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Flight ET702 hijacked – live Twitter feed - lars512
https://twitter.com/search?q=%23ET702
======
rdl
At least it wasn't an ET961 situation this time.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_Airlines_Flight_961](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_Airlines_Flight_961)
(Hijackers were too dumb to understand fuel loading policies; aircraft ended
up ditching into the Indian Ocean. Amazingly, 50 pax survived.)
~~~
corin_
Actually it sounds like today's hijackers were indeed that dumb, they just
managed to be circling over an airport by the time they ran out of fuel. (Or
perhaps that wasn't a surprise to them and they knew they'd be safe over
Geneva?)
~~~
rdl
I still can't imagine anyone obeying hijackers anymore. If someone got up on a
plane and said he had a bomb, I'd be running toward him to knock him down and
incapacitate (ideally, by killing) before he'd even stopped with his
announcement. I'm pretty sure on most US airlines I'd be blocked by a bunch of
other passengers doing the same thing.
9/11 really screwed things for hijackers.
(EDIT: appears it was the co-pilot, and the reinforced door installed after
9/11 actually allowed him to keep the real pilot out! So at least it wasn't an
EgyptAir 990 situation either...)
~~~
corin_
That's certainly the common thought (that it would be impossible), but does it
hold up in practice?
Let's say a repeat of 9/11 happened, then judging by expected outcomes it
would definitely be better to all rush the hijackers, even if half the plane
died in subduing them it would be better than everyone dying (and more on the
ground) if you let them do what they want.
Today's example on the other hand, the best case scenario is what ended up
happening (the hijacker/s don't have the goal of killing people, so there's a
reasonable chance that everyone can survive), therefore is it worth taking the
risk to stop them? In this situation, even one person dying while preventing
them from taking control of the plane can actually be a worse outcome than
leaving them to their negotiations.
In terms of mathematical outcomes it's hard to say which course of action
would be better: firstly because you couldn't give accurate probabilities, and
secondly because the expected outcome might not match the best bet. For
example, if preventing hijackers gives a 95% chance that at least one person
dies, and leaving them to it gives a 1% chance that 50 people die, then played
out over 1000s of times you're actually better not doing anything, but over a
single time is it worth taking that risk?
And then past that, even if these numbers were easy to analyse, how will
people on board react when a.) emotions are running high and b.) rather than
typing at my desk at work, I'm confronted with the situation that _I 'm_ the
one risking my life to stop them. Even if I knew the odds meant they really
needed to be stopped, I'm not sure I'd have the balls to run at men with
weapons.
~~~
rdl
It's entirely possible it's not the right course of action, but it's reflex.
Now that it's known terrorists view aircraft as weapons, even taking control
of the aircraft is a deadly threat.
The weapons usually used to control an aircraft are the threat of bombs. A
fake bomb is just as effective as a real bomb, and vastly easier to bring
onboard, so it seems rational to presume any bomb threat is fake. To a first
approximation, hijacker in a plane aisle is a problem of running at him and
tackling, which is about the easiest possible thing to do.
------
lelf
Plot twist: it was co-pilot. Source: press conference
_Edit_ : video here [http://www.20min.ch/schweiz/romandie/story/Das-Flugzeug-
wurd...](http://www.20min.ch/schweiz/romandie/story/Das-Flugzeug-wurde-vom-
Kopilot-entfuehrt-22505714)
Can someone translate? (French). _Edit’_ : scratch that. (There was a press
conference recording (yes, in French))
~~~
jmathai
I don't speak French but... [http://www.20min.ch/schweiz/romandie/story/Das-
Flugzeug-wurd...](http://www.20min.ch/schweiz/romandie/story/Das-Flugzeug-
wurde-vom-Kopilot-entfuehrt-22505714)
Edit: confused if this article was requested to be translated to or from
French. Mobile browsing sucks. Here is English.
[http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&n...](http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&nv=1&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://www.20min.ch/schweiz/romandie/story/Das-
Flugzeug-wurde-vom-Kopilot-
entfuehrt-22505714%3Fredirect%3Dmobi%26nocache%3D0.3424269447568804&usg=ALkJrhgVWxhJpUsfS_A1sODXTjkrzV02Fg)
------
emmapersky
Airline has confirmed hijacking. passengers and crew safe
[http://www.ethiopianairlines.com/en/news/default.aspx](http://www.ethiopianairlines.com/en/news/default.aspx)
~~~
ivan_ah
Okay, show's over. Everyone came out save and sound.
via [http://www.rts.ch/info/suisse/5619177-aeroport-de-
cointrin-f...](http://www.rts.ch/info/suisse/5619177-aeroport-de-cointrin-
ferme-apres-un-detournement-d-avion-a-geneve.html)
------
lars512
Details are sketchy. It's believed to be hijacked. Having circled Geneva for
some time, it's landed. The airport seems to be closed.
The air traffic control live stream:
[http://www.liveatc.net/search/?icao=gva](http://www.liveatc.net/search/?icao=gva)
Anyone with any actual non-speculation, feel free to post.
------
koala_advert
Apparently the hijacker(s) wanted political asylum in Switzerland:
[http://www.jaunted.com/story/2014/2/17/02325/1000/travel/BRE...](http://www.jaunted.com/story/2014/2/17/02325/1000/travel/BREAKING%3A+Ethiopian+Plane+Hijacked%2C+Flown+to+Switzerland+for+Asylum)
~~~
einhverfr
Probably not the best way to get political asylum.
------
lars512
Collating some information in this globally editable Google Doc
[https://docs.google.com/a/yencken.org/document/d/1uxcXrdPVau...](https://docs.google.com/a/yencken.org/document/d/1uxcXrdPVauIJqeDnhzgppzIduiOYu5ZilvS7bYnh5lg/edit#)
------
wila
Hijacker has been arrested according to this:
[http://jpupdates.com/2014/02/17/breaking-hijacked-
ethiopian-...](http://jpupdates.com/2014/02/17/breaking-hijacked-ethiopian-
airline-landed-in-geneva-airport/)
------
jmathai
@cnnbrk reported this an hour after it happened [1]. I turned CNN on the
television and they were showing an Anthony Bourdain show. Google News showed
only 5 results.
Meanwhile, Twitter was streaming with links to flight maps and other updates.
I realize news media might have to do more due diligence before reporting but
from the face of it they seemed completely unaware.
[1]
[https://twitter.com/cnnbrk/status/435294208824328192](https://twitter.com/cnnbrk/status/435294208824328192)
------
jessevdk
I happened to be at the airport when it happened (still am). We got to hear
that the airport closed due to "Operational problems". Plenty vague, but the
internets prevails.
------
NN88
Its a hijacking: Live reddit thread with updates from /r/Aviation
[http://np.reddit.com/r/aviation/comments/1y46mi/possible_hij...](http://np.reddit.com/r/aviation/comments/1y46mi/possible_hijacking_in_progress_eth_702_squawking/)
------
cyann
Local newspaper with details [French]: [http://www.tdg.ch/geneve/actu-
genevoise/Un-pirate-de-l-air-d...](http://www.tdg.ch/geneve/actu-genevoise/Un-
pirate-de-l-air-detourne-un-avion-vers-laeroport-de-Geneve/story/27179086)
------
emmapersky
Hijacking confirmed:
[http://www.ethiopianairlines.com/en/news/default.aspx](http://www.ethiopianairlines.com/en/news/default.aspx)
all pax and crew safe.
------
adenot
It's going in circle atm:
[http://www.flightradar24.com/ETH702/2ba40ab](http://www.flightradar24.com/ETH702/2ba40ab)
------
eots
How is his hacker news?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Bye bye Symfony.. Hello Zend - madmotive
http://blog.kwiqq.com/2008/08/12/announcement-bye-bye-symfony-hello-zend/
I've not used PHP for a while but was quite intrigued by this switch. What's the opinion of the PHP developers amongst you?
======
noodle
i submitted this on his blog too, but i wanted to point out the fact that
codeigniter has the same trend line as symfony/zend but is behind. its ahead
of cake, though, which is stagnant.
[http://www.google.com/trends?q=symfony%2C+zend+framework%2C+...](http://www.google.com/trends?q=symfony%2C+zend+framework%2C+cake+php%2C+codeigniter&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=1)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Coinerra – JavaScript Crypto Miner - andrei821
http://coinerra.com
======
mcintyre1994
"We add an intermediary 15s step" "Add a timer to lock items which your users
can unlock by mining" "you can delay showing the results for 5-10s to mine
crypto"
"giving your users the awesome experience they deserve."
Awesome experience indeed.
~~~
bananicorn
Well, maybe the emphasis is on deserve here? ;)
------
wakamoleguy
I love their first FAQ. You don't often see a service that comes out and says
"This probably isn't for you."
> Q: Will This Work On My Site? > A: Technically yes, economically probably
> not.
That same answer goes on to discuss how much revenue you could actually expect
from using this crypto miner: "With just 10–20 active miners on your site, you
can expect a monthly revenue of about 0.3 XMR (~$29)."
It seems like in some situations, where users are incentivized to stick around
and mine for a bit, this could be an effective model. It seems like there is
room for improvement in tuning power consumption and fees charged. Plus, if ad
blockers block miners, it's likely a non-starter... but the merits of that are
a different debate.
~~~
Kiro
The FAQ is copypasted word-by-word from Coinhive though which I find kind of
sloppy and non-serious.
~~~
j_s
Show HN: Coinhive – Embeddable JavaScript Crypto Miner |
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15246145](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15246145)
(Sep 2017)
Mentions [https://medium.com/@MaxenceCornet/coinhive-review-
embeddable...](https://medium.com/@MaxenceCornet/coinhive-review-embeddable-
javascript-crypto-miner-806f7024cde8)
_$0.36 a day For this exact website, it’s 4 to 5 times less than what it
makes with non-intrusive ads (banner + text only)_
------
jchw
I'm sure it's been covered to death already, but wow, this really ought to
kill user's batteries. I'm not sure how I feel about this concept.
~~~
Kiro
I don't see the problem as long as you warn your users before making them
explicitly start the miner to receive stuff.
~~~
kienankb
That feels like the problem to me--there's no incentive for a website to do so
instead of simply mining without the user's consent.
~~~
bastawhiz
And the big problem isn't consent. If I'm paying to watch a video by mining,
my battery might not last the duration of the video I'm mining to watch!
~~~
zdkl
Okay I'll bite. How is your choice of device the dev's responsibility?
I mean it's not like it'd make sense to flame blizzard or bethesda because you
can't play as long as you'd like on a laptop/mobile.
You use the proper device for the proper use, and this way you just get an
additional option to trade value with the site owner. You're free not to mine
in the same way you're free to get a paid account if you don't like ads.
------
zdkl
Hard to take this seriously with a mistake right on the front page:
> It's the cheapest miner on the market: 85% to you - 15% to Coinerra
A rapid search turns up crypto-loot.com with 88% payout. That said, it's good
to see more actors in this space. Just please get your facts straight!
------
andrei821
Hi everyone. Founder here. Thanks for the feedback, and I admit, there are a
lot of things that we can improve. We have focused more on the technology, and
soon are going to update most of the documentation and FAQ.
------
tstyle
So this takes 15% fee vs 30% for Coinhive. With almost non-existant barrier to
entry, it seems like commission would be driven down to what traditional
mining pool cuts (1% or less)
~~~
hopfog
This doesn't have an API though so I don't really understand how you would use
it for rewards. With Coinhive you can verify the number of solved hashes per
user server-side.
~~~
lynxaegon
Yeah, they don't have a private api, but you could use the client side API
(miner) to get total hashes / listen for accepted hashes and save the data on
your side and give rewards based on that.
------
factsaresacred
The animation on the 'Sign Up' button is a sin. Instant tab close.
Almost as bad as the 'subscribe' popup nonsense way too many websites have.
~~~
wakamoleguy
It doesn't bother me too much, all in all. Distracting, sure, but then again,
they found a way to draw your attention to the most important button on their
website (in their opinion). It doesn't obscure the content like a popup or
prevent you from closing the tab with an alert. By my book, that's playing by
the rules.
~~~
factsaresacred
Nah it's not that bad but it's similar to seeing a '.biz' domain or comic-sans
font - an innate heuristic that informs my brain to _nope_ the hell out of
there.
It triggers the _this is scammy_ response (no matter how unjustly).
------
Kiro
I think all ad blockers and the like should block these miners. Full stop. Not
because I'm anti-miner but because serious websites must explicitly ask for
users' consent and while doing that it's easy just to whitelist the miner for
that specific website when you want to mine. I don't see any dichotomy. The
problem is obviously rogue sites mining in the background.
~~~
wakamoleguy
It seems pretty natural for ad blockers to block miners, which extends them
more into the space of allowing users to maintain control over their client,
rather than purely blocking ads as the name implies.
That being said, the primary concern so far seems to be the CPU melting effect
of the mining. (I don't want to use my battery, CPU, etc to make you money
without you asking me.) Rather than blacklisting certain domains or requests
to crypto-mining services, I'd like to see something that protects against
intensive scripts in general.
Here's how I could see it working:
* Services like Coinerra want to do intensive work without blocking site responsiveness, so they should use something like Web Workers.
* Browsers should provide user controls to throttle the execution of Web Workers. This will protect their resources from most intensive scripts.
* Intensive execution on the main thread already has (inelegant) protections (no responsiveness, script timeout warnings). Maybe these will need to be improved as more sites request intense, continuous computations on behalf of clients.
Unfortunately, crypto miners themselves will have little incentive to add the
controls on their end, because it is best for their customers if the hashes
are computed at the maximum rate. (Well, they will have a little incentive,
because throttling may allow them to fly under the radar, providing smaller
revenue without being blocked entirely.)
------
another35
> You are running Vue in development mode.
haha
Anyways, it's time for a miner blocker browser plugin I guess, this sucks!
~~~
keraf
Made a blocker some time ago for Coin Hive and a few others, will add Coinerra
to the blocker too. You can check it out on Github:
[https://github.com/keraf/NoCoin](https://github.com/keraf/NoCoin)
------
orfeo77
I did a 1 day trial... My stats TOTAL HASHES 2.33 Milion/Hashes TOTAL PAID
0.00000 xmr PENDING PAYMENTS 0.00000 xmr ????? ALL IS 0, I stopped using it
~~~
lynxaegon
I think they had a bug, because for me it started showing today. 10.47 MH ->
0.00177 xmr pending and now it's increasing at each refresh
------
snek
the js isn't just minified, its been obfuscated (actually adding to the size
significantly). it also has the exact same api as coinhive. i wonder what they
are trying to hide...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Any good book recommendations? - pg_bot
Can be technical or non-technical. Looking for a few things to read while taking some time off.
======
onion2k
I've recently finished _Ready Player One_ by Ernest Cline which is an
enjoyably nostalgic novel based on computer games and 80s trivia.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Steve Jobs talks consultants, hiring, and leaving Apple 1992 - DonnyV
http://mitsloan.mit.edu/newsroom/articles/steve-jobs-talks-consultants-hiring-and-leaving-apple-in-unearthed-1992-talk/
======
DonnyV
Here is the full YouTube video.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gk-9Fd2mEnI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gk-9Fd2mEnI)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Wonobo - India's answer to Google Street View - naren87
http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/internet/wonobo-indias-answer-to-google-street-view/article5236876.ece
======
alphakappa
They deserve to be congratulated for coming up with a alternative to Street
View.
That said, this product is all over the place. It seems to be more of a city
guide than a street-view alternative. Even in that area, there's so much
happening on the screen that it's a painful mess to navigate. The useful
portion (the draggable view) itself is a tiny portion of the screen, so after
a few attempts to navigate through the city, I gave up.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The danger of "language" in programming (2009) - phowat
http://loup-vaillant.fr/articles/language
======
kbenson
I think it's worth bringing Perl into this discussion, as a language designed
by linguists to to make it easier to express yourself in ways similar to how
you think. Thinking about this, it puts the following statement into new
light:
_Natural languages are exclusively used to talk to people, while programming
languages are also used to talk to machines._
We _also_ use programming languages to communicate to other programmers (which
includes our future selves). Making clear delineations as above can serve to
help define a problem, or arbitrarily reduce your options without cause. I
think this is the latter.
Perl has many, many nuances. This is often derided by people that prefer more
rigid languages. I like to think that it helps me see the programmer intent
and thought process more clearly through the code.
Obviously there are downsides to this, just as there are downsides to overly
rigid languages. Again, differentiating them based on what we _assume_ they
will excel at early may not be beneficial for us. People that move freely
between different language dichotomies seem to have success in choosing the
right tool for the job, whether that be algorithm, language or platform.
~~~
rtpg
As someone who has a passing knowledge of perl, what do you mean by nuances?
It always seemed that perl the language is pretty minimal.
~~~
stcredzero
No. Perl has a lot of syntax. There is a lot of language containing a lot of
nuance. Python is an example of a language with moderate syntax, probably
several times smaller than Perl 5's, assuming Perl is about the same size as
Ruby, which is a good assumption, given that they both depend on complex
interactions between lexer, parser, and runtime to fully parse. Smalltalk is
several times smaller than Python, and actual Lisp implementations have
syntaxes that are 1/3rd to 1/2 the size of Smalltalk's.
The above is all objective. You can reduce a language to a formal grammar and
count the number of terminals and nonterminals in that grammar.
~~~
jleader
Not all linguistic nuance is syntactic. For example, the semantics of object
models can contain a lot of nuances, as can the lifetimes of variables,
visibility of identifiers, etc. While there are ways of encoding semantics
(denotational, axiomatic, etc.), the size of the encoding will depend a lot on
how closely the language's semantics resemble the semantics of the encoding
you choose.
~~~
stcredzero
Okay, then. Single letters in regular expression statements.
------
dogles
I disagree with this argument. Modern programming is done with groups of
people; you are not only communicating your intent to the machine, you are
communicating your intent with fellow engineers. It is in this case that
nuance is important. For example, C++ references and pointers are exactly the
same as far as the machine cares. But the difference is important for
communicating intent to other engineers.
This isn't to say that C++ lacks significant flaws, but I don't think nuance
and variety of expression is one of them.
~~~
jeorgun
Out of curiosity: what intent would you say is communicated by choosing
references over pointers, or vice versa? I'm relatively new to C++, but I
haven't noticed any real difference beyond personal preference.
~~~
stonemetal
Pointers can be null references can not, therefore if you use a reference then
you are communicating nulls not allowed. You can't new or delete with a
reference, so you are saying something about the lifetime of the object
referenced(That this code absolutely refuses to manage it).
~~~
catnaroek
This is only partially true. A C++ reference can outlive the object it
references. A better argument would be Rust's borrowed pointers, which are
statically checked to never point to an invalid object throughout their entire
lifetimes.
To talk about lifetimes, you need linear logic in the core language. Merely
having destructors is not enough.
~~~
stonemetal
_This is only partially true. A C++ reference can outlive the object it
references._
I didn't mean to imply that it couldn't, just that by using a reference
instead of a pointer you are disclaiming responsibility for lifetime
management of the referenced item since you can not delete a reference.
C++ being what it is, one can ref = *(new object());, delete &ref;, but the
intention you are expressing by using a reference is more hands off in nature.
It isn't retargetable, no built-in ability to new\delete, etc.
~~~
catnaroek
Manually making sure a reference does not outlive the referenced object (or,
at least, that a reference is not used after the object has been destroyed)
looks pretty much like "lifetime management" to me. What C++ affords you is
merely ownership management.
------
candybar
Another thing that's easy to forget is that human languages often evolve to be
difficult to learn, with this difficulty later being used as a social weapon
against outsiders and a marker of status. This evolution is at times
deliberate, other times accidental, but all languages go through this phase -
where there's no such difficulty, insiders invent jargons and slangs to create
the barrier.
Though now I think of it, programming languages aren't immune from this
phenomenon either!
------
zimbatm
Another danger is the focus on the syntax or maybe standard library when
talking about "programming language". Programming is done in an environment.
Things like editor support, debugging capabilities, compatibility with
operating systems, speed of execution... they all count towards the usefulness
on a programming environment and are often overlooked when comparing fizzbuzz
implementations.
------
ianstormtaylor
_> There are two ways to deal with bugs. Correcting them, and avoiding them._
Does anyone on HN know of other places to read more about this idea? I
strongly believe it, and think it's incredibly important to being able to
argue for refactoring and code quality. I'd would love to read more about it
if there are good articles out there.
~~~
Mithaldu
I can mostly answer this from the perspective of a Perl developer, but maybe
this'll show you some ways to go on reading. The things i know as most
important are:
Testing
Shortly put: Ever wrote software? Ever went and tested a feature manually by
running the executable or clicking in the web browser? Now imagine you never
had to do a manual test more than once because you put any manual test you did
into a little program that runs it for you and which knows how to output and
summarize the results. Suddenly you can write more code because you spend less
time testing your software and you test it more because you simply need to run
"make test" to run ALL the little programs that test your features. See:
[https://metacpan.org/pod/Test::More](https://metacpan.org/pod/Test::More)
Statical Analysis
You think you write clean code? You think you don't use anti-patterns? You
sure? I know i'm not sure. Now how about running a program that will take
apart your source code and run it through hundreds of little rule checks
contributed by hundreds of people which will cruelly and mercilessly point out
where YOU FUCKED UP. See: [https://metacpan.org/release/Perl-
Critic](https://metacpan.org/release/Perl-Critic)
------
mjp94
The comparison made between English and C++ (spoken/written language and
programming language) makes me wonder if people should even be comparing the
two at at all. They do serve similar purposes in a sense, but what I'm
wondering is if we would even compare them if they both weren't called
"languages"? If the words used for programming language and written/spoken
languages were completely disjoint, would this point even be brought up?
~~~
agentultra
They share the same node, _language_ , so I don't see they could avoid
comparison. In fact, _programming language_ could be argued to be a
specialization of spoken language. After all we're not punching in bytes by
hand on control cards anymore.
~~~
hercynium
Indeed, the blurring of this distinction became the means by which Larry Wall
earned his college degree!
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Wall#Education](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Wall#Education)
He talks about it in more depth in this interview:
[http://youtu.be/aNAtbYSxzuA](http://youtu.be/aNAtbYSxzuA)
------
hercynium
_There are two ways to deal with bugs. Correcting them, and avoiding them._
... _Of these two, the only one that is significantly influenced by the
structure of programming languages is avoidance._
This is an interesting statement to me, and one that I think may be telling
towards the author's experience as a programmer. This is not my way of saying
he is a poor or inexperienced programmer! I skimmed through a few other
articles on the site and what stood out to me is that he is heavily
"academic." Some of the best programmers I have worked with had deep academic
experience and were quite adept at writing fast, concise, correct code in many
different languages.
What stands out to me is the absence of something that (as is my personal
observation) most experienced programmers in non-academic settings begin to
realize at some point... While _avoiding_ bugs (by, for example, choosing a
language with strict type-checking, or immutable data/vars) is quite
important, writing code _that can be easily corrected_ is arguably just as
important!
In regards to just the use of a programming language, this comes down to
choosing a careful balance of constructs - syntax, features, naming, etc.
Coding standards for a project or organization are not just there to stoke
somebody's ego or cater to the "lowest common denominator". Well-chosen
standards and conventions are there to simultaneously avoid bugs _and_ make
code easier to debug and maintain - which is what one must do to make
corrections!
_It is therefore crucial to insist on it when choosing (or designing) one._
This sentence is what really drove me to comment: No programming language can
prevent all bugs. Not even _most_ bugs.
In practice, I have even found that constructs and limitations that are
intended to prevent bugs of one type can lead to bugs of some other type. In
the worst cases, these limitations can lead to programmers making code that is
much more verbose and complicated, which, of course... leads to more bugs that
are _harder_ to correct.
IMO, one should choose a language based on many, many more criteria than
"avoidance of bugs." Personally, one of _my_ top criteria is to choose a
language with which those who will write and maintain the software (now _and
in the future_ ) are going to be most productive.
~~~
catnaroek
> writing code _that can be easily corrected_ is arguably just as important!
The easiest to correct errors are the ones that are detected as early as
possible.
> No programming language can prevent all bugs. Not even _most_ bugs.
Sure. No programming language can prevent you from misunderstanding a
specification. But some languages can prevent you from missing out corner
cases in your case analysis, or from redundantly writing overspecific code
that works in essentially the same way for a wide range of data types.
> In practice, I have even found that constructs and limitations that are
> intended to prevent bugs of one type can lead to bugs of some other type.
I have no idea what you are going on about. What kind of bugs do features like
algebraic data types (Haskell, ML), smart pointers (Rust, to a lesser degree
C++), effect segregation (Haskell) and module systems (ML, Rust) _lead_ to? I
can only see the bugs they prevent.
Normally, the kind of feature that "leads to bugs of some other type" does not
try to prevent bugs in first place, just mitigate their consequences. For
example, bounds-checked array indexing does not try to prevent programmers
from using wrong array indices, it just turns what would be a segfault into an
IndexOutOfRangeException.
> Personally, one of _my_ top criteria is to choose a language with which
> those who will write and maintain the software (now _and in the future_ )
> are going to be most productive.
I see writing buggy code as negative productivity. So a language that gives
you the illusion that you are writing correct code, when you in fact are not,
actually makes you less productive.
~~~
Chris_Newton
Probably my favourite open-ended interview topic for programmers is asking
them to rank various properties code might have in order of importance, and
explain why they chose the order they did.
For example, one possible list of properties might be conciseness,
correctness, documentation, efficiency, maintainability, portability,
readability, and testability.
Often, I can learn a great deal about what sort of person I’m talking to just
by watching them define their terms, decide what assumptions they think are
necessary, and then reason through the resulting dependencies.
I get the feeling that the parent posters (hercynium and catnaroek) might
argue for quite different orders, but both with good reasons.
~~~
galaxyLogic
Over the years I've come to the conviction that the 2 most important
properties of programs are simply 1\. Correctness 2\. Maintainability
A program that does not do what it's supposed to is of little value. This is a
relative metric however, a program can do many valuable things right, yet have
a few bugs.
But once a program does what we want, what else do we want from it? We want
the ability to change it easily, so it can do even more things for us.
Maintainability is also a relative metric, and even harder to quantify than
"correctness". However when looking at two ways of writing a specific part of
a program, it is often easy to say which produces a more maintainable
solution.
~~~
Chris_Newton
Many good candidates seem to anchor on those two properties (correctness and
maintainability) as a starting point. More generally, they tend to identify
that some of the properties are directly desirable _right now_ , while others
have no immediate value in themselves but are necessary to ensure that you can
still have the directly desirable properties _later_. Which ones take priority
under which conditions can be an enlightening conversation, often leading to
related ideas like technical debt, up-front vs. evolutionary design, and so
on.
------
sengstrom
I got a syntax error somewhere on this line: "Not because it's wrong (although
it is), but because it's right."
This is interesting however - how about substantiating it with a concrete
example? "C++ does have many nuances. It is a very interesting and very subtle
language, to the point even machines (namely compilers) disagree about its
meaning."
~~~
troels
Good you're not a computer then.
------
toolslive
Isn't the original statement about C++ a variation on the Sapir-Whorf
hypothesis ?
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity)
~~~
badman_ting
Sapir-Whorf is a claim about the effect a language has on the cognition of
those who speak it. i.e., the claim is about the cognition and not the
language. The C++ statement was just a silly reason (IMO) for why C++ is a
better tool than other languages for expressing to a computer what a person is
thinking.
------
vincvinc
Let me add a short side-note from the 'Natural Language' side of the table.
TLDR: Comparing programming languages and human languages is a dangerous
thing, not just because people differ from machines when being told to do
something, but even more so because since the daily use of NL by humans is so
fundamentally based on our biological and cognitive context, that if you
really think about it, the parallels in functionality of these two types of
'language' are interesting to consider but greatly limiting.
Human language works something like this: Agent A wants or feels something. If
this even in a slight way involves another agent (B), big chance that A will
choose to communicate something to B.
Before deciding what to say, (among others) the following is considered:
\- A knows that B shares a tremendous amount of similar information with her
\- About most of this info, A knows that B knows that A knows this, therefore:
\- A can expect B to infer anything that A would like B to infer from what she
says.
Results:
\- The code (language) used itself does not contain even 10% of the
information necessary to 'understand' the situation and what A motives are for
speaking. It merely contains lots of very multifaceted and nuanced pointers of
which any two agents would disagree on what's got the priority. [1]
\- A huge part of day-to-day communication is extra-linguistic.
Take this example:
You and me walk to the campus library together. I notice a certain bike and
point your attention to it. Since you know that I know that it's your
girlfriend's, you take it as me saying "hey! your GF's there too!". However,
you two might've broken up. If I know this, I might point at it to say "maybe
we'd better relocate, mate.". However, this totally depends on you knowing
that I know (so that you know that I mean this and not the opposite), and me
knowing that you know that I know (so I can assume that you will infer what I
actually meant out of possible meanings).[2]
And this is just pointing. Image when we start using language to talk about
the bike, or about other people and what they told us. Imagine all the
management of meta-knowledge required.
Basically, we all do this on a daily basis. We have been trained from birth to
make these kinds of considerations subconsciously in order to effectively
communicate with others. And not just about what the other person knows. Also
about what he expects, what kind of words he uses, what he is looking at, etc.
For more, read something like Tomasello's "Origins of Human Communication" to
get started. The more you know about this, the more you notice it around you
(and start using it to your advantage). Fun stuff!
[1] I believe this is one of the reasons Google Translate will keep sucking.
[2] above example also courtesy of Tomasello, but retold from memory, so
forgive me if I've gotten too creative!
------
mkramlich
There's also often no one single language that a modern software system is
expressed in. Even when there's ostensibly only one language used (Python,
eg.) the total system behavior of a website is also typically expressed in
SQL, sh, provisioning APIs, web server config, database config and possibly a
variety of other DSLs.
| {
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Startups Entrepreneurs — You’re Never Fundraising - greg387
https://medium.com/p/10c6d359f8d4
======
geekrax
Very inspirational post !
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Megaupload Raid ‘Destroyed’ (Way) More Than 10,000,000 Legal Files - grej
http://torrentfreak.com/megaupload-raid-destroyed-more-than-10000000-legal-files-131018/
======
grej
TL:DR - A Northeastern University study shows that with the shutdown of
Megaupload, the U.S. Government took down at least 10.75 million legitimate
files
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Warren Buffet quotes on thought provoking topics - shahzaibkhan
http://www.theideallab.com/blog/inspiration/warren-buffet-quotes-on-thought-provoking-topics/
======
ed209
“Do not pull all your eggs in one basket”
Problem is, most of us only have one egg.
Whether that one egg is backing your own startup, taking one job, freelancing
for one big client. What else can we do?
~~~
shahzaibkhan
Management is Key. Should try to manage both. Though its hard but one has to
go through pain to gain something. As they say: No Pain, No Gain :)
| {
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Shafi Goldwasser, Silvio Micali to Receive 2012 Turing Award - tdrnd
http://www.acm.org/news/featured/awards/turing-award-2012
======
ScottBurson
Congratulations especially to Shafi Goldwasser for being, if I have counted
correctly, only the third female Turing Award recipient (after Fran Allen and
Barbara Liskov).
If we are to attract more girls and young women to computer science, it will
help a lot for them to be able to see such role models.
------
vowelless
Manuel Blum strikes again! I always marvel at how often I come across or use
something created by him or his students [1].
[1] <http://genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=13373>
| {
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Ask YC: How to Build an RSS Aggregator? - ridertech
What do you recommend for reading and parsing 100s of RSS/Atom feeds on an hourly basis?<p>I'm able to write a custom script in PHP or preferably Rails, but wondering if there is a sweet app or tutorial that others have used and liked.
======
billturner
Look at Sam Ruby's Venus (which I've used):
<http://intertwingly.net/code/venus/> (Python)
Or, his Mars version (haven't used): <http://intertwingly.net/code/mars/>
(written in Ruby, and newer)
------
petercooper
Disclaimer: I built, ran (for two years), and sold a Web app that processed
tens of thousands of feeds each hour and distributed summaries based on those
feeds hundreds of millions of times per month.
That out of the way, the difficulty varies with the scale somewhat. With a
large scale, you run into all sorts of issues including arbitrary blocks from
feed providers, dealing with database locking, etc. If you're really just
doing "100s" on an "hourly" basis, hopefully you'll stay well under that
level, but if you think it'll need to scale up quickly, the decisions you make
now will need to be different than if it's going to stay small.
I can't provide any code here, but just some quick pointers.
Our crawler (which is still running under the new owner) was entirely custom
and written in Ruby. It performed very well. Instead of using a specific feed
parsing library, it uses Hpricot (the Ruby library) and a set of custom built
rules for parsing RSS and Atom. The reason for this is that we wanted speed,
reliability (no shifting libraries), and it HAD to work with invalid (and even
extremely broken) feeds - many "proper" RSS and Atom parsers have issues with
busted feeds. Put it this way, though, Ruby is definitely up to the task, as
long as you rely on a parsing library (Hpricot, in this case) and aren't just
using regular expressions or something ;-)
One nasty thing you'll need to deal with is knowing whether items in feeds are
new or not. You _could_ delete all items associated with a feed before
processing that feed each time.. but what if you want to keep an archive of
older items? What if you need to maintain database performance? How are you
going to track what's new, what was deleted, etc?
I used a hash that was _either_ based on each item's GUID and the feed's ID OR
(if no GUID present) the item's link and title. Unfortunately this was not
failsafe. If someone changed the description of an item, the change wouldn't
get picked up! And.. not all feeds use GUIDs - and some feeds have GUIDs that
change when descriptions change.. some don't :)
Feed formats are really, really dirty, despite being specified officially. All
sorts of nasty publishing systems are mangling the formats and you need to be
able to deal with it. These are issues that go far beyond choosing a feed
parsing library - it's about the organization of items. You need to do a lot
of sanitizing to be 100% effective. You'll find feeds that use wholly
inappropriate date / time formats, and the content provider will not care. You
need to be able to deal with that. Oh, and watch out for feeds that have wacky
dates way into the future.. which can then end up "stuck" at the top of your
list of items if you're ordering by date ;-)
This all just scrapes the surface of how tricky it is. I was doing it fulltime
for over two years and even now I feel I've only seen half the picture. You
either strive for 100% effectiveness of processing and parsing feeds and drive
yourself nuts - or settle for 90% and sleep at night ;-)
------
ridertech
Sorry, I'm looking to build an app that aggregates feeds, not a normal
"consumer app"
------
nreece
SimplePie - <http://simplepie.org>
~~~
FiReaNG3L
I use this (as a Drupal module) for <http://esciencenews.com>
Don't reinvent the wheel, you don't want to custom code this yourself.
~~~
ridertech
I've used Drupal's aggregator module in the past, and it often has issue with
the publish dates and/or whether a link already exists.
------
ridertech
Thanks Peter! I was looking into FeedTools...
<http://sporkmonger.com/2008/2/1/feedtools-0-2-27>
But I'll probably just build something custom w/ Ruby. I was hoping someone
else had already done the work and open sourced it ;)
~~~
petercooper
Unfortunately I'm unable to share the code, as I sold the intellectual
property.
However, I can share that it used Hpricot, and had a number of XPath rules for
each discrete element of both the general feed and "items" that needed to be
extracted (title, link, description, time, etc). Each rule was in an array, so
rules for Atom and RSS could be mixed.. the first to match dictated the
format. This is a pretty quick and dirty (but ever so effective) way of doing
it - parsing feeds as XML in the "technically correct" way is an absolute
nightmare given the poor validity of XML out there ;-)
All that said, one thing worth looking at is:
<http://rfeedparser.rubyforge.org/> \- it's based on the Python Universal Feed
Parser which is generally considered to be the most awesome of feed parsers
out there :)
~~~
ridertech
rfeedparser looks perfect, but i'm in dependency hell...
Gem::Exception (can't activate hpricot (= 0.6), already activated
hpricot-0.6.164])
~~~
petercooper
Either force install Hpricot 0.6 (your usual stuff will still use the newer
one, rfeedparser will use 0.6) or go mangle with rfeedparser to remove the
lock to that version (of course, that removes any guarantee of it working
100%).
BTW, today is an awesome day to write a new feed parser. Here's why:
[http://www.rubyinside.com/nokogiri-ruby-html-parser-and-
xml-...](http://www.rubyinside.com/nokogiri-ruby-html-parser-and-xml-
parser-1288.html)
------
eventhough
Zend Framework has an RSS reader.
<http://framework.zend.com/manual/en/zend.feed.html>
------
qhoxie
I use Google Reader with great success, but there are tons of options out
there; desktop and web.
------
lpgauth
Yahoo Pipes!
------
TweedHeads
Magpie
<http://magpierss.sourceforge.net>
~~~
FiReaNG3L
This has been unsupported for years
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Reflex: Practical Functional Reactive Programming (part 1) - mightybyte
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYvkcskJbc4
======
mightybyte
This talk gives one of the best descriptions I've ever seen of the motivations
for why FRP (Functional Reactive Programming) is useful. All the other
explanations I've seen are too much in the weeds, but this is clear, concise,
and understandable.
This part 1 video goes through practical examples and gives a nice intro for
what it's like to use the library. He even walks through integrating a live
tweet stream right into the presentation. It's pretty fun to see the audience
tweets appear on-screen in real time.
------
ryantrinkle
Speaker here; slides are available at [https://obsidian.systems/reflex-
nyhug/](https://obsidian.systems/reflex-nyhug/)
| {
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Theoretical physics: Complexity on the horizon (2014) - Schiphol
http://www.nature.com/news/theoretical-physics-complexity-on-the-horizon-1.15285
======
legel
“The black hole's interior is protected by an armour of computational
complexity.”
“Things fall because there is a tendency toward complexity.”
"...the black hole's degree of entanglement, a purely quantum phenomenon, will
determine the wormhole's width, a matter of pure geometry."
Even if these ideas are not all perfectly correct, the "complexity-geometry
connections" do seem to be the "tip of the iceberg".
The most exciting work that I've seen that puts a "physics wrapper" around
complexity theory is called "evolvability" by Leslie Valiant. Then in terms of
new physics models based on pure geometry, Nima Arkani-Hamed is another on the
frontier. I hope all of these geniuses get a drink one night! :)
Thanks for the cool physics / comp sci article.
------
poelzi
_shrug_. mostly based on theories and ideas, but hey what: not all 4 of the
generally made assumptions about the event horizon can be true at the same
time.
Of you stop assuming the proton is ultra small and the electron is
probabilistic jumping around and stop thinking that borked experiments are
true, you can solve the problem of GR/QM pretty nicely.
proton have a geometry, like everything else in our world and are not just
some energy states.
| {
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First indie game created for the Kindle - allenp
http://www.lostgarden.com/2010/10/triple-town-released-for-amazon-kindle.html
======
allenp
I thought this was a good explanation of the design constraints and their
motivation for using that platform.
| {
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Mark Twain on Risk Analysis - yan
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2010/02/mark_twain_on_r.html
======
liquidben
This sort of thread would be remiss to not include the quote popularized by
Twain about there being three types of falsehoods: "Lies, damn lies, and
statistics"
Amusingly enough, it's got its own Wikipedia page
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lies,_damned_lies,_and_statisti...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lies,_damned_lies,_and_statistics)
~~~
jcl
Of course, in this case Twain is guilty of statistics. The group of people
most likely to die (old, infirm, sick) are more likely to be in a bed than on
a train. And the people in New York beds spend a significant fraction of the
year there, while the people on the train are only there for only a few hours
or days. If Twain made an honest comparison of deaths per hour across similar
demographic groups, the bed would look a lot better than the train.
~~~
cryptnoob
Yes Buzz Killington, you're right. Silly of him to make such an obvious error,
wasn't it. So silly, it makes me smile to think of his ignorance.
------
prat
classic twain.. way ahead of his time..Its a pity we still interpret the
statistical significance of events by their interestingness and not by the
frequency and end result. Shark attacks get way more coverage in media than
Deer accidents even though a deer is 300 times more likely to kill you than a
shark ([http://www.dalecarnegiecoaching.com/2009/06/which-do-you-
fea...](http://www.dalecarnegiecoaching.com/2009/06/which-do-you-fear-more-
sharks-or-deer.html)).
------
boredguy8
The location of one's death and the cause of one's death are not the same
thing. It sure sounds nice...and there probably should be some limit on
whether or not we 'care' about 'one-off' causes of death in the same way any
sufficiently complex system is going to have undesirable outcomes. But that
doesn't mean we should stop trying to avoid them: if I could save 26 lives by
some simple means, I'd gladly do it.
------
dhyasama
Twain tweaks his wording to make a point. Of course you are more likely to die
in bed then on a train, but dying on the train isn't the issue. Dying under
the train is.
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12-year-old boy admits to hacking police and government sites for Anonymous - rake
http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2013/10/26/12-year-old-canadian-boy-admits-to-hacking-police-and-government-sites-for-anonymous/
======
jcutrell
I think the end of the argument is a bit short-sighted.
[edit: not "argument" \- "article"]
If your child has potentially powerful skill with computers, you should not
simply make sure they aren't DDoS'ing and staying in chat rooms.
You should be spending time, resources, or another kind of energy giving them
problems to solve and challenges to approach with their talents. Don't just
avoid court - give your child space to be who they are.
Teach them about whitehat. Help them creatively wield their strengths. Don't
be selfish - be a parent.
~~~
Justsignedup
Dude, if my child did this, I would pat him on the back, and go to court and
ask a question: "Is it not insanely embarrassing that our GOVERNMENT which is
theoretically supposed to keep secure is able to be hacked by my 12 year old
son. This is not his fault, it is yours. Now imagine a 30 year old version of
my son in North Korea who have real political objectives"
------
walshemj
Wonder if there was an older member "helping" its common practice in the UK
for gangs to get under age kids to act as couriers and to hold naughty stuff
as if they get caught the penalties are minimal compared to a >18 year old
woudl get
~~~
sliverstorm
I doubt it's impossible, but kids can be plenty technologically adept. I can
believe that a 12-year-old could act as a script kiddie or conduct moderate
attacks.
------
lignuist
> A more detailed report will be handed over next month when the boy is
> sentenced, according to the Toronto Sun.
Are they talking about prison? That would be barbaric.
~~~
sillysaurus2
It's always seemed odd that all kids get a free pass just because they're
kids. I knew what I was doing at 12. I guess it makes sense; age is often used
as a (bad) proxy for maturity.
That said, prison time for anyone, adults or children, for computer-related
crimes is barbaric. But I doubt that's on the table here.
~~~
hfern
As a kid, you have a distorted view of reality and your prefrontal cortex is
not fully developed. That is to say your morals, planning, and judgement is
not fully developed. This was part of SCOTUS [outlawing capital punishment for
minors]([http://www.apa.org/monitor/jun05/jn.aspx](http://www.apa.org/monitor/jun05/jn.aspx)).
The Prefrontal cortex is key to what we'd consider a person's personality. The
seminal case of this would be [Phineas
Gage]([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phineas_Gage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phineas_Gage)),
who had his prefrontal cortex (along with most of his frontal lobe) destroyed.
Despite a hole in his head, he miraculously survived. Without his prefrontal
cortex, he was no longer inhibited by judgement, shame, or morals. He didn't
ignore it, he just simply didn't feel it. A man went from being honest and
upstanding to constantly thieving and telling lies.
Since the pre frontal cortex does not fully mature until around the age of 25,
I would argue the 13 years this child does, in fact, not know the full extent
of what he did.
~~~
glenra
By that logic, we shouldn't hold 24-year-olds responsible for their actions
either, right?
Anyway, what makes you think having a "fully developed" prefrontal cortex
means one DOES "know the full extent" of one's actions? And what makes you
think full development means one knows this _better_ than 50% or 75%
development? Heck, for all we know, moral responsibility might even _peak_ at
15 and decline from there with further development!
Is there some sort of test that shows how much people have, as you claim, "a
distorted view of reality" as they age?
------
eliteraspberrie
Who is the Chief Information Officer of the Montreal police and how are they
justifying their salary?
------
minussohn
IMMA CHARGIN MAH LAZER is enough, to be considered as a hacker.
------
DevUps
Quick, somebody post this on reddit.
| {
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Why Nokia "lost" to Apple in the US mobile war - ilitirit
http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2010/07/obituary-for-opk-wall-street-is-a-cruel-mistress-nokia-searching-for-ceo.html
======
ZeroGravitas
"Nokia should adopt Android" is the new "Apple should license Mac OS X". It is
the worst possible business advice yet you will see it widely repeated to the
point that it becomes "common sense". Mostly repeated by people who actually
want the company to fail for strange tribal reasons and want another reason to
bash them, so call them out for not adopting their "obvious" solution.
| {
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Face Masks and Politics of Vulnerability - Kinrany
https://strelkamag.com/en/article/face-masks-and-politics-of-vulnerability
======
Kinrany
I wish the article was shorter. Still, this is an interesting topic.
"By wearing a face mask, you publicly announce that the conditions of your
existence do not end at the tip of your nose. The metabolic gesture is the
acknowledgement that we all are still primarily interrelated intensities of
biological mass, not some invincible members of a metaphysical landing party,
powered by an ethereal substance called freedom. We are just another species
of political animals in the wild, vulnerable vectors of alien particles, and
that is where the new notion of political agency can be fostered—in how we
bond or withdraw from bondage, in order to elaborate on our own limits; in
order to continually update our agency on an ever-changing cosmic background
of reality."
| {
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Electronic Reader Running Doom 2 - jitbit
http://blog.jitbit.com/2011/04/electronic-reader-running-doom-2.html
======
JonnieCache
Nice to see the refresh rates are steadily increasing on e-ink displays.
Anyone got any thoughts on what kind of growth rate function we're seeing
here? Does it fit moore's law?
~~~
electromagnetic
I believe some companies are claiming 20ms refresh rates, which is hitting
50fps if these claims count for continuous changes or just one-offs. Certainly
a lot of display manufacturers have been showing off video, but you've got to
consider the growth rates here can be biased for one reason: colour.
E-ink and every other company wanting to produce e-paper want colour. If they
can hit continuous frames above 24fps in full colour, then they've got a
massive game changer. I mean think of the game change in laptops where the
display uses 60-70% of the battery life of the device if you're capable of
dropping that to 5-10%. Your average piece of shit netbook will run 24-hours.
Your laptops that already run through a full business day plus commute, will
be able to last you the full week and maybe a saturday on a single charge.
I think the black&white e-ink displays aren't advancing as fast as they could
be simply because developers are trying to find their holy-grail of a video-
capable colour display.
~~~
JonnieCache
When we have smartphones with ~30fps full colour e-ink screens then we can
officially forget our anxiety over the lack of flying cars.
~~~
wladimir
It'd be exactly like a flying car except that it isn't flying and isn't a car.
