‘Downloadable Gun’ Clears a Legal Obstacle, and Activists Are Alarmed - Anon1096
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/13/business/downloadable-gun-allowed-alarming-activists.html
======
colemannugent
The worry about this being a new avenue for "ghost-guns" is absurd. All you
need for a gun is some metal pipe from a hardware store. These "downloadable
guns" would be about as effective. Plus it's perfectly legal to make your own
firearm from readily available parts. And it's not like the fed tracks guns
anyway, so what's new?

The debate on this issue seems to be centered around the fact that these plans
are downloadable online, which I think is silly since Google happily provides
you with most of what you need already:

[https://patents.google.com/patent/US984519A](https://patents.google.com/patent/US984519A)

[https://patents.google.com/patent/US6279258](https://patents.google.com/patent/US6279258)

[https://patents.google.com/patent/US4539889A](https://patents.google.com/patent/US4539889A)

[https://patents.google.com/patent/US5827992A](https://patents.google.com/patent/US5827992A)

~~~
kozikow
> make your own firearm from readily available parts

I am not a legal expert and it's not a legal advice, but in case of a bolt-
action rifle, I think the action is still legally treated as a firearm. So you
can buy most parts without hassle (barrel, trigger, stock), but you need to go
through the FFL to buy the action.

Reference:
[https://www.brownells.com/aspx/general/faqdetail.aspx?fid=10...](https://www.brownells.com/aspx/general/faqdetail.aspx?fid=1083)

~~~
asdsa5325
Yes- but if you make the part that is legally the gun yourself, it's fine.

Anyone is allowed to manufacture a gun, as long as they don't sell it. If you
want to sell it, you'd need a license.

~~~
kozikow
So it seems it was already fairly easy and legal to build and own a very high-
quality firearm with general attention-grabbing features mentioned in the
article? Not a legal advice or suggesting you should do so:

1\. CNC the Remington 700 action:
[https://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/gunsmithing/making-
rem...](https://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/gunsmithing/making-
remington-700-action-179971/) . This is the hard part and would probably need
a week of dedicated work...

2\. Buy barrel, trigger and stock.

3\. Everything mostly just fits into the action, so assembly is just like
putting lego pieces together.

~~~
heypete
I've purchased unregulated 80% lower receivers (they're only legally "a gun"
if more than 80% of the machining work is complete. At or below 80%, they're
just considered a chunk of metal.) and machined them using nothing more than a
woodworking router, a hand drill, a jig, and a vise in about 30-45 minutes.

The jig is the most expensive part, costing about $160 or so, but once you
have it there's no wear parts and you can use the jig to build as many as you
want.

------
AngryData
Why be alarmed? You can do the same thing with a mill or CNC machine except
its made of metal and not shitty plastic and it has been available for like 60
years. Gun technology is not secret nor are the mechanics unreasonably
complicated, plans are easily available both in books and online and have been
since before near everyone here was born.

~~~
_bxg1
You have to be an experienced metalworker to make one that way. A computer
doesn't do it for you (at least not yet). Whereas any idiot can download a
file and send it to a 3D printer.

~~~
toomuchtodo
And plastic isn't detected by a metal detector (there's a movie plot about
this! [+]).

[+]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Line_of_Fire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Line_of_Fire)

~~~
esaym
Most guns are already 50%+ plastic today so not really seeing your point.

~~~
toomuchtodo
Are they of sufficient plastic or composite composition that they don't
trigger a metal detector? I don't believe so.

Disclaimer: I’m familiar with this only because I have to check my firearms
when I’m flying.

~~~
esaym
Hard to say as all detectors are different. I only know that while as a
teenager I got kicked out of public school for skipping class too much and was
sent to an "alternative placement center".

Everyone there had to wear a white shirt and pants. There was only one
entrance and there was a metal detector right in front of it. But what all the
"cool" kids were doing was seeing how big of a knife they could sneak through
it. And there was a couple of 3 inchers that got through. It mattered were the
knife was and how you held your hands as you went through, but can't remember
the details (this was back in 2001).

------
ioquatix
This is a very tricky situation.

I generally abhor guns in society.

However, I'd be more concerned about living in a society where creating and
disseminating information, such that no crime is committed, is a crime in and
of itself.

On a more practical note, I'd be surprised if any 3D printed gun was actually
strong enough without metal components/reinforcing. I'm reasonable experienced
with 3D printing... and I'd personally expect such a device to at least blow a
few fingers off.

~~~
mushufasa
Society already criminalizes disseminating information, such as national
security secrets, and nuclear weapons technology.

Though information itself wants to be free, I am very much in favor of
increasing friction for world-ending technologies like nuclear weapons.

There was a good documentary on 3D printing guns a few years ago where the
plastics were essentially good for a few rounds and then wear out. They've
improved since then, and will keep improving.

Plastics don't need to compete directly with metal to be formidable.

~~~
DuskStar
>Society already criminalizes disseminating information, such as ... nuclear
weapons technology

Have you ever heard of the Nth Country Experiment? Keep in mind that this was
conducted in the 1960s. Suffice to say, _designing_ a nuclear weapon is not a
problem. Neither is manufacturing one. The difficulty lies in obtaining
sufficient nuclear material.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nth_Country_Experiment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nth_Country_Experiment)

~~~
GW150914
If all you care about is a low-yield, wasteful, heavy bomb? Yes. If you want
an advanced dial-a-yield thermonuclear device capable of leveling a city, and
fitting on a missile? Not so much.

------
hirundo
Say there's a class of objects that we want to prohibit to 3D printers. If not
guns, then some WMD that meets whatever your risk threshold is. How,
technically, do we accomplish that?

There wouldn't seem to be any algorithm that could recognize any part that
could be assembled into a device. A gun for instance can take on almost
infinite forms and be divided into arbitrary unrecognizable modules.

We could enforce pre-approval by a government engineer of any part that may
possibly become such a device. But such an engineer would have to generate a
large amount of false positives to be at all effective. And the requirement
for skilled human intervention would make it slow and expensive.

Bottom line, if there exists a device that you insist must be prohibited, then
you will want to ban the free use of 3D printers that can make it.

So what's that threshold for you? Keep in mind that a box cutter was used as a
WMD, killing thousands. Do we ban 3D printers that can make a box cutter?
Let's posit a lower limit of a box cutter and an upper limit of a fusion bomb.
Are gunpowder projectile devices the right compromise?

How dangerous does a printable device have to be before we must stand athwart
technology, yelling Stop?

~~~
ReverseCold
2D Printers have a feature like this.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EURion_constellation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EURion_constellation)

~~~
electrograv
That only works for a fixed set of items you specifically design. There is an
infinite design variety of 3D-printable weapons or other dangerous items, so
to prevent them all from being printed, you’d need to outright ban 3D
printing.

There’s really no other way — even if we had a hypothetical omniscient AI —
because you can already construct weapons from a number of harmless existing
parts with nonviolent uses, there’s no way of banning ALL possible weapon
parts from being printed without also banning everything.

And this isn’t even getting into inevitable circumvention of any such
limitations placed on 3D printers.

The only way to entirely prevent the construction of weapons is to build
everything around us out of jello or styrofoam, and box everyone inside this
soft padded universe permanently. But then I bet you even then someone will
figure out how to terrorize others with the tools at hand; even if all they
can do is hold you down and smother you in jello, someone, somewhere will do
it, and copycats will appear everywhere thereafter.

------
cellularmitosis
The article says the alarm is over a perceived increase in the ease of
obtaining an unregistered and untraceable gun. If that’s your goal, isn’t it
still lucky easier to obtain a manufactured firearm, grind off the serial
number, and then (somehow) modifying or distort the refiling? Even excluding
that option, I’d imagine it’s essier for these types to find a buddy who owns
a mill and lathe and make a gun the old fashioned way than it is to build or
obtain a working metal-capable 3D printer (and the result will still need
finish machining on a mill and large anyway, right?)

~~~
AngryData
Yes, it is done very commonly although filing the number isn't 100% effective.
As for changing other parts of the gun, matching the rifling on bullets or
marks on the shell or primer is 99% of the time impossible unless you got some
significant manufacturing defects or wear marks. They could possibly tell it
came from a certain certain manufacturer's model, but mostly they just know
what caliber it was, and there are tens of thousands of identical guns of that
model all over too, it's like having the fingerprint of 1 of 20,000 clones.
Some of them you can rule out due to unique defects or scars, but at least
half of them are going to be too closely indistinguishable from another to
tell.

