text
stringlengths 44
950k
| meta
dict |
|---|---|
How Google Code Search Worked: Regex Matching with a Trigram Index (2012) - kbumsik
https://swtch.com/~rsc/regexp/regexp4.html
======
ravenstine
This reminds me of a browser-side search I once wrote using a combination of
regex, Soundex, and Damerau-Levenshtein. The reason I made this browser-side
is because the app doesn't have _that_ many records that it needed to be on
the server; the records were in the hundreds to thousands, not millions.
[https://github.com/SCPR/fire-
tracker/blob/master/app/lib/sea...](https://github.com/SCPR/fire-
tracker/blob/master/app/lib/search-index.js)
Not the best code I've ever written by far, but it was a neat little
experiment.
Basically, indexing each record with Soundex(phonetics) makes the search semi-
tolerant to misspellings and also brings up similar-sounding results, while
Damerau-Levenshtein is used to sort the results by closeness. I also had it
index timestamps with
Here it is in action:
[https://firetracker.scpr.org/archive](https://firetracker.scpr.org/archive)
As you can see, you can misspell search terms and it will _usually_ get it
right. Granted, a lot of unrelated records usually come up in a search, but
the important thing is the user should get what they're looking for in the
first few results, usually the first.
Regex is a powerful thing.
------
softwaredoug
Very cool! - Most search problems are solved this way - interesting index data
modeling to the needed use cases, not magic machine learning neural network
unicorns. Many want to sell you the latter. The thing that gets the job done
is usually the former.
One big reasons for this is the need for really good training data to do
supervised learning on search problems. If you’re Google or Wikipedia, you can
get this data. But many struggle to understand what a good result was for a
query based on clicks and other user data due to low volumes of traffic.
~~~
kqr
Then you're using magic machine learning wrong. I'm part of a small team who
uses it exactly for the purpose of giving intelligent search to non-Googles
and non-Wikipedias, and we have a very good track record.
The key is to use machine learning to generalize user behavior across multiple
items in roughly the same category, rather than individual items. In fact,
with tiny amounts of data you should pretty much never deal in individual
items -- always in groups of related items.
~~~
chudi
When you said that you work in groups, the groups are discovered with a
clustering technique and then you apply the learning to rank algos ?
~~~
kqr
It's more of a hierarchy than groups, actually. If a user indicates that a
pair of maroon walking shoes were relevant to their query for "red sneakers",
then we have learned that "red sneakers" is associated, in order of decreasing
strength, with e.g.
\- maroon walking shoes \- walking shoes \- casual shoes \- footwear \-
clothes
And obviously the same thing can be applied to generalize over the query.
These hierarchies are constructed statically and dynamically with unsupervised
learning, and then associations from query to groups happens dynamically.
~~~
softwaredoug
Very cool, how exactly do you generate the hierarchies? Is there an existing
site taxonomy or categorization you’re using? Or associating query strings
with the docs clicked and using refinements to see the hierarchy? Or maybe LtR
training data per site category?
~~~
kqr
They are constructed from a probabilistic similarity measure defined in terms
of the metadata available for items, where their path tends to be weighed
fairly heavily. Does that answer make sense?
~~~
softwaredoug
Cool stuff, appreciate the answer. Makes more sense. BTW feel free to join us
on relevance slack community, a lot of us we’re curious what you were doing
[http://o19s.com/slack](http://o19s.com/slack)
------
secure
Shameless plug:
This is what I based Debian Code Search on:
[https://codesearch.debian.net/](https://codesearch.debian.net/)
See also [https://codesearch.debian.net/research/bsc-
thesis.pdf](https://codesearch.debian.net/research/bsc-thesis.pdf) if you’re
interested in details.
~~~
devoply
Is your code open source?
~~~
LukeShu
[https://github.com/Debian/dcs](https://github.com/Debian/dcs)
------
btown
Are there any good writeups on how to implement the trigram index side of
this? For instance, the code alludes to the idea that you could store each
trigram as a bitmap over documents, then the Boolean combinations become
bitwise operations. I suppose you could keep the bitmaps in compressed (or
even probabilistic sketch) form, then decompress only those required for a
query, but is this the right intuition? Are there lower-level libraries or
databases that do this kind of thing well, rather than rolling your own on a
KV store or using something monstrous like ElasticSearch?
~~~
shabble
[https://wiki.postgresql.org/images/6/6c/Index_support_for_re...](https://wiki.postgresql.org/images/6/6c/Index_support_for_regular_expression_search.pdf)
is I think the slides for a conference talk on implementing within Postgres
~~~
JaggedNZ
Postgres FTS with trigrams (pg_trigram extension) works really well for many
search applications. Most of the effort would be tuning the FTS dictionary.
~~~
dreamer_soul
My issue with it is that a small term such as one word doesn't event match to
a record which is weird, I'm using it with rails. Thinking of using elastic
search to help with that
------
karmakaze
How fitting. I've been working on making Etsy houndd [0] available as SaaS.
Houndd uses a trigram index with regexp and can search all the repos I care
about in ms.
The demo page works. The signup just send me a confirmation email and the
setup is still manual, so expect hours/day delay. Aiming to have this all
automated by tomorrow. Appreciate any/all feedback.
[0] [https://github.com/etsy/hound](https://github.com/etsy/hound) [1]
[https://gitgrep.com](https://gitgrep.com)
~~~
xooms
Have you made sure that Git people are OK with the name GitGrep? See
[https://git-scm.com/about/trademark](https://git-scm.com/about/trademark) for
details.
------
sqs
Another shameless plug: Sourcegraph uses this for indexed search via Zoekt (it
also has index-less live search). Check out the cmd/indexed-search code at
[https://github.com/sourcegraph/sourcegraph](https://github.com/sourcegraph/sourcegraph).
------
rasmi
The search features discussed in the article are now available through Google
Cloud Source Repositories: [https://cloud.google.com/source-
repositories/docs/searching-...](https://cloud.google.com/source-
repositories/docs/searching-code)
------
petters
I wish GitHub had decent search functionality.
~~~
enriquto
you mean, searching the past history of all codes?
~~~
petters
Mostly searching for regexes in code and in filenames. But yes, history would
sometimes be useful too.
And this is really the bare minimum. An even better search would e.g. allow
searching for identifiers (comments and strings disregarded).
~~~
rpedela
I believe GitHub uses ES, and currently allowing users to perform regex can
bog down the entire cluster if the regex is malformed. This is a problem with
Solr too. I believe there was some effort to resolve this at the Lucene level,
but I am not sure the status.
In other words, I agree with you but I also know it is an extremely hard
problem to solve at Github's scale.
~~~
avar
If they use ES (or other Lucene) they could already be doing fuzzy search via
ES's own ngram support. At that point indexed regex search as described in the
article isn't far away. You just need to bridge the gap between a regex and a
trigram index.
~~~
rpedela
Agreed, but its not obvious to me how you would bridge that gap without a lot
of custom code.
------
mslot
If you want to build something like this yourself, Postgres has a Trigram
index:
[https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/pgtrgm.html](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/pgtrgm.html)
~~~
ta1234567890
That's great. It seems like it only supports character-level trigrams though.
Do you know of any tools that can create word-level trigrams from Postgres?
------
joatmon-snoo
FWIW kythe.io is the modern successor that does this internally at Google.
Haven't worked on it, but have written some code that's a client.
Unfortunately I think the indexing pipelines aren't publically available.
------
Thorrez
You can still use Google Code Search on the Chrome codebase.
[https://cs.chromium.org](https://cs.chromium.org)
For example here's a hacky regex that finds lambdas:
[https://cs.chromium.org/search/?q=%5CW%5C%5B%5B%5E%5C%5D%5D*...](https://cs.chromium.org/search/?q=%5CW%5C%5B%5B%5E%5C%5D%5D*%5C%5D%5Cs*%5C\(%5B%5E\)%5D*%5C\)%5Cs*%7B+lang:c%2B%2B&sq=package:chromium&type=cs)
------
ngnear
You can store a local search index of your code using
[https://github.com/google/codesearch](https://github.com/google/codesearch),
which uses this algorithm in the background.
------
techbio
Trigrams are of three characters, not tokens.
This is not the obvious search strategy for code, lacking semantic structure,
though apparently it suits regex searchable indexes.
~~~
crawshaw
Trigram is defined in the dictionary as "a group of three consecutive written
units such as letters, syllables, or words." Thus using the term for a triplet
of tokens seems appropriate.
------
sn41
For a reasonable code base, say the linux kernel source code, how large is the
trigram index? Is it necessary that the index be kept in memory?
~~~
nestorD
77MB for the Linux 3.1.3 kernel sources according to the "Implementation"
section of the article.
------
PunchTornado
Be an inter with Jeff Dean as a mentor...
------
rurban
This was posted here at least 10x before.
The last time someone posted a link to a hopeful successor at github:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18022357](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18022357)
------
z3t4
Modern servers have a lot of compute resources and memory compared to 15 years
back, before doing any _optimizations_ I would start out with a naive full
text search, which will most likely be fast enough. A full code search using
regex is also more powerful for users. Imagine if you could use Regex when
searching on Github or Google!? Source code use relative little space, If you
strip out the markup/JS from web sites, they also take up relative little
space. The only problem however is to educate users on how to do effective
searches.
~~~
humbledrone
I think you might be underestimating the size of the document corpus that
you'd be running over.
~~~
z3t4
Lets say there are 5 billion url's with an average of 10 KiB of data (if you
take out JS/CSS/images etc), and one server has 50 GB or ram you would need
1000 servers, which is very small considered Google probably have one million
servers deployed. I just tried to text search your comment on Google and it
found your post! So Google is already doing full text search, and does it in
less then one second (0.69 to be precise). There are probably many reasons why
they don't allow Regex, probably because it would be very easy to "scrape"
resources such as e-mail addresses, credit card numbers, etc. It would however
be cool if Google would allow you to search _structured_ data, for example
find 100 recipes that has eggs in it :P Silly example, but the possibilities
are endless!
~~~
humbledrone
But that's exactly my point -- when you get to the stage where you have 1,000
servers with 50G of RAM each, you have gotten to the point where an
optimization like an inverted index is completely sensible. The design you
propose has to do a full regex scan over 50 TB of RAM for every. single. user.
query. For Pete's sake! This is definitely the realm where the computational
costs make it worthwhile to spend engineering resources to optimize,
especially if you are going to serve lots of users.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
It took two years to cancel Singularity, and ten months to fix it - aaronbrethorst
http://www.polygon.com/2014/3/3/5462994/singularity-two-years-to-make-a-mess-ten-months-to-clean-it-up
======
drdaeman
Title should add "(game)". I thought this was about an OS.
------
i80and
This actually explained a lot about the game; it felt halfway between a full
AAA experience and a haphazard indie title, and I'm almost more inclined to
appreciate what it did right now that I understand the reasons for its design
compromises.
Solid game with some neat ideas; kind of a bummer that it wasn't able to
explore its ambitions.
------
zacharycohn
I wish this article had gone more into lessons learned about how to avoid this
in the future.
~~~
lmkg
Agreed. This is an interesting story in its own right, and a rather unique
one, since most poorly-managed projects don't get a second gasp at life (and
the stories of most merely-mediocre outcomes don't get told). But, I also feel
like this story begins after many major plot twists have already occurred.
But perhaps poorly-managed game project nightmare stories are already a
saturated market, and there was nothing original to tell =P.
------
smoyer
@nick2021 - You appear to be hell-banned.
~~~
d23
It genuinely is a cruel practice. This guy has been posting for 6+ months and
has had no idea that no one can see his comments. All because he made one
single stupid comment: "this has win written all over it." Seriously? Could we
at least get a three strikes policy? Or perhaps if you've made at least X
number of non-downvoted / dead posts you're given the benefit of the doubt.
~~~
smoyer
There are several people who are hell-banned but continue to post insightful
(or at least respectful) comments. Perhaps we could buy them out of purgatory?
What if 20 people each paid 10 points of their own karma to "redeem" someone
from hell?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Bruce Schneier's Skein hashing function is now in FreeBSD - atoponce
https://reviews.freebsd.org/D6166
======
hackuser
Bruce Schneier has done so much for security, including by his ability to
explain issues so clearly to the IT community and to the public.
If someone in the community of professional cryptographers and crypto-based
security is reading this, what is his position in that community? Is he as
prominent? A leader? A leading engineer?
~~~
dchest
This comment by tptacek pretty much answers your question:
"Schneier's career has an interesting arc that is not too dissimilar from that
of Eric Raymond, involving early modest-but-significant contributions to the
field (cryptologic literature for Schneier, open source software for Raymond),
then a marked phase of popularization and evangelism, followed by a full-
throttle transition into punditry."
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5474372](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5474372)
I'm not from the crypto community, but putting Skein into FreeBSD seems a very
strange choice, especially because it looks to be motivated by the "Schneier"
brand. Apart from SHA-3 (which is already there), BLAKE2 would have been a
better alternative.
~~~
tptacek
I feel very bad about comparing Schneier to Raymond. It's not a valid
comparison. I was less clear on who Raymond was when I made it.
~~~
dchest
:-) Yeah
------
dchest
Why?
~~~
loeg
For ZFS:
[https://lists.randombit.net/pipermail/cryptography/2013-Octo...](https://lists.randombit.net/pipermail/cryptography/2013-October/005614.html)
~~~
loeg
Why did a straightforward factual answer, with citation, get downvoted? Y'all
confuse me.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Scientists reverse ageing in mice, humans could be next - Debugreality
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-20/scientists-develop-anti-ageing-process-in-mice/5168580
======
Debugreality
I watched this story on the news this morning when I woke up was rather
ammusing - Breaking news "Kate and William plan to visit Australia in 5
months. And by the way Scientists discover how to reverse ageing."
Glad they have their priorities straight because you know Science is just that
thing those geeks do...
~~~
return0
That's never going to change
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Let's create the largest database of browser usage stats. - skbohra123
HN is a huge community of people building web startups. If we can share monthly browser share statistics, anonymously or something, we can create a most reliable browser usage stats. This will really help in deciding on what browsers to support, what features to be enabled. How does it look ?
======
elliottcarlson
IE - 88.56% Chrome - 4.98% Firefox - 4.56% Safari - 1.90%
Granted, this is a physician related site and deals highly in the pharma
sector, so IE6 is still prevalent.
------
skbohra123
Let me start with mine,
FF - 48.52% Chrome - 36.69% IE - 7.69% Safari - 4.14% Opera - 2.69%
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Vimeo supporting ignoring user request to make site usable for lectures - grogenaut
http://vimeo.com/forums/topic:43742
Despite being used heavily for online lectures and classes, Vimeo's support staff has been claiming for 2 years that it is pointless to allow variable playback rates for their videos.
======
codezero
They may be catering to professors who prefer that their videos are not able
to be played at a higher speed.
If the professor cared, they would just use YouTube, so if anything they are
listening to their users, that is, their content creators, and not to their
content consumers. That, or they don't even have a dog in the race and just
don't want to add more features that aren't essential for the majority.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Yes, Determinists, There Is Free Will - dnetesn
http://nautil.us/issue/72/quandary/yes-determinists-there-is-free-will
======
gus_massa
Two previous discussions:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19943560](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19943560)
(11 points, 2 days ago, 25 comments)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19927911](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19927911)
(27 points, 4 days ago, 90 comments)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Go for the Holy Grail - npguy
http://statspotting.com/go-for-the-holy-grail/
======
adrianmacneil
> for some reason, they did not go for the holy grail, even though they knew
> what the holy grail would be.
This seems pretty simplistic. Presumably yahoo and bing were also "going for
the holy grail". I highly doubt that they set out to build a sub-par product.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Discovering a Galaxy with a Telephoto Lens (2016) - dnetesn
http://nautil.us/issue/79/catalysts/how-to-discover-a-galaxy-with-a-telephoto-lens-rp
======
dang
Discussed at the time:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10991628](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10991628)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What 'Google Scale' Problems Exist In Today's World? - npguy
======
npguy
This one might fit: Getting voice recognition right.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Launch HN: App Brainstorm – Predesign Prototyping for Drafting Apps - efortis
HN,<p>I'm Eric from App Brainstorm (https://appbrainstorm.com).<p>This project got me motivated because when making apps I wanted to:<p>- Figure out the content, try flow alternatives, and edge cases at thinking pace.<p>- Test a prototype I could interact with, and not have to memorize it, the case with graphic mocks.<p>- Understand requirements without reading much.<p>I hope you find it useful, and tell your colleagues about it.<p>From time to time I'll blog about the app drafting subject, examples, reverse drafting, etc. If you have suggestions about those topics in general please let me know too.<p>For private questions or comments, the site email: contact@
======
Anniewood
Yes, you can start creating apps without code with the use of this free tool
called DronaHQ, which is the most trusted no-code app development platform
that empowers business users and citizen developers to accelerate digital
transformation by developing and deploying business applications at the speed.
Get a free trial without adding credit card details.
------
jones1618
It looks very useful and feature-filled but a free or low-cost trial version
would be better. That would attract people in the startup/side-hustle phase
who might earn enough business to pay for the full version.
~~~
efortis
Thank you. Send me an email, I'll make you an account.
For now, a credit card is required for the 21-day free trial.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Texas cancer researcher was called ‘foolish’, then won the Nobel Prize (2018) - new_guy
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/03/25/texas-scientist-was-called-foolish-arguing-immune-system-could-fight-cancer-then-he-won-nobel-prize/
======
gojomo
In the very early 80s, as a middle-school student in the suburbs of Houston
with a new Apple ][+, I attended a personal computing show downtown.
One of the booths was showing off a game, called "Killer T-Cell" if I remember
correctly, based on some local university research. You'd move a little T-Cell
around, through a changing pink maze of good tissue, to absorb & destroy any
cancerous (purple?) cells that popped up.
It used hi-res mode but seemed to be played on a grid based on the Apple ][+'s
low-res mode – and sometimes that mode flashed through as well. (I can't
remember if that was a glitch or purposeful effect.) It was pretty crude in
graphics and gameplay, but we bought it, for maybe $5 or $10, on a 5.25"
floppy – moreso for the novelty and intellectual content than anything else.
Over 37 years ago, that game conveyed to me the idea that people probably get
a lot of microcancers all the time, which are routinely cleaned up by the
immune system's T-cells, and only become a problem when the immune system is
finally overwhelmed or tricked.
Dr. Allison's Wikipedia page suggests he was at Houston's MD Anderson Cancer
Center at that time, in his early 30s. I wonder if the game was motivated by
his research... or even if he was the person who sold me that game.
~~~
antoncohen
The professor that created "Killer T-Cell" was Dr. Elton Stubblefield[1][2].
Both Dr. Elton Stubblefield and Dr. James Allison were at University of Texas
MD Anderson Center in Houston.
[1] [https://www.upi.com/Archives/1982/10/28/Beating-cancer-
the-v...](https://www.upi.com/Archives/1982/10/28/Beating-cancer-the-video-
way/9982404625600/)
[2]
[http://jplaffont.photoshelter.com/image/I0000BBbrdiNVlfI](http://jplaffont.photoshelter.com/image/I0000BBbrdiNVlfI)
~~~
gojomo
Thank you! My searches had turned up nothing. (Was something like Lexis-Nexus
needed to find that old UPI story?)
------
ramraj07
As some context, in 2001, a couple of scientists many might consider to be the
closest to the "leaders of cancer research" wrote a seminal review in the
journal Cell called as "hallmarks of cancer" where they set out to define 7
essential (or what they thought was essential) things that a tumor has to do
to be defined as cancerous.
That list did not include any mention whatsoever of the immune system. IIRC
the only mention of the immune system was in one sentence deep in the review
where they just casually disregard it.
I was still in high school when this review came out so I probably can't say I
would have thought differently but at least to me that review was indicative
of the fairly myopic way research happens in general, even today. Imagine this
- two of the leaders of the field who are supposed to fill out ten pages of
all the things that could affect or be affected by a developing cancer, and it
did not fathom to the that the immune system had something to do with it?
The more outrageous thing is its not unheard of that the immune system has a
role to play. People had suspected a long time that even chemo therapy in
general only works via the immune response. It's the level of insulation
between immunologists and cancer biologists that was to blame. People just
decided to stick to one gene or disease and really didn't want to give a shit
about anything else happening in biology with serious thought. No wonder it
has taken us so long!
And if you think Im being too harsh, a decade later in 2011 the same authors
wrote an amended review to update their original. By now it had become obvious
that the immune system presented both a formidable barrier at first and an
essential ally in later steps for any cancer to be able to grow and thrive.
Don't know about you, but that sounds like an essential "Hallmark" of cancer
to me. But then of course lest we correct ourselves, the researchers just
grouped the immune checkpoint as one of the several other "supplemental"
hallmarks that were discovered since.
~~~
Retric
Being factually incorrect does not mean they made a mistake.
The correct response to _every_ science idea is extreme skepticism without
evidence. That’s not to say we should avoid gathering evidence, just that the
default needs to be conservative.
~~~
kosievdmerwe
The problem is that the more established scientists can play politics and
deny/reduce funding for the "crazy" idea.
There needs to be balance. I see people religiously hold to the orthodoxy of
scientific knowledge rather than the scientific method. But there's also the
case where established scientists are financially reliant on what the
orthodoxy is as that's what their research is about.
The world is complicated and not intuitive and I'm aware there's a distinction
between rejection and skepticism, but I feel that people err to rejection much
too easily.
Some examples of the weirdness of the world: Quantum mechanics and the fact
that it's possible to build a windpowered land vehicle that travels directly
down wind faster than the wind.
Trying to find other examples, I've run across Boltzmann who committed suicide
in 1906 likely due to all the pressure he faced trying to get people to accept
the idea atoms exist.
~~~
GeekyBear
>The problem is that the more established scientists can play politics
One of my favorite examples of how religiously dogmatic scientists can be
about existing theory is centered around the discovery of quasicrystals.
Daniel Shechtman won the Nobel prize for discovering a form of crystals that
formed regular non-repeating patterns like Penrose tiles or the tiles used on
some Mosques.
As evidence, he had electron microscope images of the materiel, very clearly
proving the veracity of his discovery, yet double Nobel laureate Linus Pauling
took particular pleasure in making his life a living hell, declaring that
"there is no such thing as quasicrystals, only quasiscientists".
>In an interview this year with the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, Shechtman
said: "People just laughed at me." He recalled how Linus Pauling, a colossus
of science and a double Nobel laureate, mounted a frightening "crusade"
against him. After telling Shechtman to go back and read a crystallography
textbook, the head of his research group asked him to leave for "bringing
disgrace" on the team.
[https://www.theguardian.com/science/2011/oct/05/nobel-
prize-...](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2011/oct/05/nobel-prize-
chemistry-work-quasicrystals)
You would think that scientists would be willing to accept physical evidence
even if it isn't covered by existing theory, but sadly, they are perfectly
willing to reject it.
~~~
Retric
I think we need to separate cases with actual evidence like what you are
describing from default behavior. With a little evidence you can defend
spending a little more resources studying the same thing. Over time that
feedback loop works to both efficiently spend money and change orthodoxy.
That’s different from saying X seems likely based on gut feeling or whatever.
In the case with zero evidence the goal is to find the cheapest way to gather
any support and this initial effort is generally cheap enough to self fund. If
not, looking for funding outside of normal channels is a viable option.
That proof of concept stage is something of a road block, but less so than
generally portrayed.
------
mrosett
This stuff matters. I was fortunate enough to join a
[trial]([https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00636168](https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00636168))
for Yervoy the summer before it was approved by the FDA. Based on my reading
of the outcomes, there's a 1-in-4 chance that I'd be dead if I hadn't gotten
the drug through that trial. (It was initially double-blind but has since been
unblinded, so I know I was dosed with it.)
------
Grustaf
I wonder if there are Nobel prize winners that were never called foolish.
~~~
chubot
It reminds me of the "sounds like a bad idea" / "is a good idea" Venn diagram
for startups.
If it sounded like a good idea and was a good idea, then a bunch of people
would have already tried it. There would be steady progress by many people,
and steady competition. There would be no "breakthrough" by a single person /
company.
If it sounded like a bad idea and was a bad idea, then either nobody tried it,
or a contrarian tried it and quietly failed.
------
jameszol
This reminds me of a book called The Power of Starting Something Stupid, by
Richie Norton. The book tells several stories just like this one, where it
seems like peers or others are criticizing your work as “stupid” but you get
it done anyways because you know it is worthwhile, then finally the world
rewards you handsomely for it.
------
ngcc_hk
Nothing new. Read the about paradigm shift. You cannot work if you doubt every
library you used may be hacked (or your assumption or idea is wrong about
field X). Even if it is wrong obviously eg black body radiation you still
continue. What one should know how it is not if but when the library was
hacked (or your assumption is wrong), ...
------
ilrwbwrkhv
[https://outline.com/D2GuNJ](https://outline.com/D2GuNJ)
------
squirrelicus
Relevant: [https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/02/26/rule-genius-in-not-
out...](https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/02/26/rule-genius-in-not-out/)
tl;dr
The kinds of ideas that people who innovate come up with are found at the
extremes of convention, and are not distinguishable from crazy whether they
are right or wrong, and
You should expect an innovator to produce dumb ideas all the time. In other
words, forgive the smart, for they know not when they dumb.
Edit: this is also why we can be justified praising Elon Musk for SpaceX and,
to a lesser extent Tesla, and also ignore complete and utter nonsense like
Hyperloop and his cave submarine.
------
negamax
Tyranny of success..
------
sorenn111
I think this lends credence to the Thiel/Eric Weinstein notion of allowing
scientists and innovators to be irreverent because many new discoveries have
to run against the grain. I've heard Weinstein postulate one of the great
strengths of Western education is the fostering of such irreverence.
~~~
RandomTisk
I've heard physicist Michio Kaku say something similar, that western thought
historically has rewarded the mavericks but that eastern thought has tended
towards a "the tallest blade of grass is cut down first" mentality. I think it
was him who said that had Bill Gates been born in China, his peers would have
made his success very unlikely.
~~~
papermill
This is simply historically false. From Galileo and copernicus to even the
scientists positing germ theory in the 1800s, mavericks who fought against
orthodoxy have been persecuted. Even today, in our colleges, "mavericks" are
punished and attacked. Our most famous maverick, Socrates, was forced to
commit suicide.
It's true bill gates wouldn't have amounted to much had he been born in 1950s
china because china was heavily undeveloped. But had he been born later in the
60s or 70s with china opening up, he could have been a Jack Ma.
------
new_guy
Full Title: A Texas scientist was called ‘foolish’ for arguing the immune
system could fight cancer. Then he won the Nobel Prize.
It got a little mangled with the length constraint.
~~~
jhbadger
And in-between the critiques of his idea and the prize winning, Allison
actually showed evidence that checkpoint blockade worked. That's what kind of
annoys me about stories that describe science in these terms. It's as if the
authors want the reader to take away the moral "Don't criticize scientists
with seemingly crazy ideas; they might be right!". But criticizing crazy ideas
up until the point where they are shown not to be crazy is exactly how science
works.
~~~
doitLP
True, but it is also important to be aware of the hand-wavy hubris/entrenched
viewpoints that might prevent those ideas from having the chance to prove
themselves right. “Science proceeds one funeral at a time”
~~~
chrisbrandow
It’s a fundamental tension in the scientific method. We create models for how
reality works. We _know_ that they are imperfect and incomplete, but at times
we forget and therefore treat an idea or even observation that violates the
model as “impossible”.
Multiple observations ultimately dispel this failure but single observations
are easy to dismiss. This is also why crazy but ultimately correct ideas are
difficult to distinguish from crazy and wrong ideas.
And academics spend a lot of time teaching people to understand the models,
and are always looking for errors that arise from an incomplete or incorrect
understanding of the models. So, it is very natural to treat new theories that
violate an incomplete model the same way. Especially in fields like medicine
where it is nearly impossible to truly isolate single factors and outcomes.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Multiprocessing for the Impoverished: a multi-6809 system (1993) - mbroncano
http://www.bradrodriguez.com/papers/6809cpu.htm
======
beautifulfreak
This is what Jef Raskin imagined for the Apple Macintosh, before the 68000
processor was adopted instead. It was supposed to be a low cost computer for
the masses.
[https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&stor...](https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Price_Fight.txt)
------
gen3
I did not know this was something that I wanted to do. Are there any more
examples of building a multiprocessor system?
Edit: there does seem to be lots of single processor z80 computers online,
which is nice.
------
mbroncano
The rest of the articles:
[http://www.bradrodriguez.com/papers/](http://www.bradrodriguez.com/papers/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Is the SoftBank-OYO Tango a Russian Doll Ponzi? - Osiris30
https://the-ken.com/story/is-the-softbank-oyo-tango-a-russian-doll-ponzi/
======
farhanhubble
Paywalled, worse than adware.
~~~
vinay_ys
Really? You would rather have privacy invading ads everywhere than have well-
researched paid content?
------
yasp
Paywalled.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Windows 8 - best to pass it up: review - seminatore
http://www.sfgate.com/technology/article/Windows-8-best-to-pass-it-up-review-4025070.php
======
RandallBrown
His only big complaints were that upgrading didn't go smoothly, in part
because he was running Norton Antivirus (seriously?) and turning the computer
off was different?
I can agree that Windows 8 isn't necessarily going to be everyone's favorite
thing, but this was a terrible review.
~~~
ygra
I've been turning off my computer by pressing its power button for ages. I
rarely found the need to dig up the Shutdown button (which was a little
unpredictable in Windows 7 anyway, altering between meanings depending on the
system state).
------
f4stjack
Nope, I disagree with the review. Although the interface looks like you have
to use it with a touch screen, I haven't had any problems while using it with
mouse and touchpad. The boot speed is outstanding, outlook and web service
integration is superb and all in all it is a good operating system. Maybe not
your cup of tea, but all in all it is good.
~~~
dromidas
Yeah I don't think the interface requires a touch screen at all, or is even
beneficial for it, at least on a desktop. I spent maybe 1 or 2 seconds
combined in the 'start screen' simply cause its easy to use it to launch
random stuff by hitting Windows key then typing a few letters then hit enter.
It's definitely worth upgrading since task manager stuff and a lot of the file
system things were dramatically improved. Quite a good experience once I
learned the Windows+X key combination.
------
blisse
The same complaints can be had for any operating system. I don't know of any
OS upgrade I've had where it's run perfectly every time I used it. Windows 7
has crashed numerous times. Xubuntu and Ubuntu crashed less, but still enough
times to get annoying.
And I think I had to log off to be able to shut down my laptop running Ubuntu
for some time. I couldn't find any Shut Down button. So this review is pretty
bad if this is as far in-depth as he goes.
------
bsphil
I've already gotten rid of the Metro start menu[1] (this is a dual screen
desktop), and I've been very pleased with the results. Windows 8 is
unsurprisingly superior at working out of the box with drivers, which I've
enjoyed. I can't say it's worth that much of an upgrade though. I certainly
wouldn't go out of my way to buy it.
[1] = <http://classicshell.sourceforge.net/>
------
doctorwho
Trying to run a newly released OS on a 3 year old machine? Hey, let's try
running Windows 8 on a Commodore 64, I'm sure some people still have those
around. Sure Microsoft has made it affordable but they also have a minimum
required hardware spec. Ignore it if you like but don't expect it to work on
out of date equipment. That's just generally bad advice.
~~~
dagw
I'm running Windows 8 on a three year old machine (which wasn't even top of
the line when I bought it) and it's incredibly smooth. The secret, a $100 SSD.
------
gte910h
I do not understand why people upgrade OSes very quickly.
There are always bumps for the first few months.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
New Adobe Flash 0day, have a nice weekend - datd00d
http://www.adobe.com/support/security/advisories/apsa10-01.html
======
ihodes
Shouldn't a fix come out _with_ that announcement?
If they're offering a temporary fix, shouldn't they at least push that temp
fix as an update, and fully update the issue later? This leaves the non-
technically inclined out in the cold, and informs those who may not know of
the exploit of its existence.
Just something as simple as removing authplay.dll for Acrobat and Reader, and
even upgrading the current version of Flash Player to the 10.1 beta, just
temporarily… anything other than just announcing it and not patching it at
_all_.
I don't know if this is a standard way of dealing with zero day exploits, but
it sure doesn't seem like a good way.
~~~
ja27
It was a good reminder for me to disable Flash and PDF (and 30 other plugins)
in Chrome. I use Chrome for almost all my browsing, but if I need Flash or
something else on a specific site, I can open it in IE or Firefox.
Maybe someday Chrome will have a plugin "whitelist" for sites so I can only
allow Flash on the sites I want to.
~~~
CrazedGeek
Flashblock?
[https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/gofhjkjmkpinhpoi...](https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/gofhjkjmkpinhpoiabjplobcaignabnl?hl=en)
------
logic
So, 10.0.45.2 is vulnerable. Oh look, that's the only available version of the
64-bit Linux plugin, because they don't do 64-bit builds along with their
32-bit builds:
<http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashplayer10/64bit.html>
------
natch
Perfect headline. It straddles the ambiguity between the two possible
meanings: the sarcastic one, about IT personnel scrambling to put fixes in
place over their 'nice' weekend, and the non-sarcastic one, addressed to
hackers who could have some fun with this.
In any case, Adobe, the timing has exactly the level of thoughtfulness we have
come to expect from the Flash team. The only way you could have done more
damage would be to have done it last week when the US had a long weekend, or
some other even longer holiday.
~~~
tptacek
It is unlikely that anybody at Adobe controlled the timing of this release.
~~~
natch
Sucks for them. They should get their code base under control. Or their web
site, if that's what you meant.
------
pan69
I've seen Adobe do quite a few security announcements over the years but I've
never actually seen any of the exploits in action or explained. I'm really
curious how serious these exploits really are and if they are actually
practical (or more theoretical). Any references greatly appreciated.
~~~
mukyu
[http://chargen.matasano.com/chargen/2007/7/3/this-new-
vulner...](http://chargen.matasano.com/chargen/2007/7/3/this-new-
vulnerability-dowds-inhuman-flash-exploit.html)
------
JoachimSchipper
Did anybody else read "The Flash Player 10.1 Release Candidate (...) does not
appear to be vulnerable" as "we ran the exploit and it didn't work"?
~~~
jmount
More as "we thought the last one didn't have this flaw- but we are tired of
being wrong."
------
gmlk
Yesterday I removed flash from my Mac Internet Plugins folder.
I can't say I'm missing it. Nearly all website work, a lot of ads are gone.
Strangely, html5/h.264 is often the fall back for flash, I really would wish
they did that the other wise around.
~~~
andrewtj
That made me curious so I removed Flash from /Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins/ and
rebooted. I'm unable to play video on either Vimeo or YouTube so I'll be
sticking with Click to Flash for the moment.
~~~
tuacker
Youtube: <http://www.youtube.com/html5>
Vimeo: Right below the description, see: <http://imgur.com/yuf4R>
Obviously not an automatic fallback but I guess that's because it is still in
'beta'.
Youtube videos with ads won't work, or embedded ones (I think the same goes
for embedded vimeo vids)
~~~
andrewtj
Thanks for the links — I'd just expected the sites to fallback. For anyone
else who's tempted to try this out, unless I missed it there is also no
'Switch to HTML5 player' link for channels on Vimeo.
------
rmorrison
Adobe has desensitized me to updating their software, since every time I open
Acrobat it asks me to download a new version. It's like the boy who cried
wolf, but since this sounds serious maybe I'll get over this mental hurdle.
~~~
JoachimSchipper
Actually, every time you open Acrobat it's had a new security issue. At least,
it's that way for me (though Windows is not my primary OS, so I don't open
Acrobat that often).
~~~
Niten
Even if Windows _is_ your primary OS, there's no reason for the typical user
to have to run Adobe Reader on a regular basis. Just use a nice lightweight
viewer like PDF-XChange, Sumatra, or Foxit instead.
Windows is my primary OS, and I don't even have Adobe Reader installed.
~~~
nitrogen
I've found Sumatra to render _extremely_ slowly when zoomed in past 100%,
particularly on PDFs with high-res images and/or vector images. Are the other
non-Adobe readers better at this?
------
jared314
The Linux 64-bit version needs some love. It has not been updated since Feb.
------
datd00d
The fix is to install 10.1 RC, and delete/rename/ACL authplay.dll.
I wont comment on the whole "use our RC release" as a mitigation path in
production env's....
~~~
blocke
10.1 has had 7 release candidate releases so far. Been running them for a
while and they don't seem anymore crashy than 10.0 and the GPU acceleration is
nice.
Also it would be a great time to upgrade Firefox to the 3.6.4 release
candidate for those using Firefox. Plugin process separation... yummo.
[http://blog.mozilla.com/blog/2010/06/01/firefox-3-6-4-releas...](http://blog.mozilla.com/blog/2010/06/01/firefox-3-6-4-release-
candidate-available-for-download-and-testing/)
------
gojomo
They suggest addressing the Flash vulnerability by installing the prerelease
10.1 version, which "does not appear to be vulnerable".
But the first step of installing 10.1 (on Windows and MacOS) is to run an
uninstaller, also available on the download page:
<http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/flashplayer10.html>
Perhaps the prudent should stop after that uninstall step, for safety from
other future exploits, as well.
~~~
endtime
Are you sure about the uninstallation part? I was able to install 10.1 without
uninstalling anything. Took about 10 seconds. And
<http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/> tells me "You have version
10,1,53,64 installed".
~~~
gojomo
The preview version's Release Notes say to run the uninstaller first, but
perhaps it's not necessary.
------
seanlinmt
I don't use Adobe Reader anymore. Foxit Reader,
<http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader/>, is way smaller and faster. And
it's not by Adobe. :)
~~~
kwyjibo
I used foxitreader as well, until they had that feature that they would
execute whatever command on your computer and you couldn't disable it... (and
you could do this, or at least add a warning in adobe's reader)
------
boskone
Chromium + Flash + Linux vulnerable as well? How does one a) even know what
version of flash is embedded in Chromium b) other than constantly killing the
flash process how does one disable flash in Chromium
Chromium v6.0.417.0
~~~
PidGin128
Generally, to determine flash version, you're forced to the macromedia website
to view a version test .swf .
After finding out about this 'sploit, I looked in vain for the authplay.dll .
It turns out I had a newer build that wasn't listed as vulnerable (and I
couldn't find the file itself, where does it usually reside?).
------
Tichy
Sorry for my ignorance, but is there still no way to watch YouTube and other
videos without Flash? I thought some browsers would ship with suitable codecs
and be able to play them directly?
~~~
tuacker
Visit <http://www.youtube.com/html5> and join the beta. It won't work for all
videos though and not at all for embedded videos.
------
mikeytown2
Link to 10.1 RC7
[http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/flashplayer10.html#flashplay...](http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/flashplayer10.html#flashplayer10)
------
adamdecaf
I will have a nice weekend, for I don't even have flash on this laptop
(Linux). :)
</sarcasm>
------
againstyou
great, now we need to use the Release Candidate to be safe ? probably we get
another features (aka remote exploits) using RC and not a stable version. btw,
adobe really released a stable version of flash ? someday ?
------
gojomo
Adobe Reader and Acrobat on MacOSX also include a file named _authplay.dll_?
(Any chance Apple's 'Preview' PDF-reading capabilities are similarly
vulnerable?)
~~~
DrewHintz
Apple's 'Preview' PDF viewer has lots of security vulnerabilities. Simple
fuzzing will quickly find plenty of 0day.
~~~
sans-serif
That's a bold claim waiting to be backed up.
~~~
mish
I think the poster was referring to Charlie Miller's CSW 2010 presentation,
where he finds a number of trivial, exploitable vulnerabilities in Preview.
You can see the slide deck here:
[http://securityevaluators.com/files/slides/cmiller_CSW_2010....](http://securityevaluators.com/files/slides/cmiller_CSW_2010.ppt)
------
stalker
I think they must put an alert in the download page.
------
ck2
Well that's ONE way to get everyone onto 10.1
------
bobbyi
Another reason to be running 10.1
------
TheKid
And read the fine print regarding 10.1 RC: "The Flash Player 10.1 Release
Candidate available at ... does not APPEAR to be vulnerable." Very different
than "Here's a fix."
(Snarky comment removed.)
~~~
drivebyacct
No, no it does not sum up why there's no Flash on the iPhone. Thanks for
playing though. Enjoy your consolation prize.
------
elblanco
and?
[http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/19/charlie-miller-to-
reveal-...](http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/19/charlie-miller-to-
reveal-20-zero-day-security-holes-in-mac-os-x/)
~~~
ptomato
I'm not quite sure what the relevancy of this is, unless you're actually such
a rabid Apple hater that you automatically see any mention of Adobe flaws as
an argument for Apple or somesuch.
~~~
elblanco
Lots of software has security problems. It's pretty rare that any of them show
up on the front page of HN. They just tend to blend into background noise as
"not interesting" unless it's particularly interesting to the community for
some reason. Given that one of Job's major points for not allowing Flash on
iDevices was the security of the platform, the only conclusion one can draw
for having a security notice show up on the front page is that there are a lot
of Adobe haters out there.
Within one sentence (and with absolutely no commentary or statements from me
in any way) you successfully made the connection between Adobe and Apple. This
connection is obvious and I shouldn't really have to explain it -- in other
words, it's painfully obvious why a security bulletin for Flash has shown up
on the front page of HN and why I've never seen one for an Apple product
despite fairly wide ranging security concerns in the community about Apple
products.
Here's Jobs on the topic.
<https://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/>
"Symantec recently highlighted Flash for having one of the worst _security_
records in 2009. We also know first hand that Flash is the number one reason
Macs crash. We have been working with Adobe to fix these problems, but they
have persisted for several years now. We don’t want to reduce the reliability
and _security_ of our iPhones, iPods and iPads by adding Flash."
