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Ask HN: What blogging platform do you use for your startup? - capex
I am deciding between using Wordpress, Octopress or something else. Would love to have HN readers' thoughts on this.
======
thenomad
Hosted Wordpress.
Wordpress on a self-hosted server is a world of pain unless you're prepared to
spend significant resources on optimising it and keeping it up to date. And
entertainingly, if you fail to keep it up to date the result is usually a
rooted server, sooner or later.
However, outsourcing the hosting to people who do WP and nothing else removes
most of those headaches and makes it a very time-effective platform.
Personally I use WP Engine for my hosting (I wrote about why over here:
[http://www.mmomeltingpot.com/2012/03/wpengine-review-
after-1...](http://www.mmomeltingpot.com/2012/03/wpengine-review-
after-1-month-and-250k-visitors-is-this-the-best-wordpress-hosting-money-can-
buy/)) but there's a lot of options out there.
------
dpaluy
I will share my experience working with both Platforms.
TL:DR; Non programmers should use Wordpress
When you are working in a small team of developers, and each one can "hack the
code" Octopress is a natural environment. You can host it on AWS S3 or Github
pages and the setup is simple.
But when your marketing fellows start using it, Octopress is usually too
complicated for them. Wordpress is more non-programmer friendly. And it has
much more plugins and extensions.
Too summarize it: IMHO, Wordpress would be a better solution, unless you don't
plan to hire marketers.
~~~
capex
So far its just me marketing. But for a team of people involved with the blog,
probably Wordpress is a safer bet.
------
pathy
I've almost always used Wordpress for everything. It is simple to use, easy to
customize and has a lot of plugins etc that may be very useful depending on
your needs.
Why reinvent the wheel so to say. Wordpress is widely used and seems to do the
job well in most situations. Especially if the users responsible for the blog
are non-technical, don't make it harder than it has to be to write those
posts.
~~~
peacemaker
I was using Wordpress for my blog until I installed New Relic and got to see
how bloated and slow it is. Yes, I installed various caching and performance
plugins but it always felt a bit slow.
I'm still looking for something extremely light weight that I can plug into an
existing website (rather than take over the entire code base) but until then
I'm just using a simple 'blog' that I wrote myself.
------
mjhea0
I've used a number of static site generators and have stuck with
[http://ruhoh.com/](http://ruhoh.com/). It's easy to use and customize for
those who want/need an easy solution.
Meanwhile, it's still young enough that I can hack away at it to meet my
specific needs. Love it.
"Ruhoh’s goal is to offer a universal, platform-agnostic static blog API. I
like how it uses mustache templating and incorporates tag-based blogging
without plugins."
------
AbhishekBiswal
Stay away from self hosted blogging platforms. What if your server goes down
and you want to update your users with what's happening? There are many other
options available : Tumblr ( Many startups use it ), Blogger, and more.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Theoretical Computer Science for the Working Category Theorist [pdf] - aq3cn
https://arxiv.org/abs/1710.03090
======
mathgenius
The thing is, any "working category theorist" can see the objects and
morphisms of a category from a mile away and don't really need these things
pointed out. This paper seems to be a fairly superficial dressing of some
computer science ideas using category theory language. No mention of natural
transforms, which is the real meat of category theory (or at least, the first
layer of meat.) No mention of monads or adjunctions. And these things play a
big part in theoretical computer science (eg. Denotational Semantics.) I'm not
saying it's a bad paper, but it doesn't deserve this title, or at least, needs
much more justification for why it should have this title. Digging a bit
deeper I do see some limit diagrams, but still, this is fairly easy stuff to
see for the expert.
~~~
jimhefferon
Can you name a better source?
~~~
danharaj
For a professional category theorist interested in theoretical computer
science? The thing is, they could easily just dive into reading some papers on
the subject. The intuition and mechanical skill of category theory is easily
adapted to thinking about computation. Here are some relatively introductory
treatments of some parts of CS in category theory:
Introduction to Higher-Order Categorical Logic - Lambek and Scott
Categorical Logic from a categorical point of view - Mike Shulman [0]
Classical Lambda Calculus in Modern Dress - Martin Hyland [1]
Computer Science page on the nlab - great place to get lost [2]
[0]
[http://mikeshulman.github.io/catlog/catlog.pdf](http://mikeshulman.github.io/catlog/catlog.pdf)
[1] [https://arxiv.org/abs/1211.5762](https://arxiv.org/abs/1211.5762)
[2]
[https://ncatlab.org/nlab/show/computer+science](https://ncatlab.org/nlab/show/computer+science)
------
100ideas
I'm enjoying the Category Theory party this week on HN!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Amazon.co.uk Live Search (beta) - wintorez
http://quickriver.herokuapp.com/
======
mjking
Nice job! Do you have this on github? I'd love to use this code on a similar
movie search project.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Social Skydiving Days 18-20: Winners are Made of Fail - darkxanthos
http://socialskydivingwithjustin.posterous.com/social-skydiving-days-18-20-winners-are-made
======
darkxanthos
Glad to see this is getting a good response. This is a rough draft of a
personal experience essay I wrote for my English class. It's got plenty of
flaws and was scary to publish in such an imperfect form but in my mind it's
the most important post I've written.
Thanks again for reading guys.
~~~
cema
Thanks. And no excuses! :-)
~~~
darkxanthos
Haha touché!
------
nudded
I love the "Winners are made of fail, losers of excuses" point. It really is
true that if you don't fail and always come up with excuses, you'll never win.
Really great to see you honestly blogging about your life.
------
tel
I've never been too socially anxious, so I wouldn't have felt this article —
while inspiring — was very pertinent to me. It has a more general message
though: if you feel anxious, the only route to recovery is by passing through
it.
I'm currently living in a foreign country making due with limited language
skills and my experiences learning to use the language in a real situation
mirror this Social Skydiving experiment. You have to find the fun in failure.
~~~
cema
"You have to find the fun in failure." -- Yes, that helps! And, on the
contrary, it is too easy to enjoy excuses and pet grudges. Let's grow good
habits and grow out of bad ones.
------
carterschonwald
This is a very nice story around on very important point: being nice and
friendly creates tremendous positive externalities, and if people don't react
well, that's their own problem, not yours
------
jacquesm
Hey there Justin,
That's some of the best personal history stuff I've ever read on the internet.
You should seriously consider a writing career, you've got talent to spare.
Thank you for all the insights in your life. My gf who has serious anxieties
about meeting strangers is eating up your writings as soon as a new episode is
posted, and thank you again on her behalf.
j
~~~
darkxanthos
Wow! So even a woman enjoys reading this stuff? I'm glad to hear that. I was
afraid my male orientation would make that harder.
~~~
jacquesm
No, she now alerts me to the new episodes :)
Seriously, you have no idea how much effect your writing has had.
The simple fact that you've been so open about this makes it discussable for
other people, and that in turn can help them to help themselves.
The funny thing is that the day before I found your 10th day installment I
actually had a little 'assignment' worked out where I wanted her to go out and
have a conversation with some random stranger. Then the next day - the day it
was supposed to happen - I found your writings and instead of asking her to go
out and connect with someone I let her read your writing.
I'm quite sure that that was much more effective than one more of my
'harebrained' plans :)
------
rickdangerous
This reminds me of the book "The Game" By Strauss. Setting aside the obvious
objectionable intentions (getting laid) of the pick up artists in that book,
alot of what those guys do is about turning social stituations into hacking
projects. That may sound creepy, but for a lot of people, learning how to
socialise successfully is an important thing. Check it out.
------
psyklic
"She mentioned that she still wanted to go over and watch the band but she
stayed put. I took a stab at failure and left her alone with the other guy at
the bar"
The author did a good job and it worked out well! But in this scenario (where
it is likely she's interested), be confident, stand up from your barstool, nod
your head toward the band, and ask her to join you with a smile!
Otherwise you run the risk of letting her think that you aren't interested.
And, confidence is kinda sexy ;-)
------
calvin
Without failure, there is no success.
Thanks for the insightful story and sharing your experiences. I'm hoping it
provides me the fuel to take a few more risks in social settings than I
typically do.
------
abstractbill
This was a really good read. I had (thankfully!) almost forgotten how
crippling social anxiety can be.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Creating a Hosted Version of an MIT Licensed, Open Source App? - aantix
I've found an open source app on Github that solves a specific development problem that I had really, really well. It's MIT licensed.<p>The author has been working on it for over a year and a half.<p>I would like to start a business with it, creating a hosted version of it.<p>I did reach out to the author and told him my plans. He told me that he would be bummed if I beat him to the punch and creating the service. But I haven't seen him do anything with it that would show progress on a commercial version. I don't know him at all and would not want to partner with him.<p>Should I feel bad about taking an MIT licensed app that I didn't develop and creating a commercial service from the work of someone else?
======
tonic-music
No, you should feel smart. This is what the free in free software is all
about. Making it work for others and hosting it is _your_ work. Go
commercialize it and make your money!
------
bradknowles
And maybe you will give him the incentive he needs to go create his own
competing service, and then both of you will be better off than you were.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Inception explained with the OS X Finder - myusuf3
http://vimeo.com/23066787
======
mthomas
I have to say inception wasn't too difficult to understand. I still don't
understand Primer: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primer_(film)> though.
------
sheraz
The weirdest thing is that I know this guy. And I thought, "Oh, Chris would
love this." Only to find out that this was him. Weird. Agreed to the other guy
about Primer -- I couldn't follow..
------
magnitude
Haha Doha. I was just about to submit this.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why you shouldn't listen to “hasn’t someone done that already?” - rgrieselhuber
http://firewatching.com/ambient/2008/06/06/products-that-wouldnt-exist-if-their-creators-listened-to-hasnt-someone-done-that-already/
======
geebee
This blog reminds me of why I've overlooked a lot of new technologies. Most
people miss the relevance of new things because they don't understand the
technology, but sometimes too much background can work against you as well.
Browsers: Browsers didn't seem like a big deal to me when the first hit the
scene. Ok, yeah, so you download a file over a network and display it in a
client program. Ok, so it has a markup language. Ok, there's a way to send
commands (cgi) to influence which file is sent. Nothing new so far.
Blogs: OK, RSS is cool, but what else is new here? It's a way to post to a
website, right?
Facebook: Ok, so you can search a bunch of web pages and create connections.
Sounds nice. Didn't those guys from "the globe" fail at this during the first
boom?
Humans: Ok, you have an idea for a really smart primate.? They use tools? Ok,
you mean like using a twig to eat ants. Oh, they make tools, you mean like a
crow? I just don't see where you're going with this ;)
etc, etc. Gotta keep an open mind.
------
signa11
Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done, and why. Then
do it.
- lazarus long
~~~
nazgulnarsil
my favorite heinlein book. still on the preachy side, but much less so than
his other works.
------
unalone
What this doesn't state, what really matters, is that if you're going to do
something that's been done already you NEED something that makes your service
unique. If you're pulling a Zooomr and just copying a feature list then you
SHOULD listen to "Hasn't somebody done that already?" as much as you can, and
learn to innovate at least slightly.
/2cents
------
natch
My old boss used to have a long and very well-delivered spiel on the history
of the wheel (literally) and its continual reinvention. One good way to make
the point.
Plus by reinventing, you get to own your work, you learn the problem space,
you develop processes for execution, you train your team, you start collecting
valuable usage data, you position yourself in the market... and all those
reasons are on top of the fact that you can probably make some kick-ass
improvements.
------
astine
This is true but you have to differentiate yourself from the incumbents pretty
significantly to gain any traction. A YouTube clone isn't going to get
anywhere, but a video sharing site that managed to solve a major problem of
YouTube might.
Facebook first became popular by managing to be less tacky than MySpace. It
has since caught up and we now know better than to trust a social networking
site to show anything like dignity.
~~~
mechanical_fish
_A YouTube clone isn't going to get anywhere..._
We all say this, and it feels like it should be true. And yet I am constantly
making use of various "YouTube clones". Google Video. Vimeo. Fora.TV. Whatever
TED is using. uStream. Omnisio. And that's just the ones I can remember from
the last couple of weeks.
Of course, it's somewhat unfair to claim that all of these sites are "YouTube
clones", because each one is different from YouTube in some subtle way (e.g.
some of them emphasize livestreaming). Which is, of course, the point. No
child is ever quite the same as the parent. That's how you can start out with
jellyfish and end up with stockbrokers.
Are these sites "getting anywhere"? Who knows? I'm guessing that many of them
aren't profitable, but how profitable is YouTube itself? What really matters
is whether your site is useful enough, and inexpensive enough, to stay open.
Amoebas don't have to be as large as elephants, as smart as dolphins, or as
sturdy as trees in order to coexist with them -- they just need water, food,
and a modest amount of heat.
~~~
astine
How many of these sites are anywhere near as popular as YouTube? Aside from
Google Video, there isn't one I remember using.
I suppose we just have different standards of 'getting somewhere.'
~~~
OneSeventeen
Do I really need to be as popular as YouTube (even in a different market) to
be a success? Maybe this is what you meant by "different standards of 'getting
somewhere.'" In many arenae, there is some company that has a massive, massive
chunk of the user base tied up. You don't have to displace them, if you want
to make a similar (but different!) app. You just have to get enough going to
make some money, yes?
------
yan
This doesn't only apply to services by the way. Virtual machines in some form
or another were around for about 40 years before the gained the traction they
did. MULTICS supported virtual memory for individual processes in the 60s, and
it wasn't until the 80s until that became popular again.
Ditto for thin clients and programming languages. Good technology won't always
catch on and if you really believe that something is superior you will have to
spend a lot of time convincing people of that.
~~~
anamax
Virtual machines have always been popular in mainframes. It's only minis and
micros that didn't have them until recently. Minis had virtual memory from the
beginning and mainframes had it before minis became popular.
------
sosuke
This is what my startup is all about. The idea is proven and I am just there
to take a piece of the pie. The industry leaders said the market was tapped
out, there was no more room and thats when I decided I needed to become a
player in their game.
~~~
mcxx
There always is more room, but you have to come with something unique,
innovative that makes you better than the rest. We're in the same position.
Hopefully, we have that something. The users will decide.
------
willz
The author must had some success as he completely ignores how many google-
wanna-bes are out there two or three years ago, and then the YouTube-wanna-
bes, the Digg-wanna-bes ... There are always tons of dead-bodies in the wanna-
bes.
I think the key is to avoid the "hot" wanna-be market. Google got into search
when it's not hot. So is YouTube, java, digg ...
~~~
abstractwater
When google came out, search was already hot. Google made it hotter.
~~~
cstejerean
hot to the end user, the major players didnt seem to care much about it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Google "hacker news", see one user's suggestion implemented. - SandB0x
http://imgur.com/nR60Y.png made me chuckle at least. Has it always been like this, or was it in response to http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1492686 ?
======
devmonk
Avatars and dancing hamsters are in-progress, I assume.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
American Airlines International 'Economy' Class - rolld10
http://www.businessinsider.com/american-airlines-international-economy-class-2013-1?op=1#ixzz2JIlmxu88
======
pedalpete
This person clearly hasn't traveled international in a long time and therefore
had very low expectations.
International flights over a certain distance have to serve food.
The only international flight I've been on in the last 3 years which did not
have in-seat entertainment was American Airlines flights.
What surprises me most is that we have been unable to find a seating
configuration which provides a better use of space than just rows of seats.
Seeing as most people would likely be more comfortable lying down, wouldn't it
in some way make more sense to stack people in little pods vertically?
------
mh_yam
I've never been in an international flight without at least one meal, and
these days many long-haul routes have new aircraft with adequate in-flight
entertainment -- yes, even on US carriers. It really depends on the specific
aircraft. I know from experience that some international American 777s do have
power ports in economy (as well as personal monitors). 767s are being retired
or upgraded, and Zurich-New York is not a 'core' route for most airlines so it
makes sense that the equipment was a little dated.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Inside the Chinese Bitcoin Mine That's Making $1.5M a Month - stupandaus
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/chinas-biggest-secret-bitcoin-mine
======
ceallen
Why use the profits from October in the headline of an article published in
February? The cost of bitcoins has nearly halved in the meanwhile. Hope they
had a healthy profit margin before.
------
WizzleKake
I remember reading somewhere that some Chinese miners will mine at a loss
because they can purchase the equipment/energy/cooling/etc in RMB but convert
the BTC into USD, circumventing the country's capital controls.
Does anyone have any more information about this?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Best program ideas/api to learn python - grumps
So let me preface this with, I know there's lots of resources for learning code. That's not the issue. I have the basics but I need to start writing applications/scripts/programs to learn faster. What I'm asking for, is there an API or some basic programs that anyone would suggest I start "practicing" with?
======
acron0
I learnt Python about 18 months ago when a friend of mine handed me a Django
book. In retrospect it was an absolutely fantastic way to learn Python,
especially if you are already familiar with another language or two.
<http://www.djangobook.com/en/2.0/>
------
rednum
I think that Python Koans[1] may be useful for you - I learned some non-
obvious features of language from them.
[1] <https://github.com/gregmalcolm/python_koans>
------
RodgerTheGreat
The most straightforward answers are Project Euler[1] or Rosetta Code[2]. What
are you interested in _making_?
[1] http://projecteuler.net/
[2] http://rosettacode.org/wiki/Category:Programming_Tasks
~~~
grumps
Thanks for the responses.
I took fortran in college (I'm really not that old, 27). I'm really interested
in doing something with photography... not sure what exactly yet.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
“Mindless Eating,” or how to send an entire life of research into question - Sindisil
https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/04/the-peer-reviewed-saga-of-mindless-eating-mindless-research-is-bad-too/
======
tryitnow
Tragically, I bet this is all too common. Wansink's mistake was blogging about
it.
This emblematic of a larger problem with how science is practiced: the
obsessive focus on p-value thresholds leads to irrational practices like
trawling data for interesting "findings."
But on a certain level Wansink was right: a data set is not completely
worthless if it showed a null result. So we need to start thinking about how
to communicate the value of data even when the null is not rejected.
One way to do this is to encourage widespread sharing of data sets regardless
of the outcome of the experiment. Maybe for a given study the data did not
show a definitive result - but does the data point to potential future paths
of study? Maybe another researcher could get ideas for new experiments.
~~~
StavrosK
> a data set is not completely worthless if it showed a null result.
Why is a null result worthless? I don't understand. It goes against my common
sense that paying more for food doesn't make you eat more. The fact that this
is not the case is valuable knowledge to me. I understand that it's not as
glamorous as "paying more makes you eat less!", but it's still valuable
knowledge that should be published.
~~~
KingMob
Null results are "worthless" only in the sense that they're harder, if not
impossible, to publish, and do less for your career.
As a former neuroscientist, I had a unicorn data set of intracranial EEG data,
and we'd spent so much time collecting it, that we were determined to find
_something_. I left grad school before we found anything of interest. I
believe my former prof eventually published _something_ on it, but I analyzed
the shit out of it, even knowing I was fishing, because so much time would
have been lost to not use it.
Fishing like this was one of the reasons I left. The pursuit of knowledge and
the pursuit of your career don't align often enough.
To me, what's unusual is not that Wansink pushed to keep analyzing the data,
but that he was called out for it. _Everyone_ seemed to be doing it when I was
in academia.
~~~
noobhacker
I feel the same way about current practice research, but find that industry
standards are even more abysmal in terms of fishing. What field are you in now
that you find an acceptable level of rigor?
~~~
KingMob
Hah, well, I returned to software dev, so I'm not too worried about research
rigor these days.
------
badosu
This is something that irritates me to the point of irrationality.
Why so many people spend so much time and resources on $name diets,
questionable research, news about how 'xyz' is good for you while 'abc' is
bad, exercises to eliminate calories in 30 days, exercises to remove localized
fat etc? All of this is shown to be evidently bullshit for decades for the
minimally rational observer.
Meanwhile the knowledge of what works is blatantly obvious: the energy
expenditure must be higher than the intake. Having a healthy diet and exercise
regimen along that is highly desirable but not strictly necessary, stating
this just because understanding the core concept is more important than
sheepishly believing the latest fad. Also that this is a process that takes a
lot of time and is not a one-off procedure but a process of learning life-
changing habits.
I'd like to remark that this is not easy at all! In fact is really hard due to
the inherent biological and societal tricks that play on our minds. But if
people are already suffering psychologically and financially with this, why
don't just try the basics?
I understand how this is incentivized by an industry that extracts money from
desperate people trying very hard to feel accepted by what society indicates
as an acceptable and desirable appearance. The irony is that the failure of
their latest hope is what makes them unable to understand that the problem is
much simpler (not easy), and only try again on a more desperate attempt with
the latest extreme measure.
At least if people would be honest enough to blame themselves for their bad
habits (lack of a healthy diet and exercise regimen) they could start the
process of accepting what they are as a result of their choices, and finally
notice that they have some agency on this.
I am not talking here about existent mental and biological disorders of course
and would not downplay their role.
Sorry for the rant, the only way I can rationalize that this exists is that
there are people that deny the existence of climate change.
~~~
CharlesW
> _Meanwhile the knowledge of what works is blatantly obvious: the energy
> expenditure must be higher than the intake._
This is like saying about the poor, "What works is blatantly obvious: Poor
people just need to increase income or reduce expenditures. Boom! Poverty
solved."
The secret is that _this isn 't the problem_. The actual problem that fat
people must solve is not _what_ to do, but _how_ to do it, both in the short-
and long-term.
> _Having a healthy diet and exercise regimen along that is highly desirable
> but not strictly necessary..._
1,000 calories of cupcake are 1,000 calories of chicken breast are, in theory,
the same amount of energy. In practice, diet and exercise considerations are
integral aspects of the actual problem that fat people must solve.
Example: For some, exercise is actually counter-productive and causes more
hunger. For others, exercise is a crucial part of success.
Example: For some, calorie restriction can be done with no particular
attention paid to the balance of carbs, proteins, and fats. For others, a low-
carb diet means lower hunger/higher satiation for longer and is a must for
success.
~~~
badosu
> The secret is that this isn't the problem. The actual problem that fat
> people must solve is not what to do, but how to do it, both in the short-
> and long-term.
You're right, it just gets to my nerves as this is a source of huge suffering
to most people and there's an industry specialized to prey on this.
~~~
CharlesW
Couldn't agree more!
~~~
badosu
I just want to point out that this is not restricted to 'fat' people, but a
great majority of people who feel a huge pressure to adhere to a physical
appearance standard without the proper education of how to get there and
maintain it.
------
cm2012
PSA I always post into weight threads: Every legitimate long term study of non
surgical weight loss shows that it doesn't happen for the vast, vast majority
of people.
1) ["In controlled settings, participants who remain in weight loss programs
usually lose approximately 10% of their weight. However, one third to two
thirds of the weight is regained within 1 year, and almost all is regained
within 5 years.
"]([http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1580453](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1580453))
2) Giant meta study of long term weight loss: ["Five years after completing
structured weight-loss programs, the average individual maintained a weight
loss of >3% of initial body
weight."]([http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/74/5/579.full](http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/74/5/579.full))
3) Less Scientific: [Weight Watcher's Failure - "about two out of a thousand
Weight Watchers participants who reached goal weight stayed there for more
than five years."]([https://fatfu.wordpress.com/2008/01/24/weight-
watchers/](https://fatfu.wordpress.com/2008/01/24/weight-watchers/))
4) [The reason why it's impossible seems to be that although calories in <
calories out works, the body of a fat person makes it extremely difficult
psychologically to eat
less.]([http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/tara-parker-
pope-...](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/tara-parker-pope-fat-
trap.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all)) This is borne out by the above data.
5) [The only thing that does seem to work in the long term is gastric
surgery.]([http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1421028/](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1421028/))
Moreover, you won't find any reputable study on the web where the average
person lost 10%+ of their body weight and kept it off for five years. Not even
one.
~~~
drewcrawford
> Moreover, you won't find any reputable study on the web where the average
> person lost 10%+ of their body weight and kept it off for five years. Not
> even one.
Of course there is:
[http://www.nwcr.ws/Research/published%20research.htm](http://www.nwcr.ws/Research/published%20research.htm).
Here's a good question: other than the fact that these people lost weight,
what is identifiably unusual about them?
~~~
npsimons
Was going to link to the National Weight Control Registry, thanks! I'll just
add that all those studies in GP seem to prove is that A) weight loss
_programs_ (especially fad diets) don't work and B) it is a psychological
issue. There are plenty of people on MFP, /r/loseit or just counting calories
themselves that have successfully kept off weight for years. I'm one of them.
In case someone out there is serious about losing weight and not making
excuses, here's how you calculate your actual TDEE:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/leangains/comments/2rv09z/this_is_h...](https://www.reddit.com/r/leangains/comments/2rv09z/this_is_how_you_calculate_your_tdee/)
~~~
js2
Many times I'll read a story of someone who lost weight and kept it off. And
then they detail their pre weight-loss diet and I think, well of course you
were overweight. You were inactive and had a terrible diet (sugary drinks,
processed foods, etc). You started getting some exercise and learned a few
things about nutrition and the weight fell off.
But then there are others who seem to do everything right and are over weight
in spite of that.
For example. I was never overweight as a kid and relatively active. In college
and for the start of my career, I stopped being active and my diet was awful
(e.g. I thought a large Jamba Juice smoothie and a carrot cake was a healthy
breakfast choice). My weight ballooned up to almost 190 lbs (20+ lbs
overweight), my blood pressure went up, I started having rosacea.
I started running and fixed my diet. Quickly my weight dropped down to 150 and
I've kept it in the 140-150 range for over a decade. The other health issues
cleared up as well. But it wasn't hard work for me. Being thin is my natural
state if you will, and I had to do everything wrong to stay overweight.
My wife meanwhile continues to struggle with her weight. She's successfully
lost weight through extremely diligent calorie counting, but after a year or
so she starts to put it back on. I have never counted calories. Our diets are
similar (in kind, not quantity of course, she eats much less than me). She is
active, but not quite as active as me. So similar diet and life styles, but my
weight stays off and hers does not.
Hereditarily, no one in my family is over weight. There is obesity on both
sides of her heredity.
And I see this playing out in our kids. My son has an athletic build and will
probably never have weight issues. My daughter takes after her mom and it will
take a life time of diligence for her to remain at a healthy weight.
It seems that some people are optimized for famine, and some for feast. :-(
Obviously there are a lot of factors involved in the growing obesity crises.
But I feel for people who struggle with their weight despite doing all the
right things, I really do.
~~~
atomical
The food tastes too damn good! I've only been overweight because of binging
and poor eating. I've never eaten in a normal, healthy way, and gained weight.
Calories are such that if you screw up once per week (birthday party, company
event, family dinner) that could mean you gain weight if you eat regularly the
rest of the days.
------
panglott
'Why did peer review not catch this? “Because peer review doesn’t do this,”
Heathers told Ars. The point of peer review has always been for fellow
scientists to judge whether a paper is of reasonable quality; reviewers aren't
expected to perform an independent analysis of the data. ...In fact, without
open data—something that’s historically been hit-or-miss—it would be
impossible for peer reviewers to validate any numbers.'
It doesn't seem unreasonable to think that the peer review process should
include a statistician or someone who can review the statistics.
~~~
andrewla
> In fact, without open data ... it would be impossible for peer reviewers to
> validate any numbers
Even this is not sufficient -- the fact is that this is a methodological
statistical error, not a mathematical statistical error.
The mistake is thinking that a dataset alone can yield data supporting a
hypothesis derived from that dataset, rather than deriving a testable
hypothesis from an existing dataset, and then gathering new data to validate.
I would say the only way that you could publish results derived from an
existing data source is if you also published all the null results you got
along the way when examining the data set; but this is not really a feasible
thing to print in a publication; either the list would be very long and thus
it would be clear that some sort of p-hacking was involved, or the list would
be short and accidental or intentional omission would be suspected.
This dramatically reduces the amount of useful results that can be squeezed
from a dataset, which is unfortunate, as many of them are hard to gather in
the first place. It might be necessary to protect these datasets better -- to
restrict access conditional on specifying the hypothesis being tested with the
requirement that all results, including null results, be recorded, even if
only in summary form if the results are not interesting enough to be accepted
for publication or to be worth the effort of composing into a quality research
paper.
~~~
danso
> _Even this is not sufficient -- the fact is that this is a methodological
> statistical error, not a mathematical statistical error._
That said, Wansink's papers had plenty of mathematical statistical errors that
were evident without access to the original data, as documented in the
mentioned "Statistical Heartburn" preprint:
[https://peerj.com/preprints/2748.pdf](https://peerj.com/preprints/2748.pdf)
~~~
andrewla
Very much so -- I had only read the first part of the article when I wrote
this reply, having read the whole thing now (and the linked pizza paper) I'm
more than a little horrified at what can, in the most optimistic case, be
described as extreme carelessness.
I have a pre-existing bias against papers relating to nutrition science, and
this looks worse even than I expect. I would love to see a treatment that
looks at especially noteworthy research in the area that passes a rigorous
methodological review, much less has been replicated with any reliability.
------
tonmoy
If the academic world let scientists publish their validation of the null
hypothesis, then they wouldn't go out of their way to "deep dive" into data to
look for other hypothesis to prove!
------
jm__87
Feel like we really approach the whole dieting process incorrectly. People eat
to fulfill a need. They are either hungry and eat to no longer feel hungry or
they eat because it produces positive feelings (whether this is to negate
negative feelings or just to enhance your already good mood).
Hunger is your body signalling your brain that you need nutrients. If you eat
foods that cover all your nutrient requirements for a low number of calories
and your body is taking up these nutrients properly, then you should have no
problems. Thus it makes sense to inform people which foods they need to be
eating as well as educate people on which disorders can cause poor nutrient
uptake.
If you suffer from stress and you eat high calorie foods to feel better,
changing your diet is likely going to exacerbate your stress, not make you
feel better. I feel this is the case for many who are overweight.. stress
management strategies should be the first priority as you won't be able to
handle changing your diet for the long term until you get your stress under
control.
~~~
temp246810
This doesn't even begin to get into the effects different macronutrients have
on you. It's a complicated subject that has reached religion-like levels of
zealotry.
------
js2
The article makes Wansink seem negligent and/or incompetent. Also, the
embedded "CBS This Morning" video is cringeworthy. It appears that the
recommendations in his book amount to "study normal weight people; do what
they do." Isn't that fraught with survivorship bias? Do the recommendations in
his book control for people that have the same habits but still end up
overweight?
Anecdote: my household is a family of four. Myself and my wife, and our two
teenage kids, daughter and son. Since we live together, the answers to the 10
questions on [http://www.slimbydesign.com/get-
scored/](http://www.slimbydesign.com/get-scored/) are the same for the
household. My son and I are normal weight. My wife and daughter are
overweight. Conclusion: weight has very little to do with the design of your
kitchen. Caveat: this conclusion has not been peer reviewed and is not
scientifically sound.
~~~
npsimons
> Isn't that fraught with survivorship bias?
It is, but it's not a completely invalid starting point. Even better is to
study people who were once fat, but lost weight and keep it off. This is what
the National Weight Control Registry does. It's similar to studies that have
tried to pin down why marriages fail. Most studies focus on what went _wrong_
in failed marriages, but some of the most helpful suggestions have come from
what people who stay married do.
> My son and I are normal weight. My wife and daughter are overweight.
Do your wife and daughter eat the same portions as you and your son? It's a
common complaint of women, who are on average shorter than men and therefore
need fewer calories, that they can't eat as much as their significant others.
~~~
js2
> Do your wife and daughter eat the same portions as you and your son
No. I expand on that a bit here -
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14196631](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14196631)
------
draw_down
The Last Psychiatrist talked about this sometimes. The problem is not just
that the original studies need to be rescinded, or discredited going forward.
The problem is what do you do about everything that cited them, that took the
knowledge in the faulty papers and used it as a foundation for more knowledge?
The faulty ideas in the paper have permeated out to researchers and
(sometimes) the broader culture generally, what do you do about that?
[http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2009/10/the_problem_with_scie...](http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2009/10/the_problem_with_science_is_sc.html)
------
astrobase_go
I think what's needed is a strategy for making actual data analysis an easier
and more visible component of the peer-review and publishing process.
Submissions are typically sent to three people for review, and the decision to
accept or reject is made based on the feedback or criticism given. If the
reviewers are busy, overworked professors, they may not have the time to
really perform a deep dive into the data and conduct an independent analysis.
Furthermore, it's likely these submissions don't include enough data for a
proper statistical review.
This is the 21st century, where most if not all reputable journals have an
online presence and submission portal. It would be great if authors had to
upload their anonymized data sets in a common format (.csv?) that can easily
be imported into statistical analysis packages (ex: Minitab, read into R,
etc). Journals provide analysis and test recommendations, reviewers run the
tests, upload their independent analysis results as part of the review
process. The idea here is to produce something like an auditable paper trail.
There has to be some sort of solution for this problem, especially in 2017.
Hiding behind shitty (or worse, deceitful) data analysis shouldn't be
possible.
------
Animats
_" Trawling through data, running lots of statistical tests, and looking only
for significant results is bound to turn up some false positives."_
That's most of the field of macroeconomics. It's all data analysis, not
controlled experimentation.
~~~
mcguire
I was just about to ask, isn't that how data science works?
~~~
beagle3
Proper data science (for example, bayesian analysis done right) takes that
into account, and would generally not score random finds as remarkable.
But doing that is hard, so most people don't even try ...
yes, practically, that's how modern data science works.
------
kwhitefoot
> Many scientists receive only cursory training in statistics,
This seems to be true (at least I have many younger colleagues who are
woefully ill informed about even basic stats.) but it's very strange.
Most of what I learned of statistics, including tests for significance and
regression, I learned in senior high school at the age of 17.
Learning not to search of correlations like this is pretty much equivalent to
ensuring that you do not over fit your data set which is surely such
conventional wisdom that no one getting a scientific education in the last
sixty or seventy years should have missed it.
I'm aware that there is a lot of highly sophisticated statistical analysis
that I don't know about but things like p value are not among them.
------
candiodari
Inside universities, it does not seem realistic that this will lower people's
opinions on the value of social science statistical research, or in the
related fields of psychology (esp. management/organisational psychology), or
even all of the humanities.
That opinion is already "reject it all".
Even when it comes to medicine that opinion is strongly represented. A few
people even ascribe the placebo effect to massive and widespread statistical
error.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
B&N prepping new tablet with 'revolutionary screen technology' - bane
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-33198_7-57473877-286/b-n-prepping-new-tablet-with-revolutionary-screen-technology/?tag=postrtcol;FD.posts
======
Toshio
We certainly hope it will be powered by a Linux kernel.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Is it legal to attack your own honeypot if it's hosted on AWS? - TempaTaccount
I'm a security researcher and digital forensics student.<p>I don't want myself or my colleagues/peers to get involved in any legal troubles when launching attacks against my own honeypot on AWS for testing purposes.<p>Has anyone got any experience with this? I see a lot of examples on the web of honeypots running on AWS but no legal discussion about launching attacks yourself. Does anyone know what Amazon's stance on this is?<p>Thanks in advance.
======
dsacco
If I were you, I would ask Amazon directly. In my experience companies are
willing to speak candidly about what they do and do not allow with regards to
penetration testing on their platforms.
For example, DigitalOcean has given me explicit permission to use their VPS's
for authorized penetration testing and security auditing for clients.
Amazon in particular has a policy that requires written permission when
testing AWS for both peripheral and direct auditing. This means that even if
you're attacking a company hosted on AWS, you need Amazon's permission (as
well as that company's), not just if you're attacking Amazon's AWS
infrastructure directly. Now, you could say this means you've given yourself
permission for attacking the honeypot, but you still need Amazon's permission
for attacking AWS hosting the honeypot.
I am not a lawyer, but I am a security engineer, and I'd say this is likely
fine in this particular scenario. However, I urge you to contact them directly
or find an explicitly written public policy on the matter. Hacker News is not
a good place to find a definitive answer on this.
------
fragmede
Define 'attack'.
Setting up vulnerable software on your VPS and then exploiting vulnerabilities
on that software to allow you, the owner of the VPS, to get root access in a
method you would otherwise be unable to, is fine.
Exploiting the VPS itself to exercise a bug in Xen/whatever to gain access to
the hypervisor, access you would not originally be granted, is much less clear
cut. Amazon has a bug-bounty program for EC2, and would very much like to hear
about bugs you find in this space though.
[https://aws.amazon.com/security/vulnerability-
reporting/](https://aws.amazon.com/security/vulnerability-reporting/)
~~~
TempaTaccount
Definitely the former, not interested in attacking the hypervisor or AWS
itself at all.
Just want to generate stuff to investigate in the honeypot.
~~~
mobiplayer
Do not make it publicly available (e.g. put it behind a VPN). Otherwise
someone might be faster than you to get root access and use your server for
other illegal stuff (e.g. join a DDoS). You don't want that to happen as it
could be considered you've been negligent.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Denmark 'happiest' country in the world - terpua
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/07/02/nations.happiness/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
======
jcl
I wish the scientists would make up their minds. I was all ready to move to
Iceland:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=193619>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Porn collection put people off upgrading to Firefox 3 - jedliu
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2009/08/26/porn-collection-put-people-off-upgrading-to-firefox-3/
======
michael_dorfman
There's a nice object lesson here about fully understanding the impact of a
system change on your users. Making things "better" for them often isn't.
~~~
FooBarWidget
With that kind of attitude, user interfaces should never, ever change. I don't
think a conservative attitude like this is the path to success.
~~~
philh
With that kind of attitude, user interface changes get carefully considered
and tested before being rolled out.
~~~
FooBarWidget
That's like saying that before writing a blog post, one should consult a
psychologist to research every word's implications on human readers.
If you have a multi-billion dollar budget to test every pixel of the user
interface then fine, but what if you're an indie developer and have to do with
a budget of $100?
~~~
Retric
Then do A / B testing.
The "cheep" way to do A / B testing is for B to always be the existing system.
Roll out changes to 10% of your users and see how they respond. Just remember
_if_ your users hate it then fix the problem and test it again or abandon the
idea. So, this only works when you can measure how they resound to changes.
~~~
pbhjpbhj
Allow for the change to bed in. When the awesome bar came out I immediately
disliked it, possibly hated it even: now I find it both useful and generally
awesome. It [the awesome bar] takes time to learn the best response to each
key string, now i rarely need to type more than 3 letters to find the address
i want, often just one letter.
Also a UI change can get more plaudits by virtue of the placebo effect, IMO
(I've not done double blind tests!), making things appear better simply cause
the look has changed.
------
growt
firefox 3's location bar is a mess, not just because of this issue. It will
suggest me a gmail authentication string for almost all of my inputs. There
are lots of ways to do this better. I like chromes way of doing it, but it has
some privacy issues.
~~~
pbhjpbhj
If you select a different entry then that entry gets promoted next time you
type the same string. So if you type "g" and a gmail address comes up but you
cursor down to "engadget" (say) then next time you press "g" engadget is more
likely to come up. After a few iterations g will bring up engadget as the
first selection. It's awesome!
~~~
growt
awesome? you're easily impressed, are you? :)
~~~
pyre
I think he was jokingly using the name of the 'Awesome Bar' in his response.
~~~
growt
Ok you're right.
Firefox on the other hand seems to be kind of a douche, calling itself
awesome.
------
Perceval
I wrote a proposal for an extension that could passively solve the
porn+awesomebar problem in the same way that AdBlock Plus passively solves the
ad blocking problem. Since I am not a coder, I can’t whip up an alpha proof of
concept, but perhaps someone else can take a crack at it. (I pitched it to
Wladimir Palant a while back, but he wasn’t interested).
<http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2009/2/5/43412/24669>
Apparently, there are already hooks in userChrome.css that allow preventing
results from appearing in the awesomebar on a per URL basis:
<http://ed.agadak.net/2009/02/hiding-history-with-userchrome>
------
paul9290
Porn is that important to that many??? Just use the google search to go to
such websites! The people they are trying to hide it from obviously are not
tech savvy and won't know what cache is or where to find it.
------
ilyak
make it turnoffable!
~~~
vetinari
It is.
~~~
asjo
A pointer to how would be useful...
~~~
sp332
go to about:config, set places.frecency.unvisitedBookmarkBonus and
places.frecency.unvisitedTypedBonus to 0. Then use private browsing when you
visit those "secret" links.
~~~
vetinari
or go to about:config and set browser.urlbar.richResults to false.
~~~
asjo
Is that a preference that I need to add, or did you mean
browser.urlbar.maxRichResults?
No, setting maxRichResults to 0 totally breaks the bar (no completion at all
when typing.)
~~~
vetinari
No, maxRichResults and richResults are separate preferences. See also:
<http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser.urlbar.richResults>
and
<http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser.urlbar.maxRichResults>
~~~
asjo
Thanks for the links and clarification.
The page on browser.urlbar.richResults says: "Has an effect in * Mozilla
Firefox (nightly builds from 2007-11-29 to 2007-12-17)"
So I guess you need to do what it says under "Background" to get rid of the
awesome bar: "If you’d like to disable the improved Location Bar dropdown in a
version of Firefox without this preference, try the oldbar extension."
------
kqr2
Firefox private browsing aka porn mode:
[http://www.webmonkey.com/blog/Firefox_s_Private_Browsing__AK...](http://www.webmonkey.com/blog/Firefox_s_Private_Browsing__AKA__Porn_Mode__Arrives)
~~~
scotth
This article is about the awesomebar exposing bookmarks that previously were
only accessible through navigating deep folder hierarchies. Porn mode has
nothing to do with this. Read the article.
~~~
nailer
Porn mode has everything to do with this - yes, they're separate features, but
they relate strongly to each other. Private Browsing avoids saving visited
sites to history, which includes stopping them from appearing in the
Awesomebar.
Between 3.0 and 3.5, there was Awesomebar but no Private Browsing. So when you
typed 'g' to start 'gmail.com', it might have shown 'Naked Black Girls', which
appeared in your history because there was no private browsing and you forgot
to manually clear the cache.
The ideal would have been to introduce Private Browsing and Awesomebar at the
same time, to handle this situations.
~~~
sp332
You're not paying the slightest bit of attention. This is for BOOKMARKS, not
history.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Quantum mechanics used for better random numbers - quazar
https://newatlas.com/quantum-random-numbers/54184/
======
nabla9
Another example of physicists selling their basic research by linking it to
cryptography in a way that makes no sense. Generating quantum random numbers
is not solving any real cryptographic problems. It's just marketing ploy or
ignorance.
DJB: Is the security of quantum cryptography guaranteed by the laws of
physics?
[https://sidechannels.cr.yp.to/qkd/holographic-20180312.pdf](https://sidechannels.cr.yp.to/qkd/holographic-20180312.pdf)
DJB: Security fraud in Europe's "Quantum Manifesto"
[https://blog.cr.yp.to/20160516-quantum.html](https://blog.cr.yp.to/20160516-quantum.html)
Schneier: Quantum Cryptography: As Awesome As It Is Pointless
[https://www.schneier.com/essays/archives/2008/10/quantum%5Fc...](https://www.schneier.com/essays/archives/2008/10/quantum%5Fcryptography.html)
~~~
asafira
Regarding the last article: it is a little vague in its argument, and I
definitely have a few questions:
Is it true that the encrytion algorithms still aren't the weakest link for
highly sensitive classified information (e.g. in the government)? (Or in
similar high-secrecy situations, not the ones that an everyday person takes
part in)
Also, if current methods aren't backed by rigorous mathematics, isn't that a
risk in it of itself? So, while the benefit of having a more mathematically
rigorous security protocol may not have practical implications, it would still
be more secure, right? (Even if it isn't the top issue in most cryptography)
It might not solve security's biggest issues, but I don't think it is claiming
to do so, anyway.
The author is also fairly harsh in general on quantum computers. Note that
they have made notable strides since 2008, and much larger computers have
already been built --- they haven't performed a computation that classical
computers would struggle with _, but they can certainly factor numbers larger
than 15 (although you wouldn 't use a near-term quantum computer for this,
anyway, as they will not be powerful enough anytime soon to factor
interestingly large numbers, anyway). At the very least, it is outdated in
that respect, and at worst, it's rude and being dramatic to catch people's
attention.
