Soft Errors Are Hard Problems (2009) - ivank
http://codingrelic.geekhold.com/2009/09/soft-errors-are-hard-problems.html
======
georgecmu
_Alpha particle strike - two protons plus two electrons, emitted when a heavy
radioactive element decays into a lighter element._

Alpha particle is the same as a Helium nucleus, so it has 2 more neutrons and
2 fewer electrons than the article claims.

 _Cosmic ray strike - a high energy neutron (or other particle) emitted by the
Sun._

On the contrary, cosmic rays are very high energy particles mainly originating
outside the Solar system.

 _These particles are gradually absorbed by the Earth 's atmosphere, so they
are more of a problem in orbit and at high altitude._

What does it mean for a particle to be "gradually absorbed"?

~~~
thedufer
> What does it mean for a particle to be "gradually absorbed"?

I assume it means that the number of particles decreases smoothly as altitude
decreases, as opposed to largely being absorbed at distinct altitudes (as one
might expect the radiation belts to do, perhaps).

------
PhantomGremlin
There are many techniques that can be used to eliminate soft errors. These
techniques used to be quite common in the '60s and '70s when hardware was much
less reliable overall.[1] There were companies like Tandem Computers [2] whose
rai·son d'être was fault tolerance.

But then two things happened. First, chips themselves became much more
reliable. Second, semiconductor vendors began adding fault tolerance to
standard ICs. E.g. Intel adds ECC to their internal caches.

So, IIRC from reading Dark Pools[3], cheap Linux boxes became so reliable that
upstart stock exchanges were just running on random white box server hardware
located in people's offices. No need to buy million dollar computers any more.
No need to buy the highly fault tolerant Itanium.

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fault_tolerant](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fault_tolerant)
[2]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tandem_Computers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tandem_Computers)
[3]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Patterson_%28author%29#Da...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Patterson_%28author%29#Dark_Pools)

------
tzs
I used to run a home Linux desktop and a home Linux server. Neither had ECC
RAM. I spent something like two years trying to spot a soft error.

My detector was simple. I had a process that allocated a fixed size buffer,
filled it with a pattern, and then went into a loop. The loop would check to
see if the pattern was undisturbed and then sleep 60 seconds.

I had this process running on both machines pretty much continuously. Neither
ever detected an error in the pattern. I was a bit disappointed.

I've been using a 2008 Mac Pro at work since 2008, and a 2009 Mac Pro at home
since 2009. Both have ECC RAM. I've never seen an indication that the ECC has
actually had to correct anything [1].

[1] I'm not fully sure how I would see if the ECC has corrected a transient
error. I've read that it would show up in the DIMM status in system profiler,
but I don't check that often, so I could easily miss a transient error.

~~~
PhantomGremlin
> Neither ever detected an error

You didn't have a very big sample size. Here's what Google had to say about
the topic based on their systems[1]:

       Our first observation is that memory errors
       are not rare events. About a third of all
       machines in the fleet experience at least
       one memory error per year

[1]
[http://research.google.com/pubs/pub35162.html](http://research.google.com/pubs/pub35162.html)

~~~
baruch
I don't have a fleet of systems like Google but on the several few thousand
servers I look over, I see the number of ECC errors is lower than that. It is
however a strong power law distribution, many servers (>70%) see no errors at
all, and a few have so many that they are unusable, some are in between and
have undetected performance or other impact.


Ask HN: Any recommendations on dealing with a company restructuring? - startupnomore
The company I work for will soon go through a major restructuring. At the moment the company has a /very/ flat, start-up like structure (3 levels: 1 CEO -> 2 Managers -> ~100 employees). There are also roughly 10 team leads in charge of service lines/products, but that are not involved with the business side of things at all (e.g. budgeting, leave approval etc.).
The reorg's purpose is to introduce more structure and delegate responsibility (I guess all startups go through this?). Effectively the plan is to elevate the 10 team leads to managers of the various service lines and products they lead now, including some of the business responsibility.
I am one of the team leads, and also one of the most senior developers on staff. There is a big strategy session being planned to discuss and implement the reorg. The meeting will be politically laden (some guys manage 3 people, some as many as 20, with varying years of experience).
So I have two questions:
1) In general, what is your advice for handling the restructuring? Any experience, advice or mistakes, pitfalls or caveats you can recall I should avoid/lookout for? Anything I should specifically ask for, or push for?
2) There is a lot of unrest amongst the team leads (hence, politics) with some being way more senior (~10 years exp) and managing larger teams who will now be promoted along with/treated the same as mid-level guys (~2-3 years exp). There is a big question of fairness, and the road ahead. Any strategies for dealing with this?
======
zebraflask
You seem to have a good grasp of the situation, and I'm not sure I have much
advice.

From experience, I'd keep an eye out for members of your own team starting to
act up. Some people respond to reorgs as a chance to vent their personal
agendas, or slack off, or [fill in the blank]. I would not expect the same
level of output until well after the org shake up has settled down.

~~~
startupnomore
That's definitely something to look out for, thanks.

------
marenkay
Just take good care of your team. And do not expect fairness.

Business can be honest but never will be fair.

~~~
startupnomore
That's a good point, my team should come first.


What Living with an Eye Patch in a Big City Taught Me - dnetesn
http://cancer.nautil.us/article/203/what-living-with-an-eye-patch-in-a-big-city-taught-me
======
jessaustin
I'm surprised that the author didn't mention the several times a year random
strangers will yell "Yarr!" out of the window of a passing car, as they do at
me. Even if that doesn't happen to her, this condition must be harder for a
woman than it has been for me, so she has my sympathy.

I'm always willing to "show" children that there isn't an eye under the patch,
if they want. The same goes for adults who seem childlike enough. (Don't
laugh, there are lots of these people around.) Those who are merely dull
enough to require immediate satisfaction of their idle curiosities about the
deeply personal circumstances of others, never get the truth. We should all
practice extemporaneous lying, and this may be the most valuable aspect of
monocularity to me. It's easy to say "knife fight", although it takes a bit
more effort to sell that. Instead, maybe someone might be more ready to hear
about an embarrassing incident involving office furniture repair?

------
mcenedella
What a beautifully written, honest, and wonderfully human story. The author
makes an impossibly awful situation -- losing your eye at 12 -- the best she
can, and notes the sometimes positive side of the unfortunate circumstances. I
admired her and feel inspired by her.

------
shorttime
I can see arguments either way to ask about it or not. I always have an
internal debate with myself when I see such things like an eye patch or other
non-typical characteristics that stand out. Should I ask? Would it be rude?

Most of the time I get stuck in a do-loop and the person is gone before I have
a chance to make a decision. That's probably a good thing, looking at it from
a cost/benefit analysis there is no way anyone should ask such a thing. But I
also don't want to pretend this obvious thing doesn't exist because it's an
elephant in the room! What if the said person expects me to comment on it?
What if the person thinks that other people avoid them due to this non-typical
characteristic? I certainly don't want to contribute to that either! I have no
idea how to approach these things...

My main goal is to treat them like anyone else and I saw someone with a broken
leg I'd ask. I forget the comedian but they cover the topic of handicapped
people feeling left out because they don't get commented on, they want to feel
equal. I think it might have been Carlos Mencia (yeah, yeah, I know, dude
steals jokes) but the point stands - if we want to treat people equal aren't
we obligated to ask?

~~~
mikestew
_don 't want to pretend this obvious thing doesn't exist_

You mean like their shoes, the shirt they're wearing, that kind of thing?
Because the eye patch is only unusual to _you_ , the person with the eye patch
puts it on every morning. Hell, they might have patches in different colors.

You can ask, but keep in mind that asking only benefits _you_. Because I'm
sure the person wearing the patch has long ago gotten their fill of answering
that question, and doing so is no longer of benefit to them.

So to speak personally, I don't ask. It's obvious that there is some
malfunction in one of their eyes, I don't need to ask because that's all I
need to know. Asking for more detail, well, I just met the person. Why would I
think I can now delve into their personal details just because they're wearing
an eye patch? More so, I don't ask because I'll betcha they are
sick...and...tired of answering to random strangers who, truth be told, don't
give a shit about the person and just want an answer to their curiosity.

~~~
shorttime
Makes sense, my default is not to ask about it. I've seen very few people with
eye patches in my life and I never asked.

It kind of relates to what one of my friends recently observed and
experienced, someone asked them what race they are. She's light skinned but
black. The person asking went through a few different combinations latino,
white-black mix, etc and finally asked black and she got really angry. From my
3rd person perspective, I don't think the intent was to cause an issue but to
relate to my friend. It's unfortunate because I don't see a maleficent intent,
an unintended negative experience. This event is a small example of what I see
on a overall change in society. Now everyone is walking around on pins and
needles, afraid to make a social interaction for fear of making someone angry.
Further isolation. Less tolerant to mistakes. I don't see this as a good
thing. Boring. Uncreative. Polished. Unable to express an idea or question for
fear of offending someone.