Great stuff!
I'd settle for nothing less than an immersive virtual world in which we can
have flying cars.
~~~
JonnieCache
My point was that it would be _better_ than flying cars. E-ink screens will
liberate us hackers from the confines of our offices and allow us to go and
work outside in the sunshine. Can you imagine how much of a difference that
will make?
It has just started to get warm here in the UK and I'm actually starting to
feel twitches of envy for my friends who haven't managed to find proper jobs
since graduating, or who haven't graduated yet. They're all having BBQs today.
Living in a country where sunshine is a scarce resource does odd things to
your priorities.
~~~
vshade
I do like working in the dark, but I live in a place where sunshine is
abundant.
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GraphQL Fragments Are the Best Match for UI Components - samerbuna
https://blog.manifold.co/graphql-fragments-are-the-best-match-for-ui-components-72b8f61c20fe
======
exogen
One thing I keep running into is that for a few of my app ideas, I'm not
really interested in just having static queries known at build time, like
Relay and Apollo are designed for. I specifically want them to be dynamic and
actually based on what components get rendered.
Consider this query from the article:
query ProfilePageData {
user(handle: "manifoldco") {
...HeaderData
...SidebarData
...TweetListData
}
}
That's great if the ProfilePage component knows that it only contains the
Header, Sidebar, and TweetList components. Since they're designed for static
queries, both Relay and Apollo suffer from this shortcoming: the parent query
needs to know about every component that could possibly add fragments ahead of
time, and pull them all in. In my opinion, this really fails at fulfilling the
promise of components – the parent shouldn't need to know what all its
descendants do.
What if the rendered components are more dynamic? Putting @skip directives on
every field is not really an option (and then you need a matching query
$variable for every directive.)
If you think of the query as more of a template, then you could have portions
of the query that are like "template blocks" that other components could
extend, e.g.:
query ProfilePageData {
user(handle: "manifoldco") {
${userFragments}
}
}
...then descendant components could have access to `userFragments` as an
extension point. I'm not yet sure if it's a terrible idea, but I started a
project just the other day to experiment with it:
[https://github.com/exogen/apollo-dynamic-
queries](https://github.com/exogen/apollo-dynamic-queries)
~~~
atticusberg
It sounds like your child components should be fetching their own data via
their own graphql queries rather than consuming it as props from the parent
that's rendering them.
That way the parent can just render whatever components it wants without
having to worry about what data they require.
~~~
exogen
I've considered that, but it's extremely annoying (and still not really
possible with Relay or Apollo). Not only would I be relying on Apollo's query
batching/merging in order to not make 100 different queries over the network,
but each child component would need to duplicate the base query _and
variables_ , meaning they'd need the props that correspond to query variables
passed all the way down the component tree to them.
Consider the Artist.Name and Artist.Disambiguation components in my GitHub
example. Notice how they don't need the `mbid` prop that the ancestor
component provides. I want a component like that for every single field in my
Artist schema. If every one of those components duplicated the artist query,
they'd all need to be passed the `mbid`, because that's how it determines what
artist to retrieve. It's possible to do some tricks with `context` like I'm
doing now, but I don't really trust that it's a better solution than having
one query execution point with an extendable query.
~~~
gjjrfcbugxbhf
You can have child components that get some data from props and some from
their own query. Just inject the props into the relay renderer.
~~~
exogen
Yes, I'm saying that getting those props to those children in the first place
is annoying to do and I'd still have to build a bunch of `context` helpers on
top of Relay and Apollo to make doing that nice.
This is the API I want:
<Artist mbid="abc-123">
<Artist.Name />
<Artist.Disambiguation />
<SomeOtherComponentThatHasArtistFieldDescendants />
</Artist>
This is the API you're saying I would have to use with vanilla Relay and
Apollo:
<Artist mbid="abc-123">
<Artist.Name mbid="abc-123" />
<Artist.Disambiguation mbid="abc-123" />
<SomeOtherComponentThatHasArtistFieldDescendants mbid="abc-123" />
</Artist>
~~~
exogen
Assuming I did build HOCs for doing so, the difference boils down to this: in
your approach, query variable props would magically be passed _down_ the
component tree via `context` and used by descendant components in duplicated
queries. The way I've built it, query fragments are magically passed _up_ the
component tree via `context` and used in a single query.
Considering neither are possible with vanilla Relay and Apollo and I need to
build these helper HOCs either way, I don't really see why what you're
proposing is better. I had already considered them both and deliberately did
_not_ do it that way.
------
otto_ortega
I really love this approach, I have been thinking about it for some time
now... However, as much as I like it, it seems that implementing a GraphQL
server is not an easy task, and getting an in-depth understanding of how
GraphQL works seems quite challenging.
I can devote a few days to read the JSON-API spec
([http://jsonapi.org/](http://jsonapi.org/)) and get a pretty good
understanding of it. I wish there were a way to consume JSON-API based APIs in
the same declarative way GraphQL provides.
I'm thinking that a library that "translates" GraphQL queries to JSON-API
requests will be a great solution.
~~~
petetnt
GraphQL is something that's relatively simple (and brilliant) but is one of
those things that you just need to try properly first for it to click,
especially if you have a background of implementing tons of REST based
services.
The GraphQL related tools are top notch and implementing GraphQL server isn't
any harder than a REST based server would be (one could even argue that it
would be simpler). Even if you don't want to implement everything from
scratch, tools like Postgraph[0] exists that pretty much automate it for you.
I made a simple tutorial[1] on wrapping an existing API with GraphQL here
which goes through basics of settings up too.
[0]
[https://github.com/postgraphql/postgraphql](https://github.com/postgraphql/postgraphql)
[1] [https://github.com/motleyagency/devday-
tutorials/blob/master...](https://github.com/motleyagency/devday-
tutorials/blob/master/docs/02_graphqlify.md)
~~~
otto_ortega
Thank you, I will be checking on Postgraph and your tutorial, I'm really
interested in adding GraphQL to my development stack.
------
KirinDave
Sure, but you're asking your server to support a full query language. Even
with data-fetch on a js-impl (or ... a hell of a lot of by-hand tooling in
Python with Graphene), this overhead really hurts your qps.
To be honest, I sort of wonder if the right place to implement the GQL
interpretation and scheduling layer is in a service-worker.
That way, the client devs who love this complex query language can also
support the queries they need and ensure their calling conventions don't
violate performance boundaries in the gql server implementation.
~~~
andrewingram
It's really not that hard to build a relatively optimal GraphQL server.
Obviously it requires paying careful attention to performance, and to take
steps to mitigate abuse (query whitelists, complexity caps etc). If you were
to move the implementation off the server and into the client you'd use a lot
of the benefits of GraphQL in the first place (performance being a major one).
~~~
rhizome
_Obviously it requires paying careful attention to performance, and to take
steps to mitigate abuse (query whitelists, complexity caps etc)_
Are these also "not that hard?"
~~~
arianon
"Query whitelists" sounds like sending to the server something like
`{"query_id": 4, "variables": ...}` instead of `{"query": ..., "variables":
...}` which are straightforward to implement using any kind of server side
key-value store and a middleware that maps the `query_id` back to the
corresponding `query`, a tool that can help you with this is Apollo's
PersistGraphQL [1]
I have no idea how I would go about implementing complexity caps though, but I
guess I would do something like what GitHub has done for their own GraphQL API
[2], which they explain better than I can.
[1]:
[https://github.com/apollographql/persistgraphql](https://github.com/apollographql/persistgraphql)
[2]: [https://developer.github.com/v4/guides/resource-
limitations/](https://developer.github.com/v4/guides/resource-limitations/)
~~~
exogen
Another simple option for limiting complexity (I've considered implementing
this in my GraphBrainz project): in the `context` provided to the GraphQL
query resolver, increment a counter whenever a resolver requires fetching from
an external API/database/etc. (whatever "too much of" would constitute abuse
or just take a long time). Fail if the counter reaches some threshold. This
would be really easy.
Also, instead of multiplying node counts like GitHub does (which is pretty
clever!), another simple option would be to look at the depth of the query
(how many levels down is the deepest leaf), and fail if it's over some
maximum. This is also very easy to do as you get the query AST in the `info`
field of the resolver. (This one is less effective than the one above since
depth doesn't totally match up with resource usage, fields can be aliased,
etc. but you get the idea.)
~~~
KirinDave
> Another simple option for limiting complexity
Okay but... I guess my question is: why are you denying a client the right to
make a complex query? Is it because all your queries are kinda slow and so you
must hand-optimize them, leading to a combinatoric explosion of codepaths?
Or is it because your clients cannot judge how complex the queries they're
making are? If so, isn't this actually a gap in the GQL spec? Lots of other
query language implementations offer query description and estimation commands
in their code.
Your proposed solution seems to me like it's brutal for your consumers.
There's minimal indication of how quickly your complexity metric will rise in
the query. You'd need to add ad-hoc per query&mutation arguments to push that
query complexity cap up for legitimate uses.
~~~
exogen
> Okay but... I guess my question is: why are you denying a client the right
> to make a complex query? Is it because all your queries are kinda slow and
> so you must hand-optimize them, leading to a combinatoric explosion of
> codepaths?
No, it's because:
(1) This is a feature of literally every API, most of them just use the
extremely blunt instrument of rate limiting (even if requesting the same
simple scalar value field over and over again does not add any strain on the
server, you'll be rate limited just the same). Why aren't you asking this same
question about REST queries?
and
(2) The 'Graph' part of 'GraphQL' means that queries can theoretically request
connected nested objects of nearly infinite depth. This doesn't require that
anything about the query code be slow or needs to be hand-optimized, or that
there be any complex codepaths, just that MORE JOINS == MORE WORK and MORE
PAYLOAD, no matter how perfectly optimized it is. Why aren't you asking "why
does REST deny clients the right to make as deeply nested queries as they
need?"
~~~
KirinDave
> This is a feature of literally every API... Why aren't you asking this same
> question about REST queries?
Combinatoric explosions of complexity via a single query path are not a
feature of every API.
> The 'Graph' part of 'GraphQL' means that queries can theoretically request
> connected nested objects of nearly infinite depth.
Thanks for this.
> just that MORE JOINS == MORE WORK and MORE PAYLOAD
So like SQL but without all the excellent query complexity tools or clarity
around what precipitates a join?
> Why aren't you asking "why does REST deny clients the right to make as
> deeply nested queries as they need?"
Because RESTful APIs tend not to allow ad hoc graph traversal. When they do,
it's because they're tunneling a graph query language. When they do (e.g.,
ElasticSearch) I (and we, as in the community at large)_DO ask these
questions.
~~~
exogen
> Combinatoric explosions of complexity via a single query path are not a
> feature of every API.
> Because RESTful APIs tend not to allow ad hoc graph traversal.
I think you're taking this graph part too literally. Almost every API has a
"graph" of connected objects. GraphQL just makes it so that you can traverse
them with a single query. REST endpoints tend to force you to make multiple
queries to go back and fetch information about the entities whose IDs or URLs
you received in earlier requests – thus the rate limiting. In both cases,
combinoratic explosions (and infinite depth) are possible – REST just forces
you to explode into more round-trips (and the server is likely doing even more
duplicated work than it needs to to fulfill those subsequent requests).
If you wanted to simulate the ease-off aspect of REST requiring clients to
return for multiple rate-limited round trips to get the query data they want,
you could simply add a timeout in the nested object's GraphQL resolvers that
perform self-rate-limiting. Same result but the clients don't need to know
about it, they can just wait the same amount of time they'd have had to wait
for all the data anyway.
~~~
KirinDave
> GraphQL just makes it so that you can traverse them with a single query.
Yes. This is what I'm saying. GQL allows for a combinatoric explosion of
potentially required queries (and in extreme cases, data providers) to fufill
any request. And every GQL endpoint needs to be able to service all of them
unless your request routing proxy can peek into body contents, which is more
expensive than URL routing.
> REST endpoints tend to force you to make multiple queries to go back and
> fetch information about the entities whose IDs you received in earlier
> requests
A problem we can solve elegantly with HTTP/2 push using nearly identical
underlying API servicing models. What's great about that approach is that it's
totally transparent to the client; they just get better performance with less
resources.
Instead, folks have decided to discard a lot of really positive aspects of the
REST model to make a client-facing DSL realized in the server.
> In both cases, combinoratic explosions (and infinite depth) are possible
But in the classical rest case, the client is aware they're doing this, as
well as the server. In the GraphQL case, we've obfuscated this and said, "We
reserve the right to reject your quest for any reason, and we've also made it
harder for us to service your query (unless we go back to mandating every
valid query as in rest), and we've also made scaling harder because it's more
difficult to factor endpoints into different scaling groups."
But hey, that DSL is great. It's like JSON without tall that predictability or
syntactic validation.
I cannot see any positive outcomes to adopting graphql other than that,
"Client-side developers love it". If ya'll love it so much, why not maintain
it on your side via service-worker query interception?
I ask facetiously. The answer is: because that would be really hard, and we'd
rather push it off to API endpoint devs. Devs who promptly put restrictions
that basically render the best part of GraphQL (that it is a query language)
impotent for performance reasons.
~~~
exogen
> I cannot see any positive outcomes to adopting graphql
How about one HTTP request often being faster than multiple requests? How
about only retrieving the payload you requested rather than all the extra data
the API developers decided to expose in the endpoint – bandwidth isn't free?
How about not having to add new custom bespoke API endpoints because some new
part of the website just needs a few little different pieces of data that
would normally require several round trips, pretty please? These are just
normal everyday issues that people put up with when using REST APIs.
> A problem we can solve elegantly with HTTP/2 push using nearly identical
> underlying API servicing models. What's great about that approach is that
> it's totally transparent to the client; they just get better performance
> with less resources.
Shouldn't you use push when you know the client will ask for the resources?
How would you know whether the client will ask for certain connected objects
in this case? Would you just always be pushing every connected object over the
wire?
I don't really see why you're giving such special distinction to one HTTP
request vs. multiple HTTP requests. That is an arbitrary distinction to make.
You shouldn't be asking "how much strain can a client put on my server with a
single request? but oh, they can make multiple requests…" but "how much strain
is a client going to put on my server to get all the data they need, whether
it happens across one request or multiple?"
~~~
KirinDave
> How about one HTTP request often being faster than multiple requests?
Http/2 push.
But also: would it actually be more dev hours to write out the custom RESTful
queries? If you're whitelisting individual queries. What's the difference
then? You've just got a more awkward, uncachable, less split-routable protocol
for exactly the same data.
> Shouldn't you use push when you know the client will ask for the resources?
Yes. If I know they intend to join data in, I can push it. I can even do this
somewhat speculatively based on statistical patterns in clients. I can tune
those values based on real data which can be refined over time.
~~~
exogen
> Yes. If I know they intend to join data in, I can push it.
Right, so if you don't have the full "query", which you don't with multiple
REST round-trips, then you won't push it...
> I can even do this somewhat speculatively based on statistical patterns in
> clients. I can tune those values based on real data which can be refined
> over time.
Cool, so guessing. That's exactly what I want my API's performance profile to
be based on. Sounds like a lot of work man, why don't you just use GraphQL
instead? ;)
~~~
KirinDave
> Right, so if you don't have the full "query", which you don't with multiple
> REST round-trips, then you won't push it... well.
Yes. But of course, GraphQL ad hoc extensions are discussing limiting this
arbitrarily as well.
> Cool, so guessing. That's exactly what I want my API's performance profile
> to be based on.
No. For example, if I can say that a banking customer wants to see a second
page of transactions 90% of the time, then I should push the next page every
time. If I can say they want to see the third page of transactions 10% of the
time, then it makes sense to defer the cost.
------
kotojo
Question for someone with experience with graphql. I have a data heavy react
application I'm working on that would benefit from something like this, but
almost every single component has the ability to refetch it's data
individually. If you have all of these fragments being passed up to the single
query being called, how do you handle a situation where you want the
explicitness of refetching only one of those fragments, but getting it on in
one initial call?
~~~
brokentone
It's less about component-level refetching (though you can), it's more about
the strong data specificity and composition that is the point of this article.
That said, it's up to your query builder to figure out intelligent refreshing
/ refetching. I use Relay, and it's pretty good at this.
------
jmull
I don’t understand... doesn’t GraphQL encourage embedding full queries into
the client app? It’s not SQL but it’s equivalent. Isn’t this a road of pain
for any project that is long-lived or scaled.
I guess I can see it sitting between a data cache — that is filled by a set of
relatively large-granularity fixed queries that can have a decent cache
validation mechanism — and the client UI. Maybe that’s how it’s actually
implemented? But then it seems like that would often be better (at least much
of the time) for that data cache to be client-side.
You do want a way to pass _user_ filter conditions back through the data
access pipeline (but not business logic where-clause conditions) all the way
back to the data store, but those should still be constrained.
------
mattmurdog
The one thing I never got with GraphQL is what do you query if you don't know
what to query for??? Can someone answer this for me.
I don't know what I need. Server tells me I need {allthedogs}. Now I know to
query for {allthedogs}... what's the point of GraphQL?
~~~
exogen
The schema should still be documented somewhere, like any API. But even if
it's not: GraphQL supports a special "introspection query" that will tell you
the entire schema that you can query. Pointing a tool like GraphiQL
([https://github.com/graphql/graphiql](https://github.com/graphql/graphiql))
at a GraphQL endpoint will even run the introspection query automatically and
turn the result into rendered explorable documentation. That's how you figure
out what to query.
------
ojr
I dont use fragments, I feel if I need a fragment, the jsx file is too bloated
just make more components and higher order components that connect with a
small slice of your graphl queries. This is probably causes more duplication
but I'll copy and paste if it makes things easier to read
------
akmiller
This is why Om Next (in cljs) with datomic backend is so powerful!
~~~
erichmond
I was curious if anyone was going to mention this. We had been looking at
GraphQL for our latest project, but realized datomic + pull patterns + re-
frame was a more integrated fit.
I hate jacking threads pointing out X instead of Y, but in this case it feels
warranted.
~~~
sorenbs
That's exactly right. GraphQL is a contract between backend and frontend. I
tend to think of the GraphQL schema as documentation that is always up to
date.
------
avodonosov
om.next does a similar thing
------
fenollp
Add some ML to extract common UX patterns and generate highly personalized
websites/apps.
The only job of the future will be AI-assisted design.
~~~
gipp
Machine learning is not pixie dust.
~~~
cat199
But what if you added some ML to extract common UX patterns to it hmm?
~~~
weego
Sounds like the perfect place to use a cryptocurrency as a distributed query
ledger.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Aviary.com/URL to screen capture the web page at URL - RyanMcGreal
http://aviary.com/http://news.ycombinator.com/news
======
ejs
Did not work for anything I tried...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Richard Dawkins' response to “What scientific idea is ready for retirement?" - __Joker
http://edge.org/response-detail/25366
======
btipling
This "essentialism" applies to gender as well. Not just gender but sexual
orientation and even biological sex which some sociologists and
anthropologists distinguish as different from gender. These are not binary,
but actually gradients. We like to classify people as either male or female,
and have that mapped perfectly to the biological sex they were born with, and
likewise mapped to their sexual orientation, but it hides a subtler reality.
This goes with sexual orientation as well. We want to map people into straight
or gay, but that is also a gradient where, like gender, people fall in in
various parts of the gradient.
When I brought this up with a friend, we were talking about the new women.com
yc startup and how they only accepted "women", he responded with that there
are two distinct peaks in this gradient, like if you mapped this as a graph. I
think you can actually blame these peaks not in small part on the immense
social pressure to conform to either being male or female (which bathroom do
you go into?), or even being straight or gay. It doesn't have to be that way,
and there are ways other cultures solved this problem, like some Native
American groups actually had a third gender[1].
I find the concept of "essentialism" interesting and intuitive to think about,
including its flaws, which as Dawkins points out can be quite destructive.
[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_gender](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_gender)
~~~
jiggy2011
I don't know, if this were the case you would expect more sexual
experimentation than you see. A majority of straight men never have sex with
other men or watch gay porn, just as a majority of gay men have no interest in
sex with a woman. Anything in between we call "bisexual" which is an imprecise
definition.
For this to be true you would need to believe that most straight men have
repressed homosexual desires and most gay men have repressed heterosexual
desires.
~~~
btipling
It would still be a gradient even if the distribution of where people fit into
it isn't even. The way my sociologist professor explained it in school was
that the gradient is for "attraction" and like some appreciate the attractive
qualities of one gender while not actually having any desires attached to that
appreciation.
~~~
jiggy2011
But doesn't that commit the same fallacy of trying to fit your data to a
specific model such as a "gradient" view rather than a binary view, when in
fact it fits neither , both of these views are "essentialist" in that sense.
Besides there's certainly a different between an aesthetic appreciation and a
sexual desire, someone might have an aesthetic appreciation for a car or
mobile phone for example.
~~~
btipling
Sure, you could think of it as one gradient (gender) mapped to another (sexual
orientation). The whole desire of us to classify these things into neat little
labels falls apart though when you look at research and ethnographies of
different cultures that did things differently.
~~~
jiggy2011
But does a gradient really provide a clear picture if ~90% of your data points
stick to one side or the other? To me this seems to be just as clumsy as a gay
straight/gay/bi classification system. Either way risks warping your thinking
as described in the article.
~~~
btipling
We are talking about people. So I think this kind of research and distinction
makes for a powerful reminder of why tolerance for diversity is so important.
Were those young people who do not happen to fit so nicely into these
categories encouraged to be themselves rather than conform with 90% of the
other data points, maybe they could live happier, stress free lives.
~~~
jiggy2011
Perhaps, but when you have large populations that can be mapped to discrete
points then it does make sense to label and observe these.
------
lkozma
"The world is divided into those who get this truth and those who wail,..."
Is Dawkins making a joke here, or is he falling into the same fallacy he is
deriding in the article. Clearly the world is not "divided" into these two
camps, there is a continuum in between and the same person can also hold one
view at a time, a different one later, etc.
~~~
callum85
Ha good point :) I don't think it's a joke, I think he is falling into the
same fallacy himself. To be fair, the article acknowledges it's a difficult
trap: "We seem ill-equipped to deal mentally with a continuous spectrum of
intermediates. We are still infected with the plague of Plato’s essentialism."
He would probably agree, if someone pointed it out to him, that his phrasing
here was an example of exactly what he's talking about. I think it is just a
fault of phrasing though; it doesn't really undermine the sentiment of the
article. It almost vindicates it!
~~~
smsm42
>>> We seem ill-equipped to deal mentally with a continuous spectrum of
intermediates. We are still infected with the plague of Plato’s essentialism.
This is contradictory. If we have some kind of mental handicap that not allows
us to perceive spectra properly, it's wrong to blame Plato for this. If,
however, Plato is the one who steered the whole civilization wrong, that means
we are capable of doing better - we just don't do it right now. Of course, it
could be that it's both but Plato and mental handicap together wouldn't allow
us to realize it :) Recursion is recursive.
~~~
lutusp
> If we have some kind of mental handicap that not allows us to perceive
> spectra properly, it's wrong to blame Plato for this.
I think Dawkins is simply using Plato's idea as an intellectual roadsign, not
assigning moral responsibility. If I refer to Karl Popper when discussing
falsifiability, I might simply be providing a convenient reference to the
idea, not holding Popper responsible for the idea (which he isn't).
~~~
smsm42
I think since he discusses the essentialism as an idea that needs to be
dropped, he goes further than that - he seems to blame Plato (at least among
others) for "infecting" us (taken broadly) with the essentialism. After all,
the idea of essentialism has to come from somewhere, somebody had to invent
it. To me, Dawkins assigns the fault for it to Plato. He does it in the very
first sentence - "Essentialism—what I’ve called "the tyranny of the
discontinuous mind"—stems from Plato".
~~~
lutusp
Again, describing the origin of an idea isn't the same as assigning
responsibility. Your use of words like "blame", "infecting" and "fault", and
the associated tone, simply have no parallel in the article.
Also, correlation is not causation. Many of these classic ideas, found in the
writings of Plato, Aristotle and others, were as much responses to the
prevailing ideas of the time as they were a source or inspiration for those
ideas. Our modern perspective is distorted by the fact that we may have only
one writer's record of the ideas of a time, which may mislead us into thinking
that particular writer originated the idea instead of reporting it.
~~~
smsm42
"Infecting" is a direct quote from "We are still infected with the plague of
Plato’s essentialism." and Dawkins uses the same word at least twice more.
>>> Our modern perspective is distorted by the fact that we may have only one
writer's record of the ideas of a time, which may mislead us into thinking
that particular writer originated the idea instead of reporting it.
This very well may be true, but since we and Dawkins share this perspective,
and Dawkins offers no other suggestion and no other name but Plato and does
not consider the possibility that this perspective might be wrong in any way,
I think the conclusion that he operates on the assumption that this
perspective - attributing essentialism to Plato - is correct would not be
illogical, at least when we consider this particular article.
------
belovedeagle
Frankly, Dawkins didn't answer the question, which was about a /scientific/
idea "ready for retirement". But Dawkins is so blinded by his ridiculous,
anti-intellectual scientism that not only did he find himself unable to
discredit just one single scientific idea (which, by their sheer quantity and
variety, /must/ contain among their number some failure), but he can't even
distinguish the boundary between science and philosophical positions which
haven't been popular (in their entirety) in millenia. As such, while Dawkins
would have provided a convincing (to me) opponent for Plato, in this context,
his essay is pure poppycock.
~~~
alexandros
It's a bit of an impossible ask though. If a "scientific idea" is one which is
supported by the balance of the evidence at this time, then no current
scientific idea is ready for retirement. Scientific ideas don't "have to"
contain some "failure". If they do, we don't know about it yet. When we do, we
retire it proactively. Unless you zero in on one idea where the balance of
evidence has very very recently shifted against it, you have to look a bit
further than the "current theories/hypotheses" space, into the philosophical
ideas, which is what Dawkins is doing.
What would you suggest as a scientific idea ready for retirement?
~~~
pella
"2014 : WHAT SCIENTIFIC IDEA IS READY FOR RETIREMENT?"
* "Evidence-Based Medicine"
* "Large Randomized Controlled Trials"
* "Things Are Either True Or False"
* "Psychogenic Illness"
* "Replication As a Safety Net"
* "Reproducibility"
* "Falsifiability"
* "The Power of Statistics"
* "Certainty. Absolute Truth. Exactitude."
* "The Rational Individual"
* "IQ"
* "Mind Versus Matter"
* "Infinity"
* "Statistical Significance"
* "Artificial Intelligence"
* "Theories of Anything"
* "Computer Science"
* "Simplicity"
* "Scientific Morality"
( details : [http://edge.org/responses/what-scientific-idea-is-ready-
for-...](http://edge.org/responses/what-scientific-idea-is-ready-for-
retirement) )
~~~
appstateguy
It seems to me that Dawkins' response was an attempt to address the "root" of
many of these problem. Essentialism is necessary for people to understand by
creating idealistic meaning, but in doing so you also lose knowledge by
creating an abstraction.
Having said that, I'm not sure how you could "retire" this concept since we,
as humans, rely on abstractions for everything (language, math, morals, etc).
I feel his point is just that scientists should keep this in mind, as a check
against the ego which is what leads to dogmatic thinking.
Edit: Thinking more about it I think that Dawkins' answer was a good one, but
it seems like he in a way misunderstands its meaning. He uses it to showcase
how it can be used to 'mislead' people into disbelieving things like
evolution, but he doesn't seem to recognize that if you were to completely
remove the concept of essentialism you would essentially have to accept that
science can never describe everything and at some point one just has to accept
things as they are without meaning. This implies, then, that science is just
one 'perspective' for giving meaning to something that is essentially
meaningless. This to me would also mean that science and religion are not
opposing forces but simply different ways at looking at the same thing.
------
analog31
Looking through the entire list of essays, I was struck by how few I was
willing to acknowledge as "scientific" ideas. Many seemed like straw men, and
the entire list might give a false impression that scientists are blinded by
bad ideas.
------
IvyMike
> Yet so entrenched is our essentialist mind-set, American official forms
> require everyone to tick one race/ethnicity box or another: no room for
> intermediates.
On both the 2000 and 2010 census forms, I put "Other" and filled in "human".
~~~
jaimebuelta
I always find this need to totally categorise "race" as an absolute as
something very curious about the American culture...
~~~
DanBC
English diversity forms can have complex listings of categories. Here's the
English census, which might be mildly interesting to US readers because it has
no mention of any American races:
Well, I'd like to copy paste an URL here. I go to Google and type "English
census form" into the box. First non-advert hit is the one I want. Right
click, copy link address, switch tab, paste. Look at this fucking blob:
http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CDsQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2F
www.ons.gov.uk%2Fons%2Fguide-method%2Fcensus%2F2011%2Fthe-2011-census%2F2011-census-questionnaire
-content%2F2011-census-questionnaire-for-england.pdf&ei=4aQDVO-SE6ek0QXs4oHwAQ&usg=
AFQjCNGAEFRjZVqTLVgB0m9zxbbIcrcoBg&sig2=lPEfOAzhMhA0EO3GG9T19w
(I added linebreaks to prevent breaking the HN page.)
[http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&...](http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CDsQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ons.gov.uk%2Fons%2Fguide-
method%2Fcensus%2F2011%2Fthe-2011-census%2F2011-census-questionnaire-
content%2F2011-census-questionnaire-for-england.pdf&ei=4aQDVO-
SE6ek0QXs4oHwAQ&usg=AFQjCNGAEFRjZVqTLVgB0m9zxbbIcrcoBg&sig2=lPEfOAzhMhA0EO3GG9T19w)
NO GOOGLE. NO PERSON WANTS THAT FUCKING URL. EVERYBODY WANTS THIS URL:
[http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-
method/census/2011/the-2011-...](http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-
method/census/2011/the-2011-census/2011-census-questionnaire-
content/2011-census-questionnaire-for-england.pdf)
(Section 16 - Copy from a multi column PDF is painful. Sorry. Trying to select
text from that made me want to smash up my computer.)
~~~
quesera
Google has been serving those wanked URLs in search results for years, but
only to logged-in users. Even if you turn off all search history settings.
They apparently use the data to measure the strength of their ranked results.
But that doesn't explain the logged-in vs _not_ disparity.
~~~
qu4z-2
My favourite bit is the bait-n-switch where they show the correct url, then
change it under you as soon as you click. That seems very underhanded to me.
------
smsm42
I don't see anything about science in this essay. Philosophically, it may be a
valid critique of essentialism, in the meaning that primitive conclusions
Dawkins is drawing - as for rabbits or state politics - are indeed looking
invalid. But nobody currently advocates such concepts - i.e. nobody really
builds a scientific theories based on the fact that rabbits literally
represent the "ideal rabbit" and nobody actually thinks all Florida residents
are Democrats or Republicans. We may act as if they are, in order to simplify
certain things, such as deciding who will be the president or which pills to
give to a specific rabbit, but we know they really aren't.
OTOH, if you drop the concept entirely, then you'd need to throw a significant
part of modern science out of the window. Modern science bases on the fact
that there are some laws of nature, which are universal and fixed, and by
doing certain actions and making certain conclusions using certain techniques
we can discover these laws and thus discover how ideal Platonic objects would
behave, and by reasoning about those objects we could derive the useful
conclusions about real world objects. If you reject this method, then you'd
have to make a scientific theory anew for each object, which would be kind of
hard to make practical. Modeling is necessarily idealization, and if you
reject idealization, not much is left of the scientific method. What Dawkins
seems to argue is that one should realize the map is not the territory, but
isn't it obvious to everybody by now?
------
brandonmenc
> But any evolutionist knows there must have existed individuals who were
> exactly intermediate.
Is this not still up for debate, re: macromutation? Can someone more
knowledgeable clear this up?
~~~
tinco
More from reason than from any experience in biology: I don't think
macromutation has any statistical chance of being a significant factor in
branching of species. The chance of a 'macromutation' both occurring and being
successful enough to not only let the spawn survive but even let it thrive as
a branched species is vanishingly slim.
Perhaps complex characteristics might evolve as functions with simple gene
input, like perhaps the shape of an organ or the structure/color of a fur or
even the size of a mammal all expressed by a few genes. This would allow that
the species as a whole could adapt quicker to environmental changes. Then the
gene mutation would be 'micro' but the resulting change could be 'macro'.
Perhaps paedomorphism is like that?
------
runeks
Very interesting article.
> Essentialism rears its ugly head in racial terminology. The majority of
> "African Americans" are of mixed race. Yet so entrenched is our essentialist
> mind-set, American official forms require everyone to tick one
> race/ethnicity box or another: no room for intermediates.
I thought about this as well some time ago. It's odd that the child of a black
and a white parent is black, and not "neither black nor white" or "both black
and white".
------
jqm
Best Quote of the article...
"Essentialism rears its ugly head in racial terminology. The majority of
"African Americans" are of mixed race. Yet so entrenched is our essentialist
mind-set, American official forms require everyone to tick one race/ethnicity
box or another: no room for intermediates."
Yes, this has driven me nuts for years. I had to fill out a form a few days
ago with the "race" check box (optional of course...). I keep scratching my
head and wondering how one exactly determines this and what difference it
makes and most of all... why would somebody put such an unreasonable and
fallacious question on a form?
~~~
MichaelGG
What's wrong with it, besides the very limited answer space? They should let
you check of multiple boxes or fill in rough percentages. That allows finding
things like "people with 15% or more X ancestry tend to do better on Y".
It's not unlike asking "What culture are you?" Providing useful answers may be
difficult, but it's not fundamentally a wrong thing to ask.
------
wsxcde
Dawkins seems to be a good example of the Peter principle at work in a large
social movement. Clearly he's a smart guy and at some point in his career he
did have interesting and original insights to share with the rest of us.
But it seems like the new atheists [1] have elevated (promoted) him into near
demigod status and he's now being socially pressured into producing new and
original insight on a regular basis. Unfortunately for him, he doesn't have an
infinite well of wisdom and insight and so he ends up producing drivel of this
sort.
[1] I am a new atheist and some of blame for what has happened here probably
falls at my feet as well.
~~~
lclarkmichalek
This image comes up pretty commonly on r/badphilosphy when something he says
(or drama surrounding something he says) is discussed:
[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BpXAZGuCMAA21xA.jpg](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BpXAZGuCMAA21xA.jpg)
I wouldn't go quite so far as to absolve him for his opinions due to social
pressure, but there is truth in what you say.
~~~
wsxcde
I'm not absolving him of his opinions by any means. I was just pointing out
that he's been elevated to this status where he can't (won't? is unwilling
to?) do what most other reasonable people would have done if they were asked
this question. He could've just said, "that's a really interesting question
and I don't have an answer" but instead it appears he's compelled to answer
with a lot of verbiage and little actual content.
------
pella
All answer:
[http://edge.org/responses/what-scientific-idea-is-ready-
for-...](http://edge.org/responses/what-scientific-idea-is-ready-for-
retirement)
------
baddox
That's something that has always bugged me about taxonomy in general, or at
least the way it is portrayed both in the media and in the broad amateur
research I have done on the subject.
~~~
TeMPOraL
That's something that actually bugged me about Object Oriented Programming,
especially the way it was taught at the university (with Java and UML
diagrams). Taxonomy is often a useful tool, but the closer you get to hairy
real-world problems, the more likely it is that your hierarchical object
representation will come around to bite you.
------
acex
How can someone like this call himself an intellectual or be called a leading
world's intellectual. I think that an intelligent design is an insult to both,
intelligence and design and I as well think that circle (more than a triangle)
arise from a biochemistry and as a part of the same evolution. Dawkins in the
same piece uses the same argument to claim that the evolution came late in the
development of human mind. Late compared to what? Evolution? Millions of yeas
compared to a few thousands years of a written word or since we invented a
more persistent method to pass the knowledge than story or since a man drew
some of the first inscriptions on a wall of a cave. And this is no allegory.
Let us get rid of the PI formulas then. It does fit the model. Since we can
only approximate it we cannot use it. The world is a better place today than
it was hundreds or thousands of years ago. The idea that it can be better is
the very idea of ideal and abstract types we are never to reach and should
always aspire to. Essentialism, from an evolutionary standpoint, relatively is
no less correct than some other approximation of what a certain species is in
some period. The evolutionary traits are the same for hundreds of thousands of
years for a species. Mutations take place rarely and only on extreme
environmental changes. The nature (or the evolution) is perfect there. Its
every 'design' has a function perfected through many centuries. This is
essential (sic) problem with the certain type of scientists (those of
celebrity type) is that they not count in how short is human experience on
this world. We say Earth is 4.5 billions years old and that we know that and
those people who claimed differently are in wrong as if we as a human race
posses our own memory since primordial soup. In a shallow struggle against
those 6 thousands years we tend to forget that ideas and their shapes were
experience of the world. Colours are not wrong, we experience the colours the
same way as thousands years before. And will experience them in the future in
a broader spectre. Like we always did with everything. The very world we
experience, even when we do it with our best tools is no more than an
approximation of a world more perfect (or less measured and computed).
~~~
Crito
> _Late compared to what?_
I have developed a sort of notion about the inevitability of invention which I
believe can be generalized to the discovery of other concepts or the
development of abstract ideas.
It works basically like this: Nearly all inventions require prerequisite
inventions. For example, the ipod required transistors and batteries (among
many other things) to exist before it could be invented.
Looking back at history, we can compile lists of technologies that would have
been prerequisites for other technologies. We can determine when these
prerequisites were met, and then compare that date to the date of invention.
Is there a small gap between the two, or a large one?
Many inventions have very small gaps between their genesis and the fulfillment
of their prerequisites. Powered heavier-than-air aircraft are a good example;
they were created within years of the creation of a suitably light and
powerful internal combustion engine.
Some inventions have very large gaps between their genesis and the fulfillment
of their technical prerequisites. If you were a "Connecticut Yankee" in King
Arthur's Court, these are the inventions you would [re]invent. Things like the
phonograph. Basic clockwork, wax, needles, and parchment are all that you need
to create a rudimentary phonograph that works well enough to prove the concept
_(to show how simple it is: if you 've got a shitty vinyl record laying
around, you can play it back with a paper cup with a needle stuck through the
bottom)_.
Inventions that came long after their strict prerequisites can be considered
"late". They weren't waiting for technology or better materials, only waiting
for somebody to have the idea. The vast majority of inventions were not
particularly late.
~~~
acex
Someone could argue that if we had not lost the Archimedes Palimpsest we could
be in a better shape scientifically.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
"Conquer English to Make China Stronger!” - lurkage
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/04/28/080428fa_fact_osnos
======
jimbokun
One could probably make a career out of traveling to the latest emerging world
power every few years.
In the 90s, going to Japan to teach English was a huge deal. Everyone seemed
willing to pay lots of money to learn English.
Now China. Next...?
------
dusklight
I just want to note: what he's really selling, is not english education, but
self-esteem.
If you really think about it, it's the same thing that sites like facebook and
myspace are selling too .. only looks like Li Yang is selling it way better.
I wonder what would be the equivalent product in the US market? Hmm.
------
immad
Love the shouting. Hilarious:
"made his name on an E.S.L. technique that one Chinese newspaper called
English as a Shouted Language. Shouting, Li argues, is the way to unleash your
“international muscles.” Shouting is the foreign-language secret that just
might change your life."
------
DougBTX
""He turned toward the assembled employees and switched to Chinese: “The
secret of success is to have them continuously paying—that’s the conclusion
I’ve reached.” Then back to English: “How can we make them pay again and again
and again?”""
------
superchink
Someone should do something similar in the U.S. for people to learn Mandarin.
~~~
trevelyan
<http://chinesepod.com>
~~~
rms
I knew someone with your username back in the glory days of the web 1.0, if
you by chance are Trevor Gehman, email me, I'd like to say hi.
~~~
davidw
How about we generalize the approach and people put some contact information
in their profiles?
~~~
rms
A checkbox for make viewable next to email addresses would go a long way
------
mattmaroon
Don't they mean Engrish?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Cracking the Scratch Lottery Code - bkudria
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/01/ff_lottery/all/1
======
RiderOfGiraffes
Seen before:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2166555>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2174333>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
OVH giving 10 000 servers for free to test new USA DC - GBiT
http://www.ovh.co.uk/dedicated_servers/usa_order_beta.xml
======
GBiT
They giving 90 every day (Intel Core i3 2130 2x2(HT)x3.4+ GHz - 16 GB RAM, 2x1
TB HDD - 100Mbps).
Servers will be active till August for free to use.
1\. You need to follow their twitter account. 2\. Every day, different time,
they say then.
Today it took 10 sec to take all 90 servers. So start trying 1-2 minutes
before time they announce and you will get one.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Yum Brands just spent $375M to finally take on McDonald's hamburgers - hhs
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/pizza-hut-owner-yum-brands-just-spent-375-million-to-finally-take-on-mc-donalds-hamburgers-154129133.html
======
nightfly
I don't think the "lucrative premium burger segment" is how to take on
McDonald's. And I don't think they can beat Five Guys.
~~~
towndrunk
Five Guys is definitely beatable. They have lost quality in my opinion lately.
Buns are not fresh. Burgers are over cooked etc. My wife likes their hot dogs
but she says they are hardly warm, never hot.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Homegrown master-master replication for a NoSQL database - danikin
https://medium.com/@Vadim.Popov/fault-tolerant-processing-of-10m-oauth-tokens-with-tarantool-189323fc5236
======
danikin
Wow! Is it really working?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Map of Silicon Alley's Early-Stage Tech Investor Ecosystem - davidblerner
http://www.davidblerner.com/david_b_lerner/2010/06/map-of-silicon-alleys-earlystage-tech-venture-ecosystem.html
In that I am a heavy user of mapping software and think programs like MindNode are excellent visual aids, I decided to put together a first draft of the early-stage tech investor ecosystem here in Silicon Alley as a resource for entrepreneurs. As this is a first stab, I would ask your help in the comment section of this post letting me know about any early-stage investors I have left out and/or about any corrections of errors you come across on this map.
======
ojbyrne
I'd love to see one for Silicon Valley just for comparison.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Releasing my first real open source project – Captionss - jbranchaud
http://captionss.com
======
woah
Why is this a plugin? I'm likely only going to be using one of these types of
captions, which I can write in about 5 lines of stylus. The rest of the
options that you added to make this a 'real open source project' are then
cruft.
EDIT: Sorry, not to denigrate your hard work, but I was burned early in my
career by trying to use too many labor saving plugins. Later, I learned how to
code correctly. I found that I could accomplish in 30 lines of js and 10 lines
of css what I had previously downloaded a 500 line plugin for. I wondered why
people found it necessary to build such bloated plugins, and realized that it
probably stems from a desire to make a 'real, full-featured project'.
~~~
beachstartup
this is a plugin because:
* what the hell is stylus? your favorite tool isn't necessarily ubiquitous.
* it can serve as a learning tool for others. open source, remember? learning, and stuff.
* it could serve as a starting point for a minimal/stripped down version someone hacks away from.
* not everyone cares about 40 vs. 500 lines. some just want a cool and clean effect for a small audience, perhaps a small gallery site for a pro wedding photographer doing her/his own site.
* sorry, not everyone is as awesome as you are at coding. please bear with us while this guy releases hard work for free.
------
jbranchaud
I built captionss.
This is my first legitimate open-source project, I would really appreciate any
feedback and suggestions related to the project as well as the landing page
(captionss.com).
~~~
ucarion
A "fork me on GitHub" banner is always nice. :)
~~~
jbranchaud
Good thinking, just added one!
------
javajosh
Looks like some pretty solid CSS with one exception: you are changing font
size and colors for the _default_ figure tag. While it's not a common tag, it
is used elsewhere. This may cause issues for some users, causing them to have
to prefix your selectors.
~~~
jbranchaud
Good catch! I'll fix that.
~~~
netnichols
Yes, in addition to what javajosh found, your class names are rather generic
and I imagine might lead to clashes. I'd personally recommend prefixing your
class names with something (rather like FontAwesome now prefixes their
classnames with 'fa-').
Maybe the figure element is so rare that this doesn't matter, but that is
making some sort of an assumption.
Apart from that this looks great, and I could definitely see myself using this
in a project I'm working on!
Oh, sorry... one other thing. I just noticed in the README you redirect people
to the website for documentation. It's fine to link to the website of course,
but I'd recommend putting at least some usage examples in the README itself so
people landing there get some idea of what the project is about without having
to navigate away (which might turn some people off).
~~~
jbranchaud
Lots of good feedback here, thanks!
I especially appreciate the prefix idea. I was thinking something like that
might be needed.
------
xerophtye
Aww.... i thought the library decided for itself whether to use light captions
or dark ones based on the image. Still pretty cool stuff!
Btw don't listen to the Nay-sayers. I am a programmer but my css sucks and i
for one find this very very helpful.
------
jimhart3000
I really wish the pages for projects like these would devote even a small
section of their documentation to accessibility. I know it's not usually top
of mind, and not everyone is bound by Sec508, but it is an oft-ignored best
practice.
I'm not saying this is inaccessible - it looks like it would be okay at least
as far as screen readers are concerned, though there may be color contrast
issues depending on the image (here's an idea for a cool project - analyze the
image and set a color on the caption that meets WCAG AA contrast ratios). It's
just every time I see a some cool new css/js wizardry, the only way I can find
out whether there's any accessibility compliance is to poke through the
rendered markup, test out hover states, etc.
------
publicfig
Looks simple and cool, thanks for sharing!
How does this support touch devices? Do they have to tap on the picture to see
the caption, or does it show up automatically? I could see that being an issue
if clicking on the image also brings up a full-size version of the image.
~~~
jbranchaud
Frankly, it isn't very mobile/touch friendly right now. That is one of the
issues I'd like to address next.
For now, I'd recommend not using the overlay or reveal/reveal-smooth options
if you are aiming for a mobile audience.
------
dustyneuron
Looks very pretty, as does the semantic markup. Personally I'd prefer it if
there was a little less alpha, e.g. on the Malta pic the text isn't so
clear...
~~~
jbranchaud
I played around with different alpha values. I also created the themes
(neutral, light and dark) to help with this.
Do you think it would still be better to bump the alpha value up to 0.8 or so?
~~~
dustyneuron
I just had a play myself and I like somewhere between 0.8 and 0.85. I'm not a
designer though and lean a lot more towards clarity vs style.
When using it I wouldn't want to have to manually pick a theme based on the
pic, as it would probably be a database gallery - but a choice of themes is
great to have.
~~~
jbranchaud
This is a good point, I will have to have a heart to heart with the alpha
value.
------
ssully
Looks really nice! The animations are slick and the implementation seems
simple enough.
------
jtheory
It'd help to include at least basic support for some older browsers -- there
are still a decent number of users on IE8, for example, but you seem to
support only 9+.