_ At least, nothing that has been carefully analyzed in this respect and
published.
~~~
dsacco
_> Is it true that the encrytion algorithms still aren't the weakest link for
highly sensitive classified information (e.g. in the government)? (Or in
similar high-secrecy situations, not the ones that an everyday person takes
part in)_
Yes. The weak link for cryptography is implementation. Implementation is
insidious because it's easy to implement an existing cryptographic
specification in a way that looks safe but which is completely broken. It's
also an attractive exercise for people who know how to write software. In
contrast, designing novel cryptography (especially public key cryptography)
requires a very advanced understanding of mathematics and complexity theory
before you can even get to the "seems convincing, but is actually horribly
broken" stage. If you want to compromise a cryptosystem you attack the
individual implementation, not the design specification that has withstood a
generation of careful scrutiny by well-funded mathematicians and computer
scientists.
_> Also, if current methods aren't backed by rigorous mathematics, isn't that
a risk in it of itself?_
I think Schneier probably shouldn't have written his point this way; in
context he's referring to provable security. Provable security is a separate,
complexity theoretic study. The mathematics underlying our cryptosystems is
very well understood in the sense that we generally have a mature
understanding of how difficult various intractable problems are. The difficult
part is mapping that intractability to specific cryptographic properties in an
adversarial model, such as existential unforgeability. For example, NTRU is a
well studied, currently safe cryptosystem which didn't have any provable
security metrics for at least a decade after it was invented.
Provable security does represent a risk, which is why it's always an active
research topic. But _importantly_ , provable security exists within a
_computational_ framework - it is not solved by proposals for quantum
cryptography.
------
cornholio
Good hardware generators are based on Johnson–Nyquist resistor noise, that is
just as unpredictable, and generated by thermal circulation of charge carriers
in conductors.
In real life, RNG attacks are against the implementation not the noise source,
even something as "predictable" as "atmospheric noise" is random enough for
all practical applications.
~~~
asafira
Why is it just as unpredictable?
There are measurements you can make that could help you predict Johnson noise.
For many quantum schemes, it's much tougher.
(Not that it is easy for an attacker to make those measurements in the first
place, but it doesn't seem fair to say it is rigorously just as unpredictable)
~~~
darkmighty
Nope. Johnson noise is quantum mechanical (at least in significant part). If
you use a good algorithm, you can sample a partial TRNG into an epsilon-
perfect TRNG (as close as you'd like). Not to mention all of this is pointless
since even if the noise were classical a few applications of strong hash
functions (which is the normal procedure -- they're entirely practical)
require would require computers using more energy than the entire universe has
available you want.
~~~
asafira
I definitely appreciate now that there are good algorithms to make your random
bits more random, and hash functions can help, but regarding calling johnson
noise quantum mechanical: can you give one reference of a description of
finite-temperature johnson noise in which at least 1 observable necessitates a
quantum mechanical treatment? (I don't think it exists, given that it is a
thermal phenomenon, but maybe I'm wrong...)
------
blauditore
Is it really that relevant whether randomness is true* thanks to quantum
effects rather than obfuscated-enough pseudo-random based on really hard to
predict entropy sources; or is this more a PR stunt? I mean, is it realistic
that someone would ever manage to predict e.g. electronic signal noise in a
useful enough manner?
* To nit-pick, the question whether quantum mechanics are truly random boils down to Bell's theorem, which has been experimentally supported, but still leaves some loopholes open: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loopholes_in_Bell_test_experim...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loopholes_in_Bell_test_experiments)
~~~
dsacco
It’s relevant in an information theoretic sense. However modern security is
explicitly computational rather than information theoretic, which means it’s
not relevant for modern security in any practical sense. For example one time
pads are only really used (correctly and safely) by agencies like the NSA and
GCHQ, and even then only for the strictest, “spare no expense” security
requirements.
I’d personally be appalled to see a quantum random number generator utilized
in a cryotosystem. Well understood cryptographic failures like nonce reuse and
side channel attacks are still routine; I can’t imagine the number of novel
side channels and footgun opportunities that would be introduced with a
cryptosystem utilizing this thing. The hardware, design and implementation
requirements would add an enormous amount of complexity for an extremely small
improvement overall.
~~~
asafira
Genuine question: why would switching out the source of random bits make for
that much more complexity? The hardware is more complicated right now for sure
--- do you mean to say that the work in checking the hardware doesn't have
less obvious exploits (compared to simple Johnson noise measurements) is the
tricky bit?
~~~
tptacek
Because hardware and hardware connectivity can fail, and the one thing
cryptography needs from the system CSPRNG is not having failure cases. Since
past a threshold the quality of the entropy source does not in fact matter, no
amount of added complexity, however marginal, has a positive return on
investment.
------
mbaye
People paranoid about randomness have been duct-taping ionizing radiation
sources from smoke detectors to webcams for decades now. This is non-news.
------
seanwilson
When you're generating random numbers from a physical source, how do you
detect when there's some failure in the hardware or sensors that's reducing
the randomness? Can you use redundancy so the probability of this is
vanishingly low?
~~~
asafira
I always thought you did this by performing statistics on sample values to see
if very unlikely correlations exist.
~~~
seanwilson
What I meant was happens if hardware passes such a test on release but then
after months of use develops a fault?
------
MikkoFinell
Anyone know a cheap DIY way to generate quantum-random numbers at home? For
example, get a Geiger counter and wire it up to code that counts the
milliseconds between clicks... something like that?
~~~
smaddox
Yes: use your chip's generator through your OS's random number generator
(urandom on Linux). The chip's thermal-noise entropy source is fundamentally
based on quantum mechanics.
------
akvadrako
To all the people saying high quality random numbers are not important for
crypto, there have been a number of important failures over the years due to
semi-predictable keys. And there is no way to generate randomness in software,
while quantum sources can be provably random.
It just makes the crypto system easier to reason about.
~~~
dsacco
No one is saying high quality random numbers are not important for
cryptography. We are saying _true_ randomness is unimportant and undesirable,
given the comparatively enormous complexity required to achieve it. The modern
conception of cryptography is explicitly that you do not need "true" anything
- randomness, security, indistinguishability, unforgeability, etc. Everything
is modeled in game semantics with a computational cost:benefit analysis for
attackers.
Cryptographic failures with respect to entropy sources occur not because they
aren't random enough, but because they're implemented incorrectly. When
they're implemented correctly, they're fine, because this is a well studied
problem for which we have a variety of useful solutions. This is why proposing
a replacement source of entropy using quantum computers is ridiculous, because
you would commensurately increase the complexity of the system into completely
unknown territory.
This isn't exactly a controversial perspective. I don't know of a single
reputable cryptographer who takes quantum cryptography seriously. I would be
happy to learn of a few, but if you look at the research landscape you'll
quickly see that proposals for quantum cryptography are disconnected from the
academic cryptography community.
------
mrcactu5
how do we decide or quantify that certain random numbers are good or bad?
if I flip a coin? maybe that's inadequate, but can we measure how much it is
failing to be random?
| {
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Sniffing (and decrypting) GSM [pdf] - biafra
http://events.ccc.de/congress/2010/Fahrplan/attachments/1783_101228.27C3.GSM-Sniffing.Nohl_Munaut.pdf
======
syaz1
It looks like sniffing GSM is much simpler than I thought, I had no idea! The
only thing stopping it to be more common is probably the need of hardware...
| {
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Ask HN: Did working at a large company, help you become a better entrepreneur? - adamwdraper
======
Mz
I worked at a large company and they were very competent at some things and
that really helped teach me a lot of things by osmosis that I would not have
otherwise been exposed to. They were marketing geniuses and that is something
I learned a lot about that I likely would have never studied. They also owned
their own award-winning print company, so I was exposed to world class
correspondence materials, brochures, etc on a routine basis and I think that
helped me develop an eye for some things without really trying. I know what
quality looks like that in area. I have seen many good examples.
It made it clear that I don't do well in a big bureaucracy. But it also
exposed me to world class training and awareness of public image and some
other things that have been very important for me.
I was a homemaker for a long time. Figuring out how to interact effectively
with the public did not come easily to me. I was pretty socially adept, but
what worked one-on-one did not work in more public settings and I am not sure
I would have gotten a good handle on that had I not worked at a large company
for a few years. Trying to marry skills developed during a long period of
having a very private life to goals of having higher engagement with the
public has been an uphill battle.
I really got a lot out of working for a large company, but I am unlikely to do
so again. I am very socially conservative, so I really would have been
thrilled if I had been able to climb the corporate ladder. That would have fit
well with some of my default personality traits. But it really was not working
for me. I currently do freelance work and am developing various web projects.
I would find that a lot harder to swallow had I not learned firsthand that,
no, I am not suited to climbing the corporate ladder. But having a job at a
global corporation also did up my game in important ways, probably many of
them things I would not even recognize as having come out of that experience
specifically.
------
davismwfl
Basically yes. In two ways, it taught me what to avoid in business, like
having layers of management filtering facts that are needed to make informed
decisions. Along those same lines it taught me that many times that stupid ass
decision you can't understand why the Director or VP or C level made, came
because s/he was given half truths or partial information and did the best
with what they were told.
Second way is that I learned how to sell software and services to those larger
organizations. It takes a totally different sales process and knowing that
process is invaluable to getting larger sales. You learn through that process
that enterprises are no where near as price sensitive as others are, so your
pricing should reflect it as they will demand a lot from you.
~~~
adamwdraper
I think most responses here echo the fact that they learned what not to do
more than anything.
To your second point, it seems that one thing big companies do actually offer
is exposure to large scale, whether that be engineering or business practices.
------
jacobianx
It helped me raise my tolerance of incompetent politicians.
------
codegeek
Better entrepreneur ? Not so sure yet (recently struggling entrepreneur) but
working at a large company gave me a lot of reasons to become an entrepreneur.
~~~
adamwdraper
"gave me a lot of reasons to become an entrepreneur". I would guess that this
is how most of the HN community feels (myself included), but definitely
interested to see if anyone out there has had a different experience.
------
vinayak147
At a large company it is very difficult to try new things quickly. Flat
hierarchy, smart people and great culture help but not enough to make a
drastic difference.
I have found it helpful to understand this from experience - as opposed to
theory.
Trying new things quickly is the biggest competitive advantage of an
entrepreneur. A sharp focus on maximizing this advantage does make a better
entrepreneur.
------
rajnikant
An Entrepreneur needs to learn a lot, while I always believe that an
experienced person can always conduct a better business than a fresh one but
learning mostly depends on these 2 things instead of size of organisation. (1)
Your Role in organisation : you should be at the place where you get enough
exposure to learn new things (2) Your desire to learn : The person who is
happy in a 9 to 5 job can never learn the things which don't fall in his/her
JD so if you really want to become a good entrepreneur, you should be ready to
do as much work as you can do to learn new things
------
apryldelancey
For me, I notice that I still have big company thinking and I think it has
served me well. While I watch others in my field struggle to grab every scrap
of work I position myself as a higher-end solution that isn't right for every
company. Because of this my clients are larger companies. That said, I have a
colleague that does what I do but has made it a commodity and is doing fine -
but - has a hard time closing larger companies. And yes, working at a large
company gave me a lot of reasons to become an entrepreneur and many examples
of how to or not to foster a successful company culture.
------
elliotec
Not yet an entrepreneur (I guess I started my freelance business..), but I
feel there are certainly lessons to learn from working at a large company.
I mean, my CEO is an entrepreneur, so it seems that even just by watching some
of that person's decisions and how it trickles through the company, I can
learn what to do or not to do when I am in his position someday.
But really the people that we want answering this may be too busy running
companies to comment on HN.
~~~
Mz
Your closing remark assumes a correlation that may not exist. It implies that
working for BigCo translates to entrepreneurial succes. This may not be true.
In fact, the data I know suggests that entrepreneurs are frequently mavericks
who can't cut it in The Establishment and that is exactly why they struck out
on their own.
------
a_lifters_life
It taught me what i dont want, and often times thats more than half the
battle.
------
kuro-kuris
Seeing all the things you can cut away from a process. It has taught me a lot
about user experiences in a big corp context as well.
------
NumberCruncher
I don't know but lets' set up a workshop to figure it out!
| {
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Firebase Crashlytics graduates from beta - kuomaple
https://firebase.googleblog.com/2018/03/firebase-crashlytics-graduates-from-beta.html
======
welanes
Firestore next please.
For the 'indie' developer, Firebase is a gift. By way of example, I
(re)started building an app that tracks anomalies in cryptocurrency volume at
the weekend. By building on Firebase (Auth, FireStore, Functions) it's all but
ready.
That lack of friction between idea and reality didn't exist too long ago.
(Firebase ain't the only ones, Zeit are also doing slightly-different-but-
equally-incredible work).
Two points of frustration:
Cost - $0.06 per 100,000 document-reads sounds cheap until you're continuously
analyzing streams of market data...but that could simply be a problem with my
inefficient code.
Quotas - there's a few minutes delay on removing the quota after upgrading
from free to paid plan that shouldn't exist.
Edit: make that three:
The Console - there's quite a few products squeezed into the console and so
far it works. But please refrain from becoming like the Google Cloud Platform
console which seems to have borrowed design cues from space-shuttle
dashboards.
~~~
itcmcgrath
PM for Cloud Firestore here -> thanks for the feedback, we're working on
getting to GA.
Feel free to email(dan + mcg at google), Twitter DM, etc more details about
your cost concerns.
The quota change issue is complex, but yes we'd like to make it faster :)
~~~
welanes
Thanks for engaging, and hats off for a solid product.
Regarding costs, the quota was hit pretty quickly due to the trial and error
of deciding the best way to structure my data so likely a once off spike in DB
reads. But good to know I can reach out.
Tbh, I'd trade all my concerns for a timeline on when we'll see collection
group queries ;)
------
kylehotchkiss
Wish I could get this same reporting for Javascript and get out of Sentry.
Maybe one day! Firebase Functions being able to debug to Crashlytics would be
cool.
~~~
zeeg
I’m genuinely curious why you would want this?
For context I’m the founder, CEO, and original author of Sentry. We provide an
immense amount of data for every platform and hear the exact opposite of this
sentiment (“id love to use Sentry for my mobile apps”).
We’re long past the days of one vendor being able to accomplish every problem
(there’s evidence everywhere that this is bad) and while I appreciate
competition in the space that’s far different from expecting whichever
provider you choose to be a one stop shop.
That’s besides the point that Sentry is open source and we’re the only option
out there for a lot of people.
If it’s simply you think Firebase can do a better job than us I want to know
why. If it’s consolidation then ask yourself why shouldn’t Google work with
others instead of trying to own every space in every market? There’s a lot
more value in specialization than there is in checkboxes, especially if it
means working with a wider ecosystem.
I mean this as no slight to Firebase as I’ve quite enjoyed prototyping things
on the platform, but I can’t get behind the idea that Google or anyone else
should hold a monopoly over our ability to write software and build
businesses.
------
leogiertz
As a somewhat frustrated user I can't understand the design decision
Crashlytics did that they won't notify you of crashes unless they have a
matching dSYM.
I've tried to explain why this complicates the use case for Bitcode enabled
apps but so far I've only gotten a shrug back. Their stance is that everyone
should check the dashboard daily and see the badge indicating that there's a
dSYM missing.
| {
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Tech Billionaires Plotting Doomsday Escape to Bunkers in New Zealand - petethomas
https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2018-rich-new-zealand-doomsday-preppers
======
theslurmmustflo
Love the art!
| {
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New SMB bug: How to crash Windows system with a 'link of death' - wyldfire
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/02/04/windows_flaw_adds_crashing_as_a_service/
======
wyldfire
Specifics on the vulnerability [1], proof-of-concept [2].
[1]
[https://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/867968](https://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/867968)
[2]
[https://github.com/lgandx/PoC/blob/master/SMBv3%20Tree%20Con...](https://github.com/lgandx/PoC/blob/master/SMBv3%20Tree%20Connect/Win10.py)
| {
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Why save a language? - gpvos
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/opinion/sunday/why-save-a-language.html
======
austerity
As the man in the back row, I am not convinced. He reduces the need to save
languages to the need to save cultures and leaves it at that, implicitly
assuming the latter to be an axiom. To me it's even more obviously false.
Plus, he completely fails to consider the downsides of people speaking
different languages which are enormous (as pointed out in the Old Testament).
Yes, I realize a person can speak more than one language. And I am all for
preserving for the sake of understanding. But using humans as storage devices
sounds a little selfish coming from a linguist.
~~~
caio1982
What exactly are the downsides of people speaking different languages
according to a religious book? Please try not to use terms like efficiency in
the answer.
And it's not simply like "a person can speak more than one language". It's
actually more than half of the freaking world speaking more than one language.
If you happen to live in a region (and I'm not saying "country") where people
only speak one single language then it's quite possible you're the exception
in fact.
~~~
Hermel
As a Swiss speaking three languages, I can confirm that every additional
language comes at a cost. Only having one language is more efficient.
However, I believe there are subtle implied philosophical differences. For
example, I perceive German to be more principle-oriented and idealistic in
comparison to English, which tends to favor more pragmatic thoughts. As an
example, consider the word "Sachzwang", which has no direct English equivalent
and roughly translates to "inherent necessity". It is a typical word for a
language that thinks in absolute principles. Of course, it is also possible to
express this in English, it is just a little less convenient and thus also
less frequently done.
It's like different programming languages that are all turing-complete, but
some allow to express certain things more effectively. From that point of
view, having fewer languages would also come with a reduction in diversity of
thoughts.
~~~
hyperliner
You could say "constraint," per Google Translate!
~~~
Hermel
I'd say constraint comes as close as 22/7 to pi. Constraint is passive.
Sachzwang forces you to do something. For example, "sachzwangreduzierte
Ehrlichkeit" means a level of honesty that had to be reduced due to factual
higher-order constraints.
~~~
hyperliner
That is a fascinating example. What is a situation and sentence in which you
would use it? How would you write it in German? How would you write it in
English?
------
Htsthbjig
Languages are tools but also barriers of thought.
The main reason Americans can't understand China or Russia, or Arab countries
and vice versa is language.
People in the UK for example, do not listen to Putin 2 hours long Q&A and
think for themselves. They listen to intermediaries, like Andrew Wood, because
they don't understand Russian.
People would be shocked to know what Mr Putin is really saying, compared with
what they are being told he is saying.
The same happens on the other side, too. The China and Russia media can
portray a controlled picture of the rest of the world for most of their
population.
The printing press changed the world because it made possible for people to
read the Bible themselves instead of using the intermediaries
interpretation(that sometimes were not in their best interest). Science
advanced enormously when the status quo could be criticized(thanks access to
books and the knowledge those carried).
~~~
guard-of-terra
I assure you that Putin's Q&A doesn't contain any language tricks not
available for Americans or UK peope.
In fact, Putin's Q&A doesn't contain much of anything.
It's not about the language, it's more about shared history or lack thereof.
~~~
DanBC
If Ann gives a 2 hour speech in Russian, and Bob does not speak Russian, then
Bob needs to rely on Chris or Dave to translate.
Bob is at a disadvantage because he has to trust either (or both) of the
translators.
~~~
guard-of-terra
Even then Bob will need even more people to validate whether any things Ann
said are true. Or, more relevant, which things Ann said are ones she deeply
cares about, and which ones were inserted just to fill the talk space or pay
lip service.
------
anonymfus
"A rendering of the visible spectrum on a grey background" image from
Wikipedia with added English and Russian colour range names:
[http://i.imgur.com/XnmMRQ6.png](http://i.imgur.com/XnmMRQ6.png)
Original:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rendered_Spectrum.png](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rendered_Spectrum.png)
~~~
codingdave
This is interesting, but I don't feel it is significant.
Names of colors, at least in English, do not typically imply a complete range
of color, but major points on the spectrum. We have hundreds of words for
different shades of colors, and pseudo-words like, "Yellowish-green". Painters
will know the different between Cerulean blue and Cobalt blue, and Wikipedia
has a whole category of shades of blue, with varying English names.
If we need to limit ourselves to a 1st grade vocabulary to make a point about
our language, it isn't a very strong point.
~~~
ehurrell
I think it might be significant, or at least hint at a significance worth
exploring. Taxi drivers' brains apparently adapt and grow a much better
awareness of maps and routes than the regular person, and this might be the
same thing happening with painters and their more precise sensitivity to
colour. It's worth study anyway.
------
hyperliner
The problem I have with this article is that it fails to recognize that
language also is an anchor in a _negative_ way. Yes, Hebrew can help form a
stronger Jewish community, but a language spoken by 3000 people in the middle
of the Amazon can only serve to keep those people hostage forever. What is
wrong with teaching those people's kids to speak Hebrew or Spanish or English
and let them join a broader, stronger community or nation? The alternative is
that those people's children will not be able to prosper because, to highlight
the obvious, many of these obscure languages are correlated with impoverished
environments. Yes, it helps some academic in some fancy University in the
northeast of the United States have "intellectual debates" about the issue
while sipping on a starbucks latte, but it certainly does not help those
people.
The second point is that the nuances that the author has observed don't have
to be lost. If there was value in knowing that an object was "on" another
object horizontally, or vertically, or slanted (using the example in the
article), we could always incorporate those notions into any major language.
------
MichaelGG
This ignores the negative impact of keeping smaller groups limited by
preserving their language. In Guatemala, many of the "Indians" have their own
languages it dialects, some of which are incompatible with each other. There's
little opportunity for use of these languages apart from the town they live
in. To be involved in commerce, read about current events, or even be treated
well, you need to have great Spanish.
My parents have a medical clinic in one if these villages. When the government
started making some of the classes be taught in the local language, the
parents were upset, knowing that this would hurt their children. They viewed
it as another way to keep the "indian" population back. And they're correct.
So while there may be good reasons to preserve languages (like preserving art,
or historic towns), someone should be funding that directly, rather than
externalizing the costs on to these indigenous groups.
------
chalimacos
What some people who don't see the need to preserve languages are missing is
that each living language is in itself a Noah Ark that preserves lots of dead
languages and world views. English preserves latin, greek, yiddish... Consider
the word "consider". It comes from latin Considerare (cum + sidera) 'to
consult the stars'. Each language that dies is a tragedy that kills many
precedent languages. Moreover, current status is no guarantee for the future,
even English could one day be at risk. I am a Catalan speaker, a language that
once ruled the Mediterranean and now is struggling.
------
phlakaton
The author claims that real, measurable differences in how people think based
on how they speak is too insignificant, because it doesn't constitute a
"worldview." I rather think he sells short the importance of seeing actual
empirical ways in which language does indeed "speak us". Say there are
thousands, maybe millions, of such minute alterations in metaphor or thought
pattern – is it really so hard to imagine that the aggregate of these
alterations form unique, interesting ways to interpret and respond to the
world? Do we not see evidence of this when we read, say, the poetry of
different cultures? (It's a rhetorical question – I certainly think we do!)
I got a book last year about learning Old English. I haven't gotten very far
into it yet, but just the fact that I can go back a thousand years in human
history and see where the roots of my language came from is an incredibly cool
thing. I am also inspired by the alliterative schemes of old Anglo-Saxon
poetry, and have it on the back-burner to see how or how not that could work
in modern language (e.g. in Rebsamen's "Beowulf" translation).
Similarly, whether or not I actually "speak" programming languages like Lisp,
Forth, and APL in my daily work, they are a mine of cool ideas and experiments
that I can still draw inspiration from, decades after the machines that they
were originally built on crumble back into sand.
Which probably emphasizes the "cold storage" value of language, not
necessarily the "active speaking" value of it. I think the cold storage value
of retaining language is indisputably massive, and projects like the Rosetta
Project are really interesting to me for that reason. What's the value of
actively speaking it, even when the community of speakers dwindles? Perhaps it
is in helping to cement our understanding of the language before it fades
away.
------
kiliancs
I speak three languages and appreciate the language diversity as each of them
provides a unique window to perceive and express the universe. We need,
however, a common (universal) language that allows mankind to create a global
culture, a global identity (above and including all national identities) and
to enable general understanding and practical communications in all matters.
This language should be taught everywhere in addition to the local language.
We cannot expect to for the different linguistic communities (or the world in
general) to renounce to a language, but at the same time the general well-
being calls for a common language.
------
sravfeyn
Language is a reflection of speaker's model of the world, a different unique
perspective on the same world we all live in and hence can provide diverse
solutions to the same problems we face. Diversity in thought process makes it
faster to decipher that beautiful Nature. So it will be sad if these languages
die. Of course, this is not the only reason, but I think is one of the
important reasons.
I speak three languages, I think in two languages. I go on different paths
when thinking in different languages when trying to solve a geometry problem.
------
GuiA
Like other commenters in this thread, I find the author's arguments to be weak
and tautological and/or based on invalid premises.
I don't think we should care about keeping as many languages spoken as
possible. Collective human culture is fluid, and subject to evolutionary
pressures. If the human species converges to fewer languages because it allows
us to do whatever we do more effectively, great. Going against that is just
not practical and a waste of time.
In France, the modern French language has been pushed onto the population a
few hundred years ago, at the detriment of local dialects ("patois"). In the
recent years, there have been government initiatives to force schools in
certain regions to teach their former dialects. What's the point? Those
dialects are close to dead anyway, and take up valuable teaching times. Kids
are already graduating high school barely able to write and read French
properly- they have very little to benefit from by spending time learning such
dialects. Sure, they are important to ~archive~ culturally and historically,
and there's nothing wrong with funding a few scholars working on that, but
that's it.
What is important to preserve is the knowledge that allows one to learn a
language. In other words, if German were to disappear, that's fine, and we
shouldn't make any efforts at attempting to preserve it. What we should do,
however, is document German as much as possible (its vocabulary, grammar,
pronunciation, idioms, native works, etc.) such that if one needs to learn
German 100 years later, it's possible to do so.
The basis for that is two-fold: practicality (if an ancient German text is
discovered but no one speaks German daily anymore, at least scholars can still
decipher it), and preservation of human culture (but in a way that doesn't go
against pragmatism, which the approach described by the author in the article
is).
The same debate applies to other things, e.g. flora/fauna. Of course, when
species are becoming close to extinct because of humans destroying
environments, we should do something about it. But species go extinct all the
time because that's just how nature works, and how it worked much before we
got here. In this light, what's the sense of trying to preserve plants or
animals artificially?
------
tzs
I don't remember which language this is [1], but I read about some tribal
language that did not have any words for relative direction. If you were
facing North and I wanted to warn you to watch out for a snake approaching
from your left, I'd have to tell you to look out for the snake coming from the
West.
[1] googling turned up this:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relative_direction#Cultures_not...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relative_direction#Cultures_not_using_relative_directions)
~~~
desas
The Amazonian Piraha tribe have "to the river", "to the jungle", "up the
river" and "down the river" rather than directions.
~~~
davidw
For that matter, most people here in Italy look at you a bit funny if you talk
about cardinal directions, and are more comfortable with "towards Venezia" or
"in the direction of Verona" or that kind of thing. The latter is probably
handier for navigating towns that are, outside of a very small Roman core (in
some cases) not exactly linear in their layout.
~~~
caio1982
It's the same in Brazil, and it's a big place to use relative directions but
we prefer it that way too :-)
------
hedgew
Many of us "care" about languages – they have emotional significance – but
what is the practical value of near-dead languages to society? How would you
even measure the impact of lengthening the lifespan of a dying language? If we
taught hundreds of children to speak an ancient language that no one else
uses, would that make anyone happier?
Should we teach children extinct professions just to keep some cultures alive?
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_cutting](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_cutting)
------
kovrik
I think that it's some kind of natural selection among languages/cultures.
Languages are just tools. If this tool is effective - people use it. Otherwise
it "dies".
~~~
caio1982
It's not just a tool, it's a mechanism to express thought. Different cultures,
different people, different ways to put in other people's mind what's inside
yours. Also, remember Chomsky, languages usually have an army and navy, so
it's not as simple as "natural selection".
~~~
unhammer
Actually, the quote is from "an audience member at one of Max Weinreich's
lectures" (well, logically that could be Chomsky, but most likely not ;))
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_language_is_a_dialect_with_a...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_language_is_a_dialect_with_an_army_and_navy)
~~~
caio1982
Indeed, thanks!
------
phn
This is only tangentially related to the article.
I find we (humans) have some kind of emergent "gene pool variety preservation"
behavior, even when talking about non-directly-genetic stuff: culture,
language, knowledge, ways of thinking, animal species, etc.
It looks like we are wired to avoid natural selection over-fitting at a
cultural level.
~~~
dalke
Indian schools in the US and the Stolen Generation in Australia, prohibitions
on non-approved religions (the Edict of Expulsion, Edict of Fontainebleau, the
Alhambra Decree, and many, many more), the forceful spread of Christianity in
the Americas, the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the Armenian Genocide, the Final
Solution, the anti-bourgeois re-education camps of Cultural Revolution, and
even the former President's call to "bring democracy to the world" all strike
me as good counter-examples to there being some "wired" behavior of the sort
you mean.
~~~
phn
Those are good counter examples, but they seem to happen in the context of a
somewhat direct conflict between two cultures, thus entering a "survival of
the fittest" kind of situation.
Maybe we only get this protective spirit when we have already "won" :)
~~~
dalke
Evolution, which is what I think you mean by "wired" behavior, has no idea
that after 100,000s of years of human civilization if a given culture has
"won".
I don't understand what you mean by "direct conflict between two cultures".
The Indian Removal Act was a US act on the one side against the Chickasaw,
Choctaw, Muscogee-Creek, Seminole, and original Cherokee Nations. That's at
least 6 cultures. And certainly the Indian schools affected a huge number of
cultures.
Unless you mean that all of the tribal nations are a single culture?
~~~
phn
Well, perhaps they aren't two, but that is completely irrelevant to the
argument (How do you "count" cultures anyway?). The important part in that
sentence was that there were opposing sides in conflict, thus removing any
form of will to preserve from the equation.
And yes, evolution (particularly in the context of darwinism and derivatives)
is what I am talking about, specifically, some kind of mechanism that seems to
exist that prevents us getting stuck in a "local maximum".
A mechanism that I mentioned because I find it interesting that you can find
signs of it at so many different levels, and in many different contexts.
~~~
dalke
You were the one who wanted to count cultures in the first place.
If you can't count cultures (or other measures of diversity?) then how does
any evolutionary behavior manage to do so?
I would like to know your historical examples of "signs of it at so many
different levels". All I know of occur relatively recently in history, which
is a strong indicator that it's a cultural change, and not a deep evolutionary
imperative.
~~~
phn
I am going to skip the counting part since I think it is borderline pedantic
and doesn't lead anywhere. Defining what a culture is, or how you
differentiate them is not on the scope of my comment, and the argument was not
about cultures specifically.
I don't need an historical example, since I am not arguing that this has
always been the case, nor that it isn't a cultural change.
Going a bit further on my previous comment, and trying to clarify, I think
this behavior emerges precisely because of a general stabilization/stagnation
of a given population (of traits, languages, behaviors, animal species etc.)
in order to avoid over-fitting (the "won" part, if I did not express myself
clearly enough) and to preserve diversity.
The original comment is just that, a comment. A thought that I think holds
some value and is related to the article. I am not trying to convince anyone
that this is a defined mechanism by which nature rules and defines itself.
~~~
dalke
It is a lot of fun to be rationalist and deep thinker. It lets one ponder
great schemes of how ideas work together.
Without empirical grounding, it can also lead one drastically astray.
You have no examples that your thought is true, nor any mechanism by which it
could work, while I have both counter-examples and the observation that any
such mechanism is outside of known evolutionary theory.
"I am not arguing that this has always been the case" stands in stark contrast
to your proposition that "we are wired" to this behavior.
------
pain
I can't help but think the social issue of saving is a memory processing
issue. (Whether it is language extinction or link rot..)
So much falls (fails..) to judgement of point and term of saving, when maybe
we need to focus on just saving better and judging why after.
------
LunaSea
[http://youtu.be/OvlQXPNwrqo](http://youtu.be/OvlQXPNwrqo)
| {
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WebKit now supports CSS Variables - nickb
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-style/2008Jun/0230.html
======
makecheck
I have definitely thought about the _convenience_ of variables before, but it
isn't good to bloat CSS itself with them.
The spec's examples like "CorporateLogoBGColor" could be handled by a simple
tool that generates CSS. The simplest case is a preprocessor-like input/output
scheme. For example, a script (in a complete language with real variables,
functions, etc.) and a template file (with references).
That way, there's separation of responsibility. The browser doesn't have to be
more complex, risking bugs and exploits and slowdowns, because the
"requirement" for variables isn't really there.
What usually happens after someone adds "variables", is somebody says hey, we
need functions too. And arithmetic. And oh wait...now it's a full-fledged
language. Oops...
~~~
Lozzer
I agree that the examples could be done with preprocessing a template, but I'd
like to be able to simple arithmetic in the CSS file, just for the ability to
mix relative and absolute units without kludging in extra divs. For example:
left: 20% - 20px;
I wish I'd written down some of the times I'd wanted to do something like that
so I could point to a specific example. The obvious one of centering a fixed
width image can be done with auto margins (though I've a feeling that didn't
work in IE6).
~~~
makecheck
That is a pretty good example, actually. Yes, if it is an expression whose
value _cannot_ be known until the browser figures it out, then there could be
value in having CSS support it.
But JavaScript supports dynamic lookup of style information, and has math
expressions. It may be that CSS is still the best place for such an
enhancement, but the trick is to always look for the best place to make these
changes. Would a JavaScript onLoad script like "page.styles['x'].margin.left =
page.width_in_pixels()*0.20 - 20" be as good, better or worse? I'm not even
sure myself.
~~~
Raphael
It's just a matter of convenience and taste. CSS is for presentation and
JavaScript is for behavior.
~~~
IsaacSchlueter
You could argue that a taste for convenience is a pretty good definition of a
quality developer ;)
| {
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Forget the Courts — Apple May Fight Mac Clones With Tech - edw519
http://www.wired.com/gadgets/mac/news/2008/04/apple_psystar
======
pius
If any part of the Leopard EFI has a component that can be construed to be a
security measure to prevent the software from use on unauthorized hardware,
Apple has a DMCA case. And the DMCA _does_ have teeth.
~~~
dcurtis
Yeah, but they're arguing a level higher than that. They're saying the
security measures Apple is using are illegal. In that case, the DMCA is
rendered irrelevant, right? You can't protect illegal protection schemes.
~~~
pius
That's an interesting point. Now's a good time to say IANAL and I'm just
speculating, but as I understand it they're not really arguing that Apple's
security measures are illegal, but that their business practices are illegal;
Apple is entitled to have whatever security they'd like. If that's true, then
the DMCA violation would still stand.
~~~
wright
Nah, the DMCA bites the bucket in cases like that. It was already overturned
for a garage door opener and a printer manufacturer.
You can't claim DMCA protection in cases where you are simply trying to shut
out competition. Others are allowed to be interoperable.
------
TrevorJ
Exactly the conclusion I came to in my short take on this development at
<http://borderlinetheory.com/?p=107#more-107>
~~~
wright
In light of the Lexmark decision Apple can't stop others from being
interoperable legally. Their choices are to bludgeon clonemakers with
frivolous lawsuits and try to bankrupt them for pursuing their rights, or to
keep trying to make OS X paranoid about what it's running on while clonemakers
keep patching the code that does hardware checks. And clonemakers might even
be able to sue to stop Apple from doing that.
See <http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/06/07/1416228>
------
zkinion
Hah, everybody was in here saying the sky was falling and they would be shut
down overnight, but it turns out this lawsuit threat isn't as real as it
seems.
------
wright
Requiring usage only on Apple hardware would be illegal tying.
Trying to do it technically would amount to the same thing.
~~~
wmf
Sorta like how IOS is illegally tied to Cisco hardware and my car's engine
firmware is illegally tied to the engine computer, etc?
~~~
wright
More like how your car can't require its own brand of oil, gas, air filters,
light bulbs, etc. If Cisco starts selling its operating system on a CD and you
make a clone that can run it, it's fair game. Or another company that makes
specialized firmware can sell it so you can install it on your car, assuming
it passes regulatory requirements for safety (I'd assume).
<http://www.google.com/search?q=illegal+tying>
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Amazon.com just closed my seller account. No warning, no details. - wizoftechusa
http://thetechnologyavenue.blogspot.com/2012/11/amazoncom-just-closed-my-seller-account.html
======
lifeguard
email jeff@amazon.com is fastest way I know to get a response
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Federal appeals court strikes death blow to privacy in phone location info case - JBiserkov
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/05/graham-enbanc
======
tomohawk
If private companies are going to collect and store this information, of
course other parties are going to try to get at it. Whether it's law
enforcement, some spy organization in an adversarial country, organized crime,
or another private company that is willing to buy it.
I can't wait until the time the police decide to start grabbing this sort of
data en masse to issue speeding tickets each month or charge road usage fees
to out of state drivers.
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Report a Bug - gtzi
http://coding.smashingmagazine.com/2011/09/07/help-the-community-report-browser-bugs/
======
eykanal
This article is kind of confused; it's talking about two separate things.
1) __Report bugs. __Yes, do that... do that a lot. Everyone benefits, and it
doesn't take you a lot of time.
2) __Exhaustively test every bug report you submit. __I don't know about this
one. When I submit a bug report, I'm usually in the middle of doing something
(often, work), and if I followed their steps for every bug I reported, it
would take between 15 minutes and and hour just for the report. Who has that
kind of time? Asking users to do something like this will just put them off
from submitting reports, which you don't want to do. On the other hand,
submitting useless bug reports - which may not even be bugs - will waste the
developer's time.
If the goal of this article is to maximize both bug report quality and number
of reports submitted, I don't think this article does a good job of describing
that maxima.
| {
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Erbix: Server-side JavaScript Platform (with JS AppMarket) - vladd
http://www.erbix.com/
======
jhrobert
The AppJets people were definitely on something. So it is nice to see that the
idea survives.
I personally go the nodejs way, the asynchronous way, but that's because I
need raw metal level performance. The event based programming model of nodejs
is hard to get right, dealing with concurrent activities is probably harder
than it is already with threads.
PostgreSQL comes preinstalled with Erbix. I hence assume that it is fair to
call Erbix an SQL JavaScript platform.
However, according to the FAQ, "transactions" are not supported yet, this is
puzzling, how is synchronization handled?
I saw no mention of Comet either.
So, I do like the idea but the lack of Comet and SQL transactions seriously
limit the range of addressable applications.
If I were Erbix, I would brand this "alpha" rather than "beta" and implement
Comet & SQL transaction before going to "beta" stage.
However there is value in the "release early, release often" motto, so maybe I
am wrong or maybe I missed something and synchronization issues are dealt with
in some magical way?
~~~
mehi
Thanks for your comments.
We actually have synchronization an transactions. You can execute any SQL
statement, including BEGIN, ROLLBACK and COMMIT. It's just that we haven't
finished the database driver wrapper yet, so you have to handle them manually
for now. I was unclear in the FAQs, will update the page.
------
xuhu
Installing the blog right from the marketplace was impressive, non-technical
users will love this.
How about integration with other frameworks ? CommonJS is promissing but I'm
sure RingoJS/NodeJS can't do everything yet.
EDIT: I was thinking of non-javascript frameworks. Apparently the creators are
sticking to a "there is only commonjs" policy so far.
~~~
mehi
It's really easy to port/wrap plain JavaScript code to Erbix/CommonJS; this is
the first thing we've noticed while coding on Erbix Blog/Form
Creator/ActiveRecord (included in Blog, a port from TrimPath Junction).
One other example si UnderscoreJS, the library is already "ported"; this code
does the trick: if (typeof exports !== 'undefined') exports._ = _;
<http://documentcloud.github.com/underscore/>
We would welcome your suggestions on the frameworks you want us to take a look
into.
~~~
jashkenas
It's nice that it already "just works" -- here's a direct link to the bit of
code in question:
[http://documentcloud.github.com/underscore/docs/underscore.h...](http://documentcloud.github.com/underscore/docs/underscore.html#section-9)
------
vladd
We're using RingoJS under the hood (a server-side JavaScript engine similar
with NodeJS --they're both CommonJS compliant) and provide integration with a
browser-based editor, online hosting and a marketplace with e.g. two GPLed
server-side JS apps, Form Creator and Erbix Blogs (which we've launched today
- you can find more details about the announcement at
[http://groups.google.com/group/ringojs/browse_thread/thread/...](http://groups.google.com/group/ringojs/browse_thread/thread/f762405a7c2e9c05)
).
We wanted to do a rate-our-startup on HackerNews for some time to get feedback
for pivoting the next iteration of Erbix as a JavaScript platform. Due to
today's launches, it looks like a good time to request some feedback and what
you'd like to see next from us.
------
js4all
Great Job. I tried the apps from the market place. Everything runs flawless.
Anybody seems to have a market place these times and I really like the idea :)
For those who don't know the AppJet web framework, which was mentioned several
times. It is still hosted here: <http://apps.jgate.de>
| {
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Uber reveals plans for flying taxi to bypass road traffic congestion - seek3r00
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jan/07/uber-reveals-plans-for-flying-taxi-to-bypass-road-traffic-congestion
======
dotcoma
When will the bullshitting stop?
~~~
seek3r00
When <del>pigs</del> Uber drivers fly
| {
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Mongoid stable release: 4.0.0 - _Soulou
https://github.com/mongoid/mongoid/commit/50b633c8baf2fa467e8c36b18a013a2cd50e0454
======
_Soulou
And more important:
[https://github.com/mongoid/mongoid/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md](https://github.com/mongoid/mongoid/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md)
| {
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Street Fighting Mathematics: The art of educated guessing - xtacy
http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/full_pdfs/Street-Fighting_Mathematics.pdf
======
jimmyjim
Previous discussions:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1548013> (many comments)
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1106846> (2 comments)
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2873902> (no comments)
~~~
ColinWright
Erm, that last is this very item - so when you wrote that it had one comment,
and now has at least two.
~~~
personalcompute
He doesn't appear to be a bot either. Hey, someone _should_ make a bot that
indicates previous discussions on reposts.
~~~
epochwolf
It's been done: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2013666>
------
xyzzyz
I glanced through "easy cases", and the "guessing the solution" part looks
more like "we somehow magically know that the solution is among these 3 or 5
possibilities, now we eliminate obviously wrong answers and lo, we found a
solution".
Seriously, just look at the treatment of Gaussian integral. They wonder if the
solution is sqrt(pi alpha) or sqrt(pi/alpha). Then they rule out the first
possibility. Yeah, that's fine, but why sqrt and pi at all? Why not sin and e?
Or gamma function and ... oh well this actually is a gamma function, but
nevermind.
Guessing is easy, if you already know the solution.
------
wmat
For a duplicate post, it's sure been on the FrontPage for a long time.
| {
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Announcing Bitly Enterprise 2.0 - DanielRibeiro
http://blog.bitlyenterprise.com/post/16126692604/announcing-bitly-enterprise-2-0
======
mohene1
nice interface
| {
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Could Self-Driving Trucks Be Good for Truckers? - thisisit
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/02/uber-says-its-self-driving-trucks-will-be-good-for-truckers/551879/?single_page=true
======
BoiledCabbage
Yeah this article is disappointing. It's an Uber puff piece. The author makes
a bunch of contrived conclusions that defy economic theory. It claims there is
a sudden trend saying automation will make jobs better for truckers, but can't
seem to find anyone to quote saying that except Uber (the company pushing the
automated trucks). Every other quote is from Goldman Sachs and the like saying
"nope, will decimate the industry".
Then they argue that because truckers will only drive the last mile in the
city it will still be good for them. But they'll still pay them to be there
because 'What if the truck breaks down? Without a driver there you'd have to
send a repair man. With a driver, he can likely fix it' (loosely quoting).
Does anyone really think that a company is gonna pay drivers to sit in a route
for the 1 in 100 or 1 in 1000 chance that the truck breaks down on route in a
way that the driver can fix? Not a chance. That's the first place they'll cut.
Goes against all profit motive of the companies.