~~~
jimmywanger
For a semi, once you want to get rid of it, ram a file down the barrel, take a
hammer to the extractor, file the surface of the fireing pin, field strip the
gun and toss it in different places (preferably in salt water). That sounds
like a lot of work, but without disposal it takes like 10 minutes.

For a revolver, you slam a file down the barrel, forcing cone, file the
striking surface and the chamber, take that apart and ditch it separately
(again in salty water).

Even if they manage the find all the parts, they will never be able to match
up ballistics. And hey, somebody stole your gun, you have no idea why they
would do all that.

------
bb88
It's still vastly easier and cheaper to go to a gun show and buy a gun with
cash. Also the gun you will get will be more reliable than the plastic PLA
that you print out.

~~~
somebodynew
You can pay in cash, but you're still going to get the same background check
you would get at a retail location. If you're trying to do something shady you
would be buying from a private individual in a parking lot somewhere.

~~~
bb88
Sellers in gun shows in most states aren't required to do background checks.
Hence the name, "Gun Show Loophole."

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_show_loophole](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_show_loophole)

~~~
Consultant32452
The gun show loophole has nothing to do with gun shows and everything to do
with private sales. The vast majority of gun sales at gun shows are from
licensed arms dealers and they are required to do a background check.

Requiring background checks for private gun sales sounds like a good idea
until you do the research on the effort vs benefit. The effort to enforce this
would be massive and virtually no gun crimes are committed with these guns
anyways. In practical terms you'd have to track every firearm and figure out
what to do when Grandpa does and leaves his gun to his children. A parent
would have to run a background check on their own child of they buy a gun for
them as a gift. Realistically, the only time it could be determined that a gun
was sold in private without a background check is if the gun is eventually
used in a crime and recovered. The vast, vast majority of guns that wind up in
the hands of criminals are through corrupt licensed dealers and straw
purchases.

If the purpose of gun control laws is to prevent violent crime, then there's
no loophole here since this is not a significant source of weapons used in
violent crimes.

~~~
maxerickson
Requiring parents to do background checks on their children would create
liability for a parent that gave a gun to a child that shouldn't have one.

Your argument that it is silly hinges on the idea that parents wouldn't ever
do that. But they would.

Those background checks in total would have little impact, but it's not a good
argument against requiring background checks.

~~~
Consultant32452
Can you provide any evidence that suggests these private sales are a
significant source of weapons used in violent crimes? If they're not a
significant source of guns used in violent crime, how would you justify such a
law?

------
delbel
Title saids Activists Are Alarmed, but it doesn't quote or say a single
activist. Also, this happened during the Obama administration (who didn't have
anything to do with it) and the article trys to slam it as a Trump
administration with totally separate subject.

New York Times is NOT a reputable news organization. Yes, they once were, but
ever since the whole WMD 2002 Iraq war, to me, they've been horrible. Yes
occasionally they might have something good, that's how propagation works: you
hide your agenda with things that make it neutral so that you can't
distinguish between facts and agenda narratives, it also gives plausible
deniability against critics. So whatever.

~~~
bittercynic
I also thought this article was trash, but they also have plenty of articles
that seem pretty well researched and informative.

If you know of a news organization where every article is high quality, I'd
love to hear about it!

------
ReverseCold
Just curious, what if you wanted to register a gun that you made (put a serial
number on it, etc)? Is there even a legal pathway to do that?

~~~
djsumdog
US laws doesn't allow any way to register a firearm. Stores have to keep
records, and tracing requests have to be forward to the store of purchase.
There's a great documentary on this:

[https://vimeo.com/180763356](https://vimeo.com/180763356)

~~~
annerajb
Not quite correct federal law provides a method to serialize a gun if you are
applying a tax stamp for registering with the federal government if you are
adding a NFA regulated modification.

states law as usual vary but only a few states have serial number database of
guns. Ymmv if they will allow it or not.

------
kozikow
In my opinion, the effects of this are overblown by both pro and anti-gun
crowds. The gun at the core is a relatively simple mechanical device,
especially manual action. Barebones essentials include just a rifled tube and
a little hammer to strike the primer. Ammo is much harder to "DYI".

------
ghaff
I'm not sure why this case even made it to the point it did. This seems in The
Anarchist Cookbook or even MIT Guide to Lock Picking territory. There are
probably folks on here who feel differently but in the US this wouldn't even
seem to be an edge case regardless of political leanings.

~~~
j16sdiz
I think those books are restricted by export law too. Doesn't it?

~~~
ghaff
Given that they're all over the web that would be kind of amusing.

------
bnolsen
so criminals steal guns and buy them black market already and (here's the key)
USE them to do something illegal. Just leave us normal citizens alone please
and don't punish us for people who have ill intent regardless of the tools at
hand.

------
ChrisSD
So how well can a printed gun really work?

The plastic in a 3D printer is surely, by design, very malleable. That's the
opposite of the material needed for an effective gun.

~~~
em3rgent0rdr
The articles fails to mention that the Ghost Gunner machine which makes the
new guns is a CNC mill and uses 7075 billet aluminum, which is strong enough
for multiple shots.

------
king_nothing
I already have AR and Glock lower CAD files. What’s new?

------
codedokode
Doesn't it make sense to restrict selling of bullets? This plastic gun is
pretty useless without them.

~~~
drtyolmck
bullets are way easier to make than guns.

~~~
codedokode
Can you print them too?

------
wdn
Gun don’t kill people, people kill people. Taking guns from law abriding
citizen will not reduce gun violence. Criminals don’t care what your laws say.

Beside, most killing happened in schools. Still puzzled me today why don’t
they remove school from gun free zone. It is a killzone.


How do I find the memory usage of an application on Android? - badhairday
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2298208/how-to-discover-memory-usage-of-my-application-in-android

======
Zigurd
This is a relatively old question on Stackoverflow, and Dianne Hackborn's
answer is authoritative as usual.

To sum it up: Don't worry about global free memory. Your app can use up only a
relatively small part. More accurately, each component (Activity, Service,
etc.) of your app with the <process> attribute can only use up to 48MB.
Usually, all your components are in one process.

Within your process, Android will "destroy" (null all references) to
components in your process and recreate them to optimize memory use. At times,
Android will destroy every component in a process and delete ane re-create
whole processes from the saved state of each component. This explains why PIDs
are not reliable for tracking android app resource use. Your tasks (the
components on the back stack starting with the task root, which is the
component that was launched by the Launcher) are not tied to one process, nor
one PID, throughout their lifespan.


Show HN: JsonBatch Playground – A site to play with JsonBatch Engine - rey5137
https://jsonbatch-playground.herokuapp.com/sample1
======
rey5137
Hi. I'm the author of JsonBatch library - an Engine to run batch request with
JSON based REST APIs. I have setup a small site so you can test out
JsonBatch's feature.


Ruby, Ruby on Rails, and _why (2012) - aaronbrethorst
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2012/03/ruby_ruby_on_rails_and__why_the_disappearance_of_one_of_the_world_s_most_beloved_computer_programmers_.single.html
======
rurban
Several people are cited with _why's code being "sloppy". I have to object
strongly. I'm not a ruby programmer, so I cannot comment on that, but I can
confirm that syck and potion, two of his most important and best engineered
works are the opposite of sloppy. They are genius. Extremely well engineered,
fast, slimmed down to be extremely functional, you won't find better code for
these tasks. And there are multiples of comparable code bases to compare
against. Potion, which I took over to maintain after his disappearence, shines
over Lua and Io, which were the influences. It still would make a better ruby
engine than cruby, jruby, or any other. But it uses a better language, so on
the surface it is incompatible.

Syck is still miles better than the official libyaml. I do work with both and
extended both.


Emulating Linux MIPS in Perl – Part 1: ELF loader - draegtun
http://schplog.schmorp.de/2015-06-08-emulating-linux-mips-in-perl-1.html
======
andrewchambers
A tiny mips emulator I wrote which can boot a linux kernel:

[https://github.com/andrewchambers/cmips](https://github.com/andrewchambers/cmips)

------
joosters
This series of posts is amazingly well-written, it explains the steps involved
really well IMO, thoughtfully ordering the code snippets to make understanding
each step simple.

As a perl user, I'm also highly biased as it's nice to see a perl article on
HN once in a while :)

------
userbinator
The next step along this path would be to run Perl inside this VM, and then
run the emulator in it...

MIPS is certainly one of the simplest instruction sets. A while ago I decided
to write one too, for fun, after having done ones for a few other CPUs (Z80,
6502, 8086), and MIPS was by far the simplest, almost to the point of being
boring. Getting the branch delay slots right (see
[http://www.pagetable.com/?p=313](http://www.pagetable.com/?p=313) for some
details) was the hardest part.