~~~
Coincoin
I'm just brown enough to get constantly asked where I'm from or what race I
am. I seriously don't care. This is who I am and if it can be a conversation
starter, so be it.

~~~
shorttime
That's the way I was looking at it. I think a lot of it comes from people not
being comfortable with silence so they'll just mention something they notice.
When it's silent we are stuck with our own thoughts, some don't really like
that!

------
EGreg
When my grandfather first came to this country, he recounts how he was once
yelled at by a woman on the subway in NYC for offering his seat, as he used to
do in Russia. I'd say there is no perfect approach that works for everyone all
the time.

~~~
sverige
On a visit to the big city when I was a teenager, I held open a door at the
entrance to an office building for a woman in her early 20s, as I had been
taught to do by my very traditional parents. She shrieked at me that she could
do it herself. I have been an anti-feminist since that moment.

~~~
colanderman
If I decided to hate every class of people based on a single interaction with
a random individual who may or may not even represent that class I'd hate
everyone ever.

Sounds like you never really liked feminism in the first place and found an
excuse to justify it later.

~~~
sverige
I don't hate anyone. I just don't support feminism because it creates bad
manners and double standards. How is that hate?

Further, at the time this happened, I didn't even know what feminism was. I
was around 16 years old. It was 1978 or so. After it happened, I did some
investigating and discovered what might cause such a reaction. For me, it was
plain that it was a philosophy based on false premises and as such worthy of
rejection. I don't go about preaching my position, but I also certainly never
even silently consent to the approbation of a false idea.

Here's the real kicker: tell me what feminism is, then we'll see if we agree
it's a good thing or a bad thing. (Of course, the debate on what feminism is
will never reach a conclusion, so we're unlikely to get to the second part.)

~~~
pmoriarty
You ever consider that maybe the woman who yelled at you was just having a bad
day, or was just an asshole? You know, assholes come in all flavors. Name a
group of people, and I guarantee you you'll find some assholes in that group,
and you'll also find people who might occasionally act like assholes because
they're having a bad day, or for some other reason that has nothing to do with
you and nothing to do with the group they're part of.

~~~
sverige
I don't remember the exact phrasing, but it was along the lines of "I'm
perfectly capable of opening the door myself. I don't need a man to do it for
me." So yes, she was an asshole, obviously, for picking on 16-year-old country
bumpkin me who was just trying to be polite, but it was also because of her
ideology. And I'm sure every day she was bad for her. How could it not be when
she was walking around looking for the myriad ways that men were trying to
belittle her somehow? I have of course run into similar people since that
time, and have observed that they are universally unhappy. But maybe that's
just in my presence, when my mere existence oppresses them; quite possibly
when no one like me is around, they have bright eyes full of laughter and joy.
But I doubt it.

~~~
bradknowles
Her problem is her problem.

I would also probably have held the door open, as I was taught that was the
polite thing to do.

And she probably would have yelled at me the same way she did at you.

But as the old, fat, white American guy in the room, I wouldn't let her
problem in this area change me for the worse or otherwise bother me.

------
gumby
> Now, it seems I can't hail a cab without the driver remembering that he's
> driven me before and recalling my preferred route to the office.

She has the IRL cookie today that the rest of us will soon have as well.

------
tyingq
_This week alone, two complete strangers have asked me outright, “What
happened to your eye?” This happens to me all the time..._

I'm glad she's found peace with this sort of thing, but it's a shame that it
happens this often. It just seems obvious that blurting that out as the first
thing you say to someone is rude.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
Interestingly a deaf friend posted on Fb today that this is a difference with
the deaf community (as the post author sees it), that asking about someone's
personal status is seen as a good thing, it's showing an interest in them.

I have a beard, kids will ask me "why do you have a beard?", I like it - it
shows they're curious, I like to encourage enquiry. The parents will try to
shush them, apologising for the intrusion, which TBH I find weird.

I can imagine it gets boring answering the same question over-again, but it's
not harmful really. The author clearly has a good approach to life.

~~~
ehnto
As a anecdote, I have some very interesting and impossible to miss scarring on
my arms. I don't hide it, and it is definitely something I know people are
curious about. Yet pretty much no one I have interacted with in the last 7
years since moving to a new city knows why, because no one asks.

People I sit with and talk to from 9 to 5 every day, not a word. You notice
people glance, you notice some cashiers hesitate, yet just three or four
people from memory have asked and it is always an abrupt and outright "so
what's up with that?"

I am thankful because it really doesn't affect my life or personal image and
so that mentality reflected by others behavior lets me feel justified in that
outlook. But there are definitely days where I wonder if people don't ask out
of courtesy or because they just don't care either way, and if I am feeling a
bit lonley that can be a negative thing rather than a positive.

Mostly though, I just appreciate that people treat me the same as if I didn't
have them, whether they have asked what happened or not.

~~~
clort
What makes you think the scarring is very interesting?

~~~
ehnto
It's a mix of bright purple/red/blue and in high contrast to the rest of my
skin tone. By interesting I mean it stands out and is not something you see
every day.

------
bitexploder
It is interesting to me how small things really matter. Put a patch on your
arm about the size of an eye patch and "so what". Eyes are special. I think it
causes most people to do something they don't do that often, which is
contemplate losing their own eye. I sympathize with the author, it is hard to
know why someone may be interested in talking with you, etc. And, giving
myself a little philosophical licence, it does not matter in the long run, we
all have our dysfunctional bits, she just has to wear hers on the outside. Her
issue in particular is one I imagine most people process and get on with
relatively quickly.

~~~
dTal
>Put a patch on your arm about the size of an eye patch and "so what".

Well, not so fast; that rather depends on what's _on_ the patch... I'm sure I
don't need to list examples!

------
tarequeh
Beautifully written and thought provoking. It's interesting how easily
strangers can ask such personal questions. I wonder how different the
interactions would have been if instead of the eye patch, the author wore a
pair of trendy non-prescription glasses with a clear left and a dark right
lens.

------
trapperkeeper79
I knew a guy with an eye patch, and politeness prevented me from asking how
that happened. Now I know that one of the causes is cancer .. but it is a bit
surprising that I only learned that after this article.

------
caio1982
I wonder if people in similar situations wear patches as they do with clothes,
considering fashion and all. It would be incredible to see people with custom
patches for different ocassions, a great way to reaffirm their struggle IMHO.


Contributeto.it - draw a freaking picture - ndroo
http://www.contributeto.it/
What this does:
1. We look at a bigger image
2. Break it down to individual pixels
3. Give you a pixel (blown up bigger) to draw on
4. Reconstruct the original picture using the pixels people draw..the pixels people contribute-to-it<p>get it?
======
blahedo
No login other than through Facebook? I'll pass, thanks.

~~~
pavel_lishin
Same. The fact that I have to do _anything_ before I can start drawing is
already a huge turn-off.

~~~
ndroo
whoops...replied to the top of the thread.

"yer fair call guys...ive changed it so you dont need to login :-) thanks for
the feedback"

------
captaincrunch
This things is sweet, do you plan to change the image once this one is
completed?

~~~
ndroo
sure do!

------
ndroo
yer fair call guys...ive changed it so you dont need to login :-) thanks for
the feedback


How to Price Your Product or Service-To Avoid Killing Your Business - donzimmer
http://www.erica.biz/2012/pricing-strategies/

======
jayliew
Guilty as charged: sometimes (depending on what the item is), I can be a super
cheap bastard .. maybe too frugal. A poor startup founder can't be spending
money like water :)

I've run into many startup founders who try to sell me something that (1) Is
not big enough of a pain for me to want to pay to solve and (2) I'm not fully
convinced that the "buy from someone else" option is better than the "build
myself" option.

It's an uphill battle for them, and I tell them I just might not be in their
market. p.s. Granted sometimes I err on being too frugal and just need to
outsource more, but the person selling to me is just fighting an additional
layer of objections, at their expense :/


The Captain's Manifesto - barakstout
http://thelivingpearl.com/2013/01/05/captain-deadbones-manifesto/

======
obitus
This is a very eloquent post about what it is to be a scientist.


Apple Shortcuts User Guide - sunraa
https://support.apple.com/guide/shortcuts/welcome/ios
======
thanatos_dem
Given other people's response, I'm clearly the odd one out here, but I found
it buggy and infuriating to use. I wanted what I can't imagine is a unique
shortcut, "Good Morning", which should:

\- Set the volume to 50% on my home pod

\- Start playing an ambient radio station in Apple Music

\- Start a slow fade in on my bedroom lights

It's been a nightmare, and I finally gave up altogether. I got my shortcut
configured and set up with Siri. It's pretty simple, being only 3 steps, so I
don't see where there's that much room to go off the rails, but oh boy does
it.

