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Polly.IM: auto-suggests Twitter responses to local business customers - greattypo
http://thenextweb.com/apps/2011/07/12/polly-im-helps-businesses-engage-with-customers-on-twitter/
======
2arrs2ells
Hmm, I'm torn. On the one hand - this seems like a great use of NLP and
sentiment analysis, and I can see how this could be incredibly useful for
someone like a restaurant owner who can't monitor twitter 24/7. On the other
hand - I feel like this might be the beginning of the end of Twitter as a way
to talk to _real people_ \- who can do more than send out automated messages.
~~~
roger_lee
Thank you for your feedback. We will take it into consideration, [name].
------
samd
Twitter and Facebook give businesses the opportunity to _interact_ with their
customers. Using those channels as yet another way to talk _at_ customers is
wasting that opportunity. The best way for local businesses to use Twitter is
to actually use Twitter. Log in, respond to messages, join the conversation,
act like a real person and connect with your customers.
Polly.IM may be a useful tool if you're already engaged on Twitter, but if you
rely on automated responses to drive your "interactive" marketing you're doing
it wrong.
~~~
iamvictorious
Polly.IM right now requires you to have a Twitter account and so most current
users are already engaging with Twitter. From our surveys and discussions with
our trial users, they all nonetheless feel like they could use some help in
categorizing tweets and helping with very routine stuff like distributing a
promotion to new followers. At the end of the day, many local businesses have
1 person running their twitter account and that person generally is the owner
who doubles as marketing if not everything else. Compare that situation to
American Airlines which can hire 10 or 20 social media managers and you
realize quickly why these folks could use some help organizing responses and
conversations with customers.
------
greattypo
This is a side project by my company, PaperG, which is intended to help small
businesses. Most SMBs we work with try to manage social accounts, but quickly
get burned out trying to keep up and leave them dormant.
Polly.IM helps automate routine things (thanking new followers with coupons,
responding to check-ins, etc). It also helps identify and and suggest
responses to other things like compliments, complaints, suggestions, etc.
using our sentiment analysis tech.
Would welcome any feedback or suggestions from HN!
~~~
jmjerlecki
I think a nice touch would be to auto follow or make it a selection that users
can toggle on or off. Let's say someone tweets at my business, I think it adds
a nice touch if the business auto follows the user who took the time to tweet
about me.
~~~
iamvictorious
that's a great idea. we wanted to release a minimal viable product first to
get feedback and ideas for new features. our beta actually already yielded a
lot of helpful suggestions like allowing manual approval/editing as well as
enabling auto-generated coupons for new followers.
we definitely will allow more granular control going forward.
------
kml
Looks like an awesome tool to help small businesses make sense of the
Twitterverse
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
iOS 14 turns volume down if it is set to "loud" for too long - tosh
https://twitter.com/steipete/status/1306884214252613632
======
nickysielicki
That's pretty stupid. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the device presumably has
no idea what the impedance of the sink is, or what the sink even is. AUX port
on your car that requires max volume out of your iPhone to have reasonable
dynamic range? Doesn't matter. Audiophile high-impedance headphones that need
a bit more oomph to be usable? Doesn't matter.
The angle on this tweet annoys me quite a bit, though.
> Here‘s my reason to jailbreak as soon as one is out. Do I own my iPhone or
> does it own me? #patronage
Really? We're going to assign blame to the closed ecosystem here? Really? I
love FOSS as much as anyone but the screenshot attached to the tweet shows
clearly where the blame should go:
> In certain regions, these notifications cannot be turned off due to
> regulations and safety standards.
The problem is Big Brother government, the bureaucrats who think that they
need to impose on your life to improve your life, and the people who vote them
into office and keep them there. Apple is just doing what they're legally
required to do.
~~~
Wowfunhappy
> That's pretty stupid. The device has no idea what the impedance of the sink
> is, or what the sink even is. AUX port on your car that requires max volume
> out of your iPhone to have reasonable dynamic range? Doesn't matter.
> Audiophile high-impedance headphones that need a bit more oomph to be
> usable? Doesn't matter.
Hmm, if this can be turned off in Settings (can it?), I think it's still a
sensible default. Most people aren't using high-impedance headphones, and this
little nudge could potentially save the hearing of a lot of people!
~~~
nickysielicki
Going off the screenshot, I don't think it can.
> In certain regions, these notifications cannot be turned off due to
> regulations and safety standards.
~~~
johnisgood
Someone who uses it told me that it can be disabled. Notifications are just
notifications, that is fine if displayed only once when going above the
threshold, but changing the volume is not OK.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Inside the adult ADHD brain - mikevm
http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2014/inside-adult-adhd-brain-0610
======
atemerev
I have been diagnosed with ADD about 6 months ago (of course, I knew it for
much longer time, but adult ADD only recently started to be recognized in
Switzerland, where I live). I started taking Ritalin immediately after. Here
are my observations:
— The first day on Ritalin, you feel like you have superpowers. You are cold,
calm, Spock-like, having laser-like focus. Unfortunately, brain adapt to this
new state quickly.
— Later, you return to your baseline, but something changed. You can now
actually learn things that you read in these countless self-help books while
trying to understand what's wrong with you. Meditation? It works now! (Before
treatment, I couldn't sit still for 2 minutes). GTD? Sure! It doesn't come
naturally, you have to work to learn hundreds of things that were obvious for
non-ADD kids, but now you can.
— You'll keep your insatiable curiosity and desire for new things. Otherwise,
I wouldn't agree to the treatment.
If you have any more questions, I'll happily answer them.
~~~
hoggle
I've also just been diagnosed at age 30 (constantly been labeled "lazy" /
"dreaming" when I was younger - you believe it after a while - ADHD diagnosis
still seems to be something novel here in Austria as well).
What you write really gives me hope, for now my neurologist put me on
Wellbutrin mainly to treat my depression but he said he really wants me to try
Ritalin soon.
I'm one of those people who rather meditates and works out regularly than to
take any drugs - I don't like to mess with my brain - but I'm so fed up with
my ADHD and the Wellbutrin alone already helps not only with overcoming my
fail(ed-potential) derived neurosis but also a little with focus.
Do you feel as if Ritalin might help with getting to where the ADHD recovery
group managed to get themselves even when not on Ritalin? "Plasticity of the
brain" yadda yadda...
~~~
jamesbritt
I was on Wellbutrin as part of my treatment for depression. What's interesting
is that Wellburtrin is dopamine reuptake inhibitor while Ritalin and Adderall
stimulate (or mimic; I can't find a decent reference right now) the production
of dopamine.
_I 'm one of those people who rather meditates and works out regularly than
to take any drugs - I don't like to mess with my brain_
Something to consider is that your brain is already messed with, so the use of
drugs might be needed to un-mess it. But it's kind of a black art. You need to
try things and see what works for you.
I had been on assorted antidepressants and stimulants for a number of years
and it really helped to a) read up on neuropharmacology and b) have doctors
who would listen to my suggestions about what drugs to try and why I wanted to
try them. For example, it's handy to know if you respond better to drugs that
focus more on dopamine than, say, serotonin.
(The reality is that no mind-altering drug is so cut-and-dry and completely
understood, so you end up being a lab rat in your own life experiment.)
~~~
mikevm
> What's interesting is that Wellburtrin is dopamine reuptake inhibitor while
> Ritalin and Adderall stimulate (or mimic; I can't find a decent reference
> right now) the production of dopamine.
Both Ritalin and Adderall are dopamine reuptake inhibitors. I believe that
Adderall also stimulates the production of dopamine, in addition to the
reuptake inhibition.
~~~
neurostract
> Both Ritalin and Adderall are dopamine reuptake inhibitors.
Methylphendiate (Ritalin) is a dopamine reuptake inhibitor, to be certain: it
binds to and blocks both dopamine and norepinephrine reputake inhibitors. It's
thought to increase neuron firing rate, but that mechanism of action is
unknown.
Adderal, however, is a mixture of dextroamphetamine and levoamphetamine salts.
They stop reuptake of the two monoamines not by blocking the transports, but
by _reversing their action_. Instead of taking up dopamine and norepinephrine,
they _pump it out_. It also stimulates the release of the monoamines from the
synaptic vesicles into the intracellular membrane.
Ritalin causes dopamine and norepinephrine to stick around longer, making
their action last longer. It's like closing a drain half way with the faucet
on medium: the water level rises more than typical, but no higher.
Adderal causes them to flood the intracellular fluid. It's like turning the
faucet on while flood waters are coming up the drain pipe.
------
davidu
It seems important to note that this was a study of 35 people.
35.
That seems like a surprisingly low number from which to draw broad conclusions
of brain activity for adults diagnosed with ADHD when they were children.
~~~
saosebastiao
It definitely feels that way to me too, but I've been told by a neuroscience
researcher that a lot of neuroscience research is done with small sample
sizes. She even showed me one of her journals, and I didn't find a single
paper that had more than 50 participants.
~~~
angersock
...which makes you wonder about the quality of medicinal and health research
as a whole.
~~~
mreiland
Mathematically, 10 is generally considered enough to make broad conclusions,
more is always better though. OTOH, that assumes a fairly uniform random
sampling. The reason more is better is because it helps leverage against the
non-uniform random sampling.
~~~
Loughla
I honestly don't understand how 10 people is a large enough sample to make
broad conclusions about health and medicine for 7 billion people. Can you
please explain the statistics behind that?
~~~
nerfhammer
If you hypothesize that the odds of a coin flipping heads is 50% and you get
heads 9 out of 10 times, the odds of getting that result if the odds were
really 50% is like 1/500\. You should be pretty confident that if you were the
flip the coin billions of times you wouldn't get close to 50% heads based on
looking at 10 samples.
~~~
scott_karana
Do you not think selection bias could be a major factor?
Hypothetically, if this study was undertaken in small-town Wisconsin, and
genetic factors could even _remotely_ be involved, the samples wouldn't be
representative in the slightest for most genes in the world.
~~~
mreiland
It absolutely is a factor, which is why I cautioned about a uniform, random
sampling. Selection bias implies non-uniformity, and 10, 100, or 1000 samples
won't fix selection bias since it is, by definition, non-uniform across the
intended subjects.
It's good that you question it, it should always be one of the first questions
asked when looking at these sorts of statistics.
I was just pointing out that the number 35, by itself, is plenty to justify a
conclusion, and because perfect uniformity is not completely possible, more
tends to be better. If the conclusion is faulty, it isn't typically due to the
sample size of 35 being too low.
------
BillyParadise
This makes me wonder if those who "outgrow" ADD/ADHD ever actually had it in
the first place. Why would brain chemistry change?
(I was only diagnosed with ADD at 40)
~~~
mikevm
The study found that even those that "outgrew" ADHD still had one thing in
common with those that still do have ADHD, and that's impairment in executive
function.
The thing is, ADHD seems to be a catch-all diagnosis for people having
attention problems, and yet there might be multiple conditions that give rise
to symptoms similar to classic ADHD. Consider SCT[0] for example. I know that
Russell A. Barkley, who is a leading ADHD researcher tends to believe that
"real" ADHD is the one that begins with hyperactivity symptoms in childhood
(children diagnosed with the hyperactive-impulsive subtype), and those that
don't have those symptoms (diagnosed with the primarily-inattentive subtype)
have a condition called SCT, which is separate from ADHD.
[0]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sluggish_cognitive_tempo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sluggish_cognitive_tempo)
~~~
malexw
Thanks for posting this. I had never heard of SCT before and this has given me
a lot to think about.
------
afarrell
I'm curious if this has use as a diagnostic tool to help those who have a
really hard time with executive functions but are unsure if they have ADHD.
~~~
jacques_chester
Not likely. MRI machines cost millions of dollars and there are higher-
priority diagnostic needs.
The study does seem to correlate with the existing diagnostic criteria.
~~~
hoggle
I wonder what it would take for MRI machines to become commoditized?
What if it were normal to have diagnostics like tumor detection at a very
early stage made possible by your bed = MRI machine in disguise.
Something like that would be phenomenal - daily diagnostics and now and then
introspection plus treatment for things like the mentioned executive function
impairment.
~~~
kaybe
Higher temperature super conductors and advances in technologies I guess. The
machines are cooled with liquid helium which is expensive and requires a lot
of additional tech. If you can live with a lower signal-to-noise ratio you can
have lower magnetic field strength and you can maybe use liquid nitrogen.
Still not stuff you want to have at home in significant amounts.
Additionally you need a very homogenious magnetic field. This is accomplished
by rotating the field very fast by rotating the reels (part of why the
machines are so loud). If we find another way to fix this or find a way to
deal with it (possibly a supercomputer with supersoftware) cost and size might
go down. But this was the best solution available which indicates the size of
the problem.
------
neurostract
[throwaway, because I still don't feel comfortable attaching my ADHD to my
online and real life persona]
It's been a long road to medication for me.
I was sexually assaulted as a child. My parents divorced when I was a
fourteen. I spent three weeks over christmas in a mental hospital with an
incorrect bipolar diagnosis when I was fifteen. I basically ran away from home
seven years later when I moved to where I am now.
Things were tough the first year. They got better after that, but over time my
addictions took their toll. I struggled with alcohol abuse, tobacco addiction
and constant marijuana use -- and a pervasive question of, "where did all my
money go?"
My professional life suffered for years. The first few months on a job I would
do extraordinarily well. But things would slide. I'd end up reading HN,
reddit, digg, tumblr instead of working.
I'm lucky at my current position: I've been here for over four years now; I've
made it through two buyouts of the company and one CEO resignation.
It's the longest time I've ever spent at a single job.
A year and six months ago I moved in with a person who I'd always thought was
my best friend. I didn't know that I'd end up co-dependently (financial,
emotional, et cetera) supporting their own addictions. They couldn't remember
entire conversations we had only a day later. I took a long look in the mirror
and started to see the negative aspects addiction in my own life. My room was
never clean. I had clean clothes maybe four times a year when I got off my ass
to bring them to the laundry room (in the basement of the apartment building
-- a quick elevator ride away). I wasn't brushing my teeth regularly. I could
barely get to work on time, and I spent all my free time drunk, stoned or both
-- and binging on netflix and hulu and porn. I had dozens of empty beer
bottles lining my desk, the floor... and I constantly complained that I didn't
have the time to work on the things I spent all my time dreaming about.
I started seeing a therapist. I moved out soon after, into my own place with
my own lease.
Four months after moving out, I was still binging occasionally but not eight
bottles of beer a day. Not smoking (either tobacco or marijuana, but holding
onto my e-cig like a safety blanket). But my place was a mess. There were
boxes from the move that I hadn't unpacked yet. There were other boxes that
were flattened but not taken out. Recycling was everywhere. Dishes were piled
in the sink. My clothes hadn't been laundered in two months. I spent my free
time distracted by TV, distracted by books, distracted by computer games,
distracted by anything I could get myself distracted by -- if only to escape
from the shithole I called my apartment (in fact, it's quite a nice place). My
therapist was concerned because I seemed to lack an 'inner parent.' I just
passively was, instead of actively be.
Even when I was watching TV, or reading, or listlessly listening to music, I
wasn't actively involved - my mind was elsewhere. I had a thousand trains of
thought in my head, and nobody minding the switch. It was as if my brain was a
room lined with televisions, each of them changing channels at random with the
volume turned to 11.
I made an appointment with a psychiatrist, and was quickly diagnosed ADHD and
put on Adderal. I was rather surprised, considering its potential for abuse
and my history with alcohol and other drug abuse.
Over two weeks my dose was increased from 5mg a day to 25mg a day (15 in the
morning, 10 in the afternoon). More than that and I felt too jittery.
All of a sudden it was like I had control over the remote control for that
wall of televisions. I could choose to turn them all off and focus in on one,
and even modulate its volume.
I could notice when I was getting distracted, and refocus myself. I was able
to introspect without falling into a spiral of self doubt, self pity, and self
loathing.
I don't binge anymore. I now realize that alcohol binging was self-medication
- it was a way to dull my mind enough that it wasn't buzzing with
overactivity. The last time I tried marijuana, I realized what it actually did
was the precise opposite of what my Adderal did. Now that I know what it's
like to actually be able to concentrate on something, I have no desire to use
a drug that absolutely obliterates my ability to concentrate.
I still struggle with the urge to drink heavily, but am actually able to have
only one or two beers with a nice dinner out on Saturdays. Booze on weeknights
is a big no-no. I have a very strict schedule I stick to after work, because
if I stray from it I have an extraordinarily difficult time sleeping. I miss
my drinking buddies, but I also feel the desire for friendships that are more
than planting your ass on a stool and getting shitfaced together. My nicotine
intake is down from 72mg/day to 36mg/day. By new years, I will be nicotine
free. Marijuana use is nil.
I was diagnosed ADHD at age 29.5. I have years of therapy ahead of me. I
struggle with disappointment with my family for not seeing it and helping me.
I struggle with disappointment in myself for not being stronger.
It may be overdiagnosed in some children, but it can also be underdiagnosed.
And the impact of not knowing what the hell is wrong with you is more
devastating than anything I can think of.
~~~
norova
Wow. I actually have a new patient/establishment doctor's appointment on June
18th to speak with a physician about my lack of ability to focus on tasks and
whatnot for more than a few minutes. Reading your post describes me very, very
well with the exception of the cleanliness portion.
I am constantly tapping my toes or fingers, biting my nails, clicking my teeth
to the beat of a song stuck in my head, etc. My knees even get sore from
tapping my foot/shaking my leg while driving in the car. I've been wondering
for some time if I suffered from ADHD but didn't want to self-diagnose, and I
was too lazy to look for a doctor. Finally set the appointment two months ago
and I am ecstatic about finally speaking to someone about it.
One thing that really struck a chord with me was your description of alcohol
consumption. Some of the the best stretches of productivity in my life have
been when I was holding a buzz after two beers, or the week I was taking
Vicodin for a wrist injury. It's like they calm my brain down enough to let me
get things done.
I also feel like many people just shirk it off as me being lazy about doing
things. Want to study for that certification you've been talking about? Just
sit down and do it; turn off the distractions and get to work! It isn't that
easy, yet I feel guilty when people think of it that way, even though I know
there's more to it.
Thank you for sharing your experiences, it has given me some hope that I might
be able to get some help with this.
~~~
neurostract
You're welcome. Good luck! Seeking professional help was a very difficult step
for me. It meant facing a lot of things about myself that I really didn't want
to.
Please keep in mind that if you are diagnosed ADHD: medication, if directed,
is only one part of living with it! A comprehensive treatment plan is
absolutely necessary. You can't just pill it away. A lot of my treatment so
far has been forming healthier organization habits, especially around time
use. I had the plan before I started the medication, but I felt like my
transmission was stuck in neutral. For me, at least, the medication a
facilitator for the cure, not the cure in and of itself.
------
callesgg
What is the definition of recovered. Does it mean that a recovered person is
no longer has the symptoms or that they are really good at suppressing them.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Philip Greenspun's take on Women in Science - apu
http://philip.greenspun.com/careers/women-in-science
======
mhartl
I agree with Philip's basic observation that scientific careers are overrated,
but a lot of his arguments would appear work against academic careers in
general. The "scientific careers suck but men are irrational" hypothesis
doesn't explain why there are so few women in mathematics and chemistry vs.
history or English literature, or indeed why there's so much variation
_within_ science, with plenty of female biologists but very few female
theoretical physicists.
~~~
geebee
That's a good point. The large number of women pursuing Ph.Ds in English
literature and Bio does tend to undercut the argument that women are avoiding
Ph.D's in math and hard science because they are more rational.
That said, we do need to distinguish between fields. Phil argues that
"Adjusted for IQ, quantitative skills, and working hours, jobs in science are
the lowest paid in the United States." Would you make the same statement for
jobs in literature? Are Lit professors as capable of pursuing these highly
paid alternative career paths as the Math/Hard Sci/Engineering Ph.D's? It's a
highly contentious question, I know.
I'd say that most lit Ph.D's probably don't have strong quant skills, nor do
they have much of a science background. So they clearly are not choosing lit
over a career in high finance or medicine. However, law is probably an option,
so the women who pursue a lit Ph.D may be exhibiting at least some of the
"irrationality" that the men are.
I guess it comes down to how you feel about the Science Ph.D vs Medicine,
Finance or Law relative to the Humanities Ph.D vs Law only. If the situations
are analagous (which is open to debate), I'd say you've uncovered a major flaw
in Greenspun's "men are more irrational" argument.
~~~
DocSavage
Medicine is not what I'd call a "quant" field, and I bet lit Ph.D.'s have
precisely the skills necessary - focus, attention to detail, ability to
memorize large amounts of knowledge, and good reasoning. So women who get lit
PhD's probably could go to med school.
I think Greenspun is off the mark on his reasons why people choose science,
literature, or any relatively low-paying field. They get compensation in other
ways, like being able to use their mind in creative ways. I consciously choose
not to continue in Medicine because it's boring to me compared to building
things. I've traded money and stability for more chaos and the ability to work
more on my terms. If you talk to docs, you'll get another set of complaints --
malpractice insurance, hours (for some), paperwork.
------
naish
This article should give everyone pause for thought--women and men. It is a
little disheartening to think that I went into engineering as a path to
medicine (with better security and compensation) and got sidetracked by
interesting work. As a tenure-track professor with an itch to pursue a
startup, I am wondering if I should start scratching. If only there wasn't a
family in the equation...
~~~
geebee
As a professor, you're probably in a pretty good position to start a family.
As a professor, you're probably going to have to give the university a big cut
of whatever benefit you generate, but at the same time, you probably have more
freedom and autonomy than most. Plus, you have a steady salary. On the down
side, I don't know how hard you're working to get tenure - maybe too hard to
launch a meaningful effort at a startup.
I read that at Stanford, it's pretty common for a CS professor to have started
a company, almost a rite of passage. So maybe this would work out for you...
------
bdr
Here's another response to the Larry Summers incident.
Why are there more men than women in mechanical engineering? Elizabeth Spelke
debates Steven Pinker:
<http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/debate05/debate05_index.html>
(watch the whole video, it's brilliant)
------
dhbradshaw
People who think they can't have children or get married are cheating
themselves. You don't have to make 150k per year to have more than you need.
We had our first child when I was an undergrad and my wife was working. My
wife quit working and I graduated so that I could be paid to go to school
rather than the other way around. We bought a cute little home on a graduate
stipend and had another child. I graduated with a masters degree and worked
for a year and we had another child.
I started my PhD a bit over 4 years ago and we have had two children since
then, bringing the total up to 5. We have always had more than we need and our
children are doing great. I'll graduate in a couple of years, perhaps after
having a couple more kids and I think we'll have substantial savings. My wife
has never had to work and we have never relied on the state for health care or
income.
Graduate school demands some focus but it is also extremely flexible. I choose
my schedule and it's been a great life.
The bottom line is that it doesn't cost that much to live comfortably and take
care of children. Choose what you want to do and then find a way to do it.
It might be wise, though, to look at home prices near the schools that you
apply to . . .
~~~
Agathos
Where did you buy this cute little home on a graduate stipend? There are
certainly some places where you can. I heard from several students who did
this when I visited Wash. U. in St. Louis.
But I ended up in Cambridge, and here there's just no way.
~~~
dhbradshaw
Baltimore. Biophysics.
------
mynameishere
Women don't go into science because the behavior of inanimate objects doesn't
interest them.
~~~
pythondude
This was downmoded? wtf. My girlfriend does a Phd in relationship therapy and
she says that it is interesting to her because it has both and emotional
component and an analytical component. For me anything to do with emotions is
a no no. Women are into those areas because they need something more than what
the hard sciences has to offer not because they have less to bring to the
table.
------
ivankirigin
Science jobs are often the most free.
| {
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Are We Remembering the Future? - Elof
https://medium.com/@duncanr/are-we-remembering-the-future-cfedc3270948
======
jerf
"The time axis is like any other axis."
No it's not. In the Minkowski metric used by many things such as relativity,
distances are defined as SQRT(dx^2 + dy^2 + dz^2 - dt^2). That minus sign is
fundamental, and means that the time axis is in fact different, in the ways we
observe. If "time" was in fact an axis like any other, it would fundamentally
_be_ a fourth spatial dimension.
Unfortunately for the author, given that literally the entire rest of the post
fundamentally depends on that misconception, there's not much left of the post
once you fix that. There's a variety of other related statements that are
simply incorrect understandings of modern physics as well, but all are
secondary consequences of the mistaken belief that time is just another
undistinguished dimension that is somehow treated differently due to some sort
of dimensional chauvinism or something. It isn't; it's fundamentally a
different type of dimension.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Pongderdome – Multiplayer Pong for 2-10 Players - jscottmiller
https://www.1dash1.com/users/jscottmiller/games/Pongderdome
======
tmoullet
Hey, this is pretty cool!
A few suggestions; feel free to take or leave them:
-The playing area zooming towards the ball was really distracting and made playing difficult
-Create a ball speed setting or easy/med/hard
-Add mouse control. The CL/CCL arrows can be counter intuitive
-Give each player a different colored/textured paddle. I lost track of mine a few times.
Other than that, well done!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Samsung’s Bizarre Emojis - coldtea
https://hackernoon.com/samsungs-bizarre-emojis-6be568a3b7d9
======
chch
I'm surprised the article doesn't mention my favorite, the simple Cookie:
[https://emojipedia.org/cookie/](https://emojipedia.org/cookie/)
Everyone decided cookies are probably chocolate chip cookies, except Samsung,
who apparently got confused during the process...
------
gumby
Is there a Korean cultural bias in the choice? The iOS emojis (I'm an iOS user
so I"m speaking generally, and not from this article) remind me very closely
to the DoCoMo emoji I had in Japan in the 1990s.
~~~
duskwuff
Entirely possible. Emojipedia has previously noted that the Samsung Galaxy
Note 7 was missing the emoji for "Map of Japan", "Crossed Flags" (which is
typically depicted as a pair of Japanese flags), and "Chart Increasing With
Yen".
[http://blog.emojipedia.org/samsung-puts-japan-back-on-the-
ma...](http://blog.emojipedia.org/samsung-puts-japan-back-on-the-map/)
------
mort96
Why is there an annoying "open in app" button covering the content? it's just
text and pictures, my web browser handles that just fine. If I want to open it
in an app, I can open it in pocket.
~~~
brainfire
It's hosted on Medium and that's the app it's talking about. I still don't
know why anyone would do that though.
I was confused by this a while back on the Slack engineering blog - "why would
I want to open this in Slack??"
------
wand3r
Those are terrible. The grimace one wasn't terrible; so I thought, "hmm, this
is likely the worst of what is a totally trivial problem". The problem is
trivial but it went _down hill_ quality wise. I would say honestly, a new user
or user of any platform other than Samsung is going to have some awkward and
confusing exchanges.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
World's Simplest Note App: Atomic Note - mtufekyapan
www.atomicnote.co
Hello everyone,<p>I build a beta version of my product. I want to build a note app which focus on simplicity. What you think about it? What feature should be build on it?
======
schrodingersCat
After using your app for a few days, Here's what I found:
Pros: -The notes section loads immediately, before all other elements.
-Note updates are almost instant.
-Site feels responsive on mobile.
Cons: -Background image is large and takes a while to load on any device.
Image is also busy looking.
-The ability to re-size the note pane is nice on my desktop by _horrible_ on my tablet. One mis-swype later and I lost the margins of my notebook. Perhaps consider using a device detection scheme and disabling this feature on mobile.
-Lack of a _settings_ page is annoying. I want to be able to change my password and email associated with my account. The inability to reset a password is also problematic.
-The UI is inconsistent. Once you have the back-end figured out, perhaps consider bringing in a designer (this is _minor_ IMO; keep up your focus on the responsive UI).
Keep up the good work. Can't wait to see your product mature.
------
zzzzz_
I tried to login without giving my Facebook / Google details and I got an
error dump which includes your database url amongst other information.
Also why isn't there an option just to write without having to login (doesn't
that add to the complexity of the app?)
~~~
mtufekyapan
Hello,
I fix the error page.
I think about just writing notes but in the case of with out of user login the
notes can't saving.
And if you want to just write, close and everything be deleted, some chrome
web app can do this. So i don't think about that.
------
schrodingersCat
Seems pretty nice so far. The first thing(s) that come to mind are: 1) The
ability to make multiple notes 2) The ability to tag notes 3) The ability to
search said notes
Is the site optimized for a particular platform? Best of luck to you.
~~~
mtufekyapan
Thank you for nice comments.
I think about much about multiple notes. I have to solve how can i make this
is the "simplest". For now, i can't find a way to make it.
tag and search also so important and make it to after multiple notes.
For now it is responsive but i'll improve mobile ui. Now, there is some issue
for mobile devices.
~~~
schrodingersCat
The reason I see the wonky errors is because DEBUG = True in your Django
settings file
~~~
mtufekyapan
Thank you so much. I fix this.
------
dbartolomei
Verify your DNS provider settings. When going to
[http://atomicnote.co](http://atomicnote.co) you land at GoDaddy parking page.
~~~
mtufekyapan
This is so important. I forgot it. Thank you..
------
gumusayburak
Thanks for everyone! AtomicNote reach first one hundred users! We got a lot of
helpful feedback and exciting to building world's simplest note app!
------
davit
Your background image is so big. I am connecting to internet with my mobile
phone and it seems unfriendly. You should optimize background image.
~~~
mtufekyapan
This is also important. I want to make different theme for mobile user. Thank
you for feed-back.
------
jathu
funny thing is, i was working on a simple note taking app too. just for fun of
course, but i guess this makes us competitors aha ;). i'll see if i can post
something within a few days.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Last McDonalds in Iceland - ThisIsSavo
https://snotrahouse.com/last-mcdonalds/
======
aszantu
They say a country will sink into chaos when McDonald's leaves xD
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google Play and App Store: statistics, trends, sales and top publishers - mark01
http://www.ihelplounge.com/google-play-and-app-store-statistics-trends-sales-and-top-publishers/
======
chaghalibaghali
Interesting article, I recently posted a few stats about a moderately
successful app of mine on the Google Play Store. It anecdotally verifies what
OP's article is saying about the rapid growth of Android sales:
<http://thomshutt.com/thoughts/ukbirds.html>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Yondr – Create phone-free spaces and venues - nkrisc
http://overyondr.com/
======
colept
This reminds me of those grocery store carts that lock automatically when
taken off the lot - and then the ones that malfunction and get stuck locked.
What about the hazard of emergency situations: fires in crowded places, heart
attacks - you really want your phone wrapped in a Yondr when there's a chance
that every second could be fatal.
~~~
nkrisc
I had the same thought: how exactly do these cases work and how do they
account for an emergency?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Justin.tv Signs Deal With Fox, Gets Serious About Copyright Problems - NathanielMc1
http://www.businessinsider.com/justintv-signs-deal-with-fox-gets-serious-about-copyright-problems-2009-8
======
naz
I imagine their compete.com graph will look like scribd's after they kill
their live sports traffic
~~~
paul9290
Ways to gain traction in the consumer market...
1\. Use copyrighted content that is highly sought after. 2\. Buy traffic, make
it look like ur site is exploding 3\. With suspect growth sign partnerships
w/copyright
Worked well for youtube though don't think they had to buy traffic 1 and 3
worked really well for them.
Note: not trying to be negative here, just reviewing/studying the rise of
various start-ups. How they got to be successful!
~~~
startingup
Exactly the same way I have felt about both Scribd and Justin.tv.
Here is another "algorithm" to gain traction, last seen at Ning: 1) allow
adult content - in their case adult oriented social networks 2) gain traction,
3) jettison the adult content to clean up your image.
At least this second algorithm has no legal issues, but third party
copyrighted content, I have serious legal/ethical issues with.
I have never understood why Y Combinator never saw that as a problem.
~~~
paul9290
Because it worked for Youtube and some others and it's the way to success and
a sale. Just following what others have done - thank god for the DMCA!
------
wmf
What a deal; in exchange for implementing expensive filtering Fox will allow
them to exist.
------
zzz
i wish there was a website i could go to and stream every free cable channel
at $1/hour. i don't have a tv, but use justin.tv/ustream to watch some sports
events...
------
sjs382
I've never understood why broadcasters were against this for live television.
The ads are rebroadcast along with the content, after all.
I guess theres the issue that they can't gather statistics on this audience,
but still... Shouldn't this type of behavior (rebroadcasting) benefit the
advertisers? It's mostly brand-related advertising, after all. And most of
these brands exist outside the states...
~~~
utnick
You are forgetting cable and satellite tv companies. They are going to be mad
if you can stream their channels for free without paying the monthly fee.
Also the ads you see in california are different than the ads you see in
texas.
~~~
sjs382
I was specific about live television. To be more clear, i meant live events
like sports. When watching sports on TV, 95% (okay, completely made up figure)
of the advertising is branding-related. Think Toyota, Chevy, McDonalds.
Internet rebroadcasting would benefit these brands as long as the video isnt
republished alongside objectionable content...
------
zdwalter
we are helping on the copyright content
------
numbchuckskills
headline should read: Justin.tv Signs Deal With Fox, Gets Serious about
Catering to the 64 People in the World Who Liveblog.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
MINIX 3: a Modular, Self-Healing Posix-compatible Operating System - thirsteh
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx3KuE7UjGA?2
======
thirsteh
The video is from 2010, but it provides an accurate introduction to MINIX 3.x
by Andrew Tanenbaum himself. Version 3.2 was just released:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5272980>
Original post: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1494386>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google Express Is Now Free - bhartzer
http://www.elischwartz.co/google-express-now-free/
======
nikolay
I read this as "Google Express is dead." I paid for the membership but never
used it as it was sub par compared to Amazon Fresh, Amazon Prime Now, and
Instacart.
------
51Cards
Looking forward to this coming to Canada.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Disqus 3 Preview - simanyay
http://disqus.com/v3/
======
pclark
Whoa, that was annoying.
the retweet thing is daft. the music annoying. the text flying in actually
hurts your eyes. you didn't explain any _new_ features. "a revamped comment
system"? seriously?
Just give a screenshot with a few annotated labels. And next week isn't long
enough for me to care.
I should add that I really really love Disqus, one of my favourite startups.
Just a lame video. sorry. :/
~~~
danielha
I'm not sure what song that is that made it in, but the last draft I saw had
Danger Zone from Top Gun. Easily my first choice. :)
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1a_ikfUico>
~~~
AndrewWarner
Daniel, really looking forward to the upgrade. Could you list some of the new
features and improvements?
------
thingie
Fail, fail. Nothing there explains what Disqus is, or is supposed to be, it
very rudely suggets me that I should twitter about it (before I really saw
anything and have any idea what Disqus is), and then it doesn't even bother to
tell me that I need flash player to see that advert (of something, what? I
don't know.)
~~~
jseifer
Yeah, I love Disqus but that retweet thing was in poor taste.
------
oneplusone
What a bad choice in music. They would have been better off with no music at
all. It doesn't help that the video doesn't actually show you anything.
------
zitterbewegung
I wish they went into more detail about some of the 50 new features. Also, an
interesting way to get twitter buzz. The site will retweet the preview site if
you hit the top link.
~~~
unalone
That was a pain in the ass. Popping up a new window that comes up over the
video that starts playing made me miss the opening of the video.
------
pssdbt
How about a simple changelog instead? Sure seemed like more of an announcement
that they have a marketing department. Still looking forward to the release,
haven't used Disqus before and will likely be implementing it in an upcoming
project.
------
comice
so this is just an annoying advert? How on earth did it make it so high up HN?
Ugh.
~~~
zackattack
They are a YC-Funded startup.
------
movix
Failvert
------
hackworth
that new logo is a no-go. i would not want that on my site.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How to help non-technical designers work with CSS? - oblomovshchina
One of my coworkers is a graphic designer/illustrator kind of guy. He knows colors and how to draw and how to make things look neat and ordered, but he lacks an explicit understanding of UX and the technical knowledge to work with CSS. Lately, he has expressed an interest in wanting to help me with the styling of websites, which I would welcome, since I am not a visual person.<p>I would be grateful if you guys could recommend some resources (books, websites, etc) that I could give my designer friend to help him get started with understanding CSS and understand UX/UI patterns.<p>Maybe even a WYSIWYG app he could use while we transition him to directly dealing with the css files. I'm looking for a kind of friendlier Chrome DevTools he could fire up, not something like Dreamweave.<p>Thanks.
======
Nilef
A really good way (for me anyway) was to start by using a tool like
Webflow.com - It's visually designing websites, but using proper CSS concepts
(flexbox, margin, padding etc.) - and so teaches the building blocks at a very
accessible and productive level
~~~
oblomovshchina
Thank you. This is more or less perfect for my purposes.
------
0bit
“CSS In Depth” from Manning[0] is an excellent resource to learn how to go
from unstyled pages to properly styled ones.
[0]: [https://www.manning.com/books/css-in-
depth](https://www.manning.com/books/css-in-depth)
------
headsclouds
Similar to Webflow — which is an excellent intro to styling websites for non-
technical folks — there's a WordPress plugin called Oxygen[1] which I really
recommend checking out as it is more-less the same as Webflow, just built on
top of WordPress which you can use locally, or whatever.
[1]: [https://oxygenbuilder.com/](https://oxygenbuilder.com/)
~~~
oblomovshchina
Thank you, friend. I’ll look into this.
------
justusthane
Does he want to learn CSS? I'm neither a front-end dev nor a designer, but I
think typically how this would go is he would design the site in some sort of
mockup software (or even Photoshop, if that's what he's comfortable with), and
then it's your job to build that into a website.
------
throwaway13000
[https://cssbattle.dev/](https://cssbattle.dev/)
This is good for practice. Was on HN two days ago.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The US Has Its First ‘Community Spread’ Coronavirus Case - jdkee
https://www.wired.com/story/community-spread-coronavirus/
======
aazaa
> That gap between admission and diagnosis raises concerns about health care
> workers being unknowingly exposed at Davis—a potential problem anywhere. ...
Then later:
> The UC Davis memo explains the delay in testing by noting that neither
> Sacramento County nor the city of Davis’ public health agency performs the
> test. The hospital had to request the CDC do it. “Since the patient did not
> fit the existing diagnostic criteria for Covid-19, a test was not
> immediately administered,” the memo says. ...
Finally:
> As The Washington Post reported Tuesday, while South Korea has performed
> more than 35,000 tests, the US has done fewer than 500, and only the CDC and
> a handful of local public health agencies even have the diagnostic system.
The press corps did a fantastically poor job at the President's press
conference today. Only one question about testing, and a softball at that.
Now there's no telling how many are infected, or where they've dispersed to.
Then there's this:
> ... the California Department of Public Health announced that the patient
> was a resident of Solano County—which, as other reports have pointed out, is
> the location of one of the Air Force bases being used for quarantines of
> people who’ve returned to the US from countries with the disease.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Verdict Is In: Nobody Likes Google Glass - taylorbuley
http://www.businessinsider.com/nobody-really-likes-google-glass-2013-5
======
dasil003
I guess I'm well on my way to being a cranky old man at the tender age of 34,
but I find it extremely unlikely I'll ever use any device like glass on a
regular basis. I love technology as much as the next geek, but I feel like I'm
already a bit too much of a slave to my smart phone, and I don't think it's
healthy to be plugged in 24/7. Having notifications popping up in my field of
vision is just too high a price to pay for the convenience of not having to
reach in my pocket.
~~~
masklinn
> I find it extremely unlikely I'll ever use any device like glass on a
> regular basis
Glass definitely not, because it's kinda crap (what I've seen so far are
phone-style widgets — which I loathe in the first place — and telling your
shades to record a video — underwhelming). An actual HUD/Augmented Reality
system I can see myself using rather easily (as long as it remains fully under
my control), but this'll need severe improvements of image processing and
recognition (speed and flexibility).
I don't want notification popups, but virtual/augmented surface display could
be very neat, e.g. have buses display "live" in wireframe even when they're
outside field of vision (think "wallhack") to estimate how much time I have
until it arrives, that kind of things.
Or the ability to "switch in" to an other user of the system (and get direct
viewpoint) useful for virtual visits (potentially via "presence" robots, plug
into the robot and see through it), helping people with stuff or (the other
way around) getting help, imagine a tech of some sort doing an estimate of
building/fixing something based on what he sees through your eyes. Also useful
for things like surgeries (get colleagues in-viewpoints to assist/warn) or
single-person dangerous works e.g. underwater stuff, multiple eyeballs on the
same field of vision can pay attention to more things.
Or more "mundane" (but actually more difficult) applications such as ebooks
with the physical feel of real books by having a "blank book" and AR inserting
the ebook's content on the fly, or hologram/3D AR (easy to do when you've got
a display per eye)
------
marknutter
While I'm glad that over the past 10 years high tech gadgets have become
mainstream, I also lament it to some degree. Articles like this, written by
people not used to using early prototypes of gadgets, are always completely
off base. Most casual tech enthusiasts have a hard time seeing the forest for
the trees. Judging Glass based on its lack of wifi settings, email editing, or
a bulky case is nonsense. We're getting a peak at a very early concept of
something that we all _know_ could be awesome if executed on properly, just
like we knew tablets and smartphones would be awesome back in the 90s. There
is absolutely no question that some sort of Google Glass-like device will
become mainstream at some point. It's all a matter of execution.
~~~
gfodor
The author admits those bullet points can be fixed. The core argument against
Glass is it is trying to upheave social norms well before society is ready for
them. Are people ready to have conversations with each other where there is a
distracting screen in the corner of their eye at all times? Are you going to
be annoyed when it's clear someone is only giving you half their attention,
but doing so less overtly than if they were staring at their phone? I put my
phone away at dinner, will people be continually turning Glass on and off as
they enter and exit conversations?
The fact is phones and tablets had analogues going back hundreds of years in
the form of books and wristwatches in terms of social norms. You check your
watch, you check your phone. You sit down and read a book, you sit down and
read your iPad. Society accepts local distractions where the user overtly
makes it clear they are looking at something. There is no equivalent to Glass
where the user has a distracting bit of information floating right within
their view, but invisible to other people. This is a _genuinely new_
disruption of social norms and it's wide open how people will react to it, and
if they will ever accept it.
I don't agree that "it's all a matter of execution." Putting a cyborg-like
eyepiece on people and an always-available HUD in front of them is not a
foregone conclusion as something most people will ever want in their lives.
I've always said it's going to come down to how stupid you look to other
people. And yes, I realize cell phones, etc, were viewed as douchey when they
first came out. But the key difference between cell phones (and this is
important) is that you could put the cell phone in your pocket, nullifying the
douche-factor until you took it out again. If you take off your Glass because
you look like a tool, you just completely eliminated the purpose of Glass.
I think the most likely path for Glass is that of the Segway: an uncool device
that has amazing practical applications for professionals in certain domains.
You'll see them on cops sooner than teenagers at the mall.
~~~
marknutter
I don't understand why people think that Glass will only be effective if
you're wearing it _all the time_. Sunglasses are not appropriate to wear all
the time, and it's incredibly douchey to do so, and people adjust their habits
accordingly. If you want to make sure you don't break any social norms, then
just prop Glass up on the top of your head or hang them off your shirt colar
when it's not appropriate to be wearing them.
And Glass isn't upheaving social norms any more than the iPhone did. It wasn't
acceptable to be staring at a phone all the time but now everybody does it. I
think people's reaction to Glass' is more a commentary on the current state of
smartphone use and social etiquette than Glass being any more intrusive and
conspicuous.
~~~
Svip
Just because something is socially accepted, doesn't necessarily mean it is a
good thing nor something we - as a society - can live with for eternity. Many
things we would deem completely unacceptable today used to be socially
accepted.
And numerous times, these acceptable items have been but mere phases in
popular availability, until people realised, 'hey, why are we ruining human
interaction?' and then it became unacceptable again.
People are already talking about - and have for a long time - the problem with
smartphone use and social etiquette. Personally, I try to avoid my phone as
much as possible whenever I am at a dinner party or visiting family. You know,
be polite and show some goddamn respect.
~~~
marknutter
I agree. I think, should Glass catch on, there will be the same awkward period
of time where everyone figures out the etiquette for using it.
------
apendleton
The Google Glass devices serve both as a specific prototype consumer
electronics device and a test-bed for a general user interaction concept, and
I wish people writing reviews, or meta-reviews like this one, would pay more
attention to the distinction. Many of these complaints could be fixed either
with a software update (if, for example, the apps aren't sufficiently
configurable), or with improved hardware in an actual production release
(battery life, for example) without compromising the potential of the _idea_
of Glass. These seem not to be such a big deal, since this initial iteration
is just a prototype.
Some of these, though, are criticisms of the concept: if, for example, it
really does cause lots of people disorientation or headaches to look at
displays close to their faces, that seems to be an irreparable flaw in Glass-
like devices as a product class, and is much more damning.
~~~
vm
I've been dying to hear the use cases ("killer apps") where Google Glass kicks
ass. Scoble talked about how it speeds up photo so much, that I could it
change the way we document our lives & experiences. That's big.
What else???
Any HNers use Google Glass yet and found killer uses?
~~~
Spooky23
The obvious use case is for military-type applications. Relay photos to an
overhead drone to give commanders a situational awareness of what is
happening. Designate targets. Provide video-game like HUD.
For consumers, I'd say the recording stuff is an uncanny valley. I'd love a
HUD for navigation.
------
raldi
Also from Business Insider, an article headlined, "I've Changed My Mind: After
Using Google Glass A Second Time, I'm Blown Away"
[http://www.businessinsider.com/google-glass-
experience-2013-...](http://www.businessinsider.com/google-glass-
experience-2013-5)
Seems to me that they're just writing anything and everything about Glass
because it makes for outstanding linkbait.
~~~
guelo
That article is much less researched consisting of one guy's short experience
with the device. It also includes a list of negatives which mirrors some of
the issues listed in the OP article.
------
United857
"No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame." -- Slashdot on the original
iPod.
[http://slashdot.org/story/01/10/23/1816257/apple-releases-
ip...](http://slashdot.org/story/01/10/23/1816257/apple-releases-ipod)
Wonder how that turned out.
~~~
gfodor
"The Segway is expensive, solves no real problem, and you look like a dork
when riding it." -- society
------
niggler
The verdict is in: Business Insider is blogspam (ghostery 17, disconnect 24)
~~~
johnbellone
Exactly what I was thinking.
Who the hell reads this garbage and why are we posting it on HN? Flag this.
------
Steko
Glass is the headset display analogue of Microsoft's early tablets. It's not
likely to be a blockbuster consumer product this year or maybe not next year
but moving displays next to our eyeballs is a natural next step and putting
cameras on headsets is a natural next step. I'm hugely skeptical whether those
steps need to happen together.
I'd guess the killer app for next gen mobile headsets is the ability to record
your surroundings. Yes you can do that with a phone today. What you can't do
is have your phone in your pocket constantly holding 5-15+ seconds of audio
and video so that when you hit record you get the thing you actually wanted to
record whether it's something adorable your kid/pet did, a great joke, an
illegal act etc.
So that's the killer app imho and it's going to require an insane amount of
battery life up front (and we're putting it right next to people's brains so
it better not catch fire or blow up). Then we'll probably need an insane
amount of mobile bandwidth and cloud storage for persistent streaming.