~~~
TheLoneWolfling
W.r.t. branch delay slots.

An interesting idea: instead of fixing a number of branch delay slots (or
none), what about splitting branches? That is - you have a branch_commit
instruction, and anything between the branch and the branch_commit is treated
as (a) branch delay slot(s), with the processor either filling in pipeline
bubbles or stalling the branch as necessary. If you want to get fancy about it
you can start doing matched branch / commit pairs (like nesting brackets), or
potentially even start dealing with general matching.

Although the decreased instruction density may kill the benefits.

------
chriswarbo
I came across the phrase "XY problem" the other day
[http://www.perlmonks.org/?node=XY+Problem](http://www.perlmonks.org/?node=XY+Problem)

> You want to do X, and you think Y is the best way of doing so. Instead of
> asking about X, you ask about Y.

If we allow "ask" to include asking oneself, then this seems like a great
example :)

------
kazinator
Ironic; I put together a MIPS based Linux distro about eight years ago, and
Perl was one of the items that wouldn't cross-compile to it.

How you get Perl on MIPS is by compiling on a MIPS machine, or in an emulated
chroot environment (QEMU on x86, say). Now Perl can maybe supply that
environment.

------
l1n
Speaking of MIPS, has anyone had success emulating IRIX?

------
TickleSteve
Am I reading this correctly??

Emulating a whole processor to run a shell script on Windows.... Seriously??

Strikes me that someone didn't research the options correctly or just wants an
excuse to play...

~~~
Ultimatt
Playing aka learning in this profession. Some still care to work towards being
able to contribute to the "options" that are in play. This is how those
developers and new options are born.


KickStarting a Revolution - dajbelshaw
http://www.coding2learn.org/blog/2013/08/16/kickstarting-a-revolution/

======
computer
I know that it's superficial, but I have an extremely hard time taking a blog
post interspersed with large meme pictures seriously. I think you should only
use them if your target audience is teens, and when you're near their age as
well, trying to write something "popular". Definitely not when attempting to
write a serious post.

Note that this is the same blog that recently started a post[0] with:

      TL;DR? Why not just go watch another five second video of a kitten
      with its head in a toilet roll, or a 140 character description
      of a meal your friend just stuffed in their mouth. “nom nom”.
      This blog post is not for you.

which makes this seem quite ironic.

[0]: [http://www.coding2learn.org/blog/2013/07/29/kids-cant-use-
co...](http://www.coding2learn.org/blog/2013/07/29/kids-cant-use-computers/)

~~~
pearjuice
These are not "meme pictures" but rather image macros[0].

[0]:
[https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_macro](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_macro)

~~~
glomph
They are both.

------
thisiswrong
Great article, just one major inaccuracy concerning the Pirate Party:

> they have a silly name and their focus seems to be solely on ‘sharing
> culture’ at the expense of everything else.

Then you go on to say:

> What we need in this country is a protest party that campaigns on the issues
> of Internet privacy, censorship, copyright/patent reform and computer misuse
> laws.

The Pirate Party campaigns precisely on these issues. For those that think the
Pirate Party is just focused on protesting against unfair monopolies, please
look up their actual ideas.

A good illustration is given on Rick Falkvinge's blog:

[http://falkvinge.net/files/2012/manual/PirateWheel-2012-11-1...](http://falkvinge.net/files/2012/manual/PirateWheel-2012-11-10.pdf)

~~~
MarcScott
Thanks. I'll have a think about this and then edit the article to give a
fairer representation to the Pirate Party.

~~~
cabalamat
The Pirate Party's manifesto
([https://www.pirateparty.org.uk/media/uploads/Manifesto2012.p...](https://www.pirateparty.org.uk/media/uploads/Manifesto2012.pdf))
specifically addresses privacy. On p.25 it says:

 _We feel that citizens ' right to private and confidential communication is
vital, but at present it is not respected. We will forbid third parties from
intercepting or monitoring communication traffic (i.e. telephone calls, post,
Internet traffic, defend the right of citizens to expose emails) and require
specific warrants to be issued by a court before the police are allowed to
monitor communications traffic._

------
modernerd
Why not raise £338,568 for the Open Rights Group
([http://www.openrightsgroup.org/](http://www.openrightsgroup.org/)) instead?
They're a British group who actively campaign and defend privacy, freedom of
expression, and innovation. They could do with the financial support,
technical help, legal aid, and public awareness.

Putting your time and money behind groups like ORG
([http://www.openrightsgroup.org/](http://www.openrightsgroup.org/)), the EFF
([https://www.eff.org/](https://www.eff.org/)), and Privacy International
([https://www.privacyinternational.org/](https://www.privacyinternational.org/))
feels more productive to me than playing an expensive system for a one-off
political statement. We need to support and create sustainable groups with a
vested interest in putting pressure on the policy makers in power. Groups who
are well-established, who share your views, and who have a head start.

Expressing your distaste for existing parties is valuable. But it is easily
ignored, especially if you do not intend to fight for seats.

If the EFF and ORG grew as big, influential, and sustainable as other pressure
groups such as the National Rifle Association, then privacy and technology
matters could start to influence policy makers pandering for votes.

If you're reading this from the UK, go ahead and join ORG today:
[https://www.openrightsgroup.org/join/](https://www.openrightsgroup.org/join/)
They need more members. £5 a month can make a big difference to them.

You should donate to the EFF while you're at it:
[https://supporters.eff.org/donate](https://supporters.eff.org/donate)

~~~
cabalamat
> Putting your time and money behind groups like ORG
> ([http://www.openrightsgroup.org/](http://www.openrightsgroup.org/)), the
> EFF ([https://www.eff.org/](https://www.eff.org/)), and Privacy
> International
> ([https://www.privacyinternational.org/](https://www.privacyinternational.org/))
> feels more productive to me than playing an expensive system for a one-off
> political statement.

I agree that a one-off campaign in the 2015 general election is unlikely to
bear much fruit. However, having said that, the Pirate Party's strategy of
tackling these problems by being a political party and fighting elections _is_
already bearing fruit.

For example, one reason the European Parliament decided not to go ahead with
ACTA is that they fear it would give a major impetus to the Pirates, who the
oldparties would rather not see getting bigger in the 2014 European election.

There is no reason, of course, why digital rights activists cannot do both --
political parties and campaigning organisations -- together.

------
thenomad
I care about this issue quite a lot, and the central idea - Kickstarting a new
party - is a good one.

Having said that, there are an enormous number of problems with this
suggestion.

 _" There should be no need for local campaigning. I’ve never had a politician
knock on my door to discuss who I’d vote for, but I have had plenty of
leaflets and fliers put though my letterbox and they end up straight in the
recycling. "_

Good - because everyone else thinks the same as the OP, right? If we promote
on Twitter and YouTube, everyone who matters will learn about the party?

Not so much. A project like this is going to need a marketing budget, and a
big one - as well as volunteers on the ground, whether the OP likes it or not.

Most people don't even have a Twitter account. Most people don't follow
YouTube particularly closely.

And as many, many marketing professionals over the years have noticed, you
need to tell people about your product a lot more than once for them to buy
into it.

 _" There are 650 constituencies in the United Kingdom."_

And for each of these, you're going to need a candidate. That's 650 people you
need to find, who can appear credible to the media (so, they'll need to be
skilled public speakers who can handle a debating environment as well as a
media interview focused on soundbites), who don't have any skeletons in their
closet or non-standard lifestyle choices that the other parties can use to
discredit the entire organisation ("GEEK WHO WANTS TO BE PM IN BISEXUAL ORGY
SHOCKER!"), and who are willing to give up their current careers should they
win.

One of the biggest problems the mainstream parties have is finding qualified
candidates - and they've got 100+ years of experience and network to do so.
For an upstart party like this, it's going to be a far, far bigger problem
than finding the money.

None of which means that this idea should just be disregarded, but it
definitely needs more consideration.

~~~
doctorfoo
> That's 650 people you need to find, who can appear credible to the media

They don't need this; I think the idea is purely protest, with no intention of
the person actually getting voted in.