------
seivan
Hmm, how would one pop to the first page for ones open source tools? Asking
because I'd like it to :(
------
tutt
You have to get started somewhere. Cheers for putting your neck out. Demo
renders alright on my iPhone.
------
Ingon
Quite nice. You can think about touch interactions (maybe you have, but it was
not working on iPhone)
------
amarcus
It would be good for it to support animations (fade in/out, slide up/down
etc...).
~~~
jbranchaud
It already supports fading in and out with CSS animations. I was thinking of
adding slide up/down animations, but am not sure of a good way to implement
this.
~~~
lylepstein
Use CSS transforms. Unlike absolute positioning, percentages with a transform
bases the resulting value off the transformed element's size. So something
like this:
figure figurecaption {
transition: all 0.4s;
transform: translateY(100%);
}
figure:hover figurecaption { transform: none; }
Will get you the effect you want.
------
hrjet
Nice start!
What would be really cool: slideshow of several images + captions.
~~~
jbranchaud
Do you think this could be accomplished with just CSS? It seems to me that
this would be a stretch for CSS, but I am not extremely well versed in CSS
animations.
~~~
hrjet
[http://www.alessioatzeni.com/CSS3-Cycle-Image-
Slider/](http://www.alessioatzeni.com/CSS3-Cycle-Image-Slider/)
------
atteeela
Just what I needed, thanks for creating and sharing it!
~~~
jbranchaud
Glad to hear it will be of use. Send me a link if it ends up in production
anywhere.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Calico, Google’s Anti-Aging Company, Announces New Research Facility - dnetesn
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/09/03/googles-anti-aging-company-announces-new-research-facility/?ref=technology
======
exratione
This is another point of reinforcement for my view that this effort is going
to look much like a mix of the Ellison Medical Foundation plus Sirtris: vastly
expensive and with little other than knowledge to show for it once investors
give up, because the researchers are from the outset trying to do something
that is very hard, and which even if achieved will produce only small
benefits. (Which is to say carry on trying to make drug candidates like
Rapamycin do something useful enough to become a clinical treatment, bashing
the square pegs at hand into the circular holes of regulation and clinical
benefit).
"The AbbVie partnership seemingly makes it clear that Calico will be a drug
discovery and development company, which is what many observers expected based
on Mr. Levinson’s background in drug development."
In the best scenario, five years of this will raise the water level enough for
more meaningful approaches than calorie restriction mimetics, autophagy
inducers, and other attempts at slow-aging drugs that have consumed billions
to date with nothing to show for it, to raise significant funds themselves. In
the worst scenario, it burns investors for a decade on the whole topic.
It is a real time of choice and opportunity at the present. The lumbering
monolith of mainstream research can continue to pursue things like Human
Longevity Inc and rapamycin derivatives that are probably going to be
profitable yet achieve next to no useful gain of human life span (because
again they are doing hard things that can only achieve small benefits at best)
or, hopefully, some form of disruption for a better path will overtake enough
of the community to make a difference.
It is clear that far from everyone in the research community thinks that old
school drug discovery, farming the natural world to take potshots at
restructuring metabolism so as to work slightly better when damaged by age
(without in any way fixing the underlying damage!) is the smart way forward.
There is SENS, there are the European researchers behind the Hallmarks of
Aging manifesto, there are some of the Russian contingent with novel ideas.
The near future doesn't have to be an enormous waste of time and money that
will go nowhere but to generate voluminous databases, entirely bypassing any
realistic opportunity for achieving actual rejuvenation and repair of the
causes of aging. But I fear that it will, based on what we're seeing the big
money do.
~~~
ajcarpy2005
Don't forget Telomerase-restoration and protection factors. And don't
underestimate the reverse-correlation of nutrition and mortality age. It's
definitely statistically significant.
------
flohofwoe
This sounds like emperor Chin's quest for immortality to me, e.g. pure hubris
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_Shi_Huang#Elixir_of_Life](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_Shi_Huang#Elixir_of_Life)).
I'm really not looking forward to a world where a few rich and powerful old
geezers are cementing their power through being virtually immortal (think of a
mix of Kim Jon-un or Fidel Castro, but in a corporate setting like the russian
oligarchs). The youth and new ideas will be subtly supressed by the 'better
arguments and wisdom' of the elder. It would make a good dystopian science-
fiction book though ;)
~~~
TeMPOraL
One man's hubris is another's refusal to keep being bullied by nature. I don't
see anything bad with wanting to live longer. I don't see anything bad with
fighting the "natural state of things" to achieve it. It's sad that throughout
history, most humans are just willing to lie down and die.
Preventing it from turning into dystopia is another matter though, well worth
of discussing.
~~~
flohofwoe
Well to be a bit more clear: Enabling everyone to reach an old age by fighting
diseases is an honorable and good goal (as long as this is available to
everybody and not just those few with deep pockets). But on the other hand,
I'm sure that death serves a goal as well. It is not a "problem", but very
likely a solution to evolve the species. We should first aim for our 'granted'
120 years life span. I think if we are a very long living species, we will
also become a very slowly evolving, very conservative species. I'm also afraid
that we cannot know the longterm consequences (sort of like the Soviet project
to irrigate the Karakum desert, which resulted in the death of Lake Aral half
a century later).
~~~
TeMPOraL
> _Well to be a bit more clear: Enabling everyone to reach an old age by
> fighting diseases is an honorable and good goal (as long as this is
> available to everybody and not just those few with deep pockets)._
We might need to settle for a middle ground. Like for many other advances we
had, we need rich to bankroll the R&D that will later lead to technology being
available for rest. How to prevent it from turning into dystopia is another
discussion.
> _But on the other hand, I 'm sure that death serves a goal as well. It is
> not a "problem", but very likely a solution to evolve the species._
It might serve a goal, but this is not _our_ goal. Evolution may "value"
inclusive fitness and death is its engine, but _humans_ do not care about
passing genes, they care about love, fun, intellectual growth, a good life.
The process of evolution is not something we value.
------
fizixer
In case some people are on the fence about the whole idea or have questions:
The Anti-Deathist FAQ: [http://carcinisation.com/2014/07/13/an-anti-deathist-
f-a-q/](http://carcinisation.com/2014/07/13/an-anti-deathist-f-a-q/)
------
refurb
Calico has done a good job of keeping out of the press, so I'm happy to see
more details. I'm somewhat surprised by the partnership with Abbvie, who is
widely known as an "old school pharma company", not exactly a bastion of
innovative thinking and risk taking.
Also, the focus on age-related diseases is an interesting one. Originally
Calico was sold as a "fighting old age" company. That's vastly different than
"fighting diseases associated with old age". At the same time, targeting age-
related diseases is much easier than fighting aging itself.
~~~
evv
> Originally Calico was sold as a "fighting old age" company. That's vastly
> different than "fighting diseases associated with old age".
The difference isn't really clear to me. Could you elaborate?
~~~
refurb
I guess I think of it this way:
"fighting old age" \- attempting to stop the aging process itself (i.e.
longevity)
"fighting old age diseases" \- looking to cure diseases _associated_ with old
age (i.e. treating a specific condition)
In the second example you could be treating a disease, but not having any
impact on the aging process itself.
~~~
TeMPOraL
We need both. We already live long enough to see that if you clocked too many
years, either your heart will shut down or you will get cancer and die anyway.
The ability to stop aging process might still end up somewhat limited by
cancer, so both goals seem to be tightly connected.
~~~
JoeAltmaier
But is cancer as inexorable as aging? Nobody is going to live past 100 due to
cellular degradation. What is the actual mortality from cancer?
I read once that if we didn't get old, death due to accidents would make the
mean lifetime 800 years. I wonder what cancer does to that figure.
------
sebastianavina
this is exactly the plot for an action movie. big-rich guy, funds anti aging
company in order to be inmortal...
anyway. nice work google
~~~
TeMPOraL
Wait for his TED2023 talk ;).
( [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2BxH-
xwc9M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2BxH-xwc9M) )
------
eli_gottlieb
Right, where can I invest?
------
baconstrp
where the first wave of zombies will eventually crawl out. JK :)
------
biomimic
The largest impact in the history of humankind will be made by those companies
that work to extend human lifespan. Good to see how this whole race to
increase lifespan can change Silicon Valley, moving it once again toward true
innovation, truly changing the world, while other companies like Craig
Ventor's [http://humanlongevity.com](http://humanlongevity.com)
[http://genopharmix.com](http://genopharmix.com)
[http://www.sens.org](http://www.sens.org) and
[http://buckinstitute.org](http://buckinstitute.org) come into to play.
~~~
radiorental
"The largest impact in the history of humankind will be made by those
companies that work to extend human lifespan."
True but I feel for the wrong reasons. To my mind, the single greatest
challenge our species has faced in our brief history on this planet is how we
minimize our impact on the finite resources available to us.
Researchers recently reexamined the predictions made in the 1970's book
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth)
and found the models are holding true.
The elephant in the room is how do we curb population growth in a meaningful
and humane way. What's the point of extending life if there's a diminishing
return experientially?
~~~
lotsofmangos
Why not just get off the planet? The resources available above our heads are
vast.
~~~
astazangasta
What resources? There's not much useful water out there, let alone breathable
air, carbon, organic matter, living things, ecosystems. All of those crucial
resources are here.
Besides, if we don't get things straight on this planet, we'll never be able
to survive long enough to find another one.
~~~
lotsofmangos
_What resources?_
[http://www.planetaryresources.com/asteroids/composition/](http://www.planetaryresources.com/asteroids/composition/)
_Besides, if we don 't get things straight on this planet, we'll never be
able to survive long enough to find another one._
Survival is an argument for getting a lot of people living off planet, not an
argument for not doing so. We can try and create utopias as much as we like,
but that is not going to help very much when we get hit by a big rock.
Also, personally I suspect that the real advance is not going to be in
settling other planets, but building habitats out of asteroids.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How do you manage your bookmarks? - gghyslain
I have been following several startup news sites in the past few years, and my bookmark list on Chrome is now huge and almost un-manageable. Having recently suscribed to weekly newsletters (Mattermark, A16z) does not help either.<p>Considering the amount of knowledge I have stored, I thought about starting a blog where I could share the links in "Collections". But I did not enjoy doing it and stopped after a few posts.<p>I like to re-read articles from my bookmarks from time to time and randomly browse the ressources (API, tools etc) bookmarked when I am looking for inspiration for new side projects.<p>I am now looking for a tool to archive my bookmark in a more "searchable" way.
======
a3n
[https://pinboard.in](https://pinboard.in) for long term informational sites.
These are tagged, and serve as "searches for things that I know I've seen
before."
Example: [http://blog.sanctum.geek.nz/series/unix-as-
ide/](http://blog.sanctum.geek.nz/series/unix-as-ide/)
Immediate references, that I often use, go into my browser's Bookmarks menu.
Example: [http://www.vimregex.com/](http://www.vimregex.com/)
------
galfarragem
Evernote. There is no need for yet another app.
Keep notes with bulleted lists of related bookmarks. Then comment briefly
about each bookmark in the same line. This simple method makes notes
searchable, shareable and flexible.
If you're interested: [https://github.com/we-build-dreams/hamster-
gtd](https://github.com/we-build-dreams/hamster-gtd)
------
HoopleHead
Another vote for pinboard.in.
Although, unfortunately you'd be too late to the party to avail of the one-
time payment lifetime subscription offer, which used to make it a complete no-
brainer.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Can't get a job because poor communication skills - rantaccount
I was let go from my last job because I couldn't fit into the "office culture", and now I'm really struggling to get a job because of "poor communication skills".<p>I've been looking for 4 months, with 90% of my rejections being something to do with my communication skills.<p>I feel worthless honestly, and the worst thing about all this is that there is really nothing can do to make my autism disappear.<p>And honestly, I don't even see why my autism is a problem. I've always seen my autism and quietness as my super power, and it drive me nuts that you people don't see that too.<p>I was going to ask for help, but realistically that's pointless - I won't change in any significant way. And yeah, I know, "just be good enough that they look past it".<p>Please just try to be more understanding. It genuinely upsets me because I'm a pretty good developer, yet I know people who are really quite terrible, but they can bullshit well so they're all doing better than me. And this is at your expense quite frankly. The dude writes terrible code, but he came across well, so obviously we hired him...<p>Oh, and you can all fuck right off with your office culture. Stop wasting yours and my time sending each other cat.gif and joking about how the German IT guy is a secret Nazi. It's not remotely funny, I can't even explain how mad it makes me that I was let go for not participating in this madness.<p>Urgh, autistic rant over. I've got work to do.
======
daliwali
A lot of commenters are going to try to pick _you_ apart, so instead of that
I'm going to tell you an anecdote about what's wrong in this world.
I know a guy who literally could not program, he was hired as a HTML & CSS
front-end guy. He was extremely arrogant and always tried to act like he knew
what he was doing when it was clear he had no clue, any sort of attempt at
teaching would be met with a smug "yeah I already knew how to do that" reply.
He wasn't even good at HTML or CSS, either. But he really did know how to suck
up to HR, his boss, the management, and getting others to help him do his job.
From the outside it seemed like he was competent, but in fact he was skilled
at playing people. It would be a win-win for everyone if he was a manager, so
his co-workers never have to deal with his horrible, bug-ridden code. This is
the type of guy that gets ahead in life while brilliant programmers who lack
the over-socialization that is expected these days live on welfare, with
parents, or on the streets.
------
throwaway848483
Hello, here are a few tricks which helped me : There are a few ways which will
probably help you improve your communication skills. You can try to use Avaz
app from Ajit Narayanan, or at least listen to his ted talk. You can also try
to pick up some (silent) violin and learn it on your own by playing it by ear
(try to avoid using scores as much as possible, try to set-up a routine of
around 30min a day, you should aim for "natural" and "fun" absolutely not
forced). Something will click one day, it won't make you less autistic, but it
will probably show you the way normal people think. Then you will probably get
that as for you it's probably not fun being around certain other people which
don't get you, the feeling is reciprocal and it's not fun for them being
around people that don't get them.
Depending where you live in Europe around 80% of people are quite nice
naturally, and will help you if you tell them you struggle or ask for help
(but most won't usually understand or care about your autism problems). Avoid
the other 20%, they are just exploiting you or making fun of you.
Regarding interviews, try researching a fitting environment. Interviews can
usually be hacked quite easily with a little training. Basically you tell them
the response they want to hear. If you don't know what to say to a question,
either you say "I don't understand", or you grab the most important word of
the question and tell them something vaguely connected to it. Obviously the
more interview rounds there are, the more chance there is that someone won't
like you and puts its veto. Don't attach too much importance to it.
Once you land a job, try to go about two times slower than you can. This way
you won't burn out (and be in a bad mood), people won't actively try to prey
on you (to get you to do their work), and you will have enough mental energy
to naturally pick-up communication skills. (You just earn yourself 20 hours a
week to work on improving your communication skills, and even your company
will be happy about it trust me).
Also don't be afraid to take welfare. We are in a society which is designed to
take advantage of people with autism. It's like taking candy from a baby. So
at least take the money, and if you don't need it then give it to someone who
does. Or you can keep the money and give some of your time to help some who
needs it.
------
greengrass
Your self-diagnosed autism is only part of your problem, your attitude is the
bigger issue. You need to drastically reevaluate yourself and your
expectations.
First, let me explain why I wouldn't hire you based on what you've written
here. For starters, communication is a huge part of the job. Writing code is
only one part - clarifying vague or contradictory requirements, helping
coworkers, updating on progress, sharing lessons learned, etc are all equally
important.
Hiring you also sounds like a huge risk and liability to the company. Every
tech company tries to hire and retain women and minority employees and even a
single accusation of a hostile work environment or a single incident can tank
a company. If I hire you and one of your rude statements or misunderstood
communications turns into a blog post on jezebel, I'm probably getting fired
as well as putting the entire company at risk. Even if that doesn't happen, my
A players are probably going to start looking for better opportunities if
they're forced to deal with your toxic attitude in the workplace.
Autism isn't a super power. It's a handicap. You need to drastically check
your ego and approach the world as it is rather than how you wish it was. You
are very bad at something which is very important (communication).
Approach the the problem of "How can I communicate better?" in the same way
you would approach any other challenge - read books, work with experts, ask
for help, experiment and see what the results of trying different things is,
etc. Change your perspective to accepting you are inferior at one aspect of
your job and work to increase proficiency, instead of getting angry that the
rest of the world doesn't share in your belief of your superiority.
------
smilesnd
First off you can't self diagnosis yourself with a mental illness. Even
experts in the field don't self diagnosis because you have to be objective.
Someone that sees a pink elephant from time to time still has to ask someone
else if they see it to. There might actually be a pink elephant wondering
around.
Second you don't have to be a office social butterfly to have good
communication skills. Communication skills is being able to portray
information to someone so they can understand it. It is one of the most
difficult thing for humans to do.
Thirdly even if you do have autism doesn't mean shit. I have a ton of friends
that have been diagnosis with different kinds of autisms. They don't use it as
a escape goat nor should any one.
Sorry you having difficulty fitting in with others and getting a job. You did
it once so it is mostly likely you will do it again just keep grinding away.
~~~
LifeQuestioner
I think the fact you just called Autism a "Mental illness" \- and the fact is
is NOT a mental illness, kinda undermines any advice you're giving and
indicates you don't understand what Autism is, let alone how it affects
people.
"Social/communication", "difficulties" is one small part of autism.
~~~
smilesnd
Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impaired social
interaction, verbal and non-verbal communication, and restricted and
repetitive behavior.
A mental disorder, also called a mental illness[1] or psychiatric disorder, is
a diagnosis by a mental health professional of a behavioral or mental pattern
that may cause suffering or a poor ability to function in life. Such features
may be persistent, relapsing and remitting, or occur as a single episode. Many
disorders have been described, with signs and symptoms that vary widely
between specific disorders.
Hence autism does fall into the category of mental illness. Maybe psychiatric
disorder would be a better term, but pears to pears at this point.
------
hitsurume
I've been reading over this thread and it seems to me that you would be better
off freelancing or being a consultant then actually working a steady job. Your
attitude screams "just let me get the job done and don't bother me" which I
personally think is ok, but doesn't fit the open office culture that most
technology companies are doing.
Lastly, if you really do work faster / better then most developers you worked
with then you "should" have came across a competent manager who knows your
worth. In the companies i've worked for, managers has always made exceptions
for people who produce great work and don't partake in the social schemes. I
have friends that basically found a manager who knows their worth and have
followed that manager to every new opportunity, essentially being a valuable
tool in the managers toolbox.
------
euroclydon
Clearly you're angry. Your writing is clear. Is your verbal communication
lacking in some way? I'm not familiar with how autism affects verbal
communication, but let's just way it does. Well, written communication is
crucial for most remote jobs. Yeah, some people like to spend a bunch of time
in a video chat, but most value async text-based communication like IM or
email. Seems like you'd be fine in that environment.
~~~
rantaccount
My verbal communication is basically non-existence. I struggle even with
remote work (I've worked remotely previously), and finding remote work is
extremely hard anyway. And basically impossible for someone who can't hold a
Skype conversation.
What upsets me is that I harbour no dislike to people without autism. I don't
understand a lot of your jokes. I don't understand a lot of your interests.
But I try to be friendly in my own way. I try to smile when you say something
that isn't funny.
But I don't get that same respect back. People rather simply reject me.
"He's weird".
"You need to work on your communication skills".
Fucks me off because I know people who are deaf in tech who can hardly talk
and I've never heard someone say they need to work on their communication
skills. Because they do.
I'm fed up with trying to be normal so people don't think I'm weird. And I'm
fed up and trying to fit into "the culture". And I don't want to shoot some
pool at lunch, I want to be left alone.
I just want people treat me with the same respect I treat them for being
different to me.
So honestly yeah I am pissed off. I'm homeless now thanks to this constant
shit. I can't even explain how fed up I am of being rejected for such a stupid
reason.
------
bsvalley
Two questions for you - Is your autism medically "documented"? Are you
applying in the US?
If both answers are YES then you have to mention it when you apply online in
the disability section of the form. In the US it is required by law for
companies to acknowledge disabilities. Or should I say, a company can easily
get sued for discrimination. That could help you during the recruiting
process, if your autism is recorded as a disability.
~~~
rantaccount
I've never been diagnosed, no, and I've never had any interest in doing so
although I was often pushed to get a diagnosis in school/college. As I said in
another comment it's only ever been a problem in my life when other people
make it a problem for me.
A principle I will life and die by is that everything I have in life I've
earned. I've never accepted any welfare, or any kind of extra help or support
in any way my entire life. I was probably the only kid never to enter a cheat
code on GTA.
I don't want a job because I'm filling the retard quota. I couldn't accept
that. And either way, I'm quite capable of doing my job.
The only time it's really anything close to a disability is when I'm trying to
explain some tech, or something like that. But I can do it just find if I'm
given time, or pen and paper. But that's never been the issue. The issue has
always been people disliking me in the office for not fitting in. Or not
giving me a chance in interviews because I don't know how to correctly answer
questions like, "what makes you excited?".
~~~
LifeQuestioner
one benefit of getting a diagnosis: you learn way more about yourself. Which
might help with finding a job/applying to places that suit you. Could be
you're applying to the wrong places!
Also, better selfawareness means you can HELP people understand and HELP you!
We all live in this world together.
------
tedmiston
A couple things to think about with this are...
When companies give the reason for turning you down for a job, there's a lot
of disincentive for them to give the honest precise _real_ reason (if there is
one). There are many ways to be accused of hiring discrimination, whether
ageism, sexism, ableism, etc. Basically it's unsafe / unwise for an employer
to tell the truth here because it can lead to negative consequences for them,
even if their hiring processes are on the up and up.
Similar to when a VC turns down a startup for some reason like fit, I
definitely would _not_ take this feedback at face value. Also, culture fit is
a generic catch-all bucket for basically anything the company wants besides
technical skills, and it may not be well defined.
As you have mentioned, I've also seen less good developers take the roles that
better devs should have because they fit into a company's culture more,
however that was defined. You probably don't want to work for those kinds of
companies. It seems like you're more interested in a culture that values
focusing on hard technical work and I think you should seek that out more
explicitly.
Keep some good side projects going, have a good reason for your gap time
between positions ready for interviewers, and try some mock interviews to get
authentic feedback. You can do a free practice interview on Interviewing.io,
and I think Pramp is another similar service.
P.S. Don't forget that hiring in our industry is broken. Interviewing for a
technical position is a separate skill from developing software. Interviews
should focus on making sure a dev would be good at the tasks they'd actually
do day-to-day, but often they don't. It's not ideal, but it's just something
to keep in mind. Sometimes at smaller cos (startups) it's possible to get
hired in other ways and circumvent the traditional interview process.
------
Taylor_OD
Do you bring it up proactively? I'm not a HR manager so I cant say how
appropriate it is but If I was interviewing someone and they let me know they
have autism and it affects their communication skills I would be much more
understanding than when I'm interviewing someone who just seems to have poor
communication skills for no obvious reason.
Remote work might also be a good option. A part from the anger your written
communication doesnt seem affected. I also understand not loving getting cat
gifs but if that's part of the office culture you have to make some attempt to
assimilate.
~~~
rantaccount
I don't say I'm autistic, no. I have wondered bringing it up, but I don't like
the handy caps.
I never wanted extra time in exams. My brain works so well in so many wells
thanks to my autism. I've genuinely never seen it as a drawback. The only time
it's a problem is when people decide it's a problem.
And the problem isn't that I don't want to assimilate, I simply don't
understand how. I don't know how to make a joke. Whenever I try to tell jokes
I'm told my joke is weird, or offensive, or disrespectful. I don't understand
the rules of humour so I shut my mouth and get on with my work.
I had a conversation the other day with my parents about how I should respond
to "how's your day going?" When is it appropriate to be honest if you're
having a bad day? How do I tell if someone is saying that to start a
conversation, or just saying hi? It's tricky. So I say, "i'm fine". And then
people tell me I'm being rude or laugh at me.
~~~
ckrnews
Just take the joke of another person and tell that one. You don't have to make
your own jokes
------
bjourne
I also have Aspergers (or I should say _had_ , because the diagnosis doesn't
exist anymore). And yes, it sucks. I really wish I had some answers for you.
I've always tried to fit in to the best of my ability, but they always see
through me. It is a paradox that you can be very smart in other ways but not
smart enough to execute behavior to make you a respected member of a group.
Sadly, it is perhaps so that regular software development is not a good career
path for autists anymore because of the shift from hard to soft skills that
has happened in the last 15 years. Maybe other avenues are more suitable, like
book writing, lecturing or something.
------
mod
Bad communication?
Fix your communication.
It's one of the most important traits of a good developer, and of a good
employee.
You can practice communication like any other skill. You will be good at it.
It won't take you very long.
Good luck!
------
usgroup
I think if you're as awesome as you say then start every morning interview
with :
"I've got issues communicating but have compensating super powers"
Then go onto give a scripted explanation of what they are , so that it's not
impromptu and so that you're evaluated on your own terms.
As someone that's hired many people, I'd respond well to this.
------
zn44
Many developers self identifies as autistic, i am sure you will encounter them
on your interviews if you keep looking. They will understand. Stay calm and
confident being angry, frustrated or nervous is most common reason i see
people failing interviews.
------
hluska
I'm going to toss this out in hopes that it will hope, though I fear that you
may take my words wrong.
I understand that this is a rant, but I'm concerned about some of the words
that you chose. Consider some of these phrases:
> And honestly, I don't even see why my autism is a problem. I've always seen
> my autism and quietness as my super power, and it drive me nuts that you
> people don't see that too.
> I was going to ask for help, but realistically that's pointless - I won't
> change in any significant way.
> Please just try to be more understanding. It genuinely upsets me because I'm
> a pretty good developer, yet I know people who are really quite terrible,
> but they can bullshit well so they're all doing better than me. And this is
> at your expense quite frankly. The dude writes terrible code, but he came
> across well, so obviously we hired him...
> Oh, and you can all fuck right off with your office culture. Stop wasting
> yours and my time sending each other cat.gif and joking about how the German
> IT guy is a secret Nazi. It's not remotely funny, I can't even explain how
> mad it makes me that I was let go for not participating in this madness.
When I read those (even knowing that this is a rant), I can't help but wonder
if those attitudes come across while you're looking for work.
For example, I wonder how you would answer, "Why did you leave your last job?"
Do you start to talk about the German IT guy who was a secret Nazi? Do you
talk about how the team bonding was a waste of everyone's time? Does your
disdain for culture come through?
Or, what happens if someone asks what your weaknesses are and how you plan to
compensate for them? Do you say, "I'm autistic, but I won't ask for help
because I won't change in any significant way"?
Do you understand my point here? Your communication skills may actually be
fine, but perhaps your anger scares people away.
I'm not sure that you're really looking for advice, but I have a few pieces
for you.
1.) Get your autism diagnosed and start looking into programs for autistic
adults. This is absolutely critical.Here's the thing about autism. You
understand certain things differently, but it's not like you have an
inoperable stage four tumour. Autism doesn't mean that you can't change, it
just means that you might have to work harder at things that come naturally to
people who aren't on the spectrum. But, there's another side to that coin
because people who aren't on the spectrum will have to work harder at things
that come naturally to you.
Just because you get diagnosed, you don't necessarily have to fill (these are
your own words) 'a retard quota'. However, a diagnosis will help you access
some programs that will help make things easier for you.
One of my buddies is on the spectrum and he has an incredible amount of
difficulty with sequences. This cat loves music though and wanted nothing more
than to learn how to play guitar. But, everyone said, "no, it will be too hard
for you because sequences are hard for you." Despite that though, my buddy
learned how to play guitar and is currently playing with one hell of a good
band.
2.) We all have struggles. You struggle with autism. I struggled with a
terrible speech impediment. And others struggle with addictions, mental
illness and a myriad of problems.
You'll be surprised by how compassionate people can be if you tell them that
you struggle. Heck, my buddy the guitar player has learned to be pretty
straight up with people when he doesn't understand what's going on. "Sorry,
I'm not trying to be rude, but I have autism and I don't understand what's
expected of me."
It was harder than hell for him to start doing that, but he's been incredibly
surprised by the results. Random people will say that they don't understand
what's expected of them either, but they just fake it. Employers compliment
him on his courage and say that he is a transformational influence in their
companies. Co-workers tell him that he has changed how they view people on the
spectrum.
And, do you know what? All he had to do was tell the truth...
You will be okay. You're obviously very smart and you have tremendous
capacity. If I were you, I'd work very hard on the bitterness and consider
getting some help. But, you'll be fine.
And for the love of all that is holy, don't let others change your opinion on
yourself. Few people understand autism, but that's their problem, not yours.
Be safe and if you need a friend, my email is in my profile.
~~~
rantaccount
Thanks dude. That was nice to read.
No, I'm not very confrontational and in general I've learnt to act normal very
well. If you met me at a meetup or something you probably wouldn't guess I'm
autistic at all. I've honestly spent years working on my social skills and
it's paid of quite well.
In interviews the issue really only comes in when I'm asked really vague
questions like, "what gets you excited?" I don't really know how to answer
those kind of questions so I start stumbling. I also have the same problem
with certain technical questions. I was asked to explain regexs recently and I
find that very hard because I struggle translating the conceptual ideas in my
into words.
Also when I'm in an office I get quickly tired of pretending to be normal. If
I'm having a rough day I don't have the energy to pull it off and then
problems start cropping up.
I don't know your friend, but we sound different honestly. I pick up things
insanely quick. Things like programming and maths just make sense to me. I
don't need to get into special programmes because when working on my own I
know I can out perform the majority of people. My issue is 100% with other
people judging me for not being able to understand irrelevant things to my
work such as social etiquettes and my slightly unusual methods of explaining
myself.
I guess what I'm saying is that I'm annoyed at the suggestion that I need
special programs. Growing up I always loved being autistic because it made be
able to do cool things like teach myself to code. I was always in top sets for
subjects like physics, maths, etc and I was one of the strongest developers on
my course in college and university.
I don't need help, I just need people to be understanding that some people
like to be left alone and take a little longer to figure out a good way to
express themselves. My issue has always been that people don't like that I'm
anti-social and they don't have time for my less eloquent explanations.
Edit: Additionally, I do often say, "sorry I'm autistic" and ask for help. For
example it's very common for me to say, "sorry I'm autistic, have I upset
you?", or sometimes I will ask if they want me to stop talking. I find it very
hard to read those things.
But in interviews I'd never mention I'm autistic. If I'm given a job I want to
know it's because someone thinks I'm the best person for the role. I don't
want sympathy. I just want people to stop being so judgemental towards me.
~~~
urahara
There should exist companies with cultures friendly to people like you. I'm
quite surprised that given your high level skills and what seems very minor
communication problems, anyone actually judges you that hard. Seems like you
had very bad luck with your working environments. Have you tried to research
companies with spesific culture that could suit you well? Also maybe you could
start your own business and avoid unwanted communication this way?
------
LifeQuestioner
OP when you finally find your job they'll like you INSPITE of your social
difficulties.
No-ones perfect, we all have faults!
Because sorry if people can't see that, not sure it would be a good
environment for you.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Managing the Development of Large Software Systems (1970) [pdf] - musha68k
http://www.cs.umd.edu/class/spring2003/cmsc838p/Process/waterfall.pdf
======
paulajohnson
This paper doesn't just describe the waterfall, it explains why it doesn't
work and proposes a more iterative approach, albeit with only two iterations.
~~~
Jtsummers
If by two iterations you mean the paper suggests only going through the
various components processes at most twice, that's not accurate. The method
proposed involves feedback loops (Analysis->Design->Analysis->...) that could
repeat multiple times. And the single steps back are the ideal. That is, you
don't want to have to go back to Analysis from Testing, but you probably will
have to for some projects from time to time.
~~~
rossk14
I got the impression that the paper was suggesting an early, disposable
prototype during the preliminary program design phase, similar to what Fred
Brooks suggested back in the day.
([http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?PlanToThrowOneAway](http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?PlanToThrowOneAway))
Meaning that the PPD phase was in effect an initial iteration through the
development process. The outputs from that were used to generate the program
design documents in the primary development process.
~~~
Jtsummers
I almost made a comment about that part. But that's the _only_ part that's
restricted (and then not strictly) to two "iterations". But I don't think that
was what OP was referring to.
> This paper doesn't just describe the waterfall, it explains why it doesn't
> work and proposes a more iterative approach, albeit with only two
> iterations.
The iterative steps involved are _not_ the throw one away bit, but the
feedback loops in between the different stages of development. And the paper
does _not_ restrict its model to two iterations.
The throw one away portion are the prototyping phase, which is the same
development process in miniature. Like how, here, we might prototype our radio
software without the hardware at all just to make sure we understand the
protocol and other aspects correctly so when we do the full development on the
radio (often with reused code from the prototype, though) it's better
informed. [0]
[0] Though, true to form, the last prototype became a delivered product
instead of the basis for the final product. Oops. The dilemma of making a too
good prototype, but not engineered well enough to actually be a final product.
Maintenance has been a beast.
------
simula67
For those missing context, this seems to be the first paper formally
describing the "Waterfall Model" for software development.
------
0xdeadbeefbabe
> If documentation does not yet exist there is as yet no design, only people
> thinking and talking about the design which is of some value, but not much.
I'm having a hard time remembering how we do things better in modern times
without writing documentation.
------
gcandal
I first came into contact with this article via
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NP9AIUT9nos](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NP9AIUT9nos),
which is a pretty decent analysis on how people misinterpreted the original
concept.
~~~
gonzo41
I first came into contact with this article through this talk
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csyL9EC0S0c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csyL9EC0S0c)
Its entertaining
~~~
musha68k
I first came into contact with this by way of Dave Farley's sobering "The
Rationale for Continuous Delivery":
[https://vimeo.com/147863304](https://vimeo.com/147863304)
He's essentially mocking our whole field for reading the paper lazily :) "This
paper was a description of what not to do."
~~~
nickpsecurity
Probably Haskellers: always praising lazy evaluations. ;)
------
nickpsecurity
How did I never read this paper before now!? People have been bashing
waterfall for a long time. If this paper originated it, then the resulting
waterfalls say more about the readers and IT culture than the visionary that
recommended a very, adaptive process. A few points on the paper.
The author describes the software development as a creative process. Most
managers and even many CompSci researchers thought it was mechanical with
potential for automation and assembly-line type guidance. He wisely
contradicts that in a way that I hope was to help us all out by putting
reality in management reader's heads.
I used to think one person did waterfall followed by other models (eg Spiral)
realizing initial work usually failed and is rewritten. Now I know it's the
opposite: waterfall author knew requirements or design would require rewrites.
Even made new diagrams for it. Diagrams most of us never saw while ideal model
was plastered everywhere. He underestimates how difficult coding part can be
but his claims still proved out with methods like Cleanroom and Correct-by-
Construction that kept coding structures simple. Almost all defects happened
outside of coding and coding changes were straight-forward.
The documentation chapter is pure gold. Managing scope, preventing excuses
during failures, ensuring everyone is on same page, rules to keep it
consistent even by halting development, wisely noting maintenance/rework phase
is horrible enough that docs are a necessity, and handing off system to
cheaper, ops people. Those particularly stood the test of time.
In one section, he recommends implementing _something_ to get the process
started even if one doesn't know what they're doing. That's to avoid paralysis
by analysis and give something tangible to start with. Ironically, "modern"
and anti-waterfall methods recommend exactly that.
The simulation part is tripping some people up and a weird read. People take
it too literally. What I'm seeing is a call for prototypes that explore some
of the user interface, key calculations, structure, I/O, and other trouble
spots. The stakeholders each review a bit of this to spot early requirements
and design problems. The next section mentions feedback loops that do the same
thing which collectively result in buy-in by those paying. Just shows he
wisely considered a critical human factor that led to many project failures
later on.
So, it was a short and delightful read whose advice should've led to many
successful projects and hastened arrival of more Agile methods. Instead,
people cherry-picked his points and even slandered him in subsequent work. All
kinds of disaster followed.
Least I know now that the real Waterfall was designed to prevent that and
probably would have most of the time. So, props to Dr. Royce for being one of
the giants whose shoulders we stand on trying to make IT great. Well,
should've stood on for many. ;)
~~~
mannykannot
The word 'waterfall' does not appear in this paper, not even to describe the
model that Royce is criticizing (and it would be a completely inappropriate
and misleading metaphor for the model he is advocating.) I suspect the use of
'waterfall' as a model of software development is a retronym coined (possibly
by Royce, elsewhere) for what was once the only model of systematic software
development, once its shortcomings and the need for an alternative became
apparent. It has persisted because it is a convenient straw man: it is easy to
make almost any new model look good when you compare it to the waterfall
model. We should have burned this straw man long ago: 45 years have gone by
since Royce explained its shortcomings and proposed better alternatives, so by
now, we really should be able to justify our latest methods with something
more than just "better than waterfall".
~~~
nickpsecurity
Great points. I guess the pdf being called waterfall threw me on that part.
Maybe we should call his the Royce model instead, eh?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
There's one clear, immediate way to fix L.A.'s traffic: Tolls - jseliger
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/livable-city/la-ol-traffic-toll-lane-freeway-20170303-story.html
======
Gibbon1
This is great. The rabble gets to pay for the roads. And the wealthy get to
drive on them without some fool in his 1998 Honda Civic getting in the way.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Announcing O'Reilly Answers - coriander
http://broadcast.oreilly.com/2009/11/announcing-oreilly-answers.html
======
tseabrooks
I think this is clearly a response to StackOverflow. If I can get a lot of
high quality content on the sorts of things O'Reilly publishes books about in
a free online place (StackOverflow) why would I waste money on purchasing
their books?
Notice that they will be 'rewarding' contributions with points redeemable for
books. This site exists because O'Reilly is afraid StackOverflow will result
in a loss of sales of their books and they have no original idea on how to
combat the problem.
~~~
chromatic
A good publisher has nothing to fear from Stack Overflow.
I suspect the site exists instead because the company wants to have a web site
with a lot of traffic but isn't willing to pay anyone to write things people
want to read. Thus their solution is to reuse material from books and convince
people to contribute original material in exchange for badges and coupons.
The company's launched quite a few experiments on the web, only to abandon
them a couple of months later. Perhaps this one will last longer than three
months; it appears they've actually put some money into it.
~~~
telemachos
> _I suspect the site exists instead because the company wants to have a web
> site with a lot of traffic but isn't willing to pay anyone to write things
> people want to read. Thus their solution is to reuse material from books and
> convince people to contribute original material in exchange for badges and
> coupons._
And the material not reused from books (both some posts and most of the
answers so far, perhaps all of the answers so far) comes from various O'Reilly
employees who have a new responsibility: "seeding O'Reilly answers."
------
telemachos
I'm not sure I can say how awful that site is.
To focus on one thing, nearly all of the current posts appear to be snippets
taken from their books, with prominently placed ads below. These are _not_
questions: they're just advertisements. (I also wonder if the authors were
asked about the use of their work in this way.) The posts that aren't by
authors are by editors or other O'Reilly employees. The thing is sheer
astroturfing, not a QA site.
It's sad to see a company that does something so well (their books are
generally excellent) so desperate to capture every market. They feel a bit
like Starbucks a few years ago.
~~~
RyanMcGreal
> The thing is sheer astroturfing, not a QA site.
When reddit launched, nearly all the posts were by reddit devs or YC insiders.
Give it time to see if the model takes off among external users.
~~~
telemachos
Nah, not buying it.
Were the reddit devs aware that they were making those posts? I'm guessing
yes, but I'm guessing that easily 50% of those "posters" over at O'Reilly
Overflow have no idea what they've been up to.
Were the reddit devs selling their books by posting? (Yes, I understand that
Reddit sells stuff, but the posts are not directly linked to selling what
they're posting about. That's what makes the O'Reilly site astroturfing.)
------
rabble
It looks like it's not based on the actual stackoverflow code.
<http://builtwith.com/?http://answers.oreilly.com/>
Says, PHP / Rails. Where as Stackoverflow is ASP.MVC.
~~~
mahmud
Why the investigation?
_I'd like to acknowledge the projects that have proceeded Answers and
inspired us, such as SitePoint Forums (we distribute their books),
StackOverflow, Yahoo! Answers, Knol, and many others_
------
indierockerboy
Soo.... their answer to the silos of information is yet another silo. Nice.
------
icefox
What type of companies would O'Reilly be interested in acquiring?
~~~
petercooper
I might be blind to it, but I don't recall hearing of any newsworthy O'Reilly
acquisitions well.. ever. Well, except Esther Dyson's Release newsletter.
------
sleepingbot
Yet another SO clon.
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"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: My First Step Towards Being a Digital Nomad - veermanhas
https://www.crumpledpapr.com/post/i-will-develop-10-single-page-websites-for-free-my-first-step-towards-being-a-digital-nomad
======
qnsi
This shouldn't use Show HN tag. also We Couldn’t Find This Page Check out some
of the other great posts in this blog.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
ChemBot: Robot morphs between solid and semi-liquid states - PieSquared
http://dvice.com/archives/2009/10/irobots-chembot.php
======
dnsworks
Have you seen this boy?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Do You Know Where Your Children Are? Your Phone Does. Geo-Tracking Heats Up - kkleiner
http://singularityhub.com/2010/08/09/do-you-know-where-your-children-are-your-phone-does-geo-tracking-heats-up/
======
gamble
I wonder what Orwell's publisher would have said if he'd written 1984 using
the premise that every citizen would voluntarily carry at all times a device
that could be used by the police or security services to surreptitiously
record their conversations and track their position via satellite.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Bram Cohen on the Go language - BarkMore
http://bramcohen.livejournal.com/71760.html
======
willvarfar
Great article, shame its not got the attention
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Beat the clock: the surprising psychology behind being perpetually late - hhs
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/jan/01/surprising-psychology-behind-being-perpetually-late
======
gcatalfamo
Not much psychology and just observations. The premise was stronger than the
actual insights.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Is an Autonomy Fund a viable business model? - michaelochurch
Here’s a software business model that helps engineers to retain control of their companies and aim for excellence, instead of having everything they build get hijacked by MBAs. It encourages engineers to build profitable companies rather than “get big or go home” (VC).<p>It’ll encourage mid-growth companies. See: bit.ly/16guxvy. I want this thing to generate some Real Technology, and focus on hard problems instead of social media bullshit optimized for instant results. It’s for the mid-risk 10-40%/year growth range that’s underserved by existing finance.<p>An Autonomy Fund’s like so: engineers get a base salary (say $125k) and the investors get a percentage (say 37.5%) of any profits they make. What do they work on? Whatever they want. Their own projects. Consulting. Startups. The fund owns part of it, but they have full autonomy over what they do.<p>One idea here is self-organization. If two teams decide to work together and pool resources, they can. Since they're collectives of autonomous individuals, they don't need to worry about the (morale-killing) processes of merging HR structures and org charts. They just pull together and work.<p>Who’d fund it? I think local governments might. (Am I right? Or off the mark?) It creates jobs, supports local businesses, and may build the next Facebook.<p>I see this as the ultimate symbiosis between cities and tech. They want to make their cities tech hubs instead of having all the action go to star cities. We’d vet programmers, something a non-programmer can't (cf. Design Paradox).<p>I'd aim for top-5% “10Xers”, with initial class size ~28 and a 2-year initial runway ($7 million). If the pilot succeeded, then similar funds could be launched all over the world, and there might be a business in setting cities up with their own Autonomy Funds.<p>Is this something that:<p>(a) local governments would support, and<p>(b) a substantial number of top-5% people would join, even if it meant moving to a small city (~50-250k inhabitants)?
======
S4M
It's a nice idea, but focusing of technical excellence for its own sake is
dubious according to me. If I were offered to put my own money in that project
and get paid in dividends after couple of years (we want long term investors),
I would probably refuse, as there is _no_ business plan at all. Whoever has
money to invest will focus first on the product, and then on the technical
quality. What you want is rather:
1\. write good code
2\. ???
3\. profits
Also, you will need to attract _non coders_ , such as domain experts or
marketing. They will also want their shares of the cake, and you will need to
pick good ones, which will not be trivial for you as a developer. I am sure
there are many other flaws, and I'd rather suggest that you use your technical
excellence to "scratch your own itch" and live from it.
~~~
michaelochurch
Very good points. Thanks so much. I welcome disagreement because, without it,
my ideas would stay in a raw crappy form. So... here are my thoughts.
My end goal is for this to congeal into something like an open-allocation
environment, but one that exists across companies to some extent. I feel like
if we bring OA to the external market, we'll force the hands of employers who
will have to improve conditions if they want to compete for talent. So, the
trans-corporate open allocation (because each person carries an income that
follows her whereever she goes) is the ultimate end goal. That may be
completely insane, but isn't that what the open-source gift economy is--
trans-corporate collaboration?
Getting designers, marketers and domain experts will be hard. I grant you
that. Strong designers and marketers I can spot; domain expertise I would not
be able to tell, unless I had it myself and, of course, for most domains I
won't. I think that to get a domain expert, you'd have to hire her into a
company already formed through this process, because you're right that there's
no way we can build up a competent selection process for every domain we might
care about.
~~~
S4M
I am not sure I get your second paragraph, but it seems to me that you want to
build some kind of consulting company owned by top coders. Your offer would be
to offer programming services, that only very competent programmers could do.
My guess for such services would be: ultra scalable web apps, or creation of
DSLs - it has to be something very advanced in order not to compete with the
numerous consulting companies that are already existing, most of them doing
mediocre stuff.
And I can see this taking off. Obviously not fast because most of your
potential customers wouldn't even know yet they need your services, but that
should be able to slowly bootstrap. And I suppose once you would have built a
strong team and gotten some notoriety, you would be able to bootstrap your
technological edge into some concrete product.
Having said that, I still have some doubts, mainly because I think we are in a
coding bubble, and the future belongs less to the programmers than to the
engineers who will build the new space rockets or the technology to exploit
green energies from example, while with the standardization of functional
programming and the development of various libraries it will be easy for a non
programmer to start creating software components that are currently requiring
programmers (IMHO there will be less "pure" programmers and more "X's who can
program" as you once said here on HN).
Nevertheless I wish you can succeed with your idea, even though I don't think
I'll be able to work in your company as I am _not_ a top programmer.
~~~
alexjeffrey
I think you might be barking up the wrong tree here - OP's plan is to create
an investment fund that focusses on long-term investment in talented people,
rather than the VC approach of investing in "whatever facebook/twitter/google
might buy to acquihire the founders".
------
codewright
The problem is that most local governments that want a tech hub are either
focusing on tech already and will think they don't need this, or are on the
other end of the spectrum and simply don't care.
The key is to find a city on the cusp of making a serious decision to pursue
becoming a tech hub. Google Fiber could be an incentive, or it might make them
complacent, who knows? Maybe Provo? You can't really aim too small, small
towns have serious conservative budgets and for good reason.