But wait we're jumping ahead, you don't need an eye display to do this, you
get the functionality from just a camera on a bluetooth headset while the slab
in your pocket handles the storage/radios. In fact powering a display is going
to kill overall battery life which is the most important constraint. The
display is also the most expensive part of Glass today.
So I think the first blockbuster consumer Glass-type product is going to be a
bluetooth headset with a camera and no display.
------
Shank
I've heard quite the contrary from initial feedback (Scoble, Verge reporters,
etc.) based on the concept. The thing is, the currently released Explorer
Edition is a prototype to see use cases. It's hard for there to be a "verdict"
when the "to-market" product isn't even close to being ready.
Glass doesn't even have notifications right now, that's coming "soon."
------
martythemaniak
No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.
------
mtgx
Right now it has almost no apps, and it's a year away from launching as a
consumer device. The verdict is certainly "not in".
There is a good reason why you almost never see BusinessInsider articles on
HN. This is a good reminder why.
------
motters
Google may be able to improve on most of these problems, but they won't be
able to eliminate the headaches unless they fundamentally alter the design.
The problem is that this type of display requires the wearer to change focus
when using it. Enough of that activity is going to become literally nauseating
after a while.
For AR to really work the display needs to remain in focus no matter what the
wearer is looking at, and that means an Eyetap-like design.
------
cbr
Why is it so expensive? It's not using top of the line
processing, according to leaked specs. It's about as
powerful as the original Kindle, which cost $159 right
now. Is miniaturization and a metal headband a $1,341
cost?
What? It sits on your head, so it has to be small and light. It uses a new
kind of display. It's made in low volumes. I suspect the hardware costs are
actually _more_ than $1500.
~~~
hrayr
Hardware cost has nothing to do with the price at this point. It's expensive
because it's simply NOT mass produced for a massive audience. This is a
prototype and they don't want anyone's grandma to get their hands on it just
yet.
------
cpncrunch
Reminds me of 'virtual reality' from 20 years ago. It seemed great at the time
and we were all waiting for a real-life 'cyberspace', but it never really
happened.
------
Felix21
This reminds me a lot of a Large iPod touch type device everyone was hating on
3 years ago.
The fact that i now own (and LOVE) an iPad is why i will never again make
early judgements and conclusions like this one.
------
mpyne
Nobody liked the Nintendo DS when it first came out either. Should it find a
"killer app" at the right price it will be wildly popular, just like any other
new hardware.
~~~
Filligree
The killer app for eyewear like this is augmented reality, but the technology
is not yet there. It will be, maybe in another ten years. Until then, devices
like Glass will become progressively more useful.
A good take on it is the television series Dennou Coil, set in a future where
augmented reality has become truly transparent. It shows the concept from the
viewpoint of children, conveniently escaping a lot of the potential pitfalls
of predictions.
------
jcub
I was really wondering how this was going to play out, seeing as my staring at
a computer screen for hours on end already gives me killer headaches.
------
mrtksn
it could be very useful professional gadget for some but at this time it looks
like the times when Microsoft was pushing the tablets without solving key
problems. then one day the ipad came and did orders of magnitude better than
all the tablets that microsoft endorsed for years.
one day a company may figure out how to solve all these things and then we can
have a glass that is a mass market product.
------
ImprovedSilence
meh, me being a hockey fan found this pretty awesome: [http://gizmodo.com/pov-
hockey-with-google-glass-is-better-th...](http://gizmodo.com/pov-hockey-with-
google-glass-is-better-than-rinkside-se-487240083)
------
jared314
I sounds like it doesn't, yet, have a good use case.
~~~
Apocryphon
I'm sure there are, if anything it can be a substitute for the GoPro. But
there just doesn't seem to be a use case with enough mass appeal to justify
the price.
~~~
threeseed
I fail to see how. People use GoPro in generally sporting or rugged
situations.
Google Glass is pretty fragile and in those situations having a one inch
glass/perspex cube in front of your eye is very dangerous.
------
nick007
Reminds me of early reviews of the DynaTAC 8000X
------
oniTony
As claimed by someone who...
> haven't worn Glass.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why Fire Makes Us Human - onuralp
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/why-fire-makes-us-human-72989884/?no-ist
======
danielam
I once came across a curious anthropological account of the importance of fire
is a section in Feliks Koneczny's book "On the Plurality of Civilizations"[0]
written in the 1930s. (The OCR or transcription isn't great, but the text is
still able to be read.) Others might find it interesting.
[0] [https://www.scribd.com/doc/4464979/ON-THE-PLURALITY-OF-
CIVIL...](https://www.scribd.com/doc/4464979/ON-THE-PLURALITY-OF-
CIVILIZATIONS-Feliks-Koneczny-Entire-Book#page=49)
------
igravious
From, uh, 2013.
And the book, _Catching Fire_ , mentioned in the article and from which most
of the info is gleaned is from 2010. The scholar in the article, Richard
Wrangham, wrote the book.
_Sapiens_ by Yuval Noah Harari doesn't push the domestication of fire as far
back as 1.8 million years as Wrangham does but it does note that the
chimpanzee brain uses 6% of the body's energy at rest, while according to the
article "A human body at rest devotes roughly one-fifth of its energy to the
brain". The hypothesis is that only cooking could have provided this boost.
Shorter gut, bigger brain. It's a fascinating conjecture. The question is, did
we develop sophisticated language before domesticating fire or vice-versa.
Perhaps the synthesised creation myths of all the world's cultures and
religions could provide a clue?
~~~
thijser
Regarding the timescale this is about, what does it matter that the article is
5 years old?
~~~
igravious
Only that normally we put the year in the title of the post like this (2013)
so that people know it's a few years old. That's all, not that the info is out
of date or anything.
~~~
abrowne
Which is useful if, like me, you guessed whose work this was going to be about
(I took an anthro class in college with one of his former grad students) and
hoped it would be a follow-up, not the same book.
------
robotsquidward
I loved this article. Stories like this make me feel a weirdly intense
connection with everyone. One thing we can all have in common is our
evolutionary history and how it made us the beings we are, flaws and all.
~~~
blackflame7000
It makes you wonder why humans are so much more special than every other
species. In only a few hundred thousand years we evolved far beyond a
threshold that no species has managed to achieve in the years, and for some,
eons of evolution proceeding.
------
triangleman
Loren Eiseley also focused on the anthropology of fire. This is from the
1950's:
[https://carrieshmarrie.weebly.com/blog/man-the-firemaker-
by-...](https://carrieshmarrie.weebly.com/blog/man-the-firemaker-by-loren-
eiseley)
also the same thing in a Google Books link:
[https://books.google.com/books?id=Bg2-Clxqy88C&lpg=PA45&ots=...](https://books.google.com/books?id=Bg2-Clxqy88C&lpg=PA45&ots=TBV97a_PBn&pg=PA45#v=onepage&f=false)
------
buovjaga
Fermentation is another naturally-occurring thing that has been used by humans
to prepare food since forever. I think it is myopic to focus on fire.
~~~
beat
Fire substantially predates fermentation, though. We were already benefiting
from fire-cooked food long before the rise of conscious fermentation.
Besides that, fermentation at scale, for pickling, beer, or bread, requires
containers - which are a product of ceramics, which is a product of fire.
Fermentation as a humanity-changing technology is inseparable from fire that
way.
~~~
buovjaga
Ceramics? People have fermented food in seal skin:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiviak](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiviak)
------
Symmetry
I'm currently reading _Why We Sleep_ and just finished a chapter on how
humans' ancestors came out of the trees and started sleeping on the ground.
It's speculated that early humans' use of fire made this non-suicidal -
keeping away the big nocturnal predators and also reducing the number of
ticks, etc, preying on them.
------
stronglikedan
Tangential, but I've also heard that humans are the only animal that will
willingly run _towards_ a fire.
~~~
kqr2
Some insects are attracted to flames:
[https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129035...](https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12903572)
~~~
stronglikedan
Gah! Forgot about those. Maybe because I hate them. I'm sure there was some
type of cognitive bias at play.
------
truculation
Cooking helped us to fuel our large brains. May we turn it around and ask: for
a given diet and brain size, is the adaptive value of curiosity/creativity to
save on calories? Not just by improving our plans, tools and behaviours but by
making thinking itself more efficient (in terms of simple wattage).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Tesla explains Model 3 build in response to Munro’s teardown analysis - raybb
https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-explains-model-3-build-munro-teardown-analysis/
======
cfadvan
That’s a surprisingly weak and imo damning response.
_The primary car evaluated by Munro was built in 2017. We have significantly
refined our production processes since then, and while there’s always room for
improvement, our data already shows that Model 3 quality is rapidly getting
better._
So can people who bought your alpha/beta iterations trade in for version 1.0?
Treating a huge material purchase such as a car like a software product is
guaranteed to get you into trouble.
~~~
49bc
They’re not talking about the mechanical operation of the car, it’s things
like gap consistency between doors and the frames.
------
njarboe
Tesla's response is to this article[1] which is found in Motor Trend. The
article includes summaries of the Munro & Associates report and Tesla's
response. Maybe link to that instead?
[1][http://www.motortrend.com/news/tesla-model-3-teardown-
decons...](http://www.motortrend.com/news/tesla-model-3-teardown-
deconstructed-3/)
------
cottsak
Great video at the bottom of the article:
[https://youtu.be/CpCrkO1x-Qo](https://youtu.be/CpCrkO1x-Qo)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How to Deal with Conflicting Health Advice - danielrileyblog
https://danielriley.blog/conflicting-health-advice/
======
aszantu
I'm one of the carnivore nuts :|
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Final Tax Bill Targets the Free Food at Your Office - jedberg
https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/tax-bill-2017/card/1513390025
======
jedberg
This is clearly targeting tech companies, who are the majority of companies
that give this benefit.
~~~
steanne
construction companies often offer free drinks to discourage dehydration.
~~~
jedberg
Oh the irony if this actually increases the cost of real estate development.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Programming Windows 6th Edition - johndcook
http://www.charlespetzold.com/blog/2012/02/Programming-Windows-6th-Edition.html
======
tomjen3
Am I the only one who thinks it is sad that he is writing a book about
programming with C# and XAML? I mean those are great technologies to work
with, but his expertise is on C++ and native apps. And we need more native
apps, not less.
~~~
powertower
> Am I the only one who thinks it is sad ...
I think it's fantastic.
> And we need more native apps, not less.
Do you mean "managed apps"?
In that case, you're either talking about special case apps that require low
level access or low level management (ex: for performance reasons), drivers,
special libraries, or might just be holding on to the past.
.NET, C#, and XAML are the highest legitimate programming abstraction layer in
Windows and _are_ the way most Windows apps are made these days.
The unerlining management system (and OS) is written in C/C++ and exposes the
win32 API. That's always there.
Rarely does anyone make C or unmanaged C++ apps calling the win32 api when you
can have .NET Framework and CLR do that for you.
------
malkia
Another good book for Windows is "Windows Internals" from Mark Russinovich and
David A Solomon (SysInternals folks).
It's not for writing applications, but rather understanding how Windows works
(The Cache Manager section for example)
------
cylo
Seems this is being published later this year.
Can anyone point to any good resources for a mostly Unix-based programmer
getting up to speed with all the new technology coming in Windows 8 that are
available now?
~~~
diego_moita
AFAIK there isn't a book on Metro, the new interface in Windows 8. Your best
source is the documentation with the SDK.
On WPF (the latest on .Net UI) I'd recommend Matthew MacDonald's "Pro WPF in
C# 2010: Windows Presentation Foundation in .NET 4".
On Win32 programming (the native code API to Windows) the best source is
Petzold himself. It is the Windows equivalent of W. Richard Stevens books for
Unix.
------
krambs
5 and C# are currently propping up my monitors. Guess I can get a third
monitor now. ( _Kidding_ \- love Petzold.)
------
truncate
So that means no up to date book on Win32 API even now? I'm not into Windows
programming, but from what I know Petzold is the only book that people usually
follow for learning Win32 programming.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Build Your Own Tablet for $400 - nreece
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/06/build-your-own-tablet-for-400/
======
ngvrnd
I think the performance of the touch screen is critical to the experience of
using a tablet. This device has a resistive touch screen. I've used a number
of different touch screens, and all of them were hateful, except for the Apple
iPhone/iPod touch screen. That was the first screen that I didn't want to
fling violently away after using it. I'd guess that I'd be flinging this one.
On the other hand, if I read that a high-resolution capacitive touch screen
was available, I'd be very inclined to give this a shot.
------
ZeroGravitas
Someone should build a "tablet", which is just a large touchscreen (and a
battery) that you plug your Android phone into.
No need to duplicate all the 3G and Wireless hardware. No need to have two
dataplans or worry about tethering. All your contacts and bookmarks and
browser history is shared.
I just remembered Palm did something like this called the Foleo except it
turned the portable device into a netbook type thing. I seem to recall it was
either a flop or never released, but I still think it's a good idea.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
This is the story of frozen custard - dmitrygr
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/family-passion-frozen-custard-velvet-scoop-origin-story-zoe-madigan?published=t
======
qohen
Frozen custard seems to be having a moment now -- in the US, a large ice cream
manufacturer -- Dreyer's (AKA Edy's) -- came out with a line of packaged
frozen custard that showed up in supermarkets around 2 or 3 months ago:
[http://www.dreyers.com/FrozenCustard](http://www.dreyers.com/FrozenCustard)
~~~
maxerickson
I wonder how much the expansion of Culver's has contributed.
------
fameman2
@dmitrygr:
What kinds of machinery/technologies are used to make frozen custard?
Are they different than standard ice cream?
~~~
funtimesathn
batch freezer?
------
venomsnake
Insultingly easy to make, foolproof.
Leiebovitz's Perfect Scoop is mandatory read.
The way I freeze it - I make big stockpot of brine (23% salt by weight) and
chill it. Then just drop the ready made small pot of custard inside.
~~~
zoemadigan
@venomsnake - That's a great method. Reminds me of the old coffee can + rock
salt + ice approach.
"Perfect Scoop" is a superb book.
Another great read for an ice cream lover who loves nerding out is: "The
Science of Ice Cream" by Chris Clarke. Some highlights:
-the equations of ice cream... for example ice cream mix is a shear-thinning liquid (solution of sugar/stabilizer and a suspension of fat droplets) with viscosity as a function of shear rate (aka power law fluid aka viscosity=b(shear rate)^n where b and n are empirical constants)
-particle size distribution chart for optimal mix
-force displacement curves for different ice creams with different ice contents
-microstructure breakdown during consumption
-melt down curves for stabilized vs unstabilized ice creams
-relationship between mean gas cell size and temperature over hardening time
-rheology of ice cream (aka comparing newtonian fluids where velocity gradient is proportional to shear stress i.e. not velocity gradient versus non-newtonian fluids like ice cream aka solutions with polymers which exhibit shear thinning)
~~~
zoemadigan
amzn link [http://www.amazon.com/Science-Ice-Cream-
RSC/dp/1849731276/re...](http://www.amazon.com/Science-Ice-Cream-
RSC/dp/1849731276/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1435184264&sr=1-1&keywords=the+science+of+ice+cream)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: I have an idea,an implementation, users and want to invest.What is next? - incognito_user
I have been developing a side project for a couple of years and I mostly started it for fun, as a learning practice and to enlarge my developments portfolio. Of course I thought on monetize it if possible and dreamed on being my main income source but that was not the driver at all.<p>Now I have few users and some people approached me asking questions and I truly think the project could work. Also every now and then someone close to me says I should do something with this saying they could help in some way or another but I never get specific answers on how to make this work.<p>I know the project needs a complete reengineering to become commercial and although I can invest a good amount of time in it it will never be enough to make it start but I trust enough in the idea to be willing to put some money on it.<p>My problem is that I am a full time employee and I have always been, so I don't even know where to start. I guess my question is, what are possible ways to keep going with it?
======
Lorenz-Kraft
You probably might want to go the way almost everyone in your position is
about to go: Apply for a Investment.
Not sure if you are aware, but you currently are on a investor site ...
HackerNews. See at the bottom: "Apply to YC".
Of course, that's too simple explained. Preparing for such a application is
not easy. Some investors want to see complete business plans and stuff. Around
this whole "startup" scene, there are tons of ways you might want to go first,
almost always depending on your needs (like selling your idea because you have
no way to make it happen).
The most comforting way seems to be finding a partner. This partner might be
there for you to prepare all the business related stuff (in case of
investment) or to help you to put your project on its own feet (in case of
bringing it to market on your own).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: RippleTick – Real Time Ripple XRP Prices and Calculator - RippleTick
https://rippletick.com
======
iDemonix
Nice project.
What is annoying, is that it'll sit at a price (USD 2.12 currently) and it'll
flash red/green rapidly, with the up/down arrow changing etc - but the value
doesn't change. I'm guessing this is due to you only showing to two decimal
places, but it'd be worth thinking of a way to deal with that IMO.
------
justboxing
Congrats on Shipping! Very nice implementation!
What's your data source? Tech Stack?
Also, if you could add VWAP ( volume weighted average price ) into your
display, it would be great!
~~~
RippleTick
Thanks!
At the moment, the data is delivered via CoinCap websocket. This will soon be
changed over to CryptoCompare so multiple fiat currencies can be supported.
It was build with React, MobX, and Sass for styles.
I'll definitely add VWAP to my to-do's! Thanks for the input.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
FlexSense: A Transparent Self-Sensing Deformable Surface [video] - guardian5x
http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=230399
======
Lambdanaut
Idea: Attach a flexible screen to the surface and display a fluid or ball on
the screen. Simulate a force of gravity. Now physically manipulate the surface
and let the fluid fill the nooks and crannies that you make.
There's probably tons of other more interesting games you could create with
this method.
Possibly the next big thing in handheld gaming? You can at the very least bet
Microsoft Games and Nintendo will want to take a gander at this.
------
bsaul
Looking at the video reminds me of my first thoughts after having tried the
leap motion : very cool, but what could we really use this thing for ?
Followed by a blank.
As opposed to what happened after trying oculus rift, when streams of
groundbreaking applications kept rushing to my mind immediately. Now of course
this doesn't mean it will not have some sort of application one day. It's just
not playing in the same league.
Note in case any of the author is looking at this post : i don't mean to be
rude. What you did is really cool, and I would be totally incapable of doing
what you did. I'm just noticing how rare real technical revolutions are.
------
iandanforth
The pneubotics guys could probably make good use of this. 3D deformation
sensing is going to be key for soft robotics and many of the solutions out
there are overly complex and expensive today.
------
knicholes
It's cool that they can make a model to match the shape of the bent film. It'd
also be very cool if they could make the film bend to the shape of a model!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why OWASP's Threat Dragon will change the game on threat modeling - augb
https://techbeacon.com/why-owasps-threat-dragon-will-change-game-threat-modeling
======
rgacote
Link that does not require you to provide GitHub access:
[http://docs.threatdragon.org](http://docs.threatdragon.org)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Known packings of equal circles in a circle - terminalhealth
http://hydra.nat.uni-magdeburg.de/packing/cci/cci.html
======
pavel_lishin
What do the colors indicate?
[http://hydra.nat.uni-magdeburg.de/packing/cci/d1.html](http://hydra.nat.uni-
magdeburg.de/packing/cci/d1.html)
I see orange, blue, purple and yellow on the page; what do they signify?
~~~
robocat
Orange is three circles all touching each other (hexagonal close pack), or two
circles touching each other and the outside (I have reedited this sentence for
clarity).
Magenta is unconstrained.
Blue is special case that can only exist for N=2.
The rest are yellow.
The number of lines in the middle show the number of touchs (constraints, 0 to
6).
Not sure how multiple solutions are shown (e.g. N=6 has two solutions).
~~~
JonathonW
Blue isn't only for N=2; it starts showing up again at N=104.
It appears that circles are colored blue if their number of contacts (with
either other circles or the outside) is equal to 1 or 2. They're magenta if
their number of contacts is zero.
I'm not sure what the distinction between orange and yellow is-- it doesn't
seem to be strictly number of contacts, because I can see cases where both
orange and yellow have four contacts.
~~~
robocat
Reread my answer for orange, I'm sure it is correct. To say it a different
way: a circle X is coloured orange if X is touching a circle Y, and both X and
Y also touch circle Z. Y and Z can either be small circles or the main outer
circle.
The colours are about constraints. Orange is a locked constraint between 3
circles (inner and outer included).
If you think about it, N=2 is the _only_ solution that the circles are
constrained to touch in two places (and N=1 is weird because it touches in
infinite places).
At N=104, the blue circles are surely a drawing fault, they are actually
unconstrained and should be magenta. Shown by fact that those blue circles
have a dot in the middle (not touching), but a neighbour circle has a line
pointing to the blue circle (touching), which is contradictory.
~~~
showdead
For N=104, if you look at the PDF and zoom in, you can see the blue circles
have a line rather than a dot. Admittedly, it is hard to see why the blue
circles do not have enough freedom to move slightly away and become magenta
(particularly the one on N=108).
------
lacker
Nice. This will come in handy the next time I need to fit 1846 equal circles
into a single larger circle.
~~~
parsimo2010
Maybe you're being facetious, but for a CNC operator they might find it useful
in an unusual machining job- they probably stick with a hexagonal lattice and
rectangular stock most of the time. Or a chip foundry might find it useful if
they are maximize yields in a wafer of silicon.
It probably isn't immediately applicable to every single person's life but it
might help some industries squeeze another 0.1% out of their production line.
The free work presented here might cover a couple engineer's salaries once
they find this website.
~~~
mikepurvis
I feel like the more valuable thing would probably be the generalization of
"fit as many of [irregular polygon] into the least number of length inches of
material width X."
OTOH, there are a lot of these math toys that start life in the abstract and
then end up finding extremely practical applications down the line— pretty
sure that was the case for a lot of the dusty corners of linear algebra until
3D graphics was suddenly a thing and it all became super relevant very
quickly.
------
vesinisa
I find it most fascinating looking for the locally maximal densities. Starting
from N=2, some arrangements always fall in a "satisfying" pattern and a
locally optimal maximum density is achieved.
"The sequence of N's that establish density records" link leads to an empty
page, but this sequence is also known as OEIS A084644 "Best packings of m>1
equal circles into a larger circle setting a new density record", and starts
with 2, 3, 4, 7, 19, 37, 55, 85, 121, 147, 148, 150, 151, 187.
[https://oeis.org/A084644](https://oeis.org/A084644)
Look for example at N=1759: [http://hydra.nat.uni-
magdeburg.de/packing/cci/cci1759.html](http://hydra.nat.uni-
magdeburg.de/packing/cci/cci1759.html)
Compare it with N=1758, which has a slight "imperfection":
[http://hydra.nat.uni-
magdeburg.de/packing/cci/cci1758.html](http://hydra.nat.uni-
magdeburg.de/packing/cci/cci1758.html)
Or with N=1760, which is too "tight" resulting in a worse density:
[http://hydra.nat.uni-
magdeburg.de/packing/cci/cci1760.html](http://hydra.nat.uni-
magdeburg.de/packing/cci/cci1760.html)
------
parsimo2010
Is there a proven bound so we know when the best known packing is the best
possible packing? The lower numbers look very tidy and we've probably got the
best possible packing for small N, but the larger numbers look like there may
be room for improvement.
~~~
sp332
_Proven optimal packings are indicated by a radius in bold face type._
~~~
thefifthsetpin
Which they then served as a blurry (in my browser, at least) gif. I have no
idea which #'s are bold.
~~~
sp332
It's not referring to the images linked at the top, but the table at the
bottom of the page. It's not an image.
------
2bitencryption
I wonder, are there any patterns here for certain interesting mathematical
sets of numbers, like primes, squares, etc?
First glance doesn't show anything obvious, but I'm no mathematician.
------
madengr
This is pretty important for modulation in digital communications. Interesting
to see others than 2^N, and that 2^N are not square constellations, except for
QPSK. Sometimes minimizing amplitude (envelope) variations is more important,
or sometimes susceptibility to white noise or phase noise.
I remember learning about N-dimensional sphere packing for coding.
------
raven105x
Would this not be an excellent design cue for friction-based water heaters?
------
dfeojm-zlib
Newtonian packing of circles, e.g., Hungarians packing a Subaru for a summer
road trip. :)
~~~
HeWhoLurksLate
I don't even understand. What?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Rand Paul Has Coronavirus - big_chungus
https://twitter.com/RandPaul/status/1241780756617273345
======
microtherion
Best wishes for a full and speedy recovery!
That said, why does an “asymptomatic” senator get a test, while symptomatic
medical personnel still gets denied them?
~~~
neonate
It's not hard to see how testing high-ranking government officials in the
middle of a crisis would be in the public interest.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
SIGGRAPH 2014 : Technical Papers Preview Trailer - signa11
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3Z1hDwGEmM
======
signa11
checkout the physics from sound demo, pretty cool :)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Sick of This Text: 'Sorry I'm Late' - cwan
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703859204575526471179963214.html?mod=WSJ_hps_editorsPicks_1
======
msluyter
The flipside, imho, is that it's simply less of a big deal to be late,
precisely because technology makes it less problematic. 20 years ago, if
someone was late for, say, a dinner date, you'd be faced with the unpleasant
choice of having to leave and reschedule, or wait, not knowing if they'll ever
show. Now you can simply text each other. The decision point comes earlier.
YMMV, but my circle seems to simply be generally more flexible about time.
That may be considered rude to some, and rude by standards of 20 years ago,
but as long as everyone is generally on board, it's not a problem. In fact,
it's more flexible and arguably efficient (I'm thinking of just in time
inventory). I'm wondering if we're simply witnessing a generational shift
here. (Full disclosure, I'm in my 40's).
~~~
_delirium
This is definitely true for me, though it varies based on the situation. I do
find it somewhat rude/annoying to wait for people when meeting at a
restaurant, mostly because it's somewhat awkward to wait. But if we're meeting
at a coffee shop, I don't really care if they come on time or 30 mins late; I
have plenty of stuff I can do in the meantime.
------
makmanalp
>> Now, thanks to cellphones, BlackBerrys and other gadgets, too many of us
have become blasé about being late. We have so many ways to relay a message
that we're going to be tardy that we no longer feel guilty about it.
Poppycock. It's in your hands to determine whether it's okay for the other
person to be late, messages or not. If you've been waiting for over 30
minutes, leave and tell your partner that you've done so through your
"gadget".
~~~
Timothee
_leave and tell your partner that you've done so through your "gadget"._
Or, for repeat offenders: leave and don't tell. They'll figure it out when
they get there... (passive-aggressive? surely)
~~~
etruong42
I prefer not to step on toes so strongly, so I would be diplomatic and say
something along the lines of "I did not anticipate dinner taking so long, so I
cannot stay."
Variations include "I am on a tight schedule. I'm sorry but 20 minutes in
without even ordering is too much." If texting, I have found word choice to be
crucial in delivering how upset you are since there is no tone of voice.
Inclusion of an actual reason and/or "maybe next time" is completely optional.
------
bugsy
It really seems like the author of that article has brought it upon herself
because she continues to tolerate it, and does it herself on occasion.
The rule is wait 15 minutes and then leave. After a couple such incidents,
then you flip the flakey bit, and stop agreeing to meet that person one on one
such as at restaurants or for day trips.
It's still OK invite flakies to parties or group gatherings where it doesn't
matter if they show up or not.
------
nathanb
I am obsessively punctual, and I find that I only very rarely have to send the
"sorry, I'm late" text. Much like the poor woman at the end of the article, I
view it as a respect issue. It's not difficult to be on time so long as I
leave at a reasonable time. For the common case (no problems) I can take a
leisurely drive at a safe speed (see article
<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20190187> about driving fast). If I do
encounter an unplanned delay, there's enough slack in the schedule that I can
usually make up the time and still be punctual.
I am also aware of the time and place, so if I know I will be driving east on
I-40 at rush hour I will need to bake an extra 5-10 minutes into my schedule.
I don't do this to make myself look good, I do it because I respect the other
person and would like to be treated the same when the other person is meeting
me somewhere.
------
ciupicri
> Some people were raised in cultures where tardiness is tolerated.
Some European countries have the academic quarter[1] which basically means
that it's ok to be 15 minutes late.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_quarter_%28class_timin...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_quarter_%28class_timing%29)
~~~
kjksf
Academic quarter is for teachers, not students.
It's not ok for students to be late to class even 1 minute.
15 minutes is the amount of time that students must wait for a teacher to
arrive before they can assume that a class has been cancelled and disband.
This is not about tolerating tardiness but a rule that clarifies what happens
when a teacher doesn't arrive to teach the class in a timely manner.
It's also not something that happens often. It's a rule for contingency
planning and not a rule to promote a standard of teacher tardiness.
At least in Poland.
~~~
ardit33
maybe he ment the 'Mediterranean Time'. Lets meet at 2, usually means around
2:10 2:15, or whatever. This will be done in 30 mins, means 45, 1hr, etc.
Just the nature of the cultures, where they take it chill, drink a lot of
coffee, and never rush for things, work to live, not live to work. Maybe
that's why they have lower GDPs compared to the northern ones.
~~~
maw
Where I live (not along the Mediterranean) a dinner invitation for 8 means
people starting to arrive at 9:45. An appointment with the dentist, half an
hour away, at 11 means leaving at 11:05.
To say more is to be horribly politically incorrect.
------
dmm
> At 8:05, as I arrived at the restaurant,
They were both late.
------
Tichy
Was it necessary to write an article in WSJ about this, and style it to be a
nation wide phenomenon? If your friends being late annoys you, tell them, or
stop meeting them.
------
siruva07
I think Glympse is trying to solve this problem <http://www.glympse.com/>
~~~
kscaldef
That seems like just another enabler for people. "Hey, I'm late, but you can
track me in real time!"
------
dkasper
"Her husband says she has "T.E.D."—Time Estimation Disorder."
That's kind of an unfortunate acronym for TED conferences.
~~~
sp332
Sebastian Wernicke gave a TED talk on what makes the most popular TED talks.
It turns out the most "favorited" talks on the TED website are the longest
ones. So it's a valid point either way :-)
[http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/lies_damned_lies_and_stati...](http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/lies_damned_lies_and_statistics_about_tedtalks.html)
------
balding_n_tired
Washn't this posted from the original blog already?
| {
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The sad state of the backbone ecosystem - azsromej
http://benmccormick.org/2016/03/07/the-sad-state-of-the-backbone-ecosystem/
======
lioeters
I wonder if the React ecosystem will resemble this in a few years. Not saying
that's undesirable either, it may be a natural course of progression, the
flourishing of libraries and off-shoots, the churn, the stagnation and being
replaced by the newer generation..?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Human competitive genetic programming results - yters
http://www.genetic-programming.com/humancompetitive.html
======
Allocator2008
Very cool stuff. I have often thought that as long as one can find an
appropriate "fitness function", that genetic algorithms of one form or another
ought to be able to solve a wide-range of problems. Of course, finding a
"fitness function" implies "knowing the answer ahead of time". This is often
far from obvious. I am thinking genetic programming is a good solution to
dating websites - the "roomate matching" problem is the sort of problem a
genetic algorithm can attack, and of course "dating" is a subset of that same
problem. User feedback would be critical in terms of designing such a
solution, and that can be unreliable, subjective, etc. But still, a fairly
straightforward genetic algorithm to match people up based on characteristics
seems plausible. Puts a whole new spin on divorce suits: Your Honor, HAL 9000
said we would be a good match! He lied! I need 25% of his bandwidth for
compensation! :-)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Forget Aeron, here's the best programmer's chair in the world - k7d
http://b7og.com/post/306057238/forget-aeron-heres-the-best-programmers-chair-in-the
======
jbellis
I worked like this for two years: <http://www.dqd.com/~mayoff/images/alfa.jpg>
(picture shows the guy I got the idea from, not me)
the backsaver zero-gravity line is not as flashy as the one in TFA but it
allows locking the recliner at any angle you want, not just 3 pre-set ones.
A backsaver will run $1000+ new, and the one in the TFA is probably more; if
you want to try the idea out you can get a cheap lawn chair version for $65 on
Amazon: [http://www.amazon.com/Strathwood-Anti-Gravity-Adjustable-
Rec...](http://www.amazon.com/Strathwood-Anti-Gravity-Adjustable-Recliner-
Champagne/dp/B001BSQB94) (I've tried that one too, and IMO it's a great value,
although even more limited to "reclined" and "not reclined").
I stopped coding in a recliner since it was too hard to add a 30" monitor to
the setup in a cubicle environment.
------
joshu
The actual chair: <http://www.varierfurniture.com/default.aspx?menu=686>
------
scotch_drinker
At the risk of commenting on a piece of furniture I'll never try, I think
there should be a clear divide between where you work and where you relax.
Ideally, I'd like to be in a comfortable, ergonomic chair (like the Mirra I
recently bought) when I work and then take a nap on the couch. When I get
tired, I want to get up, disengage from my work and let my body (and brain)
relax. The concept of taking a nap in my chair seems strange to me.
I can see the appeal of being able to recline while contemplating something
but as a person who almost instantly falls asleep when horizontal, I wouldn't
get much contemplation done.
------
pmorici
Totally impractical as a work chair. You'd kick your desk over the second you
reclined.
~~~
k7d
programmers and creative people in general are usually impractical type. well,
at least a lot of them. myself included
~~~
pmorici
I disagree. I think they are the exact opposite. Why waste time on something
that hinders your work.
------
lutorm
I wonder if this chair is VaporWare, I've seen a bunch of posts just like this
one obviously only are based on a press release. I've so far found not a
single link to someone who's actually _tried_ it.
~~~
vidarh
Here's at least one UK retailer that claims to sell it:
<http://www.backinaction.co.uk/gravity>
------
jplewicke
I think my ideal chair would be a treadmill:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treadmill_Desk> . Being able to walk a couple
miles every hour would definitely increase my energy level and focus.
~~~
mcaruso
That's a pretty brilliant idea. Currently I just pace up and down my office.
------
ciupicri
The chair is nice and interesting, but it's good only for relaxation, not for
working. I don't know how many people could work, or better said type, while
laying on their back. Also, I prefer laying on a bed or a couch.
~~~
lutorm
Lying on your back is only one of the possible positions. You can sit like in
a normal chair in it, too.
~~~
ciupicri
I prefer a normal chair + couch/bed, instead of wasting my money on this.
------
andrewcooke
heh. but programming on a laptop in a chair with armrests can be frustrating
(i have a beanbag in the corner of my office that's perhaps a better candidate
for best programming chair ever...)
~~~
finnomenon
and it doesn't end well if you fall asleep with a laptop
------
mgrouchy
I dunno, my girlfriend is an occupational therapist, she would probably have a
mental breakdown about how unergonomic this chair would be to use with your
workstation.
~~~
vidarh
Don't be so sure. Take a look at the PDF product sheet linked from this page:
<http://www.varierfurniture.com/default.aspx?menu=686>
The positions where you are actually sitting either supports you, or put you
in a position that lets your spine stay upright and well supported.
------
k0n2ad
Furniture porn always reminds me of the scene in Fight Club where Ed Norton is
cataloging the furniture in his apartment. Still, I want that chair.
------
hs
i always ask myself, "would woz (or any other heroes) better off using these
luxuries 'back then' when he first did apple ?"
------
theli0nheart
I think I'm going to stick with my Aeron.
~~~
k7d
I had Aeron at office and didn't like it that much...
sure you can customize it every imaginable way, still it's conservative and
quite static chair, and it wasn't that comfortable for really long hacking
sessions
------
Harj
can anyone find a price for it?
~~~
jbm
I found it online for 1200$.
[http://www.mobilewhack.com/new-gravity-balans-recliner-
from-...](http://www.mobilewhack.com/new-gravity-balans-recliner-from-varier/)
Apparently there are only 250 pieces made.
| {
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Credit Suisse Warns That U.S. Store Closings May Worsen in 2020 - toomuchtodo
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-14/store-closures-may-be-even-worse-next-year-credit-suisse-says
======
toomuchtodo
Outline: [https://outline.com/eRjrp9](https://outline.com/eRjrp9)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Autosetup – a replacement for autoconf - networked
https://msteveb.github.io/autosetup/
======
aurora72
Well if can't be made to work on Windows then it's not a worthwhile
replacement for autoconf because autoconf does every job on all environments
except Windows already, why need a replacement?
To do the job on Windows, I use CMake and CMake is my autoconf replacement on
Windows. Actually, if I was willing to spend some time to configure MinGW &
MSYS to make autoconf work on Windows, I wouldn't need to use the CMake either
.)
~~~
2bluesc
> To do the job on Windows, I use CMake and CMake is my autoconf replacement
> on Windows. Actually, if I was willing to spend some time to configure MinGW
> & MSYS to make autoconf work on Windows, I wouldn't need to use the CMake
> either .)
Why not just use cmake and be done? Less dependencies?
Every time I use cmake I wonder how I ever managed to use autotools or (even
straight Makefiles). Especially when things like 'ctest' just work and are
waiting for me to write unit-tests to utilize them.
------
dfox
I think that most projects use autoconf only because you need autoconf to use
automake.
------
agumonkey
The URL query suffix is pretty humorous.
| {
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Fear of Failure Prevents Minimal, but Necessary Time Off - SparksZilla
http://andysparks.co/post/34718564879/week-4-fear-of-failure-prevents-minimal-but-necessary
======
jevanish
Check out the book, "The Power of Full Engagement." The short of it is that
yes, you do need a break. You'll be more productive managing your time and
doing important things (like occasionally relaxing and being sure to exercise
regularly) than just trying to sit at your computer working 24/7.
Also, don't look at breaks as a major unplug or nothing at all. Our brains
work in 90-120 minute cycles (similar to our sleep cycles) and so building in
short breaks (even only 5-10 minutes) can be incredibly refreshing and make
you more productive than if you cranked through a whole day.
The book is no BS either; the authors have helped Fortune 500 leaders and
professional athletes rise to the top of their game (like helping a tennis
player become #1 in the World).
Happy to talk more some time as I'm just wrapping the book up and starting to
apply some of the lessons from it. It's helping me understand why for instance
my most productive hour of my week is the hour after i keep home from my
soccer games and how to have more heavy execution sessions like it.
Don't feel guilty. It's about working smart and hard.
------
kclick
I agree and empathize with this completely. There's a lot of pressure to be
online 24/7, always cranking, always building, always increasing
'productivity.'
But part of business (and the advantage for so many successful companies) is
creative thinking and the ability to see an opportunity that others don't.
Stepping back and 'turning off' is critical to the creative thinking process:
it's the 'incubation' stage that leads to 'illumination' or the Aha-moment:
[http://blogs.hbr.org/schwartz/2011/11/how-to-think-
creativel...](http://blogs.hbr.org/schwartz/2011/11/how-to-think-
creatively.html)
So next time you feel like a slacker for having a beer with friends, know that
you might actually be on the verge of a breakthrough.
------
justincpollard
An important topic, Andy! Related: if you're motivated (positively) enough to
work that extensively, that's a gift unto itself. Take a step back and think
about working just 8 hours a day at anything. How would you feel if that's
something you didn't love? How would you feel doing something you didn't love
for even 4 hours a day? 2 hours a day?
If you love what you do and are motivated to do that thing for such long
hours, more power to you!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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The End of Agile - interweb
https://www.forbes.com/sites/cognitiveworld/2019/08/23/the-end-of-agile/
======
jdmoreira
It works pretty well for me but that’s because we refuse to engage in
bullshit.
No estimates. No sprints. No Jira. No bullshit!
What we do? Retro, grooming and planning. Standup everyday in front of a
Kanban board with post-its. And we help each other. That’s it!
Seriously, how hard can it be? Building software is not the same as a Ford
model T assembly line
~~~
collyw
As usual no one can agree what agile actually is. Is what you are doing agile?
Some would say no. Some would say yes.
Someone will likely says agile is a lot of shit and someone will reply saying
"you are doing it wrong" without giving any indication of how to do it right.
~~~
jdmoreira
again here is my opinion... The minimum requirement for doing agile IMHO is to
have retros and to iterate the process all the time until it works. That’s it.
But what agile is or is not is just semantics. It’s irrelevant I think. Who
cares if we all follow the same set of rules? People selling certifications
that's who!
~~~
wan23
Same! Whenever I have to explain what agile is I start with retrospectives.
It's the one rule that is mandatory. Standups, sprints, JIRA boards,
grooming/refinement sessions and everything else in a heavyweight framework
like scrum is there to support the principles of agile, but none of it is
actually necessary. IMO every software developer should read the Agile
Manifesto (
[https://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html](https://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html)
) every once in a while and consider whether their process is actually working
for the team.
------
lmilcin
Agile has nothing to do with what is described in the article.
Agile is not dead and will be more important going on. "Agile" (apostrophes
intended) is and will be kept alive by countless managers of different levels
that would like to emulate successful organizations but don't want to spend
time and effort actually understanding what makes them successful.
Please, read something like "Pheonix Project" (Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, George
Spafford) or "The Goal" (Eliyahu Goldratt) to get better informed about what
Agile is.
My understanding of Agile is that it is a shared understanding, commitment for
porsuing goal of serving your organization and your customer as efficiently as
possible. Hopefully, serving your customer is tantamount to serving your
organization, if your organization's values are right.
Agile is not a process. Agile is a drive to seek most efficient process. Agile
means you are honestly critical of what you are doing and are constantly
learning and adjusting to get best possible outcome.
Scrum or Kanban happen to be one of ways to implement Agile but they are not
equivalent to Agile. Agile precludes any single set process because every
product, customer and organization is different and so it is not possible for
a single set process to be best possible process.
Scrum or Kanban are anti-Agile in my opinion because they tend people to get
complacent with the process (yes, we have implemented Scrum so we are Agile).
Being complacent is opposite to what Agile is -- constantly seeking better
process.
------
notus
Honestly, the part about agile I dislike the most is a dedicated scrum master
role. They have very little to do if they aren't split between multiple teams
and instead try to come up with weird ways to add value which usually don't
add any value. We had agile coaches at my company recently and it was one of
the more painful experiences of my career. They would try to add all these
different flavors of grooming, planning, standup, and retro that usually just
led to developers being uncomfortable and wanting to work from home. I'm not
saying agile doesn't work, but it doesn't need to be a full time job and take
up that much of developers time and they sure as hell don't need to inflate
the process and methodology just to feel better about themselves.
~~~
dragonwriter
> Honestly, the part about agile I dislike the most is a dedicated scrum
> master role
That's not a part about Agile, but about Scrum.
Also, the “dedicated” part isn't even essential to Scrum.
> We had agile coaches at my company recently and it was one of the more
> painful experiences of my career. They would try to add [...]
That's a different issue than a dedicated ScrumMaster role, and anti-Agile, as
team ownership of process is central to Agile. Consultants external to the
team (whether internal to the org or external there, too) trying to impose
process is the antithesis of Agile. There might be a role for coaching in
Agile, but it certainly isn't process advocacy.
~~~
notus
Fair points, I tend to conflate agile and scrum since they seem to be coupled
together. I get that the dedicated part isn't a requirement, it just seems to
be part of most implementations I see. I guess my problem is more with
people's implementations.
------
9wzYQbTYsAIc
> work methodologies are moving towards an asynchronous event model where
> information streams get connected, are mapped and then are transformed into
> a native model in unpredictable fashion
Probably the most insightful quote from the article.
------
ljw1001
Agile died the minute someone who never coded anything for money could get a
certificate proclaiming them an expert.
------
sparker72678
No development methodology can eliminate the fact that building software is
hard, and complex data systems quickly grow exponentially in complexity.
Developing and maintaining a large project will be difficult, no matter your
approach.
Which is not to say that all approaches are equal.
Part of our problem is that we want a development/management approach that
works for all types of problems. There isn't one.
------
djmips
"Perhaps the last major holdout of such applications is with the category of
games, and even there, the emergence of a few consistent tool-sets such as the
Unreal Engine means that there's increasing convergence on the technical
components, with Agile really only living on in areas such as design and media
creation." \- In practice, I haven't seen the use of Unreal Engine promoting
the end of agile or vice versa. If what he's saying here is that using off the
shelf game engines means no more need for programmers so no more agile (except
for content) then he's dead wrong. Every game that I've ever worked on using
Unity or Unreal have a significant amount of programming work involved. Some
of them have used agile and others less so.
------
jdlyga
The team I'm on uses Agile, but in practice it's a combination of Agile,
Kanban, and Waterfall. The tasks we work on are usually pretty big and
undefined. And it's nice to meet every couple weeks to plan out a sprint. But
an overall waterfall-like list of objectives drive everything, and we're not
strict about adding or removing things from the sprint. So I don't know what
system fits us best. Agile encourages us to document tickets so they can be
worked on, which is nice.
------
dragonwriter
> The Agile Manifesto, like most such screeds, started out as a really good
> idea. The core principle was simple - you didn't really need large groups of
> people working on software projects to get them done.
That's not the core principle of the Agile Manifesto. In fact, nothing even
vaguely like that is included in the _Manifesto for Agile Software
Development_ [0] or the _Principles behind the Agile Manifesto_. [1]
Now, to be fair, there is a study or set of studies which shows that, for
software projects within a certain broad size range, a team size of 5-7 gets
the project done fastest, and that larger teams not only take more man-hours
for the same size project but more calendar days, and that study is broadly
influential in setting team sizes in teams that claim to be practicing Agile
or Lean development; that's not a, much less _the_ , core principle of Agile,
though, just a piece of empirical evidence that became available when Agile
(at least the name, of perhaps not the actual philosophy) was becoming
popular.
Agile has kind of the same problem as Marxism; the theory is, and the is quite
critical in both cases, bottom up, but most of the practical implementations
throw that out and are top-down.
With Marxism, this might seem like a bigger problem because it is _every
single implementation_ that claims the name has the problem, but in a sense
it's a little _easier_ to distinguish the problem in practice as being
separate from Marxism itself because at least all the real world
implementation point to a particular revision of the theory which contains the
diversions from the original (Leninism). So at least you can point to Leninism
and say it's the problem distinct from Marxism. While there are a few bottom-
up Agile implementations where the teams really are self-organizing and
empowered, the norm is top down implementation of something that at least
superficially resembles Scrum, without any real control of process in the
team, but there is no clearly diverging theory that unifies the top-down one;
they don't claim to be practicing Agile-Leninism but instead plain, vanilla
Agile, though their practices are in no way grounded in the Agile Manifesto or
Principles, but instead the same canned-process management approach against
which Agile was a reaction. So it's a little harder to distinguish based on
what the implementors say is their philosophy, though it's still possible to
distinguish the substance.
[0] [https://agilemanifesto.org/](https://agilemanifesto.org/)
[1]
[https://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html](https://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html)
~~~
jdlshore
> there is a study or set of studies which shows that, for software projects
> within a certain broad size range, a team size of 5-7 gets the project done
> fastest, and that larger teams not only take more man-hours for the same
> size project but more calendar days
I'd like to read those studies. Do you have a cite?