Even if somehow you believe that they really will pay drivers to 'Set the
speed to 55 then go to sleep'. (Ignoring the obvious question of why you need
to pay each driver to set the speed in an automatically driving truck). If
your job is now reduced to sleeping in a cabin for 40hrs and then driving 1hr,
you think they're not gonna cut your pay by 90% to go along with it?
Uber has an incredibly consistent record of lying and screwing over employees,
customers, anyone - they want to do the same to truck drivers and lie to their
faces while doing it.
------
alant
Ultimately, yes, but just like the workers who tried to destroy machines that
took their jobs during the first industrial revolution, truckers will need a
bit time to adjust to the driverless world
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User Authentication with Rails and Backbone.js - waratuman
http://42floors.com/blog/posts/user-authentication-with-rails-and-backbone-js
======
YuriNiyazov
One of the fundamental difficulties of handling login with Backbone.js is that
your regular site is usually served off HTTP, but you want to send credentials
via HTTPS, which requires various hacks, or a full page refresh. By posting up
something that doesn't handle that problem, I'm afraid that the OP is putting
a newbie who isn't aware of that problem in danger since they are apt to copy
this tutorial verbatim.
~~~
pilif
If you are transmitting the login information over SSL, I would assume that
you already have SSL configured. Why not just serve the whole site over SSL
constantly? That would fix this issue _and_ provide better security by making
it impossible for a MITM to redirect the login form to the HTTP version (or,
if you are using an iframe, MITM the iframe over plain HTTP)
~~~
awj
> Why not just serve the whole site over SSL constantly?
Because now you have to serve every single bit of your page over SSL (to avoid
security warnings) and that means none of your page content can be cached. It
also makes relatively mundane things, like having your proxy server
communicate the originating ip address, much harder. I can set up haproxy to
add an X-Forwarded-For header in almost no time flat. In fact I just gave you
enough information to google that solution for yourself. Solving that problem
over SSL is much harder.
Engineering a MITM attack is _much_ more technically difficult than snooping
traffic. Not every company actually _need_ to turn the security knob up to 11
on this aspect, and being able to do unencrypted-page-with-encrypted-login is
a good trade-off when you can make it.
~~~
chc
None of your page content can be cached? Just add a Cache-Control header —
done and done, even for people with relatively old browsers.
------
patio11
You probably want attr_accessible in there.
------
rurounijones
Why the custom password handling when they could just have used rail's new
[http://apidock.com/rails/ActiveModel/SecurePassword/ClassMet...](http://apidock.com/rails/ActiveModel/SecurePassword/ClassMethods/has_secure_password)
feature?
------
darius
Or just use devise. Backbone will work just fine with it.
~~~
mshafrir
Does Devise handle XHR and JSON (requests/responses) out of the box?
~~~
atomical
Yes.
1.3.1
*sessions/new and registrations/new also respond to xml and json now
------
benologist
As always this looks like very useful information for people looking for
office space!
| {
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Business analytics provider Profitably raises $1.1M - gsiener
http://venturebeat.com/2011/03/21/profitably-funding-demo/
======
gsiener
And we're hiring: <http://profitably.com/jobs>
| {
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Google Photos – Can I get out? - rubenv
https://rocketeer.be/blog/2015/05/google-photos/
======
davb
Actually, there is a setting in Google Photos (at least the web interface)
which lets you choose between "High quality" and "Original" (Menu ->
Settings).
"High quality" recompresses large files, but gives you unlimited storage space
for these recompressed files.
"Original" doesn't recompress or alter the files at all, at the expense of
using your Google Drive/Email/Storage space.
I'm not necessarily on board with auto photo backup (I don't completely trust
it - some photos should just remain private), but I like that they give you
this choice.
What I really ( _really_ ) hate is that they've moved the delete button. It's
no longer a button on the toolbar at the bottom (on the Android app), it's in
the menu and labelled "Delete local copy". I take a lot of throwaways while
trying to get the right shot - deleting photos is an every-day part of my
workflow (I delete more than I keep). This has now gone from one quick tap to
three (there's a confirmation dialog when you finally click the delete
button). This is a very frustrating change.
~~~
rubenv
Author here: Note that I did select Original and it still seemed to compress
the RAW file in Google Drive view. Single downloads do yield the original.
~~~
mvgoogler
Thanks for the article. I work on the photos team.
I will file bugs for the drive-sync issue and the issue with the large
downloads failing and try to get some answers.
~~~
rubenv
Nothing but love otherwise! In case it wasn't clear: Photos looks fantastic.
Add an API and it's perfect.
~~~
saurik
Given that it doesn't have an API, I don't understand why it was announced at
Google I/O. What is supposed to be a conference for developers has somehow
turned into a place for Google to demo a ton of random new end-user product
features.
~~~
sangnoir
In your opinion, only those products with API's available _today_ should be
announced? That sounds overly restrictive. By the same logic - Projects
Jacquard and Vault shouldn't have been announced either.
I think it's fair to announce products so devs can be ready when the API
becomes available.
~~~
saurik
First of all, "there were a couple things tacked on to the presentation that
maybe could one day be used by a developer" is a pretty desperate argument,
given that the keynote was three hours long and focussed on a ton of things
that don't have any API at all, like Photos, and did not mention a single
implication for a developer even for the things which had APIs, such as Now on
Tap (which means that developers had no reason to bother going to the sessions
on that feature, as it was clearly something designed for end users only;
apparently it actually has a couple APIs).
However, sure: I'll bite. No: announcing random stuff that we can't play with
and that they won't talk to us about is totally useless for developer. This
entire event was just about causing people to go "wow, they are smart". I am a
developer quite interested in 3D video, and so despite seeing Project Jump and
going "ugh, another end-user product announcement", I figure I might as well
talk to the engineers about it: only, they aren't willing to say anything
about what might be available or how it works or essentially anything about
their plans... so good luck "getting ready".
Regardless, the next thing you really need to defend, as this is what we are
talking about: what are you, as a developer, doing to get ready for Photos?
Google I/O has become less and less developer-focussed ever since it started
(I have gone every year), and has turned into more and more of just a showcase
of their end-user products. This year as the epitome, and all of the
developers that I know who attended were quite disappointed; even the ones who
still liked last year's somehow were now also saying "this event seems to have
lost its purpose and is no longer useful".
~~~
sangnoir
I think a keynote should be more of 10,000 foot view
> Regardless, the next thing you really need to defend, as this is what we are
> talking about: what are you, as a developer, doing to get ready for Photos?
You can't imagine how unlimited storage of images and videos have no
implications to devs and how we view curation of photos? Thats one less
limitation to worry about.
I 100% agree that I/O is becoming less and less developer focused. Lots of
non-developers want to attend (I blame the freebies they gave - looks like
that has stopped so it might get better). I/O (or any other 'developer'
conference) goes beyond the technical. There is a lot of self-promotion, PR,
recruitment (in the HR sense, and recruitment into the 'developer ecosystem')
------
0x0
Google's old desktop app "Picasa" is still my go-to for organizing photos. I
make a file system folder for each "album". Everything stays local on the fs
and there is no doubt about where the originals are (compared to
iPhoto/Photos.app, etc etc). OSX' built-in Time Machine to an USB drive +
rsync to a NAS takes care of multiple backups. I can easily drag&drop files
into apps and upload forms with no doubt that I'm working on the best possible
copy (original).
Too bad the app appears to have been going unmaintained for some time now. It
doesn't even support retina displays on OSX (in a _photo_ app!)
~~~
joosters
Me too! I don't like it when programs insist on storing my photos in their
own, non-human-readable directory structures and file names. Otherwise it
becomes a nightmare trying to use them in other programs. Even iPhoto->Photos
managed to break my library.
I just wish that Google would bring back the simple online photo sharing that
they used to have with Picasa. The Google+ merge ruined all that.
~~~
gcr
If you're willing to keep your photos in Dropbox and have the space for it,
take a look at Carousel.
Carousel respects whatever folder naming convention you have. All photos in
your dropbox show up in Carousel's photo list.
Pictures on Carousel are always saved to the "Carousel" folder in your
dropbox, but you can move them around to respect your preferred folder
structure without damaging anything.
~~~
pgrote
Do you know if there is a way to edit the metadata of a photo in Carousel? I
couldn't figure out how to add tags to the photos.
~~~
gcr
Not sure. My intuition is that photos are completely read-only; I don't think
it will ever change them, so tags might be stored in some other opaque
storage.
I do know that Carousel uses the DateTimeOriginal EXIF tag to set the date.
You can use this command to re-tag photos, for example:
exiftool -DateTimeOriginal="2009:01:01 00:00:06" DSCF0038.JPG
------
WWKong
Like with all other Google services you should be able to get your data out
using the takeout service.
~~~
andrenotgiant
[https://google.com/takeout](https://google.com/takeout) \- Yep, still has
photos capabilities
------
therealmarv
And do not even try to edit your local desktop photos (desktop uploader will
not recognize at all) or try to delete local photos. Google photos only works
OK if you ONLY use your mobile phone for taking photos. If you have an normal
camera like e.g. a DSLR and want to sync that with Google photos: Forget it.
You will only have a lot of more management work with Google photos. Google
photos is again a dead end for your data. What we need is a good two way sync
for the desktop and more management possibilities in Google photos (because
there are NO management features). If you look at Lightroom and their cloud
sync (if you have an Adobe Cloud subscription): Adobe is lightyears ahead in
syncing. Google clearly does not care at all about the desktop.
~~~
CHY872
99% of people don't subsequently edit photos in photoshop; Google's tools are
adequate. You're in the 1% who are power users, and so might find the
mainstream solution inadequate. For that reason, software like Lightroom
exists.
~~~
hueving
Google used to be known for not aiming for the lowest common denominator.
They've gotten so large and crafty though that apparently "works good enough
to capture the majority" has replaced "make something great for everyone".
~~~
istvan__
I think targeting a smaller community is always easier and works better but
all the investors would like to see is plan for world domination, aka "make
something great for everyone".
------
notatoad
>There’s no way Google will know that “Trip to Thailand” should actually be
labeled “Honeymoon”
i wonder how much longer this will be true.
~~~
whonut
The only place I can see it getting info like this is a social network, and
that means G+...
In all seriousness, could they cross-reference dates in G+ posts and photos to
see that you mentioned being on your honeymoon when it was taken? Seems like
something they'd do if G+ was actually a thing people used.
~~~
icebraining
There's the Google Search looking for good place to stay on a honeymoon, the
email or hangout message sent to the SO mentioning it, the calendar event,
etc.
Even just seeing that you're on an irregular stay in Thailand (which it got
from your Android) right after your marriage can be telling.
~~~
whonut
Completely forgot email, calendar etc.
D'oh.
------
flycaliguy
I've never really treated my photos like special data that require an
interface beyond my OS. I keep them in an encrypted folder on my backup drive,
on my laptop and on my cloud service.
Maybe it's different if you have kids or something... but my folks only have
about 60 photos of my entire youth and that's 40 too many.
~~~
jasonkostempski
Yes, it's different when you have kids. I don't give 1 shit about any photo my
kid isn't in, but all photos he is in, regardless of quality, must be
preserved FOR ALL ETERNITY!! I suspect that feeling is common among parents.
That's why your parents have those 40 other pictures :)
------
pbw
I'm surprised the main timeline is a flat list. I have 30,000+ photos and
sometimes have 300 photos of the same event. It's impossible to browse the
overall contents with every photo shown.
I created a prototype[1] 5 years ago of a hierarchical timeline using
timestamps. It had it's own problems, but I would have thought by now someone
would have figured out a solution. Machine learn a hierarchy where each
coarser level has a subset which reasonably summarizes the next more detailed
level.
[1] - example
[http://pixtimeline.com/view/#105946173008403248796/553914066...](http://pixtimeline.com/view/#105946173008403248796/5539140669398690945)
------
jasonkostempski
After just a day of playing with it, I love the Google Photos service for what
it is, but I was pretty sure it wouldn't be a viable backup solution. If a
service offers anything more than strictly "file backup", it's a sure thing
you will lose quality and/or won't be able to get at it easily. I already have
a good backup system utilizing my free $50/month Azure benefits that come with
my MSDN subscription so I'm not really concerned about it. I personally don't
care much about sharing features but if Google can actually make this a good
backup + sharing system then they will win. For me "good" means my original
files are kept as-is and that upload/download is relatively quick. I'm fine
with days, not weeks. Azure (CloudBerry) took less than 5 hours for my 100GB
library over 35Mbs upload FiOS, but Google Photos isn't even 1/10th of the way
done after a day.
I love how it has mashed-up my photos into categories, stories, animations and
collages. Literally love it, it IS great. But backup system, it is not.
~~~
sosuke
Can you comment on your Azure based backup system? I have similar Azure
credits.
~~~
jasonkostempski
It's not super automatic but CloudBerry Explorer for Azure [1] is free and has
a pretty good folder sync feature. I basically just keep all my photos and
videos in single a folder on my desktop. Whenever I copy my families phones or
tablets to my PC I just run the saved sync, it's usually pretty quick. I have
over 90 GB of stuff so it actually took a long time for CloudBerry to analyse
the folder for the first time, after that it figures out what's new and needs
to sync pretty fast.
[1] [http://www.cloudberrylab.com/free-microsoft-azure-
explorer.a...](http://www.cloudberrylab.com/free-microsoft-azure-
explorer.aspx)
------
7ewis
So if you use Original, does it still use up your storage, even if the photo
is under 16MP, or video under 1080P?
From what I have read, they compress the files when 'High Quality' is chosen,
so I'm guessing if you select original, it all counts towards your storage?
------
jbuzbee
Been playing with Google Photos this morning and marveling how it is able to
categorize beer, bridges, kangaroos, koalas, etc. But of course it gets some
wrong. Anyone know how to change a categorization?
~~~
jbuzbee
I just realized that this post makes me sound like an Aussie! I guess I should
have thrown in that it also automatically recognizes bars, beaches, sunsets
and sharks!
~~~
testrun
still sounds like an Aussie.
------
zwetan
when I saw "unlimited free storage" I had to try :)
my interest was more on the video than the photo, when you click the option
"High quality (free unlimited storage)" the help mention it goes as far as
1080P for videos which is fair game for something free.
So I uploaded a couple of 720P videos, and redownloaded them to compare if
they were the same, what formats was supported, etc.
The good: it works kind of like a private Youtube, it does process the video
so when you watch it online you end up having it to auto 360P, which sucks a
little. But if when you redownload the video you get the original one (not
recompressed).
The bad: the UI and file naming is a joke.
I understand they wanted to make it simple to use and organise a lot of photos
and videos, but not being able to see the filename to quickly select a bunch
of files and put them in a group (or collection) is beyond me.
But let focus on something even simpler: select an item and no file name ? I
mean com'on google, am I not suppose to find/search easily trough my stuff ?
No regex in file name search either ...
My guess is the photo part was the main goal and the video part been added
quickly without much of a thinking about it, I do hope it would get better.
So far disappointing, if I was to upload all my videos there, I could not
organise them easily and worst I could not find them, it would be useless.
~~~
mynameisvlad
> No regex in file name search either ...
I mean, come on, did you really expect this? Most consumer-oriented search
systems I know of don't have this feature.
~~~
frik
He probably meant something like "*.jpg" which is common and works fine on
Microsoft Windows and Apple OSX. And probably not the full Regex syntax as
known from grep or Perl/PHP.
~~~
mynameisvlad
A wildcard search, then. Sure, that's more common (although sometimes
hilariously broken), I can give you that.
I'd expect wildcard searches too, but only because Google is a search company.
When I see a search box, I'm usually happy if it does a contains search
instead of an exact match, that's how low my expectations have become.
------
mark_l_watson
I have my cellphone automatically back up pictures to both OneDrive and Google
photos. Handy enough.
But, I like the OneDrive (or Dropbox if you don't mind the politics of
Dropbox) model: keep all photos and videos in chronological order, edit file
names, if desired, to add description after the file stamp, and generate one
off share URI links for friends to share pictures.
That said I appreciate having the extra backups, even if lower resolution, on
Google photos.
------
carlosecpf
Unfortunately, the "high quality" option is really low quality in reality.
Images that are crisp and sharp becomes very blurry on Photos. Some 12Mpx
pictures that I have got downscaled to 0.3Mpx on photos. However it does not
happen to all photos... Some of them deserve the "high quality compression"
badge. It just seems to be aleatory. Please fix this issue!
------
istvan__
I have been using this for a while and one day I realized it is skipping some
pictures when backing up. I went through all of my pictures and noticed ~5% is
missing. This was the last day when I trusted Google with picture backups. On
the other hand Flickr offers similar solution that actually does what it is
supposed to.
~~~
mvgoogler
Is this happening with the new app that launched this week?
If you have concrete examples I could investigate.
~~~
sorenjan
I have an example from before the new version of the Photos app came out. This
might have changed since then.
If I take a bunch of photos and then send some of them through Hangouts before
I get home to my WiFi those photos doesn't get backed up. I'm guessing it's
because Hangouts uses G+ albums for the photos, so technically the photos are
on Google's servers, but they're not where I expect them to be (in Auto
backup).
------
dk8996
The one thing that screwed me over is that the Upload by default compresses
the files to lower res. I lost some high-res photos this way.. this should not
be a default setting.
------
tedunangst
> Update: not quite, see below
Did I miss the update? All that's mentioned below is that Google drive offers
different files. There's nothing more about the download link.
~~~
darklajid
I'd guess that this is a reference to either
1) you have to do it one by one (or in very small batches), because the zip
export is broken
2) you get a different view via Google Drive
(I don't use those service, cannot even begin to imagine why one would upload
pictures to Google or use Google Drive, but - that's my take away from the
article and my own interpretation)
------
giancarlostoro
It's sad when you have to backup things from the cloud and not to the cloud,
it's sad when the cloud isn't straight forward about your files.
------
Animats
_" Once the (download) selection is large enough, it silently fails."_
"Mwahaha! Those sucker users will try a download and think they can get all
their photos back. But they can't! They're ours now! Ours!"
Hey, it worked for Instagram.[1]
[1] [http://www.cnet.com/news/instagram-says-it-now-has-the-
right...](http://www.cnet.com/news/instagram-says-it-now-has-the-right-to-
sell-your-photos/)
~~~
tedunangst
Did you bookmark that and post it without actually reading it? The update at
the top, very first paragraph, makes it pretty clear it didn't work.
------
weitzj
Did anybody think of steganography, yet? Or will the compression brake it
anyways?
------
asdf99
the cloud only exists because storage is cheap.
it should actually kill the cloud because storage is cheap. but all cloud
providers go out of their way to make their platform painful to use without
their cloud.
Apple makes backing up photos with iphoto annoying. Google makes backing up
photos via an app much easier than via usb or rsync on your home network...
etc
~~~
thrownaway2424
Storage in terms of raw bytes really is dirt cheap, but storage in terms of
erasure encoded, encrypted, multi-homed, highly-available file systems isn't.
Just buying a hard drive isn't going to get you very far. The durability of a
file on a cloud service is going to far outstrip that of your local hard drive
or even a fancy NAS.
~~~
pgeorgi
Cloud services outliving my (not so fancy) NAS. So, where's my Webshots
account? (since we're talking photos, let's take a photos example. It
shouldn't be hard to find an example of a dead web service for any other kind
of data, either)
_My_ datastore still exists and proudly provides those files from my
redundantly stored, checksummed, auto-repairing local filesystem. No, I don't
have an off-site backup. But neither had Webshots once they decided to shut
down.
~~~
thrownaway2424
Since I've never heard of "Webshots" that seems like a bit of cherry picking.
Flickr and Smugmug have both been hosting photos continuously for over a
decade.
~~~
pgeorgi
As per Wikipedia
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webshots](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webshots)):
"By 2004, Webshots was grossing $15M/year, had more than 200,000 paid
subscribers, and was the #1 photo sharing site and top 50 media property per
ComScore. In the same year, Alexa ranked Webshots the second largest English
language privately held Web media property (behind weather.com)."
------
cddotdotslash
I don't understand all the outrage about Google compressing photos. They're
offering a free service; they can do whatever they want to save space. If you
don't want them to be compressed, use the fill size option and pay your share
of storage.
~~~
rubenv
Note that all testing was done with the paid "Original" option.
I happily pay for things, but when I do I like to verify that it does what it
says on the box.
------
taylorlapeyre
The answer, as the author points out, is yes. You can get them out via Google
Drive. The author also thinks that Google is doing something bad by
compressing a large uncompressed RAW file to 2mb, but that's the tradeoff you
get for asking for unlimited storage from the service.
Google clearly states that photos synced to Google Photos with unlimited
storage get compressed a lot. On the other hand, if you pay Google for more
Google Drive space and use Photos to sync your images there instead, there is
no compression.
~~~
Ensorceled
I think he means bad in the sense of "8:1 compression means poor quality
photos which shouldn't happen for a photo site" rather than bad in the sense
of "google is doing something wrong, immoral or illegal".
~~~
chias
It's hard _not_ to get 8:1 compression when we're starting from a RAW file
~~~
ygra
Raw already is compressed. My 40D takes raw files around 12 to 15 MiB. They
vary in size, so that's a first clue. Also, if you do the math, 14 bits per
channel on those images comes out around 65 MiB.
------
higherpurpose
I uninstalled Photos right after I installed it. Why? Because as soon as you
install it and you open it, it starts to _indiscriminately upload all of your
photos_ to Google's servers.
Now, I get that this is supposed to be a "cloud service" and whatnot. But I'd
prefer if it was very clear when I choose to upload them to the cloud, and I'd
also prefer to pick and choose which photos go into the cloud _by default_. If
people want to upload _everything_ by default to Google's server, that should
be an opt-in feature.
~~~
timothya
> _it starts to indiscriminately upload all of your photos_
It only uploads your photos if you check the "Back up & sync" checkbox when
you first start the app. If you uncheck that box, it won't upload anything.
Don't spread FUD.
~~~
kuschku
And it’s still illegal in many countries to upload and process private data
without explicit permission.
And, as previous cases showed, permissions granted through default-checked
boxes, or permissions granted through fine print hidden in the ToS are legally
not binding, meaning the uploading is considered a computer crime.
Thilo Weichert, data protection officer of the state of Schleswig-Holstein,
Germany, did several law cases based on this against Facebook, and almost all
of them.
~~~
izacus
What? Google Photos (just like before) gives you a FULL SCREEN question asking
if you want to backup before it even lets you run it.
So, again, what are you talking about?
~~~
fwn
Don't try. There is no way to protect yourself from our absurd German privacy
laws. (Except if you are the government, then nothing matters.) Even the local
residents' registration offices simply sell your private data for next to
nothing to cheap ad companies.
..but if you are an US company, we hate you for the votes.
~~~
kuschku
Don’t worry, Weichert is suing the government, too ;)
And the parliament of SH relies on the fact that mass surveillance will have
to be cancelled, too, as it violates several data protection laws.
The constitutional court struck down the mass surveillance laws already two
times, they’ll do it again.
And yes, I was one of the people protesting on the street against the new laws
regarding Melderegisterzugriff
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The life of a telecommuter - redgirlsays
http://redgirlsays.com/blog/2010/11/the-life-of-a-telecommuter/
======
ben1040
Unlike the author, when I was telecommuting I was never able to be effective
while working in my pajamas.
When I would wake up I'd go down the hall to the office and read the first
5-10 new mails in my inbox to give me something to ponder while in the shower
(that's where I get my best thinking done anyway).
I did the whole morning routine and put on clothes I could be seen outside in,
and then back to the desk to work. For some reason, I would be more prone to
goof off on the Internet instead of work if I had just fallen out of bed and
parked myself at the desk for the day in my pajamas.
~~~
redgirlsays
I actually do tend to change out of my pajamas, just into a clean pair of
pajamas (or similarly comfy clothes).
What I absolutely cannot do is work in bed, under the covers--I'll doze off.
Laying top of the covers, sitting on the couch, or at a desk or table works
just fine though, for me.
------
tlack
I find it interesting to watch the telecommuting life style emerge and how
people cope with the feelings of isolation and the unusual schedule. For
instance: some of the telecommuters I know end up spending more time at bars
and stuff like that to get that social interaction they're missing back in
their life and use up their excess energy. As things evolve I'm curious to see
where this leads.
~~~
bluesnowmonkey
I started working from home about five months ago. I lived alone. It took a
couple of months for the social isolation to take effect, but it was severe. I
didn't realize at the time how much of my drive at work came from
collaboration, both cooperative and competitive. I like the joy of achieving
things as part of a team, and I like the challenge of trying to be the best.
(Yeah, that's not always great for team dynamics.) With nothing to prove and
no one to help or to help me, my productivity tanked.
Three things really turned it around. First was moving in with a roommate. It
provides some of the community at home that I used to get from the office.
Second was doing volunteer work. In a way it's a huge waste of time, but the
feeling of accomplishment is irreplaceable. (Lot of women there too... just
saying.) Third is releasing code, parts of my project, as open source
libraries. Never mind that nobody uses or even looks at it--just the concept
of making code public drives me to raise the quality bar, to keep it modular,
and to get parts finished. Instead of toiling away in preparation for one huge
launch date, each module becomes a mini launch.
The conclusion I take from my experience is that telecommuting will foster
communities, not scatter them. There will be less demand for one-bedroom
apartments and more for houses to be split by roommates. We'll see more
involvement in community activities and OSS.
------
eccp
In my case, it's rather extreme. I develop a Java webapp in Santiago de Chile
for an Australian business. I've travelled to Australia twice (4 months in
total), but I've been able to manage the last 2 years so far interacting with
them via email/chat/Phone/Skype dialy.
It's been very challenging but it's been an interesting experience overall. In
my case take breaks to be with my family several times a day and walk a lot to
ease the anxiety.
It's way too easy to lose focus on your tasks unless you can keep at least
some discipline, but in the end I think I've learnt a lot, not only
technology-wise.
------
fragmede
One thing that's not mentioned is the type of work the author does - which I
do think is very relevant. I'm usually a developer and telecommuting has been
working out well, but there was a situation where I ended up helping out tech
support, and not being in the office has been trying.
~~~
redgirlsays
I'm a tech blogger and co-founder of a small start-up. I have a background in
Electrical and Computer Engineering.
~~~
hippo33
@Redgirlsays, you mentioned Campfire, but I'm curious if you and your co-
founders use other tools to try to make things seem "closer?"
~~~
redgirlsays
Lots of emailing and instant messaging, occasional Skype chats, and sharing
photos and videos (generally work related, occasionally random or just for
fun). Dropbox accounts also make it easy to share larger files, but that's
less a 'closer' feeling than just making things more accessible and connected.
------
zazi
I transitioned from an office environment at a big corporation to
telecommuting for a small startup recently. Working from home has been great
so far and I'm loving it.
One thing I have observed is that my home life is slowly merging with my work
life. While I am at home, I am working almost 90% of the time. This has been
great for my productivity but I'm worried that it might be detrimental in the
long run. As it is, I'm starting to feel slightly guilty when I'm at home and
not working. (especially since my co-workers seem to work 24/7!). This doesn't
concern me so much now as we have too much work to complete, but at some stage
I think I'd need to figure out how to stop work and home life from merging
completely.
~~~
Aqua_Geek
I've been telecommuting for about a year and a half now. If there's one piece
of advice I have, it's to keep a clear distinction between work and home.
For about the first 8 months, I would be logged in to work for about 14
hours/day (not necessarily working, but logged in and checking/responding to
emails and IMs) and even found myself quickly logging in before going to bed -
just to make sure nothing new popped up (which it rarely, if ever, did).
Eventually, I had to force myself to keep "normal" hours - no more sleeping in
until 10 and then working till 1. "Clock out" at 6 and leave it at that -
everything will still be waiting for you tomorrow, I promise. =)
~~~
zazi
Thanks for the advice. Were the first 8 months of 14 hour days in a start up
environment? And, if you don't mind sharing, what changed to prompt you to
transition to 'normal' hours?
~~~
Aqua_Geek
Yes and no. About a year before I started this job, I founded a digital
publishing company with a friend, so I was working this 40 hr/week job AND on
my startup whenever I "got done" for the day.
It got to the point where I finally took a step back and realized that I was
killing myself. My crappy work schedule mixed with late, late nights on my
startup was a recipe for disaster. I also started having some RSI issues,
which I'm still dealing with today (not being physically able to work another
minute is a pretty strong motivator to stop for the day... <g>).
Just let go - I know it's hard to do if you're working for a startup,
particularly if it's _your_ startup. But you need to draw the line somewhere -
work a set number of hours a day, or work until a set time and then _clock
out_. Work hard/smart during those hours, and you'll get the satisfaction of
knowing you did what you could that day and it's enough.
Co-workers/founders are a terrific source of motivation - especially if
they're constantly committing quality code. But don't let that drive turn into
something bad, or the guilt will get to you and destroy whatever motivation
you had for the project. Programming because you feel you have to is no fun
and is not sustainable - you _will_ burn out.
------
lowglow
I wish I had a cat at work sometimes.
------
gchucky
I've been on a telecommuting project for the past several months or so. At
some point we realized that we weren't really functioning as cohesively as
possible, and the solution ended up being in finding a group chat tool. The
author here uses Campfire, but we went with Hipchat
(<http://www.hipchat.com/>). It certainly helped us with the sense of being
isolated from the team.
Now as to dealing with being in my apartment for what can be huge swaths of
time...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How Evil Is Tech? - monsieurpng
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/20/opinion/how-evil-is-tech.html
======
mephitix
My humble, personal opinion that I have been reluctant to share:
I am embarrassed by what has become of some parts of the industry I love. For
as much as Silicon Valley professes that it wants to "make the world a better
place", you can also find
\- social media websites that feed on people's addictions, almost forcing them
to post and share as much as they can instead of simply enjoying moments in
their lives.
\- the proliferation of fake news; this one stings a lot. When I was younger
the internet seemed like such an incredible learning tool. Many years later,
walled gardens driven by algorithms intent on feeding narcissistic tendencies
allow people to fall deeply into their own confirmation bias. This is a kind
of 'anti-learning' that has developed out of FUD that is only getting
propagated throughout all these social networks.
\- big tech companies where employees are sold on "making the world a better
place" but instead become completely dependent on attaining fake labels like
"senior engineer" \- and yet have never actually talked to a single user.
\- games that are no longer fun, but are now environments deliberately set up
to trap users in their own Skinner Boxes, pulling levers and pushing buttons
to open loot boxes that slowly drain out their bank accounts
\- the outright denial of many people in the tech industry that any of the
above is a problem. Simply read through the comments on this HN page.
Identifying that any of these things are problems is the first step in fixing
them.
~~~
smsm42
How SV is to blame for fake news? This has nothing to do with either SV or
tech in general, it's like blaming car makers for Al Capone because he used
them to get away from the police.
Internet is _still_ incredible learning tool. If you want to learn. Much
better actually than it was 10 years ago. You have free university-level
courses, you have Duolingo where you can learn two dozen languages or so, you
have Wikipedia, you have SciHub, you have enormous quantity of scientific and
scolarly content available absolutely free... But of course if you insist on
going to sites with fake news, nobody can prevent it.
Same for games - which tech industry doesn't design, or careerism - which sure
as heck tech industry did not invent, it existed way before Hero of Alexandria
invented world's first steam engine.
Of course, the grass was greener, the sky was bluer and the internet was
interneter when we're young. Everything was better when we're young. That has
also been invented sometime between wheel and fire. But tech companies have
nothing to do with all those faults of human nature - they are not free from
them, of course, but they did not create them and did not change them in any
substantial way. They did, however, make many things cheaper, faster, easier,
more accessible and more affordable.
~~~
nl
_This has nothing to do with either SV or tech in general, it 's like blaming
car makers for Al Capone because he used them to get away from the police._
It's more like blaming Ford for the Pinto ("unsafe at any speed"). Deliberate
design choices are what made fake news effective.
Think of Fake News as spam email: Gmail (and others) mostly solved spam email
because they decided to. Apple made a deliberate decision to manually review
apps in the AppStore. Twitter made the deliberate decision not to ban spam
bots in its ToS(!). Facebook made a deliberate decision to reward engagement
on links.
~~~
jaredklewis
Fake news is a much, much harder problem than spam.
Spam is simply marketing emails that a user never asked to receive. If you ask
users themselves for a definition of spam, you’ll get some variation on the
above. If users were asked to mark emails they considered to be spam, they
would generally mark the same kind of emails as spam. Some would mark more,
some less, but all around a common center. Users and companies are basically
in agreement about what spam is.
Compare with fake news. If you asked users to mark stories they considered
fake, some would mark info wars and some would mark huff post. And those
groups would rarely overlap. Given that users and companies fundamentally
disagree on what fake news even is, I can’t see how any piece of technology
can solve this.
~~~
jandrese
Fake news is absolutely real, for some definitions of fake news. This is the
problem, there is no generally accepted definition of "fake news". Some people
(including some very prominent ones) define it as "any story with which I do
not agree." Other people define it as news stories that contain falsehoods,
which seems like a better definition but is far from universally accepted.
Just look at the attacks on Politifact, Factcheck.org, etc... for people who
don't think objective truth is a factor in "Fake news". And of course things
are rarely black and white, there is usually at least a kernel of truth in any
statement, so you end up mostly measuring the depth of the bullshit covering
it.
Next time you hear an attack on "the mainstream media" remember that the
attack is targeting organizations that do their own independent verification
of stories (or at least try to) instead of regurgitating talking points. The
people are angry that those organizations are making it harder to lie to you.
~~~
smsm42
> Just look at the attacks on Politifact, Factcheck.org, etc.
TBH, those are not exactly shining examples of "objective truth". I've
repeatedly seen different ratings given to different politicians on
essentially the same statement, because in one case the reviewer felt
sympathetic to the politician and went out of the way to explain why it could
be considered accurate, and in the other case was hostile, and went out of the
way to point out why it is not true. Neither was, strictly speaking, incorrect
- almost with any statement that is interesting enough to discuss you could
find, if you look thoroughly enough, something to confirm and something to
reject, especially if you consider not only the bare statement, but the
context and implications, as those sites frequently do. It's inherently
subjective business.
> the attack is targeting organizations that do their own independent
> verification of stories (or at least try to)
Or sometimes not :) Yes, the MSM does reporting and verification, but also
does irresponsible reporting, exaggeration, conjecture, moral panic,
sensationalizing and distortion. And people that are angry at them for _that_
are trying to keep them (a little bit more) honest.
~~~
jandrese
Can you post some examples of times when a fact checking organization rated a
statement differently based on who said it?
~~~
smsm42
I didn't record every occurrence, but I did a quick search and here's an
example: [https://www.allenwest.com/2017/06/22/noted-fact-checker-
igni...](https://www.allenwest.com/2017/06/22/noted-fact-checker-ignites-
social-media-backlash-caught-posting-biased-tweet/) Maybe not the best one,
but certainly seems to be the same claim evaluated differently.
TBH, it doesn't even have to be a different politician - here's Obama saying
famous "77 cent on the dollar" and gets "mostly false"
[http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-
meter/statements/2012/jun/...](http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-
meter/statements/2012/jun/21/barack-obama/barack-obama-ad-says-women-are-
paid-77-cents-dolla/) here is essentially the same getting "mostly true"
[http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-
meter/statements/2014/jan/...](http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-
meter/statements/2014/jan/29/barack-obama/barack-obama-state-union-says-women-
make-77-cents-/) Did women pay drop significantly in these two years? Probably
not. If you read the conclusion, it's saying practically the same thing - yes,
raw statistic is saying that, but it does not mean what people quoting it mean
(that women are routinely discriminated in pay - i.e. maybe they are, but that
specific statistic does not point to that conclusion and should not be used as
an argument). But one time it gets "false", another time it gets "true". Why?
Who knows. Certainly very short of "objective truth".
And then there's this: [http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-
meter/statements/2008/oct/...](http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-
meter/statements/2008/oct/09/barack-obama/obamas-plan-expands-existing-
system/) Yes, the famous "if you like you health plan, you can keep it". Rated
as True. Or is it "Lie of the Year"? [http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-
meter/article/2013/dec/12/...](http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-
meter/article/2013/dec/12/lie-year-if-you-like-your-health-care-plan-keep-it/)
You can read the whole evolution of this "objective truth" here:
[https://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2013/12/27/in-200...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2013/12/27/in-2008-politifacts-2013-lie-
of-the-year-that-you-could-keep-your-health-plan-under-obamacare-it-rated-
true/) I think this objective truth is a tad less than objective.
~~~
nl
I didn't look at all of those, but I did take a look at the last one since it
seemed so bizarre: why would the same site give it "True", and also "Lie of
the Year".
A very quick reading makes it pretty clear. The "True" one was in 2008, and
based on the law as it was written. The second was in 2013, and based how it
turned out after it met the real world.
The 2013 article outlines this process pretty well - the whole thing is worth
reading. But a good pull quote: _Yet Obama repeated "if you like your health
care plan, you can keep it" when seeking re-election last year. In 2009 and
again in 2012, PolitiFact rated Obama’s statement Half True, which means the
statement is partially correct and partially wrong._
~~~
smsm42
> The "True" one was in 2008, and based on the law as it was written. The
> second was in 2013, and based how it turned out after it met the real world.
This is _exactly_ the problem. They made some predictions about the law (which
turned to be completely wrong, but that's not even the point) and tried to
pass it as "objective fact", not as their private conjecture, implying that
those that disagreed with it (and turned out to be right) are just lying.
This is the exact opposite of objective fact. This time they got caught
because their predictions didn't come true and their subjective opinion
disagreed with the facts so obviously that they were forced to flip. But many
other times they do not get caught because there's no such sharp contrast
between their private opinion and facts, and you can always muddle the waters
and spin the arguments to try and present why your opinion is "objective
truth" and anybody who thinks otherwise is just "truth denier".
As a political propaganda, it's fine - everybody tried to prove their opinion
is correct and the other guy's opinion is wrong. But it takes special kind of
hutzpah to call one's opinion "objective fact" and try to paint all the other
opinions as lying. Exactly the kind of hutzpah the "fact checker" sites are
swimming in.
------
blfr
The social atomization trend in the west began long before facebooks and
googles even existed, before the Internet was available to the general public.
They, and Facebook in particular, probably aren't helping but they didn't
cause it either.
What bothers me the most about these tech giants is the complete about face on
free speech. Companies that couldn't exist without it, that couldn't have been
founded without the open web (Google) and belief in freedom of communication
(Twitter), as bastions of free speech (Reddit) are now busy coming up with new
ways to censor their users. This is part of their progressive culture
mentioned in the OP but a very specific one.
I don't know how many people still care but this is how they lost all my
goodwill towards them.
~~~
Singletoned
I think we are starting to see that free-speech has a tendancy to destroy
itself, in the same way that free-markets do.
True free speech will end up in a system being exploited by those who can make
the most noise the most often. True free markets tend to end up as a series of
oligopolies.
Small amounts of regulation can help both systems do better, but we need to
find a way to reliably regulate regulation (as regulation also has a tendancy
to destroy itself).
~~~
nol13
See: Hacker News vs. Slashdot
Free speech is great, but a bit of regulation on the obvious trolls goes a
long way in making this a good place for the non-deranged to discuss things.
------
lacker
If you got all your information from this article you would be surprised that,
for example, 82% of Americans have a favorable view of Google. It's like the
old school media is trying to manufacture negative opinions of the new school.
[https://www.cnet.com/news/googles-approval-ratings-best-
appl...](https://www.cnet.com/news/googles-approval-ratings-best-apple-
facebook-twitter/)
~~~
mindcrime
_It 's like the old school media is trying to manufacture negative opinions of
the new school._
It very much feels like this. I mean, maybe I live in a bit of a bubble as a
techie, but I just don't see people (even among my very non-techie friends /
acquaintances) saying "Wow, WTF is wrong with
(Google|Facebook|Amazon|Microsoft|Instagram|Snapchat|Uber|$Whoever)?" OTOH,
plenty of those same people are very critical of (CNN|MSNBC|Washington Post|NY
Times|Fox News|ABC|NBC|CBS|etc).
Honestly, I am starting to feel like this "tech backlash" storyline is
fabricated and phony. Dare I say... #FakeNews? :-)
~~~
confounded
Are you suggesting that the NYT is faking _its own editorial view point_?
~~~
chickenfries
David Brooks... supports the media?! Gasp.
GP fails to distinguish between news and editorial, which this article is.
~~~
mindcrime
I don't think that's particularly relevant in this context. Of course I can
only speak for myself and what I said, but I can speculate on what I _think_
the parent of my post was thinking, and both are something roughly like "this
is just one more example of an ongoing thread of reporting, both 'editorial'
and 'news', which is pushing a specific narrative regarding the tech industry
and popular perception of same".
In that regard, that this specific article is an op-ed is an insignificant
detail.
Even more so when the author writes it as though he was reporting "news" and
not just an opinion. I mean, you get stuff like this:
_Not long ago, tech was the coolest industry. Everybody wanted to work at
Google, Facebook and Apple. But over the past year the mood has shifted._
Note how that's presented as an affirmative statement of an absolute fact.
and
_Some now believe tech is like the tobacco industry — corporations that make
billions of dollars peddling a destructive addiction. Some believe it is like
the N.F.L. — something millions of people love, but which everybody knows
leaves a trail of human wreckage in its wake._
OK, nice use of the weasel word "some", but still, this read like he's
reporting facts, not an opinion.
And so on.
~~~
chickenfries
You really have a strange standard for opinion pieces.
> Some now believe tech is like the tobacco industry — corporations that make
> billions of dollars peddling a destructive addiction. Some believe it is
> like the N.F.L. — something millions of people love, but which everybody
> knows leaves a trail of human wreckage in its wake.
I don't know about you, but I am totally ready to accept this "opinion" as
fact. Smartphone/internet/social media addiction is a topic commonly discussed
on HN.
Just because you don't agree with "some people" doesn't mean you can pretend
that the things Brooks are talking about are just his opinion and not
something that is objectively happening. Is your real problem with this that
he used the word "some"? He does on to detail who "some" people are in the
article.
~~~
mindcrime
I don't even really know how to respond to this because I literally have no
idea what you're trying to say, or how it addresses anything I said above.
I guess I'll just say this:
I never said I disagree with any specific point in the article, and what you
quoted there was simply an example of how the author of TFA poses something
(which might or might not be true) as "news", in a way that could blur the
line between a "news piece" and an "opinion piece". I was just addressing an
issue somebody else raised earlier about the blurring of news and opinion, by
pointing out that the author directly contributes to this problem by the way
he wrote his article.
Whether those statements are true or not isn't actually relevant to this
specific point. They may be relevant to the broader issue of whether or not
the "tech backlash" is real, but that isn't what I was commenting on there.
~~~
chickenfries
> I was just addressing an issue somebody else raised earlier about the
> blurring of news and opinion, by pointing out that the author directly
> contributes to this problem by the way he wrote his article.
I guess I just really strongly disagree that the sentence you quoted
constitutes "blurring the line." It says that some people think something and
then went on to detail who these people were. Further more, David Brooks is
possibly one of the most well known columnists for one of the most well read
newspapers in the world. It's labeled "Opinion" and "Op-ed Columnist" at the
top. It has an editorialized title, "How Evil is Tech?" It's so clearly NOT
news. Nitpicking this one sentence to say that somehow David Brooks is
masquerading as news is absurd.
~~~
mindcrime
_Nitpicking this one sentence to say that somehow David Brooks is masquerading
as news is absurd._
That was just one example. If anyone is nitpicking here, I'd argue it's you.
And I still have no idea what point you're trying to make.
~~~
chickenfries
The point I'm trying to make is that this op-ed doesn't "blur the line" it's a
textbook, completely average op-ed and correctly labeled as op-ed.
------
KKKKkkkk1
We've been seeing this type of articles from the New York Times on an almost
daily basis recently. Given that the New York Times considers Facebook, Google
and Apple as direct threats to its business model, I think the use of words
like "evil" in this context is an insult to their readers' intelligence.
~~~
beaner
It's become really easy to see when NYT has decided to push an agenda. The
Trump/Russia thing, for a while. "Tech is evil" for a while now, too. It
wouldn't be as annoying if they didn't promote themselves as a bastion of
truth with marketing lines like "Independent Journalism. More essential than
ever." Much of NYT is editorialized storytelling, not independent journalism.