Before Jobs explicitly banned Flash from the platform, the only thing I ever
remember seeing on HN regarding flash was that it performed a bit poorly under
Apple's operating systems because Apple wouldn't provide the necessary APIs
that would allow Adobe to make it as performant as it is under Windows (and
the occasional comment regarding the Linux port that like most software ported
to Linux, it was a few generations behind the times). But these complaints are
pretty much the same for lots of cross platform software and generally blended
into the background noise, even canvas runs poorly on most systems! One thing
I don't ever recall hearing about on HN was _any_ commentary about Flash as
insecure. That all changed with "Thoughts on Flash".
Before _Thoughts on Flash_ , I bet there was never an Adobe Flash related
security posting on the front page of HN. Yet Flash has had its share of
security issues, the same as anything. Which is what my link was meant to
demonstrate.
In other words, it's essentially a non-issue.
My point in posting one of a million links regarding Apple security problems
is that Apple is also not free from issues with its platform. Yet these
_never_ make it to the front page of HN. More importantly, Apple is rather
poor at self-reporting security problems, yet here we are bashing Adobe for
doing the responsible thing and reporting the problem themselves.
It's actually an interesting example of social dynamics, demonstrating how
people will follow the direction a chosen leader and orient their opinions
regarding their own safety to be in line with what that leader says rather
than an objective review of the actual situation. People often follow leaders
as a proxy for doing their own thinking. I've just demonstrated why this is
dangerous. Jobs doesn't want to bring attention to the security issues of his
own platforms and has tried, successfully, to direct natural concerns for that
to somebody else. It's a masterful piece of political manipulation. Most
politicians would sell a limb to have this kind of mind share.
My link provided no commentary, no judgment, no counter-statements, no Apple
bashing or Apple praise, in fact no statements of any kind.
Yet the fact that that link is providing uncomfortable information contrary to
that provided by Jobs has caused it to be annihilated by downvotes (meta-
comment: pg has obviously changed something in the karma scoring because it
only shows -4, but my account is down -9 since yesterday and that's the only
change I can find, either the karma math is screwy, or he's experimenting with
some social engineering of his own and counting all downvotes but only showing
-4 no matter what. I find this interesting since, if that were true, people
have continued to downvote a link to unwanted counter information even though
it already stands at -4).
I actually cannot find a statement from Jobs regarding platform security
_other_ than "Thoughts on Flash". Even in response to things like this
[http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1495591/security-
ex...](http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1495591/security-experts-mock-
mac-security). Considering that Jobs is among the more chatty CEOs of a major
corporation, this omission is rather perplexing. This leads to the obvious
conclusion that Jobs has taken the opportunity to call out Flash security as a
red herring, to turn our attention away from the problems on his own platform.
And, as is demonstrated here by bashing on Adobe for flash security, bashing
on people who point out apple security, people have bought his play -- hook,
line and sinker.
I provoked the response I expected to get based on the history of how the
dynamics of the situations has occurred. A swarm of downvotes for a link
regarding Apple security problems flies directly in the face of what Jobs has
said. It's a shame he had to put "Thoughts on Flash" out there. I found his
comments on Flash at D8 far more coherent and sensible and without the obvious
manipulative language he used in "Thoughts". What I find a shame is how easily
and gullible people who follow Jobs have been regarding the entire issue --
people who are otherwise very smart and very bright.
_edit_ I'm actually down -10 on my karma now. I guess pg _does_ count all
downvotes even if -4 is all that's displayed.
_edit 2_ this poor comment was similarly in negative territory as well,
further reinforcing my point. <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1406477>
~~~
ptomato
"Yet the fact that that link is providing uncomfortable information contrary
to that provided by Jobs has caused it to be annihilated by downvotes"
No, I think it was mostly the irrelevancy that got you downvoted.
"you successfully made the connection between Adobe and Apple."
Umm, what you posted was a link to something about Apple, so yeah, I think I
could be justified in believing that was the connection you were trying to
make.
"I bet there was never an Adobe Flash related security posting on the front
page of HN."
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=164725>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1105508>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=801713>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=164725>
"Apple is also not free from issues with its platform. Yet these never make it
to the front page of HN."
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=876334>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=684743>
"It's pretty rare that any of them show up on the front page of HN."
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1129882>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=692036>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=690592>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=872533>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=709869>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=393009>
"the only conclusion one can draw for having a security notice show up on the
front page is that there are a lot of Adobe haters out there."
The _only_ conclusion? Really? Some people might be interested because it is
an unfixed vulnerability actively being exploited in software that's on 95% of
PCs. Just a thought.
"Apple wouldn't provide the necessary APIs"
You're certainly not approaching this from a standpoint of hating Apple, if
_that's_ the interpretation you put on the abysmal performance of Flash on OS
X for many many years. I should note that Silverlight has always had stellar
performance relative to Flash on any Mac I've used them on.
"unwanted counter information"
Or again, complete irrelevancy.
~~~
elblanco
I was going to post a protracted point for point response, but decided I
wasn't in the mood for yet another lengthy internet battle with an obvious
zealot which will probably end up in a Godwin law violation or a comparison of
digital phalli or some such.
You've made some good points, some bad, I disagree with most, agree with
others (and learned a few things from your response, thanks for the
corrections). You've successfully demonstrated using a search engine for
finding archived posts without demonstrating that those posts reached the
front page. Well done.
It's obvious that Adobe is a sorry pitiful place that produces slipshod
software that blights the Internet and our computers with its presence -- from
the 150 slider widgets in Photoshop to Flash. This has been true for a decade
or more. You'll get no argument from me.
However, Apple also has a lot to answer for. Just because its principle
computing platform isn't terribly popular, so it's less likely to be a target,
doesn't make it more secure ("we're secure because nobody uses us!" is not a
terribly good selling point). The sec community has long standing grievances
with the slow pace of security patches Apple puts out. Jobs has likewise
generally remained silent on this matter.
You may continue feeling slighted by even the slightest of finger-pointing at
Apple even if it's not intended as Apple bashing. A strong and vibrant Apple,
as a viable competitor, is good for several industries. Hanging off of every
word Steve Jobs says as perfect and without flaw is not.
Enjoy the rest of the weekend.
~~~
ptomato
"...lengthy internet battle with an obvious zealot which will probably end up
in a Godwin law violation or a comparison of digital phalli or some such."
There should probably be some law about those who attempt to preemptively
invoke Godwin's law.
"You've successfully demonstrated using a search engine for finding archived
posts without demonstrating that those posts reached the front page."
Up until fairly recently in the history of HN, at least, pretty much any post
with point count > 10 has been on the front page. Looking at the front page
currently there's a couple at 3 or 6. I think most of the examples I linked
were 20+ which means they were almost certainly on the front page for a while.
"Apple also has a lot to answer for."
You're the one who keeps trying to make this be about Apple. It's not, it's
about a Flash exploit. Trying to force the relationship says far more then you
then anything else.
"You may continue feeling slighted by even the slightest of finger-pointing at
Apple even if it's not intended as Apple bashing."
I'm not slighted, I'm just pointing out that you're not really communicating
in a relevant manner to the thread.
"Hanging off of every word Steve Jobs says as perfect and without flaw is
not."
I agree with some things Apple does and not others. (No Flash on iPad/iPhone:
agree, Adobe has yet to demonstrate the capability for Flash to run in a good
manner on mobile devices, and if either of those were waiting for that neither
would have been released yet. 3.3.1: sticks in my craw, even though I have a
sneaking suspicion it may be best for the _platform_ certainly not best for
developers. App Store as only distribution channel: Again, good for the
_platform_ and endusers, not for developers, sideloading should be allowed.)
Certainly the HN community as a whole, I'd say, has a few more vocal critics
of Apple of late than vocal supporters.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Does owning a patent increase your startup's chances to get funded? - illaigescheit
======
illaigescheit
Does anyone has personal stories about the pros and cons of investing in their
IP portfolio for their startup?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Top Programming Languages - spectruman
http://spectrum.ieee.org/static/interactive-the-top-programming-languages
======
valarauca1
This is a pretty horrible article. I don't mean to attack any language in
particular, but ladder logic is _very_ low on this list, when its easily one
of the most widely deployed languages in programming due to its use on
industrial PLC's (which run, no joke everything).
When you look into their sources. It basically boils down to, "How much are
people talking about the language".
>The IEEE Spectrum Top Programming Languages app synthesizes 12 metrics from
10 sources to arrive at an overall ranking of language popularity. The sources
cover contexts that include social chatter, open-source code production, and
job postings [1]
Which only measure how much people talk about a language, not how much they
use it.
[1]
[http://spectrum.ieee.org/ns/IEEE_TPL/methods.html](http://spectrum.ieee.org/ns/IEEE_TPL/methods.html)
------
gus_massa
It’s very strange that in the category “Trending: Languages that are growing
rapidly” the first one, with 100%, is Java. I understand that Java may win the
“Jobs” category, but I’m sure that Java is not the most growing language.
(For comparison, in the TIOBE index, Java is decreasing ~1% yearly during the
last 10 years.
[http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index....](http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index.html)
. I don’t like with the TIOBE, but at least it looks more sensible.)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Do you use Rackspace Managed Cloud? How is it? - dustyreagan
I'm thinking about upgrading my Rackspace Cloud account to their "managed" support level. I was wondering if anyone here is using their Managed Cloud and if so, how do you like it? Is it worth the extra expense?
======
maxisnow
I've used it in the past and was happy with it. If you're deploying pretty
common builds then it's easy as pie - everything else obviously can take more
time.
------
mindcrime
I recently became a Rackspace customer by default, as a result of the
Slicehost acquisition. I honestly haven't dug very deeply into their offerings
and the transition has been pretty seamless. So I don't really know much about
the difference between their "regular" cloud and their "managed cloud". Would
anyone care to share a quick tl/dr on what their "Managed Cloud" offering gets
you?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
What is the ratio of BS to actual innovation in the startup Cybersecurity space? - plantsoftware
======
Eridrus
I wouldn't call it BS per se, but it's primarily incremental improvement in
easy to deploy tech, eg FireEye, Cylance, etc. There's little adoption of
things that could provide a real barrier in the long term (application
whitelisting, U2F/FIDO) because they impact the business.
No-one has a great answer to application security, pretty much everything is
incremental improvement.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Resources for creating a programming language - jwdunne
I've had an ever growing desire to learn how to create my own programming language for some time now. Although I do know there are mature and more than capable languages available, I'd really love to learn how to do it and understand the processes involved.<p>I'm just wondering if any one had any suggestions for resources and literature, which would be useful and beneficial for learning this sort of stuff. Also, if you have any general advice or suggestions to help me a long the way, that'd be much appreciated too.<p>As I said, I know that it seems like I'm reinventing the wheel but this is my idea of fun and I'm sure most of you are the same (I'm assuming a lot there though)! Nothing beats getting home at night and having an all-night hacking session in my opinion!<p>Anyway, much thanks for taking notice and thanks in advance for any replies. Also, I apologise for any spelling, grammar and/or punctuation mistakes. I've been up all night playing around in C, so I guess it's understandable haha!<p>James.
======
1331
I recommend _Programming Language Pragmatics_ by Michael Scott as a good book
to get you started: [http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Language-Pragmatics-
Third-...](http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Language-Pragmatics-Third-
Michael/dp/0123745144/)
~~~
jwdunne
Much appreciated!
------
applesnaps
Are you looking for information on writing compilers as well, or just language
design? If the former, I suggest Modern Compiler Implementation in (C|Java|ML)
by Andrew Appel, as well as the de facto `Dragon Book' (Compilers, Principles,
Techniques and Tools).
------
AmberS
<http://createyourproglang.com/>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Dtab – Spreadsheet for Data Science - dnprock
http://dtab.io/
======
angdis
I like!
One thing that I am hoping for however is some kind of notebook-like interface
for doing small, ad-hoc data analysis projects. This looks fairly close to
that.
Mathematica pioneered "the computational notebook" concept, and now we have
similar stuff with R/Rstudio, IPython/Jupyter, matlab, and jmp. Those are all
really nice and powerful, but they're somewhat large in scope and very
ambitious.
It would be soooo cool to be able to just make notebooks that contain
spreadsheets, related manipulation and analysis code and also text that can
render to well-formatted html/pdf documents with really nice tables.
This tool looks like it can get there... if it can develop the ability to
render documents sort of like Knitr for R.
~~~
toomuchtodo
Have you seen AirFlow before? I hooked a data scientist friend up with it
dockerized, and he raves about it:
[http://nerds.airbnb.com/airflow/](http://nerds.airbnb.com/airflow/)
~~~
samstave
container image please
~~~
kornish
Thanks, Google (first result for "docker airflow"):
[https://github.com/puckel/docker-airflow](https://github.com/puckel/docker-
airflow)
------
hliyan
Quick idea:
How about providing numeric cell referencing, jQuery-style:
$(1, 2) // row 1, col 2
Like it's done here:
[https://github.com/hliyan/magpie/blob/master/lib/gasp.gs](https://github.com/hliyan/magpie/blob/master/lib/gasp.gs)
------
donpdonp
while i dont have much of an opinion of js in a spreadsheet except "neat!",
the website design and text is spot-on in that I understood in an instant what
the project does! Kudos.
------
eloisius
I'd love to see Jupyter (IPython Notebooks) capable of this kind of thing.
It'd be awesome to be able to select a column of a Pandas DataFrame and apply
a function to it.
~~~
baldfat
Well capable? Yes Pandas can do that but I think what you are talking about is
you want a GUI tool?
Everything about Pandas, IPython(Now Jupyter) and R (And the other data
languages) are 100% about performing functions.
~~~
eloisius
Yeah, I mean more as a GUI enhancement. It might be outside the scope of
Jupyter, but I think it'd be neat to be able to treat DataFrames like a
spreadsheet.
Personally, I'm comfortable writing Python, but I bet you'd see more adoption
for non-programmer academics who still need to work with data.
~~~
baldfat
I doubt we will ever see the abandonment of spreadsheets LIKE WE SHOULD.
Look at Open Refine you might really like it.
[http://lemire.me/blog/archives/2014/05/23/you-shouldnt-
use-a...](http://lemire.me/blog/archives/2014/05/23/you-shouldnt-use-a-
spreadsheet-for-important-work-i-mean-it/)
~~~
analog31
I'm of the same mind about Excel, which is why I don't use it any more. I
don't like anything where there are hidden layers of meaning that are easy to
overlook. I like Jupyter because everything is right there in front of you.
Another shortcoming of spreadsheets is that they don't solve what I consider
to be the Fundamental Problem of Programming: How to keep your sanity when
your project gets bigger than one screen or one page. Of course programmers
have lots of ways to deal with this, by creating named abstractions,
subroutines, and so forth. It's why we can write million line programs today.
But how it's solved in Excel seems incredibly clumsy by comparison. Of course
you can adopt the conventions of programming by using Visual Basic, but that
seems to occur quite rarely.
------
sswezey
This is already possibly with Google Spreadsheets albeit this is a much nicer
interface.
~~~
niels_olson
> albeit this is a much nicer interface
And, if I understand correctly, this could be rolled into something like
Jupyter. Which would be awesome!
------
codezero
Looks neat, but currently getting a 503 error on one of the scripts in all the
examples: [https://rawgit.com/replit/jq-
console/master/jqconsole.min.js](https://rawgit.com/replit/jq-
console/master/jqconsole.min.js)
~~~
timdorr
It should be on cdn.rawgit.com in production:
[https://rawgit.com/](https://rawgit.com/)
------
OmarIsmail
Nice work!
I noticed that you're using a web-worker, does all the heavy lifting happen
there and the main thread is used for purely rendering?
I'm noticing some lag when I just press enter into a cell twice (once to get
into edit, and then again to get out). Any idea what's going on there (I'm
interested technically)?
------
polskibus
It's nice to see handsontable put to another good use! What other open source
libraries did you use?
------
nebulous1
A couple of things I noticed:
No editbox for the contents of the currently selected cell? (I have to double
click to see the formula)
One of the examples suggested I use dl.stdev(D2:D65). I think it actually
meant D5, but in any case I noticed that it computed the stdev as if empty
cells had zeroes in them, rather than ignore them which would be more the norm
with spreadsheets.
I do like the idea of being able to import random javascript, could be very
handy.
edit: also the drop down menu headings seem to stay highlighted when you click
off them, but you probably knew that. 2nd edit: oh I see, it's if I click off
them onto a blank part of the window
------
misiti3780
When i log in and view source I get back a little bit of json only
{"_id":"560ee464ba6b14a61c74de66","name":"Untitled","data":null,"ownerId":"560ee461ba6b14a61c74de65","javascript":"","__v":0,"opened":"2015-10-02T20:09:09.119Z","modified":"2015-10-02T20:09:08.569Z","created":"2015-10-02T20:09:08.569Z","externalLibraries":[]}
how are you doing that ?
~~~
sangd
Try another refresh. What you're seeing is the sheet data only.
------
SixSigma
While I appreciate the idea....
Use Javascript to replace vba in excel
[http://blogs.msdn.com/b/officeapps/archive/2013/03/18/excel-...](http://blogs.msdn.com/b/officeapps/archive/2013/03/18/excel-
does-javascript-a-vba-developer-s-perspective.aspx)
Use python to replace vba in excel
[http://xlwings.org/](http://xlwings.org/)
~~~
iheartmemcache
Yeah it's not really "new". Lotus Improv was doing this 25 years ago, for
those of us old fogeys who remember. 1-2-3 was for the secretaries, Improv for
the power users.
Also, I know know of plenty of financial institutions that have mod'd Excel
with Add-ins to the point where the Worksheet integrity is better than 95% of
the RDBMS' I've worked with. Version controlled, full audit trails, access
control lists, type validation...
Hell out of the box, you can get an out of the box Excel + SQL Server BI to
essentially make an off-the-cuff Line of Business app, completely sync'd, with
a Silverlight front similar to
(this)[[http://www.infragistics.com/uploadedImages/Content/PRODUCTS/...](http://www.infragistics.com/uploadedImages/Content/PRODUCTS/Silverlight_DV/Controls/Pivot_Grid/silverlight-
pivot-grid-silverlight-business-intelligence-dv.jpg)]
------
raymondgh
This is great! A lot of useful spreadsheet functions are really esoteric and
unintuitive. Would love to see this integrated with Google Sheets
------
comrh
Great UI. I wish it had some sort of import function that could take in the
Excel formulas and not just CSV data though.
------
akhilcacharya
I know a project doing something similar at MIT for finance called
AlphaSheets.
[https://founder.org/company/alphasheets](https://founder.org/company/alphasheets)
------
robochat
This reminds me a lot of pyspread -
[http://manns.github.io/pyspread/](http://manns.github.io/pyspread/)
------
akavel
The "About", "Documentation" etc. links at the bottom (footer) don't work for
me unfortunately; is it just me, or are they so for others too?
~~~
sangd
Sorry, those pages are not there yet. We're working to put in the those pages.
We got excited and decided to show the meat first. We'll have done ready soon.
If you'd like to contact us, go ahead and shoot us an email contact at dtab
dot io
------
markus2012
bug?
\- (click) Clean text using regular expression
\- Load external lib:
[https://vega.github.io/datalib/datalib.min.js](https://vega.github.io/datalib/datalib.min.js)
- Impossible (because there is no 'load external lib' functionality)
~~~
sangd
You can go to Settings tab and load this file externally.
------
j2kun
Can I drop in any .js file I want that defines appropriate functions?
~~~
dnprock
Yes, you can load any JS library to call. Check out this example with
moment.js:
[http://dtab.io/sheets/560e138927b2d2da2c44fbce](http://dtab.io/sheets/560e138927b2d2da2c44fbce)
------
zaczac
is there any angular 1.2 bindings?
------
pikzen
Every single spreadsheet software has been able to do this for years, but
using Javascript makes it better amirite?
What makes this better than Excel (VBA, Python, probably half of the languages
on the planet.), Libre Office, Google Spreadsheets, etc., aside from
Javascript ? The only point I could see would be integrating this into a page,
which is of dubious utility.
~~~
Zikes
In a typical office environment, everybody knows how to work with
spreadsheets. They're a common interface and a great way to present and
explore tabular data.
But as soon as you put that data into an Excel document and hit Save, it's
outdated. Somewhere, somebody in the office has a .xlsx file on their C: drive
with the data you need, but that doesn't help you much, does it? Or somebody
puts the data into a spreadsheet and emails it to everybody in the office,
then a few people make some changes and email again, and now you've got 15
different versions of the same spreadsheet floating around and nobody knows
which one is the latest and most truthful.
Or you put that interface on a web page connected to a shared data source and
all of those problems disappear.
~~~
SixSigma
Im afraid your experience of workflow is stuck in the 90s
Excel works just fine with dynamic data via SQL and Jason via URL.
You can also embed it as a runtime object in HTML.
~~~
Zikes
My experience is stuck in the 90s, as are the coworkers that drive that
experience. Most of them refer to the Chrome browser as "the Google", I
haven't a snowball's chance in teaching them how to connect an Excel document
directly to a central data source.
But what I can do is provide them with an easy interface for interacting with
that data directly, and give them the option to "save" their results within
the context of those interactions so that they can share a simple link instead
of a static file.
As for embedding runtimes in HTML, ActiveX is dead and I do not mourn it. Our
office has finally decided to standardize on a modern web browser, and I
couldn't be happier about that.
~~~
SixSigma
Just because your place of work doesn't follow best practice doesn't mean it
is not possible.
~~~
Zikes
I didn't say it wasn't possible, but in my environment it is not as feasible
as the alternative.
Creating a better solution is a lot easier than teaching everyone what a
database is and why it's useful.
~~~
SixSigma
Colaborative spreadsheets using Javascript is not the answer
~~~
Zikes
It's not _your_ answer, and that's okay.
~~~
SixSigma
If you put this product in front of your office colleagues, how much traction
would it get ?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Apple Daydreaming: Report Predicts Move Toward Home Devices - blackswan
http://ptech.allthingsd.com/20080522/apple-daydreaming-report-predicts-move-toward-home-devices/
======
wallflower
"For the bedroom, Forrester envisions an Apple “clock radio” that pipes in
music and other media across a home network."
One of the major things Steve Jobs did when he came back to Apple over 10
years ago when it was floundering was cut the product lines so it could focus
on what was working and what had potential (a side project, the iMac was
mainlined and greenlighted). I feel Apple is in danger of diluting its brand
as it expands into our family rooms and bedrooms (seriously, a clock radio?
there are 3rd party iPod addons that already do that)
~~~
pstuart
Most clock radios suck. If Apple can bring ease of use, style, and (dare I say
it: fun) to the household I would buy.
------
xirium
There was rumour of a game console. See
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=195640>
~~~
sjs382
There /is/ an Apple gaming console. It's an iPod (or Phone) first, though. ;)
EA and others are creating iPhone/Touch games for when the App Store launches.
~~~
xirium
Third party support is essential when launching a console. Most critically,
third party developers need to know the specification of target hardware so
that a game can competitively utilise the platform without being sluggish.
However, Apple has a culture of secrecy over hardware specifications,
threatens news websites and may have even cancelled the launch of widely
rumoured products.
It is cunning to get game developers familiar with iPhone developer tools.
However, a dedicated console could be two years away - and with plenty of
opportunity for specifications to change repeatedly.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Caller ID Test - larrys
http://joekraus.com/the-caller-id-test
======
mgkimsal
cute test, but pretty one-dimensional and short-lived. One's relationship with
people changes over time, and if there's _never_ a point where you don't dread
picking up a phone call from someone, I don't think you're that involved with
them emotionally, financially, businesswise or otherwise.
~~~
ScottWhigham
It's a good test and it's worked for thousands (or even millions) for years. I
think that most people would have taken his point to mean that if, during the
excitement of an initial meetings/pitches/negotiations, your answer is "No,
I'd let it go to voice mail" then clearly this is not the right person to
"marry".
------
DenisM
_Make fewer excuses for people and you’ll make better choices about who you
work with._
So the author argues that first impressions should be given priority over the
benefit of the doubt. First impression should direct inquiry, not cast final
judgement. Tha author is merely trying to rationalize being lazy.
------
bobinator30
this is old news: "you never get a second chance to make a good first
impression"
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
I'm looking for a roommate/hacker (bay area) - _ahacker_
Hey HN,<p>I'm a graduating CS student at a top 3 university taking a year off after graduation (in a couple months) to build a product from start to finish. I have a long list of ideas, and I'm looking for a fellow hacker who's crazy enough to take a risk and join me on this journey. I'm currently living on my own in the bay area in a small space. It's not super comfortable, but I think it's good enough and rent is cheap. If you're interested, shoot me an email with a little about yourself. email -> ahacker1729 at gmail com<p>_ahacker_
======
throweway
Why do it in pricey SF. Why not Laos you could spend years there for the same
money.
------
evm9
Darn, sounds like a cool opportunity but I'm down in LA right now. Best of
luck.
------
snehesht
Awesome, I'm doing the same thing this summer, Good luck.
------
GroSacASacs
What is the product about ?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Making Sense of Revision-control Systems - brodie
http://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=1595636
======
jcrocholl
This is a long article but very useful, even if all you learn is how to use
"git bisect".
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
You can't make C++ not ugly, but you can't not try (2010) - soundsop
http://apenwarr.ca/log/?m=201007#18
======
malkia
My experience exactly. Recent code I had to change map<string, int> to MSVC
specific hash_map<string, int> because the hash-implementation was better in
the case, rather than the tree in the first case (not sure whether it's avl or
red-black).
I really did not care about ordering.
And then std::string. I had to go and pool a lot of the std::string's that we
have in one of our tools through a function (reusing common lisp) called
intern, that was storing them in a pool without reference counting - this
saved quite a lot of memory (most of them were key-values pairs).
~~~
briansmith
For the first problem, see std::unordered_map (was std::tr1::unordered_map).
For the second problem, see boost::flyweight<std::string>. And/or, "typedef
std::shared_ptr<std::string> string" and add "new" in front of every string
you create.
~~~
malkia
Funny, a colleague just used std::tr1:unordered_map, and it was available in
his VS2008 (I guess SP1), but not on everyone's machine.
Yes, it seems to be the right thing - unordered, while hash_map is still
ordered (it wants less operator).
------
sendos
I guess C++ hate is in fashion, but for me, I just don't see it.
I've programmed in myriad languages, including the HN-beloved Lisp, and I
think C++ is fine and stands up there with the best of them in terms of
ability, syntax, etc. It has its annoying problems, of course, but so does any
other language.
Maybe if I tried some of the languages that get huge praise here, like
Haskell, I would see the light and see what a horrible horrible language C++
is.
------
TGJ
Double negatives are frowned upon for a reason....
~~~
Confusion
I'm guessing the title is on purpose, as it nicely illustrates the problem of
ugliness in a language.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: We launched our startup (GroupieGuide) today. What do you think? - fixie
We requested feedback on HN when we first launched our private alpha. We launched publicly today with a new interactive theme designer, group subscription with integrated e-mail, and a bunch of usability fixes. What do you think?
======
babyshake
First of all, the picture on the homepage is hilarious.
But I would need to be convinced why I should use these groups instead of
Facebook Groups, when my friends and I are already all on Facebook.
~~~
fixie
Good point, we probably need to emphasize this a bit more. We are trying to
convince people that GroupieGuide offers groups a fully-functional customized
website that they can call their own. On Facebook, Meetup, Google/Yahoo
Groups, groups aren't able to express themselves with their own design and
branding. GroupieGuide only has a single link back at the bottom of the group
page.
~~~
jlees
Does a book club or happy hour group need, or want, custom design and
branding?
~~~
joevandyk
Need? No. Want? Maybe.
------
monological
<http://groupieguide.com/>
------
JimmyL
I clicked on the five thumbnails located below the main image with the
expectation that something would happen - maybe a larger image of whatever
it's a thumbnail of, or some more description of what _integrate email_ , for
example, means.
Likewise with the six sample uses under _create a website to_ \- if _recruit
readers for a book club_ is listed as a suggested use, and it's visually
presented as a button-shaped thing, I expect to be able to click on it and see
a demo (either live example site or screenshot) of what it would look like if
I chose to use your site for that purpose.
Having a GetSatisfaction link on individual group pages is unclear - is the
user being invited to give feedback on the individual page, the group, or the
service in general.
When editing a group's page, have some easy way to see what the thing will
look like when viewed by a normal, non-logged in user - the same idea as
Facebook's feature to see what your profile looks like when viewed by someone
else.
Also, maybe some more explaining what the service is. Until I got to the
screen below the fold, I thought the site would be a way for a band's groupies
to organize themselves, or for the best strategies to become a groupie.
~~~
joevandyk
Good point, we will be making adjustments to the front page shortly.
------
fortes
Quick feedback / pet peeve: You've done a great job of making it easy and
quick to see how to create a group, but I'm curious about what the groups look
like & do. Screenshots or a link to an existing group would do just fine.
~~~
fixie
Good point, here are some groups:
<http://thegroupies.groupieguide.com/> <http://fixie.groupieguide.com/>
<http://cohitre.groupieguide.com/> <http://stptraining.groupieguide.com/>
------
cool-RR
And I thought it would be a guide on getting groupies.
------
physcab
The site is very well designed and put together. I was pretty confused by the
landing page though. I should be able to understand your product in 5 seconds
and that didn't exactly happen.
Also I'm curious to know what problem this solves or how much demand is really
out there for this product. Need a site? Google Sites does the job well. Need
a discussion group? Facebook Groups has that covered. Need to collaborate?
Google Docs, Google Calendar, E-mail, all fit the bill fine.
If you're main pull is to provide custom design/branding, then why are users
held to the GroupieGuide domain? Doesn't it defeat the purpose?
I interact with a research group on a day to day basis, but I simply did not
see enough value for me to create a presence on your site. Maybe I missed the
point--in which case you need to make it more clear why your product is not
for me.
~~~
carlosrr
I think you hit the nail right in the head when you mention all these
different services. There are many products out there that expand our
features, however using and mashing these products together ends up with a
complicated and difficult to setup service.
We picked features that are useful for non-techies and made them accessible
through a single interface.
------
suhail
Some might ask how is this different from Ning.com or Tangler.com?
What are you going to say? How are you going to win? How will you overcome the
customer lock in at established competitors?
~~~
carlosrr
We think that there are many users that want a web page for their group but
don't want to interact online. GroupieGuide is a gets out of the way solution
where most of the interaction can be done over e-mail. Visitors don't need to
navigate to get the information that they need.
Both ning and tangler focus on building online social interactions through the
website. We are trying to cater to the users that have been ignored by social
networks.
------
alexitosrv
I really like the visual design of the whole thing. Good job!
It looks very polished and professionally designed.
------
tonyd138
How does this make money? You were compared to Ning.com or Tangler.com, asked
how will you get their customers. I think calling them customers is a stretch,
none of them make money.
~~~
fixie
Currently we don't make any money :) We have some thoughts on how to monetize
it in the future, but at this point we are just focusing on building an
awesome application that people would actually find useful.
------
vaksel
The background pic is a little confusing to me
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Googling ourselves to death - Libertatea
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/kathleen-parker-googling-ourselves-to-death/2013/06/14/ea004bba-d532-11e2-8cbe-1bcbee06f8f8_story.html
======
driverdan
Or you could do what I've done (and I'm guessing many other HN users) and
engineer the results that come up. Search for my name and you get what I want
you to see, at least for the first few SERPs. Obviously this isn't possible
for everyone (very common names, celebrities with too much coverage) but for
those who can it doesn't take a lot of effort.
My opinion is that it's far better to get the information out there you want
people to see than have nothing at all.
~~~
TillE
Do people actually Google _names_ expecting good information? My name is not
extremely common, but it is shared by a few people more prolific or well-known
than me, such that the results are useless. I know virtually nobody with a
unique name.
But search for my email address and you'll get much more interesting stuff.
~~~
incision
_> "Do people actually Google names expecting good information?"_
Anecdotally, no.
In my experience, the people who are quick to Google the new hire/candidate
are salivating for a way to pre-emptively discredit "the new guy".
I've encountered several people who are pretty obsessive about this and not
only Google everyone they meet but have alerts set up for their own names.
I have a relatively unique name yet you won't find anything about me in the
first pages of Google results. If you dig, you'll eventually hit a LinkedIn or
G+ pages which I've been very careful about sharing anything on.
------
dendory
Of my immediate family, only one has a Facebook profile, and none of them
would come up on Google, none share any image online nor do they trust things
like cloud storage or online banking. It's worth noting that a big portion of
the world is still fairly unknown to Google.
------
dvt
When people search for my name (relatively rare), they get my Stack Overflow
profile, my LinkedIn profile (which I don't use), my G+ profile (which I don't
use), my Facebook profile, my Github profile, and my blog (alongside various
other stuff).
As long as you're not an idiot (herp-a-derp here's a public picture of me
getting shitfaced in Vegas), I think you can control your online persona
fairly well. I'm always amazed at those people (that presumably work in the
tech industry) that aren't aware of what their online persona consists of and
get fired/in trouble over online stuff.
Seriously people, Google yourselves (hopefully not to death)!
------
nickodell
Google's CEO said, "You can just move," but I think that's out of context.
Here's the whole phrase: "Street View, we drive exactly once. You can just
move, right?" He also retracted the statement later:
>UPDATE: Google CEO Eric Schmidt has offered a response to comments he made
during his appearance on the Parker Spitzer show last Friday.
>Schmidt's statement reads: "As you can see from the unedited interview, [...]
I clearly misspoke. If you are worried about Street View and want your house
removed please contact Google and we will remove it."
------
hawkharris
Being completely anonymous is neither practical or desirable for most working
people. You need an online reputation in order to stay competitive.
The better solution is to control your online reputation. Prospective
employers may need to search for you. If you have a website in your name
and/or have other public posts online, you can control your image. It also
gives you a platform through which you can respond to any criticism or
misinformation.
------
nicolaus
The article conflates what I can do online with what my government, via
projects like PRISM and others we've not heard of. My government using the
same tools as I can use, perhaps augmenting it to do it on a larger scale, is
not the same thing as my government using its vast resources and monopoly on
coercive power to muscle its way into everything everyone can and has said
with impunity.
------
danso
I wonder if employers think it weird when Googling a job candidate when they
find nothing at all about that person?
~~~
skore
It's strange - I find it both weird and cool at the same time when a google
search about a person comes back without information. Weird because - who does
that? Cool because - it's possible that this person is very good at managing
their privacy. But my head cannot decide and in the end I'm mostly frustrated
that my desire for information was left hanging. I completely know that it's
wrong and bad, but, well, the feeling is there. Weird times we live in.
It also reminds me, again, of the joke making its round when google+ started:
It had an uncommonly long signup form, the joke being "Come on google, quit
playing games - you already know all of that about me. Why bother asking?"
~~~
Zigurd
I'm the first result for googling my first name. I look at it as being a bit
like Bono, or Cher.
~~~
skore
Careful, though - that might just be your filter bubble.
~~~
Zigurd
I've only tested it in reasonably random settings a few times, so, you may be
right about the filter bubble. What are your results? (If you've seen pictures
you'll know I'm not the bodybuilder with the "zigurd" account name on some
bodybuilding forum.)
~~~
skore
I live a terrible life in the shadow of a greater man with the exact same,
exactly as rare name -
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Deutsch](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Deutsch)
(although my twitter does show up on page 2 when anonymous, page 2 when logged
in, so there.)
------
1morepassword
Privacy wasn't lost to technology, nor was it given away voluntarily, at least
not consciously. It was _stolen_ by greedy corporations. Governments came
second, they mostly just leverage the work of said corporations.
This is not a sign of the times, an inevitable result of technological
"progress". It is a conscious act of greed and disrespect which can be undone
by democracy and law.
Of course we can never stop the abusive invasion of privacy through technology
altogether, but neither can we completely stop theft, burglary, vandalism,
murder and rape. That doesn't mean it should be legal.
To live in a world where smoking weed is illegal but violating the privacy of
millions is a respectable business model is not the result of some
irreversible force of nature. This is not "normal". It's a choice.
This can be changed. What Google does to the detriment of the privacy of
millions can be made a crime. Privacy is not doomed to be lost forever.
~~~
jes
I think that DuckDuckGo has seen an increase in traffic since this series of
stories has broken. I use them myself.
I would be happy to pay a reasonable premium to those companies that chose to
take my privacy seriously. Companies that don't take my privacy seriously can
compete for people who don't care as much about their privacy.
For the record, I'm ok with legalizing weed, too.
~~~
Pherdnut
But we don't even know for sure yet whether they had a choice and how this all
came about. They're not allowed to talk about it. They could compromise
DuckDuckGo and they would be legally bound to not say anything either. At this
point I'm just waiting to see if they take this seriously. If they don't. I
have to find non-US-alternatives to practically everything I use.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
It’s Time We Stopped Rewarding Projects with Crappy Documentation - cletus
http://www.cforcoding.com/2009/08/its-time-we-stopped-rewarding-projects.html
======
tjic
When people say "we need to all stop doing X and do Y", I am tempted to
reorder the statement into a question:
Q: _WHY_ do we reward projects with crappy documentation?
Heinlein had a statement: "any time people ask a question that starts with
'why', the answer is usually 'money'".
For values of "money" == "value", this is the answer to why we use projects
with crappy docs.
If using a good codebase with crappy docs delivers more bang for the buck than
using a crappier codebase, then it is in everyone's best interest to use that
great codebase.
Instead of issuing blanket cries for unified action, a better approach is to
figure out
(a) what the actual issue is, and then
(b) [ if I may allow my inner capitalist to vent ] come up with a way to
increase value for everyone by fixing the issue in return for some mutually
beneficial trade.
Part of the Free Software idea is that free software generates follow on work.
Perhaps some of that follow on work should be "the un fun task of generating
docs".
~~~
sophacles
In this case, I'm fairly certain your last sentence gets to the heart of the
issue. The biggest motive of most people writing OSS stuff is: Fun.
Documenting is un-fun. Since there is 0 obligation on the author's part and
any benefit gained by others is a side-effect, documents won't get written,
particularly to appease people who come in an demand better docs without
offering any compensation.
------
URSpider94
The time-tested market solution to this problem seems to be that a bunch of
1337 hackers create a solid open-source package that you can download for
free, then an author comes along, writes a thorough set of documentation for
it, and publishes it through O'Reilly for $30 per copy.
Why do people put up with this model? Maybe because nobody expects any better,
maybe because $30 is short money for well-written documentation. As a
rhetorical question, have you ever worked on a project (open-source or closed,
internal or external) where documentation writing was anything other than an
after-thought?
~~~
timwiseman
* maybe because $30 is short money for well-written documentation.*
For sufficiently complex and powerful software and sufficiently well written
documentation, it is.
------
nkurz
> Otherwise I’m just not interested anymore.
I'm afraid your article rubs me the wrong way. Could you explain further why
an independent developer (who has written code in their own time to satisfy
their own need) has _any_ obligation to satisfy your desire for better
documentation? I can certainly understand why one wouldn't choose to use
undocumented code, and why one wouldn't recommend it to others, but I don't
understand the sense of entitlement.
Further, what greater obligation does the original author have that you as a
user of the code do not? Why should the author be expected to sit down and
write documentation intended solely for the use of others, whereas you, now
capable of doing the same, do not? Your 'duty of care' argument falls short
for me, and instead I see a favor not being returned.
I don't mean to be too negative (your writing style itself is great, for
example) but I really don't understand the underlying sentiment.
~~~
Semiapies
You might as well ask why an independent developer has any obligation to
release code that actually works most of the time.
No, in the broadest sense, there's no moral or legal obligation. However, in
the social sense of interacting with people that you're offering software to,
you're not doing a favor to anyone by releasing crappy code or putting up
lousy documentation.
You may be confused by the level of the argument - it's not at the level of
"must", but "should".
------
jgrahamc
That reminds me of a three year old blog posting of mine:
[http://www.jgc.org/blog/2006/07/open-source-elephant-in-
room...](http://www.jgc.org/blog/2006/07/open-source-elephant-in-room-
source.html)
~~~
DanielStraight
Excellent article. I literally laughed out loud when I read the 59% of
projects had negative scores.
Another plus for this article (that you probably didn't have in mind when
writing it) is that it gives readers an idea of what open source projects are
good choices for practicing reading code. So many people recommend reading
code, but no one ever recommends what to read. Kudos for giving me a starting
place.
------
ivanyv
I agree with most of his points, but let's be honest people, writing good
documentation is no easy task. And not many programmers are good communicators
either.
~~~
baha_man
Writing good code is both difficult and all about communication. If you can
write good code, you're probably capable of writing good documentation (low
level technical documentation in your native language, at any rate) if you
really want to.
~~~
mechanical_fish
By "no easy task" he doesn't mean it's some kind of intractable problem.
(Though it _is_ much harder for some than others.) The problem is that it
takes non-negotiable amounts of time. Writing is _work_.
Even if you're one of those rare people who can just sit down and type press-
ready copy ( _cough_ Isaac Asimov _cough_ ) it takes time to physically _type_
it all.
------
blhack
Writing documentation is NOT fun.
Writing really cool code is...
What you're asking is that people turn projects that are "fun" into projects
that are "work" and still do it for free?
Really? Because I'm perfectly content using software that works, works really
well (better than the costly alternative in some cases), and is 100% free. I'm
totally fine with having to find some of the devs on IRC or a mailing list
instead of having to look through some docs.
Yeah, documentation is really nice, but suggsting that we stop using projects
that have poor documentation is a bit silly.