Austin would be nice, I'm not sure how insecure they feel about their status
as a tech city compared to NYC and SF. What I can tell you for sure is that
they are seriously affordable. You can trivially get a house for less than
$200k in a decent neighborhood. That they're already competing for the tech
city thing is a bonus.
Google Fiber in Austin could end up bringing in some fresh blood, even if it
doesn't make that much of a difference on its own.
Austin has a $3.1 billion budget, which makes this more feasible for them than
a sub-$1bn budget city. $25mm planning and development budget.
[https://assets.austintexas.gov/budget/12-13/downloads/Vol_I_...](https://assets.austintexas.gov/budget/12-13/downloads/Vol_I_Combined.pdf)
See here to see their job development efforts.
Anything involving as much money as this does is going to have be sold as a
job development play. I don't know if that argument can be made yet or not,
I'd need to discuss it.
Disclaimer: I'm headed to Austin as soon as I'm freed up in my consulting work
to do a startup.
~~~
michaelochurch
Getting Austin to sign up for that would be a huge coup. I don't think you'd
have any trouble getting great engineers to move out there, given how many
strong tech companies are already there. That would be ideal. But I'd also
want to talk to other municipalities and see what terms they'd have to offer.
It's definitely a job development play. These engineers are going to be
founding companies that, if successful, are going to employ large numbers of
people.
~~~
zwegner
This sort of idea is really interesting to me, and the thought of it happening
in Austin is quite tantalizing (I wouldn't have to move!).
I find it pretty hard to function in typical management structures, though I
work better with teams/some sort of external visibility (my personal projects
tend to gather dust too easily, though I'm working on improving this). The
concept of an incubator-like environment for collaborating on ideas without
the extreme focus on growth would be a perfect fit for people like me.
------
mahyarm
Copying my comment from here: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5578223>
\---
How about Las Vegas? I've never been there but:
1) Cheap airfare, international destination
2) A Party Town, probably helps the gender balance in one aspect, people would
like to visit you.
3) No Income Tax
4) Still close to the SF Bay Area
5) Never cold, barely rains (good or bad depending on your preferences)
6) Really cheap real estate. Buy a townhouse for under $100k!
7) Many tech conventions are hosted there
8) Driving from one corner to another takes only 30 minutes according to
google maps.
~~~
otoburb
Vegas also has the distinction of being Tony Hsieh's experiment to revitalize
the LV downtown core[1].
Autonomy Fund on the surface looks like a great fit with Tony's
DowntownProject vision[2].
[1]
[http://www.forbes.com/sites/evankirkpatrick/2013/02/13/lesso...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/evankirkpatrick/2013/02/13/lessons-
learned-from-tony-hsiehs-350mm-downtown-project-in-las-vegas/)
[2] <http://downtownproject.com/>
------
epenn
I would love to see something like this. I think this shouldn't just be
limited to one city or industry though. Assuming that this is successfully
attempted in one city, it might be a good idea to try it in other cities while
focusing on various industries that speak to the existing core competencies of
that city. So for example, a Detroit version of the Autonomy Fund could focus
on funding autonomous individuals within the automotive industry.
As for choice of initial tech hub, my vote goes to Pittsburgh. The population
size is [roughly] what you're going for at ~300K. The housing market here is
great. It already has a tech-friendly local government. Plus Carnegie Mellon
is here, ready to feed top young CS talent directly into the autonomous
positions.
For what it's worth Pittsburgh was also voted as the most livable city in the
U.S. a couple years ago [1]. I might be biased since I live/work in Pittsburgh
and take CS classes at CMU, but by that same token it also means I'm speaking
with first-hand experience.
[1] [http://www.marketplace.org/topics/life/news-brief/its-
offici...](http://www.marketplace.org/topics/life/news-brief/its-official-
pittsburgh-most-liveable-city-us)
~~~
codewright
I don't think Pittsburgh has the funding to do it. You're looking at a budget
of ~$450mm.
I think the funding, rather than the locale, is the blocker here.
~~~
michaelochurch
How much money do you think it'll take? I'm thinking single-digit millions per
year. First class would be about 28 people. So that's $3.5 million per year.
Salary plus tech budget is $125,000. That's half-decent but not great, and by
design. I'm looking for entrepreneurs, not salarymen (who'd command $150-250k
at the level I'm looking to hire). It's not the extreme low salary of
bootstrapping (negative including business expenses) but it's not cozy either.
That's sort of what I'm aiming for: a middle path between might-fuck-up-your-
family-life-bootstrapping and not-really-an-entrepreneur-VC-funded-salaryman.
I'm also thinking that it would be useful to find private investment with 1:1
matching. So local governments would only have to kick in half the initial
funding requirement
~~~
mblakele
But doesn't it cost more than $125k to pay a $125k salary? I've been told that
it's about 1:1 if typical benefits are involved. So a $125k salary costs
$250k.
~~~
codewright
Not sure why you'd think benefits are involved here. And a $125k salary does
_not_ cost $250k.
~~~
otoburb
It would be great if an HR director could weigh in on how much a $125K salary
might cost in total compensation with a "standard benefit package" range for a
technologist/programmer/engineer role.
The only other data point is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Employer
Costs for Employee Compensation (BLS ECEC) where it shows at the bottom that
benefits accounted for around 30% of total compensation and 70% going to wages
& salary[1]. On average, this means that a $125K salary would cost a company
$179K overall.
[1] <http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.nr0.htm>
~~~
codewright
It doesn't cost that much either. [1]
[1] Ex-CTO
Those ratios are for average salaries, not $125k salaries.
------
TheCoelacanth
I think the hardest part would be getting the people funding it to agree to
it. The plan, as you've stated it, gives them very little control of how their
funds are used. I don't think it will be easy to convince the investors to
trust the engineers not to just take the salary while producing nothing
useful. If you can find a way around that problem, you might be on to
something.
~~~
michaelochurch
Maybe I'm naive here, but I think most software engineers (especially good
ones) are careerist enough to _want_ to produce something useful. That doesn't
mean that there won't be some good-faith failures, but I think most engineers
are already naturally aligned toward wanting to add value.
Top engineers aren't that way when a company takes 100% of the proceeds and a
boss takes all the credit; but this is still allowing engineers to get a 62.5%
cut.
~~~
TheCoelacanth
I think with proper vetting you would be able to find engineers who would put
in an honest effort in those circumstances. I just don't think it will be easy
to convince investors of that.
~~~
michaelochurch
Ah yes, Theory X and Theory Y. I would like to believe that defection rates
will be low. Are people going to abuse the system? Occasionally, yes. My
feeling is that the defection rate will be low enough not to compromise the
project. If someone uses the fund to build his career, then goes off to the
Valley, good for him. "Alumnus Bob is now VP/Eng at Facebook" is part of our
pitch.
The trust issue is why local governments might be the best place to start:
(a) they know they're not technologists and can't evaluate 10x programmers. I
can. I think I can either (i) establish that I can, or (ii) bring someone more
established and better than I am to do the vetting.
(b) even if they fail, much of the money goes back into the city, which means
it's not totally spilled on the floor. Fail case: those tech bozos made fools
of themselves, but they ate at local restaurants for a couple years.
It wouldn't only be local investors. I don't want short-term investors in
this, though. I'd take a Buffett-esque approach of having the share price
around $50,000. Value investors only, because talent takes time to ripen.
------
lacker
Two thoughts.
(a) It will be hard to get $7 million for an untested investment model like
this. It would be easier to start with something more like $150k, like the
first YC class.
(b) It's hard to advise people on something you haven't done yourself. If you
first started a successful mid-growth company, you'd find it a lot easier to
raise money for this plan.
------
kohanz
Let's see: government funds for projects that have little to no regulation,
oversight, or concrete goals. Yeah... good luck with that. I mean, is there
any precedent for this?
And I actually like the idea!
~~~
michaelochurch
Ctrl+F "teaching".
If we set up a "20/20" plan where the entrepreneurs spend 15-20 hours teaching
(as in, the public) while they draw a salary, then it might work.
The only danger is that it pisses off the teacher's unions. It'd have to be a
free after-school program.
------
carterschonwald
Your return structure is wrong :-)
A successful growing business is never profitable, most / all the profit is
reinvested in the business. There will per se be no investor return relatively
speaking.
I recently saw an article this past week that suggests a better structure: the
investment is a loan that is forgiven if the business folds.
This is actually better for both sides: the investor gets their money back
with some fixed return if the biz succeeds, and the business doesn't have to
pay it back if it fails.
Then it becomes a small tech business entrepreneurship Loan/ investment
vehicle. In which case the pitch to the city is the their investing in
furthering local biz growth in a way that has potential to have a
multiplicative return for local industrial base.
Tl;dr no small privately held biz is ever truely profitable, structure it as a
forgivable loan upon biz failure.
~~~
usea
In my company, profit sharing is 1/3 employees, 1/3 owners, 1/3 goes directly
back into the company for investment. However, sometimes the company needs
money to repair some equipment or whatever, and that comes out of the revenue
(before profits). So the business needs come first obviously, but when times
are good the employees are treated very well. This works best in companies
where the employees can have a direct affect on short-term profits.
~~~
carterschonwald
Yes I agree with that. But profit sharing with employees is per se taken from
revenue left over after operating costs and such, profits are what you
distribute to share holders.
I agree with what you're saying, I'm mainly quibbling with the language of the
structure of the proposed investment instrument. It would be very easy to do
some Hollywood style accounting so that the business owner and employees all
get a fraction of gross revenue after costs, but any investor would get zilch
for all time.
I know little of accounting, but I know that much :-)
(This is of course orthogonal to the ethical / moral dimensions)
~~~
usea
That's a good point, which I hadn't thought of.
------
htormey
Michaelochurch, I've read a bunch of your blog posts concerning alternatives
to VC funded startups and I have a question for you. Why raise any funding at
all? Instead why not save a year or so's living expenses, pick a niche market,
do contracting in that area and then try to OpenSource and productize a common
problem that a bunch of your clients have. This approach is very similar to
what 37 signals does and seems to work for some of my friends.
<http://37signals.com/about>
Software Engineering, done this way, does not require a lot of capital. What
are your thoughts on this model?
------
activus
Great idea. I'd actually submit Rochester, NY as a candidate (I'm from there,
but live in Seattle now). The property taxes are high, but the cost of living
is very low, power is very cheap, land is cheap and there is RIT and
University of Rochester right there pumping out fantastic engineers (an hour
away is University of Buffalo, not quite as good, but has a few gems). I know
a few people doing startups there (it's tough because of funding, but these
guys self fund). It's also not too far from Boston / NYC if you needed to grab
people from there.
------
clbrook
I wonder if the Kauffman foundation would be interested in partnering.
<http://www.kauffman.org/>
------
pekk
It's an interesting idea, but I don't think local governments have room to pay
lots of engineer salaries for no specific reason. Startups are risky and this
will smell even riskier since it scans politically as a boondoggle. $125,000
is 5 working-class jobs. I don't see cities directly 'creating' jobs by just
paying people to do things.
So, maybe don't depend on local governments.
~~~
michaelochurch
Or, here's an idea (that might be politically explosive, or really cool): the
funding is contingent upon teaching local school students (at various grade
levels) programming (which is still not part of the curriculum in most public
schools)-- a 10-15 hour per week commitment. This does mean that we must
select for people willing to teach, but as far as I'm concerned, if you're not
a good teacher, you're not a good leader and I'm not interested in funding
you.
Now, public school students are getting after-school coursework with "Silicon
[V]alley technology entrepreneurs". These aren't techies getting thrown a
bunch of local money to build their careers; they're getting thrown local
money to build businesses _and_ teaching students how programming works in
"the real world"
So then, there's a great service provided that is of use to the community even
if the startups flop.
~~~
julespitt
I don't think cities or towns have either the money to invest nor the knowhow
to administer such a thing. I think it would likely have to be investor-led,
preferably wealthy technologists, who would then shop it around to local
governments.
~~~
michaelochurch
Hmm. That may be right. But I think something real is here, especially now
that I've added in the teaching factor.
Do you know anyone who'd be able to look at this idea as a potential
principal? My email is michael.o.church at gmail.
~~~
otoburb
Tony Hsieh might be a good fit given his vision with Downtown Project
(<http://downtownproject.com/>).
------
alexjeffrey
I love this idea but the idea of tying it to your locality seems a little
exclusionary for no reason. Granted, I am biased as I am based in the UK, but
I can't think of any major problems with organising this through
teleconferences?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why do Linux distros have different package names? - FooBarWidget
http://gwan.ch/faq#packages
======
CaioAlonso
With a collective market share of 1%, I find it hard to believe that the
reason Linux distributions use incompatible package names is to get revenue
from usage statistics.
Maybe we should use Hanlon's razor here: "Never attribute to malice that which
is adequately explained by stupidity."
~~~
rogerbinns
I suspect the razor needs an addition "or backwards compatibility". I suspect
many of the names remain unchanged from when they were first added to each
distro. There could also have been conflicts with similarly named packages at
that time, so something pragmatic is chosen. 10 - 20 years later it looks like
stupidity.
------
jlgreco
This is just idiotic. Different package naming conventions provide no
meaningful lock-in. _Certainly_ it does not force users to use distribution
maintained repos; it tends to be trivial to set up your own mirror of official
repos.
------
0x0
This whole web page reads like a crazy paranoid snake oil salesman SEO spam
landing page. What the hell.
~~~
jlgreco
The rabbit-hole goes deeper... Search for gwan with hnsearch, this guy is the
losethos of webservers or something.
~~~
FooBarWidget
"losethos"? Are you talking about this guy? <https://twitter.com/losethos>
~~~
0x0
There was a long thread on Something Awful about this very, uh, "special"
operating system written by one lone guy. Looks like it's renamed now:
<http://www.sparrowos.com/>
~~~
FooBarWidget
So what is special about losethos? I see it's 64-bit multi-tasking real-mode,
and I see he's apparently posted some unpopular opinions on various forums
(not sure what his posts are, they've all been deleted), causing him to become
banned. Doesn't seem like any big deal to me.
According to <http://qaa.ath.cx/LoseThos.html> the author is often ridiculed
for his work. I don't think the G-WAN author is in a comparable situation.
~~~
jlgreco
He seems, to a layman untrained in psychology, to be very... unstable. Just
for starters, he seems to think that some sort of god talks to him through
some sort of "dissociated press" style markov chains, or something.
His old HN account: <http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=losethos>
His new account: <http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=SparrowOS>
What I mean by comparing this guy to losethos is that his paranoid rantings
and delusions of grandeur (ill-considered rants like this one, or rants about
conspiracies to explain why his software isn't more widely used, etc) give me
serious _"danger! stay away!"_ vibes.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Create No-JavaScript friendly sites - g-garron
https://www.garron.blog/posts/no-javascript-sites.html
======
mdoms
I absolutely agree that JS is over-used, but for anything other than very
static content I generally am not interested in kowtowing to the strict "no
JS" folks. Javascript has become a fundamental part of the web, and for the
same reason I won't put in extra work to make my sites work in IE, I also will
not put in extra work to make my sites work for (a vanishingly small number
of) people who pre-emptively block one of the most powerful tools in my belt.
On a side note, the first example the author uses for a menu alternative[0] is
highly obnoxious. The "unobtrusive" example assumes that your page is written
in PHP but doesn't declare this assumption up front, it leaves it until half
way into the article. The example is not usable in a static website that won't
properly handle a POST request. So the JS example is still vastly superior for
many cases.
[0] [https://css-tricks.com/unobtrusive-page-changer/](https://css-
tricks.com/unobtrusive-page-changer/)
~~~
forgotmypw17
What percentage of city bus riders or public restaurant visitors do you think
use the wheelchair ramp?
~~~
codegeek
In my opinion, that is not a fair comparison. Wheelchair ramp usage percentage
may be small but they are built because of laws and helps people who actually
need it. People are not disabled by choice.
Javascript disablers (and I have full sympathy as a dev. myself) are doing it
by choice which is totally fine but it is still a choice, not a need.
~~~
eeZah7Ux
A lot of visually-impared users have to disable javascript to minimize pop-ups
to use a braille terminal.
~~~
lazyjones
Don't expect typical web developers to care for 1-2% blind users when they've
often ignored browsers with 5% or higher market share... Most don't understand
that a one-time effort to get the last few % in revenue is worth it.
------
dreamcompiler
Most of my web browsing experience these days involves moving the dancing
monkeys out of my way so I can read the content. Nobody comes to your site to
see the ads or take your survey or sign up for your email list. Nobody comes
to your site hoping to have to click again and again to read the content.
Nobody comes to your site hoping to have you explain to them what a cookie is
for the 10,000th time and then be forced to click "OK!" before they can read
your content. Nobody comes to your site hoping to have their browser
fingerprinted so you can track them around the web and sell their personal
information.
With very few exceptions you are using Javascript not to enhance your users'
experience but to make war on them, and if that applies to you I wish you
would leave technology and take up farming.
------
AnonC
Similar to the general negative experience with many Electron apps, I hate the
JavaScript based rendering experience on some sites. I get very frustrated
with reddit (the new UI) and Facebook, both flashing an animation or empty
rectangles for a long time and me realizing that the content isn’t going to
load at all and hitting the reload button to coax it to render the best time.
The experience I get on these sites and also some on (not all) React based
sites (including Gatsby blogs) is jarring in ways I can’t explain well. Even
the full page reload of years past doesn’t evoke such a feeling of uncertainty
on whether the content will load or not.
Blocking JavaScript by default also makes for faster browsing on many sites.
Sometimes it also bypasses all those Adblock Killer dialogs or paywall
dialogs.
~~~
maest
You're probably aware, but just in case: old.reddit.com gives the old (js-
free) interface.
~~~
tartoran
That until the old reddit is deprecated. They want people to go ahead use the
new interface because it makes it much easier to insert ads, track and do who
knows what kind of other shenanigans.. The thing is for us who've known a
better and more usable internet, we have something to compare it to and simply
say no. The newer generation of users accept it for what it is, they don't
know better.
Something else irks me quite a bit as well, and that is when you can't copy a
link from the page or when the history is messed up when going back. It seems
utterly broken, and most of the time the design is as well (but that is
somewhat subjective)
~~~
Shared404
> The newer generation of users accept it for what it is, they don't know
> better.
Not all of us
------
phyzome
One of the biggest annoyances is sites that use stylesheets to blank out the
page until Javascript removes that style. I _think_ this is to stop "flash of
unstyled content" stuff that I really don't care about, but it's also
trivially solvable by having Javascript add the style in question in the first
place.
~~~
brigandish
It's one of the reasons I also started to block CSS, too. Sites tend to load
quicker but I need to do more scrolling.
------
mrspeaker
I love JavaScript, but no longer trust websites to use it responsibly. There
are too many vectors for tracking, so I'm forced to block. I do way too many
random clicks in a day to allow JS by default.
Half the pages I land on now say "you need JS to view this site", and that's
totally their decision! I close the tab and do something else: they get to use
JavaScript, I save a bunch of time and procrastinate less... win-win!
~~~
hombre_fatal
Well, it's just as bad as native apps now. At least you can trivially block
things in web browsers.
------
robin_reala
I built a side project a couple of months ago[1] that’s a PWA-installable
interactive experience, but also degrades down to styled information in the
absence of JS, and back to raw HTML if CSS fails. It’s surprisingly fun to
build in this way.
(On another note, choosing to avoid a framework and just use some vanilla JS
led to an extremely fast loading site.)
[1]
[https://www.designcritiquecards.com/](https://www.designcritiquecards.com/)
~~~
dariosalvi78
congratulations, but how many people have the time to do that? Is it really
feasible on big projects?
~~~
robin_reala
Depends what you’re doing. The majority of the site I work on for my day job
is statically rendered and theoretically works without JS, but large parts
(including any ecom functionality and profiles) fail. Would it be worth making
them more reliable by falling back if JS fails? Possibly, but that’s difficult
sometimes to argue for in today’s environment of features-first from product,
and developer-experience-first from engineering. Still worth the effort.
By the way, we are talking about reliability-in-depth here rather than user
choice. I wrote a blog post about this a few years ago:
[https://www.robinwhittleton.com/2016/09/19/why-we-use-
progre...](https://www.robinwhittleton.com/2016/09/19/why-we-use-progressive-
enhancement-to-build-gov-uk/)
------
TedDoesntTalk
I applaud sites that work without Javascript.
The sad reality is that the enormous popularity of SPA frameworks like React
and Angular make this possibility a small fraction of important sites — e.g. I
don’t know if any banking or investment website that works without JavaScript.
Maybe this is less important as app-culture supplants such sites.
~~~
superkuh
Most sites aren't important sites and most sites aren't handling monetary
transactions or private information. Most sites have no dynamic content. Most
sites don't need javascript at all and all it does it makes things worse.
Most devs need to stop taking the crap tools they're forced to use at their
paid job and using them for their personal websites.
~~~
TedDoesntTalk
I agree. Unfortunately, it seems that Most Devs either don't agree with us or
don't care.
------
gwbas1c
I recently wrote a blog engine as a way to learn some technologies I haven't
used.
For static pages, I only use in-browser JavaScript to format dates to the
reader's locale. If, for some reason, the JavaScript doesn't run, the date
will just be formatted a little differently than I'd like.
Not too big of a deal.
------
chadlavi
Note that this example he gives is not accessible:
[https://codepen.io/victorcopque/pen/OVxRbq](https://codepen.io/victorcopque/pen/OVxRbq)
A keyboard user cannot access the hidden checkbox that controls showing/hiding
the menu.
~~~
mariusor
I wonder if a better usability example would use the <details> and <summary>
elements, which support collapsing/uncollapsing.
~~~
mariusor
I've improved the demo with <details>/<summary> and fixed the erroneous list
elements form the original:
[https://habarnam.ro/s/demo.html](https://habarnam.ro/s/demo.html)
------
danielskogly
I wrote about a generalized way to use React, Redux and SSR to make sites that
work without JS a short while ago[0] and I’m currently employing that strategy
for a side project I’m working on.
So far the biggest drawback is not being able to do a payment flow with Stripe
Checkout without requiring JS on _my_ service, because Stripe.js is required
to redirect a user to the checkout session.
[0]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23426951](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23426951)
~~~
throwaway_pdp09
And my response was a big thank you but some serious doubts. I'm asking for no
JS when it is reasonable, and what you are trying to do is accommodate my
unreasonable requirements. If I may repost past of what I said there:
"I should clarify, I'm only moaning about JS used where it need not be, in the
display of text and pictures. Essentially, stativc web pages. There are guys
on this thread who are trying to make apps work withou JS and I'm getting
uneasy about that - that level of functionality should, and perhaps must, be
done client-side or the excess bandwidth and server-side load will become
unmanageable. I would still not enable JS to allow those, but I can see why
others would."
Trying to allow for extremists like myself, well, you may be doing too much in
this particular type of case. Just giving me sensible static websites is fine,
I'm not asking for more.
~~~
a1369209993
Pretty much this. If you're actually shipping a web app (canonical example
being a HTML5 video game), use Javascript; that's what it's for. A newpaper (/
blog / search engine / forum / user signup <form> / image gallery / video
_gallery_ (as opposed to player, although that should have clearly marked
links to inert mp4-or-equivalent files) / file hosting service) is _not a
fucking app_ , but that doesn't mean nothing is. (Note: I don't know enough
about stripe to say anything about danielskogly's specific case.)
~~~
danielskogly
I completely agree, and acknowledge that there are plenty of web apps that
just can't work without JS [0][1][2]. It's the middle ground of web apps that
I think might have the most to gain - web apps that _can_ provide their main
functionality without JS, like Asana, GitLab, Product Hunt, Pinterest, etc.
[0] [https://audiomass.co/](https://audiomass.co/) [1]
[https://html5gamepad.com/](https://html5gamepad.com/) [2]
[https://agar.io/](https://agar.io/)
------
speeder
I am currently rewriting one of my companies site using Hugo, and good part of
the reason is to be able to get rid of JS, it keep giving us more trouble than
it is worth, constantly.
At first I was afraid my new site would be ugly and all... But I got
pleasantly surprised by how good HTML 5 is right now, I am yet to find
anything I want to make that I can't make with just HTML and CSS.
------
rado
Always. My blog view is exactly the same without JS, Lightbox works as simple
links and the burger is functional: [https://www.rado.bg](https://www.rado.bg)
------
city41
I agree with the author, and think this is important. But I also want to point
out JS enables one to build interesting sites without a backend, by relying on
data from third party APIs. Being able to quickly do "mashup" sites like this
can be pretty great. The time it takes to build them is usually quite short,
and the hosting is almost always free.
As an example, I am currently building this site, [https://mi-
cov.com](https://mi-cov.com), which I can host for free since the data comes
from a government API. (The site is not done yet, I'm aware of the various
issues it has)
------
lazyjones
Does anyone else fondly remember the time when JS was often used to reduce
page size and increase loading speeds?
Here's an example from memory:
[https://web.archive.org/web/20030806180507/http://www.tweake...](https://web.archive.org/web/20030806180507/http://www.tweakers.net/pricewatch/cat/65)
As download speeds increased, this went out of fashion, only to be replaced by
(often obnoxious) JS-based UI elements.
------
mD5pPxMcS6fVWKE
I am old. Back in 1995 web sites loaded faster with 14.4k modems than some of
them load today with 200mgps connection.
------
dmortin
You can use a tracker blocklist, so you don't have to disable javascript:
[https://github.com/notracking/hosts-
blocklists](https://github.com/notracking/hosts-blocklists)
~~~
TedDoesntTalk
This looks like a dns-based solution? Most people are not going to install
pihole at home. Other dns-based solutions require per-device configuration,
and when you have a family with a dozen or more devices, this does not scale.
That’s why ublock origin and friends are so popular.
~~~
chewmieser
Most people aren't going to outright block JS either. It's a workable solution
for people that block JS due to trackers (albeit not a foolproof one).
------
dmortin
People like interactive sites which give immediate visual feedback for
actions.
Aside from the tracking stuff it's a better user experience, so it's unlikely
to go away, especially if the demand for no-js is tiny.
~~~
josephcsible
You can have your cake and eat it too. Use progressive enhancement/graceful
degradation so that users with JS get immediate visual feedback, and just fall
back to reloads without JS.
~~~
ithrow
That's more work and more messy than just writing the whole thing as a SPA
from the beginning IME. I'm talking about real interactive applications, not
simple blogs.
------
sershe
Is there an ADA angle to sue people (especially various govt agencies and
stuff like banks) for discrimination based on inaccessible websites? I'd
donate a lot for a credible push for bloat-free web.
------
parliament32
I'd run JS by default if I could trust random sites on the internet. But, you
know, that's not really a thing unless you're really naive.
------
agumonkey
a quick way to check is to use elinks for instance
~~~
minerjoe
This. My main browser is a modified links2 running in a framebuffer with guile
integrated for serious interactive hacking. Even on this circa 2006 computer
it screams loading pages. No javascript though, so my HN experience does not
include any voting, eh, who needs that...?
------
Rapzid
Hmmm... Nah.
------
Camillo
I'd like to say that ship has sailed, but in this case it's more like the last
rocket launched, Krypton was destroyed, and the last partisans of NoScript are
trapped in the Dark Zone, or whatever the thing with General Zod was called.
Not that big of a Superman fan.
~~~
sevenf0ur
Yup, not enabling javascript is akin to using an outdated browser for better
or for worse.
~~~
ducttapecrown
Disabling Javascript makes video game wikis, recipe webpages and news articles
far more usable for me. The primary content of these pages is text written in
HTML, and leaving Javascript on means that the ads will make the webpage
clunky, scroll badly and occasionally consume enough memory to crash the tab.
~~~
dmortin
But the sites need revenue too, so the way to make ads go away is coming up
with a ubiquitous micropayment system which can compensate the site editors if
no ad is shown.
~~~
beervirus
That's fine. If someone builds that, I'll sign up.
In the meantime, their need for revenue is not my problem. I do not feel bad
about preventing their ads, trackers, and malware from consuming my battery
and bandwidth.
------
duxup
The OMG JavaScript, parade of articles is tiresome / endless and IMO is
trending towards the absurd, and it kinda irks me.
I could really go without ever hearing someone bemoan how they rewrote an
internal react site in 10 seconds with two lines of JavaScript, or whatever
old wives tale they've got going on. If it was that easy then maybe it also
wasn't the end times?
Yeah there's a lot of pages that maybe could get away without JavaScript. But
man it's not the 90s anymore, many site owners want lots of dynamic app like
behaviors, and there's a real question there between "this reader doesn't want
it" and "the person who is paying for the site wants some stuff".
Maybe someone has Homer Simpson's web page level absurdity with JavaScript,
and maybe that's Homer's page and that's ok?
The browser now effectively runs apps, so it's not just going to read HTML,
that's how it is, and that's a good thing the web does so much more now. Does
it do everything we want / how we want/ no ... but I don't buy into the idea
of a end user only web where we have to bow to the lowest common denominator
as far as acceptable levels of interactivity or tech usage....
~~~
paulryanrogers
> The browser now effectively runs apps, so it's not just going to read HTML
The problem is that browsers are running apps when most users just want to
read relatively static content. Our ever decreasing, day-one battery lives and
swelling landfills are clear evidence this isn't sustainable.
~~~
ng12
> most users just want to read relatively static content
The most oft-complained about sites (news sites, "blogs") don't really care
what you want. They care about engagement, monetizing, and/or conversions.
That's much more difficult without JavaScript. If you have it disabled you've
limited your value to them anyways.
Aside from the small number of altruistic orgs like WikiMedia your complaints
about JS will fall on deaf ears.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
LulzSec supposedly claims its biggest coup yet: The entire UK 2011 Census - mopoke
http://thenextweb.com/industry/2011/06/21/lulzsec-supposedly-claims-its-biggest-coup-yet-the-entire-uk-2011-census/
======
BasDirks
LulzSec The Lulz Boat
_Oh well, just because we want to waste government and local authority
investigation time: we hacked every website in the world. Enjoy!_
11 minutes ago
LulzSec The Lulz Boat
_I'm not seeing "we hacked the UK census" on our twitter feed or website...
why does the media believe we hacked the UK census? #confusion_
13 minutes ago
LulzSec The Lulz Boat
_Not sure we claimed to hack the UK census or where that rumour started, but
we assume it's because people are stupider than you and I._
~~~
Peroni
LulzSec The Lulz Boat
_Just saw the pastebin of the UK census hack. That wasn't us - don't believe
fake LulzSec releases unless we put out a tweet first._
~~~
Feinux
hi Lulzer, nice to here your voices, :)
------
someone13
According to their Twitter, they haven't hacked the Census. Seems like someone
was spreading false information...
See:
<https://twitter.com/#!/LulzSec/status/83168314527981568>
<https://twitter.com/#!/LulzSec/status/83167715799470080>
EDIT:
Those tweets were deleted. Here's the official word:
"Just saw the pastebin of the UK census hack. That wasn't us - don't believe
fake LulzSec releases unless we put out a tweet first."
<https://twitter.com/#!/LulzSec/status/83172089711964161>
~~~
joejohnson
When you post a tweet, how much information does twitter have about you? An IP
adress, what platform you use, etc.
I'm just curious, because Lulzsec posts frequently and I wonder if law
enforcement could subpoena twitter in attempts to catch these people.
~~~
qF
During the 'hunt' for Wikileaks the U.S. has subpoenaed Twitter for info about
supposed supporters.[1] In the case of Lulzsec this will have very little use
though, as they use VPN's to hide their IP [2].
[1] <http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/01/twitter/>
[2] [http://lulzsecexposed.blogspot.com/2011/06/scared-
puppies.ht...](http://lulzsecexposed.blogspot.com/2011/06/scared-puppies.html)
~~~
trotsky
_they use VPN's to hide their IP_
The FBI routinely uses software exploits to install something called CIPAV on
the remote client computer to retrieve forensics data and negate the effect of
proxies, vpns, tor, etc.
<http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2007/07/fbi-spyware-how/>
Twitter almost assuredly has the ability to push a custom iframe or similar
based on who is logged on to support these kinds of government payloads. In
the case the wired article references myspace directly assisted.
Surely being more security paranoid than usual should make it harder for an
attack like this to succeed, but if the feds get pissed enough it's not
unthinkable that they could get access to a targeted zero day to use.
~~~
kl4m
It's pretty much useless if the tunnel is on another machine and/or it's
firewalled properly.
------
ElliotH
Given LulzSec seems to post their hacks on twitter, that there's no way of
validating who posted the PasteBin item and that the Office of National
Statistics hasn't reported the loss, its probably best to wait and see
something a little more convincing.
~~~
m4tt
I wrote the article and have been trying to trace the authenticity of the
release. I am still waiting to hear back from the Office of National
Statistics, which at the time were unaware of who LulzSec even were.
I contacted them a little over two hours ago, I haven't received a response,
yet.
~~~
ErrantX
Knowing a little of the internals of ONS...
It may take them a while to figure out what a "computer" is and how it might
be "hacked". You could be waiting some time :)
ahem.
~~~
m4tt
Just got off the phone to them. Issuing a statement very soon. Will update
both the article and on HN.
~~~
m4tt
In related news, the "Mastermind" behind LulzSec has been arrested:
[http://thenextweb.com/industry/2011/06/21/suspected-
lulzsec-...](http://thenextweb.com/industry/2011/06/21/suspected-lulzsec-
mastermind-arrested/)
------
click170
This whole escalating security situation has me thinking that IT security is
heading down the same path as the War On Drugs. I wonder if ten or twenty
years from now we'll see petitions to legalize hacking tools after we see a
resurgence in security breaches following the criminalization of "hacking
tools"...
------
antihero
If this is true then I am suing Lockheed Martin under the Data Protection Act.
~~~
estel
There's jurisdiction for that?
~~~
eftpotrm
If their servers have been compromised to leak the data, should be. They ran
the survey and UK and European data protection law makes data leaks the
responsibility of the data holder.
~~~
sunchild
They were one of the first companies to admit that the RSA SecurID exploit
compromised them over the past months, too.
Link to story: [http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/052611-lockheed-
martin...](http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/052611-lockheed-martin-
outage.html)
------
khafra
I'm leaning toward "hoax." Lulzsec has been reasonably competent writers so
far, and the bizarre placement of "blissfully" makes that either incompetent
or some kind of steganography. That, added to the lack of tweet, makes me
doubt.
Of course, it could still be some anon who actually does have the census data,
and considers himself lulzsec-affiliated.
~~~
StavrosK
Why can't anyone bother to sign their press releases, it's not like it's the
60s.
~~~
MiguelHudnandez
Plausible deniability? (assuming you meant to cryptographically sign the press
releases.)
~~~
StavrosK
Hmm, good point.
------
Peroni
If true, this will be a _massive_ coup and regardless of how they obtained the
records, LulzSec will get all of the significant negative attention they so
badly crave.
I submitted my census info via the online form and given the amount of detail
I included I would be terrified if that info was leaked.
~~~
shubble
Imagining that the release is true, this will do strange things for pay
bargaining. Imagine if you could look up your colleagues before asking for a
rise? On the other hand, I don't recall anything really horrific on that form.
Enough data to steal my identity and take out a mortgage in my name, yes.
Enough to embarrass me? no...
~~~
Peroni
There may not be anything in there to embarass me but there is unequivocally
enough in there for someone to steal my identity and ruin a credit rating I've
been working extremely hard to build over the last three years.
~~~
mariuskempe
What info from the census would enable someone to steal an identity? From the
looks of it there's only DoB and address in terms of personal info...
~~~
Peroni
Childrens names & DoB, previous addresses, employment status, national
insurance number. That info alone is enough for someone experienced to do
damage.
~~~
jules
Isn't that info relatively easy to obtain from most people anyway? Not on such
a large scale of course.
~~~
pbhjpbhj
You can obtain that sort of info, by dumpster diving say, but not in anything
like the scale.
Imagine that you can get this info and a pretty good idea of salary and
lifestyle by running a db search in a few seconds. You can easily focus your
attention on the most lucrative propositions and get info from even those that
are careful to not put such info out there. Census completion is a legal
requirement, everyone should be on one.
------
patrickod
So what's the worst possible outcome here in terms of the UK government's
reactions? Fast-tracked arcane legislation to make security tools illegal like
they are in .de ? Broadening the terms of hacking and increasing the legal
penalties? If LulzSec aren't trolling the world and they do indeed have these
records I would imagine there is going to be one hell of a shitstorm in the
coming weeks.
~~~
crocowhile
It would be just another excuse to get the Internet ID implemented. MAFIAA has
been pushing for Internet ID since years now and a number of politicians are
in favour. Must admit that every time I read about the latest Lulsec activity
I cannot help but think that MAFIAA is behind all this.
~~~
mike-cardwell
I'd say the opposite will happen. The government will not be able to set up
anything which requires a massive secure database for quite a few years. Every
time they claim they can set up a secure database, the 2011 census leak will
be brought up.
------
justincormack
This was the first census where you could submit details online. I wonder if
it was these records? Would be surprised if they had even finished scanning
the paper ones yet, but the UK governments security record is not good. They
contracted it to Lockheed Martin, who also do the US census, so presumably
reused the software?
~~~
crocowhile
LM was penetrated few days before census day. Maybe the left some back doors?
[http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/154078/20110529/lockheed-
mar...](http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/154078/20110529/lockheed-martin-cyber-
attack.htm)
------
pedrokost
With the amount of hacking that is flooding the news recently, I would like to
learn about database security. What are some good books/tutorials/videos on
how to make databases more secure?
~~~
tomp
I believe that most databases are secure, especially the open source ones.
What you should be careful about is the things surrounding the database: the
.php files (or whatever) that read/write the database, and the system it is
running on.
Basic security practice for the web: NEVER trust user input: check and recheck
all the GET/POST variables, check that numbers are numbers, that strings are
correct strings (they have no funny characters, such as " or ; (for databases)
or <>"&' (for HTML) or . (for paths)). Check all input into the databases (to
prevent SQL injections) and all output for to the user (for XSS).
Basic security practice for sysadmins: Use up-to-date OS and software. Use
strong passwords. Almost never run root. Make remote access hard.
This seems easy, and for the most part, it is. It's just so many things that
people forget to check for them all.
~~~
pornel
Yes, let's secure our databases against O'Reillys and AT&Ts submitting their
funny names! <g>
It's not characters that get you, it's lack of escaping or escaping for the
wrong context (e.g. magic_quotes won't work for HTML)
• For SQL use prepared statements _exclusively_ (never let "oh, it's just a
number so I don't need to" fool you)
• Escaping doesn't differ between "trusted" and "untrusted" data (and these
boundaries are too easy to break eventually).
Just escape _everything_ , _always_. In PHP it means every `echo $var` is a
likely vulnerability and `echo htmlspecialchars($var, ENT_QUOTES)` (in HTML
except script) or `json_encode($var)` (in script) is a _must_.
Obviously, you should do defense in depth, so input validation is great and
some filtering just-in-case may be warranted, but escaping alone (assuming
done well) is sufficient for security, while filtering alone is not.
~~~
fendale
> For SQL use prepared statements exclusively (never let "oh, it's just a
> number so I don't need to" fool you)
I cannot vote this up enough. Also, depending on what database you are using
(eg Oracle) if you don't use prepared statements (aka bind variables) you are
guarantee killing your DB performance.
People have argued with me in the past that for things like sorting the data
they cannot use bind variables. In that case, use the user input to select
which safe string to use, eg:
if user_select_sort == 'by_account_num'
return 'order by account_num asc'
elsif user_select_sort == 'by_transaction_date'
return 'order by transaction_date'
else
return ''
end if
Then if someone sends in something tricky, it will just order wrong.
~~~
tomp
The way I write software, such values of user_select_sort would never even be
possible... It's much slower to compare strings than to compare numbers, and
passing long descriptive values that are actually booleans or short enums is
just a waste of bandwidth (assuming they are passed as GET/POST variables).
Why not just pass numbers instead?
~~~
fendale
Numbers or strings wasn't the point really. You can do 'order by 1' or 'order
by 2' in SQL to order by the first or second selected col etc, but if you used
used the number passed directly from the user in the SQL statement, you are
open to SQL injection. Feel free to use the number in a case statement to
select the order by string to concat into your SQL however.
------
Simon_M
I wonder if they are using the same (undocumented) exploit for each of these
attacks.
I am certainly no expert in this field, but I would have thought discovering
new exploits and security holes would take time, yet these guys are hitting
several major sites a week.
~~~
mike-cardwell
From what I understand, their main tool is simple SQL injection.
Most websites seem to have at least one XSS or SQL injection hole. Nearly all
have CSRF flaws.
~~~
wisty
Still, census data should _not_ be accessible from a public facing web site.
That's just amateur hour. You should really assume that anything with a POST
form is vulnerable.
~~~
mike-cardwell
Agreed. Any submitted data should have been immediately encrypted with a
public key who's companion private key was stored offline. It should have then
been immediately transferred to a secondary box which was setup with a single
function of accepting and storing the data. Ie a box which you can't query
over the network for data.
As soon as the census closed, the relevant boxes should have been taken
offline. The data moved to a "secure" location, and the original boxes wiped
and destroyed.
Considering the data that was being collected, I don't think this is overkill.
~~~
crocowhile
For those who are interested, these are the questions:
[http://www.ons.gov.uk/census/2011-census/2011-census-
questio...](http://www.ons.gov.uk/census/2011-census/2011-census-
questionnaire-content/2011-census-questions---england.pdf)
------
binarymax
So, after I was strongarmed into filling out the damn thing, now all my
identity data is in the wild. I will be joining in a suit of Lockheed if this
is true.
~~~
arethuza
There is already a guide on how to take a case under the Data Protection Act:
[http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/data_protecti...](http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/data_protection/practical_application/taking_a_case_to_court.pdf)
------
mike-cardwell
There'll be some interesting mashups if this is true.
------
crocowhile
I don't like where this is going.
~~~
beseku
Whats worrying about the apparent proliferation of security breaches like this
is that as the attacks get more sophisticated, so do the prevention methods.
This could get to the point whereby the skill level required to protect an
application or server goes way higher than the skill level of many developers.
The result being that independent development is impossible as you would need
to hire ever more expensive security consultants for anything that stores
data.
~~~
zwp
I understand your point (it is potentially true for more than just the
security domain of application development) but I think your premise in this
case is false. SQLI (XSS, CSRF, ...) attacks are neither sophisticated nor
new. SQLI has been known since at least _1998_ (Phrack 54).
SQLI protection at least should be abstracted away from the developer's
concerns by use of default parametrized queries. Technical difficulty is not
the problem here.
------
acron0
Head of the hydra and all that....
<https://twitter.com/#!/LulzSec/status/83164092998758400>
------
drtse4
"Biggest" only for the media coverage this could get, i would not be surprised
if they had exploited a common vulnerability. At least when we are discussing
about publicly accessible sites, "security-illiterate" is the perfect
definition for these government agencies (and the external companies that
realize the sites they need).
Will this kind of things make the general public at least a bit more security
conscious?
------
iamichi
What pissed me off was that it is a legal requirement to complete the census
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_Census_2011#Oper...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_Census_2011#Operation)),
so everyones personal details are in the database, which if stollen is a
identify thief's dream load.
------
InclinedPlane
It appears that LulzSec isn't directly responsible for this. Although, since
they called for the hacking of every government agency in the world with their
"anti-sec" call to arms it's a bit disengeneous for them to rock back on their
heels in shock and confusion.
------
JackWebbHeller
Scotland Yard press release: They have confirmed his arrest.
[http://content.met.police.uk/News/eCrime-unit-arrest-
man/126...](http://content.met.police.uk/News/eCrime-unit-arrest-
man/1260269113895/1257246745756)
------
evolution
LulzSec just confirmed this being rumor on their twitter account
<http://twitter.com/#!/LulzSec/status/83167715799470080>
------
retube
They're going to piss a lot of people off if they do this. Like every single
UK citizen.
Exposing security flaws and embarrassing govt is one thing, but to put un-
redacted personal data online is quite another.
~~~
rwmj
_If_ this is true (and it seems it's probably not) then the people to get
angry with are the UK government and their contractors Lockheed-Martin. WTF
are we using a US-based company for anyway?
~~~
estel
Presumably they put it out for tender and got the best package that they
could.
Isn't that what we'd expect a Government to do? Tender jobs out to the private
sector and choose the provider that offers the best value for money?
It's not as if Lockheed Martin are a particularly insecure or untrustworthy
company to hold private data.
~~~
chrisjsmith
LM have a terrible reputation. Google around.
~~~
rlpb
Is there any Government IT contractor that doesn't have a terrible reputation?
Government contracts are a pain to do. Most of the work is in jumping through
hoops rather than actually doing the work. Most (all?) competent companies
avoid Government work for this reason, making it very difficult to get any
Government IT work done well.
~~~
chrisjsmith
That is a fair point.
I've always thought that the government should have their own IT agency. The
NHS would do well to fire all the paid up consultants and commercial software
and start a Google-style technology cooperative and share their results to
other agencies. The NHS has the biggest IT problem of all and with the right
minds on the job we'd have massive progress in the organisation and some
serious advances in computer science to boot.
------
thomasknowles
Apparently it's fake:
<http://twitter.com/#!/LulzSec/status/83168314527981568> reply
------
arn
of interest [edit, arrest link below]:
<http://twitter.com/#!/channel4news/status/83129762142363649>
_19-year-old suspected of being mastermind behind computer hacking group
LulzSec arrested in Wickford, Essex. #c4news_
~~~
ZeroMinx
It's on the Met Police site - [http://content.met.police.uk/News/eCrime-unit-
arrest-man/126...](http://content.met.police.uk/News/eCrime-unit-arrest-
man/1260269113895/1257246745756)
~~~
JonnieCache
_"The PCeU was assisted by officers from Essex Police and have been working in
co-operation with the FBI."_
------
cabalamat
Anyone can _claim_ to have the census data; I won't believe this until they
release it.
------
Andrew_Quentin
Such a shame.
Anonymous had a lot of support for their attacks on Mastercard et. al. People,
not just the programmers demographic, were seeing them as civil disobedience
through the internet and hailing them for taking a right cause, namely against
dirty, probably unconstitutional, certainly unethical attacks on wikileaks by
numerous powerful groups.
What's more, anonymous was seen as more powerful than such groups on the
internet arena. It was felt that such powerful groups would thus think twice
and know that they are against probably smarter people, perhaps even their own
employees. Alas, like actual physical protests, they did not manage to change
much. Wikileaks has almost been forgotten now. Julian has gone quite. The
organisation itself seems to have become divided and disorganised. They
possibly are buying time. But the power that be has shown us that they have
the resources, are willing to play, publicly, dirty tricks, and can even
withstand a public opinion quite strongly against them.