Sometimes it's overt, but more often it's subtle by the simple selection of
what stories to publish and which to not. I feel like it didn't used to be
this way and it has become worse over time.
~~~
chickenfries
This is an op ed. By David Brooks.
~~~
beaner
As per my comment, individual op-eds are not necessarily the problem, it is
the curation of various articles fitting a theme across the entire paper by
the editorial board.
------
confounded
Using the word “tech” to describe the business practices of unregulated
monopolies is really starting to grind on me.
It’s not necessarily journalists’ fault; that’s the term these companies have
used to market themselves for years.
We (the engineering classes / actual _technologists_ ) need to do more to
brighten the line between the _technology_ and the _motivations and
incentives_ of the people putting up the capital (and the
executives/lawyers/lobbyists they control).
And, possibly, to recognize our latent power to influence certain decisions.
~~~
lucas_membrane
> the people putting up the capital
If you look at the balance sheets of many very profitable software/service
companies, particularly those that use the cloud but do not provide the cloud,
you will see that the concept of 'capital' is not what most think it is. There
are almost no physical assets there to justify calling the system
'capitalist.' The rate of return (free cash flow) on assets is astronomical.
For example, I have recently worked for a firm in which the assets and annual
return to shareholders were each equal to about 2 months of revenue. And most
of the assets are either cash equivalents that the 'capitalists' have simply
squirreled away out of past earnings, or agreed-upon fictions like deferred
costs or goodwill, or monopoly rights (intellectual property) created by the
government for the corporations.
This is not to say that successful entrepreneurs do not have extraordinary
talents at what Barnum called "money-getting." But it is hard to call someone
who starts a firm for $1,000.00 in his garage and sells it for 10 figures, or
someone controlling a similar firm who has already recovered his initial
investment 100,000 times over, or a hired-gun employee slash-and-burn CEO who
is given a few million in shares to motivate more money-getting, a
'capitalist.' Especially since the $1,000.00 probably went for things like
telephone and answering services, stationary, advertising, legal fees of
getting set-up, or finding a first customer, which are expenses, not capital,
and none of which are recorded in the firms capital accounts. Our respect for
capitalism is so overblown that we take it as given that any making of
unimaginable amounts of money by means that no one understands is an example
of 'capitalism,' because if it were not, the reverence for capitalism would be
called into question.
~~~
confounded
Thanks for writing this. It's tangential to my point (which is specifically
about the large corporates which constitute "tech" in the colloquial sense),
but I find it very interesting, and am keen to reduce my own ignorance.
> _There are almost no physical assets there to justify calling the system
> 'capitalist.'_
Why do there need to be physical assets? I know the classic Marx-ish "seize
the means of production" stuff is written in this way, but it doesn't make
much sense to me outside of the factory labor of the industrial revolution.
I use 'capital' to mean investable money, or assets that can be traded or
exploited; e.g. accumulated wealth, as opposed to income. And I generally use
'capitalist' to mean someone who invests 'capital' seeking a return on
investment, without producing much productive labor themselves. Often this
means maintaining the capability to partially or fully control the product and
the nature of production, in exchange for the investment. E.g. a venture
capitalist.
> _But it is hard to call someone who starts a firm for $1,000.00 in his
> garage and sells it for 10 figures, or someone controlling a similar firm
> who has already recovered his initial investment 100,000 times over..._
These wouldn't really be 'capitalists' per my working definition above, just
extraordinarily successful founders of bootstrapped-small-business. I think
we're aligned, except on whether examples like these are in any way
representative of anything that's likely to happen to anyone, or what's meant
by "tech" in the article. Google raised 36MM pre-IPO, Facebook 2.3B pre-IPO.
This money came from venture capitalists, who would have exchanged it for
boards-seats, strong influence on executive appointments, and ultimately the
direction of the company.
I can't tell if you're an accountant or a Marxist (or a Marxist accountant!),
but I'm keen to know more about your perspective.
~~~
lucas_membrane
No, I am a skeptic, not a Marxist. I try to keep this question of Einstein in
mind: "What does a fish know about the water in which he swims all his life?"
We never know how much we are missing, what points of view will come and go
back and forth between unrecognized and undeniable.
I've been following these fashions for some time (I can trace my skepticism to
reading Parkinson's Law when it was fairly new and I was 11 years old). When I
was taking my degree in economics, the theory of the firm said that the firm
exists to cooperatively advance the combined interests of its suppliers of
capital, its suppliers of labor, and its customers. Later, that was expanded
to also recognize the reasonable expectations of other 'stakeholders.' The
apotheosis of wealth has changed that so much that deciding how much we have
gained or lost is much like the index-number problem in economics --
unresolvable. We cannot value what we have today by standards that we used to
embrace, nor can we value what we used to have according to today's standards.
We cannot not change, but changes over time confound the problem of evaluating
change.
I might suggest that the single biggest cause of the runaway worship of vast
wealth was the arrival of the New Hampshire lottery, the first modern lottery
in the 50 states, subsequently imitated by almost all the others, in 1964. Now
the man in the street can identify and sympathize with the millionaire because
it is only a matter of time until the right numbers come out (lottery
investments in the USA are now around $1.00 per capita per day). Belief in
American capitalism runs on optimism; optimism and denial sustain each other.
This too shall pass.
------
skrebbel
Somewhat a tangent, but "How evil is tech" is a nice Trumpian headline. Looks
like NYT is catching up with the times.
By formulating is like this, NYT implies that everybody agrees that "tech" is
evil to some extent, and that the only discussion is about exactly _how_ evil
"tech" is. Don't forget that NYT is in pretty direct competition with some
companies they call "tech". This article is not unlike Coca-Cola publishing a
press release titled "How evil is Pepsi?".
(Note, I did not share any opinion about whether "tech" is evil and I don't
necessarily disagree with the premise of the article. I'm just trying to
highlight that this kind of writing appears to be the new baseline and it's
not just fake news and the alt right who do it anymore and that bothers the
crap out of me because I feel like I can't trust anyone anymore)
~~~
Ygg2
> "How evil is tech" is a nice Trumpian headline. Looks like NYT is catching
> up with the times.
What makes you think it needed to catch up at all? Look, press/media, tech,
and any industry out there are there to "Make world a better place... for
themselves".
~~~
meebs
> any industry out there are there to "Make world a better place... for
> themselves".
Under capitalism, at least. :)
------
oh-kumudo
Very evil apparently.
Tech is the greediest industry at this point, even comparing with Wall Street,
all under the philosophy of GROWTH. Too many pretentious people get into this
industry to chase the hot money, it slowly degrades to this toxic, selfish,
out of touch culture, that benefits no one except the tech people and their
pocket. Worst of all, they lack the blessing of self-consciousness to see it.
Tech is changing the world, but it probably not making the world a better
place.
~~~
AstralStorm
Real means now needed is material progress. Energy progress. Fixing backwards
places in the world. Political progress. Ecological and economical too.
Medical perhaps.
Apparently this is not quick buck enough.
Information revolution can only go so far. Many of the alleged tech companies
are not innovative at all.
------
wpietri
I am torn between my desire to see the numerous legitimate criticisms of the
tech industry given deeper consideration and irritation at the eternally lazy
way David "Applebee's salad bar" Brooks tackles anything.
The "destroying the young" thing is especially tiresome. Every new thing has
been destroying the young. That's true at least as far back as the novel [1],
and probably back to prehistory when elders complained that fire was making
kids soft, what with their "cooking" and their "warmth".
It's also deeply self-defeating of him to be complaining about the lack of
"cohesion" and "focused attention" in a sub-1000-word opinion piece that tries
to make a half-dozen points, none particularly well. And all that in a daily
newspaper, which is built to contain small amount of a great variety of
things, and which makes a lot of its money from distracting its readers with
ads. [2]
[1] e.g, point 4 of [http://mentalfloss.com/article/52209/15-historical-
complaint...](http://mentalfloss.com/article/52209/15-historical-complaints-
about-young-people-ruining-everything) and [https://op-
talk.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/09/14/when-novels-wer...](https://op-
talk.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/09/14/when-novels-were-bad-for-you/)
[2] [https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/01/business/media/new-
york-t...](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/01/business/media/new-york-times-
earnings.html)
~~~
notacoward
> the eternally lazy way David "Applebee's salad bar" Brooks tackles anything.
Which leads to the question: how evil is David Brooks? How much of our time
has he wasted? How many minds has he warped? How many Evil Empire agenda items
has he helped to push? I'd say very few in tech have done as much harm as he
has.
------
beaner
I feel like none of the problems described are really symptoms of Big Tech,
they're more symptoms of technology itself along with the fact that we haven't
yet adjusted to it psychologically as a species. None of the problems that the
author describes are problems that would not be there if "Big Tech" didn't
exist and were replaced by decentralized systems or other alternatives.
I think the author missed a really good opportunity to explore the developing
relationship between the human psyche and the overflow of information that
this age has provided us with, and instead made it political and blamey.
~~~
confounded
I’m not so sure the role of what we’ve let become called “tech” is as neutral
and inevitable as you make out.
There’s nothing about the technology behind the Internet that means that ad-
surveillance needs to be its default business model, for example.
~~~
beaner
Yeah, there's not a law, but I think if we had started in any other model
we'd've still ended up here.
Information is cheap and fast. This makes it difficult to charge for most
content. The only way to do this and profit is to advertise. Competition among
ad networks leads to ad tracking because it results in higher revenue for
publishers.
~~~
AstralStorm
Correction: only commonly available information. Want to get latest research
of high value that is not a patent? Get double dipped by Elsevier. And IEEE.
And ISO committee. Or pay for good online courses.
Likewise with common services. Social chat app number 1001 has little value.
Highly integrated with your business? Now you pay.
Unfortunately for news sites, their information is commonly available. Apps
are fungible and it is easy to develop "good enough" nowadays.
------
oldandtired
Technology of any kind is not inherently evil, not guns, computers, genetic
manipulation, not even nuclear bombs. Evil only arises when man uses and
formulates technology for evil purposes.
Too often, people get "a bee in their bonnets" over some form of technology
when it is abused and misused by other people. They don't separate the tool
from the tool user and associate evil with the tool.
Sometimes there is a case for not developing some form of technology because
the development requires the destruction and damage to people and the
environment. Here the problem is still people not the technology itself.
~~~
ndh2
This is a bit of a slippery slope. Take gas chambers for example. We all know
what they were designed to do, and what they were used to. So was it ok to
design them, because only those who used them were at fault? Was it ok to
build them? Was it ok to execute the command of pushing the button, because
you didn't issue the command? Who's at fault here?
Why is it ok to design and build algorithms that make people unhappy?
~~~
vorpalhex
Before the gas chamber was the firing squad. Before that was the noose, the
axe, and the guillotine.
Humans have a long history of killing each other, and typically over time
(with a few exceptions such as the electric chair) the methods have generally
gotten more humane (if state sanctioned punishment resulting in death can ever
be considered humane) and when those methods failed to be available, no human
government has ever held off on using a more barbaric act of killing in it's
place.
Technology will either evolve without us, or less humane methods will continue
to be used. Progress is both a promise and a threat.
~~~
musage
> Before the gas chamber was the firing squad. Before that was the noose, the
> axe, and the guillotine.
That doesn't answer any of the questions posed.
~~~
vorpalhex
Right, you need to continue reading.
Even if the Gas Chamber had never been designed, those people would of still
been marched outside and shot by firing squad.
~~~
musage
Technology, and the obesssion with it and being "dynamic" was absolutely a
cornerstone of Nazism. You don't know the first things about it is all.
------
palad1n
>Imagine if instead of claiming to offer us the best things in life, tech
merely saw itself as providing efficiency devices.
Hear hear.
------
markbnj
> Their technologies are extremely useful for the tasks and pleasures that
> require shallower forms of consciousness, but they often crowd out and
> destroy the deeper forms of consciousness people need to thrive.
Boy that's a hell of a label to stick on all the technology produced by
Google, Facebook and Apple. How do you even get all three of those companies
into one bucket without just making it a stupidly big bucket? One is a search
and advertising company with a bunch of side business, another is an
innovative hardware company with a bunch of side businesses, and the third is
an addictive social network. They're all "tech" and they're destroying our
deeper consciousness? Ok.
~~~
confounded
Any specific counter-arguments? I work for one of them, and it sounds about
right to me.
~~~
otalp
Apple doesn't care too much about how long you use an iPhone everyday as long
as you buy one every year or so. Facebook and Google's entire business model
relies on you spending a lot of time on their services. It's inaccurate to put
them in the same bucket.
~~~
confounded
It’s true that unlike Facebook and Google, Apple is primarily a B2C company.
However, aside from their own dark-UI patterns and walled garden strategy,
Facebook and Google provide the _killer apps_ for Apple’s highest margin
product. And Apple absolutely do care about engagement on the iPhone; it’s
highly predictive of buying a new one every year.
------
yannis7
just another attempt by the witch-hunting media trash to portray tech people
as the "new bankers".
it is amazing how similar those "respectable" metropolitan left-wing
newspapers are to their populist-right counterparts:
for the latter "immigrants are gonna take your jobs and globalists are evil"
and the former "robots are gonna take your jobs and techies are evil".
------
megaman22
Literally my job is to make software that increases productivity, in a
blatantly Taylorist sense, for a segment of business that is almost
universally considered a cost center. More throughput with less people, and
ideally the software enables using the cheapest people possible. I'm tasked
with creating metrics that line-managers can use to drive their workers like
oarslaves on a corsair galley. In a perfect world, from the business'
perspective, I'd utterly replace the people with some conglomeration of AI
buzzwords that could do the job at 65% of the efficiency of a human, at less
than the cost of one minimum wage salary.
------
hjorthjort
There is a lot of statistics about how social media causes
depression/unhappiness in the article. But I didn't see sources, and from what
I can tell (without looking at the studies) it's just a correlation. I do
believe social media impacts depression rates and creates some unhappiness,
but the claims in the article seem unsupported. Surely, depressed kids would
have spent more time alone in all ages, hanging out in their room, watching
TV, maybe reading. Honestly, even if social media made you HAPPIER, I'd expect
unhappy eight graders to spend more time on social media than those with a
sunnier disposition.
------
pgl
I think the question should really be, "How Evil Are The People In Control Of
Tech?"
------
HumanDrivenDev
I dunno, how evil is the media?
------
uptownfunk
The article brings up three critiques of tech:
+Tech is destroying the young via social media
+Tech is causing the social media addiction deliberately to profit off of it
+Tech giants are monopolies (Apple/Google/Microsoft) that invade privacy and
impose unfair conditions on content creators and smaller competitors.
Then at the end the author proposes a rebranding of tech:
> Imagine if instead of claiming to offer us the best things in life, tech
> merely saw itself as providing efficiency devices. Its innovations can save
> us time on lower-level tasks so we can get offline and there experience the
> best things in life.
> Imagine if tech pitched itself that way. That would be an amazing show of
> realism and, especially, humility, which these days is the ultimate and most
> disruptive technology.
So rebranding is going to make everything right? Who is he writing to, the
public or the tech companies? Is he trying to give them advice on how rebrand
themselves to appear to be less evil? I can understand his critiques of tech,
but his proposed solution falls quite short of the mark!
~~~
icebraining
I think the proposal is for a change of perspective by the people in the tech
industry (hence "saw itself"), not just how they brand themselves to the
outside, although that would change too.
Seems quite naive, though, and considering the source, it strikes me as
disingenuous.
------
otalp
1)Comparing the tech industry's effects to the tobacco industry is a bad joke.
2)Of course monopolies exist in tech and are bad, but that's the nature of the
protectionist state capitalism in the US over the last few decades, and is not
restricted to technology alone. Unfortunately corporations have more influence
on the working of the government than the people, and we're now into an era of
unprecedented corporate mergers and monopolies.
3)"Imagine if instead of claiming to offer us the best things in life, tech
merely saw itself as providing efficiency devices. Its innovations can save us
time on lower-level tasks so we can get offline and there experience the best
things in life."
That's what a lot of companies do. Apple and Microsoft market themselves as
selling productivity devices that help you get work done quicker. Jony Ive is
on record saying that people use iPhones too much.
It's also not reasonable to sweep in hardware companies like Apple, who don't
particularly care how much time you spend using their products as long as you
buy them regularly, to facebook, who very much care about how long you spend
on their site, since this is inherently linked to their profitability. What
are facebook going to do, encourage people to log off so that they can live
happy lives while facebook's profits decline? The purpose of a corporation is
to maximise profits, you cannot expect companies which compete in the
attention economy to compromise on that even if their services are addictive
and not useful to the people who use them or productive to society.
If you really think monopolies and corporations like facebook are harming
humans without offering any competing benefits, you'd have to question the
whole system of corporate capitalism and whether we should allow corporations
freedom to function without public influence over their activities.
~~~
wpietri
> Comparing the tech industry's effects to the tobacco industry is a bad joke
Nah. Even people in the industry are starting to wake up to the ethical
questions that come with making addictive products. E.g., this thoughtful
piece from a game company on why they're abandoning the free-to-play model:
[http://www.clickerheroes2.com/paytowin.php](http://www.clickerheroes2.com/paytowin.php)
~~~
otalp
There's a huge difference between addiction from games and apps, and actual
severe physical addiction from a drug like tobacco that also leads to cancer.
I'm not saying app addiction is inconsequential: it is not. But comparing it
to something that literally causes cancer is hyperbole.
~~~
bambax
Depression, suicide and social isolation are real problems; it's not just
people wasting time in pointless apps.
~~~
otalp
And these are not caused by apps in isolation; suicide rates today in the US
are lower than what they were in the 70s. Young people are the least likeliest
groups to commit suicide or have depression. Again, that is not to say that
there have never been cases where social media and apps have caused suicides
or severe depression. It's just not a significant driver of deaths like
illness like tobacco.
------
zaarn
>The first is that it is destroying the young.
>The second critique of the tech industry is that it is causing [...]
addiction on purpose, to make money
>The third critique is that Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook are near
monopolies that use their market power to invade the private lives of their
users and impose unfair conditions on content creators and smaller competitors
I agree with all three of these, though I think this is fixable. They obvious
and easy solution is to pick apart the giants. The EU's ePrivacy Law and GDPR
make this possible, in addition to Germany's NdG making it difficult for large
social network to operate compared to small ones.
The solution, in my opinions, is federated networks like Mastodon. Mastodon
Server Operators have little incentive to abuse their users since the users
will happily just swarm to another instance. Once they have figured out
portable profiles, this becomes even easier.
Federation solves these problems by detaching the user from a specific
operator.
~~~
thanatropism
Mastodon is one technical solution -- it makes me think of space exploration
through Lagrange points. But have you figured out how to make it an actual
solution?
~~~
zaarn
I'm working on solutions as a side project and there are other projects in the
space too.
All it takes is for one of them to succeed.
------
jondubois
Most big tech companies are evil to some extent though they also do some good
too. I've worked for a few and I can rarely stick around for longer than 6
months. It just doesn't feel right to me. It's obviously a zero-sum game.
It feels like executives are slowly turning the knobs and making companies
more and more evil over time but doing so at a slow enough rate that nobody
pays attention to it.
The hypocrisy of some big companies is that they promote themselves as being
against any form of violence, aggression or discrimination but a large part of
their business is about mentally abusing people and creating inequality.
------
TrickyRick
Does make me wonder, will we look back at this time of unregulated tech
companies and social media in 50 years the way we look back at unregulated
sale and advertisement of tobacco today?
~~~
platinumrad
I honestly find "tech" to be way too broad of a label and only really see
major problems with social media and fintech. Juciero-type companies are
stupid, sure, but they're not hurting anyone. Instagram and Twitter, on the
other hand, are likely strong net negatives for society.
Edit: Microtransaction-based games that are essentially gambling simulators
are highly problematic as well.
~~~
TrickyRick
Yeah, I guess that unlike the tobacco industry there are actually parts of
this industry that do something positive for the world. Perhaps Big Social is
a better term, or Big Gaming (AKA the AAA Industry...) depending on what
problem you want to focus on.
------
JudasGoat
Has anyone thought of making a nanny type app that would set "healthy limits"
on time spent on social media and news. I don't think we can rely on facebook
to tell users what is healthy, when it is unhealthy to their revenue.
------
foxhop
I ranted a couple days ago about the evils of what has become of
cryptocurrency:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15746019](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15746019)
------
gerardnll
What's evil are the minds behind the tech.
~~~
diyseguy
They were cultivated by a system that encourages them to treat life as a game
where money is the points that decides who wins. Human values like ethics are
pesky speedbumps that get in the way of maximizing greed.
------
microcolonel
I swear, if 00s and 10s Silicon Valley ruins the freedoms enjoyed by the
computing industry by being short-sighted, it will be the greatest grudge I
hold in life.
------
dredmorbius
Addressing a few points raised in comments:
1\. The drumbeat of criticism against major information-technology-centric,
largely media-based firms, has been palpably increasing. As a long-term
critic, this is oddly disconcerting. Calls for regulation are increasing in
the US and elsewhere. Critics include numerous former (and some current)
employees, or executives, of major tech companies, including Sean Parker,
former president of Facebook.
2\. The dynamics and interactions of media, the public, tribalistic impulses,
and politics (as well as other phenomena) are an ancient study, though one
apparently not much focused on by many working in information technology:
programmers, system architects, sysadmins, DBAs, network engineers, designers,
UI/UX specialists, product managers, etc. Which is ironic because that really
_is_ our melieu.
There's a very large literature on this topic and I very much recommend
getting up to speed on the topic.
MOOC ICS has a good, fast-paced introduction. I've been commenting on HN and
elsewhere of my own explorations: Robert McChesny, Noam Chomsky, I.F. Stone,
Marshall McLuhan, H.L. Mencken, Walter Lippmann, Gustav la Bon, Davic MacKay,
Cicero, Aristotle, and Plato are among the authors I'd recommend.
First video (apologies, I cannot find the playlist link):
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhGPbjxy2F8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhGPbjxy2F8)
3\. "Technology" is a tremendously unsatisfactory term for the many meanings
and connotations we give it. It's become synonymous in large part with
"inforamtion technology" (though writ broadly it concerns far more). But if
you _do_ look at information technology, _that_ field can largely be divided
in two: media, directed at collecting and directing information from and to
people, and cybernetics, directed at monitoring and managing non-human systems
(including technical, engineering, financial, and governmental systems).
Looking at each of these more closely even those distinctions start
disappearing over the underlying similarities.
But the upshot is that a tremendous amount of what "technology" is is really
the new "media". And yes, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Wordpress,
Spotify, Snapchat, and similar companies are largely _media_ or
_communications_ companies in the same sense that Western Union, AT&T, RCA,
CNN, or Time-Life Publishing, are. But bigger, faster, and with orders of
magnitude more audience.
And the less-directly-media-oriented companies -- Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft
-- still have media-like components, though they play in other spaces as well.
4\. The current tech giants didn't invent disinformation, misinformation,
distraction, propaganda, and manipulation. But they've made it vastly more
powerful, targeted, sophisticated, large, and rapidly-evolving. They've also
denied this up and down and blue for years, with all the credibility of the
lead, asbestos, tobacco, automobile, CFC, coal, and oil industries. Which is
to say: nil.
Not _inventing_ a problem doesn't mean you're not embodying or exacerbating
it.
------
diyseguy
meh. individuals will eventually figure it out for themselves. we don't need
nannies. something tells me this sort of argument will get used to prop up
anti net neutrality arguments.
------
lowglow
I wonder how many commenters here work for/with big tech.
~~~
chickenfries
Amazing that this is downvoted while all the other points are accusing David
Brooks of... shilling for the nyt? I dunno
------
ab89b176cb5d
"Tech" is not technology. Nobody hates TCP/IP or neural networks. What people
rightly fear is unaccountable power held by software companies.
If you are an engineer, you can help by respecting the people who use what you
build. Show people the content they want to see, not the content that
maximizes revenue. Refuse to experiment and collect data without the informed
consent of the people you target. Build systems with the knowledge that every
centralized service will eventually be compromised. Even if it's harder to
build, harder to debug, and harder to monetize, build technology that is
"good" instead of "evil" and the world will be better off.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The 2nd amendment allows gun control. Scalia didn't - dangjc
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-second-amendment-is-a-gun-control-amendment
======
masonic
Gun control ends gun violence as surely an (sic)
antibiotics end bacterial infections
That's utterly false. There's not even a strong _correlation_ between gun bans
and reductions in violent crime. (Mexico and other countries to its south are
great examples.)
In the U.S., the violent gun crime rate went _down_ after the 1994 "Assault
Weapons" ban lapsed.
Saddest of all, this _isn 't even labeled as an opinion piece_ \-- they call
this "news", not an Op-Ed.
~~~
dangjc
Australia had a massive assault weapons buyback + gun control program after
the Port Arthur shooting which reduced gun related homicides by 59% and
suicides by 74%. They haven't had a mass shooting since.
([http://theweek.com/articles/629877/here-are-3-countries-
wher...](http://theweek.com/articles/629877/here-are-3-countries-where-gun-
control-worked))
In Connecticut, after a law was passed requiring purchasers to obtain a
license first, homicides dropped 40%. When Missouri repealed a similar law,
homicides increased 16%. ([http://www.vox.com/2015/10/5/9454161/gun-violence-
solution](http://www.vox.com/2015/10/5/9454161/gun-violence-solution))
Please don't speak in absolutes.
~~~
_delirium
The suicide rate in Australia has not gone down at all, much less by 74%. Do
you mean only the suicides that use guns as a method? Those have declined, but
not because people aren't killing themselves, just because people they're
choosing other methods instead. Which seems like not much of a real win.
Suicide rates for Australia were 11.0 in 1980, 12.0 in 1995, 12.5 in 2000, and
currently 12.0 (as of 2014, the most recent year for which data is available).
Which doesn't suggest any obvious improvement circa the gun buyback/control
event of 1996.
~~~
DanBC
Pretty much everyone who works in suicide prevention (in individuals and
across populations) says that reduction in access to means and methods is an
important part of suicide prevention.
But it is just a part. You need the other stuff alongside the reduction of
access to means and methods.
> Australia were 11.0 in 1980, [...] currently 12.0
Just checking, but are you counting the same thing over all those years?
Definitions of suicide change; methods for gathering the data changes.
That makes it hard to compare rates across years.
[http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/...](http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/3303.0~2014~Main%20Features~Intentional%20self-
harm~10004)
> More broadly, this change in administrative systems highlights how various
> factors (including administrative and system changes, certification
> practices, classification updates or coding rule changes) can impact on the
> mortality dataset. Data users should note this particular change and be
> cautious when making comparisons between reference periods. The change does
> not explain away differences between years, but is a factor to consider.
------
lwhalen
What part of "Shall not be infringed", in any interpretation, allows gun
control?
~~~
dangjc
The 2nd amendment reads "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the
security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall
not be infringed." The New Yorker article was pointing out that judicial
scholarship prior to Scalia's decision recognized that the first clause "well-
REGULATED militia" constrained the application of the second clause. Please
read the article.
~~~
lwhalen
The article brought up one dissenting judge's opinion, and a whole lot of sour
grapes at 'losing' the Heller case.
From the Oxford English Dictionary, and bracketed in the time of the writing
of the 2nd amendment:
1709: "If a liberal Education has formed in us well-regulated Appetites and worthy Inclinations."
1714: "The practice of all well-regulated courts of justice in the world."
1812: "The equation of time ... is the adjustment of the difference of time as shown by a well-regulated clock and a true sun dial."
1848: "A remissness for which I am sure every well-regulated person will blame the Mayor."
1862: "It appeared to her well-regulated mind, like a clandestine proceeding."
1894: "The newspaper, a never wanting adjunct to every well-regulated American embryo city."
The phrase "well-regulated" was in common use long before 1789, and remained
so for a century thereafter. It referred to the property of something being in
proper working order. Something that was well-regulated was calibrated
correctly, functioning as expected. Establishing government oversight of the
people's arms was not only not the intent in using the phrase in the 2nd
amendment, it was precisely to render the government powerless to do so that
the founders wrote it.
Read the Federalist Papers (specifically #46), in which Hamilton, Madison,
etc, give significant insight into the intent behind the Amendments. It is
plain that they intended the 2nd Amendment to not restrict the people's
ability to own firearms in any way, shape, or form.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Homeland Security spending marked by waste, lack of oversight - anigbrowl
http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/articles/homelandsecuritymarkedbywastelackofoversight
======
giardini
If this is so, can you imagine the amount of money wasted by the NSA? We can't
see the NSA's budget, we can't audit the NSA, and we have no measure of
effectiveness to guide judgement.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
SEC Proposes Ban on Magnetar-Like Deals - zoowar
https://www.propublica.org/blog/item/sec-proposes-ban-on-magnetar-like-deals/
======
ShawnJG
these regulations are nothing new. After the crash at the beginning of the
century regulations very similar to this were instituted. Even after they were
lifted, no one but financial institutions could take advantage of the new lax
financial regulations, all lack thereof. What's even more perplexing is the
fact that after the meltdown these regulations are nowhere near as strict as
the ones from the 1930s. And with small relatively minor fines levied against
these huge firms there is little incentive to discontinue their dangerous
although profitable behaviors.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How can List be faster than native arrays? (2018) - lioeters
http://vindum.io/blog/how-can-list-be-faster-than-native-arrays/
======
Lerc
It seems notable that while map is mentioned there is no performance
measurement shown for map. To me The proof of the pudding would be in map
performance.
In my spare time I have been building various versions of the nbody benchmark
to try out different fundamental data methods, arrays, objects, immutable or
not etc. Every alternative version is, of course, slower than the original
mutating object version. In principle however, many forms should be
optimisable by a 'sufficiently smart JIT' to be at least as fast.
It would be nice at least for a JavaScript engine to be able to do in-place
maps on arrays defined from literals or single creation points like map/filter
etc. , and have only one copy.
For instance.
{
let x = [1,5,9];
let q = x.map(a=>a+1)
}
The JIT would have to determine that
. x held the only reference to the array.
. x.map is the last reference to x
. the array in x was not modified between creation and last reference.
. the used version of a=>a+1 returns the same type as it is passed
To place the result of the map into the same memory as the original array and
assign that to q.
Of course in this ultra simple example an optimizer could just figure out that
q is [2,6,10] and never used anyway so throw it away. but in real world code
you can frequently have arrays like this that are only ever used as a source
for a map, especially if you do
q.map(something).map(somethingelse).map(anotherthing).
~~~
lioeters
I found the benchmark mentioned in the article - here's the part comparing
map:
[https://funkia.github.io/list/benchmarks#map](https://funkia.github.io/list/benchmarks#map)
Apparently, List is ~3x faster than native array.map, with the difference
increasing with the number of elements.
I see that random access and iterator are two operations where native array is
fastest.
------
stabbles
"faster than native arrays" as in: native arrays crippled by the requirement
of immutability.
Appending to a "native array" is amortized constant time. Secondly almost all
operations on a "native array" will be faster because there is no overhead in
indexing, there is cache locality etc etc. Requiring immutability will almost
always reduce performance (yes, I'm aware there a couple operations like
concatenation that can potentially run in O(lg n) rather than O(n) when using
a tree representation for arrays).
~~~
microcolonel
It all comes down to how you're using them. Good tries can perform
dramatically better than std::vector-style vectors, given the same development
effort, on many kinds of system.
~~~
gjfytfh4256
That really strains credulity. What do you mean be dramatically better? Under
what read and write access pattern? Do you have specific examples where your
claim holds?
~~~
microcolonel
If your workload would normally involve regularly copying the vector, no
matter what, then it is an easy win. Other factors which can make it
worthwhile are access patterns where you have many similar or related vectors
which you access at random (especially if you can make some effort to
deduplicate those vectors).
------
Myrmornis
> There are a few operations where List is slower than native arrays. One of
> these is random accessing.
What about sequential access? Surely array gets a benefit from data locality,
where CPU caches pull in surrounding values automatically?
~~~
msclrhd
It will depend on the allocation method. For example, you could use a pooled
allocator that allocates a contiguous array of list items in a block, then use
those in order as required. That would help with cached locality. IIRC, the
Borland C++ STL implementation did something like this.
~~~
tfigment
The deque collection was this efficient. Allocated blocks based on pagesize
(4k). A truly beautiful data structure and one of the few good reasons to use
stl.
~~~
rwbt
Only the libc implementation of std::deque allocates 4KiB blocks and lives
upto it's performance and utility. The MSVC implementation is terrible (8
bytes) and even the GCC one isn't that efficient (512 bytes).
Even though boost has a customizable deque block size, it's performance is
still way behind Clang's libc.
~~~
Something1234
Wait why wouldn't std::deque allocate blocks as some multiple of the sizeof
the thing it holds?
~~~
tfigment
> Wait why wouldn't std::deque allocate blocks as some multiple of the sizeof
> the thing it holds?
It does in the semicontiguous 4k blocks. And at least one msvc was that smart
as i used it.
~~~
mycall
What is so magical about 4k?
------
AlexanderDhoore
As far as I know this is an RRB vector.
Here's the original paper:
[https://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/213452/files/rrbvector.pd...](https://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/213452/files/rrbvector.pdf)
A rust implementation:
[https://docs.rs/im/13.0.0/im/](https://docs.rs/im/13.0.0/im/)
C++ implementation:
[https://github.com/arximboldi/immer](https://github.com/arximboldi/immer)
The rust implemenation does a cool trick where the data is only copied when it
is shared. If you are the sole owner of the data structure it will simply
mutate it in place. So you don't lose any performance. But once you share it,
it becomes an immutable functional data structure. See
[https://docs.rs/im/13.0.0/im/#in-place-
mutation](https://docs.rs/im/13.0.0/im/#in-place-mutation)
------
unrealhoang
It can't. Try benchmark sequential access on array to see sub-nanosecond per
item. That's fast.
~~~
gjstein
From the article:
> Even though List is very fast across the board no data-structure can be the
> fastest at everything.
This feels like a case in which everything is sufficiently well-implemented
that the No Free Lunch Theorem [1] starts to play a role.
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_free_lunch_theorem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_free_lunch_theorem)
------
kccqzy
That's pretty disingenuous. The native arrays aren't designed for immutability
at all. Of course an immutable data structure would be faster than copying the
entire array every single operation.
------
keymone
Clickbait title. Fastest _doing what_?
~~~
ww520
Yeah. Array has well known poor performance on insertion. It's a strawman.
~~~
The_rationalist
Arrays are faster than linked list on insertions too, stop spreading erroneous
beliefs.
~~~
fgonzag
Why are you comparing the performance of a linked list instead of a relaxed
radix balanced tree as the article talks about?
------
danite
I'd recommend people read this discussion of linked list vs array performance:
[https://rust-unofficial.github.io/too-many-lists/#an-
obligat...](https://rust-unofficial.github.io/too-many-lists/#an-obligatory-
public-service-announcement)
TLDR; linked lists' theoretical performance advantages are often negated by
years of hardware optimization for dealing with arrays.
~~~
tomp
The original article is about lists implemented as tree-like data structures,
not linked lists (which are much slower for most operations).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
LearnSearch: User Curated Learning Feeds - hsikka
https://learnsearch.xyz/
======
hsikka
Hey folks! I just spent the past few days building LearnSearch, a web app
where you can share learning resources and upvote the ones that help you or
are valuable in someway. I asked a lot of people what they wished they knew
when they started self teaching or learning something new, and the feedback
was always that they wish they could tell the good resources from the ones
that lead them astray, and that others were vital in letting them know about
this. I wanted to make this same interaction scaleable, so I built
LearnSearch! LearnSearch is still in its early, early infancy, and I'm going
to continue to build out different feeds, comments, and other cool features.
I'd love for you guys to take a look and let me know what you think!
It's my first real crack at a web app, and it took me a few nights, so i'm
gonna take a quick snooze ;)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: why QR reading capability isn't integrated to smartphones - Juha
I find it surprising that even nowadays most smartphones don't seem to come with any way to read QR codes. You'll have to install an 3rd party app on all phones I have tested (vanilla android, iPhone, N9 most lately). Why is this?<p>Some factors why I would expect it to be part of any modern smartphone:
- Technology is easy to implement and standardized.
- QR codes are no more just for techies, but you start to see them everywhere.
- Integrating the functionality to the OS camera app would make it easier to read the QR codes.
- It is easy to demo by the phone company and most customers know how to use it.
======
kellros
Well, I'd say it's because of legal issues. A couple of months ago I was
investigating QR codes.
Other than the fact most (if not up to 80%) of people either don't know what a
QR code is or how to 'read' it.
It's a pretty clever design, at its core is encoding binary data to an image
(largest is about 512KB if I remember correctly).
Liability comes into play when you consider that it's possible to encode a
virus or other malicious code into QR readable format which people can willy-
nilly scan into their phones.
------
simba-hiiipower
Windows Phone has built-in QR scanning capability. It was integrated into the
OS as part of the last major update (7.5/Mango).
It's a feature of 'Bing Vision' which allows scanning of QR Codes, Microsoft
Tags, Standard Barcodes, and Text. This is built-in to the general Bing
(Search) feature of the OS and is avaliable on all Windows Phone devices.
~~~
Donito
I'd like to add it also allow you to scan books and CD covers, and instantly
detect it and give you reviews/prices.
------
arn
Because QR codes are a stop-gap and won't exist in a few years?
Seems like low-power Bluetooth will replace QR codes in the not-so-distant
future.
~~~
Juha
QR's benefit is that it is so low tech, so it will have usecases even after
something else comes around (print media for example). Btw, I have been under
impression that the NFC technology is coming as the next step, haven't heard
about low-power BT.
~~~
lukeholder
I think QR codes and also any type of near field communication is just not
going to catch on.
if I am in a store and I want to make a purchase on in some way connect to the
store, wouldnt it just be easier to install that stores app, or visit
nikemob.com and communicate and make purchased through the internet?
shouldn't the internet be the communication medium?
Apple is already doing this, you buy items on your phone, walk into a store
and pick up the item and walk out. You can even purchase in the app while in
store without talking to anyone. no need to scan a qr code, or connect with
NFC.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why are Silicon Valley billionaires starving themselves? - Jerry2
https://theweek.com/articles/835226/why-are-silicon-valley-billionaires-starving-themselves
======
iron0013
Am I missing something, or does the author really not mention the strong body
of evidence showing that calorie restriction is one of the only interventions
consistently associated with a significantly longer lifespan? I feel like it's
obvious that Jack and anyone else skipping meals is doing so because of solid
science, not "because Stoicism" (and a good thing, too, because how idiotic
would that be?)
~~~
yughurt
I agree. The article is so obviously biased against anything related to the
world of tech that it makes me feel like it was written by a bot.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Docker Basics: A practical starters guide - timbutlerau
https://www.conetix.com.au/blog/docker-basics-practical-starters-guide
======
chrisacree
I use AWS for some projects, so I can boot up identical machines in a few
minutes as needed from a script.
What's the benefit of Docker for me? Easier time switching hardware/OS down
the road? I guess I just never fully understood the value proposition (I'm not
an Ops guy).
~~~
jdoss
It allows you to bundle your entire app and all the specific OS dependencies
into one container to deploy it consistently on anything that supports Docker.
While you might have your scripts to fit your needs for setting up your
servers on AWS, what if you have users that are trying to deploy your cool app
don't have access to your scripts or the understanding to even use them if you
handed them over? What if you could ensure that your app was 100% setup
correctly with everything needed regardless of the underlying OS? Docker helps
make that happen.
The best example I can personally give you that shows the value and power of
docker is with my experience with the forum software Discourse [1]. Being an
Ops guy, I wanted to install it on CentOS 7 without their Docker setup and it
took me a lot of time and effort to get it to work correctly. I recently set
it up again for a demo for a group of people to check out and I didn't have
the time to do a manual install, so I used their Docker method. I had it up
and running in under 30min on CentOS 7. It was great and updating the forum
down the road was very easy as a result of using the Docker method too. My
manual install has a bunch of work involved to update it correctly and as a
result, I don't updated it as frequently.
[1]:
[https://github.com/discourse/discourse](https://github.com/discourse/discourse)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Future Of Technology And Education (Video) - sonier
http://www.fastcoexist.com/1680776/watch-a-great-short-film-on-the-future-of-technology-and-education
======
diligentwarrior
I was in elementary school in the mid-90s, and I remember being rewarded for
working well with computers. I would have the chance to use a computer for an
assignment when others wouldn't, mainly because I showed interest and progress
when using it. I went home and played education computer games as well, it was
fun to play with the machine. I wish my teachers went farther, as it would
have made more interested in the material because I would have had a chance
learn it by using something that really did interest me.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
This genius map explains how everything in physics is connected - CarolineW
http://www.sciencealert.com/this-genius-video-explains-everything-you-need-to-know-about-physics-in-8-minutes
======
espeed
Direct links to the video and hi-res image by Dominic Walliman:
Image:
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/95869671@N08](https://www.flickr.com/photos/95869671@N08)
Video:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZihywtixUYo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZihywtixUYo)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
So you wanna be a freelancer? - iwarshak
http://ianwarshak.posterous.com/working-as-a-freelancer
======
bradhe
Excellent post. I did a stint as a freelancer for a while and this is on
target for sure.
I've been riding a cube for about 2 years now and I'm starting to get tired of
it, though. On top of that I'd like to have some more time to work on my
startup.
Thus, I'd like to get back in to freelancing. Even though I _did_ freelance at
one point I was never in a place where I had to _look_ for work -- it always
just fell in to my lap. Does anyone have any advice on how I can get started
looking for clients?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
SIP.js v0.8.0 Supports All Major Browsers and Renegotiation - wakamoleguy
https://www.onsip.com/blog/sipjs-v0.8.0-supports-all-major-browsers-and-renegotiation
======
auvrw
> The bulk of SIP.js no longer cares about the media and what it’s doing
yes. this is important, even if only for testing.
my [semi]current test setup for jssip resorts to webdriver testing because the
WebRTC is not completely decoupled
[https://github.com/ransomw/simp-
phone/blob/master/test/clien...](https://github.com/ransomw/simp-
phone/blob/master/test/client/plivo/sip_wrap.js#L105)
[https://github.com/ransomw/simp-
phone/blob/master/test/clien...](https://github.com/ransomw/simp-
phone/blob/master/test/client/wd_serve.js)
i guess these updates would allow me to test call functionality completely
within the node runtime without scrounging around for WebRTC mocks?
~~~
egreenmachine
Yes! That was part of the goal of these changes. We want SIP.js to be a SIP
stack, not a WebRTC wrapper.
------
singularity2001
[https://sipjs.com/](https://sipjs.com/) demo does not work. do I have to
enable Google Analytics or something?
SIP/2.0 403 Forbidden Via: SIP/2.0/WSS
48cmgevbchtu.invalid;rport=24281;received=46.59. _._ ;branch=z9hG4bK1777859
~~~
egreenmachine
We accidentally terminated our demo account for non-payment (whoops). It
should be working now. We have made sure that this will not happen in the
future.
------
j_s
Awesome client-side resource! WebRTC is poised to hit the big time now that it
is supported by iOS 11.
For both of my questions below I will link options from previous
discussions[1]; any experience you can share would be appreciated.
1) What is the best option to implement a server that can tie into WebRTC for
audio/video/screensharing?
[https://github.com/mappum/electron-
webrtc](https://github.com/mappum/electron-webrtc) \- simple but bulky Node.js
WebRTC via a hidden Electron process
[https://chromium.googlesource.com/external/webrtc](https://chromium.googlesource.com/external/webrtc)
\- C++ Chromium WebRTC
[https://github.com/jitsi/jitsi-videobridge](https://github.com/jitsi/jitsi-
videobridge) \- Java video conferencing
[https://github.com/Kurento/kurento-media-
server](https://github.com/Kurento/kurento-media-server) |
[https://github.com/OpenVidu/openvidu](https://github.com/OpenVidu/openvidu)
\- Node.js media server transitioning after Twilio hired key devs
[https://www.wowza.com/products/capabilities/webrtc-
streaming...](https://www.wowza.com/products/capabilities/webrtc-streaming-
software) \- commercial; in preview
2) What is the best minimal WebRTC server-side option just for UDP?