The HomePod responds, and says "okay, running your shortcut". It then sets the
volume on my _phone_ to 50% and starts playing music there instead. It then
tries and probably 80% of the time fails to set the home scene to turn on the
lights. When it fails, it says "Please continue on your iPhone", where Siri's
output states that it doesn't understand, as if I misspoke something to it...
but it's running a set list of commands, there's no room for me to misspeak
when setting the HomeKit scene. And clearly the shortcut triggered since it's
now playing music at half volume a foot from my head.

And there's no way that I can tell to have it specify an AirPlay speaker to
play out of. I don't get why the home pod, which responded to the request in
the first place, can't play the music. If I tell it to play the exact same
playlist directly it does so just fine. Maybe I'm "too advanced", being a tech
person myself, but this really feels like basic stuff, and it seems to have
missed the mark by a wide margin.

~~~
eridius
You may be speaking to the HomePod, but the phone is the thing actually
running the Shortcut. And the list of Shortcuts actions does not include
controlling the music output of a HomePod. I would encourage you to file a bug
report with Apple at
[https://bugreport.apple.com](https://bugreport.apple.com) to request the
ability to instruct the HomePod to play music.

As for the HomeKit scene, that sounds like a bizarre error to get from a
Shortcut.

------
fouadmatin
Shortcuts is the most exciting release of iOS 12.

Every time I run into a recurring task on my phone, I can usually make a
shortcut to do it for me. For example, when I get an email saying my build
failed, I open it and click “view logs” but need to scroll to the bottom of a
very long page to see why the build failed. Now I just run “Scroll to Bottom”
[1] and then I’m looking at what previously took a solid 15-20 seconds of
scrolling.

I can only imagine how many thousands of hours are lost per day on similar
recurring tasks across all mobile users that could be saved with a shortcut.
I’m really excited Apple is taking iOS in a direction where anyone can be a
developer.

[1]
[https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/e1daf0c6017e4db382272390f89...](https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/e1daf0c6017e4db382272390f8910646)

~~~
p2t2p
Yes it is the most exiting feature but booooy is it buggy.

I have couple shortcuts in the widget. 80% of the time I click the shortcut in
the widget it does like half of the stuff. I have workflow that does:

\- Find one song in Apple Music, start playing that \- Find all other songs by
that artists and play them after the current one \- send a message to my wife
"I'm leaving the office"

Messages works all the time, 80% of the time music simply don't start playing.
And when I try to hit that shortcut button several time in the widget, widget
itself fails and stops showing any shortcuts, only an error message.

------
dewey
For those who also just started playing around. I just found out yesterday
that you can write full blown python programs with packages and everything in
[http://omz-software.com/pythonista/](http://omz-software.com/pythonista/) and
trigger it from Shortcuts. That’s pretty powerful, especially if combined with
Slack webhooks and other external services.

~~~
zimpenfish
Pythonista is amazing if you want to do any programmatic graphics twiddling on
an iOS device (which Workflow/Shortcuts really doesn't do at all well.) Dr
Drang (leancrew.com) has a whole bunch of good blog posts up about his
Pythonista use that's been extremely helpful for me.

------
westmeal
Neat, so it's like scripting but for normal people. This is honestly a good
idea for making phones more useful without extensive programming knowledge.

~~~
Razengan
> _scripting but for normal people_

It looks like they took a page out of the macOS Automator, and an encouraging
sign that OS automation hasn’t been abandoned at Apple, despite the fears
after they fired the person responsible for some of the impressive automation
in macOS [0].

[0]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17218080](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17218080)

------
kbumsik
I just tried Shortcuts for the first time then opened the "Play Favorite
Albums" to see how it works and now it feels like I'm dumb. It took me a long
time to understand; start from a empty text (I didn't event know I need to
fill texts here) , separate lines, set variables, and count. The visial
representation was not obvious at the first look.

I doubt "normal" people would understand and create new shortcuts.

~~~
jtbayly
Agreed. "Normal people" _might_ be able to get a shortcut pre-written by
somebody else working correctly on their phone, but even that is doubtful.

------
teach
This should probably be titled 'iOS 12 Shortcuts User Guide' instead.

I'm a relatively new Macbook user, so I was looking forward to reading about
all the keyboard shortcuts and touchpad gestures I'm missing out on.

I only buy Android phones, though, so :(

~~~
Razengan
> _Macbook ... keyboard shortcuts and touchpad gestures_

There are many guides/“cheat sheets” about those, and macOS has always had
great discoverability and customizability:

• System Preferences -> Trackpad or Mouse: Shows you [some] gestures, with
videos.

• System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts: Shows you all the system
shortcuts, and also lets you modify or add custom shortcuts for any Apple or
third-party app.

• Help Menu -> Search Field: Start typing the name of any menu command you
expect an app to have, and it will show you the menu items matching it along
with their shortcuts.

------
eridius
Shortcuts was the most exciting thing from the WWDC Keynote this year, but I
still haven't really found a killer use for it yet. But I do have some simple
ones, such as a Shortcut I use on an image that prompts me to rename it before
triggering the "Save to Files" flow (as Save to Files doesn't let you rename
the image before saving).

Federico Viticci over at MacStories.net did post a pretty cool one though,
which adds iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max frames to screenshots you take.
[https://www.macstories.net/ios/adding-device-frames-to-
iphon...](https://www.macstories.net/ios/adding-device-frames-to-iphone-xs-
and-xs-max-screenshots-with-shortcuts/)

I'd love to see a version that just adds the rounded corners and the notch,
instead of the full frame, but I'm a bit too lazy to figure out how to adapt
his shortcut to do that (the idea being to share a screenshot that represents
what's visible on the screen, rather than trying to make it actually look like
the phone).

~~~
mattdesl
> but I still haven't really found a killer use for it yet

I think the main "killer feature" is that it allows you to optimize the way
you interact with your phone. It's obviously more useful for power users than
casual users, but both could benefit since shortcuts are so easy to share.

I have two Shortcuts that stemmed from real-life problems.

[1] - When I'm in a bookstore, I tend to go through dozens of books looking at
the GoodReads reviews for each one, trying to discover new authors that might
be worth a read. I made a shortcut to turn this into a single-tap barcode
scanner, instead of me typing the name of the book into Google each time.

[2] - I was recently suggesting my favourite spots in NYC to a friend, and was
trying to remember the streets and addresses of some of the places I took
photos of. With a shortcut, I was able to easily geolocate photos in a map,
and even get a nearby 360º panorama to remind me of what else was in the area.

Videos/code:

[1] -
[https://www.reddit.com/r/shortcuts/comments/9jnhc5/scan_a_bo...](https://www.reddit.com/r/shortcuts/comments/9jnhc5/scan_a_book_to_get_its_reviews/)

[2] -
[https://www.reddit.com/r/shortcuts/comments/9klosk/find_near...](https://www.reddit.com/r/shortcuts/comments/9klosk/find_nearest_google_maps_360%C2%BA_panorama_from_a/)

~~~
eridius
Wow both of those are very cool. I had no idea Shortcuts could even scan
barcodes. I don't buy physical books any more, but I wonder if I could get the
same info from whatever Books.app provides in the share sheet for the
bookstore? I'll have to play with that.

------
dybber
I'd like to use this for making a shortcut to connecting to a specific
Bluetooth device, but it seems that changing the iPhones settings is not part
of actions that you can choose from. My stereo does not connect automatically,
so I have to always go to Settings -> Bluetooth to connect them. Would be nice
if I could just push a button / ask Siri to connect it.

From iOS 11 it is no longer possible to develop widgets that does this:
[https://forums.imore.com/ask-question/376402-no-widget-
conne...](https://forums.imore.com/ask-question/376402-no-widget-connect-
specific-bluetooth-device.html)

~~~
jtbayly
Same for me, but I want to join a particular wifi network. Was hoping I could
do it via shortcuts. Oh well.

------
walterbell
Does anyone have example SSH, Javascript or Python shortcuts? e.g. would be
nice to have a shortcut for Textastic to push a file over SSH then run Jekyll
build on the server.

This shortcut will put a video into PiP mode for iPad multitasking:
[https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/dda08a01a17d41feb3e887a4a12...](https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/dda08a01a17d41feb3e887a4a12a7621)

------
anentropic
I thought this would be a document listing all the hidden UI shortcuts that
you never use because you don't know they are there

------
SN76477
I have been able to piece together some simple shortcuts that I use
frequently.

My biggest complaint so far is that they do not run in the background.

------
bastijn
So, what are some usable shortcuts HN has come up with? I fail to find a
single one that I could use. Looking for inspiration.

~~~
downandout
This one is pretty useful:

[https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/2d68cb1ee7b84f08ace2fd600b9...](https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/2d68cb1ee7b84f08ace2fd600b9855b5)

Article link below, but here's the relevant description:

 _Petersen’s command “Hey Siri, I’m getting pulled over” will pause music if
it’s playing, turn down the brightness, turn on “Do Not Disturb” and sends a
message to a chosen contact. It then activates the video recording on the
front camera.