~~~
dragonwriter
That specific finding was from what appears to be the 1997 QSM study [0],
though the description I am familiar with it from (Mike Cohn’s _Succeeding in
Agile: Software Development Using Scrum_ , 2010, describes it as covering
projects in 2003-2005 (the author, organization, and number of projects in the
analysis, and the one result chart from the study that is in the article on
the web [1] match between the book and the 1997 one, though, but the chart
showing time to complete by team size isn't shown in the article.)
[0] [https://www.qsm.com/blog/2019/4-key-studies-team-
size](https://www.qsm.com/blog/2019/4-key-studies-team-size)
[1] [https://www.qsm.com/articles/team-size-can-be-key-
successful...](https://www.qsm.com/articles/team-size-can-be-key-successful-
project)
------
winternett
Agile is nowhere near an end...
People just aren't willing to admit the parts of it that are Kool Aid, and the
parts that are useful because it's a profit machine (books, training, merch,
etc)as well as a methodology for getting things done in projects.
I have never seen anyone implement agile fully in my world, it's usually 50%
or below in terms of adoption rate. Passing around a hockey stick is a
gimmicky thing, and I've always avoided the silly ideas, i want to go to work,
stick to the points, get things done right and then go home... Sprint Poker,
passing a hockey stick, agile toys, going to Agile conferences etc can be left
to agile coaches if you ask me.
~~~
commandlinefan
If capital-A “Agile” ever ends, it will be replaced by something with a
different name that takes exactly the same form. How do I know? Because I’m
old enough to remember before there was capital-A “Agile”, and the original
XP/Agile manifesto came along and within a few years was bastardized into
exactly what came before it: the expectation that with enough meetings and
unreasonable enough demands, software development could be a perfectly
predictable, cookie-cutter endeavor, as uneventful as manufacturing sheet
metal.
~~~
winternett
Agreed, before Agile there was Waterfall, RUP, and many other theories of
assembly line management processes. They are all based on starting
universities for the way to produce a product, and these paradigms all came
from auto makers... It's a constantly spinning wheel... Can't be stopped...
------
end-of-remote
It can't come fast enough. It's a worthless methodology, band-wagoned to
irrelevance.
Mark my words, remote work is worse, and will destroy careers.
------
billman
Agile was never a thing, it was always a how.
------
topkai22
Re-
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Are some signup CAPTCHAs becoming a bit ridiculous (yes you HN)? - bitmilitia
My friend showed me this after trying to sign up for HN. There’s now a Capcha when you sign up which is more than difficult to answer... mostly because the text is so difficult to read it doesn't look like english.
Not sure if the intent is trying to stop bots or trying to stop anyone who doesn’t want to spend 10 guessing characters.
Oh, and think the text CAPTCHA is hard… listen to the audio puzzle (get your pen and paper ready).
======
krapp
It seems to me that any captcha worth breaking is already "broken", given the
existence of captcha farms - and I put broken in quotes because _technically_
, with captcha farms, the captcha is working as designed, you're just paying
human beings to break them. The assumption, of course, that there is
necessarily a difference between a "spambot" and a "human being" is not as
true as it used to be.
Even so, the constant war of escalation between captchas and anti-captcha
measures should eventually lead to the necessity to create a captcha which is
impossible for most humans to decipher, once the capability of software to
decipher them passes baseline human ability. At that point, just being able to
solve the captcha would more or less prove you're probably not a human being.
So the basic model of "text a human can read but a computer can't" is probably
obsolete, and only still works due to the inertia of programmer laziness, and
the fact that breaking captchas probably doesn't have a ROI worth the trouble
for most sites.
Constructing more subtle captchas present their own problems, in that they can
make cultural assumptions about the user. If you're also using the captcha as
a community filter, this may be a feature though (for instance - having a site
about anime set up a quiz about anime as a captcha, or having users solve
complex programming puzzles.) Even so, any process which a human can perform
through rote UI can be automated, so even those tests will fail. Most captchas
are poorly designed and leak their solutions one way or another anyway. I've
even seen a few posted here which seem to add their solutions in plaintext to
the form as a hidden field or something.
I haven't got a clue what Recaptcha can be replaced with once it's thoroughly
useless, but i've come to believe that captchas are one of those things it's
impossible to do correctly, just adequately most of the time.
~~~
shubhamjain
This is like saying we should stop locking our doors because every door can be
broken by a locksmith anyway. The purpose of captcha is not to break any
attempts of automation but only to make it more harder. Considering that
automating a script to break captcha with human intelligence / automation is
not trivial by any means I think, they serve their purpose.
~~~
Xenmen
The issue is that, given a little more time, we'll see a "one-size-fits-all"
captcha breaker, one that needs little to no modification to break the captcha
on new sites.
------
dang
The captcha on HN is temporary. We put it up to mitigate an attack while
implementing a longer-term solution. Sorry for the inconvenience.
If we ask nicely, perhaps kogir will show up to say more.
~~~
jcr
There's a much better solution than a CAPTCHA, but when SN/HN was started, it
wasn't as simple or easy to do. The answer is to simply require a tiny
donation like one to five dollars to a charity (like Watsi) or non-profit
organization (like the EFF).
YC now has (at least) two payment processors who could handle the
transactions, either in real currency (Stripe.com) or virtual currency
(Coinbase.com):
[http://stripe.com](http://stripe.com)
[http://coinbase.com](http://coinbase.com)
The payment processors will always have upstream fees that need to be paid,
but if they're feeling generous, they could waive their profits on the
donations.
If for some reason a person objects to donating to the EFF, then just give
them a choice of charities, including the YC funded Watsi.org:
[http://ycombinator.com/watsi.html](http://ycombinator.com/watsi.html)
[https://watsi.org/](https://watsi.org/)
The altruism would also be good promotion for YC, Stripe, CoinBase, Watsi, and
whoever else is involved.
If you want to give a break to the starving university students, then let them
by-pass the donation requirement with an *.edu email address.
To keep everything fair between new and old users, the tiny donation could be
an annual requirement. I sincerely doubt the kinds of hackers who want to
contribute to technical discussions will have any problem with making a small
contribution to one of many known-good charities.
~~~
tptacek
I like this idea a lot, but it won't work in practice without killing off
serendipitous contributions from people associated with stories here that
happen to find out about HN and join just to answer questions. That happens a
lot, and it'd be a shame if we killed it off.
~~~
jcr
That's a huge and important point. We all love to see the contributions from
the people associated with the stories (well, I should only speak for myself,
but it's seriously one of the best parts of HN).
Using an eventual required donation in conjunction with an initially usable
account (e.g. allowing "X" days/comments/submissions before requiring a
donation) might be able compensate, but it would not solve the underlying
CAPTCHA, drive-by trolling, or spam problems.
It seems safe to assume the increased friction of requiring a tiny $1-5
donation (micro-payment) to a good cause will reduce the desired and
beneficial contributions from people associated with a submission.
The tough question is, "By how much?"
It would be difficult to measure when associated people show up to add their
contributions to relevant submissions. It would take just about all of the
data on HN, and some very elegant code. The results would still be imperfect,
but the results might still be useful. Even if actual measuring proves to be
too difficult, a rough guess (opinion) of better/worse for before/after could
still be useful. (Heck, removing per-comment karma scores "worked" to reduce
hostility/competition even though we don't have any solid measurement data to
prove it)
And the tougher question is, "Are we sure?"
Contentious comments (dumb/mean) have always been a problem in open discussion
systems, and similar is true for abusive manipulation (spam, ring-vote, ring-
flag, etc.). Having a gate of an act of altruism _could_ also both assure
intent/interest and improve quality enough to actively encourage associated
people to consider commenting to be even more worthwhile than it currently is.
In other words, there's also a second less obvious safe assumption; we're far
more inclined to join a good discussion on a topic of interest than a bad
discussion on the same topic.
Without testing, we just won't know if the added friction of a required
donation would be overall harmful, or overall helpful, or roughly even. Prior
to Stripe/CoinBase/Watsi/... the idea of requiring a tiny donation just wasn't
feasible, but now, it might be an experiment worth running.
But the toughest question is, "How much will it hurt to try?"
If it really did kill off contributions from associated people, then it would
certainly need to stop, but other than the possible temporary reduction of
associated contributions (which could be reversed), I'm unable to see any
other real or lasting harm. Even if requiring a tiny donation turned out to be
a totally failed experiment in forum design, it would still do some good in
the world.
You might be totally right and it might fail in practice, but until we run the
minor risks of actually testing it, we'll never really know.
------
Vanit
Okay, you win HN, I created an account because the anti-captcha crowd is
missing the point.
There's a current bug in Recaptcha.
IPs that successfully solve too many captchas get given progressively more
difficult challenges, which is fine, but currently Recaptcha is using the IP
of the web servers, not the client. This means that the difficulty ramps up
for all users quite quickly. It seems the iframe Recaptcha is permanently
affected, if you use AJAX its fine after the first reload (I wrote a simple JS
hack that makes it reload the first time, see www.mPoll.me)
Only noticed it because I was previously proxying Recaptcha through the server
and it run its successful solutions up too high, so when the new bug came in
it was immediately obvious what had happened when the first challenge is
"wthdyjikhgfyijv" and on reload its "fluffy bunny 18".
On my website I'm currently overwriting the Recaptcha callbacks to allow
multiple captchas, just put in a simple check to reload it the first time:
var reloaded = false;
function reloadCaptcha(challenge) {
$(':input[name=recaptcha_response_field]').val('');
$('img.recaptcha').attr('src', '//www.google.com/recaptcha/api/image?c='+challenge);
$(':input.recaptcha').val(challenge);
if(!reloaded)
{
reloaded = true;
Recaptcha.reload();
}
}
Recaptcha.finish_reload = function(challenge,b,c){
reloadCaptcha(challenge);
}
Recaptcha.challenge_callback = function(){
reloadCaptcha(RecaptchaState.challenge);
}
Recaptcha.create(recaptchaKey);
------
codemonkeyism
For a throwaway account recently it took me >20 tries to register an HN
account.
~~~
asdfasdf23sdd
Did it on my second try -- I, personally, don't think it's so bad. I thought
it was a bit crazy when I first looked at it but if you look hard enough, you
can make the letters out. I am not sure what the idea is behind the "challenge
text" though.
------
KhalPanda
Most CAPTCHA's nowadays I find unnecessarily complex. Use tricks like timing
form completion (<50ms? Bot), hidden fields, etc, before ruining the UX with
CAPTCHA.
Then again... does HN really care about UX? Token expiration after x time when
browsing through the listings, ancient unresponsive design, etc.
There comes a point where it'll be more cost effective for spammers to just
farm out the solving of CAPTCHA's to people in third-world countries. It just
depends if there is enough value in spamming HN for them to bother (probably
not, given the user-curated-and-rated content model.
~~~
jaredmcateer
Timing form completion also rejects legitimate users that have form filling
extensions (e.g., LastPass, 1Password, Roboform, etc.) In my experience hidden
form fields were only marginally effective, a lot of bots run headless
browsers capable of detecting if a field has been hidden by JS/CSS
~~~
timr
Between a simple captcha and a CSRF token, I've found that nearly all spambots
are defeated. Hidden form fields don't do much, since bots are almost never
paying attention to anything other than the DOM.
What can work well -- if you're willing to give up on fallback for non-JS
users -- is inserting a required form element into the page with JS on submit.
------
cottonseed
The Facebook account delete CAPTCHA was literally impossible. I had to give up
and use the audio option. Every step of the process made me happier I was
doing it.
~~~
DanBC
Here is the best (most readable) Facebook captcha I had.
[http://imgur.com/P7nln3d](http://imgur.com/P7nln3d)
------
carsongross
I don't know that the research says about their effectiveness (hard to find
through all the stuff on google) but I've liked the slider-based captchas I've
seen:
[http://www.3dcaptcha.net/](http://www.3dcaptcha.net/)
Seems promising given that human visual processing and pattern recognition are
lightening fast, and the slider is intuitive and kinda fun.
Anyone know how effective they are at stopping bots?
~~~
simcop2387
If you can end up getting a polygon list from it I'd think it wouldn't be very
effective at all. it looks like it decomposes the triangles onto multiple
planes so that they only line up when rotated one way, but you can calculate
that rotation based on the rotation of the planes that the polygons are on.
Even if they correct that, you'd still likely be able to find whatever image
has the lowest amount of white pixels (or whatever the background is) and
probably do a reasonable job at least with the example on the page.
------
jbb555
There have been several websites recently where I've given up because after 10
attempts or so I still can't get the capcha right.
~~~
qguv
Perhaps you're not human after all…?
~~~
danielweber
HN gave me this image just now:
[https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api/image?c=03AHJ_Vutw8XwYq...](https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api/image?c=03AHJ_Vutw8XwYqiyhWsv8G5nYgad0R0mGi9ZTyQmbJpoSzJv0tJwspYPGVVYjzwMlOKL37wzUw3SSlUKrhIO0hvmYNmY7iIaaWQyCEXprzNGYFDvpbJiu3JW6-L0p4xXRO6wUUG-
LiyxuJ1YwqFSTZadbTasR8zpVkkTLmNNZR9-EUdARTyHwk84biJh6RQSWNG5cAAiMiT75SuHh45bc3v7zsQWkFWa9kQ)
------
larrys
I sometimes think that people don't really give much thought to some of the
things that they do where they simply copy what others do.
My own personal pet peeve is people, on HN, who obscure their gmail address so
that it can't be slurped by bots.
I mean why not just use a dedicated gmail account, just for HN, rather than
"use my hn handle at that email service that everyone else uses generally".
The dedicated account has spam protection and you can forward mail to your
primary account as a filter if you want.
I have a couple of web forms with no spam protection at all. The amount of
bots that I get isn't so great that I need to trouble people to figure out a
captcha. Much less a really difficult one.
~~~
bradleysmith
>why not just use a dedicated gmail account, just for HN, rather than "use my
hn handle at that email service that everyone else uses generally". The
dedicated account has spam protection and you can forward mail to your primary
account as a filter if you want.
Because starting, configuring, and checking ANOTHER gmail address takes more
time and effort than obscuring my current dev-related email address to be
human parse-able only. Seems like a strange thing to have a pet-peeve about,
as it could only barely affect your ability to get in touch with these people.
Unless, you've been trying to slurp email addresses from HN profiles... I
could see it being bothersome in that case.
~~~
larrys
"and checking ANOTHER gmail address"
If you forward it it's not another account to check though. Sure you have to
set it up.
Also, obscuring it doesn't prevent someone who has written to you having a
situation where your email ends up in the wrong hands (for sure you've
received, if you don't have spam protection, those emails where someone who
has emailed you has had some virus which gets all their email contacts,
right?)
If you setup a dedicated gmail you can periodically change that as well
"refresh" using your own email you can't do that.
To be sure though the pet peeve is really more just thinking that people are
being overly hygienic about protecting their email address I guess. You are
right that it's not a huge burden on someone who is sending you an email.
When I used to post my gmail account to my HN profile gmail caught all the
spam it wasn't a problem (maybe this was for a year or year and a half that it
was in the profile..)
~~~
bradleysmith
I'll concede, I'm a little under-protected when it comes to spam in my email,
and sectioning my usage out to different emails would probably be a very big
improvement upon that.
Still, this ought be more a pet-peeve for myself. I can't see how obscuring my
email would bother you, except perhaps in the line of thought that you think
it does NOTHING to avoid spam, and I am just wasting a tiny amount of
everyone's time by having them parse it while not benefiting personally. I
figured if there was ever a profile a geek would write a scraper for, HN would
probably be it. It was a single line of defense I saw others use, and adopted.
Appreciate the conversation. The mostly undiscussed behavior of email format
preference in HN profiles is something that has always strangely held my
attention; I consider myself a geek for micro-behaviors in this and most any
community though.
------
andyhmltn
Just today I found this:
[https://www.sublimetext.com/forum](https://www.sublimetext.com/forum)
Incredibly frustrating. A CAPTCHA that requires you to email for the code
------
kogir
We're just using the standard reCAPTCHA
([https://www.google.com/recaptcha/intro/index.html](https://www.google.com/recaptcha/intro/index.html)).
Maybe they're harder because I don't trust third party javascript and use the
iframe version instead?
It sucks, and will shortly go away for most users. When previously our code
would refuse or tell you to try again in a few hours, the captcha will be
required instead.
------
jasonlotito
> Not sure if the intent is trying to stop bots
CAPTCHA does not stop bots. Captcha solving can, at the very least, be
automated away. CAPTCHA's do not work.
~~~
ryanburk
google security did a nice blog post supporting the statement that CAPTCHAs
aren't as effective as they used to be:
[http://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.com/2013/10/recaptcha-j...](http://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.com/2013/10/recaptcha-
just-got-easier-but-only-if.html)
------
thewarrior
Some random ideas which I know are not perfect just putting it out here :
Taking an image and turning into a jigsaw puzzle.
Using a proof of work scheme similar to bitcoin.
Do a google image search for say fish . Take 5 of those images and put them on
one side put two on the other alongside images of 10 other random objects. Ask
the user to pick the two on the right similar to the ones on the left.
------
Matheo05
Try the audio version, it's even worst!
------
fredsted
May I suggest an alternative: paying a small fee to avoid/replace captchas
(say $1-10, or higher than the captcha farms pay...)
Also it seems like HN is using the older recaptcha (without numeric signs), I
didn't know you could choose your recaptcha "version" though.
~~~
Glyptodon
You may if you feel like paying every person on earth $500 a month to cover
their captcha fees. Unless your goal happens to be excluding most of the world
from Internet services and random web forums.
~~~
fredsted
I don't know where you got that number from, that's extreme. This is a one-
time fee we're talking about here. Also why should I pay anybody? Strange
reply.
~~~
maxbrown
I think it was a strange way of saying that $1-10 may not be cost-prohibitive
to financially-comfortable residents of 1st world countries, but could
certainly be cost-prohibitive to users with less financial resources or from
3rd world countries. Such a fee could be a serious deterrent on a free and
open internet with diverse participants.
------
ing33k
HN uses reCAPTCHA, it can be bit frustrating sometimes. but its one time thing
to get in .
~~~
karangoeluw
I tried to solve the HN captcha. It's almost impossible and you have to get
_really_ lucky that you get an easy image. The audio alternative is pretty
messed up too.
~~~
codesuela
are you using TOR or any other IP masking solution? The more reCaptchas get
solved or requested by a particular IP the harder they become, so if you are
behind a IP that has been used for solving/requesting a lot of reCaptchas it
is close to impossible to get a readable one (took me about 80 tries till I
got one right when I used TOR). I don't know what exactly determines this
difficulty but it is definitely there and Google talks about it here:
[http://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.de/2013/10/recaptcha-
ju...](http://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.de/2013/10/recaptcha-just-got-
easier-but-only-if.html)
------
xacaxulu
If you like the image, just wait until you try the audio! Even more fun.
------
unwind
Is the actual link missing? Not sure where I'm supposed to look, anyway.
~~~
ozh
[https://news.ycombinator.com/logout](https://news.ycombinator.com/logout)
then
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newslogin](https://news.ycombinator.com/newslogin)
I guess
------
jcfrei
IMHO visual/audio recognition based CAPTCHAs are a dead end.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How do you deal with irrationality? - pj
I'm a fairly rational person. Perhaps some around me would say too rational. A lot of you here are rational. I know it because I read your comments. Many of you are also wiser and more experienced in dealing with the world around you than I am. I am itchy on the trigger finger sometimes and I get myself into trouble and offend people -- without intending to.<p>I had a conversation the other day with some rational folks. One of them was noticing an increasing trend in his discomfort with the world around him. An older gentleman in the conversation said he noticed that trend in himself years before and was bothered by what the younger person had said, because "it doesn't get any easier," he said.<p>I watch interviews with Ayn Rand and read Kant and their words are words I have said myself before. It is scary to think that the thoughts in my head mirror those who are "outside society." I don't want to be outside society. Sometimes I want to fit in.<p>It's difficult to look around and see continuing trends in irrational behavior leading the world into what appears to be a very negative direction. "Why don't we just make the right decision, it's so obvious!?" I think to myself...<p>What do I do? How do I find peace with it. I don't want to grow into a grumpy old cynical man. I am full of optimism. I was told years ago, "You just haven't had your wings clipped yet." I don't want them clipped, what do I do? How do I deal with a crazy world? Or am I crazy? Am I alone in this? I don't know...
======
inerte
With humor.
If I can't, I just tell myself: Wow, the world is an amazing place. All these
different people. I just hope that we can co-exist peacefully.
Once I was drinking beer with a philosophist and two writers, plus a history
student (my friend). Another philosophist, friend of the first philosophist,
came to join us, and he was an asshole. He made stupid jokes, and one of the
writers started arguing with him.
After the second philosophist left, the first one and the writer started
talking about if the way the writer treated the second philosophist was
acceptable.
They went on this discussion for, I kid you not, 90 minutes. Then they turned
to me and asked me to be the judge, and I said:
\- I think you're both right. You (the writer), was right because the
philosophist what joined us was a jerk. But you (the philosophist) is
complaining how your friend (the writer) treated your other friend, so I think
what you're really saying matters more, because you're telling your friend
that he did something that you don't like, and he's just not listening. So
you're the winner.
Everyone on the table said "that's an interesting angle on the discussion",
and the two went back to argue who was right.
My friend (the history student) said that I didn't "get" the contend, because
they were arguing for/with Reason (with capital R), and so they were expecting
me to say who was right logically.
Now, what everyone didn't know is that, while I know a little bit of Kant and
Nietzsche, I simply wasn't playing their game. With me was my (then recent)
girlfriend. So I didn't said what I said for them, I said so my girl could
listen.
I was trying to impress her. I was trying to show how I understand
relationships and how we should see things through this point of view. Women
like that, you know? :p
Anyway.
The two weren't really "arguing". They were philosophying (sp?). That's how
they have fun. By endlessly trying to desconstruct the opponent's argument, by
going into schools of thought, that's what they do on a Friday night at a
bar's table.
It's so fucking boring.
But it made my day. I was really glad to learn how philosophists spend their
weekend nights. It was just like me! Improving their skills, while having fun.
Moral of the history? There's none.
~~~
tmpguest
Did you get a shag?
------
rg123
One very positive thing about the Internet is that, even if your outlook is
not common in your physical community or society in general, you can find
virtual communities where you do fit in. This can definitely help avoid that
alienated feeling.
One way I can relate to what you're saying is that I am not religious, yet
most people I encounter offline, including pretty much all of my family and
most of my friends, are. It's nice to find that it's not at all difficult to
find people online who share my views on religion.
Yet, I still do have good relationships with friends and family despite
differences on religion and other subjects - and I think the key to this is
focusing on the common ground we can share and enjoy together instead of on
the differences. After all, we're all human beings with different emotional
biases and flaws, even those of us who consider ourselves among the more
rational. And love and enjoyment of art and music and nature and sex and
humor, etc. - all of that is emotional rather than rational. So for all the
problems we get from irrationality, we also get the positives.
All the crap out there in the world can be dismaying, but eventually, you
know, the sun will burn out and this world will be dead, and even if the human
race manages to migrate elsewhere, at some distant time beyond the death of
this solar system, the universe will collapse back in on itself (or whatever),
so keep things in perspective. Improve what you can improve in life, and enjoy
what you can enjoy, and don't get overwhelmed by the lack of perfection in the
world, because everything is ultimately temporary.
------
paulgb
I often find it useful to remind myself that we're doing pretty damn well for
a bunch of monkeys.
------
systemtrigger
> Or am I crazy? If you're crazy then I'm crazy too because what you have
> described I have felt in some form or another for a long time. You're
> definitely not alone and I think you're posing smart questions and yeah if I
> had some more time I would want to suggest to you that there are ways to
> channel your gift in an inspired direction.
Look, what I really liked about Ayn Rand is her perspective on selfishness.
She basically said Stop listening to altruism b.s. and be relentlessly
selfish. If you "get" that then you grant yourself the freedom to architect
your own future, your own world. So number one, you're the painter of your
life's canvas and you owe it to yourself to satisfy yourself long-term. What
should you paint? I say sketch it out at first. You're talking about being
frustrated with stupid people: stop focussing on them. Avoid toxic people and
spaces - cultivate your selfish world. And don't let anyone tell you that
taking care of #1 isn't beautiful. It is. It's the only way I know after
reading a ton of philosophy how to be happy. (And please no one should take
this to mean screw over other people. It's way more fun to be loving,
selectively.)
Be honest and stay rational, righteous friend.
------
Tangurena
People learn at their own rates, and if you're a parent, you'll learn
(extremely uncomfortably) that your children have to - must - make their own
mistakes. And poking folks, rubbing their noses in their mistakes is a good
way to get a black eye - not a friend.
------
noodle
basically, never forget that you're a part of the society that you wish to
instill the change in. its a problem the second you think things are so bad
that you don't want any part of it anymore. as long as you think that change
is possible and worth working for, you're doing fine.
------
pj
Thanks everyone.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Should I quit my job? - _navaneethan
I am working in an organization which generates enough revenue with decent fellow engineers. But, our engineering solutions are not up to the level. The way code is written, the way of architectured the stack, and following the coding practices are very below the par. Even we have enough top level hierarchy leads, I feel it is below the standards only. I am completely demotivated whenever I had to do some changes to the existing code(feeling like dead). I am the passionate software developer. I love to explore and create the best solutions. But this environment dries my patience. Should I quit from this? How should I react to this environment?
======
shafyy
You should ask yourself some questions, e.g.:
\- Other than that, do you like working there (company, team, pay etc.)
\- Did you try talking to someone about this problem? Maybe there are other
people who feel the same way and you can lead to change
\- Do you have any alternatives that would make you happier?
As a general rule, if you are unhappy for a longer time period, try out
different courses of action that could lead to the desired change. Too many
people just sit through it because they're comfortable and don't want to take
any risk (this not only applies to jobs, but also to other areas in life)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
What products/apps/services you use for video conferencing/calls/meetings? - ConstantineSh
What products/apps/services you use for video conferencing/calls/meetings? What you like/dislike about them? What features you'd like to add/see in products that you currently or would like to use?
======
tonylemesmer
Skype. Its easy, people (strangers) know how to use it. I would prefer not to
use it and don't like the constant tray icon (I tend to only load it when I
know I have a meeting).
I've used join.me which also seems straightforward and easy to share a code
with someone at very short notice (don't have to link accounts before we have
a meeting - you can just email a URL).
Whatsapp video if I'm on the go and want to talk to friends / family.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google Planning Tenth Messaging App–This One’s Another Slack Clone - ezy_
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/01/report-google-planning-tenth-messaging-app-this-ones-another-slack-clone
======
wbsun
There are just 10? For Hangout related, there are already: Hangout, Hangout
Chat, Hangout Meet, Chat, Meet, etc....
btw: Does Google Duo also count?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Build your own webcrawler - hibobbo
http://www.bobbylough.com/2015/08/build-crawler.html
======
bobbotheclowno
I really should do more stuff like this
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
N Reduce opens up as alternative to ultra-elite startup incubators - waderoush
http://www.xconomy.com/san-francisco/2012/05/14/n-reduce-opens-up-as-alternative-to-ultra-elite-startup-incubators/
======
victork2
Take that in your faces "Elite" startups, you wouldn't be selected, you're not
even "Ultra elite"!
More seriously though, I respect the initiative, but I would love to hear why
this particular vocabulary is employed (from the website and the company's
website): [ "ninja", "ultra", "elite", "brotherhood", "sisterhood" ]. I don't
believe you say that randomly and you want to appeal to a certain population
with these words but don't you think you'll only attract bozos and pretentious
people?
For your website ( given in the comments) please no violent transitions like
that, it's really bad for slow computers like mine. If anything I would have
think that ninjas love discretion...
~~~
railsjedi
Key phrase is "alternative to".
About attracting bozos... maybe we will. We think that instead of trying to
weed out the bozos, let everyone in and see how well they perform. If a "bozo"
can ship and gain traction with their product, then they aren't bozos are
they? But if the bozos flake out, that's ok too. What will be left is the
"elites".
Yeah, we're joking around with marketing on our site. We figure it's better
than being ultra serious. But I'm sure there's a balance that we're going to
need to eventually get to.
~~~
victork2
Thanks for your answers.
I am genuinely interested by what words carry and in your case the kind of
people they are going to attract. I actually write a bit on that. If you
emphasize a lot on ninja/ elite etc... I would guess you will attract a lot of
immature people who have ego probably bigger than their talent.
If you look at the phrasing of Y Combinator or even Facebook ads for
developers you can see that even if they add some words to be fun they are
careful about their use not to send the wrong signals.
Anyhow I wish you the best for your initiative!
~~~
railsjedi
Cool, thanks a ton for your feedback!
Maybe I live in a bubble (downtown SF), but it seems the best devs I've ever
worked with on open source and consulting project tend to have a pretty weird
(maybe immature) sense of humor. In most early stage startup offices here,
it's not weird to see grown men (and brilliant devs) run around the office and
shoot nerf guns at each other.
~~~
zeemonkee
> it's not weird to see grown men (and brilliant devs) run around the office
> and shoot nerf guns at each other
1999 called, it wants its startup cliches back.
~~~
railsjedi
Well, I was in high school in 1999. Very sad to have missed the previous
generation of nerf time fun.
------
johnny99
Kudos, I adore this idea.
You should see if YC will fund η-Reduce during the next cycle. I can imagine
them getting a kick out of funding their own disruption.
------
railsjedi
Can use the following link to sign up: <http://nreduce.com/#signup>
Sorry about the super cute hipster homepage :) We're cleaning it up and making
it a bit better organized.
Thanks for the support!
~~~
pixelcort
What will be the likelihood of NReduce accepting single founders?
~~~
railsjedi
100% likelihood of being accepted. We accept everyone who can ship products.
I'm sort of with PG on this one though. I've tried to do startups alone in the
past. It's such an insane amount of work, stress, and pressure that doing it
alone is quite a challenge.
But if you think you can do it, we'd love to have you!
------
onions
If your name comes from eta reduction, shouldn't it be "H Reduce", not "N
Reduce"?
~~~
railsjedi
It's true. We messed up the capitalization
η-reduce is the correct name. Ah well, N Reduce looks a bit nicer so we went
with it :)
~~~
SkyMarshal
You should change your logo to η , otherwise you're going to be getting this
question over and over. At least the hint in the logo may forestall some of
it, and if not you can point people to it and give them a little test.
~~~
noneTheHacker
I don't think it will matter. Google misspelled googol. Flickr misspelled
flicker (that one was probably on purpose though). If N Reduce hits it big, no
one will care about that and they will recognize it as a company that works.
Edit: I just noticed Chrome doesn't have googol in it's spell checker
dictionary. I wonder if that is intentional.
------
Jun8
Right in the first paragraph it says "... they’re introducing a new, more open
...". I don't know much about other incubators but can't really understand why
YC would be considered less "open" or "exclusive".
My understanding is that powerful incubators form around influential and
visionary people (with money or good connections) so it may not be a good
aspiration model for startups.
------
DiabloD3
N Reduce? Y Combinator? Sure, why not.
------
rmATinnovafy
Well good luck. This looks like a great opportunity.
May you share an email address?
~~~
railsjedi
Sure, email us anytime at contact@nreduce.com
------
sasha-dv
Do you want to join an ultra elite ninja brotherhood?
Hell yeah! Let me fetch my nunchucks.
I would like to see this project succeed, but the language used (too much
enthusiasm?) makes me skeptical. Anyhow, good luck guys.
------
sebastianavina
great, an startup for building up startups.
It's like the circle has been closed.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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QuestDB – OpenSource Time Series Database - bluestreak
I would like to plug new time series database, which I'm writing: QuestDB (https://github.com/bluestreak01/questdb)<p>This project was born out of the realisation that data can be handled much faster than existing databases would lead you to believe, and a general fascination in how fast hardware can do these things provided you ask it the right things to do.<p>This brief history aside, the aim of QuestDB is to provide a full fat SQL dialect for querying data,
including time series, simple, fast and convenient tools to import, export and otherwise integrate data into your existing workflow.<p>To that effect I have done quite a lot already and would like to invite you to check out list of features on my github page.<p>I would be delighted if you could look at the source code and ask whatever questions you may have and of course leave comments however harsh they may be.<p>I'm hear to learn.<p>Thanks,
Vlad
======
dozzie
Why every new timeseries database needs to implement SQL dialect, which is
awful when it comes to time-related data? Why nobody looks for other languages
and data processing models anymore? There were so many research papers about
that!
~~~
bluestreak
In this case rationale for SQL was relatively mild learning curve. Surely it
is a good thing? But you raised a good point. In QuestDB SQL is implemented
into syntatic sugar over java-based streaming model.
Writing support for another language wouldn't be that hard provided there is
consensus on what suitable query language is?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Show HN: WebGL-powered oscilloscope emulator - m1el
http://m1el.github.io/woscope/
======
hughes
That was one of the highest-fidelity visual experiences I've had on the web. I
know there's no more information being displayed than what's in the audio
channel, but I feel like this sort of experience just wouldn't translate well
to any current video encoding, even at enormous file sizes.
Thanks for building this and for sharing!
~~~
m1el
You're very welcome.
------
virgil_disgr4ce
Nice, I assume this is XY-mode by stereo channel. I did a little writeup here:
[http://cookingwithsound.com/an-xy-mode-oscilloscope-in-
your-...](http://cookingwithsound.com/an-xy-mode-oscilloscope-in-your-
browser/)
If you want to get in touch, I'd love to add more detail about how the code
works :)
~~~
m1el
I am planning to do a writeup on the core algorithm myself.
But in a few words: linear algebra and integrals.
*Edit
------
phkahler
That could be an awesome previewer for .ild files (Laser Show stuff). The
OpenLase and VectorBoy projects might like to hear from you.
It would may also be really nice for rendering the old vector games in MAME -
I have a Cinematronics emulator that can run about 13 vector games too, mostly
black and white.
------
jkleiser
I like it, but I would prefer a plain oscilloscope function, and being able to
connect it to a Web Audio source of mine.
~~~
m1el
Maybe I'll try doing that this weekend.
------
supercoder
SyntaxError: Unexpected use of reserved word 'let' in strict mode
~~~
Udo
Are you on Firefox by chance? I discovered this week that Firefox doesn't do
ES6 on included <script> files unless you specify an explicit content type
enabling it (which in turn breaks things on all other browsers).
~~~
m1el
It should work in Firefox, there is a workaround specifically for that.
~~~
Udo
It does work for me on FF, although it prints an error to console before the
workaround kicks in.
------
kepakko
Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'clearColor' of null
~~~
m1el
You don't have webgl, duh.
~~~
Udo
I'm not sure "duh" is the right response here.
------
thrownaway2424
It says I don't have webgl, but chrome://gpu says "WebGL: Hardware
accelerated". Not the first time I've run into this.
------
leetbulb
khrậng. amazing.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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iTunesConnect new UI - mikado
http://help.apple.com/itc/my-apps-quick-tour/
======
proxymoron
Well, it looks pretty, like most Apple products. The proof will be in the
pudding when artists and labels use it, I guess.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Should you move from GitHub to sr.ht - Sir_Cmpwn
https://drewdevault.com/2018/06/05/Should-you-move-to-sr.ht.html
======
sevensor
Like the business model and the notable lack of candy-colored features. Looks
like it basically gives you the tools to run an open source project the way
the Linux kernel developers do?
~~~
Sir_Cmpwn
It could run the Linux kernel model for sure, but it could also do several
others. It's suitable for smaller projects as well.
------
stephenr
I’m curious how extendable this is. It seems like at least some is written in
C?
Is it viable to say, support hg repos or remote built workers not running
under kvm, through adapters/plug-ins?
~~~
Sir_Cmpwn
Hm, this is almost entirely written in Python. Support for those things may be
possible in theory (the build tooling is mostly shell scripts and not tightly
coupled with KVM).
~~~
stephenr
Oh sorry my mistake. The link to the git subdomain from the post, goes to a
project called “sway” - I misunderstood that to be the name of the tooling.
Well being python surely can’t hurt with HG integration (also python)
I’ll definitely look into this more now. I’d seen a reference to it from
lobste.rs (maybe your profile, or a what-are-you-working-on?) and thought it
looked interesting but never got a chance to dig deeper.
Edit: how could I forget, I saw it from a post about scdoc
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Ask YC: Open source platform for a social network with lots of UGC(structured) - jyothi
I want to put up a quick prototype of a community based site with lots of structured user generated content. Support for multi-media content is preferred. Please suggest.<p>I need an open source solution rather than a hosted platform.<p>I am considering Insoshi - http://portal.insoshi.com/.
Drupal with specific templates might work too.<p>Anything more robust and cleanly designed ?<p>PS: I would essentially build on top of the platform. I expect to have lot of changes in layout and interactions. As long as I cut down the development effort on the common things - sign up, profile page, connections, feeds etc i am good.
======
gregwebs
Rails
<http://www.actsascommunity.com/>
<http://www.missingmethod.com/projects/community_engine/>
<http://beonebody.org/>
[http://www.missingmethod.com/2007/01/08/how-to-build-a-
socia...](http://www.missingmethod.com/2007/01/08/how-to-build-a-social-
network-with-ruby-on-rails/)
------
greatreorx
Unless you aren't interested in using Ruby on Rails, you might want to check
out LovdByLess:
<http://lovdbyless.com>
~~~
jyothi
thanks for the link. Seems to have a bunch of features I am interested in. I
see that it has had close to 17K downloads and a quick search didn't result in
many reviews or fan following.
How mature is this? Would you have a first hand experience using this platform
by any chance ?
~~~
greatreorx
It's only about 6 months old. My only experience was getting it up and running
locally and testing out the functionality. It took a couple of hours to get
going (mostly due to updating gem versions). From my standpoint I was happy
with how it looked. I had considered Wordpress and Drupal, but I liked the
smaller, more manageable codebase - even if it meant I may be fixing bugs in
the project code as I went.
I hadn't checked in on the project in awhile. I'm surprised it's not more
active. FYI it looks like there was a fork recently and Luvfoo is being more
actively developed (but no existing community)
<http://www.justinball.com/projects/>
~~~
pius
Nice find with _luvdfoo_ . . . somehow, I missed this before!
~~~
jbasdf
We're currently working on building a community around Luvfoo. So far we have
a few guys from around the world helping us out. I estimate that we are about
a month away from having something that is easy for 3rd parties to deploy.
Right now the project is centered around Teachers Without Borders as they are
providing funding for the project. However, there is a need to make it easy to
deploy the same system for other groups and so that is a focus. Now to be fair
I have met the guys behind Elgg. Both of them are very smart and great guys. I
think that project is still in development. Wordpress is working on a social
networking project called buddypress which looks very promising. If you want
something fast it is hard to beat Ning (but it is a hosted service). In the
Rails world Acts as Community looks like a great project. Best of luck in your
choice. There is a lot of really great open source software out there.
~~~
pius
You guys are doing an outstanding job -- kudos on the steady stream of solid
commits.
On a related note, I've actually documented a few of the steps I took in order
to deploy . . . I'll send over a pull request for my README.
------
Wesmax27
May I ask why you need an open source solution? My company does exactly what
you are looking for, but it is a hosted solution.
Email me if you're interested in discussing further.
wbarrow@realitydigital.com
------
trickjarrett
You also might check out www.elgg.org as they just released version 1. I
played with it but the project never took off so I don't have a great deal of
experience with it.
------
jotto
<http://wiki.ringsidenetworks.org/> is a reverse engineered Facebook with an
application platform.
------
sonink
I hope you know that there is nothing that Drupal can't do.
~~~
jyothi
To an extent I agree. Drupal is probably the most matured platform with tons
of templates and plugins.
But I felt its a bit too heavy and it is php. Last resort I would use that.
Just wondering if there is anything new more suitable and lighter.
------
umangjaipuria
Wordpress? It's really extensible. And you'd get a lot of help from the open
source community for any plugins that you might write.
------
dnaquin
Pinax <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1J91Ownq-7g>
~~~
jyothi
Ah python. I am more comfortable with php, ruby, java and perl. But can hack
anyway if its going to be a huge plus using pinax in terms of features etc.
But what I infer from the video and James Tauber blog is that it is far from
being mature and not ahead of drupal either. Your thoughts ?
~~~
dnaquin
I mean the advantage to other options mentioned here is building on top would
be easier than a CMS. But if you're more comfortable with ruby, go with
something on rails, not Django. I'm sure there's an equivalent project.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Goethe’s Colors: A Visual Catalogue - seesawtron
https://www.c82.net/work/?id=380
======
adzm
Despite being a fan of Goethe's writing and poetry, I somehow never knew about
his work with color. I find this area fascinating, especially how it relates
to language. What an interesting read to find on HN.
~~~
seesawtron
He worked in several fields like many "scientists" did back in those times. He
was not merely a philosopher or a writer but also a statesman, anatomist,
botanist and physicist.
I believe the specialisation of professions is merely a recent (100-200 years
maybe?) phenomenon. We become too absorbed into our professional identities of
being a programmer or biologist or engineer and tend to forget that we are of
course more than just our job and have freedom to invest our intellectual
rigour into anything and everything.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Rate my startup - 123LinkIt.com - myasmine
http://123LinkIt.com
======
maushu
Too much text on the landing page and the domain name (specially the 123)
activated my anti-spam sense, which would have made me close the tab
automatically if I hadn't remembered that it came from HN.
~~~
myasmine
It must be the three boxes you're referring to - I tried to make them keyword-
rich for SEO but maybe I went overboard. I'll work on it. The domain we're
definitely sticking with but maybe if we change some other things - more white
space, get rid of "make more money", it'll help with the spammy sense.
Thanks for the feedback.
~~~
andrewljohnson
SEO doesn't really work like that.
~~~
myasmine
No, but part of it? Yes.
~~~
andrewljohnson
Like a crumb to a cake.
~~~
myasmine
The crumbs together make up the cake.
------
rumpelstiltskin
Make sure to take HN's feedback in context. The average HN'er is NOT your
target customer. So take their criticism of your site looking/reading too
spammy with a giant grain of salt. In fact, I'm surprised you'd even ask them
to rate your startup.
A better place to ask for feedback would be a forum for bloggers (your target
demo) who would be interested in exploring other avenues for monetizing their
blog/site besides adcents. I, for one, think that your design and copy are
fine. Just split-test regularly and keep track of your conversions (which is
what any self-respecting aff marketer should do anyway)
Do change your domain name though. It's pretty bad. There's plenty of good
ones left, just be creative and use domai.nr to check their availability.
Also, check out your competitors - skimlinks, amazon affiliates etc - to get
an idea of their design, strategy etc.
------
davidw
Looks awfully spammy.
~~~
myasmine
Can you please explain how? Thanks!
~~~
davidw
The color scheme, 'make money', the domain name, and so on. Just a first
impression.
~~~
c1sc0
I don't know why you got downvoted on that. I totally agree, my first
impression was also 'cheap & spammy' ... something those annoying social media
marketing experts on twitter would hawk.
Here's a blurred screenshot to get that 'First Impression' feeling, judge for
yourself: <http://i.imgur.com/med1t.png>
~~~
myasmine
I've been working on this for a year so I'm wayyyy too close to it - this
feedback is helpful.
We definitely need to get rid of the make money text. If there's anything
specific that lends to the cheap and spammy impression, please lmk. Thanks!
~~~
paraschopra
You may also want to take feedback from HN in context of target market. I am
guessing very few on HNers will qualify as your customer, rather this should
be aimed at people who are actually interested in 'make money online' kind of
products and for them site design might be OK. Better feedback from some other
community too.
~~~
davidw
That's an excellent point and one we should all bear in mind when dealing with
sites that appeal to audiences that are far from what we know best.
------
kevinskii
I doubt that many successful bloggers would go back and add links to
advertisers in their text as an after thought. They would probably lose most
of their readership if they did. Perhaps your company can suggest links to
other blogs instead? I'm not sure how you'd make money by doing this, but
perhaps there is a way.
You're obviously terrific at what you do, and you have an open mind and good
attention for detail. I think that you'll ultimately be very successful. Good
luck!
~~~
myasmine
Wait, was that a compliment? I forgot what they felt like for a second! ;-)
Regardless, thanks for the feedback and kind words. We're targeting mid-tier
bloggers who are already advertising but don't know how to leverage it or
don't have the time to spend on affiliate marketing. We're already making
money so it's been working so far. Re: suggesting links to other blogs, it's
actually a crowded space and not what we went to get into.
Thanks again.
------
angelbob
While it does have that "make money fast" vibe, be sure to A/B test any way
that you modify it. Around here, we love minimalist, careful designs which may
not appeal to the "make money fast" crowd who are your primary customers.
So not only take our advice with a grain of salt, but A/B test it. I assume
people wouldn't have so many sites that look roughly like yours if it didn't
work, at least sometimes. Find out if you're part of that "sometimes".
------
kingkao
I love the idea and with wordpress integration and less work for user, that is
great. I'm not a fan of those links though whenever I'm browsing the internet,
but they work.
As said before, the domain name is not the greatest. Find something catchy,
more unique, that makes sense and people will automatically associate to this
type of linking and ads. The front page is really confusing and took me a long
time to figure out what you were doing. Everything below the navigation bar is
all cluttered. There should definitely be controls for your slideshow
presentation.
~~~
myasmine
I went through 4 domain changes already...haha, got any ideas? :)
A more simplistic homepage sounds necessary. Thanks for the feedback!
------
lhorie
First impressions:
1 - I should be able click around the steps on your carousel animation (above
the learn more and sign up buttons). 2 - Bottom right, tweet is bleeding out
of the box 3 - Will your plugin annoy users of your clients' blogs? (e.g. are
there obnoxious rollover popups, etc) 4 - As others mentioned, the design has
an air of cheap template. It's mostly because it makes excessive use of bright
color and it's too busy. Instead of packing things like "breaking news" onto
the homepage, space things out more and give widgets more breathing room.
~~~
myasmine
Thanks for the feedback. Noted on points one and two. Re: 3 - I'm not sure
what you mean. No, we don't do rollover popups. 4 - will run some A/B tests.
~~~
lhorie
re 3: what I meant was "do your links disrupt the user experience
unexpectedly?". I'm sure you've seen sites where you rollover a word with a
double green underline (often keywords sniffed from search engine Referer
headers) and some annoying ad popup appears, convering the content. That sort
of stuff.
If you don't that, kudos to you.
------
bsstoner
One thing that jumped out at me is there's no clear single call to action
button. You have both 'Learn More' and 'Sign Up', which downplayed the
importance of each of them since they're the same size.
I'd make it clear to the user you want them to click Sign Up, and make Learn
More smaller or just a link below it. Also the 'Free' sticker almost looks
like a call to action button too, and IMO slightly spammy.
Good luck with all the feedback.
~~~
myasmine
Hey Brain, long time no see!
Thanks for commenting and the feedback. A/B testing the points you mentioned
is on top of the list. Hope all is well.
Best,
Yasmine
------
huntero
There was so much going on visually that by the time my eyes made it to the
animated tour graphic, it was already on step 2. Being forced to move through
an animation at your pace was uncomfortable, it should be manual.
------
vgurgov
I like the idea.
I'd remove too tech words like WordPress, plugin from landing page to
"supported plaforms" or something, you are going to support other platform,
right?