[https://github.com/js-platform/node-webrtc](https://github.com/js-
platform/node-webrtc) \- Node.js native module with mystical pre-built
binaries
[https://github.com/HumbleNet/HumbleNet/](https://github.com/HumbleNet/HumbleNet/)
\- C++ Mozilla + Humble Bundle code drop that does signalling via WebSockets
(instead of STUN/TURN/ICE?)
[https://github.com/rawrtc/rawrtc](https://github.com/rawrtc/rawrtc) \- C with
CLI examples; media someday?
[https://github.com/rawrtc/rawrtc/issues/4](https://github.com/rawrtc/rawrtc/issues/4)
[https://github.com/seemk/WebUdp](https://github.com/seemk/WebUdp) \-
prototype C++ WebRTC datachannel server for Linux looking for help
[https://github.com/brkho/client-server-webrtc-
example](https://github.com/brkho/client-server-webrtc-example) \- C++ MVP
using Chromium WebRTC [http://blog.brkho.com/2017/03/15/dive-into-client-
server-web...](http://blog.brkho.com/2017/03/15/dive-into-client-server-web-
games-webrtc/)
\--
[1] A real world guide to WebRTC |
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14787285](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14787285)
(Jul 2017, 59 comments)
~~~
Klathmon
Sadly, while WebRTC is "supported" by iOS 11, it is disabled in web apps added
to the home screen, as well as any embedded web views like UIWebView or
WKWebView.
Which leads to the wonderful UX that if a user adds your website that uses
WebRTC to the homescreen, you need to catch a TypeError from getUserMedia
being undefined, and display a modal to them telling them to delete the
homescreen shortcut and always type in the URL if they want to use the
website.
~~~
Alacart
Whoever allowed that decision to be made should be ashamed of themselves and
embarrassed. Safari really is the new IE.
~~~
Klathmon
The cynical part of me thinks it's to keep "alternate" browser apps like
Chrome and Firefox on iOS from having the feature, but i'm really hoping that
it's something much less nefarious.
But either way it's a really shitty move in my opinion.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Super "Perigee Moon" to Rise Saturday - shawnee_
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/16mar_supermoon/
======
Groxx
Can I say "Super Perigee Moon Double Rainbow Rolling Bomber Special[1]"
without repercussion? Because I really want to...
[1]: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2BBl7_-4JA>
------
hippee-lee
If you are near the mountains you can get some epic night turns if you ride or
ski. Berthoud Pass anyone?
------
mitcheme
For a minute there I read "super perogie moon" and was really curious as to
what that would entail.
~~~
wglb
Cheese on the inside!
------
bluedanieru
And it almost certainly won't be the harbinger of any huge natural disaster.
~~~
jerf
More regnibrah, I think.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
BeeLineReader – Now With Chrome and Firefox Plugins - gnicholas
http://BeeLineReader.com
======
nn3
It's a cool idea, but it's imho really dumb to do something like that as a web
service. It should be in the standard toolkit, like GTK.
~~~
gnicholas
Great point—we're offering the browser plugins as a first step in order to
gauge interest, make tweaks, and demonstrate consumer interest. We are in
talks with medium to large companies regarding integration, and hope to have
BeeLine built into existing apps/platforms soon!
------
gnicholas
Did a Show HN a couple months ago and wanted to circle back now that we've got
Chrome and Firefox plugins (with custom colors, faster execution, multiple
font sizes, and keyboard shortcut activation) instead of just bookmarklets.
Feedback appreciated!
------
intellegacy
I don't think this works with HN.
~~~
gnicholas
Yeah, the plugins are designed to work with pages that have large blocks of
text (news articles, wikipedia pages, fan fiction). It doesn't work as well,
and generally isn't as necessary, on the shorter lines/paragraphs found in
comment threads. But we're always updating the plugins, so hopefully this will
come soon!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ballmer: Piracy costs Microsoft 95% of potential Chinese revenue - dschobel
http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2011/05/ballmer-piracy-costs-microsoft-95-percent-of-potential-chinese-revenue.ars
======
nextparadigms
Oh please. They could've done something about this years ago if they really
wanted. I'm sure they'd rather have 90% of the world on Windows, even if half
of those have it pirated, than to only have 45% market share, and the other
45% to use a free OS like Linux.
Plus, claims like "potential sales" are always bogus. Piracy happens there for
a reason. Windows costs more than most people's monthly salaries. If Windows
cost $5 there, we'd probably see a lot more buy it. Not all countries can pay
the same price for the products. It's something the music industry doesn't
seem to get either.
EDIT: I just noticed Rebecca Black's Friday video here and I saw it had 150
million views on Youtube. I suppose that's 150 million lost sales right there,
too.
~~~
notcertain
And yet, they can afford the hardware, which costs a minimum 5x as much as the
software. It's not that they can't afford it. They choose not to. It's easy
enough to obtain pirated copies of Windows in China. It's harder in countries
with developed business environments and legal systems.
The salary argument doesn't work, either. Chinese PC penetration is something
like 15%, so you really need to look at the average salary of the top 20% when
considering affordability, not the country as a whole.
It's better to look at this as your usual supply / demand curve. If the price
of the hardware and software combination were $100 higher (about the cost of
Windows 7 Home Premium in China), then fewer people would buy PC's, but
Microsoft would make a ton more across all PC sales.
I believe the lost revenue argument, but it's not 100% and it certainly isn't
0.
EDIT: Missed a 'the'.
------
theprodigy
The majority of PCs sold run in the world runs windows. They are pretty much
complementary. So the amount of PC sold should be similar to the amount of OS
sold.
If they are not similar then you got to look at substitute OS that these PC
users are using, ie linux, pirated software, etc. I highly doubt these Chinese
consumers know anything about Linux being a viable option. Linux hasn’t even
deeply penetrated the desktop OS market here in America. There could be higher
density of usage in areas like the Silicon Valley, but as a whole the average
joe shmo American who are more enlightened consumers than the Chinese won’t be
using Linux as a alternative in mass.
So what are these PCs running on? It’s pirated copies of different
distributions of Windows.
This is because the IP laws aren’t being enforced, Chinese consumers don’t see
the value of buying the real windows version (ie: updates) or the consumer is
not educated and doesn’t know if they are buying real or a pirated copy of
windows.
Microsoft is getting jipped in china because they should be getting $ on
almost every PC sold in that country.
------
jellicle
Utter bullshit. Microsoft chooses to price Windows high in China, knowing that
most people will therefore make a private copy, because Microsoft is afraid
that if they price it low, it will undercut sales in western nations (people
will import legitimate Chinese copies of Windows to the U.S.).
That's their business decision and a perfectly acceptable tradeoff. But you
don't get to make that decision, profit from it, and also whine about it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How I Start: Rust - fanf2
https://christine.website/blog/how-i-start-rust-2020-03-15
======
anurag
In case it helps, Render ([https://render.com](https://render.com)) has first
class support for Rust webapp hosting without needing Docker.
And here's the Hello World URL for this tutorial! [https://rust-nix-
helloworld.onrender.com/hostinfo](https://rust-nix-
helloworld.onrender.com/hostinfo)
More info at [https://render.com/docs/deploy-rocket-
rust](https://render.com/docs/deploy-rocket-rust). I'm the founder; happy to
answer questions here or in our user chat at
[https://render.com/chat](https://render.com/chat).
~~~
rafaelgoncalves
Didn't know about this render.com, very nice hosting. Thanks for this.
------
rvz
As much as I use Rust personally and for some of my own pet projects, for
serious HTTP services and introducing it into a new developer team, I'm afraid
that isn't feasible for my requirements. I'm put off with the immaturity of
the crates ecosystem and the costs it will bring. Most of the crates are not
even 1.0 including Rocket and that also requires a nightly build which isn't
good enough for my requirements. (I only use stable Rust).
As a language it is mature, but the crates ecosystem is of lesser quality,
especially for applications like HTTP servers. I've already overcome its
learning curve, but the devs who swear by other languages that pay them well
may not be so forgiving.
~~~
correct_horse
I totally agree that Rocket requiring nightly is a deal-breaker for
production. I suspect the author picked Rocket because it feels more beginner
friendly than alternatives.
Actix-web is in 2.0. The original author stepped away recently, but it has
quite the community behind it.
If readers are curious why Rocket requires nightly, it has to do with the
macros (that resemble Java annotations/python decorators). Specifically Rust
wants all its macros to be hygienic - they shouldn't be able to (for example)
create variables that clobber user-defined variables. Rust has multiple types
of macros, but the type used by Rocket, procedural macros, don't have this
hygienic property yet. For context, procedural macros operate on TokenStreams,
whereas "normal macros" (declarative macros) operate on AST nodes. See the
issue
[https://github.com/SergioBenitez/Rocket/issues/19](https://github.com/SergioBenitez/Rocket/issues/19)
~~~
golergka
> Actix-web is in 2.0.
What's the situation with use of unsafe now?
Although toxicity that was shown by the community was obviously uncalled for,
I was very put off by the original author's stance on the issue and am wary of
using it in production.
~~~
correct_horse
All issues dealing with undefined behavior (UB), segfaults and the like are
currently closed. Actix-Web makes use of unsafe (as high-performance Rust
usually does) so there could be some UB hiding.
~~~
adamc
Honest question: What is the point of using Rust if you have to use unsafe
constructs to get performance?
~~~
Too
What are your alternatives? Managed memory language or C/C++?
Rust has much more modern and ergonomic syntax, features and package
management over C, so even inside unsafe blocks it's simply easier to write.
~~~
pjmlp
Managed memory languages like Swift, F#, C#, D, Nim, offer the productivity of
GC, value types, unsafe if really needed and AOT compiled toolchains.
~~~
pkolaczk
"productivity of GC" is often offset by much harder management of resources
other than memory due to lack of deterministic destruction.
Also benchmarks show Swift and C# are still about 2x-5x slower than Rust and
C++, and that only if you're very careful and you write non-idiomatic code
(e.g by avoiding heap allocations). When you're not, and you use OOP
abstractions heavily, 10x worse is a much more likely outcome.
~~~
pjmlp
That is only true if using a language that doesn't not offer mechanisms to
have deterministic destruction, when required to do so.
Winning the benchmarks game is meaningless, other than "I fell good" kind of
thing.
What matters is having the language features that allow to optimize the 1% of
the code base, when it actually impact the acceptance criteria of project
delivery.
I have been replacing C++ systems with Java and .NET based solutions since
2006, it hardly matters that C++ wins in the micro-benchmarks.
And if really needed, only that 1% gets packed into a C++ library with managed
language bindings, turning C++ into our "unsafe" module.
~~~
pkolaczk
My point is these languages you mentioned don't offer good tools to optimize
that 1% and they make the other 99% an order of magnitude slower and more
resource hungry to the point where it actually matters and annoys users. Also
neither C# nor Java offers deterministic destruction. Try with resources is a
joke, because it is limited to a lexical scope. Java and C# are not true
alternatives to Rust or C++. They are inferior both on performance side and
abstraction/productivity side, and severely inferior if you want both in the
same fragment of code.
In many applications there is also no single bottleneck and the split is not
1/99, nor even 20/80\. After you optimize the most obvious bottlenecks you end
up with a flat profile, where majority of time is taken by cache misses
scattered across almost the whole codebase.
It might not matter for some apps where performance is less critical, but in
this case you probably don't want to use Java or C# when there exist languages
offering much better abstractions (and surprisingly - Rust and C++ can be
higher-level than Java or C#, leading to better abstractions, shorter code and
higher productivity). Don't conflate EASY with PRODUCTIVE. Easy languages are
not always more productive (if it was true everybody would be coding in
Scratch).
~~~
pjmlp
C++ can be indeed higher level than Java, except that you are forgetting about
the money spent fixing C related bugs, developer salaries, lack of tooling to
plugin into a cluster and just monitor it like JFR, VisualVM, ETW, lack of
interoperability between libraries due to conflicting requirements (RTTI,
Exceptions, STL avoidance, ...)
As for Rust, it remains to have something that matches Orleans, Akka, Kafka,
....
Then there is the whole IDE tooling experience, libraries like the one here
that require nightly toolchains, and lack of support for stagging binary
libraries, which cargo might eventually get one day, but isn't here today.
Java and C# might be inferior products from your point of view, but as
mentioned, what I get are rewrites from C++ into Java and .NET languages, not
the other way around.
And I never sensed lack of productivity, quite the contrary, specially when I
usually don't have to think about which C++ flavor of the month I am allowed
to use, or having political discussions about enforcing the use of static
analyzers on the CI/CD pipeline (assuming there is even one to start with).
~~~
pkolaczk
But now you're taking about tooling and not languages. Rust will eventually
get there.
IDE support is already very good and better than for many popular languages
(e.g. dynamic ones).
Performance profiling is also better than in Java. I'd take perf over visualvm
any time.
Java had much worse tooling when it was at the age of Rust today.
~~~
pjmlp
Languages are not used in isolation, the days that grammar and semantics were
enough to warrant a language change.
IDE support can be considered very good if the baseline is the 90's Borland
and Microsoft IDE experience, not what modern Java and .NET are capable of,
which starts to finally approach the Smalltalk and Common Lisp development
experience of yore.
Rust IDEs can't still offer completion that works all the time, let alone all
the other IDE features.
Perf is no match for Visual VM, as it is a Linux only tool, and it's usability
is found lacking. It is so good that Google was forced to create their own
graphical based tooling after years of Android developers complaints being
forced to use it.
Yeah, except not every business is willing to wait 25 years for Rust to
achieve parity with today's Java ecosystem.
Note that C++ is 40 something years old and still there are domains that it is
fighting against C, which require a generational change before being open to
try out anything else.
Rust's has a big selling story for OS low level systems libraries, the niche
C++ is heading to, with the caveat that C++ will as secure as Rust, that is
where the language should focus.
To be honest, had Go supported generics from day one, Nim or D some corporate
backing, and I would have never considered Rust for hobby projects beyond the
language geek thing of trying out new languages every year.
~~~
pkolaczk
> Yeah, except not every business is willing to wait 25 years for Rust to
> achieve parity with today's Java ecosystem.
Unfounded speculation. You've made this number up.
> Rust IDEs can't still offer completion that works all the time, let alone
> all the other IDE features
I didn't see any problems in IntelliJ. If there are cases where autocomplete
doesn't work, these are rare edge cases and they don't affect predictivity.
VSCode was a bit laggy, but that's probably VSCode problem not Rust's. This is
what happens if you base a desktop tool on a browser running JS.
> Rust's has a big selling story for OS low level systems libraries
It is good at that, but this is not the primary reason to use Rust. Rust
selling point are explicit lifetimes which make it virtually impossible to
create pointer hell I found in every commercial Java codebase I worked on. It
is the same level of productivity enhancement as introducing static types over
dynamic. Explicit lifetimes make it a bit harder to write in Rust but code is
being read 99% of time and written only 1% of time.
------
jakearmitage
I love the way this tutorial was written. I can't explain what exactly, but I
found the entire experience to be very didactic. Congrats, and thank you! Wish
we had more of this.
------
xena
Author of the post here, feel free to ask me anything!
~~~
hrombach
It was really helpful doing some first steps with rust.
One suggestion: add a warning for macOS users that psutil::host::uptime is not
available on macOS. I had to figure that out myself and it was quite
frustrating.
I figure you didn't know that, and it's not like the article claims otherwise,
but it would be useful to add I think.
~~~
chidg
Thanks, I had the same issue - and only figured it out because this comment
came up in Google results for the error message.
------
deepsun
> routes!(...)
> routes_with_openapi!(...)
Macros, macros everywhere. I understand their use in basic functions like
println!(), but I'm worried too much macros in client code will lead to
problems (unreadable, clashes that will need custom names). If there are no
problems with macros, why not making every function a macro then?
~~~
dgb23
Macros are extremely important to make rust productive. It sometimes feels as
if you were writing in a higher level language.
One of the best examples is the serde crate. What a beautiful library!
~~~
kibwen
Macros are powerful, but they should be used sparingly because they often have
outsize effects on compilation times and degrading error message quality. I
personally give myself a "macro budget" where macro-based solutions are
prioritized based on benefit to a particular project.
------
CoffeeDregs
Love seeing more Rust. It's good stuff.
extern crate rocket;
I thought "extern crate XYZ" was old-style? "use XYZ"?
~~~
cjbassi
It's still fairly common to use in conjunction with
#[macro_use]
for when you want to easily import all of the macros from a crate across your
entire project. But yes, you could do
use rocket::{get, routes};
instead.
------
status_quo69
One thing I wish was covered in these is how to go past 'hello world',
especially things like error responses and serialization models. It took me a
while before I got to the point where I think I can be productive in both
querying the data from the front-end and getting back the shape that I wanted.
Couple of lessons learned:
\- Start with separating your API models and DB models out early, you'll be
thankful later. You can also help yourself out by implementing From/Into for
your database models to your API models. Obvious lesson from CQRS but since
rust doesn't allow easily for ad-hoc structs this is a must, especially since
there are a lot of examples out there that put a Serialize/Deserialize onto
the database object.
\- If you have deeply nested objects, look into JSON:API or Juniper. There are
a couple of crates that implement the jsonapi spec and I'm hacking on one of
them to make it a bit more usable for my personal pet project, but Juniper
will make your life easier especially if you're starting with a React
frontend.
\- Understand that there's still a tracking issue for a few items such as
multipart data, although there's a third party crate that integrates the
multipart crate into rocket. However if you need an upload you could probably
get away with just returning a signed S3 endpoint to the user, which is what I
ended up doing
\- If integrating with redis or some other database that's not application
critical, there is no (as far as I'm aware) graceful degredation that comes
out of the box with rocket_contrib, unless there was some config value I was
missing. This is usually fine, since you can easily declare an ad-hoc fairing
that connects to redis and falls back to an Option::None in the case where it
couldn't connect.
And finally, if you want to support different error status codes yourself
based off of mappings from internal errors (such as 409 conflict when
inserting the same data), your best bet is an enum that's wrapped by a
responder derive like so:
#[derive(Responder, Debug)]
pub enum UserApiError {
#[response(status = 500, content_type = "json")]
Unavailable(Json<UserApiErrorMessage>),
}
impl UserApiError {
fn wrap_body(message: &str) -> Json<UserApiErrorMessage> {
Json(UserApiErrorMessage {
status: "error".to_string(),
message: message.to_string(),
})
}
pub fn unavailable(message: &str) -> Self {
Self::Unavailable(Self::wrap_body(message))
}
}
Which can be called like:
Err(UserApiError::unavailable("The database is gone!"))
Most of my other lessons learned come from diesel, both are an absolute
pleasure to work with and have given me incredible confidence while coding.
~~~
dochtman
> Start with separating your API models and DB models out early, you'll be
> thankful later. You can also help yourself out by implementing From/Into for
> your database models to your API models. Obvious lesson from CQRS but since
> rust doesn't allow easily for ad-hoc structs this is a must,
Can you explain why? This advice doesn't make intuitive sense for me.
~~~
tene
Not the parent, so I can't speak for them, but my experience is that it's
pretty likely that you'll eventually run into situations where you really want
to store something different in the DB than what you send out from your API.
For example, you may want to keep some fields internal and not expose them to
users, or you may want to normalize your DB schema so some fields are stored
in a linked table, or maybe you had something as timestamp+duration, and need
to keep the same external API for compatibility, but also want to refactor it
internally into two timestamps.
~~~
status_quo69
Yep! Serde allows us to cheat a bit since you can call for it to skip certain
fields (such as password hashes), but my preference is for the field to not
exist at all in your serialization structs. Less of a chance to forget that
#[serde(skip)] flag
------
saagarjha
> Adding the --vcs git flag also has cargo create a gitignore file so that the
> target folder isn’t tracked by git.
Doesn’t cargo make a git repository by default, anyways? Why doesn’t it add a
sensible gitignore in the process?
~~~
seaish
Yeah but I'm guessing it's there in case someone has disabled it globally.
------
bcheung
Why "cargo init" instead of "cargo new"?
Also, wondering when Rocket will be usable without nightly. That makes me
concerned that it is not stable enough.
~~~
status_quo69
I've used it for 6 months on the async branch and the master branch and master
was incredibly stable. Async is less so because it's a large scale effort to
try and convert over the entire API with minimal breakage(apart from
fairings/middlewares). You can pin to a specific stable nightly if you're
needing extra sanity, although CI makes this hard with the nightly docker
images. There's a tracking issue for proc_macro_hygine here:
[https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/54727](https://github.com/rust-
lang/rust/issues/54727)
Looks like the last feature is almost stable!
------
baby
A few comments:
* missing `use rocket_contrib::json::Json`
* `unwrap_or` is better than `or` followed by `unwrap`
* the psutil crate already has hostname info
* the psutil crate doesn't provide an uptime function if you're on a unix system.
* once you setup the hostinfo route, your example says to curl the index
* your docker link is broken
------
MuffinFlavored
> Rocket has support for unit testing built in
Do I really want my HTTP service framework to be my unit testing framework
too? Could these not be separated?
~~~
hathawsh
I believe the author meant that Rocket provides helpers to make unit testing
easy. The tests are written using the ordinary "#[test]" Rust annotation and
run by the standard Rust test runner.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Move Over, Sustainable Travel. Regenerative Travel Has Arrived - jpm_sd
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/27/travel/travel-future-coronavirus-sustainable.html
======
iammru
I don't buy it. If we ever go back to normal (eg COVID19 weakens and
disappears or vaccines actually work), travel will continue to be driven by
supply/demand.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Great startups with affiliate programs? - ryanwaggoner
We're selling some ads on our blog but we don't want empty slots, so we're going to be using affiliate programs to fill any inventory we don't sell. We want to promote companies we know and trust, so if you have a product you're proud of and an affiliate program, please let us know.<p>Note: The slots are 125x125, so ideally you either already have banners in that size or don't mind if we create one.
======
wensing
We do. Email me stormpulse at gmail for details.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Pono Player – Neil Young and his music store - piqufoh
http://www.ponomusic.com/
======
projct
Here's what Monty (of ogg vorbis fame) has to say about this:
[http://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-
young.html](http://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Piano emulator in HTML5 - Mpdreamz
http://mpdreamz.github.com/html5-piano/
======
mikepurvis
What about this requires canvas? Seems like it could be done very simply with
just divs (and audio elements, of course).
------
kreddor
Here is another amusing alternative made using youtube:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD-sSolVDiY>
------
vladikoff
Crashes my Chrome OS (beta channel) browser tab, though when it loaded once
there was no sound.
~~~
Mpdreamz
Thank you, I'm using 12.0.742.122 myself but i doubt its chrome rather this
thing not being memory profiled at all just yet.
~~~
pbhjpbhj
No probs with it on FF Nightly (6.0a1 2011-04-22).
------
xpaulbettsx
This is cool, but I don't know on what planet "C, Eb, F#" is a major chord.
Seems to be off by a half-step (i.e. should be C, E, G)?
~~~
rednum
Yes, the major should be (C E G). (C Eb F#) looks like a C dimnished, though I
think it would be better written as (C Eb Gb).
~~~
xpaulbettsx
True - for some reason I have this affinity to certain notes being sharp and
certain ones being flat (i.e. F# > Gb, but Eb > D#), even though the rule is
that it should be consistent based on the key.
------
paulbjensen
An amusing alternative:
<http://sweetmusicapp.com>
------
rl41
Didn't freeze for my Opera 11.50. Great job, I like musical tools this this a
lot!
------
aw3c2
Completely froze Opera 11.50 for me.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Loosely – Smart input masks for regexes - deckar01
======
ko3us
does this have a web link?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How to Optimize Your Pandas Code - min2bro
https://kanoki.org/2019/01/09/how-to-optimize-your-pandas-code/
======
haihaibye
His site blocks me as a bot, so posting here.
Pandas str replace is almost certainly faster than Numba:
[https://pandas.pydata.org/pandas-
docs/stable/reference/api/p...](https://pandas.pydata.org/pandas-
docs/stable/reference/api/pandas.Series.str.replace.html)
~~~
min2bro
Hey, I really want to know what do you mean by blocks you as bot? What message
you see while try to comment on page?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google to Slow Hiring for Rest of 2020 - prophetjohn
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-15/google-to-slow-hiring-for-rest-of-2020-ceo-pichai-tells-staff
======
cletus
So years ago this came up with Eric Schmidt, who was CEO of Google through the
GFC. After 2007, Google had selective layoffs (probably not in engineering)
and slowed hiring. They also paused construction projects in Mountain View and
probably elsewhere.
Eric said when asked about it that it was a mistake. He said that if Google
was healthy there was no need to have a kneejerk reaction to the slowdown. And
this caused significant growing pains later.
Is the situation the same now? I'm not so sure. I think this economic shock is
potentially far more serious and could last much longer. But also, I don't
think Google really knows what Google is anymore. We're long passed the
mission statement of making the world's information accessible and useful. And
certainly my impression from working there (now >3 years ago) was that even
then there were a ton of teams and orgs that didn't really have a reason to
exist.
Have people sitting around and they will find things that "need" doing. I saw
many a project that was simply rewriting something where I at least had
questions as to the real need for that. The bureaucracy is expanding to meet
the needs of the expanding bureaucracy as they say.
And there was (and I imagine still is) too many layers of middle management.
The ideal is (IMHO) CEO -> SVP (PA level) -> VP -> Eng Director -> Manager (of
managers) -> Manager (of ICs) -> IC. That's 7 levels. I don't know what
Google's mean org depth is in engineering but my guess is it's closer to 11,
maybe even 12.
In fact this would be a good metric:
Management overhead = Mean org depth / log(# of employees)
where
Mean org depth = Mean of how many layers each IC has above them
~~~
JSavageOne
On the topic of not having enough work to do, here's a couple questions to any
Google employees:
1\. As someone generally frustrated with the quality of the search results I
get on Google, is improving search quality seen as any kind of priority within
the company?
To be fair I can't think of any other search engine that returns better
results. But I feel like Google's gotten very complacent with their search,
which is not surprising given the fact that it's practically a monopoly.
2\. Is there any initiative to rewrite gmail on the web? The damn thing takes
like 30 seconds to load. For a company pioneering progressive web apps and web
performance, it boggles my mind that they've put no effort into improving
gmail's atrocious load times over the last decade.
~~~
deegles
The cynical view about search quality is that the metric being optimized for
is not how satisfied people are with the results, but the amount of ads and
therefore revenue earned. Search results only need to be good enough to get
you to come back and not worse than the competition.
I wish Google had a subscription option (with actual support) that eliminated
all ads across their products. Imagine Amazon's customer obsession with Google
tech... I'm sure it would do well for the 4 years they would support it.
~~~
londons_explore
Google Contributor was their ad-free subscription option.
It was always a curious product, never really seemed to have management buy-
in, and was pretty much a one-man product, which a 'subscription to get rid of
ads across the whole web' shouldn't have been.
------
sytelus
Before everyone starts painting bleak picture, reminder: Facebook's Sandberg
announced last week or so that they are going to do accelerated hiring spree
this year, opening massive 10,000 more positions! Google as well as Facebook
both depend on ads so I'm wondering why one is tightening the belt and other
is moving full speed on expansion.
~~~
mike_d
> Sandberg announced last week or so that they are going to do accelerated
> hiring spree
That was a message to the stock market. In reality I haven't heard from a
Facebook recruiter in a month now.
~~~
edanm
Not sure why RivieraKid was getting downvoted - there's no "just a message to
the stock market". Lying in this context would be illegal, and would open FB
up to shareholders suing the company IMO.
~~~
perl4ever
I'm not a securities lawyer, but I would assume that there is little
deterrence for "sending a message to the stock market" with statements about
hopes, plans, or predictions for the future. As long as there's nothing
definitively false as of the moment you say it...
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forward-
looking_statement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forward-looking_statement)
------
paxys
I wonder if so many layoffs, freezes etc. happening at the moment are directly
due to the crisis or something that was long overdue and can now be done
without much negative PR.
~~~
coliveira
Google depends on advertisers to make money, and the writing is on the wall
for these advertisers.
~~~
ibejoeb
Call me dumb, but are people not sitting around consuming advertising 10x
nowadays? There's never been a better time to get someone's attention.
~~~
grey-area
1\. Demand has fallen off a cliff globally - this is far worse for companies
than most realise, this has never happened before
2\. All companies are facing a cash crunch, gov loans are slow to arrive and
they have fixed costs like rent
3\. Companies need to conserve cash, turning off ads is a click of a button,
and given no demand, it's an obvious choice
This is going to be bad for google and Facebook if it lasts any significant
amount of time.
~~~
ForHackernews
On the other hand, Amazon is going gangbusters. I wonder if covid-19 will
ironically prompt a longer term re-alignment away from virtual interaction in
favour of real-world connections, as people realize how much they miss real
things during lockdown.
~~~
grey-area
I imagine Amazon will do well in some areas (consumers) initially, but overall
will see a drop in demand as the crisis really bites - businesses have stopped
ordering, and consumers will stop ordering soon to save money. It will be
interesting to see how this plays out but I think US markets are far too
optimistic at present, and this is going to have a very large impact
economically, because it won't be over as soon as say Trump hopes, and
premature attempts to reopen will be disastrous.
Strangely enough I think the disease and its impacts will have far less impact
on our behaviour than the economic impact of mass layoffs and shuttering the
world economy for months. I don't think we've ever seen a drop in consumption
of this magnitude and the road back to normality will be slow.
------
a1pulley
I’ve been stuck in the final SVP approval part of their hiring process for a
week. At this point I think I’m just going to keep my current job. Too bad —
seemed like a good time to get equity at a good “strike” price
~~~
o10449366
Google has a notoriously slow hiring process. For new grads and internships,
the time between initial coding assessment to final hiring confirmation is
often several months.
~~~
sytelus
One has to think why the concept of employment is still considered like
marriage that require such an extensive ultra-deep multi-level deliberations.
Let's say you were local, why it shouldn't be possible to give someone on-the
spot offer after half-day of interviews as well as let them go with, say 2
weeks of standard severance if things don't work out?
~~~
dodobirdlord
At a large technology company with its own software stack it takes several
months before a new hire isn’t a net-negative to the team they join. And it
will be months after that before they reach full productivity. A bad hire is
an extremely expensive mistake.
~~~
sytelus
A bad hires are expensive mistake if you can't get rid of them until some
artificial annual event. While I understand onboarding complexities, my
experience is that the teams/companies which hasn't create good automated
process so new hire can commit their first change within 2-days are big red
flag (this was insisted upon by Zuck extensively at Facebook scale). I would
also argue that culture of hire/replace team members in agile manner would
help enforce this process more naturally and vice versa.
~~~
joshuamorton
Being able to make a change, and being able to make a change without
handholding are two different things.
> hire/replace team members in agile manner would help enforce this process
> more naturally and vice versa
Places where this happens are normally considered very high stress and
competitive.
------
the_watcher
It's briefly mentioned in the article, but Google actually shed jobs during
the financial crisis. _Facebook_ is the company that ramped up hiring newly
available talent.
~~~
xxpor
Through layoffs or attrition though?
~~~
topher200
Attrition
------
gbronner
Makes sense if they can't onboard the talent, and can't manage a 100%
distributed workforce.
Nevertheless, seems like a great time to acquire talent on the cheap, so long
as you can effectively use it.
~~~
tootie
Anecdotally, I've been told they require you to come onsite to get onboarded
and receive Google hardware and their offices are locked up. Some recent hires
are not able to work and now being paid to do nothing.
~~~
prophetjohn
They are mailing out the required hardware and doing remote onboarding for the
time being. But hardware shipments are getting delayed leading to some new
hires being paid to do nothing for a week or two.
------
code4tee
A lot of companies are cutting back big time on advertising spend and that’s
Google’s sacred cow of revenue so this isn’t a surprise.
~~~
kenhwang
I work in digital advertising. Spend* is up. Companies are diverting their
traditional advertising budgets into digital. I'd be surprised if Google is
unable to capitalize on this.
edit: I want to clarify it's strictly ad spend/booking. It's companies
committing budgets. They know they will want to run ads and will run more ads.
The ads haven't actually run yet, so ad payouts will tank.
~~~
hn_throwaway_99
That is _totally_ not true across the board. I know for a fact that at one
point the big online travel sites (booking.com, expedia.com) were some of the
largest buyers of adwords among any companies. Can guarantee that is not
happening now.
I would guess spend is up only among companies that still have robust revenue.
Tons of sectors have essentially been frozen for the time being.
~~~
kenhwang
Ah, yeah, can confirm the travel segment cratered into the ground. I can see
adwords being an unpopular product overall at the moment. It's just an awful
format for rebranding/storytelling/marketing.
~~~
aabhay
This is super interesting. I never thought of search ads from the lens of
storytelling, only from the lens of click through. Interesting that a lot of
SEO-built brands have no way to even reach customers to repair brand now,
since search volume is so down.
~~~
eitally
I suspect this is one of the reasons advertising on Instagram is going
gangbusters. The combo of better targeting + a format that naturally lends
itself to storytelling makes for a much more compelling advertising platform.
------
kediz
I recently posted a Ask HN asking about the effect of how drop in ads money
would affect Google/FB and someone did a quick and dirty analysis for their
runway:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22884042](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22884042)
------
edoo
This is just getting started. Everything is so interconnected. Each chunk of
the economy that falls away will have a cascade effect that takes weeks or
months to knock the next piece out. Once everyone finally heads back to work
it will take years to regrow everything to the point it was.
------
gunnihinn
Maybe the travel, restaurant etc industries have stopped paying for clicks so
Google gets less cash? My work cut down on PPC by a lot and we spent a lot of
money on it.
~~~
DeathArrow
So what? They have enough money to last trough years of economic depression.
Long term plans might be as important as short term plans, or more important.
They don't send a good signal to investors.
Micromanaging makes sense when you are in deep trouble - see LA Times. Is
Google in trouble? I believe not. Yet they send the message they are in
trouble.
~~~
varjag
As this crisis has illustrated, early inaction can get you into later trouble.
------
ipqk
One thing is that people just aren't leaving their jobs in general. Most
hiring rates take into account natural attrition, but if your attrition is
close to zero, then you just have to scale back your hiring to even hit the
rates had planned before the crises.
------
SSchick
I guess I'm lucky I got my approval just today. My recruiter did mention
things are slowing down drastically.
~~~
wanderer2323
Congratulations! It's a great place to work with amazing people. Source: got
hired not that long ago.
------
austincheney
It will be interesting to track the frequency of Google walkouts while the
economy has tanked, hiring has slowed to a crawl, and layoffs could be in the
future.
------
pcurve
I think... there will still be work. I think it means they will be going
heavier on contractors, so they have more 'cushion' to preserve FTE when
things unexpectedly go south. At this point, companies simply don't know how
the rest of the year will pan out.
~~~
dchyrdvh
I feel so much optimism in your "the rest of the year".
~~~
cardiffspaceman
I have been asking my friends to speculate how us pandemic survivors will be
different from other people in the future? How we will be characterized in
novels? How would Sherlock Holmes distinguish us from the privileged ones who
by luck of birth were not involved in the pandemic? Dr. Watson would say,
after Holmes spotted the survivor, "If you worked from home for two years,
you'd behave that way too."
I always pose this a little more colorfully, but the part that gets the
response is the two years.
------
Ballu
Seems like some layoffs too,
[https://twitter.com/whyhiannabelle/status/122810842950535168...](https://twitter.com/whyhiannabelle/status/1228108429505351680?s=21)
~~~
jhwang5
In the cloud business, based on the tweet
~~~
Ballu
Yes. If you search at Bind, seems like some in marketing too.
------
throwawayc2020
Ooof. I've been studying for months for my upcoming virtual onsite interview
at Google. I wonder what this means for my interview. I was also recently laid
off.
~~~
mardanian
I was also preparing for an interview and received a call from my recruiter
that the position has cancelled.
------
zabil
I've also seen slow hiring and hiring freezes used by orgs to reduce head
count by letting natural attrition take over. IMHO it is better than layoffs.
------
neonate
[https://archive.md/SIXk8](https://archive.md/SIXk8)
------
xtasy
Damn, will be interning this summer. I guess conversion to FT will be even
more unlikely now
------
bogomipz
As a counter point there was an article the Wall Street Journal two days ago
that large tech companies(Apple, FB and Amazon) are all looking to hire:
[https://www.wsj.com/articles/looking-for-a-job-big-tech-
is-s...](https://www.wsj.com/articles/looking-for-a-job-big-tech-is-still-
hiring-11586712423)
Sorry about the paywall, I couldn't get outline.com to render it.
~~~
defectbydesign
The tech sector as many other industries is always recruiting cheaper workers
anywhere in the world to make more profits distributed in priority to the
leaders.
Nothing new in a capitalist world...
------
amrx431
I just chickened out of Google interview last month. I dont know how I feel
now.
------
xenihn
People on Blind are posting that it's more than just slowing.
~~~
whoisjuan
It can't be more than a simple slow. This crisis decimated their revenues
while increasing their huge subsidized operational costs like bandwidth.
Take for instance YouTube. Just imagine the cost to operate the site
increasing exponentially overnight (because of all the quarantined people)
while their ad business goes down. You're in the worst possible situation for
a business with a model that is heavily dependent on that particular ad
revenue.
That's like a supermarket having three times more foot traffic but people only
buying gum.
~~~
mywittyname
The threat to YouTube has also never been higher.
The spike in usage means that YT needs content creators to make more, but also
earn less money. A forward-thinking startup could capitalize on this by paying
content creators more to migrate to their own service, and work to get the
attention of those eyeballs which are bored of YT content.
------
tehjoker
Fingers crossed for the end of surveillance capitalism.
------
defectbydesign
How many jobs will go to India?
~~~
0xFFC
As third party observer, why this gets downvoted?
I’m genuinely asking.
~~~
_IsThisRealLife
Probably because it is perceived to be a fairly uninformed question. It's sort
of like talking about the USPS potential insolvency and someone asking how
many postmen will be replaced with gig economy workers. As far as I'm aware,
major leading American tech companies have never really exported jobs to
India, it has been almost entirely companies that need mediocre quality work
contracting out to companies that fill those contracts with workers from India
or elsewhere. Without carefully developing an office, culture, and employee
pipelines over 3-5+ years you carry extremely large risk outsourcing important
work.
~~~
defectbydesign
Is it a joke?
In many industries it's not uncommon to subcontract a service by a
subcontractor which himself subcontract the same service to another
subcontractor (usually cheaper).
In the end it is only a question of money!
Actually top american tech companies don't have to go directly to India to get
cheaper workers but instead they call american subcontractor to get cheaper
workers anywhere in the world. Even more with restricted green cards thanks to
Donald TRUMP. :-)
~~~
eitally
i don't know why you were downvoted -- you're exactly right.
~~~
mywittyname
It was right 10-15 years ago, but less so now. There's been a huge pushback on
off-shore development in the past decade for a variety of reasons, mainly poor
results, issues with time zone differences, and the negligible cost savings.
Most of the big consulting firms we associate with off-shore contracting (like
TATA) are supplying mostly on-shore (engineering) consultants to domestic
companies (but maintaining services like help desk offshore).
Middle management got tired of having daily meetings at midnight or 6 AM, and
it got too expensive to bring people over who were fine with doing so. The
India job market got pretty tight around '14 or so, to the point where
engineers were leaving jobs every 4-6 months for greener pastures. And even
though the consulting companies are supposed to be in charge of KT, so that
transitions don't impact the clients, the rate of change was just too high to
maintain good quality.
------
lawrenceyan
If even Google, which is pretty much the pinnacle of Silicon Valley tech, is
slowing down, imagine what the Chinese tech scene must be like.
~~~
kediz
Comparing Chinese tech companies with Google here feels like comparing apples
and oranges and also "Chinese tech companies" is too big a entity to be
compared with a single company. But scenes at Yahoo/Reddit/Baidu and other
smaller ads-driven companies aren't pretty
------
defectbydesign
Open source foundations will go to bankruptcy without subsidies from Google
and others.
Are you ready for the dot com bubble 2.0? :-D
~~~
zelly
Death of open source? Don't get me excited
~~~
defectbydesign
Death of unfair competition from communist organizations living on private
money from anticompetitive tech giants.
Open source have to die to give back value to the software industry.
------
tehlike
This is the outcome of crazy hiring, more than you can actually make use of in
the past few years.
------
denormalfloat
With the number of people who go through Google's interview process, this
might actually change the industry to think more carefully about the interview
process. If Google isn't making whiteboard interviews the norm, who will keep
it going?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Deploying Tornado in production - icey
http://agiletesting.blogspot.com/2009/12/deploying-tornado-in-production.html
======
crad
There is some sound information in this. I've been planning on writing about
the the curve in using Tornado, as it is deceivingly simple. It does take
diving into the code to really pump out a polished site.
I've been working on a stub project which serves as the foundation for the
tornado sites I've built: <http://github.com/gmr/Tornado-Project-Stub>
The nice thing with it is that it makes going from 0 to a working site that
covers all the basics very easy.
I've chosen some different methodologies for dealing with daemonizing and
logging than Evite, but that's the nice thing about the Python standard
libraries; many ways to skin that cat.
~~~
jokull
How do you do daemonize and log?
~~~
crad
Daemonizing is done by process forking using the os module and logging is done
via the standard logging module with an optional syslog handler.
------
mattdennewitz
are you taking advantage of the commit that implements pre-forking?
[http://github.com/facebook/tornado/commit/6fb90ae694190fcedc...](http://github.com/facebook/tornado/commit/6fb90ae694190fcedc48d9fb98b02325826d783e)
~~~
crad
I gave this a try and couldn't get it to work as I'd expect based upon
previous experience with Tornado. I'm waiting until they polish up a 0.3
release to adopt using it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
CNBC reporter shows how easy it is for stolen journalism to get ad $ - und3rth3iP
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/17/broken-internet-ad-system-makes-it-easy-to-earn-money-with-plagiarism.html
======
und3rth3iP
Especially eye opening given the wave of recent media layoffs due to a lack of
ad revenue.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Into-Docker – Never write another Dockerfile - xscys
https://github.com/into-docker/into-docker
======
xscys
I finally released my little Clojure/Docker/GraalVM CLI tool that makes use of
special pre-packaged environments to enable minimal-configuration builds for
common build tooling or frameworks. Check out the release notes [1]!
I've created the following builder images to illustrate usage and to tackle my
own most common use cases [2] [3] [4].
I'd be super-grateful for any feedback!
[1] [https://github.com/into-docker/into-
docker/releases/tag/v1.0...](https://github.com/into-docker/into-
docker/releases/tag/v1.0.0) [2]
[https://hub.docker.com/repository/docker/intodocker/clojure](https://hub.docker.com/repository/docker/intodocker/clojure)
[3]
[https://hub.docker.com/repository/docker/intodocker/create-r...](https://hub.docker.com/repository/docker/intodocker/create-
react-app) [4]
[https://hub.docker.com/repository/docker/intodocker/clojure-...](https://hub.docker.com/repository/docker/intodocker/clojure-
graalvm)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Admiral of the String Theory Wars: still thinks string theory is a gory mess - dnetesn
http://nautil.us/issue/24/error/the-admiral-of-the-string-theory-wars
======
ifdefdebug
Read the "Admiral" himself commenting this article:
[http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/?p=7705](http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/?p=7705)
------
slashnull
I was under the impression that GUTs were _always_ gory messes.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: I joined a big co, like the team, hate some policies, what should I do? - throwaway173205
I recently joined a big tech company. The work is interesting and the team seems skilled and well run. But the larger company has done some really sketchy things where they mislead users in the name of growth. They also have policies that help entrench it beyond what is fair. They are in an industry where the leader has a big natural advantage, and they are in that lead by a large margin. They'd seem like they'd rather win a dirty fight than lose a fair one. Most days I feel a combination of frustration and shame working for them because of this. It seems that the policies follow from the leadership and company culture, and they have been doing similar things for awhile.<p>I am not sure what I should do.