~~~
vidarh
As long as the candidates are not batshit crazy some controversy might
actually be a benefit in getting PR, as long as everyone knows to answer
everything with "You know as well as we do that we don't stand a chance of
getting elected and anyone trying to make a point out of that are just trying
to score points; the point of this campaign is to give people an opportunity
to show their displeasure with the big parties stance on privacy; [launch into
info about the point]"

~~~
AndyPPUK
I would invite readers to consider just how non-trivial the following task is:

Here is a list of 650 people that are almost as geographically diversely
located as it is possible to be while remaining in the UK. Demonstrate that
none of them are "batshit crazy".

------
FrojoS
I followed the, quite successful, foundation and raise of the Pirate Party of
Germany very closely. Many of my friends and follow activists from our privacy
movement, AK Vorrat, became members. I can not recall, money ever having been
a major problem. This was certainly true for AK Vorrat* and I think it was
true for the PP as well.

Sure, you would always like to have more money, but it never stops you from
doing sensible moves. On top of that, not having boatloads of money makes you
look authentic and fresh. When you campaign, you spend so much of your own
time and energy, that you happily spend some of your money as well. The listed
costs in this article are peanuts for any group of people that can afford to
start and propel a political movement. You certainly don't need Internet
crowdfunding for that though it might be a good idea for financing an election
campaign. In my experience, there are many, many people who want to support
your politics but don't think they have the time. Those people are very
willing to support you financially with what ever amount they can easily
afford.

So, at least in Germany, starting a political movement is not limited by
money.

PS: There was actually some crowdfunding. The company Spreadshirt included
donatations for every T-Shirt with the popular Stasi 2.0 logo.
[http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasi_2.0](http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasi_2.0)
About 11,000 Euros were raised very quickly and I remember the many discussion
on "How shall we spend all this money."

~~~
M2Ys4U
Political parties in Germany receive state funding, which doesn't happen in
the UK.

~~~
FrojoS
Fair point. But again, even if you are not a party, your political movement
will have to overcome a lot of major problems. I wouldn't count money as one
of them.

------
mozboz
Can someone enlighten me as to how this achieves anything, other than a count
of people who abstained?

If you want to reform something, it seems like the required action is to
reform it. Saying on record 'i want reform', or 'i don't like the old system'
does not achieve anything, and in fact wastes everyones' time. The hard part:
working out reform and enactioning it, still needs to be done.

Am I missing something?

~~~
raesene2
I think that what this could achieve is stating the importance of the issues
to the main political parties. Most "mainstream" political parties that I've
seen will change their positions on things if they think it will get them more
votes.

So what would this achieve. Well having a "privacy reform" party candidate on
all the ballots would draw attention to the problem, in that voters would see
the name and potentially hear about the platform. Also getting on the ballots
would be likely to draw some mainstream media attention (heck the Monster
raving loony party gets attention in the UK when it's on the ballot at by-
elections)

Then if the party actually gets a decent number of votes, it may persuade
mainstream parties to change their positions. My feeling is that at the moment
none of them think it's that important a topic, so aren't formulating policies
on the topic.

Personally I think it's a good idea to try and do something about this now, as
once the idea that PRISM etc are fine and accepted gets embedded into culture,
the next steps are likely to follow (e.g. what the US seems to be seeing with
DEA and other law enforcement areas getting access to data). How long would it
be before your local police are trawling your smartphone GPS data to see if
you were speeding...)

~~~
rmc
_Most "mainstream" political parties that I've seen will change their
positions on things if they think it will get them more votes._

Yep, this has happened before. 25 years ago the Conservative party brought in
a law banning the "promotion of homosexuality in schools", now they are
legalising same sex marriage.

------
spindritf
I'm not a Brit but how can a country be run by corporations if the government
is telling them what to do? Whether through judicial orders on what to filter,
legislation on how to filter even more, and extraditions at the request of US
federal _government_.

There is a legitimate concern about regulatory capture, about large entities
having an unfair advantage... However, whenever I see the whole "OMG
CORPORATOCRACY" shtick nowadays I just think that the author has seen one too
many scifi movie from the 80s about how we will be ruled by some Japanese Omni
MegaCorp and it has forever tainted his world view.

And then there's the signalling. UKIP is, of course, racist. The Pirate Party
has a silly name. "What would my peers and colleagues think? We need a party
that would make me, a constituent, look good to my friends!"

On the other hand, moral preening as a primary political concern surely is a
first world thing. So that's a good illustration.

Not to mention that this article is yet another political manifesto with
tenuous connection to technology at best.

~~~
lukifer
The relationship between corporations and governments can be seen as roughly
analagous to that of the King and the Church 400 years ago: both colluding and
competing for power.

------
chestnut-tree
I think the biggest problem is that single-issue parties never gain widespread
support. I may be interested in internet privacy and technology issues but I
might also be interested in education, transport, housing, the economy and
many other issues. If these subjects are secondary (or presented as secondary)
to your party's main focus, how can you ever gain broad support among the
electorate? Unless the real goal of starting a party is to make the main
political parties sit up and take notice of the issues you're campaigning for.

The alternative to creating a party is to create a campaigning body or
organisation - which of course may struggle to get noticed.

Raising and highlighting important public issues, questioning official claims
is also the role of the press, but we can never expect that from the utterly
abysmal UK press.

~~~
vidarh
> Unless the real goal of starting a party is to make the main political
> parties sit up and take notice of the issues you're campaigning for.

That's exactly what this blog post argued for.

Consider that in 2010 there were 40+ seats where taking less than 1000 votes
would have been enough to spoil the incumbent party's chance at winning the
seat.

------
pcx66
I am from India, and our parties do not give a shit for the ideals engraved in
our constitution. Like the ones in most(all?) other countries, they have
transformed from leveraging a shitty status quo to enforcing a shittier status
quo.

Back to your post. What I understand is, you want to show to the existing
parties that a sizable population wants something the parties are not
offering, and hope that they will notice. And you yourself cannot support any
of the existing parties because you disagree with several of their policies.
Won't your proposed party face a similar problem? It probably will be less of
a problem because the degree of disagreement on issues won't be so big,
because the kind of people you will gather think similarly of most issues,
have a similar (modern, liberal?) morality.

But I think you have to relay the implicit message of your post explicitly.
LETS STOP BEING FUCKING LAZY.

------
wikiburner
_> Kickstarter won’t allow crowd-funding of political parties from what I can
gather.

Kickstarter cannot be used to raise money for causes, whether it’s the Red
Cross or a scholarship, or for “fund my life” projects, like tuition or bills.

Indiegogo has no problem with it though._

Does anyone know why that's the case? Why would Kickstarter be so restrictive?

Kickstarter also requires each project team to sign up for their own Amazon
payments account. Why wouldn't Kickstarter just collect the money and then
wire it / cut a check to the funding recipient?

Also, why does Indiegogo charge upfront while Kickstarter waits until the
campaign is successful.

The whole crowdfunding space seems to operate pretty illogically. Are there
legal complexities that aren't apparent to an outsider that force their hand?

~~~
mjburgess
I think it's more a "who we want to be" kinda thing. Kickstarter doesn't want
its brand associated with any potentially controversial/etc. topics.

~~~
wikiburner
That's true, some of the Indiegogo campaigns I've seen do sort of have an
"off-brand" feel to them.

Still, I wonder why Kickstarter has each project set up their own Amazon
Payments account and not collect the money themselves? Could it be a legal or
tax reason? And how do they extract their 5% if the payment is processed with
the campaign owner's Amazon account?

------
sklivvz1971
This is such a bad idea.

(a) null voting is already a "none of the above" option

(b) they ask to give money to do... what exactly? Why give this guy 300k£ to
basically waste? Give it to charity FFS.

~~~
soult
Does null voting leave the seats in parliament empty? Or do the other parties
just get a bigger share?

~~~
sklivvz1971
Leaving empty seats is much worse than null voting. It doesn't accomplish
anything more, as in either case your vote doesn't go to a real, voting
politician. It surely wastes more money as the corresponding parliamentary
stipends are given to - I guess - the party for _doing nothing_. Surely doing
nothing has a much better price point at "free".

~~~
vidarh
Why do think they'd do nothing? Do you think Sinn Fein does "nothing" with the
money it receives for it's Westminster MP's?

It's certainly possible for it to be a total waste, but in Sinn Fein's case,
for example, whether or not you agree with their goals, it is a very clear
principled stand: They don't believe Northern Ireland is rightfully part of
the UK, nor that the queen is their rightful head of state, so they can't in
good conscience give an oath of loyalty to the queen.

Voters who vote for them know full well that this will the outcome, yet they
still vote for them because it accomplishes something to these voters: It
(now) gives funds to Sinn Fein _and_ it keeps sending a signal that a
substantial number of people in these constituencies see British rule as
unjust.

Surely there can be any number of other causes where the signal effect can be
preferred by voters who otherwise don't see sufficient difference between the
major parties to believe it makes a difference which one of them gets their
policy through.