Screenshots for 1-2-3 steps arent so nice.
~~~
myasmine
Thanks for the feedback. Yep, we'll make the content more general when we
launch other platforms.
The 1-2-3 steps were supposed to reinforce the name but making the connection
can be hard. I'll work on it.
------
vital101
I like the idea. Only a small styling issue jumped out at me. For your Twitter
feed in the lower right hand corner, long-ish Tweets seem to be overflowing
out of the quote bubble (in Chrome at least).
~~~
myasmine
I see that, thanks for the heads-up!
------
dotcoma
how does it work? normal words "with high potential" in a post get
automatically linked to a merchant's offerings? If so, no thanks (at least not
for me).
~~~
myasmine
Good question.
Nope. The blogger is getting 3 choices in their Settings pages where they
specify the keywords they want to link to:
1) Brand names like Apple, Best Buy, etc. 2) Product names like Dell Laptop,
etc. 3) Generic names like Indian flights.
Linking is going to occur automatically depending on the selection (this is an
upcoming feature). We don't have keywords that are too generic to avoid the
spammy look.
This is taking some time but we're also working on relating the keywords to
the overall context of the post so only the relevant keywords are linked.
~~~
dotcoma
so, if I write "apple", no link, and if I write "Apple"... what do you link?
Apple.com, the homepage?
And what about "Dell laptop", where will that take to? A page on Dell's site
where they talk about all their laptops (and not other products they sell)?
Not an easy task.
~~~
myasmine
It would have to be Apple.com and for Dell laptop, it'd take them to search
results showing the dell computers in stock or the specific model if
specified. It's not easy but increases conversions and we're almost ready to
roll it out.
------
hotmind
I like the look. The colors are rich and warm. I instantly signed up, and will
do so with many of my blogs.
However, that said, it doesn't seem like something a quality longform content
blog would use. It's more for an auxiliary lower ranking blog. This is not
necessarily a bad thing, since there are many more of the latter than of the
former.
~~~
myasmine
Thanks Jason. The plugin is, well...just okay right now to be honest. It does
the job, but it's not near the level it's going to be in the upcoming weeks.
It's going through a major overhaul that is going to make it easier to use and
that will also include more intelligence features - I hope you'll stick around
until then.
And you're right, it's more for bloggers who have content. We plan to branch
out to other types of advertising in the future that would be a better fit for
the latter.
Thanks again.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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The FH exploit sends local IPs, hostnames & MAC to an IP in Washington DC - Revisor
https://blog.torproject.org/blog/hidden-services-current-events-and-freedom-hosting#comment-31981
======
Revisor
Here is a more in-depth analysis
[http://tsyrklevich.net/tbb_payload.txt](http://tsyrklevich.net/tbb_payload.txt)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Time to wake up to the facts about sleep - robg
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/mg20026781.600-time-to-wake-up-to-the-facts-about-sleep.html
======
a-priori
The best explanation I've heard for the three states of consciousness (NREM,
REM and wakefulness), and one that the evidence in this article seems to
support, is the _default theory of sleep_. This theory states
(counterintuitively) that NREM is the default state of consciousness. However,
for whatever reason an animal can't remain in NREM sleep forever (in humans,
only 3-4 hours a day), so at that time it will switch to REM sleep. When it
has some need (hunger, thirst, sex), it will wake up. When that need is
satisfied, it returns to either NREM sleep or, failing that, REM sleep. REM
sleep acts as a "holding state" that conserves energy and keeps the animal out
of trouble.
I'm not sure if it's the accepted theory for sleep. I couldn't find references
to it by name in journal articles, but perhaps it has another name. I learnt
it from _Biopsychology_ by Pinel.
------
delackner
You can't just ask people how much sleep they want. You have to test how they
actually ARE, say by looking at white blood cell count, cortisol levels,
memory retention, problem solving, and compare different baseline levels of
sleep on such terms.
What I would like to know is what length of sleep a sedentary adult needs,
whether that need N can be met by say (N' < N/2) at night and (N'' < N/2)
during a day nap, and what (hopefully positive) affect can be had on reducing
that need by say, exercise, diet, or sun exposure.
------
bootload
_"... Far from our being chronically sleep-deprived, things have never been
better. Compare today's sleeping conditions with those of a typical worker of
150 years ago, who toiled for 14 hours a day, six days a week, then went home
to an impoverished, cold, damp, noisy house and shared a bed not only with the
rest of the family but with bedbugs and fleas. ..."_
Rest can be a weapon for Startups.
------
tptacek
I haven't gotten 7 hours in a night in a long time. Apparently, I am in fact
sleep-deprived.
------
jmtame
Your body will be very sure to tell you whether you're tired or not.
~~~
igorhvr
Exactly. Wake up every day without using an alarm clock, and take a nap when
you feel the need to.
Unless you have problems with your sleep, this will ensure you are in your
best mental shape, when awake.
~~~
xiaoma
I'm skeptical of this approach. I've had very poor results with eating
whenever I feel like it, and continuing until my body tells me to stop.
Obviously, my ancestors didn't evolve in an environment in which they had
continual access to an abundant food supply. I can't say for certain, but I
suspect they didn't have unlimited access to sleep either.
~~~
igorhvr
> I'm skeptical of this approach.
I can say it worked for me - I do not live like this, currently, but I
remember fondly the feeling of waking up every day _overflowing_ energy.
Try looking at this article - <http://www.supermemo.com/articles/sleep.htm> \-
specifically look for "free running sleep".
> I've had very poor results with eating whenever I feel like it, and
> continuing until my body tells me to stop.
Poor comparison - I would guess what you ate could not be really considered
food. That's were maybe the problem lies. Try to eat only healthy food - no
compromises, no sugar, no junk at all - it is unlikely you will have bad
results, even if you eat until your body tells you to stop.
> I can't say for certain, but I suspect they didn't have unlimited access to
> sleep either.
I reject the premise of your question - that it would be better if we did what
our ancestors did - but I will just point out that not having artificial light
(or an alarm clock) means that on average they likely slept much more than we
do today.
~~~
xiaoma
My premise isn't that we'd be better if we did exactly what our ancestors did.
My premise is that evolution has shaped us to deal with environments of
scarcity and hard work.
The issue of light is a big one. Even with all the lights off, some street
light comes in through the windows.
------
thalur
I don't particularly want more sleep, but I would like to be less tired all
the time; how does that factor into his question?
~~~
mhb
You'll need to consult some of the exercise posts for that. Take your pick.
------
axod
Sleep is for the weak and the lazy. Fact. Sue me. Now let the downmodding
commence you weaklings. More coffee....
~~~
Prrometheus
If I talked like that, my mother would say that I needed a nap.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Opower and Efficiency 2.0 sue each other over Layout in Mailers - weeny
http://gigaom.com/cleantech/a-home-energy-battle-in-court-opower-vs-efficiency-2-0/
======
weeny
This is old news now - but I'm really looking forward to when the federal
decision is made, I'm sure it will make for comedy gold.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How often do you see duplicated work in your company? - lettergram
I've worked at multiple companies and see duplicated efforts all the time. It's honestly good to some degree to have competing products, but I was curious how often some of the HN crowd has seen it as well?
======
cimmanom
How large a company? This is a communication issue and thus should be very
rare in a small company where no department is larger than a single 7-10
person team. It's undoubtedly extremely common in companies with departments
of thousands.
------
oldsklgdfth
A coworker and I are working on the same feature "in parallel" as my boss put
it. We don't communicate or exchange ideas. Not sure how the "winning"
solution will be chosen.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Gmail vs. Outlook - JoshTriplett
http://opensource-usability.blogspot.com/2016/07/gmail-vs-outlook.html
======
techmicrobiz
Outlook has Categories, which works similar to Labels in Gmail.
~~~
JoshTriplett
The article specifically mentions Categories.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Haproxy-auth-request – HTTP access control using subrequests - TimWolla
https://bl.duesterhus.eu/20180119/
======
lima
Why do people use stateless authentication when there's absolutely no need to
do so? Unless you're very large, request authentication is not going to be
your bottleneck.
One of your users session token was compromised - your only recourse is
changing the secret and logging out everyone.
See: [http://cryto.net/~joepie91/blog/2016/06/19/stop-using-jwt-
fo...](http://cryto.net/~joepie91/blog/2016/06/19/stop-using-jwt-for-sessions-
part-2-why-your-solution-doesnt-work/)
~~~
TimWolla
I am not sure how this comment applies? The choice for oauth2_proxy in my case
was, because it is a solution that already existed. You certainly could put a
stateful session service as the auth-request backend, my Lua script is
agnostic to that. As an example: For one project I put a service that
validated IP addresses against Tor's RBL behind nginx' auth_request module.
~~~
lima
Yes I'm specifically talking about oauth2_proxy.
Cool project, by the way! Thank you for making it open source. I had a similar
use case where I added an extra Nginx just for auth_request, this makes me
reevaluate.
------
TimWolla
Direct link to the repository, in case my server does not survive HN's hug of
death: [https://github.com/TimWolla/haproxy-auth-
request](https://github.com/TimWolla/haproxy-auth-request)
~~~
plange
Thanks not only for making this, but also describing your process in a blog.
I use ngx_http_auth_request_module a lot and used haproxy a lot in the past
but it's currently too limiting for my usecases - now i know it supports lua
we're in a whole different ballgame.
~~~
TimWolla
> Thanks not only for making this, but also describing your process in a blog.
You're welcome. I like giving back to Open Source.
> but it's currently too limiting for my usecases
My personal experience is the opposite: For one project I specifically slapped
on an haproxy in front of the nginx after the fact, because I considered it's
HTTP "rewriting" abilities way superior. What I could do with a single ACL +
http-response set-header (setting a specific CSP for a single path only) would
have resulted in great pain with nginx only.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Block Fingerprinting with Firefox - rendall
https://blog.mozilla.org/firefox/how-to-block-fingerprinting-with-firefox/
======
dessant
Google's reCAPTCHA makes it impossible to use large portions of the web once
you take reasonable measures to protect your privacy. The challenge will
continuously fail, despite you spending time to carefully solve it. This cruel
behavior is described in a patent [1] by Kyle Adams of Juniper Networks.
[1]
[https://patents.google.com/patent/US9407661](https://patents.google.com/patent/US9407661)
~~~
kabacha
Google's reCAPTCHA is cancer upon the web. Everyone should enable fingerprint
block to shut this invasive and abusive garbage.
If everyone would block it the website owners would have no choice other than
to move to a different captcha system.
~~~
confounded
“Hm, works in Chrome. Are you using Chrome?”
~~~
molf
This will become a less acceptable answer the more popular other browsers
become.
The only way to make that happen is to stop using Chrome and tell others to do
the same.
~~~
rplnt
"But you told me to use Chrome."
Google took over with shady practices, with the help of tech savvy people.
~~~
maxheadroom
Not to mention Edge moving to the Chrome base; which further disenfranchises
_anyone_ from making sure it works in 'x' browser, anymore.
" _It works in Chrome and Edge, which is based on Chrome, so what 's your
problem, again?_"
~~~
anonymfus
Well considering that Google already specifically blocks Chromium based Edge
from its current YouTube version may be Recaptcha will not work in it soon
too.
~~~
klez
Google is not blocking edge, or at least we have no proof of that. In this
instance I think it's safe to assume an oversight based on naive user agent
whitelisting.
And before I get accused of shilling, I hate chrome and despise Google with a
passion.
~~~
trehalose
As I responded to a comment just below this one, somebody over on reddit
tested different user agents:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/google/comments/btysl9/google_have_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/google/comments/btysl9/google_have_..).
It seems pretty clear from the fact that nonsense user agents like
"TotallyNotMicrosoft" and "IE6" worked, that there is a blacklist, not a
whitelist.
------
OJFord
> You probably wouldn’t appreciate someone tracking your moves in real life.
> There’s no reason to accept it online.
Great to read something like this on mozilla.org.
~~~
ngokevin
Kind of funny though, the vast majority of Mozilla's money comes from the ads
and tracking industry, just one step removed.
~~~
ChrisSD
The irony is they tried diversifying their income. But people don't want their
browser to ask for donations (that's nagging). They don't want their new tab
page pre-populated with websites on a new install (even if their browsing
overwrites them). They don't want "fun" additions to advertise TV shows (even
if they're opt-in).
But they're happy to pay via google's search and tracking. Mozilla doesn't
have a lot of options open to them.
~~~
ademup
Firefox has ~250M users as of about 9 months ago and $562M revenue for 2017.
I'd honestly pay $2 per month (12 times "my share") for a Firefox that
completely disavows the ad model and produces a truly user-centric experience
sans ads, fingerprinting, etc. However, given that over 95% of their revenue
comes from Royalties, I don't see that turning around any time soon.
~~~
simias
I would too, but clearly most people wouldn't, otherwise advertisement
wouldn't be such a popular way to monetize apps and websites (and Google
wouldn't be the behemoth that it is today). Actually I would also gladly pay
for a decent search engine but even DuckDuckGo decided to monetize using ads,
which IMO means that sooner or later if they're successful enough they'll
become just as bad as the rest.
Besides paying for a product doesn't mean that it becomes privacy-friendly,
look at how Spotify still tracks your every actions even when you're a paying
customer for instance.
~~~
fencepost
A possibly relevant distinction for DDG ads is that (I believe) they're
anonymized and tied only to the search, not to your identity.
~~~
simias
You're right but I can't shake the feeling that if they ever become really
popular the temptation to change that model will be huge. Maybe the DDG of
today is principled enough not to do that (and it's also probably in their
best interest at the moment since their most obvious feature compared to other
big search engines is its privacy) but what about 10 years from now? Or 20
years? What happens if their growth starts stalling and the shareholders ask
for more? Will they take the side of their freeloading users over the paying
advertisers and investors? Principles tend to be soluble in a high-enough
concentration of dollar bills.
After all there was a time where most of us trusted Google and their "Do No
Evil" motto. And then eventually in morphed into "Do More Profit" and we have
the corporation that we know today.
~~~
fencepost
If I had the ability to know what a tech company was going to do 10 or 20
years in the future I wouldn't have sold off my Apple stock in the late 90s.
DDG may change how they do things, but I expect that if they do there will be
someone else that shows up to make money by providing a value-added
anonymizing wrapper on top of search performed by a larger company - and it
may not even be on top of the duopoly as it exists right now (are there actual
search providers in the US not wrapping Google or Bing?). This may
particularly happen if a new company grows in India or China then its able to
start spreading coverage to other parts of the world.
------
kakkksaknmdm
I worked in the ad industry. Every web-browser including brave, tor,safari is
uniquely identifiable even on same hardware.
All the public computer researchers and browser vendors are years behind the
techniques to fingerprint devices (probably 5+).
Canvas, WebGl etc are techniques of the past. There are much more advanced
ones, than can identify devices with completely uniquely (on both desktop and
mobile)
Also we know when users fake their fingerprints, and the algorithm respects
the decision even though we know who the user is despite faking with all state
of the art methods.
Latest methods dont even use JavaScript. Just CSS is enough to identify every
device uniquely but you'd need JS to send the data back.
Every public researcher I've seen are given honeypot techniques that they
consider state of the art even thought the industry is way ahead of the
researchers.
~~~
flatb
Not to be picky, because to be honest I completely believe that what you say
is plausible, but that's a lot of outrageous claims with very little in the
way of examples or evidence.
~~~
kakkksaknmdm
This is what we knew of in 2015: [https://boingboing.net/2019/05/22/unique-
device-fingerprints...](https://boingboing.net/2019/05/22/unique-device-
fingerprints.html) you can figure out where the industry is now yourself.
------
b-3-n
Firefox is playing its trump, the privacy, very well lately. This is very
smart as the competition has no good answer. Equalizing on privacy level would
go against their business model so they won't ever do it wholeheartedly.
Trying out Firefox now...
~~~
jopsen
> Equalizing on privacy level would go against their business model...
More importantly it would go against the mission statement.
Mozilla isn't around to make money, it's around to make progress toward a
mission. (Search revenue helps fund that, but revenue is not the end goal for
Mozilla).
~~~
_bAp_
He was talking about the competition, not Mozilla.
------
geekamongus
It seems that almost weekly, I am reminded why I love Firefox because of some
new thing Mozilla is doing. A lot of good decisions have been coming from them
lately.
~~~
dylan604
FF is my primary browser, yet people I know that work in security laugh at me
as they claim FF is always the first browser to fail in the hacker games. I
don't know enough about why, but I'd love for that to not be a thing. Taking
into account my threat profile (types of sites I visit, JS blocking, etc), I
feel the hacking risk is still a worth while trade off for the lack of
tracking.
~~~
Fnoord
"People I know that work in security" is vague and non descriptive.
To be fair, you did follow it up:
> as they claim FF is always the first browser to fail in the hacker games
What are their sources? I also "know such people" and I am unaware of such
claims. If one uses Kali Linux, it has Mozilla Firefox as default browser. The
same for Debian (on which Kali is based upon).
The thing is, you can harden your browser after installation. The first thing
I do with a browser is installing uBlock Origin and uMatrix.
------
xvector
Can someone paste their results (or at least bits of fingerprinting entropy)
from [https://panopticlick.eff.org](https://panopticlick.eff.org) with the
latest Firefox?
With the fancy new anti-fingerprinting Safari on macOS Mojave I get just over
14.5 bits of entropy with the most entropic source being my canvas fingerprint
(1 in 600).
With Safari on iOS I get 11.71 bits of entropy, with the most entropic value
being my screen size and color depth.
~~~
abdullahkhalids
17.62 bits on firefox, 11.0 on Tor, 17.63 on chrome.
On firefox, the big contributors are HTTP headers (my native language is
announced), hash of WebGl fingerprint and time zone.
On Tor big contributors are hash of webGL fingerprint, screen size.
On chrome, they are system fonts, hash of canvas fingerprint, user agent, and
time zone.
I am not too concerned about the fingerprinting in firefox since I have strict
blocking on, ublock origin, and separate containers for facebook and google.
Based on the small amount of data facebook has on me, all the blocking is
working pretty well.
~~~
kevin_thibedeau
The numbers don't make much sense to me. On FF I get 14.05 with NoScript
active. Curiously the headers _increase_ from 1.68 bits to 3.47 when NoScript
is running.
~~~
zucker42
Of course no script increases the entropy. Most people don't run NoScript, so
you are more identifiable when you run it.
~~~
kevin_thibedeau
It increases the entropy for the JavaScript tests as would be expected. It
shouldn't affect the HTTP_ACCEPT header.
------
wybiral
I've been really impressed with Firefox Quantum for the steps they've taken
towards privacy and transparency.
This definitely seems like the edge that Mozilla will have when trying to
stand out against Chromium-based browsers going forward (especially now that
everyone else seems to base their browser off of Chromium).
~~~
ojosilva
I'm a big user of Firefox since I switched from Chrome 1 year ago for these
reasons, but I wonder why don't they base their underlying engine on Chromium
then build all their safety, privacy and other niceness on top of that?
I know Mozilla has been working hard on the engine (rewrite with Rust?) and
new versions like Firefox Focus on mobile is blazing fast, but keeping a
separate renderer (and developer tools!), with its own issues and
discrepancies, seems like a lot of sweat and pain when the Chromium project
seems decently sound OSS. I know being able to put in practice your own
interpretation of standards is a great exercise in freedom and web diversity,
which seems to reinforce their mission, but still... the end result is
probably millions in economic impact worldwide to keep website codebases
aligned with browser standards, even if the differences are apparently minimal
and 99% of the time it just works.
Is being a fully independent browser Mozilla's main raison d'être?
------
vxNsr
As much as I hate more legislation I think the only way to solve this is to
make it very onerous to own and compile this data and to level heavy fines (as
in criminal charges and/or force the company into bankruptcy via 90% revenue
fines) in cases when the database is breached.
Everything else will just turn into an arms race between those who don't wanna
be tracked and those who wanna track.
If the US did something like the GDPR but in our constitution I wouldn't be
surprised if a cottage industry opened up overnight in secure data-
warehousing. I get that it would complicate things for small companies but we
brought this on ourselves.
~~~
joaobeno
These companies then lobby the government, asking to be relieved of the fines,
because if they go down, so many workers will be out of jobs, and that they
will comply (pinky promise), so the fines should be lifted to help these
innocent people...
------
stockkid
> Keep in mind that blocking fingerprinting may cause some sites to break.
This represents the sad state of Internet we are all living through. I have
noticed that when I turn on privacy settings on Firefox, some major websites
are broken and rendered unusable. It seems that the Internet is rampant with
tracking and privacy violation, and we consumers are passively accepting it,
by and large.
~~~
kgwxd
I haven't had an issue, but I avoid "major websites" like the plague, as they
are the modern equivalent (though measles is making a comeback). If a site
breaks with good privacy settings, it's a decent indicator you're better off
not visiting. If a breaking site shows up on my radar too much, I add the
domain to an add-on I made to hide links to it on any page. My
HN/reddit/search results/etc views usually have a few blank lines, they're
links to domains I have determined I never want to visit ever again. My RSS
reader gets a variation of the filter, so they don't show up there either. It
feels really good to have the power to remove an entire site from my personal
internet.
~~~
stockkid
> I add the domain to an add-on I made to hide links to it on any page.
That sounds interesting. Have you published it or made source available? I'd
love to try.
~~~
kgwxd
I published it [1], but only because I had to in order to use it without
adding and approving it every time I started Firefox :/ I originally thought I
had made the source available but eventually realized the code repo on Mozilla
was only available to me (not sure what the point of that is). You just
inspired me to get it up on github [2].
It's a pain to configure but the example JSON in the "Preferences" section of
the add-on should be enough to get started. Just paste it into the textarea,
save, then visit HN or Reddit, you'll probably see a few blank lines where
links should be.
Right now, the top post on HN is a WSJ link. I don't want to see their links
because I don't ever want to click them just to hit a paywall I already know
I'll never accept. So my HN page looks like this [3].
The tool uses regular expressions on text and element attribute values.
Anything that matches gets a given CSS style applied. I think it would be
great if uBlock Origin could do this but it doesn't allow the level of
granularity needed to accomplish the end result.
[1] [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/ssure/](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/ssure/)
[2] [https://github.com/7w0/ssure](https://github.com/7w0/ssure)
[3] [https://i.imgur.com/pEV50xr.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/pEV50xr.jpg)
------
banachtarski
Serious question. Suppose we have this. I suppose my expectation is that
instead of seeing the same ad over and over again, now I'm seeing effectively
a random one.
Why is this necessarily better? I guess personally, I've always thought that
regulating the content of the ads, rather than the usage of sufficiently
anonymized data for ad targeting.
~~~
treve
Getting a targeted advertising that is likely relevant to you is probably one
of the few positives of tracking.
The issue people have with tracking is not 'what ad am I getting on a given
website'. To get a targeted ad they need to maintain a database of privacy
infringing information. 3rd parties having this data, and what they might do
it with it (or who they might lose the data to) is what many people have an
issue with.
Being served a targetted ad is just a strong signal that someone out there has
this private data on you.
For example, chances are that google has a pretty rich database of your
location history. If not you specifically, they do for most people. You can
probably imagine a few different scenarios where someone else obtaining that
data could be bad for someone. You're trusting google with it, but is that
trust warranted?
~~~
chrisshroba
Serious follow-up: I've always been fairly apathetic towards companies
tracking me because I don't see too many plausible situations that would end
up truly affecting me negatively. Do you have any examples (preferably that
have happened in the past, but hypothetical are okay too) of what can go wrong
if the tracking information falls in the wrong hands? Sure, street addresses,
SSN's, credit card numbers would be bad, but why should I care if someone
finds out that I'm a male aged 24 interested in backpacking, Apple products,
and programming?
~~~
OhHeyItsE
Hypothetical: individual pricing based on how likely you are to pay more for
an item, or how badly they think you need it. Sharing of data across domains
could place you in a "bubble" where you see the same price no matter where you
look.
~~~
kabacha
That's exactly what a lot of airline websites do. If you're an active user of
one try firing up a clean instance of different browser and it's very likely
you'll see a different price.
For products that can benefit from information asymmetry[1] fingerprints are
an amazing tool.
1 -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_asymmetry](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_asymmetry)
------
bojanvidanovic
Firefox is really stepping up in the game of online privacy. I switched to
Firefox almost 2 years ago and never looked back.
------
thomasfedb
Recent progress in Firefox contrasts very strongly with Chrome. I know I'm
very happy to be a FF user right now.
------
rhaksw
I've had some issues maintaining reVddit.com while keeping Firefox's tracking
protection in mind. I'd love some help if there is anyone who can provide
insight.
Basically, you can't load reVddit pages on Firefox because reVddit accesses
reddit's API, and reddit is listed on Firefox's list of websites that are
considered trackers [1].
In my uneducated opinion, this list is weird. I had some discussion about this
with Mozilla devs [2]. In that message chain, devs acknowledged reVddit is not
doing anything wrong, rather it is reddit who could infringe users' privacy.
Yet it is the non-infringing site that breaks.
Further, the devs' suggestions for remedy are not workable. They propose
moving requests to the server so that reVddit.com makes the requests to
reddit.com. There are multiple problems with this,
* It would hide more code from users
* Reddit rate-limits requests coming from a single source
* Infrastructure becomes expensive on what is supposed to be a low cost website
My conversation with devs was good but needs more. Is there any solution here,
or do we just go our separate ways?
[1] [https://github.com/disconnectme/disconnect-tracking-
protecti...](https://github.com/disconnectme/disconnect-tracking-
protection/blob/master/services.json)
[2]
[https://groups.google.com/d/msg/mozilla.dev.privacy/XO84Ezrw...](https://groups.google.com/d/msg/mozilla.dev.privacy/XO84EzrwWp0/t3cgc7H-AgAJ)
~~~
Mathnerd314
There is a similar bug in Bugzilla for redditp.com, open since 2015:
[https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1235978](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1235978)
My general impression is that tracking protection is low-priority for Mozilla
and anyone who actually cares is using uBlock Origin / uMatrix or similar
extensions since those use filter lists that are actually updated.
~~~
rhaksw
> My general impression is that tracking protection is low-priority for
> Mozilla
It is on by default, and as you point out, breaks many innocent sites. People
may migrate elsewhere. That should bump _up_ its priority.
------
securityfreak
All of this is fantastic. I just hope the day comes, when Google is no longer
the default search engine in Firefox. Safari is my default browser, but I use
Firefox heavily for “social” media accounts. I love the extensions.
~~~
vidyesh
You can change the default to any other search engine you want. Just a few
clicks away.
~~~
securityfreak
Yes, that is true. But the hypocrisy is how Firefox criticises Google (either
directly or indirectly), but is paid by Google to have them as the default
search engine. The emphasis is on the word default, not that you can't change
it. The same thing goes for Apple with Safari. They disabled 3rd party cookies
and promote privacy, but Google is still the default browser, for which Google
pays a very large amount of money each year.
~~~
jrochkind1
They (implicitly) critisize some of Google's behavior, while taking Google's
money, yes. What makes that hypocrisy? It would be hypocrisy if they were
doing what they are critisizing; it's not clear to me it's hypocrisy to take
money from someone who is... while still critisizing them! _not_ critisizing
them because you are getting money from them might be hypocrisy...
------
Despegar
As always when it comes to Firefox and privacy, the question is why isn't it
on by default?
~~~
stuff4ben
Because it may cause some websites to break and they're aiming to provide a
good user-experience for the majority of the population. If they turn this on
by default without users knowing the risks of sites not working correctly,
they'll unfairly blame Firefox, bad mouth it, and switch to
Chrome/Edge/Safari/etc.
~~~
Despegar
That's the stated reason but it's pretty weak to me. Safari hasn't had to make
similar compromises.
~~~
mevile
I don't think you've turned on very strict anti-tracking in a browser if you
think that's a weak reason. The setting can really break websites, making them
unusable or whole blocks of content don't load. Before this update I used to
use Privacy Badger and it also broke websites all the time.
I don't believe Safari has anything like what Firefox or Privacy Badger offers
built in. So you wouldn't be able to use your default experience with Safari
as a comparison.
~~~
Despegar
Safari has been leading on the privacy front for more than a decade. They were
first to block third-party cookies by default (which led to the FTC collecting
a scalp from Google when they bypassed it), blocking trackers with ITP by
default, and blocking fingerprinting by default [1].
[1] [https://www.cnet.com/news/new-safari-privacy-features-on-
mac...](https://www.cnet.com/news/new-safari-privacy-features-on-macos-mojave-
and-ios-12-crack-down-on-nosy-websites/)
~~~
baroffoos
Firefox anti fingerprinting breaks a lot of legitimate web features because
they can be used for fingerprinting. Most notably every timestamp on the
internet no longer shows the date in your timezone and every single website
thinks you are a bot and blocks you or captcha spams you.
------
tadzik_
> At the top left of your Firefox browser, you will see an icon that looks
> like an i inside a circle. Click on it and then click on Content Blocking
...did anyone figure out what the hell that is supposed to be, or look like?
Why wouldn't they just put a screenshot.
Apparently they just mean the security settings and selecting Custom in those.
Except it's on the right. And it's stripes, not a circle. _shrug_
~~~
StavrosK
Left of the URL on the URL bar is an information icon. Click that and click
"custom" next to Content Blocking, or just go into the options at Security &
Privacy.
------
cypherpunks01
Does this just turn on the privacy.resistFingerprinting flag? I liked that
flag but it set all sites to UTC time which caused me random issues..
~~~
cpeterso
No, this is different. This feature is a block list of known fingerprinting
and cryptomining scripts. The privacy.resistFingerprinting flag changes
Firefox settings that scripts use to fingerprint users, such as User-Agent
string, window dimensions, and time zone (as you mentioned). The flag is
enabled in Tor but not Firefox because the setting changes can break some
websites or hurt performance.
------
hwj
The German version of that article has a casual slang:
> Clearly, you don't want to throw your computer out of the window and never
> use the internet again, just to get rid of ads.
[https://blog.mozilla.org/firefox/de/loesche-deinen-
digitalen...](https://blog.mozilla.org/firefox/de/loesche-deinen-digitalen-
fingerabdruck-in-firefox/)
------
anoplus
I am posting this again, because I still didn't get opinions about it and I
think it is important.
How much of Firefox success depends on donations?
I have seen successful crowd-funding projects where the budget is always
transparent and communicated to the public. I am certain this motivates the
masses to donate.
Wouldn't it be better for Mozilla to make their funding fully transparent to
attract the masses?
~~~
tngranados
I'm not sure how transparent they are about their finances, but most of
Mozilla funding comes from search engines deals to make them default in
certain regions (Yahoo, Google, Yandex and Baidu).
------
Justsignedup
I've used this feature in the past. There are some weirdneses.
You lose your timezone and ALL dates appear in UTC. This is definitely not
desirable.
Fingerprinting cannot be allowed for some sites, and thus things like android
messages cannot work because it cannot accurately identify the browser.
Hopefully they'll do something about all this.
~~~
kabacha
> You lose your timezone and ALL dates appear in UTC.
Seems like an easy fix would be to have client based converter, even more
simple than what fingerprint blocker does with screen resolution.
------
ziddoap
I find it really interesting that when a company is making moves in a
direction that benefits privacy of consumers, everyone takes the opportunity
to shit on them for past mistakes or how it isn't good enough or why isn't it
on by default or any other thing they can find to shit on.
Yes, every single company has made mistakes. FireFox is no exception. Some of
them were pretty egregious. Mistakes are - hopefully - an opportunity to learn
and adjust, move forward, and continue progress towards something we all want:
privacy.
We should absolutely call out companies when they make mistakes or ill-advised
choices. I'm not saying we shouldn't. However, we should also _applaud_
efforts that are in-line with bringing privacy to consumers. Not just spend
all of our time looking for something negative to be outraged at.
This always-negative/outrage attitude just erodes any sort of meaningful
discussion.
~~~
Kiro
Pretty sure you would never say the same thing about Google.
~~~
ziddoap
What are you basing this assumption on?
The funny thing is, no matter how I reply to your comment I lose by default.
If I say I have - you say I'm lying. If I say I haven't, your point is proven.
What option do I have?
Perhaps you'd like to chime in on the discussion at hand rather than
speculating on my personal life.
~~~
dmos62
Kiro does have a point. Not you personally, but in general the popular opinion
is that Google is morally bad, while Mozilla is good. I think it would
currently be very unpopular to say that Google just made some bad decisions,
as in it's not actually "bad", because it would muddy the one-dimensional
good-bad discourse to which most of these mainstream problems descend to. Note
I'm not actually passing judgements, just talking about group think.
~~~
ziddoap
I concede that this is a valid outlook (which I did not gather from Kiro's
comment, so thanks for clarifying).
I tried to word my comment in a way that made it clear that I believe this
mentality should apply to _all_ companies, including Google, when a company
makes a move in the direction of benefiting consumer privacy. I perhaps could
have made that more clear in my original comment.
------
scoutt
I wonder is there is the possibility (or if someone came across) of saving
(and loading) all the data of a _fingerprint state_ , or to be able to craft
one, modify it, or share it. That is, all the metadata (cookies, history,
etc.) that supposedly identifies a user-type.
It could be interesting to have a drop-down in the browser to select a "who I
want to be today" profile and be able to _see the world_ from that
perspective.
------
muxator
Whatsapp web does not show the authentication QR code if resistFingerprinting
is on. This is annoying at minimum.
I would happily use another IM, but the bad thing about network effect is that
one would need to convince everyone else to make the switch, too.
In order to take over, freedom-respecting services need to become _better_
than the non free ones not only on a technical level, but on a UX one, too.
~~~
roboyoshi
which is basically impossible of you're a non-profit or donation based
insitution versus a multi-billion dollar company. It's why Evernote is still
unreplaced and dropbox has the best filesync. Anyy,way.. I've heard good stuff
about matrix so will try to setup this over the weekend.
------
quickthrower2
Are they are biting the hand that feeds them? Interesting relationship with
Google - they get revenue from them, but are a competitor with conflicting
ideals.
I'd like to see Firefox premium services (like a dropbox clone etc.) to
provide independent revenue, so they can be aggressive for privacy.
------
t0astbread
How does this work? Does it just block domains known to host fingerprinting
scripts? If no, how does it hide addons and settings that interfere with the
website? And how does it prevent leaking information by itself that can assist
fingerprinting?
------
ddffre
What about them selling their data on the darkweb?
They claimed that there was no breach, but yet all of their database is being
sold on the darkweb.
Is it so easy to gather their database and publish it?
~~~
eVeechu7
Who is them? Whose database?
~~~
ddffre
Truecaller: [https://techunalt.com/truecaller-data-sold-on-dark-
web/](https://techunalt.com/truecaller-data-sold-on-dark-web/)
------
emptyparadise
Google Recaptcha becomes absolutely unbearable once you use this and also
block Google cookies on non-Google sites.
Given all that, features like this will not make their way to Chrome.
------
porky
At first I read "block Fingering with Firefox"
------
bitdeep
Damn... I was using some fingerprint to prevent sensitive accounts to be
stolen or misused, now moz guys is taking away my cake.
------
hinkley
I'm starting to wonder what would happen if you made a proxy that made your
web browsing look like bot traffic.
~~~
jamiek88
Captchas. Lots of captchas.
------
mod_stretch
Mozilla has been up to some questionable activity lately as well. They blocked
the Dissenter extension.
------
somezero
Does using "User-Agent switcher" or similar extensions have any effect on this
functionality?
------
amanzi
I use the Strict blocking setting and have no need for a separate adblocker.
------
thejohnstone
You should try Kameleo software manipulate your fingerprint!
------
ycombonator
Is there a test to check whether a site is fingerprinting ?
~~~
kube-system
There are likely some blacklists for known fingerprinting libraries. But,
there's nothing that can tell you for sure, because it is also possible to
fingerprint entirely server-side using the information your browser
voluntarily transmits or contextual information about your connection.
------
terrycody
Awesome feature, already activated it!
------
SmokeGS
This might make me download Firefox
------
lcao
Yes, the same browser that sent the raw browsing history of a portion of users
to a third party. Talk about tracking!
>Users who receive a version of Firefox with Cliqz will have their browsing
activity sent to Cliqz servers, including the URLs of pages they visit.
[https://blog.mozilla.org/press-uk/2017/10/06/testing-
cliqz-i...](https://blog.mozilla.org/press-uk/2017/10/06/testing-cliqz-in-
firefox/)
~~~
jszymborski
Damned if you disclose your responsible stewardship of user data, damned if
you don't.
> Less than one percent of users in Germany installing Firefox from our main
> download page will receive a version of Firefox with Cliqz recommendations
> enabled out of the box.
> Cliqz does not build browsing profiles for individual users and discards the
> user’s IP address once the data is collected.
> One of Mozilla’s core privacy principles is No Surprises: we will use and
> share data in ways that are transparent and benefit our users. That is why
> we are telling you about this today. We
> We hope that users will appreciate the improved experience, but if users
> want to turn it off, they can always disable data collection or remove the
> Cliqz add-on entirely.
~~~
sdoering
Sorry. If I want my data somewhere else I can stay with Chrome.
I switched years ago because of performance reasons. Whenever I tried to
switch back I felt stabbed in the back shortly thereafter by Mozilla.
~~~
JoshMnem
Chrome is much worse. It seems like chopping a leg off because someone stepped
on a toe.
~~~
sdoering
With Chrome I do not expect privacy. With FF every time I trust them the f __k
me over.
So - with Chrome I know what I am getting and I treat it as such. With FF I
only wanted a Browser. I never aigned up for their (internal and external)
advertising, Pocket stuff and other s __t like this.
So no - because FF brands itself as a privacy option, I hold them to a
different and much higher standard - and the fail every time.
------
Causality1
AdNauseam is an extension that clicks ads at random in the background, thus
polluting your user data. It was useful enough to get banned from the Chrome
web store.
~~~
floatingatoll
It’s probably wise not to encourage interstate advertising fraud that the FBI
might decide to investigate and arrest you for knowingly participating in.
[https://www.fastcompany.com/90273549/fbi-and-google-take-
dow...](https://www.fastcompany.com/90273549/fbi-and-google-take-down-multi-
million-dollar-ad-fraud-operation)
~~~
Causality1
They arrested people for making money by generating fake clicks on their own
site. AdNauseam isn't ad fraud any more than running a web crawler bot is ad
fraud.
~~~
floatingatoll
I’m sure you’ll be fine, eventually - but that’s not guaranteed to stop them
initially, or without a digital search of your entire computer, for example.
~~~
Causality1
Do you have any evidence that any AdNauseam user has ever been arrested for ad
fraud?
~~~
floatingatoll
I am neither a lawyer nor do I work for any criminal justice entity,
apologies. You’ll need to discuss this with a lawyer if you’re materially
concerned about this line of reasoning coming to pass.
~~~
Causality1
I, personally, think you're full of it, but I'm offering you the opportunity
to present evidence for your claim that using AdNauseam is "interstate ad
fraud" that leads to arrests of its users. If I were the dev I'd consider
those claims potentially libelous.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Shunning Amazon, Booksellers Resist a Transformation - arvinds
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/05/technology/shunning-amazon-booksellers-resist-a-transformation.html?ref=technology
======
ilaksh
Why do we tolerate the middle men at all? There are actually a number of easy
ways to sell digital books online without an Amazon or anyone else.
For example, <http://pulleyapp.com/> is $6 a month. That's it. You can price
your ebook whatever you want. You don't have to give another company a cut of
each purchase.
There's also <http://www.shopify.com/>
There are open source solutions like
<http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/easy-digital-downloads/>
The architecture of the internet is actually outdated. I mean, it may take a
few years for people to realize this, but the fact that we have to go to a
specific web domain, which is tied to specific hardware or private network, in
order to search for things like Kindle books (or Google for practically
everything else), is creating monopolies that aren't beneficial to consumers
or retailers.
What we want is a content-centric internet that works more like peer-to-peer
networking. Wikipedia has one variation of the idea
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content-centric_networking>
Usually people dismiss that idea out of hand in the context of e-commerce
because they don't understand how peer-to-peer networking can be secure or
private. But in fact it can be, it has to be, and it will be. Its going to
take everyone a little while to figure that out though.
~~~
ChrisNorstrom
We tolerate middle men because it's easier for a single human with a singular
vision to create an easily searchable marketplace of creators' content than it
is for the creators themselves to come together in a cooperative and form it
themselves.
TLDR; Humans are good at following leaders and complaining about results
rather than working together and leading themselves.
_(Presidential elections are a perfect example of this)_
------
manicdee
With Amazon playing the game of undercutting the entire market until everyone
else is dead, the only way to win is not to play.
Every single purchase from Amazon — book or otherwise — is a vote for Bezos'
monopoly over your culture.
~~~
revelation
In what world is pricing a digital version of a book slightly below its dead-
tree variant "undercutting"?
This is not publishers shutting out Amazon, this is publishers shutting out
digital books, and they have been doing so all along, consistently pricing
ebooks at the same or higher price of print copies and colluding with Apple in
a price fixing scheme.
~~~
flyinRyan
Why would an ebook be cheaper? Is it not more convenient? Price comes from
value, not what it costs to make so being easier to produce has nothing to do
with the price (well, except the price floor).
~~~
vampirechicken
Are you seriously suggesting that the cost of the physical book, and it's
construction has nothing to do with the price of the book at the bookstore?
~~~
flyinRyan
It has one thing to do with it: it sets the price floor. If the market value
of that book is not past the price floor then there's no point in making it.
But some people who don't get how markets work think prices are:
how_much_work_I_did+how_much_materials_cost+profit_amount_I_want. It's not.
The item is priced based on the value it is perceived to provide.
~~~
vampirechicken
The equation you just posted is the seller's value equasion. That's how the
seller measures value in order to price the goods.
Things are priced by the buyer according to perceived value also, but using a
different equation. a sale occur when the two points close enough that either
or both parties are willing to adjust their price point to make the sale.
The seller "prices" the goods at marginal cost + profit. The buyer decides if
there is enough values at that price for her to make the purchase.
------
jimmybook
Amazon is definitely changing the game. It's forcing the likes of Tim Ferriss
to reach out aggressively non-traditional online outlets to promote the book,
leading up to the release date on the 20th. Like he says, if this little
experiment works, it can be disruptive - that is, publishers and booksellers
alike will have to rethink their current distribution channels.
Thing can only lead to one thing from a macro perspective - a "land grab" of
online distribution channels in the upcoming years.
------
snambi
Why everyone seems to hate amazon?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Differences between Python 2.7.x and Python 3.x, with examples - rasbt
http://sebastianraschka.com/Articles/2014_python_2_3_key_diff.html
======
ak217
"Now, in Python 3, we finally have Unicode (utf-8) strings, and 2 byte
classes: byte and bytearrays."
No, they are Unicode strings. utf-8 is an encoding, and only comes into play
when you want to encode strings into bytes for sending them somewhere, or
decode them from bytes when receiving them. The interpreter's internal
representation of the string is either UCS-4 or an automatically selected
encoding
([http://legacy.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0393/](http://legacy.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0393/)),
but that is an irrelevant implementation detail. Conceptually, the strings are
sequences of Unicode characters, and it helps to think of them that way.
Here are the really important facts about Unicode handling differences between
Python 2 and 3 (aside from the obvious str/unicode -> bytes/str move):
\- There is no silent Unicode coercion in Python 3. Unlike Python 2, your
bytes objects won't be decoded for you to str just because you happened to
concatenate them with a Unicode string. Your Unicode strings won't be encoded
silently if you write them to a byte stream (instead, Python 3 will fail with
the cryptic error "TypeError: 'str' does not support the buffer interface").
\- The default encoding in Python 3 is utf-8, instead of the insane ascii
default in Python 2.
\- All text I/O methods by default return decoded strings, except if you open
a stream in binary mode (open(filename, "b")), which now actually means what
you'd expect. See the documentation for the io module
([https://docs.python.org/3.4/library/io.html](https://docs.python.org/3.4/library/io.html))
for more information. (You can use the io module in Python 2.7 to write code
that is more forward-compatible with Python 3.)
\- The above I/O semantics includes sys.argv, os.environ, and the standard
streams (sys.stdin/stdout/stderr). The fact that all of these behave
differently between Python 2 and 3 with respect to text encoding makes for a
lot of fun hair pulling when trying to write code compatible with both.
I have built a small library of helper functions to help deal with this stuff
in a sane way:
[https://github.com/kislyuk/eight](https://github.com/kislyuk/eight). Another
project that I can recommend that tries to lessen the pain of writing code
that's compatible with both 2 and 3 is python-future:
[https://github.com/PythonCharmers/python-
future](https://github.com/PythonCharmers/python-future).
~~~
rdtsc
> No, they are Unicode strings. utf-8 is an encoding, and only comes into play
> when you want to encode strings into bytes for sending them somewhere,
Isn't sending data "somewhere" pretty common. Unless this is middleware in
python ecosystem, data is going to go a logger, database, console, web page,
file. Am I misunderstanding it? It seems you are dismissing it as something
one doesn't need to worry about, because it is not done much...
> The above I/O semantics includes sys.argv, os.environ, and the standard
> streams (sys.stdin/stdout/stderr).
Completely ignorant about it, but how would Python 3 know when reading from
stdin what the encoding is? Or what about when reading sys.argv?
~~~
ak217
> Isn't sending data "somewhere" pretty common. Unless this is middleware in
> python ecosystem, data is going to go a logger, database, console, web page,
> file. Am I misunderstanding it? It seems you are dismissing it as something
> one doesn't need to worry about, because it is not done much...
The point is not to dismiss the encoding. The point is that the OP is
confusing the character representation (Unicode) and the I/O encoding (utf-8).
Yes, sending data somewhere is common, and when you do that, you are taking
your Unicode string and encoding it using whatever encoding is appropriate
(usually utf-8).
As for whether you should worry about what the encoding is, modern systems
(including Python 3, but not Python 2!) use utf-8 everywhere by default, and
save you the headache of specifying the encoding or passing it around. One
important exception is a Linux process which hasn't had the locale variables
set (normally this is done by the PAM environment module, but in a number of
situations all environment variables might be stripped from the process,
leaving it with what's known as a "POSIX C" locale, which is kind of a broken
anachronism). Generally that leaves the system (not just Python) open to all
kinds of brokenness, so keep the locale set by not stripping LANG and LC_ALL
from your environment.
> Completely ignorant about it, but how would Python 3 know when reading from
> stdin what the encoding is? Or what about when reading sys.argv?
Great question! Python guesses the system encoding using logic that looks at
the locale environment variables (most commonly LANG and LC_ALL) defined by
POSIX (or on Windows, detects the console or uses ANSI). For more information,
take a look at
[https://docs.python.org/3.4/library/locale.html#locale.getde...](https://docs.python.org/3.4/library/locale.html#locale.getdefaultlocale)
and
[https://docs.python.org/3.4/library/sys.html#sys.stdin](https://docs.python.org/3.4/library/sys.html#sys.stdin).
It's also possible to override the I/O encoding with the PYTHONIOENCODING
environment variable.
The output of locale.getpreferredencoding() is used for environment variables,
command line arguments, and I/O streams. More generally, you can access and
change the encoding of any character stream using its .encoding attribute
(e.g. sys.stdin.encoding).