------
conanite
I would bet that any popular open-source project became popular _before_ it
had any decent documentation (assuming it has any now). The biggest block, for
me, when writing documentation, is that I'm writing for a mystery audience, I
don't know what their problems will be, or what questions they will ask. But
once your project is used widely, documentation is just a matter of
refactoring the mailing lists. And that's an itch some developers are willing
to scratch - nobody wants to answer the same questions over and over.
------
dasil003
Would you rather have a good library with no documentation or a bad library
with great documentation? I don't say that because I disagree with the OA in
any way, but just to point out why people "reward" projects with crappy
documentation, and why it might be a hard problem to resolve by peer pressure.
~~~
Semiapies
I'll bite...When's the last time you've seen crappy open source code with
"great documentation"?
------
dan_the_welder
So what's it going to take to draw UI and documentation people to open source?
~~~
michael_dorfman
Money?
Seriously, I don't know too many people whose idea of "scratching an itch" is
writing documentation. There aren't a lot of documentation-hobbyists out
there, as far as I know...
~~~
robotrout
I've found the feeding infants a mixture of milk mixed with 25% pulverized IRS
forms and 10% pulverized army field manuals, results in a 65% chance that by
age 8, they will be obsessed with writing documentation.
By next year, we'll have an army of 1,000,000 tech writers ready to serve the
emperor and rebuild the empire, errr, or at least document it's rebuilding.
~~~
billswift
I'm curious, is your user name supposed to be Robo-Trout or Robot-Rout?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Nintendo's washable playing cards from 1953 - polm23
http://blog.beforemario.com/2020/06/nintendos-washable-playing-cards-from.html
======
Isamu
After watching “Summer Wars” (spoiler alert: Japan is saved through a heroic
game of Koi-Koi) I went shopping for a hanafuda deck and was delighted to find
that Nintendo still makes them! I am still bad at Koi-Koi but I love my
Nintendo cards!
[https://store.nintendo.com/daitouryou-hanafuda-cards-
red.htm...](https://store.nintendo.com/daitouryou-hanafuda-cards-red.html)
~~~
zapzupnz
They also included Koi-Koi in Clubhouse Games/51 Worldwide Games, recently
released on the Switch. The 'Impossible' CPU is a fairly worthy opponent for a
computer player (many others in the same collection are hopeless), making it
very nice when you don't have a human with whom to play!
------
melvinroest
Is it only Japan that has such a long time horizon? I feel like that a subset
of Japanese companies really try their best to simply stay alive for hundreds
of years.
Just looking at this list, Japan just obliterates any other country in having
the oldest companies in the world [1].
I feel like there are lessons to be learned here. I hope someone on HN knows a
thing or two about it.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_companies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_companies)
~~~
bobthepanda
Japan has an extensive history of employers adopting male employees to keep
successors "in the family", which may explain at least part of this:
[https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/japanese-
adoption-r...](https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/japanese-adoption-
rates-majority-adult-men-a7524301.html) The Western family unit has not
generally been associated with business as strongly.
One could also make the point that Japan's long time horizons were a leading
factor in the "lost decade"; Western companies reorganize and recapitalize
through bankruptcy and some do not survive the process, but Japan's focus on
stability kept "zombie" companies operating longer than they should have.
~~~
082349872349872
Western companies also reorganise involuntarily, through leveraged buy-outs.
Are these not big in Japan?
~~~
bobthepanda
Not really, at least not until recently: [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-
private-equity-asia-break...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-private-
equity-asia-breakingviews/breakingviews-buyout-giants-break-through-the-ice-
in-japan-idUSKBN1CB06U)
------
chrisco255
Still amazed that a company like Nintendo survived over 100 years of dramatic
cultural and economic change in Japan and remains as relevant and innovative
as ever. How is a company culture for creativity sustained like that for so
long? Most corporations seem to go stale especially after the founders die off
or fade out.
~~~
tenebrisalietum
Wikipedia article for "List of oldest companies" \-
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_companies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_companies)
\- Japan has the oldest one still technically operating (which is Kongō Gumi).
The good thing about this is that this shows that it's not impossible for
Nintendo to be around 1000 years later.
------
Legogris
In recent decades, hanafuda cards are probably used moreso in South Korea than
in Japan in the game Go-Stop. Classic gambling game. It's really fun!
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go-Stop](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go-Stop)
Rules:
[https://www.pagat.com/fishing/gostop.html](https://www.pagat.com/fishing/gostop.html)
------
Closi
Very cool bit of Nintendo history, although as someone with a passion for
cards, paper cards with a good finish are still the gold standard.
~~~
Isamu
Seems like there isn’t a variety of finishes available like there used to be?
Finding the right finish is critical in card handling and close up magic.
~~~
Legogris
I own decks with 3 different material and feel to them and I haven't really
went out of my way to look for them - just been picking them up when I'm out
and about and either need a deck to play, for souvenirs, or see one I like.
My favorite so far is an Evangelion themed one. A bit gimmicky and may be
confusing to play with but I think the art is actually nice.
[http://www.tabroid.net/news/2012/06/enjoy-hanafuda-with-
eva-...](http://www.tabroid.net/news/2012/06/enjoy-hanafuda-with-eva-fuda-
evangelion-flower-card.html)
That being said, I haven't seen magic being done with these kinds of cards -
they're much harder and smaller (think hard carton rather than paper) so you'd
have to come up with new routines specifically for them.
------
twic
A fun (i thought) fact i heard the other day is that both Nintendo (founded
1889) and Coca-Cola (founded 1886) predate Dracula (published 1897). So it
would be entirely euchronistic for an adaption to feature Dracula lounging
about, drinking Coke and playing Nintendo.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Petition for Death Star by 2016 passes 25,000 names, White House must respond - rblion
http://thenextweb.com/shareables/2012/12/13/petition-to-build-a-death-star-by-2016-passes-25000-signatures-white-house-is-required-to-respond/?fromcat=google
======
rblion
I think a smarter goal would be to build a spaceship capable of reaching Moon
or Mars a lot faster. Also able to transport robots and supplies to build a
colony for humans within a decade or two (hopefully). Just a thought...
~~~
indiecore
No. Death Star or nothing.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Envelope with deadly poison ricin intercepted at U.S. Capitol's mail facility - spitx
http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/16/us/tainted-letter-intercepted/index.html
======
spitx
Letter was reportedly sent to Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.).
Source: [http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/roger-wicker-letter-
ri...](http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/roger-wicker-letter-
ricin-90171.html)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How Do You Catch Covid-19? There Is a Growing Consensus - kjhughes
https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-exactly-do-you-catch-covid-19-there-is-a-growing-consensus-11592317650
======
andrewfromx
[https://images.wsj.net/im-198718/IM](https://images.wsj.net/im-198718/IM) why
is that picture used? those people are outside in sunlight! Shouldn't the
picture show people indoors as how you get it?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Free Contact Details in LinkedIn - ikehat
https://contactz.io
======
ziddoap
So, if I have a phone number on my profile which I have willingly shared to my
connections but specifically not to anyone I'm not connected with - your
product solicits my connections to share _my_ phone number with other people
who are also not my connections?
A big no thanks from me, seems pretty damn invasive.
I also don't see a privacy policy on your page? Would you mind laying out what
sort of data you are collecting and what you do with it? Are you selling this
data to other firms?
Just a heads up, if you collect personal information (you do), you are
required by law to have a privacy policy. Assuming you serve customers in
California, EEA, Canada, and other places - you may want to abide by the
requirements set out (CalOPPA, COPPA, GDPR)
[https://www.privacypolicies.com/blog/privacy-policies-
legall...](https://www.privacypolicies.com/blog/privacy-policies-legally-
required/)
------
ikehat
Join the Contactz business network and have other members share their contacts
with you. Install a free Chrome Extension and see email and phone number near
many of your LinkedIn search results.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Snapchat has reportedly filed confidentially for its massive IPO - coloneltcb
https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/15/snapchat-has-reportedly-filed-confidentially-for-its-massive-ipo/
======
taytus
I'm a professional photographer with about 16K + Instagram followers.
I used snapchat to stream behind the scenes photos and videos and retouching
tutorials, but that was a black box.
Yes, I had comments open and I interacted with my friends and fans, but I
couldn't tag anyone, or hashtags, discoverability is a serious issues in that
platform.
I started using Instagram stories and now I have the same views per snaps that
I had on snapchat plus now I can tag brands/models/makeup artists/ etc.
Instagram is going to EAT snapchat, specially for content creators
discoverability is everything.
~~~
rgbrenner
It definitely sounds like Instagram is a better fit for that. But is that
really Snapchat's core use case?
There's definitely some overlap in uses, but instagram isn't a complete
replacement for Snapchat. And the areas where instagram doesn't cover
snapchat, it seems like are snapchat's primary uses.
~~~
TallGuyShort
Maybe you could describe the core use case? I was nodding my head all through
that comment because I feel like I _should_ like Snapchat, seems like everyone
else does, but after each of several attempts I just uninstalled it because I
would open it and wonder what I should be doing on it. I just didn't find
myself experiencing things that were worth pulling out my phone for but not
worth keeping permanently. And I just couldn't find accounts who posted
anything worthwhile on there often enough.
~~~
nothrabannosir
It's great for a light, whimsical touch. Throw stuff at the wall and see what
sticks. Photos of yourself making a fool of yourself, everywhere, all the
time. Stupid puns, stupid jokes, stupid selfies, stupid stuff which is really
the best stuff, if you ask me :). No ultra well thought out filtered perfect
square omg look at the color chroma jesus on my toast kind of photos. That'd
be a waste of time. Just passing thoughts, fleeting moments. It's so great for
a light touch to keeping up with far away friends and family. You don't need a
reason to send a snap of just your face doing O.O. And it reminds you of each
other. But you wouldn't do that over e-mail or Facebook :P.
~~~
toomuchtodo
Do people really have that much time to create and view junk? Random photos of
whatever? I'm unsure how this is better than SMS/MMS/iMessage, or how it has
more value. Twitter with pics and video in private groups?
~~~
argonaut
Have you been in a new relationship recently? Anecdotally it's pretty common
for a couple to send pictures to one another of their faces through Snapchat -
just nice to see each other and see what each other is doing. This is a
classic Snapchat use case.
~~~
SmellyGeekBoy
My wife and I do this all the time and we've been together 16 years...
------
chollida1
Really interested in learning if Snap is more Facebook or Twitter.
This could be a big litmus test for the tech IPO.
2 things I'm very interested in:
1) If the rumors are correct that they are looking to raise 4 Billion at a
roughly $40 Billion valuation.
If you assume that their absolute pie in the sky max valuation ever is similar
to what facebook is now, roughly 340 Billion, then that's not alot of upside
for investors for a company that probably isn't yet profitable.
2) I've heard that the founders have locked up voting control. I'm always half
watching companies like this to find out just how far they can push wall
street before wall street says no more. Mark Zuckerberg and the Google
founders have done a great job of managing their companies while maintaining
voter control.
I want to see a tech company where the founders own voting control but manage
the company like Twitter, this is not a positive reference.
If Snap get's their rumored IPO price but can't grow revenue then they could
be the poster child for SEC minority shareholder reform, but then again
President Trump has said he wants to remove regulation in the markets so.....
Twitter had a very dedicated and professional audience, journalists,
investors, etc who used their product and they couldn't live up to
expectations.
Snap now has to better than twitter and they'll have to do it by taking
advertising dollars from Google and Facebook. That's a tough fight to get
into.
~~~
photogrammetry
>1) If the rumors are correct that they are looking to raise 4 Billion at a
roughly $40 Billion valuation.
Was under the impression Snapchat was given a $3-5 billion valuation.
I find it hard to accept that Snapchat is worth the same as Tesla and SpaceX
combined.
In other words, is [a 400-employee company whose core product works only on
cell phones to show annoying ads to teenagers as they send each other photos,
and whose annual income is barely $100m] worth the same as [a 15,000-employee
company that produces autonomous electric vehicles, with a net income of a few
billion/year] and [a 5,000-employee aerospace company that builds self-landing
rockets, with income of a few billion/year] combined? I don't bloody think so,
especially given what an asshole Evan Spiegel has been in public lately.
If anything, this is a sign that we're in a soon-to-pop bubble. If Snapchat
ever goes public, it deserves to die the same slow death on the stock market
as Twitter did earlier this year, or a violent pets.com style death.
~~~
bfstein
A company is worth the percentage it captures of the value it creates. You
alluded to it in your comment--Snap has a much lower headcount and an order of
magnitude less operating costs, so if anything it kind of makes sense that
they'd be valued at a relative premium.
Also, you may not like Snapchat, but to say it deserves to die when it both a)
employs real people and b) clearly serves a market need is such a terrible
thing to wish for.
~~~
photogrammetry
I like Snapchat; it's a great service. However, if they keep introducing more
ads while demanding ridiculous valuations, my generation will stop using it.
It would be great for Snapchat and Twitter to be turned into nonprofits like
Wikipedia.
------
johngrefe
So people are super hyped about the Snapchat Spectacles. I get the excitement,
they are Google Glass at a proletariat price, so owning them doesn't make you
a GlassHole. Snapchat is one of the most popular LA Unicorns. Everyone is
waiting for them to go public.
So how did they release their big hardware add on? Limited time vending
machines. They are spinning it as cool, but with XMas, their supposed
capitalization and user base, it's a pretty big warning that these are not
released through a consumer channel. They are probably experiencing major
headwinds keeping them out of commercialization, or a major cash crisis.
I'm want to side with the cash crisis. I'd love to be proven wrong, but I
don't think their balance sheet is going to be very strong, if the
fundamentals were there, Amazon and Best Buy would be distributing the
product. Sure, tell me its a marketing strategy for exclusivity, I agree, it's
great. It should have been done over the summer, moving into store shelves
last week for Xmas sales.
~~~
deepnotderp
My personal hypothesis on this is that they're eating a loss at the price
range right now and are trying to figure out if people are interested in the
spectacles and at what price.
~~~
usrusr
If anything they are creating a whole lot of media buzz, likely to be
perfectly timed ahead of their IPO. The message isn't "we have head mounted
cameras, head mounted cameras will dominate the world", the message is "we are
more than just another entry in the endless stream of icq successors, continue
to expect the unexpected".
This might turn out to be more valuable to founders and VCs than the total
hardware cost of the first few batches of camera sunglasses. For that
function, the final spectacles price could be purely a balancing act between
looking financially responsible to future investors and not deterring
consumers to much, with no relation to hardware cost at all.
~~~
johngrefe
That, is totally great. It doesn't get me excited as a market investor.
Twitter has been living off their hype and not their balance sheet, and
eventually it degrades and erodes a business until it practically isn't one.
My experience is of course entirely anecdotal since I'm so heavily involved in
hardware startups now. As an ancillary to bolster hype, I agree, it's great.
------
slackoverflower
Many people here are underestimating Snapchat. It is the only app where I
enjoy the ads. They are not intrusively at all, most of the time they show up
at the end of a story or between 2 user's stories. They are all video ads
which is the best form of getting attention (atleast for me) and interacting
with the ad is as simple as swiping up on the video. If it is an app install
ad: Swipe up and it brings up the App Store download view. If it's a shopping
ad: swipe up and its bring a web view of the advertiser's ecommerce site. It
is great! Facebook is boring and repetitive, Snapchat is lively and fun to
use. I see it going extremely far but it will be tough to reach Facebook-
scale.
------
brilliantcode
> $250 million and $350 million this year, according to those documents.
That's pretty impressive but is it a sustainable source of income?
Seems like this socio-consumer space is extremely volatile. Facebook & Twitter
was the last platform I interacted with....3 years ago. Haven't even used
instgram, vine, now snap chat. The fact that billions of dollars were spent
buying out instagram, whatsapp, I wonder how facebook is aiming to make back
all that cash expenditure. Linkedin barely gets a pass because it's
enterprisey and Microsoft validated by buying it out.
Take my view with a grain of salt as I consider these social networking type
of websites our generation's "cigarette" -everyone is doing it and nobody
wants to stop and examine it's impact on the quality of your life.
I guess when everybody is around me is so concerned with the avatar version of
themselves online and how they think they are perceived, therein emerges a
divergence of values and attitude towards such mediums and the type of
personalities it generates that leaks into real life (which I steer away
from).
------
Tepix
Could someone explain
a) Why they need so much money? Don't tell me it's to produce some spectacles
b) Why they are worth so much? I get that they have an interesting user base
(young people), but they are having a hard time making money, aren't they?
That $19b WhatsApp purchase hasn't exactly earned a lot of money yet, has it?
It's still a very long bet, especially with Facebook being forbidden to
collect the data now in some countries.
~~~
sfaf
a) To build an ad business capable of handling $100m of ads. You need massive
investments in sales, infrastructure, tools, etc. to build a business like
that
b) They have one of the fastest growing user bases in the social space, their
users spends an astounding amount of time on the app (estimated at 30 minutes
per day), and their user base is the most targeted demographic for
demographics. Also they have literally barely turned on the advertising
machine and their initial forays have already hit a revenue run rate of
$300M+.
So essentially they have a shitload of eyeballs, the eyeballs are growing
massively, their eyeballs spend a lot of time on their app, and advertisers
love those eyeballs. Their business valuation is based on massive potential,
not current revenues, but their advertising efforts already show huge promise.
There is almost no startup with anything close to their engagement, growth,
and monetization potential and the last company that looked like them was
Facebook. Hence, the HYPE.
~~~
monkmartinez
To your point b... so it's all about bubbles? A race for eyeballs before they
disappear to the next "new, cool" thing?
Because advertising isn't working for the people that sell "things." If social
networks are supposed to create spending/buying in retail (both online and
meatspace) they are not doing a very good job. Google: Retail sales 2016.
~~~
avn2109
Fair point re: connection to the actual economy. But remember - the point of
advertising is mostly not to _increase_ sales overall, it's to _steal_ sales
from your competition in a zero sum game.
------
kevando
Maybe I'm alone here, but I love the way Evan and Snapchat, er Snap,
communicate as a company. They are incredibly tight lipped, but also very
honest and blunt. They've talked about this IPO for years, and made no secret
about becoming a camera company.
~~~
pimlottc
On the other hand, I find it extremely annoying how Team Snapchat routinely
sends elaborately animated pre-prepared snaps that are impossible to make in
the official app. Eat your own dogfood, guys!
~~~
pritianka
I agree with you on this one. It feels unfair!
------
samfisher83
I realized that facebook had made it when old people started using it, and I
don't mean silicon valley old, but like for real old. Snapchat hasn't hit that
threshold yet. It could be the next myspace of facebook, but at 40 billion
there is a plenty of upside.
------
nihonde
I don't follow the numbers on Snap, but my personal experience is that Snow is
eating their share in Asia. You can build a big business without Asia, but it
won't be enough to keep The Street happy. This IPO feels like a liquidation
for investors who see the end of the road ahead for Snap.
------
beedogs
Anyone who gets in on this IPO is going to know what pain feels like. How can
a company that doesn't make any money go public in good faith?
------
pplperson
Maybe someone can enlighten me. I read awhile back (when the rumors just
started) that a company can not engage in advertising/marketing in the pre-IPO
period. If that's the case I assume the timing of Spectacles release is a way
around that?
~~~
carlosdp
They cannot make large product announcements or changes in the "quiet period"
between when the IPO is publically filed and when it goes live. This is a
rumor of a private filing, not the public filing, so yes Spectacles are well
in the clear. You can make large announcements right up till the day the IPO
is published on the SEC website.
This is because you are not supposed to solicit people to buy your shares
before it goes public.
------
ankurdhama
It is amazing that the best business model of current era is - Build something
that allows people to feed their ego (ahem social activity ahem) and sell ads,
simple :)
------
millettjon
Just an anecdote but my kids (2 10 year olds in Chile) use Instagram and
Snapchat about the same. They use Whatsapp and Musically several times more
frequently.
------
shaunrussell
Anecdotal, but as a casual snapchat user I've noticed a significant 50%+ drop
in activity by my friends + peers since Instagram launched stories. I use to
sign in and have 20+ stories to watch, this morning it is 4.
I feel like Snapchat sees the writing on the wall, and this is their chance
for everyone to cash out.
------
Apocryphon
To anyone on HN (or elsewhere) who doesn't get Snapchat, revisit Justin Kan's
explanation:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10859860](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10859860)
~~~
patorjk
Looks like the blog post linked in that thread now gives a 404.
~~~
__derek__
Here's the correct URL: [https://justinkan.com/why-i-love-
snapchat-23d31ea87d3c](https://justinkan.com/why-i-love-snapchat-23d31ea87d3c)
------
moron4hire
I do not understand the value of Snapchat as a social network _at all_ , and I
use it on a daily basis.
There's no way to reshare anything, which means the only way you can find
people is through other channels external to Snapchat. And they make it really
hard to add someone that isn't in your immediate vicinity with their logo
ready to snap. This seems ludicrous to me. How can a social networking app not
try to capture all of the activity surrounding it? How can a social networking
app not do everything it can to encourage people to build their network?
------
WheelsAtLarge
Can some one tell me why they use "confidentially"? When they have been
talking about this for months and everyone in the tech/social business knows
about it.
I guess it's confidential since they didn't blast fireworks and cannons.
Anyhow, I say that they will soon(if not now) be known as the cool social
network while Facebook will live as the old but reliable techie social network
, similar to the Apple/Microsoft delineation.
~~~
lesdeuxmagots
Its a type of filing. Confidentially means that we cannot go so EDGAR and look
up the filing right now, and they will not need to disclose the documents
publicly until very close to the actual IPO. This is a relatively new type of
filing that was introduced in the JOBS act, designed to encourage emerging
businesses to go public. You can read about the specifics here:
[https://www.sec.gov/divisions/corpfin/guidance/cfjumpstartfa...](https://www.sec.gov/divisions/corpfin/guidance/cfjumpstartfaq.htm)
Normally, if the company does not qualify for confidential filing, we would be
able to go and see the draft S-1 on EDGAR 6 - 9 months in advance of the
actual IPO.
~~~
WheelsAtLarge
Thanks, very informative.
------
richardlblair
A lot of good points in this thread.
I do want to point out that the investment market is hot. That likely plays
into their decision. Why wait when you know you can get a great valuation now,
and there is a chance the market could cool.
------
foota
I use snapchat a lot to communicate and follow friends. I think their
difficulty in monetization will be from not being able to target ads as
effectively as Facebook or Google can.
------
SN76477
I do not think closed systems have much of a future. They may be hot now, they
are not going to last.
------
tehwebguy
If you have a chance to buy Spectacles go for it. They are super cool.
Finally a way to snap while I'm grilling fried rice! Seriously, this solves a
problem for me: [https://youtu.be/0fdVJLB-TM0](https://youtu.be/0fdVJLB-TM0)
------
irishcule
When are people expecting this IPO to happen? Early 2017?
------
ghostbunnies
It's not so _confidential_ anymore, is it?
------
manishsharan
Yet another platform to tickle our narcissism and voyeurism. The fact that
this kind of innovation is so lucrative make me despair.
And also, get off my lawn !!
~~~
Apocryphon
At least you can't create news filter bubbles or troll with Snapchat.
~~~
st3v3r
Maybe that's why it's so popular. Most people are fed up with trolling.
------
ohstopitu
A lot of people seem to question Snapchat's vision and profitability (even in
this thread) especially with such a high evaluation. I thought I'd take a stab
at it (all speculation based by current trends).
So Snapchat needs to be broken down into 3 key components:
1\. Users/Growth
2\. Business
3\. Tech
So let's look into each...
1\. Users/Growth:
Snapchat is growing rapidly (~150 million active users[0]) and seems to know
how to generate hype using various tactics (like the Spectacles for
example...instead of just selling it, they appear at specific places at
specific times, similar to timed filters and stories). Furthermore, they don't
seem to mind experimenting - I had recently seen rumors floating around of
Snapchat getting into the drone game too - based on some of their recently
open positions). They seems to have gotten a tight grasp at the younger-ish
market (14 - 30ish?) and either they'll continue to be hip and keep attracting
that age group or they'll grow with their current userbase. Eitherway, the
userbase is (very) loyal and hooked (~30 mins/day of usage [1]).
2\. Business
Based on 1, we know Snapchat is growing and it's got a loyal base, which means
they are a great place to advertise. As of right now, it appears that only the
"big" players have the access to advertise their content effectively - movie
filters, stories etc. (and Snapchat seems to be making a lot of revenue from
just this alone - ~ $350 million [0]). But from this subset, it can be seen
that Snapchat is an effective medium for the current demographic (they are
young, generally willing to spend and do or will grow up to have expendable
income to spend).
Smaller players (those who can't afford filters and stories) generally pay
Snapchat celebrities to advertise to their large(-ish) user base but given
Snapchat's intentions (for IPO), that could change pretty soon.
To add to the above, Snapchat seems to be poised to move into the physical-
virtual (augmented) ads space too, with geo filters. (Given their recent
release of Spectacles, I'd say it'd be trivial to have something along the
lines of Google Beacons/iBeacons - providing hyper local filters, discounts
and so on. Furthermore, this can easily expand/integrate into a marketplace,
providing even more revenue.
3\. Tech
If you have noticed, they have gotten their users to use AR (filters, geo-
filters, Spectacles) without the "geekiness" involved that others currently
involve. (yes, Hololens is still a lot geeky, pricer and a extra device than a
iPhone) They appear have stumbled onto great ideas, but I have a feeling that
it's highly calculated (I could be wrong) and they seem to have an idea /
vision of what their future is or where they want to head.
Current Competition (Subjective):
Facebook seems to be intent on trying to capture the Snapchat market - most
recently with Instagram Stories. In my opinion, Instagram Stories is not
exactly similar but close enough. I feel like it'd not take off as much as
Snapchat (but it does not have to) as much (I'd probably eat my words later),
because it's easier to track users (I know this is what marketers are looking
for, but from a user's perspective - It does not feel natural, feel a bit more
judged and overall just like a nice facebook for photos. It's great if you
want to grow a userbase and so on but you can do so on Snapchat too.
My take:
I feel that Snapchat for companies/marketers/users who are looking for more,
require a change of perspective. Similar to how it took everyone to get used
to the Internet, Social Media etc., it will take a while to get used to
Snapchat. Furthermore, there is a lack of tooling around Snapchat which has
made matters worse. That said, those who can grasp this and figure it
out...they are in for a treat.
Obviously, what I've written above is my take on Snapchat (both as a user and
as a someone who loves technology). It's completely arm-chaired CEO talk but
I'm interested in what people have to say/think about it.
[0] [https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/15/snapchat-has-reportedly-
fi...](https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/15/snapchat-has-reportedly-filed-
confidentially-for-its-massive-ipo/)
[1] [http://www.businessinsider.com/how-much-time-people-spend-
on...](http://www.businessinsider.com/how-much-time-people-spend-on-
snapchat-2016-3)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: If you're a startup, do you use a CRM, why or why not? - abra_kadabra
Hi HN,<p>I'm working on a side project and am wondering if I should make the time commitment to use a CRM or just a spreadsheet. I would love to get feedback from the community.
======
sbinthree
The main benefit is activity logging. Compared to Sheets, you can sign up for
HubSpot for free and just BCC an email address so everything is logged.
Everything else is just basic CRUD.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Responsible Vacation Policy - prospero
http://blog.factual.com/my-vacation-policy-is-better-than-yours
======
varelse
Because I am a workaholic who doesn't trust management to look out for me, I
want a formal vacation policy that accrues vacation days so there's no chance
for misunderstanding either way.
If you can solve the problem of finding a management chain that truly looks
out for its employees rather than chasing maximal profitability and/or
covering its own a$$, I salute you. Until then, I'll stick to a formal
vacation policy as the 80% solution that just isn't broken.
~~~
s73v3r
The problem with that is it will take quite a while when you join before you
can actually do anything with your vacation.
~~~
varelse
That's why more Americans need to take at least a month off between jobs, no?
------
andypalmer
Paragraph 3 of the RiverGlide employment contract (
[https://github.com/RiverGlide/contracts/blob/master/employme...](https://github.com/RiverGlide/contracts/blob/master/employment.md)
)
The law entitles You to a minimum of 28 days of paid leave per year. This
consists of 8 public holidays and 20 days of paid leave per year. We expect
you to take at least the minimum amount of leave each year. We also encourage
you to take as much additional leave as you need to maintain the health and
well being of yourself and the company, as long as to do so would not cause
harm to You, Us or any client We are engaged with.
Basically, we expect our employees to take a minimum amount of time off but we
don't track it. Hopefully the other paragraphs make sense to responsible
adults too
------
wink
I'd really like to know if they have any actual Europeans working there? I
wouldn't call myself a slacker, but having worked only in Germany I like my
25+ days of paid vacation very much.
Oh, and about every person who moved to the US (i.e. the valley) said they
miss their vacation time a lot. And they also said they love their jobs...
~~~
prospero
Sure, we do. They take advantage of the vacation policy just like the rest of
us.
~~~
wink
I was referencing this exact paragraph:
> Imagine an employee who takes this policy and chooses to live like a
> European with umpteen weeks off every year. What to do about that? Simply
> tie it back to performance and things become clear.
It's probably just my bad English that I don't get the nuance, but it sounds a
little condescending.
Are the Europeans actually taking more time off due to being used to it? Is
their performance judged more because of this, if they do? I can't really
imagine anyone answering YES to that, but it just struck me as odd to include
this.
That said, your model sounds very good (compared to what seems to be the
American standard) :)
~~~
dirtyvagabond
Author here. Definitely didn't mean to condescend. I used "like a European" as
short-hand for, "this is an employee who regularly chooses to take off far
more time than the typical American would generally be expected to take off".
This section of the article was meant to speak directly to management who may
be concerned about using this policy due to this particular possibility. The
following text is attempting to answer their concerns. That is, don't worry so
much about this. Rather, judge the results, as you should be anyway.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Blender channel reinstated by YouTube after issues get sorted out - seszett
https://www.blender.org/media-exposure/youtube-blocks-blender-videos-worldwide/?updated
======
pmlnr
It seems a bit like Youtube got surprised and maybe even frightened that
PeerTube could pop up as a viable alternative. They need to keep the market
leader position, even at the cost hosting popular videos that don't make money
to anyone.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Boris Johnson proposes a 22-mile bridge across the Channel - igravious
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/jan/19/boris-johnson-proposes-22-mile-bridge-across-the-channel
======
twic
At least Boris is fixated on absurd bridges that will never be built, not
walls.
A brief response from a structural engineer:
[https://theconversation.com/boris-johnsons-english-
channel-b...](https://theconversation.com/boris-johnsons-english-channel-
bridge-an-engineering-experts-view-90409)
~~~
joelrunyon
Can someone explain to me why a wall _can 't_ be built?
I know people say it shouldn't be built - but I don't understand why people
say we "can't" build it when they've been built before, and we've done
endlessly more complex things - rockets, going to the moon, et (all while
China is building artificial islands and the like).
In comparison to some of those feats, a wall seems trivial.
~~~
failwall
Cross-post: [http://johnsalvatier.org/blog/2017/reality-has-a-
surprising-...](http://johnsalvatier.org/blog/2017/reality-has-a-surprising-
amount-of-detail)
Let’s consider some of these details. Something I think people don’t consider
is that there are a non-trivial number of land animal species that migrate
across the border. They have no concept of nation-states, and for some, our
xenophobic electorate is basically passing a death sentence. The wall would
devastate several important ecosystems, especially in the Rio Grande Valley.
Walls also need to be maintained, like any other piece of infrastructure. Have
you ever visited the great state of Michigan? We can’t even handle roads. How
will the federal government, which doesn’t have the best track record with
maintaining infrastructure, deal with a 2,000+ mile-long wall?
Another issue is surveillance. Who will watch the entire thing? Who will make
sure someone isn’t chipping away at the other side with a spoon or trying to
dig under it? You can’t watch thousands of miles of wall very easily.
There are all kinds of issues with this (oh, funding is a big one too), and
this just scratches the surface. If you Google “Trump border wall problems”,
plenty of articles have already been written that go into much more detail.
~~~
oh_sigh
There are wall prototypes that allow for small/medium size animal passage, but
not humans. Also, the entire southern border won be walled. If there is a
natural border, mountainous terrain, etc, the wall won't be built there. While
the area may be unsuitable for human crossing animals may not have a problem
with it.
Roads have different material and structural requirements than walls.
Maintenance will obviously cost money, but it serves a purpose. 450,000 people
were caught in 2016 trying to illegally cross the southern border. Now imagine
how many made it through. I assume you will not find this argument very
convincing if you are the kind of person that believes that illegal immigrants
make money for the state they illegally live in.
CBP border agents monitor the wall. And again, it isn't just 2000 miles of
wall. It is "smart wall", where it will have the most impact to prevent
crossings
~~~
Balgair
So wait, we're going to have people just stare south for 8 hours a day? How is
this not 'government waste'?
~~~
oh_sigh
Well, hundreds of thousands of people try to cross the southern us border
every year. It is only wasteful if they aren't accomplishing anything. And,
these days we have video cameras, so one person can monitor multiple miles of
the wall from an operations center
~~~
Balgair
Then why do we need a wall if we're just going to use cameras anyway? It'll
slow them down, yeah, but just by the amount of time that it takes to climb a
ladder, cut some wire, whatever. Maybe 2 minutes max?
~~~
oh_sigh
The cameras aren't going to be directly on the wall, and they won't be easily
accessible.
~~~
Balgair
I'm confused. Are there going to be cameras? If they aren't on the wall, where
are they? Hidden in some cactus or in a drone? Still, why a giant wall then if
all it ends up being is a concrete hurdle?
~~~
oh_sigh
Yes, but the camera won't be easily accessible at all, let alone from the
Mexican side.
The wall is so people can't just mosey across the border. Even if you had
cameras there, sending out a team once you see someone crossing would be very
difficult to find them. With the wall, it will be passable but will take work
and a fair amount of material like ladders, ropes, etc which will all take
time, and allow for security to arrive with a greater chance of catching
people.
~~~
Balgair
But that's like a 3 minute delay, max.
~~~
oh_sigh
How do you know how much time it takes to get from the closest dispatch center
to the furthest possible point before the next dispatch center?
~~~
Balgair
Ok, so napkin math time:
Assume you need 3 people to drive out to apprehend illegal crossings for
officer safety. You also then need 3 others to watch while others are out
apprehending and then be able to respond for other illegal crossings.
Assume 3 minutes to cross over the barriers per person.
Assume it takes you no time to see the crossing happen, you can tell the
second a ladder is put up.
Assume the roads are dirt, but in good and dry conditions. So you can travel
about 40 mph on them on average, including the time to accelerate from 0mph at
the remote watch tower station and then back down to 0 to apprehend people.
40mph is 2/3 miles per minute, btw.
So, the minimum distance at 3 minutes to cross would then be _2 miles_.
Meaning you'd need about 6 guys every 2 miles. So about 12,000 people for the
2,000 mile border.
Now you can play with the numbers, and talk about capturing people that
scatter into the interior, but you're still at about 1 officer per 1 mile
(ish), not 1 officer per 10 miles or 100 miles of border, with significant
downtime per officer per day.
------
ysr23
<sighs> the man practically defined the 'dead cat strategy':
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_cat_strategy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_cat_strategy)
thats all this is, thats all he ever does.
------
hinkley
Johnson has previously promoted the idea of another Channel Tunnel but is now said to think a bridge could also be possible, telling aides that such feats of engineering have been achieved in Japan.
The 20 mile bridge he seems to be alluding to is in China, ladies and
gentlemen. The longest bridge in Japan is 2.4 miles long.
(That Japanese bridge has the longest suspension span, but I don’t see how he
would call that solved)
------
dazc
'Building a huge concrete structure in the middle of the world’s busiest
shipping lane might come with some challenges.'
[https://twitter.com/ukshipping/status/954132391127339008](https://twitter.com/ukshipping/status/954132391127339008)
I'm not against major infrastructure projects but there must be 100 more
suitable ideas for improving links within the UK, never mind Europe.
~~~
swimfar
There are tall bridges designed to allow large ships to pass underneath. I'm
not sure how that affects the cost, though.
There's one in Saint-Nazaire, France (which has a large ship building
industry) which crosses the Loire river. It looks pretty cool.
[https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%A1jl:Pont-
Mindin.jpg](https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%A1jl:Pont-Mindin.jpg)
~~~
scrumbledober
you don't need the entire bridge to be tall either, the San Mateo Bridge is
eight and a half miles long and only raises up high enough for ships to pass
for a short portion on the western side where I believe the water is deepest.
~~~
SideburnsOfDoom
> the San Mateo Bridge is eight and a half miles long and only raises up high
> enough for ships to pass for a short portion
> (the channel is) the world’s busiest shipping lane
> the biggest ships on the ocean.
Spot the problem with the "short portion" idea.
------
dasmoth
I’m a little surprised that a road link didn’t get at least slightly more
serious consideration when the existing tunnel was planned.
Certainly, in light of recent politics, I can’t help thinking that a road link
would make “middle England” feel connected to Europe in a way no amount of
rail traffic can.
~~~
rwmj
Plans for a long bridge were considered, eg:
[https://youtu.be/r_HN26VVXAk?t=9m15s](https://youtu.be/r_HN26VVXAk?t=9m15s)
I also remember at the time a (pretty crazy) plan for a partial road bridge
going out for a few miles from each side that then turned into a tunnel by way
of a long corkscrew-style descent under the sea. I can't imagine that would
have been practical ...
Edit: Wikipedia has the details. Apparently the bridge plan was called
"Eurobridge", and I wasn't imagining the bridge/tunnel hybrid either, it was
called "Euroroute".
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_Tunnel#Initiation_of_p...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_Tunnel#Initiation_of_project)
Edit #2: Euroroute video: [https://amisduvieuxcalais.com/index.php/calais-
video/calais-...](https://amisduvieuxcalais.com/index.php/calais-video/calais-
en-video)
~~~
schoen
Apparently the combination of bridge and tunnel to cross a body of water has
been used quite successfully in several places:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridge%E2%80%93tunnel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridge%E2%80%93tunnel)
I don't know if it would have been helpful in this case, though.
------
tomgp
Attention grabbing fool
~~~
tonyedgecombe
Yes, although I wouldn't completely dismiss the idea just because it came from
him.
~~~
SideburnsOfDoom
But you can dismiss the idea because you can already take your car across the
channel. OK, it goes into a train that goes in a tunnel under the channel, but
this scheme has the virtue of being real and usable today.
It I am told that it's running at around 54% percent capacity. It's
approximately half-empty. There's competition from ferries too.
And that's before Brexit lowers demand.
There is no economic case for another highly expensive crossing. Funding the
channel tunnel more would be easier and produce faster results.
[https://twitter.com/Ben_e_lux/status/954467087975673857](https://twitter.com/Ben_e_lux/status/954467087975673857)
~~~
tonyedgecombe
_And that 's before Brexit lowers demand._
We don't really know that, Eurotunnel have stated they don't think it will
have an effect.
_There is no economic case for another highly expensive crossing._
We don't really know that either, there is a time cost to using the tunnel,
perhaps demand would go up if it was easier.
~~~
SideburnsOfDoom
> there is a time cost to using the tunnel, perhaps demand would go up if it
> was easier.
There's a time cost to everything. The trains in the tunnel travel up to "160
kilometres per hour (99 mph)"
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_Tunnel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_Tunnel)
Is there a reasonable suggestion that other options would be faster between
equivalent points?
~~~
tonyedgecombe
Have you travelled on it, because you can't just drive up and get straight on.
~~~
SideburnsOfDoom
> Have you travelled on it,
Yes, more times than I can count on fingers. As a seated passenger and on a
vehicle.
As a seated passenger: if you find Kings Cross easy to get to, it's very
convenient, and much faster and more relaxing than all the attendant faff of a
short flight from an airport.
In a vehicle: I get that there are onloading / offloading delays, which is why
I'd like to see numbers before I form an opinion on which would be faster, the
existing tunnel or hypothetical bridge.
------
amriksohata
Im not a Boris fan but this was one of the options proposed when the channel
tunnel was built, so I don't know why people think it's absurd
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Unsealed Temporary Restraining Order giving Microsoft control over No-IP.com - jsmthrowaway
http://www.scribd.com/doc/232961396/MSFT-Temporary-Restraining-Order
======
macmac
Can someone explain how Microsoft got away with a 200K USD bond?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Make Stronger Offers to Engineering Candidates and Boost Your Closes - vinnyglennon
http://firstround.com/review/make-stronger-offers-to-engineering-candidates-and-boost-your-closes/
======
notyourday
So. Much. B.S.
There is only one thing that people who have not been dropped on a head
interested in. It is called _money_. Money buys them stuff. Money lets them
have a nice roof over their head. Money lets their family not worry about a
slum in the economy. Everything else is secondary.
Here's a magic formula: MaxMoney(Min(work))
402 "PAY_ME_MORE_MONEY"
P.S. That's why it is called a _job_ and not _hobby_ or _volunteering_.
P.P.S. Finance industry figured it out - which is why they are starting to
raid the interwebz companies with a great success. In finance _everything_ is
solved by paying people more money. Sucky stack? $30K extra. Wear suit? $30k
extra. Non-tech manager irritating you? Another $20k extra.
~~~
jcadam
Money is important, but past a certain point (when you are able to live
comfortably and are no longer feeling stressed about your personal/family
finances), other factors come into play. Off the top of my head:
1) Respect. By that I mean professional respect - I want to feel that my
contributions are valued and that people recognize my talents :)
2) Team. Working with dirtbags is miserable no matter how much you get paid.
Sure, I'd do it if you threw enough money at me, but all else being equal, I'd
like to work on a team full of smart, pleasant people.
3) Growth. Learning opportunities (conferences, training, etc.), promotions,
stimulating projects, etc.