The reality anyway is that in the vast majority of votes in the Commons, the
small parties votes have no bearing on the outcome at all because the first
past the post system means the big parties has such a disproportionate portion
of the seats, so most votes for parties outside the big three are still
totally "wasted" by similar logic.

------
vixen99
"There’s a single protest party, the UK Independence Party, but UKIP and I
don’t really see eye-to-eye, due to the fact that I am married to a
naturalised British citizen and together we have three mixed-race children.".

Rather than cast an unpleasant slur on UKIP (what nasty visions your comment
conjures up) it would be helpful were you to identify the perceived problem.
As far as I am aware, UKIP are not planning to discriminate against my own UK
naturalized marriage partner or my child.

~~~
vidarh
UKIP may not "plan to", but there's been plenty of unpleasant connections
between people involve in UKIP and organizations like BNP and EDL, and with
EDL endorsing UKIP candidates for upcoming local elections etc.

Enough that as a non-UK citizen with a UK born (and hence citizen) mixed race
son, the thought of UKIP getting anywhere near power would make me consider
leaving the country.

------
svnee
Why not start with a smaller country like Luxembourg. We are currently running
in elections and want to make of Luxembourg a privacy save heaven. We have a
pretty good chance of making it into parliament and every support helps!

Look we even made a video ;)
[https://donate.piraten.lu/](https://donate.piraten.lu/)

------
vehementi
I'd love to see an idea like this flourish.

------
cabalamat
It's much, much, more important for a party that cares about digital rights to
fight the 2014 European election than the 2015 general election, for two
reasons:

1\. the Euro election is fought using PR, meaning it's possible to actually
win seats

2\. a lot of the relevant issues are decided at Brussels as much as at
Westminster.

------
DanBC
I would be very interested to see people running the numbers on past
elections, and seeing what the results would have been under different voting
systems.

The UK has a weird 'first-past-the-post' system, and it'd be neat to see what
the different results would have been.

~~~
vidarh
The UK's "weird" first-past-the-post system is very close to the US and French
systems, and many others.

Unfortunately re-running data on past elections would be wildly misleading, as
people vote with the knowledge of which parties stand a chance in their seat,
and hence a lot of votes that might have gone for smaller parties in a more
proportional system goes to one of the biggest parties.

But you might look to the EU Parliament elections for a demonstration of how
different people here _might_ vote (with the caveat that the issues are
different, and so people might certainly vote differently) with a proportional
system:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Parliament_election,_2...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Parliament_election,_2009_\(United_Kingdom\))


3-D Scans Reveal Caterpillars Turning into Butterflies - hunglee2
http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/05/14/3-d-scans-caterpillars-transforming-butterflies-metamorphosis/
======
dalke
RadioLab did a podcast on the transformation from caterpillar to butterfly at
[http://www.radiolab.org/story/goo-and-
you/](http://www.radiolab.org/story/goo-and-you/) . It might help in giving
additional background on the topic.


Why build a site? Why do your customers care? - coconutrandom
http://gist.github.com/40002

======
frossie
You know this all seems so obvious it doesn't need mentioning, but I am still
amazed that in this day and age people still don't get it.

My local YWCA just redid their website, and there's all the names of the board
of directors and their history and this that and the other. What there isn't
is (a) any e-mail address _at all_ and (b) any schedule for their sporting
facilities (whose schedule changes on a monthly basis).

Did anyone not sit and think "Hmmm I wonder whether the average visitor on our
website wants to know (a) that we were founded in 1919, or (b) what time the
lap swim is at the pool"?

------
myoung8
Good luck if you bury the way to order your product in your contact page.


Admissions Scandal: When ‘Hard Work’ (Plus $6.5m) Helps Get You into Stanford - doppp
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/02/us/yusi-molly-zhao-china-stanford.html
======
goodfight
Might as well just not go to an Ivy League college and just create a startup,
who cares about your degree credentials if you actually have the skills and
connections to succeed.

------
NullPrefix
$6.5 Million can't buy you a building these days? Talk about the economy...


What's with the hate for Go? - berserker-one
https://medium.com/p/why-does-go-get-so-much-flak-from-developers-34ccd972147d
======
johnfn
> They’re royally pissed off at Go users who only want to get shit done as
> quickly and as easily as possible.

It's almost funny to me how misguided this is! It's as if Go developers think
any developers reason for not using go couldn't _possibly_ be anything
remotely reasonable. Instead, its "darn those go developers, they're too
productive! I hate Go!"

------
aryehof
Go is is a good language choice for some things, not all. It is a good systems
programming language, but not one so well suited to systems in business,
commerce and industry. Those that require the representation of concepts
outside of the computing domain in code. In this it is comparable to C.

The problem is that too many look for a silver bullet language that can be
applied to everything. One ring, one language, to rule them all. Go isn't it.

------
Safety1stClyde
Cod psychology.


Soon We Won’t Program Computers. We’ll Train Them Like Dogs - jonbaer
http://www.wired.com/2016/05/the-end-of-code/?href
======
smt88
Until code is written that automates its own evolution, there will still be
humans programming computers that are trained like dogs.


Britain seen from above - nreece
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7539529.stm
======
tarkin2
"tracked... second... by second"

: /

~~~
swombat
<http://www.art-for-a-change.com/News/eyes.htm>

------
geuis
That is just TOO freaking cool. Love the visualization of loads of data.

------
apstuff
Second by second. Synapse by synapse.

------
pavelludiq
Big Brother is watching you!


Your app is an onion: Why software projects spiral out of control - yarapavan
https://medium.com/swlh/your-app-is-an-onion-why-software-projects-spiral-out-of-control-bb9247d9bdbd
======
brad0
You hit the nail on the head. What we need are more technical UX or a great
team of UX and devs working together to achieve this properly.

------
yarapavan
The complexity isn’t the problem, though. The problem is the way we choose to
uncover it.


Lisp Plus Plus - parenthesis
http://www.interhack.net/projects/lpp/

======
qwph
There's a fine line between madness and genius, and as far as I can tell, this
seems to be exactly on the line. I think I might have to download the
source...

~~~
icky
Madness and genius actually form an intersecting Venn diagram. This falls
squarely in the middle.

------
BrandonM
I actually worked for two summers at Interhack, so I found it interesting to
see a link to their site here. The founder (Matt Curtin) is a really cool guy
who teaches a Lisp course for one quarter a year at OSU (that's how I got the
job). Matt had a hand in cracking the DES and wrote a book about it called
_Brute Force: Cracking the Data Encryption Standard_.

Unfortunately, Interhack does a lot of computer forensic stuff that has human-
intensive requirements. Because of his work, Matt is considered an expert for
the purposes of court testimony, and he spends much of his time working on and
testifying in computer forensic evidence cases, rather than hacking in Lisp as
I'm sure he would prefer to be doing.

Don't get me wrong... his company is doing great. They just got an entire
floor in a 12-story office building built to their specifications, they worked
on a high-profile case last year for the state of Ohio lost tape archive
incident, and they have somewhere around ten full-time employees. I just wish
he (and the company itself) had some time to show off his programming chops in
something other than internal software.

------
ewjordan
You know, I'm really not usually too picky about this stuff, but I have to
say, this is an extreme example (for me, at least) of presentation
overwhelming content - I started to read that page, and the combination of the
font size, the layout, and (mainly) the color scheme literally made me dizzy
within seconds. I actually can't get through it, the text starts to pulsate on
the page as I look at it and it's so distracting that I can't parse the
content.

Maybe a great product, maybe even something revolutionary, but in all
likelihood I'll never find out because of the website's color scheme.

It's funny, I'd always heard that white-on-black was considered bad design,
but up until now I never really understood what "they" meant by that...

~~~
BrandonM
I see this complaint all the time, and it's really annoying. It's just a
matter of opinion. I program in vim with light-colored text on a black
background. For the longest time, I used the compiz window manager so that I
could invert the color of my Firefox window so that web pages would have light
text on dark backgrounds.

I'm betting that the real issue is alternating from one to the other. If you
spend all your time looking at dark on light and then try to switch, I can see
how it could be an issue. But the opposite is also true. At least light text
on a dark background has another good thing going for it... you're not staring
at what is effectively a light bulb.

Either way, can we please stop talking about this? At least half of the
submissions that lead to such a page have a comment like this. It comes off as
complaining and laziness, since if you really wanted to read it, you can
simply highlight the text, use copy-paste, or any number of other solutions
(the "No Style" suggestion was a good one).

~~~
MaysonL
No: it's bad design, and it should be eliminated.