======
downandout
_> But the larger company has done some really sketchy things where they
mislead users in the name of growth. They also have policies that help
entrench it beyond what is fair._
This could be the story of literally any large tech company today. Airbnb got
its start by spamming people offering vacation homes for rent on Craigslist
[1]. According to _The Facebook Effect_ [2], Facebook was almost entirely
dependent on its contact importer/spammer for its growth in its early days. On
days when Hotmail blocked them for spamming, new user sign ups dropped by 80%;
it was only after they cut a deal with Microsoft that included an agreement to
not spam-box their emails that they continued to grow.
When you look behind the curtain of successful modern startups, virtually all
of them were built on mountains of spam and bad/unethical/illegal behavior,
which they then publicly decry and block on their own platforms after they
become influential enough to do so. If you have issues with this, Silicon
Valley probably isn't the place for you. There are plenty of tech jobs in
other areas - but look away from startups, because most are employing/willing
to employ extremely aggressive techniques to win.
[1] [http://davegooden.com/2011/05/how-airbnb-became-a-billion-
do...](http://davegooden.com/2011/05/how-airbnb-became-a-billion-dollar-
company/)
[2]
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Facebook_Effect](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Facebook_Effect)
~~~
millamox
> virtually all of them were built on mountains of spam and
> bad/unethical/illegal behavior,
This simply isn't true. There are a few who did that, but they're the
exception, not the rule.
Shady unicorns: Uber (too many to count), AirBNB (spam), DropBox (lied about
encryption/security), The Honest Co (lied about product quality)
Not Shady unicorns: Xiaomi, Palantir, Snapchat, SpaceX, Pinterest, Spotify,
DJI, Intarcia, Stripe, Vice, CreditKarma, CloudFlare, BloomEnergy, Fanatics,
Slack, Blue Apron, GitHub, Domo, SurveyMonkey, BlaBlaCar, Lyft, MongoDB,
Buzzfeed, Cloudera, Automatic, EventBrite, Evernote, Warby Parker, Docker...
The narrative that "everybody cheats" is just something that cheaters tell
themselves, so they can pretend that their behavior was warranted.
That said, it's worth discussing these things before applying to a company,
because dishonesty creates massive risk in the company, so if you hear and
answer that sounds like 'downandout's, you need to devalue that company,
because their lack of ethics creates risk for that particular company, and it
creates reputational risk for you.
~~~
downandout
First, I don't think anyone that read my comment would objectively say that I
was endorsing such behavior, as you seem to imply in your comment (for the
record, I wasn't). Second...you're honestly saying that CreditKarma, Buzzfeed,
and Vice didn't grow through spamming? CreditKarma (and everyone else in the
free credit space) contracts with affiliate networks to drive new customers,
whose affiliates do every shady thing imaginable (and then some) to get
commissions. "Free credit" offers thrive in these networks - they occupy the
top spots in the best performing offers lists because they pay $20+ to
affiliates for each "free" signup - and they are primarily promoted through
fake job offers on Craigslist and other job boards. Affiliates tell people
they're hired for XYZ job - they just need to complete a credit check by going
to <insert affiliate link here>. CreditKarma probably isn't directly doing
this, but they know full well that their affiliates are.
Buzzfeed spams the crap out of Facebook. Eventbrite & Vice had some spamming
issues in the beginning as well. I'm not sure about Snapchat's growth story -
they may have been a rare example of natural growth, along with Google. Most
of the rest of those you're talking about aren't really the kinds of pure
internet plays that are relevant to this discussion. No amount of spamming
would have made Xiaomi, Palantir, SpaceX, DJI, etc any more successful, so
they didn't employ these techniques.
~~~
millamox
You made an "edgy" but incorrect generalization based on sparse anecdata. It
was good for your comment karma, but it's silly to stand by it.
AirBNB's CAN-SPAM violating email was clearly unethical. A media company
showing up on Facebook more than you would prefer is, at worst, mildly
annoying. There's an important difference.
Ethical people do not need to leave Silicon Valley. Dishonesty is not
prerequisite to success. Your claims are wrong.
~~~
downandout
_> Ethical people do not need to leave Silicon Valley. Dishonesty is not
prerequisite to success. Your claims are wrong._
Again, you're implying things that I simply didn't say.
_> A media company showing up on Facebook more than you would prefer is, at
worst, mildly annoying_
You're right, that's not spam, but that's not what I was referring to either.
I'm not going to write a massive explanation here of the specific Facebook
spamming techniques employed by Buzzfeed et al, but suffice it to say that
they are actively and aggressively spamming to "prime the viral pump" with
certain stories.
------
ActsJuvenile
NO MATTER WHAT you must not say anything and maintain a smiling facade, while
letting the hatred smolder inside your dark heart. Make trivial yet self-
reinforcing observations around the office that feed your echo-chamber of a
mind. After work down a quart of whiskey to soothe broken dreams, while
watching HBO shows depicting glamorous life that you will never have. Extra
bonus if you lash out at people who love and care for you.
In 5 years all this will feel natural to you like the rest of us, and your
stock options would have fully vested by then.
~~~
jsmith0295
Well at least I'm not the only one.
------
codingdave
No matter what the company size, you will find that the culture and the
actions taken by the organization follow the leaders. This is rarely something
you can fight... you need to make a personal decision of either accepting the
areas in which you disagree, or leaving the job.
Personally, I find ethical problems are the kind that would make me leave.
Business disagreements and technical differences are one thing... but I can't
support something if it directly conflicts with my personal ethics.
So if I were in your shoes, I'd frame the question in exactly that way - is
this just a disagreement in style for you, or an ethical conflict?
~~~
monk_e_boy
As OP says, fighting fairly would probably end the company resulting in no
job.
This tends to be my experience, nice people find it very hard to start and run
successful companies. The sort of person who feels guilty for making a good
profit is at a disadvantage to the person who feels delight at taking as much
money as possible.
[edit] I keep getting down votes for stating my experience and opinion. I have
no idea how the voting system on HN works. Should I avoid personal anecdotes?
~~~
gedrap
I don't think it's a binary thing where you are either playing totally fairly
or completely unethically.
Most of the businesses have to make tough decisions to survive, not all of
them are fair (to users, employees, etc). However, the difference is in
attitude about such decisions and frequency of them.
>> The sort of person who feels guilty for making a good profit is at a
disadvantage to the person who feels delight at taking as much money as
possible.
Making as much money as possible is just a goal that some people set and do
everything possible to achieve that. It's no different than any other goal.
You don't need to absolutely maximize the monetary output of your life in
order to be happy.
~~~
monk_e_boy
>> ou don't need to absolutely maximize the monetary output of your life in
order to be happy.
For me personally I totally agree. I have switched careers and taken a big cut
in wages to give me more time with my family.
I have to assume that a middle of the ground company exists, but again, in my
experience I have not worked for one. Some have been cottage industries happy
clappy the world is kind and karma is real and others who think the customer
is a chump and we can screw them out of as much money as possible.
~~~
joshyeager
Companies like that definitely exist. I work for one: we make a great product,
work hard to make our customers successful, and charge enough to make our
business successful as well.
I don't know of a universal rule for finding companies like that. But you can
definitely recognize them when you see them in action.
------
dferr
OP, my personal recommendation is to run for the hills. if you have the money,
quit now and do a thorough job search. I recently took that bold step and I'm
glad i did.
I can't recommend this enough. find a job you really do have the best of both
worlds, and stop settling for advantage/disadvantage positions.
I worked with an awesome team, but the company was sketchy, and something
tells me you're in the same industry i was... E-commerce. The team was
awesome, and i still have real friends there because of it. but the management
and business ethics were terrible, not to mention that non-technical folks
were making technical decisions that overrode us. the hard part of leaving is
that i felt trapped, that if i left, i'd be unprepared for the positions i
wanted. but thankfully i was wrong.
i decided that i'd really take the time to interview companies as much, if not
more than they interviewed me. asking questions i had come up with that would
spot companies like this. I even cut a few interviews short because of these
questions, but it helped me clarify what i wanted, and where i would be happy.
to measure out my results:
* was already well paid, new job paid 40%-60% more(range for discretion)
* new company actually cares about code quality, testing etc.
* mgmt leaves tech decisions to us.
* better, more flexible hours.
* smarter people than myself, things to learn, and people to learn from.(education wasn't big at my last position)
* a bit more stressful, in a good way. I feel like i have more responsibility, and that i truly own what i do.
* path for career growth. i can see where my next steps lead me
yes some of these are subjective, but thats the point. these are the things i
wanted. you might have different needs, but i'm confident that this approach
will make you happier, more in love with your career, and less jaded like i
was.
Best of luck OP.
~~~
SeaDude
"Run for the hills"... unless they pay well.
I'm not sure where you all play, but I play in big Corp, with my own ethics
and make a strong impact. You don't have to tow the line, sale ially if you
kick ass.
If you do indeed have values / ethics that STAND OUT (as opposed to just
expressed on forums / on your sleeve) and you're a solid PRODUCER, nothing
else matters. Go get it man!
My experience (15 yrz in big Corp operations and now IT) is that your ethics /
values "get out" on their own and make a deep impact; IF you're skilled at
what you do.
~~~
dmoy
What does the phrase "sale ially" mean?
~~~
Gigablah
I'm guessing autocorrect for "especially", with the "c" fat-fingered to a
space.
~~~
dmoy
Ah gotcha thanks, I didn't make that leap.
------
saalweachter
If you are on the fence enough to ask here, don't quit immediately and instead
just start interviewing elsewhere now. Once you have some solid offers lined
up, you can make a more informed decision.
In general a large corporation is -- surprise surprise -- going to be made up
of a lot of people. Some of them are going to be really passionate about doing
the right thing, some of them will be happy to do what it takes to get ahead,
and a lot of them are just going to want to do their job, get paid, and not
worry too hard about the bigger picture. It can feel bad to be at the big evil
and feel like you're being corrupted by being a part of it, but you always
have the option to do what you think is right. You can stay there, work hard,
and push back against the culture and attitudes you think improper. Maybe
you'll make a difference. Maybe you'll give up. Maybe you'll try hard but no
one will listen, and meanwhile your hard work will benefit the wrong people.
Maybe you'll get fired after people get tired of you telling them how bad they
are or after you refuse to do something that crosses the line.
~~~
st553
>Once you have some solid offers lined up
Does this actually work for people? My experience interviewing for software
engineering roles is that it's a time consuming and tedious process. I can't
imagine juggling a full time job while interviewing with more than one company
at a time.
~~~
saalweachter
My one experience doing it has only involved one job change/interview/offer,
so I'm not sure what the typical experience is.
After I grew dissatisfied with my first job out of college, partially because
I'd just been there five years and wanted to try something else, partially for
ethical reasons (the new owners were hosting fundraisers for Jenny McCarthy),
I sent resumes to three companies, got a callback from one, did a phone
screen, took a day off work for the interview, and then got the offer a few
weeks later. Gave three weeks notice, took a month off, was at a new job about
three months after I first decided to leave the old.
~~~
stevenwiles
> Gave three weeks notice, took a month off
This is absolutely not a typical experience. In most cases, software companies
are very hesitant to give you more than 3 weeks.
------
fencepost
Bear in mind that at almost(?) every large company out there the mission
statement (written or not) is really
"Our Mission is to make money for our investors and the executives who were
able to negotiate their own contracts and who control how we do business. We
make money primarily by (selling products|providing services|entertaining
people). Where we can do so without impacting our fiduciary responsibilities,
we may attempt to do the 'right' thing - particularly in situations where we
can get positive press or customer relations out of it - but that's a
preference not a responsibility and may be considered part of our marketing
budget."
This may seem cynical, but it's basically the way it has to be at any
publicly-held company and most privately-held companies that get VC funding.
If you tell investors "We're going to put social responsibility/open source
ahead of repaying your investment or providing you with profits," good luck
finding investors. Entities that put social responsibility, etc. higher are
generally called non-profit, not-for-profit, foundation, etc. and I'm not
aware of any that could be described as "a big tech company."
~~~
SeaDude
Bingo!!
------
ereyes01
To paraphrase Mark Suster from his Both Sides of the Table blog, are you ready
to learn or earn?
If you're early in your career, and you are benefiting from working on hard
engineering problems with a competent team, then I would advise you to try to
enjoy the ride and then switch jobs once you think you've learned all you can
from your team.
As others have already explained, businesses are very frequently amoral and
short-term-profit-driven. I went through my jaded-at-the-world phase, and by
now I've mostly made my peace with that aspect of capitalism. I've learned
that the world is often more complex than I had imagined. Sometimes, companies
have to claw their way to survival through questionable means, but may still
have a net positive effect on the world after enough time. And sometimes
not...
If this isn't your first, or even third rodeo, and you're ready to earn
instead of learn (c.f. Mark Suster) then life is too short to be unhappy with
where you work. Use your skills to build something your care about in a
company you respect. My $0.02
------
whack
1) Are they asking you to directly get involved in the sketchy/misleading
things that they are doing?
If yes, I think you should flat out refuse to do it, and start looking for
another job asap.
2) Are their competitors playing fair?
Moral purists may disagree with this, but if the people being hurt by your
dirty tactics, are themselves fighting dirty, I think it's fair game. There's
no reason why the weaker side should handicap itself against a stronger
opponent who's fighting dirty.
3) Can you do more good than harm, from the inside?
One way is by repeatedly raising this issue for broader discussion, when
opportunities arise, and shaming people into more ethical behavior. Another
way is by being a whistleblower. Edward Snowden did a lot more to champion
privacy by working for the NSA and then being a whistleblower, than by
refusing to work for the NSA at all.
\----
If none of the above give you sufficient grounds to stay, then look for other
companies to join in the medium term. There's no reason to rush and quit,
without getting another good job lined up. And in the meantime, as a new hire,
you're not really an important part of the company anyway, so you don't need
to feel guilty about "enabling" anything. During your exit interview, if they
ask you why you're leaving, consider telling them honestly that you don't feel
comfortable working for a company that misleads its users. This just might be
the most impactful thing you can do, in terms of persuading the company to
change its ways.
Lastly, kudos to you for making ethical behavior a priority.
------
greenspot
Slightly OT: For a decade, software engineers have been facing such a huge
demand for their profession that their perception of a 'job' got a bit
distorted.
For most of them and those who chose popular stacks it's usually quite easy to
get a job. Or any job. This gives them superpowers and enables them to ask for
a lot--high salaries, tons of perks, free food, freedom and maybe a company
with the right vision, leadership and policies.
But what they forget in all this abudance of options is that a job _is_ a job.
You can call it career, give it exciting titles and enrich it with stock
options, _it stays a job_. You can work at Google, at a fancy office, with
super smart coworkers and free a-la-carte-food everyday but it is still _just
a job_ and you are not free. And even Google has its dark sides the employees
accept. Let's not start to talk about Facebook, Microsoft or Apple.
Maybe one company has shady growth tacticts (btw which successful company
doesn't have them? Even Google abused all their properties to push Chrome),
the next one lacks free food or uses an aged stack. Remember it's always a
_job_. And if one doesn't like it, he might try to find a better option but
shouldn't be suprised about new drawbacks. Or he could try to start his own
company. A perfect one where everything is perfect for everyone. Then one will
realize that many things are more complicated than they seem.
There's no perfect job.
~~~
eyan
I think this is not OT at all. This is the answer to most job related should-
i-stay-or-should-i-go or what-should-i-do questions.
It. Is. A. Job.
If you can't accept that you're in a job and the feeling of entitlement shines
thru, that would just be whining in my book. And yes, HN, lots of that in
here.
~~~
SFJulie
We have a job to live, we don't live for work.
I recently changed career to become whatever I found honest just in case it
would make my life different.
Well, being a human beings seems to come with a handicap we almost all have
moral compass. And most of my job in IT have been in the dark side of my
compass recently.
Right now, I maybe risking my body moving heavy loads with poor equipment and
security, commercial making occasional mistakes forces us to do 12h continuous
loading of trucks else the company bankrupts and none of us are paid BUT from
my perspective it is a great improvement.
Customers are sometimes saying thanks. Coworkers are sometimes saying thanks,
and boss too. We are working as a team and when everybody does his/her job
correctly we have satisfactions.
A satisfaction I was missing.
And when the day is over, the job is not in my head anymore.
I can once again live a normal life, we don't scam customers, we don't break
their goods, we are the most honest we can giving the stupidity of some
regulations and of some dishonest customers.
And fuck, being able to feel proud again is worthy the quasi state of misery I
live in.
Sometimes, money does not matter as much as feeling you are not wasting your
life doing something that makes you something you will come to despise.
Feeling an honest human again worth every single $ and all my savings I lost
in the conversion.
------
chatmasta
Suck it up or quit. You're not going to change what sounds like the _central
strategy_ of the company. And if you complain about it, your superiors may
very well see you as weak and unwilling to do what it takes to win. So either
keep quiet, work hard and get paid, or leave. If you're really that concerned,
blow the whistle on your way out. But don't expect to get hired again after
doing that.
~~~
Razengan
Can't OP, and others in his situation, blow the whistle anonymously?
------
elgabogringo
If there is something that is actually unethical going on, then you should
consider leaving, but you need to be more specific on what those things
actually are. "beyond what is fair" and "really sketchy" are pretty
subjective. It's fair to say a company's culture is too competitive, but it's
not clear this is the case since you feel the company is well run.
If you and other coworkers are treated fairly, then you are probably being a
bit too sensitive / idealistic. Relax and view it as a challenge: learning how
to deal with people that you view as too aggressive/competitive. It will serve
you well in life.
Again, given the lack of detail that's my best advice... Note that I've worked
at a company that stole code and got sued, so I have some experience in
unethical companies and leadership.
~~~
gedrap
>>> Relax and view it as a challenge: learning how to deal with people that
you view as too aggressive/competitive.
You make a very good point here!
Every company has issues and decisions that you don't agree with for variety
of reasons. So looking for some perfect company will make your life much
harder than it should be.
It's just that you have to draw a line what's acceptable and what is not.
Having experience in industry (or just general professional experience) can
help a lot because it allows you to compare the issues and set the line. I
know that because I was wayyy too idealistic and naive at my first full time
job :)
------
gedrap
Well, looks like you are not in a position to change these policies.
Therefore, if you regularly feel "a combination of frustration and shame
working for them" rather than just a short period of negativeness / sadness
that goes away quickly, it's not likely that it will get any better later and
quite possibly worse. So quitting seems like the only option, doesn't it?
I'd just add that regardless of your decision, try to take a step back and see
if you could have spotted these issues earlier, before joining so that you'd
be less likely to repeat this mistake in the future. Maybe there were some red
flags that you missed or downplayed?
------
bdcravens
Be the change you want to see. Do your job in the most ethical manner possible
and articulate your thoughts on _your job_ , not necessarily _the company_ ,
and perhaps it will spread. Counter-culture can be as effective as revolution.
If the company doesn't change, you did what you were asked by your company
(your job) and what was asked by your ethos.
~~~
djKianoosh
indeed, this is a path that is less frequently travelled. some people are
wired in a way that they like fixing things from the inside. it takes a ton of
emotional and psychological strength/aptitude though, so not everyone enjoys
this approach.
a good book that addresses some of this is Driving Technical Change. some
people you will never change, and those you can ignore. if there are enough
people that you can influence you have a chance to make a difference. as long
as you're strong enough to not let the negativity bring you down, this all can
be a rewarding path...
------
djcapelis
Leave.
It's that simple. Don't work for a company that isn't ethical. It doesn't
matter if your team is great if you still have to get up and help do something
unethical.
Also, be real. There are many great teams in the world, your current one is
not the only one, find one at a company doing worthwhile things.
~~~
SeaDude
Don't pay your rent, forget your kids, live in a fuggin dream world... "it's
that simple".
Come on bro. Unless you are in some rare Netherlands / Amazonian fair trade,
employee owned, tech company who pays in angel farts, you live in a
capitalistic economy.
YOU determine your own credo, your own ethics, your own constitution. Live it
inside the Corp. Make that money and be a good person.
And while your at it, look up the etymology of "corporation". It's absurd to
think man could "give life to a corpse in order to make money" after running
that mandate through everyone's "ethics filter" first.
Ethics and values are driven by the humans not the Corp.
~~~
mplewis
Dude, he's in tech. He can fall out of a tree and get a job before he hits the
ground.
Finding another job with ethical practices isn't hard.
------
nilram
You can't steer that boat from the galley. I don't think there's any long-term
harm in jumping ship after a brief engagement as long as that doesn't become a
pattern on your CV. Depending on the length of time there, especially if it's
a job right out of college, you could even just not put it on.
------
erehweb
Consider seeing a trained counselor to talk through this.
I am not a trained counselor, but:
It doesn't really matter if the policies are legal or ethical. If you feel
ashamed of your work most days, that's not a good situation, and you should
probably look around for another job.
You should also consider that "behind every great fortune there lies a great
crime". Pretty sure there is some work you can do which you would not be
ashamed by, but it may take some extra effort / screening to find it.
------
justapassenger
How sketchy? Every single company I worked at did things that can be
considered questionable just to grow. There's no fair fight in industry - good
guys lose and get forgotten.
But there's of course a limit to that, and once illegal things start to happen
- quit. But if that's a "regular shady" stuff everyone does, you may have
problems finding company that won't do it (well, you can find companies that
are much subtle internally about it, and you won't know what they do).
------
dang
This submission originally got hit by a spam filter and then was rescued by a
user who vouched for it. We rolled back the clock on the post when we saw it,
but I suppose it may take a while for the OP to realize that they ended up
with an active thread.
------
ThomPete
You should probably quit.
Before you do though, ask yourself if these "bad" actions are due to the fact
that it's a large organization and these kind of things will always happen
there or if it's actually ill intent.
Since I don't know which category (as I don't know the details) I would guess
it's really just a question of the former rather the latter.
Size alone will make you rub some people the wrong way, make mistakes that
have consequences and so on. Even a company like google who had the whole
"don't be evil" had to change that because they learned that being evil really
isn't something you necessarily want to be but in the views of others your
actions might be interpreted like that.
Personally I am of the view that most organization even the really large ones
are mostly good but will purely from their size make bad decisions here and
there. You cannot not have that because size is power and power demands
sacrifice.
------
ktRolster
_has done some really sketchy things where they mislead users in the name of
growth_
A company that rips off its users will eventually rip you off.
Note though, that if the users are sophisticated enough that they should be
able to read and understand a contract, and your company is following their
contracts, then they are not ripping anybody off.
------
ktRolster
_I am not sure what I should do._
Start interviewing and looking for another job. When you find a better one,
quit.
------
RKoutnik
It sounds like these issues are pretty big for you and not so much for your
team. If I were in your shoes, I'd be worried that staying would impact my
moral compass and I'd start thinking such things were ok. If you've joined
pretty recently, no one will look down on you for moving on after discovering
that they're misleading customers. I was in a similar situation myself and
decided to stick it out, which was a big mistake.
I'd be happy to have a chat and see if there's a space for you somewhere in my
network. Life's too short to do morally-dubious work. Contact info's in my
profile.
------
michael_storm
Quit, if you can. Those policies will not change. There's a good reason why
that company plays dirty (winning), and the executives are not interested in
hearing your thoughts on the matter. Nobody else is, either -- which is why
they still work there -- so good luck "banding together".
(Unless you're a relatively high-level being with some political cachet,
which, given you're new and having asked this question in the first place,
you're probably not.)
I worked for a similar company right out of college, when I was young(-er) and
naive(r). Those 18 months barking up an amoral tree would be handy to have
back.
------
quadrature
That frustration and shame are going to affect your productivity sooner or
later which in turn affects your future job prospects. Compartmentalization
can work for some people, but it sounds like you have a real ethical boundary
here. Our industry generally has a great deal of mobility, there are
definitely great companies out there which require your skill set and have a
great company culture, you don't have to settle for less.
Also don't trivialize the psychological impact that this can have on you,
especially if you find yourself thinking about this off work hours.
------
InclinedPlane
At the end of the day there's no such thing as a perfect place to work, even
in regards to ethics of the company. You need to spend time seriously thinking
about the company's behavior and your own personal values (and also judging
the company's behavior fairly and not necessarily too harshly, no individual
person is perfect and company's are imperfect as well), questioning why you
feel a certain way, whether it's justified, and how much it's justified. And
then you need to make a decision on your own, keeping in mind that you do have
the freedom to choose where to work. And also remembering that the work you do
is much more valuable than the compensation you receive, so when you work for
a company you are making a very serious and very significant contribution to
them, you're supporting them, and by extension you are supporting what they
do. If you feel that your employer is acting in a way that you cannot support,
then you need to go somewhere else.
It's very easy to see ourselves as swept along by the tide of history, moved
by bigger forces all around us. But we are those forces. Every action we take
every day is like a drop in the ocean of history, and maybe sometimes our
drops end up adding together to make something great, or maybe they make
something that is hurtful. Whether or not we can individually turn back a tide
that might be perpetuating or creating hurt or evil we can decide whether or
not to contribute to it ourselves, and that makes a difference to our lives
and incrementally to the world at large as well.
------
jacquesm
You should have thought twice before joining Facebook.
------
ChuckMcM
"People are what they eat, companies are the people they hire." \-- Anonymous
There are a lot of good comments here, enough to get you to an answer I think.
Personal integrity comes at a cost, and you describe a situation where your
personal integrity is in conflict with the company's policies. It is true you
should always be looking for a new job, thinking about what you want to do
next what you like in a company what you dislike. One of the reasons for
leaving is that the company's ethics and yours are too far out of alignment.
Here is the really tricky bit. Companies that are unethical get a reputation
for that, the longer you stay at that company the more someone will believe
that you're ok with that stance.
So three things;
1) Lead by example, speak out about unethical behavior to your peers and make
your own choices in line with your values.
2) Look around for a company that is more aligned with your values, that is
much easier to do while employed though.
3) Develop some questions you will use when you interview to understand how
leadership treats those questions. Things like "Tell me about a time when your
management suggested something against the best interests of the
customers/users, and the response to it from your organization."
Good luck.
~~~
HillaryBriss
interesting comparison, people::food <\--> companies::people
in some companies I've worked for it's quite accurate
------
staticautomatic
Vote with your feet. If you can get hired there, surely you have other
options.
------
andyidsinga
one way to help frame the question to yourself is: is the company "enron evil"
or "apple/google/microsoft evil" and evaluate where your personal tolerance
might be on that spectrum. (obviously enron evil is an extreme).
also, do other people on your team feel similarly and therefore would likely
leave in the next year or so?
for me, of the answer was closer to enron evil, and the team likely won't be
around in a year I would probably be looking to move on.
alternative method : do you go home and agonize about it and vent to your
close friends / partner constantly about the issues you struggle with? if si,
might be a good indicator to get out. I once had a job like that and when I
left my wife couldn't belive the difference in my after-work anxiety levels
(which surprised me!); that's when I really knew I did the right thing.
~~~
xiaoma
_
~~~
MichaelGG
Didn't they collude to suppress salaries? They also made non-general-purpose
computing mainstream and acceptable.
------
skybrian
Are there legal issues for the company? If so it seems like you should be
talking to the company's lawyers about what to do. Certainly don't put
anything in writing because you might have to testify about it in court one
day.
If there are possible legal issues for you, then you need to get your own
lawyer, because the company's lawyers aren't your lawyers.
Putting that aside, if you want to make a change to a management decision then
you'll have to be making a presentation to management that's heavy on facts
(evidence of risks and bad consequences) rather than about how it makes you
feel. Since you're looking to change the status quo, the burden of proof is
going to be on you and your allies (if you have any).
If that actually succeeds then it's evidence of strong leadership. But in the
more likely case, it's time to look elsewhere.
~~~
dkarapetyan
Don't do this. Company lawyers are there to protect the company. This is the
fastest way to get into trouble. If you are going to seek legal advice then
make sure it is as far away from the company as possible.
~~~
skybrian
I think I made that distinction. If you're talking to the company's lawyers
it's because it's not personal - you're just trying to help the company.
~~~
dkarapetyan
Even when you make a distinction to help the company. It only works if the
whistleblower is high enough and has the backing of the rest of the
leadership. If a regular employee does this the best outcome is they get fired
the worst outcome is it turns into a drawn out court battle and the employee
loses.
It is the same with HR. HR is not there to protect employees. HR is there to
protect the company and the easiest way to do that is to get rid of
troublemaking employees even if they are making a valid case.
~~~
skybrian
I don't know how it works at other companies, but at least at some places, the
in-house lawyers are a resource that employees can use to get business-related
legal questions answered. Yes, they're on the company's side, but that doesn't
mean they'll consider you a "whistleblower" or a "troublemaker" for asking a
few questions.
Seems like you're making this into a company-versus-employee dispute when it
hasn't reached that stage yet. And better to avoid turning it into that.
~~~
dkarapetyan
From the author's tone it is pretty clear this is a pervasive problem. It is
highly unlikely company lawyers are not aware. In fact they most likely were
consulted for the exact same things the author is concerned about. It is naive
and borderline stupid to think you can innocently bring up the issue by asking
questions and not face any negative repercussions.
~~~
skybrian
In that case it should be an easy question to answer. "You've probably
considered this already, but I was wondering about the legal issues around
[...]. Is there anything we need to worry about here?"
If nobody is willing to consult the lawyers about their area of expertise, why
have them?
~~~
dkarapetyan
I don't think I'm getting through to you. In the interest of self preservation
the author should stay as far away from company lawyers and HR as possible. In
fact if you are facing a moral or ethical dilemma then no company resource
will be of any use. Company resources will actively hinder you. I will repeat,
it is naive to think otherwise.
~~~
skybrian
I'm not sure what you mean by "self-preservation". If you mean keeping your
job - well, other posters have suggested quitting. If just talking to people
gets you fired, you probably don't want to work there anyway.
Of course, that assumes a certain level of privilege. For someone who can't
afford to quit and find another job, things are different.
------
sliverstorm
Every big company will cross your feelings of what is right or ethical every
now and again. I would chalk this up to the simple fact that a big company is
composed of many different people, with different ethics.
Day-to-day, what really matters to your experience is the direct team around
you. You're a little enclave inside a larger organization, and may never
really interact outside said enclave.
But, we also like to take pride in what we do. If you are ashamed to work for
the company, that will probably eat at you. You might learn something that
changes your perspective that leads to changing your mind, but the company
probably won't change.
------
getpost
What do you mean by "fair?" Business isn't about being fair in the sense of
fair play ("chivalry"). Do you mean your employer is engaging in illegal
monopolistic practices? Is advertising fraudulent?
~~~
throwaway173205
I could see it being monopolistic, though it would be debatable.
They don't follow the golden rule. They do X to other companies, while
actively preventing other companies from doing X to them. If X is okay, then
it should be a two way street. If X is not okay, then it should be a zero way
street. Either of those positions I could be happy with. In no case of good
behavior is X a one way street.
------
a_small_island
How linked into the company are you? Are you linked into the dirty growth
hacks? Is the CEO linked into the culture and aware of these 'sketchy things'?
Below I will attempt to recruit responses from my hacker news connections.
------
SeaDude
Sounds very American to me. What's the problem?
You make it sound as if Tech is some way insulated from the practices required
for a business to exhibit constant growth.
Want idealistic tech? Get the cuff out of big Corp OR... practice perception
management. Do "you" (aka be yourself without compromise). If you have ethics
/ ideals to uphold, do so in a way that creates value for the project.
Show how your values / ethics provide value to the project. Be dope. Produce
results with your values / ethics in front of you. Production can't be
disputed.
------
grok2
This is one of those real-life-is-this-way kind of things...it's usually hard
to change company culture because it reflects the nature or behavior or
actions of somebody right from the top. Things won't change unless the person
managing things changes. The best thing to do is to enjoy your job as much as
you can and keep your little part of the world clean and maybe consider
changing jobs if it makes you too unhappy or forces you to compromise on your
view-point of how things should be.
------
Nomentatus
Start by voting for people who want to enforce our existing laws against
fraud, leveraging monopoly power, and who might treat public utilities (any
business with a network effect) (whether shiny or not) as public utilities and
regulate 'em like our great grandfathers did.
There aren't many, but there are a few.
"I'm enjoying my work with the Imperium and they seem well-organized but some
of their policies, like mass death, fer instance..."
------
jwatte
Rather won than lose? Sounds like every big business I know.
By "fair," do you mean "legally defensible in court" or "morally upright
according to middle class values?" Turns out, successful large American
companies go for the former; if you want the latter, then you probably need to
look for a smaller colorant, ideally founded around a mission. Non profit and
government work can also be good for that.
~~~
throwaway173205
I had worked at a different large tech company for a long while and never had
the feeling that they treated their users or competitors this way.
------
kalu
Have a look at Peter Drucker's classic "Managing Oneself"
[https://www.amazon.com/Managing-Oneself-Harvard-Business-
Cla...](https://www.amazon.com/Managing-Oneself-Harvard-Business-
Classics/dp/142212312X)
Drucker takes a firm stand on this issue. He advises to "put values first"
------
tehwalrus
Quit, and be honest about the reason.
Obviously, best to find another job first.
(I have done something like this at two companies, for similar ethics
reasons.)
------
segmondy
There is nothing like fighting fair in business. So long as it's legal you are
good to go. If it's not legal, run! I like companies that are passionate about
their product, customers and crushing their competitors. Lots of businesses
with amazing products have gone bankrupt in the name of playing fair.
~~~
xiaoma
How much time do you devote to studying what is and isn't legal?
------
HillaryBriss
Is there any value or sense in revealing to the general public some details
about the company's dodgy practices?
~~~
spdustin
Are you asking sincerely, or as a passive aggressive commentary about OP's
query? If the former: I think, yes, if whistleblowing can motivate change that
would prevent fraud.
If the latter, OP didn't disclose anything about a specific company.
~~~
HillaryBriss
It was a sincere question.
How should I have phrased it to avoid ambiguity?
~~~
jwatte
You can't, because sarcasm is a thing and it's often impossible to detect in
writing from people you don't already know.
------
simbalion
Go into business for yourself.
Truth be told, no matter what the circumstances are that is the correct
answer.
------
pasbesoin
Learn. Know there is a next step, elsewhere. Prepare and be pro-active.
Nothing like seeing some of what you don't like and don't want to accept, to
help you define your own boundaries and what you do want.
Good luck!
------
gaelow
Whitout being more specific I would say that, in general, fighting the
policies works even worse than ignoring them. Try to become somebody who can
dictate them.
------
CodeWriter23
It's called "business". The question to you is, how are you going to get into
a position to create your own company that is built on your values?
------
dewster
Life is really, really short. Always stand up for what you believe, you'll be
a much better person for it. Don't have regrets on your deathbed.
------
r2dnb
When I was employed, I considered that I was working for the
Founder/CEO/Director so one of the most important things for me was to be
inspired and in-sync with him. He was the one I would make richer, so I had to
be happy and proud to make this person richer.
This has never been my intention, but it turned out that that one of these
persons became my investor. The takeaway is that focusing on the mission and
culture will always pay the highest dividends (even though these dividends may
not be money initially)
That being said, I have no problem with unethical, but do have a problem with
dishonest and deceitful. Sextoys are unethical, cold calls are unethical
etc... I agree with those saying that a company needs to get the ball rolling.
Organic growth doesn't start a business, it makes it sustainable.
Think about the healthy food business. Being healthy is simple : eat raw
fruits, eat raw vegetables, repeat. Yet even an "ethical" company will need to
add many refined ingredients to push the expiry date farer, and differentiate
on colour, taste, etc... They need to literally add poison to health. Is that
unethical ? If you say yes, then all healthy food companies should be fresh
fruit market sellers in order to remain ethical.
There's no such thing as ethics in business. But there is integrity and
mission. Integrity is standing for who you are. Sometimes standing for who you
are requires kicking people in the noise in bars, other times it requires
remaining silent in front of the greatest outrage. Individual actions alone
cannot define an identity, therefore no single action or act should be flagged
as always bad or always good. Good has been defended with violence (bastille
day), bad has been defended with silence (slavery).
>What should I do
Do not focus on what they do but on why they do it. It wouldn't be wise since
a company never is where it would like to be. Quite frankly, ask a 5min
meeting with your CEO/or a very senior manager, this is the kind of chat they
usually love to have. And perhaps nobody ever told him. In addition to feeling
relieved you will also score, they'll give you credit for that. Simply, don't
sound like you think you are better than them, and don't lecture them. Just
voice your concern, and be honest, curious, and humble.
------
jsprogrammer
Companies only act through their employees. You are an employee, so you either
need to fix the company or stop being an employee.
------
formula_ninguna
What could you do? You're an employee. Nothing. Try talking to them.
------
known
Introduce new tools, not policies to your big co;
------
Zelmor
So you are working for Oracle, OP?
------
smoyer
It's okay throwaway173205 - Lot's off Googlers are becoming disillusioned by
the failure to "Don't be evil".
~~~
Jerry2
Alphabet/Google retired its "Don't be evil" motto last year.
[http://time.com/4060575/alphabet-google-dont-be-
evil/](http://time.com/4060575/alphabet-google-dont-be-evil/)
~~~
smoyer
So now is it simply allowed or is it actively encouraged?
------
grimmdude
Either leave or put up with it.
------
blondie9x
How long have you been there?
------
ljlolel
Quit Uber
~~~
fma
The OP's company isn't the leader, so Lyft would be the company to call out.
~~~
tjfl
Aren't they?
> They are in an industry where the leader has a big natural advantage, and
> they are in that lead by a large margin.
~~~
engizeer
Could be AWS.
~~~
nindalf
It sounded like an app targeting end users, possibly a mobile app that sucks
up all the data on the device. AWS is unlikely because I don't think anyone
could get away with fooling a large segment of the developer population for an
extended length of time. Even if they could, why would they? AWS is their
golden goose, engaging in shady/unethical practices would mean no more golden
eggs.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Is the Fed reading your tweets? - tpatke
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17265295
======
trustfundbaby
This is such an interesting article about how useful, mining social media data
can be. Its a pity the headline is so link-baity and barely related to the
content.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Review HN: Google replacement, use other search engines along with Google - amitvjtimub
Please review my project<p>Url: http://www.shodhel.com/<p>It replaces Google as default search engine, still allows you to access Google as usual.<p>Only thing is you can access other search engines by clicking on Back button.<p>Everyone here will find it useful. And you can safely use it as Google replacement since you don't compromise privacy (query is part of URL fragment) or speed of searches (adds approx. 50ms on Firefox, even less on Chrome).<p>This really is a basic version. I will be adding some vital features in coming weeks. But I wanted your feedback if you will use it. There is no reason why you shouldn't but I would like to know what will make you use it daily.<p>I see immense potential here, I would love to know what you think.
======
dbingham
You're much too focused on allowing people to 'use google as usual' and I
dislike having to hit the back button to access other engines. I also dislike
that I get that popup notice telling me about hitting the back button long
before I get any other results. If you want to see how a search engine
aggregator is done, take a look at torrents.to.
Legal disclaimer, I don't condone downloading illegal torrents. I just think
torrents.to is a well done search engine aggregator.
Also, it needs a lot of styling work. I hit that page and immediately
distrusted it because of its antiquated design and styling.
Otherwise I like the idea, and if you improve the UX and IU I might use it.
------
madhouse
While using the back button is a neat trick, it looks kinda awkward...
Couldn't you have a toolbar or similar on top instead (or in addition to the
back button thing, thus getting rid of the even more annoying popup)?
The idea is interesting, nevertheless, but the user experience could use some
love.
(And no, I'm not going to use it. DDG is my default search engine, and the
!bang searches there cover all my needs)
~~~
amitvjtimub
But what if you access DDG as usual but access Google on clicking on back
button. You know you need to access Google sometimes. That customization is
planned. Thanks for you feedback.
~~~
madhouse
If I want to access google (which is pretty damn rare), there's DDG's !g, and
the "No more matches found, check google." link at the end.
For me, it is easier to prefix my search string with !g than to hit the back
button. Especially if I already navigated a few pages through DDG results.
The back button is also an annoyance when, for example, I had an open tab,
wrote a search string into the address bar and hit enter by mistake: I'd want
to get back to the page I originally was at, so I hit back, and I get your
search engine selection screen.
Isn't that intuitive in that case, I'm afraid.
The idea is good, but... I don't think it'd work well for this kind of thing.
------
photon_off
I made a solution to the exact same problem: <http://www.dashler.com>
Very interesting implementation you have with the back button. Great idea
there. Personally, I don't like using the in-browser search thing. It just
never became a habit.
------
amitvjtimub
Clickable Link: <http://www.shodhel.com/>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Apply to YC, TechStars and 500Startups simultanously? - 3zzy
Although I prefer YC, but just in case I get rejected for whatever reason, is it okay and ethical to apply with other accelerators along with YC to increase my chances? Did anyone ever do that?
======
zaroth
Of course you can apply to any of these you want. But the best approach is
actually taking the application process as a learning experience in itself,
since it's unlikely to result in the direct benefit you're seeking.
In other words, if you're going to apply, make the most of it regardless of
the outcome.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
INTERCAL On Interstates - ioidev
http://www.intercaloninterstates.org/
======
smoyer
I wanted this to be real so bad!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Now Available – Developer Preview of AWS SDK for Java 2.0 - janober
https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/now-available-developer-preview-of-aws-sdk-for-java-2-0/
======
cle
> In version 2.0, all POJOs are immutable and must be created through a
> builder.
I appreciate the immutable-by-default conventions. But conversely, I'm not
excited about more Java boilerplate conversion nonsense. You have to call
toBuilder() to serialize it, and another build() to deserialize it. And you
confusingly ser/de the builder class, not the POJO itself. Between Streams and
builders and factories, reading Java code is an exercise in learning to ignore
fluff and bullshit, and finding the narrow thread of stuff that actually
matters in your program.
------
patrick92
Nice to finally see support for non-blocking I/O.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The F# Path to Relaxation [video] - mightybyte
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-D6W7EA8gw
======
enricosada
F# is amazing.
Computation expression and type provider are awesome features, and the
language itself is really fun and easy to write/refactor/understand (this mean
code work as expected at first run usually) and help you write correct code
an good "why f#' [http://fsharpforfunandprofit.com/why-use-
fsharp/](http://fsharpforfunandprofit.com/why-use-fsharp/)
More info
\- user groups list
[http://c4fsharp.net/groups.html](http://c4fsharp.net/groups.html)
\- browser [http://www.tryfsharp.org/](http://www.tryfsharp.org/)
\- more info fsharp.org
\- open source
[http://github.com/Microsoft/visualfsharp](http://github.com/Microsoft/visualfsharp)
(vs stuff) or
[http://github.com/fsharp/fsharp](http://github.com/fsharp/fsharp) (cross
plat)
------
jamez1
F# is awesome, I wish I had jumped on it sooner. I find myself spending a lot
less time writing code and a lot more time thinking.
The .Net ecosystem is great. I hope more shops adopt F# in the future.
~~~
seanmcdirmid
I code to think. The only thing working against F# a bit is that C# isn't that
bad of a language.
~~~
pjmlp
And being sold as library only language on Visual Studio tooling, but I when I
look around the enterprise environments I work on, I do get the point why
Microsoft tries to push it that way.
------
tesmar2
As someone who is wanting to learn a functional language, it seems to me that
F# is a good place to start. I've heard people disparage the lack of HKTs, but
some of the other features like Type Providers seem too compelling to pass up.
~~~
marpstar
I've just really started using F#, but the first time I used the Type
Providers in FSharp.Data, I was blown away. That and F# interactive make
prototyping a REST API client something I can do in minutes.
------
icedog
If anybody is interested in F#, look for a nearby meetup group to join. The SF
F# group is pretty active and Mathias Brandewinder's hacker dojos are
absolutely awesome!
[0] [http://www.meetup.com/sfsharp/](http://www.meetup.com/sfsharp/)
------
yodsanklai
Could someone briefly sum up the differences between F# and OCaml? Are there
any reasons to switch from OCaml to F# in a Unix environment?
~~~
ignoramous
OCaml can compile to native. That makes it faster than F# running in a VM.
OCaml can compile to bytecode as well. Also, if you ever need interfacing with
C/CPP, OCaml is better suited (faster) to the task than, say, Ruby or JVM
based languages.