Once the user stops recording, according to Petersen, it sends a copy of the
video to your specified contact. It also brings up the brightness and turns of
“Do Not Disturb.” His shortcut already has drawn hundreds of comments on
Reddit._

[https://www.cultofmac.com/578615/shortcuts-siri-traffic-
stop...](https://www.cultofmac.com/578615/shortcuts-siri-traffic-stop/)

~~~
bastijn
It's interesting to see how this gets so much attention in the US. In Europe,
specifically NL, I haven't been in a single situation the past 32 years of my
life where I would have needed this. I do not expect I would need it the
coming decades either. These are stories we catch from Russia where each and
every cop seems to be corrupt. To see a similar thing in the US is mind
blowing to me.

Thanks for sharing though! Might help another reader in this thread. I guess I
must be happy to pass on this one.

~~~
asdff
It's not corruption, but a lack of professionalism. I'll assume police in the
Netherlands see their job as just an occupation rather than an identity. Some
people in the U.S. imagine police officers as this 'lawman' figure like a
young Clint Eastwood in a poncho rather than just a citizen with a shift job
to work like a garbage man. This notion ends up normalizing the artificial 'us
vs them' thinking that leads to so many of these escalated situations and
tragedies. It doesn't help that movements like blue lives matter seem to be
actively engaged in supporting this thinking.

------
n1000
I downloaded “Calculate tip” from their library and it returns total garbage.
Most of the time it adds some random percentage to the total I enter instead
of calculating 20% of it. Maybe it has to do with my regional settings, but I
already stopped bothering.

------
knolan
I’ve a great shortcut to download YouTube videos.

[https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/c2997c4bcd0a4a01a470ac7f6c1...](https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/c2997c4bcd0a4a01a470ac7f6c1476ec)

------
laktak
I use shortcuts to do time tracking at work, which works great.

I do hope though that they bring back Shortcuts for the Apple Watch - with the
old Workflow app I could do everything on the watch, now I have to grab my
phone every time.

~~~
djrogers
Just add your shortcut to Siri and speak it to your watch - it's faster than
launching the workflow app used to be...

~~~
rcarmo
No it’s not. I used to have button prompts for some actions in Workflow, which
is faster. Also, there are many instances where speaking to your watch is
ridiculous (such as meetings, public transit, etc.)

~~~
laktak
Also the old workflows ran directly on the watch (for example calling a REST
api) which gave you the result right away.

Now they can only run on the phone and take a lot longer (usually it says
"I'll tap you when I'm ready...").

------
JustSomeNobody
Why on Earth did they tie it to Siri? Why can't I drop a shortcut on my home
screen and tap it? Why does Siri have to be enabled? This feels like just a
ploy to get Siri usage up.

~~~
mikestew
In addition to sibling comment, you can do just that, add it to the Shortcuts
widget, or (as I just did an hour ago) add Shortcuts to the Share sheet and it
will show up there. This is particularly important because I have shortcut for
sharing a web page with my wife. If I use Siri, it doesn't get the URL because
Siri is in the foreground and no URL is obtained. But it works fine as a Share
sheet object.

~~~
asdff
Can you only look at your widgets from the springboard?

------
getaclue
TIL that Apple is using Facebook's React. Thought they were using Ember
before.

------
mullingitover
It's really innovative how they were able to add all these features but still
prevent customers from creating an action like "Play I am the Walrus on
[competing music service]."

~~~
oatmealsnap
Isn't it up to [competing music service] to implement this? Podcasting apps
work with Shortcuts, so I don't see why [competing music service] wouldn't
work.

~~~
canuckintime
Apple has not been clear about the capabilities of Shorcuts and still has
limits[1] that prevent "competing music service" from working as OP suggests:

> Apple may have been slightly coy about this API (extensive documentation was
> not available at all during the iOS 12 beta)... There are caveats in the
> API, which may also be a turn-off for the likes of Google and Spotify: media
> shortcuts don't enable full-blown integrations with third-party audio
> streaming services. You can only ask Siri to play items you have previously
> assigned a custom phrase; this suggests that most users will only record a
> handful of phrases for entire playlists, charts, or artist pages. The
> ability to ask Siri to search and play any song or podcast episode is still
> exclusive to Apple Music and Podcasts.

[1] [https://www.macstories.net/stories/ios-12-the-macstories-
rev...](https://www.macstories.net/stories/ios-12-the-macstories-review/7/)

~~~
mullingitover
Exactly, thank you. Apple is absolutely prioritizing short-term profits and
their own ambitions before customers' feature requests in this area. Spotify,
and every other music service, would've had integrations ready to go well
before the iOS 12 launch if that was all it took for them to be given first-
class music player status on iPhone.

~~~
saagarjha
Spotify has been given a number of APIs that lets them act similar to a first-
party app in iOS 12. As far as I’m aware, they haven’t really used them yet.

~~~
mullingitover
So you're saying every third-party music app has the ability to be run with
"Hey Siri, play [song] on [spotify/tidal/etc]?" and Spotify is blatantly
lying? Because on their support forum they straight up say this can't be done.

~~~
saagarjha
That _particular_ example isn’t possible (so they’re technically right):
Shortcuts can only detect constant phrases. But there’s a easy way around
this: split it into two parts, the first one detecting “Spotify play a song”,
asks “which one”, then listens for the song name and plays that. A bit more
cumbersome, but still fits the fixed-text restriction.

------
CodeSheikh
Useless app. They rebranded it recently. It is not deeply rooted with iOs. I
gave up a while ago.

Side not: This title is helluva misleading. I thought it is a list of
shortcuts for OSX.

~~~
chipotle_coyote
Assuming I understand what you mean by "deeply rooted with iOS," then that is
in fact a crucial difference between the new Shortcuts and the Workflow app
that it replaced. Shortcuts triggered from Control Center or the share sheet
run the way Automator actions on the Mac do; there's no more of this "switch
to Workflow, switch to an app Workflow is calling, switch back to Workflow"
stuff.

I don't think the title "Shortcuts User Guide" was particularly misleading;
the name of the app is Shortcuts. If it were a list of keyboard shortcuts for
macOS, it would probably have a name like, I don't know, "macOS Keyboard
Shortcuts."

------
garyclarke27
One of the nice and quite innovative features of IOS 12 update, however I
can’t feel good about this update because it has completely ruined Apple News.
Apple News used to be a very nice slick news browser - I used it a lot, until
some retard UI designer, decided to steal 1/3 of my precious screen estate -
why?? for a horrible ugly useless navigation bar, with no way of collapsing it
in landscape mode - I NEVER use Portrait mode on iPad.

~~~
saagarjha
The navigation bar hides for me once I scroll.


Weizenbaum examines computers and society (1985) - jakub-
http://tech.mit.edu/V105/N16/weisen.16n.html
======
davidtotoole
See also his book "Computer Power and Human Reason."

Quote:

      "The computer has thus begun to be an instrument for the
     destruction of history. For when society legitimates only
     those 'data' that ... 'can easily be told to the machine',
     then history, memory itself, is annihiliated... Soon a
     supersystem will be built, based on the New York Times' data
     bank.. from which 'historians' will make inferences about
     what 'really' happened, about who is connected to
     whom, and about the 'real' logic of events."

That was in 1976.

------
davidtotoole
Weizenbaum is discussing the received doctrine of most computer scientists.
Probably most of you think we are making "just tools" and that their end use
is not our concern. As you read this article, particularly the later portions,
think about all the codenames we've heard since PRISM and how much the problem
has grown since 1985.


Tech Industry-Funded Think Tanks Work to Overturn California Privacy Law - aburd
https://theintercept.com/2019/04/16/consumer-privacy-laws-california/
======
ignoramous
The fact that a 100% of the think-tanks taking corporate funding (from the
likes of Microsoft, Amazon, Twitter, Facebook, Google, Airbnb, Uber, Verizon,
eBay) are trying to undermine excellent privacy laws passed by California [0]
and Illinois state assemblies should come as a surprise to no one.

The problem is these think-tanks or variants thereof might end up representing
the tech industry in most places where it matters anyway, just like how most
of the standard bodies have been taken over by them and now slowly approve of
features that further their business motives (I am looking at you ITU).

Two ways (there must be more?) I can think of to fix the behaviour of these
behemoths:

1\. External: Internet Activism. This has been well underway for a long time
now but the corporates are patient beasts. The problem always remains
gathering enough support [1] and generally the short attention span of the
larger populace.

2\. Internal: The employees. Be critical, put yourselves in akward situations,
start demanding answers [2]. The problem might be risking job security? That
could be offset by forming a large enough group?

\--

[0]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17420849](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17420849)

[1] Btw, the signees of this letter care about your privacy:
[https://www.eff.org/document/december-2018-preemption-
letter](https://www.eff.org/document/december-2018-preemption-letter)

[2] [https://demandprogress.org](https://demandprogress.org)

/offtopic [https://firstlook.media](https://firstlook.media) is doing a great
job. Almost all their articles are of high quality.