------
whacked_new
Reminds of pg on Viaweb: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=99143>

------
YuriNiyazov
Where is the REPL?

~~~
gcv
Don't be so demanding. :) The library has a couple of debugger hooks, though.
Not as good as a REPL, but way better than what you normally have to deal with
in C++ and gdb.

Check out the sample code in the source distribution. The 'let' type hack the
author uses makes this some of the most readable C++ I've seen. The same thing
with templates would've been either a forest of angle brackets or required a
boatload of typedefs which the reader would have had to constantly refer back
to.


Spock sign-up flow demonstrates how to scare users away... (by Jeremy Zawodny) - joshwa
http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/009370.html

======
jzawodn
Uh, it's not a button, it's a link. Notice that it's pushed to the bottom and
hardly given equal treatment as the actual button.

If you've ever seen many eye tracking studies, you know that items in the
location on the page aren't likely to be seen, leading the user to believe
(right or wrong) that they either must disclose a password or go away.

~~~
wyday
Of course they don't give the two options equal treatment. Why should they?
All that means is that they don't want you to skip the step. They do provide
an option to skip, however.

Maybe you missed it because you wrote the story with a sensationalist
conclusion in mind. At least you got to say 'fuck', right?

~~~
jzawodn
Why should they? Respect for their potential users.

Implying that I missed because of how I'd written my take on it seems a little
odd. You do realize that I wrote it after the fact, right?

Of course you do. But it's more fun to pretend that I don't "get it."

Had I wanted to be sensationalist, I could have done so.

~~~
steve
The point is that you must look at the actual numbers - cost of scaring some
people away vs. how many new users this brings in, to actually "get it." I've
seen this exact technique work extremely well many times before.

Building a successful site is absolutely _not_ about giving users everything
they want, how they want it. That line of thinking can be very damaging to
your site.

~~~
Tichy
Maybe you are right, but if everybody would be thinking like that, there would
be no Linux, only Microsoft.

Some people crave a pure solution. For me, a web site that employs the trick
above loses my trust, and I will never really feel comfortable in using it
anymore.

------
tipjoy
I was a bit turned off by the Spock sign up process myself, but for different
reasons. First, the invite email was extremely vague - "a new search engine
that organizes information around people"? I thought it might be a new human-
assisted search site (something which has been in the news a bit lately), but
wasn't sure. Second, clicking the invite list brings you to a very basic sign-
up page with no information. As I went through the sign-up process, I really
wasn't sure what I was actually getting myself into, but since I'm pretty
trusting I just went ahead anyway. Once I finally got to the site, I still
didn't know what it was, but I recognized that it was some sort of search
engine, so I typed in a search for a bookstore I like and got one result - a
person who said they liked something or other which happened to use the same
word as the bookstore's name. In the end, I really wouldn't have known what
was going on at Spock if my friend didn't send me a link to an article about
the site which nicely explained what it was. It's actually a pretty
interesting idea, and I can see that the site would work better once more
people sign up. Still, Spock needs to work on their user experience,
especially on their sign up process. (Additionally, although far less
important, they need to work on their icon: their little person favicon looks
exactly like the calvin klein logo.)

------
omouse
>I can't think of a very polite way to say "no fucking way", so I won't even
try. There wasn't a button for that.

How could he miss the "Skip this step" button so clearly pictured??

------
ashu
To me, the problem is not that they are taking my gmail password, but that
they show me this tricky "spam your friends" screen before I am even ready to
know wtf this new service is!

Regarding the sites getting my Gmail/Yahoo passwords, I don't think any site
is really happy doing that. (We at Buxfer also do it, but it's tucked inside
the site for users who really want to do it.) If Gmail and Yahoo were to open
up even more and provide secure access to the addressbooks, nobody would have
to do this stupid scraping anymore.

~~~
Tichy
Thoughts about this:

a) I don't want people to give away my email address anyway b) perhaps it
would be possible to create a kind of bookmarklet or browser plugin that would
make it easy for people to submit addresses from their address book? For
example a "buxfer-invitation-bookmarklet", which people could use to send
buxfer invitations to people from their address book?

------
sbraford
I would be willing to trade the few users it scares away for the thousands (or
tens/hundreds of thousands) that end up signing up as a result of these tools.

------
Tichy
Facebook does it that way, too. Everybody does it. I don't like it, though.

------
steve
Here's a cookie for not getting it ---> (*)


Former Freemium Developer Details the Grim Mechanics of F2P Mobile Games - uhhyeahdude
https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/7igijd/i_was_a_game_designer_at_a_freetoplay_game
======
uhhyeahdude
From the Developer's Introduction:

" _Cracks Knuckles_ Let's do this dance!

* My soul is the chase prize in a lootbox, along with other, extremely valuable content (gotta be in good company after all). We'll call this box 'The Soul Box'.

* You can't directly purchase The Soul Box from the store. It's a rare drop on a powerful, Dark Souls style boss monster. High HP, insta-kill attacks, very timing heavy, the works. We'll just call this 'The Boss Monster'.

* The only way to fight The Boss Monster is with a Boss Fight Ticket, which is the rare chase prize in the 'The Wheel Game Loot Box'. A ticket cannot be obtained any other way.

* The Wheel Game Loot Box can __only __be obtained by getting the Five Keys from the Wheel Game. It costs hard currency (currency bought with real money) to spin the Wheel. Getting the Keys is rare, spins usually get you lesser loot boxes. Each of the Five Keys is different, and you can get duplicates. This means that you could have 20 of the other Keys, but still need to get the Fifth Key, just to unlock one of the Wheel Game Lootboxes.

 _The Fifth Key is way rarer than the other Keys. Like, suspiciously so.

_ Keys can be redeemed for other prizes, like event-unique cosmetics, just for
that added temptation. They look amazing.

* The Wheel Game has a ridiculously long spin animation, with lots of flashing lights and grating music. Neither of those can be disabled. You must sit through it. Every. Single. Time.

* That Boss fight? You can't save up tickets for it. You're not allowed to spin the wheel when you have a ticket (the button just greys out). This means that learning the fight patterns is extremely difficult, as you're looking at hours (and tons of money) between fights.

* PvP is enabled during the fight against the Boss Monster. If another Player kills you during it, you lose the fight and they get half of the hard currency you spent getting the ticket. Prepare to get mobbed by griefers every time you get within a mile of that thing.

* Did I mention that the presence of so many PvP players in the Boss Fight will cause terrible lag spikes during the fight? Because that's a thing.

* The Boss Monster has an unskippable cutscene, every time you fight it. He wants to destroy the world because everyone is too sad. The voice acting is horrendous.

I think that covers everything... I'm feeling pretty good about the sanctity
of my soul."


Musk’s Tesla Fun Does Not Amuse SEC - kgwgk
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-09-28/musk-s-tesla-fun-does-not-amuse-sec
======
dragontamer
As funny as this opinion piece is, it is still just that: an opinion piece.

I highly suggest people read the SEC filing for yourself, without bias, if you
want to see the SEC's point of view on this.

With that being said, this opinion piece collates a bunch of news that
happened yesterday, and can provide context to what is going on. But I still
feel like the SEC's filing is the best primary source document to this TSLA
news event. Besides, the "meat" of this opinion writer is purely copy/paste
quotes from the SEC document.

[https://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2018/comp-
pr2018-2...](https://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2018/comp-
pr2018-219.pdf)

~~~
stefan_
The complaint of one party in a lawsuit is _not_ the best primary source. The
whole purpose of it is leaving you with the impression that the defendant
brazenly committed all the charges.

------
jamesough
'Alright so here’s the gameplan:

1\. Elon removed as CEO by SEC order - can’t be CEO of a public company

2\. Tesla stock drops 50%

3\. Tesla stock becomes so cheap they take it private

4\. Musk reinstated as CEO'

[https://twitter.com/AustenAllred/status/1045554529914089472](https://twitter.com/AustenAllred/status/1045554529914089472)

~~~
Theodores
I am inclined to believe that he was just putting the '420' number with a
dollar sign in front of it just to amuse his girlfriend, as per the BBC
reporting.

Motivation is not in the sensible world, there is no gameplan beyond
impressing the lady. There is a rich tradition of this in Silicon Valley.
Whole companies are built just to impress a lady.

~~~
rchaud
The infantilization of tech CEO culture could at least be explained by the
ubiqiuity of college-aged founders. And yet I can't think of a single one that
did something so obviously ill-advised, and tried to play it off as "it was
just a joke bro".

For a frame of reference, look at the difference in Zuckerberg's public
statements as CEO today vs those he made as an obnoxious techbro CEO at age
20.

Musk is close to 50 years old. Are we to believe a man of his age thinks a 420
reference would make his 30yo girlfriend laugh?