Julian has been given some outstanding honour in journalism. He might even win
the Peace prize for what some say was the effect of wikileaks on bringing
about the Arab Spring. That may show that there are many powerful avenues to
resist and/or push back the power that be.
All of that is being undermined for no apparent reason whatever. Although
Lulzec might be trying to send a signal to the power that be. We are stronger.
We are smarter. You need to know that before thinking again about doing dirty
tricks. They don't seem to be able or willing to choose their targets well to
send such a message. Showing that you can for example steal the census data in
order to increase the security of organisations which deal with our data is
like a man showing that he can steal a car by so breaking into the car and
stealing it.
We can all commit crimes. We choose not to for very good reasons. Some things
can not be fortified and turned into castles. And even castles can be brought
down.
So the ultimate effect is that anonymous is painted with the same brush. As
petty criminals bringing havoc into the streets of the neighbourhood by
breaking car windows to show us that they can so break car windows.
For now, anonymous still has the upper moral ground. That is for now. By for
now I mean for the next few days or weeks. The report for example that a
member of lulzsec has been arrested who has connections with anonymous helps
tremendously in blurring the lines between anonymous and lulsec.
The blurring means nothing more nor less than the excuse and the swaying of
the public opinion that the power that be needs to go after anonymous and send
a clear signal. You may be smarter but we have more resources and more avenues
and the consequences you face are much greater.
The biggest signal that the power that be may send however is that they are
able to control the public opinion by playing tricks. I think we all remember
how last year we were talking about how the power that be is going to deal
with wikileaks. The conversations that were had here on hackernews are
probably still accessible through searching. Killing him seemed to be the most
mentioned option, but quickly refuted by others. Now, it may be a strong
statement to make seeing as I have no evidence whatever, but the information
that did come out in regards to the two women, the fact that Assange is still
here in Britain almost a year after, that he is actually free, suggests that
tainting him with rape accusations was their choice. As we are seeing, it
seems to have worked.
Equally, I do not know who lulzecs is. They have no motive, no reason, to do
what they are doing. They are intelligent. Thus I doubt they would risk years
in prison to just show that they can break a car. People do not tend to do
things for no reason, especially if there are great consequences.
There is no laughter to be had of say having access to a lot of information of
sonny users. Nor is there any lulz in having say the information of the
census.
I therefore think that there is a probability that Matercard, Visa, Bank of
America et al got quite pissed off from anonymous' attacks, but unable to do
anything because of the strong public support that anonymous had, thought
creatively and went for the blurring of the lines between common thief's and
civil disobedience.
That is one possibility. Probably the more likely possibility. Sophos for
example seems to be salivating every time lulzsecs does something.
The other option, that they are kids, being stupid, like most teenagers at
time, confused, rebellious, is a possibility but unlikely. They probably know
full well, that gaining such a high profile while not having any public
support or even having the public against them means that they will crash down
painfully to the bottom and remain there for years and years.
I'll finally finish this quite long comment by stating that if lulzsec is
anything else than affiliated or corrupted, then they should know that they
are tainting ideals with petty crimes.
~~~
mquander
Give me a break. There are no ideals, and it's not a conspiracy. It's just a
bunch of trolls on summer vacation. They are doing it because they don't
really care to consider consequences when they choose to do something. Mystery
solved by Occam's Razor.
If you didn't know that lots of people like to do mean, pointless things all
day for no reason, then welcome to 4chan, you may or may not enjoy your stay.
~~~
klenwell
_There are no ideals, and it's not a conspiracy._
That's the impression I have of a lot of contemporary political and business
interests: "There are no ideals, and it's not a conspiracy. It's just
business." Some do it for the lulz. Some do it for the bottom line.
LulzSec's tactics may be callous or juvenile, but they also somehow see a
fitting expression for some of the inchoate disenchantment that I feel. When I
pause to consider that I'm doing pretty well, all things considered, I can
imagine the deeper chord they strike with others.
~~~
trotsky
_but they also somehow see a fitting expression for some of the inchoate
disenchantment that I feel._
I've been curious about this feeling as it certainly seems to me that you're
not alone. What is it that they've done that makes them hit a chord with you?
What I see when I look at lulzsec is mostly behvior that hurts a random
collection of common people - like dropping emails, hashes, personal info of
people who just happened to be unlucky enough to make an account with one of
their many targets. Or DDOS on small indie software developers to prevent
their customers from playing their games for a bit. Are you disenchanted with
gamers and people who sign up for a book forum and such?
I totally understand the appeal of the Anonymous DDOS's and HB Gary hack for
example, so the whole thing isn't lost on me. But I just find lulzsec idiotic
and grating.
~~~
klenwell
_What is it that they've done that makes them hit a chord with you?_
As an American, I have a demoralizing sense that the country has given up on
doing great things and, more specifically, turned its back on underdogs. I
could make a more detailed case, starting with my view of human nature and
extending to the latest Supreme Court decisions and the drivel I see nosing
around Twitter and Facebook, but that would be sort of beside the point here.
Why gamers and book forum readers? I don't have anything against them
personally and I agree there are probably more suitable targets. At the same
time, obsessive game-players and score-keeping book-readers offer an obvious
illustration for the kind of obliviousness and escapism that I can find
symptomatic of larger social problems.
I suspect Lulzsec owes part of its style to The Joker from the last Batman
movie. Remember that scene when the Joker lights the pile of money on fire? I
agree Anonymous is a more constructive example of civil disobedience. But
Lulzsec, in its aimlessness, may be the more potent symbol. I see it as a form
of satire as much as anything.
Would my attitude would change if, say, they deleted my gmail account?
Probably. But then maybe there would be something constructive in that, too.
~~~
trotsky
Thanks for taking the time to respond.
I was thinking of saying something along the lines of I'd be surprised if they
view their own actions so introspectively. Perhaps comparing it to the classic
english teacher interpreting meaning behind a work for he class that the
author never intended.
But I suppose it really doesn't matter - if people get something from a work
it really makes no difference if the intent was there with the creation.
~~~
klenwell
I agree. I expect their actions are not introspective but reactionary.
Nevertheless, I think there's a logic behind them consistent with the sort
explored by behavioral economists.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Commercial projects versus open source? - theoverworked
I find potential employers pushing open source (github activity, etc) projects a lot. I feel this discourages me from working on commercial (closed source) projects.<p>How does one balance closed source work while maintaining a "public" presence in the open source world. Time is so limited and splitting focus doesn't seem like a good plan.
======
davismwfl
So the answer depends. If you are working in Enterprise America, then you have
to start contributing to open source projects on your own and outside of your
"day" job.
If you are working at a small company or startup that is using other open
source projects/products, you can contribute to those projects to help improve
your company and get paid to do it.
In the end, if you are hacking on something you think is neat or interesting,
put it out there. The worse thing is no one notices, the best is you now have
things you can point to.
Personally, I use a combination of all the above, yet I am the first to admit,
I screwed up early on in that I used a company email/GitHub account I had to
do most of my contributions instead of my personal email. Had I used my
personal it would have made my contributions easier to track, but either way
they are provable.
Either way, the more you put yourself out there the better. Good luck!
------
explosion
While working on a commercial project, you typically have to write some code
that isn't related directly to the core business. This code can be open
sourced as a library.
------
ChuckMcM
You should not feel discouraged. If you consider the whole "white board
exercise" you might think of open source github projects like that. Bits of
code you can write to learn about bloom filters, or try comparing sorts. Also
you can 'fork' an open source project and submit pull requests from it on
Github.
But it does pre-suppose that you like to dabble in writing code in your "free"
time.
------
bbcbasic
I don't worry about potential employers. I've done a bit of open source for
fun. But now I can't be bothered working for free and would rather do
commercial stuff for side projects. Happy to show a PE some of the code, but
it ain't going to be on Github.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Mumtris - Tetris in M - pkoper
https://github.com/pkoper/mumtris
Only for ancient hackers: Tetris in MUMPS, implementation is GT.M specific.
======
sp332
To add insult to injury, it uses 100% CPU by design :)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Growth Ponzi Scheme (2011) - minikites
https://www.strongtowns.org/the-growth-ponzi-scheme
======
lisper
Before someone says something like, "This is why we need to colonize Mars"
remember: the laws of physics do not permit sustained exponential growth, full
stop. Even with arbitrarily advanced technology that allows you to freely
colonize the universe at the speed of light that only buys you polynomial
growth (indeed, only O(n^2) growth) in the absolute best case.
Sooner or later mankind is going to run up against the limits of exponential
growth. We can make conscious decisions about how to deal with it, or we can
let the laws of physics decide for us. IMHO things will go better for us if we
take the bull by the horns, but very few people seem to be on board with that
even here on HN where gloomy Malthusian prophecies are rarely received with
much enthusiasm.
Happily, I'm now old enough (and childless) so I can afford not to give much
of a fuck. But sooner or later someone is going to have to. If it's not you,
it will be your children, or their children. The sooner someone starts to give
a fuck, the less painful it will be when -- not if -- we finally discover what
the limiting factor to growth actually is.
~~~
Ididntdothis
Most likely these issues will get resolved the old fashioned way by violence.
Climate change issues will get resolved the same way. Humanity has never made
collective decisions for the whole planet and I don’t see that changing any
time soon.
~~~
elmo2you
> Humanity has never made collective decisions for the whole planet ...
League of Nations, later becoming the United Nations, Universal Declaration of
Human Rights ... hopefully you will have heard of those.
Within the UN there are not that many members that complain much about the
organization being dysfunctional or even useless. Unsurprisingly, all those
who do are the USA and ones that are extremely dependent on the USA. One could
argue that the USA is indeed an exceptional country, but not in a good way.
The UN was explicitly set up with the goal of collectively solving global
problems. The current status quo within the UN, where the USA regularly
flaunts the treaties they signed/ratified or falsely accusing others of
violations (without sufficient proof) just as justification for ditching their
own commitments, says little about humanity and everything about the USA.
I have no doubt that the USA will indeed do everything to "resolve" these
issues rather the old fashioned way by violence. Hopefully the rest of mankind
will be a bit smarter than that.
~~~
Ididntdothis
”League of Nations, later becoming the United Nations, Universal Declaration
of Human Rights ... hopefully you will have heard of those.”
These organizations are/were a good thing but they haven’t been able to stop
violence so far. The League of Nations couldn’t prevent WW2 and the UN
couldn’t prevent a lot of atrocities and war since its creation. I wish they
could. I also don’t think international collaboration will work once we have
tens of millions of people having to move due to climate change or if
overpopulation causes severe resource shortages.
~~~
elmo2you
I can follow that line of reasoning, but I think it is biased (maybe
unintentionally) to the point where its conclusion is inaccurate.
Indeed, the League of Nations couldn't prevent WW2, neither did the UN prevent
a lot of atrocities from happening. That is, aside from all the atrocities
that it did actually prevent (probably numerously, but we will never know for
they didn't happen). If not from starting, than at least from expanding to the
point that they otherwise would have. As for WW2, besides its roots in the
settlement of WW1, it was also the opportunistic selfish advantages that some
particular countries (not talking about Germany) saw in it's unfolding, while
pretending otherwise to the public, that made WW2 to unfold as it did
(reminder: it was the USA who continued doing good business with Germany,
until it was Hitler who declared war on the USA).
The real question to ask is: what would we have without the UN? All there
would be is bilateral agreements between individual countries. It is well
known from history how easily those create extremely complex situations where
a local conflict can often quickly spiral out into global conflicts (because
of conflicting agreements between allies of the involved parties). WW1
probably being a good example of that, and in fact a primary motivator behind
the creation of what eventually became the UN.
Climate change will indeed cause all sorts of problems, violence no doubt
among them. One thing is sure though, with only bilateral agreements between
countries, it will be only more bloody and inhumane than with the UN at least
striving for a global consensus approach. It's only with collective agreement
that the effects of these challenges can be limited to their least worst
outcomes. It will be bad either way, but that's no valid argument to
fatalistically argue that nothing will matter. Of course, the USA could choose
that none of this is their problem, and only look at their own self-interests.
But that will rather sooner than later pave the way of their own inevitable
demise (which in that case would probably be a very unpleasant one).
As long as a substantial part of the US economy and international political
dominance comes directly from how the country profits from conflict elsewhere
on the globe, little chance that the USA will ever sincerely contribute to
making this world a better place. This is not to say that other countries are
benevolent or sincere, but it is the USA who openly advocates breaking down
whatever instruments we still have to resolve issues by consensus instead of
violence.
The UN is by no means a perfect solution, but without it this world would
likely be a far worse place. The world before it existed sure was. Something
apparently only the USA (and a few vassals) seems to openly disagree with. I
remember only a few other countries that did; mostly totalitarian ones and
responsible for some of those atrocities that that the UN failed to prevent.
~~~
Ididntdothis
I think we are in agreement. The UN does good things but it's limited.
------
manfredo
The main premise of this article is that suburbanization led to increased
long-term infrastructure costs (because sparse populations require more per-
capita spending to deliver power, plumbing, roads, etc.), but failed to
generate a commensurate increase in tax revenue. This is much less of a
problem than it it seems because:
1\. The population is becoming increasingly urban. The trend of
suburbanization has not only stopped, it has been reversing for several
decades now.
2\. When infrastructure fails, there's a very strong incentive to raise money
to improve infrastructure. Admittedly this is less effective than preventing
failures in the first place, but the challenge of raising tax dollars to fix a
bridge becomes much easier when residents can no longer use said bridge to
commute and thus have a much larger incentive to pay the necessary taxes.
~~~
cagenut
w/r/t #2 you're not arguing the point you're just re-phrasing it. That money
has to come from somewhere, so it comes from the schools and the spending
power of the residents via higher property taxes. That's why all the "old
burb" areas like mass/ct/nj/long-island have very high property taxes. People
think they can flee it by moving to burbs in delaware/florida/rdc/whatever but
its just moving the problem and kicking the can a generation, not solving it.
------
natmaka
Pertinent and sound points are made at
[https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2019/12/16/best-
of-2019-...](https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2019/12/16/best-
of-2019-trickle-or-the-fire-hose)
------
tempestn
Something I've noticed that came to mind as I happen to be vacationing in
Playa Del Carmen (Mexico) while reading this. I'm from Canada; visiting here,
and walking through the town, I obviously notice many buildings, vehicles,
roads, etc. are in much more of a state of disrepair than I'm used to at home.
This includes downtown areas, so it's not a sprawl issue, but (I assume) just
that there isn't the same amount of capital invested into maintaining
infrastructure, updating vehicles, etc. that we see at home. (On average;
obviously there are plenty of exceptions.) Now, this isn't surprising since
GDP per capita in Mexico is much lower than in Canada or the United States.
However, in most visits I've made to the US, I've noticed the same thing to a
lesser extent. Almost anywhere roads are in worse condition that what I'm used
to. Outside of large cities, infrastructure in general seems more run-down
than in similar places in Canada. But this is all just in my limited personal
experience.
So first of all, I'm curious whether this is actually the case, or just my own
biased personal experience. Have other cross-border travelers noticed this?
And if it is a real thing, then I'm curious what the reasons are, given that
the US has somewhat higher GDP per capita than Canada.
Some possibilities I've considered are 1) wealth in the US is more
concentrated in large cities than in Canada. I'm sure this is the case in both
countries, but perhaps the effect is greater in the US? 2) The spending
priorities in the two countries are different. For instance, US spending on
healthcare and on military are both higher per capita than Canadian. Perhaps
Canada just spends more (publicly and/or privately) on infrastructure and less
on other things? If so, is this the result of intentional priorities to some
extent? Or is it just an artifact of history or of governmental structures?
I'm not trying to argue that one approach is better than another, or even that
my observations are generalize-able. Just curious if others have noticed the
same and have thoughts.
------
davidw
If you like the article, his book is good too, it distills a lot of the
thinking (that site has a _lot_ of articles) into one source:
[https://www.strongtowns.org/book](https://www.strongtowns.org/book)
------
blackrock
How exactly would we colonize Mars anyways?
All equipment on Earth is run off fossil fuels: gasoline cars, diesel trucks,
jet engines, helicopters, busses, etc. Tesla electric cars barely make a dent,
and rely on electricity produced by natural gas.
Solar intensity on Mars is much weaker than on Earth. I assume this would
require huge acres of land to capture as much energy from the sun via solar
panels, as compared to Earth. Fortunately Mars has electric dust storms that
can scrub the solar panels for us, which would reduce the need to send human
labor out to clean them.
So that leaves hydrogen and nuclear. Hydrogen can be split via electrolysis,
but this requires a lot of electricity. See problem #1. And it requires
expensive fuel cells to convert it back into electricity, so that it can be
used on demand. But we haven’t yet mastered the mass production of fuel cells
here on Earth, in order to produce it cheaply enough. Fuel cells requires
platinum, gold, and a bunch of other precious metals. So this would add to an
already very expensive camping trip to Mars.
It’s possible wind turbines might be used, but Mars has a thin atmosphere,
which already presents problem for spacecraft trying to land. But this may
work for wind turbines.
Or geothermal, but his assumes the core of Mars is hot. But from all satellite
reconnaissance so far, Mars doesn’t seem to have any hot springs.
Then nuclear, this is likely the most viable technology. Possibly by RTG,
which seems to be the most portable, as we can build that on Earth, and launch
it to Mars. You would need to launch a lot of them from Earth to ship to Mars,
which further reduces the affordability, and kills the possibility of living
off the land. And if uranium exists on Mars, which I’m sure it does, then
you’d need a huge industrial base just to mine and process it. But first,
you’d have to find it, which would require expensive human and robotic
exploration outside in Martian excursion suits.
Fission based nuclear plants as we know it on Earth seems overly complex to
use on Mars. It’s just a giant water boiler, used to produce steam, to spin a
generator, to create electricity. And I doubt the technology as it is used on
Earth, can function correctly in the cold winters of Mars. You’d have to
prevent your radioactive water coolant from freezing on you. So you’d need to
redesign it in order to be used safely on Mars.
Fusion reactors, well, we still haven’t invented that yet, and they keep
saying that it’s only 50 years away.
So that brings us back to fossil fuels. If they’re correct in assuming that
Mars used to be a tropical paradise, billions of years ago, and full of lush
vegetation and flowing rivers, before it froze over, then, I’m certain that
there is oil buried somewhere in the dirt. It may be frozen, but we can bring
in our fracking technology to extract it. Or maybe it’s frozen in tar sands,
in which case we can excavate it.
So there you have it. Mars has oil! Possibly..
Now, it’s time to go plant a flag. Every man (or nation) for himself!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Inside Faraday Future - coloneltcb
http://www.theverge.com/2015/11/19/9761852/faraday-future-car-company-interview-tour-electric-tesla-competitor
======
shostack
One thing I really worry about with the future of cars is ownership.
If you are renting your car, you cannot do as you like with it, and if you
stop paying, you lose transportation. Today, if you own a car it might be an
absolute beater if you don't maintain it, and it might be illegal to drive
without insurance, but as long as you have gas, odds are it will actually run.
Further, I wonder about the subscription model as it is applied here. Many
people buy cheap cars outright because they don't like ongoing payments. If
the future is a subscription model, it seems they can raise the price whenever
they like (market forces aside).
While I think the whole concept of owning a car is definitely something in
flux (as it should be), I hope the alternative is not just "car +
subscription" and ultimately paying a higher price in the end.
~~~
andreasley
In Switzerland, there is a service called "Mobility" where you can basically
rent a car by the hour. You have to set up an account and provide them with a
copy of your drivers license once, but after that, a car can easily and
instantly be booked on their website or by using their mobile app. In larger
cities, there's always a few cars nearby, ready to roll. They take care of all
the maintenance stuff, repairs and insurance; you just pay a fixed amount per
km you drive and for the duration of your use.
It's remarkably convenient and cheaper than owning a car if you don't drive
that much. I can totally see this as the future – especially with self-driving
vehicles.
~~~
mdolon
They have this is in most major US cities too (Zipcar, Enterprise Car Share,
Hertz 24/7, GetAround).
I tried it for a bit in NYC but found that while it was useful for things like
grocery shopping, most of the times public transportation was sufficient for
my needs. For longer trips spanning multiple days, it was almost always
cheaper to rent from traditional vendors. I can see it being useful if you
live on the outskirts of the city or in more suburban areas, though.
------
DrScump
I think thr original full title, "Inside Faraday Future, the secretive car
company chasing Tesla" is more descriptive.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
JavaScript's “new Date()” causing 90% of Alibaba's internal compatibility issues - mrrrgn
http://www.mrrrgn.com/20/
======
tdy721
Everything with timezones in a disaster, and the solution always seems to be a
unix timestamp that is converted to human readable form at the last possible
moment...
~~~
lightblade
Nope, use ISO 8601 format just like blog post suggested. It's more readable
and not vulnerable to the Year 2038 problem [1].
It's also important to note that ISO 8601 format is the default format that
Date object serialize to. Try it new Date().toJSON()
[1]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem)
~~~
cbd1984
Unix timestamps aren't vulnerable to the Year 2038 Problem unless you
deliberately make it so they are.
------
draw_down
As much as I like JS, everything involving it and dates/timezones is a giant
disaster.
~~~
projct
time is a giant disaster in every language and environment I've ever
encountered :P
~~~
draw_down
Yes. But front-end JS takes it to the next level by, for example, not
providing any sane way to get the current locale.
~~~
xlm1717
Just don't do it on the front-end. Never do it on the front-end.
~~~
draw_down
You have to. User specifies thing should happen at 2PM, their time, then POSTs
that data to your API or whatever. Well, what time are they actually talking
about? You need to know.
~~~
toomuchtodo
You ask the user what time zone they're in? Better to have accurate data then
guess.
~~~
redrummr
Especially considering this is consistent with not identifying the device
beyond headers sent etc. and you can't just use an IP address to map the
timezone as it may be shared at the tower/exchange kilometres away (DSL) or
hundreds of kilometres away (wireless/cell) and cross timezones.
The best strategy is to suggest the [timezone|local shop|city name|whatever]
and prompt for confirmation.
------
al2o3cr
My favorite is still:
new Date('2016-02-11') !== new Date(2016,1,11)
One is midnight in the local TZ, other is midnight in UTC.
(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
~~~
danrisso3
Not to say that one is in February, the other in January.
~~~
rgrove
They're both in February. Months represented by integers start at 0.
> new Date(2016,1,11)
Thu Feb 11 2016 00:00:00 GMT-0800 (PST)
> new Date('2016-02-11')
Wed Feb 10 2016 16:00:00 GMT-0800 (PST)
I make the same mistake constantly even though I learned this years ago.
------
khgvljhkb
The french did a great job reforming measurements for weight, length, volume,
etc with the metric system.
Let's do the same for time - no more time zones, make the base unit a day and
then it can be divided or multiplied in the 10s, 100s, 1000s, etc.
~~~
meapix
Good luck with that!
~~~
khgvljhkb
If the whole world could unite with a better system of measure of space
(meter) then the same can happen for measures of time.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Visual Studio Code 1.16 released - runesoerensen
https://code.visualstudio.com/updates/v1_16
======
bopcrane
I'm excited for the JS refactoring and the color picker. VS code is looking
better all the time!
~~~
tracker1
Can't agree more... each version adds at least one very useful feature that I
use regularly. They also put an incredible amount of effort towards
performance. For example, the embedded terminal wasn't so good at the start,
but efforts were made to get the rendering performance up to snuff. This of
course helps Hyper, as they share the same library.
------
SiVal
Hopefully, it's now time to "make panel position configurable"
([https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/2806](https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/2806)),
by far the #1 request of the "On Deck" features
([https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/milestone/27](https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/milestone/27))
~~~
allover
That would be nice, but damn there are some entitled brats in that thread.
Open source sadness.
------
kup0
Does startup seem noticeably faster for everyone else with this release? When
opening files it feels like there's less of a delay now. Might be placebo.
~~~
jhasse
Seems faster indeed!
------
ActsJuvenile
Ignorant question: can VSCode use Python interpreter inside a Docker
container? I looked around on their GitHub and looks like Dockerized Python
needs a lot of workarounds.
~~~
gt_
I have the same question.
------
SiVal
Does anyone know how "Release Notes" are implemented in VS Code? I'd like to
be able to author my own notes with all the display and interactive features
used by each release note document. Likewise the features of the "Help >
Interactive Playground". I assume these are HTML-CSS-JS bundles of some sort,
packaged in some way, but I don't know and would like to create them myself
(for viewing in VS Code).
~~~
mattbierner
I work on VS Code. The release notes are just markdown [0] that we render
inside of the editor. The interactive playground on the welcome page is also
just markdown [1] but we replace all the code blocks with embedded editors
We don't provide a standard way for extensions to show their own release notes
but we do support showing users the CHANGELOG file on extension pages. We are
also tracking allowing extensions to contribute their own playground sections
[2]
[0]: [https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Microsoft/vscode-
docs/mast...](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Microsoft/vscode-
docs/master/release-notes/v1_16.md)
[1]:
[https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Microsoft/vscode/master/sr...](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Microsoft/vscode/master/src/vs/workbench/parts/welcome/walkThrough/electron-
browser/editor/vs_code_editor_walkthrough.md)
[2]:
[https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/20449](https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/20449)
------
inamberclad
Anyone else a little miffed that the VSCode debian package adds another apt
source without notifying the user when it's installed?
~~~
pkaye
No not really.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
General Electric: A Bigger Fraud Than Enron - airstrike
https://www.gefraud.com/
======
ma2rten
Previous Discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20705449](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20705449)
------
Eiriksmal
I clicked the link to download the report. The disclosure you have to agree to
is _very_ interesting:
>Prior to the initial distribution of this Report on August 15, 2019, the
Company entered into an agreement with a third-party entity to review an
advanced copy of the Report in exchange for later-provided compensation. That
compensation is based on a percentage of the profits resulting from the third-
party entity’s positions in the securities, derivatives, and other financial
instruments of, and/or relating to, General Electric Company (“GE”) (NYSE:
GE). Those positions taken by the third-party entity are designed to generate
profits should the price of GE securities decrease.
So there exists a class of professional services designed to temporarily crash
stock prices to make short sellers money? Curious.
~~~
jdietrich
_> So there exists a class of professional services designed to temporarily
crash stock prices to make short sellers money?_
Yes. The technical term is "activist short selling". The broad consensus is
that it's good for the market, as it provides an incentive for investors and
researchers to uncover fraud and mismanagement. Obviously someone _could_ just
make up a bunch of nonsense about a company to try and tank their share price,
but that's all sorts of illegal.
I think it's valid to think of activist short selling as a kind of distributed
bug bounty program for the financial markets.
~~~
tylerl
Ok, but imagine a bug bounty program where you're paid based on how damaging
your website is to the product's short term reputation, regardless of whether
you've actually disclosed (or even found) anything or substance.
~~~
wyxuan
Not really. Its illegal to lie like that and you can get sued for defamation.
Plus your reputation is at stake. If I said GE is a fraud then no one believes
me. But if Bill ackman calls it a fraud, that turns ears.
~~~
londons_explore
Read the report. There are no non-published assertions in it.
They're all either publicly available numbers, or an analysts opinions. It
would be very hard to sue them.
------
loganfrederick
Another famous short seller, Citron, issued their counterargument to this
report: [https://citronresearch.com/wp-
content/uploads/2019/08/Citron...](https://citronresearch.com/wp-
content/uploads/2019/08/Citron-Issues-Comment-on-General-Electric-and-
Markopolos-Report.pdf)
~~~
valar_m
>“They moved their headquarters to Boston last year. My hometown. I don’t
appreciate when you’re running a scam in my hometown.”
>The arrogance of that statement alone discredits his whole argument.
What? I had never heard of Citron before five minutes ago, but that's an
embarrassingly terrible analysis. Do people trust the advice of this Citron
with their own actual money?
~~~
et2o
That's Citron quoting the authors of the GE report...
~~~
Semaphor
I assume GP is saying that Citron’s reply to the quote is what makes them look
bad. So this:
> The arrogance of that statement alone discredits his whole argument.
And I must say that struck me the wrong way as well.
------
sho
Direct link to the report:
[https://fm.cnbc.com/applications/cnbc.com/resources/editoria...](https://fm.cnbc.com/applications/cnbc.com/resources/editorialfiles/2019/8/15/2019_08_15_GE_Whistleblower_Report.pdf)
------
mrfredward
At GE's low after the report, it had fallen about 14% for a loss of $10
billion in market cap. You could interpret this as the market assigning an
expected value of fraud at GE of $10 billion. The report claims $38 billion in
fraud, so either market participants don't believe the accusation, or fraud
was already priced in.
The stock has rebounded since, so seems like the big market voting machine
thinks this report is bunk. Time will tell who is right.
------
unreal37
Reading the report, he seems to be dipping into "future forecasting" quite a
bit.
"First, a stiff recession after ten years of domestic economic growth, will
see that the next chapter in GE’s history is Chapter 11."
You can't predict a recession, or when it comes how it's going to go, so how
is that "first" when it comes to discovering accounting fraud?
~~~
avs733
yeah I'm surprised as I read through this a lot of it seems predicated on
assumptions of what will happen outside of GE. I'm far from a finance guru
(but I did buy some holiday IHG stock last night)...but this one doesn't read
as fraud as much as a time bomb that could blow up at any moment, it just
hasn't yet. Fraud is an entirely different level of claim. Dishonesty about
the risk...sure...probably GAAPish'ing your way into a higher than deserved
stock price...sure. But I can't even parse through the reports repetitions of
the same information over and over with increasing strident bolded red text
and skull and cross bones emojis what is the core thesis.
~~~
unreal37
He's saying in two years they'll have to disclose losses that they don't have
to disclose today.
Um, OK.
He's saying they don't have the cash in the bank to make a payment that they
have coming due next year.
Um, OK.
Not really fraud, no. I think this is more of a "hope the stock falls in the
future so we can get rich" kind of thing.
------
post_below
More info:
[https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/ge-plunges-
after-w...](https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/ge-plunges-after-
whistleblower-calls-it-a-bigger-fraud-than-enron/ar-AAFQjYf)
------
chkaloon
People have said GE's numbers have been suspect since at least Jack Welch's
days of year after year profit growth. But this looks kind of weasely.
------
spectramax
I find the title whimsical because GE actually bought part of Enron after its
collapse, specifically GE Wind is a spinoff of Enron's wind energy division.
------
all_blue_chucks
The fact that the CEO of GE bought $3MM of shares after this report first came
out makes me suspect it is, at the least, overblown.
~~~
Ididntdothis
Isn’t $3mm pocket change for these guys? It doesn’t necessarily signal
confidence to me.
~~~
m0zg
Seven figures isn't pocket change for anybody. Unless they're doing this with
someone else's money, that seems like a pretty good signal to me.
~~~
uptown
Here are the details of his compensation agreement:
[https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/05/new-ge-ceo-larry-culp-
inks-s...](https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/05/new-ge-ceo-larry-culp-inks-stock-
heavy-contract-worth-up-to-300-million-if-shares-soar.html)
It's very much in his interest to stabilize the stock price.
~~~
m0zg
It's even more of a signal then. If these insinuations were true, there'd be
no point whatsoever to spend $5M to buy shares of the company which he knows
is insolvent. It's not like if this is true his share purchase would buoy all
of GE.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Evolution of Ember.js at Intercom - HatchedLake721
https://www.intercom.com/blog/videos/evolution-of-ember-at-intercom/
======
mehulkar
The ease of updating Ember apps is really great. I've helped take apps through
the early 2.x to latest 3.x. There _has_ been some tedious work involved, but
on the whole, I usually know exactly what to do to get the new features. Not
breaking existing features is a godsend, because the rest of the team can keep
developing features and we can introduce new features via lint rules at a
reasonable pace.
------
msum
This is neat to read. The README for the Ember.js repo
(github.com/emberjs/ember.js) was updated recently too, and I feel like
there's a lot more specific clarity about what Ember really has to offer,
especially for folks who might not have considered it an option yet.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Is Github down? - AznHisoka
Is it down for anyone besides me?
======
runarb
Down for me also.. And for
[http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/github.com](http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/github.com)
------
dbond
Yep
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How Internet Explorer cost a website a month's salary - voodooalerts
http://www.voodooalerts.com/blog/is-internet-explorer-costing-your-site-money-heres-how-it-cost-one-site-owner-a-months-salary/
======
x0n
Slashdot moron clickbait. TL;DR Newsflash: idiot doesn't test his website on
known buggy legacy browsers and pays the price. And this happened how long
ago? Five years ago?
------
cauterized
One nitpick: IE6 does not generally treat text-indent as moving the background
image. The fact that that technique worked in all the major browsers of the
IE6 era was one of the reasons it became the most popular image replacement
mechanism in the first place. Are buttons an exception to this case?
------
Igglyboo
Seems like he could have just tested his site before deploying it? If IE 6/7
were such major money makers for him maybe he should have made sure they
worked.
And why did he find the bug and "not immediately fix it"? That itself is
ridiculous as well.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What precise problem does machine learning solve? - Tomminn
Can someone give me a precise specification of the problem that machine learning actually solves. This would be useful so anytime someone suggests it, I can start my line of reasoning with "the problem machine learning solves is..."<p>Analogous example: "the problem the blockchain solves is decentralized trust."
======
bufferoverflow
Machine learning doesn't solve one problem, but thousands. It's like asking
what problem does a knife solve - it can be used to cutting, stabbing,
throwing, scaring, etc.
ML is used in the areas where there no known algorithms, or the algorithms are
too slow or simply not good enough.
In more general terms, ML tries to provide hgh quality outputs for given
inputs.
~~~
Tomminn
I think this can't be right. Machine learning is a bunch of small variations
to a central algorithm. There must be one specific problem that it solves,
otherwise it would be thousands of radically different algorithms. The second
half of your answer is closer to what I'm looking for, but it's too vague.
~~~
bufferoverflow
ML is a bunch of different algorithms, and each of them has their own
variations. Like deep learning is a general one, but then there are all kinds
of topologies that result in various applications and performance.
------
tomasNth
outputing the extcaction of the right content from the input. learning is
extcacting. so "the problem machine learning solves is machine content
extcaction"
------
pavbelshippable
"The problem the machine learning solves is interrupted pattern analysis."
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What apps are essential for mac? - phn1x
Just purchased my first macbook and I'm already digging it. When it comes to Windows and Linux I have a standard set of apps for both programming and security auditing that I load up. I know what's available and where to get it.<p>With this new mac I've already loaded up some stuff but what else is available? What are some free, and even low cost "essential" mac apps I should look into?
======
boundlessdreamz
I'm recommending only free software here.
1\. Adium for chat. It is just awesome.<http://www.adiumx.com/>
2\. Quicksilver. if you just want an app launcher spotlight is already good at
that. <http://code.google.com/p/blacktree-alchemy/downloads/list> [edit:
updated link to point to the recent versions]
3\. Caffeine is small program which puts an icon on menu bar on which you can
click to prevent your Mac from going to sleep,dimming the screen etc. Very
useful when watching long flash movies. <http://lightheadsw.com/caffeine/>
4\. MPlayer This is a video player which plays almost anything you can offer.
Also comes with excellent keyboard shortcuts support making it the best video
player on any platform. Most people prefer VLC though
<http://www.mplayerhq.hu/>
5\. Flip4Mac For those videos that MPlayer plays poorly, typically WMVs
Flip4Mac provides a fee codec which integrates with your quicktime player.
[http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/wmcompo...](http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/wmcomponents.mspx)
6\. HandBrake For ripping your DVDs to MPEG4, there is no better tool.
<http://handbrake.fr/>
7\. Tweetie. if you use twitter, tweetie is the best mac twitter client by
far. <http://www.atebits.com/tweetie-mac/>
8\. Virtualbox This virtualization product from Sun Microsystems totally
eliminates the need for parallels or Vmware if you plan to use the VM
sparingly. <http://www.virtualbox.org/>
9\. Evernote <http://evernote.com/>
10\. Eigenclock. I find the OS X, menu calendar extremely limted. Eigenclock
is a good replacement <http://www.twistedtheorysoftware.com/eigenclock/>
11\. Onyx for system tweaking <http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs/english.html>
12\. Transmission - bittorrent client <http://www.transmissionbt.com/>
~~~
KirinDave
Why does anyone recommend Quickisilver? It's suffering from massive bitrot
these days. Most users report frequent crashes, hangs, problems waking from
sleep, and general slowness compared to Spotlight and LaunchBar?
I really wish it wasn't the case, but Quicksilver seems to have had its run
and no one is stepping up to the plate to preserve it.
Most everything else you list is awesome though (although I think Evernote is
far from essential and I'm not sure "free" is the right word for it ;)
~~~
swombat
QuickSilver is quicker than Spotlight. I don't want to have to wait a few
seconds for Spotlight to find stuff... QuickSilver is usually instantaneous or
very near it. Also, it doesn't depend on the spotlight indexing, so this means
I can disable the spotlight indexing jobs which have a nasty habit of using up
100% of my CPU at random times while I'm doing something.
Also, I haven't had any problems with crashes or anything like that... works
great here.
~~~
KirinDave
Spotlight is, generally, only slow the first time you search.
Usually it's as fast as LaunchBar except for the very first time it is used.
It has a reputation of being slow from 10.4 that is no longer justified.
~~~
swombat
I've found that it is consistently a few seconds slower. It's not slow as
such, just slower than QuickSilver. And when it come to app launching, these
few seconds kill, imho.
------
tortilla
Others mentioned here are great. In addition, check these out:
<http://perian.org/> \- adds native support to QuickTime for many video
formats
<http://www.fluidapp.com/> \- Fluid, SSB (site specific browsers)
<http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/> \- LittleSnitch, Monitor and
block outgoing internet connections
<http://www.skitch.com/> \- Skitch, screen capture and sharing
<http://derailer.org/paparazzi/> \- Paparazzi, Full screenshots of websites
<http://www.sequelpro.com/> \- SequelPro, MySQL gui (I like Querious, but
that's a paid app)
<http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/unarchiver.html> \- The Unarchiver, unpacker
program handles almost every format
<http://freeverse.com/apps/app/?id=7013> \- Think, helps you focus on a single
app
<http://www.heliumfoot.com/mercurymover/> \- MercuryMover, resize, move
windows with keystrokes (If you're OCD about window sizes like me)
Other honorable mentions: Coda, Transmit, TwoUp, Typinator, UnRarX, CSSEdit
~~~
Jakob
Dont’t use Transmit. It’s slow and they haven’t released an update for months
(years?).
Yummy FTP ist the fastest and feature-richest FTP-client for the Mac. It’s
synchronization feature is really good. (I bought both)
~~~
jemmons
Transmit is every bit as fast as Yummy downloading and uploading a 10Mb file
(S3 and SFTP), so I'm not sure what your impression is based on.
The last release was 11/24/08. It's always updated to take advantage of/fix
bugs introduced by new OSes. There hasn't been a release in a whopping 5
months (?) because Leopard's been out for a while and there aren't any
outstanding bugs.
------
JoshRosen
Gitx is a native OS X GUI for git. It comes with a nice command line tool,
gitx, that works like gitk. <http://gitx.frim.nl/>
------
udfalkso
Cyberduck (ftp - <http://cyberduck.ch/>) Adium (IM - <http://adium.im/>)
~~~
cmac
I used Cyberduck for several years but some of the later versions became so
buggy that I switched to Transmit. Haven't looked back since then. (Don't know
if Cyberduck's stability has improved since.)
------
jhickner
1.) SteerMouse - tweak the mouse acceleration curve. If you're coming from a
PC and you feel like your mouse doesn't move right, this will help.
2.) SizeUp - size and and position windows with hotkeys. For example, quickly
set two windows to use exactly one-half of the screen each.
3.) Expandrive - mount S3 buckets, ftp sites, sftp sites as network drives.
(Works great with textmate)
4.) Miro - excellent video player and torrent client with rss built in. Sort
of like a torrent TIVO.
5.) Warp (<http://www.ksuther.com/warp/>) - adds some new methods for
switching spaces. I have mine set to switch if I drag the mouse to a screen
border while holding command.
6.) Also, if QuickSilver doesn't suit your tastes, give LaunchBar a try.
Getting used to using one of those two apps pays huge dividends.
~~~
ropiku
Another +1 for SizeUp, since I bought a display for my MacBook I love it. I
also like if for "name your price".
------
crad
boundlessdreamz covered a lot, here's a few more (mostly commercial but still
awesome):
1\. Things - Awesome task management - <http://www.culturedcode.com/>
2\. Mailplane - If you use GMail this is a must. - <http://mailplaneapp.com/>
3\. AppZapper - Remove everything about an app - <http://www.appzapper.com/>
4\. LittleSnitch - Filters and prompts on outbound ip connections -
<http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html>
5\. Undercover - Stolen Laptop Recovery app -
<http://www.orbicule.com/undercover/>
6\. Fugu - SCP/SFTP App - <http://rsug.itd.umich.edu/software/fugu/>
7\. On The Job - Time and Expense Tracking -
<http://stuntsoftware.com/OnTheJob/>
8\. Versions - Awesome SVN client - <http://versionsapp.com/>
~~~
elai
Cornerstone is a good alternative SVN client. Cyberduck is a pretty good
general purpose SFTP/FTP/S3/etc client. I like billings better than on the job
personally.
~~~
benofsky
I find cornerstone a lot better than versions. Although moved to Git now and
feel like an idiot for buying a subversion client!! :P
------
soundsop
macports (<http://www.macports.org>) for installing unix utilities that are
not already included in OS X.
------
phn1x
one of the guys I follow on twitter just recommended this:
<http://osx.iusethis.com/>
~~~
durdn
I was about to suggest that as well. It is tied to a very cool app called
AppFresh. Recommended.
------
chris24
Here are some of my favs:
1) Quicksilver. (free) <http://blacktree.com/?quicksilver>
2) VLC Media Player. (free) It plays pretty much every type of video file.
<http://videolan.org/vlc>
3) Skitch. (free) Essential for quick screenshots, and quick annotations of
screenshots. <http://plasq.com/skitch>
4) Tweetie. (free - ad supported - or $20) The best native Mac app for
Twitterring. <http://atebits.com/tweetie-mac>
5) TextMate. (~$54) It's handling of projects, bundles, etc. is excellent.
<http://macromates.com>
6) HTTP Client. (free) <http://ditchnet.org/httpclient/>
7) OmniGraffle. ($100-$200) Excellent for constructing user flow diagrams.
<http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/OmniGraffle/>
8) The Hit List. ($50) It's one of the best GTD apps for the Mac.
<http://www.potionfactory.com/thehitlist/>
9) TinkerTool. (free) For customizing OS X.
<http://www.bresink.de/osx/TinkerTool.html>
10) Secrets. (free) For easy access to hidden application preferences.
<http://secrets.blacktree.com/>
11) Sequel Pro. (free) For accessing MySQL databases in a nice GUI.
<http://www.sequelpro.com/>
12) Fluid. (free) If you have a commonly accessed site, Fluid is great to
create a SSB (site-specific browser) for it. I have a Fluid SSB created for
railsapi.com, which allows me to easily launch it with Quicksilver and start
searching the Rails docs right away. <http://fluidapp.com/>
------
bayareaguy
Here's a related thread from last year:
\- Ask YC: Mac virgin wants to know, what would you install?
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=131241>
My earlier list <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=131263> hasn't really
changed but I do find the recently posted Black Tree Visor
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=465334> to be very useful.
------
papa
Lots of excellent pointers from others...I'll add a few I haven't seen posted:
\- InstantShot: nice little screenshot utility (I use it daily)
\- VueScan: swiss-army knife of mac scanning apps if you need to hook up a
scanner. Costs a little, but you get lifetime upgrades. Well worth it.
\- LittleSnitch: network monitor. tracks what kind of network activity your
apps are up to. Costs a little, but also worth it if you value your privacy.
\- JollysFastVNC: fast and free VNC client (I've been using it over Chicken of
the VNC).
\- OmniDiskSweeper: Disk utility shows you which files are hogging up the most
hard disk space. Free. I also recommend many of Omni's other products.
Omnigraffle (not free) is also excellent for diagramming.
Also, not mac specific, but the sqlite manager plugin for Firefox is also very
helpful.
I don't know where others go to find different Mac apps, I usually hit
macupdate.com (and sometimes versiontracker) these days, mostly out of habit,
but would love to hear other recs for this.
------
sirsean
MacFUSE w/ sshfs, and MacVIM.
~~~
elai
Or ExpanDrive. It's alot cleaner than MacFuse + sshfs.
~~~
rufo
Agreed - sshfs has some squirrely edge-cases that ExpanDrive handles very
gracefully.
------
karl11
textmate
~~~
raquo
Coda
~~~
arupchak
Coda is expensive ($99) but the convenience of working on remote files via
SFTP within the program is unmatched. If your session gets disconnected in the
midst of editing a file, nothing to worry about, Coda will automatically log
back in for you and update the file you were working on when you save.
~~~
zeeone
VIM does the same for free. $99 saved is $99 earned.
~~~
arupchak
You're right, but then I could also argue that any of these programs can be
replaced by installing a linux port via fink and a combination of shell
scripts.
My point was mainly comparing Coda to other GUI text editors for the mac. It
has other useful features such as one-window editing, integrated terminal,
ability to preview CSS/HTML changes side by side with code, etc.
------
makecheck
Some of the things I use:
\- DragThing; you will never miss Apple's Dock, this is an absolutely
essential desktop enhancement, e.g. to create multiple tabbed docks anywhere
you want, with themes.
\- OmniWeb (now free); I've tried many web browsers, and I like this best.
Safari engine.
\- MacTelnet (tabbed terminal). It now works for local programs and not just
servers, so I use it instead of Terminal.
\- SnapzPro X (or alternatives), useful for doing more intelligent screenshots
or video captures.
\- DesktopCalendar (by Takashi Hamada), a really nice use of space and very
configurable. Also has a menu option.
\- Growl, for pretty and unobtrusive notification windows. This is actually
really well supported by 3rd party applications.
\- SCPlugin, if you're a Subversion user; nice Finder integration.
~~~
jgranby
I second OmniWeb. It's the best browser there is. The tab implementation is
second to none, in particular the ability to discontiguously select multiple
tabs. Site-specific preferences are also incredibly useful.
------
lmoorman
1password. A must that makes your life much easier.
~~~
chris24
1Password's nice, but I've found Sxipper [1] to be better if all I need to use
is Firefox. Sxipper has a really nice way of handling password changes,
multiple accounts, and comment forms.
[1] - <http://www.sxipper.com/>
------
philwelch
If your file system ever gets corrupted, DiskWarrior.