~~~
xorcist
> Python guesses the system encoding using logic that looks at the locale
> environment variables
This is not an implementation detail, but means that when Python chooses a
different encoding than you thought, your program crashes spectacularly (and
not on start, but on some unicode operation further down the line).
The same program will run differently depending on who starts it. This should
go on top on all Python 3 tutorials, since it's not obvious at all what
happened, especially not for a beginner. Non-conformant environment variables
and file names causes all sorts of weird problems.
I can recommend Armin Ronacher's unicode tutorials for Python 3. It is what
saved my sanity when I first encountered it.
~~~
jessaustin
_...your program crashes spectacularly (and not on start, but on some unicode
operation further down the line)._
ISTM that it could be a good idea to try all potentially-dangerous unicode-
related operations immediately on startup. That might be a good idea for a
package or even an addition to the stdlib.
------
pdknsk
There are other, more subtle differences. In Python 3 this doesn't work.
>>> filter(lambda (x, y): x > y, ((1, 2), (4, 3)))
And 2.7 returns the filter result in the input type.
>>> filter(lambda x: x in 'ABC', 'ABCDEFA')
'ABCA'
In 3 it's an extra step.
>>> ''.join(filter(lambda x: x in 'ABC', 'ABCDEFA'))
'ABCA'
------
tzury
The `xrange` example suggests that in Python 3.x, `range `(which is equivalent
to xrange in python 2.x is slower than range in python 2.x.
This is a double patently IMHO.
[http://sebastianraschka.com/Articles/2014_python_2_3_key_dif...](http://sebastianraschka.com/Articles/2014_python_2_3_key_diff.html#xrange)
------
rdtsc
Vis-a-vis the unicode issue this is another post (by Armin Ronacher/mitsuhiko,
creator of Flask web framework)
[http://lucumr.pocoo.org/2014/5/12/everything-about-
unicode/](http://lucumr.pocoo.org/2014/5/12/everything-about-unicode/)
------
wting
> However, it is also possible - in contrast to generators - to iterate over
> those multiple times if needed, it is aonly not so efficient.
You can reuse a generator multiple times via itertools.tee():
[https://docs.python.org/2/library/itertools.html#itertools.t...](https://docs.python.org/2/library/itertools.html#itertools.tee)
------
thomk
Typo in this sentence: However, it is also possible - in contrast to
generators - to iterate over those multiple times if needed, it is aonly not
so efficient.
------
gomesnayagam
thought many improvement happened, developer still prefer to use 2.x and the
eco system take long time to adopt 3.x. "who tie the bell to the cat"
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Saga of Craig Wright, the Latest “Inventor of Bitcoin” - jstoiko
http://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/bizarre-saga-craig-wright-latest-inventor-bitcoin
======
Lazare
Regardless of whether Craig Wright is Nakamoto, there's an interesting story
here, and I'm looking forward to it coming out. Someone has spent a fair
amount of time and effort forging documents and setting up an elaborate paper
trail to lead some journalists to this conclusion. Why?
It's easy to compare this to the Dorian Nakamoto thing, but this is quite
different. Nobody had a vested interest in making Dorian look like Satoshi, it
was just sloppy journalism. This is something else (although it might be
sloppy journalism too...)
~~~
joosters
My best guess is that the fraud angle is most likely. Especially the
'fortunate' emergence of draft contracts showing that the guy has claim to a
huge stash of bitcoins (but conveniently he can't access them until 2020).
Perhaps he hoped that by appearing to be 'doxxed' it would lend more credence
to his claims that he owned/controlled this wealth.
A fraudster could get a lot of mileage out of a "I will pay you back later,
look I've got all this future wealth" claim.
~~~
jgalt212
> but conveniently he can't access them until 2020
Maybe that's his estimate of when the supercomputer he's built in Iceland will
crack Satoshi's private key.
------
runn1ng
As others have said, I lost a little confidence in Gwern, who was a co-author
of the the Wired piece and who I, until now, viewed as more skeptical.
Especially given his history at LessWrong.
~~~
Moshe_Silnorin
Gwern has a sterling reputation at LessWrong - or do you just mean having an
association with LessWrong is bad in itself. One Satoshi candidate, Hal
Finney, was a LessWronger, too.
I, too, am surprised he believes this, but I'm not about to write him off. He
could still be right and if he's wrong so what.
~~~
runn1ng
Yeah, that's what I meant. He has a great reputation, so I held him in high
regard somewhat until now
------
phpnode
This reddit thread offers some pretty interesting / convincing speculation on
Craig Wright's scam -
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Buttcoin/comments/3web4s/some_more_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/Buttcoin/comments/3web4s/some_more_info_on_craig_wright_and_his_scam)
------
vezzy-fnord
I swear with all the rampant speculation and hunting for Satoshi's identity
that have led deep to a multitude of rabbit holes, the only way for the real
Satoshi's uncovering _not_ to end up a disappointment, would be if he's also
revealed to be simultaneously D.B. Cooper and Jimmy Hoffa (maybe even the
Zodiac Killer while we're at it).
~~~
keithpeter
The reality might be quite everyday like the strange case of David Rodinsky
[1]
I'm just wondering why those early-mined bitcoins have not been touched...
[1]
[http://www.theguardian.com/books/1999/may/22/books.guardianr...](http://www.theguardian.com/books/1999/may/22/books.guardianreview9)
~~~
oh_sigh
Perhaps he just used a throwaway key and Satoshi no longer has access to it.
~~~
keithpeter
That would chime in with the idea that the reality was much more mundane than
what we all imagine. I suppose before bitcoin actually took off, that might be
a reasonable thing to do, just check it was all working as intended with early
adopters...
------
canjobear
Is there anywhere I can read a concise summary of the evidence for and against
this guy as Satoshi?
Right now the facts seem spread out across popular press articles and random
forum threads.
~~~
jnbiche
If you're technical, this alone should be enough to convince you that none of
this has any connection to Satoshi:
\- [http://motherboard.vice.com/read/satoshis-pgp-keys-are-
proba...](http://motherboard.vice.com/read/satoshis-pgp-keys-are-probably-
backdated-and-point-to-a-hoax)
If not, then this will probably at least convince you of the (lack of)
veracity of Craig Wright's many claims:
\- [http://www.zdnet.com/article/sgi-denies-links-with-
alleged-b...](http://www.zdnet.com/article/sgi-denies-links-with-alleged-
bitcoin-founder-craig-wright/) (Wright claimed to have SGI supercomputer,
turns out to not be true)
\-
[http://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2015/12/11/bitcoi...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2015/12/11/bitcoin-
creator-satoshi-craig-wright-lies-hoax/) (Wright claimed to have CSU PhD,
turns out to be false)
Go and look up the claims this guy has made that turned out false. The guy is
clearly a massive fraudster, which was crystal clear to me from the moment I
first heard him speak, and who has encouraged this "I'm Satoshi" thing for the
last year or so (probably for financial reasons).
I mean, the fact that a lot of people in the "technical community" and
"Bitcoin community" fell for this have seriously lowered my esteem of both.
Bitcoin in particular seems to have been attracting a certain type of gullible
gold-seeker since ~2013. Sadly, the scammers go wherever these folks go, and
so Bitcoin has been absolutely besieged by them.
Similarly, the number of "journalists" who wrote off the difference between
"satoshin@gmx.com" and "satoshi@gmx" as it were an unimportant detail is
pretty stunning (my opinion of them was already pretty low, so no real hard
done).
------
ikeboy
That's probably the most "forum" links I've ever seen in a mainstream
publication.
------
fiatjaf
Why is the police trying to catch Satoshi Nakamoto?
~~~
ufo
The police is going after Craig because he owes millions of dollars in unpaid
taxes. It has nothing to do with him claiming to be Satoshi (although his name
getting in the news might have prompted them to raid his house before he ran
away with the evidence).
~~~
fiatjaf
Thank you for summing that up for me.
------
cornchips
My summaries (with evidence):
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/3weotb/evidence_th...](https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/3weotb/evidence_the_craig_wright_emails_were_genuine/)
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/3wi2qk/twitter_acc...](https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/3wi2qk/twitter_account_of_the_satoshi_doxer_and_more/)
There's a whole other story to people's reactions to this. I'm quite surprised
there is an equivalent of lack of belief here; as reddit can be really
childish and vile. Meme phrase "Regardless of the outcome.. I believe this is
a hoax"
------
mbrutsch
Who doesn't love ~~doxxing~~ investigative journalism?
~~~
Kutta
Please don't propagate this crap. The stories came out only after the guy
publicly paraded himself as Nakamoto.
Quite possibly we would have gotten articles published even if Wright didn't
"out" himself, but I highly doubt that gwern would have given his name in that
case, and Wright did out himself after all.
~~~
baby
How did he out himself? He was outed after an "investigation". This is
doxxing, not journalism, I will agree with the parent comment.
------
fredgrott
Craig Wright is not the inventor of Bitcoin...
First Satoshi Nakamoto is a pseudonym first part implies clear thinking second
part implies central in origin..its meaning might be central to the origin of
cyber-encryption movement..although that probably is not it..but the made up
name does imply that the inventor is central to an encryption movement.
~~~
plorg
I probably need not explain that this is simply tautological.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why developers should be force-fed state machines - Titanous
http://www.shopify.com/technology/3383012-why-developers-should-be-force-fed-state-machines
======
pacemkr
This is mostly a description of state, not of state machines.
Status, published, or paid fields on your objects have little to do with state
machines if the code is not written with assertions about the current state of
the application. These fields are just... well plain state, and no machine.
One would learn more about state machines from looking at the Ruby gem that's
linked to in the article: <https://github.com/pluginaweek/state_machine>
~~~
lgeek
I've always thought that gem's a bit silly. It makes sense to _think_ in terms
of state machines, but to code them explicitly?
~~~
pygy_
Yet another misteriously killed post, by someone who's not deadbanned:
In [1] , fleitz [2] wrote
_Explicitly using a state machine often yields benefits in terms of
reusability and clarity. The state machine pattern also works really well with
async code where it quickly becomes unapparent what's going on._
[1] <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2650347> [2]
<http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=fleitz>
~~~
6ren
Weird, that's one of the most insightful comment here. Why would it be killed?
------
eck
State machines should be force-fed simply because they are the simplest
computational model, and if they are sufficient for a task, to use something
more complicated would be illogical. Indeed, in computer science school, they
generally _are_ force-fed, followed of course by force-feedings of push-down
automata and various Turing Machines. (And if your web app is modeled as a
very long tape, that is probably bad.)
------
tomdale
Great post. I think it is important that more developers learn the importance
of managing state. Almost every application ends up with the kind of bugs
where you have two properties set on an object that are mutually exclusive,
and you can do nothing but scratch your head and try to reproduce the steps
that got you there.
Even more important than in Rails-style server-side MVC, though, is using
state management in stateful client-side MVC, like Mac, iOS/Android, and web
applications. (See [http://gmoeck.github.com/2011/03/10/sproutcore-mvc-vs-
rails-...](http://gmoeck.github.com/2011/03/10/sproutcore-mvc-vs-rails-
mvc.html) to understand the difference.)
At least with Rails, the flow through your application is pipelined M->C->V
and the debugging is significantly easier. If you think about an iOS
application, for example, your application is starting off in a different
state every time, and is constantly being modified by the user. If you ever
get into bad state, it can be very hard for the user to recover; especially if
that bad state gets persisted to the file system.
One problem with state machines is that they grow in complexity very quickly,
and the tools that were given to most people in their CS curriculum don't help
you manage this fast growth. However, applications that are mission-critical
still need the robustness of formalized state management.
David Harel, while working on software for fighter jets, came up with Harel
statecharts, which describe a formalism for parent and child states. These are
also very popular in embedded systems, such as pacemakers, where users could
die if the system fails:
[http://www.wisdom.weizmann.ac.il/~dharel/SCANNED.PAPERS/Stat...](http://www.wisdom.weizmann.ac.il/~dharel/SCANNED.PAPERS/Statecharts.pdf)
We've been preaching statecharts pretty hard in the SproutCore community,
although largely internally at Apple, and included a built-in statechart
library in our 1.5 release. Mike Cohen, the maintainer of the SC library, has
a ton of great resources on his blog:
<https://frozencanuck.wordpress.com/category/statecharts/>
I think especially in the arena of web applications, we need to start
spreading the word about the benefits of statecharts, not least of which is
the easy ability to regenerate state from URLs. It requires discipline and
effort upfront, but so does unit testing, and I think that's a battle that the
development community has largely won.
~~~
adamesque
This is increasingly important for client-side devs as we use the History API
to transition between pages without reloading. This upends our whole
predictable state model starting with a page load and a clean slate.
Case in point: I recently built a web app / site with simple content, but very
complex page-to-page animated SVG transitions.
The _easiest_ part of the project was implementing the animated transitions.
By far the hardest part was managing UI state, since you could enter the app
from any URL endpoint.
Thing is, it was only the hardest part because I thought about it last, after
I'd built the whole thing assuming a predictable initial state. An approach
starting with a statechart might have saved me a ton of trouble.
------
Stormbringer
Last time I ran into a business process coded as a state machine in the wild
it was this horrible mess of code that no one could understand. After staring
at it for a while, going through it line by line... finally the lightbulb went
off and I was "oh! It's a state machine! I know what they're trying to do
now!"
Kind of a Neo "I know Kung Fu" moment.
Unfortunately, no one else on the team knew/remembered anything about state
machines, so my epiphany didn't help them out any, even if they had had the
same kind of classical Comp Sci education as me.
Naturally, the first thing I did with this power was to leverage it into World
Domin... no wait, that was something else. :D What I did with this knowledge
was to hassle the people until they gave me a diagram of what the state
transitions (or whatever they called them in Business Analyst land) were
supposed to be, and then I went back and compared them, and they were not the
same :(
------
rdtsc
Erlang comes with gen_fsm behavior because often when writting network
protocols and servers, a state machine is a useful abstraction.
Relevant:
"Rage Against The Finite-State Machine" from "Learn you some Erlang For Great
Good"
<http://learnyousomeerlang.com/finite-state-machines>
~~~
teaspoon
In Haskell, you can represent a state machine and its current state using an
iteratee:
[http://www.yesodweb.com/blog/2010/09/enumerators-tutorial-
pa...](http://www.yesodweb.com/blog/2010/09/enumerators-tutorial-part-1)
An iteratee is essentially just a function that takes an input symbol and
returns either a final state value or another iteratee.
------
audionerd
So, more often than not, you'll catch your state machines attaching behavior
directly to your objects. Which sometimes bugs you, because you want your
states to be less about "nouns" and more about "verbs".
And eventually you notice that, in most cases, you crave coordination across
those "nouns" (e.g.: "a transition in model A provokes a transition in model
B"). The real workflow now lies "at the intersection of two models". You start
to wish for the equivalent of "process management" in addition to state
management.
So this, coupled with general unhappiness for the sort of anti-modular/anti-
abstraction problem you see in state machines, might incite you to look at
"workflow engines" like Ruote.
<http://ruote.rubyforge.org/>
TL;DR I am drinking the 'ruote' kool-aid right now. Augment your state
machines with a great coordinator in the sky, a few levels higher in the
architecture stack.
(BTW: I'm paraphrasing this argument from John Mettraux's "state machine !=
workflow engine" post, and Kenneth Kalmer's Ruote presentation from this year.
Really changed my thoughts on the matter recently.)
------
billybob
Using the state_machine gem in one of our Rails apps, which tracks a workflow
where items can be received, entered, reviewed, rejected, etc, helped me think
through the business process and map that to our code.
We also logged all the changes in state. In hindsight, I should have added a
"previous log entry" field to each log item, to make it easier to trace the
history of any given item. Like "find all the rejections, hop back one through
the log history and show me who created that item." If the rejection
references the creation's id, that's easy; otherwise it's a query using widget
ids and the date and sorting to get the most recent entry before the
rejection.
------
protomyth
It is interesting how few languages make state machines easily read when the
appear in code ("what's with all the ifs?").
~~~
6ren
You could use polymorphism - but that scatters the transition logic to the
four winds.
I guess pattern matching would work well (haven't used it that way myself).
An actual state transition table seems the most straightforward way to
represent it - but I agree, it's striking that there isn't native support for
it. Perhaps there isn't a better way to do it...?
_EDIT_ just thinking, a state machine can be modeled as a regular expression
(they are formally equivalent). You could represent them as productions; or,
as regular expressions. Composed of the input symbols causing the transitions
- the states are implicit; but you could associate a function with each
symbol, by inserting it afterwards; the 'symbol' itself could be a function
that return true/false, for matches:
isStart() setup() ( !isEnd() processInput() )* isEnd() teardown() | err()
I would guess that Lua deals with these problems a lot (as an embedded game
scripting engine, both enemy AI and UI logic might be modeled well by state
machines (in part) - perhaps it has a good way of handling them, or at least,
good idioms have developed.
~~~
shubber
Honestly, modeling state with polymorphism can be really elegant and powerful.
There are a few decisions to make (for instance, do States explicitly make
transitions happen, or do they return the next state?)
But in general, anywhere you see a lot of conditionals, you probably want to
consider a polymorphic approach. Especially if you have more than one function
with parallel logic trees.
~~~
6ren
What do you think of my concern of it "scattering the transition logic" across
the classes? Each class becomes a production, and only it knows which classes
can come next. It's hard to get an overall grasp of how the state machine
works, because you have to inspect all the classes to know the transitions.
This is a significant concern for me when reading others' code: the individual
parts might be easy to understand, but there is usually no documentation of
the overall design, of how the parts operate together. And there is no code
that ties together all the parts - so you are forced to inspect all the local
details in order to get a global overall view.
There are many ways to evaluate a program - how efficient it is, how many
features it has, how complete it is, whether it is consistent, whether it is
correct, how easy it is to prove things about... but I think how much work it
is to understand is one of the most important - and usually neglected. For a
complex program, having some way to quickly grasp the overall design is key to
this, IMHO.
------
signa11
this is why i like ragel (<http://www.complang.org/ragel>) a lot. seems that
zed-shaw also has used it in couple of his projects e.g. mongrel most notably.
would be particularly cool if ragel can be combined automagically for some
protocol parsing tasks...
~~~
shabble
I'm also a big fan of ragel, and have used it for various protocol
implementations. One of the really nice features is that you can have it
output graphviz dot files, to get an actual visualisation of your state
machine, so you know where you've missed a transition, or how you've
accidentally hit a state explosion with a bad rule.
------
pbsurf
Learning HDL (e.g., Verilog or VHDL) is a great way to force-feed yourself
state machines.
~~~
zwieback
Yes, or PLC (ladder logic) programs. That will put hair on your chest and give
you a real appreciation for the luxuries of high-level programming languages
running on top of a traditional processor.
------
aristidb
State machines are anti-modular.
State machines are anti-abstraction.
State machine code is hard to read.
~~~
forgotAgain
I disagree.
_State machines are anti-modular_ : By clearly defining the transitions from
one state to another and when outputs can occur I see state machines as making
it easier to develop modular applications. I don't see how it inevitably leads
to non-modular code.
_State machines are anti-abstraction_ : If you're modeling a process then
some things can't be abstracted. At some level you have to deal with real
world situations.
_State machine code is hard to read_ : That's a function of the effort made
to make it easy to read. It's no different than any other situation.
In general I find state machine design to be helpful in literally controlling
the state of an application. By limiting what an application does and when it
can do it, via an easily understood mental model, it's a straight forward
design technique.
~~~
kreneskyp
The problem is that many apps are looking at the wrong states when they design
their machine.
For instance I worked on an app someone had build in which states were based
on a multi-page html form. When I added an android app allowing offline data
collection, I then had to hack around the state machine. We couldn't just
create a instance of the object with the final data, we had to write code that
replicated the submissions of the html form.
~~~
jbrechtel
This echos my experiences exactly. I've found little value in state machines
as a frequently used pattern. Abuses abound and I've also ran into the multi-
page-html-form-as-a-state-machine anti-pattern. It's horrid and should not be
done.
------
jpr
I skimmed the whole thing before realizing I had parsed the headline wrong.
~~~
dasil003
Kinda like foie gras right?
~~~
jpr
Yep :)
------
chrisjsmith
For any .Net people here, this is a great piece of kit:
<http://code.google.com/p/stateless/>
------
pnathan
This is not an interesting thought for someone who has a degree.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A First Look at BankSimple - ahhrrr
http://banksimple.com/blog/BankSimple/a-first-look-at-BankSimple/
======
ThomPete
As someone who have worked a lot for banks and actually already done some of
this work let me offer a viewpoint.
Last year my company managed to get a large Danish bank to implement tracking
into their netbank. This is no small accomplishment, which anyone knowing just
a little bit about how the IT departments in the banking industry normally
works, the systems they work on are arcane.
It took us 18 months from getting the bank to like the idea into actually
getting it launched.
The results have been nothing but extraordinary everyone loves it.
The reason they love it is because it's automatic. They get insights into
their economy that they could not previously get. There is something quite
amazing about seeing your spendings categorized for the first time without you
having to do anything.
The banks have a unique identifier on each transaction that can be measured up
against a category list. This is something Mint and Wesabe can't do because
you can't export that unique identifer from the banks.
The big advantage of BankSimple and why I think it's going to be huge is
because they don't have a legacy system to deal with.
In other words BankSimple can potentially be anything you could ever dream of
a bank being, because BankSimple will be able to cross reference the data in
order to provide not just cost reduction but service improvement.
The banking industry are just waiting to be disrupted by someone like BS.
There are thousands of ways to create a better banking experience. BS is a
good first stab at it IMHO.
~~~
jtbigwoo
I've said this here before, but when I worked at a big bank all the
visionaries weren't worried about other banks, they were worried about Google
and Ebay. The core business of a bank is built on hardware and software. They
knew that a bank built on distributed systems instead of mainframes could beat
the big banks on features and cost. It'll be interesting to see if BankSimple
can scale up fast enough to compete or if it'll attract the attention of
someone with even deeper pockets who can catch up by simply outspending them.
~~~
alwillis
There are lots of banks that could easily outspend BankSimple, what they lack
is vision, which is far more scarce than money these days.
~~~
jtbigwoo
Banks are in a rough spot, actually. The big ones have a _HUGE_ installed base
which makes any changes very, very difficult. My division of the bank had tens
of thousands of cobol jobs that ran daily or weekly. (We also had thousands of
ETL jobs, web apps, etc. that depended on those cobol jobs.) Trying to shift
the core functionality away the mainframe would have been a decade-long
boondoggle.
------
jasonkester
Does anybody actually think this way? As in, do people actually go to their
bank's website because they'd like to spend money and want to find out how
much they have to spend?
Described this way, this just seems like a tool to facilitate a fundamentally
unhealthy way to think about your money. If you're thinking in terms of "How
much can I spend today", you've already lost. (Unless, of course, you're 23,
in which case your entire goal in life should be to sock away enough money
that you never need to ask that question again in relation to food/rent/etc.)
I like the transaction searching capabilities shown in the demo, but I was
hoping to see more info on how to do actual "banking" tasks. Can I initiate a
wire transfer from an internet cafe in Laos? Can people send a check to an
address in the US that automatically gets deposited in my account? That sort
of thing. When these guys came on the scene, I got the impression that that
was the kind of thing they'd be doing better than other banks. Frankly,
sorting my past transactions just isn't a problem I desperately need to have
solved.
~~~
rquantz
This is the myopia of the affluent. Many people, not just 23 year olds, do
live paycheck to paycheck, and need to know on any given day how much they can
spend without overdrawing. The answer to this question is hard to find from
most banks, who make money from fees and have an interest in their poorer
customers overdrawing their accounts by a few bucks so they can charge an
overdraft fee. This is a problem that, for instance, Elizabeth Warren has
talked about a lot.
Banksimple is trying to build a bank that doesn't suck, and banks suck for a
lot of reasons. These features will be helpful to anyone who is living on a
low income, either due to misfortune or choice.
~~~
klenwell
That's a reasonable response and I'm very sympathetic to Elizabeth Warren's
mission. I hold the greatest innovation the financial industry could come up
with, over the long run, is a better educated consumer.
But is this a product that is aimed at low income customers? I struggle to
see, from what's presented here, how that particular demographic will benefit
from on online bank, iphone mobile banking app, or whatever else BankSimple
has to offer.
Has BankSimple cast away deceptive or exploitative fees and the diabolical
legalese of the small print? Have consumer advocates endorsed BankSimple as an
example of a new more consumer-friendly bank? That would be great, if so, for
that strikes me as a core part of Warren's crusade.
~~~
rquantz
I think a bank aimed at providing a good service to consumers, with a great
user interface and features that are beneficial to low income customers, has
the potential to be truly useful to that demographic.
The two things that could get in the way are marketing and access. I agree
that, so far at least, it does appear to be marketing to... well, a hacker
news croud. This may change as they open to the general public. Certainly,
HNers probably make better beta customers for just about any business. Let's
hope they start making themselves known outside the tech field, for their sake
and ours.
As far as access, obviously the poorest of the poor probably don't have access
to an online bank, and if you make the bank unusable to people without a smart
phone, you're limiting it even further. On top of that, it's not clear yet
whether they will have stringent credit rating requirements that could shut a
lot of people out who need a service like this.
My hope is that BankSimple will keep in mind how important they could be to
people who really do need a less malevolent bank. They certainly could end up
appealing only to an affluent crowd, but I get the feeling that they have a
certain amount of zealous righteousness that could translate good user
experience into a truly new type of bank. I do think they are that ambitious,
and I think they have the opportunity to fulfill that ambition. But it's still
up to them to prove that their heart is in the right place.
------
blhack
Here is where I _hope_ / _pray_ /etc BankSimple is going:
I want a personal financial API for myself. If you want to bill me for
something, you don't write down a bunch of text on a piece of paper, stick
that inside of another piece of paper, and then pay somebody to put it through
a slot in my door (along with all of the coupon mailers, prepaid credit card
offers, and VOTE FOR ME! envelopes that I get), you call up blhack's financial
API and request a payment from it.
When this happens, I get an email, or an SMS, or whatever else telling me:
"USBank has requested a payment of $347 from you. They have requested payment
by October 20th, 2011 -- Note: Car Payment"
or
"City of Tempe has requested a payment of $60 from you. They have requested
payment by October 8th, 2011 -- Note: Water Bill"
etc. etc.
I can log into BankSimple and approve these payment requests (just like
paypal, except [hopefully] BankSimple makes it affordable for my city, or my
auto loan provider to do use).
It's an accountant for me. Except it's in one place, and it doesn't cost
anything. There are companies that have tried this, and failed miserably,
mostly because they appear to lack the technical expertise that something like
BankSimple is bringing to the table.
The banking system, right now, is a disaster. The things I'm describing are
all possible right now, but they're an enormous pain in the ass to use.
BankSimple: if you're _not_ doing this, do it.
~~~
haberman
I've had exactly this idea! It's sort of like a credit card, except a "swipe"
just gives the merchant an end-point to send bills to. You still have to
authorize each bill, but your bank could automatically pay any bills that you
haven't contested by their due date (or whatever policy you prefer).
I am TERRIBLE at paying bills on time, even though I always have the money to
pay them. There's way too much diligence required.
~~~
Periodic
I used to be terrible with these, until I sent up a lot of automatic payments.
For the most part this is just logging into the various provider's websites
and setting it up. The one I can't do this for is rent, so my bank has a bill-
pay function that just sends our landlord a check for the rent every month. It
has been very convenient and when he comes by and claims we didn't pay we can
point out it was already mailed and he's the one who lost it (he is very
disorganized).
~~~
haberman
Not all bills are periodic. For example, I've paid a lot of late parking
ticket fees.
~~~
Periodic
I have missed paying a few parking tickets myself. I guess I don't think of
non-recurring payments as bills. That is probably just due to the way the term
is used in popular culture.
------
sschueller
US consumer banking is archaic and can't be fixed with just another bank. The
whole process is broken and it requires an industry change.
I applaud BankSimple for what they are doing but in the big picture it doesn't
solve the major problems.
My biggest gripes with the banks:
\- Can't wire money to someone else without going into the bank and paying
ridiculous fees (Last time I checked, $25 for domestic, $45 for
international). INGDirect attempts to make this better but the receiver still
needs to have an email address and go through a procedure to receive the
money. It's also slow, average is 2-3 days.
\- It's easier and cheaper for me to use checks. It costs me nothing to
deposit it but I have to pay a fee to receive a wire transfer. Wires have a
lot fever errors than checks and a wire of over $5k doesn't have to be put on
hold because the bank has to verify a check. The banks punish you for using
wires instead of checks.
\- When you go online and use bill pay the bank will pay a 3rd party to print
and mail a check!! How is this electronic payment. (This does not apply to
large firms like the phone company which will receive the payment
electronically but small business can't utilize this!)
\- Why no IBAN? Swift requires intermediary banks which charge a fee on your
international wire.
\- No chips on debpit/credit cards. In Europe most banks issue cards with
chips on them. This would eliminate the risk of getting skimmed if only the US
would also start using chips instead of the magnetic stripe.
I just don't understand why the banks do this. Someone enlighten me.
~~~
jessriedel
> When you go online and use bill pay the bank will pay a 3rd party to print
> and mail a check!! How is this electronic payment.
Is this true? That boggles my mind.
~~~
bdonlan
It depends on the payee. Many payees do support electronic payment; banks will
print a check for those that don't. Encouraging people to use bill pay for
everything allows them to collect fees from the payee for those who collect
electronically, and/or save their own processing costs. If they didn't support
_all_ payees, however, people would be more reluctant to use the bill pay
system. So it's a marketing decision, to support payees that aren't capable of
receiving electronic payments yet.
~~~
sschueller
The whole issue is that payees have to pay to receive electronic payment but
can receive check payments for free. That makes no sense to me. It should be
the other way around. Even if a small business wanted to receive payments
electronically the fees are too high for small volumes.
~~~
bdonlan
It might make sense in some cases; it takes less labor to accept electronic
payments than paper-check payments. If the fees cost less than paper-check
processing labor, it makes sense to pay the fees. I agree that it might not
make sense for smaller businesses though - but that's why there's the check
fallback.
------
giberson
Some questions I never bothered to actually ask of my current banking system
probably because I've known people that had accounts with them and have seen
several branch locations but I'd like to ask of BankSimple.
BankSimple is a bank account yes or no? I mean a real certified banking
system? Are they required to meet governmental guidelines of official banks?
What guarantee (if any) do I have that my money will be there in the morning?
Is there some guarantee that if I go to login to bankSimple tomorrow morning
and the domain doesn't resolve emails get bounced etc, would there be any
recourse for me? [again, never bothered to ask that of my real bank but I
suppose a brick and mortar institution instills more confidence]
Visa, MasterCard, Amex... Is the bankSimple card backed by any of these
institutions? Can I walk into to some random QuickStop gas station and pay
using your card like I could with my current bank card?
What kind of development and testing infrastructure do you guys utilize? Are
you able to roll out updates to limited groups of real users so you can test
changes on a small scale before rolling them out to every one? I'm more
curious as to this aspect because I attribute to BankSimple more of a website
or new software company [which I envision bugs and glitches that get worked
out with feedback] rather than a traditional bank [which surprisingly even
though I know is capable of making mistakes, I don't really worry about bugs]
Will BankSimple eventually if not at launch do other bank-y things like
consumer loans, offer savings bonds, etc?
What about fraud protection? What if some one steals my card and buys a bunch
of stuff with it? [Ok, I've asked my bank about this one at least]
~~~
ctkrohn
They answer a few of these questions on their FAQ:
<https://banksimple.com/faq/>
* They are not a bank. They are essentially a web frontend for wholesale banks. Thus they are regulated differently.
* You do have the benefit of FDIC insurance, but it's unclear what ability you have to access your funds directly from the wholesale bank, or whether you are limited to BankSimple.
~~~
Q6T46nT668w6i3m
That's correct. We're also using Visa for processing.
You can read more about our partners here:
<http://banksimple.com/blog/BankSimple/partners-funding/>
~~~
harichinnan
How is BankSimple different from mint.com searching through my Bank of America
account statements? Alerts? Goals? I can do all that in mint.
~~~
Q6T46nT668w6i3m
We're a substitute for your bank, i.e. you'd use a BankSimple debit card, use
our website or mobile app for payments and deposits, speak with our customer
service representatives and so on.
~~~
harichinnan
My question is what does that buy me? Switching from an established bank to a
mint.com like interface + an unknown bank that holds my deposits. There's no
killer app to sign up for your service. Killer apps that I could think off
are, (Holding deposits in multiple currencies, Savings account like interest
on my checking. Right now the funds I park in checking for immediate expenses
don't accrue interests till I move it to savings, Free payment gateway
integration, so I could transact with anyone having a credit card like paypal,
Free money transfers to any third-party bank in any currency in any
country(you could kill western union with this)). Saying that I could grep
through my statement more efficiently and visualize the data doesn't cut it as
a market disruption.
~~~
ericd
I think the killer app is that this is a bank that actually cares about their
customer's experience (because they know it's one of their big competitive
advantages), and is coming at it from the standpoint of techies who understand
what should be possible. In itself, that's not a checkbox on a feature list
that you can line up against the other banks, but it should show itself in
myriad ways as they rederive what a bank is from first principles. They're
obviously not done. If they keep pushing, that's exciting.
Also, since they're likely to be run much more cost efficiently than most
banks, they should be able to do a lot of things without the normal gotcha
fees.
~~~
cageface
I get all that from First Republic now. Great web tools, no-fee access to any
ATM, and fantastic phone support.
~~~
ericd
I'm not just looking for a bank that does the standard stuff somewhat better,
or is nicer to me. There is a _lot more_ that could be done. Wealth management
related startups like Mint have scratched that surface, but with an end to end
implementation of a bank and all the tools and data that brings, a lot more
becomes possible.
Also, First Republic's site looks like something made with a table layout in
the 90s and left alone since, so I doubt that they're doing anything
innovative on the consumer facing side that requires any amount of tech
expertise.
~~~
cageface
Admittedly my finances are pretty simple, but my bank is something I really
don't want to think about much or spend a lot of time dealing with. Maybe if
someday I have a _lot_ of wealth to manage I'll feel differently. The most
important thing is that I can always get somebody on the phone right away that
is informed and helpful.
First Republic's web tools aren't going to win any design awards but they do
the job and have never given me any trouble.
------
maxklein
I don't get it. I don't get the point of it. Searching through a list of
things? How is that making my banking simpler?
It seems to have turned into a credit card statement search & visualisation
engine.
~~~
pchristensen
After watching the video, it reminds me of the iPad. Doesn't do anything you
couldn't do before, but it does it faster and in a more attractive and
pleasing way. These improvements are so great that it becomes a qualitatively
different experience. This looks about as much nicer than Mint as Mint does
than my bank website, and that counts for a lot to me. I'm eagerly awaiting a
chance to try them out for myself.
~~~
maxklein
Let's compare it to the iPod, for example. Before the iPod, I played music.
After the iPod, I played music - but in a more convenient way.
After this app, I can search my statements in a convenient way. The problem is
that right now I am not searching my statements at all. They seem to be
solving a problem that I have not had so far.
~~~
generalk
I liken it more to a smartphone: before I had high-quality internet access in
my pocket, I didn't care about it. It wasn't a problem I was looking to solve
or a want I had.
Now that I can search Wikipedia or Google at a moment's whim, I find myself
confused when I don't have it.
BankSimple may turn out like this: hardly anyone does this kind of searching
and organizing of their bank statements because it simply hasn't been easy
enough for anyone to care. Once it is, you might not want to go back.
------
jimmar
I haven't followed news about BankSimple, and the firs few minutes of the demo
I watched didn't help me understand what it is. Is BankSimple an actual bank
(with ATM card, routing numbers, etc.)? Or is it a PayPal competitor? Or is it
just a front end that interacts with Banks? Going to BankSimple.com, it seems
like it's trying to be an actual bank. But the demo on the website made it
seem more like a Mint competitor. So, BankSimple is just another bank but with
a potentially super-awesome website? So far, I'm not convinced.
~~~
tbird24
Yes, it is an actual bank. With an ATM card (and no fees). You are right the
demo on the website didn't hint to that too much, but perusing through the
site it becomes a bit clearer.
I also emailed support a while back wondering if it acts as a layer on top of
my existing bank, or whether its a replacement: their answer was "its a
complete replacement".
------
dreamdu5t
Seems like Wesabe hooked up to the bank network.
Search and categorized transactions are cool, but does the categorization
require manual tagging? I'm pressed for time in my day, and I am not going to
spend more than 5 minutes to look at my bank statements, unless I'm
specifically sitting down to budget. My biggest concern with a service like
this is the time it's asking from you. So many services designed to "make my
life simpler" actually require spending more time than just not using the
service at all. For that reason, your mobile app needs to be killer.
~~~
jamesgagan
I came to say the same thing - Wesabe had a similar concept of "safe to spend"
and for me it made it a great app. I was disappointed to see them go under.
Bank Simple doesn't appear to bring a whole lot new to the table.
~~~
whakojacko
> Bank Simple doesn't appear to bring a whole lot new to the table.
BankSimple, unlike Mint/Wesabe, is an actual bank* (*ok not techincally for
regulatory reasons, but you will store money with them). You will keep/deposit
your money there, and be able to spend it via BankSimple-branded debit cards.
Its a whole additional level of integration over Mint/Wesabe, which are just
web frontends to existing bank accounts
~~~
ThomPete
And this is actually very important to realize before you will begin to
understand the completely different paradigm this allow for. It's a very big
thing that it's not "just" a frontend. It means access to completely different
kinds of data.
------
typicalrunt
It's a beautifully clean design. I like the simplicity of it.
What I worry about is the security behind the scenes and the sharing of
sensitive information between BankSimple and the banks.
And trademarking "Safe-To-Spend"? Come on... It's a math equation that shows
how much running profit you have. You don't need to trademark such a thing
unless you intend to use it in advertising or throughout the website, yet I
only see it used in one place. Next thing you know it'll be patented.
Maybe I missed it in the video, but what I would like to see from any of these
types of websites is a consolidated view of multiple accounts and banks. So if
I have chequing and savings accounts at 3 different banks, I would like a
dashboard of my entire spending and saving. It's easy to lose sight of this
when you look at individual bank statements.
~~~
saraid216
> And trademarking "Safe-To-Spend"? Come on... It's a math equation that shows
> how much running profit you have. You don't need to trademark such a thing
> unless you intend to use it in advertising or throughout the website, yet I
> only see it used in one place. Next thing you know it'll be patented.
That's rather extreme. For one thing, they're not advertising and they haven't
launched their website yet. It's also not a math equation: it's a _name_ which
is what trademarks are _for_.
~~~
typicalrunt
What's extreme? I expressed an opinion about a selling tactic used on a
website.
I realize that one trademarks a name, which is why later in the sentence I
used the word "patent" for the process (of the math equation).
Everything in that video was an advertisement. That was the point of it, and
good on them for doing so. The simplicity of the design, words used, and the
trademarks and imagery of the product. The whole point of the video in the
link is to drum up hype and future business.
What I disagreed with was their use of Safe-To-Spend without further
explanation on why it was being trademarked. Otherwise it's just a waste of
money. They could have called the result anything and leave the silly
trademarks for later, unless they specifically had something to sell the
consumer on with that name.
------
sambeau
I love it. It works just like my brain does.
Sadly (for me) it also works just like my iPhone App "Payday" does (without
the live bank ability) that was released last year and then sank without a
trace (albeit partly due to a silly bug).
Being able to earmark money for bills in advance and set yourself saving goals
is really cool (and was also the core feature of Payday).
If anyone would like to try these features before the release of Bank Simple
you can find it here:
<http://toccame.com/>
and here
<http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/payday/id351013628>
Just beware of a small bug that makes the calculations go off if you choose
the last day of the month as Payday. _(Yeah. I know. Sadly the talented
programmer I worked with has had to move onto other projects. Maybe one day we
can fix it. sigh)_
------
mdoerneman
Safe-to-spend balance is great but will it be enforced? I currently calculate
my safe to spend balance but nothing stops me from over spending. I don't have
the willpower. It would be great if the bank simple card will only let me
spend my safe-to-spend balance. So if my safe-to-spend balance is $20 and I go
to an ATM and try to withdraw $50, it will decline.
~~~
al3x
That's exactly what we're doing. If you tell us about your savings goals, you
can then "lock" the goals that you really don't want to dip into if you're
overspending. We'll prevent transactions from going through, in that case. We
keep you honest :)
~~~
bdonlan
Your presentation mentioned that goals may be allocated to CD ladders and the
like - if so, what happens if you 'dip into' this? Wouldn't you be hit with an
unexpected CD early withdrawal fee then?
------
janesvilleseo
I am excited by the 'how much can I spend' feature and NLP search. And this is
the first bank that I would consider moving to. However, my current bank,
rather a credit union is absolutely phenomenal in terms of online banking. I
have had quite a few different banks accounts in my young life and am very
impressed by the level of innovation from a relatively small institution.
My credit union is UW Credit Union. They have recently launched an updated
version of their site as well as previously included Mint like features. It is
great. I feel as though that as soon as UW Credit Union gets wind of BS, if
they haven't already, will incorporate some of what BS is doing.
Banking is definitely an industry ready to be disrupted.
------
haberman
So I'm getting more interested in banking and accounting, largely because a
friend and I are starting a business for the first time. When I saw
"Accounting for Computer Scientists" on HN
([http://martin.kleppmann.com/2011/03/07/accounting-for-
comput...](http://martin.kleppmann.com/2011/03/07/accounting-for-computer-
scientists.html)) it was a revelation to me, because I didn't realize that
accounting could be so cleanly modeled as a graph structure.
Ever since then I've been itching to create some git-like software for
accounting, where you have a repository of accounts and transactions. I feel
like there is so much unexplored territory here in terms of analysis and
visualization. For example, I want a way of saying "this insurance bill is for
six months of coverage" and then seeing my bi-weekly breakdown of expenses
include two weeks worth of that insurance bill. I want to be able to tag
expenses as non-discretionary (taxes), periodic (mortgage), or discretionary
(latte) as an easy way of understanding my overall cash flow. I want to be
able to amortize my vacations over the whole year. etc.
I want to be able to view what my hypothetical cash flow would be if I cut out
certain periodic expenses or added others.
A lot of this is probably more complicated than what most people would want to
do -- that's why I think the important part is having a standard repository
model that's easily programmable.
~~~
tealtan
You might find this interesting: <https://github.com/jwiegley/ledger>
------
dprice1
This is something that people would want. But I have a question about business
model choice here, because I'm curious why they chose to become a front-end to
various banks in this way.
Why choose to be a middle-man here (with all of the pain/cost of providing
customer service, etc.) when they could be an enterprise software vendor or a
SaaS provider? Banks don't actually make that much off of depositors, right?
I'm not saying they made a bad choice; I wanted to see if anyone could
rationalize it for me.
Surely banks (especially smaller regional banks and credit unions) would pay
good prices to have this software power their banking websites so that they
could care for their customers in a more sophisticated way. Right now my
credit union, in the Bay Area, has a functional but very ugly e-banking and
bill-pay platform which has clearly been purchased from a third party vendor
and customized (checkfree, I think
([http://www.checkfreecorp.com/cda/corp/L5.jsp?layoutId=51501&...](http://www.checkfreecorp.com/cda/corp/L5.jsp?layoutId=51501&contentId=140&menuId=47774&pId=50062)).
I guess I don't understand where significant revenues will come from in a
model like this.
~~~
dr_
The user experience, from the website, mobile to device to phone calls, will
be a big part of people signing up. There are a lot of people out there who
are unhappy with their banks. If they get enough users to sign up with them,
the actual banks on the back end (which will probably be a collection of
smaller, unknown, entitities), wield less and less power, cause in theory BS
would be able to switch over from one bank to another and the user wouldn't
know, or care. This may allow them to force certain banks to provide revenue
sharing.
------
mrbill
One of the reasons I ditched Mint was because it was 2-3 days laggy due to
having to scrape and process the data from my bank. I have yet to find
anything that beats simply recording all my expenditures in a spiral notebook
and reconciling it with my bank's online account once a day. That, plus "When
I get paid, I pay my bills first". How simpler could it be? (Frost Bank in
Texas, here)
~~~
shadowfiend
BankSimple is a bank, so there's no delay (beyond however long it takes your
actual bank to get the data).
------
yoshyosh
Nice looking site! Why did you not use any green in the UI? For example the
direct deposit of $100 is black and doesn't stand out too much, whereas if it
was a nice green I immediately can make a correlation. For the users
emotion's, seeing a sea of green transactions could evoke more happiness
compared to black. A green background on the "Safe-To-Spend" section seems
more intuitive than a red one, perhaps it can turn red as it gets close to a
'danger zone' of spending (Calculated based on their spending
habits/frequency).
Lastly, everyone keeps mentioning that categorization is very important, yet
categorization isn't that noticeable. I did not notice it until you demoed it.
I might have found it on my own fairly easily if I wasn't being demo'd though,
so its somewhat unfair to say. Rather than having users create very common
categories (food, rent, transportation) make those default and more visible
whether it be adding inset icons, or changing position/color of that section.
Great job! :)
------
joez
I had thought that BankSimple was slimming down the traditional banking model
and passing the savings (in the form of interest) to customers. I still love
that they're tackling Goliaths but they need to be a little clearer on their
vision and value proposition.
~~~
philwelch
_slimming down the traditional banking model and passing the savings (in the
form of interest) to customers_
That's ING Direct's business model. It was hard to beat until the recession
started and interest rates crashed, but even now it's pretty great.
------
simplify
Very interesting. I like the concept of having only one account. The goals tab
looks very useful.
The video states that the "safe to spend" feature calculates recurring bills
and such. Is there a way to view and manage these?
------
avelis
IMO
Banks should be good at doing one thing. Holding my liquid assets. However,
history has proven to us that even that is a challenge for banks. Where banks
thrive in size, most banks lack in vision. I believe that banks are not
software companies, at least not in spirit. Some banks are better at utilizing
technology and others are not.
My challenge to BankSimple: prove me wrong.
We have to remember what a bank traditionally is, break that down, and build
it from the ground up without the walls that immobilizes it today.
------
Griever
Love the design! While I think there is quite a ways to go, I will most
certainly give BankSimple a shot when it is publicly released.
Upon seeing the video though, specifically when he was searching through for
the bar that he went to, I started wondering how long it'll take before we can
actually see precisely what we paid for at said location rather than having to
dig through receipts.
I have no idea when that time will come, but when it does, I'll welcome it
with open arms.
------
sevenproxies
I imagine this is a US only Bank?
~~~
todsul
The guy in the video sounds Australian, but for some odd reason he says 'math'
instead of 'maths'. So you're probably right... boo. Looking forward to the
day when people don't stay in one place and startups begin catering to us
itinerants.
~~~
timcederman
Not some odd reason - he's an ex-pat in the finance industry. It's like how I
had modified my pronunciation of 'cache' (although I refuse to change how I
say 'data').