4) Time. As in my time. Overtime is kept to a minimum and really only happens
when there is a true emergency. This kind of ties in with #1.
To an extent you can substitute cash for any or all of these. However, if your
working environment and/or culture is toxic, you're going to have trouble with
retention no matter what else you do.
~~~
dmitrygr
Money is important, but
I'm going to stop you right there.
#1 is solved by more money. Want me to work in a team that mocks my work?
$100k extra will do it
#2 is solved by more money. Want me to work with dirtbags? $100k
#3 is solved by more money. Want me to wear a "super junior nobody" title? As
long as you're up front about it, $100k.
#4 is solved by money. My overtime rate is 2x normal rate
You know why? Money buys more than just "roof" and "comfort". It buys
everything. Planes. Parachutes. Yachts. Horses. Jet skis. Vacation homes.
College and private school for kids.
If you think that more money doesn't motivate you, either you've never been
paid enough, or you need to go find some interesting hobbies. You'll quickly
find they cost money (and do not accept "but I'm happy at work" statements as
payment)
~~~
dragonwriter
> If you think that more money doesn't motivate you, either you've never been
> paid enough
Or you have; there's significant evidence that behind a certain level,
additional income doesn't actually provide additional improvement in most
measures of satisfaction and subjective quality of life (IIRC, some studied in
the 1990s showed this on average at somewhere around $250,000 in then-current
dollars in the US.) Once you've reached the point where that occurs, it only
motivates to the extent that knowing you've missed an opportunity to run up a
higher score is disappointing to you.
I've been poor, and I was _much_ more motivated by money then than now, when
I'm being paid much more.
~~~
CydeWeys
It is certainly true that money has diminishing returns. Think of it as an
asymptotic function approaching a maximum level of happiness as income tends
towards infinity.
However, it's also important to take into account the cost of living. That
$400K/year figure (accounting for inflation), which marks something like 90%
of the way up the asymptotic curve, is an average across the US. But if you're
living in very expensive parts of the country, you need a good deal more than
that in order to be able to afford a nice house, with separate bedrooms for
all of the children that you (would like to) have, with a short commute, and
then a bunch more in the way for child care, college tuition, maybe private
school, extracurricular activities, and a whole host of others if you have
those children.
To give you an anecdote, I know a guy who's making $500K/year and has all of
those expenses, except he does _not_ live in the city, and he's barely
treading water. He's experiencing significant financial stress that more money
would be a solution to. And this is at $500K/year, which is not quite enough
to support his lifestyle.
~~~
mediocrejoker
This doesn't make sense to me. Cities are the most expensive place to live,
no? I would have thought that living in some small town and making 500k would
give you even more buying power than it does in the city.
Where does your friend live that $500k does not pay for rent or a mortgage on
a nice house, dinner at restaurants on a regular basis, and still money in the
savings account?
~~~
CydeWeys
You are severely underestimating how much it costs to put multiple kids
through expensive colleges. Also, they don't live in "some small town", it's
just not the city; it's still seriously expensive compared to the national
home value.
But I'm not here to debate this other person's life choices, nor could I. The
point is that even $500K/year is not enough for a decent number of people,
whereas, say, $1M would be.
------
lhnz
> There is one motivation that should raise a red flag, though.
> “The candidates that I don't usually want to spend much time
> on are folks who are basically just looking for the next big check.
This is a red flag to me.
What if engineers want to buy houses or support families? What if they have
elite backgrounds and want a similarly high level of living as their friends?
Offering bread-and-circuses and work-as-lifestyle to software engineers when
they're fresh and naive or wishing to prioritise other things over money is
fine. But eventually people start wanting to be able to get a pay-off for
their investment in "learning". If all you're offering is warm-fuzzies,
they'll go somewhere in which the remuneration is able to support investment
outside from themselves.
~~~
username223
> “The candidates that I don't usually want to spend much time on are folks
> who are basically just looking for the next big check. Money is not a great
> motivation,” says Ajmal. “But it’s actually very common that this is driving
> the entire process for them.”
Ugh. No sh*t, Sherlock! And we're expected to believe money isn't driving the
entire process for you? There are things I care about besides money, like not
working for manipulative jerks, but at the end of a day it's a "job," preceded
by a "salary negotiation" in which I trade my labor for payment, most of which
will take the form of "money."
EDIT: > Ask them what they are maximizing for in their job search and how
they’re approaching that. People are not used to this question and may be more
candid, saving you a longer time investment.
Wow, this is a horrible and cynical person.
~~~
how_gauche
> And we're expected to believe money isn't driving the entire process for
> you?
It's right there in the name, even!!! It's not "First Round Hugs" or "First
Round Charity", is it?
------
learc83
This title is very misleading. It implies that it advises you to boost your
closing rate by offering more money.
But it's actually about how to save money by finding people who aren't
motivated by money.
------
dkhenry
Wow these comments are depressing. The extreme polarization between, pay me
enough and I'll do anything, and take one for the team by making peanuts and
working obscene hours is kinda frightenting. Has no one had a job where they
were treated well and paid a fair wage? Its perfectly reasonable to get both
of those things and be able to make a decision on a company based on
additional things, like what the mission is, or who you will work with, or
what tools you will use. Money isn't everything and you don't have to be taken
advantage of. There is a middle ground.
~~~
nfriedly
> _Has no one had a job where they were treated well and paid a fair wage?_
I think IBM would qualify there, with the one exception of their occasional
mass firings ("resource action").
------
dmitrygr
I guess I'm one of those "red flag" candidates that this guy says you
shouldn't hire. If I wanted to make a difference, I'd join the Red Cross. If I
wanted to solve people's problems, I'd go work as a life coach. I want to get
paid the maximum amount while working around people and doing a job that
doesn't make me want to blow my brains out or work 20 hour days. That is all.
~~~
Bob2019
Red flag = "not a gullible looser". It's a flag of honour.
------
dmitrygr
“At a certain point, I’m very
explicit: ‘Look, I think 5X is
Absolutely conservative given
how we’re growing
No. 0X is conservative. It's a startup. Most of those make non-founders $0.00
on equity
~~~
sk5t
Indeed. If 5x were conservative, at series C or any other point, one would be
fending off investors with a stick, failing to justify 409a valuations, etc.,
etc.
------
jerrycabbage
The advice is, "tell the person what they want to hear". It is absolutely no
surprise that the author does not stick around at one job either.
------
JustSomeNobody
Here's what most companies want:
>> We only hire "passionate" engineers who have proven themselves to be "rock
stars" and we call them "family" so that they can "take one for the team" and
forgo a "raise" because we didn't meet our quarter. But we did make enough to
give ourselves "bonuses!"
I am motivated by money because every company I work for is motivated by
money. They want theirs, I want mine. I factor into my asking salary a "what
if I get screwed" amount.
~~~
notyourday
> I factor into my asking salary a "what if I get screwed" amount.
I can _guarantee_ that the moment it is cheaper to screw you than keep you a
_successful company_ will screw you. If a company is _not_ successful, they
may miscalculate when they screw you and instead screw themselves in addition
to screwing you.
------
SubuSS
NOTE: This applies only to the Big 5 (Amazon/Google/MS/FB/Oracle). To be
really honest, it is hard to distinguish the big companies today based on non-
money line items:
\- All the companies I have and am working for have very smart folk, very
personable people you want to work with / learn from.
\- All the companies pay well, have great benefits.
\- I don't care for perks, I can afford the $20 a day to spend on food and
snacks.
\- All of em have great challenges to tackle, and usually you are sought after
by the teams with exactly those. No one is going to pay you double your worth
to sit around / purely 'learn on the job'. Past experience counts big when it
comes to leveling/team choices in all of them.
\- All of them are exponentially growing.
\- Almost all of them are dabbling in each others areas of work: Everyone is
doing databases/fs/networking/user applications/web dev and what not.
For me the choice of snap was purely because I wanted a small company
experience without the risk of a pure startup, in fact all the benefits and
better compared to the big 5. Unless you have a specific requirement like
that, sadly money will end up being the differentiator.
To add some irony to the whole discussion, they know this as well: All the
offers I got from the big companies were with few $$$ of each other. I didn't
tell them my current salary with Amazon, it didn't even come close to the
numbers on glassdoor for my then level, but magically they seem to 'know'
(shrug).
------
sjg007
There’s two forms of money: cash now and Magic future money (stock options)
~~~
tzahola
B-but what about Making The World Better™ ?
------
purplezooey
How about not putting your new company in Palo Alto, Mountain View, Menlo Park
or Santa Clara. Nobody can live there, it's impossible to drive/transit there
from anywhere, and they're just plain miserable places with cheaply
constructed office buildings. So tired of seeing this.
~~~
pascalxus
I agree. But companies will never learn this lesson as long as they can still
hire there easily.
------
ggggtez
As someone who makes money, money is still the strongest argument. If I'm
bored with my job, and you offer me a 30k pay cut, then I think I'll suck it
up and stay bored. I don't care how good you think your product is.
------
YPCrumble
A moderator should rename this "How to pay your engineers less by fooling
them: A primer by First Round Capital".
------
kylnew
I do agree with the criticisms of this article but also agree with the parts
about assessing your candidates better and understanding their motivations. I
did an interview once where they tried to jump to technical interview on the
first phone meeting so fast I felt my answers to everything else were this
unnecessary preamble to just doing a code question. It totally turned me off.
I ended the call early.
So while I need the money to be good, I also want to feel like we are starting
a mutually beneficial arrangement on other levels than just pay.
------
pascalxus
You can boost a potential candidate's compensation by 1 to 2 million dollars,
just by choosing a suitable location outside the bay area! At no cost to
yourself!
This should become an increasingly hot strategy, as all those young engineers
at google and facebook begin to age and start thinking about having families.
Then again, if all you want is young interns that'll work for free, keep
hiring in SF.
------
FidelCashflow
Full screen pop up warning.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Instapaper Placebo - donohoe
http://www.iamdanw.com/wrote/instapaper-placebo/
======
rkudeshi
Not to denigrate your efforts, but I think you're treating the symptom and not
the root cause of your problem.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Amen Brother Cuban - joshstaiger
http://mattmaroon.com/?p=574
======
timae
Wrong, Matt (and Mark).
Entrepreneurs "have business to do" as Mark puts it because they stand to make
some money from their efforts. The less money they stand to make, the less
incentive. period.
Also, you state the following as if its fact:
"what capital gains taxes really do is favor the ultra-wealthy who live off of
their investments, rather than those generating wealth directly"
No. In order for the ultra-rich person in your example to have accumulated
$5M, he EARNED $6,750,000 and paid the government $1,750,000. So, by paying
tax on his investment income, he's paying tax twice on the same money. That
simple error aside, you're also missing the point that capital gains tax
discourages investing in companies! Which has an impact on a company's cost of
capital which has an impact on the price of goods and services which has an
impact on you.
~~~
deepster
Absolutely correct! It's double taxation!
~~~
rms
If you don't tax capital, then only the wealthy will own capital. Eventually
the capital starts owning itself and then the people don't even own capital
anymore.
Our tax system has to try and fix one of the fundamental flaws of capitalism
-- the tendency for the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer. Without
a capital gains tax, this very worst aspect of capitalism becomes even more
emphasized, as capital will last forever.
~~~
yummyfajitas
In what capitalist/mostly capitalist system have the poor gotten poorer?
Certainly, the rich may get rich faster than the poor, but that's far from the
same thing.
------
mynameishere
A lot of strawmanism going on. It's not that taxation prevents entry-level
entrepreneurs from starting businesses. Rather, taxation represents a
misallocation of capital. If a company or person loses an extra million
dollars to the government, I _promise_ you that the money will be converted
into dust [1], or handed out to failed businesses [2], or spent directly on
tyrannical activity [3], or redistributed to pressure groups, or any company
or foreign nation with a good lobbying firm or PAC, instead of being allocated
responsibly.
[1] Literally, via TNT. [2] AIG, Goldman, Fannie, GM, Ford, etc [3] The TSA,
the FCC, the CIA.
~~~
jeremytliles
Umm, yeah, and unfettered capitalism does such a wonderful job of allocating
resources. Government is terribly inefficient, but what other entity is going
to maintain infrastructure, a social safety net, schools, and other basic
services from which society benefits? I hate that so much money goes to DOD,
TSA, farm subsidies, and the like, but reducing government revenues doesn't
force the government to make tough choices, it simply causes it to run an even
more unsustainable deficit.
By the way, if you lower taxes (and thus government revenue), it's not defense
and corporate subsidies that suffer--they always get their piece--it's
infrastructure and social programs. The "starve the beast" concept simply
creates more suffering for those who can't afford things like private schools,
expensive out-of-pocket health care, and jet time-shares.
~~~
nazgulnarsil
federal government does not provide schools. propoerty taxes (state) provides
schools. federal government does not provide infrastructure. gas tax provides
roads, state funds and tolls go towards bridges and the like.
as for a social safety net? i'd be fine with it if it wasn't so obviously
rotten. it needs to be gutted before any good can come of it.
look at yourtaxes sometime and see what percentage goes towards state vs.
federal. ponder how state government can accomplish so much more with so much
less.
~~~
davidw
> it needs to be gutted before any good can come of it.
<http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000069.html>
------
mhartl
I'm a big Cuban fan, but I was surprised and a bit disappointed when he made
this statement (and I'm also surprised to see Matt defending it). I agree that
many entrepreneurs don't consider tax rates when starting up (at least not
consciously), but for any given rate there is a _marginal_ entrepreneur who is
just over the threshold for starting a company. Mark is so far over that
threshold _for current rates_ that he reaches the erroneous conclusion that
taxes don't matter in general. I guarantee that there is a rate---whether 90%
or 99%---at which even Cuban would throw in the towel, by quitting the game or
(more likely) fleeing the country.
Taxes hurt entrepreneurship; higher taxes hurt it more. Denying this just
increases the likelihood of more taxes.
~~~
netcan
Depends also what you see as an entrepreneur.
What A lot of people see as entrepreneurship is a largely binary exercise:
success/failure. Since tax rates do not really effect the venture in this way,
they shouldn't effect the decisions of an entrepreneur.
A 'marginal entrepreneur' would need to be very marginal. Even if you consider
complex effects (the effect of your uncle making $1m in the 80s vs $.75m on
inspiring you). Cuban's talking about the 'within reason' limits based on
practical choice a government is likely to make.
What might be affected by the tax situation is the flow of investment capital.
Since Cuban is disregarding that as a factor, that has no effect.
~~~
mhartl
You misunderstand the meaning of the term "marginal" in this context: it means
not "mediocre" but rather "on the margin".
~~~
netcan
I don't think so. I meant marginal as in: Very close to the point where she is
going to make a negative vs a positive decision. Or put another way, the
number of entrepreneurs starting a business because of this effect is
incredibly small.
------
neilc
_When I started my first company I’d never even heard of capital gains taxes_
Granted, but I guarantee that the limited partners in the VC firms you might
consider for funding are very familiar with the tax structure in the US. If
you raise the taxes on investment income, you effectively reduce the return on
venture capital funds, which reduces the amount of money VCs will be able to
raise, which reduces the amount of money available to entrepreneurs.
------
brm
Precisely why you shouldn't have people who don't start businesses enacting
policy for people who do... I make a general effort to vote for politicans who
have eaten their own dog food on their policy platform, be it having spent
time in the energy sector, run their own business, or whatever else...
~~~
Prrometheus
Most politicians at the national level have law degrees.
------
llimllib
I too believe that this is wrong, but for a different reason than does timae.
It breaks a simple economic axiom:
You Are Not the Marginal Case.
It is simply not valid to extrapolate (especially if you're MC, jeez!) from
yourself to all entrepeneurs. You Are Not the Marginal Case.
Just because you and Bill Gates persevered, Mark frikkin' Cuban, doesn't mean
that the marginal tax rate on entrepeneurs is unimportant.
Let's restate the argument this way: "Two of the most successful entrepeneurs
of all time were undeterred by high marginal taxes on their fledgling
businesses, therefore high marginal tax rates do not kill fledgling
businesses". Sounds a bit different, eh?
------
dangoldin
Why not just have income be considered the sum of all the money you've made in
a year? 100k salary with 25k stock gains would give you an income of 125k and
that's just taxed normally. Why should capital gains be treated differently at
all?
Also, just simplify the entire thing and have a simpler tax rate. It may also
be interesting to see what happens if the party responsible for what tax
dollars are spent on is not the same party that decides the allocation of the
money. Group 1 creates a list of priorities A, B, C but voters then get to
choose the tax dollar allocation.
~~~
ckinnan
You'd penalize the investment gains with double taxation. The person already
paid income taxes on the money that was used to generate the $25K. Why should
government policy penalize savings and investment?
~~~
jfarmer
Because it's not necessarily in our interest to favor capital over labor.
------
imgabe
I think the case against capital gains is less about the entrepreneur and more
about the investors. If the capital gains tax is raised so high that investors
can get a better after tax return by putting their money into lower risk
investments, then they're not going to want to bother funding new businesses.
This may not be an issue if you're making a web app and your only capital
outlay is living expenses and hosting fees, but this could seriously hurt
innovation in fields where money is required up front to even get started
(hardware, pharmaceuticals, etc.)
------
far33d
A quote from Bill Gross, bond manager extraordinaire:
"That ol’ Laffer Curve has a certain logic to it, but it only makes sense at
the upper margin. People did work less at confiscatory tax rates imposed pre-
Thatcher/Reagan but once they got down to 50 percent or lower, it was all
gravy – promoting conspicuous consumption as opposed to higher productivity
and overtime at the office."
[http://www.pimco.com/LeftNav/Featured+Market+Commentary/IO/2...](http://www.pimco.com/LeftNav/Featured+Market+Commentary/IO/2008/IO+July+2008.htm)
------
davidw
Bzzzzzzt! Politics!
I think the most that can be said without much of anyone besides accountants
disagreeing is that _simplifying_ the tax code would actually do a lot of
good.
------
edw519
_I doubt that any great business or invention started with a discussion or
even a consideration of what the current or projected income or capital gains
tax was or would be._
In the beginning, this is the whole point. It's not about the money. It's
about doing the thing that you just _have_ to do.
0% of nothing is a lot less than x% of something. I still prefer the latter,
whatever that may be.
------
antidaily
Papyrus!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Umbral: a cryptosystem for private data sharing in public consensus networks - mwilkison
https://blog.nucypher.com/unveiling-umbral-3d9d4423cd71
======
jMyles
Hey HN friends. I too have worked on (and will probably keep working on) this
project. It's pretty wild! There are two things about it that I think you'll
like:
1) (the obvious) - it allows a user to share a secret with a third party (the
"proxy") who, without being able to read it, can then share it with another
person. For the purposes of narrating this, we expand "Alice - Bob" to "Alice
- Ursula - Bob". Kinda cool.
2) We have introduced a couple of interesting turns of phrase. For example, we
"encapsulate" a key (a very common practice), but in so doing, we say that the
key in inside a "Capsule". I've never seen this object called a Capsule
before, but it makes a good deal of sense - Bob brings a Capsule to Ursula and
asks for her help "opening" (ie, decapsulating) it.
I think that we've made some interesting if modest motions forward in the
modeling and naming that is required for distributed proxy re-encryption, and
I'm curious to know if y'all think so too.
------
dillonraphael
The foundation for a great crypto project. Few are making products that push
the development of the ecosystem. Excited for the launch on testnet.
------
tuxxy
Hey, folks! I'm a cryptographic engineer at NuCypher and this is a pretty big
release for us. I'm happy to answer any questions about this!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Material design Linux desktop - pavs
http://quartz-os.github.io/
======
wodenokoto
I know a lot of the HN community have a lot of bad things to say about flat
design, but this desktop looks fun and bright.
There still seems to be some edges that needs to be re-thought about many of
the current flat designs (a lot of them have problems distinguishing buttons
and text in many real world cases) and hopefully such a large undertaking can
be part of a public development of Material.
I wish the team good luck!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Parents at centre of measles outbreak didn't vaccinate children - stygiansonic
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/father-vancouver-measles-outbreak-1.5022891
======
masonic
Vietnam has largely refused to acknowledge their measles epidemic for over 5
years, and even official vaccination recommendations are weak (1 dose).
[https://www.rfa.org/english/news/vietnam/measles-04232014175...](https://www.rfa.org/english/news/vietnam/measles-04232014175218.html)
------
HarryHirsch
To use the verbiage from the article: there's a mountain of scientific
evidence linking measles and increased mortality in infants, the very elderly
and the immunocompromised, such as people undergoing chemotherapy, people with
an organ transplant or people with AIDS. Why not argue like this when the
topic of vaccination comes up?
Same with rubella. Who cares if some stupid parents' kid comes down with
rubella? The problem is that the pregnant woman nearby whose vaccination
didn't take might get it and deliver a child with severe neurological
impairments!
~~~
rscho
For that argument to work, people need to change their focus from individual
to social welfare.
The current political direction in pretty much all first world countries
pushes in the exact opposite way. Hence the return of preventable disease.
That's the real question. Should we allow people a choice or establish
dictatorship in important social issues? And who will decide what's worthy of
consideration?
~~~
komali2
If the community decides a community law together, is that dictatorship? I
feel like no.
~~~
hndamien
Should the community have the right to decide what is put into my body? I'm
pro-vaccination, but this line of reason leads to some pretty disturbing
places.
~~~
komali2
Yes, absolutely. It should be allowed to determine what vaccinations are
required to be a member of that community. Maybe one day you can get a vaccine
without an injection, would that be less disturbing?
It only disturbs me if you aren't allowed to leave if you disagree.
Vaccines are good for humanity. Handwringing around body rights or religion or
something don't make any impression at all on me.
~~~
hndamien
Being allowed to leave makes a big difference. However, not voluntarily
choosing to be part of that community also makes a difference. Also, most
vaccinations occur at the behest of the guardian and not the individual (which
is entirely appropriate). For example, say you (and your guardian) were born
into a community (a religious state for example) that believed circumcision
was required to be a citizen due to its effectiveness warding off disease. You
believe it is ok for the state actor to force everybody to be circumcised so
long as when the time comes, there is an option to leave the country?
The only way I see this as being reasonable is if there is a country that they
can go to, and there is no cost incurred the process.
~~~
komali2
Your example is false equivalence - circumcision is harmful, vaccines are not.
~~~
hndamien
It isn’t a false equivalence since they both violate body rights. You cannot
say that all vaccines are not harmful because you cannot speak for future
injections. Many people actually believe circumcision isn’t harmful, and the
belief is what matters.
The WHO actually has a page specifically for dealing with adverse effects of
vaccinations. [http://vaccine-safety-training.org/immunization-error-
relate...](http://vaccine-safety-training.org/immunization-error-related-
reaction.html)
Then you have cases like Thalidomide that were medical tragedies, although not
vaccine related, we conducted with the best of medical intention.
The question is not are vaccines statistically beneficial (they are).
It is not, does medicine have a 100% hit rate at not causing adverse effects
(it doesn’t and that is ok).
The question is, are you violating somebodies body rights by forcing them to
undergo a potentially harmful procedure without their consent. Yes, you would
be. This is why we don’t force this today.
~~~
komali2
I never argued for it to be forced - I argued that it would be necessary for
inclusion in a community.
~~~
hndamien
You defended "Should we allow people a choice or establish dictatorship in
important social issues?" with the caveat "if a community decides" its not a
dictatorship. That is implying, the community gets to decide violation of
somebody's body rights else they must leave the community (regardless of
whether or not they chose to be part of it, and if there was any cost to
leaving.)
------
lolc
The success story of vaccination means that people don't know the symptoms of
these crippling diseases anymore. Even the hospital had trouble identifying
the disease. Parents worry about vaccination shots because they don't know
what it means to lose relatives to those diseases. The good news in this case
was that the interviewed parent acknowledged his ignorance. He didn't try to
spin it as if the children benefitted from his mistake.
We live very sheltered lifes but we can't know it. Tracking all that is being
done to protect us is now beyond individual understanding. We have to trust
the experts. And some people end up trusting sham experts.
------
julianlam
> "We worried 10-12 years ago because there was a lot of debate around the MMR
> vaccine," said Bilodeau. "Doctors were coming out with research connecting
> the MMR vaccine with autism. So we were a little concerned."
No, there were no doctors (neither singular nor plural) coming out with
research connecting the MMR vaccine with autism. Just one very misinformed
celebrity.
~~~
NeedMoreTea
Well there was, Andrew Wakefield with his fraudulent study, until he was
struck off in the UK. So he moved to the US to carry on the lies.
~~~
emmanuel_1234
And some more in the French speaking side of the internet, which they
apparently belong to.
------
RubberSoul
This story reminds me of this recent NPR interview with an anthropologist on
vaccine hesitancy [0]. The upshot of the research is that "skepticism of
vaccines [is] 'socially cultivated.'" Many of the people refusing vaccines are
intelligent and well-educated, but they end up trusting bad information for a
variety of reasons.
Hopefully this parent and others in his community are now receiving better
information. It's not mentioned below, but when I heard this interview it was
longer and made the point that vaccine hesitant parents need to be approached
with respect; the more confrontational the approach, the more defensive people
with anti-vaccine views will become.
[0]: [https://www.npr.org/sections/health-
shots/2019/02/13/6944497...](https://www.npr.org/sections/health-
shots/2019/02/13/694449743/medical-anthropologist-explores-vaccine-hesitancy)
------
darpa_escapee
Charge them with inciting an entirely preventable epidemic.
------
simonblack
Anti-vaxxers could be accurately considered to be retrospective Darwin Awards
contestants.
Doing their best to remove those genes that they have already contributed to
the human gene pool.
------
mattnewport
Presumably if there was an "outbreak" they weren't the only parents not to
vaccinate their children. The article doesn't really elaborate on that.
~~~
masonic
The kids caught measles in Vietnam. They were the importing vector.
~~~
mattnewport
But an outbreak implies other children caught measles (the article suggests
other children at their school) so they also weren't vaccinated presumably.
~~~
aiyodev
No. The vaccine is only 97% effective. If you’re vaccinated you can still
contract the disease.
~~~
mattnewport
That would still prevent an "outbreak" if all the other kids were vaccinated.
~~~
buchanan
Measles has a "90% secondary infection rate in susceptible domestic contacts".
So, its likely that his brothers were infected as well. That leaves five
others.
With the mentioned "97% vaccination success rate under ideal conditions", the
fact that they were mixing around in school (and those they infected as well),
it does not seem a stretch.
------
dmurray
The HN title for this is one of those headlines that makes no sense: the
opposite would be more of a news story.
The full headline, at least for me, is "Father at centre of measles outbreak
didn't vaccinate children due to autism fears".
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
South Korea Still Paying The Price For Embracing Internet Explorer A Decade Ago - jacobr
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120507/12295718818/south-korea-still-paying-price-embracing-internet-explorer-decade-ago.shtml
======
kqr2
From the comment section, Mike Linksvayer quotes:
<http://www.kanai.net/weblog/archive/2007/01/26/00h53m55s>
Why was SEED developed in the first place?
South Korean legislation did not allow 40 bit encryption for
online transactions (and Bill Clinton did not allow for the
export of 128 bit encryption until December 1999) and the
demand for 128 bit encryption was so great that the South
Korean government funded (via the Korean Information
Security Agency) a block cipher called SEED.
~~~
Herring
How do you enforce a ban on encryption? Weren't the algorithms mostly open
source by 1999? Or why aren't other countries like Japan & Canada in the same
position?
~~~
derleth
> How do you enforce a ban on encryption?
By classifying it as a munition and using those laws. Which don't apply to
books like "Applied Cryptography" by Bruce Schneier, due to the First
Amendment. Even if they have source code printed in their appendices.
Oh, you mean _effectively_? Uh... I suppose we'll have to get back to you on
that.
~~~
stcredzero
_> How do you enforce a ban on encryption?
By classifying it as a munition...
Oh, you mean effectively? Uh..._
Back in the day, someone printed up a T-shirt that had a 4-line Perl script
that did RSA and so was a munition. (Later reduced to 3 lines.) There was a
barcode that contained the bits for the script, which you could use to
automatically read the program into a properly configured computer, so the
T-Shirt was indeed a munition under those regulations.
------
Tsagadai
It isn't just IE that is a problem. The encryption scheme developed by the
government is largely broken (due in no small part to IE and ActiveX
vulnerabilities). South Korean banks and other organisations are losing money
due to fraud and blackhat activity but there is next to nothing they can do
about it. It's really a huge mess. That and the government's encryption app is
closed source and not peer reviewed.
As always, the cause is that you are never smart enough to roll your own
encryption standard. Any time someone asks you to roll your own encryption
pinch yourself and smash your head on the desk, if you still want to code it
smash your head again.
~~~
w1ntermute
> As always, the cause is that you are never smart enough to roll your own
> encryption standard.
This is where Korea's rather boneheaded form of nationalism causes problems:
> "The Korean government took a great deal of pride in that breakthrough
> security technology," Kim said. "They wanted it to be widely used in Korea."
~~~
brazzy
> Korea's rather boneheaded form of nationalism
is there any other form?
~~~
corin_
He really meant national pride, and like any type of pride that can be
justified or foolish.
~~~
astrodust
At least it wasn't the sort of national pride where you want everyone in the
_world_ to use your national standard.
Remember the Clipper chip?
------
diminish
"As South Korea falls further and further behind in this regard, trapped in
its fossilized world of ActiveX, it may well come to be seen as warning to
other governments to adopt true open standards, if they want to avoid a
similar fate."
A warning to governments who put forms in ms office formats on their web
sites.
~~~
briandear
If I could up vote this twice I would. MS Office 'standards' are one of my
biggest complaints about tech implentations in both government and enterprise.
I would prefer PDFs or even just text files.
------
SagelyGuru
Governments ought to keep their noses out of the internet for the benefit of
all.
They have all the precedents and all the advice that they could ever want, all
pointing to the disastrous effects of centralisation and monopolies and yet
they keep pushing for them. I, for one, find it hard to sustain the belief
that these kinds of decisions are 'innocent mistakes'.
Unfortunately the more likely explanation is that they care a lot more about
their own power enhancement than about the general benefits of their subjects.
I don't even mean any particular government. This is endemic for them all.
Additionally, in the particular case of encryption, they are terrified that
someone might criticise them behind their backs and thus they keep trying to
control encryption.
~~~
aurelianito
Do you understand that "the government" funded the internet in the first
place?
Mandating standards is one of the things that a government should do. The
Korean government did a job with downsides in this case, but given that the
decision was taken in the nineties, it was not that bad.
At the time, the US government had embargoed all the cryptography with keys
that had more than 40 bits. What Koreans attempted was to workaround this
limitation.
~~~
SagelyGuru
Most relevant to this discussion is _www_ and that came out as a side effect
of physics research at _CERN_ , so it can hardly be described as an
intensional government funded program. The US government's _ARPANET_ plans
prior to _www_ never envisaged letting every Tom Dick and Harry do their
banking (or anything) online.
Even at the time of the embargo, there was PGP and it worked just fine. The
problem was, and is, the close relationship between the bankers (and other
monopolists) and the government(s), whereby the public is forced to use what
they mandate, rather than the other way round.
In a different world, it would not be technically difficult for people to
download an open source application a la GPG, generate and keep their own
private keys, and the governments, banks, and software monopolists working
with it, rather than against it. The banks could look up their customers'
public keys to establish secure communications and the big software producers
could make it easier to use. All it needs is some goodwill, sadly lacking as
it weakens centralised control.
~~~
aurelianito
I think that the problem was that nobody had experience with online banking
the last millennium. The sad thing is that Koreans kept the system after they
knew that it was a really bad idea, instead of evolving it into something
better.
Do I think that it would have been better if no government intervention had
occurred? I have no reason to believe that.
------
petepete
A bylaw was created that said government Web sites must
accommodate at least three different Web browsers
They do; IE6, IE7 and IE8.
------
maayank
To a much lesser effect, I find it true in Israel as well. I recently bought
an iPad for my mom as she uses the computer just for browsing, emailing and
skype. Turns out that even now, two websites she frequents (a workers'
committee website and some state sponsored mutual fund website) are IE only
and in a way that they truly don't work otherwise.
~~~
brazzy
AFAIK Microsoft dominates in Israel because for the longest time their
products had (and maybe still have) the best support for RTL text.
~~~
maayank
In my experience this is still true... I still haven't found a word
processor/presentation software for Mac OS X (including Office 2011) that is
compatible with my university's word and ppt files.
Moreover, the ministry of education is a big costumer of MSFT, giving kids and
teenagers early exposure to MS tools (think the 90s, where not every kid had a
computer at home).
------
kristofferR
We have the same problem in Norway actually, just not nearly as bad. The
banking industry has standardized on a technology called BankID for
authentication, almost all banks use it.
The problem is that the tech sucks. It's based on two components:
* A keychain code generator (if you lose/forget it then you're screwed)
* A Java applet where you enter the code from the keychain code generator
So, if you either don't have your code generator device with you or are on
something without Java (like a smartphone or tablet), then you're screwed.
Thankfully the use of BankID isn't required by law so a few banks offer other
way more practical ways of authentication. My bank sends a random code to my
cell phone through SMS that I have to enter in a normal web form. Much simpler
and works everywhere.
------
jahewson
This is a great example of why governments should not pick the winners when it
comes to technology (or any other competitive endeavour).
~~~
timthorn
GSM being a great counter-example.
Although in general I agree with the premise you put forward, it shouldn't be
a principal applied without thought.
~~~
luriel
GSM is a pretty horrid standard, and it has plenty of security issues of its
own to the point that the title of a talk on GSM security at CCC was "SRSLY?":
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9K4EDAF5OlM>
------
CWuestefeld
The article starts by saying
_The problems of monopolies arising through network effects, and the negative
effects of the lock-in that results, are familiar enough._
But then it goes on to talk about the problems of a monopoly that was created
not by network effects, but because of governmental dictate.
The lesson here ought to be that government ought not to be so heavy-handed,
because it can't change its own regulations quickly enough to address the
naturally-changing business and technological environment.
~~~
rbanffy
> created not by network effects, but because of governmental dictate.
Let's assume Microsoft had nothing to do with convincing South Koran
government it would be a great idea to use a government dictate to further
their network effects.
The real lesson here is that governments should never get in bed with the
private sector and, when they do, both sides should be punished. Severely.
------
jeremi23
This was also the case in China when I was leaving there a year ago (and I
guess it still is). A lot of website were working on IE only, and even if it
worked on other platform to do a payment or access your bank account you
needed an activex.
~~~
ExpiredLink
> A lot of website were working on IE only
Oh, that's why Chinese sellers don't respond to complaints about their web
site not working in FF. They think you are a lunatic fringe.
------
scott_w
This is the (not-so) fun downside of government getting too engrossed in
business transactions.
Most "good" laws in this area would specify the desired outcome (secure online
transactions), and let people devise their own methods.
An analogy: this is like the Korean government mandating banks use a specific
model of vault door (Securico 2000), where the rest of the world merely state
"banks must ensure vaults are secured to a reasonable standard". If a fault
exists in the Securico 2000, most banks will (eventually) update, lest they be
sued for negligence in event of someone breaking into the bank and stealing
valuable property. Korean banks would be perfectly safe from legal recourse,
since they are following state law.
Of course, this is not unique to government-mandated technology. Monopoly
groups can cause the same distortion e.g. Verified by Visa.
~~~
_delirium
Downside to government getting involved in business transactions _poorly_ , at
least.
Denmark has quasi-standardized on a two-factor online security solution,
NemID, which works fairly well, and is now used for login to most government
services and most banks. Previous to the government getting involved, there
were some truly horrid ActiveX and Java plugin solutions in use at most banks.
The actual technology is developed by a private company, though; it was
selected for implementation by the government, but not developed in-house.
~~~
driax
But let us not forget that it took the Danish Government two tries to get it
right.
First they tried to push digital signatures on everyone, with the idea that
people should use their personal certificate to login to banks and government
systems. However the banks would have none of it, because of the bad user
interface (ever tried to use client-side certificates in _any_ browser).
They then adopted a system that was a mix of systems already in use by a
number of banks. Key-cards to be distributed by snail-mail and entered trough
a Java plugin. Why they didn't go for a Javascript solutions is sad, but I
would guess that some banks (such as Danske Bank) would have trouble
adjusting.
So the lesson is probably that (some) governments are good at standardizing
already (good) practices.
PS: Also note that some Companies (like Telmore, one of the largest online
shops), who offered the old system (client-side certificates), won't use the
new because of the absurd cost associated. (They have to pay per registered
user, not by how much each user is using the system)
------
OSButler
I had to install 4 different programs, which are constantly running in the
background, just to be able to use online banking for my Korean account.
From a users perspective this is really bad, since you have no idea if the
installed programs are valid and what they actually do.
In addition to that I once tried using my bank's online banking app for the
iPhone. It took me quite a while to figure out why it wasn't working, because
you cannot actually use it without going to the bank and receiving a valid
encryption key for your access.
Then there's online purchases in South Korea, which are of course most of the
time limited to IE only again as well. It also often requires having a South
Korean cellphone number, since activation codes are sent via text message
instead of email.
Setting up an account for a website service also means providing a Korean ID
number, due to their online access policies. Overall it took me the course of
a day simply trying to order something from outside Korea and then failing at
the last step due to the site not accepting foreign credit cards.
Overall the online experience for South Korean sites is extremely bad. If
you're not using a Windows PC there, then you're out of luck without using VMs
or a separate Windows partition on it.
------
ralfd
As a long time Mac user I never encountered ActiveX. Or at least I don't
remember anymore. Is this still in use at major websites apart from korea? And
what is ActiveX exactly: Something to execute code like Java or JavaScript?
~~~
doc4t
ActiveX is (among other things) used to run JScript in the browser. JScript
can be viewed as a super set of JavaScript and will allow you to interact with
the file system and such.
~~~
arethuza
I've seen code (and still have the mental scars) that used VBScript on the
client to open a database connection directly from the web client to the DB
server - including the database username and password _in_ the client code
(this was, of course "sa").
~~~
mgkimsal
well, at least they didn't have to provide a password. embedding a password in
the client code would have been _insecure_! ;)
------
donpark
Given that, Ahn Chul-soo, one of the two candidates with most public support
in the upcoming Presidential election is founder of an anti-virus software
company, I think days of 'Paying the Price' will end soon and abruptly.
I don't think it matters if he wins or loses. He can catapult this issue up
high enough to trigger another governmental [over-re]action to undo the damage
done.
~~~
rbanffy
> Given that, Ahn Chul-soo, one of the two candidates with most public support
> in the upcoming Presidential election is founder of an anti-virus software
> company, I think days of 'Paying the Price' will end soon and abruptly.
Are you kidding?! A Windows monoculture is on the basis of his businesses.
------
dean
" _...businesses, too, are hamstrung when it comes to innovation._ "
Maybe. At least for the particular case of an online purchase from a South
Korean vendor. But when you look at a company like Samsung Electronics, which
is "the world's-largest IT producer" according to Wikipedia, and makes very
popular Android devices, I'm not too concerned about innovation in South
Korea.
------
majmun
In addition south korea is one of the most pwned countries on the internet.
(based on latest antivirus vendors reports. )
------
Eduard
Here is a link to recent and current usage share of browser in South Korea.
I'm really surprised! <http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-KR-
monthly-200807-201205>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Paxos derived - r4um
http://muratbuffalo.blogspot.com/2018/01/paxos-derived.html
======
no_identd
Wow, that's amazing. On the topic of fault tolerance and consensus, here's a
short but well done article on it:
[https://ug93tad.github.io/consensus/](https://ug93tad.github.io/consensus/)
And on the topic of Paxos, some recent HN discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16003662](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16003662)
\- WPaxos: a wide area network Paxos protocol
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13923949](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13923949)
\- Paxos in 25 Lines
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13950493](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13950493)
\- Gryadka is not Paxos, so it's probably wrong [RETRACTED]
~~~
rystsov
Some update on Gryadka - Tobias Schottdorf and Greg Rogers independently
explored it with TLA+ and didn't find any issues: \-
[https://tschottdorf.github.io/single-decree-paxos-tla-
compar...](https://tschottdorf.github.io/single-decree-paxos-tla-compare-and-
swap) \- [https://medium.com/@grogepodge/tla-specification-for-
gryadka...](https://medium.com/@grogepodge/tla-specification-for-
gryadka-c80cd625944e)
------
jbellis
Murat's blog is underappreciated. One of the most approachable writers on
distributed systems. Check out his full archives.
------
pkolaczk
"In sum, something "fundamental" changes when you want to go fault-tolerant
and tolerate node failure in an asynchronous system. When you combine faults
and full-asynchrony, you get the FLP impossibility result. That means you lose
progress! That is why Paxos does not guarantee making progress under a full
asynchronous model with a crash failure."
This is unclear to me. Egalitarian Paxos guarantees progress under a full
asynchronous model and doesn't have the dueling leaders problem. So this looks
like a weakness of standard Paxos itself, not a fundamental problem.
~~~
matthelb
Though it might not be explicitly stated in the paper, EPaxos has the same
liveness guarantee as all other consensus protocols: commands will eventually
commit if a long enough period of synchrony occurs. As the author of this post
notes, this is a fundamental limitation of the specification of the consensus
problem - no protocol can get around the limitation while solving consensus by
definition.
------
Cofike
I took Murat's distributed system course at UB, awesome professor and really
enjoyed his lectures.
------
CurtMonash
Similarly, Max Zorn used to ask people whether they recalled what Zorn's Lemma
was introduced as a lemma to. (I haven't a clue, and I doubt most of them did
either.)
~~~
kmill
Page 82 of
[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0315086078...](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0315086078901362)
has some information.