DiskWarrior will reliably maintain and rebuild your FS. It will work when fsck
fails and is better than the other paid alternatives. It looks like (and is) a
Mac OS 9 port, but it's the same filesystem so no worries.
If your filesystem is ever, ever fucked, DW will save it if anything can.
It costs $100, so don't buy until when you end up needing it. But at that
moment, buy it (unless your data is worth less than $100, I guess).
------
scottymac
Some stuff I use that I didn't see mentioned:
MenuMeters: <http://www.ragingmenace.com/software/menumeters/>
Hyperspaces: <http://hyperspacesapp.com/>
Yojimbo: <http://barebones.com/products/yojimbo/>
Leap: <http://www.ironicsoftware.com/leap/>
------
vansteen
I've got my Macbook pro 6 months ago. The best thing I ever buy. I'm
programming and I use to use a Windows and a FreeBSD box before. Here, some
free and commercial softwares I use everyday:
1\. Terminal: Visor - Quake-style terminal <http://visor.binaryage.com>
2\. Uninstaller: AppTrap <http://konstochvanligasaker.se/apptrap/>
3\. SFTP: <http://www.expandrive.com/mac>
4\. Quick remote filesharing: <http://www.getdropbox.com>
5\. IDEA: NetBeans or ZendStudio
6\. Virtual machine: Parallels - <http://www.parallels.com>
7\. Text editor: TextEdit or TextWrangler -
<http://www.barebones.com/products/TextWrangler/>
8\. VPN: The native OSX thing does the job
9\. Mobile sync/Addressbook: iSync does the job (Use <http://www.feisar.com/>
to find your mobile plugin if iSync doesn't have it natively)
10\. SIP softphone: Telephone (works with Googlevoice+Gizmo5 and my local UK
SIP provider) - <http://code.google.com/p/telephone/>
11\. Notifier: Growl - <http://growl.info/>
12\. Movie player: VLC or Quicktime+Perian codecs - <http://perian.org/>
13\. Chat: Adium
14: Desktop display: GeekTool - <http://projects.tynsoe.org/en/geektool/>
------
swombat
QuickSilver: <http://quicksilver.en.softonic.com/mac> \- app launcher.
Essential to a smooth OS X experience.
Adium: <http://adium.im/> \- general-purpose chat client
Cog: <http://cogx.org/> \- For those of us who don't like iTunes, or want to
play FLACs.
WriteRoom or Scrivener: <http://www.hogbaysoftware.com/products/writeroom> |
<http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.html> \- if you like to write
(those are not for code)
Textmate: <http://macromates.com/> \- if you're a coder.
Transmission: <http://www.transmissionbt.com/> \- for your torrenting needs.
------
travisjeffery
Editors: MacVim, Emacs.app (build from source `./configure --with-ns` -- f
Aquamacs and last resort TextMate
Torrent: uTorrent
RSS: NetNewsWire
PDF, Document Reader: Skim
~~~
mwbrooks
+1 NetNewsWire
------
elidourado
Everyone is linking to Quicksilver. I am a former Quicksilver user, but I find
it unbearably slow and bloated. Instead, I use Google Quick Search box, which
does most of what Quicksilver does with much less bloat.
<http://code.google.com/p/qsb-mac/>
------
teilo
Controllermate (<http://www.orderedbytes.com/controllermate/>) - This is an
outstanding program that allows you to customize almost any USB keyboard /
mouse / controller / joystick to do exactly what you want, with a very clever
and powerful graphical scripting environment. I have a Logitech Dual Action
(with NO Logitech drivers instaled) wired up to switch spaces on the D-pad,
volume on one joystick, screen brightness on the other. One button plays and
pauses iTunes. I use it to add volume buttons to my Das Keyboard. No more
crappy HID drivers. You can also create custom acceleration curves for mice.
------
ronnieliew
This post might be useful:
[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/110065/must-have-tools-
fo...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/110065/must-have-tools-for-an-os-x-
switcher/110178#110178)
It listed all the userful tools that would be relevant to a programmer.
~~~
chris24
Thanks for that... I was just looking for a syntax highlighter for Quicklook!
<http://code.google.com/p/qlcolorcode/>
------
davi
(not free, but cheap)
taskpaper <http://www.hogbaysoftware.com/products/taskpaper>
scrivener <http://www.literatureandlatte.com/trial.html>
curio + small pen tablet <http://www.zengobi.com/products/curio/>,
<http://www.wacom.com/bambootablet/bamboofun.php>
------
gregk
TextWrangler (free text editor), Gimp and Inkscape (free graphics) or
Photoshop Elements ($90), OpenOffice (free) or iWork (office like from Apple
$90), or MS Office ($150) depending on what you know and who you communicate
with, Firefox browser (free), Xcode for Mac or iPhone development (free),
Skype (free), Tweetie, no virus scanner needed for now, and an external hard
Disk so you can use TimeMachine for backups are what I have added in the first
2 months with my first intel mac.
~~~
randallsquared
I like Smultron over TextWrangler (and I say this as someone who paid for
TextWrangler years ago, before they made it free). Also, Adium is very nice if
you use any IM other than Skype.
------
sh1mmer
There are lots of great suggestions here, one I haven't seen yet is Spirited
Away. (<http://drikin.com/spiritedaway/>)
This app hides app you haven't used for a little while so the app you are
using currently is the most prominent thing on the screen. I find it really
helpful to declutter my screen in a non-invasive way.
You can also exclude things like video players and the like from being hidden.
------
appl3star
Developer: Coda, Cornerstone, TextWrangler or BBEdit, iTerm, ForkLift,
Querious, Changes, iChm
Web Designer: CSSEdit, Flux, Dreamweaver, xScope, Xyle Scope, Picturesque
Researcher: Evernote, DevonThink Pro, ConceptDraw MindMap
User: LaunchBar, Overflow, Little Snitch, Super Duper
Web Junkie: 1password, Firefox, Tweetie, NetNewsWire, ClamXav, DoorStop
Firewall, Net Monitor
Freelancer: TimeLog & GrandCentral
Photographer: Photoshop CSx, Portrait Professional, Aperture 2,
GraphicConverter, PhotoReview
------
ivankirigin
I actively use firefox (and camino + safari to have multiple sessions for the
same site), iWork, tweetdeck, birdshot, itunes, last.fm, VLC, uTorrent,
Quicktime pro, snaps x pro, skype, textmate, parallels (though switching to
VMware), RescueTime, DropBox, and QuickBooks.
About 40% are paid apps.
------
phn1x
I see a lot of people recommending virtual pc but does anyone have anything to
say about vm fusion? A buddy of mine was going to hook me up with a copy. I've
used virtual PC on linux quite a bit but I was always frustrated with the lack
of ability to bridge the networking.
~~~
tortilla
I think it's great (trouble-free for me). No problems with networking and
almost seamless. Though, I rarely use it for more than a few minutes each
week. Just to test web pages out in IE. Which MultipleIE is great for:
<http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE>
------
asciilifeform
Home and End Key Fixer. I found my machine to be nearly unusable without it.
Quicksilver, to avoid the terrible GUI as much as humanly possible.
(I have my MacBook because it is the only non-Windows notebook with fully
working suspend mode and peripherals. Why did you buy yours?)
~~~
jhickner
DoubleCommand works great for this as well, even in Firefox 3, and includes a
lot of other handy key-remapping.
~~~
chaosmachine
DoubleCommand can cause kernel panics.
KeyRemap4MacBook will give you a lot more options.
<http://www.pqrs.org/tekezo/macosx/keyremap4macbook/>
------
hbien
Terminal.app + Visor is a great combination for me since I use the command
line so much.
------
mad44
carbon emacs
------
hectcastro
Quicksilver.
------
sreitshamer
Nambu Twitter client. I like it much more than Tweetdeck.
------
coderholic
There is a good list of free (as in beer) Mac apps at
<http://www.freeapps.co.uk/mac>
------
pstinnett
Just adding in LittleSnapper for keeping screenshots of sites / designs I like
and also Wallet for keeping track of my passwords.
------
juliend2
I just reinstalled my mac today. Here is what i installed so far :
1-quicksilver
2-iTerm (terminal. with tabs)
3-Photoshop CS3 (cs4 is slow on my macbook)
4-Transmit
5-DropBox client
6-Textmate
7-Git
8-The Hit List (best osx app for lists)
9-LimeChat (irc client)
~~~
Oompa
As of Leopard, Terminal.app has tabs.
~~~
juliend2
Didn't know, thanks!
------
abyssknight
Quicksilver (App launcher)
Onyx (Maintenance scripts)
Apple Developer Tools (Terminal/GCC/XCode)
SubEthaEdit (Collaborative Editing)
Textmate (Defacto standard editor)
Cyberduck (SFTP Client)
Perian (Codecs)
------
zimbabwe
I'm going to be a fuddy-duddy and say: most of these apps are _not_ essential
for the Mac. Lots of them are nice, but you can skip them entirely when you're
just getting started.
Here are the ones I consider absolute essentials for my daily work:
MegaZoomer - <http://ianhenderson.org/megazoomer.html> \- lets you full-screen
zoom any application. That mixed with TextEdit gives you the best word
processor you'll ever need.
Quicksiler - linked all over - this will fill in every hole you have in your
computer usage. I use it to fix a lot of shortcomings in iTunes, for instance,
and while I don't use it as insanely as some people do, even light usage makes
your life a lot easier. It's also a full-featured file browser, which is
excellent.
Perian - <http://perian.org/> \- makes your life a lot easier when you're
watching videos or listening to music, without forcing a reliance on the ugly
VLC.
GlimmerBlocker - <http://glimmerblocker.org/> \- Unless you use Firefox, this
adds every feature you'll need to every browser you've got. (Firefox is an
_awful_ browser that rebuilds a lot of Mac features from the ground up, and so
it isn't affected by this.) It blocks ads (selectively, so you can allow the
ads you don't mind), blocks entire sites, and adds retroactive functionality
to sites. The big one for me is the Youtube downloader.
Growl - <http://growl.info/> \- This one's really easy to abuse, but if you
set it to notify you of all the really important things - FTP file uploads and
long processes and so on - then you get a very nice way of keeping yourself
informed of all your computer's goings-on.
Those are the ones that I absolutely need for my Mac. Here are the ones that
are obscure-ish and rarely recommended and yet are terrific:
Max - <http://sbooth.org/Max/> \- converts every format but wma, so your
library stays neat and organized without any complaints about iTunes.
Freedom - <http://macfreedom.com/> \- disables the Internet, so you can't
procrastinate at all.
FuzzyClock - <http://www.objectpark.org/FuzzyClock.html> \- makes your clock
much more humane.
Chax - <http://ksuther.com/chax/> \- Fixes a few things in iChat to make it an
acceptable chat system (I really dislike Adium for a number of reasons).
------
rw
gcc (not installed by default)
------
cericsmith
I just went through the same thing.
Follow me on twitter as I explore the world of OSX and my adventures with all
things "Hackintosh": @cericsmith
Here's my list:
1Password -- Perhaps the greatest piece of Mac OSX software. You must try to
believe it. Password storage/sync/creation/ID management at its finest.
<http://agilewebsolutions.com/products/1Password>
Unison -- If Windows newsreaders hadn't stopped evolving around 1998, they
might have come up with something like Unison in... 2150.
<http://www.panic.com/unison/>
MusicBrainz Picard -- For fixing the "Unknown Artist/Album" issues.
<http://musicbrainz.org/doc/PicardDownload>
BluePhone Elite -- Neat Smartphone/iPhone tricks with Bluetooth. Ever wanted
to have your machine wake up or sleep when you were just out of range? This is
an app for you.
<http://mirasoftware.com/BPE2/>
Toast Titanium 10 -- Sure, Leopard can burn discs... but Toast is much more
than that, and it's elegance exceeds anything on Windows.
[http://www.roxio.com/enu/products/toast/titanium/overview.ht...](http://www.roxio.com/enu/products/toast/titanium/overview.html)
iLife 09 -- iPhoto's face rec. is just cool, and iMovie beats the snot out of
Movie Maker.
<http://www.apple.com/ilife/>
Stuffit Deluxe 2009 -- Not as necessary as it used to be, but still nice to
have available.
<http://my.smithmicro.com/mac/stuffit.html>
Parallels 4 -- Many people like VMWare Fusion, but Parallels 4 has support for
a lot more configuration of the VM -- support for up to 8 processors, the
ability to have VM's start off of CD and/or Disk Image/ISO, is killer.
<http://www.parallels.com/>
Little Snitch -- knowing when your applications are "phoning home" is
important.
<http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html>
DiskWarrior -- HFS+ disk maintanance package and more. Fix disk errors...
<http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/index.html>
AppZapper -- Yes, theoretically uninstalling apps on the Mac is straight
forward, but AppZaper gets all the flotsom and jetsom that would otherwise be
left behind. Great for nuking preference files, etc.
<http://www.appzapper.com/>
ClamXav -- Ok, we know that Mac's don't get virii, per se... but this cross-
platform, donation-ware AV tool gives peace of mind when running random
software you download from the Net.
<http://www.clamxav.com/>
FileSpot -- Spotlight is nice, but FileSpot takes it to another level.
<http://mac.synthesisstudios.com/mac/filespot/about>
GimmeSomeTune -- integrates with iTunes and pulls/updates album art and
lyrics, and works with Growl. Updates iChat status and images based on what
you're listening to. Sweet.
<http://www.eternalstorms.at/gimmesometune/>
HighLight -- Instantly add file(s) or folders to your Spotlight search index.
<http://homepage.mac.com/superpixel/highlight/>
SimpleComic -- a great comic PDF viewer.
<http://dancingtortoise.com/simplecomic/>
TED -- This program scours the usual suspects for new TV episodes and
integrates with your favorite Torrent program to automatically download them!
<http://www.ted.nu/>
DropBox -- 2GB of free, sync'ed cloud storage for your Mac (or PC/Linux box).
Incredible in conjunction with 1Password.
<http://www.getdropbox.com/install?os=lnx>
The Unarchiver -- Ok, so you don't like Stuffit? This will pull apart almost
anything.
<http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/unarchiver.html>
Movist -- A media player based on ffmpeg/VNC that has a more polished UI than
VNC.
<http://code.google.com/p/movist/> VNC -- open and play anything.
Perian -- Add the ability to open and play most media formats that ffmpeg can
handle inside of QuickTime.
<http://perian.org/>
Pixelmator -- who needs Photoshop? This $50 application is the bees knees.
Cool UI, great features.
<http://www.pixelmator.com/>
doubleTwist -- Part media manager, part file conversion utility. If you need
those TV shows on your PSP, this can handle it. Notably, doesn't support
iPhone (yet).
<http://www.doubletwist.com/dt/Home/Index.dt>
MPlayer OSX Extended -- the benefits of Mplayer on OSX. More polished than
VNC, more stable (at this point) than Movist.
<http://mplayerosx.sttz.ch/>
FreeDMG -- The ability to create Disk Images/.dmg files.
<http://www.kelleycomputing.net/freedmg/>
Tweetie -- The newest and most controversial OSX Twitter program.
<http://www.atebits.com/tweetie-mac/>
Boxee -- a "10 foot interface" for managing your media and Internet content
sources such as Hulu.
<http://www.atebits.com/tweetie-mac/>
SuperDuper -- quickly and easily clone your HFS drives.
[http://www.shirt-
pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription...](http://www.shirt-
pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html)
iWork 09 -- Pages is what Powerpoint will never be -- Fun.
<http://www.apple.com/iwork/>
~~~
s1lversmith
Argh. Encouraging people to use Stuffit is nearly criminal. Bloated, packed
with adware, greedy with filetypes - it's a menace. If you're unfortunate
enough to be given a .sitx file you may be forced to use their fairly awful
free Expander, but paying for the full version would surely be grounds for a
psychological review. If you really need to compress things that tiny bit more
than normal .zip, there's always 7zip.
------
tommy_chheng
Textmate - Best text editor hands down. Cyberduck - FTP client.
------
quizbiz
What about... games? :P
~~~
chris24
World of Goo is a must-have, even for non-gamers. It's makes for a nice break
from doing actual work. ;) <http://www.worldofgoo.com/>
------
brk
iTerm <http://iterm.sourceforge.net/>
VLC Player <http://www.videolan.org/>
------
jedediah
Carbon Emacs
------
hboon
* OmniFocus * CSSEdit
------
joechung
Stuffit Expander.
~~~
JoshRosen
I prefer The Unarchiver <http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/unarchiver.html>
~~~
vansteen
I've seen many time Unarchiver saying a archive was corrupted or was unable to
decrypt with the right password. Now I use unrar in command line. (imported
from macport) . Much better!
------
pWneD
1\. Quicksilver - There are already explanations on this and I don't like
Spotlight that much.
2\. MacPorts - If you are a developer or you're just an open-source lover,
this is a must have app for you. It has 5811 open-source programs ready to
install, easy and... open-source! ( which is good... )
3\. TexMate - My every day editor, I don't use another one besides this one.
4\. Adium - For chatting.
5\. pgAdmin - For PostgreSQL administration. I don't use MySQL that much.
6\. Growl - Another must have for system notifications, I don't realy know why
Apple hasn't put one in OS X yet.
7\. OmniGraffle - For Visio projects and such.
8\. Things - For task managing.
9\. Tweetie - The best Twitter client I've ever found.
10\. Transmission - For P2P file transfers. I don't like uTorrent very much.
11\. AppZapper - To uninstall programs. When you delete an app some
configuration files are left behind, with this program all the files related
are also deleted.
12\. Evernote - Well... to take notes! Even better if you have an iPhone.
13\. VMWare Fusion - For virtualization
14\. Scribbles - For those moments when you get inspired and just want to make
some draws :)
15\. Adobe - Photoshop and Dreamweaver between others are a must.
16\. Teeworlds - Best game ever and... Open-Source!!!!
17\. Toast Titanium - For recording CD's and DVD's.
18\. ScreenFlow - To record your screen and make nice video editing
These are not by "like" order, they're by the order I remembered them. I
wouldn't recomend installing iTerm because Terminal.app does the job nicely
and it has tabs as well. I'll had more if I remember some.
------
zackattack
Cyberduck for FTP. Colloquy for IRC. VLC for video. Growl for notifications.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Sideline, a CoffeeScript shell for your server - TrevorBurnham
http://labnotes.org/2011/09/01/sideline-a-coffeescript-shell-for-your-server/
======
TrevorBurnham
Looks really nice and simple. Would've been great to have for Node Knockout.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
This VC says Dropbox's recent moves show why companies often fail to innovate - tim333
http://www.businessinsider.in/This-VC-says-Dropboxs-recent-moves-show-why-big-companies-often-fail-to-innovate/articleshow/51449745.cms
======
nostrademons
It's also possible that DropBox is planning to get into the Cloud business,
and views its customers as businesses that'll build apps on top of their
DropBox shares rather than consumers who might use Carousel or Mailbox.
They're already making more than Box among enterprise customers, and it's
notoriously difficult to squeeze money out of consumers. And they're closer to
the consumer than AWS or Google Cloud Services. The move to building their own
datacenters makes a lot of sense in this context.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Continuous Delivery - rdegges
http://www.rdegges.com/cd/
======
mh-
Nice post, Randall.
But I had trouble buying the premise of:
30 minutes later I had configured my CD software, Jenkins [..]
_Nothing_ in Jenkins can be configured in just a half hour. ;)
~~~
rdegges
Thanks! I wrote this post a long time ago, but this is how I've always done
it: [http://www.rdegges.com/simple-continuous-integration-
deploym...](http://www.rdegges.com/simple-continuous-integration-deployment-
with-jenkins/)
Usually takes me 20 minutes ish.
------
tosh
Brilliant write-up on the benefits of continuous delivery.
Especially the part on delivering value as fast as possible (& drastically
changing Cost of Delay) is a very powerful concept that generates enormous
economic value (something that engineers often don't immediately think about
in comparison to productivity).
------
sekm
The new bamboo 5 beta takes steps towards managing and monitoring deployments.
I just thought I'd give it a mention.
More info from: <http://blogs.atlassian.com/2013/05/bamboo-beta-program/>
------
brett-cawley
Good post! Though from experience it's never worked as smoothly as described
when in a team setting. "Oh, you forgot to check features 1-40 in all major
browsers?" Rollback button : engage
~~~
rdegges
I use rollback liberally in team settings -- I also do a lot of my work on
Heroku, so if anything breaks we do a `heroku rollback` immediately.
Usually though -- we're very careful about deploying stuff live. We autodeploy
our develop branch to a testing Heroku project, and if that's good, we merge
to master.
------
scottharveyco
So if I'm working on a feature branch I'm assuming that the build and deploy
would only happen after I merge into master and push.
Is that how continuous deployment is usually set up?
~~~
rdegges
Depends on what you need. I tend to have CD setup for both my develop and
master branches, and everything else gets worked on / tested locally only
(until those changes are merged).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Meet WildCat, The Galloping Robot Animal And Future Soldier's Companion - RougeFemme
http://www.fastcompany.com/3019356/fast-feed/meet-wildcat-the-galloping-robot-animal-and-future-soldiers-companion?partner=newsletter
======
bengotow
You know this is incredibly impressive, but I still wonder what the practical
use case is. I think traveling over rock and through dense forest might be
easier with these, but how often do we really do that these days? We're
involved in mostly desert warfare, and in terms of reliability, speed and
defensibility against attack, you really can't beat a tank-style design.
Would be great for reaching remote areas of places like Colorado with heavy
materials, though. In a couple years, these things could really assist with
flood repair efforts.
~~~
DanBC
I don't know how well the Boston Dynamics machines will cope with dust and
fines but having similar robots on Mars or the Moon would be handy.
------
bitwize
Now if only they make it crouch down and wiggle its ass before pouncing on
something/one, it'll be perfect.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Numbers in Action - dmor
http://www.daniellemorrill.com/2013/03/numbers-in-action/
======
martythemaniak
I want to thank you for posting this, as I find it very helpful. I understand
why no one likes posting numbers about their company (we don't), but it is
extremely helpful to be able to compare your progress, or have some sort of
idea of how others are doing. I think one of the best things pg wrote was
explicitly stating the 5%w/w growth target.
------
andrewljohnson
"Do you need to create a business dashboard for your company?..."
It seems very a-typical for a funded company to be offering consulting
services. I guess if you are out of money, your investors would probably
rather see you survive with some consulting, but as long as you are funded...?
~~~
dmor
Astute observation and very true, I don't need consulting revenue and my
investors would prefer I not get distracted - but I do need to test my next
idea on people who are willing to pay. This little call to action is probably
the first (explicit) public clue I've given to what we're doing next...
although the obvious guesses are unlikely to be the right ones.
It's usually a good bet to assume I have an angle, especially anytime I reveal
a bunch of data like this.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A Perfect Storm in Undergraduate Education - cwan
http://chronicle.com/article/A-Perfect-Storm-in/126451/
======
salemh
A paragraph detailing the "return" or diminishing returns of a Undergraduate
degree in more recent years (with differences per degree choice) would have
been relevant.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Facebook’s HTML5 mistake? - shawndumas
http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2012/09/facebooks_html5.html
======
danboarder
A question mark in the title of an article usually indicates that the opposite
can be assumed true. This article is no exception; the author makes the
conclusion that HTML5 is not going anywhere and alongside native apps it will
still be a big part of Facebook's tool chest.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Container Runtime Interface (CRI) in Kubernetes - philips
http://blog.kubernetes.io/2016/12/container-runtime-interface-cri-in-kubernetes.html
======
vidarh
I can't get over how much of a smell the requirement of an RPC interface in
order to interface with tools that may or may not have any good reason to be
running on an ongoing basis is to me.
I'm sure there may be cases where you interact with the containers frequently
enough that spawning a process each time is actually a worthwhile
optimization, but more and more of these containerisation systems are becoming
an unholy mess of daemons that needs to run in order to run and manage
containers that need not depend on anything but the host init/systemd.
E.g. one of the really appealing things of rkt for me is the simplicity -
depending on the level of isolation everything is running either direclty
under systemd, or under an individual isolator like systemd-nspawn.
I disliked this tendency towards a herd of daemons intensely when Docker
continued as it started and used HTTP for volume/network plugins, and I
dislike it just as much now.
It's as if someone sat down and thought long and hard about how to add more
complexity and more "fun" failure modes.
~~~
wmf
It's the microservice philosophy: Why use a function call or fork/exec when
you can use RPC? (At least CRI is binary RPC instead of JSON over HTTP/1.)
Also, Go doesn't dlopen AFAIK.
~~~
vidarh
It gets better. Take a look at rktlet, a CRI implementation for rkt (EDIT: I
originally mistakenly wrote Docker). Specifically the runtime [1], which ends
up shelling out to the "rkt" binary.
So you end up running a new daemon that communicates with Kubernetes via gRPC,
that then spawns rkt anyway. So you get to RPC _and_ fork/exec.
I'm sure that ends up "optimized away" at some point by e.g. having a rkt CRI
implementation that just links in the relevant rkt code. But I'm left
wondering why we need this complexity in the first place.
[1] [https://github.com/kubernetes-
incubator/rktlet/tree/master/r...](https://github.com/kubernetes-
incubator/rktlet/tree/master/rktlet/runtime)
~~~
chrissnell
I don't get your argument. If I'm reading this correctly, you're arguing that
system calls and/or a call to a shared library function are cleaner than RPC
to another process?
The overhead of RPC in an application like this is tiny and the cost of an
additional process on 2016 equipment is non-existent.
~~~
vidarh
It's more things that can fail that now needs monitoring. (EDIT:) And in the
specific case of rktlet you _still_ end up forking/execing anyway.
The overhead isn't necessarily a big deal (and can easily go the other way -
if the request frequency is high enough, it's cheaper to keep the process
around), but it does also potentially add up.
------
philips
This was posted last week but here is rkt's roadmap around Kubernetes's CRI
and use of OCI's runc: [https://coreos.com/blog/rkt-and-
kubernetes.html](https://coreos.com/blog/rkt-and-kubernetes.html)
------
cyphar
Currently quite a few people from the OCI community (including myself) are
working on implementing a CRI-compliant runtime[1] around runC and the various
OCI specifications as well as the containers/image and containers/storage
projects. There's a lot of cool design to ocid which means that it doesn't
require a daemon to be constantly running.
[1]: [https://github.com/kubernetes-
incubator/cri-o](https://github.com/kubernetes-incubator/cri-o)
~~~
vidarh
Do you have any more specific pointers regarding using it without a daemon? As
the examples seem to start with starting a daemon, unless I misunderstand
something. If it doesn't need that, then that's a big plus in my book.
Though, I'm getting more and more disillusioned in general with where these
specs are heading - the complexity seems to be skyrocketing for sometimes very
little benefit.
Not necessarily specific to Kubernetes and/or OCI - Docker is a prime
offender.
E.g. typical example: the highly coupled nature of many of the networking
alternatives where routing, fabric and ip allocation gets muddled all up, when
there are well developed, stable, well tested independent and orthogonal
alternatives for tunnelling and route propagation there's a serious level of
Not Invented Here syndrome at work in many of the container projects. I'm sure
_some_ people need all the complexity, but I'm getting more and more tempted
to ditch many of the higher level tools in favour of composing smaller,
simpler tools.
(Incidentally I'll make one prediction: one good thing likely to come from CRI
is that I suspect it will lead to a new array of Kubernetes "replacements"
from simpler composable tools; the APIs don't look all that bad - I just don't
like the RPC dependency)
~~~
cyphar
> Do you have any more specific pointers regarding using it without a daemon?
> As the examples seem to start with starting a daemon, unless I misunderstand
> something
At the moment, the RPC requirement means that you need to have a process that
can accept RPC requests (a "daemon" if you like). However, unlike Docker (and
containerd), ocid's lifetime is not tied to the lifetime of its containers --
which is one of the main downsides of Docker/containerd IMO. So in principle
you could have ocid set up to only start up when kubelet is telling it to do
anything. The real benefit of the design behind ocid is that _in the future_
we could switch to a fork-exec model with the kubelet and it would still work.
For example, currently kubernetes is adding a requirement for runtimes to
include a "kpod" binary that can do container and image operations even if the
kubelet is down. My hope is that eventually they will just make the kubelet
shell out to this binary so the CRI is defined through some sort of "here are
the cli flags you need to accept" interface.
> the complexity seems to be skyrocketing for sometimes very little benefit.
I wouldn't call the current CRI "complicated", it's just that the gRPC
requirement IMO is a bit too much. However, I would hope that since ocid and
rkt both don't require daemons (well, rkt requires systemd but that's a given)
that they'll reconsider their method of communicating with container runtime
runners.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Judge grants Apple an injunction against the Galaxy Nexus - Cadsby
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/06/breaking-judge-grants-apple-an-injunction-against-the-galaxy-nexus/
======
thechut
These patent wars don't help anyone but Apple, and directly hurts consumers. I
don't think this is what anyone wants. It actually sickens me to see the law
enacted in this way.
I really hope this comes back to bit Apple in the ass. It seems there has been
a story about Apple doing something shitty everyday for the past few days, and
the taste it leaves in my mouth is just getting worse and worse.
~~~
flatline3
First, I'd like to note that the article provides a very poor summary of the
patents. That said, I'd like to throw this devil's argument out there as to
why these patent wars help consumers:
These patent wars might help consumers by allowing Apple to leverage the money
they spend on R&D, giving them the traction necessary to invest further R&D,
and pushing Apple's competitors to come up with new and _different_ ideas.
Apple has undeniably pushed the entire cell phone industry forward, and in the
process had a tremendous impact on the software, entertainment, and game
industries.
If everyone is free to copy their work and compete with them on price, and
Apple could lose the market position they (in theory) earned through
innovation, and may not be able to get it back. At the same time, if nobody
else is innovating to do things differently from Apple, all we get are clones.
~~~
marshray
To the contrary, what it tells me is that Apple has lost confidence in its own
ability to win on good ideas and good execution and is now being run by
investors looking for quarterly returns and lawyers thinking this is actually
a constructive way to "leverage the money they spend on R&D".
~~~
flatline3
Or, they're trying to prevent Windows 95 all over again.
~~~
smokeyj
Preventing Windows 95 would have been great for consumers, because competition
is bad.
~~~
flatline3
Actually, it would have been good because competition is good, and Microsoft
proceeded to sew up the market as a monopoly for decades, using a slew of
underhanded tricks to do so, and grossly undermining the position of the
primary innovator who held a far better product. It wasn't until Windows 2K
that MS even began to catch up to Apple's work, and then Apple leapfrogged
with the NeXT purchase.
~~~
smokeyj
> using a slew of underhanded tricks
You wouldn't be referring to IP shenanigans would you?
~~~
flatline3
No, I don't mean IP shenanigans:
[http://www.ecis.eu/documents/Finalversion_Consumerchoicepape...](http://www.ecis.eu/documents/Finalversion_Consumerchoicepaper.pdf)
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AARD_code>
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft>
------
DigitalSea
"A means of detecting and marking up data like a phone number or an e-mail
address, and then initiating a phone call or an e-mail when the linked data is
clicked" nobody should own a patent on that, what the heck? The patent system
is seriously messed up. Don't get me started on the other patent: "A means of
searching multiple databases and sources for data." how can anyone be awarded
such a generic patent? I'm disgusted.
~~~
flatline3
The automatic touch screen-based linkification of phone numbers, addresses,
and calendar dates was fairly novel <edit> _for smartphones_ </edit> when
Apple introduced it. I don't believe anyone else was doing it <edit> _on
smartphones_ </edit> \-- and if they were, there's prior art, and the patent
should be invalidated.
What made it that especially interesting was that it alleviated a large part
of the need for copy+paste. If you'll recall, the first iPhone OS didn't ship
with copy+paste.
I'm having trouble figuring out what "A means of searching multiple databases
and sources for data" actually refers to.
~~~
creamyhorror
There was a whole HN thread throwing up prior art about the linkification
patent (and also on Reddit). Linkification was being done in the '80s, based
on one of the programs that someone managed to scrounge up in the thread, and
the '90s as well. No patents issued - people just did it.
The fact that these programs were written tells us that software writers
innovate regardless of whether patents are issued for their work or not.
That's the nature of software (and technology in general). The difference is,
some software makers don't expect to protect their new features from
competitors with patents. That's the crux of it, imo.
~~~
flatline3
Thanks. I have my own negative opinions about software patent novelty, I just
wanted to point out that it was somewhat unique on smart phones.
~~~
praptak
Suffixing an old idea with "on smart phones" is not innovation, even if you do
it first.
~~~
flatline3
I see your point. My counter-argument would be that it solved a unique touch-
screen problem of a lack of keyboard/mouse and a lack of an easy way to
highlight text.
I think the thing I'm hung up on is that Apple stormed into the phone market
and did a whole bunch of smart things that nobody had thought of, but are
obvious in retrospect.
I don't agree with software patents, but I can't help but hesitate before
agreeing that it's beneficial to the industry to let Apple's competitors
wholesale copy their work (even the small things).
------
habosa
So wrong. When will we have comprehensive reform on software-related patent
law? In this age everything is powered by a computer of some sort, and it's
very important to the intellectual future of the nation that we secure the
right for individuals and corporations to innovate without fear of a patent
lawsuit.
~~~
cremnob
Why is it wrong exactly?
~~~
josefresco
It's wrong because Apple isn't simply protecting their IP, they're waging a
litigious war against a legitimate competitor in hopes that the courts will
give them the edge in the marketplace and not their _superior_ products.
~~~
dedward
They are using the legal system - an important part of modern business. I can
assure you in economies with inefficient or nonexistent legal systems, things
get much worse and doing business is next to impossible.
Should apple not do this? This is hardball, we're talking billions... and they
know they have a limitied window to take advantage of this before they have to
continue. They'll make more than the hundred million they put up to do this in
the time it takes to settle things. No fanboy-ism here - but the iPhone DID
fundamentally change the close-minded walled-garden ripoff stagnant mobile
world to get off it's ass and innovate.
Are the patents absurd? Blame the patent system, not Apple for using it. Be
sure their competitors are just _waiting_ for a patent opportunity to come
along to smash Apple over the head with. Let the big boys play their game.
Apple anted up 95 million dollars that they lose if the case does not go in
their favour... this isn't a freebie by a longshot.
So until the legal system levels the playing field and fixes the patent system
or otherwise makes this type of action impossible, it's dog eat dog.
And in the end - the courts will decide. Don't like the patent system? talk to
your representatives in government. Don't want to do that because it "won't
matter"? Then you don't have much standing in my books to argue either way.
Think politicians care about money? they care about VOTES, which money really
helps buy - but convince them they have your votes and they money doesn't
matter, they don't need campaign money if they have their votes locked.
~~~
mayanksinghal
> Are the patents absurd? Blame the patent system, not Apple for using it.
I think viewpoints differ largely at this point. While I agree that Apple has
every right to use any and all legal ways to defend itself and potentially
harm competitors; given that everyone is aware of the absurdity of majority of
patents, it does seem wrong to use them offensively. There is no law against
being douch-stupid-ignorant; laws are not always moral/right - they follow
morality only slowly and caters to only the most easiest morality questions.
Rationality allows Apple to do whatever it can, only the current morality
doesn't.
------
moultano
When you work for a company that does this, you owe it to your integrity to
resign.
The government is too incompetent to fix this mess, and market pressure isn't
going to do it either. That leaves us, the actual engineers. It's our job to
tell the companies we work for that litigating instead of competing isn't
acceptable.
~~~
ciparis
Perhaps you should define "this".
~~~
moultano
Uses software patents offensively.
------
rayiner
This is a preliminary injunction. It doesn't mean Apple wins against Samsung.
From TFA:
"Apple was ordered to post a bond of $95 million to enact the injunction,
which would be used to pay Samsung damages if the decision is later reversed."
~~~
mechnik
Can consumers sue Apple for denying them the opportunity to acquire Galaxy
Nexus?
~~~
bane
Yes, in the U.S. you can sue for pretty much anything. You'll probably lose,
but you can at least give it a go.
------
ciparis
I was here when this all started.
When Android surfaced, it did not look blatantly like the iPhone. That is,
until the Galaxy appeared. From the moment I saw a Galaxy prototype it was
obvious: they were going to get sued.
Whether or not the iOS vs Android war makes sense at a high level is an
interesting discussion, but this is pretty simple: Samsung practically begged
to be the first to get sued. There isn't a lot to say about it after that.
------
bane
Too bad, just got one and by no possible stretch of the imagination is it an
iPhone. It's not that it's bad or good, just completely different.
------
ciparis
Without the iPhone, there would be no Galaxy series. If you don't get that,
you don't get that.
It's up to those two companies to work it out. Until that happens, this is
what we get -- and Samsung, at least, has little to complain about.
------
ken
I'm no lawyer. Is this ruling stating that the court believes the patents are
valid, or simply that if they are found to be valid that they are being
infringed in this case?
There's a huge difference between the two, and the article isn't quite clear
on what the finding is. The bond makes it sound like it could be the latter,
but everybody here seems to be assuming it's the former.
~~~
dedward
It's a preliminary injunction to prevent damages - the court has been
convinced that this will go to court and that the damage done to apple during
the time it takes to resolve the case warrants an injunction. They also wanted
a bond from apple in case it goes the other way so the opposition doesn't get
too screwed over if THEY win.... that's money in their pocket - not sure how
common that is... first time I've heard of it.
------
serge2k
2,3,4 and seem ridiculous.
------
rsanchez1
Well, better go out and buy a Galaxy Nexus, now that I am eligible for an
upgrade and now that Apple wants to take it away from me.
------
hastur
I will never buy an Apple product again.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Want to scale? Make sure your LTV is greater than your CPA - DanLivesHere
http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2011/04/ltv-cpa.html
======
alain94040
Unusual for Fred Wilson to repost spammy content. Did you count how many times
the newsletter - by the way you should subscribe - is mentioned?
And then the content was very basic.
~~~
DanLivesHere
I wrote it, with two subscribe links, for what it's worth.
The content is basic as per his MBA Monday's theme. He tackles one basic
concept each Monday.
------
flyosity
I'm surprised he wrote something like this. This seems like the most obvious
business information you can write beyond revenue - expenses = profits.
------
mctavjb9
David Skok of Matrix Partners has blogged comprehensively on this topic:
<http://www.forentrepreneurs.com/>
The content may seem obvious, but how many startups can you think of that have
utterly failed to achieve LTV > CPA?
~~~
DanLivesHere
My first startup totally misunderstood the concept in reverse fashion -- we
miscast the definition of "customer," and therefore thought our LTV was tiny
when it was actually huge, and focused our acquisition paths incorrectly.
That's why I think about ideas in these terms so much.
------
hammock
Actually seems backwards to me. Of course you want LTV > CPA... but when we're
talking about scaling, you often get increasing returns to scale. Which means
that you can start with a poor LTV/CPA ratio, even an unprofitable one, and
end up with a better one after scaling.
------
imjk
tl;dr - You shouldn't spend more to acquire a customer than she is worth to
you.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Home rating app - bhattij
http://www.homr.mobi
======
bhattij
HomR finds the hottest trending ideas for your home so you don't waste your
evenings or weekends trawling through home stores looking for inspiration -
ever. Simply download, connect and ask from the palm of your hand! Swipe left
if the picture is ordinary or right if you think it looks fabulous. If the
owner gets enough right swipes, they could become HomR Of The Week!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why is the speed of light so slow? - djsumdog
https://www.space.com/37244-why-is-the-speed-of-light-so-slow.html
======
basicplus2
"So now that we've ascertained that light is not fast but rather is
excruciatingly slow, we can now turn to a more pressing and difficult matter:
Why?"
For me it is not that light is slow, but rather the universe is large.. large
space time.. most of it taken up by space.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Replication is bad for decentralized storage, part 1 - jtolds
https://storj.io/blog/2018/11/replication-is-bad-for-decentralized-storage-part-1-erasure-codes-for-fun-and-profit/
======
wmf
I'm not sure why this is controversial; Mojo Nation was doing this in 2001 and
there have been tons of papers on the advantages of erasure coded storage.
Maybe some people are really attached to their PoRep algorithms though.
~~~
jtolds
I agree, but it is for some reason! Over a quarter billion in ICO money
(filecoin) was raised on proof of replication.
~~~
wmf
I would say the money was raised on the team. If they're smart they can pivot
away from PoRep and no one will notice.
------
jtolds
Author here - happy to answer questions or discuss this further!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google's AirPlay - daspecster
http://youtube.com/yt/sendtotv/
======
joshstrange
Over Quota
This application is temporarily over its serving quota. Please try again
later.
------
daspecster
The two way communication is interesting.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google Wallet for Digital Goods - dannyr
http://www.google.com/wallet/business/digital-goods/index.html
======
hayksaakian
Cool, does anyone know if the Google tax on purchases is more/less/ the same
as Google play?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Device Recognition and Indoor Localization - MrQuincle
http://www.annevanrossum.com/blog/2015/09/15/a-really-smart-power-outlet/
======
alexdm0
How open source are these things? Can we program them ourselves?
~~~
MrQuincle
Absolutely. It is open hardware, open-source firmware, open-source apps. Plus
the devices have a Bluetooth Low Energy API.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Swiss banks to divulge names of wealthy US tax avoiders, pay billions in fines - gmuslera
http://rt.com/business/swiss-banks-disclose-assets-196/
======
mindcrime
Weak sauce. There was a time when you could trust the Swiss to stick to their
privacy / confidentiality principles, but they caved into pressure from the US
government some time ago. It's sad, really. Switzerland is a sovereign nation,
not a freaking US colony. :-(
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
3D printed, trainable robot arm with Arduino controller - bjansn
http://boingboing.net/2013/11/11/3d-printed-trainable-robot-ar.html
======
jsumrall
The 3D printing of the parts is cool, but the overall implementation is not
out-of-this-world awesome. Still, neat. Good job.
I recommend some more work on the training part. One method is to define the
different positions you want the arm to be in, then have it interpolate the
movements to go to the different position. Just from watching it move, it
seems you're sending the servos each key-position, causing it to jump and not
have smooth movements.
~~~
ohwp
Yes. He should just use the 'train button' to mark the current position and
interpolate to the 'trained positions' on run.
I think this is how the Baxter robot works:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXOkWuSCkRI](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXOkWuSCkRI)
------
hardwaresofton
Really awesome. considering there is some company angling to make millions of
dollars with this very notion (trainable robots), I think it's pretty
impressive
~~~
mdda
As I understand it, ReThink Robotics' main selling point is to do with co-
working (having a robot sensitive enough to work side-by-side with a human
safely). The trainability is another point (but there are a lot more issues to
deal with than poses : In particular, their robot must identify the position
of the thing to be picked up by sight).
But the thing that is really disruptive (in the actual Christensen sense) is
their price-point ($22k) - waaay below that of most industrial robots.
OTOH, while the Baxter is very cheap and flexible, at the moment it isn't very
capable. But that will change, I'm sure. And that's the essence of a genuine
disruptive technology.
~~~
hardwaresofton
Right, this is true. However, I think trainability is a more important point.
As humans get phased out of manufacturing, co-working will be less and less
important. However, simplifying the way that you train a robot -- letting
someone who has the domain-knowledge move it's arms around and produce the
correct functionality -- seems much more important, in the short and long
term. I wonder if there are any other features of their robot that I am
missing that could me be more important.
I agree, price is what's really amazing there -- and I'm assuming that this
guy has created a prototype that can be scaled up, and I think it'll be even
less than $22,000.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Book Review - 'Intelligence and How to Get It,' by Richard E. Nisbett - robg
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/books/review/Holt-t.html?ref=review&pagewanted=all
======
tokenadult
Good review of a good book. The author, Nisbett, is very meticulous about
citing primary research sources in his book, even though it is written for a
popular readership.
Another good book on closely related topics is What Intelligence Tests Miss by
Keith Stanovich.
[http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=97803001238...](http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300123852)
[http://www.amazon.com/What-Intelligence-Tests-Miss-
Psycholog...](http://www.amazon.com/What-Intelligence-Tests-Miss-
Psychology/dp/030012385X)
------
rfreytag
"Success in life depends on intelligence, which is measured by I.Q. tests."
What happened to emotional intelligence? Aren't there studies that show that
this is at least as important to success in life?
------
simplegeek
That articles requires a login.Any other versions? Thanks!
~~~
spydez
There are a few ways to get around nytimes.com logins. My favorite is setting
my referrer to google.com. Runner-up is BugMeNot.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Is CSS Turing Complete? - cordite
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2497146/is-css-turing-complete
======
bilalq
One of the answers towards the bottom linked to an incredibly interesting read
on programming using nothing but Procs[1]. I found it to be incredibly
fascinating, and it even goes into implementing FizzBuzz under these
constraints.
[1]: [http://codon.com/programming-with-nothing](http://codon.com/programming-
with-nothing)
~~~
timtadh
That blog post is basically explaining untyped Lambda Calculus and Church
Numerals with the ruby lambda syntax. If you liked that you maybe interested
in the real thing. The best introduction I know is a really great book on Type
Theory called: "Types and Programming Languages." It is great because after
Lambda Calculus the author shows how to build really useful programming
languages and type systems using the lambda calculus formalism. Definitely a
must read if you are interested in understanding the underpinning of modern
type systems.
[1]
[http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/tapl/](http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/tapl/)
~~~
acjohnson55
I read that book years ago in a Theory of Programming Languages. I recall
learning a lot from the process, but I'm probably due for a refresher, now
that I'm building more things in Scala and trying to learn me a Haskell for
great good.
------
andrewguenther
I'm coining it now, Guenther's law, corollary to Atwood's law:
Anything that can be implemented in CSS, shouldn't be.
~~~
theandrewbailey
I really hope that's sarcasm. Otherwise we will have people ripping out CSS,
like how some people don't optimize because premature optimization is evil. I
also don't want to go back to font tags.
~~~
andrewguenther
Did we even read the same post?
I'm joking that people shouldn't write Turing complete code in CSS. Add style
properties for days, more power to you, but if someone posts an implementation
of Git in CSS next week I will promptly jump off a bridge, laughing all the
way down.
~~~
baddox
Your phrasing of the proposed law isn't quite right. According to it, red text
should not be implemented in CSS since it can be implemented in CSS.
~~~
theandrewbailey
Bingo!
------
Grue3
The easiest way to prove that CSS is _not_ Turing complete is to demonstrate
that every CSS "program" terminates, therefore halting problem is solvable for
CSS. Indeed, a proper CSS engine will process a set of CSS rules in finite
time, or display an error. Therefore CSS cannot be Turing complete.
~~~
muyuu
Where's this proof?
------
okonomiyaki3000
More importantly, can it be expanded to the point that it is able to read mail
and, if not, when will it be replaced with something that can?
------
catkin
This is called a Turing tarpit
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_tar_pit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_tar_pit)):
where a system is technically Turing-complete, but in reality is too awkward
to do anything useful with.