~~~
Theodores
50 years old is mid-life crisis time. If his girlfriend has already seen
enough of capitalism then upsetting wall Street might just be a naughty thing
to make her laugh, if wrapped up in a 420 reference, worth it for two minutes
even if costing billions. These things happen when mid-life crisis strikes
some people.

People in their twenties that get thrust into the limelight generally do defer
to some more sensible babysitting advisers, as per the Google deal with
Schmidt. The handcuffs are on as far as money and share valuations go with the
junior crowd. It is the 'responsible 50 year old adults' you need to worry
about.

------
tedunangst
One defense might be the admit fault apologize beg forgiveness route. I was
working to get funding, was too optimistic, accidentally used some poor
phrasing in announcing my plans, etc. we've hired a new compliance officer to
review future communications for misleading statements.

Another strategy would be to lean over the desk, pluck a quarter from behind
the ear of the SEC investigator, slam it on the desk, and announce "see that,
muppet? I do that 100 billion more times and I've got all the funding I need."

Choices, choices.

------
ryanbertrand
It’s very hard to read these articles when dynamic ads are injected and then
removed 30 secs later causing me to lose my place. Terrible.

------
mehrdadn
Could Musk just get this over with and pay back whomever lost money on this?
It might be worth it for him to keep his position.

Edit: Ouch, I was only halfway through the article when I wrote this, but just
noticed it was mentioned after.

~~~
anoncoward111
He reportedly tore up a settlement at the last moment. Fireworks!

~~~
vinceguidry
The settlement required him to step down as chairman for two years and let
someone else run the company.

~~~
jyxent
Isn't the chairman position just part of the board of directors? I think he
would have still been CEO with the agreement. If the SEC wins now, he won't be
able to serve as CEO.


Economist Jim Rickards Bitcoin versus Gold Price Manipulation - westoque
http://www.businessinsider.com/economist-jim-rickards-bitcoin-versus-gold-price-manipulation-2017-12
======
saas_co_de

      "there’s pretty good evidence that there's a lot of
       fraud going on ... Are we supposed to believe that
       bitcoin is the only market in history that's not
       manipulated? That’s nonsense, of course it is"

This. A lot of smart tech people into bitcoin aren't vary savvy when it comes
to how markets work and in particular how financial scams work.

~~~
westoque
I agree. This was also my guess since volume all of a sudden spikes up without
warning and I keep wondering where it was coming from [0]

[0]: [https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/historical-
data](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/historical-data)


What's so hard about histograms? - robertkrahn01
https://tinlizzie.org/histograms/
======
lukego
What a beautiful presentation!

Tangentially: I am really enjoying the book "All of Statistics" as a reference
for better understanding things like histograms, kernel density functions,
etc, and their parameters.

[https://www.amazon.com/All-Statistics-Statistical-
Inference-...](https://www.amazon.com/All-Statistics-Statistical-Inference-
Springer/dp/0387402721)

~~~
emblaegh
Aren't you refererring to "All of non-parametric statistics"?
[https://www.amazon.com/All-Nonparametric-Statistics-
Springer...](https://www.amazon.com/All-Nonparametric-Statistics-Springer-
Texts/dp/0387251456/ref=pd_sim_14_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0387251456&pd_rd_r=A80KVD50R9SXCVJR2ZF9&pd_rd_w=kMY5a&pd_rd_wg=pdqY8&psc=1&refRID=A80KVD50R9SXCVJR2ZF9)
Either way I can't recommend these books enough, really opened my eyes to the
inner workings of statistics in a rigorous yet accessible way.

~~~
lukego
Just ordered that one too :-).

I am actually most interested non-parametric statistics, especially to
"reformulate" as many statistical tests as possible using a small number of
robust primitives (like the bootstrap.) More pointers in that direction would
be very welcome :-)

Tangent to a tangent: The other most enjoyable stats book I have found is
"Statistical Modeling: A Fresh Approach" [http://www.mosaic-
web.org/go/StatisticalModeling/](http://www.mosaic-
web.org/go/StatisticalModeling/)

------
vanderZwan
If you're interested in histograms, I highly recommend _" Expressing complex
data aggregations with Histogrammar"_ by Jim Pivarski, where he talks about
how for decades histograms have been used in unique ways to do amazing things
in high energy physics (HEP, arguably the original Big Data field in compsci):

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mB4Chl0ly-g](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mB4Chl0ly-g)

One thing early on is that HEP histograms treats histograms as a kind of
_accumulator_ that can stream in data (because the amount of data processed
was typically too big to load into RAM all at once), instead of a chart. From
that starting point you can add, divide, multiply histograms with histograms
to build crazy things.

The results are no longer really histograms of course, but it's fun to see how
something that we just think of as a chart can be (ab)used like that.

------
jtxx000
Kernel density plots should be preferred to histograms in nearly all cases.
Histograms can be seen as a kernel density plot with a uniform kernel that has
been sampled. Since a kernel density plot with a uniform kernel has unbounded
frequency content, this sampling introduces _aliasing_ , which is why you get
all of these strange effects when adjusting the bin width and offset. In fact,
if the distribution of your data happens to be a sine wave, then the histogram
will also be a sine wave, but, due to aliasing, it may have a different
frequency and phase.

For a kernel density plot with a Gaussian kernel, the kernel size does effect
the result, but the situation is much better than with histograms for two
reasons:

1\. The kernel density plot varies smoothly as the kernel size changes, and so
there is greater confidence that you have seen the whole story by only looking
at a few kernel sizes.

2\. You can construct a kernel density plot with a larger kernel given only a
kernel density plot with a smaller kernel. Since the convolutions of two
Gaussians produces a new Gaussian with a variance equal to the sum of the
input variances, you only have to convolve the small-kernel plot with another
Gaussian to produce the large-kernel plot. This, again, means that you have
more confidence that you've seen the whole story by looking at only a few
kernel sizes.

As a side note, there is technically a 1:1 relationship between 1D datasets
and kernel density plots with a Gaussian kernel, and so in theory you don't
lose any information by constructing the kernel density plot. In practice,
however, you _do_ lose information due to limited precision.

------
svara
When you think you want to plot a histogram, it's often a better idea to plot
a (empirical) cumulative distribution [0] instead. You don't have to worry
about how to select your bin limits and you can usually put several in the
same plot for comparison without making it unreadable due to overlap.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empirical_distribution_functio...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empirical_distribution_function).

~~~
aji
I like using cumulative distributions because they make small changes in the
data a little more obvious. e.g. if all the buckets are 10 but there's a
section where they're 11, that difference will show up in a cumulative
distribution as a bend in an otherwise straight line, which in my opinion is a
much easier difference to see

~~~
convolvatron
isn't seeing a little hump in a pdf clearer?

------
wodenokoto
Is there a way to read this decently on mobile?

I've tried Firefox reading mode as well as pocket but they both cut off large
parts of the text.

------
acbart
In my introductory programming class, we teach a few basic forms of chart
visualization. By far, students struggle the most with Histograms. Even more
frustrating, they love line plots and attempt to use them everywhere. Despite
my explanations that you can almost _always_ use histograms, and you can
almost _never_ use line plots! Yet they go with what they find more
intuitive...

~~~
pletnes
Depends what you're doing I'd say. In physics based modeling, which is used
more in e.g. engineering, line plots are often very useful. When examining
noisy real world data, not so much.

------
agumonkey
Got me curious about non 1D histograms [https://www.r-bloggers.com/5-ways-to-
do-2d-histograms-in-r/](https://www.r-bloggers.com/5-ways-to-do-2d-histograms-
in-r/)

------
ablaba
The History of Histograms (vldb paper)
[http://www.vldb.org/conf/2003/papers/S02P01.pdf](http://www.vldb.org/conf/2003/papers/S02P01.pdf)

------
SeanLuke
Unfortunate that they're talking about distributions and yet the very first
example they use ("The paintings of Bob Ross") isn't a distribution.

------
RodericDay
> We notice that you're not using the Google Chrome browser. You're welcome to
> try continuing—but if some parts of the essay are rendering or behaving
> strangely, please try Chrome instead.

what a world

~~~
shdon
20 years ago we had the "this site works best in Internet Explorer" buttons on
way too many sites. Plus ça change...