Zorn introduced a "maximal principle" as an axiom. It appears Tukey called a
generalization of it Zorn's Lemma for unknown reasons, though there is some
version of the statement that really is proved, but apparently by Chevalley (a
fact Zorn knew).
------
Socketopp
I have no idea what this is all about. Anyone care to give a simple
explanation?
~~~
heavenlyblue
One of the most popular problems to be solved in modern IT systems is that of
keeping the state of your application distributed across a number of machines.
Paxos is one of the algorithms that solves this problem by giving you a
protocol that allows the sets of machines to agree upon a set of operations
that would all be applied to their states thus giving you a set of machines in
the same state.
A simple example, is if you had a set of 3 machines starting with state of “0”
and wanted to add “1” to their state. Paxos would define how they should
communicate so that in the end, even if one of the machines failed during
execution, would all end up with a state of “1”.
------
canadianwriter
Blogspot? Now there's a TLD I haven't seen in years...
~~~
dragonwriter
And you haven't seen it as a TLD now, either.
(The TLD is “com”, which you probably see fairly often in that role.)
------
xchaotic
Are we there yet? Do we need paxos-like consensus protocols? Hardware is
becoming cheaper and commoditised and with all the hype around blockchain, it
looks like people are ready to pay extra for the redundant hardware needed for
100% fault tolerance. Still, it feels to me to in almost all cases, including
financial transactions, it's good enough to be right 99.999% of the time and
just amortise the costs of the very rare bit flip...
~~~
matthelb
You bring up a good point, although I'm not sure if I agree with (or
understand) the premises. I can't imagine a world where hardware and the
protocols running on top will be immune to physical sources of faults, such as
natural disasters, human intervention, or cosmic radiation(!). As a result,
dealing with failures will always be a consideration in building distributed
software systems, and Paxos or protocols that solve the same problem as Paxos
will always be relevant.
I do think you make a good point that we don't always need Paxos-like
protocols. Paxos is a very strong tool, so it solves a difficult problem, but
is heavy-handed in many scenarios. There is a lot of space to explore lighter-
weight alternatives to Paxos while still providing similarly strong
properties.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Quantified Anatomy of a Paper - superfx
http://moalquraishi.wordpress.com/2014/11/02/the-quantified-anatomy-of-a-paper/
======
privong
First off, congratulations to Mohammed AlQuraishi for the paper! Carrying out
a big project like that and seeing it through to completion is a solid
achievement.
> The fact that [writing the paper] consumed so much is a little
> disconcerting, and suggests, for me at least, that writing a paper is a
> major commitment.
I think the amount of time needed to write is something people generally
underestimate the first time they write a scientific paper (I certainly did).
It is a bigger undertaking that most people expect. There is a lot of writing,
editing, rewriting, etc.[0], and it takes a lot of time and effort. I am not
the first person to say this, but I think most people (in science at least)
underestimate the importance of writing and so underestimate how much time it
takes.
But I do not think it should necessarily be "disconcerting". The author goes
on to say this, and I agree: sharing the results of the research is very
important. I would even go so far as to say it is as important as doing the
research (if the research is not spread to others, it difficult to make use
of). So putting in the time to effectively communicate the process and results
is critical. For some types of projects, I could envision the writing taking
_more_ time than the actual research, in order to effectively communicate the
research.
[0] I have tracked the text of one of my current papers in git since I began
writing it; once it is finally published, it would be interesting to go back
and look at how the text evolved with time. How much did I write in comparison
to the amount of text that survived to the published form? How long do
passages "survive" in the draft before being edited or removed?
------
whitten
This analysis of the activity of writing a paper (and the paper that was
written) are both interesting because of the dedication of Mohammed AlQuraishi
to data (and evidence) driven activity.
Perhaps this will decrease rarity of someone collecting this data, and the
introspection to understand the data collected.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Rotor.js - A 3D DOM Nodes Manipulation JavaScript Library - Hirvesh
http://louisremi.github.com/rotor.js/demo/
======
Hirvesh
via Functionn - Open Source Resources For Web Developers & Designers:
[http://functionn.blogspot.com/2012/12/otojs-3d-dom-nodes-
man...](http://functionn.blogspot.com/2012/12/otojs-3d-dom-nodes-manipulation-
library.html)
P.S. Functionn contains a whole lot more of awesome resources like Rotor.js.
There only a fraction of them I can post here at a time. Take a look if you're
interested, and subscribe:
<http://functionn.blogspot.com>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Solitude and Leadership - enduser
http://theamericanscholar.org/solitude-and-leadership/
======
losvedir
This is a great article which I reread occasionally so I'm happy to see it
posted to HN. That said, the one thing that always bothers me about is I don't
really know the leadership credentials of the author. His blurb at the bottom
says:
> _"William Deresiewicz is an essayist and critic. His book, A Jane Austen
> Education: How Six Novels Taught Me About Love, Friendship, and the Things
> That Really Matter, was published in April."_
and Wikipedia doesn't offer much in addition.
The advice seems reasonable, but I'm not sure if it's actually true. Have any
respected leaders agreed with it? I know this talk was given at West Point, so
it seems like that's an affirmation of its value, but does that mean it was
read ahead of time and that's why he was brought in? What does Deresiewicz
know about leadership?
------
UK-AL
I hate it when people think leadership is getting a grades or going to the
best schools. Despite what institutions say it is hard to teach leadership.
You can't pass a course module on leadership and become leader, nor will
getting a in maths make you leader.
Leaders emerge in groups as and when they are needed. There will often be the
natural leader, and the guy with authority. Most institutions don't like that
idea. The natural leader is not always the guy with best education, it is not
always the guy who has gone through a leadership program, it is not always the
guy with the commission, it is not always the guy with huge amount of extra-
circulars(which he joined on purpose to gain a leadership role...)
It is the guy with the vision, and the ability to get people to rally around
him. This sometimes causes huge conflicts in hierarchies, with an enlisted
commanding the hearts, minds and actions as opposed to a commissioned officer
which they follow because of fear.
It's why I find it funny when elite institutions seem to imply they have a
magical ingredient that makes people into leaders, they don't. They dispense
authority not leadership and that's why people HAVE to follow them. It is
self-fulfilling really. They fast track people into senior positions. Since
they are in a senior position it sounds as if they have leadership ability,
when really someone else could of been just as good in that position without
necessarily having been to that elite institution. It was being in a senior
position that made people listen, and not because of leadership skills.
When people say stuff like naturing the best students because they going to be
the future leaders I face-palm. I'm good at maths and cs, but that doesn't
really qualify me for leadership but for some reason it qualifies me to apply
for a commission to 'lead' men... When those men themselves may have been
better applicants for the leadership role.
Leadership to me is the ex-prisoner who reforms and becomes a social
entrepreneur and transforms his community. It is the guy who builds an
organisation that gets disenfranchised youth on the right track. These people
have undisputed leadership skills. They have no amount of conferred authority,
and yet they built organisations from nothing and people follow them. People
follow them not because of a Army commission or a Yale degree or whatever but
because they want to. For some reason they just emerged, and they're not
always the best academically.
I have seen organisations try to replicate natural leadership like the ones I
mentioned. I have seen company graduate schemes that tell people to go out and
start a charity for blind people, raise money for the orphanage or something.
However being told to do it by your boss kind of eliminates the point...
Because your recruiting from ivy league universities, it does not mean your
getting leaders.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Rest api authorization - vskr
I am working on service which exposes REST API.<p>What is the best way to implement authorization for incoming requests.<p>* Identify who is making the request. Can we use api key for this.<p>* Make sure this REST api can be used just as easily using curl. I am not sure how to do this, as I dn't think exposing API key is a good idea. I can ask clients to hash request params with api key, but that makes it non-trivial to use with curl.<p>What are the standard practices, and what are the trade offs.<p>Please be kind and helpful. If I said anything wrong, please correct me instead of flagging this.<p>Any help would be appreciated. Glad to provide any info that makes it useful to answer
======
jaypaulynice
OAuth2 is the way to go for REST services especially if you plan to let users
give other apps/developers access without giving out their passwords. For
better security, you want to decouple the authentication server from your web
application (2 separate databases at least)
The authentication server stores email/username, encrypted password, and
roles. To access the web app, you first get a token from the authentication
server by exchanging a client_id, secret, username, password and grant type.
The token is used whenever you want to make a request to the web app. The
authentication server has an endpoint that lets the web app check to see if
the token is valid and what roles the client has.
The token is only valid for a short time and can be revoked. To know who is
making the request, you associate the username/email from the authentication
server with a user object on the web application so you can look up based on
username/email.
It's not worth doing this from scratch as there are plenty of open source
implementations out there already like Spring Security Oauth2 and other
libraries for Django/python, but they all require some reading to get started.
I've used Spring Security Oauth2, but it's not very well documented. I've
thought about open sourcing my work, but not sure yet.
~~~
aprdm
Isn't having two distinct servers one for auth and one for business logic too
much for small start ups / services?
I can see the benefit when scaling but starting with this design seems to be a
little bit of an overkill / harder to manage? Care to elaborate?
Cheers
~~~
jaypaulynice
For a quick prototype, I think it's ok to have both in same server/database,
but beyond a prototype you should think about security and scaling.
Redesigning later can be a nightmare and most people end up not doing it
instead just leaving what they already have.
The good thing with 2 separate servers is that if one is compromised, then the
bad actor doesn't get access to all your data. Also you could use any
language/database that makes sense for your auth server or services.
------
RandomOpinion
I've seen people use JWT
([https://jwt.io/introduction/](https://jwt.io/introduction/)) for REST API
auth. There are a variety of libraries that implement it and it's fairly
simple to use.
Since it's just another HTTP header field, cURL can include it easily enough.
Granted, you'll have to generate the encoded token externally but you would
have had to do that with any other auth mechanism anyway.
------
atmosx
HMAC for auth to avoid having the key exposed at every request.
For the rest: [http://www.javabeat.net/rest-api-best-
practices/](http://www.javabeat.net/rest-api-best-practices/)
And documentation:
[https://github.com/Rebilly/ReDoc/blob/master/README.md](https://github.com/Rebilly/ReDoc/blob/master/README.md)
There many more comprehensive resources about sane API design (use HATEOAS,
pagination, etc.) but you don't have to implement everything from v1
ps. SSL goes without saying even if it's a public API
------
johnjuuljensen
Use basic authentication and ssl. The users credentials will be encrypted and
the API will be easily consumable from cli and from browsers.
~~~
romanovcode
Best answer here. KISS is the way to go.
------
tom_b
I have semi-copied what AWS did a couple of years ago. Each api consumer has
an api key with a private key known to the consumer and server-side. Requests
are SSL only and are signed with the private key by the consumer side
(including any parameters and a client-side timestamp). For example, using
curl:
#!/bin/bash
TS=$(date +"%s000")
SIG=$(echo -ne 'GET\nhttps://servername:port/api/resources?api_id=1&ts='$TS | openssl dgst -sha256 -hmac "secret-key" -binary | xxd -p -c 32)
curl -H "Content-type: application/vnd.collection+json" 'https://servername:port/api/resources?api_id=1&ts='$TS'&signature='$SIG
I have consumers of the api using node.js and Java as app dev languages with
various http client libraries successfully. The actual server-side api is
written with Clojure using the Liberator library (highly enjoyed working with
this combo).
Server-side uses the api_id to check the signature using the shared secretkey.
(Edit to clarify). There are two timestamps flying around here. One is a
timestamp from the client call to the api ($TS above). This timestamp has to
be "close" \- completely configurable on server-side - to the server-side time
or the request is not valid. A little more subtle is that each resource has a
timestamp that is the last time the resource was changed server-side. As part
of the authorization for the api call to change a resource, it has to be make
the call to the api with the resource's most current value for that timestamp
to succeed. This is a little goofy logically.
This approach works very well when you have a requirement to allow multiple
different apps to call the api rather than say, allowing _users_ to call the
api from their browser. I don't have a case where users are in a web browser
app that directly calls the REST api.
By the way, if you are using SSL, you don't have to worry about the api_id
being exposed in either the query parameters or the request headers.
------
rashkov
I really wish this topic got discussed more because there don't seem to be a
lot of great options.
I personally use an OAuth 2 library using the "Resource Owner Password
Credentials Grant" which is where you POST a username and password, and you
get back a session token. OAuth 2 has a few other types of grant flows but
they don't make as much sense for REST only APIs.
The downside of this password grant flow is that anyone can create a client to
work against your API, and potentially they can steal passwords in a man-in-
the-middle fashion. One way to prevent this is to give your "trusted clients"
a secret token, and then verify that token before issuing a session.
However you can't hide a secret in browser-side JavaScript and even mobile
apps can be be decompiled, so this isn't perfect either. Some devices provide
a hardware enclave to store your secrets in, but most don't.
Another weakness is that if your SSL breaks, then you're essentially sending
the passwords in clear text over the wire. Another commenter mentioned HMAC
encryption of the password which might help. That this isn't recommended by
oauth is concerning. It's not the best standard and password grant is its
weakest form. [Edit: now that I think about it, HMAC requires having another
shared secret between your API and your client. Storing secrets on the client
is difficult, as discussed in the previous paragraph]
JWT seems new and not too widely used but worth looking into. It has its own
downsides like some difficulty with revoking sessions from the server side,
but there are workarounds for this.
I wish there was an industry standard answer that was secure and we could all
be happy with but there doesn't seem to be much interest in the topic, going
by how rarely it gets discussed. Best of luck!
~~~
rashkov
By the way, you may want to have a look at Auth0. They run the jwt.io
informational site. Their services look interesting. Their claim is that you
can use their service and their SDKs to add authentication to your service
super easily.
~~~
atmosx
JWT looks very interesting, thanks for bringing this up.
JWT website: [https://jwt.io/introduction/](https://jwt.io/introduction/)
------
weitzj
Be aware of JWT when it comes to Login/Logout behavior. JWT is not a good fit
for user facing login unless you have a session ID on the server. But then you
could as well use Cookies and a sessionID.
So I would do a Login via Basic Auth or a Form post or a JSON post with
username/password and then get some kind of token/sessionID/JWT which expires
on the server side. The token might be encrypted on the server side with a
secret only known to the server, never the client. Use the sessionStore to
implement a proper session expiration scheme.
------
nickmancol
Maybe you can take a look of an api gateway like apiman which can leverage the
auth & authz to keycloak, or perhaps kong may be the one.
------
aprdm
I've used mostly JWT, the tokens with a short TTL which makes it easier to
control revoking/banning in the backend.
It is really simple to set up. In the frontend it's pretty straight forward to
implement logout and other common behaviors even if the token is still valid
because of the TTL.
------
amingilani
Jwts are very straightforward to use, and you can get up and running with
Auth0 for free in a few minutes.
They do have a 700 DAU limit, but when you need to, you can always implement
your own JWT server
------
quickben
Look into identity server 4. YouTube some videos about it and it should get
you going. The rest is just picking what's popular for your platform/language.
------
emmelaich
Regarding cURL, note that Firefox and Chrome allow you to copy the request as
a Curl command with their Developer Tools. (F12/inspect...)
------
diggernaut
you can (and should :)) use it (token auth) with ssl. To get SSL is not a
problem today, and will cost you nothing if you use letsencrypt.org
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Simple Responsive HTML Email Template v1.0 - fonziguy
http://github.com/leemunroe/responsive-html-email-template
======
fonziguy
HTML email is still way harder than it should be. So I put together this basic
responsive email template and just recently updated so there is better support
across more clients. Enjoy.
------
brianjking
nice, thanks!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Disruption and My Next Startup... You Help Decide - markbao
http://jasonlbaptiste.com/misc/my-next-startup/
======
run4yourlives
I'm loving that woot for dating bit. I think that's a huge winner. Needs to be
local though.
It would work better as a "auction" though, like you see at those charity
fund-raisers. People apply to be "auctioned" off - submit detailed profiles -
one girl one guy every day. People bid. Highest bid wins (make it fixed bids),
depending on money raised, site sends them on a free date.
You might need to give the auctioned some influence in picking the bidder, but
man what a cash cow.
~~~
jasonlbaptiste
I would start it in one city. Miami or SF Bay area were my first gut instinct
thoughts.
The auction idea was one thought I had, but then it would be dependent upon
whoever spent the most, and not the girl's tastes.
~~~
run4yourlives
That's the thing that might kill it though.
Unless you're talking big money (which you may eventually) you're not likely
to find many women/men who are attractive wanting to blind date for a free
dinner or whatever.
What you could do actually, is get the person's friends to pick from the top
5, or have bidding levels that you can match to be considered "in", instead of
auction style bidding.
~~~
jasonlbaptiste
You would definitely have to do some leg work to find women who want in. They
especially may not want the attention.
That was my thought of using virtual gifts. If you send a virtual flower or
teddy bear to woo the girl, it helps indicate you're serious.
I also thought about letting the girl post her top choices along the way and
let the audience comment and add their thoughts in. Another option would be
letting the girl pick a "wingwoman" who helps and comments on the guys who
apply.
~~~
run4yourlives
You know, you could make it a "bachelor" style date, in that you could send
both guy and girl off for a weekend in Jamaica, or a week in Spain or
something like that. Of course the whole thing just got a lot more expensive,
but it still might fly.
You'd need to vet the contestants much more, but I'm sure that would take away
the jitters some people may have in letting the highest bidder win.
EDIT: I got it. You combine the ideas: Virtual Gifts are submitted to get to a
"bidding" stage. Auctioned approves profiles they would consider (They have
the interest of keeping this amount high) Pre-approved people are allowed to
bid. Winning bid wins. Date paid for based on amount of winning bid (the
higher, the better the date, hence the reason the auctioned wants lots of
bidders). So long as all the bids total more than the cost of the date, profit
ensues.
~~~
jasonlbaptiste
exactly. The question is, how do you consistently generate enough traffic and
get people bidding? Yes, it's 99 cents per bid, but if you're not interested
in the girl, it doesn't matter. ie- shes too tall, it wouldn't matter if it
were free. A PR burst would be nice for that week of launch, but what about
the other 51 weeks in the year? If you can figure out that formula, profit
ensues. Step 2: ????? actually exists here.
~~~
run4yourlives
That's nothing to worry about. You said like woot right? Well, one pre-
selected girl, one pre-selected guy per week (You can extend that to same sex
matches as well, which makes for 4 contests a week, locally in X amount of
cities.)
You put a detailed description of the auctioned on the site, along with the
date description, and invite everyone to apply to bid. Auctioned selects those
allowed to bid, I suppose you can put auto limiting options here if you want.
(So far, no money). Bidding commences with a conveniently placed minimum bet
(say 75% of date cost) and is not fixed - bid whatever you want. Since the
bidders and auctioned are pre-selected, all we're looking to do here is get
that bidding as high over the date cost (assuming only one date, perhaps if it
gets really high, say 100% over the cost, the date changes, and so on and so
on.) This way, you let the auctioned do your marketing for you - their
interest is getting that big free night out, after all, so they keep the pool
of allowed bidders large. So long as you keep the auctioned pre-selected for
attractiveness/interestingness, you win. Throw a pictureless rss feed up there
and don't worry, people will come back.
Hell, what the hell am I doing, I should just go build this thing!
~~~
jasonlbaptiste
I'd say just start with girls at first. Guys make it more complicated, and
they don't have as much of a draw. I could be wrong here.
You'd have to have really in depth profiles of the girl of the week/day. Video
intro, multiple pictures, in-depth Q&A, etc. If you're giving the restaurant
for the date decent exposure, you may not really need to even pay for
anything.
I think once you figure the traffic formula out, it's game over (in a good
way). Creating attention and buzz for it will not be hard.
~~~
phreanix
The thing I'm thinking about is, IF the girl is decently attractive enough to
warrant such bids and attention, she should have no trouble getting dates. She
might actually be wary of displaying herself on a meatmarket full of hungry
males with 99 cents to lose.
I had a somewhat similar idea I fleshed out a couple of years ago that also
involved local dating, but was more targeted at the 9-5 working crowd and
bringing them together on an invite/want basis for quick coffee/lunch dates
that brought a couple together long enough to 'get to know' but not so long
that it got uncomfortable. What I couldn't figure out was how to monetize it,
but your 99 cent 'participation' fee is intriguing me enough to try and
resurrect it. I wouldn't mind exchanging a couple of no-strings emails with
you if you'd like to discuss.
------
jasonlbaptiste
Writing everything down started happening / was inspired by this long Ask HN
thread:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=475736>
TONS of good stuff in that thread. Still my favorite discussion here.
------
JacobAldridge
Great insight into the thought processes of aspiring start-up founder with
track record. Not disimilar to pg/YC's RFS.
Key context for all of us with excellent ideas going nowhere:
_"Ideas only get you so far, and getting true feedback is a lot more valuable
to me than the rare off chance of someone 'stealing' 1 of 12 ideas that I may
or may not ever pursue."_
~~~
auston
Track record?
I'm not sure that has any basis, surely Jason is a nice guy, but the only
track record I am aware of is:
Some random company - Social startup which never went anywhere long term, but
had decent buzz at some point (iirc).
Publictivity - Which the towel was thrown in on (& may go open source)
Ramamia - Started with Mark Bao which seems to be barely lingering
(<http://siteanalytics.compete.com/ramamia.com/>)
I'm not sure if that is a track record.
[EDIT: Downvoted for disagreeing with someone & backing it up - anybody care
to explain why?]
~~~
run4yourlives
Track-record as in has actually launched products. You can look at that as not
being much, or you can look at it as being more than someone who hasn't done
any of that, which would include a good number of people reading this.
~~~
auston
Interestingly - I always kind of felt & have seen the opposite, all of the
people I know from HN have indeed launched something, although my sample size
is only 6 people.
------
ujjwalg
I really like the #4 and #6 mainly because we are working on both. :) I
totally believe that education industry needs a makeover because it is
extremely fragmented and highly inefficient with very less innovation.
~~~
ujjwalg
and the strange thing with this is that everyone agrees education industry
needs major innovation but not much VC funding is being poured into it in
spite of huge (billions) opportunity.
~~~
run4yourlives
That's because there are powerful interests that aren't interested in
innovating here: they like the industry just the way it is.
------
javery
Find an idea that you are passionate about and ready to pour time and money
into. I would bet that of those ideas maybe 1 or 2 are things you honestly
want to do (and think you can do).
~~~
jasonlbaptiste
I agree. This is the starting point you could say. From here, there are about
4 or 5 different pieces of criteria I'm prioritizing by. The biggest one with
the most weight is passion.
------
sho
There I was thinking that obviously "jasonlbaptiste" and "markbao" were sock
puppets but no, mark bao sounds Chinese. A few clicks confirms it.
So what the hell? Have you guys got an agreement to submit each other's stuff
or something? Honestly I don't like that. If jasonlbaptiste writes something
good on jasonlbaptiste.com, then just submit it yourself, jasonlbaptiste. You
don't need a proxy.
~~~
modoc
Mark is partners with Jason on one of the startups Mark is involved with (it
says that on his profile), so it stands to reason he reads Jason's blog a lot.
Don't need to be a conspiracy.
~~~
sho
Markbao did 9/11!
Hm. Too soon?
Anyway, I didn't mean to allege a conspiracy. Just saying that if people write
something, and they have an account here, they should take ownership and
submit it themselves.
~~~
webwright
What? As soon as I blog anything interesting (or that I think MIGHT be
interesting), I should rush over to hacker news and submit it? I always feel
weird submitting my own stuff and (honestly) submitting it to social news
sites is not the first thing that pops into my head when I blog.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Crawling Billions of Pages: Building Large Scale Crawling Cluster, part 1 - warrenmar
http://engineering.bloomreach.com/crawling-billions-of-pages-building-large-scale-crawling-cluster-part-1/
======
rb2k_
I guess this fits in here:
Once upon a time I wrote my thesis on building a web crawler. The (tiny) blog
post with an embedded preview:
[http://blog.marc-seeger.de/2010/12/09/my-thesis-building-
blo...](http://blog.marc-seeger.de/2010/12/09/my-thesis-building-blocks-of-a-
scalable-webcrawler/)
The PDF itself:
[http://blog.marc-seeger.de/assets/papers/thesis_seeger-
build...](http://blog.marc-seeger.de/assets/papers/thesis_seeger-
building_blocks_of_a_scalable_webcrawler.pdf)
It's mostly a "this is what I learned and the things I had to take into
consideration" with a few "this is how you identify a CMS" bits sprinkled into
it. These days I would probably change a thing or two, but people told me it's
still an entertaining read. (Not a native speaker though, so the English might
have some stylistic kinks)
------
jordiburgos
Part 2, is already there [http://engineering.bloomreach.com/crawling-billions-
of-pages...](http://engineering.bloomreach.com/crawling-billions-of-pages-
building-large-scale-crawling-cluster-part-2/)
------
viraptor
> The Windows operating system can dispatch different events to different
> window handlers so you can handle all asynchronous HTTP calls efficiently.
> For a very long time, people weren’t able to do this on Linux-based
> operating systems since the underlying socket library contained a potential
> bottleneck.
What? select()'s biggest issue is if you have lots of idle connections, which
shouldn't be an issue when crawling (you can send more requests while waiting
for responses). epoll() is available since 2003. What bottlenecks?
~~~
enigmo
Turns out crawlers spend a lot more (wall clock) time waiting for a complete
response than they do requesting it. However, scheduling is a much (much,
much, much) harder problem to deal with than async i/o but it's not what many
people here need to worry about.
------
krokoo
The challenges with crawling on a large scale still persist as is evident by
bloomreach and many other companies building custom solutions because
available open source tools cannot handle the scale of such products. SQLBot
aims to solve this problem. Product a few weeks from launch. If any is
interested:
[http://www.amisalabs.com/AmisaSQLBot.html](http://www.amisalabs.com/AmisaSQLBot.html)
------
exacube
From part 2 of their article:
> Currently, more than 60 percent of global internet traffic consists of
> requests from crawlers or some type of automated Web discovery system.
Where is this number from and how accurate can you make it?
~~~
Axsuul
It currently feels like 60 percent of global internet traffic is actually
crawling their blog right now. Still waiting for it to load.
------
kaivi
I wish there were more articles about determining the frequency at which one
page should be crawled. Some pages never change, some change multiple times
per minute, and we do not want to crawl them all equally often.
~~~
petewailes
This is a problem I've researched fairly extensively the last few months. My
ideal solution looks something like:
* Initial pull * Secondary pulls x time later, where x doubles each time, up to a maximum value, y
y is the one that's tricky to define. For us, it's a value computed based on
the frequency of update of similar URLs for that domain, the domain as a
whole, similar content, and a few other bits and pieces. Essentially, our
thinking is that if we can understand how alike any page is to another cluster
of pages, we can use their average frequency of update to give reasonably
likely initial values for x, and sensible thresholds for y. We also temper
this with how much change there is, to determine whether the differences are
something we care about.
Obviously, should the system notice that if its change timings are
particularly outside where it'd expect given the cohort assigned, it's then
able to start moving around its comparison. An example would be a blog
category page which updates so infrequently that it's particularly unusual, or
a page with a lot of social feeds on it where there's a lot of flux
constantly.
Works pretty well, but if anyone's got a better solution I'd love to hear of
it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask PG: What happened with the acceptance letters for Startup School? - alexsb92
Were they sent out, and I just didn't receive one, or did you guys not finish looking over the hundreds of applications?<p>I tried doing some searches regarding it, but there seems to be no buzz regarding it, so I actually even made sure that I had the date right so I wouldn't make a fool of myself by posting this.<p>Edit: rewording.
======
wj
All of us that did not get accepted should spend the weekend working on our
projects!
~~~
alexsb92
Or watching the live stream. That's what I'll be doing.
------
mishmax
There's another post that claims you can check your status here
<http://news.ycombinator.com/susrsvp>. Seems ligit. Is it?
~~~
buss
Interesting. I checked it earlier and it said I wasn't accepted. I just re-
checked and it's asking for verification that I'm coming.
We can't know that anything is ready until they send out the email, so don't
get excited/disappointed yet.
~~~
richiezc
same here, hope to receive the email soon. funny i've been checking all day as
well, and searching on twitter occasionally...
~~~
buss
Did you rsvp before getting the email? I still haven't gotten it, but the rsvp
page still indicates that I'm invited.
I'm beginning to wonder if they only sent emails to people who hadn't rsvp'd
already.
~~~
richiezc
yea I did RSVP earlier as well, check your bulk/spam folder? good luck
------
stangutu
I am also eagerly waiting for the response.
------
richiezc
hey what do you know, just got my acceptance email :)
Yes, the link to RSVP is the same as last year (after unwrapping the mailchimp
click tracking): <http://news.ycombinator.com/susrsvp>
~~~
grizzlylazer
I'm in as well! Congrats :)
------
louprado
I will be eagerly checking until midnight. Hope to see everyone on this thread
there.
------
aherlambang
does anyone know the acceptance rate for last year? and how many applied?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
7 soft skills you need to succeed as a developer - HeyStenson
https://techbeacon.com/7-keys-succeeding-software-engineer
======
djchung23
Key point: "The better those relationships are, the better your own work will
be, which is why it’s so important to treat others with empathy and respect."
I want to highlight empathy, especially when interacting with colleagues who
are not technical. There are a lot of things developers know that are second
nature, but to many others, it's not. Meet them halfway, help them understand,
don't dismiss someone because they don't know how something works.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
NY police used a virtual 'wanted poster' to help catch bombing suspect - nichodges
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-20/mobile-alert-issued-to-new-york-resident-in-hunt-for-suspect/7860408
======
awqrre
News anchors on TV appeared to have received the alert with a picture
attached...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
My Karma stopped moving? Not that it matters - dawie
======
rms
It doesn't matter?! The score you get for playing the internet is my favorite
contribution of reddit to social site design. Things just haven't been as much
fun ever since slashdot got rid of numerical karma scores.
------
pg
I just upmodded this post and your karma went up by a point. But I did just
release a new version, so if anyone notices a bug, let me know.
------
omarish
I definitely noticed that too.
------
entrepreneur
Karma definitely matters. Hey- at least yours _was_ moving.
------
zkinion
You need to kill more boars to get to the next level, then you can wear plate
mail and get your mount. (World of Warcraft) ;)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Keep laughing; Cuil isn't quitting yet - fromedome
http://www.businessinsider.com/cuil-office-tour-2009-11
======
makecheck
The name probably caused them more trouble than it should have. It's the same
criticism being thrown at Bing (the idea that Google is a verb now, and you
need a name that works well for that).
I can't just tell my friends "hey, try out Cuil", I have to spend a few
seconds explaining how to spell it. That's no way to get the word out.
The technology is good, the site is very fast and relevant. But there's a lot
in a name.
~~~
sp332
People forget that Google had the same problem. Before Google, "google" was
spelled "googol".
~~~
jacquesm
It still is, google is the misspelling.
As for CUIL, their crawler was such a nuisance at some point that I blocked
their complete network. I doubt I'm alone in that.
And if those 'twiceler' guys don't start playing nice I'll do the same to
them.
~~~
andrewljohnson
Pretty sure twiceler is Cuil....
~~~
jacquesm
Ah! thanks.
That clinches it then. One more agent for the ban list.
Apropos, I think that plenty of bad guys are masquerading as twiceler as well.
Mozilla/5.0 (Twiceler-0.9 <http://www.cuil.com/twiceler/robot.html>
When 'CUIL' first came out their crawler was all over my servers, sometimes to
the point of making them inaccessible for users, I remember having a devil of
a time getting rid of them because they came from lots of different IP blocks.
Apparently their bot is called twiceler, maybe they should name it 'CuilBot'
or something to that effect.
~~~
whughes
Judging by your response, maybe they _shouldn't_ name it Cuilbot.
I wonder if their overzealous bots and subsequent blocking are reasons why
they launched with such terrible results. I heard several reasons for that
catastrophic failure:
* Overstressed subject-specific servers failed, leading to porn on hamburger searches and that kind of thing
* Crashing, random result variations due to overload
* Excessive media hype exacerbated the load issues
Another one to add to the list?
------
EricBurnett
I'm sorry, but 7 petabytes for the largest search index in the world? I'm
hoping the reporter misquoted the developers here. If we conservatively assume
servers with half a terabyte of hard disk space, that's 14,000 servers for the
web index. Google was estimated to have 450,000 servers in 2006, and
presumably has many more than that now. So less than 5% of their server stack
would be required to store that size of web index. Considering that web search
is still Google's core product, this seams easy to believe. And much more if
you include image caching, maps, videos....
------
eli
The name is silly, but who cares. The search results just aren't very good. My
impression is that the ranking algorithm is passable, but that they just don't
have nearly the depth of Google. Less popular but highly relevant pages that
come up in google are completely missing from cuil.
------
gojomo
I'm still awaiting the day Cuil does phrase queries. I know, most casual
search users don't do quoted-phrase queries -- but Google and Bing do, and I
occasionally use them, and Cuil has no chance of being my default search
engine if it doesn't take the trouble to support them, too.
------
astine
_making Cuil the neighborhood store stocking the hard to find antique and
offbeat books._
Cuil's design is too slick to pass as a neighborhood book store. It needs more
rough edges and needs too appear old and established. Instead it feels young
and fresh and naive.
------
aarongough
Personally, I would worry about having my livelihood run on those servers.
What's their redundant power system now? Do they even have one?
Their wooden pallet/cables hanging over table system seems like every Sysadmin
darkest nightmares...
------
known
I've given feedback to Cuil to change their results page. But they _ignored_
it.
------
online
their search quality id even not matching duckduckgo, not mentioning google
and bing
------
b05us
when i looked at this, i wasn't excited or envious of all the geek gear, i
just thought it represented a massive waste of resources. they took their
shot, they flopped...any time/mindshare leftover for google alternatives now
belong to bing and players to be named later (blekko etc). to continue to pour
money into hardware and development just seems like a massive waste. just give
the money to an inner city school...actually put that wealth to some positive
use for humanity
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Mailing list debates considered harmful - jnoller
http://tech.blog.aknin.name/2010/05/29/mailing-list-debates-considered-harmful/
======
thunk
I'm curious to see how Wave fares under a python-dev-size debate, and what
creative curating can accomplish.
Sometimes I think the optimal solution to online discussion is a
reconfigurable 3d visualization of the graph of comment-nodes. In one
configuration, node size, location, connectedness and proximity to the core of
the graph would signify a comment's relative importance and "page-rank". The
ability to respond to and "link" to multiple other comments would be useful
here. Another would be a more standard tree-based visualization of the
comments in time, but without the misleading vertical ranking of root nodes.
Another visualization might be a straight serialization in time, similar to
mailing lists.
I imagine the nodes to be sort of bouncy, physicsy bubbles that can be nudged
around, and that the view can rotate in three dimensions and zoom in and out
to focus on specific subthreads.
Other times I think that's _way_ too heavy-weight a solution, that it would be
confusing, that it might not actually solve anything, and that we do pretty
well with the threaded comment trees we have now. I actually kind like that
everyone sees the same thing on the page, shared experience and whatnot.
I dunno. Online discussion is hard.
------
jrockway
Does the outcome of these debates ever matter? I always think of them as a way
to keep the naysayers busy while the contributers actually implement
something.
~~~
thunk
C'mon. I know you're being mildly facetious, but "naysayers" and contributors
aren't nearly so cleanly segregated. And debate often leads to important
decisions that can't just be coded away.
~~~
jrockway
Most of the time, the long discussions aren't about anything important. Nobody
cares how you build your nuclear reactor, but everyone wants to debate the
color of the bikeshed.
~~~
thunk
Sometimes they aren't, sometimes they are. Something about babies and
bathwater. The ideal online debate platform would algorithmically marginalize
bikeshedding.
~~~
pg
"The ideal online debate platform would algorithmically marginalize
bikeshedding."
That is a great sentence, in both senses.
It's hard to do, though YC does have several features for this, and they seem
to work to some extent.
------
perlpimp
One can improve on NNTP, add verified identities etc. You can do so via GnuPG
and some combination of software bits.
Usenet was built just for this, I don't understand why people don't use it
widely. Forums are such POS for this kind of thing, they fragment the field
make it impossible to search for a discussion in any sort of uniform way.
my 2c
------
Tawheed
I got chills while reading your article, because as a single founder of a
bootstrapped startup, the problem of dated mailing lists and discussion forums
is the exact problem I’ve been trying to solve and this is one of the first
times someone articulated the problem so well.
Check out my startup: <http://BraintrustHQ.com>.
If anyone is interested, I’d love to work with you and whomever else is
interested to see how we can make this free and make it work for the Open
Source Community.
------
tbrownaw
From the first couple paragraphs, this sounds like it's mostly a complaint
about the existence of bikeshed topics. Which exist in any discussion medium.
~~~
philh
Not really. The problem isn't "people are debating trivial things instead of
letting shit get done". It's "people are debating all sorts of things, and
it's impossible to work out what state each of the separate debates is in".
~~~
teolicy
A good one-line summary of what I meant.
------
Tycho
I think Hacker News has the right idea - show responses in their own threads,
use upvoting to push the best stuff to the top, use downvoting to keep
everything civil (very important), and give people a chance to edit their
comment if they see it getting immediate negative feedback.
------
DanielBMarkham
There is a need here that is huge and unmet.
There are also sociological and psychological issues that come into play. It's
not simply a matter of who makes the best argument.
------
chaosgame
"no end in _site_".
~~~
a1k0n
The various grammatical errors picked my interest as well.
~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
You mean like using the word "picked" instead of "piqued?"
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
NYTimes.com Announces Map/Reduce Toolkit - bdotdub
http://open.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/11/announcing-the-mapreduce-toolkit/
======
misterbwong
I have to give a lot of respect to NYT. Whether this project sticks or not,
it's things like this that make me think NYT is going to be one of the few
newspapers to survive the crisis hitting the papers (albeit in a much smaller
and much different form). They're one of the few newspapers at least _trying_
to get it. Others are just complaining while hemorrhaging money.
~~~
patio11
I don't care for the NYT's editorial stances or reporting for the most part,
but they've _really_ been pushing the envelope in terms of using the
newspaper's website as more than a paperless version of a dead-tree product. I
could point to any number of their news-related projects. The election had a
number of great ways to present election results. Their Faces of the Dead
feature was also... how to avoid breaking the etiquette here... I'm going to
go with "technically well-executed".
------
SwellJoe
Interesting that it's built in Ruby. I was under the impression that NYTimes
did pretty much all of their dynamic language work in Perl.
~~~
bkudria
No, they do quite a bit of PHP now as well,and the Interactive News team uses
Rails and Django a lot as well.
------
matrix
Anyone know why they built this rather than use Hive or Pig? One thing that
drives me nuts is that all of these MR tools are very slow because they don't
take advantage of indexes and use inefficient storage (e.g. in this case,
plain text files), both of which would likely improve query performance
considerably.
~~~
vicaya
MR tools, especially high level wrappers like cascading (which gives you
capability to do easy joins on Hadoop) are very good for building indices for
query. You can use these tools to process the (log) data once and load the
results into a scalable db like Hypertable (or even MySQL if the results set
is small) and query them.
------
mlLK
I think it's interesting that this was released by the New York Times. . .this
could be prove to be an interesting new model/trend for newspaper publishers
to remain as a viable competitor in the 21st century, given the bad-rap they
seem to be giving themselves these days as news _paper_ publishers. D=
------
earle
This is pretty meaningless -- there's already a THRIFT interface which allows
easy job creation and control as well as HadoopStreaming which allows access
to creating map-reduce jobs for anything using stdin/stdout.
This has dubious benefit, and just adds another unnecessary layer into this
process. I'm not sure why this is news.
~~~
aaronblohowiak
This is a convenience layer, and it comes with a way to run your map/reduce
without having to have hadoop on your dev box.
------
adw
last.fm did something similar, called Dumbo, for writing your Hadoop jobs in
Python.
------
grandalf
the least they could do is post a link to the code on github to help out a
startup -- why use google code?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
United States v. Aaron Swarz Indictment [pdf] - bradleysmith
http://www.justice.gov/usao/ma/news/DataTheft/Indictment.pdf
======
nanch
If I were on that jury, I wouldn't convict.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
FrogPad 2, one handed keyboard rises from the depths of Vaporware and stickers - cordite
http://www.frogpad2.com/
======
yaddayadda
One of the videos they link to
([http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xl5qn...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xl5qnJ3hjBs))
highlights a lot of different concerns. Among the obvious were the shortcut
keys (e.g., Ctrl-Z) and the reviewers losing the ability to switch their
screen to full screen. I'm not seeing these problems address on the frogpad
page.
------
cordite
Note, the stickers refer to the previous $60 or so product which provided some
overlays on the magic trackpad.
They apparently launched the new product site (not the product itself) on Jan
1, 2014.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Wind could power the entire world - nreece
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0622-hance_global_wind.html
======
patio11
Lemon/penny batteries could power the entire world, too. Here's the math:
One lemon/penny battery generates 0.0001 W. Thus, one kilowatt requires 10
megalemons. 10 megalemons produces 365 * 24 = 8760 kilowatt hours per year, or
876 KWH per megalemon per year.
The US consumes roughly 4 trillion KWH per year, which would require about 4.5
petalemon to power. Worldwide production last year was on the order of 6.5
gigalemons (13 megatonnes according to Wiki, 200g for the average lemon), so
we have a bit to go, but this proves that a significant fraction of the US's
electrical needs can be provided by lemon batteries currently. Minor
implementation details such as maintenance of the lemon batteries, storage of
them, operating lifetime, cost, and trivialities such as "Where do we find 4.5
petapennies?" can be hammered out at a later date.
(P.S. Less sarcastically, if you want to generate the world's electricity
needs without being primarily reliant on fossil fuels, you have two options.