BankSimple are based in Portland, Oregon (so yes, US).
~~~
Jacked
It's also interesting to note that in the U.S., companies are thought of as a
standalone entity, and referred to in the singular, rather as a group of
people.
So, it'd be "BankSimple is based in...", instead of "BankSimple are based
in...".
When I first started reading things from the UK, I initially thought the
writers simply used poor grammar :)
------
nathanwdavis
I'm quite happy with my bank's customer service, interest rates and fees. And
I use Mint.com to get a view of all accounts including retirement,
investments, etc.
So, from my view, BankSimple just does not provide enough value. Hopefully for
BankSimple's sake, others are not satisfied like I am.
------
slowpoison
Now that I'm getting a better feel of what BankSimple is about, I don't think
it's that revolutionary an idea. I'm not even sure I will use it. Most of what
they showed, and more can be accomplished using Mint. And, Mint offers more
choice by being an aggregator.
~~~
throwaway6326
And Mint lets you pick a bank like USAA, that has great service as a core
competency, rather than trusting a web company like BankSimple that is good at
sleek-looking tech.
~~~
shadowfiend
Then again, BankSimple's _only_ purpose is great service. They delegate the
actual money to a partner bank. So... Yeah. It doesn't really get much better
than that in terms of motivation.
~~~
throwaway6326
Am I wrong in thinking that BankSimple outsourced phone/email support to their
partner banks?
Because as far as I can tell, BankSimple has no interest in service at all.
They're just a shiny tech company.
~~~
shadowfiend
As far as I know, yes, you are, in fact, completely wrong. The only thing
partner banks handle is the actual money. You never talk to them.
<https://banksimple.com/faq/#whatthedealis>
------
swah
Shouldn't the Safe To Spend have changed when you scheduled 20 buck a payment
to adam?
------
true_religion
One thing I love is that I can have checks mailed to Bank Simple, and they'd
automatically deposit the monies in my account.
I get quite a few checks, but not enough that I'd want to get a check scanning
machine for.
I'm on the beta list, and hope for an invite.
~~~
bdonlan
Most banks support this I thought - just mail a deposit slip and a check
(signed, with a "FOR DEPOSIT ONLY" endorsement) to the right address. I've
done it before with ETrade Bank and ING Direct at least, and I imagine brick-
and-mortar banks would do this processing if you mailed the check to a nearby
branch.
------
braindead_in
Looks awesome. I would love to see a clone of BankSimple in India. The
bureaucracy will be a pain but if you can successfully navigate it and create
a simple no-frills online only bank, it will be a great success.
------
wccrawford
Wake me up when they have the deposit-from-phone working on Android phones.
~~~
throwaway6326
USAA meets your needs today.
~~~
shadowfiend
Unless you're not related to a ex-military person. Then it meets none of your
needs, since you can't use it.
~~~
bartz
I'm not a USAA member, but that's a complete myth. See this link for the
facts:
[https://www.usaa.com/inet/pages/why_choose_usaa_eligibility_...](https://www.usaa.com/inet/pages/why_choose_usaa_eligibility_main)
"USAA's investment products, most checking and savings products, credit cards,
life insurance, and shopping and discounts are available to other individuals.
USAA auto and property insurance is not available due to membership
eligibility requirements."
~~~
shadowfiend
Touché sir. I had looked at their insurance in the past and very unfortunately
extrapolated to the entire organization. My mistake and thank you very much
for correcting that misconceived notion!
------
durga
Neat. Now gear up for some honest feedback on your blurb :)
>A First Look at BankSimple
FB: Ok, though "Sneak Peek" is easier to relate to than "First Look".
>Joshua Reich, Wed September 21, 2011
FB: Ok.
>We’ve been very cautious on our blog and website about >talking about what
we’ve been building.
FB: Redundant. Why are you telling me you've been "cautious"?
>Instead, we’ve focused on our vision.
FB: What vision? Mention it. Mention the key value proposition.
> Today that is changing: Below is a first public sneak peek of BankSimple. We
> think it’s far more powerful to show than tell.
FB: Check capitalization. Focus on what the user is getting is getting, rather
than what you feel("we think it's far..")
>And now we are ready to show. We’ve been testing the product for a few months
now, and it has been awesome. >The product isn’t finished. It will never be
finished. We’re constantly improving. But we’ve now reached the >point where
we’ve learned as much as possible from testing internally and in a few weeks
we’ll be shipping > >cards to our first real customers.
FB: Mostly redundant. Only thing that's relevant is "We’ve successfully tested
the product for a few months now, and are looking forward to ship it to our
first customers over the next few weeks. (Click here to request a beta
invite.)"
>This is only the beginning, but it is a tremendous step forward for our
company.
FB: This line might be good for boosting the morale at a company internal
meeting, but it means nothing to the customer. Also it seems to reinforce the
idea that you're not ready yet to grab my attention.
>We will be sharing more important updates with you soon,
FB: Maybe be a little more specific than "soon"? "over the next couple of
weeks"?
> but in the meantime,
FB: OK
>we hope that you enjoy this first look at our product –
FB: Redundant. What's there to enjoy?
>we’d love to hear your feedback.
FB: This looks like a call to action, with no visible action button. What
should the user do to provide feedback? Maybe turn the "feedback" word at the
end of the sentence to a hyperlink that points to a feedback page? Or better
yet, use something lightweight like <http://webengage.com/> (disclaimer: it's
made by a friend of mine).
------
evlapix
I was surprised to see that they put so much emphasis on the searching in the
demo. The real value is in the "Goals" interface - which is well designed.
------
Cherian_Abraham
BankSimple is as someone else pointed out, just a simpler, sleeker interface
to banking.
Brett King's Movenbank tries to reinvent banking.
------
jwb119
sure, there's some cool stuff in here. but is it really enough to make anyone
but a geek go through the hassle of adding yet another banking service?
probably not, imo.
~~~
stdbrouw
You don't add yet another banking service, you switch from your existing bank
to BankSimple. The fact that they're not really a bank but partner with
existing institutions is a behind-the-scenes thing that you never come into
contact with as a BankSimple customer.
------
Hisoka
The value proposition doesn't appeal to me... Slick GUI, and I'm sure you guys
work your asses off, but there's no compelling reason for me to switch to
another bank.. that's a huge cost.. I am get off my ass to another bank, tell
them to close my account, write a huge check to BankSimple, change my direct
deposit, buy new checks, etc... Do you guys replace the checkbook? If so, I'll
sign up. That's my main problem with the entire banking process. I hate
writing checks and signing checks. When I write a check to the IRS and somehow
get a single number wrong, I have to rewrite the whole thing. It seems
strangely ancient that we still have this process in place today.
~~~
ThomPete
I guess it depends on how you use your bank. I never use my bank for anything
but netbanking. In Europe checks are more or less obsolete. I haven't had a
check book since I lived in the US back in the late nineties and early zeroes.
------
mkramlich
My two words of advice to BankSimple (well, two acronyms):
API and CLI
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Open-sourcing bioinstruments - homarp
https://liorpachter.wordpress.com/2019/01/18/open-sourcing-bioinstruments/
======
sinab
My name is Sina Booeshaghi a second year PhD student at Caltech and I built
and designed the poseidon system (with the help of Eduardo Beltrame, Jase
Gehring, Dylan Bannon, and Lior Pachter) in the Pachter Lab.
If you have any questions I'm happy to answer them!
~~~
sbr464
I was needing a fully digital (controlled) microscope stage and stand
recently. I was suprised to find a lack of motorized stages compared to other
items. It would be nice to have a modular stage so it could be used with
different stands. Rotation and height adjustment would be nice as well.
Have you came across anything similar? It seems like it would be trivial to
build similar to your other designs.
~~~
munfred
I have been thinking about this problem for a while. I would like a cheap,
open source, commercially available kit for xyz gantry systems. That's
essentially what desktop CNC machines and 3D printers are and people hack them
for all kinds of purposes.
Unfortunately my current conclusion is that there is no solution that
satisfies all 3 at the moment. Your best bet for building such a system is
looking at cheap 3D printers and CNC machines, but it'll always be a little
bit of a hack and extra work because you'll have to remove parts (hot end,
drill bit..) and adapt something that was not designed with the intent of
being entirely re-purposed.
If anyone here knows of a xyz gantry system kit that satisfies all 3 (cheap,
open source, commercially available) please let me know.
~~~
Ccecil
It would be fairly trivial to build. Basically, it is just a CoreXY 3d printer
without the head.
I have modified a small CNC mill/router to be used as a "paste printer" for
printing frosting/ceramic
([https://youtu.be/XwjnVzfl0wA](https://youtu.be/XwjnVzfl0wA)). Many people in
the 3d printing community have done similar things with their printers.
I would recommend something without a bed that moves in the XY direction.
CoreXY designs would be great but there may be limitations on the carriage
weight. In that case a gantry style cartesian printer would be suitable but
with 2 Y motors to carry the X stage without skipping.
Edit: Also, See Openbuilds.com there are many machines that fit what you are
looking for.
~~~
munfred
Looking at openbuilds.com, in terms of functionality it definitely fits the
bill, I'll look at the designs with care.
I'd like to have a generic open source xyz gantry platform that I could just
order on amazon for <$200 and tinker around with.
------
AndrewGYork
A different target audience, but in the same spirit, here's an open source
microscopy project from our lab:
[https://andrewgyork.github.io/remote_refocus/](https://andrewgyork.github.io/remote_refocus/)
My friend André Maia Chagas is doing some inspiring work in open hardware too:
[https://mobile.twitter.com/chagas_am](https://mobile.twitter.com/chagas_am)
------
kemitchell
The BioBricks Foundation, an organization bringing the spirit of open source
to genetic programming, engaged me to develop Public Domain Chronicle, a fast,
easy, and free way to secure scientific methods and findings for the public
domain.
[https://publicdomainchronicle.org/](https://publicdomainchronicle.org/)
Public Domain Chronicle combines elements of defensive publication, open-
access scholarship, and commons licensing to make public domain advocates the
fastest runners in the race to publish, preventing others from patenting their
findings.
PDC's disclosure form for findings in biology is shorter and easier than any
standard corporate or academic invention-disclosure process, and produces an
immediate, public, republishable prior art record.
[https://pdc.biobricks.org/publish](https://pdc.biobricks.org/publish)
It's early days for the project, and we're seeking out as many potential
researcher-contributors as possible. We're particularly keen to hear from
academic scientists and folks in corporate tech transfer offices who may
prefer PDC to expensive defensive publication services.
------
neltnerb
Oh, this is awesome. I build a lot of random equipment, how do I help? This
kind of thing could kickstart a lot of novel systems that'd take forever to
design or cost a ton otherwise.
~~~
sinab
I love your enthusiasm! Why don't you shoot me an email and we can chat some
point next week.. It would be really cool to get a great community around the
project, extending capabilities and adapting the core technology to random
equipment.
My email should be in my profile.
------
amelius
Some critical questions: who is the target audience for these instruments?
Aren't academic budgets sufficient to provide for a lab with proper basic
instruments? Are these kind of instruments a financial bottleneck when setting
up a lab? And do we want biology PhD students and postdocs to spend time on
instrument-making (and publish papers on that) rather than on biology?
~~~
sinab
Hey amelius!
Great questions. The target audience for these instruments are scientists and
hobbyists who don't want to spend a ton of money on similar commercial
systems, and want the flexibility to modify their operation (e.g., poseidon
can run custom flow profiles per experiment whereas off-the-shelf commercial
systems typically only run one flow rate per experiment). The purpose of
poseidon is to show that open source biological instruments can be developed
and used by a community, similarly to how open source software tools in
biology are developed and used.
Academic budgets vary from institution to institution and are sometimes
determined by exogenous forces beyond the lab's control.
A complete commercial system to do single-cell RNA sequencing costs tens of
thousands of dollars! Using alternatives such as the Harvard Apparatus syringe
pumps and DropSeq [0] to run the same experiment will still cost you into the
thousands of dollars. With the poseidon system, we greatly reduce these costs.
Users can build the instruments to run these experiments for less than $400
and are not restricted to additional costs and tedious firmware upgrades to
expand the system.
In response to your point on time management and instrument-making, I think
that if there exists a need to develop these systems such that they will
advance biological experiments then it's totally cool to have academics work
on these sorts of projects! Biologists and bioengineers have always developed
tools alongside discovery and this is no different from developing
bioinformatics tools.
[0]
[https://www.cell.com/abstract/S0092-8674(15)00549-8](https://www.cell.com/abstract/S0092-8674\(15\)00549-8)
~~~
amelius
Thanks for these great answers. The only point where I would disagree is your
comparison with bioinformatics software. The difference there is that
installing a bioinformatics package and learning to use it takes far less time
than crafting an instrument, especially considering tasks like finding the
right suppliers of components, and calibrating and testing the device (for
which you might need other instruments). But on the other hand, perhaps
building these self-made instruments can become a task for specialized,
facilitating instrument-makers that are already part of many institutions.
~~~
munfred
Note: I also helped develop poseidon
The poseidon system was explicitly designed with ease of assembly in mind. If
you look at the build videos [1] you'll see that assembly of the entire system
(3 pumps + microscope station) takes less than an hour and requires just
pliers and screwdrivers.
The importance of ease of assembly was a lesson that we took from assembling
the miniDrops microfluidics station [2] developed specifically for one kind of
experiment (dropSeq) [3]. The miniDrops is very good at what it does but
assembly was somewhat cumbersome: it required ordering a custom PCB,
specialized parts only available from one vendor (whom I had to nag over the
phone to send me a quote!) and assembly of the device itself took 10-20h.
Not every kind of equipment can be made as easy to source and assemble as we
did with poseidon, but we really think that keeping this at the front of your
mind can make or break the adoption of a piece of open source hardware. This
is especially true in the context of biology laboratories, where many people
are not what you could call "hackers" or "makers" and will be immediately put
off by a daunting assembly process.
[1]
[https://pachterlab.github.io/poseidon/hardware](https://pachterlab.github.io/poseidon/hardware)
[2]
[https://metafluidics.org/devices/minidrops/](https://metafluidics.org/devices/minidrops/)
[3]
[https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-0265](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-0265)
------
GautamGoel
I work with Lior at Caltech. He's an amazing guy, probably the only person I
know who is capable of doing first-rate work in both biology and mathematics.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Putin among Nobel Peace nominees - veganarchocap
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/04/us-nobel-peace-idUSBREA231R920140304
======
bigd
lol. They also tried to convince stockholm to give one to Berlusconi few years
ago
[http://silvioperilnobel.blogspot.com/](http://silvioperilnobel.blogspot.com/)
The best part is that those nominations are useless. Nobel prizes have no
transparency on this, or as the article says "nominations are kept secret for
50 years".
~~~
tomaac
Nobel prize is presented in Oslo not Stockholm.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Barack Obama: Women are better leaders than men - drodil
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-50805822
======
pmdulaney
Women may be better leaders than men, in general, but each person has the
right to be treated as an individual, not as a member of a group (whether
based on sex, race, etc.).
------
Bostonian
If Obama believed this, why did he run against Hillary Clinton for the
Democratic nomination in 2008? I have noticed that male CEOs who preach the
importance of diversity at the top never set an example by voluntarily
resigning.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
“How Amazon Took Seattle's Soul” - OrwellianChild
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/20/opinion/how-amazon-took-seattles-soul.html
======
jorblumesea
Old Seattle was an interesting place, but also a much rougher place. The SLU
was mostly warehouses, junkies and prostitutes. South Seattle was the real
hood, not the semi-tamed version it is now. Wallingford was a hippy commune
where someone might walk into your house and take a nap.
Blaming Amazon is a total cop out. The death of "cool Seattle" started before
Amazon was even a thought in Bezo's head.
It's also funny that many of the people complaining about this issue were
first wave gentrifiers pushing out people before them in an effort to get to
the hot neighborhoods. It's frustrating how many Seattleites refuse to admit
their own hand in this process. Never mind the fact that your Ad Agency's
contract with Amazon allowed you to buy that house.
Anyways, everyone in the region knows the "new Seattle" is Tacoma. So if you
really want that "dive bar but might get stabbed" vibe you can move there?
~~~
barsonme
> So if you really want that "dive bar but might get stabbed" vibe you can
> move there?
As somebody who's lived there my whole life, :(
I know we were just ranked the most violent city in Washington (or something)
but tbh it's never _felt_ that way.
~~~
sjak299
To put in perspective Ferndale, MI, an affordable but awesome neighborhood of
Detroit, is about 4x safer. 800 to 200 violent crime per 100k per year
~~~
smelterdemon
Ferndale is an inner ring suburb not a neighborhood
------
zw123456
I grew up on a farm about 100 miles outside of Seattle that started as a
homestead that my great grandmother and great grandfather from Germany started
and my family still operates.
I moved to Seattle in 1978 after graduating with MSEE. So I have seen a lot of
changes over the years, but my family going back generations have seen even
more.
I recall fondly living on Queen Anne Hill (first hill north of downtown) which
was my first place here in Seattle. I rode the trolley to work every day and
would stop by and get coffee at a goofy place down in Pike Place Market called
"Starbucks" and would tell people at work " hey you gotta try this Italian
coffee, it's really good".
But the "old Seattle", pre-Amazon and pre-Microsoft had a real grungy
industrial patina to it (maybe that is where the music got influence?).
Do I Love the old Seattle? Absolutely. Do I long for it? Not in the least.
Every phase this great city has gone through has changed it, before Amazon,
Microsoft, before that Boeing before that Weyerhaeuser. Each transformation,
in my view, has brought in new people and new character and for me, I welcome
it.
I am going to post here a poem from a book of poems my Great Grandmother wrote
for family back in Germany. It is about this area as it think it expresses my
view of the changes, maybe I see it the way she did?
The Sleeping Washington \---------------------------------------------------
The forest, a sound is not quiet in.
Washington sleeps and with nature.
Small bird mutely and the bear rests hidden,
Fleeting often only one deer hurries as frightened.
Even the Pine Trees, deliberate,thoughtful and old,
Bend the heads and nod soon.
Slumber sweetly, only lock the eyes,
Know not for a long your power rests.
If light clouds in the sky draw
And your persistent rushing wind shakes.
Sleep only, State of Washington, as child.
Sunday is today, in the solemn silence The forest is.
The serious pines their treetops bends as to the prayer.
But the environment of God's spirit and breath everywhere.
So I want to bend myself in deep humility Before you,alone
With fervency, for your benediction ask you, God the father.
Retain also all my serene love
Also ask I you, carry here a flowering Of colonies;
With work, quite soon, railways, churches, schools, Culture drawn in
The jungle country, a rich bit of earth in Washington.
Therefore, I beg you, O Father, Thy blessing
that it draws them not.
~~~
adzm
This was a beautiful poem.
------
icelancer
I've lived here for 14 years and it's come a long way. I was here when Amazon
was merely a place down in the International District before it terraformed
SLU.
You know what everyone bitched about then? Microsoft. And MS has done more to
take over sections of the city than Amazon ever has, and ever will. Microsoft
"killed" Seattle's soul by setting up shop in Redmond and Bellevue and causing
urban flight. _(Note: I don 't particularly believe any of this stuff.)_
Now Amazon is the new target. Whatever. Fair enough, that always happens. But
Seattle was "dying" just like every other West Coast tech city before the
bigger players got there.
What's not cool is railroading "techbros" who are merely 23 year old graduates
making good money working a job they probably don't necessarily like very
much, but living in a city that is still pretty damn awesome regarding quality
of life. And regressive housing practices are driving prices up north of the
Bay Area in some locations, all legacy policies that were long on the books
before any of this expansion occurred.
~~~
edoceo
I remember living in QA and working at MS in late 90s, before/during the
startup boom/bust. Some of the same vitriol directed at us, is now pointed at
AMZN folks. Plus ça change i guess.
~~~
rconti
I am a Bellevue native, but have lived in the bay area for 15 years now.
Californians are "ruining" Seattle in a way it would be inappropriate to say
about foreigners. Fortunately the only thing "ruining" the bay area is
"techies", not people from a specific geographical location.
Oh, and the traffic has always been beyond abysmal, Seattle. You know it, and
I know it.
~~~
edoceo
Odd, I'm in Seattle from Oakland. Seems like outsiders are ruining everything
:p
~~~
rconti
I like to joke that nobody ever thanks me for moving to CA, the way they
viciously gnash their teeth about all of the horrible Californians moving
north (been whining that way at LEAST as long as I can remember, into the 80s,
but I've heard it predates that by many decades).
Funny, I know more people who have moved from the PNW to CA and particularly
the Bay Area than the opposite. Offhand I can only think of one person who
moved north who _wasn 't_ returning 'home' after college.
~~~
JBlue42
I like LA b/c no one gives a crap since everyone is from somewhere else and
the city just absorbs you.
My home state of N Carolina has a lot of people move down for more affordable
housing and decent jobs from up north. The city of Cary (near Raleigh) is
casually joked about as the Central Area for Relocated Yankees.
No one really cares outside of joking about their poor tastes in sports teams.
------
eagsalazar2
This is all such self serving whining. I grew up in Seattle and lived there
until just a couple years ago and yes it has changed dramatically but it is
pretty unfair to characterize it as having lost its soul. There is also a very
merciless bile people are constantly aiming at these new Amazon employees that
that really pisses me off. They are just people, like everyone else, who got
some education, took a job when they were 23-24 or whatever and moved wherever
that job took them. Characterizing them as asshole tech-bros just because they
aren't cool hipsters like you is just mean.
~~~
nihonde
It's just standard provincial water cooler talk about how someone ruined the
place because it changed. It's basically just code for "I've lived here a long
time, so respect me for that". I grew up in Seattle, and I remember when they
complained about California people migrating up, and then the horrible
Microsoft Millionaires, and now it's Amazon. This kind of griping is what
happens when very little interesting stuff is actually going on.
~~~
fjsolwmv
Poor people envy rich people. That's not weird or wrong. Eseeciall when rich
people bid up housing to insane prices instead of joining forces with the poor
people against the landlords.
~~~
lackbeard
> joining forces with the poor people against the landlords
The poor in Seattle are actually mostly allied with the landlords politically
in maintaining the zoning status-quo. This is what has led to the increasing
housing prices.
------
peatmoss
I feel like Amazon gets a lot of undue grief for changes in Seattle and for
the housing unaffordability. As someone with a background in urban planning, I
feel that Amazon did the RIGHT thing by doubling down on an urban campus.
Another suburban campus like Microsoft or Apple’s new monstrosity would have
been the wrong thing.
Seattle as a whole could have/ should have done a better job planning for that
growth and taking advantage of the opportunities it presents.
~~~
automatoney
What are the major effects of an urban vs suburban campus? I would expect a
suburban campus would make people more likely to move out there, so it would
help with city housing prices, but I don't know anything about how urban
planning works.
~~~
rsync
"What are the major effects of an urban vs suburban campus?"
An urban campus will promote urban housing which is dramatically more energy
efficient than single family homes.
Further, commuting from a condo building to an office tower (or whatever) is
very likely to not involve a car and to involve significantly more walking -
so you have positive environmental and public health externalities there.
... and then there are networking effects as the new condo building needs a
new neighborhood cafe which needs a new bus station and bulb-outs for bike
lanes ...
Fast forward 20 years and you have a new train line.
~~~
enraged_camel
I'm of the firm belief that suburbs are a blight in general. Wasteful,
inefficient, characterless... they are the real reason cities "lose their
soul". So I agree with you that Amazon did the right thing by choosing to go
with an urban campus.
------
Silfen
I have some "old Seattle" credentials. I grew up in Capitol Hill. I absolutely
believe that Amazon is unfairly scapegoated, but at the same time do
understand the gripes that many have about the city's changes. The most bitter
are just the vocal minority, but there are many more natives who are
uncomfortable to some degree. Given that I'm also a tech-yuppie-gentrifier, I
think a lot of the toxicity is unfortunate and misdirected.
While it's definitely a terrible idea to fossilize a city, some parts of town
are entirely unrecognizable, even from what they looked like three years ago.
I don't long for the SLU of old or the abandoned lots of the Denny triangle,
but there was an entire "sense of place" that was wiped out almost overnight.
The wrong people are blamed for it, but I can completely understand where the
grievances originate.
I'd place the blame most squarely on the NIMBY establishment and our single
family zoning. There were bound to be growing pains from all this growth, but
they didn't have to be so extreme. If we could upzone Magnolia and
Wallingford, it would give the CD/south seattle renters quite a bit of relief.
I also think that the HQ2 stuff has much more to do with hitting the limits of
our transit and housing infrastructure than the leftward swing of city
politics, but that's probably best left to another post.
~~~
biocomputation
>> but there are many more natives who are uncomfortable to some degree.
Seattle native who also grew up on Capitol Hill, and still lives here. As a
home owner since the late 90s, the Amazon boom has dramatically increased my
net worth.
But that said, I'd much rather have the house be worth $300k if it would mean
the last 7 years hadn't happened. It's really been too much, too fast. I
didn't buy a house here to get rich, I bought here because my family and
friends are here.
The thing that really bugs me is the loss of community, and what exists where
the sense of community used to be: crowding, the ever increasing spread of
pockets of artificiality, pretentious restaurants, luxury cars swarming the
hill, and outsiders absolutely as far as the eye can see.
Furthermore, if you look at the responses in this in comments on Reddit, or in
comments on articles, you can see the response we get for saying that that the
wholesale destruction of our community makes us uncomfortable: "shut up you
fucking ingrate", or my favorite, from people who actually believe that they
are liberal, "yeah, it sucks that people can't afford it, but I got mine".
We are talking about the wholesale, unchecked destruction of entire
communities. Virtually all of my friends who don't own property are gone. We
have neighbors from China who don't talk to anyone. Everyone is from someone
else, and just here to consume or make it big or whatever. The property values
are attracting people with real wealth and/or speculators, and if I wanted to
live around Yuppie Gentrifiers, I would have moved to Madison Park.
There is very little sense of community left. I feel like Amazon should have
made its own town somewhere else, and left us ours.
~~~
klipt
And wherever your friends move to, people like you will look down on then for
being "outsiders".
Many newcomers didn't choose to not have enough jobs in their home town. I'm
sure many would have preferred being able to stay with _their_ friends instead
of moving to Seattle for jobs.
You could try making friends with newcomers instead of walling yourself off
from them.
~~~
goldenkey
As someone who worked for Amazon in Seattle, the above poster is partly right.
Most of it has to do with Amazon's toxic culture and hiring practices. They
will hire anyone with a pulse, speaking English decently not required, having
a personality not required. So you end up having people who are just there to
make money and have little desire to connect with humanity.
------
cperciva
Amazon brought $700k home prices to Seattle? Wow, that's a problem I'd love to
see in Vancouver!
Seriously, housing prices didn't go up because of Amazon. Housing prices went
up because there was an imbalance between the zoning for jobs and the zoning
for homes. Vancouver doesn't have any employers anywhere near the scale of
Amazon, but we've managed to create a much worse imbalance -- and median home
prices well over $1M.
~~~
seanmcdirmid
Eh, I thought that was more due to Chinese money? Seattle housing prices are
driven by tech incomes, it is completely different from Vancouver.
~~~
cperciva
"Chinese money" has had a significant effect on the $5M+ market. And it adds a
lot of liquidity to the condo market, by buying presale condos and then
selling them when buildings near completion. But the amount of mid-market
housing which is owned by offshore owners is too small to explain more than a
small part of the housing bubble.
~~~
seanmcdirmid
It is the $1M+ market from what I heard, and it mostly ate up the mid market.
Vancouver real estate crashed for a decade when the Japanese asset bubble
popped (remember you could buy a condo for $100k in the late 90s?), this is
just history repeating itself.
~~~
cperciva
If you count the number of transactions, then yes there's a lot in the mid-
market range. But most of that is buying and selling presales; it doesn't
affect the supply, because it's not eating up any housing units which actually
exist. (In fact, there's a strong argument that this _increases_ housing
supply, since a strong presale market encourages more construction.)
The real estate crash you're talking about had nothing to do with the Japanese
economy; it coincided with the Hong Kong handover and an overnight 50%
reduction in immigration. Keeping the supply of new homes fixed while the
number of prospective new homeowners dropped dramatically had exactly the
effect one would expect...
~~~
nodamage
> If you count the number of transactions, then yes there's a lot in the mid-
> market range.
Do you have a source for this? And is it specific to Seattle?
> But most of that is buying and selling presales; it doesn't affect the
> supply, because it's not eating up any housing units which actually exist.
I'm not sure this follows. If a Seattle resident would have been willing to
buy a presale (to ultimately live in), but it is instead bought by a foreign
investor, then the resident has a smaller pool of housing to choose from.
~~~
cperciva
_If a Seattle resident would have been willing to buy a presale (to ultimately
live in), but it is instead bought by a foreign investor, then the resident
has a smaller pool of housing to choose from._
Only if the foreign investor holds on to the condo in question. If they sell
the unit before construction is finished (which is the most common scenario),
there are just as many units of _housing_ available for local residents. The
only supply being reduced is the supply of pieces of paper which entitle
people to purchase units which don't exist yet.
------
mabbo
> But median home prices have doubled in five years, to $700,000. This is not
> a good thing in a place where teachers and cops used to be able to afford a
> house with a water view.
This is a self-inflicted wound that Amazon shouldn't be held to blame for.
Seattle refuses to add density- a common pattern on the west coast it seems.
When supply is limited and demand increases, prices rise. This is basic
economics. If Seattle wants all those juicy tax dollars of Amazonians working
there, they either have to allow for the growth in homes, or accept that homes
will get more expensive.
~~~
biocomputation
<< Seattle refuses to add density- a common pattern on the west coast it
seems.
This is utterly and preposterously false.
There are huge apartment and condominium complexes going up all over town.
Ballard has been strip mined and turned into a virtual Las Vegas strip of
luxury apartments. Capitol Hill has been strip mined and turned into block
after block of luxury apartments.
I've visited the web sites of nearly all these buildings, and with the
exception of projects by Capitol Hill Housing Authority, it's virtually all
been built for people with high incomes.
The fact that so much housing has been built for solely for wealthy people is
really, really, really central to the argument against gentrification.
Gentrification says "Hey, if your community doesn't have have money, it
doesn't exist. If it doesn't exist, we don't even have to erase it. You'll
just be gone and no one will care."
This is an incredibly destructive ( often totally racist ) message, and it's
really at the heart of the problems that arise with income inequality.
~~~
fjsolwmv
Look to the east coast or even Vancouver to see what a "huge" building is.
~~~
esmi
Speaking of changing cities with “huge” buildings; the before pic is 1990
which is just incredible, to me anyway.
[http://www.businessinsider.com/shanghai-growth-
gif-2014-11?r...](http://www.businessinsider.com/shanghai-growth-
gif-2014-11?r=UK&IR=T)
The tallest in the “now” image is this building.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Tower](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Tower)
------
noobermin
Pretty weak op-ed. I was expecting good meat, but the only thing they listed
that took Seattle's soul was housing prices. I mean that's one hell of an
increase (median of 700K!) but all that build up and no elaboration... I
closed the tab feeling quite underwhelmed.
~~~
sockgrant
Yeah. I’ve heard amazon is really unpopular up there I’m surprised he couldn’t
find more to say on the issues.
~~~
bm1362
As an employee, it was pretty apparent people didn't want you there. The
Stranger would post inflammatory articles about tech bros and unflattering
caricatures.
My girlfriend and I moved up from Texas completely unaware of the stigma. She
worked in bars and restaurants, where the staff would disparage customers
suspected of being tech yuppies. I even remember being a guest at a BBQ once,
I told someone I worked at Amazon (timidly) and the response was "Oh, you're
one of those assholes."
Coming from small town Texas and being lower income, it was a weird time for
me. I was newly middle class and when I would go back home I felt weird about
my income, but then being in Seattle I felt unwelcome.
~~~
techsupporter
> and the response was "Oh, you're one of those assholes."
Frankly, and I mean this with all sincerity, fuck those people. They're what
happens when empathy dies and envy takes its place. Ask any one of them if
_they 'd_ have liked to immediately be vaulted into a six-figure salary with a
stable company and a benefits package that would make a Congressperson blush
and I bet you six shares of AMZN (that I've never own, full disclosure) that
they'd take that deal in a hot minute.
The bulk of the animosity about the "asshole tech-bros" seems like simple envy
to me. To wit, lots of people are moaning about all of the wealthy people
moving into the Central District and decrying that others are being "pushed
out." Something like 72% of the CD was, four years ago, owner-occupied, so the
people who are leaving (and, presumably, making bank on those properties
they've owned for two decades) are doing so of their own free will and
profiting from the sale.
Yes, housing costs are a beating here but the bleating coming out of
Wallingford and Magnolia and Roosevelt can just shut the hell up because the
bulk of those voters ARE THE REASON that new housing doesn't get built at the
rate it needs to be built.
/end rant
//sorry about that
~~~
biocomputation
>> They're what happens when empathy dies and envy takes its place.
Well, forgive me for pointing this out, but what you wrote contains a fairly
shocking lack of empathy.
Feeling bad or angry about being driven out of a neighborhood by an enormous
wave of outsiders isn't about envy. The change hasn't even been incremental;
the bulk of the changes have taken place in the last five years!
In the central district, entire communities that existed for decades are being
destroyed. They are bulldozing people's communities to make room for people
with more money.
How can you expect people to not feel angry?
~~~
nate_meurer
No, I'll second the OP. Fuck anyone who chooses to hate you just because you
work for Amazon. Go ahead and be angry, absolutely, but anyone who treats
another person like that deserves to have their drink poured out on the floor.
~~~
lackbeard
Correct. It's wrong to be angry towards their fellow residents who just want a
place to live and work, like them. They should be angry at themselves and the
representatives they elected for the governance that has gotten the city into
its current mess.
------
mc32
That's ridiculous. Are we about to complain that (Bethlehem) Steel stole
Pittsburgh's soul back in the steel days or Finance stole NYC's soul, or
Entertainment stole LA's soul?
Give me a break. A city's economy changes over time. Sometimes you get company
towns and sometimes you get diversified economies, but cities evolve and
develop around the economies/industries of the rather than industries settling
on a population to thrive on. Even the Bay Area where you might say companies
come for the talent --that's BS, the talent comes to the companies who are
attracting it. If GOOG, FB, MSFT, etc. opened campuses in Mesa, AZ, you'd have
people move over there following the cos and growing their econs.
~~~
TulliusCicero
> Even the Bay Area where you might say companies come for the talent --that's
> BS, the talent comes to the companies who are attracting it. If GOOG, FB,
> MSFT, etc. opened campuses in Mesa, AZ, you'd have people move over there
> following the cos and growing their econs.
If this is true, then why do these companies keep setting up shop in the most
expensive cities in the country? If they can draw talent to wherever they
want, why _not_ someplace cheap like Mesa?
(The answer is because while people do move to meet companies where they are,
companies also try to go to where the highest concentrations of talent are or
would like to live)
~~~
mc32
I think once a company settles in a place, they like to keep their talent
together and glom people from different places --and it's only after they have
distinct subsidiaries that they can geo-diversify (as GOOG slowly is, and IBM
has done).
I still think for the most part, it's people coming after the companies rather
then companies coming for the people. At YC talent goes to YC, rather than YC
going to the talent, for the most part)
Occasionally, you get companies having satellite offices to accommodate some
people (like Japanese auto opening design offices in the US and US companies
opening offices in IL, to have access to some hard to get talent) --but I
think that is a minority.
~~~
TulliusCicero
> and it's only after they have distinct subsidiaries that they can geo-
> diversify (as GOOG slowly is, and IBM has done).
First off, Google has lots of offices all over the country and world, although
Mountain View is still by far the biggest one.
Secondly, what offices they have opened in the US are disproportionately (by
headcount) in expensive cities like NYC, Seattle, Boston, etc. The only cheap
city they have a significant number of devs in is Pittsburgh. So your theory
fails here again.
Heck even looking at Europe, you know what the two biggest dev offices are for
Google there? Zurich and London, two of the most expensive cities in Europe.
Where's their German dev office? Oh it's in Munich, the most expensive city in
the country.
------
unionjack22
Seattleite here, If the city would build for density and take some steps to
address the speculation and foreign asset arbitrage going on in the housing
market, then this debate would be moot and we'd be back to brooding and
awkwardly avoiding human contact as we so desperately want to.
~~~
acidburnNSA
Is it not building for density? I've lived in the same spot near capitol hill
for 5 years and there are new high-rise and mid-rise condo buildings in every
single direction. It's been nuts! They built like crazy.
~~~
apsec112
All the construction is concentrated into a few small pockets. So inside one
of those pockets, it feels like a lot. But the majority of Seattle's land is
still single-family detached residential only. This is a zoning map, you'll
see that the "highrise" and "midrise" pockets are very small:
[https://static1.squarespace.com/static/55ff4befe4b029a3a1975...](https://static1.squarespace.com/static/55ff4befe4b029a3a1975b6c/55ff4c6de4b06ae6b94dff59/55ff4c73e4b06ae6b94e0166/1442794731781/)
------
ksenzee
I'm a Seattle native, but I lived in other places between 1994 and 2009 before
moving back (to the suburbs). The difference between Seattle today and the
Seattle I knew growing up is stark. Not all bad, by any means. But wow is it
different.
~~~
astura
I grew up in a no-name city I'm the Northeast and I can say exactly the same
thing when I visit- _Wow,_ this place is _different!_
Because things just change.
We didn't even have a big company come in or anything, it just changed over
time one thing leading to another.
------
rizzom5000
Here's a better article on the same topic:
[http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/10/19/amazon-
hea...](http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/10/19/amazon-headquarters-
seattle-215725)
~~~
dang
Normally we change the URL when a user suggests a better one, but in this case
the lame article has provoked such a surprisingly excellent thread that I
don't want to mess with it.
------
api
Meanwhile most cities in the interior have a deficit of good paying jobs and
young people are leaving. A lot of those cities would give anything for
Seattle's problems.
~~~
biocomputation
<< A lot of those cities would give anything for Seattle's problems.
This is such a terrible non-argument.
If you go to a lot of those cities and ask people 'hey, do you want to be
forced to move away from you home' or 'do you want to share the city with
50,000 new people in five years', or 'do you want your commute time to
double', how do you think they would answer?
Honestly, as a Seattle native, it's been a mixed bag, but mostly bad.
------
Tempest1981
What could have been done better, to reap the benefits without the downsides?
I hear complaining, but are there solutions? Maybe too much emphasis on jobs,
to the point we're subsidizing companies like Amazon to build HQ2, with no
money left to mitigate traffic or add housing?
Does Sidewalk have any clever insights or ideas?
[https://www.wired.com/story/google-sidewalk-labs-toronto-
qua...](https://www.wired.com/story/google-sidewalk-labs-toronto-quayside/)
~~~
jacalata
They could have voted for transit in the 70s. They could have not reduced
allowable density across the city. And then when they realized people were
moving in they could have increased density, a couple decades ago. And the
increased density would make transit, even buses, more of an option, with both
more riders and a larger tax base.
------
InclinedPlane
There are a lot of problems that are not at all unique to Seattle or Amazon,
and a lot of those overarching issues are going to color any sort of "then vs.
now" comparisons. Over the last 40 years there has been zero net income growth
for folks in the bottom half of the economy. Meanwhile housing has gotten
expensive. Meanwhile the economy outside of cities has crashed and burned,
while cities have revitalized and become the primary sources of economic
growth. You can buy a house out in "flyover country" but there are no jobs
there, and certainly no high paying ones. Cities are where unemployment is
lowest, incomes are highest, and housing is the least affordable. And this is
a great contrast compared to the situation mid-20th century where cities were
being abandoned and getting run down.
Cities have revitalized, and this has brought some salutary benefits, but not
without costs. And the huge degree of income and wealth inequality makes
revitalization of cities problematic in many ways. Growth doesn't translate to
a "rising tide that lifts all boats", it translates to an economy that some
people can participate in while others are increasingly pushed out of it. This
is not only unsustainable, it's inhumane. There are many ways to tackle the
problem but they are going to take years of concerted effort just to get
started. For one incomes at the bottom need to be lifted up, and the easiest
way to do that is increasing the minimum wage. A lot. It used to be the case
that if you had a job, any job, you could at least keep your head above water:
pay rent, pay your bills, indulge in a few minor luxuries, and build some
savings. Now that's not true, not only for people at the very bottom, but for
an increasingly large chunk of the entire workforce. We also need to address
affordable housing, but addressing inequality is the more important fix.
------
solaarphunk
Grew up in Seattle, lived on capitol hill, moved away a few years ago.
All the "rough around the edges" components were what gave the city its
character. There's a reason, growing up, why people made fun of Bellevue and
how lifeless everything felt. Its also why they felt so passionate about their
hometown, despite the weather.
Now Seattle feels lifeless. I used to want to move back at some point, but now
I don't feel like I'm missing out on much. Thank god Amazon has realized how
much it has affected Seattle and is trying to move the next 50-100k employees
to a city that could really stand to benefit from the growth.
I don't blame Amazon entirely for this, but I do hope it serves as a lesson
for other companies (and cities), who welcome growth at all other costs.
The greatest irony is I live in the bay area now, which seems to predict the
future of Seattle quite nicely. Its clear no one gives a shit about where they
live, or the communities and culture they inevitably displace. They are just
trying to make as much money as possible and get the hell out.
------
benjismith
I don't think we can even comprehend what lies ahead of us for the future of
urbanization. The cities, the suburbs, and the rural districts are all
undergoing radical generational changes, and there's no hope things settling
down anytime soon. If anything, the pace just keeps accelerating...
------
jamisteven
Errr what in the world did I just read. Seattle is not special in this way and
it's certainly not amazons fault. Go to places like Utah, Nashville,
Birmingham, same thing happening there dude just on a smaller scale as they
are smalller cities
------
greedo
People hate change, but that's the only constant in life. I grew up in SoCal,
in what was a sleepy area that combined Del Mar, Solana Beach, Encinitas and
Leucadia. Surf towns, with some nice beach houses, some excitement during race
season when the surf met the turf. My mom bought a house with the help of her
parents, $70K for a crappy 3 bedroom right next to I-5. Went to high school
out in the boonies, near Rancho Santa Fe where the rich folk lived on
acreages. I went to UCSD which was sleepy as well, though situated next to La
Jolla where all the rich people who wanted to be close to the ocean lived.
I went back to visit with my fiance in 1998, and I-5 is now like 18 lanes at
one merge, my old house is now worth $1.5m, and the sleepy little village I
grew up in is now full of people making over $200k/year, or retirees who held
on to their houses and have huge nest eggs if they can ever sell.
I had a buddy who was in the Navy, he bought a house in Encinitas, sold it
when he retired, and moved to the Midwest. Bought a helluva house on an
acreage, lives off his pension, and enjoys life without the stress of the West
Coast.
Everything changes, and people hate it. But people will hate it when things
don't change as well...
------
curun1r
I had a number of family that lived in Seattle. They all worked for Boeing in
some capacity. My grandmother moved out there and worked for Boeing in the
early 60s after my mom turned 18. Her cousin was an administrative assistant,
eventually to the CEO. Another cousin was an engineer with the company. To
hear them tell it, Boeing was the soul of Seattle, though they were probably
biased.
But Boeing moved a lot of the company to Chicago for tax breaks and eventually
setup another factory in South Carolina to avoid union labor. Despite being
long-retired by that point, my relatives all felt betrayed by the company. And
though those family members have all passed on by now, my guess is they
wouldn't blame Amazon for taking Seattle's soul, they'd blame Boeing for
abandoning it.
------
shrimpx
It's typical of Seattle culture to blame some incoming tech movement for
ruining culture. What people seem to constantly miss is that before Amazon,
this was a Microsoft/Cisco town. Long before that, it was a Boeing town.
Seattle culture in the 20th/21st centuries has been massively influenced by
technology culture. Anti-Amazon rants miss the larger picture.
A similar phenomenon is in San Francisco, where people argue that SF is some
kind of hippie paradise being ruined by tech, although in the larger context
SF is defined by a long history of capitalist conquest, and the summer of love
was a small blip on the timeline.
The better mindset is to try to grasp your city from a larger perspective, and
stop comparing how you found it vs. how it is now.
------
c3534l
I don't feel like the author ever explained _how_ Amazon changed Seattle and
I'm not convinced Amazon did. Seattle changed over a few decades, like time
has a tendency to do. Housing prices increased, as they did in San Francisco,
Portland, and Vancouver. The author is (mostly vaguely) lamenting how things
are different from how it used to be, but not offering much insight into why,
how, and why I should care.
------
TaylorGood
May have already been said, but what about Bellevue? It's the Microsoft
equivalent. I lived on Mercer Island in the early 90's and only thing Bellevue
had going for it was the mall. Was bland. Today it's a dynamic area.
Better these cities are in demand than decay. In the words of Neil Young,
"you're either dying or growing"
------
digitalzombie
Seattle went to hell after Boeing left it.
It was either a ghost town of a city that depended on one company Boeing or
now as it currently is.
------
chrismealy
The real problem is when half your friends are priced out of the city and have
to move away.
~~~
lackbeard
Yes, but that's Seattle's fault, not Amazon's.
------
chiefalchemist
I think the question this raises is : Knowing this, what might it say about
the city Anazon picks next?
That is, for example, will it be "established" or more on the other of "we can
impose our will on this area"?
Time will tell.
------
econner
Why is this title in quotes?
------
stretchwithme
Every city is the result of all the previous destruction.
------
johnfocker
Clickbait. The only valuable information I got from the article is that
Seattle is gentrified by Amazon and its employees. The rest of it is someone
sharing his nostalgia.
I'm on HN for the science and mindblowing stuff and I'm tired of this kind of
facebook post articles. I suppose I'm not the only one.
------
sitkack
Distasteful group think, change is the only constant. How predictably cliche.
I moved to Seattle in 1995 from 90 miles away. Let me tell you about Seattle
then vs Seattle now.
1\. It had neighborhoods that were distinct and varied. 2. Street life was
more vibrant 3. You could have a part time job and still live.
Some of these things change because they changed for everyone, everywhere and
not Seattle specific, but also not good. Now, Seattle is the same everywhere
and more of the people moving here are moving for the job. Not for the place,
or the people or the culture, if we can call it that. The job, they are
interested in the career, in the money, in buying into a hot housing market,
etc.
Listening to tech people talk about their 2 and 3rd Seattle house (concurrent,
not serial) sickens me. The poorly run record shops, lazy tea joints and
bookstores with esoteric books are gone. Now it is Gucci and 200$ t-shirts.
Seattle is LAME now man. Not only does it cost upwards of 3k to rent a house,
everyone is burnt chasing pointers and promos. There is no slack, nothing that
exists between the places. Tech people use a city, they don't make on.
~~~
PhasmaFelis
> _Listening to tech people talk about their 2 and 3rd Seattle house
> (concurrent, not serial) sickens me._
As a tech person in Seattle, could you please tell me where all these
fantastically megarich Seattle tech people are? I'd like them to take a look
at my resume.
~~~
jacalata
I know some of them. They moved here in the early 90s to work at Microsoft, or
they made a ton of money when their parents and grandparents all died and left
them a couple houses in places like Queen Anne and Ballard. I don't think they
have any good advice on how to replicate it.