~~~
4ntonius8lock
Is there any law/legal mechanism which could put automatic expiration on new
laws? Is there anything I could suggest to my lawmakers for this to happen?

I mean, we seem to be following a pattern:

Big power wants something that directly and negatively impact the quality of
life of the majority of the populace.

Populace rises up against this.

Big power 'loses'.

Big power makes the push again next year. People rise up, but a little less.

Big power 'loses'.

Repeat until popular power is worn out and big power gets what they want.

Once passed, popular outrage won't remove it, it's way harder to get support
for repealing than for approving.

So...

I'd like to support something that changes that system from working that way.

I'd think an expiration date would due... but I'm open to supporting anything
that would break this pattern.

~~~
heavenlyblue
Democratically speaking, the only reason Big Power wins is due to the fact
that it's incredibly inefficient to stand behind interests of many parties
investing small amounts against single players investing huge amounts.

One would think we need interest groups more.

~~~
luckylion
> One would think we need interest groups more.

Would love to see more of those, especially in the EU, and the way they have
them in the US. I'd love a privacy focused action group, but I don't want to
buy a host of unrelated political issues with that. The EFF and similar
organisations do a pretty good job at that, would love if we had more groups
like that over here.

~~~
AWildC182
I love the idea, especially as a way of un-bundling beliefs so we're not all
beholden to one of two massive and far reaching belief systems.

That said, I worry that it's too easy for small advocacy groups to get
steamrolled by bigger interests if they prove to be a problem. Even if they're
popular with the public, it just takes a payment to a PR firm of your choice
to roll a story that they're selling dead babies and suddenly everyone is
confused.

~~~
luckylion
True, but EFF and others managed to get past that as well, I think mostly by
not overreaching, always being fact-based and consistency. It would certainly
take quite a while to gain enough trust and support if you're not
ideologically aligned.

I worry that it's just hard to do. It takes a special kind of person (and lots
of them) to keep general politics out, even more so when you're successful and
advocating your personal politics would be easy and effectful. Oh, and being
vigilant so you don't get co-opted by a political movement.

------
dalbasal
So... I'm a worried netizen. I have concerns about data monopolies, privacy,
surveillance, the ad-tech industry, cambridge analyticas... which puts me in
the hn majority, I guess.

That said, what specifically are we aiming for. Privacy laws? Is there a
bullet point of what these laws prohibit/require? Enforcement mechanisms?
Standards? Protocols?

"Pro-privacy" isn't really enough, for a political program.

It would be great if one of these think tanks could put forward a specific
agenda, preferably one that a large portion of us can support. What is it we
want achieved?

~~~
raxxorrax
I think the best approach to informational self-determination is to define
that any information concerning you as a person belongs to yourself. Any
diversion needs active consent. This is what this think tank (a name for every
sweaty office) allegedly wants to get rid off.

I doubt this clear definition is impractical or utopian and could very well be
implemented, so I doubt effective privacy legislation needs to be extensive.
People consent to share information all the time. That would of course cost an
industry that has stakes in information about you, even if that is not their
primary business.

Furthermore it is worth to think about if there is any information about you
which you are not eligible to share.

It is not trivial to determine if information is personal. Perhaps there
should be a formal process to determine that.

~~~
soared
> any information concerning you as a person belongs to yourself. Any
> diversion needs active consent

But in the US that isn't true even outside of the internet. If you walk
outside of your home/land, I can legally photograph and record video of you. I
can write down what you're wearing, make assumptions about your income based
on your address, record you gender/age/etc. All of that is 100% legal - you
willingly give up information about yourself when you go to public places.

You could argue the internet is not a public space but that counters most pro-
privacy people's opinions on free speech/etc online.

~~~
JohnFen
> you willingly give up information about yourself when you go to public
> places.

No, I really don't. I just can't do anything about it. I would agree with some
form of this "implied consent" argument if going outside were an optional
activity, but it's not.

~~~
soared
I'm not sure I understand your point, but I don't think going online is an
optional activity either.

~~~
JohnFen
I'm not willingly giving up any information by being in a public space,
because I don't have any choice about being in public spaces. Any information
people gain about me is being taken, not given freely.

> I don't think going online is an optional activity either.

I think that can be debated, but let's say you're right: that just reinforces
my point.

My essential point is that the "public space" argument isn't terribly
meaningful. Actual consent can only be given in the absence of coercion. If
being surveilled is a requirement in order to simply function as a human
being, then consent doesn't enter into it.

And, in my view, all of the arguments about privacy and spying hinge on the
issue of consent. If data is being gathered about me without my consent, then
I'm being spied on.

------
Rafuino
I can't wait for the CA law to come into effect. "The law, set to take effect
next year, gives California residents the power to view the types of data
companies collect from them, request that the data be deleted, and allows
residents to declare that their data not be sold to third parties."

Does anyone know if the law includes the ability to demand that data third
parties have collected be deleted as well? Will I be able to tell what third
parties already have my data from the source of collection?

------
duxup
At this point the statement and other gestures that a company "value's your
privacy" is just a default poster someone puts up, while they do other things.

~~~
kurthr
We value your privacy at $0.0003 per click!

~~~
duxup
I'm working on a side project and the setup is basically that you get to see
all the data I have on you. Granted this is a tiny project that is largely
just for me, but as a policy that seems like that is the most clear cut way to
go.

~~~
soared
The big data players have tools for this. For example:

[https://datacloudoptout.oracle.com/registry/](https://datacloudoptout.oracle.com/registry/)

~~~
duxup
That's interesting, I wonder how that came about.

~~~
soared
Yeah kind of cool. I believe tools like that came from either mass opt-out
tools by the Network Advertising Initiative or the Digital Advertising
Alliance.

[http://optout.networkadvertising.org/?c=1](http://optout.networkadvertising.org/?c=1)

~~~
JohnFen
Those tools are worthless, though. I wonder if Oracle's is any better.

~~~
soared
They accomplish what they intend to do, its just that most users want them to
do more.

If you use that tool on all of your devices (and don't clear your cookies/etc)
you will be opted out of those vendors tracking. But that doesn't accomplish
since that type of targeting only makes up maybe 15% of targeted advertising.
All that tool does is get you shittier ads. (Oracle's just shows you what data
they know about you, it doesn't actually delete or opt you out).

~~~
JohnFen
> They accomplish what they intend to do, its just that most users want them
> to do more.

That hasn't been my experience. When I've used the tools, the opt-outs have
failed for the majority of the companies in the list (as reported by the site
itself).

That said, as you point out, they're pointless even if they worked correctly
as you still have to engage in all the blocking that you usually do
regardless.

> (Oracle's just shows you what data they know about you, it doesn't actually
> delete or opt you out).

Ah, so Oracle's offering is worse -- worthless by design rather than
implementation.

------
JohnFen
It is so sad to see the bad actors in the tech industry pushing so hard to
advance policies that are harmful to society at large and people individually.

It is even more sad that I'm not the least bit surprised by this.

~~~
pnw_hazor
Standing by for employee protests.

------
nerdjon
I wish I could say I was surprised by this... but I am not.

What I am really curious about, are any of these companies linked to Apple?

Considering the very public stance they have been recently taking. The article
does not specifically mention them either way (and they are the only of the
big ones missing).

~~~
SlowRobotAhead
Not sure about Apple but I like that all the companies linked are all
supporters of NN. Almost as if a public face, NN, and a private face, think
tanks to overturn privacy laws.

