if you're designing a single large
cohesive application that has no dependencies or trust boundaries. However,
packages are inadequate by themselves to tackle the problems that arise when
you assemble an application from many different components, each of which are
independently produced and versioned, and have different trust boundaries.
Java has an _incredible_ open source community and there are amazing high-
quality packages available to solve any problem under the sun; and so it is
common for Java apps to have large dependency graphs. For example, take Google
Guava, a popular and powerful Java library. It's so useful that other
libraries depend on it. Let's say that our application uses two libraries
called Component-A and Component-B, which both depend on Guava. However, Guava
is constantly changing, and so it may arise that Component-A depends on Guava
version 17 while Component-B depends on Guava version 20.
This is called a version conflict, and Java packages aren't enough to solve
the problem well, though module systems can. For example, a module system
allows you, as the application owner, to override the Guava version used by
Component-A, replacing Guava-17 with Guava-20. If Component-A is compatible
with Guava-20, then that resolves the problem. Another solution module systems
provide is to allow both Guava-17 and Guava-20 to coexist in the same
application, used separately by Component-A and Component-B. If those
components are using Guava 'privately', as part of their implementation only,
then this might also be an adequate resolution.
The default Java package system does not have a notion that there may be
multiple implementations of a class like
`com.google.common.base.Preconditions`, and that you may wish to select one
version of it or another, or that you may want to use different versions in
different parts of the application. It's not normally desirable to tamper with
dependency versions or load multiple versions simultaneously, but version
conflicts happen and module systems give you tools to deal with them when they
occur. Fortunately, the behavior of Java packages is determined by Java
ClassLoaders, and module systems can implement their own ClassLoaders to
provide dynamic behaviors like these that go beyond vanilla Java's
capabilities.
Since Java supports reflection, with regular Java packages, any class can
access any other class and class member in the app, regardless of whether it's
package private. These reflection capabilities are super useful; they're what
enable frameworks like Spring, Guice, EasyMock, and Jackson. However,
unrestricted reflective access is also a liability (viz. Ruby Monkey
Patching), and it's something that you'd prefer to outright disable or at
least sandbox in most components you depend on. But since these components
might legitimately require reflection in their implementation, like using
Guice for dependency injection or EasyMock for testing, you may not be able to
disable reflection entirely; instead, module systems can help you sandbox
reflection so that it operates within the confines of the module, to make the
system simpler and more predictable.
Some module systems like OSGi also extend into the runtime behavior of your
application, and help you manage complex applications. Certain very complex
Java applications act a bit like an operating system: there are multiple
services within the app that communicate with each other, and the module
system isolates them for encapsulation reasons, loads them in the appropriate
order, connects them together through exported interfaces, and provides
management actions like reloading a module while the rest of the app keeps
running. These module systems are for Java apps what systemd is for Linux
(including the fact that some people love them while others think they're
overly complex and should be avoided).
~~~
SOLAR_FIELDS
Thanks for the in-depth comment. Regarding version conflicts, we currently
have a large enterprise system with lots of dependencies and manage this
manually with Gradle's failOnVersionConflict() resolution strategy. We
override the appropriate dependencies by forcing overrides when there are
conflicts. Is Jigsaw supposed to make this easier or eliminate this problem
entirely? Also, is Jigsaw supposed to replace Maven eventually?
Some of these purported issues with Jigsaw appear to be quite complex and a
bit difficult for the layman Java user to understand.
~~~
lvh
> Is Jigsaw supposed to make this easier or eliminate this problem entirely?
Jigsaw totally punts on the problem of incompatible versions. In fact, it just
doesn't do dependency versioning; only module versioning.
------
bartl
>Jigsaw does not provide a clean upgrade path for Maven-based projects to move
from the packaging of code into JAR files to modules.
No upgrade path from JAR files, the most common packaging system for Java?!?
That sounds like a good enough reason for me to dislike it.
------
norswap
One good reason to refuse Jigsaw: it's far far too complex.
I watched a whole hour and a half presentation on it, and the time was well
necessary to explain the way things work and outline a migration path for
existing code.
The worst thing about it: I can't remember much about how it was supposed to
work. I just remember that it was highly unintuitive, requiring both explicit
imports and exports in specific files for each module.
The fact that it is so tightly coupled to JDK refactoring also gives me pause.
Seems like a design overfit. Both concerns should be handled separately.
Sure a module system can help to separate out the JDK libraries, and that's
certainly a nice way to check you've achieved your objectives with the design.
But when this refactoring itself is one of the major justification for the
design, something is __wrong __.
~~~
vbezhenar
I'm not sure that IBM and Redhat voted against current Jigsaw implementation
because it's complex. It seems that it's not complex enough for them. So if we
won't get Jigsaw now, we will likely get more overengineering or not get
anything at all.
~~~
norswap
You are right, I don't know IBM and Red Hat reasons, but I do not trust them
very far on this.
Red Hat has a great Java alternative in Ceylon with a module system which
seemed far more sensible when I read about it (you should take this
observations with a grain of salt and check for yourself, I'm going on hazy
memories).
------
coldtea
When you think that it's mainly Oracle that's hampering Java's progress, along
come IBM and Red Hat...
~~~
sangnoir
IBM and Red Hat are on the side of sanity on this one: why would you support a
change that breaks Maven? Such a change will split Java where 'legacy' Maven-
using apps will forever remain on Java 8 because of it costs money to refactor
around the breaking changes.
------
relics443
I love Kotlin! That is all.
------
hipjim
There are so many more alternatives for the JVM these days - languages like
Scala, Kotlin and Clojure - I wonder why these companies do not invest in the
future and still push the old Java around.
~~~
plandis
I too wonder why IBM would not invest in rewriting their millions of lines of
code in some other language
~~~
akerro
Rewrite in Rust!
~~~
tetha
Seriously. Look at how google handles the Python2 to Python3 gap. They built a
python2-go bridge and they are probably rewriting everything python2 in go.
Make something expensive enough, and companies with resources will react.
~~~
paulmd
The truly hilarious thing about the Python 3 switchover is that they didn't
take the opportunity to remove the GIL at the same time they were making _all
the other_ breaking changes.
I guess rewriting all your code is one thing but rewriting it _under the
assumption of concurrency_ is just a bridge too far.
~~~
scott_s
Removing the GIL has nothing to do with making breaking changes in the
language. It's also an enormously more complicated task, one which hundreds
(thousands?) of developers have spent time on over a decade (two?).
I think you might be thinking that the impediment to removing the GIL is user
code. It is not. The impediment is that CPython - the standard Python runtime
- was designed around using the GIL, and it's extraordinarily hard to remove
it and still meet the existing single-thread performance goals. There are also
ancillary issues surrounding user code - particularly modules written in C, I
believe - but the runtime itself is the biggest issue.
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