~~~
smsm42
Your sample might be a bit skewed. I've been working in US high-tech for a
decade and most people haven't inherited couple of houses, own another one and
look for buying yet another one. Surely, there might be, but not typically.
Typically what I see people that either renting or finally could afford a new
house. Sure, some people get super-rich on huge IPOs etc. - but not the most
typical case.
~~~
jacalata
We're not talking about the whole group of tech people, we're specifically
talking about the ones who own several houses. I agree that it is laughably
atypical and the commenter who brought it up as a problem is overstating the
frequency.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: I created a social network to share geotagged recipes - zerobudgetdev
http://snapaliciousapp.com/
======
TheSmoke
i'm a big fan of world cuisine and i really would love a web site (some might
like an app) to browse recipes categorized by region / country. if all the
recipes would go through someone who's good at cooking (or eating) and
visitors knew that their meal will taste exactly the same -or the closest it
can be- many people -including me- would pay for it. do one thing different
than the others. almost every god damn recipe site on world cuisine made me
upset.
another suggestion is there is not a single point on what snapalicious does.
you gotta make a better landing page.
good luck with it.
------
joshdance
I like world cuisine. Couldn't tell what your app really did. Need a better
landing page and explanations. Keep working, good luck!
------
sirji
How can i view the recipe?
~~~
zerobudgetdev
Not all users share a recipe for a dish. If there is one you can see it. See
here:
[http://snapaliciousapp.com/posts/A98UiSGCzw](http://snapaliciousapp.com/posts/A98UiSGCzw)
~~~
sirji
y dont you start paid recipes. Atleast users will share recipe if they are
paid
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Apple Claims Amazon Improperly Using ‘App Store’ Trademark - macco
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-21/apple-sues-amazon-com-over-use-of-app-store-trademark.html
======
macco
Can you really trademark something generic like "App Store" in the US? Maybe
somebody should trademark a "Software Store".
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
It’s Goodbye QWERTY, Hello Emojis as Apple Rethinks the Keyboard - personjerry
http://www.wsj.com/articles/its-goodbye-qwerty-hello-emojis-as-apple-redesigns-the-keyboard-1476869408
======
cloudsloth
Terrible headline.
In the article it looks like Apple is replacing key markings with an e-ink
display. Sounds expensive.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Startuplet - constructive bounds on startup ideas - akhavr
http://startuplet.com
======
battle_cruiser
Looks very promising!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
CIA and NSA Directors Blame the Media for Terrorists Using Encryption - magoghm
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160225/12440333712/cia-nsa-directors-blame-media-terrorists-using-encryption.shtml
======
SCAQTony
What does the NSA/CIA/FBI/DHS, the Pentagon, Senate, and House of
representatives want? Do they want all coverage regarding any and all topics
listed above be vetted before release? Would this include editorials as well
or discussions on the radio and Podcasts?
Since we "quasi lost" the 4th amendment with the Patriot Act (almost lost
habeas corpus too) can we at least keep the first?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
It’s time to grow up. - wellboy
http://appreneur-diaries.com/its-time-to-grow-up
======
Throwadev
It's nice that you blog your thoughts, but I think posts like this are more
suitable for twitter than HN. What are others going to learn from this post?
You are just announcing that you are doing something else, there's nothing
interesting that others could garner from this. If you posted about specific
things you learned that weren't already part of the HN reader canon, then
maybe it would be worthwhile to post.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ron Minnich's 196-node Gumstix Overo cluster - jff
http://picasaweb.google.com/rminnich/StrongboxAtSC10?authkey=Gv1sRgCJbWpcfci73HxwE#
======
jff
A few notes:
* This uses the Gumstix Stagecoach modules, each of which can hold 7 Overo processors.
* Every shelf is a self-contained unit with a power supply and ethernet switch.
Although the title says "Ron Minnich", it was actually a team effort by Dr.
Minnich and his colleague Mitch Williams.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Apple Human Interface Guidelines - todayiamme
http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/AppleHIGuidelines/XHIGDesignProcess/XHIGDesignProcess.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40002718-TPXREF101
======
harrybr
Nice quote (from the 7th paragraph)
"Recognize that, as an application developer or interface designer, you have a
greater wealth of knowledge and a more intricate understanding of your
application than your customers are likely to have. Although you should use
that knowledge to choose the best default settings or decide the best
presentation of information, remember that you are not designing the program
for yourself. It is not your needs or your usage patterns that you are
designing for, but those of your (potential) customers."
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Code Quality - gkya
http://xkcd.com/1513/
======
nickysielicki
I sincerely doubt that being self-taught has anything to do with how well
clean your code style is.
------
NicoJuicy
My self thaught code is prettier then my work code ( deadlines @work,
perfectionism at home)
~~~
gkya
Are you equating «self-taught» with pet/personal projects here? Self-taught is
as in «not learnt coding in a university».
------
MichaelCrawford
DECSYSTEM 10 BASIC didn't have much need for spaces:
20LETX=2*Y
Just sayin...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How the Gates Foundation Reflects the Good and the Bad of “Hacker Philanthropy” - pavornyoh
https://theintercept.com/2015/11/25/how-the-gates-foundation-reflects-the-good-and-the-bad-of-hacker-philanthropy/
======
imh
>How might Gates spend its money more wisely? McGoey offers little guidance on
this.
This is the crux of the article to me. These problems don't have known
solutions. The options are to do expensive research/experiments or just keep
the status quo. The status quo doesn't work, so let's do some exploration,
like Gates did. There are difficult ethics involved, but if you think
something will do better I would argue it's unethical to ignore it. The real
touchy issue is how to do that and minimize the impact of inevitably being
wrong sometimes.
------
pjscott
The argument given here that they should prioritize "obesity, cancer and heart
disease" more is ridiculous. Those are a lot harder to deal with than diseases
that you can just vaccinate against, like measles or polio -- so, given a
finite number of philanthropic dollars, anyone halfway reasonable is going to
prioritize the stuff that gives more bang for the buck.
~~~
lumberjack
The argument is rather that a layman should not be in charge of redirecting
talent from one research effort to another, because they are a layman.
It's a "utopian should" though. Billionaires can boss people around. Not much
to do about it.
~~~
username223
> Billionaires can boss people around. Not much to do about it.
Work toward a system that creates fewer billionaires, maybe?
~~~
adventured
Ideally we would have drastically more billionaires, so long as they're
produced out of economic expansion.
The rise of the plentiful billionaire has coincided with lower global
inequality, radically lower infant mortality, less war, far greater standards
of living globally, increasingly plentiful food and scarcity of famines,
increased life expectancy, higher real median incomes, etc.
Humanity has never had it better, not even remotely close in fact.
~~~
username223
Ideally we'd have drastically more $100k-ionaires, i.e. people who don't have
to worry about basic needs, but who aren't rich enough to manipulate laws and
their fellow humans to their own advantage. Unfortunately, things haven't been
headed that way for the past few decades.
------
jkire
Most of the arguments seem to boil down to the equivalent of "they tried X, it
didn't work, they should have used the money better". When trying to reform
any system, be it software, business or education, risks almost always have to
be taken to get any meaningful results.
That being said, it would be really interesting to read a dissection on how
much philanthropists (especially new "hacker philanthropists") acknowledge
that there are risks, and how they weigh those risks up. After all, the
consequences of making mistakes when trying to reform an education system can
have a large and lasting effect on the students involved.
------
lemming
_Though the World Health Organization spends more than Gates does on
health..._
Regardless of its purported problems, the fact that you can have a sentence
like this about a private organisation is amazing.
------
orionblastar
The problem is this, he is trying to solve problems with the same thinking
that went to build Microsoft and make him a billionaire. These problems have
to be solved with a different type of thinking than the ones that caused
rivals to Microsoft to go out of business and cause people to lose their jobs
and go into poverty.
Public education has a problem where most students are poor and suffer
emotional and psychological issues that make it hard to study and focus on
work. Many have broken homes and dysfunctional families. You can't just throw
money at a problem like that and expect it to be solved. Not unless you are
using the money to make sure those families are no longer poor and have money
to raise them to a middle class income. But you can't just pay them money, you
have to create jobs they can work for that pays them the money.
With Microsoft they earn money by automating things that eliminate jobs, and
people enter poverty when their jobs are eliminated and they aren't qualified
for any other sort of work. So you'd have to set up an education for the
student's parents to get them better jobs so they can get out of poverty.
------
username223
> ...increased data collection on teacher effectiveness, the introduction of
> performance-based teacher pay...
A friend of mine teaches music in a public school, and half of his performance
review depends upon his students' math and english scores (à la Common Core).
Many of his students were raised in families that don't value education. And
if all of that absurdity isn't enough, he's making a lousy salary, with the
prospect of making a modest living in five years if he plays the
administrative game well and gets a bit lucky.
It's not that complicated: if we paid teachers like we pay coders, we would
have better teachers. That would cost something like 1% of GDP per capita in
the US.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Volkswagen Group is using IE6 as standard for displaying web pages - rmoriz
http://www.vwgroupsupply.com/b2b/vwb2b_folder/supply2public/en/die_plattform/sicherheit_und_technik.html
======
FuzzyDunlop
One time a few years ago I was contracted to redesign a large Mercedes
dealership's website.
They recommended IE6 too but the main issue wasn't what the user saw when
visiting the page, it was the supplier CMS used to administrate it. This was
enforced by Mercedes themselves, so all dealerships had to use it.
It was custom, and, this is no exaggeration, _impossible_ to use. There was
probably a 600 page manual, caked in dust in some forgotten supply cupboard,
detailing what exactly you had to do after you'd managed the Herculean task of
logging in.
Editing a simple block of text required 'unlocking' it, which would for some
reason lock other elements. And then when you did change the text it might not
have let you save it anyway, providing plenty of incomprehensible error
messages.
I must have put a mental block on the rest because I quit after just a day of
figuring it out, but my guess is that pages like that still exist because no
bugger can figure out how to edit them.
I'd be surprised if VW didn't use the same or a similar CMS themselves.
~~~
nihilocrat
This sounds like the most common reaction to users accidentally causing errors
in data: lock everything down and only allow a very specific operation, and
complain loudly and specifically (i.e., incomprehensibly) if they get out of
line, in order to protect the data. Did someone find a new way to screw up?
Add another restriction.
I sometimes wonder why these interfaces are so freaking common for anything
not facing the general public.
~~~
recoiledsnake
>I sometimes wonder why these interfaces are so freaking common for anything
not facing the general public.
It's simple, the choice is to either use it or find a new job. Quitting is not
easy or practical to many people.
Even the general public faces such choices with atrocious bank, DMV, govt
sites etc. written 10 years ago in with CGI or ASP. (and a COBOL backend).
~~~
mmahemoff
Yep and sites like this get the back button treatment if they're public sites,
but you don't know about it until you start working there when it's intranet
crud.
------
emilsedgh
"For security reasons, the Volkswagen Group does not recommend other browsers
like Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Netscape etc. as they show security gaps."
This probably means they have serious security holes which could be easily
triggered by other browsers.
~~~
joelthelion
I think it simply means that this page was written more than five years ago.
~~~
troymc
Indeed. Aol stopped supporting Netscape (the browser) in 2008.
Ref:
[http://www.thetechherald.com/article.php/200810/312/Netscape...](http://www.thetechherald.com/article.php/200810/312/Netscape-
Navigator-heads-to-the-twilight-of-oblivion)
------
cubicle67
This'd just be a case of yet another page that's never been updated. I think
my bank's site recommends either IE or netscape - site works fine, just that
no one's ever updated the required browser page
~~~
hetman
Though claiming IE6 was the most secure web browser in 2009 is still pretty
worrying.
~~~
cubicle67
er, yeah... that one's a bit more difficult to explain :/
------
moomin
Apparently they don't recommend other browsers as they show security gaps. I'm
glad the security experts of VW have finally decided to share their knowledge
with the world. A pity they don't make routers and anti-virus software, rather
than cars.
------
freedompeace
For a well-designed website, I must say, I'm a bit worried.
> The cooperation takes place by our Group Business Platform using current
> security standards and ciphering methods. A secure data interchange has high
> priority!
Because that's all there is to security.
> All data is transferred with a 128 Bit SSL coding and are even secured by
> your log in on our Group Business Platform. This ciphering method is used in
> all areas of the platform and is added with further certificates.
I didn't realise we could code in SSL.
> The Volkswagen Group is using Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 as standard the
> for displaying web pages. For the daily work with our platform, we recommend
> you to use the Microsoft Internet Explorer 6, too.
IE6 ftw!
> By using the current version and the updates provided by Microsoft we
> guarantee you a secure connection.
I must have been living under a rock; I thought that it was because Internet
Explorer was so insecure that I get patches every week for it. Oh, but then
again, those were security issues with the rendering, not the connection. It
must be the connection that is so important!
> For security reasons, the Volkswagen Group does not recommend other browsers
> like Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Netscape etc. as they show security gaps.
Oh. Okay. I understand.
~~~
5hoom
You forgot this bit in the technical requirements:
_-PC or MAC with internet connection
-Web Browser (Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 is recommended)_
So... they mean a (pretty old) PC with internet connection then?
~~~
eropple
Hey now, there's Microsoft Internet Explorer for Mac. Supports high-quality
(broken) CSS1, y'know.
~~~
chc
Not IE 6. Mac stopped at 5.something.
~~~
p4bl0
Yup, but I remember IE 5.2 on Mac being a little better wrt. the w3c standards
than IE 6 on windows, so I guess the version numbers weren't really
comparable.
~~~
chc
It was better in some ways, but IIRC the box model was the brokenest thing
ever.
------
tzury
By using the current version and the updates
provided by Microsoft we guarantee you a secure
connection.
Tell this to Microsoft which currently formally stated: "it’s time to say
goodbye to IE6" at <http://www.ie6countdown.com/>
10 years ago a browser was born.
Its name was Internet Explorer 6. Now that we’re in 2011,
in an era of modern web standards, it’s time to say goodbye.
This website is dedicated to watching Internet Explorer 6
usage drop to less than 1% worldwide, so more websites can
choose to drop support for Internet Explorer 6, saving hours
of work for web developers.
------
russell
Apologies for being mind-numbingly obvious, but this is an opportunity for
being very disruptive, and similar opportunities exist in every hide-bound
industry. Unfortunately you cant do it on a ramen or even a YC budget. However
if you work for a feisty player and can convince them that there is money to
be made in selling their back office software, you have a chance. A few years
ago I almost pulled it off until the principals realized the cost of HN grade
sr developers.
And most of you wont be in a position to do so, because you avoid these
industries like the plague. :-)
------
antimora
For some reason the corporate world is still stuck with IE6.
Just recently we were dealing with a large corporation that was still using
IE6 throughout the company and our web app had to support this browser.
~~~
rmoriz
The reason in Germany is mainly SAP (because of its popularity here)
Their Netweaver product was build with lots of ActiveX + OS stuff that's so
proprietary, that it will not work with even IE7.
Of course SAP has released upgrades but companies have to pay for it or change
larger parts of their ERP to be able to apply the upgrades. As ERPs are
propably upgraded once per decade, this will take some time...
From various access logs I've analyzed, I can say that Daimler, Merck (the
Germany Merck), Bayer, Deutsche Post and some Governments (Bundeszentralamt
für Steuern) still run IE6 in wide-scale deployments.
It seems that only view companies provide alternative, modern browsers to
their users or the users don't use them and stick with their IE6 default (as
they know from SAP Portal) even when browsing externaly.
~~~
cnvogel
Working in a ~50000 employee company that shall remain nameless I can give you
another datapoint from "big companies" out there:
We only got IE8 (on WinXP, Win7 will not launch for another year or two) this
year. And before that it was whatever IE version ships with WinXP.
The alternative we can use is a Firefox that has not been updated since its
rollout in 2009. And of course you are not allowed to use other than company-
managed software, especially web-browsers are tightly regulated, exceptions
granted only for a few chosen employees.
The policy regarding webbrowsers explicitly states that this is done to avoid
having people running outdated versions of them...
~~~
mkopinsky
Here's what I don't get. (Maybe someone here can help answer this.) My
company, with 18,000 employees, recently decided to upgrade workstations from
IE6 to IE7. It wasn't entirely seamless - employees still had to double-click
a desktop icon to kick off the upgrade. What I don't understand is why they
upgraded to IE7. Once you're going through the friction of doing an upgrade at
all, why not go all the way? Is the retraining coefficient that much more for
IE8 (or 9) vs. IE7?
~~~
tsotha
I can't say what happened at your company, but at mine (which is a bit
bigger), the IT people started "qualifying" IE7 when it came out. It took them
until after IE8 was released to get all the various internal groups working
and tested on IE7. The testing part was really the big piece, so they couldn't
just jump to IE8 when it was released because it would have meant months or
years redoing the testing cycle.
------
hm2k
Peugeot suffers with the same issue:
<http://landing.peugeotlink.co.uk/browser1.php>
I think this is pretty common through the motor trade. They simply cannot move
quick enough.
------
samd
Does anyone else get the feeling that the entire automotive industry could be
disrupted by a company that focused on design, usability, and modern
technology in their car interiors? It seems to me you could replace just about
every car's dashboard with an iPad and already be light-years ahead of the
industry standard.
In fact the problem seems to get worse as you add more technology and money;
if Top Gear is any indication the supercars of the world are all a usability
joke. They have a dizzying array of meaningless, misplaced, and practically
useless buttons. I believe on the latest Ferrari you can either see your speed
or your position on a map, but not both.
It seems very similar to the phone industry before the iPhone.
~~~
brc
Top level Mercedes don't have a traditional 'dash panel'. The entire area is
just one large LCD display. This generally is used to display speed/engine
revs/temp etc, but can also be switched for infra-red imaging, reversing
camera, navigation overlays and other things. It also can be themed with the
rest of the car, so you can choose a blue, red, yellow, etc theme for your
interior.
BMW have had HUD for several years, which overlay speed and turn-by-tun
navigation, which are very usable.
You can expect this type of thing in entry and mid level cars within the next
5-10 years, as the current model cycles pan out. Top Gear love to make fun of
these features, and indeed some are silly. But the vast majority work well and
have a lot of thought behind them. The version 1.0 of all this stuff is
already 10 years old.
Early experiments into touch-screen everything have proven to not be popular
with the car-buying public. Through experimentation, designers have found
that, for important functions (ventilation, radio, etc) a physical button in a
known location outperforms a touch screen interface every time. In my case,
this is because you can memorize the location and feel of a button and can
push it reliably without taking your eyes off the road. You can push it in the
dark at night time, and you get tactile feedback.
Touchscreen systems are already here, but will always bury less-used functions
like options and navigation, which is designed to be used while stationary,
while the more common functions will remain as dedicated push buttons.
Outside of the tech-geek world, function, function and function is prized much
more than interesting neat features. Take a test drive with the average car
buyer and you'll find that a simple, familiar and well-designed user interface
will trump a tech-fest every time. While there is a lot of technical interest
in 'carputers' the general public won't ever really warm to them. The big
sales winners are in things like self-parking and parking cameras/sensors,
accident avoidance and other passive safety systems.
~~~
samd
So touch screen only controls aren't the way to go. But it may not be
necessary to reinvent the basic controls of the car. Making a better climate
control system isn't going to win hearts and minds. But what would be very
interesting is a web-connected car with an API and a touch-screen device with
an open app ecosystem.
------
west1737
I can understand- at my last job (multi-national CPG manufacturer) the code on
all the internal webpages wouldn't even display in Firefox. Between the IT
workload and general paranoia / superstition of execs (any change is bad),
there was no motivation to upgrade internal software. So we made all of our
suppliers comply if they wanted access to any piece of the intranet. Just
easier that way.
For companies that don't rely heavily on internet tech, understanding why you
don't want to use IE6 is beyond most people.
~~~
freedompeace
Except that they're _boasting_ about how _good their software and coding
are_...
------
natesm
I see that you'll also need either a PC or a Media Access Control.
~~~
lawnchair_larry
Ah, that's why my Message Authentication Code wasn't working.
~~~
rbanffy
Good for you. I tried several hours of Murawarri aboriginal chants and was
ready to start with the Miappe ones... ;-)
------
robinduckett
As someone who works for a car dealership which uses these systems I can tell
you that the "VWG Desktop" intranet dashboards are only accessible via VPN'd
tunnels that you can't just "connect" to from the standard internet.
Further more, we use their systems with Chrome, Firefox and other browsers
with no problems.
Maybe the standard is different with the US, but in the UK this doesn't apply.
------
asadotzler
"By using the current version and the updates provided by Microsoft we
guarantee you a secure connection."
Is that a "legal" guarantee? Seems kind of dangerous for a company to make
that kind of claim about 3rd party software.
------
radagaisus
It's pretty common for big organizations. In one of our websites it is still
recommended to use IE5.5+
As much as I want I can't drop support for IE6, it's still 40% of my crowd
(old people ftw).
------
tibbon
A few years ago I remember thinking of applying for a position at VW, yet
their blind adherence to IE really turned me off. Its gotta be a indicator of
the culture there.
------
chris_dcosta
Funny - only the other day I posted on this:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3129438>
It seems that the current post "outs" the security function.
I wonder if it was carefully worded by someone who knew better as it appears
to be a very good advert for attracting "unwanted" attention.
------
rnadna
Even those who don't know whether the word "data" is singular or plural tend
to be consistent ... not this crew.
"All data is transferred with a 128 Bit SSL coding and are even secured by
your log in on our Group Business Platform."
------
kennyma
I hope this is because they haven't updated the content of the page in a
while.
~~~
idspispopd
<meta name="date" content="2009-10-20" />
Although even in 2009 I still wouldn't recommend IE6.
------
ToastOpt
"using the current version and the updates provided by Microsoft"
If you have a current, up to date version of IE, it's not version 6. We've
been trolled by what is clearly some sort of prank.
------
arunoda
I think this document is pretty old as they have mentioned Netscape which is
no longer exists. And even didn't notices Google Chrome. :-)
------
kaneraz
I found the link at the bottom to download Adobe as the cherry on top. Let's
make sure you have a few other problems along with IE6.
------
dlikhten
I am running osx, and I really want to be secure. How do I get this IE6
nonesense.
------
raphaelcruzeiro
This must be some kind of joke right? The trolling of the year?
------
arenbo
Some bank's have problems with new browsers, it's strange.
------
etanol
Is it april 1st already?
------
coldarchon
Somebody please explain to me what new browsers have that a car manufacturing
corporation needs for its daily business. Flash games? WebGL? Or a bit lower,
popup-blocker and google search field?
HELLO?
Obviously this entry is for unexperienced people of the IT, which neglect the
fact that your stuff is only safe as long someone hasn't found it's weakness.
<http://youtu.be/sforhbLiwLA>
AND - CAN YOU BELIEVE IT, REVERSI!
~~~
MichaelApproved
_"Obviously this entry is for unexperienced people of the IT"_
They are giving the unexperianced wrong information and making them
misinformed. If they want to help the unexperianced, they shouldn't tell them
that a secure experience can be guaranteed with IE6. They should encourage
them to use modern browsers which are still regularly supported with security
patches.
~~~
coldarchon
honey you DID read it's in their B2B folder? So this is for BUSINESS TO
BUSINESS and they want to interact in a secure way with small companies which
probably have 0 IT professionals and old software.
You only prove me ..
~~~
sp332
Old software? That can't be right, since the page expects everyone to have the
latest version and all updates from MS.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Not So Fast Public Cloud: Big Players Still Run Privately - wattersjames
http://siliconangle.com/ver2/2009/08/17/not-so-fast-public-cloud-big-players-still-run-privately/?utm_campaign=BackType&utm_medium=bt.io-twitter&utm_source=direct-bt.io&utm_content=backtype-tweetcount
======
clemesha
"The real success of the cloud like compute services so far has been in
bringing small and midsize companies to market incredibly fast." Totally
agreed here, and I think this is why hackers and entrepreneurs are so excited
about the cloud - it does away with traditional concerns of infrastructure,
allowing more focus on ideas.
~~~
wattersjames
Great line to pull out, and most relevant to the Y crowd for sure. What's
interesting is that all of that hacker success has really made enterprises
take notice and they are trying to figure out the magic too. Problem is they
aren't nearly as nimble at writing new apps for this paradigm.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Smart contracts: Turing completeness and reality - CarolineW
https://hackernoon.com/smart-contracts-turing-completeness-reality-3eb897996621#.4844vm8li
======
mathiasrw
Thanks for a great article!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Animated Engines - streblo
http://www.animatedengines.com/
======
cousin_it
Fascinating. And I had no idea that most engines could be explained in a 2D
picture, without the need to go 3D.
------
10ren
Looks cool, so I feel churlish complaining, but I'd prefer it if the speed was
varied by changing the distance/rotation moved, rather than the time delay
between frames. i.e. like true slow-motion from a high fps camera.
_EDIT_ unfortunately, the approach he used precludes this:
<http://www.animatedengines.com/howto.shtml> I guess it illustrates how rare
it is to combine domain expertise (like that guy has), with an unrelated
expertise in animation. If you have both (or access to them), you can make
difficult things much easier, and so create value.
~~~
mattk
Hi, I'm the site author. Here's an experimental SVG page that addresses your
comment. I may be switching to that one of these days.
<http://animatedengines.com/svg/test.xhtml>
Thanks, everyone, for the kind words. And, I'd love to get your feedback on
the SVG page.
-Matt
~~~
10ren
Cool, thanks. The main motion works for me (FF 2, linux, on a eeePC 900MHz),
except for black circles that appear and disappear near the center, in 3
locations (only one is visible at a time, and sometimes none are).
Here's results from your test that gives performance figures
(<http://animatedengines.com/svg/testp.xhtml>), running with several tabs
open:
fps 10 20 30 50
Average overrun -0.091 30.212 46.919 59.707
(I let it update a few times to settle down before pasting the figures, so
they represent an average of the "average overrun").
Maybe it doesn't matter so much if the fps is slow for more complex engines?
If the change between updates is small enough, it will look pretty smooth. Is
it important to be able to make the machine rotate fast? I mean, it looks
cool, but does the viewer gain greater understanding from this? (I'm not being
rhetorical - I really don't know. Maybe it gives an overall feel for the
engine's operation).
Sorry, I don't have any experience with JS animation to address the issues you
mention. Some people here probably do though - or why not ask on
<http://stackoverflow.com> ? It's often excellent for clear technical
questions.
------
okeumeni
I always have a great deal of respect for a person who takes time to share
knowledge is such an amazing way.
Great Job!!
------
lowkey
As a mechanical engineer may I say, "This is simply awesome!"
------
sanj
I love old aircraft rotary engines:
<http://www.animatedengines.com/gnome.shtml>
Aside, this is one of the few sites that makes legitimate use of animated
gifs.
------
jacquesm
by far my favourite:
<http://www.animatedengines.com/vstirling.shtml>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Naughty Dog still uses Lisp in its videogames - kazuya
http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/20100315_354802.html
======
zephjc
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Oriented_Assembly_Lisp> seems to contradict
that - they seem to be moving to C++ for future projects, which is kind of a
shame.
~~~
acg
The post appears to be highlighting that despite this announcement lisp is
used to tweak the gameplay in recent games. It could be that the engine
related functions like disk streaming are now C++.
Naughtydog has now been part of Sony for some time.
------
kazuya
My colleague pointed me to this:
<http://www.gameenginebook.com/coursemat.html>
Check 'GDC 2009 Lecture'. Now ND uses PLT Scheme.
------
fragmede
See Lisp here:
[http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/img/gmw/docs/354/802/html/u2...](http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/img/gmw/docs/354/802/html/u219.jpg.html)
~~~
kazuya
Oh, thanks, I thought I linked to that picture, but not actually.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Hacking Froyo - benbinary
https://medium.com/p/9f44f47ea4a0
======
iwasphone
This frozen yogurt shop has a really simple and straightforward onboarding
technique.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: AN ACT CREATING THE MONTANA PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION ACT - client4
https://legiscan.com/MT/text/HB400/id/729696
======
client4
I wrote a bill with my friend Representative Daniel Zolnikov in 2013 to try
and fix data privacy in Montana. Montana as a state provides its citizens with
a constitutional right to privacy, but much of this right is not enumerated in
law. The bill is a pretty good foundation for what data privacy should look
like in the US IMHO.
Fun fact, Daniel was presented a "Black Helicopter" award by his colleagues
for saying our information is being bought and sold by unknown third parties
(and potential nation state actors). They apologized after the Edward Snowden
leak.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
We Should Abolish Silicon Valley - elsewhen
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/g5xzq9/why-we-should-abolish-silicon-valley
======
mikejulietbravo
This is a garbage take
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Pinecone – Synthetic protein design, a high level genetic design tool - jfarlow
https://serotiny.bio
======
jfarlow
Justin here - cofounder of Serotiny. I'd be happy to field questions and take
criticism and I am otherwise curious what you all think.
Our goal is to make the design of powerful genetic tool as straightforward as
possible. And to get those tools into the hands of researchers as quickly,
cheaply, and without mistake. We hope Pinecone allows those without an
expertise in genetics and cloning to engage with the state-of-the-art genetic
tools.
I want to give a huge word of thanks to the Go and Ember communities for
enabling us.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
$ 300 3D Printer, the Makible Makibox - Cerillio
http://blog.makible.com/makibox-the-300-3d-printer-first-glimpse
======
cloneofsnake
To give this a little more context, we're not just trying to make a cheap 3D
printer. Our goal is to make the first consumer friendly, sub $300 level 3D
printer so that 3D printing can break from the current hobbyists / hackers
market, into the hands of the designers and the average consumers. You can see
my post here for more:
[https://plus.google.com/104194244178141073757/posts/fNjEoVJf...](https://plus.google.com/104194244178141073757/posts/fNjEoVJf7E4)
It's my personal goal to enable the average consumer to innovate and become
co-creators. My previous project was the LEGO crowdfunding site -
<http://LEGO.cuusoo.com/> Makible is a new startup I co-founded that will
hopefully disrupt the current mass-manufacturing system and give power back to
the local craftsmen & makers.
------
akmeister007
Have to be honest, I didn't know much about 3D printers until I heard about
Makibox so you could classify me as below average user. Now,, with the price
point as well, I am excited just to imagine the possibilities!
~~~
cloneofsnake
Yeah, I figured 3D printers won't really go mainstream (adoption by early
majority) until it can hit the $300 mark like a PlayStation or XBox!
Once we've announced we're designing the MakiBox within the $300 budget, we
get lots of feedbacks like yours. I was doing a Google+ Hangout last week and
Kevin MacLeod (Incompetech.com) said:
"I was considering buying the Makerbot, but yours is $300?! And you can print
bigger?! You win! I actually don't know what I can do with a 3D printer, I
just know that it's cool!"
I thought that pretty much captured what I'm hoping for MakiBox, which is to
get it into the hands of people who have little idea what they can do with it.
I think the unbounded mind of these users, who hasn't gone through the trouble
of building a RepRap or Makerbot and are aware the limitations of a 3D
printer, will be so much more creative!
------
1l2p
Putting 3D printers in the hands of avg users would create so much
experimentation. I loved the LEGO, but this could be even cooler.
~~~
huertanix
HeatSync Labs in Mesa, AZ hosts a 3D printing night where people (and kids!)
can design and print their own objects with some hacker assistance. Its pretty
rad. Result in first photo: [http://www.heatsynclabs.org/last-weeks-in-pics-
because-it-ha...](http://www.heatsynclabs.org/last-weeks-in-pics-because-it-
happened/)
------
ftlam
Awesome box that makes technology more accessible to the public!
------
frankiebit
Cool project!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
What do you think of my Front-End? - tlong
http://www.happyapps.io/features
======
haris3301
Looks cool.. :)
~~~
tlong
Thanks :)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A Crucial Clue the MH370 Investigators Missed - tomohawk
http://www.thedrive.com/news/26785/malaysia-airlines-flight-370-5-years-later-the-crucial-clue-all-the-mh370-investigators-overlooked
======
ablation
> "Whoever took MH370 was determined, aggressive, and far more sophisticated
> than investigators have been willing to contemplate. They have also
> succeeded in fooling officials, the public, and most of the press for half a
> decade. That’s an uncomfortable prospect, and one that many people would
> prefer to ignore. But if it’s true—or even possibly true—then it’s something
> that needs to be dealt with expeditiously. Because that could mean whoever
> took MH370 is still out there...and nothing whatsoever has been done to stop
> them."
This just reads like so much conspiracy theory. I just cannot figure out the
motivation behind anyone to do this, knowing what we know. Given that, the
whole article just feels... thin. I know it's Jeff Wise pushing his book full
of this, so maybe I shouldn't be surprised, and perhaps his well-founded take
on it is in there. Perhaps not.
------
ggm
Why people seek reasons beyond the two well known reasons planes fall out of
the sky is beyond comprehension, except that it fits the zeitgeist of today:
conspiracy theory sells more than occam's razor.
Occam's razor suggests that the simpler solution would apply: It was
controlled flight into terrain i.e. pilot action. The second choice after
this, is a significant failure in flight.
You would have to walk a long long way past this to get causal chains which
made conspiracy theories the best choice, and almost every time you have to
take something we know, like systemic corruption in Malaysia at all levels
which makes people lie about things, and use it as a 1 == 0 rule to justify
_they knew about the conspiracy_ when a more likely answer is, they simply are
lying out of policy and practice.
Obviously "somebody knows more" but it will be about a very pedestrian thing
like falsified repair reports, a spare part bought on the black market to save
money (Malaysian Airlines has been in significant financial trouble in the
past and bad spares are a problem in the industry worldwide) A black mark
against the pilot for personal reasons. It won't be about a large
international 'lets do this' thing and the reason is quite simple: There is
good evidence that large, state actor conspiracies do not remain secret.
Things which neccessarily demand hundreds of people remain silent, do not
remain secret because hundreds of people either cannot remain silent or leave
causal chains, evidence around them.
We know about secret US bases because of fitbit GPS.
We know about Israeli super-secret device hacking.
We know about the Russians in Syria.
We know about Iran-Contra.
There is no 'wake up sheeple' story here. There are of course small conspiracy
moments, like the people who sold the forged spare parts, or the people who
knew the state of mind of the pilot and don't want to talk about it. Thats a
different kind of conspiracy of silence: they have strong motivations to
remain quiet, and less of them exist, and less evidence is likely to leak.
~~~
DuskStar
Unfortunately, CFIT raises the questions of "but why" and "why like this",
while hardware failure alone cannot explain the disappearance.
Look, the government-accepted cause is already pretty much a conspiracy
theory. Pilot (and copilot, and possibly other crew) decide to make themselves
disappear, and almost succeed. Except we haven't found a plane where that
theory says we should have.
------
akhilcacharya
I've been following the case since the plane was first declared missing, and
Jeff Wise has been pushing the conspiracy angle for quite a while now. I'm
willing to consider it, but I'm not sure if he's proposing anybody with the
(absolutely immense, more-than-state-actor) means or motivation to do
something like this and keep it a secret for nearly 5 years.
~~~
ams6110
I was also about to post, asking about motive. What is the motive to make a
777 full of people disappear. What was on board, or who was on board, that
would be worth this effort?
It's pretty close to beyond belief that this was just a "test run" to prove it
could be done.
But either way, there's no theory on motive offered here.
~~~
mikeash
According to a conspiracy minded friend, there was a lot of gold on board that
would have been well worth stealing. I’ve also seen the theory put forth that
the plane was stolen in order to crash it into Ukraine, frame the Russians for
shooting it down, and turn international opinion against them.
(To be clear, I think both of these are completely looney tunes, but it’s what
I’ve heard.)
~~~
ablation
I've never heard either of those before!
Even if it was literally full of gold to its cargo capacity of 248,600 lbs
with gold, that's still only in the region of $4.7 billion at current prices.
Surely a drop in the ocean (no pun intended) for a nation/actor capable of
carrying out such a disappearing act.
~~~
mikeash
It’s been a while, but I think he guessed the gold was worth a couple hundred
million. I recall he thought it was a criminal act of great sophistication,
not a government thing. But I share your doubt here.
------
ynniv
People have a lot of opinions on what could have happened, but I would like to
know why hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent investigating the
southern arc and at no point has anyone even considered investigating its
northern counterpart.
Edit: ... and this post was flagged off the first 14 pages within an hour. Not
"dead" per se, but clearly forgotten. Wouldn't want anyone to think too hard
about these things.
~~~
tristanj
It was considered and quickly ruled out. Look at the trajectory of the
northern arc [1]. It passes directly over India, which is covered by Indian
civilian and military ground radars. There are major airports along this
flight path. MH370 did not appear on civilian radar and the Indian military
also confirmed MH370 was not detected on military radar.
The northern arc also directly passes through Kashmir, which is contested by
India Pakistan and China. There were no reports of the plane passing through
this area. To put it in the words of an Indian military pilot [2]:
> _“There is no way or the slightest possibility of our radars’ having missed
> the plane,” the Indian pilot said. “We do not have an open air policy. Any
> blip, the slightest, has to be given attention. Most of our radars are semi-
> automated. If there is any aircraft not identified by virtue of its
> registration or identification, there will be an instant reaction at our
> end.”_
From this, we can conclude one of 1) There is a multinational conspiracy
concealing the true path of the plane 2) The immerstat data is falsified
(fails occam's razor) or 3) Rule out the northern arc.
[1]
[https://i1.wp.com/cache.emirates247.com/polopoly_fs/1.574328...](https://i1.wp.com/cache.emirates247.com/polopoly_fs/1.574328.1452549054!/image/image.jpg)
[2] [https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/19/world/asia/experts-see-
ro...](https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/19/world/asia/experts-see-robust-radar-
along-missing-jets-potential-path.html)
~~~
ynniv
Yes, it was quickly ruled out. Was that the correct conclusion? How can we
confidently say that the plane didn't evade radar? What about SIA68?
~~~
tristanj
They've already found debris matching MH370 washed up in the Indian ocean.
Several of the debris are almost certainly from MH370. This is consistent with
the theory that MH370 crashed in the Indian ocean. Shouldn't this immediately
disprove the northern path theory? How does SIA68 fit into this?
~~~
ynniv
MH370 was near SIA68 when it disappeared, and SIA68 was near the northern arc
when MH370 should have been there. It's possible that MH370 could have hid
from casual radar by flying near SIA68 until it was in quieter airspace.
That's almost irrelevant though. The cost of investigating the northern arc
would be a hundred times less than what has been spent in the ocean.
~~~
tristanj
I don't understand. The SIA68 theory doesn't address the debris matching MH370
that washed up in the Indian ocean. Several of the debris are almost certainly
from MH370. The debris had barnacles implying they spent at least a year in
the sea.
~~~
DuskStar
From the article:
> By now, some 30 pieces have been found. Investigators assumed that after
> more than a year these would be covered in rich colonies of marine
> organisms, whose makeup would shed light on the path the pieces had taken
> through the ocean. To their surprise, they found none of them hosted
> organisms more than a couple of months old.
That gives some plausibility to "people moved debris to the ocean later",
though also to "marine growth is weird sometimes". It doesn't support the
statement "we have evidence confirming that MH370 crashed into the ocean at
approximately the time it disappeared".
~~~
Aloha
Also, I'm reasonably certain the aluminum is coated with what amount to an
anti-fouling coating, to prevent the growth of organisms on the surface.
------
Ibethewalrus
Dumb question: how possible is that the plane landed in a country that wanted
to save paying $ millions for one?
------
fouronnes3
Article is completely unreadable on mobile due to layers of cookie consent
popups and GDPR disclaimers :(
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What can I do to accelerate scientific research? - mariushn
I love science & tech and how these improve lives. As a software engineer/entrepreneur, in the last years I thought of starting/contributing to some projects which scientists would find useful. Now I'm ready to work full time on this.<p>Ideas revolve around<p>* indexing all open research with free unlimited access, similar to arxiv-sanity.com but better; Other projects exist though: Google Scholar; semanticscholar.org, academic.microsoft.com, https://www.chanzuckerberg.com/science/projects-meta<p>* generative design<p>* bioengineering (not sure exactly what, eg microbiota simulator)<p>* materials simulator (eg how can we get a material having a given set of properties)<p>I don't need immediate financial returns, but I do need the work to be used & have an impact in real life projects.<p>What ideas do you have on how one can accelerate scientific research?
======
biophysboy
This is a pipe dream of mine, but I would love a Wikipedia of null results:
nullpedia! Nobody publishes null results bc they’re not exciting, but I think
a lot of NSF money would be saved if “failed” experiments were aggregated
somewhere in a searchable way.
There’s lot of questions. How to organize it? How to encourage participation?
How to maximize usefulness while at the same time minimizing volunteer effort?
How to encourage discussion (suggesting changes for a better exp design)
rather than manipulation (stealing the seed of a bad experiment to publish at
your better funded lab)?
I don’t know how to do it, but I think if done right people would really like
it.
~~~
mariushn
Good idea, and great challenges indeed. Taking this further, I'd call it
experimenpedia, with experiments published as they are thought out. Be open
for comments/review and showing related experiments before the actual
experiment being done. This might prevent potential failures and let owners
tweak the planned experiment before being actually done. Then do the
experiment and publish the results, whatever they are.
I guess secrecy would actually win though, and nobody would use this?
~~~
biophysboy
eLife is sorta like this. The experiment isn’t live, but the publishing
process is.
[https://elifesciences.org/about/peer-
review](https://elifesciences.org/about/peer-review)
It’s pretty interesting
------
claudius
Provide funding for permanent positions. I'm currently in the last few months
of my first postdoc in condensed matter physics (think superconductors,
quantum computers etc.) but will move into industry next year for lack of
perspectives towards a permanent position in a reasonable place. As far as I
can tell, my research so far was not substandard and the software I wrote has
enabled quite a few projects which otherwise would have not been possible or
taken much longer. Most people I talk to (both inside and outside academia)
express some degree of disappointment over people like me leaving (after 4
years PhD + 2 years Post-doc) but none of them put their money where their
mouth is.
To be clear, I can understand that a PhD candidacy justifies a temporary
contract and I'm not even asking for a permanent position directly after a PhD
(as would be standard in industry), I'm only asking for a reasonably safe
perspective towards a permanent position reasonably soon after graduating.
Can't exactly start a family if you don't have any kind of job security beyond
the next couple months.
~~~
mariushn
Excellent point. I cannot afford providing funding, but I can fund myself for
3 years to work on useful software.
> the software I wrote has enabled quite a few projects which otherwise would
> have not been possible or taken much longer
What's the common practice with such software? Is that published somewhere,
open sourced? Or kept private in hopes of being monetized, with IP owned by
the author/university?
~~~
claudius
At the moment it's "available within collaborations". My former supervisor has
had some bad experiences with people using his open-sourced software without
acknowledgement etc., which is of course not quite ideal if you actually want
to build a career in academia for yourself. Monetisation is not really an
option.
My toolkit is maybe a bit non-standard in that it has attracted a few external
collaborators using it as well and I like to think I have taken better care of
upholding coding standards, documentation etc.
Normally software in my field is kept within a group and dies after one or two
PhD students have left.
~~~
fghtr
This is a very sad state of affairs, therefore I would like to bring your
attention to a petition towards open sourcing all scientific (and generally
tax-paid) software:
[https://publiccode.eu](https://publiccode.eu)
~~~
cosmodisk
This is a great initiative.It should not be limited to software: research
papers, databases and many other things that are currently either not
available at all or are behind pay walls should be released.
~~~
mariushn
For research papers, there's also this open access initiative which is gaining
support: [https://www.coalition-s.org/](https://www.coalition-s.org/)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_S](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_S)
------
randomsearch
The biggest problem scientists in academia face is that they can’t do actual
research. They spend most of their time doing stuff that doesn’t matter. So
probably the biggest leverage you have is to reduce the time they spend doing
stuff that doesn’t matter.
The most effective way to do that is to establish an alternative form of
institution that focuses only on research (and teaching if you like - teaching
is not the problem). A tough challenge. One line of attack would be to
contrast your costs with academia’s full economic coating model.
Failing that, here’s some things you can do:
\- develop a paper reference system that actually works well. Mendeley is the
best there is and it’s (IMO) rubbish. Poorly designed.
\- build a typesetting system that’s an alternative to latex but is WYSIWYG.
Particularly important outside of CS.
\- build a free conference organising / review tool that works. EasyChair is
popular and utter garbage.
\- build tools to automate the grant writing process. A step by step system to
create a grant proposal, tailored to each grant scheme. Yes, this would
potentially damage the grant application process. But it doesn’t make any
sense anyway, so at least this would free up a few years where academics could
churn the required proposals out fast until you were somehow disallowed.
\- provide free slide materials, examples, exercises for all the main CS etc
topics. Some kind of “piece it together” kit so lecturers could save time
making slides and other materials that tick boxes. Diagrams, for instance,
would be very useful. Pseudocode too.
NB you probably won’t make any money.
~~~
andrepd
>develop a paper reference system that actually works well. Mendeley is the
best there is and it’s (IMO) rubbish. Poorly designed.
Zotero works wonderfully for me. And it's open, which is a must.
~~~
Reelin
I'll preface this by clearly stating that Zotero is absolutely indispensable;
I wouldn't be nearly as organized without it. It's very important to me that
such tools be open, and Mendeley in particular is a complete disaster in this
regard (see their history with encrypting user data).
That being said, Zotero is very much a "least worst" tool in my opinion.
* Overly rigid in how it goes about modeling document types and metadata fields.
* Doesn't handle bookmarks, browsing history, and other various data types. At first glance it's easy to dismiss such things as out of scope, but I find that my typical workflow results in reams of such unsupported data being generated and manually tracked by me. The problem is that this unsupported data is often tightly coupled to the data I'm managing with Zotero, which is frustrating to say the least.
* An incredibly heavy and inefficient piece of software.
* It's far too difficult to set up and manage my own sync server (last time I checked, at least). I don't really _want_ to share all my data with the developers, but it's very inconvenient not to do so.
More on topic with the broader discussion - knowledge and data management in
general seems to be a largely unsolved problem, particularly in science and
particularly regarding interrelations between and versioning of arbitrary
pieces of data.
~~~
gsjbjt
Why don’t data versioning tools like git lfs do the job? Is it lack of
awareness or is the problem more complex than that?
~~~
Reelin
Well I could just be unaware of some functionality they have, but all those
tools do is version things. There's no integration with reference managers
like Zotero (that I'm aware of), and no tracking of interrelations or
metadata.
In contrast, Zotero (and other reference managers) don't do any versioning at
all (at least that I'm aware of). Instead, they keep track of the metadata
that's necessary to put together a works cited section for an academic paper.
... or at least that's what they started out doing. These days they also try
to organize your papers into some sort of category structure, facilitate
tagging and notes, provide synchronization between your devices, and probably
a few other things that don't come to mind right now.
Feature creep? Sure, but all that stuff is central to the research and writing
process. It's also all tightly coupled, so splitting it between multiple tools
doesn't work very well. And that's the current problem - how to integrate, for
example, a few of your browser bookmarks with your academic literature
collection. Or how to track a list of all the papers cited by a particular
paper. Or link a specific paper tracked by your reference management software
against a specific version of a large data set, perhaps itself tracked by Git
LFS.