The first is nuclear power. The second is dividing the world into permanent
camps: those that have sufficient access to electricity to enjoy a standard of
living comparable to America in the early 1900s, and those who do not. Group
#2 will have to vastly outnumber Group #1.)
~~~
pygy
I agree that the best option availlable at the moment is nuclear energy.
But what about the thermic solar plants that are currently being built in the
deserts of the US and Africa? Those with parabolic mirrors heating the pipes
set at their focal point?
~~~
gaius
I foresee issues around the longevity of mirrors in sandstorms.
~~~
dan_the_welder
Legions of itinerant mirror polishers.
------
billroberts
I suggest reading <http://www.withouthotair.com> for a reasoned discussion of
this issue. A couple of quotes:
"if we covered the windiest 10% of the country [the UK] with windmills
(delivering 2 W/m2), we would be able to generate 20 kWh/d per person, which
is half of the power used by driving an average fossil-fuel car 50 km per
day".
"I should emphasize how generous an assumption I’m making. Let’s compare this
estimate of British wind potential with current installed wind power
worldwide. The windmills that would be required to provide the UK with 20
kWh/d per person amount to 50 times the entire wind hardware of Denmark; 7
times all the wind farms of Germany; and double the entire fleet of all wind
turbines in the world."
------
lionheart
In theory, yes. And in theory, all we would have to do is pave over a few
square kilometers of New Mexico and we can power the entire world with solar.
But these studies completely ignore all of the practical issues with wind
power at its current scale, let alone scaling it to power the whole world.
~~~
blueben
Start now. Continue R&D and funding. In 10 years, the technology will be
dramatically advanced and scaling will be far easier.
Just because it's hard doesn't mean it isn't worth doing anyway. When the
Manhattan project started, they had no clue how they would come up with the
theoretical quantity of nuclear material they needed. It was impossible. They
went forward anyway and in the process invented the methods they needed to
make it happen. Now we have nuclear weapons coming out of our ears.
~~~
berntb
They did a preplanned thing in Sweden when they built warships and planted
trees suitable for new warships.
Now those trees are ready to be used -- but those pesky iron ships, from the
1860s onwards, got between. :-)
Check: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polywell en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Fusion
Will they work? We will know in less than ten years. If they work, the money
would be better used in battery research, to run cars on electricity.
~~~
blueben
If you wait because something better might come along which disrupts your
present efforts, you will wait forever.
Eventually, you must commit to something while recognizing that you may have
to be adaptable and change your course later. Success depends less on what you
choose to do and more on the fact that you are doing it.
~~~
berntb
Yeah, but you need to do some sanity checking to see how likely things are to
ever be competitive...
I agree that wind research should be done, but I really think/hope something
better (lower investment costs and lower aesthetic impact) will be found.
------
jasonkester
It's difficult to take articles like this seriously. This type of "if we
covered the entire earth's surface with (wind|solar|biomass|exercise bikes),
we could power the entire world" argument is already reduced to absurdity.
There's nothing there even to poke fun at.
It's cool that some of these technologies are making progress and all, but
really, is there anybody who actually thinks it's a good idea to scale them up
to this level? In the name of the environment???
~~~
dan_the_welder
Let me put that another way.
"Does anybody think it's a good idea to depend entirely on a finite resource
that can only be used once and also smells?"
------
rjurney
And totally mess up my waves by reducing wind speeds. Stay away from my waves,
you scoundrels!
~~~
vidarh
I read that in a "get off my lawn" old mans voice.
~~~
rjurney
Except with a 'surfer bra wannabe accent?
:)
------
luckyland
i'm riding the thermal drafts of HN comment hot air right now, dude.
------
joel_feather
Wind power is only available in certain parts of the world. Distribution would
be a massive problem. Thousands of miles of cables and transformers are not
easy to maintain.
~~~
dan_the_welder
We already have thousand of miles of cables and transformers.
My Aunt and Uncle own a wind power company and they cleverly sited nine
turbines next to a coal plant so they would not have to run miles of cables.
These are trivial problems.
~~~
joel_feather
That must be the most uninformed thing that I've read in my life. How is the
map of electricity cables between chad and congo?
Are you aware that wind power needs special sites? And you cannot just move it
beside where you want it?
~~~
dan_the_welder
Yes I am aware of this and far from being uninformed I am speaking of things I
learned from the owners of a successful Wind Power Utility. see Lingan under
projects <http://www.confedpower.com>
They are in Nova Scotia, not Chad so I can't comment on the situation there.
Extra bonus points. This was a startup by people with no prior experience in
the industry that has done extremely well from the getgo.
------
tybris
Never thought wind power would destroy the environment.
------
sjs382
_could_ not _should_
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Move to Canada – Seeking Software Developers, Visa Sponsor - casoetan
https://secure.plum.io/en/apply/hcgSGL86R28zKBZ3J71r42t
======
verdverm
HN is not a job board, please read the FAQ for relevant sections
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How to find 'error budget' as a DevOps Engineer? - FahadUddin92
I am trying to find an error budget for a site that has several outside APIs integrated in it for its core features. How can I find the error budget for it?
======
Juliate
Error budget = the actual downtime duration your site can still afford within
a given time frame.
If you have the SLA of your outside APIs, you may compute your own maximum
possible SLO and deduce from that your full error budget. But your error
budget will diminish over time, as you use it.
Say your site depends on 3 external APIs having each a 99% SLA, your best
possible site SLO would be 99% x 99% x 99% = 97% (= your site is, at best, as
much reliable as the product of the reliability of your dependencies).
That is, unless your site has some built-in tactics for the specific downtime
scenarios of these APIs (caching, retry, slow down, graceful limitation of
features, etc.).
Should you pick a lower SLA than your SLO for your site then? Always. Things
happen.
Let's take 95% SLA for simplicity.
Your max error budget would be, for 30 days, as a formula:
+ total time frame (say, 30 days = 720 hours)
- target availability (at 97% avail. that would be 684 hours)
- total downtime you've had already within this time frame
= 36 hours or less
That's a start. Then you may track your actual production own indexes and
adjust accordingly.
Reminder: [https://enqueuezero.com/the-difference-between-sli-slo-
and-s...](https://enqueuezero.com/the-difference-between-sli-slo-and-sla.html)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Uber settles class-action lawsuits in California and Massachusetts - apsec112
https://newsroom.uber.com/growing-and-growing-up/
======
kwikiel
Uber sees drivers as only temporary thing that will be soon to be replaced by
self driving cars - on navbar on same page "Today, we are excited to announce
that Uber will give $5.5M to support a new robotics faculty chair as well as
three fellowships at CMU"
------
chinathrow
"Drivers will remain independent contractors, not employees;"
That - in my opinion - is not what the states should have settled on.
~~~
chrischen
If they became classified as employees it would completely destroy the
competition (Lyft).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Recursive Drawing - nreece
http://recursivedrawing.com/
======
jedahan
Do yourself a favor, and watch Toby Schachman (the author) explaining his ITP
thesis. This is just one expression of a larger vision for alternative
programming which he describes very succinctly. These two videos include him
and the slides: [http://itp.nyu.edu/thesis/spring2012_archives/thesis-
Heching...](http://itp.nyu.edu/thesis/spring2012_archives/thesis-
Hechinger-2012_Toby%20Schachman_3_Large.mp4)
[http://itp.nyu.edu/thesis/spring2012_archives/thesis-
Heching...](http://itp.nyu.edu/thesis/spring2012_archives/thesis-
Hechinger-2012_Toby%20Schachman_4_Large.mp4)
More angles and other great videos available at
<http://itp.nyu.edu/shows/thesis2012/archives/>
~~~
tehwalrus
...this is _by_ Toby Schachman (you knew that right?) just check out the
github author <http://github.com/electronicwhisper>
~~~
jedahan
I did mention (the author). Maybe I should have been more explicit (the author
of this application & thesis). I've worked with him before, super sharp,
straightforward dude.
------
msg
This is so cool!
I started drawing without watching the video and didn't get it. Thank goodness
I didn't give up there.
Recipe for fun:
Make a very thin rectangle by dragging in a square, and holding down shift to
resize it. You can basically get a line.
Drag the line onto itself. You now have a spirograph.
I would think these are actually not that big or complicated to store. Each
drawing is a list of {pointer, x, y, theta} for each. You might be able to
"export to text" pretty easily. Want to see a friend's drawing (and
incidentally, entire drawing toolbox)? Import the text.
Edit: came back to add that I left morphing (size, length/width ratios) out of
the data structure. Incidentally, maybe morphing is why triangle isn't a
primitive. What relation should you set up for a self referencing triangle?
Maybe if you label the vertices.
You might be able to handle the self-referencing without any extra members in
the text representation. You just have to handle a special case of child
pointer == self.
I didn't read the code yet, but it's fun to think about.
------
ynniv
It would be quite nice if the page popped an alert before leaving. OSX/Chrome
has the irritating "feature" whereby dragging two fingers loses all of your
data. err... navigates backwards. Looking to disable this, but asking before
navigating would be an improvement.
~~~
wdewind
Under System Preferences -> Trackpad -> More Gestures set the swipe gesture to
3 fingers only
~~~
RKearney
Then you don't get the nice page sliding animation when swiping to go
forward/back in Safari.
~~~
middus
"nice page sliding animation" vs "[losing] all of your data" does not sound
like a difficult decision to me.
~~~
lloeki
Contrary to Chrome which pops the history stack instantly, Safari's "nice page
sliding animation" is completely reversable if you don't release the gesture
and "put things back in place". The animation is not a gimmick, it has a very
real usability purpose.
~~~
etherealG
actually, there's an animation on the side of the page in chrome that's
reversible as well
~~~
wdewind
To complicate things even further: only for 2 finger swipe, not three.
Gestures in Lion are a sad affair.
------
pacaro
This is non-responsive for me at the moment, how does this compare to
<http://www.contextfreeart.org/> ?
Is it a visual interface to define the rule system, rather than the
programming language approach? If so does it escape the same traps that other
visual languages fall into?
~~~
apgwoz
I work with the original author of CFDG, who described this _exact_ idea to me
just last week. My jaw about hit the floor when I saw this. Though, it's
possible that he knows the author of this.
------
mrmaddog
This is really cool, and playing with it made me smile. I wish it had two
things:
1) A way to delete objects that you placed by accident. (perhaps there is a
way to do this which I couldn't find). I keep going back a page and losing
everything because I press the delete button.
2) A way to label layers, with generated descriptions of what the layer is.
i.e. Here is a new layer called a "heart". A heart is two circles and one
square. A "valentines day picture" is two hearts. Likewise, a "tree" is a
rectangle, with another a rotated "tree" touching one end of the rectangle. I
can imagine this being a great way to explain programming concepts in a visual
way, and giving people the vocabulary to talk about them.
As for my artistic abilities... <http://cl.ly/251m2k0z1Z0z142r3S42>
~~~
jacktoole1
Right click on the shape, and you can choose to delete it.
------
eck
Old trick. Go search for [postscript snowflake] sometime. Great fun for
drawing psychedelic images and/or crashing network printers. (It turns out
that .ps is actually an archaic programming language and not just a page
description language.)
~~~
kika
PS is basically Forth
~~~
kjhughes
Fair casual observation. More here on the relationship between Forth and
Postscript: <http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?ForthPostscriptRelationship>
------
roryokane
Textual instructions (if you don't want to watch the demo video):
The left column is the shapes library. The center area is the
canvas/workspace. The right area is an outline view of the shapes in the
canvas.
To add a shape to the canvas, drag your mouse from the shape in the shape
library to the workspace.
To move a shape, drag inside it, when the whole shape is highlighted red.
To resize and rotate a shape, drag the edge of it, when it is outlined red.
To delete a shape on the canvas, right-click it and choose Delete Shape. (You
currently cannot delete shapes directly from the outline, nor can you delete
shapes from the shape library.)
To resize a shape non-uniformly or add skew, hold shift while dragging its
outline. You can use this to make line segments and rhombuses, among other
things.
Click the + button in the left column to start editing a new shape.
Remember that you can add any shape to the canvas by dragging it from the
shape library. This also applies to shapes you create yourself.
Click on any shape in the shape library (except for the starting circle and
square) to edit it in the canvas.
You can see the thumbnail of what's in the canvas in the current shape in the
shape library. You can also see the shapes your shape is composed of in the
outline. Everything is updated live.
To pan across the canvas, drag outside of any shape, in the white area. To
zoom into or out from the canvas, scroll with the mouse wheel while pointing
inside the canvas.
You can drag even the shape you are currently editing from the shape library
into the canvas. That is what makes this recursive drawing rather than merely
nested drawing. You will see the current shape repeated relative to itself.
(You might call the shape inside itself a "recursive shape instance".)
You can move, rotate, and resize a recursive shape instance to change its
repetition pattern. For instance, if you resize the recursive shape instance
to be smaller, you will see a line of recursive shapes shrinking forever. If
you edit one of the repetitions of a shape, it will edit the whole pattern.
You can go back and edit a sub-shape, and every shape including that shape
will update live.
If you don't know what to draw, try drawing one of these: any kind of fractal
tree
([https://www.google.com/search?q=fractal+tree&tbm=isch...](https://www.google.com/search?q=fractal+tree&tbm=isch&biw=1280&bih=1252)),
Koch snowflake (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koch_snowflake>), Sierpinski
triangle (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierpinski_triangle>), Sierpinski
carpet (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierpinski_carpet>), or any other
fractal (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fractals>).
~~~
lloeki
After trying my hand on some Sierpinski carpet and pseudo-dragon curve, I was
experimenting with some texture stuff, my hand slipped, and now I don't have
the foggiest idea how I did this[0] (it took ~10 minutes to completely render)
I found the demo trees a bit lacking, so I made some with more recursiveness
and better fitting near the joints[1]. Fibonacci rarely looked so cool[2].
Second order recursion can give you some interesting stuff[4]. At some point I
was successful in drawing a galaxy but things went whacky
I could see myself readily using this to generate artwork or material texture
in some game.
This thing desperately needs some more love[3] than shown in the video. I'm
dying to export data, be able to remove elements from left and right sidebars,
have more basic shapes (triangle?), a persistent shape library (html5 local
storage?), and some form of snapping to grid/angles/ratio/edge.
[0] <http://imgur.com/a/EneFC#0> [1] <http://imgur.com/a/EneFC#1> [2]
<http://imgur.com/a/EneFC#2> [3] <http://imgur.com/a/EneFC#3> [4]
<http://imgur.com/a/ZUlOZ#1>
------
tlrobinson
Very cool. It's a bit reminiscent of Bret Victor's concepts:
<http://vimeo.com/36579366>
------
jstanley
This is unbelievably cool. The demo video is worth watching, for anyone who
doesn't get it.
------
rpwverheij
Can't stop! So much fun! <http://imgur.com/a/GNvbZ#0>
~~~
Trufa
Those are really beautiful. I'm really impressed with this concept!
------
roryokane
Some of my drawings:
album link: <http://imgur.com/a/Hk7lw>
"chain pincer" - <http://i.imgur.com/SiCHM.png>
"chain device" - <http://i.imgur.com/kFZPR.png>
"starry squares" - <http://i.imgur.com/2TGcT.png>
"analyzed alien" - <http://i.imgur.com/bGSU6.png>
------
gegenschall
This might actually be cool, but if you do not watch the video (read: RTFM)
you will most likely think something like "This is an april's fool, right?"
and immediately close the window. At least that's what happened to me until I
saw the comments in here. Anyways, watching the video was fun. Doing it myself
is rather boring. :-/
------
spatten
That's pretty fun!
One thing I'd like to see is holding down Ctrl (or something) allowing
resizing while doing something like snap-to-grid. I.e. avoid rotation and
allow you to change the aspect ratio.
I think this would be useful for making rectangles.
------
rijoja
It would be awesome if this was integrated into gimp or made as a standalone
program. With the ability to give the shapes colors etc.
I played for a little while with gimp and recursivedraw.com and came up with
this: <http://eruditenow.com/recursive/combo.jpeg>
<http://eruditenow.com/recursive/spiders.jpeg>
<http://eruditenow.com/recursive/bollaraweseome.jpeg>
------
zupa
I think you are onto creating a graphical programming language.
You implemented: -variables (shapes in left windows) -objects (collection of
variables, the left column, pass by reference) -addition (drag in the middle)
-unset (delete) -while(1) loop -multiplication (resize)
I don't know yet where rotation fits into the picture. Maybe its just that
"primitive types" in a graphical programming language would be more complex,
they could be described with -shape -size -orientation -position
I think I have a use-case for you. Maybe we could talk about it thalter at
zupa hu
Congrats, fascinating!
------
lambdapilgrim
Absolutely the best thing I have seen in a long time! Great tool to illustrate
recursion to anyone and also to surprise yourself.
------
Kopion
Does anybody have any insights into how this was developed? Does the author
care to chime in?
~~~
guelo
ctrl-u is your friend. Libraries used include jquery and knockout.js. The meat
of the app seems to be here <http://recursivedrawing.com/compiled/app.js>
~~~
notJim
It's actually considerably easier to read in the GitHub repo, where it's in
its native coffeescript, and not combined into one file:
[https://github.com/electronicwhisper/recursive-
drawing/tree/...](https://github.com/electronicwhisper/recursive-
drawing/tree/gh-pages/src).
------
DivisibleByZero
Can't seem to figure out how to draw Sierpinski's triangle. The hello world of
fractals.
~~~
throwaway15289
Draw a triangle and put 4 shrunk copies of itself in the triangle (center one
flipped)?
<http://imgur.com/m0Okt> see components on rhs.
Edit: Oh sorry, was confused about which one Sierpinski's was. Can fix it by
omitting middle triangle: <http://imgur.com/MVmPh>
~~~
bryogenic
Or you can do the inverse <http://i.imgur.com/tMbrj.png>
------
prezjordan
I can't even imagine how you managed to develop this. Seriously awesome.
------
daralthus
Great! Looks similar to some scripts in scriptographer (a js scripting layer
for illustrator) and paper.js
<http://scriptographer.org/>
------
ok_craig
This seems basically like a web-based version of Chris Coyne's CFGD.
<http://www.contextfreeart.org/>
------
ejostrom
Benoit Mandelbrot would be very proud. Very proud.
------
pepijndevos
Done before: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOZqRJzE8xg>
~~~
wtracy
I fail to see any actual recursion going on in your video.
------
rdsoze
a few clicks, drags and I got this !! <http://yfrog.com/z/oe7eoickj>
------
hsshah
Anyone else thought of fractals when watching this? This is a great interface
to manipulate fractal drawings. Great work.
------
nreece
Poster here. Disclaimer: I didn't build this.
------
nextstep
I like this a lot. I wish there were smaller starting shapes, or that you
could draw a starting shape with your cursor.
~~~
jstanley
Watch the demo video. You can resize the shapes by just dragging, it's
actually really intuitive (if only we hadn't been trained that only little
dots at the corner mean you can resize or rotate!).
------
vmyy99
love the simplicity of the interface - would be cool to make an iPad app out
of it..
------
djrconcepts
this is great. in the next version, please include undo with ctrl + z
------
rdsoze
wow .. pretty awesome :) is it possible to download the drawings ?
------
tehwalrus
this. is. awesome. I can't wait for some Schachman projects to end up in my
IDE (imagine manipulating code paths like those fractal trees...) <3
------
stephenhandley
this is awesome. support for deltas on transparency and colors would be really
cool. also snapshot to save and share a picture
~~~
skeletonjelly
Yeah it's so close to being a nice little "toy" to share around. Just needs a
slightly more intuitive UI (deleting isn't immediately obvious) and a share
button and the server will get hammered.
~~~
stephenhandley
word. yeah there's some bugs tho. after making something recurse with some
circles, adding squares really turned it on its head for me. i dug the
glitches tho. fun to watch it render too..the dynamics are pretty nice. got
some screenshots here <http://look.person.sh/tagged/recursivedrawing>
~~~
skeletonjelly
That's some cool art. Should hang those in individual square frames in a
series
------
signa11
would you mind putting a 'line' primitive ? it can lead to all sorts of very
weird (but healthy!) fun. beautiful project!!!
~~~
sp332
Hold the shift key while resizing a rectangle, and you can make your own line
:)
------
conductr
This is quite clever and interesting. props
------
tripzilch
Doesn't work on Opera! :-/
~~~
tripzilch
It does now! Great work!
------
7952
This plus minecraft!
------
terrapinbear
terrible. I should just start drawing immediately.
------
exolab
Pure genius.
------
flotblot
Error: too much recursion
------
bubfranks
there goes my productivity ... bye-bye o/
------
petegrif
Very cool.
------
ktizo
This is the new best thing ever.
I am probably going to make strange trees until I fall asleep on my keyboard.
I hate waking up with keys stuck to my face, but the trees will be there to
comfort me in the morning.
~~~
skeletonjelly
Maybe they'll grow overnight!
------
rorrr
It's fun, but needs colors, and maybe some optional randomness.
<http://i.imgur.com/ForAV.png>
~~~
thenonsequitur
Agree with the colors. That would turn your screenshot there into a Jackson
Pollock :). It could also use some more base shapes, I think (triangle, line).
------
benihana
This is awesome. But why isn't the triangle, the most basic polygon, a
primitive? Is there a specific reason for this?
~~~
uniclaude
Well, looking at the source code [1], I think they thought about it. Have you
tried to modify it and run again?
[1]: [https://github.com/electronicwhisper/recursive-
drawing/blob/...](https://github.com/electronicwhisper/recursive-
drawing/blob/gh-pages/src/app.coffee)
------
hackermom
Looks like a plain old IFS fractal wannabe to me.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iterated_function_system>
~~~
eru
The UI is the new and interesting aspect here.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Why is Bitcoin suddenly so popular? - forkLding
Taking a look below at price, you can see that 1 bitcoin is worth around $4400 US dollars.<p>https://www.coindesk.com/price/<p>I remember a time when they were giving out free bitcoin at hackathons and conferences etc.<p>For a casual outsider and a passive market speculator, whats going on with bitcoin and maybe the rest of cryptocurrencies, what are they seeing that we can't?<p>And any clues as to whats with the recent surge in East Asian interest of bitcoin?<p>https://www.coindesk.com/annyeong-bitcoin-south-korea-canada-changing-crypto-market/<p>Note that I've tried googling but a lot of the urls are before May 2017 and are trying to explain about Bitcoin's peak at ~$2000 which is not helpful much.
======
garethsprice
It's a classic speculative bubble. People are making bets to position
themselves for a situation where Bitcoin will be worth a lot in the future,
but the valuation is untethered from any intrinsic value.
The surge becomes self-sustaining, in that as news stories of easy wealth
spread and more speculators bundle into the market, it fuels more demand from
new participants looking to get rich quick. This is not sustainable in the
long run, and as soon as the crowd gets spooked all the dumb money will bail
out very quickly, leading to a very fast crash.
The Gladwell book "The Tipping Point" is a good read about how ideas and fads
take hold in societies. It's more a function of the way information spreads
than about any secret knowledge about Bitcoin. Nobody can predict the future,
but Bitcoin speculation is an attempt to gamble on it.
There's an investment adage that's something like "When your barista's telling
you to invest in something, it's time to get out". Have had a number of non-
tech/non-finance friends ask about how to invest money into Bitcoin lately,
which is a signal to me that Bitcoin is becoming dangerously overheated.
Take a look at
[http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/515b40886bb3f7bd490...](http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/515b40886bb3f7bd49000013-620-/screen%20shot%202013-04-02%20at%204.29.11%20pm.png)
from the South China Seas bubble in the 18th Century. The first half of that
curve look familiar? Guessing we will see a lot of Newtons in the not so
distant future...
(Still, I have some crypto as part of my investment portfolio, about 2% of my
net worth... you never know...)
~~~
danielharrison
I'm not sure if a South China Sea bubble in the 18th century can really be
used as a valid comparison here.
We're talking about the rise of a self-contained, decentralised currency _and_
transactional system, all rolled into one. It literally has blatant potential
to be a game changer, 100%.
In saying that, I wouldn't be surprised if it all falls apart in the short
term.
~~~
garethsprice
There is a direct and educational correlation that can be drawn between South
China Seas, tulip bulbs, stocks in 1929, dotcom stocks, Beanie Babies,
subprime housing, Bitcoin, etc.
Time and time again some financial instrument has become unmoored from it's
intrinsic value and lax regulation allows speculative money to pour in, some
early adopters get rich, the financially naive jump on the bandwagon without
understanding the underlying instruments, they get spooked and the entire
thing plummets back to it's fundamental value (which may well be zero) leaving
some with fortunes and some with nothing. Bubbles appear to be a natural
occurrence in a lightly regulated market economy and typically follow a very
similar pattern.
I think that Bitcoin can be both a speculative bubble and a potentially world-
changing technology. The dotcom bubble is a fine prior example - huge classic
speculative bubble, also radically changed how we are all now living.
------
vanderZwan
Is anyone else having this feeling (and I'll immediately add the disclaimer
that I mean "irrational gut feeling with no factual back-up") that the current
cryptocurrency hype is going to end similar to the information superhighway
hype of the nineties, with a lot of disappointments, a few big new players,
and then a kind of "revival" a decade later where we get it right?
Again, I have no evidence to back this up, I just have a feeling that
_spectacular_ mistakes will be made, things will crash and burn when idealism
can no longer paper over the parts where naive hopes cannot be reconciled with
harsher realities, learn from that, and then get it right the second time
around.
EDIT: Note that this is basically a criticism of human nature, not of
cryptocurrencies
~~~
soneca
That bitcoin survived MtGoX espectacular crash and kept growing in value after
that shows some resilience. I'm not sure other pure financial bubbles survived
middle-of-the-way crashes before the final definitive crash.
That said, I believe there will be a lot of disappointments regarding
expectations of bitcoin sparking a revolution. My belief is that it will be
"only" one more tool among the several financial tools that exist in the
world.
~~~
vanderZwan
I had forgotten about MtGoX, good point.
It may be that cryptocurrencies are going through this boom/bust/rise-from-
the-ashes cycle on a much shorter timescale. After all, software development
is much faster than setting up internet infrastructure and adoption. So what
used to take decades to get right might now take years.
------
davidgerard
Plain bubble.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_bubble](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_bubble)
Non-speculative use is all but nonexistent. ICOs are a bad excuse whitepaper
attached to a tradeable ERC-20 token. There is no actual economic productivity
there, just money going into a whirlwind.
I'm getting emails from friends whose retired parents are being targeted by
crypto hucksters. My brother sent me an email this morning which was a
glaringly obvious scam a friend of his had fallen for and was trying to get
him in on.
I thought the bubble was bad a few months ago, right now it's clearly in
batshit insane territory. What they're "mining" is the money from normal
people who shouldn't be going within a mile of cryptos, and it'll be a
bloodbath. The 2017 bubble is so much bigger than the 2013 bubble.
~~~
quickthrower2
Are you saying dotn hodl?
------
xiaoma
Japan is a huge part of this. Since the government approved btc as a currency,
Peach Airlines has started taking bitcoin, huge chains of convenience stores
like FamilyMart have been accepting payments in bitcoin, etc.
It's still a tiny portion of total commerce but an absolutely massive jump
from previous bitcoin usage.
~~~
davidgerard
> Since the government approved btc as a currency,
i.e., regulated it in any way at all; specifically, they said exchanges could
trade BTC and ETH.
> Peach Airlines has started taking bitcoin,
no, they ran press releases saying they may well by the end of this year
probably.
> huge chains of convenience stores like FamilyMart have been accepting
> payments in bitcoin, etc.
no, one of their payment processors added a bitcoin option; there's so far no
evidence of non-negligible usage.
You're inadvertently parroting speculative bitcoin hype here. The general rule
with _all_ bitcoin (and blockchain) media coverage is that there's always much
less to it than there appears.
~~~
xiaoma
> _" You're inadvertently parroting speculative bitcoin hype here. The general
> rule with all bitcoin (and blockchain) media coverage is..."_
I was in Japan two weeks ago and saw for myself. I was actually surprised
about payments being taken in bitcoin when I heard a customer at a FamilyMart
talking about it and double checked with the clerks just to make sure I wasn't
misunderstanding.
I may have misunderstood the timing with Peach's support, since I wanted to
book in NTD (the currency of my bank account) anyway. That said, exactly none
of my comment comes from speculative media coverage. It's literally all from
first-hand experience interacting with companies as a customer.
------
chrisco255
I think Bitcoin has been growing in popularity since it began, but we first
saw mainstream interest in 2013...then interest waned in the wake of the Mt.
Gox disaster. Since then, I think the platform and tooling has matured. You've
got exchanges like Coinbase that have developed methods of securely storing
Bitcoin and have at the same time made it easy for the average person to link
to their bank accounts.
I think Ethereum has come up with a novel use case for Blockchain as a
distributed computer (as opposed to merely a distributed ledger). And all the
alternative cryptos are trying to show that there are use cases for other
protocols, too.
So the competition, the tooling, the ecosystem, all of these are exploding
right now. There's a lot of money pouring in, developers are getting excited
about it...It feels like a new paradigm, distributed apps have some exciting
implications. No one knows what this will look like, but it feels a bit like
the early dot com era right now.
~~~
forkLding
Thats actually the part I don't understand, one could argue that VR is in a
similar or even more advanced stage than Bitcoin/Blockchain in terms of
tooling and platforms simply because of the exposure on a day-to-day basis but
we've recently seeing VR die down, VR equipment price cuts to encourage sales
and HTC looking for a buyer for its Vive.
In fact one bitcoin is worth almost 6 HTC Vives. I'd argue that there was even
bigger interest in VR than Bitcoin specifically and yet Bitcoin has emerged
the winner recently.
~~~
nylonstrung
That's a weird comparison. VR is largely consumer entertainment at a point in
time when we have unlimited amounts of it and it requires hardware that most
consumers can't afford and lacks content.
Crypto is an investment that provides yield at a point in time where very
little can be found, equity markets are overvalued according to many
indicators and an increasingly wealthy population in China is seeking
investment opportunities not associated with the Yuan that they can't get in
any other form.
Crypto has the potential (however likely you think) to completely redefine the
world economy via decentralization. A decentralized, unregulated currency that
doesn't require intermediaries and can rapidly transfer and store massive
amounts of value with relatively limited transaction fees is unprecedented. VR
by comparison is largely a mere iteration on existing entertainment systems
right now.
~~~
forkLding
I guess what you are saying is right, I based my opinions mainly on the
companies backing which technology, it seemed like to me that Facebook, HTC,
etc. had a better advantage of turning a technology popular than Bitcoin which
is more open-source.
------
nikolay
It's, in fact, getting less popular outside of speculation - it's only
practical use. Most articles and news are about blockchain technology gaining
adoption, not Bitcoin per se, which is obsolete already. What's getting
popular is Ethereum, and Ripple which is a far more superior platform with
real potential but not as lucrative for speculation.
~~~
davidgerard
The "Blockchain" hype is totally being carried by the hype in cryptos, though.
And it is hype - there's endless hypothetical proposals, and endless bare
excuses for an ICO, and endless pilot programmes that IBM's managed to sell
someone on, but there's about 0 being put into production use.
~~~
badestrand
>> but there's about 0 being put into production use
Daimler for example is currently using Blockchain to manage a 100 million Euro
loan [1]. They will still use their old tech (faxes and lots of beaurocracy)
in parallel on this deal since is there is much at stake, obviously. But it is
a nice experiment that will certainly inspire others, if successful.
[1]
[https://www.daimler.com/investors/refinancing/blockchain.htm...](https://www.daimler.com/investors/refinancing/blockchain.html)
~~~
davidgerard
Literally the subheading on that page:
> Joint pilot project
------
doomjunky
Crtl + f "bubble" => 17 matches
Since no one mentioned it yet - deflation.
The total amount of bitcoins is limited. Although the last bitcoin has not yet
been mined, the available amount of bitcoin has stabilized, because the
bitcoin-mining-process has slowed down and is in parity with the bitcoin-got-
lost-process.
------
vram22
Coincidentally, there is a recent post on AVC.com (the VC Fred Wilson's blog)
about Bitcoin:
[http://avc.com/2017/08/store-of-value-vs-payment-
system](http://avc.com/2017/08/store-of-value-vs-payment-system)
Note: I don't have a position or view on this topic either way, just posting
it here to see if there are any interesting comments here on it, from which I
or others might learn something.
------
wnmurphy
What would happen to the long-term legitimacy of the bitcoin market if corrupt
state actors started investing heavily in order to hide money laundering?
------
fwdslash
It's the network affect. More people using it, the price rises, more people
buy, the price rises more, and on and on.
~~~
forkLding
It could be but whats the network effect about? Like I can see a network
effect coming out of Facebook for connecting friends, what would bitcoin do
thats so powerful, that more people use that the price would rise? Transfer
money internationally in a fast and cheap manner?
~~~
ramphastidae
The more people that are willing to accept Bitcoin in exchange for goods and
services, the more valuable Bitcoin is.
~~~
davidgerard
That's been less and less, though.
~~~
fwdslash
Mainly because of fees. I'd say crypto (as a whole) has had a huge increase in
acceptance overall, and with Bitcoin being the easiest to purchase and usually
the favored currency to trade alts with, it's natural that it's only grown in
popularity.
~~~
davidgerard
"acceptance" is a weasel word. It's an asset bubble, where the "acceptance" is
for the purpose of speculation in the hope of getting rich for free.
Note the actual comment I'm responding to:
> The more people that are willing to accept Bitcoin in exchange for goods and
> services, the more valuable Bitcoin is.
Approximately nobody accepts Bitcoin in exchange for goods and services except
to buy drugs. Which does count as a use case, but it's a trivial one compared
to the speculation; and even drug buyers and sellers are endlessly frustrated
by the transaction clogs.
------
wizeman
I especially like the way the following video explains the long-term vision of
why Bitcoin is valuable. Once you understand the long-term vision, and how
Bitcoin's fate is still very much up-in-the-air in some respects and still
subject to a lot of speculation and possible government interference, it's not
hard to understand that such large short-term upsides and downsides are to be
expected. The speaker is Andreas Antonopoulos, a particularly eloquent speaker
(IMHO) about all things bitcoin:
[https://youtu.be/ONvg9SbauMg](https://youtu.be/ONvg9SbauMg)
------
freech
Every day Bitcoin survives proofs that it works.
------
2_listerine_pls
Suddenly?
~~~
forkLding
It jumped ~2000 dollars USD in less than 2 months
[https://www.coindesk.com/price/](https://www.coindesk.com/price/)
~~~
2_listerine_pls
We have seen that story over and over in the last few years. it goes from 1 to
2, then from 2 to 4, etc...
~~~
forkLding
Well press all on the timeline below:
[https://www.coindesk.com/price/](https://www.coindesk.com/price/)
and you will see what I mean.
A huge jump in pricing (~3500 USD) in less than 5 months is a jump in
popularity no?
Like individually it seems small, but once you realize the market cap, its
pretty big. If this was Apple stock price in the same scale of time (Apple's
market cap jumps 350% in 5 months, note that Apple stock price has always been
less than Bitcoin so it would be even greater if for Apple), people would be
running around screaming and asking why Apple stock suddenly became so
popular.
------
natch
/
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Best of Hacker News - ma2rten
http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=+&sortby=points+desc
======
biot
Not that karma means anything, but it's amazing that the user who submitted
Bellard's Linux-in-browser story received more karma from submitting that one
URL than I have for the hundreds of comments I've made over the last eight
months.
------
duck
Highest vote counts != Best of (IMHO)
~~~
coderdude
You know this list is flawed when the 8th entry for Best of Hacker News is
"Osama bin Laden Is Dead."
------
tokenadult
I'm sure that eventually the "I don't learn anything on HN anymore, bring back
the upvote count" thread will fall out of the top ten. The sooner, the better
as far as I am concerned. If you haven't already upvoted the thread "How I
Hacked Hacker News (with arc security advisory)," you should. That is a
classic HN thread, full of interesting ideas, and well deserves your upvote
even after most of the reported bugs have been fixed.
(Disclaimer: I don't have any karma dogs in this fight. I just like good, on-
topic content here.)
~~~
ma2rten
I noticed that most stories are quite recent, so I'd say if you normalize for
total upvotes in the period that one would prolly be on top.
------
bfung
funny, i was just mucking with the api.hnsearch.com yesterday for the exact
same query. Then I got distracted with the nice weather...
Here's the same query w/the rest api, but w/o paging. use the parameters start
and limit for paging.
[http://api.thriftdb.com/api.hnsearch.com/items/_search?filte...](http://api.thriftdb.com/api.hnsearch.com/items/_search?filter\[fields\]\[type\]=submission&sortby=points%20desc)
------
alorres
The filter on date seems like the comments on Hacker News. Only difference is
an occasional link will appear in the feed. Just wondering as to why comments
are included in the filter.
------
shii
This is the true best of HN, imo: <http://www.skrenta.com/hn/>
------
Mithrandir
Thank you for providing the link! I'd trying been trying to get it before, but
for some reason it wouldn't work.
------
kahawe
A reddit link amongst the top 3... shame on you HN.
~~~
xtacy
Why shame? You should check the first comment on that post:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2004210>
~~~
kahawe
I move: pareidolia.
Also, this oh-so-touching story smells way too much of 4chan/reddit style
trolling.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
F# from your browser - btian
http://test.tryfsharp.org/Create
======
tikhonj
This seems to depend on Silverlight and so doesn't work on my system.
(Actually, I'm just guessing that it needs Silverlight--the page explaining
why it doesn't work _also_ doesn't work. Either way, it doesn't work.)
You should check out OCaml on the browser[1]. This takes advantage of
js_of_ocaml, which is a very good OCaml to JavaScript compiler. You can also
try running OCaml with access to the browser apis[2], which is pretty cool.
[1]: <http://try.ocamlpro.com/>
[2]: <http://try.ocamlpro.com/js_of_ocaml/>
~~~
numlocked
The reason the dependency exists is because silverlight includes the .net
compiler and, in addition to literally executing the code on the client, is
used for a lot of the IDE sugar, like Intellisense. Additionally, you don't
just get the f# language here but also access to a lot of the standard .net
libraries. So while I agree it's annoying that the dependency exists, it's not
an arbitrary requirement to do accomplish something that could have easily
been replicated in another technology
~~~
loeg
Sure, but what makes the whole "in a browser" genre interesting is that
(usually) you don't need special dependencies to get started. If I need
Silverlight and the whole .NET compiler, why not just tell me to download
Visual F# Express Edition to get started?
~~~
vailripper
Because silverlight takes all of 15 seconds to download and install, and
Visual F# is an hour+ to install, plus a couple hundred megabytes of
additional assets?
~~~
simgidacav
Complexity. Target achieved.
~~~
Rickasaurus
Well, it's not like the apt-get solution is a whole lot more elegant:
[http://thecodedecanter.wordpress.com/2012/09/06/installing-m...](http://thecodedecanter.wordpress.com/2012/09/06/installing-
monodevelop-3-with-fsharp-support-on-ubuntu/)
~~~
drivebyacct2
That's... not apt-get. Three commands that can be copy and pasted is about
10000x more elegant. In that it works in Linux and Siverlight doesn't.
~~~
Rickasaurus
In most cases Moonlight works just fine for my F# silverlight stuff. You
should give it a go.
------
kvb
Be sure to check out the content on the Learn pages [1], which present a
structured introduction to various aspects of the language (as opposed to the
blank slate of the Create page). The examples really show off what you can do
with F#, even in the browser environment (type providers with IntelliSense,
charting, etc.).
[1] <http://test.tryfsharp.org/Learn>
~~~
jonathanwallace
That's the first thing I did and that is what makes this an impressive
offering. The smoothness of the introduction is very well done and you can
easily see how it slowly introduces a novice, which you can easily skip as a
more experienced dev because of how well it is structured. A difficult
challenge which they've pulled off well.
------
thejosh
>Welcome to Try F#! Your system does not support the execution of F# code in
the browser. >For additional help: <http://test.tryfsharp.org/Help>
Help doesn't do anything. Thanks?
~~~
Rickasaurus
That's the beta site and it seems to be down at the moment. Have you looked at
<http://www.tryfsharp.org/Tutorials.aspx>
~~~
kristianp
Chrome on Debian user here, that link actually provided a link to a moonlight
installer for chrome (crx file), however chrome no longer allows downloaded
extensions to be installed.
Just tried firefox (called Iceweasel in Debian), and moonlight installed ok,
but I got this message:
// Due to differences between Silverlight and Moonlight, the Linux version of
the // Try F# control is not fully functional at this time. // // We will make
the Try F# control available on this page as soon as all issues // are
resolved. Please check back later and thank you for your understanding. //
~~~
Rickasaurus
That is a shame. Thanks for putting the effort in.
------
sbrother
I'm interested in learning F# but can't get past the "Your system does not
support the execution of F# code in the browser." Any other pretty painless
way to try it? I've been messing with Haskell and like it a lot but it would
be nice to have access to the .NET libraries when I wanted them.
~~~
Rickasaurus
You can run it in mono (it's part of the standard package now) or you can give
it a go on tryfs.net once the load goes down.
If you're on windows, there's an addon for VS2012 Express Web Edition for F#:
[http://blogs.msdn.com/b/fsharpteam/archive/2012/09/12/announ...](http://blogs.msdn.com/b/fsharpteam/archive/2012/09/12/announcing-
the-release-of-f-tools-for-visual-studio-express-2012-for-web.aspx)
------
Rickasaurus
Also cool, all of the samples on <http://fssnip.net> can be loaded into
tryfsharp.org and tryfs.net with the click of a button.
------
wging
I can't help notice some similarity in name and motivation to
<http://tryclj.com> .