~~~
nerdjon
I wouldn't necessarily tie net neutrality and this together, since NN supports
them as much as us. Considering it most likely would be them footing the bill
(or loosing traffic) without NN

~~~
SlowRobotAhead
>I wouldn't necessarily tie net neutrality and this together, since NN
supports them as much as us.

How we know? Because they told us that? They would be funding thinktanks to
pass NN if they had to. The truth about NN is only ONCE was a carrier ever
really found to be selectively throttling for non-congestion reasons in the
mid-2000s and the FCC shut that down immediately. NN still allows for
throttling if you claim it's for congestion.

YET... SV likes to promote the idea of a slow internet without regulation.

Just because you agree with the idea doesn't mean you shouldn't pay attention
to the propaganda.

------
M2Ys4U
The US should just implement Convention 108+ like the rest of the world.

------
tareqak
Are public companies required to show which organizations / think tanks they
are a part of and what role they play therein as part of their periodic
financial updates (quarterly or annual)?

The thing with money and speech in politics is that speech _must_ be loud
enough in order to be an effective agent for change whereas the effectiveness
of money is considerably more independent that. By loud, I mean a quality more
like the amount public awareness and genuine understanding a given issue has.

------
avmich
Is there any possibility to recoup losses incurred while accessing siloed and
hostile websites trying to pull my private information? I'm using some privacy
enhancements in browser, and major websites don't work properly because of
them. Is it possible to win a claim for incurred losses at least in time, if
not in data leaks?

------
sharadov
Data is being called the new "Oil" and it's only a matter of time that tech
becomes as maligned as the tobacco and oil industry.

------
mistrial9
yet, courageous and far-sighted individuals working towards federated and
private data models pre-FB, struggled to find any funding, and were vocally
criticized for "asking for money" or "trying to charge money" by intellectuals
.. idcommons dot org

------
mLuby
TL;DR: the key is to insulate lawmakers from concentrations of wealth.

A law that prevents corporations from spending resources on politics would do
this. Or low contribution limits could work, to limit billionaire influence.

A lot of comments in this and other privacy threads correctly worry about the
combination of "diffuse costs, concentrated benefits" and the electorate's
short attention vs sustained private lobbying. My feeling is those effects
cannot be overcome once in effect, so we have to roll back to prevent the
effects in the first place.

Sounds politically unlikely, but stranger things have happened in American
politics.

------
itronitron
ugh, so fucking creepy, but it's perfectly in line with SV double speak


UX design: Tools, methods and frameworks for generalists - ndewilde
https://nickdewilde.substack.com/p/the-keyring-zac-halbert-on-ux-design
======
denster
Great post!

To op, for tools like Figma, what do you think the future holds? In what
dimension will they evolve? How can they help you be more effective? Will they
help you express your ideas in ever higher fidelity over time? [1]

[1] Biased questions, but genuinely curious about the op's answers given his
deep expertise in the field (as the founder of
[https://mintdata.com](https://mintdata.com))

~~~
zachalbert
Great question. Figma is leaps and bounds closer to giving designers tools
that work like code, but it still has a long way to go. My wish list design
tool is something that has the creative flexibility of design canvas, but the
power of clean, performant code. Truthfully I think it'll require evolution
both in the design tools space, but also the HTML and CSS specs.

For instance, in Figma we've only had a reliable way of adding something
simple like button padding (where you can create a reusable button that will
expand as you type a longer label) for a year. There have been plugins that
did it before that, but they weren't reliable. This is crazy when you consider
you've had the ability to add padding to a box in CSS for _decades_. At the
same time, try doing a complex layout in HTML/CSS, which requires you to learn
about flexbox, floats, position, and/or CSS grid. Compare that to the ability
to just draw a box, move, scale, and rotate it in a design tool.

So I see design tools and browser tools converging over time to allow
designers, engineers, even product managers a layer of abstraction over
interfaces that feels much more intuitive, with less duplication. Right now, I
have components in Figma that mirror components we use in React, though this
is usually manual effort which is also a bit crazy. I don't really count
WYSIWYG editors as having figured this out yet, since they produce garbage
code in my experience.

~~~
narrationbox
Like this?
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24096004](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24096004)


Dotfiles.github.com - A guide to dotfiles on GitHub - netherland
http://dotfiles.github.com
======
ComputerGuru
(Obvious) disclaimer: this is a user-hosted subdomain on GitHub. It is not an
official GitHub page (even if the logo is two octocats snuggling together).

~~~
udp
Which means, of course, it's also a repository if anyone is interested:

<https://github.com/dotfiles/dotfiles.github.com/>

------
ah-
I've meant to finally put my dotfiles into a repository but the one thing
keeping me from it is that I haven't yet stumbled upon a script to symlink
everything into it's place that I'm totally satisfied with.

I don't use ruby and don't want to install rake on each machine for something
that should be possible with a simple shell script, and didn't like the
scripts I saw so far. Everything had a medium or large aspect that kept me
from using it.

Maybe I just need to write my own thing.

~~~
JoshTriplett
I highly recommend not symlinking things at all; just have the repository
itself as your home directory.

Whenever I set up a new machine, I always do this:

        git clone git://joshtriplett.org/git/home
        mv home/.git .
        rm -rf home
        git checkout -f

(There probably exists a simpler way to do that, but I haven't found it yet.)

I can always check out my repository via git:// even on a machine where I want
to push to it, because my repository includes a ~/.gitconfig containing:

        [url "ssh://joshtriplett.org/"]
                pushInsteadOf = "git://joshtriplett.org/"

So, I can automatically push as long as I have SSH access to my server. (I
wrote the support for pushInsteadOf in upstream git, specifically to enable
this use case.)

~~~
epe
I don't know if it's any simpler, but I tend to do:

        git init .
        git remote add origin git://github.com/eentzel/dotfiles.git
        git checkout -t origin master

------
rocktronica
With respect, a guide to dotfiles should explain what dotfiles are.

~~~
pbiggar
If someone needs to ask what dotfiles are, they aren't in the target audience
of this project.

~~~
subpixel
I have to disagree - I had never heard the term before, but now that I see the
power/convenience of a symlinked configuration, I'm interested in learning
more.

I'm sure many others like myself would appreciate a more thorough,
introductory walkthrough. I'll be asking my more hard-core friends for
guidance in the meantime.

------
oacgnol
I highly recommend using symlinks to synchronize dotfiles with a locally
cloned repo. That way, you can make changes to the dotfiles sitting in your
home directory and it'll be reflected in your repo should you want to commit
those changes.

~~~
mise
Wait, I've done it the other way around. I have a repo directory, and I
created symlinks in ~/ pointing to the dotfiles in the repo. I have a simple
install script to symlink the files.

Would you suggest having the physical files in ~/ and adding their symlinks to
a repo?

~~~
ichilton
I would think he meant what you said.... symlinks in the repo doesn't sound a
good idea.

------
AdamGibbins
While we're on the subject - has anyone found a good way to separate
environments while keeping your setup fairly DRY? e.g. I have slight
variations in my aliases for work/home, different git config email etc.

You can find mine here: <http://github.com/adamgibbins/dotfiles>

~~~
sophacles
Towards that end, (and for keeping certain sensitive things from repos...) I
made this:

<https://github.com/sophacles/dotfuse>

It is a fuse filesystem that allows for modularization of some "single file"
style dotfiles. Combined with git branche or modules (or both) it can get a
lot of this (i hope). Warning though, it is still a bit of a toy, and I
haven't played with it for a while, but I'm open to suggestions and pull
requests!

As for dry with sourceable stuff, like bash/zsh configs, you can just keep the
environment specific stuff in a separate repo, and use git modules, that is if
your environ specific stuff needs to be confidential (or some of it) and kept
in separate private repos.

~~~
mh-
this is clever, thanks for sharing

------
seryl
I use something relatively similar, but I do it with Chef.

(shameless plug) Kindness: A nice way to bootstrap your box (with chef)
<http://joshtoft.com/kindness/>

It takes advantage of site-cookbooks with Chef, letting you bring in your own
site-cookbooks and also takes your chef-solo.json (if it exists).

I made it to get away from the rake dotfile sillyness.

------
tlvince
A workaround to the "symlink farm" method is making use of "--config=PATH"
options for most apps and setting up aliases.

Conforming to the XDG base dir standard as much as possible makes sense but
can get painful sometimes (e.g. vim: <http://tlvince.com/2011/02/03/vim-
respect-xdg/>).

------
lyime
@github - Please make a font a bit darker.

~~~
slikts
It's a user page, so not by github

------
drivebyacct2
A Rakefile for dotfiles? Seriously?

~~~
Plugawy
Why not? I've been using it without any problems. It's just easier to manage.

~~~
exDM69
Because not everyone has a Ruby development environment available. It would be
a lot better idea to stick with Makefiles or other more commonly available
Unix tools.

A lot of Ruby people seem to add a Rakefile or a Ruby script to do some simple
task like installing a few dotfiles. That makes them a lot less useful to me
(for example), as I don't have a Ruby env available on all machines I use.

Same goes for Node.js, Python and Perl people. If a "standard unix" tool can
do something almost as easily as a Rakefile/whatever, you should probably
stick to the standard tools. I don't know what you should do with Windows,
though.


This facial recognition system tracks how you’re enjoying a movie - janober
https://techcrunch.com/2017/07/25/this-facial-recognition-system-tracks-how-youre-enjoying-a-movie
======
sushiogoto
Fascinating stuff — off the top of my head I can see this being used in: user
research, political campaigns, crowd control. Imagine applying this technology
to a political campaign to see how people respond in real-time... A Black
Mirror style future where the politicians who use this technology dominate in
elections because they're a/b testing what to say and how to say it.


How to use Google Alerts to find out if your site gets hacked - greg
http://www.blogstorm.co.uk/how-to-use-google-alerts-to-find-out-if-your-site-gets-hacked/

======
pierrefar
It's a good backup solution as by the time Googlebot finds the cracked pages,
it's a bit too late.

I'd set up a cron job to check the database once a day or 12 hours or so.
That's more pre-emptive.