------
rectangletangle
So who's going to be the first to write a full blown web-framework in CSS? I'm
mean who really wants the _unnecessary_ bloat of a dependency like JavaScript?
------
cheepin
Can someone explain how the demo proves that it is Turing Complete? I haven't
taken automata yet.
~~~
choudharism
It doesn't. As someone pointed out, Tic Tac Toe can be implemented in Finite
State Machines [1], which have less computational ability than Turing Machines
[2].
[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finite-
state_machine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finite-state_machine) [2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_machine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_machine)
~~~
Buge
Isn't the only difference between a finite-state machine and a Turing machine
whether the memory is finite or not? Then you could argue that nothing has
ever been made that is Turing complete because everything can be simulated by
a finite-state machine because of memory limitations.
~~~
edmccard
There is a difference, though, between a finite state machine and a Turing
machine with a finite amount of memory. An FSM cannot recognize context-free
languages, but a Turing machine can--even when it's implemented on a computer
without infinite memory.
(Actually, you only need a pushdown automata for context-free languages--I
forget what the next step up in the hierarchy is, the one that does require
Turing completeness)
~~~
mikeash
A Turing machine without infinite memory can't recognize context-free
languages. Take the standard example of recognizing the language of balanced
parentheses. With finite memory, there's a limit to how many parentheses you
can keep track of. That limit is going to be _gigantic_ for any reasonable
amount of memory, but it's still a limit. The language of balanced parentheses
with a depth limit is no longer a context-free language, but a regular
language, and as such can be recognized by a FSM.
It's trivial to demonstrate that a Turing machine with finite memory is
equivalent to a FSM. Enumerate all possible memory contents. This number is,
again, large for any reasonable amount of memory, but it is finite. For each
possible memory content, enumerate the Turing machine states. Each memory
state plus machine state becomes one FSM state. The Turing machine defines a
transition from one state to another plus an action on memory, which becomes
an FSM transition to the state that encodes both the new machine state and the
new memory state.
~~~
timtadh
Not at all true, the language of balanced parens is not regular and cannot be
matched by a FSM no matter how much memory you have.[1] It can be matched by a
Push Down Automata PDA.
The primary difference between a PDA and an FSM is a PDA has a stack which
acts as memory. Thus, a PDA can remember how many parens it has seen before.
Every time it sees an open paren it will push it onto the stack, when it sees
a close paren it pops. When the stack is empty it matches if the input has
been consumed.
The difference between a PDA and a Turing machine is the stack is now a
read/writable tape which can move in either direction. Notice how in both
formulations there is no limit on the memory (the PDA stack is could be
infinite as can the Turing machine tape). In contrast a Finite State Machine
doesn't have any memory. The finite refers to the number of states not the
amount of memory. Indeed, Turing machines are traditionally formulated with
finite states as well.
Thus, a FSM can never match the langauge of matching parens but a Turing
machine can. It will either match or consume all of its memory if memory is
limited. Memory limitations are not a statement on computational power but
rather a statement on feasibility.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumping_lemma_for_regular_lang...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumping_lemma_for_regular_languages#Use_of_lemma)
EDIT: Your second paragraph is of course correct - you could encode every
possible stack as a FSM if there is a bound on the stack. HOWEVER, if you have
a limit on memory but it is essentially unknown (you know memory is finite but
you don't know exactly what the limit is) a PDA or a Turing machine will of
course be able to match things your FSM cannot (because they can take
advantage of the memory your FSM cannot assume it has in its states).
Memory limitations are in some sense an implementation detail. We could design
a computer to pause while we buy more ram. Then it could use as much memory
(in theory) as the human race could produce. That sounds like infinite for
some definition of the word.
~~~
mikeash
I'm deeply puzzled as to how you can say that my second paragraph is "of
course correct" yet continue to argue that there's a difference.
No, the language of balanced parens is not regular and cannot be matched by a
FSM no matter how much memory you have. That's completely true. However, it
also cannot be matched by a Turing machine with finite memory, no matter how
much memory you have. That is because, as I showed and as you agree is "of
course correct", the two machines are equivalent in their capabilities.
~~~
timtadh
Yes, I apologize for the parent comment. I realized I had misread your comment
after I had posted and did the edit to try and rectify the situation. I left
the original because I thought it might clarify some of the differences
between the machines for people who don't know anything about the subject.
I guess I felt that the memory limitation was a misleading way of discussing
the machines. Turing machines and PDAs are usually discussed with infinite
memory. In practice the input really determines how much memory the machine
will use.
Furthermore, I believe that the encoding scheme you suggest will use far more
space than the equivalent Turing machine or PDA it encodes. Because, for every
state in the machine you have to encode every possible memory configuration
for that state. That means you have an exponential explosion in the number of
states. This gets to the heart of the matter for me: when memory is bounded
using the finite version of a PDA will let you match a deeper nesting of
parens than a FSM because it will use memory more efficiently. You have to put
the states of the machine somewhere and that place is either memory or
hardware which are both limited.
~~~
mikeash
You're absolutely right that there's a vast _practical_ difference between the
two things. This is, of course, why our actual real-world computers are
modeled on Turing machines with finite memory, not on pure finite state
machines. To model a machine with 1GB of RAM, an FSM would need 2^1024^3
states, multiplied by however many states are needed to model the CPU.
However, the difference is purely in practical terms when it comes time to
actually build one. In the theoretical world they are equally capable and can
recognize the same languages.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Handbook of Applied Cryptography (2001) - rfreytag
http://cacr.uwaterloo.ca/hac/
======
JoachimSchipper
This is _old_ cryptography. This book should not be quite as bad for its
readers as Schneier's Applied Cryptography (which includes many ciphers which
were known to be broken at the time, with little hint of that fact in the
text), but it's still old-fashioned.
E.g.
\- Chapter 7 "block ciphers" doesn't even _mention_ CTR mode, but does mention
CFB and OFB. Modern cryptosystems all use CTR mode, and no new system I'm
aware of uses CFB or OFB.
\- Chapter 8 "Public-Key Encryption" doesn't even _mention_ elliptic-curve
cryptography, despite almost all new cryptosystems being based on that in some
form or another. This chapter also doesn't appear to mention RSA padding,
which is crucial to a secure RSA implementation.
\- Chapter 9 "Hash Functions and Data Integrity" doesn't mention anything
newer than SHA-1. But SHA-1 is thoroughly deprecated, and will be broken in
the next few years.
Just buy a new book instead; I hear good things about Cryptography
Engineering, and I liked "An Introduction to Modern Cryptography" (more
mathematical, less engineering-focused).
~~~
egjerlow
What about the updated Cryptography engineering book by Schneier et al? Do you
have any experience with it?
~~~
tptacek
[http://sockpuppet.org/blog/2013/07/22/applied-practical-
cryp...](http://sockpuppet.org/blog/2013/07/22/applied-practical-
cryptography/)
~~~
nxzero
Aside from Stack Exchange, are there any other good cryptography Q&A forums:
[http://crypto.stackexchange.com/questions?sort=votes](http://crypto.stackexchange.com/questions?sort=votes)
[http://security.stackexchange.com/tags](http://security.stackexchange.com/tags)
------
silenteh
If you are looking for a free book about applied cryptography, in my opinion
this is the best you can find:
[https://crypto.stanford.edu/~dabo/cryptobook/](https://crypto.stanford.edu/~dabo/cryptobook/)
~~~
user2994cb
And Dan Boneh's Coursera course is excellent too (maybe one day he will get
around to doing the endlessly postponed part 2).
------
j2kun
Some chapters in this book (e.g. Chapter 4) contain very useful knowledge
about practical algorithms for working with the underlying mathematical
objects used as cryptographic primitives. Some that I found particularly
useful in studying elliptic curve cryptography was the section on irreducible
polynomials over finite fields.
------
canistr
Anyone have any thoughts on Communication System Security
([https://www.crcpress.com/Communication-System-
Security/Chen-...](https://www.crcpress.com/Communication-System-
Security/Chen-Gong/9781439840368))?
I learned quite a bit from this book in undergrad which is also written by a
UW professor (Guang Gong).
------
curiousgal
2001? Call an appeal to authority but I'll wait and see what tptacek has to
say about this.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Hot or Not: Revealing Hidden Services by their Clock Skew [pdf] - lelf
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~sjm217/papers/ccs06hotornot.pdf
======
awda
Tl;dr: By placing load on suspected hidden service hosts (over normal, non-
anonymous IP), one can then measure the change in clock skew (as a result of
higher CPU / chassis temperature from the higher load) over the anonymous
channel to confirm it is the same host (by comparison with clock skew before
load).
The result holds over many hops and onion layers (this is the usual "the
average of random noise is zero" thing). Very cool.
~~~
anon4
If the machine has no public services running, would that attack still work?
What if it's behind NAT or a hw firewall with ssh exposed only via port
knocking?
~~~
awda
It needs to be connectible over IP (and TCP, I think?) for it to talk to Tor,
which is necessary for running a hidden service. You could imagine an
anonymizing network where that is not necessary, I guess, by having the
service connect to some other internal node over NAT. (Although then you could
just Sygil attack with a bunch of nodes and wait for the target to connect to
you.)
------
tetha
This is a good demonstration why security and privacy are hard. Just think
about it for a second: Load on the CPU affects the clock and you can measure
this clock skew remotely. There are so many possible interactions in a modern
computer (and even more you're unaware of) and it looks like every single one
of them has to be considered a side channel.
------
zaroth
Inducing system load on a Tor hidden service, to generate heat from the CPU,
to increase temperature of the quartz crystal driving the system clock, to
cause system clock skew, which is remotely detectable via the TCP sequence
number generated by rand(), or more directly by TCP timestamps (RFC 1323).
This lets you try to check if a given hidden service is running on a known
machine, or if two hidden services are running on the same machine.
Could you skip everything in the middle, since request latency is correlated
with system load? You have to load the server in either case, so both are
active attacks. I think the problem is that latency is so variable due to Tor
itself, it's actually faster to measure server load through clock skew than
through request latency.
How would you find a candidate public server to run this attack against? "Many
hidden servers are also publicly advertised Tor nodes, in order to mask hidden
server traffic with other Tor traffic, so this scenario is plausible." But I
think you would run your public Tor relay on a different machine behind the
same firewall, since you want the absolute minimum amount of processes running
on the machine actually hosting the hidden service.
(My comment on this from yesterday, but it's back on the front page as a new
submission)
~~~
weland
> Could you skip everything in the middle, since request latency is correlated
> with system load? You have to load the server in either case, so both are
> active attacks. I think the problem is that latency is so variable due to
> Tor itself, it's actually faster to measure server load through clock skew
> than through request latency.
I don't think it's only the variable latency due to Tor, but also the fact
that latency is tightly enough correlated with the load and the software and
hardware configuration that it can't be reliably used for fingerprinting.
Clock skew, on the other hand, occurs due to various fabrication parameters
not being constant; it has a random element that can be reliably used to
fingerprint physical machines. To put it another way, two identical machines
-- built out of identical components, running perfectly identical software, on
entirely identical storage media, with exactly the same bits written in
exactly the same location of the hard drive and RAM -- placed behind a NAT
would be impossible, or at least much harder to discern based on latency
alone, while being comparatively easier to discern by clock skew.
------
llama-made
Isn't this trivially defeated by deliberately running the CPU on Tor nodes at
100% all the time, pointlessly burning cycles if there's no traffic to pass?
Obviously there's a heat and power consumption consequence in doing that...
~~~
hrrsn
Kind of impractical. Plus if you want to scale at any one point...
~~~
Sanddancer
Could mitigate that with the heater job running at a nice level of 19 or so.
Will keep the CPU under load, but server tasks will run with only a slight
degradation.
------
wfn
If you liked this, you might like to take a peek at:
[http://freehaven.net/anonbib/topic.html](http://freehaven.net/anonbib/topic.html)
(take special notice at the highlighted papers.)
------
jimmytidey
Presumably you could just add some random to the timestamps you transmit?
~~~
mikeash
This means that the attack requires more data, but doesn't make it impossible.
Fundamentally, adding randomness to your timestamps is adding noise to a
signal. By sampling the signal repeatedly, you can average out the noise.
~~~
darkmighty
I'd figure simply quantizing timestamps with larger step sizes would work
better. And sure, you can filter those out, but you can also make it take too
long to be useful. You could also perform the attack on yourself and adjust
accordingly, although this is not robust since it depends on deatils of each
attack.
~~~
mikeash
I think that might be worse. By polling your system and waiting for the clock
to roll over, an attacker can almost immediately narrow down your clock to an
accuracy equal to their polling interval.
Either way, though, more requests will defeat it one way or another. Whether
you can make such an attack impractical will come down to how many requests
the attacker can make versus how much noise you can tolerate in the
timestamps.
------
beernutz
Would it be practical to use some kind of external clock? This might remove
CPU temperature variations from the clock at least.
~~~
CaveTech
Couldn't you just not allow your box to be accessed outside of the anonymous
network? It's a neat trick, but how likely is it that you can trace two
different services to the same server anyways?
~~~
derefr
No. Sadly, Tor doesn't work like a VPN, presenting itself as a network
interface responsible for a virtual subnet you can restrict your connections
to. Instead, Tor connections are plain-old IP connections from random public
IPs. Which means that your hidden service needs to _accept_ connections from
random public IPs--and, therefore, to be public itself. A hidden service might
not have a _published_ IP address, but it must have one that you _could_ ,
potentially, connect to over the plain internet, in order for the proximate
Tor node to it (what would be called an "exit node" if it were a plain site)
to be able to talk to it.
_In theory,_ you could hack on the Tor client so that clients and servers did
an SIP negotiation prior to connecting on the desired port. You'd then run
something on the host which would act like a port-knocking daemon, temporarily
allowing new connections on a port only in response to a request from the Tor
client, and only to the SIP peer in that message.
(Or, Tor _could_ just present itself like a network interface, giving each
N-proxied-peer a virtual IP that changes whenever it regenerates its identity.
"Hidden service" connections would be regular IP-to-IP communication. For
"public" connections, exit nodes would need to be running SOCKS proxies, and
then there could be an anycast IP address that picked a proxied-exit-node at
random. Then you'd just set that as your plain-old SOCKS proxy in your
browser.)
~~~
quasque
> Which means that your hidden service needs to _accept_ connections from
> random public IPs--and, therefore, to be public itself. A hidden service
> might not have a _published_ IP address, but it must have one that you
> _could_ , potentially, connect to over the plain internet, in order for the
> proximate Tor node to it (what would be called an "exit node" if it were a
> plain site) to be able to talk to it.
This is not at all correct. The IP address of the hidden service is masked in
exactly the same way that its clients' IP addresses are. That is, the client
and service connect across the Tor network to an client-chosen onion router
known as the 'rendezvous point', through which they set up a shared circuit.
See here for more detail: [https://www.torproject.org/docs/hidden-
services.html.en](https://www.torproject.org/docs/hidden-services.html.en)
Or here for the technical specification of the hidden service protocol:
[https://gitweb.torproject.org/torspec.git/blob/HEAD:/rend-
sp...](https://gitweb.torproject.org/torspec.git/blob/HEAD:/rend-spec.txt)
~~~
derefr
Er. To interpret what I said the way you did, is to assume I was saying "Tor
does nothing, and clients connect directly to servers", which is kind of...
silly, to say the least.
The point I was making was that _the proximate node to the hidden service_
\--the last one in the onion-routing chain--connects to its destination by
using _its_ public IP to talk to _the hidden service 's_ public IP. From the
perspective of the hidden service, the node proximate to it in the onion-
routing chain is a regular Internet peer, which is impossible to distinguish
from any other regular Internet peer.
In the end, what Tor gives you is a proxy (to a proxy, to a proxy.) And, from
the server's perspective, there's no difference between a proxy and a regular
client. It can't tell, by the IP, that the client it's speaking to is a proxy.
And _because of that_ , you cannot, at the server-level, block non-proxied
clients from speaking to you. Because you don't know which those are.
~~~
quasque
It's not a proxy in the way you are describing. The node (onion router) most
proximal to the hidden service is always connected to by the hidden service,
not the other way around.
Thus it is absolutely fine to firewall off all inbound connections on the host
running the hidden service, as it will only be making outbound connections -
and even those are to a limited set of IP addresses as defined by the guard
nodes it has chosen for entry into the Tor network.
------
ape4
What about a hosted service. eg Amazon Web. Would that be vulnerable to this?
~~~
jacquesm
It's not hidden. The whole idea is that you expose the hidden service's
location by doing this, if the location of the service is known there is no
point.
So vulnerable implies that there is something to be gained.
------
wcummings
What if I don't transmit timestamps?
~~~
zaroth
The TCP sequence number generated by rand() can leak your system clock.
~~~
wcummings
That's what I was wondering ty
------
mantrax5
\- Most services are IO bound, not CPU bound, so pegging the CPU to max might
prove a non-trivial task.
\- Well designed services don't overload until they're maxing out on either
CPU or any other resources, they just serve up to some capacity (say 80%) and
then start flat out refusing request with response semantics like "come back
later".
\- Timestamp sources are typically not from clocks originating inside the CPU.
~~~
jacquesm
You won't need to peg the CPU, you only need to get it to warm up a little
bit, enough to create a skew that can be detected. Worst case that means that
you need to wait longer but it will still work.
The crystal can be on the motherboard, it does not really matter, as long as
the total heat inside the case is large enough to create a skew that can be
measured the attack will work.
~~~
mantrax5
If you warm it a little bit I think the problem becomes your skew becomes lost
in the noise of the other people accessing. It's tempting to think that other
people accessing is "perfectly uniform noise" but that's not the type of
patterns people see in real web services. They get hit in waves most of the
time.
If a service gets hit by a wave while you're measuring some suspect server,
here's your false positive right there.
Nice paper but somehow I think this tactic would neither work out well in
practice, nor work in court as a proof.
~~~
jacquesm
All that means is that you need to sample over a longer period.
And it does not have to work 'in court as a proof' to be practically viable
attack, and they are _well_ beyond theory:
"Implementing this is non-trivial as QoS must not only be guaranteed by the
host (e.g. CPU resources), but by its network too. Also, the impact on
performance would likely be substantial, as many connections will spend much
of their time idle. Whereas currently the idle time would be given to other
streams, now the host carrying such a stream cannot reallocate any resources,
thus opening a DoS vulnerability. However, there may be some suitable
compromise, for example dynamic limits which change sufficiently slowly that
they leak little information. Even if such a defence were in place, our
temperature attacks would still be effective. While changes in one network
connection will not affect any other connections, clock skew is altered. This
is because the CPU will remain idle during the slot allocated to a connection
without pending data. Unless steps are taken to defend against our attacks,
the reduced CPU load will lower temperature and hence affect clock skew. To
stabilise temperature, computers could be modified to use expensive oven
controlled crystal oscillators (OCXO), or always run at maximum CPU load.
External access to timing information could be restricted or jittered, but
unless all incoming connections were blocked, extensive changes would be
required to hide low level information such as packet emission triggered by
timer interrupts.
_While the above experiments were on Tor_ , we stress that our techniques
apply to any system that hides load through maintaining QoS guarantees. Also,
there is no need for the anonymity service to be the cause of the load."
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Some doubts about GPL, licensing and the BQ Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Edition phone - DarkUranium
http://mer-project.blogspot.com/2015/03/some-doubts-about-gpl-licensing-and-bq.html
======
noahl
This appears to actually be an issue with the kernel, which I believe is the
same as the kernel in the Android version of the device. Therefore, unless I'm
missing something, the title is misleading - this is actually an issue with
Mediatek's Linux kernel modifications, which applies to Android, Ubuntu, and
anyone else who tries to make a Linux-based phone with Mediatek hardware using
Mediatek's official kernel patches.
------
petersabaini
Here's a statement from Canonical[1]; they're assessing the situation and plan
to release sources next week.
[1] [https://lists.launchpad.net/ubuntu-
phone/msg11543.html](https://lists.launchpad.net/ubuntu-phone/msg11543.html)
PS: disclosure: I work for Canonical, albeit not on phones
------
bjackman
This is surely more of a Mediatek/BQ issue than an Ubuntu one. Regardless,
Canonical are supposed to be on the side of software Freedom, and it's on
their shoulders to make Mediatek sort this out.
~~~
Brakenshire
I was reading recently about the struggles of Fairphone to open up their
hardware so that other operating systems could be installed - Sailfish,
Ubuntu, Firefox etc. The impression which emerged was that the people placing
hardware orders had really quite limited power to affect this kind of
behaviour, unless they are a really large player. What do you think Ubuntu can
do?
------
userbinator
Mediatek is known for being "gongkai" with respect to licensing etc., as do
the majority of Asian companies. A good explanation of that ecosystem is here:
[http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=4297](http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=4297)
You can find datasheets, schematics, and various other bits of info on their
chipsets in various Chinese sites, but if you ask MTK they'll never officially
give them to you.
~~~
maaku
That's fine when it's your own stuff. Here they are pirating the Linux source
code, however.
------
azinman2
This is the reason you won't buy an Ubuntu phone? Really?
Wouldn't be high on my priority list, let alone a "normal" user.
------
delonia
The author of Mer is unhappy with Ubuntu and this looks more like an attack
than a constructive post.
MediaTek is now contributing directly to the Linux kernel. Those header files
are from 2010. It's just an issue of updating them.
~~~
shmerl
So where the proper ones can be found?
------
aaddaarrsshh
Well that's sad, Ubuntu phone was the only good thing. Android is boring.
------
worklogin
That is a truly awful blog layout. So much whitespace, and what appears to be
around a 40 character line limit. I see the point is made once the license is
pasted in a few times, but still frustrating.
For all that, the post has a valid question about how an open phone can have
such messages in its source code.
~~~
worklogin
I'm sorry.
"What a truly poor design". Perhaps awful was too mean.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
I Saw This Coming All Along - davidedicillo
http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/03/31/android-open
======
bediger
Apologetics (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apologetics>) anyone?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
More people on S.F. streets newly homeless - bootload
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/16/BA5N14OGCD.DTL&type=printable
======
wyclif
Truly sad, esp. the stories of small children sleeping on the street with no
food. It's also frightening to me. You've all read recently about major
knowledge workers (significant people with Flickr/Yahoo!) who have been pink
slipped. I'm sure the supremely skilled will find other offers of employment,
but the bottom line is that it can happen to anyone.
I want to do something to help, and have volunteered at the soup kitchen-type
ministries, but I just keep wishing it could be more than just a meal. I want
a long-term solution that would end with capable people becoming productive,
paid, and employed again. It's a staggering problem, and I don't know how to
get there.
My parents visited San Francisco for the first time around 2000. When I asked
them how they liked the place, expecting to hear stories of beautiful weather,
Golden Gate park, Alcatraz, the cable cars, or the scenic vistas, all they
could talk about was how many homeless people there were. Literally, when I
tried to change the subject, it went like this:
_Me_ : So did you go to Lombard Street?
_Mom_ : Yes, but we didn't stay long because there were so many homeless
people.
And so on.
~~~
defunkt
I've lived in SF for three years. Whenever I visit other cities (Seattle,
Austin, New York) I'm always surprised by how few homeless there are.
------
car
It makes me very sad to read this. Especially the thought of a child in this
situation, when I have a child at the same age.
Some people chose the street, I've seen it in places where the government
provides for everyone. And many are mentally ill, often schizophrenics off
medication. Sad enough that it is hard to help them. But to see families hit
by the economic crisis to be pushed to the street is appalling.
How about we raise taxes a little bit for everyone, so that people who have
fallen on hard times can be caught by a 'social net'?
~~~
netcan
It'd be hard to do without catching the schizophrenics too. They're about the
same size as the recently unemployed.
~~~
gb
Is that a problem though? Do they deserve less help than the recently
unemployed?
~~~
netcan
I was being sarcastic about making the distinction.
~~~
gb
Sorry, I should have spotted that!
------
andr
I spent a week in S.F. in March 2007 and another in May 2008. I spent most of
the time in the same areas (Market St., SoMa, Yerba Buena and Fisherman's
Wharf) the increase in the number of homeless people in 2008 was staggering.
~~~
aristus
Some of what you saw is seasonal. May is nearer to tourist season and those
areas are some of the prime spots.
This article is kind of annoying in how it implies large jumps (50 sandwiches
to 500, "59 percent of those requests came from families", 62% of 136 on the
waiting list are new, etc) but they don't actually say what the homeless rate
is and how it has changed.
In 2002 there were 8,600 homeless. By 2005 it had dropped to 6,300. So let's
say it's really bad and there are 9,000 homeless people now. That feels like a
lot in a city of 700K.
------
anamax
Perhaps one of the reasons that SF seems to have so many homeless is that SF
provides a lot of benefits to the homeless. (Another reason is that SF's
weather doesn't kill them.)
Google "homeless benefits sf" and you'll find that things aren't as simple as
one might think.
FWIW, the "lots more, with children" story runs every few years.
Let the "downmodding the mean" begin.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why I left Google (2012) - Hitchhiker
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jw_on_tech/archive/2012/03/13/why-i-left-google.aspx
======
jrockway
This is from March of _last year_ , BTW, and has been discussed numerous other
times on HN.
(Ironically, there have been so many other articles titled "Why I left Google"
on HN that I can't actually find this one in the archives. But it's there :)
~~~
wslh
The issues around "Why I left A_PUBLIC_COMPANY" are really important. The
question go beyond Google(s), it forces us to think if there are alternatives
to growing or being public without doing a deal with the "devil". I don't
think so, the definition of a public company implies that.
Can private companies with less capital win this game and stay relevant in the
long term?
~~~
joonix
There are plenty of massive, dominant private companies. Koch, SC Johnson, the
list goes on ...
The nature of VC or anyone investing OPM requires a short horizon. When it's
your own money you don't ever have to cash out.
~~~
snaky
Exactly.
I was reading about Ford Thunderbird recently - the car that "created the
market niche", was a huge success, rose Ford brand to a new level etc., and
oops, the project was _closed_ by board and reopened only after huge fight by
Henry Ford II.
------
michaelwww
So he leaves Google because of steps they are taking to protect and enhance
their revenue stream, and joins Microsoft? As a former Microsoftie, all I can
say is that is like going from the kettle to the fire and doesn't make sense.
~~~
forgotAgain
I've worked for neither company but my thought was the same as yours.
Anyone who licenses software from Microsoft knows that lately their most
important objective is increasing licensing revenues.
Changing products to increase licensing or changing them to enhance a
different revenue stream is six of one, half a dozen of the other for me.
~~~
michaelwww
After reading this
([http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jw_on_tech/archive/2012/05/25/google...](http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jw_on_tech/archive/2012/05/25/google-20-time-
vs-the-microsoft-garage.aspx)) I think his preference is mostly cultural. I
never worked at Google, but I was born, raised and work in tech in the Bay
Area. Microsoft culture rubbed me the wrong way when I was there. It seemed
more what I imagine to be an organized and orderly Northern European
governance under the cloudy, rainy skies. California Bay Area culture is more
sunny and free libertarian with a dash of anarchy thrown in. You may discount
my general characterization, but these things matter and people definitely
have a preference.
------
numbsafari
The way these things read... I wonder if people are getting paid an extra
bonus to have PR write up a "why I left the other guy" post and put their name
on it as way to just bundle up a bunch of FUD in one place.
I'm not a big fan of either Google or Microsoft, so I don't really care about
what they say. It's just that these "why I quit" letters have become
boilerplate PR pieces that don't really offer anything new or interesting.
~~~
niggler
I look at it as a more public exit interview. I don't doubt that his expressed
concerns were part of why he did leave (I also don't doubt that there are
other factors)), and by making those concerns public there's a chance that
more people may see it and try to rectify the problems.
~~~
numbsafari
Yeah, but in the entire history of people quitting and writing "letters to the
editor", has any manager ever actually read it and thought anything other than
"whatever, dude wasn't on board, glad he left"?
Do you really think Sergey Brin or Larry Page or Eric Schmidt are going to
read this and think "oh man, we better change what we're doing".
Nope.
People who are fans of MS are going to read it and say "yeah, see, I told you
google is evil. Even his 15 year old daughter had a poignant critique of
Google+ that shows she's not only wise beyond her years, but that Google+
sucks just like I always thought already."
It just doesn't sound genuine.
~~~
marssaxman
It sounds genuine to me. He articulates a lot of the same reservations I felt
during my brief time working there.
------
aviraldg
I lost all interest in reading the article after looking at the msdn.com
domain.
EDIT: Downvoters, I don't see how this is wrong. Microsoft has a long history
of spreading FUD about competitors (Florian Mueller/FOSSPatents,
<http://www.scroogled.com/> [when their own practices are very much the same],
sponsoring fake studies that show that the TCO of Linux is much greater than
that of Windows, and so on.) I certainly would be interested in an unbiased
opinion on the topic, but I don't think anyone on Microsoft's payroll can give
me that.
~~~
jere
The article is all about the difference between the innovation being created
by low level employees and the stupid decisions by top level management who
want to shut it all down. The author is among the former and even says he
_doesn't like ads_ , so I think your proposition that he is a Microsoft shill
working in an elaborate anti-Google marketing campaign is misguided.
There's not much excuse for not reading things and then complaining about
them.
~~~
twinge
James Whittaker was not a "low level employee," he was a director of
engineering. This is the same level as Kurzweil. At that level he was
responsible for many management decisions, some of them probably "stupid."
~~~
chetanahuja
A company the size of Google has 100's of "Director"s. There are probably 3 or
4 layers between a director and the CEO... if not more. I doubt he had much to
do with the actual market direction of the company (ironically... since the
word "Director" would lead you to believe that it had something to do with
directing).
------
nilkn
This guy was only at Google for three years (less, in fact), but this reads
like he was a 10 year veteran or something. I can't really take it all that
seriously because of that.
He was offered a Partner position at Microsoft. That's why he left. No need to
philosophize about corporate culture here.
~~~
platinum1
The funny thing is, before he was at Google, he was at Microsoft... and here's
what he had to say to CNN/Fortune
(<http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/03/29/the-problem-with-micr...>) in 2011
about Microsoft:
"You want to innovate in mobile? ...deal with the made men who run the
relevant cartel. And if they don't like you or your idea, your innovation goes
nowhere."
------
wslh
Are Google's driverless car just a way to show more ads? Instead of driving a
car you could be watching an ad.
~~~
meerita
And Google Glasses? Chromebook? Nexus? Jesus this guy is plainly wrong.
~~~
kbouw
And don't forget to mention Google Shoes :P
[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/11/google-
shoes_n_2853...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/11/google-
shoes_n_2853098.html)
~~~
meerita
But the phone is good (i'm iPhone owner), and the rest of the projects looks
promising.
------
qdog
I think this person's opinion is rather colored. Google has been about ads
since before they were public. I personally don't have a Facebook page, and
don't use g+ that much, so I'm not as infatuated with social networking as
much as some I suppose, but I keep track of my karma on HN hourly when I post
a message here, so to each his own.
I have no idea what his second article about Microsoft and the mobile space is
getting at. Look, if you think g+ is failing, what makes you think Microsoft
is going to suddenly own the mobile space? I interviewed at a place in Seattle
about 7 years ago that was doing Windows phone stuff, and again at MSFT at a
different point for the windows mobile team as an embedded SWE. Microsoft has
been in the mobile space forever, yet he's saying they are the innovative
company capable to turning on a dime and taking over a new space? I don't
believe it.
My wife has a windows phone, I don't like it, she hates the Bing search. I
just bought a nexus 4 to replace my G2 because I want software updates for a
long time. My wife is probably moving to an iPhone or Nexus. Last I looked
gmail supports imap, you don't have to view ads. I only see ads on my nexus
when I use google services, they don't flash up on my screen randomly.
I work on security for Windows, but for my own personal use, I just bought an
ARM chromebook. It's a great price, despite the 'secure bootloader', it took
me about 5 minutes to get the Ubuntu install started on an SD card, and if I
screw up the recovery is drop dead simple. Right now, we are sweating bullets
because if we make a mistake on Win8 boot, we are going to hose up the machine
and recovery is long and painful.
Google has plenty of problems, and sure if you ask me, Google+ has a terrible
interface and shipping it without a good API was brain dead, but Microsoft
sure doesn't seem to be setting the mobile world on fire.
So I'd take this and many articles like it with a giant cake of salt.
------
Colliwinks
"Sharing is not broken"
"Share this on Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Delicious, Reddit, LinkedIn, SlashDot,
Myspace, Technorati, Friendfeed, Messenger, or Stumbleupon."
~~~
rburhum
Only two of those are relevant. With the right content, a third one may also
work. The rest, you can ignore
~~~
fatjokes
Probably what somebody said about Reader, when all the Google services were
listed.
------
elaineo
I recently switched from using the Google Translate API to the Bing/Microsoft
Translator API for my Android app, because Google charges usage fees while MS
is free at the lowest tier. This was the first time I saw Google charge money
for a service that Microsoft offers for free.
~~~
nivla
Can you be kind enough to comment on the quality of translations? I am in need
of a translation API for one of my projects and it is down to Google or Bing.
~~~
elaineo
I have only used English-Spanish, but as far as I can tell, the results are
approximately the same (translating individual words with appropriate verb
conjugation but no regard for context).
You can test them out in their browser apps: <http://www.bing.com/translator/>
<http://translate.google.com/>
~~~
nivla
Cool.. thanx for your input! :)
------
lucb1e
Shouldn't the title be _Quitting Google_ instead? This title sounds like
Google is quitting, when instead an employee quit Google.
~~~
piyush_soni
Right. That's what I thought while clicking the link "Google quitting _what_?
"
~~~
qompiler
That's it folks, Sergey pulled the plug out of the Google server below his
desk. Everyone go home.
------
saturdaysaint
Little mention of Android and Chrome? No mention of Docs/Drive, self driving
cars, Go, Google Fiber or their growing forays into hardware (Nexus, Glass)?
As a lot of these indicate, one of Google's chief contributions in recent
memory is helping to make computing cheap, ubiquitous and decidedly not
monopolized by Microsoft. In the blink of an eye, we've gone from a world
where everything the average person owns that can install software runs on
Windows to a world where more like 1/3 (and shrinking) of a household's
computing devices run Windows. And in 2013, Chromebooks and Steamboxes look
like they could displace a lot more of MS's presence.
There's a conflict of interest here. Even if their game is more complex than
Coke vs Pepsi, these are very direct competitors. An ambitious Microsoftie has
something to gain in a coy, well written put down that conveniently ignores
the competition's bigger recent achievements.
------
nchlswu
I feel like I've read or seen a fair bit of Google criticism from ex-Googlers
on the msdn blogs. Can anyone confirm I haven't just been seeing this post
over and over?
I don't care if it's just optics; having a post about this on your current
employers blog platform makes me highly suspicions, no matter how many people
share his opinion
------
Apocryphon
Between this piece and other comments I've seen in the wake of the anti-Google
backlash of this past week, why is it that supposedly under Eric Schmidt, a
"business guy" Google was all innovation and tech, and then when Larry Page, a
very technical cofounder, took over, the company is now some sort of ad
machine? If this is true, what does this say about leading personalities and
company culture?
~~~
ohsnapman
I've always felt that Ben Horowitz's characterization was the best:
<http://bhorowitz.com/2011/04/15/peacetime-ceowartime-ceo/>
TLDR Eric was a peacetime CEO and could allow the company to do the things he
allowed. Larry is a wartime CEO. Hard decisions need to be made, and the
company needs to be driven with focus.
------
petrel
Google first Kills or acquire small companies and then kill the acquired
company for integrating it with Google Plus. Then turn off the service without
thinking about the peoples using it.
It is the power of huge money, monopoly and over confidence.
------
niggler
Hate to be that guy, but who is James Whittaker?
(nice writeup, as it mirrors the feelings many of my google friends feel)
~~~
enginous
He was an engineering director for a couple of years working on the dev/test
tool chain and Google+.
He's done a few books, including one he co-authored called _How Google Tests
Software_ , which is a fairly pragmatic discussion of large-scale testing
practices at Google. (I'm not sure if this is still the case, but Nooglers
used to read this book as a part of their orientation.)
------
sidcool
Why is this being upvoted now is beyond me. Am I missing something?
~~~
Mahn
HN works in mysterious ways.
------
mikecane
So it's a year later and sharing still isn't broken and Google still isn't
part of it. Maybe that's the point?
------
piyush_soni
The fact that this 'personal blog' is on _blogs.msdn.com_ says a lot :)
------
qwertzlcoatl
"The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click
ads."
\- Jeff Hammerbacher, Facebook
------
voodoomagicman
So he goes to microsoft?
~~~
thinkling
See: "Why I joined Microsoft",
[http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jw_on_tech/archive/2012/03/14/why-i-...](http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jw_on_tech/archive/2012/03/14/why-
i-joined-microsoft.aspx)
------
ok_craig
This is going to come back every time Google does something the community here
doesn't like, or which they see as "corporate-minded focus" over innovation.
------
weix
Working at Google have much higher pressure than MS. not a place for loser.
~~~
flyinRyan
Nice personal attack for someone who's writing is barely comprehensible.
------
nailer
This site has very wide columns. Here's a readability link that might be
easier to scan:
<http://www.readability.com/articles/nljhmuka>
------
herdrick
I don't know. Google has come up with Glass and is working hard on the self
driving car. Sounds pretty innovative still to me. I hope the author is wrong
about the pipeline of new stuff.
------
arthurrr
The way I see it, Google is the new Microsoft, and Microsoft is not dead yet,
but becoming more and more irrelevant. Now, what has to happen for Google to
become irrelevant?
------
qompiler
I don't like Google. But I don't like Microsoft either.
And this guy has evil written all over him. He worked at Microsoft for 3 years
prior to joining Google. He is now back working for Microsoft. Blogging on
msdn.com.
<http://www.linkedin.com/pub/james-whittaker/13/878/229>
~~~
chollida1
> And this guy has evil written all over him.
Can you explain what about him makes him "evil"?
~~~
paranoiacblack
I think it's fairly clear that if you work for a large company like Google or
Microsoft, you are quite literally the spawn of Satan.
~~~
jdolitsky
^^ hahaha
------
troebr
This blog post is one year old.
~~~
namenotrequired
I'm sure I've seen it on hackernews before.
------
kushti
Google+ is a bizarre
------
ttrreeww
The guy joined Microsoft as a Partner, Partners got it good at Microsoft,
500k/year (range is around 300k to 1 million a year) average and they were
exempt from the yearly 10% mandatory cut the rest of the workers are exposed
to.
------
mannu4u4u
Google's New Portal Provides Help for Hacked Sites
[http://www.hackersnewsbulletin.com/2013/03/googles-new-
porta...](http://www.hackersnewsbulletin.com/2013/03/googles-new-portal-
provides-help-for.html)
------
shreeshga
"Why I left Google" - said no Guido ever.
~~~
packetslave
Um, you do know that Guido works at Dropbox now, right?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Notes on Distributed Systems for Young Bloods - jcdavis
http://www.somethingsimilar.com/2013/01/14/notes-on-distributed-systems-for-young-bloods/
======
btilly
Great article. There are just a few things that I would add to it.
1\. The metrics comment could not be more true. You cannot think hard enough
about the actual problems you will encounter and what metrics you will have.
Have a common way to pull information about each service, and to analyze it in
some common place.
2\. Standardize, standardize, standardize. When someone is answering a page at
2 AM and has to deal with a component of your system that they don't really
know, the more it resembles other components, the better. Think hard about how
you can get every service to be written in such a way that the same critical
information is available. Where is it documented? Who do I page? Where is the
monitoring? Yes, random third party components won't follow your standards,
and will be hard to integrate. But standardization is a good thing.
3\. You need to be able to send canary requests through that trace through
your whole infrastructure. You should be able to flag a front end request, and
have every single request that it generates through your entire system be
logged somewhere so that you can see a breakdown of what happened. Hide this
so that nobody can use it to take your site down, but build the capacity for
yourself. (Standardization will make such a system much easier to build!)
4\. Randomly canary a small fraction of your traffic. There is tremendous
value in having a random sample of traced traffic. When you're trying to
understand how things work, there is nothing like taking an actual request
going through a complex system, and seeing what it did. Furthermore if you've
got intermittent problems for a small fraction of users, being able to look at
a random slow request really, really, really helps you track down issues that
otherwise would be virtually impossible to replicate.
------
chrislloyd
One of the most shameful moments of my career happened on the Saturday night
before WWDC in 2010. I'd never worked on a system with more than one component
or more than 20,000 lines of code. Drunk, I managed to stumble from Jeff's
hot-tub to his roof and told him that Twitter's scaling problems were "stupid"
and that "there were no good reasons why Twitter should go down".
I've apologized to him before, but after having worked on Minefold for the
last 2 years, I feel like I need to apologize again. The work that Jeff and
the others at Twitter have done has been amazing. I was also a massive cock.
~~~
jmhodges
This really did happen. And we're totally cool.
I refer to that as the Night of a Thousand Australians. Good times.
------
ef4
There's a growing area where I see a lot of people starting to get involved
with distributed system who didn't have to deal with it before: rich in-
browser apps with their own permanent storage.
Once you have a Javascript application with state speaking over one or more
APIs to your backend services, you're in the domain of distributed system
design. Especially if you use the application cache and support offline
operation. I frequently see people who are used to more traditional web
applications underestimate the system design challenges this causes.
(Those challenges are totally worth solving, because the model is very
powerful.)
~~~
chewxy
curious question: how do you get people to even click "ALLOW" when the popup
says "do you want to allow this website to use localStorage"
~~~
johanhil
What browser does this? I've never run in to it.
~~~
anarchitect
It happens in mobile Safari IIRC.
------
dkhenry
Having done distributed systems for many years the only thing I would like to
add is that all systems are not equal so some of the things mentioned in this
article might not work. It was my experience that the real key to making a
distributed system work was to identify the critical paths and segment and
encapsulate the functionality of different components into the smallest
possible implementations. Then define robust messaging between the components
to allow for coordination. In my case we were making control systems for Naval
systems so we had a much different set of requirements then websites, but it
was a massively distributed system ( over 10K nodes ) with a strong
requirement for redundancy and latency ( no ethernet here just field bus
networks ). I even wrote and published a paper on it some time back. Point is
this is not the only path there are other ways to implement distributed
systems and there is still much to be discovered in the field.
~~~
Scramblejams
Link to your paper?
------
topfunky
Really great article...an instant classic.
_Shameless plug_ It's validating that we mentioned over half of these points
in an interview with startup founder Eric Lindvall on his Papertrailapp.com
log management app: <https://peepcode.com/products/up-lindvall>
------
ChuckMcM
that is an awesome article. And if you're paying attention a great way to
interview potential engineers for your org who will be asked to build
distributed systems. At Google one of the engineers was asked if the system
they were building was 'mostly reliable' and his answer was great, he said
"No, I assume that every computer this runs on is trying to bring down the
service, and the service tries to dodge in such a way that it stays up
anyway."
------
FourthProtocol
The timing of this one is scary.
I'm working on a mobile app that does a key exchange with a server before
allowing a server-based registration or login. It's nowhere near as complex as
your average distributed system.
That said, I've run into a scary amount of the things mentioned in this
article in my tiny little use case. Just trying to ensure a decent user
experience (timing out a comms check after two seconds rather than waiting up
to 60 seconds when the phone switches from networked to disconnected) in an
async message exchange needs some crazy orchestration. Keeping the code clean
means refactoring stuff I thought I had nailed two months ago.
I've been programming for a long time, but this stuff humbles me. And happily,
I love it.
~~~
pm90
Just a heads up: here's a course taught by Robert Morris that goes through a
lot of great stuff:
<http://pdos.csail.mit.edu/6.824/>
~~~
FourthProtocol
Going through it now!
------
jreichhold
Very glad that Jeff wrote this up and he deservers mad credit for documenting
something that has been frustrating me for years. People don't realize how
hard doing this right is and discount the hard work that goes into making
large systems scale in a stable manner.
It isn't just load testing but more that the whole system should be considered
suspect. If you don't act defensively at all steps you will be hosed by
something you thought will never happen. Just had a good talk about this last
weekend. Memory, TCP, and all other rock-solid things can and will have issues
in large systems.
------
rdtsc
> Implement backpressure throughout your system.
This is perhaps a point one cannot get to theoretically just sort of thinking
about. This realization comes after observing the effects in practice. It is
interesting to observe distributed systems, especially the ones that rely on
asynchronous messages, thing go wrong and queues start filling up. Or even
weirder machines start to synchronize for some reason. Like the size of the
queues will oscillate in resonance of some sorts.
One way out is to reduce asynchronicity but that comes with serious
performance penalties.
~~~
benjaminwootton
I view this the opposite way around. Message queues and asynchronicity are an
alternative to backpressure as described.
If I synchronously hit some service then I need to build facilities into the
service to say that it's too heavily loaded, and perhaps handle those
responses on the client.
If I pop some job onto a message queue or asynchronous endpoint, things will
just slow down for a while. Which is normally as good a way as any as soaking
up load.
~~~
squarecog
How do you keep the message queue from unbounded growth?
~~~
jreichhold
Arrival rate and dequeue/processing time are the keys here. Unbounded queues
are easy.. Just limit the queue size. Of course this isn't what the user of
the service wants and leads to a very bad experience
------
berlinbrown
Does distributed always mean a complex multi-tier web application?
~~~
epenn
No. That's only one example, depending on how the website is setup, but
they're not limited to that. A distributed system is one that requires
coordination among multiple machines to execute a task or set of tasks. A few
examples:
\- A website using a load balancer to offset service to multiple machines
\- A hadoop cluster running a series of mapreduce tasks
\- A botnet setup to DDOS some target
------
biscarch
Great article. I've just recently started exploring distributed systems
(specifically with Riak Core/Erlang) and I hit upon a solution to a problem
I've been working on (I think) while reading.
------
saosebastiao
It was a great article but this sentence had me a bit confused: "Well, a
typical machine at the end of 2012 has 24 GB of memory, you’ll need an
overhead of 4-5 GB for the OS, another couple, at least, to handle requests,
and a tweet id is 8 bytes."
My Desktop has like 40 chrome processes, is running GeoServer on Tomcat
(currently idle, but whatever), and the entire Unity desktop environment. I'm
currently at 2.7GB. What kind of server OS needs 4-5GB?
~~~
peterwwillis
One that has buffers.
~~~
saosebastiao
Don't they all have buffers?
~~~
peterwwillis
Yes. Depending on load and services, servers require a great deal more in
buffers and cache than your desktop. Figure out the memory allocation for a
single TCP connection on a default Linux 3.0 kernel and multiply that times
(at least) 10k. Considering you probably want greatly expanded limits and bulk
transfer, you might want to multiply that times 10 or 100. That's just TCP
buffers for active sessions.