<http://www.tryfsharp.org/Help> 404s for me. My browser "does not support the
execution of F# code in the browser", probably because I don't have
Silverlight.
I install Silverlight (for Chrome on OS X). "Could not load Silverlight Plug-
In."
~~~
riffraff
you may have missed it but sites like this have been around for a lot of time,
so the similarity and motivation are obviously similar :)
TryRuby (which I believe was the first for a non-toy language, and the starter
of the try* nomenclature) was put online somewhen in 2005 IIRC.
------
gtani
2 new F# books
<http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920024033.do>
<http://www.manning.com/petricek2/>
------
sojacques
That's a very interesting learning resource. I wish something similar came for
Scala or Clojure (as opposed to tryclj, which does not have all those "Learn"
pages).
~~~
gtani
Here's a monstrous list of online sandboxed REPLs, i think the first group,
codepad, IDEone, etc can do scala and clojure but probably you'll want to go
with one of the one click donwloads like Haskell platform, the typesafe
installer or leiningen, unless they've somehow developed a miraculous
classpath hell resolver.
[http://jkirchartz.com/2012/06/rocking-stackoverflow-sites-
to...](http://jkirchartz.com/2012/06/rocking-stackoverflow-sites-to.html)
<http://joel.franusic.com/Online-REPs-and-REPLs>
------
Permit
The Intellisense doesn't seem to work for me. Ctr-Space brings up the dialog
which just contains "Loading..."
------
saosebastiao
F# really does look like an amazing language. I'll consider it seriously when
someone ports it to the JVM.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Vic Gundotra reports Google+ passing 100,000,000 monthly active users - msabalau
https://plus.google.com/u/0/107117483540235115863/posts/2YWhK1K3FA5
======
cs702
Google's strategy with G+ is looking smarter by the day: instead of trying to
compete head-on with FaceBook, Google simply made sharing via Google+ the
default _path of least resistance_ for everyone using one or more of its
applications. Now there are around 400 million people sharing things on
Google+ (even if many of them are doing so inadvertently), and 100 million
people are visiting plus.google.com every month to access all this user-
generated content. In short, Google figured out how to get the content, and
now it's getting the users.
~~~
eddieplan9
On the other hand, I was so annoyed by the G+ notifications I now never access
Google services as a logged in user. I now check gmails with Mail.app (faster
than web-based GMail any way), read Google reader feeds with Reeder, and I
never feel missed out. If you think this Google+ strategy is brilliant and
cost-free, then I'd at least argue that it costs some long-term loyal users
and annoys a whole bunch more.
~~~
StavrosK
What G+ notifications do you mean?
~~~
Evbn
The red box in the upper right corner of every Google property.
~~~
StavrosK
Hmm, that doesn't strike me as very annoying, but couldn't you just disable
them?
------
atirip
This is like a reading news from Mars. Lots of martians doing something,
somewhere. Interesting, but I really do not know any martian.
~~~
lawdawg
If I was a betting man, I would say most of the usage is _not_ in the USA and
Europe. Probably primarily in India, Asia, and South America where Google
products tend to get a ton of usage. That's really nothing to be ashamed of,
but it really gives the impression that no one uses G+ when the tech press is
primarily located in an area which doesn't see a ton of G+ usage.
~~~
knowtheory
I know three separate communities of varying technical prowess who have ended
up on Google+ and seem to be functioning quite happily (Members of the open
data/open governance community, an extended science fiction community
featuring some rather well known members such as the authors of the Expanse
and SMBC, and folks like Yehuda Katz).
Every last one of these people is based in the USA.
------
arturadib
There must be something seriously deceptive about these stats.
To begin with, as experienced by others here, my Google+ is extremely quiet.
There may be at most a few people who occasionally post to it, and recently
I've seen many switching to Twitter.
Secondly, although not a perfect proxy, Google Trends shows an exponentially
decaying trend that is hardly in line with their reported exponential growth:
[http://www.google.com/trends/?q=google%2B,+google+plus&c...](http://www.google.com/trends/?q=google%2B,+google+plus&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0)
Here's a zoomed-in graph in the last 12 months clearly showing the decaying
tail:
[http://www.google.com/trends/?q=google%2B,+google+plus&c...](http://www.google.com/trends/?q=google%2B,+google+plus&ctab=0&geo=all&date=ytd&sort=0)
Let's compare for example with Twitter (~140-200M actives) in the last 12
months:
[http://www.google.com/trends/?q=google+plus,+google%2B,+twit...](http://www.google.com/trends/?q=google+plus,+google%2B,+twitter&ctab=0&geo=all&date=ytd&sort=1)
Regardless of how you rationalize people searching for "twitter" vs. "google
plus" as a proxy for active users, the decaying trend is clear. And it's hard
to think of why the query "google plus" or "google+" would be 50-70 times less
popular than "twitter" other than low the popularity of the service.
Of course none of this is hard proof, and it's possible that my circles are
just not representative of the internet as a whole and that Google Trends is a
fantastically erroneous proxy for popularity, but personally I believe they're
using an unrealistically optimistic metric for actives.
~~~
Kylekramer
Isn't using Trends a pretty bad metric? I imagine most people searching for
Twitter these days are just trying to get a link to their homepage. Google+
has a link to its homepage on Google search itself, so Google Trends isn't a
very reliable data source.
~~~
arturadib
Sure, it's not perfect, but a factor of 70?
Also, if you're going to include links from other properties you have to
factor in (for example) that iOS has Twitter sign-in built in, so Twitter is
also greatly underrepresented...
~~~
Evbn
It is the _same_ property. You go to Google, and before you start typing a
search, you see +Name and the red notification box that carry you to Plus.
------
Roritharr
I visit G+ more often than Facebook nowadays. My Facebook stream is cluttered
by all sorts of people, talking mostly about very private stuff. My G+ Stream
is mostly links to interesting Stuff or Newsarticles.
The comments are mostly very relevant and insightful, except for the ones in
the recent days about the islamic riots, but that was even worse on
Facebook...
------
kingsley_20
I seem to have entirely unintentionally signed up for G+ 3 times with
different gapps accounts. Till they fix the identity issues, no one is going
to take these stats seriously.
~~~
s_henry_paulson
There will always be erroneous data, but monthly active users is a fairly
powerful statistic.
------
autophil
I'm one of those rare weirdos that actually likes and uses G+. It was my
daughter that got me to join but it's a way better experience than FB, and
I've been using it everyday since.
~~~
epoxyhockey
Add me to the list. Last week, I wanted to upload a complete album of vacation
photos to share with just my family (many of whom aren't on Facebook). G+
allows me to generate a unique link to that album without requiring anyone to
sign up to view the photos.
Just last night a family member wouldn't Skype with me because the software
"wasn't setup" on their computer. I initiated a hangout (since they use gmail)
and everything worked perfectly.
Google's strategy reminds me a little bit of Microsoft's where they are the
service that pops up first when people are looking to do things. As long as
their product is equal to or better than their competitors, they should be
able to win the slow race.
~~~
engtech
Every facebook album has a unique URL you can share with non-Facebook people.
(just checked, yes that feature is still there. It's on the bottom of every
photo album that you own)
~~~
epoxyhockey
Good to know - thanks!
------
ryanhuff
G+ isn't the social network. G+ is their "social layer" on top of their
existing services. When you take a picture on your Android phone, you have
likely become an active G+ user as it uploads the picture to your G+ account.
And this is likely extended to all sorts of other products that Google offers,
such as Google Pages, Maps, etc. So you can't compare Google+ numbers to
Facebook. Many of the user interactions with G+ are so soft that are barely
"active".
~~~
pkulak
No, you're just making things up to try to make Google+ look bad. The only way
that photos automatically upload to your account is if you download the
Google+ app from the store, sign in, then enable that feature. That sounds
like an engaged user to me and exactly the data that should count as an
"active" user. I really don't understand the hostility that shows up every
time Google+ announces some accomplishment. It seems like the old idea that
eating an animal could give you its strength. On Hacker News, dumping on a
project makes you better than its engineers, I suppose.
~~~
ryanhuff
Sorry, no. I have no desire to make G+ look good or bad.
Also, if I installed the G+ app 6 months ago, and then take a picture of my
kid today, there is no explicit intent to engage with G+. Claiming that I
"engaged" with G+ is ridiculous. You have to recognize this. This certainly is
not the type of "engagement" that they are trying to sell to advertisers or
the press.
------
dean
I signed up my kids for Gmail recently. It seems to automatically create a
Google+ account and profile, and I had to jump through all kinds of hoops to
disable all that stuff. We only wanted email. I wonder if we're included in
the 400 million who have upgraded to Google+.
------
MatthewPhillips
Does clicking this link suddenly make me an active user?
~~~
AustinGibbons
I would like to see a breakdown of what people do on g+. For example, using
google talk to have a video conversation results in a g+ notification...
~~~
ajross
Clearly such a breakdown would be interesting. But in context you seem to be
implying that a video call "doesn't count" as a Google+ usage. If you, say,
take a Instagram photo or message someone using Facebook chat but don't look
at the front page, are you "not using Facebook?". I'd expect Facebook would
count you as a "user" for the day, no?
~~~
AustinGibbons
I'm not saying 100,000 is an unfair statistic, but what I meant to get at
instead was growth through g+ versus inclusion through tack-on services (a
totally valid and excellent way to bring users into your product :-) as I tend
to agree with some of the other comments describing it as "the path of least
resistance" for sharing content through google.
~~~
Evbn
When google adds plus to video chat, is that tack on?
When fb adds video chat to your feed, us that tack on?
------
nico
The only people I personally know that use Google+, are Google employees. I
wonder what they consider/count as an active user.
~~~
ergo14
Almost all of my fellow developers (my dev circle is about 85 people) use it,
i also follow quite a few of interesting product pages, also some of my
friends use it - so def. there are people using it. My circles are carefully
crafted so i dont see facebook like usless stuff.
------
grandalf
In other words, Google has now activated 100,000,000 existing google and
google apps accounts with the plus button on the top nav.
~~~
vibrunazo
Read the last sentence of the post. It's only counting people who visited the
g+ stream or mobile app.
~~~
grandalf
Hmm, it's still 99% the same 5 people (one of whom is Vic) on my google plus
feed, even though I follow many hundreds of people.
Whatever the number is, or whatever the value of the audience is, I'd judge
its current state as about 1/100th of Twitter's.
------
caycep
Maybe its just who i am following on G+, but my usage patterns have roughly
been:
G+: great posts by prominent computer scientists, programmers, engineers (Rob
Pike, Andy Herzfeld, Douglas Crockford, etc), many of whom work for google.
FB: everybody else.
~~~
callahad
It really is all contingent on who you circle. There are a ton of active
photographers and at least a handful of hydrogeologists regularly using
Google+ in addition to all of the programmers. It's akin Twitter in that
regard: apparently the celebrity accounts are a huge draw for an enormous set
of Twitter's users, but I'm effectively oblivious to that aspect of the site.
------
coliveira
I clicked on G+ only to try to deactivate it. Sadly I am being counted now as
an active user.
------
winter_blue
The only thing I use Google+ for is bookmarking. It's my bitly. I have g+1
button plug-in installed on my browser, so whenever I see something
interesting I bookmark it using it. Would this count as active usage?
Probably. But am I actually an active user? No. I don't go to their front page
everyday, check the news feed, e.t.c. So the 100 million is probably an over-
estimate.
------
k3n
I wonder if a script request to plus.google.com (say, to load the +1 widget)
would count? It has to piggyback on your Google login (or else it wouldn't
know who to attribute any +1's to), and so would simply loading a page that
has a +1 button count as an "active user"? I don't think it's too far outside
the realm of possibility.
------
pastaking
What does "active" mean?
~~~
simonh
What he says he means by it in the post?
------
aestetix
I'm curious how many Google services make automatic calls to plus.google.com
for a variety of reasons.
As a former G+ user who was opted into SPYW without my consent, I tend to be
skeptical of any announcements like this. Besides, why have they been so
evasive of releasing numbers before?
------
anon1385
Translation: 100 million YouTube or gmail users also read blog posts on G+ at
least once a month.
------
rgarcia
I'm really curious how they measure "active". For example, recently I've
noticed that when I initiate a video chat in gchat it forces me to use a
hangout on Google+. Does this make me an active Google+ user?
~~~
Evbn
Why do you consider socializing on a Google built network using a Google front
end to not be a usage of Google plus?
Because it wasn't called "plus" when you started?
Are instagram users not really using facebook?
------
webwanderings
What a deceptive and misleading headline here at HN. The source says: "over
400,000,000 people have upgraded to Google+".
Is there a difference between "active users" and "upgraded users"?
~~~
silverbax88
Yes - there's a huge difference. Want to create a gmail account? Guess what-
you've got Google+! YouTube account? AdWords? AdSense? Bingo - Google+.
I use Google+ for hangouts to run our remote meetings. It works pretty well.
But not much use for it beyond that. Of course, that's not saying it's any
better than Facebook - I only use FB to promote stuff related to my business.
------
sabret00the
I think this is feasible. There's surely a 100m geeks in the world.
Also don't forget that goog.le links, open in the browser on Android phones.
------
myspy
I'm no Google enthusiast and deactivated my G+ account a couple of months ago,
and absolutely no one I'm friends with at FB was using G+.
It's one of those Google things, "normal" persons, not related to IT won't
use. They already have a FB account, why more social stuff?
And Google in general boils down for most people to search and maybe mail. The
whole Android story pulls in a lot of "normal" people, but I doubt that those
will spontaneously start to get involved with G+.
------
scottbartell
Active G+ user = an active gmail user?
~~~
AaronI
Did you read the post? It's counting those who have visited the G+ stream or
used the mobile app.
~~~
rm999
I clicked on the link, and am now likely going to count as an active user
because I was logged into gmail. In other words, I am NOT a g+ user, but
google probably counts me as one because of my gmail account. So, scottbartell
may have a valid point.
~~~
Evbn
You clicked the link to plus.Google.com, meaning you just acively used the
site. Are you suggesting that referrals should not be counted as active uses?
Now, Direct visits would be interesting to get some counts for.
------
franze
yeah, i think i clicked +1 last month (once), too. proud to be one of 100 000
000.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
DIY Tardis looks bigger on inside with augmented reality - mwillmott
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20836747
======
drucken
Original blog post: [http://www.kumparak.com/2012/12/my-lil-tardis-its-bigger-
on-...](http://www.kumparak.com/2012/12/my-lil-tardis-its-bigger-on-the-
inside-no-really/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Alternate Day Fasting Improves Physiological and Molecular Markers of Aging [pdf] - Tomte
https://www.cell.com/action/showPdf?pii=S1550-4131%2819%2930429-2
======
dvt
I fast, on average, once a week. At least once a month, I try to do an
extended fast (2-5 days) to force ketosis. I also do intermittent fasting
basically daily (I only eat between 12-8). Been doing this for about 4 years
now. Some anecdata:
\- Fasting > 24 hrs paradoxically gives you an extreme boost of energy and
mental focus. I especially love how my olfactory sense is _extremely_
heightened. It's pretty cool and even after all these years doesn't get old.
\- Fasting is not a panacea. Depriving yourself of nutrients or eating garbage
is still a bad idea even if you fast or do IF. Unfortunately, eating healthy
is hard and kinda' sucks. Egg whites and chicken + broccoli gets old pretty
fast.
\- Fasting >7 days is a bad idea unless you know what you're doing. This is
when your muscles and vital organs start contributing as an energy source
(e.g. they also start breaking down).
\- Your body is clever, so extended fasts will start putting you into
"starvation mode" and you'll lose some of the benefits.
\- There have been NO STUDIES on long-term fasting (e.g. over the course of an
adult lifetime). This is a big warning sign to just be careful and not overdo
it. Different people have different tolerances. Talk to your doctor.
\- Even on fast days, make sure you take vitamins (I take Fish Oil, Zinc, a
Multivitamin and Magnesium)
~~~
kace91
Are you fit? as in, do you lift weights or are active in sports that require
strength?
I ask because I wonder about the effects of extended fasts on muscle
loss/retention, a big problem cutting weight for some people is that they get
rid of some muscle mass along with the calories they wanted to eliminate.
~~~
dvt
I did for a few months this year, but I've been lazy over the summer. I'm
155lb, 6'0, so fairly skinny, maybe at around ~15% BF. I noticed that fasting
doesn't help with BF at all unless I eat very clean and lift. I was at 170lb,
around ~28% BF earlier this year and had to work my ass off to get my body fat
percentage down.
~~~
SketchySeaBeast
> I noticed that fasting doesn't help with BF at all unless I eat very clean
> and lift.
So what happens? You lose muscle and fat in the same ratio? Or do you keep the
fat?
~~~
dvt
I feel that my body kind of adjusts to the fasting and I just don't lose much
of anything.
~~~
SketchySeaBeast
That sounds to me like "I eat more to make up the calories when I'm not
fasting".
------
all_blue_chucks
This fasting caused a 37.4% reduction in caloric intake. It raises the
question of whether it was the fasting itself or merely the overall caloric
reduction that made the real difference.
~~~
davinic
I wondered this as well. In many of the intermittent fasting studies they kept
caloric intake the same and showed that the benefits applied even when taking
caloric restriction out of the equation.
~~~
rtkwe
A lot of diets, especially IF style diets, are pretty much just tricks to get
you to eat less calorie wise. Intermittent fasting does this by just setting
the simple rule, only eat during a relatively small window of time. It's
easier to eat less during that period because there's only so much you can
comfortably eat in that time. (Granted you can totally fit a whole day's
intake in the IF period but it's harder).
~~~
frank_nitti
Is there really no difference between eating 1500 calories at once vs. over
the course of 5 meals?
Of course, there is no weight loss without a calorie deficit, but are all
calorie deficits equivalent on magnitude alone? I struggle with the notion
that the timing does not matter at all, and much of the suggested benefits of
controlling the timing focus on other metrics beside immediate weight loss.
The "wisdom" of the late 90s was that six or so small meals were better than
one large meal, with respect to weight loss. Now it appears some experts would
argue the opposite. Is it all just a bunch of smoke and mirrors over calories
in > calories out?
~~~
rsync
"Is there really no difference between eating 1500 calories at once vs. over
the course of 5 meals?"
Digestion - and the ramping up of your entire metabolic process - is not a
minor task. It is an all-hands-on-deck marshaling of a number of bodily
processes that preclude other processes that you might like your body to
engage in.
If you are firing up this mechanism every three hours - insulin response,
spiking your blood sugar, moving your stomach and bowels, etc., then you never
give your body time to do any other housekeeping tasks.
Think of food intake as an _interrupt_ , in computer science parlance. What
happens to process performance when you're throwing interrupts ?
IANAD.
~~~
SketchySeaBeast
> then you never give your body time to do any other housekeeping tasks.
Do you have any links to describe what other tasks it would want to be doing
in that time and which are blocked by an insulin spike?
~~~
rsync
[https://osher.ucsf.edu/patient-care/integrative-medicine-
res...](https://osher.ucsf.edu/patient-care/integrative-medicine-
resources/cancer-and-nutrition/faq/cancer-and-fasting-calorie-restriction)
"...it is theorized that cancer cells do not respond to the protective signals
generated by fasting, thus leaving them vulnerable to both the immune system
and cancer treatment. This process is known as differential stress resistance
(DSR). Short-term starvation (STS), fasting for 48 hours, causes a rapid
switch of cells to a protected mode, which is capable of protecting mammalian
cells and mice from various toxins, including chemotherapy."
(et. al)
I read it as cleanup/housekeeping tasks that aren't high priority, relative to
processing food inputs. When freed from those tasks, the body can concentrate
on housekeeping.
~~~
SketchySeaBeast
That's not housekeeping though, that's in the case of fighting cancer. And
based upon the mechanism you lay out, that's with outside intervention. That
doesn't seem to expand out to "general housekeeping" when you're also dealing
with medical science trying to kill cancer without killing you.
------
dmd149
Been doing intermittent fasting for a long time now and have been doing ADF
for the last few months.
I lost fat and retained lean muscle while \- eating between 3000-6000 calories
on eating days \- running 30-35 miles per week \- weight lifting 3x per week
Here is a reddit post about my progress with some documentation including pics
of recent DEXA scans.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/leangains/comments/cliuqk/been_prac...](https://www.reddit.com/r/leangains/comments/cliuqk/been_practicing_alternate_day_fasting_for_about_6/)
~~~
nradov
Congratulations on your accomplishments. Can I ask how you manage to choke
down 6000 kcal on eating days? Even when I'm really hungry I can't physically
force myself to eat that much. It makes me feel sick and my digestive system
is at the limit.
~~~
dmd149
I’m one of those people that eat quickly and a lot, so I’ve just become
accustomed to eating big meals.
That being said, I also eat significant amounts of junk food. Slice of cake is
like 500-800 calories. No problem. I can do that x 3 after a meal of normal
stuff. Junk is easy to throw down and calorie dense. Also, its fun to eat.
Now 6000 calories of salad and lean meats? That would be difficult...
------
goda90
>For healthy, non-obese adults, ADF is safe to practice for several months
They might just be saying this because they didn't test any further, but does
anyone know any reasons why it might stop being safe after several months?
~~~
moltar
IMO it’s not unsafe. The longest supervised fast was a whole year long. The
person was obese and only supplemented vitamins if I remember correctly.
Fasting is how we evolved to eat. We didn’t have Costco and fridges 10k years
ago.
~~~
javagram
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2495396/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2495396/)
Note, however, he died relatively young although he did live a few decades
after the fast
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angus_Barbieri%27s_fast](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angus_Barbieri%27s_fast)
------
chiefalchemist
Sample size was small for the ADFs (approx 40). They were compared to control
of 60. I didn't drill deep enough to see age and/or gender breakdown.
That said, fasting as pro-health tool keeps coming up and the gist time and
again seems to say it yields a positive.
------
ciconia
We have neighbours with twins aged 7 who raise their kids at home on a raw
food diet. They eat lots of nuts, fresh fruit, fermented beans and garden
vegetables. They conserve vegetables and fruit using lacto-fermentation.
The kids are much smaller and thinner than normal kids their age. Up until
recently I used to pity these _poor, starving_ kids. I compared them to our
kids, who are athletic, tanned, well built.
But recently I started asking myself if this is not the other way around.
Maybe if we didn't have the luxury of cooking, transformed food and western
supermarkets we'd have been much smaller. Maybe this means that we _all_ in
the 1st world eat too much.
I'm starting to think that maybe we're not really better off having our
stomachs full basically the whole day long, especially if you consider that
most of us do very little physical activity if at all...
~~~
nathell
Hey ciconia, I wanted to drop you an email on an unrelated note, but was
unable to find contact info. So please check out this comment:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20852873](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20852873)
(Other readers, please accept my apologies for hijacking the subthread.)
------
proc0
I've been fasting weekly for a long time (after starting with intermittent
fasting). I'm glad to see an article like this because I've been waiting to
try fasting every other day. My subjective observation is that there is a
misconception of what the body does with nutrients and that is why in general
people won't think of even trying to fast ever.
To use contrasting analogies, it seems in general the perception is that the
body works like a car and you have to re-fuel it every few hours in order to
keep going. However, from my experience I think the body is more like a
factory that creates its own energy. It needs materials, from which a part is
used for energy, but thanks to having storage, you have plenty of supplies to
keep going until the next shipment of resources arrive. In other words, fuel
is burned in proportion to the user of the car, but factories don't
necessarily use their materials as soon as it receives the shipment. Factories
can store resources and their use is scheduled for a later use.
Therefore it is better to optimize for quality of materials, rather than
frequency of consumption! Your body will use the materials it gathered from
the past few days of consuming food (no citation here, but again just my
experience), and the only problem of not eating is the BRAIN's expectation of
eating food every day and that feeling of satiation, which is basically a hit
of dopamine and not a true sign of wether you need materials and/or energy to
survive.
------
eduardothomas28
Be careful If you are going to try fasting. If you read carefully, fasting
increases PUFAs on the serum and if you have plenty of PUFAs in your body, it
could kill your thyroid and metabolism.
Before trying fasting be sure to have at least a month of healthy eating and
try sipping unsweetened lemon juice while you fast.
------
donclark
Here is a different link -
[https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12325-018-0746-5](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12325-018-0746-5)
~~~
ejstronge
This is a different article altogether (which may be what you mean).
Here's a link to a webpage for the OP article:
[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S15504...](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1550413119304292?via%3Dihub)
------
mark_l_watson
I am happy to see another study that indicates good results.
I have stopped fasting, even though I believe in the benefits.
Now, I just make sure that every day I have at least a 12 hour contiguous
period of not eating. This is really easy to do, for example, finishing dinner
by 6:30pm and not eating until 7:30am the next day gives me a 13 hour period
for resting my digestive system and giving my cells some time to repair rather
than absorb nutrients. Easy, and with a mostly vegan diet except with lean
meat about two times a week, I feel great.
For me, it is best to stay on an easy program, something that I can do long
term.
------
tempsy
I was heading to the gym near the Twitter HQ in SF yesterday and saw Jack
Dorsey walk past. He looked extremely thin and borderline sick to me. I think
he does more extended fasts over the weekend but it’s a bit unnerving when
someone in a position to influence behavior like he is seems to be taking
fasting to an extreme.
~~~
SwellJoe
I've seen a lot of people say stuff like this, but it's kinda gross. If you
want to criticize things someone has said about their diet and health
practices, that's fine (and hopefully, you'll cite sources for why they're
wrong), but if you're going to make it about how they look, and make your own
diagnosis about their health, that's not really OK.
You don't know anything about the guy's health. He may actually be sick,
wholly unrelated to his diet. He could be dealing with an eating disorder
(which may be related to his diet, but millions of people have fasted
regularly without having an eating disorder...there are lots of ways people
cover for eating disorders). And, maybe he's in great health and your beliefs
about what "healthy" looks like are wrong ("put some meat on your bones" is
not great health advice for most people, but it's a common refrain).
I don't really know anything about what he's said about diet or fasting. But,
I know that bringing his appearance and health into it are not shedding light
on the subject, they're just conflating appearance with health and well-being
in ways that aren't useful.
~~~
core-questions
> that's not really OK.
This kind of word policing is even less OK. It's not "gross" to make a comment
about something you see and have opinions about, especially for a public
figure. You're not shedding light on any subject, either, all you're doing is
being offended-on-behalf of someone else; the world's got enough of that and
it doesn't seem to be making any positive difference at all.
~~~
SwellJoe
The comment I responded to did not add substantively to the discussion, and I
pointed out why.
I am not "policing" anything. I have no power to arrest someone or censor
someone for being an asshole online. I expressed an opinion about the kind of
community I'd like to be a part of. Also, it seems like you're doing what
you're criticizing me for. I _don 't_ think the world's got enough of minding
one's own damned business regarding people's health, body, and appearance, and
that having more of it _would_ make a positive difference. This conversation
is about the science of fasting, not whether Jack Dorsey looks thin.
~~~
core-questions
> Also, it seems like you're doing what you're criticizing me for.
Sure, but only in a meta-sense to curb the proliferation of the technique. I'd
liken it to nuking would-be nuclear powers to prevent further problems.
And maybe, _just maybe_, Jack Dorsey should eat a sandwich.
~~~
SwellJoe
> I'd liken it to nuking would-be nuclear powers to prevent further problems.
So, when you wrote this, did the idea of using nuclear weapons preemptively
seem like an obviously good idea, to you?
------
crimsonalucard
If I eat two meals in one sitting and then wait 23 hours before my next meal
is this a form of intermittent fasting? I still get the same amount of
calories as a normal person but there's a long period where I get nothing.
(I've been skipping breakfast my entire life so I don't really get the 3 meal
thing.)
~~~
jobigoud
Yes, it's known as 23:1 Intermittent Fasting or more commonly OMAD, one meal a
day.
~~~
crimsonalucard
Is it? The thing is I'm eating two meals in one sitting so it's still two
meals a day. I typically thought intermittent fasting meant one meal per day.
Does what I'm doing still count?
~~~
jobigoud
I think the amount of food doesn't matter, I would say if it's in one sitting
it count as one meal. People that do OMAD usually eat much more than what they
would eat in a normal meal, otherwise it wouldn't be sustainable in the long
term.
Intermittent Fasting just means there is a 12+ hour period between the last
meal of the day and the first meal of the next day. The most typical form is
two meals a day in 16:8 fashion.
------
collyw
Is this new knowledge?
It sounds pretty similar to what was discovered in BBC's "Eat Fast Live
longer" and that's a good few years old.
[https://vimeo.com/259080453](https://vimeo.com/259080453)
------
ubermonkey
It's interesting, but as a hobby and primary physical outlet I'm very involved
in cycling. I don't race, but I ride with racers, and keep up.
I do not think I could balance fasting with 1,500 calorie efforts. ;)
~~~
kasey_junk
Funny enough in the 70s and 80s (and into the early 90s in some rare cases) it
was fairly common for cyclists to cut weight like boxers.
I think its fair to assume that caffeine and amphetamines were used to achieve
those results and not strict fasting regimes...
~~~
ubermonkey
Sure. I think that's still done -- I mean, look at top-tier racers.
But fasting and cutting weight are different ideas.
~~~
kasey_junk
I just meant that cutting calories while cycle training has a long history
(though I would describe it as healthy)
~~~
ubermonkey
Diet modification during training typically still involves eating more
calories than a sedentary person.
~~~
kasey_junk
I know less about cycling diets than I do fighter camps but it is incredibly
common for fighters to eat at fasting levels while continuing to train. The
strict weight requirements cause that.
I was of the impression that it used to be the case that cyclists did this but
that it was out of fashion now.
In any case lots of people do 1500 calorie efforts at fasting intake levels.
It’s not healthy long term but it’s completely ‘normal’ for done athletes.
------
gwern
Mirror:
[https://www.gwern.net/docs/longevity/2019-stekovic.pdf](https://www.gwern.net/docs/longevity/2019-stekovic.pdf)
------
plg
A -37% change in caloric intake (Fig. 2B) produces only a -4.5% change in body
mass (Fig. 3A)? Seems odd no? Or am I mis-reading something?
~~~
theothermkn
This change was reported over 4 weeks, or 28 days.
For a 180lb person consuming, on average, 1900 kCal/day, a 37% drop in
calories is a 703 kCal/day deficit below their initial equilibrium. This is
19,700 kCal over four weeks. Divided by 3600 kCal/lb, this is about 5.5 lbs.
4.5% of 180 lbs is 8.2 lbs. So, we're in the ball park. A 3-lb deficit from
reduced inflammation (water) seems reasonable.
For a higher initial weight, you can get the numbers to agree exactly. I'm 6'
and 182 lbs., which is just barely overweight. In the U.S., were I live, I
look pretty "fit" by comparison with the average person. (I'm not, but that's
another story.) According to [1], Austria, from where the participants were
likely sourced, is only slightly leaner than the United States.
Therefore, their numbers seem to line up. Westerners are stuffing themselves.
[1] [https://www.indexmundi.com/blog/wp-
content/uploads/2013/04/w...](https://www.indexmundi.com/blog/wp-
content/uploads/2013/04/weight-of-the-world.jpg)
------
travbrack
Does this increase risk of gallstones?
~~~
najarvg
Yes it does. See -
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20813736](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20813736)
~~~
getpost
>..."might increase the risk of gallstone disease"...
I do 18:6 intermittent fasting and I did have a gallstone episode. My
intuition is that fasting precipitated the expulsion of stones that had formed
prior to the onset of my fasting regimen. Also, while practicing intermittent
fasting, I think I have a tendency to overeat during my main meal of the day,
maybe as a subconscious attempt to avoid feeling hungry later on. To avoid
overeating, I need to be mindful to stop eating while I still feel slightly
hungry.
The following blog post is consistent with my experience:
[https://gallstonesdiet.net/can-intermittent-fasting-cause-
ga...](https://gallstonesdiet.net/can-intermittent-fasting-cause-gallstones/)
~~~
jobigoud
> To avoid overeating, I need to be mindful to stop eating while I still feel
> slightly hungry
For me the trick is to eat really slowly, even if I'm hungry.
------
sbmthakur
Does fasting bring about any significant changes at the cellular level?
------
kasi
why is this dated Sept 3rd 2019 (the future)?
~~~
PeterWhittaker
They publish biweekly, this might be a pre-release from next week’s issue.
------
donclark
Add (PDF) to the tile please (looks like its a direct link to a PDF)
~~~
sctb
Updated. Thanks!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
An algorithm for the Names at the 9/11 Memorial - erehweb
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2011/05/16/110516ta_talk_paumgarten
======
blahedo
"Even so, the first few computer scientists and statisticians the foundation
got in touch with said that it couldn’t be done."
Really? Wtf kind of incompetents were arguing that it _couldn't be done_?
I'm not arguing that it was or should have been easy, of course. It sounds
like a fascinating challenge. And I'm also not claiming that any computer
scientist, even a good one, could have solved it. But any vaguely competent
computer scientist should have been able to say, "that's a cool problem, and
you need to talk to a graph drawing expert."
Of course, this could have been a case of the source saying "they said it was
hard" and the writer mangling that into "they said it couldn't be done". But
still.
~~~
jerfelix
It's possible that the problem was originally stated in such a way that there
was no solution. Perhaps the original statement of the problem was that each
name must be adjacent to every name in its cluster, and readable. But the
cluster of 658 people at Cantor Fitzgerald probably makes that impossible -
how do you have 658 names all readable and adjacent to each other (in two
dimensions)?
Perhaps they really answered "as the problem is stated, it can't be done,
without compromises."
Then again, I tend to give computer scientists and statisticians the benefit
of the doubt (and not so much the writer).
~~~
sesqu
If I had been asked, my reply would have been "It can't be done. If you want
help from me or someone like me, you'll need to make a loose ranking of the
qualities of the ideal solution, and we can try some approximations".
I might even have left the latter sentence out, since it's clearly implicit.
Maybe whoever they found left it out or maybe they didn't even consider it,
but the artist could have made the addition too. I suspect the first few
people just weren't interested.
------
corin_
I wonder if the coder/s would open source what they did. I imagine its purpose
is unique enough that releasing the code wouldn't cause any "now we won't
potential clients won't need to hire us" issues, and it could be quite
interesting.
Edit: Any chance of explanation for the down voting to -1? I mean, I assume
it's for thinking my question moronic, but would like to actually hear why
that might be...
~~~
eru
When you get downvoted, just wait a bit. It seems in the last two years or so
we acquired some trigger-happy idiots. It still usually balances out in the
end.
~~~
corin_
I don't really have a problem being downvoted, and I've certainly seen what
you describe happen many times in the past. I was asking not so much to
prevent downvoting, but because I couldn't see what I'd said that could lead
people to want to downvote, and hoped to have a chance either to win them over
or have them win me over.
------
ubernostrum
Courtesy of the Metafilter thread
(<http://www.metafilter.com/103302/meaningful-adjacencies>), a longer article:
[http://www.fastcodesign.com/1663780/at-911-memorial-name-
pla...](http://www.fastcodesign.com/1663780/at-911-memorial-name-placements-
reflect-bonds-between-victims-thanks-to-algorithm)
And a website to explore the names and some of the stories and links between
them:
<http://names.911memorial.org/>
------
OllieJones
What a fine combination of typographical aesthetics and algorithmic computer
science! Makes me proud to be associated (however distantly) with those
professions.
As for finding peoples' names, there's a strong symbolism it making it hard.
To search for a name is to honor the efforts of the recovery workers who
searched for remains.
At any rate, let's hope there's no more need for memorials like this one.
------
pessimist
After all this, so-called aesthetic considerations make it impossible to find
a name you are looking for.
~~~
showerst
At the Vietnam war memorial on the national mall in DC, the names are listed
by date of death, but there are phone-book style guides that list the names
alphabetically with the wall location.
Presumably this will offer something similar.
~~~
smackfu
In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if it was just touch screens showing the
names.911memorial.org page. What more do you need?
------
cont4gious
Is the source/a paper/a blog post going to be released so that we can look at
(read: poke holes in) it?
~~~
jerf
It's not like there's a "right" or "wrong" answer. It's more art than code,
and what really matters is the final result.
~~~
cont4gious
i completely agree. i didn't mean that it would in any way be wrong, i am just
really interested in how they did it, and wanted to look at the source.
yet another example of a need for a sarcasm punctuation mark.
~~~
jrockway
Why would you add the parenthetical statement "read: poke holes in" if you
were "really interested in how they did it"? Not only does it not really make
sense (how do you "poke holes" in art?), it makes you sound like a dick.
~~~
Dylan16807
Why is poking holes automatically negative?
------
fletchowns
Since it's to honor the lives of the victims, why not just sort them by date
of birth?
------
monochromatic
This is way off topic, but if you use a diaeresis in "coöperation," you are
probably an asshole. Stupid New Yorker.
~~~
leif
I was going to comment exactly this.
------
mberning
I can't believe people are (ostensibly) paid well for this kind of writing. It
meanders around and takes the longest path possible to what is essentially a
paragraph or two of actual information.
~~~
michael_dorfman
Sometimes, writing is about more than just "actual information."
If this kind of writing bothers you, you _definitely_ don't want to subscribe
to the New Yorker.
~~~
CWuestefeld
Do they routinely add those goofy umlauts, too? In the English I was taught in
school, we don't have such a character.
_Each requires the coöperation... even others coördinating a response_
Perhaps I'm over-sensitive, but this seems rather elitist.
Now, combine this with the citation of "A same-sex couple and their three-
year-old son..., certainly, belonged together." Why mention their genders?
Either the writer has an unhealthy fixation on other people's sexual
preferences, or, worse, thinks that the fact that they're gay entitles them to
special consideration. Not good either way.
I don't think I like their style.
~~~
burgerbrain
[http://www.kirkmahoney.com/blog/2008/09/coordinate-vs-co-
ord...](http://www.kirkmahoney.com/blog/2008/09/coordinate-vs-co-ordinate-vs-
coordinate/)
Contrary to popular belief, the English language has no official single
governing body. Either are considered to be "correct".
~~~
CWuestefeld
_Contrary to popular belief, the English language has no official single
governing body._
Nor did I claim that it did; linguistics is a descriptive science, not a
prescriptive one. It _describes_ the way people use the language. I've _never_
seen English with umlauts, outside of a few heavy metal bands [1]. The link
you provided would seem to agree with me, showing the non-accented spelling
outnumbering this one by some 500:1.
[1] <https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Metal_umlaut>
~~~
burgerbrain
_"I've never seen English with umlauts"_
Nobody cares.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
TikTok Tracked User Data Using Tactic Banned by Google - thecybernerd
https://www.wsj.com/articles/tiktok-tracked-user-data-using-tactic-banned-by-google-11597176738
======
adamleithp
I've worked in advertising and ad-click networks for over 9 years, and it's
funny to read "Banned by Google"... Google supported the most scummiest of
advertising/ tracking tactics themselves, that is until someone else started
doing it.
~~~
nix23
Haha man thanks! Exactly what i was thinking. By the way since when is Google
any measurement for privacy or even law.
------
kerng
Google has been trying to build their own little silo (and used all sorts of
dirty tricks in past also) for things with AMP and ads and stuff for a while.
So this just sounds a bit bizarre.
------
ornxka
Does Google collect user data using tactics banned by Google?
------
metta2uall
Not good of them, but doesn't seem like a national security threat either..
I haven't used TikTok much but the material there seems quite innocuous so I
don't see how Chinese government access to data from it is a serious threat.
There seems to be a lot more potentially embarrassing material posted to FB &
Twitter, and I suspect the Chinese government & others are scooping up what
they can, at least what's posted publicly.
~~~
Arbalest
Determining where people are directing their attention is never innocuous.
It's literally what shapes peoples opinions, and knowing it is how you modify
your messaging. True for both Advertising and Propaganda.
~~~
metta2uall
Where people are directing their attention is mostly publicly available. For
example what's "trending" on social media, what posts have a lot of likes,
Twitter/Facebook profiles, the contents of popular TV shows & YouTube
channels, opinion polls.
------
alex7389
[http://archive.is/tGtU6](http://archive.is/tGtU6)
------
elitistphoenix
Is anyone really surprised by this? I guess the people who use tiktok won't
care though.
------
marmshallow
tl;dr: TikTok exploited an android security hole to collect MAC addresses
likely for targeted advertising.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Interview with guy arrested at airport for wearing an elaborate wristwatch - rms
http://boingboing.net/2012/11/20/interview-with-guy-arrested-at.html
======
rms
Intermediate source submitted because apparently patch.com is autobanned here
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: CoderMirror – Time tracker for developers with a focus on learning - agarbayo
https://www.codermirror.com/
======
keb_
I confused this for the very popular CodeMirror text editor:
[https://codemirror.net/](https://codemirror.net/)
------
new_guy
The editor links are broken, 'Choose your editor for instructions'.
And it could maybe be a bit clearer what the sites actually supposed to do and
how.
~~~
agarbayo
Thank you for your feedback. I have updated the page to try to explain a
little better what it does, eg that is a plugin that tracks your time and
gives reports and training based on the collected data.
------
mostlystatic
You might want to make the Premium price a bit more prominent, took me a while
to find it.
------
caspervonb
Pretty bad name, considering CodeMirror has been around for quite a while, is
well known, et cetera.
------
wingerlang
Is it different from e.g. Wakatime?
~~~
agarbayo
Time tracking features are similar, I believe Wakatime might have a couple of
reports more and git commits integration. For now, CoderMirror supports only
Jetbrains IDEs while Wakatime has impressive support of IDEs and editors.
In CoderMirror data is stored locally in a SQLite database, so there is no
limit to the data range you have access for free. Because of that, you can
always write an ad-hoc query or export to the tool of your choice for further
analysis when default reports don't match your needs (I'd be very interested
in hearing what kind of reports developers need).