~~~
ZeroGravitas
I think you're missing the point. These SEO hackers don't announce themselves
by defacing your front page or deleting your database. They insert hidden
links in your HTML to boost their PageRank and it's in their interests to go
undetected for as long as possible.

~~~
pierrefar
I'm an SEO and know full well what they're doing. My daily cron job suggestion
is to detect their activities.

------
peregrine
You would need a slightly larger set of words, but nonetheless an interesting
solution.

~~~
streety
Absolutely. Perhaps harvest words from blog spam.


Spotify And Facebook Take Pandora Down To $10 Even If Sirius Can’t Compete - ekm
http://blogs.forbes.com/greatspeculations/2011/07/24/spotify-and-facebook-take-pandora-down-to-10-even-if-sirius-cant-compete/

======
bradleyland
I have to wonder if anyone on this team has actually used any of these
services, or if this is just some kind of takedown piece? I'm a Sirius
subscriber and a Pandora One subscriber. The _very moment_ that I purchase a
car that offers Pandora integration, Sirius is out the door.

Just like cable vision, Sirius has hundreds of channels full of music I really
don't want to listen to. Meanwhile, I drop an artist or song name in to
Pandora and magically, I have hours of quality listening available. It's
amazing. The Music Genome Project is Pandora's most powerful asset. It allows
them to piece together relevent music, even for edge cases.

My Spotify invite come through yet, so I haven't had a chance to use their
service, but it strikes me as a little bit different use case. Spotify appears
to allow you to listen to specific music. That's not really how I use Pandora,
and I think there's room for both:

Spotify - a replacement for purchasing thousands of dollars of music that I'll
only listen to for a few months.

Pandora - a replacement for the radio that plays music I don't like.

As someone who uses two out of three of these services, I don't see Sirius
sticking around long once 3G data service is common place in automobiles.
Additionally, I think there's room in the market for Spotify _and_ Pandora,
both of which fill different needs. I still buy music from iTMS, but I'd jump
at a fixed price solution like Spotify. I still want to listen to "random"
music that fits my tastes while at my desk or driving.


How to watch the Olympics, live, from the United States - bradgessler
http://bearsfightingbears.com/how-to-watch-the-olympics-live-from-the-united-states
======
avolcano
Kinda seems more like "how to watch the Olympics for $20" (or more - I don't
know quite how many games are available, and at what quality, from the BBC,
but I feel like you could potentially use over 200 gigs of transfer in
watching them).

Many actual VPNs are somewhat cheaper, and just as simple to set up.

Of course, paying money to a third-party to watch BBC feels as insane and dumb
as ever. You'd think that they'd start looking into overseas subscriptions at
this point. Nevermind the IOC - why can't they offer anything on Pay-Per-View?
Both are great alternative sources of income they're passing up, instead
essentially encouraging piracy and sending money to third parties instead!

~~~
kristofferR
Just use these two DNS servers, they're free and takes no effort to get
working:

Primary DNS: 64.250.122.104

Secondary DNS: 199.167.30.144

~~~
sch1zo
you probably should mention the guys providing the service. These DNS Servers
are from <http://tunlr.net/> and you shouldn't use these Server permanantly
because they do DNS Traffic shaping

------
coderrr
Or you could sign up at <https://www.privateinternetaccess.com> for our VPN
with two UK gateways for 6.95 for one month. Cheaper and much easier to setup.

And from what I remember flash does not follow the system SOCKS proxy
settings: [http://coderrr.wordpress.com/2009/07/29/how-to-force-
flash-o...](http://coderrr.wordpress.com/2009/07/29/how-to-force-flash-or-any-
program-to-use-a-socks-proxy-using-transocks-and-iptables-in-linux/)

~~~
jevinskie
For the price of a fast food lunch I decided to try it out. I appreciate the
many supported protocols. The L2TP w/ IPSec VPN works just fine in OS X. The
streaming quality was quite good and the online offerings from the BBC puts
NBC's broadcasts to shame! I couldn't find a commercial either... is that
really the case and I'm just a shellshocked American who hasn't seen the BBC
in the UK before?

~~~
k-mcgrady
No commercials. The BBC is funded by UK taxpayers through a license fee (about
£12 per month).

~~~
egwor
So it basically means that everyone doing this is breaching various licensing
agreements

~~~
jevinskie
Yes, I would love to be able to pay the BBC some amount to watch their iPlayer
broadcasts of the Olympics but I'm sure NBC would never let that happen.

------
cdalonzo
Or you could just download TunnelBear <http://www.tunnelbear.com>, set it to
UK, and go to <http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/tv/bbc_one_london/watchlive>

Why go through all that trouble?

------
binaryorganic
This is spam. First step is a referral link to linode.com.

~~~
bradgessler
Its not. I just put a disclosure at the bottom of the post and would like to
donate whatever the referrals are to an anti-censorship organization, assuming
Linode can make that happen.

~~~
ceol
The bottom of the post isn't where you linked the referral. Pretty shady
behavior, honestly.

------
kristofferR
Just use <http://tunlr.net/> 's DNS servers - it's completely free and with no
signup required, takes 20 sec to add.

Primary DNS: 64.250.122.104

Secondary DNS: 199.167.30.144

~~~
pacemkr
This doesn't work. I get "The content does not seem to be working." when
trying to load the stream.

------
voyou
NBC are streaming all the events live at <http://www.nbcolympics.com/> ,
although you need to have a cable/satellite TV subscription to access the
streams. The complaints about them not showing events live on TV are
legitimate (not to mention their editing out the tribute to the victims of the
7/7 bombing during the opening ceremony), but there's an easier solution for
most people in the US than the one in this article.

------
ck2
I know this won't be popular but is it actually a right to watch the Olympics
live?

Like movies in theaters I just ignore the hype and wait six months for either
redbox or netflix to get it.

~~~
alayne
It's obviously not a fundamental human right to have access to Olympic
programming. However the way in which they delay programming and restrict
access seems manipulative which I file under unethical.

~~~
AffableSpatula
No, not unethical, just plain idiotic. But illegally watching a free TV
station at the cost of another country's tax payers is definitely unethical.

~~~
wamatt
Who says it's coming at a cost? There is a very real chance the BBC have fixed
sized pipes already paid for, that are not even close to being fully utilized.

------
w1ntermute
This seems pointless. If you're going to watch BBC content without paying
their licensing fee, you might as well torrent it - that way you're not using
up their bandwidth.

~~~
streptomycin
Where are these torrents, with high quality video posted in near real time?

EDIT: I'm half serious, I wouldn't mind seeing Phelps lose, I missed it live.
I'm an American, the NBC video website doesn't let me log in for some reason
even though I have a valid account that worked yesterday (no error message, it
just brings me back to the login screen every time), and they seem to be
scrubbing YouTube quite well.

~~~
w1ntermute
My private tracker has 720p recordings of events 10-15 minutes after they end.

~~~
streptomycin
So when you said "this seems pointless", you meant "this seems pointless if
you have access to some particular private bittorrent tracker". I trust you
can see the difference there :)

~~~
w1ntermute
Getting access to a private tracker isn't that hard, and you can probably find
the stuff on EZTV anyway.

~~~
supercanuck
We are all ears.

------
activepeanut
After you setup your proxy, you can quickly enable it from a script using
this:

      networksetup -setsocksfirewallproxystate Ethernet0 on

And disable it using this:

      networksetup -setsocksfirewallproxystate Ethernet0 off

------
growt
Or you could use Hide My Ass, they have a summer special starting at $9,99 for
a week. <http://hidemyass.com/vpn/r3906/> (disclaimer: affiliate link)

~~~
wamatt
I'd recommend witopia over HMA.

------
irq
This doesn't actually work, not using latest Flash on Mountain Lion anyway.
This, however, does work:

<https://gist.github.com/3195652>

------
c16
For those looking for cheaper VPS's, <http://www.lowendbox.com/tag/uk> has a
big list of 'low end box'es.

I'm having problems connecting, this link might be better:
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?sugexp=chrome,m...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?sugexp=chrome,mod=10&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=cache%3Awww.lowendbox.com%2Ftag%2Fuk)

------
cesart
Thanks for the step-by-step, but I think you should mention in the blog post
that you're including a referral link. At least @irq is transparent about it.

------
Sidnicious
This reminds me of the steps a friend of mine took as a cable nonsubscriber to
watch Yankees games from New York City.

MLB.com lets you subscribe and watch games online but Yankee games are blocked
in NYC due to the team's exclusivity agreement with their own cable channel.
I'm waiting for him to write a post about his solution (it involves both a VPN
and an FM radio).

------
itsme995
Pretty easy. Took me 2 minutes to set it up (I already have VPS).