Generalizing a bit, what about linking experimental notes (typically pen and
paper) with data collection software (typically a binary), as well as the
collected data (perhaps Git LFS), as well as a specific version of some data
analysis scripts you wrote (perhaps Git). Now try to track everything as you
work on multiple paper revisions with collaborators, each version of which
adds (and sometimes removes) citations and could use a different (likely
newer) revision of the collection software, data set, or analysis scripts.
Alternatively, for a data management scenario not directly involving writing
papers consider molecular cloning using plasmids. You have a dozen semi-
related tubes in a cryogenic freezer that you need to track over many years
(ie long term inventory management), each of which has one or more pieces of
sequencing data attached to it (so a small data set), they're all interrelated
(you create a new one by physically modifying an old one), and each has the
typical meta-links to experimental protocols, notes, academic literature, and
other things.
I'm not aware of any software solutions that comprehensively address all of
this stuff, so people still use pen and paper. But pen and paper is time
consuming, it's error prone, it doesn't sync between devices, it's slow and
tedious to cross reference - all the typical problems that software is good at
addressing.
------
maxander
Slightly smaller-scale than most suggestions here, but for the average
nonscientific HNer, the best way to help scientists is to improve their
programming tools. In the Python ecosystem, for instance; numpy/scipy, scikit-
learn, and matplotlib are widely used across dozens of disciplines, and are
open-source projects relatively welcoming of new contributors. Julia is a
whole new language for scientific computing, where all the fundamental tools
are still being built and refined. Raspberry pis, 3D printers and other
“hobbyist maker” tools are appearing in research labs to help develop novel
instrumentation, so hardware-oriented people can help by contributing to open-
source efforts of that kind.
~~~
Jedi72
Somewhere we computing folk lost our way - nobody needs software just for the
sake of it (with the exception of maybe games). Everything we do is supposed
to be building tools for other people who do the _real_ work to make their
life easier. As opposed to how it currently is which is to provide something
for free, then put up artificial barriers to certain parts of it and charge
for their removal.
------
drewvolpe
Come work with us at Plex Research. A huge problem our founder ran into while
doing drug discovery research was that there's tons of data in the world, but
no one is using it because it's all in thousands of different places. As a
programming, it was crazy to me that even the most advanced organizations in
industry (Novartis, Sanofi) or academia (Harvard, Stanford, ...) are still
keeping many important datasets in Excel.
We're pulling together all of the world's biomedical research data,
structuring it as a graph, and allowing research access all of it as easily as
Google does the web:
[https://www.plexresearch.com/products.html](https://www.plexresearch.com/products.html)
------
bocklund
> indexing all open research with free unlimited access, similar to arxiv-
> sanity.com but better
This space is pretty crowded, in my opinion.
I don’t know much about biology, but I can tell you that in materials, it’s
all about data. The materials design problem and predicting new materials
comes down to knowing properties of other materials. A lot of progress has
been made by using datasets generated by quantum mechanical calculations by
the Materials Project, OQMD, AFLOW and NOMAD, but materials design is tricky
because what we want to predict are the outliers that we haven’t seen yet:
materials with the highest strength, etc..
There’s value to be created for materials researchers by curating experimental
data in a digital, usable form, since so much is locked up in papers, but you
really need domain expertise for this and there’s another problem that the
experiments are so sparse and have so many features (chemistry,
microstructure, thermal history, etc) that people have really only been
successful when focusing on particular classes of materials.
~~~
andrei-mircea
[https://citrine.io/](https://citrine.io/)
You might find this company interesting.
~~~
bocklund
I actually know and work with several people there :)
------
sparadiso88
Note: The following is an earnest suggestion and not just a recruiting plug,
but it is also a recruiting plug. If this is not an appropriate place for this
content then comment and I'll remove (I do not frequently HackerNews)!
Personally, I believe the highest leverage thing we can do to promote
scientific research is to help connect the dots between related discoveries in
the service of bringing new ideas to commercialization/impact as quickly and
reliably as possible. I joined Citrine
([https://citrine.io/platform/](https://citrine.io/platform/)) a few years ago
thinking that we would help accelerate research by direct support - building
simulation, data, and machine learning tools for scientists. It became clear
very quickly that the community was already in a pretty strong position (smart
cookies, those research scientists) on that front. The biggest opportunity
turned out to be scaling expert knowledge - bridging the no man's land from
ideation to scale-up, integration, and manufacturing. At Citrine, we're
building infrastructure that helps researchers contribute to an organization-
wide knowledge graph capable of supporting inference in the scale-up or
manufacturing context based on relationships learned in the R&D phase. This
fundamentally changes the ROI calculus for basic research because it can
plausibly support the entire product life cycle.
If this sounds exciting to you, then consider joining us! We just raised a
Series B and are growing quickly.
If you have an applied math and software eng. background and want to help
generalize and scale our property inference infrastructure, then I think you'd
enjoy working with me and my team in SSE:
[https://citrine.io/careers/#scientific-software-
engineer](https://citrine.io/careers/#scientific-software-engineer).
If you have a backend software eng background and want to build distributed
services for scientists and engineers at some of the biggest materials and
chemicals companies in the world, join us in engineering:
[https://citrine.io/careers/#sr-backend-software-
engineer](https://citrine.io/careers/#sr-backend-software-engineer).
------
xwdv
If you want to help software related AI research, start compiling massive high
quality training data sets and giving it away for free. Easier said than done
though.
No _immediate_ financial return? I hope you can accept _no_ financial return,
period. In general the easiest way for an individual to accelerate general
research is through generous funding. But even then it’s not like a slider in
a game where you provide more funding and things get done faster. There’s
diminishing returns after a point. Not that I’m trying to discourage you, but
I hope you’re thinking about it the right way before you waste a lot of time
and money.
I suggest talking to actual researchers and asking _them_ what they really
need, and give them that. Basically the same as a startup going out and
talking to customers. The only research probably being done around here is
largely software related, and probably not changing the world much in ways
that actually matter.
~~~
mariushn
> I suggest talking to actual researchers and asking them what they really
> need, and give them that.
Will start to do that, thanks!
> No immediate financial return? I hope you can accept no financial return,
> period.
That would be ok for the next 3 years.
~~~
xwdv
> That would be ok for the next 3 years.
No, I don’t mean no returns for three years, I mean no returns _ever_. You
must go into this with both eyes open, don’t find yourself crippled later
because you gave all your time and money away and have nothing to show for it.
~~~
andreygrehov
What if he would sell models? A marketplace for trained models.
~~~
godelski
Some of this already happens. But you also have to realize that that is not in
the spirit of science.
~~~
andreygrehov
Got it. It's not, agreed, but nobody should work for free. In fact, I believe
that doing what OP wants to do is more harmful than building a business around
his intentions.
~~~
godelski
I agree, no one should have to work for free. But there are two competing
aspects here. Science is about seeking out knowledge and advancing humanity.
But unfortunately we need to buy food to eat.
------
khawkins
One of the big challenges for university researchers is trying to find talent
and dedication in the enormous pool of undergrads and masters students. Nearly
every professor relies heavily on the recommendation system or grabbing from
the pool of students in a class. The problem with this is that it's often hit
or miss with a net-neutral return on investment.
If I send a PhD student to spend a certain amount of time independently
training two students, then I am investing that grad student's time into
something that could be spent doing research. If one of those students is
flaky and is mostly there to pad their resume, it's largely a lost investment
(even more so if their work requires extra effort to fix). If the other is
graduated by the following semester, the gained productivity might not exceed
the other's loss by the time they leave.
The best situation is when you're working with an undergrad who is destined to
continue on to the PhD program because you know they'll be dedicated and
possibly have a head-start on their thesis work. If you could figure out how
to connect these students with advisors using metrics and private social
networking, then you will amplify their productivity significantly. You'll
improve the likelihood professors will take on undergrads and potentially push
researchers into the field earlier.
How you achieve this, I'm not entirely sure. Perhaps you can make it easy to
set up competitions which test the skills you need. The winners will be asked
to join the lab to work on some project. If some lab on the other side of the
country which does similar research also wants to do the same competition,
make it easy for them to share and run it.
~~~
blueboo
I mean, you could pay them more than approximately nothing...
------
whatshisface
I have a request. Somebody needs to make matplotlib, but with a C API and lots
of language bindings instead of only a python API. For example when I'm
writing rust, my best option is to use a Python interop library that calls
matplotlib...
~~~
H8crilA
Python is kind of the gold standard in many areas of research, no? Why would
you use Rust, or even anything but Python?
I'd only touch Rust (or C/C++) when I need to implement some fast numerical
computation that does not already exist in Numpy or Tensorflow, but still call
it from Python.
~~~
gpm
I've sped up a simulation 100 fold by porting a 20 line function to rust
(which had a terrible access pattern for numpy), and could probably sped it up
another 10 (which was closer to reasonable for numpy).
If the thing could have been written in rust in the first place, tons of time
would have been saved on trying to optimize python, waiting for simulations to
complete before (and to a lesser extent after) I ported a portion of it to
rust. Dealing with language interop and build systems.
The main reason I can't suggest that for future similar problems to the person
who I did this for is because of the lack of libraries like plotting (plotting
is by far the most important one, numpy is second but rust comes a lot closer
in that regard).
------
escot
Some interesting companies at the intersection of science/engineering that are
hiring software devs:
\- [https://www.ginkgobioworks.com/](https://www.ginkgobioworks.com/)
Synthetic biology engineering
\- [https://www.benchling.com/](https://www.benchling.com/) Online LIMS
\- [https://neuralink.com/](https://neuralink.com/) Brain Machine Interface
\- [https://strateos.com/](https://strateos.com/) Programmatic Cloud Lab
(disclaimer, I work here)
------
jchallis
Sci-Hub removes barriers to accessing scientific information. Their
infrastructure is slow and has trouble. If you are looking for real impact,
help them scale.
------
wintercarver
I don’t think this is a comprehensive answer, but if you want a nice summary
of how climate change might be impacted by ML/DL applications, this is hot off
the press: Tackling Climate Change with Machine Learning,
[https://arxiv.org/abs/1906.05433](https://arxiv.org/abs/1906.05433)
~~~
jointpdf
There was a recent NOAA conference on this topic as well, you can view the
slides here:
[https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/star/meeting_2019AIWorkshop...](https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/star/meeting_2019AIWorkshop_agenda.php)
------
haxiomic
I think there's lot of room to improve tools in bioinformatics. In practice
bioinformatics pipelines tend to be bundles of loosely organised python
scripts and I've heard files on the order of a few GB described as Big Data
because the processing times are so slow (days for stuff that could take
milliseconds)
It would help to pair up with practicing scientists and explore what parts of
their workflow can be improved
~~~
danielecook
Definitely. A lot of work is done in R or python and could be sped up in a
compiled language.
~~~
panta
Yes. I’m not a scientist, but I think if there were good compiled python/R
alternatives, the scientific world would benefit greatly, if not only for the
reduced waiting times... Maybe a language with Go simplicity and speed and
Python ease of use and appeal... It should have an almost real-time compile
mode (with very little optimization) to enable interactive playgrounds, like
Jupyter. Of course it’d need also strong optimization modes for final
production code.
------
folli
On the intersection of biology and machine learning, there is one of the holy
grails of science: protein structure prediction.
I'd recommend starting reading about Google's AlphaFold, since this is
currently considered state of the art in the field:
[https://deepmind.com/blog/alphafold/](https://deepmind.com/blog/alphafold/)
------
massung
> What ideas do you have on how one can accelerate scientific research?
I work in genetics (as a software engineer).
If there was a major flaw in current scientific research (that involves
software), it's that most labs care more about getting published than they do
about the reproduce-ability and validation of their work. This means most of
the software written in research is ad-hoc, write once, and often never looked
at again. It was put together for the sole-purpose of producing some output
that could be put in a paper and then lost to time.
A current "holy grail" of software in research would be to fix that: empower
other labs to validate and _reuse_ the software written and reproduce the work
of other labs with different data sets. And it is actively being worked on in
a couple places (that I know of, perhaps more):
* [https://genepattern-notebook.org/](https://genepattern-notebook.org/)
* [https://app.terra.bio/](https://app.terra.bio/)
* [https://software.broadinstitute.org/wdl/](https://software.broadinstitute.org/wdl/)
Some of these are just about giving the community a common framework to use
for their software (CWL, WDL, Jupyter), others are about data storage and
making it easily accessible for others to use in the cloud for reproducing
results.
If you want to have a impact, joining one of these groups would probably put
you in a much closer position to doing that.
If you just wanted to work on something in your spare time that would be
incredibly valuable, then might I suggest this:
It's amazing how much work is done in the scientific community using CSV/TSV
files (usually gzipped). And most of that work is done via perl, sed, and awk.
And often these are _huge_ I'm working with a VCF file (TSV) right now that's
2 TB in size ZIPPED! It's crazy. Researchers often don't have the time,
resources, or know-how to put together a simple Spark cluster and use it.
A command line tool that allowed someone to run SQL (or SQL-like) commands on
a gzipped CSV file FAST would be invaluable. And if it could JOIN across CSV
files ... wow!
~~~
mariushn
Thanks so much, mussung, for your excellent practical feedback! Both
alternatives that you listed are very tempting.
May I please ask you some followup questions? There's no email in your
profile. My email is marius.andreiana@gmail.com
> A command line tool that allowed someone to run SQL (or SQL-like) commands
> on a gzipped CSV file FAST would be invaluable. And if it could JOIN across
> CSV files ... wow!
What prevents one importing each CSV in a postgres db as tables, creating
indexes and then start running queries? Disk space availability? (My local
drive is only 1TB)
~~~
massung
mariushn, I've sent you an email.
> What prevents one importing each CSV in a postgres db as tables, creating
> indexes and then start running queries?
There are many reasons:
* Experience/knowledge. Many labs don't have anyone experienced with databases.
* Security. Without proper dev ops a local DB is often out of the question. And when dealing with PII genetic data, [cloud] security can be a major concern.
* Funding. Machines cost money. AWS RDS instance cost money. Maintaining them costs money. Dev ops costs money. etc.
* Often times the queries being done are simple. For example, you may have a giant CSV with cross-ethnic trait data, but only need samples of African decent with a beta value > 0.1. Sure, you could spin up a database, load the entire thing into a table (O(N) + disk space + time), then index it (now it's O(2N) + more disk space + more time), and then _finally_ run your query. Or you can just O(N) run over the CSV once and output the results with no extra disk space or "wasted" (perception of the researcher) time.
Finally, don't fool yourself about the capabilities of researchers. Many are
code-savvy, but lack experience. Writing a SQL query is easy. Loading multiple
TB of data into a relational database, indexed properly, and done in a manner
that won't take _days_ of time is a level higher.
------
gvggf
This will sound harsh, but it isn’t meant to be.
Scientists code better then you do science.
This is simply a consequence Of a weeding out mechanism for those that have no
coding skills. The only ppl who get away with no coding skills are important
professor with grad students to do the coding.
This isn’t to say that our skills are great, but a generic programmers (I.e.
CS majors) science abilities are approximately zero (common, no thermo in an
“eng” undergrad???)
So what can you do?
Since you mentioned science and not engineering, I’d ignore the AI advice.
Science needs models based on mechanistic understanding of the underlying
phenomena. A model that merely predicts is useful for engineers, not
scientists.
“materials simulator (eg how can we get a material having a given set of
properties)“
This is already done, but of limited usefulness. First the Mtls simulators are
far from perfect. Then there is the problem of actually synthesizing the mtls.
These simulations are more typically done to weed out bad candidates.
“No immediate financial return”
Wrong attitude. Only an attitude of “no financial return” helps science.
That’s not to say you won’t make money off of it, but that can never be a goal
since (true) science advances freely (again see the Gaussian jerk vs. Einstein
or Landau - who contr. more?)
Instead, focus on making the programming tools scientists use better, easier
to use and GPL. GPL is important because an MIT license by itself allows a
scientist to use others work while blocking others (see Gaussian).
For example, making python (or Julia?) better would be one of the most
important contributions you could make. The matplotlib guy was deeply mourned
in science.
The two cents of a physical sciences researcher who once flirted with the
Valley.
~~~
tntn
> Science needs models based on mechanistic understanding of the underlying
> phenomena. A model that merely predicts is useful for engineers, not
> scientists
I'm not sure I agree. I'm aware of quite a bit of supercomputing time that is
spent doing lattice QCD calculations (which apparently some scientists find
useful), and though I'm no quantum physicist I'm pretty sure there is not much
of a "mechanistic understanding" in QCD. I think your claim also doesn't apply
to a lot of social science - psychology has a lot of functional models, but I
don't think there are many mechanisms described.
I'll also state that modern science that doesn't require any engineering is
pretty rare nowadays, so if a predictive model helps engineers that can then
help scientists, the model has been helpful to scientists.
Ohm's law existed long before there was a mechanistic description behind it,
and though it is mostly used for "engineering," I feel confident that a lot of
scientists in the 19th century found it useful.
From [https://www.olcf.ornl.gov/leadership-
science/physics/](https://www.olcf.ornl.gov/leadership-science/physics/):
"New Frontiers for Material Modeling via Machine Learning Techniques" \-
40,000 hours allocated on Summit
"Large scale deep neural network optimization for neutrino physics" \-
58,000,000 hours allocated on Summit.
Supercomputers typically do not allocate 58 million hours to things which are
not useful.
~~~
godelski
I work with the DOE and was at ORNL before Summit was released (I got to play
on Summit-dev). When making these models there is A LOT of exploration
happening. There's a whole class of visualization techniques called "in situ"
that visualize data as it comes off the press (memory is then dumped because
there's neither enough storage space nor can we write to disk fast enough).
I'll tell you that there will be a lot of restarting those simulations because
the scientists need to explore the data as it is going on. Going in the wrong
direction? Made a small mistake that causes cells explode? Realize you're not
looking in the right region of interest? You restart the sim (thank god for
restart files, right?). Exploration is one of the most important things in
research and it is getting more and more difficult. I believe this is what the
gp is after. Having these understandings helps you explore the data better.
Creating these tools is hard work and takes a lot of collaboration too.
------
UglyToad
I saw this list linked yesterday from another HN article, might give some
useful jumping off points: [https://github.com/kakoni/awesome-
healthcare](https://github.com/kakoni/awesome-healthcare)
One related thing I found from there was a list of projects for magnetic
resonance imaging specifically:
[https://ismrm.github.io/mrhub/](https://ismrm.github.io/mrhub/)
I'd assume trying to contribute to those projects would hopefully give greater
ROI than building a new thing (without a very specific idea of what to build
and the market for it)?
~~~
mariushn
Thanks!
------
devit
Find any way to make a lot of money, gain a lot of political power or gain
influence over those who have money or power and use it to fund research and
make it more appealing culturally.
~~~
mike_ivanov
No, the most significant advances in science were done on a shoestring budget
(or no budget at all) - just by THINKING. It doesn't require lots of money to
support people who do that kind of work, and they are easy to find, especially
in theoretical physics and mathematics.
~~~
fghtr
Maybe it was true a hundred years ago, but it is not true today,
unfortunately. Science became much more complicated.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20190468](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20190468)
~~~
mike_ivanov
It is still true. Before the tau neutrino was confirmed in a lab, it had been
theoretized 25 or so years before that, which required nothing but pencil and
paper. Modern quantum field theory doesn't require expensive gear. Math
doesn't require any gear at all, and there is a whole pile of crucially
important unsolved problems.
The fact that science became complicated is a sign of thought stagnation, not
a sign of progress.
------
i000
As a faculty running a lab in human genomics /genetic I would say either join
a lab which needs your skills or work for a univeristy in support of their IT
and high-performance computing needs. People with computational skills, an
interest in doing/enabling research, and willing to accept a sub-market
salaery are obviously rare. IT departments at universities are under-staffed
and over red-taped, but most researchers depend on them to actually do work.
------
Glench
I would go talk to scientists and try to understand deeply what they’re
working on, how they do it, and what systems (social/technical/political)
allow them to do it. I’ve done this a few times and it’s always illuminating
and inspiring.
~~~
mariushn
Correct. How do you connect with scientists when not working in an university
like you do? Getting an email from a nobody offering help for free does sound
like a scam.
One answer would be "Enroll into an university". Others?
~~~
Glench
I just emailed them and told them I was doing research. Lots of people,
especially students, love talking about their work.
------
godelski
My dream would be to have a place I could look at any paper (even if not on a
campus internet connection), be able to look at raw data, code, and have a
forum to facilitate discussions between researchers.
I know the first won't happen for awhile, but it is a dream (open science).
The second is direly needed but in some cases not practical. But I think there
could be a lot to gain from just having a small portion of this. It could help
verify results significantly. Also imagine if people could research things
without having to have all the fancy instruments. Some of this already
happens, but I think it is harder to find and not always easy to sort though.
It isn't connected to papers and research. Just having a paper and a link to
the data would be tremendous help.
Similarly code. I don't know a researcher that hasn't made an accidental bug
in the code that changes results (some slight, some major). I think we need to
get over that WE ALL write hacky code. Hacky code is better than a vague
description in a paper because you don't have enough room to write an accurate
description of your model. Science is supposed to be replicated! Even linking
papers with a github account would be tremendous help. Some people don't want
to share code, and I think this is a shame and anti-scientific (especially if
you are using public money), but that's a rant on its own.
Researchers email one another all the time. Some of these discussions should
be public. Papers leave a lot of gaps. An area researchers could add extra
notes that couldn't be fit in a page limit, where collaboration can happen, or
where people can just ask questions, would be great. Replicating results can
be hard and we should be learning from one another's hurdles. That's the point
of science after all, for to push the progress of humanity. Lack of ability to
communicate should not be a gate.
Along with these things it would be nice to encourage putting up null results.
Aside a paper I would love to know what challenges a researcher fought. That's
where most of the work is. It is funny, we constantly talk about failure being
80-90% of research. Whole projects failing or just banging your head on the
desk because you can't figure out why something isn't working. Let's open this
up. Let's help one another. Let's talk about what went wrong and how we fixed
things to get to our success. I can't think of anything that would help
science more than this.
~~~
cellular
I wonder if people are reluctant to do this because they would be scrutinized
more and perhaps their phd, Grant etc might be at risk?
If so, is the only solution to give"credit" towards the phd, grant etc in the
form of hours worked towards pushing knowledge acquisition, and not strict
results?
~~~
godelski
I think it is partially that (but minor). Partially embarrassment (frequently
code is rushed). Partially people view code/data as a trade secret. The latter
I find anti-scientific, especially since a lot of funding comes from public
money. I'm okay with holding on to it for a small period of time (because we
live in an unfortunate world where sharing knowledge can't come first and
people need to secure funding), but I don't think this should be a default
mode that people do. Luckily it does seem that many are turning to
GitHub/BitBucket/GitLab to make their code available.
And everyone that's in a PhD or has one knows that the majority of work you do
is failing (but you learn from that failure).
Side note: I wonder if imposter syndrome would decrease if we were aware about
one anothers' failures and didn't only see the accomplishments.
------
hannob
Learning a lot how science actually works and how flawed it is I came to the
conclusion that the biggest boost in scientific progress you could ever
achieve is by eliminating science waste and doing more good science.
There are a few tiny steps in the right direction, but it's frustratingly
slow. Once you understand a phenomena like publication bias it's hard to
swallow that there are still empirical studies published without
preregistration. There are so many studies published with such low quality
that it's a complete waste, because the likelyhood that they're some
statistical fluke is much higher than that they tell the truth.
Though the problems are known since a while, little has changed:
[https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/jo...](https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124)
~~~
godelski
That is a very click-baity publication (yes, it happens). Title suggests this
phenomena is independent of fields. Content talks about the high p value. Not
every field uses this metric. So this publication is aimed pretty much at
medicine.
While I think the p-value thing needs to be rethought, it is bold to claim
"Most Published Research Findings Are False". Honestly it would be more
accurate to say "Errors matter and we can't take findings at face value and
ignore error bars". Which is pretty much something every self-respecting
scientist should know in the first place.
------
boyband6666
So as someone working in application of medicines, I'd agree with the comments
that say those of us doing these things have learn to make code work, but are
not software engineers (and would not claim to be). This means that if you can
improve the tools that are used (and don't care about making a return), the
leverage would be massive.
I imagine it isn't trivial (otherwise it would have been done by now), but
imagine if R was automatically parallel processing; seldom is the code in my
field worth figuring out how to make it parallel, but if it was automatically,
then a hell of a lot of time would be saved! I know there are two packages
that kind of make it work, but so far I've yet to hit a threshold making it
worth it (I just leave thigns running overnight).
Abstract from that to projects like Zotero and you can see how you could have
an impact on a lot of people by enabling them to do what they do.
------
tehlike
I felt the same, and decided to learn how to do that. Followed this one guy i
admired a lot. The way he is doing it is to merge software engineering
practices into science (in this case AI and robotics), and reduce the cost to
do iteration.
For us it means: 1\. 1 click binary deployments 2\. Safer iterations that
allow for making mistakes, so that they can do 10s at the same time instead of
1 really safe one. 3\. Logging visualization and whatnot on a unified infra.
We are not scientists, but we know damn well how to scale software and
business. It applies everywhere. Think of tensorflow, before most people
couldnt do ai themselves, now it is damn easy and more things will happen as a
result.
This way they can concentrate on science while we concentrate on scaling it.
We are betting on couple breakthroughs as a result of increased enthropy.
------
lettergram
You can get a job at a company doing research. Improve their tooling and this
make them research faster. SRI comes to mind in this regard.
Inside the company you can also push them to try and open source the tools.
Unlikely that’ll work if they don’t do it already, however this skill set will
eventually let you contribute more in the future. After some time on the job,
start a personal open source project or start a company directed at some of
the issues you saw.
It’s general advice and it’s the long game, but will likely help you have more
impact.
The advice above may be more useful for engineers earlier in their career, but
you can accomplish that in a handful of years.
------
maxaf
Forget science: as an “army of one” you’re unlikely to make a contribution of
sufficient magnitude that some needle might be moved in the right direction.
Take advantage of the skills you do have: make money by doing what startup
entrepreneurs do, then donate all proceeds to scientific research.
There may be the next Zuckerberg hiding in you. Imagine what would be possible
if you could reach that level of wealth and use all that money to propel
science forward. I’m not talking about some chickenshit foundation; real
impact is made by committing all of your financial means to helping science.
That’s how a real difference is made.
~~~
6d6b73
A lot, if not most of the important scientific discoveries were result of work
of "an army of one". From biosciences to physics you can do amazing stuff. We
don't need any new zuckebergs that siphone all of the great minds that are out
there into showing more ads.
~~~
ken
The individual scientific discovery was common in the early history of
science, but has grown less common over time. Looking at this list [1], for
example:
\- Prior to roughly WWII, it was mostly individuals, and so we named things
after them (Kelvin, Doppler, Joule, Ohm, etc).
\- From WWII until the late 20th century, it was a lot of small teams
(transistor, 3; DNA, 4; pulsars, 2; etc).
\- Since then, team sizes have grown so that individuals aren't even named
(cloning, an Institute; Top Quark, a Lab; Tau neutrino, a Collaboration; etc).
In fact, in the past 35 years, the only individually named contributors on
that list were mathematicians who constructed proofs of long-standing unsolved
problems in mathematics.
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_scientific_discove...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_scientific_discoveries)
------
guzik
Side note: I am the co-founder of Aidlab - a device and a platform that is
widely used by biomedical scientists and students in their research
([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wY0YPOKNk88](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wY0YPOKNk88))
In my free time I am working on my next project - an open-sourced platform
where everyone can contribute to help fight death. The platform allows
uploading anonymized, structured health records - publicly available. Why?
Dying is a number #1 problem that should be solved together.
OP, if interested, drop me an email: jdomaszewicz (at) aidlab.com
~~~
trentlott
...why should death be solved ASAP?
We haven't got the space or resources for exponential growth of population
~~~
danieltillett
Death has very little to do with the exponential growth of the population. You
need to look at the other end.
------
abcxx99
Regarding the last point: try applying libraries like Quantum espresso [1] or
CP2K [2] to real world problems and apply machine learning with the solutions
they provide to a given problem. There's a tremendous amount of academic
research being done in this direction but try and take these libraries and
make them useful for real world applications.
[1] [https://github.com/QEF/q-e](https://github.com/QEF/q-e)
[2] [https://github.com/cp2k/cp2k](https://github.com/cp2k/cp2k)
~~~
mxcrossb
As someone working in this field, I disagree. The state of these codes is that
if you put garbage in, you get garbage out. Without a strong theoretical
background, you’re generating junk. Of course, if he’s willing to spend
several years developing his knowledge of the field, there is for sure room to
help. If not in your suggested machine learning area, instead perhaps in
improving the quality and usability of the code.
But instead I would recommend he start from something like the NOMAD database,
where the calculations have already been run by more knowledgeable people.
Then he can focus on the analysis side.
~~~
abcxx99
Of course you need to develop domain knowledge. But there's tremendous
opportunity lying in these libraries, you just have to spend the time looking
for it.
------
vikramkr
There are a lot of citizen science initiatives you can participate in
including folding at home and so on. Your best bet is going to be to find a
field you love and find experts in the field to work with and learn from -
theres definitely a lot of lack fo software talent in some areas that you'd be
able to make a dent into but outside of citizen science initiatives, you need
to start with understanding the problems that need to be solved which can be
much more technical and difficult to understand than they ultimately could be
to solve. Good luck!
~~~
mariushn
Thank you!
------
j7ake
Provide funding for high school students to spend a summer working in a
research lab? The amount of funding doesn’t need to be high and it may pique
early interest for the next generation .
------
ArtWomb
>>> Indexing all open research
I'd also check out analytics platforms such as VIVO. End goal is a universal
workflow for all research, discovery and collaboration. Solving this problem
will have immediate impact. For example, computational epidemiology and
containing Ebola outbreaks in "hot zones" hundreds of miles apart.
Web of Science
[https://clarivate.com/products/web-of-
science/](https://clarivate.com/products/web-of-science/)
------
arandr0x
If you have the money to work full time on a personal project you have the
time to sign up for a conference or three on the kind of scientific topic you
like. Ideally, pick one near your home/in the closest metropolis.
Once there you can apply the following no-social-skills-needed guide to making
contacts at a conference.
1\. Watch the keynote.
2\. After the keynote, walk up to pretty much anybody. Ask the following
questions: "Do you think (keynote title) is a major area for (conference
subject matter)?" and almost regardless of what they answer, you can follow up
with "oh, really? Is what you're studying related to (keynote subject)?".
Those two questions are enough to make virtually any academic launch in a
paragraph-long exposé. Usually by the 6th conversation you have along those
lines, you'll have a good summary of which subjects are considered important
right now. If the person looks like they like you or are invested in talking
about their topic, you can follow up by giving your contact info and saying
you're interested in them sending you a paper on the subject they talked about
(one of theirs if applicable).
3\. There will be designated poster sessions. The posters are giant sheets of
papers with young people in front of them. Walk up to a young person standing
in front of a poster that doesn't look that slick but where the subject matter
interests you (slick posters are from bigger labs where you are less likely to
have an impact). Ask the person what they do, how long they've been doing it
for, how big is their lab, and what's the most time-consuming step in their
research right now.
4\. If anyone asks you what you do, say you're an expert in (your computing
area, web apps, cloud, data analysis, whatever) and interested in the
intersection of (your area) and (conference name). Some of the people will say
they think (your area) would be great for (their subfield) because of (super
niche stuff you wouldn't have thought of). Grab their contact info so you can
have a 1:1 meeting with them later where they find you a research subject.
Follow up by having email conversations with a few of the people. If a grad
student looks like they can use your help, ask for an intro to the PI.
Eventually you'll walk your way into a (possibly paid) research project. It's
that simple. Thank you for caring about your world and its future.
------
prennert
Build tools to make research more efficient and reproducible. The research
community is a small market and has little money. Building tools is often not
regarded as scientific activity and can lead to dead ends if publication is
pursued.
So, if you do not have to rely on income anymore and want to contribute to
science, build tools for the community. Or better, come up with a way to help
scientists to build their own tools fast and efficiently.
~~~
mariushn
Thanks! Any other details / specifics would be welcome, since it seems you
already have some knowledge in this area.
~~~
prennert
With my background in computer science and ML, I worked with genitesists to
automate some of their observations.
A lot (almost everything) what they do routinely is still done manually. In
genetics there are about 10 model organisms (I forgot the exact number) that
most work is done on. Examples I have come in touch with are C. Elegans, D.
Melanogaster and mice. A huge amount of work is done on these organisms and a
huge amount of time is spent by grad students and post docs, repeating the
same boring tasks day in and out. This is a big factor in deciding the breath
of studies (you can only compare as many conditions as you can evaluate). Some
things biologists do are subjective or prone to bias (even objective tasks
like counting stuff becomes kind of biased after fatigue sets in if you have
to count a lot of things and have to do it very often)
If you can automate their tasks, what will happen is that you will enable them
to increase the breath of their studies drastically and potentially create
more consistent measurements as well.
------
mindcrime
Software tools to help with scientific discovery / hypothesis generation. I'm
thinking specifically about Literature Based Discovery[1] (LBD), but there are
probably other useful approaches in that domain.
I have a little project[2] related to LBD, which I'm working on here and
there. There's still a long way to go, but I'm optimistic there's something to
be accomplished in this space that could help.
And then you've got things like Robot Scientist[3] which is crazy interesting.
If AI, in the AGI sense, interests you, I might mention the possibility of
contributing to / working with one of the popular "Cognitive Architecture"
systems like ACT-R[4], SOAR[5], or OpenCog[6].
[1]: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literature-
based_discovery](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literature-based_discovery)
[2]:
[https://github.com/fogbeam/Valmont-F](https://github.com/fogbeam/Valmont-F)
[3]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_Scientist](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_Scientist)
[4]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACT-R](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACT-R)
[5]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soar_(cognitive_architecture)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soar_\(cognitive_architecture\))
[6]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenCog](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenCog)
------
7373737373
Solve the following problem:
"I want to find all research labs concerned with topic X in this area"
=> Create an (open) crunchbase/patreon for university research groups
Right now, each university has their own website, with their own layout and
varying degrees of information. General scraping is impossible. Finding
research groups with certain interests without trawling through an endless
amount of publications in related journals or randomly meeting people at
conferences is difficult. The only comprehensive lists are university ranking
sites, but they are not detailed down to the research group level.
\- create a crowdsourced, public index of running projects
\- help labs find each other and collaborate on work
\- help people apply to labs with open positions
\- let donors and investors find and support projects more efficiently
\- make science journalism easier, by connecting reporters straight to the
source
The main difficulty is creating the network effect which is why, I suppose, no
one has done it yet.
~~~
mariushn
> help labs find each other and collaborate on work
Ideally, that would be awesome. But... do they want to? Will they put science
& results above all, or they put first funding, egos and credits?
Science is great, but from my experience, these others are even more important
for individuals. These support a career & family.
~~~
7373737373
The ideas published in journals all depend on humans.
But to an outsider, these connections are completely invisible. Conferences
cost thousands of dollars to attend. Subject matter experts are hard to find,
so many connections are simply not made.
Which is a good reason to support such a platform, because it may make such
views possible and existing deficits more visible and quantifiable :)
Small and medium size businesses outside academia could also use it as to
improve their technology and connections.
------
xipho
Contribute to TaxonWorks [http://taxonworks.org/](http://taxonworks.org/).
Software from a small endowed group that builds tools that support those who
describe Earth's species. Software is completely open source, many
opportunities to improve what's going on there.
------
gpm
I've helped one on one by working with someone who had a problem and needed
some code a few times (sometimes getting paid, sometimes for free for a
friend). I think that's higher impact than most of the remaining low hanging
fruit. These where all 1 coder projects.
There are also larger coding projects in the sciences with teams. Running the
database (and doing whatever else needs doing in code) for a telescope for
instance. I don't have personal experience with them, but search around and
you can probably find them.
The only thing I can think of that would have helped across the projects I've
worked on would be better (more convenient, I don't care _that_ much about how
the output looks as long as it conveys the information) graphing/data
visualization tools.
------
ajot
Re: materials simulator, you should totally check Materials Project [1]. I
guess that they are open to getting some help in their github repos.
[1] [https://materialsproject.org/about](https://materialsproject.org/about)
~~~
mariushn
Thanks!
------
na85
I think the best way to accelerate scientific research is to recreate Bell
Labs in a modern setting, free from the desire to succeed.
Get a huge endowment fund (the hard part), hire a bunch of smart and promising
people, and tell them you want them to change the world.
------
mlspector
I work on a project called OpenReview
([https://openreview.net](https://openreview.net)) that aims to improve
scientific peer review by encouraging transparency and research on the peer
review process itself. Right now most of our activity is within the machine
learning academic community, but we have plans to spread into other areas of
computer science and more.
We’re looking for developers, if you’re interested:
[https://codeforscience.org/jobs?job=OpenReview-
Developer](https://codeforscience.org/jobs?job=OpenReview-Developer)
Let me know if you want to learn more and we can find a way to connect.
------
tristanpemble
I’m the engineering director at Quartzy (YC S11). We’re focusing on making
research more efficient through the laboratory supply room. We help labs
through a group buying experience to avoid waste, and offer discounts to their
contract prices by working directly with manufacturers.
This isn’t the most obvious way to make an impact, but we’ve effectively saved
many labs thousands of dollars on equipment and consumables that can then be
reallocated toward their research. Our mission is to increase the efficiency
of scientific research — the supply room is just the beginning.
Would be happy to chat - tristan@quartzy.com
~~~
fuzzfactor
>increase the efficiency of scientific research — the supply room is just the
beginning.
Efficiency is often compromised institutionally, so I know this is an
obstacle.
I've got a lifetime of business models for scientific software, but that
wasn't the question above.
One way to accelerate many types of laboratory research would be to offer a
workflow alternative where very high performance individuals can make the
choice to spend almost all their working time at the bench(es) rather than
being distracted or sitting down at desks or office & lab computers. While
maintaining overall leadership of the organization, so this requires a
different type of team structure as it scales.
That way someone who can really invent a lot doesn't get bogged down by the
bureaucracy of their earlier inventions.
------
gumby
A shoutout for asking “what can I do” as opposed to “why is research so slow?”
------
n1000
A lot of journals (including the one I am an editor at) would probably
consider leaving the fangs of elsevier and co and go full open access
publishing. However, there are a few obstacles to that, such as missing open
and reliable editorial and publishing platforms, contacts to libraries, etc.
In my opinion providing these things and actively encouraging journals to make
the jump to open access would be a huge service to academia. Also, I wouldn’t
be surprised if one could find funding for such a venture.
------
zitterbewegung
Donating money toward researchers. All of the following situations below may
or may not have a useful outcome but direct investment would be the easiest
one and one you can leverage.
------
cupotea
The least/most you can do in this space is likely contribute actively in
something you believe in.
Industry wide limitations are largely down to policy & regulations
------
amirathi
Make programming accessible to scientists.
Today, running any compute/memory intensive experiment requires working
through so many tools and terminologies (e.g. AWS, SSH, python, dependencies,
virtualenvs). Scientists really need just Jupyter notebook like experience
that's collaborative, reproducible, and powerful (i.e. run on any hardware
with 1 click).
~~~
badpun
Check out [https://www.dominodatalab.com/](https://www.dominodatalab.com/) \-
you've pretty much described their product.
------
mike_ivanov
> how one can accelerate scientific research
Easy peasy. Help (for example) this guy find funds for continuing his
research:
[https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=Q0w_e84AAAAJ](https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=Q0w_e84AAAAJ)
Edit: there are many like him.
------
kingryan
You mention meta.org, you know you could work with us on it
[https://chanzuckerberg.com/join-
us/openings/?team=engineerin...](https://chanzuckerberg.com/join-
us/openings/?team=engineering) (search "meta" on that page)
------
zbjornson
Shameless plug: come work for Primity Bio. My team builds a bioinformatics web
application that (among other things) is several orders of magnitude faster
than the other tools, which fundamentally changes the scope of analysis that
researchers can feasibly do. Email in bio.
------
billconan
to me, the biggest hurdle is the pretentiousness in the research world and the
way paper is written. if someone can rewrite papers in plain english, removing
all jargons, talking more about intuitions, that will help encourage more
people to get involved in scientific research.
------
raizinho
Here's a journal for publishing null results:
[http://www.jasnh.com/](http://www.jasnh.com/)
------
fghtr
Probably not the answer you would expect, but one very simple action you could
do is to sign/share this petition:
[https://publiccode.eu](https://publiccode.eu).
------
m463
I think you might enjoy this interview with Elon Musk:
Elon Musk - How to Build the Future
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnBQmEqBCY0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnBQmEqBCY0)
------
moonbug
The job role for you might be as a "Research software engineer"
~~~
mwest
Surprised this comment isn't higher.
OP does indeed sound like the discipline they're looking for is Research
Software Engineering.
Some reading:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_software_engineering](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_software_engineering)
"Research software engineering is the use of software engineering practices in
research applications. The term started to be used in United Kingdom in 2012,
when it was needed to define the type of software development needed in
research. This focuses on reproducibility, reusability, and accuracy of data
analysis and applications created for research."
[https://software.ac.uk/](https://software.ac.uk/)
[https://rse.ac.uk/](https://rse.ac.uk/)
------
roborzoid
Put yourself in survival conditions and use science to overcome it
~~~
fuzzfactor
Well nature did this to me and the committment to accelerated operation of a
wounded laboratory (before it could have been lost altogether) yielded better
progress IMHO on the same scientific instrumentation compared to leading PhDs
in my field.
I wouldn't recommend it for everyone seeking commercialization because of
accompanying roadblocks due to the systematic financial pressure against
individuals coming from survival conditions.
But it is good knowing what this gear can really do.
------
lykr0n
Run BOINC, Folding@Home, or like distributed computing project. Many of those
projects are run by education institutions.
------
benrapscallion
Sign up for a prospective health cohort such as AllOfUs in the US or UK
Biobank or equivalents in other countries.
~~~
benrapscallion
[https://allofus.nih.gov/](https://allofus.nih.gov/)
[https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/](https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/)
~~~
mariushn
Thanks! Since I'm in EU, I'll also contact biobank and ask if I can help with
anything software-related.
------
javier2
an idea: create quality libraries for working with genome data.
------
juskrey
Start a business
~~~
boyband6666
If you can find a problem, and solve it, a business is a fantastic way to make
an impact!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Chasing Programming Fads - AstralRabbit
http://hyperdimensionalrabbit.blogspot.com/
======
WalterSear
Ruby vs Javascript is a poor example, that comes across as somewhat scented
with sour grapes.
The requirements of the work to be done keep changing as technology grows.
Ruby is dying because, right now, it makes more sense to do the work on the
front end.
~~~
AstralRabbit
You bring up an interesting point with the "front end" comment. Do you see the
future of web development as being more heavily geared towards developing
Single Page Applications (In JavaScript or otherwise)? From what little I know
of it, it just seems to be the way to go, going forward. But would like to
hear the opinion of experts.
~~~
polaris9000
SPAs are definitely the future of web development, IMO. End users are growing
more sophisticated and expect a web application to function with the same
speed and responsiveness as a desktop application. Their tolerance for even
the slightest delay is decreasing.
~~~
WalterSear
They are definitely the future - for now :)
[http://aws.amazon.com/appstream/](http://aws.amazon.com/appstream/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
OpenBSD backdoor claims: bugs found during code audit - shin_lao
http://www.itwire.com/opinion-and-analysis/open-sauce/43995-openbsd-backdoor-claims-code-audit-begin
======
DupDetector
Discussion from the submission 4 days ago:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2014649>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Hardly any coders among GCSE ICT entrants despite student increase - Codeson
http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/careers/3466636/hardly-any-coders-among-gcse-ict-entrants-despite-student-increase/?olo=rss
======
danielrmay
This article outlines (one of) the biggest problems with schooling here in the
UK - the source material for a Computing GCSE exists, but no schools are
willing to pick it up, run with it and offer it to their students.
This isn't because there aren't enough kids interested, it's because very few
schools offer the course.
So why aren't schools offering a Computing GCSE? My speculation is that it's
still pretty new and the prospect of re-training teachers into being able to
teach this stuff outweighs the number of kids that would pick the subject.
Right now, by not offering this in more of our schools, we are actively
_discouraging_ any kids who _do_ have a genuine interest in development and
design because we're locking them into learning how to make elements on
powerpoint slides animate successfully, instead of the creative development
encouragement they need, and, well, deserve.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Disabled dog runs for the first time thanks to 3D-printed legs - lelf
http://www.theverge.com/2014/12/18/7414591/disabled-dog-runs-for-the-first-time-thanks-to-3d-printed-legs
======
fernly
Awwwww.
------
moonshinefe
That's pretty great, thanks for sharing.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Microsoft completes aquisition of Yammer - justauser
http://blog.yammer.com/blog/2012/07/yammer-starts-a-new-chapter-as-part-of-microsoft.html
How long will they keep on a Java stack before converting over to Dot Net?
======
justauser
How long before Yammer moves off of Java and on to DotNet?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What updates are you most excited about? - coffeymug
I feel like this is an incredible time for tech and software progress right now.<p>There will be a stable branch of Wine 4.0 not too long from now. The Halo Online team is gearing up to put out their 0.6 release of ElDewrito. Linux Mint 19 is due in the next 2 months. And apparently version 5.0 of the Linux kernel will also be rolling out this year.<p>https://www.winehq.org/news/
http://blog.eldewrito.com/
https://medium.com/@dylanamlinux/a-sneak-peak-at-linux-mint-19-d4a049d8efc7<p>Are there any significant updates that you have been eagerly anticipating?
======
markcba
Ubuntu 18 is about yo come out!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What are ways to improve public speaking? - xcoding
======
pmdulaney
You will reach your audience best if your tone communicates competence and
humility in equal measure.
If you've ever been an athlete you know how much energy you receive from the
spectators. The same is true of public speaking, though it doesn't seem like
it at first. Even after a few times out you will discover that the audience
makes your mind sharper and your talk better. That's why rehearsing your talk
to a friend by way of practice often backfires -- that one person can't
replicate the energy of a full audience. That's why I do a mental rehearsal
rather than speaking it out loud.
Let your enthusiasm be contagious, but don't adopt a gee-whiz "Isn't this
amazing" TED talk persona.
Don't aim for JFK gravitas unless you're speaking at a funeral or maybe your
daughter's wedding. Watch Pete Buttigieg speak in the Democratic debates. He
is overall an excellent speaker and a master of tone.
Be sure to totally master your intro; that will give you confidence and get
your audience on board. Remember, they WANT you to succeed because it is
almost as painful to listen to a floundering speaker as it is to be a
floundering speaker.
------
downerending
I benefited from a public speaking course in college, and I've heard that
ToastMasters is great.
Somewhat surprisingly, I discovered in that course that it's far easier to
talk about something I know and care very little about. Not sure what to make
of that.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
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