Apart from that, multithreading in OCaml is a bit like on its on Python, IIRC,
with GIL taking the sting out of it. But I am sure the researchers in France
and elsewhere would bring true multithreading / multicore support to OCaml
sooner rather than later.
More on what OCaml gets right:
[https://realworldocaml.org/](https://realworldocaml.org/) (which seems to be
down right now).
~~~
mercurial
There is a multicore runtime in the works, with an ETA of "when it's done".
That said, you have a couple of full-featured monadic concurrency libraries
(Lwt and Async).
It also has functors (they let you parametrize a module over other modules),
which F# doesn't, and you can do AST rewriting at compile-time via PPX (don't
know if F# has anything like that). On the other hand, F# has access to the
.NET ecosystem (which is admittedly larger than the OCaml one, though it
suffers from enterprisitis), and has some nice goodies like type providers.
~~~
VesaKarvonen
FYI, my Hopac library
([https://github.com/Hopac/Hopac](https://github.com/Hopac/Hopac)) is also a
full-featured monadic concurrency library, inspired by Concurrent ML, for F#
that is optimized for parallel programming.
------
rottyguy
How is F# for the web (both front and back end)? tx
~~~
soyrochus
Excellent. F# is fully supported by ASP.MVC / WebApi and there are a number of
F# specific frameworks/components available.
There are two "Javascript transpilers" available, WebSharper and FunScript,
both capable of compiling a large subset of F# to JavaScript. WebSharper
offers a very attractive "server mode" as well. And the new - soon to be
released - version 3.0 of WebSharper makes that into a very large subset and
supports features like source maps as well.
[http://fsharp.org/guides/web/](http://fsharp.org/guides/web/)
------
synaesthesisx
Isn't F# a ripoff of OCAML?
~~~
klibertp
What do you mean by "ripoff"? F# is not OCaml, but it indeed is closely
related. They share some syntax and basic language features like tail call
optimization, records and variants or pattern matching. On the other hand F#
object system is completely different from OCaml's as it needs to work with
other .NET languages. F# introduces active patterns and operator overloading
which is absent from OCaml. OCaml features a very sophisticated module system,
which in turn is absent from F#.
In short, F# and OCaml are similar but distinct languages. Both are
interesting and worth looking into, each in its own right.
------
everyone
Looks like there is a cat on that blue chair.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Tech firms like Facebook must restrict data sent from EU to US, court rules - boshomi
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jul/16/tech-firms-like-facebook-must-restrict-data-sent-from-eu-to-us-court-rules
======
boshomi
EU/US “privacy shield” deal is fallen.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Survival of the Mediocre Mediocre - joeyespo
https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2018/04/24/survival-of-the-mediocre-mediocre/
======
wnissen
This explained a lot about evolution and government that previously seemed
paradoxical to me.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
There are 2,373 squirrels in Central Park. I know because I helped count them - duxup
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/01/08/nyregion/central-park-squirrel-census.html
======
pasttense01
Central Park has 843 acres. That means there are an average of 2.8
squirrels/acre. That seems low. I think they probably missed a lot of
squirrels.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
VideoGamesPlus.ca hacked, 21,000 users' details stolen - 1880
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-01-18-videogamesplus-ca-hacked-21-000-users-details-stolen
======
1880
It looks like they were not hacked exactly. They just left some backups in the
open:
[http://www.google.com/search?q=site:videogamesplus.ca+inurl:...](http://www.google.com/search?q=site:videogamesplus.ca+inurl:customers)
Edit: wow, it was not only the customer database. It was _everything_ :
<http://www.google.com/search?q=qbsm_export+filetype:sql>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
One IDE to Rule them All? - thelonecabbage
http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/140264/one-ide-to-rule-them-all
======
dasil003
I can accept that there are valid reasons to do this, but I couldn't work in a
shop like that. The bottom line is I invest in my tools, and a big part of my
career development is mastering standard unix tools. I don't expect to be
doing Rails work 10 years from now, but I'll definitely be using vim + bash
for the long haul.
------
dkhenry
This specific question is talking about Eclipse, and depending on the language
they are using it might be they are moving the build system to eclipse, so
they are mandating everyone use the tool. I think in the FOSS world we are a
little spoiled that we have options like what editor / build system / OS we
would like to use to develop on. I know there are a lot of shops that on day
one you are given access to Visual Studios and that's the last tool you will
use at that company for anything. So this isn't anything extraordinary that is
being asked of the employee. I know where I work we develop on remote system's
and while some people prefer to do a lot of upfront work in eclipse, when
testing on the production equipment your left with nothing but a command line.
So knowledge of at least one text line editor and gcc/make is fundamental for
anyone who wants to work with us. I could totally see someone coming in with
the complete opposite question.
"My company is mandating that everyone use vim and make"
And still see it as a valid request of an employer.
~~~
slowpoke
I think there's a very important line to be drawn between "require everyone to
know (the basics of) $tool" and "mandate that everyone use $tool". I think the
former _can_ be reasonable, if it's done both ways, ie everyone is required to
be somewhat familiar with the standard UNIX toolchain, but also with $IDE.
Then, the choice could be left to every member of the team what to use.
I think, however, it's a _huge_ mistake to take the second route. Myself, for
example, I could never be even remotely productive in an IDE. The moment I
open one, it feels _wrong_ , and my productivity as well as motivation drops
significantly. I just prefer vim + $tools for the language I am working with,
and it's highly unlikely that this will ever change. It's like trying to code
in a noisy, public place when I could be coding at my desk listening to my
favorite music.
Yes, this is partially an emotional reason. I _hate_ programs that throw tons
of information, menus and buttons at you, most of which are useless 98% of the
time. Furthermore, I hate programs that try to be a God Object and do
everything by themselves - I'm a stern advocate of modularity/interoperability
and the UNIX philosophy of writing programs that do _one_ thing, and do it
well.
But, to conclude this, I would fiercely disapprove forcing anyone to do it my
way as much as I would object to being forced into a different workflow
myself. I know I could never work for someone that does either.
------
Vitaly
Jungo (<http://jungo.com/>), a company where I first learned the "proper"
development process with code reviews etc, had instituted Vim as the company
wide editor. You _could_ choose something else if you still could work
reasonably in vim and mastered that "other" editor to a high degree, being
able to do x,y,z things with it. There was an actual document describing
required level of mastery ;)
Now, vim being one of the top productive environments (only probably be
contested by emacs), and the fact that we worked in C, so stags vim plugin
provided as much IDE-ness you could get anywhere else at the time (2000), I
think that was a very reasonable requirement. Eclipse? nah, not really, you
can pry VIM from my dead hands, definitely would not work at this place.
------
justncase80
Where I work people do a variety of things. We mostly use VS but I like to hit
F5 and have it do an incremental build and start the debugger but most
everyone else builds through a command line tool they created and have a VS
extension that automatically attaches to certain processes when you fire them
up. It's not uncommon at all for people who are not building via visual studio
to break the build for people who are not. The main checkin gate of course
does it the same as the command line people so it can be very ugly when
everyone is doing a variety of things. They can end up breaking your system
inadvertently.
------
nraynaud
that's what I did in my team, I want people to be able to sit next to each
other, I want shared formatting settings, I don't want them to do the
formatting by hands, and we have shared ownership of the code. You can only
change the formatting style after discussing it with the others. I want people
to remove my personal style after me, and I want to remove other's personal
style in the code. Adding dependencies or libraries has to be debatted and if
possible each new library should delete another one, the same with lines of
code. I call it "trying to control the entropy".
~~~
omarqureshi
So you don't do the formatting by hand, you configure your editor of choice to
do the work for you, assuming it is smart enough. If you have a group of
people that use the same editor they can share this information through a
developer wiki.
Sounds like you just need to have a well defined style guide rather than
trying to micromanage developer habits.
~~~
justncase80
What's also good is to establish a procedure to change the guidelines. It can
be a source of frustration to have some funky guideline that most of the team
doesn't like.
~~~
nraynaud
that's what the wednesday afternoon is for, changing our way of working. But
we sometimes do it before. We've a problem with our python formatting
guidelines, and I'll bring the issue tomorrow I think (we've to decide for
spaces or tabs and camelcase or underscore, since it's not our only language,
we've to arbitrage between a common rule for all our languages, or the usual
rule of each language).
------
user2459
This question lacks a lot of details, what tech is being used, how experienced
the team is, what the build and deploy environments are like, what level of
syntax consistency is needed for various reasons etc..
While many programmers are religious about their tool chain there are very
legitimate reasons for wanting a standardized dev environment especially with
an IDE that does things like syntax homogenization for you. Without more
details it's impossible to tell weather this specific individual case would
really benefit from the mandate in spite of upsetting the comfort of their
devs.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: iPhone 5 or Galaxy S4? - bgar
Looking for an upgrade, and after reading and watching a lot of comparisons, I still think it's very close between the two. Which one do you prefer and why?
======
yareally
If you want simplicity and are already invested in the ecosystem with other
products and such, you may prefer an iPhone. It will give you what you want if
all you need is a phone that always works, gets OS updates not on the whim of
the carrier and has lots of good apps. It may not be quite as configurable
(can't change the default browser and other default system apps) and modder
friendly as many Android devices, but that doesn't always matter to a lot of
people. I like messing around with the under-layers of the devices I use for
fun/learning, so I mostly have Android devices for my personal use.
If you want something you can hack around on without jailbreaking or paying
for a developer's account, compiling the OS source (via Cyanogenmod, AOSP or
others), change the default application for things like the browser, etc, then
the S4 might be what you want. One thing I can say about Android is that I've
seen it motivate and encourage quite a few people with no programming or
hacker experience beforehand to go out and learn how to compile the source for
their device, retheme it directly from the xml markup and pull up debug logs
to give proper bug reports to the developers they follow. There's a lot
childish behavior online and also in the Android modding communities, but it
always makes me feel a bit better when I think of the people I've helped learn
more about modding their device and how it works beyond what a typical user
would care about. There may be a trolls and some sterotypical "man-childs" on
XDA, rootwiki and other modding sites, but there's also many knowledgeable
people that are willing to share what they know to anyone.
I know I got off on a tangent there sorta, but anyways, back on subject...
If you want something that works without a lot of modding and bloat, opt for a
Nexus Device (either the Nexus 4 or the upcoming [though 600+ dollars] AOSP
Galaxy S4). While it can be nice, the Samsung (Touchwiz skinned) S4 is going
to have carrier bloat (a lot of useless junk) and could also have a locked
bootloader that cannot be unlocked (if you like to mod stuff). Nexus devices
are the closest Android equivalent to an iPhone as far as intended user
experience by the creator of each OS.
I've only played around with my friends and relative's iOS devices. I own a
handful of Android devices, mostly for development, but my primary phone is a
Galaxy Nexus. Don't recommend the Galaxy Nexus though (at least not the
Verizon Wireless LTE/CDMA Version [Toro]). Battery life is only 2-3 hours of
screen time for it and 8-12 hours of total use. That's enough for me, not not
for someone that uses their phone more heavily. The GSM variant is much better
than that though and the S4 battery life will blow either one out of the
water.
Honestly, it comes down to what you want, not what we can suggest. You don't
give much in the way of details and background about yourself.
~~~
bgar
Thanks for your detailed comment. I definitely think iOS is more polished and
has a better app selection than Android.
My biggest gripe with Apple devices is the closed-wall garden; I have no Apple
devices at home (the only one I've owned was a 3rd gen. iPod Touch) . As a
longtime Linux user, I don't see a lot of interoperability between the iPhone
and Linux. The S4 also has a removable battery and an SD card slot, which is
nice.
Also, thanks for the reminder about the Google Edition S4, might want to get
that over the current bloatware-filled one.
~~~
yareally
AOSP S4 would be what I would get (and will get depending on if the modem
chipsets support cdma/lte). After dealing with prior OEM devices and the ugly
hacks I had to do to root them and compile the source (as well as laggy
updates), I don't think I could ever deal with one again (though my experience
was based on Android <= 2.3). Devices you can unlock the bootloader to and
access the /data partition where the apps lie makes doing things like working
with sqlite super easy when you can just mount the Android device via sshfs
and go right to the app directory you're working on to change the sqlite db
without reinstalling the app. Not a thing most are aware of, but it makes life
so much easier that way for development.
If you are looking into development at all, Scala works well on Android if you
prefer something other than Java. I only moved to using it the last couple of
weeks (used C#/Mono and Java previously), but it's better than I thought it
would be. I got it working without any external building or extra plugins in
intellij idea as well (setup guide I put on github earlier today
[https://github.com/yareally/android-scala-intellij-no-sbt-
pl...](https://github.com/yareally/android-scala-intellij-no-sbt-plugin)).
I'm stuck on Verizon for now and torn between keeping unlimited data and
getting a newer device I won't hate. AOSP S4 is probably going to win me over
in the end though and the nice AMOLED screen it has.
------
tagabek
Well, that comes down to a very specific question: Do you like iOS or Android
better? If you are indifferent, what do you like/dislike about your current
phone? Also, if you're thinking about mobile development, go for the one
you'll be developing on. You will have a much better understanding of what
users want from their smartphone if you are a user yourself.
------
macarthy12
HTC One?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Scandalous weird old things about the C preprocessor (2015) - fanf2
https://blog.robertelder.org/7-weird-old-things-about-the-c-preprocessor/
======
cafard
Hmm. The _Intermediate Greek Lexicon_ gives the original meaning of
"skandalon" as "a trap or a snare laid for an enemy":
[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%...](http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0058%3Aalphabetic+letter%3D*s%3Aentry+group%3D9%3Aentry%3Dska%2Fndalon)
------
mehrdadn
One thing not mentioned here: it seems to me (though I'm not 100% sure) C++11
kind of wrecked macro preprocessing. Until it came along, I _think_ you could
ignore C++ tokens and just pay attention to the preprocessor directives when
figuring out e.g. what to #include, because strings couldn't span multiple
lines, so you could easily identify the directives with a # in the beginning
of the line. But C++11 introduced verbatim string literals, and it seems to me
now you have to actually tokenize C++ constructs just to figure out how to do
macro preprocessing. This means C++ preprocessing actually is a lexically
different language than C preprocessing, which is kind of bewildering to me
(notwithstanding more obvious differences like __cplusplus and such) and which
means you can no longer e.g. just process the #include's without regard to the
C++ tokens.
EDIT: Never mind, I'm wrong. Totally missed that line continuations can occur
in quotes :(
~~~
user982
_> I think you could ignore C++ tokens and just pay attention to the
preprocessor directives when figuring out e.g. what to #include, because
strings couldn't span multiple lines, so you could easily identify the
directives with a # in the beginning of the line._
char *cstr = "This \
#is a valid "
"C string";
If I understand you correctly, is this a counterexample?
~~~
mehrdadn
Aw shoot, yeah it is. :( Thanks!
------
ScottBurson
While I love to hate on the preprocessor -- and did so publicly once in _The
Unix Hater 's Handbook_ (p. 211) -- item 4 is silly. The _whole point_ of many
macros is to circumvent referential transparency! This is true even in a
language with real macros, like Lisp. ("Real macros" operate on a syntax tree
representation, not on character strings.)
------
Ididntdothis
All I can say is that I really miss the preprocessor. There are so many things
that could easily be done with the preprocessor but instead have to be done
with reflection or code generation in a more complex way.
Sure, it can be be abused/misused but I am not sure that's a good reason to
take it away completely like for example in C#.
~~~
ygra
C# has other mechanisms to achieve what macros are commonly used for, though.
In a bit, with Roslyn's source generators there will be an even better way for
some of them.
~~~
rwmj
One place where preprocessors shine is where the language itself has changed
in an incompatible way, where "language" can be interpreted broadly including
calls to external libraries. For example some function you need to call added
an extra parameter:
#if LIB_VERSION_GE_3
lib_f (1, NULL);
#else
lib_f (1);
#endif
It can be difficult to do this with other mechanisms where the compiler is
actually compiling and therefore type checking both branches.
OCaml is a pretty rich language with many features, but we fall back on
preprocessors like cppo (or even cpp) to deal with these kinds of cases.
~~~
pjmlp
You can do that with .NET conditional compilation, no need for the C style
macros.
~~~
rwmj
Assuming you mean this: [https://docs.microsoft.com/en-
us/dotnet/csharp/language-refe...](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-
us/dotnet/csharp/language-reference/preprocessor-directives/preprocessor-if)
it looks like a restricted form of the C preprocessor. (We may quibble about
whether it is separately "pre" processed or not, but even cpp doesn't run as a
separate stage in modern C compilers).
~~~
Ididntdothis
The C# preprocessor is unnecessarily restricted. It has a few features but it
feels very arbitrary what they include or exclude. I think they didn’t like
the idea but couldn’t avoid it totally so they did something half assed. I bet
a lot of frameworks that need reflection could be replaced with macros if the
preprocessor had a few more features.
~~~
pjmlp
It is not half assed, rather what has been proven since the 60's to work
properly in all languages that aren't C, nor copy-paste compatible with C.
Even C++ is reducing the need to keep using the pre-processor with each ISO
revision, in an ideal modern C++ world without C legacy baggage, the pre-
processor will be so half assed like in C#. C++20 is already almost there.
------
bla3
(2015)
------
coliveira
The author tries to compare the preprocessor with programming languages,
however he seems to forget that the processor is, above all, not a language!
There is no parse tree for a preprocessor, since it is just putting text
strings together, with little regard for the resulting syntax. That's why it
is stupid to try to use the Cpp as a programming language, it won't work.
Think of it as a text replacement engine, like an integrated sed, for example.
~~~
raverbashing
Ahem
[https://www.ioccc.org/years.html#2001_herrmann1](https://www.ioccc.org/years.html#2001_herrmann1)
------
WalterBright
He missed one important thing - the C preprocessor is completely unaware of C
types. Its expressions follow different rules.
A major goal of D was to make the language expressive enough to not leave room
for the preprocessor:
1\. modules
2\. manifest constants
3\. nested functions
4\. lambdas
5\. static if
6\. compile time function execution
7\. string mixins
~~~
TheSoftwareGuy
I don't think he did miss that, rather it simply wasn't on-topic for the
article he was writing. Anybody who has used the C preprocessor knows it works
at the level of text/tokens and no further. The fact that it knows nothing of
types would hardly be "scandalous"
But you can go ahead and use this thread to promote D anyways.
~~~
WalterBright
The #if does more than just text and tokens, it has an expression grammar
(constant-expression). It's implementation-defined whether the following two
produce the same value:
#if 'z' - 'a' == 25
if ('z' - 'a' == 25)
Another difference is all constants are typed as intmax_t and uintmax_t, not
the usual C types. Yes, it does have types.
This difference in behavior from C expressions is not necessary.
------
joosters
Which of these are scandalous, exactly?
If the OP is aggrieved by the operation of cpp, perhaps they could have
explained in each of their points what cpp is doing wrong, and how they would
improve the standard. Instead, they just list 'odd' behaviour, with no comment
about why it is wrong and how it could be better.
~~~
klyrs
This document immensely valuable in enumerating pitfalls in the spec and in
how the spec is interpreted by various implementations. I would wager that
most good-faith* C programmers are weary of overusing cpp, and use a limited
subset of its capabilities. This is a great resource to throw at a junior who
gets too excited about macros, for example.
* where I'm defining "bad-faith" C programmers as using it for sadistic purposes like IOCCC, golf, etc
> perhaps they could have explained in each of their points what cpp is doing
> wrong, and how they would improve the standard.
This is a fairly toxic attitude, and possibly the reason that your comment is
unpopular. A child can correctly observe that an emperor is not wearing
clothes, and bring that up without possessing the skill to make the emperor a
suitable outfit.
~~~
joosters
I just found the article odd; it starts off by declaring the behaviour of cpp
to be objectionable, but then it just lists different aspects of its actions.
At no point does the OP complain that cpp is doing the _wrong_ thing - indeed,
they point out in several places that it couldn't really be changed to do
anything else because either it would break existing code, or would be just as
odd if it behaved in another way. So I'm wondering just what it was they were
scandalized about? I'm not demanding that they fix cpp themselves!
At least the child told people that the emperor was wearing no clothes; a more
apt analogy with this article would be as if the child merely said "that's
scandalous!" without telling anyone about the missing clothes...
~~~
klyrs
> 1) No Comprehensive Standard
Here the "scandal" is that the "standard" is poorly specified, and therefore
isn't much of a standard. This seems to be the root of the scandal, and all
else appears to flow from here.
> 2) Context Free, Just Kidding!
Here the "scandal" is regarding to context sensitivity -- the author
vacillates about the status of the "scandal" but still, it seems clear that
they're identifying context-sensitivity as scandalous.
> 3) Whitespace Insensitive, Just Kidding!
Here the author considers irregularities in how "whitespace sensitive" cpp is
-- both in the "spec" and in implementations, with an example of non-
portability between gcc and clang.
et cetera
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Amazon sellers can associate your personal info to bad reviews - jimmyrcom
http://www.amazon.com/review/R5FPKAO3QSMZZ/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
got a home phone call telling me seller didn't like the bad review of a bathroom scale, see vid review for audio
======
jimmyrcom
got a home phone call telling me seller didn't like the negative review i
gave. reviewed months after purchase
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Singapore to become first country banning ads on sugary drinks - ValentineC
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/10/11/health/singapore-sugar-drink-ads-intl-hnk-scli/index.html
======
mark_l_watson
Usually I am for freedom to do anything you want as long as it does not impact
other people.
I am OK though with banning ads for sugary drinks because society pays a high
medical cost for damage due to excess sugar addiction/use.
This is like forcing motor cycle riders to wear helmets.
BTW, I worked in Singapore for a while in 2016. Wonderful place! People just
seemed happy there, from business people to laborers. If I were younger I
might consider moving there for permanent work.
~~~
smackmybishop
There's a point there that I don't think gets enough discussion:
As healthcare becomes increasingly socialized, personal unhealthy choices
become an attack on society at large.
Why wouldn't we ban sugary drinks altogether? Motorcycle riding even with a
helmet? Maybe get rid of pasta. It's not clear to me where we should stop, if
medical costs to society are a valid justification for reducing personal
freedom...
~~~
ApolloFortyNine
Personally I believe that this is the end state of socialized health care, and
I'm afraid we'll see it implemented on a wide scale within the next 20 years.
It'll likely start with a hate tax, which is already in affect in a handful of
locations.
The only real question to me is which will be banned 'for the good of society'
first: sugar, or meat? Meat has the extra argument going around of having an
impact on the climate, and some studies say it can be bad for health. Sugar of
course is bad for health in large quantities.
~~~
jakelazaroff
The U.S. already has plenty such laws without socialized healthcare: cigarette
ads are banned, in some places you’re not allowed to sell sugary drinks that
are too large etc. Drug prohibition is probably the most prominent example,
but we’re seeing efforts to decriminalize those concurrent with efforts to
socialize healthcare. I think your concerns are unfounded.
~~~
ApolloFortyNine
>I think your concerns are unfounded.
> cigarette ads are banned, in some places you’re not allowed to sell sugary
> drinks that are too large
It sounds to me the slippery slope has already started? Hate taxes on
cigarettes are a thing everywhere, some places have a sugar tax already. It's
not banned, but it is controlled already.
~~~
jakelazaroff
I thought your concerns were that this is the end state of socialized
healthcare? I’m simply saying that they’re uncorrelated.
------
xhruso00
"In addition to an ad ban, the ministry announced that sugary drinks would
also be required to display a color-coded, front-of-pack nutrition label to
list nutritional quality and sugar content." I like Japanese/Taiwanese
approach which list percentage of fruit juice (front-of-pack). And
manufacturers can't cheat with substitutes like apple cause it doesn't count.
This is way more useful for consumers to decide what they want. In countries
like Malaysia I have no idea what i am buying (sugar water vs real fruit
juice)
~~~
Someone1234
The UK has a similar "traffic light" system[0] on their foods. I cannot speak
to everyone, but for me seeing red salt makes me look again at other options.
It is a gentle nudge but helps.
By contrast US food labeling is an anti-pattern. "Serving size" seems
arbitrary and makes it impossible to compare foods even directly next to one
another on the shelf (plus they're intentionally unrealistic, like a single
chocolate bar having two "servings").
[0]
[https://assets.bupa.co.uk/~/media/images/healthmanagement/to...](https://assets.bupa.co.uk/~/media/images/healthmanagement/topics/traffic-
light-info.jpg)
~~~
jakelazaroff
It would be so simple to fix the serving size issue, too: just force labels to
list nutrition information for the whole thing as well as per serving!
~~~
jniedrauer
Arbitrary serving sizes are kind of useless though. In an ideal world, most
foods would list nutrition information in two units: per container, and per
100g. You'd be able to tell at a glance a) what you're buying, and b) how it
compares to similar items. Unfortunately that will not happen in the United
States any time soon.
~~~
philwelch
I dunno. 100g of butter is a lot.
~~~
tpetry
But you could easily compare multiple brands because they will not have
different package or serving sizes to trick the system. Here in germany 100g
nutrition labels have to be added, made-up serving sizes can be used too if
they want, but 100g nutrition tables are enforced.
------
pimmen
I had the pleasure of holding a talk at the same event as Saeid Esmaeilzadeh,
a rockstar entrepreneur and chemist in Sweden, and one of the questions he got
during his talk was how he could reconcile his drive to be an ethical
businessman and supply stuff to the military. His response was pretty long but
it made a comparison with the sugar industry (paraphrasing here, sorry Saeid
if you're reading this and I got something wrong):
"I would never force my ethics on someone else, I will however criticize
someone if they don't think their business model through on an ethical level.
You should be able to live with what you're doing, personally, without
deluding yourself or being in denial. I think Sweden, a democratic country,
has an obligation to make sure that the troops we send for peace keeping
purposes have the right gear to do the job. However, I would never, ever,
supply stuff to the sugar industry. Even though we've found loads of stuff
that could be applied to that field, I just couldn't live with myself. It
serves absolutely no utility to humanity, it kills more people every year than
war and you're primarily marketing stuff to children to form life long habits.
It just doesn't square with my morals but I've met other, smart people who
have thought long and hard about the sugar industry and came to the conclusion
that it's an ethical industry. Whatever floats their boat, but I don't want to
make money that way."
~~~
refurb
That’s a pretty self-serving attitude.
He sells weapons used to kill people, but is disgusted with the sugar
industry?
~~~
pimmen
I think he produces ceramic plates for body armor, but he could very well be
making weapons too. Either way, he profits off of war.
So, yes, he sees the sugar industry as worse and as something without any sort
of utility. Militaries bring security and are necessary, at least in his view,
and thus he sees them as a net benefit. Personally, as a software developer, I
would not build software for the military especially not anything based off of
machine learning because it would be against _my_ ethics, and I think that was
his point too; don’t ape his morals, but do at least think whatever you choose
to do through.
------
kaffeemitsahne
Just ban all ads and be done with it. Really don't understand why it's taking
us (collectively) so long to get there.
~~~
easytiger
The site you are commenting on is effectively an Ad for yc. Should that be
banned?
~~~
blub
It's not "effectively" an ad for anything, it's a discussion forum. The fact
that it _also_ offers some publicity to YC's business is an additional aspect,
but not the main one.
~~~
easytiger
It's an "ad" in as much as anything. Not to mention it sells job advertisement
space. It brings goodwill to the brand. A core tennant of advertising.
Such a weak minded assertion as "ban all advertising" without considering how
that impacts freedom of speech is unbelievable.
------
Uhuhreally
I would like to see a ban on all ads. I am sick of them. I resent with all my
heart that wherever I go I'm bombared with propaganda for products. Nobody
should have the right to hijack other peoples attention.
~~~
dennisgorelik
Banning all ads is wrong. Ads help promoting good products and services. If
you ban all ads -- less people will be using good products and services, and
that will make our economy less effective.
~~~
blub
"If you ban all ads -- less people will be using good products and services,
and that will make our economy less effective."
That's a strange conclusion, since all products, including terrible ones are
advertised. In fact ads are essentially content-free and don't help people
decide if a product is good or not. They have zero correlation with the
quality of a product.
Some countries like France and Germany have independent organizations that buy
almost anything that one can think of, test it and make a list of quality
products. _That_ ensures people buy good products and services.
You've made me see once again that ads are essentially worthless for
individuals.
~~~
em-bee
but they also allow the advertisers to use the test results in their ads. and
that's effective. if i see a test-result in an ad i do pay attention (if i am
in the market for that kind of product)
~~~
blub
That would work just as well if they print the results on the packaging (which
they do).
------
greggman2
In 2010-11 Singapore there used to be close to zero non-sugary drinks at
convenience stores. Even all the teas used to be sweet. Lately they started
carrying Japanese brands of non-sweetened tea but for a while if you wanted
non-sweet tea you had to make it yourself. Which of course is probably better
for the planet but if you're just out and about and wanted a drink from a 7/11
your options were pretty slim.
The big thing lately in Singapore, Tokyo, Malaysia is "brown sugar milk tea".
I think it's hit NYC and LA but basically you take a tapoica milk tea but
before you put the milk and tea in you coat the sides of the plastic cup with
brown sugar syrup. Then, instead of the old tea + milk it's now like tea +
cream and far more cream than tea such that it's more like sweetened tea
flavored milk than milk flavored tea.
Search for "Tiger Sugar" for I guess the brand the started the new style?
[https://www.google.com/search?safe=active&q=tiger+sugar&tbm=...](https://www.google.com/search?safe=active&q=tiger+sugar&tbm=isch)
There are apparently the equivilant of 20 teaspoons of sugar in 1 drink.
Compare to 330ml of Coke which is about 7 teaspoons of sugar. The Malaysian
government put out a warning as they got super popular.
[https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2019/07/25/health-
mi...](https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2019/07/25/health-ministry-
urges-malaysians-to-shun-sickly-sweet-bubble-tea/1774661)
I'm curious why now in Tokyo. Tapioca Milk Tea was popular in Taiwan in the
90s and made it Los Angeles in the late 90s early 2000s. People tried for
years to bring it to Japan and I was told it was too sweet for Japanese
tastes. But, now it's even sweeter and has some how exploded in popularity to
a ridiculous level. It's like every spare store front has started selling.
~~~
ValentineC
> _Tapioca Milk Tea was popular in Taiwan in the 90s and made it Los Angeles
> in the late 90s early 2000s. People tried for years to bring it to Japan and
> I was told it was too sweet for Japanese tastes. But, now it 's even sweeter
> and has some how exploded in popularity to a ridiculous level._
I believe it was around 2011 that the more premium bubble tea vendors in
Singapore started offering a choice of how much syrup to add to one's drink
(Koi Cafe, which may or may not have originated from Taiwan, might have
started this trend).
I'm surprised that this particular service hasn't made its way to Japan.
~~~
greggman2
Koi Cafe and Tiger Sugar are both in Tokyo now as are about 40 other brands,
all within the last year or so.
------
jingfire
Bravo for Singapore govs! Instead of relying on people not digesting too much
sugars, they make the policy surveyed on people to discourage the sugar
access, reducing the diabetes risks.
------
aussieguy1234
I'd go further than this. Here in Australia, cigarette packets are forced to
use bland, non branded packaging. It should be the same for these drinks.
They'll be less attractive if they all look the same.
~~~
ImaCake
I think we are many many years away from the plain packaging dream. Cigarettes
were first plain packaged in 2012 in Australia[0], but doctors and researchers
have been drawing links between tobacco and disease pretty much as long as
we've had epidemiological tools available to do so [1].
0\.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain_tobacco_packaging](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain_tobacco_packaging)
1\.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_effects_of_tobacco#Hist...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_effects_of_tobacco#History)
------
karmakaze
By only targeting sugar, Singapore will become the test area for what happens
when a population converts to artificial sweeteners.
I'm both curious and afraid for the results to come in.
~~~
therealdrag0
Don't we have stable populations of people consuming artificial sweeteners for
like 50 years now?
------
NoPicklez
I think this would be great to actually demonstrate what drinks are actually
"sugary" and I mean it against drinks that market themselves to be healthy but
are very high in sugar
------
xhruso00
Singapore goes opposite direction as most countries. Personally I think sugar
tax is way powerful. Those money can be used to educate people. Banning ads is
not going to educate people.
~~~
greggman2
Does it work? I think I'm mostly for the ban but as for a tax... Alcohol is 4x
the price in SG vs the USA because of taxes. Has that lowered the percentage
of drinkers? SG also has a high tax on cigarettes I believe and they have
those really disgusting images of disfigured people from smoking issues on
every package yet I believe smoking is growing in SG (please correct me if I'm
wrong).
I'd prefer a world where people choose to smoke less and eat healthier. I'm
curious what methods are most effective. I believe it was going lower in the
USA for a while but then blew up again with vaping? And you only have to visit
almost any place in the USA to see we're failing at convincing people to eat
healthy.
~~~
ValentineC
> _Alcohol is 4x the price in SG vs the USA because of taxes. Has that lowered
> the percentage of drinkers? SG also has a high tax on cigarettes I believe
> and they have those really disgusting images of disfigured people from
> smoking issues on every package yet I believe smoking is growing in SG
> (please correct me if I 'm wrong)._
Singaporean here. I can get my $2 beers and $12 bottles of wine at the
supermarket, so alcohol isn't that expensive. On the other hand, drinking at a
restaurant or bar is expensive, but moreso because rent in Singapore is crazy.
I'm not sure about the smoking rates, but I reckon that it has gone down among
the younger generation because there's so much else to spend their money on
these days — and smoking was recently banned on Orchard Road, which is the
main shopping district.
------
mellosouls
I'm not opposed to this but it strikes me as somewhat weak - if you think
something is bad enough to ban visibility of it, why not just go all the way
and ban the thing itself. Same with smoking, alcohol, etc.
Of course, prohibition doesn't have a terribly successful history but the
whole approach seems odd and inconsistent to me.
I guess the rationale is a pragmatic de-normalising of toxic and addictive but
currently fully normalised foods and substances over the long term.
~~~
scarmig
Banning advertising here just restricts the freedom of corporations. Banning
the item itself means individuals who want it can't get it.
~~~
mellosouls
And corporations can't vote .. :)
~~~
BubRoss
Corporations are a centralization of power that has obligations to money above
all else.
Also if you give me the choice between being able to vote and being to to hire
a lobbying firm, I know which would have more influence.
~~~
anticensor
Would you admit the corporation one vote or as many votes as total number of
shares divided by number of shares held by smallest shareholder?
~~~
BubRoss
Is this a serious question? Are you talking about voting for politicians?
Anyone can start as many corporations as they want.
Also corporations have roughly 100 million shares and anyone can buy a single
share, so your formula would give one corporation more votes than the number
of people who participated in the 2016 US election.
Do you really think corporations are under represented in the political
process?
~~~
anticensor
I wanted to illustrate sillyness of the idea. Partners of a corporation are
already represented, no need to represent the whole partnership.
~~~
BubRoss
That seems like a rehash of what I was already saying, I'm not sure what point
you are trying to make.
------
eikenberry
I'm curious if they already have bans on adds for candy? It seems like if you
are going to ban ads for one kind of candy, you'd ban them for all.
~~~
Marsymars
By most objective determinations of what is "candy", "cereal" such as Froot
Loops would qualify.
(And I'm fully down for banning ads for candy cereal.)
------
tus88
Why not do something that might actually work, like ban the sale of high-sugar
carbonated drinks?
~~~
lemmsjid
Banning products that a sub-population of people are effectively addicted to
has a long, multi-instance history of not working and instead contributing to
crime (see various drug prohibitions). A product being banned can actually be
a form of advertising (or at least production of demand) by suggesting it is
risky, cool, or potent in some way.
On the other hand, banning advertising for a category of products, or
restricting the advertising to fact-based, or forcing risk factor inclusion,
can help produce or accelerate cultural shifts that reduce the demand for the
product.
~~~
tus88
Banning the sale of != banning the thing itself.
If the goal was a massive reduction, not total elimination, I think it would
work.
Would many people really go to the black market to get sugary Coke when the
supermarket has shelves of Diet Coke available?
~~~
lemmsjid
Ah, I see what you're saying, thanks!
------
bad_user
I would agree with banning any ads for children under 18 years old, b/c they
get bombarded with ads for junk food on all media channels. Plus I would agree
with media campaigns teaching people that sugary drinks are a leading cause of
obesity.
But I disagree with banning ads on sugary drinks specifically because I am
increasingly concerned about recommending, taxing or banning foods based on
weak scientific evidence and politicians are too quick to pull the trigger in
favor of industries that donate money for their political campaigns.
First of all the evidence that sugar directly causes T2 diabetes is weak [1],
even if there is an association between sugary drinks and metabolic syndrome,
see for example:
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17646581](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17646581)
You can associate sugar or fat or meat consumption with an increased risk for
T2 diabetes, but fact of the matter is that it all comes down to calories, T2
diabetes having an _energy excess_ as the cause and the available evidence for
that is pretty solid [3]. When energy excess happens, all markers will start
indicating problems, your blood glucose, triglycerides, LDL, etc, all of them
going up.
People like to focus on one macro-nutrient, or another and it is true that
they aren't the same ... for example fructose might give you non-alcoholic
fatty liver disease before glucose or saturated fat are able to. But only when
consumed in excess, only when it's not burned for energy and the liver's
glycogen stores are full, only then fructose starts to become a problem. And
if you eat a lot in excess, it doesn't really matter what you eat, as you will
get a non-alcoholic fatty liver.
Going back to sugary drinks ... the reason for why I agree with banning ads
for children and teaching people that sugary drinks are toxic is because it
has been shown in studies that sugary drinks are not satiating at all and will
make people overeat. This has been seen in other foods as well, what
researchers have called the "cafeteria diet" [2]. The more processed a food
is, the less proteins or nutrients it has, the less satiating it is. And
sugary drinks are among the worst.
But this isn't related to sugar, but to foods high in calories, low in
nutrients and that make people overeat. Unfortunately because the "calories
in, calories out" model appears to introduce "personal responsibility" into
the mix, people are too eager to embrace other models, like the carbohydrate-
insulin theory (CIM), which for now is a work of fiction [3].
The "calories in, calories out" model doesn't have to blame the victim
however. The modern food environment is indeed more obesogenic and this can be
explained with the effect of highly caloric, ultra-processed foods on our
satiety signals, i.e. the main problem is in the brain, the more processed a
food is, the more it induces drug-seeking behavior.
So why stop at sugary drinks? What about ice cream or donuts? What about white
bread? What about deep fried stuff? Plenty of foods are super high in sugars
or fat or a combination, with near zero nutrients.
[1] [https://annals.org/aim/fullarticle/2593601/scientific-
basis-...](https://annals.org/aim/fullarticle/2593601/scientific-basis-
guideline-recommendations-sugar-intake-systematic-review)
[2] [https://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2011/09/humans-on-
caf...](https://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2011/09/humans-on-cafeteria-
diet.html)
[3] [http://www.stephanguyenet.com/references-for-my-debate-
with-...](http://www.stephanguyenet.com/references-for-my-debate-with-gary-
taubes-on-the-joe-rogan-experience/)
~~~
kgwgk
Food consumption is a leading cause of obesity so maybe all the food,
beverages and restaurants ads should be banned.
~~~
yifanl
Why would food or drinks need advertisement? These are products that have
literally infinite demand, nobody can live without them.
~~~
kgwgk
Demand for food is not infinite (maybe the word you were looking for was
inelastic?). And even if you don’t need ads to create demand for “food” that
is a broad category with many competing products from many competing
providers.
~~~
bad_user
Interestingly the food industry has perverse incentives ... because humans
have a maximum limit of food eaten during the day, big companies like Coca
Cola can only grow by encouraging people to eat more.
Since the more people eat, the more they spend on food, the more revenue
generated.
Therefore food companies are incentivized to produce highly palatable food
that trick the brain into overeating. One common strategy is to combine sugar
with fat (think donuts), bonus points if it has caffeine too (chocolate with
milk). Such combinations are not very natural. You won't find in nature foods
that are high in both sugar and fat. And this kind of processing matters.
Think of the difference between cocoa leaves and crack cocaine.
And now that we have an obesity problem, the same companies also sell products
for diabetics, or diet products with "zero calories" that are highly processed
and may contain substances that are damaging to our gut or general health.
It's very profitable to create a problem and then to provide the solution too.
And unfortunately you won't see ads for whole foods.
But you will see whole foods vilified periodically (e.g. starchy plants, meat,
etc), with ingenuous food companies jumping to the rescue with highly
processed stuff. The ongoing race for "fake meat" makes me cringe.
~~~
kgwgk
> And unfortunately you won't see ads for whole foods.
“Whole Foods” does definitely run ads :—)
------
exabrial
How adout we stop arresting non violent offenders? Then I'll be impressed.
This is fake crap news and hn upvoters should be ashamed of themselves.
Furthermore, in Seattle, the sugar tax doesn't apply to the home town hero,
further sealing their monopoly as they hand wave through social issues.
------
qwerty456127
They should also penalize gluten-containing products (and that's not just
foods, e.g. shampoo may contain gluten too). Google zonulin, leaky gut, wheat
belly and microbiome diet to find out why.
~~~
jedimastert
I get that you're being sarcastic, but can you expound on why? This isn't a
ban on the sale of sugary drinks, just the advertisement of such.
~~~
qwerty456127
I believe (given the information you can find by googling the subjects I've
listed, it is scientifically-backed in reasonable degree, you will find
references to scientific papers in the books too) gluten is the second if not
the first cause of the obesity epidemic.
TL/DR: besides being very bad for people with genuine celiac disease gluten
(via zonulin) disregulates intestinal wall tight junctions in generally
healthy people causing systematic inflammation, immune system problems
(including weak immunity, allergies and autoimmune diseases) and metabolic
syndrome (which means obesity and increased risk of diabetes as well as
cardiovascular and endocrine diseases). Meanwhile, you can find gluten
everywhere, not only in wheat products. Added gluten increases groceries and
cosmetics shelf life.
If I were the one in charge I would order more thorough research and consider
ban on advertisements for both sugary and gluten-rich foods + additional
taxation on these goods sales.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Smartly discover your perfect match. No mindless swiping. – Cinder - CinderAmour
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Best Regards,
Cinder
https://cinder-ella.herokuapp.com
======
qnsi
Pretty crowded space. What are your plans with getting initial users?
Also, you can post with title starting with Show HN: to better showcase
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Bad SSL - jaytaylor
https://badssl.com
======
jaytaylor
Src code:
[https://github.com/lgarron/badssl.com](https://github.com/lgarron/badssl.com)
Credit to moviuro for sharing @
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10186516](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10186516)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
China Bans Livestreaming - owens99
http://mashable.com/2017/06/23/china-bans-livestreaming/?from=groupmessage#ieH.shUHUqqR
======
Animats
Better coverage from the South China Morning Post.[1] (SCMP, which is based in
Hong Kong, isn't as independent as it used to be be, but they do have actual
reporters gathering news.)
Censorship requirements for live streaming in China have been in effect since
2008, and were tightened up in November 2016, with new regulations issued.[2]
Now, apparently, three sites not in compliance have been told to shut down
streaming. Sites are supposed to have licenses and in-house censorship staffs.
Over at People's Daily, we can read the party line.[3] _" A documentary
program promoted by the Finance Channel of CCTV has recently attracted public
attention for encouraging ordinary people to plan and produce their own films.
Amateur filmmakers can choose from a wide range of topics related to China’s
achievements in recent years - for instance, the 4G telecommunications tower
installed on a cliff, the Shanghai-Kunming high speed rail that has shortened
travel time between the two cities to 10 hours, and artificial intelligence.
Once the videos are shot and selected, they will be played on a number of TV
programs, and will also be promoted by a dozen online video platforms."_ So
that's what good Chinese citizens are supposed to be doing.
China's approach to censorship is not leakproof, but is effective. There's a
combination of subtle pressure and explicit control. Once something becomes
big enough to get attention, something is done about it.