But Live streaming is also available on Youtube:
<http://www.youtube.com/user/olympic> .Why are you not using that? Isn't it
accessible in US?

~~~
djthorpe
Live streaming from the IOC on YouTube is only available in 64 countries where
there aren't exclusive broadcaster rights. All of those countries are in
Africa or Asia, so not available in the US alas.

------
temptemp123
Use a vpn and use <http://www.eurovisionsports.tv/london2012/index.html>

Enter bbc into the playlist box and voila.

------
alokm
I just bought a 32 mb vps. That is more than enough for openvpn. It was only
0.5$/m. For slightly more you can get a decent one outside US.

------
apenwarr
openvpn is hard. Use sshuttle instead.


Send a fart in a jar - zavulon
http://sendajart.com/#Wrapper

======
jgeorge
Perfect for... "white people"


Petition to Eliminate Gerrymandering by Using an Open Source Algorithm - Floegipoky
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/eliminate-gerrymandering-using-fair-open-source-and-reproducible-algorithm-draw-congressional-districts
======
grizzles
Insert loud horn noise here. Didn't use the catch phrase "Drain the Swamp" to
get traction. NEXT.

------
LorenPechtel
Still showing only one signature. I suspect Trump fried the system.

~~~
Floegipoky
Author here. Though I obviously can't be certain, I suspect the reason it's
still showing 1 signature is that the petition hasn't crossed the threshold
where it becomes publicly searchable.

I'm not sure what's going to come of this petition; I'm not a political
organizer, I don't have mailing lists of people to forward this to. I'm just a
young engineer who thought it was a real shame that nobody has been talking
about practical, long-term solutions to the real problems that are facing our
country. I think this is exactly the type of problem we should be applying
technology to solve. If you agree, please sign the petition. Your signature
will help this reach beyond my personal network and be seen by people who
don't already know about the research that's been done in this area. Even if
it just encourages a few more people to read up on what gerrymandering is and
how it affects our representation I'll consider it a win. I'd also really like
to encourage people reading this to talk about it with their family and
friends. As a species we've made technological advances in so many areas: how
we communicate, how we heal each other, how we kill each other. It's high time
we start applying technology to affect positive change in our governance as
well.

------
seanp2k2
How long before they 404 this subdomain?

~~~
dragonwriter
It's quite useful to let people sign themselves up for an enemies list.


Nokia 3310 hands-on - asymmetric
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/02/nokia-3310-hands-on-its-hard-not-to-like-this-modern-take-on-the-feature-phone/
======
throwaway000002
This would be my "primary driver" had they implemented LTE, GPS, and no-
nonsense USB tethering.

I don't need, nor want, anything else.

Also, get off my lawn.

------
Koshkin
3310 (the original) was my first mobile phone. It was OK. Flip phones were
much nicer though, even the ones with the antenna sticking out - which, in
fact, made them even cooler looking. I loved my Motorola-made one (not the
RAZR; VA76R, was it?). It was perfect.

------
ctack
This is really attractive, SD card, bluetooth, long battery life. But there is
no GPS, so no maps. That's a lot to compromise.

Seems they really went all out in not making it a smart phone replacement.

------
hprotagonist
burner for border crossings.

Finally, a phone for older relatives that doesn't suck.

------
LostWanderer
What are the possibilities of application development in feature phones? Are
we seeing the return of feature phones with possible voice functions in the
very near future.

------
ufmace
Pretty cool! Be interesting to see how many of the internet "grumpy old men"
complaining about modern smartphones buy them in first-world countries.

~~~
nom
I really want to see them succeed, too. Considering that used Nokia 3310 and
3330 are still sold for around 50 Euro on Amazon or eBay here in Germany, it's
fair to assume that there is a real market for new "dumbphones".

------
anotheryou
If only it had a keyboard. I bet people just forgot about the pain of T9


VirtualBox hotfix now available for OS X 10.8.2 problem - isaacsu
https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/10965#comment:21
======
mitchellh
Let me go over the anatomy of the actual bug, to the best of my understanding,
so that people can better understanding what is going on here. Note that I'm
the Vagrant creator, not a VirtualBox hacker, not a kernel hacker (though I've
had my fair share of both in the past few years).

There is a feature of Intel CPUs called VT-x extensions. Without going into
detail: VT-x is set of features built natively into some intel processors to
improve virtualization. Any recent desktop/laptop Intel processor has these.
For reasons unknown to me, these extensions are typically disabled by default.
VirtualBox, VMWare, Parallels all contain code to enable these automatically
for you. Enabling VT-x extensions requires ring-0 (kernel level) API calls.
Therefore, it is up to the kernel extension to enable these.

Mac OS X 10.6 and greater supports native kernel APIs for doing this[1]. Prior
to 10.6, you'd have to directly query the CPUs and modify CPU registers
yourself, and icky business prone to some massive failure. Native APIs are
pretty nice. In Darwin (the OS X kernel), these APIs are `host_vmxon` and
`host_vmxoff`. These are very easy to use, you just call them. Mac OS X does
all the internal accounting to verify that the CPU supports VT-x, VT-x isn't
already enabled, etc. It also supports this feature called _exclusive_ access
to VT-x. By passing `true` to `host_vmxon`, you're requesting _exclusive_
access to the VT-x extensions. If this succeeds, then until you call
`host_vmxoff` again, no other application can call `host_vmxon` (a
`VMX_IN_USE` error is returned).

It turns out that Mac OS X 10.8.2 on Ivy Bridge CPUs has a bug where this
accounting is broken. No application actually is using VT-x extensions but
`host_vmon` returns `VMX_IN_USE` anyways. This is what broke VirtualBox in
10.8.2. Now, I do want to note that this is 100% an Apple issue. VirtualBox
was using a publicly exposed API at the kernel level and assuming that such an
API would be stable. I would say this is a safe assumption. Unfortunately,
here we are with the situation we have today.

Now, you must be asking: But I heard (or saw) that VMWare and Parallels were
not affected by this issue! How did that happen? In time, friends, in time. I
will explain this soon.

Next, on to how VirtualBox worked around this issue. The changeset[2] is
pretty simple. As part of the kernel driver initialize process, VirtualBox now
calls the new method `vboxdrvDarwinResolveSymbols`. This function breaks
across kernel module boundaries and searches the kernel space for a named
symbol, even if that symbol is not exported for public access. Specifically,
it searches for the symbols "vmx_resume," "vmx_suspend," and "vmx_use_count."
The first two are functions, the last is a global variable. These are the
exact same APIs that the _publicly_ exposed `host_vmxon` and `host_vmxoff`
call, but without the accounting or exclusivity feature.

So now, as part of the VMM (Virtual Machine Manager), which sits in ring-0, it
will call these methods directly rather than using the `host_vmxon` function.
This avoids the accounting bug that is in the kernel of 10.8.2, and we have a
functional VirtualBox.

So how did VMWare and Parallels continue to function properly? Since they're
not open source and I don't have the energy to DTrace them right now, I'll
just say there are only two options. First, they can use the approach
VirtualBox is now using where they search for kernel symbols of unexposed APIs
and call those. Second, they can query and modify the CPU registers directly
that have to do with VT-x support.

Based solely on my conversations with hypervisor developers at VMWare, I'm
going to go with #2. The Fusion hypervisor is the same code as the vSphere
hypervisor, workstation hypervisor, etc. It is all one big awesome hypervisor
that is meant to run on all sorts of hardware out there. Because of this, I
imagine that they have had built-in support for years for detecting various
CPU models and manually enabling VT-x extensions, rather than relying on
kernel-specific APIs. This is just more portable and flexible for them.

Anyways, the issue appears fixed and huge credit to the Oracle VirtualBox team
which got this out the door in no time.

[1]:
[http://www.opensource.apple.com/source/xnu/xnu-2050.9.2/osfm...](http://www.opensource.apple.com/source/xnu/xnu-2050.9.2/osfmk/i386/vmx/vmx_cpu.c)

[2]: <https://www.virtualbox.org/changeset/43379/vbox>

~~~
0x0
I'm curious to understand why only Ivy Bridge CPUs are affected, especially if
this is a software accounting/refcounting bug. Also, there was talk about this
not being an 10.8.2 bug, but a result of an EFI firmware upgrade. Anyone have
any insight?

~~~
mitchellh
I'm not sure why only Ivy Bridge.

I can say though that the EFI firmware didn't cause the bug, but in fact the
10.8.2 software upgrade did.

------
eli
Credit where it's due: that was pretty fast.

~~~
iAmSpartacus
Yeah, amazing work. I had to actually use MAMP for my web development work was
a temporarily workaround instead of Vagrant and it was painful.

------
hopeless
Superb work! I just got prompted today to update my firmware and declined,
wondering when I would be able to update it again.

------
densone
VirtualBox, delivering Kernel Panics since 2007.

~~~
atopuzov
And tainting the kernel ;)