~~~
saosebastiao
Thanks for the explanation
------
andyzweb
there are only 2 problems in computer science.
0\. naming things
1\. cache invalidation
2\. off-by-one errors
~~~
drudru11
this is the truth
------
pm90
I initially replied to a comment, but I'll post this as a direct reply: Robert
Morris teaches a course on Distributed Systems that covers a lot of great
stuff; a lot of which is available online:
<http://pdos.csail.mit.edu/6.824/>
------
newobj
Great article; concise explanation of most of the points I would have expected
to be there. Especially some of the more subtle things like backpressure
everywhere, measure with percentiles, and the importance of being partially
available.
------
pm90
From the article: _When a system is not able to handle the failures of
another, it tends to emit failures to another system that depends on it_
------
ybaumes
Great article. Also I would like ton mention a point : implementing a "chaos
monkey". As Netflix team nails it __"We have found that the best defense
against major unexpected failures is to fail often." __[1]
[1] [[http://techblog.netflix.com/2012/07/chaos-monkey-released-
in...](http://techblog.netflix.com/2012/07/chaos-monkey-released-into-
wild.html)]
------
thomseddon
_People are less finicky than computers, even if their interface is a little
less standardized._
Brilliant, made me smile :)
------
lemming
_Metrics are the only way to get your job done_
God, I wish I'd known this sooner.
------
toolslive
Great read. You can feel the pain he must have suffered.
------
lallysingh
Man, good load testing never gets any respect.
------
martinced
_"If you can fit your problem in memory, it’s probably trivial."_
Intellectual honesty at its best...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
SingPath is the most FUN way to practice software languages - tea-anemone
http://www.singpath.com/eli/index.html
======
koopajah
Could be nice to have one or two examples before having to sign up. I will not
give my gmail and/or facebook information without being sure I would use the
site.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Some frustrated publishers are sitting out Google’s GDPR meetings - ilamont
https://digiday.com/media/no-one-thinks-good-idea-frustrated-publishers-sitting-googles-gdpr-meetings/
======
Iv
Judging by the ripples it causes, it feels like GDPR is a well done piece of
legislation that will actually destroy some of the most invasive business
models.
Google should tread carefully there. It is the future of their cash cow that
is at hand.
It is somehow comforting to see an elected body being able and willing to
cause such a stir.
~~~
piokoch
Hmm, I thought that too. I assumed that all banks, cell phone operators, etc.
that I use would have to ask me for consent to sell my data, track me.
But that did not happen, they just send a note with all those GDPR information
what they do with my data and that they have a good news for me: I don't have
to do anything, as all my "agreements" are still valid without any action from
my side. They haven't given me an option to give consent for, say, calling me,
but don't give consent for tracking and profiling. Looks like this is ok,
unless Orange got GDPR wrongly and wants to risk fines but I don't believe
that.
One of the biggest Polish news portal (wp dot pl) has figure out the fantastic
idea - they show a banner with a long, long text, that says at the end that if
I close that banner, clicking on X button, I am automatically give them
permission to track me and do virtually whatever they want with my data. If I
don't agree for their terms and I don't close the banner (which is agreement
as well) I am taken to "advanced settings" page that at the end gives me only
one option - to agree for tracking and all the shady stuff they want to do
with my data. It is impossible to enter their portal without agreeing for
everything they want.
WP dot PL is a big business owned by a big German media company, so I guess
they figured out everything correctly, apparently the regulation has a lot of
loopholes and anyone with smart lawyers can overcome GDPR easily.
~~~
Doxin
The "agree by closing this popup" tactic is, as far as I can tell, not allowed
under GDPR. Here's hoping all the companies that do that get slapped with a
fine.
~~~
Brotkrumen
This forever popup unless you accept should run afoul of the language in GDPR
that forbids the degradation of a service if a user does not opt in.
------
nwellnhof
FWIW, Google blatantly ignores the GDPR and continues to track all users from
the European Economic Area unless they opt out. If you log out of Google,
clear all Google cookies, and visit
[https://adssettings.google.com/anonymous](https://adssettings.google.com/anonymous)
from the EEA, you'll find that "Ads Personalization on Google Search" is
enabled by default and that the default state of "Ads Personalization Across
the Web" is indiscernible.
~~~
beberlei
It is not illegal to track users only if they opt out, by citing legitimate
interest as the ground for processing not consent. That is how all privacy
policy generators and lawyers handle google analytics, facebook pixel, even
self hosted solutions like piwik/matomo. We will need to sit out what
legimitate interests really mean, but at least in germany there are some state
privacy agencies that put forth this approach where you allow to opt out.
~~~
BlackFly
While I think it may be easy to argue that use of Matomo is legitimate for the
purposes of improving your service (and as a corollary, this can legitimately
be outsourced), I think it is a stretch to conclude that it is legitimate for
the third party to assemble a dossier of an individual by tracking them across
multiple sites for which analytics are outsourced to the third party.
This seems obvious since the third party is not going to expose details about
the data subjects use of the other sites so it cannot be of legitimate
interest to the primary controller. If they did share such data with the
primary controller, the privacy violation is so egregious it cannot hope to
pass a balancing test to be considered legitimate.
So while something like piwik may be allowed to be opt out, I think google may
be treading on thin ice.
~~~
beberlei
I agree, and Google is probably well aware that they tread on thin ice and
they will probably fight their version of legimitate interst up to the
European Court of Justice.
------
ysleepy
And here I entertained the thought that for Google the legislation was a form
of regulatory capture.
~~~
gcp
It would seem that having to be GDPR compliant would dis-proportionally favor
large companies with a lot of lawyers and engineers to implement the needed
features company-wide.
If this is not working out for Google, perhaps it's because the business is
fundamentally incompatible? But I have problems believing that. The outcome
would be too good :-)
~~~
Maarten88
> perhaps it's because the business is fundamentally incompatible?
After having read most of the GDPR, that's my conclusion: all advertising
other than 1990's style bannering now needs per publisher, per user, opt-in
for anything that does tracking or is personalized, where the default should
be set to 'no', denying should be as easy as consenting, and refusing access
is not a valid publisher response.
That means i.m.o. that using any form of modern advertising has become illegal
under GDPR, unless you get users to consent in a compliant way, and I have
seen just a few sites even try. I think Google is scrambling to understand
that their business is now mostly illegal in EU.
~~~
Vinnl
I don't think that would mean that Google's business is fundamentally
incompatible. If 90's-style bannering is the only thing that is
allowed/feasible now, of all companies Google is in the best position to do
that profitably.
~~~
chopin
I think the GP means ads need to be served 1st party. For this, Google would
be out, imho.
If Google hosted the ads, how would they not collecting your browsing habits?
It's the same as with the embedded Facebook Like, which is in the same
ballpark.
~~~
Maarten88
I didn't mean ads need to be served 1st party. I think GDPR does not prevent
Google or anyone from hosting ads for their customers. Maybe it's hard to
imagine, but it is really simple to host ads without tracking users... Google
simply has to NOT DO it. And guarantee that in writing to the publisher.
Counting impressions and clicks are no problem, as long as no personal data is
collected. But storing personally identifiable data for the click/impression
(such as the full ip address, or advertising id in a cookie) needs consent.
Unless you need (and only use it) to prevent fraud, which is a valid
legitimate interest. Using it for (Re)marketing is not.
------
yuhong
It is unfortunate that my essay didn't get much attention:
[http://yuhongbao.blogspot.ca/2018/04/google-doubleclick-
mozi...](http://yuhongbao.blogspot.ca/2018/04/google-doubleclick-mozilla-
essay-final.html)
~~~
ryanobjc
I'm sorry but your essay didn't get much attention because it is not
particularly written well. I'm not really sure what you are arguing here,
except that Google is bad maybe? You aren't clearly arguing an specific
thesis, and there are many non sequitur paragraphs that don't flow. Why are
you talking about OpenJDK in an essay about Google Adsense? Or is the essay
about Doubleclick BMP?
If the point of this essay is to provide an overview of the area, I am not
sure you are well educated in this area. For example, most of doubleclick
publishers dont do retargeted ads. They tend to do BMP only. You didn't
mention programmatic at all. You don't talk about ad networks. Also you don't
mention that Google has done a lot in the area of malware both on the web in
general, and specifically has spent a lot of resources in getting malware off
the ad network. This makes you seem disingenuous, because while Google isn't a
fully "neutral" actor, they are overall a good citizen in the ad space. Ad
targeting isn't inherently evil, a lot of ad targeting is geographically based
-- in fact many people would probably argue that showing geographically
inappropriate ads is even worse -- others are consumer segment (eg:
women/men/age).
I would like to have a non-advertisement internet, but it appears that people
are just unwilling to do so. Also we may be facing very real cognitive limits,
studies on microtransaction fatigue have demonstrated that is not likely to be
a successful mechanism for funding webpages -- people just can't make that
many monetary decisions every day.
~~~
yuhong
There are other known problems with the essay as well. For example, I
mentioned storage costs but it turned out to be more complex than that. The
point is not only to provide an overview though but more importantly to trace
back the problems to Larry/Sergey, which is why it is so important. And yes I
focus on ad tracking using cookies and nothing else. When I was writing the
essay BTW, even tracing back when they began sharing the retargeting data took
some time.
~~~
ryanobjc
You're making an argument, but I think you take it for granted that everyone
knows what "the problems" are. I'm still not sure what that is!
Also, why is it important to trace the problems back to Larry/Sergey? What
about the early engineers who worked on adsense? The early PMs? Surely they
are just as culpable for "the problems" (which ones again?) as anyone else? I
guess they aren't household names?
Also, adsense/doubleclick revenue accounts for 14.9% of total company revenue
as per the last 10-Q filed. So it's a misrepresentation to discuss
adsense/doubleclick as anything other than an important, but not critical,
part of Google. Google could, in theory, lose all that revenue and still
remain in the black.
~~~
yuhong
There are also Google Analytics/Urchin though. Part of the point of the essay
(and one of the hardest parts for me to write) is to figure out when they
merged the tracking data after the acquisition. I would consider the
DoubleClick one worse than AdSense BTW, which is part of the point of the
essay.
~~~
ryanobjc
Except, you’re wrong. Ga data is never joined with other data sets.
~~~
yuhong
What I was referring to is the sharing of remarketing lists. One example:
[https://analytics.googleblog.com/2015/06/remarketing-
lists-f...](https://analytics.googleblog.com/2015/06/remarketing-lists-for-
search-ads.html) [https://analytics.googleblog.com/2015/11/share-google-
analyt...](https://analytics.googleblog.com/2015/11/share-google-analytics-
data-and.html)
~~~
ryanobjc
Well later in the essay you write that google analytics is merged with ad data
in an unqualified statement. That’s what I was reacting to.
Remarketing lists is a feature that would be google neutral. I could imagine
such a feature working for self hosted analytics.
~~~
yuhong
And I mentioned in the essay that "In many cases, advertisers managed
“remarketing” lists of “anonymous” visitors that was being tracked by cookies
from a central console without thinking of the privacy problems, treating
visitors almost as numbers." I wonder if such a use would comply with the GDPR
BTW.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Taiwan has millions of visitors from China and only 45 coronavirus cases. How? - ericdanielski
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/3/10/21171722/taiwan-coronavirus-china-social-distancing-quarantine
======
The_suffocated
The article's title is VERY misleading. After the fifth covid-19 case was
confirmed in Taiwan (around Jan 25), the Taiwanese government had already
banned all mainland Chinese tourists from entering the country. In February,
even non-citizen children and mainland Chinese spouses of Taiwanese were
forbidden to enter. That Taiwan had implemented a travel ban at a very early
stage is a crucial factor for keeping the number of infections low.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
COVFEFE Act would make social media a presidential record - obi1kenobi
http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/337416-covefe-act-would-make-social-media-a-presidential-record
======
dmix
> "President Trump’s frequent, unfiltered use of his personal Twitter account
> as a means of official communication is unprecedented. If the President is
> going to take to social media to make sudden public policy proclamations, we
> must ensure that these statements are documented and preserved for future
> reference. Tweets are powerful, and the President must be held accountable
> for every post,"
Archiving tweets != holding people accountable
There were countless screenshots on archived websites across the web of the
tweet immediately after it went out.
This is merely political theater to create more layers of control with little
real ROI of the intended problem. What matters most is the _feeling_ of
controlling something which you don't control. The type of policy politicians
love!
I'm sure if this passes it will result in tens of millions of dollars in
consulting fees to what largely could be solved with a server or two hitting
the twitter API to capture each tweet and stored securely. Or a single person
hired to document tweets manually in a database.
I'm curious what exactly Trump isn't being held 'accountable' for here because
every major US and international news organization documents each of his
tweets with whole articles - and clearly including ones he deletes.
I'm sure they could legislate processes to eliminate mistaken tweets and the
risks of human error here, but lets be honest it's not going to make Trump
stop making bold statements at will - which is what they really have a problem
with regarding his Twitter. He does the same on every platform he uses
directly. Are they going to screen his calls to journalists and other people
he talks to as well? Or his aides who leak to journalists version of his day-
to-day interactions without the usual PR filters? If that's not the target
goal then what is really being accomplished here? Eliminating typos and draft
tweets from being accidentally sent out?
~~~
microcolonel
Hilariously, inside the article it is clearly stated, by somebody who speaks
for the institution which would be responsible for this archiving, that the
Tweets are already considered Presidential Records.
> _In January, National Archives spokesperson Miriam Kleiman told the
> Associated Press that social media posts would qualify as presidential
> records, but that statement is not explicitly spelled out in the law._
So not only is the private sector adequately serving the purpose of archiving
the president's Tweets, but the National Archives probably are as well.
I really hope that the people who voted for Mike Quigley are embarrassed that
this is the pathetic, childish level that an Illinois 5 representative
operates at.
------
olliej
Ugh, this is a real issue (twitter, or other "social" platforms) are all
presidential communication platforms -- legislation shouldn't (i know, i know,
ideal world, old man shouts at sky, etc) be special cased. It should be "all
communication on any public platform should be archived, no matter the nature
or location of the platform". Naming it the COVFEFE act trivializes what is a
real issue (presidents should not have the ability to retroactively remove
records of public statements).
------
gozur88
Dumb. It's not like deleting tweets makes them go away. If this is what
Democrats are bringing to the game it's gonna be a long eight years.
------
tritium
To be honest, this sounds like a terrible idea, but then again something
really _should_ be done about the level of obnoxious nonsense on display.
~~~
dmix
> but then again something really should be done about the level of obnoxious
> nonsense on display.
If only people asked whether something could be meaningfully accomplished
before demanding something be done then we'd have far less bad laws.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
U.S. recession odds rise to 40-45% in six months: DoubleLine's Gundlach - mataug
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-funds-doubleline-gundlach/us-recession-odds-rise-to-40-45-in-six-months-doublelines-gundlach-idUSKCN1TE36Q
======
StevePerkins
I'm surprised this sort of thing is on HN's front page.
Yes, we are on the tail end of a long expansion cycle, and a recession is
inevitable. However, prediction headlines like this have been on the front
page of CNBC, MarketWatch, etc every other day for FIVE YEARS now.
On the alternating days, there are headlines about how the expansion has a xx%
chance of continuing for another two years.
Financial news is the lowest form of clickbait trash.
~~~
umeshunni
> a long expansion cycle, and a recession is inevitable
Not necessarily - Australia has an expansion ongoing for the last 30 years.
------
cencacenca
Yield curve inversion != recession, as most people on HN have clarified
numerous times. it's not even the top 10 predictors.
US has THE strongest economy in the world right now. You'll see depression in
China (already happening), and recession in Japan/EU/Canada/Mexico first. US
has the lowest unemployment rate in 30 years, wage growth, 3% gdp growth, and
foreign direct investments going through the roof.
~~~
aphextron
>US has the lowest unemployment rate in 30 years, wage growth, 3% gdp growth,
and foreign direct investments going through the roof.
This really has nothing to do with whether a recession is around the corner or
not. They don't just gradually come about over the course of years; they
happen in an instant. Before anyone is even aware of what's happening the
layoffs start piling up and it becomes exponential, as decreased business
spending and consumer confidence feedback into each other. Fall of 2007 was
the peak of irrational exuberance with a multi-decade low in unemployment and
all time market highs, but by spring of '08 there was mass panic and people
had lost everything.
~~~
cencacenca
the 2008 recession was characterized by 0% interest rate and bad mortgage
loans. the 2000 recession was characterized by threats of emerging jobs
offshoring and bad investments into internet companies that don't make money.
the 1990 recession was characterized by threats of sky high oil price, and so
was 1980.
Nothing like that exists to hurt US economy right now
~~~
remarkEon
>...bad investments into internet companies that don't make money.
Uhh
------
nugget
Nobody really knows when the next recession will be or how bad it will be.
Whenever it does arrive, the most interesting impact will be on the pension
funds. A terrible but short recession e.g. 50% equity decline for 1-2 years
after which the Fed re-inflates the market is not as bad as a prolonged period
of stagnation e.g. 20% equity decline and then no growth for 5-10 years. In
the second scenario, trillions of dollars worth of pension funds head towards
insolvency.
------
thrower123
There will be a concerted effort to tank the economy before the second half of
2020, I would be willing to take bets on it, particularly if the extended
faffing about in the wake of the Mueller report's failure yields nothing and
Democratic candidates continue to be this underwhelming.
~~~
H8crilA
It so happens that it's very easy to bet on that and put your money where your
mouth is. Just buy some LEAPS puts on SPY. Don't even need margin for that.
For example the SPY 2020/09/18 $230 put trades for ~$5.6 a share.
~~~
Tempest1981
I've never tried this -- how would I do this using ETrade or similar?
~~~
H8crilA
Just to be clear - I think you're wrong, so I don't recommend it.
You need stock options permissions (don't know where is that in ETrade), and
then you need to find options on SPY. Here are quotes on Yahoo:
[https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/SPY/options?p=SPY](https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/SPY/options?p=SPY),
select desired expiration date. Wait for VIX to be low so that premiums are
cheap, and load up on those puts.
And again, I do not recommend it. You'll quite likely lose 100% of the option
premium you paid.
~~~
Tempest1981
Understood, not planning to do this immediately.
I've also considered trading the VIX, but the only ETFs I've found seem
somewhat uncorrelated or less volatile. Can VIX be traded directly?
~~~
H8crilA
You can go long or short on VIX but read what "contango" is and what happened
during the volpocalypse.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Has anyone read The Fourth Turning? What's your take? - jkush
http://www.fourthturning.com/html/fourth_turning.html
======
hernan7
Some kind of cute parlor game.
Does the theory work for countries other than the USA?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Amazon Developing a Free, Ad-Supported Version of Prime Video - leoharsha2
http://adage.com/article/digital/amazon-developing-a-free-ad-supported-version-prime/311273/
======
lithos
The article mentioned that in order to sign on you would need to guarantee X
number of hours per week. I don't see the normal YouTube creators being happy
with that, especially coming from a do whatever you want system that YouTube
has.
------
Terretta
Please don’t.
~~~
Terretta
Looks like maybe they didn’t:
> _”In the past, Amazon has also denied these reports, we should note.
> [Update, 5:03 PM ET – Amazon has now denied AdAge’s new report, as well]”_
[https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/13/reports-of-a-free-ad-
suppo...](https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/13/reports-of-a-free-ad-supported-
amazon-video-service-resurface/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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How relevant is UML modeling today? - blazzerbg
http://codebetter.com/blogs/jeremy.miller/archive/2009/09/12/how-relevant-is-uml-modeling-today.aspx
======
makecheck
I've been writing software for 20 years, and aside from my employer paying for
a course on UML a few years ago when it was all the rage, I have never, ever
seen UML seriously used.
Not that I've ever worked at Microsoft or any massive "pure software" groups;
I've basically worked in "get stuff done" smaller software groups. However, I
suspect these small groups are far more common. When push comes to shove, code
_is_ the design documentation.
Beyond that, I've always had practical issues with UML's need to specify
everything. How often is that valuable? Any given box-and-stick-diagram-with-
labels is bound to be pretty clear, whether or not it does things the UML way.
I would be annoyed if someone wasted extra time (and, likely, money) on a UML-
aware tool, when it would have been faster and as useful to just sketch
something.
I've also tended to rely on automatically-generated-and-therefore-always-
correct diagrams (e.g. Doxygen, through GraphViz). This is especially true
given that the majority of my documentation, even outside the code, leans
toward plain text formats (e.g. man pages, simple text files,
reStructuredText, or HTML). My reliance on those formats forces documents to
be on the short side, which also helps avoid the risk of inconsistency with
the code.
~~~
DanielBMarkham
I think you've never learned UML.
UML is a tool, a language. It's not a process, nor does it require that you
specify anything. It's just a way of talking at a technical level.
I've been in the software field for 25 years delivering production code in a
lot of venues. I _always_ use UML as a way of doodling and talking about the
way we're going to attack a problem.
Remember the four Cs of modeling: communication, coordination, collaboration,
and consensus. There is a 5th C, Control, but it's bad medicine. Once you
think that UML controls stuff, you run off in to architect astronaut land
drawing lots of complicated diagrams with lots of little details.
That's what people think of when they think of UML, and it's about the
furthest thing from the truth as you can imagine.
Just to rant a little bit more, a couple of years ago I wrote an agile project
management tracking tool. As part of that, my customers and I had a 30-minutes
requirements meeting. From that I created an analysis model. From that I
created a database and a DAL. The whole process took about 2 hours. When
people wanted changes, I could change the model and have the database and code
change in 5 minutes. It left me to work on the UI and Business Logic and not
be wiring stuff up everywhere.
UML can be nothing more than a bunch of boxes with arrows between them. In
fact, 95% of UML is never or very rarely used by effective projects.
Tools can be very useful or they can cut your arms off. Doesn't make the tool
bad or good. It's just a tool.
~~~
makecheck
It is good to hear that UML has some uses, even if I had always assumed this
was most applicable to larger teams or companies. Can you comment more on the
specific parts of UML that your models used?
I do tend to think of your 4 Cs as all the same, though. In my experience, a
team is either working together effectively or it isn't, and either achieves
all of those "Cs" or none of them. I would even add that, often, a team lead
must forego the "consensus" and simply make a decision. (This can even be true
when dealing with customer requirements; occasionally, a software architect's
design decision ultimately delivers a better thing than what the customer
technically specified.)
~~~
DanielBMarkham
So just look at UML as a formal way of talking and you'll be fine. The secret
here is that pictures can convey bandwidth much higher than words. If you
understand that, then UML is just a way to draw pictures without ambiguity.
For communication, a lot of times I'll be describing something to another
programmer on the phone -- or he'll be describing it to me. As they talk, I
jot down what I think he's saying in lighweight UML. Then I show it to him by
email or webcam or something. It identifies a lot of discrepancies very
quickly.
For collaboration, many times in a group we'll tag-team a problem by drawing
up our idea of what we think it looks like. Either we trade-off, or everybody
draws separately, or one person leads until the group replaces him.
For consensus-building, a lot of times you'll have a subcontractor or person
who's remote who is proposing some kind of work for the team. They can do a
stand-up, or a presentation, or whatever, but the key thing is usually when
they communicate their technical solution in terms of a diagram. This is very
useful when talking about how a screen should flow, for instance, or about how
a third-party tool acts.
For coordination, a lot of times external groups want to be "in the loop" but
don't have time to attend meetings and don't want a lot of paperwork. A lot of
times an email with a couple of pictures attached can give them the gist of
what's going on technically without a 50-page doc being there.
To differentiate between the Cs, ask yourself: is the communication two-way?
One-way? Formal? Informal?
Modeling is just a high-bandwidth version of talking, that's it. I can say
more in a model in 10 minutes than I could in 4 hours of explaining.
But, like every freaking thing else in software engineering, people become too
attached to it and it has developed all these features that nobody needs. And
so it gets abused.
To specifically answer your question, class or domain models seem to work for
a LOT of stuff. Sequencing is good at showing things in layers, and Activity
Diagrams is just flowcharting on steriods. To give a concrete example of using
them, many times when the team is estimating a story and isn't comfortable
with the details, we'll take 15 minutes or so and sketch out an activity
diagram of how it's supposed to work. That usually either fixes the problem or
gives us more questions to go answer :)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
McCain signs on to Democrats' Facebook ad disclosure bill - tareqak
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/18/facebook-ad-disclosure-bill-243914
======
tareqak
Techmeme summary: _Ashley Gold / Politico: Senators Warner and Klobuchar to
file bill, cosponsored by McCain, to increase online political ad
transparency, bring rules to parity with TV, radio, satellite_
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
CouchDB Conf Videos - nslater
https://blogs.apache.org/couchdb/entry/couchdb_conf_videos
======
dybskiy
Here are all the videos embedded on the conf site:
[http://conf.couchdb.org/](http://conf.couchdb.org/)
------
cardamomo
I'm glad to see so many new goings-on in the world of CouchDB. As an outside
admirer, I was starting to think that the project was languishing.
~~~
brickcap
Actually couchDb has been doing a plenty of conferences for a long time. They
are a regular feature in erlang talks. And they are pretty active on github as
well. It's just that they don't come in the news much.
~~~
cwmma
well couch had a bad year in 2012, which Jan's talk touched on, but the
project has been taking it's time sorting itself out and this year already has
had some amazing things.
------
brickcap
Thanks for the link.10 common misconceptions about couchDB and couchDB inside
microsoft look really interesting.
I think couchDB team should add link to the videos directly inside the wiki.
They could be a great resource for a new comer.
~~~
pokstad
One thing that threw me off was the "10 misconceptions" person saying that
show/list should be deprecated. Instead, I wish they worked on improving them.
Pure javascript is not a good HTML development environment without JQuery and
the DOM or Node.js. CouchDB v1.5 added an experimental Node.JS option, not
sure if it affects shows/lists.
~~~
brickcap
Yeah I agree with you about deprecation. While couchDB may not be a good fit
building large html applications for small applications show and list are
invaluable.
Consider a diqus like platform. How cool it will be if formatted comments can
be served directly from the database.
But she said that they will be available through plugins. So we will have to
wait and see...
The node js addition is to leverage the speed of v8 engine that impacts only
the view building time and not much else(I could be wrong though)
~~~
janl
> The node js addition is to leverage the speed of v8 engine that impacts only
> the view building time and not much else(I could be wrong though)
V8 and Spidermonkey are on par in the way we are using them. Node/V8 just
gives us a little more flexibility and less C code to wrangle so we can make
the view server better faster :)
------
rdtsc
This is good stuff. Thanks for posting.
I am eagerly waiting for the BigCouch changes to be integrated (this is known
as the Nebraska branch, to those more familiar with the issue).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What is the SAAS you currently pay for and don't mind paying for? - deadcoder0904
In addition what is the price you pay for it like monthly. For example, I pay for Netflix & WWE Network $9.99/month.
======
Doches
I pay $30 / month for Offramp
([https://offramphq.com/](https://offramphq.com/)), an automated customer-
recovery tool. It's saved me three customers whom I'd have otherwise lost in
the last two months (one customer = $35 MRR), so it's been pretty much a no-
brainer for me.
------
somecallitblues
Xero, Dropbox, Bitbucket, Audible, Netflix, S3
------
spindle
VPN
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Udacity and Google launch free career courses for interview prep - guessmyname
https://www.udacity.com/courses/career
======
s2g
Anything to avoid actually fixing their interviewing style.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Tesla vs Alameda County [pdf] - xoxoy
https://wholemars.com/alameda-lawsuit.pdf
======
creato
Neighboring counties have already allowed work like construction to resume. Is
a car factory really that different in terms of risk? Just based on the sheer
size of the facilities, I can't imagine the density of people is that high,
and due to at least some of the work going on, ventilation is probably good.
It definitely makes sense to keep businesses like bars and restaurants closed
given their nature as a "hub" in the graph of human contacts, but we also need
to allow what work we can to continue as long as it doesn't contribute to
significant spread of the virus.
At the same time, last I saw, car sales had fallen off a cliff. Is there much
point to aggressively reopening if those cars can't be sold? But that's a
question for Tesla to answer, not Alameda County.
~~~
steelframe
> ventilation is probably good
I'm not clear on what ventilation being "probably good" means in the context
of reducing SARS-Cov-2 exposure to a safe level. What if the air is
recirculated and the filters don't capture enough of the virus?
~~~
xyzzyz
Nobody knows anything for certain. We do not even have good data on mask
effectiveness. The basis of all the restrictions is already a gut feeling/whim
of the governors, not any concrete scientific data about what works and what
doesn’t. Asking whether air conditioning system is good enough doesn’t make
sense if we don’t even know what’s good enough. Nobody is doing any studies in
that direction anyway, so we’ll never know.
I don’t know if lockdowns and restrictions make any practical difference or
not, but people affected are definitely justified in complaining about large
degree of arbitrariness in all of it. For example, NYC is still running subway
and never stopped through all of it. Sure, people are relying on it to get
places in New York, but so is everyone else in this country relying on their
job to make a living, and yet many of their jobs were banned just like that.
~~~
dominotw
New infections in NY i heard are majority 76% from ppl staying indoors. Not
sure how are they are getting it, from recirculated air in apt complexes?
~~~
amalter
Last measured antigen rate in NYC was north of 20%. My bet is almost all
“essential” workers have been exposed and that part of the “herd” is immune.
Who does that leave but everyone else, who are still shopping, going for
walks, exercising, doing laundry in communal facilities and all the other
minutiae of life that cannot be paused.
I’ve seen this comment a few times and don’t see the mystery. The virus has
saturated the mobile and now is finding vectors into the less mobile.
This is a feature, not a bug, since the pickup rate is hopefully under the
critical care capabilities.
~~~
dominotw
> I’ve seen this comment a few times and don’t see the mystery.
Well, its not clear to me what "people who are staying indoors" means. I am
exclusively inside my apt for last 8 weeks and have groceries delivered and
workout on my bike trainer/zwift indoors.
I feel like there should be some distinction between, 1. mostly staying
indoors 2. exclusively staying indoors.
If second group of people are getting it, then yea its mysterious.
------
dmode
Sigh, it is kind of embarrassing for me that I was a fan of this guy and even
own a Tesla. Elon has gone off the rocks quite and bit and now is a straight
up loon. He is now full on spreading FUD, which is weird considering the
amount of FUD That was spread against Tesla for a while
------
dang
Two threads on this already:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23126517](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23126517)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23127552](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23127552)
Not sure this is likely to go any better.
~~~
xoxoy
It’s the actual lawsuit though. Much more substantive.
~~~
dang
Yes, and the hope is that it would support a better thread.
------
rrss
Is this legal argument actually any good?
It seems like the major claim is that Alameda County's order "overrides an
express order of the Governor of California," which doesn't make much sense to
me. Newsom's order said that _individuals_ working in critical infrastructure
sectors are exempt from staying at home. I don't see how Alameda County saying
Tesla must stay closed contradicts Newsom saying Tesla employees could go to
work, if their workplace was open. Seems sorta weaksauce to interpret an
exemption for individuals from a stay at home order as a order than Tesla must
remain open.
Anyway, seems like a mess, will be interesting to see what happens with this.
~~~
pmorici
The exemption for individuals is so that they can go to work what good would
it be if their work place was closed?
~~~
rrss
My thinking is that the exemption allows for counties to have the opportunity
to allow those businesses in critical infrastructure sectors to stay open. The
order says that employees "may continue their work," and Tesla's lawsuit seems
to interpret that to mean that Tesla must stay open.
I'm obviously not a lawyer, I'm just interested in if the argument in the
complaint is likely to get them anywhere.
------
contemporary343
I am curious how Tesla employees feel about this, and more generally Musk's
continuous and baffling insistence that the coronavirus is no big deal. (Heck,
it seems like until and unless this wipes out > 10% of humanity it seems like
he'll keep saying 'no big deal')
It's one thing if your company and its CEO acknowledge the seriousness of the
situation and develop a plausible contingency plan, including masks and random
asymptomatic testing. But he seems rather unconcerned about such pedestrian
matters and has decided it's a nothingburger and all hype.
Has Tesla actually proposed a reasonable plan to do this while Alameda county
is seeing a spike in new cases?
~~~
Traster
A decent CEO would've explained the precautions to local government officials,
persuaded them it was the right thing to do and then kicked in a donation of
500,000 masks or something. Instead, Musk is tweeting conspiracy theories and
going on Joe Rogan. It's just incompetence. Even if the Tesla factory does
have real and effective measures to reduce the risks, no one is going to trust
Elon Musk.
------
danso
Off-topic: I haven't downloaded many legal PDFs lately, but whatever legal
software was used to make this one seems to obfuscate the text? The PDF seems
like a normal text PDF (as opposed to scanned images), and you can highlight
lines of text, but copy-pasting it results in gibberish; find-text-in-document
is likewise borked. Using `pdftotext' generates a mostly empty file, though
Google Docs conversion manages to extract and preserve the text.
I bring this up because the document has several URLs which are non-clickable
and non-copy-pastable. I know PDFs can be encoded in away in that the visual
layout of the content is completely different to the underlying data, this was
just the first time I've seen such obfuscation.
edit: here's a normally-behaving copy of the PDF from one of the SF local news
stations:
[https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/wp-
content/uploads/sites/1...](https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/wp-
content/uploads/sites/15116056/2020/05/Tesla-Incorporated-v.-County-of-
Alameda-5-9-20.pdf)
Assuming the TV station has uploaded the PDF straight from the source (Tesla's
lawyers, or the county court system), then maybe the site wholemars.com re-
processed its copy of the PDF? In any case, the text/data obfuscation is
pretty interesting and I sure hope it doesn't become a standard practice!
(I don't blame the OP for posting the wholemars.com link; that was the first I
saw of the lawsuit too, at least on Twitter)
~~~
Operyl
I have to wonder if there's any rules that would be violated by crap like this
in the courts. It's 100% to prevent other lawyers from copy-pasting things,
and that's absurd since it's defeated by OCR. It's extremely not accessible to
the blind as a result.
~~~
netsharc
It also makes it invisible to search engines. Google "Tesla COVID-19 lawsuit"
and this PDF will not show up...
~~~
Operyl
The curious thing is not _everything_ is obscured. Namely, `Attorneys for
Plaintiff Tesla, Inc. ` isn't.
Either is `Identifying Critical Infrastructure During Covid-19`
So eventually this is probably going to get indexed by Google.
EDIT: It is already!
[https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Identifying+Critical+Infr...](https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Identifying+Critical+Infrastructure+During+Covid-19%22+%22tesla%22&oq=%22Identifying+Critical+Infrastructure+During+Covid-19%22+%22tesla%22)
EDIT 2: Why the downvotes already? I was pointing out that not all text is
obfuscated in the text, namely COVID and Tesla are not. So it _is_ going to
get indexed to some extent, it seems. If you want to downvote me, at least
give me the courtesy to reply to your reasoning for it!
EDIT 3: You can check it yourself. Open the PDF, ctrl+f tesla, the only
sentence unobscured shows up. ctrl+f for Covid-19, only one unobfuscated
occurrence..
~~~
danso
What Google is indexing appears to be the original and normally behaving PDF
(before processing by wholemars.com):[https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/wp-
content/uploads/sites/1...](https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/wp-
content/uploads/sites/15116056/2020/05/Tesla-Incorporated-v.-County-of-
Alameda-5-9-20.pdf)
(the submitted link for this thread should probably be changed to the
sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com hosted version of the PDF)
But yes, I do agree that not all the text in the wholemars.com version was
obfuscated. Seems like the metatext and boilerplate stuff was left as is in
this processed version.
------
KarlKemp
Edit: I was a little late in noticing a "show more" link at the bottom of the
list that Google gave me for [16 critical infrastructure sectors] and found
"Transportation Equipment Manufacturing" is also among the 16. So consider the
below moot.
In spite of my sympathy for Tesla in general and maybe even their wish to
resume operations in particular, their arguments, as I understand it, doesn't
seem to be very convincing?
It appears to hinge on the categorisation, with Tesla's view being that they
belong in the "Energy Sector", which is among the "16 critical infrastructure
sectors" exempt from any requirements to shut down.
While I guess you can draw a connection of Tesla with the energy sector if
you're doing so in a complete vacuum, it is entirely obvious that, when the
"energy sector" was exempt from closure, it was based on a definition that
under no circumstances would include Tesla. I. e.: power plants and gas
stations obviously need to stay open for reasons that just don't apply to
manufacturing cars.
~~~
netsharc
Yeah, IANAL, but this document doesn't sound to have been written by someone
punching arguments, it sounds more like a whiny teenager.
On top of page 2 it somehow claims a car factory is permitted to operate
because this FAQ says so:
>My business installs distributed solar, storage, and/or electric vehicle
charging systems – can it continue to operate?
> Yes, this is permissible construction activity and must comply with the
> Construction Project Safety Protocols in Appendix B of the Order. Businesses
> may also operate to manufacture distributed energy resource components, like
> solar panels.
I guess they're going to go to court over the definition of "distributed
energy resource components". Tesla cars are consumers (also storers) of
(electrical) energy resources, but a gas-powered car does the same for energy
stored in gasoline. If they let this in, then I could argue that my battery-
powered phone is also an "energy resource component"...
~~~
pmorici
That isn't their argument they are presenting that as an example of how the
county isn't being reasonable by saying one thing then acting contrary to
their publicly stated guidance. Their core argument begins on page three
paragraph 8 and is more about the county claiming to superseded the authority
of the State and Federal government when they don't have the legal basis to do
so.
------
georgeburdell
For what it's worth, Fremont, the city where Tesla is located, appears more
sympathetic to the company
[http://www.fremont.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=1768](http://www.fremont.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=1768)
------
newacct583
I don't know that this is that notable, is it? Surely there are dozens or
hundreds of suits all over the country from businesses quibbling over their
non/categorization as essential?
It's a pandemic. No one wins here. No policy can be completely fair. Hell, I
have opinions about everything and I genuinely don't know that I can find one
about this situation. Obviously Tesla (and every employer) wants to open. The
county wants people to stay home. Some exceptions get made. Should Tesla be
one? Meh.
~~~
aguyfromnb
You don't think a controversial, SV darling CEO _suing_ to allow his non
essential business to open amidst a pandemic is notable?
What about his public attacks on the civil servants involved in determine the
rules for public safety?
What about the fact he's decrying "unelected officials" and "fascism" in the
US,while praising the CCP and expanding Chinese production?
It's unbelievable people continue to defend this man here.
~~~
pmorici
If the factory is operating safely in China w/o employees getting sick why
isn’t it possible in the USA?
~~~
newacct583
Objectively it's because the Chinese outbreak is well controlled at this point
without lockdown measures. Alameda isn't there yet, though the Bay Area is
closer than many areas in the US which are still growing.
~~~
pmorici
The Chinese outbreak was much less controlled when they allowed the China
factory to reopen.
------
jacknews
how is car manufacturing 'critical infrastructure'?
Is the case number, 'Case 4:20-cv-03186' significant?
~~~
pmorici
The list of critical infrastructure industries is outlined in this federal
government document...
[https://www.cisa.gov/publication/guidance-essential-
critical...](https://www.cisa.gov/publication/guidance-essential-critical-
infrastructure-workforce)
It lists among other things...
"Workers critical to the manufacturing, distribution, sales, rental, leasing,
repair, and maintenance of vehicles and other transportation equipment
(including electric vehicle charging stations) and the supply chains that
enable these operations to facilitate continuity of travel-related operations
for essential workers."
~~~
jacknews
I don't think this really covers manufacture of general consumer passenger
vehicles.
The intent is clearly to maintain transportation capability for genuinely
critical workers (healthcare, food distribution and sales, police and
emergency, etc). If their tesla breaks down, there is no need to manufacture a
new one, they can just grab one from the sales lot.
~~~
pmorici
It definitely does, you are reading way to much into it. Look at the full
list. How do you think all the other essential workers are going to get to and
from work?
~~~
jacknews
Well i don't think they are going to buy a new car for the purpose. Even if
they did, there are many already-manufactured waiting to be sold.
~~~
pmorici
I feel like you are confusing your personal opinion and preferences with what
the document says in writing.
~~~
jacknews
I think you are reading the document too broadly.
------
elwell
Suing the government for COVID closure only six days after tweeting "Minecraft
has amazing legs"
------
yalogin
Tesla compared to their competition is actually doing very well even during
the pandemic. So Musk would not be hurt even if its shut down. It’s
disappointing that a man of science, who understands data is throwing a fit
like this.
~~~
netsharc
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends
on his not understanding it."
― Upton Sinclair, a once failed candidate for the Governor of California
------
ProAm
Just move then, dont threaten, don't sue. Just make the change, its cheaper
and faster.
~~~
youeseh
It's cheaper to sue and win.
~~~
ProAm
Not with the government. If you win you now have soured relationships that
will last terms and terms.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Deploying Rails Applications book by Ezra is finished and available - pius
http://brainspl.at/articles/2008/02/21/at-long-last-my-deploying-rails-applications-book-is-done
======
Xichekolas
Amusing that this finally comes out... now that Ezra has developed Merb. Not
that I am complaining... It's nice to have a book from someone that obviously
knows what they are talking about.
------
nanijoe
Really disappointed that he chose to focus on deploying on nginx instead of
Apache which most people are probably going to be using
~~~
ezmobius
Actually the book covers both apache and nginx equally so you should be
straight. Although I must recommend that if you have a choice then you go with
Nginx. Nginx is much more scalable and ues much fewer resources then apache
does. The _only_ reason to use apache with a Rails deployment is if you have
other legacy sites to support that run on apache. If you are just deploying a
Rails/Merb app then Nginx is far superior in every way.
~~~
pius
Hey Ezra, what are your thoughts on Litespeed? I never hear anyone talking
about it, but I've found it extremely easy to deploy Rails apps on it (though
I've never done so with a high traffic site). Do you cover Litespeed in the
book, at least as a comparison to others?
~~~
ezmobius
I like lightspeed but the free version is crippled and only usable for
smallish sites. The real version costs a lot of money but is pretty nice. But
it not being open source makes me personally cringe ;)
Lightspeed is nice for smaller sites because the processes can go away when
there is no traffic. But I'm not a fan of it much and it's not covered in the
book.
~~~
pius
Thanks for the heads up. Looking forward to grabbing the book. :)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How can foreigners get a job in the USA? - k-mcgrady
I was reading another recent Ask HN about living and working in the US [0]. A question that came up a few times is "How do you plan on legally working in the US?". I'm sure there are people here who have experience with moving to the US and getting a job so hopefully we can get some good answers.<p>Personally I would love to live in the US. I've entered the DV Lottery several times with no luck. The reason I'd rather have a permanent visa is that I don't want to start my life there, lose my job, and get sent back home. However I'm getting older and am becoming more willing to take that risk.<p>I'm an iOS developer of 5 years and have been freelancing for those 5 years. I'm not a 'rockstar' programmer but I'm a solid developer, enjoy learning new things, and I'm good at picking them up quite quickly.<p>What chance does someone in my position have of getting a visa to work at a company in the US? Do I even have a chance? What are the best visa options, how much do they cost, and how does the process work (do I apply for jobs and then a visa or vice versa)?<p>I would like to hear a range of answers that can help everyone but if you want to answer more specifically I'm in the EU and have dual Irish and British citizenship.<p>[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7788678
======
notlisted
The official government site that will answer some of your questions -
[http://www.uscis.gov/working-united-states/temporary-
workers...](http://www.uscis.gov/working-united-states/temporary-
workers/h-1b-specialty-occupations-and-fashion-models/h-1b-fiscal-year-
fy-2015-cap-season)
Submissions start April 1st each year. There's a maximum ("cap") and they
typically "run out" for the year in several weeks/months. See this page for
dates in the past (scroll down) -
[http://www.h1base.com/visa/work/h1bvisacaph1bquotasystem/ref...](http://www.h1base.com/visa/work/h1bvisacaph1bquotasystem/ref/1568/)
Please note: education and expertise matter a lot. If you do not have a
masters degree your chances are much smaller. Good luck.
------
jcr
I've gotten to work with a lot of amazing silicon valley engineers who are
here on H1B visas. As as I understand, losing your job does not normally mean
being sent back to your country since you can transfer the H1B visa to your
new employer.
The tough part is just getting the H1B visa since you must have a company here
sponsor you to get it. This is why the monthly "Who's Hiring" submission here
on HN requests that posters declare whether H1B's are welcome.
~~~
k-mcgrady
Thanks for the response. How 'good' to you have to be to get a H1B? Aren't
there restrictions along the lines of 'there must be no American available who
can do the job'? I guess my question really is: Is the H1B for really talented
programmers or anyone who does a good job?
~~~
mahesh_gkumar
H1B is for anyone who can convince the company they are interviewing with (you
don't need to be a rockstar, ninja, herokai or anything like that. You just
need to be honest, reasonably good and hard-working), that it is worth
sponsoring that person. Typically if the company has interviewed 2-3 local
folks with no success and you wow them, they will gladly sponsor your H1B .
Bigger companies can do it much easier than smaller ones.
That is how I got my H1b.
~~~
k-mcgrady
Excellent, thanks for the advice. Do you know whether it's more likely to get
a visa with a larger company (Google, Microsoft etc.) or a startup?
~~~
mahesh_gkumar
A bigger company (with fancy lawyers) will have an easy time sponsoring
someone's H1B than a startup. But I have seen startups sponsor H1Bs as well.
If the startup is well funded, has traction and is a 'real' company, then I
don't think they will have any issues sponsoring for a H1B.
------
dennybritz
I believe it's difficult to get your foot into the door if you are not (at
least temporary) staying here. Going to school, coming as tourist, or doing an
internship are ways for you to at least temporarily come here and interview
with companies.
Do you have a university degree? I may be wrong, but I believe for an H1B-Visa
you need a Bachelor's degree or an equivalent amount of work experience. Your
5-year freelancing period may be experience, but it will be difficult to prove
the equivalence in case of freelancing.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Physicists Criticize Stephen Wolfram’s ‘Theory of Everything’ - headalgorithm
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/physicists-criticize-stephen-wolframs-theory-of-everything/
======
forgot_again
>"I think the popular notion that physicists are all in search of the eureka
moment in which they will discover the theory of everything is an unfortunate
one,” says Katie Mack, a cosmologist at North Carolina State University. “We
do want to find better, more complete theories. But the way we go about that
is to test and refine our models, look for inconsistencies and incrementally
work our way toward better, more complete models.”
And yet Einstein did just that in developing General Relativity. Yes, his
theory produced made predictions which could be falsified, but GR still
represents a paradigm shift, the sort Katie Mack thinks of as "unfortunate".
I am not endorsing Wolfram's work at all. But the idea that science _has_ to
progress in a step by step, gradual, collaborative fashion is a naive and
historically ignorant view.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
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