That said, the site works just fine in Firefox, Edge and even IE11 too. So, if
anything, the message is a sign of sloppiness in not even bothering to check.

~~~
perryprog
And Safari. Also, it’s not very responsive (at least for mobile)


Netflix Instant is coming to the entire Linux Community - taylorbuley
http://benjaminkerensa.com/netflix-instant-is-coming-to-the-entire-linux
======
jerf
I will believe it when I see it downloadable, I have downloaded it, and used
it to watch something, and no sooner. You can't put effectively DRM on Linux;
you can binary blob whatever you like, but I own the kernel, graphics drivers,
audio drivers, X Server, and everything else on the system except your lil'
binary blob, and it doesn't stand a chance.

~~~
niels_olson
er, I don't think they're worried about _you_. They might offer _you_ a job.

~~~
ZachPruckowski
You only really need one guy to hack the DRM and it's game over, since (a) he
can share how he did it, and (b) he can freely share the decrypted files. Not
that it really matters on Netflix since just about everything is already on
DVD (and thus on torrents since CSS is cracked) anyhow.

~~~
niels_olson
Exactly. I'm certain the adults in charge know that some level of hacking is
inherent to the game at this point. My guess is they're treating the set of
all consumers as another corporation: an entity to do battle with in the
ongoing pursuit of the best possible ROI.

------
parbo
I'm pretty sure it won't be the entire community. There are Linux users
outside the US, you know.

~~~
jedberg
Netflix is expanding globally. They've already announced the expansion into
Latin America.

~~~
madaxe
But not to that insignificant blot, Europe. No consumers over there, from what
I hear, just a gang of pirates.

------
jmalcolm
From an engineering point of view, Netflix Instant already works on Linux as
it is available on Android. So, the issue is not a technical one.

Moonlight (Mono Silverlight) has all the technical chops as well. The lack of
DRM is what prevents that from being a solution. Also, I will note that
Moonlight lacks a fair bit of polish.

So, the issue here is clearly the business strategy and not the technical
know-how. The 12 month estimate is meaningless. If the Netflix CEO wanted a
Linux client it would be available very quickly.

I have no doubt they are playing around with the DRM, or creating proof-of-
concept builds using the various options, but it is not like we are waiting
around for some small technology team to deliver it as a product.

------
juiceandjuice
oh yeah... I reported on this a while ago. I guess I didn't discuss the
implications:

<http://tnkr.net/linchrome.png>

~~~
taylorbuley
What a helpful screen grab. Will try. Thank you!

~~~
juiceandjuice
I should note... currently Netflix is rerouting to a landing page if you try
to stream via Chrome OS, even with this plugin enabled. I imagine that will
change very soon, and when it does, you _should_ be able to use almost this
same exact method to enable it.

Files from Chrome OS were: netflix.info netflixplugin.so libnetflixidd.so

All of them were put in /opt/google/chrome

------
starwed
Nice! This is perhaps the one single "essential" thing I miss on Linux.

I wonder if their work overlaps with the android client at all?

------
tassl
The only way I have been able to watch Netflix in Linux was with a VM running
Windows XP (max RAM and Graphic card power). In my first trial I tried it with
1GB of RAM and the sound was not working fine.

Of course, this is not a real Linux experience but... at least it worked.

------
cookiecaper
This is about as reliable as Phoronix's annual "Steam is coming to Linux and
we can prove it this time!" story. Inside it reads: "We talked to someone at
Valve and they said Steam is coming to Linux!!1"

I have heard such rumors specific to Netflix in the past, but really, "I
talked to some guys from Netflix and they said so" does not meet the standard
of proof expected to publish such findings in a public pronouncement not
clearly marked as rumor.

Also, how many Netflix employees that would know about this project were at
OSCON? You may be exposing them even if you don't post their names.

~~~
icebraining
>This is about as reliable as Phoronix's annual "Steam is coming to Linux and
we can prove it this time!" story. Inside it reads: "We talked to someone at
Valve and they said Steam is coming to Linux!!1"

There was actually a Linux binary that you could download from their servers
and it would actually connect and download an update. Not that it would even
launch a window, of course.

------
bkerensa
This is not going to be a chrome plugin.... Instead it will be a proprietary
client.

------
rbranson
If this does happen, I see it mostly as important for XBMC-type setups on
Linux.

------
calpaterson
Even if this is true: big fans of FOSS and hoping to release a proprietary
client? If you're going to claim whatever social cachet is going for FOSS
users, then you really ought to be avoiding those binary blobs.

------
rmc
The entire Linux community or the US Linux community?

------
dfc
Its pretty amazing that these netflix engineers had NDAs just in case they
talked to some guy with a blog:)

------
Kwpolska
Not 'entire', people outside the US can't watch it.

------
jpr
Someone still thinks artificial scarcity is a viable business model?

------
IgorPartola
Soooo... a proprietary client that nobody but a few hackers at Netflix care
about. Sounds like something to get the FSF all stirred up.


If I Could Go Back In Time & Give Myself Some Advice, This Would Be It - epi0Bauqu
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/if-i-could-go-back-in-time-give-myself-some-advice-this-would-be-it
======
mildweed
Great advice. I especially like establishing the guiding principles early on.


Evidence of XOR electrical property in human cortical dendrites - rajnathani
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-01-evidence-previously-unknown-electrical-property.html
======
rajnathani
For those reading this right now, another albeit better article covering this
study is currently being discussed on in another HN post:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22061718](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22061718)


Bullet Journal – The analog system for the digital age - jonbaer
http://bulletjournal.com/
======
znpy
I tried and tbh i found it to be quite a high-maintenance system.

My solution was to download and print agenda templates from
[http://philofaxy.blogspot.it/p/diary-
inserts.html](http://philofaxy.blogspot.it/p/diary-inserts.html)

The nice thing is that multiple templates are available for free and it costs
as little as printing 50 or 100 pages (1page/week or 2pages/week), front/back
and black/white.

Beside that, I'm only using a normal binder.

Despite this, next year I'm going back to a Moleskine weekly agenda.
15-17€/year is just a worth price for a good agenda.


Getting people to switch podcast clients is hard - GabeBourgeois

Our team built a podcast client that has a lot of interesting features to simplify discovery and listening to podcasts. Having a tough time finding the right channels to get it to people. Anyone have any suggestions?<p>itunes.apple.com/us/app/raur/id643855633?mt=8
======
serg_chernata
Partner with a popular show?


Mona Lisa heist of 1911 concealed a perfect—and far more lucrative—crime - sublemonic
http://www.vanityfair.com/style/features/2009/05/mona-lisa-excerpt200905?printable=true&currentPage=all

======
mattm
Wow, what a great story!

I'm surprised the thief only served seven months in jail. I can't imagine it
being that lenient today.

~~~
reitzensteinm
I was half expecting some crazy penalty like life imprisonment or death. Made
me realise how out of touch I am with early 19th century Europe!

~~~
graywh
20th century

~~~
reitzensteinm
OK that's embarrassing!

------
aresant
Just spent 10 mins reading, good story but abridged version:

\- An Italian Louvre worker, Vincenzo Perugia, stole the Mona Lisa, claiming
his motivation was that the French had stolen works from Italy.

\- Years later he attempted to give it back but claim a reward. He changed his
story a few times about how he stole it.

\- The revelation of the larger crime was that a slick con-man claimed he
helped Vincenzo steal the work for the purpose of selling credible fakes to a
handful of American millionaires since it was widely reported that the
original was stolen.

~~~
known
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincenzo_Peruggia>

------
rthomas6
This is like some kind of real-life Ocean's Eleven.

~~~
arch_hunter
There was a British TV series that I watched some of a while back about a
group of con artists (sorry, I can not remember the name right now). Several
of the episodes had this same plot: the group of con artists would steal some
valuable antique, and then sell forgaries of it, before returning it as part
of a plea bargan.

~~~
KC8ZKF
_Hustle_ <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hustle_(TV_series)>

------
pingou
What's interesting is that there are people willing to pay millions to have a
piece of art that they can't show to anybody or brag about it. I guess these
people are true art lovers.

------
gamble
The story is entertaining, but the con-man angle tacked at the end is highly
dubious. Even if there was reason to believe that Valfierno even existed, its
hard to swallow a century-old third-hand tale from an admitted con-man without
a shred of evidence. Moreover, there's nothing about his story that explains
the theft and plenty that contradicts known details. Sometimes lone nuts
really do commit crimes beyond their stature.

------
thedjpetersen
Its funny how different this story could have been told, if the plumber hadn't
come by.

------
jac_no_k
Interesting story. Valfierno had a very effective PR and insight into the
market. He would have made an effective head of PR or Sale.

~~~
dhs
Probably selling CDOs.