The focus of CoderMirror is on collecting data that can support a methodical
continuous improvement effort. I try to create reports that give objective
data for personal retrospectives to measure what works and what doesn't for
you.
Along with time tracking collects data on what libraries you used and creates
personalized quizzes with spaced repetition that attempt to deepen your
understanding of the libraries you use.
This is in early stages and limited to Java projects and is the area where I
want to focus in the future. Currently there is material for Java standard
library, Spring framework, JUnit, etc.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Do no harm - ColinWright
https://www.vox.com/2015/7/9/8905959/medical-harm-infection-prevention
======
ColinWright
Quoting:
_There is a crucial difference between the automobile and aviation industry.
Car companies acknowledge the idea of a "one-off event": that some accidents
are unavoidable, no matter how much work goes into prevention. In the aviation
industry, however, one-off events just don’t exist. Airplane manufacturers
treat each crash as potentially preventable and work backward to figure out
how it could have been prevented._
_A similar divide exists in modern medicine, when it comes to patient harm —
especially for patient harm from central line infections. There are hospitals
in the United States that view some level of central line infections as a sad
but inevitable effect of putting thousands of these tubes into patients’
bodies each year. And then there are other hospitals that see each central
line infection as a failure that requires investigation and better preventive
techniques in the future._
_In other words, there are car crash hospitals and there are plane crash
hospitals._
What kind of developer are you: a car crash developer? Or a plane crash
developer?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google Images Instant (inspired by Youtube Instant) - michaelhart
http://cdn.michaelhart.me/mh/instant_images/?5
======
andre3k1
Most useful iteration of an "instant' copy i've seen thus far.
How many times have been searching for that ONE particular image, but not
known what search query to input?
Both Google Instant and Google Images Instant will teach users how to search
smarter. Great job, keep up the great work!
~~~
michaelhart
thanks for your feedback! this sort of stuff makes me smile to myself, and
even though I probably look like a loser while doing so, I'm very thankful :)
~~~
metamemetics
I think it would be a lot better if it only displayed, say, 4-5 images max by
default and of larger size.
Since default google image search is slow, they need to return a ton of
results. However here, since the user can refine results rapidly without their
hands leaving the keyboard, I think you should only display 4, MAX 7 so they
can scan all the results in a single isntant rather than performing multiple
scans.
Maybe have JavaScript to cycle next 5 images binded to arrow key without
leaving keyboard.
The human mind really only has visual memory for 5-7 objects at once, you
should design it with this in mind if you want it to be _truely_ instant.
edit: another idea easier to implement. If the user types an exclamation mark
as the next character, you instantly remove this from the query box. Treat it
as a "Show Next 5" Indicator and load the next 5.
------
MC27
Sorry to pick on this one, but are these posts going to keep appearing on
Hacker News until every Google service is covered?
~~~
photon_off
Yes, probably. While I do hold a bit of contempt against the world that, IMO,
these types of projects wouldn't get a shred of buzz if they hadn't ridden the
coattail of some larger event[1], I'm still able to appreciate it for what it
is: an experiment. Realize you have a choice to let the trend affect your
judgment or not.
[1]: I understand that buzz is often a necessity for something to get noticed,
but I find it "unjust" that buzz is often generated for the most trivial of
reasons.
------
eam
Unlike your Map Instant, this one seems more usable and practical to me. Good
job. :)
------
rakkhi
Thats pretty cool. Could you do one for Flikr creative commons?
[http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=&l=cc&ss=0&ct=0&...](http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=&l=cc&ss=0&ct=0&mt=all&w=all&adv=1)
I use it all the time for blog images, powerpoints for work etc
Loving all these instant search tools, will they stress the google servers
beyond what they expected though? And if not will google eventually extend
instant search to all their tools?
~~~
systemtrigger
> Could you do one for Flickr creative commons?
Here you go: <http://bigfishsonar.com>. It searches: Flickr, Twitter, YouTube
and Google News/Images/Blogs.
I built v1 and another guy polished it up.
EDIT: I just realized it's not "instant" in the sense others are using the
word. Guess I should've removed the search button and sent the ajax requests
after every keystroke. Ah well, it's still pretty good.
~~~
rakkhi
yes not instant and also if it can filter just creative commons. Don't want to
get into trouble with copywrite.
~~~
systemtrigger
Done. :)
<http://drunsen.com/flickr.html>
~~~
rakkhi
That is just awesome! thanks
------
zmmz
Way more useful than the maps version, thanks for this!
Feature request: to further mimic google instant, would it be possible to add
autocomplete? Also, note that when the autocomplete box appears on google
instant and you press the down arrow to select the result, you can then press
the right arrow to do a "I'm feeling lucky".
Maybe you could add some additional keyboard shortcuts to instant image
search, such as selecting results with the keyboard. Ideally I would want to
select a result with the arrow keys and hit enter to go to it.
As most people here, I try to avoid the mouse.
Thanks again for this, funny thing is that I don't use the original google
instant (as it does not work with the key bindings experiment) but your image
search is something that I probably will.
------
blhack
Maybe this is offtopic, but are you Michael Hart, or Natalie Tran?
I clicked on the "I'm looking for a job too" link, which took me to your
twitter, then clicked on your website. The website is for somebody named
Natalie, but the twitter is for Michael?
~~~
justinchen
It says in his Twitter bio that he's a "Total Tran Fan."
~~~
jdbeast00
giggle
------
beaumartinez
I think the way to make this stand out would be to "pile up" images depending
on how long the user stays on a query (until the user presses enter). For
example, if I want to search for _potato_ , but type _po_ and stay on that for
a few seconds, pile up like ten results for Pokémon, and then once I finish my
query, pile up the results for potato at the top, so the Pokémon results are
at the bottom (so the most relevant results at top).
Or maybe have it constantly piling up images of the current query? (I'd code
this myself but haven't the time at the moment.)
~~~
michaelhart
I like this idea a lot! I will definitely see about working it in :) Sounds
simple, too. Love it!
------
albertzeyer
It doesn't seem to work in all cases. When I enter "openlierox" (a 2D game),
it does not show any pictures of the game at all; in fact, it does not change
anymore after "openli".
~~~
michaelhart
If I'm not mistaken, the letters after the i are causing the suggestions from
Google Suggestions to come back empty, giving a null variable.
I haven't figured out why yet, but I do know all xxx-related terms will return
null as well. Maybe Google is confused?
------
tpr1m
In my opinion, much more useful than the real google instant. It would be cool
if you added a way to manage your safe-search preferences too.
~~~
michaelhart
sadly, the google suggestion "api" (lol, it's not really an API, hah) will not
work with any obscene terms. There's no way to enable it at all :(
sorry if that's a disappointment. let me just say, "null" is the most common
page accessed, and well, that's typically what is displayed for xxx-related
terms :)
------
vkdelta
Good stuff! but for some reason the results are not the same as google image
search.Any idea why is this happening?
~~~
beaumartinez
Perhaps locale differences?
~~~
michaelhart
Sounds likely to me. My server accessing and caching the images is in the US.
So you're essentially seeing the American-generated results, which might be
less optimized for other countries.
~~~
vkdelta
Well, I am accessing it from the US. I just compared the end result with real
google image search and your instant image search. But somehow results are
entirely different
------
metachris
I would love to see stats about the queries of the first 24 hours!
------
zandorg
That's pretty amazing. Worked great for me!
------
Judson
Got a job yet?
~~~
michaelhart
I've gotten a few offers :) But unfortunately, I haven't made any decisions.
On a blunt note, I haven't heard from Google. Sadface.
~~~
Judson
I'm just glad you got my humor whereas other HNers might have missed it.
~~~
michaelhart
Always have to keep an open mind on the Internet; and I always try to read
things from a positive perspective. :)
Anyway, thanks for asking :D
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Upstart's Credit Decision API for instant credit decisions - mattmarcus
https://www.upstart.com/blog/introducing-credit-decision-api
======
toomuchtodo
Has anyone used this? If so, happy with the functionality? I’d be interested
in using this to decision borrowers for auto loans.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
4 BigCommerce stores use supercharging apps to sell over $45,000 in extra sales - hoanganhha
https://medium.com/@beeketing/ecommerce-case-studies-75e10fddacb5
======
beeketing2017
you can read the original article at our Blog:
[https://beeketing.com/blog/bigcommerce-ecommerce-case-
studie...](https://beeketing.com/blog/bigcommerce-ecommerce-case-studies/) :)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Patent US7680883 - Dynamic integration of web sites - labinder
http://www.google.com/patents/US7680883?dq=7680883&ei=8QCPUMapG4WzywHKiIDYAw
======
noonespecial
I think its safe to say now that if you're getting data from any server
anywhere, you're "infringing" on 1000's of patents. They're all just kind of
running together into a toxic, innovation killing sludge.
Just build stuff. Let the people who can't argue about who's first in line to
steal from you when you're successful. Hopefully by then you can just pay some
people to argue back.
------
hinoglu
It is obvious that for some reason the officers in the patent office are not
able to find out that the "technology" to be patented is really an ages old
technique or device defined in a horribly bloated language to either hide what
it really is or include anything and everything that may have any small piece
in common with that art or device.
And i guess it's always seen or shown as the patent office is responsible for
the problem, not the individual officers who really are the ones that mess up.
Isn't it possible to hold the individual officers or at least the patent
office responsible for the damages caused from granting patents to these kind
of bogus claims?
------
justincpollard
I'm no scripting historian, but I believe the relevant date from which to
judge this patent's validity is 4/12/2000, the date of the provisional
application from which this patent was born. As of that date, were these types
of embedded components possible?
------
btyrad
I think as a startup, you have to say screw prior patents. Focus on your
product. Build build build and when you've made it, fight back.
~~~
shitlord
I think applying that philosophy to every decision you make will get you sued.
Sure, nothing important would come of it if the patent is junk, but if it
isn't, and if your product takes off, then you will be in a major bind.
~~~
fruchtose
There's a spectrum of who gets sued.
1\. Company is too small to be noticed (or sued) 2\. Company is noticeable but
does not have resources to prevent or defeat lawsuits 3\. Company is too big
or powerful to be sued
Companies on the smallest end of the spectrum won't be sued, either because
nobody has ever heard of them, they don't have anything worth using over, or a
combination of both. These are your bedroom startups.
Companies on the bigger end of the spectrum have more patents and lawyers than
there are sausage on a meat lover's pizza. These are Microsoft, IBM, and and
the like.
------
drallison
A cursory read of the '883 patent suggests that the claims are anticipated in
the prior art and that the patent would likely be found invalid were it
litigated or re-examined. Just understanding what the "invention" is and
constructing claims charts for prior art candidates requires an enormous
amount of energy, time, and money. It is not to be approached lightly.
------
labinder
This means if one is doing cross site request by adding script tag and parsing
json response will infringe this patent.
Really?
~~~
justincpollard
It's not clear to me whether the process you describe would infringe. It seems
to me that if the component server returns only a data object with all
scripting instructions provided by the host computer, this patent would not be
infringed. This patent appears to me to be speaking to plugins that return
both data and script. Facebook's like button comes to mind, perhaps ...
~~~
wolf0403
Then so called "JsonP" is definitely infringing...
------
woodchuck64
Assignee is WebCollage, which creates product pages for Walmart, like
([http://www.walmart.com/ip/Power-Wheels-Dune-Racer-12-Volt-
Ba...](http://www.walmart.com/ip/Power-Wheels-Dune-Racer-12-Volt-Battery-
Powered-Ride-on/15779611)).
------
reactor
How can it not be prior art?
------
kingdm
This is insane.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Weight I Carry: What it’s like to be too big in America - gadders
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/01/weight-loss-essay-tomlinson/579832/
======
benj111
Should we be viewing obesity as 2 distinct things? Obesity as addiction, and
obesity as poor diet/lack of exercise.
It seems to me that the 'cure' for one isn't the cure for the other. And it
doesn't help either to conflate the 2.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why You Should Never Use Google Authenticator Again - urza
https://blog.trezor.io/why-you-should-never-use-google-authenticator-again-e166d09d4324
======
Bino
If only there were a solution I could buy... ;) No, I do believe you should
use Google Authenticator, it’s free, easy to implement and adds a lot of
security over just passswords.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How my startup got paying customers despite a bad website - boldpanda
http://ryanluedecke.com/first-40/
======
asperous
Your ideas are interesting, I like that you kept your sales pitches 100%
personal (rather than marketingish or professional) and that you business
proposition really does focus on helping the customer, rather than tricking
them into getting their money.
That said, I'm no pro by any means, but while 40+ is healthy for a small biz,
I would like to see how (or if) that scales to 400, or 4,000. I'm not
skeptical, just curious.
What's wrong with your website exactly? It matches the tone of your marketing
message in my opinion, and that could be positive.
~~~
boldpanda
Thanks for the feedback. Scaling to 4,000 is goal as that'll bring me to the
$100K revenue mark. It should be interesting. I have ~75 customers.
The website doesn't play well with office managers who are a big target
customer. I want to sell and ship the jerky to offices who want healthier
snacks that don't put employees in a food coma or spike their insulin.
It also falls flat among strangers who don't trust a one-pager and a paypal
link.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Bruce Eckel is Wrong - vijaydev
http://cafe.elharo.com/programming/bruce-eckel-is-wrong/
======
lyudmil
I know Mr. Harold is much more experienced than me. It's pretty obvious he's
more of an authority on most programming subjects. With that caveat I give my
reasons why I despise checked exceptions in Java.
I've never seen code that got cleaner because of the use of checked
exceptions. If you have a fairly complex piece of functionality that you've
refactored mercilessly, it is quite possible to end up with a deep object
hierarchy. If the checked exception is thrown at the bottom, that pollutes
every interface on the way up the call chain to the method where the exception
is handled. Also, whenever you are ready to catch the exception, you have to
have a try/catch block and that aesthetically looks like an if-else statement,
which means it is really easy to write it in an ugly way (merely having 3
lines of code for each the try and catch part is enough). All of this
inevitably slows me down as I have to come up with a way to deal with those
problems. It also frequently tempts me to just eat the checked exception
rather than handle it.
I also think throwing a checked exception assumes too much about how I want to
use that particular class/function. Suppose I'm using some sort of parsing
tool to test complicated output (say, HTML). I'm only using this in tests. I
do not want to have to handle exceptions. Even if it was in production code I
may not actually care about addressing anything but the happy path.
I cannot effectively argue I'm not a newbie, writing buggy, shaky software.
But I can't help but feel that the concerns of most programmers are more
aligned with mine.
------
fhars
His argument that a library that accepts an interface without declaring all
possible exceptions a method of that interface might throw is badly designed
is misguided. This assumes that the writer of the library can know all
possible custom exceptions that code written by the user might throw, which is
impossible. But it is perfectly valid if the code that calls the library
passes in an instance implementing the interface that might throw a
CantFrobnicateException that the library doesn't know anything about if the
calling code knows what to do if the library call fails with that exception.
The real design error here are still checked exceptions. What you really want
are dynamic exceptions with an optional whole program analyzer that detects
possible code paths that could lead to uncaught exceptions.
------
barrkel
Elliotte Rusty Harold is wrong.
Checked exceptions are problematic because they version poorly, they
implicitly presume the wrong model of exception _handling_ , and more
importantly, they prematurely decide the application's desired policy for
error handling by encoding the "checkedness" in the type itself, where it is
not available for configuration by the programmer.
The poor versioning is obvious. The OP says _"The superclass/interface was not
designed properly for extension. Specifically it did not take into account the
exceptions overriders/implementers might reasonably want to throw"_ \- and the
only problem with that is the well-known difficulty in predicting the future.
But actually, it's more subtle: exceptions are usually a desired encapsulation
violation. When programming to an abstract interface, you don't want to know
the details of how it's implemented, but all the ways it can fail are a
_function_ of how it's implemented. You can't reasonably require the design of
the most abstract levels of the system to predict every possible low-level
implementation failure and state them out long-hand; the only reasonable
implementation would be "throws Exception", which defeats the whole point of
checked exceptions.
By presuming the wrong model of handling, I'm referring to the burden of
creating a tunnel through the type system for your exception type between the
point of the throw and the point of the catch. This burden is set up to
optimize for catching sooner rather than later. But the thing is, usually you
never want to catch; usually, the only exception catching you want done is at
the highest levels of the system, in an event loop or request dispatcher. If
you were expecting an exception you'd want to catch, the situation isn't
exceptional; instead, you shouldn't be using an API that throws. .NET's
pattern of e.g. Int32.Parse() vs Int32.TryParse() exemplifies this.
The OP tries to argue against this with the distinction between runtime errors
and exceptions: _"checked exceptions do not require the programmer to provide
handlers in situations where no meaningful action can be taken. When no
meaningful action can be taken Java programs throw Errors"_. And this brings
me to my third point. The determination for whether meaningful action can be
taken _varies from program to program_ , and is encoded in the very exception
handlers themselves - i.e. it's the programmer who makes that choice, not the
people who defined the relevant exception types.
His examples of error - _out of memory error, stack overflow, class not found,
etc._ \- actually make more sense as reasons to completely terminate the
application, rather than make any attempt to catch. They're not really errors
so much as panics.
~~~
d0mine
If you application is a server then _out of memory error_ during a request
means that the request failed but not that you should shut down the server.
_class not found_ means that some functionality is unavailable but you could
provide a workaround that might have some disadvantages compared to the absent
version but would work. For example, in Python ( _ImportError_ plays role of
_class not found_ here)
try:
import cElementTree as ElementTree # fast C extension
except ImportError:
from elementtree import ElementTree # ~30 time slower
Don't panic ;)
~~~
sbov
I'd rather have my application fail clearly and obviously than have it start
to mysteriously run 30 times slower.
At least in Java on the server side, most checked exceptions I run across fall
under this umbrella. If they happen, something is really really wrong.
~~~
d0mine
If the code is in a library it is not your call to decide what is satisfactory
performance and what requirements are. A user of your library could decide
that running this code inside JVM (via Jython) is more important than using C
extensions for speed.
Real world example, an excellent tool -- Universal Feed Parser
<http://www.feedparser.org/>
# If a real XML parser is available, feedparser will attempt to use it. feedparser has
# been tested with the built-in SAX parser, PyXML, and libxml2. On platforms where the
# Python distribution does not come with an XML parser (such as Mac OS X 10.2 and some
# versions of FreeBSD), feedparser will quietly fall back on regex-based parsing.
try:
import xml.sax
xml.sax.make_parser(PREFERRED_XML_PARSERS) # test for valid parsers
from xml.sax.saxutils import escape as _xmlescape
_XML_AVAILABLE = 1
except:
_XML_AVAILABLE = 0
def _xmlescape(data,entities={}):
data = data.replace('&', '&')
data = data.replace('>', '>')
data = data.replace('<', '<')
for char, entity in entities:
data = data.replace(char, entity)
return data
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Destructive Nature of Power without Status - wallflower
http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~nathanaf/power_without_status.pdf
======
gwern
Abstract:
> The current research explores how roles that possess power but lack status
> influence behavior toward others. Past research has primarily examined the
> isolated effects of having either power or status, but we propose that power
> and status interact to affect interpersonal behavior. Based on the notions
> that a) low-status is threatening and aversive and b) power frees people to
> act on their internal states and feelings, we hypothesized that power
> without status fosters demeaning behaviors toward others. To test this idea,
> we orthogonally manipulated both power and status and gave participants the
> chance to select activities for their partners to perform. As predicted,
> individuals in high-power/low-status roles chose more demeaning activities
> for their partners (e.g., bark like a dog, say “I am filthy”) than did those
> in any other combination of power and status roles. We discuss how these
> results clarify, challenge, and advance the existing power and status
> literatures.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Ritzy – Submit housing requests for Real Estate agents to see - ritzy
https://ritzy.app
======
realty_geek
Great idea. I'm working on a real estate idea myself that is not a million
miles from this idea. Will be interested to hear how far you get with this. My
suggestion would be to start off by focusing on one country or region. I would
have a lot more confidence in such a product myself.
~~~
ritzy
thanks. we are focusing on the US market. we are thinking on how to attract
both customers and agents. if you have any ideas on how to achieve that i
would be very thankful. best regards and good luck.
~~~
allwynpfr
Teaming up with Instagram influencers for the customer side would probably
help
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Can drones be the future of police security? - Intoo
After what happened at Charlie Hebdo(Paris)I was wondering if AI drones' radars can detect weapons in cars and stop this kind of terror by attacking the terrorist? In Europe wearing a weapon in the street is illegal.<p>WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS IDEA?
intoo.im
======
sklogic
Robert Sheckley, " _Watchbird_ ", 1953.
~~~
Intoo
the guy saw the invention of drones in 1953, and most people didn't hear about
him yet! interesting
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Administrators Ate My Tuition - cpaone
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/septemberoctober_2011/features/administrators_ate_my_tuition031641.php?page=all
======
jpadvo
Beware -- this article makes a variety of claims that are not well supported.
They are not even anecdotal, they're just out of thin air. Just one example
from the first part:
"Alas, today’s full-time professional administrators tend to view management
as an end in and of itself. Most have no faculty experience, and even those
who have spent time in a classroom or laboratory often hope to make
administration their life’s work and have no plan to return to teaching."
Um, any data _at all_ to back this up? In my experience at a public
university, this is not at all true. And when administrators make a career out
it, it is often in roles like working on technological infrastructure of a
campus.
Also, many universities are growing their research programs. From what I've
seen, it takes a lot more staff to support the research side of things than to
support the educational side of things. And research is paid for (in theory)
from grants and such, not tuition.
Anyway, there are a variety of problems with the way higher education is run
and funded, but this article doesn't cover them. Instead, it uses a few
statistics and a lot of bold, inaccurate, unsubstantiated, sensationalistic
hand waving about that darn old wasteful ivory tower.
"There are lies, darn lies, and statistics" applies quite well in this case.
~~~
_delirium
> And research is paid for (in theory) from grants and such, not tuition.
The former dean of Georgia Tech's College of Computing has a series of posts
arguing that many (most?) universities actually lose money on research,
contrary to the grants argument:
[http://innovate-wwc.com/2010/07/05/why-universities-do-
resea...](http://innovate-wwc.com/2010/07/05/why-universities-do-research/)
[http://innovate-wwc.com/2011/05/18/if-you-have-to-ask-ten-
su...](http://innovate-wwc.com/2011/05/18/if-you-have-to-ask-ten-sure-fire-
ways-to-lose-money-on-research/)
------
rkischuk
It's true that it's not just the administrators. It's the budgets and programs
that come with them.
I went to Georgia Tech. The last time I heard a report, Georgia Tech had 3
staff members dedicated to the fraternity system. 1 for fraternities, 1 for
sororities, and one for minority organizations that don't want to be in the
mainstream system. Schools should have zero staff dedicated to the "greek"
system. Greek letter organizations are free associations of citizens that
operate on the periphery of the school. But we need staff. And we need budget
and fees to pay to educate this system, and monitor them.
Expand this to every corner of campus. You not only need many staff dedicated
to diversity programs, you must take "fees" from students to pay for diversity
days, weeks, and months. I served in Georgia Tech's student government, and
watched every week as student organizations came through asking for money to
pay for bands, t-shirts, refreshments, banners, etc, all from student funds.
Many of the projects were nice ideas, few of them justified boosting the cost
of education for a school's students.
At most schools, there are multiple staff members dedicated to purposes for
which there should be zero staff. But some combination of social agendas and
lawsuit avoidance builds up the headcount.
Students pay for access to sporting events, which used to be about actual
students competing, but are now huge cash cows that serve as farm leagues for
pro sports teams. Students now pay hundreds of dollars in fees for the
_chance_ to see their school's sporting events, even though stadium capacities
are often triple or more the student population.
~~~
steve-howard
I don't know if there are many schools like this, but the Greek houses at
Northwestern are all on campus property. As I understand it, the frats do not
pay rent, but members still pay rent which the frat then keeps. So my on-
campus living cost per year is $8k, and theirs is essentially $0. I love
seeing my money go to things that have no relation to me.
~~~
yardie
This must be unique to Northwestern. The housing prices at other universities
is listed on the residential housing page. Greek housing was no different than
anyone else and were a little more since the houses weren't as dense as a
tower block.
The only way I can see the Greeks at Northwestern getting away with this is if
they covered all the maintenance and all the utility charges. Considering that
most of those houses are old and paid for NU wouldn't have to charge anything
beyond that.
~~~
steve-howard
I believe that's the case, and that they actually have to pay for ADA upgrades
on some buildings if they haven't already. It's still the same kind of housing
that other students pay for.
------
aidenn0
So tuition has tripled, and it's all because of the administrative budget,
which is a whopping 15% of expenditures?
~~~
cpaone
Administrators are setting the priorities of expenditures. In so-called
"fiscal emergency," administrators have opted to cut academic programs and
freeze hiring in teaching while at the same time increasing expenditures on
bureaucracy. The article cites abundant examples.
~~~
aidenn0
Still, according to the article's own numbers, if we reset the administrative
fraction of the budget to 1947 levels, we would only shave 6% off of costs;
this hardly explains much of the huge increase in inflation-adjusted tuition
since then.
~~~
wisty
Administrators can be frightfully bad at capital allocation. They don't have
much incentive to spend wisely, and they are often disconnected from what
really matters to a university. Also, the more admins you have, the louder
their voice will be, and the more misdirected intellectual firepower they will
have making reports about how their decisions are the best.
IIRC, the real cost is often building, and IT. There's also money getting
wasted by academics, because they have to follow too many rules. If you give
academics a budget, and tell them to spend it wisely, they will probably do
so. Give them a list of rules, and they will follow the rules, even if it
means they waste a lot of money.
------
americandesi333
One thing I want to mention is that this article sheds a lot of negative light
on adjunct faculty with no strong arguments of why.
From my university experience, I actually got a lot more out of faculty that
were loaned from the business world because they were great at sharing
practical relevent knowledge and examples.
Full-time faculty on the other hand lacked the knowledge of the outside
practical world and were outdated in their teaching.
------
bryanwb
Universities are more expensive because they have become educational country
clubs/babysitting facilities, complete w/ professional sports teams, grandiose
athletic facilities (often for those professional athletes), and n number of
caretakers to plan students lives and cater to every one of their
developmental needs.
------
nazgulnarsil
Rising demand and inelastic supply leads to rising prices. This is a good
thing. The price premium the wealthy are willing to pay allows schools to
massively subsidize their brain drain of the brightest students. If you get
into stanford and your parents make less than 60k, you don't pay tuition at
all. The alternative is rationing which leaves just as many students out in
the cold but doesnt allow the school to capture extra rents.
So the other issue is inelastic supply. This is partially down to the
regulatory environment, but that isn't the whole picture. I haven't done
enough research to understand why there aren't more schools starting up. I
suspect it's an accreditation barrier to entry issue.
------
Greedy_Fools
It's just about stealing. All they're doing is is old fashioned theivery. Just
because they are allowed to, nobody can stop them. This country celebrates
theivery, and is willing to sacrifice the minds of generations to honor and
protect theives.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Silicon Valley Is Having a Meltdown Because It Can't Use Uber and Lyft at SXSW - Tiktaalik
http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2017/03/13/lack_of_uber_produces_elite_meltdown_at_sxsw.html
======
orliesaurus
Well the truth is, it's been rough for everyone in ATX when Uber and Lyft
bailed out. Then the new apps came and somewhat made it ok again. However the
unsung hero of the story is this "ghetto" Facebook group where drivers and
riders meet and request rides and pay one another with Venmo or cash! Oh - The
little gems of knowing ATX!
------
sreenadh
Why cannot the existing cab companies add an option to hail their cabs via an
app and actually compete with uber instead of playing politics?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Stanford on-line Data Mining Courses ($10k for a certificate) - zeratul
http://scpd.stanford.edu/ppc/iframes/dataMiningCourses.html
======
tryitnow
Nice try, but I've always been suspicious of "Certificates" even at top tier
schools. The best way to signal skills to potential employers is to gain
experience (either through employers or maybe through contributing to some
online collective endeavor).
As an employer I wouldn't want to pay people to go to school I pay them for
results. Show me.
I do like the fact that elite schools are offering online certificates, but
for $10K there has got to be a great value proposition.
I find the hard GPA requirement a little odd. So an MIT engineering alum with
a 3.4 GPA wouldn't be accepted, but a liberal arts grad from a third tier
school who happened to pass one probability and one linear algebra course,
would be accepted?
~~~
pavelkaroukin
Your approach (result-driven hiring) work well in small organization. In big
organization certificates simplifies and standardize hiring process.
I am not saying I support it, I am just saying this is being used and if
student aims to work for big company, he probably better invest into this
piece of paper.
~~~
raganwald
_In big organization certificates simplifies and standardize hiring process_
I agree 100%.
But let’s not forget that _simplification_ and _standardization_ are
orthogonal to _Results as measured by performance._ The trouble is,
simplification and standardization are how HR departments are measured,
whereas employee performance is how line managers are measured. Thus, the
companies most likely to emphasize these metrics will be the ones with HR
departments.
It’s not so much that big companies benefit, it’s that HR departments benefit
and big companies are the ones with HR departments.
------
webspiderus
having taken the 224W, 229, and 246 courses, I will say that they provide a
good introduction to a lot of the data mining algorithms (with 224w
emphasizing graph-based algorithms, 246 emphasizing things like decision trees
and association rules, and 229 emphasizing regression and SVMs).
however, the main issue for me is bridging the gap between completing those
courses and actually being able to apply the skills learned to real-world
problems. i hoped to do that with my internship this past summer, but it
proved to be more difficult than i thought, particularly without having much
guidance from anyone with similar specializations.
how much value does a certificate like this signal then? i feel like there's
not much it shows beyond commitment and a focused interest, since it seems to
me that the true test of anyone in data mining comes in the form of projects,
not classes.
~~~
softwaregravy
So, being someone in the market to hire someone with Data Mining and AI
skills, this: " i feel like there's not much it shows beyond commitment and a
focused interes" is very valuable. Obviously there are other ways that may be
cheaper, but this is not a bad way.
The other things I look for are evidence of raw smarts and a track record of
accomplishment, CS fundamentals, and, of course, personality. (Also, prefer
someone with a poor understanding of Football so that they don't upset me in
the fantasy league.)
~~~
wanorris
Well, if their data mining skills are good enough, they still might be a
threat in your fantasy league.
~~~
softwaregravy
touche
------
packetslave
Note that this isn't necessarily _just_ a certificate. You're able to earn
normal academic graduate credits, and in many cases, you can transfer up to 18
credits from SCPD into a Stanford master's program. It also looks quite good
on a grad school application.
------
eob
It's interesting to see the school simultaneously make a big push for free
educational content online while also expanding it's for-profit online reach.
~~~
rch
Online education isn't any more free to provide than anything else. And not
all courses will scale equally well either. For instance, would a data mining
course include several thousand cpu hours per student?
One would hope they are working towards a sustainable model for efficiently
allocating education services, and doing so will require reasonable fees for
some courses.
~~~
eob
Yes, you're right. I'm not criticizing their decision.
With the cost of a college education skyrocketing, and "open source" education
in its infancy, the moves and adaptations of the big players are just
interesting to watch, is all I meant.
I believe the next 10 years will birth new forms of socially-acceptable higher
education, which is a pretty big deal, since the system we have to day is
pretty ancient.
MIT, with it's strict "information should be free" policy. Stanford, with a
mixed bag approach. Harvard, with it's extension school. Johns Hopkins, with
it's satellite campuses in other countries.. The big schools are all trying
out different strategies to offer a variety of bundles for students looking
for education.
------
amandalim89
Stanford has a lot of free courses too (Eg: this one about databases:
<http://www.db-class.org/course/auth/welcome> ) and I think if one really
wants to learn for the sake of learning and enrichment rather than having an
official Stanford cert than these classes are good enough and you would not
have to spend a fortune.
~~~
wanorris
Likewise, ml-class.com is currently being offered and covers some of the
material under discussion.
~~~
DavidChouinard
There's quite a substantial difference between ml-class.com and the equivalent
CS 229 (Machine Learning). The former is much dumbed down, but still
informative.
This link gives you access to the current (2011) lecture as it's being taught,
if you're interested:
[http://171.64.93.201/ClassX/system/users/web/pg/view_subject...](http://171.64.93.201/ClassX/system/users/web/pg/view_subject.php?subject=CS229_FALL_2011_2012)
~~~
webspiderus
so, is ml-class.com then more comparable to the CS 229A class that is being
offered this year? I'm taking the latter, and was wondering how similar the
two are.
~~~
wanorris
It's referred to in the materials as 229A, so yes.
------
droithomme
To clear up what this is, looking at the actual program description, it's not
a class or a single course. It's an entire graduate program that takes 1-3
years to complete and the total tuition for the entire program is
$9900-$11700.
~~~
adestefan
It's not an entire graduate program. Instead you'll usually see this called a
post-graduate certificate program. It's a series of class that area all in the
same specific area (in this case 3) that at the end you'll have a signed piece
of paper from Stanford that says you took these classes and passed.
~~~
droithomme
Please note that I did not say it was a graduate degree, I said it was a
graduate program, which is what it is.
It is not a single class, it is a set of classes, with a core class, and a set
of electives. A graduate program and a graduate degree are not the same thing.
This is a graduate program.
~~~
astrec
Yes.
Typically there are 3 tiers of graduate program by coursework (certificate,
diploma, masters) and 2 tiers of graduate program by research (masters, Ph.D).
Universities may offer none or all of these programs under different names.
There is sometimes another tier by coursework called a "diploma for graduates"
which differs from a graduate diploma in that it is usually at the
undergraduate level, and very occasionally you see a Ph.D by coursework.
Stanford also offers professional certificates through SCPD which are entirely
distinct from their graduate program being targeted towards the continuing
education market.
------
ramblerman
I thought it said $10 not $10K. that was 15 minutes ago, I was reading through
all the courses getting genuinely excited :(
------
littlemerman
What are the differences between these two certificates?
They seem pretty similar to me.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Follow-up on "Linux server monitoring tools" - adionditsak
http://aarvik.dk/linux-monitoring-tools-suggestions-from-hacker-news/
======
wpietri
From the description of linux-dash:
> It is easily extensible from its architecture which just calls the php
> exec() function and sends it to an ajax request.
I presume the network police have already revoked somebody's license to run a
server, yeah?
~~~
adionditsak
I also believe that exec() is not dangerous if you use it right, and if your
www-data/apache-user do not got any sudo rights to risk someone to take
advantage of your machine. This have been proved from various sources, if i
know right. I understand it can be a security hole if you let the user write
anything, but this is eg. not the case with Linux-dash.
~~~
dijit
local shell is as good as root as far as I'm concerned.
especially if that machine is single purpose, which most of mine are.
------
zimbatm
Widening the net a bit but since you added network-connected monitoring, check
out sensu. It's backward-compatible with nagios plugins and handles cloud
systems very well (no need to restart the server every time a host is being
added/removed). It's also capable of extracting system metrics and forward
them to graphite/... . Really great tool.
And just for metrics, collectd is great too.
~~~
adionditsak
Nice zimbatm, i will definitely take a look at those :-) Sounds great with
Nagios + cloud systems integration.
------
nteon
I use [https://github.com/bpowers/psm](https://github.com/bpowers/psm) every
day at this point. Simple, fast and filterable memory reporting. disclaimer: I
also wrote it.
~~~
23arboo
I am using PSM quite frequently too. Thanks for the library.
------
kaivi
Is there a nice open-source solution for monitoring multiple servers? I don't
want a separate http daemon on every one of them, just so I can log in there
occasionally. It would be most helpful to have a separate server, which will
collect data and logs from all of my other machines, through a lightweight
network interface. SMS/E-mail notifications and a tray app for Mac won't hurt
either.
There is always AWS, but for my side projects, I prefer cheaper VPS.
~~~
lil_cain
More than you can shake a stick at.
For graphing: Munin, Cacti, Graphite, and ganglia are the normal options.
Graphite is the most powerful of these. It doesn't do any actual monitoring
though. Munin is the simplest to implement.
For general monitoring and alerting: Nagios (and its clones: Shinken, Icinga,
and Naemon) is the standard. There's also newer projects like reconnoiter
(which suffers from awful documentation, but looks like it could be really
nice), and Sensu (who's got quite a bit more documentation than reconnoiter,
and looks like it could be quite good). A reasonable number of people use
Zabbix as well - the main benefit of this seems to be a nice GUI for
management (but I've never used it, so take my comment with a pinch of salt).
Graphs (and almost anything you want) can generally be added to nagios and
clones if you're willing to do a little work. Reconnoiter seems to have graphs
out of the box. I don't know about zabbix or sensu.
There's more tools that you can use for log monitoring - I think that's a
whole separate area, but if you're interested, ping me and I can point you in
the direction of the right tools :-)
------
atmosx
I'm writing a ruby script to gather statistics from a Raspberry Pi. All the
projects I've seen so far rely on Perl/Python/PHP scripts which are executing
shell commands to extract informations every X minutes.
I wonder, isn't there some sort of API to access in Unix-based systems data
like CPU usage, memory usage, etc in a more natural way?
~~~
dsr_
Why, yes, there is.
Go run strace on ps or top and see what they call.
I'll save you some time: it turns out to be stat() and open() on things in
/proc.
------
rjzzleep
i know this is much easier to use, and arguably looks much better. but maybe
for more serious use maybe consider using munin [1] or cacti? [2]
[1] [http://munin-monitoring.org/](http://munin-monitoring.org/)
[2]
[http://cacti.net/screenshots.php?page=1](http://cacti.net/screenshots.php?page=1)
------
ergo14
We have plans to add (free) server monitoring to App Enlight. I would be more
than delighted for you guys to comment here:
[https://github.com/AppEnlight/main/issues/29](https://github.com/AppEnlight/main/issues/29)
and tell us what you would like to see.
------
nppc
Can Linux-Dash provide with a history of CPU load , memory etc or does it only
provide the current stats ?
~~~
adionditsak
Only current data. It is a very simple tool. If you clone it to your Web
server it should work already, if you want to test it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Helicos Machine Maps Professor’s Genome for $50,000 - jacquesm
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=alfGT.wYlQ4Q
======
JunkDNA
Headline is a tad misleading: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=755041>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Thriving in Information Systems Development/Consultancy - programminglisp
I work as developer for 13 years in IT/Business Consultancy and I feel stagnated in the field. I never liked this area, I was passionate in CG/AI when I took the degree but I ended working for consultancy like companies.<p>I have been doing tables and forms all my career, never been promoted to manager role.
Do you see any future in this area? Are the IT Consultant developers the new administrative employees? The new secretaries with the democratization of software development?<p>How do you thrive and keep motivated if you are working in this area?
And why business area development still need engineers when the patterns are all the same like form/tables/validation/database management cycle.
Is this area doomed to low wage due to skills necessary to perform the job?
======
programminglisp
It is not difficult to imagine a public servant writing some lines of code in
the end of the day, after doing administrative tasks.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: So is it easier to raise money than find a job? - citizenkeys
So I moved back to the Bay Area two years ago. Since then, I've been trying to either raise an angel round or find steady work. Every start-up claims they're hiring. In my experience, however, that's just not the case. During this same period of time, I've witnessed no shortage of half-baked ideas raise all sorts of money.<p>But I understand the business aspects of why raising money is easier. Hiring people means expenses for recruiting, training, payroll liabilities, and legal issues if the employee doesn't work out. Raising money on the other hand is much more straight-forward; investors cut a check and the exact risk is the potential of losing the investment.<p>So my question to all of you is: Can we just conclude that its easier to raise money than find a job?
======
throwaway1979
It does feel that way. I started interviewing recently (I'm an experienced
dev) and it feels like the interview process is screwed up across the board.
Back in the day, Microsoft used to have the most grilling process. A full day
with 5 interviews. These days, multiple rounds of phone interviews seem to be
table stakes.
Perhaps I should look for angel investment ... it can't be more annoying that
writing yet another linked list traversal ...
------
debacle
I know this sounds a bit uncouth, but maybe the problem is that you're not
good enough to work at many of the startups that are hiring?
The kind of ROI that a startup needs to get out of their first hires is
immense. They need people who could have been founders but are willing to work
as engineers. Many people may just not have that level of value.
~~~
lsc
I can understand why a good and experienced Engineer would become a founder of
a startup. I do not see why a good and experienced Engineer would become an
early employee of a startup, when they can get paid better and treated better
for less work at larger corporations. As an employee at a startup, you get
most of the downside, and very little of the upside that you would get as a
founder. Really? as an Employee, you are far better off with a larger company.
Most startups offer some token stock and below-market wages. As such, they are
competing, usually, for inexperienced Engineers.
------
omnivore
I'd suspect that there are lots of places in the country far less cool that
the Bay Area that would offer someone talented a job. It's just that they're
not in the Bay Area. Way easier to find a job than to get funding.
------
46Bit
Without a track record of success I'd question that it's that easy to raise
funding. It might help if you explained your experiences with startups that
are hiring.
~~~
citizenkeys
I said "easier", not "easy". In my experiences in attempting to find steady
work at start-ups, the founders are consistently so busy keeping things from
falling apart that it seems like they have attention deficit disorder. Also,
early stage start-ups frequently don't fully understand what jobs they need to
fill or why. Finally, most early-stage start-ups don't consistently have
enough money to pay full-time employees.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Hackers Are Finding Footage on Police Body Cams They Bought on eBay - jbegley
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/8895ek/hackers-are-finding-footage-on-police-body-cams-they-bought-on-ebay
======
crmrc114
If you want to skip the vice fluff- the HN thread on this with the source
tweets can be found here
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23724744](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23724744)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.