[1] [http://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-
politics/article/209...](http://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-
politics/article/2099761/chinese-online-video-programmes-told-get-licence-or)
[2] [http://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-
politics/article/204...](http://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-
politics/article/2043012/chinas-internet-regulator-tightens-restrictions-live)
[3]
[http://en.people.cn/n3/2017/0623/c90000-9232613.html](http://en.people.cn/n3/2017/0623/c90000-9232613.html)
------
btw0
I have been running a live streaming app here in China for two years.
The title of this gets so wrong - China did not ban livestreaming. Yes, the
regulation of livestreaming services gets very very tight recently, we have
been fined due to inappropriate content.
The website mentioned in the article like Weibo, AcFun are not about
livestreaming, they're YouTube-like video sites. You need special license to
run YouTube-like video sites, just the license is almost impossible to apply
for non state-run company. There are only 500 something licenses ever issued,
you need to acquire a company that have the license, surely the price is
extremely high due to scarcity.
~~~
Ajedi32
I'm confused. So are you saying China is banning Weibo, iFeng, and ACFUN from
displaying videos (But not from livestreaming, since those sites don't do
livestreams?) since they don't have a license?
The article says:
> On Thursday, the government ordered Weibo, iFeng and ACFUN to stop all its
> video and audio streaming services, according to an FT report.
~~~
btw0
Government ordered Weibo, iFent and AcFun to 关停上述网站上的视听节目服务 stop the video and
audio programme service because of not having license [1].
So what's video and audio programme? It has a definition, but in practice it
has to be interpreted some way. That's why regulation can GET tight sometimes.
China is complicated.
[1]
[http://www.sapprft.gov.cn/sapprft/contents/6588/338032.shtml](http://www.sapprft.gov.cn/sapprft/contents/6588/338032.shtml)
~~~
Ajedi32
I'm still not sure I understand. Maybe something is being lost in translation
here, but I don't see how you'd interpret, "audio and visual programing" in a
way that doesn't include livestreaming.
Are Weibo, iFeng, and ACFUN popular sites in China for livestreaming or
sharing videos? I know if a western government ordered YouTube, Twitch, and
Facebook to "stop their video and audio program service" in their country that
could most definitely be interpreted as a ban on livestreaming (or even on all
forms of streaming in general), even if the ban didn't include smaller sites
like Vimeo or Periscope.
~~~
netheril96
First of all, it is not a complete ban. It is a very strict requirement of
license.
Second of all, live streaming is definitely censored in the same way. But the
sites mentioned, Weibo, iFeng, and ACFUN, have no live streaming service, only
(what is the word for not live?) streaming service.
~~~
Sharparam
On-demand streaming?
------
hd4
"As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century, free flow of
information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people
whose leaders at last lose their grip on information flow will soon burst with
freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on
public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who
would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your
master" \- Pravin Lal, Alpha Centauri.
The difference here being that the CCP don't only dream themselves the masters
of the Chinese people.
~~~
rm_-rf_slash
Historically, China wants what is good for China, and the rest of the world
may as well be a sideshow. If being a global leader and running global
industries is what it takes for China to remain stable and controllable by the
Comminist Party, then that's how they'll go.
China simply does not have the consistent history of far-reaching imperialism
that other historic empires like Britain or America have. There is also an
absence of an enlightened ideology of imperialism, which the aforementioned
British and American empires used to justify mass conquest and genocide.
Compared to British/American conquests and subversion in East Asia, Latin
America, the Middle East, and so on, the far out (from the rich
coast/interior) Chinese provinces of Tibet and Xinjiang are practically in
China's back yard.
~~~
Nomentatus
Everybody was already Han and Han-dominated thousands of years ago? Really?
Tibet was never invaded in the fifties? Cool! There never was an attempted
invasion of Japan, foiled by disastrous weather? Wow. This is a whole
alternative reality. Fact is, China's history is very similar to everyone
else's history.
~~~
thaumasiotes
There was never an attempted invasion of Japan by the Han. Nor was there an
invasion of Tibet.
Tibet, and Xinjiang, were invaded by the Manchus (who ruled China as the Qing
dynasty at the same time they ruled several other jurisdictions under
different names. Everything was later relabeled "China" as essentially an
accounting gimmick).
Japan was invaded by the Mongols (who, similarly, ruled China as the Yuan
dynasty).
Han aggression has been pretty much limited to Vietnam (and ineffective
there). Blaming China for the invasion of Tibet is slightly less ridiculous
than blaming Nazi-occupied France for the invasion of Poland.
~~~
kgwgk
I don't get the last analogy. Blaming Nazi-occupied France for the invasion of
Poland in September 1939 is quite ridiculous, given that France was occupied
in June 1940. I don't know much about the China/Nepal case, but a quick google
search got me
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Chamdo](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Chamdo)
~~~
thaumasiotes
Yes, the chronology of that analogy is wrong, which is why I said that claim
would be slightly _more_ ridiculous. But the agency part of it is correct. The
Manchus had no more interest in Chinese opinions of what they should and
shouldn't attack than the Germans had in French opinions.
~~~
kgwgk
Did the Manchus invaded Tibet in 1950?
------
Maven911
I am wondering how they plan to perform this ban, what protocols/how do they
detect all forms of livestreaming ? Or will this be a ban on specific services
(Fb, snapchat etc.)
~~~
anonnyj
At least if behavior continues as previously, they'll only bother to ban
sufficiently popular sites/services.
------
agumonkey
Still thinking about whether or not they should ban inhabitants too. So
difficult.
------
louithethrid
Actually, this is quite a nice way to tech-bomb a totalitarian economy- have
some near suicidal or well hidden dissenters using soon to be important tech
and watch the censor-ship department sabotage the countrys economy.
Highly cynical view-point, but hey, if it hurts, why not use it?
------
justicezyx
This is ridiculous. The incapability and bluntness of Chinese government shows
its true color...
------
yladiz
What's the policy on wholly paywalled content if it's the primary source? The
article is light on some the facts presented in the FT article (like revenue
stats, and the fact that Weibo's market cap dropped by $1B after the ban), and
other than mentioning Papi Jiang, it's really just the FT article reworded.
However, the FT article is completely behind a paywall, although it's
accessible from a Google search.
The main reason I'm asking is that while I think the FT article is
substantially better, it is behind a paywall, while the Mashable article
isn't, so neither are ideal.
Article:
[https://www.ft.com/content/8a06dd5e-5752-11e7-9fed-c19e27000...](https://www.ft.com/content/8a06dd5e-5752-11e7-9fed-c19e2700005f?mhq5j=e1)
------
droopyEyelids
How much does the industrial scale subornment of children into quasi
prostitution affect this decision?
The whole "live streaming plus tips" model turns my stomach and I was
disgusted to see Apple give its imprimatur the other week.
For anyone that isn't familiar with what happens on these platforms (Snapchat
Facebook and FaceTime iMessage once apple institutes payments): a streamer
broadcasts herself, and People from the Internet "tip" her when she does
something they like. It's beyond terrifying to find out someone you love
stumbled onto this system.
~~~
pavlov
Mores change.
A few hundred years ago, most shops did not display their goods. It would have
been considered crass to keep wares in sight when customers didn't ask for it,
and outright crazy to let customers look and touch at items without
supervision.
The department store was a 19th century innovation that let people (women,
mostly) browse and shop without pressure. It was widely considered immoral at
the time. Emile Zola wrote a great novel about it:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Au_Bonheur_des_Dames](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Au_Bonheur_des_Dames)
Getting tips from Internet viewers is shocking in the same way as a woman
visiting a department store on her own.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Simple Unix tools in Haskell - gurraman
http://haskell.org/haskellwiki/Simple_unix_tools
======
dfc
For all those times when you don't have coreutils installed but you have
ghc6/ghc7 installed.
~~~
dons
Stay prepared!
------
gabebw
This is actually pretty helpful, in that my approach to programming in a new
language is "Try to do X with the new language, and if I can't, read the docs
until I can." That is, I try to actually DO something, and gather incidental
knowledge along the way.
This is a really good post on how to do something useful with Haskell (plus it
has IO, which is nice). One of the nice things about this approach is that the
incidental knowledge can be useful, e.g. I didn't know about the "-e" flag to
GHC.
~~~
DasIch
Most of these things are basically just aliases, partial applications and/or
compositions. It shows off how powerful Haskell is and it is impressive but
that's pretty much it.
I'd much rather see how you tweet something from Haskell, parse a
configuration file with a simple syntax or something else along those lines.
~~~
dons
That's OK!
* <http://hackage.haskell.org/package/twidge> * <http://hackage.haskell.org/package/ConfigFile> * <http://hackage.haskell.org/package/EEConfig> * <http://hackage.haskell.org/package/dyre>
------
ajross
Looks like the tail implementation is O(N) in the size of the file. Real tools
aren't (for large N anyway), and as this is a basically iterative algorithm
(guess at a suffix size, read, count, adjust) it seems like it might have been
more instructive here to do it right instead of doing it pretty.
~~~
jerf
These _aren't_ "real". They're "simple". It's right there in the title. You're
suggesting making it a good five or ten times more complicated, and you'll
still be left with problems like how not a single one of the other things
there is "real" even after you've fixed tail. I'm not even sure why you chose
that one in particular to focus on when grep is useless, tr only allows on
substitution, uniq is bounded by memory... but the point is they are simple.
~~~
dons
It exposes a lot of the beautiful fundamentals of _Unix_ when presented like
this.
~~~
jerf
To be clear, I think this is good stuff. It's OK for a thing to be what it is;
it doesn't have to be something else.
Hmmm... I mean that somewhat less vacuously than English is rendering it.
------
nimrody
Shouldn't they be using Data.ByteString instead of the standard Haskell
string?
Otherwise any newbie running this code will come back crying: "it's slower
than my simple python implementation" (not to mention the standard GNU tools).
~~~
pjscott
The goal here is simplicity, above all else. (I would recommend
Data.ByteString.Lazy, though, if you're interested in processing potentially
large files without running out of memory.)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
D.O.J. Loses Lindsey Graham in Encryption Fight - jeo1234
https://www.districtsentinel.com/doj-loses-lindsey-graham-encryption-fight/
======
100pctremote
The article suggests Graham's views on "digital privacy" are evolving, yet his
opposition seems to have little to do with the issue of privacy.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Undersea Data Cables (documentaries, resources) - iwwr
Looking at the world's growing submarine cable infrastructure:<p>http://eu-ix.equinix.com/joomladev/images/repository/Equinix_TGMap_MTS_15.pdf<p>I can't help but wonder if there have been any documentaries or pop-sci articles about this.<p>Some places like the Mediterranean or South China sea must be crawling with data cables of all sorts. What's it like to operate a cable laying/repair fleet?
======
iwwr
Clickable map link: [http://eu-
ix.equinix.com/joomladev/images/repository/Equinix...](http://eu-
ix.equinix.com/joomladev/images/repository/Equinix_TGMap_MTS_15.pdf)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Instagram's Buyout: No Bubble to See Here - apress
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2012/04/opinion-baio-instagram-trend/all/1
======
apress
Some actual data to assess. By several measures, Instagram no more expensive
than 30-odd other similar acquisitions, some of which worked out great
(Paypal, YouTube, Mint.com), others not so much (cough -- Broadcast.com --
cough).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Create your own Trump animation - 100-xyz
https://toonclip.com/editor3?key1=5610c2d35a
======
100-xyz
Sorry the correct link is. Not sure how to change the submission now.
[https://toonclip.com/fork?key1=5610c2d35a](https://toonclip.com/fork?key1=5610c2d35a)
------
100-xyz
Not sure, if this is acceptable here. Mods if not, feel free to delete.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
From models of galaxies to atoms, simple AI shortcuts speed up simulations - DarkContinent
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/02/models-galaxies-atoms-simple-ai-shortcuts-speed-simulations-billions-times
======
dukoid
For some reason this reminds me of the famous xerox copier where the
compression algorithm would swap out digits:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6156238](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6156238)
------
choeger
I doubt it.
Simulations based on PDEs, ODEs, or DAEs have a particular mathematical
foundation. Within the bounds of their solvers, they deliver precise results
and can actually _forecast_ physical behavior.
If such an "emulator" is much better in many cases but completely wrong in
just one, it is basically useless, as presumably the verification of a
solution takes as long as a classical simulation.
~~~
siver_john
The problem with that assumption is that while those solvers are based on a
mathematical foundation (though I'd argue that some NN based simulations are
too some papers out of Weinan E's lab at Princeton having some decent math to
an untrained eye), the parameters that are fed into those are often just fit
to some experimental data. And are often only verified in a heuristic manner.
So while a neural net based simulator may not be transferable in the same way
as a more general simulation engine (though depending on how you write them
even they generally have limits), it may be fine in a certain domain which you
can show by just checking how well it fits to certain experimental data you
already have in existence.
~~~
whatshisface
This creates a very serious issue for epistemic leakage. If the sim is
verified based on human eye heuristics, then it will be possible and very
tempting to accidentally make the neural net satisfy those heuristics
specifically. Then, scientists may use the heuristics to validate the results
of a neural net designed specifically to pass their eye test, thinking that
they are kicking the tires while in reality they are learning nothing.
~~~
siver_john
Disclaimer, I am more referencing classical molecular dynamics in the atomic
region. And what I am envisioning this type of thing for is not dependent on
the mathematical model per se. So specifically my point is towards say GROMACS
(or a similar MD simulation engine) where the force fields generally used for
that are parameterized for biological/organic systems. Let's say we train our
neural network on data fitting to lipids. So maybe a bunch of random data on
lipids like their melting temperature, surface temperature, etc. Then we run
the neural network simulator to model how these things form into larger
structures (something that is for the most part impossible with current all
atom approaches). And then we study that data to make an assessment on how
certain structures can form etc.
Now if you are aware of the field, what I just described was (ignoring I do
not remember the exact fitting data) the parameterization process of the
MARTINI force field which is sufficiently good at lipids, kind of okay at
proteins, and pretty bad at everything else. But within the bounds that you
know the weakness of the system you can still use it to figure out
experimental data. (Also as an aside MARTINI only got access to proteins and
other things later on, thankfully force fields improve over time.)
------
Fomite
Interestingly, my lab has been working in emulators for one of our simulation
models, and we're _really_ struggling to make meaningful improvements.
It's faster, but we're not there yet on accuracy.
------
fxtentacle
"When they were turbocharged with specialized graphical processing chips, they
were between about 100,000 and 2 billion times faster than their simulations."
Now the critical question is: How much faster is it without AI, just because
of the specialized dedicated processing chips?
Otherwise, they might be comparing a single virtualized CPU core against a
high-end GPU for things like matrix multiplication ... and then the result
that GPU > slow CPU isn't really that impressive.
~~~
allovernow
>Now the critical question is: How much faster is it without AI, just because
of the specialized dedicated processing chips?
Based on similar work we are doing at the startup I work for, this isn't just
GPU magic. ML is a heuristic alternative to simulations which already operate
on specialized GPUs and TPUs. This modeling acceleration is one of the many
ways in which ML is poised to change everything.
The same way that a human can, for instance, approximately draw iso-
temperature lines around a candle flame, without having to perform
simulations...except the neural net is some 99%+ as accurate and detailed as a
full simulation. That's exactly why neural nets excel - they learn complex
heuristics much like humans do, but with the added power of digitized
computation and memory.
~~~
tomp
Don't most really complex physical calculations / simulations (e.g. weather,
planetary movements etc.) involve chaotic interactions? So an NN being 99%
correct will still result in "catastrophic" differences down the line?
~~~
whatshisface
So will quantization error when you grid your conventional sim. If you can
make your cells and timesteps smaller with the NN than without, the loss in
accuracy in one place could be compensated by the gain elsewhere. The only
issue is, good luck with developing a formal theory of error propagation
through your trained network that is faster to compute than the conventional
sim itself. Sometimes you care about strict formal guarantees about sim error
and other times you don't.
------
willis936
I was at a talk last week where the speaker spent a little bit of time on
using machine learning on a regression matrix that is trained by the results
of a simulation. The simulation and variables in the regression matrix were
chosen such that the AI could recreate an approximation of a known physical
law. This is fairly exciting to me because if used to recreate a lot of laws
in this field, it could then be used on experimental data to untangle some of
the mess and identify the relationships for us. I could see this speeding
along development of science.
------
aimoderate
> It randomly inserts layers of computation between the networks’ input and
> output, and tests and trains the resulting wiring with the limited data. If
> an added layer enhances performance, it’s more likely to be included in
> future variations.
Sounds a lot like genetic algorithms but with neural networks. I suspect we'll
see more of this as people figure out how to run the search over neural
network architectures that fit their own domains. Convolutions and
transformers are great and all but we might as well let the computers do the
search and optimization as well instead of waiting on human insights for
stacking functions.
------
joe_the_user
The underlying paper was previously discussed on hn here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22132867](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22132867)
Note: The published paper is titled "Up to 2B times acceleration of scientific
simulations with deep neural search", which can raise some hackles, including
mine. Doesn't _prove_ anything but still.
------
RoboTeddy
Here's a potential way to use adversarial techniques to generate training
examples that could improve the accuracy of this approach:
[https://twitter.com/RoboTeddy/status/1228828411050655744](https://twitter.com/RoboTeddy/status/1228828411050655744)
------
chewxy
Who'd think compression works so well?
(yes, neural networks are compression engines)
~~~
tanilama
Compression in your context is as meaningless as Generalization.
Yes, you can say generalization is compression.
~~~
fxtentacle
Except that "generalization" implies that it works for previously unseen
problems, which is usually not the case for AI.
Compression, on the other hand, nicely captures the "learn and reproduce"
approach that using AI entails.
~~~
tanilama
Unseen problems is a ill defined term. There is a distinction between in
domain and out of domain, both can be unseen by the model before.
Even human as agent requires training before being deployed to unseen
problems. Generalization is conditioned on experience, after all.
AI generalizes to unseen in domain data given a specific task. That is why it
is useful in the first place.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How I built my own browser - skilled
https://kilianvalkhof.com/2020/design/how-i-built-my-own-browser/
======
kragen
"How I built my own browser, starting with nothing but a browser"
Next up: how I painted my own Impressionist masterpiece, starting with nothing
but a high-resolution camera, access to a museum, and an inkjet printer; how I
wrote my own operating system, starting with nothing but Linux (ahem,
[https://gitlab.com/kragen/bubbleos](https://gitlab.com/kragen/bubbleos)
doesn't have a kernel yet); how I built my own sports car, starting with
nothing but a Lamborghini.
Claiming that you've written "a new web browser" because you've stuck your own
URL bar and tabs on Blink is absurdity bordering on fraud, like claiming that
Shiva Ayyuradai "invented email", that tempered glass ovenware is "pyrex",
that physics and chemistry are "not philosophy", that submicron gold particles
are "nanotechnology", or that Ayn Rand is "a philosopher". It's the kind of
claim that can only survive by redefining a decades-old term to mean something
much more trivial.
~~~
hombre_fatal
Doesn't seem that scathing of a criticism.
I'd consider Beaker Browser
([https://beakerbrowser.com/](https://beakerbrowser.com/)) to be its own
browser even though it's "just" an Electron app. Brave is another example:
it's "just" Chromium. Or Firefox and Chrome on iOS: just Webkit wrappers.
You can come up with your own completely novel UI on top of a browser that is
indistinguishable from "your own browser" to the end-user. Mincing words with
implementation detail just seems like a tired "well actually" HN gotcha.
~~~
kragen
Both the Beaker Browser and Brave offer new functionality that go well beyond
adding some buttons.
> _You can come up with your own completely novel UI on top of a browser_
Not if it's Blink or WebKit; they want to draw stuff with pixel-perfect
control.
> _that is indistinguishable from "your own browser" to the end-user_
In
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22359642](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22359642)
I list 10–12 ways that even Beaker or Brave are distinguishable from "your own
browser".
~~~
sli
> Both the Beaker Browser and Brave offer new functionality that go well
> beyond adding some buttons.
In what way does the browser in the article not offer new functionality? The
entire reason it exists is to offer functionality not found in typical
browsers.
------
ftio
The title is clearly a bit of marketing, but this is really a great piece
nonetheless.
It's not actually about building a browser. What it _is_ about is building an
MVP (perhaps unwittingly), scratching your own itch, iterating based on
feedback from early adopters, and discovering a niche where there's a lot of
value waiting to be unlocked. If only everyone approached building products
this way.
~~~
use-net
it is a horrific rip-off! nobody should spend a penny on this!
20 years ago I put a browser together with 5 clicks using Delphi and gave it
away for free, dude.
~~~
snazz
Please express your opinions more nicely. These comments don’t add to the
discussion.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)
------
iudqnolq
Interesting project, but adding UI to an electron renderer isn't building a
browser. It is difficult and beyond my current ability to do well.
~~~
cerberusss
According to Wikipedia, a browser is an "application for accessing information
on the World Wide Web (...) retrieves the necessary content from a web server
and then displays the resulting web page".
Why do you think he didn't build a browser?
~~~
thedirt0115
Probably because they think that most of the hard work that goes into building
a browser -- like parsing sloppy html, handling CSS correctly, a JS engine,
etc -- were not done by the author.
To me this feels like like getting a free cheeseburger, adding a leaf of
spinach to it, and then saying you built a cheeseburger. But hey, maybe you
want a cheeseburger with spinach, and you don't care whether other people
think they "built" the cheeseburger or not.
~~~
Isamu
>the hard work that goes into building a browser
... is a gigantic amount of work, indeed.
>like getting a free cheeseburger, adding a leaf of spinach to it
If that cheeseburger was the size of an office building, and your spinach leaf
was particularly small.
------
masukomi
Another interesting related thing is Decaf
[https://github.com/timbaloney/decaf](https://github.com/timbaloney/decaf)
It is a webkit fork (not electron) that allows you to run ruby in your
browser. Hasn't been updated in a while but it used to work.
------
warpech
A very similar product - browser for "responsive designers":
[https://sizzy.co/](https://sizzy.co/)
~~~
Nullabillity
A very similar product: iframe
------
lallysingh
A developers browser sounds like a really useful idea. The danger is in how
deep you integrate into the underlying Electron, and how stable those APIs
are.
------
adreamingsoul
Title seems misleading. Maybe "How I built a custom browser with Chromium"
------
zerr
For those who criticize for not creating an own rendering engine:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromium_(web_browser)#Browser...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromium_\(web_browser\)#Browsers_based_on_Chromium)
------
endlessvoid94
Hey Killian! Awesome project.
Unrelated: I was saddened to see on your website that Guitaryst was no longer
around! Thank you again for your early support at Djangy ;)
------
LockAndLol
And yet another browser built upon Google instead of Mozilla tech. I don't
know what their game plan is, but if it's giving way to Google in the dev
space, they're doing a mighty fine job.
------
JohnFen
Nice! I've been investigating doing something similar myself, as it's proving
very hard to find an an acceptable modern browser.
Too bad about using Electron, but I guess I understand why that choice was
made.
~~~
kodablah
I found it wasn't too hard to do with Chromium Embedded Framework + Qt [0],
but you do have to use C++ which the Op stated fear of. I am no C++ expert and
I worked through it though. I did have to reinvent stuff like ad block, auto-
completion URL bar, etc but it wasn't bad.
[0] [https://cretz.github.io/doogie/](https://cretz.github.io/doogie/)
~~~
JohnFen
Fortunately, I'm a C/C++ expert. But, to be honest, if I were OK with using
Chromium Embedded Framework, I'd just use one of the Chromium-based browsers
instead.
The renderer is the hardest part to build, so I'm looking at using an already-
established OSS one. Fortunately, I don't need anything fancy in the renderer,
so there are plenty of OSS options I can use.
------
peterkelly
It doesn't really count unless you're writing your own rendering engine.
It's like saying you built your own operating system than in reality is just
another Linux distribution.
------
olliej
Ehn, it’s making a UI around a chrome web view (well, electron).
“Making a browser” like this dates back to the early days of internet explorer
- windows provided an explorer view (I can’t recall the api name, and it was
activex!). But it was fairly close to drag and drop browser creation.
There was an old demo for WebKit where you could make a browser literally with
nothing but drag and drop (cocoa bindings made this possible).
~~~
smhenderson
While I tend to agree with your overall sentiment I'd say this is a bit more
than just a thin, dragged and dropped wrapper.
I did what you're talking about in the 90's with VB, I thought it would be
neat to have a browser with two side by side views. I was learning to write
HTML at the time and I found it useful for comparing two versions of the same
page.
I think the whole thing had less than 20 lines of code and most of the code
had nothing to do with the browser controls accept resizing them when the
window size changed.
Anyway, the headline made is sound a lot more exciting but what he's done is
still pretty cool. And I like the fact that the reason he did it was so
similar to mine, albeit he did it a lot better!
------
xacky
The fact that it is so hard to make a full browser from scratch is why we got
a Chromium monopoly. Everyone wants to be free of Chromium but no one puts up
the effort as it is easy to just embed the Blink engine. Gecko is the sole
major exception to the rule.
~~~
Lammy
I guess it isn't a "major" exception but KHTML isn't entirely dead:
[https://cgit.kde.org/kdelibs.git/log/](https://cgit.kde.org/kdelibs.git/log/)
------
ryanmcbride
I dream of new browsers not just built on chromium.
~~~
kodablah
You need to then dream of easy-to-consume foundations besides Chromium.
~~~
skykooler
I feel like this is a missed opportunity for Mozilla. Ten years ago, many new
browsers were built around the Gecko rendering engine. Today, it's so tightly
bound with Firefox that it's hard to separate out into its own thing.
~~~
BubRoss
Dependencies destroy modularity
------
use-net
What? 10 € or 40 € EVERY month just to use a browser? Are you out of your
mind?
~~~
yjftsjthsd-h
I could argue either side of that. On the one hand, I can easily believe that
that is the real cost of software. On the other hand, it's harder to justify
spending money on something when virtually all of the competition is free,
unless it's got compelling features or something else that justifies the extra
expense.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
French: The Most Productive People In The World - gusi
http://www.businessinsider.com/are-the-french-the-most-productive-people-in-the-world-2009-8
Winning is not about working hard. It's about working smart... and less.
======
forgingahead
While I enjoy a good yarn as much as the next guy, the logic doesn't follow.
GDP per capita is simply total GDP divided by the population. GDP is made up
of Consumption, Investment, Government Spending, and Net Exports. A large
porportion of any of those factors can increase GDP.
Government Spending in France, a component of GDP, was 53% in 2001
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_France#Rise_and_decl...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_France#Rise_and_decline_of_dirigisme)).
Without doing a deeper online search, it might even be higher today.
Government Spending should not be seen as a good long-term item to focus on to
increase GDP. If their metric of "Productivity" is based largely on Govt.
Spending, which it is, then that's not sustainable in the long-term, and will
change drastically in the future.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Dictionary of Obscure Startup Terms - robertjmoore
http://blog.rjmetrics.com/defined-startup-terms/
======
itafroma
This is pretty cool. A few terms that immediately came to mind but are missing
from this list as of right now are "network effects", "lifecycle email",
"CPM", and "angel". Not strictly startup related, or even all that obscure,
but there are a lot of not-strictly-startup-related-not-really-obscure terms
on the list already (API, AWS, cloud, NDA, churn rate, etc.)
------
jack-r-abbit
Looks promising. It would be interesting to know a little bit about the
history of the term. For example, the Alligator Arms one still doesn't make
sense to me. So in addition to using them in a sentence, perhaps a little bit
about why they mean that.
------
pazimzadeh
I would like to see a satirical version of this, in the vein of The Devil's
Dictionary:
[http://www.thedevilsdictionary.com/](http://www.thedevilsdictionary.com/);
------
RyanMcGreal
It looks good and works well. It's a nice touch that the user is informed that
a search term is not in the database but that the organizers have been alerted
about the term.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
AMD Takes 10.4% CPU Share from Intel in Q2 2017 - vanburen
http://wccftech.com/amd-takes-10-4-cpu-share-intel-q2-2017-largest-single-quarter-share-gain-history/
======
taspeotis
> It's important to note that because PassMark's market share data is based on
> benchmark submissions it counts actual systems in use, rather than systems
> sold.
So AMD's market share would be overstated? I don't think a lot of machines get
PassMark run on them, most would be enthusiasts or review sites benchmarking
them. Ryzen has recently gotten a _lot_ of attention. Compare that to the
relative snoozefest that is/was Kaby Lake.
Dell, HP etc. machines sold for home/business use would outnumber enthusiast
builds ... ten-to-one?
Steam's Hardware Survey [1] would be one to keep an eye on, although it hasn't
been updated for June and would probably favour Intel because of Steam's
audience: gaming benchmarks show Ryzen is competitive but in terms of highest
performance for gaming Intel has the upper hand.
[1]
[http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey](http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey)
~~~
sandworm101
Things may change at steam. ATM many/most top games are not optimized for
multiple cores, particularly the indi titles. That could change. A few updates
to unity and other tools could see Ryzen become a gaming powerhouse. I'll be
in the market for a new gaming PC in a couple months. I want to go with AMD-
Ryzen. I like the concept.
~~~
desdiv
High-end Intel chips are 8 logical cores; high-end Ryzen chips are 16 to 32
logical cores. When games becomes optimized for multiple cores, both sides
win. It's only when games are optimized for more than 8 logical cores that AMD
will start having an advantage, and AFAIK no game engine has ever been
optimized towards such a niche market (between 8 and 32 logical cores). There
will _always_ be mid-tier desktop systems and laptops with less than 8 logical
cores that could be your potential customers.
~~~
sliken
Not sure what universe you live in. But for 99% of the world the "high end" is
an i7-7700k with 4 cores/8 threads. Systems with nice parts designed for
gaming are in the $1000-$2000 range ($350 for cpu, $150 for motherboard,
$100-$200 for ram, $350-$650 for GPU, and a few $100 for the rest (SSD, case,
fans, keyboard/mouse, etc) VERY few people spend more.
AMD competes in this space with basically double the cores for the same money.
Like say the R7-1700X, same price as the i7-7700k
While 8 core intel's exist they are insanely expensive and don't typically do
even 1% better at gaming. The 16-32 core Ryzen chips don't even exist yet.
~~~
desdiv
i7-7700k is 8 logical cores. Ryzen 7 is 16 logical cores. I used the phrase
"logical core" in my comment 5 times because it is unambiguous whether as the
unqualified word "core" isn't (it could be referring to physical cores or
logical cores).
------
pella
"Mindfactory.de (Large german online store) CPU Market Share"
[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NQU0FtsxI6qrX1ioDIOK...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NQU0FtsxI6qrX1ioDIOKMiFhZ9uBVClK29tf4vYjpUk/edit?usp=drive_web)
------
faragon
AMD strategy is very ambitious: attack on desktop, workstation, and server.
Can't wait for buying a Ryzen Threadripper (workstation CPU) with up to 16
cores (32 threads), DDR4 quad-channel, and huge L3 cache.
~~~
NonEUCitizen
AMD is aiming for laptops as well:
[https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/5/18/15657480/a...](https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/5/18/15657480/amd-
ryzen-processors-laptops-apu-intel-chips-cores)
------
0xbear
I hope they converge towards the middle and stay there until ARM takes over
completely (which it will, within the next decade or so). I'm waiting for
Threadripper and for AMD to address Linux-related problems with Ryzen (GCC
crashes, general stability, etc), but we did build a couple of boxes with
Ryzen at work to benchmark and optimize software for, and they hold their own
against Intel performance wise, in spite of narrower SIMD.
~~~
cptskippy
I don't see your hope for AMD or your prediction about ARM happening.
I think it's much more likely that Intel will continue to produce backward
compatible x86 chips and start producing a variant that eschews backwards
compatibility in favor of performance by dropping legacy x86 features either
gradually or entirely.
~~~
iamnotlarry
Congratulations, cptskippy. You just predicted 2001. Intel and HP combined
lost to amd64.
This time around, Intel will have to take on more than just AMD. You think
eschewing backwards compatibility will work better this time?
~~~
yuhong
It would not be the same as IA-64. My idea would be to ditch the segment
registers and act if the segment base is always zero except FS and GS for
example, with a new way to handle interrupts etc of course. As a side note, I
am thinking that in such a proposal only up to SSE2 should be mandatory, as
these are the Intel patents most likely to expire soon. We should also choose
either SYSENTER or SYSCALL for 32-bit system calls and make it the same for
all x86 vendors (I am thinking of assuming that all OSes are 64-bit and only
running user mode programs in 32-bit).
~~~
geezerjay
If your feature wish list doesn't translate into relevant performance boosts,
you're wishing for a whole new stack of problems and challenges that buy you
nothing at all.
The parent poster was right: you just predicted 2001. Intel and HP combined
lost to amd64 because they'd bet on a redesign which failed to provide any
meaningful gains. Backward compatibility is there to avoid problems, and
nowadays it's highly unlikely that performance gains from new products will be
more than marginal.
~~~
yuhong
IA-64 had plenty of other problems which did not help either. This proposal
would make x86 more like a normal "RISC" processor instead without breaking
user mode and hopefully not even driver compatibility. Main benefit would be
to get rid of a lot of microcode for example.
~~~
geezerjay
IA-64 had its own problems, but your proposal would have its own problems as
well. Breaking backward compatibility is all about creating problems, and you
failed to point out any gain as a trade-off for all that pain. Getting rid of
microcode only causes problems for the potential clients and developers, and
for what?
~~~
0xbear
Breaking backwards compat isn’t actually such a big deal in certain cloud
applications, or for e.g. Java or Go. When you have full control of the stack,
a lot of interesting possibilities open up. The main issue is probably that
removing old crap isn’t going to save that much die area.
~~~
yuhong
In this case it would be easier because most JITs and compilers would not have
to be modified.
------
raverbashing
When the product is good and there's no anti competitive behaviour, that's
what happens
------
luord
My next computer is going to be a Ryzen so I'm glad it's doing this well.
------
KaoruAoiShiho
Basically fake news from wccftech haha. We'll see how much they sold next
earnings!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ipad based free-form shape detection - bosky101
http://www.avabodh.com/lekh
======
bosky101
Pretty impressive. interesting bits of the ipad app demo on youtube begin at
1m15secs
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvPLRRt79uo#t=1m15s>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Announcing Rust Language Server Alpha Release - steveklabnik
http://www.jonathanturner.org/2017/01/rls-alpha-release.html
======
kibwen
Rust's IDE story is starting the year off with a bang. :) It's taken me until
now to realize that the protocol is semi-standardized:
[https://github.com/Microsoft/language-server-
protocol](https://github.com/Microsoft/language-server-protocol) . Are Rust
and Typescript the only two languages with implementations of this protocol so
far? (EDIT: nevermind, found [http://langserver.org/](http://langserver.org/)
, which implies there are quite a lot of these.)
I'm also fascinated to hear that it's using _both_ Racer and rustc to provide
autocomplete. Is there any long-term plan to provide "quick and dirty" info
from the compiler itself rather than from Racer? EDIT 2: Ah, the final
paragraph addresses this. That's what I get for commenting before I'm done
reading. :P
~~~
404-universe
Are there any implementations of the language server protocol for vim or
emacs?
~~~
steveklabnik
[https://github.com/tjdevries/nvim-langserver-
shim](https://github.com/tjdevries/nvim-langserver-shim)
[https://github.com/sourcegraph/emacs-
lsp](https://github.com/sourcegraph/emacs-lsp)
(linked from the langserver page)
~~~
int_19h
As someone who had worked on language support in IDEs for the past 5 years,
it's really great that we have finally arrived to the point of getting common
protocols. IDEs have historically been very self-contained, each with its own
ecosystem, resulting in a lot of unnecessary duplication of effort. Now, at
last, we can do neat things that are immediately usable across the entire
language ecosystem at once.
Better yet, we can have language designers implement support themselves,
ideally using the same code that powers their compiler. Historically, tooling
support has been the single biggest stumbling block for new languages, no
matter how promising. This should significantly reduce the barrier to entry
for that, and make new languages more viable as a result.
The fact that it can also be used to "light up" hardcore editors like Vim and
Emacs is also a nice bonus!
~~~
josteink
> it's really great that we have finally arrived to the point of getting
> common protocol
This. Common protocols is what has helped us independently, incrementally and
exponentially make the internet more useful.
If we can (finally?) get this lesson learned down to the application level,
computing may finally start advancing conceptually once again.
Right now we've been in a rinse/repeat standstill iteration for god knows how
many years.
But I guess everyone is too busy trying to get rich building the next big
closed service to consider fundamental issues like that...
------
flukus
I really like this approach from the dotnet world but with one caveat. The
language server assumes a project layout and doesn't allow for any variation
from that. This has problems when you're generating code, say a web service
interface or some lexx/yacc source. I like these to go in my build output
(because they're build artifacts not source material), but AFAIK you can't
tell the language server to also look at these files.
Another example is when you want to share code between projects without a
seperate dll, like with a client/server model. Easy enough to do with make et
al but not with a language server.
Neither problem is insurmountable though.
~~~
demarq
While yes, it can be a pain, I love that rust makes it _hard to be a special
snowflake. It promotes everyone following set conventions and makes it easier
to grok other peoples work.
_ rust's powerful macros are an exception to this, I guess.
~~~
flukus
Is there a convention for the placement of generated code?
~~~
ekidd
Yes. Cargo supports build.rs scripts that build code into a special directory
reserved for code generation, IIRC. The cargo people generally think this sort
of thing through.
~~~
flukus
Ok, I checked it out ([http://doc.crates.io/build-
script.html](http://doc.crates.io/build-script.html))
Would have been much better if you could tell it the dependencies instead of
having to use yet another make clone (and a bad one at that) though.
~~~
ekidd
> Would have been much better if you could tell it the dependencies instead of
> having to use yet another make clone (and a bad one at that) though.
It's not intended to be used like make, with lots of shell scripts in a
Makefile.
Instead, you write all the actual build code for a given task _once_ , and
package it in a Rust crate, which can then be pulled as a build-time
dependency.
So, for example, there's a cmake crate
([https://docs.rs/cmake/0.1.20/cmake/](https://docs.rs/cmake/0.1.20/cmake/))
that handles any project using cmake. If you just have one of two glue files
written in C, you use the gcc crate ([http://alexcrichton.com/gcc-
rs/gcc/index.html](http://alexcrichton.com/gcc-rs/gcc/index.html)),
which—despite the name—can also handle other C compilers on other platforms.
And if you need to generate code for a perfect hash function, you use phf
([https://docs.rs/phf_codegen/0.7.20/phf_codegen/](https://docs.rs/phf_codegen/0.7.20/phf_codegen/)).
And so on. If you run into some other kind of common pattern across many
projects, just write and publish another crate, and call it from build.rs.
These libraries typically do a lot of work to handle things like cross-
platform compatibility.
If you already assume the programmer (1) knows Rust, and (2) might be running
on either Linux, MacOS or Windows, this sort of interface is much more
convenient than requiring them to get Makefiles and shell scripts working, and
to handle per-platform compiler invocation issues, etc.
------
the8472
> types on hover - get the type of a symbol
Does it get me the the type of closure arguments in the middle of chained
method calls? That's what I'm currently missing from other tools.
~~~
nrc
It should yes, if it doesn't then its a bug that I should fix...
------
josteink
With this general direction languages are taking with openly accessible
compiler and language services, I wonder if RMS will ever reconsider his
service-hostile approach he has forced onto GCC.
When every language and every editor supports this protocol, who's going to
want to use GCC for anything, when it's as closed (and thus relatively useful)
as a brick?
~~~
flukus
I'm not sure how the GPL effects anything here. This is a local service, not
an internet service. And the GPL doesn't cover the output of GCC at all. This
also doesn't actually produce the end binaries.
~~~
Asooka
It's not about the GPL. Historically, RMS has opposed any effort to make
intermediate outputs of GCC available (e.g. the AST, type information, or even
having a stable plugin API). On the basis that it would then be used to build
closed-source products that use GCC as a service, rather than those products
contributing to GCC. It _might_ have been prompted by earlier efforts by Apple
to make an Objective-C compiler built on GCC that isn't GPL-licensed, which
obviously ran foul of the GPL. Ironically, that's why Apple invested in clang
and why today we have the rich clang/llvm ecosystem.
~~~
flukus
Is there anything in particular it's missing? Some quick searching shows that
GCC produces a number of intermediate outputs.
~~~
AlphaSite
As I understand it, its not as bad as it once was, due to the existence of
LLVM & Clang.
------
news_to_me
How does this compare to YCMD[0]?
[0]: [https://github.com/Valloric/ycmd](https://github.com/Valloric/ycmd)
~~~
robohamburger
That uses "racer" for rust I think. It looks like Rust Language Server also
uses racer + some other stuff.
~~~
estebank
The other stuff is rustc's metadata.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Will there ever be an open OS for smart tv's? - dre85
Aside from being totally limited in most aspects, my smart tv recently announced it will be ending Skype support. I was planning on buying a webcam for it, but that clearly makes no sense anymore. I'm sure a lot of other people have though.<p>Will there ever be something like an imaginary "ubuntu tv", that I could just install and have total freedom on my tv while at the same time having a clean, user-friendly, remote-control-oriented UI?
======
smt88
What's the point of a smart TV? It's better to have a separate box, like an
Intel NUC or Raspberry Pi, that you can upgrade/swap without changing your TV
or relying on TV manufacturers' support.
Check out: [https://kodi.tv](https://kodi.tv)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Obama Wants Silicon Valley's Help to Fight Terror Online - bko
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-12-07/obama-wants-silicon-valley-s-help-as-terrorists-embrace-social
======
Albright
So Obama (and Hillary Clinton) wants tech companies to weaken encryption and
strengthen online surveillance techniques, but isn't quite saying it in so
many words, and doesn't really seem to be providing much incentive for them to
do so.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Getting to Know Python 3.7- Data Classes, Async-Await and More - joeyespo
https://blog.heroku.com/python37-dataclasses-async-await
======
abatilo
Shameless plug:
When 3.7 was first released, I created a library to use dataclasses and add
some light type validation to them. The library grew and now also supports
some basic serialization mapping.
I'd love some feedback/issues/PRs
[https://github.com/abatilo/typed-json-
dataclass](https://github.com/abatilo/typed-json-dataclass)
~~~
BerislavLopac
attrs is basically what dataclasses haven't dared to be:
[https://www.attrs.org](https://www.attrs.org)
For more context see [https://www.attrs.org/en/stable/why.html#data-
classes](https://www.attrs.org/en/stable/why.html#data-classes) and
[https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0557/#why-not-just-
use-a...](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0557/#why-not-just-use-attrs)
~~~
jgalt212
True that.
I'm not an OOP person, but to me, dataclasses seem like a solution in search
of a problem. Or, even more nefariously, it seems akin to the Clojure model,
if the core team didn't develop it, it won't be officially blessed.
I'm more than willing to hear the other side, but I've read some and watched a
few talks on dataclasses, and while their implementation is neat, I cannot
figure out how I'd used them on a regular basis.
~~~
BerislavLopac
> I'm not an OOP person, but to me, dataclasses seem like a solution in search
> of a problem.
As an OOP person, I would say that dataclasses are an incomplete solution to a
complex, multi-faceted problem, and a solution which doesn't really solve any
of those facets. It is pretty much unusable as it is; for any practical use
you need to extend it based on the specific needs of your application. But
then it makes more sense to use a more complete solution such as attrs, which
covers a much wider set of problems.
------
mark_l_watson
Nice article! I am just getting into writing my own decorators and I will
appreciate every example and docs I can find. After 30+ years of preferring
Lisp languages, I have been forced to accept Python as my main driver because
of the ecosystem for deep learning, probabilistic programming, etc. Both of
the books I am writing right now are Python books (one is general building
intelligent systems with Python, the other covers knowledge graphs and deep
learning and how they play together). Virtually all my work for the last 4
years has also used Python.
Anyway, it is rough emotionally using Lisp languages infrequently but
improvements in Python 3.7 as described in this article make it less painfull.
~~~
maayank
Any favorite non trivial paradigms in python for the functional enthusiast?
~~~
mark_l_watson
I probably write fewer class definitions than most developers, and write more
functions. Avoid global data. Not functional, but I like to write small
libraries.
------
yen223
Fun fact: contextvars are implemented as HAMTs, the same immutable maps as
found in Clojure.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
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